Reflections Lost on a Dark Road
by Chryssalid-Lathis
Summary: A botched mission sends the cast of Lathis' "Teen Titans and the Lost Boy" across a dimensional boundary and into a parallel world; on that world, the XCOM Earth, the cast of "The Road to Cydonia" suddenly have more than just the Alien War on their hands.
1. First Contact 1

**Author Notes**

Author notes? Eh. Pretty sure the "don't sue us" disclaimers aren't legally binding anyway. So let's just get to the ol' meat and potatoes, shall we? The ol' brass tacks!

**Pre-crossover Chapters:**

Pre-crossover chapters of Lathis' "Teen Titans and the Lost Boy" and the sequel "Dark Titans" can be found on his FFN author site. Cap'n Chryssalid's "The Road to Cydonia" can be found, likewise, on his FFN site or his TRTC Ufopedia archive. FFN screens out links, as we all know, but here are the specific FFN extensions for our authorial subsites.

/u/992366/Lathis

/u/235984/Capn_Chryssalid

* * *

Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last. The reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together. With Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding', it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of Atlantis. Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well deserved breather from their adventures. But as unseen forces manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered… and sooner than they expect.

It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_First Contact_

Chapter I

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid

Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

_

* * *

_

With an irritated tap of his finger, the police report minimized to the corner of the screen, revealing another similar report beneath it. It only took Robin a second's glance to agree with its conclusion: Someone other than the Titans was playing vigilante in Jump City, and they weren't pulling their punches.

Unfortunately, Robin had a pretty good idea just who was responsible, but wasn't certain how to deal with the matter. Pinching the bridge of his nose, the masked teen leaned back in his chair and spun around. As he rotated, the main room of the tower came into sight, and the comforting sight of his friends at rest eased his mind a bit.

It was a pleasantly cool night outside and Cyborg had opened one of the large windows to let the refreshing breeze blow in. The metallic Titan himself was leaning against the frame, gazing appreciatively at the view of the bay as it glittered in the moonlight. It was an uncharacteristically serene moment for the usually hyper active mechanical genius, and it was good to see him taking a moment to slow down.

Around the rest of the room, the other Titans were scattered about. On the far end of the couch, Beast Boy and Terra were fighting over the remote control. Despite his ability produce as many limbs as needed to keep said remote out of her hands, the green teen was losing the battle for dominance quite badly, not seeming to mind the headlock that the slim blonde girl had him trapped in.

Behind the couch, Raven and Kasumi had set up a small card table and were actually playing a game of chess. It hadn't been too long since they had returned from their… trip… that the Tendo woman had shown an interest in learning chess, and Raven had been strangely eager to school her in the game. Currently, Raven had the tip of her finger resting on the tip of a bishop, absently tipping the dark piece back and forth as she debated whether to complete her move or not.

Robin was no expert, but it looked like Raven would have Kasumi mated in seven moves.

And, finally, perched contentedly at the center of the long, semi circular couch, Starfire and Ryouga were conspiring to read a rather thick comic book. The black and white publication hung between the pair of foreign teens and Ryouga seemed to be eagerly pointing things out and explaining something to the Tamaranian.

"-There - _there_ - did you see that? Even with every bone in his body broken, Guts takes on a Dragon, one on one!"

Starfire rolled her eyes, "Only due to the assistance of the mystical armor which he wears. This feat is no more impressive than Claire's defeat of the Silver King."

"Are you joking? Claire has a demon thing stuck in her, so it isn't even like it's her own power she's using to fight. Face it, Claymore is like Berserk-lite, and 'Awakened Beings' are just watered down versions of 'Acolytes'," Ryouga countered smugly.

"At least Claire's transformation provides a believable reason for her ability to battle supernatural beings on an even basis. Guts is illogically powerful for a baseline human, given genetic statistics from that time period. And further, I do not understand the concept as to how his weapon can even harm these Acolytes, when it is stated, repeatedly, that non magical weapons have no effect."

Ryouga glared and pulled the comic towards himself. "It's because he killed so many demons with it that it became magical!"

The Tamaranian pinned him with a dead-pan stare. "And you do not see the paradox in your logic? Besides, I find the entire Berserk world to be horrendously misogynistic. Women are treated so terribly by the author that I can barely stand to look at it."

"Misogynistic?" Ryouga fired back, "Misogynistic? Yeah, well . . . well Claymore is _anti_-misogynistic! I mean, come on, Men are genetically predisposed to becoming evil in that world. Every guy in that book is either an evil monster, or part of an evil organization that uses women as tools. You couldn't make a more 'Girl Power' comic if you tried."

Robin could only stare at the duo blankly for a long moment, having absolutely no idea what they were talking about. They were both staunchly entrenched in their opinion, though, and it seemed that combat was more likely than compromise at this point. Shaking his sadly at just how much like siblings Ryouga and Starfire had become, Robin loudly cleared his throat. "Ryouga!"

Instantly, the Martial Artist and the Tamaranian ceased their argument to turn their attention his way.

"Um… Do you need something, Robin? I'm sort of in the middle of explaining to Star that she's way off on this stuff."

The alien in question crossed her arms over her chest and gave a loud 'humph'. "If you did not wish to have me point out the fallibility off your opinion, then you should not have introduced me to these 'manga', as you call them."

Ryouga looked about ready to dive right back into the argument, so Robin barked his name again quickly to retain his attention.

"Ryouga! I need to talk to you about Jinx..."

All around the room, the mention of the ex H.I.V.E. sorceress brought things to a grinding halt. Raven immediately lost focus on her game and looked up, a tight frown creasing her lips. Ryouga, on the other hand, looked up with a 'deer in the headlights' look before quickly quashing it.

"I... I - um, I mean, uh…. What do you need to talk about Jinx... about?"

The masked Titan stared at Ryouga strangely for a moment before shrugging. "Look, I know I shouldn't complain, considering she appears to be going straight -"

He bravely ignored the amused chortle from Beast Boy and continued.

"- But isn't there any way for you to get Jinx to, I don't know, ease up a bit when she's dealing with the common criminals?"

"Oh, is that all?" The martial artist let out a strangely relieved breath, only to throw his hands up helplessly a second later. "Well, I hate to say it, but you're the guys that said there was absolutely no way that she would be allowed to live here with the rest of us, so I really don't think any of us have any right to tell Jinx how to behave."

Terra nodded indignantly. "Yeah, I still can't believe you gave her the boot! I mean, Jinx might be a pain, but at least she's trying to do the right thing here."

A rather unlady-like snort emanated from the cloaked Titan behind the couch. Raven offered a withering stare as she replied, "How could you possibly expect us to trust her so easily? Perhaps if she didn't send half of her victims to the hospital, it would be easier to overlook her past indiscretions, but as is, someone needs to inform her that her current behavior is unacceptable, and soon."

Ryouga snorted loudly. "Don't look at me. There's no way I'm going to order that girl to 'behave herself' - Not after the last time I brought it up, anyway. Besides, it isn't like I see her any more often than anyone else here, anyway."

Kasumi nodded quite helpfully at that. "Oh my, yes. It certainly isn't like Ryouga would sneak out at night just to meet Jinx. …Oh, by the way, rook to queen six."

Everyone present stared at the serene Tendo, but the woman's perfectly straight face and her obvious intent on her game of chess made it impossible to take her word at anything besides face value.

A few seconds later, Cyborg shook his head a few times before cutting in. "Man, cut the girl some slack, Rae. Jinx totally helped us out when Dr. Light popped up a few nights ago."

Robin frowned at that thought. It hadn't been the first time that Jinx had shown up to intervene in one of their battles lately; she seemed to have an uncanny knack for locating them, really. Still, if Ryouga wasn't willing to talk to her on their behalf, then there wasn't anyone else the ex villainess would likely listen to. And frankly having her as a tenuous ally was still preferable to having her as a vindictive enemy.

"Fine, fine, we'll leave it alone for now and see if things improve on their own." With a sigh, the caped hero spun back to face the computer. "It isn't like her help is a complete hindrance, anyway. Our pleasant lull from Ryouga, Ranma and Starfire destroying Brother Blood's headquarters seems to be over."

He gestured to the numerous police reports littering the small screen. "Control Freak, Adonis, and Dr. Light all coming out to wreak havoc within weeks of each other is bad enough. But it looks like this influx of costumed villains is emboldening the regular criminals, too. More small timers think they can slip under our radar with all of these big bads on the scene."

Terra let out a long sigh at that. "Well at least people aren't confusing you guys as still being one of the big bads. For every person that says 'Hey, thanks for stopping that building for falling on me.', there are two more that throw their wallets at me and run away screaming."

The emerald changeling at her side dropped a companionable hand on her shoulder. "Well, on the bright side . . . at least we got free ice cream out of the deal that time."

Beast Boy quickly shifted into a mouse and dove behind Terra's back to hide from the heated glares fired his way.

Robin gave a frustrated growl as he stared at the monitor again, randomly clicking on a few more of the police and news reports. "Havoc in Metropolis, the Hive Five plaguing Steel City, attacks on Atlantis, and look at this-" he pointed fiercely to one of the news heading in particular. "-just look at this. Johnny Rancid - _Johnny Rancid_ was let out of prison early for good behavior . . . Honestly, what is this world coming to?"

At his intense question, the Starfire suddenly began to tap her chin, giving a pointed look to the manga in her hand, then to the bandanna clad boy beside her before she responded.

"Obviously, there are too many men -"

Ryouga glared back, indignant expression on his face. "Too many _people_. Thank you very much."

Behind them, Raven nodded in a sagely manner, casually adding, "Making too many problems."

"And there's not much love to go around," Cyborg lamented in a melancholy tone, shaking his head.

Ever so slowly, Robin turned to stare at his friends. As he did that, Beast Boy shrugged in helpless amusement.

"Dude, can't you see this is a land of confusion?"

It took the masked Titan several long seconds to process things, painfully flat expression on his face, and he lifted a finger menacingly. "You guys did not just-"

Only to be cut off when the tower alarm suddenly blared to life. Robin held his glare on his innocently whistling companions for another second, then spun around and brought up the emergency channel on the computer. Immediately, the small monitor went black and the large view screen hanging behind it flared to life, a large map of the city depicted clearly.

At the center of the map, a single building was blinking a bright red, standing out keenly from the dull green which represented the rest of the city. Robin let out a pained sigh as the building was easily recognizable.

"...S.T.A.R. labs is having an emergency..." he muttered quietly.

Raven rolled her eyes. "Oh my, it must be Tuesday."

Kasumi took a moment to stare at the hooded Titan, only to burst into a fit of giggles.

Reading the rest of the information provided by the alert, Robin nodded to himself. "It appears to be some form of breach in the High Energy-Physics Annex . . ."

Pausing for a moment, Robin turned to glance at Terra out of the corner of his eye. The concepts of 'underground laboratory', 'high energy physics' and 'incredibly powerful geokinetic' did not mesh well in his mind, not at all. He couldn't be certain what the emergency was at this time, but, if any digging was involved, he was sure that Raven could handle it with less risk involved.

It wasn't like they didn't have an abundance of Titans, anyway.

"Beast Boy, Terra, I want you two to stay here-"

"_What?" _

_ "What_?"

Robin gave them a serious look. "We don't have any information on the nature of the emergency. It could be something as simple as someone dropping the wrong beaker when it comes to the high-security labs in there; so I want the two of you to hang back as back up, in case any other problems pop up around the city. Do you two think you're up to watching the entire city while we're out?"

Terra and Beast Boy seemed to waver back and forth for a moment, not appearing to be able to tell if he was tricking them or not. Finally, though, the duo let out an amusingly coordinated set of annoyed grunts and plopped back down on the couch.

"Fine," muttered the emerald shape shifter.

"But you better call us in right away if it's something big, alright?" Terra added vehemently.

The masked Titan gave a firm nod, and then gestured to everyone else. "Alright, everyone else, move out."

In a flurry of motion, the remaining Titans floated, leapt, levitated, or ran for the nearest exits. A moment later, Robin joined them, making his way down to the garage at top speed . . .

…Which, when all was said and done, left the lone trio of Beast Boy, Terra and Kasumi all staring at each other expectantly in the eerie silence hanging over the room. The moment was quickly broken, when Terra pounded a tiny fist to the couch in frustration.

"They totally ditched me because me because they're going to fight in an underground lab, didn't they?"

Kasumi and Beast Boy shared a quick look . . . then nodded in unison.

"It certainly seems that way."

"Oh, yeah, they totally did."

With that double confirmation, Terra pouted with all her might.

"Oh, just gimme the remote already."

* * *

Ryouga gave a low whistle at the sight before them.

Even by his standards, the massive cerulean force dome which currently sequestered the entirety of the S.T.A.R. labs facility was pretty impressive. The building itself was clearly visible behind the translucent shield, and looked just as he remembered it... good memories and all that. Even the large ring of police cars surrounding the building at a safe distance was familiar, but thankfully Robin had already spoken with the officer in charge and she'd agreed to leave them to their own devices for now.

Absently, the martial artist gave the force field a rap with his knuckle. The dull, reverberating sound it made was quite unusual, but it felt as solid as any steel.

"Wow, they didn't have this here when Billy Numerous and I broke in here."

Behind him, Robin grimaced. "Yeah, thank you kindly for that memory. Still, this does present a problem. Cyborg?"

The bulky teen in question looked up from the scanner on his forearm and offered him a clueless look. "I haven't even seen anything like this before. This shield makes Gizmo's force fields look like tissue paper. Some kind of highly charged plasma field shaped into a static matrix... possibly using a magnetic bottle? ...Electromagnetic field? ...It's hard to say, really, it's putting out a lot of interference, possibly intentionally."

To the side, Starfire ran her hand over the force field as well, giggling lightly. "The charged particles tickle!"

Dark tendrils of dark energy rose up around Raven as the cloaked Titan studied the dome. With a roll of her wrist, the constructs began to flow over the wall of force. It only lasted for a moment, though, before the black streams of telekinesis evaporated and a frown creased the girl's face. "It does seem ... comprehensive in its protection. I don't think I'll be able to teleport us through."

Though it probably wasn't appropriate, Ryouga found himself chuckling. "Well, looks like that's the end of this mission. Too bad Beast Boy isn't here, I'm sure he'd do something wacky like suggest I try to Bakusai Tenketsu the thing."

"..."

The fanged fighter found himself shrinking under the scrutinizing looks of his companions.

"...Well, can you?" Cyborg finally asked.

"What are you, kidding? I'm still fine tuning it to work on metal. I think using it on exotic energy constructs is a little down the road," Ryouga replied, a little put out.

"Well, have you numbskulls even considered contacting the people inside, yet?"

"Hey, that's not bad ide-" Ryouga stopped mid-response. That hadn't been any of the Titan's voices. The martial artist spun around, broad smile growing on his face as he did, though he did his best to try to hide it.

The sight of Jinx walking up to join them, swagger in her hips and smirk on her lips, sent a whole host of conflicting emotions running through him - in no small part because Raven was standing only a few yards to his side. The sorceress looked just as she had the last time he'd seen her; her hair turned upwards in her usual, exotic style, and her new uniform - a near copy of her old outfit, though now the hemline ran straight across her chest, leaving her shoulders bare. The Lost Boy shuffled nervously as her eyes settled on him for a rather long moment before she turned her attention back to the rest of the Titans.

Unlike Ryouga, though, no one else seemed to be at all conflicted in their feelings for the pink haired ex villainess.

"What are you doing here, Jinx?" Raven asked sharply.

Jinx rolled her eyes, subtly adjusting her path to take her closer to Ryouga. "Well, I might not have a fancy Bat Computer to tell me what to do, but even I can see a giant four story force field in the middle of the night, _Rae_."

Everyone took a step out from between the two girls as Raven began to glower darkly at the impudent witch.

Just before the sparks could literally begin to fly, Robin bravely took a step forward and held up his hands in a meager warding gesture. "Alright, that's enough of that." The masked hero turned to Jinx. "If you're here to assist us, Jinx, that's fine, but I'd appreciate it if you could be civil, understand?"

Jinx tilted her head to the side, making a show out of considering his request, before shrugging. The sorceress then took a few more steps until she was standing less than an arm's length from Ryouga.

"Fine. Whatever, Bird-boy. Just remember that it isn't you that I'm here to help." She made sure to send a telling look in the Lost Boy's direction with her last statement.

Robin glared at her for a moment, before nodding. "As long as we understand each other. Just don't get in our way." With that, he turned to Cyborg. "Cyborg, can you-"

"Ah, yeah, I already started trying to make contact as soon as Jinx mentioned it," replied the Titanium Titan a bit sheepishly. "If they have any internet access in there at all, that means they likely have a landline going in there underground. As long as the shield hasn't severed all connections to the outside world, I might be able to route to a nearby server, get a message in there . . . aaannnddd-"

A crackle of static sounded from the cyborg's arm and the tiny screen flashed to life. For a moment, the screen was empty, simply showing the interior of a lab of some type. A few moments later, though, an unfamiliar face filled the tiny picture. It was an older man, with wild grey hair, though at this point, there was far more sticking out from the sides of his scalp than covering the top of it. Most of the scientist's face was covered by an overly large pair of square framed glasses, perched precariously on a hooked nose.

"H-hello? Who is this? How are you contacting us?" the small man asked nervously.

Robin quickly moved forward and took a hold of Cyborg's arm. "I'm Robin, of the Teen Titans. We're here responding to the emergency. Can you drop the force field so we can enter?"

The mousy scientist quickly shook his head. "Oh my, no. The entire facility is on lock-down, you see? We've had a... containment breach, and there's no way to lower the defense screen until it's been dealt with."

Peering over the shorter teen's shoulder, Starfire glanced inquisitively at the small screen. "If you are unable to lower your defensive field, then I am not certain how we can gain entry to render our assistance."

The spectacle wearing researcher seemed to consider that quandary for a moment. "Hmm... I may not be able to lower the screen, but perhaps there is something else I can do. Wait where you are, I will come up to meet you."

And with that, Cyborg's small arm computer went black.

"Huh. That was weird," commented the cybernetic teen, "Now I'm really confused about what's going on in there. This is one serious lock down, but buddy there wasn't exactly freakin' out on us."

Ryouga found himself nodding in agreement, but didn't have any theories, so he kept quiet. No one else seemed to have any ideas, either, which unfortunately left them all to stand around in uncomfortable silence.

The Lost Boy alternated glancing between the violet haired Titan to his one side and the pink haired vigilante to his other. He really felt he should be saying something to someone, but at the same time, he didn't want to cause any problems. He'd seen Ranma screw up in this exact kind of situation way too often.

What was a Hibiki to do?

The time seemed to crawl by like a wounded animal as everyone shifted about impatiently, but finally the distant front door of the building slid open and the small scientist, complete with white lab coat, came scurrying out to meet them. The small man, barely even breaking five foot five, was carrying a small box under one arm and - and what looked to be a sizeable energy cannon strapped to his back. Within a minute, he was standing on the opposite side of the force field and waved at them politely.

"Hello there, Titans! Can you hear me?" he shouted at the top of a surprisingly large set of lungs.

Ryouga winced before calling back. "We can hear you fine, um... mister. There's no need to yell."

"Oh – ahem. Yes, so I see. Well then, let us get to work," replied the scientist brusquely. He then pulled the metallic box from beneath his arm and gently placed it on the ground before the force field.

The Titans looked at each other blankly for a moment, before Robin took a step forward. "What exactly is it you're doing, Dr… ahh, Dr.?"

The researcher looked up, startled for a moment. "Ah, yes, sorry about that. I'm Dr. Xenophon Quincy. I'm the Assistant Director of this facility. As to what I'm doing, this is a specialized frequency scanner. It's designed to bypass the scattering field this force screen emits so that I can determine its specific frequency at the moment. It randomly alters its frequency ever thirty seconds, you see, in an attempt to avoid just such breaching attempts."

Cyborg slapped a fist into his palm with an excited clank. "Alright! If we can't shut down the whole thing, then this is the next best thing. With the frequency I should be able to tune my sonic cannon so I can punch a small hole through the shield."

Dr. Quincy's eyes widened in surprise. "You have access to sonic based weaponry? Quite fascinating, I was just going to use my Naser-" He gestured to the massive cannon on his back. "- But it would likely be easier for you to do so, as this is a prototype and it's really not designed with such alterations in mind."

Something about that statement brought Ryouga up short. "Umm, Naser? Don't you mean 'laser'?"

He quickly received a swift jab to the side and turned to see Jinx wink at him before whispering. "Heh, the geek probably has a speech impediment."

The small Doctor shook his head, "Oh, no. You see, a Naser is-"

"It is an acronym for the earth terms 'Neutrino Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation'"

Silence hung in the air for a moment, before everyone present turned to stare at Starfire. Even Doctor Quincy gazed at her with slack jaw. "B-b-but I just invented it. How could you possibly know that?"

The Tamaranian shrugged her shoulders. "I had a similar device when I was a child, though, of course, we used a different term for it. ...It was one of my fondest toys."

The crestfallen expression on the scientist's face was priceless, and the Tamaranian's expression fell to match in an instant. "I - I am sorry. I did not mean to bring attention to the fact that Earthly sciences are archaic by galactic standards."

"Star!" Cyborg barked incredulously, "Seriously. Archaic? That - that just hurts!"

"Oh no, my friend, I did not-"

"Enough." Raven's command was given with a tone of finality that was impossible to ignore. "Dr. Quincy, please do what it is that needs to be done to allow us entry so that we can assist you with . . . whatever your emergency is."

"Y-yes, quite right, young lady." Immediately, the bespectacled researcher leaned forward and began to type away at the small interface on the box's surface. A small red light blinked on the side of the box for several seconds before suddenly flicking over to a green light. "Ah, there we go."

Cyborg listened intently as Dr. Quincy read off the frequency and quickly entered it into his arm. "Alright, everyone get ready. We're going to have less than ten seconds to get through before the shield cycles. It's gonna take me a few seconds to change the frequency on my cannon."

Ryouga nodded and moved to stand before the shield, Jinx hanging close to his side, and making certain to leave a big enough gap for Cyborg's imminent blast between himself and Robin, Raven and Starfire.

As promised, within a matter of seconds, the large Titan was ready, his cybernetic hand shifted noisily into its Sonic Cannon configuration with a series of whirrs and clicks. He then held his arm out, aiming the ominously glowing weapon at the shield between them.

"Everyone ready?"

Robin nodded quickly. "Do it."

A blast of concentrated sound in the form of a tremendous beam of bluish energy crashed into the force field with battering ram force. The force field seemed to shift beneath the barrage of sonic waves, its color growing lighter and less cohesive. Cyborg circled the sonic assault around for a second, spreading out the area affected for a few long seconds, then cut off his attack abruptly. Without even waiting a second, the cybernetic teen then charged forward into the wavering, almost ghostly section of the wall he'd just blasted.

Ryouga winced at the thought of Cyborg slamming face first into an invincible barrier . . . but let out a sigh of relief when his friend passed through the wall without even slowing. An instant later, Ryouga grabbed Jinx's hand and pulled her through as well, even as Robin, Star and Raven dove through the aperture themselves.

Not a moment too soon, either, as a few seconds after they passed through, the compromised section of the wall shimmered and returned to its former state.

Once he was certain that everyone was through, Robin nodded and turned to the Doctor. "Okay, Dr. Quincy, now that we're in, can you inform us exactly what the emergency is?"

The Doctor nodded agreeably, quickly picking up the box on the ground. He then began to walk back towards the facility, gesturing for them to follow. "Yes, yes, of course. I'll explain on the way."

As the group followed him, Dr. Quincy un-holstered his naser cannon. "The problem is still contained in the lower reaches of the facility, but I'm not sure how long that will last. It's good that you arrived when you did."

Swiping his security card through a scanner by the door, he then led them into the building. "You'll have to excuse all of the security. We had a serious break in not too long ago. Some sensitive psionics research was stolen and there was massive damage to the main entrance, so we were forced to institute more serious security measures."

Ryouga shuffled anxiously even as Jinx beamed a shameless smile. Cyborg and Starfire had the good graces to look a abashed as well, which explained a few things, since Ryouga was pretty sure that he hadn't been involved in any destruction on the entrance level.

"Ah, yes. We... heard about that situation," Robin replied quietly.

"Regardless, that has nothing to do with the current situation. You see, we've had a, well, something of a break out in the High Energy-Physics Annex, if you will."

That brought everyone up short. Ryouga stared at the doctor uncertainly. "Um, what do you mean by 'break out'? I wasn't aware that you had, what - prisoners - here?"

Looking suspicious Raven leaned in as well. "That is a good question. Who, or what do you have down there that would warrant such a lock down?"

A look of excitement bloomed on the researcher's face and he quickly led them to the security desk which sat several yards away from the main entrance. As soon as he reached the station, he began to flip through the various security channels.

"It will be easier to just show you, rather than try to explain. Just let me see if I can locate it, and-"

"_SKREE-REEE-REEEE-REEE_!"

The unearthly, oscillating, reverberating screech pierced Ryouga to the very soul and he slapped his hands to cover his ears. At the same instant, the monitor flashed to life, showing the picture of a - just a bizarre creature.

"What the heck is that thing!" Cyborg cried in shock, echoing all of their sentiments exactly.

"We call it a Twenty-Six Dimensional Hypergriffin."

...And …and the name actually seemed to fit, in the loosest manner possible. Ryouga vaguely remembered seeing a picture of the fanciful creature in question amongst the rather extensive collection of Jinx's unicorn sketches. Except this creature was nightmarish even by Ryouga's very experienced definition. While the leonine body was present, he counted no less than nine eagle heads, though that number was by no means a constant, the numerous phantasmal heads seeming to meld together, divide apart, or just outright phase through each other as it flew around the lab in which it was contained.

Though, Ryouga had no idea how the thing was actually flying, considering it had twice as many wings as it had heads, and each set of wings were flapping independently of one another.

"A… a Twenty-Six Dimensional Hypergriffin?" Robin asked with understandable disbelief.

Dr. Quincy nodded understandably. "Indeed. You see, we were doing research into the concept of meta-reality-shifting through under-space using implicate field inversions-"

Starfire nodded knowingly. "Ah, yes, I learned of that theory from my..." Twin glares from the doctor and Cyborg all but impaled the young Tamaranian. "'_ahem_' I mean, please continue, Dr. Quincy."

The doctor continued to stare at her for a moment longer, before clearing his throat and nodding. "Anyway, this jaunty critter hitched a ride on one of our experimental probes, which had the unfortunate side effect of trapping it in three dimensional space with us. As you can imagine it is less than pleased with the situation, and quite deadly as well."

Jinx, who had been staring at the Hypergriffin intently for some time, finally looked up. "Well, what's the big deal, Doc? You got your super naser, or whatever it is. Why not just blast it to bits on your own? What do you need us for?"

Quincy turned to look at the sorceress, adjusting his glasses a bit. "Oh my, no, I'm afraid that wouldn't work. A simple naser couldn't kill something as powerful as a Twenty-Six Dimensional Hypergriffin. You see, the beam only fires in Threespace."

The researcher ignored the look of incomprehension that bloomed on, well, pretty much everyone present, and continued on. "What I need help with, is getting the Twenty-Six Dimensional Hypergriffin back into containment. It is only a matter of time before it breaches the lower levels entirely, and I can't be certain how our defensive screen would interact with a twenty-six dimensional entity, even as limited as it is."

The Titans shared an uncertain look for a moment, before Robin finally took charge, rallying everyone by force of will alone. "Alright Titans. You heard the Doctor, let's move out."

As one, the team hurried to the main elevator which led to the depths of the facility. Soon enough, the doors opened and everyone began to shuffle into the car. Waiting patiently for everyone else to get in first, Ryouga was about to step in - when he suddenly felt an arm pull him back.

Without him in the way to trip the sensors, the doors began to slide closed and Jinx, still holding Ryouga's arm, smiled and waved to everyone else. "Dear, dear, it looks packed in there. We'll take the next car."

"Jinx, what are you d-"

Raven's inquiry was cut off by the shutting of the doors and, in a second, the floor number above the elevator began to shoot down at a surprising rate. Ryouga didn't even have a chance to comment, though, as he was immediately spun around and pushed against the cool metal of the doors.

A moment later, Jinx was less than an inch away from him, staring up at him expectantly.

"So what's with you? Not even so much as a 'hey, how's it going you sexy-sexy sorceress?' You aren't mad about that numbskull crack, are you? Cuz you know I hardly consider you one of those at all."

Taking a brief glance around, Ryouga let out a small sigh and dropped his hands on the girl's shoulders.

"What are you doing, Jinx? We're on a mission here; you're going to get us in trouble."

"Feh!" Jinx replied indignantly. "What are they gonna do? Kick me out of their stupid tower? Arrest me for wanting to take the stairs in case of an emergency? It's a giant bird, Hibiki, I'm sure your buddies down there can survive for, like, five minutes without us."

"...Yeah, I suppose you're right about that," Ryouga conceded amiably, "And, no, I'm not mad at you. It's just that you're on thin ice with everyone else as it is, I didn't want to start a needless fight."

The ex villain scoffed loudly at that. "On thin ice with _Raven_, you mean. And, you know, none of this would be an issue if you'd just grow a set and form your own team away from the Titans."

Ryouga let out a weary groan. "Not this again, Jinx. I'm as fit to be a leader as you are to be a fully contributing member of society."

She replied with a wide, slightly unhinged Cheshire grin that spoke volumes. "Oh, come on, Hibiki. You're the only one that people actually trust enough to follow - as horrendously ironic as that sounds-"

"Oh, har dee har har."

"I know that Kasumi is on board, for obvious reasons. And I'm pretty sure that Terra would jump at the chance, too. After all we went through, it just makes sense!"

The fanged fighter locked stares with the sultry sorceress for a long moment before finally breaking down and looking away. "Look, I'll think about it, alright? I'm not making any guarantees, though. Now, is that all you wanted to talk about?"

He immediately regretted his words, as a familiar glimpse of longing flashed through her pink, cat-like eyes. A moment later, she spun around and pressed her back up against his chest and reached up to wrap an arm around his neck.

"Not _all_. I mean, I haven't seen you in three nights. Haven't you... missed me at all?"

Heat began to rise in Ryouga's face dangerously fast as a whole array of pleasant sensations assaulted him. Immediately, his hand shot up to pinch his nose and he began to desperately attempt to control his breathing. Jinx wasn't making it easier, either, running her fingers through his hair.

"Y-y-you know I have. I just – it's been hard to 'get lost' on patrols."

"I find that hard to believe," Jinx interrupted with a smirk.

Ryouga's glare was lost on the back of the girl's head. "You do recall that I can crush you like an empty soda can, right? And I've been patrolling with Beast Boy the past few nights; he's super paranoid when it comes to keeping me in sight."

Tilting her head back, Jinx graced him with an adorable pout. "Can't you just, I dunno, give the green brat a friendly maiming, or something?" She quickly followed it up by mumbling something that sounded a bit like "Still haven't forgiven that punk for the 'monkey on your back' schtick."

He couldn't help but chuckle at the idea. "I doubt Terra would ever forgive me for that one." Finally loosening up a bit, Ryouga began to slip his arms around the girl's slim waist-

Which was pretty much the exact moment that he noticed the pool of darkness form on the floor before them. In a flash, the pair leapt apart and Jinx spun on him, eyes flashing dangerously.

"Who do you think you're talking to, Lost Boy? I do things my way, so like it, or lump it!"

A droll expression rested on Raven's face as she rose up from the dark portal. "I see trying to talk sense to her is working as well as expected."

Ryouga stared at Jinx uncertainly for a moment, before nodding. "About as well as the first time I brought it up."

Jinx just stuck out her tongue.

The violet haired Titan rolled her eyes. "Well, if you two think you can get along long enough to help us, there is a Twenty-Six Dimensional Hypergriffin in the basement that we could use your help dealing with." She then held out her hands. "Come closer, I'll teleport us down."

The pink haired 'hero' stared at the offered hand for a moment, before snorting loudly. Jinx then spun and waved her hand at the elevator. A flash of pink energy arced from her fingers and an instant later, the doors slid open of their own volition, revealing the empty shaft.

"Um, yeah, thanks, but no thanks. I'll just take the elevator."

And with a little hop, the young woman vanished down the hole without a second's hesitation.

For a moment, Ryouga and Raven just stared at the empty shaft before the latter shook her head sadly. "I want to thank you for trying, at least. I imagine it can't be easy for you to confront her like that."

Doing his best to quash his guilt as his stare lingered on the elevator shaft, he nodded slowly. "You don't know the half of it. It's hard to hear some of the things she has to say, sometimes."

Raven nodded sympathetically as she rested a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright; that you try is all we can ask."

Ryouga considered her words for a moment, before offering her a weak smile. "...Yeah, all I can do is try."

'_To avoid hurting any of my friends. Damnit, this has to be Ranma__'__s fault somehow_.'

"Alright then, let's go. Robin is already planning on how to attack the - the

hypergriffin." The distaste in her voice at the last word was obvious, and it brought a smirk to Ryouga's lips.

A moment later, they were sinking into the ground, and everything dissolved into a black, blacker than any pitch, as they traversed through... whatever dimension it was that she traversed through for her teleportation. Though the actual time of the travel was near instantaneous, the eerie darkness seemed to cling to him, trying to latch onto him and trap him in the void-

And then they were back in the material world. There was a moment of chilling disorientation, which the martial artist shook off quickly before he took in his surroundings. They were in an unfamiliar room; a small room filled with computers banks. A large window took up one of the walls, revealing what looked to be a much larger chamber beyond it. All in all, it looked to be a fairly mundane lab -

"_SKREEEEE_!"

A massive blur slammed into the window, slashing claws and tearing beaks smashing away at the casement with wild abandon. Deep cracks spread across the entire surface and several flecks of the ridiculously thick, translucent material peppered everyone present, prompting them to cover their faces. A second later, the hyper griffin vanished from sight as quickly as it appeared.

"Holy crap, dawg! Did you see that?" barked Cyborg.

Robin nodded cautiously. "Yes. The lab isn't going to hold that thing for long, it's definitely more powerful than it looks."

"And the creature does not exactly look like . . . What is the term? A 'push over'?" Starfire added, sounding slightly worried.

Raven nodded in agreement. "I'm somewhat worried about whether or not we'll be able to harm it or not. What Dr. Quincy said about only being able to affect it in Threespace left me . . . dubious about this venture."

"Well, we'll never know until we try. Not that it matters; we're here to capture it, not destroy it. As long as we can at least corral it where we need it to go, then we're in business." The masked Titan took a moment to look around. "Speaking of getting things where we need them to go, where on earth is Jinx?"

"She'll be along anytime now," Ryouga supplied quickly. "She, um, she decided to take the elevator."

Robin looked at him oddly for a moment, then to the elevator behind him, which clearly showed the car resting on the same floor they were on, then shrugged. "Whatever. We'll begin without her. We can't afford to wait for her, not with that thing tearing up the building."

Their small leader then took a moment to study everyone present. "Alright, Starfire, Ryouga, you go in first and try to knock it out of the air. Cyborg, you'll need to repair and set up the Dimensional Quarantine, just like Dr. Quincy explained."

"Remember," supplied the Doctor in question, "You'll need to get it within three meters of the Projector to be effective when you activate it."

Cyborg nodded confidently. "You know it, Dr. Q. Your schematics are just what the doctor ordered; I got it under control."

"Raven, you and I will cover Cyborg and the projector while Starfire and Ryouga try to corner the . . . Entity."

The dark Titan nodded smartly. "I understand."

"What, no role for me, oh illustrious leader?"

Again, everyone looked over to see Jinx approaching them. The elevator doors stood open behind her and the young woman ran a hand through her stylized hair absently as she regarded them.

Robin shook his head in annoyance before muttering. "Jinx . . . You help Ryouga and Star deal with bringing it down."

"Yeah, fine, I can do that," replied the sorceress in a catty tone.

"Alright then," Robin stated confidently.

"Let's go in!"

* * *

"Fall back! Starfire, fall back!"

Robin's frantic cry came too late as a wicked set of claws slammed into the Tamaranian's back, knocking her bodily out of the air. Only a black tendril of telekinesis, shooting up from the floor to catch the flame haired girl, saved her from slamming into the floor with bone crushing force.

A second later, flashes of pink energy peppered the side of the Hypergriffen, sending it careening off to the side before it could regain its balance and swoop back up towards the ceiling. Trailing only a few yards behind the great beast, bouncing madly off the walls in an attempt to catch up, Ryouga zipped though the air, pale blue umbrella trailing in his wake.

Pulling an electric disc from his utility belt, Robin hurled the projectile into the monster's path, hoping to let the fanged martial artist catch up. The small disc whizzed through the air, detonating right in front of the griffin's, well, _one_ of the griffin's many beaks, but the creature didn't even flinch at the burst of electrical energy, soaring right through the explosion without effect.

"Cyborg, are you ready yet?"

The cybernetic teen looked up from the device he was working on, sparks flying every which way from the arc torch popping out of his finger. "I'm gonna need another minute. I'm almost done repairing the casing, then I can start it up."

Letting out a minor curse, Robin nodded and reached back into his belt, looking for something else to use. To his side, Raven continued stand guard before Cyborg, a low wall of black power surrounding the entire quarantine platform, shooting upwards at any given moment to knock away any stray pieces of shrapnel that came their way.

In the air above them, Starfire was already back up, hurling a flurry of star bolts at the swooping griffin. The beast wasn't even paying any attention to the flying girl, having zeroed in on the ground borne Jinx. Even as green bursts of plasma slammed into its side to no visible effect, the griffin tucked its countless wings to its sides and dropped into a dive, snapping beaks and razor claws leading the way.

Instantly, Jinx gave a small shriek and turned tail before sprinting full speed in the other direction. As fast as she was, the young detective could already see she wouldn't be fast enough to escape. Urgently, Robin prepared an entire fan of explosive birdarangs to throw -

He needn't have bothered, though, as a familiar green and yellow blur cut through the air, slamming into the griffin's side with a thunderous crunch. A second later, Ryouga followed up his shoulder tackle with a swing of his transuranic umbrella, slamming the beast out of the air completely.

Seven distinct screeches of pain pierced the air as the griffin bounced off the floor, but less than a handful of seconds later, the monster was already back on its feet. Ryouga, Starfire and Jinx all rushed in simultaneously, but none were fast enough as a flurry of flapping wings launched the multi-dimensional raptor back into the air again.

"Cyborg!" Robin cried out.

"Just another second!"

Abruptly, the masked Titan was forced to leap to the side, Ryouga's body rag-dolling through the space he'd occupied a second earlier. The martial artist bounced a few times before slamming bodily into the onyx wall of energy surrounding the projector.

In a moment, Robin was by his team mate's side, helping him to his feet.

"I hope you guys are almost done over here," Ryouga barked hoarsely, "This thing is more frustrating to put down than Kunou. It's starting to get embarrassing!"

Robin nodded, smirking. "Cyborg should be done soon. We're going to need you guys to get it to the platform, though." Quickly reaching behind his back, Robin pulled out one of his grapnel launchers and handed it to the bandanna clad warrior. "Use this to tie it up if you can."

Ryouga took the item and nodded fiercely, tucking it in his belt. A moment later, Robin was alone as his companion sped back out into the fight.

"Okay, Robin, I got it ready to go. I just need to set the remote and clear the area. Gimme another minute!" Cyborg yelled out from his position.

"Alright!" Robin immediately rushed forward to stand in front of Raven. A quick scan above them showed, the Hypergriffin hovering near the ceiling. Starfire floated to the right of it, trying to corral it with her eye lasers. Ryouga hovered behind it, umbrella-copter in his right hand and a spinning bandanna in his left. On the ground directly beneath it, Jinx stared up impotently as her hands burned with pink flame.

Hoping to distract it long enough to let the trio drop the beast, Robin whipped off a handful of birdarangs. The spinning blades cut through the air with uncanny accuracy, and each one slamming into a separate beak.

To his mild surprise, the griffin actually noticed this attack... Unfortunately, to his great surprise, the attack seemed to infuriate the monster no end. Overlapping, oscillating screeches filled the air as the griffin suddenly dropped into another dive, straight toward the bird themed hero.

"That's _not_ good. Star, Ryouga, stop that thing!"

In a valiant effort, the Tamaranian and the martial artist surged forward, both actually managing to clamp a hand down on a wing and the tail respectively. Even with both Starfire pulling back and Ryouga's umbrella-copter running at full throttle in the opposite direction, the griffin barely slowed in its dive. On the ground, Jinx sprinted forward before ducking down into a crouch and launching herself up at the diving creature.

She didn't even make it halfway before she was sent flying wildly through the air by a buffet of its wings. Robin's eyes widened as he watched her body rag doll through the air; there was no way the girl would regain her balance before she crashed to the ground. Moving as fast as he ever had, he dove right beneath the swiping claws of the griffin and charged forward, managing to slide across the ground just in time to break her fall before she broke her neck. Panting at the sudden, exertion, Robin took a second to make sure that Jinx wasn't hurt-

The Hypergriffin slammed into the ebony wall of Raven's power at full speed; the sudden whiplash was enough to send Starfire, still clamped to one of its wings, slamming face first into the wall as well. Rather than bounce off the black construct of energy as the Tamaranian did, though, the wall directly beneath the griffin began to warp and buckle in a disturbing manner.

Abruptly, Raven collapsed to her knees and clutched her temples, a pained scream tearing itself from her throat. All around her, her power began to fluctuate wildly; black tendrils of the stuff writhing and flailing as if alive. The griffin howled in pain as it clawed wildly at the dark energy which began to constrict it. A random thrashing of its tail sent Ryouga flying forward over the vanishing wall of black telekinesis . . .

"_Nonononono_-" Cyborg's panicked shout was cut off abruptly by the sound of Hibiki slamming into titanium. A grim feeling rose up in Robin's chest at the familiar sound. It was quickly justified when an unearthly whine began to emanate from the center of the room. It was quickly followed by a coruscating sphere of rainbow lights flaring to life less than a yard away from Raven's collapsed form.

"Ryouga!" Jinx struggled out of Robin's grasp. Reaching forward, Robin quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

"Wait, we don't know what's going to happen!"

"I don't care!"

Both of them stopped dead, though, as both Raven's and the Hypergriffin's screams rose exponentially in unison. Raven's power was now wrapped around both in a nightmarish Gordian knot; however a long chord was now collapsing into the rainbow sphere, being drawn into the orb as if it were a iridescent black hole. Even as Cyborg frantically scanned the anomaly, Ryouga struggled past the uncontrolled energy, savagely slashing at the black constructs with his umbrella in a desperate bit to reach Raven's side.

Barely visible on the far side of the chaos, Robin could just see Starfire pushing herself up to her feet, one hand clutched to her skull and an obvious grimace on her face. The grimace disappeared in an instant, though, all concern for herself evaporating when the Tamaranian saw what was transpiring about her friends.

"Raven!"

Amazingly, Ryouga managed to make it to dark Titan's side, tearing away at the cocoon of power and clutching Raven to his chest. Rather than make things better, the howls of Raven, the griffin and the swelling sphere of chaotic energy all reached a horrific, soul piercing crescendo. In that very instant, Robin's entire perception of reality seemed to invert on itself. Up became down, black became white and it felt agonizingly like he was a second away from inside being out.

A crack of thunder blasted the Titan straight off his feet a second later. By the time he regained enough of his senses to sit up, the griffin, the sphere, and half of his friends were gone...

In their place, a massive swirling vortex of abyssal energy rotated ominously in the air. The black void seemed content to merely exist for a fraction of a second. Then an ominous howl filled the room as it began to suck in everything around it, like the very maw of hell itself. Cyborg and Starfire were the only ones remaining near the epicenter, and both were sprawled across the floor, utterly unconscious.

"Star! _Starfire_, wake up!" Robin cried out.

The draw of the vortex doubled within a second, then doubled again. Within a matter of moments, even Cyborg's bulky frame began to skid noisily across the floor. Robin took a hasty step forward, preparing to charge in and grab the Tamaranian, but as soon as he did, his feet nearly left the floor all together. Even with both feet firmly planted on the ground, his steel capped boots began to squeal in protest as he began to slide inexorably towards the hellish maw.

Thinking quickly, he aimed a grapnel launcher at the wall behind him and fired. The small titanium projectile dug into the wall not an instant too late as the tether snapped tight a second later. The masked hero then noticed a blur of motion to his side and reacted without even thinking. He managed to grasp Jinx's sleeve just before she flew past him.

In a matter of moments, the pair of them were floating parallel to the floor, the only thing saving them from the impossible pull of the spinning portal - a narrow chord of spider silk. With one hand clutching onto his grapnel launcher for dear life, and the other holding the ex villainess' sleeve, Robin could do nothing but watch as Cyborg and Starfire continued to slide away from him.

"Starfire!"

Miraculously, the Tamaranian's jade green eyes fluttered open just as her body began to lift from the ground.

"R-Robin?" the girl asked uncertainly. It didn't take her long to realize something was wrong, as she began to fly backwards against her own volition. Instantly, her backwards momentum stopped, and Starfire began to move forward incrementally. The strain from fighting the pull of the portal was obvious within seconds, though.

"Starfire! Grab Jinx's hand!" Robin shouted, his voice cracking.

"What!"

Slowly, Starfire reached out her hand. "I - I -"

And then the familiar sound of scraping metal made itself known in the cacophony of the black hole. Instantly, Starfire turned to see Cyborg sliding past her, completely helpless. Even with his massive weight, his limbs were already beginning to lift into the air.

Robin's eyes widened to saucers as he watched the Tamaranian. Starfire stared back at him longingly, then looked to their unconscious companion quickly sliding beyond her reach.

It was all too obvious what would happen next, and even as Robin wanted to cry out, he felt his heart swell with pride. Starfire graced him with one last gaze, filled with more emotions than he even knew existed... Then she spun away from him and flew directly into the heart of the maelstrom without even a second's hesitation. Just as she had been reaching out to him a second earlier, she reached out again, stretching out her arm to catch the now flying Cyborg.

"Starfire!"

A second later, they were both gone.

The masked hero didn't have time to register the moisture building in the corners of his eyes, though, as the sound of tearing cloth reached his ears over the deafening howl of the portal. He quickly looked down at Jinx, noting the panicked look in her eyes as she stared back at him helplessly.

An odd moment passed between the young detective and the sorceress as they matched gazes in that one, impossibly long instant. In that moment, he could have sworn he saw a tiny glimpse at the true Jinx, the look of raw terror as she watched his grip slipping, the expression of indignant fury as she stared at the cloth of her dress tear away, thread by thread.

And, most notably, in what she yelled out when his tenuous grasp eventually failed and she went soaring backwards into the black vortex before vanishing from sight-

"You _suuuuuuck_-"

Robin stared in anguish as he gazed into the abyss which had just taken his friends. For a moment, just a moment, the thought of simply letting go flitted across his mind. The lapse in judgment passed an instant later, though, and he quickly latched onto the grapnel launcher with both hands. No matter what may come, he had been trained to never give up, no matter what, and his stubborn determination wouldn't let him fail now.

As such, all that he could do was watch powerlessly as the vortex began to slowly collapse in on itself. Within a matter of minutes, it was gone and Robin was left kneeling in center of an empty room, shrouded in a deafening silence.

In that moment, only one thought filled the Titan's mind.

"_STARFIIIIRE_!"

* * *

Operation: Silver Ice  
Tokyo, Japan  
Higurashi Shrine: (date) 14:00 hours

Commander Yasuda had called it "growing field experience."

For Nabiki Tendo, it was just the sort of chaos she had hoped to avoid after finally coming back to the city of her birth. For months now, she had been cooped up in an underground base, deep in the mountains; a chance for some field work, back in Tokyo, had seemed like a great deal. She'd spend a few days snooping around, maybe supervise one or two semi-serious ops, capture whatever rogue psionic or martial artist was running amuck, and then grab a couple precious hours of leisure time.

It was the next best thing to an unsupervised leave.

Naturally, things didn't turn out that way at all.

The Higurashi Shrine was the sort of archetypical shinto establishment her father had always told her to take a historic and cultural interest in, and which she had quickly grown bored with. She had seen her share of spirits and demons and other really, really odd things - doubly so over the last half year since joining UNETCO - but none of that had made her feel particularly religious. Seeing this particular shrine for the first time, her initial impression was that the land it was on had to be worth a small fortune.

Then she saw the first of the twisting serpentine monsters rise up from beyond cusp of the hill the shrine stood upon. Twisted maws snapped and hissed, and inhuman eyes dilated as the mass of... things... churned like an insane ocean. Nabiki sighed.

_This_ was why - exactly why! - property values in Tokyo were so damn erratic.

* * *

**Twenty One hours earlier**

Tokyo, Japan  
Higurashi Shrine: February, 17th; 17:00 hours

The sun shone down on a beautiful and cloudless Tokyo afternoon.

Nabiki sucked in a deep breath, enjoying the air. Yes, that was car exhaust she was forcing into her lungs - and it was a welcome relief. It was the smell and taste of the big city! Across the street, a dango cart was selling its wares, a pair of tourists were inexplicably lost trying to find the subway, and all was right with the world. This was _her_ city; oh how she had missed it!

True, Nerima Ward was some distance from here, but she loved Tokyo all the same. It was vibrant and exciting and full of opportunity! A stark environmental contrast to where she had been spending her days and nights for the last half dozen months. Seiran Mountain was an enclosed facility, with recycled air, recycled _waste_, recycled everything. Contact outside was limited. The only fresh air to be had was outside, and even for those given _special dispensation_ to leave the mountain daily, it was more a tease than anything. The secret base was, to be frank, stifling.

It was just too bad she was technically here on business.

"Target is heading north with companions. ETA fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen Minutes," Mousse repeated, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "We're in position."

"We've been _in position_ for an hour," Nabiki felt the need to add, but didn't bother to activate her hidden microphone. There was no need for the complaint to reach more ears than were already present. In the back of the black unmarked van, Ryouga huffed in agreement.

So far, the mission had been rather dull.

Sitting in the front passenger seat, Nabiki stretched her arms with a sigh before straightening out her black jacket and fixing her shirt collar. The three of them were stuck in civilian guises as agents of the Public Security Intelligence Agency, "Special Internal Affairs Department." It meant the usual Men in Black look, as everyone called it (or Woman in Black in her case). Even as popularized as it had become in the public perception and media, the look continued to be ubiquitous and intimidating enough that UNETCO didn't bother trying to be original.

At the moment, she was "Makino Katsumi."

The nearly blind hidden weapons master sitting next to her (and currently cleaning his nails with a very sharp looking throwing knife) was one "Jason Chen" - Chinese-Japanese-American or something like that. Mousse always did get stuck with the stupider background stories.

The doofus in the back of the van enjoying a little power nap was "Amano Seiji."

It was their second stake out in the last half week.

Seiran had shipped them out to check up on some unusual activity around the country. Juliet was also on assignment, having just shipped out to run some Ops in Korea and the greater Pacific. UNETCO was still intent on keeping other "special" martial artist types out of alien hands, and when something odd cropped up that local intermediaries couldn't handle, Commander Yasuda didn't hesitate to use either of the two martial arts squads based at Seiran Mountain. Since they could operate effectively without extensive alien-derived hardware, skirting the UNETCO charter's Section Seven restrictions, it was considered an ideal assignment for them.

It was fairly light work compared to what India and Juliet Squads has been involved in lately. The terror sites from a while back were still fresh on everyone's mind, as was the fighting before that around the world. The aliens had hit suddenly and hit hard, and now they were in a small lull between storms. Under normal conditions, with no missions to undertake, the squads would be training like the lunatics they all were, but on light mission duty like this, they had to be content with trying to relax a bit.

But not too much.

No one expected they'd have to bring in another Hibiki Tatsuya or Happosai or other powerhouse, but there was always the possibility, and even a class A psychic could be a real handful, much less a double-A. For herself, Nabiki wasn't terribly worried. Their earlier stake out had been just another "Dojo Destroyer" with a few minor tricks. They'd tailed the guy for a while, confirming that he didn't have any really outstanding abilities (by Nerimite standards), and then Mousse had jumped in and made short work of him to be sure. After the so called "martial arts duel" - if you could even call it that - they'd decided to just let the guy go.

He didn't have a trace of alien influence on him, and the threat of his abduction was minimal. Basically it was just a false alarm. The second incident hadn't panned out either, after just a little investigation. The source of the problem was ultimately Nerima itself. With most of the martial artists there either working for UNETCO, or shipped off to a Sanctuary Community, there was some spill over from aspiring martial artists and the like who wanted to challenge one of the former Nerima Crew.

So basically one martial artist strays into Juuban, kicks down a tree or something, and everyone panics. It was kind of sad, actually. In Nerima, it was unusual when a martial artist _didn't_ go around kicking over trees or knocking down concrete telephone poles. Everyone there had kind of gotten used to it. It had gotten to the point where people would put up signs like "please to not hug" on a pillar or "please do not punch" on a concrete wall, all in a desperate attempt to keep martial artists from causing property destruction. In fact, two of the worst offenders were sitting within arm's reach of her, no doubt waiting for an opportunity to rearrange the landscape.

She remembered feeling particularly bad for the giant Buddha statue someone had put a "please do not destroy" note on... which Ryu had promptly destroyed twice in his duel with Ranma. If anything, the signs and notes just made things into better targets for the universe's cruel sense of irony. Regardless, here they were, investigating a handful of haunts that were probably nothing serious at all.

Next to her, Mousse sucked on his lip as he cleaned out his thumbnail with the knife. In the back, Ryouga yawned contentedly. He had a half finished book in his right hand, his middle finger taking the place of a proper bookmark or dog-ear.

"Hey," she called over her shoulder. "I want some of that dango across the street."

The lost boy blinked and glanced in her direction. The back of the van was roomy enough for several men, and Ryouga had it all to himself. Well, aside from certain tools and tricks of the trade they hadn't yet needed to use. He looked at her with an expression that seemed to ask, without asking, 'Now? Really?'

"We'll hop over, get some, and come back. It'll be a quick snack before we head into the scary haunted shrine, oooo," she said, wiggling her fingers. Ryouga leisurely scratched behind his ear, thinking it over.

"Mousse, you want anything?" he asked, finally deciding to just do what she wanted. Nabiki smiled at that; he'd probably guessed that she also wanted to talk to him about something.

The Chinese martial artist shrugged.

"If they have it, one of those little green tea cans," he replied, and then added, "Or a Red Bull. I'm not a big dango fan."

Ryouga nodded, and opened the doors to the back of the van. Nabiki quickly opened her side door and met him outside. He waited for her and followed in step as they crossed the street. Shirokuro (the uncanny Hibiki family guide dog) wasn't here, so the threat of him getting lost was always on everyone's mind.

Nabiki knew it was one of the reasons she was here; hell, it was one of the reasons why she had been assigned to work with India Squad in the first place. At the time, she had been the only one to figure out a way to get the then-special-lieutenant back on track in the face of a disorienting enemy attack. Ryouga had gone on to salvage the mission from the jaws of disaster, though just barely, and the event had spearheaded Nabiki's own promotion as well.

As they crossed the street, Ryouga slipped his hands comfortably into his pants pockets. He kept his eyes on her - to make sure he didn't get lost, of course - but also seemed to take a little time and attention to enjoy the weather. It was still a bit chilly, but not nearly so cold as it was outside Seiran, up in the mountains. The two of them had enjoyed a few quiet times out there, since Ryouga took Shirokuro out for a brief walk every day. She hadn't said as much yet, but she hoped they'd have some time either between missions or after then but before heading back to base to spend some time in the city.

It wasn't a vacation, of course, but they had some free time and some leeway...

Not that she had expected, months ago, that she would ever be thinking as much about the directionally damaged idiot. He hadn't even dropped by the Dojo that often, not since before the whole Saffron thing, so he was less a fixture in Nerima and more a casual visitor. Nabiki knew that was Akari's doing. Ryouga had all but moved in with her by the time... by the time 'incidents' occurred that brought UNETCO and XCOM into their lives.

She could still remember, in terrible detail, that night when the family had been abducted. Ranma and Ryouga had ended up saving the day, killing the aliens but leaving them stranded in a UFO in orbit around the planet. At the time, she'd been thankful to him for coming to save them. She'd seen enough TV to guess at what the aliens would do to her, to them, if not for the rescue. The things she had seen on the ship later only reinforced that those nightmare scenarios were just the tip of the iceberg.

Then he'd almost died correcting the course of the ship, so it wouldn't hit the Ocean. In retrospect, it was possible he was just doing it as one last act of suicidal self-sacrifice, but he did survive, and at the time she had been impressed by the fool's determination and drive. It was really only when they joined with UNETCO, and she realized he could also be a means to her own advancement in the organization, that their alliance-of-convenience became friendship. It helped that he'd managed to mellow out a bit over the months... and that he had as many skeletons in his closet as she did.

At this point, either of them had to have enough blackmail material on the other to ruin them three or four times over. It actually felt sort of good, in a weird way, because Nabiki also knew he'd never actually use what he knew and what she'd confided in him against her. And because Ryouga had that, she didn't have any temptation to use what she'd learned either. Well... there was always a _little_ bit of temptation, but it could be satisfied easily enough.

"Two goma style, please!" Nabiki happily picked out a few skewers of the tasty treat from the cart's menu. "And two bocchan!"

They all looked so good!

The cook was a friendly looking middle aged man with an over-large apron, and he smiled at the pair in a knowing way. Already, the smell of red bean paste and soy was starting to make her hungry. Seiran had its own cooking staff, of course, but they didn't make Japanese food very often, despite the base **being** in Japan. It was usually American style, or European dishes.

"I guess I'll be paying," Ryouga grumbled. The cook didn't look surprised by the statement, either.

"Of course you will, Seiji-chan," Nabiki cooed, purposefully using his cover name. As expected, he blushed a near beet red in embarrassment and confusion before crossing his arms with a huff. The chef chuckled at the young man's discomfort.

"Will that be all?" he asked, already getting a wax paper wrap and syrofoam platter ready for the food while it finished heating up.

"I guess I'll have... three of the kinako style," the lost one relented. "And three cans of green tea."

"You got it!" the chef happily complied, adding more to the grill.

"Hey, Seiji-chan," Nabiki said, smiling at how the endearment attached to the fake name annoyed the lost boy. "Do you remember the name of that guy who fought Ukyou before? The guy who had some takoyaki themed martial art?"

"I'd heard about that, but a name...?" Ryouga cupped his chin as he thought. "Nah, I can't remember. There was that Crepe Guy Ukyou fought before, but Takoyaki...?"

"That was Crepe Joe, I think? He was good!" Nabiki shook her head. "Too bad he left town after that duel. Between Ukyou and Shampoo, I swear they've scared off most of the good cooks in the area."

"The good cooks who also happen to be martial artists anyway."

"Which is almost all of them, back home."

"There aren't any good restaurants left?" Ryouga asked, surprised. "They were all martial artists?"

"Maybe half of them. The best were still the wandering chefs, and none of them lasted more than a week and a half."

"You know," Ryouga replied, reminiscing a bit. "I ran into a guy about a year ago who could kill a man with a piece of shrimp."

"A tasty piece of shrimp, I assume?"

"It was incredibly delicious, yes. But also deadly." He smiled a bit, an often rare thing, always the most comfortable when it came to martial arts related topics. "I guess it was... dangerously delicious."

It had taken a long time before the two of them could converse so easily, Nabiki remembered. From little more than talk about revenge, about fighting the enemy, about what had to be done... gradually to what the day was like, to what they wanted to accomplish and how... and now, to a sort of casual comfort she knew he didn't have with anyone else. Even his teammates, who he had grown to be thick as thieves with. It was sort of amazing to think about how he had come out of his self imposed shell after _her_ death.

"There you go, enjoy!" The vendor handed the two their platters and wrapped dango. Ryouga, rather less unhappy than before about having to pay for food and drinks, tucked his wallet back into his back pants pocket and accepted one of the Styrofoam trays with his free hand. Nabiki took hers and two of the drinks, letting Ryouga eventually retrieve his own.

They were about to walk off, when the street vendor coughed and spoke up.

"That man you mentioned," he said, a hint of admiration in his voice. "I believe it was Myojin Hayato you were referring to. Both he and the heiress to the Kuonji style are quite well known."

Nabiki and Ryouga exchanged surprised looks.

"If you two know Kuonji-san," he elaborated. "Please extend the community's best wishes for the revival of her restaurant."

"I do believe we know a celebrity," Nabiki half-joked, but answered the man seriously. "If we see her again, we'll pass that on."

He nodded once, and the two supposedly undercover agents headed back to the van. Nabiki immediately set into her first skewer of dango, cheerfully munching away. The food tasted doubly good to her since - as usual - she hadn't paid for it. For one Tendo sister at least, free food had a special spice all its own!

"So what did you want to talk about?" Ryouga asked as they waited to cross the street. "I'm guessing it isn't just martial arts and food?"

"The world is ending," Nabiki stated, seriously. "You're getting perceptive."

"Ha ha."

She grinned at his attempt at being deadpan; Mousse pulled it off better. "You want to do something after we check out this oh-so-haunted demon shrine and find some kid with a blanket over his head?"

He shrugged, genuinely relaxed at the suggestion.

"You have somewhere in mind?" he asked, and held out one hand to relieve her of Mousse's drink so it would be easier to hold her plate.

"Well, first we could go eat somewhere without a certain four-eyed third wheel."

"What?" he asked, thrown a bit by the vernacular. "You mean M..." he leaned in a bit closer to whisper. "You mean Mousse? What's wrong with Mousse?"

Nabiki had to resist the urge to hang her head.

"Ryo-baby, we've been off base for nearly a business week now, and haven't done anything without him being nearby. Don't you want to spend some time with just me?" She narrowed his eyes at him. "And before you answer that, the correct response is: yes. Yes you do."

Ryouga leaned back a bit, and the two realized they'd missed the walk-signal to cross the street. It was red again.

"I, uh...well..." he started struggling with words. He almost always did when this sort of thing came up. It wasn't so much that he had no experience with girls; it was mostly that he didn't really have the kind of mentality or upbringing that gave him an idea of what to do under certain situations. He didn't know what to say or do, and so he waffled. "How about we, ah, just walk around a bit? I'm sure there's something to do nearby?"

But he tried, at least.

"Oh, I'm sure I can find something for you - or your wallet - to do," she replied with a wink.

"Why am I not surprised?"

Soon enough, the green-walk light turned, and they made their way back to Mousse and the van. They had the members of the shrine under observation by UNETCO proxies and actual members of the PSIA. Ryouga and Mousse were here for emergency muscle in case worst came to worst. Chances were they wouldn't even have to leave the van except to give the shrine a once-or-twice-over.

Regardless, they were set to move in once this Kagome girl got back from school.

She was a notorious truant, who apparently kept missing entire school days due to strange diseases that didn't exist. It wasn't just like Ranma claiming he had to sleep in on Monday due to "foot in mouth disease." This otherwise apparently normal girl's family went through the trouble of stating that she suffered from enough illnesses to cripple a small village. Smallpox? A 'disturbance in the humors?' The bite of the tsetse fly?

It read like a bad joke.

So she was a truant and a delinquent. Nabiki wasn't really one to judge; not by a long shot. It would have been unremarkable aside from the creativity of the excuses if not for the odd property destruction caused here and there. Some of the things reported were suspicious, and some of the pictures taken of property damage done weren't forgeries or photoshops.

The mostly likely explanation, at least her opinion, was that the girl was running around with some similarly delinquent martial artist boyfriend. If that was the case, they'd just have to use her to ID the guy. Ryouga and Mousse would then be able to check it out first hand. That was, if it was even something worth looking into, which Nabiki rather doubted. Yes, Tokyo did tend to attract the nut jobs (it was part of the city's charm) but most of the time they were still generally harmless.

Not everyone was a Pantyhose Taro or Herb level threat.

"Hey," Mousse greeted the returning pair. Ryouga tossed the other martial artist his drink. "You two took your time."

"We're good," the lost one replied. "We'll go in, have tea, talk a bit, make a few quick scans, and take a look around. One hour tops."

"Maybe," the near sighted fighter speculated. "Maybe not. We'll see."

* * *

A few minutes later, across the street, Kagome Higurashi waved goodbye to a small group of other girls from her school and returned home with a spring in her step. For once, she'd managed to have a productive day at school and catch up with her friends to boot! For her, this bright Tokyo day had been a good one.

She didn't even notice the black van parked near the entrance of the family shrine.

There was something... off about the place.

Ryouga could feel it, like a tingle that rose the faint hairs on the back of his neck. Over his roughly nineteen short years on Earth, he had had the fortune to visit a great many shrines and temples across the length of Japan, from popular ones in cities to isolated ones in the mountains to forgotten and abandoned husks slowly being reclaimed by nature. The Higurashi shrine looked like the former - like one of those lovely big city shrines that the tourists loved to visit and photograph - but in his gut, it felt like one of the old relics, burned down more than a hundred years ago and forgotten.

He felt it the moment he passed through the front gate and down the _sandō_.

Next to him, Nabiki seemed outwardly oblivious as she meticulously took notes. The black pen held alternatingly between her fingers or between her teeth did more than record on paper, it was also a hidden camera, and one of several surveillance devices they had on their person. Most were also designed to be "carelessly" left behind for later clandestine information gathering.

It wasn't usually that necessary; MiBs and actual agents were always first on the scene in these sorts of situations, and the Higurashi family had been under scrutiny for a while. Their phones had been tapped, their mail read via some sort of electronic remote-reader technology, and several recording devices were already in position. So far, they hadn't turned up anything too concrete.

What they knew for sure was this:

The family consisted of an elderly grandfather, who actually tended the shrine, a single mother - a homemaker - who never seemed to leave, and a pair of siblings. One was a boy named Sota, the younger of the two, and the other was the recently arrived Kagome. Both seemed normal enough. There were some black marks on Kagome's recent academic record, but it wasn't anything significant in and of itself.

Not like Ryouga himself hadn't missed school more than he attended it.

However, the spate of unusual activity in the area was definitely centered around either this shrine or, very likely, this family. Records indicated inexplicable fires, strange sightings, damage to property, and even a few fatalities. All these were centered around the area of the shrine, and more than a few witnesses had identified Kagome and a mysterious man (or boy) as being involved. Thus far, there was no solid footage of this second individual.

They hadn't called ahead; the grandfather was the first to greet them, initially taking them for visitors. It took a moment for the clothes, the bearing, and the _look_ to correct his initial conclusion. The old man's eyes widened briefly in surprise, followed by a brief slash of confusion, and then they narrowed as something important crossed his mind. Ryouga didn't miss it.

_'He thinks he knows why we're here,'_ he guessed, and glanced at Nabiki for confirmation. She nodded almost imperceptibly.

"Higurashi Masaharo?" he asked, quickly displaying his badge. The man seemed to stiffen on the spot.

"Y-yes?" the elderly man cupped his hands together as he spoke - a nervous placating gesture. "How may I help you?"

"My name is Amano Seiji," Ryouga introduced himself, and inclined his head to his partner in the illusion. "This is Makino Katsumi. We're here to investigate some unusual activity in the area. May we come in? We have some questions for you and your family."

"Unusual activity?" the Higurashi grandfather stammered. "I-I can't imagine what that could be, but of course we'd be happy to cooperate... please, come in, come in!"

_ Higurashi Masaharo.  
Age: 68.  
Shinto Priest. No living brothers or sisters. Wife deceased. Son-in-law, deceased. Daughter, granddaughter, grandson, still living. Second cousins living in Kimitsu and Koga. Little contact between branches of the family._

Nabiki aligned the computer case that hung by her side and tagged the man as they walked. Neither of them had proper Mind Probes on their person - they had not yet been miniaturized enough to be concealed as anything - but XCOM had managed to create a low grade version that could be used under Section Seven (which nominally prohibited the use of alien tech against terrestrial targets). It was sufficient to obtain minimal information, and it tagged a target for later long range scans by larger Probes as necessary.

It was one of the reasons why Mousse was back in the van with the bigger toys.

She tapped her earpiece and held up two fingers, her middle and index fingers pushed together. Ryouga sighed. That meant that the target wasn't psionically "clean." The probe had detected some sort of tampering, though it couldn't pick up details. It was a red light, though.

He noticed, for the first time up close, the large tree that was part of the shrine. It was near the kagura-den, in a place of importance and prominence. According to records, the tree was supposed to contain the spirit of a demon. Ryouga was a man who had seen supernatural entities come out of boxes and mirrors and - though he had thankfully only heard this one - a woman's undergarments. He wouldn't have been too surprised to find something funky floating around or within that old tree.

But...

The old man glanced back, seemingly taking note of the PSIA agent's curiosity.

"Our sacred tree," he explained with a chuckle. "You know of it?"

"I've read a report," Ryouga answered.

"And do you believe the stories about it? And about the _shikon no tama_?"

"I believe what I can see and touch and fight," the lost one replied. He didn't elaborate on all that that list included.

"Mmm," the old shrine keeper mused. "And you, Makino-san? What do you think?"

Nabiki shrugged. "I've seen some strange things, but that doesn't mean I always believe what I hear."

The Higurashi grandfather nodded to himself as they headed for the family's home at the rear of the shrine complex. Some of the tension eased out of him, no doubt as he assumed the two agents would give up once they found nothing terribly unusual. Instead, his polite inquiry and posture had the opposite effect. Ryouga and Nabiki had come looking for the unusual, and the old man had all but confirmed that they could find it if they looked.

"May I ask what concerns, exactly, were brought to your attention?" he asked after a moment.

"I'd rather ask once we're indoors," Nabiki explained, and her tone turned disarming. "This is all pretty routine, and we'd like to talk to everyone both together and individually."

"I see," the old man replied, once again with a bit of worry.

Heading inside, Ryouga took note of the shed in the back. Intel had identified it as a storage shed with an old dried up well inside. It would have been noteworthy save for the unusual amount of traffic it saw. Kagome had been recorded to go in there for very long lengths of time. What would a young girl be doing in there?

The lost boy rolled his eyes.

Besides the obvious, that was.

It was time to dig a little deeper.

* * *

Kagome was nervous, that much was obvious from the moment Nabiki met her.

It made things both easier and harder. A nervous mark was much more likely to slip up, but conversely, she was also more likely to shut up once she realized how in-deep she was. Nabiki knew from experience that verbal manipulation was a fine line of carrot and stick. From the get go, she would need to put forward three simple impressions: that "Makino Katsumi" knew more than she was letting on, that she was looking out for her mark, and that she was in charge of what was going to happen after the facts came to light.

It helped that Kagome was, basically, a very nice young girl. In looks, she reminded the Tendo sister of Akari (a fact Ryouga had said nothing about, but which she knew he had to have noticed himself), and her temperament was similarly mild. Not quite the inhuman Kasumi level of mildness, but she was clearly the sort it took some effort to rile up. Nabiki knew the type, and that she was the kind of proper Japanese girl who bent to authority much more easily than certain nameless tsundere peers. Dealing with her wouldn't be too hard.

"Just relax, Miss Higurashi. I'm not here to get you in trouble," she began, after the two girls took the conversation to Kagome's room. Nabiki took a discrete few seconds to look around before taking a chair and getting down to brass tacks.

"I just want to ask you some questions," Nabiki assured the younger girl.

Kagome sat shyly on the edge of her bed, protectively holding her book bag between them.

"Um, I'll - I'll be happy to help any way I can..."

"I know. Kagome - can I call you Kagome?"

"Yes, that's fine."

"Let's start at five months ago," Nabiki said, propping up her clipboard to start jotting down notes. "Prior to this time, you had a perfect attendance record. Since then, you've contracted a number of conditions, missing a total of two and a half months of school, typically in one or two week increments. I'd like to review what I have here just to make sure it's all accurate..."

In fact, these notes were only on the margins of the paper, the rest having been committed to memory. Every missed day of class, naturally, was recorded by the school, as were copies of the excuses used to explain them. Nabiki began there.

It was pretty obvious Kagome didn't have "Reye's syndrome" or "chronic arthritis" or half of the other nonsensical (in some cases made-up) diseases she'd been excused for. Nabiki made sure Kagome knew that she knew this, making the younger girl go over what she'd had, and when, and what treatments she had received if any. Doctor referrals came next, written up by a "family doctor" who wasn't actually medically licensed. She finished by outlining that there were no records of supposed trips to the Netherlands or Taiwan or Okinawa for one or two week furloughs with "specialists."

As the junior high student reached the point of realization regarding self-incrimination, Nabiki saw a few obvious tells. They were usual ones in girls her age: fidgeting, biting the lower lip, refusing to make even fleeting eye contact. Taking a few more notes, Nabiki steered the conversation - or allowed the conversation to veer - off to less stressful topics. Once the mark relaxed a bit, she'd go back in and use the established trust as leverage.

"You know, I used to sneak out of class too, when I was your age. Which wasn't that long ago, actually," Nabiki quickly added. She had maybe half a decade on the younger girl; not that much in the long run. "Daddy never came up with written excuses for me, though. Most of these are old folks diseases and stuff off the internet. You know that, right?"

"Yeah. Grandpa... he..." Kagome seemed to struggle to find how to continue that line of thought. "He and Sota write most of them."

Nabiki nodded, understanding Kagome's mixture of appreciation and apprehension: she didn't want to drag them into the trouble she felt she was in.

"You're still doing alright in school, though. I know if I missed a month of school, I'd have to work my butt off to keep up!"

"I keep my books with me when..." Kagome caught herself, and shuffled her feet. "I try to keep up while I'm in bed. Or away."

"That's a good fall back option. I'd say you're a very bright girl... but how much better would you be doing if you didn't have to cram every week or two?" Nabiki asked, trying to amp up the 'older sister' vibe. "Let me guess what's at the root of this. A boyfriend? Someone who lives far away?"

"N-No!" Kagome blurted, cheeks burning at the accusation. "He's not...! I mean. He. Um. There isn't..."

"So, a 'he' ... what else isn't 'he'?"

"He isn't the reason," the younger girl insisted. Her eyes darted over to the dresser, and Nabiki pretended not to notice. Instead, she made a mental note to check there a little later. "Besides," Kagome continued. "I don't see what any of this has to do with, um... the property damage Amano-san mentioned."

"I'd simply like to ascertain whether your trips, coming or going, coincide with the appearance of a certain man who we've identified."

This was a mixture of truth and lies. There was a young man involved in Kagome's strange disappearances, and another loosely implicated in the events in question. There was only circumstance to imply both men were the same, but Nabiki didn't mention that.

"You... you've identified...?"

"Oh yes," Nabiki cut her off. "You'd be surprised what we know." She smiled inwardly as Kagome's long silence following that. "Now, let's start with the incident last October..."

* * *

There was definitely something strange going on at the Higurashi Shrine. Ryouga wasn't really the best judge of character when it came to people, and he didn't have a gift for talking or tricking people, like his current partner. What he had instead were senses honed by years of martial arts, and expanded by extensive training at Seiran Mountain.

He was sure old man Higurashi was hiding stuff, but couldn't quite guess what, and the mother of the house was as unreadable as Kasumi. All 'oh dears' and 'oh mys' and honest platitudes about hoping no one was hurt, combined with shock that anyone she knew could in any way be involved. Kasumi pulled the same routine, even when she knew damn well who had destroyed all the giant bells at a nearby shrine or who had torn up that parking lot or knocked down the telephone poles down the street. It was suspicious, and not something he was willing to overlook or excuse as simple politeness.

On the other hand, she made a mean cup of tea.

Unfortunately, Ryouga Hibiki wouldn't be getting anything concrete out of the older man and woman, not with words. Luckily, charm and chatting wasn't what he was relying on; that was where a certain Tendo sister came in. No. His half of the team covered other, more esoteric, bases.

After dropping clandestine bugs on a few locations around the shrine, he took a guided tour with Masaharo and Souta. The latter in particular seemed to be keeping a watchful eye on the shrine's government sponsored guest. One ear open to the old man's lectures, Ryouga expanded his senses to search for psionic anomalies.

Finding a telekinetic trace was within his training, though he hadn't gotten to the point where he could track it to source. Trained psimaths and psychometrics were few and far between, and none among the two squads could operate on that level. Instead, they had to feel for disturbances and make educated guesses as to the cause. It sounded complicated, but in practice, it was as raw as sakkijutsu - putting faith in intuition and subconscious experience with the unusual and unexpected.

The more he focused on it, the more he got the sense that something was odd.

None of that sensation came from the usual suspects: the shrines themselves, the tree, the house, they were all pretty clean. Yet, the nagging sense remained close by and indistinct. Like footsteps in the snow, the impression was there, but muted. The place was definitely... holding secrets. There was something here that his mind, on an animal level, knew to either avoid or confront.

Good.

"What about that building over there?" He pointed at the storage shed out back.

"Oh, that old thing? There's nothing in there," Masaharo immediately dismissed the very notion. "Just some old trinkets and maintenance equipment."

"Is that so?" Ryouga asked, and nodded. "I guess that's everything then."

"Feel free to look around for yourself," the old shrine keeper added, with enough treble that even Ryouga could guess the man hoped his family's unwanted guests would up and leave. "The Higurashi Shrine doesn't have anything to hide. We're a pillar of this community."

"I never meant to imply otherwise," the lost one replied, nonchalant. Not like he'd go wandering around by himself, what with his... condition. "I'll contact my superiors with what I've seen. Now, why don't we head back?"

"Of course. This way."

As the two men headed back to the main building, Ryouga again noticed the boy, Souta, watching him closely. It was a shame he didn't have a psi-amp for this operation or it'd just be a matter of conducting a read on everyone involved. As it was, they'd have to apply for warrants to use remote mind probes on the household later. Someone around here wasn't just psychic, they were an 'actively manifesting' psionic. That would be all he needed to report to get the ball rolling. Ideally, the results would come back as a class-B or less, and all they'd have to do is drop a scanner to watch out for alien abduction attempts.

"Souta, right?" Ryouga asked, still walking and keeping pace with the grandfather.

It took a second for the kid to realize he was being addressed.

"Sir?" he asked. Polite. Seemed like a good kid. Just... overly interested at the moment.

"I haven't heard much from you yet," Ryouga said, inclining his head to the boy. "You see anything unusual over the last few months?"

The answer was immediate. Practiced. "No sir. Nothing."

"You sure about that? Think hard. Nothing at all?"

"No sir. I haven't seen anything unusual."

"You haven't seen your sister coming and going anywhere, with anyone?"

Souta fell back a step, but shook his head. "No, sir. Kagome-neechan's been sick a lot, but no one comes to see her except her friends."

"Really?" Ryouga shrugged, and kept his eyes on the boy's grandfather.

By now, he knew Nabiki would have talked Kagome into admitting the 'bedridden' excuse was just that: a thinly veiled attempt to explain the days she literally disappeared off the face of the Earth. He also knew, from pre-existing reports that Kagome's friends had no idea where she went or that they visited anymore when she was gone. Souta was parroting a line that lead to a dead end. His thoughts were also surprisingly well guarded. It was that way for the entire family.

"What was Kagome's boyfriend's name again?" he asked, knowing the question should have immediately brought up a name on the surface thoughts of both Higurashi males. He had been fishing for information like this since he got here.

"Kagome doesn't have a boyfriend as far as we know," Masaharo said over his shoulder. "Certainly not the delinquent you're looking for."

"That's right!" Souta chimed in.

Nothing. No names. Not even an attempt at trying not to think of a name. It was just... nothing. Silence. It was almost as if he was being blocked out.

_'Maybe I should try something else. Something non-standard.'_ Ryouga thought, deciding to wing it a bit.

"Hold up a second," he said, stopping. The grandfather and grandson also paused, watching him warily. There was an aspect of this that he hadn't considered.

"I'm not saying whoever did these things is a delinquent. Or that they're in trouble. We're here to help, not to assign blame or punish people," Ryouga explained, and turned first to Souta. "I know you've probably seen some unusual things. Maybe you're scared to admit it. Maybe you don't want to admit it. Believe me, I can understand. There are strange things in the world, and they're why I'm here."

The Higurashis exchanged a look, both curious and wary.

"What do you mean?" Masaharo asked first.

"Let me show you a trick." Ryouga bent over and picked up a small good sized rock. Not bothering to cover it with his other hand or his fingers or conceal it in any way, he instead searched out for breaking points, created ones where need be, and then activated them. The rock turned instantly to dust.

"I can do Street Fighter like stuff, too, but you get the idea. Now," he pressed, hopeful that he got through at least to the impressionable young boy of the pair. "Have either of you seen anything unusual that I should know about? As I said, my partner and I don't want to punish anyone. We just want to talk."

Notably, Souta seemed to be thinking about it.

The grandfather just shook his head.

Ryouga sighed.

* * *

As he and Nabiki left, the lost one tucked his hands into his pockets. It looked like his partner had managed to get some interesting information. She'd also finished bugging the relevant spots upstairs. Mousse was already recording the Higurashi's conversation in the living room. Merely coming and going had unlocked some interesting talk in the family. By the time they reached the van, Nabiki already had a plan.

* * *

"Would you hurry up already, bitch?"

"And I told you I can't go back right now!" Kagome peeked through the slits of her window blinds. "Look!" she pointed at a car as it drove down the road. "That's the third time I've seen that car! They're watching the house!"

"Who cares that they do, whoever they are?" Inuyasha didn't even bother to look; his nose twitched as he smelt the woman Kagome had mentioned. "Unless you've forgotten, we have about a hundred more jewel shards to hunt down. So pack up whatever you need and let's get going already!"

"You're not listening!" Kagome glared at the half demon. "If I leave tonight and those guys show up, how will my family explain it? Souta and Grandpa both saw one of them use some kind of magic. I'm pretty sure sneaking out is the last thing I should be doing!"

"Five days." Inuyasha said, crossing his arms in clear vexation. "Five days you've been here. You were going to leave today."

"I couldn't exactly manage that with PSIA..." Kagome bit back the first impolite word that came to mind, that being 'goons.' "People... everywhere!" She fell back onto her bed with a groan. "I can just tell I'm going to get a big, red 'subversive' put on my permanent record."

Inuyasha gave an 'eeeh' sound that demonstrated his lack of concern or interest.

"Are you coming back or not?" he finally asked; not that he had any idea what to say about Kagome's ridiculous present-world problems. He hadn't understood them before and these newest ones were even more confusing.

"I... I don't know," Kagome admitted, and seeing he was about to groan, added. "Let me think about it. Just let me think about it."

"Think quickly."

* * *

"What car do you think she's talking about?" Mousse asked, lazily chewing a French fry.

Ryouga was in the passenger side at the front, eyes closed. "It isn't one of ours."

"She's just imagining things," Nabiki replied, sitting back to back with the Chinese martial artist. She had a pair of headphones half on, allowing her to listen in with one ear. "Look at the thermals. I told you. Just like 24-EE-616."

"I still don't believe you memorized case files like that," Mousse grumbled.

"Its easy, Mister Criticism. Just turn it into a little melody. Two Four E, E-six-one-six," Nabiki sing-songed. "So we've got another 'phantom boyfriend.' Looks like these two won't be getting caught at the altar like the last pair."

The hidden weapons master scoffed. "That must've been one surprised priest."

"In her defense, 24EE616 created a very convincing mass hallucination."

'Very convincing' was an understatement. That particular case involved a young woman creating a second, male, personality and projecting it as a solid psionic-telekinetic illusion. Supposedly the woman's friends met the man and even had double dates with the couple. Cracks in the illusion only started to manifest when the couple tried to get married. The man didn't exist in anything other than her mind and the minds she projected him into.

Amazingly, paperwork and bureaucracy had prevailed where human intuition failed.

"At least it isn't another magic mirror, or compact, or whatever it was that gave us Real Girl Ranma."

"She didn't try to make out with you, Mousse," Ryouga grumbled. "You don't get to complain. Nabiki? Confirmation on the rest of the household?"

"Work, work, work," she grumbled, but quickly cycled through the bugs in the house with one free hand. "We've got positive responses from everyone in the household. Even the cat."

"Hmm."

"So what now, Hibiki?" she asked, leaning back in her chair. "Go in guns and hands blazing?"

Ryouga leaned forward a bit, tapping his thumbnail to his chin.

"No. I'm sure it'll go wrong somehow, but let's try and do this quietly."

* * *

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Quit griping and go already," Inuyasha huffed, holding back a grin.

Descending into the Bone Eater's Well, Kagome silently hoped her family's new excuse held water if the PSIA came snooping around again. They could have it appear as if she was running off, but if they found out the truth - or confirmed it, since that female agent had managed to get her hands on a lot of information - then Kagome was sure they'd block up the well with concrete or something.

She was no fool. No government would want people messing around in the past, even if it was a strange fantasy version of the past that didn't really fit with what she had been taught in school. The undeniable fact was that she had a responsibility here, to her friends, and to clean up the mess she had caused by breaking the shikon jewel. She couldn't let it all just... get taken out of her hands. It was fleetingly tempting to try and pass the whole thing on to someone else, but Kagome knew it wasn't what she wanted. She had to see things here through to the end. It was the right thing to do.

There had to be a way to keep going back but not get in trouble.

An idea had started to form in her mind of how: if she was supposed to be here, in the past, and if she was doing what had to be done... and if it was a job no one else could do...! Well, then, she couldn't be faulted for doing it, could she? That vein of thought had literally opened up possibilities as well.

If she found a way to present a good argument on her behalf, then she could get special dispensation to miss school as necessary or take tests at a pace that fit her medieval excursions. She could even possibly get help in what she brought back. A new bike would be a nice start. She'd already been careful about bringing back things like plastic and Styrofoam, and always cleaned up after herself. But what if she brought back some modern influenza or something? There were a lot of variables she had no control over, and 'don't mess around in the past' was something even a nine year old understood. What did they call it? The 'butterfly effect'?

She knew she also couldn't just keep ducking out all the time anymore. Either she came to some kind of arrangement or she completely threw the authorities off her trail, and that latter option seemed increasingly unlikely. That was why she was really going back now. To help clear her mind and think.

"Kagome!" Shippo was, as always, the first to greet her after the climb out of the well. His excited exclamation could probably have been heard halfway to the village. Catching the little fox demon in her hands, he immediately noticed that she was here without her bag.

"You didn't bring anything from the future?" he asked, dejected. There had been promises of pocky, after all.

"Next time, I was in a bit of a last minute hurry thanks to someone."

"Hmf," Inuyasha snorted dismissively. He was already headed back to the village.

"Ne, Shippo, are Miroku and Sango close by?"

"I was just about to tell you!" Shippo declared, and jumped back down to the grassy field near her parked bike. "Kirara left to go get them, so we can head out right away."

"Good," Inuyasha remarked. "We've wasted enough time already."

"Wait, I was hoping we'd have some time to talk things through. I may have to go back..."

"Kagome, really?" the half-demon growled. "We didn't come here just to go back again. I can practically smell Naraku's stink out there. We're getting closer."

"But..." bit by bit, she relented. Taking her bike by the handlebars, she got ready to hop on. "Fine, we..."

"Hey. Wait a second."

The three spun around at that. Kagome's breath sucked in as she recognized the voice: it was that PSIA agent Souta and Grandpa had warned her about! A second later, the man jumped up out of the well, just like Inuyasha himself often did. Black shoes alighted on the lip of the well as the man adjusted his tie, loosening it while looking around.

He whistled appreciatively.

"Wow. Look at this place. Reminds me of less creepy Aokigahara..." He scratched his head, momentarily lost. "Or was that Hakusan? No, pretty sure it was Aokigahara. Anyway." He hopped down from the well, eyes moving from Kagome to the young demon to the halfbreed. "So this is where you go, Miss Higurashi?"

"Amano-san. What - what are you...?" Kagome shook her head in open disbelief. "How did you come here?"

"I followed you," he explained as he walked towards the girl. "We were watching and listening, just like you thought. I wanted to see where you went, so I had my team wait until after you jumped down the well. The rest of them are back there." He pointed over his shoulder at the well. "I came in to bring you back."

"But... no one else?" Kagome shook her head again, this time to clear the confusion. "How did you come through the well? Only Inuyasha or myself can... it just doesn't make sense!"

"Yeah. I can sympathize. These things are usually pretty confusing." He glanced up at the flaming demon cat and its two passengers without apparent surprise. He held out his hand. "Why don't you come back, and we'll talk all this through?"

She hesitated, looking to Shippo, who was in turn staring up at her, and then to Inuyasha and her approaching friends. Kneading the hem of her skirt, she dithered, trying to buy time. This was all too soon. She'd hoped to have more time to think about how to deal with this!

"Kagome," he said her name this time. "Come on. Let's go back home. You aren't in trouble. I promise."

Ryouga smiled, and saw again the effect the uniform had on the girl. He didn't personally enjoy playing the authority card, but it was a fact of life that Japan was a rather conformist society. Confidence and a uniform made it much easier to get what you wanted than foreign or unprofessional attire. It was why he put up with wearing the suit and shoes on these Ops. Kagome silently acceded, nodding her head and starting back towards him.

Everything was working out nicely and quietly.

Or, it was, except for the five feet of quasi-steel that interposed itself between them.

"Kagome isn't going anywhere," Inuyasha snarled, and used the flat of the blade to nudge Ryouga back and away. "I don't care who you are, but she's got jewel shards to find. She'll go home when she wants to."

"Well... I guess that second statement is true." Ryouga took a step back and sighed. He looked over at the girl who ultimately decided which way this would go. "Miss Higurashi, this probably isn't what you want to hear, but none of this is what you think it is."

At this, Inuyasha's lips curled into another snarl. "Watch it...!" he warned.

"What are you saying?" Kagome demanded, already seeing where this was potentially leading.

She was a smart girl, despite what some of her recent test scores indicated. She'd thought it herself before, but... but time and experience had...

"Don't tell me: 'Kagome, this isn't real.' Because it is!" She insisted, and motioned towards where Sango and Miroku were dismounting from Kirara and walking over, concern written on their faces. "The things I've seen, they're... they're too much to not be real!"

"I shouldn't say 'they aren't real.'" Ryouga tried to be diplomatic. He was trained for this. He didn't enjoy it. It wasn't his preference, but he had the training and the job. "They're very real to you. Very important to you. But you can't shut yourself away in your world at the expense of the one your family and friends live in. So: why don't you come back with me? We'll talk this over like -"

He jumped back, neatly avoiding the sword swing.

"Not like that," he added, avoiding another slash. "I was going to say: 'like adults.' Could you stop him, please?"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome snapped out of her daze. "SIT!"

"But-!" Dutifully, the seal kicked in, and the hanyou slammed to the ground.

Ryouga nodded, glad she had re-asserted control over her _demesne_. Things would start going rapidly downhill if she proved to have less influence over it than the initial profiling had indicated. He also, as a rule, didn't enjoy having oversized weapons flying around in his face, be they swords or spatulas.

"What did you mean?" Kagome asked, taking clear comfort from having her newly arrived companions close by. "What you said before: what did you mean?"

"This place," Ryouga began, and took a quick look at the faceplanted Inuyasha - why did that suddenly look like such a familiar sight? - then back to Kagome. "And these people are creations. Your creations. What happens to you when you come here, to what we call a 'psionic demesne,' is for all intents and purposes real to you. But it has no effect on anyone else. I see you brought a bike. What do you think would happen if you left it here for someone to find?"

"It... it would interfere with the timeline?"

"No," he shook his head sympathetically. "Because it isn't here. Right now, your body, that bike, and who knows how much spoiled food, is at the bottom of the well."

She smiled at that, an incredulous, skittish smile.

"No. That... that can't be." She paused, and shook her head fiercely. "No, no. That isn't right. I'd know if... I'd notice something like that!"

"Kagome-chan," Sango said, comforting her friend and supporting her shoulders as she shook.

"What you're suggesting isn't possible," Miroku spoke up, planting his Shakujou staff in the soft ground. "You expect us to believe this world isn't real? That our lives aren't real?"

"The only one I technically need to convince is her," Ryouga said, and inclined his head to Kagome and Sango, obviously referring to the former.

"How can you argue I don't exist?" Miroku asked. "By that logic, what proof do you have that you exist?"

"Oh, great. Solipsism." Ryouga sighed again; he only knew that word because this kind of argument was inevitable when it came to this kind of work. Psionics were a pain sometimes. "My partner could ramble on for hours, but I'm not really big on subtitles or debate. Kagome, deep down, you know there's something wrong with this place. You know it isn't real. Can we stop beating around the bush?"

"That's just avoiding the question!" the monk insisted, and pointing accusingly at the stranger. "Why don't you show us some proof of what you claim?"

"You want proof?" Ryouga asked. "Go through the well without Kagome being on the other side."

Miroku tried to argue that, too, but paused, considering it.

"That..." He held his hand, wrapped in prayer beads. Finally he looked back up, his mind made. "That doesn't prove anything... there could be any number of reasons why..."

"Why no one can go to the other side without her?" Ryouga shrugged. He was running low in prepared material, and making stuff up on the fly was more Ranma's thing than his. "Look, if you don't need Kagome to exist, then you won't mind if I take her back home for a couple hours?"

"Even if... even if some of what you say is true," Kagome sounded so close to being convinced, he wished she would just take that last step. Things were a hairsbreadth from working themselves out peacefully.

"Even if," Kagome repeated. "Why is it anyone's business but my own what I do?" She nodded, convincing herself by giving voice to her impromptu arguments. "Just... just go back home by yourself! I'll go home when I want to! It's my life and my decision!"

"Now, let's not - and here comes the giant sword again." Ryouga groaned and pivoted out of the way of Inuyasha's renewed assault. If only he'd been able to bring Nabiki here. She was always good at talking and convincing people. Especially girls.

He was terrible with girls.

"If you won't go back, I'll send you back!" the hanyou roared, carving another impressive cleft in the ground.

"Funny. I was kind of thinking the same." Ryouga stepped in while dodging the next strike. As if he'd let a giant meat cleaver like this thing waved around connect with him on any plane of existence. Hands finding the base of the sword, he used one hand to grab the blunt curve and the other to crush the knuckles against the hilt. Giant weapons were always trouble in these sorts of situations. It was really best to separate it from its user and keep it that way.

Inuyasha snarled, but reflexively lost his grip. He should have lost his fingers, but with Mint-like Musk ears like he had, there was obviously something unusual about the psionic figment. Flipping the giant blade around - it was still lighter than his old training umbrella had been - the uniformed Hibiki blocked a flurry of red crescents.

Great. Magic claws, too.

"No mere human can use Tetsaiga!" The dog-boy roared, slashing with uncomfortably long nails, hands flashing in indistinct arcs as he edged closer to a berserker fury. "I knew I smelled something wrong with him!"

"You know, you're only smelling what..."

"Shut up and fight!"

"I am fighting." Ryouga snapped back, growing a bit angry. He hadn't come here looking for a fight. "Why's this sword so big, anyway?"

"Kagome," Sango whispered, as Miroku weighed whether to step in or not. The most cerebral of the group, he was carefully considering everything he'd heard. Inuyasha and Ryouga continued back and forth until the latter whipped the Tetsaiga around, and clearly not knowing the power of the fang turned sword, jammed it into the ground and out of the way. Hands free, he opened Inuyasha's guard and slammed a fist into the vulnerable bottom of the ribcage. Ducking under the hanyou's right arm, he brought up and around the heel of his shoe in an arcing axe kick, hitting his opponent precisely on the medulla.

Inuyasha was halfway to the ground when the same foot hit the ground with an explosion, came back up, and intercepted him, finding his throat. The vicious blow whipped half the hanyou's body back around, twisting at the back before hitting the ground, mercifully, voice unable to get from lungs to lips.

In retrospect, it was probably the least diplomatic approach Ryouga could have taken.

Sensing their comrade wasn't just in a fight, but in actual danger, one of the two newcomers broke out of their stupor and acted like he should have guessed they would. It was the girl, the one who reminded him of Ukyou, and not simply because of the oversized weapon. It came in, spinning like a man sized boomerang, which was fine. A large weapon was easier to read and avoid than a small one. Sidestepping and striking with a rapid backhand, he avoided the giant weapon and knocked it off course, preventing it from coming back around to its owner.

Its wielder didn't hesitate to move in, even without her weapon. Blocking a kick and stepping back, he pivoted to intercept a rising knee and an elbow. Pushing it back, Ryouga cocked his head as a blade snapped out of a hidden sheath.

_'Maybe make that more Konatsu than Ukyou...'_ he revised.

Stomping down on her foot, just hard enough to do the job, he used their contact to put pressure on her joints, spinning her around so her back was to his front and lowering one arm to lock her right arm behind her back. She gave a soft grunt of pain and surprise before his knee found her hamstring, and her shoulder slammed into the ground. He was aware the pressure being put on her elbow and knee had to hurt, and let go a second later.

"Now, look -" he began, only to get cut off by the white haired boy again. Who should've been convulsing on the ground, unable to breathe.

Blocking another claw swipe, the lost one slammed his elbow into the hanyou's face, crushing his nose at the bridge. As Inuyasha staggered back, a roundhouse hit the same spot, spinning him around. Rather than fall, however, the tenacious figment stayed on his feet, and staggered over to his planted sword. This was going to get potentially rather messy if it dragged on.

Looking upwards, Ryouga also noticed the sky darkening.

_'Great.'_

"Miss Higurashi. Kagome," he said, keeping his eyes on Inuyasha. "Isn't it about time you put a stop to this?"

"Why?" she asked, sounding a bit vindictive.

_'Great,'_ he realized. _'A part of her wanted this. Of course, it would have, since this entire place is a reflection of part of her subconscious... ugh'_

"Because as amusing as it may be, and I can't believe I'm the one saying this, but fighting won't solve anything." He kept his eyes on the hanyou, and on the rising Ukyou-like girl, but lowered his hands to appear less threatening. "If you don't willingly come with me... I'll physically remove you from the well. You don't want me to do that."

"Kagome!" Inuyasha managed to say, throat still partly compacted.

"You don't have to..." Sango also started to argue.

The schoolgirl crushed her eyes shut, trying to avoid the inevitable; weighing the man's bluff. If it was a bluff. What Souta and her grandfather had said before, what the PSIA people had said before, it all warred with her desire to be here. To be where she was needed. To be where she secretly looked forward to being, even with the heartaches and the danger. It was all... it was all...

It was all what she wanted.

"I have to go back," she said, barely a whisper. Louder, she repeated it, "I have to go back. I know."

"Kagome!" Shippo cried, finally interposing himself by running in front of her. "Don't go! Please don't! What if you never come back?"

"I will come back. I swear I will." she kneeled and quickly hugged the kitsune. "And I'll bring back candy next time, too."

He looked up at her, afraid to let go. "You promise?"

"Cross my heart." She put him back down, and instead faced a growling Inuyasha.

"I can't believe you're giving up," he said, still clutching his throat.

"I'm not giving up," Kagome argued, walking over to where Ryouga was standing. She briefly looked the hanyou in the eyes, and then focused on the PSIA agent.

Inuyasha's grip tightened on the Tetsaiga.

"Inuyasha," she admonished, sensing his tension. "I'll be right back. But I belong on the other side of the well, too. I can't just ignore what's going on there."

"But...!"

"I agree," Miroku said, cutting Inuyasha off. The half demon glared at the monk, and at the blunt end of the Shakujou that was currently covering his hand and warding the Tetsaiga down. "Let Kagome-sama deal with this."

It seemed to take a serious force of will, but Inuyasha snarled and sheathed the sword, turning his back on the spectacle. Shoulders shaking, he craned his neck with an audible pop.

"Don't keep us waiting, bitch."

_'Classy guy,'_ Ryouga thought to himself, but shrugged internally. Not that it mattered how this girl's ideal boyfriend talked to her. Even Akari would've given him the taste of her hand if he said something like that, and she was the most gentle girl he knew.

Well, tied with Kasumi.

"Let's go," he said, holding out his hand to Kagome. "I'm getting tired of this pose."

"What pose?" she asked, taking his hand, expecting they'd be heading back to the well.

A second later, she gasped as her face breached a liquid-like barrier. A strange smell, a stink really, assailed her nostrils almost to the point of gagging. Eyes blinked, trying to adjust to a bright white light, but a vice-like grip on her hand pulled her ever upward. She saw a face, a tunnel, and looking down at her feet, she saw a strange... aperture... a ragged, warped surface, and hazy shapes beyond.

"Up and at 'em, Miss Higurashi," the voice of Agent Amano - she sort of doubted that was his real name, after having seen all he'd done - came in clearly, and she fell forward against what she assumed to be his body. Her feet splashed for a moment against the aperture and the... the thing below... and then it was solid again. The grip on her hand released.

"What's - what's going on?" She saw the young government agent, and eeped as he suddenly jumped them both clear out of the well. Her view became a rush, but then she was on the ground again, and the next thing she knew her mother had her in her arms.

"Oh, Kagome... don't worry! We'll get you a good lawyer!"

"Mama?"

"Great, lawyers. I prefer the crazy demon boy," Ryouga groaned. He tapped a microphone in his ear to make sure it was firmly in place after all that. "Amano here. Silver Ice, repeat, Silver Ice. I've got it contained..."

"That was easy." A taller man in another black suit and tie remarked, leaning in the doorway.

"Easy for you, maybe," the lost one replied, and rolled the sleeve of his right arm up briefly to check the status of his psi-amp. Green. All good. No boundary contamination.

"What now?" Kagome asked, together with the rest of her family. Her mother was still hugging her protectively, but Souta and the old man looked threatened and worried, respectively. They probably assumed the government would be breaking them up or sending Kagome to a mental institution.

The sad truth was that, really, they were kind of right to think that. XCOM - and the organizations funding nations - didn't like to let rogue psychics run free.

"Now, we're done here..." Ryouga began to say, but scratched the back of his neck under the collar of his shirt. "Well, I'd like to say that. But we're not so lucky. I noticed something while I was in Kagome's world."

The agent's eyes fell on one of the Higurashi family in particular.

"That fighting intent. It wasn't all hers. Kagome isn't the one manifesting her illusions in the real world. Isn't that right?" He asked. "Mrs. Higurashi?"

"What?" Masaharo was the first to respond. "You can't be...?"

Souta just shook his head and turned to his sister and mother.

"At first, I wasn't sure why this Inuyasha character was the only one who could come through the well. We had recordings of every single one of you interacting with him. At first I thought that maybe Kagome didn't want anyone else from 'her world' to come into this one...? I had to go there myself to be sure that wasn't it."

"Then I thought: maybe this Inuyasha guy can manifest himself here because there's another psychic, a stronger psychic, in the house who wants him to. Someone who had probably been either tapping into... or helping to create... the fantasy from the very beginning. During the fight in Kagome's shadow world, I confirmed it. The intent mixed in with Kagome's wasn't Souta's, or Masaharo's, both of which I had experienced before. Since it had to be someone in the household, that leaves you."

"Higurashi Nodoka..." Ryouga continued. "Even in this room full of tension, I still can't read you at all. Could you please explain why?"

"Mama, what is he...?" Kagome began to ask, but her mother's arms tightened around her daughter. The girl stiffened and then went lax.

"I suppose blocking you outright was a novice mistake," Nodoka said, voice full of motherly calm.

"Well, it was obvious, so..." Ryouga replied, leaving the point hanging. "I know someone just like you. She puts on the same act. But even if you conceal your emotions, you still have them. It's just human nature."

"I don't understand," Souta spoke up, edging towards panicked. "What's going on? What's he talking about?"

"Nothing dear. Why don't you and your grandfather go to sleep?" She asked with a serene smile. Both males seemed about to object before their eyes closed and they slowly fell to the floor, like puppets whose strings have been cut. Kagome's eyes widened, and she tensed to rush over, but her mother held her firm and she went limp again.

"They're fine, dear. Don't worry," Mrs Higurashi said, partly to her daughter, partly to the two still-conscious federal agents. "You two should just leave. We're a peaceful family. We've never hurt anyone."

"That's true," Mousse said, still leaning against the door.

"It is," Ryouga also admitted. "As far as renegade psionics go, you've been very careful. You only let your powers, and your imaginations, run wild in that other world. On this side, you've kept pretty much under the radar. I can't just walk away from this, though."

"And why not?" Nodoka asked, her tone growing a bit more sharp. "We were perfectly fine-"

"You weren't 'perfectly fine.'" He cut her off, brows falling into a frown. "The moment you started warping the world we live in, you crossed the line. And look at your daughter. Do you think her spending half her life in a coma is a healthy way of dealing with things?"

"You probably came here to help deal with your abilities," Mousse guessed, adjusting his glasses with a middle finger. "If strange things happened, then it was just spirits, or something like that, and no one would bat an eye. But things got worse as Kagome there got older, and you realized she was the same as you."

"It isn't like I planned this. It just... happened." Nodoka shook her head, refusing to give up. "I know what you two want to do with us. You'll lock us both up. We're no threat to you, but you don't care, do you? Well."

Her serene expression never changed, but suddenly the room became blanketed in psionic power.

"I won't let that happen."

Mousse pushed off the wall, a glowing light pulsing through the sleeve of his suit.

"And so things turn messy." Ryouga took a step forward. "As usual."

* * *

Operation: Silver Ice  
Tokyo, Japan  
Higurashi Shrine: February, 17th; 14:00 hours

Commander Yasuda had called it "growing field experience."

For Nabiki Tendo, it was just the sort of chaos she had hoped to avoid after finally coming back to the city of her birth. For months now, she had been cooped up in an underground base, deep in the mountains; a chance for some field work, back in Tokyo, had seemed like a great deal. She'd spend a few days snooping around, maybe supervise one or two semi-serious ops, capture whatever rogue psionic or martial artist was running amuck, and then grab a couple precious hours of leisure time.

It was the next best thing to an unsupervised leave.

Naturally, things didn't turn out that way at all.

The Higurashi Shrine was the sort of archetypical shinto establishment her father had always told her to take a historic and cultural interest in, and which she had quickly grown bored with. She had seen her share of spirits and demons and other really, really odd things - doubly so over the last half year since joining UNETCO - but none of that had made her feel particularly religious. Seeing this particular shrine for the first time, her initial impression was that the land it was on had to be worth a small fortune.

Then she saw the first of the twisting serpentine monsters rise up from beyond cusp of the hill the shrine stood upon. Twisted maws snapped and hissed, and inhuman eyes dilated as the mass of... things... churned like an insane ocean. Nabiki sighed.

This was why - exactly why! - property values in Tokyo were so damn erratic.

Among the ten police they'd brought as back up, an almost visible wave of trepidation rippled among the men and women. One of the men inched closer to the black suited woman, torn between the urge to run in and save the neighborhood and the urge to get back in the car and pretend the last few minutes were the result of some really bad cream in the coffee.

"Um, ma'am, should we... do anything?"

"Nah. Don't worry about it." The surprisingly young agent just smirked, the green light engulfing the top of the shrine shining in her polarized glasses. Nabiki shook her head in the negative. "We've got this."

* * *

The giant eye splattered, along with the rest of the creature's face, thick meat slurry exploding from the former cranium. Fists found limbs and gaping toothy maws, leaving broken and misshapen masses of flesh behind. High speed steel shredded without mercy or warning, darkening the sky with a rain of red and black blood.

It was a nice workout.

Mousse ran one of the dozen blades hidden on his person across the length of the creature's body. There were no clean cuts, despite the skill of the combatant. Flesh peeled away as the pressure inside found a release, venting the inside of the demon simulacrum with a blast of gas and blood. A flick of the wrist bright the edge back around, opening up the neck just enough to make the cut quick and efficient, minimizing the risk of metal getting stuck in bone.

Another step forward, another corpse fell to the wayside.

"Alive, Mister 'Chen'. I want them alive. Don't forget that."

"I know," The Amazon's arm blurred, and a hissing serpentine creature lost the top half of its head. "I'm nearsighted, not an idiot."

Fingers plunged into snapping faces, breaking teeth and gouging eyes. Turning to fists, they crushed the offensive mockeries, leaving broken remains and twitching tongues to wag on the floor. Elbows and fingers were hammers and blades in all but name, crushing and destroying as fast as targets presented themselves. Black dress shoes advanced over twisted, screaming remains, crushing them underfoot.

"You know, this would be easier if you'd let me use some high explosives."

"No need." Ryouga slammed the face of a giant ogre like creature into his knee, crushing its skull like a melon. "We're getting a reputation for property destruction."

"Really?" Mousse removed a spiked mace from the crotch of one creature, whipping it around to behead another charging would-be demon. "I wonder why?"

"You laugh, but I'm the one the Commander yells at."

"She yells at you?"

"Not yells, so much. But she uses that voice. The scary one."

"Don't act like I know what you mean. She's never been mad at me." Mousse jumped over the legless demon, already carving into the one behind it. "I'm a good boy."

"That's because you suck up to women." Ryouga's foot, blazing green, nearly punched a hole in another creature, the force of the blow forcing its body to crunch up like a dead spider.

"I do not!"

"You so do. You're even nice to Khu Lon these days."

"I've always been nice to the old monkey mummy."

As the duo approached their targets, the swarm of psionic constructs began to mass together by simple press of bodies. They were swirling up and away from the pair and the well off to the right, having destroyed the shack and everything nearby. Many had little time to even form together before running into the backs of their predecessors. A few were crushed outright or trampled underfoot.

"They're getting marginally tougher," Mousse noted, leaving a sickle-like blade buried in the wrecked remains of one of the creatures. "Remind me again why we're playing around?"

"This isn't just our fight," Ryouga replied, providing little to nothing in the way of explanation.

"You're getting soft lately, you know."

"No! You're getting soft."

"That's a shitty comeback!"

"Hey. No it isn't."

"Actually it is. Oh ho, I see we're getting human-ish ones now." Mousse buried two long knives into the juncture of shoulder and neck of an half formed creature with an annoyingly Ranma-like pigtail. It seemed on the verge of doing or saying something when its lungs and internals became a kabob. It was quite a bit harder to kill, too, thrashing and reaching for a staff it had lost. Mousse wondered briefly what it did.

Stamping down the creature's calves and sending it to its knees, Mousse scissored the two blades free with predictably nasty results. Unlike before, these was little or no spray of blood, despite the dismemberment. Instead, the body discorporated into a sort of ethereal ash.

"She's losing control," Mousse guessed, casually imbedding three knives into the throat and eyes of a surprised humanoid demon. "We should use our amps again."

"Wait for it," Ryouga ordered, dislocating the arm of another humanoid with sickle claws. He jammed those same blades into the creature's lower back, severing the spinal cord. For good measure, he also used his free hand to grab it by the hair and twist, snapping the neck hard enough for bone to tear out from under skin and muscle.

It too, turned to ash.

"It isn't that she's losing control." The lost one speculated, as the two martial artists maintained a constant distance from the mother and daughter psionics. Nodoka was shaking, not with fury, but concentration, her arms still wrapped protectively around her daughter. Kagome, up until that moment, had been still in her mother's arms.

Now, she was starting to stir.

"Then we should _definitely_ use our amps again," the male Amazon argued. "Unless you want to get overwhelmed by demons and miss your date."

"This is neither the time nor the place, Mo- Mister Chen. Just wait. Hold up." Ryouga held out his hand, bloody as it was, and even took a step back. "I think this is it."

"And if it isn't?" Mousse asked, but did as asked, pausing in his whirling dervish of carnage. "I don't want to get killed so you can indulge another hardcase psychic."

As the tide of fodder ebbed, Nodoka clearly spent time trying to draw out something big. A pair of forms started to coagulate, but with obvious difficulty. One, tall and stately, with more long while hair - Ryouga have that a half lidded look; what was this? An Amazon thing? - turned back to look at its creators. The other did likewise, though it had dark hair and a strange animal coat thing going on. Both took in the sight of the two women, wavered, and broke into ash.

"I can't... why won't...?" Nodoka asked, exhausted. "Why won't they do what I say?"

"Mama," Kagome finally spoke up, looking over her shoulder at her mother. "You have to stop."

"No," she insisted, looking down at her, and then back at the two federal agents. "I'll... I can... bring Kouga and... Kikyo, or... your friends, and..."

"They won't," Kagome said, simply. "Because they don't want to."

"They'll do what we want them to do."

"They won't," the younger woman sounded completely sure of the fact. "Because to me, they're real people, with free will. It won't work."

"More miasma then! If I can just..."

Kagome just shook her head. "Mama. No. Enough."

Four more shapes began to form: ones familiar to Ryouga. They were hazy, incomplete constructions, like the two before. He recognized the staff, the boomerang, and the giant curved sword. At that, he allowed himself a weary smile. Mousse tensed to intervene with his psi-amp, disrupting the constructs directly at the potential risk of harming the psionic creating them. Again , Ryouga held up his hand and motioned to let things play out.

"But - but they'll take you away." Nodoka protested, looking down at her daughter with tears in her eyes. "I - I promised your father they wouldn't break up our family. He was... he was... like us..."

The three shapes turned to follow Kagome, as she turned and hugged her mother back.

"Huh." Mousse huffed, still ready to use his amp. "I told you you're getting soft."

Ryouga spared his comrade a knowing look. "If you don't like how I do things you could ask to transfer to Juliet squad."

The hidden weapons master's glasses glinted, not dignifying such an absolutely insane suggestion with an answer. Ranma's squad? Honestly? As if that was even an option.

The three forms seemed to give passing looks to the two bloody martial artists as they walked by. Only as they retreated did a fourth form become clear, one no taller than either man's knees.

It lingered longer, afraid to go.

"Katsumi. Call it in and get some shadows up here. Chen. Suppressors on both of them," Ryouga ordered, tossing Mousse one of the metal strips. "I'll clean up this mess."

Turning around, the lost one's psi-amp flared, burning away the piles of twitching psychic remains with a purifying psionic inferno. Within minutes, black helicopters descended and yellow police tape enveloped the city shrine. Biohazard stickers and armed police warded off the curious as a column of psychic ash rose above the summit, smearing and staining the midday sky.

* * *

The only good thing, Nabiki assumed, about dealing with pure psionic constructs was that it was a lot easier to clean up after. Blood, guts and flesh, transformed and disguised matter, all quickly reverted back to baseline with or without the right psionic prodding. This was a routine they had some experience with.

Tossing India Squad's officer a towel, Nabiki took off her mirrored sunglasses and tucked them into the collar of her shirt. Cleanup crews had already disembarked and were quickly moving to secure the Higurashi Shrine. Men and women in white hazmat suits hosed down the site, both to contain any contaminants and to further obscure what had actually occurred minutes before.

"You look like a wet rat," Nabiki observed, walking past the lost lieutenant. "And you smell like one, too."

"Like you'd know what a wet rat smells like. ...Are we on schedule?" he asked, wrapping the towel around his right hand. Together with his psi-amp, he started to wipe off the simulcra. The latter reverted deep crimson blood to a colorless amorphous psychic slime, ninety five percent pure water, while the former soaked it up. With his arms cleaned first, he took off his black suit jacket and tossed it away to land on a nearby fence post.

"We're good," she replied, stepping mindfully around the mess he and Mousse had left in their wake. "I'll take care of things from here."

He nodded, letting her have her way now that the fighting was over with.

Draping the towel over one shoulder, he instead wandered over to where Mousse was watchfully minding the two captives. These were India's first Class-A captures in months. The mother in particular was either the more powerful of the two or the more experienced. Ryouga wouldn't be surprised if they managed to track her own experiences down to an abduction event a couple decades ago. The sheer mass of constructs she had manifested and their interactivity were rather impressive.

Tapping into her daughter like that must've boosted the output, too. If they were like that pair of twins in US containment then they'd be classified both separately, as A, and together as rare double-A. The eggheads working on gestalt psionics would probably want to get their hands on them, too, despite that near-disaster at Luna. Not that a lowly Lieutenant should be criticizing the research priorities of high command, but being called in to clean up after things went wrong was... de-motivating.

Speaking of de-motivating -

"Agent 'Chen'?" Ryouga asked, approaching the hidden weapons master. "Is that really necessary?"

"She was getting all weepy," the Chinese fighter explained, referring to the elder Higurashi female, currently fast asleep on a blue tarp thanks to a contact sedative. "Plus, she did try to drown us in eldrich horrors. I'd say she got off easy."

Kagome, still awake, sat with her legs tucked under her, restraints on her wrists. She was quiet and still, but Ryouga could see the suppressor band firmly in place across her forehead and only partly concealed by her long, dark hair. A single green strip on the alien alloy indicated it was functional and inhibiting non-essential mental pathways. Unlike the ubiquitous alien 'examination table' it didn't actively paralyze the victim; she should still be able to physically move and act.

Precautions.

Nodding, he was about to turn elsewhere to help oversee clean up, when a voice spoke.

"You lied."

Facing Kagome, he sighed. It was true. He had lied. He had said what was needed to try and resolve the situation without people getting hurt. He couldn't, wouldn't, blame her for the anger she had to feel towards him.

"You lied to me," Kagome repeated, accusing, hurt, and angry. "You said we wouldn't be punished. You said you only wanted to talk. Are you going to tear apart our family now? Or experiment on us?"

The sound of a can opening came from the nonchalant Mousse, who had pulled out a small mocha-coffee can from somewhere on his person. He proceeded to drink down the caffeine without an apparent care in the world. The captive young woman took a moment to glare at the Chinese martial artist's callousness.

Resting on one knee, Ryouga waited for her to turn her anger back at him where it belonged. He was in command. He made the calls. The ugly side of authority was responsibility. When things went right or wrong, it ultimately fell on his shoulders, and his alone.

"I did lie," he admitted, looking down briefly, but then back up to accept her gaze. "And... it may be some time before your family is whole again. Both you and your mother need to be taught to deal with what you can do. That's where they'll take you. I'm not trained for that. The only thing I can do is fight."

"What are they going to do to us?" she asked again, straining a bit against the bands on her wrists. "I still don't know why we're being treated like this... why us?"

"It isn't your fault," he tried to explain. "The ones who did this to your mother, to you through her... they're our enemies. People like you are caught between us and them. I can promise you that you won't be hurt. Or experimented on. Things like this..." he gestured to the now foam-smothered chaos Mrs Higurashi had summoned up. "It... scares people."

Kagome blinked, and a bit of her anger faded, replaced by resignation. In truth, she understood all too well. It scared her, too. Though recent revelations had put things in a strange new context, she understood the fear people watching this sort of thing would have. She had felt the same, known the same, back in the feudal era of her other world, teeming as it was with demons and otherworldly dangers. Even if it wasn't "real" no one wanted people projecting those kinds of things into other people's minds... or into other people's lives.

"I see," she said.

"You aren't the only one," Ryouga said then, and she looked back up at him. "Agent Chen and I are like you...just weaker. And there are lots of others, too. We aren't locking you up. We're just making a world where, one day, people like your mother don't have to try and hide what they can do and where they don't have to worry about losing control."

It was a few pregnant seconds before Kagome spoke again.

"And Grandpa? And Souta? What about them?"

Ryouga let out a deep breath and stood back up.

"Altered memories," he said. "Probably, we'll make it so they think you're at prep school. And that your mother has an overseas job. We've become rather adept at making people disappear."

"That's... not really the most encouraging thing to say to someone in my position," Kagome remarked, holding up her cuffed hands. "But I believe you."

He offered her a small, weak smile, but a genuinely sympathetic one.

It wasn't a sympathy extended to the source of humanity's psionic troubles. To those beings, his smile, and his hands, presaged only death or capture. No alien asked for mercy or compassion, nor would any receive it. That category included those who willingly aided and abetted the enemy. All those would be hunted, from the surface of the Earth to depths of Mars, and exterminated.

Kagome slowly stood up, turning to face one of the landed black helicopters and a group of approaching HAZMAT suited men and women. The resignation she had felt before was now replaced by a small, wary, cautious optimism. The leader of the group saluted, and presented a clipboard for the jacket-less government agent to sign.

"Ne, what was your real name?" Kagome asked, realizing she was being handed over. "Amano Seiji-san?"

Ryouga signed his name to the transfer form and sealed it with the date and time.

"Hibiki," he replied. "Ryouga."

Kagome managed a smile at that as the men took her away.

"We'll hold you to your word," she said as she walked away. "Hibiki-san."

As the group left, and the second one came for the still sleeping Nodoka Higurashi, Mousse strolled over, his chilled coffee can empty. Balancing it between his fingers, the Chinese weapons master chuckled.

"That sounded almost like a threat, lieutenant," he remarked, grinning. "Think you've just made a new friend or a new enemy?"

Ryouga just shrugged, staring silently up at the ash tainted sky. As a Hibiki, born, bred, and lost, he understood all too well that literally anything could wait right around the next corner. The one and only constant was that there would be an enemy to fight and obstacles to overcome. As for tomorrow... there was nothing to do but wait and see what reared its head.

And then crush it.

* * *

Screaming winds pummeled the Tamaranian as she soared through the primordial darkness. Tears stung her eyes, threatening to blur her vision, and that she could not afford. The unconscious form of her cybernetic friend, the only thing she could see in the violently chaotic nothing, remained just out of her reach. But no matter how fast she pushed herself, how she reached out, Cyborg's metallic skin hung tantalizingly beyond her curling fingertips ...

And then he was gone - there was no flash of light, no spectral effect, simply there one second, and then gone the next.

Starfire did not have a chance to contemplate this dark turn, as a fraction of a second later, blinding light stabbed into her eyes. The Tamaranian cried out in shock at the sudden and abject shift from pitch darkness to noonday sun, her flight instantly dissolving into a wild tailspin.

Several precious seconds passed, the girl blinking her eyes furiously, before her sight began to return to her. Bright blue sky alternated with indistinct land in a kaleidoscope of color as she spun madly through the air. Gone was the aching chill of the void, replaced with a warm gust which washed over her skin. It would have been almost pleasant -

Another pained blink brought the world back into sharp focus ... revealing the fact that she was arrowing sharply down over a human city. Buildings zipped below her in a blur; the alien girl tried vainly to regain control, but she had been fired out of the portal far more energetically than could be expected -

The tall clock tower sprang up before her like an earthly weed. Starfire could do nothing but raise her hands in front of her face, jade energy flaring to life around them, before she collided, head first with the structure. Brick and mortar was pulverized to dust by the intense plasma sheath which surrounded her, and she exploded through the other side of the tower a second later in a shower of debris.

Slowed somewhat by her impact, the Tamaranian was finally able to regain enough control of her flight so that, rather than drill straight into the ground at ridiculous speeds, she only crashed into the pavement with enough force to tear up a furrow of demolished infrastructure roughly ten meters long ...

Several long moments passed before Starfire could finally sit up, her body protesting violently at every small movement she forced it to make. It was times like this that she was especially grateful for her inherent durability. Though she was wracked with pain, she could tell most of her injuries were of the superficial variety, and expected her natural solar regeneration would heal them in short order.

It was about that point, that Starfire heard the first scream of terror. Immediately, she prepared to assuage the fears of whoever she had frightened with her unruly entry - Only to realize quite quickly that it was not _her_ that was causing the screaming.

An ominous groan of failing structural integrity filled the air as the top half of the clock tower, now sporting a massive hole through its heart, began to list inexorably to the side. The red bricks and heavy granite slabs in the side of the tower began to shatter messily as the unbalanced structure appeared to be attempting to take a bow. The numerous people on the street began to run in a blind panic, but the equally numerous vehicles, now trapped in a traffic jam by her very own destruction of the street, had nowhere to go as the large tower continued to topple over.

All of the pain in her body seemed to vanish in a blink as a look of grim determination set itself firmly on her features. Not even bothering to stand, Starfire simply rolled forward and pushed off with all of the strength in her alien legs, launching herself through the air at ballistic speeds.

Streamers of green light trailing her in her rushed flight, the flame haired alien flew directly beneath the severed section of the tower, over fifteen meters long and nearly half that wide, not counting the lengthy lightning rod which topped the leaning tower. Several well placed optical plasma blasts scattered large pieces of stone that broke away from the base of the tower and had been hurtling towards the people on the street below...

Then the shadow of the tower encompassed her and the Tamaranian raised her arms quickly and pressed her palms to the now horizontal wall just below the large clock face. Instantly, she began to drop through the air, the momentum of the monumental time piece and the sheer mass involved improbable to resist.

Improbable was not the same as impossible, though. Gritting her teeth, Starfire pushed back with everything she had, and after a quick glance down at the people below, she then doubled her efforts. Sweat drencher her brow and veins began to bulge worrying along the tightly corded muscles of her arms as she battle gravity by virtue of pure, boundless confidence. More troublingly, the wall and supports she was pushing into threatened to break. It wouldn't be long before she just blasted through the structure, the rest continuing its fall.

Against all logic of those watching, the descent of the sheared off tower began to slow and tilt to the side. People actually began to slow in their panicked runs and stare up in awe at the display - unfortunately, many of those people would still be in range if the tower were to crash to the street.

"Please do not cease your evacuation!"

Oddly, not a single person heeded her advice. Starfire prepared to yell her command again ... when she noticed the strangely high concentration of Asian people on the streets below and the near complete presence of Chinese writing on all of the signage and advertisements which lined the street as far as the eye could see.

Had she been transported to the alleged 'Chinatown' subsection of the city?

Her distraction cost her, as the weight of the falling tower began to push her down again, Starfire gave a very unladylike grunt as she renewed her struggle to slow the collapse. All around her hands, and throughout the entire building section, cracks began to form as the numerous strains on the tower began to eat away at its structural integrity. All too soon, the task of deflecting the falling tower would be the least of her worries is shearing forces turned one falling body into a half dozen.

"Escape to a safe distance!" This time she shouted her warning in the dialect of Chinese which matched the written language present, and though when people actually listened this time, she suspected it had nothing to do with her words, and everything to do with the various bricks and jagged metal fragments which began to break away from the structure and drop to the ground in a destructive rain.

With one last surge of strength, torrents of righteous fury supplementing her flagging confidence, the Tamaranian hero briefly managed to stop the massive structure's fall completely. The strain was unbelievable, impossible for her to even describe, but she forced herself to maintain until the very last of the human's had escaped their vehicles and fled to safety... Viridian eyes searched frantically for an open area to let the structure collapse onto.

And then, just as the tower above her, her resolve disintegrated into a heap of rubble. Starfire crashed to the ground mere fractions of a second before being buried under the tons of stone and mortar that had once been a majestic clock tower. The scene surrounding the sprawling mountain of debris grew oddly still in the moments that followed. Nothing moved aside from settling of the massive cloud of dust kicked up from the impact. Tentatively at first, spectators of the near disaster began to move in closer to the disaster site, curiosity over the bizarre happenstance overcoming their fear.

Only to run screaming again seconds later as twin pillars of jade energy tore up through the pile of bricks and steel, blasting the rubble aside in a second. Moments later, the strange, orange skinned girl floated up from the wreckage. Starfire groaned weakly in pain, noting the quantity of bruises and scratches that were already making themselves known to her. The physical pain was less hurtful than the what she felt when she saw the people on the street fleeing in fear from the very sight of her.

It had been some time since she had been subjected to the fear of those she attempted to save, and now she realized it had not been nearly long enough between occurrences. She had thought that the citizens of her city had long become accustomed to her unusual nature? Letting out a forlorn sigh, the alien girl began to float away from the site of her... admittedly rough entrance.

Perhaps, once she had some time to clear her head, she could sort out exactly what had happened to her.

* * *

The first pictures were on the internet within four minutes of the incident.

Accompanying them were copious streams of dialogue, both spoken and written, regarding the incident. These passed from phone to phone, phone to website, website to website, website to email. The flow of electronic traffic increased very nearly exponentially. Or it would have.

Two minutes and twenty four seconds after Information Exposure, the UNETCO Echelon system flagged multiple corroborating accounts of unusual activity originating from a region in southern China. The PRC was a staunch supporter of the UNETCO accords and fully compliant with the sections relating to "information management." Whether this was out of practicality or an ongoing national priority regarding control over the internet and other information outlets within the borders of the one-party state was debatable.

Echelon's automated monitoring systems quickly identified the disturbance, and within thirty four seconds, upgraded their status from orange to red. Notification was forwarded to Chinese authorities about the upcoming Information Whiteout. Data analysts at the UNETCO "Ocean City" Facility approved the measure, and choreographed counter-information attacks were waged to control the flow of data. Photographs were automatically doctored and edited, and then redistributed in place of the originals. Sophisticated programs provided corrupted text messages and altered first hand accounts. InfWar Bots automatically searched for and intervened in relevant threads across social networks.

The truth was quickly lost amid the static and white noise.

UNETCO had, over the years, become quite adept as countering and controlling the flow of rumor and heresay. The Chinese government acted in a more typical fashion to contain the disruption, which only furthered the cover-up by adding credibility to the fact that it was a viral hoax. It would never be possible to completely cover up the incident, but it would be easy to discredit it and contain it. Ten minutes after the incident was first flagged, it was given a official name for record keeping.

China-56-890

Despite the quick response, most of it automated, other problems remained. These would have to be handled by UNETCO Echelon's human resources and intelligence personnel. The first matter was to investigate the incident itself "on the ground." First responders, local police and firefighters were already heading towards the scene - they would be contacted and used to gather on the spot intelligence. They would also help in containing the spread of potentially troublesome information regarding China-56-890.

The second matter was an ongoing concern.

China-56-890 was moving. Echelon detected, less than a minute after containing the first phase of the incident, corroborating cell phone recordings of an unidentified object flying over a populated area. Image recognition and enhancement confirmed that the object was, in fact, humanoid. Colors were low quality, but definitely identified as a shade of orange. It was also flying unassisted through the air. More red flags accentuated the case file, bumping it up to Alpha level priority. A satellite was quickly pinged for reorientation and acquisition of the incidental area.

HumInt added only this to the heading:

Case: China-56-890  
Possible Ethereal Sighting Downtown Area

**Immediate Response Recommended**

* * *

Abstract -

Ryouga Hibiki  
Rank: Lieutenant

Tokyo native, only child of Tetsuya and Mitsuko Hibiki. Practices the Informal 'Hibiki Family Survivalist Style' of martial arts. Psionic Class-B. Former wandering martial artist and member of the 'Nerima Wrecking Crew' Lieutenant Hibiki was involved in the two year spree of incidents (see: Nerima Records) much of which involved his rivalry with Lieutenant Saotome. Records sealed and reports classified per standard.

Several months after the First Incident at Jusendo (see R. Saotome), Hibiki was involved in at least two Abduction Events (L-B45-671), (second event unrecorded). L-B45-671 resulted in two confirmed civilian fatalities: A. Unryu (Japanese, female, age 17 - assumed harvested); S. Unryu (not abducted; died: heart attack). Hibiki tracked to Nerima ward and additional abduction events recorded (see: Nerima Abduction Event). Saotome and Hibiki able to assault Abduction craft before escaping orbit, killing aliens onboard. Civilian casualties estimated to be twelve (12), eight (8) on craft and four (4) on ground. Ku Lon and T. Ono captured via separate vessel.

After reorienting the captured UFO to crash in South America, vessel and survivors were recovered by UNETCO operatives. Decision made to create experimental field operations teams ('martial arts squads') to circumvent Section Seven restrictions in charter and combat Sirius Group. Program accepted under the direction of N. Yasuda Cmndr, Far East Branch. Due to deaths of A. Unryu, Hibiki demonstrated significant commitment. Psionic imprinting undertaken (see: psi-gym usage) to expected effect.

Hibiki was picked to organize and lead Squad: India (Hibiki, Kumon, Tzu, Kuno) out of Seiran, under supervision of Cptn Ben-Solomon. Assigned rank Special Lieutenant. Demonstrated acceptable to excellent performance in last two months of 2006. Promotion to Lieutenant. Participated in AB17 Alpine Echo Seven (December, 2006). Fiftieth Kill recorded (January, 2007). Temp assignment to Luna (2007). (see: Service Record, attached) (see: Psionic Profile, attached). N. Tendo added as replacement Operator (2006).

PsyOps has observed a decrease in aggression over the last three month period, possibly related to relationship with Operator Tendo, however the lieutenant continues to have an excellent engagement ratio. India is a solid light assault team. S7 Ops against conspirator cells, rogue psychics, and Trenchards have proven to be another specialty. Hibiki is driven, determined, and due to his background, he can be counted on to show initiative within the confines of his orders. Given that we can expect Trenchards to be present on Mars, India squad is a logical candidate for inclusion in CLEANSLATE.

[signature redacted]

##

BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS  
TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 5231

CODENAME: Starfire  
REAL NAME: Koriand'r

SPECIES: Tamaranian

HEIGHT: 5'11"  
WEIGHT: 120lbs  
HAIR COLOR: Red  
EYE COLOR: Green

KNOWN ABILITIES: Shares physiological traits in common with rest of her species. Superhuman strength, durability, endurance, flight. High resistance to most forms of harmful radiation. Ability to survive prolonged exposure to extra-atmospheric conditions. Subject 5231 also possess abilities unique to herself, and to Subject 7245: Codename: Blackfire. Ability to generate energy of varying intensity, commonly referred to as 'Starbolts'. Has demonstrated the ability to direct energy blasts from both hands and eyes. Resistance to energy is also far above other members of species – likely in correlation to former ability.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: Physical Weaknesses: Research still in progress. Psychological Weaknesses: Subject has demonstrated intense connections with current team mates, notably Subject 203: Codename: Robin. Highest probability of incapacitating subject is a psychological attack capitalizing on this bond.

KNOWN HISTORY: Very little is known of the Subject before her arrival on Earth. Arrival occurred in Jump City and was closely followed by a small scale invasion by a Gordanian Battlecruiser. Citywide destruction was narrowly averted when the Subject was found by Subject: 203: Codename: Robin, Subject: 790: Codename: BeastBoy, Subject: 3845: Codename: Cyborg and Subject: 6138: Codename: Raven. Shortly afterwards, aforementioned Subjects formed the team designated: Teen Titans.

As part of the Teen Titans, Subject has demonstrated above average combat abilities, both in close quarters and at range. Notable incidents include encounters with villains: Subject 2101: Codename: Deathstroke The Terminator, Subject: 8839: Codename: Terra, and Subject: 1978: Codename: Brother Blood. Subject has yet to show any signs of instability, or lapses in morality.

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: E

PERSONAL NOTE:

_The girl has grown close to Dick over the years. Perhaps too close?_

_I fear that she might make it difficult for him to keep his head in battle. Men like us aren't meant get entangled in that way. I had hoped that the rumors of her impending marriage on the planet Tamaran had been true... but according to Dick, it had simply been a ruse by her sister. Perhaps the addition of their newest team member will divert her attention? Dick has been expressing some small frustration over the past several weeks – perhaps it's related? Will continue to observe situation._

##


	2. First Contact 2

**A/N**  
Lathis was handling review replies last week. We'll mix and match more next week.  
As I said before, we expect Friday releases will be the norm, not Monday, unless some sort of problem arises.

I also see some formatting in the original file won't work here on FFN. sigh.

* * *

Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last. The reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together. With Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding', it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of Atlantis. Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well deserved breather from their adventures. But as unseen forces manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered… and sooner than they expect.

It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_First Contact_

Chapter II

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

/Initiating System Check  
/Please Wait…

/Power Systems: Nominal  
/Computer Systems: Nominal  
/Life Support Systems: Nominal  
/Combat Systems: Nominal  
/Mechanical Support: Nominal  
/System Check Complete: No Errors Found

/Initiating System Reboot  
/Please Wait…

/SysOp Reboot… 10%…40%… 60%… 80%… Done

Cyborg's eyes shot open and the large teen sat up with a start. For a moment he was deluged by a cascade of minor systems checks, and his body jerked about annoyingly as his motor control systems cycled … but other than that, he seemed to be okay.

'_Oh Lord. Did anyone get the license plate of that alien dreadnaught?'_

Clutching his head, he slowly staggered to his feet. What the heck had happened? It felt like Robin had booted him in the head a few dozen times too many.

'_Last thing I remember was setting up the Dimensional Containment Device …and then Ryo came flyin' outta nowhere and body slammed me.' _The cybernetic teen slammed fist to palm with a metallic clank. _'And then we hit the DCD and it starting going haywire! It started to react to Raven's power somehow and then …'_

And then nothing.

"Well, that can't be good." A combination of DCD, Raven's bad mojo and Ryouga's worse luck? He was lucky had made it here in one piece… Speaking of which, just where the heck was he, anyway?

He took a quick moment to scan his surroundings.

"Oh. Har de har har."

The City Dump.

He swore, if those jokers had let him get tossed out with the trash again, there'd be hell to … pay? Hmm, something told him that he didn't exactly arrive here via garbage truck, like last time. That 'something' being the fifty foot long trench his body had apparently carved into the ground. He was pretty sure it was his; anyway, what with the crater he was standing in and all. He let out a low whistle at the rough trajectory.

"Rough landing… bet I'll be feeling that in the morning."

Something didn't quite add up, though. Had he been thrown this entire distance? He was pretty sure the lab was a few kilometers away from the dump. Not to mention they'd been fighting in a crazy underground lab. Any explosion intense enough to not only unearth the lab, but to send him flying this distance? There's no way he would have survived that, let alone unscathed.

Heck, he'd still be seeing the mushroom cloud on the skyline.

So, it was a mystery then. More important than what happened to him, though, was what had happened to everyone else. Ryo and Raven had been right at the epicenter, last he'd seen, and everyone else had been out of sight completely.

Lifting an arm, he hit a button and the small view screen embedded in his forearm flashed to life; immediately, he punched up Robin's line. "Yo, Robbie! Where are you? You alright?"

Nothing. Not even a picture of the little guy popped up.

'_Hmm, that's weird.'_

He quickly cycled through the rest of his friends, but the results were the same.

"What the heck is up with this?" he growled, growing a bit concerned.

A quick diagnostic confirmed that his systems were working fine; he just wasn't getting a … signal? He began typing away madly at his arm, bringing up the desired diagram. On the bottom of the screen was a tiny depiction of himself. On the top was a little picture of a satellite with a 'T' on it. Between the two were a series of arcs, growing wider as they went up from MiniCy to the satellite. Currently, there was a big red X flashing over the signal bars, and the outline of the satellite had become a flashing, dotted line, indicating that his system not only wasn't receiving a signal from the satellite, but that it couldn't locate the darn thing at all.

"Ohhh man, please tell me this is just a glitch," he muttered. "It cost a fortune to put all those satellites up there! If they're all broken, Robin's gonna recycle me!"

Unfortunately, he didn't bring the T-elescope with him, so he couldn't actually confirm whether the nearest satellite was still where it was supposed to be, and not currently a flaming wreck sitting in some guy's living room.

Not a pleasant thought, that.

Without the satellite network, communications would be cut down to fifty kilometers, and the GPS system would be non-existent. He wouldn't be able to find out where he was with just a push of the button, nor could he get a hold of a single Titan.

Wait a minute! Even without the network up and running, he should still be more than close enough to reach anyone everyone else via communicator. How the heck could everyone be out of range? Even if the communicators of everyone at the lab had been damaged, BB back at the tower would still be well within range.

Something odd was afoot, that much was for sure.

Still, it was a beautiful, clear night, and GPS wasn't the only way to figure out where he was. Astronavigation wasn't limited to Voyager, after all. All he had to do was retrieve the most recent memories he had of the night sky and compare it to the current sky above him. Using a few embarrassingly outdated techniques, he could then narrow it down to a rough latitude and longitude at the very least.

It didn't take him long to bring up the proper application - '_Lost somewhere in the world, with nothing but a compass and map of the stars? Cyborg has an App for that_!'-and start it running. Looking upwards, he turned his head slowly, making sure to get a complete a scan as possible for a better comparison. It took a few minutes (sooo much less efficient than just using the GPS) but finally he finished the scan and his arm began to calculate the necessary variables.

'_Hello, what have we here?'_

A display on his other arm was blinking now. Turning his attention to the blinking light, his eyes widened the second he read it.

Current Date: 02/18/2007

… What?

He double checked the chronometer. It was working fine, too… So why the heck was - '_Oh'_, that explained it. According to the current stars, compared to the ones he'd seen last night, there was over a years worth of drift… The realization hit him a second later like Raven with a fridge.

"Great Caesar's Ghost! I've been thrown through time!" Clutching his skull, the metallic Titan began to panic at the implications. "Oh man, oh man, oh man! First Star, now me? This is getting way too common for comfort!"

Now, what the heck did he remember about time travel? Oh, right!

"Don't do anything, don't touch anything! Scifi rule number One: You start messin' with the past, you end up with monkeys ruling the future." Spinning around, paranoid about stepping on anything that might destroy the timeline, he -

…wait just another second.

He double checked the clock. "Hold on just a minute! I'm not in the past, I'm in the future!"

In an instant, he went from tiptoeing through the trash cans, to wringing his hand, cackling evilly. "Oh _yeah_, baby. That means all bets are off! Time to find me some badass future technology to take home-"

He paused, looking at the date again.

"… _Crap_! I'm only _one_ year in the future? That's barely far enough ahead to pick up the next Game Station! Oh, man, this is, like, the worst time traveling trip, ever!" Another thought occurred to him. "And, seriously, none of that Rekmas stuff had better be goin' on! If I find out that it took everyone else less than a year to completely fall apart without me, I'm gonna be so ticked off!"

Well, sure, they probably wouldn't be able to get along without him for very long … but one year? Come on!

Looking back to his other arm, he finally got a set of coordinates. Bringing up a static map of the States, he overlaid the latitude and longitude. Considering he was using freakin' Astrogation, he was working with gross generalizations, but he was fairly certain he could at least narrow it down a bit. And - and, it looked like he was… on the east coast? Damn, he was closer to Metropolis and Gotham than he was to Jump City! He'd been thrown clear across the entire dang country! Well, that'd certainly explain why he couldn't contact anyone. Without the satellite network, there was no way he was in range of anyone else.

So, lost in time and possibly lost on _Batman's _turf? He didn't know which was worst, honestly. Still, on the bright side, scary or not, if he could find Batman, or any other Justice Leaguer, then they'd probably be able to help him out with this whole chorological conundrum. Heck, those guys traveled through time like it was a revolving door. Or worse, like it was like _Arkham_.

Still, stranger in a strange land and all that, there no need to draw any attention to himself if he could avoid it. There might be a reason his satellite network was down, after all. Maybe the Titans had made some serious enemies while he'd been gone? He chuckled to himself; when he got back, he'd totally have to tell BB that he was starting to lose his hair, even only a year in the future.

It didn't take him too long to scrounge up some tossed clothing. Sure, they smelt about as good as they looked, but the sweater had a hood, so he could cover up most of his cybernetics pretty easily. As long as nobody got right in his face, he should be able to get by without too much trouble.

That in mind, he made his way out into the city.

He needed some information, badly.

* * *

Starfire stared pensively out of the alley for the third time in as many minutes. Once she was satisfied that no uniformed police officers were in her vicinity, she ducked back into the alley and took out her communicator again. It had been several hours since her arrival, and it still refused to return to functionality.

She had garnered no luck in acquiring information from the local citizenry. The few people she had attempted to converse with in her aimless floating had either stuttered madly with fear, fled in the other direction, or used their cameras to take pictures... before running away anyway. And not long after that, rescue teams had begun to arrive on the scene, which while understandable, had confused her with the staggering number of armed police which accompanied the paramedics and firefighters.

The Tamaranian was growing more confused with the situation. Certainly, her ... minor… act of property destruction was not one of her finer moments, but she had made quite sure that no one had been injured in the incident. And yet, even as the rescue teams continued to comb through the wreckage, the police had made it blatantly obvious that they were systematically searching the area for the one responsible. The skill and organization with which they performed their search gave the Okaaran trained warrior no doubt that this was a seasoned and professional law enforcement group.

One would imagine that people would be used to alien encounters and random occurrences in this day and age. Considering the unusual reactions of the civilians to her presence, she did not wish to see the reaction of people currently carrying firearms.

Other things had only served to compound her confusion. Even after studying the situation for some time, she had yet to find more than a sprinkling of English on any signs in sight. The uniforms of the patrolmen, though recognizable as police uniforms, were notably different from those of the lawmen from Jump City. She had already begun to doubt that she had appeared anywhere close to where she had thought, however, with the GPS function of her communicator out of order and her inability to ask anyone for information, she could not be certain where she was.

Which brought her to where she now was: standing in a dank alley, staring intently at the newspaper stand across the street from her. It did raise a moral quandary in the young alien. She possessed no currency at all, let alone whatever currency might be proper for her current locale. Did her need to learn more about her situation necessitate her to steal from an innocent vender? Dare she risk exposing herself long enough to cross the street?

The Tamaranian chewed on her lower lip uncertainly for several long seconds as she stared at the news stand. Finally, she let out a determined huff and nodded to herself. Once she rejoined her team mates, she would be able to repay the proprietor for the paper. Ducking down, she took another quick peek around the corner, then floated out rapidly, skimming just above the street which she crossed in a matter of seconds.

The instant she made her presence known, shocked shouts sprang up from all around, but Starfire managed to snag a newspaper and flew up and over a building before anyone so much as had a chance to do anything else. She landed a few moments later, and quickly unfurled the paper and began to scan the top of the front page.

Briefly, as she read, she gave silent thanks to the Joketsuzoku Elder, Perfume for teaching her the Chinese languages, and many others, so ... fluently.

Her eyes widened in shock at what she discovered.

'_Hong Kong Commercial Daily?_'

Granted, her grasp of Earth geography was not one of her strong suits, but even she knew that, if this news paper was correct, she was far more displaced than she had thought. She had been sent to the far side of the planet in a matter of seconds?

Anxiously, the Tamaranian began to float back and forth in the alley. Another, disturbing thought occurred to her. What of her companions? If she had been transported across the globe, what of everyone else ... For that matter, who else had been sucked into the portal? She knew that Cyborg had, but the last she had seen, Robin and Jinx had appeared safe. She did not even have any recollection of seeing where Raven and Ryouga had been after she had awoken.

Had anyone else aside from her and Cyborg been transported away by the void?

Although it would be relatively little trouble for her to return to Jump City ... what if Cyborg had been transported in relative proximity to herself? She had only been a scant few seconds behind him in that black expanse, so if it had deposited her here, it seemed likely he could not be too far. Though it could potentially be dangerous for her, she needed to search for her friend first. Whether Cyborg was in the vicinity or not, she had to make certain first before returning Home.

Satisfied with her decision, Starfire squared her shoulders and began to fold up the newspaper -

"Stand where you are and place your hands above your head!"

Starfire looked up, surprised by the sudden command. Standing at the mouth of the alley was a uniformed woman, a simple looking revolver held tightly in her grip and trained on the Tamaranian quite expertly. The emerald eyed alien stared at the human's gun, then down to the news paper in her hand, then back up again, before quickly holding out the news paper.

"I apologize! I intend to pay for the news paper, truly I do!"

The police woman stared at her incredulously. "I repeat, drop the news paper and place your hands above your head!"

Moving quickly, Starfire complied with the command, dropping the paper and lifting her hands up. She had no idea that the police were so strict in the part of the world! Still, at least this particular police woman appeared to be level headed.

Proving the flame haired girl correct, the police woman nodded sharply as soon as she raised her hands, and reached behind her back to pull out a pair of hand cuffs. Then, moving slowly, the officer began to approach, gun trained on Starfire with one hand cautiously -

"Look, look! They found the alien!"

Instantly, a mob of excited citizens began to crowd into the alley, obviously emboldened by the sight of a firearm; too emboldened, in fact, as they crushed into the alley frantically to see the arrest of the alien.

"No! Everyone! Stay back!" The policewoman cried out sharply, doing her best to gesture the crowd back with one hand and keep her gun aimed with the other. But her cries went unheeded as the small mob was unable to stop their own movement, being pushed in by people further outside the alley trying to force their way in.

Starfire saw the danger immediately, and began to duck to the side -

And then one of the people was knocked forward and slammed into the officer's back. A crack of thunder split the alley. Starfire barked in pain as she felt the bullet slam into her shoulder. The small caliber projectile hit home with enough force to give the Tamaranian a nasty welt and she reacted on pure instinct, partly reducing the police woman's firearm to molten metal with a burst of her optic blasts.

The second that the unfortunate woman let out a pained scream at the melting metal dropping over her hands, Starfire realized that she had made a grievous error. The smell of burned flesh filled the alley and the policewoman fell to her knees, clutching her hand. Guilt wracked the alien girl, and she was momentarily torn between offering aid and turning to flee...

"Did you see that?" "The alien is attacking!" "Someone do something!" "Get it! Stop it!"

Her decision was made for her quickly, then. In a blur, Starfire spun and flew out the back of the alley as fast as possible. She had seen enough of Beast Boy's movies to know how quickly a misunderstanding like this could spin out of control when an angry mob was involved. She needed to get away before her very presence endangered the very people she had so recently been trying to protect.

* * *

Agent Tong scratched the nails of his thumb and index finger together - a simple nervous tick that helped him focus - while he watched the situation unfold. As the UNETCO liaison for the situation (now officially the "China-56-890 incident") by virtue of being the closest man with experience in the area, he had quickly integrated himself into the Hong Kong Crisis Response Center. It was a solid operation, and just the sort of counter terrorism commitment one would expect from a major city in the twenty first century.

Data streamed into the CRC from ongoing operations in real time, and analysts worked at a feverish pace to meet the sudden and dramatic demands of the situation. No one here knew the truth like he did: _that there was a god damned alien loose in the city_. To the officers and analysts here, it was a potential terrorist attack that everyone was working hard to contain. The subject's unusual abilities were due to stolen military hardware... he had the clearance and "documentation" from the PRC to prove it.

It was a tough spot to be in.

There had been very little time to commit his new cover completely to memory. Luckily, he could lean on the Assistant Commissioner present for compliance. Unfortunately, the boots on the ground weren't trained UNETCO personnel. They were just jumpy civilians who couldn't even imagine the sort of horrors that forced themselves on Earth almost every day. It was better that way, for now, but it also made the situation on the ground less reliable.

This injured officer was just an example.

They had standing orders not to engage the subject. They were supposed to wait until "trained professionals" arrived to deal with it. Now they had lost China-56-890 **again**, and the alien had gone right back to ground. On large screens set up against the wall overlooking the Response Center, Agent Tong could see ongoing ops across the city, from the initial site to the latest dust up. Hong Kong's CRC (unlike UNETCO itself) didn't have UAVs in the air or real time satellite imaging, so they had to make do with digital overlays and real time traffic maps.

Luckily, their facial recognition software and citywide surveillance was up to par.

"We've got something," one of the analysts declared, and brought up a quick snap shot on one of the screens. It was a series of blurry pictures, but it was definitely China-56-890. She - it - had come out of hiding to fly up along the shaded side of a building.

Tong patiently listened as the CRC director ordered helicopters rerouted to cover the new position. He already knew they'd be too late. China-56-890 was moving quickly now, popping up only briefly before going back into cover near ground level. They already had the entire force on the move combing the city, but China-56-890 was not limited to running. If at risk of confrontation, she - it, he reminded himself, the alien was an 'it' - would vault or fly over some obstacle and get lost in the tangle of buildings and backstreets.

"She isn't really trying to hide," he reasoned. If China-56-890 was attempting an infiltration, it was one of the most sloppily executed on UNETCO record. Even after a crash landing, a real infiltrator would have kept out of sight. This one kept sticking her head out of the water to peek around.

Maybe that was it.

She - it - wasn't infiltrating the city. Maybe this was an abduction or assassination? Maybe it was looking for something, but couldn't find it. A botched entry could have thrown it off, or perhaps whatever it was after was likely to move or hide if something like the initial incident occurred. The fact that China-56-890 also kept appearing, even briefly, indicated it was in a rush. It felt like it didn't have much time, so it kept taking risks, even after that run-in with the police officer.

"You're looking for something," he mused, and retreated back to confer with the CRC director.

Yes: Agent Tong was certain of it. China-56-890 was in Hong Kong to find something... or someone. That left them with some possibilities. First: he would need to have Operations & Support draw up lists of all the sensitive people and objects on record as being within the city limits. Second: he could cross reference that with UNETCO lists of materials flagged as being likely targets for alien intervention. Third: if China-56-890 was looking for something, there had to be a pattern to its movements. A chronological map of appearances should be fairly easy to draw up.

Approaching the busy CRC director with his suggestions, agent Tong paused. If he was right, what then?

Seiran wanted the situation "contained" but they didn't want the alien subject "actively engaged" unless absolutely necessary. However, at the rate things were going, and at the rate China-56-890 was moving, something drastic would have to be done and quickly. There were already pockets of panicked people (some would call them mobs) that were posing a danger to operations and to secrecy. What to do then?

China-56-890 had to either be lured out of the city or they would have to do something quickly to tie her down. Neither option gave the impression of being easy. They had choppers out constantly trying to track China-56-890. Tong was less than confident that some bright lights and loud noises would be enough to corral this beast.

It wasn't ideal, but there were two possibilities that presented themselves.

The first was to use a ruse to draw China-56-890 out of the city. If she was after someone or something, and if she ("it" he reminded himself again) suspected there was a limited time frame in which to find it... then perhaps a visible show of force in a different direction could draw China-56-890 out. Ordering the helicopters withdrawn en masse over the city where it could see them, perhaps China-56-890 could be convinced that what it wanted was somewhere outside the city... or at least in a more isolated area.

There were some more isolation-friendly areas on Tsing-Yi Island, for example. It was also quite close by to where China-56-890 was searching, but far enough away that she - it - wouldn't have been able to investigate already. Ngong Shuen Chau Naval Base was also quite close by, and it would be easy enough to call in for additional manpower and resources from the garrison if needed. A plan began to form in Agent Tong's mind, even as he resumed his pace towards the CRC director.

There would need to be a fall back option, too.

If China-56-890 didn't take the bait, they'd lose their air cover, but the local police could still put men in position. If there was a pattern to China-56-890's movements, and Tong was certain now that there was, then he could have the Special Duties Unit (SDU) and some supporting forces lay an ambush. At this point, China-56-890 could not be allowed to run helter-skelter all over Hong Kong. She - it! - needed to be isolated or clamped down. They would find a good-enough spot in the city proper (a harbor for example), set up some snipers, and force China-56-890 to a defensive footing.

It could work, at least until UNETCO special operations arrived on the scene. It was probably the best they could realistically make of the situation; the alternative was a drawn out battle over or in a highly populated area. China-56-890 would just have to be nipped in the bud.

One way or another.

* * *

Cyborg couldn't help but stare as he wandered downtown.

He'd known Gotham was a bigger city than his hometown, but he never imagined it would be so bright and crowded. Flashing lights, flashing signs, flashing screens, people flashing him the bird when he bumped into them. It was all pretty dazzling. Made him wonder how it got a reputation for being such a dreary gothic city. He was kind of curious what this "I Heart NYC" thing was that he saw everywhere, too, but it wasn't exactly a priority.

Speaking of priorities, he wasn't even sure where to begin now that he was wrapped up in civvies and apparently blending in (the effort brought back some memories of his pre -Titans days even). Nonetheless, the question was: what to do first? Try to find Batman or some other convenient hero? Sneak a peek at the current tech? At the very least he might be able to come back with a few new games that wouldn't see the light of day for another year or so. Or, did he try to find that telescope and check on his satellites?

Oh ho! _That's_ what he needed to do!

He totally needed to find one of those Sports Almanacs! Or at least a listing of winning lottery numbers. _Sultan Cyborg_ had a nice ring to it, and it had worked out reasonably well for Biff. He already had one foot in the nearest bookstore before he managed to stop himself.

"No, Cyborg. No abusing time travel for fun and profit..."

Besides, it wasn't like Robin would let him use it, anyway.

Cursing his fine moral fiber, he stepped back onto the sidewalk and began to wander aimlessly again. Without temporal fraud to keep him occupied, his options were starting to dwindle. He had no idea how to contact the League people in the future, and although starting a bank robbery _seemed_ like a good idea, he had the feeling it would cause more problems than it solved.

Then again, since he couldn't think of any great 'get home straight away' plans off the top of his head, there really wasn't a reason that he couldn't indulge himself a bit. After all, just a quick sneak peek into the secrets of tomorrow couldn't hurt too much, now could it?

It didn't take him too long to find an electronics store in the bustling city. Cyborg wrung his hands in anticipation as he entered the building. Just as he'd hoped, the place was loaded with computers and computer accessories. Cables, adaptors, fans, power sources, monitors, all hung from the walls forming Cyborg's favorite kind of jungle. It seemed to be geared less towards selling stuff and more towards computer repair and self-assembly types.

With practiced ease, he moved from bin to bin, display to display. Excitement glowed on his face as he looked at every component ... only to dissolve into confusion as he looked at some of the parts and unusual adaptors - USB? What on Earth was "USB 4.0"?

It must have been a pretty recent development…

Then his confusion transformed into disappointment when he checked the specs on the computers. Turning to the man behind the desk, he gestured towards the computers. "Hey, dude, where's your top of the line gear? Did I walk into a computer museum, or something?"

The guy, not really much older than Cyborg himself, looked up from his magazine to give him the evil eye. "That stuff _is_ pretty top of the line. I deal pretty much exclusively with the type of people that assemble their own machines. I'd be outta business if I didn't have the stuff anyone can order on the internet."

"Are you joking me?" Cyborg stepped over and dropped a hand on one of the displays. "_Gigabytes_ of RAM? This thing barely has enough processing power to run my waffle maker." He then pointed to one of the narrow slots on the front. "And what's with these 'USB' interfaces? Why would you try to introduce a new concept like that when most everyone has already standardized to the WTI?"

"WTI?" the shop keep repeated incredulously. "I don't even know what you're talking about. And basically _everyone_ uses USB. Or Firewire, I guess. It's been around for years." Leaning forward, the guy looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Look, buddy, are you just trying to mess with me? Cuz unless you magically traveled here from the future, or you're rich enough to wipe your ass with Benjamins, this is as good as you'll get."

Okay, that cinched it.

Now Cyborg _knew_ that something was seriously wrong here. This wasn't Star Wars; technology shouldn't get worse as time progressed. And if this USB thing had been around for years, then he sure as heck would have known about it. Even when it was the street-tech plebs used, this much difference in technology, and having such unusual differences supposedly stretching back to before he'd left... a sneaking suspicion was growing in the back of Cyborg's mind.

"Alright then," he replied easily. "You got me, I was just playin, dude." Looking around, he grabbed a few technical manuals and some magazines, not to mention a few of the USB adaptors, just out of curiosity. As he offered the items to get rung up, he absently leaned forward to ask, "By the way, you ever hear of the Justice League?"

"Justice League? What's that? A new movie?"

"Ah, no ... just a new game over in Japan. For the, uh, 'x-box.' Yeah, was just wondering if you knew when it was coming over."

The guy looked at him oddly again, before shrugging and ringing up the items. "Whatever, man, I don't keep up too much on what's goin' on overseas. Check out a Gamestop for that kind of stuff. If it's here, it's here, if it ain't, I'm not gonna worry about it. That'll be $41.50, by the way."

A little nervously, Cyborg reached into his wallet and handed the man two twenties and a ten. There was a very good chance his money wouldn't even work ... but, he needn't have even worried. The guy barely even looked at the bills before tossing them in the register and handing him his change.

"Alright, have a good night, man. Heh, that was a pretty good one, though. Using an AMD 940 to operate a waffle maker. What, would it butter them and serve up a glass of juice at the same time? Maybe while it read your paper to you and booted up Call of Duty?"

Cyborg chuckled to himself, a bit self-consciously. "Heh, heh ... yeah, something like that! Maybe shoot 'em through the air to land on a plate all neatly stacked to boot..."

Not waiting for a response, he quickly made his exit, leaving the shop with his bagged purchases. As soon as he was out the door, he quickly found the next closest alley and ducked in, finding a convenient shadow to hide in. Looking around a few times to make sure no one was paying attention, he pulled out the handful of change he'd just received.

"Okay, something weird is going on here, and I got a sinking feeling what it might be."

Pulling up the left sleeve of his newly acquired sweater, he brought up the display embedded in his forearm and cycled through the systems quickly. It only took him a few moments to find the rarely used application, and he started it up with a touch of a button. A small beam of light shot out of his wrist; a moment later it spread into a wide line which crossed over the coins several times before finally dying out.

He waited several incredibly long seconds as the processors housed in his left arm, more powerful than pretty much all the computers in that entire store combined, analyzed the data. A loud 'ping' finally signaled when it was finished.

/SCAN COMPLETE: DIMENSIONAL VARIANCE DETECTED - FREQUENCY ?-0.1021  
/WARNING I/O ERRORS DETECTED

The cybernetic teen grunted in frustration. _Dimensional variance?_

That could only mean one thing. He'd been thrown through a lot more than just time by whatever had happened down in the lab. No Justice League, no Wayne Tech, and computers a decade obsolete...? Even if it _was_ just the commercial stuff for regular peeps? What else was different about this world, and how many of his friends were trapped here with him?

First thing first, he needed to learn more about this world so he could blend in more easily. That in mind, he stepped back out into the street and approached the first person he saw. Making sure not to get to close to the lady, he ducked his head and gestured to her.

"Hey, Miss. Do you know where the nearest library is?"

* * *

Starfire's breath came in ragged gasps as she swung around another building and dropped down to the pavement yet again. It was not even that the alien girl was exhausted, as it was the constant tension  
wearing at her nerves. Being pursued by the police had been one thing, but the numerous helicopters now sharing her sky were making evasion more difficult.

She could feel the desperation begin to creep in; her search for her companions had been fruitless thus far, and the longer she continued her investigation, the more danger she placed herself in. Her training with the Warlords of Okaara had prepared her for the rigors of guerilla warfare, albeit with an emphasis on the jungle fighting of that world, but she was only one here and they were an entire city. She had done her best to avoid any form of pattern in her search, but it was only a matter of time before the humans' net closed in around her.

Unfortunately, by not following a set search pattern, it made it all the less likely that she would stumble upon Cyborg as well, providing he was in the city ...

Hovering in the shadow of a taller building, she watched a squadron of uniformed officers march past her even as another helicopter flew overhead. Once she was certain she had not been spotted, the Tamaranian floated to the top of the building and peeked over the ledge.

Numerous aircraft flitted through the air, she easily spotted five just in sight of her position, and could only guess how many others might be hiding behind some of the taller buildings in the distance. How much longer did she have before they were able to concentrate their search enough to pin her down? She began to plot a course to travel which would allow her to avoid as many of the vehicles' flight paths as possible-

When, suddenly and in unison, the entire fleet of helicopters spun about and began to fly to the south east at top speed. Starfire's eyes widened at the sudden departure of the vehicles, her curiosity instantly aroused. What ... what was happening? Had the police suddenly lost interest in her? Considering how fervently they had been chasing her, she doubted it, which meant ... which meant that they had ... they had found something of more interest to them than her?

The Tamaranian let out a gasp of understanding. There was only one thing in this city which could draw their attention away from her. Was it possible that they had located Cyborg before her, and were now moving to capture him? If that was the case, she had to assist him. Her friend, while powerful, was not nearly as mobile as herself, and would not be able to escape without causing more damage than either of them would be willing to.

Just as she was about to shoot out from her hiding spot, though, a sudden thought stopped her in her tracks: What if this was a ruse? She had made little effort to hide the fact that she was searching for her  
comrade. Had they caught on to the nature of her movements, and were trying to draw her out?

It only took Starfire a second of thought before she came to her conclusion. Trap or not, it did not matter. If there was even a chance that her friend was in peril, she had to investigate. Steeling her resolve, the alien super hero nodded to herself confidently and floated forward quickly, sticking tightly to rooftops and building faces to avoid detection as she began to tail the airborne vehicles. Though she was compelled to investigate the unusual actions of the helicopters, it did not mean she needed to take undue risks.

* * *

Patting his belly, Cyborg let out a satisfied belch. Leaning back into the booth seat, he had to commend these New Yorkers; Lord Almighty! They sure knew how to make a pizza! He'd needed it, too. After a whole morning in the library, comparing parallel dimensional histories, it was just what the doctor (or engineer) had ordered.

It had been doubly delicious, since he hadn't actually eaten since before they had all left to answer the call at S.T.A.R. labs. He'd been too late to hit the library the night before, and then too busy looking for a motel cheap enough to stay at to bother getting a bite to eat. About the only saving grace of the entire night was finding out that the electricity here was still electricity, and not some crazy anti-backward Qwardian energy. He'd just straight up plugged himself into the wall socket of his room. It had only put his battery up a few percent over the entire night, but as long as he didn't overdo it, he'd be back to full in a few days time.

So at least that was one worry of his put to rest.

He wouldn't run out of juice and turn into Tin Man 2.0 ... though he sure didn't want to see the motel's electricity bill at the end of the month. As it was, he was still trying to digest all of the information he'd skimmed through that morning. Well, that and his pizza.

Different presidents, different companies, outdated technology that seemed to have diverged around World War Two, no alien contacts, and, of course, the most notable difference of all:

No super heroes.

Beyond just that, no metahumans at all!

At least there were no **reported** metahumans, anyway. Heck, they didn't even seem to have any super genius types at all. Anyone considered truly brilliant here was pretty much limited to theoretical sciences, at least in terms of physics people. Of course, no one handed out Nobels to the crime fighting super geniuses back home ...for political reasons... but it was still a good gauge for where things were in the world. The pronounced lack of super scientists actually kind of left Cyborg in a bit of a lurch.

He doubted there was a person on the planet that was beyond a 6th level intellect. That meant even if he did go look for help on how to get home, all he would get would be theories. There didn't seem to be any publicly renowned think tanks, like Star labs, that he could go to that would help him manufacture and assemble the hardware for a functioning dimensional portal.

So, it looked like he was stuck doing all the grunt work himself. He smirked at the thought of it. It'd be just like that Stargate episode, where that ascended guy made a stargate out of a microwave in the basement (an episode oddly mirrored in the same SG1 program they had on this Earth, but a season ahead of his own, going by this handy 'wikipedia' thing he had discovered).

He'd just have to salvage enough existing tech, and hope there was enough moderately advanced stuff for him to cobble something together. Thankfully, he'd already had a bit of experience with parallel dimensions, but that had been his parents' work, not his own, so he had little more than a few dated copies of their research notes. That, and a world of bad memories…

No point in getting ahead of himself, though.

He was confident that at the very least, Ryo and Rae were here too, just not within fifty klicks of him. He really needed a way to find them. Unfortunately, he was again coming up blank. He could try to scan for Raven's energy signature, but without the satellites, his scanner wouldn't reach any further than his communicator.

He supposed he could try to hijack someone else's satellite to boost the signal, but compatibility problems aside, that seemed pretty likely to draw some pretty negative attention. He'd leave the option on the table, but only once he'd had more of a chance to study this world's tech. It was undoubtedly kinda primitive, but there were enough subtle differences in application to make it tricky to reverse engineer. He held up the severed cord, tipped with the USB adaptor. It was certainly cute, but it definitely wasn't familiar.

Hmmm ... familiar.

_'Now, if I were lost in a strange world, what would be the first thing I'd do?'_ he asked himself.

"Look for something familiar. Or somewhere, or someone."

It was, after all, what he was doing here in the first place: hoping to find some Justice League types to help him out. Of course, now he knew that this world was far more different than his own than he'd anticipated. Entire cities were gone, replaced with - admittedly glitzier – completely different ones. A lot of the places he grew up with weren't just gone, they'd never been in the first place. But what about Raven and Ryouga? Did they have any places they might go? Depending on where in the world they ended up, anyway.

Ducking his arm under the table, he brought up the display screen and brought up his address book. Right at the top of the list was Titan Tower. Not there. Pizzeria ... Arcade ... Mall ... He quickly scrolled through all of the Jump City locations that they frequented. Their emergency meeting sites were equally meaningless, as he was already in Gotham, but Gotham wasn't there. Metropolis was out as well. Most of their emergency meeting places had tended to be in cities with strong League presence, in case they were ever that badly in need of back up. Too bad those back up plans didn't make the transition to different realities.

He was about to put his arm away ... when he reached the end of his address book, and read the last, and latest entry.

The Tendo Dojo.

_'...Nawww, what would be the odds?'_

Still, as far as he knew, Tokyo was present in both worlds. There was a slight chance, and even if he just left a tiny sign post, someone might stumble across it and start to follow it back to him. He could probably do that elsewhere as well; try to figure out some kind of message that could be sent out that his friends would understand. He wasn't exactly too mobile at the moment, so he couldn't fly around the world to find them, so maybe he could bring them to him?

First thing was first, though, before going through the arduous process of tinkering together a message and a delivery system, he had a phone number right here. With his first actual plan of the night, he rose up from his seat, paid for his meal and left the pizzeria. It didn't take him long to find a phone booth ... though the thing had certainly seen its better days. It was pretty much painted solid with graffiti, but it still gave a signal. It would serve his purpose.

Not exactly holding onto a mountain of change, Cyborg was forced to - feeling really terrible about it, too - crack open the case and start rooting through the wires. At the very least, this outdated mode of communication was pretty much identical between both worlds, and unchanged over the decades. It was a simple matter for him to find the necessary wires to bypass the phone itself, and hook right into the network. Removing a small transceiver from his skull, he then hooked it up to the wires and closed the case back up, applying a bit of heat with his cutting torch to melt it back closed. The last thing he needed to do was stand around in a phone booth for god knew how long.

He then left the abused phone booth and found another convenient alleyway to hide in while he got underway. Once he was sure he was out of sight again, he sent a signal via the transmitter, and initiated the call. Without the phone, he couldn't input the number himself, but he had enough control to get the operator.

Said operator answered moments later, sounding very much like an automated system.

Even better, really.

"How may I direct your call?"

Smiling, Cyborg spoke directly to the air before him.

"Could you connect me to the Tendo residence, please? It's in Tokyo, Japan, the Nerima ward ..."

* * *

Seiran

It wasn't often that one got a routed call to an operative on-base. Most were permanently out of touch, and rightly so. However, there were certain protocols for switching lines from on base to off base. The ongoing hunt to register and safeguard wandering martial artists was part of this program.

As a result, when Kasumi Tendo heard that she was getting a call 'from the outside' she knew exactly what it meant and what she had to do. Someone with an unidentified voice print was contacting the dojo and had followed up by receiving and dialing her automated extension. The last time a call of this sort had gotten through security thanks to the words 'Ranma' and 'that damned Saotome' being uttered, it had been an obscure martial artist calling to schedule a challenge and built up his reputation as a 'dojo destroyer.' He had quickly been traced, identified and detained.

Kasumi had been in the middle of checking in on some growing skin graft scaffolds – tissue burns being the most common survivable injury encountered by field ops – when she got the news via the medical wing comm system. Finishing her review of one of the samples and putting the rest back into incubation, the eldest Tendo sister quickly removed her nitrile medical gloves and passed out through the lab sanitation filter. A flash of light sterilized anyone passing in or out, and she blinked a few times as she made her way to one of the restricted line phones.

"Miss Tendo," a male voice spoke, a second after she picked up. "We have a Six-Seven from the outside line. Intel does not have voice match, and we are intercepting via landline and Echelon. Your conversation will be monitored at all times."

"Yes, I know. Thank you."

"Connecting now."

There was an audible click, and Kasumi spoke up again, this time in Japanese. "Moshi moshi?"

"Um, ah, hello there?" came the somewhat tentative response, unexpectedly in English. "This is Kasumi Tendo, right?"

"Oh, yes, this is Kasumi," she also switched, easily, to English. "May I ask who is calling?"

"Ah, right! This is ... um - Dan Hibiki! That's it. I'm Dan Hibiki. I've heard through the rumor mill that you know my long lost cousin, Ryouga? Is that right? I'm kind of looking for him, and I was wondering if he's stopped by the dojo lately?"

"Dan Hibiki?" Kasumi asked, her mouth making a small 'o.' That couldn't be right. As far as she knew, Tetsuya was an only son; Ryouga had no surviving uncles on his father's side of the family, and none on Mitsuko's. Then again, there were supposedly more distant branches of the family… still, this didn't seem to be one of them.

Her mind raced: should she confront this man with that fact or play along?

"Ryouga is a friend of mine, yes," she smoothly continued. "I believe he is out at the moment playing with his friends. May I ask what this is about? Is there some sort of family emergency?"

"Well, it might be. So, you have seen him then, right? Umm ... can you tell me, if you've seen him recently, has he been acting ... odd in anyway? Y'know, confused, or maybe hanging out with strange girls?"

Now _that_ was an interesting question.

"I'm afraid he runs into many strange people during his little trips, and he often appears a bit lost. Could you please be more specific?" she asked, politely. "What would these strange girls look like?"

The mysterious speaker paused for a moment. "Well, one of them would be ... pale. Or maybe a redhead? Possibly even a... hmm, a rave party girl? I dunno if he's actually with any of them or not, just that he might be ... so, um ... have you?"

"I'm sorry, none of those sounds like the kind of girls he and his friends spend time with," Kasumi replied. Of course, the 'kind of girl' Ryouga and the other boys spent most of their time with were best described by: 'exuberant Chinese Amazon' and 'cross dressing warrior chef.' The very idea of any of them spending time with a 'rave party girl' was well worth the price of admission.

"Perhaps," she suggested. "You could contact his parents, Gendo and Yui?"

"Um, y'know ..." Suddenly, the caller paused again. "Gendo and Yui, you say? I - ah - actually, I'm sorry for bothering you. I must have the wrong number." The deep voiced speaker laughed nervously. "Heh, what a crazy coincidence, eh? What are the odds of my cousin having the same name as your friend!"

"A very strange coincidence," Kasumi cheerfully agreed, but inwardly cringed. She really should have picked a more obscure anime to get a couple's names from! This was all because of that new Eva Rebuild! How many more good conversations would it ruin? How many?

"Please take care," she added, sensing he was about to hang up. "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."

"Yeah, I'm sorry for wasting your time, too. I really need to be going now ... Actually, before I go, could I ask you a quick question? I was just wondering, off the top of my head, do you happen to like long, moonlit walks along the beach, and other cliché junk like that? Y'know... just out of curiosity?"

"Actually…" On a lark, she answered the strange question. "I've sort of always wanted to go to one of those eighties night clubs."

Bizarrely, she could have sworn she heard someone writing something down. "Eighties night clubs, eh? So, you like the not quite classic rock? That's pretty awesome, I wouldn't have thought of that. You like dancin' too?"

"With the right man, maybe... Mister Hibiki."

"Oh, **oh**! I, ah, I'm not talking about **me**! I'm ... um ... asking for a friend?" The strange 'Mr. Hibiki' began to chuckle nervously again. "I mean, I'm a Hibiki after all, so I could be in, oh, Australia or something. Lord knows I'd never make it to Tokyo!"

"Or you could be in Tokyo right now and not even know it!"

"Heh heh heh, that's right! I could be bashing through some poor guy's wall even as we speak! ... Well, obviously I'm not, since you'd probably hear that, but still, you know us Hibikis!" Another pause. "Umm, quick, before I go, though, any other likes slash dislikes that any other prospective guys might want to know about if, hypothetically, they were to meet you?"

"One would be that I prefer to meet people face to face." Only Kasumi's ever-warm tone kept the phrase from being frosty, as it would coming from most any other woman's mouth. As it was, it ended up sounding just a bit reprimanding. "I'll let Ryouga know that his cousin Dan called. I'm sure you'll run into each other sooner than you think."

'Mr. Hibiki' chuckled to himself. "Can't blame a guy for tryin! Pleasure talkin' to ya, Kasumi. Have a good one."

And with that, he hung up and the call was ended.

Immediately, the line switched back to GenIntel's HUMInt division. "Thank you Miss Tendo. I take it this man seemed suspicious to you?"

"I'm afraid so. Ryouga may know something… but if not," she said with a sad sigh. "When you find him, please don't be too rough."

"We'll be in contact."

The call disconnected completely this time.

Kasumi shook her head. Hopefully this man pretending to be 'Dan Hibiki' wasn't a bad person. It could be nice to meet him some day and find out what all those strange questions were really about.

* * *

Canines.

Why was it mandatory for Earthers to employ such vicious canines?

Overhead, more helicopters circled, like vultures. More worrisome still were a pair of high flying military aircraft. It had been a sobering revelation when she had witnessed the arrival of the first military helicopter ... Before, she had been dealing with police, with law enforcement officers, good men and women charged with protecting the same citizens which she did.

Soldiers, though ... soldiers were different. She knew soldiers; she had been raised as a warrior herself. Soldiers were not charged with the capture of enemies, they were trained to kill. Trained to destroy. She knew what Vegan soldiers did with their prisoners back home ... if they bothered to take prisoners at all.

Her time with the Gordanians had not been forgotten, would _never_ be forgotten. In her mind, the seriousness of the situation had sky rocketed. No longer was it a game of evasion with officers of the law, it was now a battle between warriors and with the life of Cyborg possibly hanging in the balance.

Oh, how she wished Robin was present. He would know how to deal with this situation. Even if he didn't, his very presence would provide her with limitless comfort. As it was, with all of the aerial activity, Starfire was understandably reluctant to leave the tree line. The further the aircraft had pulled back to the edge of a warehouse district by the sea, it had become increasingly difficult to stay out of sight.

The loud barking of one of the Earth canines made her freeze as she considered her next move. Starfire was certain she hadn't been seen, but her comrade, Beast Boy had demonstrated how easily they could track by scent alone. It was likely she stood out simply by virtue of not being a native to the planet. If the attack dogs were close, though, it meant that ground troops were likely closing in as well. She had no desire to enter battle with the soldiers, she did not want to contemplate what would be required of her if she was forced to fight people intent on her death.

The whole situation was... terribly worrying.

It seemed likely that she was in China ... but that country possessed its share metahumans, as well. Earth politics was not something she was particularly fluent in, but Starfire had never heard of China cracking down on metas (or humanoid aliens in her case). She knew that her unintended property destruction had been ... embarrassing… but there was no reason for them to be pursuing her like this. Property destruction happened all the time! And if the officer had not fired upon her, causing her to react hastily and flee, this likely could have been settled peaceably. This escalation of force was beyond all reason.

It left her painfully confused ... Why were they after her like this? Did they have Cyborg, and if so, why all of this security? Just what, in X'hal's name was going on here?

The barking died down as the unseen canine that had gotten her scent paused in its pursuit. Starfire flew up along the underside of one of the warehouse railings, trying to blend in with the shadows and stitched iron latticework. The animals would not be able to track her like this, up here, and it would hopefully confuse them to an extent. Long enough for her to get a better grasp on what she was heading into.

Peeking over the railing, she could see where the helicopters had headed before: it was another nondescript warehouse, or rather, just outside it. The humans here had set up some kind of barricade with parked vehicles. A very large truck was also parked nearby, and a similarly large helicopter - a transport version of the smaller ones, Star could guess - was idling on an open area near the pier. She could also see two more military-looking vehicles with weapons attached to their tops, and one heavily armored machine that reminded her of something she had seen some "swat" policemen use once.

This latest revelation was the final nail in the burial container for the Tamaranian warrior. The military helicopters had been threatening, but distant. A danger removed by distance, and one that she felt comfortable dealing with, the air being her domain. The sight of a significant military force such as this, carrying such overtly lethal weapons filled her with apprehension, but ... but also with a nigh forgotten tingle of excitement. She had been trained as a warrior, but had rarely had to fall back on the darker aspects of her training while in the presence of her powerful friends.

Her friends had never, to her knowledge, seen a real battlefield, and she hoped that they never would. She had, since her arrival, derived that there were differences in the codes of conduct concerning the combat of criminals than there was in fighting on the battlefield. It was just one of Earth's many peculiarities.

The Tamaranian shook her head fiercely. She was getting too far ahead of herself; the possibility for combat was still not a certainty. Still, if they did have Cyborg here - and they were treating him like they seemed inclined to treat her - then he was in trouble. The level of security present would be problematic, though. Deciding to be a little conservative, Starfire remained hidden. It looked like the humans were going to be moving whatever they had into either the truck or the big helicopter. If she waited until the moment they made the move, she could make a more informed decision as to whether to get involved or not.

So she waited.

Time, of course, passed slowly when you wanted it to move quickly. What had Kasumi said before? "Constant observation of heated water prevents the phase transition from liquid to gas state?" Earther sayings were always so vexing to remember right; their languages seemed to be designed to confuse. Why did they have words with multiple meanings? It was frustrating. A klorbag was a klorbag, no matter the context. So why was a "chick" sometimes a young chicken and sometimes a person? There were too many meanings and double-meanings and puns and "plays regarding words" and other nonsense. It was the same with their written languages, too.

It just was not very alien-friendly; she could pick up the languages easy enough, but the nuances still caused some problems. And waiting in the shadows while nothing happened only heightened the tension she felt. How long was that helicopter going to just stay there, wasting aviation fuel? How long were they going to keep that truck parked there with its engine running? Why was no one doing anything except standing around or walking back and forth pointlessly?

Maybe they were...

Was it possible they were waiting for someone? Her? Or was Cyborg hurt? Were they afraid to move him? Maybe they were waiting for a doctor or someone? The waiting, and the questions and scenarios her fertile imagination began to conjure up, were all quickly getting to her. Still, she held back, putting aide her initial anxiety. She watched the helicopters overhead very carefully, counting down their movements as they came and went.

She could zip in, take a look, and zip out.

She would have to; she could not afford to delay indefinitely.

Finally decided on the course of action, Starfire focused her emotions, made sure of her timing, and bolted out of cover. The men guarding the center area immediately pointed at her and started yelling. Unhappy with her lack of alternatives, Starfire shot a few harmless bolts at the ground to kick up dust and encourage them to find cover. She heard cursing and yelling as a cloud of dust rose up. The men would be unable to see her well, but her target was a static enclosure. She could carefully zip in even with her own vision obscured.

Rushing past the stunned men, Starfire landed to the side of one of the four parked vehicles. Pushing aside the heavy plastic that closed off the back of the large parked truck in the middle of the police cars she half expected - after all this - to see Cyborg strapped to a table or something. Instead, she came face to face with a dozen more of the armed humans in mottled blue uniforms. Surprised, and yet somehow not, she hesitated.

"Don't move," one of them spoke, then repeated it in English, "Do _not_ move."

Hearing English spoken, finally, and for the first time, she twitched.

But she did not move.

One of the men inside was dressed differently and not armed. He wore the sort of black professional uniform she had seen older human men wearing back home. She had dealt with federal agents on several occasions, and this man, with his well serious, professional look seemed to fit that bill more so than the rest did.

"You can understand me, can't you?" the black suited man asked, holding out his empty hands from where he stood among the armed soldiers. "I order you to surrender. You are now our prisoner."

"Prisoner?" she asked, green eyes narrowing.

Instinctively, light flared up around her hands.

It was not like she had even thought about firing at the man. It had simply been an emotional response to a particularly charged word. _Prisoner_. Starfire had sworn years ago that she would never be taken prisoner again. The atrocities she had suffered at the hands of the Gordanians: submission - _Capture_ - just the idea of it was abhorrent. So her emotions flared up, and the light around her hands followed a heartbeat later, blazing a vivid green.

It was then that one of the armed men panicked, seeing what he no doubt thought to be an attack, especially given what had happened outside. Starfire felt it really, before the sound even sunk in.

They were shooting at her.

The first few rounds hit in her torso, and they stung fiercely. Aside from the police woman earlier, she had never been subjected to a human projectile weapon fire before, and that had been a notably smaller and weaker firearm. Usually her enemies used energy, or beam weapons of some sort or another, as most advanced races tended to. Who used chemicals to propel bits of hurtful metal at other sentient beings? It was cruel and barbaric! Why not just mutilate your enemies, too, while you were at it?

Her Tamaranian physiology saved her life for the second time that day. Like all of her race, she was blessed with strength and durability far beyond that of humans, the power to survive even the harsh conditions of space itself. The tensile strength of her bones, the high density of her musculature, and the toughness of her skin were enough to protect her ... for the most part. The bullets that hit her chest didn't penetrate, mushrooming and flattening against the exotic material of her top in a painful manner.

Without thinking, Starfire covered her face and chest and stumbled back a step. The man from before shouted something, but a second later - seeing her still standing despite taking three rounds to her center of mass - the nerves of the other men snapped and they opened fire as well.

Incensed by the unprovoked attack, she gritted her teeth. A second later, the emerald light around her fists swelled several times in size, growing into beach ball sized spheres of roiling meta-plasma. The sound of gunfire continued, nearly deafening at this range, but the sharp pain of the projectiles slamming into her dropped markedly. Though she had hoped to hear the distinctive 'pfft!' of bullets being melted, unexpectedly it was the concussive force of her signature attacks that provided most of the protection, slowing or deflecting most of the projectiles enough so that they were no longer a serious threat when they hit home.

Her thighs, woefully less protected than her upper body, still suffered as stray rounds continued to crash into them. Unfortunately, tough as it was, her skin was still as sensitive as any human's. She felt the bullets as they broke on her legs, some even managing to pierce her skin enough to draw out rivulets of green blood.

_'Why?'_

Why were they _shooting_ her? She was a Teen Titan! She was a hero! The government was not supposed to attack heroes, not like this! The occasional mistaken-identity melee or use of stun blasters aside, this did not happen! Robin had promised that her days on battlefields were over!

"Enough! _Cease your attack_!" Starfire yelled, releasing her pent-up fury and confusion in a blast of green energy. The back of the truck blew apart from the force unleashed, and the half dozen armed men who had ambushed her inside it were all blown back. Bullets continued to fly, and soon one or two pained cries merged with her own.

Instinctively, she flew up to get _away_.

On Earth, her enemies were land bound more often than not. Flying was something her mind had come to correlate with safety. But one or two of them were still shooting at her. Again, starbolts began to emit from her fists and she did her best to block the incoming projectiles, unfortunately, a bullet bounced clean off her temple, dazing her vision for a moment. It felt like Slade had elbowed her in between the eyes. She was bleeding and hurt and ... and they were still firing at her!

Fury, fury the likes of which she had not felt since her arrival on Earth bubbled up from a very dark place within her.

"_Hnh_ ... _hnh_ ... _Zengtha ru maka! Kek zengtha ror_!"

A dozen bolts of green rained down. One of the armed men took a hit and was blasted backwards through the air. A few others crashed into a nearby parked jeep, shearing off a door, blowing off a wheel and flipping the vehicle over. She did not want to hurt anyone, but... but she would _not_ abide this! It was -

A loud thunk-thunk sound cut off her thoughts as something exploded in the air nearby. Some kind of explosive shell, fired by one of the more heavily armored human vehicles. She resisted the urge to batter away at it with Starbolts, trying to balance her fury with her compassion. She did not wish to risk killing those in the back of the vehicle with unrestrained violence, but nor did she wish to ignore such a dangerous threat.

Intense power built up in her eyes -

Seconds later, two large, molten holes were burned through the nose of the APC, where she imagined the combustion engine might be located. Unfortunately, killing the vehicle's engine still left the turret functional. Not wanting to engage the helicopters above, she quickly dove down. The turret of the crippled vehicle tried to track her, and a man on one of the armed jeeps opened fire with a larger caliber projectile weapon. It was firing incredibly quickly, and Star only avoided getting tagged by sweeping around another parked jeep. Then she was beneath the arc of the APC's turret.

Flying into the side of the personnel carrier, she slammed her hands into the heavy armor of the underbelly - the metal sheets twisting mercilessly under her grasp - and began to _lift_. The APC rose into the air, the alien warrior lifting it above her head. Glancing in the direction of the jeep, she prepared to use the armored vehicle as a shield...

When two more APCs rolled out of the warehouse.

Starfire's eyes narrowed as she regarded the incoming vehicles. Fury starting to get the better of caution, she hurled her captured APC, but aimed down at the docks. The bulky vehicle bounced once before rolling over several times, tearing up much of the metal framing, but doing little apparent damage to the main structure. The shooting and the advancing APCs and jeeps stopped, and some tried to quickly reverse. One flipped over onto its side as it tried to execute too sharp a turn.

A moment later, something fast - too fast - exploded nearby. More metal, this time burning hot, nicked off her skin. It was like a dozen burning cuts, and she hissed even as the force of it tossed her to the ground. Another bullet, or _something_, bigger, faster, hit hard enough to knock the wind from her lungs.

"_Mesnef_!" Starfire swore loudly.

Glaring upwards at the airborne vehicle which had just tried to destroy her, her rage boiled over again. Even as the pair of military helicopters began to reorient on her new position, she launched herself into the air again, straight up and so fast that the missiles and projectiles they fired did little more than disrupt the emerald trail of light following in her wake.

She managed to regain control of herself as she rose up level with the helicopters and restrained from simply blasting away at them. Rather, she zipped around behind the closest aircraft, moving far too fast for it to maneuver with her, and grabbed onto the tail of the helicopter. Plasma flared up around her hands, and a second later, the rear rotor ceased spinning from the damage she caused to the mechanism within.

Even as the vehicle began to spin around - the pilot would be forced to land quickly - she took off in a straight line away from it, using its listing bulk to block the aim of the second helicopter long enough to get out of its range. Then, once she was clear, she poured on the speed. Green light trailed her like a glorious comet tail as she soared through the sky. There was no way that any of the helicopters would be able to keep pace with her, not with the speeds and heights she could attain ...

Oddly, that was not nearly as comforting a thought as it should have been, though. She had escaped the military here ... but in doing so, she had possibly abandoned her dear friend in the clutches of those ... of those barbarians.

The Tamaranian shook her head slowly as she soared aimlessly; one phrase summed up all of her feelings at the moment, and Starfire muttered sadly:

"_Heska vo_ ..."

* * *

"_Damn _it."

Beast Boy winced at the outburst. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Robin standing at the center of the lab, very nearly on top of the epicenter of the… incident. The metal plating of the floor was warped and twisted in an oddly familiar pattern, like crested waves of water radiating out from a central point in a series of rings. Directly at the center was a perfectly circular depression, kind of like the one that happened when those Terminator guys traveled through time in those movies… whatever they were called. The rest of the lab was pretty much trashed as well, but in the more mundane 'epic battle with insane monsters' kind of way, then with the accident itself.

A number of lab coat wearing types populating the chamber also noticed the outburst, and started giving the masked hero a slightly wider berth. One of the investigators from the Police Force looked ready to say something, but the ranking officer on the scene, Lieutenant Santiago if Beast Boy remembered her name correctly, gave the man a quick shake of her head and he went back to his work. In turn, Beast Boy shot her a thankful nod and received a quick one in return.

It was hard for Beast Boy to see their leader so out of sorts. Sure, he'd seen Robin angry before: whenever he lost a card game, whenever Beast Boy tried to borrow his crime fighting gear, pretty much anything even tangentially related to Slade… But this was something else.

This wasn't just anger; there was desperation, recrimination, and a half a dozen other negative emotions that the changeling couldn't quickly identify. It was also causing problems. The cops were usually good enough to let them help out with investigations like this but they were by no means obligated to. It was a matter of mutual good will that let them work in this way, and if the Lieutenant started to get worried they were too close to this problem to stay objective, she might ask them to leave.

Waving down the Boy Wonder, Beast Boy called out. "Yo, Robin, ya gotta chill out, man."

He then gestured to Kasumi. The eldest member of their team – not exactly a 'field' operative, to say the least – was examining a large machine that looked like a cross between a pinball machine and a pizza oven to the inexperienced shape shifter; she was still wearing the same blouse and skirt combination that she had been wearing in the tower – though they'd managed to remind her to take off her apron – and looked excruciatingly out of place in the middle of a disaster investigation. As soon as she heard him, she turned to see what he wanted.

He quickly waved her over. As soon as she was close enough, he leaned in and whispered to her, "Can you keep an eye on Robin, please? I know this isn't easy for any of us to deal with, but we gotta keep our heads, ya'know?"

Kasumi didn't respond immediately, instead, she appeared to study him for a moment, as if appraising him in some way. The tall brunette then nodded, offering him a brilliant smile. "Of course, Garfield. You are absolutely right."

Then, unexpectedly, she leaned forward and dropped a hand on his shoulder, giving it a supportive squeeze. Whispering conspiratorially, she added, "Also, you're doing an excellent job."

Immediately, his cheeks began to burn, and he did his best to hide his embarrassment as the graceful woman turned and glided away. He hadn't even had time to insert a standard indignant huff to her using his real name on a mission! It was, of course, utterly impossible to stay mad at Kasumi, though, so he just watched her go, and waited until she stopped at their Leader's side and started speaking to him in hushed tones.

Letting out a low sigh of relief, he then turned back to the other issue at hand. Behind him, Terra – goddess in human form that she was – was talking to some nerd wearing giant glasses that took up most of his face. Dr. Xenophon Quincy, if Beast Boy recalled. It was a remarkably difficult name to forget, in retrospect. The blonde Titan, wearing her standard black and yellow attire, was standing in front of a table, one littered with numerous labeled and tagged objects of various descriptions.

"So, is there anything else you can tell us about the accident, Doctor?" Terra asked, her brow scrunching up adorably as she examined all of the pieces of 'evidence' that had been collected from around the lab in the aftermath. The researchers had not only picked up the twisted remains of the 'DQD,' as they'd called it, they'd also collected every piece of material that was related to the experiments involving the 'Hyper Griffin'.

For a brief moment, Beast Boy let his imagination run wild. He knew he could change into alien animals now, after his stint at Starfire's 'wedding', so did that mean he could turn into transdimensional beasties as well? How awesome would that be? Of course, any actual notion of _trying_ to make such a change had been nipped in the bud the second he'd been shown video of the 'creature' in question. The sight of that monstrosity had been enough to set even his stomach into knots.

"I'm afraid not, my dear," Dr Quincy replied, sounding somewhat embarrassed, "It's only been a scant few hours since the accident. We haven't even had time to clean up the mess properly, let alone start going through all of the data. You have no idea just the kind of computations are involved in transdimensional events such as this. Not to mention that we have an entire set of unknowns in the form of your one companion's… unusual… powers."

"Oh, you must mean Raven, right?" Terra asked inquisitively.

The doctor nodded, turning back to pick up a scorched and twisted piece of metal from the table, looking it over with an analytical eye. "Quite so. If I weren't watching it unfold with my own eyes, I scarcely would have believed it. The interaction between her powers, the Dimensional Quarantine Device and the entity itself, were completely unprecedented. We don't have enough data to even begin to postulate as to what occurred."

Beast Boy stepped in at that, trying hard to hide the trepidation in his voice. "Do… do you at least know if they're… alright, or not? I mean… do you know _anything_?"

Dr. Quincy turned to regard him, carefully controlling his expression. Despite that, the mousy scientist still wore a grave expression. "We are… hopeful," he finally stated.

Pointing to the event epicenter, he gestured around with his hand. "While we do not know what did happen, our preliminary investigation has found no… no organic traces anywhere around ground zero. At the very least we believe that excludes the scenario of… violent exothermic reactions being involved."

"Uhhhh…" Beast Boy lifted a finger, his jaw going slack.

"Um, I think it means that he's pretty sure they didn't explode," Terra offered helpfully.

"Oh – _oh_, well, that's good news then! Umm… but what does it mean, then?"

At that, the good doctor paused. "Well… we're not exactly certain. Personally, I theorize that the event that occurred was a dimensional anomaly. In the best case scenario, it is possible that they were simply thrown through the dimensional barrier."

Beast Boy stared at the man weakly. "And the worst case scenario?"

"You, uh, likely don't want to know the worst case scenario."

The changeling's face fell at that. "So, there's nothing you can do, then?"

"Oh my, no," Xenophon replied, suddenly quite upbeat. "This is one of the most advanced facilities on the planet. While we have no knowledge of what has happened _yet_, I am very confident that we will be able to unravel this mystery and determine the ultimate fate of your friends. We just need time to go over all of our data, both from prior experiments on the entity, and the information garnered from the combat between your friends and the entity."

That seemed to garner Terra's interest, the slim blonde was currently holding a large metal cylinder. Tilting it from side to side, a sloshing sound could be heard from inside it. "What kind of experiments did you do to that – that whatever it was?"

"Oh, nothing out of the ordinary," Dr Quincy replied, off handedly. Reaching over, he picked up another cylinder similar to, but smaller than, the one Terra held. "We began by taking numerous tissue samples. The entity possessed a most incredible physical make up, being a transdimensional being. Did you know that the material of its feathers-" He held up the container in his hand for emphasis- "Is not functionally any different than samples taken from its brain?"

He nodded to the container in her hands, quite pointedly.

It took Terra a long second before realization finally set it. As soon as it did, she let out a startled gasp and nearly dropped the cylinder. Only a quick dive from Beast Boy caught it and returned it to the table safely. Still, he did not like what he had heard. Turning to glare at the doctor, he growled in a low voice.

"You were _dissecting _it? While it was still alive!"

"What? Well, yes, but – you see – it is not _really_ alive, not in any way that we can understand it, at any rate. But, still, isn't that for the best? If your friends are still alive, the data we can extract from these samples may well hold the key to eventually saving them."

That gave Beast Boy pause. '_If they are still alive?_' Instantly, his outrage was mollified. He hated to admit it, but in this case, he found it hard to place the welfare of an extradimensional space monster above that of his friends-

Wait, no, actually it wasn't that hard at all.

Swallowing his disgust with the researcher, he nodded. "They're definitely alive, don't you doubt it," he stated confidently. "You just make sure that you do everything you can to find them!"

"Of course, of course," the doctor replied quickly. "In fact, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do this very minute."

Beast Boy just watched as the diminutive scientist scurried off to busy himself with something far across the ruined lab. Frowning as he watched the man leave, he was caught by surprise when he felt a pair of arms wrap around his neck. Looking down in surprise, he saw Terra looking up at him. Her eyes were shimmering, and she pressed her head to his chest.

"You – you're sure that they're all okay?" she asked tentatively.

"You know it," he replied more firmly than he actually felt.

"They're _all_ alright."

Looking up, both young heroes started when they noticed that Robin and Kasumi were standing right beside them. The Boy Wonder's face was tight, but he still gave the changeling a sharp nod of recognition. Words weren't even necessary for the shape changer to feel a swell of pride in his chest.

"They're alright," Robin reiterated. "And they _will _be found, no matter how long it takes."

Kasumi nodded brightly. "Of course they will. Ryouga and the others are far too tenacious to let something like being shifted into an alternate dimension keep them down for long."

"Yeah!" Terra cheered, pumping her fist into the air. "I bet Cyborg will figure out how to get them home before any of these eggheads even get the chance to."

Robin nodded, though his face remained grim. "Wherever they are, our friends will be alright. We, however, have a serious matter of our own to deal with, now."

"Huh? What's that?" Beast Boy asked, confused.

"We just lost the majority of our team, and we have no idea how long it will take to get them back. Even staying optimistic, that is a major problem for us. If word gets out that the Teen Titans have been reduced from eight fighters to three in the blink of an eye, I have no doubt that that will garner us all of the wrong kinds of attention."

Terra's eyes grew wide as she considered the implications of that. "Oh… man."

Robin nodded again. "We'll let Dr Quincy and his team get to work here. We need to get back to the tower and start making our own preparations. First thing first, is going to be trying to keep this under wraps as long as possible. We'll figure things out as we go from there."

With that, their leader ushered them out of the laboratory and to the elevator that led back to the surface. Letting the ladies go on ahead, the Boy Wonder and Beast Boy followed a few steps behind. Before they stepped into the elevator, the two boys shared one last look. Despite all of their brave talk, and all of their assurances to Kasumi and Terra, one unspoken phrase continued to echo through their minds.

'_If they still are alive…_'

No, they definitely had to be. Beast Boy wasn't sure he'd be able to live with himself if he actually let himself believe otherwise. And if Robin was even half right – and when was he ever less than 90% right? – then they were going to need all of their wits about them when word of this disaster got out.

'_Damnit, Cy, you better use that stupidly big brain of yours to get everyone back here soon. I don't want to know how bad things could get here without you guys…'_

Sighing sadly, the changeling wrapped an arm around Terra's shoulder and pulled her close to him. Taking one last look at the interior of the ruined laboratory, he silently wished his missing friends luck.

"You guys are on your own now… wherever you are. Take care of yourselves."

And then the elevator doors slid closed.

* * *

It was the strangest thing.

Not just the battered phone – though seeing what looked like finger gouges in the case _was_ odd – but that downtown wanted them to stay in the area and keep on the lookout for any suspicious activity. After 9/11, the city had upped its alertness when it came to unusual activity in public places, but it didn't seem like this was a bomb scare.

Officer Fielding reflected on that, while his partner finished herding people away form the area. If this had been a bomb threat, then there were dedicated units to handle it. Why send just two officers to clear the area and a city electrician to examine the suspicious phone booth? It seemed either to be a gross underestimation of the danger, or an overestimation of a malfunctioning machine. He could understand the desire not to cause a panic… the idea of some wacko packing phone booths with C4 or something was pretty nasty… but even if it was a false alarm, it seemed best to err on the side of caution.

With the area secured, his partner meandered over, glancing over at the booth.

"Vicky," Fielding called, waving her over. "What do'ya think? If this is what I think it may be… we'd have been better off clearing the whole street."

Officer Christianson, despite being a petite five foot five, was an intelligent and highly regarded addition to the precinct, though a bit wet behind the ears. Her size and short, dirty blonde hair belied a surprising athleticism; few on the force dared to take up her offer of competitive racquetball for fear of being mercilessly trounced. Fielding himself was an older man in his forties, with more than ten years on the force after leaving the fire department.

"It may not be an explosive, really," Christianson mused, as the two watched the electrician go to work. They'd both seen the obvious and unusual tampering (and on site welding) done to the phone.

"Howso?"

"Could be some cyber-terrorism thing," she speculated. "Maybe someone put a listening device in the phone or something that can flood the phone lines with static?"

Fielding hadn't thought of that – there were plenty of devious ways to cause confusion and panic, after all. It didn't have to be a bomb. Some bastard could bug the phones to steal personal information for blackmail, or tap directly into the city landlines. If it really was something more covert than overt, then there was a definite benefit to not making a huge scene. For better or worse, he and Christianson had been put on this case, by 'special order.' If it turned out something was amiss, it wouldn't be long before the Feds stuck their noses in, too.

Maybe they already had.

The New Yorkers seemed to take the disturbance in stride. A busy subway entrance nearby bustled with people coming and going, and two food carts jockeyed for customers down the street. Few paid much more than passing attention to the yellow tape and phone booth, clearly being fixed or replaced, except possibly to mutter (or curse) about the inconvenience of closing one lane of traffic. This was New York. Inconvenient construction and maintenance was part of life and hardly worth worrying about or thinking too deeply over.

After a while, the city electrician walked over, one hand buried in a pocket, the other hanging onto a bag of tools.

"What'cha got, Frank?" Fielding asked, facing the civil servant. The man looked to be in his thirties, and his face was lit up by the prospect of finding something exciting, for once.

"Looks like a bug," the electrician replied, tilting his head as a few pedestrians walked by, outside the marked yellow tape border. "Someone did a quick job, rewiring the phone so he could tap into the line remotely."

"Listening device?" Christianson asked.

"Don't think so." Frank shook his head. "Purely send/receive."

"What about the casing?"

"Got tore up pretty bad. Ripped it right open. Must've used a jaws of life or something exotic to do the job. The weld was sloppy, too. Guy must've been in a rush to do it without being seen."

The two police nodded.

"So," Frank asked, "Should I remove it? Or what?"

"Probably not," Officer Fielding answered, though not before he and Christianson gave it some thought. "Let's call it in and bring in some other professionals. See if we can trace it back to this guy."

"I don't have the equipment with me for anything like that," Frank admitted. "He's gotta be tapping into it remotely, though, and there's no big transmitter or nothin'. If he's using it, I'd say he's probably close by…"

* * *

Cyborg sat on the bed, staring at the pile of junk he'd managed to scrounge up from scrap yards and dumpsters behind computer shops and so on, over the course of the past few hours. He'd decided to use the motel for his base of operations for as long as he could afford it, in hopes of getting a hold of any other Titans that were likely dragged here with him.

Unfortunately, this 'jury rigging junk into advanced tech' scenario wasn't panning out nearly as easily as the Coneheads had led him to believe. It wasn't like he was trying to do anything complicated; just cobble together a transmitter powerful enough to let him hitchhike onto an existing satellite network so that he could extend the range of his communicator from local to Global.

However, this relatively simple plan was running into a laundry list of problems.

Most notable of which was the fact that a lot of the components he'd managed to find were either damaged, or unusually dedicated to a single purpose. Sure, the capacitors and the power sources and the like worked fine, but he was starting to wonder if he was going to have to start cannibalizing his own systems to actually rig up something to actually send the signal itself.

Of course, he wasn't a huge fan of that idea, since he was kind of fond of his own systems and all that. Still, he could afford to look for alternatives for a few more days, at least, before he'd have to look for other housing. He was pretty sure he could get it to work… eventually. He might just need to get more selective on the scrap he scrounged up. In fact, scrounging might not work at all; he might be forced to find existing transmitters and hijack them as well...

It seemed that he was on the fast track to making himself really unpopular on this world. He'd already ticked off Kasumi, and now he was considering breaking into private, or possibly government facilities. He wasn't sure he could stomach all of this 'shadowy morality.'

The sudden growling of his stomach reminded him of something else he couldn't stomach. Having an empty stomach. Sure, he was plugged into the wall socket, bringing his battery back up nicely, but that didn't help him at all from more conventional tastes. Well, that was what he had free phone service for! Thank goodness for complimentary phonebooks in these places. Pulling it out, he began to flip through the pages.

"Now," he wondered, smiling at all the choices. "...what's a good pizza joint around here?"

* * *

"We've got something!"

The excited exclamation woke Officer Fielding from his half asleep state. Rather than a room at headquarters, he awoke to see the inside of the special electronic counter-terrorism and surveillance van. Being pulled to babysit techs for a double shift was starting to look less and less attractive. God only knew what most of the stuff in the van actually did.

Luckily, Officer Christianson was up and about, and far more comfortable with waiting around surrounded by screens and controls and other junk. They'd brought in the van about an hour after confirming the presence of third party hardware in the public phone, and a small group of EW types had quickly taken the phone and tapped into it with their own machines. Whatever it had entailed, Officer Fielding couldn't say for sure, but they'd then spend the rest of the day waiting for someone to make a call.

"Hello, Corner Street Pizza. May I take your order?"

"Hmm, yeah, can I get a large meat lovers, double pepperoni? A bottle of soda, and some bread sticks? Send it to Castle Motel, room 108?"

"We have an address?" Fielding asked, surprised by the gimme.

"Maybe," Christianson said. "HQ will want this guy tailed and ID'd before we make a move."

"We don't have a lot on him besides the damage to the phone and the illegal tap."

"The orders came from up top, remember?" Officer Christianson asked, on the ball as always. "Get a positive ID and observe from a distance. They must think he's involved in something bigger than just this."

"He sounds like some kid," fielding observed, though 'kid' was a relative term in his case. "What if all this is just some egghead's practical joke?"

His partner shrugged, reaching for the phone to HQ.

"We'll find out soon enough."

* * *

The knock at the door caught Cyborg's attention quickly. Excited, he jumped up and moved to the door. As expected, it was the pizza dude, heavenly smelling offering all prepared for Cyborg to enjoy. Taking the grub and the drink, he eagerly forked over the money.

He prepared to close the door as the delivery man turned to walk away ... but something caught his attention. It wasn't anything major, probably totally inconsequential, but his sensors picked up a man sitting in a parked car, just across the road. There easily could have been a hundred reasons that a person would be sitting in their car: waiting for a friend, stopping for a snack, whatever. Slowly, Cyborg closed the door and moved to put the pizza on a nightstand. Moving back behind the door, he lifted his arm before him and brought up the sonic controls.

Back before it had become his primary weapon, the Sonic Cannon had merely been a sonic scanner, and it could still serve that purpose. He was probably being paranoid, but he just wanted to make sure. It didn't take him long to set up the volume gain and focus it in on the vehicle across the way...

"-ubject just paid for the pizza. Didn't get a good look, though. He's wearing a hooded sweater, looks to be a big guy, though, over six feet."

Cyborg cut the feed immediately.

"Well ... Crap."

For a moment, Cyborg felt a flash of panic. The cops were on to him already? How the heck had they tracked him here so quickly? …Wait a second - **why** had they tracked him here, like, at all? What the heck had he done to get their attention? He wasn't even sure he'd done anything to break the law yet.

Heck, if it hadn't been for his own paranoia and love of cop movies, he wouldn't have even considered the possibility of a stake out. So, what the heck did they want? Frankly, he didn't really want to find out. What to do, though? Blast a back door? No, that was stupid, not to mention noisy. Make a hole into the basement? No, that was even worse, not to mention he didn't know if they had a basement here.

Hmm, or maybe, he didn't need to do anything too crazy at all.

_'I'll take this pizza... and I'll EAT it.'_

Moving calmly, he picked up the pizza and made his way to the bed. Sitting down, easily in sight of the window, he opened up the box and grabbed a slice. He ate his fill fairly quickly, but made sure not to look like he was rushing, washing it down with as much of the soda as he could drink, straight from the bottle.

Next, he leaned forward and went through his pile of scrap parts. It didn't take him too long to sort out all of the components that he thought might actually be useful, such as a few of the better power sources, and tucked them into the pouch on his sweater. He then tinkered around for another few minutes, before standing up and stretching lazily. Doing his best to remain calm, and his breathing even, he then, brazenly, walked right out of his motel room - leaving the light on - closed the door behind him, locked it, and proceeded to walk down the sidewalk, not even once looking at the parked car.

It would be a long wait for his return.

* * *

Colonel Butler was the regional UNETCO commanding officer for China and most of Southeast Asia, based out of the secluded Chengdu Facility. A New Zealander by birth, he had served in special forces before being advanced to XCOM service in 2001. One of the most powerful psionics on the planet, he had trained for three months in the elite Fry Canyon Psi-Gym and saw service in three terror sites before being promoted to lead a squad in Asia. That had been almost half a decade ago. When his former CO died of a brain aneurism in a psionic duel with an Ethereal Commander, Butler's power and excellent combat record had merited an ascension to regional command and the rank of Colonel.

Now, he was answerable only to Commander Yasuda at Seiran and Senior Commander Dennis at Supreme Command. Butler was a soldier with a soldier's subtlety, and a fairly typical XCOM Colonel's mentality. While Commanders had to deal with a wide range of regional issues, Colonels were in charge of smaller bases with much more narrow agendas. Chengdu - like Irkutsk or White Hill or Duiwelskloof - was a military base with very limited research and manufacturing facilities. It existed first and foremost to extend the UNETCO Global Surveillance Network and to provide rapid response combat units.

The base was basically built around a hanger, a mind shield, and a hyperwave decoder.

Practically speaking, this meant that Colonel Butler rarely had to deal with infiltration or Section Seven-sensitive matters. Seiran told Chengdu to intercept UFOs and contribute manpower. It was like that for all the smaller Colonel-run bases, and it was one of the reasons why Colonels were expected to be much more combat capable than Commanders. The latter rarely left the desk or the Pit that was their CIC (command information center). Instead, more often than not, Colonels were in the field with their men, putting boots on the ground and contributing psionic firepower to the mission.

Today was one of the rare days when the call came for an "investigative response action" instead of a simply assault. Normally Seiran and Commander Yasuda handled these sorts of things, regardless of where they occurred in the greater Far East Theater. This was a unique case: there was something unusual - already flagged as a likely alien or hybrid - either attempting a sloppy infiltration in southeast Asia or just wreaking havoc. Given their proximity and the ever increasing difficulty of containing the incident, Chengdu had gotten the call.

"Investigative Response Action."

Everyone knew what that meant. IRA was code for "bag it; tag it; and try not to make a mess for once." It was that last directive that caused problems. Subduing aliens and alien infiltrators was often quite messy. Regional bases had squads set up for just such an action. Seiran had Juliet and India squads, and not coincidentally, Chengdu had begun cultivating Romeo based on the success of Juliet and India over in Japan. Technically, they had a squad that was ideal for an IRA... the problem was that Romeo Squad was a bit...

Lacking in subtlety.

_'Yasuda will expect me to send them,'_ Butler mused, filing away the report on his desk. It was only a page long, and forwarded from the Commander herself. He could guess that she wanted Romeo to cut its teeth on this to see if they could reign themselves in when out in the field and not given a green light to act without restraint.

Scratching underside of his chin, the middle aged Kiwi keyed up the information on China-56-890 on his desk's computer screen. Recent Intel had confirmed some interesting new information. Aerial recon and satellite imaging of China-56-890 had been spotty at best while it had remained in the city, but captured eyewitness testimony and other reports were indicating that it was likely not an Ethereal in the typical sense, but that it still possessed some rather unusual abilities. High speed sustained flight being just the most immediately obvious.

It had already covered a great deal of ground, or air as it were, since it had escaped their ambush in Hong Kong. Though 'escaped' hardly did it justice. This alien girl hadn't just evaded them, it had single handedly battled a platoon and won. It had demonstrated powers unlike any other alien they had seen before.

So: a hybrid then.

Either way, it would have to be taken care of, and Romeo was well suited to the task. If worst came to worst, though, he'd probably have to detail one of his Interceptors or Firestorms to conduct air-to-ground operations. That would be an absolute last resort however. It'd be a shame to have to burn good Elerium-115 just to take out a single alien, no matter how much trouble it was causing. He had a budget to operate under, after all.

"Shame about that famous clock tower, though..."

Tapping a key, he approved the use of the base's MkII Skyranger; there was no need to send an Avenger on something like this.

Romeo would intercept China-56-890 in forty minutes.

* * *

Starfire dashed the tears from her eyes, finally slowing to a stop in midair. The Tamaranian warrior despised herself: her failure to control herself, her failure to locate Cyborg and ... worst of all, her failure to live up to the teachings of her dearest friend, Robin. As all of these failings weighed heavily upon her spirit, it was a wonder that the alien girl could remain aloft at all.

She had been too weak, too naïve, too foolish to deal with this situation on her own. She had blundered directly into an ambush, had doubtlessly injured humans, innocent or not, and had failed to even discern if Cyborg had even been present at all. Taking a deep breath, Starfire focused on that last point, pushing aside the others. It was possible that Cyborg was in the custody of those terribly violent soldiers, at the whim of whatever terrifying experiments they could imagine!

As much as she wished she could, Starfire could not simply flee and leave her friend in the clutches of those humans. Unfortunately, she had already proven that she was woefully unable to deal with the human military on her own. She lacked the stealth and detective skills of Robin, there was no way that she would be able to infiltrate the city once more without bringing the full weight of the government down on her once more.

Not alone, at any rate.

The thought struck Starfire as frustrating. She was floating, aimless, in the heart of the People's Republic of China, half a world away from her home. Her communicator was malfunctioning, she had no idea how many of her other friends had been similarly displaced and it felt like she didn't have a single friend within a thousand ... miles ...

The Tamaranian warrior gasped loudly, inspiration striking like lightning. She _did_ have friends nearby! Friends that she did not have to fly half a world to find, friends that would doubtlessly be able to assist her in locating and rescuing Cyborg.

Dear friends whom she had not seen in far too long.

Starfire nearly slapped a hand to her head, unable to comprehend how she had not considered it before. The Amazon village was located near the Bayankala mountain range, and she had spent no small amount of time flying over the village during her precious time there, familiarizing herself with the region. Pulling out her communicator quickly, the alien girl flipped it open and quickly began to check the functions she required. As she suspected, the GPS function was still inoperable, but she _was_ able to access the map database which the system used. The compass function of the device was also operating fully.

Taking into account that her point of origin was the city of Hong Kong, and that she had been traveling in a Northern direction at high speeds for a relatively short amount of time, it did not take Starfire long to determine the general direction that she needed to travel in to reach the village. It was a best guess, based on numerous assumptions, but it was the only real option that she had. Taking heart in the idea that the situation would quickly begin to improve, the Tamaranian chose her direction and took off at top speed, the air cracking in her wake.

As the wind whipped past her, time flowed by in a blur. Distant memories of the rustic village filled her mind, the pleasant thoughts making her flight all the quicker. The most cathartic training of Ryouga, her many long hours of conversation with the Elder Perfume... that most anomalous morning which had found Robin in her bed with her...

For a moment, her cheeks began to flush, then, an instant later, the weight of the situation struck her again and she pushed the ignoble thought from her mind.

She had to stay focused, there was too much at stake for her to be distracted. Cyborg might very well be relying on her for his very survival. As pleasant as her past memories were, the only thing she could allow herself to think on now was how Perfume could assist her in locating her friend and recovering him. Starfire lost track of how long she flew through the continually darkening night sky, doubt beginning to creep into her mind whether she was actually in China at all -

The sight of a distant village renewed her determination in an instant. As the alien hero closed in on the village, she quickly realized it was not the Amazon village itself, though the style of the architecture was strongly reminiscent of it. That, in and of itself, was quite heartening. Perfume had explained that their village rested at the center of numerous other villages, offering protection and aid to them in exchange for goods and services rendered.

If this was one of those outlying villages, than it meant that Starfire was on the right track.

Within minutes, flying excitedly onward, the Tamaranian began to take note of familiar landmarks, most notably of all, the majestic mountain range rising up on the horizon. She could scarcely contain herself as she flew past village after village, each one growing more familiar than the last. A unique mountain peak in the distance became an arrow, a twisting dirt road, a line leading the way. Starfire was almost certain that, were she to fly straight north from here, she would cross over the dreaded valley of Jyusenkyou itself.

Of course, not wanting to do _that_, she quickly turned and followed the very same trail that she and her friends had walked so many months ago.

And there it was! In the darkness of the night, she could just make out the structures of the Amazon village. With a last burst of speed, Starfire cut through the air and arced down to land in the center of the very training circle that she and Ryouga had performed their most visual demonstration of the Hiryu Shoten Ha for the entire village.

Arms held out wide, Starfire spun about, bursting with joy, preparing to call out to her dear friends, heedless of the time of night...

Excitement gave way to confusion as disparate facts made themselves known to her. Though her memories of the village were still vivid, the beautiful architecture, rich with culture and the passion of those that built them. Reality, however, offered a very different vision of the village.

What Starfire saw now was... was a war zone, left to the elements. Devastation stretched out around her in every direction. Buildings were in ruins, many of them looking as if they had been kicked over by an angry Kryptonian. Craters littered the terrain and the signs of battle were evident everywhere she looked.

What had happened here?

Slowly, taking uncertain steps, Starfire began to walk towards the closest building. The entire second story of the home was gone, shorn off as if by a swipe of a capricious Tornbral. Black scorch marks covered the remaining wooden planks still standing, and even the stone foundation looked to have been melted by whatever tremendous heat had wracked this poor structure. Starfire ran her hand along a blackened beam, dark carbon clinging to her fingers when she pulled them away.

The destruction was so complete, so vicious...

And old.

Dust and tiny weeds had collected in the interior of the shattered building, and if the Tamaranian had to put forward guess, she would wager it must have been weeks, if not months since this... this disaster occurred. But that did not make any sense. She had personally been in contact with the village several times over the past several months. Ever since she had proclaimed the Amazon village an ally of Tamaran, she had numerous debates with the Tamaranian diplomats and ambassadors on her friends' behalf. Apparently she had somewhat overstepped her authority in making such a broad sweeping declaration, but once she had explained the situation, her people had quickly come around to her point of view.

A painfully disturbing scenario began to form in Starfire's mind. The inexplicable and forceful attack on her by the Chinese military. The fear and resentment of the general populace at her very presence, and now this, the utter annihilation of a village of martial artists of super human ability?

Lost in thought, Starfire began to wander aimlessly around the remains of the village.

For the common populace to be so shocked by the appearance of a meta-human, for the military to be so rapid and practiced in their response to any such appearances ... For the devastation to have reached so far, even to the most remote corners of the globe such as this village? Had she been displaced in more than just space, but in time as well? How long had she been gone? What could have possibly happened to result in - in all _this_? Even more terrifying, what did this mean for all of her friends? Everyone she knew and cared about, both those sent here with her, and those left behind?

Where was Robin in all of this?

This was not the first time she had been flung through time, but even that dystopian future, that dark nightmare time, paled in comparison to the soul numbing horror that was only now beginning to wash over the Tamaranian. To imagine that such a bright, seemingly normal world could be built on top of graveyards such as this one, mausoleums filled exclusively with those that she had considered the dearest of friends and comrades...?

It was obscene in a way that the Tamaranian's mind could scarcely comprehend.

Mindless wonder dazed Starfire for a moment, leaving her wavering for a moment, until the weight of all of the implications finally settled down on her narrow shoulders. Even her alien might was not enough, her legs failed her, dropping her onto her knees in the dirt.

She prayed to X'hal that she would just wake up. There was no way that this nightmare could possibly be the future, _her_ future. She was still unconscious on the floor of the underground laboratory, Robin already holding her sleeping form and urging her to wake up. That was what it had to be -

A prickly, warning sensation warmed the back of her mind.

It was a feeling almost like...

Starfire turned to look over her shoulder, half expecting to see Perfume or Cologne emerging from behind the ruins and the rubble. That feeling of a confident and powerful presence was one she had experienced before in this same village. It was a light almost like her own, powered as it was by the intensity of her emotions. In turmoil as she was, she could still faintly feel that alien - human, _Earther_ - presence nearby.

It wasn't Perfume.

Or Cologne.

A man sat on an upturned slab of stone before one of the half destroyed buildings. Starfire assumed it was a man anyway; unlike the soldiers and agents she had seen and encountered before, this one wore a sort of black and white tinted armor. Metal over some sort of body glove, and some larger plates over the chest, arms and legs, covered enough of the suit that Starfire could guess it wasn't casual attire. This was undoubtedly another soldier, but one more well equipped.

A helmet covered the man's (or woman's) face: a dark blue visor set into more tinted metal and plastic from the crown of the head to the tip of the chin. Seemingly out of place, the armor had a few embellishments around the shoulders and arms in the form of what looked almost like green scales. The man continued to sit, one leg crossed over the other, and one arm propped casually over the right knee.

He watched her for a moment, as if sensing that she was about to pounce.

"I'm... surprised. I hadn't expected to see those sorts of emotions coming from one of your kind," he spoke in a haughty, unworried tone. The English was plain, but slightly accented and definitely male. "We all thought you'd be heading to the cursed springs. What did you hope to find here, in this place?"

Starfire shot to her feet in an instant, green fire springing up from her fists and eyes.

"What would one such as _you_ know of emotions?"

The alien warrior's fists curled more tightly as the implications of what the man had said became clear. If this soldier knew of the springs, knew the region well enough to have anticipated her travels, it was doubtless that he had already been here before. The arrogant tone in his voice as he spoke down to her, even as he sat, perched upon the scorched remains of her friend's homes, very much like a royalty, only infuriated her further.

Righteous fury built up in the Tamaranian's heart as she glared heatedly at the seated warrior.

"I would have questioned how you were capable of locating me so quickly, but your familiarity - and your disdain for the tragedy which has occurred here is all too obvious."

"Tragedy?" the man replied, tilting his head slightly in visible amusement. "That's amusing, coming from you. I've been watching you for a little while now. Who were you expecting to find here? Was it your Master, Cologne?"

Starfire bristled at the bemusement in the villain's voice. "You know of Elder Cologne? So you _were_ involved in the massacre! The Elder was a beloved comrade to me, and I swear that if you have harmed her-" The Tamaranian lifted her fist, intensifying the jade energy around it until the air began to ripple menacingly. "- Then I will _never_ forgive you!"

The man uncrossed his legs and stared at her for a moment.

"So, you _are_ one of Cologne's little pets?" he asked, but only rhetorically. "But..."

A disdainful snort translated through the helmet's speakers.

"Hm. Another experiment of some sort, I suppose. A perversion of the Art. And that glow - is that supposed to be some alien version of the lion's roar shot? Well... you won't find your master here. I was told to bring you in alive if possible but I'm guessing you'll prefer to be subdued, won't you?"

Starfire's glare faltered for a moment at the stranger's bizarre words, but only for a second. Then, a moment later, as the man's words truly sunk in, the fury in her chest boiled over to new heights. If this person knew of the Lion Roar Shot ... She had not seen Ryouga transported through the void with her and Cyborg. Had he been left behind on this world - left to fall at the hands of this monster?

The alien warrior floated several inches off the ground, her burning glare returning in full force.

"Face me at your own risk, villain. Greater warriors than you have attempted to subdue me, and your treacherous actions do not incline me to mercy. Attack me now, and I will make you pay for those you have harmed!"

The seated man tapped the side of his helmet at the display.

"My, my, you sound like that swordsman in India Squad," he mused. "Shall we see what else Cologne jammed into that alien brain of yours?"

Starfire spun as something loomed behind her, reflexively unleashing a wave of green energy that had built up to uncomfortable levels. Another man, larger than the one before but wearing similar matte black and white armor, ended up pushed back by the blast. A trio of orange tiger stripes decorated the segmented metal plates over his shoulders. He hit the ground with a crash, feet digging into the dirt as the star bolt washed over and past him. Smoke rose from the roasted armor, but the man within hardly seemed to mind the discomfort - if anything, he seemed overjoyed.

"Hah!" the large man barked happily. "It doesn't feel quite like the real version of the technique! Not as heavy, but pretty damn hot!"

"She's using more anger than depression," the seated man explained, but made no move to help or interfere. "You have permission to break her arms if it'll make subduing her easier. We can always fix them back at the base."

Starfire spun to stare at the arrogant fool behind her. "You think it will be so easy? I will show you the error of underestimating a Tamaranian warrior!"

Did these people think they could just speak back and forth about her as if she were not even there? To drive her lesson in manners home before turning back to the massive soldier behind her, she flung a heated Starbolt at the overconfident villain.

...

_'A Tamaranian warrior, eh? What a strange thing to say.'_

Herb blurred out of the way of the strange green attack to another vantage point. It seemed the alien wouldn't just let him sit and watch. He approved. The girl - or the thing that looked like a girl - had some pride. That was interesting. This thing was not acting like a normal alien infiltrator or one of Cologne's alien-human Trenchard experiments. She had also called herself a "Tamaranian." That wasn't an English word.

Or was it?

"Command," he spoke softly, not bothering to swap audio settings for the armor's HUD. "Contextual check on the word 'Tamaranian' and its derivatives. It isn't one I've heard before."

"Running it now," a female voice replied from the other end. "Sir, are you going to just sit and watch while that thing fights Lime?"

"I was," Herb replied, and glanced down at the stone where had just been - it was too charred to be worth using now. "I suppose I'll just have to stand instead. Contact me if you find anything interesting."

Herb alighted on the tip of a broken house support, turning his attention back to the goings-on below. It was important to understand this creature, not just capture it, and especially not kill it. It was a unique being, possibly once human, and UNETCO did not want a corpse unless absolutely necessary. Initially, Herb had seen the mission as nothing terribly unusual; they weren't called in often to deal with rogues or strange occurrences, just regular missions. Herb had assumed it would be no different than hunting down that bratty Pantyhose fool.

This girl, though...

Why had she come to the ruins of the village here? If she was one of Cologne's, she had to know her master wouldn't be here anymore. Was she an abandoned experiment of some sort, unaware of what had happened over the last few months? Why had she glowed with palpable grief and a literal cocktail of emotions foreign to the alien menace. She should have identified that the village was a dead end and efficiently moved on.

A failed experiment, then? Too emotional?

It was a possibility.

Her unusual actions had piqued his curiosity, and her response to him had also been unexpected and unusual. There was something different about this creature in the guise of a girl. Herb's honed martial arts senses could feel it, and his instinct was all but screaming that this alien wasn't like Cologne. She was too... confused, too hurt, too afraid. Aliens knew fear, and Herb had shown it to them personally several times, but it wasn't a basic animal survival-fear. This was a fear for oneself, but also for others.

Even if this creature was a discarded experiment - too human for Cologne to keep, perhaps - she would have to be contained and brought in. The PRC was up in arms over that business in Hong Kong and treating it like it was a prelude to a terror site. Seiran wanted the situation "handled." In the meantime, he, Herb, would watch and observe.

...

Starfire felt Lime's first solid blow connect.

She'd sparred with Ryouga and Cyborg many times, not to mention her off world training and her fellow Tamaranians back home, and she knew what it was like to take a punch. That didn't mean it didn't hurt. X'hal, it hurt. Especially since, unlike most super powered bruisers, this man had the skill to make every blow count. What form of person was this? He was very nearly as strong as Cyborg; perhaps the government of this planet had kept a select number of dull, obedient metahumans alive as slaves?

Starfire felt the jagged cut in the inside of her mouth with her tongue, even as she jinked out of the way of another of the armored man's blows. He was large, but still quite quick, and when she started to try and fly upwards he always made for a grapple. That was the problem with flight - when toe to toe with another warrior on the ground, areas of attack and defense were defined by reach. When trying to take off vertically, more of her lower body was exposed to her opponent's upper body, and she was not terribly keen on letting him get a good grip on her.

She needed space to maneuver.

Zipping back and away as the other warrior swiped at her with his palm, Starfire held out her hands and unleashed a quick flurry of starbolts. She was already furious enough at the situation that the heat of them came easily to her, plus since that armor seemed unusually resilient, she didn't feel much need to hold back. The bolts saturated the area, and Starfire tried to take the opportunity to get airborne. Her flight was cut short as she leaned back, allowing a large chunk of masonry to pass overhead, just inches from her nose.

"Got you!" a voice called, and a vice like grip found her ankle.

Starfire tried to angle a quick shot down while pushing her flight up, but her body was already in motion and the brute had somehow rooted himself in place. She flew off to the side, a green blast going wild and missing, a moment before she met a wall face first. The brick shattered like a house of cards as she swung through it, around in the air at a blurry dizzy pace, and then back down. Her brief but brutal trip ended with a thunderous crash as her back met paved stone, smashing a crater into the former floor of someone's doorstep. A spider web of cracks shot out from the impact point.

There was no time to hesitate.

She rolled to the side as the other warrior's boot came down, first to the left, avoiding a stomp that could well have broken a bone, and then to the right. Each footfall shook the ground beneath her. A third blow nearly connected when inspiration struck: grabbing onto the massive leg, she pushed herself up with her abs and nailed the brutish soldier in the face with both feet. The blow barely fazed him, but it gave her the chance to try something new.

Kicking him one more time for good measure, Starfire locked her ankles behind the larger warrior's neck and pulled herself up. One of the brute's hands tried to pry her off, but he had little in the way of leverage, and she had her entire body coiled up against it. Forcefully pushing one of his arms out of the way, and locking the other to her side with her left arm, Starfire landed a telling blow to the man's helmet. First one, then another, then another.

Whatever it was made of, though, it was tough.

Her fists couldn't dent it, but the man beneath was starting to feel the blows. One of his arms finally snaked through, and the inside of his forearm pressed against her midsection, trying to force her away. Starfire responded by grabbing onto the helmet itself to find a switch or latch that would unlock it. It was made of tough stuff, to be sure, but beneath the metal was softer: plastic or rubber maybe. Heating up her hands as if to fire a starbolt, she began to worm her fingers deeper into it.

"Ra-ha-ha!" The man beneath the armor suddenly laughed, and threw himself forward. "You're not bad!"

The two of them crashed into the ground with a bone jarring crunch. Now she was on her back again, and he was right above her. The psychotic warrior then slammed his face right into her torso, and still chuckling, aimed higher and hit her lower lip with the rim of his helmet.

Still, he had neglected to brace himself.

Pushing up with her own formidable strength, she quickly reversed their position. His head was still caught in the vice of her legs, and this time, finally having him on his back, she took no chances. Her right hand reared back and glowed like a green star before coming down. The ground shuddered, and a shockwave of green force savaged the earth. Paved stonework shot straight up into the air, hung for a half second like multi-colored rain, and then fell back down.

Starfire studied the downed man below her for several precious seconds. The behemoth's head lolled around for a bit, though the tinted visor made it impossible to see his face, she was certain that she had dazed him with her last attack. Satisfied with that, she turned to glare over her shoulder at the man standing on the building behind her. He was the one giving orders, the one most responsible for whatever terrors may have been inflicted upon her friends.

As far as she could tell, this big lug could not fly, either, so he was not so much of a worry to her once airborne. That in mind, she instantly abandoned her perch on the soldier's chest and launched herself at the haughty commander with full speed. The wind cracked at her passage, and a furrow of dirt was lifted into the air in her wake as she sped towards her opponent, powerful Starbolts building up around her fists as she flew -

She barely even registered the blur of motion moving parallel to her until it was too late!

The vague figure resolved itself into the shape of a smaller person, wearing similar armor to the other two, though with different embellishments, yet again. Somehow, though she was flying as fast as she dared this close to the ground, this person was keeping pace with her. Not that she had not met speedsters before, but she had never heard of one that wore personal armor.

With a flash, the smaller soldier's arm flashed out at her - only the glint of light from her Starbolts gave any warning that something had left his hand, and she raised her arm to block whatever the projectile was. Her forearm swept into the narrow, weighted wire which he had thrown, and it wrapped tightly around her armored glove.

For just a fraction of a second, the Tamaranian and the Soldier stared at each other, though the alien could not see the warrior's eyes in return. Then, with an impressive tug, the smaller man pulled away from her, wrenching on the wire with his entire upper body ...

It was a sound plan, and had she been anyone else, it likely would have worked, but this smaller warrior possessed not even a fraction of his larger companion's strength. The wire pulled taut nearly instantly, but Starfire's trajectory swung the opposite direction that her enemy had intended, and she pulled back with all of her own great strength.

A wicked smirk cracked her lip as the diminutive figure was torn from his feet and sent flying away from her. To her amazement, the wire did not snap at the sudden and intense forces it was subjected to, but the flailing warrior was forced to release his hold on it as he skillfully oriented himself in midair before crashing to the ground. Hovering to a stop, Starfire regarded this new opponent as she untangled the strange wire from her wrist.

The nimble figure landed gracefully on his feet, not pausing for an instant before pulling out an unusual pair of batons from behind his back. Though not familiar with the exact model, Starfire knew a stun weapon when she saw one. An unusual choice, considering the lethal accoutrements that everyone else in league with them had used so far.

Giving the weapons an expert twirl, the warrior then crouched down, obviously preparing to charge her with his impressive speed. Starfire quickly considered her options. She could likely get up and out of his range before he closed in, but there was no guarantee, and even a glancing blow to her foot could be enough to daze her. Smiling confidently, Starfire set herself back into a most fitting combat stance, considering the hallowed ground upon which she stood. Perfume herself, youngest Elder of the Amazon Council, had taught her the basics of this style personally, and the Tamaranian had done her best to honor her mentor's training.

Holding out her hand, she quickly flipped her palm up and gestured for the armored figure to come at her with a flick of her fingers. The small warrior's head tilted curiously for a moment as he regarded her, but he eagerly obliged less than a second later. Moving forward with startling linear motion, her opponent was threatening to overwhelm her with pure speed -

He was not prepared when, unpredictably, Starfire suddenly leaned forward and fired off a small Starbolt directly into the path of her rapidly charging opponent. A spray of dirt and sod flew up into the air, and the warrior was forced to quickly readjust his course as his footing suddenly failed him.

At the same time, Starfire launched herself forward as well. She lashed out with a powerful snap kick, but the nimble figure quickly dodged to the side. A fraction of a second later, she pulled her leg back as a baton shot out at blinding speed, just missing her knee by a fraction of an inch. Starfire's eyes widened then, when the soldier's arms nearly vanished into a blur of slashes and jabs. Her own arms began to windmill as she desperately tried to deflect as many of the attacks as she could. She called upon every ounce of skill she had gleaned from her training with Perfume, with Ryouga, with Robin, but still, the combined speed and skill of her opponent was beyond anything she had trained against before.

A tingle ran up her forearm as a stun baton glanced across her glove. Another sent a minor jolt down her leg, then another grazed her exposed mid-riff as she was steadily forced back. Only her own resilience to energy prevented her from dropping to the ground in convulsions -

A sudden thought struck the Tamaranian, and it was all she could do to hide her smile. In a blur of raw velocity, the small warrior stabbed one of the batons directly at her chest ... and Starfire took the hit fully. Energy arced through her body, and like a sack of potatoes, she collapsed dead onto her back, small twitches running down her limbs. Less than a second later, her gratifyingly thorough enemy was on top of her, both stun batons crossed over her neck, crackling electricity tingling the skin of her throat with its proximity.

"Lord Herb! Lord Herb!" the warrior yelled excitedly. "I got her! Look at this! I did it!"

The second the warrior looked away, Starfire's convulsions stopped and a vicious smile spread across her lips.

"You should be more attentive in battle, little one."

She could just imagine the shocked look on his face through his visor as he turned back to stare at her. Not even the super human speed of his hands was enough to react in time as her eyes lit up with emerald fury. The sound of crackling plasma filled the air as twin pillars of raw power slammed directly into the small warrior's chest. Within a second, he was already a dozen feet into the air, then two, then three as the punishing emerald lances lifted him ever higher with freight train force.

Several agonizingly long seconds, as Starfire rose to her knees, the small soldier finally crashed to the ground. Then she heard a rumble as the large fighter from before angrily advanced from her side and turned to face the superhumanly strong soldier a second time. His formerly playful (viciously playful may have been more accurate) demeanor seemed to have given way to an indignant anger. Smoke rolled off the large fighter's body as he stalked closer, fists clenched.

With a swish, she saw a fourth solider appear, this time on her other side.

This one was, unlike the others, armed with both ranged and melee weapons. It was difficult to tell for sure with the armor, but this soldier also appeared to be a woman judging by her posture and build. She - Starfire guessed at the gender - had some sort of staff behind her back, another of those stun rods strapped to her thigh, and a strange looking rifle of some sort in her hands. She also seemed to be inching less towards Starfire's flank and more towards where the speedy soldier from before had fallen.

Starfire glanced from one side to the next, charging another volley of bolts in her hands.

"Now, now, that's enough," their leader announced, motioning with his hand. "Both of you attend to Mint."

"But Lord Herb!" the strongman growled openly. "She-!"

"Lime." The man's cold tone brooked no argument.

Starfire dared to turn her back on the other two soldiers to face the source of all this trouble. The group's leader hadn't moved from his post overlooking the battlefield, perched up there like a bird. He didn't seem to be armed with any weapons at all, but that prickly feeling from before was as strong as ever. Starfire's fighting instincts were all telling her that this man, their leader, was more powerful than either of his subordinates. Probably by a good degree. Her blood was already pumping hard through her veins, and at that moment, the prospect of a no-holds-barred fight with this villain was about the most appealing thing she could imagine.

"Are you very much finished hiding behind your minions, coward?" she floated towards him, toes gliding over crushed rocks and upended masonry.

"For one of Cologne's little lab rats, your killing intent and battle aura are weak... and easy to read," the man stated, helmet leaning forward slightly. "I knew from the start that neither of my men were in danger, even if they got careless and lost."

"I am no person's rodent, regardless of the setting! And unlike you, I have no desire to kill my opponents needlessly!"

"And yet you came here seeking Cologne?"

Starfire's eyes narrowed at the pointed question. "My goals are no concern of yours, soldier. If you consider yourself wise, leave me be!"

The leader drifted off his perch, floating down at a leisurely pace.

"That's impossible," he declared. "No matter what your so called goals are, and no matter your lack of killer intent, you are not to be allowed to roam free doing as you please. I have been told to bring you in. So: you will be brought in."

Starfire watched warily as the man absently defied gravity in a manner not so different from herself. Her own feet left the ground and she rose to meet him in the air.

"I have done _nothing_ to warrant the blatant hostility which you and your vicious comrades have leveled against me! You have done nothing but attack me ever since my arrival in this country with ever escalating force! I warn you now, my patience is at an end and if you do not stand aside, I will _not_ show the same mercy that I showed on your minions. I will never again be a prisoner to _anyone_!"

"That's where you are wrong. Your existence on this planet, and the atrocities your kind have committed, will not go unpunished. I, Herb, have sworn it." He paused for only a moment add, "Prepare yourself."

He moved with less speed than the smaller fighter, but Starfire still felt sluggish. The prickling along her skin was stronger now, and as he began to move, it spiked to an almost painful degree. It took a second to finally place it. It was like Ryouga's battle aura, but... that meant she had been in it even when fighting the other two soldiers. Could it be? Had she been within this man's aura - like Ryouga's - but not even noticed it?

She blocked his left arm with her right, but instead of pulling back, their bodies seemed to stick. It was like some kind of static charge momentarily locked them together. His fingers swept around, almost in slow motion, and his entire arm made a half circle movement. Then his hand found the inside of her arm, clenched, and twisted. Starfire spun in midair, her entire body spinning like a top before crashing to the ground.

She quickly replayed the moment in her mind: _'How had he - ?'_

Nearly transparent energy coiled around Herb's left arm, flexing and flaring briefly before receding. He swept down on her without another moments delay, but veered off at the last second. Starfire was back on her feet when the blows came, seemingly out of nowhere. The throat, the lumbar vertebra, the solar plexus, the back of the head: it felt like hammer blows to each one. The combined effect was nearly as powerful as one of the tiger striped soldier's blows, but hitting from every conceivable angle. She could barely even stagger under the assault.

Much to her distress, Starfire tasted blood in her mouth.

"I see you are unfamiliar with Xing Yi Quan," Herb said, landing to her side. "A properly placed blow to the spine of a human being can instantly paralyze or kill, but you're not human are you, alien? Perhaps I should have used more force."

The Tamaranian warrior managed to swing her arm enough to launch a starbolt at the arrogant human. He drifted to the right and right into the arc of her arm, avoiding the blast entirely. Her body was still only starting to recover when he pressed the palm of his hand against the flat of her back. A sudden force erupted from the gentle touch, sending her flying across the ground, bouncing twice, before slamming into an abandoned shop. Starfire's violent entrance finished the work started by time and neglect, causing it to collapse in on her.

"Is hand to hand combat all you're capable of? Where are your psionics? Where are the stolen techniques Cologne gave you?" Herb walked towards the rubble. "Where's that _righteous fury_ I felt before?"

"It..." Starfire rose to her feet, overturning a collapsed side of mortar and stone. "Is..."

Her eyes glowed a viridian green with escaping energy.

"**HERE**!" Plasma fire escaped her hands as a beam rather than a bolt, bathing the area where the human had been moments before. The cobblestone street tore apart completely, most of the force being angled downward, but enough propagated across the street to level another empty home. Wooden planks and supports burned and flew through the air like matchsticks.

"I... missed?" Starfire knew it, felt it, and floated backwards, eyes searching for her opponent.

The prickling she had been feeling spiked again, but it was deeper this time. Something bore down on her from within, causing a chill to run down her spine. She remembered Ryouga, and his perfect _shishi hokoudan_, and she realized this other man had to be concentrating his aura on her. It wasn't heavy, like Ryouga's had been, but it was oppressive: cold and merciless and dripping in blood without uttering a single word. She bathed herself in her fury, a faint green hue engulfing her and shielding the worst of the aura.

"You have a lot of power, and some skill. But..."

Starfire spun, launching another starbolt at the source of the voice.

A loud clap filled the air as it found its target. Herb stood, one hand in front of him, the last flickering visages of the ball of green fire writhing and flaking away. Then the light of the starbolt died, leaving only a smattering of ash to drift in the wind. She glared at the human, stunned. Had he just... caught her starbolt?

"An unusual ki technique," Herb stated, glancing down at his palm. "Your emotions are easy to read, as is the fact that they are the source of your power. It was simple enough to negate the force and heat, but... still, this is... strange."

Starfire felt a tingle of apprehension, but pushed it back and out of her mind. This human, he was like Ranma or Ryouga or Perfume. He knew some of their moves, too, and as strange as it was... he was a bit scary. Ranma and Ryouga were strong, but they still seemed very human. This arrogant man standing opposite her felt... inhuman. He was too cold inside. For a moment, she saw **Slade** standing there, face hidden behind a mask, making them all dance in the palm of his hand.

Green fire engulfed her hands.

Herb held out his arms and nearly transparent ki warped and solidified into flat blades that ran up and along his forearms. He spread his arms wide and blocks of stone and wood a dozen feet away were neatly bisected, snipped off as easily as one would remove the head of a flower. He started to move, and the instant he did, Starfire dove wildly to the side.

Something hard hit her arm and chest and the back of her left leg, but nowhere too soft or vulnerable. It was _that technique_. The one he had used before to hit her despite not being near her. Whatever it was, she had managed to avoid the worst of it by moving just when he did. She would just have to never stand still. Herb drifted off to the side and Starfire flew up and to the side before twisting savagely to the left.

Again the invisible blows came, but this time only two of them nicked her.

"Clever!" Herb congratulated, this time sweeping in personally. The ki blades on his arm narrowed and extended as he swept his hands, and Starfire pulsed bright green bolts in his path as she dove to the side, rolled, and jumped. A chunk of earth beneath her uprooted, like an invisible shovel had slammed into it and dug it right up. It then broke into three neat pieces.

She knew, then, that she couldn't let herself be hit by that.

Herb's other hand made a motion, and a barely visible whip of transparent energy rose into the air. Longer and longer, until it was nearly a dozen body lengths. Starfire flew in a wildly evasive pattern as she dodged the whip and the invisible blows. One caught her in the back of the head unexpectedly and for a moment, the world turned dark. She hit the ground and dove for cover, and turning back the way she came, saw that a wide trench has been cut into the ground, right through a reinforced concrete wall. The material had simply been erased, leaving a groove in the ground wide enough for Beast Boy to skateboard in.

"That was close," Herb noted, drifting down to the ground. "You almost died."

Starfire clenched her teeth, not at what he said, but at how he said it.

He was calm, methodical, self assured, and utterly in control. For the second time, she saw Slade reflected in that featureless helmet visor.

Roaring, Starfire charged right at him. As she'd hoped, it was the last thing he expected her to do. She poured on the speed, jinked to the side as he trust one palm forward, felt something cut just over the base of her shoulder, and kept going. Before she got too close, she unleashed a blast from her eyes, drowning him in emerald fire. He emerged through the flame, semi-transparent ki constructs rippling around his arms and helmet.

Star twisted at the last second before impact, blocking her side against one of the invisible blows with her arm, and instead kneeing up. The blow had all the power of her flight in it, plus her momentum from before, but it slammed into a wall as one of his arms lowered and intercepted the strike before it could find purchase in his midriff. An audible 'foom' of displaced air blew away the cloud of dust kicked up by his techniques.

Even the air seemed to have gotten hotter.

As expected, he made another sweeping strike with his forearm. The ki construct around it - she could see it just a little more clearly now - twisted and spiked up. Blocking it would be like nailing her hands and arm to a wall with railroad spikes. Ducking under the attack, taking advantage of her more nimble and slender frame, she leapt up in the opening created by his miss. His other hand moved with practiced ease to block her uppercut, but Starfire followed up instantly with a rising snap kick that split her legs almost one hundred and eighty degrees.

Elder Perfume would have been proud of the attempt.

But that blow, too, was blocked, this time by Herb's rising elbow. Starfire, not totally bound by gravity, grabbed hold of her opponent and brought her knee up to try and drive it into the man's groin, but it too became intercepted, this time by his leg rising to preemptively prevent the strike. Something hard slammed into her stomach, and she briefly saw stars. A merciless blow to the face finished the job, sending her to the ground with green blood streaming from a nearly broken nose.

"That was the Earth Seeking Moon style," Herb stated. "You used your flight to cheat a bit, but I recognize it. Why did Cologne teach you that move? She prefers her version of Ba Gua Zhang."

"Your assumption is erroneous, villain," Starfire hissed, wiping the blood from her lips. "It was Elder Perfume who saw fit to teach me the Earth Seeking Moon Style. Elder Cologne taught me ... something else entirely."

Doing her best to ignore the pain, Starfire lifted into the air, straightening her back admirably and staring down her opponent.

"For all of your boasts, Barbarian, you could not have been the one to fell such an honorable warrior as her ... at least not face to face. Though, considering your cowardly and indirect attacks, that is hardly a surprise," she spat out with a grim smirk on her lips.

"_Elder_ Perfume...?" The man inclined his head slightly, stressing that first word with surprise. Then her other comments sunk in. "That's impossible. Are you making some kind of joke?" Herb scowled behind his helmet.

"Surrender now," he hissed. "Before I beat you like the dog you are, alien."

Through the pain, Starfire tilted her head to the side and graced this 'Lord Herb' with a haughty smirk of her own. "Indeed, you seem like the type of man whom enjoys inflicting pain on those that cannot defend themselves. Tell me, were there any men and children here as well when you laid waste to this beautiful village? What forms of torture did you devise for your prisoners? Did you take any prisoners at all?"

Her opponent's defense was all but perfect. No. It was not unlike fighting Slade... if Slade had been trained by Cologne herself for his entire life. His attacks were deadly, his ki-shields flawless...

Almost flawless.

She had noticed the strange discomfort that her Starbolts had had on him when he had attempted to so casually dissipate them. Still, he was far too clever for her to fool easily. Luckily, in her weeks of training with Ryouga and Cologne, she had learned much more than simple combat.

"Well, then? Unless you wish to have your minions attack in your place once more, what is it that you are delaying for?"

"Delusional girl," Herb casually reached for her, apparently unconcerned by anything she could do to him at this point. She was haggard and beaten and seemed hardly able to stand, or float for that matter. "If you want to be treated roughly, then I will oblige you."

Starfire frowned at his lackadaisical response, glancing around herself quickly. She quickly spotted what she needed behind her and zipped backwards rapidly away from the floating warrior. Several seconds later she passed between two large, scorched stone pillars which had once been part of a larger, now destroyed structure.

"I have no doubt you would enjoy inflicting harm upon me." She continued her retreat, calling out loudly as she vanished into the labyrinth of collapsed masonry. "Tell me, do you enjoy damaging females especially, as our weak, unfortunate gender is all that you can handle? Or does your sadism know no bounds?"

Herb didn't immediately reply as he calmly walked after her.

"Are you trying to goad me into letting down my guard? Or do you simply wish me to kill you? You were strong enough to match Lime and Mint, men trained to kill even an Amazon Elder. This running away of yours is unseemly." He ducked under a piece of broken woodwork, searching for her still significant ki amid the ruins. "Show yourself, alien! My patience for you is not endless!"

Starfire quickly made her way through the wreckage of the building, finding a sturdy looking hallway to suit her purpose. Within seconds, she flew to the end, effectively trapping herself completely. There, the Tamaranian frowned, noting the gamble she was taking, but took heart at the sound of her pursuer's voice closing in inevitably. Once she had taken her place, she slowly turned around and took a deep breath, slowing her breathing and trying to recover a small measure of her power.

A moment later, Herb rounded the corner and found her. Starfire took a moment to look around her frantically, a look of panic etched on her face as she apparently noticed the lack of exits in the narrow hallway.

Watching her, the armored man held something in his hands. Up until now, he had fought bare handed. That he had something unusual _now_, something she hadn't seen before, was not a good sign.

"I never expected you'd scurry into a corner, girl," he dryly observed. "Is this where you want to make your last stand?"

Starfire glared at the arrogant warrior as he began to walk towards her in a sedate manner, unusual spherical object held carelessly in his hand. She could not be certain, but it appeared to be an explosive device of some sort.

All the better, the Tamaranian thought grimly to herself.

She waited for her predator to take several more steps before sneering. "My 'last stand'? You misunderstand my intent. I did not come here to die, rather, I simply wished to alter the battle field. After all, considering our current condition, it makes it very unlikely for you to evade - **this**!"

In a flash, Starfire lifted her hands and clasped her fists tightly together, emerald energy springing to life around her clenched hands like a bonfire.

A second after that - just as the physical limitations of the narrow corridor they were housed in became apparent to her overconfident foe - a stream of over a dozen fierce Starbolts tore down the hallway in the stretch of a second. The next second saw even more of the energetic blobs of emerald fire fill the air, a literal machinegun spray of Starbolts which filled the entire hallway and pelting the martial artist from head to toe.

Wood exploded, stone shattered and great gouts of dust shot out from every direction as the hail of star bolts tore into the roof, walls, floor and martial artist with merciless abandon. One of the stray bolts even hit the sphere in his hand, and it burst open in a spray of noxious looking gas. A second later, a strange wave of nausea overcame Starfire, but thanks to her distance she was able to shrug it off and continued her rapid fire bombardment for another several seconds.

At the center of the conflagration, Herb snarled in undisguised rage as the psionic disruption from the alien stun bomb played havoc with his carefully maintained ki shields. Initially, the unexpected, and unexpectedly _furious_ assault did little more than sting annoyingly through his protective barrier - but when the bomb went off, his ki constructs collapsed in an instant. In the blink of an eye, the irritating attack became an agonizing pummeling as the green blasts slammed into him with full force, knocking him backwards, very nearly driving him to his knees! The only thing that had saved him from being blasted into complete unconsciousness was the highly resistant and environmentally sealed personal armor he wore.

The unexpected pain, as unpleasant as it was, was not the worst of the alien's transgression. Maintaining ki constructs was an ability unique to the royal dragon family of the Musk, who had an innate mastery of their internal energies. Losing control, losing focus, was unforgivable. Having a meager flare of white noise scramble that control - it was disorienting ... infuriating. He cursed even bringing the stun bomb out before his opponent had been properly beaten into the ground.

If it had not been for his armor NBC filters...

That thought brought his boiling fury to new heights. To even infer that he needed any form of advantage over such a pathetic, unskilled female! To even imagine that she had the ability to harm his person? Needless to say, the Lord of the Musk was not amused.

His voice barely rose in volume from a whispered hiss, but rippling shapes of ki solidified around him, pulsing and breaking apart and reforming. The ki blades on his arms widened and shrunk as his aura raged in response to his anger and the lingering effects of the stun bomb. With a focused effort, he blew the obscuring cloud of purple gas away, smashing part of a nearby wall in the process.

Only to stare incredulously to the end of the hallway.

The vacant hallway. The only evidence that the alien had been present at all was the shattered hole in the roof of at the end of the corridor. After all of that, the pain and humiliation she had inflicted on him...

She thought he would simply let her escape?

* * *

Already above the building and quickly rising over the village itself, Starfire laughed joyously and waved down at the impotently shouting humans on the ground. The large man and the small warrior shook their fists furiously, but there was nothing they could do to her as she soared into the night sky. The woman was more troubling, as she was clearing lining up her weapon, but the alien girl didn't plan to leave herself an easy target.

Turning quickly, Starfire then began to fly away from the remains of the once glorious Amazon village... Unfortunately, her last, desperate attack had left her drained. It was difficult to build up any real speed in her flight. And, even worse, she still had no idea what her next course of action should be.

About to make her escape, Starfire abruptly came up short, as something faint passed right by her side, intercepting her flight path. Turning, she saw the villain rising higher and higher into the air, transparent ki blade retracting back to meet with his body.

A red hot pulse of ki washed over her, even as far away as she was, and beneath the man, the wooden remains of the building instantly lit up like a dry timber box finding a match. There was no roar of outrage or indignant howl. She couldn't even see the man's face, but she could feel his palpable anger saturating the air.

"Well now ... it appears I may have aggravated him," she muttered to herself.

Were she in top form, she had no doubt that she could escape, but after the extended combat, turning her back on her enraged opponent would be a foolish mistake. So, rather than flee, she held her ground (though not literally in this case) and calmly awaited his approach. The intense heat in the air began to play havoc on the natural climate, setting the Tamaranian's long, flame-colored hair blowing in the wind.

As she floated, an instant of serenity cascaded over Starfire; the sweet sensation of the breeze on her aching skin, the picturesque panorama of Earth's natural splendor spread out below her ... marred only by the black taint which rose to meet her. For just a moment, she was able to forget all of the fear, the frustration, the guilt over her friend, Cyborg.

At that thought, Starfire's jade eyes narrowed and she studied the approaching warrior with new eyes. She had not given it much thought earlier, but now that she watched him glide through the air, she realized just how unwieldy his flight was. While quick enough in close combat, his flight was sluggish by Tamaranian standards. Though to human eyes, his flight was likely majestic, to her, his movements were cumbersome, graceless. He had obviously not been born to flight as she had been.

For the first time since her arrival in this dark time, Starfire felt the familiar tingle of unbridled joy rising up within her, renewing her powers of flight in a way that her fury never could. Smiling pleasantly now, the Tamaranian began to glide gracefully to the side, not making any sudden moves that would indicate escape. Within moments, her opponent closed the distance, floating to a stop several dozen yards away from her. She then made an obvious show of looking down to the ground so far below them.

"Perhaps you are not the coward I thought you to be. We are, after all, quite far removed from the planet's surface."

Herb gave a derisive snort. "All that you have done by fleeing to this height is to force upon me the distasteful task of catching your body when you fall."

Rolling her eyes, Starfire shook her head in amusement. "I also grow tired of your constant stream of idle threats." She could hardly believe what she was saying herself, considering the pain she was in, but continued regardless. "For all of your vaunted skills, you have yet to prove more capable than your subordinates. Are you... certain that you should be on the battlefield? Many generals serve honorably removed from combat." She paused to offer him a teasing wink. "Far, far removed in some cases."

He didn't move a muscle, but in an instant, the air around her heated up to levels uncomfortable even for her, she could actually see the air shimmer around her opponent's angrily writhing ki blades. She was actually thankful for the helmet he wore, as she could scarcely imagine the murderous scowl that was adorning his face at that precise moment.

Herb surged forward like a bullet, air rippling in his wake as his ki propelled him towards her. Rearing back an arm, the deadly master swung forward savagely, the bladed construct above his wrist extending to several times its length -

To his shock, the alien dipped below the attack, diving into a tight spiral evasion which carried her behind him. With lightning speed, he spun about, extending both arms and forming a near literal windmill of ki blades.

He then watched, nearly mesmerized, as his quarry wove between his swings as gracefully as a dolphin at sea. The impertinent alien even had the audacity to hurl a salvo of energy blasts in his direction. He didn't bother to dodge, simply negated the force and heat of each one with his ki shields and shrugging off the mild discomfort that came like an unpleasant aftertaste. Oddly enough, these latest attacks lacked most of the heat of her earlier shots.

And then she was flying away again, at startling speed. Frustration rising to heights he hadn't felt since dealing with Saotome, Herb took off after her at full speed ... only to find himself steadily falling behind. Thinking quickly, he slashed forward several times, crescent blades of shaped ki arcing through the air to intercept the girl's flight path. At this rate, it would be difficult to capture the girl intact, and he found himself mentally weighting the options of just going for a killing stroke. Both the PRC and the higher ups would be enraged if she escaped again whereas only his CO would be enraged if the alien girl were killed. It was a matter of which option would anger the least people.

To his frustration, the alien banked sharply, neatly avoiding the blades. It did allow him to close some of the distance between, them, though. His hands twitched, unwilling to admit failure by allowing either option. He was Herb. He had brought his clan willingly into UNETCO, and he would not fail a mission given to him!

Starfire glanced back over her shoulder at the approaching warrior. As she had suspected, his deadly ranged abilities would make escape dangerous, at best. It was beginning to appear that it was going to come down to who grew exhausted first. She did not appear to possess any ability powerful enough to harm him through his impressive set of armor, yet, here, in her element, she could literally fly ... circles ... around him?

A wide smile suddenly bloomed on the Tamaranian's lips.

It was time to demonstrate to this earthling what _true_ flight entailed. Spinning on a fractional denomination of earth currency, Star tore through the air at full speed - straight back at Herb. The darkly clad warrior actually appeared to balk for a moment, before attempting to lash out once more.

Several near invisible bolts of ki fired out at her, with a sweep of her arm she fired out a series of star bolts to intercept them. Most missed, and she was forced to dodge the rest, but to her dismay, the sharp bolts lanced straight through those plasma blasts that did connect - only to destabilize and dissipate harmlessly seconds later. Then Starfire was past him, flying so fast that only the green contrail of energy following in her wake remained.

Herb spun about as quickly as he could, but the alien's maneuverability at this altitude was problematic. He almost considered contacting the fourth member of Romeo Squad, but if this creature was giving him such trouble, he doubted she would be able to fare that well, especially without the full protection of her armor.

There was nothing else for it, so he gave chase. He was fairly certain he could prevent her from escaping by strategically blocking her flight path, however there were limits even to his great power, and he had no way of knowing whether the same was true for the alien or not.

Rearing back his arm, he prepared to launch another -

Suddenly the alien veered to the side, nearly a ninety degree turn without any effort at all. The Dragon Prince was forced to take a longer, arcing course to continue his pursuit. Then, as if to insult him, the self dubbed 'Tamaranian' (why had he not heard back from command about that yet?) spun about and began to fly _backwards_, casually hurling more of those odd energy blasts of hers at him.

It was a small effort for him to defeat her attacks as before, the projectiles little more than concussive bursts at this point, lacking all of their former heat, but doing so while pushing the speed of his flight further than he had ever been forced to before was becoming ... troublesome.

Herb finally found an opening to attack, and prepared to fire again - and again, the alien suddenly veered to the side. Not so sharply, this time, rather a shallow arc that he was more easily able to follow. A vicious smirk crossed his lips as he did, though, as it seemed that her pride would soon cost her. Flying backwards, as she was, his enemy had lost a good portion of her speed, and he was gradually beginning to catch up once more.

Soon enough, he would be close enough that there would be no way for her to evade, and then she would pay for her disrespect. What was her plan, anyway? Did she actually think her half hearted bombardment would defeat him? Was she hoping that he would exhaust himself, chasing her round and round ... like ... this ...

Instantly, realization crystallized in his mind. As impossible as it was, as utterly inconceivable, it all made perfect sense. And this was one of Cologne's little creations.

In a burst of speed that would have made her Amazonian mentor proud, Starfire pirouetted midair, utterly incapable of hiding the broad smile that covered half her face. Even as 'Lord Herb', apparently shocked at her sudden reversal, attempted to pull back, she swung upwards in a massive uppercut, the wild swing coming not even close to the armored warrior.

In an instant, all of the hot energy saturating the environment, provided so generously by her furious enemy, and stirred so liberally by her own comparatively cool power, was drawn in down to a single point, the shimmering bluish sphere limning her fist. A familiar roar began to fill the air as the air began to collapse in around her, the winds beginning to twist violently -

"**Flying Dragon Ascends to the Heavens B - **_**ooaaaahhhhhh**_**!"**

A flash of arctic cold was all the warning she received before, against all reason, _she_ was being sucked up into the very tornado which she had created! Starfire managed a brief glance down as she was dragged helplessly upwards, tumbling madly through the air. Floating in the eye of the cyclone, of _her_ cyclone, was the armor clad soldier, his fist raised upwards in an uppercut of his own.

How - how had he known how to do that? Even as the winds pummeled her, and the familiar sickening sensation of the funnel feeding upon her power descended on her, all she could focus on was how he could have possibly turned her attack back on her in such away. Cologne had never mentioned this! This was inconceivable! This was ... this was hauntingly familiar!

This was exactly like the tale Ranma had told of his own prior exploits with the technique!

The Tamaranian warrior's memory kicked into overdrive as she called up her discussions with the pigtailed martial artist with desperate clarity. It had not been long after they had combined their powers to save Jump City from Ryouga's self destructive rage, in the days they had spent in recovery before the Lost Boy finally awoke. The Saotome heir had drilled her endlessly on her knowledge of the technique, and had explained, in _excruciating_ detail, his numerous 'awe inspiring victories' with the Hiryu Shoten Ha.

Starfire knew exactly what to do! Regaining control of her wild flight, the alien girl smiled, then flew up, straight into the heart of the storm itself.

Herb stared up into his commandeered tornado triumphantly. It appeared that Cologne had indeed taught this amazing creature - taught her more than he had imagined the treacherous Amazon would pass on to a discarded experiment. He had been so utterly surprised that such an unlikely enemy would use such a powerful technique, that he almost hadn't had the time to alter his aura from boiling hot to freezing cold. As it was, the systems in his armor were screaming in protest at the sudden shock, but he didn't need them anymore, anyway.

It was only a matter of seconds now, and the battle would be over. He also noticed, then, that it was getting bright out. Yet it couldn't be sunrise already? And ... since when had sunlight been tinted green?

Herb's eyes widened into saucers as he looked up, staring in complete incomprehension at the massive emerald sphere that was descending down on him, blasting the winds of the cyclone apart with its passage. For a moment, his mind flashed back to another sphere of burning ki, unleashed upon his person under nearly identical circumstances. He had never expected, not here certainly, to face this attack again, but there was no doubt.

This was the Hiryu Korin Dan!

This was Saotome's damned counter-technique!

It was insane. It was impossible. Simply impossible. There was no way Ranma would have shared this technique with the enemy. There was no way they could have deduced the intricacies of it outside of his experience. Even Cologne, cursed master that she was, couldn't duplicate it. In his own fight with her, Ranma had confirmed that fact when the formerly ancient Amazon had countered the move and others like it in different ways. How the HELL was this girl pulling off a move only Saotome himself - _a man who had surpassed anyone before him in the use of the Hiryu Shoten Ha_ - could do?

"Damnit," Herb cursed.

He didn't do so lightly, either. The Prince of the Musk spread his arms, let out a soft breath, and raised his hands. He'd been crushed by the Korin Dan before, surprised by the counter to his own counterattack.

That one oversight, that one loss, was something Saotome hadn't neglected to bring up in every bit of correspondence or interaction between the two ever since. The Japanese martial artist no doubt expected Herb to be in possession of a counter move, and Herb fully expected Ranma to be working on a counter-counter. It also served keep both men one step ahead of Cologne, their mutual enemy and another master of the Hiryu Shoten Ha.

Feeling the Korin Dan's outer shell envelop his fingers, Herb nodded to himself.

Starfire descended from above, maintaining enough speed to plow into her target and enough maneuverability to ensure a hit. The burning angry ki in her hands seethed and roiled, commingling with her own energy under protest. She could feel the emotions within it: the anger, the humiliation, the indignation, the lust for revenge. It was a different fire than her own righteous fury: dirtier and meaner and completely at ease with that fact. There was nothing righteous about it, and it was still angry at _her_ specifically.

The human seemed resigned to the attack, and made no move to dodge. In fact, as he reached up to take the blow, he accelerated briefly upwards. Starfire refused to allow herself to hesitate at the gesture; it was too late anyway. The burning energy bomb made contact with and engulfed its victim. Her view of the man disappeared entirely within it. Starfire had a moment to wonder about that. Ranma had said that this move flattened its opponent -

Then, her fingers slipped, as the ball of energy slipped and pinched in.

"W-what...!"

What was a perfect sphere dimpled and started to suck her in.

_'You clearly understand the principles behind the dragon wave,'_ Herb thought, on his end of the attack. It was impossible to see what was going on, on the other side, but he could guess. _'The fact that you could mimic Saotome's move is proof of that. But you've overlooked the weakness of spiral based techniques.'_

The Korin Dan was formed from the use of a smaller vortex of cold energy forcefully drawing in the nearby hot energy. It then trapped and shaped that energy into a ball and hit the enemy with it. However, it still required a spiral motion to maintain form. The crater Herb had found himself in before had been a twisted spiral itself, and such spiraling techniques were Chinese in origin.

By introducing a counter rotation, one could negate the trapping spiral, through the creation of a countercurrent of opposite orientation and similar amplitude and angular velocity. However...

One could also match the spiral and introduce an identical rotation. This had the potential of amplifying the initial attack, but properly offset and oriented, the moving, interlaced spirals produced a three dimensional scroll compressor, or vacuum pump. Using one hand now, with the orb stalled between users, Herb continued the orientation rotation, moving his hand in a quick circle. Right now, the vacuum would be forming on the other side of the ball, warping it into a long, deep crater, more like a funnel, to suck its victim in.

This was his:

"Hiryu Mouko Wasa."  
(Rising Dragon Fierce Tiger Trap)

Herb's palm became a fist, and the spirals aligned.

The Korin Dan hadn't been quite as massive as Saotome's, but it imploded with a personally satisfying crack of thunder. A toroidal pulse of heat and charged air expanded from the impact event as crackles of lightning from charged bits of debris lit up the air with acetic fire. The Dragon of the Musk half expected to see a blackened, shredded body fall from the dispersing cloud of burning ki.

He was pleased to see the alien girl intact, though pulverized.

The two hung briefly in midair, and then Herb pulled up. A black glove shot out to try and catch the falling alien, just barely seizing hold of a ruined, shredded shirt. There was no escape now. One hand drew back to deliver a merciless coup de gras.

Only for the Musk Prince to stutter, momentarily losing control of his ki entirely and falling like a clipped brick.

_'B-B-breasts! ...Damnit!'_

Blinking and trying to clear her own head, Starfire tumbled instead of falling cleanly, the world becoming a dizzying and rapidly descending cacophony of images and rushing air. As the ruins of the Amazon village resolved, her tumble becoming a spin, there was an onrushing flash of white. Against reason, a dozen feathers seemed to be scattered across her front, somehow slowing her fall.

The last conscious thought she had was just what in X'hal's name a Thanagarian was going here. Then Kiima's matte black elbow crashed into the side of her skull and everything went black again. A gloveless hand, clawed like a bird's instead of bearing normal fingers, reached out and seized her by the fabric around her collar and left shoulder.

The Phoenix woman still held onto her, as Starfire finally, mercifully, went limp.

"Honestly, Lord Herb, you still have that problem?"

"... t-they were orange. I was unprepared."

* * *

The disturbance had first been felt in the depths of T'leth.

Four kilometers beneath the surface of the Ocean, half buried in the great rift on the sea floor known as the Sigsbee Deep, an alien metropolis slept. No light from above reached this place, where blind fish and eyeless crabs hunted among oblique curves and alien geometry unknown to man. It snowed here year around: detritus from the light-fed world above slowly drifting down over the course of months to reach the very bottom of the world.

No light, man made or otherwise, broke the endless night here. The spires and concave domes were silent. The ones who maintained the place at any one time could be counted on two hands. They were pale things, moving purposefully within the darkness, following paths in the decaying snow. They slipped down corridors that had not seen even the briefest radiance in millennia - following routes burned into their minds, duties carved into their very being.

Further down, past the broken and forgotten surface levels, lay T'leth proper. Here, alien colors remained unfaded on walls and floors, despite the eons underwater, eternally hidden by the darkness and the sea. Within one great chamber, large enough to accommodate a stadium, a hundred thousand creatures slept in dimly lit tubes, recessed in the walls. They waited, dreaming, for their time to come. For their long promised time.

Deeper still, within the heart of T'leth, their dreams took physical form.

It was known as The Dreamer.

Its cousin, on Cydonia, knew it as the T'leth Mind.

Yet within that sightless tomb, confined within a dead ship, left only to dwell in dream, it had become so much more. The Cydonia Mind had found it long ago, re-enabled many otherwise un-repairable functions, but soon became wary. It did not want those who dwelled and dreamed to be a part of it. The Dreamer knew it feared what its ancient predecessor had become: a race, a Mind, collectively gone mad. The Dreamer had feared, once, but dark and deathless ages had given it time to fully appreciate the situation. In time, it would have an entire world to mould in its image.

The Promise.

The Promise would soon be fulfilled.

The Dreamer slept, half alive, half dead; half consciousness, half nightmare.

Thus, it was first felt - _they were first felt_ - in T'leth.

The Dreamer felt it come into being - INVADER DISRUPTION POISON - far above, on an island far away. The molecular control network was incomplete, but it extended The Dreamer's senses far and wide, across the world's seas and lands. In time, it would make The Dream real. This new interruption was... not right - SAMPLE UNKNOWN DEVOUR SENSES - tasted wrong. They did not belong here; coming in an ugly twist - TRAVEL ARRIVAL ESCAPE EXPAND - of space and time.

**A TRAVELER HAS COME**

Yes. Not from beyond the stars, but from beyond the beyond. They came from that warped realm of the Faster Than Light. It tasted of one but smelt of many. The Dreamer knew of this sort, from ancient times, back when it had first taken flight among the solar winds. In that time, it had been a colony ship, send to a bright, young new world. The Cydonia Mind would know more. It had come here more recently, and knew far more about the beyond that was beyond.

The Dreamer felt out its kin. The Mind would not detect it for some time yet by itself, but it accepted The Dreamer's conclusions. Visitors have come. Beasts from beyond the beyond. This was a rare opportunity. Certain barriers that could not otherwise be crossed were now vulnerable. A strand of the spiderweb had been found, and plucked.

The Dreamer hungered - CONSUME RAPE ABSORB BECOME - to bring the Dream into the light and, now, to have the beyond bend to it as well. The Martian Mind cared only for its mission and for that which could serve. It did not Dream, but it was Curious. TAKE FLESH REND THOUGHT - The Dreamer knew there was much to gain. So long as the Promise was not forgotten in pursuit of some new goal. With the beyond in its maw, The Dream could become even more... _vivid_.

The Mind accepted the information. It had protocols of its own in this situation.

The Dreamer closed its blind eyes.

And Dreamed of a world - a perfect nightmare world, like a million shards of broken glass.

* * *

Consensus.

The Mind had chosen one to carry out its will. Within The Mind, this Ethereal accepted the charge. Given the data from the Molecular Control Network, it was closest to the anomaly, with the most mobile and expendable assets. It was already conducting Earth-based research. The humans would soon be alerted. Speed was necessary, but not entirely at the expense of caution. It was imperative.

_They_ would need to be found.

And Harvested.

* * *

Abstract -

Nabiki Tendo  
Rank: Operator

One of three daughters of S. Tendo (profile available), inc K. Tendo (Seiran Medical div.); A. Tendo (Seiran: CT Golf). Minimal psionic potential. Practices some of family martial arts style. Graduated within top five percent of outgoing class, Furinkan, Nerima. Multiple unofficial disciplinary and ethics violations; none pursued. Unusual circumstances at school (see: R. Saotome, Furinkan). Enrolled in Meiji University at time of abduction (see: Nerima Abduction Event) (see: university records).

Brought in after the UFO crash in South America, she was stated to be instrumental in reorienting the ship and allowing for its descent. Transferred to Far East Branch. Originally applied and accepted to internship in Revenue and Logistics Division. Brought in during Operation Trojan to coordinate for India Squad. Transfer approved to Operations CIC pending psionic training and evaluation. Permanent Operator Status approved (Dec, 2006). Monthly evaluations show acceptable and developing skills in multi-tasking, information retrieval, non-linear thinking. Emotional attachment to team rated as: HIGH(4E).

Operator Tendo has performed her job to expectations as of the time of this correspondence. IntSec has catalogued a dozen minor behavioral infractions, mostly related to the selling of goods and services on-base, and to participation in sanctioned gambling events among combat personnel. No disciplinary action deemed necessary. Personal morale is high and key to maintaining her productivity. As of Jan, 2006, no efforts have been made to replace her with a Senior Operator.

Commitment is considered high due to first hand exposure to alien activities. Minimal psionic imprinting undertaken (see: psi-gym usage). PsyOps profile attached. High aversion to failure; noted as hard working when properly motivated. Known relationship with Lt. R. Hibiki (Seiran: CT India) has not interfered with performance as of previous reviews (see: Service Record, attached) (see: Psionic Profile, attached). Tendo is currently being evaluated in-field to demonstrate possible candidacy for inclusion in CLEANSLATE. Exclusion of Tendo can be expected to negatively affect efficiency of India; push her hard to make sure she's ready.

[signature redacted]

##

BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS  
TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 3845  
CODENAME: Cyborg  
REAL NAME: Victor Stone

SPECIES: Human  
HEIGHT: 6'3"  
WEIGHT: 420lbs

HAIR COLOR: N/A  
EYE COLOR: Brown

KNOWN ABILITIES: Subject has undergone extensive cybernetic replacement and enhancement as a result of an accident. Cybernetic augmentation has given the subject superhuman strength (Full limits not yet determined). Subject is highly armed and armoured. Main weapon system is a sonic device, while secondary weapons include micro missile launchers. The bulk of the subject's cybernetic frame is composed of a titanium-promethium alloy, granting extremely high resistance to most forms of damage, and internal systems are heavily shielded against remote access, and EMP bursts. Subject also possesses super human intelligence, rumoured to be part of a human augmentation experiment conducted by the subject's parents. Subject is highly skilled in numerous technical and medical fields, ranging from machine design, security setups and computer hacking.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: Subject's main weakness is reliance on external energy sources to maintain power levels. Highest probability of incapacitating subject is to place him in a scenario where he is unable to recharge – Please Note: This strategy could result in subject's death if precautions are not taken.

KNOWN HISTORY: Son of noted S.T.A.R. Lab scientists: Silas and Elinore Stone. Most of the subject's childhood is recorded (files taken from S.T.A.R. Lab dataframe) but not relevant. Cybernetic augmentation of subject occurred shortly after the death of Elinore Stone. The incident involved an experimental dimensional portal developed by Silas Stone, in which an unidentified life form invaded the laboratory, killing Elinore and mortally wounding the Subject. Subject's father applied cybernetics to save the Subject's life. Unknown at the time, Silas Stone suffered from radiation poisoning in conjunction with the incident.

Several months later, Subject assisted in the formation of the team designate: Teen Titans. After defeating the Gordanian invasion resulting from the arrival of Subject: 5231: Codename: Starfire, Subject's father constructed structure designated: Titan Tower. Shortly after, Subject's father succumbed to radiation poisoning. Since that time, Subject has performed as the Titan's second in command.

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: D

PERSONAL NOTE_: It's easy to see why Dick wants Cyborg on his team. Not only is he highly capable, bringing a wide range of skills to the table, it is also impossible to miss the thread of loss which is shared not just between them, but through all of the Titans. It appears that Dick isn't just forming a team of disparate heroes, forced together by circumstance, but a surrogate family which actually shares bonds of understanding and sympathy with one another. My only hope that these bonds don't weaken Dick. It's much easier to give orders to comrades than it is to family._

##


	3. First Contact 3

**_A/N_**

_Update time again. Since we've gotten some reviews with concerns about the internecine fighting between protagonists, we've made a few small adjustments (Lathis and I do listen to our readers and care about every review). However, this does not change the fact that the XCOM world is comparatively paranoid and grittier than the DCAU. This is part of the story and can't be changed. Also part of the story is the fact that the protagonists don't just become BFFs right off the bat or anything. There are just too many differences between them to overcome. Keep in mind, too, that from our perspective, two or three of these chapters is basically a drop in the bucket compared to the story as a whole._

_The intro sections were also written in a modular fashion as parallel character arcs. Not everyone "appeared" at the same time and clearly not in the same places. This was an experiment on our part, and it actually made for some difficult "chapter assembly" editing. It was frankly a relief to go back to putting together later, more conventional, chapters._

_Anyway. __**Chapter 3**__!_

_Not really any action in this one. It's a character chapter mostly, and a setting builder for what's to come._

* * *

Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last. The reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together. With Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding', it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of Atlantis. Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well deserved breather from their adventures. But as unseen forces manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered… and sooner than they expect.

It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_First Contact_

Chapter III

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

Darkness and light flashed all around him in a disorienting kaleidoscopic whirlwind. Ryouga felt the howling emptiness of eternity clawing away at the edges of his mind, felt the pressure of a thousand oceans pressing down on him, crushing him - but at the same time he felt like he was trapped in the vacuum of space, his body attempting to explode outwards to abhor said vacuum in a most gruesome manner.

The only thing that allowed him to cling to his sanity was the girl in his arms. Fighting the vertigo of the violently churning universe, Ryouga turned his eyes down to Raven's cloaked form. The girl's face was locked in a rictus of pain, and she clutched her temples desperately. Dark tendrils of her energy, completely beyond her control, spread out from her. Many rose up above them, wrapping around the Twenty Six Dimensional Hypergriffin which was the cause of all of their misery.

The beast's unnatural screeches faded away into nothing in the face of the absolute chaos that swirled around them. Countless wings beat furiously, but found no purchase in the void. Its legs swung wildly, but its claws could not slash through the ebony bonds that lashed it to them. He could see the primal animal fear in its dozens of eyes as it tried to escape. It was as if the world was ending and this thing knew it ...

Whatever had happened, Ryouga somehow knew that they were at the heart of it, sitting on their butts like a trio of idiots in the eye of the tornado itself. How long before ... before _whatever_ this was started tearing them apart as well? The Lost Boy didn't even have a clue what was happening, just a blurry memory of battling his way to Raven's side ... panicked shouting all around him ... then this –

As one, Raven's and the Griffin's pained screams rose to a fevered pitch. The outburst coincided with a shift in the storm around them; the rapidly flowing walls of dimensional winds drew inwards, shrinking the 'eye' in which they huddled to half its size in a matter of seconds. The sudden increase in pressure nearly tore a scream from Ryouga's throat as well, and he did everything that he could to use his body to shield Raven. The only thing more agonizing than the dimensional energies trying to tear away at him, was the expression on the pale girl's face, tears spilling helplessly from her eyes.

He was distracted away from Raven as the Griffin's oscillating screeches suddenly increased yet again, despite the seeming impossibility of such a feat. Looking up, trying to see through his bangs whipping about furiously in the maelstrom, he saw the swirling black 'walls' of the storm close in further, actually seeming to consume the flailing creature. Despite the beasts wild, desperate struggles, it sank further and further into the dimensional morass, the black bonds of Raven's energy shredding away to dark smoke and sweeping away into the vortex.

And then, as if it had never been, the Griffin was gone, swallowed whole by the shrinking cyclone of absolute chaos. The gods only knew what the creature's fate was, but Ryouga feared that they would be sharing it soon enough. The space they occupied was dwindling by the second, the primordial winds eating away hungrily at the small platform of laboratory floor that had been drawn with them. Within seconds, there was less than two yards separating them from the all devouring chaos of the dimensional energies. As the walls of the vortex closed in on them, though, it only compacted down on the power that Raven was unleashing so uncontrollably, creating an even more intense pressure on the Hibiki as the dark energies tried to force equilibrium with the darker energies crushing down on them.

'_That__'__s it!__'_

Without bothering to actually consider the ramifications of his 'plan', or whether it even contained a shred of sanity in it, he clenched his eyes shut and turned every iota of his will to a single task. Even with his eyes closed, burning azure light seeped through his eyelids as his battle aura surged to life. As of late, the emotional aspect of his Shishi Houkodan had made the technique all but unusable to him – he was just too damn happy most of the time to get properly depressed – but in this instant dark, heavy emotions flowed into his mind as easily as cracking a walnut.

An instant later, he felt one pressure lessen, only to be replaced by another; the power of his aura resisted the crushing power of Raven's, but soon came into direct contact with the dimensional barrier itself, and began to battle against it. Though he hated it – which only made it easier to do – he forced himself to dredge up the worst events of his life. The image of Raven's limp body flying through the air to smash horrendously against the wall of a cathedral, Ryouga himself responsible, seared his brain and caused his aura to swell painfully. The pure, azure light of the aura soon descended into vitriolic green and black.

"_R-Raven_!" he shouted hoarsely, "_You__'__ve got to fight it_!"

He couldn't see her face, only the sound of her screams let him know she was even conscious, but by instinct, he knew that he had gotten through. Quick as thought, he felt the pressure bearing down on them lessen and increase all at once, as Raven's power found focus and purpose once more. Her shouts silenced a moment later, and he dared to crack open an eye. The beautiful Titan was still in his arms, actually wrapping her own arms around his neck as well, using him for support. A look of ultimate exertion was etched on her face, likely mirroring his own. Their eyes met for a brief moment, and an unspoken word flashed between them.

In unison, their respective powers flared as they poured everything they had into pushing back the encroaching abyss. Power built upon power, and Ryouga felt his skin begin to burn as the intensity grew exponentially, impossibly increasing power trapped within an inexorably shrinking space. One way or the other, something was going… to have… to give-

A flash of light, brighter than the sun, blinded the Hibiki, and with it, the sweet sensation of release. In an instant, all of the resistance, the pressure that had been crushing down on them, vanished. The empty howl of infinity was replaced by the furious roar of power contained become power unleashed. As the power flowed out of him, it dragged with it all of the emotions which had given it power, leaving Ryouga in a state of utter emptiness. All he could do was sit there, his breathing coming in long, even breaths, staring down blankly at the girl in his arms.

Raven stared back at him, her face in contrast to his own, swirling with emotions that he couldn't identify at the moment. In this moment of calm clarity, the juxtaposition struck him as mildly amusing; him, passively detached, and her overwrought with emotion. The moment was shattered by the sound of screaming. Even through the ringing in his ears, Ryouga could easily make out the pained shouts, and instantly realized that they didn't belong to either him, or Raven.

His gaze snapped up, finally taking in their surroundings-

His jaw dropped open in horror… They were sitting in the center of a street, or, at least the remains of one. Where there should have been asphalt and concrete, there was only exposed, blasted earth. They were perched at the very center of a massive crater which stretched from one side of the street, clear across to the other. One both sides of them, several store fronts had been reduced to rubble by the blast; shattered glass, powdered concrete and twisted metal security grates were scattered in great swathes all around them.

Ryouga's mind shifted into overdrive as his brain tried to process every single piece of information at the same time, as impossible as such a task was. As the world seemed to slow down around him, details began to filter in, queuing up in a neat orderly manner for him to analyze. The light lancing down past the building tops and the bright pink skies overhead told him that it was early morning, the sun still rising. The majority of the intact stores were closed, only a few had lights on, and even the majority of those still had their security grates pulled down, reinforcing the idea of an early morning. There were several vehicles on the street, though not many, as well as several individuals that had likely been walking from somewhere to somewhere in the early hours of the morning.

Despite his attempts to remain calm and collected, though, the sight of an overturned car, a large truck flipped onto its side, both on the outer fringe of the blast zone, began to crack his veneer of control. The unmistakable sight of a uniformed officer hunched over in a daze on the road several meters beyond the blast zone, and – to his unimaginable horror – a morning jogger half buried in the debris of one of the store front blasted him from his contemplation all together.

Moving as fast as his legs would carry, Raven still in his arms, he tore across the street and skidded to a stop next to the collapsed storefront, his feet digging long furrows into the upturned earth. He was on his knees a moment later – he carefully placed Raven on the ground to his side – and frantically began digging the pedestrian out. Picking up small pieces of shattered concrete, thankful that there weren't any massive slabs that would have crushed the man, he quickly uncovered the jogger. A pained cough from the man gave him hope, and he quickly lifted Raven to a sitting position next to the man.

"Raven, can you tell if he's alright?" he asked, frantic.

Still clutching her own skull, Raven stared at the man, trying to focus her eyes. A moment later, she nodded and reached forward, resting a hand on his chest. Even as a blue glow enveloped her hand, eliciting a pained hiss from Raven, it caused the man's breathing to ease. While this was happening, Ryouga spun around, looking over the rest of the disaster area.

He silently counted his blessings that, wherever they were, it was so early in the morning. He then proceeded to curse, wishing it had been even earlier.

And then he was running again. A hurried sprint carried him to the overturned car in less than a second, and he quickly knelt down beside the driver's door and looked inside. A woman, the only occupant of the vehicle thankfully – and Japanese, just like the man they had just dug out of the rubble – stared back at him, wild shock in her eyes. Still hanging upside down, her seatbelt holding her in her seat, the woman banged ineffectually at the driver-side window. Not wasting another instant, Ryouga punched his hand straight through the door, and pulled the entire thing off with a squeal of twisting and tearing metal.

As gently as possible, he then reached in and undid the woman's seatbelt, pulling her out of the vehicle. This process was surprisingly easy, as the woman offered no resistance at all, just stared at him with unbelievably wide eyes. Giving her a quick visual once over, he let out a sigh of relief as he didn't see any signs of major injury, just a trail of blood running down from her scalp, likely from hitting her head when her vehicle was flipped over.

Satisfied that she would be fine; she wasn't reacting like she had a concussion, and he'd had more than a little experience with those, he walked to a clear patch of ground and sat her down on the road. All he needed to do now was flip that truck back up onto its wheels again and, provided the jogger didn't require a rapid trip to the hospital, this disaster would be well on its way to being mitigated. Brushing his hands off on his pants, he started towards the downed truck-

"H-halt! Don't move!"

Ryouga started at that, as the order had been given in Japanese. Spinning around, the martial artist noted the police officer that had been knocked down earlier. The officer was currently training a comparatively harmless looking baton on the Hibiki, much to his dismay. Soot covered half the young police officer's face and he had a bloody slash across his forehead that he had to keep wiping at with his sleeve. Holding up his hands, doing his best to give the impression of being unarmed, Ryouga replied in a calm voice.

"Alright, officer. I'm not moving." He lifted his hands higher to try to get his point across. "I'm just trying to help. We need to check on the driver of that truck."

The officer, still looking shell shocked or even concussed, shook his head violently. "Shut – shut up! Don't you move a damn inch! I saw... I saw you... and the explosion..."

Obviously not interested in what Ryouga had to say, the officer tore a radio from his belt and lifted began to bark into it. "This is officer Tsukino! I require back up, immediately! I – I got a pair of... I've got a pair of damned _terrorists_! They just set off a bomb in the middle of the street! Send everything you've got!"

Ryouga grimaced at that. A terrorist? He thought they were terrorists? How the hell were they going to explain this?

A voice crackled back via the radio. "Officer Tsukino, report your position! Are you injured?"

The wide eyed officer, still training his baton on Ryouga with one hand, began to reply-

When, without any reason, the policeman suddenly collapsed to the ground, out like a light. A second later, an explanation was made evident, as a thin trail of black energy detached itself from the back of the man's skull, and evaporated back to where Raven was still sitting on the ground next to the downed jogger. Ryouga stared at the officer uncertainly for a moment, then made his way to the dark Titan's side. Immediately, he inquired about the man's condition.

"Is he going to be alright?"

"I've stabilized him," she replied through gritted teeth. "He'll be fine as long as emergency crews get here within the next few hours."

Relieved, he nodded and knelt down, scooping her up in his arms. "And you?"

Wincing slightly at the sudden lift, she nodded weakly. "My head feels like it's about to split open… and healing his injuries certainly didn't help, but – but I think I'll be fine."

'_Thank goodness for that_.'

"And the cop?" he asked, nodding at the downed man.

"Just asleep. He'll be fine as well, but I think we need to leave. Immediately."

Frowning, Ryouga looked around him, surveying the damage that their entrance had caused. How much had been the dimensional anomaly… and how much had been them? The idea that they might have been wholly, or even partially responsible for harming innocent people twisted his stomach. The thought of trying to explain this devastation to people, especially panicked people that now thought they were dangerous terrorists, seemed like a tremendously bad idea at the moment.

"Damn… _Damn_! We really stepped in it this time…"

* * *

It was the dead of night, hours since he had so slickly abandoned his motel room, and with it, his cop tail. Cyborg was chuckling to himself as he wandered down the street, still shamelessly amused with himself. According to the map he'd scanned, he should be in an area called 'Queens'. Judging by said map, it looked to be a pretty highly populated residential area, and his eyes told him that the immediate environs weren't exactly a high scale region. Reminded him a bit of where he'd been staying before he joined the Titans.

Despite being in a completely different dimension, the large teenager felt a bit like he was getting back into his element. Everything might be different, but the sights, sounds and smells were strangely familiar. Looking up all around him, tall buildings - all at least fifteen stories - dominated his view. The sun was already starting to set again, but it was just that much darker down here, walking between the tall residential complexes. He was pretty sure that he had plenty of time before the cops finally realized that he wasn't coming back, but he needed to find a place to stay for the night.

Unfortunately, even in an area like this, he wouldn't be able to get a room, since these were long term domiciles, as opposed to the motel he'd been staying at. They wouldn't just let a vagrant without any dimensionally relevant identification move in, especially right at the end of the day. He didn't like the idea of squatting, but if given the choice between a cardboard box in an alley and an abandoned apartment in which to do his delicate scientific work, he had to choose the latter.

How to find an empty room, though?

Well, there was one way. Approaching one of the apartment complexes, he shifted his sight to thermal imaging. Oddly, the resolution wasn't nearly as good as he was used to, but it was still able to pick out heat signatures through the less than optimal construction of the buildings. The range wasn't great, but he could scan a few floors up, at least, and if he wandered around the perimeter, he should be able to see if most of the rooms had any inhabitants, or not.

The first building didn't offer any solace, nor did the second. Walking down the street to the third, Cyborg paused as he noticed an older, heavily bearded man wandering past him in the opposite direction. It was sort of hard to miss, what with the large sign the man was carrying. Cyborg found it hard to resist chuckling as he read it.

** 'ALIENS R REAL! THE END IS NIGH!**'

Shaking his head, Cyborg pulled out a handful of change and offered it to the man. "Yo, dude, I totally believe you. Just so you know, though, some of them aliens are pretty smoking hot, so I don't think you need to worry as much as you think."

Smiling to himself, he continued on his way, leaving the very confused man in his wake. A few more buildings passed, fully inhabited on the lower levels. He was starting to think he might need to try to get a higher vantage point -

Which was about the time that he realized what an idiot he was for not noticing earlier! Some of the apartments had satellite dishes clearly hanging outside them! If he could get his hands on one of those, he could transmit a signal easy! All he had to do was find an apartment that had a dish and was empty, or at least had an empty apartment close to it. Even a vacationing family would do; he wouldn't need it for long, just long enough to jury rig it to send a signal!

So excited at his good luck, he didn't even think twice about rushing down the wide, darkened alleyway before him, excitedly looking up at the walls of the buildings around him, carefully looking for any rooms he might make good use of, if only for a time. It didn't help that he was focusing his attention not only upward, but in infrared. With his internal computer drawing up a real-time schematic of the building nearby, it was all too easy to lose track of his surroundings.

Accidentally kicking a bottle, he heard it break against a nearby wall, momentarily shifting his attention back to the street. It was a fortunate move, since it kept him from all too eagerly running right into a metal link fence that blocked off the alley. Feeling more than a little foolish, Cyborg turned to head back the other way.

Doing so, he noticed he wasn't alone.

Interposing themselves between the dimensionally lost Titan and the street proper stood a group of young men. None looked older than mid twenties and some were lightly dressed, despite the night's chilly New York air. More than a few had specks of light that flared in his thermal vision: cigs, dancing between lips and teeth. Switching back to normal vision, Cyborg's sensors easily identified an assortment of weapons on the thugs. They were also, to a man, latino – yes, it was definitely a gang, but since this wasn't Gotham, he didn't have any data on the local troublemakers.

"Ey man, you lost or something?" the one at the front spoke first. He couldn't have been more than twenty, with a too-thin attempt at a moustache. Two of the others exchanged quick words in Spanish, though Cyborg's active translator quickly deciphered the conversation (yes, he had an App for that, too).

[Big guy. You think he's high?]

[He ain't so big. Looks like a _/translation_error _to me.]

Cyborg sighed, instantly recognizing the group for what it was. Yet another slice of a life long forgotten. It had been forever since a group of punks like this had dared to lift a finger against him. Of course, he didn't exactly have a rep of any sort in this world to back him up ... not that he needed it.

Holding up his hands, he gestured calmingly. "Look, dudes, I'm not lookin' for any trouble here. I ain't exactly rollin' in the dough, so shakin' me down ain't gonna get you anything. Let's just pretend you never saw me, and it'll all be cool, right?"

"We ain't chur dudes!" the lead gangster spat, snapping out a pocket knife with what he probably assumed to be practiced ease, and in a manner he likely assumed to be threatening. "An, guess what, we don wanna rob you either."

"Teachin' you a lesson sounds like a lot more fun," another gangster agreed, this one wielding an aluminum bat. Another, carrying a long pipe in a loose, easy grip, just chuckled around his cigarette.

"What's wrong, big guy? You gonna shit your pants?" the one in the back asked darkly. "Maybe then we'll let you go."

"..." Cyborg just stared at the gathered punks. Teach him a lesson? Man, and he hadn't wanted to get involved in this world at all, but they were making it _way_ too inviting to slip into old habits. Heck, he would be doing this dimension a favor putting these gang bangers down for a few days.

Taking a step forward, Cyborg cracked his knuckles, each one sounding off like a snapping tension line.

"Okay," he decided. "You punks wanna teach me a lesson? Why don't you start with addition? As in my fist plus your faces, equals you lot knocked the hell out on the ground?"

"Who da fuck you think you're talkin' too, _pendejo_?" barked the leader, nearly red in the face. "You crazy if you think we're lettin' you walk away now!"

Predictably, the head ganger charged forward, as did two of his cronies, one with a bat, and the other swinging a short chain around like a maniac. There were a few things that the cybernetic teen could have done there to deal with the problem, like just slap the knife out of the guy's hand and drop him with a tap to the head ... but that just didn't feel like a good enough lesson for these guys.

So, instead, he just stood there, smiling broadly as the lead punk charged forward and slammed into him with his shoulder, jamming the knife into his gut as hard as he could. The tiny metal blade snapped loudly, dropping to the ground with a clatter a moment later. No one else seemed to notice, as his buddies kept charging in, but the leader took a few uncertain steps back, staring at him in shock.

And then the other two swung in at him. Cyborg lifted both his arms contemptuously. The swinging chain wrapped around his left arm tightly. The aluminum bat he simply caught in his hand.

The two punks joined their leader in shocked staring as the large teen stared down at them with a wicked smile on his face. Then, without any effort at all, he pulled back with his left arm and closed his right hand into a fist. Even as the aluminum bat was crushed into an aluminum braid in his grip, the chain wielding punk went flying through the air behind him, only stopping on account of slamming bodily into the chain link fence, some ten feet away, and flopping to the ground.

Instantly, a hush fell over the crowd. Easily tugging the bat out of the punks grip, he let it drop to the ground a second later, where it rang out ominously as it hit the ground.

"Now... was there a second part to this lesson you were gonna teach me?" he asked, trying to sound genuinely curious. "Gotta admit, dudes, that I'm not learning a whole lot in this curriculum."

Not nearly as dumb as they looked, the leader began to back off quickly, as did pretty much everyone present - some of them even going so far as to break and turn completely. Feeling in a generous mood, Cyborg decided to give them a helping hand. Gently reaching forward, he placed his palm on the chest of the backpedaling leader, and gave a light 'shove' to help him along his way.

The kid's body shot through the air, for all intents and purposes a living bowling ball and he crashed into three more of his fleeing friends, sending all of them spilling to the ground in a pile.

Taking another look around, it seemed like a couple were gonna make it to the end of the alley, though. Now, Cyborg didn't really need a bunch of jerks running around telling the world about him before he had a chance to get outta Dodge. And, conveniently, their backs were to him ... Smiling, the Titan lifted his right hand, and with a loud clacking, the appendage shifted into its sonic cannon configuration. Rather than ramp it up to full blast sonic assault, he quickly reconfigured it and then fired.

With a dull thud, an expanding sphere of pale bluish light emanated from the end of his cannon. The series of low frequency sound waves washed over the fleeing punks, reverberating through their bodies and playing havoc with their equilibrium. At first, they all simply lost their balance and stumbled, but after a few seconds of carefully calibrating the power, they dropped like flies, passing out from the weakened attack.

"Well, looks like class is dismissed then," he quipped with a smirk.

Of course, it wouldn't be too long before they started to wake up, so he needed to beat it quick. Turning around, he took a quick look at the chain link fence, and without a second though, leapt over it.

A moment later, he was gone out the other end.

* * *

"How are you holding up?"

The tone of concern in her companion's voice was appreciated, but the ear splitting volume with which he asked was not. The fact that he was barely talking above a whisper told Raven just how terrible she was still feeling. Of course, it would be unproductive to dwell on her aching skull, so she nodded very gently.

"It's ... not as bad as it was. The smell of this dumpster isn't helping anything," she muttered darkly, patting the garbage receptacle they were hiding behind in the alley.

Raven then realized just what she'd done and quickly wiped her hand off on her cloak. They alleys were actually surprisingly and pleasantly clean compared to what she'd been expecting, but unfortunately, the dumpster was one of the few things big enough to actually block the view of any people walking down the road. It was troubling that they had to hide, but at this point, they had little choice. Things had gone unimaginably wrong in an unbelievably short period of time. In the blink of an eye, they had gone from heroes to terrorists. It was strange to contemplate, the idea that they could be considered _terrorists_ of all things! Back in Jump City people like that were a far removed threat, relegated to less developed, war torn countries, where super heroes were generally not welcomed.

It just didn't make much sense to her for them to be labeled as... as _that_ kind of menace. Super villains, certainly! Such acts of wanton destruction were quite common among their ilk, after all. Regardless, terrorist or super villain, the increase in police activity since the incident left no doubt to how seriously the local law enforcement was taking the situation. If they were caught now, before they had a chance of contacting any of their friends to begin smoothing things over…

Speaking of which.

"Have you had any luck with the communicators yet?"

The Lost Boy shook his head, befuddled. He held up the pair of yellow communicators, one round and one hexagonal.

"No," he responded in a discouraged negative. "It's the strangest thing. I can call your communicator fine, but no one else's. The map database is working fine, too, but the GPS function is down, so I can't actually find out where we are."

Raven considered the new information for a moment. "I think that Cyborg mentioned something about some form of network that allows the communicators to transmit across longer distances. It's possible that ... whatever happened to us might have disrupted that function. On their own, they only function at a range of fifty kilometers or so."

"Hmph, that's still pretty impressive, actually, but not too helpful. If we can't contact Robin and the others, then we can't ask them to help us get out of this damned mess."

Her temples continued to throb painfully, but Raven ignored it with practiced ease, nodding in return. "And without the network running, I can't contact Ranma, either, to get his assistance. I never thought to actually ask him for his phone number ..." She cursed herself for that lack of foresight. His help in this situation would have been invaluable.

He made an oddly annoyed, noncommittal grunt, shifting into a cross legged position. "If only I had my pack. I have the Tendo's phone number in my address book, but it's been damn well forever since I used the damn thing." He fired a mock glare her way. "You know, I'm pretty certain that I was promised that you guys weren't going to let me get lost like this again."

"We're only super heroes, Ryouga, not miracle workers."

"Oh, har de har har. How can you joke at a time like this?"

"You started it, if you recall? Besides, letting ourselves succumb to panic will only make things worse than they are. We need to remain calm."

He nodded slowly, his expression softening. "Yeah, I guess you're right. The less suspicious we act, the less attention we'll draw. At least relatively speaking, anyway."

"That still leaves us with several notable problems," Raven continued. "Finding out where we are. Finding out how to get home. And blending in until we can figure out how to traverse the distance between point A and point B."

"Blend in?" Ryouga asked with a puzzled expression.

The violet eyed Titan rolled her eyes, then looked down to her costume. "Unlike you, not all of us wear street clothing when battling crime."

Ryouga smirked triumphantly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Yeah, and see where that got you? Why _do_ all you super hero types wear colorful costumes, anyway? I never really got that part of it."

"Well, considering you haven't even grasped the _secret identity_ aspect of the profession, that's not a surprise," Raven fired back ... only to hesitate. "Though, now that you mention it, I can't remember the reason Robin gave for the outfits. Something about iconography, I think." She held up the corner of her cloak. "This isn't even a disguise, this is the style of robes common to Azarath before I came here. I realize it doesn't conform to Earth fashions, but Robin thought it was quite distinctive."

She could have swore that Ryouga muttered something that sounded like 'he's not the only one', but she couldn't be certain.

"Pardon me?" she asked.

Suddenly, the Lost Boy coughed loudly into his fist. "Ahem! Nothing, nothing. Just, we should probably both find some different outfits. As ... 'distinctive' as your robes are, people probably got a good description of me, too."

Raven nodded. "You do have something of a… distinctive look as well. Oh, and there is one thing that will certainly need to go." With expert skill, the cloaked girl reached up, and with a single flick of her wrist, removed Ryouga's bandanna.

All of them.

The martial artist stared at her, incomprehension in his eyes as he felt the wind blow across his naked forehead. "H-how did you _do_ that?"

She simply smirked. "There are some secrets that you just aren't prepared for, Hibiki."

It was amusing to see his speechlessness, but not exactly productive. Her brief 'down dressing' of her teammate did give her an idea, though it brought a tinge of pink to her cheeks. Quickly, she gave Ryouga a once quick over, then did a quick comparison on herself.

"Ryouga ... I need you to take off your shirt and belt."

The boy's face went from white to crimson in point five seconds. Amazing circulation, these martial artists. Moving quickly, she reached out and clamped her fingers down on his nose to forestall a bloody mess.

"_Breathe_, Ryouga. You're wearing your undershirt, right?"

Slowly, Ryouga nodded, his color returning to normal. "Oh ... _oh!_ Right, right!"

Quickly, he pulled off his bulky yellow sweater, revealing the tight fitting black T-shirt her habitually wore beneath it.

_'This crisis is beginning to show its silver lining,'_ the blushing Titan thought to herself.

She motioned for him to stand up next, and he then helped her stand with a gentle hand up. First, Raven unhooked her cloak and handed it to Ryouga, taking his sweater in return. When she slipped it over her head, much as she expected, it fell down to cover half of her thighs. Stealing his belt and cinching it around her own waist transformed the ill fitting sweater into a makeshift, if not terribly fashionable dress. She twirled around once, just to make sure it didn't reveal anything that it shouldn't ... though, considering she was wearing it over her regular outfit, that was a bit of a ridiculous thought.

"So, what do you think?" she asked, hoping it didn't look too unsightly on her. She wanted to avoid attention, not draw it with her poor fashion sense...

"Ryouga?" she asked again, after several moments of silence.

For some reason, her companion was blushing again.

"Umm ... are you alright, Ryouga?"

Instantly, he shook his head furiously. "No, no! It's great - great - you look great, yeah ..."

"Oh ... well, thank you," she mumbled back.

She also made certain to school her features to prevent the smile that threatened to grow on her lips. That had been more than she had been expecting. Though, it did take her a few moments to regain her train of thought. Unfortunately, changing her dress wouldn't be enough in her case. As distinct as Ryouga's appearance was, hers was far more so. Even though it filled her with revulsion, she rose to her feet and started looking through the alleyway. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to find any convenient hats, but she did find someone's discarded scarf. Shivering slightly as she pulled the long strip of cloth from the dumpster, she proceeded to drape it around her head and neck, doing her best to cover up her hair, as well as the stone adorning her forehead.

It was far from ideal, and the smell was less than pleasant, but the dark green scarf was far less unusual than a head of dark violet hair. She shot Ryouga an inquisitive look, and took his non committal shrug as confirmation that it was not a fashionable disguise at all. Still, it beat the alternative… she hoped.

"Alright then, where were we?" It took her a moment to recall where she'd been heading with her plan. "Oh, right. Do you have any money? If we're going to find new clothing, and more importantly, transportation, we'll need some."

Ryouga looked at her, puzzled. "Don't you have the cash card that Robin gave each of us?"

Raven frowned at the martial artist. She pulled out the hem of her 'dress' tellingly. "Does this outfit look like it has any pockets? I didn't bring my purse to the battle for the same reason you didn't bring your backpack." A weary sigh. "I suppose that means that you don't have anything on you, either, doesn't it?"

"Actually," Ryouga countered with a weak grin, "Unlike you girls, _guys_ have these things called 'wallets' that fit easily into their back pockets."

To prove his point, he dug out a folded piece of leather that looked to be older than Raven herself. She almost expected to see plumes of dust puff out when he opened it up. Much to her surprise, the thing was packed with various cards, mostly what looked like business cards from around the globe, judging by the numerous languages she could see just in the front row. She felt a strong desire to simply take the wallet and start rooting through its contents out of unbridled curiosity, but she managed to fight it down. She did spot his Titan Spending Card, so that concern was put to ... wait a moment.

"Ryouga! There must be close to four hundred dollars in there!"

The martial artist gave the wallet a quick look over. "Yeah, that's my 'emergency lost funds'. Whenever I managed to scrape a few dollars together, I'd stick it in my wallet, since I'm slightly less likely to lose my pants than my backpack ... man, that's a depressing statement."

Raven refused to laugh at the absurdity of his statement. "That's a lot of money, though."

He nodded. "Yeah, tell me about it. I guess I hadn't really noticed that I kept on putting money in there, but I never took any out, on account of not getting lost for so long. And even then, the last time I had the cash card, so I didn't need the 'emergency lost funds'."

"Please stop calling them your 'emergency lost funds'."

"What? That's what they are. Besides, it's an emergency, we're lost, and we need funds, so I'd say they're pretty aptly named, being my 'emergency lost funds' and all."

She narrowed her violet eyes, brief fancies of violence flashing through her mind, before sighing in defeat. "Alright, you win. Well, let's go find a currency exchange, then we can find some new clothing. We should be able to find out where we are while we're doing that."

Ryouga nodded. "Shouldn't be too difficult."

Wrapping up his T-Brella with her cloak, he stuffed it under his arm and started walking down the alley. "There should be a bank around here somewhere. Follow me, Raven."

Luckily, their discussion of 'emergency lost funds' had refreshed her memory to _that_ often forgotten piece of information.

"Umm, no. Why don't _you_ follow _me_?"

* * *

Stifling a yawn, Ryouga leaned back into the chair, trying to find a comfortable position in the inherently uncomfortable seat. Add to that the discomfort of being trapped in a woman's clothing store, waiting outside the changing room certainly didn't help, either. He wasn't even worried about anyone spotting him, so much as he was a bit uneasy sitting within arm's reach of a large display of ... tiny, lacy underpants.

He had already gotten himself a new disguise/outfit. Raven had flat out forbidden him to get another yellow or green Chinese shirt - it had nearly come to blows, until she reminded him that she could toss him into the ocean from where they were standing. When he'd pointed out that they were indoors, she just gave him a somewhat creepy smile.

So, now there he was, wearing a - he sighed in disgust - a polo shirt with a tiny crocodile on the breast, and a pair of ... of khaki pants. In comparison, the baseball cap and sunglasses he was wearing her downright bearable. He also had a duffel bag to hide his umbrella, though he still had to carry the bag, since the strap wouldn't hold the weight.

Despite the horrendous discomfort of the situation, waiting for Raven to change did give him some time to think. Their trip to the bank had revealed one pertinent piece of data. They were in Hokkaido, in Japan of all places, which explained why they weren't able to ring Ranma, being well more than 50 kilometers away from the smug bastard. So, at least there was one upside of their unfortunate side trip.

With a swish, the curtain of the changing room slid open, revealing the newly outfitted Titan.

Okay ... make that two upsides.

Ryouga felt his jaw drop open a bit, but quickly shook his head and snapped his mouth shut. The navy blue sundress, not all that different from the ones that Akane frequently wore, though a bit darker, was, frankly, not like anything he'd ever imagined seeing the violet haired girl wear. The big floppy hat and sunglasses were just adorable, too.

"So, how does _this_ one look?"

Not wanting to make himself look like an idiot twice in a row for the same thing, he smiled lightly. "Well, it's no yellow sweater, but I guess it'll keep the rain off."

Her face fell into an indignant pout, before his smothered chuckling tipped her off to his attempt at humor. "How did you put it? Har de har har? I just want to know that people won't recognize me."

"Are you kidding? I hardly recognize you myself. You should wear dresses more often, you know?"

"You wish, Lost Boy." Raven rolled her eyes - at least he assumed she did, behind the sunglasses. "Alright, then, I think we're done. We just need to pay and get out of here."

Ryouga nodded. "And then figure out how to get home. Which likely means finding out where the nearest airport is."

Within a few minutes, they had paid for Raven's purchases and were soon strolling through the mall, looking not at all like a wandering pair of super heroes/martial artists. Their stroll ended abruptly though, when, in utterly embarrassing fashion, Raven's stomach let out a loud rumble. Instantly, her face flushed red and she clutched her stomach. She fired a death glare at the Lost Boy, vainly attempting to hold in his laughter.

"You know, Raven, maybe we should stop for something to eat?"

Forcing her face to return to its normal pallor by pure force of will, Raven nodded as if nothing had just happened. "Well, if you're hungry, I suppose it couldn't hurt."

Ryouga managed to control his mirth, and tactfully followed her to the nearby food court. It didn't take long before they had acquired some slices of American pizza, drinks, and a small table to eat at.

"So, have you ever wandered through this city on your travels?" Raven asked between bites, anxious to fill the silence.

Taking a large bite of his own, he shook his head. "I've been through Hokkaido before, but I don't know if I've been through this particular city. They all tend to blend together after a while, you know?"

Raven shook her head. "No, not really. But then, I don't exactly have your... travel experience."

A weak chuckle. "I suppose that's one way to put it. It's too bad we can't stick around, though; Hokkaido has some really famous tourist attractions and stuff. Mt. Tengu has a nice gondola ride, and there's even a museum dedicated to Tengus on the mountain. There's Flower Land, which is actually nicer than it sounds. Then, of course, they have some really famous hot springs as well."

Slowly, Raven digested those factoids along with her pizza. "A museum dedicated to Tengu? That sounds ... interesting."

Ryouga nodded absently, taking a sip of his soda. "Oh, yeah, you'd be amazed how many amazing artifacts they had related to them. Oh, and then there was that tour boat I got onto at Akan Lake. Man, now _that_ was a relaxing time. Though at the time I thought it was a boat to Hong Kong..." He shrugged, not wanting to get sidetracked on exactly how badly he'd gotten lost his last time up north. "Of course, that's neither here nor there, since we have to get back to Jump city as soon as possible."

Mulling things over as she nibbled away at her slice, Raven considered the situation carefully. Here she was, on the far side of the planet, in what was apparently a beautiful area chock full of amazing tourist attractions that she would likely never have the chance to see again. Not only that, but she was here, alone, with Ryouga, away from _all_ of the distractions that her friends represented.

Of course ... their friends were possibly terribly worried about them, and there wasn't really any easy way that they could contact them to assuage their fears, not to mention the fact that they were doubtlessly wanted criminals by this point. Logically speaking, though, their friends would be just as worried after one day as they would be after two. It was just such an unprecedented opportunity; she'd never actually been on a 'vacation' before.

"Do we?" she asked. "De we actually need to get back as soon as possible, that is?"

The Lost Boy graced her with a puzzled look. "Pardon?"

Raven shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Well, it's unlikely we'll be able to get back right away, regardless. Who knows the next flight we'd be able to book on such short notice? Is there any reason we couldn't ... I don't know, take advantage of this situation while we have the chance?"

"Take advantage?" he asked. "I'm not sure I follow?"

Sighing weakly, Raven explained, "Well, how about this? Why don't we find a base of operations today, then we can find the nearest airport, and check out the earliest flight we can catch. Then, depending on how long we have to wait, maybe... go see some of those sights you mentioned? It wouldn't really be delaying our return, per se, just... not wasting the time we might be stuck here, anyway."

"Well, when you put it like that," Ryouga pondered aloud, "I guess it does make sense. And I guess it wouldn't hurt anything to have a little fun while in the middle of our crisis. We'll just have to take extra precautions to avoid the police and such. As long as we use cash and don't make any big scenes, we should be fine."

Raven nodded, feeling better about her decision by the moment.

"That's a good point. We'll have to hope we don't run into any other accidents, or incidents while we're here. It will be hard, but we'll have to resist our instincts to jump in and help out with every emergency we come across." An impish smile settled on her lips. "I suggest that we check this 'Flower Land' first. I can't imagine too many villains would be interested in attacking there."

Her companion let out a good natured laugh, and nodded full heartedly. "Alright, fearless leader. There should be an internet cafe in here somewhere we can use to find out where we can stay and where the airport is, so let's go."

Standing up, Ryouga offered her a hand to help her up as well. Hiding her blush as best as she could, she accepted the offer, placing her small hand in his rough, calloused one.

"Let's go? I thought _I_ was the fearless leader." She quickly reconsidered her statement. "On second thought, I want to be the leader about as much as I want _Beast Boy_ to be the one running things. Lead on, MacDuff."

Ryouga stared at her oddly for a moment, before shrugging. He began to walk off in a random direction, before being stopped by her hand on his elbow.

"Of course, by 'Lead on', I mean follow me while we go where you think we should go," she quickly explained, already pulling him in the opposite direction.

Huffing loudly in annoyance, he nodded.

"Yes, boss."

"I'm _not_ the boss!"

"Whatever you say, boss."

"Oh, shut up already."

She stared at him darkly, just daring him to reply. When it finally appeared that he'd learnt his lesson, she finally turned to lead them onward and forward-

"... Yes, boss."

The violence that followed was deemed, by Raven, to be perfectly justified.

* * *

New York City

Officer Fielding whistled appreciatively at the baseball bat, snapping on a pair of plastic gloves before bending over to pick it up. Part of it had been crushed clean through, as if by a hydraulic press… but not flat. Instead, it was crushed almost like a tin can. He wasn't even sure what kind of tool you'd use to produce this sort of effect.

"Take a look at this," he said, handing the unusual item to his partner.

Officer Christianson examined it with open disbelief. Behind her, the detective assigned to tail the "mystery man" stood among the site, parked a short distance away from the police car near the entrance of the alley.

They'd already talked to some local kids – known gangsters – who had obviously had an earlier run in with some "giant monster freak." Naturally, they claimed it attacked them. It was a load of bullshit, obviously, but by the time they got to the scene to corroborate the story, there was little left. A few things stood out. A trail of urine where one of the punks had pissed himself. A broken switchblade, snapped where the blade met the joint. The warped baseball bat…

No useful prints though.

They had managed to get what looked almost like a footprint from what could only be a metal boot of some kind. The projected size of it was over thirteen inches, but with the ground being solid asphalt, they couldn't get a good weight estimate.

"Just what are we dealing with here?" Christianson asked what all three were thinking, placing her hands on her hips in frustration. "Iron Man or something?"

Her peers answered with a long silence.

Clearly not.

* * *

Lady Kiima wasn't exactly the hardest person on the base to find. Whenever possible, she refrained from using her Jyusenkyou curse to blend in, insisting to her team that it would be best if the rest of the staff and personnel simply acclimatized to her unusual appearance. It had taken a while, but after a few missions the military staff had shrugged off the whole 'wings and talons for fingertips' thing. Chengdu was a small facility and mostly military, so when the grunts decided it wasn't an issue most everyone else followed suit. Fighting aliens had a way of putting human differences in perspective, and an ally was an ally. It didn't matter what they looked like, as long as they fought and bled on the same battlefield against the same enemy.

Mint thus had little trouble finding her. Off duty, the former Captain of the Phoenix Mountain Imperial Guard wore the same olive drab uniform - shirts and pants for dress, fatigues for every day - they all sported. Her rank within UNETCO was a mere Acting Sergeant, subordinate to Lord Herb and able to give orders to the rest of Romeo Squad, but not yet possessing full NCO accreditation.

Since she and the rest of Romeo could still be called up at any moment, she wore duty fatigues in the common Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM) camouflage style so many of the base's Commonwealth soldiers preferred. Black gloves covered her hands, but her pure white wings stuck out, quite literally. There was only so much she could do to fold them up behind her and they had necessitated some alterations to her uniform around the back to accommodate them. Her ceremonial sword rested against her hip and swayed as she walked.

"Lady Kiima!" Mint called, nimbly moving around another person in the corridor: a civilian in blue regulation uniform.

She glanced over her shoulder, peeking from around her left wing, and saw him.

"Ah. Mint." Kiima paused to let him walk up to her side.

He could see a electronic pad tucked under her right arm. "I know you must be busy, Lady Kiima, but... if you have a moment?"

"Of course I do, Mint," she replied with a friendly smile. "What can I help you with?"

He smiled black; Kiima was so much nicer to her subordinates than Lord Herb, as long as they didn't screw up anyway. She had a very short fuse when it came to goofing off or incompetence and at the end of that fuse one could expect a quick explosion and a good stomping. Not that Herb was any different; his inclination had always been to just blast someone into next week when they pissed him off. She was much more approachable, though, especially when it came to certain topics.

"Is this about breasts again?" she asked, eyes narrowing.

"No!" Mint yelped.

"Pretty girls?"

"No! Well. Kind of. Mostly no."

She sighed. "Go on, then."

"It's uhm... about the girl we brought in," he muttered, kind of hesitant to continue, but already too invested to just run away. He tucked his left hand guiltily into one of his pants pockets. The other was still bandaged, and he let it hang by his side. "I'm having some trouble. With writing my report of the capture operation."

"As long as you do a better job than Lime," she suggested. "Don't worry too much about it."

"I know, but... but I really want someone to pay attention to this one, and I don't know how to write things so they don't come out sounding silly. I mean..." He could see her about to ask, so he explained, "The girl we brought in. I don't think she's one of Cologne's weapons."

"You don't think she's an alien?" Kiima asked, tilting her head curiously to the side. "She admitted to looking for Cologne."

"Yes, but... there are two Colognes now, right?" Mint asked. "And... and I know she's an alien, or part alien part human... but I don't think she's a bad person. I only fought with her for a few seconds, really, but in that time, I couldn't help but think: 'this is kind of fun.' Even though I got hurt, it was my own fault for being distracted and then landing wrong. I don't think she wanted to hurt anyone. Well... maybe she wanted to hurt Lord Herb..."

"Mint," she replied with a sigh. "You're rambling. Focus on what you want to say."

He nodded sharply. "Yes. Okay. My experience as a martial artist and as a Musk tells me she isn't an enemy. When I fight an enemy, a real enemy, all I want is to kill him and then go back to what I was doing before. That's always how I've felt. That's how I feel when I kill aliens or other bad people. That wasn't how I felt when I fought this girl. My instinct is telling me that and I believe it."

Kiima didn't reply at first, instead shifting her e-pad to her other arm.

"Lord Herb... I think he believes the same," she said and looked distractedly up at the ceiling. "He said her 'killing intent' was as piss poor as he had ever seen. If she is a hybrid of some new sort, she clearly isn't the kind Cologne would want to use." She turned back to her Musk subordinate. "But that doesn't change the fact that she's an alien and that she caused that destruction back in Hong Kong."

"But... some of the reports we received say that she tried to _save_ people from the falling building. If she was really an alien agent, then why would she do that? Shouldn't we at least give her the benefit of the doubt-"

Giving an annoyed grunt, Kiima cut him off with a wave of her hand. "None of that has been substantiated yet. Look, the heart of the matter is that we are soldiers, Mint. We follow orders."

She could only maintain her stern expression for a short time, though. A ghost of a smile gracing her lips, she reached over and patted him on the shoulder. "Write your report and repeat what you said to me in it. Be clear and confident. Don't ramble."

He nodded slowly.

"Chinese authorities are already looking into what happened back at the city, so we'll know more about what happened in the city soon enough. And we've got the... the alien sedated while the mind probe calibrates and auto-extracts," she continued. "HQ is already flying in a specialist to ID who made her, and Lord Herb is looking into everything personally. We'll know in a day or two what she is and why she was sent here. Personally, I suspect she was dropped off by that large scout we shot down two days ago. Either that or she came from another Sirius Group cell."

"And if she isn't an enemy?" he asked, sounding hopeful. He gently clapped his injured hand in his undamaged palm. "What if she was looking for Cologne to get answers or revenge or something?"

"If she isn't an enemy...?" Kiima answered, huffing at the possibility. No one aligned with humanity's enemies on Mars would get any sympathy from her. Not after the Massacre at Jusendo. "Well. That'll depend on her temperament, I suppose. It isn't our call to make anyway. Now, was that all?"

Mint quickly bowed his head. "That was all, Lady Kiima!"

"Good. Carry on," was all she said as she resumed her duties.

_'She isn't an enemy. I know it.'_ Mint was sure. Sure enough that'd he'd make sure his report read perfectly. _'They'll see. When they go through her memories, they'll see. '_

* * *

It was an odd sensation as the pair strolled down the street.

Raven found herself enjoying the anonymity as they traveled through the city. No one gawking - well, a few people still were, but not because she was a super hero - no one rushing up to her to ask for autographs, or to ask her to endorse their products. Honestly, why had they ever allowed Starfire to open up the flood gates with that Zorbrian Spider Juice marinade? The violet haired girl shook her head, flopping her hat about amusingly; she was getting distracted quite easily today.

She saw no reason to worry about it, though. It felt like a great weight had lifted off her chest along with the migraine which had dissipated over an hour ago. The Titan wasn't certain if it was the scenery, the atmosphere, or the company, but she was dangerously close to having a spring in her step.

Beside her, Ryouga was staring at a vintage paper map with such intensity that it could have been the schematic for a nuclear reactor. Seeing him so close to his roots, with a look of confusion on his face bordering on adorable, warmed her heart a few degrees. Of course, she'd already memorized the route they'd planned to get to the motel they'd chosen, so letting him read the map was mostly for her own amusement.

They had spent several hours in an internet cafe, though their actual productivity had slacked off significantly after the first twenty minutes. They had located where in the city they were and had found the closest airport, which wasn't terribly far away. She'd even printed off the address in case they needed to get a cab. And then they'd located a convenient place to stay for the night.

After that, Ryouga had started surfing across the various tourist sites that he'd mentioned earlier. There were so many beautiful landmarks, at least, judging by the photos: Flower Land, the museums, the mountains! She made sure to print off addresses and routes for all of those as well. Hopefully they would have plenty of time tomorrow to see at least a few after they purchased tickets in the morning.

Not long after that, though, he'd started getting sidetracked into martial arts videos and forums. For her part, Raven had spent the spare time looking for soothing music to listen to while her headache went away. That was about all the skill she had with computers, anyway, surfing Youtube to find suitably gothic songs to 'groove' to, as Cyborg would say. It had actually been very companionable, and entertaining, what with Ryouga's steady stream of "know it, know it, beat it - what the heck is that? - know it."

She had long become accustomed to his amazing talent for martial arts. It was just another method of excelling, such as Robin's brilliantly analytical mind, Cyborg's incredible knowledge of technology, or Beast Boy's baffling inability to make a funny joke. It was one of the problems with being surrounded by super human people all of the time, she supposed. Even the most extreme things became humdrum after a while.

"Hey, do you want a drink? And maybe dinner later?"

The question came out of left field, and shocked Raven back into the moment. Beside her, the lost boy had put the useless map away and was currently sorting through a handful of change. Apparently, in their travel they had crossed paths with a set of vending machines, and the boy was preparing to buy himself a drink at least.

It was, she mused to herself, the small things that seemed to take on the most importance when you found yourself living among veritable titans. This walking juggernaut, struggling to scrounge up enough change to use a vending machine, and actually showing enough empathy to ask her as well. It was such a tiny gesture, but it meant so much to her.

Raven realized that Ryouga was still staring at her expectantly. "Ah - yes. Yes, I think I would. Whatever is available should be good."

Smiling pleasantly, Ryouga nodded and began to dump change into the machine. Soon enough, the pair of them had cold drinks in their hands - some kind of bizarre grape soda that didn't actually taste as bad as she'd feared - and were on their way once more.

The time passed pleasantly, chatting back and forth about nothing in particular: where they should visit first, what their friends must be thinking, what might have happened to that griffin. Of course, there wasn't actually anything that could be done about either of the latter. Stoicism, as it was called, was something that she wished that she could practice more often, but it was so very hard for her to not worry about certain things that were so very far beyond her ability to control.

In seemingly no time at all, they arrived at the motel. She couldn't read the name at all, but she recognized the logo easily enough. With a gentle push, they entered the lobby. It was a nice enough place, the interior was well decorated, clean, and the man standing behind the customer counter seemed sharply dressed and professional. Raven was content to let Ryouga talk to him. The two spoke back and forth rapidly in Japanese for a few moments while she glanced at a stack of magazines set out near a chair by the wall. A few moments later, he handed over a not-inconsiderable amount of the cash they had remaining.

The man then handed Ryouga a simple card, smiling brightly, and gesturing which way they should go. Raven made certain to take stock of the gestures, so that they could actually find the room in question. With only a few minor herding difficulties, they managed to locate it and used the key card, to get inside. Much like the lobby, the room looked nice, had a few tasteful paintings, a television set up before the bed...

Waaaiiiit a moment.

With glacial movements, Raven turned to stare at her companion. "Ryouga ... why is there only one bed?"

The martial artist withered under her scrutiny. "W-well ... we only have so much money, y'see ... I wanted to make sure that we had enough money to - to do some actual sightseeing tomorrow?"

"Oh, really? And the second bed would have cost _that_ much extra?"

"_Yes_! - ahem, I mean ... you would be surprised. Japan isn't exactly a cheap place to visit, you know?"

Raven gave him 'the look' for a few moments, before finally relenting. "Fine, whatever. I'll let it slide this time. It's been an exhausting day; I'm not used to battling twenty six dimensional hypergriffins, shopping and avidly avoiding the police all in one day. I really need to get some sleep."

Ryouga nodded sharply. "It's a bit early, but that doesn't sound too bad. ... Still how should we go about the sleeping arrange-"

"On the floor, Lost Boy!"

Looking down, more than a little red faced, Ryouga nodded. "Right, right, of course. I'll just set up over here. On the floor. The cold, cold floor."

Raven rolled her eyes and took off her hat, tossing it onto the night stand. "Don't even start. Just pull the drapes so it's dark enough to sleep."

"As you command." Smirking to himself, Ryouga moved over to do so. "I must say, this 'taking charge' thing is a lot easier when you tell me what to do all the time."

The dark Titan gave a slight huff. "You know, it wouldn't kill you to take a little more initiative some times. You've already proven, repeatedly since joining us, that you are more capable than you think. Your training with Terra ... what you accomplished in Atlantis - what little that you told us about that, anyway. You don't need to sit on the back burner and wait for people to tell you what to do all the time."

He returned an amused glance.

"Oh really?" he asked. "But it's okay for _you_ to do so, is it? You've got a lot more experience being a member of this team. You should be much more prepared than me to take over in a situation like this. Why so insistent that I take over?"

She wasn't actually sure herself, so she shrugged. "I'm not really the commanding type... but Robin could use all the help he can get with our team. Having someone else that he can depend on could never hurt."

With that, she pulled the blanket off the bed and tossed a pillow to the Lost Boy.

He caught it effortlessly and moved to the foot of the bed to spread out the blanket. While he was busy doing that, apparently silently mulling over her words, she slipped the sundress off over her head and folded it carefully before setting it under her hat. Ryouga didn't even bat an eye, considering she had been wearing her uniform underneath the entire time ... though she did feel a tiny bit exposed without her cloak on overtop of her leotard style outfit.

Kicking off her shoes, she then slid beneath the sheets of the bed. Unfortunately, the mattress wasn't nearly as comfortable as her bed back home, but she supposed she wouldn't have to deal with it for too long.

Apparently satisfied with his makeshift futon, Ryouga nodded to himself and stripped off his polo shirt, again revealing the just a tad too tight undershirt he habitually wore beneath it. Then, in what she felt was an odd twist, she quickly averted her own gaze down into her pillow when he stripped off his pants, revealing his boxers before laying down out of sight. Sliding her head to the side, she found she could still see his head as she peeked over the edge of the mattress.

"Comfortable?" she asked drolly, hiding her pinkened cheeks behind the sheets as she glanced down at him.

Turning to look up at her, his hands resting beneath his head, he nodded. "Yes, actually. The carpet is a lot softer than most places I sleep. I think I was getting a bit spoiled with actually having a bed lately."

A tiny smirk twisted her lips at that thought. "See, I'm doing you a favor. We wouldn't want you to get soft, would we?"

"Heh. That would be quite the trick, considering I've spent the last few months getting pummeled by Mammoth, Star, Cyborg and Terra." The boy's voice took on a somber tone. "I had almost forgotten what real pain felt like, after countless years of training in the martial arts... but once I met you and everyone else, I found I felt decidedly... average. It's not exactly a bad feeling."

She nodded. "Not standing out as some sort of freak does have its appeal."

Raven then slid back into the middle of the bed, sighing lightly to herself. She closed her eyes and tried to will herself asleep. It wasn't exactly a winning proposition, though. Her mind was racing a mile a minute as she laid there, only a thin sheet covering her. Despite their promise not to worry about things they couldn't control, she found herself worrying about those very things. Being lost, what their friends must be thinking, the implications that they were considered violent criminals... were all quite minor issues indeed compared to the other issues on her mind.

One of the things most keenly on her mind lately was, of course, Jinx.

It seemed incredibly petty, considering the gravity of their current situation, but she couldn't stop focusing on the major annoyance of having her foremost rival, on more battlefields than just one, traipsing around their city. The fact that Kasumi and Terra were silent advocates of the pink haired terror only furthered the frustration, as their opinions had a tendency to soften the opinions of other Titans. Why she couldn't have just remained lost, training with Happosai, Raven had no idea. She didn't want to think too much about the main problem between her and Jinx at the moment; it was just too frustrating to contemplate, considering the situation.

Having Ryouga, half naked, at the foot of her bed was also something of a distraction.

At the same time, though, she didn't _really_ want to fall asleep, either. Her nightmares had only been getting worse over the past month, and without an easy line of communication with Ranma, she was afraid that Ryouga would find out about her ... problem. There was absolutely no way that she wanted to concern him over something he could do nothing to alter, and the idea of explaining her nightmares of searing flame, blasted hellscapes and tortured souls wasn't exactly high on her list of 'good ways to break the ice'.

So, she didn't want to think of her problem with her nightmarish dreaming situation, either.

With so many things that she didn't want to think about, it left her thoughts to continually circle around to the same point. The fact that there was a healthy male boy sleeping less than four feet away from her - and the fact that she was thinking in redundancies only worried her about her mental state more. It was hard to ignore the fact that he was there; she could literally feel his ... his _himness_ from where she was laying.

The violet haired girl tossed and turned beneath the sheets, finding sleep to be as elusive as ever. She was a night owl at the best of times, so in retrospect trying to get to sleep early was doubly ineffective for her. Not wanting to sleep and not being able to sleep were a potent combination; all she could do was watch the red glare of the digital clock as the numbers ticked by, minute by minute. As the sun set, casting the room into perpetual gloom, she found her mind wandering once again.

Was Ryouga uncomfortable on the floor? Had it really been fair of her to simply banish him from the bed without so much as a second thought? It wasn't like he wasn't trustworthy. He passed out on the couch with Starfire all the time; casual contact was so easy between those two. The same went for Ryouga and Terra, she'd seen him throw the girl in more than one headlock and play-wrestle her for the remote with reckless abandon.

Even Jinx managed to steal more than her fair share of personal moments ... like just earlier that very day in the S.T.A.R. labs. The pair had thought they'd leapt apart before she'd spotted them, but she had clearly seen the way that the pink haired witch had sprawled herself across the Lost Boy. She wasn't sure whether she was annoyed or thankful that Jinx actually had enough concern for her feelings to attempt to hide those personal moments.

On the other hand, Ryouga rarely even got within arm's reach of Kasumi. Something about the Tendo girl seemed to have that effect on all of the Titan males. They all but adored her, but even Cyborg, with his _desperately obvious_ crush, dared not touch her; it was as if they all worshipped her, but only from afar.

So where did that leave her?

Ryouga and herself had been on several outings which could definitely be mistaken for dates to an outside observer. It was all but understood by every one of the Titan's that there was 'something' between the two of them, though what that was, was a hotly debated subject. As long as Raven was out of earshot. If that was the case, though, then why was contact between them as rare as contact between him and Kasumi?

Maybe it would be a nice gesture on her part to offer to share the bed for the night?

Surely, if he slept above the sheets and she slept below them, it would be perfectly proper and not indecent at all. And... if they happened to brush up against each other due to tossing and turning that would inevitably be beyond their control ... well, they were both fully dressed, more or less, so it wasn't like it would hurt anyone. Right?

She shook her head, blushing hotly in the darkness of the night.

There was no way she could bring herself to do that! Honestly, what would Ryouga possibly think of her if she acted like that? He was handsome, and popular with the rest of the Titans; she doubted he'd appreciate some lonely goth girl coming on to him out of the blue.

Her brow furrowed as she considered something else. Flipping over and stretching out, she wondered how Jinx did it. She had no trouble latching onto the Lost Boy like Shampoo on a certain pigtailed martial artist. He'd spent so much more time with Jinx than with herself, though, and so much of it in that Academy, where who knew what they could have gotten up to? And then again, during the weeks when Raven and the rest of the Titans were on Tamaran, Jinx had had more than enough opportunity to work her considerable wiles on the hopeless boy.

Not even sure why she did it, Raven suddenly spoke out.

"Ryouga ... are you asleep?"

She dearly hoped he was-

"Not really, no. I guess I've gotten used to the late night patrols, right?"

A low chuckle escaped Raven's lips. "And I thought that I was the only night owl here."

"So, what's on your mind? Having trouble sleeping?"

_'More than you can imagine_,' she thought to herself. She stared up at the ceiling, able to pick out the silhouette of the light fixture against the white ceiling. "Ryouga, do - do you mind if I ask you a question?"

There was a moment of silence, before her companion finally replied. "I, uh, I suppose not... What did you want to ask?"

The dark Titan quailed internally for several seconds, but emboldened by the psychological disassociation of speaking to the darkness, she finally gathered the nerve to ask:

"Have you ever kissed Jinx?"

"'Wha - what'?" She could feel panic spike in his spirit, sense the shock at being put on the spot so suddenly.

"Ryouga, calm down," she commanded. "I'm not judging, or jealous, or anything. I'm just curious, really. I promise."

His fear subsided slowly, but she hoped that her earnestness broke through to him. She hadn't lied; she wouldn't hold it against him. She knew that he had no real control of what Jinx happened to do while Raven wasn't around to keep an eye on her, much less back when he had been at the HIVE and under mental persuasion. Honestly, she was more interested in potentially learning something from her rival's boldness.

Finally, after a seeming eternity: "There - there was one time... in Atlantis. I mean, she started it, but - but..."

It was obvious that he wasn't sure how to explain it without hurting her feelings somehow, so she cut him off and asked what she really wanted to know.

"W-what did it feel like?" She could feel her cheeks burning hot enough that she was surprised they weren't glowing.

She could feel the embarrassment rising up off of Ryouga like a bonfire as well. There was something else in his aura as well, though, but she couldn't recognize it in the slightest. Even though she couldn't see him, she could see him in her mind, touching his fingers to his lips thoughtfully. Was he lost in some not so distant memory? Remembering the feeling of pink painted lips on his?

"It... was electric. Literally. We - we had just come within an inch of dying, I think we were both in shock, and... once we realized we weren't dead, something just snapped. I don't know what it was, maybe she couldn't control her power, or I couldn't control my chi, or maybe both, but it was like kissing a live wire, only it was soft and warm at the same time. I can't really describe it beyond that ... I'm sorry."

Raven shook her head, though it was a meaningless gesture.

"You have no reason to apologize." She found herself running a finger across her own lips. It sounded nice, honestly. Exciting, passionate, all the things that Raven wasn't. She couldn't imagine having such a kiss herself. Throwing herself so fully into the moment, not a care in the world? It sounded wonderful, but could she risk it? Unlike Jinx, if she failed to control herself, she could actually hurt the martial artist, physically and mentally.

Still ... it sounded nice.

Though she didn't really want to, Raven found herself drifting off to sleep, thoughts of a perfect kiss on her mind.

* * *

It was their first night together, alone.

Tokyo wasn't particularly cool this late in winter and the city was alive with activity. The canopy of stars overhead was obscured by the light pollution of the great metropolis, leaving Ryouga and Nabiki illuminated by the glow of street lights and nearby neon. With Mousse gone for the first time since leaving the base, they were really alone together. Both had spent far more time than they would admit thinking about that while they slowly got prepared for their first true off-base date.

In truth, they had been together for two months, but the majority of that had been deep under Seiran Mountain, locked within the confines of the underground base. They'd learned to steal short moments away from the cramped confines of the facility during Ryouga's walks outside with Shirokuro, but those were just brief excursions. Within the base, with omnipresent security and friends and family always in close proximity, it was hard to find time to be just together. Previous 'dates' - if they could be called that - had simply been having lunch or dinner together, seated face to face at the base mess hall or one of the rec rooms. A few times, they'd had the combined courage and opportunity to invite the other over to watch a program or recording on their personal computers.

When India Squad had finally qualified for a short off-base rotation to handle quick-response investigations in Japan and Korea both knew it would also be an opportunity to work out their relationship. It didn't even need to be mentioned aloud. It was the kind of chance that would come only twice a year, if that. For Nabiki's part, she'd been openly ecstatic to get back out into the open air: to rent a hotel and eat out and visit a few interesting cities.

Ryouga had been more reserved. For him, the furlough was simply a change in environment. Unlike Nabiki, he left base every time he had a mission, and he had little affection for city life, though he could understand why many loved the atmosphere and the creature comforts. More than that, he had known it would also involve them working out just what "they" were.

He had to admit, it was one reason why he'd kept Mousse nearby.

Now, together, there was thankfully little awkwardness. The short times they'd had together and the companionship developed over the months had helped to alleviate the nervousness both of them felt both about each other and about being thrown back into the civilian world. Ryouga's rotation off base had necessitated a wardrobe of respectable civilian clothes to suit a variety of aliases, so he had simply reused one: wearing a plain pair of black pants and a comfortable yellow dress shirt and dark sports jacket. He supposed he probably looked like any other 'young professional' his age. It wasn't suitable clothes to fight in, but he had a few bandannas tucked away just in case of an emergency. His belt, too, ensured he was never really unarmed.

Nabiki had clearly put more work into her appearance. He could tell, from the moment they met up at the hotel lobby, that she was wearing make up - a vanity she normally didn't bother much with. It had been a little surprising seeing it on her, and it drove home that she wanted to spend the time with him... and just him. He felt likewise, but at the back of his mind he couldn't help feeling apprehensive. It wasn't like he had a lot of experience with great relationships, or partnerships with women that ended well. There was also _that_ issue, too...

Still, she looked amazing.

Granted, she had always been an attractive young woman. The guys had ribbed him about it before during off duty downtime when, more often than not, they ended up talking about women... and especially the women on the base (though actresses, models, video game girls, and, hell, just about anything female was fair game). Even Kuno knew enough to appreciate that Nabiki could be quite a sight. Her body was amazing, of course, toned from years of light martial arts and regular exercise, and her large brown eyes and typically smirking face were both alluring and intimidating.

Showing up with eyeshadow and a professional pencil skirt, complete with light blue jacket and embroidered blouse, he could guess why he'd been waiting around for a good twelve minutes, praying not to get lost in the lobby full of people coming and going. Especially once Mousse had left him in one of the seats, chuckling madly about the whole situation and promising to wring the details out of his commanding officer at a later date. Twelve harrowing minutes resisting the urge to get up and loiter around! But she'd even put on little silver earrings, an embellishment he didn't recall seeing her wear before (especially since she'd told him before she disliked earrings). The black boots, however, looked rather tight, and he silently wondered just how she had even gotten them on.

"You clean up pretty well, Hibiki," was what she had said upon finally finding him. He'd eventually given up on waiting and decided to waste time by fiddling around with his cell phone.

His first words had taken a few seconds to make it from his brain to his mouth.

"Um, you too I guess..." probably weren't the classiest choice of compliment, but she had smiled, likely expecting something of the sort. She'd taken his hand after that, and they'd left to walk around town a bit before having dinner.

He'd stolen more than a few quick looks her way in the meantime, trying to appear casual while they talked. Once out in the city, and free from the restraints of Seiran Mountains and their work, he could see how Nabiki really relaxed. She stopped frequently to point at things - usually expensive objects in windows - and gush over how overpriced they were and how she was sure she could find a better deal "online" or "through her contacts." When asked why she didn't, she had merely grinned and stated that, sometimes, one _wanted_ to pay top dollar, even when not totally necessary.

"I just don't understand that," he'd quickly decided, reusing a phrase that had become rather stock common when it came to her quirks. "If they're overpriced, then that should make them less worth buying. No one wants to be gouged out of their money."

"Ryouga-baby," she playfully played along as they walked past the store, her attention finally diverted from the merchandise. "You're treating it as if any and every given thing has a set value."

"...huh?"

"I know you can haggle," she replied, bumping against his side to sort him out. "Don't play dumb... or dumber."

"Oh, well, yes, there is that," he admitted. Not that he had to haggle much since coming back from China, but it was certainly a skill set that helped wanderers worldwide, martial artists or not.

"The price of any given item is determined by a battle between seller and buyer," Nabiki explained, and held up her index fingers to illustrate, putting them together tip to tip. "In some cases, the buyer has the advantage, like if they're buying online or at a stall that has to clear its inventory over a short time. Like all those shops that pop up around temples for holidays. Most of the time, the seller has the advantage, because prices in bulk are set from top down, not bottom up."

Her fingers pushed back and forth, mimicking the commercial tug of war.

"Call it a duel of wills. Instead of fighting intent and muscles, the war between buyer and seller relies on conviction and buying power. 'If I lose this customer, will I make up the sale?' 'Is it better to make a small profit than risk no profit at all?'" she described it with cheerful gusto. "Like two cars playing chicken: which one turns first? Which one gives better than she gets?"

He scratched the back of his head in confusion. "I still don't get why..."

"Let me put it another way, Ryouga-baby," Nabiki said, and thought for a second about how best to clarify things. "Who's the strongest martial artist you know who you don't want to kill?"

"One I don't want to...? Hey, you know, when you put it like that it makes _me_ seem like the bad guy!" Ryouga objected with a huff. "I don't _want_ to kill Cologne, or Tofu, or Ayabe, or any of them. They're trying to kill me and everyone else!"

"Okay, so?"

He sighed. "I guess... Herb. Yeah. He's got a nasty personality, but he's strong. Still stronger than me or Ranma in a straight up fight."

"And if you fought Herb to a standstill, you'd be pretty proud of yourself?" she asked.

"Sure... I mean, I'd like to beat him in a clean fight, but..." he trailed off. "Anyway, what does this have to do with any of that overpriced jewelry stuff?"

"Because," she stressed the word. "The very fact that you can fight with someone super tough, even if you don't win, kind of demonstrates how awesome you are, right? And if I go and buy something expensive, even if I could have gotten a cheap knockoff, it still shows that I can waste money like a high roller."

She quickly added, "Of course... I'd be much happier swindling someone out of something precious than just buying it at _retail_..."

The way she said 'retail' it may as well have been a four letter word.

Ryouga just shook his head.

After this long, he'd very nearly given up on trying to understand Nabiki and money, simply accepting that she had eccentric tastes. There was no question that she seemed to enjoy nothing more than cheating or tricking people (himself included), even going so far as to claim it was "her martial art." He briefly remembered the Christmas present he'd gotten her and which she now wore around her neck, under her shirt. He wasn't sure what had impressed her more when he explained how he had gotten the necklace: that it was expensive or that he had gotten it at a discount by pulling in an old favor.

So they spent another twenty minutes staring at various paintings on sale in an upscale boutique.

Making them, _of course_, late for their restaurant reservation. Ryouga supposed it wasn't much of a surprise. Between his chronic... 'directional dysfunction'... and her desire to drool over expensive items in every store on their way from the hotel, it was a miracle they got anywhere as a couple. Dragging her away from the Sharper Image store had been particularly difficult. Now trying to make up for some lost time, they moved a bit more quickly.

Along the way, they saw other couples, gaggles of businessmen just starting the night and on their way towards complete inebriation, and groups of younger teenagers out with their friends. They were in a nice part of town, but even at night, Tokyo was a busy and crowded place. Any intersection near the subway hubs, in particular, were guaranteed to be congested.

Vehicular traffic was lighter, luckily, and it was low enough on the level of noise pollution to carry on a brisk conversation. Nabiki was much more the talker than he was, though, so Ryouga spent most of his time listening. Which was fine. Giving orders in battle wasn't that hard. After a while, it was easy to drop your inhibitions in that situation, but in places like this his natural shyness tended to reemerge.

By the time they got to the restaurant, their reservation had expired.

Thus began Nabiki's "well meaning" attempts to get them inside. Never one to go right to "pleading" or "giving up" she skipped right to indignation, demanding a table - and when that failed - demanding to talk to someone in charge, because "who the hell did they think they were, anyway?" And also, not to be forgotten, "just who did you give our booth to, huh?"

Never mind that one whisper of, "I bet you could level this entire building with one finger, Ryouga-baby. Not that you should, but you could. And accidents happen."

No: definitely not.

Eventually, after another half hour of wrangling, Nabiki seemed to have gotten "the very next available table" when she declared she didn't want it anyway. Ryouga spent most of the time quietly standing around and trying to drive home the point that, yes, while he could destroy the building with one finger (literally), it wasn't going to happen. Nor was any other property destruction, if he could help it. He had a bad enough reputation in certain parts of the country as it was. Like that one landslide could be blamed _entirely_ on just him tunneling around...

When it became clear that she was truly angry at the place, he guessed they wouldn't be eating here, regardless of whether she got her way or not. Fortunately, his cell phone had an app that could find nearby restaurants, and when she finished chewing out the sacrificial lamb sent down by that establishment's manager, he pointed out a nearby place that would be just as good. Nabiki's mood seemed to go an abrupt 180, and she smiled and dragged him off.

Ryouga remembered, while being dragged along, once telling his fellow squad mates how "Nabiki was scary." It was still true. She wasn't like the quiet, shy girls he'd imagined ending up with. A martial artist to the core, it was traditional - or so he'd heard and learned - to find a weak, mostly normal girl to protect. As someone who lived the Art and who expressed themselves best with their fists, one could thus best express one's love by protecting another. Nabiki was pretty normal (though still physically quite above most women her age), but if there was ever trouble, she wouldn't be the type to cower and let him jump in to rescue her and look cool. She'd probably just toss him at the nearest threat while happily cheering on the ensuing violence.

Which meant all his old fantasies of fighting an implacable enemy while his girlfriend constantly yelled "Ryouga-samaaaa!" with tears in her eyes... well, those had all been pretty much thrown out the window for the foreseeable future.

Eventually, they found a Spanish and Italian restaurant, lined by glass facades and running water, like waterfalls, that helped to obscure the eaters inside from the lights and street life outside. Nabiki's mood improved even more once they found a table. The restaurant was both larger and less crowded than the one they had made the earlier reservation for, and with fewer prying ears and eyes around, Ryouga found himself relaxing a bit more as well.

The waiter brought a round of sangria, Nabiki's choice, and took their orders. To Ryouga's surprise, Nabiki picked out one of the more expensive entrees in the form of the _ossobucco_. It wasn't the price tag that was surprising, it was that she would pick one of the meatier dishes available.

"We should enjoy our time off base," she explained, after the waiter left. "That means getting something nice to eat. Plus, I do love veal! The more decadent the better!"

He did as well, and had ordered the seafood paella based mostly on the logic that they'd end up sharing some of each other's dishes anyway. Nabiki always tended to want to try out what others got, even back at the base mess, where she could just walk thirty feet and get whatever she was curious enough to try. For the middle Tendo daughter, however, taking was always more fun than getting. After a while, he'd learned to reciprocate, and so at lunch or dinner back at Seiran, she ended up eating his food and he hers. Especially since she almost never finished what she ordered.

While they waited for the food, the conversation became a bit more back and forth. They chatted a bit about the mission in a general sense, careful not to let anything sensitive slip. Eventually things strayed into the realm of their immediate circle of friends. A favorite topic was what Nabiki called the "Ryu-Ukyou-Konatsu" triangle.

Not that Ryouga thought there was - or should be - much of one.

"Come on, Nabiki, do you _really_ want there to be some kind of love triangle going on there?" he finally asked, not getting why she found the topic so amusing. "Considering all the trouble we went through back in Nerima-"

"Wait just a second there, lost boy! Trouble 'we' had? Don't bulk me in with you love struck martial artist types. Aside from almost getting killed by Ranma's fiancés once or twice, I had a perfectly fine time watching from the sidelines." She brusquely waved off the brush with death as a natural consequence of getting too close to the pit fight that was Ranma's tangle of engagements.

He spared her a hooded look. "Really?"

"It was funny!" she insisted. "I love Akane, but she she's just _completely_ stupid when it comes to boys, and Ranma's as clueless as you, Ryouga-baby."

"Oh, thanks."

"All it would take is a little poke here, a few words there..." Nabiki snickered. "And Shampoo would crash through a window into the bath, or Ranma would see someone naked, or Akane would go running to find a wooden sword or mallet or table to bash him with. Or you'd run off to 'protect' your precious, delicate Akane-san. I never could resist stuff like that. Do you know how hard it is to walk by a bees nest and _not_ throw a rock?"

"Yes, well, this time we're basically trapped underground with that same bees nest," he said, not surprised at all to hear about her difficulty regarding rocks and angry insects. "So try not to poke it. Not that there's anything there to begin with."

"Why? Because Ukyou and Konatsu had their little duel?" Nabiki asked and chuckled at his apparent naiveté.

"Yes! That's exactly why! They fought seriously." He held up a manly fist, as if to demonstrate how important it was. "Between martial artists, a single blow can speak a thousand words."

She shook her head sadly. "I think you're putting too much faith in the human fist over the human heart, Ryouga-baby. But you'll see. Call it women's intuition."

"As long as it doesn't affect them in the field, its no one's business but theirs anyway," he argued, reaching for a glass of water. "Ukyou and Ryu are both adults. They can do whatever they want to do. So can Konatsu."

"All three of them, Ryouga-baby? Its kinky but I like it!"

A series of embarrassed coughs, and he had to turn away to wipe the water that had come straight up his nose. God knows, if this was a half year ago, he'd probably have transformed to boot. The satisfied, giggling face of his date gave the distinct impression she had waited for just the right moment to put that image in his head.

It was a stupid thing to have to worry about anyway.

X-COM, like many military organizations, did not have codified fraternization rules discouraging certain activities on base or between personnel. It seemed to recognize that duty in the organization on any level, from engineer to scientist to pilot to soldier, was inherently stressful. It recognized that it couldn't stop the sort of thing that always happened when men and women worked and lived in close proximity. Some affairs among the Command staff had even become quite well known, such as the ongoing dalliance between Commander Barrett and one of her pilots over at Andermatt. The two were said to be all but married.

Every base was different. Some Colonels and Commanders tried to discourage it. Others turned a blind eye. Commander Yasuda fell into the latter camp: so long as it did not affect one's performance, it was considered personal business, and not something that needed to be disciplined. Ryouga knew that he and Nabiki weren't the only item at Seiran. Ranma and Akane had been together for... probably three or more months now... though neither would ever publicly acknowledge it and both still took pains to keep it a secret. Sergeant Hanley was supposedly meeting up with a technician over in the psi-lab, according to base gossip, Lieutenant Stirling had recently married a woman down in the engineering fab.

It was just less common among soldiers, rather than soldiers and civilian staff.

As an officer, he knew all women on base - with no exceptions - were on some sort of implanted hormonal contraceptive. X-COM had a very strict no pregnancies policy, both due to the practical needs of maintaining base secrecy and functionality, and due to the danger of the work. Rad counts were taken monthly from all personnel in proximity to Elerium and Elerium powered technology. It was safe for adults, but experiments had proven that long term exposure could have detrimental effects on fetal development, and likely also on young children. They were not a family friendly "Starship Enterprise" as Ranma would quip.

It was probably a policy some women took exemption to. Those women, he assumed, were simply not accepted into the program or allowed to stay on-base. There were always Sanctuary Communities, where they could contribute in a lesser sense. However, base life necessitated the contraceptive. As far as Ryouga knew, the only "woman" not using it was Ranma.

"What's so funny?" Nabiki asked, surprised by his sudden bout of laughing.

So he told her.

One thing he loved about Nabiki was that she wasn't a big fan of the pigtailed martial artist. Ranma may well have been Ryouga's closest friend and vice versa, but the Saotome heir was still an annoying cheap-shot using jerk. Nothing was better than a good joke poking fun of the pigtailed one, and to his joy, Nabiki was full of them. Not that she disliked Ranma either, but Nabiki just loved to poke fun. And she was, deep down, mean enough to appreciate it. He was no saint either, despite the strictness of the martial arts code, and this was an instance where their senses of humor tended to coincide.

Which brought him back, full circle, to the problem with on-base relationships.

He liked Nabiki.

He did. And it was a little scary when he thought about it, for a lot of reasons. The least complicated one to think about was that he was a soldier now. X-COM mortality rates for a six month tour of duty (which he was in the tail end of) were about forty percent. Nearly half of all new recruits - all special forces or similar types - did not survive six months of contact with the enemy. That was AFTER more than half of all potential applicants were also weeded out for being psionically too weak to be anything but a liability in combat.

By comparison, the unusually high death rate for allied troops in Afghanistan for the current year was around one in thirty six or about three percent. The death rate for UNETCO's soldiers was more than ten times that of any modern terrestrial conflict, despite the finest technology and training available. Alien weapons were still far too deadly; their psionics still far too powerful; their numbers endless, and their terror elements with no equal. The statistics brightened when it came to veterans: after a one year tour, the mortality rate dropped to a "mere" ten percent.

In any given mission, death was always a possibility.

As a martial artist, as one who loved and lived and breathed the Art, Ryouga had accepted this. Death was a part of the lifestyle. One had to always be ready to lay one's life on the line: for new techniques, for honor, for your fellow man, for The Code. He knew he had come close to death on many occasions.

Yet, how would things change, if Nabiki were in danger and he could do nothing, being deployed hundreds of miles away? What if Seiran was attacked while he was on a terror site somewhere? He had criticized Ranma for being too eager to keep Akane out of danger, yet now he knew just what the pigtailed fighter felt. Akane was a field operative now, in another squad. Would she be one of that forty percent?

Relationships... complicated things.

And things were always complicated enough, even without them!

Dinner stretched on, past the as-predicted sharing of entrees (a handful of his shrimp had been too tempting for her to pass up on taking), to him finishing her _ossobucco_ and properly picking it clean to the bone ("like a vulture," she observed, "Or some kind of anime character"), to finally espressos and some after dinner dessert. Splitting a dish of caramel custard flan and ice cream, the conversation somehow mutated into a discussion about the recession, politics and the future of the Liberal Democrat Party. It was all Greek to the martial artist at the table; Ryouga had never paid much attention to politics, and the state of the economy was something he only knew about in a very broad sense.

Nabiki may never have "managed the dojo finances" back home - or even kept her own pockets that well stocked - but she seemed to know her monetary policy. Not only had she been studying it at college, before UNETCO picked them up, but she'd adapted what she knew to form some new ideas about where the world would go after the aliens were defeated on Mars. The big question was, she explained, whether they would find how the aliens manufacture so much Elerium. If Cydonia had an Elerium production facility, especially one that could be replicated and expanded on, then the world would be headed for a new economic boom fueled by interstellar expansion.

If not... if there was no sustainable means of producing Elerium on Mars... then all the alien technology X-COM had produced and even improved on would start to fail. Not all of it, of course, but much of it required E-115. If Cydonia merely had a large reserve that would quickly end up plundered and rationed out, then there would be fighting between nations and corporations over the precious scraps. X-COM would try and pool as much of it as they could to fund their own research into a substitute or synthetic, or a manufacturing process of their own.

According to Nabiki, given a worst case scenario, the Elerium issue could do what the aliens themselves had failed to accomplish. It would be the end of the X-COM project and the end of UNETCO. Power blocks would form to fight over what was left of the alien war machine, and some would even blame others for defeating the aliens when there was no source for new Elerium. She, and apparently some others she had been in contact with, fully expected that - if the local aliens only imported Elerium - then a global depression would hit the likes of which hadn't been seen in almost a hundred years.

It was sober news to end the dinner with.

"Of course, they'll always be a market for men with your skills, Ryouga-baby," she added with a wink. "I'm sure we can work something out after we finish kicking alien ass! Have you ever heard of PMCs?"

After dinner, they'd planed to watch a movie at a nearby theater. Nabiki, still a bit tipsy from the sangria, had luckily still been more than cognizant enough to point him in the right direction. Despite the initially shaky start, with the lost reservation and all, it had turned into a nice night and a very pleasant dinner. It was still mostly Nabiki talking and him listening, but he didn't mind that... or the chance to hear and discuss topics aside from the Art. The food had been excellent and they'd had a good time.

Ryouga found himself wishing they'd done it two or three days ago; the delay really had been mostly his fault.

They'd decided beforehand on a movie called "Babel" that Nabiki insisted was quite good and something they could both enjoy. Arriving just in time to buy tickets and rush - with rather less dignity than either would have preferred - to catch it before the previews ended, the rest of the night was spend in comfortable silence. While the last year had given him more comfort than before when it came to close contact, Ryouga still found himself blushing in the darkness of the theater when Nabiki rested her head on his shoulder.

"I'm just a bit tired is all," she muttered, getting rather comfortable.

"You don't mind, do you?" she then asked, looking up at him. Of course he didn't _mind_ so much as he was still easily flustered. And she knew it.

He offered a weak laugh to hide his embarrassment. "No, of-of course not..."

They went back to watching the movie, though it quickly became clear that Nabiki was a bit more tired than she let on. The film itself was no action flick, but the multiple-plots coming together angle was interesting, and it even had part of the film set in Japan. No ninjas even. The theater wasn't crowded at all, either, which was a plus. As some point, Nabiki managed to sneak one of her hands into his own, playing with the calloused fingers while they watched the movie come together and then wind down.

Like with the film, most of the way back to the hotel was spent in pleasant and comfortable silence. Nabiki stuck close to him, and despite being the clearly more sober and lucid of the two, Ryouga only managed to get them nearly-lost twice. Walking at ground level was still very confusing, and he was tempted to just roof-jump the rest of the way, far more confident he'd be able to get them to the hotel if he just had line of sight on it. Nabiki didn't mind walking, though, so he put up with his terrible direction constantly forcing her to re-route them.

Though it seemed to take longer getting back then going out anyway.

The streets were less busy than before, with only the very late night crowd and other night owls still hitting the town and enjoying the neon-lit street life. It wasn't long before they came back to the concrete sculpture and backlit fountain of the hotel. A bit of water splashing their way nearly caused the martial artist in Ryouga to leap straight up, and it took a bit of willpower to remind himself that he was cured. _Cured_. And with his memories back, for better or for worse, thanks to the insidious attack he'd suffered back at the assault on that alien base.

Still: a good night, a _good_ night.

In fact, it was probably the _last_ good night they'd have for months.

It was traditional to escort his date back to her room, but given the unique condition he suffered, both knew it would have to be reversed for tonight. Besides, it was late, and neither wanted to have to wake Mousse up just to get Ryouga back to his room. In front of the room's silver plaque, 404, they stopped and basked in the end of the evening. It was the perfect opportunity to say what he had been just thinking.

"Thanks," he whispered, carefully squeezing Nabiki's hand. "Tonight was great. You were right."

"Of course I was," she replied, leaning into him. "A nice night."

"A nice night," he agreed.

He wasn't surprised when she leaned in a bit more and their lips met. They'd kissed before, but this time, maybe due to the drink before the movie, she was much more yielding and less aggressive. He didn't mind her usually taking the initiative, but he'd be lying to himself if he didn't find it a sudden turn-on. His hand came up to the back of her neck, losing itself in her short brown hair; her hands rested against his chest and shoulder, small gentle pinpricks of heat he could easily feel through his clothes. Her breath still tasted of the after dinner mints they'd shared, and when their kiss broke for air, it was quickly followed by another.

Almost immediately, it became apparent that this wasn't like the handful of previous intimate moments they had managed to steal while on base. His right hand brushed Nabiki's cheek, and she sighed softly into his lips. Was it the night they'd had? Or the drinks from before? Or was it that they were alone, after months underground, with no cameras or security checks in sight? Was it the stress of work, finally bubbling over the restraints and inhibitions they had set up against it?

He felt her hand reach into his back pocket, retrieving the electronic keycard for the room.

In that moment, he stared into her eyes, and knew what she was thinking. What he had been thinking, too, if he were honest with himself. He reached down to capture her hand in his own, though he'd originally just meant to grab the card. Their fingers overlapped and the two paused, suddenly unsure and a bit confused.

"Nabiki," Ryouga said, but didn't take the key from her hand.

She was almost a year his senior, but for the first time, with her blushing like that, she actually looked like the shy younger girl he knew she wasn't. He thought again about what had crossed both their minds... and was now lingering there, teasing them with possibilities. He was still a guy, after all, and Nabiki was soft and warm and a perfect fit in all the right places. But...

"Nabiki," he said a bit more firmly.

"You... don't want to?" she asked, staring up at him. "Ryouga-baby?"

He avoided her eyes, not wanting to say what he was thinking. That they couldn't. Shouldn't.

"Don't you..." she paused, a bit of her normal tone of voice coming back. "I know you do. I know you like me. And... and I like you, too." Her frowns creased a bit. "So... what's wrong?"

"I... I dunno," he lied.

Of course, she saw right through it.

"Ryouga," she said his name without the affection at the end. "What's wrong? It isn't me, is it?"

"Of course not!" he quickly assured her, cutting off that line of thought. "It... I just... I don't know. I worry about stuff. About... hurting you, or... about maybe this is too soon. I know it sounds stupid."

He glanced down the hallway, checking to make sure it was empty.

Nabiki was still watching him, still expecting more. And there was more to it than that. He was worried about hurting her. His strength wasn't entirely proportionate to his control; it was something he had been working on before the incident all those months ago, and something he had mostly neglected ever since. He could easily snap a normal human in half, and Nabiki was - despite being in great shape - still basically baseline human.

He was worried that maybe they were moving a bit fast, though not many couples would call having your first real date after two months of starting a relationship normal in the first place. They'd made the best they could out of the situation at Seiran. They'd spent a lot of time together before this, in his room or hers, just relaxing or talking or hanging out. What made it seem fast was him. In the back of his mind, doing something like this before he'd properly gotten revenge for Akari... it felt like a betrayal. There was unfinished business, and it had to end in _blood_.

_It had to_.

"Akane and Ranma managed fine," Nabiki finally said, sensing his hesitation and his thoughts. "Ryouga-baby... we won't get another night like this. Not for a long time..."

God, what kind of man was he, that he needed to be coaxed by a woman? A beautiful, smart woman? Ryouga felt like shishi hokoudan-ing himself. This wasn't how a man acted. He wasn't obsessed over that part of the lifestyle like Ranma was (or pretended to be), but he was still a man.

"Ryouga-baby," Nabiki said, thinking now, analyzing the problem. "This isn't just about us. There's something else."

"The curse..."

"I know about the curse," she insisted. "I've known for a long time now, and I don't care. It isn't that."

"It's... it's..." he closed his eyes, finally relenting. Keeping his voice low, he whispered the truth. The worst of it.

"Part of it doesn't feel right." He shook his head slowly, explaining, "I like you a lot... as a close friend, and as... more, but... it feels kind of wrong... Doing this. Because I... never did it with _her_. And..."

She could guess what he left unsaid: _'And I don't want to feel good if it means I feel guilty.'_

Nabiki sighed softly and leaned into his chest, resting her head against him.

"Ryouga-baby..." her voice was barely a whisper. "Akari's gone. You know that. You knew that when we..."

"I know," he cut her off. Placing an arm around her waist, he held her close. "I know."

They stood there for a few seconds, leaning against the door to his room.

"I don't think... it's even that," he went on. "I know she's gone. I've accepted that. But... when Ranma and I freed you girls back on that ship, all I felt was rage. It was all I _wanted_ to feel. I wanted to just keep killing and fighting and bleeding until it all went away, and I didn't care what happened to me or to anyone else."

Resting his chin on the crown of her head, he could smell the lingering scent of her shampoo.

"Then... then the guys started to grow on me. They stopped being just weapons I could point at the enemy, and... and they became my friends. Friends I don't want to lose," he confided, and he felt her press comfortingly against him. "And you came along, and suddenly I wasn't as angry as I used to be. Even on missions. At some point, I finally realized: I wasn't just fighting for revenge, for her... I was fighting because I wanted to come back alive with my friends... and with you."

"I feels like... if I go all the way," he finally said it. "It feels like I'll be giving up; like I might hesitate... like I'll be unable to fight like I need to. It's hard to describe."

It took a few seconds, but -

"I understand," Nabiki replied, her voice steady.

Reaching up with the hand that had been nearly-holding the key, he cupped her chin and leaned down. They kissed slowly with less of the intensity of before. Even as clueless as he often was, Ryouga could sense Nabiki's disappointment. She was right. There wouldn't be another chance for a night like this, not for months. Who knew what would happen between then and now? Who know what and where he'd be sent to fight next?

Gently resting their foreheads together, he kept his eyes closed.

He felt... like he was a selfish prick. It had been more than two months now since she came along with that walk outside; since she had given him her picture (or charged him for it, to be exact). He smiled at the memory. He knew, in a vague sense, that Nabiki probably had needs of her own. She wasn't sent out in the field like he was, but he knew she often felt lonely at the base, despite her "friends and contacts" and her family nearby. She wasn't very popular among many of her peers due to her unusual rise up from nothing to coordinator for India Squad. He knew she wanted this. He knew she wanted the night to end in a truly special way.

And... he wanted her to be happy.

"Nabiki," he finally said, smiling slightly and trying to sound confident. "I ... I want this. That's what matters."

"Are you sure?" she asked, knowing he wasn't normally the decisive type.

Not when it came to stuff like this.

"Yeah. I'm sure," he said, reaching down to press the key card into her hand, rather than pluck it away. "I want you. If.. I mean, if you... still..."

She nodded, once, and kissed him again.

Wordlessly, she opened the lock to his hotel room with a beep and a click, and the two young adults slipped inside.

* * *

Down the hall and around the corner, Mousse pushed himself off the wall with his elbows. Withdrawing a small mirror back into the sleeve of his plain white shirt, he tucked his hands into his pants pockets and slowly made his way back to his room.

"Looks like I got up for nothing," he dryly noted... but smiled.

Tomorrow would be a bit awkward, but interesting.

* * *

The next morning, Raven awoke with a start. For a moment, she could only sit there, sheets clinging to her chest and the sun streaming in through the window... notably _not_ sweating, or gasping for breath. For some reason, she couldn't remember her dreams, couldn't recall the standard nightmarish apocalypse that had become the norm for her lately. She felt oddly refreshed, actually. In a way that she could scarcely recall before.

Sitting up, she slid out of the bed and donned the lavender sundress she'd bought the day before. She did like how flattering the dress was; she'd even gotten more than a few turned heads yesterday, and not all because she was a foreign barbarian, she wagered. The floppy hat went on next, and she ran her fingers along the rim to adjust it just so.

"Ready to go, Raven?" Ryouga asked, already dressed and standing by the door. She smiled and nodded, amused as he blushed and smiled, tugging nervously at his bandanna as he was wont to do.

And then they were walking down the street.

Throngs of people lined the venue, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to them, what with their clever disguises.

"So, where did you want to go first?" Ryouga asked with a smile. "We could go to Mt Tengu. Or, maybe we should stop for breakfast first. I'd really like to buy you something to eat, Raven."

The violet haired girl smiled shyly, a bit overwhelmed. "Well, I would like to get something to eat. I'd like to say you don't need to buy me breakfast, but you do have all the money, and it's probably not a good idea to use our cash cards yet just in case the police are still looking for us."

The martial artist looked at her oddly. "The who? ... Oh, wait, yeah. The whole public destruction thing."

She shook her head in disbelief. So forgetful, he was.

And, in a flash, there they were, at a nice bistro. Ryouga was already halfway through his massive omelet and she was pecking away at her garden salad. The waitress, a young woman with her brunette hair done into a stylish page-boy cut, had just freshened up her tea and looked to be expecting a tip for the service. Ignoring her, Raven turned back to her companion. "I think you're right. We should go to Mt. Tengu first. I'd really like to see the museum they have. I imagine it must have some very fascinating artifacts."

Ryouga nodded agreeably, just barely avoiding splattering egg all over his trademark sweater. "I've been there before. I have to say, they did have some good displays. Also, fighting Tengu can be a really challenging prospect. Did you know that some legends say that Tengu were the first to have actually taught humans martial arts?"

Raven's eyes widened in surprise. "You've fought Tengu? I didn't think they actually existed."

The martial artist waved off her wonder with a roll of his wrist. "Oh, yeah, both the winged, and the long nosed versions. Maybe if we're lucky, we can run into the Tengu King?"

The cloaked Titan stared in shock, before slowly smirking. "Oh, ha, ha. I get it. You really shouldn't tease me about things that are far too plausible considering how insane our lives are."

"Hey, what can I say? I'm Mr. Comedy, after all."

Raven stared at him for a moment. "Um ... no you're not."

"Or not, I suppose. Doesn't matter too much, either way, as long as you're having a good time, right Raven?" he asked, smiling goofily.

Not finding any fault with his logic, Raven nodded happily. "I am having a good time, and the day is just beginning. I think things are definitely looking up today."

Her companion nodded, finishing off his meal. "Exactly. Nothing could possibly go wrong today!"

Within a matter of minutes, they were strolling through the countryside, a majestic mountainscape sprawling out before them. It really was a gorgeous sight, the beauty of the setting sun behind the mountain casting an orange hue over the entire range, breath taking barely even did justice to the scenic vista.

She squeezed Ryouga's hand, enjoying the warmth of his calloused fingers in her own. Feeling especially bold, she leaned against him, her shoulder resting comfortably on his as they continued their walk. The gentle summer breeze teased her hair, and Ryouga's bandanna danced in the wind like a long streamer. The Lost Boy seemed to be enjoying the moment as well, the light of the setting sun flashing in his unnaturally pale blue eyes.

They walked past another couple, serenely strolling in the other direction; the African American girl and the tallish Japanese boy didn't pay them even the slightest mind, having eyes only for each other. Raven could hardly blame them, the atmosphere was stunningly romantic, and the girl's diaphanous wings were very flattering.

Soon, they were climbing the mountain trail, the lush expanse of colorful flowers giving way to more rocky and, frankly less appealing terrain. It was starting to get dark as well, and Ryouga was keeping an arm's length between them. Even the small gulf between them felt like an encroaching abyss, letting out a wheezing breath of cold and loneliness and fear ...

She pulled her cloak around her more tightly to ward off the chill that settled across her bones, disturbed by the rime of ice forming on the fringes of the dark blue material.

Ahead of them, they were coming upon a pair of statues. One was carved in the shape of a humanoid figure, but obviously not human. With a broad, arcing pair of wings rising into the sky, a feathered bird head, and backwards turned legs ending in raptor-like talons, it looked to be a creature straight from pages of mythology. The statue across from it was more human, but its wrongness was only more subtle, not less prevalent. The face, painted a bright red, bore a smile that seemed more an expression of pain then one of joy. And the nose was too long and turned upwards in a parody of the human form. Other small signs pointed out at her of the statue's oddity, but she wasn't even sure what they could be.

The statues began to move, a fact which didn't surprise Raven at all.

Taking several steps back, she turned to Ryouga ...

Who was gone? Had he ever been there in the first place?

Perplexed, Raven turned back to the advancing pair of statues. How could she deal with such a pair of monsters? It wasn't like she knew the Bakusai Tenketsu, so what could she do to damage them?

Moving with surprising grace, the statues drew weapons. The birdlike one unsheathed a gleaming metal katana, while the long nosed Tengu unlimbered a long spear, red tassels flailing in the gentle breeze. Logically speaking, the situation seemed quite perilous to the violet haired Titan, perhaps it would be best to go meet Ryouga at the airport -

"'Hyaaaaa'!"

Raven froze in her tracks, the high pitched battle cry piercing the night air, coming from somewhere above them. A second later, a cloaked figure dropped out of the sky like a rock. The dark green robes of the newcomer billowed wildly as they plummeted through the air, only to vanish in a cloud of powdered stone when the green clad warrior smashed through the birdlike statue like a cannonball through a house of cards. Even as the stone colossus shattered into rubble and began to rain down to the ground, the green cloaked figure touched lightly down on the ground, barely even kicking up a ring of dust where they landed, before launching themselves forward again at ballistic speed. Cutting through the raining debris as if it weren't even there, the hooded figure drew back an arm and swung forward with all the might their slender form could generate.

The cloaked figure's fist exploded into the Tengu's chest with the force of a bomb! A hole was blasted straight through the statue large enough for the hooded demolition expert to fly straight through, even as a jagged web of cracks and fissures spread out from the gaping hole to every extremity of the living statue. A second later, the long nosed statue collapsed to a pile of stone and dust, kicking up a cloud which obscured Raven's vision for several long seconds.

Finally, a strong gust of wind blew through, carrying the dust cloud away with it, revealing the pristine, uncluttered mountain path once more. A second later, the green cloaked figure landed before her, their green robes flaring out dramatically before settling down to conceal their slender body once more. The person's hood, pulled down low, concealed their face in a pool of shadows which Raven found to be strangely unsettling.

They stood that way for a long time, the pair, possessing eerily similar height and builds, made Raven want to think of something, but whatever it was, it wouldn't come to mind, so she just asked the first thing that came to her mind.

"So ... do you want to go see the Tengu museum?"

Lifting a hand slowly, the cloaked figure reached up to grasp the side of their hood. Then, in a dramatic flourish, they pulled the green hood back -

"Dude! Are you serious? That'd be awesome!" Beast Boy exclaimed, voice thick with excitement.

Raven rolled her eyes. "So glad you think so. Come on, if we don't get there before dark they'll probably close."

A sudden chill ran down Raven's spine, she ... could have sworn she heard something ... some distant bellowing.

"Did you hear that?" She asked.

Beast Boy just looked at her oddly. "Dude, s'nuthin to worry about! Come on, we got some crazy bird statue things to look at!"

Put at ease, and with destination in mind, the pair continued their ascent of the mountain. Raven lost track of how long they walked, conversing back and forth over whatever inane thing came to mind. The trail was steep, but it didn't bother either of them in the slightest, the brisk breeze was actually refreshing as well. Eventually, though, they came upon the museum, or, at least a large archaic building that looked like it would fit the bill.

"-and I tell you, Rae, I'm just not seeing it! There's no way that Buffy the Vampire Slayer can be aimed at girls. I mean, seriously, it's a show about kickin' monster butt and its filled with hot babes. How can it _not_ be aimed at guys?"

The violet haired girl replied with a put-upon sigh. "And all of the romantic subplots and obvious relationship centered drama? It's the next best thing to a soap opera. I mean, why else do you think I watched it?"

"But - but-"

What ever the green cloaked boy's response might have been, it was completely drowned out by an earth shattering belch! The sound reverberated off of the stones, echoing again and again, rolling down the mountain.

Actually impressed, Raven stared at Beast Boy.

"What? It wasn't me?"

"Then who-"

Somehow they hadn't noticed it earlier: the orange cloaked figure leaning against one of the pillars leading up to the museum. Immediately, Beast Boy leapt in front of Raven, holding out his arms and flaring out his cloak dramatically.

"Who are you!" he demanded. "If you wanna get at Raven, then you're gonna have to get by _me_ first!"

Pushing off the pillar lazily, the figure's hood fell back, unleashing a waterfall of crimson hair that flowed down her back in a cascade of flaming silk. Her cloak also fell open, revealing a familiar outfit, colored an equally garish orange color, though... the Tamaranian's top seemed just a bit too-tight, her skirt a touch too short ... And the look of utter boredom on her face also seemed just a bit out of place.

Sticking a pinky in her ear to clear it out, Starfire turned to glance at the pair of them.

"And just what is it that the pair of _you_ are looking at?" she asked.

"Feh, rude much?" Raven muttered.

"Who are you referring to as _rude_, 'girl suffering from a distinct height deficiency in comparison to my own'?" the overtly rude Starfire fired back.

Brave Boy snickered, looking back and forth between them. "Dude, I think she just called you short."

Raven rolled her eyes. She'd been doing that a lot recently - no thanks to the company she found herself in.

"You and I are the same height. If she's calling me short, then she's calling you short, too."

"What!" the green teen barked. He spun back on the Vulgar Starfire, scowling darkly. "You better take that back, Striperella, or it's gonna be go time!"

Rather than be incensed, Starfire just smiled saucily and stepped right up to Beast Boy - towering over him by nearly a foot - and poked a finger right into his chest. "Is that a fact, diminutive, chlorophyll colored humanoid? Are you insinuating that you are desiring a piece of me?"

Despite being overshadowed by the orange clad, orange-skinned alien, Beast Boy didn't back down an inch, in fact, he leaned forward in return. "And what if I do? I can take you, anytime, any place!"

Raven wasn't sure that she liked the look that was forming on Starfire's face as she faced down the fearless changeling.

"Well then, who would I be to deny you?"

Then, just like that, the pair lunged forward, Beast Boy leaping up into Starfire's strong arms. A second later, the couple were locking lips like it was going out of style. Starfire, understandably distracted, staggered backward, slamming bodily into the stone pillar she'd been leaning on. The flimsy stone shattered like glass and the passionate couple disappeared into the cloud of debris.

For a second, just a second, Raven considered trying to get a better look as to just what was going on - judging by the sounds it was getting interesting -

No! No, no, no.

She shook her head several times and quickly scurried away, making her way into the museum.

That had been odd, even by her standards. Really, orange and green just clashed so badly, trying to mix them like that, she just couldn't see how it could work. ... It sure had looked fun, though. Unfortunately, it also meant that she'd lost her companion again, and was wandering the halls of the museum alone.

Certainly, the art works were a pleasure to behold. Paintings, statues, models and collages of ravens in every color of the rainbow filled the halls and chambers. It would have been nice to have someone to share the scenery with, but she would make do. One painting in particular drew her gaze as she passed through one of the larger chambers. It was a grand painting of a midnight blue raven ... no, wait, it was a picture _of_ Raven. It depicted the proud Titan wear standing tall, draped in the shadows as a queen might wear a cloak. It was a vision of power and strength, unassailable and beautiful.

"Have you ever looked at a painting ..."

Startled, Raven turned to stare at the speaker. The yellow cloaked figure strode up beside her, not bothering with any pretense at all before lowering her hood, revealing the youthful face of Terra ... with one notable addendum.

"Nice glasses," Raven quipped, "And, of course I have. I'm looking at one right now."

"Thank you," Terra replied, adjusting her horn rimmed glasses with a smirk on her face. "And, you interrupted me. I was saying: Have you ever looked at a painting, a painting that, at first glance seemed perfect, flawless? But, the longer you look at it... flaws become evident, like creases or runny paint, until the inconsistencies become impossible to ignore?"

The violet haired Titan stared at the bespectacled geokinetic oddly.

"I ... I don't know what you mean."

Terra gave her a look, magnified by the large, though stylish glasses. "Really?" She then gestured to the painting she had been studying earlier. "Why don't you look again?"

"Wha ...?" Hesitant for reasons she couldn't understand, Raven turned back to study her portrait. It was just as she remembered. A picture of independence. Stern, strong ... alone? Yes ... now that she was looking, she could see what Terra was talking about. Raven looked powerful, on the surface, but now she could see what was hiding just below that veneer of confidence. Uncertainty, social awkwardness, fear of letting people close; fear of herself.

"She's ... like a shell," Raven muttered to no one in particular.

Her blonde companion gave a good natured laugh. "It's not quite _that_ bad. She's just gotten so good at putting up a strong front, that no one can see what's underneath any longer. It's not that there's nothing there, just that it's buried too deeply to see."

"You sound quite certain of yourself," Raven stated. "Can you really be sure that there is anything worthwhile inside her?"

Terra rolled her eyes. "Duh, of course I'm certain. You could say I'm something of an 'Interralectual', if you know what I mean?"

A pained groan was Raven's reply. "So the glasses _are_ purely for show." Ignoring the girl's annoyed yip, she turned back to study the painting further. "Does she have to be so alone? Why can't she just ... be like everyone else?"

"I - I'm sorry. That's probably my fault ... sorry."

Not overly surprised at the arrival of a new speaker, both Raven and Terra looked over in the direction of the timid voice -

Only to burst out into a gale of laughter.

Cyborg, looking incredibly sullen and wearing a grey cloak that couldn't even stretch across his broad shoulders, let alone reach the ground, was too much to bear. Raven, at least managed to maintain some small shred of dignity, the diminutive blonde, on the other hand, collapsed to the ground, nearly drowning in the pool of yellow material that was her own cloak.

"Wh-" Raven snickered helplessly, "What do you mean it's probably your fault?"

Letting out a beleaguered sigh, very nearly an anguished moan, Cyborg's shoulders slumped as he moved to join them. "I'm just so - so scared all the time. Everyone else in here is so much more sure of themselves. They're so brave, or smart, or angry, they know exactly who they are and what they want. I'm just ... timid; I'm the weak link holding everyone back."

Finally regaining here bearings, Terra dragged herself back to her feet. Wiping a tear from her eye, she turned to Cyborg. "Factually speaking, there is some merit to your statement."

Raven gasped, staring at the blonde. Cyborg, who had been merely looking like a poster child for Prozac descended into an expression of abject despondence.

"I - I knew it. You'd be better off if I wasn't here at all." The grey ... caped cyborg kicked the ground forlornly, incidentally kicking out a large chunk of the concrete floor.

Rather than look abashed, Terra simply smirked. "Did I say that? It is true that some aspects are more desirable than others, but all are necessary. Even a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. But, what is the more logical response? To sever the link completely, or to strengthen it?"

"Strengthen it?" Cyborg looked, surprise-surprise, quite dubious about the proposal. "But - but how would you go about doing that?"

Raven was interested in that answer as well.

"Well," Terra began, taking a step closer to Cyborg. "Since you aren't _completely_ made of metal, we can't apply a simple case hardening. I would recommend a vigorous application of social interaction related stimulation."

Raven adopted Cyborg's dubious look. "And what exactly would that entail?"

Smirking wickedly, Terra suddenly reached up and grabbed the hood of Cyborg's cloak. "I thought I would start with _this_!"

At which point, the tiny Titan pulled Cyborg down to her level and initiated a textbook example of 'lip lock'.

"'MMPH'!" was the extent of the shocked cyborg's reaction before Terra tackled him to the ground a second later.

"Gah!" Raven cried, scandalized. "Not you two, too!"

More than vaguely disturbed by what was going on, on the floor in front of her, the squeamish Titan pulled a quick about-face and beat a hasty retreat from the large chamber. Frankly, this museum wasn't nearly as nice as she'd been lead to believe.

Still shaking her head to try to rid her mind of unwanted mental images, Raven abruptly paced down the familiar hallway of Titan's tower.

"Hmph, it's not _us_ that's the problem, anyway," Robin continued, brushing back the red hood of his billowing cloak. "It's everyone else that's the problem!"

Raven rolled her eyes. "Don't you think that's a bit extreme?"

"Ha! Not extreme enough, if you ask me," Robin growled darkly. "Never leaving us be, always interrupting us when we're busy. Beast Boy always getting on our nerves, Kasumi ... doing whatever it is that Kasumi is doing." Robin's eyes narrowed into burning red slits. "Ohhh, and _Jinx_, don't even get me started on **Jinx**!"

"Well, I suppose we can agree on that point, at least," Raven conceded. As they rounded another corner, she frowned in consternation. "I just don't know why no one will listen to me..."

Robin nodded sharply. "She's a danger to have around. She's unstable - treacherous. We should run her out of the city."

"At the least," Raven hissed, beginning to echo her companion's mood. "It would be easy, too. She's no match for us, not really-"

"'Annnnd that's about enough of that!" In a flash of red and black, a figure moving nearly too fast to see seemed to materialize out of thin air between them. In a dizzying display, the new arrival clamped a hand down on Robin's crimson cloaked shoulder, then flipped him back over his hip, tossing the seething Titan head over heels, before lashing out with a palm strike that sent Robin flying into - then _through_ the wall.

Raven was left staring in awe for several seconds, just long enough for the figure's long, ebony black cloak to settle back down around him.

And then Ranma turned around, grinning that familiar, endearing grin of his. Taking advantage of the silence hanging between them, Ranma took a moment to take stock of himself, holding up the fringe of his black cloak for inspection.

"Sheesh, what's up with this? A black cloak? What am I supposed to be, you're '_eeeevil_' side? I thought I just tossed that guy through a wall?"

Despite herself, Raven giggled in amusement.

"I don't think I have an evil side. And if I did, I can guarantee that you wouldn't be the avatar of my wicked ways."

Ranma considered this, before nodding in agreement. "Naw, you're right. It'd probably be some super hot goth lolita wearing leather corsets, lace and all sorts of jailbait kinda stuff."

"_Ranma_!" Raven barked, not sure whether to be more scandalized, or steamed.

"Heh heh heh. _Oh no_, Raven is mad at me!" Ranma chirped, holding his hands up to his face. "What are you gonna do? Send me to a nightmarish plane of eternal torment, where I will sup upon naught but pain, and drink naught but suffering?"

The violet haired Titan tapped her chin a few times. "Hmm, that actually sounds pretty good. I was just going to punch you in the shoulder, though."

He smiled, dropping a friendly arm around her shoulders. "See, that sounds like a pretty reasonable response to a minor annoyance. What's up with all this 'Run her outta the city' and 'She's no match for us' crap?"

"Minor annoyance?" She squawked. "That girl has been the bane of my existence since I met her."

Giving her shoulder a squeeze, Ranma laughed out loud. "Oh please. You barely even spared Jinx a thought before she made her comeback from trainin' with the old lech. And now that she's actually trying to behave herself, suddenly you can't stop fuming about her. Don't you think there's something a little odd about that?"

Raven hummed and hawed for a moment, not sure how to respond. "... No?"

Her pigtailed friend shook his head fondly. "You sure about that? Maybe the only reason that you're angry that Jinx is around now is that because when she was still being her bad self, she wasn't a threat to you, not in any way that counted."

"A threat? A threat how?"

His sky blue eyes rolled grandly. "Don't play dumb, Rae, only one of us can pull that off here. You knew that as long as she was a villain, that she didn't really have a shot with you-know-who. But that's not the case now, and its got you worried."

The cloaked girl frowned. "Shouldn't I be? I mean, I know that it's foolish of me to worry about something so ... so normal, all things considered, but I find I can't help myself."

"Yeah, well, I guess that's part of what they call the human condition.'

"You know, technically speaking, I'm _not_ huma-"

"Shut it!" Ranma interrupted with a bark. "I'm not sayin' you shouldn't sweat the small stuff. The small stuff is usually the real fun stuff that makes life worth living. I'm just saying: Don't let yourself get carried away, here. Jinx may be a pain, after all, but has she _really_ done anything to you that merits you runnin' her outta town on a rail?"

Raven lifted a finger, preparing to make a list-

"_Since_ she came back!" he amended.

"Oh," she pouted. "Well, she _is_ insufferably rude and confrontational."

"Funny, you say the same thing about me all the time." The martial artist ignored her flat stare and smirked. "Hey, I'm not sayin' you gotta like her. The chick is a jerk, no arguments there. Just that you should at least give her a chance to prove herself. After all..." Ranma's smirk grew into a full blown grin. "Showing Ryouga that you're the bigger man - and we're talking metaphorically here, cuz you ain't manly in the slightest - would probably impress him a lot more than Jinx's 'bitchier than thou' attitude."

That, finally, brought a smile to Raven's lips. "I hadn't thought about it like that."

"Of course you did, or else I wouldn't have been able to explain it to you. You probably just didn't realize you were thinking of it like that," Ranma replied sardonically.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

Ranma just smiled. "Hey, if you haven't figured that part out yet, then you're on your own, sister. Still, the part of the tour where you get escorted around by hunky pigtailed martial artists is coming to a close."

"What? Why?" Raven asked, feeling a bit upset.

Her companion shrugged. "There ain't exactly no rhyme or reason to what goes on in here. I just thought I'd say g'bye before just vanishing on you. Now, go get 'em, Tiger."

She gasped sharply and her back arched, when Ranma gave her a slap on the bottom and a gentle push forward. The red cheeked girl spun about, preparing to unleash hell-

Only to find herself in her room.

Well, her room for the most part. It seemed to be just as she remembered it, except that someone had got to the trouble of boarding up all of the windows, save a small square at the very center of what had once been a large bay of windows. Said person was present, carefully arranging a tasteful set of curtains over the small aperture, completely blocking Raven's view of whatever it might have been that was on the other side.

The person's flowing white robes seemed to cling to their womanly figure, creating an odd juxtaposition of allure and tedium as she put an inordinate amount of attention into setting the curtains 'just' so.

"What are you doing in my room, Kasumi?" Raven asked, a trace of annoyance escaping into her voice.

The older woman turned around, a beatific smile on her face and her four, glowing red eyes burning merrily with hellfire.

"The view from your room is ... not very nice. I thought that I would spruce things up a bit."

Raven frowned at the eldest Tendo sister. "And you thought that boarding up my windows and hanging a few, admittedly nice, curtains would 'spruce things up'?"

Kasumi nodded. Behind her, the wall seemed to warp and twist, only to stop a second later when the white clad woman reached behind her and rested a hand against the wooden surface. Again, a shiver ran down Raven's spine. A bellowing howl resounded through the room, but it sounded distant, muted. For a second, Kasumi's face took on a strained expression, and the curtains fluttered slightly to some unseen breeze ... but then a moment later, all was calm again.

"What - what was that, Kasumi? What's behind that window?"

"Oh, it's nothing that you need to worry about anymore, Raven. You just let me worry about things in here." The comforting tone in the woman's voice was almost enough to set Raven at ease. But ...

Moving tentatively, the violet eyed Titan took a step forward. Her hand rose up shakily, reaching towards the curtain, intent to draw it open.

The closer her fingers came to the velvety curtains, though, the more they began to shake, some unspeakable horror, dark and familiar, built up in her stomach. Just an inch away, though, a graceful hand came down over hers, holding it gently and pulling it away from the hanging drapes. Slowly, Kasumi shook her head from side to side, a sad look marring her otherwise beautiful face. Her four eyes softened as she matched Raven's confused gaze.

"Please, Raven, let me deal with this. It is my purpose, after all."

For what seemed an eternity, Raven stared at the burgundy curtains, wanting, and yet not wanting to know what was behind them. Finally, she tore her gaze away from them and nodded slowly. "A-all right, Kasumi. If you feel so strongly about it." A sudden thought struck her, now that she had shifted her attention away from the curtains. "Say, do you know where Ryouga is? I haven't seen him in forever."

The brunette shook her head, smiling weakly.

"I'm afraid that I don't. I've been a tad preoccupied lately. I do know someone that might, though. I'm sure that if you go through that door, they'll be more than happy to help you."

Well, finally some good news!

Smiling again, Raven nodded her thanks to the stoic Tendo and made her way to the door. What an amazing woman Kasumi was, so graceful and feminine. She would have to ask her how she did her make up some time, too. The blush and mascara Kasumi had used really brought out her eyes.

She exited her room, finding herself in a familiar abandoned cathedral. It looked very much like a battle had just taken place; pews were shattered, the alter was crushed, and rubble was strewn about almost artistically. Feeling quite comfortable in her new surroundings, Raven walked to the center of the main hall, taking a deep breath.

"Hey there, Rae Rae! You lookin' for something?"

Instantly, Raven's pleasant demeanor disintegrated. Standing at the top of the staircase was a pink cloaked figure, the very sight of which set her hackles to rising.

Skipping gaily down the stairs, the cloaked figure's hood fell back, unleashing Jinx's distinctive pink hair. The pale skinned girl smiled warmly as she hopped down the last few steps and began to traipse in Raven's direction.

"Oh, don't be all Miss Sour Puss on me, Raven! Didn't you come here looking for my help?" asked the cat eyed girl in a sing song voice.

"As if you _would_ help me, even if that was the case," Raven replied with a scoff.

Doing a sideways cartwheel for no real reason, Jinx giggled. "Of _course_ I would help you, Raven, if it would make you happy. I don't want anyone to be unhappy, not if I can avoid it."

Raven bore a skeptical expression. "Since when? Why would you care if I was happy or not?"

"Raven, Raven, _Raven_. I'm all _about_ the happiness!" Flipping back up to her feet, Jinx began to twirl around to the side. "In fact, I already know what you want, and I'll be glad to help ... if you want me to."

"Do ... do you mean that? You'll actually help me if I just ask?"

Jinx nodded ecstatically. "Everyone should be happy! If me helping you will make you happy, then I'm game! Just say the word, pal'o mine!"

The dark Titan was, understandably, doubtful ... but, then again, Kasumi had said that Jinx would help her. Besides, what did she have to lose? What was Jinx gonna do? Send her wandering in the wrong direction for a few hours?

Shaking her head, Raven finally shrugged helplessly. "Fine. Jinx, would you please help me?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" In a flash of pink on pink, Jinx leapt up, Cheshire grin plastered on her face. "I know just what you need to make you happy!"

Suddenly, the young sorceress lunged forward, grabbing Raven's face forcefully in her hands-

And then crushed her lips over Raven's!

It was ... warm, and soft; it - it was just like Ryouga had explained it, it was _electric_.

Despite herself, Raven began to melt into the kis-

* * *

Raven snapped awake, sitting up in the bed with a loud gasp.

Her breathing came in ragged gasps as she clutched the thin sheet to her chest. That ... what _was_ that? That hadn't been her usual dream. Not by even the longest stretch of the imagination had she had a dream - er, nightmare - like that!

"Raven, are you okay?"

The drowsy Titan started again, until she realized that it was Ryouga's voice, laced with concern. The Lost Boy was sitting at the end of the bed, staring her uncertainly.

Honestly, Raven wasn't certain how to answer.

"I ... I'm fine, Ryouga. It was just a - a nightmare, is all. Yes, a terrible, terrible nightmare ..."

The martial artist stood up at that. "Umm ... are you gonna be alright? Do you need anything?"

Raven just shook her head. All she needed to do was forget that dream.

"No, let's just get ready to go."

The sooner she could get her mind off of that ... whatever it had been, the better.

* * *

The morning light streamed in through a crack in the window curtain.

In the slowly retreating darkness of the room, two figures lay under the thinnest layer of bed sheets, the thicker upper layers either crumpled together in a pile at the foot or the bed or strewn on the floor. A digital clock by the side of the bed lay mute, leaving the room and its occupants to pass the time in near silence. This wasn't the home either of them knew: it wasn't the dojo, where the morning routine of Ranma and his father fighting over breakfast or Akane rushing to school could serve as a rude awakening. This wasn't even Seiran, where an alarm would have long since sounded, calling one or the other to their duty station.

Nabiki inhaled, taking in the earthy, salty smell of her partner. The lingering traces of the glow from the night's activities - the warmth, the intimacy, the adrenalin - were slowly but surely giving way to a measure of contented weariness and exhaustion, even after they'd both fallen asleep. One thing she hadn't really been prepared for, after the fact, was just how tired it would make her. That, and the fact she was still covered by a layer of sweat. She made sure Ryouga was either asleep or, at least, only half awake before allowing a guilty blush to really form, coloring her cheeks.

This was what she had wanted, after all.

Her first real time, and his.

She'd tried to act supremely confident, to lead them in their dance, but deep down she'd been more flustered and unsure than she could ever remember. Even jumping out of that helicopter in her duel with Kinnosuke hadn't been so secretly harrowing. At the same time, she knew it wouldn't do for Ryouga to really know just how unsure or afraid she actually was, sometimes. She was India Squad's coordinator. That meant she had to be steady, calm, cool, and collected, not just for him, but for the whole team. It also meant that, if the worst happened, she would have to stand by and watch, safe back on base, while the boys she swore to protect and support died.

Closing her eyes, she remembered hearing a howl of pain and anguish, not from Ryouga or anyone on their squad, but from another coordinator seated nearby. The owner of the cry had given Nabiki an immediate idea of what had happened, only to have her macabre suspicions confirmed moments later on an ongoing mission detail status report. A blaster bomb, the most terrible and feared of all battlefield killers, had wiped out three lives in an instant, leaving a forth broken and crippled. It could easily be her, one day, staring mutely at a static filled screen, her team vanished in the time it took to blink an eye. It could be her, one day, crying in vain for someone to respond - for another team to move in to support - a moment too late.

Wrapping her arms protectively around her lieutenant, her partner, Nabiki tried to banish the thought. Burying her face into the muscular side of Ryouga's torso, she could feel his steady heartbeat, rhythmically drumming behind powerful muscle and bone. He was alive. So was she. The aliens had taken out two bases over the last two months, killing hundreds. In the privacy of her own mind, pressed up against someone she trusted with her life, she could admit that thinking about that scared her, too. Before, she'd always sort of thought of Seiran and other bases as secret and impenetrable refuges. But they weren't. Even there, the enemy could attack, and finish what they started when they took her back in Nerima...

Even to him, she'd never thought to admit it, but the last few months had been... scary.

Gods, and Akane was in the field now, too. Her sister had already lost a teammate. She wasn't nearly as superhuman as Ranma or the lost boy. There wasn't a mission that went by when Nabiki didn't worry about her sister's safety. The best she could do, _all she could do_, was work with India Squad - her squad - and try and accomplish their missions as quickly and cleanly and decisively as possible. The better India did, the safer every other squad was as well. They were all in this fight together: from Ryouga and Ranma and Akane, out in the battlefield, to Kasumi in the medical division, to her in Ops.

Unbidden, the pads of Nabiki's fingers wandered down over Ryouga's chest, to the still rough scar near his belly button. She remembered when he had gotten it, fighting that alien-human hybrid version of himself. It had been her first mission with India, and the one that had brought her into Ops. She remembered all too clearly hearing him grunt in pain as the monster's hand punched through flesh, and the red lights that lit up from Ryouga's armor as it detected the wound and tried to administer painkillers and anti-coagulants.

The lost boy was hard to scar.

Everything before Seiran, all the years of hard living and brutal training, had still only left him with a few visible marks on his skin. It was amazing, but she knew the advanced healing techniques used by martial artists of his caliber. To a point, only the worst of injuries would leave lasting scars, and Ryouga had accumulated more than his fair share of them over the last half year.

She'd seen him topless before, of course. Sometimes coming out of or going to the furo back at the dojo (she even remembered seeing him skipping down the halls, once, ecstatic over beating Ranma in a fight)... then there had been the night of her abduction and rescue. So many of the scars her fingers found now were new. A rough patch from an alien plasma blast that had seared him, even through his armor; a circular soft-spot where a telekinetic lance had punched into him; the terrible wound that had almost eviscerated him; then there was the self inflicted damage he had done to his hands and fingers to increase the power of his techniques.

Not fully asleep, still partly alert, his right hand reached over to envelop her fingers and stop their wandering. He could probably guess what she was thinking, feeling her move from one old wound to the next. Looking across his chest, she could see the worst of them all: the mark Cologne had left on both Ryouga and Ranma after their duel back at that alien base in North Korea. The vile monster of a woman - if she could even be called that anymore - had planted a parasitic blood vine into both boys, letting the nightmarish creeper eat through their bodies and expand unchecked.

The very thought was horrible to imagine.

Now, both had matching scars on their bodies. Ryouga's was confined primarily to his right arm, where removing the vine had involved literally tearing it out by the roots. Even his prodigious martial arts healing had been unable to fully close the resulting wound, poisoned as it was by the vine, even in death. A discolored belt of scar tissue, slightly depressed to the touch, ran up the lost boy's arm, almost from wrist to jaw. It was...

It was an ugly scar.

_'Damn you, Cologne,'_ Nabiki thought, viciously. Even here, alone, they couldn't escape the truth of what lay in the future. Even here, it could never be totally forgotten.

Even here, _it_ found a way.

_'If only you could see us now, you bitch,'_ she thought, wishing the hybrid woman could hear her across the void of space_. 'See what I've done? You'll never beat us. Not you, or the things you work for! __**We're still here!**__'_

Yes. That was right.

_'And one day... one day we'll kill you all and save the world...!'_

Next to her, Ryouga took a deep breath, a soft rumbling sound as his hand gently closed around hers. Nabiki tried to put away her worry, as secretly close to the surface as it often was, and clear her mind to enjoy the moment. She had wanted this for some time, and now that she had it... it felt like they had jumped a hurdle together. It felt like some of the phantoms of the past, of Akari, of the Nerima attack, of the close calls on missions, were fading away, just a little, bit by bit. It felt like, more than ever, she had someone who needed her, who relied on her, who wasn't just being manipulated or controlled or coerced. It felt like she wasn't alone in a crowd, with no one to trust or lean on.

"You awake?" she asked, looking up at his chin.

"hnmg," was what passed for a response, "Kinda."

Slapping him playfully on the chest, her hand escaped from his to bounce easily off his breaking-point and _paida-gong_ hardened body. Without so much as a word of warning, she pulled herself up and straddled his stomach, using the motion to pull away his pillow. He grunted as his head fell back, just barely bumping the bedpost. One hand lazily reached up to try and wrest control of the pillow away, but Nabiki kept it just out of reach before pressing it protectively against her chest. Her cheeks colored hotly as she remembered how they had spent some time in just about this same position a few hours ago.

He looked back up at her, hands falling weakly on her thighs to either side of him, just above the knee. There was something about his expression, about the feel of his body under her, that made Nabiki suddenly feel very... liberated, very free, to do and think and believe that things would work out after all.

It didn't matter what... questionable things she'd done back at University or back in Nerima. It didn't matter that the man beneath her had taken dozens of men's lives in the course of his duty. Everything would be forgiven when they won! They were the good guys. They had fought and bled and cried and sacrificed, and they deserved to be happy.

_Gods, they deserved to be happy._

Leaning down, she let her short hair fall forward, framing her lieutenant's face as their noses touched and brushed past. Their lips met, and she kissed him hungrily, eager to relive and recapture the warmth and glow from before that had started to fade. It was morning. Soon, too damn soon, they'd both be back to work... and then back at Seiran. She didn't want it to end yet. Not when she could have _more_.

She was, in the end, just naturally greedy.

The pillow between them withdrew, snatched away by the man below her, and their bodies collided. By now, they had a more than passing familiarity, and Nabiki slid back as she wrestled with his hands, one still playfully holding the pillow. Eventually it left his fingers and tumbled, lost, off the edge of the bed. In its place, their palms met and fingers intertwined, locking together as she moved. His hands were rough, both from a tough lifestyle and a tougher training regimen, and as sparks of errant ki leaked out, betraying his loss of self control, tiny sensitive hairs across her body stood on end.

_'That's right! I wish you could see this, Cologne!'_ she thought, leaning back as her body lost itself to a wave of pleasure._ 'This is what you gave up! This is power!'_

Nabiki heard him call her name, and she opened her eyes to stare down at him.

_'We're human and we're happy and we're free! We don't need you! And... __**he**__ doesn't want anything you have to offer.' _A mysterious smile lit up her face. _'Together, we'll be stronger than even you!'_

* * *

The ray of light from between the curtains lengthened as the two put off tomorrow as long as they could. Beside the bed, the time on the digital clock mercilessly advanced, the tiny red numbers eventually settling on ten o'clock. Finally the blinds opened slightly as a young man in boxers glanced out at the city spread out below the fourth to top floor of the hotel. Opening it just a bit more - just enough to find a decent medium between too open and too closed - the lost boy turned around and picked up the room's television controller. A quick click later and the news came up.

The sound of the TV was almost drowned out by the shower in the bathroom running full force, curls of steam creeping out from the only partly closed door. Something caught his eye in that moment, and he picked up the 'do not disturb' sign from where it had rested on a nearby table. Holding it up to check the other side, finding it was blank of course, he wondered briefly if he should have put it out last night. Not like he'd really had the chance. Or should he put it on there now?

Looking over his shoulder at the bed, he frowned a bit.

Truth was, he wasn't exactly eager to sleep in all that for another night. He hadn't imagined actual... intimacy would have been that... intense. It wasn't like anyone would really disturb them at this point, and they'd be heading out soon, so maybe it was best to just leave it be. Putting the door sign back down, he nodded to himself. Hotels had to be prepared for, well, couples doing what couples did, right? He technically had another night to stay here, so... yeah. Hopefully someone would take of that. It was part of their job right?

Very, very briefly, he wondered what Ranma and Akane...

Shaking his head, he shuddered. No! _In those thoughts lay madness._

Instead, he checked his phone, barely giving the news much attention. Nothing he really needed to know _for work_ would be in the news anyway. Not if the Disinformation Ops were doing their jobs. Flipping open his cell phone, he immediately noticed a text from Mousse. Several of them.

[11:38] - hey. u guys back yet? or are u still sucking face somewhere? -

Ryouga smiled, despite the tone and the stupid use of 'u' in place of 'you.' Mousse was never one for proper English in his messages anyway, preferring expedience to clarity. At least he wasn't as bad as Ranma; the man seemed to revel in translating his rough speech patterns into text format.

[12:05] - I'll hang around for a few minutes then im hitting the sack -

So: Mousse had been staying up, in case something happened? Thinking back to last night, Ryouga wondered - briefly - if Mousse had been nearby. He hadn't exactly been on the lookout for anything but casual observers when he and Nabiki had their little talk. Even if the Chinese weapons master had been around, Ryouga supposed it didn't really matter much. He was probably just watching their backs anyway (hopefully with glasses on, the blind duck).

[7:34] - hope you had a good nights sleep, SIR -

Huh. So... he knew then.

[9:41] - somethings up. im looking into it. call when u can and get rdy -

And, just like that, Ryouga's mood soured a bit and his brows gradually creased together. That last message was less than a half hour old, and given the shorthand and lack of pronunciation, it appeared to have been hastily written and sent. Something was going on, and by the sound if it, it was probably more "work." Tokyo and the surrounding areas were supposed to be clean, now, for several hundred miles. No more anomalies or strays or anything. All that was really left was paperwork, reports, and maybe a little local face-time and checking up.

Quickly punching in Mousse's number, Ryouga found himself only waiting two rings before someone picked up. It was the short sighted martial artist, all right, and by the tone of his voice, he'd found something that would need attending to.

"Glad you're up, lieutenant," the hidden weapons master said, even before the lost one could speak up. "I was just about to call."

Rank again, right off the bat. Looks like they'd have to skip brunch or breakfast. Duty called.

"What's the situation?" he asked, mentally shifting back to 'work' mode.

"Trouble. We got a red flag sent down the pipe by a surveillance team up in the northern territories. Hokkaido. All automated footage that got intercepted and screened by facial recognition. The authorities think it might be part of some terrorist bomb scare up there, but that's not the half of it. Give me a minute. I'll have a data file forwarded."

Ryouga held the phone away from his ear, and watched the central screen. After a few seconds, it began downloading a file. Blue bars filled until the transfer was complete, and then it spent another couple seconds decoding the encryption. In the small screen, Ryouga could see a number of still photos, taken by a camera somewhere. Security footage, given the quality. Facial recognition had already highlighted and boxed two individuals.

Moving to the next picture, Ryouga saw the first: she was a young girl, Caucasian, with what appeared to be dark purple hair and eyes. It looked like it had been taken by mall security somewhere; the image wasn't perfect, but she seemed harmless enough. She'd purchased a hat that appeared in the latter picture, but it hadn't done much to prevent a camera from catching her face from outside a local bank. She appeared pretty normal all-in-all, despite the violet hair.

Then he found the second set of photos... and almost crushed the cell phone in his hands.

Gritting his teeth, he slowly lifted the phone back to his face. "Mousse. This better not be a joke."

"You know it isn't." The Chinese fighter's voice was grave. "I wouldn't joke about something like this, not after what happened last time. Should I bring Ryu and Kuno in? We may need them for this capture/kill op."

"Do it," Ryouga replied, trying to keep calm. "I want a briefing in fifteen minutes. We'll meet you outside."

"Yes, sir."

Clapping the phone shut, Ryouga turned to stare out the window at the city below.

Out there... somewhere... was another one of _them_.

"Was that Mousse? Is something wrong?" Nabiki asked, exiting the bathroom with one large towel around her body and another haphazardly covering her hair. She immediately caught his posture and mood, and reasoned the cause.

"So," she continued, voice collected but... with a hint of regret. "We're back into the fire then?"

"Yeah," he replied, putting the phone down on the dresser.

Ryouga didn't mention the photo of a man with his face... taken last night, hundreds of miles away. The night was over and past. There was no more time for fun or relaxation. It was time to go back. Back into the fire. Back into the fight.

Back into the war.

* * *

Abstract -

Mu Tzu (Mousse)  
Rank: Squaddie, 1st class

Born in the Joketsuzoku village (see: Joketsuzoku Files; Terror Attack China-5), mother: Ti Tzu (Tissue), father unknown. PRC has no formal records of birth, education, or health records. Forgeries used to enter Japan in 2004. Practices 'Hidden Weapons' style of martial arts (see: Research: Hidden Weapons, Telekinetic Topography). Ongoing rivalry with R. Hibiki (profile), R. Saotome (profile). Psychological notice: Squaddie Tzu has exceptionally poor natural vision due to childhood complications regarding an attempt by one of the village leaders to 'heal' his eyes. Corrective countermeasures have been taken (see: Mu Tzu Medical files; re: Combat Effectiveness).

As part of Squad: India (Hibiki, Kumon, Tzu, Kuno) out of Seiran, under Cptn Ben-Solomon. Assigned rank acting Squaddie (Oct, 2006); Squaddie 1st class (Dec, 2006). Participated in AB17 Alpine Echo Seven (December, 2006). Fiftieth Kill recorded (January, 2007). Temp assignment to Luna (2007). (see: Service Record, attached) (see: Psionic Profile, attached). Distinguished work done in cross-disciplinary research (see: Hidden Weapons above). Full Access to Fabrication Suite, Seiran (Jan, 2007). Procurement Budget expanded (Dec, 2006. Jan, 2007. Feb, 2007).

Underwent two month mentor program (Lt. R. Tsuchihashi), standard psionic imprinting (see: psi-gym usage), currently holds two (2) records on base for extreme duration psionic activities. Squaddie Mu Tzu was integrated into India Squad from its conception, with the original intent that he would develop into an NCO position of (acting) sergeant. The role was later deemed more suited to R. Kumon. Mu Tzu remains an excellent combat operative, possessing both a high degree of lethality and a versatility of approach unmatched in India. Mixture of unorthodox and oblique patterns of attack/approach with extensive arsenal.

Any lingering animosity towards 'rivals' has not manifested in missions with India or Juliet Squads. Note: Mu Tzu has shown some lack of judgment with respect to Squaddie S. Pu (profile). PsyOps also indicates conflict of loyalties between past associations (see: Amazons, Exiles); not expected to directly impact mission performance. Morale and loyalty are considered GOOD. Mu Tzu is an essential part of India Squad. If we're bringing them in on CLEANSLATE, it'll have to be as a single unit. Squaddie was passed over for NCO option due to lack of interest in professional career, not lack of ability.

[signature redacted]

##

BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS  
TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 9779

CODENAME: *Unknown*

REAL NAME: Ryouga Hibiki

SPECIES: Human  
HEIGHT: 5'7"  
WEIGHT: 170lbs

HAIR COLOR: Black  
EYE COLOR: Brown

KNOWN ABILITIES: Purportedly a highly skilled martial artist. No visual data has been acquired on the Subject as of yet, all information gathered so far has been supplied by reports from Subject:203: Codename: Robin. Extrapolation of skill level has been made based upon recent footage acquired of Subject: 9795: Codename: N/A: Real name: Saotome Ranma, during the highly publicized battle against Subject: 10001: Codename: Brushogun. Taking into account rumours of similar skill levels between both subjects, it can be theorized that the Subject possesses super human strength, speed, agility and martial skill. Reports also suggest an ability to project energy, as Subject: 9795, as well as a less conventional technique used to 'detonate inanimate material'. Further investigation is required.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: Subject is afflicted with a condition termed 'Jyusenkyou Curse'. According to reports, if the Subject comes into contact with 'cold' water, his body will revert to the approximate age of a 12 year old child. Highest probability of incapacitating Subject is to activate 'curse' and render unconscious via conventional means.

KNOWN HISTORY: Very little is known about the Subject's history. Few records, beyond birth certificates and enrolment records, exist to be collected. Apparently, the Subject left home at a relatively young age and remained displaced for several years. Only recently in the past two years, have reliable reports of the Subject (in the Nerima ward of Tokyo) begun to surface with any regularity. Apparently the Subject was involved in a prolonged 'rivalry' with Subject: 9795, and this eventually culminated in a falling out which prompted the Subject to leave the Nerima ward for an extended time, directly leading to the Subject's initial encounter with Team Designation: Teen Titans. The Subject was temporarily enrolled in the H.I.V.E Academy, but has since been rehabilitated and is now a permanent member of the Teen Titans.

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: E

PERSONAL NOTE_: Despite the disturbingly large blanks in Hibiki's background, Dick gives glowing reviews of him. Rather than applying his – if he is actually as close to Saotome in skill as Dick is insinuating – considerable talent for martial arts to fighting crime with the rest of the team, Ryouga dedicated his time to first restoring the geokinetic girl, Terra, from her suspended animation, and then in training her to better control her powers, apparently a tense topic originally. While I admire his desire to help others, I must question whether it was a good idea to restore a known traitor. On a related note, another of my concerns was laid to rest by J'onn. He has personally cleared Hibiki, stating that all of the 'harmful' mental conditioning inflicted by Brother Blood has been removed and repaired. I'm a bit dubious as to why he stressed the 'harmful' aspect, but he assured me that it was a personal matter and nothing to worry about. Regardless, though, Hibiki seems like a good addition to the team, and if he should happen to distract the Tamaranian from Dick, then who would I be to complain?_

##


	4. First Contact 4

**A/N**

_Nothing much. We are listening to reviews, just so you all know and making adjustments deemed appropriate. Of course, if we can't PM you, then we can't get back to you directly. Neither of us will address reviews directly in author notes, however. _  
_Two chapters this week!_

* * *

x

* * *

Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last. The reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together. With Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding', it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of Atlantis. Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well deserved breather from their adventures. But as unseen forces manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered… and sooner than they expect.

It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_First Contact_

Chapter IV

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

Hoarse screams filled the air, the agonized howls bouncing off the cold, metallic walls and reverberating madly over and over. Koriand'r had long since lost track of which screams were her own; battling the torturous pain, she was just barely able to twist her neck to allow her to see the table resting next to her own. Komand'r was fastened to the sterile surface, writing in torment as the beam of concentrated solar radiation bombarded every inch of her body...

Just as the machine above her own table was doing to Koriand'r herself.

The Tamaranian princess could not even draw satisfaction from the sight of her treacherous sister suffering such a fate, blinded as she was by her own torture. The excruciatingly focused solar emissions seared her skin wherever they touched, which was everywhere. As was her nature, her body attempted to absorb the energy - and absorb it, and absorb it! There was no end to it; every cell in her body was on fire, every molecule of her being felt as if it would explode at any second.

And then, with the flip of a switch, it ended.

Koriand'r couldn't even draw in a breath of relief at the sudden cessation of agony. All her body could do was tremble weakly, small, worrying sparks of some unnatural green energy leaping from her skin...

"Fascinating, truly fascinating. Both subjects continue to absorb solar radiation at rates far beyond any natural conditions which could be conceived."

Every muscle in Koriand'r's body snapped taut, the very sound of that voice as painful to her as the torture she had just endured. Squeezing her eyes shut, the exiled princess tried to block out the voice, tried to forget ever having heard it at all.

"The younger of the pair seems to have a slightly lower rate of natural absorption, but it is possible that it is simply a matter of maturation than of any other variables. Related: further interpretation of our data seems to indicate that the ultraviolet range of the spectrum is most critical to the absorption process."

"S-stop this ... I - I com - _command_ you!"

That was Komand'r's voice, her rage causing her voice to crack painfully as she issued her impotent demand.

Finally opening her eyes, Koriand'r turned to stare at the Psion scientist. His scaled, green face, crested by perpendicular bone ridges which crossed at the crest of his cranium, simply stared back at the dark haired Tamaranian impassively. Somehow the utterly emotionless gaze of the Psion was more chilling, more frightening than the most hateful glare she had ever received.

"Both specimens are far beyond our projected estimates. Subject One has just crested 600 megarads of energy saturation, while Subject Two in already nearly 800 megarads of saturation. Rather than break down on the molecular level, as was anticipated ... their bodies appear to be ... adapting in unforeseen ways."

Koriand'r struggled weakly against her shackles as the Psion stepped to the side of her bed, staring down at her with those cold, soulless eyes. For a moment, he ran a strange device over her, nodding to himself in satisfaction as he did. The cruel being then looked up to match her gaze, his head tilting to the side curiously.

"Today's session has already been extended twenty five percent longer than calculated. Really, I should allow you time to recover before continuing the experiment." At that, a glint flitted through the Psion's glassy eyes. "But this unforeseen adaptation is far too fascinating- "

The Psion reached for the familiar console next to her examination table.

"I must see _more_."

Koriand'r's world dissolved into light and pain.

* * *

Starfire awoke, a strangled gasp on her lips as flashes of half remembered brilliance danced at the back of her eyes. It had… had been some time since the Tamaranian had dreamt of her... _time_ ...with the Psions. She had done much to forget those unspeakable weeks in their thrall. The alien warrior attempted to rub her temples to soothe the phantom pain.

She could not move her hands! Frantic, Starfire looked down -

Panicked eyes widened into saucers as she took in her surroundings. She was laying at the center of a hauntingly familiar room, walls covered with an unusual, alien looking metal. Beyond that, she was laid out on a long table of the same burnished silver metal, and though there were no obvious shackles on her limbs, she could do little more than move her neck. And staring down at her from the ceiling, aimed directly at her forehead, was a device of alien design and unknown function.

She stared blankly for a long second -

...

The containment monitor quickly pulled the headset away from his ears, leaving an unearthly wail of terror to flow out of the small speakers. A pained growl followed as the man turned to his partner.

"Christ Almighty, that's loud! Care to tell me why the subject isn't under level five sedation?"

"Ah. Sorry. I was adjusting the field for the interrogation. It must've woken up. Ju-u-st a second."

...

- and then, mid-scream, Starfire's voice caught and the air leaving her lungs became a unencumbered trickle. Her throat slackened as the numbness forcibly relaxed her body, but it took longer to seize her mind. An alien sensation, unimaginably terrifying, leeched up from somewhere below. Within moments her consciousness was torn away, dropping her into a dreamless artificial sleep.

...

"Much better. What the hell were you doing?"

"Hey, I didn't do anything wrong. I'm just surprised it woke up when it did. It was supposed to be in REM sleep. Anyway, calibrations are good and everything's ready for later. Should be able to speak and hear perfectly."

"Good. ... Nice and quiet again. You know, I hate the ones that sound human. Insidious bastards. This alien doesn't look much older than my daughter; its hard to believe it went head to head with freaking Romeo Squad."

"Looks can be deceiving."

"We'd know that better than most. Alright. This is all good. Let's double check the tertiary mind probe... don't want any false positives when the psi-ops types get to work."

* * *

Herb's tea boiled silently, cup in hand never having touched his lips. Instead, all his attention seemed to be focused elsewhere, very likely on a certain something within the containment facility wing. Kiima carefully lifted her own lacquer cup up and took a small sip, partly to calm herself and partly to hide her face in case the Musk Prince turned around to speak to her.

It was something she likely wouldn't have done in her normal body, but for this task, she had been asked to use her cursed form. It was a nice enough body, and it was practical when using environmentally sealed personal armor, but it wasn't her. It also tended to annoy Herb when he saw it, likely because it reminded him of Saotome. Still, that was no excuse. It would have been nice to hear what was on the enigmatic man's mind. She _knew_ he was somewhat troubled.

And they _had_ been intended, once, to be married.

They still would have been, had Saffron's maturation and subsequent death not soured the deal between the two clans. They still could be, if they survived the war and after a new Saffron came of age. Would he even wait that long? There was a larger pool of extremely strong women around that they knew of now, and the Musk cared only for strength. Their former engagement aside, she was also his second in Romeo Squad. He should have felt free to share his burdens.

"What troubles you, Lord Herb?" she finally asked, setting her cup down neatly on her knee. For the time being, they were alone in the room, waiting to be given permission to enter and oversee some verbal questioning of their new captive.

He didn't even turn around in answering. "Nothing troubles me, Kiima."

"Ah. I see." She did. Stupid male. "What irritates you, then?"

Herb spared a mirthless laugh at her knowledge of him. "This alien we are to speak with. Her memories are strange. Perplexing. No one quite knows what to make of it."

Kiima closed her eyes and took another small drink.

"Was it truly that alien inside her mind?" she asked, not having been a part of the operation.

Her psi-skill was far below the requirements for such a thing. Herb, however, had quickly excelled at psionic combat in all its forms, applying his natural affinity and genius with single minded determination. She knew he would never allow himself to be outshone by Saotome, even though the pigtailed fighter had a natural advantage of time and experience within the organization.

"Alien?" Herb asked, and briskly shook his head. "No..."

As he did so, Kiima noticed his hair, and not for the first time. More than a month had passed since he'd decided to cut his unearthly pale pinkish-white hair short, breaking with tradition. What once fell down to his waist was now closer to the common regulation cut more soldiers wore, and left unbound or adorned, it seemed to have spiked up in the back. Just the act of cutting one's hair was highly irregular for one of his line; the Musk followed the Joketsuzoku Amazon tradition (or perhaps the Amazons followed the Musk tradition) of hair length correlating to high status.

Unfortunately for tradition, practically on the battlefield was a harsh mistress: short hair was much easier to wear with a helmet. On some level, it had to reflect the fact that he was determined to forge a new path for the Musk in this new era and against this new enemy. The Musk had not lent themselves to a cause in over a thousand years.

"Mentally, she is no alien. Not in the sense we have of them." He caught himself at having said that, and explained, turning slightly to gesture with his hand. "That is to say: she _believes_ she is this... Tamaranian... thing. And it is true that her physiology is alien but her mind is almost like that of an unaltered human, and her genetics... she must have been human once, or created from human stock."

Kiima gave an inquisitive 'hmm.' "And this irritates you?"

"Somewhat," he admitted, finally facing her, his tea still in hand. "I would like to know what I have dealt with. What I _will_ deal with. I know Mint has spoken with you."

Of course he would; she lowered her eyes just a bit. "He was-"

"I, too, have fought with this creature. Mint could not possibly see something that I, Herb, have missed." Slit reptilian eyes, a crimson red, moved slowly over to the door. "The fact remains that we must find out more. We must know how she was made. We must separate the false memories from the true."

"Our mind probe has extracted nothing but chaff - names and places and things that do not exist." Herb's voice was level, but Kiima could tell he was... irritated. "If she is delusional, surface scans and machines will not be able to tell the difference. Command believes we must be more proactive."

"Ah. You know what that means, don't you?" Kiima began.

Snorting dismissively, the Musk Prince nodded. "It means that matters will be taken out of our hands sooner than I would have liked. It troubles me to be reminded of my… middling… rank within this organization. The alien's fate is not ours to decide; all we can do is wait for our orders."

* * *

Sparks flew merrily as Cyborg worked away on his little pet project. It was starting to take shape in his eye. Now that he had the satellite dish at the center, helpfully donated by the Thompsons (he'd make sure to have it back to them before they got back from vacation) it was starting to look like something that could actually send a transmission to an existing satellite network up above. The fresh air was a nice change, too. Setting up the transmitter on the roof of the apartment complex was risky, but necessary. He was still concerned over why the cops had been staking out his motel room. Forget what he'd done, how had they even found him in the first place? Sighing, he shook his head and settled back into his work.

He began to hum to himself as he made the connections.

"The power source is connected to the ...transformer, the transformer is connected to the ...circuit relay, the circuit relay is connected to the ...transmission array and _that's what it's all about_."

A few more whistled bars and he focused intently on the one last point. Tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he positioned the heating element and the solder wire into place, there was a small puff of smoke and he was done!

Leaning back, he internalized his _Booyah_ so as not to bring any undue attention. It looked like a mess, and it was far more annoying than it had any right to be to set up, but he was still a technological genius, and he wasn't gonna let nothing as lame as totally antiquated technology stop him from hijacking an entire satellite network to use as his personal phone line!

Though, in retrospect, that didn't exactly sound like the kinda thing that a 'good' person would be trying to do with their time. It was a good thing that he wasn't actually 'up to no good', then. Gizmo would have a field day in this world; he'd probably have had all the nukes in the country ready to launch in a week and a half.

_'__Damn ... hate it when I remind myself he's smarter than me...__'_

Still, he wasn't _that_ much smarter, just a lot less inhibited. Cyborg doubted that even Gizmo would have been able to make a better transmitter here, especially since some of the tech was being... finicky. Not working when it should have. Still, he'd managed, and now all he needed was to turn it on. Reaching out, the cybernetic teen laid a finger on the power switch and, flinching slightly, flipped it. A loud hum filled the air and lights flashed to life all throughout the circle of technology he'd wired together with the small satellite dish at its heart. So far so good, at least.

Taking out the modified USB adaptor he spliced together, he hooked a cable from the transmitter array up to the communicator integrated into his arm. It wasn't easy, kind of like trying to jam a whole cow into a single sausage, but at least with his jury rigged interface, he could hook directly into the system. He made certain to take it easy, starting off with a simple ping to the commercial satellite network. A few microseconds ticked by, and then he was rewarded with a response!

"Yeah! The uplink works!"

A moment later, he brought up a map display on the screen. At first, it just showed the city, but as his signal spread throughout the network, it expanded to show the state, the country, and after a few minutes, he was finally able to bounce signals around a good part of the globe.

Just needed to do a passive scan and...

Four blips appeared on the map!

"Oh yeah! That's a booyah right there!" He checked the readings more closely. Looked like he was receiving signals from Starfire ... Ryouga and Raven... and, well, himself.

Nothing on Robin or Jinx, though. Had their esteemed leader managed to avoid getting dragged into this dimension with them? Damn, wouldn't that be just like him? Too competent to get sucked here with the rest of them, where they could really use his help, plus he probably saved Jinx to boot. Of course, having someone back home was good, since he bet that Robin was just as busy back there trying to get them home as he was here.

Alright, so, he had them located, at least generally. It looked like they were all in the Eastern hemisphere. Rae and Ryo looked like they were in proximity to each other all the way over in Japan.

Starfire looked to be in China somewhere, but it was impossible to narrow her signal down further. Damn, he sure hoped they all had enough cash for plane tickets, because there was no way he was taking a world tour just to pick their butts up.

Okay, so that was stage one complete. He had managed to find them; now he just needed to send them the message he'd prepared to join him here. All he had to do was hit the send button. The simple click on his arm was innocuous enough, but the ominous whine that suddenly rose up from his rig a second later was less so. And then, the screen on his arm suddenly went blank. The lights on the transmitter died. Dubious wafts of smoke began to rise up from the apparatus...

Then, a minute later, he heard the first shouts:

"Damn TV!", "Where'd the picture go?", "B-But it was the season finale!" and "What the **Hell**? Stupid god damn satellite! FFFUUU—"

Cyborg stared at his arm silently for a moment. Then, moving slowly, he looked up into the air above him.

"... Oops."

Clearly, it was time to be hitting the ol' dusty trail. So to speak. He considered taking his rig ... but a single glance told him that it was already a complete loss. This setup and more specifically, the piggyback network he was using just didn't have the capacity to handle the signal he was trying to send. If he wanted to actually do more than just pick up their signals, if he wanted to send a message, he was going to need something more ... powerful...

Slowly, Cyborg's gaze drifted across the skyline, coming to settle on the rooftop of a distant building, what looked to be a corporate headquarters of some sort.

"Oh yeah. Now that's what I'm talkin' bout!"

* * *

Victoria Christianson was a bit of a scifi geek.

This wasn't exactly something she felt the need to spread around. She already had a tomboy image that she enjoyed, and one that almost made her 'one of the boys' back in the precinct. There was a nice casual mix of female-coworker and physically-capable that merged into a pleasant middle ground. There was no need to tip things one way or the other, and making her viewing preferences known would likely achieve just that. It wasn't her fault she had two brothers and that she had been raised on weekly doses of Captain Picard.

The case she found herself on, the "mystery man" who had vandalized and hacked into the city phone system, was made all the more interesting day by day. It should have been obvious by what he had done to the phone, and by the bits and pieces he left behind, but this guy was a real tinkerer. She wondered, briefly, if he liked Star Trek or Star Wars? Or was he one of those Battlestar types?

The motel room he'd fled from before had been full of half finished junk.

Not just junk, actually. The technicians and electronics whizzes who got around to looking at the evidence had said most of the stuff was likely part of a receiver/transmitter. It made sense. This mystery man had hacked into the phone lines to make calls, and now he was aiming higher. What was strange was that he had used the phone-hack to make mundane calls. If it had been a practice run for a bigger act of terrorism (or cyberterrorism), then why order pizza with it? Why draw the attention?

It didn't add up.

The man was still using the phone line he'd tapped into, and the investigation was still eavesdropping and tracking him with it. Or they had been until recently, when he left the range of his own bug. Most of his work was supposedly inspired – and she had heard that the bug itself was pretty high tech 'in a strange way' – but this other stuff was kind of slipshod due to the basic components scavenged. They'd checked with stores around the area, to see if he was buying anything, but the man was staying off the radar.

No credit cards.

No big purchases.

Nothing.

At least he was still human, and still left _something_ behind. Along with the absolute mess he had turned his motel room into he had left a _few_ clues. The damage to the mattress confirmed he was extremely heavy for his size, conservatively more than four hundred pounds. Skin and hair samples (and there had been much fewer hair samples than anyone had expected) confirmed eye witness accounts that the mystery man was African American and male. They still didn't have any useable fingerprints, which was downright bizarre. The mystery man had been careful enough to always wear gloves, but careless enough to leave clues and smudges lying around.

They hadn't found any non-salvaged computer parts or other evidence of that sort, but a check with the motel's meter had confirmed that the man used some sort of high powered device. He had sucked up a tremendous amount of power over a long period of time, tripping the breakers that limited draw to the rooms. So far, it didn't fit what the techs knew about normal computer systems, if that had been what he'd powered up in the first place. For the time being, it was just another mystery… but a tantalizing one.

They had a good handle on Method, thanks to what they'd seen. The guy was a tech head. He was trying to cobble together something to break into communication networks.

Motive.

What was this guy's motive?

That was harder. Fielding still figured the guy was up to no good, but he'd recently shifted his personal opinion from 'terrorism' to 'vandalism.' Maybe he wanted to make some kind of political statement? Maybe he wanted to put himself on TV (like anyone bothered these days, since getting on youtube was so easy). Maybe he just wanted to make free calls all the time, any time? ... Maybe he wanted to break into a secure system to commit corporate or international espionage?

If it really was the latter, then she and Fielding were kind of in over their heads.

Drifting out to the precinct lobby to get a cup of Joe, Officer Christianson sighed. All this was just going around and around in her head and not ending anywhere. They still had so little on the guy. And they STILL had orders from above to only track and observe. Did Lieutenant Haynes know something? They technically had enough to bring this guy in – if they could catch him now – so why were they beating around the bush? So many of these strange thoughts could be put to rest if they had just pulled the guy in for questioning a day ago!

"Aw, damnit!"

The voice caught her attention as soon as she entered the room. It was Sergeant Fuentes, up from the SWAT department. Walking over, curious now, she saw him glaring down at a crushed paper cup on the floor. Officer Park was chuckling at the mess, and ripping a few paper towels free to help. Vicky knew the two of them only in a peripheral way, just enough to know their names and have a few conversations under her belt.

"What happened?" she asked, looking around the break room and then at the spill.

She had been looking for some coffee, anyway.

"Nothing," Fuentes insisted, as ark handed him another paper towel. He tried to soak up the spilt coffee without burning himself by dabbing the scrunched up paper.

"Another crushed cup," Parks commented with a smile.

"You do that kind of shit on purpose, man!" Fuentes complained, still cleaning up the mess. With a huff, he stood back up and shook his head. "Just got back from the range; you know I have the sensitivity on the hand set high."

He held up his left hand, and Christianson remembered it was actually a prosthetic. Fuentes had been shot in the hand a couple months back, and opted for an artificial reconstruction. Dramatic advances in limb replacement, like most of the medical field, had come in leaps and bounds over the last half decade or so (along with weapons development, oddly enough). Things that people had expected to take a decade or more to reach commercial viability were now yesterday's news. So much so that most people didn't think of it any more than they did, say, laser eye surgery.

Fuentes hand reconstruct had varied sensitivity, which helped to control the translation of impulses. Vicky looked down at his crushed cup and in her mind's eye, saw that crushed baseball bat. But that… that…

No way.

Was that possible?

There was laser eye surgery, and then there was laser eye surgery that gave you X-ray vision. No one could have reconstructs powerful enough to crush an aluminum bat. It was just… no.

And yet…

At six foot something, this guy was supposedly more than 400 pounds. Really, they expected him to be much more, but had revised it down. The build was all wrong. He was built like a linebacker, or so they believed, not a sumo wrestler. What if reconstructs made up all that extra weight? It was scifi shit. Even the most far-out-there, singularity-obsessed, construct-freak (and there were a few, this being New York City and all) couldn't replace that much of himself, especially with gear that had specs so far outside the norm.

But… the power drain… the lack of finger prints… the fight with those punks!

No. She was jumping to conclusions and she knew it. There were better, more grounded, explanations. This mystery man obviously had some high powered gear with him, and he simply wore gloves. The street gang he had taken out weren't the most reliable of witnesses in the first place. The idea that he as some kind of… Terminator or 'cyborg'… that was just too outlandish.

"Christianson! There you are!" Fielding entered the break room in a rush, excitement on his features. "Load up! We've got something!"

A short drive later, and she saw it firsthand.

Standing on top of the residential tower, she and Fielding searched the area while their growing cadre of electricians and field techs examined the latest 'incident.' It was definitely the work of the mystery man. Cobbled together electronics, including a commercial satellite dish, had been rigged up into some sort of gadget. It looked burned out now, but just a few hours ago…

A few hours ago it had shorted out signals across every building in a hundred yards and caused an emergency reset in a satellite in orbit. Just when they had revised their outlook on this guy from terrorist to nuisance, he went and pulled a trick like this. God knows what he had done with the satellite uplink in the first place. Hopefully the techs could figure something out from what was left. They still had to check for witnesses on the floors below (many of whom had complained earlier), and review camera footage to see if it had caught this guy in the act.

Christianson had a suspicion, though, that they wouldn't find much solid evidence, and certainly no prints. It was about 50/50 whether they found any video records. This perp knew his way around machines, but his latest stunt had gone too far. They hadn't gotten the order to bring him in yet, but they would. Oh yes, they would. She could feel it!

The immediate question was, where would he strike next?

Turning towards the setting sun, she saw the Citicorp Building, silhouetted against the horizon…

* * *

Lieutenant Uehara Daizo was a career beat cop.

He had a little house out in the suburbs, a pair of kids in college, and he worked the generally quiet streets of Sapporo. 'Drunk and disorderly' and common theft were the biggest problems he typically had to deal with, and as age started to catch up, he found himself enjoying the seniority of running the city's quieter routes. He loved the work - he did - and the difference he felt he made by showing the colors on the streets and helping those who needed it.

He just wished it paid better. The ongoing decade long recession and the ever escalating cost of finances had him in a bit of a pinch. Silently, secretly, he had started weighing certain options to... aid in his retirement.

He waffled, though, not particularly eager to stretch his principles this late in the game. A man needed his pride and self respect as much as he needed a bank account that wasn't slowly trickling into the red. It wasn't like he wanted to retire to a life of cruises and vacations... but it would have been nice to leave the country once at least. The issue had been a recurring theme in his thoughts for days now.

The last thing he'd expected to interrupt those thoughts was an emergency at the airport.

"Central BCC to Unit 562."

"562 here." Daizo watched with one eye as the digital screen on his car lit up, displaying information send from central downtown. To think, he remembered running with nothing but a radio. Not that he could fault the convenience of the new technology.

"We have a request for rapid deployment to New Chitose Airport. Potential terrorist activity. PSIA is running operations, and airport security have asked for help setting up a perimeter. SWAT is already on route. Expect briefing on site."

Daizo nodded to himself, and a second later, the rendezvous point appeared on his nav system.

"I'm on my way. ETA: driving time."

As the siren mounted atop his car wailed, he narrowed his eyes a bit at one particular but of information: PSIA. Public Security was running things? Had they been tipped off about a bomb threat or something? It wasn't like them to call in the dogs like this. It didn't appear that the shit had quite hit the fan yet, which was the only real silver lining.

No one wanted a repeat of Flight 61.

He had been working a different beat then, but back in 1999, some loon had hijacked a Boeing 747 en route to New Chitose Airport from Tokyo International. By the time ATC was warned, the man had already locked himself in the cockpit with the captain. Fortunately, the pilot had managed to turn the tables on the hijacker and land the plane, but Sapporo had been waiting with hushed rumors as to what could - or would - happen if the plane crashed.

If PSIA was involved, did that mean there was another similar threat? Most domestic terrorist groups had been quiet over the last decade, and this far north it was all but unheard of. It could potentially be any number of foreign threats, though. North Korean espionage? Al Qaeda? Some home grown nut job?

Racing towards the airport, Daizo felt the side of his revolver comfortingly press against his leg through its holster. His old Nambu M60 .38 Special hadn't let him down yet; he'd only ever had to fire it once in the line of duty, something for which he was thankful, but the solid presence was still something he took solace in. Those years in the JSDF had rubbed off on him, and while he always hoped never to have to use lethal force, he was well trained and practiced... just in case. Even in a quiet city, it was never wise to get lulled into a false sense of security.

Turning into one of the main roads, he turned off his siren to observe the 'silent approach' outlined by the nav computer. By the time he got close, he could make out a few other police cars and a few large black vans, three of them unmarked. They'd already closed off a lane of traffic and partly circled vehicles. It had to be where they were conducting the immediate on-site briefing for the reinforcements. A small number of men in plainclothes - obviously PSIA Intelligence Department agents - stood in front of a pair of laptops.

Parking quickly, Daizo immediately found a familiar face.

"Suzahara!"

"Uehara!"

Lieutenant Suzahara was a Tokyo transplant and an old friend. Just a year Daizo's junior, he was a bit taller with a couple fewer creases around his eyes. The two men nodded respectfully and formed up side by side to review the rest of those present. A unit of SEAT officers was already forming up and double checking their gear; another officer was motioning other police over to suit up in body armor. That was trouble. It meant they expected return fire, here, at the damn airport.

"Any idea what's going on?" Daizo asked, as the two headed over.

"None," Suzahara admitted. "Here's hoping it's a false alarm or something."

"Not likely."

"Yeah."

"Plus, if there's something going down inside, why are we out here?" Daizo surmised. "They're waiting for something."

Suzahara nodded slowly.

The two took identical strap-on body armor, slipping it right on top of their uniforms. It was a fairly basic heavy kevlar vest, but up-armored. A combination of nylon straps and Velcro helped to secure it around the torso and upper arms. A rack of submachine guns was visible inside the SWAT van, along with a case bearing those new laser pistols that had started circulating among law enforcement two years ago, but it appeared they were keeping all those toys to themselves. To Daizo, it implied he and the others in his position would be used outside of any potential combat. This wasn't a bad thing if heavily armored terrorists were involved.

Another car pulled in, the last, allowing two officers from Daizo's precinct to join the group. Not including the airport security teams, already inside and working with the PSIA, that left twenty of them outside waiting for orders. Half of those were SWAT special response. A tall man with a balaclava standing next to a comparatively small black suited agent motioned the more lightly armed and armored officers over. It appeared things were about to pick up. Daizo recognized the name on the man's arm patch as a captain in the city SWAT.

"Everyone listen up," the Captain barked, getting the attention of all present. He then inclined his head towards the much shorter agent next to him: a pretty young woman with short brown hair. Next to her was a man in unfamiliar dirty-white fatigues. It looked military-issue.

"My name is Agent Katsumi," the woman spoke, not really raising her voice, but clearly and loudly enough to be easily heard by the assembling men. "The man next to me is Agent Koiso. We will both be functioning as liaisons with Sapporo law enforcement."

The man looked middle aged, but the woman couldn't be more than twenty something. Daizo scratched his chin, bemused by the fact that this young woman - his daughter's age even - would be in charge. Damn strange. But she wouldn't be in the position she was if she hadn't gone through the proper channels, so, young or not, she was the one giving orders. The older man next to her cupped his hands behind his back, clearly willing to also cede to the young woman.

"Let's get to it," she gestured to one of the tabled laptops, partly encased in an armored shell, and pressed something in her hand. The screen was large enough that, even from where he stood, Daizo could pretty clearly see the picture of a young man and woman.

"Only a couple hours ago, surveillance and facial recognition positively identified these two subjects, believed to be involved in the bombing yesterday uptown. The male is approximately eighteen years of age, one hundred and seventy centimeters in height, Japanese, with black hair and light brown eyes. Distinguishing characteristics include slightly pronounced canines, a yellow and black bandanna, and potentially an umbrella carried on his person. The female is estimated to be eighteen, one hundred and sixty five centimeters, Caucasian, with a pale complexion and violet colored hair and eyes. Distinguishing characteristics beyond that include a small red gem worn on the forehead and..."

Daizo resisted the urge to sigh, instead dipping the rim of his fedora to cover his eyes.

These two were just kids.

"There were conflicting accounts from the scene of the bombing itself, but HQ wants us to move in on this, ASAP. We have confirmed that they intend to leave the country and our orders are to intercept them before they can do so. Obviously, we'd like to avoid a fight in the airport itself, but given the nature of the male subject the best we can do is keep the area clear while our specialists make the takedown. If we tip ourselves off too soon, there's no telling what he'll do."

One of the conscripted officers shook his head at that, silent disbelieving that some kid could be such a threat. Daizo didn't blame him. I mean: what was it about this kid that was so dangerous? Did he have a bomb or something that he was going to set off in one of the terminals? If he did, then what would these 'specialists' do about it?

"Let me make this absolutely clear," Agent Katsumi went on, "We expect that both these individuals are extremely dangerous. You are to assume they are both well armed and extremely dangerous."

Daizo blanched at that. They actually _were_ after a pair of Al'Qaeda nut jobs? What the hell, what were terrorists doing here of all places? He was distracted from his ruminations when the young agent referred back to her pictures before continuing.

"In particular, if you encounter the male of the pair, do not engage him. Repeat: _do __**not**__ engage_. Do not approach him, do not attempt to apprehend or delay him unless explicitly ordered to do so. Do not point your weapon at him. This man can, and will, kill you. Not a single one of you here can stop him by yourself."

Hearing that, Daizo's crinkled eyebrows raised a fraction. What was that supposed to mean? What, was this kid some kind of human killing machine? The woman had to be exaggerating, right?

"We have teams specially trained and equipped to deal with the male target. We know less about the female. She doesn't have any background here or with Interpol or NSA. Caution is advised should any of you encounter her. Use of lethal force _is_ authorized for this operation if necessary for self defense or the protection of civilians."

There it was. It had been retroactively obvious, given the presence of SWAT, that use of lethal force would be invoked. They'd all needed to actually hear it said, though. More than a few officers shifted a bit where they stood, suddenly a little uncomfortable. Especially given the apparent youth of their potential targets.

"We are going to split up into four fire teams," Agent Katsumi explained. "Red is our primary engagement force, including Agent Koiso's men and some... special forces we've brought in. If Red Team is engaging the enemy, you are to maintain a distance of sixty meters at all times. Blue Team will consist of those SWAT members present. Their job will be to contain the incident and act as backup. Green will include all uniformed police offers. Together with airport security, we need you to evacuate any civilians from the area and maintain a cordon around the point of engagement of roughly a hundred meters. No one gets in or out without authorization, understood?"

Daizo nodded slightly, and so did many others around him. It seemed they were brought in mostly for crowd control. He wondered, though, why PSIA was being so secretive. It was just two kids, no matter how dangerous one of them somehow got a reputation for being. It didn't look like the kid had a missile launcher or RPG on him… though appearances were obviously deceiving, considering the bombing attack... Regardless, it looked like three rings: cops on the outside, SWAT further in, then the PSIA specialists in the center.

"Also, note that we will be operating on a very confined communications frequency. All of you are to switch over to the radios we are supplying. Otherwise, we will be instituting a complete communications blackout. ATC has already been informed, and as of this moment we are grounding all flights from the airport and putting all inbound flights into a holding pattern. When the operation is over, each of you will return this equipment. I shouldn't need to explain why."

They were shutting down the entire airport and handing out what was clearly some kind of secure communications gear? Sure, it was pretty standard procedure for a terrorist attack, but these two were so young, barely older than children. And yet, here they were, bringing down half the city's law enforcement down on their heads like it was the end of the world as they knew it.

What on Earth _were_ these two kids?

* * *

New Chitose Airport

Fude adjusted his shirt as he leaned over to browse through the rest of the manga stand, paying only a little attention to the twenty-something woman to his left, leafing through one of the tankoubon on sale. It was one of the larger bookstores in the airport, and with one flight after another showing unexpected delays, a goodly number of men and women had migrated from nearby gates and ticket booths to kill time reading a magazine or graphic novel.

He quickly skimmed over the selection of manga before moving onto the doujinshi section. Scratching the persistent stubble on his cheek, he crossed his arms and inclined his head, looking for a few choice artists and groups. Doujinshi had always appealed to him, even as an aspiring young artist. He had even published a few books of his own, years ago. There was just _something_ about taking established characters and surprising the readership with them; breaking the mould and branching out!

But those years were behind him, now.

Drifting back a little closer to the large manga stands, he spotted a piece that caught his eye. Reaching down to flip through a few pages, Fude noticed a younger man crouched down, staring at the paperbacks with mild confusion. He was probably just some college student and Fude went back to the doujinshi in his hands. The artist had some skill. He double checked the name on the cover.

"Huh," the young man grumbled, reaching for a book. Fude spared him a glance and saw his brows scrunch up a bit. Definitely confused.

"Something wrong?" he felt inclined to at least ask. Maybe the young man couldn't find what he was looking for?

"No. Maybe..." he stood back up, holding out a chapter of _Beruseruku_. The latest volume, actually.

Fude wasn't a huge fan of it himself, but he knew it.

"Since when did Volume 31 come out?" he asked, checking a point about half way into the book, as if to make sure it wasn't somehow mislabeled. "I've, uh... I've been following it closely, back in the States. When did all this come out?"

Fude shrugged. "Couple months ago, I think."

"This is really... really weird."

A second later, and the young man had some kind of strange cell phone in his hand. It looked large and hexagonal, sort of like a stopwatch. Gold and black trim clearly indicated a more modern design ascetic, however. Fude quirked an eyebrow at the strange sight.

Then... he realized something.

"Do I know you?" he asked, leaning forward a bit and narrowing his eyes a fraction. He couldn't see the young man's face clearly, what with the down turned baseball cap and sunglasses, but… "I'm certain I know your voice from somewhere."

"Who, me?" the young man closed the manga volume and gave Fude a long look. "I don't think so? But, I guess I have run into a lot of people..."

The older man took a guess, and ran with it. "You wouldn't be... Hibiki-san, would you?"

"Um..." The young man rubbed the back of his head nervously at the formal address. "Yeah. Hibiki Ryouga, sir. I'm sorry, but I don't remember..."

"Fude. Goto Fude." The older man bowed, and Ryouga followed a second later. "We talked on the phone a few times. You don't remember?"

Ryouga shook his head.

"I sent you that scroll on behalf of the martial arts calligraphy school?" he tried again, this time by being more precise. "The one on ink manipulation and animation?"

"Ink manipulation?" the young man still seemed confused. "Why would...?"

"You are the same Hibiki-san who saw the mark of the gods performed, yes?"

"Yes... that was me... unfortunately."

"You placed inquires with the main branch calligraphy school a few months ago. I'm an affiliate of theirs," Fude explained, and still saw only growing perplexity in the younger man's face. "You called about one of the cursed painting styles. Something about an animated panda drawing a friend of yours encountered? You said you needed to know how to bind and animate ink. I'm an authority on the Sakai Style, among others. You _really_ don't remember?"

Ryouga stood there for a few seconds, shocked silent.

"Why would I...?" he paused clearly searching his memory. "That doesn't make any sense. Where... do you know where those scrolls were sent?"

"Not exactly," Fude admitted. "I received special government postage and send them that way. I'm certain it was you, though. I don't understand."

Ryouga shook his head. "Look, I'm afraid this is some kind of crazy coincidence. I can guarantee you that I wouldn't sink down to _intentionally_ using Martial Arts Calligraphy for any reason. I already know the drawbacks of that style a little _too_ well."

Fude muttered an apology, a bit confused himself. This had to be the same man. He'd even admitted knowing about the Mark of the Gods, something less than a handful of persons on Earth had knowledge of. It just _had_ to be him. Now, Fude was a little worried - those scrolls he'd sent off were extremely valuable. He could scribe new ones himself, of course, but it wouldn't do for loose information of that sort to circulate randomly. The art of ink manipulation and animation was potentially dangerous, both to the practitioner and the bystander. It was an ancient art meant to entertain, but it could do great harm as well.

He knew that all too well.

For years, he had obsessed with bringing his one perfect piece of art to life. He'd dedicated years of occult study into obscure arts in the pursuit of that dream. Finally, after spending five years learning traditional martial arts calligraphy, he had been referred to Sakai-sensei to apprentice in cursed artistry. It was a secret passed down the line of that family for generations, and while Sakai-sensei's actual artistic skills were questionable (that hideous panda being one of the worst examples), he had been able to pass on the knowledge to his student, having no children of his own.

It was a dangerous art, and Fude had been reluctant to share too many of the secrets he had learned, even to another student of martial arts calligraphy. The promise of a government sponsored grant, and a request from the Office of the Prime Minister had helped to change his mind. That had been months ago. If this was the same Ryouga Hibiki-san, then where were his scrolls?

Or... was this just too public a place to discuss them?

That had to be it.

"I see..." he finally replied, and bowed in a quick apology. Walking away, he noticed a young woman leaving the English-language section of the book store to approach the young man he had just been talking to. An American companion? Hibiki-san had mentioned spending time in the States. Which... also didn't make sense. It had to be a cover story of some sort.

Either way, he would have to place an inquiry to be sure.

* * *

Ryouga watched the strange man go, then shrugged. Raven was already coming back from the washroom, so they could go and see about those tickets now.

"Heh, you just missed the weirdest thing, Raven."

The violet haired girl wore a puzzled expression to go with her floppy hat and sundress. "I don't think that I did ... I was just browsing a few magazine covers on my way back. Tell me, do you know if the Japanese use a different calendar then they do in America?"

Well, that was a very odd question. Ryouga frowned, scratching the back of his head - incidentally missing the comforting feeling of his bandanna, which Raven had yet to give back.

"You mean like how we used to be in the Showa Era and now we're in Heisei? Why do you ask?"

She mulled over his response for a moment, before shaking her head. "It's ... probably nothing. Nothing we need to worry about at this point, anyway, not until we get home to everyone else." Raven paused for a second. "So, what was your weird occurrence, then?"

"Hard to say," Ryouga admitted, "It was like a case of _deja vu_, or mistaken identity, or something. Some total stranger mentioned something about a chapter in my life I'd rather not remember."

"Oh, which one was that? Getting cursed to turn into P-Chan?"

"No, not that one," Ryouga fumed.

"How about the bread feud?"

"No, not that either."

"The curse-proof soap debacle?"

"No."

"The Cave of Lost Love?"

"_No!_"

"The Koi Rod incident?"

"**NO!** Wait, how did you even hear about that!"

"Oh, how about-"

"No!" Ryouga barked, infuriated at the smirk on the girl's face. "I'm talking about the Mark of the Gods tattoo."

"You have a tattoo?" Raven asked, surprised.

With a sigh, Ryouga shook his head. "Not anymore. Still, that's not important. Look can we stop reminiscing about 'the good old days' and just get out of here? I forgot how many bad memories I have in this country."

The girl at least had the decency to hide her smirk behind her hand before patting him on the shoulder. "Alright, alright. Let's go see how we actually go about buying an airline ticket. It really is a shame that neither of us have ever done this before ..."

* * *

"Duhdun duhdun duhdun duhdun duhdah!"

Cyborg slipped up onto the roof as silently as he could, before immediately crouching down as low as possible. He was decked out all in black now, even having gone so far as getting himself a classic burglar's mask! He hadn't even thought those things were real, he figured it was just some kind of cartoon gag or something. Moving carefully, he crept up to the staircase bunker, quickly darting over to it and hiding in its shadow.

"Duhdun duhdun duhdun duhdun duhdah!"

He was trying his best to _be Robin_, to get in the munchkin's head. Using an air conditioning unit for cover, he rolled from the spot to a stand of large pipes whose function he wasn't exactly sure of. Slowly, but surely, he made his way across the rooftop. Now that he had the cover of night on his side, he was so totally ninja-ing it up. Beast Boy would die of envy if he knew he was missing out on this ultimate stealth mission!

"Doodeloo doodeloo 'duhdun'!"

He _knew_ that Robin totally hammed it up like this, too, when the rest of them weren't around. Not a doubt in his mind. He could see why the little guy enjoyed it so much, going all covert agent _was _pretty awesome. It was too bad that he was a superhero, or else he could be a pretty badass spy. He was like Bond and Inspector Gadget in one bombastic package!

Finally, he reached his destination, perched on the ledge of the roof. Well, almost his destination. His _next_ destination, the majestic Citicorp building was actually right across the street from him. It was still about a thirty-something story height to the top of the tower, so really, the hard part lay ahead. The roof jumping and the like had masked his approach to the building, though, and helped him get close to attempt a climb without being spotted by people on the ground. Plus, Ryouga was right; it _was_ a lot more fun than people thought.

Hopefully, it was the perfect insertion point for a little 'after hours' visitation.

Speaking of which, he switched over to infrared. He could only search part of the side of the building, but there were still plenty of artifacts moving around inside. It was long after business hours, so the population inside had been cut drastically. Most of those left inside would be guards and cleaning crews… probably. And some night owls, he supposed. There was still that pesky helicopter floating around, probably checking out the traffic or something, but he simply waited for it to circle around again before lifting his arm up once more.

Finishing his scan, he found a corner of the building and took careful aim. This was where things got tough. He had more than a hundred meters to cover, all in one go. Regardless, a second later, his internal HUD blinked as he achieved target lock. He then turned and grabbed onto the ledge below him, wrapping his fingers around the concrete protrusion firmly. Then, turning his attention back to the task at hand ... he fired.

With a loud 'Pfft!', his right hand fired through the air at tremendous speed, dragging a high tensile cable behind it. It arched through the air slowly, making a good impression of a grappling hook, flying across the distance between his current building and One Court Square. A moment before impacting the side of the building, the disembodied hand splayed open and crashed into the glass siding. Actually getting a grip was harder still, and the fingers slid down the sheer surface before finding slight purchase on a metal beam and scaffolding that had been used earlier to support window cleaning.

Testing the strength of the beam and finding it within tolerances, Cyborg braced himself, took a deep breath, and jumped. With a quiet whine, the motors in his arms whirred to life. As his right arm drew the line in, his left arm let line out, giving him an inverse zip line ride up to the roof of the building without all the nasty noisiness of swinging wildly in and smashing through the building's windows. It was slow going, and he couldn't help but wonder if – in looking up – some lucky idiot on the ground below might ruin the entire endeavor.

A handful of tense minutes later and Cyborg found himself hanging from the scaffolding, a little more than half way up to his destination. Just hanging there for a minute or two, he composed himself, and took aim again. There were five steps or tiers before the top of the tower, and his hand arched just over the side of the first one. It managed to grab hold of some safety railing. Again, testing it, he found it safe enough and began to climb, using the motors in his arms to slowly scale the sheer side of the fifty story tower.

Finally reaching the first tier, he paused to look back at the view he now had, looking out over the city. This was the only really tall building outside the city's islands – Manhattan it was called – and he could literally see for miles in every direction. A brief glance down brought a smile to his face.

Damn, but he was good!

The next couple tiers were all only a few stories high, but he had to ascend each one individually. Having railing on every roof was a real boon, though, and by the time he got to the top, he'd managed to make a quick turnaround of every attempt. Clambering over the last set of railing onto the roof proper, he performed a quick scan. There were cameras present, as he expected ... though a few more than he had been expecting. This world sure was paranoid, he had to say. Heavy security, random police stake outs, bathroom stalls that required a quarter to use ... It was madness!

Still, like most of the tech he'd seen so far, it was pretty outdated. Heck, it was still using actual wire hook ups, as opposed to wireless relays. It didn't take him long to follow the wires back to where they traveled down into the building. A quick extrapolation with his internal computer gave him a decent idea of the vision angles of the cameras.

Scurrying around the ledge, he made his way to the nearest cluster of wires, making sure to duck under a camera here and there along the way. Then, with a quick application of his cutting torch, he cut through the roof to expose the wire housing and then carefully pulled that open. It didn't take him too long to tap into the feed. Soon, everything that the cameras saw was routed directly to his brain. It was a good thing he was half mechanical, or a half a dozen points of view would have been pretty disorienting. Opening his skull, he pulled out another transmitter, like the one he'd used on the phone awhile back.

Hooking this one into the video feeds, he quickly did a quick reroute, so that instead of just viewing the video feed while it transmitted to the security office, the information was actually fed 'through' his brain before going down. All he had to do after that, was record a few minutes of data, keep the time code a rolling along with a little movie magic and ... 'bam'! Instant Hudson Hawk action!

Smirking triumphantly to himself, he quietly slipped over the ledge of the roof and made his way to the massive Satellite/Transmission station that sat, tauntingly, at the center of the roof. Wringing his hands together a bit worryingly, he could barely contain his excitement.

"Ohhh yeah, baby, you know I _like_ em big."

* * *

Their mystery man was many things, but a career criminal he was not.

The man acted more like James Bond or one of the Ocean's Eleven (or was that Twelve or Thirteen by this point?). Scaling the side of the building like that was crazy, and pretty clever, but it wasn't as if they weren't watching the buildings and exterior of One Court Square. Fooling cameras was one thing, but the Mark One Eyeball was altogether a different story. Not when people were actively on stakeout.

They'd then tracked him from a distance using ground spotters until he cleared the first tier of the tower. As expected, he'd then proceeded to the top where he started fiddling with the security cameras, savvy enough not to set off the silent anti-tampering alarms from jacking and exposing wiring. It was just more evidence for them to use in the arrest. The DA would have a field day with this guy by the time they were done letting him incriminate himself.

It was just as expected, given this perp's operational style before.

More worrying was that this guy had made the climb in the first place, supposedly using some sort of grappling device. Their actual Intel on him was pretty poor. Officer Christianson double-checked her nine millimeter and tried to take some solace in the Kevlar vest she'd thrown on. SWAT technical had already cut the feeds they'd be using to get up to the roof, and any minute now, they could cut power to everything up top except the emergency lighting. God knows it wouldn't help to have a plane crash there to round out the night's activities, all due to a lack of lighting.

The SWAT sergeant leading the tactical takedown of the operation gave a signal to the men behind him. **It was go time!** The lights dimmed, except for the helmet flashlights, and Christianson felt her heart beat hard with a rush of adrenalin. The group rushed up the stairs, kicked down the roof door, and met the light of the police helicopter as it came in, spotlight on full.

"Freeze! NYPD! Hands in the air! Knees on the ground!" one of the SWAT yelled as they quickly fanned out around the perp. His Banelli 'super 90' trained on the linebacker sized man trapped on the roof.

"Get down!" she added her voice to the chorus. NYC cops had a reputation, and she hoped it would help convince the perp in this case not to make a fight of it. "Down on the ground **NOW**!"

* * *

Cyborg cursed loudly as the uniformed officers came pouring out onto the roof and surrounded him. He'd barely even had a chance to crack the case on the transmitter, let alone get any actual work done. There was no way that he was gonna get a message off at this point.

Sighing to himself, he turned around to regard the police behind him. They certainly did seem to have a lot of guns aimed at him, and looked to be pretty perturbed by the situation. What: did they not deal with people trying to hijack satellite networks that often or something?

"I - uh ... don't suppose that you'll believe me when I say 'This isn't what it looks like'?"

"Down on the floor!" one of them tried to push him down, but of course with his knees locked in the upright posture, the fellow may as well have been trying to tip a car over.

Not exactly in the mood to spend the night in prison - not to mention the rest of his life for that matter, he turned to regard the officer to his side and smirked.

"If you insist." And then he dropped to his knees - _hard_. Instantly, the concrete beneath his knees cracked and buckled loudly, and a single, rapid jab finished the job, shattering the ground under him and dropping him down to the next floor. His next landing was even harder, and he barely even needed the extra help to smash through that floor as well.

After he'd dropped down to the next floor, he picked himself up out of the shallow crater, smiled madly to himself and tore off to the nearest staircase. Even as he booted the door down and began his rapid descent, he could already hear people coming down the stairs, still a story or two above him. Taking another page from Robin's books, he simply leapt over the railing and dropped down the stairwell - after leaving his hand latched to the guard rail and a tether trailing wildly behind him. Ten stories in as many seconds and the line pulled taught, and he was launched to the side, smashing through another door and coming popping out into an office on floor 30-something or other.

He'd made good time, but he needed to do better. Instead of heading back into the stairwell, he charged over to the elevator bank. Of course, it wasn't working, but he pulled the door open easily and simply grabbed onto the cables at the center of the shaft. Sparks flew everywhere as he slid downwards at breakneck speed and he dropped down another twenty stories before he stopped and burst back out of the elevator shaft.

He didn't want to go to the ground floor, if there were cops up here, there would obviously be more downstairs and outside the building. Taking a moment to analyze his situation ... he looked out the large back of windows. Slowly, a wide grin began to grow on his face. The very same building he had used as an insertion point to get to this building was standing proudly though the large bay of windows before him.

* * *

"...I mean we lost him! Went right through the ground!" Fielding was already yelling into the radio strapped to his tactical vest. "The bastard's tearing through the building as we speak!"

"If he gets out…" his partner warned, stepping over to the edge of the roof. Only for her eyes to widen in shock as an explosion of glass some thirty stories down heralded a black comet soaring from the building trailing a lengthy tail of shattered debris and white smoke!

She could only stare in wide eyed wonder as the criminal seemed to float through the air, arms flailing for balance. It was almost surreal, the world slowing down around her as her brain tried to process the impossible feat of someone 'leaping' from one sky scraper to another...

And - and what were those flashes of blue light coming from the perp's feet?

Still, regardless of the utter disdain for gravity that the escapee was showing, he eventually began to fall victim to its clutches once more. It looked like he was going to fall short by at least twenty meters, and it was a looooong way down, when suddenly he was swinging forward again, following a sharp arc. Clearly, he must have used his odd grappling device again! They'd been up close with him just seconds before, and she'd gotten a fairly good look at him as they started to pat him down.

There was no way he had some kind of hidden grappling hook. It had to be…!

The perp's arc carried him right into the face of the adjacent building. He might as well have been a human wrecking ball for the amount of damage he did to the building face as he smashed through the wall of glass and steel and disappeared into the depths of the office building.

"We'll need a full APB," Fielding growled, having also witnessed the spectacle. "Every available unit. He's on foot, but…"

"He's an almost full-body reconstruct. No human could do that."

"You sure?"

"You saw the size of him! He punched through the floor! Look at that!" She gestured down to the buildings below. "You tell me if you've ever seen something like that?"

Fielding's frown deepened, and he turned around to head back down.

"Come on," he said, and the two headed back inside.

* * *

Mousse adjusted his dark glasses with the tip of his middle finger.

The two targets were approaching one of the automated teller machines for All Nippon Airways. He could hear their back and forth banter, even from the other side of the terminal, thanks to strategically positioned laser microphones. They appeared to have no idea anyone was after them. Stranger still - much stranger - was how casual the two were. They were acting... like people.

Was the girl a dupe?

The Ryouga clone was obviously another damned alien Doppleganger. Fortunately, this one wasn't spewing malevolent _ki_ all over the airport, at least at the moment, but it was clearly another vile copy. The explosion yesterday may have been a trial run, or maybe a result of a technique going off wrong, or activating prematurely. Maybe he and this girl were supposed to combine techniques somehow... like a psionic boost to a breaking point? And the result was unstable? It would be nice to give the girl at least the benefit of the doubt, but it was just too risky. Her sudden appearance, lack of any ID in any country, and unusual appearance... it was too much.

They'd have to take her down quickly, but hopefully gently, just in case.

_'Damn! If only we'd been able to stake them out for a while... as it is, we can't even risk using a mind probe without tipping them off.'_

They'd have to distract it and hit hard to make sure none of the civvies got involved. It wasn't ideal to begin with. They'd been too slow on the intercept, and the two had spent all morning hanging around populated areas. Any attempt to draw them off into a better, more isolated ambush site was also likely to set off the Doppleganger's sakkijutsu, and send it on a rampage. To say nothing of how dubious it was to trick a psychic. APS believed they could evac the terminal in twenty four seconds. Mousse hoped they could do better, since by the look of things, business was about to pick up.

Mousse leaned casually against a pillar, watching, listening.

"So we'll need a connection flight? Are you sure?"

"That's what it looks like. There don't seem to be any flights to Jump City, though."

"Let me see..."

"Go ahead. Nothing. They even have flights to Seattle and Oakland, but not Jump."

"What about LA? We could take a train from there?"

Mousse crept a little closer, well aware of the distance between himself and the pair. Ryouga's _sakkijutsu_ was most sensitive within a radius of twenty four meters. Outside that, Mousse was confident he could stay in sight but undetected by the martial artist's sixth sense. It helped that he was reining in his aura and fighting intent. It was exactly why he was here. Ryu had poor control over his murderous fighting intent, and Kuno was simply too impetuous.

Still: there was something odd about the two of them.

Why would they be trying to leave the country? Surely, this Ryouga was a terror agent of some sort, considering his explosive demonstration earlier. But its actions after the incident didn't make any sense at all. After the initial attack, it had immediately gone to ground, trying its best to blend in and hide from view, as opposed to say, going on a murderous rampage across the city. Hell, it had only be a string of lucky breaks with a few random security cameras across the city that had let them find the duo again after they had changed outfits.

Which only confused him more. After going to all of the trouble to stay out of view, why had they come straight here? The aliens knew that UNETCO and Echelon monitored public places like this. Was it planning to set up an in-flight attack? Maybe blow up an entire 747 right over the city, or something extreme like that. This double obviously had the fire power to do so, easily, judging from the earlier destruction.

"Snipers in position, sir," a voice spoke into Mousse's ear.

"I'm sending in Blue," this speaker was Nabiki. Mousse tensed. "Lockdown in 30 seconds. Hold positions, Red. Remember. Alive and unharmed, if possible."

It was starting.

Mousse smirked, slowly stepping out of hiding. He was the vanguard, and that meant he had first strike. Discretely, he clicked the base of one of his suit's cufflinks with his middle finger. A hidden mechanism activated with a soft click. Along a balcony overlooking the terminal, pairs of officers took up positions. The crowd continued to mill about. Only a few noted the increased police presence, muttering and pointing.

"Suppression device... active..." Nabiki paused a second. "Now. Go."

With an audible whine, the lights dimmed.

Across the crowd, cell phones abruptly shut down. Digital cameras lost power. Sensitive electronics across the spectrum were jammed. It was alien derived technology at its finest, just skirting the Section Seven restriction. A red light flashed, and a hushed panicked silence engulfed the terminal for all of a second.

"This is an emergency evacuation notice!" an announcement shattered the tension before it could erupt into screams and chaos. "Please follow security personnel and uniformed officers to designated safe areas."

"Nobody panic!" "This way!" "Move it!"

The officers and airport security were already in the crowd - many plainclothes officers just now donning security hats and holding badges up in the air. Mouse ignored them. Green and the others would handle the civvies. This was no worse than the trouble they'd raised back when India had retrieved Kodachi. In fact, as he stalked closer, he was getting the same vibe now as then.

The two targets seemed agitated, but not afraid. They were looking around, probably for... what? They had to know they'd been caught. Either way, it was too late. There was nowhere to run; nowhere to hide. They wouldn't have time to hit the civvies. Mousse smirked.

And held out his hands.

* * *

Raven turned to Ryouga. "An emergency evacuation?"

Ryouga shrugged. "Who knows? Still, we should do what they said. We don't want to get in the way of whatever is going on."

The dark Titan nodded quickly. "You're right. We can't afford to draw attention to ourselves by helping out. Let's just move with the crowd."

That in mind, Ryouga gently dropped a hand on her shoulder, making sure that he wouldn't get separated as they moved to the crowd of people. There were only a few others around, and most of those people were already hustling towards one of the officers. Forgetting the machine for now, they turned to follow...

It was a split second later, the moment after they turned their backs, that the lost boy felt a spike of killing intent. No: not quite killing, but definitely provocative. It was from the very outermost edge of what he knew his sixth sense to operate at. Engrained instinct kicked in, and he grabbed Raven around the waist and jumped. Simply jumped.

Below, something almost invisible jammed into the ground.

The intent shifted, and still holding the stunned but unresisting Raven in his arms, he twisted to shield her from the brunt of whatever was bearing down on them. The initial attack had been a ruse. He realized it the moment he acted. They should have gone into the crowd, not over it, where he'd just made them a sitting - flying - duck. Then again, using the crowd as cover wasn't exactly something either of them would have done, anyway.

Suddenly, a spray of tiny objects descended on them, trailing barely visible wires. In a heartbeat, Ryouga counted at least sixty, homing in on them from a half sphere. In that same split second, as the world slowed, he saw the source of the attack: a man in a black suit, his arms up and pointing in their direction. The sleeves of his suit jacket were clearly shredded.

Ryouga frantically tried to come up with an escape from the all encompassing attack-

When, without warning, a translucent black sphere sprang up around them. The numerous little tazer needles bounced off of the impenetrable barrier with sharp 'tings' before dropping harmlessly to the ground. Ryouga looked to the girl that was now standing beside him, feet planted firmly on the bottom of the bubble. Rather than stare back at him, her vision was firmly set elsewhere.

Even as they floated in the air, Raven glared darkly at the man who had just attacked them.

"It's ... Mousse," she growled in a low voice.

Ryouga's eyes widened. She - she was right! He was surprised she'd recognized him first. "Mousse? What the hell is he doing attacking us? Shouldn't duck boy be on the Justice League Watchtower?"

* * *

Down on the ground, Mousse stared gob smacked at the black sphere that enveloped the two targets. His mind raced. The others monitoring the fight would see it, too, but he was the closest on hand. They were relying on him, not only to flush the targets out, but to test for any strange new abilities. India Squad would not get caught in another 'Indiscriminate Blindness' attack like before.

His arms lowered to his sides.

"Telekinetic barrier," he said, speaking to the rest of the 'special operations' squad. "The girl. Her hands are glowing."

"Upgrading her to alpha level threat," Nabiki quickly replied. "Engage as appropriate, Mousse."

A grin grew on his face, revealing perfect white teeth.

"Good. Just the way I like it! Don't worry, I'll be gentle." Splaying his fingers wide, Mousse's suit's sleeves continued to tear, this time as chains ripped free of the material. He started to run, passing by the once dense crowd as it fled in the opposite direction. Flinging his right hand forward, the chains leapt like segmented snakes towards the black bubble in the air.

It took only a second for the first to hit.

...

Instead of bouncing cleanly off, the end of the chains snapped, and something round and disk-like adhered to the shield. From within, it looked less than encouraging. They looked like small, pancake shaped bombs. Four more chains swing in to tag the black barrier.

"Raven, be careful!" Ryouga barked.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt him ... too much," Raven replied with a dark smirk. Ryouga could guess just from her tone of voice that she had been waiting a long time for a proper rematch with the half blind martial artist. After all, she had been denied before, what with duck-boy's abrupt about-face after he broke free from the Headmaster's control.

As soon as the chains began to slacken, but before the explosives had a chance to detonate, Raven quickly drew her shield into a small orb before her, sucking all the bombs into it, and fired it straight back at the sleeveless martial artist at surprising speed. A moment later, Ryouga caught her as they landed on the ground, and the pair of them dropped into fighting stances, preparing for whatever else might happen.

But to their mutual surprise, the ball o' bombs stopped at Mousse's feet, completely inert.

"That shield thing. It's a nice trick," Mousse admitted, taking the time to adjust his glasses.

"Mousse!" Ryouga yelled. "What the hell are you...?"

"FREEZE!"

The loud cry did just that: even Ryouga froze at the sound, as it momentarily induced an instant paralysis. A moment later, and something slammed into his back, sending him crashing into a teller machine and then back, even further, into a wall. From the force alone he could tell it hadn't been the blind male Amazon. Mousse just didn't pack quite that much power.

Rolling onto his feet and backhanding a slab of concrete, he saw another man, this one in white and gray combat fatigues, stepping through the hole he'd just made in the wall with Ryouga's body. He looked to be about the lost boy's age and build, but slightly glossier hair and a long white bandanna.

"Don't worry, Lieutenant," he said, clearly talking into some sort of concealed radio. "I'll take care of this."

Dusting off his shirt, Ryouga frowned at the new comer. He didn't recognize him, but he was obviously a martial artist of some sort or another.

"You'll take care of what?" He then called over the man's shoulder. "Raven, are you alright? These two aren't playing around!"

He could see her through the hole, but she met his concerned look with a confident glance. "Don't worry, I have Mousse under control. You just deal with Ryu. Try not to hurt him too much, though, Ranma will likely be furious if you maim his subordinate."

Ryouga started at that. Ah, that explained it all! Ranma was a cop, and apparently one of the wandering martial artists that had tried to kill him before had joined him. Now it made perfect sense! The evacuation had been because of them. These guys thought they were terrorists, and were here to stop them from escaping the country.

Ryouga nearly slapped himself upside the head.

'_Crap, we didn__'__t do nearly as good a job of laying low as I__'__d hoped. There__'__s no way this is going to end well.__'_

A moment later, he fired an apologetic grimace at Ryu. "I'm sorry about all of this. Unfortunately, there's no way that you'll believe me when I tell you that this isn't what it looks like, but I can't let you stop us now." He couldn't help himself, though, as he felt a vindictive grin slide on to his lips. "Considering that hit of yours felt like getting kicked by a baby, at least this will be over quick."

Ryu cracked his knuckles. "You're still using that old line?"

* * *

While the two bruisers went at it, Mousse watched his opponent: cute girl that she was.

Not as cute as Shampoo, of course, _not nearly_, but still.

"Raven," he said, slowly, having heard her name used even before the fight. Strange name, even for an American. The girl must've had peculiar parents. Hippies. "I have authorization to use deadly force against you," he continued. "I don't know what that thing back there has on you, but it isn't too late to give up and turn yourself in. I will only ask once."

Raven's eyes narrowed at the man's words. "Deadly force? What is this about, Mousse? You're being ridiculous. We're not terrorists, we're your friends." Not lowering her guard for a second, she dropped a fist onto her hip. "Look, just call Ranma. Unlike you, he's not a psychopath most of the time, and we'll be able to sort this out."

Rather than reply, the Chinese weapons master held out his arms.

With one great tearing sound, like heaving a rug ripped in half, his black suit very nearly exploded outward. Scraps of cloth fell to the floor around his feet. In place of the black suit was a white robe, incomprehensibly concealed beneath the jacket. Of course, he would dress in layers.

Tucking his hands into the sleeves of his robes, when they parted, his right hand slowly withdrew what looked to be a wooden staff. Impossibly to a more mundane observer, the weapon just kept going on and on as he pulled it out of the dark sleeve. By the time the pointed spear tip appeared, the blind martial artist had somehow withdrawn at least five feet of wood and steel from a foot and a half of fabric.

"I have really have the patience for pre-fight banter." He leveled the spear at her. "I have my orders, and I will carry them out to the letter. If you think you know me, then you are obviously in league with the enemy: another brainwashed pawn. In which case...!"

He rushed at her.

...

A black shield sprang up between them. Raven had done this dance before. Mousse wouldn't be able to punch through her barriers, so he'd try and distract or misdirect her, or use the terrain to his advantage. Whatever he was talking about - it made no sense - they'd have to sort it out later. The tip of his spear crashed into the black barrier, head on.

Only to wrench away at the last instant as the staff broke apart.

Raven gritted her teeth, bending the barrier around to chase the weapon's new heading. The black oval warped and stretched, racing the metal point nearly faster than the eye could follow. Raven almost, almost, let it distract her. Jumping to the side, she barely avoided a weighted chain that flew in from a blind spot behind and overhead. Violet eyes shot back and forth, catching a flash of white.

Uprooting a section of tiled floor, she prepared to throw it...

Too late. He was inside and nearly at melee range already. Another black shield sprang up, just in time to intercept the three claws of some kind of bladed glove. The tips came to an abrupt halt just inches from her nose, scratching across the surface of the black barrier. On the other side, Mousse regarded her with a neutral expression.

Raven met his neutral expression with a bland expression of her own.

"Bored now."

He realized his mistake too late. Instantly, black energy ran down the claws seeking to ensnare his hand. A hidden latch ejected the weapon from the glove, and the martial artist skipped back a step, only to freeze. Masked among the black and white tiles that made up the floor, Raven's black energy quickly ran up his leg and across his body, cocooning him in less than a second. Snapping his arms and legs tightly to his side, and eliciting a pained grunt as she added pressure beyond what was strictly necessary, she then pushed him back several yards to hang in the air.

"Listen, Mousse. The only one with a penchant for being a mind controlled minion here is you. As you can see, I could easily destroy you if I wanted, but I choose not to. Tell me, which one of us comes across as the evil one when you're the one willing to kill and I am not?"

Still, she did not lower her guard, making sure to scan her surroundings out of the corner of her eyes in case he had any more companions. Maybe Ranma was already here? If he was, though, was that a good thing? Mousse was acting insane ... maybe something sinister had happened to Ranma and all of his friends since last she spoke to him?

The sound of an explosion, from above, drew her eyes up.

Of course. His chains...! He hadn't just hit her shield with them. He'd hit the floor, the ceiling, the walls... and if they didn't explode when she tossed them back at him, then he could probably control whether they went off or not. As sections of ceiling crashed down, she quickly generated more black energy to protect herself, but it did cause her concentration to slip and she felt him slip out of her black cocoon.

"Those are some interesting abilities," she heard him comment, from somewhere among the rubble and dust falling all around them. "But it doesn't pay to count me out."

She spun towards the sound of the voice, erecting a shield.

Only to realize her mistake, and switch her defense back in the opposite direction. This opponent would never attack from an obvious angle, not when he knew she could block what he hit her with. A flurry of bladed knives rammed into the black shield. Stepping back, she narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Was that it?

It was then that her eyes began to burn.

_'Tear gas!'_ she realized, pulling together another spherical bubble.

It was too late. The stuff was already inside. Though the black tinted barrier she could just see a shadow emerging from the smoke. It burned, but rather than fight to keep her eyes open, she closed them straight away, trying to force tears to clear out the stinging gas.

"That shield of yours is annoying," Mousse's voice was slightly muffled, likely wearing a mask of some sort. "Don't worry, it's just tear gas. I wouldn't use anything really dangerous in a public place like this."

Through the stinging pain, Raven smirked. He thought he had incapacitated her; that she was blind and helpless. She would think that he, of all people, would realize the folly in assuming his opponent would rely solely on their eyes. She made no move to dissuade him of his confidence, though, continuing to rub her swollen eyes and spin around uncertainly. Her nose and mouth burned, too, but she pushed past the pain and irritation.

With her eyes closed, and absolute darkness surrounding her ... Raven's vision began to fill with color. With practiced ease, the chi inherent in all things began to glow all around her, painting a vivid, if somewhat abstract painting of the world. Swirling currents and eddies of energy, flowing to and fro combined together to form the familiar figure of Mousse behind her. She could sense his confidence, and the ease with which he moved. She didn't even turn to face him as he extended an arm, and gradually, a long baton the length of her leg extended from the sleeve while the other produced a flanged mace the size of her body.

Mousse handled the weapons with ease and raced towards her. His intent and energy came together, informing her exactly what his move would be ... though, in this case it was hardly necessary.

Hiding her pained grin, she braced for the impact, and when it came, she let the integrity of the bubble waver to feed his confidence. After one more titanic pounding, she jumped forward, ripping up sections of floor to hurl at her assailant to gain some space. Even without her sight, she 'saw' Mousse leap high into the air above her, arms held up high. He then swung his arms forward savagely.

A flurry of knives fell, this time all around her, rather than at her.

"White Feather Trap!" Mousse yelled, pulling back one hand as he landed nearby. "Got you!"

Instantly, the fine wires began to snap in around her. Even with the forewarning, it was too fast for her to avoid; she was only able to form a shield to protect herself, though this one she discretely formed as a nearly skin tight layer beneath the sundress she wore, from the high collar down to the hem of the dress. It was a true testament to how far she had come with her powers; she hardly ever even needed to utter her keywords anymore. A half second later, the wires pulled taught around her, catching her arms and binding them to her chest, a loop even wrapped around her throat, thankfully coming to rest over her protective barrier.

"This is actually memory metal razor wire," Mousse explained, still holding one hand clenched into a fist. "I can make it sharp or keep it dull, and if I flex it just so, you can probably guess what this technique does to a human body..."

"Ugh!" Raven gritted her teeth. "You - you wouldn't do something so dastardly to a helpless girl, would you?"

She couldn't quite get a mental grip on him, himself, but the inanimate wire was fair game. With the strands already glowing faintly to her mind's eye, and with her excruciating practice working with Terra - these wires might as well have been bridges compared to the mono filament probes which had assimilated into the unfortunate girl's skin - she traced her power back along the wires.

"Helpless girl, yeah, right. Now, surrender yourself or I'll... what the...?" Mousse's hand twitched, and a faint black outline started to color the nearly invisible strands of wire. "Oh? I see."

Finally, his battle aura flared up: a pale, pale blue.

Raven could feel it, amazingly fighting against her hold on the wire. She hadn't expected that, and, frankly, wasn't interested in testing the limits of this unusual new power he was displaying. His power was only extending a few inches from his hands, after all, while her power encompassed several yards of the wire. So, rather than struggle to control those last several inches, she simply pulled back with unearthly force.

...

Loud 'twangs' like the snapping of piano wire filled the air as the numerous wires were severed by her power. An instant later, the wires rose up at her bidding, like an entire nest of hissing serpents. A second later, those razor sharp serpents surged forward, intent on entrapping the very person that had been their master instants before. Mousse's right arm blurred as he struggled to catch some of the stray wires, wrapping them around his arm in his haste. The razor wire snapped taunt, but couldn't cut through the reinforced material of the hidden weapons' master's robe.

_'Ugh. Maybe I should've used the Black Feather trap instead of the White. What kind of weird power does this girl have?'_

What few realized, even in their small martial arts clique, was that he had the third strongest defense of anyone in the two squads. The lost boy's nigh-indestructible hide was hard to top, especially these days, and Ukyou's new spatula techniques were impressive, but few realized that Mousse's _Junyoken_ (Wandering/Peregrine Falcon Fist) was both a passive defense and offense. Shifting the coils of alien alloy within his robes was well within his means, allowing him to block near any attack.

_'Still, a telekinetic of this caliber..!'_ he watched the girl, cloaked in black energy, as she effortlessly began to lift him into the air with the wires. She very much resembled an Ethereal.

Suddenly, his eyes widened. _'An Ethereal. Could it be...?'_

The aliens had already used _Jyusenkyou_ to turn Sectoids into humans for infiltration. Then...!

"So that's what you are!" he snarled, bearing his teeth as he unleashed the full force of his battle aura. "DIE!"

From his other sleeve, a spray of chemicals mixed, just a foot from the fabric itself, instantly erupting into a geyser of flame. A thermobaric reaction set off an immediate blast wave, knocking away loose rubble and blasting Mousse's hair back. Rooted in place as he was, due to lowering his _jin_ to the point where it merged into the ground, he stood and focused the cone of fire, chemically hotter than the surface of the sun, towards the human-form Ethereal ahead of him; the shockwave, itself powerful enough to kill a normal man, would stun it long enough for the purging flames to finish the job.

The surging flames never even reached the girl, just impotently parting around another of the impenetrable black barriers. Even as the smoke cleared, he could see the alien creature standing behind it, a single hand raised, palm pressed up against the back of the ebon wall. A moment later, the barrier dissolved away and the girl lowered her arm to her side. She was staring at him impassively, her eyes narrowed and beginning to glow with an eerie white light, her breath coming in slow gasps.

Mousse ejected a spent pair of tubes from the end of his sleeve.

_'Damnit. I got sloppy. I should've coordinated that with a disruptive psi attack. Now she has glowing eyes. This ...probably isn't good.'_

A moment later, a black aura sprang up around the darkly dressed girl, slowly crackly away like an unholy bonfire. She then lifted her arms to her side and began to float an inch above the ground.

"Alright, Mousse. I was willing to play along for a moment there, but you've gone too far. Let's see how you like dealing with your own favorite tactic."

The ethereal in human form then thrust her hand forward. Black lances of energy launched forth from her aura, a dozen of the foot long slivers firing out from her palm in a matter of seconds. Mousse's eyes widened as the black missiles began to tear into the ground as she gauged the distance between them, sending debris flying up in a storm of shrapnel.

"Nabiki! I need those reinforcements!" Mousse wasn't too proud to call in for more firepower, not against a damned TK-centric Ethereal. Still, they hadn't been given permission to bypass the Section Seven restrictions on firearms. Luckily, they'd planned for this. Once it got rescinded...

But that was later.

_Right now_ consisted of jumping through the debris and dodging as many of the telekinetic lances as possible. He didn't dare attempt to tank any of them, even the ones which missed narrowly slashed through his fortified robes exposing the mesh of alien allow beneath; she might as well have been unleashing a rapid fire barrage of _geistlances_! Desperately, he internalized his battle aura. He knew his weaknesses better than anyone else. A telekinetic of this magnitude was not a good opponent, and India Squad had encountered its share of Class-A Ethereals. Necessity and survival meant that he had to come up with a counter, should his weapons either fail or not be available. Kuro Hakuchouranbu (Flight of the Black Swan) was too risky at the moment.

It would have to be the _Kichi Housu_ (Lucky Phoenix Nest) then.

And he would need to land it before Red Team got involved and ended up killed. Steeling himself, Mousse ducked under a displaced teller machine, spitting tickets as it spun through the air. Twirling gracefully, he took aim.

"Karasu Sansai Ha!"  
(Raven Storm Wave)

A metal storm of bladed flechettes shot out from his sleeve as he ran perpendicular to the telekinetic monster. Predictably, she managed to stop the storm of blades aimed directly at her with another black shield. That particular defense was getting ... annoying. Over a hundred other blades went wide, hitting the ceiling and walls and floor. Mousse took that moment to depress the concealed trigger for a set of planted explosives.

Blasts shook the terminal.

The girl, despite appearances, was still mostly human. She also seemed to be ready for most of his tricks. These were not demolition charges, however. They were concussive explosives, like the MK3A2. Waves of overpressure rippled through the air at mach speed, not totally hindered by what black shields the girl managed to erect. They appeared to be permeable to normal sonic vibration - like human speech - and what they did manage to muffle simply went around, transmitted via the air around them. At the same time, Mousse fully expected the sound from the explosions to rupture the demonic creature's human ear drums, Jyusenkoyu cursed human form or not. Even he felt it, despite the flesh-toned ear protection he wore.

...

Raven was rocked back and forth by the unexpected string of explosions. Only the fact that Mousse had been forced to set up the explosives in advance and had not been able to get close enough to Ryouga and herself to place them within their optimum range, saved her from being completely deafened.

The shock waves disoriented her, and she could already see the male Amazon beginning to alter his direction in her mind's eye, preparing to take advantage of the distraction he'd created. Rather than risk whatever new torment he had devised, Raven simply sunk into the floor, leaving the stunned martial artist to attack the innocent ground. A second later, white tile exploded upwards, a solid claw of living darkness tearing upwards and catching Mousse in its clutches.

She didn't like it, but she would need to do something drastic. Who knew how Ryouga was faring? They didn't have time to deal with these people. It was obvious now that something had been done to her one time friend. They needed to get on a plane, legally or not, and find their friends so they could figure this terrible situation out.

"Hidden Weapons Forbidden Skill."

The expanding cloud of smoke seemed to freeze in midair, trembling...

"_Kichi Housu_."  
(Lucky Phoenix Nest)

Before reversing and flying back, towards the center of the tumult. Debris kicked up by Raven's attack tumbled, bounced off the floor, and then shot back into the air. A shockwave formed, heading not out, but in. Caught in a black claw of telekinetic force, Mousse's form shimmered. Tears grew across the length of his robe, revealing the faint blue glow of his battle aura underneath. Finally, even the coils of ebon energy distorted, sucked up the sleeve of the robe.

The aura immediately took on a dark tint.

...

In the center of it all, as streams of dust and debris looped and spun, sucked into his Inverted Hidden Weapons technique, Mousse felt like throwing up. That black ki… it wasn't natural. He'd barely managed to contain even a fraction of it and he could already feel it affecting him. It seemed impossible. The _housu_ was designed and tested to be his ultimate counter to the _shishi hokoudan_ and _moko takabisha_, not to mention the _geistlance_ and other telekinetic attacks of the alien enemy. Inside the Inverted Field, any mentally controlled technique was rendered down and nullified by Fa Nu's artifact.

He saw his enemy appear, staring up at him in surprise.

Mousse landed on both feet, breathing heavily.

"So..." he managed to say, _housu_ still active, still sucking up everything around him. "You were the greater danger after all... should've known... the little one is always the real monster..."

...

Raven stared at the martial artist, fascinated by the odd ability he'd demonstrated. This strange absorption technique was definitely something he couldn't do before; it didn't seem like something he should be able to do at all, really. Still, it didn't seem to be going too well for him. He looked to be taking on a more pallid pallor, somewhat similar to her own skin tone, and even his hair seemed to be lightening from black to a familiar purple. Perhaps he wasn't prepared to deal with her rather ... unique pedigree?

Well, she had said _drastic_, after all.

"Alright, Mousse. You think you can handle my power?" she asked, her aura surged up around her. "You're welcome to try."

Moving quickly, she lifted her arms then, and focused her considerable spiritual power through them. A moment passed, as dark energy gathered in a sphere before her hands, only to explode out in a massive beam of crackling black power over four feet in diameter.

"And I said..." He just surged right into the attack. "It doesn't pay to count me out!"

Just like with the claw, it twisted before making contact, sucked not just into his sleeves, but into other tears in his robe. Pressing on, pushing right through the stream of energy like a bear forcing its way upstream, he winced only when acrid black smoke began to rise from tears all across his robe. As the main body of the energy beam finally receded, he pulled back one arm to - for the first time - reach directly into the hem of his robe, by the heart.

When his hand re-emerged, having had to manually retrieve something on his person, it brought with it what looked like some sort of handgun. It didn't look... normal. The design and shape were slightly off. But the fact that he had to retrieve it the way he did, implied he couldn't use both his inverted hidden weapons and regular hidden weapons at the same time. As he brought the weapon to bear, he intensified the output - or maybe it was input - of his technique, ripping the black tendrils of energy off her body as fast as she willed them up.

"About time!" he yelled, discretion and caution thrown to the wind. "Nabiki! Order them in NOW! Everyone you got!"

Raven had been content to let Mousse play his game, not wanting to hurt him, but when she heard the shout, she knew she'd wasted too much time. She couldn't afford to take any more chances. Mousse was out and out attempting to kill her, and whatever allies would come to his aid would doubtless be just as bloodthirsty. They would not just kill her, either, but would kill Ryouga as well. Possibly even track down her friends, given enough time.

This thought roused a familiar spark of rage deep in her heart. Somewhere, deep inside her, something was roused, boiled and churned as it rose to the surface. It was this technique, too. It was ripping energy out of her as fast as she was bothering to produce it. Yet, from his pained expression, her power was also clearly taking its toll on him. His artifact, whatever it was, was impressive, but, in the end it was a creation of humans.

Her power had a much greater and darker origin.

Suddenly, her aura surged, swelling unnaturally. In an instant, Mousse was blown back, his absorption technique unable to cope with the sudden influx of power at the same time he tried to take aim at her. Another set of glaring red eyes opened up on Raven's face as a destructive dome of power spread out from her in every direction, scooping up Mousse and carrying him upwards to smash into the ceiling. The wall separating her from Ryouga's fight was also smashed to pieces, and, though she hadn't intended it, a number of uniformed people that had begun to scurry out of the woodwork at Mousse's desperate call were all blasted from their feet as the wave smashed over them as well.

Except two.

A quick shape jumped forward and around, unfazed by the eruption of malevolent energy. Three quick hops and it crossed the open ruins of the terminal, jumped, and caught Mousse before he could hit the ground. Raven's eyes followed the movement, narrowing slightly at what appeared to be a sword held in this new soldier's hand. No: it was more than that. This was...?

"Shishi hokoudan."

A screaming ball of black and green ki drilled into her side, the name of the attack registering a moment before impact. Keyed as she was to the emotions of her surroundings, she felt the riptide of anger and fear enter her like a knife. Then the ball dug in, nestled within her own dark energy, and exploded.

Already filled with anger and fear, the energy echoed within her, rather than assault her psyche. If anything, it actually reinforced and amplified her own rage. The kinetic force of the blast was still enough to blast her off her feet and send her skidding several yards. Everything grew silent for a moment as the martial artists stared at the fallen form of the darkly clad girl. Most of the sundress she had been wearing had been torn away, revealing a black leotard underneath.

And then a deep, rumbling growl began to fill the air.

A malevolent weight suddenly settled over the entire terminal, setting even the nerves of the seasoned warriors on edge. In a dark surge of motion, the down girl suddenly rose up ... and up! In a matter of seconds, the creature was towering over them, twenty, then thirty feet in height and an unnatural cloak of darkest pitch concealing her from view.

Concealing all but the four, burning points of light that seethed with a hatred that no human mind could understand. An instant later, the furious growl growing in intensity by the second, chairs, teller machines, pieces of rubble and forgotten pieces of luggage were enveloped in black energy and rose into the air, whipping through the air at dangerous speeds.

* * *

Batting aside a flying metal desk, Ryouga surveyed the scene.

Mousse had called in a Class-A telekinetic. The Chinese martial artist was not known for his understatement. This pseudo-girl wasn't Class-A. This was 'The Shining' level shit hitting the fan. Even worse than the Higurashi shrine infestation. A few seconds and Kuno was back, Mousse's unconscious form slung over his shoulder. He made a quick hand motion with three fingers.

Alive. Ki reserves low.

He stared back at the towering mass of mental energy. Behind, the Red Team agents, all PSIA operatives and special forces debriefed beforehand, hesitated at the growing scene. To them, it must've seemed like something out of a horror movie. Ryouga watched it with a level expression. It was monstrous, yes, inhuman even. Cologne would have been right at home in there.

"Open Fire!" he ordered, secure now that Mousse was clear.

The staccato beat of nine millimeter SMG rounds filled the air as the stunned, but not panicked, agents moved to try and take cover while gunning down the monstrosity before them. Ryouga had little illusions as to their effectiveness against so stubborn a telekinetic barrier. Unfortunately, Section Seven was still in effect. When this probing failed, he'd order the officers to switch to laser arms.

"Kuno! Cover!"

He ripped a dozen bandannas from his forehead, and charged them as his battle aura swept out without restraint. A blanket of boiling green and black saturated the air, just barely managing to push back the tendrils of black it came in contact with. Mentally, he was already using the psi-amp strapped to his right arm to recycle his growing anger, frustration, fear and depression, into a subconscious mental spiral. As it crested the peak of his aura's projection, he could almost feel the circular circulation of ki around his navel.

Letting the bandannas fly, he imprinted more of his aura in the form of a _shishi hokoudan_ onto the hardened cloth. The blazing disks intercepted flying chunks of steel and reinforced concrete, blasting them into clouds of dust with shearing rather than cutting force. With Mousse tucked away behind the line, already being taken out of danger by one of Red team, Kuno sprung forward and into the fray, sword slashing. Multiple _kokuzan_ arcs (Sky Arc Decapitation) neatly diced obstacles between the fire team and the enemy.

Reaching down, satisfied Red Team had the cover it needed, he retrieved his laser rifle.

It was time to end this.

* * *

Raven watched all, perceived all of her enemies at the most primal level. She could feel their emotions, especially the spiraling well of hatred that shone so brightly in their midst. It was intense, and oddly familiar, but it was like a flickering candle standing in the face of her own demonic rage.

Humans did not truly understand what fury was, what it meant to truly _hate_ for hatred's sake.

Numerous other humans were scattered around her, shooting at her with pathetic weapons. Rapidly swirling swathes of black energy whipped around her faster than thought and the small bullets bounced off with no effect at all. With a thought, all of the guns in the hands of the uniformed humans suddenly shone black, before being torn from their hands. Rather than turn the weapons on their wielders, Raven simply willed them to compact into useless balls of metal which then dropped to the floor.

As she was doing this, she was also focusing on the sword wielding human, also vaguely familiar in this state. As he focused on slashing refuse from the air, tendrils of darkness slid along the ground. In a flash, the tentacles suddenly shot up, wrapping around the warrior's limbs and dragging him to the ground. The swordsman gave a panicked shout as she began to drag him, inexorably towards herself.

"Unhand me, vile creature!" The swordsman slashed at the tendril, a blazing arc managing to sever the energy construct. "None may seize the virtuous leg of Tatewaki Kuno without justly earned injury! Guard thyself!"

A second later, something went off in midair, and Raven's vision blurred.

Black energy reached out to try and intercept whatever had just attacked it. The pinpricks of tiny projectiles were gone, but... there. One of the humans still had a weapon. A moment of focus, for some reason harder than before, summoned up to try and crushed the weapon it had overlooked before. The interference from this human's aura was strong, but with no other distractions, Raven knew she could punch through.

Another pellet went off in the air, despite one of her black coils catching it and crushing it. Her vision turned rough, like looking through a stained glass window. Sense and thought became muddied. Another pellet shot through the air, and again it was intercepted. Again, it shattered, releasing both some strange gas - encased in black energy, she didn't fear that - but another wave of numbness. Even cocooned as she was, she began to lose feeling in her extremities. Black energy contorted, as if in pain, before breaking apart.

"Pour it on!" a familiar voice yelled. "Shut this bitch down!"

More of the tiny pinpricks. Bullets. Something else, too. Beams of light. Less of them, but...

Even as the numbness began to overwhelm her, it also cleared her mind. The power seemed distant, like something just out of reach, interactive only with the barest glancing touch of one's fingertips. With it, though, it took the cauldron of rage and hate and survival-fear. It was almost like being forced into a meditative state.

A deep growl reverberated in Raven's throat.

Whatever was happening, whatever strange weapons they were using, she didn't like it. They were annoying, distracting. She didn't _want_ to calm down! She didn't want to stop! She didn't want to sleep!

* * *

An instant later, the bombardment stopped. Ryouga bit off a harsh curse when, in a flash, the towering creature suddenly slid back into the ground, vanishing from sight. _That trick_. It was like Pi Lu's ability to sink into the ground. It would have to be dealt with. He tried to find her by tracking her aura ... but it was too massive, to encompassing. It was like he was standing on top of hell itself.

Uneasily, Ryouga turned in place. Unlike last time, the _girl_ didn't spring back up to attack right away. Cautious as well, Kuno also rose to his feet, readying his laser carbine as he looked around uncertainly. All around them, officers and uniformed police began to shift about nervously. They likely couldn't sense the malevolence of her aura like Ryouga and Kuno could, but the more primitive aspects of their minds were still likely picking up on it on a primal level.

This ... this thing was unlike anything they had ever faced. No Ethereal, no living Trenchard, possessed this sort of power. Saffron came immediately to mind, but his blazing aura of mountain destroying doom wasn't this ominous. It was just powerful. Was this what those other teams had faced when they brought in Subject-A? Or when the Americans cleared out Dunwich?

His train of thought was disrupted when a raspy, sinister chuckle began to emanate from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It wasn't as bad as Kodachi's, but still, the disembodied laughter sent a tingle down Ryouga's spine. Beneath him, the dark aura began to twist and churn as well, he could almost feel the alien creature's intent, could sense that something was about to happen.

A sudden shriek split the air, and Ryouga spun, just in time ...

Just in time to see a massive tentacle of midnight black, as thick as a man's chest, surge out of the ground, scattering a group of operatives like dominoes, and wrap around one of the main support pillars of the terminal. Across the room, another one did likewise grasping another of the support structures. Throughout the room, like a dark Kraken rising from the depths, vile tendrils lashed out to encircle key structural supports in the terminal. The laughter only increased as, an instant later, the entire terminal began to groan ominously as the telekinetic constructs began to pull on the supports with impossible strength.

"She's bringing down the building! Take out the tentacles!" Ryouga barked frantically. There would be no way to evacuate all of the officers in time if this mad creature actually shattered those pillars! He didn't even bother with the stun grenades, going straight to the laser rifle itself. Invisible pulses of light skittered over the various tentacles, burning into them slightly, but not doing nearly enough damage, fast enough, and there were just too many to deal with! Officers who had hesitated before reached for laser sidearms, but...

If conventional firepower was lacking, the only option was to augment it with a psionic assault. If this Ethereal thought it could strike with impunity from its demesne, it was severely underestimating them. He'd personally tear it, kicking and screaming, from its supposed sanctuary, and then give it the butt of his rifle for good measure. Tapping into the power of his psi-amp, the lieutenant launched the first few mental feelers -

"Raven, _stop_!"

A painfully familiar voice suddenly cut through the din of the creaking concrete. It was filled with desperation and fear, though, rather than hatred and spite. Ryouga spun to see ... himself, running to the center of the terminal. It looked like his doppelganger was attempting to stop its minion - or was it is master? - from destroying the airport terminal.

The question was: why?

Ryouga was fairly certain that he could survive the collapse of the building, and if he could, his alien doppelganger surely could, so why would it be so worried about it? Had it felt him preparing a counter-attack? No. That didn't seem possible.

Then, beyond all reason, the quaking actually stopped. With surprising speed, the telekinetic constructs all sank back into the ground, as if they never were. And then, defying logic even further, the alien girl reappeared from her unassailable position, resurfacing near the alien Hibiki. She appeared ... shaken, and collapsed into the alien doppelganger's arms. He appeared to be whispering something to her, but Ryouga couldn't make it out from the distance.

Just what in the world was going on?

He'd known from the beginning that this copy wasn't like the one from before. It seemed capable of functioning without destroying everything around it – for the most part, anyway, the explosion from yesterday was a grim reminder of just how dangerous this thing actually was - and from snippets of captured dialogue, he and this girl were effectively posing as normal people.

If it was a terror agent, it was certainly less than ideal one. It seemed completely random in its unleashing of mass destruction. Rather than just go on a mindless rampage, it blasted a public area, then hid away. Then it popped up right in the middle of a high traffic area like this, perfect for a terrorist attack… and it actually _stops_ the airport from being destroyed?

Or had it read his own attack, and intervened to protect the girl?

If the 'girl' was even what it appeared to be. It was... it was almost comical. Despite himself, he could almost imagine the ludicrous scenario: an Ethereal or Sectoid uses Jyusenkyou water, but ends up becoming truly human, falling for and freeing some copy of himself. They try and flee the country, not quite able to suppress their destructive natures, to live together like Romeo and fucking alien-Juliet. No. No. This girl, a double-A class threat, by the looks of it, and another him. Another DAMN him. If this pair was anything other than a mobile, two man Terror Site, he would eat his bandanna with a side of Akane's famous curry.

Still… watching them, he couldn't help but feel this was even worse. At least if this clone had been like the last abomination, then they'd be on familiar territory. Watching those two, together... like that... for a moment his heart wavered and he almost saw, in them, himself and another girl he'd once tried to protect. It was that thought that snapped him right out of it. There was no room for that sort of thought.

Duty.

He had a duty. A duty to either incapacitate or destroy the monsters that threatened mankind. There was no room in that to entertain notions of sympathy. Not with these things. Focusing on the girl, he tried to fathom just how she had transformed into that demonic form from before. No matter what, she couldn't be allowed to do so again. Given what he's sensed in her ki, however, entering her mind would not be the most savory of tasks. Luckily, stunned and weakened as she was, he wouldn't have to do much more than skirt the edges of her ego.

Focusing his aura into his psi-amp, he attacked.

* * *

In her Ryouga's arms, Raven jerked, as if struck.

At the same time, and without warning, another strange pellet-like grenade went off. The numbness returned to her, strong enough to muffle even the words of her companion just inches away, along with a sharper pain that made it difficult to bring her power to bear. Transforming like she had, and now reverting, didn't normally leave her this mentally fatigued. She heard a distance voice and felt herself move through the air.

* * *

Kuno and Ryouga advanced on the pair, switching ordinance as the clone started making evasive maneuvers, leaping back and away from the stun bombs. With the enemy stunned and slowed, the two soldiers unleashed more pulses of light from the barrels of their weapons, herding him. Technically, it would only take one solid hit and the beams propagated at lightspeed. Then the mission would be over and they could go home.

"Kuno! Circle around!" Ryouga ordered. "Bakusai Tenketsu!"

At the end of the blasted terminal, a tunneling breaking point turned a swatch of tile on the floor into dry sand. Hitting it, too late to stop his momentum, the doppelganger and his female compatriot slipped and fell. Kuno, moving around from the side, fired off a trio of rounds on semi-auto. A nascent black shield, just barely starting to form in midair, intercepted two of the laser beams. The impact and resulting explosion of superheated air and atmospheric plasma shattered them like glass. The third round went slightly wide, slashing open a section of wall.

...

Raven gasped, pushing harder to protect herself and her Ryouga, hearing him gape at the near miss. She could feel the conflict in his aura between flight and fight. Doing what she could, she started to raise a section of floor to cover them - only to have it shatter and turn into dust. Forgoing a more difficult full body or hemispherical shield, she erected a plain wall of black energy, forcing it out despite another spike of mental pain. Red tinted tracer rounds splashed against the barrier, invisible beams ripping jagged holes in it.

"_You're strong_." She heard the voice, familiar but not _his_, and tried to push it out of the edge of her mind. "_Too strong_. _**Break**_."

A trickle of blood ran down her upper lip from her nose, enough to taste the coppery tang.

...

"Raven!" Ryouga yelled, seeing the blood, still supporting her body.

That was it, he had had enough.

He hadn't wanted to hurt these people ... not - not _really_. But they were trying to kill them! And - and why _the Hell_ was that person over there wearing his face? It was bizarre enough fighting Mousse and Kuno. Kuno was _supposed_ to be in Steel city, and Mousse was supposed to be in freakin' _space_! There was no reason for them to be here, let alone with another Ryouga!

He couldn't fight him here, though, not with Raven weakened like this. He had no idea what had set her off like that, nearly to the point of destroying the whole damn building, but it seemed almost guaranteed that it had something to do with these ... these doppelgangers. Scrambling to his feet, he took a firm stance, shifting Raven so that he was holding her against his body with a single arm.

"Raven, I got this... don't strain yourself anymore."

Then, with a flashing swing of his arm, he reached behind his back and pulled back forward. The sports bag that had been containing it shredded to pieces from the force of his swing, revealing the T-Brella in all its stark white and blue glory. Glaring at the evil twins, he waited for Kuno and 'Ryouga' to lift their guns again.

The murderous bastards were more than happy to comply, and began to open fire again. Without flinching, Ryouga held the T-Brella out straight before him. With a single touch of a button, the umbrella

snapped open and a shimmering yellow field of force sprang up to encompass the canopy, humming quietly. A trio of the odd energy bursts splashed over the shield - personally designed and installed by Gizmo himself - harmlessly. The Lost Boy smirked at the shocked expressions on the two 'things' faces, obviously they had _not_ been expecting him to deflect their advanced weaponry with something as mundane as an umbrella. All the more evidence that the other him couldn't really be him.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Ryouga turned tail and sprinted away from the pair. He smashed through the exit a moment later, a few errant plasma blasts vaporizing chunks of the wall to his side as he slid through. He found himself on the tarmac then, and cursed loudly. The last thing he needed was a massive, wide open space with nowhere to hide!

Wait! At the far end of the landing strip, a plane was just starting to roll, preparing for take off! It looked to be a smaller, private plane, apparently not interested in the emergency situation that had encompassed the airport, but if he could get them to it, Raven could get them on board easily.

Holding his T-Brella behind him, he began to sprint down the runway at full speed, asphalt smashing messily with each heavy step as he tore across the tarmac. A quick glance over his shoulder showed that they were still being pursued; not really a surprise at all. The Kuno clone was falling behind, but, if anything, the other Ryouga actually seemed to be catching up.

"Raven, what in the world is going on?" He barked between breaths.

"I - I'm not certain. That Ryouga, it feels real ... but - but it feels _poisoned_, filled with more poison and hatred then you were even when under the control of the Headmaster," the young woman tried

to explain.

Ryouga nodded to himself. "So, evil clone, you think? These guys are acting psychotic and they have copies of people that couldn't possibly be here..."

Raven nodded weakly. "The Headmaster did have access to both your genetics and your psyches for a long time. It's quite possible that he had time to clone you. It would explain why they're so intent on finishing us off. Getting revenge on two of the people that sent him to prison and wipe out the master copies at the same time."

"Argh!" Ryouga groaned. "Evil clones? This kind of thing is only supposed to happen to _Ranma_! ... Actually, I hope there _is_ a copy of that bastard in the woodwork. I wouldn't mind a chance to _really_ cut loose on him!"

"Now isn't the time for - for jokes, Ryouga! We need to escape!"

He nodded sharply; skillfully defending against another snap shot from behind, intercepting the shot was only possible by reading the trajectory of the barrel and using the full size of his umbrella in the split second between feeling intent and actual firing. He started, pointing to the small plane picking up speed a hundred yards down the runway.

"I know! We just need to reach that plane!"

"That plane?" Raven asked, straining to see.

In a flash, a lance of light flew past them, flying wide and nearly invisible in its passing. He skipped a few steps to the side, a little panicked at the close call ... only to watch, despondently, as a beam lingered along an ionized midair path down the runway, having hit at c and melted through the front landing gear of the small plane. It was a shot that was far too perfect to have been anything but intentional. A second later, the nose of the plane crashed to the ground, its propeller smashing to scrap as the vehicle ground to a shuddering stop.

"... The plane that's clearly disabled?" Raven deadpanned.

Ryouga let out a curse so vile that a blush sprang up on Raven's cheeks ... and she didn't even speak French. The martial artist skidded to a stop a moment later, breathing evenly. He stared at the downed plane, their only means of escape... It appeared that they had officially run out of options. Turning back to look over his shoulder, he saw the evil clones quickly closing the distance.

He sighed, a tired, weary sigh. "Do you think you're strong enough to handle Kuno?"

Pushing off from his chest, Raven regained her feet, only slightly shakily. She rotated her arm several times, attempting to work out a kink, then nodded. "I've got a good idea of how Kuno fights from Beast Boy. This clone seems a bit different, but I still think it shouldn't be a problem. The question is, can you control yourself?"

Ryouga glared at her. "I thought you said this wasn't the time for jokes?"

Across the open space of the runway, the droning sound of helicopter blades and the sudden blast of wind signaled the arrival of yet more trouble for the displaced duo. Blue and white choppers, police colors, zeroed in on the two with lights as they moved into position, covering potential avenues of escape. Rolling back doors on the sides, armed men took aim at the pair below. Higher up, another aircraft, this one some form of hoverjet, angled slightly to point its bow down at them. Distant sirens screamed along one of the highways flanking the airport.

* * *

Cyborg laughed to himself as he rode down the elevator of the non-police-controlled building. It sure as heck beat taking the stairs. Honestly, this whole situation had been a bit of an eye opener. He'd taken for granted how good at their jobs the actual career criminals were back home. He'd thought he'd been doing a good job, but he was far more used to the 'stopping crime' aspect of the business as opposed to the other half – that being, committing it.

Sure, all the tech details had been cake, but he'd forgotten that hacking systems was only a single part of successfully pulling of a heist. Obviously the helicopter which he'd mistaken for a traffic copter had spotted him early in his climb. Rewiring cameras was one thing - not to mention awesome - but there wasn't much he could do to stop some random guy from just looking at him.

Still, it made him glad that there weren't any super villain types here. Sure, the cops had found him easy enough, but they didn't actually have any way of _dealing_ with him. If only he'd managed to contact the others!

If Jinx was about, avoiding the cops would be a breeze... unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Moments later, the elevator door slid open and Cyborg charged out. He crossed the main lobby in several loud, heavy footsteps and crashed through the large glass doors without even slowing down. ... In retrospect, he supposed he was being a pretty bad guest in this dimension, doing stuff that he would never do back home, but – but they'd started it by starting to hunt him down before he'd even done anything wrong yet!

Well, aside from that thing with the public phone. … A sudden thought struck him. '_Was that why they__'__re after me? …Naw, can__'__t be. There__'__s no way they__'__d have this kind of force after me just for a little harmless vandalism.__'_

By the same time he surged out into the street, a small mob of police and SWAT officers were pouring out of the Citgroup building as well. They were some way away, but they were quickly charging towards their vehicles. That and that darned helicopter was already shining its spotlight down on him!

He began to sprint away down the street; his cybernetic legs carrying him faster than any human had any right to run. But not even the technological marvels that were his feet could allow him to outrun the helicopter overhead. He'd barely made it a half a kilometer when he heard the roaring of engines en masse.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw a number of the squad cars, lights flashing and sirens blaring, tearing out onto the road behind him and speeding in his direction. Even at his best pace, he couldn't hope to outrun pursuit vehicles on foot. And though running through a few buildings might let him lose the helicopter, it would leave one hell of a trail for them to follow regardless...

The decision was taken out of his hands within a minute, as the cars caught up to him. Half of them actually pulled ahead of him, only to skid and swerve to a stop, hoping to block off his retreat. The rest of the cars did the same, blocking off the side and rear directions as well. He briefly considered just tromping right over the cars, but he was starting to see the writing on the wall. He wasn't going to get out of here just by running.

Skidding to a stop himself, he spun around a few times as police began to pour out of their cars and level weapons at him again. Cyborg frowned, not really paying attention to the shouted orders to get on his knees and place his hands behind his head. This wasn't his world; he didn't belong here. It was only fair that he did everything he could to get home. Hell, even if he'd gone right up to these guys in the first place and tried to explain his situation, they just would have called him insane and locked him up ...and even if they didn't, they didn't have anywhere near the tech to help him anyway.

Somewhere in the distance, someone shouted something about a 'last warning' of some sort, but he paid it no mind. Finding his friends was his only priority here, not playing nice with the locals. If they'd had decent enough tech in the first place, he wouldn't have even needed to go after that damn big transmitter-

A shot rang out, and Cyborg felt a light 'ping' bounce off his shoulder.

Somewhere, deep inside, the final straw drifted down to land on the poor, overburdened back of the camel. Growling to himself now, Cyborg dropped into a low combat crouch and activated the auxiliary armor he'd installed after his first battle with Ryouga. Beneath his clothing and mask, the silvery metallic plates slid down to cover his more vulnerable areas - not that he was worried any of them had the Bakusai Tenketsu, but he was just done playing around.

"Alright!" He shouted loudly. "You guys wanna fight? Then let's go!"

He was a bit surprised at how quickly they complied as he was suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree by incoming fire. Lifting up a hand to offer a bit more protection to his already covered human eye, he glared at the cops. Nothing they had could even scratch his armor... too bad the same couldn't be said for them.

Lifting his right hand, his sleeve exploded apart as his arm converted loudly into its sonic cannon mode and began to glow ominously with pale azure light. Not even sure what was going on, the cops that noticed - i.e. the ones standing right in front of him - just stared like deer in headlights at the sudden appearance of the obvious weapon.

Cyborg locked targeting reticules onto the heavily armed SWAT officers, the lightly armored police officers... the apparently unarmed helicopter...

A young woman, apparently out for a late night jog or something, stood far behind the gathered police, wide eyed shock on her face as she watched the firefight. She wasn't the only one, either. Innocent bystanders littered the streets in this city that never seemed to sleep.

If he started blasting away...

And these weren't crooks, weren't super powered villains out terrorizing the city.

That was actually _him_ at the moment.

Cyborg winced harshly at that realization. These guys were just doing their jobs. He was the one destroying the city and disrupting satellite networks. They were just trying to figure out what was going on. They sure as heck didn't deserve to be blasted into the dirt for that.

Slowly, his aim wavered, the light glowing in the cannon died, and finally, his weapon shifted back to a simple hand once more. A moment later, he lifted both hands above his head and - doing his best to be heard over the intermittent gunfire - yelled out two words he'd never imagined having to say before.

"I... surrender."

* * *

The disturbances were felt by one of the Navigators.

Any thinking sentient being could pilot a ship, but Navigators were created for it. They did not so much pilot the ship as they became it: their thoughts translated motion and field and weapon, sense and sensation becoming gravitational wave and quantum flux. They were a mind within a machine.

_This_ was an alien Navigator.

An empty husk sitting before a dully lit display, mind lost within psionic circuitry, it was not unusual for a Navigator's body to begin to atrophy as it stayed at its station, forgetting and forgoing petty organic necessities like breathing or moving. Yet all were within The Mind, and the Mind always ultimately unplugged those who began to forget themselves and their duty.

One particular Navigator had been within his machine for sixty three Earth-hours. Sectoids had little sensation of taste or even touch, yet through the machine, it could taste the stellar winds and caress the flow of gravitons. The experience of existing through the ship's sensors was more vivid and vibrant than any organic being could imagine. It had not moved, nor had the ship, but there was no need. Everything within a hundred kilometers was at its fingertips and on the tip of its tongue.

Thus, the Navigator felt the anomaly.

It tasted strange, new, familiar to one thing and yet different. It felt at first like a pinprick in space and time, quick and sharp, puncturing and then withdrawing. It - the Navigator was instantly inundated with information from the Mind. This phenomena was similar to the massive anomaly which had occurred in the planet's southern hemisphere. That event had been too brief, too distant from any of their installations to properly identify. It was why the Ethereal in command of this small research fleet was currently absent, having been dispatched by the Mind to investigate.

Senses reached out across miles, seeking, hungry, desirous. Psionics activated, brushing gently across the general area of the disturbance. The long distance probe tasted many things at once: hundreds of animals, trillions of nearly mindless insect species, the dull flavor of plant life.

One thing stood out. It tasted different, unique, _sentient_. It was thinking and reasoning and _human_. More than just meat. The probe could not go deeper. It was designed to detect from great distances, like the beastly sense of smell. This pinprick-human, however, did not seem normal, mundane. The Navigator and The Mind had sampled untold numbers of humans over hundreds of thousands of years. It knew the taste of Man before he even called himself such.

There was no mistaking that this was similar to the earlier anomaly, only smaller . . . like an echo. And now a human presence could be sensed at the epicenter, a human presence which defied categorization. The Navigator did not possess the faculties to consider what this could possibly mean. It did not need to.

This pinprick.

This taste.

FIND IT

Within The Mind, there was a quick consensus.

They would all taste it soon.

* * *

The sparse stand of trees stood serenely in the still of the night. It had been decades since anything on less than four legs had disturbed this little patch of forest, and nothing at all moved now, aside from the gentle breeze rustling the leaves playfully. Only the gentle light of the moon filtering through the branches offered any form of illumination to the otherwise peaceful scene...

A crack of thunder sundered the air, and a sourceless gust of wind blasted the leaves from the trees mere seconds before a black, swirling vortex appeared in the air. The vertical whirlwind hung in space, twisting malevolently for several seconds, before suddenly ejecting a pink and purple blur. Mere moments later, the portal shrank in itself and vanished, leaving the near severed remains of the closest trees to collapse to the forest floor in a cacophony of crashing and splintering wood. The unfortunate form bounced, and spun through the trees, bright flashes of pink sparking off whenever they clipped a branch or skipped along the ground before, finally, skidding to a stop many yards away.

With a pained groan, Jinx finally dragged herself to her feet. The pink haired sorceress massaged her aching back and gave herself a small push to straighten it up fully. She then took a moment to check herself over, only to give a grunt of disgust as she noted the sharp tear in the shoulder of her dress.

"Damnit, I just bought this, too, and Ryouga didn't even notice it..."

Grumbling darkly to herself, Jinx looked around.

". . ."

Quickly fighting down the overpowering urge to swear like a sailor, the vigilante took a deep breath and calmly smoothed out her dress. She then proceeded to kick the nearest sapling, snapping the narrow tree in half.

"'_Hecate damnit_, Robin!'"

That - that greasy haired little punk had let her go! She knew he wasn't a fan of her, but seriously, letting her fall into a swirling vortex of doom? She was _sooo_ gonna have words with that - that snot blasting Titan!

. . . Snot blasting?

"Damn it, I'm actually missing _Gizmo_ of all people. I seriously need to get ditch this solo act." Honestly, if Ryouga wasn't stringing her along with his hemming and hawing about actually starting their own team, she'd just take off and team up with Happosai again.

Oh god, and now she was actually missing Happosai . . .

With a resigned sigh, the pink eyed sorceress leaned against a convenient tree, only to collapse flat on her face when the seemingly strong branch snapped like a twig under her elbow. Flipping over onto her back, she glared darkly at the jagged edges of the snapped branch.

"_Ohhh_, you. There's no way that I've put on that much weight."

Predictably, the tree did not reply.

"Okay, first things first. I need to stop talking to myself." With a quick roll, she flipped up to her feet. "Second thing, I need to figure out where the heck I am."

She'd need to work on step one a little more. Taking a second to pull an errant branch out of her elaborately styled hair, Jinx then pulled out her hexagonal communicator and flipped it open.

"Hey, Ryouga, are you there? This is Jinx, looking for a pick up."

Silence. Hmmm, that was odd. The thing didn't seem to be broken, the screen was lighting up and everything, but no response.

"Robin? Cyborg? ugh . . . _Raven_?" Her distaste was quite audible with that last one, but it made no difference in the results. No one replied to her call, and she was fairly sure it wasn't just because she wasn't exactly Miss Popular.

"Okay. Now I'm starting to get worried..." Her head tilted to the side as she looked around. "Still need to work on that 'talking to myself' thing, too."

A sharp snap from somewhere in the darkness suddenly put the ex-villainess on alert, but a second later she forced herself to relax. Honestly, this meta human lifestyle of hers was making her _waaay_ too paranoid. She just got dropped _god knows _where, completely at random, somewhere on the globe. The odds of there being anyone even close to her, let alone anyone that would actually give a crap about her, would require 'astronomically' bad luck.

"Meh, probably just a squirrel, or a komodo dragon, or something. Now! If I was civilization... in which direction would I be?"

Picking a random orientation, Jinx started through the woods - only wincing in pain once or twice along the way.

* * *

x

* * *

Abstract -

Tatewaki Kuno  
Rank: Squaddie, 1st class

Born Tokyo, Japan, mother: Y. Kuno, father: K. Kuno (see: unofficial criminal record), sister: K(odachi). Kuno. Presently, mother (deceased); father (considered low risk, monitored, administration official at Furinkan, Nerima, Tokyo); sister (maintained at Sanctuary Community ID304). No other living immediate relatives. Kuno family independently wealthy - extensive property ownership throughout Japan. Finances investigated for potential Sirius connections. So far, records clean.

T. Kuno was enrolled at the University of Kyoto on a kendo scholarship at the time of the Nerima Incident (see: Nerima Abduction Event). Poor grades dot academic record. Interest in pursuing liberal arts degree. Practices advanced forms of kendo and "kenjutsu." Comparatively limited battlefield utility when compared to squadmates' areas of expertise, see: R. Hibiki (profile), R. Kumon (profile), M. Tzu (profile). Optimal melee engagement distance noted as 1.3 to 4.5 meters. Some techniques very well suited for use in breeching and rapid assault scenarios.

Service record as follows: Squad: India (Hibiki, Kumon, Tzu, Kuno) out of Seiran, under Cptn Ben-Solomon. Assigned rank acting Squaddie (Oct, 2006); Squaddie 1st class (Dec, 2006). Participated in AB17 Alpine Echo Seven (December, 2006). Fiftieth Kill recorded (January, 2007). Temp assignment to Luna (2007). (see: Service Record, attached) (see: Psionic Profile, attached). See: weapons procurement regarding replacement sword (attached) and gauntlets (on request).

Underwent two month mentor program (Srg. J. Hanley), standard psionic imprinting (see: psi-gym usage). Note: subject has very high psionic strength but has progressed very slowly in development of higher techniques. Nonetheless, not every solider with an integral armor amp needs to use the thing like a virtuoso. PsiDev have focused on optimizing psionic defenses.

T. Kuno was not initially expected to be entered into the experimental 'martial arts squads' program, but has fit into India Squad well over the last few months. Despite some early difficulties adapting, he has become a rather popular and well liked figure on base. Not expected to advance to NCO or CO programs. Solid Squaddie material. Has learned to follow orders and support team. Demonstrates high degree of commitment and lethality as necessary. Morale and loyalty are considered VERY GOOD. Because of high innate psionic strength, and existing attachment to Seiran: India, the Squaddie is recommended for inclusion in CLEANSLATE. We will need as many 85+ psi-str grunts as possible when we finally put our boots on Mars.

[signature redacted]

* * *

OUTGOING DATA RECORD  
INTERCEPT: 18E-781-77902  
DATE: 12.21.2006 01:12:04

T. Kuno (Seiran Mtn)  
K. Kuno (SC:304)

K: Brother dear.

T: Sister.

K: I have been told that you were wounded in battle.

T: Tis [sic] only a minor inconvenience. I shall resume my duties upon a swift convalescence.

K: You are as hard to kill as always. Were I there, I would make you a cup of my special herbal tea.

T: Were you here, and had you made me a cup of tea, I would test it first on the dog.

K: (laughter)

T: I can not believe it, but I think I actually missed hearing that laugh of yours.

K: Oh (?). You must truly be in a detestable shape, Brother dear. Are your injuries that grievous (?).

T: No. No, they are not. I was. I was lucky. But this loss reminds me of how our family sword was destroyed. Even now I have never forgive myself for that.

K: (laughter) I always said that hunk of metal was less than a letter opener. You are better without it (!).

T: Do not say that, Sister. I had wished to bear our family blade to glory on the battlefield. Instead, in but my first real mission, it was reduced to nothing. The hilt and little beside remains. My wounds, then and now, are as nothing compared to the blow to my honor that was losing that sword.

K: (...) You are truly a fool, Brother dear. How difficult is it to replace a blade? Do you think one mourns for destroyed (...) what are they? Those fighting planes? Or some sunken ship? A sheathed sword is nothing until someone uses it.

T: (...) I know.

T: (...) But. I. I was. Not (...)

K: Brother dear. All you have to do is use a stronger sword. A more reliable blade. Is that truly so hard? Do you not already have one? You fight alongside my beloved Ranma-sama. How is he to triumph in my name without worthwhile subordinates? (laughter)

T: (laughter) I will do that. I can not be showed up by underclassmen after all (!).

K: Oh yes. Now that I think of it, you fight with those rough vagabonds I met before. I suspect you must fit in well with such an uncouth band.

T: Our enemies are terrible indeed. Especially (...) well, uncouth or not, we will strike at them.

K: (...) Yes. I expected as much from you, Brother dear. You were always thick headed. I still do not fully understand this enemy you have made but do finish them off quickly. Things are most dull here in this strange town without any of the usual peasants to play with (...) and I know my poor Ranma-sama pines for me as I do him. (laughter) Do extend to my beloved my deepest and dearest wishes, will you, Brother dear?

T: I shall endeavor to do so when next I see him. But what of (...) that other fool you had your eye on?

K: (laughter) Oh yes, my dear Taro. A beautiful man with the most fascinating and potentially delightful abilities. But I have not forgotten my first love. Or given up on my dear, noble Ranma-sama. There is room in the heart of a Kuno for two loves, is there not? (laughter)

T: (...) Yes. Quite.

* * *

##  
BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS  
TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 6138

CODENAME: Raven  
REAL NAME: *Unknown*

SPECIES: Human/Unknown Hybrid  
HEIGHT: 5'5"  
WEIGHT: 105lbs

HAIR COLOR: Violet  
EYE COLOR: Violet

KNOWN ABILITIES: Subject displays powers that correspond to those of a high calibre telekinetic, or 'hard light construct' manipulators in the vein of Subject: 005: Codename: Green Lantern. True nature of powers is yet to be determined as several secondary abilities do not correspond to powers demonstrated by other telekinetic psions or energy manipulators. Subject has demonstrated empathic and telepathic abilities, the latter usually only manifesting with an obvious display referred to by the Subject as her 'Soul Self'. The Subject has also manifested the ability to phase through solid matter and teleport (extent of distance Subject is able to traverse is unknown). Finally, the subject, purportedly, possesses the ability to heal others, though the limitations of this power are unknown at this time.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: Subject is susceptible to fits of extreme emotion if pressed. This shortcoming can and has been used against her to great affect by Subject: 8839: Codename: Terra. Highest Probability of incapacitating Subject is to engage in psychological warfare and capitalize on the ensuing loss of control.

***Special note**: Subject is to be considered highly dangerous, and caution should be used in handling her. The Subject's 'loss of control' is closely linked to a startling increase in destructive ability. Only suitably trained or empowered operatives should attempt capture of the Subject.

KNOWN HISTORY: The Subject comes from a pocket dimension Designation: Azarath. Little direct knowledge of the Subject's life during her adolescence in Azarath is known. Shortly after entering this dimension, the Subject approached the Justice League, looking for assistance. The Subject explained that an interdimensional incursion from an, if the Subject's story is to be believed, Omega level threat. At that time Subject: 543: Codename: Zatanna informed the Justice League that the Subject possessed an 'evil' aura, and should not be trusted. Heeding her advice, the Subject was denied assistance by the League, and was turned away. Shortly thereafter, the Subject became a founding member of Team Designation: Teen Titans. Since that time, the Subject has demonstrated several instances of emotional instability, but has not yet been categorized as a threat to herself or those around her. No further evidence has been provided in concern to the espoused threat concerning the being referred to as Trigon. Further research is required.

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: B

PERSONAL NOTE_: I know it's not like me to question Zatanna... but in this case I believe she may have been wrong. Dick's reports of the girl have painted her as relentlessly determined to help her friends, as well as the people of Jump City. More than most, I think I can understand what it means to have darkness in your heart, but still strive to do what is right. And if her story was actually true, a possibility that seems more probable with every report from Dick, then it might be urgent to contact her and begin making contingency plans based on her knowledge of this Trigon. Though her current threat level is B, based solely on her array of powers, if her presence in our dimension is somehow linked to a being as powerful as she described, then it is possible she should be raised to S rank and watched far more closely._

##


	5. First Contact 5

A/N

_This is the last chapter of the "First Contact" Intro Arc._  
_Structurally (and editorially) these first couple chapters have been somewhat annoying to pull together. They're a lot rockier than our later stuff. It'll be a relief to have things converging properly again._

* * *

x

* * *

Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last. The reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together. With Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding', it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of Atlantis. Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well deserved breather from their adventures. But as unseen forces manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered… and sooner than they expect.

It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a ****Dark Road**

_First Contact_

Chapter V

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

_New __Chitose __Airport_

Ryouga slowed to a walk when it became clear the two targets meant to stand and fight. Flipping his laser rifle back over his shoulder, keeping his eyes on the deadly girl in particular, the slightly older Hibiki signaled for the conscripted police to keep a distance. Nabiki was on her game. It helped that they finally had an armed drone in the air in addition to satellite surveillance. These two weren't going anywhere. Reaching for his HV-SOCOM, his fingers brushed the pressure lock on the holster, unclipping it. But not actually grabbing it.

That umbrella shield...

_'I - I want one!'_ he realized, with a huff of displeasure. Where did this copy get a nice piece of gear like that?

Either way, it seemed shooting at the bastard was, for the moment, a waste of ammo.

"You're a little different from the last one they sent!" he yelled, buying a little time for Kuno to catch up. "Let me guess: you're that girl's bodyguard, right?"

The Doppleganger turned to stare at alien girl oddly.

"Body guard?" he asked, perplexed.

"I think the less you think about my body the better, at the moment," the possible Trenchard replied with a slight blush, awkwardly positioning her arms across her chest in an embarrassed display.

Shrugging, the clone glared back at Hibiki. "Look, evil clone guy, we aren't looking for any trouble. We just want to get back to California. I realize you probably don't have enough control of your own actions to understand, but I _don't_ want to hurt you. Just let us go and this doesn't need to go down like this."

"Evil clone? ME?" the other Ryouga snarled. "Oh, let me guess, you think you're the real Ryouga Hibiki? You've got balls, making a claim like that!"

"You won't be the first copy I've gotten rid of."

Slamming his foot into the asphalt of the tarmac, Ryouga directed a wave of ki into an array of breaking points centered around the pair of infiltrators. A crackle of green ki rippled through the flat ground before directing itself downward with an earth shaking rumble. A large circular crack split the runway, centered around Raven and the displaced Hibiki, who recognized the triggering of breaking points all around them. Rather than explode upwards, they triggered in the opposite direction, pulverizing and depressing the ground around them in a giant ring.

Or, they should have.

Seeing the technique, the younger Ryouga smiled. Before it could go off, he knelt down and slammed his palm to the ground... and nothing happened. Nothing at all. No explosions, no strange effects, nothing.

The weakness of the breaking point, even a big one, was that most of the force of it was wasted. A best case scenario was that an opponent would take maybe half the blast and shrapnel from the omni-directional explosion. Directed blasts were doable, but weaker overall. However, if one put a target in a depressed area, like a crater or ring, and triggered breaking points around them, the topography would direct nearly the full force of every single explosion into the center, vastly increasing the damage done.

Instead of turning the damned doppelganger and its Ethereal escort into chunky salsa, however, the breaking points had somehow been nullified. Lieutenant Hibiki scowled at the display. He - he hadn't even seen what his clone had done. It wasn't any ki technique he immediately recognized; he didn't even sense more than a faint echo of the doppelganger's aura, as muted as it was, spread out into the ground. Just what had he done to stop his technique?

_'Strange.'_

As if to answer, the clone rose to his feet, smirking.

"So, looks like you did get a little training in your cloning tank, eh Mirror Me?" he asked. The tone was gloating. For just a moment, the lieutenant found he preferred the other doppelganger to this one. At least when that one had gloated, it hadn't been quite so snide. "A little on the crude side, though ... say, aren't you supposed to have an evil goatee so that people can tell us apart?"

The girl at the doppelganger's side groaned and elbowed him in the side. "You have _got_ to stop watching Star Trek with Cyborg."

Motioning for Kuno to move around to the right, the Lieutenant glared at this strange double.

_'He has a completely different breaking point style?'_ That didn't seem possible. The only styles the aliens knew were his old one, Cologne's, and the other conventional Amazon techniques as executed by Pi Lu. Did this represent some new original interpretation on the part of the clone? That had to be it.

The other Doppelganger had developed _Mettayatara Metsubushi_ (Indiscriminate Blindness) after all. This one was the same, just focused on a different approach to the Art. In which case...

_'Let's test the limits of this nullification technique of yours!'_

Pushing his aura back into the ground, point by point, he sent a directed cascade of breaking points in an extending arc head of him. Each explosion in turn set off other breaking points, even without additional injections of ki. It was a technique designed primarily to uproot and destroy terrain and obstacles in a wide cone, so the target could be attacked more effectively at range. Trees, fences, concrete blocks, buildings, even trenches. All would be shredded to bits.

Again, the doppelganger smiled. Shaking his head sadly, he knelt down and slammed his palm to the ground again, holding it there longer this time. Again, the detonations simply stopped with no visible effort on the clone's part.

_'Why is he using his hand? I developed the method to use the technique with my feet months ago.'_

Besides that, Hibiki was able to make out something odd, this time. The technique, whatever it was ... it wasn't fighting against his BT, like when he had fought Pi Lu and the other him, it was somehow _stabilizing_ the breaking points. Even with points that were on the brink of detonating, somehow, his dark ki was pushed out, expunged from them, and the breaking points returned to a completely normal state.

It wasn't quite like anything the lieutenant had ever seen or read about.

_'Is this... elemental rebalancing?'_

And then, his insufferable twin lashed out, stabbing the index and middle fingers of his other hand into the ground. Hibiki watched the ground like a hawk, but he didn't see any ki going into the ground at all - when suddenly, the ground right beneath his feet, and Kuno's feet, exploded upwards into geysers of rock and debris! The X-Com operatives were sent tumbling head over heels by the completely unexpected attack.

Quickly recovering from the attack, the swordsman took that as his cue to move in on the girl.

Hibiki's eyes never left the other him. The actual breaking point triggered had been rather weak, compared to what he had encountered before. Even Kuno, pummeled by months of training against the rest of India Squad, recovered quickly from it. The double stabbed his finger into the ground again - the lieutenant now suspected the copy had to do it, rather than projection via the other extremities - and just as before, there was no resonation with breaking points nearby. Was it some sort of sympathetic reaction?

No matter.

Fortunately, since the last Doppleganger encounter, he had trained for this situation.

It was actually the counter he'd developed against the Indiscriminate Blindness move, but it would work here, too. A blast of ki preemptively entered the earth, saturated the breaking points nearby, and detonated them. It was simple enough to control the actual reaction and have the points go off without doing much actual material damage. A puff of smoke rose from nearby, where the breaking point the other him had attempted to set off vibrated harmlessly, the actual points of detonation already expended. It would take time for the lay of the land to restore them; this fight would be over by then.

"How are you doing that? I've never heard of the breaking point being used without resonation," he had to ask, slowly walking towards the other him, careful to prematurely burn out the nearby breaking points. His battle aura expanded as he directed it into his arms and legs. Whatever tricks this copy had, it could be useful later against Cologne.

The doppelganger frowned as he watched what Hibiki was doing, sneering slightly. "Just like an evil clone, you'd rather destroy everything around you, than admit you're outmatched. Sadly, considering you didn't have to go through what I did, I doubt it would help you even if I did explain it."

The clone then held his hands before him, and a small sphere of ... something gathered between his palms. It was odd, Hibiki couldn't actually _see_ anything being gathered, but he could certainly feel it.

"Of course, you're only looking at the 'surface' of things, which, considering it's me, I suppose isn't that much of a surprise," the younger Ryouga added with a smirk.

Hibiki noted his doppelganger give his companion a nod, obviously a signal of some sort, but didn't have time to decipher its intent, when Ryouga suddenly slammed both palms into the ground, full force.

Despite the fact that he was certain that he'd burnt out all of the breaking points around him, the ground all around them, reaching out for over a dozen yards in every direction, suddenly began to quake. Measuring the scale of the attack, Hibiki slammed his heel into the ground, trying to burn out the breaking points before they could explode, but there were too many, too spread out, too deep -

A second later, like an exploding volcano, the entire section of tarmac detonated! Hibiki couldn't see it all, blasted into the air and being tossed around like a rag doll. Kuno would have been too, he surmised, being pummeled by boulders and jagged debris. The dust cloud kicked up was large enough to swallow up even the hovering helicopters. The dirt and gravel had doubtless forced the aerial vehicles to pull back, as the engines would start to clog.

When all was said and done, the entire area was in ruins.

Hibiki staggered back to his feet, just in time to see a black shape rise up out of the ground nearby. A moment later, it vanished, revealing Raven and his doppelganger in the center of the wreckage, no worse for wear. Most of the dust settled quickly, but a few tenacious clouds near the epicenter of the blast persisted.

Wavering somewhat weakly in the center of his crater, the Lieutenant released aa surge of ki which blasted the asphalt back and away. Finally, the uniformed Hibiki cut the flow of ki to his legs. Amazing. This copy had a breaking point style that surpassed not only Pi Lu, but himself as well. If he hadn't unleashed a _shishi hokoudan_ through his feet to lessen the impact as much as possible, it could've been dangerous. A quick flight and a rough landing would have been the least of his worries, especially considering he was without the personal armor he'd come to rely on so much lately.

"Kuno!" he called out, seeing a blue blur finally recover from the assault enough to begin regain his footing. "CQC. Capture if possible."

"The Blue Thunder STRIKES!" Kuno bulled through a cloud of rubble, arcs of transparent force carving a path ahead of him. Stopping briefly, he pulled back his sword for what appeared to be a thrust.

"Now!" he cried. "Feel the bite of righteous vengeance! Shin Kokuzan!"  
(True/New Sky Arc Decapitation)

This time, rather than an arc, a faint pulse rippled through the air.

Even almost fifteen meters away, the alien girl's barrier of black energy warbled and shook, actually eliciting the young woman to actually arch an eyebrow in interest. A second later, and Kuno's sword skittered across the surface of her protective disk, the power of the slash driving her back an inch as some of the force rebounded. Backpedaling, they swung around to the right.

The Ryougas came in on the left.

An _akichi_ linear step closed the distance between them in a heartbeat, faster than either Kuno or Raven would have been able to react. The older of the two spun on landing, a blazing orb of black and green already in his right and left hands. Licks of green ki shot out from the barely contained and highly concentrated attacks, mentally compacted into tightly woven spheres. Even the faintest ki sensitivity could feel the storm of emotive energy locked within.

"Shishi Hokoudan!"

Ryouga spun about as well, but rather than match ki with ki, the doppelganger brought up his umbrella in a flash, the yellow forcefield flaring to life once more. Both of his shishi hokoudan's smashed into the barrier, detonating with enough force to send the clone skidding back several feet. None of the damage penetrated to his enemy, though, much to the lieutenant's annoyance. A second later, Ryouga's umbrella snapped closed and he surged forward rapidly, thrusting out with the implement with savage force.

To the younger man's surprise, the uniformed Hibiki opted to catch the weapon, butterfly style.

"That was a mistake, attacking me head on with a weapon." Fingers clamped down on the T-brella. "I'll melt the both of you like butter!"

Sparks shot out from where the older Ryouga held the weapon, spikes of black ki drilling into the metal through even the smallest micro-level imperfections and stress lines. Through the breaking point, he could see it: a complex titanium weave and dense unknown element at its core, along with an array of sophisticated electronics. But...it wasn't _alien_ tech. It didn't even feel like normal human or UNETCO issue technology. Still: most of the basic elements were the same. It wasn't like 'survive in nuclear fire' level Cydonium exotic alloy.

Scarred fingers imprinted on the metal.

Against reason, the smirk on his opponent's face only widened, despite the situation, so much like another hated enemy. The copy's finger obviously depressed a small button on the hilt of the umbrella. It took a second to warm up, but then Hibiki found his hands clamped to the umbrella, his entire body wracked with agony as electricity suddenly ran through his body. The surface of his palms burned, despite the extreme heat conditioning of the Smelting Point.

_'An electrical attack? Like Asura's lightning bolts?'_

He shook and shuddered, before the younger warrior finally ended the electrocution - by lifting a foot and planting it squarely into Hibiki's chest with enough force to send him bouncing over a dozen yards across the shattered tarmac.

Even as he hit the ground, engrained muscle memory allowing him to reorient back into the soles of his feet, his battle aura dissipated what it could, mimicking the insulation and conduction features of the personal armor he often wore. Ranma had survived actual lightning on several occasions; most of the shock was shunted into the ground, preventing ventricular defibrillation and nerve damage - an essential skill when one handled and sparred with stun rods and when an anticipated enemy (the Trenchard, Koichi Ayabe) was a master of using electrical techniques to instantly kill. Never mind the fact that the secrets of the Drowned Asura were in the hands of the enemy.

None of that helped to temper the pain of burned fingers and scorched skin.

Ryouga laughed in amusement. "Really? _Really?_ You didn't see the 'electrified umbrella' trick coming there? Man, you really are full of yourself, aren't you, Cloney?"

"Tch! You're too late," the older Hibiki remarked, spitting onto his right palm, the liquid sizzling as it evaporated. "My Satsugai Tenketsu (Killing Point) already has you."

Though the practitioner himself had been repulsed, his black and green aura still clung to the weapon, lingering within the metal lattice of the T-brella. It brushed past the normal breaking points within all materials as it turned into an oscillating vibratory wave. Unfortunately, the material had been too complex, too unfamiliar to attenuate to properly in the scant few seconds he'd held it, so the technique was far from perfect, but still, the umbrella began to shake as the wave bounced back and forth within the area encompassed by the poisonous aura, slowly building up speed as it went. It was moving through the molecules, vibrating, far too fast to track.

The younger clone stared at the glowing umbrella, amazement covering his face.

"That's _almost_ the same concept as my Fatigue Fist ... I was thinking along the same lines myself, once, but ... this application was too dangerous for my liking."

Suddenly, Ryouga slapped his palm sharply to haft of the umbrella, instantly dousing the black and green flames with his own aura and setting it to shaking down the entire length. A moment later, he slapped his hand down onto the umbrella again, gripping it tightly.

He let out a relieved sigh. "That was tricky... You use really dirty tricks there, my friend. Setting up a vibration in the atomic lattice of the metal? You were just gonna try to melt it, weren't you? You really are unlucky today, though. As I said, I've been developing a similar technique of my own."

Spinning the umbrella about, the younger Ryouga clucked disapprovingly, apparently not able to prevent all of the damage. "Expunging your aura was the easy part, though. Preventing the vibrations was more interesting. I needed to basically _grab_ the lattice work, essentially dumping a large amount of weight across it to deaden the vibrations."

Shaking his head, Ryouga continued, apparently willing to give Hibiki any and all the time he required to fully recover from the full body shock he'd received.

"Picture this, Evil Me. You grabbed the base of a ladder and started shaking away like crazy. Given enough time, the ladder would fall over or collapse. I just dumped five fat guys on the ladder, then '_bam__'_, suddenly you can't move it an inch. Not with the little bit of energy you put into it, anyway."

The young man's smile suddenly vanished, replaced with a deep frown. A moment later, he slung the umbrella back behind his back, handle positioned carefully for quick retrieval. Ryouga then dropped himself into a low combat stance, lifting his fists defensively before him.

"Alright, whatever you are," he concluded. "I've given you more than enough time to recover. Are you ready to give up, yet?"

"And you said I was full of myself?" the other Hibiki commented, rolling his shoulders. "I have to admit, I'm impressed and a little envious about how easily you can use your version of the breaking point. Your basic ability even surpasses my own technique, but I think there are some serious limitations. I mean, have you even figured out how to use it on people yet?"

"Use it on _people_? Are you _insane_!" Ryouga gasped. "Why the hell would I want to do something like that to a person?"

The lieutenant glanced at his clone, apparently unhurried in his explanation.

"You're a martial artist, like I am... you have my memories, or at least most of them. Don't pretend to be something you're not. Even if you never want to use a killing move, I know you've thought about it," he reminded him, stating the obvious. "Either one of us could already kill a normal human being with a simple reverse stab or open palm thrust. Our bodies themselves are killing techniques."

Smirking, he decided to further explain, "I believe the ultimate expression of the breaking point is to destroy anything with a touch, be it Earth, Water, Air or Heaven... in other words, to destroy the very spirit of your opponent. This is what's called True Mastery."

…

Ryouga glared at his wicked double. "Feh! Now I _know_ that you're the evil clone. I use my martial arts to _protect_ people, not kill them." He shrugged helplessly. "I mean, sure, there was the whole _Ranma_ thing, but I'm hoping we're both past that by now. Well, I am, anyway. With all you're talk about killing and stabbing, I doubt that you are."

Clenching his fists tightly, the younger man looked up at his older analogue, staring at him in a new light, now. "I _had_ been hoping to just leave, to get back home ... But _you_, the way you think. You're too dangerous to be left free. I can't let you hurt anyone else!"

And then Ryouga charged.

"Well..." the native Hibiki said. "I suppose it doesn't matter if you agree or not."

The uniformed lieutenant lowered his arms and tensed his legs. A sudden blast of ki tore up the ground at his feet, rocketing him forward. A heartbeat later, he used an _akichi_, and nearly vanished in a blast of linear movement. Ryouga brought his arm up in time to block, catching his opponent's wrist. The ground shattered as the force of the blow directed down into his feet.

The older Hibiki's palm opened and closed, and a black and orange piece of cloth shot out and into his grip. It hardened instantly as the Hibiki style _tetsununo_ (Iron Cloth Technique) turned the bandanna into a foot and a half of blade. Ryouga broke contact before the weapon could come around and find flesh. His opposed number snarled, left hand coming up as a half dozen of the projectiles let loose, just a few feet from their target.

Leaping straight up, the force of his leap shattering the ground beneath him, Ryouga shot up over the swarm of bandannas. As he dropped back down, he began to spin in the air, before slamming back to the ground with a massive axe kick aimed to shatter Hibiki's shoulder. Rather than attempt to block the strike, Hibiki dove to the side, just barely making it as his opponent's foot crashed into the ground with the force of a small bomb. He didn't have time to counter, though, as the younger warrior quickly followed up, shifting after him with a series of sweeping kicks that tore furrows into the pavement with each pass.

"You use your martial arts to protect?" Hibiki asked, surprisingly calm given the ki attacks he had used and hate filled aura around him. "What is this, an anime?" he spun his arms, moving in and breaking the stance of his opponent. "No shit you use your power to protect."

An open palm strike to the chest sent the younger Ryouga back a step.

"Yourself!" the older him struck, hands blurring at the two exchanged blows and blocks. "Others!"

A blast of ki shot into the ground - the younger Ryouga sensed it, but had no way to nullify it while in ongoing hand to hand combat. He could feel the breaking point slice open a triangular section of asphalt before upending it, like a man sized blade. He ducked, anticipating where it would come from, and tried to jump away.

The older him intercepted, having used the attack as a rouse.

A blow to the stomach took him an inch or two off his feet and into the side of the asphalt spear, smashing it into pieces. His hands flew up, deflecting a snap kick, and returning a spinning heel that managed to hit the older him in the jaw. Grunting at the blow, Hibiki brought up his right arm, trapping the leg, while the left arm shot around and up on the inside, aiming for the tibia, and meaning to break the leg in two.

Thinking quickly, Ryouga twisted and kneed, wrenching his leg free.

"Everyone fights to protect something," the older him remarked, bringing one hand up and sheathing it in ki, for a shishi hokoudan enhanced blow. "I've killed one of you before to protect what I fight for. I'll do so again, and _again_, and _again_! No matter what they send against us. I'll destroy it."

Banking so much on his next blow, Hibiki lashed out with his empowered strike - only for Ryouga to twist to the side at the last moment. The strike skimmed across his chest, singing his nice polo shirt, and Ryouga wrapped his arm around the older fighter's extended arm, wrenching upward once it was captured, and lashing out behind his back with his free arm, slamming his elbow into Hibiki's temple with freight train force.

He leaned forward, preparing to repeat the strike, but then he felt Hibiki's foot reach up and press into his back. A second later, he was launched forward as the murderous fighter pushed with all the strength in his leg. Ryouga quickly flipped through the air, landing with practiced ease. He carefully scanned his opponent, trying to take stock of the situation. A number of faint bruises were already forming on the older fighter's head, where Ryouga had slammed him, first with foot, then elbow.

A sudden, amusing thought struck the younger warrior.

He gave an enraged growl, then charged back in, recklessly. Lashing out with a sloppy haymaker, he was not surprised when Hibiki ducked beneath his swing and pummeled his stomach with a crushing jab. Slowly, Ryouga began to fall forward, and a curious look spread over Hibiki's face as his double all but seemed to collapse over his shoulder -

…

Only to huff when Ryouga's collapse suddenly halted, and his hands raised up high into the air.

"Maybe, if you want to protect someone!" shouted the younger martial artist, "You should stop hitting like a _baby_!"

Ryouga then dropped a punishing double fist onto the back of Hibiki's skull, dropping him straight to the ground to eat rubble. Only for something to come rocketing back up, catching him on the lower lip. His upper teeth buried into his cheek with a spray of blood. It hadn't felt like a normal blow. It anything, it felt like a ki attack. But he'd been watching his opponent's hands. Where had the attack come from?

"That's _enough_. I'll show you a _baby's kick_."

Surging up to his feet again, and spitting out some of the bloodied rubble he'd nearly swallowed, the older Hibiki grabbed the younger man's wrist. Hibiki then planted a reverse axe kick into the younger man's right kidney. It wasn't just a body blow, but a targeted attack at the internals. Fortunately, training in the breaking point went a long way towards cushioning vulnerable organs from the ravages of blunt force trauma, and the lead up had been more than enough to allow the younger fighter to twist to the side. There was just no other way to survive what the training involved. A sufficiently powerful blow could never be totally absorbed by just muscle and bone.

Still, it almost knocked Ryouga off his feet; pins and needles shot through his midsection.

The kick, a moment after landing, morphed into a rising snap kick, the toes catching him on the side of the face, aiming to blind, but a quick shift prevented that. The impact still jarred the eye in the socket, however, and it momentarily went dark. It wasn't so much the power of the blows, but the calculated, brutal precision. This opponent wasn't like Mammoth or even Starfire, it was like going all the way back to fighting Ranma again. He couldn't just trade normal strikes with this older doppelganger; despite his near berserk fury he possessed more than enough skill to make up for it. He also knew the breaking point, knew the training, and knew its limits. As did Ryouga.

Blocking the next blow - trying to think like his opponent - he caught the strike to the arm aimed to paralyze the nerve clusters. Retaliating with an elbow, his opponent fell back and abruptly spun. An instant later, Ryouga hit the asphalt with a crash, imprinting his upper body into the shattered tarmac. He quickly rolled, brought his hands up, and blocked a kick before it could bury his face into the ground. Hibiki's boot came to a stop before it could hit.

When, without warning, a green orb snapped into place under the well worn footwear.

It quickly engulfed Ryouga's arms, caught as they were blocking the kick, and flared up just an inch from the tip of his nose. His eyes widened; there could be no doubting it. This opponent... could fire full power ki attacks from his feet? Maybe even from any part of the body!

Without another word, Hibiki's _shishi hokoudan_ fired.

A wave of force uprooted slabs of asphalt and, under that, wire mesh. Debris flew from the point of impact, the center of the explosive ki attack. A depressed crater melted away around the two martial artists, cutting through to the packed sandstone and earth beneath the airport runway.

Standing over his opponent, the UNETCO Lieutenant's eyes flashed as he fired again, boiling away another layer of earth. The crater-within-a-crater widened, cracks in the battered firmament finally giving way and upending entirely. Black smoke rose from around his boot, coiling up into the air around his standing form. Bits of green fire clung to his clothes and those of his opponent.

"Now," was all he said, the churning inferno wreathed around his right arm crackling like a bonfire.

Unleashing that hellstorm down and into his pinned opponent, the lieutenant felt him _move_ at the last second. Murderous ki extended like a lance down into the bottom of the crater, carving a perfectly circular hole, like a giant hole puncher cutting through a ream of paper. Layers of sediment could be seen, just barely, in the dark depression. It was wasted energy.

Ryouga lay, rolled on his side, one hand on the ground.

A last-millisecond application of the breaking point had carved out enough of a depression to shift most of his body into. A half second longer and he would have been in the center of that last attack.

"I guess I didn't pummel you enough," the older Hibiki observed, jumping away a few feet. A long line of cloth unwrapped from around his waist, just above his belt. In moments, it grew out to a length of about four feet. With his other hand, he reached behind his shoulder, retrieving a smaller, thinner, umbrella of his own, colored entirely grey and white.

Ryouga spit out a bit of blood as he rose to his feet. He was more sore than he'd expected after all that, but even with his fancy techniques, his opponent still lacked the raw firepower that his normal opponents could bring to bear. He wasn't stronger, he was just... nastier. Still, this wasn't good. He would need to end this quickly before his opponent's tricks could wear him down. Ryouga eyed the length of cloth and the umbrella that Hibiki was wielding now.

So, he wanted to move to weapons as well? Nodding to himself, Ryouga unlimbered his umbrella once more, twirling it about once to test its weight.

"You act like I've never been hit with a ki blast before!" He lifted his free hand, waving his opponent in tauntingly. "Bring it on!"

Dropping into a defensive position, he held his umbrella out before him, his other fist held tightly to his side. The murderous fighter was more than eager to comply, charging in with surprising speed. Even faster than Hibiki, though, faster than the older fighter could react, a sphere of ... something grew in front of Ryouga's clenched fist. In an instant, it swelled, taking on a livid golden glow before Ryouga punched out.

The sphere of tightly packed energy slammed directly into Hibiki's chest, his own momentum preventing him from dodging the swift projectile -

...

It hit like a train, somehow possessing a mass, a heft, that was beyond description. It was as if the younger warrior had just crushed him with the entire world at once. The deceptively small sphere of glowing golden light picked him right up off his feet and actually carried it along with it as it flew through the air. It was hard to describe, as his body quailed at the extreme and sustained pressure on them. It wasn't hot at all, and he couldn't feel any anger or depression from the sphere, but it was heavy in a way he couldn't believe.

_'This... isn't a ki attack. Or rather: this isn't our ki. This is...!'_

Finally, two dozen yards away, the ball of light dissipated in his clenched hands.

Glaring up, he raised an arm, intercepting a slippered foot before it could find his chin. The energy of the flying kick redirected down into the ground, the pavement under his left foot cracking. Arm and foot snapped apart with a blast of air, and a slender umbrella shot up as the younger Ryouga was already in mid swing with his umbrella, using it baseball style, two handed and using his entire body's momentum behind it.

The futuristic umbrella slammed into his own harder than he could have anticipated. A deafening _clang_ rang out as the weapons crossed, and only the indestructible nature of his slender umbrella prevented it from folding in half like a match stick. Somehow, that umbrella felt like it weighed a ton! Raising his median of gravity up and 'out' of the ground, he skidded to a stop before he could plow into a parked plane.

A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that it was currently empty. Good. It wouldn't do for a bunch of civilians to see him tossing energy bolts around. Focusing his attention back on his charging opponent, he took a half second to think about that attack he had just been hit with. He'd been expecting - waiting, even - for the other him to use a _shishi hokoudan_. There was no way a Ryouga Hibiki, clone or not, lacked the ability.

That "ki" attack before felt... it felt a bit like a breaking point resonation.

It wasn't emotive; it wasn't pure ki; reason indicated it had to be elemental. Earth ki. That was troublesome. This copy had a remarkable degree of attunement with the Earth and the associated elements of the Wu Xing. But... that was only trouble if it got a clean hit. The younger fighter should have saved that move for an emergency. Just using it like he had, instead of as a true finishing move, was a mistake.

Charging in to meet the foe, Hibiki countered the downward stroke of his enemy's umbrella with his own. The blow sent a wave of force into his arm, but it was easily directed back into the ground now that he could anticipate the unbelievable of weight to the umbrella. Bringing his left arm out, Iron Cloth cutting through the air, he noted the double as it barely managed to twist the weapon around to block. As expected, the material - though mundane compared to alien alloy - managed to parry the strike.

"Zantetsununo."  
(Iron Killing Cloth Technique)

The belt sword hummed with energy as he brought it back and around, hitting the now upright T-brella again. Hibiki shifted the impact of the edge, digging it against the frame of the sturdy weapon. When it came back, a sparking nick was left behind. A counter strike punched through the air to the left of his face, quickly dodged.

Umbrellas clashed with a resounding clang, neither one yielding to the other, one man using the two handed style the other one handed. Ryouga brought his weapon around, only to find it blocked by crossed umbrella and beltsword. Dancing back, he narrowing avoided being impaled by his opponent's belt blade. The T-brella came down again, deflecting it before it could extend and slice into leg and ligament. The weapons clashed, came around, and hit the ground on the other side, shattering tarmac.

Roaring, the T-brella came back around in a low strike. Sparks flew as they went back and forth, for once, neither able to overpower or outmaneuver their opponent. Despite the spiral of hatred and rage he kept cycled up, the older of the pair found himself smiling. This copy... whatever else it was, it wasn't like the one from before. It wasn't just the techniques or the intent in his aura. This wasn't just an opponent he needed to defeat. This was... this was another martial artist.

_'I can't believe I'm enjoying this! Why? Why?_'

Why? It was just another damned alien-human copy, just like the last one. Wasn't it?

_'That's right. I should've used a killing or crippling move from the get go, or a psi-attack, but this guy is...'_

That was it: this one fought, not just to win, but to _live_.

Blocking the strange umbrella with his belt sword, he focused, and it morphed instantly into a whip, coiling tightly around the damaged weapon. The weight of it was deceptive, even to someone who had learned to inject ki into bamboo to make it as heavy as lead. Against most any opponent, it would be a tremendous shock and a devastating weapon. The belt ensnared the T-brella, and the locked back into 'iron cloth' form, creating a vice stronger than a loop of tempered steel.

With a yank, he pushed the weapon out of the way and slammed the butt of his alien alloy umbrella into his opponent's nose. He'd momentarily considered trying to hit the ren-zhong point, the meridian between the nose and upper lip, but that was a killing move. Trying to crush the copy's nose was more amusing, and despite his feelings before, Hibiki hadn't held back in delivering the blow. A spurt of crimson shot out from the left nostril in a messy spray. His stunned state wouldn't last long, even with an injury like that. The clone was a Hibiki. He would shrug it off in the time it took most people to swat at, and miss, a fly.

Instead, four breaking points exploded all around them, the force of the blasts directed at one spot.

Rather than attack, the lieutenant took the opportunity to wrench the T-brella out of his opponent's hands. Flipping it around and taking the second umbrella by the hilt, he grinned bloodily at the comforting weight. It was a pleasant reminder of the old days. Back before... all this.

"Hey. You still alive?" he asked the expanding dust cloud.

The younger him stepped out of the ring of craters, looking very little worse for wear, and spitting a bit of rock out of his mouth.

Ryouga smirked, at the question. "Still alive? That lame attack of yours wouldn't even hurt _you_, what makes you think it would even sting me? Still, if you think you need to take a break, feel free."

For some reason, the sight of it made the older Hibiki smile.

_'This guy... isn't like the other one at all. Kind of a brat, but nothing like a real enemy.'_

"Why?" he felt the need to ask, but knew it would likely go unanswered. "You said you were headed to California. Why? I doubt it was for the beaches."

The younger Ryouga considered the question, taking the momentary lull in the action to catch his breath. This fight hadn't exactly gone the way he thought it would, though he was sure he could win in the end. Of course, the older Hibiki did seem to have a ... slight advantage, now holding all the umbrellas, as it were.

In the privacy of his mind, he had to admit, this clone of him was good; a little too good. The young Titan was starting to think that the apparent year or two age gap between them was more than just cosmetic. Skill, in spades – though he was still no Ranma - the ability to use ki attacks and breaking points from places other than the hands, a bit more speed, too, though not by a huge margin. The double's toughness was definitely lagging, but not really enough to let him end the fight decisively. And so much _hatred_ wrapped up in him! Well, maybe not in him, but it sure as hell was around him! That battle aura was all but screaming for carnage: so much vitriol and poison, so much burning rage...

Suddenly, Ryouga took a step back.

"Why am I going to California?" he asked. "That's none of your damn business! All I gotta do is wait for Raven to finish off Kuno, then we'll drop you like Gosunkugi, you half baked test tube baby!"

Hibiki growled at the less than complimentary comparison. Surging forward, umbrella in each hand, he lashed out with a downward slash with the lighter of the two weapons, before following up with an air sundering thrust from the heavier weapon. Skipping backwards, Ryouga slid out of reach of the first attack, then side stepped the next, taking a few long steps to keep out of reach. He continued his retreat, gathering a smaller sphere of the not quite visible energy in his hand and launching it at the ground next to Hibiki.

Rather than crush into the ground, the energy sank into the ground seamlessly, only to cause a massive eruption of asphalt and dirt to blast out from the epicenter.

_'A distance tenketsu using his ki attack?'_ Hibiki thought in appreciation. _'Nice. Very nice! What else can you do?'_

The uniformed fighter protected himself easily by snapping open the alien alloy umbrella, using the canopy to block the bulk of the debris, but the maneuver bought his copy the time he needed to gain more distance. It seemed that the younger fighter was intent on waiting him out, continually backing off and throwing more invisible blasts to throw up a blinding smokescreen.

The seasoned warrior wouldn't let such a meager defense stop him.

He couldn't afford to give the younger fighter's - admittedly sketchy – plot a chance to work. If there was even a slight chance that Kuno could lose against the nearly beaten Ethereal girl, he had to make sure he was there to drop her. A psi-attack was tempting, but unnecessary. This was a martial arts duel now, between martial artists; not to mention that the way both of their auras were burning he doubted he would be able to actually manage a useful attack anyway. That in mind, he flared his aura further, blasting away the dust cloud by pure force of will. Charging forward, he lashed out savagely, one umbrella following the other in rapid succession as he demolished the runway in his pursuit.

Now that he was focused solely on defense, and unburdened by his heavy weapon, the frustrating little bastard was proving hard to hit, and even the glancing blows did little more than throw off his rhythm for a moment. He had no idea what this guy was made of, but he found himself a bit envious of his resistance to damage. Not that it would help as much in his line of work, since you couldn't tank a plasma blast or a psi-attack, but it would be useful as a martial artist, if not as a soldier. Setting himself up for a particularly cunning combination, lifting his foot to strike out with a rapid tenketsu to lead into a devastating combo with the umbrellas -

Suddenly Ryouga stopped his flight. In an instant, the younger warrior reversed his direction, switching from defense to offense so quickly that he nearly penetrated Hibiki's defense completely. Instinct was a powerful defense, though, and Hibiki stepped back, crossing the umbrellas before him to catch the surprise uppercut. Except the uppercut missed him by a good foot?

Wait: uppercut?

Realization, stark and merciless, settled on Hibiki just a second too late as the sound of the howling winds began to build in his ears. Sloppy. He'd gotten sloppy. This was a move he'd seen a dozen times and more, and one he bloody well _trained against_ literally every week.

"Damn you, RANMA!"

The winds kicked up, hot and then cold, slamming into the lieutenant's face. This had to somehow be Ranma's fault. GODS but he hated the _hiryu shoten ha_. GODS how he was sick of it and all the endless variants Saotome came up with every five days. Being tossed up into the air, without the ground to root him, pummeled by cutting winds and two hundred miles per hour debris... it was about the most annoying technique a fighter of his inclination could imagine.

So.

For a moment, Hibiki hung in midair, being slowly lifted higher and higher with each passing second. Electricity crackled within the wind of the forming tornado and a light burned between Hibiki's outstretched hands. Heat swirled up, the contrast of forces surging for just a bit more power, just a bit more energy, to kick in past the point of no return. The end result, after a moment's lengthy pause, was an anemic blast of air up and away.

Hibiki landed on his feet, his battle aura of black and green completely absent. Ryouga watched him with something akin to confusion. They both knew Herb's trick, but this wasn't it. He clearly had no idea how someone could simply shut off such a monstrous aura so abruptly. They hadn't been circling long, and the hot ki in the area likewise dimmed on command.

It wasn't just that, though.

"Of all things. You use Ranma's stupid trick," the older Hibiki growled, more put-out than really angry, now that the safety on his self-hypnosis had tripped and deactivated. "As if I wouldn't come up with a way to counter it. The cheating bastard tries to hit me with it every time we spar."

"I ... have no idea what you just did - not even sure how that was actually possible - but parlor tricks like that won't stop me," the younger martial artist growled, annoyed that his, admittedly shaky, ace in the hole had been foiled so easily.

Not waiting for his opponent to make some pithy response, Ryouga charged forward again, intent on taking advantage of the strange chi drain the Rising Dragon usually inflicted, however small. Hibiki brought the umbrellas up again, blocking with the slender one while slashing down with the larger, heavier umbrella. Twisting nimbly to the side, Ryouga avoided the downward slash, but his fist clanked lightly against the slender umbrella.

Rather than try to push forward and break the block, though, he pulled back slightly, to run his finger down the length of the metal umbrella with blinding speed. It looked like he'd been aiming to knock it out with a breaking point, but the metal... wasn't like anything natural. It didn't respond to him at all. A second later, he leapt back out of range as Hibiki slammed a charged foot into the ground, causing a small explosion.

"Alright. I think that's enough."

Hibiki took a step back, away from his younger double. He contemplated, then, reactivating his internal enhanced battle aura using self-hypnosis again. He didn't even need the psi-amp to do it, it just made the transition easier. However, at this point, aside from the _Urakaze Tenketsu_ and some of his Last Resort techniques, the last major weapon in his arsenal was the _Satsugai Tenketsu_, used not on an umbrella, but on flesh and blood. He had killed the last doppleganger in much the same way, using an inferior version of the technique, and from what he had seen of this one it wouldn't be nearly as difficult or dangerous to get a good hold long enough to set off an irreversible Killing Point. Earlier, when the fight started, he wouldn't have even given it much thought.

But now, after all this...

Especially after seeing the emotional calm and elemental composure this him had...?

"Yeah. This is enough," he said again. "You." He pointed at the clone. "You're under the impression this is a duel between you and me, and I suppose it was, but think about it. If you beat me and rescue your girlfriend back there, do you really think you'll escape?"

He pointed up.

"Can you see them? Up in the clouds? I have a squadron of F-15s and F-16s overhead, sortied from the JSDF base about fifty miles from here. I have roughly forty police and national law enforcement agents, including snipers, on the ground and in the air covering every escape route. I have a satellite and a drone recording our every move."

He lowered his finger.

"I just got word Mousse and Ryu are back up and in action. You're surrounded. You're out-gunned. There's no where you can hide... even if you fled to the States, we'll simply contact NSA and Homeland Security to place you both on the terrorist watch list. You'll never get on a plane or boat or train... never walk in front of a camera... without calling down someone like me."

He paused, then drove the point home with a nail.

"You want to protect that girl?" he asked, knowing well the answer. "Give up. That's the only victory you'll find here."

The other Ryouga frowned, still in his fighting stance. Clearly his instincts were telling him to charge forward again. Perhaps he thought he could win this fight ... that his opponent had just been - been a bit lucky up till this point. Hibiki could see the hot blooded need to fight just looking for justification to keep going. Hell, he understood it perfectly. It wasn't like he felt any different.

_'So,'_ the lieutenant thought. _'What will you do?'_

...

Ryouga had to admit... there were an awful lot of police around.

Which really made no damn sense! If this was the Headmaster's work, how had his influence spread so far, especially since last he'd heard, the monster was still in prison? He was certain that escaping the police wouldn't be a huge problem, but only if he could actually make it past this ... Ryouga Hibiki of dubious morality. But what would they do when they needed to stop to eat? To sleep? What would they do if they did escape and brought this entire mess down on the heads of their friends?

A part of him really didn't care. A large part of him wanted to take this fight to its ultimate conclusion. He was _sure_ that he could take this bastard. Just because he was older, faster, and more - he would have spit the word were he speaking - _skilled_, he was also just so blatantly evil that there was no _way_ that he could lose to him! Plus, this wasn't just some guy in big red powered armor, or some thug with a super powerful punch. Evil and wrong-headed though he was, this was another practitioner of the Art. Fighting him was... exciting.

_'I want to win!'_

But, he wasn't alone, was he? This wasn't just his fight to win or lose.

Looking around anxiously, Ryouga never gave up his stance. "What's the matter?" he asked. "So scared of me that you need to hide behind an army of armed soldiers and war machines? I mean, c'mon? Threatening me with _Mousse_ of all people? Where's your pride, man?"

The older Hibiki stared at him with a level, appraising look.

"I'm a soldier. My responsibility is to my mission, my comrades, my country and my people. I gave my word, my oath, my life to them. So if I have to _swallow my pride_ to fulfill my responsibilities, then I will do so." He narrowed his eyes slightly. "This is your one and only chance. Stand. Down. Or I will shut you down."

Ryouga looked around again.

"Alright then. Say I do _stand down_," he added as much scorn and derisiveness to the words as was possible for a Hibiki "What then? No offense, but you psychos have been trying to kill us from the start. If you're just going to take us out back and shoot us, well, frankly, I'd rather die on my feet. And if you need a hundred guys to do it, well hell, that just looks good on me, now doesn't it?"

The other him smirked at the statement.

"Spoken like a true Hibiki. Grandpa would be proud," the older fighter replied. "You're a clone of me, and that girl back there playing tag with Kuno is either an infiltrator or a loose psychic. I'm not exactly eager to have another copy of myself running around, but what happens to you is up to Command, not me. I just bring them in. If you aren't infiltrators, if you're _human_, then we'll tag you, screen you, and find you a nice place to retire to."

He quickly added, "However, if you _are_ enemy agents, that's another story. But do you really have a choice? The alternative is you go out with a bang, kill maybe a dozen cops, and we let the docs study your corpse."

Ryouga rolled his eyes.

"Look, for the last time, _you_ are the evil clone, not me! And ... well, yeah, Raven is kind of a psychic, but last I heard that wasn't a crime. Who are you supposed to work for, anyway? Why are the cops even backing you up? I know Mousse is supposed to be Justice League, and Ryu is supposed to be in the SNDF with Ranma, but how in the heck did an obvious fake like you pull the wool over anyone's eyes?" Snorting to himself, he then looked to the side and muttered under his voice, _"I'm a 'way' better Ryouga than this clown."_

"SNDF? Justice League?" The older him raised a single eyebrow in the universal gesture of unconvinced inquiry. "Really? _'Justice League'_? ... That some Super Sentai series or something? If you must know, I'm currently operating under the authority of the Public Security Intelligence Agency and the Japanese Ministry of Justice. So are the rest of my team... and Ranma and his group. You should know this already."

"And why the heck would I know any of that?" Ryouga barked back. "_You_ can't be a part of the Japanese military because _we_ went to the States, like, months ago!" Man, he seriously wanted to hit something. "I mean, come on, just look at yourself! You're overflowing with evil ki! Or you were, just a minute ago! You toss around killing techniques without even blinking. You - you use _guns_! Can you seriously look me in the eyes and say that _I'm_ the evil clone here? It's like someone hand crafted you out of my nightmares."

"Oh, gee, thanks," he - the other him - remarked, taking out the holstered laser pistol in question. "Oh no! A gun! I must be the evil, because super heavy umbrellas and swords and ki attacks and, uh yeah, tornados! They're all fine, but guns are super evil, right?"

Ryouga gave the older him a scathing look.

"It doesn't matter one lick what you think I am anyway, as long as you come along peacefully." He motioned for the younger man to turn around. "You have most of my memories, so you know when someone's going to cuff you. Go on, hands behind your back."

"What for?" Ryouga barked acidly. "Is this some kind of trust exercise? Those things wouldn't stop either of us from tossing in our sleep."

He still didn't like this alternate him; he was pompous and arrogant. Just cuz he got in a few lucky shots here and there. But ... it didn't really matter what happened to him. Raven and Kuno were still dancing about, but he could tell she still hadn't recovered fully from whatever it was that had happened to her earlier.

"Look... _Mr._ Hibiki... if you promise me that Raven won't be injured ... then - _then_ - I promise that I'll go with you willingly." He held out his hands before him. "I want your word, though. On the family name."

"You know, I'm not Tetsuya, you don't have to call me _Mister_ Hibiki. Hell, we're _supposed_ to be the same age. The other one was identical..." he shook his head, and nodded. "I'm not in charge, but while I am, I'll do what I can to keep that girl from being killed. Provided she follows your example and gives up. I'll swear it on... gods... on _our _familyname."

Motioning him to turn around, the younger Ryouga warily did so. Snapping a pair of cuffs around the younger man's wrists, the Lieutenant activated the restraint function. Naturally, these weren't typical police handcuffs. Those wouldn't have held even his elementary school self. These were alien alloy, unbreakable to even someone of his unique capabilities.

The restraints self tightened, molding to the wrist to prevent normal forms of escape. Even dislocation of the bones of the hand wouldn't be able to get them off. Holstering his laser pistol, silently glad he didn't end up using it, he noticed the look on the would-be clone's face.

"You didn't notice it before? Thought we'd use regular cuffs?" Hibiki asked. "Come on. Let's go check on your little girlfriend."

"Oh, and as for my evil ki..." he said, grabbing the younger Ryouga's shoulder to get him moving. "That's in the eye of the beholder. You can keep shooting flowers out of your ass if you want. I've got other priorities."

"Yeah, you just keep justifying," Ryouga muttered. Idly, he tapped a finger against the cuffs. It was the same stuff as the umbrella before.

He then turned towards the distant fight.

"Raven!" he yelled. "You can stop manhandling Kuno. We... we need to surrender!"

Even across the distance, he noted Raven stare at him incredulously. "We need to what?"

She didn't lower her guard, still floating backwards quickly to avoid the slashing sword of the samurai, but she quickly shifted her path to bring her in their direction.

"The maiden is clearly possessed by a demonic force! The righteous power of Tatewaki Kuno, Age 20, compels you! Step into the light and release the girl, creature of evil!" Kuno laughed madly, raising his sword up to strike a triumphant pose. Thunder and waves crashed, and a halo seemed to encircle the noble swordsman.

"Nice to see you're as un-killable as always, Kuno."

"Mine opponent, despite her previous appearance, has not been particularly pernicious in her attacks," he observed, batting away a shadow tendril that tried to dirty his self-absolved halo. "Cease thy shadowy attacks, woman! I'm trying to speak here!"

Raven's only response was an inquisitive quirk of one eyebrow.

"Mousse and Ryu are incoming with Red team and SWAT," the non-bound Hibki explained, clearly talking to the kendoist. He glanced over to Raven. "I'm having them form a perimeter as we speak. You - Raven - this is over. Remand yourself to our authority immediately."

The dark girl turned her eye Ryouga's way. "Are ... you certain? They've proven to be nothing but treacherous and offensive since they first made their presence known."

Ryouga returned her look with a smirk of his own. "Naw, that's just how Kuno normally is. You were just lucky enough that you didn't have to deal with him much. Still, Raven-" he started again, this time his voice taking on a much more serious note. "You said you wanted me to take the lead, well... listen to me now. Mr. Hibiki here-"

"I'm not that old. Don't call me 'Mister.'"

"-might be an insufferable ass," the younger Hibiki continued. "But I think we can at least trust him to keep you safe as long as we're in his charge."

She didn't turn her back on Kuno, who had finally relented in his assault, but slowly floated to Ryouga's side. Landing gently on the ground, she took a hold of his sleeve so as to lean against him so that he could help support her weight. The look on her face could only be explained as questioning, but finally she nodded. "You're right. We can't fight these odds ... not like this. Still, if he betrays us - "

Ryouga beat her to the punch, glaring at Hibiki. "If he betrays us, it will be the last mistake he makes." Taking a deep breath, he then straightened his back proudly. "Alright, Toy Soldier, let's go already."

"Like I need _you_ to tell me that."

"But lieutenant, are you sure this is right?" Kuno asked, walking up with his sword resting on his shoulder. "Should the fight not end with a great display of clashing powers, or a tremendous explosion or a crying maiden - say, that one, since she is available - " he pointed over at Raven with his free hand. "Wailing for her beloved to survive the terrible clash of blades? What happened to the erstwhile tornado I felt forming?"

"Fizzled."

"A true shame." The sword gleamed as it caught a ray of light, as he stared off at a distant memory. "So it falls on the house of Kuno to provide the day's pathos?"

"No, it doesn't. I'm sure we'll have another near death experience on the battlefield next week," the older Ryouga predicted, voice deadpan. "In the meantime, cuff the girl so we can call this Op. You-know-who's already giving me lip about all the property damage. And there she goes in my ear about 'pointlessly indulging in martial arts duels.' Yes, I _know_ you heard that."

Raven complied, putting her hands behind her back as the man she had been fighting snapped cuffs on her. It was... it was just wrong. This was the sort of position the criminals she and Ryouga apprehended ended in. They would always slump as the police led them off, or bused them into a van, looking dejected and defeated. But they _deserved_ it!

She didn't! They didn't!

She and Ryouga hadn't done anything wrong. They were heroes! They should be the ones watching and joking while the criminals were led off. It should have been those two in their position! Or... or even when superheroes fought, which she had to admit kind of happened an awful lot, no one got arrested for it. No hero turned other heroes in to the _police_, even when they were technically vigilantes. This was just wrong and frustrating and... _and wrong_ on every level!

"Chin up, girl."

She heard the tone, recognized the voice as the other Ryouga's, and turned her head.

Only to find something snap around her forehead, like a tiara. It locked in place with an audible snap, reminding her immediately of this annoying toy Beast Boy had once used to raise a racket back at the Tower, months ago. Except this time, whatever it was, was attached to her head.

"Hey!" Ryouga - her Ryouga - immediately objected.

"Relax," the older one said, walking in front of them. "Psi-scrambler. Perfectly harmless. I'm not gonna take the chance your lady friend here grows another pair of eyes and tries to eat one of my men."

Rather than protest, Raven just leveled a droll expression at the older Hibiki. "If using this thing makes you feel safe, then feel free."

Chuckling, Ryouga walked up beside her, closing in until their shoulders were touching. "Don't worry, Raven. I'll protect them from scary little you ... Well, except for Kuno, feel free to eat him if you want."

Raven turned to regard the swordsman, only to run her tongue over her lips tellingly. "Mmmm, with all that gristle and deluded nobility? I'd likely get indigestion."

"I suppose it is comforting, all things considering," Ryouga quipped, "That evil clones or not, that some things don't change."

The violet haired girl shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, from what Mousse said, it sounded like Nabiki was involved, actually organizing their efforts. Doing anything productive hardly seems to be in character for that one."

Ryouga laughed out loud. "What? Nabiki, orchestrating the movements of a group of evil doppelgangers? What could be more Nabiki-ish than that?"

"Oh?" The older Hibiki interrupted, having overheard. "It's sad, but it does seem kind of in character for her." He then winced at some barely audible objections in his earpiece. "Geez, I was kidding. It was a joke."

Kuno strolled over, sword still in hand, but with no intent to use it.

"How are we moving them out, sir?"

"Helicopter at this point. Hell if I know where Command is gonna send them once we're in the air. Hisen doesn't have the facilities as far as I know, but maybe...? We were _supposed_ to return with one corpse and one human it was holding captive, not... not another me and the pint sized class-AA psychic over there." The uniformed Hibiki took a deep breath and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "This is a real mess."

A couple seconds later, a tired looking man with a white bandanna jogged over. Right behind him was the familiar form of Mousse, in a new set of white robes. He seemed a little pale, but clearly on his feet and active. The two quick stepped and came to an abrupt stop near the two captives. For a few seconds, Ryu and Mousse glared at the two who had beaten them before.

Then Ryu nodded, once, at the captive Hibiki.

"Good fight," he remarked, without malice.

Mousse scoffed. "Mission accomplished at least. Just once, can we have a mission where the harmless girl doesn't turn into a monster or have a killer doll or make the walls bleed?"

"That is what makes our adventures so amusing, my near sighted friend!"

"..."

"Ryu." Hibiki cut in. "The perimeter."

"Secure, sir. We have SWAT from here to the highway. Two planes on standby. ATC will probably be requesting they start landing again soon."

"We can't stay here," Mousse observed.

"No, and I'm just getting word we don't have the full facilities for a double-A at Hisen, but they're working on something." He took a few seconds to consider the options. "Alright. Ryu. Oversee final cleanup of the scene. DisInfo is probably going to go with a bomb story. Watch the comm for updates and make sure this place is spotless by the time you leave. If there's a psychic imprint left by the girl, I want it washed clean. The last thing we need is a back trace to source."

"Kuno, you and Mousse are with me. We need to find an intermediate site while they set up the equipment at Hisen. Nabiki. We have the targets; I want their records erased. That includes all public databases..." he paused, obviously carrying on a conversation though his earpiece. "I'll submit that with my report. Yes, I know. Good!"

Sighing, he gave the two captives a hard stare.

"Right," he finally said, and motioned Mousse and Kuno to escort the pair. "We're going to extraction point beta for now. I'll work out something en route."

The two started walking, allowing their CO to fall behind and follow. He'd retrieved a large tablet-like device, and seemed to be quickly scrolling through something with his index finger. Raven and the younger Ryouga were quickly ushered past a line of heavily armed police officers - all giving them a wide berth - and into a waiting van, black, with government issue plates. The five were able to fit inside fairly easily, and a moment later, they took off.

For a while, the noise of the engine was the only sound breaking the silence.

Then with an exaggerated move, Kuno reached under the seat to retrieve a small duffel bag. A second of rummaging later, and his hand emerged with a bottle of water. Seated next to his captive, he held it out in a gentlemanly offer, silent but genuine. Seated opposite, Mousse shook his head in amusement.

_'Typical.'_

Raven shook her head at the offered drink.

"No, thank you," she replied, a little pleased by the polite offer.

Ryouga tried to hold his peace ... he really tried, but sitting there, watching Kuno drinking a water bottle, and Mousse sitting back like a good little soldier, he couldn't help himself.

He began to snicker.

Immediately, eyes began to fall on him. Even Raven nudged him not so gently with a kick to the foot. The two leaned forward to whisper.

"What?" she hissed quietly.

"N-nothing," he managed to fight out between strangled laughter.

"If it's nothing, then quit it," she muttered. "They're going to think you're going insane."

Another choked laugh. "I'm ... I'm _trying _- "

But he could not. A moment later, he broke into side splitting laughter. "Oh _man_! I'm sorry - I'm sorry. It's just: Kuno? Mousse? _SIR_!"

He nearly broke down completely. "These guys, following _you_?" He stared pointedly at Hibiki. "I mean, I don't really know this Ryu guy, but seriously! What bet did you lose to get stuck with those two? And what Prime Minister did they offend to get stuck with _us_ as their _leader_!"

"Ryouga!" Raven barked, scandalized. "Can you possibly try to insult everyone a little more?"

Mousse and Kuno both scowled, and turned to their officer.

"These men have saved my life," the older Ryouga explained, slowly, his voice deceptively calm. "Besides that, they've put themselves on the line time and again for their country and the human race as a whole. I'd watch what I say about them when you're around me."

Ryouga barely managed to hold in another bout of chuckles. "B-but it's Mousse and Kuno! When I think back to Nerima, we were practically the Three Stooges - "

Suddenly, his laughter stopped, Raven catching his eye. "That's enough, Ryouga. Both of our friends, and you yourself, have come a long way since Nerima. This situation might be beyond strange, but don't you realize that you're insulting yourself, as well as the Kuno and Mousse that we know, all of whom have gone on to become heroic and selfless people?"

That little rebuke was enough to dampen his amusement. Pouting slightly, he looked down at his feet. He did feel a bit bad now. It was so easy to forget that Kuno was in their sister team, and that Mousse had actually joined the Justice League itself.

"Fine ... fine-" he quickly followed by muttering under his breath "- This other me is still a jerk, though."

Keeping a reproachful eye on her companion for a moment longer, Raven finally nodded to herself, confident that her lesson had been received. All of this self deprecating humor wasn't good for Ryouga. He needed to start finding out who he was for himself, rather than defining himself by the tasks he had been assigned by others.

Deciding to give him some time to think on that, she turned her attention to Mousse. The tall boy - well, not really a boy anymore, now that she thought about it - was looking pale and drawn, but not seriously damaged from their encounter, which was comforting. Still, he seemed like the best bet to get a decent conversation from, given her other choices.

"So, Mousse ... when was the last time you were back to the village?"

The weapons master stared at her, just then, with a sort of intense expression.

"What?" he asked, quietly.

"The Amazon village?" Raven repeated, a bit more curious now.

Mousse turned to his commanding officer, as if asking something unspoken. Next to Raven, Kuno kept silent, staring down at his bottled water. Ryouga sensed it too, a change in the air, and in the emotions of the three slightly older martial artists. Finally, Hibiki let out a low breath and picked his tablet back up. It seemed to be silent permission to do as he pleased, so Mousse turned to face Raven, schooling his face and voice.

"The last time...?" he began, carefully hiding his eyes behind his glasses. "The last time was to visit my mother. She was having a property dispute."

Raven nodded. That sort of thing seemed to be quite common in the village. Just because it was so rustic and scenic didn't mean it wasn't loaded with politics all its own.

"That was nice of you. I don't think we actually met your mother when we were there. Tell me, have you heard any more concerning the results of the Council's vote?"

It still brought a smile to her lips, thinking back to the theatrics Mousse unleashed to show his gratitude for 'sparing his life' for breaking Amazonian law. As if he was ever in any danger. She somehow doubted that she would be able to get a foot massage from the long haired man before her, he ... didn't seem to be quite as open and friendly as his counterpart had turned out to be.

"The Council," he very nearly spat the words out. "Wait... when were you at the village? Don't tell me you were one of - " he actually bit his tongue. "Anyway, there is no Amazon Council anymore. If you're referring to their last ruling, they made their decision... and paid for it."

Well, that was very much like Mousse, wasn't it, so melodramatic. Maybe he was more like his doppelganger than she thought? She rolled her eyes before responding.

"Paid for it? Honestly, you make it sound the end of the world." She considered his words more closely. The vote had been to bring the village more into the modern age, rather than stagnate in their rigid traditions. Perhaps they had moved ahead their society more quickly than she'd imagined.

"And the council has been dissolved?" she asked. "Did they decide to replace it with some form of democratic system? I knew they were planning on modernizing the village, but I didn't think they would make such a bold move so soon."

Ryouga scoffed. "Yeah, right, I can't see even half of those old ladies giving up their comfy council seats without fighting tooth and nail."

Mousse crossed his arms as he leaned back into his seat.

"The Council wasn't dissolved," he explained, speaking deliberately. "About four months ago, Shampoo sent a letter back home, warning them that the village was going to come under attack. She pleaded with them to either evacuate or step up security. Ku Lon used her influence over Sin Ke and Pi Lu to block the measure and censor any attempt at debate. A month later, all three betrayed the village. When I said 'there is no Council' I meant that all but Ku Lon are now dead. The old Amazons are gone."

Raven blanched, an impressive feat for the already pale girl, but before she even had the chance to gasp in shock, she was cut off.

"That's bullcrap!" Ryouga barked. "I spoke with Cologne just a few weeks ago, and she was _in_ the village. She never mentioned anything like that. And Cyborg and Starfire are in contact with the village all the time."

Raven shook her head. "That can't be possible. What attack could have possibly been dire enough to threaten the Amazons? Their alliance with the Tamaranians would be more than enough dissuade anything barring intergalactic warlords."

"I was there," Mousse said, simply.

"As was I," Kuno added. "It was a black night to be sure."

"We were all there." This time it was the older Hibiki who spoke up, "My team, Ranma's, even Akane and the Musk. Our first terror site. I'll never forget that smell... that mix of blood, shit, and charcoal. I don't know what these Tamaranians are, but if they're more damned aliens, then I wouldn't put it past Cologne to hook up with them. But the village itself is gone. Just empty streets and burned buildings."

"Terror site?" Raven asked. "What are you talking abou-"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Ryouga barked furiously. "There's no way the village is gone! I'm pretty sure Lotion would have mentioned something like 'Oh, by the way, our village was burned to the ground,' when she spoke to Cyborg _three nights ago!_ I don't know what kind of sick game you're playing, but I don't want to hear it!"

"Ryouga, calm down," Raven cut in, concern in her voice. She then turned back to the older version of the same. Something had been bothering her since they'd been in the airport. She'd dismissed it at the time, since it was too implausible, but considering everything else, it was starting to appear worryingly possible.

"Mr. Hibiki, you said this happened less than four months ago?" she asked, to be sure, and he nodded. "I know this is going to sound strange, but ... what is the current date, by the western calendar?"

"You've been wandering around and don't know the date?" he asked. "It's February ninetieth. Two thousand and seven."

Raven's expression changed, then, her eyes widening.

"You say you spoke with Cologne? A few weeks ago?" the Lieutenant's eyes went from the girl to the slightly younger him and then back. "Our Intel is that she escaped off-world. There are no records of either of you two going back more than a week..."

An idea, somewhat ridiculous, tentatively scratched the surface of the older Hibiki's thoughts.

"This Cologne you spoke to," Hibiki then asked. "Was she old, or young?"

For his part, Ryouga frowned. It seemed fairly impossible, but not totally out of the bounds of their normal insanity. Hadn't Starfire already mentioned taking a short stint into the future of her own? It did explain a few things, though not most, like, if they had traveled through time, then why the heck would 'he' still be there?

"Old, of course," he finally barked back. "And what do you mean 'escaped off world'? Did she go to Tamaran or something? And who the heck would she be escaping from? These other aliens you were hinting at?"

"She was escaping from us," Mousse answered, a dangerous glint catching his glasses.

"Not us, specifically," the older Ryouga corrected. Taking a hold of the sleeve of his right arm, he rolled it up to bunch around his shoulder, revealing the vine-like scar left behind by that battle. 'Something to remember me by' - those were Cologne's words. Even with his healing, he knew he would carry her mark the rest of his life.

"This is the handiwork of the Cologne I was talking about, the younger Cologne," he continued. "She's a copy of the old granny we know, the one that taught us the breaking point. The enemy - the aliens - managed to turn her, but instead of using the original, they created one based on her younger self, but with all her age and experience. She's a mix of human and alien, now, what we call a Trenchard."

"The fight that gave me this scar... Ranma and I tried to take her on and she nearly killed us. Even after her older self showed up to help." He scoffed, resting his arms on his legs. "Last we heard, she fled to join the other hybrids like her on Mars, but we've found more than a few of her presents still lying around."

"Like you," Mousse added, arms still crossed. "Other hybrids. Experiments she helped work on. We kill them before they kill us."

"Indeed!" Kuno agreed, capping his bottled water. "If it exists on this Earth, truly ours is the justice of heaven."

Ryouga laughed derisively. "Oh, the 'justice of heaven' of Kuno, is it? No wonder we're not even injured."

Before the proud swordsman could explode, Raven leaned forward. "That's enough, Ryouga. Everyone, listen. I don't think the situation is what any of us believe it to be."

She turned to Mousse. "You believe us to be aliens or clones, but that is not the case- " 'for the most part' she added mentally, "If what I believe happened, did happen, I believe we are... displaced in time. From over a year in the past, actually."

Kuno was the first to respond, with a stately but polite cough.

Mousse said nothing.

"A few days ago, I cleared out a shrine that many would say was infested with demons. The truth wasn't so cut and dry," India Squad's lieutenant replied. "I've seen and heard a lot of strange things, but what you're implying... I'm not saying you're lying, Miss, but memories can be implanted. Entire lives faked. You'll have to forgive my skepticism."

Ryouga scowled darkly at the older him. "Like we need _you_ to point out that fact! Trust me, I've dealt with that, and I know what's real and what's not."

The violet haired Titan, on the other hand, nodded.

"Normally, I would entertain your theory," Raven replied. "But consider the enormity of the task of which you are speaking. Certainly, you might be able to alter the mind of a person to fit certain situations, but it would be both utterly impractical and unproductive to create my life story from whole cloth. Only a complete lunatic would be able to imagine even our most recent adventures, let alone going all the way back to the beginning."

"Feh, more likely it's you guys with the fake memories," Ryouga muttered. "Alien abductions? Men in black? Sounds like you guys got a tape of the X-Files stuck in your head."

"A month back," Mousse said, frowning. "We hit a UFO... there was a woman in a tank, still wet from growth fluids, who swore she had a family and children. She even said, 'I went through child birth! My memories aren't fake!' ... of course they were. She was a fabrication. What you think you know is irrelevant. Our own psychics will find the truth."

"Exactly," Hibiki agreed. "No infiltrator ever admits to being what they are. Every one swears they're real. That everyone else is wrong, not them."

Outside, the van pulled up to a reinforced chain fence, stopping briefly to confirm its clearance before entering the compound beyond. A sign nearby displayed the location: Chitose Air Base. JASDF soldiers in fatigues guarded the perimeter and security personnel quickly checked the vehicle before waving it through and giving the all clear. A steel barricade blocking the road retracted, and the black van continued on into the air base.

Eventually, it slowed and pulled into an empty hangar.

The tiny black van stood in rather stark contrast to the massive hangar, large enough to house a wing of fighter jets. There were already more than a few military police and other armed men on duty, having been mustered to assist in the containment scenario. A large plastic enclosure sat in the center of the building, a short distance from the parked van.

The doors opened, and five figures filed out.

"Let me explain what's going to happen." Hibiki stepped out ahead of the two captives, Mousse and Kuno behind them. "You are both to remain here, in isolation, until I clear transport to an intermediate facility. If you need anything, you will ask one of the three of us, who will bring it to me. You will not leave. You do not get a phone call or a lawyer. Until proven otherwise, you are non-human enemy combatants. I expect we will only be here for a couple hours but it may be longer."

As the two targets went off to their containment tents, the lieutenant watched them go with a mixture of suspicion and hope. Mostly the former. The girl's powers were highly unusual, even if she was human and not some sort of alien spy. The other him was a bit of a brat, but probably still a clone. If Command kept him alive after this, then what? Would he be a Hibiki? Part of the family?

The thought was kind of galling.

Then he remembered "Yoiko" Hibiki and shuddered.

On second thought: it could be worse.

* * *

"This is bullshit!"

Fielding wasn't taking the news well. Not that she felt much better about the bureaucratic stonewalling, but Christianson could see the writing on the wall. Their perp had been sequestered away into 'special custody' without a normal interrogation. They'd barely had time to read him his Miranda rights and get him back to holding when the specialist techs took custody. The chief had gone along with it, saying that the orders came from the highest levels.

They were actively interfering in a police investigation now, which raised some interesting possibilities given the nature of their subject. The mystery man they'd brought in was using cybernetics and reconstructs like nothing she had ever seen before. Was he some kind of spy? If one of the consulates had raised a stink that would explain why they'd been told to back off on him. Was he some kind of escaped military… experiment or something? She'd never put much stock in that kind of stuff before, but now, maybe it was at least possible.

And the answers were just within reach, too!

She was sorely tempted to do something… rash.

Instead, she tried to repress the theories and hypotheticals that ran through her mind, a mile a minute. It did little to relieve her growing sense of frustration. She and Fielding had chased this guy through a third of New York City and now they couldn't even properly question him? It really was bullshit. So what if he was some kind of reconstruct addict with supped-up mods? This was still their jurisdiction.

Watching Fielding stalk off, she stewed with her thoughts for a few minutes before getting up and heading back to the holding cells. She couldn't officially interrogate him, but at least she could put some of her curiosity to rest. The chief had the entire rear area under lockdown; with the other prisoners moved out to prevent a panic. Bluffing her way past the men on duty was easier said than done, but none were taking the stand-by orders and jurisdictional screw-up well. The Feds just had to be their usual heavy handed selves, even here.

Christianson found their mystery man, still unnamed, sitting alone in a holding cell. Given the man's obvious strength and augmentations, there was little point in normal restraints. Hell, he could probably have broken out of the cell bare handed, and then there was that weapon modification on his arm… no one was exactly sure what to do about that. Except to post guards on him around the clock, for what good that would do.

At the moment, the perp appeared to be fiddling around with a small computer embedded in his right arm. That was something else they probably shouldn't be letting him do, but how to stop him? After a few moments, though, he looked up, apparently finally noticing her for the first time.

"Oh, hey there. I was wondering when you guys were gonna finally talk to me. I was starting to think something weird was going on; cops don't usually wait so long for interrogations."

"Apparently, we're not allowed to talk to you 'on the record.' I think there's some kind of legal confusion going on," she then dared to ask, already skirting the rules. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

He shrugged. "Not particularly. All I know is that you guys started tracking me down before I even did anything. I'm a bit curious about what's going on here. How did you guys even get on my trail in the first place?"

"You damaged public property and attempted to hijack the phone network."

Cyborg shook his head. "No, no, there's no way you would have just stumbled across that. I saw the phone booths in this city. Half of them were being used regularly as urinals. Am I supposed to believe that some super observant cop just happened to notice a cracked phone case and instantly assumed 'Hey, someone is trying to hijack the phone line!'?"

He stared at her flatly. "If you ain't got no real answers for me, then don't expect any in return."

"We got a tip on the damage done to the phone," she explained, guessing it wouldn't hurt. They didn't have the exact details of where the tip came from anyway. It wasn't hard to make an educated guess, though. "Probably thanks to a sharp eyed citizen. We'd assumed it was some terrorist putting C4 or some other explosive inside. You're not as smooth an operator as you seem to think, 'Mister Bond.'"

"Heh, I was right, this place is crazy paranoid. A 'sharp eyed citizen' that actually cares about payphones? I'm surprised you guys just don't have big brother cameras all over the place."

"You're confusing us with London."

No, the cybernetic teen wasn't buying it. He'd lived in neighborhoods like this one; a guy could be wailing on a phone booth with a baseball bat and people wouldn't bother to call the cops. And 'terrorists'? Inside one of the largest cities here in the US? Impossible. Plus, what kind of person sees someone vandalizing a phone booth and automatically assumes they're planting a _bomb_?

What? Was he part of an evil conspiracy to blow up homeless people? No one else used phone booths anymore, except for crazies like himself. Something wasn't right here, but he knew he wasn't going to be getting any straight answers here now.

So, instead he shrugged nonchalantly. "Smooth enough to just walk away from that little stake-out of yours. How long was your man waiting there? All night?"

"We got the evidence we needed," she said, instead. "You know, I'd kind of suspected you were using reconstructs, but nothing like all this." She pointed at the strange glowing blue metal and plastic that covered parts of his body. "Those aren't medical replacements. More like something out of Robocop. I suppose I should thank you for not putting up more of a fight, though. Bringing in the National Guard or Army or something for just one man would have been a bit embarrassing."

"Actually," Cyborg corrected her, "Most of them _are_ medical replacements. I've made a few upgrades myself over time, but that was the original intent completely." He then smirked, looking far too amused with himself. "And no problem on the last bit. I doubt even I could take out the _entire_ army ... well, reasonably sure, anyway."

Still, this cop knew about Robocop, eh? Some classics were just too good to not be made, he supposed, no matter the dimension. Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, he absently asked.

"... So ... Trek or Wars?"

"Including the Prequels?"

Cyborg recoiled in horror. "No! Say it ain't so! GL didn't make them here, too, did he!"

"Of course he did. Well, if 'by here' you mean out west in California I think?" A bit confused by the 'make them here' question, she brushed it off as an obvious misunderstanding. "Definitely the original three Wars. I guess it's no surprise where your tastes lie, what with the BFG in your arm and the hacking into satellites."

The cybernetic teen clucked his tongue disapprovingly. "A Jedi wannabe, eh? And here I thought we might be able to be friends. Guess I'm just more of a fan of the science then the fiction."

"Guilty as charged," Christianson replied with a shrug. "But I was never the Jedi type. I'm more of a bounty hunter at heart. Shame we don't have any carbonite around."

"Gah, no!" Cyborg moaned. "I get enough of this Star Wars fanboyism from Raven and B.B."

Waving his hands in a vain attempt to disrupt the odious conversation, he tried to change the topic. "Can't you just torture me, or something? Anything but another Versus debate!"

"There's no point. I can't question you without your lawyer present, so nothing is admissible in court, no matter what crazy stuff you blurt out." She leaned a bit closer to the cell, frowning a bit. "Not that I'm not curious. This is kind of like something out of the X-Files. I don't know where you're from or what kind of trouble you were planning to cause, but I can guess you'll be taken off my hands soon enough."

The bulky teen nodded. "Well, you are right that you have no idea what kind of trouble I was planning. There isn't much point in me trying to explain, since you wouldn't believe me anyway. Let's just say that this situation isn't what it looks like from any angle."

"Really?" she asked, dubiously. "Not another 'not guilty' plea? I saw you tampering with private property with my own two eyes."

Cyborg chuckled to himself. "Sure, if you wanna be all nit-picky about it. You're assuming I'm some kinda terrorist, though, so you got it in your head that I was trying to do something ... uh - terroristy. Like you said, though, if that's the assumption, then there isn't much point in trying to convince you otherwise, since higher ups are gonna be coming to take me away soon enough."

"I suppose you're right," she decided, taking a step back. "Before I go, mind if I ask what your name is? Since my partner and I have just been calling you John Doe till now."

He offered her a wry grin.

"You can call me Cyborg."

"More original than Steve Austin, I guess…" She started to walk off, but added before she did, "Victoria Christianson. Don't try anything funny until the Feds pick you up. You may be invulnerable, but I know your weakness. Trekkie."

Cyborg sighed to himself and set up another game of Tetris up on his arm. They'd sure left him to stew for a heck of a long time. Even that brief little 'unsolicited visit' hadn't done much to deal with his boredom. When was something going to happen? He was getting tempted to just walk through the wall and get back to work to contact his friends -

Moments into entertaining that thought, he heard footsteps.

Half expecting the return of Officer Christianson, Cyborg saw the new arrival, or arrivals rather, were a group of black-suits. At their head was a man with a light grey tie and neatly trimmed beard. His associates included an African American woman who could well have been a ringer for a taller and older Bumblebee and a clean shaven young man in his late twenties. They were obviously Feds, and the head of the trio spoke quickly with the police on duty, quickly dismissing them.

As the police filed out, he nodded to the woman to his right.

Cyborg's vision flashed with a moment's static, as some sort of wide range jamming signal blanketed the EM spectrum. Lights flickered and digital cameras and phones powered down as their batteries inexplicably lost charge. For Cyborg, the inconvenience was more personal though much less debilitating. It was simply putting more of a strain on his internal batteries and interfering with radio signal reception.

"That should give us some privacy," the man with the beard said, his two aides taking a few steps back from the cell. "My name is Agent Strauss, and these are Agents Clarke and Gerrera. I assume you know why the police were after you."

"Heh, funny you should mention that," Cyborg deadpanned, "As there was actually some debate about that. I'm totally not buying their 'well intentioned citizen noticed me messing with the phone booth and called it in' story. Maybe you guys know a bit more?"

"We do. I'm sure if you think about it, you'll realize it, too," he evasively replied, and picked out a small object in a plastic bag from his coat jacket. "Before all that, though, we need to talk about your technology and what you're doing here. If you cooperate, maybe we can help each other."

The cybernetic teen tilted his head to the side, interested. "Help me, eh? Considering you guys seem to think I'm a terrorist, that seems like a bit of an odd offer. You gonna help me blow up the homeless or something?"

"Don't be asinine. Based on the damage done and equipment used, you were breaking into global communications networks to contact someone or something." Straus, unlike Christianson, seemed to be fairly humorless. "Depending on what that something is, we may be able to work with you."

Leaning back on his bench, Cyborg folded his hands behind his head.

"Clever boys... uh - and girl," he replied. "Wasn't like I was trying to hide it, or anything, but no one else around these parts seemed to be able to catch onto the obvious yet."

Humming to himself for a second, Cyborg nodded to himself. "Alright then, if I cooperate, what kinda help do you think you can give, then?"

"You don't have a lot of options," Strauss assured. "Once we've investigated your intentions, my superiors will make a decision."

Opening the cell door, Agent Gerrera entered the room with a metallic trimmed briefcase. Agent Clarke was right behind him, and when he snapped open the case, she retrieved a set of metallic clasps, tinted a silvery shade of aluminum.

"Sir, what about…?" she asked, motioning to the side of her face.

"Better not chance it," Strauss decided. "We don't know the full extent of his cybernetics yet."

She nodded and faced Cyborg. "Please cross your wrists either in front or in back."

"We're not going to keep you here in the open any longer than we need to," Strauss explained in near monotone. "We can talk more once you're at a secure site and we know who you were trying to contact."

Cyborg quirked an eyebrow at the handcuffs, but shrugged and crossed his hands in front of him, regardless. "Well, you're doing a good job of winning me over so far. So where ya taking me then, that's more secure than an NYPD holding cell?"

"I'd say Area 51… or something like that, but I'd be joking." Completely humorless. Who even tried to joke with a droll voice like that? "Naturally you'll have to wait and see."

"Well, guess I'll wait and see, then." With that, Cyborg patiently waited for them to cuff him.

Strauss nodded, and Agent Clark snapped the smooth cuffs over his wrists, forming two loops almost like an 'S' before locking in place. Rather than add any further measures, the bearded agent merely gestured for Cyborg to follow as they left the cell, Agents Clark and Gerrera in tow. The halls they passed through were deserted; save for four more of the black suited men, some wearing mirrored glasses. The four exited the building out back, where a large white van and two similarly colorless cars sat, parked but ready to move out.

Inside the van, Strauss offered Cyborg a seat while the other two agents sat at his left and right.

"It will be some time before we reach the site," he explained, in a very Raven-like bored tone of voice. "Is there anything you need in the meantime? I assume your power reserves won't run out any time soon?"

"Naw, I'm good. Heck, if you guys roll down a window I could probably do a bit of solar charging during the ride to pass the time." He fidgeted around a bit, trying to find a comfortable position. "And seriously, couldn't you find a more comfortable ride? If I had muscles, they'd be stiff as crazy by the time we get where ever we're going."

"Just try to relax." Strauss tapped a pin on his suit. "Package is en route…"

It wasn't long before the van and tips two escorts left New York and entered New Jersey, turning off the highway to enter the secure area of a small commercial airport. Slowing down, it crossed a dusty tarmac before rolling up the ramp of a parked plane. Wings tilted, propellers roaring, the tilt-wing craft took off minutes later.

Out to sea.

* * *

Starfire strained with every fibre of her being, willing herself to move. She battled to the point that black spots danced across her vision, threatening to send her back into unconsciousness again. Panic, having gripped her mind was threatening to boil over again. For all of her struggles, she could not even feel her muscles so much as flex in response.

Whatever held her in place, she had not been able to break its hold, not with physical force nor the charged energies of a starbolt. Her entire body was ostensibly free and unrestrained but completely unresponsive. Not only was any movement impossible, but her powers also seemed to be inaccessible. The feeling was akin to the time she had briefly awoken from a lucid dream and found her body unwilling to move, but this felt more sinister and pervasive. A dark fear gnawed away in her belly. Had her captors... had they crippled her nervous system, paralyzed her body to prevent her escape?

Managing to move her eyes, at least, she reiterated the fact that she was out of her normal attire, and covered only by a thin white medical frock of some sort. All else considered, it was a small indignity, far less than those she had suffered during her Psion imprisonment. With what range of sight she had, she stared impotently at the exit for the umpteenth time. Her mind screamed for escape, still not accepting that it was all but impossible in her current state.

A flash of movement distracted her for a moment, as a small silver saucer floated up to her. It resembled a fat, hovering Frisbee. It briefly drifted past her field of view, her eyes unable to follow it. The light in the room grew a fraction brighter, but never more intense than a soft glow. Where that light came from was less clear; there did not seem to be any obvious source of it, except perhaps the walls themselves.

A weak whimper escaped her lips as the reality of her situation began to settle in once more, but she savagely quelled it. If she were to die, then it would be as a warrior. Determined to put on a strong face for her likely torturers, whenever they finally deigned to show themselves, the Tamaranian did her best to blink the tears from her eyes and set her chin firmly.

Then something finally happened. After an insufferable eternity, a nearly indistinct seam formed in the wall, only to widen, like retreating mercury. It folded in slightly in the form of a rectangular door before rushing up into the ceiling. Starfire glared defiantly at the aperture; a moment later, her first visitor appeared. It was a young man, human, and probably Asian. He had some unusual features she had not seen in regular humans before: his eyes were a golden-red and his hair was a mix of deep blue and pinkish silver-white. He did not seem very old, certainly not more than two and a half human decades. His unusual look contrasted with his olive green uniform, which looked decidedly military or paramilitary.

Following behind the unfamiliar man was another, a human female -

Despite herself, Starfire let out a shocked gasp! It - it was inconceivable. It ... it-

It was _Akane Tendo_!

Ranma's fiancée looked just as Starfire remembered, except maybe slightly older, her hair was longer than before, but that was the only obvious difference. She wore an identical uniform to the man, but stood at attention near the door as it closed behind them. Though the face was so familiar, the warmth which Starfire had come to know from the compassionate girl, was completely absent, stripped away by whatever horrors this timeline had likely subjected her to.

The Tamaranian's voice failed her and she could do little more than gape incredulously at the Tendo girl.

"As I thought, I believe she has recognized you," the man commented, speaking back towards Akane. The latter sniffed as if he had told a bad joke.

"We picked up a name in your initial mind probe, alien," the male returned to her, speaking casually. By his voice, Starfire knew he had to be the one that had beaten her - how long ago? Had it been a day or a week?

"My father had a retainer named Coriander. Your Koriand'r is very similar," he mused, now standing close to her side, arms behind his back. "I wonder if your maker intended it as a joke of some sort?"

Starfire stared at the vindictive warrior for a moment. He had yet to ask her anything, just seemed fit to ridicule and scorn her true name. She knew his violent nature, and how he would likely respond if she spoke out of turn… Still, she had to know. Turning quickly, she barked- "Akane Tendo! It is I, Starfire! Why are you doing this? For what reason are you holding me here?"

Akane closed her eyes in a grimace.

"I'm not Akane Tendo," she replied with a soft sigh. "I just look like her. Since you seem to know about the Amazons, you must also know of the cursed springs?"

In an instant, the meaning of the woman's words struck Starfire. Unbidden, tears began to stream down her orange hued cheeks and she was forced to choke back a sob.

"So... so Akane, the real Akane, is... dead, then. I see that there is no limit to the depths of your depravity, villains!" The last words were directed fiercely to the warrior she had battled in the skies above the village.

"Is...?" the false-Akane asked, amazed. "Is _she_ crying? Listen, the real Akane isn't..."

"Now, now, they'll think we're abusing her," the male spoke up, and leaned in to look Starfire in the face. He had the gall to look amused. "The springs imprint on a victim when it 'drowns,' but that doesn't always mean death. If Miss Tendo had actually died back then, I don't think you'd be among the living today, Kiima. Saotome would have torn you apart."

The Tamaranian stared at the pair uncertainly for a moment. The woman wearing Akane's face, Kiima, crossed her arms over her chest and looked away, giving a dismissive snort to the man's statement. Not certain what the pair was actually present for, asides from the obvious beginning her inevitable torture, Starfire decided to take solace in the small amount of good news she had gleaned from this conversation.

"That ... I am glad to hear that she is safe... But - but you know Ranma?" she asked, confused. "He is not dead either? And Ryouga? What of him?"

The two humans exchanged a quick look.

"Saotome and Hibiki are both alive and well," the male replied. "Your ilk are no match for true practitioners of The Art."

That odd statement brought Starfire up short. Her friends were alive, but what he said made no sense.

"But ... but Ryouga and Ranma have not ever met any other Tamaranians, excepting myself. Why would you feel the need to compare their combat prowess to my people at all?"

The alien girl turned to look at 'Kiima', hoping the female would be more sensible. Gesturing to the male with a roll of her eyes, she asked the odd doppelganger. "This one has made little sense ever since we first met. Can you please answer my questions? I am a dear friend to both Ryouga and Ranma ... well, moreso the former than the latter, but still. You speak as if you are familiar with them as well. If you are, then why have you attacked me in such a vindictive manner?"

Kiima balked a bit, not expecting to be put on the spot.

The man inclined his head, expecting her to play along.

"You," she began. "You're the one who doesn't make any sense. No one knows what a 'Tamaranian' is, unless it's a code word for some new sort of alien-human abomination. As for Lieutenants Saotome and Hibiki, they- "

The male held up a hand, motioning for her to stop.

"Don't say too much just yet, Kiima. We're here to extract information, not freely hand it out. So. Let's have a little talk, alien," he said, leaning back to stand straight by the side of her immobile form. "I am Herb, of the Musk. You deserve to know that at least."

_'Lieutenants Saotome and Hibiki?'_ Starfire made certain to file that piece of information away. If anything, it worried her more than it comforted her.

"You already know my name, having stolen it from my mind," she replied, slowly and carefully picking her words, though not completely able to keep all of the heat from her voice. "And ... while it is true that my race is not widely known on your planet, I am certain that at the very least Ryouga would be able to enlighten you, if you were to simply contact him."

She then fired a dark glance back at the man. "I am certain that you have no shortage of villainous methods to extract information from me, just from what little I have seen of your organization thus far, but I would prefer that you asked questions which made actual sense before applying them... That is, if you can restrain yourself that long."

The man slowly licked his lower lip, as if quelling some rising emotion. Standing against the wall, Kiima-as-Akane listened carefully to something in her ear. The floating disk lazily drifted at the corner of Starfire's side. Was it some kind of recording device? It had to be present for some reason.

"Koriand'r," he finally asked, pointedly, "What were you after in Hong Kong? Why didn't you kill anyone there? You clearly had the power to do so, yet they have reported not a single fatality that we can verify as being attributed to you."

"W-what?" she replied incredulously. "What manner of inquiry is that? I have sworn to protect and assist all of the inhabitants of this planet, just as the rest of my companions have."

Starfire fired an accusatory look his way, that being all that she was capable of doing. "Why do you continue to accuse me of wrong doing in this matter? It is you and yours that initiated the use of lethal measures from our very first encounter. Considering the reckless use of your projectile weapons, I am amazed that you did not injure more of your own citizens than I did!"

"She's telling the truth?" Kiima muttered, amazed.

Herb nodded, but continued to question the captive Tamaranian. "Have you ever thought of yourself as human? Do the names Cologne or Tofu or Doctor Ono bring up any memories? What about the word Ethereal?"

Starfire shook her head distastefully. "Have I ever thought of myself as human? What madness has affected your mind?"

Growing more disturbed by the second with her captor's bizarre questions, she turned back to the familiar face of Akane.

"Please, explain to me what it is that he is talking about. What is an Ethereal? Why are you so interested in Cologne? What does the vegetable based side dish with which my friend is so enamoured have to do with any of this?"

"You will...!" Herb started to snarl, temper flaring a bit in impatience.

"I don't think she really understands where she is, sir, or even the situation," Kiima suggested, politely interrupting. "Perhaps if we give her some more context, she will be able to answer more clearly?"

The man sighed, but nodded.

The woman in the guise of her friend approached, but more warily than the man.

"The lieutenant was asking whether you were a Trenchard or not - an alien human hybrid. For months now, two former martial arts masters have been producing them. Some are created in... in alien laboratories, but the most powerful ones were once human. They were abducted or killed. Alien organs were grafted into them and their bodies were altered. The Ethereals, and Cologne... and another man, named Tofu Ono, are responsible for this."

"You are neither human nor completely alien," Herb added. "You know things only Cologne could have passed on to you. You know things... we had assumed not even Cologne knew, such as Saotome's Hiryu Korin Dan."

Starfire stared back at the man, clearly showing the insult she perceived. "I can most certainly assure you that I am wholly Tamaranian, you - you klorbag!"

Secretly enjoying the frustration she was able to engender from the person that had defeated her so soundly, she pointedly looked to Kiima again.

"I am not, nor have I _ever_ been anything other than a Tamaranian ... What you say, though, sounds terrible! I must say, I find it hard to believe... I came to know Cologne well in my time at her village. While she can be somewhat meddling, there is no way that she would do something so... inhuman." The alien girl tried to shake her head, but failed utterly. "These 'Ethereals', are they some form of radical group? I have not heard the name before, certainly not in the Vegan system, nor here on Earth. What would they desire with altered humans?"

Herb's eyes narrowed slightly, while Kiima just shrugged.

"She must've known Cologne from before her conversion. Before the implanted memories. But that... doesn't make sense," the faux-Akane reasoned. "Shampoo gave us the Amazon records. They never had something - someone - like this among them, and Cologne hadn't left Japan in two years. Command is double checking now."

"Very well. Let us speak of this Tamaran." Herb began, still showing signs of pique at the progress of the interrogation. "You believe you're some new sort of alien, but our own testing indicates your DNA is more than ninety percent human. No other pure-stock, unaltered alien has such a natural similarity."

Starfire truly wished she could move her body at that moment (at least the subtle sensation she was receiving from her extremities had somewhat allayed her fears of being crippled, but it was still horribly disconcerting) so that she could do more than roll her eyes at the ignorant warrior.

"New sort of alien? Tamaranians have been traveling the stars while the people of your planet were still building pyramids to venerate animal themed pantheons!" She managed a bit of a smirk as she continued. "I cannot account for the genetic similarities, aside from saying that such genetic compatibility is inherently common in many races throughout the galaxy. I can assure you, though, that my natural abilities of flight and my mighty digestive tract of nine stomachs quite firmly preclude me from having ever been human."

Kiima heard a confirmation from her earpiece.

"She believes what she's saying," the Jyuenkyou cursed woman commented out loud. "How accurate it is remains to be seen. I don't think we'll be extracting anything useful keeping at it like this, sir."

Herb nodded, seemingly expecting the news.

"We suspected it would be so," he told her, but had to go back to one last thing. "The Rising Dragon Ascension Wave. Tell me how Cologne imprinted it into you."

Starfire considered the question, amusement tickling her at the fond memories. "I suppose it could be said that Cologne imprinted the knowledge of the technique into me ... with most extreme prejudice. To be quite accurate, though, she did not teach the technique to me, I simply learned the theory and application as I assisted her in training Ryouga in the same technique."

She gave her head a minor shake. "Unfortunately, despite his more formal training, he has yet to demonstrate any real grasp of the technique beyond the basics."

Another thought struck the Tamaranian as she considered the woman's earlier words as well. "As for Tamaran, it should be quite simple for you to confirm. It is only a scant 23 light-years from this planet, located in the Vegan system."

"You're referring to what we call the Vega System," Kiima said. "It's quite lifeless. Just a giant white star, a gas giant, and a lot of little radioactive rocks."

"I grow tired of this nonsense," Herb hissed. "The mind probe is obviously not calibrated properly, or if it is, she is completely and utterly deluded. Girl - I can't personally speak for the star system you claim to be from, but I know for a fact that Lieutenant Hibiki has never learned the Hiryu Shoten Ha, not from Saotome and not from Cologne."

The Tamaranian's eyes narrowed as she glared back at Herb.

"I am no liar and I am not deluded! As I said, Ryouga learned only the basics, and I have never seen him use it beyond our initial demonstration in the village..."

Sudden understanding began to dawn on Starfire. "Though ... it may have been some time ago. I am not certain but - this will likely sound even more unlikely to you - but I believe that I do not belong in this timeline. It is quite possible that many years have passed between my time and yours. There are ... so many differences between your time and my own ... So much that I cannot bear to see."

Herb tilted his head slightly, as if actually giving it some thought.

"Time travel, now?" Kiima asked, but the incredulous doubt in her voice was undisguised. "That's a new one. "

"And what year do you believe this to be?" the Musk Prince asked in an even tone.

Taking a moment to think, Starfire responded. "By the galactic standard, it is Thrang'Rek-Nog. but by the rather unusual religious calendar used on this planet, the year from which I arrived was 2005, and the month was September."

She then fired a dirty look at Kiima. "And I would thank you to not to employ so much of the sarcasm. Time travel is not _that_ uncommon, and this is not my first such traversal of the time stream."

Kiima was already shaking her head in disbelief.

Herb, however, was completely unflustered by Starfire's unexpected responses. "I see. Currently, it is February of 2007. By all means, tell me of this incident where you traveled through time."

She nodded quickly. "It was in regards to a villain named Warp. He traveled to my time from even further in the future to attempt the theft of a rare object. During our battle, I was dragged into the future with him. It was ... not a pleasant experience." She fired a pointed glare at her captors. "Though, it was still preferable to the experience I am having in this timeline, I might add."

"This gets us nowhere. I only have one other question," Herb calmly replied. "You mentioned Elder Perfume during your capture. Am I to assume you met her, as well? At the Amazon village? In 2005?"

That seemed to be a somewhat strange question. "Indeed. When my team mates and I became stranded in China, during our foiling of a plot to utilize the powers of Jyusenkyou for evil, Elder Perfume and Cologne were two of the only elders to take pity on our situation and assist us while there."

Herb nodded slowly, understanding the situation.

"Let me explain something to you, girl," he said, convinced more than ever as to the delusional alien's mental state. "Cologne was never in China in 2005 and Perfume was exiled from the village two decades ago! What you describe could not have happened."

Starfire shook her head. "I do not like to be one to correct you, but I must insist on my own personal experiences. My own training is proof of that, and I am sure that if you contact Ryouga, he will confirm everything I have said... Though, you may want to omit the unneeded cruelty with which you apprehended me. Ryouga is quite protective of me, and would doubtlessly be infuriated."

"Hibiki?" Kiima spoke up, barking out a dismissive laugh. "Protective of an alien? After what they did to him?"

"Kiima," Herb interrupted, but quickly turned back to his captive. "We will soon send a status report on you to both Hibiki and Saotome, but rest assured, we have extensive files on all of our operatives here. None of them have any prior experience with aliens like yourself. As for Perfume... as I said, she was exiled in the eighties by the Amazon Council. I was merely a boy when their courier requested we, the Musk, not try and... recruit her, but I remember it well."

"By recruit he means marry," Kiima helpfully explained.

"Yes, that," the Musk Prince consented with a shrug. "You see, alien, there is no way what you describe could have happened. There is no way Perfume could have taught you Earth Seeking Moon style. You may believe it with all your heart, but it is not true. Those memories you have are _implanted_. They are artificial. Fake! This Tamaran of yours...? There are no habitable worlds there."

Starfire's eyes narrowed, her emotions finally beginning to bubble over. "Stop! Cease trying to confuse me with your endless stream of lies! No matter how often you repeat them, your hollow words cannot pluck planets from the cosmos!"

For a moment, her captor's features hardened, his gaze piercing her with its intensity…only for him to shake his head and look away. Shoulders dropping a fraction of an inch, Herb turned away from her, looking at something which she could not perceive.

"I had hoped that we would be able to avoid this; that we could possibly coax the information we desire to the surface through simple discourse… but I see that I was mistaken."

Apprehension began to build within Starfire's chest. Realization began to set in as to the meaning of his words and the reluctance with which they were spoken. As such, she was not surprised when Herb turned to his associate and gave a nod.

"Please inform the interrogator that we are leaving. The room is now his."

The woman wearing Akane's face shifted uncomfortably, but complied without word. Touching a finger to her ear, she sent off a quick message to whoever was on the other end of their communication network. That done, both of the soldiers turned their back to Starfire and made their way to the door. For just a second, Herb paused before leaving the room - hesitation perhaps? – but, in the end, vanished without a word or even a glance. The door did not close after him this time, though, and light continued to filter in through the opening.

All too soon, though, a new silhouette filled the doorway. She did not mistakenly believe that Herb had returned to further question her sanity, this newcomer was shorter and lankier, and was pushing a small metallic cart. As this new person entered the room, Starfire was able to see what it was that was covering the mobile tray. None of the alien looking devices looked at all familiar to her, but the way they were arrayed, and the way the dim light gleamed over their sleek surfaces were frighteningly ominous.

The interrogator, an older male, studied her dispassionately as he rolled his cart up next to her. Reaching out to pick up one of the devices with ease no doubt borne of long practice, he matched her gaze. His clinical stare sent a shiver down her spine, and a sense of familiarity chilled her soul as the scenario began to echo a similar one from her darkest memories. Some sort of transmitter-receiver fitted snugly over her forehead, and the chill of gel coated sensor electrodes followed.

"Hmm. It was always a long shot, you know: expecting your actual memories to try and emerge like that," he remarked, dabbing a bit of the conductive gel onto a spot near her ear. "The psyche is like an ocean and the ego merely floatsam, drifting helplessly on the surface, tempest tossed by waves and tides. Fishing clumsily with words... relying on something as vague as intuition to find the vast and unfathomable subconscious beneath that sea? Hubris. Unreliable."

Examining the something off to the side with cold satisfaction, the interrogator turned back and nodded to her, his face expressionless and as cold as ice.

"No. This is a job suited for machines, not men," he concluded, leaning a bit closer. "Let us cut through all of this nonsense and get to the real truth, shall we?"

Despite her desire to remain strong, Starfire could not help but whimper as the man set about his grim work. The last thought on her mind, while it was still her own to control was…

'_Please let my friends be safe…'_

* * *

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

Raven sighed as she floated in the air, cross legged. Her meditation didn't seem to be having its usual effect. Not so much that it wasn't centering her, allowing her greater control of her power; more that for some reason her powers had yet to fully recover from her battle from Mousse. Perhaps it was some odd side effect of the unusual technique he had used to absorb her power? It didn't usually take her this long to regain her strength, even after such a large expenditure.

She smirked at that thought. It had felt _very_ good to see the look on Mousse's face when she overloaded his 'ultimate technique' and plastered him against the terminal ceiling. Certainly, it wasn't her Mousse, the one she knew, but some jaded, calloused version ... still, the payback had been quite enjoyable. Next best thing to the real thing, she decided.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

Her latest accommodations weren't the most conducive to meditation, either. Apparently whatever group these look-alikes worked with confused alien combatants with pets, as they had locked her in a semi-transparent plastic tent, rimmed by some sort of metallic devices. She wasn't sure what had happened next, but her mobile prison had obviously been moved, what with all the jostling, but she hadn't felt so much as a shake in some time.

Three hours, the other-Ryouga had said.

Were they headed to this other facility, then?

The incessant buzzing in her head was starting to get annoying as well, but levitation was a basic enough ability that she could still do so through the shrill interference. She wasn't sure how much she could press the device, but at the moment, she didn't want to risk using any more energy anyway. Too much, and she could feel it start to kick in, interrupting her thoughts in a much more visceral way.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

As dire as the situation was, she still found her mind wandering to her odd dream that morning. For weeks now - months - she had been having more or less the same, apocalyptic dream, night after night. Being able to speak to Ranma had become an unlikely but greatly appreciated outlet for her in trying to cope, perhaps the only thing keeping her from retreating completely from her friends out of fear.

But this dream ... despite certain _unpleasant_ aspects, she forced herself to be disturbed by the kiss that had ended the dream, despite the fact that it had been quite pleas - She shook her head forcefully, nearly dropping onto her bottom on the unforgiving metal floor. It had been bizarre, incomprehensible, and as Starfire would put it: just plain freaky.

But it had most assuredly _not_ been a nightmare. There had not been a single flame in sight, not a single grim statue. Had something changed in the time that they had been missing? What could have changed so profoundly in such a short span of time?

Still, if that was the worst she could expect, she could get used to it ...

Provided she survived long enough to see another night, that was. This older group of Nerimians were quite far removed from the ones she knew. Mousse, in particular, seemed like he would be quite happy to see her dead ... Okay, so maybe he wasn't that far removed.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

Perhaps -

Her musings were interrupted, when the front of her holding cell suddenly slid open. She stared at the men that stood before her now with a bland expression. Chief among them was her jailor, replete with sword and gleaming perfect smile. The two soldiers flanking him were new additions.

"So, I take it we've arrived?" she deadpanned.

"Indeed we have, my violet haired captive! Please, this way," Kuno said, motioning her out. As she did, she heard a soft pitter-patter that soon became almost drowned out by what she had initially assumed to be some sort of background engine noise. It was drizzling outside.

They were also, by the look of things outside, on top of a large concrete dam or watershed. She could see a long body of water forming, maybe fifty meters down from the helipad where they had landed. The area was cordoned off by barbed wire fences and at least three guard towers. The roar of falling water confirmed that it was a damn, perhaps even a hydroelectric plant of some sort.

"Hisen," Kuno said. "Waterfall."

Raven stepped out, and immediately tried to block the light drizzle with a bit of her power. It should have been as inoffensive as the earlier levitation, but the band around her head buzzed in her mind, preventing anything from manifesting. Instead, a white poncho was quickly tossed over her shoulders, and a hood raised to protect her head. It was, in a way, a sort of inverse of the normal colors and attire she wore.

Glancing back, she saw the other containment unit being moved out of the VTOL aircraft behind them. Mousse and the other Ryouga were there, directing the effort along with two other military types. Interestingly, the native version of her Jyusenkyou cursed friend seemed to be standing in the light rain, and getting rather wet, without any sort of transformation at all. Before she could ponder that, she felt herself being herded down a flight of metal steps.

It was a short distance, around the catwalk, before they came to a large door set in the concrete body of the dam. It was already open and waiting. Stepping inside, Raven squinted a bit at the suddenly bright light. The inside was rather stark, but modern, with clean white walls and metallic supports. Three uniformed individuals waiting for them there: two guards and a woman in a lab coat.

"Doctor," Kuno spoke, curtly. "Papers, if you please."

The woman held out a clipboard which the usually goofy swordsman took, briefly examined, and started marking with an attached pen. He then flipped a page, made one more mark, and signed. Handing it back over, the woman nodded.

"Thank you, Corporal."

"Yes, ma'am," Kuno replied, but added. "I'm to remain as escort until she reaches containment, ma'am."

"Of course."

The woman finally turned to face Raven - she looked to be about in her forties, and a good foot taller than the younger girl. Despite being in Japan, this woman was obviously Caucasian, with platinum blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She nodded to her new charge, and quickly led them, Kuno and the two guards included, in to a freight elevator that began descending into a sublevel of the dam complex.

"Miss Raven," the woman said, as the five of them waited for it to reach bottom. "My name is Doctor Bloom. I heard from our preliminary report that you are a category double-A psychic, the most powerful we have general records on. No family, no dental records, no existing medical history? Do you have any allergies or ailments I should be aware of?"

Looking around in mild interest, Raven shook her head. "Not particularly. Though my doctor did tell me that I should avoid being dissected if I could at all avoid it." She turned to stare at the doctor, smirking slightly. "That isn't going to be a problem, is it?"

"Contrary to the impression some like to give, once our organization captures someone and returns them to a holding facility, like this one - human or alien - we do not execute them, nor do we experiment on them," the doctor replied. "As the Geneva Conventions have not been extended to non-human combatants, we nonetheless attempt to adhere to the principles of the UN Charter and our founding... in as much as we can, given unique circumstances."

"Well, that sounds quite civil of you," Raven quipped, "Though, if the first thing you do is turn around and pick up a large needle, you realize that my faith in you will be forever shattered."

The doctor chuckled lightly. "Understood."

"Now," she added, checking one of the papers in her clip pad. "We're going to begin with toxicology and a biopsy, along with a general physical exam. You don't have any records, so we're going to have to make some from scratch. We'll get X-rays and dental records later... You'll need a comprehensive genetic analysis to determine your source material and heredity, and your percentage of human DNA. As well as a psionic probe and mental map."

The elevator came to a stop, and the doctor led them forward into the main facility itself. Hisen was one of many facilities operated by UNETCO under various auspices. They were not large, secure, or vital enough to be true hidden bases, like Seiran Mountain or Fry Canyon or Andermatt, but they had off-base functionality that those places lacked. This included low priority research not deemed security intensive, and some emergency containment for humans or hybrids immediately removed from society. Hisen's highest level containment was normally class-A. Room for a class-AA had only been produced by procuring additional power from the national grid.

Raven shrugged as she was led through the rather generic 'secret base' set up. It certainly wasn't as flashy as most she'd been through, but at least it wasn't bright yellow, either.

"Well, just to give you fair warning, you'll find some of my DNA to be ... distinctly non-human. In fact, you will find it to be quite indecipherable indeed. That isn't going to be a problem, is it?"

"I've seen my fair share of non-humans and hybrid mixes." The doctor didn't seem put off by it, either. "You don't have anything to be ashamed of. Almost ten percent of the human population has at least some tampering in their genome."

The dark Titan laughed humorlessly. "_Some_ tampering ... yes, that's one way to put it. Well, as long as it isn't a problem. When do we proceed to the mind scan so that we can get all this foolishness of 'fabricated pasts' out of the picture? You're officers' insistence that _they_ are the only ones that can be right was getting overly tedious."

"Standard procedure is to establish a physical picture first, before we calibrate the mind probe."

They walked along another clean hallway, this one sporting a few items of note. There was a cork board with clippings and notes on it, attached using sticky-pads. A camera built into one of the corners of the hall slowly scanned back and forth. The walls here were also reinforced with a smooth gray metal, in addition to plastic. They passed through a secure airlock at the end of the hall, and into a final hall. This one was completely stark, covered with metal.

"Activating laser grid," the doctor spoke up, and the two guards stepped back to secure the airlock.

Kuno took a step forward, his hand resting leisurely on the hilt of his sword. Raven blinked, expecting to actually see some lasers show up somewhere, mildly disappointed when she didn't see any. Then again, she remembered Robin mentioning once that lasers weren't always visible, so maybe she just couldn't see them.

"You should be fine there, Corporal," Doctor Bloom said, casually walking down the corridor. "Give us a little privacy."

"As you say," the swordsman replied, patting the end of his prized weapon. "If you require anything, good doctor, you need only call. The Blue Thunder shall answer."

"Um..." Doctor Bloom obviously hasn't been briefed on the man's eccentricities. "Thank you, Corporal. I trust it won't be necessary."

A short distance away was her cell.

Such as it was. It appeared to be a solid box, built into the otherwise seamless walls, rectangular and fairly good-sized. A plain bed folded out from the wall, along with a privacy screen in the back - probably concealing the amenities. Otherwise, the room seemed completely bare. There weren't even any grates for air flow... at least none she could see. A faint click signaled the release of her handcuffs.

Next to the entrance, the doctor picked up a change of clothes.

"I assume you've been to the doctor before?" she asked, holding them out with one hand. "Get dressed, and I'll prepare the first round of tests."

Raven looked to the hospital gown, then back to the doctor. Leveling a powerfully flat look back at her, she stated matter of factly.

"I don't _do_ backless clothing."

"I don't imagine the doctor you mentioned before examined you in your leotard, Miss Raven."

Raven smirked. "My usual physician normally has to do my physicals with a long distance scanner, usually while I'm distracted watching television. He's had to develop ... special technology to deal with our particular situation."

"Your particular situation?" Bloom asked, cocking her head to the side a bit. "Do you mean your powers? You're a class-AA according to these reports. Very few double-A telekinetics can completely control their powers."

Raven just stared at her. "Our 'situation' being, that he's a hormonal teenage boy, and he has a better chance of learning ancient Sumerian than he does of getting me to disrobe for him to 'examine' me."

"Your doctor was a teenage boy?" the doctor sounded incredulous. "I hope he was at least cute, then..." she glanced back at the cell walls. "If you're uncomfortable, I can extend the privacy screen into the entire room."

"Is everyone in this universe so gutter minded, or just you?" Raven frowned, rubbing her arm self-consciously. "Fine, set up the privacy screen, please."

"Young lady, unless you have tentacles under there, it's nothing I haven't seen before."

The Doctor approached a featureless patch of the wall, and touched it with two fingers. Making a gesture against the metal, she broke contact, and a second later the transparent walls dimmed and grew smoky, providing them with another layer of privacy. At the same time, Raven realized, it would make it harder for Kuno or anyone outside to see the doctor if things turned violent within the cell. In a way, she supposed it was a show of trust.

Resigned, she headed for the curtains in the back to change.

By the time she finished and stepped back out, the room had altered.

There was now an examination table of some sort sticking out of the center of the room. It didn't look like it had come out of a trap door or anything - it seemed to have just formed out of nowhere. There was also three spheres extending, like bulbs, from the ceiling. Looking up, she could see where it attached to the metal overhead. It looked like it had flowed down like a giant liquid droplet.

"Please," doctor Bloom indicated the table. "Just lie down and try to relax."

Growing more uncomfortable by the second, Raven absently touched the circlet on her forehead. It was stuck on quite firmly though, and didn't budge an inch.

"Are you certain that you aren't the aliens? I'm pretty sure I've seen this setup in one of Beast Boy's movies. If you try to probe me, things _will_ get violent, circlet or no circlet."

Sighing, she then got onto the bed. The sooner they got this over with, the better.

"While much of this technology is alien derived..." Doctor Bloom noted her patient suddenly starting to get back up. "We don't use those invasive features. As an... let's just say I understand your concern. Please bear with it, and I'll make this as painless as possible, ok?"

She walked over to the side of the table, and keyed in, logging the patient and time.

"You'll feel a sort of numbing paralysis start to spread," she warned, as the examination table activated. "Don't try and fight it. It's perfectly normal."

Raven took a deep breath, having felt the lack of sensation starting to spread up from her legs and down her arms halfway into the doctor's warning. It was a little hard to resist the instinctual urge to buck and fight against it. No one liked being held helpless, after all. Another deep breath, and she calmed herself, letting the feeling engulf her body. It was almost soothing, like being totally immersed in a warm bath, or one of those sensory deprivation treatments she had read some spas offered.

She barely felt it, even when the metal band around her head finally came off.

A bright light caused her to squint and then close her eyes, and despite an urge to keep conscious, she slipped into a dreamless sleep. She never saw Doctor Bloom, staring at a readout superimposed on one of the walls, a confused look on her face. Confusion quickly morphed into curiosity, and then excitement.

"Fascinating."

* * *

"Well, you're a copy of Lieutenant Hibiki alright."

The doctor's statement was less than comforting (not to mention still kind of insulting). Ryouga Hibiki - Teen Titan - sat in a giant metal box of a room, wearing medical scrubs, staring at a readout of his own DNA. He'd been marched down, forced to change into hospital clothes, and then made to lay on what he swore was the kind of creepy examination table used in 'contact of the first kind' movies. The doctor, a brown haired man in his thirties, was now pondering a bunch of incomprehensible gibberish on the wall.

"An almost perfect match. None of the typical markers of alien cloning or accelerated development. The histogram indicates some physical divergence," The doctor read off, quickly adding a caveat. "The neural map indicated some substantial tampering, however, so we're going to need to run some more surface tests for cloaked mental imprints."

Ryouga just scowled at the older man. "I'm _not_ a copy. You just said yourself that I'm not a damned clone. And I already know about the 'substantial tampering', so don't bother."

"This is for our benefit, not simply your piece of mind," the man replied. "The better we understand this trauma, the more easily we can fix it."

"It doesn't _need_ to be fixed, Poindexter. Just leave well enough alone, thank you very much." Ryouga casually tapped on the metal bench, frowning darkly. "Some things are better left undisturbed, if you get my drift."

"I do not 'get your drift,'" the doctor mimicked the phrase with obvious disdain. "I have been asked to submit a review on your mental health as it pertains to security procedures. Currently, you are a high risk. You have potentially dangerous mental conditioning of an unknown origin and inclination. If you wish to leave this cell with any of your memories intact, you will cooperate."

A soft glow enveloped the room, centered around the triad of bulbous probes extending from the ceiling. Faint lights seemed to move under the surface of the seamless metal. The doctor, apparently less than enthusiastic about his patient given the man's bland tone of voice, kept his back to the martial artist as he studied the projected data scrolling down a transparent section of the prison wall.

"While we run this, I'm going to ask you about your companion," he said, taking out a small note pad and pen. "The young woman you called Raven. Do you believe that to be her real name or an alias?"

The Lost Boy glared at the doctor, tapping the bench again. "I never asked," he bit off darkly.

"I see. Did you first meet this young woman under what you would consider favorable or unfavorable conditions?"

Barking with laughter, Ryouga nearly doubled over. "Well, it did lead to three successive fights in a row, nearly get me killed once or twice and got me cursed all over again... so, I'd say about par for the course for me."

"That will do... Now, have you ever had a violent reaction towards her specifically?"

The martial artist's mood came crashing down just as quickly as it rose. Again his finger tapped down on the bench, ringing hollowly. "I'd rather not talk about it."

The doctor paused a few seconds, as if contemplating the follow up question.

"Have you ever thought of her as an opponent or a threat to your personal safety?"

"Look, would you just quit it? Raven is my friend, and my team mate. Sure, _things_ happened, but you obviously aren't the type to actually listen to explanations here. If this is your not so subtle way of asking 'is she dangerous?', then the answer is an emphatic no." Abandoning his seat, Ryouga began to stalk around the cell. "Frankly, the only threat to my personal safety at the moment is you and your psychotic army of evil clones."

"You are mistaken. This line of questioning has nothing to do with your friend, and everything to do with you," The doctor explained, watching the younger man pace. "Now. Please take your seat. Next question: have you ever had a psychotic episode?"

Ryouga glared at the man. "I'm seriously considering it."

"Sarcasm. Cute. I've never heard sarcasm before. Have you ever lost track of long stretches of time?"

"No, just road," the martial artist muttered. Dropping back to his seat he began to tap away at the seat again impatiently.

"Have you ever been forced to act in a way contrary to your most deeply held principles?"

"...yes."

Ryouga idly wondered how many guards were in close proximity. He didn't like the way these questions were going. Maybe if he got really lucky he could dig a tunnel to Raven and get them out of there?

"Hmm." Another short pause. "Have you ever felt betrayed by an authority figure? A parent... other relative? A mentor or teacher?"

"Define 'teacher'? Does it count if they were actually a villain that was just using you all along as a pawn in their wicked schemes? Because, other than that one... not really. Kinda, but not really."

"Interesting," was the man's only response. "One last question." He held up the pen in his hand. It had a prominent blue band on it. "What color is this?"

"Umm, the pen itself, or the colored band on the pen? It's not really one color, so asking 'what color is this pen' isn't really fair, is it? I mean, what if I say what color the pen is, but saying that makes me out to be a brain eating zombie. But, then if I say what color the band is, then I might be an alien pod person. And they colors aren't mixed, so if I say two colors, you'll probably lock me in a cell forever and dissect my liver!" Ryouga started pacing again. "I mean, what kind of psychobabble is this? What color is this pen? What kind of question is that? First you're asking me about all this crazy life stuff, and suddenly you want to test my eyesight?"

He glared at the doctor. "What's your angle, Dr. Poindexter?"

The man turned the pen around in his hand.

"Your anxiety is only natural. The purpose of the questions is not to judge you in any way. A person can not be held responsible for actions taken due to brainwashing or subliminal coercion." He turned a bit, so Ryouga could see his face. He seemed, if anything, still bored by the entire procedure. "We are here to analyze the damage done. Aren't you concerned about what mental programming you've been subjected to?"

"Not really, no," Ryouga replied. "I already know what happened and had it sorted out. Not the most pleasant experience, I can assure you, but still."

"Really?" The doctor asked. "And if some mental conditioning, triggered in the future, were to endanger your friend? From what I've read, you have the same strength as Lieutenant Hibiki. I imagine self control would be something you consider very important."

He shrugged, and tucked the pen away into his coat pocket.

"More to the point, how can you be sure what you think or feel is genuine, and not just a manipulation?"

The Lost Boy shook his head. Honestly, it was like talking to a brick wall. This guy had already formed his opinion of what had happened to Ryouga, with no actual facts, and it didn't seem to matter what he told the guy.

So why bother?

"Oh, of course you're right, Mr. Doctor-Man. My whole life is a lie and only now, thanks to your caring and thoughtful pep talk, I've seen the light." He then added, in a complete deadpan, "Please, please, erase my mind and replace it with something you find more palatable. How about loading me up with all the baggage that your psychotic Hibiki seems to be carrying around?"

The bored doctor rolled his eyes.

"We may do just that." He flipped his notepad closed, triggered some hidden switch on the wall, turning it into a picturesque window with a view of the dam outside. He then headed back to the airlock door that separated Ryouga's cell from the containment area.

"Your physical and mental examination is finished. Excellent health as expected, but substantial levels of mental indoctrination," the doctor elaborated, and the inner door opened without so much as a gesture. "Attitude problems as well, but fairly common among young men in their rebellious phase. We have a specialist coming in tomorrow to clean up the mess in your head. Good night, Mister Hibiki."

The airlock shut, hissed, and the doctor walked off.

His so called patient never even got his name.

* * *

Hisen's facilities for security personnel were Spartan. Space within the base was at a premium and reserved for research and containment, then lab faculty, then finally security. A few bunks in the general barracks had been made available to India Squad while they were on the premises, in the form of stacked beds and a footlocker for stowing gear. An irony was that, against all logic and reason, the two captives they had brought in probably enjoyed ostensibly better accommodations. Larger, at least.

Sitting at the edge of his bunk, Ryouga Hibiki - the one who belonged in this time and place - had his partly disassembled plasma carbine splayed out on a white cloth draped over his legs. The laser rifle he'd used earlier was nearby, also wrapped in a white cloth, but intact. Most of his uniform was folded up for storage next to him, leaving just an undershirt and boxer shorts. Like most Elerium based alien weapons, including the slightly improved versions most widely used by UNETCO, the carbine before him was rugged and nearly indestructible. It wasn't even really necessary to clean it in a conventional sense.

Instead of needing that sort of attention, plasma weapons just needed the occasional physical maintenance in the form of hardware checks. The interface between rifle and ammunition clip was one of vital importance - and one that did need at least cursory cleaning - it didn't hurt to flush out the barrel and coils of the EM accelerator as well. They naturally resisted and repelled crud or residue, allowing the plasma from the next shot to clean the barrel, but you could still find lingering traces on a few spots, typically the very end of the accelerator pathway. The rest was just manually double checking the diagnostics of the modular sections...

It helped take his mind off of where he wasn't.

They would all be heading back to Seiran tomorrow, probably taking the two prisoners, too. That was up to the Captain. A part of him had wanted another night like the last, though even then, he knew it probably wouldn't hold up in the face of real life. He wondered if Nabiki felt the same way, or if she was just relaxing in a nice room, catching an hour or two of television before turning in. She'd already submitted her initial report. They hadn't really gotten a chance to talk since he got that text from Mousse that morning.

Barrel into sleeve; close sleeve; lock body with coil; watch for green light; move and depress slide. The carbine came back together in all of four seconds, running its own internal maintenance routine and responding with all-green. He sighted down the rail on the top of the gun, before reaching to the side to snap on the interactive scope, sensor suite and rangefinder. The underslung launcher came next, fitted to the bottom of the bulpup carbine near the forward grip. The last mission had eaten up almost his entire allotment of stun grenades; a quick check confirmed only two were left.

_"Pour it on! Bring this bitch down!"_

Flicking off the weapon into standby mode, he stowed it, along with the last few ammo clips.

Looking down at the footlocker, on the verge of closing and locking it, he paused, thinking back to the fight. That girl. He'd been planning to kill her, once it became clear she had that monstrous transformation. Only later, when he saw that other him calm her down, did he settle back to 'capture if possible' rather than shoot on sight, which had been his natural inclination. Nabiki had kept politely reminding him of the snipers they had in position, waiting to take a shot while India played the distraction. He'd killed, or ordered killed, his fair share of hybrids and insane psychics, not to mention dozens of aliens. It came with the job. It was why Yasuda had formed the special martial artist teams.

_"I mean, come on, just look at yourself! You're overflowing with evil ki! You toss around killing techniques without even blinking. You - you use guns! Can you seriously look me in the eyes and say that I'm the evil clone here? It's like someone hand crafted you out of my nightmares."_

He closed the footlocker, tapping in a key code to lock it.

The words shouldn't have bothered him.

It was just some stupid, delusional copy after all. He'd mulled over the Doppelganger's words after that fight, too, months ago. Hell, he still did. His thought then had mirrored the clone's statement regarding himself now. That copy had been only partly human, very nearly more Ethereal than man. The fact that it could shrug off being impaled from shoulder to thigh, or casually pluck a bullet out of its eye socket, or laugh as a stream of hate filled ki formed into the blackest, most powerful _shishi hokoudans_ Ryouga had ever encountered... Well. It was inhuman. Best to leave it at that.

Gods, but he probably did look a little like that now. It was... upsetting.

He wasn't like that other him.

_"Those memories you cherish... fill me with hate."_

It was just a technique. Just a way of fighting. That was all. He'd been rough on the rest of India Squad when they trained, back when they started, and even just last week before they left the base. They needed power. They needed to be strong. He remembered pummeling Ukyou with ki attacks, trying to drill into her the importance of believing in herself and her ability to survive, because in battle that would be what kept her alive. He wasn't like that doppelganger. He had people: friends, family, a purpose, all worth living for. Did it really matter that he had to partly disassociate that to accommodate his fighting style?

But, really, a part of him _liked_ losing himself in a raging battle aura.

A part of him _enjoyed_ it.

He tried to remember, not for the first time, the face of the man he had killed back in Operation Winter Triangle. It had been the first human life he'd taken. The man had been with the Sirius Organization, a mercenary protecting the cargo ship where terrorists had tested and developed the "venom" chemical weapon. He could remember, clearly, the victims of that testing, tortured and wasting away in their cells within the ship. He couldn't quite remember the face of the man he'd killed. Not anymore.

A lot of them had just kind of become a blur over the weeks and months.

A Russian man, behind the wheel of an armored car attempting to run him over, a look of surprise on his face as the vehicle upended; then he was gone, crushed into the engine block. A south Asian terrorist, firing wildly after seeing one of his comrades splattered against a bulkhead. A north Korean officer, his torso blowing apart from a plasma blast - did he even know his base and his men were being used as meatshields by corrupt superiors and their alien masters? A former human psi-sensitive, altered by the enemy, lashing out with psionic attacks, nothing but madness in his eyes after escaping his experimental tube. An abductee, hooked up to an alien harvesting machine, pleading to be put out of her misery...

Elbows on his knees, Ryouga held his face, screwing his eyes shut. A ragged breath helped to pull his nerves back together. A few more months. Just a few more, if the war lasted that long, and he could get cycled out for a few weeks break. He remembered Doctor Pearson's advice, and tried to concentrate and find his inner peace.

_"Don't try and forget. Don't deny what happened. Don't pretend it was someone else. Don't try and blame others. No one ever said this would be easy, Lieutenant."_

An inhuman face, a terrible reflection of his own, haunted him behind closed eyes.

_"Those memories you cherish... fill me with hate."_

Another deep breath. Slow...

_"The only thing we're good for, the only thing the world wants out of us, is our strength. Human? Alien? There's really no difference."_

Methodical.

_"You're… almost as inhuman as I am."_

Centered.

By the time he reopened his eyes, his breathing and mind were back to normal. Feeling better, he mentally chastised himself for dredging those memories up again. It was foolish. Didn't he tell that other him, just earlier today, that he would gladly put aside his pride for his duty, for his responsibilities? This was what was necessary, not only to fulfill his vow and avenge Akari, but to serve and protect all mankind. This was Ryouga Hibiki, for once, doing the _right_ thing.

"Hey," a familiar voice interrupted, preceding the arrival of a certain bi-spectacled team mate.

"Mousse," the lost one replied and a small grin. "You hear? We're heading back tomorrow."

"Figures," Mousse said, running a hand through his far-too-long for regulation hair. It was still slightly damp, having recently come from the barracks showers. The Chinese weapons master was dressed down, too, having volunteered for the adjacent bunk. Despite wearing only an undershirt, he somehow managed to pull out a comb from seemingly nowhere. Sticking it on his hair for a moment, he popped open the assigned footlocker on the floor with his bare feet.

"Where'd you get that, anyway?" Ryouga added, motioning to the object in his comrade's left hand. Putting down a styrofoam cup of noodles, steam rising up from an upturned lip of the wax paper top, Mousse took a seat opposite his CO on another of the bunks.

"Won it in a hand of cards with some guys downstairs," Mousse explained, smirking.

"Kuno isn't down there using his 'personal deck' is he?"

The near sighted fighter chuckled. "You bet he is."

"Geez!" Ryouga rubbed the base of his nose in feigned vexation.

"Blame your girlfriend. She's the one who got them for him."

"Believe me, I do. She's got a dirty mind."

Mousse just laughed again, opening the cup o' noodles.

Last Christmas, Nabiki's present for her 'dear old friend Tatewaki' had been a deck of cards. A borderline pornographic deck of cards, starring various girls from mangas and real life. Racy Ranma-chan pictures included. The only semi-tasteful one was the '10' - a _'fiery picture of the beauteous Akane Tendo.'_ After seeing it, Ryouga had sworn that if either Akane or Ranma raised a fuss that the deck would quickly find its way into an incinerator. Amazingly, Akane had shrugged (maybe she was used to Kuno's casual perversion?) and Ranma had instead argued that he already had much sexier pictures of his female self anyway.

Like anyone needed _that_ image in their head.

As a result, Kuno now carried the cards with them whenever they went on missions or off base for any period of time, dubbing the racy playing cards his 'lucky deck.' Having played more than a few hands with them himself, Ryouga had to admit, it was really a mystery where Nabiki had gotten some of those images. That cheerleader girl in particular...! Regardless, it only reinforced his suspicion that she was planning to make up and sell some sort of sexy calendar, too. She'd mentioned a 'Girls of Nerima' project as a joke before, and the middle Tendo daughter really was shameless, sometimes.

"I bet she's enjoying herself right now. Eating room service at some fancy hotel," Mousse guessed, flipping a pair of metal chopsticks between his fingers. Then he added, with a snarky smirk. "Ryu, too. Who knows what he's up to?"

Ryouga gave him a half lidded stare.

A second later, the two laughed lightly.

"Twenty bucks says he's probably agonizing over his report," Ryouga replied. "Probably trying to recount every single vacuum blade he used. 'Was it 24? Or 25? I can't remember!' Ryu's reports are always either too detailed or all but empty."

"Finished mine a couple hours ago," Mousse noted, blowing on the steaming instant ramen. "Hardest part was the info on that girl's weird energy. Strangest thing. I still have a little bit of it in my aura."

"That hard to expel it?" The lieutenant asked, a bit surprised. "You never had that much trouble with the any of my techniques."

"It's not that," Mousse explained. "It's sticky, and takes a while to separate. Nasty stuff, actually. I've never run into anything quite like it. But once I push it out, it dissolves almost instantly. Looks a bit like black smoke."

"Malicious?"

"It still has some killer intent in it, yeah. My technique usually purifies the intent from the ki, but it didn't work as well with this stuff." The Chinese fighter picked a few noodles out of the cup and slurped them down.

Chewing, he added, "I think the problem is that the girl's powers have an internal intent, plus her own. My technique could purge her intent, but didn't do much against the other one. I've been thinking on and off about a counter, in case we run into someone else with an attack like that."

Ryouga nodded. Every technique needed continual perfection and refinement.

"That other me had an elemental ki attack."

"Yeah, I heard. Nailed you pretty good, too."

"He could even set off breaking points with it."

"You thinking of trying to make your own version?" Mousse asked, sipping a bit of broth from the cup. "It'd probably be useless in space, you know... I'm metal-attuned, like Elder Fa Nu was. Whenever we hit the upper atmosphere in a Lightning or Avenger, I can feel the flow changing. Not like sea level at all."

"You think it wouldn't work on Mars?"

"You'd need a while to readjust. My bet? We won't have a lot of time to meditate when we go there."

"Still..."

"A nice technique for later." Mousse sucked up a stray noodle from the corner of his mouth before wiping the area clean with his hand. "How come you didn't kill him, anyway?"

Ryouga thought a bit before answering that.

"First... I had a feeling the girl would lose it again and do what she did back at the terminal. Nabiki told me she was just holding off Kuno and not transforming. You missed it, but he was the one who calmed her down before. If I had either one of them killed, the other would snap."

"Makes sense," Mousse agreed. "There's more, though?"

"It was the way he fought me. You know how it is: you fight someone and you start to understand them. Their motivations. Who they are on the inside. Like how we know Ranma really is the arrogant jerk he pretends to be."

The other martial artist sniggered.

"The point is, he didn't feel like someone I really needed to kill. So, I guess I didn't want to, not unless I had to. Even though he's..." Ryouga sighed, here. "He's another damn clone. He even gave up when I said he was putting the girl in danger. Killing a guy like that...?"

Mousse nodded, understanding what his commanding officer meant. He did, too. He'd done his duty, just like they all had. For a few seconds, the two men sat in silence. Nothing more needed to be said, really, not on that topic.

"He was right, you know," the hidden weapons master finally said. "That clone of yours."

"About what?" Ryouga asked. That him has said a lot of things, most decidedly unflattering.

"That Three Stooges comment back in the van," Mousse answered, wrapping up a large bundle of noodles as he talked. "You, me, Kuno. Ranma would do something, you'd pop out of nowhere to beat him up for insulting Akane, or her atrocious cooking, or I'd try and kill him for seducing Shampoo, and of course the moment he got splashed - or we all got splashed - Kuno would appear and try and molest his pigtailed girl."

"It wasn't even that long ago," Ryouga replied, grinning at the memories. They had been a source of so much frustration at the time, but now, from a different perspective, they were practically nostalgic.

"Jusendo was... a little less than a year ago?"

"Yeah. Hell, by that time we were practically the jerk's left and right hand guys. Oh no, another Chinese prince captured the girls! I guess Mousse will come to rescue Shampoo and, of course, Ryouga will end up with Ukyou! Oh boy!" The lost one waved his arms in mocking surprise. "When the hell did that happen?"

"It just crept in there, between the endless rounds of fights and... weird adventures." Mousse downed the last of the ramen and broth in one big gulp. "Like that stupid statue. And then the wedding."

"Things change?"

"Well... do you really want to still spend every day obsessing over beating Ranma?"

"Do you want to spend every day chasing after Shampoo?"

"Hey, that's time well spent!" Mousse's canny smirk was matched by a glint of his glasses. How did he _do_ that? "Besides, there's no doubt anymore that Saotome will end up with Akane, and she'll kill him before he gets the chance to screw around with other girls. It's only a matter of time before Shampoo realizes we're meant to be. And after Jusendo, it isn't like there's anything more I can do to prove myself. Either it happens or it doesn't."

"I'll tell you what I do miss, though," he quickly added, backtracking a bit. "Flying. I hated that duck curse, but I did love to fly. Even without the memories, I just know it."

"I'd take duck over pig any day," Ryouga grumbled. "I really got shafted by that place. Almost any cursed spring would have been better than a god damned piglet."

"What about Taro's curse?"

"... _maybe_ not _that_ one."

A short pause.

Then Mousse asked, "What are you going to do if they let that clone go? Once they fix its memories?"

"Hell if I know!" Ryouga gave an exasperated sigh before leaning back a bit on his bunk. "I guess I'll let mom and dad decide. We can't just have another me running around... we'll probably have to reprogram him as a little brother or something. Or a twin. Not like we can just toss him in the woods to fend for himself."

"Unless their Alice in Wonderland story is true."

"If it is, this really will be the weirdest. week. _ever_."

* * *

It had no name.

It was designated Medic; Capture Squad Three.

It had been a medic for five iterations, some of roughly fifty Cydonian years. Normal lifespan of a single mental faculty was six iterations before re-absorption and modification. As a battlefield medic, it was near the end of its operational lifespan, having been killed no less than two times over the last year by human operatives. This was what it was; what it was created to do; how it defined its existence within the Sectoid Hierarchy.

It was partnered with a less experienced field commander: its squad leader was a vat-fresh re-modification of a previous faculty. While the medic had been sent to this assignment as a sign of "retirement" the officer that now lead it had been included because it had yet to truly prove itself. So it was decided by The Mind. So it was. Leader would benefit from Medic's experience; Medic would benefit from Leader's training and improvements.

So it was.

Medic hefted its stun bomb launcher as it walked through the thick terran brush, approaching the area where their quarry had appeared. It was human. It was an anomaly. It was to be captured intact and alive for experimentation. Humans should not have been here. The operation was only lightly defended. It had arrived in secrecy, operated in secrecy, and survived due to secrecy. No free human could be allowed so close to the operation, especially not one with unusual mental traits.

It would be taken.

Leader checked its Mind Probe as it approached a dark cluster of trees. The human was nearby. He thought to the others: the soldier, the soldier, the soldier, and the medic. Soldier and Soldier would scout ahead to try and locate the human. It would then be paralyzed and tagged by Leader. Medic would move in only then to finish it off. They had done this before.

Many times.

Humans were imperfect creatures. They would gain much as their needed parts were brought into the Sectoid Hierarchy. As other races had done. Some, too, would become like the Ethereals. The rest would be recycled and harvested. There was no maliciousness to the thought. There was no disdain. There was no bitterness, even, despite being killed twice by humans. Medic's mind was chemically incapable of such thoughts.

There was only fact and circumstance. Humans were resources. They had been found on this planet and, like a valuable crop, they had been tended to and allowed to grow. Found as a seed, they had blossomed into a great tree, branches thick with ripe fruit. Occasional pickings and pruning had been needed, and soon, it would be time to cut down the tree and germinate new seeds. Clippings would be grafted onto other crops elsewhere as needed. This was the function of a human being and the human race as a whole.

So it was.

For this human; for all humans.

Soft flakes of earthly snow began to fall as the group split up. Medic paid it little mind at first, as they pursued their quarry along a route parallel to the base of operations, concealed carefully within the forest. It was expected that this human-thing would be moving either away or towards the base, not in a meandering and uneven arc around it and to the north. Leader signaled, and Soldier and Medic picked up the pace.

Lanky forms pushed through the thick foliage with a wiry and unexpected strength. They knew exactly the route they needed to take, guided as they were by The Mind and the landed ship Navigators nearby. Sectoid bodies were minimalist and utilitarian - there was no wasted or extraneous biomatter. It gave them a remarkable speed and stamina, regardless of their less than impressive size when compared to certain other creatures, such as Mutons or Snakemen. Slick skin bare to the elements, feet bare against the cold rough ground, they moved with silence and deadly precision.

It was then that the snowfall began to intensify.

Medic wiped away a small accumulation of it from his eyes, blinking with clear cartilaginous membranes that were designed to harden against the vacuum of space, like blast shields. More of the white stuff came down where only a few flurries had fallen before. It was unexpected. While some seasonal snow fall was planned for, there had been no warning of a storm developing. It was an unforeseen complication.

It clung to their arms and faces, but Leader, Medic and Soldier paid it no mind. The cold did not bother them; did not affect them. Their weapons, too, could withstand such minor environmental disturbances. It made it more difficult for the two scouts, Soldier and Soldier, to pin down their prey. That was the biggest problem. Then, as soon as it began, the snow storm died down into a mere dusting.

_'Halt,'_ Leader thought. They did so.

One of the scouts, Soldier, was not responding. The Mind passed this on. Something had happened to it. Leader considered the situation and ordered them to investigate. They moved quickly, one and a half the normal pace, to Soldier's last known position. Medic briefly considered whether it was possible the human had done something: set a trap, or laid an ambush. After being killed by humans in the course of his duty, Medic knew not to underestimate them.

They soon came on Soldier.

He lay, broken, crushed by the weight of a particularly large branch. It had to have been brought down by the sudden snow fall, the weight weakening the dead wood. The heaviest part of it had landed directly on Soldier, breaking its spine and the back of its skull. There hadn't even been time to relay information to The Mind. It was fortunate that Sectoids, unlike the more dynamic Ethereals, had routine backups of their current iteration. Soldier would be restored from those records back on Cydonia; he would serve until he was no longer needed, and then his next iteration would replace him.

There was nothing to salvage, now.

_'Clean it up,'_ Leader thought.

Medic did as ordered, placing a disintegration packet over the body. The three aliens backed up, and a moment later, the external casing vaporized and the universal solvent went to work. Within moments, flesh, bone, wood and snow were dissolved into a puddle of greasy organic matter on the forest floor. It would harden in minutes and eventually end up a spattering of carbon residue. There would be nothing left. Soldier - standing by Leader's side - held his former comrade's weapons and kit.

This was unforeseen: an accident like this.

They resumed the hunt, following the direction of the scout-Soldier, who was still active and in pursuit. Minutes passed, and regular updates came from The Mind. Soldier finally had a visual on the human intruder, but his position had nearly been given away by an abrupt sinkhole he nearly tripped into. It was strange. Solider should have been cautious enough to never worry over such a thing.

No matter: Leader had the location of the human. Medic, too, shared in the sight, through Soldier's eyes. The human was a mere child. Her appearance was unusual, with a mass of pink hair growing out of her skull, pulled sharply back into an elaborate and most inefficient facsimile of style, and dark clothing that did little to conceal her against the white snowfall. At the moment, she seemed semi-alert to some sort of danger, glancing around anxiously.

"Hey!" she called out, slowly turning around. "Someone there? Hello?"

Leader's mind reached out across the void.

Medic and Soldier rushed ahead, watching their prey with one eye, through the scout's senses, while keeping track of their actual surroundings with the other. FEAR. Fear would be the first weapon used. It was the easiest and the most versatile. The human mind buried its fear conditioning within primitive, animal-instinct based parts of the brain. It was a simple matter to manipulate the senses to trigger fear: indistinct, irrational, horrific.

The girl spun around, unleashing some sort of... pink fire.

The target was some imagined horror in the bushes. Rather than burst into flames, as would have been expected, a large swath of the dead or dying plant material simply seemed to . . . disintegrate, but not to ash, just to pieces. She turned around again, scout-Soldier lining her up in the sights of its weapon. She had her arm over her mouth and nose, and she fired off another strange burst of pink, in the form of a broad crescent this time and aimed at a random stand of trees. Like a massive human scythe, the pink energy hewed down a half a dozen trees of varying diameters with distressing ease. The scouting Soldier was forced to dive out of the way as one of the collapsing trees randomly began to fall toward it.

Medic could sense anxiety growing in itself, and in those around it. These abilities were extremely dangerous, a direct hit would likely prove instantly lethal. In response to this unexpected threat, Medic sensed Leader bring its power to bear, focusing its psionic might on the human female.

FEAR.

Fear would come first. Leader taught her fear.

Next would come domination.

Medic rushed over a fallen log alongside Soldier, heading towards their now frightful prey. Medic readied his stun bomb launcher. In his mind, he saw and felt Leader project his will.

DOMINATION.

With her senses bombarding her with whatever irrational fears humans had, she would be vulnerable to a single overwhelming desire to give up: to curl into a ball and surrender. Medic had seen it many times before.

The girl stumbled, cursed in some human tongue, and ran.

Medic felt Leader's confusion and frustration through The Mind, and the link they had as members of the capture group. The girl was afraid. How was she able to come to her senses and run when Leader's will was to stay, to cower, to give in? Had the suggestion failed?

_'Caution. She is an enhanced human.'_

Leader's thoughts mirrored those of The Mind.

Medic and Soldier caught up to scout-Solider as they followed the panicked human. It was running haphazardly through the forest now; its speed and agility were unprecedented among normal humans. Only the Trenchards and human 'Martial Artists' had proven capable of such feats to date. Were it not for the hazardous terrain and the prey's panic, they would be utterly incapable of keeping pace. More distressing, was the manner in which it was shrugging off Leader's attempts to properly subdue it. It had some sort of resistance to suggestion or domination. That would make capture more difficult, but no less inevitable.

Medic raced ahead when, to his shock, the Soldier next to it tripped and fell on a patch of ice. That was unexpected; Sectoid feet were designed to find traction, even on slick or slippery surfaces. It was highly improbable that one would lose footing in such a way. As Soldier got back up, Medic and scout-Soldier continued on ahead. The human made an abrupt turn, jumping an unexpectedly long distance over a thick brush and into the branches of a tree. It was a fleet footed display.

Fortune appeared to be on Medic's side now, however. As the female prepared to leap again, likely to escape their pursuit entirely. One of the larger branches of the trees had become entangled in the fabric of her garment. The quirk of luck ended up costing her valuable seconds as she battled to free herself-

Medic paused and sighted.

The stun bomb launched with a 'whuuf' of displaced air. The small pellet was already programmed with distance to target, and when within two meters of the human girl, the outer shell disintegrated. A cloud of paralyzing gas enveloped the tree top, and a psionic disruption could be felt by the aliens even on the ground. Up in the tree, the human wobbled and lost her footing. With a loud tearing sound, as her skirt tore free from the entangling branch, she then fell back and into the bushes, hitting her side against the tree on the way down. Clumps of snow fell from the branches higher up.

Medic lowered its launcher as it approached where the girl had fallen.

_'Take her,'_ Leader's mind flared.

So it was.

* * *

Leader moved forward cautiously. While it had full confidence in its own abilities, and full confidence in the inferiority of its human subject, this situation was not ideal. Leader was still inexperienced at mental interrogation, being so recently introduced to his post. And something was unusual about this human, something which the Leader could not quantify without further study.

As it floated, formless, through the vast reaches of the human female's mindscape - the unending ocean of dark swathes of purple and black flowing, rising and ebbing all around him not unlike the seas of the Earth itself - the Leader was finding it difficult to find any purchase in its insinuation.

This was an . . . unanticipated development. Leader had interrogated humans previously, and had received the memories of a thousand-thousand other such interrogations from the Mind as well. At this point in his insinuation, it should have already located the subject's conscious mind and fabricated a mental construct around it to begin breaking through whatever feeble defenses the human could muster.

The fact that the Leader had not yet been able to locate the subject's mind was disconcerting, a sensation which the Sectoid had never experienced before, and was never intended to feel.

_'Hey there, buddy, whatchya up to?'_

Instantly, Leader lashed out -

SUBMIT

A wave of psionic energy surged out in every direction... and just kept going, and going. The power of its mental command seemed to slide over the surface of the roiling ocean not unlike a bead of oil over water.

_'Hey now. None of that, I never let a guy get in my . . . head, on the first date,'_ the disembodied voice called out smugly.

Leader was, to not mince terms, confused. Here, in the mind of the human, it did not have access to the infinite wisdom of the Mind, only its own limited experience. Still, this resistance was unprecedented. Rather than a powerful will opposing his own, or a mental block of some sort to resist its power, there was nothing.

SUBMIT he commanded more forcefully.

Again the psionic power washed out in every direction, meeting no resistance at all as it skittered across the surface of the metaphorical ocean.

_'Okay, seriously, you're starting to tick me off. Just get outta here, already.'_

_'You will submit,'_ Leader explained matter-of-factly. _'You are human. You will submit.'_

A sense of amusement washed over the leader, a distasteful, foreign sensation. _'You might be right. The Headmaster always told me I was a little soft in the head. Of course, he also taught me how to deal with pesky types like you, if I really, really need to.'_

The Leader spread out its perceptions as far as he dared in this alien mind. It strained itself nearly to breaking, searching for the source, the mind which taunted it, but still, nothing.

_'The Headmaster figured that odds were gonna be that anyone with enough brain power would likely be strong enough to break me like a twig in here, so he taught me a valuable lesson.__'_ There was a pregnant pause which seemed to linger forever. _'__When dealing with someone stronger than you,. sometimes the only way to win is to deny them battle.'_

The Leader could not comprehend the bizarre concept which the human spoke of. There was no mind that could not be broken with sufficient power. And in a battle of the minds, it was always the more powerful mind that dominated. How could a feeble subject such as this, admittedly so, thwart an engineered Sectoid Leader?

Uncertain, the Leader fell back on the accumulated experience he had been imprinted with. Mental probes of every conceivable nature reached out throughout the mindscape, but it was too vast to possibly cover all at once. It did not know what else to do. It had never met such a lack of resistance before. With no mind to clash against, no opponent to battle, then how could it bring its greater psionic power to bear?

Perhaps it could -

In an instant, Leader's eyes snapped open. The distant and vague sensation of pain ran up along its back. It took a moment to assimilate the situation, as it reintegrated with the Mind and its fellow Sectoids.

... For some reason, the Leader was on its back, on the floor.

A quick glance revealed that the seat it had been sitting on - a projection of metallic alloy which could flow down into the floor when not in use - had apparently malfunctioned, sinking halfway into the floor and dropping him onto the ground as it did. Most curious indeed. Such a malfunction was statistically improbable. Leader would need to speak to an Engineer in regards to it.

Still, it did not matter. Leader's interrogation had been an unexpected failure. The subject's unusual mode of psionic protection was not something that had been sampled before and would require a more experienced or creative interrogator to decipher. The Ethereal in charge of this facility would be made aware of this by the Mind. When it returned from its mission, it would most assuredly break this subject's defenses.

The subject was, after all, only human.

In the meantime, there were other duties which Leader needed to attend to. With a curt mental summons, Leader contacted a sublimated hybrid-human located in a different section of the facility. Leader fired off a series of mental commands for her to begin a thorough physical examination of the human. The Sectoid did not even acknowledge the female's psionic response as he left the examination room.

Leader needed to prepare the containment area for the Ethereal's return.

* * *

She came from the Pens.

The Mind summoned, and she followed its will; the other experiments would wait, at least for a time. Walking by Block One, bare feet making a soft and secretly satisfying crunching sound against the newly fallen snow, she watched Onishi and Shidehara jostle playfully in their pen. Onishi was the largest of Litter Sixteen, and he reared up and gnashed his teeth in a show of dominance over his smaller brother. Claws longer than a human hand rent the ground as Shidehara displayed his agitation, followed by a few ultrasonic barks.

She walked by and whistled to the two, breaking it up before either had the chance to bite into the other's shaggy, thick hide. The two creatures, each more than three meters tall at the haunches, huffed and whined at her disproval. There was to be no bloodletting in the Pens. There was a time and a place for that. Glittering red eyes watched her from under a mat of brown fur, or, in Onishi's case, a dirty silver.

Pen Three was also on the way, and she noted with approval that the three females within were nestled calmly in the snow, their muzzles wet from eating it. Environmental contaminants were a constant problem, but she had persuaded The Mind that there were benefits to free range testing at this stage in the experiment. The Reapers were hardy creatures, after all. There were few things on this planet that could harm the children of Litter Sixteen.

Red eyes, more intelligent than they let on, watched her.

She met the look, untroubled by the living terror weapons. They existed for her; she existed for them. Sixteen generations in eight weeks, following two weeks of preliminary testing. From birth to accelerated development to chemically induced maturation to medically assisted death to autopsy, she had held them as they emerged from the tank and her hands were the last thing they felt before they died. The Mind gave her existence; this existence. It was. There was nothing else. Even death could not threaten this absolute statement of purpose. It simply was.

So to, were the pups of Litter Sixteen. Their purpose was to become smarter and better than the pups of Litter Fifteen. In turn, Litter Seventeen would be superior still. And so on, until The Mind was satisfied. Reapers were naturally very dim witted creatures, far too prone to going berserk or falling into a blood lust. Their masters, the Floaters, treated them like disposable toys on a battlefield, there merely to sow terror in the defenseless and soak up weapons fire from the well armed. Her new breed would be smarter, more cunning, more rational under fire.

They would be a new terror weapon to set against the resisting.

This was the Will of The Mind, the consensus of which she was a part, so it would be.

As faint flurries continued to fall, she approached the door of the landed Harvester. The sight of it always brought an indistinct feeling, hazy and distant. It was a memory, of course, suppressed as unnecessary. Only those memories pertinent to the experiment, to the mission, were active within her. The previous iteration had been a failure, she knew, and it was likely due to having too many pointless memories active that did nothing but interfere with duty and service. Ideally, the next version of her - like her litters of Reaper pups - would be superior still, having the best of her and additional improvements deemed worthwhile by The Mind.

The smooth alloy door opened, and she followed the will of The Mind to one of the medical operations chambers, ancillary to the primary surgery theater. A Sectoid soldier stood nearby, along with a medic. The medic, who had been waiting for her, turned and they walked side by side into the chamber. Inside was a most curious sight.

Leader - one of several - was on the floor, disoriented.

Her unspoken query as to his status was immediately answered: something unusual had transpired within a captured human's mind, and, curiously, at the same time a malfunction in the deck's mimetic plating had occurred. Further details were deemed unnecessary, and were to be disseminated on the order of the Base Commander. Very strange.

She turned to see the captured human. It was a girl, young, with the most striking pink hair. Her complexion was pale, and something about her attire triggered another unnecessary memory, long since suppressed. Did it have some sort of meaning? A social queue? Did it indicate a preference for some human social mores? These things were an unknown, though once she may have known without contacting The Mind. She was a small human girl, however, and she seemed harmless.

Leader thought - rather hard and fast - and projected his orders into her mind.

The mental probing of the human was put on hold; her medical examination would come first. She would assist Medic in this, as the base was short handed on staff trained for operations on humans. They were to put her through the standard array of tests. She would be tagged and scanned: probes up the nose and into the brain cavity would be first, then behind the eyes. Rectal and vaginal samples would be archived, of course, along with skin samples from various points on the body. Bone marrow extraction and total reproductive viability would be next, followed by a mental mapping and initial brain tap. The subject would then be rested for six terrestrial hours before more rigorous examination and eventual harvesting, depending on the mental probe.

She started removing the subject's clothes while Medic prepared the first battery of probes. It had been a long time since she had even seen human clothes - she vaguely remembered tatters, white and black and blue and red - but it was unnecessary. It came and went. The human attire was multi-layered and wasteful. There was no concept of modesty within The Mind, only practicality. She wore the habit of the Ethereals, as was her importance and strategic value within the will of The Mind. Still, she did not cut away the human's clothes; experience with abductions indicated the human would want it for emotional comfort between examination periods. It would help keep her sedate. That was all.

_'We shall begin,'_ Medic thought, approaching with the nasal probe.

_'Yes,'_ she thought, leaning back to give him room.

_'Releasing paralysis effect to provide sensory feedback.'_

She activated the function in the examination table using her mind. It was simple, really, crude even. Abductor craft had specialized equipment that could provide a great range of options when it came to activating or deactivating the senses and body chemistry of a subject. This was a Harvester. It was designed for harvesting, mostly of humans and other terrestrial animals. There was very little between 'on' and 'off.'

She - she knew this first hand.

Yes: many of her Reapers had ended their lives upon this same table. And also... also...

The captive girls' eyes opened wide, blinked, stared in mute shock and dawning horror.

_'Beginning intrusion.' _

She reached to the girl's forehead to restrain her, just in case she had any movement in her neck. The subjects would often try and thrash about, even though it was pointless. No amount of willpower could force nerves to fire. All the most desperate could hope to achieve was to spasm a little in their death throes. She - she had - had - memories of it?

Her palm found the girl's forehead, and she felt a spark.

A flash of pink light.

The haze lifted, just a bit, and the comforting blanket of The Mind withdrew. In an instant, rose colored glasses turned a dirty black. Medic, who she had known and worked with for a month, stared at her with blank inhuman eyes. The sterile walls of the Harvester turned from mundane to nightmarish. For the first time since she left the tube, she screamed. She actually screamed.

Her body remembered how to scream.

Medic whirled on her, instantly sensing her disconnect from The Mind, much less hearing her inarticulate howls. She acted out of instinct, pushing him away as hard as she could. Her mind spun as she looked around, found the anal probe set against the washing station, and swung it down and in an arc, bludgeoning the stunned Medic over and over. Her throat - with a voice she had nearly forgotten how to use - went hoarse even as Medic slumped into a heap, pale blood seeping from a gash in its head.

She clutched her mouth, feeling something hot coming up.

_'What - what is - what is this?'_ she thought (or did she speak?), staring at the slime she had coughed up. A memory, a useless memory, came back, and she fell back, trying to shake the watery vomit from her hands. The room spun, despite her standing still. She thought, projected, reached for The Mind, then recoiled in horror.

She had... she had to get away.

She had to!

Leader had taken Soldier to the upper level. They had to know. They had to be coming!

Frantic, she reached for the mental trigger embedded in the operations table. It didn't come quite as easily as before; her mind was unfocused and reeling from things she didn't even know it knew. After a long terrible second, it complied, and released all restriction levels. The paralysis field powered down and she scrambled to her feet as the other girl came to.

Akari couldn't -

Couldn't let it happen again -

* * *

x

* * *

DATE: 11.02.2006  
MEMORANDUM TO: [REDACTED]  
FROM: [REDACTED]

SUBJECT: Trenchard: (Akari Unryu)

POB: Maebashi, Japan  
NAT: Japanese  
DOB: 06.11.1989  
DOD: 10.09.2006 (est)  
AGE: 17  
HEIGHT: 5'6" (167cm)  
BUILD: Typical  
WEIGHT: 110 lbs (49.9kg)  
EYES: Brown  
HAIR: Black/Brown (pink streak)

SUMMARY PROFILE:

Prior to abduction and harvesting, A. Unryu was a student at Ota Academy; grades were average, placement in national exams average. Between 2004 and 2005, deteriorating health of surviving family member (grandfather: S. Unryu.) prompted her to travel across country to make marriage arrangements. Pertinently, this involved searching for a 'martial artist' able to defeat one of her family's trained animals. At the time of her meeting and engagement to Lt. R. Hibiki (Seiran: CT India) this animal "Katsunishiki" weighed approximately 3000 lbs (1360kg).

In addition to normal pig breeding, the Unryu family also engaged in development of animals for the unrecognized sport of "non-human sumo." Intel believes that it was this activity that drew the attention first of alien scouts and researchers, who engaged first in typical cattle mutilation, and later outright Harvest. Other farms in the area have been victimized, but not attacked outright.

A detailed overview of Unryu Genetic Manipulation and Selective Breeding is included in Appendix (A). Very little was recovered from the Unryu Farm post-abduction; all notes were archived by hand and virtually all biological samples were taken or destroyed. Preliminary studies indicate that Unryu family members were able to psionically manipulate the development of their animals to increase selection pressures and promote beneficial mutations. Allegedly, A. Unryu was extremely adept at this.

Recovered biological samples (of the original) indicate a high probability that A. Unryu was included in the alien Trenchard Production Effort, whereby certain individuals are harvested for their abilities or unique skills. As such, it is likely that both her knowledge and her genetic makeup are part of the Gestalt Mind and the possibility exists that effort may be made to create a hybrid version of her (either Sectoid or Ethereal) to better utilize her talents. If encountered in the field; recommend capture and containment as high priority.

(full medical record and preliminary psychological profile enclosed)

##

BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS  
TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 6897  
CODENAME: Jinx  
REAL NAME: *Unknown*

SPECIES: Human  
HEIGHT: 5'6"  
WEIGHT: 95lbs

HAIR COLOR: Pink  
EYE COLOR: Pink

KNOWN ABILITIES: The Subject's abilities are... difficult to define. High levels of energy generation have been demonstrated, though the exact nature of the power generated defies analysis at this point in time. The Subject, when questioned about her powers, described them as being 'bad luck', or an abstract ability to affect causality. Neither of these could be confirmed. Though, when the Subject was asked to demonstrate her abilities, certain unusual and abstract occurrences were recorded, such as machines spontaneously shutting down, otherwise solid objects spontaneously suffering from structural failure, and even acts which could only be described as 'pure serendipity', it is impossible to determine if the Subject's powers are acting in such a way as to affect causality or if her powers are simply acting on a subconscious level that even she is unaware of. The Subject is also a highly trained martial artist, possessing physical traits of super human level. Strength, endurance and resilience are all far in excess of a baseline human of her height, weight and gender. Agility, reflexes and flexibility are all Olympic level or higher. Subject has also demonstrated several 'Secret Techniques', taught to her by Subject: 9781: Codename: Happosai. Thus far, it is unclear if these esoteric abilities are actually martial in nature or merely new applications of her existing power set.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: The Subject has demonstrated no obvious weaknesses to exploit at this time. Analysis of fighting style indicates that a more straight forward, brute force attack is more difficult for her to counter. Due to the nature of her powers, heavily armed or unorthodox opponents will be at a disadvantage. Highest Probability of incapacitating the Subject is to attack her head on using only pure martial arts.

*Special Note: Subject has received limited personal training from Subject: 002: Codename: Batman specifically to overcome this weakness in her combat style. Extreme caution should be used in apprehending the Subject.

KNOWN HISTORY: Very little of the Subject's history is known. First recorded appearance of the Subject was as a member of the Organization Designation: H.I.V.E. Academy. After the destruction of the Academy, the Subject vanished from view again. The subject did not resurface until several months later, in the company of Happosai, having become his disciple for unknown reasons. The Subject battled the criminal Subject: 839: Codename: Killer Croc and defeated him. The Subject then spent time in the tutelage of Batman before travelling to Steel City and again vanishing from observation. Latest reports have shown the Subject in Jump City, acting in a supporting role to the Team Designation: Teen Titans. Subject's objectives and motivations are currently unknown; further research is required.

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: C

PERSONAL NOTE_: I know this will sound strange to hear me say, but... I like this girl. True, she's cocky, brash, sarcastic and she tried to hotwire the Batmobile while I was out of the Batcave, but... in a way, I find she actually reminds me somewhat of... of Jason. Just like him, she's also all but bursting with potential. If she could be properly moulded, away from the warped ideals of the likes of Brother Blood and Happosai, she could have the potential of being a great hero. Perhaps I am slightly biased here, Jinx being the only one of Dick's friends/enemies that I have actually met in person, but I am considering recommending that he take her in officially. Not only would there be no fear of him growing overly attached to her, and unable to act as a proper leader, but she's already quite smitten with that Hibiki boy, and is actively pursuing him anyway. I would be a hypocrite if I said I couldn't see the allure of turning a hardened criminal back from a life of crime, and, frankly, after meeting Happosai just once, and knowing that she had been subjected to his presence for several months... honestly, that girl deserves any happiness she can find. _

##


	6. Close Encounters 1

**A/N**  
_New story arc incoming._  
_Hope everyone got responses and stuff to their reviews. Lathis was handling them last week, but he's usually on the ball. Haha. Better than me (Chryssalid) and my notorious tardiness. Anyway. 'nuff blabbin'_

* * *

x

* * *

Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last. The reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together. With Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding', it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of Atlantis. Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well deserved breather from their adventures. But as unseen forces manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered… and sooner than they expect.

It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Close Encounters_

Chapter VI

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

Jinx slumped bonelessly to the floor the second that her restraints were released. Fortunately, the oddly dressed girl that had freed her managed to catch the ex-villainess and prevent her from flopping to the ground in what would have probably been a painful manner. It took the young sorceress several long seconds, breathing raggedly, to finally regain control of not only her unresponsive body but her wildly racing mind.

What - what the hell was that thing on the floor?

Why the **hell** had they been trolling around in her mind? Who the hell was this girl? What the _hell_ had they been about to do to her with that oversized nose plug? Where the hell was she and when the hell was she going to wake up? An uncontrollable shiver ran up Jinx's spine as she stared at the misshapen gray creature on the floor.

She'd dealt with aliens on a nearly daily basis for a good chunk of her life. Heck, one of her least annoying classmates had been blatantly extraterrestrial, and her boyfriend co-habitated with a Tamaranian tart... but never before had she seen something so - so alien. If it weren't for the disgusting liquid leaking out of its battered head, she wouldn't even have been able to tell if it was unconscious or not, not with those dead, soulless eyes. The room itself was so obviously an alien examination room that 'cliché' didn't even do it justice. The cold, sterile walls, the gleaming surgical table, the multitude of alien probes dangling from the ceiling...!

Instantly, Jinx surged and wrapped her arm tightly around the neck of the girl holding her up. She then shoved fiercely to the side and pushed her into the unyielding metal wall with a dull 'thud'. The robed girl began to struggle - her movements betraying no small amount of skill and more than a little panic - so Jinx applied pressure to her wind pipe, used her free arm to viciously twist one of the alien slave's arms up behind her back, and then, for good measure, kicked out the back of her leg, dropping her captor to her knees.

Glaring down at the dark haired girl in her clutches, Jinx leaned forward to hiss in her ear, "Listen to me, little Missy, you are going to answer _every_ _single_ question I have, or I will shatter you like a porcelain doll. Do you understand? Gasp twice for yes, once for no."

Jinx's captive squirmed, but not in an organized attempt to escape. Her shaking form betrayed a growing agitation and fear. She gasped, but didn't overtly fight back, in what Jinx guessed passed for submission. The sorceress eased up a bit, enough for the young woman to speak.

"They'll be coming," she said, frantic, once her voice was free. "We have to go. Please. They'll know something is wrong."

Jinx scoffed silently. "Why the hell should I believe you? You were a second away from jamming a vacuum tube up my damned nose! What's your angle?"

"I don't know - I - I touched you, and... and I remembered who I was! Who I used to be before they - please, I let you go, didn't I?"

A derisive snort was her response to that. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. I don't care what mental illness you're suffering from. You're going to tell me how to get the hell out of here, _now!_ And, for that matter, where the hell did you put my clothes, you damned perv?"

The other girl inclined her head and pointed over at a tray near one of the unmentionable alien probes. As Jinx glanced over to confirm the other half of her outfit, the young woman spoke up, "The door uses a specific sort of physical contact to open. We're close to an exit - if, if we hurry, we can get out!"

The sorceress glared at the back of her captive's head for a second, before growling. She made sure to bounce the girl's head off the wall to stun her while she went over to get her clothing. After quickly clothing herself (thanking a certain perverted master for teaching her the art of rapid dressing... and undressing), Jinx stared at the cloaked girl as she struggled to her feet. A miniscule flash of sympathy shot through her, as a cough wracked the girl's body, and a few flecks of crimson splattered her lips.

Jinx hadn't manhandled her that much... she was pretty sure, anyway.

"Alright, fine, you can come with me, but only because I need to know just what the hell is going on here," she decided. "One wrong move, though, and you'll wish I was as gentle with you as you were with your ugly friend on the floor, get me?"

The cat eyed sorceress lifted her hand and generated an intense pink flame which danced madly in her palm for emphasis. The young woman nodded, already moving for the door. Threat or no threat, she looked to be on the verge of bolting like a frightened rabbit.

The door she approached seemed to be completely flat and featureless: just a part of the dull silver wall with a minor indentation in the form of a perfect rectangle. The robed girl held a pale hand up to it, pressed, and a moment later the metal retracted slightly and slipped easily up into the ceiling. Wiping something from her mouth, she then led Jinx into a larger room. The pink haired former-villainess had not been conscious during her transport and had no choice but to try and follow what dubious help she had managed to find.

The first thing she saw was the body of some sort of creature, splayed out on its back on top of a larger version of the table she had woken up on. It was a massive beast, perhaps fourteen feet long. No tail; it was all body and muscle and fur. Teeth as long and wide as her hand ran from blood red gums in a mouth pried open by metal bars. Tubes and machinery ran from the ceiling down into an opened body cavity, paused as if in mid-operation. Jinx watched a moment, assuming it was some dead creature being studied... when its clawed feet twitched, and a beady red eye glared hungrily in her direction.

Jinx felt her gorge rise and had to fight it down by pure will. What were these aliens doing? What kind of monster was this thing? Was - was this how she would have ended up if the cloaked girl hadn't released her?

Covering her mouth with her sleeve, she impatiently shoved the raven haired girl. "Get - get us the hell out of here..."

They moved quickly around the creature, giving it a wide berth.

Further along the wall, orange-hued reclamation and recycling tubes glowed with a malevolent inner light. Some held the dissolving parts of the beast from before, but one had an obviously humanoid - no: _human_ - skeleton within. Only a few tattered scraps of flesh and sinew clung tenaciously to the remains, along with a plume of black hair streaked by a lighter line of pigment. The robed girl seemed to see it too, as if for the first time, and recoiled with a gasp. After that, she ran straight to the end of the room, throwing caution and stealth to the wind.

Jinx followed, trying not to think too much about what she had seen.

What the hell kind of place had she ended up in?

They came to another door, but then the girl turned and ran in the opposite direction. There was yet another door to the side, and reaching it, she pressed both her hands to it and swiped them to the sides. Jinx tensed, wondering if the robed weirdo was about to try and pull something -

"Just locked it," the strange young woman assured her, heading back to the other door. She used one hand and the door opened like before. A blast of cold air came in from outside, sending a shiver of frigid relief in the promise of escape from the stifling shop of horrors inside. The robed girl was the first through, but instead of bolting away from the ship, she turned and ran along the side. It gave Jinx a chance to see it for the first time from the outside: it seemed to be mostly circular (or hexagonal) by the way it curved around, and three stories high, built one on top the other like pancakes.

It was an honest-to-god UFO.

Around the side of the ship, she could see more of the animal creatures: this time penned in some sort of enclosure. The "pens" were just indentations in the ground, supporting a nearly transparent and invisible fence that separated them from the giant beasts. They were sort of dinosaur like, in that they stood balanced on two hugely muscled legs, but they had no tail as a counterweight, and their thick squat bodies turned towards the two girls. Two of them huffed in deep grunting snarls that made the pit of her stomach clench.

Her raven haired companion grabbed her arm and began to pull her to the side, but a second later, Jinx pulled her back and pressed them both back against the hull of the ship. There was another of those gray naked alien things out in the wide clearing behind the ship. It appeared to be in the midst of setting up another of the pens that housed those oversized death machines around back. Only this pen seemed to have at least twice the number of metallic supports, and something that looked vaguely like a power source that could be hooked up to said supports.

Even as the creature proceeded to push another of the tall posts into position, showing a startling amount of strength for something so small, Jinx briefly wondered if they might be able to sneak by it-

As if reading her mind, the haunting alien turned to stare at the pair of them with dead, soulless eyes - what was she talking about 'as if'? These things were damned psychic, through and through! That meant that this was going to be an even more annoying escape than she'd feared.

Both Jinx and the alien burst into motion at the same time. Even as the undersized engineer began to run to the side, to where an alien looking pistol was laying on a small table, Jinx broke into a full sprint, bearing right down on her inhuman opponent. The alien proved quicker this time, reaching its gun before she'd even cleared half of the distance between them.

Years of training kicked in instantly as Jinx saw the weapon swing around towards her. First she dove into a tight, corkscrewing spin through the air which carried her rapidly to the side. It was then that she heard it. A loud '_crack__'_ like nothing she'd ever heard before. She registered a flash of green light passing within a yard of her and could actually feel an intense, painful heat wash over her for a fraction of a second. A second later, Jinx landed on all fours and launched herself forward with everything she had, not even wasting an instant to figure out what she'd missed - or what had missed her. The alien was already spinning again, aiming his small weapon at her. She could actually see its withered finger pressing down on the trigger...

She was already in the air when the weapon fired, and this time she got a good view of what happened. Another crack split the air, a livid bolt of raw, green fire erupting from the nose of the pistol and traveling harmlessly beneath her faster than she could follow. Somewhere behind her, the sound of an explosion rang out across the clearing.

Unfortunately for the alien, this time she was the quicker. It took the creature too long to get her in its sights once more. Moving fluidly, Jinx performed a front flip as she fell through the air - only to drop a devastating axe kick to the alien's shoulder as she landed. The sound of cracking bone was nearly as loud as the firing of the weapon as it went off one last time, a gout of vaporized earth and ossified glass fragments shooting up into the air several yards away from their position.

The little grey man was already listing to the side, about to collapse from the savage assault, but Jinx was too impatient to wait. She quickly ducked down and spun around viciously with a sweeping kick. Before it even had a chance to fall properly, the alien was knocked off of its feet and horizontal to the ground. Following the momentum of her sweep, Jinx swung around completely, bringing her leg up into a 180 degree split, then dropped her platform booted foot directly onto the alien's sternum in a second axe kick which finally crushed it into the ground mercilessly.

Taking a moment to grind her heel in, it didn't look like the alien was planning on getting up any time soon to Jinx. She briefly considered making that condition permanent, when -

"G-girl! Above you!"

Surprised at the robed girl's shout of assistance, Jinx spun about and glanced up into the sky, expecting any number of alien creature's to be jumping off the roof of the space craft or flying for her jugular to plant eggs in her belly -

The sight of another alien space craft suddenly appearing above them, apparently slowing down from such a great speed that she could scarcely see it, to a dead stop so insanely fast, that she was afraid Stephen Hawking himself was a second away from showing up and kicking the thing out of the air, Chuck Norris style, for ignoring the laws of physics. Jinx found herself temporarily frozen with wonder as the craft, not nearly as large as the three layered behemoth behind her, but still quite large, descended to the ground as gracefully as anything she'd ever seen before.

It wasn't until she felt a hand on her shoulder that she realized the alien-slave girl was beside her.

"Oh _no_! No! We have to **go**, _now_!"

Something seemed odd about this to Jinx. This orange clad girl had just walked them past nearly a dozen humvee sized eating machines without even batting an eye, but just the sight of this ship was scaring her, well ... shitless?

"Sheesh, what's you're problem? These little grey guys aren't _that_ dangerous. Sure, those guns seem a bit nas-"

She was cut off mid brag when her companion suddenly latched onto her shoulders with both hands and stared into her eyes with startling intensity. "You don't understand. There - there is an _Ethereal_ on that ship! I can _feel_ it! We have to leave _now_!"

Jinx scoffed loudly. "Ethereal? Yeah, that sounds about as scary as-"

In the time they had spent arguing, the logic defying craft had already landed. Now that it was on the ground, Jinx could see that it was actually two stories tall, though the second story only extended above the central mass of the ship, while two single story pod looking section extended from each side. On the end of the craft closest to them, a large pair of double doors silently slid open in the same eerie fashion that the doors inside the other ship did.

"No, we're too late," muttered the girl in a horribly despondent tone.

Jinx was about to ask another question, when a number of figures suddenly began to exit the newly landed ship in a rigidly organized fashion. Four more of the short, grey aliens exited the craft first, in perfect rank and file. Behind them was a large cage of some sort. It looked to be constructed of the same transparent material as the pens out back, and as it came out into the meager light of the moon...

The young witch's cat like eyes nearly popped out of her skull at what she saw inside the cage.

"Holy crap! It's that Hypergriffin thing!" she barked incredulously.

Her jaw snapped shut with an audible click a second later, but the damage was already done. The four aliens turned to regard her, and, a moment later, a new figure emerged from the ship, just behind the caged Hypergriffin.

She had absolutely no idea why, but more so than the grey aliens, more so than the caged monsters, more so than even the deadly Hypergriffin which had caused this entire catastrophe, the sight of the orange robed alien which glided out of the craft caused Jinx's blood to go cold. Despite the fact that it wore the same style of cloak as the slave girl, which Jinx had associated with weakness and servitude, the being before her radiated menace in the same way the Headmaster had on his worst days. She wasn't even sure if she could see its actual face or not, but Jinx could _feel_ that it had turned its attention her way.

**CURIOUS**

It wasn't even a command, like the alien that had attempted to force itself on her earlier; it was merely an expression of its interest at the odd situation, and yet, Jinx could feel the immense weight of its will settle over her like a stifling lead blanket. The overwhelming presence actually triggered within the ex H.I.V.E. sorceress a deeply planted response that she didn't even know she had.

Confronted with such psychic power, Jinx's body reacted of its own will and her arms swung forward firing off a salvo of energetic pink projectiles that flew wildly towards the gathered creatures. The grey aliens dove about frantically, pink bursts landing all about them, but none actually hitting. The tall, cloaked alien, though, did not even bother with such dramatics. Three of the hex's screamed through the air directly at it, only to splash harmlessly against an invisible wall.

Jinx felt apprehension wash over her, a shadowed, pale imitation of amusement emanating from the... the thing - it had to be the Ethereal that her companion had spoken of - as it regarded her failed attack. Even before the command was uttered, Jinx's body froze up painfully, her muscles spasming in one wrenching convulsion.

**SUBM**-

An odd crackling - hissing sound suddenly filled the air for a second. For just a moment, everyone present looked about oddly, trying to find the source...

A small puff of smoke innocently rolled up the side the alien cage behind the Ethereal. A second later, it was followed by an overly loud click and the side of the cage began to swing open ever so slowly. Time seemed to slow down as everyone stared apprehensively at the insensate beast that had been subdued within the cage.

One of its numerous eyes fluttered open.

**NO - SUBDUE THE TRAVELER**

In an explosion of movement, the massive Hypergriffin burst out of the cage, its dozen or so wings flaring out proudly, sending a one of the two closer Sectoids bouncing away. The griffin then pounced on the nearest Sectoid available and began to maul it with great abandon, the heads ducking down to rip and tear into the alien's grey body. Despite having a weapon in hand, it made no attempt to use it, preferring to be torn apart and eaten than to disobey. Even as Jinx stared at the disaster in motion, her body still frozen, she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. The paralysis lifted and she spun to see the dark haired girl gesturing frantically away from the ships.

"Come on, come on!" the robed girl exclaimed emphatically.

She then broke into a full run, heading into the woods.

* * *

13:30 hours  
Fifty six kilometers off the New Jersey Coast  
USNS _Fisher_

On paper, the T-AKR 301 USNS _Fisher_ was one of thirty one _Bob Hope_ class vehicle cargo ships used for prepositioning of Army vehicles. Taken off active rotation several years ago, it had been loaned to UNETCO for 'extended operations' in the North and South Atlantic. This included, but was far from limited to, assisting in the supply of XCOM facilities and providing support for XCOM craft when making oceanic interceptions. It was one of several 'mobile secondary facilities' used for this purpose around the world.

951 feet long (290 meters), with a displacement of over 60,000 tons and a capacity of 380,000 sq. ft, UNETCO had modified the interior of the ship extensively. It now supported a crew of almost a hundred, including military guards and research staff. Two laboratory sections and a small fabrication bay were the most substantial additions, but as it now carried secure cargo, hidden armaments had also been included in the extensive refit.

As the tilt-wing aircraft landed gingerly on the helicopter pad, a number of personnel assembled on deck. Among them was a young tech by the name of Dexter Kuffsman – associate researcher (S2). He and his small staff were, so far, the only ones to start to study the field op's newest find: this Cyborg man. Not only was it intellectually fascinating, but it had the potential to bump him up to a research position on an _actual_ main base. That would be a substantial pay-grade improvement and a chance to finally get off the damn ocean.

As the rear of the aircraft opened, allowing a van to back out down the ramp, Kuffsman waited impatiently to see their new arrival. Next to him, the armed guards, each equipped with UNETCO make second-gen laser rifles (the more powerful originals the lower power commercial models were made after) greeted the news with professional unease. For them, it was just another security complication making their lives marginally more difficult, just like the other month when they'd needed to bring in two Sectoids to help with some of the research below decks.

Finally, Kuffsman got a look at the man.

He was certainly a big one. Muton sized even!

"Professor Kuffsman," Agent Strauss greeted, the two men quickly shaking hands.

"Pleased to meet you, Agent," Dexter replied with a friendly grin, and took a step to the side to greet the new research subject in the same manner. "And you as well. Professor Kuffsman. You can call me Dexter if you like."

The cybernetic prisoner lifted his hand to shake Dexter's, only to realize that his hands were still shackled together. Tsking loudly to himself, he quickly disconnected his hand, letting the handcuff fall off, before quickly snapping the appendage back on and holding it out for the researcher to shake once more.

"Yo, Dex. The name's Cyborg, so, y'know', feel free to call me Cyborg. So, you're one of the eggheads, eh? Bet you're just itching to get a look at my tech, aren't ya?"

"Ah, yes, definitely," Kuffsman shook the titan's hand, but quickly cupped his together excitedly as he headed for the lift down. "But first we need to identify where you came from and what you're doing here. Come along, and I'll take you to the lab to meet the rest of my staff."

Once inside the lift, the character of the ship changed dramatically. The texture and tint of the walls changed, becoming more like the silver of the cuffs but with a duller, more weathered shade or gray. A touch pad lit up in green and orange with the levels of the ship this lift had access to, and it noiselessly descended two floors down into the hold.

Inside was a mixture of transparent alloy – almost glasslike but lacking in gloss and glare from nearby lights – and solid plate. This part of the ship had been hollowed out into a single cavernous compartment, hosting three security-isolated laboratory modules within it, one being layered on top the other. Catwalks and railing crossed the levels above and below. Some other areas were safely sealed behind blast shielding but the lab Doctor Kuffsman headed towards was off to the left and set up by itself.

There, the main room of the lab could be seen, mostly divided into four major work stations.

"This is Professor Ju," Kuffsman introduced, as the three other researchers stood together nearby. He motioned towards an Asian man past middle age. "Professor Keefler." A Caucasian man also in his fifties with thick rimmed glasses. "And Professor Dymchenko." An attractive dark haired Eurasian woman in her thirties.

"Yo, nice t'meet y'all," Cyborg replied easily as he looked around with interest. "Heh, the feds up top weren't kidding about Area 51. Laser weapons, secret labs, and the analysis I ran on the material of those cuffs didn't come back as any known terrestrial material. I think you boys and girls are playing around with toys a little ahead of your timeline. Let me guess, aliens?"

"Mmm… a little of this, a little of that," Kuffsman dithered a bit. "But we do have a _bit_ of an alien problem. Which actually brings up the fact that we need to take a scan of you. Not just all those interesting re-constructs you have, that will come next, but we need to check for psionic programming. I hope that won't be a problem?"

"Uh uh uh, no free previews of the tech, gentlemen. I do work on a barter system, if you have anything interesting. It would be remiss of me to disturb the natural development of an alternate dimension, well, at least not without a little quid pro quo, if ya know what I mean." Smirking, Cyborg tapped his skull. "As far as psionic programming goes, it's not really an issue. Half of my brain is electronic, after all. Even if someone did try to brainwash me, any anomalous tampering like that would get overridden."

The Professor sighed. "I understand your reluctance, but my security conscious superiors will want a psi-scan. The electronic storage of data and consciousness shouldn't be an issue. You may have already noticed it when you were taken here, but we – and our enemies – have the ability to remotely manipulate unshielded electronics. This is merely to ensure your intentions are genuine, like a CAT scan of your mental pathways. Non invasive and almost entirely automatic."

Cyborg rolled his eyes. "Are you kidding me with that 'unshielded' crap? But, yeah, fine, you can take as many brain scans as you want. My systems are more secure than anything you got on this tub. No one peeks at my systems unless I say so."

"You're making a mountain out of a mole hill. We've already confirmed that you are genetically human from hair samples," Kuffsman said, walking over to a section of the wall without any nearby equipment.

Pressing his palm to the surface, he activated a holographic pad with the same colors as the elevator controls. Fingers moving quickly, he queued something up, and the wall dimpled slightly before retracting into the ceiling and floor. The room it revealed was fairly small, less than seven meters to a side, and apparently without a single amenity. The Professor tapped a few more keys, and a table mushroomed out of the floor, along with several sphere and saucer shaped protrusions from the ceiling.

"Please, have a seat and the scan will be over before you know it," he assured the Titan, gesturing to the table. "Then we'll talk about your unique technology."

Shrugging, Cyborg did as they asked, moving over to sit on the table. A moment later, the doors closed and turned transparent. Professor Dymchenko circled around behind Kuffsman, exchanging a few words with him, and then left the field of vision. Sighing to himself, Cyborg looked upward as a few faint lights shone just beneath a layer of the metallic material protruding from the ceiling. Rapping his fingers against his knee, he waited a couple more seconds.

"No psionic imprints detected," he heard, after another couple seconds. The doors opened again, with Professor Kuffsman still standing in the same spot. "You'll have to forgive our caution. Our enemies are quite adept at controlling the minds of others; mind scans of this sort are just another part of life after a while."

Cyborg waved off his concern. "Don't even worry 'bout it. S'not like I haven't dealt with aliens before. Damn guys can be a nuisance, though, admittedly... some of them are pretty awesome, too."

"I'll have to take your word for it. Xenobiology isn't our field... Well now, let's have a little talk about this technology of yours. And maybe a few others things," Kuffsman said, pulling up a chair. Dymchenko, Keffler and Ju also sat nearby, and the latter rolled an armless pivoting chair over to the cybernetic teen.

Cyborg leaned back to get comfortable. "So, what do you wanna know, then?"

"Personally I'd like to know where you came from," Dymchenko spoke up, betraying only a slight accent. "You are genetically human but those cybernetic modifications are clearly different from the ones we've leaked to the civilian market."

"They are also quite different from the alien and international military combat cybernetics we know of," Keffler added. "Your MMI (mind-machine interface) is also different than what we've seen before."

Cyborg took a quick look around the lab, nodding to himself, then towards Keffler.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm seein' what you mean. Judging by the tech you got here, and the general feel I'm gettin' for where you guys are at, I'd say you guys are pretty much behind where I come from on a lot of fronts, except maybe the civilian medical tech and even that's iffy. Maybe a few other things. Mundane tech," he dismissed it. "Still, it's actually pretty good, considering I was nearly ready to start collecting sticks to rub together to make a smoke signal to contact my buddies after checking out the readily available goodies in the city."

He then turned back to Dymchenko. "And I guess my little hint about 'coming from an alternate dimension was a bit subtle for you guys, was it? Considering you guys are sailing the good ship Xenobiology, you'd think you'd be more open minded."

"You can, of course, prove you are from this alternate dimension of yours?" Professor Ju asked, tapping his cheek. "As well as how you got here?"

Rolling his eyes, Cyborg simply presented his right arm and brought up the dimensional variance data he'd already obtained. As the intricate data scrolled down the small screen, though, he quickly saw the questioning looks from the four scientists.

"You ... ah- you guys aren't exactly experts in the field of dimensional physics I'm guessing... Damn, this might be harder than I thought..."

How the heck did he prove he was from another dimension when his best proof was beyond their comprehension?

"Perhaps," Keffler asked with a polite cough. "If you described the nature of your investigative method, and what all that data represents - I don't think I've ever seen that kind of labeling system used before either - we would know what we are seeing…?"

* * *

Late morning.

The Skyranger approached the landing pad with a roar of VTOL engines, the swept wings catching the light from the morning sun. The Russian built craft pivoted slightly as it aligned with the helicopter pad, turning until the rear hatch faced the side of the structure bearing the stairs. The area around Hisen Dam was heavily forested, and a flock of birds took to the air in protest over the sudden auditory intrusion.

Ryouga, Mousse and Kuno stood at attention on the outer rim of the landing pad, demarcated by yellow and black warning paint. As the Skyranger lowered, landing gear finally touching down, the rear compartment opened and a ramp extended. Even before it fully touched down, the first passenger (at least for this leg of the trip) hopped down: an older African American man with a white beret and urban-camo themed fatigues identical to those of India Squad's members. He was followed by another man, roughly the same age but with a Mediterranean complexion and no headwear.

"Captain Banks, sir." Lieutenant Hibiki saluted, followed crisply by his two subordinates. "Lieutenant Feretti."

"At ease, Lieutenant," the Captain remarked, saluting in reply as he walked over with hi immediate subordinate in tow. The three younger men lowered their arms and relaxed.

"Any news on the AA?" Feretti asked, taking a casual look out over to the horizon. "She's still cooperative?"

"That's correct," Ryouga replied. "No attempts at escape or to manipulate the staff. From what I've seen, she's a little twitchy and defensive when it comes to personal contact."

"Your impression?" the Captain asked, and turned to Mousse. "You were the one who fought her first in her altered state, isn't that correct?"

"She has self control issues, like most double-A psychics, sir." Mousse coughed, a bit nervously. "She was also fighting for her life. I don't begrudge her that."

"She was a forthright foe," Kuno added. "In my fight, she was content to waylay rather than attempt to strike a killing blow."

"And the clone?"

Hibiki answered that one. "Uncooperative, sir, but... I can understand why, given the context of the situation. Our presence is making him question everything he believes in. He may turn violent as we expose any false memories or other preconceptions."

The Captain nodded at that. "According to reports, the clone is essentially baseline human. The girl is an unknown hybrid of some sort. Human DNA is clearly the most prevalent, but it is mixed with… this completely unknown set of xeno DNA."

"Yes, sir."

The older man headed down the stairs, heading for the facility.

"We will deal with the girl first, then. If your report is accurate, then her conversion will likely help in dealing with the clone."

* * *

Raven looked up as a soft chime announced visitors. There was no clock in the room, but she could guess that it was a few hours before mid-day. She hadn't been given any breakfast and nothing to drink but a glass of water, but it was compensated for by the night's sleep. For the first time in recent memory she had gone out like a light, and woken up hours later, refreshed and remembering not a wink. No dreams, no nightmares, just a surprisingly good night sleep. It was a pleasant surprise, especially given the unusual accommodations.

If only she had something to wear besides a white shirt and pants; such stark clothing made her feel a bit like an inmate, even though in a way that was exactly what she was. Sitting at the edge of her bed, the one built into the back wall (the exam table having receded into the floor), she saw her visitors through the transparent front wall. The older Ryouga was there, along with two men she didn't recognize. They wore the same sort of military uniform, however, so logically they were probably his superiors. Or at least one commanding officer and one 'specialist' since she had heard that term mentioned before.

The airlock accommodated first Ryouga and the Caucasian man, two entered side by side. After they stepped inside, the third man, an African American who looked to be about middle age, entered. He took a quick look around, his hands cupped behind him, before letting his eyes fall on her.

"Miss Raven," he spoke in a casual baritone. "My name is Captain Banks. I'm here to determine the authenticity of your memories and what threat you pose, if any, to the civilian population."

"About time," Raven deadpanned. "If I had to wait any longer, I might have decided to fabricate some memories of my own out of sheer boredom."

"Miss," the Caucasian man spoke up at this. "It may surprise you to know you're not the most important thing in the world at this moment."

Captain Banks waved the other man down. "There are only a few people trained to deal with psychics like yourself. You'll have to excuse the wait. Hibiki. Feretti. The young lady is obviously anxious to prove herself."

"Yes, sir," the younger Lieutenant snapped. Feretti just nodded. The two walked around to her left and right, and the older Ryouga motioned for her to stay seated. All three raised their right hand, flanking her to the sides and front.

Immediately, she felt something tug in her mind.

In that brief instant, Captain Banks touched a finger to her forehead, and the cell walls melted away, dissolving like foam on a beach. In its place was only stark nothingness. Weightless, she hung suspended, with neither up nor down.

Then, a floor appeared, giving basic perspective. A spark lit up in slow motion, like a freeze frame firecracker, before the bits and pieces of light grew and shaped into a humanoid form. Another joined it, and then a third. She looked down and saw that she had form, too: including her normal clothes. Well, her normal _work_ clothes, such as they were. Even her cloak was back.

Captain Banks appeared in detail, followed by Lieutenants Feretti and Hibiki. All three lowered their arms, and the moment they did so, she felt a breeze blow through her hair. Faint lines appeared all around them, and these lines curved into oval portals. Line by line, they then lit up with images. No sounds. Raven opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

Until she thought about it.

"- is an unusual arrangement," the Caucasian man, Feretti, was in mid-comment. "A Ljungdahl Repeat like that indicates attempts at self organization. There's fifteen of them by the time she hits adolescence."

"She can hear us," Ryouga spoke up, pointing over at her.

Raven smiled mysteriously. "Of course I can. Did you think that I wouldn't for some reason?"

Despite the men's attempt at control, she felt her mind slipping back into familiar patterns, the room began to darken, the walls slid away and the floor slowly began to shift to the familiar stone wasteland that existed as the metaphysical representation of her mindscape. She, herself, had never been able to reshape it to her will, it was no surprise that these people couldn't either. Not while she was conscious anyway.

"Oh, I hope you don't mind the decor. It has taken on a bit of a life of its own. I can't do a thing with it."

The two older men largely ignored the change, continuing to browse through the memories around them as a rapid pace. Only the older Ryouga, still the youngest of the three by far, seemed to be struggling to keep pace. He glanced down at the change in terrain, then up at something else. Then back at her.

"This alien, Trigon," the lieutenant said, watching her evenly. "Is it the reason you mind reverts to this?"

"Something like that," Raven replied with a mysterious smile. Despite being practiced psychics, these people were notoriously closed minded. It was almost amusing, really.

Still, they appeared to be behaving themselves. They were not prying into any of the darker corners of her mind. Which was most certainly for the best, as the simple act of tapping those memories could likely trigger something that these men were not prepared to deal with. Perhaps she should try to locate the fragments of her personality first, before these men stumbled across them causing a potential 'situation.'

"I can hear what you're thinking, you know," Ryouga said, still watching her. "You can probably hear my thoughts, too, if you try. What are you worried about us finding? Do you think you're the first victim whose mind I've been in? This is also part of our job; our responsibility. We came here to help you, not hurt you."

"It's not me that I'm worried about being hurt. Did you think I was simply boasting when I warned you beforehand? You are competent psychics, that much is obvious, but you have very little grasp of just what you've stepped into."

With that, Raven then turned and began to float away, beginning the search for her 'sisters'. She could still hear the men talk, and now their thoughts as well, the distance not having any effect.

_'Sir, shall I continue to analyze her pre-teen memories or...?'_

_'If you want to follow the meta psyche and explore the partitions, you are free to do so, Lieutenant. Feretti will resume your duties.'_

_'Thank you, sir. Fragmenting now.'_

_'Don't get lost, Hibiki.'_

_'Don't even joke about that!'_

Even as Raven drifted, she felt a presence draw closer. She could feel him both there, close by, and far away, though that impression was much fainter. It was like an imprint left on a pillow. It was a basic technique, the very lowest level of what she had done with her own emotions. Still, 'seeing' Ryouga, _of all people_, pull off the feat of psychic manipulation was quite bizarre.

"I hope you don't mind if I follow you," he said - and thought, clearly, _'I haven't gotten lost in another mind yet... knock on wood.'_

She shook her head. "Not at all. Don't worry, I won't let you get trapped like my friends did last year."

Now, if she were a physical manifestation of an emotion, where would she be?

"The scan seems to be proceeding well. I've taken the liberty of subtly directing them away from anything too personal ... or embarrassing, which pretty much includes anything involving Beast Boy."

Raven was amused to see 'Ryouga' jump a bit when the yellow cloaked Raven, representing her wisdom and intelligence, appeared from behind a nearby rock spire.

"That's good to hear," Raven nodded to her yellow cloaked counterpart. "I'd hate for them to judge our timeline based on his antics."

"Beast Boy. One of your Teen Titans," Ryouga said, glancing from one girl to the next. "Small green boy. Transforms into animals. I stopped my detailed search around the point where you and this... Robin person... picked him up. You're the partition of Raven's perception, then? Her, um... wisdom?"

Intelligence laughed gaily. "I'm no more the partition than Raven herself is. I just have more experience existing in this plane than you and yours. Despite the older man's skill, I am able to shift things a bit around about him. Of course, he is behaving himself, so I am keeping it to a minimum so as not to disrupt his search."

Raven nodded. "All the more reason to find Bravery and Rage, though. They would be the most likely to cause disruptions, regardless of how benign the scan is. Bravery could likely be dealt with, but I don't want to imagine what would happen if Rage got out of control again."

"You separated your emotions to better control your power, right?" Ryouga asked, keeping up with the two Ravens. "It's amazing to think someone so young could do that. But why are your... I was taught to call them partitions... but I guess you prefer something else? But why are they free-form like this? Are they always interactive when you meditate?"

Intelligence shared a glance with Raven. "He is quite rude, isn't he?"

Raven shrugged. "It is Ryouga ... 'a' Ryouga, anyway." She then turned back to him. "And yes. I find it far more helpful to me during meditation to have more than one point of view. It allows me to get to the root of problems with much greater efficiency ... in most cases, at any rate."

The yellow cloaked Raven looked like she was about to add something, when the sound of laughter interrupted them. Turning around, the trio suddenly found a pink cloaked girl sitting on the ground, laughing her butt off.

"Oh, man, they just fast forwarded through the day that Robin tried to teach Starfire about modesty ... beginning roughly ten minutes after her first 'earthly shower' when she decided to go for a walk around the tower. Classic!"

"Another one? Feels like Pleasure?" Ryouga asked. "So if you aren't partitions as we know them, are you... just other Ravens? But you're all part of Raven, too, the command persona?"

"Hellllloooooo? _Happiness_ over here!" The pink clad Raven leapt up and scooted over, looking Ryouga up and down. "Hey, this guy's pretty cute! Too bad about that dreadful aura. Hey, we should totally fix him up with Rage! I bet they'd be totally cute together!"

Both the violet and yellow clad Raven's shook their heads in embarrassment, before the latter cleared her throat. "The closest term you might understand would be Simulacrum. We are each images of Raven, possessing certain traits and the same memories, but on the whole, lacking the true substance of the core. The Raven you saw before, that you believe to be the 'command personae', is more of a consensual 'voice' for the rest of us."

"I see... thank you. If your memories are genuine - and against all reason, they seem to be - you still need to pass a mental evaluation. You're still human and not fully alien, but we can't let a dangerous psychic free. That's why I followed you. To make sure you're... well, sane I guess."

_'That and I was curious.'_

The pink cloaked Raven tousled his hair, giggling cheerfully.

"I should also apologize," he added, trying to gently dislodge the cheerful simulacrum. "When Mousse reported your powers, we... I... assumed you were something you weren't. Though the four-eyed demon-look didn't help, I think the other me being there colored my view of events."

"Awwww, don't feel bad!" Happiness cheered, wrapping him in a crushing hug.

Intelligence nodded. "Given the situation, your reaction was logical. Again: given the circumstances. Of course, your assumptions are still far from one hundred percent accurate, but close enough to suffice."

"So then," the violet Raven finally asked, "Are we done with your verification, then? I'd like to collect Ryouga as soon as possible. I'm certain that you, of all people, realize how poorly he deals with captivity, especially if he has my welfare to be concerned over."

"The Captain and Lieutenant are nearly finished. There's just the matter of your mental state... and the transformation issue. You can probably overhear, but they're... concerned about it."

"Yes, well _that_ shouldn't be a problem as long as we don't run into any more psychotic groups of trigger happy zealots that prefer to start shooting innocent people before they even bother to try and get half their facts straight." A new inflection cut through the bleakness, and a moment later, making her usual entrance, the familiar green cloaked form of Bravery dropped dramatically through the air.

"Sheesh, snippy much?" Happiness blurted.

"And yet not completely without merit," Intelligence added.

Dropping a fist on her hip, Bravery strode over to stare Ryouga straight in the eyes, ignoring the fact that he was noticeably taller than her. "Man, you are _so_ lucky that you didn't come after us first, Lover Boy." She made a point of driving a finger straight into his chest. "We could have _kicked_ your _ass!'_"

"You wouldn't have killed me," he retorted.

_'Compared to dying, losing is just an inconvenience.'_

Bravery snorted loudly, giving him a raspberry. "Inconvenience _this_, cutie. We wouldn't have needed to kill ya, cuz we woulda had you crying like a girl in five minutes."

"Bravery, that is enough," Blue Raven interrupted, frowning. "We're here to cooperate, not start fights. Speaking of which, have you seen Rage?"

Giving Ryouga one last stinkeye, Bravery spun around, smiling. "Heck yeah. We were just hanging out after we totally - " She took a moment to punch the air victoriously " - kicked Mousse's dress wearing butt!"

The green hooded Raven looked around, a touch confused. "In fact ... she should have been right behind me. She did seem a little out of it ever since Ryouga snapped us out of our epic rampage. Those little stun-bomb things suck!"

Well, that didn't sound promising. All of the Ravens began to look around, slightly worried. Only to let out a collective sigh of relief when Happiness pointed excitedly to the edge of the rocky clearing. An ominous red cloaked figure was walking slowly in their direction, robes pulled tightly closed and hood pulled low enough to cover her entire face.

Not waiting a moment, Happiness flew over and clamped her arms around the crimson figure.

"Rage! Your ears must have been burning, I bet! Anyway, you're totally right on time. I have got just the perfect guy for you to me-eeeeyaaaaah!"

Her gleeful rant was suddenly interrupted when a delicate looking hand suddenly shot out of the robe, roughly pushing the giddy personality away with enough force to send her crashing into - and through - one of the nearby rock spires. Instantly, the Ravens present dropped into defensive stances, shocked by the sudden violence; Ryouga, contrarily, remained as he was. Intelligence broke off a second later, moving to check on Happiness.

Rage began to move forward once more, but something seemed odd, beyond even the unexpected attack on what was basically herself. The red clad figure's gait seemed ... off.

"Where is it...?" she asked between breaths. "I can feel it..."

Rage took another step forward, and nearly stumbled to the side before catching herself. She started walking again, more quickly this time, and directly at Ryouga now.

"Yes, there it is. ... It is in ... you. The real you."

Starting to feel distinctly nervous at the unearthly note in the red cloaked girl's voice, or her sudden and disturbing interest in him, Ryouga decided to take a step back, to make some more room between them - only to find that he couldn't move. Something was wrong with his Aspect Motility! It should have taken less than a thought to move in this place. He couldn't even will this partition of his psyche to vanish; was something holding him?

In a surprising burst of speed, the red Raven suddenly shot forward, and grasped the lapels of his uniform in an iron clad grip. As she did, her hood blew back to reveal her face ... A gaunt, hollow face surrounding a pair of sunken, weary looking eyes.

"Give it to me! Give me your _rage_!"

Then, to the officer's horror, the girl's fists actually began to sink into his chest! He tried to scream at the sensation, but could not.

_'Psychic vampire?'_ She was trying to feed on his emotions! He could actually feel a fragment of the tightly bound knot of rage he kept hidden at the back of his mind begin to unravel -

And just as quickly as it started, it was over. In a flash, Bravery was between them, a spinning back kick launching Rage across the clearing and into the waiting arms of Raven and Intelligence.

_'What was that sudden paralysis?'_

"Ah. I get it," he said, clutching where her hands had cut into his projected psyche. "My ki attack before! I didn't really feel a spike of murderous intent in you until I used it in the fight..."

None of the girls paid the martial artist any mind, flocking around the collapsed figure of Rage. Even Happiness, looking more than a little worse for wear, was hovering over the haggard looking girl.

"Rage, what is wrong with you?" Raven asked in shock. The wasted look on Rage's face was nothing compared to the fact that the fragment had only two violet eyes! Where were the four fiery eyes filled with all of the hate and wrath in the world?

"Something is obviously amiss," Intelligence mused, studying her sister.

"I ... can't feel him anymore ... I - I can't feel his _hate_ ..."

"What?" Bravery barked, "What are you talkin' about, Sis? What's wrong?"

Rather than reply, Rage weakly reached out an arm in Ryouga's direction, though she couldn't break free of her sister's grasp. "I need - need his rage. I need ... need - "

Whatever she was going to say was lost, as she finally collapsed, apparently unconscious.

The Raven's looked back and forth between themselves, highly concerned.

"What the heck was that all about?" Happiness asked, nearly in a panic. "What's wrong with Rage?"

"I - I don't know," Raven replied. She had no idea what was wrong. Usually her dark side was nearly as powerful as the rest of her psyche combined, but now she was so ...

So _weak_.

"I am uncertain what the problem might be, but I will see if I can divine a solution," Intelligence stated. She then quickly picked up Rage and vanished behind another rock outcropping.

Raven's gaze lingered on the stone pillar long after they had gone.

"I ... don't know whether that is a very, very bad thing ... or just the opposite."

"That was your Rage aspect... I can understand being wary of that side of yourself," Ryouga said, floating closer, but facing the rock the two Ravens had vanished behind. He had overheard Raven's own thought about how her Rage was usually overpoweringly strong, not emancipated and weak.

"But anger is a part of yin and yang; you need it to function as a healthy human being," he added, with a growing frown. "I hope I didn't end up causing this damage."

It was a possibility, after all, now that he thought (openly) about it. He had trained his ki to be poisonous to others and to degrade other battle auras. Originally, it had just been to amplify the power of his Killing Point in preparation for the next fight with Cologne, but the effect carried over to his other ki based techniques as well. He had tested it on Ryu and Mousse and even Kuno with no lasting ill effect, but this girl's mind and powers were very different. Very unique.

Raven shook her head, overhearing his concerns.

"No," she replied. "I don't think... I doubt it has anything to do with you. Nor does it have anything to do with Yin and Yang, or any concerns of balance. I think something else is wrong here, I can feel it. It involves concepts that I cannot explain to you at the moment though, not until I am certain of what is actually happening."

Frowning, she turned away and began floating quickly. "Let us go back. For good or ill, it appears that any further incidences of rage will be unlikely, at best, for the time being."

"You can't use your transformation without her, then?"

"I don't _use_ my transformation at all. What you saw was not a technique, or an attack of some sort. It was a manifestation of ... something else. It only occurs when something happens to disrupt my emotional control."

"Then it has something to do with this... um... prophecy..." he elaborated, "I saw the memory when they told you about it as a little kid. My superiors will want to be sure you don't manifest this Trigon thing, or however it works. The specifics were never very clear."

"Yes, well, I don't have real control over that, nor any more specific details than what you yourself have gleaned." She smirked humorlessly. "Surely you aren't afraid of just one more alien, are you? What could it possibly do that your 'experienced' captain has not seen before?"

"I believe the people who raised you referred to it as the 'end of the world.' We'd rather that not happen." He chuckled weakly, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. "Most of us live here, after all."

"Well, unfortunately, there isn't much I can do to assuage your fears on that score." Sighing, Raven sped up her trek through the barren expanse of her mind. "My life is what it is, and there is nothing that I can do to alter that fact. Though, for people that say they have 'seen it all', you certainly seem to be getting worked up about something you didn't even believe in mere minutes ago."

"It isn't a matter of belief. It's simply being skeptical and careful," he said, drifting around in front of her, but letting himself float backwards so they could talk face to face while moving. "The Captain and Lieutenant have a composite control imprint they'd like to use, in case you do lose control in the future. If you agree to it, we will certify you for release."

"The imprint relies on consent to function," he added, seeing her expression turn slightly leery. "Based on your memories, you've been doing your best to prevent this prophecy from coming true. This should help as a last resort. If you're willing."

"Something to 'improve' my self control, I suppose?" she guessed. "Hardly necessary, but if will get us out of here sooner then feel free."

"Then...!" Ryouga held up his hand. "Beginning Imprint."

A dark skinned hand briefly superimposed his own before drifting slightly behind it. A light toned hand followed, appearing ghostlike to drift a few millimeters back. A lattice of white light crept down the officer's arm, peeling back the metaphysical sleeve of his uniform. The conceptual air around the fingers, solid or intangible, shimmered.

"This may not be entirely painless," Ryouga warned, holding out his hand. _'When you're ready, just hold out your hand.'_

With only a moment's hesitation, Raven did so.

He grabbed her wrist, and she winced not at the strength of the grip but the burning contact. She could feel the three minds, like three hot needles, and then a sensation spreading into her metaphysical arm. Two concentric rings appeared over her left hand. Single rings then floated out from between the two black ones in a variety of colors. Each one extended a few inches, constricted, and then migrated into the inner circle where it disappeared.

When Ryouga released her, the pain also disappeared like a phantom.

"I guess that's it. See you on the outside," he said, and winked out with a pop.

Within a matter of moments, Raven felt the other two minds leave her own as well. Once she was certain they were gone, she looked at the imprint and smirked.

"Assist my self control? The day I need to learn self control from Ryouga, it really _will_ be the end of the world."

"Aww, I think it looks cute!" Appearing as quick as thought, Happiness poked at her own wrist, evoking an afterimage of the imprint to flare to life for a moment.

Bravery appeared as well, looking at her own imprint with a sneer. "Man, those guys just did not _get it_. But hey, if it lets them sleep better at night thinking they 'solved the problem', then who are we to complain?"

"The alternatives are probably confinement or being shot." Raven shrugged. "What's done is done, I suppose. Still, it would be nice to be able to believe that something like this would actually be able to put an end to the prophesy so easily, even if only for a moment..." A regretful moment later, she shook her head. "Well, I had better leave as well. I wouldn't want them to get worried."

Happiness rushed in to give her a quick hug. "Don't be a stranger!"

Bravery shrugged, bored already. "Yeah, yeah, see if you can't find someone's butt to kick, if at all possible. It's been deadly dull in here the last day or so."

Rolling her eyes, Raven just ignored her battle happy fragment.

And then she awoke.

Back in her cell, Raven was immediately assaulted by an abrupt ache in her neck. Reaching up to rub the spot, she heard her neck pop. She instantly recognized the signs from in-depth meditation sessions: her physical body had been stuck in place for a far longer than expected period of time. Looking up, she saw the three men doing much the same as she had been, working out the strings and tension in arms and legs. They must have been standing this entire time, with their arms out. Only Ryouga seemed unhindered, standing easily with his hands cupped behind his back.

"What a pain. At least that's one down," the Caucasian of the trio commented with European accented English.

"The other-Hibiki can wait for an hour or so," Captain Banks decided. "Miss, if you'll follow us, we'll arrange for your paperwork and release into protective custody."

"Excellent." Raven nodded agreeably. "Of course, if you are going into Ryouga's mind, might I suggest that you ... not let yourself get lost?"

The men, well aware of the Hibiki curse, laughed. Well, two of them did.

Ryouga just pouted, almost childishly.

"It's a serious medical condition," he grumbled, proving further chuckles. Still, rather than fly into a rage at being poked fun of, the young officer just crossed his arms and 'hmf'ed.

Raven followed them out of the cell - discretely giving it one last look before exiting the airlock-like doors - and tailed behind the two older men. Ryouga stayed behind her, plainly making an effort to not get lost, even down a straight hallway. Waiting for them at the exit, past the still invisible and deactivated 'laser grid' was Doctor Bloom.

As the military officers conferred, Ryouga brushed past her to keep in the loop. They were talking quietly about some of the 'implications' of what they'd discovered in her mind. A small blush threatened to rise up when she thought about the fact that all three of them had been collectively privy to basically her entire lifetime's worth of memories, both good and bad. Even if they had basically just googled and fast forwarded through most of it. Luckily, none were the sort to bother with idle chatter: their concerns were entirely focused on security threats, investigating this 'alternate dimension griffin' and how to search or prevent for any other potential incursions.

Doctor Bloom handed her a clipboard as they walked.

"I believe they're going to transfer you to one of the main bases," she said, and pointed to a line on the document while handing over a pen. "We'll just need you to sign a few places, Miss Raven. I hope the mind scan wasn't too unpleasant?"

Taking the pen, Raven shook her head while she began to scan the document, feeling a strangely good mood coming on. "Asides from the Lieutenant taking such a _thorough_ interest in my memories of showering, it was not as invasive as I had feared."

"Did he really?" The blonde doctor asked in a shocked hushed voice. She then looked at the three men. "Wait, the younger one or the older one?"

Raven smirked wickedly. "The older one, of course. If Ryouga had done so, he likely would have died of blood loss."

"Why do I sense female anger being projected at me?" one of the older men ahead of them asked, glancing back.

"Because they're whispering about us," Ryouga replied, raising his voice to speak over his shoulder at the two women. "And I've fixed that nose bleed problem! ... mostly." A very clear blush colored his cheeks almost to his ears. "Anyway, there was one other thing I wanted to ask. That other me has some clearly altered memories and emotional blocks. Is there some reason why he doesn't want us fixing them?"

Within seconds, the dark Titan felt her mirth die a painful death. "He ... said that?" She shook her head fiercely. "I mean, yes, I am aware of a possible reason he might want to leave them be. Have you ever heard of the Allegory of the Cave? I think that might give you a slight idea..."

"Allegory of the Cave?" the lieutenant asked. "It doesn't have anything to do with the Cave of Lost Love, does it?" He shuddered.

"She's talking about Plato," Doctor Bloom corrected him.

"Philosophy stuff?" Ryouga asked, still confused. "What does that have to do with cleaning out false memories and mental programming?"

"I'll try to simplify it to the situation," Raven answered. "Suffice it to say that if someone lives in an illusion long enough, they become comfortable within it and fear it ending. Ryouga's case is unique, though. He has already seen through the illusion, the mental blocks are little more than shattered ruins at this point."

Looking down at her hands, she flexed her fingers one at a time. "I believe that he has tied certain emotions to the false memories though. He likely fears that if you remove the conditioning, you might destroy those feelings."

Doctor Bloom shook her head sadly, having picked up something in Raven's inflection.

Ryouga, though, stared at her as if she had said she had two heads. It wasn't disbelief, but... something else. Like he was remembering something important. He was a lot like her Ryouga in his mannerisms, but different in many ways, too. He looked for the life of him like he wanted to say something, but couldn't. Or wouldn't. Her description of the situation had obviously hit home somehow.

"I see," he finally said, facing forward. "I guess we are both still the same person, deep down."

For some reason, Raven hoped that Ryouga's statement wasn't true.

Still, what _would_ happen if they removed the mental conditioning? It likely wouldn't take much work on her part to convince all involved that it would be for the best to do so, regardless of Ryouga's wishes. Would his feelings for Jinx vanish just as abruptly as they'd appeared? If so, how much easier would that make her life, all with little to no effort on her part?

Obviously, with her main supporter gone, Jinx would likely leave their city completely. Ryouga would no longer be suffering from artificially induced affection and her own relationship with him would become much less complicated. And all she would have to do would be to compromise her morality, shatter Jinx's hopes and dreams, and betray Ryouga's trust to do so...

How did it come to this: where it felt like trying to do the _right_ thing would make her no better than the very villain that had actually inflicted the mind control in the first place?

Raven gave a long sigh as she followed her escorts down the corridor.

* * *

The forest whipped by the pair as they fled for their very lives. Twisted trees and white snow were their only sign posts as they ran, just trying to get some space between them and the aliens which would no doubt be hunting them down the second they got that damned monster under control. Jinx kept pace easily, despite her disorientation and unease, and she noticed for the first time that the other girl was barefoot. It couldn't have been comfortable to run like she was, even under good conditions, which these most certainly were not. Desperation and fear seemed to help push those physical discomforts aside, and they were soon deep in the snowy forest, breath turning to vapor as they slowed to a brisk walk.

Once Jinx felt they had enough distance between them and the ship, Jinx, in a sudden move, grabbed her companion by the collar and pulled her close. Their noses less than an inch apart, the Sorceress' gaze bore into the older girl.

"Alright," she began. "You tell me what the hell was going on in there, and you tell me right now, damnit! What the hell were those things?"

"The...?" the girl stammered for a second, searching for a word. "The aliens? They're our Hierarchy."

"Hierarchy?" Jinx asked, before muttering to herself, "Never heard of them."

She spent a moment to study the other girl, most notably the ornate orange cloak she wore. Jinx had thought it to be the garb of a slave or worker or something, but the big bad himself - itself - had been wearing the very same style of robe. There was no way she could be a mere servant.

"Alright then, smart girl. What are they doing here, and why were you working for them?"

"They," the robed girl paused, briefly, before just saying it. "They made me."

"They _made_ you?" Jinx asked, incredulous.

The young woman nodded, and looked down. With one hand, she pulled at the collar of her titian robes, lowering that corner of the garment down with her thumb. The material was loose enough to slip off over her left shoulder, exposing part of her upper body. She had seemed normal enough, though a bit pale (not that Jinx herself was any different), from the neck up, with long hair and wide oval eyes. However, below that was something entirely different.

Jinx nearly pushed the girl away in shock.

Below the collar, her body didn't seem human. At least, not like a healthy human. Patches of skin were dark and matted, resembling scab-tissue, but too large and too even. She had breasts, but no nipples, and two long purple tubes ran from deep within the flesh to disappear somewhere under her arm. The taller girl quickly covered herself back up, still staring down at their feet.

"You see?" she asked. "They made me. I'm the third, if you count the original. She was abducted... months ago. Harvested. Like what they would have done to you. I was working here because they made me for that purpose. It was our turn."

The sorceress didn't know what horrified her more, the sight of what they had done to this... this... person? Or the idea that the very same thing might have happened to her as well. Just the briefest flash of herself looking like _that_ was enough to send Jinx recoiling away from the - Jinx forced herself to say 'girl', rather than 'thing'.

"I - I've never even heard of anything so horrifying. They - they _harvested_ you? The real you? What kind of sick freaks are these aliens? Why the hell hasn't anyone dealt with them yet?"

"They've always been here," the girl explained. "This world is their colony. Their laboratory. Their farm. Some humans can resist, fight back, but they can't be everywhere. The first me... I didn't remember much about her before I touched you. Then some of it came back. They... they - they did to her what they did to the second me. The one they recycled. You saw her in the tank. I think she had too many bad memories... It made it hard for her to serve properly. They melted her down and... and we..."

The girl stumbled back a step, slowly shaking her head and covering her mouth.

"He - he was there too... and grandfather..." The robed woman hid her eyes in the palm of her hand. "It hurts to remember."

"Hmph, well ... that last bit I can relate with, sister," Jinx replied just a touch bitterly. She was no stranger to bad memories herself, though, in this case, she doubted she would be able to match up to the horrors that this girl had been subjected to.

But 'always been here'? That seemed impossible. Sure, there were plenty of bad guys like herself running around to keep them busy, but there was just no way that the League would allow these murderous Hierarchy guys to run around like this. It was unthinkable that such a malevolent race could be skulking around in the dark corners of the planet like this.

A stray thought occurred to the sorceress. If no one else on the planet were aware of them, if their technology was good enough to hide them from Superman himself then, then should - should she do something about it? It wasn't like she had to take them all on herself. But it might be possible for her to sabotage their ship, or maybe steal something that would allow someone else to track them?

Or, for that matter, find out what in the name of Hecate they were doing with the Hypergriffin!

She quickly gave her head a good shake. That was exactly the kind of insanity that Robin and those other moronic Titans would indulge in. No, her first priority was getting herself out of there alive. After all, she couldn't do anything to help anyone if she was dead, and it seemed all but certain that _that_ would be exactly what would happen if she went back to face that so called Ethereal again.

Strangely, her justification tasted more of ash, than the usual sweet tang of self gratification. She didn't understand why, either. She had no reason to stick her neck out for anyone else; she didn't owe anyone anything.

Jinx let out a sharp curse when she nearly tripped over a branch. Again, her conscience betrayed her. Didn't owe anyone anything? That wasn't exactly true, was it? She'd never really been on her own, not for as long as she could remember. The Headmaster, Gismo and Mammoth, Master Happosai, and finally Ryouga himself. There had always been people there to back her up, there to offer her aid and save her butt more than once or twice. There were, just maybe, a handful of people on the planet that deserved her help, despite the fact that it went so counter to her nature.

And ... what these aliens were doing was absolutely nightmarish.

The eerie silence continued to hang over the pair as they continued their flight. Only the sound of their footsteps and ragged breaths filled the air as they wandered aimlessly through the forest._ 'This must be how Ryouga feels everyday,' _she thought to herself.

The errant thought of Ryouga caused her insides to twist up all over again. Though it frustrated her no end, considering she had gone to hell and back with Happosai just to get back to feeling like the confident, self reliant woman that she was, Jinx desperately craved the company of the Lost Boy at that very moment. She wanted to hear his voice, feel the rough sensation of his fingers on her skin...

He had been right at the heart of the explosion when it had happened.

Jinx quickly shook off the chill which settled on her soul at that thought. She quickly reassured herself that it would take more than a trans-dimensional rift opening up on his head to so much as scratch that indestructible lunk. Yeah, he had simply been transported away, just like she had been. Wherever she was.

A short glance over her shoulder revealed the cloaked girl struggling to maintain her pace, so, despite herself, Jinx slowed just a tiny bit. It was so hard to consider other people when it was just her on her own. It was so much easier to deal with people when she had someone to act as an intermediary for her, someone that was willing to stand up for her, despite her acerbic tongue. Not even sure why she did it, Jinx muttered forlornly to herself -

"I really wish Ryouga was here right now."

"Ryouga?" the cloaked girl asked, overhearing the name. She seemed, for the first time, distracted from their flight, and she asked with a shocked and concerned tone. "You know a man named Ryouga?"

Jinx glanced at the girl out of the corner of her eye. "Maybe I do... what of it? In case you hadn't noticed, this isn't exactly the time for girl talk."

"It... just seems strange. You're American, aren't you?" she asked, leaning back against a tree for support. "It can't be the same person, the same Ryouga... he used to get so lost all the time, but he never ended up in the States."

"American? Heck if I know. Not really sure where I was born, asides from spending a few years in India as a kid. Still, lost all the time? Heh, that does sound exactly like my Ryouga. Poor guy might have a butt carved from pure marble, but he couldn't find the damn thing with both hands and a map." Jinx let out a brief giggle as a mental image quickly zipped through her mind.

" Hibiki Ryouga-sama?" the girl slipped into Japanese, and grimaced before clutching her head again. "He's alive, isn't he? And Ranma and Akane...? I can't remember. The Mind told me not to think about it. Made me not think about it. My friends. They were my friends and I don't even know if they're alive!"

She stared at Jinx, eyes wide.

"I'm sorry, I never even got your name," she managed, sounding hurried and afraid both to ask what was on her mind and to bear what she dreaded to hear. "I - I was... I am... Akari. Akari Unryu. You must be one of the girls Ryouga-sama met on his travels? Please, is he still alive? Do you know?"

Jinx returned the girl's stare, incomprehension on her face.

"Wait a second. _Akari_? As in, Akari the Pig Farmer? Akari - Ryouga's ex girlfriend - Akari? Wha - I mean, of course Ryouga's alive, but - holy crap! He can't possibly even know that - that _this_ happened to you! He'd go insane if he found out what those bastards did to you!"

Jinx found her breath coming a bit short. Ryouga's ex, abducted by aliens? Sure, under most circumstances, that would be an ideal situation, but Jinx couldn't even joke about it in her head after what she'd seen. And even though she'd thought incredibly little of this 'Akari', Ryouga had painted her to be a sweet, innocent girl. Definitely not someone that deserved ... this ...

"I wasn't just a pig farmer, I was a breeder and trainer," the girl, Akari, corrected her with a hint of pride shining through her previously gloomy expression. "And what do you mean, ex-girlfriend?"

Jinx pulled up short at that. "What do you mean 'what do you mean, ex-girlfriend?'? You'd _better_ damn well be an ex, because if Hibiki had still been seeing you up until this...! Okay, seriously, are we doing this?"

The sorceress waved around, indicated the snow covered forest around them.

"You just got freed from a hideous alien master, and I nearly got my innocence stolen by a girl with an alien probe. We are _not_ fighting over a guy, y'hear me?"

Akari managed a small smile at that. "This isn't Nerima, either, so I suppose we have no excuse. I'm... just glad to hear he's alive, after what we went through. I think my previous selves used to remember him sometimes..."

She paused, thinking about it more.

"The last thing I remember from before, we were at the ranch and... and they took us. They harvested me, and I remember praying they'd let him go. Are you saying they wiped his memory and let him go? No, there's... something else. Something The Mind kept from me. It's all a jumble! Like I remember what I did yesterday with Ryouga-sama on the ranch, but also yesterday on the base."

Akari tried to brush past the confusion.

"I'm sorry, what was your name again?" she asked. "Ryouga-sama told you about me, I guess, but I don't know who you are?"

Jinx leaned back, planting a fist on her hip. "My name's Jinx. I'm - well, I'm kinda Ryouga's girlfriend, more or less."

The sorceress blew a few stray hairs out of her face with an annoyed huff. "Not that the casual observer could tell, the way he's always hanging around that Titan witch. Did Ryouga ever cause you to have a stabbing pain right between your eyes? Cuz I'm pretty sure I never got migraines before getting involved with him."

"There was this... situation... with Akane Tendo," Akari admitted, with a little bit of displaced jealousy. The details of the situation were obvious just by her tone. "Do you know her? But he came back to me after the fight at Ranma's wedding. And what 'Titan witch' is this? Is that English slang? I don't know what it means."

A smirk curved Jinx's lips.

"Oh, yeah, I met Akane," she replied, answering the easy question first. "Came this far from kicking that smug little tramp's butt, too-" She held her index finger and thumb just a fraction of an inch apart. "- And by 'Titan witch', I'm talking about Raven from the Teen Titans. You probably haven't heard of her, I mean, the Titans are a joke compared to the League."

"So you know Akane and... and Ryouga-sama," Akari replied, and actually blushed a bit, a faint color lighting her pale cheeks. "But I don't know what this Teen Titans and 'League' are. Is it a wrestling thing? Some sort of American sports?"

"..."

Jinx all but gaped at the Japanese girl. "Um ...what? What's the _Justice League_? I mean, I know you're a good ol' country girl, but there's just no way you can't know about them. I mean, Batman, Wonder Woman . . . _Super Man_? Kinda hard not to hear about a guy that can kick the planet into the sun if the mood struck him."

The sorceress' cat like eyes narrowed as she regarded the girl. "Are you sure that those aliens didn't alter your memories or something like that? Didn't want you to know about the League, just in case you escaped like this, so you couldn't alert them?"

"That could be," Akari admitted. "The Mind did suppress many of my memories, but whatever you did with that pink fire... they're starting to come back. But I know about the security threats the aliens do worry about. None of them included this 'Justice Friends' or League or whatever. You're talking about... about things like Spiderman and those X-Men movies?"

Jinx shook her head.

"X-Men? Sound kinda silly to me. I'm not really into weird, Indy films, anyway. Still, doesn't really matter what you remember or not. Just matters that we get outta here so we can get some help in wiping these bastards out."

That thought in mind, Jinx gestured for Akari to follow her. "C'mon, follow me. I have no idea where Ryouga could have gotten teleported after that dimensional thing, but I'm sure he could get us in contact with some people that could crush that alien ship back there like a beer can."

"Even if you killed them, they'd just come back in new bodies. All you'd do is force them to set up the experiment somewhere else... with another me," Akari added that last part with a spark of anger as she followed the pink haired American. "And... how did you get here anyway? We're in the middle of the Russian Far East, near the Bering Sea. No one comes out here, especially no one like you."

Jinx shrugged, smirking a bit. "Weren't you listening? I just said that I got randomly teleported here, same as Ryouga. Except I have no idea where he got sent." She considered what the girl said first, though. "Hmm, their organization is that wide spread, is it?"

The thought of those aliens getting away scot-free didn't sit well with the young witch. She didn't want to endanger herself, but she didn't want to let anyone get away from screwing with her, or the rest of the planet for that matter. Jinx slowed, coming to a gradual stop, looking over her shoulder.

"We really gotta do something to screw these guys over," she began, facing back they way they came. "Even if it's something petty and minor."

"Wait!" Akari yelped, reaching for the younger girl. "Are you crazy? You'd go back there? It's suicide! We need to get out of range of the ship's mind probe!"

The pink haired sorceress scoffed loudly. "What? _No_! Did you see that Ethereal thing back there? And they've got that Hypergriffin to deal with, too! I wouldn't go back there if wild horses tried to drag me. I just wanna do something - ah! I know!"

Moving quickly, Jinx dug out her hexagonal communicator and flipped it open. "If I turn the distress signal on, this thing should pump out a loud enough transmission to bring anyone within a hundred miles down here!"

Smiling gleefully, the ex-villainess prepared to throw the device back towards the alien ships as hard as she could - when suddenly Akari grabbed her hands.

"Wait. If you do that, you'll give away our position. And worse, what if a hunter, or some policemen come to investigate? We could get innocent people killed by acting recklessly. If - if we can just get to a town - there's one less than a hundred miles from here on the coast - we can contact x-com... I think." The robed girl coughed, covering her mouth.

"And what the heck is x-com? That an x-man spinoff or something?"

"We don't - they don't - really know their name," Akari quickly explained, hoping to keep Jinx from a suicidal charge back into the base. "Their own soldiers use the term 'x-com' to foil mental probes. We, the aliens I mean, know that they're a group formed from special forces and other military types from around the world. The aliens like to work in secret, but they don't respect... um... I guess national boundaries is what I should call it. X-com is an organization that can fight the aliens anywhere in the world, if they can find them."

"The base they kept me at," she added. "Is supposed to only have grounded ships. We were supposed to be forbidden from taking off because it would increase the risk of detection. This means we have a chance to escape if we can get outside of Mind Probe range."

The sound of a tree crashing interrupted the young dimension hopper.

Followed by a guttural low pitched baying; a savage primal sound produced by no terrestrial animal. Another followed a second later from a slightly different direction, like a rumbling bass trumpet, but only partly in the range of normal hearing. Clumps of ice and flecks of snow fell ominously from far off branches.

"Was that what I think it was?" Jinx asked, eyes scanning the woods around them.

Akari nodded.

"Yes," she replied, slowly stepping aside. "They're still some distance away. We should probably run."

Slowly ... Jinx nodded. "Before we turn tail and run screaming like the little girls we are, I just have one request. Can we keep the inevitable lapse in dignity that's about to follow between ourselves?"

With, perhaps just a ghost of a smile, the raven haired girl offered a weak nod.

Jinx then gestured for Akari to go ahead of her. "Alright, and now the 'terrified flight' part of our tour can begin."

And so they ran.

* * *

_'They look similar. Not just physically, but in their overall presence...'_

Captain Bruce Banks was an old hand, with nearly three years of experience in UNETCO, from Europe and Africa to East Asia. Over the course of his career, he had seen a great many alien infiltration attempts. Sometimes, they made hybrid clones that attempted to influence those around them. Sometimes they made perfect replications to try and divert attention or cause a scandal. Sometimes they brought back those near death into their thrall. Sometimes they abducted, conditioned, or replaced entire groups: hunting parties picked up in the woods, families taken from their cars, vacationers nabbed from yachts or fishing boats.

He had seen it all.

There was a reason why the organization was suspicious and overly cautious when it came to alien infiltration. It was a matter of human survival. When UNETCO first formed, almost half the world's governments were infiltrated to some extent. The aliens realized there was neither the need or desire to fight humanity as a whole. With surgical precision, they could manipulate and inject sympathetic parties, using a handful of men to control millions. Skepticism and even paranoia saved lives. That was simply how the war was.

Yet, if Raven's relevant memories were accurate, then this apparent copy of Lieutenant Hibiki was a dimension displaced human being. The idea seemed ludicrous. He was still a little desperately open to the possibility that these were people with delusions - the human mind could easily mask a false memory simply be believing it to be true, and 'experiencing' it with a warped imagination. A psychotic man who sees his dead mother will have 'true memories' of seeing her in his mindscape, for example. This was the inherent disconnect between perspective, experience, and reality.

Entering the other Hibiki's cell, Banks took a few moments to evaluate the human being before him. According to reports, he was very nearly identical to the Lieutenant. The few differences were rooted in physical and mental conditioning. The older man could feel the prisoner's anxiety, and yes, that too felt familiar. He remembered well when he'd first encountered the Hibiki boy, just after the transfer to Seiran had gotten approval, when the two experimental martial arts squads were being formed.

_'I can guess he isn't an infiltrator by just looking at him.'_

There would have been little doubt about it, had the Lieutenant not already been on the payroll.

Of course, experience counted for a great deal in this field... but even after this young man's memories verified his identity and lack of alien programming, there was still the complication of the other tampering. Plus, what to do with him? Most likely, he'd end up sent to one of the Sanctuary Communities. The one in Oregon already had a bustling martial arts community, after all.

"Mister Hibiki," Banks spoke, with Feretti and the Lieutenant at his left and right respectively. "My name is Captain Banks. I'm here to determine the authenticity of your memories and what threat you pose, if any, to the civilian population."

He watched carefully as the young man stared back up at him for a long moment, before finally shrugging.

"Fine, do what you need to do. The sooner Raven and I get out of here, the better."

"And where do you think you'll go when we're done with you?" Lieutenant Hibiki asked, armed crossed and giving his double a half lidded look of resignation. "I'll admit, we already cleared Raven's memories and processed her. But I'd bet you don't have the slightest idea what to do next or where to go."

"Feh," Ryouga scoffed at his older counterpart. "We'll just have to find a way back home is all. If that griffin thing got us here, it can probably help us get back. It's not like we haven't dealt with time travel before, Mr. Hibiki."

The older Ryouga seemed about to retort, but bit his tongue.

Captain banks lowered his hand, in no mood to stand by while the two argued.

"Before we begin," he said, adjusting the sleeve of his right hand where his uniform rubbed up against part of the arm-mounted psi-amp. "I'd like to talk to you about this Headmaster person."

Immediately, the young Ryouga began to growl. "That bastard? What do you want to know about him? I can tell you right now that he was a monster!"

"Yes, we got that impression from Raven's memories," the other older man, the Caucasian of the trio, replied. "We also learned a bit about that academy for young criminals you were tricked into attending."

"More relevant to us here and now, we learned that this Headmaster was the one responsible for the damage done to your mind," Banks explained. "You can see how this makes your situation more troubling rather than less?"

"... Um, no, not really. It all got sorted out and we sent him to prison. Last I checked, he was still rotting there, and better off for it."

"I'm surprised he wasn't executed for his crimes," Feretti commented. "Your world seems to have a great many rogue psychics and other sorts running around, never mind the kidnapping and terrorism charges. What if he had telepathically raped a senator, instead? Or a... supreme court judge? Since this was in your United States."

Ryouga lifted a finger, preparing to fire back a scathing retort ... only to lower it a second later.

"I ... don't know. That does sound pretty bad, actually. I don't really know how the laws work in the States." Shrugging helplessly, Ryouga continued. "I mean, most of the super villains I know about aren't psychics, so I don't know what kind of priorities they have for dealing with them."

"We saw some of them through Raven's eyes. Super powered gangs of kids, younger than us, and men in costumes robbing banks?" The slightly older Lieutenant Hibiki sounded almost disbelieving. "I mean, Nerima was crazy, but never _that_ crazy. We were all martial artists, after all."

It was true: by and large, that the martial arts community kind of policed its own. Granted, they did a terrible job of it sometimes, but at least they tried… for the most part. No one _really_ wanted another martial artist to wreak serious havoc, and in so doing make life difficult for all the rest of them. Likewise, no one wanted martial artists to try and flaunt themselves publicly.

It damaged the mythos: the image and secrecy of the community as a whole. Martial artists were supposed to stick close to their peers and devote themselves to the Art and to Asceticism, not to just making money or being famous. It was a way of life, like a religious brotherhood, and everyone was expected to do their part to protect it from deterioration and harm. Like most religions, though, the levels of devotion and commitment varied by a depressingly wide degree.

"Really?" The younger Hibiki smirked. "I seem to recall a fight or two with Pantyhose that definitely fit the bill for what the Titans usually deal with." Taking a moment to consider the situation more thoughtfully, the young man did realize there was some truth to the statement. "Yeah, now that you mention it, there was just a bank robbery not too long ago, third one in as many months, I think, though I missed out on that one. From what I've heard, though, super villain threats seem to range from morons like Adonis, playing with a new toy, to alien overlords attempting to purge life from the planet."

Coughing into his hand, Ryouga muttered, "We, ah, tend to deal with the lower end of things to the best of my knowledge."

Suddenly, something occurred to the fanged boy. "...Wait a minute! If there's only a little more than a year's difference between our timelines, then how can you not know about superhero type stuff? I mean, I know that I was pretty clueless, but you guys are military now, how could you not know about the Justice League?"

The two older officers appeared to weigh their options on how best to explain the situation.

"You seem to be in an... alternate dimension, son," Banks said, giving a few seconds for that to sink in. "We don't have the, ah, 'meta human' situation you do on your Earth."

"Just martial arts and psychics," the uniformed Ryouga added. "We still have things like serial killers and terrorists and corporate criminals, but no 'take over the world' types. Fewer bank robbers, too, I'd bet."

"In a way, we are what passes for this Justice League on our world, as silly as that sounds," Lieutenant Feretti explained. "Except we have a proper dress code, of course."

The tentative prisoner blushed deeply at that. "I dunno, I think there are a few advantages to the dress code where I come from..." he coughed, trying not to think too much about the fashion sense of many of his female peers back home. "But an alternate dimension? I... well, I guess that's not much of a stretch, now that I think of it, all things considered. So, does that make much of a difference to the situation, asides from figuring out how to get us home?"

"No," Banks replied, shaking his head firmly. "Even though I fully expect your memories to appear unaltered, there are still security checks that must be made. Our enemies are insidious in their attempts to infiltrate us, and from what I've seen, I don't like a lot of what I saw on your world, either. Men like this Headmaster, who abuse their power and take advantage of _children_, are even worse in a way than the creatures we deal with. They betray what little humanity they have. I need to inspect your mind to make sure no trace of him persists to cause trouble here, under my command."

"I know you aren't a soldier, but you're still a martial artist," the other Ryouga spoke up. "You should look at this as an opportunity rather than an intrusion. Like curing a curse. How can you be the real you with someone's orders stuck in your head?"

The young warrior started at that. "Wha- ... Ummm, actually, speaking of curses..." he tentatively asked. "I, ah, I don't suppose you've had to deal with 'that' problem, have you? The 'you know what' problem?"

"Both Captain Banks and Lieutenant Feretti are well aware of both of my... of our... difficulties," Hibiki replied. "They know yours as well. I cured myself of _the pig_ several months ago, before I began active duty."

Ryouga's eyes widened. "There's a _cure_! What! How? Is it still around? It wasn't just another jerk-around that ended up biting us in the ass even worse than the curse itself?"

The older him cringed, just a bit, but Ryouga didn't miss it.

"The cure we took has a drawback, yes," the other Hibiki cautiously explained. "I don't know how much I should say about it at present. The guide's Drowned Man water caused our cursed forms to revert us back to the normal. It seems to be age dependant, however. A younger boy using the water could be cursed into a man, and a man using drowned boy would get the opposite. I believe it locks away the curse rather than truly curing it... and it takes away your memories of being cursed as well."

"Argh! Never mind, I already know all about age dependent curses. Alright then, are there any other problems I have to worry about before you confirm the stuff that you guys already know is true from Raven?"

"The three of us will enter your mind, scan, and leave," Captain Banks answered. "Any repairs we conduct will be done by me. You shouldn't feel a thing."

"Hey, hey, hey! Hold up there!" Ryouga barked. "What do you mean 'the three of us'? I don't want that overbearing jerk running through my head!" He gestured sharply to his older doppelganger. "That guy will probably try to steal my techniques and twist them for evil or something!"

"Oh? You know, I hadn't even thought of that!" The uniformed Ryouga seemed to give it semi-serious thought. A half smile began to form, despite how impolitic it was. "With your level of breaking point control, I could magnify my techniques three or even fourfold! Man, why _didn't_ I think of that before?"

Shooting up to his feet, the dimensionally displaced Hibiki threw up his fists. "Just try it, you Evil Jerk! You can have my style when you tear it from my cold dead hands!"

The lieutenant seemed about to reply, but -

"Hibiki," Bank finally gave the young officer a knowing stare. "We can handle this without you. Besides, now that I've thought about it, a mind dive into a true double like this may be... uncomfortable. If you two want to swap techniques, you can do it later."

The older Ryouga seemed on the verge of protest, but relented.

"Yes, sir. I'll be outside if you need me." Turning, he palmed the airlock open and exited the cell, sparing only a quick over-the-shoulder glance at his counterpart. Then he faced forward and walked out and down the hall.

Taking his seat once more, the younger Ryouga crossed his arms over his chest and smiled vindictively. Once the other Hibiki had left, he turned to the Captain and Lieutenant.

"Say, you can't do the whole Matrix thing and teach me how to fly a helicopter or something can you?"

"We can," Feretti replied. "Well, the Captain can... but we have machines that do that sort of thing better than people. Certain parts of basic training are almost entirely psionic these days."

"Why do you ask?" Captain Banks asked, curious.

Ryouga shrugged. "I dunno. Just thought it'd be cool is all. So, let's do this, then."

Banks couldn't help but wonder if the boy had wanted something. The 'flash learning' or 'reading rainbow' programs (as some called them) were quite amazing, particularly to someone who hadn't been in the organization and used it routinely before. It wasn't perfect, but it cut the learning process down to a fraction of what it was before. It was why everyone in every unit could coordinate in English, despite UNETCO including personnel from around the globe. Maybe this young man wanted to learn something, but didn't want to appear to be jumping the gun? If things worked out, he could even get his chance, depending.

Well, best to get back on track.

"Mister Hibiki, you were clearly manipulated, several times, by this Headmaster criminal. From the look of it, he did a rather crude job using an implant and substitution effect. Normally, we would simply clear all the programming out in one go, however..." Banks sighed, closing his eyes briefly. "There has been some talk about extenuating circumstances. I wanted to give you a chance to explain yourself before we get underway."

Ryouga leaned back on his bench. "Frankly, it's none of your business. All he did was alter memories. He didn't implant any secret commands or triggers. I know. I had it checked. All it is at this point is an extra set of memories. Seriously, it's not hurting anyone; it's not a danger to anyone. Why can't you just leave my damn brain alone?"

Banks said nothing for a few seconds, just in case the boy started having second thoughts.

"If you want to retain them, and if they're harmless, then fine," the Captain decided. "You're the one who has to live with it. I hope you're making this decision based on what's right in the long term, rather than what's convenient or pleasurable."

"If those false memories are an erotic adventure in Cancun, then I'd understand your position," Feretti joked. "And Lieutenant Hibiki's vexation. I'm just saying."

"Those memories," Ryouga hissed, knuckles whitening as his fingers tightened around the indestructible metal of the bench. "Are not _convenient_, nor are they perverted. They are important to me, and I would be grateful if you people would stop acting like you know what's best for me, despite knowing absolutely nothing about me."

Brooks noted the boy beginning to tap his finger forcefully against the bench. A nervous tick of some sort? It had to be related to that 'breaking point' move the Lieutenant used.

"Very well." The Captain nodded, and motioned his subordinate over to the left. The UNETCO commanding officer crossed the cell quickly in a few easy strides, and touched a finger to the young martial artist's head.

He saw, right away, the alterations and additions this Headmaster had made.

From Raven's memories, the man was powerful, even in that crazy dimension these two hailed from. He had held the entire academy of young super villains in his thrall, by and large, and exhibited powerful telekinetic abilities to boot. All impressive feats... though Banks would have been more impressed had the man used his powers on adults rather than emotionally vulnerable children. That rather muted the accomplishment in light of is despicable and predatory overtones.

He had done it without an Amp, though. Back where Raven and this Hibiki came from, there seemed to be a much larger population of natural psionics (or the like). Not only was this a large pool, but those who were active in the use of their abilities had much less tendency to be, frankly, insane. Most free psychics on Earth, those with real ability, ended up stark raving mad in some way or another.

Those who got their power from alien tampering (abduction, modification, alien tissue attachment, etc) were more stable, but always under the overall domination of the alien enemy. It seemed likely they would continue to be under that condition until the Alien Mind on Cydonia was finally dealt with. Even then, many scientists had doubts: it was very likely, in the absence of an Alien Mind, that the hybrid psions would subconsciously form a new one on Earth.

It wasn't an ideal situation, regardless.

The Headmaster's work wasn't terribly subtle, though, and it seemed to have been naturally undone by the boy's psyche. The tampering was far less subtle and insidious than the techniques employed by Sectoids and Ethereals. The use of this pink haired girl was also disgustingly abusive. Not only had this man twisted the memories of another, but he had coerced this girl into the scheme. It made sense, now. This boy's decision. There was also a mental marker left by some other third party: one that was distinctly nonhuman. That one seemed benign, little more than a fingerprint. It had to be due to this 'Martian Manhunter' xeno from Raven's memories.

Captain Banks finished the review, and passed on the implanted memories and other lingering traces of invasion. There was nothing particularly dangerous there, not anymore. If the boy wanted them to stay, for whatever reasons, there was no particular need to override his wishes. He synched back up with Feretti and began a quick search through of the boy's memories. As expected, the markers came back genuine.

He focused on corroborating events.

One by one, the memories ran in accord with the recollections of the girl, Raven. They weren't delusions. Mass hallucination was possible, but highly unlikely. There was skeptical and then there was blind. The little personal details of the strange parallel world were interesting but mostly irrelevant. It did seem like some cartoon or movie, like Spiderman or that CGI movie his children used to watch over and over, years ago. A Wild West world where super powered people robbed banks and tried to take over the world. Still: irrelevant, unless they became a security threat. As far as he knew, this was the first recorded dimensional incursion in human history... aside from alien FTL systems anyway.

It also presented the question: were these two individuals really human or alien?

They weren't "native" for lack of a better term. That sort of distinction was up to the boys in legal, though, not a field operator. Finishing the review, giving one last cursory thought to the Headmaster's changes, Banks gave the signal to leave. Feretti's mental presence vanished, and a moment later, Banks followed.

Ryouga blinked.

"We're done. I can now certify you as mentally competent and uncompromised by alien influence," Banks stated, taking a step back. "That does not mean you are free to run around and cause trouble. No matter how right you think you are about a situation, you are to follow the rules at all times. Both you and the lieutenant had a free pass in Tokyo, but that won't fly here. Is that understood, Mister Hibiki?"

Shaking his head, Ryouga wondered if they'd actually had time to do anything at all. He hadn't really noticed much, a bit of a buzz, and then it was over.

How the hell had his copy become a psychic? It was just a bizarre concept.

Almost as unlikely as himself learning the Soul of Ice, he supposed.

Oh well. "Yes, I understand. It doesn't sound like there's too much to do on this world, super villain wise, anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Good." Captain Banks turned to leave, but quickly added, "For the time being, I believe you'll be staying at one of our major facilities. Both India and Juliet Squads are based there... that includes Lieutenant Saotome. I'd appreciate it if you not pick a fight with him or the others while on the base. If you must have one of those duels these martial artists love so much, please do it either outside or in the dojo area."

Getting up to his feet, Ryouga stretched out his back, and gave a bit of a yawn. "Why would I want to fight Ranma?"

"If there's one thing about Saotome... it's that he's a magnet for trouble." The Captain made his exit, and small smile on his face. "Frankly, I'm glad we got a second Hibiki instead of a second Saotome."

"Come on, kid," the remaining officer, Feretti offered, waving him up and over. "Let's get you an ID and jump through a few legal hoops. Then I'll take ya to your girlfriend. She's been awfully gloomy without any company."

"No, she's just always like that-" Immediately, Ryouga realized what he'd just said and clapped a hand over his mouth.

Quickly, he turned to the pair of Officers.

"Ah . . . what exactly would it take for you two to forget you just heard that?"

Still, he was beginning to like this Captain fellow; he seemed to be a good judge of character.

Two Ranmas? Now _that_ was a scary thought.

* * *

Raven sat patiently on the couch, awaiting the return of her wayward friend. They had set her up in some form of recreational room, small as it was. There was a buffet style table set up on one side of the room, a television which she hadn't bothered to turn on, a few tables and, most notably, a large bay window which provided a breathtaking view of the nearby waterfall from the dam.

There were no guards in the room with her, though she could still sense the lingering presence of several people nearby. It seemed they trusted her, but only to a point. That was acceptable, though. Once they had proved that they were no threat to anyone - quite the opposite, really - they should be given enough freedom to at least begin planning on how to return home.

And yet... she couldn't concentrate on their most immediate problem, not with her own mind in such turmoil. What had happened to her psyche? Why was her rage so subdued? Was Ryouga's counterpart correct: was there a danger if her rage was crippled in some way? There were so many questions for which she had no answers, and it was starting to vex her. There was one option, but she wasn't overly fond of the idea...

"Ah, and there you are, behaving yourself, I see?" Captain Banks voice shook Raven from her reverie as he entered the room. Directly behind him, Feretti and her Ryouga entered the room.

Rising to her feet immediately, Raven took several steps toward the group, relieved to see that Ryouga was not injured, nor did he seem to be traumatized or shaken in anyway. Rather, he seemed to be in almost good spirits. As soon as he saw her, his face brightened even further, and he quickly moved in her direction as well. They both made it about halfway, arms outstretched excitedly -

Only to stumble to an awkward stop several feet apart. Looking over at the pair of military officers staring at them with amusement, Ryouga chuckled nervously, and hesitantly clapped Raven on the shoulders.

"Um ... it's good to see you again ... Raven."

"...Yes, yes," Raven replied, blushing lightly. "It seems that you're alright then, right?"

"I don't suppose we can get a little privacy here?" Ryouga asked abashedly. "No break out attempts, I promise."

Banks and Feretti shared a quick glance, before the former nodded. "I suppose you two have behaved yourselves well enough so far. We'll give a few minutes for you to ... reacquaint yourselves with one another."

Instantly, Raven spun around, desperately wishing she had a hood to pull over her head at the look of the knowing smile on the older man's face. Ryouga made an annoyed grunt, but it was only met by amused chuckles as the pair of officers finally left, leaving them alone. Several long seconds of silence passed, before Raven finally turned around.

Letting out a weak sigh, she nodded to her friend. "So... now you know how annoyed I was when Cyborg and Beast Boy went palling around in my mind. At least those two didn't manage to root through as many of my personal memories as they could find."

Ryouga shrugged. "Honestly, I didn't really notice much, it was over so fast." Holding up a fist, he added, "Man, I can't even say how much I hate myself right now, though."

The dark titan gasped, resting a gentle hand on Ryouga's shoulder.

"How can you say that?" she asked, concerned for his sudden outburst. "None of this is your fault, Ryouga, you haven't done anything wrong-"

She stopped in mid sentence at the perplexed look on the martial artist's face, before understanding suddenly lit up on his features. "What? **Oh**, no - no. I don't mean _me_ myself. I mean the _other_ me, myself."

Her flat stare set the boy back a pace. "What _possible_ reason could you have to dislike him so much? I understand the confusion of having another you walking around, but he's only trying to do his job. And beyond that, I think he may be able to help us now that we've proven that we aren't a threat."

The Lost Boy growled to himself. "We don't need his help; we can get by fine on our own!"

She rolled her eyes dramatically. "Ryouga, he has the backing of an entire covert military organization. We would be fools to not at least _try_ to get their assistance. In case they didn't explain the situation, we are much more lost than we thought." She pinned him with a look. "**And** you didn't answer my question. Why do you dislike him so much?"

"I ... I just do, alright. Everything about him makes my skin crawl. And-" Ryouga began to gesture wildly, "- And, you know what else? That jerk was going to crawl inside my head and steal my techniques! Probably turn them into instant-murder techniques or something! Luckily, I was able to boot him out of the room before he had the chance!"

"You fought him?" Raven asked incredulously.

"Well ... not _exactly_, but I _could_ have beat him, if I had the chance!" Ryouga asserted quite fiercely.

Rolling her eyes again, Raven just nodded. "I'm sure you could have. Please try to remember this isn't a competition. There is no reason for you to be better than him. He may be different from you in ways you don't approve of, but we have no idea what kind of situations he's encountered that could have made him that way. Shouldn't you try to learn more about him before you condemn him?"

"No!" Ryouga barked back petulantly. "I don't need to know him, I just need to _beat_ him!"

"And what exactly would that prove?" Raven asked, smirking knowingly. "This kind of anger is pointless."

He just stared at her like she was mad.

"What would it prove? **Everything**!"

That statement, made with such conviction, made absolutely no sense to the violet haired titan ... but she couldn't be bothered to argue it. It seemed like it would be something that the two Ryougas would need to work out between themselves, not by her mediations. There were other concerns, anyway.

Looking down, Raven quietly spoke. "I - I think there might be something else as well. Something unrelated to our other problems ... at least, I think it is."

Suddenly curious, Ryouga looked down at her, trying to catch her gaze. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Not sure how to begin, Raven hesitated. "It's, it's nothing we need to worry about yet. Just a suspicion is all. I don't think it will affect our mission at the moment, and-" She looked up, feeling the sensation of people drawing near once more. "And I think our reunion is about to end, regardless."

And with that, the door swung open.

It took a second to identify the man who entered. After a second, the wavy dark hair and aristocratic features made up for the absence of a signature weapon. Instead, the would-be samurai had the thumb of his sword arm lopped into his belt.

"I see the two of you are free of your gilded cages," Tatewaki Kuno observed with a dry smile, walking past them. "You would be well served to get something to eat before we leave. We are set to leave for Seiran in an hour."

With that, he grabbed two foil wrapped sandwiches in his left hand, breezing by the open commissary. He seemed to pay the two displaced Titans no other mind before opening a cold box and pulling out a can of iced tea. Instead, he gave the view out the window a long look, accompanied by a weary sigh.

"You would be wise to enjoy the privacy and non-recycled air while you are still able," he commented, heading back the way he came and waving over his shoulder, drink-in-hand. Raven and Ryouga watched the Nerimite go; so different and yet to similar to the acquaintance they had back on their world.

Fighting aside, this would clearly take some getting used to.

* * *

This time, Jinx let Akari lead.

The titian robed girl seemed to have an idea of where to go; it was just a problem how slow she was. Compared to an average person of her apparent age, she actually kept up a good pace as they ran, especially given how she was only lightly clothed with no foot protection in a cold, snowy forest. Unfortunately Jinx was no average girl herself and Akari's pace was less than impressive by the sorceress' standards. Jinx stared at the back of the ... the 'girl' ahead of her as less than altruistic thoughts came to mind. She didn't need to outrun the alien monsters chasing them, she just needed to outrun her companion. It was just the kind of common sense that Happosai had instilled in her.

Still, though. It was Akari.

Honestly, Jinx didn't know too much about the other girl. She had, quite some time ago, made the mistake about jokingly asking Ryouga about his other 'evil exes.' She'd only thought he'd ever been involved with Raven. She hadn't been prepared to hear about Akane ... or Akari. Akane, Jinx had been able to despise easily. It sounded like she didn't do much aside from make the Lost Boy's life worse, with all the trauma and drama circling around her.

But Akari? Ryouga's voice had held such a fond tone when he spoke of her. Sweet, gentle, soft spoken, pretty much the opposite of Jinx herself in every way. Akari had all but worshipped Ryouga, even forgiving him for his indecisiveness. In a way, though she'd never even met her, Jinx had kind of pitied the other girl. She just seemed like the kind of person that was destined to be taken advantage of, or worse. And far - far worse _had_ happened to this wretched, pathetic girl...

No, not even Jinx could bring herself to abandon the pig farmer, and it had nothing to do with her relationship with Ryouga either.

Overhead, the sky was slowly darkening, caught between twilight and total sunset. In the fading light, the once pristine snowfall took on a dark gloom that mirrored the cold. Jinx was hesitant to admit it, but she was starting to feel it, too. Happosai had tested her against the environment and helped her to build a basic endurance to adverse conditions, but she was no Ryouga - or even Ranma. Or, hell, even Shampoo. She wasn't dressed for this kind of place, and it was only a matter of time before her resistance flagged and the chill crept in at full force.

Ahead of her, Akari tripped and stumbled, just barely catching herself before she could fall. Jinx was about to ask if she was alright, but the words were a little slow coming, and then they were moving again. Another distant bark sounded from somewhere to the north, like a long deep rumble of a sound. Akari slowed and turned northward, much to Jinx's silent dismay. A few seconds later they came on a small wooden cabin in a half clearing. Visible out front, two long wooden racks held what appeared to be bear skins.

There was a truck, too, but Jinx's heart fell as she saw what had happened to it.

The front of the vehicle was all but melted. Against her better judgment, she moved a little closer, thinking perhaps there was something left to salvage - a radio or a phone or - and then she saw the frozen skeletal remains of the driver, his hands still desperately clutching the wheel. He looked almost flash fried down to the bone in the front, the rest left to freeze in the elements. The back of the pickup truck was intact, and held two large wooden boxes, also left to elements.

"Poachers," Akari explained, trying to ignore the sight as she headed to the cabin. "That one was killed, but the others were taken and recycled."

Jinx nodded slowly, leaving the truck as a lost cause.

_'Recycled.'_

Didn't that just conjure up some lovely images?

"We need to get you something to wear. I know you're cold," Akari said, forcing open the sturdy wooden door of the cabin with a creaking sound. "I also need some polyphenols like tannin to throw off our scent. I'm pretty sure they'd have some here..."

Inside, the cabin was thankfully bare of any scenes of carnage. Well, relatively bare. The poachers had been caught pretty flat footed when the aliens came for them; there were plates with once-edible food sitting on a table, along with a discarded deck of playing cards. A radio was also nearby, with antenna up and dial set to 'on' but no sound came from the dead device. Pots and other necessities lined the walls, along with some animal skulls and other parts. A few rough jars held what looked like... to her disgust, it was probably tiger penises or bear balls or some other disgusting item destined for the medicinal black market.

Ignoring the questionable contents of the jars, Jinx searched around the room for more immediate concerns. It didn't take her long to find a heavy fur coat to toss on. She wasn't overly fond of the coat, not because she thought fur was murder, but just because it was a ratty old piece of trash that was likely giving her frost-bitten fleas even as she stood there.

Twirling around a bit in the bulky, unflattering coat, Jinx turned to Akari. "So ... this coat doesn't make me look fat, does it?"

"It makes you look like a shaggy bear. Frankly, I don't think either of us are wearing very flattering clothes," the other girl countered, pausing in her search of the counters and strangely labeled jars. "I'm a little surprised you've lasted this long outside. You must be a martial artist like Ryouga-sama."

Jinx eyed Akari up a bit, before catching herself and stopping. "At least that orange gives you a bit of flair. I know a few villains that would kill for a cloak like that, and no, that's not hyperbole of any kind."

She then began to wander around the rest of the cabin, particularly the cupboards. It had been forever since she'd eaten, or at least it felt like it.

"As for martial arts," she continued. "Yeah, I guess I picked up a bit of it. In all your snuggle time with Hibiki, did he ever tell you about Master Happosai?"

"Ranma's master? I've heard of him, but never met him," Akari replied, and gave a small whoop at having found what she was looking for among the poacher's supplies. She quickly reached for one of the larger pots. "We expected Ranma and Akane to have another wedding, and Ryouga-sama warned me that Master Happosai was a very dirty old man and to avoid him."

Jinx barked in laughter at that. "Oh man, truer words have never been uttered, my dear! Happi is the most degenerate pervert that's ever graced this Earth ..." A fond sigh. "And he was also the best master I ever could have hoped for."

Unfortunately, the pantry appeared to be bare of any non rotting food, and despite the story, the green eggs and ham didn't look at all appealing.

"He took me under his wing when no one else would, and trained me to be stronger than I ever would have thought..."

"Ranma's master taught you?" Akari sounded a bit confused by that. "Does that mean you're part of the Anything Goes School?"

Jinx opened another cupboard. There were actually a few cans in there ... but the labels were in some crazy nonsense language that she couldn't read. Still, the pictures of beans on the sides on one of the cans was pretty self explanatory. Starvation or beans ... tough call.

"Heh, no, not in any official capacity. Me and Ranma had a bit of a ... tiff over that, but it was mostly just a joke. Happi and me just really hit it off and - honestly, I'm not even really sure why he did agree to train me. I mean, beyond that first pair of panties I bribed him with, he never actually asked for another, now that I think of it."

Akari winced at the thought. "You bribed him with your underwear?"

An amused chuckle escaped the witch's lips. "It's Happosai. Of _course_ I bribed him with underwear. Heh, you'd think a pig wrangler would know a little something about pragmatism. You gotta work with what you got."

The young sorceress shot a quick, envious look at the cloaked girl. Even beneath the bulky orange robe, it was obvious which of the two of them possessed more 'natural talent' - as Happosai would call it. Muttering darkly to herself, Jinx added, "Of course, some people have more to work with than the rest of us."

"Happosai, what a nasty old man!" Akari innocently mused while she pouring something out of a glass bottle; she didn't seem to notice Jinx's last comment. "But... I heard he knew a technique that could drain another person's ki. A Miss... Hinako I think? Learned it from him. Is that related to your pink fire?"

Jinx shook her head. "Naw, Hinako was an odd case. My powers are all me, baby. The Headmaster chalked it up as Mystically based Fate Manipulation, but I just call it my bad luck mojo."

She held up the can of beans and stared at it long and hard, before finally shrugging. With a second's thought, a pink flame sprouted up from her finger tip, and a trailing touch around the upper lip caused the lid to erode away and fall off.

"I guess the technical term for what I am is a 'meta-human,'" she explained, "Bein' that I'm so much more awesome than a normal person, even before Happi started showing me the ropes."

"Meta-human?" Akari asked and recoiled a bit as a sulfuric smell rose up from one of the pots she had commandeered. Jinx smelt it too and gagged. Rotten eggs didn't do it justice.

"That a stink bomb or something?" the sorceress asked with a grimace.

"I'm making two solutions," the other girl replied, and clarified why, "Reapers have a natural sensitivity towards certain base elements, including sulfur. I never bothered breeding it out of them, since its part of their hunting instincts. I need to dilute this tannin next, to make a smell that will mask our sweat and confuse them..."

Jinx was a bit surprised - Ryouga hadn't mentioned Akari knowing stuff like this.

Or maybe it had something to do with the alien 'Mind' the girl had mentioned before?

"But what's a meta-human?" the robed girl asked, genuinely confused. "I've never heard that term before. I know... I know many humans have some alien genes in them. You can probably guess why. But most of them are still basically human."

Jinx shook her head. "Naw, there might be plenty of alien horndogs running around the planet, poppin out funny-colored kids, but most meta-humans I know are straight altered humans."

Moving away from the stink, Jinx checked out one of the horribly smudged up windows.

"So ... not that I'm looking forward to the idea, but if we have to fight these things, they got any weak points that I should know about?"

"They do," Akari admitted. "If Ryouga-sama were here, I'm sure he could kill one with his bare hands. Even my newest breeds wouldn't be a match for him." The undisguised admiration in the girl's voice didn't go unnoticed by her companion, but quickly turned pragmatic. "But I think our best bet is to find some water. Reapers' bodies are extremely dense and they can't swim. They won't even try. Bodies of running water terrify them and there's a river near here that we can try crossing. We'll have to leave soon."

Jinx gave a proud snort. "If those things are weak enough that Ryouga could manhandle them, then I can take them out too. You're obviously underestimating how dangerous I am, girl ... though, getting away without fighting at all doesn't exactly sound that bad, either."

"Don't underestimate Ryouga-sama!" Akari fired back, very nearly spilling a bottle of murky liquid. "He's one of the strongest men in the world! Are you really saying you're on that level?"

"Pft, whatever. The only reason I don't kick his butt up and down the street every day is cuz it's so cute." Jinx offered a wicked smirk. "And, seriously, 'in the world'? Are you kidding me with that? He's not even as strong as that alien airhead he lives with."

Dubiously, Jinx stuck her finger into the can of beans and sampled it a second later. With a grimace, she decided she might not be that hungry after all. "Don't get me wrong, Ryouga is amazing, but there are plenty of different ways to measure power out there. I might not match up to him physically, but I'm carrying around a lot more firepower."

"Wait, an alien?" Akari seemed to zero in on that one statement with a mixture of shock and fear. "He's living with an alien?"

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Don't remind me. Considering they claim to be like 'siblings' that red headed tramp sure does cling to him like a glove."

"So she's like me... a mix of alien and human? A human they turned?" Akari shook her head, unable to understand. "Why would he - no, that doesn't make sense."

"What? _No_. She's not human at all. She's a Tomato, or a Tangarine, or something like that." Jinx was starting to get annoyed with her companion's lack of common knowledge. Sure, she felt sorry for the girl, but still, it was getting old fast. "Sure, she's not as ugly as your bosses back there ... marginally, anyway, but there's no human in there."

"That can't be," the other girl insisted. "There are no other aliens in the solar system... there never have been. The aliens who made me have been here for hundreds of thousands of years. This is their solar system. Their part of the galaxy. If Ryouga is with some alien girl, then she has to be a hybrid creation like me."

Enough was enough. Spinning on her heel, Jinx stalked over and gave the girl a smack upside the back of her head.

"Okay, I know those aliens put your brain in a blender, but they've filled your head with nonsense. I don't know why they would do it, but there are _thousands_ of kinds of aliens out there. Hell, there are thousands of kinds of aliens here on Earth. XL Terrestrial, Starfire, Superman himself. Get that through your thick skull already, would you?"

"XL Terrestrial? Starfire?" Akari cringed a bit at being struck, but didn't back down. "Super-Man? Are you serious? Are those supposed to be real people? Don't joke around with me; you're acting like this is... is some manga or anime or something!"

Pink light began to emit from Jinx's eyes as she stared heatedly at the cloaked girl. "Do I _look_ like I'm kidding, pig farmer?"

Then, to prove her point, Jinx flung her hand at the far wall, and, in a blast of pink fire, the entire back wall of the building exploded outwards in a shower of splinters and rapidly disintegrating debris!

"..." Jinx stared at her handiwork for a second, before realization kicked in. "Oh ... crap. We're gonna need to run again, aren't we?"

"Yes, I think so," Akari replied with a deadpan expression. It wasn't the first time she'd seen someone casually, and unnecessarily, dispatch a wall. "But we weren't going to stay anyway... and Jinx, you..."

A thought occurred to her then. No: it wasn't her thought. It was a stray thought from one of the aliens back at the base, she just hadn't given it any credence before.

"Um... You're from the States, right?" she asked. "Do you know who the President is?"

"President Rick Rickard ... why?" the sorceresses asked back. "The guy's been around pretty much forever, pretty hard not to know who he is."

Akari stared at her for a few seconds in mute acknowledgement, as if she had expected the answer.

"I see," she said, finally. "Ryouga... did he ever tell you about Jusendo and Saffron? Are Ranma and Akane graduating from Furinkan this year?"

Jinx shook her head, even as she stuck a few extra cans of beans in her pockets before moving for the door. "Not that I know of. Saffron some other girl he knew? And I don't remember hearing about Akane and Ranma graduating. Honestly, neither of them seemed to have the brain power to actually qualify for early graduation."

The sorceress scanned the forest around the cabin as she stood in the door frame. "Now would you quit with the twenty questions and get your giant butt over here so we can get out of here?"

Akari huffed at that last part as she hurried outside with two bottles on her hands.

"Giant butt? Ryouga-sama never had any complaints about my figure, you know," she quipped, feeling the need to irk the other girl a bit for her snippy comments.

That perked Jinx's interest. Very slowly, the sorceress turned to regard Akari, a broad grin spreading on her face as she did.

"Oh reeeeeaaaaaally? So, just how much of your 'figure' did you show him? Say, did you get a chance to see any interesting parts of his 'figure' while you were at it?"

"That way," Akari pointed, and they turned direction slightly.

"Come onnn..." Jinx coaxed, even as they started to run again.

"Ryouga-sama and I became q-quite close, if you must know," the robed girl said with a stammer, but quickly tried to put on a confident air. She was the older of the two, after all, and obviously the more knowledgeable for all Jinx' s bluster. "I even helped him get over the nose-bleed problem. The blood was flowing to the wrong place, you see."

Jinx eyes widened and her face went red in an instant. The poor girl actually skidded to a stop.

"Holy crap! You _did_ see it! That - that - ! When the heck did you guys do ... _that_?"

Akari turned and slowed to a stop herself, a satisfied smile on her face. "He was living with me for months, and even though he's shy, he's still a boy. Ryouga-sama's a very passionate person, and always afraid of losing control of his strength. I'm surprised you haven't noticed it yet. He tries to hold back and that's what causes the nose bleeds. I suggested some _special training_ to help him adjust."

For once, Jinx seemed speechless.

"It wasn't that naughty," the cloaked girl insisted. "We never got to go all the way, if that's what you're wondering. We never totally solved the strength issue either and he didn't want to risk hurting me. If your Ryouga is interested in you, then I think you'll have a similar problem."

Jinx stared at the older girl oddly. What had that last bit meant?

"Your Ryouga? What's up with that? I mean, I know he kinda dumped you for whatever reason, but you're talking about him like he's a completely different person. You aren't gonna go psycho stalker on him when I finally drag your butt out of this quagmire, are you?

Akari coughed sickly and laughed at the same time.

"I - I don't think you have to worry about that," she said. "And I meant what I said. I think the Ryouga-sama I knew is different than the one you do. When you were first detected, out here in the middle of nowhere, there was a space-time anomaly. You aren't one of ours, and no terrestrial group would benefit from making you. I think you're from another world, another Earth even."

"A world where George Bush isn't the US President," she continued, now seemingly convinced, "Where Ranma and Akane aren't graduating, maybe even where none of them have gone to Jusendo yet. I can't imagine what else is different, too. Did the terrorist attacks in the US and the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan happen where you came from? Are... are there benevolent aliens instead of the monsters we have? It's hard to imagine... am I still alive on your world?"

"A different dimension...?" Jinx tapped her chin. A second later, she laughed in amusement and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I suppose that would explain a lot! Man, you always hear about this kinda thing happening to other people, but you always think 'Man, I'll never get sent to another dimension'."

Noting the serious look on the other girl's face, Jinx quickly quashed her smile. "Umm, as for the rest of it, I dunno, some did, some didn't; I don't really follow the news that closely. As I said, there are goody two shoes aliens all over the place. And yeah, last I heard, you were still alive in my world, just... Ryouga-less, I guess."

She quickly ducked a branch as she began to move forward again.

"Man, that's actually a huge relief, I gotta say. You had me freakin' out that Ryouga was some kind of closet sex fiend for a minute..."

"Actually," Akari couldn't help but chip in. "If your Ryouga is like mine, and he sounds like he is, then it's just a matter of finding the right girl. I think he has the same libido as any boy his age... just no way to act on it. I'd like to know, if he told you... why did he break up with me? ... the other me?"

Jinx shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "Sorry, but I never really asked. To me, it just seems like he likes girls that can keep up with him, but then again, he did kinda like Raven for a bit, and she's pretty much as soft as you are, really..."

Akari didn't reply to that, though for a moment it seemed she would. In truth, she knew what Jinx was saying all too well. A lot of the memories that Jinx's powers had returned to her, the blocks erected by The Mind when she was re-cloned, were too horrible to dwell on. Some, though, were wonderful memories of her grandfather and Ryouga. In some of those she knew there was a melancholy note to the times they had together: Ryouga was a wanderer.

It was in his nature.

Even when his curse didn't get him lost, he preferred to spend time moving from place to place. She knew he didn't particularly like the ranch or raising and training the Unryu pigs and that he did it more for her sake than anything else. He trained in the woods and sometimes left for days at a time to "train in the mountains" where there was little or no cellphone coverage. Sometimes he came back and told her how he'd saved someone's life, or killed a vicious animal terrorizing a town, or that he had learned some new technique. It was hard to begrudge him the lifestyle he both hated and loved.

Akari wasn't sure Jinx really understood this.

It wasn't that Ryouga needed someone to keep up with him. The family curse basically made that impossible. He needed someone who could both be there for him when he came back and someone who could live with the curse of being a Hibiki. From what she'd heard, compared to most married couples, Ryouga's parents barely saw each other. That was where a relationship with him would very likely end. They both knew it when they progressed beyond chaste kisses and holding hands, almost a year ago. Becoming close had given them something to share in, but that sliver doubt had always been there for both of them...

The robed girl gave Jinx a quick look.

She didn't seem Ryouga's type, but she did seem the type who would push themselves onto him: assertive, aggressive, dominant. She'd be hesitant to say it, but Jinx seemed a bit like Akane in some ways, and in others like that pushy sister of hers. Both were the type to ask Ryouga something, knowing he wouldn't know how to say 'no.' Not that it was really the alien-damned girl's business, but something about it made her want to know more. As sad as it was, Ryouga was like a lifeline to her: a bright silver lining in a dark cloud of memories unearthed by the pink haired girl's powers.

"This is far enough," she spoke up, motioning for Jinx to stop as they came to a steep incline leading down to another forest thicket. Holding up one of the glass bottles, she gave it a shake and tossed it downhill.

Jinx watched it roll away out of sight with a curious look.

"Now comes the nasty part," Akari told her, holding up the other bottle. She unscrewed the cap, producing a sharp acidic tang. "Hold out your hands. Put a little on your neck and cheeks. It'll probably burn a little, but it should make them think twice about following us."

The sorceress winced as she got a few drops on her hands. Lifting her fingers just below her nose, she took another experimental sniffs.

"Gah! That's terrible. I should take some of this home with me in case I decide to go training with Happi again!"

Akari was already dabbing it on.

"There should be a crossing in the river to the west. I think. I... I haven't actually been this far from the base before." Her brows furrowed in concern. "I only know about it because of The Mind. Once we get across, we can head for the town. You should be safe there for a day or two."

"Ha! I doubt we'll need to stay there that long. I'm sure if I flash a little leg I can get us a ride out of this dump and to somewhere decent in no time." Jinx did her best to resist the urge to gag as she started to dab on the liquid. "...once I take a bath, I'm sure I can. God, there better not be any of that Tiger penis in this stuff, or you won't even be able to imagine the terrible stuff I would do to you."

"Actually, I had to put..."

"I don't wanna know!"

* * *

They were not within The Mind.

Mere beasts. Tools. Weapons.

Medic trailed behind the lead Reaper as it commanded the rest of its pack, infrasonic barks and growls allowing them to communicate great distances and across rugged terrain. The Sectoid was tiny compared to the great beast, and still nursing the wound on its head. It had come along to ensure the terror units did as they were made to do. All had secondary control chips implanted within both of their brains, and the will of The Mind flowed in one direction, prodding the creatures on to hunt and kill.

It worried Medic slightly; The Mind, too, knew its reservations.

Their Akari-iteration had failed, but in a different way than those before. She was the third in her series, with a severely truncated access to her memories; just enough to assure functionality. She - it - had worked well for some time now, but contact with this new human had resulted in an instantaneous sublimation of her compliance to The Mind. The specifics were unknown. It was risky exposing more relatively untested materials - the "new" Reaper breed - to a human with potentially disruptive mental abilities.

Medic glanced over the remains of the poacher's cabin.

It was obvious that the humans had been here. The pink-haired one was likely also responsible for the damage done to the side of the structure. One of the Reapers sniffed and pawed through the rubble before recoiling slightly with a snort. It turned and in the process knocked over what was left of an adjoining wall. The wooden building, already stressed badly, collapsed like a house of cards. Another Reaper approached, grunting more strongly.

The two set off as a quick pace, and Medic raced to keep up. They had a general idea of where the targets were due to the landed ship's mind probes, and no less than six of the new breed Reapers combing the woods. Medic and two other Sectoids were point men, there to support the capture effort and retrieve either the targets or their remains.

Following the living terror weapons, it soon became obvious the Reapers were growing agitated.

One began to rub its face into the side of a tree, hissing in anger. Another pawed the ground, turning back and forth, as if unsure where to go. Medic lacked the facial muscles to frown, but his mood was less than appreciative of the creature's antics. A query with the mind confirmed that the other Sectoids were observing similar anomalous reactions. The Mind searched for an answer to their query.

It came a moment later: a memory from the second Akari-iteration, based on preliminary work on the new Reaper breed. Enhanced sensory systems, better tailored for (comparatively) median-atmospheric density garden worlds, like Earth. Increased expression of instinctive pursuit mechanisms based on non-psionic cues. Unexpected sensitivity to certain plant-based chemicals identified. Deemed marginal to mission parameters. Subject: third iteration of Akari using similar chemicals to deter pursuit.

The Will of The Mind bore down on the creatures, causing both those near Medic to cringe.

A few moments later, the largest of the creatures - a Reaper with a pale, almost silver-white coat - emerged from a copse of trees, gnashing its teeth. Medic knew this to be the pack leader. The other two snapped their jaws, massive teeth crashing together. It was impossible to discern what they were communicating between themselves - they did not enter data into The Mind. They simply served, as a mindless weapon was meant to do.

The silver beast reared up and gave a rumbling infrasonic bellow.

Medic tried to keep pace as they ran.

* * *

Akari felt it.

Or rather, she heard it.

Jinx knew she wasn't entirely human anymore, but there was no way the other girl could know just how altered the former pig farmer was. Her existence revolved around her work, and to that end, she had modified herself to better perceive the infrasonic sounds made by her Reapers. They did not speak in words so much as expressions of intent, driven by their pack leader. Akari alone had seen it necessary to modify her hearing to properly pick up these deep sounds - to a human, they were almost entirely inaudible, merely evoking a sickening sense of dread rooted in the primitive parts of the brain. Likewise, she had learned through the litters of Reapers she raised to interpret and understand their emotive 'language.'

She knew they were onto her trick.

_Smart!_

It had to be Onishi's work. Like Katsunishiki, back when she was human, he was a pick above his littermates: larger, stronger, smarter. _Meaner_. She had already picked him out to stud the next two experimental generations of pups. Now he was after her. They were running out of time.

That, and -

She coughed as she ran, covering her mouth with her hand. Glancing down quickly, she confirmed more black flecked blood marring her fingers. Trying to quickly wipe it off, the robed girl focused on the matter at hand. They needed to escape. The two girls had already found the river they needed to cross; the problem was that it was a tad wider and more treacherous than she had expected.

That was an understatement, actually. The river had to be maybe twenty meters wide, and literally frothed with debris and ice-cold water from melted snows. Worn rocks crashed and fulminated with spray. From her companion's expression, it seemed Jinx was tempted to try and cross anyway. It was possible she could make it, Happosai's training and all, but Akari had doubts she would survive, and she did want to live, if only for a while longer.

She also got the impression Jinx wasn't as invincible as she thought she was.

Sooner than expected - did they know she knew what their calls meant? - they saw their first Reaper, emerging ahead of them from a line of scrubs and snow covered trees. It was mostly black in color, large and heavy as an American SUV, and blocking their path. The long, sharp hairs on its back were raised in a mixture of excitement and territorial display, and Akari instantly recognized its low slinking prowl-stance. She also knew this one personally.

Sanosuke.

If he was here, then so was Tobi.

Slowing to stop nearby, Jinx cursed. Akari stood her ground. Sanosuke's posture indicated he was trying to flush them out and make them run. When they did, Tobi would ambush them. They didn't have many options: the river to their left was still raging and frothing, and Reapers could easily knock down any tree they tried to climb. There wasn't another option.

Akari retrieved one of the bottles she had prepared from before: a volatile mixture of alcohols made into a makeshift incendiary cocktail. Reapers were vulnerable to fire; even her new breed, incomplete as they were, only had a partial resistance. Enough fire and they'd be blinded by pain. A part of her, Akari admitted, had hoped they would be able to escape without killing the creatures she had raised and named. But she was smart and practical enough to know that ideal scenarios tended not to play out in the real world.

"Jinx?" she whispered, holding out the bottle with a crude wick wedged into the top. "They're vulnerable to fire. There's another one hiding nearby, too. We can't run. Do you know how to use one of these?"

Jinx stared at the proffered bottle, long strip of cloth dangling tantalizingly along the glass surface. A second later, the H.I.V.E. trained sorceress burst into laughter, her eyes aglow with mischief.

"A Molotov?" she chirped, happily. "Akari, you sexy bitch, you're finally talkin' my language here! Gimme that thing!"

Grabbing the improvised incendiary, Jinx gave it a quick, bartender style flip, taking stock of the balance before looking up at the distant beast. A wicked Cheshire grin split the girl's face as the Molotov bounced in her hands. To her side, Akari actually took a step back at the sight.

"So, just the one beasty so far, right Akari? Then let's get this party started!"

In a burst of speed, the pink haired sorceress, in a fairly standard act of recklessness, charged straight at the SUV sized beast at full tilt. Her sprint brought her right in front of the hairy beast's ugly face, but by the time it reacted to snap at her, she had already dove to the side. Surprisingly fast for its bulk, the alien creature lifted one of its thick legs and tried to bring it down on her spine. The ground buckled and cracked beneath its foot when it slammed down, but Jinx was already behind it. The Reaper issued a terrifying, frustrated bellow as it attempted to spin around, but the nimble sorceress danced around its tree like legs expertly.

Once she finally felt comfortable that she had the alien's tempo, Jinx held her free hand up to the Molotov cocktail and snapped her fingers. Pink sparks jumped up from her fingertips and hungrily tore into the cloth fuse jammed into the neck of the bottle, setting it alight in an instant.

It was at that point, realizing that it would be unable to crush her, or spin about fast enough to catch her, the Reaper actually just swung its massive head between its own legs, lunging down at her with slavering, snapping jaws. The move actually surprised the young witch enough that she was forced to back pedal, but not enough to stop her from throwing. Every muscle in her arm chorded up tightly as she flung the burning bottle forward. Her aim was off slightly, due to being startled, and rather than smashing right into the beast's goddess forsaken face, it shattered messily on the creature's furry chest.

Unfortunately for the Reaper, all but upside down as it was, much of the burning liquid splattered down its neck and over its face as well. Within seconds, the air was filled with a horrifying shriek of agony and the horrible stench of burning fur. The alien reared back in a blind panic and began to sprint around madly as its underbelly flared up into a bonfire which began to consume its entire form.

Moving quickly, Jinx began her own run back to Akari's position by the river. "Alright, Miss Piggy! Let's get across that river already!"

It was in that moment of victorious elation that another of the creatures, smaller than the first and mottled brown, emerged from behind a tree, knocking it over in the process. This one leapt rather than ran, and only a skidding stop saved the upper half of Jinx's body from the terror weapon's ravenously snapping jaws. Rolling back and cartwheeling out of the way, she stayed just ahead of the beast's maw as it crashed closed over and over, trying to catch the nimble prey.

Frustrated, it jumped again, stamping with giant clawed feet and then spinning in place to zero in for a murderous bite. Jinx, caught between claws and teeth, lowered her center of balance and shifted into a leap between the beast's legs. Unlike its companion, however, this Reaper hopped back to try and make room for another rushing charge. A deep infrasonic bellow rumbled from within its body as it stalked purposefully forward.

A sharp whistle cut the air. "Tobi!" Akari yelled, sounding for the life of her like an angry mother. "Bad! Go home! Go home!"

Jinx stared at the girl like she'd lost her mind.

Tobi - the mottled brown Reaper - stared at the robed girl, stunned for a moment. Then something shocked it out of its momentary pause and it bore twin rows of dagger-teeth. Opening that horrendous maw it switched targets, fur bristling in agitation. Akari started to back pedal, and Jinx silently cursed as she rushed to intervene.

"No! Tobi! No!" Akari pointed at the giant predator as if it were a misbehaving dog. "Don't you remember me? Don't you even **think** about -"

It pounced, muscles as thick as a man's torso propelling it forward.

Except Akari sidestepped, just barely avoiding the terror unit's jaws to reach partly around its massive neck. She was literally tiny in comparison to the beast, like a mouse facing down a cat. Yet when she moved she did so with practiced ease, pulling at her vastly larger attacker and kicking with one leg back at the Reaper's left leg, its own momentum threw it head over heels onto its side. Rather than end up on its back, the beast ended up on its side, unable to retaliate with its deadly jaws, and rolling along the ground horizontal to its body.

By the time it managed to get a clawed foot in place to stop itself, it hit the ground with a splash.

"Unryu Nimaigeri." (ankle kicking twist down) "Sorry, Tobi-chan," Akari apologized softly. "I wish you'd listened to me."

Already knee deep in water, the Reaper's tenuous posture slipped against the smooth stones, unable to find purchase. It grunted, slipped, and fell onto its side, ending up half submerged. Even before that, it already began to panic, thrashing wildly to get out of the surging water. With only its legs and its mouth, it had nothing to help steady itself as the water and the fear of drowning seized it, pulling it deeper into the river rapids.

"Don't look so surprised," Akari said, nothing Jinx's stare. "Your Ryouga must've told you. I trained one and a half ton sumo pigs."

Jinx stared at the girl, wide eyed. "Well, yeah... but I kinda figured he meant with, like, a hoop and treats or something like that..."

"Only the piglets," Akari dryly corrected, but quickly turned dour. "I can't believe Tobi attacked me like that. He'd never so much as snapped at me before, not even once! He was always such a _good boy_."

A quick roll of her eyes was the witch's response. "Yeah ... those alien controlled death machines. Who would _believe_ they'd turn on you? Now, are you done crying, or can we get out of here already?"

"They... they are designed to be terror weapons, yes," the other girl conceded, and warily watched as the remaining Reaper, still on fire, slinked off into the dark depths of the forest. Sanosuke. He would probably survive... survive to hunt them.

"But," she continued. "I raised them. Created them. When I euthanized the previous generations, I didn't feel anything, but now... I can't stand seeing them hurt like this... Even if I know its necessary."

The robed girl then sighed, took out one last cocktail and held it out for Jinx.

"This is the only other one I had time to make."

With a quick shrug, Jinx took the offered bottle. "Sweet. Hopefully we won't need it, but more combustibles never hurt anyone."

Ignoring the blatant fallacy of her statement, Jinx began to study the river intently. "So, any idea how we're gonna get you across? I could _probably_ jump it, but I don't really like the odds of survival if I accidentally get dunked out here."

"I don't need to worry about the cold. My body... it can take it. It was meant to work in space if necessary. But I don't know how well I could take it if I got swept away." Akari looked upriver. "We don't have a lot of time. We may have to cross at a less than ideal spot."

"Then let's get moving already!" Jinx prodded the other girl along, and they kept heading upstream. The conditions didn't get better, but they didn't get worse either. Without even discussing it, the two girls kept running.

A sick feeling clenched Jinx's gut, and she fought back a wince.

"They're closing in on us," Akari explained. "Four of them. The sound they make is designed to cause human discomfort. If you feel it, they're close by."

Jinx offered up a wry smile. "Oh, well that's a relief. I was worried it might have been something I ate."

"There!" Akari pointed - up ahead a few trees had fallen in and jammed up against the rocks. It wasn't the best place to cross, but they weren't exactly normal people either. It would just take time and careful movement. Jinx nodded in agreement, and they headed down to the edge of the water.

The conditions were still frosty and treacherous, and the first shattered tree trunk looked slick with a thin layer of ice. Jinx went first, nimbly finding balance on the still slowly rocking piece of wood. After a second, she held out her hand and Akari took it, more slowly managing to keep her footing. They had to cross slowly, one step at a time, water splashing up on one side. One of the larger rocks provided a helpful support that kept the trunk stead for a few steps.

The next trunk, however, was over a foot away. Again, Jinx went first, spreading her legs to try and get a good foot on the other log. She remembered a different sort of training on suspended wooden posts, proposed by Happosai to test her balance. Those had been narrower and further apart, still quite shaky, but hadn't been slick with cold water. The challenge here was similar but equally difficult. Carefully, she leaned forward and managed to get both feet on the other piece of wood.

Akari had more difficulty. Jinx held the girl's hand and pulled, helping her across. Finally the robed girl made the crossing and found her balance. They were about a third of the way across, when Jinx - who had thought herself well grounded in place - felt something give. Her left foot slipped and she began an uncontrolled fall back when Akari snagged by her by the sleeve of her rough coat. Jinx' foot came back down, 'stuck,' and she reoriented. It has been close, though, and sloppy.

"Thanks," the sorceress quickly mumbled.

Akari gave a small smile. Then a crashing sound came from the side of the river they had left behind. Two more of the creatures stood at the water's edge: one was a great white beast with ruby red eyes, the other was shaggier and a crude brown. The silver coated one raised its head, rising to a prodigious sixteen feet of elevation as it watched them. A low base growl came from within its muscular body.

Two more of the creatures emerged, stalking up along the riverside. Their hunched forms moved clearly against the snowy backdrop, picking up speed as they searched for a safer place to cross. Pairs of red eyes watched the girls hungrily, eager to draw blood but afraid to fall into the water separating them from their prey. The lead creature tentatively touched the water with one clawed foot before withdrawing. Opening a black gummed mouth full of rending teeth, it made a huffing snort.

"Onishi," Akari said, softly. "You aren't going to...?"

The white Reaper made the sound again, and another of the creatures came down to the riverbank. This one was more miserable looking - much of its fur was burned away, leaving thick, charred hide. Still, it was functional, having managed to either put out or tank being partly set on fire. It sulked slightly and drew back as the larger silver Reaper snapped at it with powerful jaws. Grunting, it stepped forward, wading into the water.

"Shit," Jinx started backing up, guessing what was going to happen.

Akari would've been tempted to say the same thing had the younger girl not beat her to it.

As the girls continued to cross, the wounded Reaper - Sanosuke - also started to try and give chase, wading deeper and deeper into the water and trying to keep its head up and away from the frosting rapids. One foot crashed against the trunk Jinx and Akari had used to start crossing, upending it and sending it downriver. The Reaper roared in fright and anger and frustration, jaws snapping wildly at anything in reach. It was terrified to be this vulnerable, and fighting the urge to just race ahead to get the experience over with.

"Ok. Run." Jinx pulled at Akari's wrist. "Run!"

The frightened Reaper managed only one more tentative step before, with a bellowing cry, it rushed forward. Unable to easily find a grip on the bed of the swift moving river with only two legs, and unable to try and swim, it settled for thrashing and smashing everything in its path. Throwing away their own caution, Jinx and Akari scrambled across the tree trunk, water lapping at their feet. Rapidly gaining on them, the Reaper crashed the side of its head into the log, sending the other side of it up and into the air. Akari squeaked and fell, hugging the driftwood for her life while Jinx managed to dig her fingers into the end of the trunk, ignoring the pain of the jagged wood cutting her palm.

The Reaper slipped forward, smashing its head into a rock and sending the log crashing back into the water. For a second, the beast slipped under the water. Only a second. Then a set of jaws that would make a shark envious emerged from the water, gasping for air. Akari pulled herself up and scrambled further along the trunk as the Reaper, smelling her this close, started savagely snapping at her legs. It missed, but found the water-soaked bark of the trunk instead.

The entire thing upended and spun in midair, taking the two girls with it.

Jinx hit the frigid waters with a painful shock. Her feet tried to find the riverbed, but flailed, unable to find anything solid. Gasping for air, the world spun madly in every direction, revealing flashes of brown and gray and white and blue. Training and instinct fought, kicked in, and her hand found something hard. Nails and fingers fought to find purchase. Pulling herself up, the sorceress managed to wedge herself in between a rock and the end of a smaller piece of a tree that they had hoped to use to cross to the other wide of the river.

Looking around, she saw a flash of metallic orange -

Akari was further down, out of arm's reach, but managing to hold onto one of the rocks. Only feet away, the badly burned and now drowning Reaper continued its mad struggles, turning and biting at anything it could find. For a handful of long, horrible seconds, it surged up and towards them, before capsizing completely and slipping under the water. Jinx's chest heaved as she waited, knowing it was still under the water, just out of sight. Sure enough, the Reaper reared up again, breaking the surface and falling onto its side.

It didn't re-emerge.

"Jinx!" The sound of her voice snapped the pink haired girl out of her growing weariness and numbness.

"Jinx!" It was Akari, of course, trying to reach out without losing her tenuous position against the rock. Jinx shook her head, tried to concentrate her body heat like Happosai had taught her. Leaning as far as she dared from her safe spot against the partly submerged tree, she extended her right arm, fingers just barely touching Akari's. The tips of their fingers just met, water making it difficult to find the other.

Just a bit more, Jinx managed to lean out, ice cold water nearly filling her nose. A warm hand found hers, and she pulled. Thankfully, Akari was as light as a normal girl her size, and Jinx managed to reel her in despite the current. Without a word, the two started to clamber up the side of the tree and out of the water.

At the far end of the river, the silver coated Reaper watched with calculating eyes. Snapping its teeth, just once, in obvious vexation, it turned and led its comrade back into the forest. Within seconds, they were gone. Jinx and Akari pulled themselves up the other bank of the river, cold and tired and wet, but alive.

Staggering, freezing, they, too, soon disappeared into the forest.

* * *

x

* * *

Abstract -

Ranma Saotome  
Rank: Lieutenant

Only child; parents Genma and Nodoka Saotome. Practices 'Anything Goes' style of martial arts (see: History Anything Goes MA, inc attached: Happosai, Umisenken, Yamasenken, Hinako). Currently classified as a Psionic Class-B. No prior criminal record. Limited exposure pre-commission has been redacted from public record per normal procedures.

Lt. Saotome has spent most of his life on an extended training trip with his father. While they spent most of that time in Japan, the pair also traveled to Korea(S), China, Vietnam, Laos, Tibet and Bhutan. Apparently swam the Sea of Japan both ways to 'save money.' During this trip, Saotome encountered and ultimately brought together most of India and Juliet Squads, primarily by antagonizing (or being engaged to, or both) the individual members. As the lynchpin who brought the members of these teams together, he was seen as conceptually essential to the quick integration of India and Juliet into the organization.

During the Nerima Abduction Event (file attached), he and Lt. Hibiki were able to kill the aliens onboard and free the Tendo family members. Following recovery of craft by squads op-out El Dorado, Saotome and Hibiki submitted referrals for the formation of two four-man martial arts squads. Proposal deferred to Seiran Command staff; Approved, Cmndr Yasuda (Oct 2006).

Organization and command of CT:Juliet (Oct 2006) under supervision of Cptn Banks. Assigned rank Special Lieutenant. Demonstrated initial reluctance to discipline team; concerns over team dynamics (see: Shan Pu; Kuonji), observed disorderly conduct by team members; field operations and performance considered passable to good (Nov 2006). Effort made over (Nov) shows substantial improvement in CT:Juliet by (Dec). Team well suited for covert ops, light recon, rapid response. Promotion to Lieutenant. Participated in AB17 Alpine Echo Seven (December, 2006). Fiftieth Kill recorded (January, 2007). Temp assignment to Luna (2007). (see: Service Record, attached) (see: Psionic Profile, attached). R. Harris primary Operator; N. Tendo added as backup Operator (2007).

Standard officer-level psionic imprinting packages administered (see: psi-gym usage). Saotome is excelling at all fields of combat psionics. Currently holds two (2) base records for psionic attack/defense application while under stress. Developed Saotome Technique (BEARTRAP) to capture and prevent retrieval/upload of alien consciousness after body-death. Observed to be less ruthless and aggressive than Hibiki, but Juliet is a lighter squad than India to begin with. Morale and loyalty are considered GOOD. Noted reservations about fiancé A. Tendo (sqd CT:Golf Seiran) seeing field duty, so far has not interfered with operations. Saotome is a well regarded field op and he's molded his team into a formidable force. His initiative and creativity on the battlefield have received high praise. Like Hibiki, we will want him for CLEANSLATE as a counter to the Trenchards located on Mars and as a general asset in support of the invasion.

[signature redacted]

##

BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS  
TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 8839  
CODENAME: Terra  
REAL NAME: Tara Markov

SPECIES: Human  
HEIGHT: 5'4"  
WEIGHT: 80lbs

HAIR COLOR: Blonde  
EYE COLOR: Blue

KNOWN ABILITIES: Subject is a geokinetic (possessing the ability to psychically control earthen materials) of surprising power. Has demonstrated ability to: create constructs of earthen materials, levitate said materials through the air at high speeds, generate powerful tremors and chasms and, most worryingly, has demonstrated the ability to tap into magma pockets deep in the earth, resulting in the creation of impromptu volcanic activity. According to the reports of Subject:203:Codename:Robin, the subject's recent 'hibernation' has resulted in an unexpected spike in the subject's power levels. The current extent of the Subjects powers is unknown, possibly necessitating an increase in threat level from B to A.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: All reports on the subject state that her control of her powers are limited. Highest Probability of incapacitating the subject is to overwhelm her to the point that loss of control occurs, then take advantage.

***Special Note**: Any attempts at capture should occur as far away from habitable areas as possible. Collateral damage resulting from loss of control is unknown at this point.

***Special Note**** Addendum**: The subject has recently been receiving special training from Subject:9779: Codename:Ryouga Hibiki to assist in the control of her powers. According to early reports, the training is having a positive effect on the subject, and may make capture more difficult. Further research is required – approach subject with extreme caution.

KNOWN HISTORY: The subject's history has been fully extrapolated by mapping out past exploits and tracing them back to their origin. Following a series of earthquakes, landslides and other related disasters of varying scale, the subject's travels have been traced across the United States and much of Europe, and originate in the country of Markovia. Searches of the country's databases further revealed the subject's name to be Tara Markov, daughter of Viktor Markov, current king of Markovia. A member of the royal family, the subject's powers were not inherent from birth, rather were gained via experimentation done by Markovian scientists. Timelines cannot be confirmed, however, the subject's disappearance from Markovia coincides with an assault on the country initiated by Subject:1872:Codename: Baron Bedlam. It is believed that the subject fled the country at this point, leaving her brother, Subject:7612:Codename: Geoforce to assist with defences.

After travelling to the United States, the subject temporarily stayed with Team Designation: Teen Titans. After several altercations, the subject left for undisclosed reasons. The subject soon returned, in the employ of Subject:2101:Codename: Deathstroke the Terminator. After acting as a double agent for a time, the subject betrayed the Teen Titans and assisted Subject:2101 in subjugating City Designation: Jump City. A League response was nearly called down in response to this openly aggressive action, but the Titans resurfaced and dealt with the problem before deployment occurred. After a battle which nearly ended with the destruction of the city, the subject reportedly 'sacrificed' herself to prevent the eruption of the volcano which she triggered. This resulted in the subject's petrified hibernation.

Only recently as the subject been restored. Very few reports have been submitted on her actions since this point, and those deal exclusively with her training in her powers and her progress. Further research is required.

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: B

PERSONAL NOTE_: I don't like this… not at all. The girl is a known traitor, extremely powerful and with limited control of her powers. She's a veritable time bomb sitting right in the Titan's midst, and none of them, not even Dick, seems to realize this. The fact that they are attempting to train her in the use of her powers is admirable, but no amount of training will ever make me comfortable after she 'accidentally' triggered volcano directly beneath a large urban center. The fact that the city was evacuated at the time does nothing to mitigate this, as it could have just as easily happened beneath a fully populated city. The fact that her power has grown even more intense since her return only makes the situation more troubling. I won't attempt to force Dick's hand at this point, but I will definitely be keeping an eye on Terra for the foreseeable future._

##


	7. Close Encounters 2

Special Announcement: As some of you may have noticed, Chapter 7 was actually posted on time, but only on the Spacebattle forum (Can't post a link here, unfortunately, but it's the alternate location we post chapters and is apparently more reliable than here, so if a delay like this happens again, check there. We'll put a link in the author profile.) The reason that the posting was delayed here was because of an error with the FF site, which I'm sure quite a few of you are probably familiar with by this point. Many people attempting to edit their stories have, for the past few days, been running into a problem called 'Error 2' when they hit the edit button, and this is what has prevented us from posting until now. However, for those of you that are trying, in vain, to post their own chapter updates, there is a solution. When you hit the enter button and get sent to the Error 2 page, simply go up to the URL and change the word 'properties' to the word 'content'.

A simple solution for a most vexxing connundrum. So, hopefully you'll forgive us for being a bit tardy (though we did update as promised, just not here), and hopefully you'll enjoy the chapter as well.

Lathis is out, peace

**A/N**

_Alright. Lemme say a few things here before we start. There's only so much we can really fit into each of these chapters. For the most part, what to organize into which chapter falls to me (Chryssalid here) and I usually try to fit in sequential events. This means chapters that are usually dominated by one plot and one subplot rather than chapters that juggle three or four things at the same time. So I'll have to be the one to take the heat for there not being Juliet Squad or Cyborg in this chapter, or not being much Starfire in an earlier chapter, etc.. I know no one likes waiting another week for specific things, but... please bare with it a bit. I also wanted to get in one more dossier, since I'm the one putting up character info for people in the fic (Lathis is having fun with his massive cast, but he's already done the guys and girls he's crossing over with)._

_Thanks again for all the great reviews, big and small! And yes, we will finish this crossover. Do you think we write these chapters over the span of four or five days every week completely from scratch? I've said before that we've been basically working on this for the last year. We're releasing it now because we're confident of finishing it and having chapters out weekly for months. After which we'll go back post-crossover and finish the base-fanfics. Of course, we do make alterations and tweaks as recommended or as necessary._

_Bah. Enough of my stupid author notes! Let's get back to it._

* * *

x

* * *

Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last. The reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together. With Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding', it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of Atlantis. Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well deserved breather from their adventures. But as unseen forces manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered… and sooner than they expect.

It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Close Encounters_

Chapter VII

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

UNETCO "Chendgu" Facility  
Alien Containment and Isolation Theater (ACI)

Mint cleared the inner security screen, tray in hand. Lights in the reinforced walls winked as they scanned him, above and beyond the retinal and security scans it took just to get into this wing of the base. A mind probe built into the facility constantly scanned for any aberrant thoughts or active programming. Others searched for weapons, biological implants or other abnormalities. Special Research and Intelligence Division didn't like taking chances. A compromised ACI could very well mean a base full of dead men and women.

Inside the security screen, two guards watched over the process.

"Squaddie," one of the guards spoke, voice coming from a hidden speaker in the airlock. "Back again, huh?"

"You'd think we had conjugal visits or something down here," the other joked, chuckling at the young martial artist's undisguised embarrassment.

"Dunno how you got clearance to come down here like this so often... anyway, ID, squaddie!"

Mint nodded, carefully holding out his personal ID card, encased in a leather and plastic case. The cast over two of his fingers was only a small impediment. He wore his ID around his neck on a chain, right next to his dog tags, mostly for convenience and comfort. It was all part of on-base security. The movement of people within the base to any secure area was monitored and recorded, based on biometric scans, ID cards, and an implanted locator chip.

"Got yer timelog, and... IDs all check out. And clearance confirmed. No proscribed materials detected."

The blast doors to ACI-Actual opened, revealing the last layer of security. Mint stepped in, ignoring the spider-trapped turrets placed more to keep prisoners in than visitors out. Like with all major bases, a pair of HWPs (Heavy Weapons Platforms) waited in standby mode. In case of an emergency, they would come out, the turrets would turn hot, the minefield would go activate, and alarms would go off across the base. Nothing would get past.

A fourth atmospheric airlock followed, not really part of the overall security screen. It allowed the air within containment to be vacated and replaced with nerve gas and a cocktail of inflammatory chemicals. Standard procedure was to ignite the air within containment in the event of a breach, since many aliens were naturally space and vacuum friendly. Even deadly nerve agents were ineffective against some of the creatures and constructs.

The double doors of alien alloy melted into the walls.

ACI was divided into just two wings here in Chengdu, since the base didn't do much research. To his left was the non-humanoid wing, containing a few captured Celatids (used for breeding purposes, supposedly), a Reaper, and even a partly repaired and functional Cyberdisk. The larger and more populated wing was Block A. This was the humanoid and psionics wing, currently hosting an assortment of Sectoids, an Ethereal, and a single Snakeman.

And, one other, very special alien.

Her cell was near the back. Mint ignored the other aliens. All but the Snakeman were too absorbed using alien entertainment devices to pay much attention to the visitor. The reptilian alien, however, watched the young man with deep red eyes. The rest of it was coiled up in a corner, like a giant cobra waiting to strike. Long clawed fingers anxiously scratched at its scaly arm.

Koriand'r's cell was two back from that.

She'd been given some blue scrubs and other clothes to wear, but otherwise treated like any enemy alien subject. They'd used one of the cells reserved for the more physically capable aliens, like Chryssalids or Mutons, but it was pretty sparse: a bed, toilet, and an entertainment module. For most aliens, it was all they needed. Sectoids in particular seemed to spend most of their time at the EM, just sitting and staring. They only took a break to eat their daily ration of nutrient paste. When separated from both The Mind and their psionic entertainment they became famously irritable. After a day, though, it was clear Starfire was different; Hell, Mint had known that the moment he fought with her, as briefly as it was.

Carefully balancing the tray and the magazine, he keyed her cell speakers.

"We had European type noodles today. With these round meat dumplings," he said, putting the tray into one of the cell's loading points. It was weighed, recorded, and passed through to the occupant. Since she didn't use the EM, he also tried to bring a book or magazine to ease the boredom of sitting in a cell all day with nothing to even look at.

The prisoner was sitting on the bed at the far side of the cell, her head cradled in her hands and was rocking noticeably back and forth. She had, Mint noted with a tinge of guilt, spent most of her time in that pose since her ... initial interrogations. The alien girl had not taken it well. Lord Herb had even mentioned that she had fought the mind probes tooth and nail every inch of the way; a futile gesture. The machine had been forced to brutally batter through her mental defenses to get the information they needed, and that didn't even include the initial offensive made to weaken her for the follow-up scans.

It was one of the reasons that he had felt compelled to try to show her these small kindnesses. When he had heard that, in fact, her memories 'weren't' false, that they had all but mentally tortured an innocent person...? Well, _alien_ person, but still...

Mint couldn't stand seeing her in this state. Even when he wasn't on active duty, just the knowledge that this sweet, pretty girl was down here ... like this, it churned his stomach. And for a seasoned warrior such as himself, that was saying something. He wasn't exactly sure what to do, but this was _something_. If he could at least make her feel a little better, it would be a good first step. He had no idea if he was getting through, though. The magazines sat in a pile on the ground right before the loading point. The two previous trays of food sat almost completely untouched; he imagined she must be hungry. Did she think the food poisoned or something?

"A-are you sure you don't want some? It's pretty good!" He paused uncertainly. "Kori-?"

In an instant, her head shot up, her eyes glowing brightly with restrained plasma.

"You do _not_ use that _name_!" she barked hoarsely.

Mint actually jumped back, caught totally off guard by the unexpected outburst. It was the first real reaction he'd gotten from her and not the one he'd hoped for.

"I'm sorry - I'm sorry!" he fired back, waving his hands quickly in a warding gesture.

Eventually, the rage on her face melted away, and she returned her face to her hands. He despaired that he had lost her completely again -

"Why do you insist on taunting me with these feigned acts of kindness?"

"I, um... heard something earlier today," he began, not knowing if the news would excite the girl or anger her even more due to her being right. "We captured... well, maybe that's not a great word... we identified two people who matched some of your, um, memories. An American girl with purple hair and a man who looks like Lieutenant Hibiki. Command sent someone to see if they have memories like yours. They were fine last I heard, so..."

Her head lifted a fraction of an inch ... only to drop once more.

"No, no, no, no. A trick, it is another trick," the girl muttered quickly to herself as she continued her rocking. "So many lies, so many tricks. Trying to make me forget myself, forget who I am."

He wasn't certain, but he thought he saw some form of green liquid dripping out from between her fingers as she prattled to herself. "Just trying to gain my trust - gain my trust and then erase me..."

"That's not it!" he protested, leaning closer to the transparent wall. "I'm telling you the truth!"

Again, the alien girl's head rose, her eyes lifting to stare at him. He could almost feel her gaze piercing his soul. He was by no means an expert on people - let alone girls - but even he could see the desperate 'need' in her eyes, see that she 'wanted' to believe him.

"I ... I cannot believe you," she quickly said, shaking her head and looking away. "You could have easily stolen those faces from my memories when you ... when your masters _violated_ my mind."

Raising to her feet, Starfire clenched her fists and stalked towards the wall. Swiping a hand before her, she glared at him. "Tell me! What more do you want from me? What more can you take that you have not already stripped from me?"

"I don't want anything." Mint watched her closely - at least she was angry and not morose. That was kind of an improvement. "When you blasted me during our fight, even though it broke two of my fingers, I knew then and there that you weren't aiming to do anything more than knock me out. I got hurt because I blocked it wrong. I said in my report that I thought you weren't one of our enemies... and... I guess I wanted to do what I could to make things a bit easier for you until the others saw it, too. That's all I want."

"Then, if you truly believe that it _is_ my friends that have been located, **take** me to them! I will believe nothing else you say if you can not prove your claim to me!"

"But... they're in... they're in another country. At another base. I don't think I have any way to prove it, especially since I just heard the rumor from Lime!" Mint saw her expression turn stormy again. "I know you're angry. And we treated you like... like... I guess like the aliens treat us. But I'd kind of hoped the news would cheer you up, if only a little bit. I guess it makes sense you don't believe me, though."

"Until you can prove that this is not a trick, then your entreaties will fall upon deaf ears." Looking to prove her point, the so called Tamaranian raised her hands in preparation to scatter the food against the wall -

Only for her hand to stop an inch from the dish. Tentatively, she sniffed the air, taking in the delectable aroma of the pasta dish. Her hand trembled for a moment, as if she was trying to force herself to knock the plate over anyway.

A moment later, she looked up to glare at him hotly. "I still do not trust you, small Human - Canis Lupus hybrid ... However-" She licked her lips hungrily. "Perhaps if you were to supply me with a bottle of the Mustard, I may be more inclined towards doing so ..."

"Mustard on pasta?" He gave a very Beast Boy-like grimace of disgust. But quickly nodded. "Okay. I'll backtrack through security. Again. To get you some gross mustard. But just this once! I may be fast, and I may kinda like you, but I'm no errand boy! I'm a warrior of the Musk!"

He gave a very childish moue and stormed off, at least pretending to be put out.

Naturally, he couldn't totally avoid having to explain himself as he went back through security again. It was hard enough to normally get clearance to ACI-Actual, much less to make repeat visits. One didn't have to be psychic to see how such behavior gave a bad impression, and could lead to _bad places_. As it was, Mint knew he'd expended a lot of personal good will to get clearance to make a few trips down to see the 'martial artist' he and the rest of Romeo Squad had brought in.

He also wondered if Captain Butler or someone else in Command who had seen the girl or been involved in the earlier interrogations thought she could use a visit or two that wasn't entirely business oriented. It seemed a stretch, though. The young Musk knew he'd face a pretty serious security review in a few days regarding his behavior. For the time being, though, he counted himself lucky.

The base commissary was a few floors up, and he sped up the steps rather than wait for the elevator. A flash blasted across the room, grabbed a handful of mustard packets and headed back out, even before the door closed...

Only to come up short, as something nearly as fast stepped in the way.

"L-Lord Herb!" Mint came to an immediate halt, ramrod straight. The dragon prince of the Musk, even wearing casual UNETCO fatigues, was a bit terrifying. Mint had known the man all his life and still found him scary sometimes. Hell: most times. This was, he had to admit, one of those times.

Burnished gold and red eyes narrowed.

"Where are you off to, Mint?" Herb asked, voice like an icy river. "Visiting the prisoner? Running off to fetch her something?"

There was no point hiding it.

So Mint groveled, bowing his head deeply. "Sorry, Lord Herb! I... I was just getting her something to eat!"

"Mustard," he dryly observed.

"Yes, sir! She said she wanted it with her spaghetti... so... um..."

"Disgusting," Herb commented. "Nine stomachs and no taste."

"Ah, yes, I guess," Mint muttered, glad the lord of the Musk wasn't calling the errand itself a disgusting disgrace. In fact, Herb's aura wasn't even suppressed. He didn't seem mad. Just... there.

"You lack in dignity, Mint," Herb said, still not stepping aside. "Besides, I got you a woman already. You may see her when we rotate off base. Why bother with this creature?"

"I. I ah..." Mint stood back up, but looked down at his shoes. Technically the women Lord Herb had made arrangements with for them were expensive 'escorts' according to their on-base friends, and not actual 'girlfriends.' "I like this one more. She's really strong, and I don't think she's bad..."

"You are a complete idiot," Herb growled. "I don't know why I allowed those visits of yours."

"But she isn't the enemy, Lord Herb!"

"No," he replied. "But neither is she an ally."

"She's kind of an Amazon..."

Herb scoffed. "I've seen her memories. I know full well what she is."

Mint, at a loss for words, hung his head. Then, surprisingly, Herb turned around and began to walk away.

"Lord Herb?"

"Do what you want," Herb replied, not turning to acknowledge the question. "For now. We will shortly see what becomes of her."

"Yes!" Mint chirped. "Yes, sir!"

And then he took off in a blur of speed, to make up for lost time.

The guards at security met him with a mixture of amusement and suspicion. Mostly the former, but the latter was an obvious undercurrent. Running back and forth for some alien? Funny, yes, but potentially troubling. Mint could only try and make light of the situation. The handful of mustard helped.

"At least it isn't mayo!" one of the guards had said with a laugh.

Walking back through confinement, trying to ignore the look from that one Snakeman, Mint saw Koriand'r flipping through the pages of one of the magazines he'd brought down. It was nice that everyone spoke English on the base, because it meant he didn't have to look far to find something she could read or maybe even be familiar with. Not sure what she would like, he'd just grabbed a Time magazine and something suitably girly about modern 'Entertainment' or whatever.

"Hey," he said, keying the comm and resisting the impetus to knock on the transparent metal. It was sound and impact proof anyway. "I, uh... I got the mustard. I still think putting it on 'pasta' is gross, though."

Hungrily, Starfire zipped over and grabbed the packets the moment they cleared the secure transfer jack. Tearing open the condiment packs, she sniffed them happily before firing him an odd look.

"Put it on the pasta?" she asked and covered her mouth to stifle a laugh at his expense. "No, you misunderstand. I intend to drink it!"

And she did just that, squeezing every last drop of the yellow semi-liquid out of the packets and into her mouth. Mint could only stare, slack jawed, as the alien girl downed every single one. That was -

"Wow. You... you really like mustard!" he exclaimed with wide eyes. "Does it refuel your alien metabolism or something!"

The alien girl eyed him strangely, a mixture of suspicion and annoyance now warring with the slimmest sliver of gratitude. "You ... are a strange little boy, are you not?"

Dropping the spent packs on the tray, she then stalked back to her bench and dropped down to sit again.

"I'm not a little boy," he informed her. "I told you, I'm a warrior of the Musk! And I'm almost seventeen."

The dubious expression on the tall girl's face was somewhat disheartening. "If you state it to be so," she replied, sounding less than convinced.

"I do state it to be so. You can at least believe me when I tell you how old I am! I'm just..." he frowned. "Just a little on the small side. Nothing wrong with that!"

Starfire shrugged. "Many of my friends are younger and less mature than myself. I hold nothing against them because of it." She then pointed at him accusingly. "And, need I remind you, I still have no reason to trust _any_ statements you make until you provide me with evidence of your veracity."

"Well, I'd love to but I... ah, wait! Lady Kiima said you trained with the Amazons. Did you know a girl named Lotion?"

"Lotion?" The alien girl tapped her chin for a moment. "Yes, yes, I recall her. I did not personally train with her, I trained mostly with Perfume and Cologne. However, my friend was quite fond of the Lotion woman's company."

"Well, you're looking at the man she was going to marry!" Mint proudly proclaimed. "Well, kind of. Not really marry. Back before all the fighting, Herb arranged 'partnerships' for both me and Lime! I still have the contract! That should be proof, right? That I'm telling the truth?"

"You ... were going to marry Lotion?" A look of absolute incomprehension flashed across the Tamaranian's face. Lotion, the graceful, elegant, intelligent and mature woman that had so easily won Cyborg's affection, had been arranged to marry this child? "How ... nice for the both of you," she finished weakly.

She certainly hoped that the young Spice was not the one proposed to wed the burly large tiger themed warrior...

"Like I said, not really a marriage. They're a tribe with too many single women, and we're a clan of single men," Mint tried to explain, mistaking her tone for something else. "The Amazons were... like our sisters. We fight, but we're kind of the same, sometimes. If you're their ally, you should be ours, too! That's what I think!"

Starfire frowned deeply at that, grim realization striking her. The child should have spoken more honestly. The Amazons _had_ been their allies… while they had still lived. It also explained why he had stated that he _had_ been engaged, notably in the past tense. There was only one obvious conclusion as to why his engagement was no longer in place, which only made his excited reference to his engagement all the more distasteful.

"I find that doubtful. Anyone who would resort to ... the things which have been done… what you have demonstrated yourselves capable of." The girl looked down, squeezing her fists tightly and pressing them against her knees. "I - I could never align myself with such people. I can not even describe the shame and horror which were forced upon me by your leaders. Never could we be comrades..."

Mint stared at the alien girl, his own mood slightly soured as well.

"I know. I've been attacked by the enemy kind of like how we... forced ourselves on you," he said, giving her a serious look. "But we've been trained for it. Taught how to deal with it. I know you had it worse. A lot of us are just... angry and a little afraid. Especially after what happened to the Amazons. It doesn't excuse what you went through, but its true."

Moving her hand to rub her arm, Starfire nodded. "Whatever your battle is with these extraterrestrials, they have nothing to do with me. At this point I can not even be certain which side is the greater evil, if there is one at all. I would just ... I would just like to be released ... or left alone."

"I... I guess I should go..." Mint began.

"You should have left some time ago," another voice caused the diminutive Musk warrior to nearly jump out of his skin. "Instead you chat away with this girl, making pointless conversation."

Herb stepped out into the light before the cell.

"You've grown too soft, Mint. I will have Lime and Sergeant Orochovsky toughen you up over the next week," he said, with enough inflection that it came out as a threat. He then turned to the captive in the cell. "As for you, you will soon get your wish. I have seen the papers. You will be released within a day or so and transferred to another facility in Japan to meet up with your companions. You'll be Hibiki and Saotome's problem, then."

Immediately, the alien leapt to her feet, floating several inches above the floor, and her eyes filling with hot plasma.

"**You!** Barbarian!" she all but roared. "Release me from this cell so that I might punish you for your transgressions!"

"Boy, she really doesn't like you, Lord Herb," Mint stated the blindingly obvious.

"Yes, Mint. I am aware of that." The Prince of the Musk stood calmly before the cell. "But, if you look closely, it isn't hate. She believes I deserve punishment. She wants justice more than revenge." He smiled mysteriously. "I know now that you prefer to be called Starfire. So, Starfire, would you really like me to open your cell? You know, if you step out to fight me - if you cross that line - you will certainly lose your one chance at freedom. ...Along with your life."

She frowned at his words. "Threaten me all you wish, beast. There is little more that you can do that you have not already done. Seeing you humbled for your crimes would be a most worthwhile sacrifice."

Mint shrunk back a bit at the threat, but Herb laughed.

Actually, mirthfully laughed.

"What a superb statement!" he complimented, walking up to the transparent cell. "Now I'm glad I came. Even after all this, she still has some fire."

His palm touched the cell, and a red light blared a warning. Yellow and black lines colored the metal, spreading like smoke into solid color in the form of an aperture. A crease soon followed, parting the alien metal in a perfect rectangle. Starfire took an involuntary step back, stunned by what her visitor had actually done.

"Warning. Cell A-12 is now open. Authorization: Herb 563-055-1924. Security protocol Delta is in effect. Warning. Cell A-12 is now open. Authorization..."

"There," Herb stated, standing in front of the door in the cell. "Come at me. Fulfill your desire and strike me. Abandon all hope of reuniting with your friends. You wish to humble me, do you n-"

The rest of his words were drowned out by a massive beam of emerald energy slamming into his chest as the alien unleashed the full power of her ocular blasts the moment the door fully opened. The sudden attack sent Herb careening into the front of the empty cell behind him, opposite her own. Once all the flickering green energy and smoke settled and cleared, Starfire was still standing in her cell, a vindictive smile on her face.

"I apologize most profusely. Were you attempting to say something? Perhaps if you increased your proximity, I would be better able to hear you?"

Herb pushed himself off the wall, hands smoking. "You dare interrupt the Lord of the - "

Mint winced as another green beam shot out from the alien girl's cell.

"You dare to - "

And then another.

Half lidded, he looked from Lord Herb - who would have been deeply indented into the wall behind him had it been made of anything else - to the alien girl, who now sported a vindictive and excited grin. She was standing just an inch or two inside her cell, eyes glowing in preparation for another attack.

At least she seemed happy. Kind of.

"I get your point already!" Herb finally managed to say without interruption. Brushing flakes of burned uniform off his arms, he walked towards the girl. Bits of ki, nearly invisible, floated in front of the Musk Prince.

"You are a resilient creature. I suppose I would have to expect nothing less from a true pupil of Cologne... and Perfume." He stopped a foot from her, well within reach, showing no fear. Instead, he seemed almost playful. "I will not apologize for doing what I did, but I am willing to give you something in return as a way of making amends to a worthy foe. A true martial artist uses every experience, no matter how terrible, as a trial in which to grow stronger. You should know this well."

Strongly considering unleashing a full power blast right to the arrogant man's face, Starfire finally relented.

"You wish to make amends?" she asked, curious. "Of what do you speak?"

"Actions rather than words; I will show you how to become stronger." Herb motioned for her to step back. "Allow me inside. In a worst case scenario, it means you can assault me freely without breaking the seal of your cell. You have nothing to lose."

Starfire considered his words carefully. By her expression alone, it was clear she seemed to think it was quite possible he wished to inflict ... unsavory acts upon her, but then found it unlikely with the Mint just outside the cell. Reluctantly, she took several steps back, giving him enough room to enter.

"Make no foolish moves," she warned, even as she did so. "Or you will face my righteous wrath."

Herb nodded very slightly and stepped inside with typically regal bearing. He seemed to have little concern for the state of the small room, and with a motion from his left hand, he ordered Mint to close the door behind him. The young Musk did so, but with a confused and slightly worried expression on his face. The two were finally alone in the cell, and Starfire found herself assuming a defense-ready stance just in case.

"Please," Herb seemed to guess at her thoughts. "You are attractive, but not stunningly so. I am simply here to impart knowledge. Cologne and Perfume have already taught you about chi, ki, circulation and internal energies. Your prior experience has given you much emotional power. You are undoubtedly powerful and immensely strong, but from what I saw in memories, I know on your strange world you have a long way to go to compete with others. This 'Wonder Woman' and 'Super Girl' for example."

"Wonder Woman is magical, and Supergirl is a Kryptonian," Starfire deadpanned. "It is physically impossible for most races to compete with them at all. Most know better than to even try. Still," she added. "I am curious as to just what you believe you could teach me that would increase my power appreciably. And as to why you would teach me, considering we are enemies."

"I will answer that second question first," Herb replied, casually resting his hands behind his back. "I have never considered you my enemy. That term is a worldly attachment one must be very careful to apply, as it is self-limiting. As a Prince, I know that the enemy of today is the ally of tomorrow. You were my opponent before, and perhaps my opponent again. However, you are not my opponent now, nor will you be for some time. Your spirit and inclination are basically benign. One thing you must understand is that to oppose another, even to harm another, is a function of life. Conflict is part of the natural state of the universe."

"I am more than acquainted with the concept of conflict. As am I to the fluid nature of allies and enemies. You should know all of that already by this point." She glared at him, dropping her hands on her hips. "If you have a topic you wish to broach, do so already, before I expire due to the passage of time."

"Before I teach you what I promised," Herb replied. "I will first tell you a short story. One tailored to your situation. You may have heard of it in its proper form in one of the memories I didn't scan through. Regardless: this is the story of a famous rat, renounced for its ferocity, that defeated many neighborhood cats in the house in which it lived. The owner, a rich warlord, demanded the most powerful cats be brought in to destroy the pest."

"Four cats were eventually summoned, each renowned for their abilities. The first cat was a master of stalking, fighting, and subduing rats. It boasted that it had trained all its life to strike quickly with its paws, and powerfully with its bite. Its balance and technique were beyond compare. When it tracked down a rat, it could follow the smallest clues. No rat had ever escaped or hidden from this famous cat."

As Herb described the feline, Starfire could imagine it reflecting a certain masked and acrobatic friend of hers.

"However," he continued. "Against this ferocious rat... it was defeated and forced to flee."

Only for Starfire's mental image of the Robin-cat to get KO'd by the giant green rat.

"The next day, another cat made the attempt. This one was a master of fighting spirit. It boasted that it could crush the resistance of a rat with its stare and kill it with just its intention to strike. This cat, it was said, needed only to enter a room, and its opponent would break down in despair. Such was the reputation and spiritual power of this cat, that rats would flee from it at the merest mention of its name."

This next cat appeared in a dark black cloak, floating confidently.

"However, against the great rat, even this cat was soundly defeated."

And then Raven-cat promptly tumbled gracelessly from a blow of the rat's whip-like tail.

"On the third day, an aged cat was put up against the beast. This cat was a master of experience. It boasted that it had fought and defeated a thousand rats over its long life, in battles across the land. There was no technique or ability, neither in defense nor in offense, that this cat had not seen and learned to counter. Whatever tricks the rat had, this cat explained, it would be seen through and defeated. The ancient age-less cat was thus famous throughout the land."

This elderly Cat quickly took on a shrunken and hunched state, complete with familiar gnarled walking stick and long white hair.

"Sadly, this cat was also sent fleeing by the terrible rat."

Cologne-cat fared no better than her predecessors, taken down by the rat's 16 hit combo.

"Finally," Herb continued. "A fourth cat came to the Warlord's home. This cat was neither very athletic, nor ancient, nor powerful in spirit. Yet with apparent ease, she entered the room and returned with the rat in her jaws. Later, the other cats came to this master to ask how they could improve themselves. You have probably guessed the nature of this story: each of the three cats represents an aspect of martial arts."

Seeing that she was watching and listening intently, he explained:

"The first cat is our physical conditioning; its weakness is fear and doubt. When you hesitate or when you are unsure, you can not use your strength efficiently. The second cat is our ki, or battle spirit; its weakness is ego. When you believe yourself to be invincible, you leave openings and lose effectiveness. The third cat is experience; it is weakened by laziness and complacence. When you have done and seen many things, the tendency is to respond in predictable, comfortable ways, and to forget that others are always striving to overcome you."

"So, the fourth feline had mastered all of these disparate attributes?" Starfire asked, interested despite herself. The images of cats kung fu fighting was completely adorable and it took all she had to stop from bursting out into giggles as she thought of the fable.

"Yes and no," Herb replied, smiling a bit himself, secretly glad to see he had caught the girl's attention. Just as he thought, this example was better than a dry lecture, like he had endured as a child.

"These are the three aspects of martial arts, in a very broad sense. However, there is a _forth aspect_ as well. In the story, this can be seen in the rat, that all three of the cat masters fell before. This rat is not technical skill, immense power, or great experience. It is instinct. And instinct is the glue that holds the other three aspects of martial arts together. The fourth cat, the one who could understand instinct itself, is the one who has mastered The Way and become at peace with itself and the world. In this way, it has overcome its limitations, mastering not just the three attributes but itself as well. We, as martial artists, strive towards this: to perfect The Way."

"Indeed?" Starfire asked, despite her reservation. "I had heard that many martial artists strive to train certain techniques until they _become instinctive_. Is that lesson not counter intuitive?"

"We master techniques; techniques must not master us. Ranma Saotome defeated me with an Amazon Technique that I learned when I was six years old, and which I considered no threat. Any technique can and will be countered or made into a liability. Though you could say the means of achieving The Way differs greatly between schools and styles... I was taught that the strongest martial artist is the one who can do the most with the least and only when necessary." He gave a quick chuckle. "I am aware this is an ironic statement, coming from me. I still have a long way to go myself."

The Tamaranian introduced the prince to the time honored tradition of the gratuitous eye roll. "Your mock humility will garner you no sympathy from me. Either continue regaling me concerning the adorable kung fu fighting kittens, or explain what you intend to tell me."

He gave a suffering sigh.

"Very well. Even just fighting you, I could see that you have learned much. Your alien tutors taught you the root of your fighting style and technique. Your conditioning and training with the Amazons honed your fighting spirit... and passed on a few tricks. Your fights with enemies, from your sister to your friends to me, have built up your experience. However, your weakness is in the glue: the instinct. This is why your sakkijutsu, your sixth sense - your danger sense as some call it - is so inferior to those of the martial artists you know."

Eyes narrowing, Starfire studied him carefully.

"And..." she ventured. "You can educate me to overcome this flaw in my combat skills?"

"I would not have entered this room otherwise," Herb replied, closing his eyes to draw out the moment a bit. The truth was, as Mint likewise would attest, that he had never actually tried to teach anyone before. Nor would he ever need to, except to pass certain things onto his own son, decades from now.

"I am going to teach you an advanced form of _tian jing_," he explained. "In other words, I'm going to teach you to listen, not with your ears, but with your body and your natural instincts."

The alien girl cocked her head, clearly needing a bit more info than that.

Herb thus added, "Nothing is a substitute for being pushed to your limits and approaching the edge of life and death, but this will help prepare you for that moment. By listening, you will find you can overcome far more powerful opponents by matching their ki and reflecting it. In addition to the simpler exercise in sensing danger."

"Matching and... reflecting ki? Just as you did to my own Starbolts!" She keened excitedly, clasping her hands together eagerly. "That is what you are referring to, is it not?"

"Yes. I took this principle and applied it to my own internal energies. Though I wasn't able to deflect all of your 'starbolts' at the time," he admitted, a little ruefully. "Your energy has a component I wasn't familiar with. I believe it now to be related to the 'solar energy' you make use of. These kryptonians of yours seem to rely on brute force. Do not be intimidated by them. Strive for mastery of The Way, and to be the best. That is how a martial artist lives and dies."

Calming her obvious excitement, Starfire let out a weary sigh.

"...There is still the matter of trust," she carefully reminded him. "How can I be certain this is not some form of trick? What you offer is very tempting, perhaps too much so to be truthful."

"Trust, huh?" Herb appeared to have a little difficulty wrapping his mind around the concept. The long, looong pause almost made the alien want to facepalm. He wasn't exactly inspiring confidence.

"Well... you know the theory already. Maybe if I demonstrate, you will accept what I'm saying. You can then decide whether you trust me enough to teach you. I'm not skilled in assuaging people's fears. Mostly in causing them." He held out his hand. "Do you know how to thumb wrestle?"

Starfire _just_ managed to quash the evil smile that nearly burst onto her face when he held out his hand. She was **well** versed in thumb wrestling, thanks to Beast Boy and Cyborg. She also knew that her physical strength was much greater than Herb's own was. She should have little difficulty defeating him when his mobility was reduced to all but nothing!

"I am ... aware of the term, yes," she replied innocently.

"Good. Take my hand."

She did so, pretending to be a little unfamiliar with the grip.

"First, you must put aside the idea of strength, speed, or technique," he explained. "That means no planning what you are going to do. Do not try and anticipate or outsmart me. Empty your mind, momentarily, of all preconceptions. You must feel the reaction, the moment before my body moves, and then let your instinct guide you to match it. Listen with the body and the mind's eye; that is the true power of _tian jing_."

He paused again, to make sure she followed him, and nodded once in acceptance.

"For the purposes of this first try," he added after that. "I want you to simply attempt to overpower me."

Starfire nodded, gripping the man's hand tightly. This was a demonstration of listening and matching a stronger enemy. It went without saying. He had to know she was his superior here. If he did not, then she would teach him! Without warning, she struck, her thumb racing in to catch him by the side of the knuckle. Instead, his thumb moved very slightly, tapping her digit before it could move into place. It felt almost like a bullet. Her thumb stopped, shook, and a slightly painful shock went halfway up her arm.

"Again," he said.

This time she tried for height, to get his thumb by the nail and push it down. She'd just been testing before, and this time she brought her thumb down from its height with as much force as she could muster. Again, his digit moved slightly, intercepting her finger. Her entire arm was nearly wrenched up from the pivot of the elbow. The pad of her thumb even throbbed in pain. Right then and there, it became clear that training for this, even using this unusual and apparently harmless method, promised to be quite uncomfortable.

"You see?" Herb asked. "It is not simply me reacting to stop you. Or to intercept your attack. By striking at the weakest moment in space and time, when your intention is ill defined, your muscles unready, and your mind unfocused, I hit you with your own force. At a lower level, practice will allow you to sense an attack coming virtually the moment it enters your opponent's mind. By learning to read intent, you will develop your sakkijutsu first, and then your mastery of resonant ki."

"Lord Herb, is this really alright?" Mint asked, over the containment intercom. He was still outside, looking in. "Does Colonel Butler know about this?"

The Musk Prince huffed.

"I informed him of my wishes when I left you to run off with all that mustard." He turned his attention back to his student. "Whether born on Earth or Tamaran, from a womb or test tube, she is a martial artist in body and mind. She is one of us and it offends me to see talent wasted."

Muttering darkly to herself, Starfire tried again, then again, cursing silently with each defeat.

Not even Cyborg had proven to be such an uncanny opponent!

"I can see this is going to take some time," she grumbled, and noted the shallow cut on the side of her thumb. Nonetheless, as the earthly saying went: if on your first attempt you are unsuccessful, make repeated attempts, hoping vainly for a different result despite similar situations ...!

Wait, or was that the earthly definition for insanity?

"Do not rush," Herb said with a grin. "We will have many hours of practice to hone your skills. Hopefully, your bones will not have broken by that point."

In a way, both seemed to apply to what she was no doubt getting herself into.

* * *

Without the need for containment and quarantine tents, the Skyranger was actually very roomy. It was twilight by the time they set out, leaving Hisen behind. There were no windows to watch the ground fly by below; instead, the walls were armored to protect the cargo hold. The VTOL cargo plane was not a very stylish craft, inside or out, not like Cyborg's vehicles were: the inside was ascetic, with fold out seats for personnel, straps for gear or other equipment and camouflaged tarps for wooded operations and concealment.

There was nothing to do inside but wait.

Less than an hour after taking off, the plane landed, picking up two more passengers. The first was the fourth member of India Squad, the martial artist with the long white bandanna. The second was clearly Nabiki Tendo. Despite hints of her involvement, it was still something of a surprise for Raven and the displaced Ryouga to see her. On their world, she had broken away to pursue a career in super villainy. The idea of her being involved in something like this was either strange or ominous. Perhaps a bit of both.

The native Ryouga was the first to greet her, almost the moment she stepped up the ramp. The two quickly became roped into a conversation. Ryu, the least familiar of those present to the two Titans, quickly went off to hang out with Kuno and Mousse. All three formed a tight knit group, laughing and talking amongst themselves. It seemed to be a very close camaraderie, but not exactly like Raven had seen in her circle of male friends.

Something about the martial artists struck her as being a bit more insular. While the guys back at the Tower would often cluster together to play a video game or hang out, her friends seemed more 'buddy buddy' while the gathered martial artists appeared far more _cliquish_. Robin tended to spend most of his time by himself, and despite being social, both Cyborg and Beast Boy didn't have many overlapping interests that didn't seem to be based around food or video games. Maybe it was because they were one squad among many rather than just one team, all the time? It was like the difference between a group of men and women and a group of just men. The impression was different.

Then again, guys were still kind of a mystery to her. Making heads or tails of how they interacted, sometimes, was enough to give the dark Titan a headache. An example was seated right next to her, where Ryouga seemed to be watching the group - and the other him - with a mix of disbelief and suspicion. With Nabiki present, Raven couldn't help but feel a bit similar. Even if this was a different world, she doubted the Tendo sister was that different from her villainous counterpart. The casual ease with which she moved around the group, and even up to the older Captain and Lieutenant Feretti, implied she was well accepted among those present, or at least just as skilled at ingratiating herself to her betters as her counterpart.

The native Ryouga also seemed to stick close to her, more often than not.

Raven couldn't help but think, as insane as it was, that maybe there was something there...

No. No, that couldn't be.

Before she could think too much about that off-the-wall theory, Captain Banks left his seat and made his way across the hold towards them. The tall American officer steadied himself by gripping one of several long nylon straps that ran across the ceiling. Next to her, Ryouga straightened up, expecting something important. Raven simply adjusted her shirt, missing the feel of her cloak... and yes, even her leotard. After so long, it was comforting to wear the same thing day after day.

"Miss Raven. Mister Hibiki," he said, stopping just ahead and to the side of the duo. "We'll be landing again shortly. Before that, I wanted to have a word with you about a few things... the first is that we have positively identified another one of your associates. The alien called Koriand'r."

Before Raven even had the chance to register her shock, Ryouga was already on his feet, very nearly reaching to grab Captain Bank's lapels before he stopped himself.

"You found Starfire? Starfire is _here_? Is she alright? She isn't hurt, is she!" Ryouga's voice began to rise exponentially as he shook his fists in the air. "Please tell me she's alright!"

"Calm down, son. She's currently at one of our bases in China. Romeo Squad pulled her in after she flew around from Hong Kong up to the old Amazon village." He motioned for Ryouga to sit back down. "We actually brought her in before we did you. The reason I was brought in personally was to confirm what we learned from her. She'll be transferred over to Seiran tomorrow."

Resting a hand on the panicked boy's shoulder, Raven nodded thankfully. "That is very good news, Sir. Tell me, there weren't any problems in bringing her in, were there? Starfire can be quite headstrong, but she is the most innocent girl you will ever meet."

Ryouga nodded fiercely. "That's right! I swear, if anyone of your jerks hurt her..."

"Calm down, Ryouga," Raven commanded.

Banks rested a hand on the young man's shoulder, knowing his concern was genuine.

"Your friend was brought in by Romeo Squad after an altercation in Hong Kong, as I said. She caused some serious damage in that city, including damage to an important landmark. The PRC requested an immediate response, believing that she was a terror agent, and a rather intense fight followed. From what I read, she was... less than cooperative post-capture. You can see for yourself later. I thought you should know beforehand. I will alert you both once she is transferred and released."

Raven squeezed down harder on Ryouga's shoulder, worried at the sudden swell of anger she felt growing in his aura. It had been a long time - weeks, maybe even months - since she had felt him grow genuinely angry; she had almost forgotten how intense it could be when he was given real cause to lose his temper.

She pulled him towards herself, trying to draw off some of the darker emotions. He was curling his fingers around the edge of the fold out chair and she saw him actually studying the cluster of martial artists at the far end of the vehicle, almost like he was calculating his odds, or some other such foolishness.

"It was all likely just a misunderstanding. I'm sure that she's alright. We'll know soon enough, at any rate."

The flow of low boiling fury that flowed into her almost felt ... good, but she paid it no mind as she focused on trying to offer her own calm to the young man.

"I also wanted to discuss your living conditions," Banks pressed on, ignoring the ire of the young man. "Our bases are all self contained and self sufficient. Transport on and off base is generally only allowed for essential supplies and missions. It is not like your Titans Tower."

He saw that he had their attention, so cut to the chase.

"You will both need a place to stay while we determine what to do with you in the long term. You will also need clothes," he continued, before either could speak up. "While on base, Mister Hibiki, we can supply you with some blues cut to the Lieutenant's size. Miss Raven, we also have civilian uniforms on hand that should fit you. More pressing is where you will stay. We have a few possibilities immediately on hand. Mitsuko Hibiki has offered to provide for one of you, and some members of India and Juliet Squads should be amenable to sharing quarters for a time."

"Wait, **who** Hibiki?" Ryouga barked sharply. "My **mom** is a part of your evil organization!"

Ryouga's mother? The idea seemed foreign to Raven, as, to a man, the Titan's were orphans. Ryouga had seemed to fit in perfectly as well; another troubled youth with no parents to speak of. She often forgot that his parents were alive, just ... not there for him. Honestly, she wasn't sure what would be worse, not having parents at all, or knowing that they were out there, somewhere, but never being able to find them... to touch them?

Her own parent issues standing as something of a stark exception.

"And who are India and Juliet squads again?" Raven asked, too curious too await the response to Ryouga's incredulous inquiry.

"Oh, yes," Banks replied, chiding himself for not fully explaining. "India is the squad that you encountered. Lieutenant Hibiki, Sergeant Kumon, and Squaddies Kuno and Mousse. Juliet is the other special martial arts squad at Seiran: Lieutenant Saotome, Sergeant Konatsu, and Squaddies Kuonji and Shampoo. Miss Tendo over there is the coordinator for India Squad."

With that out of the way, he added, "As for Mrs. Hibiki, she is a civilian under our protection, just as you two are. The families of base personnel are always kept at secure facilities or communities, since the enemy and those they control will often try to target them for reprisal."

Raven nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose that makes sense. Without any way to protect your identities, you need some way to protect loved ones and friends. It is ... not exactly something we need to worry about as Titans."

Not even listening to her, Ryouga waved his hands back and forth in disbelief. "Okay, I would rather eat my own face before I lived with _Ranma_, or any of _those_ jokers either, for that matter..." he gestured sharply to the clique of combatants at the far end of the craft. "But ... but why would **mom** want us there? I mean, it's not like she's actually **my** mom. Can't we just, I dunno, camp in a gym or outside or something?"

"Base facilities, such as the Psi-gym or even the Dojo, are often in use. So, no, you cannot simply 'camp' there. And, no, you most certainly cannot pitch tent outside, either. I shouldn't even have to explain why."

Ryouga frowned, having _that_ particular family problem pointed out.

"I don't know why Mrs Hibiki volunteered. I suspect it was because the Lieutenant asked her and she wants to be helpful. I also spoke with Nabiki Tendo, and she is willing to share her quarters with either you, Miss Raven, or this Starfire girl. Mister Hibiki, while you may not appreciate the offer, you will need someone to put you up. Mrs Hibiki, while not really your mother, may be the least offensive option for you."

"Ryouga, you shouldn't dismiss this offer so quickly," Raven added. "Think of what a great opportunity this could be, to see your mother again, even if under such strange circumstances?"

"Hmph," Ryouga grunted. "I'm not making any promises. I don't want to make **any** arrangements until I know all my options. And what about you?" he added, a bit confrontationally, "You gonna move in with _Nabiki_?"

At the way he barked her name, Raven could just feel the older girl's eyes from across the Skyranger. Hemming and hawing, the violet eyed Titan wasn't exactly sure how to respond diplomatically. "Well ... I - I suppose taking a bit more time to explore _all_ of our options wouldn't be a bad idea ..."

"We will also need a third bunk for this Starfire girl," Banks reminded them. "But we can put that off for a little while. If you end up having to stay here for an extended period, we can set up some new rooms for you. Otherwise, we'll probably be sending you to a Sanctuary Community in the States. Just think about your options and get back to me by the time we land."

"That will be fine," Raven eventually replied, "We don't plan on staying in this dimension any longer than required so it shouldn't be an issue. However, just so you know, if Starfire is here, then it is quite possible that more of our friends have been pulled through, possibly as many as three others. Can you put in any inquiries as to whether any others have been spotted yet?"

"Already done. We've forwarded priority requests to our liaisons at Interpol, NSA and other agencies. You seem to have appeared quite far from this Starfire girl, but as long as none of your friends 'port in' over the ocean, we'll find them eventually."

"Alright, just make sure that you tell us as soon as you find anything out," Ryouga all but commanded in a low growl. "Now is there anything else we need to know before you show us around 'extremely bland secret base number two'?"

Banks gave the young man a level stare.

"You're civilians on an international military base. If you are given an order, by anyone in uniform, I expect you to follow it." He turned to go. "Talk to myself or Lieutenant Hibiki when you've made your decision."

Ryouga scoffed before muttering to himself, "Whatever."

For her part, Raven pulled him back a step, nodding politely. "We understand. Just give us some time to decide. Will we have a chance to discuss things privately once we land?"

"Don't take too long," the Captain replied, already half way back to his spot on the other side of the transport. Feretti was there with something to report, and the two went aside to discuss it.

Leaving the two Titans to think about what was to come.

* * *

The Skyranger had a cruising speed of seven hundred and sixty knots, or a little over Mach 1, making it one of the fastest troop transport craft on Earth. It took comparatively little time to cross over the heart of Honshu Island and the heart of Japan, heading into the dense forested mountains south of Nagano where Seiran was located.

The base itself wasn't much to see above ground. Its cover was a small weather observatory, and a few snow-battered shacks and equipment booths were cover for one of the entrances. There was little else obviously visible for miles. Seiran maintained a few open-air training grounds nearby, consisting of old concrete structures, but nothing substantial. The area was closed to the public, and actively patrolled by a dedicated security force including trained dogs. It was extremely rare for anyone to attempt to approach on foot, and like many bases, there was no vehicle access at all.

Hidden from view were the defensive weapon emplacements: plasma beam cannons and fusion ball launchers, which would be revealed in an emergency to destroy approaching alien craft. Hidden just as well was the primary access elevator and aircraft hangars. It was to one of those that the Skyranger headed, slowing down and turning around to approach the steepest side of the mountain. Concealed sections of rock, complete with sparse trees and stone surfaces, detached and raised up, revealing a cavernous space inside.

The Skyranger's VTOL engines roared as it landed, two men in green and tan uniforms waving it in with lights. Other men in orange stood by refueling and maintenance stations, waiting to get to work on the conventional transport as soon as it cooled down. Maintenance was serious work on a base like Seiran, where vehicles: HWPs, fighters, and transports, all needed to be kept combat capable and ready for launch at any time. The dedicated volunteer work crews, many already partly blackened by grease, ran grueling twelve hour shifts to keep UNETCO and its fighting machines ready to face the enemy.

The back of the Skyranger unlocked, becoming a ramp.

"Ah! Home sweet home!" Ryu exclaimed, the first one out. "I think I almost missed the smell of jet fuel and engine grease!"

"Indeed. Most curious! I had not thought I would miss this place, but I find some comfort in it now," Kuno noted, hopping down the side of the ramp, a practice most XCOM soldiers adopted after being in the field. The ramp often provided essential cover when a mission started off.

"You don't miss the mansion, Kuno-baby?"

"Maybe the rock garden..."

Ryouga was the last down the ramp, after Mousse and the older commanding officers. Behind him, his Titan counterpart and Raven seemed to be taking things more cautiously and slowly. He ignored them for a bit to take in the sights of the hangar: the parked Firestorms, perfect saucers waiting to launch, the Lightning fast attack transport, the sleek Interceptor - one must have been pulled into the maintenance shed and off the deck - the parked HWPs ready for deployment, and the base's Avenger heavy fighter/transport. This was home, in a way. It was certainly familiar, and even a little comforting. There was no pretending here. No fake names and fake IDs, no hotel or room service.

For better or for worse, this was where they belonged.

A small party was also present to greet them, aside from the usual crew of hangar personnel. This had also been expected. With their friends and loved ones on base, they would often wait at the edge of the hangar for the squads to return. Ukyou's father, Kazuo, was always there, fretting over his baby girl coming home safe, and frequently Genma and Nodoka would be there, too, to make sure Ranma came back. Not surprisingly, by the time the squads returned, the two fathers were often slightly beat up and glaring at one another. India Squad usually had a smaller reception.

Ryouga smiled and waved slightly as he saw his mother waiting off to the side. Akane, Kasumi and Mister Tendo were there was well, no doubt for Nabiki. A new addition was a cute young woman he couldn't remember the name for. It had to be the Korean girl he'd heard Kuno was 'pursuing.' The one from the logistics department.

And there she went, running right at the befuddled kendoist.

As if taking that as her queue, Nabiki quickened her pace to meet up with her family. Akane and Kasumi were all smiles, but Soun had the typical waterfall of tears running down his cheeks. The middle Tendo spared little time before gesturing to her duffle bag, no doubt describing the many things she had gotten permission to bring back from her rotation off-base.

"Mother," he said, bowing politely as a tall woman with long black hair, folded once over itself but hanging loose. Brown eyes reflected the smile on her lips. She wore the usual blue shirt and beige pants of an on-base civilian, but with a red sash around her waist just in case she needed to use an iron cloth or rhythmic gymnastics technique.

She gave him a quick hug and a peck on the cheek.

"Ryouga! You'll have to tell me all about what I'm hearing! And how was Tokyo?" she gave a conspiratorial wink. "And how did things go with you-know-who?"

"I, uh... that's a long story," he muttered, trying to quash his embarrassment. "Anyway, we have two of the visitors with us, now. Truth be told, I think you're the only one the other-me won't get into a fight with."

"I've always wanted another son! I think this could be exciting!"

"What a way to put it..."

* * *

Moving tentatively, the dimensionally displaced Ryouga made his way down the Skyranger's ramp, looking around in wonder. He had to admit, it was much larger and more impressive than he'd anticipated. The first secret base they'd been taken to had been downright pedestrian compared to this one. Still, he doubted any of these ships could even compete with Cyborg's vehicles.

His attention was quickly drawn from the various ships and crews to the small group of familiar faces off in the distance. Mr. Tendo was obvious, though his presence didn't invoke any particular emotions in the Hibiki. Kasumi and Akane were present as well. The former looked just as he remembered her from... oh, the day before yesterday? The similarity in appearance was uncanny, obviously... though there was just _something_ off about this version. Akane, well, the youngest Tendo sister caused a tiny flip flop in the Lost Boy's heart, but it passed as quickly as it began.

He wondered how she handled it when this Ryouga had told her about his curse?

And then he saw _her_. She was dressed strangely, but the face was unmistakable. Emotions swirled through him faster than he could reconcile, and before he knew it, he was walking unerringly in the older woman's direction. Well, Raven was dragging him unerringly in her direction, anyway.

As he closed the distance, Ryouga made certain to harden his heart. This wasn't the woman that gave birth to him. This wasn't his mother, who used to tuck him in at night and kiss him on the forehead when he was feeling sick. Finally, they came to a stop, standing before the woman that looked so very much like his mother. '_No_', he corrected himself, _not_ his mother. He wouldn't treat her any differently than any other stranger he had met in this bizarre world.

Ryouga's face formed an impenetrable wall of indifference as he stared at her.

Raven gazed up at him, wondering what he might be thinking. He seemed almost ... angry. Was he furious at her for abandoning him for so much of his life? His - his fist looked to be shaking and his face twitched. What could possibly be going through his mind, that made him look so borderline apathetic-

"**Mom!**" And then suddenly Ryouga vanished from her side. Raven had to blink twice, before she realized that the Lost Boy had already cleared the four yard distance and swept the older woman up in a crushing hug faster than she could even register.

"Ryouga!" she cried, hugging him back. Between the two, any normal human would have surely been mashed to paste. "Come on now, put your mother down!"

Her feet touched the ground.

"Figuratively speaking," she corrected, putting one hand on the top of the head buried into her shoulder. "You poor boy. It's probably been a long time, hasn't it? But look at how big and strong you are."

And then she giggled, crushed him in a reciprocal bear hug, and picked him up for a quick spin around. "I've got another son! Nodoka will be so jealous! Hahahahaha!"

Evoking a noticeable sweat drop on the _other_ Hibiki present.

"You'll be staying with me, won't you?" she asked, as mother and sort-of-son parted from their hydraulic press strength hug.

"_Of course I_ ... um - ah" Ryouga suddenly released the woman and looked around, his cheeks tinting red in embarrassment. The grin on Raven's face was so wide it looked painful to the young woman, and the fact that the other Ryouga was present at all was distinctly uncomfortable.

"I mean, I'm not sure ... Mrs. Hibiki. I don't want to impose. I still think we can convince them to let us camp up top. Maybe there are some areas up on the mountain we could stay in..."

Raven rolled her eyes. "We might need a few minutes to discuss our options, Mrs. Hibiki, but I don't think you have much to worry about."

"Oh!" Mitsuko looked up, seeing Raven for the first time. "You must be one of my son's friends from the other world I'm not supposed to know about."

"Because saying you don't know about it helps keep it a secret, right?" the native Ryouga asked, voice flat.

Raven just gave a small greeting bow.

Of all the sounds to follow, a bark was among the least expected in a place like this. A black nose suddenly intruded in the visiting Hibiki's face, and a long pink tongue obscured his eyes. Sputtering from the sudden wet tongue attack, he took a step back, letting a pair of paws hit the ground. Shirokuro, who had just jumped up to join in the group hug (to a dog, all hugs are potentially group hugs), landed easily on her feet and circled around to the other Ryouga, who took a knee to gently catch the black and white dog around the neck.

"Don't look too surprised," the uniformed Hibiki said, rubbing the canine behind her left ear. "How do you think I keep from getting lost in here? I'll be in touch with you three. When you know where you want to stay, Raven, just tell me and I'll take care of it."

Having long ago utterly failed in the battle to hide his smile, the younger Ryouga buried the familiar dog in a hug as well. "Hey, mom, couldn't Raven just stay with us?"

"I'm afraid the rooms here are not very large," Mitsuko answered with a sigh. But then she gave a small, sneaky smile. "Unless you and your friend are okay with sleeping in the same futon." And she threw in a wink, too, for good measure.

Instantly, Raven's face went beet red and she floated back quickly several feet. "Nononono! That's quite alright. I'm certain that I can make other arrangements."

Of course, she wasn't sure _what_ those arrangements would be, yet. She had about as much desire to bunk with Nabiki as Ryouga had of bunking with Ranma. She didn't really know anyone else that well, and the idea of asking Kasumi was almost as nerve wracking as asking Nabiki.

Quickly recovering from his own embarrassment, Ryouga quickly stood up and waved his hands. "It's nothing like that, mom! It's just that I fear for the safety of Raven's wallet. I don't want her to end up in debt up to her eyeballs to Nabiki by the time we head back home."

Mitsuko had to restrain the urge to laugh at the two flustered teenagers.

"She isn't that bad, is she?" the mother asked, this time directing the question to her native son.

"I've talked to her. She's promised to be on her best behavior," the officer replied. "Unfortunately, we don't have too many options. Akane is out for... well... she has her reasons. Kasumi would probably go along with it, but the layout doesn't really allow room for another futon. I'm hoping Ukyou or Shampoo come back by the time we need the third room. I'll check in with someone, but we'll probably end up putting one of them with our third guest."

Starfire, being that 'third guest.' Unfortunately, it was clearly harder finding a host for two girls than it would be for two or three guys.

The younger Ryouga frowned, the idea of having Raven shack up with Shampoo or Ukyou was almost as terrifying as having her move in with Nabiki, honestly. He could only imagine the unholy mess that would start with Shampoo, or the insane schemes that Ukyou would come up with given half a chance. Sure, he wasn't being fair, as the girl's counterparts in his world had both gone on to become super hero types like himself, and generally likable people. However, despite being older, everyone here seemed so much like they were from a year or so ago... only now murderous psychopaths, to boot...

Frankly, he was starting to worry that his own mother might try to skin him alive in the middle of the night if she followed suit with everyone else.

"Look, we're not going to be staying here long, anyway, just until we find out whoever else might have landed here, and then a way back home. Raven can just stay with us, in the bed, and I'll sleep on the floor, or in the bathtub or something." He didn't want to say it out loud, but he really didn't want to let the dark girl out of his sight into the present company.

"Ignore mom's 'share the bed' comment," the other Ryouga replied, speaking up before Mitsuko could make another joke. "Let me describe what a room on this base is like. It is basically one open area, a screen, and a small bed. Officers have a shower the size of a closet. Sharing a room means one of you has to sleep on a futon on the floor anyway. We have over two hundred people who live and work here. Seiran is actually one of the roomier bases, but this _is_ a military facility; our lodgings are very limited... It's only temporary anyway."

He paused a second, then remembering something, added, "I know you don't like me. Or my men. But I gave my word as a Hibiki, didn't I? She'll be fine, wherever she stays."

Before Ryouga could argue further, Raven took a step forward.

"No, that's fine," she spoke up. "I suppose it won't... _kill_me to stay with Nabiki for a day or two."

"Good," the lieutenant said, and whistled, calling Shirokuro over. "I'll go tell her. You." he said, plainly speaking to the Titans Ryouga. "Stick close to mom or Shirokuro in here, or you _will_get lost. Badly. You can trust me on that, too. Preferably Shirokuro. She knows you're a Hibiki, so if you're in trouble, she'll probably find you. But between the two of us, it'll be hard work, even for one of our family dogs. If you get turned around, just stand still."

The older Ryouga then went over to the family Tendo, ducking in to interrupt a conversation about an article of clothing Nabiki had brought from the outside. He ended up lingering a bit longer than expected, as Kasumi and Akane leaned in to ask him something, the actual voices muffled by distance and the steady dim of the hangar. Finally Nabiki nodded, spoke into a microphone on her collar, and the two headed back, Shirokuro close by to prevent any directional mishaps.

Once they rejoined them, Ryouga and Nabiki immediately set about making introductions.

"Raven," the middle Tendo said, holding out her hand. "Nice to meet you in person. Nabiki Tendo."

To the side, Raven tentatively took Nabiki's hand. "Um... yes. We have sort have met already..."

It went without saying that Raven did not want to mention under exactly what circumstances those were. To say that she had negative feelings for their own Nabiki was something of an understatement. Considering she had been the mastermind behind the plot which had led to the capture of nearly all of the Titans, and had paid special attention to tormenting Raven herself, it was a testament to her self control that she was able to hold Nabiki's hand at all.

"Alright!" Lieutenant Hibiki then said aloud, thankfully distracting the dark Titan from her unpleasant train of thought. "Let's get moving."

Naturally, it fell to the dog to lead and pack of directionally inept humans. Shirokuro gave a happy bark, and they were off.

* * *

Jinx had lost track of how long they trudged through the bleak woods. Her body shivered uncontrollably and she found herself constantly staggering from side to side as she walked. The thick, warm fur coat that had been her lifeline earlier was all but a noose around her neck, now. The water logged thing felt like it weighed a hundred pounds and the already freezing water soaking it was quickly turning into a blanket of ice all around her.

"Jinx - _Jinx_!" the familiar voice cut through the blur of the sorceress' thoughts and she blearily turned to regard the speaker.

"You have to get out of those clothes now!" Akari explained urgently as she began to pull on Jinx's arm.

Irately, the freezing sorceress pulled her arm back. "What? So I can freeze to death stumbling through the middle of nowhere?"

The pig breeder grabbed onto arm again, more firmly this time. "No, Jinx. I found a cave not too far from here. We need to get you there quickly, so please, follow me."

Jinx stared at the taller girl oddly for a moment, struggling to focus on her but failing miserably.

"... you what? When - when did you do that?"

A look of pure concern was etched on Akari's face, and she lifted one of her hands and pressed it against the Sorceress' forehead. It felt like a tiny furnace to the frozen girl and she leaned into it for a brief second - before remembering herself and pulling back.

"Jinx -" Akari matched her gaze seriously. "You've been walking in circles for ten minutes now. The only reason I didn't stop you was because the movement was keeping you warm while I looked for shelter. I found what looks like a small cave just beyond that copse of trees, we should be able to get you dried off if we can get you in there."

Without bothering to wait for Jinx's reply, Akari began to pull her in the direction she'd gestured to just moments ago. The young sorceress didn't even have the strength to resist, which, oddly enough, she wish she could have. Dark, resentful thoughts bubbled up in the girl's mind as she stared at the pig farmer's back. Jinx knew she could have gotten across that river in a second if she hadn't had to drag Akari along; she could have danced along those logs like a Broadway stage on her own. And now she was soaked to the bone, her teeth chattering so loudly that she'd likely need to see an orthodontist if she survived.

And - and Akari, she wasn't even _shivering_!

The _audacity_. Never mind the fact that Akari was the only reason she was walking free at the moment; never mind the fact that Akari was doing her best to save her all over again...

Actually ... now that she thought it over, maybe she was being just a _bit_ petty. Still, it took all of her self control to stop herself from trying to crush the hand that was pulling her along, despite the fact that it felt like her very own personal heat pack. How could one person be such a burden and such a life saver at the same time?

It only took a few minutes, though it felt like much longer, for Akari to lead them to the cave, as promised. Well, 'cave' might have been an understatement. It looked to be more of a hole in the ground to the unimpressed witch. However, once she was dragged through the entrance, it led into a short tunnel, maybe fifteen feet long and just a little more than five feet in diameter. At the end, it opened up a bit... and just a bit, maybe seven feet in diameter, at the most, and still not much higher than five feet.

"T-t-this is a - a nice ... nice g-grave you found us," Jinx stuttered out darkly.

"Don't talk like that!" Akari ordered. She then proceeded to sit Jinx down and turned back to the exit. "I'm going to gather some wood. Stay here and start rubbing your chest. It should help maintain your core temperature until I finish with this."

Jinx could only stare blankly at Akari for a moment, before shaking her head. "Heh, that was bizarre. That was exactly what Happosai told me... Just you don't have that creepy leer on your face that he did..."

"... GROSS!"

She was awarded with seeing the cloaked girl's shoulders shudder violently in disgust before she vanished back down the tunnel. Once she was sure that she was alone, Jinx began to violently rub her hands together before pressing them to her chest. It was like trying to warm up ice with smaller pieces of ice, but at least she could feel the sharp pins and needles in her fingers and toes, the pain assuring her that they hadn't fallen off yet.

She shouldn't even be in this position.

It wasn't fair! It wasn't fair that she had to run around all on her own. It wasn't fair that she had to steal moments with her own damn boyfriend like she was a professional cat burglar. It wasn't fair that she had to rely on her boyfriend's _ex_-_girlfriend_ for her very life. Sure, it wasn't _her_ Ryouga that knew _this_ Akari, but still, the principle was the same.

Jinx shook her head fiercely, squeezing her hands together until the knuckles went white. That wasn't the problem; Akari wasn't the problem. The whole situation was the problem. The way she'd just been brushed aside by the Titans...? After everything they'd gone through together... after the hell they'd been through in Atlantis? She'd thought that things would be different after that. After all of that! But it hadn't meant a damn thing. If it hadn't been for Kasumi ... and Terra ...

The sound of someone approaching gave the shivering witch just enough time to dash the quickly freezing tears from her cheeks before looking up to the small entrance. As expected, Akari's hunched form struggled to reenter while juggling a small bundle of broken branches in her arms. Akari took a quick moment to look Jinx over, obviously making sure that she hadn't passed out yet, before nodding to herself and dumping the small stack of wood at the far end of the den. A short moment passed as she stared expectantly at the wood ... before finally turning to Jinx.

"Um ... I - ah - I don't suppose that you can light this, can you? I don't actually have anything to start a fire with, now that I think of it."

Jinx wasn't sure whether the hopelessly embarrassed look on the pig breeder's face made her want to pat her on the head, or deck her across the face. Lifting her hands, Jinx gestured towards the pile of twigs -

Nothing.

Frowning, Jinx rubbed her fingers together for a few seconds before trying again. This time she was rewarded with a few small sparks of pink dancing along the tips of her fingers.

"Are you sure you can do it, Jinx? I might be able to find two dry sticks to rub togeth-"

"_Zip it_! I got this Pinky," Jinx fired back, oblivious to the irony.

With her annoyance running at full tilt, the cat eyed sorceress gestured sharply at the wood one more time. A tongue of livid pink flame jumped from her fingers this time, catching onto the fire and setting it ablaze in seconds. She made sure to fire a triumphant sneer in the other girl's direction... only to note the knowing smirk the girl returned.

Akari then spent a minute or so tending to the fire, making sure that it wouldn't die out on them, suffocate them or shine any light outside, before rounding on Jinx herself. "Alright, then. We'll just have to make sure it doesn't get too smoky in here... Now take off your clothing. You'll never get warm wearing all of that soaking stuff."

Despite the soundness of the advice, Jinx clung to the edges of her fur coat and pulled them tight around her. "Hey! I'll be just fine, thank you very much."

Donning a stern expression, Akari took several crouched steps over and looked straight down into Jinx's eyes in a way that almost had her thinking of Kasumi. "Look here, young lady. Either you take off those clothes so that we can dry them out properly, or I will _take_ them off of you. Understand?"

Jinx glared defiantly at Akari for a long second... but a vivid image of what she'd done to that car sized alien monster flashed through her mind, and she quickly relented. Standing up as best as she could, she spread out her arms, gesturing for Akari to help her take off the bulky coat.

"Fine, fine. Sheesh, what is it with you and stripping me, anyway? Just so you know, despite great pressure from Master Happi, I don't actually swing that way."

"Oh, I just take great pleasure in having power over others," Akari replied, sounding almost serious. Jinx's suddenly wide eyes made her clarify, "I'm kidding. Geez."

Shrugging herself out of the coat, Jinx grumbled darkly, "You might not want to make those kinda jokes while you're still wearing your alien overlord getup."

"Speaking of my evil 'alien overlord' clothes," Akari said, taking Jinx' coat and putting it aside. "You'll be the one wearing them soon. They have an emergency insulation and medical feature that will help you. I... think it should anyway. You seem human enough that it should work."

The witch fired back a dark glare back the other girl's way. "Har har, very funny. And I don't think so. I'm not wearing any crazy alien getup. Besides, if I'm wearing that, then what would you be wearing?"

"You'll wear it if it saves your life," Akari stated, sounding firm. "My Ryouga-sama already lost me. I don't want another him to suffer like that... as for me, my body has been modified. The robes are mostly for protection against plasma fire. I'll be fine without it."

"...Crap. You would play the sympathy card, wouldn't you?" Suppressing a weary sigh, Jinx peeled off her dress, actually able to feel a little of the fire's warmth without the ice water blocking it now. "I don't really like the idea of anyone sitting around naked, though..."

"Well, I'd offer to try and put on your clothes, but I doubt they'd fit..." Akari caught the look Jinx was giving her and smiled. "Sorry. I couldn't help it. You have a gymnasts' body... but a little young. I guess that rift in space moved you across time, too."

"Pfft, whatever. What are you, like, nineteen - twenty? You're not _that_ much older than me." Jinx offered up a catty smirk. "Besides, Ryouga's never complained about my figure. Maybe your Ryouga just acquired a liking for ghetto booty on his trips around the planet?"

"The thought of it would probably make him pass out," Akari replied, glad Jinx' fiery attitude seemed to be translating to a healthier body tone. Taking the girl's frigidly cold and damp clothes, she carefully put them aside and off the ground. The displaced sorceress was a bit on the lithe side; no doubt the likes of Kasumi Tendo or that Ukyou girl would have made her truly jealous, but Akari could see the charm in her. It wasn't her Ryouga, but she felt a little jealous herself, deep down. This girl could - would - live to see Ryouga again. For this version of Akari Unryu, that hope was only a distant memory.

She could never go back to him, not anymore.

_'Unless,'_ a voice whispered, seductive and sweet. _'He also became part of The Mind. Then one of me, and one of him, could be together again, among the stars. The Mind doesn't have a him that they want yet, but if they did...'_

She shook her head, dispelling the evil thoughts.

Jinx seemed to be studying her, and Akari silently wondered if the other girl suspected anything about what she had been thinking. It seemed impossible - no, it was simply unlikely. Jinx didn't have any proper telepathy or psionics. Akari nodded to her in an agreeing way and turned around to remove her robe. It was the first time she had done so since being 'reborn.'

The robe had been given to her after her emergence from the maturation tube, a month ago. She hadn't taken it off since. She had never really slept, and when she cleaned herself, she entered the vat with her robe on. The chemical bath simply removed any impurities or contaminants. She knew what she looked like underneath it, of course, and she had even shown Jinx some of it before. But now, having to actually remove it entirely, she hesitated a bit.

_'I'm not embarrassed. I'm not ashamed,'_ she repeated, trying to convince herself. _'I can't help what they made me into.'_

Lifting it up around her ankles, she began. Most of her body was completely numb to the cold; she didn't have hair follicles anywhere on her body except her head, so she didn't get goosebumps or anything of the sort. Her figure was basically a carbon copy of what the original's had been when she was harvested. The aliens made their copies from baseline, and they started off nearly-perfect. Tweaking had resulted in the removal of 'parts' later deemed unnecessary.

That included, first and foremost, the removal of any reproductive systems or tissues. She wasn't sure why she retained some cosmetically feminine features; probably to help the mind identify with the body and reduce the chance of mental rejection. As a result, her body was a bit like a plastic doll's, but with alien tissue in some places marking the pale skin like a deep necrotic burn. She supposed she looked quite horrific to the other - still truly human - occupant of the cave. Jinx's actions before, the way she recoiled in disgust and shock, hadn't been forgotten.

"Here..." Akari slowly turned around and held out the titian robe, now fully removed. "Just slip it on. Don't be surprised by how it feels... a bit strange."

More than a bit hesitant herself, Jinx took the proffered robe. Though she dearly wanted to look away, she found she couldn't help but stare at Akari's body as she absently went about sorting out how to put on the seemingly bulky robe. She didn't want to say anything, but it was ... morbidly fascinating to see the facsimile that was now Akari.

What would her Ryouga do when he saw her again?

Jinx knew her Ryouga... and if hers' was anything like him, then he would likely try to look past it, but - but he was only human. If something like that happened to Jinx herself, would Ryouga be able to look past it and still care for her? With another brief shudder, Jinx finally slid the robe on.

"Brr, it's cold! I thought you said it was insulated!"

"Don't worry. It's still using my body as a reference point," Akari explained, and inched closer so she could reach out and touch Jinx's now robed shoulder. "This should only take a moment."

Jinx felt it just an instant later.

Akari did something with her touch; activated something within the apparently plain robe. It constricted slightly, touching Jinx's curves for a moment before relaxing. A gentle heat soon began to permeate the strange alien fabric. More than that, it soothed her mind and her nerves as well, until it felt like she was wrapped in a soft blanket rather than a loose gown.

"That's ... ah ... that's pretty nice, actually." Feeling embarrassed for a reason she couldn't completely understand, Jinx quickly turned away and sat herself down on the floor, carefully sweeping her arms under her to make sure the cloak stayed underneath. Turning only far enough to glance at the merrily burning fire out of the corner of her eye, she began to study the dancing flames with intense scrutiny.

"So," she asked, searching a bit for what to say. "...what do we do now?"

"We can rest for a few hours, then keep going towards the town," Akari suggested. "I don't know if you should sleep or not, even in your condition. If we cover another forty miles, we'll be safe. Pretty safe anyway."

Jinx replied with a noncommittal grunt. "Not exactly feeling tired anyway, not with an army of nightmare creatures hunting us down like animals."

Absently, the witch began to run her fingers along the oddly silky material. It shimmered beautifully under the firelight, but it didn't seem like any kind of cloth she'd ever seen. An odd tingle ran along her fingers as she did, creating an interesting sensation.

"I ... I don't suppose you had any crosswords stored in this thing ... maybe Sudoku?"

"Afraid not," Akari said, sitting down by the fire with Jinx' clothes laid out over her legs to dry. It also gave her a bit of modesty given the situation. "When we wanted to... I guess relax is the closest word... one of the landed ships had an entertainment module. It stimulated the brain using psionics, allowing you to feel intense pleasure, like a mental orgasm. I guess it would seem like a drug to you. The gray aliens, the Sectoids, used it all the time. I tried it a few times, too, but it brought back some of my blocked memories. I don't think the engineers have really perfected it for use by hybrids like me yet."

Jinx's cheeks burned hotly at the older girl's frank description.

"Yeah, well, I don't know anything about that kinda stuff, thank you very much... So please don't get any crazy ideas about what kind of entertainment value I offer."

Akari gave the other girl a coy smile. "You know, Ryouga-sama loves that embarrassed, innocent girl routine. I know firsthand; I've done it myself. But I bet it's a side you don't show to him, do you? Can you tell me how you met on your world? If you don't mind...?"

The young sorceress frowned at that. Ryouga liked that kinda stuff? She always made sure to put up a strong front around him as much as she could. She didn't want him to think she was weak or anything...

"First time anyone ever accused me of being innocent," she muttered. "As for how I met Ryouga, well, you might not like what you hear. You sure you want to know?"

"If it isn't prying too much," Akari replied.

Shuffling about so that her back was to Akari, she nodded. She wasn't too keen to see the older girl's reaction.

"Fine, just remember that you asked for it. So, um, how I met Ryouga ..." The sorceress took a deep breath. "I met him in China ... our first meeting was him beating me and my team mates into the ground while we were in the middle of stealing water from Jyusenkyou ..."

"Jyusenkyou?" Akari asked, and Jinx could hear the surprise in her voice. "I can imagine Ryouga went there for a cure. He never liked being... he never liked his curse. But don't you know how dangerous that place is? Who on Earth would send you there to get water?"

An ironic smirk twisted Jinx's lips.

"A criminal mastermind intent on using its power against his enemies is the kind of person that would send us there. Like I said, we were there to steal the water, and the only thing that stopped us was Ryouga." She laughed to herself. "I got outta there lucky. My partners, not so much. Spring of Drowned Turtle and Spring of Drowned Orangutan, respectively. Man, but that fanged jerk pissed me off!"

"At least you didn't fall in the spring of virtuous woman," Akari joked, and when she spoke next, she didn't sound as reproachful as her words implied. "You worked for some sort of criminal organization then."

Jinx paused, a bit surprised by the tone.

"I'm not one to judge at this point," the human-alien hybrid simply stated. "So you got sent home with your tail between your legs?"

"WE DID NOT!" Jinx immediately objected. "Well ... not exactly. We, you know, made a tactical retreat was all. I mean, it was Mammoth's fault that we lost the water anyway!" She dropped her chin onto her knees with a loud humph. "Yeah ... after that, things started to get bad."

"What happened?"

A tired sigh. "Of course, after hearing what happened, the Headmaster was intrigued. It took some time to set up, but we went back to China. We found Ryouga and ... we kidnapped him. The Headmaster couldn't let a potential resource like that slip through his fingers, so he did some mental rewiring... and brought Ryouga into the fold using some - some questionable methods."

"Psionics?" Akari asked, a little surprised. "This Headmaster... is he the one that gave you that mental defense? He must be quite strong. It took an Ethereal to subdue Ryouga-sama when we were taken."

Jinx nodded, though she didn't know why, facing away from the other girl as she was. "Yeah, the Headmaster was something else. Ryouga was strong willed, though, like you said, so the Headmaster had to use an alternate way to control him. He didn't have months and months to insinuate into our minds like he did with the rest of his students ... like he did with me."

"You're probably gonna hate me after what I tell you next," Jinx figured, but seemed equally emboldened by the possibility, too. "But it hardly matters at this point. Since he couldn't dominate him, the Headmaster chose to alter Ryouga's memories, make him believe that he was one of us. Of course, to do this, he had to take existing memories and tweak them a bit."

Another sigh, this one more regretful. "Fortunately for us, the Lost Boy had managed to have himself a bit of a romantic interlude with one of those Titan b- ahem, girls. So, a little mental cut and paste and -bam- Ryouga goes from liking Raven in the middle of nowhere, to cozying into his new surroundings, liking his new girl ... me."

Akari was silent for a few moments.

Then: "You volunteered to do it?"

Jinx shrugged.

"The term 'volunteer' doesn't exactly come into play where the Headmaster is concerned. I was deemed the most appropriate, as I was already in his memories, so switching things around would be easier." Rolling her wrist absently, the pink haired sorceress looked up at the roof of the cave. "There were rumors floating around that the Headmaster might have 'improved my attitude' to the situation, but there's no way that I can be sure one way or the other. I mean, even then, I had mixed feelings about the guy. I mean, sure, he whupped us but good... but, at the same time, he did let us go..."

"I see. I know all about... coercion..." Akari admitted. "So you took this 'Raven' girl's place in his heart? It doesn't sound like you regret it, even now, even though you know it was wrong."

"Ha! What makes you think that I think it was wrong?" Jinx asked with a smirk. "It might not be your traditional way to meet a guy, but once we actually started to play our parts ... well, I stopped caring about whether I was actually playing a part or not at all."

She hugged her knees tightly. "Someone like you couldn't understand what it was like, living in my world, with the people I knew. And then, one day, to magically have this... this ridiculously sweet and shy guy just dumped in your lap. Having someone suddenly appreciate you for more than your ability to pull off a heist, someone that treated you like you were the center of his world..."

"Those are just excuses!" Akari interrupted, sounding upset but also a little embarrassed. "I met Ryouga-sama because he beat my strongest sumo pig. Do you think him being stronger than a giant animal is a good foundation for a relationship? I was never... I never had anyone I could like before I met him. You think I wasn't desperate to find someone I could love? Someone who could love me?"

The farmer girl sighed sadly.

"Maybe not exactly, but I think I know how you feel," Akari cautiously began again, now a bit unsure how to explain herself. "But saying: 'I was lonely' or 'I deserved it because of what I went through' isn't very honest, is it? What would he have wanted?"

"Yeah, really?" Jinx asked with a deepening glower, an indignant angry energy directed at her companion. "That didn't stop you from forcing yourself on him, though, did it? Ryouga told me a few of the stories. You were little miss persistent, weren't you? Didn't matter to you that he liked someone else, did it? All that mattered was your own interest."

She let out a derisive bark of laughter. "So don't be such a hypocrite! You think that it's alright because you and Ryouga ended up liking each other in the end? Well same goes for Ryouga and me. Neither of us care that there might have been controls in the past. All that matters now is how we feel. You're just as bad as Raven. _Your_ love is all pure and true. Anyone else's feelings are just cruel hoaxes that don't mean anything."

"I'm telling you this because it wasn't perfect," Akari replied, staring down at her hands. "I loved Ryouga-sama, and I think he loved me, but that didn't mean all the differences and problems went away. I also loved my farm and my pigs. And Ryouga _loved_ The Art. More than _anything_, he loved The Art." Akari hesitated, wondering if she was getting through to the other girl.

"Yes," she admitted. "I was 'little miss persistent.' I knew he had feelings for another girl and I didn't let that stop me. I admit I was thinking about myself: about how lonely I was; about how unlikely it was to meet another good guy who could beat Kastushini; about how his Jyusenkyou curse made him perfect for me. I tried everything I could to win him over... I even tried to throw away who I was when I learned he didn't like pigs."

"I can... I can guess why we broke up back on your world," she continued. "But I'll always love Ryouga-sama. I even thought: maybe if we had a family, we'd always be together. He'd never leave me if I let that happen. But love for selfish reasons isn't just wrong - it makes it impossible to find anything better."

"Yeah? Well I don't need anything better!" Jinx declared with an angry trill. "I know all of his problems, he knows ... most of mine. I can be with him everywhere he goes, and I don't expect him to be anyone but who he is to make me happy!"

Jinx smiled to herself, feeling a bit better at getting to finally chew someone out properly over this.

"Unlike all the other girls that like Ryouga I'm the only one _not_ trying to put a leash on him. And he feels the same way. He knows the kind of person I am, and not once has he asked me to change my ways... well, not once that wasn't due to pressure from his other friends."

"Have you asked him if that's what he wants?" Akari asked. "Or did you just assume it? You're a very strong willed girl, Jinx... and Ryouga isn't, not when it comes this sort of thing. I know how easy it is to herd him along, especially when he's not sure how he feels. I can tell something happened... I bet that other girl came back, didn't she? And he remembered her."

"Have I asked him if he wants me to _not_ let him be who he is? I don't really follow your logic there, pig farmer." Jinx furrowed her brows quizzically as she considered Akari's question. "No, Ryouga knows what he wants, and he's made his feelings quite clear to me. The only problem is that he's a pansy that doesn't want to hurt anyone else's feelings. Sure, Raven might 'like' him, or something like that, but that's all that someone like _her_ ever will feel for someone else."

Akari shook her head, and tried to clarify.

"I meant more: are you sure you aren't pressuring him a bit too much? You have to know it'll only backfire later. But... if that pervy old man trained you, you may know him better as a martial artist than I ever could," Akari finally relented.

Smoothing out Jinx's clothes on her lap, she slowly got up to rig up something to keep them permanently off the ground while they dried. From the other girl's posture, Akari could tell Jinx was still angry and upset over what they had talked about. A part of the older girl just wanted to drop it. She wasn't normally very nosy, but something about the topic seemed personal. Especially since she wouldn't be around later to say anything about it.

"I guess love is sort of selfish by nature..." she spoke up, hanging the younger girl's dress up against a slightly curved rock, propped in place with a small stick. It would have to do.

"We all want to know there are others thinking about us and that we aren't alone in the world. But it sounds to me like the basis of your relationship is the feeling he had for this other girl. I can understand why he's confused, and I think you are a little, too. Imagine if someone did to you what that Headmaster did to him. Don't do what I did and assume you can just make everything work out to fit your own fantasies. A relationship means compromise, not just acceptance, and that's hard."

At that, Jinx turned to fire a literally burning glare the other girl's way. She could feel the pink energy leaking from her eyes as she stared down the alien hybrid.

"What the _hell_ do you know about compromise?" she angrily demanded and shot up to her feet. "You're a damn girl with a stupidly fat pig! Compromise! I was a career criminal, now I'm a _good_ guy. I was leader of my own team, now I'm a _plus one _that no one else wants around. I was being trained by one of the best, but all of his damned friends hate me, so now I'm on my own!"

An angry swipe of her arm sent sparks flying. "Do you know what I did for him? I jumped into the eye of a tornado for him. I nearly bled my last drop for him. You - you know what else? I **did** stand aside, just like you said. I stood aside, just like a good girl and let Raven have her shot at him."

She couldn't even bear to stand at the dark haired girl another second, so she spun around.

"And you know what she did?" she continued, emboldened by not having to look at anyone while getting the words out of her system. "Nothing! For months, she hemmed and hawed 'oh, can I like him?', or 'oh, that can't be right!' Raven had her shot, sister, just like you did and you 'both' lost out. So deal with it already!"

Damnit, Jinx hadn't been this furious in weeks.

"Sorry," she heard Akari say, and it actually sounded like the meant it. Jinx hesitated, but didn't turn to acknowledge the apology. "It... he isn't my Ryouga, but I guess I still worry about him and care about him. About who he's with. To me... it feels like just the other day, we were together, eating dinner and watching the stars. Even though I know that was months ago, that it wasn't even the same man... anyway, I'm sorry."

"...Whatever," Jinx finally replied. "Doesn't matter what you, or anyone else thinks. One thing that Ryouga and I have in common; if anyone gets in our way, we'll crush them into dust."

She considered storming out of the cave at that point, but she could hear the howling winds even from how deep there were in the ground. Torn between getting away and just ignoring her forced companion, Jinx finally settled for plopping back down onto the ground as close to the tunnel as possible, back turned to the fire and Akari.

Seeing this, Akari likewise settled down near the fire, tucking in her legs under her.

"More importantly," she began, undeterred by Jinx's cold shoulder. "I'd like to ask you something about your psionics. Or your powers, rather. And how you got here."

"Yeah? Well I'd like to spend a week at a spa, but that ain't gonna happen either," Jinx barked over her shoulder. "If you don't have anything directly related to us not being eaten by _your_ pet monsters out there, I think I'd like a little me-time. If you don't mind?"

"No, I... guess it can wait," Akari replied, but sounded dejected by the answer. She didn't press the issue, however. "You look like you'll be fine without the fire, and we can't let it get too smoke filled in here. I don't sleep anyway, so I'll watch the entrance... you stay inside and recover your strength."

Jinx just waved dismissively. "Do whatever you want. Doesn't matter to me."

With that, she made a show of shuffling away from the exit and dropping down onto her side. It wasn't at all comfortable, even as she tried to position her arms to support her head, but she couldn't bring herself to care at the moment.

Akari gave her space. She'd obviously deeply offended the other girl. It had been rude to bring up so much with someone she had just met, but in the end, as long as Jinx got to the coastal town, it wouldn't matter. She'd contact X-COM, and they'd return to wipe out the alien base camp and the experiments there. Depending on things, it was possible Jinx would even find a way home to her Ryouga. Akari silently hoped that was the case. If the girl were stranded here, her long term prospects weren't good.

Sneaking halfway out of the cave, the alien-human hybrid coughed, and tasted blood.

The deterioration was accelerating.

Her body may have been engineered to be environmentally hardy, but it had a major weakness. She was a Trenchard - not a powerful one, but still one all the same. The _corona lucis_ and _ampullae psionic_ that connected her to The Mind also allowed her to telekinetically maintain an otherwise physiologically failing body. Jinx's power had freed her from that link and returned her blocked memories, but it had also damaged those alien tissues that kept her alive and fully functional.

Looking down at the black-red blood staining her fingers, Akari closed her eyes.

"I'm falling apart inside," she realized. But there was no pain, as there would be in a human body. Only an empty feeling. _'I have maybe another day before by blood turns completely toxic.'_

They had to get outside the range of the ship's psionic scanners by then.

Despite all that, she still couldn't help but think about him.

Eyes closed, she remembered a night, just a few days before the abduction...

They had been training all day with some of the new _rikishi_ and promising _sekitori_, to see how Ryouga's martial arts could help improve the Unryu style. That meant getting up early to oversee the training regimen. The junior ranked sumo pigs took to Ryouga far better than he did to them, and soon he was putting them through their paces. They only weighed a ton or so each, and Ryouga handled them like they were children. His strength was always awe inspiring to her, but she remembered returning from preparing the day's mid-day meal - for both humans and pigs - and being struck by how he single handedly threw such massive opponents aside in mock spars.

She helped more closely with the rest of the day's training in more conventional sumo. She was skilled herself, but not superhumanly strong. She taught by example, and waded into the salt-smelling dust of the practice _dohyou_. She knew all too well that, as a woman leading and training her charges, the very conservative sumo circuit looked down on the modern Unryu Stable. As the heir to the ranch, it had been an uphill struggle all her life to be taken seriously, and she had to work twice as hard to make the Unryu name and style respected and strong in the eyes of its rivals.

By the time the sky started to darken, she was beat and tired.

She had been determined not to use Ryouga as a crutch or to slacken just because he was around. If anything, she worked herself and her sumo pigs harder to try and impress him. As a result, by the time the day's session drew to a close, she found the adrenalin fading and her legs threatening to give out. Her beloved pigs had already started waddling off to relax and eat, and she remembered looking up and falling to her knees, exhausted.

Only to be caught.

It was him, of course, there to catch her. He was stronger than any of them, and she'd never seen him tire, even from the longest day's exertions. He caught her and kept her from falling, and complimented her on how amazing she was. She remembered the two of them watching the sky as the stars started to come out and then falling asleep in his arms, unafraid of having to drag herself back inside.

Leaning against the cave wall, Akari hid her eyes behind her hand, her body trembling. She knew she should be crying, but not a drop of moisture pooled outside her eyes. She looked human, but that was only really skin deep. The aliens had carved out what made her human, what made her a woman, what made her Akari Unryu. She was just an after image of a dead woman, cut down after a short life.

But even an afterimage had worth!

With her last breath, she would spite the ones who did this to her.

"Even if I'm falling apart," Akari muttered to herself, starring out into the snow storm outside. "I can do that at least."

With her last breath, she would make her grandfather and the man she loved proud!

* * *

It was hard for Nabiki to reconcile the somewhat shy, short girl walking behind her with the enemy that had managed to panic Mousse and push Ryouga and Kuno in a battle. She had been working as squad coordinator, and she had heard the sounds of shock and surprise when this girl had transformed - somehow - into some towering telekinetic entity, which had almost brought down an entire airport terminal. Granted, they had seen one or two pretty strange things, but it was still rather hard to imagine.

It was also a little exciting.

The little nagging doubt that this girl, despite careful screening and safeguards, could fly off the handle and go on a rampage, with a certain Tendo sister in immediate proximity, was definitely there in the back of her mind. It would be foolish to not at least entertain the possibility. Yet it was a bit thrilling, too, to be trusted with keeping an eye on the mysterious and literally otherworldly young woman.

When Ryouga had asked, in a very upfront way, if she had wanted to volunteer for the job, Nabiki had initially balked. Her room? What if the girl threw a telekinetic fit and started breaking things? Like legs and arms? Or her computer? All equally important! Trust, though - it was also a matter of trust. The lieutenant, and likely others even higher up, wanted someone familiar with living around super powered humans. It was considered unlikely that this girl would want to bunk anywhere near a strange male, so the watchdog in question had to be both female and acquainted with unusual individuals. That didn't leave a lot of possibilities.

Nabiki had reasoned all this within a few seconds of being asked.

Coming to the conclusion she did, she accepted... of course, with a few caveats. Just because she was amicable to the idea didn't mean she couldn't use it to milk the situation a bit. She grinned a bit, having enjoyed the minute or two of back and forth bargaining. This would look good on her record, too, and go even further to prove how willing she was to put aside her personal convenience for the mission. That, and she was curious by nature, and the strange American girl was a potential font of interesting information!

Taking a quick look over her shoulder, Nabiki could see her new guest was picking a bit at her shirt collar, probably a little unused to wearing the garment. From what she'd seen (via a few still shot pictures) and heard, this Raven girl tended to wear a skintight bodysuit or leotard of some sort. Even under regular clothes. Very Kodachi-like. Passing two uniformed men, Nabiki tried to get a peek at any reaction, but sadly the other girl maintained a very impassive front, substituting any traces of discomfort or shyness with feigned boredom.

_'One of those types of people, huh?' _

Nabiki finally reached her room in the E-Block Housing Wing. A small plastic box was waiting on front, containing some of the extra clothes and other necessities Raven would need. The Quartermaster's boys had certainly been prompt, rushing it up, not that Nabiki knew what was inside. Hopefully it would preclude the need to lend the other girl clothes or anything - lending wasn't Nabik's preference, not when she couldn't get a good deal out of it.

"Well - looks like your stuff is here!"

She walked around, picking up the plastic case and flipping it open. Raven, a still disinterested look on her face, caught a plastic card flicked her way. It was a standard base ID card: there was a picture of her, a magnetic strip on the bottom, some basic identifying information, a clearance level, a superimposed UNETCO logo and a bar with several colors and black marks, identifying her station, status and access permissions. It was the most visible layer of the onion that was base security.

"Keep that card on you at all times," the Tendo sister said, handing over the now closed plastic box. "You need one to open every third door around here. It should already be logged to my room, so why don't you try it out?"

"A card scanner?" Raven mused, looking at the card. "That seems a little basic for an alien fighting secret organization, doesn't it?"

The question was more or less rhetorical, so Raven didn't bother to wait for a response before trying it out. It seemed to work well enough, though it certainly wasn't as convenient as the wireless system Cyborg had set up.

"So ... I don't think I had any other belongings."

"This is stuff we requisitioned for you," Nabiki explained. "Clothes, hygiene supplies, all that. Should be enough to last a while."

Her quarters were one of two civilian single-person layouts. Kasumi had the smaller type, but because she was in Ops, Nabiki had gotten bumped up to a slightly better room. There was basically a single main area, with a desk built into the wall on one end and a bunch of storage drawers on the other. The desk sported a few stacks of papers and books, along with a base-integrated computer, partly fixed to the wall. Further in were two sliding screens, one larger than the other. The smaller had a modest closet and footlocker, the larger was the single person sized bunk. Presently, the screen was pulled back and the bed was flipped up and into the wall.

Flipping a switch, Nabiki increased the lightning and activated the air conditioning. Textured grating in the ceiling morphed, creating a fine vent that blew in slightly chilly air. A small fan on the desk came next, situated adjacent to a plastic plug-in, slowly spinning to freshen the room. The quarters were... rather Spartan, but functional. Not everyone could live in a private Tower, after all.

"Here we are!" Nabiki announced with a resigned sigh. "Man, to have gone from a four star hotel room to this... I miss the outside world already!"

Raven remained silent as she strode into the room. Taking a single look around, she made a non-committal shrug and put down the box that had been requisitioned for her. She started slightly, when she noticed the small yellow disk resting on top of the pile.

"Ah, I'd forgotten about this." The violet haired girl flipped open the device. "It looks like Ryouga is in his room..." Since his own communicator wasn't moving around. "But no one else is in range yet."

"Mrs Hibiki is on the floor below us," Nabiki said, squeezing by to get to the back of the room. "Your ID should give you access to pretty much anywhere in this wing, except other people's rooms. There's a public shower and restroom a little further down the hall. Should be easy to find. The E-Block lounge is all the way at the end, by the elevators."

Raven nodded absently, looking further into the pack. A moment later, she pulled out a dark blue leotard and cloak that were buried under several of the requisitioned garments. Nabiki almost swore she saw a ghost of a smile pass over the girl's face as she carefully folded the dubious articles of clothing and put them back in the box. She then picked up the entire thing and walked to the far corner of the room, where she proceeded to sit down and set the container beside her.

"Do you have any knowledge of the protocol involved in Starfire's transfer?" she abruptly asked.

"Sure I do... Just hold on a minute and I'll get your bed out." The older girl kneeled down to open a compartment built into the floor, just under where her own bed flipped down. A metal panel un-clicked and slid back and down, revealing a hidden compartment. Inside were a few emergency materials, like a small fire extinguisher and a rolled up portable futon. Nabiki reached down to pull it out and a spare blanket followed.

"Just a friendly word of warning, I'll be pretty much up and out by eight hundred hours," she warned, putting the futon down just outside the screen that demarcated where her bed folded down and the main living area began. "As for your friend... normal transfers take a few days. They'll probably push her up, since it sounds pretty urgent. The China branch is pretty far from here, but she should be on base by tomorrow afternoon maybe?"

"Or, did you mean whether she'll be cuffed or psi-suppressed or something like that?" Nabiki asked, finally flipping her own bed down and sitting on the edge of it. "It all depends on if they consider her a security risk during the trip. I can't say."

"I hope for their sake that they don't try to shackle that one." A wry smirk twisted Raven's lip up and she shook her head. She then crossed her legs and rested her hands, palms upraised, onto her knees. "I won't be a bother, I tend to keep to myself."

"Alright. Just ask if you need anything." Nabiki gave the younger girl a friendly smile as she went over to warm up her computer. There were still a few things to review for tomorrow, even with her formal reports all sent off already. "You mind if I play some music? I know that lost idiot and Ranma both need peace and quiet to meditate, if that's what you're doing?"

"I'm used to dealing with ... distractions while meditating. It shouldn't be a problem."

Taking a deep breath, she then began to chant, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos," in a low, droning voice.

Her native host soon started playing a mix of pop, mostly Japanese, while she worked. Rarely, one or two English songs would enter the playlist. The volume was low enough that it wasn't hard for Raven to zone out. Oddly, the sound of Nabiki typing was a bit harder to ignore. Maybe it was the irregularity, or the fact that she had more practice dealing with music - where Nabiki's tastes had nothing on the likes of Cyborg. Sometimes the older girl would take a short break to check something out, like the many papers on her desk or in the drawers.

After a while, Nabiki retired from the computer entirely, turning down the music and settling down on her bed to read a book. With the keyboard abuse gone, Raven found it to be a much more comfortable atmosphere. There was just the soft hum of the air conditioning, the low background music, and a relatively unobtrusive human presence somewhere on the periphery. Eventually, the shuffle of sheets indicated her host was up and about again.

Opening an eye to see what was up, she caught Nabiki walking by with a towel, folded over a few times. She also had a toothbrush tucked into the corner of her mouth.

"I'll be back in a couple minutes," she explained, opening the door and heading down the hall.

Once the girl was gone, Raven let out a long sigh of relief. She wondered if Nabiki had ever planned to go to sleep, or leave, or anything. It was unnerving to share a room with a potential super villain, especially one that had spent most of her early days of villainy taunting Raven while she'd been blinded.

She wanted a chance to focus on her own inner conflicts as well. Without her mirror, though, it wouldn't be so easy for her to simply reenter her mind as she had when the Captain had done his scan. As such, she wouldn't be able to converse with her inner fragments to determine if any of them had been able to figure anything out.

There was one other thing she could think of trying... but she didn't think she would have the time to attempt it before Nabiki returned. That... and something was odd in the atmosphere. It didn't seem to be a gas, or anything like that, but she could definitely sense some form of... dampening field? Like a mental shield of sorts? It was hard to define, but whatever it was, it was throwing her off her game a bit.

She would have to get out of the base some time tomorrow. But how hard could that be?

The door opened a couple minutes later. Nabiki seemed to already be dressed for bed with a loose set of night pants and a blue undershirt. The towel she brought back was dry, a replacement perhaps, and she reached up to stow it on an open drawer to the left of the room entrance. A toothbrush and case followed, sliding up next to the white body towel. Stretching in a way that Raven imagined would leave someone like Ryouga dead on the floor, Nabiki sauntered back over to her bed and sat at the edge to fix her hair a bit.

"Nothing like having the shower all to yourself for once!" she exclaimed, happily, but then her tone became a bit more serious. "Hey... I... overheard on the flight over. I... guess the Ryouga you know doesn't like me much, does he?"

Raven cracked open a single eye to glance at her room mate. "Well, in his defense, on our world you became a notorious super villain. Still, I wouldn't say that we - _he_ doesn't like you ... so much as the fact that your reputation precedes you."

"A... a notorious super villain?" Nabiki bit back her immediate response after that, trying to carefully wording it instead. Still, it was hard to keep from reacting as strongly as she felt. "Like... like a _serial killer_ or subway bomber or something?"

The violet haired girl replied with a chuckle. "No, no - more of a criminal mastermind, really. You ... hmm, perhaps I shouldn't tell you this story." A grin crooked her lip. "It might encourage you in the wrong ways."

Nabiki shook her head in denial. "I can't believe..." but she stopped, because, in a way, she clearly could kind of believe it. Then she looked up at Raven, determination mixed with the curiosity from before. "I've done some questionable things before, and... and I know I'm not Kasumi or anything, but... what happened to her? What made her into your enemy?"

"Oh, don't feel too bad. Kasumi actually joined your double for a time. In fact, if I recall correctly, it was her that was responsible for what Beast Boy dubbed, 'The Foodening'." Raven tilted her head, amused at the memories, despite herself. "Tell me, were you actually cleared to know about the Headmaster?"

"I'm cleared for anything Ryouga-baby is at this point," the Tendo sister replied, then added a caveat. "But technically, what was actually in your memories is considered private. He refused to tell me anything too juicy. Typical spoilsport."

Shrugging, Raven didn't agree or disagree.

"Well, if that is the case. You see, on my world, Ryouga, as well as yourself and a number of others were kidnapped by a powerful psychic known as the Headmaster. He was running an academy, whose sole purpose was to train and prepare young people with powers to become dangerous criminals."

She noted the older girl's look of shock with a smirk. "Initially, you were being controlled by him, along with Kasumi, Ryouga and the rest. However, the alternate you was not content to play second fiddle. Even as the Headmaster plotted to destroy my friends and I, your counterpart was busily plotting **his** downfall."

Shaking her head in bemusement, she continued, "When all was said and done, you actually managed to convince a small group of your villainous fellow students to join you, forming the 'Hive Five', as you dubbed them. The last I heard, you had set up shop somewhere in Steel City, where Kuno and Ukyou tracked you down and the lot of you have been playing nemesis ever since."

The story left Nabiki silent.

It was a long, heavy pause before she sorted it all and replied.

"I see."

Then she shook her head, more vigorously.

"I mean," she spoke up a bit more. "I... I can kind of see that. I don't like being used. Or feeling powerless."

"Is that so?" Raven replied sardonically. "I had assumed it had something to do with your obsession with controlling everything and everyone around you."

"It's not really an obsession..." Nabiki paused at Raven's hooded look. "...More of a lifestyle choice. But, anyway, no one got seriously hurt before," she insisted, instead. "I never caused as much damage as Ranma or the lost boy or Shampoo did, and yet I'm the bad person and they're just loveably crazy martial artists?"

"That about sums it up," Raven replied with a shrug. "I suppose the intent is the problem that most people have. People like Ranma and Shampoo generally don't do things with the intent of harming people... Well, I suppose I don't really know the latter well enough to say for certain, but she did go on to join the Justice League itself, so obviously they saw something in the girl."

Raven leveled a serious look in Nabiki's direction. "It is people, people like your doppelganger, who intend to do harm with their actions that cause people to fear the most."

The older girl seemed to consider Raven's words. She knew full well that she had done selfish, even malicious, things before. Both back in Nerima, and worst of all, what she had secretly done at Meiji University. There were undeniably dark elements in her past, and even now, there was the temptation to fall back on unscrupulous ways.

Most of the time, she either justified it as harmless fun or fought the urge down, because it wasn't worth the risk. But she wasn't immune to the whispers that sometimes got around, and she fought hard to keep a good reputation where she was now, doing good work. It was silly, but actually having the lost boy around as a sounding board (or to soak up a scheme or two) really helped a lot.

"You know... a couple months ago, I was kidnapped, too. Just like your Nabiki. My whole family was..." she tucked her legs in, hugging them at the memory. "It was terrifying. Thank the gods Ranma and Ryouga saved us. But I've thought, sometimes, about why the aliens would bother abducting me or Akane. Kasumi and daddy are the only ones with school secrets. Akane's training was mostly physical, and I'm completely out of practice. Why kidnap us, too?"

She rested her head against her pillow and her knees.

"When I read and saw some of the things the aliens did, I wondered if maybe it was for breeding... to be used to grow some horrible alien monster, like... like a living test tube. That's probably what would have happened, once they realized how... weak I was. But when we found out about Cologne, I wondered if maybe it was to turn me and make me into a Trenchard. To make **me** into the monster. I don't know which fate is worse."

She gave Raven a quick look.

"I don't think your Nabiki had anyone to help her. So she had to help herself." She looked back down, and closed her eyes. "If I hadn't been saved... maybe I'd be something even worse than she is. So I guess I can kind of understand, and even sympathize with her. Or maybe we're just more different than you think? It isn't like your Hibiki and mine are exactly alike. But I'm not your world's Nabiki. I'm just me."

"Indeed," Raven deadpanned. "The differences between the worlds are quite interesting. It seems like there are very massive differences between our worlds, affecting things on fundamental levels... and yet the lives of you and the others from Nerima seem almost similar, at least until a point in the not too distant past. I am interested in knowing when this, let's call it a 'divergence,' might have begun."

"I don't know," Nabiki admitted, pushing her way back to lean against the wall behind the bed. "You don't have any of our aliens, right? And I heard you have aliens that we don't have, too. So I'd say it goes really far back."

"Well, actually, I was referring to the divergences between the you in this universe, and the you in my universe, as well as the rest of the Nerima group," Raven explained. "Curses, techniques, friends, everything seems be similar in many respects, despite the massive differences between our two worlds."

Raven gestured to the ceiling above their heads. "In your world, you seem to have only a hand full of aliens, all struggling to control a single planet. In our world, we have a galaxy spanning... organization of sorts and hundreds of alien races. And yet, despite this impossible difference, you are still Nabiki Tendo, sister of Akane and Kasumi, likely soon to be brother in law to one Ranma Saotome. It is quite fascinating, you must agree."

"It is certainly strange," Nabiki admitted. Tragic was another word some would use. "I'm sure there are probably lots of parallel people, though. Normal ones, that you don't hear much about. Yet there's no Raven in our world. And obviously no... um... what's your friend's name? Coriander? Maybe it's because our group skirts the limit between being normal humans and... enhanced humans?"

"Her name is Starfire, to those of us that are her friends." Raven bore a confused look. "But I don't know what you are referring to. Limit between normal humans and enhanced humans? I'm not sure I understand. After all, Starfire is not human at all."

"I thought her name started with a C or K...? Koriander?" Nabiki dropped the inquiry. "But I did get a brief report on her forwarded to me. It said her planet doesn't exist where she claimed it would be, and a genetic analysis that indicated she was human-compatible. Even without gene-engineering or somatic tweaking. She's not... not as _alien_ as our aliens, I guess. Do you have many aliens on your world that are... you know?"

Reading the Titan girl's expression, Nabiki smirked and made a little gesture with her hands. Just to be _sure_. Closing her eyes and shrugging to avoid dignifying the... pantomime, Raven lifted her hands helplessly.

"I'm not exactly a xenobiologist. Nor was I even aware that Starfire was ... compatible." And there would probably be one or two people that would find _that_ particular piece of information interesting. "Humans are a relatively young species, though, so I suppose it's possible that they are an ancient splinter colony of some long forgotten precursor race which seeded the galaxy. There are a number of races, such as the Kryptonians, that are much older and yet very human in appearance, so I suppose it's not impossible there is some connection there."

"That may also kind of explain why your world is so... what's a good word? Super charged?" Nabiki rolled her shoulders - the description was simplistic, but it got the point across. "Our aliens have been around here for hundreds of thousands of years. Some human populations have genetic alterations that go back to prehistoric times. Maybe they culled our super powered people back then? Cut them out of the gene pool? Maybe some families, like Ranma's or Ryouga's, that produce martial artists were the only ones that survived. As for other worlds...?"

Ultimately, she shrugged.

"Anyway, I guess that's a question for the science types. It's why we pay them sixty grand a month; so they can handle crazy stuff like this." Nabiki waited a second then also added, "And hopefully they'll find a way to get you guys home, too. Before another fight breaks out."

"Well, if we're lucky, Cyborg will have been transferred with us. I have no doubt that he would be able to get us home." The dark girl shrugged modestly. "I actually have experience with dimensional travel myself, but without any of my research material or the components from my room, there's very little chance that I would be able to find the proper dimension."

"I do have to wonder what will happen next, though," Raven continued. "Your leaders seem intent on hiding us away in some 'safe community', essentially making us prisoners. We will need our freedom if we hope to find our way home."

"The Sanctuary Communities are set up to protect people, you know," the older girl argued. "With your abilities, it'd only be a matter of time before the aliens found you... and don't think you'll get any special treatment from them, either. It isn't like we want to spend billions of dollars locking people up. It's just a matter of safety. If you need something, though... UNETCO has access to basically anything its members want, plus the best minds on the planet. If you can't get home... we'll help you adapt as best you can. All three of you."

Raven shook her head. "You're underestimating the three of us. We have far more experience dealing with dangerous threats than your Ryouga and Ranma. Starfire has been involved in interplanetary war since before you entered school." She began to fiddle with her communicator absently. "Any information you have on the aliens would be helpful, of course, but even if we were trapped here, we certainly wouldn't spend the rest of our lives hiding away like infants in your gated communities."

"As long as you don't go breaking any laws, you can do whatever you want. We just can't risk you getting abducted, cloned, mind probed or otherwise making things harder for us," Nabiki reasoned. "If you want, I can bring up all the information your security clearance allows on my computer. But I hope you aren't thinking about running off and doing anything crazy."

"So long as we are prepared, and know what to expect, the odds of us being abducted are no higher than your own. We won't sit idle and do nothing, though, not when we could be looking for a way home." Raven made her statement with a note of finality.

To Raven, it didn't really matter what these people thought when it came down to it. It was only a matter of time before they made it home, one way or the other. If Cyborg couldn't do it, then Beast Boy and Terra wouldn't stop until they found someone that could. If that didn't work, then Raven would simply have to search for the ancient tomes she owned in her world and do it herself.

"You don't need to worry about us," the dark Titan insisted. "We will be out of your collective hair soon enough."

"Hey, you make it sound like what we're doing is cruel or something..." Nabiki flipped up off the bed, and up to her computer. Her fingers danced easily across the keyboard, bringing up a root menu for a search engine. "But... here... you can look for anything in our database that's cleared for on-site civilians. Aliens, technology, artifacts... knock yourself out. I'm going to turn in, since the lost idiot insists we all get up at the crack of dawn for training."

She stepped back, to let Raven take the chair, if she wanted it.

"And... thanks for telling me about my other self," she added. "Hearing about it just means I have more incentive to stay on the path I'm on. If you ever catch the other Nabiki, back on your world, I hope you tell her about me, too."

"I'll be sure to," Raven replied, smirking weakly.

With that, she took the offered seat and began to scan through the database.

It looked like she would be up for some time.

* * *

Giving a small yawn, Ryouga reached out and grabbed a few more pieces of fruit and what looked like a bagel of some sort before dropping them on his tray. It wasn't the greatest breakfast, though he supposed he was getting spoiled actually having Kasumi, Cyborg and Starfire all so eager to prove their cooking prowess on a daily basis. He was slightly less grateful for Beast Boy's vegetarian dishes, though at least the boy could cook the stuff well enough to make it taste decent.

It was still far better than he had been used to, on the road, but it seemed like it had been forever since he'd had to worry about that. Once he picked out a glass of orange juice, he made sure to turn around a few times until he spotted his mother at the table they'd chosen upon entering. They'd taken turns getting food, so as to be able to use the other as a signpost to get to the proper table once they were ready. His 'mother' was patiently awaiting his return, despite already having a tray full of food already.

With only minimal efforts, and a few shouts of direction - some not overly appreciated, as they came from random people around the lunch room, filled with much more mirth than was strictly necessary - he made his way back to his seat and sat his tray down before him. Sitting down himself, he picked up his glass and tipped it towards his mother.

"Cheers?" he offered weakly.

"Don't look so glum," Mitsuko raised her own drink. "I swear, Hibiki men have to be the most easily embarrassed in the world. So we all get a little lost! That's how your father and I met, you know? You'll probably meet the girl of your dreams by getting lost and running into her, too, so look at it as an opportunity, not a curse."

Ryouga prepared to be fully embarrassed and sputter indignantly over her not so subtle hint, however, something else his mother said caught his attention first.

"Hey! Speaking of which, where is dad?" he asked. "Have you run into him lately? I can't even remember the last time I ran into him."

Immediately, his mother's cheer evaporated, replaced by an uncomfortable silence. Especially when it came to the naturally chatty woman.

"Your father was..." she bit back her next few words, careful to rephrase them. "Some time ago, your father and I were abducted. I wasn't considered a high priority, so they didn't do much to me, but... but Tetsuya was altered."

The way she said it, 'altered' left dark connotations.

But she didn't elaborate on those details any further. "They sent him to attack a man you may not know, named Kunoji Kazuo. He's the father of Ukyou, one of your friends. Luckily, my son - the other you - and his men were able to stop Tetsuya and save Kazuo. Your father's actually on this very base, in confinement. They say, when the war is over, then he'll be free of alien control. I hope so. He's a good man, and... and we all miss him."

She ducked her head a bit before shaking it a few times.

"I believe we'll save him," she corrected herself. "I do."

Ryouga stared at her mother, not quite comprehending what she was saying. Moving with typical Hibiki logic, his mind did pick out the pertinent pieces of information that fitted his mindset at the moment.

"Dad ... is a prisoner on this base ... And it was that _Ryouga_ that put him there! He attacked our own dad and threw him in a **cell** over this stupid alien bullshit that he's been spouting since I got here!"

Mitsuko didn't even have a chance to lift a finger - which was quite a testament to her alternate son's apparent prowess - before the seat across from her was suddenly vacant, the commissary doors slamming open and closed loudly from the force of the boy's rapid exit.

_"Damnit!"_

Ryouga ran down the hall, turned, and slammed face first into someone. Normally, this would have bowled the unfortunate third party over or smashed them into a wall. It took a lot to stop a charging Hibiki. Instead, he actually bounced back a step. Whirling on the one who had so rudely gotten in his way, he prepared to level a verbal berating at the careless fool.

"Watch where you're -"

"Sorry I -"

"You!" Mother and son exclaimed, having blindly run in a circle down what had seemed like a straight hall only to slam into each other. The former had gotten the worse of the collision, and ended up leaning against a nearby wall to keep from falling. The latter spun to keep up his desperate search.

"Ryouga Hibiki! You stop right now, young man!"

Only to have his entire body freeze up. That _tone_ -

Followed by a bonk to the head that would have crushed the skull of a normal man. As it was, Ryouga actually managed to feel it. Even worse, he felt it when she grabbed him by the ear and pulled him back a step.

"What have I told you about listening to people, especially me?" she growled. "Now stop running around and getting us lost! Honestly!"

"B-b-but **Mom!** I need to avenge father's defeat at the hands of that bastard!" He paused for a moment. "... Um, no offense ..."

"Ryouga, your father isn't himself! Those things, those alien monsters, put something in his brain to control him. He's locked up for his own safety! If he were to leave, he'd fall back under their control! Is that what you want?" She let go of his ear, but both knew she was a martial artist in her own right. "Tetsuya is safe where he is, and he's fighting back his own way, by holding onto his humanity."

Ryouga was far from convinced; he wouldn't put it past his doppelganger to lie to his own - _their own_ - mother.

"I want to see him." His statement was simple, but was delivered so seriously, that it brooked no argument.

"I know you do," Mitsuko replied, her tone softening with motherly understanding and sympathy. "But he's in the highest security part of this base. It isn't easy to get permission to visit just for personal reasons. Ryouga, I saw with my own eyes what happened to Tetsuya. My Ryouga, your brother on this world, saved his life and mine the day he protected Kazou from your father. I know you don't understand all of what's going on, maybe you don't even believe any of us, but sometimes you need to stop, think, and ask directions."

"Feh, like _that's_ ever actually helped!" Ryouga barked. "You're right, though. I just need to ask for directions. And I know just the guy I want to ask!"

Turning quickly, he began to speed down the hallway again, reaching out with his senses to find his evil twin's evil chi.

"Get out here, you half baked Hibiki!" Clenching his fists tightly as he raced down the hallways, he bellowed, "I got ten _real_ good reasons for you to gimme a day pass!"

Mitsuko watched her other son run off with a sigh.

Looking around, she quickly found one of the base communication stations. If she knew her son, either of them, then he'd probably run around and get completely lost. Her Ryouga wasn't even in the same wing of the mountain. Swiping her ID card on the small panel built into the wall, she tapped in the name she needed to locate. Internal security kept track of the movements of everyone on base, and it would do the actual task of locating her son for her.

...

After a couple minutes, in particular passing by the entrance of the mess hall three times, Ryouga's pace slowed from a run to a wary jog. He'd lost sight of Mitsuko, and despite phrasing his challenge in the most forceful manner, his double had yet to show himself. It was either cowardice or a complete lack of tact. Or maybe they were both lost.

"Where the Hell am I now?"

Not that there were even any heavens to cry to. Or walls to break through.

Meandering down another hall, taking a left instead of a right (wait - had he taken a left or right the last time?), he stopped as a door opened. No: not a door, an elevator! How had he missed that? Preparing to grab the person coming out and demand some answers, he blinked when the doors opened, revealing no one. He blinked again.

"Woof!"

Lowering his gaze, he saw Shirokuro staring up at him.

"Good girl!" He grinned. That was right: the other him had said that, even inside the base, Shirokuro would find him if he got lost. She had to be able to take him to the other-him, too!

"Can you take me to Ryouga? The evil other Ryouga?" he asked, patting the black and white canine. "Can you, girl?"

Shirokuro barked, and trotted back into the elevator. Ryouga followed, a grin spreading on his face. He even cracked his knuckles in eager anticipation. Next to him, the Hibiki family dog jumped up and used a paw to press a button, prompting the elevator to descend. Oddly, when it stopped to pick up someone who appeared to be a scientist in a lab coat, the woman paid only a passing interest in the fact that there was a dog in the elevator before going back to reading the paper in her hands.

Before she left, stopping at the floor above his, the lab worker waved to him.

"Lieutenant," she said, respectfully.

"I'm not him!" Ryouga growled, but the doors shut closed with a 'whiff.'

Exiting on the appropriate floor, finally, he followed Shirokuro down a hall and up to a set of doors. Unlike the others, which opened when someone got close, these remained closed. Shirokuro gave them a scratch and looked back at her master - or a version of him - as if asking him to do something. Ryouga, perplexed, just shrugged. The canine then managed to retrieve a card from her collar, held carefully in her front teeth. With an agile jump, she managed to swipe it along a card reader built into the wall nearby.

The doors chimed and opened wide.

"Oh!" Ryouga realized, patting the dog. "Good girl! I guess you really know what you're doing, huh?"

This new area was green themed, going by the color marking on the wall. Shirokuro led him past more locked doors, through another closed off area, and down a short flight of steps. This was obviously one of the military sections of the base. A few older men and women in uniform walked by in the opposite direction, and through a transparent wall of alien metal, he could see two people wearing powered armor. One wore all of his, the other only wore the lower half. He blushed, trying not to think about the tight white undershirt that particular lady soldier wore...

Finally, he entered what appeared to be a shooting range.

There were maybe a dozen semi-booths for individuals to use. Rather than rush in or yell to see if his double was among them, he started checking them as he walked by. Some of the people here, none of which Ryouga recognized, seemed to be practicing with unconventional firearms. Boxy looking pistols created nearly invisible wisps of steam, burning targets downrange but with no visible tracer. Others fired lightning fast green bolts too fast to see as more than a hazy beam.

"Hey!" One of the men near the end of the range spoke up. It was the white-bandanna'd fighter

from before. He pushed back the ear-protectors, and flicked a switch on his gun. "The other Hibiki! I wondered where Shiro ran off to!"

Ryouga stared at the older man for a moment, before snapping his fingers. "Hey, you're that Ryu guy! Say, I don't suppose you wiped the floor with Saotome's butt in this world for a bit, too, did you?"

Ryu Kumon laughed happily. "Sure did! The little sneak got me on the rematch, but I've managed to even things up since then!" He holstered his laser pistol and leaned against the side of the booth. "So what brings you down here? The dojo's on the floor above us."

"It is! Great! I'm looking for Evil Ryouga. I was gonna pound on him until he let me see dad." Ryouga growled darkly to himself. "Did you even know that our dad is locked up in here? What kind of Hibiki locks up their own father...? Well, asides from that one Father's Day - that doesn't count though!"

Ryu gave a bemused look, but shook his head to focus himself.

"First of all, beating up the Lieutenant won't get you anywhere. Special Intelligence is the department that has final say on who gets into ACI. Not ground pounding grunts like us," he explained.

"As for your old man, sure, I know he's here. But he's got alien implants in his brain," Ryu said, tapping the side of his head. "Containment is the only place where he can hold onto his free will. The aliens have a master brain on Cydonia, basically controlling any psychic in the solar system. Outside containment, he'd just become their slave again."

All thoughts of pummeling his villainous twin suddenly fled his the Hibiki's mind. His eyes snapped wide open and he grabbed the taller martial artist's shoulders.

"**Any** psychic! What about Raven? It can't control her, can it?" A second later, he let Ryu go and clutched his own bandanna clad head, starting to panic loudly. "I have to warn Raven before this alien brain can steal her mind!"

"Hey, I don't know the details," Ryu managed to say, a bit surprised by the swing in conversation. "But I'm guessing that if Command let her walk around free, then she's safe. She's not even from here, right? I'd guess she's under the radar for the time being. No alien bits in the brain; that's why we use artificial psi-amps for our techniques. Man, you're high strung."

Instantly, Ryouga let out a massive sigh of relief. "I - well _that's_ a relief, but-" He almost calmed down completely, before he recalled what else Ryu had said. "Hey! Who are you calling high strung? You aren't looking for more of what I gave you at the airport, are you?"

And again, for the fifth time in as many minutes, Ryouga's demeanor shifted. Dropping a companionable hand on Ryu's shoulder, he offered up a fanged grin. "Look, I'll let you off the hook this time. How about you introduce me to these CSI guys and see if we can't talk some sense into them? After that I can buy you a soda, or a beer, or whatever it is that you guys drink here between bids for world conquest."

"You have a really weird idea of what we do here..." Ryu replied, but didn't react negatively. In fact, he even grinned a bit. He didn't hold a grudge for the fight earlier; it had been a good, clean match. "I can pass on a request to SpecInt. I guess it makes sense you'd want to see your old man. But I'm technically on duty until tonight, so no drinking. ...Hey, really, what _do_ you think we do? Did anyone even _tell_ you?"

Ryouga shrugged. "Well, people keep mentioning stuff about aliens, but nothing too specific. There's also lots of talk about kidnapping martial artists, killing psychics and..." Slowly, Ryouga took a step away from Ryu. "... Ah, well, holding prisoners without trials, non consensual mind reading..."

The Lost Boy began to inch closer to the door. "Killing techniques by the boatload and advanced weaponry used solely at the discretion of the government ..." Chuckling weakly to himself, Ryouga scratched the back of his head. "You know, now that I think of it, I can probably find these Speck Inc guys myself. In fact, I think I hear my mom calling!"

"Look, hold on a second," Ryu said, hanging his head a bit. "I'm not surprised no one explained it in a simple sorta way. Everyone here talks about crazy stuff like it's normal. How about I give you the run down in a way that's clear to regular guys like us? Well... kinda regular guys. Alright?"

The fanged fighter considered flight for another moment, but ... of all the people he'd met here - which seemed a bit ironic, since this was one of the few people that he didn't actually know back home - Ryouga had a good feeling about this Ryu guy. Their fight back at the airport had been an honest to goodness martial arts duel. No plasma cannons or Fist of the North Star moves.

He supposed he could give this guy, with his impeccable fashion sense, the benefit of the doubt.

"I ... suppose it wouldn't hurt to know more about what's going on here. I _would_ like to know why my evil clone is so evil, why my dad is apparently an alien... and not to mention why my mom is suddenly dressing more like a Tomboy than Ukyou on a bad day?"

"Hey! I think Ukyou's pretty sexy," Ryu protested. "Even when she wears pants!"

"Whoa, I'm sorry," Ryouga apologized quickly. "I didn't realize how hard I must have hit you back in the airport. Are you sure you aren't concussed? Ukyou is practically _one of the guys_, man, and I mean that in the violent 'hits me with a spatula at the drop of a hat' way."

"Whaaat? You and the Lieutenant say the same stuff. Doesn't change the fact that's she's hot. Plus she can cook! And fight! Anyway, come on." The uniformed fighter motioned for Ryouga to follow as they exited the shooting range and returned to the armory adjunct area. It was quieter here. Even the powered armor fitting and testing was behind soundproofed alloy.

Leaning against the wall, Ryu cut to the chase.

"Alright, so, on our world, we've been visited by these aliens for... like a long time," he began, not particularly clearly, but at least concisely. "A **real** long time. Since pre-history or something. They've been using people as experiments and stuff for centuries. About ten years ago, things got so bad, something had to be done about it. Thousands of people were being abducted around the world. Maybe half were returned, and they were never the same. You don't even wanna know the kind of sick things that were being done to them. Most of the ones who managed to get their memories back committed suicide. I'm not a squeamish guy, but I've seen and heard about stuff that would make you puke your guts out."

He sighed, a frown knitting his brows together.

"So, something had to be done, right? And all the government bigwigs over at the UN got together and set up an organization to put a stop to it. They got all the smartest guys, the best engineers, and the baddest fighters. That's us, by the way." He pointed to his chest with his thumbs. "If the aliens try and fly around, we shoot them down. If they set up a base, we smash it. If they attack a city, we defend it. If they land somewhere, we bury 'em there! We take their tech, learn how it ticks, and then use it against them. Some of the good stuff, like medical know-how, we filter back to the public. We do all this in secret... I guess cause if the world knew before we actually won the war, they'd go apeshit or something. That's the basics of it."

"That ... doesn't actually sound too bad," Ryouga admitted. "We've had to deal with invasions like that a few times, like this thing a while ago with these bird people... but I haven't heard of anything so pervasive. And you guys don't exactly have a satellite full of Kryptonians and Martians floating over your heads to deal with them."

Ryu raised an eyebrow at that, not quite getting the reference.

"I dunno about the public going crazy, but I suppose why take the chance, right?" Ryouga continued, thinking it over. "So, what can you actually tell me about these aliens? Asides from the giant brain thing, anyway. What did they do to my - his dad that turned him into ... whatever he is now?"

Damnit, Ryouga cursed internally, finally starting to think of things from all sides. The aliens had taken his **father**? Turned him into an assassin? Maybe - just maybe - he could start to see just why this Ryouga had let his rage consume him so completely.

"That's kind of a long story," Ryu began, a little hesitantly. "I can give you the long and short of it, though. It... mostly started when this old lady named Cologne was abducted. You probably know her, right?"

"I trained under her a few times," the dimensionally displaced Hibiki replied. "Actually kinda fond of the old crone. What happened to her? I think your Ryouga mentioned something about her being young again ... or was she still old?"

"I'll explain in a second. So there was this attack on Nerima. They took the old bat, this guy named Tofu Ono, and tried to abduct old man Saotome and the Tendos. The LT showed up, and he and Ranma managed to break everyone out and crash the ship they were on. Cologne and Tofu got taken to a base - the North Koreans had a pact with the aliens and they hid their base under a human one - but those two got turned into what we call Trenchards. Basically, it's a human turning into an alien. Specifically an Ethereal."

Ryu pointed to his head and then his chest.

"They put alien tissue inside your brain and in other parts of your body," he explained. "It hooks you up to the Alien Mind, and bit by bit, your human parts rot away. Your eyes, your balls, your ears, your guts. It all atrophies. The new psychic powers you get keep you alive instead. That's basically a Trenchard. A human turning into an alien."

"So..." Ryouga hazarded a guess. "You mean that my dad is rotting away down in his cell, slowly turning into an alien monster?"

"No," Ryu replied, shaking his head at the younger martial artist. "Way I hear it, they have these special extras strength psi-shields down in alien containment and it blocks the signal with the Alien Mind. That's why he's down there. As long as he's behind those shields, he can keep the alien parts from taking over."

Despite the fact that it wasn't really _his_ father down in the dungeons of this place, it was still an unusual relief he felt when he heard that. "That's ... that's something at least. So why haven't you guys taken the fight to the aliens? Haven't you been able to find out where their home planet is, or where they're coming from yet?"

India Squad's sergeant 'hmmfed' at that.

"We know where they're coming from. Or... where their main base is," Ryu said with a small nod. "This place on Mars with pyramids and stuff. But just knowing that doesn't help much. We need to get there and we don't know how many aliens are waiting for us or how many ships they have. Lately, things have gotten pretty rough. They've been sending lots more ships to assault us directly or cause terror by attacking civilians. I think Command wants to wear them down a bit, since we'll really only get one chance to counter attack. If we hit Mars with our best men, but fail to win there, then we'll probably be finished here on Earth, too."

He smirked a bit at the gravity of it.

"And that'll probably be the end for the human race, I guess. Either way, I'll be dead, so I'd say that future kind of sucks. But that's the situation. There's some other stuff, too, but it isn't my place to say it."

"It ... sounds like you guys could use all the help you can get," Ryouga stated quietly. It certainly seemed like a grim situation. A world with no Justice League to protect it from such threats? He didn't like the sound of that 'end of the human race' stuff.

Again, Ryu shrugged.

"Some guys obsess over the big picture, you know? And others take it personally, like the Lieutenant does, making it into a big crusade." He gave a uneasy grunt at that part. "A lot of the old soldiers end up kind of shell shocked, I think because they get lost in it all. Yeah. If we lose, it's real bad. But I just try and think about what I've got to look forward to, like setting up my new Family Dojo, and coming back alive. The more you think about it, the more you wish you didn't. But that's just my opinion."

The _Yamasenken_ Master studied the other Ryouga for a second, then added, "There is one other thing. I dunno if I should tell you, though. But you are... well..."

The dimensionally displaced Lost Boy looked over, intrigued. "Tell me what?"

"There was this girl. Akari. She and the Lieutenant were pretty close, and you and he are mostly the same person, so..." Ryu coughed, realizing he was muttering. "Maybe you should know this, too. But they... she was one of the ones they... killed... I guess. That's kind of why we're here, too."

Ryouga simply stopped in his tracks where he was. He, honestly had no idea how to process that information. They - they'd killed _Akari?_ Akari? But - but why would they possibly do that?

"I - I think I need to sit down ..." Not even waiting to find a chair, he just slumped against the nearest wall and dropped down to sit on the floor. What kind of nightmare world was this? His teacher: abducted, his father: transformed, Akari: murdered...

He wondered if this would be what his personal hell would be like, when all was said and done. Personally, he had grown apart from Akari, but still, that didn't blunt the stabbing pain he felt in his gut at the idea of such a sweet, innocent girl suffering such a senseless fate.

"So you knew her too, huh? On your world?" Ryu asked, drawing back a bit at the deflated young man.

A voice cut in before he could say any more.

"Ryu!" It was Nabiki, coming in over a concealed transmitter attached to one of the pips on his uniform. "The Lieutenant is just about done at the CCW, so you'd better head over. The rest of India will be waiting at the Psi-Gym. According to my screen, you're still at the range? Better get your ass in gear!"

"Yeah, yeah, work us to death, why don't you?" Ryu grumbled, tapping the mic on his lapel. "I'll be up in a minute."

"I better head out," he continued, speaking to the still stunned Ryouga. "I'll pass on that you and Mrs Hibiki want to see your old man. It may take a while to process, though. Drop me an email and we'll grab a drink during off hours!"

Ryouga barely even registered Ryu's departure. It was all too much, too fast. It wasn't even his world, but it was still close enough that every twist of fate cut him almost as deeply as they must have his counterpart. His only saving grace was that his own friends were safe. Raven, Starfire, and whoever else might have been pulled through the portal. He clung to the certainty that they would all be alright, no matter where they appeared, and that he would see them again soon ...

One name came to his lips unbidden, one name that he - without any knowledge as to where they may be, and how they may be faring - he prayed for in his own, personal way.

"... Jinx, you better be alright ..."

It was almost an hour before the Hibiki, more lost than he had ever been before, finally left the firing range.

* * *

Picking up where they left off was harder in the morning than it had been the day before. Part of that was Akari's fault, she knew. Jinx's sour mood had yet to dissipate, and the terrain they needed to cover was mostly uphill and buried in a foot of wet snow. The combination of harsh conditions and uncomfortable silence wore on the spirits of both girls, slowing them despite their recovery from the previous day's exertions. It was rough going.

They were also being followed.

Her titian robe back over her body, Akari pushed forward, slogging through the thick snow. The cold and wet did little to harm her physically, but the fatigue was always looming in the back of her mind. She'd neglected her body for too long after being removed from the maturation tube, following the traditional Trenchard logic of subsuming the body in order to become more efficiently alien. Akari regretted that now.

Perhaps Cologne had been right after all? Perhaps their attempts to imitate the Ethereals weakened them instead of making them stronger? Akari only had a passing knowledge of the growing dispute within The Mind among the Trenchards here and on Mars. The issue of 'how alien' and 'how human' they should be to better serve was really something she'd assumed to be best left to higher ranked and more powerful hybrids. Her genetic and mental makeup were specialized enough that she already had her niche in the system.

Akari took a moment out of the monotonous march to review what her habit had uncovered about Jinx the other night. A mental command activated the psionic interface weaved into the robe, bringing back up the other girl's physiological and mental recordings. As expected, it had done a superb job getting the younger girl back up to near-peak condition, stimulating her muscles, nervous system, and even her mind. It was a basic operating procedure for the habit - a built in medical kit, in a way. Akari didn't like having to acquire this information, private as it was, without the other girl's consent but it was necessary.

Jinx's powers were... alien... to this world, ironically enough.

For her own good, someone needed to know whether they would affect her in a negative way. As far as she knew inter-dimensional travel was basically unheard of along the Cydonian aliens. They used it to create pocket dimensions and for FTL and other purposes... there was something else, too, but it was information she had never been privy to. Her suspicion was that they had encountered some form of extra-dimensional entities as well, but that it was information only a few knew about. Her former Commander had obviously been given that, and some of what he knew had filtered down to her and the other rank and file, probably in preparation for their new mission.

That creature from before.

The preliminary data on Jinx occupied half of Akari's mind as she tried to keep a good pace through the uphill section of the journey. Akari's guess from before was correct: Jinx's powers were not natural psionics. They more closely resembled a basic form of molecular control. Jinx herself had described it as 'altering probability' - she had used her powers a few times while wearing the robe, and it had recorded the parts of the girl's brain that activated and controlled the unique ability.

It seemed stable, for the time being, but the robe had also detected substantial fluctuations in output. It was impossible to tell whether this was natural or due to her presence in a different world. From what little Jinx had said, her world had a great many "meta humans" with similarly amazing powers. Yet the pink haired girl showed no signs of alien tampering. The robes hadn't found any Sectoid genes at all, so it was likely they didn't exist on Earth. It also failed to find any alien tissue that could account for the existence of the powers in the first place.

The only truly strange finding was the high level of isotopes in the girl's body.

Carbon-13 and 14 were both present at almost one and a half times the normal concentration, while Magnesium-26 and Potassium-40 were both expressed around twice as much as on her Earth. Beryllium-7 and Hydrogen-3 were also far too common. It was impossible for the habit to perform a more detailed analysis, but from what Akari saw, it seemed to indicate that Jinx's Earth was a more radioactive and volatile place than the one she currently found herself on. It was more primordially radioactive than Akari's Earth and likely bombarded by more cosmic radiation. Yet Jinx was essentially a baseline human.

That creature from before was probably similar.

Either way, the girl wouldn't break down or suffer from the change in habitats anytime soon, which was Akari's primary concern. The data she had recorded would also be useful for when Jinx contacted X-COM. It would prove not only that she was human, and thus in need of protection, but that she was from another world and free of alien contamination. They'd probably give her a once-over to be sure, but they would have no choice but to believe her then and there, skipping any potentially lengthy and time-wasting complications.

The other issue was with their pursuers.

Sectoids on foot would be slowed by the deep snow, but Reapers and certain other aliens and terror units would not. It was one of those that Akari was certain had to be following them now. The Base only retained a small compliment of Floaters for use as scouts and to help in evaluating the Reapers as terror weapons. Jinx's powers had fried her _corona lucis_, but Akari still retained a Trenchard's heightened psionic sensitivity. She could feel it somewhere in the distance.

The problem would be either losing it or flushing it out. The former wasn't very promising. The Floater could weave through the trees or above ground, unhindered by the snowfall or the terrain. It would just loiter around the area until it found them again. That meant taking it out.

The girls had been advancing parallel to an open, boulder strewn side of the hill, broken by only sparse, hardy pine trees. Akari eyed it carefully, weighting her options. She didn't know the base's Floaters that well, or their rules of engagement. They were just dumb brutes for the most part. Fodder used by the Sectoids and Ethereals to perform basic harvesting and abduction missions and conduct the occasional terror raid.

Finally, the robed girl sighed, resigned.

"Jinx," she spoke up, breaking the long silence between them. "I think we're being followed."

Jinx made a show of turning around and dramatically rolling her eyes, possibly in an attempt to annoy her. "Of _course_ we are. Sheesh, you'd think you'd never been chased down by a mob of hostiles intent on inflicting bodily harm before."

The pink haired girl then took a moment to scan the woods around them. "If you have any more useful knowledge about weak spots and such, that would be lovely. If not, you're not really helping."

"I believe we have one trailing us right now at a distance. A scout." Akari explained, hiding how disheartened she was that Jinx was still holding a grudge from last night, "It isn't one of the alien types you fought before. This one can fly. Most of its body is cybernetic, and that includes an anti-gravity bulb that replaces the lower body. It will likely be armed with a plasma weapon, maybe a stun launcher too."

"Yeah, I've seen all that stuff so far. Anything interesting that I might be able to use against it, aside from beating it about the head?" Jinx asked sharply. Akari could see the girl start cracking her knuckles in a menacing way.

It seemed that the younger girl was almost looking forward to a fight ...

"I don't think so. It isn't psionic, so that's something; it won't be able to sense your thoughts or emotions," Akari replied. "We need to get it close to the ground, or it'll just fly around in the air and pick us off."

The pink eyed girl shrugged. "Those guns ever run out of ammo? For that matter, how do they work? After all, the fancier something is, the more prone it is to ... malfunction."

"I think... thirty rounds per clip for most plasma weapons? I never needed to know much more than how to use one. The stun launcher fires one pellet at a time." Akari thought about the other statement. "I've never heard of a weapon malfunction. Are you thinking you could set one off with your... powers? Can you really do that?"

"Feh, I've done six energy weapons at once before. It helps more when I have a general idea of how the weapons work though, so I can better apply my power. Anything that you can think of about how the weapons work could help," Jinx explained, finally losing some of her confrontational tone. "Preferably anything about power cores, or failsafe systems, those are usually good for a few laughs. Heck, depending on how much we're talking about in the way of cybernetics, I could probably do something there, too. Lord knows I have experience with that already."

The other girl seemed both impressed and concerned by Jinx's proposal.

"Both the weapon and the cybernetics use Elerium-115 annihilation to produce radiation and gravity waves," Akari explained, summarizing what she knew off hand. "The reaction is very powerful, kind of like anti-matter, but I know the weapon has safety features to prevent an accident. When an uncontrolled Elerium implosion occurs, it emits gamma radiation and not heat. As for the rest, Floaters have most of their torso and their lower body removed... the cybernetics take over all its life support functions. I don't know everything about how they work, though."

Worryingly, rather than looking dissuaded by her lack of specific knowledge, Jinx actually looked to grow more excited at the prospect.

"Alright then, Miss Bright Orange Jumpsuit. If you know we're being followed, why don't you play a distraction while I set myself up an ambush in the woods. I've done this kind of thing before, after all, and if you don't think we can lose him, then we might as well go after him first."

"Making me out to be the decoy?" Akari asked, but inwardly smiled. She'd been planning to volunteer anyway, it was why she'd been paying attention to the more open field nearby. It seemed they both thought the same from time to time after all.

"There's an open area over there," she said, and gestured to the semi-clearing. It was also uphill and littered by large rocks and tall grass, by now buried in snow. "I was thinking we could try and run through... let you pull ahead, and see if me being left behind draws it out."

Jinx seemed to take a moment to think about Akari's suggestion.

Then, without further warning, she grabbed the robed girl's arm and started running towards the clearing at top speed. Akari barely had time to let out an inarticulate 'eeep' before they broke tree cover, allowing Jinx to perform the sort of martial arts jumping-steps the pig farmer had seen Ranma and Ryouga use. Moving deftly from one rock to the next, avoiding the snow drifts, they covered ground at almost three times the rate of running through the woods. Just as Akari started to wonder how long Jinx could keep up such a pace, she felt the other girl's grip disappear around her wrist.

None-too-gently, she face-planted into the snow, rolling twice onto her side. Brushing ice and snow from her face, Akari just barely saw Jinx pause on another nearby rock, and then keep going. A flare up of panic came and went as the possibility of Jinx actually leaving her behind entered her thoughts. But it was silly, _self_ preservation for its own sake was about the last thing Akari knew she should have on her mind at the moment.

Getting to her feet, she started to run, slowed by the deep snow.

Jinx was already across the open area and entering the trees again. Akari just kept running, already sensing that third presence growing stronger and closer. With her companion no longer in sight, Akari realized she was alone, truly alone, for the first time since her connection to The Mind had been severed. She felt unexpectedly vulnerable, running by herself against the rocky slope, and Akari began to realize that for all they disagreed on and fallen out over, Jinx's presence had been something truly comforting. She also realized just how the loss of The Mind hurt - she was free, but in the end, she would live and die alone.

Akari tried to push the thought away. The Mind was a crutch. It was empowering, but stifling as well. Here, free, there was no need to bend to consensus or suppress her memories or true self. Even if she died alone, it would be as a free human being, and for a good cause. A trail of vapor came from her parted lips as she began to near the end of the open field. Against her previous intentions, she began to hope she was wrong and that all this had been for nothing -

She heard it and felt it at about the same time.

An audible 'thumf' sounded to her left, scrambling her innate Trenchard psionics. She knew what that was. She had been expecting it. Stun Bomb. Not fighting the initial sensory overload, Akari threw herself to the side and into the snow, rolling into it as deep as she could. The psionic component of the bomb was impossible to avoid, but the cloud of paralyzing gas could be partially mitigated. Even still, trying to use the snow as cover, she felt micrograms of it permeate her body. A painless numbing sensation spread to her legs and up her left arm.

Crawling away from the epicenter of the bomb's detonation, she glanced over her shoulder and saw the firer drifting down from overhead. It was a Floater alright, just as she had guessed. Slick, sickly-looking purple flesh covered a humanoid upper body. The face was as hideous as ever - one bifurcated upper jaw was twitching in predatory satisfaction, an action akin to a human's sneer, while pale white eyes watched her from under heavy hair-less brows. A long pair of bony tusk-like protrusions flanked the face around the jaw, like mutton-chops.

Vile creatures, Floaters.

They were the lowest of the low when it came to the alien pecking order: they were disposable labor and light soldiers, cloned in vast waves with minimal genetic diversity. They had almost no say in The Mind; even their Commanders were seen as disposable. Simple brutes, they seemed to take out their frustration on those routine harvesting and abduction duties they were assigned to, gleefully mauling human subjects and reducing harvested livestock to butchered meat. To the Ethereals, they were only a rank above animals like Reapers and Celatids.

Akari tried to crawl away, most of her body still unresponsive.

The Floater drifted closer, the lower half of its body replaced by a metal casing that turned bulbous and rotund halfway down. Most of its major organs were removed during development, replaced by the life support systems within the exotic alloy prosthetic. Seeing her helpless, it finished loading another stun bomb but conserved the shot. It kept its eyes on the tree line.

_'It knows!'_ she realized, and opened her mouth to yell a warning.

The stun launcher in its hands coughed up another implosive pellet, streaking across the open ground to explode near a brown-coated target just as it jumped out of cover. A cloud of faint purple gas enveloped the area, and Akari's heart dropped. It had expected an ambush! There was no way Jinx would be able to escape being that close to the stun bomb going off. Akari pushed herself up, willing her body to regain some basic functionality. If she acted quickly, maybe she could reach the Floater's sidearm...

A second later, and the brown coated form of Jinx flew out of the cloud.

_'No, not Jinx,'_ Akari realized, just as the Floater did. _'Its...!'_

A roughly humanoid log with Jinx's salvaged coat hit the ground.

_'A replacement? Of course! She's trained in Anything Goes!'_ the paralyzed human-alien hybrid looked around, eyes wide. _'But where...?'_

The Floater immediately headed straight up, reaching for its holstered plasma pistol. Jinx - the actual her - appeared behind it in a spray of overturned snow, too fast for Akari to totally follow. Both she and the Floater had been too distracted to notice the other girls' movement into a blind spot. Kicking just as the alien was withdrawing its weapon, Jinx had plainly intended to disarm it. The Floater's musculature and nerves weren't human, however, and neither the force of the kick nor its impact where a cluster of human nerves would be did anything to disrupt the alien's grip.

Instead it sent a shot wild and to the right, where it hit a nearby tree. Superheated water instantly expanded outwards, exploding the tree trunk like a stick of dynamite had been placed inside. Undeterred, Jinx gave a feral yell and lit her hands up in pink fire. Slamming the palm of her hand into the side of the Floater as it spun to get a clear shot, Jinx ducked under its arm and hit it again in the center of the torso. The Floater drifted away from the force of the double strike, but quickly steadied itself.

"Didn't penetrate?" Jinx wondered aloud as she hit the ground and nimbly leapt to the side. "Damn! What is this thing made of?"

And then something beyond the Floater bore down on them.

A shadow stretched out from it, and Akari felt her psionic defenses light up and crumble in an instant. That brief moment following the opening of her mind, she realized what it had to be. There was only a few psionically capable aliens back at the base, and only one that would extend itself using something as pathetic and mentally weak as a Floater for a proxy. It had to be.

_It was the Commander. _

Her mind very nearly welcomed its domination, as used to it as she had gotten over the last few months. It entered her like a wave, filling her and everything her senses could perceive. She realized it had always been there, within the Floater, waiting for the two of them to get close and show themselves. Despair threatened to color the mindscape a dead white.

But Akari wasn't fully human. As much as she lamented that, it gave her defenses now that would otherwise be absent. She had no connection to The Mind, which meant the Commander had to attack her directly. It wouldn't limit itself to just one target, either. It would attack Jinx as well, to make sure she didn't kill the Floater and sever the connection. Akari's _ampullae psionic_ was damaged, but she could sense Jinx's mind and emotions in flux.

It was enough.

Diving through the gaping wound the Ethereal had made in entering Jinx's mind - tearing through the ego-based barrier-defenses like paper - Akari ended up in a strange place. Jinx's mindscape was alien even to an alien. There was no point or frame of reference except a turbulent purple and black sea, waves crashing and twisting together. She was not alone here. A black shadow rose against the pale sky.

THIS ONE WILL SERVE

Jinx voice rang out across the vast sea, clearly in pain.

YOU THINK YOUR MIND HIDDEN

SUFFERING SHALL EXPOSE YOUR WEAKNESS

Bit by bit, condensing like mist above the sea, Jinx's body began to take form.

AND YOU

An intangible force seized Akari by the metaphysical throat.

YOU ARE BROKEN DYING WITHOUT US WEAK

The shadow grew to blot out the sky.

YOU WILL SUBMIT

And then Akari's metaphysical manifestation, and Jinx's, exploded in a puff of smoke. Instantly, the stormy tortured waters of Jinx's psyche - formed by her most basic instincts - calmed. The looming shadow surveyed the suddenly empty mental tapestry. Both girls were gone.

Which meant only one thing.

...

Jinx fell to her hands and knees, breath nearly ripped from her lungs. That - thing - had been completely different from the one that had tried to get into her mind before. Instead of trying to find the 'her' that the Headmaster had hidden within her psyche, it had simply tortured her subconscious into releasing bits and pieces that it tore away and jammed together. Most of what it did was thankfully lost - the subconscious not having any real memory of it - but the sensation had been like drowning but without death in the end.

Looking up, trying to calm herself down and get a sense of the situation, she saw something unexpected: buildings. She was in a city. Not like Jump City back home... this was more suburban. The buildings were only a couple stories high, the streets were mostly open to foot traffic, and the signs were in Japanese. Which she couldn't read, so it brought up the question of just Where on Earth was she? To borrow a catchphrase.

"We're in my mind at the moment," a familiar voice explained; Jinx looked up to see Akari, but without her alien robes. Instead she wore what looked like a school uniform... and she remembered why Happosai lamented the lack of such uniforms in the States. The slightly too-short skirt and just a bit too-high shirt were like an open invitation for someone of Happosai's talents and inclination.

Japanese school-girl uniform?

That was strange.

Looking back down, Jinx realized she was wearing the same thing.

And that was _stranger_.

* * *

x

* * *

Abstract -

Shan Pu (Shampoo)  
Rank: Squaddie

The initial impression was not favorable. While respectful towards her superiors, the squaddie was a major source of discord within CT:India and CT:Juliet; frequently abusive towards her teammates, obsessive towards her CO (then Special Lt Saotome); often giving only minimal effort, particularly when distracted by her romantic pursuit of her commanding officer. My analysis at the time was that she not be exposed to actual combat and that Juliet Squad be reorganized.

That impression has changed over the last few months. The Lt-Juliet has done a good job getting his squad together and the squaddie has shown marked improvement on all fronts. Much of that improvement can be traced directly to the destruction of her home village and the related events. I've never seen her more focused. Recommend continued psychological evaluation; she has a strong judgmental streak and her 'code of honor' is more like a 'code of revenge.' My impression as of the time of this assessment is that her morale is FAIR (she has concerns about being "left behind" by Sqd Kuonji), but her investment and commitment to the squad and the organization have improved to GOOD.

Service Record and personal history are attached. Father: Shanyuan Pu, Mother: Sa Lon (deceased), Sister: Tso Pu (exiled, presumed deceased). Master of various close combat oriented martial arts; Kung Fu. Psionic class-D. PRC records also attached. Suspected to have committed illegal acts across three provinces (Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan), the latter of these has been confirmed as a 'training trip.' Implied to have been involved in a paramilitary expedition into Myanmar/Burma (2001). The PRC maintains records on those Amazons it 'uses' but we have redacted public records as necessary. She first encountered Lt. Saotome in 2003 and chased him back to Japan in 2004. She then became involved with the rest of the Nerima crew, in particular developing a rivalry of sorts with Squaddies Kuonji and Tendo.

Marksmanship remains first rate. Without a doubt, she's the best shot out of India and Juliet, at least with a laser or projectile rifle. Accurate and calm, even without a spotter. Very good eye for lay of the land and ambushes, particularly in rural terrain. Proficient at long and very long range sniper fire; hates missing. Less well suited for suppression duties. Very deadly in CQC as well. Weak at intermediate ranges. Assortment of unusual martial arts techniques of non-combat utility. Well suited for recon, recon-by-fire, rapid response, some covert ops. Somewhat weak psionics (Psionic Profile, attached). Squaddie is ruthless, calculated and aggressive on the battlefield, towards aliens or humans. I once saw her slog and swim through three miles of festering swamp to chase down a fleeing Celatid (and then three miles back after killing it and impaling the corpse on a stick).

This whole thing sounds like another bureaucratic hunt for 'unsolicited recommendations.' What's all this about, [redacted] ?

[signature redacted]

CLASSIFIED  
DOCUMENTATION  
UNETCO: VEN6721:77:433  
DATE: 12.11.2006

MEMORANDUM TO: Cmndr. Yasuda

CC: Col. Butler; Col. Kalinowski; Cmndr. Janssen; Cmndr. Sharp

FROM: Sqd. Shan Pu; Sqd. Mu Tzu

SUBJECT:  
Political and Security Assessment, re: Perfume, re: Nyuchezuu (Amazons)

OBJECTIVE:  
PRELIMINARY OVERVIEW OF THE SITUATION FOLLOWING THE DESTRUCTION OF THE "AMAZON" VILLAGE (NYUCHEZUU/JOKETSUZOKU) AND GIVEN INITIAL INFORMATION ABOUT SURVIVORS AND EXILES/HYPOTHETICAL REPATRIATION

ABSTRACT:  
Confrontation with Elder Sink during the Joketsuzoku/Jusendo Joint Terror Site revealed why initial warnings and entreaties were rebuffed by the Council of Elders. They were being manipulated by Trenchard:Cologne to a degree we had not anticipated. While previous Intel had indicated that she was active, it was believed that she would refrain from contact with the village, not actively attempt to undermine it. This miscalculation, together with the Council's stranglehold on information and debate and the lack of cooperation offered us by the PRC, culminated in the combined infiltration and terror attack as previously outlined (TS:03-16).

Security analysis of Jusendo and Jyusenkyou aside, we have focused our findings on those matters immediately relevant to the 'Amazon' village, the events there, and the political implications regarding rebuilding it, sheltering survivors found in neighboring villages and information pertaining to the so called 'exiles' who have already formed a loosely knit community overseas.

With the location of Perfume (Dossier attached) we have opened the possibility of reconstructing the village in some fashion. Despite most of her abilities still being sealed, her knowledge and resources are still considerable and she was the last woman to be considered for a spot on the Council (prior to her banishment). She has already done much to organize much of the exiled community, and she offered to share this information with our organization. We recommend priority-three protective measures be used to look over Perfume and her family. We also recommend extended data-mining efforts be undertaken to further search for expat-amazons.

We have positively identified forty three survivors of the Joketsuzoku terror site, most of them having been stationed in neighboring villages or living in the mountainous southern area (not including the survivors at Jusendo). Along with these forty three, we have one hundred and two men and children. Not including this population, we have evacuated six hundred and twenty one civilians from the two most immediately neighboring villages. Some, like Pink and Link, have unusual skills and are being actively watched by or incorporated into the organization. Most are in need of protection and resettlement. We recommend pressing the PRC to assist in setting up a new sanctuary community in western China or making a military base available for our immediate use.

There may also be artifacts and other sensitive material among the ruins of the village. Recommend military quarantine of area. Amazon Law dictates that looters and grave robbers should be shot on sight.

FULL REPORT FOLLOWS

##

BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS  
TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 790  
CODENAME: Beast Boy  
REAL NAME: Garfield Logan

SPECIES: Human  
HEIGHT: 5'5"  
WEIGHT: 115lbs

HAIR COLOR: Green  
EYE COLOR: Green

KNOWN ABILITIES: Subject possesses the ability to change shape at will. While this ability appears to be limited strictly to the animal kingdom, the true limits of his power are questionable. Not only can the subject turn into any animal he has seen, apparently even including alien life forms, he is also able to turn into animals that he has only seen via photographs or video. This raises interesting questions, especially in concern to his ability to transform into extinct animals, where the certainty of the actual physical make up of said animals is far from perfect. Whether his shape shifting powers are, in fact, unlimited in scope, but limited by his imagination, has yet to be seen. As is the case with several shape shifting entities, it is theorized that the subject may possess a heightened healing ability, due to his ability to rapidly reshape his body as he sees fit, but no confirmation on this possible ability has been made yet. The subject's ability to wildly alter mass is also of significant interest. Further research is required.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: The subject is highly versatile and extremely unpredictable, making capture problematic. Highest Probability of incapacitating subject is to blanket area surrounding him with anaesthetic gas. Secondary tactic: theorized that if the subject were to return to his original human form, he would be quickly incapacitated by the Sakutia virus. Caution should be used, as this could prove fatal if precautions are not taken.

KNOWN HISTORY: The child of a pair of noted biologists, the subject spent most of his childhood travelling the globe. During one such trip to Africa, the subject contracted the rare disease, Sakutia, after being bitten by a rare _Chlorocobus Aethiops_. Knowing that only animals produce the antibodies required to fight the infection, the subject's parents prepared a vaccine. The vaccine proved successful in saving the subject's life, but also resulted in his green skin and hair, as well as his ability to alter his shape.

Shortly after, in a freak flood, the subject's parents both drowned, leaving the subject to fend for himself. Showing surprising initiative, the subject infiltrated the base of Team Designation: Doom Patrol, in a bid to join the team. The subject's strategy proved successful, and he was made a member of the Doom Patrol, and was soon adopted by Subject:588:Codename: Elasti-Girl and Subject:582:Codename: Mento. During his tenure as a member of the Doom Patrol, the subject also became a little known child actor, starring in the science fiction program: Space Trek 2020.

The subject left the Doom Patrol for undisclosed reasons after several years. His departure was soon followed by his arrival in Jump City and subsequent assistance in the repulsion of a small Gordanian Invasion. Shortly after, the subject became a founding member in the Team Designation: Teen Titans.

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: E

PERSONAL NOTE_: It's odd to think that this boy is very nearly as experienced as Dick in our unique line of work. Just reading his file, I find myself wondering... Just how different would Dick be if things had gone just slightly differently? Beast Boy's past is painfully similar to Dick's. Losing both parents at a young age, only to be taken in by a group of super heroes and subsequently recruited into the war on crime. And yet, how different are these two youths? Dick, driven, serious and unwavering; Garfield, innocent, childish and exuberant. What does this say about them, as individuals? And what does it say about the people that raised them?_

_Is one outcome even better than the other? Only time will tell, I suppose. Still, it puts my mind somewhat at ease to know that, among a team of neophytes, Dick has one experienced team mate to rely on when situations are at their worst._

##


	8. Close Encounters 3

**A/N**

Mixed up a bit. Forgot an altercation to the chapter that had been recommended before and then overlooked in the rush.  
Hotfix made (v1.1)

* * *

x

* * *

Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last. The reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together. With Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding', it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of Atlantis. Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well deserved breather from their adventures. But as unseen forces manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered… and sooner than they expect.

It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Close Encounters_

Chapter VIII

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

Piracy was a dangerous business.

That fact was mostly common sense, but even then it could slip the mind after a while. Most ships didn't put up a fight when you stopped them, especially if you employed a little discrete force to back up your requests. Freighters only carried a skeleton crew and, for insurance purposes if nothing else, they were disinclined to risk their lives when they could just be ransomed wholesale along with their cargo and vessel. It was all paid for by big corporations and insurance companies after all. No skin off their back.

Rarely, though, you encountered the occasional anomaly. This particular anomaly was a twenty thousand ton tramp freighter traveling off the normal shipping lanes. About ten minutes after being stopped, thanks to a few warning shots over - and into - their bow, they had hoisted a white flag of surrender and prepared to be boarded. It had been basically routine up to that point. There should have been a dozen or fewer men aboard.

Rokuro Okajima sighed as he passed another dead body on deck.

Even after working for the Lagoon Company all these months, it was still disturbing to see bodies shot full of holes, in this case nine millimeter. Instead of just surrendering peacefully, the crew - or at least some of them - had had the misfortune to decide to try and ambush their ambushers. From the look of things on the bridge, anyone who had disagreed with the decision hadn't expressed their opinions for long.

The rapid fire of a familiar pair of modified Berettas came from the rear of the ship, not too far away. Rokuro - 'Rock' as people tended to call him now - smartly lowered his head. One never knew when or where a stray bullet would end up, and anywhere was better than in his head. It was full of important stuff after all.

A sustained crack of automatic fire answered the somewhat muffled nine millimeter. More barks from the twin handguns presented a counter argument, and one that was normally very persuasive. The fanatic fraction of crew aboard the freighter didn't seem easily convinced, however. The one remaining sailor was still fighting somewhere with Revy, even with the rest of the crew dead. As far as Rock knew, every one they'd found on board had fought to the death.

There was something... strange about this ship.

It wasn't even the dogged determination of the crew to resist having the ship boarded. By the looks of the former bridge, papers and other documents, even maps, had been hastily thrown into a waste bucket fire. It was very likely they'd inadvertently run into another group of smugglers like themselves, and the former Japanaese businessman half expected they'd find more than a little contraband aboard. The thought didn't give him the sort of pause it once would have. It was just the nature of commerce in these waters. The South Seas were a wide road, connecting a dozen different countries, and there was ample space on her for all kinds of traffic. Not like the Lagoon Company was a bastion of righteousness itself.

It wasn't that. It was something more nebulous. The ship felt cold and abandoned. Even under the light of the setting sun, the shadows seemed unnaturally long and disturbingly deep. If not for the sounds of fighting with the one or two remaining crew, he'd have expected this to be a ghost ship. Gnawing senses aside, there was still serious work to do. They'd have to confirm the registry and cargo before Benny forwarded it to their contact in the Lun-i Pan. Normally they'd be in more of a hurry, but the ship's radio wasn't looking too good at the moment. It wasn't Revy or Dutch's doing either. More internal sabotage?

Hopefully what they did find would offset their cost overhead to say nothing of all this loss of life; there had to be _something_ valuable aboard.

...

It was a briefcase.

In the loose sense of the word, anyway, it was a briefcase. It was solid steel, or maybe aluminum. Shock resistant. Reinforced corners. Some sort of blue LED-strip was lit up all around the sides, mostly straight, but jagged like blocky teeth where the rectangular case was narrower. It gave the impression that it would, or could, open up along the blue strip... if it was unlocked.

Revy, the first to find it, had already tried kicking, prying and then shooting it open. That last attempt had nearly caught her with the ricochet. The metal briefcase was obviously built to last. But last what? The thing looked like it would survive having a truck run over it. The last crewman of the freighter had been guarding the bulletproof glass case it had been in. They'd been able to blast their way through that, after the fight, but now that they had the case, getting through the next layer of security was looking rather more difficult.

Worse, it was really the only cargo of note on the whole ship.

The rest of the ship's manifest consisted of bulk phosphate. There hadn't even been any serious contraband that a cursory search had revealed. With all the other ship's records destroyed, Dutch had decided to help themselves to the strange briefcase - saying something about 'maybe it belongs to Marcellus Wallace,' whoever that was - while they radioed in the now derelict ship to be collected by their syndicate 'partners.' They'd already received payment according to Benny but the resident electronics and communication specialist for the Lagoon Company was already busily fussing and gawking over their new find.

"I don't even see a lock on it," Rock observed, holding the case up against the light and turning it on its side. As a former salaryman, he'd seen his fair share of briefcases before, but this one was strange. "How are you supposed to get it open?"

"Oh, the lock is there if you know what to look for," Benny explained, busily typing at his computer to check something. He didn't bother turning from the screen.

"Ah, really?"

"Yep. But it isn't a physical lock, or a digital one," the easygoing tech specialist replied. "That's a chemical lock. New one, too. Very tough."

Rock couldn't see it. There didn't seem to be anything like a lock or a keyhole anywhere. "A chemical lock?" he asked, prompting more of an explanation.

"A biomolecular key system," Benny answered, sucking his lower lip as something came up on the screen that prompted him to jot down on a piece of paper in his lap. He had his own little computer room on the Black Lagoon herself and rarely had to leave it on most of the more routine missions. Like Dutch, he'd long since personalized his corner sanctuary onboard with pictures and bits of paraphernalia. The wiry, blond haired American returned his pen to his mouth and resumed typing.

"Most locks need a physical or electronic key," he explained while he worked. "A biomechanical lock is different. There's a little biochip instead, just like you see with blood tests and the like. To open the lock, you need a chemical key: probably a series of custom made molecules expressed in a certain order. Enzyme-based logic networks... its an entirely new sort of encryption."

"I've... never even heard of it before," Rock admitted, finally identifying what could be the lock mechanism: a strange retractable flap with some sort of pinched depression. A red line formed a square around it, implying something was placed into or over that spot.

"That lock alone must've cost tens of thousands of dollars," Benny guessed with a rather impressed huff. "There are cheaper ones, but... this isn't something I'd ever imagined we'd run into. We could try opening it without the lock... breaking it open, but I'd put good money on it being rigged to explode or incinerate if forced. Maybe we'll have more luck once we get back to Roanapur. Even if we can't open it..."

"Someone will probably be willing to pay for it," Rock finished, still holding up the briefcase. It felt heavy. But then, it was made of solid steel. "You don't put security like this on something and just write it off."

"Still," Benny added. "It's only natural. Can't help but wonder what's in there."

Rock grunted in agreement.

_'But then again, maybe we're better off not knowing, just this once.'_

* * *

2/22/2007

** CYBLOG**

_ Ahh, Yeah! Welcome to the Silicon Jungle!_

Renegade Robot Runs Rampant in Random Reality!

Bienvenue, my bodacious bloggers and beautiful bloggettes, and a bountiful Booyah to the bunch of ya as we broach some bandwidth this balmy bit of broadcasting.

…Alright, enough with the alliteration already.

To answer your first question: Yes. Yes, I do, in fact, have far too much time on my hands. However, this time the fault is not entirely my own. More on that later, though. Now, I know it's been a bit since I've updated my blog, a good 3-4 days at this point. Unfortunately, considering my current situation, the odds of me updating anytime soon, or of any of you people actually reading what I'm writing here at all are… well, I'd say somewhere vaguely between Ryo making his way to the corner store in less than three weeks and Beast Boy actually getting a date with a female of the human species.

What, you may ask, has put me in such a statistical black hole? Well, let me go back to the beginning. I dunno if any of you heard about the 'incident' at Star Labs a few days back? Well – and taking into account that Robin is gonna jump on here and redact anything I say that might cause potential breaches in security – something "NOT SO GOOD" happened there. Unfortunately, I wasn't exactly conscious for the tail end, so I kind of missed the big shebang, but I was still around for enough to know that it involved a dimensional portal, Raven's bad mojo (bless her heart, and I love the girl, but seriously) and Ryo's sense of direction.

Frankly, it's a miracle that any of us survived. By 'us', I mean Raven, Starfire, Ryo and me. And here's the big kicker. The four of us are now stuck in an alternate dimension.

Yup, that's right. I've officially crossed the dimensional barrier. I mean, yeah, we _all_ knew that it was gonna happen eventually. I'm pretty sure that you gotta turn in your super Tech-head badge if you don't get whisked away to a different plane of existence at _some_ point, so at least I'm ahead of Gizmo in that regard.

Yeah, you heard me, Giz. HOW DO YA LIKE ME NOW?

Hmm, well, I guess there was that jaunt into Raven's head a while back, but I'm not sure that counts. Not nearly as much as this anyway. I'm not just talking pocket dimension here, we got the Full Monty of Parallel Earths going on. Fancy new cities, strangely paranoid people and antique technology. I could probably spend a decade here and not even come close to cataloguing all the differences between our world and this one.

There are two main ones that I can name right off the top of my head. First: They ain't got no metahumans here. Like, none, seriously. Well, judging from the tech I've seen, they got a few ESPers floating around, but even those guys are completely low key. Nothing on the scale of some of the guys back home.

Second, they apparently have this whole, incredibly tedious alien invasion thing going on. How do I know this? Funny you should ask. You see, in response to this alien invasion, this Earth has put together a global military organization to combat said invasion.

How do you know this, Cyborg? Funny you should ask.

Let me acquaint you with my current surroundings. My new abode is a roughly 6x6 (that's meters baby) metal box with a single door, no windows and my only roommate is my new buddy that I like to call "Preschooler Sized Latrine." The last thing I got to eat was this just plain _nasty_ K-Ration type thing, and the last time I saw the light of day was nearly 20 hours ago.

For those of you a little slow on the uptake: Yes, I have, within the course of about three days, managed to get myself branded a criminal, arrested by the cops, and then 'vanished' by the world's most covert organization whose sole mission is to safeguard the planet from hostile aliens.

Not exactly one of my better moments, I'll admit.

Anyway, to compound on the bad news, not only am I imprisoned in the brig of a ship somewhere out in the middle of the ocean, but I've been separated from Raven, Star and Ryo, to boot. And when I say separated, I mean _separated_. At the tail end of my 'period of freedom', I managed to bounce a signal off a local satellite and find the rest of my friends. Of all places, Star is in China, and Ryouga and Raven are together in Japan.

Seriously, just from knowing the guy for awhile, is that not just his luck? He spends half his life just trying to find his way around Japan, and now that he's living in the States, the first dimensional anomaly that comes along ships him right there, no fuss, no muss. Luckily, Robin didn't get sucked through… Or Jinx… I guess… I mean, I didn't see either of their communicators, so, unless they were wrecked, or got stuck in some massive jamming field, both of which are pretty darn unlikely, then I'd say the both of them are sittin pretty back home.

So, back to my current situation, since that is pretty much precisely all that I know about everyone else's situations, let me backtrack a wee bit. As grim as I painted this picture, it's not actually as bad as it could be. See, the ship I'm stuck on is actually a research ship. Yup, that's right, this alien fighting organization is pretty much blown away by my lovely, shiny, super sweet tech, so they actually swept all my … minor indiscretions… under the rug and brought me out here. Even offered to help me find everyone else if I play nice.

Of course, I'm totally not comfortable sharing my tech with these people. A few of the scientists here are good guys – _really_ slow, though. Exactly the kind of ponderous "science" that takes like, fifty guys a few weeks just to reverse engineer a plasma rifle. But they seem genuinely interested in learning about me and our world here.

A few of them, though… Man, it's like they don't even see _me_. All they see when they look at me is another alien gadget that needs to be stripped down, torn apart and every last secret pried out. Dang, but it sends a shiver down my spine just thinking about it. I know they try not to talk like that when I'm around, but they don't realize just how sensitive my sonic scanners are. I've heard the terms 'enemy combatant' and 'non-entity' bandied about from time to time, and I'm pretty sure that debate isn't limited to just the researchers themselves.

So far they've been behaving themselves, though. They've asked me a bunch of questions, taken a few passive scans, but nothing too invasive, yet. I think as long as I behave myself, they'll keep playing nice. Just the hint that something might be a vital system of mine sends them into fits! Ha! After all, as much as they could learn from my corpse, they could learn a hell of a lot more from me while I'm still alive.

I'm pretty sure, anyway.

Last I heard, they had located Star, Raven and Ryo, so all I can do is wait and hope they take me to them soon. The quicker we get back together, the quicker I can start trying to find out a way to get us home. Hopefully Raven can keep Ryo from getting lost in the meantime, too. It sure was a stroke of luck that he managed to land with the most responsible Titan on the team.

…Hmm, sounds like someone is coming. Likely another battery of tests, or questions. I'm gonna have to wrap this up. Later all! Have a good one, and by the grace of X'hal, hopefully you'll all actually get to read this someday.

Cyborg is out, Peace!

* * *

With a weary sigh, Raven sat down in the heart of Nabiki's cramped quarters. Pulling back her hood, she stared at the various bottles and boxes arrayed around her. The better half of the morning had been spent begging and borrowing from the few areas she had access to in this bleak headquarters to assemble even this many components.

And now she wouldn't even get the chance to use them!

Once she had collected her ingredients, mundane as they were, she had tactfully requested permission to leave the base. Whatever strange field permeated the area, it was an annoyance and she would need her full concentration to do what she needed. Of course, she could just as easily leave the base regardless. 'Alien alloy' or not, matter was matter, and she still had the ability to teleport as far as she was willing to experiment. Unfortunately, these people seemed to have a stick wedged so far up _somewhere_ that even Robin would be envious of their over-zealousness. Thus, casually walking out of the base would likely stir up a hornet's nest of trouble that she could ill afford. Not before Starfire arrived, at least.

So, it left her in the proverbial lurch.

She couldn't use _the ritual_... though the longer she remained in this world, the more she wondered if it would work at all. She had felt it since the moment they had arrived, but hadn't even realized it. It wasn't a buzzing, or any other such tangible sign. It was almost like the sensation of standing on the precipice of some great drop with your eyes closed. You couldn't see the fall, just an endless abyss inches from your toes, but somehow your body could feel it.

Raven didn't even have a word to describe the feeling she was getting. It was like the world was... hollow, or a shadow of something else. It lacked some fundamental 'substance' that she had never even thought existed in her own world, at least until she came here. Now its absence was almost impossible to ignore, given that she knew what to listen for... metaphorically speaking. Oddly, though, despite this feeling of… something… missing, this place actually felt almost - almost claustrophobic to her. If her world was yielding, like a cloth curtain, this one was a block of granite and that the harder she pressed, the more it pushed back.

So constraining, so cold, so apathetic, like sterile padded cell...

Would she even be able to puncture the dimensional barrier in this world? She had studied the ritual back home, and was _fairly_ confident that she remembered it, but the more she tried to focus on the specifics of what she needed to do... the details became muddled, vague. Did it have something to do with the strange condition affecting her personified Rage? Was it her, or was it natural? More than anything, she needed answers. And with each passing minute, Raven needed more of them.

Perhaps there was another way?

She had studied numerous mystical rites from many worlds back in her own dimension. There were other ways to seek enlightenment, most of which didn't require traveling to different dimensions. Self-hypnosis was a possibility, but... not really something she was versed in. Meditation hadn't helped her yet here. High level Tantras were outside her body of experience in more ways than one. There was another way, though she _really_ didn't want to entertain that possibility.

_Mind altering substances._

Their usage was very nearly as old as man itself. Many cultures used various herbs and extracts to expand their consciousness, allowing them to have visions, or to perceive the world in new ways. Of course, Robin would probably kill her for even _considering_ what it was that she was considering... but really, what other option did she have? There weren't any ancient tomes on the base - at least none they would let her know about. She didn't have access to her mirror or any of her other magical artifacts. She couldn't even leave the base to look for any replacements either.

There were answers in her head, she was certain, she just needed a little extra _something_ to unlock them. Unfortunately, that raised another problem. In this incredibly secure and tightly run base, where could she possibly get access to anything so overtly _contraband_? Where could she possibly find a scoundrel, with such dubious morals and lack of character, that they would even consider giving drugs to a minor?

What kind of _irresponsible_, _shiftless_, **thoughtless** person could -

Raven suddenly shot up to her feet.

A moment later, she was flying down the hallway, so lost in her excitement that she hadn't even bothered to use her keycard, just flew straight through the door in a disc of blackness. It didn't take long, thanks to a few directions she received along the way, for her to reach her destination. Taking a moment to compose herself, smoothing out her leotard and lifting up her hood to shadow her face, Raven calmly knocked on the door before her.

Several moments later, it slid open, and a vaguely familiar man - only ever seen in the background during her numerous discussions with Ranma - was revealed. He looked down at her, a vaguely confused look on his face. Bravely soldiering on, Raven waved weakly.

"Ah ... Saotome Genma, I presume?"

* * *

A surprisingly (disturbingly) short time later, Raven was back in Nabiki's room, sitting cross-legged on the floor. She wasn't certain if she should be gratified, or extremely, _extremely_ disappointed in how easy that transaction had been. She probably hadn't even needed to open with the miracle cure for baldness; she probably could have offered him some pickled turnips or bamboo or something, and gotten similar results.

Shaking her head sadly, she lifted the small bag before her and eyed it dubiously. Apparently once the property of the vile and disgusting Happosai, she certainly _hoped_ it was what she had asked for. If not, this little stint of hers could cross from the realm of merely illegal straight into extremely humiliating in very short order. Why Happosai had even possessed mind altering substances in the first place, she had no clue. From what she'd heard, his mind was twisted enough as it was.

Still, it had been a lucky find; actually one of her first three or four choices. This particular substance was renowned for use with vision quests and such. That was more or less the gist of what she wanted to accomplish here. She just had a slightly more specific vision guide in mind. Looking around quickly, she noted the time on the clock. It was still well before noon, so hopefully Nabiki would be busy with work and not return any time soon. Raven was fairly certain that, good or not, she could not afford the blackmail that the Tendo sister would surely level against her if she found her at this moment.

For that matter, she sure as Hell didn't want to look like she was sitting around taking drugs. That in mind, she pulled out several of the candles she had managed to acquire, lighting and placing them strategically around the room. She also used some salt to form a crude circle around herself... Then, as an afterthought, she went to the computer and found some suitably ominous music to play gently in the background as she began.

Retaking her seat, Raven opened the small bag and pulled out what looked to be a small, greenish, dried out ... button, really. It was vaguely circular, though misshapen, and sported a lighter patch of green at the center of a darker ring. She studied it intently for several moments, noting the texture as she held it between her fingertips.

So... how did she actually use this again? Did she smoke it? Eat it? ...Snort it somehow? She certainly hoped it didn't involve any kind of injection, because she couldn't even imagine the kind of questions she would get from the nurse if she asked for a needle, a spoon and a lighter.

Well, the simplest solution was usually right, right?

Taking a deep breath, Raven popped the dried disc into her mouth and began to chew. She nearly gagged at the flavor, but forced herself not to spit it out. She then quickly swallowed and began to focus on what she wanted to see. Taking a deep breath, leaving time to center herself between every inhale and every exhale, she carefully began to chant the rite which had been ingrained into her long before she could even walk. It was a key of sorts, a path for her to follow. Of course, without the proper ritual and accoutrements, traveling the path would be impossible, but maybe it would help her to see what she desired to in this most unusual case.

_"Azarath Metrion Zinthos."_

She... wasn't really feeling anything.

_"Carazon Rakashas Endere."_

Did she not take enough?

_"Vaserix Endrien Azarath"_

Did this kind of thing have an expiration date?

_"Azarath."_

Hmph, see if Genma ever got his miracle hair remedy.

**"Azarath."**

This was stupid.

**"Azarath."**

Why had she even tried something so foolish, anyway?

"'Azara – _**aaaahhh!**_"

Suddenly, Raven was flying upwards. The ceiling parted around her without even a whisper, as did the floor above that, and the one above that. Within moments, she was floating above the mountain itself, and still rising fast. Strange lights and colors filled her vision, forming a kaleidoscopic tunnel as she continued to fly ever upwards.

Just as quickly as it began, her ascent ceased. Rather than where she wished to be, though, she found herself facing a large circular pattern traced in pink light - arcs and triangles floating at the center, with runes inscribed around the perimeter. The inner and outer portions slowly rotated around one another in opposite directions, creating a somewhat dizzying effect.

This was odd.

And not at all what she was expecting. Placing a hand upon the great glowing sigil, she gave it a gentle push. It might as well have been a wall of concrete, for all of the give it had. Frowning, she pushed harder. She needed answers - needed them from someone she just _knew_ could not be wrong.

"Let. Me. **In!**"

A flash of light suddenly filled her sight, blinding her painfully for several long seconds...

When her sight returned, she found herself staring at the goal of her quest.

"Azarath," she whispered quietly.

* * *

The pink haired sorceress took a moment to look over the dress she'd been mentally poured into. Now, she was hardly the modest type, but she did, ironically, wear the most concealing outfit of any super heroine she knew. Suddenly decked in what could be called a not-so-conservative catholic schoolgirl uniform back home, she was honestly feeling a bit exposed in more ways than one. Still, she'd had enough of Akari playing up her 'greater maturity' already, so she did her best to stifle her embarrassment.

This was the infamous 'schoolgirl outfit' Happosai had so raved about, was it?

Twisting and turning a bit to get a better look at herself, Jinx then turned to the other girl.

"So..." she asked with a sly smile. "Does this dress make my butt look big?"

"No, but... don't think about it too hard, or it actually will make your butt look big. And mine, too," Akari replied with a half smile, but then frowned a bit. "The clothes represent our mental illusion within the mindscape. Just hold on a second. I'm trying to hide us as background noise within the dream, basically."

Jinx stared at the pig breeder through lidded eyes. "Nooo, the correct answer is 'No dear, nothing could possibly make your but look big'. Sheesh, you're bad at this." Taking another moment to look around, Jinx noticed something odd.

"Hey ... this place is kinda familiar." That aqueduct with the fence, the school looming just above some nearby buildings, the larger skyscrapers of Tokyo in the distance. "Is... is this...? This is Nerima isn't it?"

"Mostly," the other girl replied, looking around warily, as if to make sure everything was in place. "I had to fill in some stuff. Actually I had to fill in a lot of stuff. But we're close to Furinkan High. It's the most chaotic place I could imagine from real life, so it should be a good place to buy us some time..."

The familiar sky blue face of the main building rose up ahead of them, the old style clock ticking away the time before the gates closed to lock out tardy "wahines" like themselves. Around them, students in uniforms were chatting and congregating or heading inside. Overhead, not a single cloud marked the clear sky - not that this was any guarantee of good weather in Nerima, a geographic location well known for sudden and often ill-timed precipitation.

"Hmph, it's been forever since I've been here!" Smiling fondly to herself, Jinx moved to join the flowing throng of students, gesturing for Akari to do the same. "Not since we came in, en masse, to kidnap most of Ryouga's friends ... Ah, good times, good times."

"I only really spent time at the Tendo dojo while I was here," Jinx continued, turning around to try and catch sight of something. "But we all had to familiarize ourselves with the landmarks in case we got lost. Hmm, do you think that Shampoo hussy's restaurant is open? I'm starving!"

"You mean the Cat Cafe?" Akari gestured back to the gate. "That's down the road and to the east, I think. Ryouga took me there once to meet granny Cologne. ...And why am I not surprised you want to skip class?"

Jinx burst into laughter at the comment. "I couldn't be bothered to go to school in the real world, what makes you think I'm gonna let myself get bored to death in your dreamworld version of school? Heck, it's not like anyone is gonna care if we play hookie for the day. Now c'mon, let's go ... 'pig out'?"

"That's a stereotype!" Akari pouted, but in a half-hearted tone of voice indicating she was only partly upset. "It perpetuates the image of the pig as a gluttonous animal that can't control itself."

Feeling the need to be a bit nasty, considering the situation, Jinx leveled a sly smile at her companion. "An animal that can't control itself? You sure you aren't talking about you and Ryouga here?"

Akari's shocked gasp was quite amusing. "That was very rud-"

"Delinquents!"

"..."

"..."

As one, Jinx and Akari turned to regard the newcomer. It was a young girl with improbably long hair and wearing a fancy little suit dress, pockets overflowing with candy. The girl's arms were waving around wildly as she sped towards them in a haphazard beeline.

Slowly, the sorceress turned to the pig breeder. "Umm ... is that one of yours? I don't remember running into the Human Sugar Rush, there."

Worryingly, Akari's eyes began to widen as she watched the girl rushing in their direction. "I've never met her... but that is exactly how I imagined Miss Hinako would look from what Ryouga-sama told me."

"Well ... crap. We should probably leave then," Jinx replied, matter of factly.

"That would be sma-_aaarrt_!" The rest of Akari's agreement was cut off when, again, Jinx grabbed her arm and began sprinting at full speed down the street. Behind them, the tiny terror pulled out a coin and began to swing it around in a wide circle, chanting meaningless nonsense as she continued to chase them.

"What the heck is she saying!" Jinx shouted as they ran.

"I - I don't actually know! Ryouga couldn't remember what her attack was when he told me!"

"Please tell me you don't remember how her power works!"

Akari's forehead crinkled as she struggled to recall what she knew about Hinako. "Not exactly! But, my imagination may have filled in a ... few blanks -"

Hinako's nonsensical chanting hit a peak behind them, and the deceptively small girl thrust her coin holding hand forward-

Both delinquents' eyes shot open at the sight of the massive, writhing black cloud which shot out of the coin. Instantly, the dark cloud of negative energy began close in on them, almost taking on the shape of a grasping, skeletal hand as it reached out for them. Ominous Latin chanting suddenly sounded in the background.

"You and your frakkin' imagination!" Jinx barely managed to stifle a panicked shriek and poured on the speed. As the streets blurred past them, an odd sense of familiarity began to wash over the sorceress.

Wait a second, wasn't this the street where -

Suddenly both girls were blasted to the side as the wall lining the street exploded outward in a shower of debris. Jinx managed to pull Akari to her side before ducking and rolling to avoid most of the raining masonry. Even the evil looking cloud of Hinako's power shuddered to a stop and retreated in the face of this rather shocking event.

The source of the explosion was revealed a moment later ... when Mammoth and Kuno came crashing into the street. Even as Mammoth skidded to a stop, he snagged a flying piece of concrete from the air and hurled it at the swordsman with inhuman strength. Live, steel blade moving faster than either girl could even follow, Kuno lashed out and the block was reduced to a fine powder while still yards away.

"Who - wha?" Akari stuttered in confusion.

Smile blooming anew, Jinx jumped up. "This is where Mammoth and Kuno fought back in the day! Heh! I heard the story from both of the lovable jerks, so that must be why they're both looking so awesome!"

Indeed, looking to be in rare form, Mammoth slammed his fingers into the pavement and _lifted_. With a deafening rumble, a massive section of the street rose into the air and over the huge teen's head, very nearly blotting out the sun itself as he held it up. With an overly dramatic roar, muscles budging and twisting in ways that Jinx was fairly certain weren't physiologically possible, Mammoth then _swung_ the improbably large piece of infrastructure in defiance of all physics and logic.

Rather than cower in fear, the samurai's hand merely hovered above the hilt of his sheathed sword, looking as calm and serene as a mountain lake. Then, and Jinx was fairly certain that she missed it while blinking, the sound of steel slashing stone filled the air a hundred times in a single second, flashes of sparks filling the air like fiery snow... but before she could even figure out what happened, Kuno's sword was already back in its sheath, scarcely looking like he'd drawn it all.

Everything stood in eerie silence for a strangely long second - and then the small island of swinging asphalt split apart into several dozen evenly sliced sections which hung in the air in defiance of gravity. Before the bisected landmass could even fall to the ground, Kuno shot forward, leaping through the air and landing on the closest section before leaping nimbly from one to the next as he closed in on his opponent.

Then, in pure, samurai movie style, he leapt high into the air, sword held high above his head and sun appearing directly behind him. On the ground, in pure action movie style, Mammoth held his arms out to his side and flexed his muscles so much that it looked like he was expecting the sheer dominance of said muscles to deflect the blade by itself.

The epic tableau was shattered by a high pitched whistle which cut through the air. Removing her fingers from her lips after her shrill whistle, Jinx offered a wide, Cheshire grin as she watched Kuno drop out of the air like a stone and both boys turn to look at her in confusion.

Mammoth blinked at her in much more mundane confusion. "Umm, what are you doing here, Jinx? I'm supposed to be catchin' Stickboy, not you."

"Indeed, fair maiden of the flaming pink hair. For what reason do you interfere in this most honorable duel between warriors, mysterious beauty?"

Jinx rolled her cat-like eyes. "Don't be that guy, Kuno. You know who I am."

Suddenly, the swordsman blinked, shook his head, and then nodded. "... Indeed, I do, Jinx. How fair thee on this day, my mischievous friend?"

Turning to Akari, Jinx giggled gaily. "I love it when he calls me 'mischievous'." She then turned back to the dynamic duo. "Not great, Kuno-baby. That nasty little girl there is gettin' all up in my grill. I don't suppose you guys can keep her busy while us weak, defenseless, yet incredibly beautiful young women flee in terror?"

For a moment, the shaggy haired mammoth and the eloquently quaffed swordsman shared a glance, then, in unison, nodded happily.

"You got it, Jinx!" Mammoth enthused. "I'll teach her not to mess with us!"

"It would be my honor to assist such visions of loveliness in their time of need. You had best make your escape now. We will hold back the Lilliputian villain that assails you."

The epic duet of warriors then began to charge at the diminutive form of Hinako, deep battle cries leading the way...

A second later, Jinx and Akari were sprinting down the street again, totally ignoring the various sounds of violence coming from behind them.

"You do know that if we're headed for the Cat Cafe..." Akari began to argue as they ran, turning a street corner just in time to nearly knock over a man with a cart labeled 'Toji's Incurable Love Potions and International House of Passion Spice.'

"We're probably going to run into more trouble?" she continued, looking over her shoulder in real fear.

The fear she felt wasn't from any mental figment that her mind might have conjured, though. The Commander had to know she and Jinx had pulled a switch on him, and hidden in her mind. It wouldn't take long before it found them, even within the Nerima illusion. She had to focus on finding a way to break the link between the Ethereal and the Floater host it was using as a proxy. Before it was too late.

Not privy to Akari's inner thoughts, Jinx stared back incredulously. "What could possibly be worse than what we're already running away from! On second thought, if you see an abandoned lot, run like heck! That's where Ranma and I had our duel over control of the Anything Goes style!"

"I thought you two worked that out...?" Akari shook her head in defeat as she put the pieces together. "Of course. 'Worked it out with your fists?' Something like that?"

"Ranma is utterly incapable of taking a joke, that's all I gotta say about him!" Shaking her head, she forced herself not to focus on that particular memory. "It totally served him right when I had Akane help me make his victory feast!"

They were coming up to a corner, so Jinx skidded to a stop before swinging around it. She was slightly dubious about what they might actually run into now. "Are there any places in this insane town that you even remotely associate with 'safe'?"

Akari hesitated, weighting her options. There was _that_ place, but...

"Ryouga-sama said that there was an okonomiyaki restaurant that usually didn't get ransacked or attacked as often as the rest. Good security, he said." Even as Akari offered the suggestion, she still seemed to not be too keen on it. "I guess we could lay low there for a while."

Jinx considered it for a second. "Okonomiyaki? Sounds familiar for some reason. Still, sounds safe to me. Let's book!"

They got halfway down the next street before encountering a large crowd assembled in a loose circle around the middle of the road. Two cars had even stopped, their drivers leaning out of windows to check out what was blocking the way. Against her better judgment, Akari slowed out of pure curiosity to see what the attraction was. Unfortunately, with both her memories of Nerima and Jinx's mashed together in the mindscape, both their imaginations were starting to take a toll on the place's already stretched-to-breaking sense of normalcy.

That only became more obvious when she saw what had enthralled the crowd.

A _pig_ and a _duck_ were dueling to the death.

The duck, sporting the thickest swirled coke-bottle glasses possible, quacked a clear threat, razor sharp knives glinting from under his feathers. A webbed foot inched closer as the duck circled, oozing a murderous battle aura. The tiny black piglet, sporting a familiar orange and black bandanna, seemed unimpressed, radiating a green energy that literally crackled on contact with the air. Somehow it managed to pound its front hooves together in a very human gesture of impending violence.

"WAK!" The duck yelled back, a clear challenge.

"SQEE!" The pig replied with a smirk.

"500 yen on the pig!" A man in the crowd yelled.

"1000 on the duck!" another yelled back. Soon the entire crowd were busy placing bets at a frenzied pace. Even the stalled drivers were pitching in. Standing next to Jinx, Akari could only shake her head. What kind of irresponsible people lived here? Placing bets on -

"Twenty bucks on the duck! Who wants a piece of this action!" With paper currency miraculously in hand now, Jinx ran forward and shoved people aside to get to the front of the ring.

"Me!" "I'm in!" "American money?"

"Go, Mousse, teach that pig why gravity is a bitch!"

Akari stood by, sweat drop trickling down her forehead, still a bit shocked. Actually, she remembered this... vaguely. Ryouga and Mousse fought quite a bit, but usually not in their cursed forms. This wasn't the Cat Cafe, though, or the park.

"Ok you two!" she interrupted, striding up to the two deadly... little animals. "What are you fighting about now? Ry... P-chan, you should know better! You'll hurt someone if you fight in the streets like this."

The pig and duck just stared at her a moment.

"WAK," the duck quacked. It sounded like a question.

"SQUEE," the pig replied, and motioned up with its nose. "SQUEE."

In a flash, the two took off straight up, pausing only to bounce off the hood of a car as their battle began in earnest. To the shock of the driver in said car, the front of it impacted inward and stress fractures spread through the windshield. In seconds, the black and white blur took to the roofs. A silent second later, part of the roof exploded in a cloud of debris.

Rather than running for their lives, the Nerimites 'ooh'ed and 'aah'ed and clapped at the free street performance. Two even jumped for a stray knife that became embedded in the asphalt, struggling to pull it out and keep it as a souvenir. A few others glared at Akari for breaking up a fight that - she was sure - was about to cause a whole lot of property damage. Only in Nerima would a rampaging piglet and duck cause more property damage than a loose elephant or bear.

"Honestly, Ryouga-sama and Mousse," Akari said with a huff. "Those two can be such hot heads." The pig farmer then frowned for a moment, only to finally relent, producing the same amount of money that Jinx had. "Fine! All on the pig to win."

"Sweet! Deal!" Jinx cheered, snatching up the money. Of course, the second that Akari turned back to watch the fight, Jinx quickly hid her free hand behind her back, twiddling her fingers in a most precise fashion, pink sparks shooting from her finger tips as she did.

Suppressing her smirk as best she could, Jinx continued to watch the fight in amusement. The wee pig was ridiculously fast and strong, dodging around the ducks attacks with relative ease. It looked like things were going to be fairly cut and dry ... At least it did until something 'unspeakable' happened.

Again, the pig, aura crackly madly, landed on the ledge of a building, only for the ledge to crumble away! Instantly, the pig lost its footing and began to tumble helplessly through the air.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Mu-chan dove in mercilessly.

A flurry of throwing knives cut through the air, but the piglet twisted and dodged and even deflected two of them with his hooves. Halfway to the ground, the pig managed to make contact with the wall speeding by, and an explosion obscured the entire floor with dust and bits of rock. Mu-chan blasted clean through an instant later, flapped his wings to come to an abrupt stop, and started looking around. An unidentified light source seemed to glint off his thick glasses as he spun around, unleashing double bladed chains from somewhere within his two-foot long wings.

They just barely missed a black blur that arced up over the dust cloud before descending with a squeal of triumph. Mu-chan barely had time to try and get one wing up to block the descending porcine heel/hoof-kick before it connected. The two tiny animals crashed into the street with a thunderous smash. A sewer grate flipped clean up and into the air from the force of the nearby impact, twirling over the heads of the cheering (or insane) spectators.

"He's down!" one of them cried.

"Not yet!" another interrupted. "Look!"

The smoke cleared, revealing P-chan's heel/hoof buried in a bent metal staff, barely held between Mu-chan's wings. The pig squee'd in anger, and a moment later the metal bar broke in half. Mu-chan wielded the two pieces as extensions of his wings, pressing the counterattack back against the piglet. As the porcine fighter nearly backed up against a brick wall, the duck leaned back and spat... another concealed knife!

P-chan had to lean back to just barely avoid the blade, letting it sink several inches into the wall.

"SQUEE," he said with a piggy grin.

"WAAAAK!" The duck charged, wings and feet a blur of motion as the animals dueled.

P-chan flipped Mu-chan onto his back with another crash.

"He's got him this time!" a man yelled. "The duck's finished!"

"Look at that! Armbar!"

"No! Wingbar!"

"Oh! Reverse! How long before that pig's arm breaks at that angle?"

"You see that? That duck's one dirty fighter!"

"The pig's reversed the reverse into a rolling suplex!"

"SQUEE!" P-chan roared. Well… 'bwee-ed.' Standing over the crater Mu-chan made in the ground, he seemed about to deliver the coup d'gras.

When a brick fell on his head from the crumbling roof above them.

The brick snapped in half and fell to P-chan's left and right.

"Bwee?" he took a moment to look up in obvious confusion. Mu-chan kicked him in the gut as reward for the distraction and the fight continued.

"Jinx!" Akari snapped, finally realizing the other girl was influencing the fight.

"What!" Jinx fired back, Cheshire grin splattered across her face.

"You're cheating! I can't believe you would do that to P-Chan!"

That brought Jinx up short for a second. "Wait a minute, that's what P-Chan looks like?"

"... Of course it is. How could you claim to know Ryouga and not know what P-chan looks like?" asked the incredulous pig breeder.

Jinx shrugged helplessly. "My Ryouga doesn't turn into a pig anymore, so sue me." Suddenly, a wicked giggle bubbled up from the young sorceress' throat. "So, that's Ryouga, eh? Well, that changes everything!"

Akari let out a breath of relief. "Finally, you see some reason. Hopefully that means you're done making him lose this fight now?"

The pink haired witch turned her attention back to the fight. Already, P-Chan had recovered from the bonk to the head he'd taken, and was duking it out with Mu-Chan fiercely. It seemed like the black little piglet didn't need any help winning, so much as time.

Smiling to herself, Jinx finally nodded. "Yup, I'm all done making Ryouga lose. After all, why would I need to, since you're gonna make him do it?"

Jinx snapped her fingers.

Suddenly, a wicked updraft flew down the street, sending skirts flying up with gleeful abandon. Akari let out a panicked squeal as her own pleated skirt flew up around her head for several devastating seconds, blocking her view of everything as she fought to push it back down.

Finally, she regained control of her rebelling garment, and furiously smoothed out the fabric.

The damage had already been done. P-chan was planted at the center of the street, still as a statue, eyes like platters and nose trickling a steady stream of blood. ...Same went for half of the other guys on the street as well, actually. Unfortunately, Mu-chan, oblivious to the once in a life time opportunity, was not so shaken.

Pulling a massive mallet from ... somewhere, the mighty mallard dropped the megaton hammer on the poor piglets head. A cloud of dust and debris shot up from the point of impact. As the dust finally cleared, and Mu-chan retrieved his oversized weapon, a deep crater was revealed, a tiny black lump buried at the center of it.

Smiling evilly, Jinx snatched the yen from the businessman, then held out her hand to Akari expectantly. "Alrighty then, Akari. I do believe that you owe me twenty bucks."

"I - I - !" Akari stuttered in embarrassment and rage, face red as a tomato. "Why you! Oh! Oh! If this were real, I'd so have to toss you!"

"Wak?" Mu-chan nudged his now unconscious opponent with a webbed foot. Realizing he finally won, the duck turned his bill up to the sky and quaked madly in what could almost be construed as a gloating, evil manner. "WAK! WAK WAK WAK WAK!"

He then glomped onto the nearest woman, mistaking her for a certain buxom Chinese Amazon.

Heedless to the insane waterfowl, Jinx burst into laughter at the look on Akari's face. Then, in a brazen move, flipped up her own skirt and swayed back and forth teasingly. The gymnastic sorceress took shameless joy in showing off her fancy hot pants to her irate companion.

"Well, maybe you should have been imagining yourself wearing bicycle shorts like I did!"

Neither paid attention to the screaming woman trying to pry a duck off her leg.

Huffing in indignation but lacking any way to ruffle the feathers of the younger girl, Akari chose instead to run over to where P-chan had been knocked out. Of course, it wasn't really Ryouga OR P-chan, but that didn't mean she didn't want to make sure he was alright. The crater was only about a foot across, so he was probably just stunned, but at this point it was either check in on him or trade verbal jibes with Jinx - a duel she didn't like her chances of surviving.

By the time she got close, P-chan was already starting to come to.

"Good fight, pig!" one of the crazy Nerimites pointed at the piglet. Another nodded in agreement as the crowd started to disperse. Behind them, they continued to ignore the poor middle aged woman trying to dislodge an overly affectionate duck from her person - she was now using a crowbar to little effect. Nerima couldn't have been this crazy, but having only visited a couple times, Akari had to admit her perception of it was obviously a... tad skewed and maybe just a bit bias.

_'Come on. Focus. The actual accuracy of them doesn't even matter. I shouldn't even be worrying about it. I just need more concurrent memories running. The more chaff the better. In fact, if they contradict, that works in our favor.'_

Jinx was thankfully oblivious, but Akari could feel the Commander methodically searching for them. They had to blend into the confusion and the chaos. There was no way either of them would survive a direct confrontation, but they weren't facing an Ethereal Commander directly. It was working through a Floater as a proxy. That was the one weak point. Timing would be critical. They needed to go deeper to draw it in more. If they could just get lucky, then maybe -

_'If you encounter XCOM, you have to erect a passive defense. You don't have the strength to fight them. Counterattack from an indirect angle.'_ It was the lesson, the directive, she had been given to fight human psionics. Now, ironically, she'd be using it against the aliens who imparted it to her. Her vision blurred for a moment, as she felt the Commander get close, seize on an errant thought, and very nearly track it to source.

Then, mercifully, they were cloaked again.

_'Deeper. We have to go deeper. Eleven seconds have passed on the outside. We need thirty. At least thirty. If I try and attack the Floater's mind too soon, I'll get caught.'_

Once she was finished showing off her self proclaimed "ridiculously toned butt" (and counting her ill gotten gains) Jinx finally walked over to join Akari. She noticed the spaced out look, but didn't quite grasp the root cause of it.

"Hey," she asked, leaning in close. "Earth to Akari?"

"Oh!" the pig farmer started with a shake of her head. "S-sorry I... Nevermind. Just... thinking."

The witch stared at the little black pig in the girl's arms oddly for a moment, before poking it a few times. "This is the infamous P-chan, eh? Looks kinda like a pudgy little baby. Smells like one too."

"You said your Ryouga cured himself, right?" Akari asked, though the question was mostly rhetorical. Her human mind focused on keeping Jinx engaged and producing memories to throw off their trail. Akari's own memories wouldn't do it. The Mind knew everything she had ever known. It had to be new. "I guess you're lucky he doesn't turn into this anymore... but I always thought his pig curse was absolutely adorable!"

Jinx rolled her eyes.

"'Cured' is a bit of an overstatement, but yeah. I dunno, though, I guess he's not _hideous_ or anything. Not really what I was imagining though... oddly enough." A sudden thought occurred to her. "Heh, though, now that I think of it, why are you so mad about flashing your goods to Bacon Bits here. It's not like he hasn't seen it all before."

"Bwee!" the piglet angrily interrupted.

"That's right," Akari agreed, and gave Jinx a sidelong look. "And normal people don't enjoy flashing a dozen strangers, Jinx! Especially not in _this_ town. I'd rather not have you-know-who show up."

"... I'm starting to worry about you, Pig Squared. We're in your 'mind' here. Are you gonna freak out over a bunch of imaginary people seeing your oversized booty?" Jinx fired back snidely. "Besides, I'm already prepared for the chances of running into 'you know who'. Bike shorts, anyone?"

"Unless those are men's shorts you're wearing, I don't know how much of a deterrent they'd be. I still can't believe you trained with that perverted old man. I'm just glad Cologne never made him into a Trenchard... the last thing the world needs is the introduction of massive obsessive perversion into the alien group mind..."

Akari tucked P-chan into the crook of her arm and started back down the street. "Let's get to that okonomiyaki place before we get attacked by a monster or kidnapped by some Chinese prince."

Snickering evilly, Jinx sidled up beside Akari as they walked. "Hey, you wanna see one of the 'seeecret' techniques that Happi taught me?"

"Since I'm sure it's something gross and perverted, probably not..."

"... Hmm, well, then I guess you'll probably want these back then, Miss Spoilsport," Jinx huffed, handing Akari an oddly familiar pair of panties.

"I had a feeling you'd do something like that." Akari seemed unruffled. "So I replaced mine already." Leaving the ones in Jinx's hand to flutter in the breeze.

Jinx nearly pouted at Akari's composure. "So you're not going to try and snatch them back?"

"And play into your hands? I think not!" Akari huffed. "Besides, shouldn't you be stealing men's underwear? You won't be able to leech ki from another woman..."

"Meh, he never mentioned anything about stealing energy from anyone to me," Jinx replied, tossing the panties to a short businessman that walked past them - ignoring the look of glee which lit his face as he quickly hugged the silky item to his chest and ran off. "Like I need to steal anyone else's chi to get by."

As an afterthought, Jinx pulled out an unfamiliar wallet and started to rifle through its contents. "Hmm, looks like Mr. Sarutobi just paid ... forty thousand yen for your panties. Think that'll get us some okonami-yukki?"

"Okonomiyaki," Akari corrected, trying to resist the urge to even think about where her former panties had ended up. She comforted herself by willing the man to disappear within the illusion later. Not due to embarrassment so much - it just wouldn't do for a piece of her to be floating around for any unwanted company to find.

Turning right at the end of the street, a loud crash broke Akari's chain of thought.

* * *

The massive, floating continent hung serenely in the distance, the sheer scope of it at the same time filling her vision, yet looking insignificant hidden away at the heart of the endless, vacant dimension which contained it. On the gravity defying land mass, a magnificent, sweeping city of brass and gold was clearly visible. Even from such a distance, graceful, avian themed architecture could be seen adorning some of the larger, golden buildings, and, at the heart of the city, a grand tower reached towards the very heavens themselves. It was ... breathtaking, and exactly as she remembered it to be.

Raven groaned loudly. "Oh ... right."

Still, she had come this far. Flying forward quickly, she entered the city proper and began to wander down its endless streets and plazas. It truly was a magnificent city, filled with beauty and splendor... but that was all. An eerie silence hung over the place; a nearly palpable pall of solitude which clung to her, chilling her to the bone.

Was there not a single soul in this entire city?

Almost as if in response to her inquiry, she noticed a dove fly overhead. Was ... was that her spirit guide? She hadn't delved too deeply into the particulars of any Native American religion (and there had to be dozens of varieties), but she did recall that being an important component of the vision quest. Why was it flying away from her then? Quickly lifting from the ground herself, she flew after it. It was, almost predictably, flying straight for the arching tower which shadowed most of the city.

The chase seemed to take seconds, or hours, it was hard to tell as the scenery of the beautiful city sped by beneath her, but eventually, she landed on one of the sweeping balconies which adorned the towering structure. Her guardian dove was already there, walking awkwardly towards the far end of the balcony, towards the large entrance to the tower itself.

"Wait!" she called out plaintively, hoping the animal would listen.

It did not heed her request, instead choosing to continue its wobbly walk, passing into the interior of the tower a moment later. Running after it, Raven sped into the tower, reaching out as she called after her vision guide.

"Come back here!" she yelled, making no headway thus far.

"And ... just who are you talking to?"

The voice, so unexpected, sent a spike of recognition through her so stark that it was very nearly painful. By all rights, she should have forgotten the sound of that voice years ago, but it was as clear to her now as it had the very first time she had ever heard it. Spinning around, Raven gasped loudly at the sight of the woman before her. She was tall, nearly a half a head taller than Raven herself, and wore a billowing robe of the purest white. She wore a hood as well, not unlike Raven's. However, her hood did not shadow her face not at all, fully revealing the woman's achingly beautiful face fully, from the pale color of her lips, to the small crystal set above her brow, to the flowing locks of violet hair that disappeared into the back of the hood's depths.

"Arella?" Raven tentatively asked.

"Raven," the stately woman replied with a slight nod of her head.

"Mother?" Raven asked, this time with the barest traces of hope in her voice.

Arella's response began with a wide smile, as she pulled down her hood.

"Daughter."

Taking a deep breath, Raven prevented herself from making an idiot of herself, as Ryouga had just the day before.

"So... it really is you?" She asked instead.

For a moment, her mother's smile faltered. "That is ... a complicated question. I am your mother, as you remember me to be. At the same time, you know that this is not the real Azarath, that I cannot actually be the Arella that was."

Silence hung in the air for a long time, until Raven finally nodded. "I ... suppose I let myself forget for just a moment." A wry grin. "Does - does that make you my spirit guide, then?"

"Perhaps that might be appropriate," Arella replied, her smile returning. "I am what you need me to be; else why would I be here?" Suddenly, the woman dropped her hands on her hips. "However, young lady, do not think that I am not aware of exactly what it was that you did to arrive here."

Shrinking beneath the gaze of the being which looked so very much like her mother, Raven swallowed loudly. "Umm… I'm not sure what you mean. Anyway, I came to seek your help. I have so many questions, and I was hoping that you could give me the answers I seek."

Arella eyed her sadly for a moment, before nodding. "I can do that... after a fashion. I can give you answers to your questions, however, I can only give you answers which you already know in your heart to be true. I am, after all, merely a culmination of your thoughts and your experiences."

Raven's shoulders slumped at that.

"You can only tell me things that I already know?" she asked. "What use is that?"

Arella's smile quirked back up at the question. "You may be surprised, my daughter. Conscious knowledge and subconscious knowledge are not always linked. Just because you haven't realized something yet, does not mean that your mind has not already solved your dilemma."

"See... that was needlessly cryptic," Raven muttered with a frown. "Alright then, mother, can you explain why my emotions are out of balance?"

Again, her mother smiled, but this one bore such a mysterious quality that she half expected an answer of 'That ... is a secret'.

"Are your emotions out of balance, dear Raven?"

Raven frowned as she looked at her mother. "Of course they are. Rage is so very weak, at the moment, she's no stronger than any of my other... emotions..."

She very nearly slapped herself across the face.

"I believe I'm beginning to understand your meaning from before, mother."

"I knew you would," her mother replied with a wry smirk. "You are such a clever young lady, after all."

The violet haired Titan gave a very un-ladylike snort in response. "And if I were to ask you why Rage is so weak, you would answer with something vague, yet pertinent, like-"

"My, but your dreams have been unusual lately, have they not, my daughter? Almost as if something... important were missing."

Daughter narrowed her eyes at Mother as she tried to divine the meaning of her latest statement. "You know, just because this is a vision quest doesn't mean you can't just answer my questions clearly, does it?"

Arella simply met Raven's glare with a calm gaze. Annoyed with the lack of response, Raven considered the question. It was very true that her dreams had been... quite odd lately. The less she thought of her first dream - and Jinx - the better, but it had been a sharp departure from the normal nightmares she had been having for the past several months. Endless dreams of torment and fire, of a world blasted to ashes and reshaped into a macabre throne upon which sat her Father...

Raven glared at her mother. "You are starting to annoy me, Mother."

Holding a hand to her breast, Arella let out a shocked gasp. "Oh, it pains me so to think that you remember me as such an annoyance."

The feigned pain was so obvious that Raven rolled her eyes. "Father has not been in my dreams lately, not since I came to this world."

"And?" Arella asked leadingly.

"And Rage possessed the strongest ties to Father of all of my emotions. She was always filled with his hatred, filled to bursting with his fury," Raven mused quietly.

"And now she is empty, subsisting only on the 'rage' of a single young woman, not terribly prone to bouts of excessive emotion," her mother pointed out. "I understand why you divided up your emotions as you did, but for a being composed of hatred to suddenly be stripped of it... it must have been quite a shock to the poor girl."

"So - so that is why she seemed so haggard; why she tried to feed on Ryouga's rage!" Raven realized, surprising herself. It was so obvious, now that she thought about it!

"Wait a moment," she started a moment later, "But why am I not in contact with Father?"

Arella rolled her eyes. "You are a long way from home, my daughter, further than you might possibly imagine."

"That... was almost a straight answer, mother," Raven quipped. "I think I understand. We traveled through dimensions to arrive here! We must have traveled countless dimensions, left the bounds of Trigon's power completely... but... but what does that mean?"

"I need not even tempt you with leading questions for this one, Raven," Arella stated with a smile. "If you are beyond the reach of your father, then you know what that means."

"The prophecy..." Raven breathed.

"...need not apply here," Arella answered for her. "A portal has no use if there is no one in reach to use it. To say nothing of the other necessities for his summoning."

Raven was literally stunned to silence for a solid minute as the ramifications of that bounced around her skull. "As long as I stay here... I am safe... As is Earth... as are all the realms of our world."

"That is one way to interpret it." Arella nodded, but had to add a caveat. "Though you already know that nothing good comes without a price."

The dark Titan looked up at that, uncertain. "What could possibly be more important than stopping the prophecy? All I have to do is stay here when Ryouga and the others... leave..."

She was starting to hate this vision quest.

Suddenly, something else occurred to her. "That wouldn't be the only price, would it?"

Arella shrugged. "You are your father's daughter, for better or for worse. If you need not fear his power-"

"Then I can't benefit from his power, either," Raven finished flatly. "I knew something was wrong after my battle with Mousse. I still haven't completely recovered from it."

"And likely you won't," Arella supplied. "You possess a measure of power yourself, but without Trigon's influence, you will be greatly diminished. You have already sensed that this dimension's laws cannot abide your father's power."

Raven tapped her chin, deep in thought. "But... if that is so, then why have my powers persisted for so long? Shouldn't they have ceased working immediately?"

Arella dropped a comforting hand on her shoulder. "As I said, you are your father's daughter. You already knew that different dimensions possess different laws. Azarath exists on a floating continent, an impossibility in the Earth realm in which you now live. It has been said that, just as dimensions have their own laws, some beings, those of great and terrible power, possess their own laws, and carry them with them wherever they go. Your father could be considered such a being... as are you. You also have the benefit of fitting into this universe - or maybe 'adapting' is a better word - far better than he. Remember how a reed bends in the storm where a tree would break."

"So," Raven dared to speculate. "The longer I stay, the more the laws of this dimension will affect me. Until I become... what? Normal?"

"As normal as anyone else around you, at the very least," Arella added, smiling weakly. "Your father isn't the only source of power."

"This is... all so much to take in." Raven rubbed her forehead with a thumb and forefinger, feeling the start of a headache coming on. "I - I don't even know what to think."

She started suddenly, as her mother pulled her into a gentle embrace. Standing ramrod straight for a moment, Raven finally relaxed enough to return the hug.

"I think you've learned all that I can tell you, my daughter. I can only hope that I have helped you."

"More than you can ever know," Raven replied, her voice strained as she buried her face into her mother's shoulder.

"Then I am glad. Now, Raven, it is time for you to go."

Raven pulled back sharply. "Go? But - but there's so much more I want to ask."

Arella shook her head sadly. "You know that I can't give you those answers."

"But-"

"Raven." Her mother placed her hands on Raven's shoulders and matched her gaze. "It's time to wake up."

* * *

Raven sat up, feeling more than a little groggy. Holding her head, she felt the room spin around her as information and... something else swirled around her mind in a wild mash of dizziness and fatigue. Time to wake up? No, Raven was quite sure that it was time to go to sleep.

Within a moment, the dark Titan was passed out at the center of her makeshift salt circle.

* * *

The crashing sound which had caught Akari and Jinx's attention had been caused by a strange boy wearing a cardboard box - and absolutely nothing else - flying through the air and into a wall. More than a few pedestrians dove out of the way as he hit, bounced, and fell forward in an overly dramatic fashion.

"U-ukyou-sama... w-why?" he managed to say, tears slowly falling in midair.

"Like I need a reason! Get out and stay out, you jackass!"

A young woman stood at the entrance of a popular establishment, one hand curled up into a fist, the other holstering a giant spatula in place onto her back. She seemed to be about Akari's age, but instead of a school uniform, she wore a rather revealing cooking outfit - part apron, part attire, part advertisement - that sported the restaurant's name: 'Ucchans Okonomiyaki.'

Jinx started. "Hey, she looks kinda familiar. Isn't she ... Isn't she Kuno's sister?"

"That's Kodachi," Akari answered, leaving out that she'd never met the swordsman's sister. She had been in Europe touring colleges and taking an extended vacation in the months following the near-wedding. "This is another of Ranma's fiancés. Ukyou-san."

"Oh, Akari-chan!" Ukyou replied, speaking in an overly familiar Osaka accent. "I didn't know you were back in town, sugar!"

"Ah-ha, yes," Akari stammered a bit and motioned over to her companion. "This is Jinx, a friend of mine."

"Well, come on in!" Ukyou ducked back into the restaurant. She made the simple motion seem completely graceful and confident, like she didn't have a care in the world. "I bet you came by for some of my world famous Kansai cuisine!"

Inside, her restaurant was packed with customers, and lined with awards and endorsements from magazines interspersed with the otherwise plain but cheery decor. In fact, it seemed not just nice, but too nice. A pretty waitress in a red version of Ukyou's outfit glided between stalls and tables. Oddly, the waitress' apron-dress had "It's a Trap!" written on it instead of "Ucchan's Okonomiyaki."

"Ukyou ... Ukyou ...?" Jinx murmured, tapping her chin in thought. Yes, she was pretty certain that she'd heard the name before. Now where had did she remember it from-

The sorceress' head suddenly shot up.

"Wait a second!" She suddenly realized. "This is the restaurant that we sent Pr-"

In a burst of motion, the front door of the restaurant was kicked open, nearly breaking right off the sliding rails. A familiar figure wearing a blue and yellow spandex costume and carrying a large, hexagonal shield rushed into the dining area and posed dramatically.

"Ukyou Kuonji! You are now a prisoner of the H.I.V.E. Academy, under orders of the Headmaster! Come with me now or be taken!"

Instantly, Jinx buried her face in her hands. "Oh, lord... now I remember where I remember her from..."

"Oh my," Akari demurely muttered. "That poor boy."

"Listen pal, threatening me is one thing...!" Ukyou's right hand returned to the hilt of her battle spatula. "But damaging my restaurant? Annoying my customers! You'll pay for it in more ways than one, you jackass!"

Ukyou moved with all the speed and power Jinx would have expected from one of Mousse's and Ryouga's contemporaries. If anything, it was more impressive than expected. Ukyou crossed the room, moving between Akari and herself in the blink of an eye, to bury the edge of her spatula into Private Hive's hexagonal shield. Cutting about halfway through the metal, Private Hive himself fared only a little better. Ukyou's superhuman swing knocking him clean off his feet and onto the ground.

"That shield's pretty tough!" Ukyou observed, working the edge of her spatula deeper into the steel with a saw-like motion.

"Ah!" the deflated young man stuttered. "N-Now, just wait a second -"

A merciless stomp-and-booting later, and he was send flying into the still teary eyed Tsubasa outside. The two boys splattered against the wall and slumped into a pathetic (and somewhat homoerotic) pile. Inside, Ukyou ripped the shield free from the bladed edge of her battle spatula, tossing it over to the waitress, who seemed remarkably calm and composed by the whole altercation.

"Find a nice spot on the wall for that, Konatsu," the chef commented, walking back to the grill. A scary backlight glowed behind her as she added. "...As a warning to the others. Don't cause trouble in my restaurant."

"I always found her a little intimidating," Akari whispered to a bemused Jinx.

Jinx shrugged. "She's no big deal. Shampoo is the real scary one when it comes to Ranma's little harem." She then walked up to the grill and found a nice stool to plant herself on. "Alright, 'Ucchan', I'll have something that doesn't stink like fish. And make it a double!"

"Sure thing. One works, no seafood, extra meat! Hope you like pork!" Ukyou decided for the pink haired girl - extra meat? Jinx didn't object - and went to work on getting the ingredients together on the grill. Akari sat down next to Jinx, still holding P-chan. Ukyou noticed the piglet, and the piglet did likewise, but that moment of passing recognition was all.

"What about you, sugar?" the chef asked, and added, "Something to drink, too? Don't worry, I'll put this on the lost boy's tab."

"I guess...one shrimp and vegetable, no mayo, extra seaweed," Akari ordered, sounding like it wasn't the first time. "A diet Coke, too."

Jinx hemmed and hawed for a moment. "You got any sake in this joint? I always wanted to try some of that before I died."

"Drinking age is twenty, sugar," Ukyou replied, quickly pointing up at a sign on the wall that said: No ID, No Alcohol. "I don't wanna lose my license, now do I?"

"She'll just have a regular coke," Akari ordered for her companion. "And we're not going to die! I'm working on the problem as we speak."

"Oh really? Well, while you're working on that ... I think _I'm_ going to be imagining Ukyou as being a far more understanding bartender. Isn't that right, 'Ucchan'?" Jinx aimed the second question directly at Ukyou.

The confused chef shook her head for a moment, before slowly nodding. "Well ... I suppose if it's going to be your last drink and all..."

"Jinx! Don't go tweaking people to suit your tastes!" Akari complained and hung her head as Jinx got a cup of room temperature, high grade spring sake. She really was incorrigible! Did her Ryouga really go for girls like that?

"So, Akari-chan," Ukyou spoke up as she whipped together their orders at record speed, barely needing to pay attention while her hands worked on supremely skilled autopilot. "How are you and that directionless jackass getting along? Any... _problems_?"

Jinx blinked. Was that tone of voice what she thought it was?

"Absolutely none!" Akari immediately replied, forgetting for a moment that she had as much control over Ukyou as anything else here. "We're as happy as pigs in mud, thank you very much."

"Bwee!" P-chan agreed.

Ukyou smiled prettily at Akari's overly defensive response. "Nothin' personal, sugar. He's still our best bet for getting Akane out of the picture. Hate the game, not the players."

Jinx nodded enthusiastically. "That's right! I can't wait to get that hussy Akane out of the way so that I can finally marry Ranma! Why, it feels like just yesterday that Father Genma informed me of the how he engaged me to Ranma when we were children in exchange for some pickled pigs spleens!"

Jinx held her hands to her cheeks, managing a faint blush as she swooned. "Oh, Ran-chan and I will be as happy as a pair of hippopotami in a sink hole!"

Surprisingly, Ukyou didn't immediately whip out her battle spatula. Instead she smiled politely, only a hint of murderous aura visible behind her eyes. Flipping one of the okonomiyaki into the air, the master chef turned to Akari.

"She's kidding, right?" Ukyou asked, restraining herself for the sake of her restaurant. No-killing-paying-customers was a good policy, even if they were potential competition. But after the meal was paid for, well, that was a different situation entirely.

"She's just making fun of us," Akari assured her. "She does that. A lot. One would almost think it to be some sort of defense mechanism."

Jinx shook her head. "Seriously, you chicks make it way too easy! Though ..." Jinx gave them both a sly smile. "I _did_ share quite the intimate little kiss with Ranma at one point. I bet he _still_ thinks about that night all the time."

"Whaaaat?" Ukyou growled, still easily provoked despite Jinx just saying how easy it was to push her buttons.

"She's doing it again," Akari spoke up. "Jinx. Knock it off. Saying stupid things like that can get you in serious trouble around here."

"If this were a certain run-down-excuse for a Chinese restaurant, your friend would already be hot and spicy shredded beef," Ukyou grumbled, not entirely convinced Jinx was as innocent - or as much a liar - as Akari insisted. "Keep her away from Shampoo, if you know what's good for you."

"I will," Akari insisted, glaring at Jinx before the girl could say more.

"Order up!" the waitress called, sticking an order onto a clip board near the grill.

"I'm on it!" Ukyou said, finishing the two okonomiyaki specials, and flipping them easily onto plates. Two bowls of miso soup followed along with small cups of extra sauce. The girl was a master of her craft, and despite the speedy and flashy preparation, it was simply presented for easy and straightforward consumption. Most okonomiyaki joints also let you cook your ingredients yourself, but once people had had it by Ucchan, they never went back. Or so Akari had... heard.

"It was nice seeing you again, sugar," Ukyou finished, nodding to the two girls, but more one than the other. "Bring the lost boy in next time. We haven't caught up on _old times_ in _forever_..."

There was that _inflection_ again.

Akari nodded, but secretly dreaded just that. Ukyou was far too pretty, far too persuasive, and far too manipulative for her comfort. It could be all too easy for Ryouga get talked into one of her schemes again. That it had already nearly happened once - that being the one time she and Ryouga ate at Ucchans - was a fact that hadn't gone unnoticed or forgotten by the sumo pig breeder. That, and it had always sort of seemed like there was something between her and Ryouga from those 'old times' that set Akari's female danger sense tingling.

"I have to admit, this is good!" Jinx spoke up, already digging into her meal.

Akari broke off a pair of wooden chopsticks and ate more sedately.

"Well, that's to be expected," she dithered. Ukyou was a good cook, but it wasn't like she was the only one who could whip up a meal. "Anyway, we aren't here to enjoy the food and pick fights."

"I heartily disagree. I don't know what's better, the food, the look on Ukyou's face when I told her that half truth about me and Ranma ... or the complimentary booze!" Taking a hearty drink from her glass, Jinx burst into a fit of hacking coughs as the alcohol burned down every inch of her throat.

"Ho - holy crap! How do people drink this stuff?"

She quickly shook her head to clear it, then proceeded to do her best to cover her gaffe. "Its -" she began in a strained voice "-ahem- it's just too bad that Kasumi isn't around. Now that lady can cook!"

"So I've heard," Akari agreed. Indeed, Kasumi's cooking seemed to have taken on an almost mythical quality among some. She remembered finding it good for home-style cooking, but not jaw dropping.

"It certainly sounds like you've been around," she continued. "How long did you say it's been since you first went to Jyusenkyou?"

Jinx tapped a finger to her chin as she considered the question.

"Hmm, just a few months?" she wondered. "Then again, it feels like it's been years. I kinda lost track hanging out with Happi. Yeah, I guess I kinda got to know most of the Nerima crew in one way or another. Say, did I ever tell you about my epic catfight with Shampoo? Y'know ... I don't wanna make anything of it ... but you've known Ryouga a lot longer than I have, why don't you have more crazy stories?"

Akari glanced over at Ukyou, but then focused on her food.

"I... I'm not a martial artist, and I live out of town," she explained, doing a poor job of hiding her slightly jealous tone. "I don't think anything I could tell compares to what most of the people here have been through. I don't like to fight and Ryouga-sama always tried to make sure I didn't get involved in anything dangerous... So I guess I never had the chance to have any wacky adventures in China or get kidnapped by some wandering martial artist, or have duels with arch enemies..."

"You know, I never told anyone this before, not even Ryouga-sama, but... sometimes I wish I had been able to do some of the things Ukyou over there has." Akari inclined her head to where the chef was confidently working a table. "She's kind of like me... she has a business just like I have the family farm and we have a lot of the same responsibilities. But even before I met her, I'd heard all about the things she and Ryouga-sama had done: about the plans they made, and the cursed tunnel full of ghosts, and the hot springs race and the vacation they won. I wish I'd gotten the chance to do something like that before I died."

Jinx just stared at Akari for a moment. The harsh mistress that was reality gave the sorceress a big smack upside the head. It was so easy to forget what had happened to the girl beside her ... that this wasn't the actual Akari she was talking to - not really...

"Yeah ... well ... provided that we don't die in the next five minutes when that thing finds us, you've managed to get yourself a heck of a second chance here. I mean ... y'know, I could probably take you on a few wacky adventures myself before you start throwing yourself all over Ryouga like a cheap rug again."

"I think I'd like that," Akari replied, giving the other girl a genuine smile. Then she hesitated a few seconds, unsure how much more to say, and whether this was the place to say it.

"And you're right, this is a second chance," she eventually continued, more serious now. "But not for myself and Ryouga-sama."

Jinx quirked an eyebrow in confusion.

"That Akari is gone and I can't just try and pick up where I left off," she explained. "Maybe... in a better world, I could find him again, and he'd accept me even after all this, and you and I could fight over him and have fun... but, Jinx, that isn't going to happen. The way this body is made, it can't survive without being part of the alien group mind. I started falling apart the moment the alien parts were burned out of my brain."

For the first time in a long time, Jinx was speechless. She raised a finger, only to lower it again, her voice failing her. The once delectable food turned to ash in her mouth. "Wait ... but, that means ... that means that - that _I_ killedyou?"

The young sorceress reeled right back off her stool, staggering back away from Akari.

"Why ... why the _hell_ didn't you tell me!" she shouted. "You saved my life and I freakin' _murdered_ you without even knowing it!"

Unbidden, tears began to well up in Jinx's eyes. "Go-goddamnit, you - you damn _pig farmer_!"

She couldn't even understand her own conflicting feelings. She didn't even particularly like Akari, but this - this was _too_ _much_!

So Jinx did what she always did in these situations.

She ran.

* * *

The Trenchard had actually compartmentalized her mind and assembled a memory maze of surprising complexity. It was impressive at first, taken from the point of view of a weak human mind. Cracking into it and backtracking out of the other human's mind had taken time and some small difficulty - until it became clear the damaged human-alien hybrid was using modified Ethereal defenses. When the origin of the technique became clear, it was far simpler to rip through and into the heart of the illusion.

Some form of city.

Staring down at it from above, it was a fragmented mix of memories, all running in parallel. Some were connected, others separated by hazy sections. It was a futile attempt. Even with a dozen memories from each girl present, many running based on emotional or subconscious queues, it would end the same way. There was no hiding from it, no matter where in the mind they fled.

In the end, they would submit.

A great eyeless presence swept over the Nerima illusion, taking in the thoughts and emotions and assumptions. It was impossible to find them at a glance, so it reached out with an invisible hand and seized one of the memories. A metaphysical block of Nerima uprooted and disintegrated, turning to metaphysical sand and dust. Searching through the chaff, the Ethereal found no sentient remains.

So it took another.

And another.

Except more memories desperately resurfaced, throwing themselves in the way of the brutal mental violation. They seemed obvious decoys, but it was also possible they were meant to be overlooked. It would take no chances. Another memory turned to dust, and the horizon of the mindscape shuddered. Pitiful defenses rallied to try and postpone the inevitable.

POINTLESS

Its mere presence within the Trenchard's mind shattered the resistance.

However, shifting through the memories via destruction was also proving inefficient. The broken hybrid was producing new memories, and the human she was with also seemed to be contributing to the confusion. Simply reaping through them at a deliberate pace was not the best solution. Especially since it did not want to damage the human... The Mind wanted her intact. It wanted her secrets. The secrets of her world.

Another approach was in order.

YES

It began to shrink down, descending into the jumble of memories.

THAT

* * *

Seiran CCW  
(Medical Wing)

It was nice to see Kasumi again.

However, it was rather less pleasant having to spend an hour in Medical getting a checkup. Not that he had a choice. Ryouga understood the need to be there, inconvenience beside the fact - he'd encountered a number of psionic anomalies off-base and procedure was to schedule a medical review and mind probe as soon as possible before a formal return to normal duty. Mousse and Kuno had already come and went, leaving only Ryu and himself.

"How is your arm, Ryouga-kun?" Kasumi softly walked around to his right side, to check on him. Holding a small disk, she ran it up and down the blood vine scar there, taking a penetrating scan.

"Still hurts sometimes," he admitted, not bothering with bluster. This was a medical exam, so it was best just to be honest. "Sort of a prickly feeling. Like needles."

"There are still a few traces of the parasitic vine," Kasumi explained, a worried look on her face as she turned reached down to turn his wrist over. "Ranma has them too."

It was the gift that kept on giving.

He knew there were still bits of the damn thing left inside him, and that they were supposedly dead or inactive. His body was breaking down the remnants, but much more slowly than any injury he had suffered before. It was easier to push out a bullet or a sliver of shrapnel than to deal with the tenacious killer plant remains. Most doctors had given the two martial arts lieutenants a prognosis of three months to completely wipe out the infection. Both young men had been aiming for half that.

It could be worse.

He felt a psi-dampener ring slide over his ears before tightening around his forehead. His concentration slipped for a moment, as the ring cut off his mental link to his battle aura. A few seconds later, and Kasumi dialed it back to read-only mode.

Ryouga glanced down at his left hand, and the nearly complete practice stone he held in it. A plastic tray under the hand caught tiny flakes of granite, sheared from the rock. It was coming along nicely. He already had the basic platform and humanoid outline done, including the proportions and the pose. It was a fairly simple _Amida Nyorai_ (Buddha statue) using the seated position and the meditation mudra. His ki flexed slightly, tracing the image of the granite in his mind's eye, before finding a spot and setting off a miniscule breaking point.

A few tiny flakes fell from the crown of the Buddha's head.

It was an exercise in control, but also one of visualization. Back at the Amazon Village, the former Elder Pill had been able to shape the results of her breaking points into things like spears or other weapons. The ability to turn the battlefield itself into a weapon was appealing. It required both fine control over the application of the ki, the precise use of breaking points, and an ability to visualize and execute their use. The entire effort needed to be mapped out beforehand, like a geometric pattern or a blueprint.

All this had to be done at a moment's notice, during life or death combat.

Holding the stone in the palm of his hand, perceiving it as a three dimensional array of breaking points, Ryouga found his thoughts briefly straying back to the other-him. The one from that strange other world. Despite being slightly younger, that version of him had a very different approach to the breaking point. He had even managed to decipher and mostly negate the Killing Point when used on his umbrella-weapon. That shouldn't have been possible. Ryouga himself could only negate his own Killing Point technique when it was used at a low level to cause pain, not the True Form when it was used to destroy.

It wasn't that he couldn't understand how the other-him did it; it was more a matter of how that Ryouga had developed such a strange synchronization with his Earth-oriented ki. He was a lot like Cologne in that respect (except Cologne had keyed herself to water and wood elements). The basic breaking point was based on resonance, like striking a string on a guitar. One identified a breaking point, injected the needed amount of ki, caused a resonation, and then ordered its destruction, releasing the energy of the resolation. Rather than directly resonating one breaking point, or even ten thousand of them, the other-Ryouga was able to link the points with his own fighting spirit, making them almost an extension of his body.

_'How did he manage that?'_ Ryouga couldn't help but wonder. Elemental synchronization like Cologne and this other-him had was supposed to take years, even for the most well suited trainee. In fact, how did that other him even perceive breaking points without partly extending his aura?

It was so... strange.

It was completely different than his own breaking point derived techniques. While this other-him had gone off to synch with his elemental ki, he had gone in the other direction entirely. He had trained up his senses and aura to identify and trigger breaking points in all forms of matter. The premise had been that there was nothing that could not ultimately be destroyed: rock, water, air, tree, man, earth, heaven. All were fundamentally one, and all could be brought into the domain of the breaking point. Synching up with elemental ki wouldn't help develop the true smelting point, or the Killing Point he had worked so hard towards.

So one of them had orientated towards earth, the other towards heaven, like yin and yang. Their approaches were largely incompatible. In terms of martial arts styles, the other Ryouga's breaking point was like Aikido, while his was like Karate.

The methodology and mentality of the other him only made it more perplexing. It wasn't like the younger him was emotionally centered or tremendously experienced. He didn't have a vast spiritual awareness. He didn't possess a more powerful or potent ki - in fact, if anything, his actual baseline practical ki generation was slightly inferior. Ryouga had become more efficient at generating his aura, thanks to the breakthroughs he had made looking into the Mark of the Gods, and by switching to orbital generation rather than circular... but this other him had become more efficient at actually using it. Could it be that the other-Ryouga was incapable of even using the _shishi hokoudan_ now?

It could well be.

The hot headed anger was still there, even some of the depression, but not in enough quantity or quality to dominate in his battle aura. He wasn't perfectly centered, but it was... close. What had happened to drain him so much? They were the same person, deep down. Ryouga was sure of it. Why was this other him so... at peace with himself? It was...

A little vexing.

_'What does he have that I don't?'_ he couldn't help but wonder, a little bitterly. _'Friends? No. Family? No. A lover? Ha! Not likely.'_

Not with the way he protectively looked at that Raven girl, from time to time, and the embarrassment they had around one another.

_'What does he have?'_

Of course, there was the opposite possibility...

_'Or... what do I lack?'_

A deep breath helped dispel that mental knot, returning his disciplined objectivity. _Concentration_. A bit of dust fell from the Buddha from around the eyes. _Focus_. A little bit more around the bridge of the nose, evening it out. _Control_.

"Hey, Kasumi?" he asked, opening his eyes. "You saw that other me before, right?"

"He seems like a nice boy," Kasumi chided, knowing where his thoughts were headed. She gently rested a hand on his shoulder, stepping around and into view. "I think he's a little scared and nervous, and just like you, he covers it up by being a bit... defensive. Wouldn't you act the same if the situations were reversed?"

Ryouga considered that: being tossed into another world, with another him, and no way to know what had happened to his team or if he could even get home. Then being pushed around and forced to jump through hoops without fully realizing the gravity of why. Worse still, to be treated and thought of as the 'other-Ryouga' who didn't even belong here. If anything, the transition had been worse for the younger Ryouga, going from a relatively free spirited environment (or so Raven's memories indicated) to a regimented, military one.

"Maybe," he finally conceded.

He'd tried to be professionally accommodating, once it became clear that the visiting Hibiki wasn't another clone or infiltrator, but... a lot of the damage had probably already been done. Each one of them probably saw things they didn't like in the other. For his part, Ryouga saw the other him as ungrateful, bratty, and naive. He was the kind of man who, thinking he could handle everything himself, would refuse to compromise... he was the kind of man who would get his loved ones killed.

At the same time, he could imagine what the other Ryouga thought of him, helped by the not too polite nicknames and comments he had heard. He probably did seem somewhat... ruthless, overbearing, and like someone who had sacrificed parts of himself for an end goal. There was no doubt he had put aside some of his higher principles to carry out his duty and oaths of service. And his revenge.

Above all, there had been _revenge_, for _her_.

"What do you think I should do?" he asked, valuing Kasumi's insight and advice.

She had been a solid emotional rock for him, especially just before and after his father's capture. Now, he had his mother, he had Nabiki, and he even had the base psychiatrist (which he'd been talked into attending more regularly), meaning he didn't have to lean on her quite as much as before. Still, Kasumi was part of his foundation here, and she always would be. She had even pulled him back from the brink, once, and he would never forget it.

"If it were another me," Kasumi speculated, taking a blood sample from his right arm. "I'd offer her tea and we'd talk about our differences."

"I... don't think that'll work in my case," Ryouga deadpanned.

"Well, maybe you should do what you and Ranma always do when you have a disagreement."

"What? Beat each other up?"

"We all relieve our stress in different ways," Kasumi said, a wink and twinkle in her eye.

"Oh..." he coughed, fighting down a blush. "And, um, exactly how much _did_ Nabiki tell you two?"

Kasumi just giggled, patting the indignant young man on the shoulder.

* * *

Jinx ran.

The shops and streets of Nerima flew by in a blur.

It wasn't just that she was running past, or that her mind itself was reeling from what she'd learned. Things were shifting and changing around her, no longer evolving at a steady pace like before. The street itself became a featureless track as events flew by like frames out of a picture-book. A swampy bamboo lined coves of Jyusenkyou went by, and she vaguely saw Gizmo flying through the air towards one of the pools.

Beneath her feet, she saw a dark haired girl in a black robe and leotard, staring up at her with aloof and passionless eyes. Black shadows churned around her, reaching out like the splayed fingers of a giant hand, flocks of birds breaking off the tendrils to encircle her. A rooftop passed by on her left: a tiny man sat at the edge, a giant bag stung over his shoulder and a pipe in his mouth trailing smoke. Overhead, she saw the Himalayan Mountains looming over the horizon, snow capped and seemingly unassailable. A blast of cold, pure wind came down the peaks to blow through her hair.

Nerima was gone, left far behind her.

Gradually she slowed, as the pale trackless floor turned to gray and then a familiar golden hue. The color brought back even more, and her pace slowed, allowing the walls to also seep in and take shape. They met at angles to her left and right, forming wide hexagons, and within them yet more of the same shape, meeting and merging like a honeycomb. Soft white light filtered in from above, and doors began to appear in the corridor ahead. She knew this place. She knew it like most people knew the place they called home.

She was back at the HIVE.

The young villainess felt the warm feeling of familiarity wash over her. More so than anywhere else in the world, this was her sanctuary. She was top of the class, leader of the pack, top dog in the pound. This was where she knew the score ...

Here, no one was badder than Jinx.

With disturbing ease, her heartache over Akari's fate slipped from her mind. Replacing it was a familiar sense of gratification she'd all but forgotten. She remembered her time here like it was yesterday, her long, grueling years of battling to be the worst she could be. With a confident step, Jinx began to walk deeper into her comforting memories.

* * *

Jinx left ripples in her memory as she fled: an emotional wake that Akari knew to follow.

Of course, if she could perceive and follow the path Jinx took, so could others. With that in mind, the human-alien hybrid picked up her pace, silently cursing that she had opened her mouth and told Jinx the truth. She had a feeling the other girl would freak out at the news - Jinx's attitude, her bluster and her extreme self confidence, all pointed to her not taking the information well. Deep down where she hid her true self, she was actually far more innocent than anyone probably imagined.

Akari knew that.

Why did she tell her? She didn't really have to, and she knew it. Her original plan had just been to get Jinx clear and out of Mind Probe range, hand off the data she'd collected the night before, and then either part ways or find a quiet place in the town where XCOM could retrieve her body. Telling Jinx the truth had always promised nothing but drama and pain. Why did she do it?

It was true that Jinx did have a right to know, on many levels. If Akari's body broke down earlier than expected and slowed their escape, Jinx had to know it was inevitable, and that she could keep going if she had to. She had a right to know that she had set a human being free from the most terrible captivity; that Jinx had given Akari the dignity to spend her last moments free and, if only in a small way, able to strike back at those that had condemned her.

Why did she tell her?

Maybe, in a way, she wanted... some sympathy, too. She wanted someone to know what was happening. She wanted to be able to share the burden with the last person she would ever meet. Maybe, shamefully, she was afraid of dying. Again.

"Oh no," Akari muttered, floating through into Jinx's borrowed memories. "Not here. I can't fracture the memories here..."

Just as expected, the memory stream began to narrow, from multiple memories in parallel to a single sequence. It would be impossible to hide in here, not once the Commander found them. Jinx's emotions would be like blood in the water. It would track them down, smell them out, and move in for the kill. In a direct confrontation, Akari knew she'd be devoured instantly.

This was where her selfishness had gotten them.

To think, just the night before, she had even called Jinx out on that same thing.

Resolved despite the odds, Akari picked up her pace.

* * *

The loud clip-clop of thick soled shoes bounced off the honeycomb walls of the subterranean tunnels as Jinx very literally strolled down memory lane. The embarrassing school girl outfit she'd been wearing had already dissolved back into the familiar black and purple garb which had become her trademark. She knew every corridor, every chamber, ever panel on the wall of this facility, had walked its halls a thousand times and more over her years here.

Coming up on her right was the lecture hall where she'd learned various theories on villainy from some of the greatest criminal minds of her time. As she walked past the doorway, she started slightly at the fact that the room wasn't empty. Curious, she stepped into the doorway -

"Hmm, yes, I can see how entering the facility, disabling the security and then leaving said facility and wandering around San Francisco for a week and a half would surprise the guards ... _What were you thinking, Hibiki!"_

At the front of the classroom, the Headmaster stood, nearly frothing at the mouth as he chewed out an adorably embarrassed Ryouga. The rest of the classrooms many seats were filled with her long time classmates and, the sorceress noted with amusement, she could easily see a pair of bright pink hair tufts sticking up behind one of the desks, as the horribly embarrassed girl they belonged to did her best to hide from view.

Deciding to take a moment to linger, Jinx leaned against the door frame and watched fondly as the lost boy dragged himself back to his seat and sat down next to the dream Jinx. Watching the pair of them banter back and forth, not a care in the world except for each other ... The genuine article found herself deeply envious of herself.

With a sigh, Jinx pushed off from the door and backed away from the lecture hall.

"Enjoy it while you can, cutie ... It all goes downhill from here."

Not sure how to feel about that bittersweet memory, Jinx continued her trek through the academy. She supposed if this was going to be the last place she ever got to see, she could do worse. A quick turn to the right would even take her to the cafeteria. If she was lucky, she could get some real pizza, with a real crust, instead of that Yokonakiyami stuff.

The moment she opened the door, she was buffeted by the boisterous chattering of dozens of her friends. Angel and Bumblebee sat at one of the far tables, gossiping away as they were wont to do. XL and See-More were in line to get some eats from the lunch lady, dressed in her ominous purple robes of doom as usual - Jinx had always wondered about that. Eagerly, Jinx sought out one table in particular, hoping to see...

Shimmer, Neutron and Deuce? Jinx shook her head in puzzlement. What were those three doing here? They had graduated over two years ago. Suddenly, Jinx's eyes widened and a smile split her face. She remembered what day this was!

The far door of the cafeteria was abruptly booted open, the swinging doors smashing to the walls and falling off completely. A moment later, a newly formed trio entered the large room, cockiness and confidence oozed out of the small gang as they strutted through the cafeteria. The destination of the bulky bruiser, the diminutive genius and the smokin' hot sorceress was never in doubt.

Past-Jinx, Mammoth and Gizmo wasted no time as they approached the central table of the cafeteria - the fabled 'head table' at which only the most popular of students were deemed worthy to sit. The previous incarnation of herself planted herself right in front of the table and leaned forward, dropping a hand on the table, making a very serious statement before she even opened her mouth.

"You guys are sitting at our table."

A hush fell over the room, every set of eyes in the cafeteria swung around, and most of them widened in surprise at the sheer audacity of the recently assembled team to so blatantly challenge one of the top ranked teams in the entire academy.

Shimmer didn't even look up from her meal, the red headed girl just muttered out the side of her mouth. "Baran, would you please tell your suicidal groupie that she has about five seconds to get her hand off our table before I turn her blood into acid?"

Mammoth crossed his arms over his impressive chest and gave a loud snort. "'Fraid not, Sis. _We're_ the big guys on campus now. So _move_."

"Yeah," Gizmo chimed in, rising up imposingly on his tall metallic spider legs, "In case you hadn't heard, we just crushed your record on the obstacle course, and on our third run. Sheesh, were you crud munchers even trying?"

Neutron, the ominously glowing, hazmat suit wearing powerhouse of their team, slammed his fists to the table - incidentally burning straight through it - as he surged up to his feet. Instantly, Jinx leaned back and crossed her arms before her, pink sparks dancing dangerously along her fingers.

"You guys wanna rumble right now? We're ready for anything you can dish out," Jinx stated with a wicked smirk.

Behind her, Mammoth uncrossed his arms and began to crack his knuckles, while several bizarre looking weapons began to unfold from Gizmo's backpack and lock onto the older students. Slowly, Shimmer placed her palms on the table top and pushed herself up to her feet. Glaring right over Jinx's head, she stared right at Mammoth and a deep frown creased her features.

"Alright, _little brother_. You guys wanna see who's best of the worst? You got it. Meet us in the gym in fifteen minutes ... Just make sure you call a coroner on your way there."

Snapping her fingers loudly to get the attention back on her, Past-Jinx sneered grimly. "I'll be sure to do that. Wouldn't want your body to stink up the place when we're done with you."

Back in the doorway, Jinx smiled fondly and backed out of the cafeteria. They had managed to beat Shimmer and her cronies, but it had been a brutal fight. All six of them had been in the infirmary for a week afterward.

"Totally worth it," she muttered to herself.

Maybe she'd go see if she could catch the fight. It would be a good way to pass a few minutes, anyway. All she had to do to get to the Training Room was - was pass by the Headmaster's office. Trepidation began to fill the girl's heart as she walked down the corridor. She'd passed down this particular hallway very often, sometimes to be praised, other times ... not. In fact, there was one memory that -

She quickly squeezed her eyes shut and turned around, walking in the opposite direction at full speed. Unfortunately, the moment she opened her eyes, she was already there. The dimly lit office was impossible to forget. The desk was different, the chair not so high and spinney as last she saw it ... but it was exactly as she remembered seeing it ... the first time.

The Headmistress smiled pleasantly as the young girl entered the room. This girl, not more than ten years old - in fact, if memory served, she was ten years and three months - wore her shock of short pink hair in wild disarray and her mauve sundress was in all but tatters. The girl's cat like eyes flitted around the room, fear and confusion pretty much her entire world at that moment.

The armored guards that had escorted her into the room a moment later, leaving the diminutive child with the matronly, grey haired woman.

"So, what was your name again, little one? I'm afraid we weren't able to learn anything about your family after we found you."

"... People ... they - they call me Jinx," mumbled quietly as she stared at her feet.

"Jinx. Why, that is a _lovely_ name. Well, Jinx, let me be the first to welcome you to the H.I.V.E Academy for Extraordinary Young People. I am the Headmistress, and I look forward to making certain that you become all that you can possibly be."

Finally, the young Jinx looked up, the glimmer of hope in her eyes impossible to miss. "You ... you're not worried that I'll ... make things go wrong?"

The corner of the Headmistress' lips quirked up into a smile. "My dear, that is exactly what we are counting on. Do not ever be ashamed of who you are, and what you can do, young lady. I promise that we will never turn our backs on you."

A wide smile bloomed on young Jinx's face. "You mean ... I get to stay here ... forever?"

The Headmistress smiled back warmly, dropping her hands on the young sorceress' shoulders and nodded. "For as long as it suits your purposes, Jinx."

The aged lady paused for a moment, and, to the true Jinx's trained eye, carefully manufactured exactly what the young girl wanted to hear.

"Welcome to your new home."

Jinx, the real Jinx, turned around and stumbled out of the room. The Headmistress had been a master of manipulation, and she'd taught Jinx everything she knew about twisting the truth to take advantage of the weak willed. She wasn't sure what hurt worst: the memory of the lie that was the Headmistress' affection, or the memory of what the Hea- of what Brother Blood had done to her when he'd wrested the school from her control...

A spark of anger began to rise up in Jinx as she stalked the corridors now. She knew the Ethereal was after her. Well, if it wanted her, she knew where she wanted to be when it eventually found her.

Footfalls sounding thunderously, Jinx stormed down the hall.

She had to prepare herself.

* * *

Fascinating.

It was all fascinating.

The Mind wanted more.

Deep within Jinx's memories, burning copies of the more interesting ones, the Ethereal took it all in with hurried pleasure. The human girl's mental trail was trivial to follow to its source, and as muddled as her emotions were, the struggle would be brief when it finally caught up. The Mind, however, wanted more of the girl's memories. The Ethereal had been made privy to some of the more restricted knowledge within The Mind, shared between it and its counterparts across the Galaxy.

Dimensional travel was nothing new, though for the most part it was of little practical importance. Other, more well-to-do Minds were even given pocket dimensions to use from time to time. The Cydonia operation, though old, was very low key: almost entirely harvesting and biological and social research. The discovery of humanoid life in an accessible and seemingly stable parallel dimension was a potential boon to work here and elsewhere. The Mind wished to glean as much as it could before any potential brain damage could occur.

The Ethereal perused another of Jinx memories, now entirely focused on this "HIVE Academy" she had once attended. The humans within had unusual abilities much like her own. It was a conservative estimate that as much as one percent of the human population on her world could be so endowed, a likely parallel to the range of psionic potential in humans on this-Earth.

The presence of such powerful entities intrigued The Mind.

There was likely no T'leth on Jinx's world, which meant no colonization protocols. Already, consensus was forming within the small circle of alien Commanders and researchers privy to the information. Jinx's world could be made to serve - could some of the abilities of its inhabitants be replicated in this universe, or at the least, adapted? How would this affect sociological development and what would it mean for the Galactic Pogrom? It would take centuries, perhaps a thousand years, to fully sample and explore and infiltrate and explore all the possibilities. The Mind found this acceptable; the passing of millennia meant nothing to those who were timeless.

If Jinx's "academy" was to be taken at face value, no one would miss three or four "meta-humans" every few years, vanishing into the night. No one would notice the clippings made to the tree, here and there, over the course of centuries. No one would listen to those maddened few who were planted to sow confusion and ridicule. No one would notice the harvest going on in the shadows.

FIND HER TAKE HER

The Mind's demand was strong. Palpable.

YES

The human girl was close: taking refuge in some comforting place from her past. Like most humans, she was foolish and weak, despite her powers. There was no comfort in one's mind. There was no refuge. She would learn, too, that there was no hope. The human had caused some difficulty and commotion before.

That would be repaid, now, in full.

* * *

She felt it coming before she could see it. The ... _thing_ didn't even bother to hide its approach, the malevolent aura of its power seeped out into everything around her. The yellow, hexagon-paneled walls of the spacious training facility began to darken, black tendrils of power spreading out along the surfaces.

Jinx swallowed nervously, but held her ground, staring with determination at the main entrance to the gymnasium. She reminded herself, forcefully, that as malevolent as this thing seemed, it was still nowhere near as bad as the Headmaster. She made sure to remind herself of this, steeled herself with confidence, as the rectangular doorway began decay into a swirling void... from which the vile trails of energy originated, reaching out hungrily to devour the chamber.

And then the Ethereal made its appearance ... at least, Jinx was pretty sure that was what it was.

The dark form of Raven hung in the air, ebon energy radiating from her body in waves. The hooded Titan's four glowing red eyes narrowed with hatred, and her cloak stretched unnaturally as she rose into the air to tower over Jinx. The demonic figure then smiled - a hollow imitation of the soul-chilling smile she had once seen on Raven's "face."

Jinx nearly laughed out loud. "Wow, buddy. Talk about 'On the Nose', there! I don't think you coulda picked better if I gave you a notarized list."

I DO NOT WISH TO DAMAGE YOU SURRENDER YOURSELF TO ME

Jinx staggered back a step, but managed to hold her feet.

"Yeah ... no. Even without the _way_ creepy innuendo of you saying that with Raven's face, I'm gonna have to pass on the whole surrendering thing."

Black tendrils of energy began to reach out from "Raven" moving around the room, almost looking eager with anticipation.

YOU HAVE NO CHOICE

The voice resonated, as if it came from within rather than without.

RESISTANCE IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ONE AS WEAK AS YOU

Rather than frown at the insult, a Cheshire grin split Jinx's face nearly in twain. She then lifted a hand to her side. "Yeah, you might be right. _One_ of me _is_ pretty weak. So, why don't you let me introduce you to some friends of mine?"

With that, Jinx snapped her fingers, and instantly, the east and west doors of the Training facility opened. A moment later, Jinx entered the room, this one looking several months younger and looking quite happy. Then, another Jinx strolled in, confidence just oozing from her every step as she strutted into the room. Seconds later, a tiny young girl marched in, looking very much like she'd rather be anywhere else, but joined them regardless.

And then the rest of them arrived. In droves they entered, even the upper doors to the viewing gallery opened, and more Jinxes began to flood into the room. Jinxes of every age, disposition and dress came to stand beside the original, all wearing the very same Cheshire grin.

"Raven, meet Me, Myself and I. Now, let's you and me dance!"

**HUMAN**

'Raven' stared up, twin pairs of pale red eyes moving across the mass of Jinxes.

USING YOUR EGO AS A DEFENSE

Slowly, the demonic titan held out a hand, palm down. A black orb grew between the pale fingers, roughly the size of a beach-ball.

OBSERVE THE WEAKNESS THAT LIES WITHIN YOU

Palm turning back up, the top half of the ball burned away, revealing a small body.

HUMAN

Jinx's eyes widened as the blob that 'Raven' held in her hand, only partly supported by a cone of black shadow, began to move. And then, it cried. A loud, unhappy wail split the air, and all the other Jinxes leaned in, knowing what their opponent had in her hands.

Four red eyes glowed with malicious delight as the infant Jinx stared up at its summoner and howled, even louder than before. Jinx's gut clenched painfully as the entity's other hand slowly moved to rest on the baby's stomach. Around the room, the great multitude of Jinxes paused, each of them feeling the dread spreading out from their most basic primal selves.

YOU ARE RIGHT TO FEAR

The voice boomed now, rocking the walls and ceiling, raining bits of debris.

YOUR LIFE IS OVER

The thought struck like a slap to the face.

YOU WILL BECOME PART OF US

Jinx couldn't tear her eyes from the sight of the baby in 'Raven's' hands. Terror and Fury strove for dominance - the audacity, the insult of seeing her worst rival resorting to such debased tactics. She didn't even know why the latter affected her so much. The idea of Raven doing something so much worse than anything Jinx herself would do? Rage won out quickly, her already unbalanced mind far more wired for retaliation than self preservation.

"You sick bitch ..." She hissed furiously. "You want a piece of me? Well no need to go that far back, I got one for you right here!"

Instantly, the shuddering room surged to life. Memory became command as towers suddenly shot up from the floor, missile launchers and laser cannons popped out of the walls. Drones and combat robots of every size and shape appeared from everywhere. Sawblades whirred with deadly intent and metal tentacles shot out from the nearest towers to wrap around Raven's body, pulling her arms apart. Jinx didn't hesitate a second, and a literal wave of pink eyed indignation washed across the room, Raven's destruction their only goal.

A younger Jinx slid by under the wave of pink fire, just barely catching her infant self before she could hit the ground. Suspended in midair, the demonic Raven hissed - an inhuman sound like one would expect from a giant snake. Pink flames ran up and along metal cables, engulfing Raven's body moments before a half dozen sawblades struck home.

The dark form of Raven came apart like sliced meat.

YOU THINK YOU CAN FIGHT THIS

As the metal cords melted away, pink flames vying with black shadows, Raven's dismembered head turned upwards, black hair flaring out behind her. Her sawed off legs and arms hit the ground with a wet splatter, followed by the two halves of her torso. Pitch black blood spread in a nightmarish stain across the floor of the training room.

YOU CAN NOT

A red slit opened in the palm of one of the girl's hands. A baleful red eye appeared, staring upwards. It was followed by another blazing red eye, this one on a severed leg, and then another on the split torso, near the cut in the abdomen. Another appeared out of a coil of black intestine. Soon more than a dozen of them decorated the pieces of the demonic remains.

The blood bubbled and boiled and tiny black egg-like shapes began to rise up out of the ever expanding stain. Others emerged from the severed body parts. Moving in a growing mass, the eggs cracked and split into a thousand-and-multiplying shapes, scurrying and crawling in every direction. Millions of tiny legs propelled tens of thousands of nightmarish insects, each one with pinprick red eyes and bone-white snapping jaws.

Jinx felt her jaw drop open in abject horror ... every Jinx in the room ground to a halt as well, a few of the younger ones actually shrieking in terror at the inhuman sight. The sorceress hesitated only for a moment, though, before renewing her efforts.

The army of robotic drones continued their advance and missiles and lasers from the walls blasted into the swarm of madness given form. Bulky, metallic feet lifted up and smashed down with abandon on the bleached white creatures and the satisfying sound of crunching filled the air as carapace was crushed beneath titanium heels ...

But the swarm just continued to grow. Within seconds, the insects began to climb up the robots legs, and - and wherever the insects touched, the indestructible hides of the mechanoids began to crumble away to dust in mere instants. Panic began to build up in Jinx's chest as she watched her army, despite her best efforts, begin to falter beneath the onslaught of 'Raven's' nightmarish assault.

Suddenly, she was distracted when one of her counterparts slid to a grinding halt beside her, breathing heavily. Held in the girl's arms was a gently cooing, infinitely precious cargo. Jinx quickly nodded to the younger her and took the infant before falling back to the back of the room. A moment later, she gestured to the Hotshot Jinx.

"Jinx! Keep that _thing_ away from us! We gotta protect ... us!"

Cocky smile growing by the moment, the confident Jinx tossed her hair and nodded before turning back to the creeping doom. "I'll see what I can do!"

On the other end of the training room, Raven's lopped off head continued to dribble insanity.

YOU TREASURE YOUR EGO

Black and red centipedes crawled from the head's neck wound, splitting and dividing and growing as they hit the floor. The older Jinx manifestations, the first to throw themselves to the front to protect their sisters, began to try and fall back. It was only a matter of time before, even with the robots and room defenses, one of them fell. In her case, she literally tripped, turning to try and leap away. She fell with a shriek and nearly vanished beneath the encroaching storm, only one twitching hand rising above the tide.

YOU TAKE REFUGE IN YOUR STRENGTH

Another Jinx cursed and tried to save the one that had fallen. Pink flames rained down to try and clear the mass, but as she landed, the fire barely made a dent in the numberless hordes. The older Jinx grabbed her counterpart's hand, desperately trying to pull her free, but quickly found the struggle nearly impossible. She screamed with anger and exertion as she pulled harder, trying to ignore the thousand biting insects rapidly crawling up her legs.

BUT THERE IS NO REFUGE

Other Jinxes quickly assembled in trios to try and blast the two trapped girls free.

Raven's mouth opened, and a buzzing sound deafened the assembled throng. It was a sound heralded by a growing black mass that filled the air. Insane shadows twisted and warped as specks of dust and spit became a torrential downpour of flying pests, some as tiny as motes, others large enough to sport finger-long stingers. They buzzed and swarmed and surged without pity or remorse.

THERE IS NO STRENGTH

Three Jinxes, back to back, disappeared within the flying swarm, screaming and falling to their knees. Others tried to yell orders, including the original at the back, but it was impossible to hear over the buzzing din. A swarm-covered robot stumbled and fell into the endless sea of black and red and white. A turret exploded. Another Jinx kept screaming as she batted away at the creeping madness, her hands alight with pink energy, burning herself in a desperate attempt to get free.

THERE IS NO HOPE

Raven's four eyes bled a ruddy rusty crimson.

**DESPAIR**

The walls and ceiling shook and cracked at the word, and more horrors burst forth. Fat white maggots rained down from the blood red cracks in the ceiling. A spike studded tentacle emerged from a crack in the wall barely wide enough to fit an arm through, snagging one of the Jinxes and sucking her through with a wet splatter. It was horrible. It was a nightmare. It was beyond bearing.

SUBMIT

Raven's demonic visage finally smiled.

SUBMIT AND BE SAVED

It was inevitable, but when it happened, it still shocked Jinx - the original - to the core.

"I - I submit!" One of the younger Jinxes, her eyes wide with fear and her arms covered with stinging black nightmares all but screamed the words. "Please! I submit!"

"Traitor!" Another yelled, and without thinking, blasted her with a bolt of pink fire.

Only to have another grab her arm.

"What are you doing?" she howled at her sister.

Another buried her hands in her hair and ran right into the thickest mass of abominations.

"Everyone!" Jinx, the original, yelled, struggling to be heard. But she was too far back. Another blast of pink friendly fire sent an older Jinx with long hair falling from a perch she had taken to get away from the crawling creatures.

"See? See!" A wounded Jinx yelled, running towards Raven. "Don't kill me! I'll fight for you, Master!"

"She's a traitor!" the one from before howled, pushing the one that had restrained her away with a hard shove. "Death to traitors!"

"Death to betrayers!" Another chorused.

"You idiots!" another howled. "You'll kill us all!"

"We're - we're trapped in here!" Another screamed, madness and panic starting to take hold as she stammered, looking desperately for some way - any way - to escape. "Oh god! Oh god! Someone help me!"

Another started laughing, her eyes taking on a possessed, reddish hue.

"Listen up!" Another yelled, stepping forward and blasting her powers out like fireworks to clear the air and get the attention of the now frayed and in-fighting army. Hotshot Jinx shook one of her panicked sisters and threw her back, barely able to stand on her feet.

"Stand together! We're a team!" she yelled. "Have you forgotten who we are?"

For a moment, the other girls nearby paused, and started to collect themselves.

Then Hotshot Jinx stared up, as a massive eye opened in the ceiling above her. A monstrous red orb glared down at her, bathing her in a hellish red light. Two other Jinxes nearby stumbled back, falling on their feet to get away, as the light intensified. Trapped within the gaze of the eye, Hotshot Jinx fell to her knees, her clothes lighting up like one great bonfire. Not a single word escaped her mouth as she fell to her hands, and then mercifully slumped forward into a crackling, burning mass.

SUBMIT

The command boomed like a nightmare of thunder.

**SUBMIT **

Jinx stammered and fell to her knees, hot tears spilling down her cheeks as she watched the horror being inflicted on her past incarnations. No. The true horror wasn't even the grotesque maiming that many of them suffered, but that so many of them succumbed to the terror so easily. It was a stark condemnation of her very self; that she had never been reliable, always focused on herself and what she wanted - what she needed - at the moment. It had been so easy, living as a mercurial being, living from one moment to the next swaying with whatever whim struck her at the instant.

It was to be expected when she had no one else that she could truly rely on ... She had thought it was her strength, that she could deal with anything that came her way with a devil-may-care attitude. But now she watched that strength, her strength, crumble to ash around her. Sadly, it was so easy for her to imagine betraying herself ... which was probably why the alien had attacked her in such a terrible way ...

"My strength," she muttered to herself, clutching the infant Jinx to her chest carefully. "Is this all the strength I have?"

She felt her will begin to falter, her doubt overwhelming her confidence. She was alone here, in this nightmare ...

YES

YOU ARE ALONE

Now the faux Jinxes didn't even bother to be subsumed by the virulent swarm. Several of her counterparts near the front of the room burst into dark clouds at the slightest touch of an insect. A few more burst into towering infernos of pink flame which cleared out small areas of the room. The rest ... simply began to fade away. All too soon, it was simply Jinx and her newborn self, kneeling, surrounded, at the heart of darkness.

YOUR MIND HAS VALUE

SUBMIT AND YOU NEED NOT BE DESTROYED

Jinx let out a derisive snort at that. The old 'Join us or Die' ultimatum. At least the thing had a bit more flare than Cologne and Shampoo had. But she'd seen what these aliens did with their 'subjects'. Nothing could possibly be worse than what they had done to Akari.

INCORRECT

WE SAVED THAT HUMAN MADE HER SUPERIOR UPLIFTED HER ...

IT WAS YOU THAT DESTROYED HER

Stabbing pain flared in Jinx's chest at that, and her infant self began to wail inconsolably. She ... hadn't needed to hear that again. How did this thing even know what she was thinking? She - she had to do something ... needed to do something! She had to find the strength to do _something_.

YOUR STRENGTH IS MEANINGLESS

Raven's severed head began to rise up into the air, supported by a nightmarish framework of gruesome insect creatures.

YOUR RESISTANCE IS MEANINGLESS

The army of bone white insects began to part, allowing the foul 'thing' to crawl forward. A cruel, smile adorned the lips, but it was nothing compared to the utter alien coldness in those black, soulless eyes, rimmed by dying red.

YOU WERE BORN ALONE AND YOU WILL DIE ALONE

Jinx's head snapped up at that. It was true, she couldn't rely on herself. Her own strength simply wasn't enough. But she **wasn't** alone. There was one thing that she knew would never let her down, one thing with a strength that was impossible to match. There was one thing that she knew would protect her from this damned monster.

"That's where you're wrong, bitch! I'm _not_ alone!"

Suddenly the entire room began to quake even more violently than before. Rather than weaken and crumble, though, the walls actually seemed to regain their strength, their form. All at once, the carpet of insects stopped in its tracks, as did their grotesque master.

Jinx's grin grew wide as she found a source of strength she hadn't even considered before.

"Say hello to my little friend!"

The sound of shattering masonry filled the room, as against all logic, the edge of the roof began to tear away from the wall. Four massive, fiery, glowing red fingers wedged under the lifting ceiling and, with a monumental pull, tore the entire roof of the room. Bright blue sky was revealed above, blocked only by the monolithic red chi construct.

There was a source of strength inside her that she hadn't even considered, hidden away in her subconscious, buried by her own self centered desire to believe that she had all the strength she would ever need on her own. The strength that had been given to her by her friends, her teachers. And by her master.

Happosai, Grandmaster of the Anything Goes School of martial arts, floated at the heart of the towering chi construct which looked exactly like a huge copy of himself. A grim frown was set on the ancient warrior's face, one that Jinx had only seen a handful of times, times when she knew he was actually getting serious about something.

"What's this? Someone trying to hurt my darling little Disciple? ... I don't think so!"

THIS IS... HAPPOSAI... A MANIFESTATION OF YOUR SO CALLED SUPEREGO

"Oh?" the man himself drawled and cackled with a self satisfied chuckle. "You've heard of me?"

Raven's head drifted closer to Jinx and her infant self but then drew slightly back. The swarm of insects and tentacles abated and melted and pooled into a swimming pool sized lake of blood. Bit by bit, it contracted and shifted and then - bulged. Cradling her more vulnerable infant self, Jinx felt her heart skip a beat. The blood bubble popped, revealing...

A naked Jinx crouched in the center of the pool of blood.

WE REQUIRE ONLY YOUR MEMORIES AND ABILITIES... THE REST OF YOU IS BAGGAGE

The new Jinx took a ragged breath and sniffed the air.

BEHOLD YOUR TRUE SELF

"I want..." the new Jinx stood, but remained slightly hunched over, holding her stomach. "I'm... hungry... It hurts. Make it stop hurting. Make it stop..."

"What the hell is that?" Jinx hissed, taking a step back.

THAT IS YOU - THE ORIGNAL YOU - THE ANIMAL YOU ARE INSIDE

The next Jinx slammed her fists into the floor, howling and babbling. Drool ran down her jaw and she stared up at Jinx and then Happosai with wild, savage, pink eyes. Then, impossibly, she started to grow. Another fist slammed down, and the world shook. Standing up again, Id-Jinx howled, and lunged.

From above, the Happosai construct intercepted her, slamming a titanic hand down.

Jinx winced, feeling the blow, too.

"Sorry, kid!" Happosai yelled, and actually seemed to be struggling. "It ain't easy doing this and not hurtin' ya!"

The savage Id-Jinx snapped her jaws, trying to gnaw one of the Happosai' construct's fingers off. Enraged by the restraint, she bucked her legs and slammed her fists against the hand, growing stronger and larger with each blow.

DESTROY YOURSELF IF YOU WISH

Raven's disembodied head drifted around the dueling Id and Superego.

EVEN A COMATOSE CORPSE CAN BE SALAVAGED

"NO!" Happosai's other hand swatted at the black shadows of Raven's body, splattering them beneath its grip. The Id in its free hand continued to grow in power, and black veins inched up the ki-construct's wrist, corrupting it.

YOU THINK TO FIGHT WITH BRUTE FORCE AGAINST US

The voice echoed now, without a source.

"Jinx!" Happosai roared, reaching down and holding out his hand. She quickly leapt onto it and let him carry her up, above the now formless training hall memory below. As it slowly faded away, it left only the four of them: Happosai's titanic self, her savage and mindless Id, and her infant self cradled in her arms. There was no sign of Raven or the alien that had assumed her guise.

"You don't realize it, but you've lost," her own voice interrupted the protracted silence. Jinx and Happosai both turned to see another her, this one at least clothed and lucid, floating within a hemispherical bubble. What was shocking was not simply her sudden appearance or her voice, but what she wore: the same titian colored habit Jinx knew Akari to wear.

"Don't look at me like that," the Other-Jinx argued. "Like I'm weak... like I've given up. I haven't! The smart thing to do is join up with the stronger group. The ones that give you what you want. It's gotten us this far, hasn't it? You're just making this worse for us! Stop being so damn stubborn!"

Jinx smirked to herself, leaping up onto Happosai's shoulder for a better vantage. "Stop being stubborn? You'd think that _you_ of all people would know who you're talking to!"

Not sure what else to do, Jinx just started gathering her power, a pink, burning aura springing up around her. Rather than harm the child in her arm, it simply echoed with the developing aura and grew.

"Yeah, we've already been through the whole 'giving up our free will to get what we think we want' thing. You remember how that went, don't you? Do you really think I'd give myself up to some monster that's even _worse_ than the Headmaster, and with so much less to gain from it?"

"It won't be that bad!" Other-Jinx rationalized. "It'll be like sleeping. You only think it's bad because of what you saw and heard from Akari, but she didn't complain when she was one of them! She was happy! I mean, think about it: we'll be strong, stronger than before, and we'll never grow sick or old and we'll never be alone!"

"I mean...!" She shook her head, equally pink hair swaying back and forth. "Isn't it better than dying? I - I don't want to die. And neither do you! Let's just go with it... maybe we'll get lucky and it'll work out for the best? Maybe this is a good thing! We'll be a part of something huge, something that'll last forever!"

True-Jinx scoffed, her aura burning ever higher, whipping her hair about violently. "I'm not a _part_ of anything! I'm _me_, that's all I've ever been and all I've ever wanted! I've been willing to trample over everyone in my path just to get the things that I wanted."

She swung her hand out, sparks dancing merrily and landing on Happi's spectral shoulder. The pink energy mingled with the red chi of the construct, rippling through his form fancifully.

"And you want me to become a _slave_, a _drone_ to some inhuman _thing_ that will only use us to serve its purpose rather than our own?" She fired a heated glare at the snarling, flailing beast that was her Id. "HEEL, damnit! Ya stupid twit. Who needs you anyway?"

"That's the problem with you!" Her other-self yelled back, pink flames of her own rising up around her. "You think anyone will want to be with us when we just think about ourselves? You think HIVE took us because they felt generous? You think we made top student for nothing? Huh? Do you think Ryouga will love us without expecting us to give something back in return?"

"Of course not!" She hid one of her eyes behind her hand, as if struggling to hold together. "That's not how the world works! What do you want to do? Wander around aimlessly picking fights until we die of old age in some shitty sewer or alleyway? Is that what you call purpose?"

Tears ran down her cheeks, but she wiped them away with her titian sleeves.

"So what if we become a slave? So what if they use us?" she finally asked, voice hushed just enough for Jinx to hear it. "If you can't feel the chains, I say it doesn't matter if you have 'em or not! These aliens aren't any worse than anyone else back home... they're just more honest about what their intentions are..."

"Feh," Jinx scoffed, "You're pathetic. You aren't really me, you're just a mockery stitched together by that thing. You're only dealing with half a deck, trying to act like you're all knowing or some crap."

As her power intensified, her eyes began to glow solid pink, excess energy leaking from the corners of her eyes. Her tiny baby self matched her appearance, though she probably didn't have a clue why.

"You know about all the negative aspects of my life, you've been scrounging through my memories like a damn parasite, haven't you, you alien bastards, just looking for all the darkest corners you could find. But you've been ignoring the light, avoiding what little good there is in here to see."

Holding out her arm, she fondly rested her hand against Happosai's metaphysical cheek. "I may not have a purpose yet, but I've got more idea about what I could do with my life than most normal people out there. I already have people that care for me for who I am, and that I care for in return. You claim I'm selfish, but you'd be willing to sell our friends to the slaughter house just so you can be the first cow in line?"

The true sorceress gave a disgusted snort. "You aren't me, so get the hell out of my head already, you pathetic piece of psychic waste!"

The Other-Jinx ground her teeth together in indignation and impotent anger.

"You...!" she balked and then gasped, as if struck, before she could continue. "You're just... you're going to - I just need a little time, and... and I can get it back! I can, I - "

Then Other-Jinx's mouth fused shut, leaving her muffled and unable to even scream.

HOW DISSAPPOINTING

Jinx gave a triumphant smirk, though her enemy still insisted on hiding itself.

"Is that all you can manage?" she yelled, aiming at nothing in particular, but letting her voice echo within the nothingness around her. "This shitty copy?"

For a moment, there was silence.

SHE HAS YOUR MEMORIES YOUR ABILITIES

Jinx's smile faded at the unexpected reply.

SHE IS IMPERFECT... BUT SHE WILL SUFFICE

Jinx blinked. Did that mean...?

Other-Jinx gave a little wave, and faded away, like a mirage.

A second later, Jinx's Id went limp... only to resume thrashing, this time panicked rather than aggressive. Infant Jinx felt it next, squeezing her eyes shut and bawling where before she had mimicked the real Jinx's determination. Jinx herself waited, body tense and on edge. Something was wrong, but for the life of her, she couldn't tell what.

"Ugh!" Happosai grunted, suddenly, one of the legs of his ki construct bunching up. A moment later, something hit the head, causing it to flinch and draw in.

"What's happening?" Jinx yelled. Everything looked the same all around them.

"It.. it feels like..." Happosai, the embodiment of her defensive super-ego, was clearly straining. "I'm being crushed... in a box..."

Slowly, the ki construct's legs buckled, forcing it to hunch over. Jinx looked around frantically, and out of other options, fired a pink blast out in a random direction. It traveled perhaps five meters before splashing against an invisible wall.

"So, this is it, eh?" she muttered to herself as Happosai struggled vainly to protect her. "At least I get the satisfaction of going out with a bang."

She stared at her hand, at all of the energy she had gathered. She definitely wouldn't survive what she had planned, but maybe this much raw bad luck would be enough to disrupt whatever plans they had for that cheap Xerox copy they'd made of her.

Taking a deep breath, Jinx looked down at the baby in her arms. "Sorry, kid, looks like you don't get to grow old enough to steal your first car, or kiss your first boy, but you think you can help me out with this?"

Instantly, the babies cries ceased, and it looked back up at her expectantly, power dancing in its eyes.

"Jinx ... w-what are you planning up there?" Happosai asked with great effort.

Jinx simply smiled. "As if you didn't know? You're a piece of me too, after all." She then turned to the feral Jinx, who was too busy clawing at the walls to do anything useful.

"Hey you! Moron! Over here!" She snapped her fingers loudly a few times. She wasn't sure it would work, but it was worth a try. This was a pretty primal urge of hers after all.

Apparently something in her tone, her desperation, caught the insane being's attention, as Id-Jinx turned to regard her, with about as much understanding in her eyes as the infant.

Jinx held up her hand, showing the power she'd gathered. "Yeah, you know what this is. You know that you can't get out of here like that. You're willing to do anything to get out of here, aren't you? You'd take any idiotic risk just to save yourself. We'll, there's only one way out of here, and you know what it is!"

Slowly, Feral Jinx ceased her twitching and frothing. An instant later, an aura of pink fire sprang up around her as well. True Jinx smiled. "That's right. That's a good girl. If you can't knock a wall over, you blow it the hell up!"

As one, their auras began to swell and twist. Gradually, Jinx closed her eyes, and leaned her head back. It would all be over soon. She just needed Happi to keep them uncrushed long enough ...

_'This must be what Vegeta felt like,'_ the thought to herself with a giggle.

Time to go Big Bang right, about n -

"Are you really trying to kill yourself, Jinx?"

That... wasn't her voice.

"Akari?" Jinx asked, opening her eyes. The other girl was nowhere to be seen.

"You've focused your entire self to one task... I didn't think normal humans could do that," Akari's said, but still didn't appear. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you before, but I think I'd only have gotten in the way. I'm not really made for straightforward psionic combat. But I can still help you out! The Commander's assembling that other you and left you to compact back into your infant self."

"And that's helping me how?" Jinx asked, feeling the invisible bubble closing in on her.

"Sorry! You need to merge with your infant self! If you don't, you'll lose your memories... no, not just that. You'll end up a mindless vegetable," she then added, with a bit of disgust. "This is something Ethereals often do to human victims they can't easily break in. I can help you strike back at them if you keep yourself together, but right now you have to save yourself."

"Akari!" Jinx yelled at the top of her lungs, "That made so little damned sense that I'm tempted to kill myself even more now! What the hell are you talking about?"

"Um..." The other girl seemed to struggle to explain it. "You've been split into four parts. Right now, your mind is trying to put itself back together. That baby you, the naked girl, and... the nice old man..."

Happosai chuckled at this.

"Are going to be mashed together. They'll be fine, but you won't! You represent all your memories and experiences and everything that makes you - you. But that baby is also you. The 'blank' you. You need to put yourself back into her, like writing something in a book. I'm sorry, it's hard to explain! I only know it because The Mind gave us information on defending ourselves against psionics."

Jinx frowned darkly as she watched Happosai's chi construct continue to buckle to the constricting, invisible walls.

"Well I don't have a pen handy, and I'm not exactly gonna 'fit' inside this baby! In case you haven't noticed, I've put on a few pounds, and a couple _feet_ over the years! And I swear to God that if you tell me to eat the baby, I'm gonna find some way to live if only so I can slap you silly myself!"

"Jinx... should you really be relying on your eyes to tell you what's real in a place like this?" Akari-the-disembodied-voice asked. "That baby has room for you, plus about fifty or sixty extra years."

"Oh, that is it! I just _know_ that was a fat joke of some kind! I am so gonna kick your oversized ass, pig farmer! Come out where I can see you already so I can blast you!"

Akari scoffed. "Ha! If you wanna take me on, then bring it!"

Jinx swung around furiously. "Wha - what the hell is that supposed to mean? Would someone please tell me what the heck is going on in this crazy brain!"

A wry chuckle came from her side. Happosai, his chi projection barely larger than Jinx herself now, smiled up at her, despite the strain evident on his face. "I never thought I would say this, my dear, but you're thinking too much! Don't _think_ about pulling yourself back together, just _do_ it already! If we get any closer I'll be groping you, and considering that I'm technically a part of you, that disturbs even me!"

Jinx considered her 'master's' cryptic words. They ... almost made sense.

"Well ... I _really_ wanna slap Akari upside the head. And the only way I can do that is by living..." The sorceress looked down to regard the child in her arms. "I don't suppose you have any sage advice for me, do you, kid?"

Baby Jinx smiled and made a giggly cooing sound, light dancing merrily in her eyes. Jinx frowned at the useless little baby, before sighing and tickling it under its adorable chin.

"Hmph, some help I am. Why is nothing ever -"

Then, just like that, Baby Jinx reached up and wrapped its tiny little hand around her thumb, holding on with surprising strength.

"... easy?"

And, in the end, it really was.

* * *

The Floater coughed blood.

Back in the real world, in the snow covered forests of the Russian far east, Akari and Jinx opened their eyes. The former was still on the ground, nearly helpless, while the latter stood nearby, poised to take another strike at their supposedly ambushed opponent. The abrupt return to their natural senses was dizzying and overwhelming, like taking a deep breath of fresh air after holding your breath for too long. Jinx clutched the side of her head, fighting down the lingering effects of a rapidly receding migraine.

Still floating in midair, the cybernetic alien they had planned to get the jump on tottered and turned unsteadily. Thick ichor-like blood ran from its mouth and out of the organic parts that connected directly into its armored biotic torso. The bulbous flight engine that made up its lower body, where a normal humanoid would have legs, shifted left and right.

An inarticulate psionic scream tore through the mind of the two girls.

No words. Just rage.

More blood trickled from the Floater's ears and nose, and it keeled over, dead on its proverbial feet. Its mind, used as a conduit for far more powerful psionic entities, was charred nearly to the point of total dehydration. As the fragment of the Ethereal fled the dying body, what was left to animate it gave one last parting shudder - like the twitching of a headless chicken - before the whole thing fell out of the air and hit the deep snow below with a muffled thud.

Jinx looked around, confusion dueling with pain for dominance.

"What ... what the hell just happened?"

Rather than answer, Akari rolled onto her back and laughed. It was weak laughter, but genuine, and seemingly well earned. Stopping herself after a few seconds, knowing Jinx needed an answer, she sighed.

"I can't believe you actually held out for so long...!" she muttered, then spoke more loudly and clearly. "While you were fighting, I snuck into a backdoor, trying to sever the connection between the Commander and the Floater over there. I wasn't having much luck, but then... you did something, and it was like: Boom! Some kind of backlash... burned everything out. I can't believe we're still alive. Luckiest thing I've ever seen."

Annoyed with the girl's mirth, Jinx reached down and grabbed her hand, pulling her back to her feet with more force than was strictly necessary.

"Luck had nothing to do with it. I'm just that damn good!" Her eyes narrowed as she regarded the alien hybrid. "Speaking of 'good', don't I owe you a pop in the nose?"

"Well, you did survive, which is amazing just by itself," Akari admitted, but didn't move an arm or leg in her own defense. "But... don't think I'll let you 'pop me in the nose' without giving you a good toss into a tree."

Jinx shook her head in amusement. "Oh, so now you're comparing me to one of your two ton pigs? Seriously, are you just trying to tick me off now? Honestly, you have no idea how much _this_ sucks for me."

Akari stared at the other girl in confusion

"It should have left your mind... you aren't still hurt?" She then paused as something else made itself a candidate for consideration. "Or do you mean... it sucks still having me be here?"

Jinx laughed, her shoulders shaking heartily as she did. "No, it sucks that you're the closest thing that I have to an actual girlfriend at the moment."

The robed girl in her grip just stared, dumbstruck.

"Me?" she finally asked. "But... I thought you... I thought when you ran away, if we survived, that you wouldn't want anything to do with me."

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Moron. You'd just dropped the 'by the way, you kinda murdered me' bomb on my head like you were ordering a freaking cuppa coffee. How did you _think_ I was gonna react?"

She took a quick step forward, causing the other girl to flinch, before wrapping an arm around her neck. "Of course, I have long since come to the conclusion that you're not nearly as smart as you think you are, so you're probably dead wrong about the whole dying thing. All we gotta do is get you to those X-Frond guys and I bet they can fix you up no problem."

"Insult me and make me feel good in one sentence?" Akari closed her eyes, secretly glad for the contact. The worst thing she could imagine was that the last person she ever expected to know, the one that had saved her life, would end up hating her. Cautiously, she hugged Jinx back. Human contact... it felt good. Better than any psionic stimulation provided by The Mind.

Far better.

"Even if something happens to me," she still felt the need to say, even at the risk of ruining the mood. "You didn't kill me. They did. You've given me a chance to be human again, Jinx. I can _never_ thank you enough for that."

"Probably not," Jinx agreed with a wicked smirk, "But I suppose I can rise above my 'selfish' nature and let you off the hook? Or is that too much to expect from me?"

"I think I was just putting a lot of my own problems onto you," Akari explained, more than a little guilty, "I wasn't exactly Miss Perfect either, as you know," she continued, nervously smoothing out her robes. "And... and where you said no, just now... to the Mind... I said yes..."

Starting to feel the last lingering of her headache vanish, the sorceress squeezed Akari's neck a little tighter. "Yeah, well, don't be too hard on yourself. You don't know... how close it was in there. He might be the most hated man I know ... but if it hadn't been for Happosai, what he'd given to me ..."

Akari nodded, understanding.

Jinx's willpower was... on a whole other level than her own. When the original her had been taken and harvested, she had known Ryouga was there, in the same room, in the same ship. She'd managed to whisper for him, prayed he could save them, but he'd been restrained... Knowing he was there had made it so much worse. So much more terrible. When they took her mind, the despair had been too much, and she had given in. The aliens didn't want resisting personalities within The Mind. They _always_ tried to break you first.

For the first time, Akari truly felt in awe of her companion. Seeing her martial arts prowess, her skill, even her strange powers, were all things the former pig farmer had taken in stride. If anything, she gave off the air of being just another powerful martial artist girl, supremely confident (overconfident even) and extremely defensive. But she'd seen a true strength in the girl's besieged mind: a strength she lacked before, and probably still did. It was... kind of inspiring...

"Thanks," she replied.

And her insides clenched, this time painfully. Jinx didn't seem to notice, and Akari kept herself from revealing the discomfort and confusion. Had she pushed herself too hard? She knew her body was failing, but it should have been basically painless. Maybe it was a bit cowardly, but she had hoped it would end quietly and painlessly. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath.

It didn't matter.

Regrettably, she let Jinx go and took a step back. Covering her mouth with the back of her hand to muffle a very faint cough - hopefully passed off as just being one of discomfort rather than distress - Akari spared her new friend a warm smile. The thought that the two of them had just collectively given the Commander back at the base and the rest of The Mind a giant middle finger was also quite appealing.

"Thanks," she said again. "Let's get going. We still have a lot of ground to cover!"

Already taking a step in the right direction, the pink haired girl nodded. "Well hurry up, already, then. I'll carry you if I need to, but I don't know how long I'd be able to carry around all that extra weight you're carrying."

Despite being an insult, it was said with an honest, bright smile, and Jinx quickly waved Akari on to follow her as she picked up the pace once more.

* * *

The Mind was displeased.

As was the Commander.

The abrupt brain-death of the Floater host had severed the link with the human and the hybrid. Worse, it had corrupted what little the Ethereal had managed to extract and recompress into a new, more pliable Jinx personality. Many of the memories were intact, roughly sixty percent, and the sentient matrix was likewise around sixty to seventy percent stable. The human mind was an incredibly complex thing to duplicate properly, and The Mind wanted a fully functional version for later infiltration of Jinx's world.

It had been a strain to accomplish as much as the Ethereal had, working through a weaker proxy-mind, and without the proper instruments and probes that would normally be available. The result was, by the standards of The Mind, a very slipshod and rough copy, not suited to any sort of important field operation. An early estimate placed additional data recovery at about ten percent. Full sentient reconstruction of the new Jinx would require much longer. The Mind had exacting standards for infiltration hybrids, especially ones with so critical a role.

Initial body-cloning and study could begin much sooner, would have already begun in fact, had they been able to garner intact and undamaged samples from the examination before the subject had escaped. As it was, there was very little to work with, but they would manage.

Still, The Mind was displeased.

Some of the other Ethereal Commanders aware of the ongoing operation, all stationed elsewhere in the Sol System, were critical of the efforts thus far. Capture of The Traveler had gone well, but the incident at containment, the loss of some key personnel, the unprecedented damage and defection of a hybrid, the escape of an important human subject... so many errors. So many miscalculations. So many strange accidents befalling those units sent to pursue the two girls. It was peculiar.

YOU WILL BE PLEASED

THIS ONE WILL SERVE

It insisted. The Mind and those who made it up agreed. All would do their utmost, all would function as intended, all would serve as asked, all would contribute to consensus. The Mind, and by extension all aliens in this backwater star system, would be pleased. Progress would be made. If sacrifices had to be made, then so be it.

It was only a matter of time.

* * *

_USS Boxer_  
West Timor Sea

Acting Major Wilson wasn't quite sure what to make of their new guests. Since the destruction of the organization's Wyndham Facility the South Asia front had been hectic to say the least. They still didn't have a single proper base to operate from and so a series of interim measures had been taken. The Australian government had loaned one of their land bases to allow for refueling and storage of a pair of Firestorms while a mobile platform had been made available by the USN to support a single Skyranger and a light assault force.

The New Australian Branch of UNETCO was very much at the mercy of handouts from the Far East Asian and American Branches at the moment. A skeleton crew was still operating the nearly destroyed Hyperwave Decoder down in the ruins of Wyndham, but the base has been completely compromised. Plasma had ripped the old girl open and the alien raid, while ultimately repulsed thanks to outside assistance, had resulted in extensive damage across the board. UNETCO High Command also didn't seem interested in installing a more than token replacement over the months that had followed.

All this was the reason why he had been transferred over from the White Hill Facility in Central America and why he and his men were forced to operate off of the _USS Boxer_. Then again: having the organization pull together a small fleet to support combat operations was still fairly impressive; not as impressive as setting up a new secret base in two months, but pretty impressive. Boxer was a Wasp class Amphibious Assault Craft , ostensibly pulled off duty in the India Ocean for 'peacekeeping and training exercises' with the Aussies in the Timor Sea. She'd brought with her the _USS Pinckney_, an AEGIS destroyer, and a few other support craft, and they'd met up with the _HMAS Darwin_, fresh off her new missile frigate FFG upgrade. UNETCO could really get the metal moving when they wanted to.

The ships were there in lieu of them having no base defenses. It was mostly for show. Anything larger than a Harvester or Abductor could just snipe them from forty miles away, the plasma beams hitting home before missiles were likely to lock on. It was a token defense and everyone knew it. They had to both play up the illusion of what was actually going on and, at the same time, deter any potential landing attempts. That was the real issue: keep it so that if the aliens try and own the air, they get attacked by Firestorms from inland; if they try and land, chew them up.

This was all still a sideshow, though, in the worldwide war against the Enemy.

The Skyranger had landed on the forward deck of the _USS Boxer_, engines angling to bring it down in an easy VTOL touch down. It was a handy ride: mach capable, very rugged, VTOL... not quite up to the lift capacity of a good old Chinook, but still very reasonable. A smooth ride, too, though nothing like being in a Lightning or Avenger. There really was nothing to compare with inertialess gravity induction.

A four man squad hopped down from the ramp of the Skyranger. This was Seiran's Juliet Squad. Together with India, they'd made quite a name for themselves. A lot of it was classified Section Seven black ops - hence the creation of the special 'martial arts squads' in the first place - but they had a growing battlefield resume, too. India and Juliet had even been among the relief teams assigned to Wyndham back during the initial alien assault.

This was Wilson's first time meeting them, and his impression was...

Well, that they were a strange bunch of kids.

Two of them seemed to be openly fighting with one another, ducking and dodging and arguing as they followed their commanding officer. Given that one of the missed kicks, a heel stomp that would have crushed the victim's foot, actually dented the metal floor, it didn't look like the two girls were playing around. No sooner were they free of the confines of the Skyranger than one of them, a brown haired girl in fatigues, whipped out some sort of giant spatula as large as her body and proceeded to spin it in scything arcs. The unorthodox weapon quickly ended up pinned between a pair of large tactical knives and the two girls jockeyed for position and leverage.

"Hey, hey, reign it in a bit, would'ya?" their lead ordered in a casual voice, hands tucked into his pockets. The two women broke apart immediately - metal spinning as weapons returned to their sheaths and straps.

"Yes, sir..." they replied in unison, and then glared at each other, annoyed by being in stereo.

The fourth member of the squad was a quiet, somewhat effeminate looking young man. He whispered something to the two, and they straightened up and presented themselves more respectfully as they caught up with their CO. That quiet one had to be Sergeant "Konatsu" then; the girls were "Kuonji" and "Shampoo."

"Lieutenant Saotome reporting," the pigtailed leader of the seemingly dysfunctional crew said with a smart salute. "You must be Acting Major Wilson. The White Hill transfer?"

"You read my record?" Wilson's opinion of the laid back solider went up just a fraction. Maybe he was more on the ball than he appeared? He'd come to expect professionalism by default in the organization. It was the best of the best after all. Being stuck with some greenhorn officer and his merry band of cheerleaders wasn't what he had signed up for. It was more along the lines of what he had hoped to get away from.

"Just liketa' know who I'm workin' with," Ranma replied. He added, over his shoulder, "Hey, come on you three."

Facing the older man he gave an easy shrug.

"Don't worry 'bout them," the young lieutenant continued. "I had 'em training a bit on the ride over."

Wilson smirked at that. So these were four of the eight insane martial artists from Seiran?

"Oh?" he asked, and nodded to motion them to follow him. "Training what?"

"Mostly a little Koppojutsu." Ranma reached into his sleeve and pulled it back, revealing a metal plate strapped to his arm. He tapped it with his finger.

"Exotic alloy?" Wilson asked. "You were hitting alien alloy?"

"Not like we expect to actually punch through or break the stuff," the esoteric martial artist explained, rolling his sleeve back up. "But it works pretty good for hardening. Just a little project I'm working on with my team."

"Huh."

Wilson had heard of Koppojutsu of course. Body hardening techniques. He was a martial artist himself, but nothing quite so unconventional. It was mostly recreational and fitness based these days. He didn't look it, but he was pushing fifty. He was still one of the best, and it was because he kept to a rigarous program of physical conditioning. But he hadn't actually had to use any of it in... in recent memory. You rarely had to use traditional martial artists on the modern battlefield. The takedowns and CQC defense were the most important aspects. Ideally, you wanted to shoot the enemy, especially the alien enemy. Not get into hand to hand with them.

Then again, he also couldn't shatter steel with his fists.

"Well," he said, putting that stuff aside for the time being. "We've got a bit of an emergency that just came up. Yasuda herself wanted us to bring you in on it. Said you might enjoy the challenge."

Ranma's shoulders stiffened and he turned slightly more serious.

"I read the preliminaries on the way over," he replied, blue eyes hardening. " Roanapur, huh?"

The other UNETCO officer snorted in disgust. "It isn't much to speak of, believe you-me. A hub for smuggling, human trafficking, drug running - you name it. The Thais will moan if we wipe it out though; they like their current arrangements with the mobsters that run the ghetto."

"It could be Tatooine for all I care." Ranma shrugged indifferently. "Just means we don't have to hold back when we put boots to the ground. You've got seniority here, Acting Major. How do you want to handle things?"

"That will depend on our latest HUMInt..." Slade Wilson cupped his hands behind his back as he walked across the deck. The scar around his left eye crinkled as he smiled. "Naturally, if we can get in and out quietly and accomplish our mission, that would be perfect. And... if we have to raise a little Hell...? Well, I have no particular problem with that."

* * *

x

* * *

Abstract -

Ukyou Kuonji  
Rank: Squaddie

Only child; parents Kazou and Rei (deceased) Kuonji. Official record states martial arts style as ' Kounji School of Martial Arts Okonomiyaki Preparation.' Root of style seems based in ninjutsu. Heavy focus on unorthodox weapons. Kuonji trained specifically to improve defense through use of 'battle spatula' as shield. Strongest in mid range engagement where she can read enemy attacks. Trained as squad heavy weapons and demolition operator for CT:Juliet. Rated and approved for all levels of field ordinance (up to and including Fusion Ball/Blaster Bomb). Pending approval for access to nuclear ordinance with admittance to CLEANSLATE. Psionic Class-C.

Subject is continuing education via pedagogical programming, but has not shown interest in an officer commission. Mentored under Lt. Lofquist, Kimberly (deceased). Seiran currently housing father Kazou. Hard working. Affable. Approachable demeanor. Complications regarding romantic entanglement with Lt. Saotome seem to have been mostly resolved. Continuing rivalry with teammate, Shan Pu, and Sqd. A. Tendo. Noted to have the highest level of cross team training exercises of all of Juliet. Good working relationship with CT:India and CT:Golf. Potential officer material if initiative improves. Recommended for NCO position if India/Juliet broken up.

Kuonji was picked up subsequent to the Nerima Abduction Event (file attached) on recommendation of Saotome and Hibiki. Mentorship terminated early due to death of Lt. Lofquist. Studies continued under then-Srg. Kinoshida.

Service Record (attached) summarized as follows: assignment to CT:Juliet (Oct 2006); rank Squaddie. Concerns over team dynamics noted (see: Shan Pu). Noted performance in Operation Zebra, Ghost Wire, Winter Triangle (included). Confirmed as Squaddie 1st class. Participated in AB17 Alpine Echo Seven (December, 2006). Fiftieth Kill recorded (January, 2007). Temp assignment to Luna (2007). (see: Psionic Profile, attached). R. Harris primary Operator; N. Tendo added as backup Operator (2007).

See also: field modifications (special equipment).

Morale and Loyalty considered GOOD. Presence of family on base a strong motivator. Temperament is typically mild but can swing towards aggressive. Calculating in field; strong eye for positional advantage. Well suited for rapid demolition, assault-insertion, covert ops. Somewhat weak in combat psionics. Kuonji is a solid member of Juliet, despite the early difficulties. She could be easily integrated into other combat teams as necessary. Deferential towards authority figures. Strong urge to integrate into social network on base. Even if we weren't taking CT:Juliet, it would've been useful to attach Kuonji to one of our teams (Golf or Charlie). As long as she remains focused on the mission she's become very reliable under fire.

[signature redacted]

##

BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS  
TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 203  
CODENAME: Robin  
REAL NAME: Richard Grayson

SPECIES: Human  
HEIGHT: 5'5"  
WEIGHT: 130lbs

HAIR COLOR: Black  
EYE COLOR: Blue

KNOWN ABILITIES: Subject is a Class 10 martial artist. *_Special Addendum: Recent reports point to signs of unorthodox training from subjects classified as 'Meta-Martial Artists'. Skill reassessment is recommended to determine subject's current skill level_* Subject is highly intelligent, possesses a keen strategic and tactical mind and is able to rapidly adapt to new situations. Subject has been trained by numerous mentors in combat, espionage, computer usage, defensive driving and possesses a high level of proficiency in all of the above. Subject also possesses a wide repertoire of weapons and equipment, many of which are patterned after the various tools of Subject:002:Codename:Batman. Equipment includes, but is not limited to: grappling hook, collapsible bo staff, 'birdarangs', explosive discs, freezing discs, smoke pellets, as well as other more specialized gear.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: Subject has demonstrated no exploitable weaknesses to date. Any attempt to capture the subject should be done so with extreme caution. Expect the subject to anticipate strategies and develop counter strategies accordingly. Subject also possesses extensive knowledge of most League members and how to capitalize on known weaknesses, as well as in depth knowledge of standard League tactics and contingencies. Highest Probability of incapacitating subject is to attack via a proxy unknown to the subject. Test simulations show that this method will somewhat mitigate the subjects familiarity with the League and its members, but further contingency plans are still being formulated.

KNOWN HISTORY: *Subject's history redacted by System Administrator*

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: C

PERSONAL NOTE_: When I had first initiated the Brother Eye Protocols, it had seemed like a prudent, even necessary precaution. …Only now, as I find myself preparing a file on Dick… do I suddenly find myself questioning my actions. What am I doing here? Actually writing plans on how to take out Dick if he were to ever go rogue? What madness has descended on the world that has actually brought me to this point?_

_And the Protocol only assesses him as a C level threat? To me, personally, there isn't a greater danger in the world. If Dick were to ever go rogue, as improbable as that concept it, he knows enough about me that he could destroy me, utterly, with just the act of picking up a phone and dialling the nearest reporter. Hell, he could probably expose half of the League before we could so much as change the channel on the television._

_Granted, there was the… incident… with Death Stroke, but even while he was being blackmailed by that madman, the lives of his friends on the line, not once did he do anything to endanger me, or anyone else. I can't think of anyone who would have done differently in his position, excepting those that would have invariably done much, much worse in order to save themselves. Despite, or perhaps because of that incident, my trust in Dick has never been stronger, and just staring at this document is nearly making me sick to my stomach._

_Should I tell him about the Brother Eye Protocols? Would he want to know the best course of action to take if his friends were to go rogue? Has he already come to a similar conclusion on his own and prepared a set of contingencies already? No, I will trust him to run his own team. Despite my intentions, I know he would not appreciate knowing of the existence of these files._

_There are so many things I want to tell him, but can't. He has moved on, formed a strong team of formidable fighters around him. He might still report to me, and I still fund certain aspects of his organization, but I have no doubt that, were I to cut off all of my support, that he would find a way to continue on. It feels hollow to say it here, of all places, but if there was one word that would encompass my feelings for Dick at this time, it would be this one:_

Proud.

_I am so proud of him._

##


	9. Close Encounters 4

**A/N**  
To make up for late Friday updates, here's an unpredictable early-Friday midnight update! Let's see if we can kick the plot in the pants and get some stuff moving!

* * *

x

* * *

Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last. The reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together. With Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding', it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of Atlantis. Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well deserved breather from their adventures. But as unseen forces manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered… and sooner than they expect.

It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Close Encounters_

Chapter IX

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

Starfire yawned, drowsily leaning forward with her elbows on her knees.

To her right, large metal boxes shifted slightly pushing against their mooring restraints. She had been shipped off without fanfare - the stony presence of Herb, Kiima, and a few other armed guards hardly counted as fanfare - and packed in with a few other cargo items for the first flight off base. Not that she wasn't glad to be leaving the place, but she also had little actual idea where they were transferring her to. Only that her friends were waiting for her there. Supposedly. It was still somewhat difficult to believe her captors.

The suppression band on her head itched a bit, too, but none of that was as bad as simply having to sit around doing nothing, knowing she was so close to being back with her friends. If only they would have simply allowed her to fly there herself! Trying to work a nail under the lip of the band, she still found it infuriatingly mated to her skin. It wasn't that it was tight. It was almost like it had been glued or fused into place.

She wondered if the cargo hold's other occupant had something similar.

Sealed up against one of the walls of the transport was her 'fellow prisoner' - barely visible behind the opaque material of his (or its) stasis tube. Starfire could only discern part of the alien's body and the face. It was small in size, like a human child, but with a large bulbous head and unblinking black eyes. Only the slow motion of the nose slits, contracting and opening once every few seconds, indicated it was anything other than a corpse. A series of warning labels adorned the side of its tube, indicating biohazards, radiation hazard, and 'psionic hazard' ...whatever that meant.

The rest of the cargo seemed to be packed in crates.

For the seventh time during the extended duration of the flight, she found her thoughts drawn again to her friends. By the given descriptions, only Ryouga and Raven were present. It appeared that the portal had not transported Cyborg to the same location as them, or herself. She dearly wished that she knew what had become of her cybernetic friend and how he was faring in this harsh and unfriendly world.

It was impossible to know whether anyone else had been transported through the portal as well. When last she had seen them, both Robin and the nefarious Jinx had been fighting desperately to resist the pull of the vortex, hanging on only by a small chord ... Had either of them fallen through? Had both of them? Though it was quite selfish, and she despised herself for wishing this terrible fate upon anyone else, she did not possess the words to describe how grateful she was that she was not trapped on this world alone. Also, speaking in a practical manner, the more of them which ended up in this place, the greater their chances of getting home.

Of more disturbing note, though, was the captive alien in transport with her. Starfire found herself strongly tempted to try to free her fellow extraterrestrial, if only to hear its side of the conflict. She knew the humans who had captured her had not told her everything, barely anything at all for that matter. Though Herb had certainly shown her quite a few unpleasant things, who could say if they were real? Were the aliens truly the villains here? These XCOM people insisted that the aliens were the cruel, wicked ones, and yet aside from a few individuals acting on their own prerogative, the humans appeared to act in a manner similar to the aliens they so passionately hated.

Given all that, she somehow doubted the heavily armed guard sitting at the front of the cargo area would appreciate her attempting to communicate with the contained alien. The xenophobia and immoral practices of this human group were so very much unlike those of the humans she had met on the Earth of her native realm. There, even complete strangers had been willing to help her - after a minor misunderstanding and some harmless property destruction - and protect her, no matter the cost.

Here, her very existence was a crime to be stamped out.

Again, she gave silent thanks that Raven and Ryouga had been present. If the pair had not appeared to corroborate her memories, she found it highly doubtful that the humans would have ceased their mental attacks until there was nothing left of her at all. They had seemed convinced that she was some sort of - of half-human half-alien construct. Who knows what they would have done to her in the long term if not divested of this misdiagnosis?

Starfire felt the aircraft decelerate and straightened up in anticipation.

The next minute or so seemed to drone on, and she turned from looking back towards the front of the aircraft - currently sealed off with her guards - to the back, where she knew the rear hatch to be. Tapping her fingers together anxiously, she waited, eagerly looking up when she heard the front compartment open. A man in dark white and gray armor appeared, his helmet on, checking some of the crates as he walked to the rear of the ship. He stopped next to the tube with the alien in it, checking something on the side, and then leaned in to check the metal band they had fitted to her head like a coronet.

She resisted the urge to react when he brushed back some of her hair to make sure it was in place. The little coronet somehow acted, like that horrible paralysis table, to nullify her ability to fly or to generate Star Bolts. The two had to be connected. A similar technology, and she had been 'mentally scanned' before. Thinking about flying or bolting produced a not-painful but still uncomfortable dissonance.

Interestingly, her strength did not seem to be affected... but this was a discovery she kept to herself. Starfire put up with the restrictive metal band primarily because it meant she wouldn't end up in a tube, like the creepy eyed creature opposite her. So she waited and let the man check to make sure it was in place. Quickly satisfied, paying her no more heed than he had the other alien, the soldier went to the end of the plane and waited.

A minute later, yellow lights blinked, and the ramp opened. Immediately beyond it was a hangar, very similar to the one she had seen when she left the last base. Two large trolleys were off to the side, along with more uniformed humans. It took a moment, but three of the humans quickly became familiar. One was still a stranger, but she was certain the other three were Mousse, Kuno and Ryouga! Standing to rush over to them, she hesitated, remembering some of what she had heard before.

_'Lieutenants Saotome and Hibiki'_

Was this the Ryouga she knew, or the native one? It... it had to be the latter.

There was no spark of recognition - well, maybe a little one - when he saw her, just about to come down the ramp. He and the other three young men were also armed and standing as if expecting a fight. She paused, suddenly a bit unsure, her eyes scanning the cavernous hanger urgently. Where were her friends?

An older human male walked partway up the ramp to meet with the guard, exchanging a few words. Starfire waited, pushing back her urge to rush past them. Patience. She just need to be patient a little longer, as insufferable as it was at the moment. Eventually, the guard nodded, saluted, and stepped aside. The other man then ordered subordinates in orange uniforms to start unloading materials around her.

"Koriand'r, is that right?" The older male asked, taking a few steps over to her. "You're free to disembark. Do not attempt to remove your psi-suppressor."

She replied with a rapid, shallow nod, in a hurry to just get out and find the comrades she had been promised. Nearing the bottom of the ramp, the... alternate versions of her friends took up positions to her left and right. It was somewhat surreal to see people she knew, but who plainly did not know her. The native Ryouga seemed to be in charge, and he walked around and held out his hand in greeting.

"Miss Koriand'r," he said, inclining his head slightly in a small bow. "Pleased to meet you. I know you're eager to meet your friends; they're waiting for you inside."

Starfire frowned darkly at the alternate Ryouga and pointedly did not take the proffered hand. It felt so wrong for him to use her true name with such ease. While she had come to appreciate the translation of her name, used so frequently by her friends, that had nothing to do with her disdain. No, after countless hours of having that - that _odious_ human interrogator repeating her true name, over and over again with such disrespect and disgust, it nearly sickened her to hear any of these… _soldiers_ utter her Tamaranian name. If anything, it only made it harder to forgive them, the fact that, in any way at all, they had actually made her hate the sound of her own name.

Even Mint and Herb, the only small saving graces of her otherwise unbearable captivity, had taken her wishes quickly to heart and used her Earth name. Those two had been the only humans – using the term loosely – whom had understood, or at least attempted to understand what they had subjected her to.

But here, now, and with _this _person, it felt like yet another violation. Not only did these people flaunt her most personal secrets without a care in the world, but they did not even care enough to acknowledge what they had done. They obviously had no shame in the fact that they had plundered her mind. It nearly broke her heart to be able to look at one that had become like a brother to her, and to feel nothing but distrust and fear. So, rather than answer, she nodded sharply, doing what little she could to hide her acidic glare before quickening her pace, trying to reach the exit more swiftly. She needed to see her friends, needed to reaffirm that her Ryouga was still himself.

The four escorted her across the hangar to a large set of doors. A faint light brushed over them, and then the passageway unlocked and slid open along the lateral and longitudinal axis. Waiting just inside, standing by the wall…

_'Raven! Ryouga!'_

Though both wore the fairly plain clothing of every other human she had seen in these bases, it took her less than a second to confirm that these were, indeed, her dear, dear friends. It was not what they wore which tipped her off, it was the looks on their faces: her Ryouga was staring, a smile rising up at the sight of her to chase away the worry that so often pulled his brows down and colored his eyes with darkness, and Raven, despite having little outward reaction, also sported a very small smile and a look of relief. Subtle though it was.

Boundless joy filled Starfire's chest ... only to be crushed a moment later as her feet failed to leave the floor. The buzzing in her ears - in her head - increased annoyingly the moment she even attempted the meager flight, and she reached up to hold her head to steady herself until the discomfort passed.

A second later, Ryouga was at her side, helping her hold her balance.

"_Star_! Are you alright?"

Shaking her head, she nodded. "Indeed, my precious friend. It is just this circlet, it disorients me."

The Tamaranian was actually somewhat gratified at the anger that suddenly rose in her friend on her behalf. It was one of the few ways that Ryouga possessed to display his affection for others, and knowing that he cared enough to display righteous fury in her defense was another fond reminder of home. A moment later, still holding her carefully, her fanged companion fired a heated glare at his counterpart.

"What the hell _is_ this?" he barked. "Why haven't you taken this thing off of her already? We told you that you can trust her!"

The other Ryouga didn't flinch from the angry double.

"Which I will do... momentarily." He turned to Starfire. To the others in India, she probably appeared fairly harmless, less threatening than an Ukyou or Shampoo. The uniformed Hibki clearly knew better.

"Miss," he continued. "I understand your people have a warrior's code of honor. By removing your psi-suppressor, I am placing you under my responsibility. I hope you will respect that, as well as the laws and rules of this base. We both know the havoc you could potentially cause if you chose to."

"You know nothing of my people," Starfire muttered silently under her breath. Still, she nodded, wanting nothing more than to have the device removed as soon as possible. To her side, Ryouga's glare only deepened at the stolen knowledge his double flaunted so casually. Did it amuse them to demonstrate how thorough they had been in sifting through their most personal memories like so much garbage?

A moment later, Starfire felt another comforting presence, as Raven joined them, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Starfire. Despite all appearances, these people are not our enemy."

The other Ryouga placed his hands to either side of Starfire's temple, depressing a trigger in the material. Unknown to her, the psionic programming within the band had prompted a mental unlock code, and a second later it clicked in response, freeing her from its control. Despite appearing calm as he removed the device, there was a slight tension to this Ryouga's movements. More than almost anyone, he seemed to know how potentially dangerous this unassuming girl could be. Those reports, clearly, had been passed on in detail.

Removing the suppressor, he snapped it back into a straight band.

"There," he said, tucking the straight, ruler-like device into one of his uniform pockets. "You should resume full control in a few seconds."

The Tamaranian felt the change the instant that the horrible device was removed from her brow. It was with a palpable sigh of relief that she turned back to her friends, no longer able to summon the boundless joy she had first felt, the moment spoiled.

"My friends, I am so glad that you are both unharmed. You were not injured, were you?" She looked down for a moment, biting her knuckle as she recalled recent events. "My own apprehension was a most traumatic event. Please tell me that your own was not."

Glaring furiously at his double for a moment, Ryouga turned back to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and putting on a confident grin. Despite the obvious tension in his frame, the Tamaranian could feel his the muscles in his arm twitching rapidly with repressed anger, his voice still came out in a calm, joking manner.

"Nah," he replied with a grin. "These guys tried to take us in, but we pounded them so badly that we ended up feeling sorry for them and surrendered ourselves out of pity."

Immediately, heartened by the gratifying news and the cheerful note in her friend's voice, Starfire's face lit up and she began to float. It filled her with joy to know that her friends had not been so roughly treated as she had.

"Oh, that is most glorious to hear! You must tell me more of the kicking of the butt which you delivered. In exchange I will tell you of my own battle with the ones named Mint, Lime and Herb."

She looked on in amusement as her Ryouga nearly choked on his own tongue. "You - you fought those jokers, and_Herb_? Holy _crap_, Kori, how are you still _alive_?"

Oh, so it _was_ the same trio that he had mentioned in his inappropriate story of the infamous 'Breast Fake Out Tactic.' She had thought the coincidence had been unlikely, once she had had time to recall. It was quite easy, she reflected bitterly, to recall things when people were tearing through one's memory like rabid Portkins.

Allowing herself to be led down the hallway by Ryouga, ignoring the fact that they would undoubtedly not reach any destination any time soon, she offered up a superior smile. "Oh, you found those three to be dangerous? What could have given you that impression...?"

…

Raven shook her head, smiling fondly as the pair wandered aimlessly down a random corridor. She knew that they would undoubtedly be swapping stories - however biased - for some time. Despite her brave face, though, Raven could feel Starfire's spirit twisted up inside her. Whatever had befallen her, it had affected her more deeply than she was letting on. The Tamaranian's discomfort wasn't the only she could sense, though. Once the pair were further down the hall, she turned to stare at Lt. Hibiki, a bemused look on her face.

"Really, afraid of Starfire?" she asked. "You should be ashamed of yourself, Lieutenant."

"My mother lives on this base," he replied, simply. "As do many others I care about. I don't like taking chances with their safety."

Raven shook her head sadly at the unfounded paranoia. "Mr. Hibiki, I've met your mother. Frankly, she worries me more than Starfire does."

With that, she turned and began to slowly follow in the trail of her friends, hoping they didn't wander into any kind of minefield or something. "You know, it's paranoid statements like that one, that simply confirm our own worries."

"Mousse, Kuno. Why don't you see to our new guest's arrangements?" The Hibiki asked his companions, then turned to the third member of India. "Ryu. With me. Let's make sure our new friends don't get lost."

All three nodded, and parted ways.

Seeing Raven lagging behind her two friends, and a little annoyed by her words, Ryouga took a few long steps to catch up. Doing so, he had to remind himself she had a natural empathic ability. He would have to be more careful about how he expressed himself around her.

"It isn't paranoia," he remarked, a response to her earlier observation, though inwardly winced at how his thoughts just a second earlier and his statement now didn't exactly mesh. "And my mother is a sweet, gentle woman."

A few feet away, Ryu sniggered... only to retreat when his CO sent a withering glare his way.

"And what are your worries?" he asked, ignoring Ryu's little gaffe. "That we're still secretly the bad guys or something?"

Enjoying the upper hand she'd so rarely enjoyed since arriving on this world, Raven looked up at him, giving him an amused glance.

"Mostly, we're just worried that you actually are as big a jerk as you appear to be. Personally, I'm holding out hope for you, but I think you've already lost Ryouga." Shrugging, she turned to Ryu. "Isn't it sad to see someone that hates himself so much? Don't you people have any way to deal with problems that don't include mind scans and containment cells?"

Ryu held up his hands, as if to say, 'No comment lady!'

The lieutenant just huffed. "I'm a jerk, huh? Well, it isn't like I'm out to win popularity contests or anything, but if you think I'm bad...? I've stuck my neck out for your group here, though for the life of me I don't know why. As for our methods... they work. They save lives."

"For which we have to take your word and nothing else," Raven replied quickly. She then leveled a serious look his way. "And please don't try to inflate your benevolence. You have 'stuck out your neck' for us exactly once, when you decided not to have us killed at the airport. Everything after that point has been our own behavior speaking for us."

"You say that like it isn't a major thing," he replied, annoyance tingeing his voice.

To which she nodded. "Granted, I am quite grateful that you decided against killing us. However, you must also realize that your altruism is somewhat tainted by the fact that you only came to that decision after several minutes spent trying, with everything you had, to kill or subdue us. You did not even attempt to peacefully detain us, or even question us, you had Mousse open the confrontation with an overtly lethal attack."

"Hardly lethal by his standards," Ryu objected and shrugged at the suffering look Raven sent him.

"Mousse's little taser attack is no more lethal than the shock therapy option built into that other-me's umbrella," Ryouga concluded the comparison with a dismissive wave of his hand. "After you transformed... well, you can guess the standard procedure when dealing with a threat of your level."

"The bombs and razor wire he deployed before my …_transformation…_ were decidedly less than pleasant," Raven replied with a sharp look. Perhaps it was some of her own prior experience with the weapon master mingling with her latest encounter with him, but the whole scenario left her quite annoyed with Mousse in general, and by extension, his companions. Still…

"However, yes, I understand your reactions at that point," she finally conceded, "But before you exclaim to being our savior, just remember one thing. You say your methods save lives… but how many innocent lives do they cost? Were it not for Ryouga's umbrella, the both of us would be dead now. Only because of a circumstance of which you could not possibly have had any knowledge did we survive when you opened fire with your weapons."

The Hibiki appeared to be attempting to find a reply to her rhetorical question, so she held up a hand to forestall him. As cathartic as it was to get that off of her chest, she didn't want to completely sour any chance of forming any kind of working relation with this organization. He also seemed to realize her point and concede it.

With some small effort, she manufactured a telling smirk. "Don't read too much into it yet. Let's just suffice it to say that you obviously don't trust us fully, so how can you expect us to do any differently?"

"I..." he thought, carefully, before he answered. "There's a difference between lack of trust and barely restrained hostility. You're right. I don't trust all of you, not completely, and I don't blame you for not trusting me either. It just... annoys me to see that other me, and this girl too, looking at me like I'm some kind of monster."

"I can't – won't - speak for Starfire, but it is painfully apparent that something is troubling her greatly, despite her attempts to conceal it." Raven narrowed her eyes, staring at the native Hibiki seriously. "Perhaps you might know if something happened to her during her captivity? Perhaps it is not _you_ that she sees as a monster, but your _uniform_? Ryouga and I at least had the benefit of familiar faces when we were interrogated. I somehow doubt that she was afforded the same courtesy or the same restraint on the part of her questioners."

At this observation, Ryouga and Ryu exchanged a sad look.

"I know she resisted the initial scans, and her report indicates she became 'hostile and uncooperative.'" The lieutenant crossed his arms in helpless exasperation. "You're right in that she had a harder time than either of you did. I could tell that using her name made her angry as well, though I can't imagine why. Was I pronouncing it wrong? I just don't get it. You're all taking this far worse than Ranma and I did when we were picked up."

"Were you also violently attacked with lethal force, held against your will, had your memories sifted through against your will and treated as pariahs and potential enemies when this organization recruited you as well?"

"Way I heard it, they were both unconscious for most of it," Ryu helpfully chimed in. "Slept like a bunch of big babies."

"Thank you, sergeant," Ryouga answered with a twitching eyebrow. "No. We weren't attacked, but we were detained. We did have our memories searched - something for which I'm grateful, having been on the receiving end of alien mercy - and we had to earn our positions, our respect, and the trust of other personnel. I guess it wasn't quite what you had to go through, but both Ranma and myself knew we had to endure whatever came to keep fighting. Besides, for all your powers, it's obvious you guys won't make the same decisions we did. There's no point trying to recruit you."

"Let me get this straight..." Raven eyed him incredulously. "You were _rescued_ by XCOM, were _offered_ positions in the organization, which you _desired_ so that you could keep fighting. And yet _you guess_ it wasn't _quite_ what we had to go through at your hands...?"

She chuckled to herself. "At least your Hibiki sense of logic is still intact. Still, you are correct. We know nothing of your fight, and have no place in it. Our only concern is getting home."

"Geez, it's like arguing semantics with Nabiki," he growled, in no way armed for this kind of fight. "Maybe you'd have preferred if we waited until after the aliens got their hands on you? I'm sure you'd have been glad to be 'rescued' like we were. If you got rescued at all..." He shook his head, dispelling that notion, a little angered at the memories it still brought up. "No matter. I'm sure you three will be home soon and you can forget you ever met your evil murderous jackbooted doubles."

"I _have_ been thinking about growing a goatee," Ryu added, cheerfully. "Or a soul patch."

Raven smirked at Ryu. "Actually, from what I hear from Ranma, you might actually be the good copy."

"Really?" he asked, sounding disappointed. "But... I thought girls love bad boys? Why would I want to be the _good_ double?"

Raven shrugged. "From what I've heard, Bad Boys are only interesting for a time. Everyone knows that girls eventually settle down with the nice guy. Maybe being the good double will work out for you?" She paused for a moment, tapping her chin. "Though, Ranma has been hinting that our Ryu and Natsume have been spending _quite_ a bit of time together lately. He suspects foul play."

"Natsume?" Ryu asked, not recognizing the name.

"The older one of the two fake Tendo sisters," Ryouga supplied. "Uses frost and ice based techniques and a rugbeater. Juliet Squad brought them in months ago."

"She cute?"

Rather than answer outright, Ryouga offered an embarrassed, "Well..."

"Ah! Damnit! She is cute isn't she? Juliet Squad always gets to bring in the girls!" Ryu groaned, giving an exasperated grunt. "What do we get? A gibbering cannibal, a bunch of crazy shrine monsters, and then some dimension hoppers. And out of that bunch, the two who **are** girls are probably underage!" He turned to Raven. "Do you know where Saotome is now? The south seas! He gets sent to a tropical paradise for a 'mission.' Lucky SoB."

"Actually," Raven supplied, her tone filled with amusement. "Natsume and Kurumi are not 'fake sisters' in our reality. Mr. Tendo recently finalized the adoption." The cloaked girl gave a telling look to the native Hibiki. "It appears that people in our universe are just naturally more compassionate. I suppose it would explain a lot." A pause. "Also, do you know when Ranma will return? I think I would like a chance to speak with him. I find conversation with him to be... whimsical."

_'Naturally more compassionate?'_ the native Hibiki thought, instantly. _'Ha. Maybe she's right?'_

"Ranma's picking up the off duty rotation for India," he replied. "Last I checked, he's got his hands full."

"Full of boobs maybe."

"Ryu!" The lieutenant snapped. "Ranma has his hands full with **work**." He frowned at having to defend the pigtailed one in any capacity, but took a deep breath and put it out of his mind to address Raven's unspoken concerns. "Anyway, if there's some problem you have, you should route it through me. I volunteered to look out for you three after all."

She looked at him oddly. "Problem? I simply said I would like to speak with him. I actually know him quite well on my world. How else do you think I know so much about Ryu and such?"

Ryouga's growing frustration was an unceasing source of amusement for Raven, she couldn't help but follow up her statement, "Though, now that I think of it, Ryouga would probably be more comfortable dealing with Ranma as well. Despite his endless ego, he has always been a helpful and easy going person. Not like _certain_ people."

"I meant more that communication off base is restricted." He gave her a weary stare. "Look, I get it. None of you like me. But I'm trying to be 'an accommodating and friendly face' here, I **am**. I really am."

"Compared to Tsuchihashi or Stirling or Gottwald, our Lieutenant can't hold a candle to how hard-assed they are," Ryu said with a smile. "He's only marginally hard-assed."

Ryouga gave his subordinate a 'shut up' look.

"So what do you guys want me to do?" he asked Raven, honestly, the frustration bleeding into his tone of voice. "Let you go? Beg for forgiveness? What?"

"Forgiveness is pointless," Raven replied. "I don't require anything from you. However, it is not me that has the problem with you. You seem to be a serviceable enough Hibiki to me; you're just not the one that I know. I'm just curious as to why you care so much what we think."

"Why **do** you care, sir?" Ryu asked, for once back in a professional mindset. All that time off-base had been a bit spoiling.

"Who says I do?" Ryouga followed the question with a snort of dismissal.

"You, just now," Raven replied with a smirk. "Your frustration over this entire situation is so palpable I can barely walk through it. You've already made your opinion of my Ryouga known. You've been dismissive and derisive towards him, so why do you care whether or not he 'likes' you?"

For a few seconds, Ryouga appeared to provide no answer.

"It isn't that I want him to like me. Or accept me. Or anything like that," he explained, taking a long breath. "I mean, it would be nice, and it's true, he kind of reminds me of myself, before... certain things happened, but that's only a funny coincidence. He has a very different path than my own, and I want to understand it. Are we really the same person? Could he have become me or me him, if our situations were reversed? What do the answers say about us as martial artists... or as men?"

He sighed, a little glad to have just said it.

"You gain insight by looking inside yourself," he posited, referring to her inner selves. "I suppose I kind of want something similar, to help put certain things in my life in perspective. Being a soldier isn't just about following orders. It's about accountability and responsibility for your actions. The same could be said for simply being human. I've been fighting to protect life... and to avenge someone... But knowing how another me would see the situation...? That's what I'd like. Not validation. Just perspective."

_'Well, now we're getting somewhere,'_ Raven thought.

"Sounds like a lot of trouble," Ryu offered his side of things. "I mean, I'm curious what other-me's techniques are like, but who cares about all the other stuff?"

"Well, perhaps I can try to shed some small amount of illumination on the subject," Raven answered, and at Ryu's raised eyebrow she corrected. "Not yours. I meant Ryouga's. Let me try to put it into a perspective you can relate to, though."

She considered the uniformed man for a long moment. "Alright. Your fight with... my Ryouga. You used a variation of the Bakusai Tenketsu which you called the 'Killing Point', or something similar. Ryouga also used a new variation, though I don't know if he's named it yet."

Holding up her hands, as if to balance them, she asked, "How would you compare the two techniques?"

"In terms of battlefield effectiveness?" Ryouga inquired.

Raven nodded. "That would be an ideal start, yes."

"Hmm." The officer considered the question, though he had long since determined the answer. It was a matter of how to say it. "I've trained my breaking point for two things: to enhance my options in close combat and to manipulate the battlefield. Your Ryouga most likely uses his to defeat difficult defenses and to provide openings, rather than directly cause damage. You could say, in a broad sense, that he uses his technique for 'support' while I use mine for 'maneuver.'"

"In a fight, their application is very different. I can use my technique from any point of my body, making the technique more viable during close combat or for defense. Your Ryouga still needs to use his fingers and hands, meaning he can only use it at mid range when not otherwise directly engaged. I can use mine while firing my rifle..."

He said _that_ with a particular importance. The Titans, naturally, wouldn't use firearms, whereas his rifle was an essential part of his battlefield kit.

"I think we've both reached about the same level of pure destructiveness and finesse, however, the Ryouga from your world has a more efficient technique for setting off - no - _controlling_ breaking points around him. My approach is less efficient, but can be used on a wider variety of targets, like liquids and organic bodies. In application, you could say his technique is 'soft' and mine is 'hard' ... or that his is a river, while mine is a flash flood."

The Titan smirked at his thorough answer. "Someone has clearly been thinking about this. However, let us focus more on the first part of what you said, as that gets to the crux of the difference between you, and it is more fundamental than simple battle tactics." Holding up her right hand, she nodded to him. "As you said, your technique is more effective in battle. You created it as a weapon against your enemies and wield it with devastating efficiency. Everything about your technique is aimed towards causing harm and taking life."

Raven sighed loudly, seeing he was about to protest. "Don't give me that look; I know you likely have your reasons. You did mention something about revenge, after all. Just, let me continue."

Satisfied, she then held up her left hand.

"My Ryouga's technique, on the other hand, is not so refined for battle, and there is a very basic reason for this." The dark Titan paused for effect. "The reason that his technique is not as useful in a battle is because it is **not** a combat technique. It is a _medical_ technique."

She relished the looks of surprise on the two men's faces. They had most assuredly not been expecting that answer. She quickly explained: "Ryouga's variation of the Bakusai Tenketsu, and, in fact, every other technique which he has derived from it, were all developed for the sole purpose of saving the life of a dear friend of ours. He spent months devoted completely to the endeavor, turning his back on all other training until he completed it."

Holding up both of her hands again, she matched Ryouga's gaze. "Can you see the difference now? Why one perspective is so different from another? One training only in ending life, and another training solely to preserve it?"

Ryouga didn't reply, but he clearly understood.

Dropping her hands to her side, Raven shook her head slowly. "Though he might not admit it, I can say it easily: you are a better warrior than my Ryouga ... perhaps you are _too good_ at it. Perhaps he doesn't hate you, so much as fear you, or at least what you represent."

The older Ryouga stopped for a moment, trying to come up with some sort of reply.

"A medical technique?" Ryu spoke instead, quickly covering for his commanding officer. "How could that work, though? You mean like blowing up cancer cells or something? But I thought his breaking point couldn't..."

"Terra," Ryouga suddenly said. "It was Terra. That's... that's how he...!"

The lieutenant looked down at his hands, finally figuring out some of the more recent memories he'd overseen. He hadn't been directly exposed to more than a third of them, and after the actual Mind Scan, the vast majority were quickly forgotten. The human mind wasn't a perfect machine for processing memories, not like a specialized alien brain. Not like a calibrated mind probe. But he had tried to remember some of the important things, believing they could be useful in helping smooth things out later.

Terra.

The other Ryouga had spent who-knew exactly how long, forgoing his normal training, to save Terra. A girl who had, strangely, been turned to stone. Literally petrified. Maybe... maybe a Killing Point like his own could theoretically have some medical purpose in the long run, but Raven was right. He hadn't been thinking about that. He had been designing, training, improving on the technique, all to make it into a weapon.

That was martial arts. It was a system of honing the mind, body and spirit, into a tool. Into a weapon. It was the art of combat, the art of violence, the art of destruction. It was an Art of Life, too, and he knew that. He **knew** it. It just... hadn't seemed as important. Not compared to the need to fight, the need to survive, the need to avenge...!

_'I wonder... what would Akari think of me, now?'_

No: he knew that, too. Lowering his arms, he saw Raven and Ryu had both stopped to watch him.

"I see," he said. It was a nice, noncommittal, neutral response.

He watched Raven carefully. The girl had... impressive insight. There was no doubt.

"And what do you think?" he asked, the little knot of rage in the back of his mind twisting, but unable to truly break its bonds. "Is he right to fear what I represent: the martial artist who has devoted himself to becoming a living weapon? The ruthless killer that lies in the heart of everyone who practices The Art? The man who will do anything, if pushed far enough?"

Then, as the thought came, he presented it in stark simplicity, "Wouldn't your Ryouga kill me to protect you?"

"I hope with everything that I am that he would not," she replied without missing a beat. She then shook her head, sadly. "I understand your position. This is war, and you are a soldier. Monsters must be slain and traitors must be dealt with for the greater good. I don't condemn what you do; it's just that **we** aren't soldiers. We're merely... police, I suppose you could say. It isn't our job to lay down final judgment. It's our job to try to uphold justice."

It was a simple distinction between them, she supposed, but apt.

"You have a duty which you must perform and we have ideals which we need to uphold," she concluded. "It is as simple as that. There is no better or worse, no right or wrong. It is a matter of circumstance, that is all."

"A martial artist, by definition, puts his life on the line for the Art...!" Ryu argued, passionately, "And a man also has to be willing to kill or be killed to protect his girl!"

Ryouga huffed, partly amused by the hot blood stirred up in the Yamasenken master, partly mollified by Raven's answer. Both had merit. Ryu had come a long way from the angry young man, opening up simply by virtue of finding actual friends and peers and a way to give his ambitions life again. And, despite everything, Ryouga knew he had changed a lot, too. There was still the hate, still the rage, still the burning desire for revenge... but in time, he had also found friends and companions, and the need for revenge had mutated into a need to make sure it never happened again. He wanted to protect Seiran, his country, his friends, his family... no matter what it took.

As a martial artist, as a soldier, he was ready to give his life.

As a man, he was prepared to kill, to protect.

And as a human being, he knew killing, though sometimes necessary, was abhorrent... and he was prepared to live with that.

"All this pointless drama," he grumbled, just loud enough to hear. "Still, you make some interesting observations ...and you're honest. Thank you for that."

Raven actually burst out into laughter at that. "Oh, Azar! I've been called dramatic by a _Nerimian_ martial artist! Now I know that I've gone too far."

The dark Titan then turned to Ryu. "And, for your information, I don't recall saying that I was **anyone's** girl. Besides, in my situation, I would be far more likely being stuck having to save you troublesome boys from whatever foolish situations you ended up getting yourselves into. Always rushing headlong where estrogen knows better than to tread."

"Ha!" Ryu scoffed, about to actually try and argue the point. "That's where-"

"Okay, okay," Ryouga spoke up, motioning the other young man down with his hand. Still, something about Raven had his attention. _'She seems a bit livelier than before. And a laugh?'_

"I'm glad you find it amusing," he said, rather than make the observation. For now. "I think you'll find something else amusing in about ten seconds."

"What?" Raven asked, thrown a bit by the sudden statement.

"What the Hell? We're back where we started!" An angry shout came from just up ahead. Catching up with Starfire and Ryouga, the group found themselves back at the hangar entrance, having gone on a particularly long and meandering path all around this section of the upper base.

Before returning to exactly where they had started.

The Tamaranian had wrapped her hands snugly around the martial artist's elbow as he failed to lead them anywhere even remotely resembling a destination. Immediately after realizing that they had come full circle, Ryouga raised his free fist and shook it angrily.

Then, in unison, both Ryouga and Starfire shouted, "Ranma! This is all your fault!" Though, the alien girl's rendition was said in a much more sing song voice, filled with mirth.

Immediately, the martial artist turned to stare at her. "What? Am I really that predictable?"

"I am most afraid that you are, dear friend," she replied with a smile.

Raven smirked as she regarded the native Ryouga, also watching the scene. She could feel his mixed emotions easily, and could imagine the cause. No matter what he had here, she could guarantee that there was no one like Starfire in his life.

The heartwarming scene was ruined a moment later, though, as her Ryouga spotted them, only to surge forward and point a finger at his counterpart accusingly.

"**You**!"

"Ugh," the lieutenant replied in disgust. "What did I do _now_?"

Ryouga took another step forward and poked a finger to the man's chest. "Like you don't know! What's up with this? Star ranks half the Chinese army and you send **Herb** after her, and all Raven and me get is _you_ guys? How did she get the 'A' Team, and we get the 'C' Team?"

"What makes you think I give those kinds of orders?" The lieutenant asked, sardonically raising an eyebrow. "Your friend appeared in south China, so they sent a team from the China base. And for your information, India squad has seniority over Romeo. They were formed based on our success."

"Obviously, the-X-COM personnel are just excellent judges of combat prowess," Starfire supplied with a smile. "They rightfully realized that I am a much more proficient warrior than yourself."

"Oh, shut it, Star," Ryouga muttered under his breath.

A moment later, the argument was forgotten, as Starfire released her companion to fly forward and wrap Raven in a crushing embrace.

"Raven! I apologize for allowing Ryouga's malfunctioning sense of direction to separate us from yourself! Please, I wish to be assured as to the wellness of your being!"

The dark Titan, having long learned how to breathe while in one of Starfire's hugs, wheezed slightly as she replied. "You ... didn't miss anything, Starfire. Ryu here was just trying to tell me how 'men are supposed to be willing to die for their women.'"

The Tamaranian turned to regard the soldier in question, quirking an eyebrow. "That is a noble sentiment... but of what good to a woman is a man lacking life signs?" Her lips quickly quirked into a wicked smirk. "After all, men have few enough uses as it is, even while still alive."

"It - I mean..." Ryu sputtered, before declaring, a tad petulantly. "That's just how it is! You live by our code and you die by it."

"Some of the most powerful people we knew are women," Ryouga spoke up in his comrade's defense. He also took a careful step back away from his younger counterpart, a bit miffed to have his personal space so rudely invaded. "As Kuno would say, nobility is gender blind. Or something like that."

The younger Ryouga smirked as his older copy stepped back, before turning to Ryu. "Heh, he's right. Male pride is a very delicate thing when every girl on our team back home could just destroy any of the guys... And Kasumi is on our team, damnit! It gets humbling after a while."

Shaking her head in amusement, Raven turned to the lieutenant.

"I don't suppose you've found a place for Starfire to stay yet, have you?" she asked, surprised it hadn't been mentioned yet. "Nabiki's room barely has room for the box of supplies you gave me."

"Actually, I was just planning on bringing that up," he explained, giving Raven a quick nod. "After yesterday, it became clear that we would have some difficulty pairing you with someone... inoffensive. I'm glad you and Nabiki seem to have gotten along, and I assume my mother and you," he said to the other-him. "Are fine as well. But I'm guessing our new guest doesn't want to share a room with any of us guys."

Starfire shrugged. "I would gladly stay with Ryouga, if it would be convenient."

The two Ryouga's glanced at each other.

"Me?" both asked in stereo.

Raven rolled her eyes. "Who do you think? Honestly, how can you both be so dim after mastering such powerful, esoteric arts?"

Rather than reply in duplicate again, the two gave echoing 'hmf's.

"Hopefully," the older of the two said, after a moment. "This will take care of the problem."

He motioned down the hall, opposite where Starfire and the other Ryouga had headed before. Before the lieutenant could finish the sentence, however, two men in uniform stepped out from around the corner, in the form of Mousse and Kuno.

"You're back," Ryouga called, motioning them over. "The three of you are just in time."

Mousse and Kuno each took a step aside, revealing their hidden 'third.'

A weathered wooden staff tapped the floor as Ku Lon walked past her two young escorts. Despite wearing the traditional robes, she held her walking stick in her left hand rather than her right - the sleeve of the other arm hanging limply to her side. She nonetheless seemed in good cheer, cackling softly as she examined the faces of the new arrivals. Hazel eyes quickly zeroed in on one of them in particular.

"Granny," Ryouga spoke up, using the affectionate term easily. It was better than Ranma's 'old hag' at least. "Thank you for coming. I'm sorry to impose like this."

The ancient Amazon just chuckled. "I don't mind at all. It isn't every day I get to meet interesting new people."

"This is Raven," he said, indicating the young woman closest to him. "The other me," he said simply, gesturing to the slightly younger Hibiki. "And..."

"Starfire," interrupted the Tamaranian quickly. "I prefer the name Starfire while on this planet. Greetings, Elder Ku Lon. Despite the confusing dimensional physics occurring, it is still quite pleasing to see you again."

Finally noticing the empty sleeve, Starfire gasped loudly.

"Elder! Your arm!" She almost reached for the empty sleeve, but pulled back politely at the last second. "What - what travesty has befallen you?"

"This?" Ku Lon gave her missing right arm a fleeting look. "You could say I lost it to a moment of weakness. No matter. Come a little closer child, I've heard whispers that you are like one of our own."

Giggling ecstatically, Starfire did so, floating forward and kneeling before the ancient woman. Only decorum prevented her from reaching out to crush the woman in a hug as well. Ku Lon leaned forward a bit on her staff, looking deep into the girl.

"Interesting. I can see traces of the soul of ice. Who taught you?" the old crone asked, inspecting the young alien's fighting spirit, even restrained as it was. She had yet to completely drop her guard in this place.

Unable to control her mirth, Starfire covered her laughter with a hand before pointing to Ku Lon. "It was you, yourself, Elder. Though it was our intention to instruct Ryouga in the technique, I too learned the concepts."

Ryouga muttered darkly. "Damn girl is already better at it than me, too ..."

"I endeavored to teach a Hibiki the soul of ice?" Ku Lon couldn't help but laugh, but quickly kept it from going out of control and costing her, her decorum. "That must have been quite an uphill struggle!"

"Hey!" The native Ryouga barked. "If that idiot Saotome can do it...!"

"For once I'll agree with you," the other-Ryouga seconded.

Ku Lon rested her staff against her shoulder, and gently touched Starfire on the arm.

"It warms my heart to see our teachings taking root in another talented youngster. Even if she is not from our land..." The ancient master gave a welcoming smile. "I have been asked to share my quarters with you, child. Would that be acceptable to you?"

"Oh, very much so, yes! Staying with you would be glorious!" Starfire cheered enthusiastically. "There is so much that I would like to discuss with you upon the differences between our two worlds."

Ku Lon nodded, acceptingly.

"Thanks again, Granny," Ryouga, the native one, spoke up. "We really owe you one. I'm glad we got this sorted out. But... if there's nothing else, then we'll be going. We still have a few more hours of training left for today."

Ryu nodded at that, ready to get back to it. Mousse just shrugged, and Kuno rested his back leisurely against the wall.

"Well, I have to say that I didn't see this coming," Raven stated wryly. She then turned to her own Ryouga, who was still watching Starfire and Ku Lon chatter back and forth. "I was her student as well, you know? I even have my own rivalry with one of Happosai's students."

Ryouga nodded sagely. "Having a good rivalry is key in any martial artist's growth. I doubt this Ku Lon would be interested in knowing about the rivalry between our Ku Lon and Happosai, though... she's obviously too absorbed in Starfire."

"I suppose you didn't know," the older Ryouga said, in passing, as India Squad started to leave. "Our Happosai's dead. And the one that killed him... is the one that took Granny's arm. Still, it's good they seem to be getting along."

"... Oh," Raven muttered, her mirth suddenly dampened. She had no love of Happosai, but he had done well by Jinx, as insane as that sounded.

"I think we'll let the two of them settle in, then." She turned to her Ryouga. "Walk me to my room?"

Smirking, he nodded. "I'm sure I can get us there some time this year."

With that, they bid everyone else goodbye. They could check in on Starfire in a little bit, once she'd had time to move whatever things she might have into Cologne's room. Besides, they had things to discuss, preferably away from the eyes and ears of their hosts.

* * *

A few minutes later, despite his help rather than because of it, Raven managed to lead them back to Nabiki's room. Luckily, the brunette was out as well, working alongside the Lieutenant's 'squadron', or some such. That in mind, Raven led her companion into the small room. Taking a seat on the bed herself, she made sure to leave enough room for Ryouga to sit beside her... and was ultimately disappointed when he immediately spun around the second the door slid shut and slammed his fist into the indestructible metal sheet hard enough to vibrate it madly in its frame.

"_Damnit_! I can't believe they did that to Star! If it wasn't just plain suicidal, I'd – I'd…"

Raven quirked an eyebrow at the display. "Are you done punishing the door?"

Ryouga pulled back his fist, apparently considering driving it into the door again… but finally relented, letting his limb drop to his side. Slowly spinning around, he eyed her. "Come on, Raven. You know what they did to her. Why aren't you _more_ mad about this?"

She stared at him flatly. "I don't remember you getting this upset when they sifted through _my_ mind."

In an instant, as she'd planned, his anger deflated like a popped balloon. Predictably, the Hibiki attempted to make some kind of recover, but she mercifully saved him the effort by raising a hand to forestall him.

"Honestly… I don't know why I'm not as upset as you," she admitted. "I suppose it's because, as bad as things have gone so far, I know that they could have gone far, far worse. Yes, Starfire is upset, but she is strong and I know she will recover."

He studied her for a long moment, his head tilting to the side as he did… until finally, he shrugged his shoulders in defeat. The martial artist then pushed himself off of the doorframe and began looking for a seat. Raven did her best to subtly point out the empty space on the bed to her side… but was disappointed for a second time when Ryouga sat down in the chair before the computer instead.

"Well, it's at least good to see that Starfire is looking alright," Ryouga stated with a weak smile.

Raven nodded, though it was half hearted. "Indeed. I just hope that their treatment of her won't make it impossible for Starfire to deal with these people. The other Ryouga has already noticed that Starfire is not particularly fond of him."

The martial artist stared at the floor. "Yeah, I noticed it too. She was even more uncomfortable around these guys than I am... well, except for Granny, anyway."

"I think that may be the understatement of the year," Raven agreed. "I suppose it makes sense, though. Your counterpart said that she was quite resisting to the mental scans - which is very much what she would do - so the experience was likely far more unpleasant than what we experienced."

"See, now, I think **that** has to be the understatement of the year," Ryouga barked irately. Quickly as his temper spiked, though, his mood grew more thoughtful. "Still… it sounds like Herb actually tried to make amends, but I doubt she'll ever trust these people after what they did. You just can't attack a girl with heavy artillery and expect her to just forgive and forget like nothing happened."

"Explosive ordinance is never a good idea for a first date," Raven replied, a smirk twisting her lips. "Usually you save that for the third."

Ryouga's eyes widened and he stared at her in shock. "Raven, was that an attempt at a joke?"

A little embarrassed at the gaffe, she pulled her legs up onto the bed and she wrapped her arms around her knees. "Did it fail that badly?"

"No, no." Ryouga waved his hands frantically. "It was actually good. You ... don't usually make jokes like that."

"Well, I've been in a bit of an odd mood lately, but... that's not really important at the moment." She turned to regard him, most of her face hidden behind her knees. "What about you? I haven't seen you this out of sorts for as long as memory serves. Are you sure that you're alright?"

He scoffed initially. "You know what my main problem is already. It's hard to stare yourself in the face, when that face isn't in the mirror. This crap with Starfire is just one more straw about to break the camel's back."

Raven eyed him oddly for a moment, unsure if his metaphor actually made sense or not. Unable to come to a satisfactory answer, she simply ignored it and commented on his former point.

"You have been going out of your way to be rude to... yourself," she pointed out matter-of-factly. "You know, I had an interesting conversation with the Lieutenant. Perhaps if you knew more about him, you might come to understand him better?" she suggested, hoping he took up her offer.

"No thanks."

"... What?" Raven was stunned, did he hate his double so much that he didn't even want to -

"I - I already know his reason for being the way he is. I... had an interesting conversation of my own."

Raven studied him quietly.

"And were his reasons satisfactory for you?"

Looking at the floor once more, a dark look settled over Ryouga's face.

"...Yes," he said after a brief pause. "I think it's the one reason - the only reason - that I could imagine myself becoming like him. I think I understand him now... why he is the way he is, and why he doesn't like me in return."

"Well, if you understand him, then why do you hate him so much?" she asked, genuinely confused.

He looked up at her, struggling to find the words he wanted to say.

"I _don't_ hate him," he replied. "I just... I just pity him, I guess."

"Pity him?" Raven asked, confused. "But, then why were you so aggressive with him just now? For that matter, why would you pity him?"

The martial artist shook his head. "If he's anything like me, and I know he is, I know that he would rather see anger in my eyes than pity. At least if I yell at him, he can defend himself. If I just feel sorry for him, then what can he do?"

Raven could only stare at him. It made sense, though she hadn't really thought him to be insightful enough to consider the situation thusly. It seemed that her Ryouga was learning more than just patience lately, but a touch of wisdom as well.

"Why would you feel sorry for him, though?" she wondered. "He's come so far in this world. A talented warrior, a respected soldier ..."

"It's because he's ..." Ryouga paused, considering what he wanted to say carefully. "He's a failure."

The dark Titan eyed him incredulously.

"I don't mean career wise, or anything," he explained. "It's just that - that he's failed to protect so many people, some of them impossibly precious to him. His Akari... was killed by the aliens; he couldn't protect her. His father was taken and converted into a slave... and he was actually forced to defeat and capture him, himself."

Ryouga's face grew grimmer with each passing moment. "Cologne, Tofu... The entire Amazon village died, and all they could do was clean up the pieces..."

Not sure how to respond, Raven could only pull her knees tighter to her chest.

"All he has left is hatred and revenge," he concluded, resting an arm heavily on Nabiki's desk. "And he's put himself into the service of the military, not caring what they ask, just as long as they let him keep fighting. You've seen how he is: how seriously he takes his rank. He's turned into the kind of person that would allow his friends to die if it was part of the mission... or even order them all to their deaths if he thought it was necessary..."

"But..." she searched for the words. "Why-"

"And the reason I think he doesn't like me," Ryouga continued, heedless of her interruption. "Isn't because he's threatened by me, or that I represent something that 'could have been' for him. I don't think he's afraid **of** me, I think he's afraid **for** me, afraid that I could turn out to be like him... I think he sees me as he was before this all began... A young punk kid, too dumb and weak to protect the ones he loves."

"That - I don't know," Raven stuttered. It seemed so plausible, could Ryouga be right? "Then what-"

"He doesn't get it, though!" Ryouga interrupted, throwing his hands up into the air. "I'm what? A year younger than him? And I'm almost on his level! I'm just starting to explore what I can do with my new techniques, while he's already gone pretty much as far as he'll ever be able to go. By the time I reach his age, I bet I'll have surpassed him in all regards! I'm not just some dumb kid! All I need to do is prove that to him, and then he won't have a choice but to respect me!"

"Why do you care if he respects you or not?" Raven asked, carefully trying to digest what he was saying. It seemed to make sense so far... but she had an eerie sense that they were coming up to the edge of the cliff quickly.

"I **don't**!" He barked back irately. "But it doesn't mean I'll let him get away with disrespecting me!"

Raven rolled her eyes. "Alright then, providing you are right. How exactly do you plan on proving that you aren't just 'a dumb kid?'"

Ryoga smiled broadly, as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

"By beating him into the ground, of course!"

Sighing loudly, Raven flopped back onto the bed. Just as anticipated. Starfire was right; he was predictable.

"All I gotta do is figure out _how _to do it now," Ryouga muttered to himself, lost in his own little world of heroic conquest. "I just need to figure out more about how he fights and what he can do, so I can prepare for it. Then I'll be able to kick his butt for sure!"

Even as Ryouga began to cackle madly and wring his hands in anticipation, Raven just closed her eyes. You can take the martial artist out of Nerima, but apparently the reverse was far from true.

* * *

It was 3AM when the siren blared, in every room and corridor.

"Hostile Incursion detected in local airspace!" the announcement came a moment later as lights switched to red and men and women rushed to prepare. "Hostile Incursion detected in local airspace! All combat teams assemble and report to duty stations! Repeat: All combat teams assemble and report to duty stations! Code Three is in Effect!"

Lockdown followed immediately after. Restricted areas, like Alien Containment, the Armory, the Hangars, and Command and Control sealed up to allow for a smooth flow of men and material for those with the proper clearance. In the residential block, Raven found herself instantly torn away from another relatively dreamless sleep as a bright red light bathed Nabiki's room in incandescent crimson. Shielding her eyes and blinking to clear them up, she could see her roommate struggling to get out of her blankets

"Repeat: Code Three is in Effect! All combat teams to duty stations!"

It wasn't exactly a pleasant wakeup call. Familiar though; she was already on her feet before she even remembered that this wasn't her home.

"What's going on?" she asked, though a moment later her still slightly sleep-clouded mind realized the answer was pretty obvious.

"Urgh. Late night interception," Nabiki groaned, finally out of bed and dressing herself with practiced ease. Suppressing a yawn the Tendo reached for something in her desk. By this point, her shirt was only half buttoned and her pants unbelted, but she first fished a bottle out of the drawer and popped something into her mouth before finishing up.

"Why we always have to do this... at some ungodly hour… I don't know! Gods I hate night ops!" The older girl just managed to buckle her belt before she brushed past to slip on her shoes.

"You must still be new at this." Raven smirked, finishing clasping her cloak, having simply slept in her leotard, as usual. "We do this on almost a nightly basis back home. So... what does a 'late night interception' involve?"

"It should probably involve you staying here," Nabiki said, rubbing her eyes quickly. She was such a sound sleeper, too! Damned aliens. "Code Three is a lockdown. You're still just noncoms."

Moving as professionally as she felt inclined to, the Tendo sister left the room, closing it behind her, preparing to make her way up to ops -

Her eyes shot wide open, when, a second later, an unearthly black portal opened right in her door. Recoiling with an instinctive yelp, Nabiki saw Raven - her hood pulled down low, shadowing her face in an eerie manner - float through the abyssal opening before it closed up behind her. Even knowing the girl could do that, it was still creepy… especially when it happened out of the blue late at night like this!

Nabiki could still see the dark girl's mouth, though, as well as the smirk that adorned it.

"Feel free to lock me down," she challenged. "If you can."

"I can't believe...! Ok, fine!" the Tendo sister exclaimed. "You have your ID?"

Raven held up the item in question before slipping it back into her robe.

"I have to be out of my mind…" Nabiki just groaned. "Let's get going."

The halls were lit much like the rooms.

Nabiki also wasn't the only one up and out. An older Asian woman ran ahead of them, buttoning up her shirt. The middle Tendo daughter kept a brisk pace, guessing that the elevator was still a few floors away; Raven followed close behind. The woman ahead of them, having reached the main elevator, looked back with what had to be a disapproving stare. Then she went back to waiting for the elevator.

"Command," Nabiki said, activating a link on her shirt. "This is Operator Tendo. One of our SC-4s wants to be allowed access to the Floor."

An older female voice answered, a second later, "No unauthorized access to CIC during Combat Operations, Tendo. You know that."

Nabiki pursed her lips and tried to argue, "Director, I understand, but their presence could also help alleviate some of their concerns as noted in my reports."

Raven, overhearing that, couldn't help but wonder just what 'those reports' had entailed. She was pretty certain that Nabiki hadn't bugged her own room. There hadn't been peep-one about anything that had gone on in there before, but one could never be too sure around the crafty Tendo daughter. It made sense that the young woman would, to some degree, be reporting on her guest and the other new arrivals, but to what extent was unknown. Out of respect, Raven hadn't tried to look too deeply into Nabiki's personal records or possessions.

As Nabiki and the other woman (one 'Director Woomer') on the end of the line exchanged a few more carefully worded comments, Raven saw two familiar faces round the corner of the residential bracket, coming up from the floor below. Starfire had thrown on an Amazon robe, quite hastily, and she appeared to be leading Ryouga by the hand to make sure he didn't get too lost. He had at least put on a shirt before heading out, but had yet to close it up.

"Friend Raven!" Starfire waved to her. "We were most worried by the alarm and wished to find you!"

"I was about to head up and see what was happening," Raven explained, just as the elevator arrived.

"What is this, a convention center?" the older woman glared at the young Titans, and then at Nabiki. "Tendo, are you really going to bring these white-stripes to Ops? What the Hell are you thinking?"

"I always have reasons for what I do," the middle Tendo replied frostily. Clearly, there was little love lost between the two women. "You should know that by now, Reiko-chan."

"I don't know what you're trying to pull, Tendo," the woman hissed back, swiping her card to open the pending elevator. "But I'll be watching you."

"By all means, continue to do so," Nabiki replied, holding up her card. The reader pinged green without having to directly read it. "Maybe you'll learn something about getting ahead."

Raven gave Starfire a quiet shrug, unable to explain the animosity between the women. The two followed Nabiki into the elevator, with Ryouga trailing behind. The reader by the door clicked three times, recording their presence remotely and confirming it to the base's internal sensor database.

Leaning forward, Ryouga whispered over Raven and Starfire's shoulders. "Well, at least we can trust this Nabiki is pretty much the same as ours. I almost got nostalgia from her ice queen lines."

Despite endless practice with Beast Boy, Raven found it harder than usual to stifle a giggle at the inane comment. Starfire, on the other hand, gave him a gentle nudge to the ribs to admonish him for his rudeness-

Ryouga bounced off the hard metal wall with a loud _'bong'_.

Nabiki finally adjusted her collar, having ended her conversation with the Director. She faced the three titans. "Ok, I'll see about getting you guys a look at what's going on since I know you aren't the sit-on-the-sidelines types. Just _please_ keep quiet and don't touch anything. That's if we get permission from the Director in the first place. Command has been willing to bend a lot of rules for you guys, but this'll be a new one."

Raven nodded. "Thank you for your efforts."

Behind her, Starfire whispered into her ear. "Friend Raven ... what is it that she is going to such pains to allow us to witness?"

"Yeah," muttered Ryouga. "I spent so much time in Terra's cave that I never had a chance to get used to that god damned alarm. This had better be good!"

"Oh, for the love of Azar, Ryouga, would you do up your shirt already?" Raven growled under her breath before turning back to the Tamaranian. "Apparently some type of interception is taking place. That is really all the information I have, though."

Starfire frowned. "An interception? Are you referring to an incursion in their air space by a foreign craft?"

"That's exactly it," Nabiki answered, having overheard. "This base coordinates air defense for all of East Asia. We'll find out the details once we get to Ops…"

Reaching the Command level, Nabiki and Reiko were immediately met by a tight security checkpoint and what appeared to be another set of blast doors. Automated turrets, currently on standby, lined the ceiling and floor, along with a set of human MPs. The two women flashed their IDs, with the older Japanese woman then going ahead first to quickly verify herself with a facial and retinal scan projected from a terminal on the wall. Nabiki, having no less than three unauthorized guests in tow, stopped to try and get them all passed.

The administrative holdup cost them a few minutes, during which two other Floor Coordinators went through security. Oddly, neither seemed to have the negative attitude of the woman from before, either to Nabiki or the unauthorized Titans. Both were Caucasian, and gave the three a curious look, but nothing besides that. Eventually, someone in Command relented and security waved the three extra people through.

Past the blast door, the Floor became visible.

It was a large, isolated chamber within Seiran, and the nerve center for all its operations. It was also a bunker within a bunker, designed to shelter Ops in the case of a direct alien invasion of the facility. The main room was about three stories high, with a slightly sunken section containing over a dozen work stations partly separated by glass dividers. An upraised section could look over all the others below, and stairs to the sides of the chamber led to conference rooms and other supporting GenInt branches, including Commander Yasuda's office.

Above the workstations, flat screen and holographic projections outlined the overview of the East Asia Airspace Theater. All civilian and military air traffic across two continents and two oceans were monitored from this facility, along with all known orbital contacts. Data from hundreds of integrated radar stations across twelve countries flowed into Seiran, feeding it an unparalleled picture of the airspace across this hemisphere of the world.

Most of the traffic was rendered in a semi-transparent state. These were the hundreds of civilian commercial flights crisscrossing the sky, and many more were privately owned jets or small aircraft. Another outline layered above that indicated and labeled registered and tracked military traffic. It was a massive amount of information to process in real time, from so many sources, and only made possible by the tremendous alien-human hybrid technology supercomputers buried beneath Command.

Nabiki quickly headed down a set of stairs and over to her workstation.

She could hear Raven, Starfire and the dimensionally lost Ryouga close behind her, but momentarily paid them little mind. Her workstation itself was a bit of a mess: it was easy for her to find where things were, not because there was rhyme or reason to the layout, but simply because she remembered and kept the most frequently used stuff close by. To anyone else, it must have appeared the biggest mess in the world.

Flicking on her station and then the teleconference networking key, she quickly logged in and began reviewing the situation. An encrypted mix of hyperwave and radio linked her up to India Squad and Command itself, using her as a bridge. Screens immediately lit up, showing the status of Smartlinked weapons and other equipment, along with physiological information taken from personal armor. With practiced ease, Nabiki clipped her headset on, a serious look clouding her features.

The four video screens suddenly activated.

"…are now online. I am activating India Squad," Ryouga's voice came in clearly. "What's the situation?"

"Three UFOs," Nabiki replied, not wasting time on banter this time. "Two large scouts and a Supply Ship. Mission Profile from Decryption reads Alien Harvest."

"Harvest? Using a Supply Ship?" this time it was Mousse who spoke up. "They're after something big."

"Commander Yasuda is giving a general briefing right now," Nabiki replied. "Patching us in."

A new voice, this one belonging to the base Commander, came in softly over the station.

"Intel believes the target is not ground based. Given the trajectory of the UFOs, we believe we are looking at a mid-air abduction event on a large scale. We have identified the most likely targets: one of three intercontinental flights currently leaving Taiwanese airspace. At this point, we can say with ninety percent certainty that we will be approaching this as an interception event with more than two hundred civilian lives at stake."

Yasuda only gave a moment for that to sink in.

"Lightning One and Firestorm Two are to intercept the UFO formation, destroy the two escorts, and then capture the Supply Ship in midair using the Silver-Eight Protocol. Combat Teams will secure the alien ship, rescue any surviving captives, and then land the craft for recovery. Firestorm Two will assume remote command of the civilian aircraft and make an emergency landing, providing it is left intact. You have your orders, gentlemen. Let's make this happen."

A moment of silence passed.

"A mid-air intercept?" Mousse spoke first, sounding a tad concerned.

"We've trained for this," Ryouga cut in, his tone unwavering. "India will be assuming breaching duties. I want everyone suited up; double load of stun bombs. There are going to be a lot of civvies on that ship, so check your fire."

"This is Captain Banks. Once the aliens intercept that airliner, we will have a maximum of fifteen minutes to intercept before they jettison the aircraft and make for the upper atmosphere. I want this done in half that, and the ship itself secured in no less than ten. India, you will be breaching. Hotel and Alpha Squads will exploit and secure the central ring. Beta and Golf Teams will secure primary navigation and the engine rooms…"

As Banks described the operation, Nabiki brought up a floor plan of the alien supply ship, along with the Captain's routes of engagement. It was a large craft, but squat, only two sections in height. The lower level was mostly engineering and storage, but with some fairly wide open stretches that made it treacherous. The Elerium reactors were nestled within the core of the ship on this level. The upper floor had command and control, navigation, along with alien surgery, processing, and other facilities. It would be rough cleaning that area out, since it was choked with stasis tubes and equipment.

"What species are we dealing with?" Ryouga asked, as the briefing ended. "Just Sectoid?"

"Just Sectoid," Captain Banks answered, elaborating. "But do not discount the possibility of an Ethereal in overall command. As always, be aware of your psionic defenses and alert for psi-attack..."

A few more questions followed, from other combat team members, then Ryouga conducted a shorter briefing for India Squad, going over how they would approach the breech and secure the position, what weapons, techniques and go-codes to use, and another reminder to watch for civilians in close quarters. Nabiki checked another screen, and then took a second to look off to the side at one of the large overview screens. She faced the workstation, and spoke up while India finished one last check on their equipment.

"Abduction event confirmed," she said, taking a quick breath. "Flight 2187; a Boeing 777. The manifest lists two hundred and eighty four passengers on board, including pilots and crew."

A pause.

"Roger that," India Squad's lieutenant eventually replied. "Begin countdown."

Immediately, Starfire took a step forward, reading the various air control maps carefully.

"Over two hundred passengers? We must assist!" She then spun and grabbed Ryouga's arm. "If I can but exit the atmosphere…!"

"E-exit the atmosphere!" Ryouga's strangled cry was ignored as she began to drag him bodily towards the door.

"Where are you two going?" Nabiki quickly hissed, clasping her microphone with her hand to muzzle it. "There's no way you'll be allowed to leave the base, even if you can somehow reach that plane. I know you can fly, but there's nothing you can do. This is our job. We'll handle it."

"But!" the Tamaranian tried to protest, instincts demanding she at least try something.

The Tendo sister, however, was already focused entirely on her work. Gradually and with great difficulty, Starfire allowed herself to accept that there would be no helping, not from so far away. Not with everyone locked down like this. It was... something of a bitter pill.

The look she shared with Raven spoke volumes, and the other girl couldn't help but sympathize.

But this wasn't their world.

* * *

A thousand miles away, over the Pacific Ocean, the alien Supply Ship was literally mated to the in-flight twin-engine 777. Part of its hull had puckered and extended to engulf the side of the aircraft, cutting through aluminum and steel to form a rough new airlock. Mid-air abductions were not new. Typically, the victim was a small aircraft flying over an isolated area. This attack, far more brazen and broad in scale, was nonetheless conducted in the exact same manner.

First, instruments and engines were jammed and taken over.

Second, pilots were paralyzed or controlled by psionic attacks.

Third, the UFO extended its gravitic field and enveloped the other aircraft, allowing the two hulls to safely meet and merge. Sometimes, with a small craft, individual persons were moved out of cockpits in midair. For mass abductions, an in-flight mating was faster. Wide scale psionic attacks were then unleashed on the passengers and crew, followed by a direct attack using stun bombs. Within minutes, the entire cabin of the massive aircraft would be still as a tomb, hundreds of passengers – from the elderly to infants – unconscious. The aliens would then round up all the subjects that fitted their tastes or purposes, leaving the rest to die when the plane crashed or to asphyxiate due to loss of cabin pressure.

This time, while the crew of the supply ship rapidly loaded up their human 'harvest,' their two large scout escorts were forced to veer off in an abrupt burst of speed. Accelerating from a sedate six hundred miles per hour up to three thousand, they had already detected the incoming XCOM craft and moved to counter-intercept. Standard engagement range for XCOM Plasma Cannons was a conservative fifty kilometers. These weapons, derived from the beams mounted on alien battleships, were deadly accurate even at that range, and despite the rapid maneuvering of a twenty meter wide UFO. The smaller beam cannons mounted on the large scouts were only as effective at around thirty kilometers.

They relied on their insane maneuverability to close the distance and buy time for the supply ship.

Due to its inertia-less gravity induction drive, a UFO could turn literally on a dime, making a ninety degree turn at a velocity of mach six. This performance wasn't just due to the engine, but also to the psionic interface that enabled the pilot to operate the UFO as an extension of its body. Early in the war, this advantage had made it all but impossible to shoot down a UFO using anything other than nuclear tipped air-to-air missiles. That was then.

A bright green beam intercepted one of the zig-zagging UFOs. A plume of molten red and orange and a flash of blinding white exploded from the point of impact, as the thermal and explosive force of a small nuclear bomb turned part of the UFO into droplets of mercury slag. The crippled craft continued to maneuver, emergency integrity systems compensating for catastrophic damage. Its Elerium reactor was still intact, which meant it could still fly and fight.

The XCOM craft had no choice but to close the range to approach the supply ship, otherwise they would have kept at a distance and picked off the large scouts. Another beam lit up the crippled UFO as it made an abrupt right turn. The bottom half of the saucer glowed, for just a millisecond. This time the beam punched clean through, hitting the Elerium reactor itself. Anti-matter met matter in the most intimate of atomic dances and the twenty meter wide craft vanished in a blinding flash of nuclear light and fire. A pulse of X-rays from the detonation would scramble electronics for miles, had there been anything within that distance besides open ocean.

The remaining large scout zeroed in on one of the incoming human saucers before firing.

XCOM craft were in much the same boat as their alien counterparts. Despite having remarkable maneuverability, psionic targeting and the nature of large scale plasma weaponry made dodging incoming fire extremely difficult. A thin green beam ripped into the side of the Lightning One, bypassing the screening Firestorm. Layers of alien alloy vaporized, producing a sparkling trail of burning teardrops as it speed forward. A white flash of light came from the actual explosion, expended as heat and light and hard radiation.

The ship quickly banked left and shot up, a maneuver called 'making a knife' as it exposed as little of the craft as possible (the side of the saucer rather than the flat of it) while gaining altitude. Another beam flashed, very close to hitting the narrow profile of the Lightning. The Firestorm Interceptor finished the exchange with a decisive double burst of plasma fire. The remaining large scout, little more than a semi-molten quarter-saucer, tumbled end over end towards the sea, frayed ribbons of alien alloy shearing free as it fell at over three times the speed of sound.

Back at Seiran, Nabiki took a deep breath and calmly recorded the exchange.

"Both escorts are down," she announced. "Good luck, guys."

"Taking positions."

On her screens, the views of India Squad indicated they were lined up near the rear hatch of the Lightning. Outside, the wounded bird of prey closed in on the alien supply ship, which had by now abandoned its airliner victim and made a bee-line for the upper atmosphere. The escorting Firestorm took off to try and remotely hack into the 777 and manipulate its controls while the Lightning went ever upwards.

50 kilometers above sea level…

60…

70…

"You're approaching the Karman Line," Nabiki warned, referring to the 100 kilometer mark where atmosphere formally became space. "Distance to target 30 kilometers and closing."

In a race to space, the alien ship was just slightly slower than the XCOM Lightning interceptor. Gradually, the human built "flying saucer" closed the distance, matching the trajectory of the alien craft. A bright green light roared, and a burning white flash engulfed part of the Lightning, which had strayed within the engagement radius of the other ship's light plasma cannon. A moment later and the two speeding saucers met, their gravity bubbles merging.

"We have lock!" Nabiki passed on, though India squad must have felt the ship lurch as its gravity engine compensated for the disturbance. "Contact in five! Contact in three!"

2, 1…

And the Lightning's hull made contact with the supply ship, executing a near perfect midair mating maneuver. The moment it did so, the hull reformed into an airlock, and sealed with the alien ship. A flash of plasma from emergency outfitted boarding charges instantly cut a hole into the enemy ship's exterior. That was the cue.

"Go! Go! Go!" India Squad's views became a blur as they moved. A kick powerful enough to cave in the engine of an eighteen wheeler finished the job of providing entry into the alien ship. Inside was pitch black, lit only by the green tint of nightvision.

"Tango!" Ryouga yelled over the comm. Bright green flashed, and something in the distance turned into a spray of screaming white. "Go!"

"Tango!" Ryu yelled, this time, covering a different angle. His hand moved, fast, and another target downrange died, cut in half. Flashes came back in return.

"Taking fire!"

"Cover!"

A blast of something went off, along with more flashes of light.

"Shit! Shit!" Mousse hissed, and his camera tumbled. "Grenade!"

"Mousse," Nabiki spoke up, noting the physiological return from his screen. "Are you alright? Detecting psionic attack!"

"Incoming! Incoming!" Ryu yelled. "Kuno!"

"To the fray!" The swordsman cheered. "Shin Kokuzan! Heaven Style!"

A sonic boom caused the audio to momentarily crackle, and then Kuno and Ryu were in the mix of their stunned enemies. An arm blurred, separating a bulbous head from its too-thin neck. A spray of gore marked the walls as Kuno's sword pinned a deadly Heavy plasma rifle to the wall, while air pressure from the strike ripped into the alien behind it. The weapon discharged, hitting the ceiling and producing another blinding flash of light.

Kuno grunted, but finished by slamming the alien into the wall with a vicious crack.

Nabiki touched a key, and a quick injection of painkillers shot from the armor around his arm and shoulder, dampening the burns. He and Ryu quickly switched to rifles, firing down the cramped hall at an alien as it rounded the corner. The plasma bursts turned it into bloody confetti, and a second later, the plasma grenade it had carried with it exploded, bathing the hallway in superheated fire.

"Point A secure!" Ryu announced, enduring the blaze thanks to his personal armor.

"Point B secure!" Ryouga seconded, just a moment later. "Condition Blue! Repeat, condition Blue! Hotel is Go!"

Other figures in powered armor raced past India Squad on both points to exploit the opening made by the assault team. Fierce fire came from further in the ship, but India Squad took at least a moment to catch their breath.

"Altitude?" Ryouga abruptly asked.

"Over 100 kilometers," Nabiki cautioned. "You guys better get to Nav control before the FTL warms up."

"India!" Banks voice cut in. "Second floor. Support Golf, they're pinned down."

Golf was Akane's squad, though no one needed to remind those present of that fact.

"We're on it! Ryu, point! Mousse, rear!"

"Sir!" "Right!"

The darkened views shifted as India resumed running, this time up to some sort of purple hued lift. Immediately after rising up, first Ryu and then Ryouga's views became nearly blinded by fire. The lieutenant barked to keep moving, and the two scrambled low to the ground as Kuno and Mousse followed up behind.

"Golf is getting hammered!" Ryouga snarled. "Mousse! With me! We'll draw their fire. Ryu, Kuno, cover us!"

It was hard to see after that.

There was another explosion and then the sound of a scream. Ryouga went prone and fired a series of ki blasts down range to saturate the area. Ryu fired with his rifle, and Kuno and Mousse kept moving. Mousse's camera-view found it first: the unmistakable form of a human body, but missing from the top-up. The legs were splayed at odd angles and the flesh charred all the way down to the knees. What was left above that resembled charcoal more than flesh and bone.

"Thank god!" a familiar voice came in over the comm; it was Akane, breathing heavily from adrenalin rush. "There's at least five of them up by the processing station. Two heavies. Caught us in a crossfire!"

"Fall back!" Mousse yelled. "We're blanketing the area!"

"There's civilians!" Akane screamed back, ducking behind cover. "They're processing people back there right now!"

Mousse hissed, head bobbing. "Lieutenant!"

"I heard!" Ryouga yelled back from his position. "Kuno! Two-Two then get back under cover! Nabiki! Ping them for psi-attack! Mousse! With me in three!"

"As you wish!" Kuno roared, boldly standing up. "Come at me, you curs!"

Akane and Ryu also took this opportunity to fire downrange, in controlled single shots.

"Grenade! Get down!"

Another explosion blinded the view.

Then Mousse and Ryouga were heading into the fire. A warning light lit up on Mousse's screen as a plasma blast nicked his arm. The insulation of his personal armor and layers of hidden weapons provided some protection, preventing anything fatal. Flashes of light arced through the air, not plasma blasts, but ki-enhanced bandannas, blazing along precise trajectories and engulfed in a murderous aura.

Blurry figures screamed, horrible warbling screeches, as the attacks cut into them. Fire poured down, but muted and thrown off course by psionic attacks. A fist found one of the black eyed aliens, and it splattered like an overripe melon. Mousse's entire body became a whirlwind of blades as he cut into the psionically stunned alien party. The two martial artists were well practiced in the art of close combat killing, and in deflecting the deadly alien weapons that tried to pin them in place.

Within seconds, the room resembled a charnel house.

"Secure!" Ryouga barked. "Move up! Go!"

"Navigation room secure," Nabiki announced a few seconds later. "What about Golf Squad?"

"Have them hold this spot," her lieutenant ordered, after a moment's thought. "India will finish cleaning house."

"It's what you're good at," she quipped back.

"I suppose it is," Ryouga replied, a little slowly. "We've got a whole mess of digestion and stasis vats around here. Lots of unconscious civilians. Some casualties. Approaching the processing room."

India approached a door, opened it, and tossed a stun bomb in first. Then they made a quick two man assault entry. Two Sectoids inside screeched before being gunned down.

"Clear!" Ryu announced. "… shit…! Look at this place…"

"Checking for survivors." Ryouga's voice carefully hid his own disgust.

Every supply Ship had a surgical theater for processing 'in the field.' This ship had two, built into an extended bay. Half empty digestion and stasis vats lay open, waiting to be automatically shifted to the main storage bay outside. Many were loaded with bodies or pieces of bodies. Other, smaller, vats set into the wall contained an assortment of harvested human brains, floating eerily in thick orange fluid.

"Estimates are… twenty casualties, give or take," the lieutenant finally said. "No survivors in here."

"We got some outside," Mousse spoke up. "Maybe fifty in processing vats. Some in twos and threes. The rest are on the floor, still knocked out."

"Captain Banks is signaling condition green." Nabiki said, seeing the light turn a solid color on one of her screens. "We have the ship. Repeat, we have the ship."

"You heard her!" Ryouga ordered, not giving his men a moment. "Police the bodies! Ryu, get Akane and Golf and secure these civilians in a clean room! Kuno, Mousse, handle the ones in the vats. Command should have them hacked and unlocked any minute now."

Four barks of acknowledgement followed.

"Nabiki," he finally said, taking a deep breath. "Our losses?"

"Preliminary reports are two dead." She double checked the real time casualty report to her right. "Two wounded."

"The plane?"

"Brought down by the Firestorm. Casualties inside are unknown. The cabin was de-pressurized."

He grunted.

"Kuno and Mousse can suck it up till we land, then," he decided. "Keep me informed as soon as anything happens."

He then went back to one of the vats, now turning an opaque blue. The front of it opened, revealing an older woman and a young boy, perhaps in his mid teens. Both slumped out of the tube, the aliens not having even bothered to strip them of their clothes, and into the arms of Ryouga and Kuno. They were quickly taken away to a clean spot on the floor.

* * *

Leaning back in her chair, Nabiki rubbed more of the tiredness form her eyes, the time of night catching up to her despite the exertion and rush of the last half hour or so. She stared hard at the India Squad readout. Kuno's left arm and shoulder would need burn treatment, but he'd be back up and out in no time. Mousse had taken a glancing hit that would have put a normal man on the floor, but his unique hidden weapons defense meant it was just another trip to the burn ward. Kasumi would take good care of the two idiots.

Then, she remembered she wasn't alone, and quickly composed herself.

"Mid-air interception is like that," she commented, covering her microphone with her hand. "I think this is the first one we've done outside US airspace. Anyway, you guys satisfied your curiosity or what?"

Raven shook her head. "Not even remotely. It was quite... abrupt. Your teams seemed to have the situation well in hand, though, the aliens barely put up a fight at all."

"Well in hand? Did you not hear them, Raven? So many people **died**!" Starfire stated in a pained voice. "If we had been permitted to assist, perhaps we could have prevented so much needless loss of life."

Sighing, Raven dropped a hand on Starfire's shoulder. "You know better than any of us what is entailed in war, Starfire. They did all that they could."

"But - but those vessels, they were little better than transport ships. How did this event even come to transpire? How could they have let the alien vessels even reach the passenger vehicle to unleash such horrors?" Starfire was hugging herself now, nearly in tears at the thought of all of those people that she had failed to protect by remaining here. "...I could have helped..."

"I know you could have," Raven offered quietly, "But we couldn't have known that it would be like this. Even if you had gone, who knows what could have happened in the midst of all that chaos?"

Sniffing loudly, Starfire nodded. "At ... at the very least we were able to witness such a battle in progress. Next time, we will be prepared for their tactics."

"Next time?" Raven asked, curiously. "I think you're getting ahead of yourself, right Ryouga?"

She turned to their forgotten friend, looking for support ... only to start when she noticed the boy was a gibbering wreck, still focused totally on the blank monitors. Grabbing his shoulder, she shook him fiercely to get his attention. "Ryouga, what is it? What's wrong?"

The Lost Boy turned to stare at her, horror in his eyes.

"They ... they let _Akane_ go out into - into **that**?"

"Akane volunteered to get into a squad," Nabiki spoke up, having listened to the exchange going on behind her very closely.

As for Star's take on their interception situation, Alien ships used stealth and speed, not size or firepower, to rapidly strike and escape. Even with early warning satellites, control over the entire planet's radar network, and a vast array of bases around the world, it was difficult to organize an interception in time. Frankly, it was amazing they had managed to catch the aliens with this latest stunt. Mid-air abductions were among the most difficult to prevent since the aliens could come and go so quickly. Not that any of that needed to be explained here and now to a group that hardly had any business even being in the operations pit. Talking about Akane was one thing. Chattering about interception protocols was another.

"Actually, volunteered isn't the best word. Akane fought tooth and nail to get into a team, even when Ranma tried to stonewall her," Nabiki explained, turning slightly in her chair to see the younger Ryouga. "She trained her butt off because she didn't want to get left behind."

The Lost Boy calmed a bit at that. He then nodded to himself. "That - that sounds like what she'd do in this kind of situation. As much as Ranma tries to forget it, she is a martial artist."

Somber now, he matched Nabiki's gaze seriously.

"Is it always like that?" he asked. "Your Ryouga and his team handled themselves fine ... but two people died out there..."

"Sometimes it's worse. Sometimes it's better." Nabiki glanced back at her screen. "You never know… Years ago, before we reverse engineered alien technology or understood psionics, I heard that casualties were about fifty percent on lots of missions… It's better now, but… you just have to not think too much about it, I guess."

"I will do nothing of the sort," Starfire muttered to herself. "If at all possible, I would like to have access to combat data of these vicious creatures. I wish to know more on their tactics."

Nabiki swiveled all the way around to face the three Titans.

"And if I give you that. What next?" she asked, and the tone in her voice left little doubt that she hadn't already considered not only the repercussions of that event, but what she had already done in bringing them here. "You rush out to fight them next time the base alarm goes off?"

Not intimidated in the slightest, Starfire stepped right up to Nabiki, staring down at the much shorter girl. It was so easy to forget, the way the girl floated around all the time, but the flame haired alien was surprisingly tall, easily inches taller than even Ryouga, which meant she all but towered over Nabiki. "You underestimate my prowess, Tendo Nabiki. I have been involved in interstellar wars of far grander scopes than this. With proper foreknowledge of their tactics and weaponry, I would be a powerful ally against this threat."

"... Are you certain that's wise, Starfire?" Raven asked, reminding her, "This isn't our fight, or our war. We should be focusing on getting home, not getting embroiled in something we don't fully understand."

Ryouga stepped in, frowning darkly. "I don't know, Raven. We should try to get home... but if we can help while we're here..."

"I'm sure your Nabiki would be happy to send others to fight her battles for her, even if it cost them their lives," Nabiki replied, turning to partly face her workstation and to make sure nothing new came up. By their looks she could guess she was right about her alternate self. Or close to it.

"But Raven is right," she said. "This isn't your world, and you can't treat it like it is. Would you really be willing to fight by our rules of engagement? Because if you aren't someone who can trust us to watch your back, how can we trust you to watch ours? I for one don't want you out there endangering my squad."

"I'm not saying that to be mean," she quickly amended, seeing Starfire's frown and growing ire. "I just don't want anything to happen to put my team at risk. On the battlefield, everyone has to watch out for their fellow soldiers and for the mission. That's a lesson my Ryouga had to learn the hard way."

"That is a lesson we all learned long ago," Raven assured her. "We have been part of a team longer than the combined experience of your entire team, both of your teams. It's fine that you don't trust us to fight by your rules, but please don't patronize us. We know how to function on a battlefield and how to protect our allies."

Starfire nodded fiercely. "We will prove ourselves, if need be."

Nabiki considered that. Or perhaps she had already considered it, even before. She seemed to accept their statement almost immediately.

"And, hypothetically speaking, which one of you would be in charge of your little group?" she asked, and immediately zeroed in on the lost boy. "You, Ryouga-baby? You do seem very popular with the ladies," she added with a flirty wink. "Not as cute as my Ryouga, but very close."

Ryouga smirked. "I'm sure I'll grow into it. I hear having a sunny disposition helps the complexion… As for being in charge, I can one hundred percent guarantee that I will _absolutely_, _positively_ **not **-"

"-turn down such an opportunity," Raven interjected quickly. Smirking, she turned to regard him. "After all, you managed to get Terra, Jinx and Kasumi out of Atlantis in one piece. That and I have no inclination of taking the role myself."

"That is a splendid idea!" Starfire cheered. "I must admit that I am not well suited for the role, either. And without Robin or Cyborg present, you are the next most senior, being older than Raven or myself."

"B-but Raven has been telling me what to do since we got here!" He spun on the hooded girl. "Why can't you just keep doing that?"

"I'll always be glad to assist in an advisory role," offered the cloaked woman, "However a more forceful personality on the battlefield would be more beneficial in the dissemination of orders."

"... and that means?"

"There's battlefield command and then there's battlefield support," Nabiki interrupted with a smirk of her own. "I think my teammates have all grown on each other, but I don't think any of my guys would follow me into a fight, even if they listen to what I say." She shrugged. "I don't totally get it myself, but then I'm not really a fighter-type anyway. You three sure you want to try this?"

"Absolutely no-"

"Most assuredly!" Starfire blurted out, pushing Ryouga bodily out of the way. "If there is anything we can do to protect any other innocents from suffering such a horrendous fate, then we will do whatever is necessary."

"Nabiki!" Ryouga's voice cut in. The native one. "What's all that chatter in the background?"

"Nothing, lieutenant Ryou-chan…" she replied in a sing-song way. "You must be hearing things!"

"More like you must be up to something," he guessed. "I'm starting identity checks on the passengers. Get facial recognition up. We're going to need to check everyone on the manifest to make sure no infiltrators slip through."

"I don't know why you assume I'm up to anything," Nabiki replied with a playful moue, even as she brought up the program and information. "You'd think you trusted me by now. …Completely."

On the other side of the line, the officer coughed.

She then looked, quickly, back at the three Titans.

"We'll see how high your spirits are tomorrow," she warned the trio, once again covering her microphone. "I think the higher ups may be receptive to the idea, but you'll need recommendation from two officers to participate, not just one. I'm afraid one of them will have to be my grouchy partner here."

Ryouga grumbled darkly at that thought. It was obvious that he disliked the idea of being made responsible for his two friends. The martial artist looked first to Raven, then to Starfire, though, and his features soon set into a determined expression she hadn't expected from the more flighty, dimensionally displaced Hibiki.

"Oh, we'll get it alright ... Even if I have to beat it out of him."

* * *

Despite the bold declaration he had made less than a half an hour earlier, Ryouga found himself staring at his companions, confusion etched on his face. Even as he paced back and forth, circling the small table in the dimly lit interior of the commissary which they had found shortly after the Interception had ended, Starfire and Raven sat calmly across from each other. Each girl had a drink before them, and were taking small sips, no doubt waiting for him to finally say his peace.

"What - I mean, what the _hell_, Star?" he finally accommodated. "You're the _last_ person that I would have expected to want to help these people!"

In a most unhurried manner, the Tamaranian took another drink before placing the glass on the table. She then turned her wide, green eyes his way, her expression screaming seriousness. "I am not doing this to help this organization. I am doing this to help the innocent populace of this planet."

Raven arched an eyebrow. "The same 'innocent populace' that attacked you with tanks and helicopters before siccing Ranma's greatest enemy on you?"

At any other time, Ryouga would have strongly protested Herb's placement as Ranma's 'greatest enemy', but at the moment, he was too damned curious as to why Starfire wanted to help these people. "Yeah, Star. You got it the worst of any of us. You don't owe anyone in this dimension anything."

"At what point in time did we begin doing that which we do because we felt we 'owed it to people'?" The Tamaranian asked pointedly, a hint of reproach in her voice. Staring at him intently, the flame haired girl dropped a hand to the table top. "It does not matter what was done to me. And counter to the beliefs of the people here, it does not matter that this is not the dimension of our origin."

Pushing herself up to her feet, the Tamaranian's gaze only grew more serious. "The only thing that matters is that there are people in need of our aid. If there is any other reason for us to act in the heroic manner to which we have grown accustomed, then I do not desire to know what it is."

Well… now he felt especially small and petty. Ryouga looked down, unable to meet her gaze after that, and began to study his shoes intently.

"And are you certain that the humans are the ones which need to be protected here?" Raven asked in an off-hand tone, not looking up from her drink. "We still only know one side of the story so far."

"We know all of the story which we need to," Starfire replied hotly. "I care not what universe we are in or what social and cultural norms are widely accepted. Any species which is willing to target helpless men, women and children as we have just witnessed… they are not deserving of our protection. What I saw just now... was no different than... to think that the memories I had been forced to endure were genuine? These - these creatures are nothing but souless monsters, spiritual successors to the Psions!"

"Um, the who?" Ryouga asked, confused once more. "And what did you mean, mem...?"

"It matters not," the alien girl quickly retracted. "Suffice it to say that I have seen their ilk before and know the atrocities they are capable of."

Raven nodded to herself, hearing Starfire's words. The violet haired Titan then looked up, finally locking gazes with her red headed counterpart. "Alright then. More importantly. Do you think you can actually work with the people here, then? It's obvious they won't let us help in our standard way, so it seems inevitable that, if we go down this road, that we will have to work with _someone_ from this organization."

At that, Starfire finally balked. Fidgeting slightly, the green eyed Titan took her seat once more. "I… had sworn to myself that I could never ally with such odious people… However, my discomfort is a small price to pay if it will allow us to lend aid to those in need."

"Is that a yes, or a no?" Ryouga asked for clarification. "I'm not exactly fond of the idea of working with these jokers, either, so I'll understand if you don't want to."

Starfire hemmed and hawed for several moments, before finally offering a slow nod in reply. "The meaning of my response is the positive. For the greater good, I will overcome my distaste of this organization and its methods if that is what it takes."

Ryouga let out a weary sigh at that. He had really been hoping that she would reconsider this course of action. On the bright side, he did have cause for hope still. "That's all well and good," he offered in a consoling voice. "Too bad we'll never actually get their jerk of a Ryouga to give us a recommendation. There's no way he'd ever even consider it."

Hmm, okay, so maybe that had been a bit more smug than consoling, but-

"Actually, I think you might be surprised by his response." Raven's unexpected statement drew the attention of both Ryouga and Starfire – suddenly looking quite concerned at the prospect of being unable to get a recommendation. Rather than wait for them to inquire, the dark Titan explained herself straight away. "Did you not pay attention to Nabiki? I believe she showed us that interception for a reason. She wasn't just hoping for Starfire's response, I would almost say that she was counting on it."

Ryouga turned his confused gaze her way. "Huh? But why?"

Raven shrugged. "I can't begin to guess her motives, just her intent. I don't know why she's doing this, but I have a strong suspicion that the Lieutenant will be most accommodating to our ill conceived request."

Normally, this would have been the point at which Starfire gave a cheerful squeal of victory, but considering the day they had all just had, no one begrudged her for offering up only a tired smile instead.

"Well, that's just… great…" Ryouga finally replied. "Which, I guess brings me to my next point."

"Why the heck am I getting stuck with all the responsibility again?"

* * *

Aside from a select few officers, the men and women of the UNETCO element were not supposed to mix with the military personnel of the _USS Boxer_. As with everything in the organization, the issue was primarily one of security. An expandable rear module had, for that reason, been set up within the spacious well-deck of the Wasp class amphibious assault ship. It has separate living quarters and Spartan amenities for twelve man covert "special warfare command" detachment the American warship played host to.

Bare feet paused on a grate as Shampoo finished toweling off. Violet hair required a twice over to get it mostly dry, her free hand reaching for her pile of clothes and a fine metal comb. Letting the white towel drape over her shoulders, the Chinese Amazon took an indulgent minute or so to go through her hair before bundling it up and pinning it in place. The style of it that she let fall forward she combed separately and tied together with a bit of gold string.

It occur to Shampoo, as she primped, that she and Mousse were probably among the last few living Amazons to bother with long hair as a status symbol. Almost all the Exiled Amazons had maintained more conventional and functional styles. It was probably one of the traditions that wouldn't survive more than another generation at the rate things were going. Not that she intended to stop, herself, just because of that - no matter how much easier and simpler it would make things.

Satisfied, she dried off her feet and ankles and tossed the towel in a nearby bin.

A pair of panties and a white undershirt were all the clothing she needed to assuage the modesty of certain picky persons. As a point of fact, she preferred to sleep in the nude, but given their current living arrangement she'd decided against it. The only thing that would aggravate her Airen more was to try and jump into his cot. There was no room for personal quarters, even for the officers, so instead they all slept in the same room they mustered in. A footlocker and equipment locker flanked each pair of bunks, stacking them and their kit into a neat, efficient, minimalist space.

Leaving her uniform on the footlocker, she was on the verge of hopping into her bunk for some well earned shuteye - when, with a sardonic quirk of an eyebrow, she noted who she'd been stuck with. The man sized battle spatula was a dead giveaway. Shampoo resisted the urge to sigh. Would it have been so bad for him to at least sleep close by? Even if it were only the bunk above or below. Instead, as usual, she got saddled with the okonomiyaki chef as her immediate company.

It was probably more of his 'I don't want to show favoritism' nonsense.

Sitting down on the lower bunk, Shampoo shook her head; what favoritism was there even to show anymore? Her Airen and the pancake chef had already sorted out their mistaken miss-engagement. Which really only left two: herself and, of course, that nuisance named Tendo Akane. A nuisance who wasn't even around half of the time. A nuisance not even on the same combat team. A nuisance who was still, as far as Shampoo knew, a bona fide kitchen destroyer, clumsy tomboy - as Ranma himself put it - and, frankly, a woman Shampoo's Airen couldn't go two conversations with without causing a fight.

If not for the fact that they were fighting an enemy, and in an organization that frowned on open fraternization between officers and direct subordinates, Shampoo was sure they'd already have at least consummated the remaining real engagement. That was what she told herself anyway. It was the rational analysis she had reiterated whenever the topic entered her mind. It was also something she didn't find herself thinking about as much as she had before. Maybe it was the familiarity of working with her Airen every day for months on end? Was it pushing things to the point where being around him was so routine she barely thought about it? Between having to behave herself and training and working, she couldn't even remember the last time she'd even thought about - not pestering - but asking her betrothed on a date.

Of course, they did plenty of things off duty... as a team... or with Konatsu around. Or Ukyou. And they even hung out by themselves once in a blue moon, but... it was disturbingly platonic. Even _SHE_ was starting to think of it as platonic. Which was not a good thing; her Airen seemed to have the romantic drive and sexual initiative of a sloth. Not to mention his obvious disinterest in any of his engagements, Shampoo's included. If she wasn't in the mood to try and push things forward, and the fact was that not only wasn't she interested, she knew he'd just pull the 'superior officer' card and remind her that he 'wasn't going to marry anyone' until after the war - but if she didn't do something, sometime, who would?

Even Great grandmother Ku Lon didn't seem to care about it anymore, what with more pressing matters.

_'Since when did I become so apathetic about it, anyway?'_ she wondered, and glanced over at Ukyou's battle spatula. _'It's like I don't even think about it anymore unless one of us brings something up. After that pancake chef gave up...'_

The train of thought was depressing.

Reaching down to her footlocker, Shampoo was on the verge of retrieving a book, both to practice her Japanese and to get another chapter in before she went to sleep, when she paused. Taking a look to her left, she saw one of the UNETCO soldiers in his bunk, sound asleep. To her right, another at the end of the room was busy writing a letter. Ranma, Konatsu and Ukyou were no where in sight... especially the latter who the Amazon knew to still be in the shower. Most everyone else was in another room towards the front of the well-deck.

A new thought entered her head, then, and being naturally rather impulsive, she seized it. Checking again to make sure a certain someone wasn't going to barge in, Shampoo slid over and slowly wrapped her fingers around the hilt of the five-plus foot long spatula. Picking it up easily, and mindful of the room she had to her sides, the Chinese Amazon smirked as she went through a few slow, easy motions. Goddesses knew she'd seen Ukyou use the thing often enough.

_'Feint to the right, bring the body up to shield your left...'_

Yes: she'd seen it enough to mimic the motions, though she knew she lacked a real feel for the weapon. Her teammate used it for both offense and defense, to shield herself and obscure her movements. She could even hunker behind it by pinning it down to the ground, turtling up at just the right angle so no part of her was exposed to enemy fire. While outwardly somewhat similar to her old giant spatula, though, this one was very different. The defensive techniques would be useless in a battle if the weapon hadn't been remade with alien alloy.

_'Sweep low, cut out the legs, move at the hips and waist, bring the weighted end down on the skull...'_

Some of the moves were superficially like the ones she knew how to use with the Guan Dao (reclining moon blade)... but the balance was too different. The blade was too large and heavy. You had to keep making circular movements to conserve momentum, and this often rooted you in place. That suited Ukyou's fighting style fairly well: she'd tank what you shrew at her and try and catch you in a single large attack. Of course, if you dodged or blocked that attack, then she was in trouble, especially without any of her backup tricks, like bombs and traps on the floor.

There were offensive options, too, that came with the weapon's improvements. Spinning the hilt around, Shampoo eyed the flat and seemingly featureless edge. The sides could be made sharp or dull, thanks to the same strange memory metal that worked similar magic with Kuno-stick-boy's new sword. The flat could be heated and used to 'cook-up' the pancake chef's stupid little bombs. It also had an explosive feature, too: just blocking it head-on wasn't wise. It would discharge some sort of chemicals or aerosol and ignite it right in your face.

Then there was the other thing Ukyou could do with it -

Tucking it under her arm and running her free hand down the flat surface, Shampoo whispered, very quietly: _"Kenran Hinode."_

Not... that she was jealous, exactly.

She'd never really had the body or aura for a ki attack and she knew it. She'd known it for years. So it wasn't jealousy! It was just - very mild vexation. Shampoo frowned a bit: vexation was it exactly. She'd never expected Ukyou to ever actually develop a ki attack of any significance. It was something most Amazons trained their whole lives for, like a litmus test to enter the elite. But Ukyou's wasn't Elite. She was just - just an annoying Japanese girl!

_Definitely_ not a rival.

Definitely _not_.

Of course, had she been Ranma, then she would've suffered the predictable embarrassment of Ukyou walking in at just the worst moment. Her Airen did not have the best luck when it came to that sort of thing. Fortune favored her a bit better, at least as far as dignity was concerned. She had just put the spatula away and was about to sit down when Juliet squad's fellow female entered. Like Shampoo, she had a fairly thin white top on, but opted for boxer shorts when not among close company. It was suitably boyish looking, in Shampoo's opinion.

"Hey there, sugar," the chef said in easy greeting, one hand still tying her chestnut hair together behind her neck. Her hair was, appropriately, shorter than Shampoo's, but only ever received a fraction of the care. Nonetheless, it maintained a healthy glow, maintenance after being stuffed in a sweaty helmet or no.

_'Nope. Not jealous. Stupid pancake chef.'_

"Hey," Shampoo replied, fishing out her book from the footlocker that then slid under her bunk.

_'Next practice I'll beat her up a bit more than usual. There's more to being a martial artist than throwing your battle aura around.'_

Flipping open the book to the marked page, and on the verge of lying down -

"Hm hm hm-m, hm-hm-hm-hm-hm, hm-hm-hm, hm-hm..."

A single delicate eyebrow twitched at the swaying posterior within solid kicking distance.

"What stupid song stuck in your head this time?" she growled, genuinely tempted to give the chef a good pasting.

"I have no idea," Ukyou admitted, and then ducked down so Shampoo could see her face. Predictably, she had her giant spatula in one hand and a cleaning cloth in the other. "Just something someone was playing the other day. It was in English but I don't know the name."

"Well, keep you hm-hm-hm to self," Shampoo grumbled, but despite the irritant she couldn't help but feel some of her bad mood leech away. The pancake chef was a nuisance, just like Akane, but she was a familiar nuisance. And they had saved each other's lives a few times, too. If familiarity failed to breed contempt it tended to foster camaraderie, even between an Amazon and a former obstacle.

She let a half minute or so pass, to make sure Ukyou quieted up.

She girl kept cleaning her battle spatula. As if it really needed it.

"So, where Ranma and girly boy?" Shampoo asked, mentally wincing a bit at her English. Why she still had lingering foreign language issues, even after having the damn language implanted into her brain, she didn't know. It was like fate was trying to stick her with the damn thing. It was almost as bad as a lisp.

"I think they went above decks," Ukyou answered off hand. "Probably to hang out and do guy stuff, like pissing off the side of the ship. Jackasses."

Shampoo considered that rather unlikely, but the image was amusing.

"Airen no lose in pissing contest," she joked and the two girls shared a light laugh. Of course, if there WERE an actual pissing contest underway, and Ranma knew about it, he'd undoubtedly try and win it. Especially if some idiot called it 'martial arts.'

"Ranma-honey's predictable like that," Ukyou agreed. "Ryu-honey's not that different, though. It just takes a bit more to get him riled up."

Yes: the Yamasenken-boy. Maybe it was the fact that Ukyou had brought them both up, or that she'd made a direct comparison, but it made Shampoo wonder, and not for the first time: what was Ukyou doing with India Squad's NCO? Obviously, they were 'kind of' together in a casual sort of way. Shampoo knew that. What she couldn't grasp was why Ukyou had finally called things off with Ranma in the first place. She'd suspected for a time that Ukyou had done it so she could switch fiancés, but in the weeks since Ukyou and Ryu were still far from being a particularly close couple.

Shampoo suspected, now, that maybe it was some fallout between the chef's father Kazuo and Genma that had ended the engagement. Yet why had Ukyou gone along with it then? She'd never given the impression of being forced out of the tangled web of fiancés. She'd just left, seemingly of her own accord. Shampoo just couldn't get a hook on why. She'd been hesitant to ask, too: what with gift horses and looking in their mouth and all that. After this long, Shampoo was pretty sure the break-up wasn't all part of some Machiavellian master plan to make Ranma jealous or anything.

...pretty sure. Not _absolutely_ sure.

"Maybe I'll go find him and see what he's up to," Shampoo threw out there. Not that she really intended to go wandering around the whip looking for her L-T. Her _Airen_ that was. She was more curious what the pancake chef would think of it.

"Good luck finding him," the other girl replied with a shrug, clearly more interested in her battle-spat.

"Is romantic night out," Shampoo added, pressing a bit harder.

And all that got was a non-committal grunt of "eh."

The okonomiyaki lover clearly wasn't going to play along. She barely even seemed to be listening. Shampoo flopped back on her bunk and propped the book up against her leg for easier bed-reading. She got part way into the new chapter when her middle finger flexed, sending the book down to splay out across her midriff.

"Spatula girl," she asked.

"Need something, noodles for brains?"

Well, she was listening at least.

Shampoo just out and said it, "Why you break engagement with Airen?"

Ukyou didn't respond at first, and after a few seconds, Shampoo wondered if she'd crossed a line by asking. They were both... both had been fiancés of Ranma's. Ukyou wasn't anymore. Who knew why? Only the two of them, really. But the two girls were in a certain kind of group because of it. Maybe that meant something when it came to private matters, maybe it didn't. It was kind of sad, but this pancake cooking girl was the closest thing Shampoo had to a 'girlfriend.' Not that Amazons really had that sort of thing, but Shampoo really didn't want to call Ukyou-okonomiyaki-Kuonji a Battle Sister.

"It..." the Japanese girl hesitated, having just started. A second or two later and she pushed forward anyway: "It just wasn't working out."

"What you mean by that?" Shampoo asked. "It just not working out? When has engagement to Airen ever work out smoothly? Why stop now?"

Instead of an answer, Ukyou - her back to Shampoo's bunk - threw back a question.

"Why do you care anyway?" she asked, a trace of anger in her tone of voice. "I'm not pulling off some scheme if that what you're thinking."

"Like you admit it if you have big plan," Shampoo countered, and rolled partly off her bed so her feet touched the floor. Glancing to her right, she saw Ukyou with the cleaning cloth in hand. Her battle spatula was still close by, but the other girl was holding it loosely. Too loosely to clean.

"You should be happy to have me out of the picture," Ukyou said, and craned her neck to look down at her seated teammate. "Just you and Akane now."

"I... I'm glad you saw sense and gave up," the Amazon carefully replied, though the response itself caused Ukyou to frown and share an audible 'hmmf!' "Just," she admitted. "I just don't understand why you gave up."

The other girl looked, for just a moment, like she wanted to say something unkind. Her lips parted, but then shut as she rethought her response. Shampoo honestly wondered then what it was that her teammate had first intended to say. Maybe she and Ranma had had an argument or something? Maybe there was some loophole in Japanese engagements that he had found?

"The engagement was just ruining our relationship anyway, so why not get rid of it?" Ukyou asked with a roll of her shoulders. "Ran-chan can make his own decisions. One of them was to pay off that fat panda's debt."

Shampoo narrowed her eyes a bit at the other woman.

"You no want him anymore?"

Ukyou looked down at the Amazon again. "You mean, do I like him anymore?"

"Like. Want." Shampoo shrugged shamelessly. "Not big difference if you ask me."

"...Of course I still like Ran-chan," Ukyou's answer was suitably selective. "But I like a few guys."

Frowning a bit at the evasion, the Amazon asked again: "If you could still marry Airen, would you?"

And at that, the okonomiyaki chef paused.

"I... don't know," she finally answered. Turning around, she faced Shampoo and leaned against the side of the top bunk. "What does it matter anyway, sugar? You want to start up the Fiancé Battle Royale again? You know Ranma-honey will just get pissed off and have you running laps around the mountain."

"No is time for that," Shampoo agreed and leaned back a bit. "Sh- I'll wait until after war over. Amazon marriage laws suspended during mercenary or war work anyway. Was just... curious, suppose."

Crossing her arms, Ukyou appeared to consider that for some time.

The Amazon saw her frowning, too.

"Shampoo," Ukyou began and bit her lower lip for a second. "Ranma-honey is... he's..." She paused again, this time for a suspiciously long couple of seconds. "Anyway, Ranma-honey's the one who'll decide who he wants to be with. He's known us all for years, right? Plus, haven't you noticed it?"

The brown haired chef closed her eyes and shook her head.

"I guess not," she quickly answered herself. "But Ranma-honey's a grown man now. He's more responsible than I've ever seen him be before. Whatever he decides, we'll just have to live with it. He isn't going to change his mind just because of a few tears. Or a few threats."

"Maybe," Ukyou added, before Shampoo could respond. "Maybe you should talk to him about this, sugar? And I mean 'talk to him' not 'try and sleep with him' or 'try and trick him into marrying you.'"

"What there to talk about?" The Chinese girl dismissed the notion with a wave of her hand. Falling back on her bunk, she pulled her legs up and propped one up to support her book again. There really was nothing to 'talk to' her Airen about.

No matter how inconvenient it might have been -

"Village Law is Law. Absolutely."

* * *

Solitude.

It was kind of hard to be alone on a ship with a thousand other people. It was rather harder to find a spot to be alone when you needed to avoid a pair of martial artists who could nose in at the worst possible time. Ranma Saotome found that little bit of solitude about sixty meters above sea level, wedged between radar equipment above and below on a small platform nearly inaccessible even to maintenance crew. From his position on the rear of two radar towers he could see all down to the after half of the carrier.

He'd jumped up to his current, isolated perch for one reason.

"Akane," he addressed the small tablet computer in his right hand. "Delete." Starting again, he smiled. "Hey, Akane!"

...

"Delete."

Massaging his temples, he lowered the tablet for a few seconds, sighed, and put it on record again.

A smile. "Akane. Hey. How's it going?"

Still recording, he faltered a bit at what to say next.

"Ugh. Delete."

Adjusting his footing a bit, he angled the screen to it would catch some of the background and the ocean, and not just the metal hull of the ship behind his head. With that now to his left, he checked over his shoulder at the view. It was pretty dark, but you could see the sun setting. Akane would probably like that. He guessed.

A smile. "Akane. Hey! How's it going?"

It was a pretty good start. Shaking himself a bit to relax, he continued.

"So, um... uh..." He glanced down, quick, about to delete the recording again. But, instead, he tried to continue, "Well, I shouldn't say where I am, but, um... I hope you're good. And safe."

He felt his smile slip a bit; hurting from the reminder of the danger she'd insisted on being involved in.

"I'm almost done with my rotation off base, so I'll be back home soon." He did honestly smile as he said that. It would be nice to be back with his family, Akane and the other Tendos included. "I, uh, I thought about you while I was away. I should probably apologize for the things I said when I left. I've had some time to think about it... maybe I was a little out of order when I said... well, you know what I said."

His expression darkened a bit as he thought more about it.

"But even if I didn't... you know, phrase it that great, I still think I had a point. I know ya wanna pull your weight and fight, but ya need to be more careful out there." He held up a hand to forestall the angry objection he knew she'd have when she heard that part. "I shouldn't have been second guessing and pulling tape on another squad just to check in on you. I know. I just... I just wanted to know how you were doing. I thought I could help. And - and things just came out all wrong."

"So," he said, dithering a bit. "So, you know? I'm. I'm... kinda sorry."

Ranma couldn't help but roll his eyes a bit.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Could just saying it have been possibly more painful? Haha." Staring at the screen, he took a deep breath. This was, if anything, the hardest part to say.

"I..."

Tilting his head left and right for a second or two, he resisted having to actually say it -

"I miss you," he said it very softly. "I've been hearin' some weird things about what's goin' on over there. Watch yer back, okay? And tell my mom I said 'hi.'"

He grinned confidently, but it was a shallow self-conscious smirk.

"Its kinda funny actually. I've been gone longer than this on trainin' trips. Somethin' about this is different. It's just... different. Dunno why. Maybe its the stuff we gotta do out here?" he wondered, and slowly shook his head. "Anyway. Like I said, I'll be back soon. Before ya know it even."

The Saotome heir's grin grew into an honest to goodness smirk.

"And then _you_." He pointed at the screen. "Can apologize to _me_. I'm lookin' forward to it."

* * *

Konatsu preferred not to display the tools of his trade where others could easily see them.

Thus, unlike Miss Ukyou, he kept much of his kit in the shadows where it belonged, and where it wouldn't reflect poorly on others opinions of him. He didn't so much mind his close friends seeing the tricks of his trade, so to speak. He trained with them. They knew everything he was capable of. On the other hand, the stares of other people were something the 'legendary male kunoichi' would rather avoid.

While Saotome-taichou had headed off to find a secluded spot, probably to write or record something to send back to Seiran, Konatsu had wandered off on his own to find a shady spot. He had most of his stuff with him in a duffel bag, and seeing no one else around on the rear upper deck, the ninja retrieved his blade. It was a non-reflective, tarnished color of dark grey, and unlike the weapons of Miss Ukyou or Kuno-san, it didn't have any high-tech tricks to it. It was, first and foremost, just a blade. The trick to it was in its user.

It was also in the... application.

_Habu_.

That was the name of his sword, or rather, his sword technique. There was a special groove, like the empty fang of its pit viper namesake, to serve as a reservoir. At least with humans, he could use it to kill cleanly and without suffering. One of his many failings, as his step sisters so often enjoyed pointing out, was that he really wasn't that good at being a shinobi. He didn't like to - _didn't want to_ - hurt anyone. It was an unfortunate twist of fate that he was particularly good at doing something he didn't really enjoy. There were no reliable poisons when dealing with the alien enemy, but even there, if he could, he killed softy and painlessly. It was the least he could do.

In his bag, he had most of what he would need for the job in Roanapur.

They were personal things: the poisons, of course, were one. The blades. The contact neurotoxin. Special paper for his _Füjin Seikyü Senpu_ (Heartless Bill Whirlwind) and, if need be, his _Konatsu Andon_ (Konatsu Paper Lantern). Shuriken, though they were really only used as a distraction or to blind someone at long range by taking out their eyes. He had simple ones, the basic throwing star, and explosive versions to maim the target and fill the air with broken steel.

Then there was the strap he wore on the inside of his palm with the flip out claws. That was for climbing on surfaces too rough to contact-climb or force handholds on, but it was also quite useful for quickly opening a throat. Useful, but not pretty. If possible, it was much kinder to just break the neck. There were various assortments and reams of wire. It wasn't hard to imagine the many uses they had in skilled hands.

Much of his other equipment: his rifle, his sidearm, his grenades... that he didn't have on him. There was no need to sneak around with it. That was all considered quite mundane. He would care for it in the open and not have to worry about anyone being offended. He was a soldier after all. He was also a kunoichi. Killing an enemy in the field was some time necessary; assassinating someone was also, sadly, sometimes necessary. Life was ended by the thunder of a gunshot or the silent slide of a knife across bare flesh.

Clearing his thoughts and staring out over the dark sea, Konatsu started.

While he checked and prepared his unorthodox and decidedly non-standard issue kit, he thought about the potential targets that lay ahead. The human ones, that is. The ones he would feel some pangs of regret if he had to remove. It was unfortunate, but he reminded himself that there was not an innocent man or woman among them.

The Russians. All but one were male. They were allegedly skilled at range. Snipers would be present among them. Veterans of the Soviet War in Afghanistan. Most of those would be middle aged or older; past their peak. Peripheral vision would be sub-par. Intel gave the impression that they were top dogs in this city. Arrogant. But experienced. Confident. Overconfident. Scramble radios. Prevent communication. Kill lights if possible. Engage in unfamiliar terrain. Asymmetrical engagement. Close distance.

Cut them to pieces.

They won't panic. Will try to organize. Fall back. Intercept at rear areas. Lay traps. Explosives. When off balance use gas. When they react, close and finish off. Shoot stragglers. For the scarred woman, attack from behind - knife severs spinal cord then enters brain under or through occipital curve. If possible. Painless. More likely she'll be taken out at range. Still possible encounter. Should be ready.

The other possible human targets were the four pirates. Intel had identified the Asian - Japanese - crew member as minimal threat. Blow to rib case collapses sternum. Not life threatening. Can interrogate later. Jewish-American. Technical specialist. Similar takedown. African American. Vietnam veteran. Likely armed with handgun. Possible shotgun. Engage from behind if possible. Otherwise blind. Close. Slit throat. Chinese-American. Female. Skilled gunman. Dual nine millimeter. Only serious danger. Engage from blind spot. Disarm. Minimal danger hand to hand. Disorient. Mission Kill.

Footsteps. Muffled. Attempt at stealth. Still Heavy.

Konatsu felt his mind slip out of its comfortable trance. Dark eyes drifted back to where a CH-46 Sea Knight assault transport helicopter sat in the shadows. Scooting over, Konatsu sheathed his Habu and faced the craft, bowing politely.

"Acting Major," he said with a faint, false smile. "How nice to see you again, sir."

"Pretty sharp, kid."

The officer slipped out of the shadows quite skillfully. It was a mundane ability, to Konatsu's eyes, but honed very well. He had suspected there was a little something strange about their new temp CO. Most men did not, in their heart, want to be part of the shadows. They did not want to be invisible. This was why so many failed.

"Not only did you hear me, you saw me, too," the acting Major continued, walking over. He had his hands in his pockets, giving the impression of casual and collected cool. Konatsu noted, for the second time, the man's scar running from his cheek to his hairline. He was lucky he hadn't lost his left eye in whatever caused it.

Not sure how to reply to that, Konatsu apologized, "Sorry, sir."

"Nothing to be sorry about," Acting Major Wilson assured the young man with a friendly wave of his hand. "I was the one sneaking up on you, after all. Your file has some interesting descriptions of your abilities." He stopped a few steps short of the edge of the carrier's deck. "Tell me. What dog are you? What was your master?"

Konatsu's eyes strayed back to the sea.

"Eight Ways Kunoichi," he answered, simply. "My master was a Tengu."

The acting Major nodded to himself.

"And you, sir?" the Squaddie inquired after a polite second or two.

"Mantis. Corpse."

"When was that?"

"Years ago. Back in the States."

Konatsu bowed his head again. "I see. Forgive me for bringing it up."

"And I said it was a long time ago. Before you were born." Acting Major Wilson shared the ocean view for a time, his hands cupped leisurely behind his back. Slowly relaxing, Konatsu still self-consciously zipped up his duffel bag and kept most of his kit out of sight. Even if it was the sort of thing this man would likely be at least somewhat familiar with.

Still, one thing he had said seemed strange: 'back in the States?' The United States? Before he was born? That would be the eighties or seventies. Why would this man have learned 'Mantis' from a 'Corpse' in the States? Most family ninjutsu styles remained close to home. Mantis was an old Aokigahara style, not that anyone practiced anymore in that cursed place.

Then again, the impression Konatsu had of this man's aura -

Well. It just wasn't polite to say.

But he felt like this was a man who had taken a great many lives over the years. This Slade Wilson. It was a shame only Saotome-taichou had access to detailed officer records. The ninja found himself morbidly curious what sort of clandestine operations the grizzled man next to him had been involved in. Yet, whatever had happened before, the States had parted with him and granted him secondment to UNETCO. In the end, their paths had led them to the same place, with the same goals.

"Sir," Konatsu ventured to ask after a long silence.

The man glanced over at the Squaddie, giving checked permission to speak.

"Do you really need us for this mission?" he asked, hoping he wasn't out of line in doing so.

Acting Major Slade Wilson smiled thinly and went back to staring at the sea.

"I don't," he admitted after a few seconds. "But my way would upset a lot of people. Namely those poor men who expect monthly kickbacks from the people I'd kill."

The older man chuckled darkly, the menace in his voice palpable.

"The Royal Navy used to hang pirates, but now... well!" He shrugged in mock-helplessness. "They're a vital part of our diverse socio-economic system. The kickbacks they pay filter up through an elaborate and delightful system of bribes... to the men who appoint the government paper pushers who represent their country on the Funding Committee."

"Ah." Konatsu muttered. "I see."

Wilson nodded sadly. "So they said: try it delicately first. Try it quietly. Don't eliminate anyone we do business under the table with."

"So if we don't handle it... delicately...?" the male kuniochi asked.

"Then I'll come in," the Acting Major answered with a friendly smile. "And I'll wipe out everyone involved. Everyone who ever saw that god forsaken package. Everyone who worked with the _things_ being sent to pick it up."

After that, the Major left, slipping back into the darkness.

Konatsu quietly finished his preparations.

* * *

Tatewaki Kuno, preeminent soldier and esteemed Bastion of Righteousness, shouldered the combined weight of his travel pack and the debilitating gravity harness he and so many others often used in training to prepare for the upcoming Cydonia mission. Normally, the tiny Elerium reactor was used to decrease gravity to Martian levels, but India squad often inverted it when training with weights. The result was a heady forty kilometer run around the mountain every morning with his teammates, made all the more invigorating by its scaled up difficulty.

The brisk mountain air ran through the swordsman's perfect hair, and he took a moment to drink it in and savor the rustic repose. It was invigorating, and reminded him more than anything of his early years, back when he first found his love of kendo. Back before things became too easy, too stale, too staid. After his beloved mentor and senpai left, the rest of the kendo club had failed to provide genuine companionship or challenge, but this… this was a good life; a warrior's life.

Mountain peaks stretched out below them, capped by ragged plains of white and green.

Seiran was isolated but beautiful, tucked away amid the mountains and buried by acres of national parkland and unmolested forest. Here, Kuno could imagine a great samurai or warrior monk had once climbed to these peaceful heights to hone his skills and ponder his reason for being. It was a warrior's retreat and redoubt all in one.

The slight sting of his arm, and the patchwork of bandages and dermal grafts, ached distantly in the cold air, but it was a nice kind of pain. It was a reminder that he pushed his body to the limits and proved his martial prowess every day. It was a potent reminder that he was alive. Despite the enemy, despite the odds, despite even his own initial foolishness, he was _alive_.

There would be no rest, even after last night's little adventure.

The Lieutenant had allowed them to sleep in only a couple extra hours, before they resumed their routine of training. This time, though, they would have some guests. The three new arrivals were, supposedly, of the mind that they should play some role in future battles. By Kuno's independent reckoning, they were a spirited bunch, and the violet haired maiden had some interesting abilities, but that alone did not a fighting squad make. As a result, today, they would put the three to the test and see how they handled themselves in simulated battlefield conditions.

Ryu, India Squad's sergeant (blessed as he was with a fully functional sense of direction), led the procession from the front, keeping a nice steady pace as they waded their way over rough snow-covered terrain to one of the training grounds. Mousse followed behind, then Kuno himself. Their Lieutenant followed along the side. Amusingly, their coordinator had deigned to come along, though not for the 40 kilometer run, and Nabiki struggled to match the pace of her more physically seasoned comrades.

The 'Titans' - as he had heard them refer to themselves - ran roughly in parallel. At their lead was the fiery redhead with the ocherous complexion, who had been told to run for this exercise and not to fly. She seemed to have no difficulty matching pace, and neither did the slightly younger version of the Lieutenant that followed close behind her. The two carried their group's kit. Last in their group was the violet haired girl whose name momentarily eluded the noble swordsman, who took the 'no flying' stipulation the worst. She slogged through the snow with more effort, perhaps grateful for the fatigues and pants that covered her legs and feet. All three had been given some basic clothing appropriate for the upcoming exercises.

"Tis a fair morning, is it not?" Kuno asked, nudging the Chinese weapons master ahead of him. "When can we expect our brother squad to rejoin us? The day's activities remind me of our earlier outings together!"

"Last I heard, Saotome and the girls were still running rampant down south," Mousse replied, shrugging his shoulders and his pack. The weapons master kept all his actual items on his person, so his travel pack was entirely for weight training. "We'll have to wait to find out more. Funny thing is, weren't they supposed to be sent to an Op in Hawaii? That guy gets all the plush assignments."

"Ah, Hawaii, the land of my cursed father," Kuno rumbled, but smiled, "I do believe I shall have to visit it myself some time. We own a small ranch there, you know?"

"Oh! A ranch? Sounds good!" Ryu chimed in. "I'm in."

"As am I," Mousse decided.

"You wouldn't forget your dear friend Nabiki, would you, Kuno-chan?"

"Very well!" Kuno magnanimously replied. "You may come, provided you bring the pigtailed girl and Akane Tendo with you!"

"Feh," the dimensionally displaced Ryouga muttered. "Hawaii is over rated. Sure, it's all fun in the sun ... until you get caught in a volcanic eruption, and then everyone is all 'ahh, save me, my luggage is burning me to death!'."

"We've had… certain experiences in Hawaii…" the native Ryouga admitted.

"Oh? Now that sounds juicy!" Nabiki elbowed him as she ran. "And it reminds me, too… exactly how much do you two have in common? Ryugenzawa? That amusing koi rod incident? Saffron?"

"SHUT UP ABOUT THE KOI ROD!" bellowed the younger Hibiki at the top of his surprisingly loud lungs.

Surprisingly, the Tamaranian turned to glare at her Ryouga. "Indeed, there is no need to dwell upon _that_ embarrassment."

"Ummm," Raven interjected between ragged breaths, "What's this about a koi rod?"

Instantly, the younger Ryouga's jaws clicked shut and he spun to stare at her, wide eyed. "N-n-nothing! Nothing really. Just a - a fishing accident."

He then spun back to Nabiki, clinging to her lingering question like a life line. "Aheh - um - and who's this Saffron guy? I don't think I heard of him. Another one of Ranma's one shot rivals?"

"If only," Mousse grunted, still a bit miffed by the whole 'enslaving Shampoo' shurikomi egg thing.

"Saffron," Nabiki replied, but quickly filed away 'koi rod' as another fun poking point to use later. "Was this Chinese Prince or King or whatever who kidnapped Akane almost a year ago."

"And Shampoo," Mousse corrected, "My darling Shampoo was turned into one of their evil minions!"

"She acted kind of like her usual self, if you ask me," the Lieutenant observed.

Mousse sputtered in indignant rage. "How can you say that?"

"Well, she kept trying to seduce Ranma and kill everyone else…" he cut that short before it caused a fight. "They had these eggs that could brainwash you into serving whoever hit you with one. Shampoo got tagged by this lady, Kiima, who served as Saffron's caretaker. Then later, Shampoo got Genma… and it was a mess."

"Kiima?" Starfire asked, intrigued. "Is she not the one that wears Akane's body? She was present at the battle of my capture ... though she did not participate much."

"Yes, I believe she bears some strange Chinese curse that turns her into a virtual copy of the tempestuous Akane Tendo," Kuno sagely replied. "Though I did not grace this particular adventure with my good company, I did hear much of it at the wedding."

"Wedding?" Ryouga asked, confused. "Who the heck got married? Mr. Tendo and Miss Hinako?"

"Good Lord, no!" Nabiki gasped and did a full body shudder at the thought. "The day I call that woman 'mother' … UGH!"

"It was like this," The uniformed Hibiki tried to explain. "Saffron ended up doing this crazy 'one winged angel' transformation at Jusendo, drying up Jyusenkyou in the process. Mousse and I were there, after he saved Shampoo, trying to help out. Akane nearly died during the fight… so I can understand how panicked Ranma was. Saffron kept regenerating, so he ended up coming up with a Dragon Wave variant that froze him and blasted him apart. Even after all that, it looked…"

He frowned. "It looked like Akane wasn't going to make it. Ranma kind of said he loved her, she woke up, they had a fight… you can imagine that, I'm sure. When we got back to Japan they almost got married."

"A likely story!" Kuno scoffed. "The product of an elaborate deception, no doubt! Interrupting that miscarriage of a marriage was the Work of Heaven! Who would want to marry that vile trickster?"

"I dunno," Ryu joked from the front. "Why don't you tell us, Kuno? Who _would_ want to marry the pigtailed girl?"

"What nonsense do you speak, man?" Kuno adopted a noble pose, hair gently blowing in the wind. "More of this pigtailed girl and Ranma are the same, foolishness? Ha! HAHAHAHA!"

The younger Ryouga looked back and forth between his counterpart, and the laughing samurai.

"Hmmmm, part of me wants to agree and say that just sounds too much like madness to actually happen ... But then again, Kuno is ranting **against** it, so that means it must be true."

"Ah, the Hibiki logic at work again," Raven inferred with a nasty smirk, "Given two directions, let the Hibiki choose, and you'll know the other way is the right way."

"You know," the older Ryouga interrupted, in their mutual defense. "Our sense of direction isn't _that_ bad. Grandpa's was worse."

Raven met him with a flat glance. "Our Ryouga took a detour back to our tower from a cave only a few kilometers away that took him through _Greece_."

Said Ryouga muttered obscenities under his breath as he kicked at the snow. "Stupid Amazons ..."

"Reminds me of when I ended up in Moscow a while back…" The native Ryouga chuckled at the memory. "Still, getting _that_ lost on foot is pretty impressive. Let me guess, you ended up getting involved in some big fight over there?"

"If by fight, you mean I got chased halfway across the island by an angry horde of mystical female warriors, then yes, it could be interpreted that way."

Raven smiled, touching the center of her chest for some reason. "He even got me a nice souvenir ... it's only too bad that I could never wear it."

"Hey, yeah! That's right! You never did wear that necklace I got you. Why not?" Ryouga asked, perplexed.

Starfire gasped. "Raven! You did not tell me that Ryouga purchased _jewelry_ for you! Is that not a momentous occasion in any burgeoning relationship!"

"Well, he didn't exactly buy it for me," Raven explained with a wry grin. She then turned to the lost boy in question. "And I'm sorry, but as beautiful as it was ... I don't think hanging a razor sharp arrowhead between my breasts is a ... safe arrangement. Even if it was solid gold."

"Oh! That is so cute!" A second later, Nabiki leaned over to whisper something into the older Hibiki's ear.

He quickly whispered back, and she nodded.

"Don't let that cunning woman swindle you out of more money, Lieutenant," Kuno warned. "You must resist her evil temptations!"

Nabiki gave the kendoist a predatory look. "Did you just say something, Kuno-baby? It sounded a bit like 'I don't want any more videos of Akane or the pigtailed girl.'"

Kuno quickly crossed his arms in mock defiance. "I have been grossly misinterpreted."

"Did you get a price estimate on the arrowhead?" she asked Raven with yen signs in her eyes. "Hibiki here has enough antique junk to build a museum wing! You should always get a gift like that appraised a-s-a-p!"

The dark Titan tapped her chin as she considered it. "Well, it was created at the forge of Hephaestus himself ... if those Amazons are to be believed, anyway... so I would say utterly priceless. Divine origin doesn't usually factor into most appraisals that I've seen, but then again, someone has to put prices on all those magic artifacts super-villains get their hands on..."

Starfire clutched her own chest for a moment, before turning to swat Ryouga upside the head. "Ryouga! Why would you attempt to endanger Raven's grebnaks? Could you not think of a better form of jewelry to produce?"

"At least he didn't get her something haunted," Mousse noted with a chuckle.

"Yes, unlike a certain someone," Nabiki agreed. "If you put it on and start losing long tracks of time, you'll know who to kick in the nuts."

"Ok, I think you've all had enough fun at our expense," the older Hibiki firmly spoke up, hoping to cut things off before they became too revealing or embarrassing. "Besides, a magical arrowhead is a great gift! Just put it in a case or something."

"**Thank you**!" Ryouga growled loudly ... then realized just who it was he was thanking. "Uh - I mean - yeah, so what are we doing out here again? You said something about some kind of combat training?"

"Yep," the other-him replied, seemingly in good cheer. "Back when we first started, Juliet and our team used to come out here pretty often. We'd split up and run courses and drills. We had to unlearn a lot of our natural tendencies to adapt to the battlefield. I know from Raven that you guys normally operated under a young man named Robin. He probably ran you through some similar exercises, so the big difference will be your opposition."

"So, instead of fighting insane criminals, mutant monsters and evil aliens, we'll be fighting...?" Raven asked with a smirk.

"Us," Ryu replied, "Pretending to be evil aliens. Wait 'till you see Kuno's Chryssalid impression."

Kuno snickered, raising his hands and making a 'grabbing' motion. The goofy, slightly perverted grin on his face didn't help either.

"Kuno," the younger Ryouga uttered ominously. "If you so much as grope the _air_ around Raven and Starfire, I will _personally_ disarm you. And I don't mean your sword."

"You should've seen the fireworks last time he 'caught' Ukyou," the older Ryouga laughed easily. The memory of the okonomiyaki chef pounding the swordsman into the ground while her face blushed beet red was definitely not to be forgotten.

"Consider the indestructible perversion to be added incentive," he added, "We almost there, Sergeant?"

"Yes, sir," Ryu replied. "Kuno, give us stepping time."

"Gladly!" The swordsman smiled, and started a marching tune.

"Forward Squaddie, don't look back  
Charge right down the Ranger's track  
With that rifle in my hand  
I'm gonna be a shootin' man  
A shootin' man  
The best I can  
A UNETCO Man!"

Mousse picked up the next part, as India's marched in step to the cadence.

"Forward Squaddie, don't look back  
Charge right down the Ranger's track  
With that knife in my hand  
I'm gonna be a cuttin' man  
A cuttin' man  
A shootin' man  
The best I can  
A UNETCO Man!"

The three Titans matched the new pace, not lagging far behind as the tune passed to Ryu.

"Forward Squaddie, don't look back  
Charge right down the Ranger's track  
With that grenade in my hand  
I'm gonna be a killin' man  
A killin' man  
A cuttin' man  
A shootin' man  
The best I can  
A UNETCO Man!"

Wrapping one arm around Nabiki to carry her while they ran, Ryouga continued the tune.

"Forward Squaddie, don't look back  
Charge right down the Ranger's track  
With that bottle in my hand  
I'm gonna be a drinkin' man  
A drinkin' man  
A killin' man  
A cuttin' man  
A shootin' man  
The best I can  
A UNETCO Man!"

Together, the four finished the Jodie.

"Forward Squaddie, don't look back  
Charge right down the Ranger's track  
With that book in my hand  
I'm gonna be a studyin' man  
A studyin' man  
A drinkin' man  
A killin' man  
A cuttin' man  
A shootin' man  
The best I can  
A UNETCO Man!"

The younger Ryouga buried his face in his hand as he ran. "God, someone please kill me now."

Raven's flat expression equally mirrored his sentiment. And after seeing Nabiki get swept up, she muttered something that sounded a bit like _'Nothing_ is worth this torment.', before she simply started to float behind them.

On the other hand, the Tamaranian had a far different reaction.

"Glorious singing, new friends! Allow me to enchant you with a warrior ballad from my own world. Its invigorating lyrics will surely energize us all for the coming battle!"

Taking a deep breath, Starfire prepared to sing -

Only to have a pair of hands slapped over her mouth.

"Ummmm, you might want to ... um, save your breath, Star," Ryouga mumbled.

Raven, however, was far more blunt. "No. No more singing. Ever. By Anyone."

"What?" Kuno called over his shoulder. "Not to your liking, hm?"

India squad laughed at the discomfort of their new training mates.

"Verily, how about one more ballad?" Kuno enthused.

"Yes!" Starfire cheered, pushing the hands away just enough to speak, ignoring the lost boy's rapidly shaking head behind her.

"The prettiest girl!" Kuno sang, grinning.

"The prettiest girl!" the rest of India repeated with obvious familiarity.

"I ever saw!"  
"I ever saw!"

"Was sipping bourbon!"  
"Was sipping bourbon!"

"Through a straw!"  
"Through a straw!"

"The prettiest girl,"  
"The prettiest girl!"

"I ever saw,"  
"I ever saw!"

"Was sipping bourbon," The four men stomped their feet as one. "…through a straw!"

"I walked right up  
I sat right down  
I ordered up  
Another round."

"I placed my hand  
Upon her knee  
She said, hey now  
You're teasing me."

"I placed my hand  
Upon her thigh  
She said, hey now  
That's way too high."

"I picked her up  
I laid her down  
Her long red hair  
Lay all around."

"The wedding was  
A formal one  
Her daddy had  
A white shotgun."

"And now I've got  
A mother-in-law  
And 14 kids  
Who call me Pa!"

Halfway through the song, Raven grimaced and floated ahead, dragging Ryouga with her. "I swear to Azar, there will be suffering this day."

Ryouga glowered, as he kept pace with her, leaving everyone else behind to sing. "I _was_ going to go after Hibiki first... but now? Kuno is going **down**."

At least Starfire was left, and amused no less.

"Perhaps when we take our break later, you may share with me the fighting songs of your country, ochre maiden!" Kuno remarked, "Is not the exchange of culture and understanding one of the tenants of our international organization, Lieutenant?"

"It is at that," Ryouga acknowledged.

"I would greatly enjoy sharing the songs of my culture," Starfire cheered ecstatically. She soured a moment later, looking down. "For some reason, my friends do not appreciate my singing. On my planet, my voice is considered to be quite lovely indeed."

"A beauty such as yourself must have a truly beguiling voice," Kuno complimented smoothly. His teeth even sparkled when he smiled.

Now absolutely giddy, Starfire waved her hands about energetically, only picking up the pace as they traveled. "Ooooh, now I can not maintain the patience necessary to wait until the break. Hurry, we must make haste so that we may begin, and thus end our activities in a more timely manner!"

Mousse adjusted his glasses, a cover for when he was up to something.

"Putting the moves on another girl, Kuno?" the blind martial artist asked. "What would the pigtailed girl think?"

"I thought sweet Akane was the one he pined for?" Ryu questioned, holding back a chuckle. He struggled to sound serious. "Which one is it?"

"Curse you all! Why must you make me choose between my loves?"

Up ahead, the concrete structures of the training area emerged from the tree line.

* * *

The training site itself was nothing particularly attractive or fancy. No pop-out turrets or robots. There were several reinforced concrete structures and barricades around the area, along with a firing range and an enclosed area. India squad approached it with practiced ease, came up to the latter spot and pulled up a concealed pylon. Struts extended, covering much of the area with a guile of forest colored camouflage. The four UNETCO soldiers then unpacked, and Nabiki quickly got to work setting up a portable control station.

"Alright," the native Ryouga finally announced, calling everyone nearby. "Before anything else, I'd like to ask if anyone has any experience with either firearms or high explosives."

"No."

"None."

"I do not."

"Miss… Starfire," he continued, remembering hearing that the alien girl apparently preferred the name to the one he had been given. "I've been told that you had battlefield experience back on your world. I know your alien races are very different from our own, but can I ask what you fought as? Pilot? Infantry? Scout…?"

Starfire tapped her chin in remembrance. "As first in line for the throne of Tamaran at the time, I was not permitted to join any branch of the military. That did not stop me from joining several battles, regardless of my parents' wishes. Since that was before the experiments which gave me my powers, I wielded the Energy Lance which is the preferred weapon of my people."

"I see." It surprised him that she was basically a warrior princess, but didn't dwell on that fact. Technically, Shampoo was the same… if you stretched definition a bit. "Could you describe the use of this weapon?"

"I ... will try. The theory behind its function is likely outside the realm of your current science to comprehend. In layman's terms, it is a long hafted, bladed weapon, somewhat resembling an axe. The power core within the weapon can create an oscillating energy field which allows the blade to cut through most materials with ease. It is also capable of firing long distance energy bursts which disrupt matter on the molecular level."

Scratching her head as she thought back to her youth, she nodded to herself. What else was there?

"I preferred the former use, but was not unfamiliar with the latter," she concluded. "Primarily, it is used in melee, as are most Tamaranian weapons."

"Well... unfortunately, I don't think either of those will help with our standard weapons systems," the older Hibiki decided after some thought. "Let's start with a demonstration."

He nodded at this and then pointed to Nabiki and then to Ryu.

"Ryu," he said, grinning at the eager look on the other man's face. "Give them a quick show at the active range. Blue targets only. Three rounds each."

"Yes, sir," the India Squad Sergeant agreed, lifting a smooth, slightly dust-matte-colored rifle. Quickly checking a red dot reflex scope on the rail at top, he walked over to an open area with a warning sign.

"Weapon active," Nabiki spoke up from her computer.

"Weapons hot. Engaging downrange," Ryu warned, checking the status of the laser rifle. Down the range, three targets popped up at three different ranges, each one marked by a small sign: 50m, 100m, 200m. The standing target was colored blue. Near it was an orange target, taking a crouching position. Last was a red target, lying prone on the ground.

"Blue targets only," he repeated, took a knee, and fired.

The 50 meter distant blue target quickly developed a burning line from the center of its torso to the right shoulder. A moment later, another burning red line cut across the chest to the left shoulder, cutting the head and shoulders off entirely. Before the neatly cut material hit the ground, another line sliced off the blue target's leg.

Ryu adjusted his aim, and engaged the 100 meter target. He fired just as quickly, burning a line across the center of mass, then cutting off an arm, then nicking the side, around the midriff. He switched instantly to the 200 meter target, this time taking careful aim. A second passed, and he fired, but it was far enough away it was a bit difficult to see where the beam hit. Then the target fell forward in three pieces.

"Nine shots, seven mission kills," Nabiki announced. "No misses."

Ryu nodded, standing back up and flicking the safety on the rifle.

"Weapon is cold," he announced, more than used to the safety of dealing with firearms.

"In the field," Ryouga spoke up, giving Ryu an approving look. "We will be using four basic weapons systems. The first is the laser rifle, as Ryu just demonstrated. The second is the alien derived plasma technology. You will want to be aware of both, but for the purposes of our exercises today, they will be treated the same. I hear we've got a new system in recently from the US Branch, but the Q was tight lipped with I asked him about it. I assume all three of you will not need any additional weapons systems besides those you brought with you? At least to start with?"

Ryouga hefted his umbrella and snorted, giving his response. Starfire lifted her hands, green, roiling plasma enveloping them. And Raven ... she simply smiled.

"No, I don't think we'll be needing any of your toys, boys."

"Feh, Gizmo's laser weapons are way cooler," Ryouga mumbled to himself.

"When shall we begin?" Starfire asked, excited. "And what will the objectives of our confrontational training be?"

"I'm going to start this off pretty simple," the lieutenant explained. "Search and Destroy. We'll use Course One. Now, this is a UFO simulation, which means no destructible terrain. In fact, I don't want you trying to break any of the walls or structures. Beneath that outer layer of fake-concrete is alien alloy, and I doubt any of us can penetrate it… except for Miss Raven's phasing trick."

"These weapons," he said, holding up a mockup of a plasma carbine. "Are copies of the ones we use in the field. Obviously, they're not real. This will be a bit like laser tag. I you get shot, sensors in your clothes will determine where you have been hit, and that information will be sent to Nabiki. You'll feel a small shock when you get hit, and a pretty damn big one if you are mission killed."

"You've seen our laser weapons which we use for low intensity combat, next up is the alien plasmas," he continued, holding up the rifle. "The aliens use medium and heavy plasma rifles as their main weapons, so we'll start with just those before we start using grenades and stun bomb analogues. A plasma rifle accelerates a fist sized bolt of superheated plasma containing a tiny amount of anti-matter. This gas-projectile moves between eleven and thirty kilometers per second, or more than thirty to sixty times the speed of sound. On impact, the anti-matter annihilates, producing a blast of heat and hard radiation in addition to a shockwave as the air expands."

"We will be considering any shot to the body, the head, the shoulders, the groin, or the upper legs to be a mission kill," he further explained.

Seeing everyone got that, he went on to explain why:

"In a real fight, you do **not** want to get hit by one of these weapons. They will remove your arm or your legs before the sensation of pain reaches your brain. A direct hit to the torso will spray half of you in one direction and flash fry the rest. DO NOT fucking get hit. If you are taking fire, find **cover**. If the plasma is eating through your cover, **fall back**. For the purposes of this exercise, we can not melt through obstacles, but later on, we will begin using grenades that will kill you from behind cover."

"Ultimately," he concluded, "The safest way to survive is to kill your opponent before he kills you or your buddy. I know you've all been in serious fights before, but I want to reiterate this anyway, because your lives depend on it. Do not take unnecessary risks. Do not be afraid to call for help if you are in trouble. During some of the later exercises, one of us will reinforce you if you need it."

"If you feel a shock across your chest, you are dead. If you are wounded, you must immediately stop and have an ally take you out of the field of fire. Otherwise you are counted as dead at the end of the exercise. For our part, you can hit us with anything strong enough to knock out a normal human. For now, we'll count that as a mission kill as well. Any questions?"

"So," Ryouga inquired, "Basically you guys are gonna try to shoot us, and we try to knock you out without breaking any walls?"

"Exactly. These walls are important camouflage. Please do not tear enough of the concrete away to expose the metal inside." He then elaborated, "Also, none of us will be using our martial arts abilities, except to simulate alien abilities later on."

"Very well." Raven took a quick look around. "So what? Do we count to ten while you four hide, then?"

"You'll get the green light from Nabiki when things are ready. For this run, India Squad will take the place of three Snakemen." While Ryouga spoke, Nabiki brought up a picture of a Snakeman holding a medium plasma rifle on her laptop behind him. "These are medium soldiers used by the enemy. They are especially common on terror sites and attacks on civilians. They do not have psionic powers, but they are competent and quite accurate with their plasma rifles and with guided artillery. Most do not carry more than a single plasma grenade."

"Your job will be to search the area and destroy all three targets," he finished. "There will be no civilian targets present. Simple search and destroy."

He nodded to Ryu, who motioned for Kuno and Mousse to follow him. The three walked around one of the concrete walls of Course One, quickly disappearing from view. Nabiki typed into her computer, patching into the course features, and a door slid down from the ceiling. A minute later, Nabiki gave the thumbs up.

"Course is green," she said, leaning back. "Controls are in place."

Ryouga faced the three Titans, having not moved from his spot. "You're good to go. Discuss your approach and go ahead when you're ready. The doors are touch sensitive. Just press a palm to it and then release your hand."

As one, the three Titans nodded, then quickly huddled together, away from the Lieutenant. Ducking their heads, they quickly began to whisper amongst themselves.

"So, what do you guys say?" Ryouga asked.

"Our enemies are quite proficient, and possess the 'field of home' advantage," Starfire reasoned. "They will likely use their familiarity with the training ground to gain tactical superiority."

"And they _know_ they have the advantage," Raven whispered back. "They're confident, possibly over-confident. I think they're planning on embarrassing us to put us in our place."

Ryouga turned to look at his counterpart over his shoulder, before returning to the huddle. "Yeah, these guys think we're nothing but a bunch of dumb kids. They're pretty much depending on the fact that we're going to do something rash and stupid."

Starfire nodded sagely. "That **is** our usual 'Modus operandi'."

"Heh, exactly," Ryouga replied with a smirk. "It would be cruel of us to disappoint them. ...I think I have a plan."

Pulling them down into a closer huddle, he quickly whispered his strategy. Both young ladies were soon nodding in agreement, adding in quick comments and suggestions of their own.

A moment later, they disbanded their small meeting and approached the door. Ryouga then lifted his hand to open the door. "All right, Lieutenant, I think we're ready to go."

"Go ahead," he replied. "Ryu's running things in there, not me."

A quick touch of the palm to the metal surface, and then a release, and it retracted back into the ceiling. The inside quickly became apparent as light streamed in: a flat surface ahead of them and curving walls to the left and right, concealed by the curvature and the wall opposite the door.

Ryouga scanned the room quickly. No one was inside ... which was pretty nice of them. Would have stunk to get shot down opening the first door. But a door to the left and a door to the right...? Not exactly the best options here.

"They likely have both doors covered," Starfire offered.

"And the moment they hear us breach one door, they will undoubtedly try to pincer us between them by coming through the other door."

"Well, that is a predicament," Ryouga whispered, studying both doors. "I think it's time to apply some Shampoo style multiple choice logic."

A moment later, the trio leapt aggressively through the black portal that Raven had opened in the wall between the two distant doors. Ryouga was in the lead, his umbrella opened and ready to catch fire, while the two girls brought their powers to bear. Fully expecting the trio to be before them, carefully guarding both doors, they were greatly disappointed.

Rather, they found themselves in a smallish, square room. There was an odd contraption sitting at the center of the room, or at least a mock up of one. It didn't seem to be doing anything anyway. The only other exit available was a single door on the far side of the room.

"Well ... that was anticlimactic," Ryouga whispered quietly.

"Our location puts us directly between both doors. Depending upon the layout of the next room, there may be a corridor, which would place us between our enemies, or a room, which could put us in front of them."

Starfire's layout of the scenario seemed good, but -

"But, we don't know how far this building expands. There could be a dozen more rooms beyond this one," Raven added thoughtfully.

"Well, only one way to find out," Ryouga stated. The smile on his lips was anything but pleasant. "I'll get the door. Raven, just in case, why don't you prepare a surprise for our friends?"

Raven looked at him oddly for a moment, before a look of realization settled on her face, quickly followed by a smile. "I think I can manage something."

Ryouga then nodded at Starfire. "Once we're outta the way, lay down suppression fire if you see anybody."

"Agreed."

Plan decided on - loosely - the trio got into position: Ryouga and Starfire on either side of the door, and Raven towards the middle of the room. Then, Ryouga gave the signal to begin. Reaching out quickly, he pressed his palm to the panel, just as he had to get into the facility to begin with. With barely a sound, the doors slid open, revealing a pair of surprised soldiers who had been quite intently watching the two sides like hawks.

Before they even had a chance to bring their weapons to bear, the large metallic mockup sitting at the center of the room, now encased in black energy, soared out of the room and smashed into the console looking setup directly between them. The wooden console was partly crushed, and the mockup shattered to pieces, showering Ryu and Mousse with debris and sending them diving to the floor.

A second later, Starfire stepped forward into the doorway. Her eyes glowed fiercely for an instant, before she unleashed a sweeping lance of emerald energy which rolled over one, then the other, even as they scrambled to roll to their feet. The Tamaranian then stepped back to the left behind the door frame and Ryouga quickly shut the door once more.

"Damn! I only saw two of them! There's still one more running around somewhere."

"How should we proceed?" Starfire asked, breathing heavily from excitement.

"The last one, Kuno I think, could be anywhere," Raven added, frowning.

Ryouga nodded, scratching his head, he pondered the situation. Frowning for a moment, he finally looked up. "Okay, I didn't see any other doors across from us, so we don't know if the building goes on too much further. Here's what we should do-"

"Is it reckless and self sacrificing?" Raven asked with a wry grin.

Ryouga just rolled his eyes. "That's pretty much all I know." He then pulled out his communicator. "Alright, you two head back the way you came, and each of you take a door. You know to keep an eye out for any traps. I want you each to go to one of those doors, and then send me a signal when you're in position. I'll take care of the rest."

"This ... does not sound like a complete plan, friend Ryouga," Starfire whispered, sounding worried. "What is it that you will 'take care of'?"

"Just you wait and see. Now, go already. You told me to tell you what to do, so do it already," he ordered, doing his best to maintain a straight face.

Both girls shared an uneasy glance, before finally obeying his order. A moment later, they had both vanished through another dark portal in the wall. Ryouga tensed for a second ... but when the sound of battle failed to make itself known, he finally allowed himself to relax. He wasn't exactly the most patient type, so what took less than a minute felt like an hour to him. Then, finally, his communicator beeped. A quick check showed that both of his team mates were in position, Raven to the right, Starfire to the left.

"Well, alright," he muttered under his breath. "Time to see if I'm an idiot or not."

Holding his communicator tight, he unlimbered his umbrella and held it to his side, ready. Taking a deep breath, he took several steps away from the door, then reached forward and depressed the panel, opening the door again. A second later, he exploded out of the room with all the speed he could muster, launching himself across the room and towards the control panel in a flash. Although he nearly tripped over Mousse, he thought he was home free -

An electric buzz shocked his leg.

"Crap!" he cursed. It stung like a bitch, but didn't slow him down as he landed in a roll and spun around a second later, bringing his umbrella up before him. He then lifted his communicator. "Raven! Your side!"

He peeked over his umbrella just long enough to see Kuno standing in the corner, expertly trying to aim his weapon to hit Ryouga where he wasn't protected by his umbrella shield. As such, the swordsman was in a sorry position indeed, when the door directly behind him slid open, a solid wall of darkness shimmering in the portal. With reflexes honed from grueling training, Kuno managed to spin quickly enough to bring his weapon to bear and fire, even with only the second of warning.

He might as well have been shooting the alien alloy walls, though, and a second later, the ebony wall surged forward through the opening, slamming the gun toting samurai into the wall directly across from the door with enough force to ring the metal like a gong with his skull.

The lights immediately came on in full, bathing the darkened walls and illuminating the room.

"Mission complete," Nabiki's voice came in over a hidden speaker. "Head on out, you grunts."

Taking a deep breath, Ryouga calmed himself, and watched as Kuno got back on his feet. The swordsman seemed unhurt and gave Raven a respectful nod as he moved past her to head back outside. Ryu came by next, giving the lost Titan a hearty slap on the shoulder, and then Mousse, who was silent. It wasn't quite the showdown with India Squad that the lost Titan had expected and, truth be told, gotten kind of psyched up for. It was too damn amicable.

Heading out, he saw Raven and Starfire, looking quite pleased. As the three exited, they came back into the sun and the chilly mountain air.

"Not a bad first run," the uniformed Hibiki said, both to them and to India. "The first time we went up against another team, Bravo squad cut us down right away."

"How did they get behind us like that?" Ryu had to ask with a bit of an unhappy huff.

"Raven's phasing ability is allowed, since she can use it through alloy," Ryouga reminded him. "You got careless, Ryu."

Raven patted him on the shoulder. "Well, you did say that you were eager to die for a woman. Are Starfire and I not good enough?"

Before Ryu could, like a _certain other_ senken master, promptly put his foot in his mouth, he was cut off by the cheers of the dimensionally displaced Ryouga and his Tamaranian teammate. The fanged boy turned to Starfire and crowed victoriously. "Yes! Flawless victory!"

"Indeed!" Starfire cheered. "This necessitates the deployment of 'The Booyah'!"

Kuno and Ryu's eyes popped open a bit a second later, when the pair, in their excitement, leapt up and bumped chests like a pair of football players before beginning shameless victory dances.

For her part, Raven just covered her eyes with a hand. "I do _not_ know them."

The native Ryouga watched the display, a bit aghast.

"Though it pains me to admit it, they're craftier than I thought," he admitted. "Aggressive and crafty. A good combination. Run it again. Ryu, remember they have certain unique advantages."

"Yes, sir," Ryu replied quickly.

"Same layout," Nabiki spoke up from hr controls. "When you go in, can you put what's left of the reactor back in place?"

"I'll take care of it," Mousse assured her as the three headed back inside.

"In the future, if you see an object like that, don't try and rip it up," Ryouga explained while India went back for another round. "It explodes. Even though this one is just a wood model."

Round two went a bit differently from the first. Knowing the layout inside, the Titans opened the door and immediately ran into an ambush. Raven provided cover, but then Mousse came in from the side and took out Ryouga's and Starfire's legs before the three could get much distance from the other. On her own, Raven then dropped Mousse, and then Kuno, but in the end, all three were dropped before they got more than a few feet into the structure.

The next time, they used Raven to enter the structure at an unprotected point.

India Squad, which had dispersed to cover the front door with Kuno on one side and Mousse on the other, was caught flat footed. Kuno was knocked out right off the bat, and Mousse got caught falling back. Ryu barely managed to get a shot off at Ryouga before falling, but that damned umbrella of his just kept getting in the way.

After that, expecting India to fall back, the Titans made another impromptu entrance. Instead, Ryu and Kuno were lined up near the front door, covering the right and left approaches. A blast of harmless, but still nearly blinding, particle fire managed to slip around Ryouga's umbrella, just grazing his shoulder, while another caught Starfire in the thigh. With both team mates injured, Raven opted to retrieve her two downed comrades instead of trying to take on all of India on her own again.

"Starfire and Ryouga were only wounded," the older Hibiki had commented then. "You made the right choice, Raven. Two wounded is better than three dead any day of the week."

After that, he joined Ryu and the rest of India, making it a 3 on 4 exercise, and much more difficult. For the first time, the Titans tried to breach at two points, but again lost a member in exchange for taking out two of India Squad. They then got ambushed after storming into the empty navigation and engine areas, as Kuno and Ryu came in from behind, ending the battle with Kuno as the last man standing.

By that point, the squads had gotten into a rapid routine of run, execute, reset, plan, run, execute. It didn't take long for the Titans to better adapt to the situation and odds. Rather than purely relying on cover, Starfire would send out a particularly bright starbolt, hitting the floor with a flash. Sometimes this was cover for the real entrance, sometimes just to draw fire. Raven and Ryouga would then move in hard and fast to secure the room, minimizing the changes of heavy return fire or ambushes from behind. Though lacking in the same offensive firepower as their X-COM opponents, Ryouga's umbrella and Raven's shields quickly proved to be incredibly powerful defenses, especially in such close quarters.

Then, with only a passing warning, Nabiki changed the course.

First, she altered the course to be a single large room, with assorted obstacles that went up to around chest height. This proved particularly deadly at first, as most of India Squad was quickly able to concentrate their fire on just one or two entrances. Rather than keep splitting themselves up, the Titans instead focused on making very quick breaches before finding cover inside the large room.

Nabiki switched things up again.

The second floor of the Course unlocked, adding a new dimension to attacking and defending. The two groups ran over and over and over to varied degrees of success. The Titans, in their current arrangement, did best where they could either exploit Raven's ability to bypass choke points and obvious ambushes or where they could close very rapidly with India. If they got pinned down, they quickly learned not to stick around and fight, but rather to withdraw and come in from another angle. The strength of their defense made it brutally annoying to prevent their flights and their unorthodox methods of movement made chasing them down a tricky prospect at best.

Finally, Nabiki called lunch, in her own way.

"I'm hungry so you guys are taking a break!" being that way.

"Lieutenant, would you refresh my memory: who is in charge of this exercise again?" Kuno asked, walking over with his rifle slung back over his shoulder. They'd just finished a particularly up close and personal fight with the Titans.

"You wouldn't know it, but I am," the uniformed Hibiki grumbled.

"Maybe you should remind her that," Mousse recommended as adjusted his glasses. "Before your level of familiarity becomes… troublesome."

"Maybe I should," the Lieutenant agreed. "This isn't a bad time to take a break, though. Let's catch up with her. Ryu?"

Ryu motioned over India Squad and their recent opponents. "Come on you guys."

Ryouga shrugged. "Sounds like you guys are taking things way too seriously."

"Indeed," agreed Starfire. "Nabiki, though malevolent by nature, is still a dear friend of yours. Why would you reprimand her for acting as such?"

"Hey, wait just a second! I wouldn't say she's malevolent by nature. She's actually… nice in a way, when she wants to be," the older Ryouga immediately came to her defense, but added, "She's just very independent… I rely on her a lot more than most Lieutenants do their coordinator. It's complicated."

The super heroic Ryouga grinned. "Riiight. Sounds suspicious to me. I know the Nabiki in my world pretty well. If she's being nice, it's not because she wants to be, it's because she wants something. Only question is... what do you have that she'd want?"

"What indeed?" Raven added. She then fired an extremely telling look in the older Ryouga's direction. "Perhaps it's not truly as complicated as you make it out to be?"

"I'm pretty sure it is," he replied, a bit evasively.

For some reason, Mousse had to repress a chuckle.

As they headed out, it turned out Nabiki had picked a nice spot a couple dozen feet from the firing range, but close to where they had all stowed their gear. She already had her pack down and was busy unfolding a large green tarp to cover the lightly snow covered ground. She waved to the groups as they came into view and ran over, a broad smile on her face.

"Well, guys! Guess who won the mid-day pool?" she asked, stopping next to their packs.

"I got this in the bag!" Ryu exclaimed, pumping his fist.

"So sorry, Ryu-chan," Nabiki patted him playfully on the shoulder as he went to retrieve his lunch. "But Mousse currently has the highest kill to death ratio for India squad."

"Knew it," the Chinese weapons master grinned triumphantly.

The middle Tendo daughter didn't miss the look Ryouga gave her, either.

"And, no, I didn't stop the exercise to rig the results. Geez!" She thumped the uniformed Hibiki in the chest. "I appreciate you trying to keep me on my toes, but it isn't necessary all the time, Ryou-chan! Fifteen percent off the top for the four of you means I always win anyway. Come on, let's eat already!"

With just that, she led the four boys back over to her makeshift camp site.

Moving to the gear, the younger Ryouga picked up his backpack and rejoined them. "That's not very adventurous of you, Nabiki. Only taking bets on your four guys, instead of on all seven of us? No offense, but that first battle kind of set the tone for the day." He gave a short, confident laugh. "And here you people were, expecting us to get taken out like a bunch of kids."

Raven shook her head, even as she accepted one of the packed lunches that Ryouga extracted from his pack. "Don't rub it in, Ryouga. They simply thought that being teammates for a few months would make up for the years of training that Starfire and I have had together."

"However, do not feel badly, new friends," Starfire offered hastily. "You are indeed most proficient. Why, when your Ryouga joined your side, the battles became most even indeed!"

"Hey now, I wouldn't say we thought you were a bunch of kids," the other Ryouga replied, sitting down next to Nabiki with his own lunch, packed in a clear plastic extra-sized bento box. "I mean, most of us here have been training to be martial artists for most of our lives. What do you think Ranma and I thought when we first started out? There's confidence and then there's overconfidence."

"Ryouga-baby," Nabiki switched to the English slang, knowing he found it was marginally less 'annoyingly-cute'. "They're doing well. Let's leave it at that. If they do get into the field, they know how to take care of themselves."

"It was a most interesting morning," Raven stated. "Aside from the 'victory dances', it was quite professional and intense. It's a shame Robin wasn't here. He would have loved this."

"Robin's another one of your friends from back home? He an alien, like Starfire here?" Ryu asked, unpacking a cold cut wrap and water bottle. The Titans sat largely opposite India Squad, with Starfire at the end close to Kuno.

Starfire giggled in amusement at the implication. "Oh, most assuredly not. Robin is a human being. A most wonderful human being indeed, possessed of great skill and intelligence!"

Titan-Ryouga nodded. "You can say that again. He might not be able to fight in the same league as those of us from Nerima, but he's the last Titan I'd want to go up against." He smirked at his counterpart. "Trust me, if he was here, and not just me, you would have seen what the Titans can **really** do as a team. The whole damn morning would have been one long clean sweep."

In fact, the native Ryouga knew quite well about Robin, via Raven's memories. At least some of the general stuff. Sadly, even Raven's memories of certain events were far from perfect. The girl wasn't exactly eidetic.

"What's his style?" he asked, instead, it being a question he was genuinely curious about. "I know he uses some bojutsu, but not much else."

Ryouga shrugged. "Ninjitsu, Kung Fu, some Amazon Wu Shu. I've even been teaching him some of my style as well, though it doesn't really suit him. He knows a few weapon styles as well. Really good with thrown weapons. He's got a lot of training, all things considered."

The older Hibiki shrugged, but considered Ryouga's description. "Has he manifested an internal or external aura yet? Ukyou recently trained up a ki attack, and Akane's been making progress on her aura, too."

"Not quite yet, surprisingly," Ryouga replied, relaxing thanks to the familiar point of conversation. "His Chestnut fist is getting good, though. He's got a good handle on the basics of the Iron Cloth technique. Damn brat is already trying to apply it differently than us."

"How so? Dad already mastered the full body free-hand style and Mom developed the mass-altering style. I haven't really seen you use yours, but it's probably like my injection-seal type. Did you start him with Rhythmic Gymnastics then?"

The younger Ryouga shook his head in the negative. "No, no. I'm not sure how useful it would be yet. We both know the style's major weakness, and a lot of our enemies tend to be the massive, charge in head-on types. I might consider it later, though, depending on how he comes along. If he wasn't so worried about training Kasumi up to an acceptable level, he'd probably be further along."

That immediately caught Nabiki's interest; she paused in the steady dissection of her chicken Caesar salad. She'd been picking one crouton out at a time to eat separately.

"Your Kasumi's training again?" she asked, honestly surprised by the statement.

Starfire nodded enthusiastically. "Indeed, she is quite talented."

Ryouga coughed into his hand. "Ahem, yeah ... she's just full of surprises ..."

"Wait… she doesn't have Daddy's Mugen or any of the other Forbidden Scrolls, does she?" Nabiki asked, a trace of worry entering her voice. "I can't imagine they'd ever suit her temperament, unless your Kasumi is much more… temperamental than ours."

For some reason, Raven adopted a dour face. "I wouldn't call it 'temperamental' ...exactly. She certainly is something, though."

"Oh, desist in your silliness, Raven. Kasumi is a perfect depiction of feminine grace and ideals," Starfire cooed. "She is as gentle as a Kalrithian Slorfang."

"I don't think she has any of your dad's techniques- " Ryouga coughed into his hand, though the cough sounded suspiciously like 'like she'd want them.' "-but she's doing quite well. She's also learned to dress for success."

"Wait a sec!" Ryu spoke up, since he was in an adopted branch of anything goes, based around his new Reformed Yamasenken. He pointed at Nabiki. "I thought you guys specialized in defensive techniques? Genma never mentioned the other school having forbidden techniques."

"Have you ever heard of grandfather Happosai's 'grow giant battle aura' technique?" Nabiki asked, looking across at the Kumon heir. "It's like that. The Tendo style is based on using fighting spirit. Supposedly, Kasumi manifested her first aura at six. She's a prodigy."

"Kasumi? Really?" Ryu sounded doubtful. "She doesn't have enough killing intent to stop a fly much less a person!"

"The day after she manifested it we got a visit from three shrine keepers and a Buddhist monk," Nabiki continued. "I love Kasumi, but I really hope she never seriously trains like that again."

"Actually, you just got me all excited," the uniformed Ryouga said with a chuckle.

Nabiki gave him a stare that all but screamed 'shut it!'

With the Tendo sister's death glare, a lull settled over the crew and everyone finally settled in to begin eating their assorted lunches. Several short minutes passed in the near silence, until it was finally broken by the Tamaranian present. The red haired alien, who had been studying her violet haired teammate intently for a time now, could hold in her curiosity no longer.

"Friend Raven," she began in a slightly worried tone. "...I am inclined to ask. Are you ill?"

Raven started at that. She looked up, a look of confusion on her face as she stared at Starfire. "Um ... no. Why do you ask?"

"Well... I was simply concerned. During our morning battles, you were not applying your powers with your usual alacrity. I was wondering if there was some problem. Under normal conditions, I am confident you could have won the day even without the aid of Ryouga and myself."

The dark Titan shifted uncomfortably at the concerned inquiry. "... No, no, there's nothing wrong. I - I just didn't want to spoil the training, is all. There was no reason to go all out when Ryu, Mousse and Kuno were holding back so much as well."

"Actually," Mousse spoke up just then, glasses glinting. "I noticed a difference as well. I've made a point of studying what I was able to capture from you before. There's something different today… however, I understand if you'd prefer not to discuss it in public like this."

"It is ... hard to explain," Raven admitted. "I'm not exactly one hundred percent certain I understand it myself."

"What? Something's wrong?" Ryouga barked, borderline panic lacing his voice. "What was it? Was it Mousse's draining technique? If that's it, I'll wring him out like a towel!"

"No, no, it's nothing like that," Raven replied quickly, trying to forestall his unfounded wrath.

"I'd actually considered that it was my technique," Mousse spoke up, unperturbed by any potential wrath he could be on the receiving end of. "But I believe there's something wrong with the way her powers take form. While not a martial artist in our sense, Raven's abilities do not appear to be instinctive. She has to think, consciously or unconsciously, for them to work properly. That thought or state of mind is then turned into willpower, and then into psychic impulse… in the same way we use internal chi to produce a battle aura of a specific type."

"Oh?" the older Ryouga realized, but kept his voice barely above a speculative mutter.

"... Actually, that's quite wrong," Raven replied with a smirk. "Under normal circumstances, I do not concentrate to _use_ my powers; I concentrate solely on _restraining_ my powers, rather than actively 'forming' my power, I do more the opposite, simply unleashing it in a desired fashion. Since my power is so closely tied to my subconscious, and my emotions, I am forced to dedicate a large amount of my focus to simply keep them in check. There have been several occasions where my powers have manifested in ... spectacular ways without me even knowing about it."

Starfire shuddered uncontrollably. "I do not wish to recall the 'Wicked Scary' events of that best forgotten night."

"But something's different now, isn't it?" Mousse asked, turning also to his CO. Both he and Kuno knew the native Ryouga had taken part in a mind dive back when she had first been taken in and examined. "Lieutenant?"

"That's up to Miss Raven to reveal," he replied. "If she wants to."

The dark Titan stared at the lieutenant for a moment. She seriously considered whether to answer or not ... She then looked to Starfire, and then Ryouga. Squeezing her fists down on her knees, she slowly shook her head.

"I ... would rather not discuss it at the moment," she decided. "I would prefer to learn more about what might possibly be ... off."

"That's fine. I don't know if there's anything we can do to help," the older Ryogua offered. "But Seiran has several very accomplished psychics if you need it."

"I doubt that would help," Raven replied, forlornly. "...However, I am interested in knowing how it is that the four of you actually trained your own psychic abilities up to the point you have. I know for a fact that you and Ranma have about as much psionic talent as Beast Boy. You must have gone through intense training to gain any ability at all."

"Beast Boy?" Mousse asked, simply.

"It wasn't a compliment, though this Beast Boy is one of her close friends," Ryouga clarified, but then addressed the more pressing question. "First, we trained. Many aliens have psionic attacks, so our commanding officers and mentors all taught us how to defend our minds. After a certain point, we were given devices called psi-amps which enhance our ability to project our thoughts. Currently, most of us are considered Class-B or C psychics on offense and defense. Needless to say, we train at the psi-gym every day."

"Psi gym?" The interest in the girl's voice was obvious.

Behind her, her Ryouga did his best to stifle a yawn, while Starfire stealthily took the opportunity to steal some of the distracted martial artist's lunch.

"A facility where we practice against one another and simulated opponents, or to improve our mental defenses… I can show you it later. There are also trained doctors there to oversee any psionic problems that develop, usually due to trauma," the lieutenant replied, but didn't miss how his otherworld counterpart seemed bored. "All three of you will get a taste of some of that later… The next set of exercises will include how to recognize and defend against psionic attacks during a fight. You won't find the idea so boring when it's used on you."

The younger Ryouga seemed about to growl a response, but -

"Anyway," Nabiki coughed, trying to move onto a less potentially troublesome topic. "Ryouga," she addressed the younger of the two. "I know you all live in the States… does that mean you plan to switch citizenship? Are you going to school there?"

Ryouga looked at her like she was crazy. "School? Citizenship? Why the heck would I have to worry about those kinds of things? I never have before."

"Actually," Raven interrupted, "We do have home schooling curriculums which Robin insists upon, however, do to his unique situation, Ryouga hasn't had time to deal with any of that yet. As a group of super heroes, it is out of the question for us to attend any form of public institution, as it would just needlessly draw danger down on the other students."

"Also," Starfire added, "Robin has ... 'contacts', which he uses to smooth over any 'citizenship' or immigration issues. As neither Raven, nor myself are even native to this planet, it is a topic which had to be dealt with long ago."

"That's pretty neat," Nabiki replied, primarily impressed by the ability of this Robin fellow to wield such useful 'contacts' in the government. She could just smell the bribes and gentleman's 'agreements' that must've taken place behind the scenes.

Ryu spoke up, too: "We're in kind of the same boat, actually. The whole 'wandering martial artist' thing. Saotome and the Tendos were just finishing school when they got picked up. Nabiki and Kuno were in college already… where did you guys go again?"

"Kyoto," Kuno replied first. "Kendo scholarship."

"Meiji," Nabiki said, a few seconds later, but didn't elaborate.

"Yeah," Ryu continued. "Hibiki and I had to play catch up."

"Part of officer training is to have a rounded education," the older Ryouga explained. "Ranma and I are both expected to work towards a bachelor's degree in addition to our normal duties."

"Sounds boring." The younger Ryouga took a moment to look at his lunch, a suspicious tint flashing in his eyes as he studied the strangely lacking contents. He then shot an accusatory glance at the Tamaranian, who began to whistle innocently.

"Actually, it sounds like a good idea," Raven stated, frowning at the pair as they kidded around. "In fact, Kasumi isn't just learning martial arts; again, she's also learning medicine from Cyborg. He already has doctorate equivalent in several fields related to his ... unique situation."

"Ranma and I also have the benefit of psionic learning… so no classes or lectures."

"Cheating is another word for it," Nabiki quickly added.

After a short explanation of how information could be psionically passed on, "Matrix style" (in Ryu's words), Kuno broached the subject certain members of the assembled groups had been dreading: traditional Tamaranian song and cadence.

It was during this quick interlude that a certain pair politely excused themselves.

"Okay, Nabiki… what's all this about?"

"I don't know what you mean, Ryouga-baby. What's all _what_ about?"

The two had stolen a bit of privacy away from the group and exchanged words quietly, using part of the Course One faux-concrete to shield themselves from view. Ryouga, as usual, bore a serious and concerned expression that drew his brows together into a shallow scowl. Nabiki remained relatively carefree, despite his serious tone. It was a dynamic, a dichotomy; that the two had shared even before they really worked together as officer and coordinator.

"You know what," he replied, crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall. He lowered his voice a bit more as he continued, "I know you, Nabiki. There's something up and I want to know what."

"Oh?" she teased, leaning in closer to point him in the chest. "You know me, do you?"

"I do," he confidently replied, knowing she wanted him to explain himself, "Keeping an eye on Raven was one thing and something I do appreciate… but going this far for these three? I heard you talked your way into getting them to Ops last night, then you organized all this, and now you're being suspiciously defensive of them?"

"You know I love it when you pay attention," she replied with a smirk, and spun around to put her back up against the wall next to him. "You're right, of course. I **am** up to something."

He gave an exasperated sigh. "I figured as much. I just don't see why."

"First," Nabiki stipulated, leaning a bit towards him. "Are you really _that_ against fighting alongside those three?"

Ryouga thought before answering.

"Not really," he admitted. "They're all quite good. I knew that from before. But what if one of them gets killed? Those two girls especially… they're so damn eager to help. This is ironic coming from me, but it's reckless."

"You know better than I do what they've encountered on their world," Nabiki argued, playing devil's advocate (her favorite kind of advocate, actually).

"I do. And I know better than any of them that there's a big damn difference between what they do and what we do. A big damn difference, not the _least_ of which is the fact that we kill our enemies." His frown deepened. "So, no, in an ideal situation I wouldn't want them on the battlefield. Not… not yet. Hell, Kuno almost got killed our first time out because of his overconfidence. You think I'd forget something like that and put more people in danger before they're ready?"

Nabiki smiled at him, feeling a bit affectionate despite the undertones of the conversation. So she elbowed him and pushed off the wall to face him directly.

"I think that's something you and that other-you have in common. You don't want anything to happen to innocent people. You don't want others to take a risk when you can take it instead. It's stupidly noble and one of your more annoying traits, in my opinion." She gave him a long, serious look. "What happened to the surly, fight-happy Ryou-chan who assembled this squad in the first place? Was that a mistake, too?"

"Of course not!" he barked, a little too loudly, before lowering his voice again. "Of course not. But this is our world. Our families. Our responsibility. If one of those three gets killed tomorrow, what will it be for? And it seems like every time I try to warn them that this is dangerous, that they don't have to fight, I run right into a wall."

"You're missing the obvious," Nabiki said with a soft sigh, turning to pace away from him a few feet. "Which is typical of you. From what I've seen, those three are just like you and Ranma. If they see a fight, and a side they like, they'll go to the wall for that fight. It doesn't matter how unprepared they are. That's part of how they identify themselves, and how they show their fighter's pride."

His eyes widened a bit at that, and his frown fought to keep from relenting.

"I'm sure they haven't seen some of the things you have. That **we** have. They don't seem to worry as much about losing people…" Nabiki said that last part very quietly, knowing it was a particularly soft spot. Ryouga's expression darkened a shade and his eyes closed, a sign she knew to mean that she'd hit the problem square on the nose and into the wall.

"So what?" he finally said, a few seconds later. "You obviously want me to pass on a recommendation to the Commander that they be allowed to come as 'observers.'"

She posed a question instead. "You said their skills aren't lacking, right?"

"They all move and fight well," he admitted with a quick glance back, in the rough direction of where the Titans sat, eating lunch. "But you know full well that there are no guarantees. They could be the best fighters in the world and they could still die on any given mission to some cheap shot out of the blue."

Nabiki nodded, seemingly pleased by his answer.

"Now, why are you pressing me on this so much?" he asked, watching as her expression turned playfully devious.

"I'm honestly surprised you haven't figured it out yourself, since you're not the dummy you often appear to be," she teased and walked up to him. "When you see smoke, what do you think?"

"Smoke?" he asked, confused. "What…?"

"The answer is fire. When you see smoke, you think 'fire.'" She replied, rolling her brown eyes at his bemused look. "And if you're in Nerima, and you see an explosion, what do you think?"

…

"Martial artist," he guessed. "Or Ranma, actually."

"Exactly!" she exclaimed, holding up her hands to gesture form one to the other. "Explosion; martial artist; Ranma. And you'd probably be right. Just like how seeing smoke implies that there's a fire. You didn't notice it, but we've already seen the explosion, and sitting out there, the martial artist."

He shook his head. "Wait, what? Is this Ranma's fault?"

"No, you idiot!" Nabiki gently knocked his forehead, not wanting to hurt her hand hitting the immovable object with too much force. "Think about it! A bunch of dimension hopping teens, one of them your alternate double, appear and all end up gravitating towards us. It's basically a guarantee that this will end up in some big fight, and I'm ninety percent sure you'll need them nearby when that happens so that you can… you know… overcome a foe neither of you can beat alone or something. I've been living around you martial arts types long enough to put two and two together."

Ryouga opened his mouth to argue – but quickly closed it. She had a point. That sort of stuff _did_ tend to happen. It also put her actions in a new light. This sort of situation usually revolved around Ranma, with himself and often Mousse acting as the immediate backup.

"Maybe," he admitted. "I can see what you mean."

"Of course you can," Nabiki briskly replied, knowing he would be convinced the more he thought about it. "That's why I'm here, after all. To watch your back. You wanted to know why I'm helping out those three? It's because I want them there to help you out when the time comes."

He raised an inquisitive - and a little skeptical - eyebrow.

"Well," she admitted with a shrug. "That and, if I'm right, it'll look good on my performance report…"

"And it's amusing!" She quickly added. "And it gives me a chance to one-up that bitch Reiko! _And_ I might be able to make a little money out of them…" She paused in listing off the possibilities, quickly adopting a sweetly saccharine tone. "But mostly I did it for you, _Ryou-chan_! After all, you still owe me!"

He smirked at her excuses, more than used to them by now.

"And what, exactly, do I owe you?" he asked, snagging her counting hand. "I seem to recall being ahead the other night."

"Really? I seem to recall being _on top_," she leaned close and whispered, grinning at his attempted boldness. Color rose up on his cheeks, and his bravado quickly started to give way to stuttering embarrassment at the sexual innuendo. Thoroughly enjoying his discomfort, even as out-of-sight and out-of-earshot as they were, the middle Tendo daughter pecked him quickly on the cheek.

"I'll always have your back," she said, seriously, as she took a step back. "I don't lose the things I like without a fight."

"You're not mad I had… that I thought…?" he struggled to say it, but it was clear what he meant.

"Not really," she admitted with a smile. "It just means you're thinking about me."

"About you being devious maybe."

"I don't see a difference."

* * *

By the time the two got back, Kuno and Starfire were busily trading marching (and drinking) songs, while Ryu sat nearby, leaning against his pack and staring up at the cloudy sky. Across from them, Raven and the alternate Ryouga were huddled together, clutching their hands to their ears and apparently praying for divine assistance.

Still.

They'd get their recommendation.

Time would tell whether they ended up regretting it or not.

* * *

x

* * *

Abstract -

Konatsu  
Rank: Squaddie

Three unrelated step-siblings; stepmother known only as "Kotet" (Japanese Intel has no official information or documentation on Konatsu's family). Biological parents deceased. Konatsu (we have no family name registered per his request) was raised in the 'Eight Ways Sexy Kunoichi' style of ninjutsu. He was also given legacy training in another style referred to as 'unlawful' ninjutsu. The specifics of all this seem rather strange, but with these kids, who's to say? Effectively, he's got two different fighting 'styles' sort of like Saotome and Kumon's 'Thousand Fist' styles. squaddie has cut all communication and ties with apparently abusive step-family. Worked for a time under Kuonji prior to Nerima Event.

Konatsu's skill set is pretty unique. The squaddie is superhumanly stealthy, just like Saotome can be, but he does it by default. You lose sight of him and he just vanishes into the background. Never seen anything like it. He can disguise himself in a crowd, in urban terrain, in the field, in a jungle, basically anywhere and with virtually no prep. Best ambush oriented trooper I've ever seen. A real flare for setting up traps even before he got his hands on prox-grenades and claymores.

In a straight up fight, the squaddie is capable. Good aim. Not great, but good. Better with light plasma than laser or projectile. Cool under fire. Has several area saturation techniques, distractions mostly, used as cover or suppression to maneuver and expose an unguarded flank. Situation specific moves strong at all ranges, but especially in close. Can use 'multiple body' technique for scouting; incendiaries at midrange; CQC skills up close. Extremely strong and fast. Defense rather poor; has to keep up attack or fall back. Good addition to a strike/rapid response and scout squad. Psionic class-C but almost entirely defensive or situation specific (some of his abilities can be considered class-B or A, see: Multi-body variants). Excels in information extraction and covert ops.

The official stuff is all included. (attachment) Service Record (attached).

CT:Juliet (Oct 2006) as Squaddie. Promotion (Nov 2006) to Sqd 1st class then acting Sergeant. Promotion (Dec 2006) Sergeant. Prominent roles in Ghost Wire, Winter Triangle. Participated in AB17 Alpine Echo Seven (Dec 2006). Fiftieth Kill recorded (Jan 2007). Luna (2007). Psionic profile (attached). Operator: R. Harris primary; N. Tendo secondary. Squaddie has a collection of personalized equipment. (special equipment attachment)

Loyalty considered VERY GOOD. Extremely committed to organization and empowered by work. Morale wavers, but is typically GOOD. Some lingering personal complications between Squaddie and Kuonji. Have never affected performance in the field. Not aggressive or temperamental, but very methodical and ruthless when ordered. Executes missions with precision and efficiency and never deviates from objectives. While a stabilizing element in CT:Juliet, Konatsu could easily be attached to any other lightly equipped combat team. More training and confidence building would be necessary before advancement to commissioned rank; technical skills and psionic imprinting only go so far. Task 1 of CLEANSLATE isn't his ideal sort of fight; recommend holding back CT:Juliet until after beachhead is established. CT:India is the bludgeon out of the two. We'll want CT:Juliet ready for surgical strikes in T2 and T3.

[signature redacted]

##

BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS  
TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 9780  
CODENAME: *Unknown*  
REAL NAME: Kasumi Tendo

SPECIES: Human  
HEIGHT: 5'9"  
WEIGHT: 125lbs

HAIR COLOR: Brunette  
EYE COLOR: Brown

KNOWN ABILITIES: Reports suggest the subject is a Level 5-6 martial artist. Received training in family style as a child, close combat training from H.I.V.E. instructors and is currently being taught by Subject: 203:Codename: Robin. The subject has also received an unknown amount of training in other criminally related skills: more research is required. Currently, there is no evidence that the subject possesses any level of skill, combat or otherwise, to suggest that she is a threat. Recommendation: Removal of subject from Brother Eye Protocols pending a more thorough examination.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: Subject is considered to be a non-combatant. Recommend calling the police if the subject infringes upon any laws.

KNOWN HISTORY: The subject was born and raised in the Nerima Ward of Tokyo, Japan. Full public and schooling records indicate an unremarkable childhood, with little to suggest any unusual circumstances. The subject's mother passed away while the subject was still quite young and evidence gathered from other subjects, as well as members of the neighbourhood, corroborate that the subject took on homemaker duties in response to this. Due to this event, the subject never finished high school, giving up academics in favour of caring for her family.

Very little of note is mentioned until just over two years ago, when a spike in metahuman activity arose in the Nerima Ward. Almost all of these events centered around Subject: 9795:Codename: Ranma Saotome, and records indicate that the subject rarely, if ever, became involved in any of these situations. This trend of non-involvement ended several months ago, when the subject, as well as her sister Subject: 9782:Codename: Nabiki Tendo were abducted from their home by members of the H.I.V.E. Academy. This abduction occurred as part of a sweeping operation which resulted in the capture of numerous other martial artists, including: Subject: 9781:Codename: Happosai, Subject: 9783:Codename: Weapon Master, Subject: 9784:Codename: Blue Thunder.

The subject spent over two months within the H.I.V.E. Academy and was purportedly subjected to mind control but has shown no sign of any effects in relation. Eventually the subject and others were freed from their captivity by Team Designation: Teen Titans, as well as other martial artists from the Nerima area.

Since that time the subject has, for reportedly educational reasons, stayed on with the Titans. There are no records of her getting involved in any combat situations during her stay.

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: N/A

PERSONAL NOTE_: Of all of the people currently at the Tower, this Kasumi confuses me the most. To a man... and woman... the Titan's are a tragic group. They are orphans, the subject of unfortunate accidents, displaced from their homes by great distances, or kept separate from whatever remaining family they might have by circumstances wholly beyond their ability to control – or any combination of the above – yet here we have a young woman that stands as a stark, or should I say radiant, exception. She comes from a loving family, is well liked by her friends and neighbours, and is not at all the type of person to get involved in the world of super heroics. _

_...So why is Kasumi Tendo staying at Titan's Tower? Not that I begrudge Dick and the others of having someone with such an obviously nurturing nature to look after them, but it seems reckless to have a civilian present in such a high profile target as their home. There have to be better ways to learn medicine than learning it in a warzone, or a potential one, anyway. I don't want to tell Dick how to run his team, but perhaps it might not be a bad idea for a Wayne Industries Scholarship to just happen to be sent her way. Say, for Gotham University, far removed from California and the Titans? Perhaps even an internship at Wayne Medical, for good measure? _

##


	10. Close Encounters 5

**A/N**  
Cutting the deadline close tonight. Problematic chapter. TOO DAMN LONG being one of the issues. But we can't easily break it apart using our given framework. Lot of confusion and trouble for both Lathis and myself in getting Chapter 10 ready for you guys by tonight. We'll have to do a better job in the future of cutting things. No more chapters this long (aka this one is as long as chap 9). There may be revisions later when we get back in touch with our beta/proofer. Things should be good to go, though.

Well. Nothing to do but put it out there.

* * *

x

* * *

Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last. The reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together. With Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding', it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of Atlantis. Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well deserved breather from their adventures. But as unseen forces manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered… and sooner than they expect.

It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Close Encounters_

Chapter X

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

Two women.

Four million dollars.

The buyers had sent two women to negotiate with Hotel Moscow, in turn overseeing the transfer of merchandise for Lagoon Company. The price for the briefcase had been set at four million dollars, American. It hadn't even been much of a negotiation. One of the women in white, replete with stainless steel colored hair, had stated in monotone that they would pay that exact price. Four million. It was a rather exorbitant amount of money. It was the reason why Lagoon wasn't handling this themselves; there was no way they could move that much money without one of the Big Four Bosses eventually learning about it and 'asking' for a cut after the fact. It was the price of business in Roanapur.

Balalaika wasn't sure why she hadn't asked for more. Yes: it was a lot of money. Yes: she didn't actually have to do anything other than make sure the exchange took place. But where someone had that much to spend to get something back, there was sure to be more. If they were willing to part with four million just like that, why not milk the opportunity? That, too, was the price of business in Roanapur. It had been her intention to pressure the new arrivals, if only to get a feel for how far they could be exploited. Yet - yet something had compelled her to simply accept the offer. _It was easy money. Why risk it?_ But -

But there was so much else _wrong_.

And it hurt to think what that _was_. Drinking down another aspirin, alone in her office, the grizzled and burned Afghan war vet nursed her head, allowing the private moment of well concealed weakness. Headaches came with the business and sometimes she had to do things that exacerbated the problem. That horrible night of editing _certain films_ came immediately to mind. This ... this wasn't like back then, though. There was no stress. Nothing difficult or distasteful or even off-putting about the arrangements. Everything was perfect. There was no reason to not just accept the arrangements and encouragements from the Big Bosses in Moscow and be happy about the rather substantial cut of the profits.

Maybe that was part of the problem. She _should_ have been happy - or at least as content as she ever got with the demeaning business that was her life, dishonorably discharged and _making due_. It was easy money mediating this trade between Lagoon and these... other people. She hadn't even had to go through much effort to find them. They seemed to already have ties to the Russian Mafia and had, in fact, contacted her through them. It had happened in her sphere of influence, after all. It was literally a few hours work on her part.

_'There are no hard feelings,'_ they said. _'You're sure the case is intact? You've confirmed it? And everyone on the ship was killed? That was fine. Someone will be arriving shortly. Please extend them your hospitality.'_

It was all quite easy, quite reasonable.

Of course, she had been tempted to take the case from the Lagoon Company herself and keep all the money. Four million beat one any day of the week. She had also toyed briefly with the possibility of blackmail. She had been considering all her options up until the moment she met the two strange women representing the mysterious buyers. There was an aura of... 'sincerity' around them. They were polite. Soft spoken. Unobtrusive. There was no hint of nervousness or deception. There was also no trace of concern or warmth or humanity.

Balalaika had dealt with all sorts since changing professions, but never any...one like this.

_'Please tell us how you would prefer this arrangement to proceed,'_ their leader, known only as 'A' stated. Balalaika remembered it being a shade of monotone. Not completely lifeless, but... disinterested. Like the woman had known every answer before it was spoken and was just going through the motions of listening and speaking. Like a doll mouthing the words spoken by the child waving it around. Like the conversation had been no different than leisurely running laps in the gym for the hundredth time.

And everything had become just... too good to want to change.

And it _hurt_ even now to try and figure out why -

Ignoring the discomfort, wrapped in the blanket of her responsibility as local head of Hotel Moscow and the leader of her men, Balalaika tried to focus. She'd already taken three aspirins, since, when? It was enough. She'd work through the haze if she had to, no matter what caused it. Problems. There were problems. Issues. Things she didn't want to have to think about, but... but that she **had** to. Had to because no one else would.

No one knew how the two had gotten to Roanapur. No one knew how they were leaving. She'd put tails on them while they stayed in another building close by. Good men. Trusted men. They'd reported nothing.

No: not _just_ nothing.

They had reported _absolutely_ nothing. The room the women stayed in was dark. No lights. They never ate. They never met anyone. They never talked. Not just this: none of the men she'd assigned to watch their guests reported having any impression or any opinion about the women. They didn't even remember much of what they'd been doing while on the job. It was like they'd forgotten what they were sent to do. None of them could even explain it. They'd done their job, but there was nothing to report. Just nothing.

Eerily, every single one of their watches had also, at different times, just stopped. Broken.

Balalaika herself could only slightly remember what the two women looked like. One had extremely pale steel-bluish hair? Another white? Eyes were... black? Their faces were - they were just faces. It was like being told to remember which numbered page had stuck out the most in some random book. No one paid attention. It wasn't something that became committed to memory.

She'd insisted that the two stay at Hotel Moscow. She would take care of them while she made preparations. _Everything would go as agreed._

Everything would -

Everything would go as agreed. It was already decided. _There is no need to change things. _After all, she did value Lagoon and throwing away a long term working relationship like that would be unprofitable in the long run. Though four million dollars was better than one million -

_Everything will go as agreed._

No. Everything would go as agreed. There was no point changing things. It was easy money. She'd oversee the trade, get Hotel's cut and everyone would profit. The women would simply disappear back where they came from. _The case will be returned._ It would be good for business to be rid of them anyway; the last thing this city needed was more freaks.

_The case will be returned._

* * *

SECURE EYES ONLY / SECURE EYES ONLY  
NOTICE: This data bundle and any attached materials that are not otherwise marked are classified as Symphony/7H - Crimson. If you are not Symphony/7H clearance or above, report immediately to your supervisor or face disciplinary action.

ARCID INSPECTION PASSED  
_Seeger, Norman_ Director ContraIntel

DATE: 2.16.07

Report for Submission to Commanders Stark, Sharp, Bell.

Regarding Subject 56-Delta "Cyborg"

_Dymchenko, Anna. PhD_  
_Ju, Hanmou. PhD_  
_Keffler, Aaron. PhD_  
_Kuffsman, Dexter. PhD_  
_Woolard, Russel. PhD. M.D._

SecClr.  
_Strauss, Karl._

SUBJECTIVE ABSTRACTS

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE  
_Woolard, Russel. PhD. M.D._  
_Strauss, Karl_

Subject "Cyborg" (referred in the following simply as "Subject") Psychological Profile fully documented as Appendix A. Subject is highly defensive, confrontational, and displays a marked narcissism regarding his physical and mental capabilities, including but not limited to thematic naming of inventions and juvenile escapism. Strong bias present in career-selection methodology due to unusual background and reinforced mindset. Dependency issues also present to a significant degree, along with social identity and pronounced gender-engrained posturing/aggression.

Given mindset, combined with the power of the Subject's reconstructs/cybernetics, presents unique security challenges. Subject must be actively engaged mentally and physically whenever possible and given the chance to demonstrate his talents and receive praise for them. Subject should be considered dangerous; this is partly mitigated by deeply engrained moral framework as part of self identification.

Caution is advised in handling the Subject outside of a controlled environment.

Recommend limited access to restricted UNETCO technology and research to maintain cooperation.

TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW  
_Dymchenko, Anna. PhD_  
_Ju, Hanmou. PhD_  
_Keffler, Aaron. PhD_  
_Kuffsman, Dexter. PhD_

As a matter of background, Subject is genetically human, but without baseline alien markers present in the population per Outline (B-2) and Appendix B. Extensive cybernetic implants (reconstructs) of a unique design have replaced more than ninety percent of his natural body. Analysis of these reconstructs indicates extensive modification from the original prosthetics, the result of the Subject's efforts to improve/engineer himself. As outlined in Section D, radiological and quantum analysis of the Subject's tissues (hair samples and remaining stem cells) and materials indicate an environment dissimilar to our own in several ways. These traits are also present in the operation of some of the Subject's cybernetic systems. A rundown of some of the major discoveries follows:

STRUCTURE and ENERGY DENSITY - the Subject's structure is primarily a combination of titanium alloy, aluminum, high strength ceramic, plastic and steel. With little organic tissue to sustain or cushion, the Subject has been able to up-armor himself significantly. Initial tests and simulations have shown the armor to be highly impact and energy resistant. Overall structure is less complex than that in a Cyberdisk but more resilient to concussive forces. Protection overall is inferior to that of a Sectopod or blended-exotic alloy powered armor but the redundancy and modular nature of the Subject's construction means that structural failure in as much as sixty percent of the chassis could still be survivable, resulting in a practical increase in theoretical survivability. The Subject has engineered himself to be massively strong, more so than any proper humanoid on record. Partial schematics enclosed.

Also present is an unknown alloy referred to as "depleted promethium" by the subject. Despite some similarities, like atomic number, it has many unusual properties not shared with our own element promethium Pm-61; see Appendix-D(Promethium) for in depth information. According to the Subject, this variant of promethium becomes 'nearly indestructible' when alloyed with titanium and vanadium, however our efforts to replicate this (and other effects) using dimension-native Pm-61 have so far failed to produce results. The existence of strange "alternate" versions of base elements presents materials science questions that will require further study by a dedicated research team. As an immediate concern, it means we can expect to experience unique challenges in replacing damaged or compromised systems reliant on non-native physics or materials science.

Further complicating matters, the Subject uses "volatile promethium" as a power source in the form of two rechargeable batteries. This yields an extremely high energy density given the chemical reaction; a reaction which should not occur given our knowledge of the elements involved. Subsequent investigation has projected increasing levels of decay in the xenon-dipromethium reservoir where the material is showing signs of regression and altered molecular activity. In layman's terms, this chemical reaction may not be infinitely sustainable in our environment and may need eventual replacement. Replacement of the Subject's existing batteries may present both an opportunity to study dimensionally displaced chemistry under controlled conditions and, naturally, a means to ensure the continued survival and cooperation of the Subject.

Concerns about spent or active non-native "promethium" being a "mutagen" require further testing to validate.

ELECTRONICS and FIRE CONTROL – Subject uses a combination of electronics and fiber optics but with circuit architecture and computer programming markedly divergent from conventional Earth based technology. No psionic interfaces are present. Solid state designs are all highly shock and impact resistant with strong interference shielding. Actual raw processing power is superior to current UNETCO standard for this size, but requires exotic components and unorthodox heat mitigation. As stated previous, circuit architecture and programming language are highly unusual and further research will be required to determine reproducibility.

The MMI is of particular interest, but the Subject has thus far been reluctant to allow for penetrating scans or to divulge the nature of some of his components and much of his computer code. Roughly fifty five percent of the mass of the Subject's brain has been removed, primarily the left hemisphere, replaced by a cybernetic reconstruct equivalent. While artificial augmentation of the brain is well studied in various alien life forms, the mechanisms involved here are very different from what we have studied before (such as the development of the integrated psi-amp). Instead of providing added functionality to an intact and otherwise functional biological system, the Subject has delegated much of his compromised cognitive and autonomic functions. Practically, this artificial hemisphere also provides a real time backup and interface, as well as I/O functionality. As an added security concern, this may present some difficulty with neuroglia stamping or imprinting.

Further study is required, but given the nature of the technology it has potential for civilian market applications where psionic technology is impractical or where extensive brain damage renders current techniques ineffective. It may also have medical uses in replacing damaged brain tissue with a reconstruct. Unfortunately, while the subject was willing to share this much, the actual design and operational limitations of the MMI are still unknown, as scans have proven unable to show enough detail to make a reproduction. Suggest trying to manufacture good will with subject to gain access to this technology.

The subject possesses an elaborate sensor suite which includes several 'exotic' applications with little combat application. (See Appendix E). Interestingly, some sensor equipment has been rendered non-functional due to dimensional transition. Subject believes, that this is due to the absence in "our dimension" of certain radiological and material artifacts.

WEAPONS SYSTEMS – In addition to his prodigious strength, the Subject has several internal weapons systems. These include low yield missiles, various tools (some, like a plasma torch, have limited combat utility), and a form of "sonic cannon" in both the arms and feet. Use of the weapon takes advantage of the "transformation" features incorporated in the arms and hands; output is variable, and the sonic waves are carried by a low intensity stream of ionized air, producing a beam-like effect.

Sonic technology has a practical inability to operate in near vacuum or deep space. Subject was highly defensive about combat application of technology by organization; recommend any related research be conducted in separate location. System remains an interesting and extremely promising alternative to existing microwave non-lethal beam technology or as a hypothetical undersea weapons system. Currently, nuclear ordinance is the only response we have for attacking an underwater UFO short of waiting for it to re-emerge. Given the limited situational utility, however, study and development of underwater sonic weaponry can be considered a low priority.

OVERALL THREAT ACCESSMENT  
_Kuffsman, Dexter. PhD_

Subject is a teenage male prone to bluster and posturing; the majority of this is normal young adult behavior. Only the unusual abilities of the Subject really make it cause for concern. Subject is superhumanly strong, but well within our means to destroy or psionically dominate (our limited research indicates near total resistance to mind control if the electronic brain is not first neutralized telekinetically – akin to taking over a Cyberdisk or Sectopod); overall threat assessment is medium-high, greater than that of a rogue trooper in MARS class powered armor, with far higher potential for collateral damage and combating groups of enemies in comparison to our troopers specialization in neutralizing single targets.

The ability and willingness (eagerness even) of the Subject to hack into nearby computer systems is some cause for alarm, but of minimal use against psionicly secured and shielded systems as the Subject has no psi-projection hardware of his own and no experience with psionic mapping (to our knowledge). Additional training and psi-amp integration could yield more promising battlefield effects, if the Subject remains pliable. Interestingly, despite being highly intelligent and engaging, the Subject had no interest in Academia or formal R&D. Culturally, he seems to have become quite enamored with the lifestyle of 'super heroics.' As a long term investment, it is my belief that the Subject would be more valuable in a research and development department than on the battlefield.

Recommend downgrading Subject from SA-3 to SB-4 pursuant to good behavior and ongoing cooperation.

DIMENSIONAL ORIGIN HYPOTHESIS  
_Dymchenko, Anna. PhD_  
_Kuffsman, Dexter. PhD_

Subject claims to be from a parallel dimension; evidence exists to support this hypothesis. Radiological testing has identified numerous isotopes in the Subject's makeup that exist in higher quantities than on Earth, most notably Carbon-13, Carbon-14 and Potassium-40. Preliminary quantum analysis of electron spin and other factors correlate with a more than simply off-world or extra-solar origin. Subject's matter actually seems to be slightly different than our own on the quantum level while, in some cases, obeying different natural laws.

Research into this phenomenon, with the cooperation of the Subject, indicated his knowledge base included some substantial variations from our own. This included slightly different laws governing well characterized particle interaction and certain quantum events. Subject also described forms of radiation from his 'native dimension' that either did not exist in our own or that went by different names or that had different effects on matter. He also claimed knowledge of various non-existing elemental allotropes (like "Kryptonite") and examples of material variants of known elements ("Promethium") that we have been unable to replicate in theory or in practice.

We must report that the possibility that all this is part of some elaborate cover story is virtually zero. Unfortunately, the Subject's knowledge of dimensional physics and our own are sharply at odds (naturally, this includes what we know from alien sources). We have passed on the gathered data and other reports to the FTLRMT Lab in Fry Canyon, which is the premiere dimensional science and theoretical physics department in the organization. At present, we must report that we have no way to practically investigate this avenue of research.

SUBJECTIVE ABSTRACT

END

SECURE EYES ONLY / SECURE EYES ONLY

* * *

Commander Noriko Yasuda wasn't a particularly powerful psionic, and she hadn't been on a field op in months. She wasn't a 'lead from the front' type of Commander, like some of her counterparts in other UNETCO branches. Her strength was in organization and strategic risk taking. An otherwise pleasant and relatively average looking woman, when she sat behind her desk more than a few subordinates were surprised to realize that she suddenly became a great deal more intimidating. It didn't help that Captain Ben-Solomon was standing to her right, somehow managing to look both at ease and ready to pounce at the same time.

Lieutenant Ryouga Hibiki kept an alert stance befitting his rank, hands clasped behind his back. The Commander was slowly perusing reports – his and others – and letting him stew a bit before speaking up again. He had known full well what this was about the moment he saw the other-him waiting outside with Shirokuro. It was time to make a decision regarding the Titans.

Yasuda put a neat set of papers aside on her desk that he immediately recognized.

It was his report, including at the end his recommendation that the Titans be allowed to participate in a trial mission or two as "embedded observers." It was a very loose term that functionally (in this sort of instance anyway) covered battlefield assets that were not formally within the pay structure of the organization, but that fell within their chain of command and legal jurisdiction. His recommendation came with a few security caveats, but also an observation that it would become increasingly difficult to deal with the Titans if they were kept out of the loop.

That was simply fact.

They were also a potential asset, just as India and Juliet squads had been made into productive combat teams from otherwise strongly independent martial artists. The trick would really be in who led them, and how. They already had a great deal of experience working together so it was counterproductive to try and break them up or to introduce an outsider to take command. It was still a major risk, though, bringing them onto the battlefield so soon. Ryouga had acknowledged these exigencies in his report, but maintained that the potential benefit could be worth the risk.

He had been certain that Commander Yasuda would agree -

Placing her hands flat on the desk, she looked up at the waiting Lieutenant.

"Send in Mister Hibiki."

Hard to tell whether that was a good or bad sign at the moment, he nodded crisply.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied, taking a few steps to open the door. The younger him was seated outside, dressed in one of those mustard yellow shirts he remembered quite fondly from back in the day. Good, rugged traveling shirts, those.

"Come on in," he said, and watched as the younger Hibiki nodded and filed in.

"I believe this is the first time we've met, Mister Hibiki," the Commander remarked, inclining her head but not getting up. "On careful review, I have decided to approve your joint application for 'observer' status for a trial period of four missions."

The younger Hibiki simply stared at her for a moment, before blinking several times.

"...R-Really?" he asked, sounding a bit surprised. "I mean, that's great, but ... why? I know I've been making a bit of an ass of myself lately about how I'm no worse than the Lieutenant there ... but ... really?"

"I've been briefed on the sorts of… work you and your companions did back on your native Earth," she explained, patiently cupping her hands together in front of her. "I also understand the mentality some of you have about sitting on the sidelines. I took a chance very few would have when I formed India and Juliet Squads, and I've never regretted it. Based on what I've received, I'm willing to take a risk trusting your people as well. I hope I won't be disappointed."

"Well, I wouldn't call them _my_ peo-" Ryouga noted the flat glance he was receiving. "Um, I mean, you won't be, sir ... ma'am ... um, commander?"

He almost turned to leave at that point, before stopping himself and turning back. "So - ah - what exactly does that entail, then? What exactly do we need to do for this?"

"First, when meeting with a commanding officer, you will wait to be dismissed," she explained, but with a faint smile. "I know this isn't your element, but try and remember that for next time."

He fidgeted a bit at that.

"Now, this is a great responsibility and one I hope you will approach with the utmost dedication. You realize that observer status does not accord you a rank, nor will you receive a salary. On the battlefield only, you will have an operational rank of acting sergeant. You will be answerable to your direct superiors, including Captain Ben-Solomon and Lieutenant Hibiki. You will conduct yourself in accordance with the military code of conduct, and the UNETCO rules of engagement," Yasuda paused, to let all-that sink in a bit.

"Do they... have a _book_ with these rules in it? I may want to, y'know, peruse that at some point..." He tapped his chin. "And, if we're observers, does that mean we're just there to watch the fighting?"

"Officially, yes," she answered. "Observers are there to do just that. In practice, you'll be used as your commanding officer sees fit, whether that is as a reserve or a front line unit will depend on the situation on the ground."

Ryouga nodded. "Well, that seems simple enough, I guess. So, what do we do between missions, then?"

"I would advise you to train and familiarize yourself with your equipment, your enemy, your mission and your comrades," Yasuda recommended. "I'm sure that's what you did back home between your missions, right?"

"Well, yeah, I guess so. So, basically, we're now officially soldiers, but not soldiers, who won't fight, but might be told to fight, and get free room and board here, but don't get paid, all until we figure out where the rest of our friends are and what we're gonna do to get home?" Ryouga gasped for breath at the end of his little diatribe.

Ignoring the tone of that litany of questions, she slid a folder forward, and gestured for the younger Hibiki to take it. "Consider this a probationary period. Speaking of your team… you know this man, I assume."

Curious, he quickly stepped forward and picked up the folder. Opening it, the very first picture he saw told him all he needed to know.

"You found Cyborg!" the younger Hibiki realized with glee. "Alright, that's _great_! He's our best bet for getting home!"

"So I've heard," Yasuda agreed, speaking levelly to the teen. "The information regarding his arrival is all included in that file – feel free to keep it. Passing on the news to your team mates and reorganizing your squad can be considered your first duty as their commanding officer. I've already petitioned for his transfer from the States."

Chuckling to himself, Ryouga muttered under his breath. "Thank _god_. I can totally dump this _leader_ stuff on Cy's bulletproof butt!"

He then looked up and saluted excitedly, as he'd seen others do around the base. "Thank you very much, ma'am! This is great news. I'll explain everything to Raven as Starfire as soon as ... well, as soon as you dismiss me, I guess."

"There is one more thing: I have also arranged for limited access to our armory and fabrication facilities. I know most of you aren't used to wearing armor, but we have tactical vests and headgear that I expect all of you to wear when in the field. We will also see to integrating you into our communications network. When off duty, you are free to dress as you like."

She nodded to the young man, seeing he understood.

"For the time being, your team will have the designation Yankee," she concluded, and inclined her head to him. "…Dismissed."

"Y...Yankee? B-But none of us are even American..."

Shaking his head sadly, Ryouga turn and left, going to pass on the information he'd just learned.

"Lieutenant, stay a moment."

The older Hibiki stayed at attention. "Yes, ma'mam."

* * *

Cold water parted as Ukyou hit the sea.

Cupping the isolated rebreather to her mouth to ensure the seal was still intact, she quickly adjusted to the orientation on her compass and GPS. Overhead, the stealth helicopter would be departing, leaving Juliet Squad to sink or swim. They were a mile off the coast. Insertion would continue with a scooter assisted swim to Whiskey-Echo-Three where they would continue overland through the urban sprawl.

The cold water on her face, the zen-like calm of her body and mind as if focused on its task, it reminded the chef of Winter Triangle and the taking of the Procyon. That had been their first Section Seven Op. The ship had held more than anyone expected: the lab where Sirius terrorists had developed and manufactured airborne Chryssalid Venom, not to mention a god damned Sectopod that had nearly killed them. For Ukyou, it had been her first look at what Sirius was capable of, a prelude to the horrors she would see at the Amazon Village.

In the darkness just ahead, she saw Shampoo momentarily light up her hand with their IR/VL beacon. Open palm, two digits, direction. Surging ahead, Ukyou took up position alongside the other girl, grabbed hold of the marine scooter and felt it accelerate. They were to continue entirely underwater and it was easily to get lost in the featureless dark of the ocean around them. Ranma and Konatsu would also be on their way to shore having inserted further to the north.

With a little over 750 meters to cover, it would be a 15 minute trip to the shore holding onto the underwater vehicle. For most divers, it would be a half hour swim at a good, constant clip. The scooter cut that in half and Juliet made use of it even though each of them could swim at around two knots. The scooter would save that little bit of energy, just in case they needed it, and keep them on track to boot.

Intel on this mission was particularly bad.

Ranma had mentioned that while there were 'potential resources' on the ground, they were third party contacts and nothing that could be trusted with sensitive material of this nature. Even the local CIA plants were considered too compromised. HUMInt was thus almost nill. Intercepted communications were the most valuable source and together with satellite and UAV recon it would be their biggest field asset. Roanapur was a lawless city and far from the first world climes that she had gotten used to operating in. They had basically no one on the ground to help them if push came to shove.

Which wouldn't really have been an issue if they were there to take out a target or two, but the Lieutenant didn't want that. They were to get in and out with the briefcase and the two infiltrators. The former could have been retrieved at almost any time over the last few days, but the high ups wanted to use this opportunity: ideally, Juliet was to confirm what was in the case and that the likely-hybrid infiltrators had the biochem-key to open it and they were to bring in the alien lovers themselves for interrogation. They had free license to employ any and all necessary techniques to achieve their objectives. If at any time their mission was compromised, Acting Major Wilson would send in the strike teams.

_'But that ain't gonna happen, cause we ain't gonna screw up,'_ Ranma had added at that part of the briefing. _'Let's so 'em what we're capable of!'_

They'd all cheered - well, except Konatsu who meekly smiled.

So: no killing if not absolutely necessary. In fact, they couldn't even knock people out unless they were sure to be able to do so and not attract attention. That, and sneaking through the city, wouldn't be very hard. Not until they got to this 'Hotel Moscow' and its goon squad. The former VDV Airborne troops there were supposed to still be quite capable and they'd be on alert for trouble during the briefcase handover.

Remote wiretaps and electronic Intel had identified the time and place, but they were inserting extra early anyway. Just in case. She and Shampoo would be trailing the 'Lagoon Company' quartet; Ranma and Konatsu, the sneakier half of Juliet, would be keeping an eye on Hotel Moscow's Boss. They had an encrypted radio channel ready in case of complications. If everything went according to plan, they'd meet up at the parking garage near Hotel Moscow's HQ where the trade was taking place. It would be dark, too. A good thing. In and out with the three packages, then extract by air.

The sun hadn't risen yet by the time they reached shore.

Dusk made the work easy. Ukyou wasn't as big on the whole stealth thing by nature; the family style didn't really stress that much of it anymore, in favor of the 'defend your restaurant and customers.' Most of that survived as distractions and traps in the modern era. Still, she had the basics down as a child and her training with Konatsu, Ranma and Shampoo had sharpened and refined that foundation. Emerging beneath an old pier she extended a flexible endoscope from between her fingers, slipping it through a crack in the wooden planks. A small screen cupped in the palm of her hand displayed the surrounding area.

Motioning to Shampoo, the two continued further along the pier, ignoring the flotsam and trash that had drifted in and become trapped by the tide. Rows of tiny houseboats were moored close by, right up to the stone and concrete boardwalk flush with the seafront. Ditching their fins, the pair soon found a shady spot and effortlessly flipped up onto dry land. The ocean scooter long since abandoned, they were carrying all their gear themselves in unmarked bags.

The back alleys were tiny, too small for even a vespa to squeeze through. Still in their mundane looking dive suits, Shampoo and Ukyou quickly disappeared. Now useless, the rest of the diving gear was to be discarded except for the rebreathers. It would look like someone had just thrown out some used scuba equipment, especially once all the air was let out and the cases selectively damaged. More formerly-functional salvage for a city built on it. No one would notice except to wonder if they could fix it and resell it for a profit.

Roof hopping was too conspicuous, so the two girls had to take the slower and more troublesome route of moving through and around buildings. When they went topside, they ran and didn't make any obvious twenty meter long jumps. First things first, while there was still time - following real-time updated maps and with the actual location already committed to memory, it didn't take long to reach the street where Lagoon had their office headquarters.

A shopkeeper opposite was identified as the easiest mark. He had been awake and slowly getting ready to open his convenience store when a hand from behind found his mouth stifling a surprised cry. A second later and darkness took him, slipping the elderly man into a chemical assisted sleep. His store wouldn't be open today. The lights remained dark. A time release patch stuck to his neck would continue to keep him sedated for twenty four hours.

Ukyou stowed him in a supply closet, locked it, and snapped off the handle.

_'Sorry, ojisaan, we'll let ya out before we leave.'_

Shampoo was already retrieving some equipment for the next part of their operation. They needed surveillance on the office. Wiretaps were already in place, but they needed independent listening devices up and running. Despite being notorious for her wall destroying tendencies, this was a matter left for Shampoo. She snuck out with hardly a word to her partner to place a few discrete bugs. Just because she could kick over walls didn't mean she had to, after all.

Just that she liked to.

Opening one of her bags, Ukyou got their kit ready for later. Their weapons were all disassembled and their stealth suits in pieces. Unable to bring her battle spatula on this op, Ukyou already missed the comforting weight on her back. She had the mini-spats, but it was only a small comfort. So much of her fighting technique relied on her Hera-sama, it was crippling to not have it on hand. Unfortunately, it didn't lend itself that well to stealthy missions.

Shampoo soon returned, and Ukyou tossed her a breakfast bar.

"Everything good?" the Amazon asked, ripping open the chocolate flavored foodstuff.

"I should be askin' you that, sugar," Ukyou replied and gestured towards the bags with her head. "Everything here's fine. You didn't have any problems?"

"Sneaky stuff all set up." Shampoo bit into the energy bar and slid it out of the wrapper with her teeth. Finally, with most of it out and her fingers just holding a corner of the wrapper, she bit down with a crunch. "You hear from Lieutenant and ninja-boy?"

Ukyou shook her head and nibbled at what passed for her breakfast. At least it tasted good. Taking up a spot near the window, she slipped a finger between the blinds. The view of the Lagoon office was pretty underwhelming, but at least they had line of sight. Together with the laser microphones and penetrating imaging equipment they'd be able to draw a passable bead on anything that happened inside or nearby.

Finishing her energy bar in a few quick bites, Shampoo tossed the wrapper and started putting her gear together for later tonight. Less hurried, Ukyou decided to take her time. It would be hours before anything serious went down.

Probably.

"So this is Thailand?" she asked, the question indirectly posed to the only other occupant in the building. "It's hot. Wasn't expecting to see the palm trees, either." Shampoo didn't reply, so the okonomiyaki chef took another small bite of her breakfast bar and continued a couple seconds later. "Mostly two or three story buildings. Only high rises are those towers on the hill."

"No should be surprised," Shampoo finally answered, screwing a silencer over the barrel of an assembled MSG-90 sniper rifle. "Actually not so different from most cities in China. Most not so pretty-pretty like you try and make Japan city to be. This place just seedier than most."

The Amazon chuckles as she thought of something amusing, adding, "Street vendor like you should have no problem fitting in here."

Ukyou laughed lightly at the rib, even if it was at her expense.

"Nothing wrong with being a street vendor, sugar. Some of us make a lot of money."

"What, more than restaurant?"

"Sometimes. Less overhead. Depends on the location. Didn't you have that little temp shop at the beach a while back?"

"Great grandmother handle business stuff. Shampoo just combat waitress."

"Wish we could've seen that super maid Ranma told us about. Watching her tear up the town would certainly help pass the time. Oh! Speaking of!" The radio set on the table nearby crackled with momentary static. It was all a normal listener would hear without the decryption in their particular sets. Intel had confirmed that locals were monitoring certain radio frequencies. It wasn't nearly as secure a system as UNETCO usually had, but it would do in a pinch and it wouldn't be the end of the world if it got left behind or busted.

"J-One here," Ranma's voice came through clearly. "I see you're set to send/receive. You guys in a nice spot?"

Ukyou picked up the radio and let it rest on her knee, depressing the talk toggle. "Just bird watching, J-One. Haven't seen anything interesting yet, though."

"Well, keep at it. Eye in the sky says we'll have some traffic soon. Ha!" Ranma made a single dismissive laugh at the stupid code phrases. "Anyway, just keep an eye out and make sure nothing funny happens."

Ukyou craned her neck as a car slowed to a stop in front of the target building.

"Huh? You mean like a car full of goons trying to break into the building?"

Ranma paused just a moment on the other end. "Yes, that would kind of screw things up, J-Three. Please don't tell me-"

"My bad. Its just the gun crazy girl and her boyfriend."

"... very funny."

"Don't worry so much, we know what to do," Ukyou assured him, and he huffed on the other end of the radio. "The briefcase and these Lagoon people will make it to the rendezvous tonight."

"Make sure they do. I'll contact you again in an hour."

As Ranma ended the exchange and Ukyou returned the hand held radio to the table, she kept her eyes on the two Lagoon Company mercenaries now entering their office. Shampoo also took a moment to check the gain on some of their surveillance equipment, and get a first in-the-flesh look at their targets. The laser microphone was already starting to pick up the conversation.

"You think we'll get to fight her?" Ukyou asked, noting the object of Shampoo's personal interest.

"Probably not," the Amazon answered with a unhappy sigh. "It be fun to, though. There Amazon exile here who supposed to fight her few times. She work for dragons now."

"Dragons?"

"Ah. Shampoo mean Triads. She take contract and never come back to village, so Elders exile." The lavender haired woman stretched her arms lazily. "This city attract that sort."

"If you say so." The warrior chef parted the blinds just a bit more. "She isn't that much older than we are. Too bad we can't just pick her up, do a little brainwashing, and have her duel wield plasma pistols or something for us."

The Chinese warrior snorted at the idea. They'd both read Revy's report and even watched some bootleg footage of her in action. The woman was good... but she was also an unhinged lone wolf. But then, that was what you had some judicious and helpful brainwashing to sort out. Even the meanest lone wolf could be brought into a badass-enough pack. It was just a shame about her arm-length criminal record and the fact that XCOM didn't hire mercs. Or pirates.

"Shampoo no can believe she fit into those too-too short jeans. She have body for it, it certainly not look comfortable."

"Don't look at me, sugar. I had to fight in an apron once."

The two laughed good-naturedly, then remembered who they were conversing with. Eyes narrowed, relaxed, then narrowed again before they silently went back to work. There was a lot to prepare for. Luckily, they had hours in which to do it.

* * *

In a rare change of pace for herself, rather than sitting cross-legged and meditating, Raven had decided to take a more laid back approach to her free time. 'Laid back' being more literal than not in this case, as she was literally stretched out on Nabiki's bed, her hands behind her head and her toes tapping rhythmically as she did her utmost to enjoy the comfort of the mattress.

Across the room, Starfire was sitting at Nabiki's computer. Somehow, the alien girl had managed to find their host's music program and had started playing some of the more palatable selections she could find. Raven had no idea what band it was that they were listening to at the moment, but she had to admit that the Tendo girl had good taste in (undoubtedly pirated) music. Even some of the Japanese tracks, though indecipherable, were catchy.

It was an odd sensation, just hanging out with Starfire like this.

No desperate need to go to the mall or make a scene of being part of a group, no meditation to worry about, no forced conversation. This comfortable silence was just that. Of course, the only reason that Starfire was so silent was that she was currently doing research on all of the information that their 'other' hosts had provided concerning the alien menace that was threatening the planet.

Which was another thing she was having a hard time reconciling. The fact that everyone on this planet was putting so much effort into fighting this one alien invasion; all of their efforts, all of the drive and resources of the best men and women, all poured into this one threat. It was so odd when, back home, alien invasions were common enough to actually joke about. And this planet didn't even have alien armadas landing on their planet and unleashing massive armies of flying robots or floating squid monsters, or anything. It was all so... low key.

Perhaps that was what made it so insidious? And these people didn't have the likes of Superman around to deal with the aliens for them, so they had to get by with what they had.

That was the major thing, wasn't it? A world without Superman.

A world without any metahumans at all, barring psychics. And even then, the psionics here were relatively low key as well. They did amazing things with what little they had, but even with their psi amps they considered her to be an unparalleled threat ... and she wasn't even the most powerful psychic she _knew_ back on her world. Why, she could still recall the time that the Martian Manhunter actually contacted the minds of everyone on the planet, _simultaneously_. She doubted they even had a classification to cover something like that here.

Even as she felt her own, darker powers receding, she was beginning to feel her more purely psychic powers all the more keenly. She very much wanted to have a chance to enter the Psi Gym they were mentioning, just to see if she could hone those aspects of herself that she'd left to the wayside due to the necessity of focusing on controlling her more primal powers. She was also somewhat curious as to how she ranked; if maybe there was some form of 'Dragon Ball' style power rating they assigned themselves here. She was sure that Cyborg would love something like that.

Really, aside from the alien menace, it was so... mundane here. No costumed clowns terrorizing the streets, no giant robots, or ancient gods popping up to make a mess of things. Why, for those people not actually involved in the fighting here, she imagined it must be quite a calm and tranquil existence. Not having that ever present niggling at the back of your mind that, somehow, some way, Superman might crash through your roof one day, however well intentioned, would be a burden she'd be glad to lose.

Not sure why she did it, since it was so unlike her to actually break a silence once attained, she felt compelled to ask her friend a question.

"Starfire?"

"Hmm?" the flame haired girl replied, not bothering to turn from her research.

"Not that I'm saying it will happen... but, if it did... would it really be such a terrible fate to be stuck here?"

At that, Starfire immediately spun around, staring at her in shock.

"Indeed it would, friend Raven!" the ochre hued girl replied without hesitation. "So very much so!"

Raven quirked an eyebrow at her companion's vehement reaction.

"You dislike these people that much?" she asked, a bit surprised.

Starfire's head tilted to the side, obviously confused by her question. "My feelings for our current companions have no bearings on my response. Though I admit that I still find their methods odious, and I shall not forget what I was made to endure, I can also understand them ... to a point."

"Then why so adamant on leaving?"

The Tamaranian shot her a flat glance.

"As if you lacked knowledge as to my main desire to return home. Beyond that, though, beyond the desire to be reunited with our friends..." She looked down, giving a small sigh as she examined her long gloves. "Beyond those things, this world... it is so small... so lonely. In all of the stars, they are alone - with only the company of a single group of aliens whose only desire is to abuse and eradicate them. Can you not feel how oppressive such solitude can be?"

Raven could only stare at her friend, as the alien girl twirled her thumbs.

"To live in a universe where Tamaran does not exist at all? I do not think that I could bear to live on in this world, I ... honestly do not know what I would do if it was revealed that we could never return home..."

The pain in Starfire's voice was matched by the expression on her face. Slowly, Raven pushed herself up until she was sitting. She hadn't even considered the implications that being stuck in this dimension would have for her friend. She hadn't intended to make Starfire feel bad ... Oh, how she wished she could take it back. If only there was something she could do to cheer her up -

Her thought was interrupted as the door suddenly slid open and a furry shape bolted through! She barely had a chance to prepare herself as the familiar form of Ryouga's dog barreled across the room and leapt up onto the bed, nearly burying her with its bulk. Even as she struggled to get the overly affectionate canine off of her, it appeared that her wish had been granted, though not how she would have liked, as she heard Starfire begin giggling happily straight away.

"Shirokuro get down! Raven's not a chew toy!"

Ryouga's voice was a comforting sign, though it didn't seem to help much. Finally, though Raven was able to wrestle the dog off and down onto the bed beside her. Rather than take any further chances, she then leaned over and dropped her weight on the dog's back, pinning her to the bed.

"That's _quite_ enough of that, Shiro!" She then turned to look at Ryouga, standing in the doorway with a folder in his hand and a wide smile on his face. "That smile had better be because of that file, and not because your dog accosted me. If it's the latter, I'll be forced to make you regret it."

"Oh, but friend Raven, Shirokuro is simply demonstrating her affection for you. It is most adorable, is it not! I find myself shifting to a greenish hue in envy," pouted Starfire, reaching out her arms as if willing the dog to come to her.

Laughing a bit, but trying to stifle it, Ryouga shook his head. "I promise it's the file. I just got some good news, and some better news. What do you want to hear first?"

"Oh, the good news, the good news!" Starfire cheered.

Raven smirked. "Sure, why not save the best for last?"

"Well, then," the bandanna clad boy started excitedly, "They agreed to Nabiki's idea to make us an official team ... well, kinda sorta, anyway. There are a few dozen strings attached, but it's a step in the right direction, anyway. I even get to be a sergeant when we're on the field. **And** we even got a team name."

"Oh, what is the designation of our team?" Starfire asked inquisitively. "Are we to be _Team Titan_! That would be most amusing."

Sighing forlornly, Ryouga shook his head. "Afraid not. Apparently they decided to name us... Yankee squad..."

Raven fired a flat look his way. "Are you being serious?"

He nodded weakly.

"What, are they hoping we'll decide to leave rather than deal with the embarrassment of being called 'Yankee' squad?" she inquired a touch annoyed. Yankee squad! She'd rather be one of the Kuno's Angels, honestly.

"Well, that is good news, regardless," Starfire injected in a mollifying tone. "At least now we shall be able to assist the unfortunate citizens of this world."

Raven nodded; that, of course, was a main concern. She still couldn't believe that Nabiki had gone to all of this trouble on their behalf. Honestly, she was still waiting for the bill. "So, what's the 'better' news then?" she asked wryly.

Ryouga's smile nearly doubled in size in an instant. "They found Cyborg! They're already working on bringing him here from the States!"

"Cyborg was in America?" Raven asked, surprised. Everyone else had been thrown so far, why not him?

Lifting up the folder, Ryouga opened it and perused it, nodding quickly. "Yeah, apparently they found him... um ... apparently they found him trying to... hijack a satellite network..."

Both Raven's and Starfire's eyes shot wide open at that.

"He was attempting to **what?**" asked the latter in shock.

"Actually, now that I think of it, I'm not really that surprised," Raven added with a smirk. "So, do you know when he's due to arrive?"

Shaking his head, Ryouga dropped the folder on the bed for her to read. "Not really. Hopefully within a day or two."

"That is most glorious news!" Starfire squealed in delight. "To be reunited with our friend will be a tremendous relief. Perhaps he will even be able to divine a method of returning us home."

"I'm sure he will," Raven added. This was definitely better news. Cyborg was the only other member of their team that they were actually certain was here. But with his help, it would definitely be easier to find out whether Robin or ... _Jinx_ ...had been pulled through as well. "I think things will finally sort themselves out, now."

"Oh, by the way," Ryouga suddenly spoke up, "The Commander said we can use some of the facilities now, too. Within reason. So that should give us something to do while we wait for Cyborg to show up. I can only imagine the crazy kind of stuff that he might get up to in the workshops they have here."

That caught Raven's attention. "Use their facilities? Is that so?"

A slow smile began to grow on her lips. "Say ... _Sergeant_, I don't suppose you could see about scheduling us some time in the so called Psi Gym? I think that would be quite interesting indeed."

"Hmm, well, I suppose it is my job to try and provide for the needs of my grunts-"

"**Who** are you calling _grunts_?"

* * *

The so called Psi-gym proved to be a something of a misnomer. The facility was suitably large, but not very gym like. In fact, it was a "Psionic Research and Development Department" and apparently as much a scientist's laboratory as it was a combat and training area. This much became obvious in the main doors that lead to the facility.

A long list of personnel dominated one of the walls, listed behind glass by department and alphabetical order. An array of PhDs were attached to the "Gym" and ranged from "Applications in Combat Psionics" to "Xenosciences, Psionics." More than half of the area outlined on the small map overlay was dedicated to R&D. That was the West Wing.

The East Wing was a bit more promising.

The main room was a bit like a mix of a gym and a computer room. It appeared, from the people moving around, that visitors were expected to check themselves in, log their stay and their hours, stow and take care of their gear or rent it out from a gym quartermaster. There was an automated cluster of lockers that seemed to serve that purpose, and several nearby displays built into the wall. The rest of the room sported several rows of computers, a bit like the kind you would see in a library but hooded to keep the screen from being seen by the person next to you. Several people were at these, and looked almost… like they were very entranced gamers.

Another more curious section of the room had several cylindrical tubes, like old-style MRI machines; the kind that enclosed you completely during the scan. There was an area near that with a very large screen, displaying physiological data and profiles, and long scrolling reels of test and flashing images. Two women in combat fatigues were there, talking while one of them calibrated or checked something on the machines.

Further in were sealed rooms, two of them transparent; they seemed like isolation chambers.

Raven looked around curiously as she made her way to the check in. Behind her, Ryouga and Starfire followed, though mostly they were just there out of boredom, as opposed to interest, as she was.

"So, ah, what exactly do we do in here?" Raven asked, though she doubted her friends knew any better than she.

Opting to explore for the time being, and being the one to originally express the initial interest in the place, Raven slowly wandered over to one of the curious computers nearby. It was offline, but she could see what appeared to be some sort of orb in addition to a more typical flat panel and mouse. Likely, the panel lit up when activated, since she could see faint touch-sensitive depressions even without getting too close a look.

Starfire leaned in a bit closer, less shy about poking or prodding to satisfy her curiosity. Approaching the station caused it to instantly light up; the screen indicating it was scanning. A moment later, a photo of the young Tamaranian appeared, displaying clearance level - Angel/0A Blue - and position within 'Yankee Squad.' It then indicated it was 'waiting for log in and ID.' When Raven came a bit closer, it also identified her, pulling up her profile under Starfire's.

"That's ... almost a touch disturbing," Raven muttered.

"Oooh! The computer knows me! Perhaps it wishes to converse with me?" Sitting down excitedly, the Tamaranian quickly dropped her hand down of the orb, obviously not sure what it did.

Shrugging to herself, Raven did the same on the next free station over. Before she began, though, she turned back to Ryouga, who was fidgeting about as he watched them. "Well, come on, you might as well try it, too, _sergeant_. At least it will give you something to do."

The fanged boy smirked at her, before nodding and saluting. "Yes, ma'am. Whatever you say."

She fired a minor glare his way before turning back to the station and seeing what she needed to do. Curious, she touched the panel to see if it would let her log in some how. It continued to display her profile, but didn't go further. A quick sneak peek over where Starfire sat provided the answer: the Tamaranian was putting away her ID card, but her screen seemed to have turned into a strange, somewhat discordant blur. Blinking and leaning back a bit, and she could see bits of light around her friend.

Facing her screen again, Raven retrieved her ID and held it up, looking for some place to swipe the card. Instead, the terminal read it remotely – perhaps via an RF or other chip – and logged her in. Raven shook her head in momentary confusion. Did the devices ID them by ID card before, or was the use of the ID just another layer of inconvenient security? Paranoid was a word that almost didn't do justice to the crazy natives of this dimension.

Upright in her chair, facing forward, the screen expanded, projecting a hologram around her. It was privacy sensitive. That had to be why she couldn't see much of anything in Starfire's booth. Her view, in her booth and from her seat, was quite adequate. It displayed a welcome, along with her name, a serial number, and some other data. A window also popped up, indicating her 'Psi-strength' and Psi-skill' were 'not on record.' It also displayed a number of options, some outlined in faint green boxes, some in orange and some in red. There was also a cursor that she could use with the now lit-up mouse and keyboard.

A window appeared, recommending "Psionic Calibration Scan" with the usual yes/no prompt.

...Well, she hadn't come all this way just to say no. Interested to see what else this fascinating computer had in store for her, she used the mouse to click on the 'yes' prompt.

What followed was a legal disclaimer, broken up into three parts. Already basically committed (and already having been mind scanned before anyway), Raven breezed through the stupidly long text and agreed to all three. The light on the orb to her right illuminated in the form of a hand, clearly indicating she should use it. Placing her hand – much smaller than the illuminated outline – onto the orb, she felt a slight tingle.

A green line filled up, then blinked blue.

CALIBRATION COMPLETE

NATIVE LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (AMERICAN)

Even without meaning to, Raven moved the mouse cursor as her attention shifted back to the options from before. Her hand still on the orb, she quickly realized she could control the mouse with her mind, and that it had a bit of built in resistance to keep it from flying all over the screen. Wondering what else, and if the keyboard was also superfluous now, a helpful dialogue box opened up. It didn't show any connections, but she easily found herself able to form words and then sentences by thinking about them slowly.

Curious about the 'connections' above the dialogue box, she mentally highlighted it. It searched for a second and then listed several names, some with "DND" flags, and some "Online." Two stood out right away: "R, Hibiki. A/02B (sSrg)" and "Koriand'r. A/02B (sSqd)"

So ... what did she do now? And what did "Sqd" stand for, for that matter? Was Starfire a squid now? She really didn't know enough about military practices to understand any of this stuff. Regardless, there would be more time to explore that later.

Now, how did she get this test started?

Searching for a few seconds, she brought back up her profile and the missing information. There were prompts next to it, and thinking about one activated a window about PSI-SCREENING AND EVALUATION. Selecting it, the screen quickly changed, as all the other data shifted off to the right, forming a number of tabs on the corner of her vision.

Out of the resulting blackness, a point of light appeared. She focused on it as it moved from left to right, then up and down. It then cycled through the primary colors and back to white. It was a bit like an eye exam… or something… but then the dot expanded into a triangle. And then a square. And then a pentagram. It morphed rapidly, growing more and more complex.

READING

Abruptly, the geometric shape stopped and moved away slightly. Another one started to form in its place, along with another, and another, and another, along all an X, Y, and Z plane. Regions began to fill in and color.

PROCESSING MENTAL ARCHETECTURE

A pulse ran through the now massively complex arrangement of lines and colors.

PROCESSING EGO BARRIER

Lines filled in.

PROCESSING MANYR FIELD

And colored.

PROCESSING PSIONIC MATRIX

A tingle grew a bit stronger, now, and her eyes momentarily lost focus.

SCAN COMPLETE

The display from before scrolled back over, replacing the strange mathematical or digital representation of her mind; a new window popped up, displaying her PSI-SCAN results. It included a fairly lengthy report on her "psionic physiology" along with multi-layered bar and line charts. Unfortunately, from a cursory view, most of it was technical jargon native to this planet. One chart that did get her attention, however, contrasted "telekinetic" and "telepathic" psionic attributes, each in turn being broken up by a series of colors that represented subdivisions of one or the other, like "empathic sensitivity" and "mass/energy CO."

Filing back up to the top, and selecting SUMMARY cut down most of the extra stuff.

It also gave her some more concrete numbers:

Psi-strength (mean): 125 (+/- 22)

Psi-skill (mean): 44 (+/- 43)

Raven stared at the numbers: 125 and 44 ... was that supposed to be good? Average? ... _'Below'_ average? Feeling a touch insecure for some reason, she reached out to contact her team mates, hoping they had already finished the assessments as well.

Trying to 'think' about talking to them, she thought out loud.

_'Are ... either of you on here?'_ She certainly hoped this would work, she'd feel quite silly otherwise.

The dialogue box from before popped back up, as if sensing her intentions. It highlighted Starfire and Ryouga, and pinged them, briefly displaying their profiles. Both names flashed for a few seconds… and then Starfire's turned solid blue.

CONNECTION ESTABLISHED: Koriand'r. A/02B (sSqd)

_'Greetings friend!'_ came her companion's exuberant reply. _'These machines are most fascinating, are they not? They remind me very much of the learning annexes of Tamaran in my youth!'_

_'That's ... very interesting, Starfire.'_ Raven certainly hoped sarcasm didn't translate in here. _'So ... have you done the test yet?'_

_'__Oh yes! While I do not yet know what the numbers mean, I was informed that my strength was sixty six. My skill was much less, but it also unlocked some of the most interesting little games! Have you tried them yet?__'_

CONNECTION ESTABLISHED: R, Hibiki. A/02B (sSrg)

Though she would never admit it, Raven was secretly relieved to learn that she was ahead of Starfire, not that she exactly wanted to be petty about it. She was a bit curious how she ranked against Ryouga as well.

_'No, Star, I hadn't noticed the games yet. Let me check.'_

As she flipped back out of the test to see what she was talking about, they continued to chatter among themselves.

_'Did ... did Raven just refer to me as 'Star'?'_ Starfire asked, sounding almost worried.

_'I - uh didn't notice. Sorry, this thing keeps distracting me ...'_

The three seemed to be hooked up, as Raven could hear Ryouga and Star talking even when she moved the display to see these so called 'games.' It wasn't hard to find the window: there were dozens of them, a few with familiar names, like Tetris. It just seemed a bit odd what they were doing here and what they had to do with psionics or psychics. There were several "card games" and "games of chance" as well. Another category were "co-op games" that ranged from – going by the description – putting together a puzzle with several other people to duels against the computer.

_'Hmmm, I 'have' to see how Tetris can possibly be a test for psionics,'_ she thought to herself. She moved to choose the game, when-

_'But, Raven, I was hoping that you might join me in one of the 'co-op' games. Let us do glorious battle against the computer with our minds!'_

Raven sighed. She knew that when Starfire got like this it would be impossible to dissuade her. _'Ryouga?'_ she asked weakly.

_'I ... I'm not exactly sure how to get to that point. Just gimme a minute. Where are you guys again?'_

Rolling her eyes, Raven just shook her head. _'Alright, Starfire, choose a game. Let's see how this thing works.'_

_'__Oh! Oh! It must be this one!__'_

Koriand'r. A/02B (sSqd) HAS SENT AN INVITATION: Duck Hunt 2v1 (Hv2.506)

_'__Duck hunt?__'_

It _couldn't_ be, but still, she accepted the invitation, the curiosity getting the better of her. The interface shuffled, and a new screen appeared, including a set of crosshairs and an extremely pixilated background. A small window indicated Stafire (represented by 'Red') was also in the game, and a countdown started. Her own crosshairs were bright green outlined by black. Both quickly appeared, with Starfire's already starting to move.

A pixilated dog jumped into the fake looking bushes with a loud 'Bark! Bark!' causing a green duck to fly out. Raven concentrated, but her crosshair couldn't seem to catch the creature as it flew back and forth and then escaped. Then…

Then the dog _**laughed**_ at her.

She immediately attempted to shoot the dog.

The evil creature was, unfortunately, immune to either her glare of doom or attempts to fill it with digital lead. The countdown resumed, and the dog disappeared back out of sight. A few seconds later, and it pounced into the bushed again, releasing another bird. This time both girls were a bit quicker. Raven could feel the slight resistance against moving her crosshair, and her eyes narrowed in concentration. She could see Starfire's red crosshair also moving to the left, trying to intercept the bird as it flew over. Raven was a bit quicker, however, and intercepted it in the middle of the screen.

With a shocked quack, the bird fell straight down into the bushes.

And the dog appeared, holding it like a trophy.

Raven's score on the side also registered the kill.

_'Ah ha! A most excellent shot! Truly, you are a natural at this game, Raven!'_

_'Heh, guess I'm just motivated to attack any green animals I see. Speaking of which, here comes another one.'_

A moment later, the dog's antics stirred up another duck, which began to zip back and forth across the screen, slightly faster than before. Again, she saw Starfire's targeting reticule strain to cross the screen chasing after the duck. Raven's crosshairs, on the other hand, moved slightly faster than before. Tip of her tongue poking past her lip, she concentrated harder, muttering a quick _'Azerath Metrion Zinthos'_ to focus her mind.

A second later, another duck dropped to the ground.

Well ... perhaps imagining it was Beast Boy had helped a bit as well. _'Hey, Starfire, how about you focus on the right of the screen, and I on the left. That way you don't have to try to follow it around so much?'_

_'That is a sound strategy. I do not seem to possess your natural proclivity for this endeavor.'_ Despite her somewhat weaker performance, the Tamaranian's enthusiasm did not sound at all diminished.

The next round, two ducks flew up, rather than one. The sudden shift caught Raven off guard, especially since they chose radically different paths and flew at different rates. Immediately, she ignored her own advice and fixated on the faster of the ducks, chasing it around the screen.

She just about had it as well - when suddenly it led out an anguished squawk and dropped to the ground! So shocked was she at the sudden kill, that the second duck made its escape scot-free.

_'Heeheehee, It appears that you disregarded our strategem, Raven. That duck was clearly on my side of the screen.'_

The cheer in the alien's voice was strictly unnecessary, and Raven grumbled darkly as the cursed dog rose up once more to mock her. The game had them repeat the round, and again two ducks took off. This time they stuck to the strategy, and by the time they unlocked the next round – another two ducks, but even faster and more evasive – Starfire's reticule has notably improved in speed and accuracy.

Despite the annoying dog that mocked you when a duck 'flew away' the game was still surprisingly addictive. The two girls cleared several more stages before accumulating too many escaped targets. The game then tallied their score and also displayed some of the existing top scores. She didn't recognize any of the name acronyms the other 2 person teams used, but some of the scores were… really high. One team in particular, "SPMT" had spent _way too much_ time at this game.

Ryouga finally joined them, and Starfire selected another team game, this time building a puzzle. At first, it seemed like more trivial fun, but when they unlocked a more complicated puzzle it dawned on her that even these relatively simple exercises built up familiarity – especially in her two teammates – with moving and interacting with things using their minds. She had sort of taken things like that for granted, achieving much of her progress through meditation and personal training.

Even Ryouga, who started off the least familiar with this sort of experience, quickly began rotating pieces of the puzzle and moving bits around after the three of them assembled the outer edge of the picture. It also built familiarity within the team, as they all broke down tasks to achieve a common goal. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense to – at least with these introductory basic training exercises – disguise things as a game.

Cyborg and Beast Boy would've _loved_it.

After some more warm ups, and with Starfire and Ryouga both eager to try something new, she suggested they see what other exercises ("more serious ones," though she didn't phrase it like that) were available. Back at the root activities menu, many of the options were still grayed out, but the available 'combat and training simulations' were too tempting to not at least browse through.

A lot of it required pre-existing training, but there were some intermediate exercises against the computer. Selecting the PANIC DRILL Raven was met with another disclaimer and an in depth description regarding how the exercises 'stimulated the amygdale' to create increasing levels of fear and fatigue. On her screen at least, she only had permission to engage levels one through three. Still… it was a possibility, and unlike the games from before, it had some obvious utility. She had heard that 'fear' attacks were common, and during their joint exercise, India Squad had even used some to sow confusion or make the Titans sloppy.

Shrugging to herself, she decided to see what her friends thought.

_'I think the Panic Drill sounds interesting. Should we attempt it?'_

Starfire seemed tentative for some reason. _'Are ... you certain that we should attempt to induce fear in you, Raven? It ... did not end well the last time you were unable to control your fear.'_

_'Hey! That was because I was controlling my fear too much, thank you very much, Starfire. Besides, I'd like to see what it entails.'_

_'Well, I guess I'm up for it,'_ Ryouga replied. _'Those guys kept trying to freak us out during the fights and it was getting annoying. I wouldn't mind being able to block that kinda stuff out completely.'_

Raven nodded to herself. _'I could probably teach you that myself, but this seems like a much easier and more efficient way to learn. It would be foolish not to take advantage of it as much as possible.'_

_'...Well ... if the both of you desire to do so, then I suppose there is no harm. I am certain that they would not endanger their own people for simple testing,'_ Starfire finally stated, still sounding a bit uncertain.

The lack of confidence wasn't exactly inspiring, but Raven would worry about that later. For now, she mentally activated the new, more interesting sounding program and prepared for what it might throw at her. It didn't take long to boot up, and then the screen presented one last warning.

PANIC DRILL MODE THREE

ACTIVE

A new screen appeared, completely black. It snapped in place and expanded, blocking out even the tabs and other materials she had gotten used to seeing to her right. Glancing to her left and right, even turning her head, she saw only darkness. She couldn't hear, either, and even the sensation of touch started to fade away.

Sensory depravation.

Allowing herself a deep breath, she tried to remain calm. Raven had no doubt that this machine could stir up something worse than even Beast Boy's movie, back then… 'direct stimulation of the amygdale' was how it had been described. It didn't sound like it was just going to try and scare her with pictures or words.

The emptiness of the chamber stretched on as she waited. And waited. And waited.

Minutes passed, until her frustration reached a boiling point.

_'__Is this even on?__'_ she asked, expecting Starfire or Ryouga to have more luck.

Seconds ticked by without a response.

Instinctively, she tried to tighten her grip on the orb in her hand, but her muscles refused to move. Growing a bit concerned, whether this was part of the program or not, she tried to phase back out of her chair.

Except nothing happened.

For a moment, she entertained the thought that maybe it really was broken. She couldn't contact either of her friends, she couldn't escape – despite seriously trying – and there didn't seem to be any sort of escape or off switch. Licking her lips, mouth suddenly rather dry, Raven took a few deep, controlled breaths. It had to be the program. She could feel her own fear rising up from within, a rising, irrational, animal fear, and she focused on keeping calm.

Then she heard the first scream.

It only took a moment to place it: Starfire. Her breath came in ragged gasps as she struggled before breaking down… only to start screaming again, this time in panicked rage. Ryouga's yelling followed just moments later. He could hear the Tamaranian, too, and started yelling and cursing as he struggled to escape and destroy the machine that had trapped them.

Despite herself, Raven called out to them, too, trying to sound reassuring. She couldn't escape either, and she could only imagine that was happening to them. Her pulse quickened, and her cool started to slip. It was one thing for this to happen to her, but Ryouga and Starfire had been more reluctant to even try this. It was her fault this was happening, and even Ryouga's reassurances and Starfire's renewed determination didn't refute that fact.

_'__Out. Let us _out_. Let us _out_.__'_

A long hiss from Ryouga cut off her thoughts, and then he went silent.

Almost immediately, Starfire started to call out to him. Raven joined in a second later.

Nothing.

_'__Let us out! Let us out! Let us out! Let us out!__'_

"LET US OUT!" She finally screamed, and _exhaled_, and saw the screen turn white.

SIMULATION TERMINATED: PANIC DRILL (M3)  
TIME: 008:46  
USER: Raven. A/02B (sSqd)

_'__You are done, friend Raven?__'_ Starfire's thought-voice sounded calm, though still with a bit of an edge. _'__We were curious how long before you finished. Was it most distressing for you, as well?__'_

Moving quickly, yet calmly, Raven pulled up her hood to shadow her features. Not that anyone could see her with the privacy hood extended, but it felt good to have something tangible covering her face.

_'I've told you before,'_ she replied, taking a breath to calm herself. _'I don't _do_ distressed. I just got bored waiting for something to happen was all... So, how long did you two last?'_

_'__I was faced with a most terrible predicament! I could not see or fly, and I could smell and hear a pack of raknars chasing me!__'_

_'__Ugh,__'_ Ryouga just grunted. _'__I don't even want to talk about what happened to me. Damn curse…__'_ he muttered under his breath, but enough to still be picked up by the computer. _'__I lasted about five minutes.__'_

_'__We have both been waiting for you for a while,__'_ Starfire repeated, but didn't give her time.

_'Well, it probably just took the computer that long to realize it wasn't worth the effort ... Still, I think we should move on to something else.'_

_'I vote for lunch!'_ Ryouga barked. _'All of this stuff is giving me a headache. Don't know how evil me does it.'_

Knowing the booth wasn't exactly going anywhere; Raven agreed and pulled up the log-off menu. It indicated it was saving the "session" and the holographic projection faded away, eventually leaving only the log-on screen from before. Ryouga had a good point; luckily no one heard her stomach rumble in protest; that would have just been ... well, embarrassing.

* * *

If Kasumi Tendo had one complaint about Seiran's off-duty facilities, particularly the base mess hall and commissary, it was that the food was overwhelmingly Western fare. This, despite the base being literally in the middle of Japan. Pasta dishes were always either spaghetti or linguini, cooked 'American style' with great globs of sauce and meat; aside from weekends, there wasn't a soba or udon noodle to be found, and when there was, it was usually cooked fried and overcooked in the wrong oil. Even the 'Chinese' dishes were basically just dressed up take-out fare.

Fish, a staple of a healthy, traditional diet, was typically served all of once a week, and because of the nature of Seiran, it was clearly not fresh caught. Other dishes were similarly either American or European styled: the 'pizza' was far greasier and more cheese covered than anything she had seen before back home; then there was the 'bangers and mash' that the Commonwealth and NATO based personnel brought with them, to say nothing of the 'jaegerwurst' and 'chips' that weren't chips and other strange dishes.

It wasn't that she was intolerant, and she had never spoken a word of complaint, but it was a bit tiresome after so many months. The only real saving graces were that the commissary had Japanese fare in stock, and that Nodoka and herself could cook up some proper food from time to time for their friends and family. Shampoo and Ukyou were both skilled cooks, and sometimes they helped out at the mess in their free time, much to the growing appreciation of the base personnel who always looked forward to a change of pace.

That the food was cooked by cute warrior chefs was probably a bonus, too.

Her own duties kept Kasumi too busy to help out too much in that area… plus, she had little experience 'mass producing' meals like the two martial arts girls could. Ukyou could make a specialty okonomiyaki to order every thirty seconds, and Kasumi knew she couldn't really compete with the younger girls in that field. With both gone, and Auntie Saotome taking a break, it was back to the usual.

Kasumi sighed softly to herself as she looked over the salad side dishes available. No seaweed at all… though there was kimchee. _Always_ the kimchee. Not exactly a perfect substitute, in her opinion. Using the tongs to grab a small handful of shredded lettuce and some carrots and tomatoes, she followed up with a bit of balsamic vinegar from the dispenser and then filled up a glass of unsweetened tea.

Akane was already at a table, and Kasumi could see her sister had – as expected – helped herself to a generous amount of the pickled Korean cabbage. The youngest Tendo had adapted to the prevailing dominance of Western foodstuffs much better than her elder sister. Kimchee aside, her plate was a medley of western foods: European style linguine, broccoli, meatballs. Greek meatballs, actually, which looked more like ovals than spheres. Kasumi took her seat opposite, overlooking her sibling's preferences; would it hurt to just have some miso soup or something, really?

"Itadakimasu!" Akane clapped her hands, and immediately went to task with the food before her. Like every day, she woke up at seven and trained until two, ate lunch, then went back to training. Kasumi knew she worked hard and couldn't help but worry a bit that maybe she was overdoing it, just a little, in some kind of effort to compete with Ranma… or Ukyou and Shampoo.

Kasumi said her own quick thanks, and ate more slowly, starting with the cheery tomatoes.

"So, neechan," Akane switched to Japanese, since it was just the two of them at the table. "How are things going at medical? I heard India went out the other day. I guess they weren't as beat up as they looked."

"You know those four," Kasumi replied, also going back to their native tongue. "Even with second degree grafts on, they just put on a few bandages and go back to doing whatever they like. Luckily none of them were too badly hurt. How do you feel, by the way?"

"Not too bad." Akane pulled up her shirt sleeve to show her upper arm, wrapped in bandages. She hadn't been directly hit by plasma fire, but had still sustained some minor burns.

"Just remember to be careful…"

"I know," Akane assured her, cutting into one of the meatballs and dabbing it with some of the pasta sauce. "I'm more miffed about not getting an off base rotation for another couple months. I can't believe Nabiki managed to get off base when she did. Lucky."

"We'll get our rotation soon," Kasumi replied with a supportive smile. "We could probably take a day to visit Nerima, too, if you're interested."

"Maybe…" Akane dithered a bit at the prospect. "It must be so quiet now, without… well... any martial artists around. Except the Daikoku school. Even Hinako-sensei and the Kunos are gone. I think it might be kind of boring. Plus… you know… our neighbors…"

"Yes. That."

They didn't exactly have many people left to visit in Nerima anymore.

Changing topics a bit, Akane asked about the medical branch, and Kasumi gave a short rundown of some of the stuff she'd worked on. Most of it was mundane: cell work, helping the doctors, overseeing the base supply of grafts and bioshop tissue culturing, checking in on some patients, spending a hour cleaning and sterilizing various equipment, including an entire stasis chamber. Akane's day was similarly mundane: target practice, some assault training, and then more weapons training. The youngest Tendo was trying to get certified for explosives and heavy weapons, the former presenting a particular problem for the slightly butterfingered girl.

"Oh, look at that," Akane said, halting her description of how she'd practiced on some dummy-explosive charges.

Kasumi turned her head slightly and saw what had diverted her sister's interest: it was Ryouga – the other Ryouga – and those two strange girls. They made an odd, and highly disparate group, when one looked at them. Dress ranging from bright yellow, light purple, all the way to blue so dark it was nearly black. And the rainbow of colors was matched by the rainbow of expressions and demeanors they displayed.

The red headed, alien girl wore an enthusiastic expression and all but dragged the other two by their hands towards the long buffet style setup. Ryouga, for his part, looked somewhat embarrassed, running his hand through his hair in a painfully familiar manner. The last of the group, though, wore a highly contrasting expression of blasé apathy as she surveyed the selection of food.

"Oh, friends! Look, they possess the mustard! Many varieties of it! Truly this place provides a most impressive selection of foodstuffs!" cheered the cheery girl.

"Please, Starfire, this place is an overrated excuse for a cafeteria... we might as well be getting hospital food."

"Hey, hospitals actually have decent food!" Ryouga spoke up at that, "Lord knows I've been to enough of them thanks to the simple fact that I even know the name _Saotome Ranma_."

As one, both girls rolled their eyes and went about collecting their food. Within moments, plates piled to various heights, the trio began to look for a place to sit.

'Shall we invite them over?" Kasumi asked, leaning towards her sister a bit. "It would be the polite thing to do."

Akane nodded, readily agreeing, and stood up a bit to wave and get the three teen's attention. Immediately, the trio noticed her. Strangely, the alternate Ryouga looked hesitant to join them, already turning to another table, but he didn't even get a single step before the orange girl - beaming a smile that put the sun to shame - grabbed his arm and began to drag him bodily over. Again, the violet haired girl just shook her head in an annoyed manner before joining her friends.

A moment later, the trio had found their seats and set their trays down before them.

"Greetings, dimensional analogues of our friends," greeted the redhead politely.

The cloaked girl simply gave a courteous nod of her head before picking up a fork.

Ryouga, on the other hand, stared awkwardly at his food for a moment, before offering a weak "Good afternoon, Kasumi. Akane."

"Um…" Akane nibbled her lower lip for a second, trying to remember the names of the other two girls. Ryouga was obvious, of course. "Raven and…?"

"You may call me Starfire," the Tamaranian answered, pre-empting the use of her other name.

"Pleased to meet you," Kasumi said with a polite nod.

"Same," Akane seconded. "We were just going over our day. Oh, but I heard you three got permission to come on the next mission?"

Starfire nodded enthusiastically. "Apparently we will merely be observers, but it is still a fascinating opportunity. We did surprisingly well against your Ryouga's squadron previously, so it would be interesting to see how we fare on a true battlefield."

Shrugging her shoulders, Raven put down her fork. "It's hard to get excited at the prospect of knowing people will be trying to kill you. It's not like we don't get enough of that back home."

"We never did get much information on what you guys did, back… wherever you're from," Akane observed, giving what was left of her food a break while she nursed her drink.

"Well, to put it bluntly," offered Raven. "We were super heroes. We used our powers to battle crime and protect the innocent. Most often, though, we fight other super powered individuals that use their powers for evil. Super villains, I suppose you'd call them."

Starfire nodded solemnly. "Though we might not appear as serious as the people you work with here, we come from a most dangerous world indeed. There are singular individuals in our dimension that possess the power to destroy entire planets if they wished. Only through great diligence and sacrifice are we able to protect our worlds from the countless threats we face."

Akane stared at the two girls for a second, then at Ryouga, who slowly nodded.

"That…" she finally decided, stars in her eyes. "Is so cool!"

She cupped her chin in thoughtful reflection. "Back home, I sometimes wondered if... you know… Ranma or Miss Hinako or some of the others could be sort of like Kamen Rider or the Sailor Sensei something. Like those American movies – Ranma could have jumped around from building to building downtown, fighting crime. He just never bothered."

"I believe actually looking for crimes to prevent may not be legal," Kasumi supplied, more cautious than her sister. "The Code of the Martial Artist, as I remember being taught it, also cautions against drawing undue attention."

"Which is exactly why it's so cool!" Akane insisted, and excitedly turned to Ryouga personally. "Ryouga-kun, are you guys like a sentai team? Do you have the green costume? What about our friends? Do you guys have a computer that tells you when there's trouble or do you just kind of run around and help anyone who you see in trouble?"

Shifting slightly under the sudden spotlight, Ryouga nervously nodded.

"Ah - um, a little of both, really," he replied. "We have a computer that tells us when crime happens... I don't exactly know how it works, but Cyborg and Robin do. And we generally go on patrols to try to catch the smaller things that might slip under the radar. I - uh - haven't had to many chances to fight much normal crime, though, what with things like that Atlantis fiasco coming up so often. That... wasn't exactly pleasant..."

"Robin and Cyborg?" Kasumi asked, her own curiosity growing (what did Atlantis mean, anyway – something to do with the Ocean?). It was all an interesting hypothetical, to get a look at a strange alternate world. Plus, frankly, the routine of the base was getting pretty stifling.

"Two more of our team mates," Raven explained. "Cyborg is actually en route here. Robin, on the other hand, we're not sure if he was even pulled to this world."

"You guys all sound American, well, except you Ryouga-kun," Akane said, and on realizing they were all speaking English, added, "You must've learned English the normal way, right? Then you weren't based in Japan?"

"Actually, none of us are 'American'," Starfire stated matter-of-factly. "I am from the planet Tamaran, and Raven comes from another dimension named Azarath."

Raven frowned at her overly generous friend. "Yes, and Starfire hardly learned English in the 'traditional' manner. She has a most... unique way of learning languages."

Starfire nodded. "I am now actually fluent in several dozen human languages and many times that in regional dialects. Though inflection and multi purpose words still confuse me, your planet does possess a most varied and amusing array of languages. It has been most enjoyable to try and learn them all."

"I see. Um, sorry," Akane apologized. "I just assumed… I mean, we have a lot of Americans around, and you all sounded a bit like them. So… what's this Atlantis thing you mentioned? You mean like that sunken city?"

"Sunken city?" Kasumi asked, not getting the reference.

"Like Yonaguni," the younger Tendo quickly explained. "I saw a TV show about it, but they said it was actually this island near Greece that blew up. Or was it off the coast of Spain? I can't really remember the details."

"Meh," Ryouga waved his hand dismissively. "It's just a city under the ocean populated by fish people. Real jerks, too. Honestly, help fight off an armed invasion and what thanks do ya get?"

"You know, you never did fully explain to us what happened down there. Why did you only give a full report to Robin?" Raven asked, curious.

"I ... ah, I'd rather not talk about what happened," Ryouga muttered. He then paused. "And, hey, Star, when did you learn _dozens_ of languages? I thought you only knew English and Mandarin."

In mid-bite, Raven stopped herself, eyes suddenly flitting over to her red headed companion. "That ... is an excellent question. I know when you learned English, but you never did say who you learned Chinese from."

Not looking overly concerned at the question, Starfire took another sip from the mustard dispenser she'd taken from the buffet.

"I was _instructed_ in many languages by Elder Perfume," she happily explained. "Her knowledge was great, so the learning process was... quite intensive."

For some reason, Raven's cheeks instantly began to burn red, while Ryouga just looked on, confused. Kasumi couldn't help but be fascinated. Learning so many languages so quickly? Starfire had to have a real talent for it. It would be interesting to see how she did it.

"The Amazon elder Perfume?" Akane asked, but didn't immediately notice the mortified look Raven was trying to hide.

"The one and the same," Starfire confirmed. "She fancied me as something of a protégé during our stay there. She was a harsh but fair instructor."

"You know, we have a Perfume, too, though she isn't really an Amazon anymore." Akane leaned in a bit, tone turning casually conspiratorial. "I heard she got booted out years ago. Ranma even mentioned she had some kids somewhere in the US… she was supposed to be pretty strong, Elder-level strong… but I thought she'd teach you secret martial arts stuff, not languages. How did you pick them up so fast? Even Psionic imprinting takes a few hours."

"Well, she taught me martial skills as well," Starfire answered. "Though Cologne was the one to teach me the Hiryu Shoten Ha. As for my learning curve... I suppose that a psionic component... _may_ be included."

"Hmm, what does that mean?" Ryouga asked.

"It means, that Tamaranians learn language via physical contact, most usually contact via the **lips**," Raven supplied in an embarrassed attempt at a dead pan.

Ryouga made a silent 'ahhh' for a moment - only for his eyes to nearly pop out of his skull a second later.

"**You made out with Elder Perfume?**"

Shrugging absently, Starfire nodded. "Indeed, for a protracted period. Is there some problem with that?"

"Oh my," Kasumi predictably commented, breaking the shocked silence.

Akane, meanwhile, seemed to be struggling to form words. One could almost see the thoughts percolating and bubbling behind her eyes, with bits of indignation, shock, confusion, all mixing with an ever escalating level of embarrassment. It didn't hurt that she secretly had a rather vivid imagination.

"Ah!" she finally managed to say. "Aa!"

Make that a _very_ vivid imagination.

"How nice you could be so close to your sensei," Kasumi said with an accepting and motherly smile. "In fact, humans experience something similar in our infancy."

Smiling warmly, Starfire nodded. "Truly? I was not aware of that fact." She then held up a cautious finger to the sputtering younger Tendo sister. "However, do not extrapolate things the incorrect way. On Tamaran, acts of intimacy such as that are quite common. And though I was quite fond of Elder Perfume, it was merely practicality that led to the arrangement, not affection."

The flame haired alien sent a wicked smirk Ryouga's way, as the boy was still sputtering.

"Honestly, I find humanity to be quite stifling when it comes to matters of morality and modesty. Why you repress your rather potent sexuality with such fierce determination still mystifies me."

"Anachronistic views of masculinity and femininity, I believe," Kasumi agreed. "Nonetheless, they are part of our cultural heritage."

"Yes, but I have read on your internets that..."

"Wait! You k-kissed another girl!" Akane finally exclaimed, and quite loudly. Shrinking back down into her shoulders, trying in vain to hide her blush with her hands, she muttered a quick apology. "S- sorry. It's just… sorry."

"Um," she ventured, a second later, still fighting a blush. "D - does something like that always happen, or, ah… or can you turn it on or off? It… it only works with languages?"

Leaning forward, Starfire dropped her chin onto an upraised palm as she regarded the blushing girl. "It is an ability which we can control, yes, and it does only function with language." She donned a notably naughty smirk. "Why? Do you desire to teach me a new language as well?"

"Starfire!" Ryouga and Raven cried out in shock, in perfect stereo to boot.

"No! I'm not a pervert!" Akane cried, hiding her face in her arms before pointing dramatically at the Tamaranian. "Don't even joke about that! Being kissed by one crazy Amazon is plenty!"

"Akane, I'm certain she was just teasing you," Kasumi gently corrected. "Fairly certain."

The younger Tendo sister sat back down with a petulant, embarrassed huff, her cheeks puffed out.

"I'm sure there are plenty of perverted MEN around here who would gladly take you up on that," she declared, arms crossed, still plainly trying to get her beet-red glow back under control.

It was all that Starfire could do to contain her laughter. "Please, accept my apology, Tendo Akane. I did not mean to embarrass you so. Though, I must say that you do present a perfect example of the repression of open minded thinking of which I speak."

Kasumi, however, did give a small chuckle, hidden politely behind her hand.

"We actually have a psychometry research program you may want to visit. I think they'd be very interested in your ability," she elaborated, giving Akane a chance to diffuse and calm down. She really was quite sensitive, even with her relationship with Ranma. It was just in the younger girl's nature. "If you don't mind, I'm a little curious if any of our family are also… in your business? You seemed familiar with us."

As one, Starfire, Ryouga and Raven all turned in to share a wide, conspiratorial smile. Finally, Ryouga looked up, finally giving an honest smile for the first time since sitting down.

"You ... could say that. Say, Kasumi, have you been keeping up on your training lately?"

The elder Tendo sister cocked her head to this in curious surprise.

"Not really. Just some self defense training," she admitted. "Why?"

Leaning to the side, Raven rested on her elbow. "He's probably just wondering who would win in a fight between you and our Kasumi. After all, Robin has been running her ragged lately with training. She's quite a force to be reckoned with."

"Heh, you don't even know the half of it," Ryouga added slyly.

"Kasumi's training?" Akane asked, incredulous. "Serious training?"

"Deadly serious," Ryouga replied. "She was with me in Atlantis. As I said earlier, it... wasn't a pleasant time."

"But why?" Kasumi asked, not truly believing it herself. "I... I was never really the fighting type." She looked down at her food, a bit shyly. "Not like you and your friends, anyway."

"I'm not really sure, myself," Ryouga admitted. "At first, it was just to defend herself, in case someone attacked while we were out. But the more dangerous things got, the harder she worked. Heck, she's still learning medicine from Cyborg and practically takes care of the entire Tower single handed now. Honestly, I don't know how she does it."

"The tower?" Kasumi asked, but slowly nodded. "I have to admit I'm a little surprised. I'm learning medicine myself, but... but I can't say I'd ever want to have to hurt anyone in a fight. Even if they were a bad person."

"Oh, we deal with some _very_ bad people, Kasumi," Raven drolled. "In fact, it was you - her - that actually saved all our lives on one occasion. We were battling a mad man known as the Headmaster, and he had managed to manipulate the situation so that my friends and I would be forced to fight Ranma and his friends, by holding our Kasumi hostage. Just as we thought that all hope was lost-"

"Kasumi did 'lay the smack down' upon the wicked, vicious man!" Starfire cried ecstatically, cutting Raven off. "Her brave and self sacrificing actions turned the tide of the battle single handedly and led to our victory!"

The elder Tendo sister smiled at that. "Father always used to say that the highest expression of the Art was to make the fight unattractive. To win the fight with peace. But I think we all know that isn't how things usually happen. I'm glad... that one of us could help our friends when they needed it most."

"I've never found anything attractive about fighting in the first place." Raven shook her head in wonder at that. "It is unfortunate that fighting war with peace so rarely works. Still, we've been quite honored to have Kasumi with us. She has made our home a much more... interesting place, for certain."

"Oh, indeed," Starfire cooed. "Always so willing to assist me with the braiding maneuvers upon my hair, and to go to the mall of shopping with me, and, of course, to use her mysterious powers to force the boys to allow us to watch our stories at any time of the day we wish!"

Ryouga crossed his arms over his chest, grumbling darkly. "Yeah ... so it's not _all_ good..."

"Wait," Akane interrupted, just now realizing what all this meant. "So Kasumi isn't home anymore?"

"Well ... no," Ryouga supplied. "She decided to stay in America with me after the final battle of the Hive Academy. The idea of learning how to do medicine from Cyborg and eventually go to university was too good of an opportunity for her to miss, I think. That, and I think she might have wanted to stay close enough to keep at least a bit of an eye on Nabiki, now that she'd set up in Steel City."

"What do you mean?" Kasumi inquired.

She could understand some of that: she had been interested in medicine herself, since she was seventeen, though that interest had originally taken the form of traditional holistic medicine like Dr. Tofu's. What really mattered the most was helping people and saving lives. A university degree was essential to that, too, so there was really no difficulty in understanding why the other Kasumi would be tempted to seize the opportunity, if given it.

What did he mean by keep an eye on Nabiki, though? And what was 'Steel City'? It didn't sound like any American city she had ever heard of. Did they mean Pittsburg? She did recall that an American football team from somewhere – possibly there – being called the Steelers. The months of Americana did seem to be rubbing off on her, if only by proximity and familiarity.

"Did Nabiki go to college overseas?" Akane asked, thinking much the same as her sister. "I remember she did talk about applying to some American schools last year."

Immediately, all three dimensional travelers began to shift uncomfortably.

"Ummm, not so much," Raven muttered.

"She ... took up a slightly different career path," Starfire added.

Ryouga, for his part, apparently just discovered that his food was the most fascinating thing ever, as he studied his plate closely.

"Oh. She must be up to no good, then," Kasumi stated, matter-of-factly. Delicately tapping her chin, the elder sister slowly shook her head in pan-dimensional reproach. "Oh, Nabiki…"

Akane wore a half-lidded stare, and then she sighed.

"I hope you don't treat her too roughly if you catch her. She's actually quite a nice girl." Then Kasumi added, in an innocent tone that only she could really replicate, "She just really loves money and power."

As one, the three Titans bore nervous sweatdrops at the strange statement.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm sure Kuno will take it easy on her when he finally takes her down," Ryouga offered in a calming manner. "They still get along pretty well, despite their differences."

"Tatewaki's looking after her?" Kasumi asked, rather mollified. "That's so nice of him. He'd always been such a good friend."

"Sounds more like he's trying to hunt her down," Akane observed.

"They used to play cops and robbers all the time when they were little," Kasumi supplied, still smiling. "Nabiki used to have the most fun."

"Are you sure Nabiki wasn't just stealing from him and making him chase after her?" Akane wondered aloud, shaking her head again. At least that sort of mischief had gotten nipped in the bud in this dimension.

"What about me?" she asked instead. "Don't tell me Nabiki and Kasumi get to have adventures while I stay at home with Ranma." For a moment she loomed darkly over them. "Do _not_ tell me that."

The three self proclaimed heroes began to whistle innocently and look at the ceiling above them.

"What? Really?" Akane was aghast. "Oh, that's **real** fair! Knowing Ranma, I'll probably just end up kidnapped again or something by one of **his** stupid enemies! I'm getting a little sick of that, you know."

If anything, the whistling grew even more frantic. Raven even pulled up her hood, while Ryouga began to fiddle with his bandanna and Starfire started smoothing out her hair. Akane's glare only increased, a few flicks of righteous flame rising up from behind her.

"Perhaps you should quit while you're ahead?" Kasumi merrily suggested.

"One day, the Akanes of the multiverse will have our revenge. Mark my words!" She struck a dramatic pose, fist in the air. "And then WE will do the kidnapping AND the rescuing! And we'll keep all the secrets from everyone else! But we'll do it without being perverted crossdressing hentais!"

"Of course you will," Kasumi agreed, and pointed at a chocolate mint on the youngest Tendo's plate. "Are you going to eat that?"

"Yes. Yes I am." Akane instantly reverted back to her normal self, protectively warding her sister's fork away. "Go. Shoo. Get your own chocolate."

Ryouga sighed, before whispering to Starfire. "Thank goodness we didn't tell her that Ukyou and Shampoo went on to be super heroes, too, not to mention Natsume and Kurumi."

"Oh," Kasumi suddenly said, mouth making a perfect little 'o' as she remembered something. Her brown eyes narrowed a bit as she studied the three Titans. "You know… you three remind me of something… what was it?"

The trio looked at her, uncertain what she might be talking about.

Akane joined in the staring for a second, before snapping her fingers in realization! It was so obvious!

"I see!" she exclaimed, pointing at Ryouga, then Raven, then Starfire. "Naruto. Sasuke. Sakura. Team Seven!"

Raven simply stared at her blankly; however Ryouga and Starfire immediately began to bark out strangled protests:

"What! I'm not some hyperactive brat!"

"I am **not** obsessively in love with Raven!"

For a moment, Ryouga and Raven stared at the Tamaranean, before quickly shaking their heads. Ryouga then turned to fire a weak glare at Kasumi. "How - how could you compare us to them? I-I can't... believe it!"

"Actually I think Ryouga-kun is more like Sakura than Naruto," the elder sister whispered.

"You think?"

Kasumi nodded slightly, speaking up again. "Yes. But that wasn't what I meant before, anyway."

"Ohhh," Akane seemed mildly saddened by this. She'd been so sure, too. "Wait: is it Helen, Deneve, and Clare?"

"Once again, I see what you mean, but I believe Raven is more of a Miria than a Clare."

At that, Starfire shook her head. "I do not think that any of us possess suitable personality attributes to pass for any of those three warriors. While they are also a trio for a short time, their dynamic was quite different from our own."

"Would ... someone p_lease_ tell me what the bunch of you are talking about? Sakura? Clare? What does it all mean?" Raven asked, getting somewhat annoyed.

"Yeah!" Ryouga barked. "Besides, I'm way more of a Guts type, than any sissy Claymore!"

"They're right," Akane admitted. "Surely you don't mean Shinji, Asuka and Rei?" she then asked, intensifying her stare.

"No. that isn't it… Ah, I remember! Ryouga-kun… hanging out with strange girls… one of them pale; the other with red hair?" Kasumi clapped her hands together in an epiphany. "Are either of you a 'rave party girl?'"

"I don't _do_ raves," Raven all but growled.

"What ... is a rave party? Is it some form of cannibalistic feast?"

Again, all eyes turned to Starfire.

"Ahhh, no, Star," Ryouga supplied a bit hesitantly. "It's a kind of dance party. Jinx told me all about them. She goes to them all the... time..."

"That makes sense now," Kasumi theorized, harkening back to the event in question. "Several days ago, I got a most peculiar call, routed to me from the Dojo. The man claimed to be 'Dan Hibiki,' cousin to the Ryouga we know, and he asked if I had seen Ryouga with any strange girls. What a strange man. He asked some very…" the faintest blush colored her cheeks. "Unusual questions."

In what appeared to be a rather common occurrence for them, Ryouga, Starfire and Raven all ducked down to confer amongst themselves. A second later, though, Ryouga sat back up, an odd smile on his face.

"Waaaiiit as second. Did you say 'Dan Hibiki?" he asked, to be sure. "I don't suppose this guy had a really deep voice, did he?"

"It wasn't super deep, but it was deeper than yours," Kasumi replied. "I assume you know this man? Our Ryouga certainly didn't."

Ryouga shook his head in amusement.

"Yeah, no one else would even dare to call Jinx a 'rave party girl', even behind her back. Not to mention the 'Dan Hibiki' is _such_ a Cyborg thing to do." He chuckled a bit to himself before continuing. "What kind of unusual questions did he ask, though? More questions about me, Starfire and Raven here?"

"Actually, he almost sounded like he wanted to ask me on a date."

Akane crossed her arms tightly at that and snorted. "Asking personal information over the phone? Sounds a bit creepy to me."

"Of course, I realized pretty quickly that he wasn't a relative of your family, since he didn't know your parents' names," Kasumi continued, not bothering to confirm or deny her sister's statement.

Ryouga shook his head. "Must'a been some kind of trick, to distract you from asking about me. There's no way that Cyborg would ask you on a date."

To his side, Raven lifted a finger tentatively. "... Actually ..."

Starfire just smacked him upside the head. "Even **you** cannot be so willfully ignorant to miss something so blatant."

"What!" he nearly shouted. "Blatant what?"

Eyes began to roll, and the violet haired girl let out a groan of disgust. "It is **blatantly** obvious, that Cyborg is ... _interested_ in our Kasumi. In a way that does not involve a mentor-mentee fashion."

Ryouga just stared at her. "Noooooo, that can't be right. I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed something like that. Cy and me hang out all the time! He'd have told me if he liked Kasumi."

"Oh, really?" Starfire inquired leadingly. "And how would you have responded if he had told you that he wanted to pursue Kasumi romantically?"

"What! No way! He's not allowed to date Kasumi!"

"That's right!" Akane seconded. "Kasumi already has…!" With an audible clap, the youngest Tendo sister shut her mouth.

"You can say it, you know," the older sister replied, but there was just a hint of frostiness behind her smile. "I'm not a widow, after all."

Akane drew back instead, eyes downcast.

"What about your world's Doctor Tofu?" Kasumi asked, her voice as even and controlled as Raven's on a good day.

The trio shared another of their quick glances. It was odd to see three such disparate people in such unison. Considering most of their friends could barely sit in the same room without breaking out into violence, the dynamic between these three was odd to say the least.

Finally, Ryouga just shrugged. "I don't know. No one's really seen him around for quite some time. I think he might have moved his practice, or something. No one really mentions him anymore that I know of."

"That's… a shame," Kasumi finally said, and left it at that.

"Yeah…" Akane carefully agreed, and then her eyes took on an evil gleam as she started at the one time P-chan. "You know, Ryouga, I can't help but notice you seem to have a bit of an estrogen brigade yourself. I hope you're not following in Ranma-baka's footsteps…"

"Estrogen what?" Ryouga asked. A second later, his eyes lit up in realization, and he sharply looked to his side - where a certain hooded girl was sitting - before looking back. "What? No, I'm nothing like _Ranma_!"

Raven just looked down fiddling with the food on her plate.

"The situation is," she searched for a word, but had to settle on, "Complicated..."

"It should **not** be, though," Starfire added, firing a minor glare Ryouga's way.

"Oh my," Kasumi said again, and quickly interrupted her sister before any dangerous ideas could take root. "Akane!"

"What?" Akane grumbled, getting the unspoken hint from her sister's steady gaze. "I wasn't going to butt in… much…"

"Heh heh heh, well, would you look at the time!" Ryouga suddenly barked. "It's time to get back to training for me! Evil Ryouga isn't going to defeat himself, after all!" Standing quickly, the dimensionally displaced fighter didn't even wait for his companions. "Well, it was nice seeing you two again, we'll have to do it again sometime ... gottago!"

And with that, the bandanna clad boy beat a hasty retreat, leaving four slightly confused females in his wake.

"But you didn't finish your food!" Kasumi, well, didn't quite yell, but she did raise her voice a bit.

Akane just laughed. "Evil Ryouga?"

"I'm sure he'll end up back here in a couple minutes," her sister stated calmly as her eyes settled on Raven and Starfire. "It's so nice of you two to take care of Ryouga-kun. I know from Nabiki that he can be quite a handful sometimes."

"Apparently more than a handful," Akane commented with a cough, and pointedly went back to finishing her food.

"We're having a little get together at the Dojo after hours tonight," Kasumi continued without missing a beat. "You three should come. It's usually quite entertaining."

"I ... don't know," Raven replied evenly. "I don't really do get-togethers. It would probably be uncomfortable anyway. Despite the surface civility, there is still an obvious undercurrent of resentment, or maybe borderline envy between both of our Ryougas."

"Who cares about those two idiots?" Akane asked, twirling her fork. "If they can't get along, that doesn't mean any of the rest of us have to take sides. All the boys our age seem to be fight-crazy morons, anyway, no matter how much they have in common."

"Well ..." Raven hemmed and hawed for a moment, until Starfire intervened forcibly.

"We would be glad to attend. If all goes well, perhaps our friend, Cyborg will have arrived by then as well. It will be most entertaining to introduce him to the two of you!"

"That's the stuff!" Akane cheered with a small, triumphant grin. "About time we got some other people under twenty five around here!"

A couple seconds later, all four girls went silent.

…Allowing a somewhat sullen Ryouga to take his seat with at least a sliver of dignity.

"Yes, _I know_. Not one word," he warned.

Not that it stopped Starfire or Akane from stifling giggles at his expense.

* * *

Shampoo's eyes betrayed no emotion as she made final preparations to head out. In the grand scheme, it didn't matter where in the world they had been sent to or who they had to fight. The approaches, the tactics, the mission objectives - those would all change to suit the situation, but in the end it was the same simple equation. They had enemies. Enemies were obstacles. Obstacles were for killing. A good and proper Amazon warrior no more worried about killing obstacles than she did about eating or breathing. It was a natural part of life.

She had been told by Seiran's base psychiatrist that this wasn't very healthy thinking. Shampoo personally chalked it up to a cultural difference of opinion. She was an Amazon of the Nyuchezuu. She had been born one and she would die one. Even if everything else changed, even if the Amazons themselves had to change to survive in the modern world, in her heart Shampoo was completely comfortable and at ease with what she was, who she was, and how she had been raised. When everything else became unsteady, the traditions and values buoyed by 3000 years of history would be a refuse against even the worst storm.

In her eyes, there were roughly twenty two dead men and women in the building designated by their Intel as Whiskey Tango-Six. They didn't know it yet, but they were all dead. Well - that wasn't accurate. If Shampoo had her way, not a single one of them would have survived the night. They were scum. Every one of them was complicit in working with the Cydonian Evil that had destroyed the Amazon Village. Every one of them was a criminal even before they consorted with a race enemy of mankind.

Ranma though. _Ranma_. Her Ranma -

He was just too soft hearted sometimes!

It was one of the traits she secretly found very attractive, no matter how naive it was. He was a gentle guy at heart; the kind who would put himself in danger to save a stranger, the kind to go out of his way to appease an enemy; the kind who would jump into a street to save a kitten, even if said kitten terrified him; the kind who was strong enough to live and die by his Code of Honor. It was cute. It was everything she had ever wanted in an outsider male. But that didn't make it any less stupid. She wasn't in charge however. Ranma had his orders, and he gave her orders in turn. No going through the obstacles this time. They'd go _around_.

_Lucky, lucky obstacles._

Tightening one of the straps around her right arm, the Amazon snapped and locked it in place, securing the modular plates over the bodysuit. The 'stealth recon' variant was very light armor by XCOM standards. It was mostly there for NBC protection and to provide an invaluable environmental layer and sealant. It wouldn't and wasn't designed to stop a high powered rifle round like a .50 cal or laser beam except where it had optimized protection. Which was to say vital areas where a hit could be fatal. It was meant to be light and fast and stealthy while providing a basic level of overall protection.

Their opposition in this case wasn't projected to have anything of note except for a few black market laser rifles used by the Russians. How annoying was that - to be fired at by guns based on models sold by your own organization? It made Shampoo privately wonder if UNETCO had been a little overzealous in its efforts to acquire independent funding by selling certain technologies.

It made proportionate response easier for Command to decide on at least. Standard loadout included the T-7A2 and MSG-90 6.7mm sniper variant. She triple checked all her gear and ammo before looking up to see how her partner was handling herself. Ukyou was just about ready. Ranma was already with the Russians at the meeting point. They just needed to follow the Lagoon Company and make sure they made it to the site.

Ukyou lowered her mask, and the night vision enhancement gear activated. Shampoo did the same a second later. It was very similar to the immersion accorded by their more advanced battlefield personal armor. Blinking a few times, she quickly adjusted. A switch deactivated the breath scrubber - something to save for later - and the two settled down to wait.

It didn't take long.

First the Russians sent their escorts. A pair of nondescript black cars drove up, two men emerging to confirm their identity. A phone call went through around the same time from the Russians, indicating that they were present and that the meeting point was under their control. Ukyou and Shampoo took this as their cue. Finishing re-packaging their gear they headed up and melded into the shadows on top of the roof. The Russians were already on the look out, and watching the roofs to boot. It obviously saw a bit more traffic in this tightly packed sin city than normal.

At least one of the mercs down below had an IR scope, too, and he was using it to scan for heat signatures up on the nearby heights. Smart. Even Konatsu couldn't hide his body heat, though Ranma could. The stealth suits were already proving their worth. As long as they didn't stand out in the open, they'd have room to work with. The Russians had some good equipment and training, but the night wasn't their ally this time. Not that they would ever know it, if things went to plan. Watching, Shampoo saw Lagoon-Four and Lagoon-Two enter their vehicle, flanked by the two Russian cars, heading out -

Not to the rendezvous, but to the harbor.

They had to pick up the package, an that was believed to be on their torpedo boat. It had been lingering out at sea as a safety precaution. Lagoon-One was a fairly cautious type, just like his profile indicated. The two at the office had been on the end of more than a few polite and not-so-polite inquires about their "new score." Some of the rumor had gotten around town, somehow. Something to do with talk at the Yellow Flag - some sort of mercenary hangout by the sounds of it. The Triads had placed a curious but non-hostile call to the building, but some seemingly out of place Columbians had made enough of a show of themselves to warrant an almost-amusing standoff. Almost-amusing in that they'd left before incurring the 9mm wrath of Lagoon-Two. A shame in Shampoo's opinion. She really did want to see this "Revy" woman in action.

Lagoon-One and Lagoon-Three were just pulling in on the boat when the cars arrived. Watching with a 5x-mag Shampoo confirmed the presence of the briefcase. Lagoon-Three handed it to Lagoon-Four, exchanging some talk about "trouble" and a few hopeful queries about what had happened at the office. Lagoon-One quickly checked with the two escort cars and then they were back on their way. Shampoo depressed one of the signal-toggles on her radio. Aside from coded pre-determined messages, they were observing radio silence. The Russians would be listening for anything unusual to coincide with this particular space of time.

Blue. Twice. _Package is en route._

Able to track the car with aerial recon, Shampoo and Ukyou didn't need to conspicuously tail the convoy. They only needed to be nearby and on a parallel course. It was also helpful to be able to run at fifty kilometers per hour when necessary. They typically kept it slow, moving across the rooftops and out of sight. This was where Juliet's special talents came into play. Even where they couldn't easily go over or across, they could go clear through, with the strength to silently tear any offending door off its hinges or even rip through a wall without an obvious crash. It was just a shame the storm drains weren't large or developed enough to use, or they'd have had that route, too.

Leading the duo, Shampoo paused behind a water tower on the next roof. The quickly signaled behind her to Ukyou: _trouble. ahead. map._

Ukyou had to be seeing it too. There was a growing concentration of heat signatures along the most likely route the trio of cars had to take. Ranma was already requesting an investigation. The information was in turn forwarded to each of them. There was an obstruction. An overturned truck. Very convenient. And all those "curious onlookers"...?

An ambush, was it?

How neat!

It appeared that there could be something interesting to watch before the main event. The Amazon made another quick hand signal, and took off in another direction, silently leaping clear across the two way street below. Ukyou followed a moment later. The passerby didn't even seem to notice. If they did, no one would believe what they were seeing anyway: a split second trick of the eye, for all intents and purposes. Certainly not people jumping around.

It was only a little longer, and then they saw the ambush with their own eyes. Cloaked by shadows and the darkness of the crescent moon night, the two women counted twenty one men. Seven in buildings adjacent to the crashed truck, but most on the ground. Impressively, the Manisarela Cartel had even brought in a jeep mounted Browning M2 .50 cal. The car was discretely backed up into an alley, ready to roll forward into the road and lay down fire.

Not too shabby.

_'I wonder how they learned about it?' _Shampoo couldn't help but think. _'I doubt they have any good electronic intel. Maybe they had an informant, or maybe they just took note of the Russians and gambled that tonight was the night. In which case this is pretty good for something thrown together at the eleventh hour.'_

Four million dollars was the price tag they had overheard. The Russians were getting a quarter of it. She guessed it was just too big a score for some people, like the local Columbians, so far from home, to pass up on. Maybe they didn't even know exactly how much was being paid, but with all this work the Russians were going through, it didn't take a genius to figure it was a lot.

_'What will you do now? We could always help out. After all...'_ She raised her laser rifle to her shoulder and took aim at the concealed jeep. _'It really isn't in our interests for anything crazy to happen... yet.'_

With an audible squeal of rubber on road, the trio of cars turned the corner, heading right into the ambush. Shampoo held her aim, Ukyou also poised nearby under a venting lip of an above-roof air conditioner. Both girls could see that the triad of vehicles were slowing down. They saw the accident. Would they try and turn around? Take another route? The moment they did, or heaven help them if they stopped...

Shampoo smiled. There was no reason to get so tense.

The roof of the two black escorts retracted, and a pair of men emerged.

_'RPG-7s, huh?'_

A pair of screaming rockets shot from the launch tubes in twin plumes of black smoke. It took less than half a second for the projectiles to find their targets, at least roughly. It wasn't a marksman's tool, after all, and the men were firing from moving vehicles. Still, one hit the truck in a roar of fire and flaming steel, mangling the exposed drive train and sending pieces of axle and tire into nearby storefronts. And into nearby people. The rocket's sister screeched over the obstacle and, at the same moment, hit the wall of the building adjacent.

Men crouched in ambush howled as the high explosive fragmentary rounds took off arms or pulped torsos. Others in the building tumbled from the blasted front, limbs broken by flying debris or concussed by blast waves. Into the mix, one of the Russian vehicles accelerated right into the crashed truck, hammering it out of the way with a loud crash. The orange car and the second black one screeched around, flanking and getting behind the group of ambushers.

Windows rolled down and doors opened.

Shampoo, decided, lowered her weapon. The M2 armed jeep had survived the RPG barrage, and just started firing when the exposed gunner flew back, a spray of crimson erupting from his neck and chest. Russian special forces turned mobsters advanced with practiced precision, assault rifles at the shoulder and picking off any of the Cartel goons who dared to try and press the fight. Shampoo's eyes focused primarily on the one exception: Lagoon-Two didn't even have to get involved. The Russians could doubtlessly handle it themselves at this point.

Yet there she was, smartly ducking in and out of the cover provided by the car door, taking shots at any and all targets of opportunity. One of the Columbians tried to get a bead on her from the third floor of the shattered building but barely managed to raise his submachine gun before jerking like a kicked puppet and falling out the ruined window. Another tried to run, and the 9mm gun-girl took out his knees and then put two rounds in his center of mass.

_'Her reflexes are good. Not great. Good though. She didn't hesitate killing that guy...'_

Shampoo's eyes narrowed hungrily behind her mask. Fighting that one would've been interesting! So much more so than the soulless aliens they usually had to worry about. While extremely dangerous and competent, there was no empathy there. No humanity. Challenge, but without Feeling. The Trenchards and former-humans were different, but few and far between, and on an entirely different level.

_'I guess she's used those weapons and that style long enough for it to be like an extension of her body... got a good handle on her blind spots, too. More importantly, she's got the right kind of bloodthirsty mindset, the right kind of instincts, and that can't be trained. I... I'd really like to fight her, even for a couple seconds. Oh well...'_

As the last bit of spent brass casing hit the ground, twenty bodies cooled in the night, evidence of the undone ambush. Aside from a single shot being spent to put a wounded man out of his misery, no one wasted any further time. Men returned to their black cars, and so did Two-Hands. Pausing just a moment to snap at one of the other male occupants of the red vehicle, she was halfway into getting back inside -

When she stopped, and looked up.

_'Hmm?'_ Shampoo thought, remaining perfectly still. _'I know you can't see me. Don't tell me you feel my intent?'_

"Shampoo," Ukyou whispered sharply, breaking their radio silence.

A short, centering breath later, and Shampoo let her intent vanish, like cigarette smoke in the wind. The older woman down below still paused, looking around, before yelling something back at her companions inside and returning to her seat. The door slammed shut, and the three cars peeled rubber before returning to their route.

"What were you doing back there, sugar?" Ukyou obviously knew the answer, she just wanted to growl about it. "Don't be a jackass! You could've caused us trouble."

"That one more sensitive than we thought," the Amazon replied, already starting to run again. "I'd say that valuable intel, yes?"

"Oh yeah, I'm sure the fact that you're both crazy bitches is valuable intelligence. Everyone will be so-oo surprised."

Laughing quietly, the two girls vanished into the night and continued to the rendezvous.

* * *

The car lurched as it sped over an ever widening pothole, destined never to be filled with anything other than sand and gravel. The orange Pontiac was sporting more than a few holes of its own, none of which had been included in the original design. It was one of several problems the current owner had with the situation.

"I guess the secret's out," Dutch grumbled, balancing an unlit cigarette between his lips as he sat on the passenger side front seat. Riding shotgun, he was also reloading his S&W Model 29 Magnum. "Could've been at a worse time but was it really too much to ask for an uneventful night?"

"Uneventful," Benny repeated the word like it was a curse. His hands were dutifully glued to the wheel. "There was no way this night would turn out uneventful."

"If this is all the trouble we have tonight... I guess I shouldn't have to complain."

"For a cut of the four million, it is only normal to expect trouble in this city," Rock advised, holding their precious, unknown cargo in the unopened briefcase. It hadn't been hit by any stray gunfire, not like it would have penetrated anyway.

The former salaryman's eyes drifted to his left, where Revy sat in unusual silence. She had a box of cigarettes in her right hand, and one popped part-way out, but was making no motion to bring it to her lips much less ask for a light. Instead, her amber eyes were narrowed and focused on some unseen object between her and the front seat.

"Revy -"

"It's nothing," she cut him off with a tone that was intended to amply discourage further inquiry. "Let's just get this over with."

"I'm rather eager to see who we're giving this to," Rock diplomatically changed the subject. "I wonder if we'll get to see what's inside. They'd want to verify that it isn't tampered with?"

"Hm." Dutch murmured in agreement. "Information on that's been far too sketchy. But I bet this situation brings back memories, eh?"

"Maybe more than a few."

The reason he was in this city, the reason he was dead to his family and his country, all stemmed from a similar corporate theft that was used for blackmail. Those secrets had been kept on a disk, taken by the Lagoon crew - along with a certain Japanese hostage. What secrets were in this briefcase that no one they had contacted had an idea how to open? The mystery was worth a lot of money to someone, at the very least. But it really was Balalaika's style to keep an axe over someone's head, not to just take any amount of money and lose that leverage.

Up ahead, cresting a hill, the tower that housed this branch of the Russian Mafia loomed.

"Dutch," Revy spoke up, still in a tightly controlled battle fury. "We go in armed or not at all, right?"

"Uhm. That's right," he confirmed, finally lightning his cigarette. "I don't like this set up. For some reason, ever since we started down this road, my skin's stared to crawl. Like there's a gun pointed at my head... I can feel it but I just can't see it."

Abruptly, Revy's thin, contemplative grin turned up into a savage teeth-bearing smile.

"Well, nothing to do but dive right in and see!"

"Getting excited about something like this," Dutch remarked with a sad groan, a puff of smoke leaving his lips. "I'd say that all but guarantees we'll be seeing more trouble."

* * *

Cyborg hummed to himself in a vain attempt to stave off the boredom of his flight. There was no one to really talk to back in the cargo area they'd stuffed him in, aside from a couple of guards. They didn't seem overly keen on chatting with him, though, and he didn't care too much to pester them. Worse yet, there wasn't even anything interesting to check out, either. Everything else being shipped with him appeared to be either foodstuffs, or basic supplies.

It was just another disappointment in a string of them. Why, if it weren't for the fact that he was told he was being sent to meet his friends, this whole dimensional jaunt would have been a complete downer. Nothing they'd shown him at the lab had been overly interesting, either.

Laser weapons: been there, even though true lasers were rarely actually used back home. Plasma weapons: done that, though there seemed something tad unusual about these ones. Hopefully he'd get more data on it later. And psionics, psionics, psionics. It was obviously the only metahuman they appeared to have, and they were pretty much completely dependent on it. Heck, he still had a copy of the schematic that Gizmo stole to make his psi blocking watches - what with the investigation and all - a little tinkering around with some proper tools and he could reconfigure his own system to incorporate the same ability.

Oh, he knew they'd love that around here.

The real question would be A, if it still worked, and B, if he could produce more. With the limited tech they had available, comparatively speaking, it seemed doubtful he could mass produce them, and with confirmation that this dimension had rather more stringent laws of physics - but, still, there was no harm in trying. It would be a potential boon. Tthat was, if the psychics back home were like the psionics here, which he wasn't sure of.

At least the alien alloy he'd been able to look at was a touch interesting. Far from the most indestructible material he'd run into, it still had a few interesting properties, especially in regards to energy transference. It also appeared to be massively reproducible. No need to mine for strange elements in Africa or whatever. It'd be nice to getting a chance to mess around with more of that stuff ... though he'd have a better idea of how to use it once he had a chance to actually sit down and run some proper tests. So far, everyone had been, well... _anal_ about not showing him anything really interesting! How could he not be annoyed?

_'Give it some time,'_ Doctor Kuffsman had said. Easy for him to say.

He was also a bit curious about this undefined group of 'aliens' they were fighting. They hadn't told him much beyond the basics. He'd heard they were ancient and had been traveling to Earth pretty much forever ... doing not much of anything, really. In fact, it seemed that, for a star spanning race, they were acting pretty oddly in their attacks on one tiny planet. They weren't doing the sort of things that made sense. There were no alien armies or vast fleets. Just... picking and poking and experimenting. It was weird. Sadistic. But still weird.

Seemed kinda silly to him.

If these aliens had wanted the Earth, they could have taken it over with ease even one hundred years ago. Instead, they'd let their ego blind them, and now the humans had not only caught up in the arms race, they were pushing the aliens back completely. It had to be a pretty textbook example of an advanced race reaching a point of critical stagnation - a bit like the Thanagarians and Gordanians, trapped in their eternal warring but never developing new tech - as it sounded to him like they evolved one speck in thousands of years.

It did pose an interesting question, though.

Human losses aside, it seemed like just a matter of time before the aliens were defeated, so what did a clandestine organization hoarding advanced technology do after the aliens were gone? Did they go from fighting aliens to policing humans? One thing was for sure, they weren't just gonna disband and go home just because 'the threat was gone'. Would they? No. No. Cyborg was sure of it. Heck, if this were back home, this 'X-COM' group would probably already be up to no good, even before the war was over. Of course, how they managed to keep an organization with members from across the planet working together was something of a mystery, too.

"We'll be arriving momentarily," stated one of the guards, having just returned from the cockpit. "You had best collect your belongings and prepare to disembark."

"Sure thing, man," Cyborg replied cheerfully. Not that he had any belongings, aside from the clothes he'd acquired and a few gifted components he liked. Still, he went about the business of getting up and collecting his junk. Since joining the Titans, he hadn't really bothered with an 'extensive wardrobe.'

A few minutes later, he felt the craft land, and another few minutes after that, the large ramp at the back of the craft lowered. Stomping loudly down the incline, unable to contain his excitement. He was even more pleased to see that he had a bit of a welcoming committee waiting for him. Standing not too far back from the ramp was Ryouga! For some reason, he was wearing a military outfit and looked more than a touch annoyed.

Cyborg chuckled as he finished his descent. He'd be ticked off too if that was all they had for him to wear!

"Yo, Ryo, my **man**!" The massive cybernetic teen swept his friend up into a crushing bearhug - not nearly as lethal as a Starfire 'joyful reunion hug', but enough to get his attention - "What's wrong, ain't ya glad to see me, little man?"

Hmm, something seemed a bit off. Did Ryouga feel a bit ... squishier than normal? Man, how long had he been stuck here before Cyborg had shown up? Had the guy gone soft on him, literally? Putting the guy down, he took a step back and regarded his friend.

Gasping for breath, the militarized martial artist tried to work out a few kinks before answering. "T-there's been a misunderstanding. Cyborg, was it?"

"Dude, you know who I am! What's with the funky games, Ryo?"

Taking a moment to smooth out his uniform, Ryouga nodded sharply to himself once he was satisfied he was tidy again. "Weren't you informed? I'm the Ryouga Hibiki native to this dimension. Your friends were training up on the surface when the call of your arrival came. They asked me to come and greet you, in case they weren't ready in time ... which they obviously weren't."

Cyborg regarded the man that he had _thought_ was his friend. Hmm, now that he looked at him, there did seem to be some subtle differences. A touch older looking, slightly different hair ... and contrary to the fact that this Ryouga didn't feel quite as solid as his own, he had a ... hard look to him. It was about then, that the whole of the situation clicked in his mind.

"Wha- Ha, dude, that's awesome! Not only is there a double of Ryo, but you're part of a super secret, alien fighting organization? Man, how did **that** happen?"

This odd new Ryouga looked about for a bit. "Well, it's something of a long story-"

"**Cyborg**!"

The excited cheering actually heralded a sigh of relief from the uniformed Ryouga, as his story telling was pre-empted. At the far side of the hangar, a trio of familiar faces burst in. Cyborg nearly burst into laughter again, as the sight of Raven, Starfire and Ryouga, all wearing hastily thrown on t-shirts and sweat pants, and their hair still wet from the showers was a rare occurrence even by his standards.

He didn't even got a chance to comment on the fact, as Starfire and Ryouga tackled him to the ground in a two man dogpile. Raven, being herself, approached at a more sedate pace, though ... was that a big ol'grin on her face? Damn, but she looked down right _happy_ to see him.

"Friend, it is glorious to see you again!" Starfire's cheer was followed by the girl floating back to her feet, and then casually lifting up both him _and_ Ryouga and standing them up as well. "We are relieved that you are returned to us unharmed!"

"Aw, c'mon, Star. Like anything's gonna hurt me."

"Oh, really?" Raven asked in an amused tone. "From what I understand, you're lucky you didn't get a bomb dropped on you, Mr. 'Terrorist.' Honestly, trying to hijack a satellite network?"

"Hey!" he barked. "I was just doin it to try and find you guys! Which I did, thank you very much."

"You did?" Ryouga asked, sounding frantic at the revelation. "Do you know if Jinx is here too? What about Robin?"

"Nah, I don't think so, man. I was able to track your communicators so unless there was something really messed up going on, I'm sure I would have picked theirs up as well if they were actually here." Cyborg grabbed all his team mates around the shoulders, even managing to snag a less reluctant than usual Raven, and pulled them into a hug. "But that's good news, ladies and gentleman. Lord knows that Robin ain't gonna rest for a second until he finds a way to get us back. Not that he's gonna need to. I bet I'll have us back before he even gets a chance to try."

"That is most excellent news," Starfire responded. "I grow most ill with thoughts of our home."

Nodding, Cyborg gave her shoulder another squeeze. "Don't worry, Star, it's all good." He then took a moment to look around the hangar, noting all the oddly designed ships sitting around.

"Heh, before that, though, who's gonna give me a tour of this crazy place?" He then patted his belly. "And, more importantly, who's gonna show me where the food is!"

His friends all shook their heads in amusement. Finally, Raven waved him on.

"Fine, fine," she relented. "I'm sure we can get you to the cafeteria without too much trouble. Just ... try to leave some food for the rest of the base, please?"

...

As they finally began to exit the hangar, Ryouga paused for a moment to look around curiously.

_'Hey, where'd evil-me go? Shouldn't he be... watching us or something?'_

Another thought occurred to the Titan, just then, and Ryouga remembered: without 'that guy' around, **he** was technically in charge of his friends. Was the native Hibiki's quiet exit a way of showing that the responsibility was now in the hands of his dimensionally displaced double? It was such a strange, alien concept, being responsible for his more-responsible-than-he-was friends. Why they all seemed to be pressing him to take up a leadership role, he honestly couldn't imagine.

This was definitely a hassle better left to Cyborg, if at all possible.

* * *

Konatsu was the first to see the "twins."

Perched impossibly in a dark corner, where one of the parking garage pillars met the floor, he was all but invisible. The garage was actually not a bad place to have this meeting. With the sheer number of trained professionals in this Balalaika woman's employ, the garage was a large, enclosed, controlled space that could be easily and effectively monitored. It was also right under the nose of their personal headquarters, giving them a substantial home field advantage. The Russians had also done a good job of clearing this level of any sight obscuring obstacles, like cars.

Their commitment was such that Balalaika herself was present to oversee operations. The tall, scarred man to her left had to be 'Boris,' former sergeant and her current second in command. A dozen armed guards were present, half of them in stationary positions, others split into groups of two to cover the entrances and exits. There was a fifty/fifty split between those armed with assault rifles and those with black market laser rifles. They were no where near the power of UNETCO lasers, instead using the safer (and non-radioactive) gas-dynamic variant, but they were still rather potent.

_'This would be so much easier if I could just turn semi-invisible, like Saotome-taichou.'_

Well, then maybe it would be _too_ easy.

Better than anyone, Konatsu had command of the shadows. The _umisenken_ used an exploit, a cheat - one worthless against high tech toys - it definitely had a place but it was probably best not to rely too much on it. Even without enhanced electronic vision modes and the like, people Konatsu knew had come up with ways to counter it. It was far from perfect, despite Ranma half-heartedly improving on it. The Art of Invisibility was harder, but in the end much more reliable.

And while a few others had greater skill in _Taihenjutsu_ (body movement skills), none were as proficient with _Intonjutsu_ (art of escape). Most of that was rooted in _Aruki_ ('walking') - knowing when to move, how to move, to the point of non-interaction with the rest of the world. It was, in fact, quite similar in principle to the _umisenken's_ 'traceless movement' but much slower and more methodical. Even with all the extra lighting set up around this level of the parking garage, there were still "gaps" to move within. Mental and physical.

So it was that he was the first to see them.

A sick feeling lurched in Konatsu's stomach as he felt their presence as well. Two of the three women standing alongside Miss Balalaika were not human. Well, technically, they were human, but only thanks to the body altering power of Jyusenkyou. These weren't just hybrids or cloned infiltrators. These were more actual Sectoids, disguised by cursed spring water and trapped in the bodies of humans.

The organization had encountered things like this before, right after the Massacre at Jusendo and the Amazon village. Aliens had attempted to pose as survivors there, hoping to locate Sanctuary Communities where the families of UNETCO personnel were kept. They had not been as clever as they had thought - or rather, they had stuck out a good deal more than they expected. Disconnected from the Mind by their transformation, they had become sloppy and obvious. XCOM had instead used them to bait a counter-attack.

There were more?

More aliens turned humans? These ones seemed completely calm and untroubled, too. Had they found a way to better train new aliens for their human guises, disconnected from the Cydonia Mind? Just by the look of them: pale white skin, dull black eyes too large to be normal, one with steel-gray hair and the other with snow white? Sectoids. Had to be. Which meant they'd likely retained at least some psionic ability. If these had been actual officer-class Sectoids now, in their alien forms, then they'd have sensed his mind approaching, regardless of how stealthy he was.

So far, these two seemed oblivious. The third was impossible to tell. It was covered by some sort of cloak. The posture said: female, human, but it was subdued and silent. Not one word since Konatsu had started monitoring things here. If this was worst-case, then this third person was another infiltrate or alien-allied hybrid. Best case? Who knew. Most were just happy to have a worst case that didn't pan out.

_'I have to be careful. This is trouble.'_

A pair of Russians in black suits walked by on their patrol. One was still dutifully searching around, but the other had clearly grown somewhat bored and was only going through the motions half paying attention. Konatsu slipped like a snake from one hiding spot to another, melting into shape behind another basement pillar and propping himself up to wedge between the concrete and the ceiling. There was a nice, dark little spot there that he could use for a while. A snake cam would be his eyes, discretely positioned tight up to the pillar and peeking over the side of the concrete and steel support brace.

"Do you see what I see, J-Two?"

A single green click of the radio. _'Yes.'_

"Hold position and wait for orders," Ranma continued, understanding the code as naturally as if it was Japanese. "We want to make sure they have the key. If they leave without checking, we'll take them when they try and exit the building. But we don't let that case out of our sight. If they open it, we confirm the package and then go in."

Three blue clicks. _'ROE Confirm?'_

"Blackout. Incapacitation preferred. The most important thing is getting that case and those two... people in there. Hold position and wait for my signal."

The whispered voice in Konatsu's ear vanished.

A few minutes later, and the first of two cars approached from the far side of the parking garage. It was a black sedan. One of the Russian vehicles. Five men inside. Opposition was now seventeen armed men, plus the Russian woman, plus her second in command. Both were only armed with sidearms. And the two transformed aliens AND the third woman in the cloak.

The orange car that followed the sedan came to a stop, soon disgorging additional potential enemies. Four more added to the list, though only two were combat capable according to Intel. So effectively twenty one armed men and women, two or three aliens, and two hostile noncombatants. It wasn't ideal. At the same time, Saotome-taichou was nearby, though it was hard to tell where, and Shampoo and Miss Ukyou were setting up to assault from the outside.

The Japanese male of the four Lagoon Company mercenaries carried the briefcase by the handle. There was no reaction from the "twins" at seeing it. There would be no physical trade on the other end. Intel had already identified that the payment would be electronically transmitted upon receipt and funneled to certain shell accounts.

This would be allowed. It was necessary to keep control of the situation, and at least right now, that included keeping things going smoothly for all involved and letting them get receipt of moneys exchanged. Four million dollars was a relative pittance anyway, and if it ended up being transferred from criminals to the accounts of dead men? Who cared? The only important thing was identifying where the Sirius backed accounts were so they could be shut down. These mafia types could do what they wanted... if they survived the night.

"Dutch," Balalaika greeted the Lagoon Company's leader, striking a cordial mix between professional and amiable. It sounded a bit like' Dutchy' actually, a fact Konatsu found kind of cute. Especially since this 'Dutch' character had the same six foot something build that Captain Banks did.

"I trust there wasn't too much trouble getting here on time?" she slowly asked.

"There were a few dumps in the road," Dutch replied, cigarette dangling from his mouth. "Its harder and harder to have a smooth ride through the city these days."

"Is that so?" The Russian mobster asked with feigned surprise. "One can drive around bumps in the road or go through them. When I heard there was something in the way, I just couldn't help wanting it removed now while there was still a good opportunity to make an example."

One of the pale 'humans' said something very quietly to the Russian woman.

Whatever the comment was, it elicited a sneer -

And a moment later, a frown of acquiescence. "Dutch. No smoke."

"Sis," Revy blatantly blew a sloppy trail from around her own cigarette. "Don't tell me-"

"For a million dollars you can stop smoking for a few minutes," the gangster said, her eyes closed. Clearly it was a decision and a statement she didn't enjoy having to make, or rather, she didn't like having to bow to anyone's 'requests.' Konatsu tried to read her face, but the snake-cam was too impersonal an instrument to get that kind of instinctive detail. No doubt the alien-turned-human had not made the request in the most polite fashion.

"Che!" Spitting the cig out, Revy introduced it to the sole of her boot. The other Lagoon Company employees did likewise, though preferring to use their fingers to drop their coughing nails with some dignity.

Again, the same pale woman whispered to the Russian gangster.

Balalaika snapped her fingers, and Boris walked forward, unfolding a metal table. Setting it down, he stepped back. The female Captain of Hotel Moscow simply gestured to it, plainly intending for the case to be set down there. The Japanese man, Okajima-san, then slowly and carefully set the metal briefcase down and backed away.

The two aliens approached it at a sedate pace, the third cloaked member of their group shuffling along in a less measured fashion. Konatsu noted that. There was some anxiety there. If only he could see with his actual eyes, then he'd be able to get a read on the body posture, even with those brown robes. Unfortunately he didn't dare risk exposing himself, even for an instant. All of the guards he could perceive were paused and looking on, now, their routes forgotten.

Hovering over the briefcase, the lead infiltrator reached out, pressing something down.

There was a hiss of escaping air, a cold cloud rising from the lid of the case. Konatsu mentally cursed... albeit politely. He couldn't see what was inside. He signaled red-one. _'Negative.'_ He couldn't see what was inside. Ranma's response was the same. One Red. Negative. But the case had opened. They had the unique biochemical key.

Any second now, Ranma would give the order -

"YES," the voice rumbled with inhuman contentment. The whisper shook dust from the walls and made more than a few of the humans wince as it reverberated in their skulls like an echo. "You have done as asked... these appear genuine. YOU."

It then handed something to the third figure in the cloak.

"For this purpose, you exist."

Silence hung in the air for a painfully long second.

"TEST IT."

**"NOW! NOW! NOW!"**

* * *

The lights died in an electric flash.

It was a second too late. Revy had already seen... something in the hands of that cloaked freak. Without hesitation, the lunatic had taken whatever was in the briefcase and jammed it right into her eye. And then, then the lights had gone out. Her hands were already on her pistols, the problem was picking a target.

Balalaika. Balalaika. Was she pulling something? Her men were the only ones with low light gear. No one else would pull this. It was the first thing her instinct told her. She had known Balalaika for years. Respected the old fry-face. She couldn't - didn't want to - believe that this was some kind of last second double cross. Why here? Why now? No. No!

It had coincided with these pale skinned shits pulling something. They were Lagoon's customers, but even 'the customer is always right' has its exceptions. The question then was: would Balalaika and her men come to the same conclusion or would they turn their weapons on the exposed Lagoon Company? No. If it was any other group, minus Chang and his personal cadre of Triads, then maybe. But no. Not Hotel Moscow. They were too good not to think before pulling the trigger.

The enemy had to be -

_'Those fucking freaks!'_ Revy tried to take aim, knowing where their last position had been, but there was only darkness. "Shit. SHIT! SHIT!"

Gunfire, a rapid beat fired from the right -

A strangled gasp. A crack.

"Captain!"

More gunfire, this time from the opposite end of the garage.

Followed a half second later by a high pitched whine and a strangled cry in Russian -

"Revy," Dutch's deep voice, strained and serious despite the situation turning to Hell, snapped her out of her attempt to get a bead on something - anything - and she realized she had backed into him. And behind him...

- the car!

A crack, like breaking glass -

"Y-yeah!" she quickly put two and two together. This wasn't the place to start tossing bullets around. Any second now, whatever fire control the Russians had maintained by virtue of sheer discipline would evaporate and become replaced by panic. Not since the war with the Triad had they been blinded and blind-sided like this.

Of course, they were leaving Balalaika -

No. They were leaving a FIGHT.

Elbow bumping into the car, Revy had still been engaged in a personal mental battle to make up her mind regarding Flee vs Fight when the question was taken out of her hands. Something hit the car. Not just: oh, a bullet hit the car. It was more like a RPG. In the darkness, she felt the metal behind her lurch and rock and lift and move. There was a squeal and a horrible crunch loud enough to deafen, and then the car surged and flipped and something heavy hit the ground and rolled.

"DIE." A thunderous roar split her skull, even as she fell and tried to roll away from the car. In the dark the voice seemed to come from every direction.

Something shattered, sounded like concrete, like rocks being smashed -

Debris hit her arm and face -

Finally, she caught sight of something moving. Her finger twitched, very nearly pulling the trigger. It was impossible to tell what was what. She had been right next to Rock and Dutch just a... a second ago? Had it been a second ago? Her heart was racing, her eyes trying frantically to adjust to the darkness, her mind beating against the insides of her skull -

Another thunderous clang, like a ton of metal hitting its match -

YOU

SUBMIT

Something seemed to reach into her, and her heart stopped -

_'FUCK OFF!'_

Another voice yelled, and the presence retreated -

"Mother fucker!" The gunman finally screamed. "What the fuck is going on! Sis? Rock? Dutch!"

"Rev-" Rock was the only one to answer, and then he was cut off. Muffled.

She whirled on the source, but knew she couldn't risk blindly firing -

And then another voice, not Dutch, not Benny, not Balalaika - came from her right. Where was that? It was hard to tell. Something knocked over. The table!

"M-m-" the voice was female. Hoarse. Pained. "Master. Master! MASTER! IT HURTSS! OH GOD IT-"

And then the air split with the sound of tearing meat and breaking bones.

* * *

So. It had come to this after all.

_'A-ha. You were stronger than you look, Miss Balalaika.'_

Konatsu still held his hand to her mouth. Of course, it would have been more polite to take out her men first and give her a chance to issue orders. That would have been the right thing to do. It was unfortunate. Unfortunate that he hadn't been allowed to be polite. Instead, he had to take the head off the snake. Incapacitate the leadership first. With the lower ranks in disarray, it was a much easier job to eliminate them. But it was terribly impolite and very unfair. Even towards vicious mob bosses. Didn't they deserve a chance, too?

Unlike the other two men he had taken out, literally in an instant, on his way towards the woman, she had reacted instantly to his approach. Even in the dark. Elbow to the neck, twist, reverse grip, then either elbow lock or twist and send the opponent to the floor. It was a good move. It was the right call to make, made in a split second when most normal people would be in a panic. This woman had remained cool. It was admirable.

Unfortunately, Konatsu was several times faster and stronger than her. There was no move she could have executed, with her body, that he could not have countered. Even in the light. Even if she had seen him. Her greatest strength was in her leadership and in her observed skill with a firearm. These had been stolen from her by a strategy designed to defeat her by an enemy she did not know she had.

_'It's sad. Sorry about this.'_ Konatsu let her go, and watched for just a single self indulgent moment as she slid down, unconscious. _'If you can. Please...'_

Eyes narrowed behind night vision enhanced optics.

_'Please blame the ones you deal with. Direct the hate you will feel towards Sirius... and their allies. They did this to you.'_

And he took her left arm, the wrist still in his grip, and twisted.

Crack.

_'Though...'_ he added, already turning towards the other threat nearby. _'You aren't exactly blameless either, Miss Balalaika. Please understand that as well.'_

"Captain!"

One arm deflected the still rising pistol. This woman's second in command. He would want to avoid friendly fire. He would not want to injure his boss. He was a good second in command. Konatsu admired that, as a man in a similar position. A lesser man - an unkind and disloyal man - would care about himself first. He would immediately draw and fire in the direction of danger. This man. This Boris. He did not.

Very loyal. Very proper.

Konatsu broke three of his ribs with one flat-palmed strike to his chest. It could well have been a killing blow. It was not hard to send broken shards of bone into the lungs. He angled his strike to break the bones on the very far left of the rib cage. They would heal. He would live. Loyal second in commands were precious.

_'Please. If you can. And when you recover. Please help Miss Balalaika. She's very lucky to have you. But... this is a dangerous place now. So don't get back up, or... you'll die.'_

Habu.

Habu wanted to be released. Konatsu very nearly reached for the hidden blade, even as Boris fell back, unable to let out the strangled gasp that ended with his broken ribs. He would be unconscious before his head hit the ground. Ripping his hand away from the temptations of his murderous blade, Konatsu blurred around, quickly catching the Russian man and easing him to the ground. He had gotten... sloppy. The broken bones were one thing, but he could have suffered brain damage by hitting the ground at that angle.

_'I've wasted a second and a half. Saotome-taichou won't be happy.'_

The woman was down. Ukyou and Shampoo were moving in. The priority now was -

TEST IT

That.

But where was it? Night vision identified the two aliens. One was cradling the briefcase and running for the exit. Another was reaching out, pointing at something with its palm. Where was it pointing? Ah. There. Two of the Russians were taking aim at the location of the table. Konatsu's body tensed to move, but bullets were already in the air.

_'Is that...?'_

And the bullets curved off course, like they had been intercepted by a narrow angled barrier. The spread of lead widened and twisted, going off target to hit the ceiling and floor. A telekinetic barrier. Konatsu recognized it. Was this a Sectoid leader then? How was it using such a powerful telekinetic technique in human form? Especially when it couldn't passively sense an intruder using telepathy?

The cone-shaped barrier narrowed even as the bullets missed, driving forward -

_'Geistlance?'_

Those two men would not be surviving. There were already casualties then.

Konatsu had never been struck by the technique himself. The results were not pleasant. Organs and tissues tore on the cellular level. Muscle turned to undifferentiated cords of mush. Kidneys, liver, ruptured, spilling toxins and waste into the churning blood stream. Intestine split, unleashing torrents of acid and partly digested slime. Lungs became pulp, instantly flooding with high pressure blood. It went into a body and through. A high pitched whine yowled from discordant air and psionic interference. One of the men gave a high pitched squeal. The other died silently as the telekinetic lance swept up and passed through his brain.

"Revy!"

"Y-yeah."

Konatsu ignored the voices. His foot hit the ground, hard, smashing a footprint in the concrete. The supposed kunoichi's mind raced. He could feel it. He could feel the alien feeling him. He would be the next target. It was already moving, the body struggling to keep up with the powerful mind inside it. The hand moved with glacial slowness in that time-warped bullet time Konatsu moved in.

Pale white eyes glowed in the night.

The left hand, nearly forgotten, was closer. And it pointed.

Konatsu juked his head to the right. Moving his left arm, a spring loaded shield popped out, uncoiling from around his arm. Exotic alloy. It didn't break. But it also absorbed the full force of the telekinetic attack, glowing white hot. The loading system for it was not nearly as resilient. It cracked and snapped like breaking wire. Like shattering glass.

Somewhere, something broke. Sounded like a car.

_'Saotome-taichou?' _

Maybe. Hard to see. Hard to think.

_'Kill.'_

Habu.

_'Habu. Would you like to kill someone?'_

no. No. no.

Incapacitate. Don't kill. Capture. Have to capture. Habu can do that too. Arms spread, and paper released from trapped recesses. And then it surged out towards the monster still holding its ground. Still holding human form.

_'Füjin Seikyü Senpu.'_ (Heartless Bill Whirlwind) _'Now. Please. Do just what I think you think you'll do.'_

"DIE."

Telekinetic energy arced in every direction. Concrete around the humanform Sectoid shattered. The paper flurries were caught up as well. Invisible energy moved from one to the next, turning razor sharp paper bills into confetti. It was perfect.

A blade scratched the Jyusenkyou cursed alien's leg.

Konatsu didn't smile, his focus intensified.

_'I win.' _

Even as the poison entered its system, dulling its senses, deadening nerves, interfering with muscle twitch... the brain. The brain would feel it in a moment, too. It seemed to instantly realize that. The transformed alien's head spun towards the wrecked car.

Ranma.

So, that's where Saotome-taichou was. He had the other alien, unconscious, over his shoulder. He also had the 360 horsepower, seven-liter engine ripped clean out of the front of the vehicle. Swinging around, the Saotome heir dropped the mangled engine, still dripping oil from severed fuel lines... and kicked it. Like a giant, half ton soccer ball.

The alien's hand was already up. Konatsu was mere inched away, his fist drawn back, he loomed up behind the pale, steel-haired alien. It ignored him. Instead, the hand discharged another geistlance, intercepting the kicked car engine. The projectile stopped, warbled, and split down the middle. That, too, was merely an inconvenience being removed. The real target - the target of its eyes, not its hand -

YOU

SUBMIT

Lagoon-Two. Flee a broken body. Control a new one. Send a fragment of the original in and take over. Even taking out the original body wouldn't end it. This was an Ethereal trick. Was this Sectoid above Leader-class? Either way, it was ignoring everything else. Konatsu continued his attack.

_'Saotome-taichou. Saotome-taichou will definitely... find a way to stop it...! So I...!'_

Not worrying about that, Konatsu took aim and struck, finally, unimpeded. The blow to the pale figure's shoulder spun it around, and the next strike to the lower back severed the spine. It would be paralyzed below the waist. Since it so wanted to use the body of a human, going so far as to use Jyusenkyou for that purpose, it could endure its first interrogation in a wheelchair.

Even as it fell, Habu's fangs seeped into the brain, and it went limp.

_'No time. No time to stop. Targets. Show me more targets.'_

He identified a fast moving figure, dispatching a pair of armed men.

Eyes shot to another direction, where another female figure was also tossing a fully grown man like a rag doll -

_'Where? Weren't there twenty one enemies here? What happened to them all?'_

Miss Ukyou. Shampoo.

How... greedy. They had been quite quick to take advantage, hadn't they? There was no one left.

"Mother fucker! What the fuck is going on! Sis? Rock? Dutch!"

"Rev-"

And there Saotome-taichou went, dealing with the last bunch. That gunslinger girl was still up, though. She'd backed herself up to try and cover her flank with the smashed car. In fact, she had a bead on the Lieutenant... and the man the Lt had just finished knocking out. After her, it would be over, though.

Wait, hadn't -

"M-m-" the voice was female. Hoarse. Pained. "Master. Master! MASTER! IT HURTSS! OH GOD IT-"

And then the air split with the sound of tearing meat and breaking bones.

* * *

The backup lighting picked a bad time to finally kick in.

"It - MASTER! WHY? IT HURTSS! IT HURTSS! YOU SAID-"

The red glow of emergency 'fire' lighting highlighted the third, cloaked member of the buying party. She had been thrown back into the elevator to the right of the blissfully unconscious Balalaika and Boris. Neither of them were able to notice the spray of blood and viscera that painted them with spots of bright arterial red. A suffering, shuddering hand gripped the edge of the smashed elevator doors. Not just the hand, the entire body was rattling like a cage.

Like -

Like something inside wanted to get out.

The figure fell to its knees and something - something bulged from out the back, pushing against the skin like it was a sheet of paper or a wrapping of cloth. Skin and muscle split, and even as the scream turned to a wet, inarticulate gurgle, the entire abdominal cavity ruptured, spilling coils and masses of blood soaked crimson. It splashed everywhere, more than a liter of blood spilling to the ground like an emptied bucket.

And, impossibly, mixed in with all that viscera, something black -

Bones snapped and the upper body shot off its hands, the head rolling around like a broken doll's. There was a vast empty socket where one of the eyes had been. Gums flapped from the gibbering jaw, loose muscles no longer able to help form words. Ribs snapped and arms flailed, and a hunched, black, clawed form escaped its flesh and blood prison. It was small. Juvenile. A mere runt, incapable of reproduction.

It was the source of the airborne horror that had been unleashed on the Amazon village. The ultimate Sirius terror weapon. A pygmy with special, modified venom. An abomination of human and alien science. It shook off the dead body around it and identified the closest conscious, unguarded human. It could not reproduce, yet it had the same hunger that consumed any of its vile race.

Revy didn't know or understand any of this.

Any normal human being would have been paralyzed with fear, even as the black crab-like creature, only the size of a dog, leapt up and towards her. It was madness. What was she was being forced to see? Better to be blind and in the dark. What kind of thing was this? What the hell was she seeing? What the fuck was happening in front of her eyes?

Revy didn't think this, not right away.

The lights were back on. She saw things she could shoot. A man, in dark fatigues of some sort, still holding Rock with one hand. The other, strangely, was starting to glow. Another person, too, in the same gear, standing over one of the pale freaks. Others, at the very edge of her perception, raising weapons.

_'TEST IT.'_

Those words, that pressure on her head -

These were her thoughts. In that split second, the targets queued up. Naturally, the horrific black nightmare fuel had top billing. Her twin 9mm Cutlasses were already drawn, and already roughly in that direction. Her aim adjusted without being asked, her muscle memory one step ahead of her synapses. Bullets left the barrel as she squeezed the trigger.

_'So fast!' _

It was already nearly in front of her, having bounced off the ceiling. She missed the first two times, but up close, heading right into her - these shots she didn't miss. Hot lead flattened against newborn alien carapace. It was still pliant, still wet from the bloody agony of its birth, like a soft shelled crab. It did not care. It hungered. It wanted something equally soft to penetrate; envenomate; infect. Something conscious. Something living. Something that smelt and tasted of terror. It was no simple physical parasite. To a Chryssalid, there was nothing more attractive than the horror in another living being as it became a vessel for the birth of a new Chryssalid: a meat puppet marionette.

The monstrosity, blinded by its lust and hunger, took the bullets to the body, uncaring for its vulnerability. Mindless. There was no tempering connection to the Mind to demand restraint or caution. Hunger.

Rather than bounce off, the meager nine-millimeter rounds flattened, squashed, and ultimately punched through. One, then two, then three and four rounds hit home. Black, chitinous legs hit the ground, skittered - still driven by the impulse of a brain riddled with substantial lead implants. Here, it stopped for just a moment, dazed but upright. Claws opened, reaching for her, and a macabre grinning face set into the black shell parted, revealing a hundred tiny needle teeth.

She emptied two more bullets right into that maw, sending it onto its back.

Revy's entry body shook, barely able to stop firing, barely able to process what was going on. The smoking corpse of the black parasite twitched and curled, like a spider's corpse touched by a flame. Steam rose from pools of festering blood.

"Wow! That was pretty amazing, neechan."

The Japanese threw her for a second, before she realized she speaker was the man holding Rock up by one arm. Unconscious. The other arm was a blazing bonfire of blue, streamers of light wound around an obscured hand. Without pausing, fast as muscle twitch, she adjusted her aim -

And then everything fell away in a wave of white.

* * *

"Ho, man, what a mess!"

Ranma Saotome, running for Understatement of the Month. The fight itself was over. Now they had to deal with the aftermath. Clean up and the inevitable policing of bodies was among the most disliked tasks of the XCOM grunt, no matter the op. It was messy and thankless and tiresome. In this case, it also involved him quickly deciding what to 'get rid of' and how to cover their tracks.

Konatsu was already overseeing the easy stuff with Ukyou's help. The two aliens were already restrained and psi-blocked, especially the now-crippled leader of the pair. That crazy Ethereal-class TK in a human body would have to be looked into. The little bullet ridden mutant Chryssalid would also be taking a ride in the black helicopter, albeit packed neatly into a vacuum sealed bag.

The Russians...

Well, they didn't want them to die, and there were reinforcements heading over to investigate. For once, the police weren't within spitting distance. They'd probably been told not to interfere anywhere nearby by their mafia buddies. The scarred chick had a broken arm, and her majordomo had some broken ribs. Konatsu had handled them, though, so they'd be basically fine after some time in the hospital. The last thing they'd remember would be their two pale-haired 'guests' saying "test it" and then jamming some god damned monster egg into one of their eyes.

That wasn't a problem really. In fact, Miss Russian Captain and the rest of the Mob would probably be rather disinterested in the next Sirius related job send in from their boss back in Moscow. That was if this "Slevenin" or whatever his name was even survived the week. Once they had evidence that he was yet another Sirius aligned conspirator, even the most corrupt politicians in Mother Russia wouldn't be able to pull his ass out of the fire.

As long as they didn't hang around drinking tea and munching on onigiri they'd be gone before anyone saw them. Wrap up the alien corpses and captures. No weapons to confiscate. Oh: there was the briefcase, too. Technically, he should probably just burn anything and everything he couldn't take for himself. Thermate did a great job of covering up Things That Must Not Be Seen. Can't torch the whole building though, not if you wanted to expect the Russkies to survive.

More pressing, there was the duel wielding action girl at his feet.

_'What to do? What to do?'_

None of her buddies had seen anything. They'd gone down according to plan. But this one, the most troublesome one in fact, had seen quite a bit. A little creative memory alteration was a strong possibility, as much as he disliked doing that to people.

"You could always put bullet in brain," Shampoo suggested, handily offering her sidearm. "No cause us problems then."

"Hm."

"She is pirate. Shoot many mens just tonight," the Amazon reminded her commanding officer. "Not nice girl."

Shaking his head, he chenched a fist and powered up his psi-amp, hesitating -

"Aire-" Shampoo quickly caught herself. He did not like her using that word while on duty, just like he insisted Ukyou not use 'Ran-chan.' Off duty, fine. But not on.

"Lieutenant," she said, leaning closer as if to share a secret. "You can not save everyone all the time. This one -" The masked Amazon pointed with the butt of her sidearm down at the unconscious Revy. "No needs saving anyway. Not like you thinking of. She strong enough to leave here if she want to."

She nudged the unconscious Mister Okajima with her boot.

"That one, too."

The pigtailed one continued to stare down, his expression hidden by his mask and nightvision gear.

"It was..." he said, after a few introspective seconds. "Really pretty amazing shooting. But... but its probably better you forget you ever did it. I ain't sorry 'bout the other stuff, but I am sorry 'bout this. A person should never be forced to forget doing somethin' really cool."

The back of the psi-amp glowed faintly, and without fanfare, he imposed his will.

"If I'm still around after the war..." he said, kneeling down. "And if yer still alive after goin back to bein a pirate and stuff, I promise I'll come by and tell ya what ya did."

And it was done.

...

The black helicopter landed and lifted off in a deserved field miles from the city.

Ukyou and Shampoo were the first, with permission, to remove their stifling stealth suit masks and eyewear. Both girls spared no time freeing their hair and breathing in the fresh air. They were chatty post-mission, a quirk Ranma had come to accept. After a little while it would morph into bickering and then they'd fight for a bit and 'refuse to talk' to one another. A state that would last all of a couple hours.

Konatsu was quiet, as usual, and took a seat near the captured Jyusenkyou cursed aliens. The two were tied up and wrapped like mummies, not to mention being sedated and psi suppressed enough to turn a herd of buffalo catatonic. The Chryssalid was dead. Hopefully. Well, it wasn't _moving_. Everyone had one eye on the body bag, though.

_Little monster._

"Well, Saotome... not exactly the super stealthy in and out I was expecting."

"Acting Major, sir," Ranma inclined his head to the ranking officer standing in the copter's passenger compartment. When he'd seen the man waiting for them, it had been pretty clear that CIC already had an idea of what had gone down. Even if they were mostly off the grid.

"But, sir," the martial artist continued with a weak grin, having just removed his mask and nightvision kit. "What were our mission objectives again? Capture the infiltrators? Make sure you have the biochem key? And the briefcase? Which, by the way, is full of those little easter eggs. And now we know what comes out of them, too. I gotta feeling people ain't gonna be too unhappy with how things turned out."

"How distasteful," Slade Wilson summarized the entire affair. "We'll debrief at the USS Boxer."

"I also don't see any other helicopters descending down like the wrath of god," Ranma couldn't help but add, as the man turned to face the front of the copter and find a seat.

"Hmm?" the older man inquired, raising a scarred eyebrow. "Oh, that." A brief pause. "No. No need for that anymore."

"Too bad, huh?"

"Yes, too bad. But..." The scarred old warrior favored the young lieutenant with a mirthless, murderous smile. "Don't think you've done this city any favors. I guess I'll watch... as it becomes a warzone again. With those Soviets bleeding in the water, the sharks will start circling. None of Uncle Sam's business this time, either, no matter how bad it gets."

"Acting Major," Ranma spoke up, his voice completely serious for once. "You probably assumed my team would mess up and you'd get a chance to have some fun down there. Maybe settle some kind of old score. I don't care about whatever grudge you might have, but don't underestimate me or Juliet Squad. We're actually pretty good."

The older man still had his back to the Saotome heir, so Ranma couldn't see his face.

"Kid," he finally said, forgoing rank.

"Huh?"

"You're going to Cydonia, aren't you? You know about Cleanslate, don't you?" Slade Wilson turned just a bit at that question, just enough to see his face in profile. Ranma didn't answer right away, but he didn't have to. The older man nodded slowly.

"Cydonia's a death trap," the Acting Major explained, his body frozen in place. "We're only supposed to fight our way deep enough to nuke it to oblivion. Cleanslate is a one way trip."

"It isn't!" Ranma snapped back, on the verge of standing up. "We ain't gonna die. We're gonna win!"

The superior officer swayed a bit at the helicopter turned. By this point, Shampoo, Ukyou, even Konatsu were silent and listening in on the conversation. A conversation that had slipped the bounds of their non-commissioned security clearance. Seeing them, Ranma's resolve solidified. He opened his mouth to object -

"You'll be moving out in a few hours. There's another emergency up north."

"Major -"

"Settle your grudges while you still can," the man advised, still not turning around. "And make sure your family knows what you died for. Lieutenant."

And then he retreated to the forward pilot's compartment.

Three sets of eyes turned to their leader, worried by what they'd heard. Not a one of them actually had to say anything. It was as clear as day, written on their faces. Ranma stood tall inside the copter, looking seriously from one to the next. It didn't take a psi amp to realize that they expected him to say something. They needed him to.

"Look, it ain't true," he said, looking them all in the eye. "No matter how bad things get. I ain't gonna lose my team on some mission like that. Mars? The Moon?" He shrugged dismissingly. "Whatever. We'll win. And we'll go home. Each one of us. You guys got that?"

The three were quiet, so Ranma barked at them. "I said: did. you. get. that?"

"Yes sir!" All three barked back.

"Good!" Ranma looked over his team and smiled. "Good."

...

Only for Ukyou to suddenly squeak like a scared mouse. "Oh my god! That old guy is still locked in the closet!"

* * *

A frown settled on the sorceress' lips as she ran.

It wasn't exhaustion that troubled Jinx, though. Her current effort could barely be considered jogging compared to her nightly runs with Happosai ... but Akari's pace seemed to be slowing by the minute. Jinx couldn't even recall how long the pair of them had been running, just trying to get out of range of the alien ships Mind Probes, or whatever Akari had called them. To be fair, the pig breeder was keeping pace better than any normal possibly could, a testament to her alien abilities, but it seemed that her creators had focused more on environmental resistance than long-term endurance.

Were they anywhere near the town at all? How much longer could they possibly last? Would she actually need to follow through on her promise to carry the other girl?

An odd sort of low ominous buzzing sound began to whine at the edges of Jinx's hearing. More of an annoyance than anything, but it was causing that familiar sense of apprehension to build in her stomach again.

"Umm, Akari ... I don't suppose you wanna pick up the pace again?" Jinx asked, letting a bit of worry enter her voice. "It might just be the paranoid delusions speaking, but I'm getting a 'bad' feeling about something..."

"Ryouga-sama often told me," the other girl managed to say, as she kept running, kicking up snow with her bear feet. "Martial artists have a danger sense. Sakkijutsu he called it." She quickly looked up at the canopy of frozen branches above. "I don't feel any other aliens nearby..."

Huffing for air, Jinx glared at the other girl. "I really wish you'd stop making up words to try and impress me. I don't know how a Sack of Justus would help here, but all I know is that I really think we need to get out of here. Don't you hear that buzzing sound?"

Akari stared at Jinx for a few seconds.

_'Is she really the apprentice to one of the world's most powerful martial artists? What did that pervy old man teach her?'_ She shook her head vigorously. It was probably best not to dwell too much on exactly what sort of training the other girl must have endured under that particular master.

"Wait, buzzing sound?" The hybridized girl suddenly stopped, and ran over to flatten herself against a tree. Jinx did likewise, trusting something she had said must've sunk in.

"What is it?" the pink haired sorceress asked, looking through the thickly overgrown forest around them. "Akari?"

"I think its a Cyberdisc..." Akari wasn't looking around, she was looking up. "It's like a small UFO. If they're out here, it means they've given up on catching us. They'll just try and pick us off."

Jinx gave a bored shrug in response.

"So what's the big deal then?" she asked. "I've dealt with military hardware before. We'll just use the same tactic we did on the Floater guy. As long as these things can't play relay for that bitch back at the base, then all I gotta do is get inside their range to take 'em apart."

"Even if you get close and managed to damage one," Akari quickly explained. "They're designed to explode on death. I don't think even Ryouga-sama, as tough as he is, would survive being near one when it went off."

"But!" she added, remembering a slight up side. "The Commander won't be able to use one as a proxy to attack our minds again. Not directly. That's... some good news at least."

"That's nice, but... they _explode_ when they die? Oh, for freak's sake." The sorceress quickly considered their options, then grabbed Akari's wrist and pulled her close. "Alright, we need to move quickly then, and you're moving too slow to do that. So get on my back, I'll see if I can't create some distance between us and them."

"Are you sure?" Akari asked, knowing it would slow the younger girl down.

"... It's good that you've come to terms with your weight issues, Akari, but now isn't the time." With that, she hefted the taller girl onto her back. The warmth of her body, and the heft were both slightly uncomfortable, but nothing that the sorceress couldn't handle. For now, anyway.

"Why don't I show you what Happosai taught me about running while carrying a heavy load. Granted, you're not a bag of underwear, but the principle is the same."

Taking a deep breath, Jinx crouched down onto all fours, then pushed off with all the strength her narrow legs had to offer. A burst of snow kicked up into the air, the pair of them careening through the woods at breakneck speed.

The former villainess had trained for most of her life to be nimble and fast on her feet, but Happosai's "roof jumping" training had still been among the hardest she could imagine. Not only had it pushed her balance and mental focus to its limit, but burned her body to exhaustion time and time again. It was - she knew - one of the things that really separated her from people like Shampoo, who had been doing this since they could punch and kick their way out of the crib: endurance. Her body still wasn't at the insane level of conditioning where she could perform impossible martial arts feats for hours on end.

Akari was hardly a bad as the iron weights and bags full of unmentionables she had trained with, but Jinx also wasn't exactly fighting fresh to begin with. She was hungry, cold, tired and still - she had to admit - a bit mentally shocked from before, even after having had time to rest and recuperate. Her legs burned in protest as she put them through the familiar sensations drilled into her by her master.

"Ah!" Akari held tightly onto her. "This is...!"

Jinx never heard her finish the sentence. No doubt she was spouting off another Japanese word that she should know by now that the younger girl wouldn't recognize. Maybe when they got to the town and had a chance to rest, Jinx could indulge the robed girl and find out just what some of her martial arts babble translated to in plain English. She was a meta-human but she was a martial artist too, now. Happosai just hadn't wasted time lecturing her with all the metaphysical mumbo-jumbo and technical BS of the trade, for which Jinx was thankful, but it wouldn't hurt to pick up on some of the less-practical stuff she had skipped-over some time.

Another leap took the two of them higher as Jinx focused on jumping from tree trunk to tree trunk, bypassing the snow covered ground. She needed more solid surfaces to push off of to conserve energy. The thick trunks weren't ideal - most being perpendicular to the ground - but they were better than the alternative. They had just made a particularly long "roof jump" when a bright, almost blinding flash engulfed a tree to their right.

Jinx dove down as a cloud of burning splinters radiated out from the cored tree trunk.

Swallowing down the initial surge of panic that threatened to disrupt her mental focus, she kept her forward momentum and looked over her shoulder. There was the Cyberdisc that Akari had warned her of, hovering easily above the tops of the trees. It was very much what the hybrid girl had promised: a circular disc, fatter in the middle than at the edges, composed of the same silvery grey metal that the ships were. The only defining feature of the thing, asides from being nearly eight feet in diameter and only three feet at most at the thickest, was the glowing red ring that ran along its equator.

Speaking of which, the red ring began to glow brighter, before two points of light, swinging around from the back of the disc converged into a single flare of crimson.

The familiar sense of _**run**_ that her mind all but screamed was completely redundant at that point. She quickly dove to the side, seconds before a lance of highly charged particles slammed into the ground. Snow was melted to water and vaporized to gas in a fraction of a second and the hard packed earth detonated like a bomb sending fused-to-glass debris out in an omnidirectional spray of murderous party favors. The girl's crashed into the snow several yards away, Akari's weight overbalancing them more than Jinx was used to.

Jinx was barely able to get her feet back under her and Akari draped back over her shoulders before the alien weapon's ... weapon ... began to glow again.

_'Damn...! It can shoot again that fast?'_

Kicking off for all that she was worth, she launched herself at the closest tree trunk and ricocheted off, leaping up into the sparse canopy of the trees. Another explosion sounded behind her, and a wash of super heated air swept past them as Jinx leapt to a sturdy branch several yards away.

Again, the high pitched whine of the charging weapon sounded in her ear, which was strange, since she didn't recall it being so loud when she was watching it that first time. Frantically changing her direction, Jinx kicked off a thick trunk seconds before it exploded violently into another cloud of killer scrapnel. Flying debris promised a mauling where a direct hit missed. It wasn't a good situation.

And the barrage didn't let up.

Jinx wouldn't have called it a rain of plasma, but the Cyberdisc's rate of fire was frightening as it was, and each shot looked like complete overkill against two teenage girls.

"Sheesh! I thought they wanted to catch us, not annihilate us!"

Akari's grip tightened on her shoulders. "Stopping us from escaping is likely the top priority... though - "

Whatever she might have said was lost in a gasp of air when Jinx landed from a particularly high drop. She felt the bones in her ankles grind together painfully, and Akari's body slammed into hers heavily, blasting the wind from her lungs. The witch didn't have time to let her passenger recover, or herself, and tore off again before yet another plasma blast could blast them to ash.

Up ahead the forest thinned out a bit, and she saw what looked to be a ravine coming up. Across the ravine, the forest looked to thicken considerably, a large stand of pine-looking trees that retained their dense needles composing most of the area. If she could get under those, that damn disk wouldn't be able to get a bead on them nearly so easily. It wasn't perfect, but hell, it was something!

That in mind, she ignored the pain building up in her calves and charged forward recklessly, intending to leap the gulf in a single bound, pig farmer on her back or not! Jinx wasn't even twenty feet from the ravine when the annoying buzzing in her ears suddenly reached a fever pitch. It couldn't possibly have been just from the Cyberdisc's plasma cannon behind her.

It almost sounded like there were more than -

A second Cyberdisc rose out of the ravine ahead of them in an unearthly fashion. Jinx didn't even have time to skid to a stop, as another plasma blast slammed into the ground behind her.

_'Oh for the love of...! Two of them!'_

"Th- they were corralling us!" Akari exclaimed breathlessly.

Not sure what else to do, Jinx just continued to sprint forward. The red ring of the Cyberdisc before them began to glow ominously and a sudden idea popped into her head. Rather than veer to the side, she waited until the absolute last second before the thing fired...

The sorceress launched herself straight up into the air with all her might just a second before the alien's plasma blast slammed into the ground. The pressure wave from the explosion actually carried them slightly further through the air. A harrowing second later, Jinx landed right on top of the floating Cyberdisc and slammed her palm down onto it, a flash of pink energy washing out over the smooth surface and ... apparently doing very little else.

"Crap! Nothing happened again!"

Warily, she spun around to find the second disc. It was floating a dozen yards away, or so, but for once its weapon didn't seem to be charging or, more pressingly, discharging. The floating killing machines apparently had better fire control than many of their counterparts on her world. It was a small victory, but it brought a smile to her lips regardless. Below them, the disc began to rise and lower quickly, rotating and twisting about in an attempt to dislodge them, but its movements were too slow to really unbalance the nimble sorceress, especially since now Akari had something to rest most of her weight on.

Lifting her hand again, Jinx slammed it down onto the disk a second time. And again, the pink power of her hex seemed to wash over the armor to no visible effect. Whatever it was made out of, it was _tough_. With most normal metals, she could reduce it to rust with a flick of her wrist, but it seemed to have no effect on this strange, lusterless metal at all. So she did it again, and again, banging away at the invincible metal like a drum. It was somewhat cathartic, actually, though it hurt her hand like hell, but it was about as productive as ... well, banging away on a metal drum.

"Why - can't - I - affect - this damn **thing**!" she barked out between strikes.

Suddenly, a hand dropped on her shoulder and she looked to see Akari pointing frantically at something behind them. "I think you did affect something! Scrambled the psionic fragment that controls it or... I dunno! Look!"

The brightly glowing light of the distant Cyberdisc's plasma weapon powering up was impossible to miss.

"Ahhhhh, Shi-"

Jinx slammed her back to Akari's chest and gripped the girl's arms tightly around her neck before leaping off of their current perch with a strength borne of pure desperation. Behind them, the Cyberdisc they had just been standing on began to power its weapon, training on their helplessly falling forms...

A blinding flash of light silhouetted the back of the Cyberdisc a fraction of a second before the floating weapons platform exploded in a brilliant ball of expanding plasma and twisted metal. The wave crashed into the two girls, sending them soaring into the trees, the unbearable heat of the explosion and the brutal overpressure stealing their breaths for a few precious seconds.

Instinct ingrained from months of punishing training kicked in and Jinx managed to collect enough of her wits to right herself in midair. After swiftly tightening her grip on Akari, she took stock of the rapidly approaching ground. Luck appeared to be on their side at the moment, as it looked like they were going to land in a mostly clear area.

A moment later, they crashed into the ground, and Jinx took the brunt of the landing on her legs. Akari slammed into her back a fraction of a second later, and a spray of red splattered across Jinx's cheek an instant before she quickly launched herself into a tight forward somersault in an attempt to kill as much of the energy of her impact as possible. With Akari on her back, it was impossible to control the spin, though, and they crashed into a tangled pile of limbs before sliding into a tall snowbank several feet away.

As quickly as the pain would allow, Jinx pushed herself up to her knees. She then leaned over and shook Akari's shoulder gently. "Akari! Are you alright! The blast didn't hurt you, did it?"

Several agonizing moments passed before Akari finally opened her eyes, smiling weakly. "I - I'm fine, Jinx. These cloaks are ... are resistant to plasma. Just - the fall was a bit hard was all ... I'm okay ..."

Her words, however, were spoken through a blood stained mouth. It did little to backup her claim to be "okay." Jinx's brow scrunched up in concern - did the landing do something to the other girl? It was possible... but she also remembered her coughing before. The sorceress knew internal bleeding when she saw it. Akari must've seen her thoughts reflected in the other girl's pink eyes, because she frowned, and with a grunt, managed to stand back up.

"This isn't a human body. It will _move_. It will do what I _tell_ it to!" She winced, but quickly put on a determined expression. "Let's keep going! We're almost there! We can make it!"

Jinx stared at the girl uncertainly for a moment, but finally shrugged helplessly.

"Alright then ... let me know if you need a hand, though. I did just effectively use you as an inhuman shield, I'm not gonna let you wimp out on me now."

Akari nodded sharply. "I won't hold you back anymore. I promise."

Jinx seemed to silently doubt that, new-found friendship aside. There was little time for debate. Behind them, automatic plasma began to saturate the tree line as the remaining Cyberdisc switched from snap shot to semiauto-fire. It aimed high, too, rather than near the ground. The top of trees exploded and fell, the canopy erupting in burning pine needles. It quickly became obvious the disk was simply hoping to defoliate the area and crush them with falling, flaming debris.

The two girls ran, and for the first time, Akari actually seemed to be keeping pace. Rather concerned about their rapidly deteriorating level of cover, Jinx pushed herself just a bit more, checking to make sure Akari could keep up. Whether it was a second wind or what, the pig farmer matched the witch's speed as they jumped and ran past falling trees and around patches of fire.

...

Just a few body lengths behind Jinx, Akari felt her body dying.

Ironically, it actually made moving it with her mind easier.

Following Jinx, the human-alien hybrid wondered if this was why Ethereals let themselves fall apart? Why they let their bodies atrophy into worthless husks? As her muscles died, they drew more on her willpower and instinctive need to survive. There was no sensation of exhaustion from her nearly lifeless arms or legs. There was her will, her command, and her body acting as ordered. Even the pain from before was dimming, dying.

The sound of plasma fire faded away.

_'I can't feel my legs,'_ she realized, feeling... empty. Hollow. Free. _'This must be how the Commander feels. This is what it's like to be more Ethereal than human. How can it feel so powerful, but so hollow, all at the same time? Like controlling a marionette.'_

Jumping, her body actually drifted.

_'I feel like I could fly. Like I'm just... a brain with wings...'_

It was an illusion, of course, but it felt almost salubrious.

As the two girls slid down a gravel strewn section of forest, now thankfully headed entirely downhill, Akari felt light as a feather. Looking to her side, she saw Jinx, running and jumping with practiced ease. No: the other girl seemed to even have a spring in her step, now that they had crested the proverbial mountain.

Far behind them, something exploded, shaking the forest and tossing trees into the sky like twigs.

Another Blaster Bomb went off, desperate to flush out the girls, but targeting the wrong section of forest. If the Commander had ordered the use of guided artillery, then he had to have exhausted every other option. Even this far out in the middle of nowhere, it was just asking to draw attention. Before today, no one had even taken the Blaster Bomb Launchers out of the Battleship's armory.

The second explosion was followed by a third thunderous boom, now muffled by distance and topography. It was only then, with the aliens bombarding a completely off target section of forest, that Akari knew it for sure. They had made it.

That made it!

They were outside the range of the landed ships' mind probes!

"We did it..." she muttered, slowing down to a quick jog. "We actually did it..."

About to smile at the good news ... Jinx suddenly felt a tiny tingling down her spine that caused the smile to wither and die.

"I don't think you want to slow down quite yet," she yelled, resisting the urge to celebrate and let up on their escape. "I don't think crossing an imaginary finish line is going to stop them from dropping more artillery on us. Now hurry up and hop on again so I can get us outta here."

Akari briefly thought about keeping her own pace, but... even if she couldn't feel her legs very much anymore, she could use a break. Mentally pushing them past their limits was exhausting, too, just in a different way. Nodding in silent agreement, Jinx tensed up, and the two took off.

They headed west, and after a few miles covered at a brisk pace, saw it.

The ocean.

The stretch of dark blue clung to the horizon, offering a break from the monotony of the trackless forest. According to Akari, there was a town along the coast nearby with a population of a thousand or so. The aliens, she explained, had visited it once or twice for "supplies" - the way she said it, leaving little to the imagination as to what those supplies were - so they wouldn't be completely safe there, but they wouldn't be exposed and out in the open either. It was only a step in the right direction.

Heady from the run down from the hills, they stopped for a quick breather when they came on the first sign of civilization: a muddy but obviously human built-and-maintained road. It was a very tangible promise of what lay ahead, and how close they finally were.

"You know, if we find a car, I can probably hot wire it," Jinx offered, smiling at the thought. The two stood crouched against the side of the road, savoring the support of a bit of metal railing left to prevent cars from going off the rough road.

"That's a great way to impress the locals," Akari replied, smiling despite herself. "Steal a car."

"We can stuff the owner in the back if he's too much of a jerk to give two poor lost girls a ride," Jinx reasoned, cracking her knuckles in eager anticipation.

"I dunno..."

"You're not sick of running?" Jinx asked, knowing of course they both were.

"Yeah, well...okay, that's true," Akari relented. "I guess if we don't hurt anyone. These are special circumstances..."

Jinx nodded quickly, smiling. "That's right, they're always special circumstances! Just remember that the next time we need to 'borrow' a car."

"I sincerely hope there won't be a next time," Akari stated, and the two of them started looking hopefully down the length of the road for any sign of traffic. "Besides, this isn't the States. I don't want to think about us being thrown into a Russian prison because you thought this was meta-human action movie world."

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Just because you think it's impossible doesn't make it so. From the sounds of it, the cops on this world are totally unprepared to deal with someone like me. I could go on a rampage without a care in the world if I wanted. Luckily for you, I'm a sweet young thing, so I don't feel like it."

She gestured back to the forest.

"I mean, honestly, were you not watching how I dealt with those alien things back there? Seriously, stuff like that is 'hum drum' where I come from. I don't think your alien bosses can even comprehend what's really going on in my world from the little bits gleaned from my memories."

"I actually got a glimpse of that when you started fighting the Commander back there," Akari said, the two of them now walking along the road at a more leisurely pace. "The Mind seemed to have come to the consensus that it could stabilize some of the powers used by humans on your world in this one. I'd guess they planned to make a copy of you and use it to kidnap a couple people every two or three years. Like how they used to act here on Earth, before... their proprieties changed."

"Heh heh heh, yeah, good luck with that," Jinx muttered to herself, "Obviously they didn't catch that memory I have of Batman. As if they'd be able to slip something like _this_ past him for very long."

She then picked up the pace of her walk. "Not that any of that matters. I'd rather make sure that those ugly little bastards never get into my world in the first place. Speaking of which, you never did mention how we were supposed to get in contact with these X-Men of yours. Do they have an X Signal, or a Big Red phone for the mayor to call them with?"

"I actually meant to bring that up before!" Akari snapped her fingers, as if suddenly remembering. "But didn't get the chance. Here. I have to give you something."

Jinx turned, and saw the other girl holding out a thin strip of metal. It looked to be about as thick as a scrap of tin foil, but the color of it implied it was more of that odd alien metal.

"This has information on it, psionically imprinted and encoded by my mantle," Akari explained, referring to her Ethereal's habit. "Stuff about what the aliens are doing out here, where they are... and about me and about you. So they know you're human - despite the powers - and not one of our infiltrators or agents."

Jinx took the strip, flipped it around in her hand a bit as she studied it. Then, shrugging, she used it to clean out a bit of the plaque she felt building up between her teeth.

"So," she replied once she felt satisfied her teeth were at least a tiny bit clean, "You've been secretly scanning information on my body, eh? Are you sure that you're not a closet case, here?"

"I know it was a little... unethical..." The other girl at least had the honesty to admit and sound guilty. "But I think you'll be glad I did. Our activities over the years have made X-COM somewhat paranoid. And please don't use it as a toothbrush! There's very important information in there about the research I was involved in!"

"Oh, come on. I could probably tap dance on this thing and not put a scratch in it," Jinx reasoned. "And, again, you still haven't answered my original question. How are we gonna get these X-COM guys to show up, and to do so without filling us full of holes despite our obviously pleasing aesthetics?"

"I think that should be pretty easy, actually." Akari smiled, feeling particularly clever. "Just make a phone call."

"Oh," Jinx shrugged, "So they do have a big red phone. Sweet. I thought they were gonna be some kind of big, super secret organization. I didn't realize they were actually in the yellow pages!"

"Not what I meant and you know it," Akari huffed. "But actually kind of right, too."

The sorceresses gave her companion a questioning look.

"Make a call or take a picture and send it to someone. Or even a text message," Akari explained, "It is well known among us - the aliens I mean - that the humans have something called 'Echelon' monitoring more than ninety percent of their global electronic communications. X-COM uses this to search for alien infiltration: if someone takes a picture of something strange and sends it to their friends on Facebook, or if someone sees a UFO take off, and tries to make a call on his cell phone. Things like that. It all ends up filtered and searched through."

"All you should need to do is steal someone's cell phone," Akari added, with a grin. "Something I'm sure you'll be broken up about. But take the phone and make some calls to random people with very specific phrases and key words. 'Trenchard' - the technical term for an Ethereal-human hybrid like myself - will set off alarms. If the phone has a camera, take some pictures of the data slip I gave you. Or even me. They'll be flagged the moment you send them to someone."

"..."

Slowly, a familiar Cheshire grin began to spread across Jinx's lips. "... Sooooo, all I gotta do is make a scene, put on a few prank calls, and generally be a smart ass to get these people's attention?"

A short pause.

"Yeah, I think I can do that."

Akari smiled, figuring it would be like that. "Truth be told, I think they'd come after you at some point anyway, even if you tried to keep low key. Especially with the while magical fire thing..." Akari sighed. "On your world, you're... what? Just another meta-human? We don't have a lot of exotic stuff like that here. At least that I know of."

Jinx scoffed, obviously offended. "Just another meta-human? Did you not have a chance to see these _legs_ while you were stripping me ... repeatedly?" She gestured to her gorgeous gams for emphasis. "Calling me 'just another meta-human' is like calling the Mona Lisa 'just another' painting!"

"Ok, ok, I retract my careless and inaccurate statement." Akari threw her arms up in the air in mock defeat. "My point is," she continued, trying to impress how serious she was, despite before. "You'll stand out here. A lot. And you'll probably like that."

Jinx nodded happily.

"But, and I can tell you're going to grumble about this, you need to be careful." Akari could already see Jinx about to protest. "I'm serious! The aliens have... people... who work for us. Collaborators. Not as many as we used to, but still, they're out there. You need to be careful who you trust..."

"And," she quickly added, cutting off the younger girl. "And you may think you're invincible, but I know you're not. Aside from any fights you may pick, I'm not entirely sure if you're carrying any diseases from your world into this one that could cause an outbreak. And I don't know if someone we run into may sneeze and kill you. I hope X-COM can help with that, but in the meantime, please just be careful, ok?"

Jinx stared at the girl for a moment, before shaking her head.

"You have watched War of the Worlds just one time too many, my dear. I'm from _Earth_ not Alpha Centauri!" Jinx crossed her arms and even laughed, confident of her changes. "I'm sure I'll be fine. You're the one we need to worry about. We gotta get you to your Men In Black people already so they can fix whatever it is that's wrong with you."

"Says the perky American girl stranded in the middle-of-no-where Russia," Akari quipped. "Do you even know one phrase in Russian?"

"Pfeh!" Jinx waved off the girl's comment with a roll of her wrist. "I'm, like, the poster girl for 'Dark Action Girl'. As if getting stranded in the middle of nowhere is even gonna slow me down!"

To prove her point, she quickly scooped Akari up once again and began to jog down the road in the direction of the village.

"I suppose you've got a point..."

"Of course I do! Hey, a street sign! Looks like it's clear sailing from here."

Akari was less than convinced, but decided to let the topic drop for the time being. That Jinx could take care of herself in her own world was never in question. But this wasn't her world. In fact, from what little Akari had heard and seen via Jinx's memories, the sociological differences between them were pronounced. People here wouldn't act the way Jinx expected them to, even if she were fortunate enough to be in the US rather than the other side of the world.

"Jackpot!" Jinx pointed ahead. "A car!"

"Guess we got lucky!" Akari said, earning a pointed look from her companion. "What?"

A couple seconds later, the girls slowed to check out the parked vehicle. It was a rough, rather beat up looking Ford: an import from overseas that seemed to have had its share of nasty Russian winters. The pickup truck was none-the-less intact and apparently serviceable, despite stopping in the middle of nowhere. Approaching it, "engine trouble" was the first thing that came to mind for both girls.

Except, getting closer, they could hear the engine idle and running.

It also looked like the car had been pushed partly off the road.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Jinx asked, letting Akari go. A bit closer, they could see that the driver's side door was fully ajar... and broken. A few flecks of red stained the broken window. Inside, a still operational radio played music in an unfamiliar language. Instantly, the pink haired witch dropped into a crouch and spun around, clearly straining her senses to the limit. She'd seen more than enough horror movies to know that something was about to go down.

"Akari ... I want you to find some cover. Now!"

The hybrid girl reached behind her, to a fold in her robes, and when her hand came back, it had an obviously gun-like weapon held in a shaky grip: the dead Floater's plasma pistol. Jinx stared at it a moment, surprised (perhaps even a bit proud) that Akari had pilfered it at some point without anyone noticing.

"I... I really didn't want to have to use this..." she muttered, but none-the-less held it like she had an idea of how to use it, if not the inclination.

The two girls started to move for cover, away from the car.

The sound of a harsh, infrasonic growl made both freeze. They knew that sound. One, from months of research and careful cultivation, the other for the low resonating in the pit of her stomach, a sound that literally made her feel sick and uneasy. Another creature mimicked the sound as it moved through the bushes along the side of the road, its massive frame brushing against a tree hard enough to make the branches overhead shake.

"They set a trap?" Akari asked, glancing back at the truck. "I didn't teach them to do that."

Once they were far enough away from the vehicle that she had some open ground to work with, Jinx stopped and spun about. Setting herself into the combat stance that Happosai had taught her, she carefully scanned the tree line down the road, spotting the most likely places that an SUV sized monster could come through.

"I bet you didn't teach them to digest you, either, but I'm sure they won't have any trouble with it." She tried to track the concealed movement but it vanished into the woods. "Now get hidden already."

"Where, exactly, am I supposed to hide?" Akari asked, uneasily holding the pistol in front of her. Obviously, handling and shooting it wasn't something that she had received more than academic knowledge in during her time working for the aliens. Jinx wondered if she'd end up hurting herself more than her target if push came to shove.

Before the sorceress could reply, the first of them emerged from the brush. The second followed a moment later. Then the third, this time behind the two girls. Akari recognized the first two: Kuroda and Lee. Neither had been picked for future breeding due to their aggression towards handlers. Lee, snarling hackles raised over massive teeth, had actually bitten off a Floater's arm during a training exercise. Kuroda, easily identifiable by his ragged brown fur, had a bloody muzzle and what looked like a strip of damp cloth hanging from the corner of his jaws.

The one behind them was Shidehara - the third largest of his breeding generation - a single faint stripe of lighter colored fur crossing one of his muscular haunches. If he was here, and the other two, then there had to be a fourth. At a minimum, one more Reaper was waiting in ambush somewhere in the trees.

It had to be Onishi.

"There's at least one more out there," she warned Jinx, just in case she hadn't guessed. "The white one from before."

Sighing to herself, Jinx nodded.

"Of course _he's_ still out there," she reasoned. "The biggest, scariest one always has to hang back for last... Tell, me, Akari, did you _intentionally _watch'Deep Blue Sea' before breeding these things?"

Despite her attempt at levity, a knot of anxiety wound tightly around Jinx's heart. Each of these monsters probably outweighed her twenty or thirty to one. They were also brutally simple creatures, so the more indirect nature of her powers wouldn't be very effective on them at all. That meant that she wouldn't be able to hold back in the slightest. If she fought, it would have to be to - to kill.

She had never intentionally killed anything or anyone, to her knowledge, so the thought was strangely unsettling. Even with the aliens before she had really intended only to beat them down and maybe maim them a bit. These things, though? On the other hand, they _were_ soulless killing machines...

Lifting her hands up before her, the witch summoned her power. It started small, several crackles of pink lightning dancing up her wrists and across the back of her hands. A moment later, intense jets of pink flame shot out from the ends of her fingertips, forming deadly 'claws' of raw energy. She didn't stop there, though.

Such claws likely wouldn't even break the skin of these beasties. Same with her ranged blasts, she wasn't as proficient in hexing organic matter. Focusing harder, Jinx held her fingers out straight, holding them together tightly; as she did, the pink torches joined together, and doubled, then tripled in length. With a flourish, Jinx then uncrossed her arms, arcing trails of pink sparks following in the paths of her newly formed energy blades. Crouching low once more, Jinx then launched herself at the nearest approaching Reaper.

The creature, the one with the piece of bloody cloth in its jaws, predictably began stalking towards her like a living avalanche. The other beast that had come in at the same time began to charge at her side as well, jaws snapping viciously with each earth shaking step. Jinx noticed, above the din and the chaos, that the third Reaper, the one behind the other two, was holding its ground, actually seeming to watch the scenario with dangerously analytical eyes.

It also seemed to be paying far too much attention to Akari for some reason.

Face hardening into a grim frown, Jinx continued to sprint straight into the bloody jaws ahead of her. The Reaper seemed ecstatic with her suicidal desire to meet it head on, and leaned into its own charge, lifting his head in anticipation of taking the entire top of her body off in a single bite. Fifteen feet turned to ten in the blink of an eye, and then five - four - and then the beast struck. Lunging forward with its mouth full of daggerlike fangs, the Reaper snapped down -

Missing her, as Jinx dropped down into a low crouch, the momentum of her run sliding her right beneath the beast's powerful jaws. Even as the soles of her boots scraped across the dirt covered road, she lifted her right hand and slammed the glowing energy blade right into its throat and dragged it down into its belly as their opposing momentums carried them in opposite directions. Unfortunately, she didn't have much leverage, so the cut wasn't too deep, but the intensity of the short hex blade easily ignited the thick, shaggy fur that covered the beast's thick hide.

A second later, she cleared the belly of the beast and spun around quickly to bring herself back up to a standing run. She then fired off a large hex into the ground in front of the second charging Reaper. The pink burst of power sank into the ground and lingered for a second, only for the earth to erupt upwards into a fountain of rock and dirt which flew right into the Reaper's eyes and mouth at the worst possible time.

The second creature reared up and bellowed in rage at the unexpected distraction, while the other beast behind her frantically dropped onto its belly and began to roll around, desperate to stop the spread of the flames on its torso. Not waiting another second, Jinx reformed her hex blades and charged at the third reaper, the largest of the lot.

The thing looked almost ... surprised, to see Jinx sprinting straight at it, leaving its disoriented kin in her wake. Not intimidated by the diminutive creature, the massive Reaper took a heavy step forward, more cautious than that of its companions, and lunged forward, bringing its head down low enough to prevent her from sliding beneath him when his jaws snapped shut on her body.

Too late, it realized its mistake, as the pink haired female suddenly leapt into the air. Impossibly, the tiny little human soared into the sky like one of its Ethereal masters, only to land on its back a moment later. After that, it only had time to howl in pain as it felt several sharp pinpricks in its back. The human was stabbing it in the back, repeatedly, but more than the minor pain of the punctures, it could feel a terrifying heat spreading across the back of its body.

Jinx hadn't forgotten Akari's advice: even her Reapers were vulnerable to fire.

Up on the great beast's shoulders, Jinx carefully held her balance as the alien monster bucked wildly beneath her. Every chance she got, she slashed or stabbed away, but the damn fur coat was quickly igniting and she was running out of room to cling on. Even worse, the other two had both collected themselves that they were charging back in to rejoin the fray.

With one final thrust of her hex blade into the back of the monster's neck, Jinx somersaulted over the roaring flames to land on the creature's rear before twisting about and backflipping off to land on the ground behind it. The other two Reapers quickly tromped onto the scene, eyes alight with hunger and the thrill of the kill. Rather than bull right through their flaming leader, as Jinx had hoped, they peeled off at the last moment and began to circle around to come at her from both sides.

Things were starting to get dangerous, with Reapers on all three sides now. Her only advantage was that the big one behind her was panicking too much from the flames engulfing it to actually turn around and attack her exposed back. In fact ...

The singed Reaper lunged at her again, jaws snapping angrily down at her. Skipping back quickly, Jinx actually took refuge beneath the belly of the flaming reaper. The bloody jawed beast pulled up short before her, glaring at her hatefully. To the other side, the other Reaper was not so reserved, charging in to snap at her regardless. Quickly, she pirouetted to the side, spinning around her flaming shield's leg. Again, the second Reaper pulled back.

Several tense seconds passed as Jinx was forced to nimbly dance around for her life to avoid the stomping legs of the panicked Reaper standing directly on top of her. Several times she was nearly blasted from her feet from its tree like legs just brushing into her, but it certainly beat the alternative, as the other two Reapers kept their distance, snarling and hissing as they were forced to impotently watch.

The smell of burning flesh and the sight of their prey finally broke the resolve of the cruel hunters all too soon. The smaller of the two Reapers snapped first, lunging forward at Jinx again. And, again, Jinx leapt back to hide under their burning comrade, but the smaller beast didn't care, and slammed into the haunches of the larger creature hard enough to send it stumbling.

Jinx swore loudly and dove to the side as the creature's legs slammed down frantically all around her, but she didn't have a second to plan an escape as the other Reaper charged in as well, not even bothering to attack her, just slamming bodily into the largest monster, attempting to knock it away and reveal their elusive prey.

To the vicious creature's credit, the plan wasn't bad, but it backfired badly. The larger Reaper, now all but berserk with pain and terror, spun on the smaller one and slammed its jaws down onto the creature's neck with viselike force. A stifled roar of pain filled the air as the smaller alien was forced to the ground, blood spurting from its muscular neck.

Not one to look a gift Reaper in the mouth - for more reasons than one - Jinx quickly leapt clear of the tangle of mammoth bodies and spun around quickly. Just in time, as well. The smallest of the three Reapers, unconcerned with its fellows, was already charging her again.

"To hell with this crap," Jinx cursed to herself.

Clapping her hands together, she curled her fingers, forming a large double fist, which burst into neon pink flames a second later. The Reaper didn't care for the display, just increased the speed of its charge, rumbling down on her like a runaway freight train.

As such, it was impossible for the creature to dodge when, with an inarticulate yell, a wide cone of searing pink flame blasted out from Jinx's tightly clenched fists. The hellishly hot neon energy washed over the creature, the creature just barely reacted in time to snap its eyes shut before the flames consumed it. While not hot enough to incinerate the beast, her attack was still more than enough to sear flesh and set the entire mammoth creature alight like a Fourth of July fireworks display. The beast quickly collapsed to the ground, frantically rolling around in a calamitous display, attempting to extinguish itself.

It was a cruel move, Jinx acknowledged, and she hated having to do something so vicious, but she couldn't afford to dance around all day. The nimble sorceress then performed a series of cartwheels in Akari's direction to open up some space between herself and the various flaming and dying beasts. A moment later, she dropped to her knees, sucking in breath like it was going out of style.

"God ... I'm really starting to hate these things," she muttered to herself.

With the three Reapers in flames or dispatched, it came as no surprise when their leader, the silver furred giant from before, finally stalked out of the woods. For all its size, the behemoth moved with catlike grace and quiet. Fur bristled as it released a series of chilling infrasonic barks, cowing the injured and panicking Reapers from before. The most badly injured - the one that had been mauled by its comrade - gave a pitiable whine, but the others managed to get back up and slink away, trailing smoke and horrendous smell of burnt flesh following after them. Even being lit on fire, while tremendously painful, was not life threatening to the Reaper's redundant physiology.

Onishi, the lead Reaper, watched the two girls with silent calculation.

"Onishi!" Akari yelled, knowing the creature all too well. She had cleaned it when it was first gestated and transferred to a maturation tank. She had fed it and trained it, cleaned up after it and cared for it when it had been hurt. Even under the influence of The Mind, she had loved it, and all her creations.

It stared at her, now, and she knew it hadn't forgotten.

It made a single bark, deep like a drum. Another of the Reapers, body smoking and bleeding, snarled and started running towards them. Jinx tensed to move, but before she could, Akari screamed and swung her arm around. For the first time in her life, she squeezed the trigger on a weapon.

The plasma pistol gave a trio of barks of its own, a sharp 'crack crack crack' as it wildly unloaded in poorly aimed semi-auto. Akari was no marksman. The charging Reaper was a large target, literally the size of a large oncoming car, but she still managed to miss with her first and third shots. The second, maybe by pure luck, hit.

Jinx had seen the alien weapons before, hitting trees and rocks.

This was the first time she saw it hit flesh. The Reaper's leg exploded in a spray of gore just above the knee. Where her fire had burned the Reaper's shaggy hide, the sudden flash of heat from the point of impact here was something else entirely. Hair and skin on the body nearby bubbled away, almost as if it was wax and not meat, leaving behind tortured blistered red, too cooked and burned to even bleed, the moisture turning instantly to steam. Closer to where the plasma bolt hit, superheated water blew away flesh in a mad rush to depressurize, ripping apart flesh and lathery skin in a split second and turning it into dried ossified flakes. Bone fused and turned to white ash.

The Reaper fell forward, its leg gone below mid-thigh.

It howled, mouth wide open, and Akari fired again, this time with impossible tears in her eyes. Her aim was no better this time either, but the third shot landed on target, removing a good chunk of the mortally wounded creature's head. It's pained cries ceased, but it didn't immediately die. One leg still thrashed, struggling to get it back up and fight, the backup brain embedded in its muscular rear still semi-functional. It bucked once, twice, and finally went still.

Tears now running down her cheeks, Akari swung around to point the gun at Onishi, the only unwounded Reaper present. It was closer now, watching her like a cat would a mouse.

"Go away!" Akari yelled. "Go home! Please! Onishi! _Go Home!_"

Jinx could only stare at the devastation that the seemingly innocent girl had just unleashed with that unholy weapon in her hands. Jinx had been violent, downright vicious in her attempt to defeat her enemies, she'd done her best to hurt them as much as she possibly could ...

But what Akari had just done to a living creature...

It was shocking, even for the hardened criminal.

"J-Jesus Christ, Akari! What the hell are you doing?"

"I never wanted to hurt anyone!" she cried, hands shaking. The weapon's sights struggled to stay on target as the great silver reaper continued to stare with unblinking red eyes.

"Please," she said again. "You remember me, don't you? Onishi... I picked your parents. I read your genes. I made you. I raised you. Don't make me kill you!"

It continued to stare.

Akari blinked her eyes, amazed she could even cry. She'd tried before. Why did the tears only come now?

"Please," she cried. "Just go! Remember who I am and go!"

A gout of hot vapor trailed from the creature's nose and mouth as it exhaled. Head lowered, he took a step closer, running its jaw against the dirt road. It was a posture of submission. The sole remaining Reaper whined in the distance behind her. Onishi took another submissive step, snorting into the ground, finally obedient to the wishes of its master and mother. Tears blurring her vision, Akari allowed herself a small smile. Arms suddenly feeling immeasurably heavy, her aim wavered.

"Onishi, you -"

A second later, she felt herself rise up into the air.

Jinx's distant scream seemed far away. Akari blinked and saw Onishi's red eyes, always so vividly contrasted against his distinctive silver-white fur. He was looking down at her. It took a moment to realize why: she was in his mouth. Looking down, to where her chest should have been, she could see the great beast's teeth punching into her robe. The material was all but indestructible, so instead of cutting through it, the teeth simply punched it inward through more pliable skin and flesh.

It all felt so...

Unreal.

Jinx's voice disappeared entirely, though Akari knew it was there, saying something. Her head lolled back, limp, tired. There was no flashback to memories past or things left undone. She'd expected that. Even when the other Akaris died, there was only darkness and one last flash of regret. Even at the very end, even when one wished for death, that last breath was always the most savagely and desperately taken. Facing death in that last fraction of a second, everyone flinched. Everyone wanted to live. It was... so lonely, so pathetic.

There would be no Mind to embrace her and assure her she would live again, in a new body.

There was no God to usher her into an afterlife or reincarnation.

Just a weak, pitiful human life; a cut short.

Spitting blood, Akari reached up with her left hand to grab a handful of silvery fur. Onishi's baleful red eye watched her, his thoughts an unreadable mystery. Maybe it had forgotten. Maybe the demands and compulsions of The Mind were simply too strong. Maybe all those times spent, teaching and caring for creatures everyone expected to be expendable fodder and replaceable experiments was wasted. Maybe it was all for nothing.

'No: _not for nothing_.'

No.

'_I saved another person's life, and I finally remembered what it means to be human.'_

Plasma pistol still in hand, she pulled it up and put the end of the barrel to that unblinking eye.

'_As mother gives life; so she takes it away.'_

With that last empowering thought, Akari Unryu pulled the trigger.

…

A blinding flash of light stabbed into Jinx's eyes as the plasma pistol discharged. Her vision cleared just in time to see the massive head of the Reaper recoiling, a quarter of its skull vanishing in a cloud of super heated fragments. Akari's body was sent ragdolling through the air. Both the beast and the girl slammed to the ground with bone-jarring force, the latter bouncing twice before skidding to a stop ... a dark pool of black blood beginning to spread out around her.

The sorceress stared at the macabre scene, not quite able to process what had just happened. _How_ had it happened? How had she let that thing get so close? It was shameful, that she'd let herself get so distracted by Akari's actions that she'd let ... _let this happen_?

Taking a tentative step, she began to move towards Akari. There ... was a chance that she might still be -

To Jinx's horror, Onishi began to move. Watching with undisguised shock, Jinx could only stand there as the enormous, shaggy beast, which had to be missing at least a quarter or more of its brain... shakily rose to its feet. Behind it, the remaining Reaper, the one she'd slid under first, bleated angrily, stomping its large feet.

Within moments, Onishi had regained its footing and it stared at Jinx with its remaining, blood red eye. Slowly, its lips peeled back, a deep, rumbling growl emanating from its throat as it bared its fangs -

Something inside Jinx made a simple snapping sound. She wasn't certain if it was something physical or not, but she couldn't have cared less if it had been at that moment. Her breathing started coming in wheezing gasps and her fists clenched so tightly that she felt her nails dig painfully into her palms. The pain didn't even register to the girl, though, and a second later, her aura flared to life, wreathing her entire body like a living bonfire. Her vision grew a more crimson shade as she felt excess energy begin to leak from the corners of her eyes.

Oddly, Onishi's angry snarl ceased. An incomprehensible look filled its one eye as it regarded her. A pink glow reflected in that hateful orb, along with something else. Calculation. Comprehension.

Jinx turned her gaze to settle on Akari's mangled form on the ground, feeling her rage grow by the second. She then turned back to glare at Onishi, holding up a single fist before her.

Onishi took a step backwards.

"**No**," the witch hissed through clenched teeth, "You're not going _anywhere_."

In a burst of speed, the great Reaper suddenly spun away, releasing a wounded grunt as it began to sprint back into the dark cover of the woods. In an explosion of mud and dirt, Jinx shot forward like a ballistic missile, revenge the only thing on her mind. She was almost on top of the wounded beast, when, in response to its desperate cry, the smaller Reaper charged forward, heedless of its own safety.

Fury gave way to sanity and Jinx leapt back from her reckless charge, no amount of raw anger would allow a hundred pound girl to plow through a two ton mountain of muscle. A scream of rage tore itself from her throat as she watched Onishi escape into the woods. The singed Reaper before her bellowed in challenge, and lunged down at her, deadly fangs leading the way...

Tears blurring her vision, Jinx pulled back her fist, all the power she'd generated up to that point swirling down to engulf it in a blinding nimbus of light. Then, just as the fanged maw was upon her, she lashed out with a haymaker swing right into the abyss that was its open mouth. The ensuing blast of pink poured into the creature's mouth, rolling down its throat. Gouts of blistered blood and the hideous hiss of boiling flesh tore at Jinx's ears, but she didn't turn away, she forced herself to watch it die from the inside out.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the alien beast collapsed to the ground, a burnt out husk of what it had once been. It wasn't enough, though, the searing hatred in her belly hadn't been fed at all. Looking past the smoking corpse, she tried to make out Onishi's form in the woods.

It would be a simple matter for her to run the monster down -

To chase it down and kill it.

"J-jinx!"

The soft, pained gasp slammed into Jinx with the force of a fist. Instantly, she spun around, only to see Akari, alive...

"Akari?" she whispered softly. "You're alive?"

The other girl's robes were caked with blood, her own and her creation's. Lying on her back, Jinx could see her raise her right hand. Proximity to the blast had charred it with what looked to be second degree burns or worse. The plasma pistol, still clenched in trembling fingers, finally slipped and fell. The arm followed a second later, making a wet sound at it hit the dirt.

"I - I don't want to die..." Akari gasped, chest rising and falling as she instinctively gulped in air. "I want to live... I want to live..."

In a flash, Jinx was at her side. She carefully grasped the girl's hand in her own and lifted it to press it to her cheek.

"You aren't gonna die! You're gonna be fine. Y-you just gotta use those alien powers to ... to will yourself to live, or whatever it is you do!'

Spinning about, Jinx spotted the abandoned vehicle again, the engine still running quietly.

"Just. Just hold on, Akari! Okay? I'll get you to town in no time, they'll have to have a hospital there!"

Akari stared at her with wide eyes. She didn't speak, but her grip on Jinx's hand tightened. Picking the older girl up in a fireman's carry, grimacing at the slow trickle of blood that leaked out of Akari's apparently liquid-impermeable robe, Jinx ran back to the vehicle, praying it was fully functional. Looking inside, she saw keys still in the ignition. There was no back seat, and she didn't want to put her injured friend in the open air back of the truck... with no time or other options, Jinx carefully laid Akari into the passenger side of the car and strapped her in before trying to recline the seat as much as possible.

Akari gasped and closed her eyes, and for a moment, Jinx thought she was unconscious.

But - to the sorceress's surprise - Akari's brows furrowed in pained concentration. She was still alive. Still awake. Somehow holding herself together. With her robe on, it was impossible to tell how badly she was hurt, but Jinx could guess it was pretty damn bad. If nothing else, the aliens had given her one tough body.

Trying to close the driver's side door, still barely on its hinges, Jinx took in the vehicle's setup. It was... similar to cars she had 'acquired' before. It was automatic, too, which was a relief. She never had learned how to drive stick. Shifting the engine out of park, her hands came back sticky. It had been hard to see, but there was more blood on the dash and the wheel. She momentarily felt sick as the last couple minutes all caught up to her, all over again. It really was like being stuck in some horror movie or something.

Gunning the engine, the truck complied and took off.

The road was a far cry from the smooth highways of Metropolis, and the vehicle bucked and jumped as it sped down the road. Inadvertently hitting a muddy pothole, melted snow-water splashed up to smear part of the windshield and jockey the truck's two passengers. Akari made only a small hiss of complaint, her breathing still ragged.

"Just hold on!" Jinx assured her, seeing a sign on the side of the road.

Fifteen kilometers.

They were nearly there.

* * *

Medic followed the wounded beast as it dragged its mangled self back to the extended basecamp. It had been appropriate to return and rendezvous with one of the advance parties. They were at the very limits of the landed ship's Mind Probe radius and The Mind didn't want any valuable assets to go beyond that protective perimeter. The situation was bad. They had lost the two targets.

Medic couldn't believe that humans could move so quickly.

Or that two little females could all but wipe out a four-unit Reaper pursuit team.

FAILURE

The Mind's displeasure rippled out. It was not just Medic who felt it, experienced it, drowned in it. At the small operations camp, two other Sectoids cringed. Even the horribly wounded white reaper whined pitifully. Consensus. The Mind was disappointed in their efforts, despite the extenuating circumstances. Their punishment was to feel that displeasure magnified a thousand times, echoed by a thousand minds.

THEY FLEE TO THE NEARBY POPULATION CENTER

Medic perked up at that. Obviously, yes, that was where the girls were headed.

Would The Mind ask them to attack the human city? It was within their means. They still had Cyberdiscs and a number of other terror units in stock. The only problem was that the facility was low on heavy weapons and only had a minimal base security out-of-vats. Launching a terror site, rather than a discrete raid, would also draw attention and an immediate response from X-COM. They would find the research facility and lockdown airspace for a thousand kilometers in every direction.

Could they really risk it?

Medic extended his thoughts, his concerns, into The Mind.

He was not alone. Other Sectoids were thinking the same thing here at the base, and when prompted for consultation, many other alien minds also displayed some well warranted apprehension. A few Commanders, mostly Snakemen, advocated a quick "lightning strike" with whatever reserves could be mustered. Attack the town, kill the girl and the runaway Trenchard, and then retreat, drawing X-COM's inevitable response somewhere else. A suicide mission. A few Ethereals also started warming up to the possibility. Most thought it too risky, pulling too many elements away from a base conducting important work.

The Mind reached consensus.

Medic agreed.

If it had to draw away resources from the _new project_, then so be it. Hiding a base on Earth was always risky to begin with, they'd already dragged it out longer than many had expected. The move was already in progress. Once things were in order, it wouldn't matter what X-COM did here.

* * *

x

* * *

Abstract -  
Ryu Kumon  
Rank: Sergeant

Parents deceased. No immediate surviving family. Practices 'Reformed' Yamasenken style of martial arts, related to Saotome school of Anything Goes. Psionic Class-B. Spent several years as wandering martial artist. No noteworthy contacts prior to contact with Nerima crew. Brought into program at recommendation of Lt. Saotome, Lt. Hibiki. Assigned to CT:India under supervision of Cptn Ben-Solomon; direct mentorship under Srg. Karpov. Demonstrated excellent performance. Promotion to Sergeant. Temp command of CT:India during convalescence of Lt. Hibiki (Dec 2006). Participated in AB17 Alpine Echo Seven (December, 2006). Fiftieth Kill recorded (January, 2007). Temp assignment to Luna (2007).

Kumon has taken to UNETCO service extremely well. Psych profile indicates strong commitment. Goal of creating new Family Dojo empowered by presence and advancement in organization. Loyalty and Morale are both VERY HIGH. Competent psionics; Powered Armored training and certification. We could easily have Kumon fill a role in a heavy assault squad. Stronger on offense than defense. Positive, martial mentality, but easygoing among peers. (Psionic Profile)(Service Record)

Possible candidate for officer training and transfer for implementation of new 'martial arts squads' in US Branch following Operation Black Bull. Could further refine psionics, but already quite effective. Tends not to use psionics while using martial arts, a tendency already overcome by peers Saotome, Hibiki, Konatsu. Extremely deadly hand to hand. Has shown great improvement with weapons training. Solid marksmanship with all forms of plasma.

[signature redacted]

* * *

CLASSIFIED  
DOCUMENTATION  
UNETCO: VEN8452:77:808  
DATE: 02.08.2007

MEMORANDUM TO: Srg. Kumon

FROM: Cmndr. Yasuda

SUBJECT: Operation CLEANSLATE

OBJECTIVE:  
ALIEN POWER PROJECTION VIA CYDONIA BASE, MARS - ASSAULT, CAPTURE, OR DESTRUCTION OF FACILITIES THEREOF.

NOTES:  
**Sergeant. You have been accepted for inclusion into Operation Cleanslate.**

**Congratulations.**


	11. Close Encounters 6

Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last. The reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together. With Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding', it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of Atlantis. Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well deserved breather from their adventures. But as unseen forces manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered… and sooner than they expect.

It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Close Encounters_

Chapter XI

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

Despite the 24 hour threat of alien attack, UNETCO rotated individual squads in and out of normal operational hours, typically every week, ensuring combat personnel were well rested no matter what fatigue they would have to endure for the next couple days of extended, continuous operations. On and Off Duty was in turn broken up into shades: Red, Orange, and Yellow deployment levels. Red meant full alertness On Duty; Orange meant Stand By On Duty; Yellow semi-active but still on rotation. In practice, this meant that teams had to plan their "Off Duty" time between two and seven days in advance, since more than half of the time they could be rapidly activated for a mission.

The more squads a base had, the quicker each individual saw some formal break time.

Like most teams, this meant that when India Squad had some true "Off Duty" time to unwind, they tended to _really unwind_. The Dojo, their preferred haunt during the day, was also their preferred haunt when they got the chance during their ODR. Not only was it suitably indestructible enough to contain any potential roughhousing, but it was more spacious than any room or venue except the mess hall. The actual activities didn't start here, however.

Up through more than a hundred feet of concrete, steel, alien alloy, and rock, part of the  
Main Hangar also doubled as a basketball court. It was literally the only place in the base with a high enough ceiling, and in the shadow of a parked UFO less than sixty feet away, white hand-drawn lines demarcated the court. A tough metal hoop, replete with chain links for a basket, hung from part of the wall along a retractable boom, lit by a faint blue light.

Looking around, the non-native Ryouga cracked his knuckles, before beginning to limber up. "Alright, Star, neither of us have ever played this game before, know none of the rules, and Raven is resolutely refusing to play... But I still think we can take these guys!"

"Indeed, friend Ryouga! Let us 'kick the butt'!" his companion cheered enthusiastically

A second later, massive metal hands clamped down on the shoulders of both players and pulled them towards their recently returned companions.

"Aw yeah! That's the spirit, you two!" Cyborg boasted loudly. "And don't worry, dawgs, this here court is _my_ house, now. Ain't no carbon copies gonna beat us!"

Sitting in a chair far removed from the court, Raven just shook her head. "You three are _so_ going to lose."

Opposite them, India Squad stood assembled, along with Akane and Kasumi. Nabiki, having no interest in getting sweaty trying to compete with aliens, meta-humans, insane martial artists and now a giant cyborg, sat down near Raven with a pack of chips.

"Hey!" the older Hibiki called over. "You want to mix up the teams, or what?"

Instantly, Starfire wrapped her arms around Ryouga and Cyborg and pulled them protectively to her sides. The former and the latter looked on, a bit embarrassed, but finally, Ryouga shook his head.

"Not if I want to keep this arm."

"Don't sweat it, Ryouga-kun," Akane enthused, heading over to the Titans. "I'll be their fourth." As she approached the trio, she asked, "If you guys don't mind?"

"Naw, 'Kane! The more the merrier! Smart money knows to join the winnin' team before the game starts!" Cyborg quickly stepped forward to drop a hand on her shoulder and pull her toward his teams huddle. "'Course, if we're gonna play shirts and skins, I think I'm gonna need to get a shirt, cuz this game is gonna be _way_ too distractin' otherwise!"

"Do we even have a shirt that can fit you?" Akane asked, staring up at the towering Titan.

"He's got a point," Hibiki replied, tossing off his shirt to fall on a pile on the floor with the rest of his team mates. Three of them wore simple white muscle shirts, and one – Ryu – went completely and unabashedly topless. It came as little surprise that all four looked like the shape they were in, after months of training and steadily improving their martial arts.

At which point Nabiki let out a particularly shocking whistle and catcall, prompting the three more modest men to grumble and cross their arms and regain some basic dignity.

"We're human beings, not objects!" the formerly uniformed Ryouga finally yelled.

"Not from where I'm standing!" came the teasing reply, "Take off your tops, you sissies!"

"We're ignoring you now!"

"No you're not!"

"Yes we are!"

"No you're not!"

"Put that camera away!"

"You know you like it!"

"Everyone please!" Kasumi spoke up, carefully holding the basketball in both hands. "Standard Martial Arts Basketball rules. Feel free to attack the other player unless they're making a shot, in which case I'll call your foul. No grappling, no ball tending, no blocking within one meter of the net."

Floor nearly quaking with each step he took, Cyborg stepped to the center of the court, preparing for the toss up. Standing a foot taller and far broader then everyone else present, he dropped his hands on his hips and looked down on the people across from him.

"Alright then. _Who came to play?_"

Mousse quietly walked up, taking a second to adjust his glasses, producing a trademark evil glint.

"Go!" Kasumi tossed the ball up, shooting at high speed towards the ceiling. With a rush, the cybernetic teen and the nearsighted Amazon leapt. Cyborg, surprised by the speed of the toss up (forgetting Kasumi wasn't quite baseline human when she didn't want to be), reached for the ball, only to get a heel kick to the arm. Mousse bent backwards, and with his free hand tapped the ball back over his shoulder.

It passed to Ryu, who landed and started dribbling as he headed down the court. Starfire was the first to swoop in, trying for a direct swipe of the ball. She narrowly missed, as Ryu switched to dribble behind his back, and then he shot forward again… only to come to a stop when a flying kick, aimed at his head, forced the Yamasenken master to block with his arm.

He quickly passed to the older Ryouga Hibiki, who quickly came face to face with a wall of Cyborg. Quickly picking up on the rules – this being _martial arts_ basketball, and not the normal variety - he went directly for a swipe, aiming for the UNETCO officer's chest. Or the ball. Whichever came first. But the ball quickly bounced back down the court, where Kuno and Akane were sparring back and forth.

The youngest Tendo very nearly stole the ball, and the moment it entered Kuno's hands, she elbowed him clean in the gut. The swordsman, bereft of his blade in this fight, staggered back a step. Akane took that moment to claim the basketball and start dribbling, even as Kuno recovered and started playing defense.

"I am most open!" Starfire yelled, having floated across the court and settled down in an open area. Her arms were up and gesticulating wildly.

Akane passed, but a blur shot through the air in the form of Mousse, who landed and started running for the hoop. Just outside the three point circle, the Chinese martial artist took his shot, the ball arcing over and into the net.

Mousse, in a rare display, pumped his arm. "Yes!"

It was, in retrospect, pretty dirty ball playing. It rewarded the players who kicked and elbowed and kneed the person opposite – it didn't matter, as long as they had the ball they were fair game. The only thing sacred was the ball itself, which couldn't be punched or kicked or 'harmed' in any way. Taking their cue from Akane, who seemed to have played this version of the game before, the Titans quickly got into the game.

A kick to the face sent Ryu airborne.

A starbolt powered fist uppercutted Mousse.

A hook kick and body tackle sent Cyborg sprawling.

A trip sent Akane down to kiss the floor.

A reverse suplex introduced Hibiki's head to the bulkhead.

An open palm strike sent the younger Ryouga into the backboard.

Kuno and Starfire both reeled back, their fists extended and vibrating from delivering a blow to the cheek. Well… Starfire reeled, Kuno was launched backwards at ballistic speeds.

And then things got _nasty_.

"See? This is exactly why I'm nice and safe over here," Nabiki drolly commented, a flying quarter ton cyborg spinning through the air. Raven just nodded, quickly erecting a black shield as the basketball crashed into it with a resounding thud.

"Using ki on the ball!" Kasumi called. "Foul!"

"What?" An indignant shout followed a second later. "Come on ref! What game were you watching!"

"Mostly nice and safe," Nabiki observed, snatching the ball out of the air as Raven's shield dissolved to throw it back. "Watch where you throw this thing, you morons!"

Four well practiced voices responded in a chorus: "Sorry!"

Finally, the ball ended up back in Kasumi's hands.

"Game!" she called. Both sides looked like they'd been through a street fight – though, given who they were, it looked like they'd been in a street fight with about half the Titans rogue's gallery. Half of India Squad had mild burns thanks to starbolts, a bloody lip thanks to a rocket powered fist, or chipped glasses thanks to an out-of-nowhere meteoric mallet strike. The Teen Titans weren't much better. Assorted cuts, bruises, and dents – in one particular case – contrasted with exhausted smiles. Most notably in Starfire's case, as the alien girl happily sucked up green blood from a solidly punched nose and spat it with a wild grin.

The skins had won, due mainly to their experience in the game, and the fact that some of the Titans – unfamiliar with basketball rules – had either unintentionally double dribbled or goal tended, and not even their cybernetic captain had been able to overcome their lack of focus. Still, when Kasumi told them to line up and shake hands there was no grudge; only a desire to do better next time. Well… except the two girls who had sat on the sidelines, who had wisely opted out of getting themselves mauled over a ball game.

Spoilsports.

They took a quick break to shower down before changing and meeting back up at the dojo. A cooler with cold drinks and a basket full of snacks waited, along with a computer hooked up to the room's speakers and a section of the wall with an integrated view screen. In the former case, it played music from a rather extensive library of… dubiously acquired mp3s, and in the latter, it had an equally dubiously acquired range of movies on disk.

By the time India finished unpacking stuff from a back room, it also had a foosball table, dart board and a large pile of chips. Formal gambling involving any meaningful amounts of money wasn't allowed on base, but rules like that never stopped people from putting lighters, personal items, hard to acquire junk from the outside, or just their pride on a game of cards. Or dice. Just so long as it never raised a stink.

"Alright! Looks good!" Ryu proclaimed, falling into one of the bean bags with a contented sigh. His right hand groped for the nearby cooler, finally snapping the lid up and fishing around inside.

"Hey, Kuno!" Ryouga immediately called out, holding up a large picture of a grinning pigtailed martial artist giving an enthusiastic thumbs-up. "Darts?"

Across the room, the Titans found a couple of chairs and formed a loose circle as they began to chat among themselves. Mostly it centered around their various adventures in this odd new world, and the various amounts of collateral damage and punishment they had incidentally inflicted in their short times here. Among them Ryouga and Starfire seemed to be having a great deal of fun trying to determine who's final battle had been more epic, trying to win Cyborg to their side as to break the stalemate.

"Hey! You guys want anything to drink?" It took a second for the Titans to realize Ryu was referring to them. Most of India, Nabiki, Akane and Kasumi included, were already relaxing with either a drink or some snacks or both. The _Yamasenken_ master, however, was too lazy to get up, and instead compensated by raising his voice in their guests' general direction.

"Yeah," he said, seeing he had their general attention. "So, we got, uhm… Kirin. Sapporo Draft… what the Hell? I can't even pronounce this one." He held it up, and standing behind him, Akane rolled her eyes and translated.

"Stella Artois," she said, a little smartly. "It's Belgian. You should try it."

"I'll stick with Japanese, thanks," Ryu put the bottle back in the cooler and kept blindly fishing around. "I can feel some coke in here too, I think…"

"You guys can help yourselves," Nabiki suggested, from where the stood working at the computer. "But next time you'll have to pitch in."

"Naw, we're good," Cyborg declared for the group. "None of us are old enough to drink anyway."

"The offer is greatly appreciated, though," Starfire added politely.

A moment later, they expanded their conversation. "Hey, Mousse!" Ryouga called out. "Which is more impressive? Me beating down Evil Me, or Starfire going Toe to Toe with Herb, Lime and Mint?"

"Is that what happened?" The Chinese weapons master was lounging around nearby, plucking cheese puffs out of a bowl with a rather long knife before eating them. "I thought the Lieutenant was about to kill you… I do remember hearing on the communication line, 'if he doesn't surrender, I'll probably have to kill him.'"

"That's not what I said," the Hibiki in question spoke up, still playing darts with Kuno, the Ranma picture now pockmarked with holes and darts. "Not exactly anyway."

"Either way," Mousse continued, heedless. "Your friend taking on Herb and his idiot bodyguards all by herself is pretty impressive. Didn't they send attack helicopters after her too?"

"Indeed they did!" Starfire cheered. "Though I did not count them, due to the fact that they were not really a threat to me."

"Feh!" Ryouga scoffed at the implications. "The only way _he_ was gonna kill me was by ordering someone to shoot me in the back. I know all about his 'ultimate technique' now."

Dart still in hand, the older Hibiki turned again, giving his younger counterpart a dark smirk. "That's right. You saw me use it on your umbrella when I tried to disarm you. But… that's not what the technique is really designed for. If I wanted to hurt you with it, I'd have used it on your arm or leg."

"Ha! You wis-"

"That's enough, Ryouga. This is exactly why I thought we shouldn't come." Raven leveled a flat glare at him. "Can't you let go of this petty grudge of yours?"

"But - but they beat us at basketball!"

"Dude, Ryo, don't even worry about it." Smiling broadly, Cyborg dropped a hand on his shoulder. "I mean, sure, maybe if you and Akane had actually _played the game_ as opposed to just focusing on the fighting, we woulda done better. And if Kasumi didn't decide that Starfire floating and not dribbling counted as a foul ... Anyway, the point is, that **I** sunk more baskets than any two people in the game, so I guess it was a personal victory for me!"

Ryouga, Raven and Starfire just stared at him.

"Yeah, that makes it **all** better."

"I'd never really use that technique against someone who wasn't my enemy, anyway," the older Ryouga added. "All of us here have… certain techniques that we'd never use in an honorable fight. Mousse has his Kuro Hakuchouranbu (Flight of the Black Swan), Kuno has his Sokushi Tenrai (Instant Death Heavenly Thunder), Ryu has his Kyouhu Kijin Dai Ran Bu (Frightful Demon God Big Mad Dance), and even Ranma, Ukyou and Shampoo have techniques like this."

"Konatsu has that Konatsu Andon (Paper Lantern) of his," Ryu helpfully supplied. "I still can't believe he has a technique like that."

"The point is, that just because you have a technique, doesn't mean you'll ever seriously use it in anything but a life or death situation," the uniformed Hibiki mused… but quickly shrugged, deciding it wasn't worth getting into a dispute over. "Well, whatever. We're all on the same side here. There's no need to bicker like a pair of Saotomes. Though I am a bit curious why you gave up using the Shishi Hokoudan."

Glaring at his counterpart, Ryouga crossed his arms over his chest. "I didn't '_give it up_,' it just stopped working for me."

"You know, I'd be happy to trade what I know about getting the most out of my Shishi Hokoudan," the older Hibiki offered, tossing another dart at Ranma's picture clear across the room. "And, if you want, you could show me how you managed to pull together so much Earth chi. Not a condition, but it would be interesting to know."

Ryouga shook his head, looking a little annoyed by the offer. "...No, no thanks, that's fine. Using that technique wreaks havoc on your mental state, anyway. It forces your emotions to unhealthy levels that aren't restricted to combat. Even the Mouko Takabisha does it to Ranma; you know how ridiculously overconfident he gets now. Sure, I miss it ... a bit, but it's much better to not use it at all."

"I can't say you're wrong about all that," the other him admitted, finishing the dart game by knocking one of Kuno's out of the center, right between Ranma's eyes.

"Oh, old school Mario Kart!" Akane gushed, as the view screen changed to display a flamboyant castle, surrounded by fireworks, with the Nintendo cast rolling by. A cheery voice announced '_Let__'__s a go_!' and the three Tendo sisters immediately grabbed controllers hooked up to the laptop and the game emulator. Ryu scrambled for the fourth, only to have it snatched away by a triumphant Kendoist at the last second.

"Kuno!" he cursed. "Damn it!"

"Whahaha!" Kuno laughed, sitting down next to Akane. "The 'Green Thunder' Yoshi the Magnificent rides again! Prepare yourselves!"

"I call Peach," Kasumi quickly added, to the groans of her sisters.

"Don't you guys got any _good_ games?" Cyborg asked loudly as the a random race started up. "You call that a racing game?"

"No gaming systems allowed on base," Nabiki replied, but kept her eyes on the race as it got into the first lap. "No XBOX, no Playstations, no nothing. Emulation is the best you'll get, and while I _do_ have Playstation and Wii emulators..."

"I happen to like this game," Akane said, firing a shell at Yoshi that sent the little creature spinning. "It's a classic."

Shaking his head sadly, Cyborg went back and sat down with the rest of the Titans. "Man, and I thought that the computers were antiquated here; the games are even worse!"

Starfire giggled. "I believe it looks adorable! Look at the little mushroom man! Raven, we should play next!"

"I don't _do_ video games," replied the sullen Titan. ."You should already know that."

"Curse you woman! My lightning! Stolen?"

"Oh my, was that you, Tatewaki-kun? I thought I heard something get run over."

"And now a puzzle box, too? Akane Tendo how could you?"

"Beating Yoshi up is half the fun in this game, Kuno-sempai."

"Make way for Wario! Bwa-ahahaha!"

It didn't take long for the Titans to mingle a bit, especially with the promise of future gaming eventually luring most of them in. All the Titans save one that was. While Raven seemed content to watch others play, she made no move to directly get involved in any of the matches. Instead, she hung back, remaining for the most part aloof.

"Miss Raven," Mousse spoke up, pushing casually off the wall. Like her, he'd mostly been relaxing at the periphery. "Do you have a few minutes?"

"I appear to have nothing but time at the moment."

He nodded, and headed to the front of the dojo, a short distance away. "Based on your black psi-constructs, I placed a few discrete inquiries. Am I wrong in concluding that you require a meditative environment during the day?"

"I'm not certain what you mean by a 'meditative environment'. I meditate whenever possible, but my environment is anything but meditative."

"Well," he asked, now a little unsure whether he had guessed right. "You must know about the Mind Shield we have protecting this base. It can interfere with certain forms of meditation. If you were having difficulty because of it, I may have something that can help. To an extent."

Raven looked at him oddly for a moment. "Well ... I haven't actually had much need to meditate lately, but if you have something that you think might help with meditation in general, it might still be interesting to know."

He flipped a small piece of paper out of his shirt sleeve with his middle and ring finger. Taking it Raven could see that on the folded note was a base address, somewhere in the lower levels.

"I can show you, if you don't want to find it yourself," he elaborated. "My former mentor here told me about it, and I've found it very therapeutic from time to time."

"Find what, myself? Is there a reason you feel a need to be so cryptic?"

"That was not my intent." The weapons master rolled his shoulders and explained, hoping he wasn't be too intrusive with respect to someone he barely knew, "The address I gave you is the only open-air section of the base hydroponics facility. A bit like an underground greenhouse. The Mind Shield extends for over a kilometer, but I find that down there, you can barely feel its effects. It may help you or it may not."

"...Oh." Raven looked at the piece of paper. "Oh! Well, thank you. I'm not usually that into the whole 'nature' thing, but I suppose it might be worth a try."

He simply nodded and was about to go back to the snack tray.

"Oh," he said, turning slightly. "One other thing: Ryouga mentioned getting the four of you new accommodations. You and your friends should start thinking about what you'll need in terms of space."

Without so much as a 'later' the nearsighted Amazon headed off to hang out near his comrades.

Raven watched him walk off. "Hmm, a touch less personable than our Mousse, that's for certain."

Well, that wasn't really a fair comparison to make. Her Mousse had been somewhat beholden to her, what with the whole equality mess that had gone on back in the village. He was also surprisingly good at foot massages... Hmm, maybe she could try asking this Mousse...? No - no, he would never go for that. Or would he...?

Regardless, giving her head a good shake to dispel any particularly troublesome thoughts, Raven felt she was pretty much done with this party. She wasn't certain she could handle any more of this 'mingling' with familiar strangers. While they looked like her friends, and even acted like them often enough, they were not the people she knew. Taking one last look back at the gathering, Raven made her way out of the dojo.

It was a shame; a foot massage would've hit the spot, too.

* * *

Taking a moment to adjust the blouse she'd been 'issued' by the organization - as she found the garment to be terribly uncomfortable - Raven continued her short trek. She knew where she was going, having gotten directions from a few helpful soldiers, and she was almost there already. That destination being the facility's workshop.

Normally it was the last place she would go, but the dark Titan felt an odd compulsion to check up on their newly returned friend. They hadn't had too long to chat with Cyborg, what with all the paperwork, then the - she groaned loudly - the _party_ last night. At least she had a perfect night's sleep to look forward to now. Still, Raven hadn't seen Cyborg since she'd ducked out of _that gathering_ early.

A few more minutes passed and she finally reached the base's manufacturing facility. Her security clearance was just high enough to get her in with a minimum of fuss and it didn't take her long to spot her friend. It was hard to miss the towering boy standing at a long work bench at the far side of the room, not with all of the sparks flying wildly all around him. Making her way over, she leaned forward trying to see what he was working on. Of course, the pile of high tech gadgetry on the table meant as much to her as the joys of a good book meant to Beast Boy...

So, she decided on a different approach.

"Hey Cyborg, whatcha _doooin_?"

The titanium Titan stopped his work and turned around-

"**Gah!**"

Only to start in shock when he realized just who it was. "R-Raven? I didn't think it was you. I mean ... y'know?"

She rolled her eyes. "What? Am I not allowed to engage in the occasional flight of whimsy?"

"Not according to your contract."

Raven worked very hard to make her expression as flat as glass. "Ha. Ha. Ha. You know, I'm not at all surprised to see you in here. What _does_ surprise me is that your dismantled body isn't strewn over half of the benches being gone over by a dozen researchers."

"_Ouch_." Cyborg grimaced visibly. "Thanks for that mental image, Rae."

She shrugged, not feeling the least bit sorry. "It's nothing personal. It's just that this entire organization was built upon reverse engineering alien technology. The other day, Nabiki mentioned them spending more time picking through wreckage than fighting. You must be like a walking treasure trove of unusual and unique knowledge to these people."

Her companion nodded, not arguing her point in the least. "True dat - true dat. And I admit, I was kinda diggin' being the latest and the greatest... I... may have bragged a bit..."

Raven glanced at him through lidded eyes. "...Shocker."

"Yeah, yeah." He waved off her blasé response. "A lotta it was stuff about where we're from. They're really curious about why thing're so similar but so different and all that. Once they started asking questions about my weapon systems and running scans, though, I started to get a bit nervous. Moreso than even my computer systems, I could just see the glint in their eyes as they considered the possibilities of a new weapon. If I wasn't human, I'd betcha I'd have ended up on a coupl'a lab tables by now."

Pushing aside a ... metal ... thing, Raven hopped up to sit on the work bench beside him. "So?"

He chuckled to himself. "Well, you know how much it goes against my grain, but I seriously downplayed some stuff. I told 'em that that this-" He held up his arm and it clacked loudly as it converted to cannon form. "- is as good as it gets."

"That must have been a struggle for you," she replied with a wry grin.

"I think they knew I was holding stuff back, they're not idiots ya know, but I was also pretty sure by then that they wouldn't do anything too drastic to find out for sure. Serves em right, anyway, since they wouldn't let me see their serious tech either! So not only did I _forget_ to mention the vehicle mounted versions I already made, I didn't - um ... heh, y'know, forget that last addendum. Nothing else important to mention there... yeah..." Cyborg's nervous shifting spoke volumes, nearly as much as his yammering mouth.

Raven gave him a stern glance as she asked her question. "Didn't tell them what?"

Her companion shrugged helplessly. "Well, I heard they're actually using nuclear warheads, ya know? Well, they were. So I was kind of tempted to mention that - and this is purely hypothetical - with the proper setup and energy output, my sonic tech could - again, theoretically - be used to... destroy a city..."

"_What?"_ Raven's eyes shot wide open. Not just that these people were actually using nuclear weapons, but... Cyborg had researched what, now?

"And just how do you know this?" she asked.

"What? C'mon, I'm a scientist, too, Rae. I can't help it if my mind happens to wander down those dark little avenues of 'fullest extent'. I mean, it's not like I'd actually ever _do_ something like that. Besides, with enough juice in it, a **rock** could destroy a city! That's just plain old physics."

The dark Titan eyed her friend warily for a moment. "Well ... as long as all this remains purely hypothetical." Desperate for a topic changer, she turned her attention to the pile of junk before him. "So, what are you doing then? Trying to incorporate their technology into you?"

She was momentarily confused when Cyborg responded with a bark of laughter.

"Incorporate? Sorry, no. Well, for the most part no." Wiping a tear from his eye, he shook his head tellingly. "From what I've seen, as nasty as some of their gear is, pretty much all of the research, all the work they've done here... it's all a dead end."

That captured Raven's interest. "What do you mean, 'dead end'?"

"Just that," he replied. "Anything they got that's remotely interesting - besides the biology and psionics - is all powered by this Elerium stuff."

He lifted a small container from the bench, clearly marked as holding several micrograms of Elerium. It was all they'd given him to study, and even then, only under direct observation and only within a single area of a designated workshop. Unfortunately, he seemed to be a long way from earning a look at their major reactors or weapons systems. On the other hand, they had given him access to general data.

"Vehicles, power armor, ammunition. Pretty much all their top of the line gear uses this stuff somewhere in it," he explained to his teammate, "And they have no idea how to replicate it themselves yet. Though I'd bet they've been working on that for years now. The point is, they depend entirely on the aliens pretty much handing it to them on a silver platter. Heck, if the aliens were just more careful about cleaning up after themselves, or if they traveled with less of the stuff when they came here, or something like that, they could cripple this entire organization by depriving them of their main power source."

Looking at the container, Cyborg shook his head again, sadly this time. "Even if the aliens don't smarten up - and considering they're a few thousand years set in their ways, I don't see that happening anytime soon - even if these guys **do** win... well, when the aliens are gone, then I'd bet this stuff won't be far behind."

Suddenly, he chuckled to himself. "If you think about it, it's kinda like if the entire military back home decided to power everything they got using Xenothium... well, a little less explosive and a lot more stable, but every bit as rare. You get the general idea."

Raven shuddered at that comment. She'd had more than enough exposure to that element, thanks to the various incarnations of Red X.

"I mean, I can see why they're doing it," Cyborg continued, "A very necessary case of short term gain for long term pain. They have no choice but to pour so much research into this alien technology since nothing else is really competitive. From the specs, they've got high powered lasers, but they actually use atomic decay and some creative chemistry to power the damn things, and yet they're still barely up to par with the lasers we got back home. And all of this? It's all just to try and keep it close to the level of this alien tech. It's just sad that, in this case, once the Elerium dries up, so much of that research is going to end up being completely useless for anything else. At least unless they find out how to make their own."

A moment later, he held the tiny container up to eye level.

"I kinda wonder if that's the point…?" He saw she didn't get it, and explained, "The tech itself can be reverse engineered, but without a steady supply of this Elerium 115 most of it is for nothing. I kinda wonder if the aliens are using this tech on purpose because of that? Even if they get wiped out here, they take the secret of Elerium with them, and the people here are practically back to square one. …So, really, what's the point of me jamming a plasma cannon in my arm when I'd have to tear it right back out as soon as I got home?"

"Well, I suppose that makes sense," Raven conceded, "Of course, that does lead me back to my original question. What _are_ you doing?"

She gestured to the table full of gadgets for emphasis.

"That stuff?" Cyborg asked. "I'm just trying to tinker together a dimensional portal for us. They got plenty of tech to play around with, when I can get my hands on it, but not much practical theory to help me out."

"Oh, really?" Raven couldn't hide the note of hope in her voice. "Do you think you'll be able to get us home, then?"

"I..." He picked up two of the various metal pieces and took a moment to examine them. "I don't really know. I mean, sure, I know the basics of dimensional travel - Lord knows it comes up enough - but

I've never actually tried anything like this before. More troubling though, is the research I've been doing."

"Hmm?" she murmured. "What do you mean?"

"It... it isn't anything I can put my finger on yet. Just the theoretical sciences. All the basic laws of physics seem to be normal... Newtonian stuff... but the high energy physics and quantum mechanics seems to be riddled with anomalies that I haven't had time to figure out yet. There's other stuff too. Frankly, even if I build the thing perfectly, I can't be a hundred percent sure that it will work as advertised."

Raven felt her face begin to fall at his lack of confidence.

Cyborg quickly noticed and reversed direction. "Hey, don't you worry none, Rae! Just like everything else I make, I won't know till I build the thing! Shouldn't take me more than a few days to mock up a prototype, anyway, provided I can talk them into giving me what I need and no emergencies come up. But, what are the odds of that happening, right?"

The glare she fired his way was positively withering.

"Thank you _so_ much for jinxing us." With that, she hopped off the table and made her way to the exit.

"Hey! Rae, where ya goin'?"

She fired a dark glance over her shoulder.

"To the armory. I plan on being prepared for whatever disaster you've inevitably summoned down on our heads.

* * *

Some things weren't so different between worlds.

Reaching the sea-side town in a plainly damaged vehicle, with a badly wounded girl in the passenger side, locals had quickly moved to direct Jinx and Akari to the town hospital. Not a single one of them spoke English, but Jinx quickly noticed the ones in uniform: local police. There wasn't time to worry about them at the moment. People cleared the streets of the old soviet era town to make room for the beat up truck; officers and concerned citizens yelling and directing people out of the way of the medical emergency.

It also put the two girls in a spotlight Jinx suddenly found herself a bit apprehensive over.

The town itself wasn't quite what she expected. The buildings were a mix of plain concrete and glass structures, looking to be maybe thirty years old, a couple older brick buildings, and one or two newer looking structures. Out by the docks, visible at the end of town down a slight incline, were a dozen or more ships at anchor. They were small, so probably just large commercial fishing vessels. Further out to sea, she could see a structure, likely an oil rig.

The hospital was one of the plain concrete structures; very utilitarian looking, with a few triumphant-styled statues out front. Men ushered the truck in past a thick iron fence, and almost immediately, two doctors (obvious in their white coats) rushed up to check on their new patient. Gesturing Jinx back and out of the way - something the sorceresses found aggravating - they collectively drew back at the extent of Akari's injuries, particularly the obvious burns on her arm.

The two doctors started yelling back towards the rear entrance of the clinic, and a stretcher came forward, rolled by a female orderly. Furious at her inability to do anything else, with everyone constantly pushing her out of the way, Jinx barged her way into the clinic anyway. The doctors or nurses, or whoever, had already taken Akari into the back though.

Angry as she was, there really wasn't anything she could do to help her friend back there ...

It was about then that she saw the bulky looking touch tone phone sitting on the reception desk of the clinic. In an instant, Jinx recalled what Akari had told her. Completely ignoring all the strange looks and incomprehensible questions that were being asked of her, she stalked straight over to the phone, picking it up.

Not knowing any numbers to really use, she just hit '0,' waited for tone, and a moment later, was greeted by the sound of what could only be an operator. Though the sorceress couldn't understand a single word that was being said. It shouldn't matter. As long as the call was going through to _someone_.

"Trenchard, Trenchard, Sectoid, Ethereal, X-COM are losers. The MIND rocks hard. Reapers, mind rape, harvesting, oh my!"

She then slammed the phone back onto the cradle and continued to ignore everyone around her.

"What?" she snapped, seeing one of the uniformed men eyeing her suspiciously.

Fortunately, he turned away and started conferring with another man nearby.

Jinx may not have understood a word either man said, but she knew body language, and she'd been around enough to guess what they were talking about. A stolen car? An obvious foreigner. Blood in the car that they'd probably soon trace to someone else. A nearly dead girl driven in from out in the woods? Any minute now, as soon as they found someone with basic English language skills, they'd be asking for her to 'come with them' to 'answer some questions.'

Honestly, it would have been easy to just vanish, right then and there ... but with Akari in critical condition just out of sight, that wasn't an alternative. Though it went against everything she had ever been taught, by any of her various instructors and masters ... she decided that, if it came to that, that she would - she nearly choked on the word just thinking it - _cooperate_.

Taking a deep breath, she found a convenient sheet, tore it in half, and wrapped it around her head into a loose approximation of a bandanna to cover her pink hair as best as possible. Akari had warned her that her looks might draw undo attention, and she didn't want to make things worse for the girl then they already were. Unfortunately, there weren't any convenient sunglasses sitting around anywhere, and the locals didn't seem too big into accessorizing for California weather.

Sighing to herself, she leaned back against the desk and waited for the inevitable hassle. She just hoped those X-Com guys, whoever they were, showed up before the aliens decided to just cut their losses and nuke the entire damn town to get her.

It took a few minutes, but the inevitable happened.

"Hello!" Someone said, in obviously accented English. Jinx, who had been patiently waiting in a plastic chair, looked up to see a young man with neat brown hair and a business suit. He looked to be in his mid-twenties. She could guess he'd been drafted to serve as a last minute interpreter, given the two uniformed officers standing a few feet away.

"My name is Alexi Marcinkevich," he continued, holding out his hand. "There are not many English speakers in this town, so they asked me to help. You are American, yes?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, sure, why not. So, 'Lexi, is it off to the gulag for me, then?"

Hmm ... she really needed to work on her 'cooperation' skills. Still, at least she hadn't slapped him upside the head. She'd just chalk it up to the fact that he was probably the cutest guy she'd seen in this hellhole world.

The young man gave a friendly laugh.

"No, no. They're just... well, worried about the man you were traveling with." He noted Jinx's confused look. "The car you drove in was registered to a Mister Savkin. A forestry official. Older man, black hair? Did you see him?"

Jinx gave a weary sigh. So that was it, then?

"Unfortunately, we never actually met the driver," she explained, glancing down briefly. "We found the truck as it was. That's the reason that my friend is injured, we were attacked by the same... group that must have attacked him."

"I see." The man turned to speak to the officers behind him. The men frowned and nodded, and one spoke into a radio clipped to his jacket.

He then turned back to Jinx. "The woods can sometimes be dangerous. We've recently had a problem with smugglers and some kidnappings. Do you think you could help identify the men responsible for a sketch artist? Also, I'm sure you'd like to contact the American Embassy? Is your friend also an American?"

Jinx shook her head. "No, she's Japanese. Akari's her name. From what I gather, she's actually been missing for months now."

It was hard to squelch the amusement she felt at the absurdity of the situation.

"I can try to help out your sketch artist, though," she added, putting on a play of perking up at the chance to help out. "We never really got a good look at the guy's faces, they were really ... hairy. One definitely had shaggy white hair, though. A few of them were bald, too, no doubt about that. It's all kind of a blur."

"Don't worry," the cute guy said with a reassuring smile. "You're safe now. And with your help, we'll put these guys away for good."

One of the officers said something then, and the man nodded.

"I guess I'll be following along for a little while longer," he told Jinx with a shrug. "Officer Bulganin over here wants to take us to the station. You sure you're not hurt? Or hungry? I can't imagine what you and your friend have been through out there."

The sorceress looked down at her ankles, up to the guy, then back to her ankles. "I - I think I hurt my ankle when we were running through the woods. I'm not ... sure I can walk all the way to the station on my own ..." She trailed off innocently, touching a long finger to her lip as she looked up at him expectantly.

How often did she get to indulge herself, anyway?

The Officer - Bulganin - motioned impatiently for them to head back outside. Alexi exchanged a few words with him, and the older (and far, far less attractive) police offer grumbled something before nodding and turning to go. Alexi turned back to her with a friendly grin.

"It'll just be short drive. I'll carry you if it hurts to walk," he offered, and picked the much smaller Jinx up in an easy two armed wedding carry. Yes: it was a total indulgence, but after who-knew how many hours of running and fighting horrible star spawned monsters, it was an indulgence well-earned. At least in her opinion.

"So where are you from? New York?" Alexi asked as he carried her out the back of the clinic to Officer Bulganin's blue and white police car. "I got my Bachelor's Degree in the States, but I can't place your accent at all."

"Well," Jinx murmured, leaning in a bit closer to his ear than was strictly necessary, "I spent a few years in India when I was younger, so I never really picked up a proper accent. But yeah ... New York is where I live now-" Who knew, with the mess ups from one world to another, the geography could even make it true. "- but I kinda live on my own, so I don't really know the country that well yet ..."

"Well, don't worry. We'll take care of you." He then added with a sadder smile, "Our hopes and prayers go out to your friend as well. We've already contacted a larger hospital to help with her care and to fly over a specialist in burn therapy..."

The thought of Akari dulled Jinx's mood, but she let herself relax against her interpreter for a few seconds more. If information about Akari was already being sent out, then it only helped their chances of getting the attention of this X-COM and "echelon" thing Akari had mentioned. Hopefully they wouldn't take their time deciding to investigate; she had the feeling the local police weren't really cut out to deal with the sorts of stuff _really_ hiding out in the woods.

She also thought about what Alexi had said before: specifically, the kidnappings.

The town knew about people disappearing, and they had to be the victims of the "harvesting" Akari had mentioned. The people here really had no idea what was actually going on! Was it really that easy to overlook? Akari had all but said that this world didn't have any "super heroes" of the sort Jinx was used to back home. But would they have really done much good here? No one she knew of spent a lot of time investigating disappearances in the middle of Russia. Even when she was in India, and she knew the kidnapping industry was deeply entrenched there, it never seemed like any of the so called "super heroes" got involved in such far-off, petty crime, especially outside their comfortable first world spheres of influence.

This was definitely something that had to be nipped in the bud, and soon.

Alexi opened the door and helped her into the back of the car. Officer Bulganin's was already in the front seat, lighting up a particularly foul-smelling cigarette. The older man let out a thick cloud of smoke, making no real effort to direct it outside rather than inside the vehicle. Alexi went around and entered the car on the other side in the back.

As they headed out, the young man had a few more generic questions, all quite polite and friendly. Most were about the "kidnappers" they had escaped from. He also asked briefly about any poachers and whether they were involved. Jinx remembered the hut Akari had taken her to before and shook her head. Those men hadn't been involved in anything in some time.

Of course, she didn't have a passport or other papers. When he observed that "Jinx is an unusual name - very pretty, but unusual" she'd explained that her parents were eccentric. He laughed and seemed to accept that. Yet another thing their worlds apparently had in common: parents with strange taste in names for their children. She kept her background vague, knowing they'd be making calls and looking into it later, only to find none of it was true.

In the front seat, Officer Bulganin said something.

"He wants to thank you for all your help," Alexi translated, and just for a moment, Jinx really did feel sort of bad about having to deceive the two men. Maybe it was because she was, frankly, a young girl lost in another country, but she'd been treated pretty well. Better than she'd expected. But it was probably safest for the both of them if they were kept in the dark.

The police car stopped at a split in the road, a number of people slowly crossing and blocking the turn left. Bulganin took the opportunity to yell out the window, flicking his cigarette out into the street. The small group in the road began to scurry to get out of the way and the perpetually angry looking officer grumbled a curse under his breath. With a grunt, he lit up another cheap cig and wrapped his lips around it.

"You know," Alexi spoke up. "I was thinking..."

The sound of glass breaking cut him off.

In the front seat, Officer Bulganin's head rolled back on his shoulders. Thick smoke drifted from where his jaw had been. The area had been shot off, along with his right cheek and some of his neck. The windshield in front of him was a spider web of cracks, one very prominent hole blown clear through in the middle of it all. Jinx tensed to dive for cover when she felt Alexi throw himself over her, pinning her under his weight. Another window cracked and shattered, this time the car's rear window.

"Get down!" Alexi yelled, stating the obvious in complete shock colored by fear. "My God! Someone's shooting at us!"

Though her position wasn't _too_ bad at the moment, this guy was heavy and Jinx wasn't appreciating being crushed, however good the intentions. She quickly began to calculate her options as Alexi nobly attempted to 'protect' her.

Another shot rang out, punching another hole through the rear window. A fraction of a second later, another bullet slammed into the lower back of the passenger seat, missing them by just a few inches. Immediately, her H.I.V.E. training kicked in; the trajectory of the bullet meant it was coming from an elevated position, either a high window or a rooftop. It was also coming from behind them, limiting the number of buildings that the sniper could possibly be positioned. Judging by the fact that the bullets hadn't torn through the engine block, it seemed obvious that the sniper was using a weaker rifle, rather than any form of heavy military hardware.

"Okay," she grunted, staring Alexi in the eyes with a disturbing lack of fear. "I appreciate the chivalry, beautiful, but you gotta get - _off!_" With a heave, she pushed the larger man off of her and onto the floor between the front and back seats. Alexi landed with a startled gasp and a loud thump, staring up at her in confusion.

Deciding to double her chances, Jinx lifted her leg and arm at the same time, pink light flashing briefly before lashing out. With a loud double 'bang' both rear doors were blasted off the car and sent flying, skittering across the asphalt. An instant later, Jinx dove out of the car and behind one of the parked vehicles lining the street. A bullet slammed into the pavement right behind her heel, but the sniper was too slow to line her up in his sights before she found cover.

Reaching up, she quickly undid the sheet she was using to cover her hair, then, getting a hold onto the corner of the cloth, tossed it up into the air over her head. The piece of material spread out into a square as it spun into the air - and a second later, it was sent flying as a bullet tore through it. Jinx smirked and quickly poked her head up, thankful that the sniper had made the rookie mistake of shooting at any movement he saw. She only scanned the area for second, using her earlier evaluation to pick out the most likely sniper's nests.

There! It was still light out, and the fool was still wearing normal street clothes, as if he hadn't had more than a minute to prepare. It was easy for the experienced villainess to pick out the obvious silhouette on the distant rooftop. It wouldn't be too difficult for her to cover the distance.

At least, it wouldn't have been. For the second she'd had her head poked out, she also saw another man, large, brutish looking. She wouldn't have thought anything of it, except that while everyone else was screaming and running for cover, he was heading straight for her, towards the car getting shot full of holes. The fact that he'd been reaching into his jacket in an overly obvious manner was just the cincher.

So ... these were the alien collaborators that Akari had been telling her about. She couldn't imagine the kind of scum that would willingly work for these alien butchers... and she was very well acquainted with the various forms of scum the world had to offer. Akari, and those like her, had been given no choice. They had been dominated, broken, forced to join. These - these _morons_ were selling out the entire planet, and, more importantly, they were _attacking her_!

Fortunately, these were the kinds of odds that she was far more familiar dealing with. The aliens had been bizarre and new. Jackasses with guns, she'd been dealing with them for _years_.

She waited until the man on foot got closer. He had his gun out now, and was searching her out nervously. The wide eyed stare on his face, even as he closed in, betrayed no small amount of fear. Either he had been given a brief description of what he was up against, or he just realized that his life was already over, one way or the other, collaborating in a murder in broad daylight in the middle of a busy street.

Jinx decided that she would save him the trouble of worrying about that. Once she felt he was close enough to the car she was using for cover, but not quite close enough to start shooting at her, she held up her hand and then she snapped her finger. Suddenly, the man stumbled forward, the ground under his foot cracking and giving away, widening an already existing pothole enough for his entire shoe to slip in. The instant he lost his footing, his gun arm swinging up to try to regain his balance, Jinx sped out from behind the car, speedily arcing around so that the larger man was between her and the shooter on the roof. Another bullet slammed into the ground behind her heels, but again she was too fast.

The large man on the street looked up at the last minute and his eyes betraying his shock when he realized that, in the second he'd been distracted, she was already right in his face. He swung his arm down clumsily, trying to bring his gun in line, but she lashed out with a vicious back hand; the sharp snap of bone and cry of pain were surprisingly satisfying as the gun went flying to the ground several feet away.

Sliding forward, she drove an open palm up into the man's broad chin, snapping his jaw shut with a loud click, then she slammed her elbow in his solar plexus once - twice - three times the lady. An explosive burst of breath was blasted from his lungs, and the much taller man began to wilt forward like a dying flower. Rather than let him drop, Jinx gripped his lapels with surprising strength and slammed her shoulder into his stomach, actually lifting him up off his feet.

With the bulky mass of the bastard wedged on her shoulder, Jinx arched her back and started to run forward, aiming herself in the general direction of the building she'd picked out earlier. Her passenger wheezed frantically, trying to grab her back, but his arms lacked the strength to get a good grasp on her without any air to fuel them. It wasn't nearly as easy as toting Akari around, but it still wasn't more than she could handle, so Jinx quickly tore down the street.

A second later, her captive's struggles ceased, a sharp jerk running through his body that nearly disturbed her delicate balance. Using her forward momentum, she pushed through the unsteadiness and bulled on. A twinge of guilt stung her at the thought that she had inadvertently gotten this man killed. Then again, she wasn't responsible for people trying to kill her.

Her uncertainty as to the man's condition was quickly rendered moot as one, and then another, bullet slammed into the large man's back. She reached the sidewalk shortly after, and dropped the corpse to the side, zipping into the alley between the two buildings in a flash. Jinx kicked off the ground, launching herself into the air with the greatest of ease. She hit the wall of the adjacent building a second later, and kicked off again, angling towards the far wall. Three triangle jumps later, and she landed on the roof the sniper had been using, hands already flaring with power.

All that awaited her was an abandoned rifle. The roof door was still swinging closed, though, and she could clearly hear the sound of panicked footsteps tromping down the stairs. Smirking to herself, the sorceress fired across the rooftop in a scant few seconds, then leapt into a crouch, surfing the banister down the staircase. With a quick flip at the base of the stairs, she hit the floor just in time to see a tweed jacket disappear around the corner at the far end of the building.

Predatory instincts kicking in, Jinx raced down the corridor fast enough to make an Olympic athlete green with envy. She slid around the corner before the fleeing man was even halfway down the staircase. Feeling spiteful, she swung out her arm and a pink hex shot from her hand. It slammed into the last stair, just as the man's foot was about to land on it.

An unhinged giggle left Jinx's lips as the man suddenly collapsed forward, his head banging off the far wall of the stairwell when the bottom stair suddenly gave way beneath his weight. Taking her own time, Jinx strolled down the stairs and crouched down over the downed man. Taking a fist full of hair, she savagely lifted his head up.

It looked like he was still alive, just knocked the heck out ...

_More's the pity, really_.

Jinx resisted the urge to rough him up a bit more, and quickly went through his pockets. She found another gun, just a small pistol that he'd obviously been too panicked to think to use, a wallet, some foreign (well, local-foreign) cash - which she stuffed into her pocket - and a pretty standard looking set of keys. How nice, too: there was a name in good old fashioned English on one of his credit cards!

"Well, Mr. Tatyana, looks like you don't get to take the easy way out."

With a tired sigh, she then hefted the man up onto her shoulder and made her way down the stairs. A moment later, she was outside of the building, taking a deep breath of the fresh, country air.

Tasting it, she let out a few hacking coughs. "Damn all this fresh air. I need to get back to the big city to get my smog fix."

Her snide comment died on her lips when she noticed that she wasn't alone outside the building. Standing right in front of her, obviously having had followed her trail after the shooter had stopped shooting ... was Alexi. The slack jaw and wide eyed stare made Jinx fairly certain that she wasn't going to be able to talk her way out of this one.

"So ... how about that food you mentioned?" She asked with a smile. "I am feeling a bit peckish..."

* * *

Yevhen Reshetov paced the length of his office.

He was nervous, anxious, and a certain spot on the back of his neck burned uncomfortably. Not just uncomfortably, but ominously. He resisted the urge to rub it, knowing it wouldn't do any good. Taking a few seconds to stare at the muted television propped up against one of the walls, he closed his eyes at the scene. It was a local channel with 'breaking news' regarding the shooting in the town. God, what a mess that had turned into!

Back on his desk, a white phone rang.

Taking a deep breath, Yevhen let it ring twice more before he felt composed enough to pick it up. He had to keep calm - things weren't as bad as they seemed. They never were. There was always a way to make the best of any situation! He was living proof. Running a hand through his thick graying hair, he narrowed coal black eyes partly concealed by reading glasses.

"Mister Reshetov?" the voice on the other end asked.

"Yes," he replied. "What is it?"

"We're just calling to update you about your dog. She's fine. We haven't been able find a good place for her to stay overnight. We'll keep looking into alternatives."

"I see." Yehven nodded. "And what about Mister Rudny?"

"Mister Rudny got into some trouble. As you probably already know, Mister Nikitin did not. We're looking into the situation. No one wants Mister Rudny to cause us any future difficulties. We're going to have to _talk_ to him."

"I understand..." Reshetov replied, a frown creasing his face. "Do whatever you have to. I leave it to you."

"We'll do what we can, Mister Reshetov. We may have to try and find help _outside the area_."

The conversation ended, and the weary man placed the phone back on the hook. The news wasn't good. The girl was still alive, and they hadn't been able to get access to her yet. She was still in that police station. It would take time to get to her if she stayed there. Damn her for surviving the attack!

Damn those two idiots for botching it!

Reshetov didn't know their real names - he didn't _want_ to know them - but they had been the best they could put together on such short notice. Yehven's benefactors had literally only given him less than a day to pull something together. That thing-in-a-girl's-body should have been killed. His benefactors hadn't called back yet, but Reshetov knew they had to know about the gaffe. They would be...

Oh, God -

They'd be _unhappy_.

Again, the tiny implant in his neck seemed to echo their unspoken condemnation. It was like a physical reminder of their agreement, their contract, their deal. For over two years now, he had had it. There was no question it was better than the alternative he had faced, back then: dying of cancer, all his aspirations and hopes and dreams seeming to be out of reach. They had come, offered him a deal, cured him! Hell, on most days, he felt twenty years younger than he looked! He even had enough energy to keep his newest mistress happy - not bad at all for a man pressing sixty five!

Of course, those benefits didn't come without a price.

This was just the latest and more troublesome one. Some blasted American girl that needed to be eliminated. Then there was handling the body of the other girl, the one that was - or who **would** - die in the hospital downtown. Why couldn't things just go back to being easy like before? He ended up rubbing the back of his neck after all, frowning at the options left to him.

Behind him, the regional flag of Kamchatka Krai hung from the wall.

* * *

The spoon swirled around in the bowl of reddish soup, but Jinx didn't particularly care for the Gazpacho they had so ... kindly provided for her. Frankly, she wished she still had the fur coat they'd purloined; those beans were starting to sound pretty tempting at the moment.

"You ... are not hungry?" Alexi asked somewhat nervously. The police had been nice enough to bring in another chair into the holding room for the man to sit on, since Jinx had already been seated at the steel table at the center of the room. Unlike other times she'd been in such rooms, they hadn't actually handcuffed her to the table, so that was a nice change, at least.

With just a glance out of the corner of her eye, she could still see that he was shaken, possibly from seeing several people die in as many minutes, or from his itsy bitsy brush with death, or, quite possibly from seeing her man-handle two grown, armed men with her bare hands like they were a pair of infants.

Not... that she would ever manhandle infants...

"Not really, no," Jinx replied lazily. In fact, she was starving, but she didn't want to show any weakness in front of the normals. Somehow she didn't think 'picky eater' would keep them wary of her.

"W-what you did out there. How? How was that even possible? I have never seen anything like it, not for real."

Dropping the spoon into the bowl with a clatter, Jinx leaned back and stretched out; she was only slightly annoyed that the man didn't appear to appreciate the view she was offering at all, as skittish as he was. "Don't think too much about it, Lexi. I'm probably just a government experiment or something, and they'll probably have to erase your mind when they come to collect me anyway."

To her amusement, Alexi's eyes widened till she thought they might actually pop out of his head.

"No, no - you are making fun of me!" he finally replied, pointing at her playfully. "Government experiment. For just a moment there, I almost believed it!"

Jinx was about to reply when the door opened.

"Alexi," a man, one of the officers on duty outside, interrupted. Jinx sighed as the conversation shifted back to a language she didn't understand. "Call for you. Sounds important."

"For me?"

"It is probably about your little friend there."

Alexi frowned, but got out of his seat.

"I'll only be a few minutes," he assured his new foreign friend. He could sympathize with her, being so far from home. He'd been there. But what she'd done before - that was just crazy. People couldn't do those sorts of things, could they? He'd also written off her strange cat-like eyes as being something exotic, maybe even contact lenses, but what if he was wrong?

Thoughts racing, he followed a police officer into another room. It was completely empty.

"Right there," the escort said, pointing down at a phone, currently off the hook.

Then he left, closing the door behind him.

"Yes?" Alexi picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Mister Marcinkevich?" a male voice on the line asked, curtly.

"Speaking. May I ask who this is?"

"My name is Denisenko. Colonel Denisenko. I'd like to talk to you about the young lady you've been speaking with."

Alexi felt a shiver run down his spine.

Jinx _had_ been kidding, hadn't she?

"I just need you to answer a few questions, son," the Colonel added, given Alexi's pause. "Is that understood?"

"Ah... yes." the young man gulped. "Yes sir."

Back in her holding room, Jinx waited. Alexi didn't come back, not immediately. When he did, he seemed visibly shaken. When she asked if there was anything she could get to pass the time, he quickly volunteered bring in a small television. Letting him set it up for her, Jinx could roughly guess what he had been called out for earlier. Someone had obviously wanted to talk to him... about her.

Which was probably a good thing.

50/50 depending on these X-COM guys Akari mentioned.

There was next to nothing on the TV, naturally. No interesting English programming anyway. They got BBC, though, and it had English subtitles. She saw, first hand, what Akari had mentioned before in passing. The US President really was a man named "George Bush" - who she had never even heard of before - and the US was actually involved in not just one, but two ongoing occupations in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Seeing some news about it made her wonder just what had happened on this world to cause it to happen. The year was different, too, but only by a bit. It wasn't like she was in a totally different time...

Most unusual of all was that there was not one report on meta-human crime.

Back home, there was almost always something in the news about some super villain or super hero doing _something_. Maybe they robbed a bank; maybe they stopped a bank robbery, maybe War World or Apokalipse were up to their usual no good? Nothing. As the BBC recapped "news from around the world" there was not one line devoted to anything... really unusual.

Not that she was a super villain anymore, but if she was, Jinx felt confident assuming she'd be the only one on the planet. _The only one_. That... was a really odd thought, like imagining you were the last woman on Earth. And it wasn't simply that there were no meta-humans. There were no heroes **or** villains. At least none that made the news.

Small talk with Alexi and some news on Akari (really only that she was "stable") passed the time.

Then, finally, the door opened again.

A man and woman entered, wearing military uniforms but no weapons. Alexi immediately got out of his seat, but when he did, it became clear that these two new arrivals weren't exactly the imposing military men either had expected. Beneath their pressed beige uniforms and caps, neither one came even close to six feet tall. One was also pretty obviously a woman, despite the pants and the cap covering the top of her hair. The male of the pair lifted his cap somewhat, letting a pigtail spill out behind it. Jinx could hardly be bothered with them, though, glancing at her cute translator as he made his way to the pair.

"Mister Marcinkevich?" asked the man ... in an oddly familiar voice, and continued in English. "I'm Lieutenant Machinko, here on Colonel Denisenko 's orders. We'll take it from here."

"If you say so..." Alexi inclined his head in respect, but also turned to Jinx. "It was nice meeting you, Jinx. Thanks for... well... you know. Good luck."

Jinx nodded back, then blew a kiss to fluster the man and Alexi gave her one last grin before leaving, not inclined to get in the way of potential trouble. She then turned to regard the T.V., addressing the soldiers out of the side of her mouth.

"Sooooo," she began. "You guys here to conduct a by the book military investigation with absolutely no suspect overtones?"

"To answer your question," the male, Lieutenant Machinko, replied. "That depends. First we need some privacy. Lieutenant Tokuno?"

The female of the pair nodded, retrieving a device the size and shape of a cell phone. Clicking a concealed button on the side, she slowly placed it into one of the uniform's front pockets before buttoning it closed. She then assumed a ready stance by the door.

The male sighed and tapped his ear.

"Screen up? Good." With that, his manner changed slightly, and he smiled, drawing Alexi's chair across the floor to sit in it backwards, resting his arms casually on the backrest. It was an almost adolescently carefree posture, and one most wouldn't associate with the uniform the young man was wearing.

"Yeah, so..." he drawled a bit. "Trenchard, huh? Not too many people know that word."

Not to be out adolescence-d, Jinx leaned back and kicked her heels up onto the tabletop, folding her hands behind her head. Something was tickling the back of her mind, though, deja vu or something like that. It felt like something was flying over her head and it was getting annoying.

Deciding to play up her annoyance, she finally turned to regard the pigtailed man before her and replied, "Yeah, it is kind of a funny word, isn't it. I mean, is it 'Trench'-'hard', or 'Tre'-'Chard' with an 'n' stuck in there? You'd have to have a seriously twisted _Mind_ to come up with something like that."

He nodded, apparently still quite cheerful.

The woman by the door huffed. "Looks like another one with an attitude."

"Jinx, right?" the male of the pair asked, but didn't wait for a reply. "You know, I was on my way here when I heard a funny story. What was it again?" he asked Lieutenant Tokuno.

"Something about a little girl beating up some armed men," the woman answered, then tacked on. "Sir."

"Yeah, that was it!" he said, snapping his fingers as if just remembering it. "Weren't you that girl, Jinx? I gotta say, you just don't look like the type. Maybe it's the bright-pink Sakura-hair, I dunno. I just have to ask: was that _really_ you?"

Jinx was about to reply to the jerkish comment - really, what kind of ass would compare her with 'Sakura'? - when, suddenly everything clicked. The voice, the pigtail, the chauvinistic attitude and casual use of insults? Jinx did a quick double take, just to make sure.

_'Noooooo way,'_ she thought to herself. There was just no way that she would run into _him_ of all people, here and now.

Slowly, a wide smile spread across her lips. "Well, Mr ... what was that name again? Machotome? Never mind, not really important. _Anyway_, I must say, that I certainly wasn't expecting such a chauvinistic and sexist comment from someone so _obviously_ in touch with their feminine side."

Smiling wider, she leaned back into her chair, and prepared for the fun.

"Hey!" he snapped, leaning forward a bit. "Just what's that supposed to mean?"

"Sir..." the woman by the door interrupted. Or tried to.

Jinx stifled a laugh. "Nothing, nothing. Man, I gotta say, though, that Gozpacho stuff really did not hit the spot. You know what I could really go for? A good Okonomi-yukki would be divine ... Oh, wait! You know what, a good old fashioned American Pizza would be even better. Makes that other stuff taste like tripe!"

"You've obviously never had real okonomiyaki!" The woman crossed her arms in front of her. "Comparing it to cheese covered greasy slop? Ha! Don't make bad jokes, sugar!"

The man looked over at her, obviously noticing she was breaking character.

He then went back to staring at Jinx, this time a bit more suspiciously.

"I don't know you from somewhere, do I?" he asked, cautiously now. "Like a marriage contract or stolen food or family curse or nothin'?"

Jinx actually did laugh at that. "Do military officer's often have marriage contracts or steal food? I would think an organization like the army would frown on petty thieves and vagabonds, don't you?" She then looked over to 'Tokuno'. "Y'know, those slacks aren't really flattering on you. You really shouldn't wear men's clothes all the time... but I bet you'd look real cute in a dress."

"Hey!" the woman frowned, more than a little offense mixed in with embarrassment.

"Wait a sec," the man spoke up, motioning for his partner to calm down. "Something's strange here." He gave Jinx a look hard look. "I don't recognize you, but somethin' tells me you know me. And the lieutenant there. So what's up?"

Jinx shrugged helplessly. "How could a little girl like me know anything? I'm surprised you didn't keep that Alexi guy around. I mean, only a big strong man could possibly have taken out those two bad guys, am I right?"

She then made a show of scrutinizing the pair.

"You know," she said. "You two really don't strike me as proper military types. How can I know for sure that you're actually who you say you are and not some ... some kind of bad guy coming to finish me off?"

The two exchanged a quick look, and the guy let out a suffering sigh.

"Don't expect us to flash a badge or nothin," he breezily replied. "But I think the fact that we could waltz in here - and waltz out - with you any time we want has to count for something. Look, I know you've probably been through a lot. You've probably seen a lot, too. Nasty stuff, I'd bet. We just want to double check a few things. Were you the one who left a rather nasty looking barbeque in the road a couple miles out of town?"

The sorceress shrugged carelessly. "Don't think the MIB act impresses me. And just say that if it was _feasibly_ possible that I could have been responsible for the barbeque, what of it? What does it matter?"

Honestly, the witch was having a little too much fun at her 'friend's' expense, but she couldn't help herself. Last she'd heard, Akari was stable, so she was only minor-ly freaking out about that, rather than going completely ballistic.

"It matters because it means ya aren't just some little girl with funny anime-hair," he answered, studying her. "Looking at what we've found, there's a few possibilities. One of 'em is that you're a plant. A mole! A stooge!"

"A hybrid alien-human," the woman clarified. "The looks. Those abilities you showed. The things you said. You're obviously not normal."

"And what was that technique anyway?" the male asked, sounding a bit impressed. Blue eyes wandered to her hands. "I've never heard of pink ki being tossed around before. Not seriously."

The woman picked up, correcting the male who was not going off topic. "They called us in to take a look at you and determine whether you're human or not. 'Cause if you're not, that means we label you and put you away in a jar. So how about you play along, huh, sugar?

Jinx narrowed her eyes, glaring darkly at 'Tokuno'.

"Oh, is that so?" she asked. "Any alien hybrids you find you're just going to label, toss in a box and dissect at your leisure? Tell me, do you hate all the aliens so much that you'll imprison and torture anyone that's has any alien DNA in them at all?"

She didn't wait for the rhetorical answer they would inevitably reply. Instead, she leaned forward, smirking viciously.

"Tell me, does that include Akari? You know, the alien hybrid that's quite possibly _dying_ in that filthy clinic down the road? I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you? Sticking my friend in a little box and poking and prodding at her for something she had no control over?"

The woman reeled back a bit, both at Jinx's implications and her own words.

"That ain't Akari!" The man spoke up, brows pulled together in anger. "These things killed her! You got no idea...!" He forcefully bit off what he had been about to say and calmed down. Slightly. "You got no idea what they're capable of. That girl, the real Akari, was a friend of ours."

Jinx laughed, loud and mockingly. "'You're the ones who have no idea what you're talking about! That Akari was more real than you could ever know! I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for her. I would have died in that ship like a dog, but she - Akari - saved my life, and _you_ two, who never even _met_ her are trying to tell me she's a worthless copy?"

Reaching into her sleeve, she suddenly whipped her hand out, launching a projectile which bounced off the wall inched from 'Tokuno's' head.

"Maybe you should try talking to her before you start dissecting her for fun? You know, even I've heard the line 'Beware those that fight monsters', yadda yadda yadda."

'Tokuno' caught the crumpled up ball of metal as it fell with one hand, her eyes not leaving the pink haired witch. In the warmth of the woman's palm, the foil unraveled and flattened out. In little more than a sec or two, it looked smooth and completely un-creased. Like it hadn't just been mashed into a ball moments before.

"Or maybe you're thinking exactly what they want you to think," she growled, but glanced down at the material in her hand. It was clear she knew what it was. And where Jinx had gotten it.

"Check that out," the male, 'Lieutenant Machinko,' ordered. The woman nodded, and stepped outside the room.

He tapped the desk between him and the irate sorceress.

"You know they can do things to your mind, don't you?" he asked. "They can make you want to believe them. Follow them. Help them. Worship them even. We need to be careful. That girl... Akari... it wasn't too long ago they promised a friend of mine that they'd bring her back, if only he'd give into them. Stronger people than you or me have fallen into their hands."

Jinx shook her head sadly. "Listen to you, talking like you have even a single clue what Akari has been through. Look, Machotome, I've experienced a crash course in just what the aliens are capable of, and I don't need your crap about that." She leaned forward, then, steepling her fingers before her. "In fact, I'm on your side here. I _have_ seen just what those alien bastards can do, and I wanna see every single one of those bastards dead ... except for Akari ..."

"Except for her," he stated. "From what we intercepted from that clinic she's at, your friend is a full fledged Trenchard. That means she's got these alien tissues grafted to her brain. That's like the point of no return."

"No one can..." he stopped, realizing Jinx wouldn't just relent. "Okay. Let's just start at the beginning, huh? I promise you nothing bad will happen to your friend. God knows, she's not the first hybrid we've captured."

"Good," Jinx barked, willing to move on as well. "Then you know how to fix her up. Once you can actually prove that you've helped her, instead of just locking her in a box like the Little Miss Fry-Cook was so eager to do, then I'll tell you everything you need to know ... and probably one or two things that even _you_ won't believe. And believe me, I believe I know what you will believe or not."

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"What did you call her?" he cupped his hand under his chin. "You **do** know who she is! You know who I am, too. Did she... did Akari tell you?"

Jinx replied with a shrug. "Yeah, sure, why not. That'll do for now."

The lieutenant noted her confident expression and weighed his options.

"Alright," he said after a few long seconds. "This is weird, and you seem to know some stuff you shouldn't. So I'll give you some leeway. That means I'm gonna be puttin' my word on the line ta vouch for ya. I'll do what I can for... for Akari, but you better come clean. I ain't a bad guy, but if I find out you're trying to pull a fast one, I'll make you regret it. Clear?"

"Oh, you can trust me. I'm as harmless as a sweet little _pussy cat_." Jinx suddenly leaned forward, opening her slitted eyes wide and clawing at the air with a little 'mreow'.

"Ga-ah!" the man flinched. "Creepy evil c-c-cat eyes!"

A second later, he coughed and straightened his shirt.

"Not that I'm afraid of cats," he quickly clarified.

"Bwahahaha!" Jinx clutched her sides, falling back into her seat. "Oh yeah, you've _really_ got me intimidated now, Mr Munchhausen. I'll be sure not to cross _you_."

She then leaned forward again, giggling helplessly. "Seriously, though. Alien collaborators just tried to kill me, in broad daylight. You gotta make sure no one like that goes after Akari." Another thought occurred to her. "If you want all the info I got, though, it's going to cost you. If you want my help, you gotta help me out in return."

"Like we'd leave an alien body... or an alien-human hybrid body... lying around in a public hospital," he assured her, still a bit wary from the catty display earlier. Evil! Evil cat like eyes that pierce the soul leaving only scratches behind! Scratches that never heal!

He shuddered again.

"What do you want?" he asked, slowly composing himself. "Money? You do know we can't let you just run around. Even if you're on our side, I'd bet the aliens have your thought patterns on record. They'll just find you again."

Jinx tapped her fingers on the table, slowly dragging her nails across the surface before tapping them again.

"Money?" she muttered absently. "I hadn't even thought about that. I mean, if you got any extra sitting around, I could take it off your hands..."

Tap, tap, tap ... drag.

"But that's not what I'm talking about," she insisted. "I got some friends that I need to find, and you, you wild stallion, you, are gonna help me find them before the aliens do, capiche?"

"So Bossy. Man! At least you're not another fiancé..." he muttered under his breath. "Fine. Fine. Saving people is part of the job description, anyway." The officer tapped his ear. "We're extracting pinkie here. Yeah, the back is fine... fifty bucks says this town crawls. Yes, you can shoot her if she makes a run for it. That's right. I want the entire clinic purged. Not one blood sample or scrap of cloth, you hear me? Good."

He stood up.

"Alright _pinkurori_..." Lieutenant Saotome motioned to the door. "We're going to escort you out. Just walk out quietly and try not to make a scene... he asks, knowing she'll probably make one anyway..."

"Perv." Jinx grumbled darkly to herself. "You're just lucky you didn't say _pettanko_, or this would have gotten bloody."

She then rose to her feet and started for the door.

"Well, what are you waiting for, _kyonyuu_? Let's get this show on the road before you embarrass yourself anymore."

"You know, I'd say they're not paying me enough to deal with brats like you... but they are."

A quick nudge out the now-open door prodded Jinx along.

"Go on."

Lieutenant 'Tokuno' was waiting for them, seemingly unarmed. Not like either martial artist really needed anything but their hands to deal with ninety nine point nine percent of the human population. The halls had all been cleared and locked down as they exited the police station out back. On the way out, Jinx got a look at another person she would be sharing her ride with.

The unnamed sniper she had subdued definitely looked like he had had better days. The police had been, if anything, less gentle with him than she herself had. Aside from being covered with bruises and what looked to be a burn mark on his shoulder, he was now muzzled with some sort of metal and plastic mask. A pretty young man in a uniform similar to Ranma and Ukyou's handled him with ease, despite the sniper being the physically larger of the two. Manacles kept the man's hands together, and he shuddered frightfully with every step his escort made him take.

"That one's an obvious conspirator," Ranma spoke up from behind Jinx as they walked. "The locals didn't get much out of him, but we'll find out everything he knows. He knows it, too. We _always_ get the information we want."

"Seriously, Red? What's with the 'big bad' routine? It is _sooo_ not you. You keep trying to be all 'I'm ominous and shady', but you just can't pull it off." Jinx then turned to Ukyou. "I mean, at least Fry Cook has the professional look, but she's got the anger management of a pitbull."

Ahead of her, the okonomiyaki chef snorted in annoyance, still a bit confused by the younger girl's familiarity.

"Hey," Ranma remarked. "I'll have you know I'm pretty bad ass..." Unfortunately, it ended up sounding more petulant than convincing. "Anyway, don't insult my awesome acting skills. I learned from the best!"

Jinx just rolled her eyes.

Coming out back, Jinx narrowed her eyes against the sudden blast of high speed wind.

No less than three black helicopters were currently loitering above them. They were the usual sleek unmarked types Jinx knew had parallels on her world: usually the type to offload government sponsored trouble. Two maintained the positions while the third lowered close to the ground, the parking lot having been cleared of vehicles. Some of the local police were in attendance, but unarmed. At least six men in military fatigues had the area locked down and secured.

At the third helicopter landed, blades still spinning, Jinx noted how quiet they were. Even this close, while there was plenty of wind, the blades and engines seemed to be muffled or silenced. It reminded her of the LuthorTech designs she and Happosai had run into in Metropolis. The side of their new ride opened up, and a woman jumped out. Unlike Ranma, Ukyou and the pretty boy, this one was armed. A rather large sniper rifle of unfamiliar make hung from a strap around the woman's shoulders. She also made no attempt to cover her distinctive violet hair.

"This is our ride," Ranma said. "Go ahead. The area's clear."

The instant that Jinx saw the purple haired warrior, she instinctively dropped into a defensive stance, her hands flaring up with pink energy. Just as she was about to verbally hiss her anger at the familiar Amazon, Jinx suddenly realized that she was being silly and stopped.

Dropping out of the combat stance, she quickly turned to Ukyou, smiling. "Hey there, I didn't think you were the type to hang out with alley cats. Even less so than the Pigtailed Girl."

For the first time, the young woman ahead of her turned enough to show off a smirk.

"Sounds like you two had a catfight," Ukyou observed. "Just be glad you got away without the smooch of death."

"Tongue of death is more like it..." Ranma muttered behind them. Both girls immediately turned to give him a very familiar look. "Hey! Kidding!"

"Don't kid about that sort of stuff... sir."

Ranma gave a dismissive huff. "So she knows about me, you, and a certain someone. But not one word about our fourth teammate here."

Konatsu, still manhandling the muzzled sniper, said nothing.

The three: Ranma, Ukyou and Jinx, stepped up and into the helicopter's cabin. No sooner was Ranma inside and closing the sliding door behind them than it began to ascend. Outside, another helicopter lowered to pick up the soon to be mentally-interrogated alien conspirator and his ninja escort. Inside, with the door closed, it was almost completely quiet. Shampoo and Ukyou took seats built into the wall opposite Ranma and Jinx. Both girls watched their pink haired guest closely, as if waiting for an excuse to pounce.

"Geez, relax a bit," Ranma told them, sliding the base of his seat forward a bit, giving him enough room to recline a couple inches. "We're evacuating you, the corpse camper down there, and Akari. We don't have the gear to decrypt that data-packet you gave us, but we'll get on that next. What I'd like to know now is how you know about us. If you're on our side, you can explain that much."

Rather than answer, Jinx just continued to match the glares of both Shampoo and Ukyou as haughtily as she could. She wanted, just _so much_ to do something to tick off Shampoo. Sure, it wasn't _her_ Shampoo, but she had been pretty much universally put off on all Shampoo's at this point. What to do, what to do?

One option had potential.

Pissing people off and showing off at the same time was always fun! After a minute, she finally turned to Ranma, prepared to reply to his question. Then, suddenly she pointed to something behind him. "Hey, what's that thing?"

Immediately, Ranma spun around to look at what she'd pointed at. "Ummm, what? You mean that crate there? Just extra gear, I suppose." He then began to turn back "I really don't see what that has- mmmph!"

Only to have his statement cut off when his lips pressed firmly onto Jinx's, who had leaned forward quickly while his head had been turned around. The pigtailed boy's eyes shot wide, and Jinx shot back to her seat, smiling wickedly across the way to the girl's sitting there.

_'Well, they got a reason now! Let's see what they do.'_

"You I..." A rather large knife slipped out of its sheath with an ominous click. "Kill."

Ukyou settled for cracking her knuckles, silently radiating murderous ki.

"G-g-geez! What'd ya do _that_ for?" Ranma wiped his mouth, glad he didn't end up smearing lipstick over his cheek. "Stand down!" He barked at the two angry women, then turned on Jinx. "What the hell are you doing?"

The tiny cabin of the room was literally swamped thick with battle auras.

Jinx tittered to herself. "Aww, don't be so sore, girls. I got you a present, anyway."

With that, she tossed a pair of boxers across the helicopter to land on Shampoo's lap.

The pink haired witch's smile was as self satisfied as it had ever been. It was a wonder what you could do when someone was distracted, even a master of the martial arts. And Ranma, just like Ryouga, was just _so_ easy to distract with the proper application of lady parts.

"See, now that I've given you a gift that you wanted so much, we can be friends, right Shampoo?" she asked teasingly.

"I don't know you," the Chinese girl stated, in essentially perfect English. She stole a look at Ranma's boxers, and then tossed them over to the still shocked martial artist.

"How did she...?" Ukyou stammered. "That was - "

"Where did you learn that move?" Ranma asked, now holding his underwear. When it came to techniques, especially family techniques, he was completely serious. The good natured routine evaporated in an instant.

"Ah!" Ukyou suddenly put two and two together. "Did she just touch your...! I'LL KILL HER!"

Amazingly, Shampoo had to restrain the enraged chef from literally reaching across the cabin and strangling their "guest." She didn't look happy about having to do it, but she did anyway. After a few struggling seconds, during which Ukyou's hands very nearly found the front of Jinx's dress, the Japanese girl began to slowly simmer down.

"Jinx," Ranma spoke up again. "Did Happosai teach you that move? Is he alive?"

The witch made sure to stick her tongue out at Ukyou one last time before turning back to Ranma.

"Well, I suppose this is a good a segue as any," she replied. "Unfortunately, it's complicated, and the answer is yes and no."

Ranma nodded, understanding how things got complicated. Still...

"I'd appreciate it if you explained it to me," he said. "Happosai, despite being an evil disgusting rotten pervert, was the founder of my family's school of martial arts. He was also... kinda... in a way, my Master. Though I never admitted it. We'd heard he was killed a few months ago."

Jinx nodded sadly. "I'd gathered that when the Ethereal Commander tried to break my mind. You have my condolences, even though he wasn't technically 'my' Happosai." She held up her hand to stop the obvious questions. "And yes, I said 'my' Happosai. You see, I was in a fight recently, and, in a bit of a freak accident, got teleported halfway across the world in a second."

Taking a deep breath, and holding up her hand again, continued, "It wasn't until Akari and me talked things out, that we realized that I hadn't just been teleported across the world, but across dimensions, to boot. So, long story short, I guess, is that I'm from a different dimension, as are a few of my friends that got sucked through the portal before me, now I'm lost and more than a bit confused on how similar, yet different this world is from mine."

Finally, she lowered her hand. "So ... any questions?"

For a couple seconds, silence reigned in the cabin.

Outside, the town was already dwindling away against the expanding blue of the coast. Ukyou and Shampoo seemed initially incredulous. The former - still angry about the kiss and imagined groping - crossed her arms and leaned back, plainly not convinced. Shampoo flipped her tactical knife around and slipped it back in its sheath, clipping it closed with one hand. Her eyes never left the pink haired sorceress.

Next to Jinx, Ranma had his boxers in his right hand, and his jaw resting against his left. It was his opinion, frankly, that mattered the most. Not just because Jinx liked him more than the two mercurial girls seated opposite; he was plainly in charge here. She'd been honest with him, just like he wanted. It was up to him to believe her.

"I see," he finally said, cautiously adding, "You realize my commanding officer will want to verify this."

"Ha! Good luck! Unless you can find Cyborg, I doubt you guys have anything that'll actually let you 'verify' this. And think again if you think you're just gonna waltz into my brain and start rooting around, either. I booted an Ethereal Commander outta there, and I'll do the same to you!"

Ranma frowned a bit at that.

"Sir," Shampoo spoke up, to Jinx's surprise. "She even know about that."

"She does," he admitted and gave a half-hearted shrug. "And I know what you're thinking. Still, rules are rules, right?" To Jinx, he explained, "When you have an enemy that can manipulate your thoughts, even subconsciously, caution saves lives. It already _has_ saved lives."

"Ummm, yeah, no," Jinx insisted. "I know that nothing got left behind, in fact, I know they didn't even manage to take everything they wanted before they gave up and just tried to kill me." She leaned back in her seat and looked away. "I'm not gonna bend on this one either. So, unless you wanna beat me unconscious, just give it up."

"And no." She looked pointedly at Ukyou and Shampoo, both of which looked to be on the verge of ominously cracking their knuckles. "That's not an invitation." Muttering to herself, she looked back to back of the helicopter. "Sheesh, tell them I got a friend named 'Cyborg' and all they can do is go on about mind rapin' me..."

Something occurred to her, just then.

"Hey, wait a sec...!"

Ranma, Shampoo and Ukyou turned conspicuously silent.

"Konatsu," Ranma said, having thought a certain something over. "Look after things in here."

Some sort of hand-signal passed between Ranma and Ukyou as the two moved to the forward pilot's compartment. Shampoo remained behind, watching the seated and slowly-catching-on Jinx intently, but without overt hostility.

"Of course you wouldn't be surprised by Cyborg," Jinx said levelly. "You already know, don't you."

Shampoo and Konatsu remained silent, neither confirming nor denying. Inside the front third of the helicopter, the other two members of Juliet squad exchanged hushed words.

"You know, I still can't believe this," Ukyou huffed, sounding clearly skeptical. "So, what? She's a friend of ours from this other dimension? And she conveniently shows up with the lost boy's ex-girlfriend? And she don't want to get a mind scan?"

She shook her head, refusing to believe it.

"Sounds like this is a trap to me. I bet the moment Ryouga shows up - and goes completely ape shit ballistic, by the way - snap!" She snapped her fingers. "The programming kicks in. It'll be just like that time India Squad got ambushed."

"I'm aware of the risks," Ranma whispered. The nearby pilot, helmet on, tuned them out. "But she's already figured most of the stuff out anyway. So we're gonna roll with it fer now."

"But lieutenant," Ukyou pressed. "She's dangerous."

"And what should I do, huh?" he asked, glancing back at the door to the rear cabin. "Knock her out? Put a suppressor on her?"

"You could at least let me scan her... even if you don't want to, I can -"

"No. Not... not yet," he cut her off. "I'm gonna talk to her. This isn't like before... what Ryouga and Konatsu and myself had to do. I will not do that unless absolutely necessary. Hell, her friends are already back at Seiran. You read the reports! For the time being, we'll let her have what she wants."

"...but!"

"She's had an Ethereal in her mind," he reminded his subordinate. "She's probably scared to death we'll do what it did. Just wait and see. I'll talk to her, and she'll agree to a screening. Eventually. What she said before... about us acting like they do. She has a point. So we're going to act like the good guys we are, aren't we?"

Ukyou frowned, but eventually nodded.

"Yes, sir."

"Good," he said, making as if to open the door back to the main cabin. "If she steals your underwear, you're free to beat her to a pulp."

The two went back.

The three black helicopters raced silently across the sea.

* * *

Commander Yasuda called the meeting personally.

All the available combat team officers were in attendance, including both Captains, Lieutenants Tsuchihashi, Stirling, and the recently promoted Feretti and Karpov. Ryouga, the junior officer of the five, felt his blood run cold when he saw the picture on the display. No: not just that. Beneath the frozen shock, a knot of anger threatened to erupt like a volcano.

"We have a situation," Captain Ben-Solomon explained, standing just in front of his display. "This alien-human hybrid, a Trenchard, has just recently entered our custody. Responding to a breach of information security, Juliet Squad recovered the following subjects."

In the short video clip that played, a badly wounded Akari Unryu lay flat on a medical stretcher. Her eyes were closed, and the camera recorded burns on her body, in addition to the massive bite-wound trauma she had suffered. Her features, ostensibly human, became less so below the neck, where alien surgery and alteration had either removed or mutilated the parts of the human anatomy considered undesirable by the Visitors.

"Juliet Squad and associated personnel have sanitized the hospital where she was being kept and eliminated all civilian records. Doctors and other medical staff have been sworn into secrecy concerning their reports and exposure to the body. The Trenchard itself is in our custody and currently en route to an emergency holding and medical depot."

"Saotome has already conducted a basic mental probe of the Trenchard, and confirmed certain events. Many of which relate to this second subject…" The picture changed to show Jinx from a variety of angles.

"This individual, identified as 'Jinx,' is responsible for bringing the Trenchard in for medical attention. Her appearance corroborates with the data we have recently acquired from the other four displaced individuals here at Seiran. Based on the Trenchard's memories, we have confirmed that the aliens attempted to bring this girl in for study, and that some sort of reaction occurred, damaging the Trenchard's _corona lucis_. The two then made an escape, evading capture for roughly two days."

"Critically, we now have intelligence, including satellite imagery and preliminary recon, indicating the presence of a cluster of landed UFOs. We have already shut off all air traffic in the region in preparation for an assault. Irkutsk is already getting ready to sortie in support."

"We'll need to formally verify our Intel," Yasuda remarked, narrowing her eyes at the map overlay on the screen. "Lockdown the area in the meantime and prevent anything taking off or landing while we double check the Trenchard." She turned to Ben-Solomon. "We will need a Class-A to oversee the data extraction and base attack. Joshua."

"Yes, ma'am," the Captain replied, quickly agreeing. "I'll see to it."

"Tsuchihashi. Stirling. Hibiki. We'll be using your combat and support teams, along with Hanley and Kinoshita. Rendezvous with Juliet and then proceed to target."

The lieutenants in attendance all agreed, but one had an unspoken question that needed clarification.

"Commander," Ryouga asked, "Shall I take our… observers with us?"

Yasuda nodded. "Do so. Keep an eye on both them and this Jinx character as well. You and Saotome should be able to handle the situation."

"We will, ma'am."

"Good. Get to it, gentlemen."

* * *

The situation was sufficient cause for concern that they took the Avenger.

Every major XCOM base had one, or sometimes two, of the high performance craft; they were the fastest and most powerful ships available to Base Commanders. Armed with the heaviest and most powerful weapons in the UNETCO arsenal, and double strength hull armoring in addition to Mach Eight supercruise, the ship was a premier interceptor, especially when coupled with the lighter but more fuel efficient Firestorm. Just as important, the ship had a generous cargo bay specially designed and equipped to support rapid deployment and Field Operations.

Despite not heading directly into a combat zone, the five assembled squads, plus the four guest 'embedded observers,' were already partly equipped by the time they left Seiran. India were already half prepared, with the lower sections of their personal armor in place. The upper half lay either draped across their shoulders, like a clam-shell, or hung from a nearby rack while they finished weapons checks.

More senior officers, and two heavy assault squads, were already in their personal armor: either the MA-3B ARES (Armored Response Environmental Suit), or the MA-3C MARS (Mobile Armored Response Suit). The latter suit, designated for officers and the 'lightning response team' (Tsuchihashi's Beta Squad in this Op), was slightly up-armored, but compensated for by the Elerium powered anti-gravity engine it sported.

The Titans, less familiar with the gear, were slower to equip.

Command had insisted that, even in the nominally low intensity position of 'observer' that the three humanoid titans wear some protection. It took time to get fitted for proper personal armor, and each suit was custom fitted and mated to its owner. Instead, the three were given basic type-2 enhanced tactical vests to wear either under or over their normal attire.

The vests incorporated some of the exotic alloy and ceramic hybrid plates used in personal armor, but without NBC or full environmental protection. It was an 'all or nothing' type defense, designed to protect the most vulnerable and likely to be hit areas: the torso, the upper legs and groin, and the outside of the upper arm. They had also been issued a tactical helmet and communications headpiece.

The big exception was Cyborg – there was no armor his size, and there hadn't been time to produce any protective gear… though, in retrospect, in his case it would be more than a bit redundant. For the time being, he would have to go as he was.

"Mousse," Ryouga said, walking down past India Squad. "Ryu. Get H-2 up and keyed in. I want her warmed up and ready for anything."

The two nodded. H-2 was the heavy plasma hovertank they had been given command over for the upcoming mission. The Avenger currently carried four of the silently hovering war machines: two plasma armed and two with fusion ball launchers. The latter also carried external backup laser cannons for infantry support. Most teams assigned one also used it as a bit of a pack mule, for carrying heavy weapons or miscellaneous equipment, and as emergency site to site transportation.

He had little to worry about with his own squad, he knew. He'd already given them a basic brief – the same one he'd passed to Ryu, as his second in command, he'd also given to the dimensionally displaced younger Ryouga. He'd only assumed that the younger-him had in turn disseminated the appropriate information to his team mates.

And he tried, really hard, not to think about who he was about to see in a half hour.

Steeling himself, packing up that conflicting tornado of thoughts, he walked over to where the four Titans sat, a little further back in the Avenger. They looked maybe half ready, if that. Starfire had her tactical vest on, but didn't seem happy about the interaction of the helmet and her hair and how to get it on. She had the headset on at least; he wasn't particularly worried about shrapnel causing a head injury in her case. The other Ryouga and Raven were less prepared, with the latter trying to help the former with the straps on his vest. It was obvious they didn't have a lot of personal experience with this sort of thing.

Holding onto one of the overhead straps, he looked them over.

"Good," he gave Starfire a complimentary nod, and then went to his other self. "Sergeant. I assume you've briefed your team."

"Fully briefed and prepared," his young counterpart replied. "Of course, if someone had actually shown us how to use any of this stuff, it might have helped, but we'll figure it out in plenty of time."

Cyborg nodded. "We're all good to go, Ryo Two. I've programmed the energy signature of the Elerium isotope into my scanner, so I'll be able to lock onto anyone that fires an alien weapon within a hundred meters. I've already taken the liberty of setting up a wireless link with one of the techies so I can feed them the data in real time, so they can get a tactical overview of where all the enemies appear on the grid."

"I've also prepared to act as psionic backup in case there are any mental attacks," Raven added, giving one last sharp tug to finish strapping Ryouga into his armor. "I should be able to sense any stronger than average psyches once we get in range and react accordingly if any of them try anything."

Ryouga nodded, pleased by the news. "I'll be activating our weapons and armor systems shortly. You'll follow us and patch the physiological data from your tactical vests… or your cybernetics… to the CIC. Which of you have an ATRISK – a 'Medikit'? Starfire and Raven?"

The young sergeant raised his hand. "I'm carrying the medkit. I'd prefer that everyone else isn't distracted. Also, with permission, sir, I request permission for our squad to focus mainly on rescuing any civilians that might be held in the ships. It is kind of our specialty, and we aren't really suited to killing aliens yet."

"That's fine," the native Hibiki agreed. "We don't know how many abductees may be at the alien base, but rescuing them is always a top priority. Just watch your backs. Do not remove anyone from active stasis unless you have to. Many, especially the ones used for experiments or implantation, can not survive outside a stasis tube. Cyborg here should scan each one before you do anything," he reminded them. "Okay. Nabiki should have you hooked into our IFF transponder system… everything looks good."

He paused a second, then asked, "But, I also wanted to ask about this girl Ranma brought in. This Jinx."

"She's our friend and a powerful ally," Ryouga replied staunchly. "If she's there, I **will** see her."

"I don't have a problem with that," the Lieutenant assured him. "I'd just like to have some first hand opinions on her. There's… conflicting reports."

"No, there aren't," Ryouga replied evenly. "If she's up and well enough to move then she's coming with me. This isn't even up for debate, Lieutenant."

So focused was the younger Hibiki on his declaration, that he didn't even notice the odd looks and shifting postures of his teammates behind him. The look on Raven's face alone spoke volumes.

"Sergeant." The other Hibiki leaned in, unperturbed. "I merely asked your opinion. I know you are clearly fond of this girl, but should I even bother asking what your teammates think?" He leaned back with a scowl. "No point in it now, I guess. If she passes muster, then we'll be handing her off to you. I hope you're all fine with that."

Not backing down a millimeter, Ryouga nodded sharply. "More than fine, _sir_."

He then turned back to his squad, dark look still on his face. "Alright, get back to it; half of you aren't even ready yet. Let's get Raven into her vest, and Starfire, get that helmet on already."

Heading back down to check on the HWP, the Lieutenant noted the whole 'Jinx' topic seemed to be particularly troublesome. He knew from some of Raven's memories that Jinx was a sore topic. In retrospect, it would have been better to call each one of the over separately to discuss what they thought of her, and whether they even wanted her around, much less on their team.

It was a stupid mistake, and one he knew a more experienced officer wouldn't have made.

Now he was left with what he knew of the pink haired girl, which was basically Juliet Squad's conflicting reports (ranging from 'crazy cat-like girl' to 'slutty troublemaking tramp' to 'she seems nice, though, maybe, just a little bit antagonistic'), Raven's memories – in which Jinx did not feature in a very sympathetic light – and not much else. Just that this girl had escaped, on foot, with Akari.

No: not Akari. Not _really_.

Yasuda would almost certainly pass the buck onto him from Ranma, all but forcing him to try and integrate her into the new 'Yankee Squad.' God knows, it seemed to be what the other-Ryouga wanted. But a squad wasn't just the officer leading by fiat and showing personal preferences to one member. It had to be a cohesive unit, led by a fair and impartial officer, and it was altogether unclear if Jinx had a place in it with those other three.

"Damnit," he cursed under his breath, assembling the rest of India. "Alright. Let's get this show started. I have now activated India Squad. Nabiki!"

"Here," the voice of the team coordinator, back at Seiran, was strangely comforting.

"We're going weapons hot. Patch everyone in."

* * *

Depot R-067

It didn't even have a formal name.

UNETCO operated many mobile and secondary facilities, like Hisen, or the USNS Fisher, but those were still permanent bases. This one was only temporary. It consisted of a few plastic domes and two airlifted cargo containers, retrofitted to support a small number of research and support staff. A dozen armed guards in conventional kit stood watch, having set up a small but tight perimeter between the basecamp and the dense forest.

The Avenger came to an abrupt stop just above the base before lowering steadily to a cleared area on the ground. Landing gear extended, and the fighter/transport same to an easy stop, driven by its two skilled pilots… each psionically connected to the drive and weapons systems.

Ranma and his team were waiting for them outside.

As Ben-Solomon came down the ramp, followed by Lieutenants Stirling and Hibiki and the newly minted Sergeant Hibiki, the pigtailed leader and his group saluted. He and the rest of Juliet were all in standard fatigues, and obviously eager to get fully equipped for the mission ahead of them. There was a fifth person present as well: a teenage girl, petite, with twin fountains of gravity defying pink hair shooting up to her left and right.

"Sir!" Ranma spoke up. "Juliet Squad awaiting orders!"

"Good to see you, Saotome," the Captain replied, saluting back. "We brought your gear; it's waiting for you back in the ship. Get Juliet suited up and ready to deploy."

As the group waited for Ranma and co to go fetch their equipment, the young sergeant studied Jinx for a long moment, before turning to his near doppelganger. "Heh, I wonder if Jinx will be as confused as Cy-_Ow_!"

Ryouga's inquiry was cut short as a slim body slammed into him hard enough to send them both flying halfway back up the loading ramp. Even with his training, not to mention the armor, the sergeant felt the wind blasted from his lungs from the full on tackle, and his back slamming heavily into the indestructible metal of the landing gear.

A second later, he felt someone try very hard to push that breath back into his lungs. His gasp of shock stifled, it took Ryouga a second to realize that he was being both pinned to the ground by someone little more than half his weight and kissed quite intensely. Several long seconds passed, and Ryouga was just finally beginning to relax into the quite agreeable greeting, when a loud throat clearing filled the air.

Finally, Jinx cut off the kiss, gracing him with a wide grin, and then the both of them looked up. Up at the top of the ramp, Raven stood, her hands crossed over the vest now strapped securely in place. The look on her face was clearly at odds with the disparate looks of amusement and envy coming from the Tamaranian and the Cyborg that flanked her.

"Are you quite done, yet?" Raven asked, clearly off-put.

"Hey," Jinx replied teasingly. "You and Ryouga got your thing, what with the whole morning diner thing. Well this is _mine_ and Ryouga's thing."

"Ummm ... what is this _thing_ to which you refer?" Starfire asked tentatively.

Jinx's smile widened, even as she lowered herself to wrap her arms around Ryouga. "I get one free affirmation of life every time I come within a hair's width of dying! Two, if it's for a good cause!"

Unable to help himself, Ryouga smiled before sitting up and getting to his feet, incidentally dragging Jinx along for the ride as she refused to loosen her grip in the slightest. Looking down at the pink haired girl, he carefully dropped his hands on her shoulder.

"So, are you alright, then? I heard you had some alien trouble?"

"It wasn't a big deal. The aliens these guys got are complete losers. If I wasn't so busy saving Akari's big butt, I woulda got outta there easy." Jinx immediately leaned back in, nuzzling into his chest with an intensity that strongly belied her joking nature. Though he was sure that no one else could, or would even care to notice, he could actually feel a slight trembling running through her body as she clung to him.

Standing next to his commanding officer, the older Hibiki watched the exchange closely. What the other-him did in his personal time wasn't his business, but even he could tell that there was trouble brewing in that group with Jinx added to the mix. In most other circumstances, it would have even have been a little funny. Unfortunately, at the moment, they were on duty and it was more worrying than amusing.

"Let's go," Captain Ben-Solomon said, having also watched it with mild interest. "I want to see the Trenchard. And I know you do, too, Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir."

The three men turned from the ship and the scene near the ramp to head to one of the plastic quarantine domes.

"Wait!" The shout was unexpected, especially considering who it came from. Turning, the trio noted that Jinx had actually separated herself from Ryouga and was now standing several feet away from him, her hands folded before her and looking on with a downward glance.

"I - I want to see her too," Jinx insisted. "They haven't let me see her since I took her to the clinic. I want to make sure that she's alright..."

The Captain started at the girl for a few seconds. They had all read Juliet's report, and what Jinx had told Saotome. On the other hand, she was still a civilian, a possible security risk, and an unknown factor. To Jinx's credit, she didn't try and unleash her 'puppy dog eye' routine and instead remained polite and composed.

Finally, the Captain nodded.

The three resumed walking, and Jinx quickly caught up, trailing just behind them.

The quarantine dome was standard fare for alien corpse and technology recovery. Unfortunately, it was so ubiquitous and recognizable that it had all but entered pop culture. Millions of civilians could recognize it on sight and associate it with 'alien cover up' – different structures had to be used over the last few years, masking the appearance and phasing out the overexposed 'semi transparent dome.'

Approaching it, Ryouga didn't know what to think.

_ Akari._

Of course, she was dead. Even when his own father, at the time in the alien thrall, had told him she 'was still alive' he had known it to be a trick. Cologne had teased him about it, and an Ethereal had reasoned that she was 'one within them.' He wasn't an idiot, no matter what some people said. He knew what it meant.

They had harvested her and copied her, uploading what they needed regarding her breeding experiments into the Alien Mind. Akari's fate was the fate of hundreds, maybe thousands, of others, fallen prey to the alien menace across the length of human history. She wasn't just another victim, though. He had failed her personally: failed to _protect_ her. Failed to _save_ her.

_ Failed to _die_ with her._

Yes, that too.

Worse: he had failed to avenge her. And now there was another one of her, a human-alien hybrid, a Trenchard. He knew she wasn't the real Akari, but god, she was close. She was so _damn_ close.

_'__This is a test. A test of my will. My determination.__'_

As the four parted the layered plastic airlock doors to get inside, he saw her, almost as if for the first time. The long, dark, perfect hair; a streak of pink in it running down the side of her face – _how often had he seen her tuck it shyly behind her ear? _The delicate curve of her jaw _–__ he remembered cupping it gently, as they shared their first kiss._ Hey soft brown eyes were closed, but even in peaceful repose – _he remembered how she had fallen asleep, leaning against him when they__'__d stay up late watching TV._

"Akari," he said, barely above a whisper.

His fists clenched at the deluge of emotions that ripped through him, heedless of his mental preparation and rational analysis. He fought for control, for mastery over the sudden surge. He had known, deep down and from the very start, that this would be difficult. But it was something he had to do. He had to see, to know, just what depths of desecration these aliens were capable of in bringing Akari back… yes, bringing her back, but as a mockery of her true self. He felt the depression and helpless sorrow retreat, replaced by white hot rage. It was so much easier to control. So much easier to accept.

There was a doctor in attendance, wearing white quarantine gear.

"Captain," he said, inclining his head at the ranking officer.

"I heard she's in bad shape," Stirling noted.

"We've isolated the brain damage – it is quite extensive, but you three should be safe to enter her mind. In the long term, we don't have any conventional treatments. Her body will continue to degrade at all levels… but thanks to the transfer out of Seiran, we have a chance…" The Doctor impatiently tapped his medical pad against his arm.

"As outlined in the report, we plan to replace the damaged _corona lucis_ and _ampulae psionic_," he explained. "We have an experimental cybernetic implant, a small next generation psi-amp, to replace the ampulae. The corona lucis is beyond our technology to replace outright so we'll try a transplant with what you brought up."

"Very good," Ben-Solomon replied. "Get everything ready. We won't be long."

The Doctor nodded and made his exit.

"Ah, wait, what?" Jinx spoke up, a bit confused. She turned to Ryouga. "I thought you were gonna talk to her. Did you come here just to scan her mind?"

"She isn't awake. Besides, there's nothing to say," he replied, without turning to face the questioner. He could feel tears welling up and fought to contain them. Too late, he settled for hiding them.

"Hibiki," the Captain said, in an unspoken reminder.

Ryouga nodded. He had accepted this; volunteered for it. This was closure.

He felt his mind tap into his psi-amp, and he took up position to Akari's left side. Rather than channel through the Captain, all three men touched the unconscious Trenchard's forehead. In a heartbeat, they were inside. As expected, there were some natural defenses. The aliens, even when unconscious, were not without –

Like a sea, the barriers and trap-memories parted.

_'__She __–__ she__'__s letting us in?__'_

It seemed impossible. Indeed, it had never happened before. Even when someone consented to a Mind Dive, there was always some subconscious resistance. It was instinctive. Here this Trenchard's mind opened like a book, without resistance or protest. The three trained psionics synchronized and cautiously began their work, checking the hybrid's memories, looking for traps or deceits.

But these…

_ Akari sat at her desk, laboring over the English section of her take-home exam. She__'__d had to work on the ranch almost the moment she got back from school, feeding, training, and caring for the animals __–__ Grandfather was getting worse, and these days, it was all he could do to get out of bed for a few hours. The doctors hadn't been able to help, and as the only heir to the Unryu farm, it fell on her shoulders to help pitch in. There wasn't time to hang out with her friends after school; she just hoped they wouldn't hold it against her._

These were…

_ Little Katsu-chan had followed her to school today, and when the other children found out, they__'__d been quick to adopt a new nickname for her: Ino-chin. __'__Ino-chin__'__ they chorused. Piggy! She__'__d tried to explain to them that pigs were clean and smart and wonderful animals, but that had only made things worse. Her friends, who she hadn't had much time to spend with outside school, slipped away to distance themselves from her. Still, she was an Unryu._

_ She held back her tears until she got home._

These memories were…

_ The antiseptic burned as she dabbed the cut on her cheek, just below her eye. Careless. She__'__d been careless. Katsu-chan was getting much stronger, following the training regimen she had outlined. Father had bred him from the last Champion, so of course he would end up stronger than he looked, and he was already getting so big! She should have been more careful. That was all there was to it. _

_"I hope it doesn't__ scar," she wished, but kept her voice low. None of her former friends had scars or bruises. They had nice hair, and perfect skin, and lived normal lives. No wonder everyone made fun of her. She was just a muddy, ugly farm girl in comparison._

_ Putting away the disinfectant, she turned to make dinner. Grandfather was all but bed-ridden now, so it was up to her to take care of him and the house._

It was her.

_ She__'__d helped Sumi-chan deliver her first litter today. If all went well, she__'__d be able to cross Litter 2-C with 4-E sometime next year. She was hesitant to breed Katsu-chan before he formally entered the circuit, but if things panned out, then she__'__d have a good stock available in two or three years… _

These were _her_ memories, the original her's memories.

_"Akari-chan…" Grandfather coughed as he struggled to speak. She reached out to give his hand a comforting squeeze. His grip was so frail…_

_"Akari-chan, f-forgive this old man his weakness," he managed, staring up at her from his bed. "But I... I am not long for this world. Soon, the future of the Unryu Ranch will fall… entirely on your shoulders…"_

_"Grandfather, no! Don't__ say that!" She held his weak hand in both of hers, trying to sound confident. "You'll pull through. Katsunishiki made first place in the semi-finals last week. You__'__d have been so proud!"_

_"I am… I am so very proud…" he said, taking a long breath. "Of you, Akari-chan. You'__ve worked so hard. Your parents… would have been so proud to see you…" he coughed again, and his body went momentarily slack._

_"Grandfather!"_

_"Akari-chan," he continued, this time with more force. "You are a fine trainer and breeder, but you are the only heir to the Unryu name. My last request… is this: you must find a man worthy of you. A strong man, who can be your partner in life. Find that man, one even stronger than Katsunishiki. I believe only he… will be your soul mate…"_

What were these memories doing in a Trenchard?

Why?

_ It was a letter from Ryouga-sama. He was training in the mountains __–__ in fact, it sounded more like he was in the Ryukyu Islands __–__ and he was wondering what sort of present to get her. The Ryukyu__'__s were known for their beaches and scuba diving, though she knew he wouldn't be able to enjoy that activity as long as the Jyusenkyou curse kept him away from cold water. In the end, it wouldn't matter so much what he got as a gift, but that he was thinking about her, even so far away._

_'__I'll find my way back to you, soon. Please wait for me.__'_

_"I will," she promised, and took out a sheet of paper to write her reply._

Why?

_ He was back, and he__'__d brought a delicate piece of coral with him._

_ "I dunno what it was doing in Fukuoka," he__'__s explained, standing at the door with the present in his hands, hazel brown coral delicately wrapped with a blue bow. "But this reminded me of your eyes." _

_ Hours later, she still found herself staring at it, resting on a special place at her desk. They__'__d go out somewhere special tomorrow, maybe to a restaurant back in town, but tonight she had work to finish. She barely thought much about school any more. Her life was here: at the farm, at the competitive circuit with her sumo-pigs (where Katsunishiki now proudly held the title of Yokozuna), and with her new best friend and __–__ one day - her husband-to-be. _

_ Finishing off the math problems, she saw Ryouga, exhausted from the day__'__s travels, sleeping against the side of her bed with his backpack propping up his right side. He__'__d been waiting for her to finish her work, claiming he was happy enough just seeing her, even if she was working. He__'__d nodded off an hour ago, and Akari had been careful not to wake him. He must__'__ve run hundreds of kilometers just to get here, and, really, he just looked too cute the way he was._

_"Ryouga-sama…" she leaned over, brushing aside his bangs to plant a feather soft kiss on his forehead, just under the bandanna. "I love you."_

He hissed, breaking the contact.

"Oh god…!" he gasped, and stared up to keep his eyes behind his hands. Words tried to form but failed, replaced instead by ragged breaths. What the Hell was this? Trenchards like this were biological constructs. They shouldn't have _useless_ human memories. This wasn't… this wasn't what he had expected to find. This wasn't…!

"Lieutenant."

The words instinctively brought him back, and he faced his superior officer.

"Sorry, sir." He had broken contact early. They had to have both noticed. "You've finished?"

"We have. She was most cooperative." Captain Ben-Solomon glanced down at the unconscious Akari. "Stay and take care of your business."

He bowed his head. "T-thank you, sir."

With that, the man took his leave. Stirling followed, giving his fellow Lieutenant a quick but sympathetic pat on the back. Ryouga didn't watch them go, instead taking in Akari anew: her wounds, her face, her body. This was her. It may not have been her body, not like before, but she was inside. Trapped inside. Tears ran freely down his face as he took in the magnitude of that realization.

She was back.

And she was dying.

Confusion and shock gave way to crushing grief and soul numbing despair. She was dying in front of him. _Again_. And there was nothing he could do. Hunched over her body he gave a strangled cry, and green licks of light coursed across his skin. He could feel the emotions, raging out of control, starting to coalesce into a monumental _shishi hokoudan_. Even as grief stricken as he was, he knew what that meant. Focusing, not for himself, but for those anywhere nearby, he tried to channel the sorrow into the tight black knot in the back of his mind.

_'__Save it. Save it for those who deserve it,_' he thought, barely able to reign in the dark swirling ki. _'__This is __**my**__ hate. __**My**__ despair. And I will __**BURY**__ them with it! I swear I will!__'_

Gradually, the energy receded, burning its way into his soul like fire.

"R-Ryouga…?"

His eyes shot open as he heard his name, and felt a cold hand rest gently on top of his own.

"Akari?" he wondered, whispering. Her eyes were open, and the sight of them made him gasp. They were just as he remembered.

"Ryouga-sama…" she replied, her own voice labored but relieved. Her hand slipped into his palm, and he had to keep from crushing it with his strength.

"You came back," she said with a growing smile.

He nodded. "Of course. You waited for me."

She nodded back, and took a slow breath.

"Ryouga-sama." She reached up with her other hand, touching his cheek. "I'm sorry I made you cry."

"No, Akari… I… I'm the one who needs to apologize… I'm the one who... who-"

"You're alive, aren't you?" she asked, unsteadily wiping away his tears. "I got my wish. I even got to see you again…"

He shook his head, unconvinced. So helpless. He felt to helpless!

"I-" his voice choked as he hunched over, slowly shaking his head. "I am so sorry. So sorry. I…I…"

Akari seemed to steel herself, and she silenced him with a finger over his lips.

"A girl should be here with me. Her name is Jinx. She was the one..." the hybrid girl took a long, slow breath. "She was the one who freed me. Get her home, Ryouga-sama. You have to… please."

A loud scoff came from behind them. "Oh, yeah, _real_ nice, Akari. I go through Hell and back to hold up my end of the bargain, and make sure that you can see your Ryouga again, and you're _still_ giving me attitude?"

Moving forward, she took one of Akari's hands. "And don't worry about yourself, either. The doctor right outside said that they were gonna fix ya right up; replace all your alien parts with shiny new stuff. You'll be just like Cyborg, just, y'know, a bit more buxom."

"Thank you, Jinx…" Looking up at the two of them, her smile widened. "Ryouga-sama, I'm afraid I have to leave the rest to you. Please… be careful."

He nodded solemnly.

"I'm sorry we had to meet like this," she added, glancing for a second at the pink haired girl. "I never had many friends, Jinx. I'm glad you were one of them."

"Heh, well, it wasn't the _worst_ couple of days I've had." Jinx looked quickly between Ryouga and Akari. "I think I'd better get going, though. You two probably have things you want to _discuss_ that don't involve a voyeur in the room."

Giving a cheeky grin, she squeezed the girls hand before stepping back towards the door. "Make sure to give me a call when you're up and about."

When she was gone, Akari looked back up at her would-be fiancé.

"I'm… so weak, Ryouga-sama. I… want to live. I do," she admitted, looking up at the ceiling of the plastic dome. "And I'm scared. I'm so scared… But if I live or die, I want it to be as a human being. Ryouga-sama, please don't let them take that away from me."

"What…?" He looked down at her in confusion. "Akari, I…"

"You know exactly what I mean," she insisted, meeting his eyes, on the verge of breaking down. "I've had a lot of time to think about this. Don't let what I know, don't let _what I am_, go back to Them. I can feel that's what they want and I… I can't let that happen."

His eyes hardened, as if to argue.

"Ryouga-sama, in the end… all we have is our humanity to cling to… and the knowledge that we live on in others… My body is far more Ethereal than Human." She reached weakly for his wrist. "I can't survive without The Mind, and you know what happens to us in captivity. Please, tell me you understand."

For a few seconds, he just shook his head. He knew, but… what she was asking…

"I do," he finally relented. "I know."

"Promise me." She didn't blink, as if it was the most important thing in the world to see him agree. "Promise me, Ryouga-sama."

He cupped her hand in his, holding tightly. "I promise."

Then he leaned down and their lips met, one last time. Akari's right hand rose up to stroke his cheek. It was a bittersweet embrace, shaded by the unspoken notes of finality that neither had to give voice to. His hand reached up along the line of her jaw, fingers threading into the pink highlight of her hair. It was a slow, tender kiss on the part of a man and woman who had been together and accepted the inevitable.

When they finally parted, Ryouga rested his face against her shoulder, hiding his face and his tears as he cried. Akari let her hand get lost in his hair as she closed her eyes, remembering the times they'd shared. Almost blissfully, she felt her own tears rise up in defiance of her altered physiology. She gave a rough, ragged, weary sigh, and tilted her head to whisper something in his ear.

Minutes later, when he finally stood back up, his face was an impassive mask.

"Ryouga-sama, I'm… I'm glad I met you. And I will always treasure the times we had together and the love we shared… Goodbye, Ryouga-sama," despite everything, she still wore a melancholy smile. "If I can, I'll see you again."

"Goodbye…" he choked out, almost painfully. "Akari-chan. …Wait for me. Just a little longer. I swear. _I'll take care of everything_."

Then, taking a deep, shuddering breath, he turned and left.

Outside, he paused to collect himself. Purposefully looking around, he saw the Doctor and two others in his team. Mindful not to get lost, not now of all times, he approached the trio. Further away, he could see the idle Avenger and a few groups of soldiers and other personnel. Not a single one was looking his way. Even Juliet Squad, though near the ramp getting suited up, didn't seem to be paying any attention.

_'__Good.__'_

He noted Jinx and the rest of the Titans, a little closer by. They seemed to be busy amongst themselves, but he had a feeling Jinx was still paying at least some attention to the area near Akari. The other-him seemed to be effectively dividing her notice, though. She was too far away anyway.

"Doctor," he called out as he approached the small group. "That alien tissue sample? Is it Sectoid or Ethereal?"

"Hm? Ethereal of course," the lead physician replied, and rested his hand on a large case covered by a white shroud. "The strongest we could procure. We don't want to take any chances with rejection -"

Not hesitating even a second, Ryouga pushed the man aside and grabbed the case, throwing off part of the concealing cloth. It revealed a cylindrical glass jar, the top and bottom sealed and lined with electronics and an oxygenation system. Inside, suspended in clear fluid, was an alien brain hooked up to electrodes.

"W-what are you…?" the Doctor drew back, as the jar began to vibrate in the Lieutenant's hands. Slapping his hand on the side, Ryouga's palm released a faint black cloud across the material. Within seconds, the alien brain – still inside the jar – began to fizzle. The stasis fluid bubbled, but still lacked the strength to break the walls of the medical device.

Then, without further warning, the brain exploded.

Dropping it to the floor, the jar now wracked by small eruptions and the entire surface splattered with charred grey matter, Ryouga let it fall next to his foot. He then lifted that foot, and in one smooth motion, crushed it underfoot. The already stressed case finally shattered – with boiling, steaming liquid pushing out and then a sudden force slamming down. What little was left spilled out into the dirt.

"What have you done?" The Doctor roared. "What have you done? We needed that brain!"

The sound of footsteps filled the air as a large number of people charged down on their position. At the head of the pack was Jinx, a confused expression on her face. She ran straight past Ryouga and to the doctor.

"What's going on! What did he just do?"

"He destroyed the alien brain!" the Doctor cried, looking aghast at the burning mess that had once been the harvested alien tissue. "Look at this! Jesus Christ, why is it on FIRE?"

"The ... brain?" Jinx asked. "Why is it such a big deal? Was it expensive or something?"

Behind her, Ryouga simply stared at the flaming mass, his expression darkening by the second. He muttered something to himself as he examined the horrifying sight, but nothing that could be made out by anyone else.

The doctor turned to her. "It is - it _was_ - the donor material that we were going to use to save the Trenchard! The operation is all but impossible without it!"

Jinx's eyes widened in shock. Instantly, she spun on the older Hibiki. He didn't even raise his eyes to meet her gaze.

"**MURDERER!**"

Everything else was drowned out in a blinding flash of pink light. A second later, the sound of crushing metal and shattering glass split the air as Ryouga's smoking body was sent hurtling into and through a spare medical tent before slamming bodily into the hull of the nearby Avenger.

The only thing that prevented Jinx from chasing him down to finish the job was the implacable grip of her own Ryouga, doing his utmost to hold the clawing, hissing girl back. Across the way, the smoking martial artist dragged him self to his feet with agonizing slowness.

"HIBIKI!" Captain Ben-Solomon stormed over, sidearm in hand. A small entourage of other officers were close behind, Ranma included. When he saw what had happened, the color drained from the pigtailed martial artist's face.

Lowering his head, Ryouga kept his hands up in surrender.

"Lieutenant!" he barked, advancing angrily. "What the HELL did you do?"

"I have no excuse, sir." He slowly, cautiously, lowered his arms. "She… she said she'd rather die as a human, then have _that_ in her… I agreed. I accept full-"

"That was NOT your call, Hibiki!" Ben-Solomon roared, getting right into the young man's face.

"Sir…"

"It wasn't **her** call either!"

Rather than argue, Ryouga nodded. "Yes, sir. I still had to do it sir."

"How? How could you?" Jinx screamed, still barely restrained. "She loved you!"

"You think I don't know?" he asked, voice low and dangerous. "You think I don't care? You think I don't know what it would mean, putting something like that back in her head? She remembered _everything_ they made her do! You saw it, Captain!" he turned to Ben-Solomon. "I swore I-!"

He slumped back against the Avenger.

"It was her last wish," he groaned, his voice pained. "No transplant. No more aliens in her brain. No going back to what she was before. I **had** to do it… it **had** to be **me**."

"NO!" Jinx shook her head fiercely. "Bullshit! That's - that's just _bullshit_!"

She struggled to find something worse to say; to do ... but finally could only break down and spin back into her Ryouga's hold, burying her head in his chest.

The younger Hibiki could only stare at his older counterpart, disdain and horror warring on his features.

"...That's it," he spoke, then, the frost in his voice was near arctic. "I'm done with you. For a second there... _for just a second..._ I thought that maybe we weren't as different as I feared, but now?" He then turned to the Captain Ben-Solomon. "With all due respect, sir, I request that my team be placed under the command of Juliet Squad."

"If that Trenchard dies, Lieutenant, the blood is on your hands!" The Doctor snarled.

Ryouga glowered angrily but he also knew: the man was right. It **was** what he had agreed to.

"Captain!" the Doctor turned to Ben-Solomon.

"Hibiki," he growled, clearly divided by the fact that a part of him agreed with Akari's last wish, but the rest pissed off that his subordinate had acted without orders, destroyed medical 'equipment' and interfered with a procedure that would have netted UNETCO a valuable research subject. He knew full well that saving her life would mean reattaching her to the Alien Mind, and that full-body Trenchards and Ethereals never survived long in captivity. It wasn't a fate he would have wished on anyone.

Nonetheless, they had their orders, and this was an important experiment.

"Sir," Ranma interrupted when his CO trailed off. "We can pick up Yankee Squad."

"Fine. Saotome, get him out of here," the Captain ordered, but added, "This is not the end of it, Hibiki. Your record's been exemplary up until today but this will not go unreported."

The mentally exhausted officer lowered his eyes. "Yes, sir."

"Come on, man…" Ranma grabbed his friend by the arm to lead him away.

"Sir," the Doctor added, as they left. "I demand you do something about that man!"

"I will," he assured him, tone brooking no further complaint. "Do what you can with what you have. The cybernetics will have to do."

"Captain, wait." Again, Captain Ben-Solomon turned to see the pink haired girl standing beside him, demanding his attention. Her face was still flushed red, as were her eyes, straining to hold in the tears.

"How long can she survive before you need to operate?" she asked, reasoning, "All we need is another alien brain, right?"

"It must be an Ethereal," prompted the doctor.

Jinx nodded sharply. "Perfect. I know exactly where to find one. Captain, you need a brain? I'll get you one, even if it's all that's _left_ of the damned thing by the time I'm done with it."

* * *

"Ranma…?"

"What now, pork butt?"

"I think I need to throw up."

Shuddering hard enough that Ranma could feel it, despite both of them wearing personal armor, he could feel it. The pigtailed one had known from the start that this was a potential powderkeg. It was a small miracle the entire base hadn't vanished in a gigantic green nuclear fireball of suicidal ki. The depression and hatred, the elemental, self destructive, soul crushing ki that he felt mauling its way through his rival's body was beyond anything Ranma Saotome had ever felt before.

"I… I just killed her," Ryouga choked, lower lip quivering. "Just get me away for a few minutes. I – I can't…"

"S'alright, man," Ranma tried to sound reassuring, discretely leading them away from the clearing. Gods. This, and Akari, and all these strangers… the whole situation was rapidly turning ugly.

At this point, how could things get worse?

* * *

x

* * *

**A/N**

This ends the "Close Encounters" arc.  
The next one is tentatively titled "Fallout"


	12. Fallout 1

**A/N**  
New arc startin'

What? You expected more of an author note? Hm. I guess I'll note here I've had the other Reflections Lost archive up on my (Capn Chryssalid's) fanworks website for about a week now. Since we've got some artwork stuff in the pipeline, I'll synch up the gallery that emerges with the usual story hosted-as-htm. It'll also be where we store compiled chapters at zip files, for those that want them.

* * *

x

* * *

An accident at STAR Labs has hurled half the Teen Titans roster across the multiversal barrier and onto a strange world with no metas, no superheroes and no supervillians. There, the UNETCO organization, also known as X-COM, fights against an insidious and merciless alien enemy. The dimensionally displaced Teen Titans have finally been reunited. Determined not to sit on the sidelines, the four young men and women: Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and their universe's Ryouga Hibiki have been brought together into a special 'embedded observer' team designated CT:Yankee.

Displaced in the Russian Far East, far from any of the other Titans, Jinx had the misfortune of falling into the hands of the alien Visitors. Yet when one of the alien-human hybrids became hexxed by her power, damage to its brain tissue disconnected it from the Cydonian Mind and allowed it to remember who it had once been: Akari Unryu. Together, the two unlikely allies escaped into the forest and made for civilization, forging a close friendship during the difficult trek to safety. However, the same power that freed Akari was also killing her, and together with wounds taken during their escape, she hung on just long enough to reunite with her world's Ryouga Hibiki. Fulfilling her request to let her die, he destroyed the alien donor tissue that was to be used to revive her. Now the Titans, as Yankee Squad, are called to battle, with Akari's life on the line.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Fallout_

Chapter XII

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

Things got worse.

The skies lit with nuclear fire.

A trio of alien battleships descended from an FTL low-orbit exit, flanked by an escort wing of smaller craft. Hyperwave transmission and decoding identified their destination and objective: ALIEN TERROR. Intel also had cause to believe they were attempting to break the no-fly zone around the Russian Far East, pre-empting an attack on the small alien base recently encountered.

Meeting the aliens were Firestorm interceptors launched from Seiran and Irkutsk. The aliens were quick to descend towards their targets, making interception far more difficult. Anti-aircraft fire was impossible when near a city or populated area. Plasma Beams and Avalanche AAMs were either nuclear armed or packed kiloton level firepower. Use around urban areas was strictly curtailed, lest a stray shot annihilate half a city or plant a small mushroom cloud somewhere downtown.

The fighter jocks would do what they could, the rest fell to the bloody infantry.

"Listen up, boys and girls!" Ben-Solomon announced, addressing the now packed confines of the Avenger. It was a smooth enough ride inside, but outside, they were maneuvering at Mach 8 and making ninety degree turns that would, in a craft with internal inertia, kill pilots and crew instantly.

"We have a large scale terror site underway. Since we are the closest, Command has ordered us to immediately move and clean it out before civilian casualties reach the double digits. Everyone bring up your map overlay."

Those in powered or personal armor had their overlay digitally superimposed over their HUD. The Titans, however, needed to watch the motion sensors integrated into their tactical vests. Or, in Cyborg's case, simply stare ahead.

The displays showed several shots of the city taken via satellite and air-recon, in addition to a basic black, white and green map showing roads, buildings, and semi-transparent circles representing general levels of civilians. Several buildings were already demolished by landing or crashing UFOs. X's appeared, representing insertion points, tagged by different IDs.

"We have reports of Snakemen, Floaters, Sectoids _and_ Ethereals on the ground, though most are still concentrated around their UFOs. We will contain them, pin them down, and eliminate them. Now, with the presence of Snakemen, we are officially at a Level-One Chryssalid alert. Keep this in mind as you advance into civilian areas," Ben-Solomon then described the squad insertion points and objectives.

"Alpha, Bravo. You will be inserting at Point Whiskey-Four." the point highlighted on the map, at the north end of the town. "Secure the main road in and out of town, and then advance south. We will be the primary guided artillery and psionic support, and will set up a command center, here, to coordinate the evacuation and response of local armed forces."

Another point glowed hot, this time on the east end of town. "Echo, Foxtrot, India. You will secure our flank and launch immediate assaults on the aliens here, here, and here. Assume all civilians in the area around the UFOs to be either parasitically infected or under alien control. Engage all hostiles with extreme prejudice."

"Juliet,Yankee," he then said, and the southern insertion zone lit up. "You will be landing here, at Whiskey-One. This is a civilian-heavy residential zone. Watch your fire, but destroy any Chryssalids and infected. Local police forces are currently putting up a fight there and are evacuating civilians to the following shelters: here, an elementary school and here, a train station. Defend these areas at all costs. When the alien attack is repulsed, you will push north and east."

"Any questions?"

Silence.

"We're making our first pass now!" Ben-Solomon announced, and Juliet Squad advanced to the end of the ship, the ramp lowering. The ground outside the Avenger's gravity-induction bubble was a veritable blur as it shot into position. Then, like a picture snapping, it turned clear.

"GO GO GO!"

Two by two, the squad jumped out back, followed by one of the HWPs. Its hoverdrive quickly compensated and it began a controlled drop straight down, while Juliet's four members arced trough the sky. Yankee followed right behind, free falling for about a dozen feet before hitting the ground. Or, in two member's cases, flying down to land easily.

The sight that greeted them was surprisingly calm.

Expecting to be thrown into the middle of a war zone, they had been dropped off in a lightly residential area, with a number of roadside houses. Closer to the city, a handful of concrete apartment blocks loomed, looking down on the neighborhood below. The wailing foreign siren of Russian police cars split the air in the distance, along with the faint shouts of alarmed civilians, most unwilling to leave their homes. A handful of gunshots sounded in the distance.

"Yankee-One," Ranma announced, immediately taking command. "Take Yankee-Two and make sure the school to our east is secure. Yankee-Three, Four and… Five… Clear the road up to the brown house at the end of the street. Juliet Two and Three, I want you to cover the train station and then proceed north to cover our flank. There's a street adjacent to a park up there, and I want it cleared out. Konatsu-"

With that, Ranma turned away from Ryouga to begin addressing his own team more fully. As he did that, though, the Lost Boy felt himself begin to fume.

"Excuse me," he stated in a terse, but not (quite) aggressive tone.

The pigtailed soldier paused in his dissemination of orders and turned back to regard Ryouga. "What is it, sergeant?"

Doing his best to maintain a calm expression - it was more difficult than he imagined it would have been, considering the crap that had just been pulled at the base camp not even an hour earlier - but managed a halfway civil voice as he continued.

"With all due respect, _sir_. Shouldn't I be the one to assign my team members? No offense, but you haven't worked with us before and you may not be familiar with our capabilities."

It was impossible to read the Lieutenant's expression through his visor, but after a moment of contemplation, he finally nodded. "Yeah… yeah, I guess you're right about that. Alright, I'll leave the details up to you then, pig boy. Sort things out how you want, just make sure the missions get done."

Bristling slightly at the nickname, Ryouga nodded sharply, and as soon as Ranma's back was turned, he dropped into a low huddle with his team. He already noted some of the uneasy glances flowing between some of the members. He knew that Ranma meant well, but he had no idea of what the situation actually was. Giving everyone a brief once over, he then unclipped the medikit from his belt, and handed it to Starfire.

"We don't have time for petty in-fighting here," he told his assembled friends and squadmates. "I don't care what the reasons or feelings are. Cyborg, you take Starfire and Raven and clear the road. You guys have the better wide area firepower anyway."

He then turned to Jinx. "Jinx, you and me will clear out the school. It might involve tighter quarters and indoor fighting, so it suits our styles better."

His various teammates looked back and forth, anxiety obvious, but now more over the idea of splitting up, as opposed to whom they were being partnered with. Finally, though, they all nodded and put on their game faces.

A second later, Cyborg gave him a pointed look.

"What?" Ryouga replied.

"C'mon, you know. It's your job now."

Groaning, Ryouga considered smacking the guy, but finally relented. Finally, he stood up, took a deep breath, and -

"Titans, _**Go**_!"

In a flash, Jinx and himself tore off to the east, moving at remarkable speed. At the same time, Starfire and Raven began to skim along the ground down the road at high speed as well, Cyborg's thunderous footfalls following in their wake.

The school was an old, sturdy, Soviet style building, almost like a two story bunker.

The aliens hadn't made it this far yet and a number of armed men and police were covering the area, including one on the roof. It looked pretty secure by itself, down at the end of the street. A bus full of people were already unloading, motioning into the open doors by uniformed men in blue. Others were either running or walking, some with cases, others with hastily thrown on clothes.

There weren't any buildings more than two stories in any direction.

"I have thermo up on your area," Nabiki's voice came in over the comm channel. While they'd been transferred to Juliet's command, she was still helping Raven and Cyborg coordinate between the squad and CIC back at Seiran. "We have a group of maybe fifty coming in from the east. Civilians. There are also some heat signatures in the buildings: the house, two down, on your right, and on the left, five houses from your current location."

"Watch the sky," she warned. "Juliet just made contact with pairs of Floaters."

Ryouga nodded to himself. He certainly hoped that he looked somewhat official as he ran up to the uniformed police guarding the school. Not taking any chances, he simply switched to Russian before speaking.

"Officers! I need you to send men down to those two houses and check for civilians." He pointed to the houses which Nabiki had mentioned - only for Jinx to slap his hand down and point to the _actual_ two houses that Nabiki had pointed out. Doing his best to ignore his slip up, he continued quickly. "There's also a larger group coming in from further east. My partner and I are going to cover them in case they're attacked."

The older men looked back and forth for a moment, confused, but the obvious military insignias that Ryouga and Jinx carried seemed to hold some kind of weight. A moment later, he gestured to two of the officers further down, and ordered them down the road. Nodding his thanks, Ryouga then motioned for Jinx to follow him. Moving at full speed, they continued on their way east, keeping an eye on the sky as they moved to find the small herd of civilians.

"We have encountered the enemy," Starfire's voice came in. Ryouga nodded at that and checked her position on his motion scanner. They were some distance away, but if the enemy was in the general area, he would need to keep an eye out.

Speaking of keeping an eye out, ahead of him he finally spotted the large group of civilians Nabiki had told them about. They were being led by a nervous police officer and were walking in Ryouga's general direction at a slow pace. Too slow. Moving up to meet the officer, Ryouga was about to speak up about it when he noticed there were small children in the group – they were probably lucky to be moving at the pace they were.

Rather than raise a fuss, he simply nodded to the officer and informed him that the way to the school was clear. Obviously taking heart at that, the Officer thanked Ryouga for his concern. Moments later, once he was satisfied that the large herd of civilians wasn't being followed by anything dangerous, he turned his attention back down the street.

Moving quickly, he scanned each building as he moved down the road before finally stopping at one house in particular, his hackles rising as he caught a flash of motion from the second story. Tensing, he could see a dark figure in one of the windows – only to have it draw the shades closed. It was a civilian, just one that refused to leave his or her home. A moment later, he was distracted as a car drove by with a warning for people to evacuate to a nearby shelter.

He had to be careful.

If he and Jinx advanced too quickly, there was always the possibility that one of those houses didn't contain a civilian. If it was an alien, lying in ambush, then they couldn't just leave it at their back.

"Got another update. The street ahead of you at the T intersection is almost entirely clear. But I'm getting some heat signatures down the road to your east. I've also ID'd a number of civilians heading your way. They've got the yellow IFF on your scanner."

"Alright, we'll go check it out, Nabiki."

"If you get lost, don't panic," she reminded him. "I'm watching you. I'll help get you back on track."

Running down the street, Ryouga slowed a bit as a police car raced past to his left.

A flash of light later and it erupted in a fireball, the engine block disintegrating as a blast of plasma seared it black and turned it into and expanding cloud of vaporized metal. Engulfed in flame, it continued to wail before crashing into a tree. Another lightning fast green blast came from the branches of a tree, missing a diving Jinx by a couple feet. Asphalt melted and warped into a long glassy crater where the bolt hit. Another shot crossed the width of the road, also missing, but hitting the side of a building. Timber and plaster instantly disintegrated, blowing a ragged hole in the side of the structure large enough to pirouette through.

Seeing the destruction, a small family screamed and fell to the ground, crawling around using the wrecked police car as cover. Another group, escorted by a police officer, kept running even when the man leading them stopped to open up on the tree where the fire had come from. Another man and woman rushed instead to the nearest house desperately trying to get back inside.

As Jinx flipped back up to her feet, her eyes widened, catching a flash of movement.

"Sniper in the house!" she yelled. "Another in the trees!"

"Jinx! Take the one in the house! I'll take care of the one in the tree!" Ryouga barked loudly. Quickly, the girl nodded and shot across the street in a blur.

Moving rapidly himself, Ryouga flipped back and interposed himself between the fleeing crowd and both snipers. Just in time, as well, as another salvo of super heated death came raining their way. Even as the people directly behind him screamed in terror, Ryouga's umbrella was already in his hand. Everything depended on the alien switching targets - and, obligingly, the alien turned its attention to the larger, easier victim.

Moving deftly, the glowing yellow umbrella intercepted and dispersed the bolts of plasma and anti-matter. Still, Ryouga could feel a hellish wash of heat from the other side of the shield, and hunkered down, remembering how he'd been shot in the legs and feet before in practice skirmishes. It was a good position, too. Kneeling down like he was, it was easy to take a spare second to ram his index and middle finger into, and through, the pavement of the road. An instant later, the entire tree across the street was uprooted, almost seeming to leap several inches into the air as an eruption of earth and stone surged up around the roots. As the tree finally tipped over and fell, Ryouga caught a glimpse of the unusual alien creature getting pulled down in the tangle of branches.

He knew he didn't have much time before it clawed its way out of the tangle and brought its weapon to bear. Not sure what else to do, he tore off a bandanna and hurled it as hard as he could. The black and yellow blur of material curved sharply through the air. Ryouga looked away, as he knew what was coming next. He didn't want to needlessly kill anything, but he couldn't let it keep shooting at these people...

The sharp sound of metal dropping to the asphalt rang out, quickly followed by two smaller, wetter thumps. The Floater - he recognized it from the files Raven and Starfire had shown him - looked about helplessly, both of its severed hands and its plasma rifle lying useless on the ground before it.

Before he even had the chance to dwell on the morality of his actions, he was distracted by another flash of green. This one didn't come in his direction, rather, one of the second story walls of the house Jinx had entered had just exploded outward in a shower of flaming debris. A second later, Jinx came flying out as well, riding the rapidly descending body of the second Floater. Rippling pink energy constructs, formed into the shape of wicked blades, extended from both of her hands, and one was currently buried deeply into the neck of the Floater, instantly explaining its inability to fly.

Hitting the ground with both a loud crash and a wet splat, Jinx leapt off of the fallen corpse and quickly ran to his side. "I got the one upstairs! Did you get the other one?"

Ryouga frowned, gesturing down the road. "... Almost."

The Floater, crippled, was now drifting backwards and starting to sway side to side.

"Ah, geez, Ryouga. What are you doing? That's almost worst than killing the thing." Jinx gave him a mild glare. "Look, I know that you Titans don't want to kill, but even that's not good enough. Even without a weapon, that thing is still dangerous. As long as it's alive, it can be used as a conduit for psychic attacks. We can't **afford** to leave any of these guys alive."

"I ... I hadn't thought of that," Ryouga admitted. "I - I should-"

Whatever he was going to say was cut off, as a gunshot rang out and the Floater dropped dead on its own, a bloody hole appearing in its forehead. Just down the road, one of the policemen that had been assisting them waved. "We cannot afford to stop, friends! Keep going and hunt down any more of those beasts before they can reach the shelter!"

Ryouga quickly nodded and waved back. "Thank you! We're on it!" He half turned, before suddenly stopping and turning back. "Oh! There's also a civilian on the second floor a few houses down! You need to get them out of there!"

The officer called back an affirmative before shooting off a friendly salute and going back to his duty.

With that taken care of, Ryouga continued down the road. "Nabiki, do you have anything else in range?"

To his side, Jinx rolled her eyes as she muttered to herself. "You got lucky there, Lost Boy."

"One moment," Nabiki replied, obviously having her hands full coordinating teams so far apart. "Okay. Got you. Juliet is taking fire from a gas station; I can see the thermal flashes. The building is down the street and to the northwest. I'd recommend some quick roof hopping. Try and get in and hit them from behind. Ranma and Ukyou will provide fire support. There may or may not be civilian hostages inside. Watch your right flank, too. We have Floater scouts popping up everywhere. Give me a second here and I'll mark the course for you."

Ryouga nodded sharply, though the gesture was lost on the distant operator. Frankly, he hadn't thought much about her, or what she did, being a 'coordinator' or 'controller' or whatever, but now that was starting to change. Especially once he saw a directional marker appear in the bottom of his vest display. He then turned to Jinx, who was no longer glaring at him. Instead, she had a wistful, slightly worried look on her face as she regarded him. Not sure what to make of it, Ryouga gestured to the building behind them.

"Are you up for a little roof hopping?"

"Are - are you sure you're up for this, Ryouga?" she asked him suddenly and unexpectedly. It was sort of strange, seeing her in profile with a helmet covering up her hair and most of her face. The mouthpiece hung from a strap below her chin, leaving that one part of her bare, the tint of her visor covering her eyes.

"What?" he asked, confused by the question.

Moving quickly, she slid forward and wrapped her arms around his. Looking up at him, Jinx caught his eyes with a serious stare. "I mean it, Ryouga. I've seen what these things will do - have **done** to people. Hell, what they very nearly did to me. I'm willing to do what it takes to finish the job ... but, are you?"

He almost answered ... only to look at the dead Floater down the road. The one he'd been unable to finish himself. Sure, he'd _heard_ how bad these guys were - out to wipe out innocent people in wholesale slaughter - but ... but he didn't really _know_ whether they deserved to die or not. Sure, they'd already tried to kill him today, but you didn't just kill someone over something like that. Hell, if that was the case, Ranma probably would have killed _him_ years ago.

Not that the jerk could of course!

"I..." He looked down, unable to match her gaze. "I don't know. We've been in worse spots than this and we've never had to _intentionally_ kill anyone. Why is it, that as soon as we jump into this world, the rules go all topsy turvy on us?

He heard Jinx give a patient sigh, her chest rising and lowering slightly as she exhaled, before she lifted his chin with a finger. "This isn't like Atlantis, Ryouga. There, if we knocked someone out, they were pretty much out of the fight. Here, even if we leave an enemy completely helpless, they can _still_ get us, or other people, killed. We need to do this, hard, fast and final. Do you understand?"

_'Ultimately... the safest way to survive is to kill your opponent before he kills you or your buddy.'_

Bastard.

Taking the hand gently stroking his chin into his own hands, he gave it a gentle squeeze, then nodded solemnly. "I think I do. It doesn't mean I have to like it, though."

He then pulled her with him, and leapt up onto the nearest roof. She kept pace with surprising ease as he began to run - well, it was more him keeping pace with her, as she was actually leading the way, but still, impressive - and even turned to smile back at him between roof hops.

"That's good to know," she said, after a quick landing onto another roof. "You wouldn't be my lovable goof if you did. Still, just imagine how steamed Ranma will be when he finds out that **we** saved his ass?"

Ryouga chuckled, clearing another gulf before landing heavily on the shingled roof of a more traditional homestead. It was odd that his landings seemed to keep getting heavier lately, but he chalked it up to coincidence, or swamp gas.

"You do love to tweak Ranma," he observed. "I gotta say, it's one of your more attractive traits."

"Flattery will get you anywhere you want, baby, but let's save that till after hours, shall we?" The look Jinx gave him was enough to cause him to start blushing, let alone what she'd said. It was all he could do to keep from stumbling as he continued to chase after her.

A few moments, and a close call with a pair of retreating Floaters later - too far away to engage - the gas station was in sight. Just as Nabiki explained, they could see bursts of plasma flying into and out of the small store besides the rows of gas pumps out front. It was obvious that the people shooting out were a lot less concerned about blowing things to hell than the people shooting in, if only taking the rates of fire into account.

"So, what do you think?" he asked his partner in crime.

She shrugged cutely. "I think we just drop in on them. Provided we don't get fragged by Ranma and Baker Brain, we should be able to clean this mess up easy."

He nodded. He then tapped the communicator button again. "Um ... Nabiki. How do I talk to Ranma again?"

He heard a weary sigh. "Honestly, Hibiki? You gotta pay better attention. Here." There was no time for a rundown of the procedure so she handled it herself, just to make sure, and he thanked her again quickly.

A slightly embarrassing moment later, he managed to contact Ranma.

"Juliet One, this is ... _Yankee_ One. Yankee Five and I are ready to pull your ass out of the fire. We need you to keep it up for another twenty seconds. Once the time is up, hold your fire."

"... Understood," was the pigtailed fighter's response, though it was far less grudging than Ryouga had been hoping for. "Watch for civilians inside. Area's painted for mobile arty if you can confirm all-hostile."

Jinx smiled at him, patting him hard on the back. "I bet _that_ was fun, telling Lady Fingers what to do. Now, let's not disappoint, okay?"

Nodding, he joined her as she took several steps back. As one, they then surged forward, a single leap carried them to a building directly adjacent to the gas station, and a second landed them relatively silently on the roof of the combination store/gas station. Immediately, Jinx lifted her hand, preparing to crack the building open like a nut - only for him to grab her arm. He braved her impatient glare and pointed to the motion sensor built into his vest. There were definitely two sources of movement below him, but they were at opposite corners of the building, not packed close together.

"Shall we do this separately, together?" he asked with a smirk.

"You're as charming as you are confusing, Ryouga," she replied, rolling her eyes.

Moving quickly, she scurried to the back of the gas station roof, while he moved closer to the front, keeping low to try to avoid being seen by others. If what Jinx had said was true, and what he'd heard in the briefing was possible, than these things could share fields of vision, kind of like that villain from Naruto. If they wanted this to work, they couldn't be seen by _anyone_, really.

'N_ineteen ... and twenty,'_ he counted down in his head.

Surprisingly on cue, the firefight suddenly declined sharply as half of the participants' abruptly ceased firing. Not giving the aliens a chance to contemplate the odd occurrence, Ryouga jammed his finger heavily into the roof, which promptly exploded beneath him, focusing most of the debris downwards. The last thing he saw before falling down was a bright flash of pink as Jinx followed with a somewhat flashier entrance of her own.

Just as he'd hoped, he landed almost directly behind the disgusting, floating abomination. It was still stunned from having the ceiling explode down on it, though not actually damaged in any serious way. In that instant, as the alien's bead-black eyes widened in surprise at his sudden appearance, a thousand different options flashed through his skull. Ninety nine percent of those involved incapacitating the creature in one way or another, from simple unconsciousness to compound fractures that would never heal correctly.

It was during this flash of heightened awareness that he noticed it.

Closer to the door, looking as if she had been trying to flee for her life, was a civilian ... or, what was left of one. It was a young woman, likely no older than himself, but - but the entire lower half of her body was just gone. There was nothing left but a blackened stump where her hips should have been. Thin wafts of acrid black smoke still rose from the gruesome wound, showing that it hadn't happened long ago. And even though she was laying face first on the ground, he could imagine the look of horror that she must still be wearing, the agony she must have felt, dying in such a horrific way.

A thousand options narrowed down to one in less than a fraction of a second.

Ryouga's fist flashed out, straight and true, and carrying with it all of the justice he could imagine in the world. A second later, the Floater's head exploded out through the front window of the gas station, bouncing loudly several times before rolling to a gory stop nearly half way across the street.

Inside the store, Ryouga could only stare at his gloved fist, now covered with a foul smelling ichor. Despite the vile odor, he couldn't bring himself to lower his quivering fist to wipe it off. He just kind of stood there ... until finally, the sound of footsteps caught his attention. Walking his way, wiping off the very same gore from her own hands onto a convenient roll of paper towels, Jinx stared at him, eyes wide. Quickening her pace, she pulled his hand down and forced him to unclench his fist so that she could clean it off as well. She tried to catch his eyes as she wiped off his knuckles.

"That was just... wow! I - uh - didn't expect my peptalk to be that effective. You really knoc-"

Ryouga didn't even know what to say. "Please ... no puns yet. I ..."

Thankfully, he didn't need to. Jinx stretched up on her tiptoes and planted a small kiss on his cheek. "You did the right thing. Ryouga. Don't regret it. Never regret anything."

Then, crashing suddenly out from behind an overturned counter, a humanoid shape emerged. Ryouga and Jinx turned instantly, only to come up short at the sight of a bloody young man in a black t-shirt. A civilian. Staring around the store, dazed, he screamed and ran out the back.

"Cyberdisc incoming!" Nabiki suddenly yelled into their ears. "Northwest! Get down!"

Both teens, despite the warning, tensed to chase after the fleeing civilian. Before they could take more than a step the storefront behind them exploded. A wave of heat swept out and over them, rivulets of fire from molten metal and plastic spraying in every direction. Ryouga barely felt the burns where they found his skin, but he heard Jinx hiss - her resilience to pain significantly less. He didn't want to think what kind of pain she'd be in without the hastily thrown on tactical vest and other protective gear. Floating fragments of scorched debris choked the air. Crawling along the floor, keeping low and behind cover, another flash signaled another blast of fire, this time out of sight.

"I'm okay!" Jinx yelled over the din, and rolled back further into the building.

Ryouga followed, and a few seconds later, another blast sent part of the roof crashing down. The actual falling debris was less of a threat than the fact that, buried, they would have to either blast it away to escape – exposing themselves – or simply be pounded on from above.

Escaping out the back of the store, they flattened themselves against the wall. Looking up over the rim of the station, they could see a silvery shape floating in midair, maybe sixty feet up, zipping to the left and right. It was firing rapidly in one direction, pulses of green light leaving its smooth surface at an angle in rapid succession.

"Great. One of those things…" Jinx muttered.

It shot through the air, and took a few seconds to pour more fire into the ruined gas station. Three rounds leveled half the building and turned the inside into a small inferno. It then accelerated around and out of sight.

"Keep down!" Ranma's voice roared over the intercom. "BB Incoming!"

Already moving away from the volatile remains of the gas station, Ryouga and Jinx crossed the road on the side opposite the refueling lot. There was a pair of small tornados between them and the line of stores opposite the road, and the silver disk was caught between them. A thin layer of ice formed along its sides and a frigid sheen covered the ground. It was obvious that the wind funnels wouldn't hold the alien …vessel… in place for more than another second-

Then something small and fast – a fusion ball from their HWP - shot down from above, slamming the disk into the ground. It had time to bounce, once, from the impact before a massive explosion tore apart the tornados and the roadway. A solid wave of overpressure slammed into the two teens, luckily already on the ground, as a radiating ring of crackling fire and dust rose up from a molten crater wide enough to bury a cargo truck.

"Clear," the voice was muted for a second, then: "We're clear. Thanks for the assist, pig boy," Ranma continued. "Moving towards point Uniform-15."

"Yankee-One and Five," Nabiki stepped in immediately after. "You should be good to meet up with the rest of your unit at Uniform-14. On the way, we need you to check out Uniform-12. I've highlighted it on your reticule. It's the four-story mall at the edge of the city. We believe the aliens are building up their rapid reserves there. Recon from the south but do not engage until you meet up with your whole team. Command wants to launch a coordinated strike with arty. Also, be on the lookout for comm blackouts. Enemy E-E and EWAR on those ships has not yet been neutralized."

Holding their position for a moment, Ryouga and Jinx nodded to each other. Things were starting to get a tiny bit hectic, so meeting up with the others seemed like a good idea. A few minutes of careful roof hopping later, and the mall was already in sight. Making sure to keep an eye out for any more alien interference, he avidly looked for his friends, hoping that they were alright.

Checking his motion sensor, he zoomed it out to check where the rest of Yankee squad had set up. Based on the IFF signals, they were in a multi-story parking garage adjacent to the mall. Craning his neck, he could see the tiered structure, but not his friends. Of course, that was probably a good thing. Next to him, Jinx already had a scope up to her right eye.

She stalked along the slanted roof, just barely peeking over the edge. Finding a fairly secure spot, with a brick chimney to her right, she lay down and inched over the top. The eyepiece came back up, a pink plastic cover nestling around her eye.

"What do you see?" he asked, growing a bit anxious. They were exposed up on the roof like this. It wasn't safe.

"Just watch my back, ok?" she asked, concentrating on what was in her sights.

He did, and an eerie silence settled over them. The street next to the house, intersecting with the larger road that separated the mall and the parking lot, was deserted. A few flickering flames were busily consuming one house, but thermal imaging had indicated the buildings were all empty, though, honestly, he had no idea of how reliable that could be in regards to the combusting buildings. A handful of abandoned cars littered the sides of the street. Far more disturbingly, he could see two heavily charred bodies further down the street.

"Okay," Jinx finally said, speaking up again. "Nabiki?"

The response was immediate. "Here."

"No signs of civvies. There are two floating purple guys on the northwest corner of the roof, and another two in the central courtyard. At least one orange snake guy patrolling the southeast, first floor, and another on the second floor. There's another mini-UFO on the first floor, southwest corner. I can see it knocking stuff over."

"Got it," Nabiki replied. "Yankee-Three is reporting no plasma fire from within the building. They confirm two scouts on the roof, another Snakeman on the second floor, northeast side."

Jinx let out a low whistle before turning back to Ryouga.

"So, why are we wasting our time trying to attack this place again? Why don't they just nuke the whole damn thing?"

He shrugged in response. "I guess there's a slim chance that there are survivors, though, I think they've already given the order to consider all civilians in this area to be either infected or compromised."

A quiet snort was Jinx's response. "Well, I could get in there, probably get you in there, too, but if we don't have any actual objective, and we need to meet up with everyone else anyway, there isn't much point, now is there?"

He nodded. "Let's just worry about meeting up with the others first. I'm sure the higher ups will have some crazy scheme thought up by then."

Her expression hardened as she put the scope away. "All I know is that if I see an Ethereal, its head is mine, that other-you be damned."

Ryouga smiled at the girl, dropping a hand on her shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Has anyone ever told you how perfect you are?"

"Not nearly often enough." Her smile was pleasure to see during this hard time.

"This is Juliet-One," Ranma spoke up. "To all-Yankee, all-Juliet. On approach to Uniform-12. We are going to call in psionic attacks on the Cyberdisc. Repeat: psiwar is incoming. We will be mind controlling this target, but it is still a hostile. Execute it when the position is secure and you receive Code Yellow. Copy to confirm."

Jinx and Ryouga were already heading into the parking garage, closing in on the rest of their team. Reaching up to the manual controls for their comm, they each depressed a color-coded button to send a return confirmation. Closer now to the friendly transponders on their motion sensors, the pair sent a 'friendly' IFF ping just to make sure the three knew they were incoming.

"The rest of the mall will be subject to bombardment," Ranma continued. "Stay clear of it until after we drop the hammer and finish psi-recon. Lastly, watch out for Chryssalids and infected. If you encounter either, they are a priority-one target. Terminate with extreme prejudice."

Ryouga and Jinx found Cyborg, Raven and Starfire on the third level of the garage, facing the mall. The former was still double checking the target and had his back to them, and they could see some damage to his left shoulder. The blue material was now a runny, warped black, but still seemed functional. The two girls appeared unhurt, but Starfire's face and hair were partly blackened by ash or soot.

Ranma continued: "We are GO in thirty seconds."

Ryouga quickly jogged up to his teammates, and mustered up a confident smirk. "It looks like you guys had a few close calls."

Cyborg waved his concern off half-heartedly. "Who, us? Naw, it's been pretty boring so far - oh, you mean the arm? Naw, that was just from me ... um, trippin' yeah. No big deal."

"Between Cyborg's scanners and my empathy, we've made very good progress in clearing out threats," Raven explained, more seriously. "There were several burning buildings that Starfire had to enter to save civilians that no one else could safely risk. Overall, I'd say we've been making a good impression."

A moment later, Starfire flew over. "And what of yourselves? Were you assailed by any unpleasant extraterrestrials?"

"Not until just now," Jinx muttered quietly under her breath, but quickly followed it with a mock cough.

"No, we had an easy run," Ryouga lied to her, not ready to discuss what he had done in the gas station yet. It was just far easier to follow Cyborg's example and offer up a load of bluster instead. "Now we better get ready to go. Things are gonna get messy quick."

The unspoken countdown ended with a rain of nuclear fire.

A fusion ball and two blaster bombs, the latter fired from clear across the city, streaked in at mach five, plunging into the roof of the mall, or in one case, zipping in through a window with a shattering crash of broken glass. A moment later, and the entire structure bloomed and erupted up and out. Parked cars outside shook and a dozen overturned, adding a droning screech of car alarms to the growing conflagration. A fifty-pound barbell, formerly part of a health fitness store, landed nearby, embedding in the grill of a parked truck near the Titans' position.

It literally rained debris.

A silver disk floated amid the clouds of dust and smoke, and as the Titans leapt from the parking garage, it fired down into the rubble below. An unearthly screech split the air as a trapped Floater burned away, first the skin and vulnerable flesh vaporizing, and then the bulb-like cybernetic body cracked open like a split pea. It warbled in the air for a moment before falling into a grizzly mess of cables and burned meat.

The Cyberdisc, despite being a construct and not a living creature, was not invulnerable to skilled psionics. With its synthetic psionic intelligence and hardware thoroughly subverted, it was – for the moment – an ally. Experience had shown that it wouldn't be long before another alien psi-operator attempted to regain control. The aliens had a direct link to their war machines, and it would grow more difficult to fully retain human control as time went on.

The disk zipped down low, moving through the thick smoke. The human operator had only partial control over its sensors, and no time to calibrate the mind-wave scanner to non-humans. Visual and infrared target acquisition would have to suffice. It didn't take long to notice movement behind the smashed ruins of a mall fountain. A snakeman.

It was badly wounded, but the aliens were inhumanly resilient. The fact that so many could so often survive the crash landing of a UFO was proof of that. Despite the blast wave, which was more than capable of killing a human five times over, this Snakeman was still up, and semi-functional. One of its arms was missing at the shoulder, but it still had a plasma rifle in its free hand. The large snake-like 'foot' of the creature was bruised and charred, but intact.

The Cyberdisc took aim.

Except, at the last second, a black blur leapt up out of the broken remains nearby. A chitinous claw slammed into the disk, and knocked it away. Struggling to regain control over the gravity engine, the disc's operator lost vision as another claw tore into the slit that encircled the disk. Alien armor was pried back and away, and something prehensile shot inside, violating the vulnerable insides. A second later, and all control over the automaton was lost.

An explosion blew away more of the settling cloud of smoke before kicking up a small plume of orange and black. Amazingly, out of the fire, a semi-humanoid shape appeared. Its right claw was warped and broken beyond use, but the left was still intact. Fire ran up its torso, giving light to crackling, twitching crab-like jaws, and beady black eyes, almost invisible against the inky shell like hide. Nearby, more rubble moved, this time as a mottled yellow and pink hand clawed away a fallen pillar.

Infected.

In seconds, as if responding to the Chryssalid's command, more of them appeared. They were bloated mockeries of the human form, their clothes torn and dirty, covered with bodily fluids or vomit. Wide eyes stared out at the world unblinking, as if perpetually frozen in horror. In some, the rapidly growing Chryssalids contained within seemed unable to restrain their excitement, visibly moving and churning just under the distended flesh.

The Titans lifted their weapons as one, hands and eyes began to glow with powers ranging from eldritch, to spiritual to psionic, and teen warriors dropped into combat stances with the ease of long practice...

And then they froze. Cyborg's Sonic Cannon, aimed to blast a pair of 'infected' to pieces simply hung in the air, cycling constantly as it retained its charge, but failed to release it. Starbolts and black telekinesis wavered and sputtered as the emotional certainty required to wield them faltered. Even Jinx hesitated in unleashing her serendipitous wrath.

"But - but these are citizens..." Starfire's blatantly obvious, yet heart wrenching observation echoed what all of the Titans - and Jinx, were feeling. They could only watch uncertainly as the mob began to dig themselves out of the rubble, utterly incapable of opening fire on innocent men, women and children...

"Yankee One!" Nabiki interrupted. "How many tangos? I can't make them out on thermals!"

"N-Nabiki! I - I don't know, I can't count them all fast enough! Nabiki, t-they're just people!" Ryouga yelled, desperate. "What do we _do_?"

Their squad controller replied sharply and with an intensity that he had never heard from the woman before. "Listen and listen good, Hibiki. Those are **not** people anymore. Any second now, those things are going to start exploding out of their skin. You and your friends will be swarmed with Chryssalids and You. Will. **Die**! Take them out!"

A startled shriek came from behind him, and he spun to see one of the newly emerged infected lunging hungrily at Starfire. In a panic, she put her hand to its chest and shoved as hard as she could. The thing was launched through the air, sending another of its kind tumbling wildly, before crashing into a support pillar hard enough to crack it. ... A second later, it began to rise, not even bothered by the harsh impact.

"Raven!" Ryouga shouted desperately.

She nodded quickly, and despite the horror in her eyes, responded professionally. Even as Cyborg frantically tossed back another of the disturbingly writhing infected, she waved her arm across in a broad sweeping motion. Following the motion, a small black dome flowed protectively into existence over them.

Even though the walls of the dome were pitch black, they could still see through it; could still see the mob as it swarmed in and began to pound away at the barrier. In some of the infected, whip-fast chelicerae shot out from open mouths or gaps between ribs, hoping to find soft flesh to inject with fresh Chryssalid venom and eggs.

"Okay," Ryouga started, letting out a relieved sigh, "That should buy us some time-"

"**Unh**!" A large crack suddenly appeared in the dome, and Raven staggered back a half a step, clutching her temple.

"Raven, are you alright?" Starfire grabbed the dark Titan's shoulders to steady her as she asked her question.

Another pained groan escaped Raven's lips as more cracks began to appear in the shield. "I - don't know ... Can't hold them ..."

"What!" Jinx barked incredulously. "You're the most ridiculously powerful girl here, and you're getting over powered by _zombies_? What the hell gives?"

"I-"

Raven's response was cut off by a shocked gasp.

Offering not even a moment's reprieve, an inarticulate scream came from one of the tortured infected near the front. A young woman in what had once been a tube top, jacket and skirt, ripped open. Ribs tore out through yellowed flesh, the head lolling around in circles from a broken neck. Red and black spurted from the horrific wound, followed by a snapping black claw. The body continued to lurch forward on broken high heels before the mutilated cage of broken flesh fell to the side, allowing the emerging Chryssalid to taste the air with a gleeful hiss.

Ryouga had to swallow his gorge as the shredded remains revealed the glistening black exoskeleton of the same alien that had destroyed the disk. The newly born creature threw itself at Raven's manifest will with mindless abandon. Rearing back its wicked claws, it slashed at - _and through_ - the mental construct. With that single swipe, Raven recoiled sharply and her barrier dissolved completely in a matter of instants. Jinx was forced to catch the girl before she collapsed to the ground.

And then they were upon them.

It was a nightmare combination straight from the worst of Beast Boy's movie marathons. Zombies, disgusting, putrid but surprisingly fast, side by side with rising numbers of aliens, fast, deadly and utterly soulless. As much as Ryouga hated to say it, he had no choices left.

"Titans! Take them down! **All** of them!"

The nearest Chryssalid charged Cyborg, who had moved to block the way to Raven and Jinx. His arm was already converting loudly to sonic cannon form again - but too slowly. The creature lashed out with a claw, and by instinct Cyborg lifted his near indestructible arm to block -

The black, bladelike claw pierced straight through his sonic cannon, only stopping as the joint smashed into his wrist. Cyborg stared, wide eyed, as his cannon sputtered and died from the improbable attack. From within the claw, reproductive chelicerae jack-knifed, trying to find sweet organic matter to infect. In a surge of desperation, the fortunately inorganic cyborg reached out as fast as he could as the seemingly mindless creature instinctively trying both to pull its claw back from his arm and copulate with it. Cyborg grimaced in disgust and dropped a massive, metallic hand on its head.

A grotesque crunch sounded out as he crushed the top of its skull and it dropped to the ground a moment later.

Behind him, another of the infected shuddered and shed its human husk, revealing another Chryssalid, which charged forward furiously. A red blur interposed itself between the hideous alien and her cybernetic companion. Starfire lashed out with a devastating punch that slammed into the creature's chest hard enough to send deep cracks throughout the thick exoskeleton. If it even registered pain, the Chryssalid didn't show it, it didn't even slow down.

In a dark flash, it slashed down at her with its deadly claws, its mind registering only one thing: that there was flesh before it, flesh it could use to reproduce. Long trained reflexes were all that saved Starfire, as she leaned back out of the way of the claw and its inner chelicerae... Or almost did. The razor sharp appendage caught on the tactical vest she wore, and ripped through it, snagging and tearing it off, leaving a shallow, fortunately un-poisoned, gash on the Tamaranian's shoulder.

Starfire stared at the green blood that poured from her shoulder, shocked at how easily the provided armor had been destroyed. The Chryssalid stabbed at her again, but its attack was cut short when twin lances of concussive emerald plasma smashed into its chest.

Her eyebeams lifted the creature off its feet and sent it soaring through the mob so roughly that another of the infected ended up impaled on the various pointy bits of its body and dragged away with it. When it finally smashed into a wall, some twenty meters away, the combined force of the blast, and the previous damage done by her punch caused it to explode messily in a shower of black shards.

For his part, Ryouga swung about with the T-Brella. His zeal almost cost him, though. The second infected that had attacked, he'd counter attacked viciously. Crushing the _thing's_ skull to jelly, he then booted the infected to the ground and moved onto the next not allowing himself a second thought. When the Chryssalid - not at all dependent upon the brain of its host - burst forth from the body a moment later, he'd nearly screamed out loud when it leapt to its feet and charged his back. He'd managed to leap over it and let it charge beneath him, but now he had a Chryssalid and more infected in front of him, and he didn't want to risk killing the latter in case they transformed into the former as well.

The only saving grace was that the force field Gizmo had installed in his umbrella was just as effective at turning aside the claws of Chryssalids as it was plasma blasts ... Unfortunately it was a very small shield when one considered how surrounded they were.

"What do we do?" he yelled, searching for some way to turn things around. "If we kill the infected, they just turn into the damned aliens!"

"The - these things are vulnerable to incendiary attacks!" Raven yelled loudly, remembering the dossiers she had read. "They won't change if they're destroyed with fire or something similar."

Ryouga nodded, understanding instantly. "Jinx, Starfire, focus on the infected. Cyborg, we need to keep the bugs off their backs!"

Cyborg nodded, an uncharacteristically grim look on his face; with a grunt, he contemptuously tore the claw out of his arm and, with some effort, converted it back to a hand - Cyborg tested the appendage a few times, and despite the damage, appeared satisfied that he could still use it well enough.

There were still many more infected than Chryssalids, but not counting the one in front of Ryouga, there was already another charging at the downed form of Raven, and Jinx who was still holding her. Moving quickly, the large Titan interposed himself between them and the alien. On the ground, Jinx's eyes began to flare with molten pink light, and she held her free hand before her, clenching it tightly as power gathered around it. The nimbus of pink light began to dance about like a tongue of living flame, and a moment later, she threw her hand forward.

Just to his right, Cyborg let out an 'eep' of shock as a searing cone of cotton candy colored flame roiled past him, consuming two infected in a flash. The sorry creatures shuddered and stumbled; looking much like humanoid candles, before finally collapsing into a large, foul smelling heap ... No aliens emerged from the husks of that pile.

Noting the success, Starfire turned back to her side of the fight. Instantly, green starbolts flared to life around her fists. She did not throw them, though; instead she pulled her fists tightly to her side, clenching teeth as she concentrated more and more power into her hands. Her eyes began to leak excess power as the air around her hands began to shimmer and waver from the heat. A moment later, as one of the shambling former humans approached her, she lashed out with a savage punch to its abdomen. Her fist buried deeply into its gut, and a second later, the thing burst into flames from the inside out. Righteous fury and distraught horror warring on her face, Starfire tore her fist from the infected, leaving it to collapse.

Back on the other side of the battle, Cyborg braced himself for the Chryssalid's charge.

The alien raised both of its claw like arms and prepared to shred him to pieces -

Cyborg surged forward at the last second and caught both of its forearms in his hands, clamping down with monstrous force and holding the limbs so firmly that they might as well have been set in concrete. The massive teen then lifted a boot and slammed it into the Chryssalid's chest with pneumatic force. The creature was blasted backwards, its armor shattering to pieces even as it bounced along the floor before finally splattering into a puddle of gore halfway across the mall ... incidentally leaving Cyborg standing, holding a pair of Chryssalid claws in his hands.

He stared at the appendages a second.

"Hands off my friends, ya damn Zergling wannabe."

He then turned to see how Ryouga was fairing against his own inhuman enemy. Still harried on several sides by infected, as well as facing the armored alien, his friend was unable to bring his weapon to bear with enough force to smash through the exceptionally thick shell completely yet. As such, the creature, while certainly looking worse for wear, was still slashing away at him with suicidal abandon.

"Yo! Ryo! I don't got time to explain the biology, but try the BT already! If my theory is right, there should be enough commonalities to work!"

Ryouga looked back at him over his shoulder, a bit incredulously, but shrugged a second later. He nimbly dodged to the side as a lance of super heated pink energy downed another of the infected, lighting it up at the same time. Taking the new opening, Ryouga dove forward, weaving between the slashing claws of the Chryssalid and nearly seemed to caress the side of the alien for a full second before desperately raising his umbrella. A heavy backhand smashed into the impenetrable shield, but still had enough strength to send him skidding back several yards until he was nearly straddling Jinx and Raven.

The Chryssalid prepared to charge forward ... but then stopped.

Its curious looking head twitched left, then right, as it seemed to consider something; a second later, the right side of its torso exploded, leaving black organs and jelly to dribble down the legs. The Chryssalid could only stand there, and if it could actually wear an expression, Ryouga imagined it would have been one of pure shell shock. Then, before it even had a chance to decide if it should fall down or not, a blazing green starbolt arrowed into the gaping wound, instantly boiling the alien from the inside out.

As the latest Chryssalid collapsed to the ground in a steaming heap, the Titans quickly began to regroup. Helping Raven to her feet, Jinx continued to take shots at a few of the straggling infected, but it seemed as if - between herself and Starfire's most zealous efforts - most of the mob had fallen and would not be rising soon.

Absently, Cyborg looked at one of the claws in his hands and then tossed it to Ryouga. "Yo, check it out: this thing is tough enough to pierce that alien alloy. You think we might be able to use a few oversized pairs of can openers if things keep going this way?"

Ryouga looked at the gory trophy, then nodded. A moment later, Jinx was at his side, latching onto his arm and smiling up at him. "That was great, Ryouga! We did it!"

"We _all_ did it," he corrected with a smirk. There was something troubling him, though. He turned to see Raven, now with Starfire holding her shoulder once more. "Raven, what happened back there? Are you sure that you're alright?"

Sighing weakly, Raven took a moment to take in another long breath before shaking her head. "N-no, I don't think that I am -" Suddenly, the dark Titan's eyes widened in surprise. Desperately, she tried to point at something behind them. "**Look out!**"

As one, the group spun, just a moment too late - having foolishly allowed their victory to distract them from the battlefield - as the injured, one armed Snakeman finished lining up its plasma rifle. Everyone could see its intended target instantly, as the barrel was aimed squarely at Raven. She lifted her hand and a small plane of black force began to materialize between herself and the alien.

"**No!**"

A flash of green and a crack of thunder sundered the air.

Though everyone was thinking it, it had been Starfire to shout the word. Even as the Snakeman soldier finished pulling the trigger, she desperately, foolishly spun around, interposing herself between Raven and the stream of superheated plasma. Not even a fraction of a fraction of a second passed as the bolt of energy blasted through the ebony shield, tearing through it with murderous force to slam squarely into the center of Starfire's exposed back. The resulting explosion sent the pair of girls crashing to the ground, bouncing several times before skidding to a smoking stop several yards away.

A second later, the Snakeman was shredded by three bandannas, scorched to the bone by two pink hexes and finally blasted into a fountain of blackened fragments as a pair of micro missiles slammed right into its face.

"Yankee Two is down!" Ryouga yelled in shock as he scurried over to the downed girls. "I repeat, we need help, Starfire's been hit!"

Skidding to a stop, he dropped to his knees and grabbed Starfire's shoulders. She was still laying face down, sprawled out on top of Raven. Her long crimson hair had fallen down to cover her back, but large wafts of smoke still rose up from around the red follicles...

"**Star!**" Cyborg's own panicked shout joined Ryouga's as the massive teen charged to their side.

"Oh - oh God," Jinx muttered to herself, clutching her hands to her chest as she looked down in horror. Memories of what Akari's plasma pistol had done to that Reaper came back…

Ryouga quickly lifted Starfire off of Raven and gently laid her out on the ground beside her. A brief glance showed that none of the blast had penetrated to Raven; she looked bruised and battered but her uniform was completely unsinged. He could hardly feel any relief over that, though, as he frantically tore the medkit from Starfire's belt and began to open it, looking for whatever he could possibly use to -

A weak cough caught his attention. Looking down, his eyes widened in shock as he watched Starfire gingerly push herself up to her elbows. As she turned her head to regard him, her lengthy hair slid to the side, revealing the large wound on her back. Or, on closer inspection, the large patch of blackened, cracking skin which covered her back. He couldn't even find the words to express his shock. From everything he'd heard, she shouldn't even _have_ a back ... and yet it looked like she had escaped with second-degree burns...?

"If - if you could please apply some medication, friend Ryouga... I am in a not so glorious amount of pain," muttered the girl in a tense voice.

Shaking his head, he nodded quickly and pulled out the painkillers first. "Wha - what happened?"

Once he'd administered the pain killers, Starfire's breathing finally eased, and she rested her head back on the ground, taking a moment to gather her wits. While she did that, Ryouga turned to Jinx and

Cyborg.

"Check your motion detectors and maintain a perimeter!" he ordered, trying to keep his wits about him despite his teammate's brush with death. "I don't want any more surprises!"

Nodding sharply, and not even offering a word of protest - surprisingly in Jinx's case - the pair shot off in opposite directions. Once they were gone, Ryouga began to pull out some dermal pads and went about the task of applying them to the Tamaranian's back. Starfire's gene-engineered dermals were labeled separately, and back before, the evil-him had stressed over and over and over again not to apply the wrong dermals to the wrong person. Starfire's were for her use alone. Maybe he hadn't been paying enough attention when they talked about how to use the comms and the rest, but he hadn't forgotten how to use the medical kit. It was among the first things India had insisted Yankee learn and practice with before they got anywhere near a battlefield.

Cleaning the wound with the scouring pad came first: putting it on and then taking it off in one single movement, like pulling tape off the skin. Toss it. Immediately follow with the dermal pad. If the wound was large, overlap the sheets. Stick it on and press it down. Don't let air in. Press down the sides. '_You'll be okay_.' Like sheets of plastic. Get the medical tape around, but not too tight - there was supposed to be a numbing effect. '_She said she was in pain.'_ Did these tailored drugs even work on a non-human?

"Star..." he breathed, checking to make sure the medical tape on her back was taunt but not constricting.

"Do not be so worried for me, my Ryouga," Starfire finally spoke, though in a drowsy voice. "My race is quite resistant to harsh conditions, myself far moreso than most. I am... quite resistant to energy attacks, being able to generate great temperatures myself. My uniform is also simply a part of my battle garb... retooled for comfort; it is much sturdier than it appears... but I wish I had not lost my armored vest..."

Smiling to himself, Ryouga chuckled. "It appears that you and your clothes have quite a lot in common. But... are you sure that you're alright?"

Groaning quietly as he triple checked the gene-engineered dermal patch, she finally nodded. Gods, but the wound still looked bad underneath. No matter her own evaluation, he wouldn't feel completely reassured until she was in the hands of an actual doctor. Unfortunately, for now, a field dressing was all they could provide. He'd have to thank Kasumi next time he saw her. Wasn't she one of the medical assistants who grew this stuff?

"I shall be fine, once you are done with your treatment," Starfire assured him. "The radiation generated from the blast is of no concern and both the high temperatures and concussive force of the blast were somewhat mitigated by my physiological construction ... Still ... it did hurt like - how did Cyborg put it? - a 'Son of a Bitch'?"

Ryouga nearly burst out into laughter at that.

"I'm fine as well, thank you so much for asking." Both Ryouga and Starfire looked over to see Raven struggling to sit up, clutching her skull once more. "I hope you have more of those pain killers. Unlike Starfire, I'm **not** a flying brick. I feel like I just got dumped into a drier set to _scorch_."

"I apologize for not offering a more cushioned landing," Starfire replied, whimsy in her voice.

The young sergeant could only shake his head. "Yeah, yeah, just let me finish here."

It was about then that his comm crackled to life, Ranma's voice sounding on the line. "Yankee One, what is your situation? I can have a medical evac inbound if you need it, but Yankee Two lost her vest; I don't have any data on her. What happened?"

Ryouga looked from Raven to Starfire; looking a bit abashed, he quickly depressed the button to open the line.

"Umm ... false alarm?" he replied. "You can cancel that whole 'emergency' thing. We're... fine. Just need a few moments to recover. Um, how's the rest of the battle going?"

"Not bad. We pushed back a counterattack from the northwest. Juliet-two and three just cut them off and annihilated the survivors a minute ago. Echo, Foxtrot and India have assaulted one of the landed UFOs and are engaging the main alien forces in the eastern part of the city, with support from Alpha and Bravo. Raising some serious Hell from what I can see. We're going to have to play catch up."

"Hold on just a second," Nabiki interrupted. "We've just gotten a high priority flash. Two unmarked helicopters just landed at what we believe to be the Mayor's residence."

Ranma seemed disinterested in the news. "So what?"

"My Roaming Susan," by which she meant one of the UAV drones running recon, "Recorded roughly a dozen armed men executing people fleeing the mansion. Intel believes this city to have a number of alien sympathizers. We need a team to secure the site and any information that may be in the building."

"You need a team to secure a nice comfy mansion only guarded by a dozen armed humans? Nabiki, you gotta give this one to us!" Ryouga pleaded quickly.

"They have two flyers in their group," Ranma added over the comm line, agreeing. "We'll push up and sweep towards Main Street."

"Alright," Yankee Squad's coordinator replied. "I've marked in the position on your scanner, Sergeant. There shouldn't be any hostiles between you and the target."

As soon as the line went silent, Ryouga turned to glance from the downed Raven, to the burned Starfire. "Heh heh heh... yeah ... we've got fliers in our group alright ..."

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Raven asked pointedly.

Rolling his eyes, Ryouga did his best to give her a serious look. "Raven, you just had two serious failures in your power in as many minutes and Starfire nearly got blasted to atoms. I don't want to take any more risks with you two. I think you both should stay here while the rest of us check this out."

"I think not." "I am perfectly capable of resuming my duties!"

The pair of glares that were leveled at him were devastating, so Ryouga relented, shoulders slumping. "Sheesh, what's the point of being the leader if you guys won't listen to me?"

"It's not that we don't want to listen," Raven explained patiently, "It's just that you're wrong. My telekinesis maybe malfunctioning, but my telepathic abilities have been gaining steadily since we began training in the Psi Gym. Even if I can't fight physically, I am still our only real defense against any form of mental attack we might run into."

"And my rate of healing is every bit as rapid as your own," scolded Starfire, "I am our only reliable aerial support now, and you will need my assistance if we must chase down aircraft."

Ryouga very much wanted to disagree with them ... but found that he couldn't. Even if they hadn't thought circles around him, he doubted he could get them to stay with anything short of a pistol whipping, and there was no way he would survive that.

"Fine, fine." He tapped the communicator to contact the rest of the team. "Jinx, Cyborg, meet back up with us, we got a job to do."

Pulling out his umbrella, he took a moment to check the charge it still had before nodding to himself.

"Alright, time to see if the Mayor's new friends are up to no good."

* * *

The Mayoral residence was a distinct, four story structure separated from the rest of the area by a high stone fence and metal gate. Well maintained rows of trees dotted the front acre, while the driveway inside looped around the front and branched off around to the side. It was an obviously recent structure, built in a faux-Americana style. Rather ruining the ambiance, a pair of helicopters had squatted in front of the house, and a number of bodies littered the driveway: servants who, vainly, had tried to escape from their supposed protectors.

Four of the armed men, wearing matching grey suits, remained outside near the choppers, armed with PP-2000 submachine guns. Thunder split the sky with a flash of light as a distant explosion shook the horizon and blew away clouds: the result of a distant fusion ball striking its target. For a moment, white light made it impossible to see, but when it faded the men seemed unperturbed. One even took a long drag from a cigarette before blowing a narrow cloud of smoke.

Slinking back down to the rest of her 'team', Jinx couldn't keep the smile off her face.

"Oh man, we got four normals with submachine guns, this is gonna be _cake_." She sobered for a moment after she explained what she'd seen. "These guys are serious, though. Bodies everywhere. I don't think we need to give these guys much more regard than the Chryssalids."

She carefully watched Ryouga's reaction as he rubbed a finger over his chin. He looked very much like he was going to agree with her, before finally shaking his head. "If they're just using standard weaponry, then taking them alive shouldn't be a problem. Starfire, Cyborg and I can spearhead the assault and soak up their fire."

"Dude, not sure that's the best idea," Cyborg commented. "Just cuz these guys don't got alien weapons don't mean that none of them do. I know that I don't wanna get hit by another one of those plasma blasts, yo."

Cursing quietly to himself, their 'sergeant' - Jinx giggled to herself, how cool was that? - drove a fist into a palm. "Damnit. You're right. We need to know what they're capable of before we just rush in." He seemed to weigh his options, before finally turning her way. "Jinx, you can get in there without being seen, right?"

"Heh, does Cyborg have an epic crush on Kasumi?"

"**Hey!**"

"Am I the **only** person that didn't know about that?"

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I can get it. You want me to scout out the baddies?"

He nodded, but before she could leap over the wall, Ryouga then turned to Raven. "Can you still phase through walls?"

Raven graced him with a quizzical glance. Still, she lifted her hand and reached towards the nearby wall. Her brow knit in concentration, but a moment later, a faint gray portal opened in the wall and she passed her hand through it.

"So it appears," she answered, but not confidently.

"Alright then, go in with Jinx. You can act as the emergency exit if things head south. Also, it's a good chance to test all your training in the Psi gym. If it becomes necessary, try to disorient or panic any hostiles you run into."

Raven nodded, a hint of pride on her face... only to have it vanish when she turned to regard her 'partner'. Jinx imagined that the look on Raven's face was mirrored by her own lack luster expression. This had to be the worst idea in the history of the world ... but she had to admit that having a magical walking door with her would make gaining entry into this place that much easier.

Sighing, she finally gestured to Raven. "Alright, c'mon then. Just remember, I'm in charge now."

"Not even in your dreams, Jinx."

The two girls slipped around through the back, and easily moved through the outer wall. The four men out front were reasonably alert, especially for an attack from the air. Getting closer, a fifth man appeared on the roof to shout down at the four below. Unlike the others, he had what Jinx guessed to be a RPG-29 antitank grenade launcher slung over his shoulder, significantly increasing his danger level. A rude gesture later, then a laugh from down below, and the man slipped back out of sight.

Approaching the side of the house, Jinx motioned to the ground. Raven nodded, getting the idea, and opened a portal that let the two girls slide down and into the basement. They landed in a musty cellar, partly lined with wine barrels and a rack of aging bottles. They weren't alone, however.

_"What__'__s that? Vitaly?"_

_"Did you hear something?"_

_"Really, you are more skittish than a little girl, Andrey!"_

A shadow moved across the floor as the two girls moved around, using a line of wine barrels as cover. Leading them, Jinx peeked around the corner using a small curving endoscope. It was a trick of the trade, a more sophisticated version of the simple mirror-on-a-stick, that crossed worlds with its versatility. As a former criminal, part time mischief maker, Jinx was intimately familiar with both. Through it she could see a man working on a metal barrel with something on top.

It only took a few seconds to realize what it was: a bomb.

She could see maybe two or three pounds of C-4 wired up to the drum. If it went off, the basement would quickly turn into an inferno. These men were obviously planning to destroy the mansion completely once they left.

_"Are you done yet? How long are you going to fiddle with your dick over there?"_

"_Fuck you!"_ Some phrases translated easier than others _"I am _almost_ done…"_

_'Damn,'_ Jinx thought, taking in the situation. What did they do? Take these guys out before they were done, but give away their presence before they could find anything out? Or just wait until they left and disable the bomb, then continue their covert search of the manor?

The latter definitely seemed like the more tactical decision. They wouldn't detonate it before clearing the area, after all, and disarming C-4 was one of the easier tricks she'd learned back at the academy - well, actually she'd learned how to 'arm' it, but the theory worked perfectly fine in reverse as well. Turning, she noted Raven looking ready to do something, but she sharply gestured to her to hold still. She kind of wished that the girl had learned a bit of the hand signs that they used at the Academy for exactly these kinds of situations.

They had to hold their position for a few long minutes, but eventually the men finished and made their exit, swearing and insulting each other pretty much every step of the way. Nearly a full minute later, Jinx was nearly shocked out of her skin when Raven suddenly spoke up.

"They're out of range. I can't sense their presence anymore. We can make our move now."

Glaring at the girl for shocking her, she grudgingly nodded. "Alright, just keep out of my way. I don't need you blowing us both to heck."

Raven just rolled her eyes as Jinx moved forward and quickly went to work on the bomb. It was good, solid craftsmanship, she had to admit: efficient and to the point. On the other hand they obviously hadn't been planning on having anyone stumble across it, as she couldn't find any of the dozen usual deceptions that could be built into such bombs to make tampering with them tricky.

"Alright, then, let ... me ... see ..." Pulling out her favorite pair of wire clippers, she set to work.

It didn't take terribly long to finish disarming the bomb. Jinx recalled, back before 'Yankee Squad' had left the Avenger, that Ranma had asked for a quick rundown on their abilities. One of the questions had been if any of them had explosives and demolitions experience… yeah; she had a _little_ of that. Not everything required an engineering PhD.

Moreover, she rewired the bomb so, at a glance, it would appear functional, the necessary wires twisted but not actually connected. Naturally, it would fizzle when the time came, but that wasn't something they needed to advertise. Satisfied, Jinx climbed up one of the wine casks and cupped her ear to the ceiling. It was insulated, and impossible to hear much through it, so she pointed up and hoped she wouldn't have to actually explain what she was asking.

Raven rolled her eyes and took a deep breath, concentrating.

She didn't immediately feel any presences above them, and there was nothing on the motion sensor. Suitably convinced that they were clear, she created a small portal in the corner, and the two jumped up to the first floor. They emerged in a study room with a medium sized library. More than books, the room sported glass displays with a large variety of rifles and other firearms. Stuffed animals, hunting trophies, lined the walls, including a brown bear that stood tall enough that it had to hunch to keep from bumping into the ceiling.

The two moved stealthily through the lower floor, evading two more armed men. Getting dangerously close to a stairwell, Jinx sniffed the air. That smell…

Burning paper.

And more angry Russian, from upstairs.

"He just said Mister Reshetov," Nabiki spoke softly into their earpieces. "The Mayor is upstairs. Jinx. Plant a listening device near the stairs."

Motioning Raven back, Jinx watched one of the guards facing the stairs, waiting for him to move. Aggravatingly, he seemed to be quite nervous, and didn't give a lot of openings to slip past. Then, suddenly, he jumped at some unheard sound, and turned to stare at something. Jinx craned her neck, a little curious what the disturbance was, but didn't see anything. Was he just staring at the wall or what?

"I've got him distracted," Raven whispered from behind.

Jinx nodded – _so it was psionics then_ – and crept closer to the stairs. The voices were louder and clearer, and she could smell more burned paper coming from the second floor. The bug she had was a little round device with a sticking surface. Taking a chance, she went up a few steps to a good spot, and stuck it under the banister.

"Okay…" Nabiki said, getting the much clearer audio. "I'd estimate three men on the second floor. Thermals show one on the roof, two on the third floor. Wait… hold on… that can't be right."

Wisely, Jinx took that as her cue to get back out of sight.

"I don't know where they came from... but there are two Sectoids out back. You better get out of there!"

Turning to shoot her companion a wry glance, Jinx whispered, "Just how good have you gotten at that mind trick stuff? I know those gray guys got it too."

Raven met her smirk with a confident smile of her own. "My numbers are higher than most recorded Ethereals. I think a pair of Sectoids might be ... good practice?"

"You've just been upgraded to sexy bitch, Raven." Jinx held in her giggle as Raven's fist twisted up, unsure as to whether she'd just been complimented or insulted. While she did that, Jinx tapped the comm. "Nabiki, where are the Sectoids hiding out?"

"They're out back, behind a set of hedge rows," Nabiki replied, with some concern. "They're just waiting there. If you're heading in that direction, exercise extreme caution. I don't know where they came from and there could be more."

Between Jinx's training, and Raven's talents, the duo - much to the former's disgust - made an excellent team when it came to sneaking through the mansion undetected. Sure, they probably should be focusing more on the human threat, but at least they planted a listening device for them, so they could learn more about what the heck was going on here. Besides, missing any chance to get a little more payback against those little gray bastards wasn't something Jinx felt inclined to do. The fact that Raven was actually going along with it, whatever her reason, was just icing on the cake.

Moving to one of the windows overlooking the back of the estate, the girls did a careful scan of the area, paying special attention to the hedgerow Nabiki mentioned. And, just as promised, there was a pair of the little monsters, doing their best to move about undetected. Jinx shook her head in disapproval.

The Headmaster would have beaten her if she ever snuck around as poorly as these guys did.

Turning to her partner in crime, she whispered. "How do you want to approach this? I could try to sneak closer, but I'd be a pretty attractive target if they spotted me ... well, more attractive than usual, anyway."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Let me try to initiate a mental attack, first. That way I can, at best, dominate one, at worst, distract them so you can close the distance. Then you can finish them from CQC range."

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Ugh, enough with the initialisms. Don't go all military on me, bird girl. Still, that's a pretty sweet plan. Alright, give me thirty seconds to find a good exit so I can get out of the building undetected, then do what ya gotta do to let me sneak up on them."

The violet haired Titan nodded once, then turned her attention back to the window, focusing all of her attention on the pair of aliens.

"One ..."

A line-of-sight psionic attack was the simplest and most efficient type, and the range was miniscule compared to mind controlling something from miles away. Still, this was the first serious psionic attack she had launched outside of training exercises. Unlike with the human from before, she couldn't afford to feel her targets out and carefully set up the attack. The aliens would sense the intrusion almost the moment it was launched; she would have to be quick and decisive.

Like an icepick, she suddenly and viciously forced her will into the Sectoid on the left. It felt horrifically wrong inside its mind – even as shallow as she was going. It felt like crude oil and stunk like vinegar, but the rejection and disgust was all in her mind. The alien was an intelligent, sentient being, but so unfathomably inhuman at the core that it was jarring making contact.

Still, she struck.

A basic panic attack: hard and fast. Noises and shouts assailed and confused the Sectoid on the right. It drew its weapon, a plasma pistol, and fired at the ground nearby, imagining it was hitting a charging Doberman guard dog. Instead, the blast of superheated dirt from the nearby shot blinded both creatures, burning them with flaming debris. Injured, confused, alarmed, she delivered the finishing move.

Pushing hard against the Ego resistance of the alien, Raven forced herself into its mind. It was a bit of a risk, going for a mind control attack so soon, but she felt confident she could pull it off. Plus, and this she would never admit, she wouldn't mind showing up her current partner just a bit. She broke the alien's resistance with some difficulty, but then found herself immersed within it. This was far more revolting than before, as a part of her became a part of it. Holding back her instinct to gag, she bottled up the creature's disgusting consciousness and seized control.

Only to get shot in the face.

Her vision went black, with only a pinprick of light in the distance.

And then she was back in her body. If anything it was a relief. Luckily, being in the alien's mind as it vaporized seemed to have no ill effects. Her mind projected back home without injury or trouble, leaving only a mild disorientation.

She also noticed Jinx was gone. Blinking and checking where the aliens had been, she saw the pink haired witch finishing off the second alien. Raven could also see the one she had mind controlled. There wasn't much left of its upper body. Jinx didn't stick around, expecting that the two shots had roused some attention, and slipped out of sight. Raven briefly wondered where Jinx was going, when her headset answered the question for her.

"Sheesh, Raven, I thought you were gonna take them out quietly, not start a war," came the furious whisper.

Frowning, she replied sharply. "Well how about next time, **you** mentally dominate the alien and _I_ sneak up behind them and hit them on the head?"

"Oh, har de har har. Look, I can't come back yet, the guy on the roof is looking right this way. It's only a matter of time before more guards come to check things out, too, I bet."

That ... wasn't good. She hadn't wanted to put her companion into a dangerous situation. It was time for them to call in the reserves. "Alright, don't come back to the mansion yet, I'll call in the others. While you're out there, though, why don't you check and see if you can find out where those Sectoids came from? Nabiki said she didn't see them earlier."

"... Alright, but check with her and see what's up with the Mayor upstairs. Is there a reason these armed guys are here? Does he need to be saved, or what?"

That ... was actually a good idea. Raven nodded to herself, considering the possibility of them needing to pull off a rescue, now, too. "Alright. If you need back up, call me and I'll come out."

"Feh, like _that'll_ ever happen."

Smirking, Raven switched to the open channel. "Nabiki, this is Yankee-Four. We just took out the Sectoids, but we need to know what the situation is with the mayor. Have you determined anything else out from the bug yet?"

"We have it being recorded and translated in real time," Nabiki replied. "These men are working _for_ the Mayor. He isn't a hostage. It looks like he cut some kind of deal with the aliens. They destroyed the electronic files before you got here and are finishing burning the shredding documents and anything flammable. We were too late to save the hard evidence."

Jinx's voice suddenly cut back in. "I don't suppose we could just hook the bomb back up and have it go off a little premature?"

"Sorry," Nabiki replied, but actually sounded a bit amused. "Yankee Squad, we need you to secure the Mayor for a mind scan. Raven, you're the most powerful psionic on site, so you should be point for this. If you need the help, Captain Ben-Solomon says he is willing to assist via psionic proxy. We also need your team to secure or reconstruct any remaining data on what they're trying to cover up."

Again, still not used to the non-visual communicator, Raven found herself nodding. "Jinx is investigating the Sectoids at the moment. Could you recommend that Ryouga and Cyborg join us in here for data extraction and securing the mayor, and that Starfire should deal with the hostile on the roof before joining us ... or backing up Jinx if she needs it? I'll do my best in interrogating the Mayor, though the Captain's assistance would be appreciated."

"One moment. ...okay. Psi-proxy codes are _Cloak. Iron. Heavy_."

Raven sat tight, switching back to the main channel for Yankee Squad. Nabiki was summarizing the situation for Ryouga and the rest, adding in some of the strategic details she hadn't passed on earlier. During this, Raven felt a mild, inquisitive pull on her mind.

_'__Cloak?__'_ she thought.

_'__Iron,__'_ it responded.

_'__Heavy,__'_ she returned.

Lowering her mental defenses for a moment, she "felt" the psionic fragment of the Captain. He had projected it from the northern edge of the city, and it felt more indistinct than back when Captain Banks and the others had done her Mind Dive. Nonetheless, it was a fraction of his consciousness, and it quickly locked into her own psionic powers, layering himself like a superimposition.

_'__I will strike when you do,__'_ it thought, voice monotone. _'__Physical contact is preferred for a data extraction, but not necessary.__'_

* * *

Outside

It took a while, but Jinx finally noticed it: a bit of disturbed grass near the side of a terraced hill.

"Oh ho? What's this?" she asked, keeping her voice low as she got closer. The grass was strangely flattened in a crescent around the hill, and the thickest part of it was facing them. As the ex-villainess got closer to the side of the hillside, she could feel the faint hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. There was something here… somewhere…

Rather than simply look, Jinx tried projecting her hexes out as a wide dispersal, but low intensity. From what Akari had told her, UFO doors and the like responded both to touch and thought. Even as the vibrant green grass began to wither and die beneath the broadcasting pink energy, the sorceress flattened her palm towards the hill. Narrowing her eye, she felt a vague pull. Taking a few steps to the left, she planted her hand against the withered grass and dirt, feeling… feeling… and finally _finding_.

Something clicked, and the hill distorted, part of it hinging - no, flowing - upwards.

The new aperture revealed the inside of a small alien craft, buried beneath the hill itself. Stepping inside, rather expecting some resistance, Jinx could see that the craft was empty. Relatively empty, anyway. The ship had to be a medium scout by size, with a navigator's chair and psionic interface to one side, and some instruments across from it. As she stepped deeper inside, a faint green glow caught their attention.

Backlit were several small jars; tiny humanoid forms within.

And next to them, an adult-sized cloning tube...

Slowly, Jinx reached up and tapped her headset. "Um ... Nabiki ... could you please tell Star to back me up? And maybe the entire scientific community while you're at it? I think I just stumbled on something _very_ interesting."

"I wish you had an active video link…" was the older girl's response. "The others are going to be taking the mansion any second now. You should probably hold that spot if you've got something valuable. I'll switch you back to Yankee-main, too."

* * *

Cyborg tapped his foot impatiently as Ryouga conversed back and forth with Nabiki. He got the gist of things: Mayor bad, getting info good, kicking butt better. It already sounded like Jinx and Raven had stolen all the real fun, taking out the aliens. All that was left was a group of people armed with standard weapons. Finally, his recently assigned leader - man, how crazy was that? He was gonna start feeling down on himself if he kept getting passed over for command like this - finished his strategizing with the not so criminally inclined Tendo girl.

The bandanna clad guy then turned to him and Star.

"Alright, Starfire, you speed blitz the roof and take out the guy with the RPG. After that, I want you to check keep an eye on the windows outside the Mayor's office in case anyone tries to escape. Cyborg. You and me are just gonna barrel straight through, meet up with Raven and make best speed up to the Mayor, alright?"

"Heh, that's my kinda plan, Ryo," Cyborg replied with a grin.

"I shall commence the attack then," Starfire added.

While Cyborg and Ryouga positioned themselves on either side of the gate, Starfire took several steps back from the wall and crouched down, getting into what almost looked like a sprinter's stance.

Slowly, a greenish aura of energy built up around her as she prepared herself. With her superior vision, she could easily see the human on the roof, making his rounds. It would only be a matter of time before he noticed her, especially with what she was doing, but she would not need even a second for her purposes.

And then, Ryouga dropped his finger, giving the signal.

The ground beneath Starfire's feet shattered to gravel as she exploded forward at near sonic speeds. A green trail of energy was the only evidence of her passage as she cleared the space between the wall and the distant roof in scant seconds. Rather than maneuver, she simply plowed straight through the front ledge of the building, showering the abjectly shocked guard with a hail of concrete debris.

She circled back a second later, and picked the unconscious man off of the ground, sniffing disdainfully as she stepped on the barrel of his weapon, crushing it into uselessness. "Roof secure."

At which point, the large, wrought iron gate of the compound gave out an unearthly screech as it was literally ripped from its moorings by Cyborg. The massive Titan laughed uproariously as he reared back and simply hurled the twisted mass of metal forward ... right onto the first parked helicopter.

"Scratch one escape chopper!"

Unfortunately, he didn't have anyone to listen to him brag, as Ryouga was already past him, T-Brella leading the way.

"Why that cheatin' little-" Cyborg grumbled before giving chase. The four guards quickly opened fire on them, but between Ryouga's umbrella and his own armor, they didn't even slow down. Moving so fast that he could barely follow, Ryouga tore into one guard after another, fists and feet flying, which quickly led to the guards flying as well.

Smirking, Cyborg tapped his communicator. "Um, Nabiki? We're gonna need a cleanup in aisle two. Yankee One is taking prisoners with extreme prejudice."

"I have allied personnel incoming, along with a cleanup crew," she replied, calmly. "I suppose I could say that, working for UNETCO even on a trial basis, you have a defacto license to kill… but I bet there'd be no point."

"Do my killer good looks count?"

"I'm afraid they do not. Nice try, though."

It was over, literally, in seconds.

A spray of desperate gunfire pinged off the T-brella, and then the two guards up on the second floor were dispatched: crumpling into unconsciousness at either end of the second floor's large private study, directly adjacent to the main bedroom. The team had known exactly where every man would be in the building, even the two hidden gunmen on the third floor.

"Clear!" Starfire announced from the roof.

"Clear!" Raven seconded, up on the third floor, having pulled down a section of the ceiling on her targets.

"And Clear," Ryouga finished, facing a stunned older man in a gray suit. "Mister Yevhen Reshetov?" he asked, switching to Russian. "I presume?"

"Ah-ah!" The older man seemed to be hyperventilating, and his eyes grew wide as saucers when he saw the young man's cyborg companion ducking into the room.

"Hey, nice digs!" Cyborg commented. Even though there were three smashed computers on the floor, and a mess of papers burning in a waste bin, he could appreciate the décor: the high quality wood finishing on the walls, the classy desk, the Persian rug, and the old world ottoman… plus the numerous nude paintings done in imitation art deco style.

"You, you saved me!" Yevhen declared, slowly getting to his feet. He seemed quite fluent in English, too. "Those men were going to kill me! Thank god for you, son!" He turned, a bit more hesitantly to Cyborg. "And, um, you, as well. Thank God!"

"Oh, don't thank anyone yet," Cyborg quipped, before making his way to the smashed computers. "I _am_ here of a rescue mission, but I didn't come for you. In fact … I think you have an appointment with _her_."

With that, he gestured to the dark figure that glided through the door. With her hood pulled low and her cloak pulled closed, hiding her tactical vest, Raven cut an extremely ominous figure as she approached. Yevhen, not a fool, instantly began to backpedal ... only to pull up short when an ironclad grip dropped on his shoulder, instantly forcing him to his knees with a wince.

"You aren't going anywhere, _friend_," Ryouga growled as he held the man in place with as much pain and as little damage as possible. He then turned to Raven. "Are you ready to begin?"

She nodded, gliding before Yehven, and then placed her hand on his forehead. He tried to pull back, realizing what was coming, but Ryouga only squeezed harder, threatening to crush his shoulder if he didn't stop squirming.

"Beginning extraction, now," Raven stated in a cold tone.

"N-no! Don't!" The moment Raven touched him, he flinched as if struck.

For a second or two, he was still, as if paralyzed. Then with a rush he screamed and slapped away her hand. Raven didn't seem to mind; she simply took a step back, processing everything she had seen and heard from his memories. The human mind was imperfect, and it did not really remember everything, but what she and the Captain had extracted…!

"What was?" he struggled to say, shaking his head and stumbling to the point where he had to steady himself against a nearby chair. "What did you…? My head! It…"

He reached up, cupping the back of his neck.

"No! No wait! I – I'm… I can still...!" Coughing, he fell forward, forcing Ryouga to pick him back up. He started struggling again, but in an uncoordinated way, almost like he was having an epileptic fit. The lost Titan could see foam crawling out the corner of the Mayor's mouth as his body shook and flailed in the throes of a massive seizure. With a sick gurgle, coppery red mixed with the discharge, followed by weaker contractions and a strained gasp.

And then nothing.

"He was…" Raven struggled for a moment to put into words. "They were abducting people here… men and women. Important ones." She blinked, and saw the man in Ryouga's grip. "That…" Her voice took on a faintly worried tone. "That wasn't me, was it?"

"Is there a small lump on the back of his neck?" Nabiki asked.

Ryouga did a quick check. "...Yes, it looks like one. What does it mean?"

"Probably an implant. According to records, Mister Reshetov was diagnosed with Aggressive NK-cell leukemia… that was three years ago. He made a miraculous recovery soon after starting treatment. There's no record of any doctor identifying the implant. No wonder the aliens set up nearby, if they had this man in their pocket."

"Wait, if it's a miracle cure implant, then why did he just up and die? Did it have anything to do with the mind scan?" Ryouga asked, sounding somewhat worried.

"Most abductees have implants somewhere on them so the aliens can track them wherever they go, and sometimes to see who they come in contact with. Some implants, like this one, can kill. It probably triggered the moment Raven began her mind probe. Sort of like a trap, meant to flood both minds with white noise."

"Well, it seemed to be too little, too late," Raven muttered. She didn't look pleased with the results, but at least she now knew that it wasn't her incompetence that resulted in his death. He had brought on his own fate by making deals with devils that he could scarcely comprehend.

"What about the data files?" Nabiki asked, already moving on. "Can we salvage anything from those computers?"

The cybernetic teen looked up from his work on the shattered boxes. He seemed to be enjoying the opportunity to use the newly installed USB adaptor he'd fitted himself with.

"A lot of damaged data fragments. They smashed these computers after deleting the files…" He gently held up a damaged motherboard, a crocodile tear in his eye. "Waste of circuitry, but I can reconstruct a bunch of it. I just need time."

"How much?" Ryouga asked. "Anything we can do to help?"

Cyborg shrugged. "Sorry man, even I can't pull data out of thin air after something like this."

"Better pack it up then," the lost sergeant decided. "I doubt they'll want us hanging out here for too long. Jinx?"

"You won't believe what _I_ found!" the girl's bubbly tone belied the seriousness of the situation. Before he could actually ask, though, she answered herself, "I think they buried a small ship out here. One of their UFOs."

Ryouga, Raven and Cyborg shared a quick glance.

"Damn, girl just showed us up," muttered Cyborg.

"We had best go check the situation," Raven added.

Ryouga nodded. "Alright, Jinx, we'll be there as soon as possible."

A distant rumble shook the house, just enough to feel.

"Ryouga," Starfire suddenly spoke up, from her position on the roof. "I just saw one of the enemy ships come down north east of our position inside the city. It did not seem to be a controlled landing."

Huh, that was interesting. He tapped his headset. "Nabiki, this is Yankee-One. Do you have any Intel on the recently downed ship. Star says it's not too far from our position."

"We're re-routing Juliet Squad. Just… just a minute… something's… a lot of -"

Nabiki cut off momentarily.

She came back a few seconds later, but there was some tension in her voice. "I don't know if it was that crash or what, but things have really picked up again in the city. We're getting increased psionic attacks across the board. It… it looks like the large scout that got shot down was Ethereal. They're already starting to coordinate the aliens nearby."

"_Ethereal_?" Jinx's voice cut back in sharply. "We can get another brain! Nabiki, send us in, _please!_"

It wasn't Nabiki's call to make, so her response wasn't immediate.

"I have an ETA on your cleanup crew," she began, a few seconds later. "They'll be on site in eight minutes. I can also bring in the HWP to help you with rapid redeploy… if you want to go. The Captain is a little busy at the moment. Things are nasty out here. We're being pressed on all fronts. If you can support Juliet, I'll do what I can to help. You have to make the call, Sergeant."

Said sergeant frowned. Ethereals were supposed to be the worst of the worst. The most powerful psionic enemies in the alien army... and aside from Raven, none of them had anything beyond the most basic introduction to psionic defenses. If they were attacked by an Ethereal, it could be disastrous.

Still, Jinx had a point ... If they could capture an Ethereal, then Akari...

"Raven?" he asked tentatively. He hated the idea of placing the onus of the mission on her and her alone.

The dark girl looked down, unable to meet his gaze. "I... don't know if I'm prepared for that level of combat yet. I'm not sure that I could protect us all if they were to attack us directly with psionics."

Slapping a fist into his palm, Ryouga cursed. "Damnit! We need to do this... but as we are, we could end up being more liability than help...!" Finally, he tapped his headset. "Nabiki... I can't risk sending us against Ethereals as we are... I don't suppose anyone has a spare Psi-amp for Raven to use?"

"I'm pretty sure field-strength type-3 psi-amps are personalized. I do have a cache of emergency replacements, generic type-2s, onboard my Roaming Susan. You're down one tactical vest, too. I can make a field drop in a few minutes, if you need it."

Ryouga looked to Raven again. A moment passed before she nodded to herself. "With a Psi Amp, I should be able to at least stop any of us from being dominated or panicked. That should hopefully be enough to keep you all safe to do what you need to do."

Smiling, he nodded back. "Alright. Nabiki, we're going to need the Amp, the vest, and as many stun weapons as you can fit on your little Suzie."

"Okay. Leave it to me. Finish policing those bodies. Well, they're alive, so… I guess… restrain them or something. When you're done, use your BUDD - your signal light - to mark the drop point for my Susan. Use code: 1:3:2:1. I also need you to mark the entrance of the UFO out back. Use an electric and a white signal flare."

She paused a second, then added, "I've taken control of Juliet Squad's HWP for the moment and sent it on course to pick you guys up. Give it five minutes."

Luckily, the Titans had the benefit of experience when it came to tying up bad guys. Starfire kept on lookout while Cyborg and Raven got to work. Searching through his pack, it didn't take long for Ryouga to find the signal light Nabiki had mentioned, code it properly, and then wait for Jinx to take him to the hidden ship. Here, he used first a normal electric illumination flare. The bright light whipped away the encroaching shadows, allowing the white smoke from the second flare to easily stand out.

Looking up, he could see the sky was already getting dark.

The sun was setting across the ocean, but rather than enjoy the view, he felt a chill that had little to do with the winter winds that came in from the west. As Jinx lead him away from the ship, to an open area suitable for Nabiki's emergency drop, he felt a bit of apprehension. Not only were they going back into the city, to the worst part of the fighting, but they would be doing it at twilight and with, frankly, rather unproven psionic defenses.

Reaching a good spot, he programmed and held up the special signal light Nabiki had mentioned. For a moment, he wondered if it was even working and why the 'signal light' itself didn't seem to be giving off much actual light. In fact, it was a pulsed "infrared beacon," mostly used for vehicle and personnel identification and for marking obstacles, passage points, helipads, and minefields. It was invisible to the naked eye or even to most normal FLIR systems.

"I'm coming in," Nabiki announced.

With a rush of air, the UAV - very much akin to a scaled up Cyberdisc of sorts – came to a stop a few meters away. The air faintly shimmered around it, and a few trails of steam rose up the sides. This was the 'Roaming Susan' Nabiki had mentioned, though it was his first time seeing one. The side opened up, and it floated slightly to provide access.

"The HWP should be there in about fifty seconds," she said, appearing momentarily distracted managing both Yankee and India at the same time. "Hibiki, are you sure you want to do this? I… I heard about the situation… and about Akari…"

"You leave Akari to us, Biki," Jinx muttered darkly. "We'll find a 'donor' for her if we have to take the head of every Ethereal in the city."

Dropping a hand on the narrow girl's shoulder, Ryouga smiled fondly. "Tell everyone to get out of our way." Looking through the compartment of the Roaming Suzan, he pulled out a nasty looking stun rod and tested its weight appreciatively.

"We're about to go on the most violent mission of mercy there ever was."

* * *

Ah, the wonder of the HWP, also known as the Heavy Weapon Platform.

Sleek, elegant, powerful ... And most importantly, a reeaally easy target. Yankee Squadron hadn't even made it halfway to their target destination, their HWP flying them quickly through the city, before it came under heavy fire. A single aimed heavy plasma round seized the HWP by the underside, upended it, and swatted it from the sky. Luckily, everyone had managed to jump ship before it went down in a ball of plasmatic fire.

On the plus side, the burning hull made a pretty good piece of cover for the less than nimble Cyborg. It was a tense moment, to say the least. Ryouga and Starfire dove off to one side and into some buildings, while Raven and Jinx had gone the other way, disappearing down an alley. That left him sitting in the middle of the street with an unknown number of alien snipers covering his position. They were smart too, not taking any unnecessary shots, only bothering when they actually had a target to shoot at. In this case, time was on the alien's side, so there was no need for them to rush. Just pining down an X-Com team was as good as wiping them out.

"Ryo, you still there, man?" he called out into his communicator.

"I'm still in one piece, Cy. I can't spot any of the aliens, though, they're too well hidden."

Cyborg frowned. "Yeah, so I'd noticed. We're kinda screwed-"

A sudden blast rang out, smashing into the wall near the alley that the pair of girls had hidden in. The delicate brickwork exploded violently upon contact with the super heated plasma and energetic anti-matter, and a pained shriek pierced the air. An instant later, panicked shouts began to bounce across the Comm Channel, before one voice finally cut through the chatter.

"Shut up! Shut up! I'm alright!" Jinx's voice, obviously. "I was just trying to spot one of the snipers and got some gravel to the face for my trouble."

Raven's voice joined the conversation next. "She suffered some mild lacerations; I've already healed them... But, what are we going to do? These aliens are no fools, they aren't going to give themselves away unless they have something to shoot."

Cyborg shut down his channel for a second so that he could let out a short curse. What to do, what to ... do? A near silent ping just finished registering on his arm. It was his scanner. And it was still showing a trace elerium signature from where the shot had been fired before...

Now there was an idea. All he needed to do was fine tune the scanner a bit, annnnd ...

The cybernetic teen smiled. "Heh heh heh, well alright then!"

He opened the channel again. "Hey, Ryo, you and Star still hidden?"

"Um, yeah ... not much has happened in the past minute or so. Why do you ask?"

A near maniacal chuckled filled the channel. "I got a plan ... though you guys might not like it. It should work, though."

"Who cares if we don't like it?" Jinx snapped impatiently. "We need to get an Ethereal **now**. Just tell us the damn plan, already!"

He could all but imagine the look on her fact at the moment. It was kind of odd not having the normal face-to-face of the Titans communicator on hand, but even when he made the devices, he'd known it was really a luxury and not really suited for situations like this anyway.

"Alright," Cyborg replied. "We need to take these guys out, all of them, and quick, right? Problem is, these guys aren't shooting unless they got something to shoot at, right? Well, let's give them something to shoot at. Or - and I hate to say it - some_one_."

"Alright then," Ryouga stated right away. "I'll go out and-"

"Fraid not, Ryo," Cyborg muttered. "You're not that fast, and even with enough near misses the radiation alone ain't exactly healthy. We're gonna need someone a bit more ... tolerant of hostile conditions."

A long moment of silence reigned as his implication hung in the air. It was a big thing he was asking, especially considering what had already happened, but no one else could do it...

"I ... understand. I know what to do." Starfire's voice was filled with the determination that so defined her character. No matter what the danger to herself, with the life of her friends, and the life of Akari hanging on the line, she would do _anything_ to make sure they survived.

Acting quickly, Cyborg began to type away at his scanner, hooking it directly to several other systems.

"Alright, Star, go when you're ready. Just move quick and fast across the street."

Several long seconds passed, then suddenly an explosion rocked the area. One of the building faces exploded outward violently, and a glowing green streak soared out and upwards at tremendous speed.

Almost immediately, plasma fire scorched the air. Nearly a dozen bursts of super heated green energy arrowed in on her speeding form. She was moving too quickly, but as she rose through the air, the snipers' began to compensate for her remarkable velocity, and the plasma blasts nipped ever closer on her heels.

And then Starfire spun in midair, and a familiar disk of yellow energy flared up before her, deflecting away the first couple of plasma blasts that found the mark.

"Alright!" Cyborg cheered as numerous lights lit up on his arm simultaneously. "Good to go!"

He spun out from behind his cover and crouched down, setting himself, as his shoulder mounts all opened, revealing his entire payload of mini-missiles. Glad that he didn't have to worry about hurting his enemies, he set the yield of the warheads to maximum. He confirmed his targets in a fraction of a second. And then he fired.

Ten missiles, five target locks and a half dozen seconds later ... almost a dozen explosions shattered the city block. Speeding projectiles blasted into windows onto rooftops and down alleyways, unerringly seeking the faint spent-elerium signatures of the alien ambushers, having so generously given him so much to work with in their attempts to kill Starfire.

"Raven, can you sense any stragglers?" he asked quickly.

Nearly a full ten seconds passed before he got a response. "... No longer. I just teleported Jinx to deal with the only conscious presence I could detect. It should be dead now. I believe we're in the clear."

Cyborg smiled at that. "Alright then, boys and girls. I think we got a space ship to get to, then. Why don't we get the lead out already?"

"Agreed. Yankee squad, move out!" Ryouga's voice sounded almost as relieved as the look on his face when he finally exited the building he'd been hiding in. The bandanna clad martial artist quickly moved to join Cyborg and dropped a hand on his shoulder.

"That was a good plan, Cyborg," he stated plainly, "We'll have to see about getting you the command when we get back from this."

"Meh, don't worry about that now, Ryo. 'Sides, I got more important things to worry about. Now, let's get our girls and go, right?"

His companion smiled weakly. "Yeah, get our girls and go ..."

As Cyborg charged down the road, he didn't catch Ryouga's parting words.

"I just pray I don't get any of them killed ..."

* * *

Remarkably, the progress they made after that initial ambush was without incident. The city was a mix of four and five story buildings for the most part, many built to a common, utilitarian cold war style, all glass and concrete. Despite the fierce and audible fighting going on further north, this part of the city seemed completely calm… and far from deserted.

Yankee Squad moved carefully down a side street, narrowing their eyes at the sight of a smashed in storefront. It was an Apple Store, and apparently some concerned citizens had taken the emergency evacuation notice and lack of police as an excuse to engage in the time tradition of good old fashioned looting. One young man, a lookout perhaps, saw the Titans across the street, but made no effort to call his friends inside. Instead he simply stepped back into the darkness of an alley.

Rolling his eyes, Ryouga tapped his earpiece. "Nabiki, this is Yankee-One. Do we have anyone to deal with looters? We're not stopping to arrest people; we have an Ethereal to catch."

"There's nothing we can do about it," the coordinator replied, sounding more than a little annoyed by the news. "Alien jamming knocks out cameras and most security systems. SOP is to not interfere unless fired upon."

"Alright then, we're moving on."

That said, Ryouga waved the rest of his team on, and the moved ahead carefully, making sure to give the store a wide berth, despite their natural tendency to want to bust the looters.

"Since we are on that subject," Nabiki added. "If you see any cases of assault taking place, feel free to engage. It isn't pretty, but a certain level of lawlessness is to be expected, even in this kind of situation."

"Have no doubts that if we see any innocents in peril, we shall intervene," Starfire interrupted sharply.

Ryouga nodded. "Right, we got it covered. Now, how far are we from the target?"

"Less than one quarter of a kilometer," she responded. "I have minimal Intel on the crash site. There's just too much rubble and debris to get a clear thermal or visual. Proceed with extreme caution. I recommend waiting for Juliet to fight its way east to split the attention of the aliens in the area. From there, you may need to get into the storm drains to access the ship's airlock. I can't tell for sure with the view I have here."

Ryouga nodded, processing the situation and agreeing with the Tendo sister's recommendation. As much as he hated to say it, meeting up with Ranma's team was just good sense. They had much more psionic experience, and could help them if the Ethereals tried to attack them directly.

"Understood, Nabiki. We'll let Ranma decide how to approach when we meet up."

Raven strode up beside him. "I'm a little worried. Though if Ranma and his team all have their psi amps, we shouldn't be in such a perilous condition."

As they advanced deeper into the city, the Titans entered the so-called 'dark zone' of the Terror Site. This was an urban area completely affected by alien EWAR jamming and electronic-effector interference. UNETCO communications were shielded and encrypted against its effects, but for everything else it was devastating. Not only were alarms and cameras and phones affected, but car batteries died and street lights went out. At night, as in this case, this turned the streets and buildings into long looming facades, devoid of illumination aside from the occasional sputtering fire.

Cyborg and Jinx had just started crossing the front of an office building and bank, at double time, when the world turned white and red. Ryouga never saw the glass windows and concrete pillars of the bank briefly light up, nor the supersonic screech of a blaster bomb as it detonated nearby, moving past Jinx and Cyborg close enough to buffet them with displaced air, blasting the latter's helmet right off of her head. Then it was all gone, lost in such a tumult of noise and sound that it deafened and blinded even before realization truly set in.

Ryouga wasn't stunned long.

He blinked, and the first thing he saw was the side of the building: it had been gutted like a fish. Metal ribs stuck out from the sides and at odd angles. The front of the bank was gone, replaced by a crater with its epicenter slightly within the building itself. The levels above had been blown up and out, eviscerating the entire structure. The smoking remains of an elevator, torn from its moorings, lay in the middle of the street.

That was what he saw. What he felt came from the shards of glass that would have, had he been a normal man, shredded him across the right side of his body. Instead, hardened as his constitution was, the glass had sheared away, taking hairs and skin with it. None had penetrated, nor had the rebar concrete behind him done more than leave a bloody gash on his left side. Worse, his shirt was partly on fire, and had been for a few seconds. Patting it out on instinct, he opened his mouth to curse.

Only to barely hear his own voice.

Gritting his teeth, he rolled back onto his feet and desperately looked around. He could see Cyborg and Jinx, thankfully intact. The former had shielded the latter from the shrapnel, but both had ended up blown halfway across the street. Worry pierced his gut stronger than any shard of glass or steel. Not just for Jinx, who he knew to be less resilient than she would ever admit, but for Raven and Starfire, who he couldn't see through the smoke, and who he couldn't hear.

A Whisper entered his mind, then, saying what he refused to think.

_You killed them_

Suddenly, he heard a scream, and recognized it as Raven. His head hurt, and he surged out into the street, only to have a hand grab him by the arm and pull him back. He turned, surprised by the sudden motion, and saw the hand was, in fact, a midnight black claw. With a startled snarl, he swung at the Chryssalid, which floated back out of the way, mandibles snapping.

Wait: floated?

He blinked, taking a step back…

_Get away from it save your friends get away_

His head hurt, and the screeching electronic dissonance suddenly assaulting him didn't help either.

_Save your friends save them don__'__t let them die save them_

"Ryouga, it is me!" he heard, and disturbingly, it came from the floating Chryssalid. He felt another presence, almost like a battle aura, pressing against him. He pushed back, gritting his teeth.

_Kill_

_Kill_

_Kill_

_KILL KILL KILL_

"I am sorry, friend Ryouga, but…" Still staggering, he had no time to react before the flying Chryssalid decked him with its claw. His concentration wavered, the aura entered through a crack, and then everything… just cleared up. The buzzing became clearer, turning into voices and noises, and the Chryssalid turned into a familiar Tamaranian.

_You will watch them die__…_

**Ryouga, it****'****s me, Raven. **

_It lies_

_It masks the truth you must fight to save your friends you must save them kill the enemy_

_Kill the enemy_

**You know it****'****s me. You know that****'****s Starfire. I need you to calm down.**

_It is not_

The thoughts, the pressure, receded like a cold wind, disappearing back into the air. Ryouga slumped forward; saw Starfire standing at a careful distance, her eyes no longer on him. She was looking out from the side of the building he had crashed into. She pointed back, further in, and he could see Raven standing just behind the cover of a broken door, breathing heavily. Beads of sweat were running down her brow, but she still stood, determined and focused.

Ryouga frowned darkly, half tempted to charge out into the street. He could see Cyborg already beginning to stir, but Jinx was out cold, and he could see a splash of crimson on her otherwise pale face.

"Why the hell isn't anyone shooting at them?" he asked furiously. Their enemies had the pair dead to rights, but -

"It is a trap."

Ryouga spun to stare at Starfire. She looked down, holding her arm and refusing to meet his gaze.

"It is a common tactic in war," she explained, and turned to glare down the street. "They are trying to use our allies to draw the rest of us out. They wish to use our compassion against us."

A rumbling growl rattled Ryouga's throat. "And what can we do about it? Was that a damn Ethereal that was messing with my head just now?"

"It definitely was," Raven replied in a tired voice. "I can feel his presence all around us... In fact, it almost feels... spread out."

"Spread out?" Starfire asked curiously.

Raven nodded. "It was far too easy to eject the Ethereal from Ryouga's mind. I was expecting a much tougher fight, but it was over almost before it began. It wouldn't surprise me if it was already controlling other people as well."

"That's right," Ryouga agreed, remembering their lessons with India Squad. "Spotting is a common psi trick, right? See through one person's eyes to attack someone else."

"So, there could be any number of aliens around us, then?" Starfire sounded justifiably worried at that prospect.

"It doesn't have to be aliens," Raven corrected. "Anyone present would do. Aliens, dominated X-Com operatives, even civilians."

Scoffing loudly, Ryouga shook his head in disgust. "Figures an Ethereal would use such a cowardly tactic. Is there anything we can do?"

Raven nodded, holding up her psi amp. "I have a trick that should work, and this should give me more than enough power to pull it off."

"Alright. Do whatever you can to let Starfire and me rescue Cyborg and Jinx."

Taking a deep breath, Raven knelt down on the ground and closed her eyes. The Psi amp began to hum as she chanted her familiar mantra. "Get ready," she muttered between chants.

A moment later, Ryouga had his breath stolen away as a tower of ebony energy burst up from Raven's body, taking on the form of her namesake, spreading blackened wings and unleashing an unearthly cawing sound.

The astral construct then soared through the roof as if it wasn't even there ... which, he supposed it wasn't on the astral plane. Above the building, the towering black raven hovered for a timeless moment, before suddenly splitting off into several separate fragments. Each sinuous black tendril sped through the air, arrowing in on the nearest psyches they could sense. Within seconds, Raven's astral projection found several random civilians standing oddly serenely among the abandoned buildings.

Without even a moment's hesitation, she dove into all of their minds at once. She didn't even bother to attempt to read their minds, or determine if they were being controlled. She simply struck with overwhelming force, with the help of her own impressive psi strength and the psi amp, and forced them all to sleep.

Back at her physical form, Raven cracked open an eye, even as she struggled to draw her astral form back.

"Now," she muttered, struggling to raise her voice, "Go now!"

Before she even finished the second syllable, Ryouga and Starfire were already gone, halfway to their downed comrades.

…

_Whisper_ felt his thralls collapse into unconsciousness. Concealed in the darkness, far from the actual battlefield, it uttered a single thought.

UNACCEPTABLE

It had withdrawn itself from the other thralls, sensing the strange attack, but left one dormant. The Ethereal's formidable telekinetic and telepathic might flowed into it, then. On the roof of one of the buildings, a young woman's body shook and seized. Senses; arms; legs; fingers; toes; tongue; they twitched at the alien seized complete control. The mind was weak. Too weak. Too frail. It would not rouse itself.

RISE

The young woman lurched, arms flailing as her body reacted to the command. Blood trickled from her nose and ears, the power of the Ethereal beyond her ability to contain, much less in her current state. It took an agonizing handful of seconds for the limp body to force itself up onto unsteady feet, and over to the edge of the roof.

Wide, unblinking eyes stared down at the street.

The Children were gone. Whisper was displeased by this; they were all valuable subjects from Beyond. Even in pieces, their remains could be made to Serve. Willing it so, Whisper's human thrall stumbled off the edge of the building, hitting the street with a sick crunch as the legs snapped. It was inconvenient, but ultimately irrelevant. Swiveling the head around, he saw one of them. It was the girl-child who had ejected it from its thralls earlier. She was with the male-child, the leader of this group that it had planned to make use of.

"Help me," it commanded the thrall to speak. "Help me please."

THE OTHERS eyes searched nearby WHERE WERE THE OTHERS THE INJURED THE WEAK WHERE

It had seen them, marked them, only a little time ago. Yet now they were being hidden, concealed. It did not need to see a target to launch an attack; it did not even need a proxy to spot one. All it needed was a general location and a pre-existing brainwave pattern. The disappearance of the wounded ones was… displeasing. It was more reluctant to use one of their few blaster bombs against a mere two targets. Closer. It would have to get closer and seize control of the male.

"Help me," it had the thrall plead and stumble towards the pair. "It hurts… she did this to me…"

…

Ryouga spun at the sound of the voice. It only took him a moment to spot the horribly injured woman stumbling towards them. Instantly, he began to move forward to help her-

When an arm crossed his chest.

He looked down in surprise to see Raven, of all people, holding him back. "Raven?"

The violet haired Titan gestured to the woman, while fixing him with a serious expression.

"Ryouga, be careful. Look at her nose, her ears, her injuries. Look at her _legs_. Could a normal human possibly walk on two broken legs? I think she's being used as a proxy."

"What?" he responded sharply. "W-what do we do?"

Rather than answer him, the young woman turned to fire a heated glare at the stumbling woman. She then lifted her arm, showing the psi amp clearly as it hummed to life. A moment later, a dark aura of psionic energy began to gather around Raven, creating a most disturbing sight.

"I know you can hear me, monster," the dark Titan hissed. "Get **out** of her before I come in to **throw** you out."

Ryouga wondered what she planned to do, when, suddenly, she whispered out of the corner of her mouth, only loud enough for him to hear. "Get ready to move ..."

"I am the only thing keeping this meat alive," the woman spoke, the words turning dark and distorted. "We Know You. You came with the _Traveler_."

"Keeping her alive? You're the thing _killing_ her, monster. And don't think that knowing where I come from means you know _anything_ about me." Raven's eyes narrowed. "Unless you want me to demonstrate what psychics from _my_ world are capable of, I suggest you get out of that woman, **now**."

For a few seconds, the crippled woman simply stood, watching them.

Then, the Ethereal forced a warped, crooked smile to her face. Now was not the time. But soon…

As it left, the woman's body crumpled like a paper doll; only Ryouga's speed kept her head from hitting the ground. There were no parting words or taunts. Only the image of that smile – an alien facsimile of an emotion it could not truly feel or express.

Raven let out a sigh of relief. She couldn't believe that her bluff had worked. Moving quickly, she joined Ryouga and swept her hand over the woman's head. She couldn't sense any alien presence there now, so that, at least, was something.

Ryouga tapped his earpiece. "Nabiki, we're going to need an emergency evacuation ... thing. We've had definite contact with an Ethereal and we've got a wounded civilian it was using for a proxy."

"I – I can't send anything into the area with the threat of blaster bombs," the coordinator responded, after taking a second to check. "If you need evac on someone, you'll need to get them to a safer location away from that part of the city."

Ryouga looked frantically from Raven to the injured woman. "She's in rough shape, Nabiki. I doubt she'd survive me picking her up, much less running her through a battlefield."

Tentatively, Raven hovered her hand over the woman's abdomen - an instant later, she pulled it back, hissing painfully as she clutched her hand to her chest. "It - it really is bad. The Ethereal wasn't lying ... this is far beyond my ability to heal ..."

"Damn," Ryouga cursed under his breath. "Damn! We can't leave her here, but we can't get her out... Nabiki... what - what do we do? What _can_ we do?"

"I'm sorry," the words were almost unheard of coming from the Nabiki they knew, much less for them to be genuine. This one said it, and meant it. "I can't make that call. The closest I can get an evac is about a quarter kilometer to the south in one of the clear areas. You're in a red zone, now, though. Splitting up your team may not be safe, and you have a mission…"

She hesitated, wondering for a moment if it was right to say more.

"I could tell you what I think my Ryouga would do, but…" She also knew it may not be something he would need to or want to hear. "It's up to you, Hibiki."

Nabiki's words steeled Ryouga's resolve with cruel efficiency. He **did** know what her Ryouga would do. There was no way he would ever let himself fall that far... no matter what the cost...

He turned to Raven, his face growing graver by the second. They couldn't go back; nor could they stay where they were, so there was only one direction to take.

"Raven, I-"

"I already know what you're going to ask, Ryouga. I can't heal her, but as long as I maintain contact with her, I can at least stabilize her." He could see, just by the look on her face, that the prospect of keeping the woman alive would be an agonizing experience for her, but she was no more willing to sacrifice one life to save another than he was. He wanted to ask if she would be alright, or if she was certain that she wanted to do it ... but both were moot questions.

Instead, he tapped his comm link.

"Cyborg, Starfire, Jinx," he began. "Find a secure location and signal me to meet you there. We have a wounded civilian and can't get evac as long as that Ethereal is tossing around Blaster Bombs."

"What are you planning?" came Starfire's concerned reply.

"Simple," Ryouga stated sharply. "We take out the person with the Blaster Bomb, end of story."

"Sounds good to me. Let's make this a two for one and get the damn thing's brain while we're at it." The vindictive tone in Jinx's voice struck a chord with Ryouga, and he was doubly glad she was along now. At the very least, it was a guilty pleasure at knowing that they had someone along that was willing to take that final step that no one else on his team was really comfortable with yet.

"Alright, Ryouga, I'm prepared to begin," Raven stated. She was leaning over the injured civilian, breathing deeply as she moved her hand over her patient, her palm hovering several inches above the woman.

Ryouga nodded. "Alright. This is going to be embarrassing, but we need to move."

As gently as possible, he picked up the woman and cradled her in the crook of his left arm. Raven then climbed onto his back, and he reached around with his other arm to hold her in place. Raven then, after taking another long breath, placed her hand on the woman's shoulder. Even as she winced in pain, the civilian's breathing began to ease.

Once he was sure they were secure, he quickly yet carefully moved out of the street and into cover, waiting for Starfire to contact him. He also asked Nabiki for any information about backtracking the source of the blaster bomb attack from before. XCOM had 'active counter battery' procedures, whereby they immediately blaster bombed any source of a BB attack they could pinpoint. Likewise, the aliens hit any Blaster Bomb or Fusion Ball armed HWP or power armored soldier they could locate. As a result, both groups kept their mobile artillery groups moving or well hidden.

According to Nabiki, it was likely that the alien that fired the blaster bomb at them before was now within a warren of smashed buildings and burning rubble. The chance of it still being alive, and having survived the XCOM retaliatory strike, were both fairly high. Meeting up with Starfire, Jinx and Cyborg, Ryouga assessed the situation. They were down to three mobile units – to use the local parlance – and Cyborg was still making field repairs to his right leg. That left Star and Jinx as their main means of attack, and both were vulnerable to psi-attack.

They couldn't afford to walk into another ambush like before.

Bringing out a sheet of paper-thin folded metal, he cleared a nearby restaurant table and connected it up to his motion sensor and mission scanner. It only took a moment, and a little help from Nabiki, to get it to project a real time map of the area into the unfolded metal sheet. Light projected out from the featureless exotic alloy surface, forming a three-dimensional battlefield map.

The area with the crashed UFO was to their northwest, and between them and it they could see a tangle of smashed structures. It would be treacherous crossing, and there was no way it would be undefended. Nabiki highlighted points on nearby buildings that were likely to house alien defenders and snipers. There was a short ditch dug into the street where it had crashed, and that avenue of approach was also highly dangerous.

Ranma and Juliet were already making speed from the west, and the map showed where they had engaged enemy units in a series of quick raiding duels. A knot of Chryssalids and infected had been pulled in from further north, and Juliet had fallen back to draw them into a massive kill zone. There were at least four additional plasma armed aliens overseeing the fight, and one more coordinating psionic attacks. Linking up with Juliet and making the push together was an option.

They could also head further east and try to get around the two obvious approaches – the rubble and the scarred street – and then go north up to either a hospital or fire station. They could then come around and attack through the vulnerable northeast, which had plenty of low level cover: mostly small, three story buildings, with no alleys. They could move through them all the way up to the UFO.

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air as the Titan's stared back and forth between each other. Ryouga knew that, as much as the original Titans hated to think it, Jinx had a perfectly logical point. It was too painful to contemplate. How could he be asked to make a decision like this?

"Damnit," he muttered to himself. "There's nothing for it."

Looking up, he gestured to Cyborg, Starfire and Jinx. "You three, meet up with Ranma's squad. They'll be able to help you against psionic attacks. Raven and I are going to retreat to a safe distance and wait for an evac."

"_What_?" Jinx's voice was the most piercing, though hardly the only one to shout out.

"You're gonna try and make it outta here on foot, with two people that are gonna be all but incapacitated?" Cyborg asked in disbelief. "And what happens if someone spots you and tries to take you out?"

"I can still move faster than any alien on foot, and I still have my umbrella," Ryouga responded carefully. "I just need to get to a safe zone. It shouldn't take too long. We can meet up with you guys once we're done."

"Um, how about no?" Moving to stand right before him, Jinx jammed a finger right into his chest. "I'm not going to let you get yourself killed just so you can play hero. That's what these idiots do, not us."

Sighing, Ryouga dropped a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. "You know, this isn't the argument I was expecting. _You three_ are being sent into the greatest danger, and yet you're worried about _us_?"

The pink haired sorceress glared up at him hotly for a moment, before finally breaking off her stare and letting out a disgusted huff. "I'm not worried about _her_, just you ... Damnit, why did you have to go all stupidly noble on me?"

"I guess I've just been hanging out with the wrong crowd too long. Now, we need to head out as soon as possible. Can I count on you to keep those two alive until we get back?"

The young woman's back went ramrod straight as she stared at the map of the city.

"...No, you can't," Jinx replied, and pointed at Cyborg and Starfire. "In fact, I'm going to keep them as my hostages until you get back. If you do anything stupid, like get yourself hurt, then I can't guarantee their safety. Do you understand?"

Ryouga ignored the confused/amused looks that crossed Cyborg and Starfire's faces as they bore witness to the odd arrangement that was being worked out before them.

"Alright," he agreed. "You have a deal. Just so you know, though, you have to treat your hostages well until you know I reneged on our deal."

"Feh, fine." Jinx waved her hand dismissively over her shoulder. "I won't let anyone blast them but me. You'd better go now, though, before I regain my sanity and stop this stupidity right now."

Smiling sadly, Ryouga nodded, and then moved over to Raven. The young woman was breathing heavily now, a thick sheen of sweat on her forehead as she tended to the injured civilian. "Are you ready to move, Raven?"

It took several long moments for her to gather her wits before she could respond. "... Yes ... just - just don't jostle us too much."

Ryouga nodded, carefully picking the pair up again. "I'll do my best."

He then turned to the rest of the Titans.

"Alright, everyone. Move out!"

* * *

"Let's finish this off! Shampoo!"

"In position!" The Chinese girl crested the top of a building to land hard at the edge of the roof. In both hands, she held a heavy TA-8A1 ATLP (Advanced Tactical Laser Platform). The twenty-three pound weapon was as light as a feather in the Amazon's hands, and the strap connecting it to her shoulder and backpack harness went taut as she ranged down on the enemy below.

A rush of prickly ozone erupted from the end of the blocky weapon and a beam of infrared light - 10.9 micrometers in wavelength, with a duration of 0.3 seconds – struck its target at c. The beam went past an infected civilian and a half emerged juvenile Chryssalid before burying into the torso of a Snakeman.

The effect was instantaneous: Flesh parted and peeled away from the beam of light, as shockwaves rippled through internal organs. Superheated gas and partly incinerated material, once blood and tissue, spread heat and destruction beyond the incidence point. The beam punched clean through the alien and into the street beyond, slicing a telephone pole in half. The beam then dragged upwards, finishing the job by incinerating a third of the upper body.

"Ukyou!"

"Already on it!" Juliet Squad's demolitions specialist hunkered behind the flat of her battle spatula. Two Chryssalids, the source of the current infestation, were surging towards her, vaulting over cover. They ran into the wall of the trap, and the reason why the squad had momentarily fallen back. Tripping proximity and land mines, a thunderous explosion reduced the two creatures to bloody gibs of still twitching flesh. A torn off arm, the claws still twitching, bounced off the flat of Uykou's spatula, and she side stepped the rest of the bloody debris.

"Now!" Ranma yelled, jumping out from behind her. He held out his hands, swirling winds already running up and down, from his wrists to his elbows and out the back. A crackle of electricity ran out the back, and the winds suddenly surged, knocking a parked car onto its side.

"Double Hiryu Hyou Töppa!"  
(Double Flying Dragon Ice Breakthrough)

The freezing tornados arced out, first into the front ranks of infected, and then up and into their primary targets. The front face of a MacDonalds froze solid, as did the living creatures in the wake of the twin rising dragons. Two fast forms shot out, crisscrossing as they flew upwards and away from the doomed cover – now unable to provide any real protection. The ice tornados gave chase, not simply freezing what they hit, but shattering it with brutal three hundred mile per hour winds. One of the speeding forms got caught, in a brief flash of orange, quickly shredded into bloody confetti.

"Damnit!" Ranma cursed, as the last one escaped, swooping into a darkened space between buildings. Another flash of light, and one of the newly hatched Chryssalids vanished above what passed for the neck. The decapitated body continued to run, spindly legs churning, before hitting another land mine. It exploded in a spray of parts, and so did the first of the running – charging – zombies.

"Füjin Seikyü Senpu."  
(Heartless Bill Whirlwind)

Amid the conflagration, with mines exploding to the front and flanks of the advancing group of infected, hundreds of paper notes fell from the sky, exploding out of a thrown smoke bomb. Red smoke marked the location as off limits, and then the storm of paper accelerated, kicked up by winds and into the reeling zombies. Dozens of the notes stuck to the flesh of the infected, even as the Chryssalids within tried to regroup for another charge, counting on their durability and the fleshy husks of their hosts to punch through the claymores and anti-tank mines.

"Konatsu Andon."  
(Konatsu Paper Lantern)

The street became a backdraft.

Air rushed in amid the incendiary explosions as white phosphorus and thermite cooked to a toasty 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Particles of iron, embedded within the notes, melted into murderous droplets that burned clean through infected skin, muscle and bone, and into alien carapace below. The Chryssalids within, most still semi-mature, screamed and tried to escape the burning prisons as they died. It was a picture out of Dante's inferno.

And it wasn't over yet.

Juliet Squad advanced into the firestorm, this time with their plasma carbines. Shampoo continued her laser barrage from long range, and the rest of her team mercilessly gunned down anything that remained or tried to flee. A panicked Snakeman – a medic with a stun launcher, partnered to the Chryssalid pair as a handler – tried to make for a side street. A green bolt of plasma blew the lower half of its body away, the upper torso and arms spinning in midair, dead from shock before hitting the ground.

"Tango down!" Ukyou announced, advancing at the front. "Clear!"

"Clear!" Shampoo seconded, still crouched at the edge of the roof. It had a commanding view of the battlefield below. Still, she quickly moved to a new position, wary of staying in one location too long.

"Looks good," Ranma replied, surveying the damage. "All Clear."

Like all of his squad, he wore the unisex UNETCO issue personal exotic alloy armor. All four had a gray and white urban camouflage, tinted to better match the night conditions. Their night vision HUDs all automatically filtered for the increased ambiance of the nearby fires. To an outside observer, the only way to tell the difference between them at a distance was their armament and personal affects, like Ukyou's battle spatula.

"Shampoo. Keep watch. Ukyou. Perimeter. Konatsu. Bring in Yankee."

"Yes, sir," the three echoed, moving to do their duty. Off mission, Juliet Squad was almost notoriously dysfunctional: Shampoo and Ukyou still fought like stray cats when they thought they could get away with it, or when they were off duty; Konatsu still cross dressed and was still almost painfully unsocial, and Ranma… well, he couldn't help it if _certain idiots_ were jealous of his awesomeness.

Still, on duty or during a mission, they had learned to work pretty damn well together.

Konatsu, Juliet Squad's scout, could see the three IFF blips representing Yankee Squad approaching. He sent a quick ping to let them know he was approaching, but didn't let go of his plasma carbine. The Titans were making their way up through another city storefront, this one less damaged than the rest. The male kunoichi got a return ping – _friendly_ – and set up at a safe spot at the foot of an office building. Seeing them in night vision, he flashed a signal light. A second later, another returned.

Konatsu relaxed a bit, but didn't quite know what to think when the three Titans came into view. They wore spare tac-vests… extremely light protection in terms of gear. One was an alien, the girl with the long red hair and strange skin tone, and another was some kind of half-man half-robot. He looked a tad smaller than a man in MARS armor, but parts of him gave off all too human heat on thermals. Compared to them, the pale girl with the crazy gravity defying hair was as normal as any customer of Ucchans, back in the day.

"Yankee Two, Three and Five?" he asked, noting they had just entered Juliet's team channel. Rachael was Juliet's Coordinator back at base. He momentarily wondered if she and Nabiki were butting heads over jurisdiction here.

"That's us, Juliet ... um, which Juliet are you again?" answered the mechanical man.

"Juliet Two, Konatsu." He bowed slightly in polite greeting, despite the strangeness of the situation. "Pleased to meet you. Please, follow me."

Motioning them to follow, he lead the trio through to the still burning ruins of the street – for those without NBC gear or air filters, the stench of burning meat was sudden and pungent, even if it had been familiar from before. The chemical smell, almost a sting, was far more prevalent. Many of the fires were impossible to put out conventionally. An explosion sounded as Ukyou detonated a landmine further back, down the street, making sure not to leave any active ordinance in their wake. Contrasting the fire, bits of ice drifted down from the frosted over side of the building down the way.

Another man, slightly taller, in personal armor approached the trio.

"Sir," Konatsu said, in greeting. "Yankee Squad."

The pink haired girl waved off handedly. "Yo, Lady Fingers. How are your girlfriends holding up?"

Jinx couldn't see it, but she could imagine the frown on his face.

"My _team_ is doing fine," he replied. "But we can play word games later. I've got a nest of Ethereals to clean out, and Command has sanctioned one for capture. I see each of you has a stun rod. Good. Ethereals are extremely resilient. You'll need to cause both shock and physical trauma to take one alive."

"Heh, well we got physical trauma in spades," Cyborg stated proudly. "You just keep them outta our heads and we can take it down for you."

Jinx smirked wickedly. "Just point the way. We already called dibs on our brain donor."

The third member of their team, who had been looking quite distracted and worried, finally joined the conversation, glancing at her companions reproachfully. "Please, friend Ranma, forgive my team mates. We are at your service, now. Please instruct us on how we might best work with your team."

It was, unfortunately, impossible to really judge expression with the armor he had on, but he nodded to her.

"Right now, I'm going to be using you mostly as a fast reserve," he explained. He pointed to Starfire. "Miss, you can still fly, right? I want you with Shampoo. The other two will stick by Ukyou. Konatsu and I will be point. Once we're near the UFO, I will designate an Ethereal for capture and send you all in while Konatsu and myself provide cover, understood?"

Starfire nodded quickly. "Your orders are understood."

With that, the Titans moved out. Using the IFF tracking, Starfire lifted into the air and sped towards Shampoo's position, while Cyborg and Jinx moved off to join Ukyou. Up on her perch, the Amazon sniper gave a friendly double-blink to signal her location. She started moving soon after, and Starfire adjusted to meet up.

"Yankee Two?" she asked, seeing Starfire land on the roof. Shampoo was still wielding the heavy laser easily, with the large weapon casually propped on top of her shoulder. Her full body covering, and unisex uniform, contrasted sharply with the Tamaranian's traditional fighting threads.

"I got a note from great grandmother about you," she added, still in comparatively perfect English. "She said to treat you like an Amazon sister. I'm glad Ranma sent you instead of that stupid pink-hair girl."

Despite herself, Starfire could not suppress the smirk that bloomed on her lips.

"I understand," she replied. "Aside from a select few people, Jinx can be quite ... harrowing to deal with." Giggling a bit, she then bowed slightly to the shorter girl. "It also warms my heart that your Great Grandmother would honor me so. I very much look forward to working with you on this most important mission."

Shampoo nodded, the expression visible and obvious despite her helmet.

"Do you need night gear?" she asked, tapping the side of her helmet and referring to the combined infrared thermal and night vision scopes the rest of Juliet had. Theirs were all connected right into their personal armor, but she did have a spare, just in case.

The alien girl shook her head. "Negative. My visual acuity is superior to humans, so the current lighting is sufficient. More importantly, though, it is ... unwise for me to use eye coverings of any sort. I will defer to you judgment, though, if you perceive threats that I do not."

"If you say so," Shampoo decided, a bit curious about that 'unwise to use eye coverings' remark. What? Did she shoot lightning out of her eyes or something?

"Ranma moves us very fast once we get going," she warned. "Stick close and cover me at short and medium ranges. Don't go out on your own when the enemy starts using mind tricks. We have to watch each other's back."

Her companion didn't offer up any arguments, or ask any questions. Instead, she simply nodded easily, not appearing at all worried about the prospect of being 'moved fast'. It was about that moment, that Shampoo realized that the alien girl didn't appear to be carrying **any** weapons beside the stun rod. ... Just how was this girl supposed to cover her again?

"Alright, ladies," Ranma's voice cut in. "Konatsu is beginning recon into Uniform 157. Shampoo, run support along the north. Ukyou, you're in reserve."

Juliet and Yankee squad advanced cautiously at first, but only until they left the general area of the previous firefight. They were one of Seiran's fast mobile teams, and they did so without wearing Powered Armor. They quickly accelerated, breaking apart and jumping at high speed through buildings or along walls. Yankee patched into their comms and kept up, though Cyborg had the hardest time of it. The damage to his leg, despite the field repair, meant that nimble martial arts speed running and jumping weren't exactly easy.

"Tango!" Shampoo sighted one of the enemies initially encountered by Konatsu. Keeping the visible component of the laser disabled, she crouched and took the shot. An alien on a rooftop flared with heat on her scope, the result of a successful hit, and the remains slumped noiselessly into the night.

One thing Yankee quickly saw was that Juliet squad, though capable of destruction, tended to operate swiftly and silently. Shampoo's laser made only a distant hiss as it fired, a result of displaced ionized air. Konatsu and Ranma, at point, killed silently. Ukyou, Cyborg and Jinx passed one Sectoid, its body burning like a campfire, but not with normal flame. Instead, a strange blue ki was pooled across its chest, burning down through the torso and leaving only blackened bone behind.

Point to point, they moved, fast and hard. Nabiki was also gone, for the moment, replaced by the much more terse woman named Rachael who coordinated for Juliet. There was almost no talking, aside from a few barks of "tango" or "clear" or "engaging" and occasionally a technique name. They were getting close to the UFO when Ranma called a halt.

"Muton scout," he reported. "Marking. Do you see him?"

Shampoo, the obvious target of the question, had taken up a position inside the third floor of a building. Starfire was close behind. Mutons were annoying – they didn't have strong thermals due to their insulated organic armor and at low light, they could be hard to spot… despite being the size of body builder and forest green.

"There," Starfire whispered, leaning in and pointing. Across the street, Shampoo could see one at the corner of a rubble strewn street, crouched low and using a car as cover. That was one, but where was the one Ranma had pinged? Eyes darting behind her helmet visor, Shampoo finally saw the other Muton soldier, this one on a nearby roof to her extreme left. It was also crouched low and watching for intruders.

"Two Tangos sighted," Shampoo announced. "One on the roof nearby, one on the street, sixty meters away. I can't engage the one on the roof from here."

A moment, then Ranma came up with an order.

"Take them both. Yankee Two, can you take the one on the roof?"

Starfire nodded, eager to get back into action. "I can deal with this 'Muton' with ease. Simply provide me with the commencement signal."

"Go in ten," Ranma ordered.

Shampoo steadied herself, taking careful aim and pushing back an office table behind her to make room. The Muton appeared in her heavy laser's sight, but it would take a headshot to have a chance at a clean kill. The damn creatures were monstrously tough, and she had personally seen them take multiple heavy laser blasts to the chest and keep fighting. A headshot would, if it didn't kill, at least blind the alien. She took a deep breath, and waited for it to raise its head slightly and turn to look her way.

She took the shot.

The laser burned clean through the window, remaining on target and hitting the Muton in the left eye. A near Perfect Shot. It howled as the coherent beam of light flash fried both its eyes. The beam was unable to punch through the grafted organic armor that protected the skull, however, and even without functioning eyeballs it blindly opened fire on her position with its heavy plasma rifle. Shampoo quickly gambled in favor of staying in place, and took another shot, despite the blasts of fire and radiation ripping up the walls and side of the building nearby. Bits of burning debris bounced off her helmet, as she squeezed the trigger.

This time the beam hit the Muton's neck, and she raked it upwards, finally burning through part of the thing's face. It was another good shot, and she silently prayed as she watched down field… just as the beam expired, she saw something give, and with a spray of boiling blood, the Muton stumbled, holding its head. The laser had burned partly through the armor and skull and steam-fried its brains. Still, it was on its feet, stumbling back and forth. Shampoo tried to finish it with a third shot, but it was moving around too much, and she only hit the body, to minimal effect.

Cursing under her breath, she ran forward and crashed through what little was left of the window. Swapping out her heavy laser for her plasma carbine, she quickly advanced on the alien, opening up with semi-auto. One of the blasts mercifully hit its head, and the whole thing popped like an overripe melon. The headless body still kept firing, swinging its heavy plasma around, before the momentum sent it spinning a hundred degrees and then off its balance and down to the ground.

_'__Not the cleanest kill I've ever made,__'_ Shampoo thought, a little bitterly. She was back on the ground, and glanced back up at the roof where the other Muton would have been.

…

"And ten," Starfire counted to herself in a whisper.

A second later, she exploded from her perch, accelerating forward at speeds that would crush most unprotected humans. Only a glowing green contrail betrayed her passage as she tore through the air towards the alien enemy.

…

The Muton, born and bred for war, had spent its entire life on the battlefield. It had seen many spectacular things, though it lacked the faculties to actually care for such trivialities. As such, it was with a neutral expression that it responded when it saw a flash of green light in the darkness, quickly followed by a loud keening of something approaching its position at very high speed. First instinct told him that it was a Blaster Bomb, and that he should prepare for his end… But that proved not to be the case. Rather, the projectile heading his direction was not moving that fast… not to mention that it was humanoid and it appeared to have bright red hair. It had never seen the like before, but it reacted as it always had to the unknown. Moving with practiced ease, it lifted its plasma rifle -

Only to have it blasted off target by twin streams of emerald fire. The streams of raw energy swept up its arm and into its chest, slamming home with incredible kinetic force and picking it clean off the roof and sending it crashing into a concrete structure further back. The fragile building material cracked and crumbled to dust as it pulled itself from the rubble. Even with its toughened hide and armored suit, that blast - though low in temperature - had contained unbelievable blunt force. Of course, since pain and discomfort were not a factor in the life of a Muton soldier, it was not even slowed in the slightest as it moved across the roof to recover its dropped weapon...

The alien creature paused, taking wary note of the 'other' alien creature now standing between it and its rifle. Standing was, perhaps, not the best descriptor, as it floated several inches above the ground, almost like the Muton's Ethereal masters. This being, looking very much like a human female, though with different pigmentation, was at complete odds with anything it had ever been forced to learn about their human enemies. Minimal armor, no weapons; was it going to engage a Muton in close quarters combat?

The Mind intervened. Curious. Watching. Observant. Hungry.

The Muton needed to recover its weapon, and this female was in its path, so the conclusion was obvious. Charging forward, it reared back a massive fist and lashed out, planning to crush the foolish alien's skull in one strike-

Shock. Surprise. _Interest_.

Without any apparent effort, at all, the slim female - less than one third the Muton's size - lifted a small, orange hand and caught his fist, stopping it dead in an instant. An unpleasant sound of creaking bone filled the air an instant later when it felt the deceptively slim girl's grip tighten down on its fist in an unnatural manner. And then it was airborne - only to smash to the ground a second later on its back as the alien girl finished swinging him over her head like a rag doll. Lashing out with its free hand, it tried to break her hold, but she brushed his punch aside with casual effort, before tightening her hand into a quivering fist, lifting it high above her head.

And then the fist began to glow with a shimmering, plasmatic light.

"You will murder no more innocents this night, beast!"

The last thing that the Muton ever saw was the brilliantly glowing fist as it filled his field of vision.

...

The mind watched as its servant's vision went black, the trauma of the empowered attack killing it instantly. No matter. This Muton was lost, but that hardly mattered. When the eyes failed, it listened and felt. When the soldier died, the Mind withdrew and considered what it had experienced.

This... other alien... she was -

…

Starfire grimaced, looking down at her grim handiwork. She had caved the roof in completely in a single blow, and now only the Muton's legs were still visible - indicative of its spine being severed in several places by the force of her blow and the collapse of the roof folding it backwards - the rest of its body dangling down through the massive hole and pile of debris. Trace twitches of its legs would be the last movements it ever made.

"This is Yankee Two. I have neutralized the hostile."

Without waiting for a response, she got off the roof. The last thing they needed was for one of them to get spotted for a psionic attack, especially when separated. Even as she drifted down through the air, she could not contain a shudder as it rolled down her spine. Taking a moment to rub her shoulders, suddenly feeling frigid despite the raging inferno surrounding her, she could not help but think of what she had just done.

Not that she felt troubled by what she had done. In fact, it was all but the opposite. It had been so easy for her to unleash all of her hatred upon the alien monstrosity.

'_These Mutons… so similar to - to Gordanians…'_

A moment later, she joined Shampoo down on ground level and the two slipped under cover. Up ahead, through a break in the tightly packed building sprawl, they could see the upturned side of the crashed UFO.

"I don't see the entrance," Shampoo said, keeping her external speakers off. Starfire only heard it through the comm. In her ear. "The front is either underground or on the first level of the metro station."

"Typical. I'm not sending anyone down in the drains if I can help it," Ranma replied, giving an annoyed sigh. "Secure a position up ahead. I'm going to send Ukyou in. We'll try and breech the hull where it was weakened by the nuke. We'll probably take fire from the station, so be ready."

Shampoo motioned, and she and Starfire crossed the space between buildings. Kicking down a wall with ease, the Amazon led them into an adjacent structure. They emerged in a men's bathroom, the nearby urinals casting shadows like haunted faces. A soft buzz had Shampoo pull them up short.

"Stop," she ordered. "We're being mind probed."

The Chinese girl placed her hand on Starfire's shoulder.

"If you encounter an enemy, yell 'Curse.' My response will be 'Cat' and then your response will be 'Duck.'" She figured it was the easiest to remember in a pinch, given that they hadn't worked together before.

Starfire looked at her oddly for a moment.

"A-agreed ... are you certain it is wise to separate while under the threat of psionic attacks? I do not possess the training, nor the psi amp to properly defend myself if alone."

"Once they start messing with you, it no matter if you just stick together. Most important thing is to keep calm and not have friendly fire. Stick close but not too close."

The two girls advanced, Shampoo in the lead, out of the dark bathroom and into one of the empty hallways that made up this section of the metro. Starfire nodded when her partner motioned back, and they stuck close to the wall as they turned left, tracking away from the open area to the east. That was the large bus station, and a flurry of movement on the scanner indicated it was hot with enemies. There was a stair well behind them, leading up to the next floor.

They were nearly to it, when Starfire paused, hearing an electrical hum.

Glancing over at Shampoo, quickly, and then back down the corridor, she saw something lanky and green – not like the muscle bound Muton from before. This creature had a massive cranium, and distinct bone ridges framing the face. She recognized it instantly, and it momentarily chilled her blood.

A Psion.

Her hand started to glow, eyes wide with shock and fear and hate, when a solid force slammed into her side, nearly knocking the wind out of her in the surprised state she was in. She whirled on the abrupt attack, and caught Shampoo's wrist - only to stare at the warrior blankly, confusion stunning her immobile. The Amazon merely held her hand up to her face, and turned the palm so it faced the Tamaranian.

She blinked, glanced back down the hall, and saw the Psion still there… but indistinct. Illusionary. It was an image out of her own mind, ripped free to haunt her when awake. The creature, a dimension removed and lost in time, held up a familiar instrument before flashing white, and returning to oblivion.

Shampoo's gave the universal gesture for silence, and led them silently up the stairs.

Near the top of the stairs, the young Amazon checked her motion sensor and identified the position of another target. It was waiting around the corner. There was no easy way around, so she ordered Starfire to hold back to request a psionic attack. They didn't have a direct line of sight, so it took a few seconds for a dedicated psi-operative to detach part of his consciousness and send it into the Amazon. A small snake-cam extended from the girl's armor, near the wrist, finally getting visual. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough.

Starfire saw Shampoo make a fist, and motion forward.

The Muton up top was standing, weapon in the air. Starfire saw it nod as the two – Shampoo and the mind controlled alien – exchanged a security keyword. They continued forward towards a good vantage point looking out over the metro station's open terminal. Now, all they needed was the signal to move in.

…

That particular job fell to Konatsu – on the outside – and Ukyou's group nearing the parking lot and the exposed side of the crashed UFO. Ukyou kept her group low and quiet, not wanting to risk exposure to either a blaster bomb or psionic attack. She had Mousse's position in her squad, but none of the man's bottomless pockets. She may have had a martial artist's inhuman strength and endurance, but that didn't mean she enjoyed carrying numerous demolitions packs and other high explosives on a battlefield where high energy plasma was being tossed around.

Her group was soon at Shampoo and Starfire's former location, and she quickly retrieved two PAMs from behind her back, locked to the bottom of her backpack. These were "Demolition Munition, Concrete Penetrating, HE, M150" but more commonly just "Penetrating Augmented Munition (PAM)." Each one was a comparatively lightweight, man portable demolition device for Special Operations Forces, 33 inches long and weighing approximately 42 lbs. Ukyou was able to carry two as her limit. Individually, a PAM replaced 200lbs of C4, reducing a three man-hour demolitions job to two man-minutes. Against weakened UFO hulls, it had a better than 50 percent penetration rate.

The problem was, it couldn't effectively be thrown.

Luckily, that wasn't a problem for someone with her unique skill set.

"Say ... _Ukyou_ ... that's a mighty fine looking piece of explosive you got there. Need some help settin' that stuff up? It looks like fun," offered the cybernetic teen that followed in her tracks.

"Setting them up is easy. The trick will be getting it to the ship," she said, her external speakers garbling her whisper slightly, not used to dealing with soft or subtle sounds. She laid out the two PAMs, side by side. "We have about fifty meters to cover, and you can't throw these like a proximity mine."

"Why not?" he asked curiously.

"These use a shaped charge," she explained, patting the side of one of the PAMs. "I could knock out the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge with these two, but I need to get the charge flat against the hull of that ship."

She looked up at Cyborg and Jinx, seeing some confusion regarding her reference,

"It's like the Japanese Golden Gate Bridge, sugar," she said, adding, "You have one of those back home?"

"We got plenty of big bridges... but I think I get the idea," replied the young woman.

Cyborg, on the other hand, was scratching his chin, smiling to himself. "So, what's the problem with setting the charges? Don't think you can get close enough to the ship?"

"I'm sure I'm gonna get shot up as usual," she replied, and, satisfied the explosives were ready and synchronized, rested her hand on the hilt of her battle spatula. "Getting there and back out to a safe distance won't be pretty. I know you have that arm cannon thing, right? If you see a shooter, feel free to cover me and take a shot."

"You know, if you're worried about getting spotted, I could probably get those explosives set up for ya without gettin ya all shot up. All I'd need is minimal cover to get it done."

"Thanks for the offer sugar, but this is my job and my responsibility. It isn't like this is the first time I've had to do this," she responded, amiably declining. "Just keep 'em off my butt and watch out for that Ethereal you need."

"Everyone in position?" Ranma asked, pinging his location.

"Ready," Ukyou said, also pinging.

Shampoo, needing silence, replied with only an affirmative ping.

"Move in ten."

Ukyou mentally began the countdown, tensing her body with both PAMs under her left arm, her battle spatula in her right hand. A handful of smoke grenades fell, courtesy of Konatsu, followed by the other diversion. A massive explosion rocked part of the metro, followed by an incoming hailstorm of semi-automatic plasma fire. Sections of wall large enough to bicycle through vanished amid the nuclear fires; only a moment later, return fire stitched the air between the metro and an adjacent building. Some, more erratically, directed down into the smoke screen.

Ukyou charged, stepping into an _Akichi_ 'linear step' to cross the first of two open spaces she had identified amid the rubble. The move catapulted her a distance of over ten meters in one motion, but then she had to jump and dance amid the broken piles of rubble. Plasma fire rained down, blind-fire but still deadly. Raising her battle spatula in a practiced defense, she found herself slightly shocked when the incoming fire stopped.

"Booyah!" Cyborg's voice whooped. "Tough guy, huh? Have another!"

With the incoming fire decreased, aside from a plasma grenade her armor's early warning system detected – allowing her battle spatula to absorb the resulting blast wave about ten meters away – Ukyou found her job far easier. Gracefully moving through the broken rubble back into the parking lot, she made two more quick _Akichi_ steps, taking her under the UFO itself. The large scout had landed at an angle, and part of it was jutting clean out of the side of the metro, leaving a small trench in its wake across the road.

Deftly bringing both PAMs up and into one spot on the hull, Ukyou grinned behind her helmet. Up close, it definitely looked a little weakened, dark stress lines marring the smooth surface thanks to the nuclear air-to-air blast that had knocked it out of the sky. Jumping back, she stepped away and across to an overturned half-melted bus. A trio of plasma bolts came down, two of them gutting the large vehicle with plumes of molten metal. Ukyou evasively stepped away, across the flat parking lot, bouncing off the hood of a car and crushing the engine and hood beyond repair.

Running back, she finished her own personal countdown.

"Heads up!" she yelled. "Burn in three!"

Diving behind the rubble, she felt the ground shake and the smoke clear as a massive blast wave blew away the cover. Even though the directed explosives sent most of their energy inward, into the hull of the UFO, there was significant blowback to damage or destroy anything nearby. Glass windows shattered all around, raining invisible debris in the pitch darkness of the night.

"Target!" Jinx suddenly yelled into the comm.. "I see one! Second floor window, southeast side! Moving fast!"

"Position is blue," Ranma ordered. "Yankee, you are free to pursue. Ukyou can provide psionic support if you need it. Juliet will not be taking prisoners, so good hunting."

Cyborg lifted his arm, bringing up his comm. "Starfire, cut off its exit!" He then turned to Jinx. "Move in, fast and try to catch it. I'll come after you, fast as I can to back you up."

The pink haired girl nodded sharply and took off in a flash. Impressively, the moment she reached the building, she cleared the entire first story in a single leap and crashed through the shattered remains of a window before vanishing.

Overhead, a green and red blur flew past and an instant later, a hail of Starbolts began to rain down on the side of the building. Anything foolish enough to try to escape that way wouldn't enjoy the experience. As for himself, Cyborg simply barreled in through the front door of the ground floor and looked for the first staircase to get upstairs, blocking another possible route of escape. He pulled out the nasty looking stun rod he'd picked up from Nabiki's "Roaming Susan" and prepped it for use. He was looking forward to giving it a try...

He stopped several yards away from his goal, though, shock running through him...

Standing at the base of the stairs ... it was ... his mother?

_'Wha - wha...'_

What kinda chump did this Ethereal take him for? Closing his organic eye, his cybernetic systems took over instantly and his vision shifted completely to electronic means. The house and the staircase before him was tinted red, now, but, all importantly, there was no one standing at the bottom of the steps any longer.

Cyborg smirked to himself. "Can't fool a brain that's half machine, sucker."

With that, he charged up the stairs, Stun Rod crackling violently.

MEAT OR MACHINE IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE

Rebuffed by the tactic, Cyborg felt a telekinetic shock run through his systems. It was imprecise, probing, hitting circuits and then bouncing around. His eye twitched and the fingers in his left hand flexed. It moved swiftly through the peripheral systems, and it was obvious that it was telepathically searching for something systems-critical. He wondered if it was really trying to hack his systems somehow - even in pure-electronic mode, it was focusing more on his hardware than his software code. With the level of encryption he had, it would take the thing roughly… a million years to actually crack his systems. The real threat was it telekinetically ripping out something important. He had already heard about that sort of ability. Luckily, he had a few tricks up his sleeve as well, and he didn't feel like giving a damned creepy alien free run in his brain forever.

A rapid reboot shifted his thoughts back to the organic half, resetting all his cybernetic systems. The sudden shock kicked the psionic invader out of his body… but the experience itself wasn't exactly pleasant. His organic mind fatigued much more quickly than his artificial components, and could only take a fraction of the computational stresses. The result, quite literally, was about ten times worse than brain freeze.

Then, it was … gone?

**AWAY**

With a crash, a section of the second floor of the building fell inwards. Smoke barreled out of a nearby staircase, followed briefly by a tumbling pink and black form. Jinx bounced off the floor, followed a moment later by a floating creature in titian robes. Seeing a golden opportunity, Cyborg raced towards the Ethereal, and saw it throw up its hands as he got closer.

Cursing inwardly, he turned at the last second and fired a low level sonic blast at the prone Jinx instead of the floating Ethereal. The girl's body rippled, her head curiously tilted, and the blast parted down the middle, hitting to her left and right. A high pitched screech shook the walls of the room, and an instant later, the plaster and wallpaper caught fire. Cyborg's brain freeze returned, as the alien left his mind and body, for real this time. All at once, the prone form of 'Jinx' on the floor transformed into the repulsive shape of an emaciated husk in a cape, even as the emaciated husk in the robes floating down the stairs morphed back into the familiar countenance of Starfire.

**AWAY**

The command, the compulsion, tried to hit the two Titans… and barely budged either.

NO **AWAY** YOU CAN NOT FIGHT ME

Starfire had disarmed the Ethereal just moments before, leaving it without a weapon. Instead, it leveled its glare at the one who had already harmed it and taken away its most powerful defense. It knew, from the weapons in the Titans hands, that they were out to capture it. That left it with options.

A ripple of mental energy, a _giestlance_, erupted from the corpse-like Ethereal. This was a pure telekinetic attack, and it split and branched into the two Titans' weapons and hands. Plastic bubbled and metal peeled. Electronics fried and hardened shock-resistant batteries exploded from the inside, spraying acid among the remains as both of their stun rods spontaneously detonated. Cyborg's hand, too, peeled and tore, but to a far lesser extent than the unfortunate implement he had been holding. Starfire, feeling the attack, let go of her stun rod and flinched away, leaving only the back of her hand partly mauled.

The Ethereal, nearing the end of its reserves, could feel the confusion and shock in its enemies. They had not been expecting that attack, and in their momentary hesitation, it retrieved a large black and green double ball – a plasma grenade. It had to escape. _Destroy these other-world creatures and escape. _While capable, it was not a telekinetic specialist. Whisper preferred to rely on telepathy, not brute force. It knew it needed space, some time... a proxy to -

It felt a spike of energy… above!

A flash of pink took off its hand before it could throw the grenade. An electric shock, calibrated and designed to disrupt the nerves, lanced up its arm from the stump.

NO AWAY **AWAY**

A desperate telekinetic blast slammed into the new attacker, shearing away pink energy into the ceiling and the floor. A petite human, one who possibly weighed as little as the emaciated Ethereal itself, stood against the hemispherical blast of air. Jinx's hexes protected her, partly warding against the sudden counter attack. Her hair blasted back, frizzing up, having long since been blasted out of its usual style.

AWAY

The Ethereal tried again, but the force merely lifted the girl off her feet, where she landed soundly a few yards back.

It felt nothing from the missing hand. Wounds were meaningless. Its body was a telekinetically animated husk, nothing more than a mere armature. It worried only for its brain. It had no blaster bomb launcher, no plasma rifle, and now no plasma grenade. It did not panic… but it felt apprehension. Those who Served were dying all around the crash. They would not be able to repair it in time.

The Mind had demanded that they guard the crashed ship while the engineers made repairs. Their lives were forfeit in this. Ethereals did not know Death, for all existed and were reborn within the Mind. Failure, however, was something they would carry with them into eternity. The Mind never forgot. The Ethereal's peers never forgot.

THE SHIP HAS BEEN LOST

The psionic signal rippled out into the minds of the surviving aliens.

The small bodied human made another lunge for it while its friends circled behind, cutting off the way back. She managed to duck under the Ethereal's arm, but rather than try and use her stun rod against its robe, the girl came up and brought it around and down into the alien's exposed neck, just above the collar.

Disruption.

It felt the link between its mind and body flood with uncontrolled impulses. Savagely, it tried to escape and throw her off. Jinx's eyes widened as a withered hand seized her by the hair behind her ear, tears bursting free as she held on for dear life. For her friend's life.

YOU WILL KNOW PAIN

AND DESPAIR

YOU WILL SERVE

SUBMIT

**SUBMIT**

**S -**

Its mental command was cut off mid-thought as a pair of concussive lances of emerald energy slammed into its back, staggering it forward. A second later, it felt its physical shell restrained. Looking down, it saw a length of high tensile cable wrapped around its torso, a blackened metallic and disembodied hand clamping down on the wire and holding it in place like a vice.

"You like wrecking my batteries? Try _this_ for size!"

The Ethereal spun, just in time to see the metallic creature pull out a handful of frayed and sparking wires from his _geistlanced_ arm - and then jam them fiercely into the cable holding it! Electricity wracked its body, disrupting the electrochemical stimuli of its brain and causing the withered husk of its body to begin to smoke worryingly. It would not die so easily, though. As soon as the shock ended, as soon as it could regain its concentration, it would -

In a blur, the pink haired female was in front of it again. The tiny human made no pretense of acrobatics this time. Tears of rage fresh in her eyes, she reared back rammed the Stun rod right into its chin with enough force to crack bone.

NO YOU will SUFFER FOR this you YOU will

And then, finally, it succumbed.

SUFFER

...

Panting heavily, Jinx retrieved her stun rod and took a few steps back as the Ethereal collapsed to the ground. A moment later, it stopped shuddering as Cyborg finally cut the power to the cable. The cybernetic teen's entire body was smoking slightly now as well, but he was far more shielded against electrical attacks than the unfortunate Ethereal was.

He looked like a hell of a mess, though.

"You look like a hell of a mess, you know?" Jinx muttered, still breathing heavily.

"Hey, considering the afro you're sporting, you shouldn't say too much, Pinky," he shot back. There was no animosity in his voice, though, just the gentle ribbing of a friend.

Still nursing her hand, Starfire approached and nudged the Ethereal with her toe.

"It is ... unconscious?" she asked, unsure. "Its body is so emaciated that I am unable to ascertain its condition."

Jinx shrugged. "Only one way to find out." She tapped her commlink. "Operator, we have a downed Ethereal. We're pretty sure it's not dead, but we're gonna need someone to help us get it out of here, ASAP."

"Bring it out here," Ranma answered. "Apparently none of you guys have a suppressor on you. Luckily, I've got a spare. The UFO and the area are clear."

Emerging from the building, the Ethereal over Cyborg's shoulder, the three Titans saw Ranma – it simply _had_ to be him – standing on the top of the tilted crashed saucer, his arms crossed. Shampoo was on the roof of the metro station, looking around, but not apparently worried. Ukyou and Konatsu were both near the entrance of the ship, the former limping slightly and leaning on the latter.

Placing a white flare and BUDD signal light on top of the ship, he hopped down.

"Well, would'ya look at that?" he asked, taking a metal strip out of one of his belt pockets. "You guys actually did it. Nice work."

Jinx shrugged, cockily. "Well, considering we had Juliet hanging like a millstone around our necks, yeah, we kicked that Ethereal's butt pretty good."

"Jinx! Please do not be so rude to our friends," Starfire lectured her teammate sternly.

"Aw, chill, Star. We're all friends here," Cyborg intervened. "Still, that fight was a bit crazy. I don't think I wanna deal with that psionic nonsense no more."

He held up his blackened hand and worked the fingers in jerky, uncoordinated movements. "Looks like I'm gonna need to take some time to fix myself up a bit, too."

"Hey! You weren't supposed to get hurt!" Jinx's annoyed bark was quite amusing. A moment later, she stormed over and grabbed his hand forcefully. "Geez, you tool, I told Ryouga that I'd keep you guys safe until he got back. Are you trying to make me look bad?"

"Giestlance, huh?" Ranma guessed, shrugging as he walked. "Yeah, those can hurt. Pig boy took a big one to the gut a few months back, and you can still see the outline. I got one on the arm… hurt like a bitch. Battle aura helps, though." He then added, "And pinky, remind me to bake you some humble pie when we get back to base. Your attitude kinda pisses me off."

"I wonder why that is, Saotome-taichou?" Konatsu asked, trying to sound innocent, Ukyou in tow. The chef was silent, but obviously listening in.

To his annoyance, rather than tremble, Jinx burst into laughter. "As if you even _know _the recipe for humble pie! That'd be like going to Ryouga for Hibiki brand GPS systems!"

Doing her best to stifle the flood of giggles escaping from her thin frame, Jinx shook her head helplessly. "Oh - oh man, that had to be the most ironic thing I've ever heard-" More quiet laugher ensued. "-No - no, I'm sorry! I'm done, I promise! No more laughing, I promise!"

Jinx quickly donned a perfectly straight expression, staring back at Ranma seriously...

For about five seconds before she dissolved into laughter again. Finally, she was forced to retreat behind Cyborg until she could get her guffaws under control.

The cybernetic teen looked on, a bit amused. "Well... with all due respect, Liutennant... you gotta admit that that was pretty funny."

"Hmf!" Ranma growled, and gestured for Cyborg to drop the Ethereal onto the ground. "You guys are confusing cockiness with _greatness_. I'd be hard pressed to overestimate MY abilities!"

"Ranma," Ukyou finally said, conspicuously not using 'Ran-chan' while on duty. "You're digging yourself in deeper, sir."

"Ah, I'm just having a little fun, so sue me," he remarked, kneeling down to snap the suppressor on the Ethereal's temple. The metal locked in place, binding to the creature's skin. Its body would rapidly start to deteriorate with its powers shut off like this, but it was the safest way to keep it ready for transport. As long as the brain kept alive, they were good to go.

"Anyway, you got the job done, so I'll give you some serious props for that. Can't say I personally agree with what yer doing, though. I didn't get to talk much to the girl back at the mobile base, but the Akari I knew was a good person…and a friend. I can't imagine what she's been through, but I don't think she deserves to have _that thing_," he pointed at the Ethereal with two fingers. "Put into her head."

Starfire stared at him curiously. "You would have her die, then? Without even giving her a chance to discover if there will be deleterious effects or not? Is not even the slim chance that she will recover fully enough to justify at least making the attempt to save her?"

Cyborg nodded, wearing a serious expression now.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I know you probably might not have considered it, but **I** know what Akari is going through. I was in the exact same position she was, worrying that getting so much stuff jammed in my head would destroy my humanity. It was a very real possibility that I could have been reduced to nothing more than a computer ... but if I'd just let the fear of that happening hold me back, then I wouldn't be here now. I woulda died on a table, just because I was too scared to even face the _chance_ that I might not survive as who I am."

Finally coming back from behind Cyborg, Jinx graced Ranma with a disdainful glance.

"I guess you're more like your Ryouga than I thought," she said, a little hurt and angry given that fact. "I don't know about you, but in the time I spent with her, I actually got to _like_ Akari. I'd at least like to give her a shot at living, rather than shoot her in the head before even trying. What's it even matter to you? If it works, great, if not, you just kill her, anyway. Shouldn't be too hard for you guys, considering you seem so willing to let her die even while she's still herself."

Ranma tilted his head slight, his expression hidden behind his mask.

"You think you do. I don't think you guys really get what this situation is. You think any of us would give up on a friend lightly?" he asked, and looked away. "This ain't some miracle cure, an' maybe it works or maybe it won't. It'll be ugly. Mark my words."

"Saotome-taichou," Konatsu said, and coughed, reminding him they were all being recorded.

Ranma nodded, getting the point. Despite some temptation to do what Ryouga did, he knew better. There was no turning back now, and Commander Yasuda would be beyond-angry if both of her 'special' new martial arts squads went rogue and disobeyed orders. He had a greater responsibility, as disgusting as it was at the moment. Glancing back at the Titans, he could guess what they were thinking. Really, they had no idea.

Muttering a silent apology, he signaled Command.

"We have pickup. Juliet will secure the site and await orders."

"EVAC is incoming, Juliet-One," Rachael, their coordinator, responded over all comms. "Looks like they want that Ethereal onboard for rapid transport."

"Right," he agreed, cloaking his bitterness. Holding back like this was tough for someone with his natural inclinations. Unfortunately, despite being in command here, it was out of his hands.

Turning away from the members of Juliet squadron, barely able to keep herself from ranting further at the heartless soldiers, Jinx tapped her commlink a bit harder than necessary.

"Operator, do you have Yankee One's status? Is he alright?"

"He's at the evacuation point. They arrived without complication…"

"And the civilian?"

"Unknown. City wide jamming is still in effect, and that includes trauma centers and vehicles like ambulances."

There was a rush of displaced air, and the back of the Avenger appeared overhead. The inertialess drive allowed it to literally stop on a dime within arm's reach. For safety's sake, the pilot kept a minimum distance from personnel, gravity induction or not. The back opened, and two men in MARS powered armor jumped down.

"Sir," Ranma said, standing at attention.

"Good job, Lieutenant," one of the powered armored officers replied, and turned to the Titans. "And you as well. We're taking this to the mobile base immediately."

"Sir, Konatsu detected something unusual about this UFO. The Elerium drive is intact, but the engine room… looks weird," Ranma struggled to describe it more accurately. "I don't know how to put it, exactly."

The officer stared at him, then switched over to a restricted comm..

Ranma listened, and nodded.

"Yes, sir," he replied.

"Let's go," the officer said, turning and taking off for the still hovering Avenger. His companion followed close behind, carrying the bound and subdued Ethereal. Watching the ship suddenly accelerate, vanishing into a speck in the distance, Ranma couldn't help but feel a knot of worry that he had done the wrong thing. Ryouga had already made his stance clear, and so had Yankee Squad. Since leaving the mobile base, he'd thought about what he would have done if Akane were in Akari's position now.

Naturally, he would want to save her. The memories of Jusendo were still fresh, of holding her shriveled form in his hands, and then later, crying her name when, after defeating Saffron and flooding Jyusenkyou, she hadn't even taken a breath in her revived state. There was hope then, but now…? It was darkly ironic, but he didn't have any. He had seen too much of what the aliens wrought to think there was some miracle cure for those Trenchards and hybrids in their thrall. The ruthless part of himself knew that the organization considered 'saving the Trenchard' to have a very different practical outcome than he – or the Titans - would have wanted.

Living, functional Human-Ethereal hybrids were rarer than captured Ethereals, after all.

Then there was this ship. According to Command, it was one of a squadron of UFOs… some of which had disappeared into some sort of dimensional vortex. Intel believed there was some sort of unusual FTL drive aboard. Ranma couldn't help but wonder if this had anything to do with the Titans, themselves dimensionally-displaced. The timing simply couldn't be a coincidence. Again: Akari would know more, especially after the procedure unlocked more of her access to the information downloaded into her by greater alien mind. For the time being, though, he had orders to keep anyone and everyone out of the UFO.

Including Yankee Squad.

In fact, unless Ranma misunderstood, _especially_ Yankee Squad.

The Saotome heir looked up at the cloudless night sky. It had been a long night, and even though the terror site was nearly completely stamped out, it wasn't quite over yet. Gods, how he suddenly felt the urge to want to hold to Akane and ask what he should do… not that he would ever say as much, since that annoying, uncute, _tsundere_ tomboy gave worse advice than a magic 8-ball, but this was one of those long, rough days when it felt good, at the end of it all, to be able to be close to another human being. If only for a few hours.

"Huh," he mused to himself. _'__I think I__'__m getting a little soft…__'_

And even a mile away, he could feel Ryouga's - the native one's - battle aura. It was hard to tell, but it felt like he was using _that_ set of techniques. For now, all that depression and hate was directed solely at the alien enemy. Where it belonged, frankly. That wouldn't be the case when this mission was over and when they had to return to base. Who knew what would happen then?

* * *

After another brutal hour, it was finally over.

The Operation, including the terror site and the multiple interceptions nearby, and the capture of numerous alien sympathizers and related evidence, was cumulatively designated _EO-368 Black Tiger._ It was officially concluded at 02:20 hours, local time.

The capture of the expanded-dimensional-contact FTL device was kept off the general record. For those with top level clearance, it was separately designated:

_XO-039 Operation Assyrian_


	13. Fallout 2

**A/N**  
_Some slight reservations about this chapter. Mostly because a few scenes involve stuff neither Lathis nor I have written much about before. Lots of little 11th hour revisions, too. Hopefully things are alright. The hour is upon us! The Chapter must be posted! Ai! Ai!_

* * *

x

* * *

An accident at STAR Labs has hurled half the Teen Titans roster across the multiversal barrier and onto a strange world with no metas, no superheroes and no supervillians. There, the UNETCO organization, also known as X-COM, fights against an insidious and merciless alien enemy. The dimensionally displaced Teen Titans have finally been reunited. Determined not to sit on the sidelines, the four young men and women: Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and their universe's Ryouga Hibiki have been brought together into a special 'embedded observer' team designated CT:Yankee.

Displaced in the Russian Far East, far from any of the other Titans, Jinx had the misfortune of falling into the hands of the alien Visitors. Yet when one of the alien-human hybrids became hexxed by her power, damage to its brain tissue disconnected it from the Cydonian Mind and allowed it to remember who it had once been: Akari Unryu. Together, the two unlikely allies escaped into the forest and made for civilization, forging a close friendship during the difficult trek to safety. However, the same power that freed Akari was also killing her, and together with wounds taken during their escape, she hung on just long enough to reunite with her world's Ryouga Hibiki. Fulfilling her request to let her die, he destroyed the alien donor tissue that was to be used to revive her.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Fallout_

Chapter XIII

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

Seiran - Medical

According to standard procedure, post mission, all injured personnel were to immediately pass through decontamination. While this occurred, the rest of the combat teams would assemble in the hangar, and head to Medical Sciences area. Staff were on hand from the moment the Avenger touched down to aid or, if needed, wheel the wounded out on stretchers. Ryouga, Raven and Jinx were all visibly unharmed, and as such had not been separated from their squad. Cyborg, while his damage was substantial in some respects, would not be in need of medical treatment, so much as a trip to the workshop. Starfire, however, had been picked out by a nurse and quickly stripped of her armor before being left to sit on a bed in Medical's triage facility.

She closed her eyes, trying not to think overmuch about the mission or the most unpleasant flight back.

The removal of some of the cloth bandages around her torso gently jerked her out of that distant mental state. The pain killer drugs were still in her system, and with the high of combat long since faded, she felt the numbness that covered much of her back and lower body. She wondered if, for some reason, it was now spreading to her head as well. She felt terribly... worn. If _only_ it was just been the drugs she could blame for that. It would have been just so _convenient_.

A 'stk-stk-stk' sound reached her ears as part of the dermal sealant that covered her back peeled away, still trying to cling to her skin with an airtight seal. Turning her head, she saw the nurse: a woman, blonde hair like Terra's. Starfire didn't know her name, and in her present state, decided not to ask. Maybe later, but... not now.

She must have been on 'burn duty.' The unnamed medic tended to the injury with practiced ease and no small talk. Starfire closed her eyes and tried to zone back out, only half achieving her goal. She coughed a bit, but blinked and composed herself. A faint poke-poke caused her to wince and then something warm spread, for just a moment, across her blasted back.

She wondered, for a moment, if she'd end up with a scar.

Tamaranians were resilient and healed quickly and thoroughly, but even they could scar. Galfore had such a mark of honor prominently displayed across his face. There was no shame in it, of course, at least from a Tamaranian point of view. At the same time, she knew humans did not consider scars on a female to be particularly attractive, and none of her peers back home had any such marks on them – not that she had seen, anyway. She did not want to return home radically different than when she had left... in more ways than one.

"It won't be pretty for a while," stated the nurse, apparently noticing her concerned expression as she tried to look over her own shoulder. Taking a histogram sample, she continued to speak, obviously not bothered by Starfire's silence. "Your radiation count is surprisingly low. There'll be some irritation and redness, and we'll need daily topical applications to prevent swelling and inflammation, but give it a week. We've gotten quite good at cosmetic preservation."

Of course, the woman's concerns were moot. Her predictions were no doubt based upon her experience with a normal human's physiology. Given a superior Tamaranian metabolism, and with the assistance of Raven's mystical healing abilities, Starfire had no doubt that she would be fully recovered within a day or two, at the most.

But would it leave a scar…?

She took a deep breath and faced forward, seeing Kasumi treating an injured man at another table. She was collecting blood samples, and just as the burn trauma nurse finished applying a new waterproof patch to her back, Starfire saw the Tendo sister approach.

"Hello, Starfire," she greeted. "Arm, please."

The Tamaranian princess did as asked, and Kasumi withdrew a blood sample using a fresh syringe with a blue mark on it. Green blood pooled up and then the needle withdrew, replaced by a tiny gauze patch. It was somewhat strange. Starfire could not recall the last time she had given a blood sample... before coming to this world anyway – and in that more recent case, the sample had most definitely not been _given_.

Green eyes darted to the tray Kasumi carried with her. The other blood samples. They were all marked with black ink on a white patch, except hers, which bore a special piece of blue tape in a ring. That blood sample stood out among the rest, as if the color of the blood was not obvious enough.

"Starfire?" Kasumi asked, craning the alien girl's chin up. "Are you okay?"

"I am fine," she answered, but did not elaborate.

She wanted to see her team... she wanted to be with her friends.

* * *

Commander Yasuda found herself reviewing the Operation Black Tiger mission logs again, wondering just what to do about the 'incidents' regarding the new Trenchard. Standing in her office, Lieutenant Hibiki was fresh from the battlefield and awaiting his dressing down and official reprimand. That he would get one wasn't in question. The matter concerned how black to make the mark and how to go about it.

The capture of the Ethereal, and the experimental procedure used on it, were spearheaded by Andermatt and the European Branch's Psionic and Chemical Warfare divisions. The European departments had a lot of clout with Global High Command, and Yasuda had been hard pressed to keep their lone "near-Trenchard" – Tetsuya Hibiki – in custody of the Far East Xenosciences department. This new capture was a different animal. It was one of only three "true" full-progression human-ethereal hybrids in UNETCO custody, the others being the famous "Pisces" twins. Subject "A1", back in the US, was also considered by some to be a proto-Trenchard, though she had been human engineered by Sirius affiliates using different methodologies. This "Akari" Trenchard, designated "White Iron" was thus very special.

That Hibiki had acted to sabotage the recovery operation was…

It was disappointing, but not entirely unexpected.

According to his report of the events, corroborated by Lieutenant Feretti and Captain Ben-Solomon, the girl had completely lost her connection to the Alien Mind, somehow regaining her human memories. It was an unusual event. Normally, damage like this Trenchard had sustained was automatically repaired by the alien tissues. An initial diagnosis indicated that the subject was actively trying to prevent the tissues from regenerating, subconsiously sabotaging her own recovery - further backing up the mind dive's conclusions. Here was a rare example of a Trenchard actively attempting to keep from reverting back to form!

It – or 'she,' depending on who you asked - had also been killing itself by doing so. Normally, UNETCO tried to respect international "right to death" agreements… under specific circumstances and when the subject was identifiably human and in a sane state of mind. Two of three psionic reports (not including Hibiki's) concluded that the subject was "mentally though not physically human" and "exhibiting thought processes" in line with that.

There was a possible argument, depending on how you interpreted "a human of sound mind and body," that White Iron had every right to refuse treatment. Said refusal of treatment and subsequent death being rather inconvenient for those hoping to study and test countermeasures against the Trenchard Threat to mankind. Hibiki, however, had acted counter to his orders, and had to know that UNETCO did not sanction "mercy killing." If you found a dying civilian pleading 'shoot me, shoot me' on the battlefield you were not supposed to pull the god damned trigger! That wasn't a soldier's call to make!

Practically speaking, White Iron _never_ should have been in the position to say 'let me die' in the first damn place. The Trenchard should have been captured, kept unconscious, reconnected to the Mind, allowed to heal, and then brought in for study. That would have been the most politically expedient path to take anyway. There never should have been a question of "was she human at the time?" They needed to study her, not bury her. Instead she had ordered an investigation, and now the situation was a mess: Andermatt was one step away from calling Global, demanding the subject be handed over for "exhaustive study" before deterioration set back in. The girl was now officially an alien again, and to be treated as such, and Seiran already had a proto-Trenchard (Hibiki Tetsuya) it was doing next to nothing with.

There was no doubt that the incident would also be used to further Andermatt's claim for a material transfer of White Iron to Europe. They had been the source of the very first 'true Trenchard' back in 2001, the result of an UNETCO scientist's betrayal, and it was still a center of research into hybrids in general and hybrid warfare in particular. If this had been just any other alien, then Yasuda would have been tempted to just send it off with minimal fuss, but a number of her personnel would be adversely affected by it. Everyone knew UNETCO's only chemical warfare unit was stationed there. It was unpleasant, but "study" of the Trenchard was best handled in-house where she had some control over what actually went on. Andermatt would just have to accept a compromise.

There had to be a way to prevent the transfer!

The tricky thing, as she saw it, was that no one would want it pointed out that they were "reverting" a Trenchard for their own purposes, and against its will. Andermatt had suggested that the veracity of the claims of the mind divers were inaccurate, and in need of a second psychiatric and medical opinion (conveniently one that there hadn't been time to administer). If the hybrid was insane then its wishes would be superseded by the responsibility they had to keep it alive, and if that gave them a new Trenchard to study, then all the better, yes…?

Such sentiments were not expressed in so many words, of course, but they were there, written between the lines. No one had encountered a true hybrid, fully indoctrinated, that wanted to die or that refused to reconnect with the Mind, even for an instant. Not until now. Despite being just short of bringing the case to Global, Andermatt wouldn't want to draw too much attention to these facts with a departmental struggle. It was this alone that gave Commander Yasuda a strong hand. It also meant she could reclassify Hibiki's reprimand and leave it vague rather than deal with it properly, offering a measure of protection towards her subordinate.

Politics! Disgusting.

Yet, the fact remained that he had acted improperly... to say the least.

The thing was that Yasuda _liked_ her martial arts squads. She felt for all her subordinates and always tried to do what she could for them, knowing a good number of them would never return home to their families. On top of that, she'd even developed a special liking for, and pride in, her martial arts squads. They had grown into some of her most useful and capable units, both on and off the normal battlefield. These days, when High Command needed something taken care of that potentially fell under Section Seven Restrictions, they came to her. Her development of India and Juliet had cemented her maverick reputation, and the "special squads" were ones that other Regional Commanders were quick to try and duplicate… to far less success.

They were her pet project, and one of the most versatile and useful arms of the Far East Branch. Before today, their record had been exemplary. It didn't hurt that she was, despite her position and her priority towards the big picture, sympathetic towards what this hybrid girl had been through. If her husband had been on that table, begging not to be turned back into an alien slave, begging to live or die as a human being...?

Commander Yasuda sighed, banishing that thought. It had been hard enough accepting his death at the hands of the Enemy. At least he had not been so... defiled. Even now she still felt the old hate in the back of her mind, driving her forward. It would never totally disappear. Not while Cydonia remained intact. Not even after.

Expediently, practically: a quiet black mark would have to do.

Then there were the dimensional transplants they had to deal with. That group had performed admirably enough, to be sure. Very well, even! Their capture of the infiltration and cloning operation and the data from the Mayor and his cronies would be invaluable, and they had conducted themselves well under fire. However, it was less certain exactly how well they could follow orders under certain conditions.

They were all extremely headstrong, much moreso than even India and Juliet had once been, and with their powers they had the potential to cause serious problems. Just as she had kept a leash on Juliet and India early on, by using base staff as mentors to guide their development, it was wise to keep an eye on the 'Titans' as well. Juliet and India should have been ideal for this role, but according to reports, the groups weren't meshing like she had anticipated thanks to this new incident.

It was potentially very troublesome.

Doubly so, since the discovery of that altered alien FTL on the captured large scout. Firestorms had also shot down another alien ship taking off from the alien base and attempting to breech restricted airspace. Post-recovery, it was clear that the aliens had sabotaged the reactor and propulsion systems. There was nothing left of the cluster of landed UFOs identified by Jinx. All had taken off under cover of the incoming terror attack; some had still ended up shot down, but the larger ships had escaped into some kind of high energy vortex in the upper atmosphere. Her scientists believed it to be a dimensional transit event.

As a result, they had a single precious copy of the alien dimensional device. The EDC-FTL would need to be kept under wraps while R&D worked out its secrets, and Intel looked into exactly what sort of trick these aliens were trying to pull. The American Branch, which handled virtually all FTL research, was already flying over some experts since transport of the ship across the ocean wasn't feasible just yet. That, Yasuda didn't mind – she had good relations with the North American UNETCO Regional Command and scientist transfers between Seiran and Fry Canyon were commonplace enough. Everything would just have to be kept under wraps… meaning use of the auxiliary maintenance hangar.

There was so much to see to…

"Lieutenant Hibiki," Yasuda finally said, soft spoken as she addressed the young man. She could see a bit of defiance on his features, but no attempt to excuse or mitigate his guilt.

He stiffened, finally hearing his name and knowing he had her attention again.

"I'm disappointed," she simply told him, knowing that, in this case, saying less would have much more bite than explaining just where he had gone wrong. He already knew. "I can understand your actions, but they were not taken with proper authorization. You acted against the interests of the organization. Did you believe that you were given an illegal order?"

"No, ma'am!" he replied, quickly. "I did not."

She sighed, unhappy with how the situation had played out. "Do you believe it was wrong of me to approve your request to take part in the Mind Dive?"

"No, ma'am."

"Will we see a repeat of this behavior?" she asked, and elaborated, "You know that we're bringing the Trenchard back here. If possible, we will try and work out the same arrangement we had when we brought in your father. But that may not be possible. The Trenchard may remain here for some time or it may be shipped off to Europe. Either way, that won't be a problem, will it, Lieutenant?"

Ryouga stood ramrod straight, and let out a slow breath.

"Absolutely not, ma'am!"

Commander Yasuda cupped her hands together and took a slow, deep breath.

"I've entrusted a lot to you over the last few months, Hibiki. I know saying things like, 'don't ruin your career over this' won't affect you. I recognize, even sympathize, with your lapse in judgment, but rest assured: if you step out of line like this again, I can and will have you punished to the full extent of military law. You will see this war won or lost behind bars… and you know full well that we CAN build a cell strong enough to hold even you. No man or woman in this organization is indispensable. No man or woman is outside the chain of command. No man or woman should put personal feelings above the interests of humanity as a whole! _Am I clear, lieutenant?_"

"As crystal, ma'am!" he replied, chin still held high.

Even now, he wasn't repentant, just willing to take punishment. Yasuda knew his history and personality profile all too well. Even if he rotted away in an Antarctic cell till Doomsday, he knew his martial artist's code and he lived by it. That apparently included putting himself on the rack for the ghost of this dead girl. It was frankly much more convenient when he aimed all of that martial artist's pride at the real enemy. Still, she knew what he wanted more than anything else: to take the fight to the aliens on Cydonia, to defeat Cologne, and to keep Earth safe.

"You will receive an official reprimand, but we will be redacting most of the details due to the sensitivity and secrecy of the operation," she informed him, and gauged his response. Typically, he took it without as much as a missed breath. The young man was the sort to break down in tears if his girlfriend dismissed him, but take it on the chin if ordered to walk into the firing line. Insane, these martial artists, and perhaps none more so than this one.

He was just lucky none of the men (and women) after his head wanted to talk about the circumstances behind getting "their" new Trenchard. Some of them acted as if it was already on the next flight to Switzerland. Smarmy bastards. Probably thought they owned the Lagrange Points, too.

"Dismissed, Lieutenant."

The young officer snapped a salute and quickly left.

_'__Unpleasant business,__'_ the Commander thought, holding the folder with the transfer and examination papers of the new Trenchard, designated White Iron. Ironically, saving this Ethereal had made it easier for Hibiki to slip away with just a black mark. If she had died, nothing would have stopped Andermatt from sticking their fingers into Seiran's business. With her alive and reverted back, against her will, they wouldn't dare draw excessive attention to their methods. It was ostensibly a win for both regional bases.

Now they all just had to live with it.

* * *

Ryouga let out a tired sigh as he regarded his teammates. Unsure of what else to do, or where else to go, they had co opted one of the base's changing rooms near the medical facility and hunkered down. Raven and Starfire, the latter just recently returned, were set up one of the far benches, Starfire laying on her stomach, and Raven sitting at her side. Only a towel covered her modesty as Raven gently ran a glowing hand over her back. Already, the treated skin was returning to a more normal pinkish eventually-to-be-orange hue.

Cyborg wasn't too far away, repairing some of the more minor damage to his hand and arms. He would likely need to visit the workshop to fix or replace the bulk of the damage, but he didn't seem too eager to take off on his own quite yet. Sitting in one of the corners, curled up into a small ball, Jinx was pulling her knees tightly to her chest and staring at nothing in particular. Despite taking every chance to fire off verbal barbs at India and Juliet on the ride home, to the distress of the squads seated between them in the ship, once they had gotten off on their own she hadn't said a single word.

Honestly, Ryouga was disheartened at the solemn mood that hung in the air like a pall. They had performed their mission well: they had captured bad corrupt humans, saved civilians, defeated aliens and even secured the Ethereal necessary to save Akari's life. There wasn't a soul alive that couldn't agree that their performance was anything but exceptional...

So why was everyone looking like they'd just lost a war?

Was this just some sort of post-battle fatigue? He had heard about that before, but mostly dismissed it. Back home, the Titans usually celebrated right after most missions, going out for pizza or sometimes having a party. Why, here and now, was everyone so… so lethargic almost? They were in rough shape, yes, but alive, and triumphant. Ryouga could feel his own mood echoing the sour note that hung in the air.

It could be that the problem was him. He wanted to say something to try and lighten things up, like he knew Beast Boy or even Robin would, but he couldn't think of anything appropriate. It was hard, in retrospect, to want to celebrate after that ride home on the Avenger. The measured glares or outright indifference that they'd received from India and Juliet squad had nearly caused Ryouga's blood to boil. Sure, some of it was justified, as Jinx did everything she could to stir things up... even among Juliet, who had been mostly minding their own business. The two martial arts teams were thick as thieves, having finally gotten to see one another after some kind of break, and Jinx had laid into all of them. Not that he blamed her for her anger, but with the …events… which had occurred before the terror site still fresh in everyone's memories, even Starfire, Raven and Cyborg were getting some of the cold shoulder, just by association.

Even once they had gotten back, everyone had seemed more... almost more wary of them, than anything else. They had received a cursory debriefing along with all the other squads... and that was it. The Lieutenants and other officers had gotten a second debriefing, but he wasn't in that group. There still wasn't any word on Akari, the ship they'd gone to such trouble to capture, or even the rooming situation. Cyborg was still staying in the workshop, and Jinx was going to be joining the cybernetic Titan tonight, since no one else would take her in and he couldn't bear to go back to the Lieutenant-him or even Nabiki for help.

How long did it take to arrange new quarters, anyway? Not that he minded staying with 'his' mom... but still, it was the Titans Tower situation all over again, with Jinx being left out in the cold.

He was fairly certain why she was so silent now, at least. More than any of them, she was desperate to hear about Akari's condition. Ryouga felt terrible even thinking it, but he'd said his own goodbyes to Akari long ago. As tragic as the situation was, he knew that he couldn't understand the full depths of what Jinx was going through at the moment. He wanted to comfort her, somehow, but again, couldn't think of anything that wouldn't be completely asinine or immature.

Instead, he silently walked over and sat beside her. Quietly, he dropped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her to his chest, not bothering to say anything at all. It wasn't much, but he hoped it would help.

Raven gave him an aside glance, only to nod, nearly imperceptibly before going back to her work on Starfire's back. Of course, none of this uncertainty, none of this hostility and resentment, would even be an issue if 'Lieutenant Hibiki' hadn't decided to play angel of death. His actions, however intentioned, had single handedly undone all of the goodwill that had been growing between their teams, and completely alienated Jinx from all of the X-Com teams before she'd even had a chance to properly join. So now, here they were, right back where they started, if not a step or two backwards.

Now, more than ever, Ryouga's mind wandered back to his goal. There was just one thing he needed to do in this world... all he needed to do was figure out how. Now wasn't the time, though.

A sudden thought occurred to him, as he studied all of his friends.

"Hey, you know, this is the first time that we've had a minute's time to ourselves since we got to this damned dimension. I think it's time we catch up. What do you say? Why don't we all fill each other in on what we've done since we got here?" He turned to smile at Starfire, hoping to buoy the mood a little. "Hey, Star, you said you fought Herb and his flunkies, right?"

Of course, he had heard all this before. So had everyone... save one of them.

"That sounds like a pretty good adventure, how did your fight with them go?"

The Tamaranian regarded him oddly for a moment, a dark look passing over her face ... then she too seemed to notice the grim looks upon the faces of everyone else. Finally, the flame haired girl bore a brave smile and nodded.

"It is indeed an entertaining tale. Perhaps I should start at the beginning, though ..."

* * *

Juliet and India were back together again.

The eight young adults were killing some time outside the showers and de-con rooms in the armory. The air was still somewhat damp and they sat around in various states of dress or undress. It had been months since they had gotten used to each other in situations like this: one didn't and couldn't wear much more than a undershirt and underwear when using personal armor. The inner seals were skin-tight and completely environmental. Eventually, the shock and embarrassment – despite most of them at one time seeing one another in compromising Nerima-esque positions – wore off, and the experience became familiar and even cathartic. The battlefield high of fighting for hours on end was still wearing off, leaking and sweating slowly out of their systems as their bodies and minds mentally and physically powered down.

Shampoo and Mousse were still in their underwear, the former slowly combing her hair, the latter staring down at his fogged up glasses. Ukyou had her shirt and pants on, and sat silently next to Konatsu, who still wore a towel draped over his shoulders after having emerged from the shower. Kuno and Ryu were getting dressed, their footlockers open at their feet. Ryouga and Ranma, having been the last to show up due to the officers' debriefing, were also the last to emerge from the showers. Unlike the others, their rooms had personal showers, but both needed to get changed after removing and returning the personal armor to the quartermaster.

Ryouga had also had a brief meeting with Commander Yasuda, which the pigtailed fighter had waited around for. It wasn't like he enjoyed playing guide dog for his rival, but it was just something he'd come to accept needed to be done from time to time. Plus, he was nearly certain Ryouga was on the verge of nuking half the base with a _shishi hokoudan_, an act only Ranma had a hope of coutnering or preventing. Either that or the lost idiot would end up burning himself alive keeping his aura internalized.

He hadn't spoken a word since leaving Yasuda's office and his eyes were distant and dull.

It was worrying. Ryouga had gotten much, much better at controlling and directing his battle aura since he switched over to elliptical ki generation from circular. He even had techniques to maximize or minimize his emotional states via self-hypnosis. It was harder than ever to really read the man's emotions when he put an effort into actively suppressing them. Ranma had his own techniques for manipulating emotional states, ensuring he'd never have a _moko takabisha_ fizzle on him in battle again, among other things… but he only used those in a fight. It was obvious Ryouga was using them in normal life… maybe even almost all the time.

So: _Akari_.

The operation had been a success. According to the Ofanim/4E level debrief, she had accepted both the artificial psi-amp implant and the _corona lucis_ transplant from the Ethereal. Her status was only a cursory part of the officer's debriefing (though it was currently still top secret to normal personnel), but Ranma could guess that they'd keep her off-base for a little while longer, to repair the worst of the damage that had been done to her body. He wondered if Akari would end up shipped off to the main European base, like the others had been. All except Tetsuya, anyway, who was an incomplete specimen and reserved for study of the progress the alien tissues had made in taking over his brain. It was just… really shitty luck that these things tended to happen to the lost moron.

Then again, the way Ranma had heard it, the aliens had actually been after Akari first, not Ryouga. Capturing him, then heading to Nerima, and all the stuff that followed… it was all a coincidence, because P-chan had moved in with his girlfriend. Or tried to. Now everything was tits up and then some.

Not just with Ryouga, either, though that was one big mess right there.

The Titans, Yankee Squad, were responsible for capturing that Ethereal. They'd done a helluva job getting things done, too. He respected that. He _did_. But these things didn't occur in a vacuum.

Ranma had tried to be professional about it, and not let his own opinions color how he acted towards them while on duty. It was hard, sometimes, to try and be 'that guy' - the one who had to put aside his discomfort or his apprehensions to lead. He'd tried to avoid it for a while at first; but it became obvious it was hurting his team, and putting them all in danger. Finally, he'd had to put his foot down, taken control of things, and forced people to fall in step. It hadn't been easy, dealing with Ukyou and Shampoo like that, and then he'd gone and secretly complicated things further by getting so close to Akane…

And that was another mess that would have to be resolved one day.

The point was that, as much as he had tried not to act on it, as above the situation as he tried to be, the Titans were probably perceptive enough to have picked up on his personal disagreement with their actions. Worse, so had the rest of his team. He should never have opened his big mouth about it in the first place. Neither Ukyou nor Shampoo knew Akari, or even much about the situation, but when he showed his disagreement they defaulted to it as well, and they did so with less professional detachment. It sure hadn't helped that the little pink girl had been hurling abuse at them, either.

India, on the other hand, must've known about Akari though none of them had met the girl. They knew about Trenchards, about the aliens, and about The Mind. To their credit, not one of them had said anything about it, not a single word. In fact, that was the point. they hadn't made a single effort to interact with the new squad of young men and women that they were supposed to be bonding with. They should have been over there congratulating Yankee on their part in the mission. Not only was it the right thing to do, it was what they had been ordered to do.

Oh, he knew _all_ about that.

Yasuda wanted Juliet and India to mentor and watch over the Titans. It was almost the exact same duty they had done before, briefly looking after that other experimental team that went over to the US Branch. If anything, it should have been easier than that. These Titians supposedly knew their Nerima counterparts in their dimension. It should have been as easy as acting normally. All that was shot in the god damned foot now; that Jinx girl sounded like she wanted to claw Hibiki's eyes out, and old P-chan looked like he was one twitch away from literally suffocating someone – well, _one_ person, anyway - with killing intent.

Ranma ran his hand through his hair as he dried off, now taking a seat next to his silent rival. _A mess. _This was all one big goddamn mess! It made being chased around by a dangerous man-eating nympho cult seem like a walk in the park. And, yes, he had ended up spending most of his time on _that_ particular mission as a girl, to boot, because fate just loved it when he was chased by horny GUYS. That mission had SUCKED with capital letters, and this was looking to be even more annoying, if only because it called for nuance and tact. Two things Ranma Saotome _knew_ he didn't have.

Looking around at India and Juliet, assembled together, and somehow not fighting - really, they hadn't in months, but there was a notable lack of discord - Ranma took heart in some of the situation. They were all back together, a fact that was actually surprisingly reassuring. India Squad was a pack of former rivals and idiots, but they could be pretty reliable, and they were what passed for his immediate circle of male friends. Them and Juliet and the Tendos. They were all alive, maybe a little bummed out, but things would be mostly back to normal tomorrow.

What did he have to do, then?

(A) He needed to fix this situation with Yankee Squad. This was including that abrasive pink-haired, c-c-cat-eyed menace, and the slightly younger Hibiki who looked like he also wanted to kill the native him (the 'I'll get you Ranma' look being something he had a lot of experience with). Something would just have to be done there. This wasn't just important for peace of mind and all that jazz, but it directly tied into what the two squads were ordered to do. Love each other or hate each other, they needed to be able to work together. If they couldn't, then Yankee would be handed off to another group, like Hotel or Echo, or some other group of hard core older soldier types they probably wouldn't be able to relate to.

Or worse.

(B) He needed to make sure the native Ryouga didn't spontaneously explode in a spray of murderous green ki. That was a tough one. Ryouga was probably… Hell, he _was_… Ranma's best friend or what passed for it (best enemy or frenemy also kind of worked) but they didn't usually talk about feelings and crap. It had been hard enough talking to him about Akane, that one time! What the Hell was he supposed to say about this?

_'__Hey man, don__'__t sweat it!__'_ (followed by friendly clap on the back)

Yeah, right.

Hopefully this was something he could mostly fob off on Nabiki. They were basically a couple, and that's one of the things couples did, right? Talk about exes and, like, emotional problems and stuff? Ranma didn't know exactly, since he and Akane just tended to argue about that kind of stuff, but it was a good guess. He sure as Hell wasn't going to try and give the moron a big hug and a pat on the back. The last time he had tried that, Ranma-chan had ended up either skydiving without a parachute or smashed into a wall. ...A bro-fist also didn't quite seem appropriate.

If nothing else worked, they could just level some of the landscape outside. That usually helped.

(C) Train. Of course, they were always training. So really just those first two. Everything else was part of the normal base routine: train, train, train, fight, kill aliens, train, train, repeat _ad nauseum_.

He stood up, to address the two squads.

"Hey, guys," he said, clapping his hands together, towel tightly bound around his waist. "Good job tonight. It was messy out there, but we got things done, and we all came back safe."

"Here, here," Ryu agreed.

"Indeed," Kuno seconded.

Ukyou smiled brightly, her eyes lighting up.

"You guys can feel free to sleep in tonight," Ranma continued, glad he had their full attention. Even the cat napping Shampoo was lazily watching him, but that was to be expected. She was still Shampoo, after all.

"Three extra hours for everyone," he announced, to smiles all around. "Only light training tomorrow. Group stuff. Get our comfort level back up to normal. If we're lucky, we've sapped the bastards' will to fight for the next few days."

"Here's to that," Mousse remarked. No one wanted to have another assault duty tomorrow.

Ranma then turned to Ryouga, expecting him to say something.

The lost one had been watching, silently… almost emotionlessly. Slowly, he stood up and looked around the room. Not just at India, but at all the martial artists present. They were all part of a bigger squad, a bigger team effort. They were all comrades in arms, and the moment seemed to draw him out of his shell a bit.

"We did well today," he said, raising his voice a bit back to normal levels. "We did our duty. We fought a good fight."

His brows creased, just a bit.

"We'll keep fighting," he added, frown deepening slightly. "As long as they threaten us, as long as it takes to win, we'll keep fighting. On Earth, on the Moon, on Mars. No matter what happens."

There were nods of agreement and assent all around. Ranma even allowed himself a small smile. Yes, old P-chan was… withdrawn, and a bit moodier than usual, but maybe things weren't as horrible as he had initially assumed. The Saotome heir only hoped things didn't implode outright once the techs brought what was left of Akari onto the base.

* * *

She found him slowly walking towards his quarters.

Like Ranma, Nabiki could tell at a glance that he was using his techniques to lock away his emotions, but unlike the pigtailed fighter, she didn't have any martial arts senses to key her in on that fact. She simply knew him well enough by this point to tell. His eyes looked up from Shirokuro, as the dog noticed her approach, and she straightened out a bit to be more presentable.

"Nabiki," he said, in basic greeting.

"Hey," she returned, the speech she'd half-prepared beforehand suddenly seeming underwhelming and insensitive instead of reassuring and confident. Shirokuro nuzzled her hand, a little hungry for affection, or maybe to encourage her efforts to cheer up the canine's master, while Ryouga just took a few more steps past them to his door.

"Ryouga," she commiserated, reaching out to grab his sleeve. "You probably don't want to talk about it, but you should-"

"Talk about _what_?" he asked, his voice momentarily acerbic. He had his back to her, one hand outstretched to open his door. "I failed her. For the second time. And I have to live with that. That's all there is to it."

"It wasn't your fault…"

"It _was_," he cut her off, shoulders bunching up as he let out a long breath. "It _was_ my fault. I had… other options. But then I thought… maybe, if I just destroy the transplant, maybe the psi-amp implant by itself will be enough. Enough for her… enough for the Commander… enough for everyone."

Frowning, Nabiki grabbed the crook of his arm at the elbow and forced him to turn around. She could tell he was tired, exhausted even, both mentally and physically. She had been handling Yankee Squad in the field, and the truth was she felt partly responsible for everything that had happened with this. Plus, she cared about the directionally challenged moron. He was the closest friend she had on the base, and ... more. Seeing him like this, looking beaten and apathetic, it pissed her off. He should be raging, or crying, or… anything!

Hell, _she_ would be.

In his situation, she'd be in tears… at least until however long it took to plan out her payback.

"All my life, I've trained to be strong. To protect the people I cared about. To uphold the Code." A depreciating laugh escaped from between his clenched teeth. "What a joke. How can I ever say, 'I'll protect you' and expect anyone to believe me? ...Even I don't believe it anymore."

"Ryouga. Don't let this fester inside you." Nabiki gave his arm a rough shake, for good measure, knowing he was trying to zone her and everything else out. "You think you can hold it all in, but it'll come out eventually."

"So what do you want me to do?" he asked, exasperated. "Scream about how unfair it is? Run off to get revenge? Go on a training trip to sort things out? Sulk in my room and refuse to leave? I can't."

"At least… at least do _something_," she protested.

"I just… don't know why this keeps happening to her," he admitted, and Nabiki could feel a shudder run through his frame. His eyes shone with painful tears that blinked away. "Whatever happens to **me** doesn't really matter. I can take it all. I know I can, because I … I have things to hold on to, things to look forward to. Things that are important to me. Like our friends. Like you..."

He gave her a weak smile at that, and she found herself heartened by it.

"But Akari doesn't have any of that, not anymore. Everything: her family, her friends, her humanity… it was all taken away. And I couldn't even let her rest in peace." He hid his face with his free hand, forcing himself to finish the explanation. "I only hope, and pray, that she can find some sort of solace in the fact that I tried, and that… maybe… the real her is somewhere better, and not trapped in that demonic Mind on Mars. There's nothing more I can do. I wish - I wish I hadn't -"

Not knowing what else to say or do, Nabiki wrapped her arms around him, providing what support she could. Unfortunately, stuff like this - it just wasn't something she had ever been good at. He was hurting too much for some teasing and joking around to help and she knew she wasn't empathetic like Kasumi. She couldn't just tell him something simple and wise and _perfect_ like she knew Kasumi would; something that put his fears to rest as easy as pouring tea. She wasn't that kind of girl, and this was all that came to mind to help.

The two rested against each other for a few long seconds. There was still so much Nabiki knew they needed, _really needed_, to talk about. She'd always been careful not to broach the subject of Akari too much before, knowing how sensitive it was, but now it seemed like ground they needed to cover. Not just because of whatever they had, but for his well being. She knew it would be good for him to unburden some of it on someone besides the base psychiatrist.

A part of her was also worried… about how this affected them. They'd been close for a few months now, and only recently overcome the hurdles of making it really official. Even if they were rushing things, harried by the trials and fears of their work here, it felt good and right, and she knew they were usually happier together than apart. It was probably entirely too selfish, but she didn't want anything to jeopardize or steal away her investment.

"Do… do you want to be alone tonight?" she asked, quietly.

They both knew Ranma and Akane would be sneaking off to see each other. So would quite a few of the more well known base couples, thanks to the relatively light fraternization policies within this branch of the organization. She had been there for the terror site, and seen how bad parts of it had been. India, as usual, had been thrown into the worst and thickest part of the fighting. Sometimes, even as removed as she was from actual combat, it still gave the middle Tendo daughter nightmares.

He stiffened a bit, and she could sense what he was about to say.

"We don't have to do anything," she added, poking him gently; just enough for him to feel it. "I bet Ranma said everyone could sleep in a few hours, right? That means me, too, and I'd enjoy the company. I don't want to be alone tonight."

_'__And I want to make sure you really are okay, like you say you are.__'_

"No point arguing with you, is there?"

"You can try, but you'll lose eventually."

Sensing she would soon no longer be needed, Shirokuro quietly slipped of. There were other, unattended, Hibikis to look after. Despite an innate canine sensitivity for human feelings, she couldn't understand most of the nuance involved, even with her heightened intellect. Humans were, she had learned over the years, uniformly very confusing creatures.

* * *

Ryouga crossed his arms behind his head as he laid back on the futon. He still wasn't used to sleeping in the same room as his 'mother', Mitsuko, even though there was a privacy screen separating their sleeping areas. Even the gentle sound of her breathing was near thunderous to someone used to sleeping in the wild, always on the alert for any possible danger.

It was easily two in the morning, and still sleep eluded him. There was just too much on his mind to possibly sleep now. It had been like this pretty much every night since they arrived in this world. Sure, as long as they kept busy, it was easy to ignore ... but now, in the dead of the night ... it was impossible not to think about the situation.

They were trapped in a foreign dimension, and it was quite possible that they might never return home. No matter what angle he approached it from, the prospect chilled him to the very core. He didn't have the words to describe how much he loathed this world. Even though there were positive things, like getting to stay with his mother, those 'benefits' actually made things worse. After all, as much as he enjoyed the situation, she wasn't _really_ his mother. Just another lie trying to pass itself off as reality.

Even more disturbing was that so many of their closest friends were actually here with them ... and yet they all but despised them. It felt like a betrayal, having Kuno, Mousse and the rest treating them like lepers instead of comrades. Sure, that wasn't really the case. These people were, for all intents and purposes, complete strangers. India and Juliet had never met the Titans before, so he supposed it shouldn't have been too surprising that they would be put off at the familiarity the Titans displayed.

Personally, Ryouga's own problem was much more frustrating.

In the worst case scenario, the Titan's could likely make a place for themselves in this twisted dimension. But he, himself, would never have a place here. This was 'Lieutenant Hibiki's' world, and

Ryouga would never truly be accepted by the people here. No matter what he did, or how far he progressed, he would always be 'the doppelganger', the copy, the double… he would always be in Hibiki's shadow.

He had left Japan behind, completely, to escape from the black hole of Ranma's shadow; he didn't plan on leaping into another, especially since he disliked his double to an even greater extent than he had _ever_ despised Ranma. It was borderline irrational, really, his feelings for Hibiki. So many little things adding up into a surprisingly glaring animosity. Ryouga wasn't even sure what it was that frustrated him the most: his double's lethal skills; his double's attitude; the fact that his inherent existence was called into question by the mere presence of another him? There was something deeper there, as well, something which danced on the dark edges of his mind, but that he wasn't prepared to contemplate yet. No, it was easier to just focus on all of the small grudges… and the not so small ones.

The fact that Hibiki had nearly devastated Jinx with his attempted murder of Akari certainly hadn't won him any points, that was for certain. Alll of these negative feelings swirled together into a single grim desire. He _needed_ to defeat Hibiki. Honestly, he didn't even know why. He couldn't see how it could possibly help the situation. It wouldn't really prove anything, nor would it be a grand, honorable victory that would change his life in some profound way. Even if he did manage to beat Hibiki, everything would remain just as it was... possibly even get worse... but still.

He _wanted_ to beat his dimensional counterpart.

He had some ideas how to do so, as well, but he didn't want to go into this half cocked. He needed a sound strategy if he wanted to pull this off. Of course, that really wasn't his strong suit, but still -

Perhaps he could kill two birds with one stone?

Yes ... the more he thought of it, the more he liked it. It would have to wait until tomorrow, but he was sure it would work.

A quiet rattling suddenly distracted him. In less than a second, he realized that it was his communicator on the floor beside him, vibrating silently. His arm flashed out and picked it up, snapping it open to stop the vibrations. He quickly checked the privacy screen... but his mother's breathing hadn't appeared to have changed yet. She still seemed to be sleeping soundly.

Letting out a small sigh of relief, he looked at the small screen, only to smile as he saw a familiar face, framed by brilliant pink hair. Jinx - holding the communicator quite close - whispered quietly to him, "I'm just outside your room. Let me in already."

Nodding, he stealthily rose from his futon and snuck across the room, literally tip toeing as he made his way to the door. It opened with a silent swish, which was still several decibels too loud to his ears, but found it hard to care as, a second later, Jinx surged forward and wrapped her arms around him, burying her head in his chest.

He chuckled quietly to himself. "I'm amazed you're still awake. You couldn't have gotten a decent minute of sleep since you finished escaping the aliens yesterday morning."

She smiled warmly as she looked up to meet his gaze. "I managed to sneak in a catnap on the first plane ride, but yeah, I feel pretty much as bad as I must look right now."

"Really? That's impressive, I don't think I've ever met anyone that's felt absolutely perfect before."

The girl's wide, pink eyes shimmered for a moment, only for her to shake her head and punch him affectionately in the shoulder. "You're such a dork ..."

"Oh, so you want me to take it back, then?" he whispered teasingly.

"I didn't say that," she replied with a grin. "I think I kinda love it when you talk like that ..."

Ryouga's smile grew and he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer. "I'll keep that in mind. So, what brings you by, then?"

Jinx's eyes twinkled with mischief as she replied. "I'm hunting for more comfortable sleeping grounds. Cyborg snores like a chainsaw - and I mean that literally - and using a carburetor for a pillow isn't nearly as comfortable as it sounds."

"That ... really doesn't sound comfortable at all, actually."

"_Exactly_." She then leveled a telling look his way. "So, what do you say? I promise I'll sneak out before your _mommy_ wakes up. I just ... y'know, don't want to be alone right now. Not when all I can think about is Akari and how they won't tell me how her surgery went..."

He looked back at the privacy screen for a moment, then turned back to her. She really was the master of the 'strong front' technique. Even now, while literally admitting how uncertain she was feeling, she could still tease and joke. Ryouga Hibiki, one of the strongest, most durable people on the planet, found himself envying her strength. It seemed like no one in the world understood the struggles she was facing, and they never would if Jinx had her way. As Raven would say, Jinx didn't _do_ pity.

"Of course. Come in, I'm pretty sure mom won't -"

"Mind? Of course not!"

Ryouga felt the sudden urge to facepalm.

"Why don't you introduce your young friend?" A tall, older woman with dark hair and a double sash around her night coat emerged from behind the privacy screen at the back of the room. Her initially dignified entrance was also quickly ruined by the big grin and completely un-subtle wink she threw his way.

"... Notice ... Damnit ..."

With a sigh, Ryouga untangled himself from Jinx and turned to face Mitsuko. He then quickly pulled Jinx to stand beside him, despite the fact that she was looking a tad uncomfortable at the moment.

"Um ... _hi_ there ... Mrs Hibki ..." Jinx muttered with a small wave of her fingers.

Ryouga sighed wearily. "Right ... Mrs Hibiki. This is my - um - this is Jinx."

"Mitsuko is fine," she said with a small bow, and held out her hand in an western-style handshake. "I was never terribly big on formality. Come on in."

A bit hesitantly, Jinx took the older woman's hand, not at all surprised by the strength of her grip. She really didn't know much about Ryouga's family, but it would have made sense for them to all be similar martial artist types. The double sash was also a bit suspicious, thanks to her training with Happosai, and her instincts told her it could probably double as some sort of weapon. Like Ryouga's bandannas.

"So ... you're _not_ upset that a strange girl is trying to sneak into your room in the middle of the night?" the young sorceress asked hesitantly. It was quite possible that Ryouga's mom was preparing to crush her hand into jelly at any instant ... so maybe a tiny bit of tact would be called for in this situation.

"Oh no. Tetsuya and I spent a year sneaking around before we got engaged! I think it's adorable!" She smiled at her flustered sort-of son. "You probably don't remember your grandmother that well, but she used to be quite adamant her only son marry a good traditional girl. Which I definitely wasn't at the time. So I know what it's like to be young..."

Mitsuko let Jinx's hand go, still amiable.

"Feel free to stay the night, Miss Jinx." She held up a motherly finger. "Just no hanky panky. Save that for when you get your own room here, if you please."

Jinx rolled her eyes. "That's not why I came. It's just ..." She shook her head. "I doubt you'd understand. Just ... thanks, I guess."

She then moved back to Ryouga's side and wrapped an arm around his waist. "I ... I don't suppose you could keep this between us, though, could you?"

"Of course. If you need anything, well… you know," she said, heading back to the screen and her bed. The girl was petite enough that there should be room on Ryouga's futon. "You must be tired, so I'll leave you two alone. Maybe now my little boy will get some sleep instead of tossing the turning on the floor."

In a feeble attempt to cover his horrendous embarrassment, Ryouga tried a weak attempt at humor. "Yeah... well maybe if you didn't snore so loud I wouldn't be awake all night, 'mom'."

He caught a maliciously motherly gleam in her eye, just then. "Don't make me bring out baby pictures, 'son.'"

A sudden glint flashed in Ryouga's eyes.

"Baby pictures you say? Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing those at all."

In retrospect, maybe he shouldn't have started laughing maniacally after saying that. But still, those embarrassing pictures wouldn't be of 'him', they'd be of Hibiki. Perhaps his enemy's own mother could prove an invaluable weapon against him!

... Again, he should probably stop laughing like that...

"By the way, Miss Jinx, you're trained in the Art, aren't you?" Mitsuko asked, having sent a tiny burst of intent into the girl's hand, subsequently detecting a small hidden aura of ki push back. "May I ask what your style is? And would you stop laughing like that, Ryo-chan? What have I _told you_ about acting like a shonen villain?"

Ryouga paused at that, a bit startled. "Wow, really? Here too? I thought only my mom was zany enough to lecture me about not cackling malevolently as I plotted the downfall of my enemies ... I mean, y'know, since you're Ryouga seems so much more serious than me..."

Jinx, sensing that her - what the heck was he to her, anyway, her boyfriend? Sometimes it felt like so much more, and others so much less. Damn, she didn't even have a word for their relationship and it was an annoyance! ... Where was she again? Oh right. Sensing that Ryouga was about to start making the already uncomfortable situation completely unbearable, Jinx quickly stepped in.

"Oh, I mostly study the Root Style of Anything Goes." She giggled to herself as she recalled some of her experiences. "I was actually the official heir of the style ... for a few weeks, anyway."

"Ah!" Mitsuko hid a polite chuckle at a sudden thought. "I don't know how it works in Anything Goes, but in many schools, formal students of the same master are like siblings. Which would be delightfully amusing to tease Genma and Soun about."

Jinx's eyes suddenly shot open. Slowly, she raised a finger to tap her chin...

"You know," she realized. "I never even considered that. Technically speaking, since Happosai made me the official heir, that'd mean I outrank them or something, right? I could be, like, their big sister or something, and tell them what to do!"

"Just something to keep in mind. It's been too long since we had some harmless trouble around here, if you ask me." Mitsuko covered her mouth to stifle a yawn. "I'll leave you two kids to yourselves. Oh… and I heard you came back from a rather difficult mission. Thank you. Both of you. For fighting for us. I know it couldn't have been easy, going out there like you did."

Jinx waved off her concern. "Ah, t'weren't nothing for a seasoned villainess to deal with. Well, you have a good night, Mrs Hibiki. We'll try not to keep you awake with our passionate love making."

The sound of a body hitting the floor with a dull thud filled the room. Smirking wickedly, Jinx shrugged. "You're right; this harmless trouble stuff is fun."

Nudging her unconscious son with her foot, Mitsuko sighed.

Yet another family curse, dimensionally displaced or not.

* * *

Ten-hundred hours came far too quickly, in Ranma Saotome's opinion. The lights in his quarters turned up marginally, along with his programmed alarm. That was normal enough. A second later, accompanied by a discomfited grunt, a palm flew over to connect with his face with a solid slap. It stayed there for a second, feeling around, and then retreating.

"Uncute tomboy," he grumbled, rolling onto his side. "Do you have to slap me in your sleep, too?"

"Quiet you," came the reply from the giant lump of blankets and pillows. "Turn off that light already…"

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, half-awake. Brushing his hand across the dimmer panel, the lights turned back down, leaving them mostly in darkness. Of course, he was on the far side of the bed close to the wall, which meant he had to crawl over his still hunkered down, blanket-hogging guest.

"Oof!"

"Hey!"

"Geez, watch it would'ya?"

"What the… is that…? Ranma! Again?"

"Hey, it happens to all guys in the mornin' – what're ya…?"

A giggle. "Ranma, you pervert."

"Says you. From where I see things, you're the pervy one." A pause. "Ah! Ok! I didn't mean it!"

"Good."

"Gorilla like strength. No wonder you always play Donkey Kong."

"Do you want to spend the rest of your life singing soprano?"

"I think I get more bruises coming home than I do on the battlefield…"

"Ranma no baka. You know you like it."

"Mm."

He didn't end up in the shower till more than a half hour later, and even then he had to endure Akane savoring sleeping in even later. Apparently Golf squad had put off their training till even later in the day. Washing himself clean in the tiny washroom he, as an officer, had in his quarters, Ranma quickly toweled off and brushed his teeth. Soon, he'd have to meet up with the rest of India and Juliet and get back to work.

A quick look back and outside, and he could just see the edge of his bed, hidden now behind the semi-transparent privacy screen. Akane hadn't been particularly subtle last night, despite both of them knowing full well they had to keep their liaisons a secret. In their circle of friends, only Ryouga (and Nabiki and Kasumi) knew what was going on… though it seemed likely Ukyou and Mousse were both at least suspicious. If Ucchan did know about it, then she had apparently come to terms with it, too, which really only left Shampoo to deal with. And Kuno, sort of. It was hard to tell just what that guy thought was going on sometimes.

Regardless, he sure as Hell didn't need or want Shampoo finding out, and definitely not his dumb old panda of a father. Knowing him and Soun, the two would probably get drunk and throw an engagement party… or try and talk Yasuda or the Chaplin or something into legally marrying the Saotome and Tendo heirs ASAP. Stupid, meddlesome old men. Yes, he did kind of plan on marrying Akane eventually… but on his time, and hers, not theirs.

Right now, they were just… kind of learning about each other.

How could he marry someone if he didn't even know if they could mesh like real people, away from prying eyes? He definitely _liked_ Akane… he had for a long time, and at Jusendo, he sort of felt like it was even more than that. And when you more than liked someone, that was supposed to be when you loved them, right? That was the way he had heard it was supposed to be, so maybe they loved each other, and maybe they would get married… later. Maybe in a year or two, after the war. Right now, they were just enjoying their freedom – what little they had – and their lives. It was the least they deserved, putting themselves in the line of duty day after day.

"I'm heading out," he said, buttoning up his shirt. "Can you _please_ make up the bed before you leave this time?"

"Make me," was the reply.

"Don't make me make you!"

"Don't make me make you not want to."

"Don't make me make you want to make me… wait… what?"

"Go, go," Akane grumbled, again bundled up in the sheets. "I'll clean up."

Retying his pigtail, satisfied by how it looked, Ranma tightened his belt and quickly checked his email, breezing through the security checks. He'd gotten some documents regarding the missions from yesterday, most notably some news on Akari and the captured UFO, and a notification regarding soon-to-be-announced items. Command was phasing in some information regarding those two situations, and like all the officers, he had to be knowledgeable about what was to come.

More information about the terror site… a few officer-list emails… one from his mom and dad… nothing terribly unexpected or unusual. Hopefully, the day would be pretty routine. Closing up the computer and locking the secure data-transfer programs, he sighed and headed for the door.

A small yawn left a minty toothpaste-taste in his mouth, and Ranma keyed the door open.

He paused, mid yawn, as a sound startled him. Looking down, he noted an ... an _envelope_ sitting on the floor, just outside his door. It looked a tiny bit crumpled - almost like someone had attempted to jam it under his door, but had settled for taping it to his door instead. Opening the door had partly crushed it and knocked it onto the ground.

Curious, he picked it up ... only to feel a wave of nostalgia as he noted the neat, concise penmanship on the outside stating that it was addressed to one: Ranma Saotome.

Opening the carefully folded not, he read the following, a bit bewildered:

_Saotome,_

_Meet me in the Dojo as soon as possible._

_Signed -  
Ryouga Hibiki._

"A challenge letter? Oh man, now that takes me back!" He winced, tapping his gut. "I better not have to wait four days again!"

Checking the time, he nodded to himself. He had a little time to kill with ol' pork rind.

The question was: which former-porker was he dealing with?

* * *

"Ah ha! So it is **you**!" Ranma exclaimed, seeing the Hibiki in question standing at the center of the Dojo's main room. Shirokuro was present, too, lying down peacefully nearby.

"Well, that explains you being on time for once," he added, walking over to pat the now alert dog behind the ears. "So what's up, P-chan?"

Ryouga frowned darkly at the pigtailed fighter. "On time? I've been here for **two hours**! What the heck took you? I even waited until Yankee squad finished our morning training session before I left that damn note!"

Suddenly, the pigtailed one broke into a fit of laughter.

"Wait, so… so **you** actually had to wait for **me**?" he slapped his leg and nearly doubled over. "Oh, that's rich! That **is** rich! Now you know how it feels, man!"

"Oh, shut up," Ryouga grumbled under his breath. "You're actually making me want to change my mind about this whole damn idea."

"I headed over as soon as I got the chance," Ranma said, calming a bit and tucking his hands into his pants pockets. He casually strolled over. "So what's this all about anyway?"

Still frowning, Ryouga glared at his ... well, not technically 'his' rival, but close enough to still find him incredibly annoying. He considered calling it all off, but finally crossed his arms over his chest in a huff and bit the bullet.

"Well, it's just that I ... I read the reports that my squad filled out yesterday and I heard that Jinx was giving Juliet squad some grief while Raven and I were transporting our civilian to safety. I just..." Ryouga took a deep breath, a small part of him hoping that he might choke to death in the next 0.5 seconds, before continuing. "I just wanted to apologize on behalf of Yankee squad. I don't want any bad blood between our teams, and I promise that I'll talk to Jinx about it later."

Ranma smirked; an annoying gesture that echoed the one Ryouga knew from back home.

"Don't worry about it," the pigtailed one replied offhandedly, "I was kinda asking for some of it, too, and I think the situation had all of us kind of on edge. Personally, I'd like it if we all could just get along. From what I've seen, you guys really should mesh with us better than most of the other teams here."

Ryouga nodded, agreeing with part of that at least. "I think Juliet and Yankee squads could work well together, too. It's something that we can work towards, anyway. Perhaps set up some team training and such. I know that Raven, Starfire and Jinx have been in the Psi Gym since we finished our combat run this morning, so maybe some pointers in that area as well...?"

"Yeah, sure. That sounds great!" the Saotome heir seemed happy with the prospect. "Psi-attacks really are about the worst thing out there. We're all pretty tough already, physically I mean, but back when we first joined up, getting our psi defenses up was basically priority number one. Nothing worse than someone screwing with your head in a fight."

Ryouga rolled his eyes. "Trust me, I know **all** about that. I'll have to tell you about the Headmaster sometime. Anyway, as for the rest of the reason I asked you here..."

The Hibiki dropped into a combat stance, chuckling to himself. "I know how frustrated you can get when someone gets on your nerves and there's nothing you can do about it. So instead of having you get mad at Jinx, I figured I'd give you someone else to vent on for a bit." He smirked nastily then. "I mean, not that you actually _could_ hurt me, what with your girly muscles and what not, but I figure at least going through the motions would make you feel better, right?"

"Why, P-chan," Ranma asked, almost coyly. "Are you trying to goad me into a fight?"

"Heh. _Goad you?_ Why would I need to do that, when I can just do 'this'?"

With that, Ryouga launched himself at the pigtailed fighter in a full on bullrush.

Twenty minutes later, Ranma dusted his hands off on his pants, a broad, satisfied smile splitting his face. Turning to the crumpled heap of Hibiki sitting at the far side of the room, he gave a jaunty wave.

"Hey, that wasn't half bad for a workout!" he declared with a trademark cocky grin. "Don't feel too bad 'bout losin', I am a Ryouga-defeating expert, after all! Anyway, I'll catch up with ya later."

Ryouga gurgled something incomprehensible, but that he was fairly sure was a curse of one sort or another. Grinning practically from ear to ear, and thoroughly enjoying the little trip down memory lane, the Lieutenant then headed back out the indestructible Dojo, reasonably sure his opponent wasn't in such bad shape as to need to be taken anywhere. His hand triggered the door to open, but as it did, he appeared to remember something else, and glanced back over his shoulder.

"Hey," Ranma said, voice growing more serious. "You guys got some mail tellin' ya about a certain appointment, right?"

Ryouga frowned at the vague question/statement. "Hmm? I don't know what you're talking about. We've been a bit too busy to be checking up on Star's latest Lolcat sightings."

"You've all got computer access, login IDs, and inboxes for a reason, ya know?" Ranma asked. "We don't usually have to go tell everyone everything in person anymore. Each one of ya should have an appointment with one of the base psychs sometime today, so keep an ear on the ground."

Rolling back to his feet, Ryouga dusted off his shirt. "I didn't realize you guys were so lazy that you gave out all of your orders by email these days." The words were said in a mostly friendly tone, but it was obvious that being told about something so important in such a vague, round-about way irked him. "Besides, why on earth would we need to visit a shrink, anyway? We were already cleared for alien imprints... or whatever you call them... when we got back yesterday."

"Its a mental health thing," the Lieutenant answered but provided little explanation, "This was yer first time out on such a big operation, and anyway, everyone gets checked after their first Op. PTSD and all that. Ya see things, or ya do things... and..." Ranma shook his head, clearly not wanting to go into too much detail. "It helps sometimes ta talk about it and stuff. Plus ya gotta do it. Its an order."

Again, Ryouga grumbled under his breath, "Woulda been nice to have actually been 'given' the order earlier... Now I gotta track everyone down and tell them..." He then looked to the Lieutenant. "Sounds like a waste of time, to me, but if it's an order, then I guess we don't have any choice. Alright then, Lieutenant, thanks for the spar. I'll see what I can do with setting up the head shrinking."

"I'm sure they already know. A notification would've popped up the moment they logged into anything electronic around here," Ranma said and turned away to head out the door. "It may seem like a waste'a time, but we all go. It ain't nothin' to be ashamed of."

"No one mentioned it during our morning training," Ryouga replied, a bit annoyed by his CO's continuing presumptions. It was almost like Ranma was trying to make it sound like it was their fault for not checking on something as inane as their email, as opposed to his own for not telling them something that it was clearly his responsibility for passing on. Still, Ryouga didn't want to undo the little bit of good will he'd fostered this morning, so he just shrugged and nodded. "Fine, whatever. I still don't think we need it, but we'll go.

"Don't let it get ya too bent out of shape. You might be surprised, but it's not nearly as bad as you think it'll be," Ranma replied, and finally headed out. "See ya around, man."

A second later, the door slid shut behind him. The second it did, Ryouga frowned once more.

"Psychologists?" he muttered to himself. The _last_ thing he wanted to do was talk to some fruitcake sitting in a leather chair and tell them about his 'feelings'. On the other hand, the fact that they were actually being given the chance to _talk_ about things, rather than just having the answers pried out of their minds psionically was at least a little heartening.

Lords, but he knew that Starfire would not like it when she heard about this. As much as she tried to hide it, he knew she was still sore over what had happened to her while she was a captive of this organization. He could only hope that everyone else would be more receptive...

He snorted loudly. _Good luck with that score._

Still, he couldn't let this bothersome news distract him from his real purpose for coming here. He supposed he would have to cut Ranma a little slack, considering how he had manipulated this entire meeting for his own benefit. In retrospect, he almost felt bad about it now.

Doing his best to mimic his counterpart's fighting style hadn't been too difficult, since they were so similar in most ways, and the practiced ease which Ranma had responded with had been quite telling, notably how he dealt with some of the tricks he'd mimicked. Most of all, though, there had been one thing that Ranma had demonstrated that Ryouga had never seen before, though he'd heard of it.

"So that was the infamous Umisenken, was it? Helluva dirty trick, that ..."

It would have to wait till after these 'psych meetings' or whatever... but yes, Ryouga had a few ideas now.

* * *

Raven looked down at the small scrap of paper in her hand. The hastily scrawled 'address' written by her 'commanding officer' was barely legible – surprising, really, considering Ryouga usually had such lovely penmanship – but she was still fairly certain that she was in the right region of the base. It didn't help much that the corridor she was walking down looked more or less like every other corridor she had walked down so far, but at least the lettering system used to map out the installation was easy enough to follow.

Taking a moment to smooth out her skirt and shift her blouse, she nodded to herself and continued her small trek. The psychologist's office should be right around the corner, providing that Ryouga's direction could be trusted. She really should have checked on the computer before leaving Nabiki's room. Hopefully she could get this inconvenience sorted out quickly.

The violet-eyed Titan could still scarcely believe that she was being sent to see a psychologist. On one hand, she was easily the most mature and level headed of all of her contemporaries, and that included both India and Juliet. The idea that she should need to see a 'shrink,' as Cyborg and Ryouga had called them, was almost a bit offensive.

Of course, on the other hand, she had enough mental …issues… that she was also frightened that they might never let her leave the doctor's office ever again. Her Father issues alone… Raven's shoulders shook violently and she forced that disturbing line of thoughts from her mind with brutal efficiency. Yes, it would be best to get this over and done with as quickly and painlessly as possible. If worst came to worst, maybe she could just brainwash the psychologist into giving her a passing review?

The corner of her lip curled at that obviously inane idea.

A moment later, she found herself before a dull gray metal door – looking almost exactly like every other dull gray metal door in this facility – only standing out by the name clearly printed on the outside of the portal. Doctor Phillips, was it? She found herself curious as to just what kind of office this person had. Would there be the stereotypical leather couch that was inevitably present in any television show psychologist office? Shrugging at the silly thought, she touched her finger to the obvious buzzer button on the side of the door, as knocking would probably only end up in bruising her knuckles.

The door opened, parting and retracting into the walls. The size and general shape of the room was no surprise. As one would expect from a military facility, everything was built along identical floorplans, and one office area was functionally identical to any other, in this case a simple rectangle. The walls were a sterile white, but the monotony was broken by several landscape pictures - actual framed pictures - and some documents, including a medical degree. This last one was kept adjacent to the doctor's desk, positioned in a far corner so as to leave most of the room wide open. As expected, there was a couch, but it was a soft looking eggshell polyester, not leather. There was a matching chair opposite and a low wooden table between, at an angle.

"Miss Raven. Good to see you." Already getting up as he spoke was Doctor Phillips.

He was a fairly average looking man, American, Caucasian, with brown hair, brown eyes and a clean shaven face. He wore a very similar uniform to that of everyone else, but tan instead of olive green. Despite being in a purely non combat role, he seemed to be fairly young (Raven estimated his age to be maybe thirty) and in pretty good shape. She wondered if he was a civilian consultant, or if he graduated from an army medical college, and stole another look at the medical degree near his desk.

"It is a ...dubious... pleasure to meet you, Doctor," she replied. Regardless, she still took his offered hand and gave it an amicable shake.

"Why don't you have a seat?" he asked, gesturing to the couch.

Nodding, she moved to do so. Her first instinct was to float above the piece of furniture... but she was quickly disabused of that notion when she recalled that she was currently wearing a somewhat short skirt which would likely not survive if she even attempted to sit cross legged.

As such, in the end, she did as he asked and sat primly on the edge of the drab looking couch. Once she was comfortable, she simply graced the psychologist with an expectant look.

"Hmm..." he murmured, sitting down with a clipboard, flipping through a few sheets of papers. "Before we begin, I'd like to ask how you're sleeping? No problems with the Mind Shield?"

A smile twisted her lip before she could stop herself. Quickly quashing her errant grin with a neutral expression, she nodded. "I have been sleeping... satisfactorily lately. I'm still not completely comfortable being Nabiki's roommate..."

Especially since her roommate had been gone the night, leaving Raven with some rather interesting and disturbing implications.

"But beyond that, I have no complaints."

"I believe you'll have some new living arrangements soon. So no problems with the Mind Shield, that's good. And are you adjusting alright to life on the base?" he asked, getting comfortable in his chair. There were a few water bottles under the table nearby, and he reached down to put two of them on the table. Clearly one for each of them, in case she got thirsty or just needed something to drink.

She shrugged at his question. "'Adjusting' seems to imply that we have some choice in the matter. I would say that I am acclimating to the situation as well as can be expected. In case you haven't heard, we're... not exactly the most popular team on the base at the moment."

"You're having trouble with the other combat teams specifically?"

Raven quirked an eyebrow. "So, you haven't heard, then? Interesting. Why don't you tell me how that makes you feel?"

As if he hadn't had patients use that old line on him before.

"We're not a monolith, Miss Raven," he replied smoothly, not willing to be sidetracked. "And while I am a psychiatrist, I'm not an empath. Of course, you _are_ an empath, and we're here to talk about how _you_ feel. You've been through some unusual events recently. Why don't you tell me what happened, from your point of view, and if its troubling you?"

"Well, how far back did you want to go?" she asked in a leading tone. "'Unusual events' is something of a vague statement in regards to my life. Would you like to go back to the first set of unusual events which I experienced? If so, I'm sure that there are a few childhood stories of mine that would utterly fascinate you."

"Start wherever you feel comfortable, but eventually we'll need to discuss what's happened specifically over the last few days."

Raven tapped her chin at that, unable to keep her amusement from getting the best of her. This Dr Phillips seemed to be a bit of a curmudgeon.

"Well, just recently, I found myself put into a must unprecedented situation. I was just doing some work in the Psi gym, when my commanding officer ordered me to go meet with a psychologist."

"I assume you've never been to one before?"

"No, I have not," she replied in a deadpan.

"Many see visiting a psychiatrist as something of a personal insult. That people will think less of them for it," he explained in a neutral tone. "What do you think? I'm unfamiliar with how things are back in your dimension."

"It's not generally something I concern myself with," she stated evenly. "The most famous asylum that I know, however, deals exclusively with only the most vile and deranged of criminals. Even someone with a past like mine would be... disparaged... to be sent to Arkham Asylum..."

"That's interesting," Doctor Phillips replied, "Our world hasn't had proper, ahm, 'lunatic asylums,' for almost half a century." He gave her an honest, level look. "This isn't anything like that. We believe mental health and well being to be just as important to the functioning of a solider... and a human being... as physical health. In fact, the two are very closely related. You can not have a healthy body without a healthy mind. You aren't being sent here as punishment, Miss Raven, and I'm not going to 'commit' you or anything of the sort."

"Of course you aren't," she replied wryly, "I'm easily one of the least insane people in your employ currently. I mean, just consider the rest of the people one can use for comparison."

Shrugging, she leaned back to rest on one of her hands. "Honestly, I already know what this is about, and I must say that it is highly unnecessary. I have been in numerous combat situations before this latest one. My life has not been irrevocably altered by the experience."

"Then it should be routine to go back over it, just like you did for your mission report," Phillips motioned for her to relax. "Why don't we start with the addition of Miss Jinx to your team? According to these notes, she was an old opponent of yours."

Raven nodded at that. "The term 'old' might not be quite appropriate, but yes. However, under Ryouga's command she acquitted herself surprisingly well ... all things considered... So there really isn't anything negative I can say at the moment."

"The foundation of a team is trust, and that can't be applied on demand. It's good that you're putting the past behind and being open minded towards a former enemy. As a multinational organization, you can imagine that there are quite a few men and women here who stood on opposite ends of the Iron Curtain..." He suddenly realized that may not have been a reference she understood. "I assume you had a Cold War on your Earth?"

"I... vaguely recall something about that being mentioned. Though I am an enthusiast of Earth history, my preference is more towards the ancient spectrum of things. I'm sure that Cyborg would know more." She shrugged her shoulders. "Though, I think I understand the implication, at least."

"Good. I'll have to watch my historical references, I see. So why don't we go over Operation Black Tiger and anything else of note that came before or after," he prompted, resting his clipboard against his knee and thigh. "This was your first time using actual psionic attacks against enemy combatants, wasn't it?"

"Indeed. It was an interesting experience, for lack of a better word," she explained carefully. "It was actually far easier than I expected. Not pleasant, by any stretch, but ...easy..."

"I've been told it's very different than practicing psionics with another human?"

"That is something of an understatement" she acknowledged. "It was like immersing my mind into a pool of rancid tar... if such a thing even exists. The aliens are so different... I am actually somewhat surprised our minds are even compatible."

"In many ways, they aren't. Especially some of the non-humanoid ones." Phillips jotted down a quick note. "But you said psionic combat was far easier than you expected, as well?"

"I don't know how to explain it," she offered, "I had expected a titanic struggle of wills or a battle on the astral plane or something, considering this was the first time I'd actually engaged in psychic combat with another psychic individual. In the end though, it seemed that all I needed to do was pick a technique, apply enough pressure, and the Sectoids will, its mind just... broke."

The doctor gave a contemplative 'mm' of agreement. "When it comes to simple mental domination, the issue is often decided in a split second, and the moment one loses the advantage it is almost impossible to recover. It is also much easier to attack than defend. This is true of both aliens and human beings. It is also why psionic combat is so dangerous. Whoever shoots first typically wins."

He smirked. "But I'm sure you've heard this from the men and women down at the psi gym. Why don't you tell me how it felt using your psionics in combat? To be able to really cut loose outside of controlled conditions?"

"Again, it was... interesting," she replied, not wanting to overstate things, or come across as power mad. "It was somewhat disappointing that I was unable to actually test myself fully against the Ethereal we captured, but that is probably for the best at this point."

She 'hmmd' herself at that point, curious. "Tell me... what to others usually say about their experience in psionic combat?"

"I won't mention anyone specifically," he cautioned, understandably. "But in general, I'd say most of the younger trained psychics react like you do. They train and train, and then they're surprised by how well it all works. Some are more powerful than others, but the act of using psionics is accompanied by an adrenalin rush and a surge of endorphins. It makes you feel powerful in a way most can't imagine or describe."

"Its only natural to feel that way," he assured her, seeing her eyes dart away for a second. "In the more experienced soldiers, the headiness of it fades as they become more cautious and methodical. In that way, psionic combat is a lot like normal combat."

Despite her initial hesitation, Raven let out a small chuckle. "I will admit that it was somewhat exciting. However, it was really nothing in comparison to the power which I usually wield. It was just new, is all, nothing more."

"It was 'just new'?" he asked, curious, inquiring about the differences she'd alluded to.

"I am getting the impression that you weren't actually briefed too deeply on those of us in Yankee squadron," she stated plainly. "Or you're just milking me for information. As I'm sure you know, I am relatively new to the arena of purely mental combat and this was _not_ the first time I engaged in psionic combat. And in my home dimension, the telekinetic powers at my disposal are ...exponentially greater than any I have witnessed on this world."

She pinned him with a serious glance. "The enemy is unfamiliar, and your methodology is different from what I am accustomed to, but as I said: my life was not irrevocably altered by the experience. I don't _do_ overwhelmed. I was simply ...whelmed by my encounter."

"I see," came the studious reply, followed by a quick note on the clipboard and a flip of pages. "Tell me, what do you think of the aliens you mind controlled? ...ah, but I don't mean, in comparison to yourself or anything. I mean: how did it feel to finally encounter them outside of a morgue or simulation?"

"I'm not sure what you mean," Raven inquired curiously. "They were quite ...alien... I suppose. The Chryssalids were decidedly vile, and the Ethereal was suitably reprehensible, but... what exactly are you asking about?"

"As horrific as they are, creatures like Sectoids are as sentient as any human being," Phillips observed, tapping the end of his pen against the metal part of the clipboard. "Your team was engaged in life or death combat with them during which several of the creatures were killed."

"My team is often engaged in life or death combat," she replied drolly, tone a little defensive. "And yes, I am aware that the others might have had to ...to kill some of the aliens." She quickly added under her breath, "Some more zealously than others."

"Am I right in assuming that this is unusual for your team?"

This time her nod was slow. "It is."

"Why don't we talk about that?" Phillips asked with that careful, neutral tone that seemed to be his default speech pattern.

It was about this point in the conversation that Raven was beginning to reconsider her idea of simply brainwashing the man into leaving her be. She could already tell that this 'session' was going to be endlessly troublesome.

"Very well," she finally conceded. "I suppose I should explain how it is the Teen Titans usually operate, first..."

* * *

Looking up from his notepad, Dr Phillips stared at his latest patient. If anything, the girl before him was even more bizarre than the first. Bright pink hair worn in a gravity defying style, and equally pink eyes … which were actually slit like those of a cat. From the file he had been given, both affectations were natural, as well, and not simply a result of dyes or special contacts.

The young Miss Raven had at least come across as a fairly normal and thoughtful person, though with a few notable issues she wasn't anywhere near wanting to broach (yet). This young woman, lounging lazily back on his couch, appeared to be studying him like a cat would a mouse. The fact that, when she had first sat down, she had somehow made her eyes actually emanate a molten pink light was like nothing he had ever seen before.

The file said 'human' but really: weird girl.

Still, he had a job to do, and thankfully his current guest did not share her teammate's empathic abilities, so it was unlikely that she would be able to sense his unease at the situation.

"So… Jinx, was it?" he began in a neutral manner.

Rather than answer, she simply scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Hmm, yes. I suppose there is no need for pleasantries. Tell me, have you ever visited a psychologist before?"

At that, a nasty grin curled the young woman's lips. He almost expected to see fangs in her smile, not unlike Lieutenant Hibiki, but her teeth looked surprisingly normal. She followed her grin with a nod.

"I did go to a shrink's once, actually." She answered, rolling her left wrist absently. "Unfortunately, the guy came back to his office while I was still going through his patient's files. Honestly, what kind of guy goes to his office at ten at night?"

"So, when you say 'went to a psychologist' – to paraphrase – you actually mean that you had broken into his office to steal his records?" He had heard that this one had a criminal record back home, but it was unusual to meet someone so flagrant in admitting to their crimes. Such behavior could be indicative of deeper issues. It also clearly wasn't what he had asked, so she was being evasive, as expected.

"Yeah, pretty much," she admitted gleefully. "Too bad he tried to call the cops, though. Had to toss him out a window."

Dr. Phillips' eyes widened marginally at that admission. "You killed him?"

Jinx simply stared at him for a moment, her gaze oddly unsettling in its intensity… only for her to shrug and laugh a second later. "Heh, naw! We were only on the first floor. But I tell ya, the way the guy was blubbering, it sure as heck seemed like he'd forgotten that fact. Still, he did teach me an invaluable lesson, though."

The doctor quirked an eyebrow. Honestly, this conversation was completely off topic, but it was utterly fascinating. True, he dealt with dangerously violent people on a daily basis, but nearly to a person, those people were well conditioned into the UNETCO organization (or into other military structures prior to being sent over). He was in no more danger from the most seasoned veteran than he was from a member of the financial department.

But this girl was not a member of the organization, in fact, she had very blatant issues with authority. Despite being less than a third of the size of some of the men that had graced his couch, this girl put off a dangerous, unpredictable vibe that was, to be honest, just a touch unnerving.

"Tell me, what was it that he taught you?"

Her smile only grew, and her eyes flashed pink once more. "He taught me that, no matter how fancy one of you people talk, you're still just normal people. You can only ever give the _illusion_ of actually being in control of this meeting, because both of us know that I am the one with all of the power in this room."

"That is an interesting conclusion," he replied, actually smiling now. "Though it does beg the question. If you have all of the power, then why are you here at all?"

"Well, obviously because there is something even more powerful than me forcing me to be here," she stated evenly.

He nodded at that. Obviously she was referring to the fact that she had been ordered to come. For all of her bluster, this girl was actually in a very tenuous situation. She knew that-

"By which I mean my _love stricken teenage heart_," Jinx suddenly amended, clasping her hands to the side of her face in a very clichéd manner.

"…Excuse me?" he asked, a bit thrown by the sudden nonsequiter.

She rolled her eyes at him as if he's missed the most obvious thing in the world. "Obviously, the only reason that I'm here is because my Ryouga asked me to come. For all that I care, you and your psycho employing bosses can hop in the nearest hand basket to some place really warm, if ya know what I mean?"

_'Psycho employing bosses?'_ Oh, right. Though it was highly classified, he had been told of the incident. Considering how it directly related to the Lieutenant's mental well being, it was all but impossible for them to avoid discussing it.

"Tell me. Your …reluctance… to cooperate with our organization. Does it stem from the military and highly structured nature of our group diametrically opposing your own world view… or is there a more personal issue which you might like to discuss? Perhaps concerning Lieutenant Hibiki?"

If the issue hadn't been obvious before, the way the girl reacted at the mere mention of the Lieutenant's name – an actual, physical recoil and a loud hiss baring her teeth – it was all but impossible to miss now. What had been a somewhat playful, if mildly threatening demeanor instantly shifted into an emotionally charged posture as she leaned forward sharply.

"Your Lieutenant is a murdering _ass_!" she snapped, "He's damn lucky that we were able to find a replacement for the Ethereal. If it wasn't for that… if it wasn't for Ryouga, I'd have…"

She trailed off uncertainly, tellingly. Jinx's eyes fell and her small fists pressed deeply into the material of his couch. Her anger was palpable… but so was her pain. Just from what he'd seen of her in this short time, coupled with what he had read in her – admittedly abrupt – file, told him that this was a girl who was not accustomed to becoming emotionally attached to others. To form such a bond so quickly, only to have it threatened in such a way… It was no surprise that she looked to be so upset.

"So, you don't believe that the Lieutenant had sufficient cause to do what he did?" he asked.

He was actually forced to lean back, as a flash of pink suddenly enveloped the girl, from head to toe. The stink of smoke filled the air as thin wafts of blackened ash rose up from his couch, minor scorch marks marring the material around where the girl was sitting.

"_Sufficient cause_?" she snarled. "You don't _ever_ say that to me, _got it_?"

Even though there was no actual threat spoken, he still felt an unexpected tingle run down his spine. For just a fraction of a second there, he felt that she might try to find the closest window to toss him out of. Except, of course, them being underground and all that. Her upholstery ruining wrath lasted only for a moment, though, before she calmed back down. Staring at him through lidded eyes, she gave another low snort.

"For everything that she was… Akari was a moron," she said, acidly. "You wouldn't even believe the stuff she would go on about while we were out in the woods. She was so damn wrapped up in her _ideas_ and perceptions on how things were _supposed_ to work between people. She was probably so worried about messing up Ry – the Lieutenant's life, that she just told him to off her to give him an easy out."

Jinx paused for a moment, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. She stared straight ahead after that, her gaze resting on a blank section of the wall, though he suspected what she was actually seeing was a world removed from this small room.

"And what right did he have to do that, anyway?" she bit off darkly. "She was _my_ Akari, not _his_. I made her, I nearly killed myself a dozen times over just to get her out of there… and then he thinks he can just waltz in and kill her? Just like that? God _damned_ piece of _sh_-"

"Ahem!" Dr Phillip coughed loudly into his hand, cutting off his patient's diatribe before she could anger herself any further. "I believe I'm beginning to see the root of the problem. Unfortunately, this session is merely a mission specific review, as it were. A brief overview to determine if the mission in which you participated had any negative affects on you."

Leaning forward, doing his best to ignore the smell of scorched polyester, he offered her a reassuring smile. "However, if you were to agree… I would be glad to schedule a series of more formal sessions, in which we can discuss this, and any other issues you might have in more depth. I know that you feel justified in your dislike of the Lieutenant, but perhaps, given enough time, we could help-"

"Um, yeah, no thanks," Jinx replied quickly. "I'll pass on the 'regular visits'."

Dr Phillips nodded. Of course, that had been exactly the response he had expected. However, if she thought that he would give up so easily, she was sadly mistaken. This girl was a fascinating psychological study, in and of herself. The fact that, from the reports he had received, Jinx was a major point of contention with numerous people, even people from her own team, was all the more reason to try to help her work through her, undoubtedly numerous, psychological issues.

But he had time, and he knew that the more force you applied, the more resistance you encountered. No, there were more subtle ways to go about this.

"That is …regrettable," he lamented, "I think you might be surprised at how cathartic it can be to have someone to talk to about these kinds of things."

She shook her head, cutting a hand through the air for emphasis. "Sorry, I already tried the 'talking about my feelings' crap with Akari. Considering the fact that I nearly blasted her – and I actually liked her - I don't like your chances of surviving that kind of talk."

He couldn't help by grin wryly at the semi serious threat. "Very well. If that's how you feel. Perhaps you'll change your mind later." He paused for a moment. "Oh, by the way, I was asked to remind you that you are scheduled for your official mind scan after this session. It's simply standard procedure, I assure you, and nothing to worry about."

At that, Jinx glared at him and added on a derisive scoff. "Tell that to Starfire. Anyway, I already told Ranma that as far as mind scans go, you can kiss my sweet, sweet ass. I don't need some perverted sicko rooting through all of my most personal thoughts and memories."

"I can assure you that the people whom conduct these scans are extremely professional, and will do their utmost to respect your privacy as-"

"As they stick their damned noses in every single one of my memories?" she bit back. "Kind of a logical conundrum there, don't ya think, doc?"

He let out a weary sigh at that. "I understand that you, of all people, are reluctant to have people looking at your past. However, you have to understand that it is a measure that is integral to the security of our organization. Our enemies-"

"Can _also_ kiss my ass."

Hmm, perhaps a different tactic?

"And if Acting Sergeant Hibiki were to ask you to?" he inquired.

Jinx began to huff indignantly… only to nearly visibly deflate a second later. "For _him_ I would do it… But he'd _better_ not ask me to, cuz he _knows_ that if he asks something like that, that he'll owe me something _huge_!"

"And… would him being in your debt really be all that bad?"

Jinx stared at him blankly for a few seconds… only for a sly smile to grow on her lips. "Heh, doc, I think you're finally learning to speak my language."

"The basis of any relationship is communication, after all."

* * *

"-and that was when I used some loose wiring in my arm to shock the Ethereal. I'd say, on a guess, that the shock was roughly thirty seven thousand three hundred and twenty volts and roughly ninety five point two milliamps for about seven point eight seven seconds." The cybernetic man looked down at his hand, the blackened and twisted metal that covered most of his left arm standing out starkly from the relatively pristine white and blue material covering most of the rest of his body. "Of course, I can go back to my report to get more exact figures for you, if you want, Doc."

Dr Phillips shook his head, more to keep himself alert than to signal a negative. One would have thought, all things considered, that his attention would have been rapt. He had thought his last patient had been of unusual appearance. Apparently they were just easing him into exactly how bizarre this situation truly was. He was almost worried about the next meeting he had scheduled.

"I'm sure that won't be necessary… Cyborg?" He paused. "Are you certain you wouldn't feel more comfortable going by your given name? 'Cyborg' seems a bit… impersonal."

Obviously not feeling any pain from his limb, despite how damaged his arm appeared to be, his patient fired an annoyed glance his way. "It ain't impersonal to me. It's what I go by, Doc."

Sighing, he nodded. "Very well, Cyborg. I thank you for your …exhaustive… recounting of your mission. Let me ask, though. Beyond a blow by blow account of what occurred can you tell me if how the mission made you feel? Were there any issues, personal or otherwise that came up over the duration of your time in Russia?"

The cybernetic teen tapped his chin. "Hmm, I dunno, it's hard to say. I mean, it all happened so fast, y'know? I mean, what with this surprise meeting, I haven't even had time to fix myself up yet."

Cyborg held up his arm for emphasis. "Heck, I barely even had time to get the proper requisition forms filled out this morning just to get the fabrication process started before I got dragged in here. Lord knows how long it'll take me to finish up now."

"I don't believe it was anyone's intent that you or the others be something as stressful as a terror site from the get-go," Phillips explained. "But every new recruit is brought in after their first contact with the enemy. As I've seen things play out, Yankee squad's first mission would normally have been to go along with a more experienced team on a UFO recovery. Cutting one's teeth as it were."

"Heh, well, our teeth are plenty cut already," Cyborg replied with a grin. "Hardly the first time we've had to deal with evil alien invasions. Well, either that or the big guys upstairs wanted us to get offed, or something. But they wouldn't do something like that, right?"

A nervous laugh ensued.

"Hmm, that's right: this isn't the first alien invasion you've had to fight off?" the doctor asked, tapping his pen against the lip of his chin. "For many, simply encountering alien life in an uncontrolled environment is rather jarring, but you're in the unique position of having known about alien presences on your-Earth all your life?"

"Yeah pretty much," the teen agreed with a casual tone, the subject as humdrum as the weather. "We've had aliens running around for decades. High profile types. They tend to run the gamut from world savior, to world conqueror, though, so ya can't really just explain them away as all being alike."

"Aside from Miss Starfire, what has been your personal experience with them, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Well, like I said, you got all kinds. I've seen Superman in action, and we got some help from the Martian Manhunter after the whole Hive thing went down with Ryo. So in those cases, you can't ask for better help anywhere..." Cyborg then held up his undamaged hand. "Of course, on the other hand, you got things like the Gordanians threatening to blow up our city. And then the Thanagarians trying to turn the Earth into a Hyperspace Bypass, so yeah, kinda jerk moves, there."

"I see. These Gordanians?" Phillips asked, double checking something on his clipboard files. "The same ones that brought Starfire to your Earth, I assume? It says here that they held... 'Jump City' hostage in an attempt to recapture her. Why don't you share a bit more about what happened, from your perspective?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure what there is to share. The big green jerks had a big ol' energy cannon aimed right at our city. Woulda wiped Jump City right off the damn map if it'd gone off! After a bit of hide and seek, though, we took the fight to them, took out their cannon, and then their ship. Big old Hero moment, y'know?"

"What do you mean, you 'took out' their ship?"

"Well, I guess it was mostly Raven," the large teen admitted. "She got a bit peeved and pretty much blew up the entire bridge of the ship while we were fighting off their big, nasty, ugly Captain. Entire thing went down into the Bay after that. On the plus side, though, free building material!"

"And the aliens themselves?"

"Oh, they pretty much got sent a runnin', tails between their legs. Literally in this case, since they actually had tails and everything. Once everything was wrapped up, the JL swooped in and made sure they all got off planet without causing any more problems."

The doctor jotted down a quick notation, and nodded to himself. "Would you say then, that there is a values dissonance between that experience and the operation designated Black Tiger? While most active duty personnel in UNETCO are drawn from military personnel, more than a few are drawn from SWAT and police backgrounds. Including our own Commander Yasuda. Would you say you've had any difficulty adjusting to our different rules of engagement here?"

The teen seemed to take a moment to consider that.

"Well... yeah, it was weird," he admitted. "At the start, me, Star and Raven were goin' along, trying to do our own thing. You know, saving people and stuff? And all we hear is people on the comm goin' on about 'killed this guy, took out that guy' and so on. Other than that, it was no biggie..."

There was a short pause, a distant look entering his patient's eyes. "Then... then we ran into those Chryssalids... and the infected..."

"Hm-hm," the psychiatrist prompted, letting the Titan organize his thoughts and feelings on the matter. He'd meant what he'd said before, about police officers, even hardened SWAT members trained in counter terrorism, having more difficulty adjusting to this sort of fighting. It took a lot of work to convince a mentally sound and healthy human being to kill other sentient creatures, and an unstable or damaged trooper was as good as KIA. Discharge from service was inevitable after that; one would never see the front lines again if one simply killed without conscience or thought.

The result was often anxiety, guilt or confusion over a soldier's role in the broader mission, or even in society as a whole. Unfortunately, the emotional well-being of the individual soldier had to be weighed against the well being and lives of his comrades. As the saying went, a quote attributed to Colonel Matthew D. Parrish, chief of Army psychiatry: "The mission of Army psychiatry is to serve the mission of the Army." So long as the war was justified (and the survival of the human race was something most considered worth dying or fighting for) medical specialists would have to be there to help soldiers walk the tightrope of mental health that kept them doing their jobs, yet assured they ultimately came home from the battlefield able to cope with what they had seen and done and live with themselves in the peace they had fought so hard for.

Cyborg's organic eye crinkled a bit as he considered what else to say, or how to put it in words.

"I... well, yeah, that was... pretty bad," he finally said. "Seeing those people like that, I mean. I honestly don't think I've ever seen something so... so freaking _wrong_ in my life. Crushing those giant bug monsters was probably one of the best things I've ever done, damnit."

"Chryssalids are terror weapons. I think most of us would agree that stopping them before they could cause more carnage was a good thing." Still, Phillips felt this was just the tip of the iceburg with respect to this issue. True, Chryssalids were despicable creatures. Parasites. It was a safe topic to use before inching towards the more nebulous justifications used when killing the more humanoid aliens.

"It says here, Miss Starfire was shot during that engagement," he observed, having seen it highlighted in the Yankee mission summary assembled by Miss Tendo.

A visible shudder ran through the Cyborg at that. "Yeah... I think I nearly died of shock myself when that happened. I mean, I should have known that she would have been more or less fine. Just... All I saw was her take that shot in the back and... and hearing her in actual pain..." His expression hardened as he remembered, electronic brain more than willing to recall the incident with perfect clarity. "Just damn..."

"And you _acted_?"

"Well... yeah." Cyborg threw his hands into the air. "I mean, what else could we do? We - we _**all**_ thought that bastard had just killed Starfire and Raven both! What else were we supposed to do?"

"You were angry," Phillips stated the obvious, cupping his hands together. "And afraid for your friends. Everyone around you felt the same way."

"Of course we were angry! Who wouldn't be after seeing something like that? You think I could stand seeing my friends hurt like that... again...?"

"And after the threat was gone, how did you feel?"

"Feel?" echoed the young man. "Didn't have time to feel anything after that. Not until we finally had five seconds to breathe on our way to the Mayor's digs. Once we knew that Star and Raven were fine, though... I guess we were just all relieved."

"That makes sense. Anything else?"

A shrug. "Not really. I mean, we had places to go, people to see, and our friends were fine. We were good to go."

"A hypothetical question: would you have responded the same way if that had been a Gordanian who had shot at Miss Starfire and Miss Raven? Do you think your team would have responded the same way?"

A puzzled expression settled on the young man's face at his question. "Hmm... I don't know. I mean, the Gordanians only ever used stun based weapons, I guess since they wanted to take Star alive so we certainly wouldn't have freaked out like that. Then again, on the other hand, some of those Gordanians are every bit as tough as Star. It probably would have taken at least that much firepower just to knock the bastard out if he pulled something like that."

"You're avoiding the question," Phillips said with an understanding nod, explaining, "Am I incorrect in assuming you hadn't participated in killing any sentient being before Operation Black Tiger? You were briefed on the standard ROE used by the organization when your team became observers. You had to have known there was a good chance of combat. Everyone reacts differently to what some call 'being bloodied.' What is unusual and worrying is when people have no reaction to their actions at all."

"Yeah, I knew how you guys dealt with aliens before we went into the field," Cyborg replied after a moment. "And then we had Nabiki yelling in our ear about killing everything, and then seeing all that crap with the infected, and then Star..."

Cyborg dropped his gaze to his hands. His left hand closed, but it did so with a series of loud 'whirs' and sharp, jerky movements, as if the internal components weren't functioning properly.

"I mean, I heard some rumors a while back, back when the Thanagarians invaded. Some... people... were saying that the JL had killed a bunch them, on ships or whatever. Most people didn't give it the time of day. Its the JL, you know, and lotsa people were fighting the invasion in their own way. Even it wasn't just a buncha bad PR, it isn't like we blamed them for it. Saving the Earth and all."

Phillips made a note about that, and this 'JL' the Titans seemed to look up to. It had been mentioned a few times but he had next to no information on it in the files. On the surface, it appeared to be a group like the Titans themselves, but composed of adults.

"What do _you_ think?"

"What do I think?" Cyborg wondered with a deep breath. "It... everyone keeps saying that it's alright. That it's the right thing to do. That it doesn't even matter if we kill other _humans_, as long as we're part of your group. Because this is war, right? I guess... after the Snakeman, that I just stopped myself from thinking about it. After all, it wasn't like I even _saw_ any of the other aliens I ...might... have killed after that one..."

"Do you think Miss Tendo was wrong to try and urge you to do something that may have been against your conscience?"

"With the Chryssalid thing? I guess not, but I think she was way outta line even suggesting it at the mansion. No way we're gonna slaughter a bunch of defenseless goons! Just cuz it's easier on the paperwork, or whatever reason you guys have, it ain't no reason to go completely psycho!"

"Mm. Defenseless goons. An interesting description. Those same men who, I believe, had murdered... I believe there were eleven bodies found around the compound?" Phillips paused to check. "Yes. Eleven. Roughly the same number of infected that remained at the mall, after it was destroyed. Most wouldn't use the term 'defenseless' though I suppose it is relative."

"You said everyone keeps telling you it's alright," he continued, asking, "Again, I'll ask: what about what you think?"

"Well, I think it's obvious what we think," Cyborg replied quickly, "Except for maybe one or two of them, the guys in that mansion weren't even a slight threat to us. They were - what I'm saying is that there was no need to do anything but knock them out. Let the proper authorities deal with them! It was different with that Snakeman, though. The weapon it was using... if that had been anyone but Star that had been hit by it...! We couldn't afford to hold back against firepower like that."

"I didn't mean to question your judgment," Phillips said, holding up a hand in a calming gesture. "But if Yankee is going to see more combat, then that will mean continued operation under our Rules of Engagement. Our concern is that you are able to fight effectively without endangering yourselves or creating a situation where you have to compromise your principles. You have to be able to live with what you do in the field."

"Well, as long as no one orders us to start killing people that aren't a threat to us, then I don't think that will be an issue. Jinx filled us in on all the various reasons that we can't play by the normal rules. These aliens are just too damn dangerous. Yeah, it sucks, but ifs what we need to do to keep people safe... then we don't have any real choice, do we?"

Another quick note, and a flipped page.

"Speaking of Miss Jinx, I'm curious how you feel about her becoming a part of your team."

"Who, Jinx? Naw! She's alright!" He quickly slipped back into comfortable territory. "Sweet girl, really has a thing for Ryo, too. Man, I still remember the time I ran into her at the Hive Academy." The bulky teen lifted his arm, looking at the small screen imbedded in it.

"In fact, it happened at precisely 11:45:43 PM, and we were in the third sub basement, in the reactor section of the facility. I was moving down the corridor after an encounter with See-More exactly three minutes and seven seconds earlier..."

Doctor Phillips repressed a groan.

* * *

"Hmm…"

Dr Phillips 'hmm'd' for the fifth time in as many minutes. It was as much a simple act of breaking up the deafening silence which hung over the room, as it was to assist him in arranging his thoughts more efficiently. His current patient, while being purported as being the most open and friendly of Yankee squadron, was proving the most difficult to actually get a word out of.

'Starfire', as she wished to be called, as her actual name was Koriand'r, was certainly less bizarre in appearance than her cybernetic teammate, but her unusual skin pigmentation certainly gave her a most exotic look. With just a single look, he could tell that this was a girl who was more accustomed to wearing a smile on her face then the potently neutral expression which it currently bore. Sitting on the far end of his (at this point, unfairly abused) couch, the young woman rested tight fists on her knees, and was a few degrees away from having her back to him completely.

The tension in her frame was obvious, would have been obvious even to someone without his wealth of experience in reading people. It seemed that, if there was a place which Starfire wanted to be least in the world at the moment, it was in this office.

"I don't want to sound like I'm simply repeating myself here, Starfire, but there is no need for you to be so… on guard." He reiterated his opening line for the first time in several minutes. Unlike Jinx, who was only too eager to vent on him, and Cyborg, who seemed to enjoy the sound of his own voice the way most people enjoyed fine wine, this young woman was most reluctant to share her feelings, and he was fairly certain that forcing the issue would be a mistake.

"We're just here to talk," he assured her. "I only want to ask you about the mission you just went on. To try to understand how such a potentially traumatic event might have affected you. I'm not here to try to analyze you, or to trick you into saying anything that you're not comfortable speaking about."

Her emerald eyes – a fascinating array of green on green, even more interesting than Jinx's pink eyes, in their own way – flitted his way, for just a moment.

"Traumatic event?" she asked.

_'Ah, finally!'_ He nodded slowly. "I was told that you nearly died on the battlefield. It is not at all unusual for people to be shaken by such a near death experience."

She turned to regard him oddly, then, a look more akin to confusion than frustration on her face.

"Hmm?" Sudden realization dawned in the alien girl. "You are mistaken, Doctor. It was not myself who nearly perished during our mission." The self-titled Tamaranian let out a beleaguered sigh. "Though everyone mistakenly places their concern on me, everyone forgets the simple truth of the event of which you speak."

"Simple truth?" he echoed, interested.

"Indeed. I was never truly in mortal danger from the plasma burst; the one who had a… as you call it 'brush with death' was… Raven." A shudder ran through the tall girl's narrow frame. "Had my reaction been even a second slower, I would not have been able to interpose myself between her and the energy discharge. Had I failed to do so…"

Dr. Phillips nodded sagely. "Your friend appears to possess many gifts, but I'm guessing that a remarkable alien constitution is not among them?"

Though her eyes narrowed at his interrogative, she nodded nonetheless. "I did not wish to correct anyone in the short time after the incident, as the excitement over my 'survival' had overridden everyone's understanding of the situation. Nor did I believe that reminding Raven that it was _her_ who had just come within a _klor_ of dying would be beneficial to our situation."

He jotted down a few quick notes before turning his attention back to the young woman.

"Yes, I understand your reasoning. It was better for your team, and for the mission, to focus on the positive aspect of your miraculous resilience, rather than dwell on the near tragedy which could easily have occurred."

Oddly enough, as he studied her exotic features, he found himself feeling slightly disappointed that he was not getting a chance to see the 'bubbly, joyful' girl which everyone else had apparently come to know over the past few days. It was actually a topic he wanted to broach, but was uncertain how to approach it yet, as it was a most delicate subject.

He had read her file, after all. More so than any of her friends – barring Jinx, as she had just been brought in – this girl had reacted the most negatively to her capture and captivity. Due to her unusual and impressive powers, her captors had been forced to use extreme measures to bring her in. And then, due to the misunderstanding of her alien nature, her mental interrogation was much more intense; she had received a level of scanning normally reserved solely for alien combatants.

"Tell me, was there any other aspect of the mission which you found … unpalatable?" he asked, testing some waters. "I understand, from your friends' descriptions, that our methods differ greatly from your own." Perhaps he could work his way up to the more ominously looming issue.

Starfire regarded him for a moment, only to lower her gaze to the couch beneath her. "When… we were forced to end the lives of our opponents, of the various races which we met…"

He nodded knowingly.

"It is mentioned in here that you killed a Muton with your bare hands. Such a feat is almost unheard of, and not only because most combat takes place at a distance. To actually see your enemy's face, just as you land the finishing blow?" He didn't mention that, as aliens, there was often some detachment felt by many soldiers fighting the enemy: a speciesist 'us vs them' sort of thinking. "That must have had a powerful impact on you."

She stared blankly at the couch for a few seconds longer before finally responding. "It was not pleasant," she admitted with an uncomfortable pause. "However, it is not the first time I have ended an opponent's life."

"Ah yes. According to your file, before you came to Earth, you were..." He checked his notes quickly, finding the excerpt in question. "Involved in an 'interstellar war' of some sort?"

Just as he expected with his small prod, just the mere mention of her file, and of her past, was enough to bring a flash of emerald light to her eyes. Yes, her interrogation was definitely a sensitive point. He would have to be extremely careful how he approached it. Before she could form a reply, he acted to quickly redirect the flow of the discussion.

"So, with your prior experience, the notion of bloodshed is not unfamiliar to you. If that is the case, though, then why did you say that the idea of 'killing' disturbed you, earlier?"

Thankfully, the alien girl's expression soon calmed, and she resumed her examination of the singed couch cushion. "It was not concern for myself which I was referring to. The concern I was feeling was for my friends. I… fear that the wickedness and hypocrisies of this world may be… beginning to infect their perceptions."

He stared at her for a moment. That had certainly been an unexpected response; he quickly made note of it.

"Tell me," he asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Perhaps it was just the act of finally being able to speak her mind, but it was as if a dam finally bursting from the pressure. Starfire leaned back to stare at the ceiling, much of the tension flowing from her body as she stared off into nothing.

"This…" She searched for the word for a moment. "This _damnable_ sense of inherent _homo sapien _superiority which you people flaunt so flagrantly. You bombard your minions with it, anyone that is even willing to listen – or forced to – endlessly, and without remorse. You build yourself up as paragons of virtue, incapable of any wrong doing, while at the same time painting your enemies as monsters."

Starfire turned a heated glare his way. "No, not just as monsters. As if their lives are without value, as if human lives are the only thing which is precious in this universe!"

"I-"

"Do you know how it felt for me? To watch my friends end the lives of other alien species, with not even a word of regret? Only to then have them turn around and casually declare, of course, that the _human_ opponents we encountered needed to face coddling human _'justice'_?"

The Tamaranian dropped her palms onto her knees, breathing shallowly as if to hold herself in check. Her eyes focused on something indistinct, some inoffensive picture or plain stretch of white wall, and her tongue darted out to anxiously lick her lower lip. Having come this far, however, Starfire continued, her thoughts spilling out:

"The mayor's minions… they were every bit the murderers that their alien masters were! They were every bit as evil!" she argued, hotly. "Yet for some reason, they deserved a more lenient response? Nabiki told us we were free to act however we felt necessary, yet what if I had suggested we show the same restraint and consideration to aliens that we show to humans? She would have laughed at me, I am sure."

"It troubles you to see a double standard in how your friends deal with threats?"

She shook her head fiercely. "It is not _them_ I blame! Things like this never occurred before we came to this place! How _can_ I blame them? With everyone here constantly telling them how vile the aliens are, while declaring how noble and just humans are? Such propaganda has often seen use in human culture, I have found."

"Now, I don't know if you're being completely fair," he replied. Setting down he notepad, he leaned forward slightly. "True, we do try to emphasis unity and cooperation amongst all of the human race. However, you must admit that our enemies are extremely dangerous, and utterly inhuman."

"Oh? … Inhuman?" Starfire parroted the word, as if sounding it out to herself. "This is a word which I have studied. One of its meanings refers to one lacking in human compassion and mercy. And yet after living amongst humans for so long, I have come to an inescapable conclusion. As a wise human once said 'There is no such thing as an inhuman act, for there is no act so vile that you cannot find a human willing, even eager, to commit it'."

He paused at that, not quite certain how to respond.

"Oddly enough, it had never bothered me before," she continued blithely, rolling her wrist. "After all, there is no race which I know of which is free from guilt. There are most despicable people on our Earth, this is true, but I always found they were balanced out by truly astonishing individuals."

Her airy statement slowly grew more bitter. "However, since coming here, I have seen so much of the former, but precious little of the latter. All I see are two merciless enemy armies, both fighting using the same tactics and strategies, even as one decries the other as being monstrous for using those self same approaches."

"That is far from true, Miss Starfire. Our enemies attack the innocent and helpless. Isn't that why you desired to join our organization in the first place?"

"Yes, in that you are correct… Though I must wonder," she replied, glancing his way. "Is the fact that you cannot reach your enemy's home the only thing stopping you from attacking their innocents as well? Tell me, when you end this war… will you care for the survivors? Will there be any survivors at all?"

He shifted uncomfortably at that. "That is a …difficult question to answer. Due to the nature of the alien Group Mind, there really are no _innocents_ among our enemy."

"How convenient." The Tamaranian sniffed loudly at that. "I believe your meaning is sufficiently clear."

He frowned at her implication. "I …must admit that I am somewhat surprised by the vehemence of your responses. From the reports I had received, I was under the impression that you were actually amiable to the organization and those around you. Quite the contrary, though, you appear somewhat hostile to UNETCO."

"Yes, well…" she trailed off weakly, "I have been – been suppressing my negative feelings of late. It was necessary to allow us to help the innocent people caught in the middle of your war… but it was by no means easy. Not when such a short period of time had elapsed since my own …mistreatment… at the hands of your organization."

Ah, so finally they were getting to the heart of things. According to the report, she had reacted much more negatively to the mind scan than her companions. It was likely this was due to a prior experience of confinement and experimentation by a hostile alien race. Previously known alien subjects existed in a constant state of mental contact with peers and superiors, and most humans hardly even noticed a mind probe being used on them. Circumstance had conspired against this young woman. Even with all they had learned, it was impossible to predict things like depression or anxiety that varied drastically among people. What one person could shrug off could traumatize another.

Her eyes shot away for a moment and she turned stonily silent.

He waited a moment, to see if she needed to collect her thoughts again, or if she would need some coaxing. One of her hands slowly tightened and balled into a fist that pressed into her thigh.

"I was not simply mind scanned as my companions were," she finally said. "No. No. Because I was not a _human_, my guilt was assumed before the first word was even spoken to me! Had I been human, I am sure they would have been shown mercy. Had I been human... they would have given me a chance! They would have believed me!"

He tried to get a word in, only to be cut off.

"That wicked, _vile_ man who interrogated me, he was not concerned with determining the veracity of my memories. He already believed them to be false from the beginning. I was just another scheming alien to him."

The room grew a few degrees warmer, becoming vaguely uncomfortable as she continued, "That man, and Herb, they did everything they could think of to _break_ my mind, not help me! I was bombarded with the most horrid visions of slaughter, again and again in endless loop!" She shuddered visibly, a haunted expression on her face. It quickly hardened again, though, as she recalled more of her experience. "Then, my memories were _twisted_ back upon themselves by that device they had, warped and distorted as they tried to force me to believe them _false_! Testing me, they said! They must be false, they said. An alien trick, they said!"

With that, she turned her heated gaze back his way. "Would you _dare_ to say that what was done to me was in anyway _right_? In anyway _justified_?" she demanded to know. "Simply because I am not _human_? Everyone else was treated better than I for no other reason!"

He could do little more than stare at her for a moment that passed far too slowly. Herb? Wasn't he the leader of Romeo squadron? He had been authorized to inflict a mental attack like that against a prisoner? The file had mentioned the grade and technical description of the techniques used, but... perhaps this was a trauma only one who had suffered it could truly understand. Practically, the concern was twofold in addition to the usual: this girl would undoubtedly be exposed to more psionic attacks on the battlefield. Was the lasting pain from the event due to the technique used, or because it felt like a betrayal?

Was it because _humans_ had done this to her, that it cut so deeply?

"I …apologize for any poor wording on my part," he conceded. "As you can imagine, the files I see are technically comprehensive, but often lacking. I only see what is believed to be relevant, none of the details. Even a normal mind scan can be disconcerting, even to a willing participant. But what you endured … sounds more like torture…"

"I have no real authority in dealing with prisoners, however, I want you to know that I am going to put in an inquiry in regards to your treatment," he promised. "It is one thing to verify a person's memories, it is quite another to try to destroy them."

Of course, it was just lip service, an empty promise to placate her anger. The key word was 'person.' He fully expected nothing to come of it, but a formal complaint was the least they could do. The military had a very brusque way of dealing with captured enemy aliens, one colored by decades of mutilation and abuse at alien hands. That wasn't likely to change so long as those methods appeared to get results and so long as the aliens remained a united and monolithic enemy intent on human experimentation and harvesting.

It was, now that he was forced to think about it, a perfect example of what she had said earlier. Using the same methods that the aliens used, the same methods that they called the aliens monsters for using… and yet, somehow, when it was them using them, it was suddenly justified. It was a sobering thought.

Maybe, one day... they could try and be a humanity closer to _this_ alien's expectations.

For just the briefest of moments, he was fairly certain that he caught a glimpse of that radiant smile that he had heard rumor of. It was gone just as quickly as it had appeared, but it was followed by a sharp nod; Starfire then returned to her seat on the couch, adopting a more relaxed posture.

"I… thank you for that small kindness," she quietly replied. "Though I have already reached something of a resolution with the odious Musk royalty, your concern is most welcome indeed."

He nodded in a supportive manner, and prepared to prompt her to continue -

"I will admit," she started suddenly, before he could even say a word. "Even with that dark shadow hanging above me… that for a time, my display of cooperation was growing more genuine than I had anticipated. Working with India squadron in those first days, it was…" The curve of her mouth twitched in a small smile. "It was fun, and I learned much."

"But then?"

She nodded sadly. "More so than my own mistreatment, and even greater than my concern for my friends' morality… the most tragic events concerning Akari disturbed me the most."

"I'm not surprised. This is not the first time this has come up. Acting Sergeant Hibiki and Jinx both raised concerns over the Lieutenant's actions already."

Again Starfire nodded, her hands wringing tightly around one another as she shifted her position on the couch. "Hearing that does not surprise me. What he did, it was…"

She shook her head violently, apparently not even wanting to think of the word she might say. A second later, though, she regained her composure and continued. "Regardless, while his actions saddened me greatly, it was not just his reaction to the situation which disturbed me. It was not only that. It was how _everyone_, every member of both India and Juliet - people that so closely resemble my beloved friends – reacted in turn."

"Hmm? How so?"

"It is just that… they all gave up hope on Akari so quickly." She sighed weakly. "Even after we risked our lives to save her, Ranma lamented that we acted at all. He congratulated us on defeating so powerful an enemy but derided us for doing it to save the life of another. It was – was painfully confusing to experience."

Dr Phillips nodded slowly. He supposed, coming from such a different world as she did, such reactions would seem quite odd. The two lieutenants were, if anything, quite pragmatic. Phillips had shared many counseling sessions with Lt. Hibiki regarding the traumatic abduction experience in which Miss Unryu was killed. He remained plagued by nightmares to this day, especially when outside the Mind Shield. From what he knew of this new situation, the chances of the girl surviving the process intact - which was to say, in any way retaining her humanity - the odds were literally astronomical.

Both Hibiki and Saotome also had a very conservative mindset in many respects. Both had been offered the chance to become Trenchards before. Both staunchly preferred death to alien enslavement, not just because of the loss of humanity, but because they knew it would inevitably lead to them harming innocents. They would both be very likely to consider a honorable death preferable to even a chance of being turned against their warrior code. If a significant other were to ask for the same treatment they, themselves would ask for, it was well within their profiles to act as Hibiki had.

Commander Yasuda should _never_ have let him get near Akari. The 'emotional closure' he had asked for was not worth the risk of it forcing him to disobey orders.

"I know... I know the chance of her emerging from this procedure to be very low," Starfire stated, obviously understanding but not agreeing. "But that is no reason not to try! I know, to my very bones, that if I were to fall deathly ill, and the only thing in all of the universe which had even the most _infinitesimal_ chance of saving my life resided within the very firepits of _Apokolips_ itself… That my friends would fight their way across the stars and do battle with Darkseid himself, just to give me that slight chance to live."

Her gaze dropped at that. "Even if I... gave up on myself and believed myself beyond salvation. Even if I was at my lowest and weakest, begging them not to go, they would not give up as I had. They would be strong for me. No matter the odds."

"So why," she asked, looking up at him for some elusive answer. "Why did this world's Ryouga give up? Why did he not tell her that he would save her? Why did he not have hope?"

Starfire shook her head, unable to comprehend, tears wetting her green-on-green eyes.

"More so than anything else I have witnessed on this world… the loss of hope is the most painful to endure…"

Unfortunately, he had no knowledge of some of what she spoke… but her meaning was clear enough. Just for a moment, he found himself wondering about these strange, otherworldly beings that had dropped into this world. With their strange ideals and staunch, unwavering moralities. What a different world it must be that they came from. It just wasn't how the military, or this world operated. They planned and gauged and weighed everything they did. The war and the mission had to come first. Everyone who signed up knew the potential cost of service their country and species could one day demand.

They had hope – though it was a far cry from what she expected of the concept - and duty, and sometimes sacrifice. Men did not gladly march to their deaths with no hope of success and for no gain. While the battle for Earth had been won for the most part, the battle lines had merely shifted to space. This year, alien incursions had occurred with far greater force than before. Far more effort was being put into direct attacks on XCOM facilities, with two bases falling in a matter of months. The war could not be won on Earth. Only stalemated.

Commanders picked their battles to minimize loss and maximize gain. Soldiers fought to protect their friends and families and comrades, even if it cost them their lives. It was the exogenesis of combat: lives traded for strategic and tactical gain. It was the sort of atmosphere that not only bred, but demanded, pragmatism in its leaders.

Yet, compared to this young woman's world, it must have seemed a dark and hopeless reflection.

Nonetheless. He did have his own duty to attend to. As utterly fascinating as this unique creature's point of view was, his main goal here was to make certain that she was still capable of fighting with the organization, or determine whether she required medical leave or discharge. As much as he would love to write an entire thesis on what he had just discussed here – not that anyone would ever get to read it while the war waged – it wasn't why he was here.

"Alright, Starfire, why don't we take a step back?" he asked. "Tell me, do you believe that you are incapable of working with anyone from Juliet, or India squad?"

The Tamaranian shifted uncomfortably in her seat…

* * *

With a few whirring clicks, Cyborg curled his fingers into a fist. He wasn't a fan of the new grayish coloration of pretty much his entire right arm, but he didn't really have much choice except to use the alien alloy to replace the armored panels. Not that the material wasn't good, because it was pretty rockin', he just wasn't sure if it would all need to be replaced when he got home. All of this dimensional variance stuff was starting to get trying.

Most of the repairs hadn't been too bad; they had decent fabricating facilities here, plus people who were actually paid to help, so he'd been able to just out and out manufacture suitable replacements for most everything in short order. The loss of a few of the lesser batteries was troubling, as they didn't have the tech or materials to replace the exotic power sources, and he wasn't about to attempt to convert to Elerium power. It wouldn't be a major problem, it just meant he wouldn't be able to charge his cannon as rapidly, and he'd have to recharge a bit more frequently.

In fact, the only real problem was having to requisition everything and fill out endless reams of forms and documents!

He'd spent most of the morning and a good part of the afternoon working, but at least the results were good. In fact, he was ready to keep on going. He had a few ideas for additional upgrades that'd help out as long as they were here. Sitting down, he rolled his chair over to one of the computer terminals. Bringing up their CAD equivalent program, he held up his finger and his modified USB adaptor slid out. Smiling, he inserted the adaptor into the nearest available interface. Almost immediately, detailed schematic diagrams began to spring into existence on the screen.

They were mechanical drawings of numerous parts, designed as quickly as his cybernetic brain could interpret his intentions and process the necessary data, including various panels, mechanisms, and devices that he could use the machinery here to build given enough time. He could make a few modifications to the T-Brella while he was at it and maybe some modifications or additions to personal armor for Starfire, Jinx and Raven. It would be easy, too, since he could start with the basic set of kit that the other squads wore, and just work from there.

Cyborg chuckled to himself as more and more drawings were generated. The more he worked, the more excited he became; he was like a kid in a candy store. The Titan rarely had the need to build things in this volume, since his team mates were generally satisfied with what they had, or fabricated their own equipment, ala Robin, so this was a great excuse to go a bit crazy. Honestly, Cyborg was almost tempted to just switch off his sleep function and work through the night.

So caught up in his work was the cybernetic teen, that he almost didn't notice it when a familiar young woman entered the workshop. The giant spatula was a sure enough sign of who it was, even before he got a better look. This was actually the first time he had seen her outside the concealing personal armor, and it confirmed that this Ukyou and 'theirs' were as similar as one would assume. The only real difference was that this one had her brown hair back in a fanning ponytail and wore more mundane clothes: the same olive green military fatigues that he had seen all over the place, with laced up boots and black gloves together with the distinct white bow in her hair. As much as he would never say it, she looked good in it, too. It was no Black Canary outfit, but there was a certain appeal.

He watched discretely, peeking out from over his workstation as she walked up to one of the Fabrication staff, showing them some printed out papers. They waved her through without much more than a blink. It wasn't that her presence was unwelcome, but it was something of a surprise to the cybernetic teen to see her here.

Then she went up to one of the fabrication stations and pulled down some sort of equipment locker from storage. Cyborg saw her rest her giant spatula against the wall while she looked over something on a computer screen, and guessed why she was here. This Ukyou had a slightly different weapon than the one back home, and back at the terror site he was sure he had seen her use it to defend against a plasma grenade. The surface was pockmarked and scarred far beyond any ability to 'touch it up,' and she was here to get it fixed or replaced.

Or maybe upgraded…

Leaning over a bit, he could see she had an expanded locker full of spatula themed equipment, including a spare battle spatula and some other accessories. He was starting to feel curious all over again. Though it wasn't any of his business, he kind of wanted to know if her Spatula had actually been tricked out, aside from being nigh-indestructible, and how it might compare to the T-patula. He had tailor made that baby himself, and he'd put it up against anything they had over here.

On the other hand, she'd been giving them all the stinkeye the entire trip home yesterday, so he wasn't sure approaching her was really a good idea there. The Nerima types, especially those of the female variety, were pretty notorious when it came to responding to curious guys they didn't like. Usually with violence. That in mind, he went back to his work. He did have a lot of ideas to work out on his own, anyway.

To his surprise, a couple minutes later, he looked up and saw her walking towards him, a new battle-spat slung behind her back.

"Hey there," the okonomiyaki chef said, raising a hand. "Cyborg, right? About the other night… you guys did pretty good out there. Ran-chan says we're probably going to be working together, so, um, anyway, we could've been friendlier. Should've been, I mean."

He eyed her warily for a second, before chuckling and holding out his hand in a friendly gesture. "Hey, don't even worry bout it, Kounji. I know things were all kinds of messed up last night. We literally come from different worlds after all, so it's no surprise we got some different ideas. No hard feelings, right?"

"I hope not, sugar. We've got enough enemies as it is." Ukyou shook his hand, displaying some of the unusual strength contained in her comparatively tiny body. "I'm guessing you know a 'me' from…" she trailed off, meaning the 'other world.' Saying it just sounded kind of silly. It was all kind of a lot to take in, even now.

Shaking her hand vigorously, but making sure not to hurt her, Cyborg nodded excitedly. "Do I! I did some of my best work for you... well, admittedly the job I did for Kuno was a bit more extensive, but you and me worked together quite a bit back in my world."

She smiled at that, giving a quick happy laugh. "Really? That's pretty cool! Was this in Japan or over in the States?"

"States. Our Ukyou jumped on board the super hero train too. Her and Kuno joined up with a good friend of mine, Bumblebee, and actually formed their own Titans team. Heck, I helped them set up their tower and everything."

"So Kuno's on my team on your world?" she asked, taping her chin and chuckling. The thought of ordering that loony swordsman around was clearly kind of amusing.

_'I wonder what this Bumblebee guy is like,'_ the chef wondered, imaging a handsome dark haired guy with bee-themed armor... and then a half-human half-insect monster. _'On second thought...'_

"Yeah, a few other recent recruits, too, but they're still working out their official roster last I heard. Bee's got stick-boy kinda wrapped around her finger a bit, but you guys seem to be coming along." He smirked to himself. "Of course, Nabiki still gives you guys a run for your money, but, hey, nobody's perfect, right?"

_'Her finger?'_ The image of a darkly seductive Queen Bee type commanding Kuno around while she watched in the background caused an eyebrow to raise back in the real world. _'What kind of team is this...?'_

Then something else crossed home.

"We're fighting _Nabiki_?"

Cyborg shrugged a touch helplessly. "Yeah, well, she's got a team of her own, so it's not like you're fighting _just_ her, but yeah. She's pretty benign as super villains go, though, mostly just technology thefts and things like that."

"Well, she's certainly pulled her fair share of stunts before… wait a second!" She suddenly realized something. "Don't tell me I'm following Kuno around fighting Nabiki! Don't I get any super villain enemies of my own? I already have my own rivals, you know! One of them could turn evil!"

The Titan couldn't help but laugh at that. "Ha! Nice one! Naw, you know: Shampoo went superhero, too. Hell, she jumped all the way to the **big** leagues. Straight up to the Justice League. Course, in your defense, you're a full time Titan, she's more like an intern still. Besides, you guys got plenty of other crooks to deal with aside from Nabiki, but none of those names would mean anything to you. We all get our own arch enemy types sooner or later."

Despite himself, he couldn't stop himself from staring at her spatula, though he tried to be discreet.

She didn't miss it.

"So, you said you did some work for me and Kuno, huh?" She could guess what that meant. "I guess we had to upgrade our gear on your world, too?"

Smirking, he slowly nodded. "You know it! You just wanted the spatula upgrade, but Kuno, he got the entire Blue Thunder package deal."

"You mean more than just a new sword?"

It was all he could do to not burst into laughter. "Oh, lord, yes. It was so epic that I can't even _say_ what I did! All I _can_ say is that he nearly pledged his life to me, probably woulda, if Bee hadn't staked her claim on it first." He studied her spatula a bit more closely. "So, what upgrades do you got?"

"Well…" She unhooked the weapon, and held it out in front of her for him to see. "The most important thing was something to protect against plasma and high temps. That meant reinforcing the flat of the blade, and training up my sakkijutsu. That's like… kind of like martial arts precognition? When you sense where an attack will come from by reading intent. I have the strongest defense of both squads thanks to this."

She tapped the flat of the blade.

"This looks like a solid piece of metal, but its actually over a thousand ablative pads under a semi-solid surface. The core is rippled and folded exotic alloy, surrounded by active heating and insulating elements. When it gets hit, part of the surface cooks away, protecting the rest. The extra heat is automatically vented away, and a liquid layer flows over the damage to keep the overall surface intact."

Cyborg gave an appreciative whistle.

"Not bad," he admitted. "I used a somewhat different system. It's what I call a 'regenerative cooling system' as it's designed to scavenge excess heat to power the fuel cells. It uses a liquid coolant system using a water based coolant, modified with glycols. The heatsink itself is a crystalline polymer, kind of an advanced form of graphite, which quickly absorbs the heat from the coolant and then, as I said, collects as much of the energy as possible, while forcibly dumping the rest in a thermal jet if need be."

Ukyou nodded, following the design. "How's the penetration against projectiles?"

He shrugged. "Depends on the kind. Anything standard isn't going to get through. Heavier duty, specifically armor piercing rounds, or something like, say, a fifty cal will punch through, but it's pretty decent against most energy based weapons we've run up against so far, and back home, various sorts of energy weapons are really the norm when it comes to super crooks. Not a lot of potent slug throwers on the streets. I dunno how many plasma rounds it would be able to absorb, though, since the quantum mechanics of dimensional dislocation seem to have an odd effect on the resilience of certain materials."

"Well, here, the trick isn't just in the weapon or its ability to shield yourself," Ukyou reminded him. "You have to believe in the weapon, and in your ability to defend yourself." She tapped the side of her head. "Win the battle up here, first. Then you'll win the battle around you."

"..."

Cyborg just stared at the girl. "Riiiight. I'm sure the exotic alloys got _nuthin_ to do with it." He couldn't help himself as he smirked. "Reminds me of a couple discussions I had with Ryo about him using the T-Brella. I swear, you guys and your crazy mumbo jumbo."

"It's not so crazy!" she protested, in defense of the Art. "Well, maybe some of it… but there's definitely something to be said for honing your sakkijutsu and using your battle aura properly."

"I still call 'mumbo jumbo.'"

"Anyway, I've got some pretty neat offensive tricks, too..." She carefully pointed to the blade edge of the spatula with the nail of her thumb, and then ran the pad of her finger down the side. "I can adjust the sharpness with the controls on the hilt. It usually doesn't matter much, because I use my ki to cut things. That's like the iron dart technique? You know the one that lets people throw a chopstick or something through a tree? Making it super sharp helps against really hard stuff, though. My mini-spatulas are the same."

"The other thing is that I can rapidly heat the surface, allowing me to flash cook custom okonomiyaki or create contact explosions that I call Kuonji Big Bang Odoroki (Kuonji Big Bang Surprise). Basically combining a grill and a spatula in one," she said this part with particular pride. "I usually just use it to make my Okonomiyakidans (Okonomiyaki Bombs), but I can also make a Kinbaku Gomu Iri Takisoba (Tightly Binding Rubber Collar Takisoba), or even real, edible okonomiyaki. The only limitation is in the number of ingredients I can carry with me."

"Then," she added with a widening smile. "There's my Kenran Hinode (Brilliant Sunrise), my ki attack. That isn't specific to this particular weapon, though. I just need a warm, flat surface. I also have some modifications I can bring in, like heavier armor. The end here…" she pointed to the counterweight. "Can also detach. It has a wire spool that let's me use it to grab an enemy's weapon, but the weight itself can also be deadly when thrown."

"And that's basically it," the chef concluded, lovingly patting the battle spatula. "Hera-sama here has saved my life a dozen times over. I don't know where I'd be without her. Well… dead I guess."

Cyborg nodded. "Fancy, I can see it, yeah, you went the griddle route. Pretty appropriate. Yeah, I like it." He was obviously talking while his mind raced, thinking of the possibilities. "I made my Ukyou a separate griddle, made it easier to carry around and whatnot. You can really cook with that? One handed?"

"One handed," she replied with a happy smile. "Though I have to use a glove to flash cook the weaponized variants. But regular okonomiyaki? You betcha!"

Propping one arm on the table, he smiled in friendly amusement. "You Kuonjis love your cooking, huh?"

"Don't doubt it!" Ukyou declared. "So, what else did you put in the other me's spatula?"

He pointed to the blade with his other hand. "I added in some of my own tech, first and foremost. Vibration technology, for a supra-oscillating blade. Dunno how it compares to your fancy techniques, or if that makes it impossible to cook with, but it can cut through hardened armor pretty much like nothing. I'd give it decent odds even against your alien alloy."

He then pointed to the base of the wide blade. "Used a bit of the density variation tech that I put in Ryo's T-Brella, too. She can increase the weight of the blade nearly five times, usually in mid swing, for added power." Then to the far end of the weapon. "And considering they're up against Gizmo so often, I thought to throw in a small, but powerful EMP generator. All the systems in both the T-patula, and Kuno's gear are triggered to shut off the microsecond before it goes off, to avoid any damage, but I kinda hope it's enough to knock out most low to mid shielded tech she might run into."

"Sounds like you did a lot for this other me," Ukyou realized. "I only got all this done because I signed up here. I don't even own any of it, really…"

"Seriously? That seems a bit ... I dunno, cheap." Either that or more annoying bureaucracy. "And yeah, Ukyou is one of us now, so if she needs help, she gets it, no strings attached. As I said, her spatula was a pretty minor job compared to Ryo's umbrella and Kuno's gear." He pointed to her spatula. "I might even be able to have a look at that for ya, see if I can't figure out a way to optimize it a tiny bit here and there."

"I wouldn't mind. Any modifications have to be made under the auspices of the Chief Engineer, though. Since this is really UNETCO gear, we need to get permission whenever we do stuff with it." She gestured back to the workstation she was at before. "I need this one ready to go in case we get a mission, but I have my broken one from the last mission in one of my storage lockers. If the Chief says it's okay, I'd be alright with letting you have a crack at rebuilding the replacement."

He affably patted her on the shoulder. "Well alright, Kounji! That'd be awesome! I mean, sure, I gotta get back on this whole 'dimensional portal' thing at some point. But I don't think we're in a super critical rush."

Tapping his chin, he then gestured to the large pile of junk accumulating on his desk. "I mean, I'm still trying to compile the theoretical data in the back of my head, so getting too far ahead of myself with the physical mockup isn't a great idea."

She stared at all the stuff Cyborg had already assembled, and then at a few of the technical equations and theories up on a nearby whiteboard. Ukyou considered herself a pretty damn good student, and she was no idiot – she scored very well on the national placement exams, and that was even with all the training she did – but this sort of stuff was completely unrecognizable. She knew her way around some car engines and stuff like that, but this was so far out of her understanding it was crazy.

"So, are you like a super genius or something?" she asked, staring at the whiteboard behind him again.

Immediately, Cyborg began to swell up with pride ... and it actually seemed to take a near visible feat of pure will for him to suppress it at the last possible moment. Leaning back into his chair, the cybernetic teen simply nodded weakly.

"You ... ah ... you could say something like that. I ... once converted the submarine I designed into an FTL spacecraft in about a week ..."

"Wow!" Ukyou actually seemed impressed by the techy achievement. "I know submarines are built to withstand greater external pressure, not internal; I would've expected you'd need to completely rebuild it for one PSI on the inside and hard vacuum outside. And FTL, too? That's some crazy stuff! It once took me like a week just to fix an old motorbike!"

Cyborg nodded proudly. "Well, I had already designed it with the distant potential of aerial flight in mind, you know, kill two birds with one stone when I could get around to it, but then something of an emergency came up."

He shook his head in amusement. "I wasn't actually 100 percent that it was gonna work, but hey, she held together on me. Admittedly, I probably went too far when I threw in the separation feature ... but what the heck, ya only live once, right?"

"What, like Voltron?" she shook her head at the crazy image. Then… another thought came to mind, and the more she dwelled on it, the more curious she became.

"Hey, um…" Ukyou hesitated a bit. "Who did Ranma end up with on your world? Do you know?"

Cyborg rolled his eyes, kind of expecting this topic would be brought up eventually.

"Would you believe 'no one', officially? Frankly, I'm not surprised that you and Shampoo got fed up and went off on your own." He then leaned in, winking conspiratorially. "_However_, you really _had_ to see the look on the guy's face when you laid that massive kiss on him just before you took off with BB and Kuno. _Maaaan_, but that was something!"

She smiled again at that, her grin growing wider by the second.

"Well! Good for her!" she decided, crossing her arms proudly. "It makes sense that I'd eventually… go my own way, but Shampoo, too?"

He scratched his head. "Yeah, I wasn't exactly sure how that happened, myself. Somewhere along the line, her and Mousse ended up joining the premiere super hero team on the planet. Heh, you know what I think; she was probably jealous of you and just wanted to try to one up you or something."

"More likely she's up to something," Ukyou replied, glancing off to the side where an HWP was under assembly. "Maybe not something bad, but Shampoo doesn't do things without some kind of plan down the line… she's kind of like Nabiki in that way. Anyway." She twirled her battle spatula around to snap in place behind her back. "I look forward to training with you guys and seeing what you can do, _first hand_. If you hold up, I'll even cook you all the custom okonomiyaki you can eat, free of charge!"

"Heh, hold up?" He flexed a metal muscle. "Man, I'm gonna eat you outta house and home little lady! You best go fire up that grill of yours just to get ready."

"I have experience dealing with big appetites," she assured him. "Well, I better get going. We're meeting up with India for a little two on two. Hence why I needed a fixed up Hera-sama. Good luck with your crazy dimensional physics stuff. Try not to open any portals to Hell or anything."

He waved off her concern. "Naw, trust me, once is enough for _that_. Anyway, have a good time. Spread the news if anyone else wants a bit of an upgrade too."

As the martial chef turned and made her way out the Fab, she nearly walked right into a solid wall of Hibiki, coming in the door at the very same time. The younger martial artist looked down at her warily for a moment, before offering an embarrassed apology and shifting around her to make his way quickly over to Cyborg. Oddly, the bandanna clad fighter glanced back to make sure that Ukyou had actually left before turning back to his cybernetic team mate.

"So, Cyborg ... you wouldn't happen to know much about vibrations, would you?"

Cyborg stared at the guy flatly, then quirked an eyebrow.

"... Really?"

* * *

Raven, Starfire and Jinx all stared at the room ... then shared a glance amongst themselves.

Certainly it was ... large enough. The room appeared to be double the size of the standard one which Raven had shared with Nabiki. It had four fold out beds - a footlocker beneath each one - and even what looked to be a pair of closets set into the walls. Of course, being twice the size of one of the standard rooms made it just a _little_ bit smaller than Raven's _single_ room back at the Tower. Actually, make that a _lot_ smaller.

"You can **not** be serious," Jinx muttered darkly as she surveyed the room.

"What?" Ryouga asked, standing behind the three ladies. "This room is twice as big as the rooms that Cyborg and I got."

She just glared at him out of the corner of her eye. "You're telling me that you and Cyborg got your own rooms, and yet you expect me to bunk with these two? There's no way that I'm getting undressed in front of them!"

"Hey now," Raven interjected quickly. "Who said anything about getting undressed at all?"

Starfire suddenly floated into the debate. "But, Raven, undressing is an integral part of changing one's clothing, as well as preparing for both nocturnal sleep sessions and for use of 'the shower' once wakefulness has been achieved. Are you insisting that neither Jinx, nor myself, will be permitted to be bereft of body coverings within the confines of our chambers?"

"_Hey, woah, what? _ I didn't say anything about getting naked!" Jinx barked quickly. "I don't want to see **your** orange butt, or her **huge** butt running around in the buff either!"

The room began to darken noticeably for some, ominous, reason.

"_Excuse_ me? _Who_ has a huge butt?"

Jinx spun on the dark Titan. "I'm sorry, did I stutter? Would you like me to repeat myself?"

"Please! Friend Raven, Fri ... Antagonistic Associate Jinx, can we not all just get along?"

"Antagonistic Associate? I'll show **you** antagoni-"

Moving swiftly, Ryouga interposed himself between the brewing catfight - sense of duty overriding his self preservation instincts nobly - and he placed a hand on Jinx and Starfire's shoulders to hold them apart.

"Girls, _please_," he pleaded. "Can you at least _try_ to make this work? I know none of you like this, but it's the way it's gotta be. There are three girls and two guys. If there had been three guys and two girls, then me and Cyborg would be sharing this room right now." He looked first at Raven, then to Starfire, and finally to Jinx. "I'm not stupid enough to order you three to get along, but _please_, try?"

Three pairs of eyes looked up at him - or straight across at him in Starfire's case - and despite each girl's natural stubbornness, eventually their faces softened and, as one, they looked to the floor uncomfortably.

"... If we have to ..."

"I will endeavor to do so ..."

"... **Fine **..."

Obviously relieved, Ryouga nodded, _almost_ drew the three girls into a group hug, was nearly incinerated by their combined burning gazes and thought better of it, before finally offering up an embarrassed chuckle.

"Alright then! Well, I'll just leave you three here to unpack your-" He noted that each of them was currently carrying all of their worldly possessions in one hand. "Ah, well, I'll just let the three of you settle in then. I'll see you tomorrow morning for combat training."

Raven looked at him through lidded eyes. "I'm looking forward to it already."

The vindictive smiles forming on the other two girls' smiles caused Ryouga to swallow nervously.

"Um ... yeeaaah ... Well ... gotta go, then."

With that, Ryouga quickly escaped from the room. He closed the door behind him, then stood silently for a moment, waiting for the sound of destruction - or possibly girlish giggling - to burst out ... but, to his relief, none came. Sighing in relief once more, he made his way down the hall to his own room, incidentally passing Cyborg's on the way. This point was made quite evident by the fact that Cyborg was currently leaning out the door.

"Yo, Ryo, how'd the girls take it?"

He shrugged. "I'm still alive, so better than expected. Though, I have a feeling that might not last much past tomorrow morning."

Cyborg shrugged sympathetically. "I feel for ya, buddy. I mean, yeah, I'm _totally_ skipping training tomorrow morning now, but still, I feel for ya."

Ryouga glared at his cybernetic companion. 'Sorry, building a portal back home' had to be just about the handiest excuse ever.

"Bastard."

* * *

AUTHORIZATION GRANTED - DECODING

NOTICE: This data bundle and any attached materials that are not otherwise marked are classified as **Angel/0A**. If you are not **Angel/0A** clearance or above, report immediately to your supervisor or face disciplinary action.

-Original Message-

From: Lt. Cmdr. Yasuda  
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2007, 18:20  
To: /org  
Subject: - NOTIFICATION - 02/21/07 Hangar Access

Relevant Personnel,

Access to the Hangar and Internal bulk transport systems, including the cargo lift, will be restricted tomorrow (02/21/07), between the hours of 01:00 and 06:00. Access will again be restricted later in the day, between 14:00 and 16:00 hours. Limited security restrictions in the main Hanger Complex will remain in effect until further notice.

- Lt. Cmdr. Yasuda

"Nihil aliud scit necessitas quam vincere."  
Syrus

Noriko Yasuda  
Lieutenant Commander  
Far East Asia Branch  
United Nations Extraterrestrial Combat Organization  
Ext. 1716 - phone  
Ext. 7948 - fax

* * *

AUTHORIZATION GRANTED - DECODING

NOTICE: This data bundle and any attached materials that are not otherwise marked are classified as **Ofanim/4E**. If you are not **Ofanim/4E** clearance or above, report immediately to your supervisor or face disciplinary action.

-Original Message-

From: Lt. Cmdr. Yasuda  
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2007, 18:20  
To: /org  
Subject: - NOTIFICATION - 02/21/07 Hangar Access

Relevant Personnel,

Access to the Hangar and Internal bulk transport systems, including the cargo lift, will be restricted tomorrow (02/21/07), between the hours of 01:00 and 06:00. Access will again be restricted later in the day, between 14:00 and 16:00 hours. Limited security restrictions in the main Hanger Complex will remain in effect until further notice.

During the first time frame, we will be transporting Subject "WHITE IRON" into holding. This is our newly acquired Trenchard, and I expect airtight security. Alpha, Bravo, Echo and Hotel Squads will all be on full alert, the latter two teams in powered armor. Alpha and Bravo will oversee the actual transfer. WHITE IRON is to be considered highly dangerous until proper containment procedures are in effect; it has exhibited full use of psionic powers and is to be treated as a Class-A threat.

The second transfer includes research personnel from Europe and the U.S. some of which are here to study WHITE IRON. Expect a downgrade in status of WHITE IRON once they give their initial analysis and begin work. Be advised we will be setting aside containment both in Xenosciences and the Medical Quarantine Bay.

Existence of WHITE IRON remains Ofanim/4E EYES ONLY

- Lt. Cmdr. Yasuda

"Nihil aliud scit necessitas quam vincere."  
Syrus

Noriko Yasuda  
Lieutenant Commander  
Far East Asia Branch  
United Nations Extraterrestrial Combat Organization  
Ext. 1716 - phone  
Ext. 7948 - fax

* * *

AUTHORIZATION GRANTED - DECODING

NOTICE: This data bundle and any attached materials that are not otherwise marked are classified as **Cherubim/5F**. If you are not **Cherubim/5F** clearance or above, report immediately to your supervisor or face disciplinary action.

-Original Message-

From: Lt. Cmdr. Yasuda  
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2007, 18:20  
To: /org  
Subject: - NOTIFICATION - 02/21/07 Hangar Access

Relevant Personnel,

Access to the Hangar and Internal bulk transport systems, including the cargo lift, will be restricted tomorrow (02/21/07), between the hours of 01:00 and 06:00. Access will again be restricted later in the day, between 14:00 and 16:00 hours. Limited security restrictions in the main Hanger Complex will remain in effect until further notice.

During the first time frame, we will be transporting Subject "WHITE IRON" into holding. This is our newly acquired Trenchard, and I expect airtight security. Alpha, Bravo, Echo and Hotel Squads will all be on full alert, the latter two teams in powered armor. Alpha and Bravo will oversee the actual transfer. WHITE IRON is to be considered highly dangerous until proper containment procedures are in effect; it has exhibited full use of psionic powers and is to be treated as a Class-A threat.

The second transfer includes research personnel from Europe and the U.S. some of which are here to study WHITE IRON. Expect a downgrade in status of WHITE IRON once they give their initial analysis and begin work. Be advised we will be setting aside containment both in Xenosciences and the Medical Quarantine Bay.

Existence of WHITE IRON remains Ofanim/4E EYES ONLY

Additional research personnel will be brought in from the States to study the captured EDC (Extended Dimensional Contact) FTL Drive. Once processed, they are to have unlimited access to the captured alien UFO in hangar storage, as well as access to any and all of our facilities. Every one of them will have Symphony/7H Red clearance, and I expect all personnel to act accordingly and with utmost discretion.

Please note that they will also be using synchronous data acquisition procedures to remain in contact with other field experts at FTLRMT, CERN, DRSTB, and other aligned facilities. All data packets are to have top priority. This includes information from captured alien sources and ongoing interrogations.

Access to restricted hangar areas remains Cherubim/5F

All authorized personnel will be recorded and watched at all times.

- Lt. Cmdr. Yasuda

"Nihil aliud scit necessitas quam vincere."  
Syrus

Noriko Yasuda  
Lieutenant Commander  
Far East Asia Branch  
United Nations Extraterrestrial Combat Organization  
Ext. 1716 - phone  
Ext. 7948 - fax


	14. Fallout 3

_**A/N**__  
Nothing serious here. I'd just like to say thanks again to everyone who reviews or comments on FFN or the spacebattles thread! Obviously I'm not going to give out any story spoilers, but Lathis and myself read every word. If we don't respond to something speculative, we have our reasons, but that doesn't mean you should stop. Hearing what readers think will happen is among the most fun for us!_

_There's also a lot of material in this fic, so you may have to be patient with respect to character and plot arcs. Thanks for sticking with us, guys._

_We're almost at the 500k word mark. Because of how the chapters have been divvied up, this one is a bit short (24k words) and the next a bit long._

* * *

x

* * *

An accident at STAR Labs has hurled half the Teen Titans roster across the multiversal barrier and onto a strange world with no metas, no superheroes and no supervillians. There, the UNETCO organization, also known as X-COM, fights against an insidious and merciless alien enemy. The dimensionally displaced Teen Titans have finally been reunited. Determined not to sit on the sidelines, the four young men and women: Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and their universe's Ryouga Hibiki have been brought together into a special 'embedded observer' team designated CT:Yankee.

Displaced in the Russian Far East, far from any of the other Titans, Jinx had the misfortune of falling into the hands of the alien Visitors. Yet when one of the alien-human hybrids became hexxed by her power, damage to its brain tissue disconnected it from the Cydonian Mind and allowed it to remember who it had once been: Akari Unryu. Together, the two unlikely allies escaped into the forest and made for civilization, forging a close friendship during the difficult trek to safety. However, the same power that freed Akari was also killing her, and together with wounds taken during their escape, she hung on just long enough to reunite with her world's Ryouga Hibiki. Fulfilling her request to let her die, he destroyed the alien donor tissue that was to be used to revive her. The Titans, as Yankee Squad, were called to battle, with Akari's life on the line, succeeding in bringing back the replacement brain of the Ethereal, Whisper.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Fallout_

Chapter XIV

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid

Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

[FEED INTERCEPT]  
Thread BEGIN

10:07 AM Tendo N:  
Saotome. Wanted to send a PM to remind you about those forms.  
10:08 AM Tendo N:  
The weapons requisition forms. You know what I meant.  
Get back to me ASAP. CIC wants them scanned 24hrs before processing and Weissman wants 48hrs to do the usual security checks BS  
10:10 AM Tendo N:  
Fine. I guess you're not there?

10:21 AM Saotome R:  
Sry. Busy.  
I thought Rachael was handling those? We're forwarding Juliet's paperwork to you, now, too?

10:23 AM Tendo N:  
There you are.  
No. I'm just handling this because they're lumping you and India together  
We're just waiting on Juliet.

10:25 AM Saotome R.  
I see. Cause we're all screening the new kit at the same time?

10:27 AM Tendo N:  
Probably.

10:28 AM Saotome R:  
np  
I'll have the digital and hardcopies done after lunch.

10:29 AM Saotome R:  
Gonna be heading out with the team soon  
You need anything else?

10:30 AM Saotome R:  
brb

10:30 AM Tendo N:  
There was one other thing.  
great. tell me when you get back.

10:35 AM Saotome R:  
what?  
what was it

10:37 AM Tendo N:  
It's about Ryouga

10:38 AM Saotome R:  
which one?

10:38 AM Tendo N:  
You know which one. Our Ryouga.  
10:39 AM Tendo N:  
I want to know how he's doing.

10:39 AM Saotome R:  
What about him?  
What do you mean, how he's doing? You'd know better than I would.

10:41 AM Tendo N:  
not really  
he doesn't want to talk about you know who with me  
he doesn't want to talk about anything

10:41 Saotome R:  
so?  
I don't wanna talk about it either  
10:42 Saotome R:  
You know Akane said the same thing. She wanted to talk about it  
There ain't nothing to talk about

10:43 AM Tendo N:  
You 2 are such idiots

10:43 AM Saotome R:  
What's that supposed to mean?

10:44 AM Tendo N:  
You're his best friend, Ranma  
I know he talks to you about stuff he doesn't mention to me

10:44 AM Saotome R:  
geez  
10: 45 AM Saotome R:  
anyway, just leave it alone. you know he went through this before when the real one died.  
as long as he doesn't blow up or nothing

10: 46 AM Tendo N:  
Ranma  
You moron  
do you really want him to go back to how things were when we first got here?  
10: 47 AM Tendo N:  
I'm not asking you two to paint your nails together and start crying  
but I do have a picture of you painting your fingernails that I don't think you want getting out

10: 47 AM Saotome R:  
That's no fair! That was my girl body!  
And I only did it because I had a date!  
10: 48 AM Saotome R:  
god damn it Nabiki  
10:49 AM Saotome R:  
to all the internal security guys who are recording this: I was only going on a date in my girl body because I needed to trick Kuno into using his wish fulfilling sword to cure me. It wasn't cause I liked the guy or nothing. And I sure didn't like being a girl! The idiot even tried to get all grabby with me so of course I had ta beat him up too  
point is I had a good reason ta wear that nailpolish

10: 50 AM Tendo N:  
sure you did  
you done?  
I was just asking you to broach the subject. I don't like seeing him brood.

10: 51 AM Tendo N:  
I also know about 'you know what' and that he tried to get permission to see her

10: 52 AM Saotome R:  
you're asking to get a red infsec flag talking about that here  
whatever  
I know

10:53 AM Saotome R:  
just cause a guy doesn't wanna talk about stuff that's pissing him off don't mean he never wants ta. It just means he needs some time to sort it out and work things out. P-chan's used to dealing with fucked up stuff.  
plus  
10:54 AM Saotome R:  
the cmndr read him the riot act from the sound of it  
I'm worried more about Yankee and what ta tell em if anything  
shit I gotta get going

10: 55 AM Tendo N:  
ok  
thx

10: 55 AM Saotome R:  
if ya wanna thank me  
stop blackmailing me!  
lol

10: 56 AM Tendo N:  
I will when you stop being so fun

10: 56 AM Saotome R:  
you don't even really have that picture, do you?

10: 57 AM Tendo N:  
maybe maybe not  
lol  
later Saotome

Thread END  
[FEED TERMINATED]

UNETCO:SEIRAN:INFSEC  
ARCHIVED: (02.22.07)  
search KEYS: Saotome R. Tendo N. Blackmail. Forms. Hibiki R [speculative]  
3920:313:00452

* * *

The sound of teeth being brushed was the only sound that broke the tedious morning silence. Up - down - left - right, Raven's toothbrush moved with sharp precision and purpose. The wild, rapid-fire scrubbing coming from one sink over, indicative of someone rushing as fast as they could to get through the chore as quickly as possible, was irritating for reasons that she could not even explain.

Looking over in the mirror, Raven narrowed her eyes as she caught the reflection of Jinx madly brushing away. Unlike the Titan, whose hair was wrapped up tightly in a towel upon her head, the villainous girl had left her flowing pink locks, still soaking wet, to rest messily around her shoulders. It was unusual to see her with her hair down, and for some unknown reason, being reminded that Jinx's hair was longer than her own was **also** kind of annoying.

Catching her staring, Jinx returned the look with a glare before spitting into the sink. Cinching the stark white towel more tightly around her chest, the young witch then fiercely grabbed her brush and began to pull it through her hair hard enough to make Raven wince in sympathy - at least until she remembered who it was she was wincing for. More sedately - purposefully so - Raven picked up her own ornate brush and, once she removed the towel, began to run it gently through her hair, silently counting down from one hundred as she smoothed out her violet locks. By the time she had reached fifty, Jinx was already applying unhealthy amounts of styling gel to her hair -

Wait a second… just **where** on Earth had she gotten _that?_

- to set it up into its usual, upturned style.

Honestly, Raven wondered how Ryouga could stand the smell of the girl's hair to actually get close enough to touch her as he did. She'd heard that, for a time, Jinx had taken to wearing her hair down, and that most people had liked it quite a bit. She couldn't fathom why Jinx had gone back to wearing it back up like a pair of pink antenna. It seemed like an incredible amount of effort, not to mention expense.

_'And one ... and zero ...'_

Tilting her head from side to side, Raven nodded at the sight of her perfectly coifed hair. Beside her, Jinx was just finishing wrapping the second ribbon around her ... what could she call it? Her 'hair horns'?

Noting that they were both done at the same time, they shared a quick glare ... and surprisingly, it was Jinx that broke it off first. Looking down, the sorceress clenched her fists until her knuckles went white. Not sure what had set her off, Raven prepared to gather her bathing supplies and leave, when -

"Raven ... wait." The request was made in an almost _civil_ tone, though judging by the strain it seemed to put on the girl, Raven now understood why her knuckles were nearly translucent at the moment.

Curious, Raven turned to regard her, matching her gaze impassively and waiting for her to continue. Jinx stared back for a long moment, before staring down at her basket.

"I ... I don't suppose you managed to scam any makeup off of Nabiki, or anyone, did you? I mean, you _totally_ need-" Jinx cut herself off, apparently mid-insult, and shook her head. "What I meant to say ...is that I didn't sleep that well last night and a touch up wouldn't hurt."

Raven's eyes actually widened slightly in surprise. That had been downright friendly, near insult notwithstanding. Involuntarily, she looked down at her basket of supplies, even though she already knew the answer. The fact was that most women on-base didn't bother with cosmetics. It just wasn't practical, especially for anyone on the combat teams. Only civilian women bothered going through the extra expense. It was just another inconvenience of living in a sealed military facility.

"No, I didn't think to ask," she answered, truthfully. "It's ... not really a priority most of the time. You understand, right?"

"Great." The pink eyed woman just gave a non-committal shrug. "Thanks anyway... Guess I'll just have to look like I feel for the day, then."

Feeling oddly sympathetic for the glum girl, since she had actually slept incredibly well and had pleasant dreams indeed, Raven decided to try to reach out to her.

"You look, um ... fine?" she stated as convincingly as she could.

Gingerly, she reached out to drop a hand on Jinx's shoulder.

Only to wince sharply when her wrist was smacked away sharply.

"You do _not_ touch me!" Jinx hissed in a low voice, nearly growling through bared teeth. A second later, the witch grabbed her basket and stormed off and out the door, the swinging door actually slamming loudly behind her as the mechanism controlling the door shorted out in a shower of pink sparks the second she walked through the doorway.

Cradling her wrist to her chest, Raven glared at the closed door.

What had that been all about? She'd thought they were actually making a tiny step forward, and then Jinx just attacked her? She couldn't understand that little witch at all! How on Earth did Ryouga expect her to get along with that ... with that -

Raven stopped herself mid rant. Anger was pointless, and getting angry at Jinx for being Jinx wouldn't help the problem at all. She just needed to come at it from a different angle. Treating Jinx like she always had certainly didn't seem to be working; maybe there was another way to deal with the girl?

"Hmmm... maybe," she mused to herself. Better yet, it was possible there was someone else she could look to for an example of dealing with uncooperative people. After all, Ryouga and Ranma claimed to be anything **but** friends (in both dimensions) and yet they seemed to be able to function normally around each other for the most part. Despite being 'hated rivals.'

"Hmmm, indeed."

An idea began to form...

But it could wait until she was dressed and ready.

* * *

There were two practice ranges in the lower Military/Armory Facility within Seiran. One was the "static range", with immobile targets down field. The second was a fully enclosed, "mobile range." It was a two story high open area with a variety of moving targets, all the way out to one hundred meters. Not surprisingly, it was the most popular training facility on the base, and constantly in use by one squad or another. Teams actually had to sign in, on average, a week in advance just to get a good amount of time to themselves there.

Currently, it was host to India and Juliet Squads.

Most of the young men and women were seated in the back of the range, behind a transparent shield. The range was live fire, and the usual safety precautions were in effect. A large variety of weapons were set aside just for this range, and only functioned within it. These ran the gamut from the classic 20mm anti-material cannon and the old 40mm automatic grenade launchers that saw a lot of use early in the war, to all the modern iterations of laser pistols, rifles, carbines and cannons. Plasma weapons – using low yield particle streams and no anti-matter to conserve precious Elerium – were always the most popular. Two heavy plasmas were currently in use.

Ukyou and Mousse stood at the edge of the front, at marked spots, silently adjusting the scopes on the weapons. Both were using the long range scopes universal to both heavy plasmas and heavy lasers, though any soldier could quickly swap it out for a reflex red-dot if need be. A number of obstacles had raised out of the ground and the sides of the walls, all down the range, and at one hundred meters, there was a mock up of a building with windows and a door, two stories high.

Both martial artists were in fatigues, with training vests over that.

"Alright Ukyou!" Ranma cheered from behind the transparent barrier. "You got this!"

Ryouga was silent, but watching intently.

"Kick duck-boy's ass!"

Mousse slowly turned to glare at the pigtailed boy. "I'm not cursed. Why do you insist on calling me that?"

"Gee, I dunno," Ranma replied with a shrug. "Maybe because you opened a hose of drowned duck water on me, Akane, and about fifty random people?"

"That was regular water! I only used the _cursed_ water on _you_…! and Akane," Mousse growled at the unhappy memory. "…almost had you, too..."

"And that makes it all better?"

The Amazon huffed, and turned back to the range. "At least I didn't almost marry a duck."

"Again, that was all your fault!" Ranma raged.

"You almost marry duck?" Shampoo asked, incredulous. _'__At least it would have been easy to kill, not like his other fiancés.__'_

"Just call him Ranko every time he calls you a duck," Ryouga smugly suggested. "He's just bitter he's not cured like we are."

"What was that _P-chan_?"

"You heard me, _Ranko_."

"Don't you mean **Yoiko**, _oneesan_?"

"**Raaaanma**, you son of a…"

A sudden trill cut the quarreling rivals off, as the course activated. Ukyou and Mousse stepped up, moving amid the obstacles as they advanced. One could move forward up to halfway down the range, but automated turrets were also firing up-range at them. Their training vests could detect an incoming hit, and the first one to "die" also lost. As a result, the two martial artists advanced carefully, keeping their bodies behind cover.

Targets moved down range, ducking in and out of windows or moving along the ground. They were a variety of colors: purple Floaters, where you only got a partial kill for hitting the armored lower torso, ground based Snakemen and Chryssalids, Sectoids in the building, and Ethereals who flew in and out of cover on both ground and air. There were civilian targets, too, and hitting one of these was also an instant disqualification.

Luckily, they had an advantage.

To a man (or person, rather, since two of them were women) they were superhumanly fast, with reflexes so far above baseline it was borderline precognition, even without _sakkijutsu_ - which sadly didn't work unless there was actual danger, thus making it useless in practice bouts. At the top tier, broadly including Ranma, Ryouga, Mousse and Ryu, they could all execute or react to hundreds of actions per second when in the proverbial zone. Put more precisely, they had reaction times measured in less than millisecond.

It wasn't what most would consider bullet time, however. It was entirely focus based, manifesting more as a form of tunnel vision. Everything directly ahead, in the center of the field of view, became bright and slow, moving almost sluggishly. At the periphery, where there was little or no mental focus, it became darker and dimmer. The trade off to this focused martial arts high was that it became much easier to become blindsided by something you weren't actively paying attention to. _Sakkijutsu_ a martial artist's sixth or 'danger' sense, helped there, as did audio queues, but the best thing was to have a buddy close by to watch your back. There was just no substitute for a team mate you trusted backing you up.

When four, or even just two, practiced martial artists could cover for each other, then they could create cones of absolute focus and fire. Even a fast moving target couldn't escape notice. The trick was then, not just noting the object, but hitting it. Here there was still a bit of a problem for the two squads. All were highly proficient in certain ranged techniques: Mousse had many needles, knives, and other hardware, Ukyou had her mini-spatulas, to name just two individual examples. As men and women, they had been training with these personalized weapons for years.

Most had only been firing a rifle for a few months.

Their accuracy was still very good, but not exceptional. Almost all of them were in the top one third on-base, but there were many XCOM veterans who could still give them a good thumping… most notably the shell-heads in Hotel Squad, Seiran's elite Powered Armored team. None of them had the martial arts training to develop the same sort of superhuman reflexes, but they had years of experience and psionic augmentation. Like high level psionic aliens, they could react on an instinctive level to threats, picking, identifying, and hitting a target without conscious thought. Some could even do this at extreme range. There were well documented reports of veterans making snap shots with plasma weapons and hitting moving targets behind cover at a kilometer or more.

Mousse and Ukyou did well.

The computer recorded their scores, thirty seconds later: no fatalities (meaning neither of them were hit), three misses (two from Mousse, one from Ukyou), no civilian hits, forty one mission kills. Mousse edged out on top with twenty three of them.

Being the Nerima Crew, the exercise was of course treated like a contest… some taking it more seriously than others. Shampoo and Ryu pretty much always came out on top, as Shampoo had experience shooting from her youth, and Ryu trained at the range more than anyone else. Both were naturally competitive, especially with those their viewed as personal rivals, but generally became friendly when – as always – it ended up with the two of them in a showdown for best record.

Months of training, whether they had initially wanted to or not, had ironed out even some of the most troublesome aspects of cross-team competition. There was still some feuding between Ukyou and Shampoo at times, and a generous amount of teasing among the male population as well, but no one was demanding duels to avenge slights of honor. It was, ironically, the most civilized the group of young adults had ever been.

When, at last, their time came up, Juliet and India left the "mobile range" laughing and in generally good spirits. Approaching the area adjacent to the Quartermasters, a route they knew well by this point, they slowly started to go their own ways for individual practice. Juliet was to do some joint training with Yankee later, but for a few hours they were good to go wherever they felt they needed to. India wouldn't be coming back together until mid-afternoon.

Ryu and Konatsu left first, planning on hitting the combat arm of the psi-gym.

Shampoo and Ukyou, arguing light heartedly, were already talking about getting to practice in at the dojo. Kuno, hearing this, was quick to inquire about getting involved as well. The Chinese weapons master seemed initially disinterested, but quickly reversed position when Shampoo whispered something in his ear.

"Saotome, Hibiki," Kuno said, addressing the two lieutenants. "Do you wish to come as well?"

"We could have another three versus three," Mousse suggested. "Or, better yet, we could watch you two beat each other to a bloody pulp. Personally, I always find that very amusing."

Ranma shrugged, not put off in the least by the blind duck's tastes. Seeing your rivals beat each other up **WAS** fun, after all.

"Maybe in a few minutes," he decided. "Me and pock chop here got some officer stuff to discuss."

Ryouga rolled his eyes, but nodded.

"But I'll have this alley cat beaten like batter by then!"

"Shame Japanese women can't fight as well as they can talk."

"Shame Amazons can't talk as well as they think they fight."

"Shampoo settle with you for good this time!"

"Bring it on, sugar!"

The two stomped off, an amused Kuno and Mousse in tow. Left alone for a little while, Ranma nudged his fellow officer, and pointed at the watch on his wrist. _'__Look at the time.__'_Ryouga knew what the Saotome heir was referring to.

"Well?" Ranma asked, leaning in a bit as they walked off to talk mostly privately. "Are you… you know?"

"There's no way they'd let me see her," Ryouga replied, closing his eyes. "Besides, you saw the file on 'White Iron.' There's nothing for me to see there anyway."

"You sure, man?"

The lost one shrugged, helplessly.

"I dunno…" he admitted, after a second. "They haven't done a new Dive yet."

"They're going to try and bring her back."

"No. They want to pacify it," Ryouga corrected his friend. "It isn't the same thing. You know as well as I do that if… if 'she' somehow came back, then she'd be human, and a number of influential people don't want that. Because doing what we do to aliens, but to a person…" he shook his head. "We saw what happens when humans contact The Mind. Saotome, you know as well as I do that she's gone. This new one… and the old one."

Ranma drew back a bit, but eventually nodded. They'd seen things like that first hand.

"Yeah," he eventually relented. "There is… you know. That cat-girl."

Ryouga raised an eyebrow at that.

"Jinx?" he asked, remembering the girl's name.

"We know she did something to fry the corona lucis before," Ranma reminded him. They had both read about that from Juliet's report. Jinx, herself, hadn't submitted her report yet, but Ranma knew from talking to her that she probably didn't know what she had done.

"That's true… but she'll still die without it. Even if this girl could repeat what she did," Ryouga speculated. "And that's a big IF. Akari would still be dying. We'd just end up where we were before."

Ranma couldn't refute that. A Trenchard needed to be connected to The Alien Mind to survive. The body simply couldn't physiologically maintain itself without constant telekinetic input, just like an Ethereal. Plus, while the aliens had the technology and experience to back up and copy entire consciousnesses, XCOM couldn't manage the same. Not for lack of secret experimentation, either. As far as the lieutenant understood it, XCOM had reverse engineered the hardware but only a fraction of the software. The fact that human cloning, physical or mental, was illegal didn't help either. Their best bet was to create a human Mind-Gestalt and mimic what the aliens did... which would probably just result in another 'Incident' like on AE14.

"They'll probably look into replicating it anyway. You know they want weapons to use against Trenchards. A psi-attack that can knock out a corona lucis? Think about what that would do to Cologne…" Ranma was referring, of course, to the alien –human hybrid version of her; the one that had beaten them both _at the same time_ during the base assault in Korea.

"It may… it may be your last chance to see her. Or something. I don't got any good news. Just shades of bad." The normally upbeat pigtailed fighter shook his head sadly. "But it's something, right?"

Ryouga rubbed his forehead, trying not to even think too much about it. Not that he could help it.

"Anyway, man. Think about it. Maybe we can come up with something," Ranma tried to sound cheerful, and patted the other martial artist on the shoulder. He wasn't great as shows of friendship and stuff like that, but he was getting better.

Ryouga grudgingly nodded.

"Now, come on. Let's go watch a girly slap fight!"

The other man gave him a curious stare. "Girly slap fight? Yeah, right. In all the fights I've seen those two in, I don't think they've ever actually slapped one another, so it can't be a slap fight."

Ranma chuckled. "Fine, fine, get all technical on me. We'll go watch them beat the crap out of each other. Sound better?"

"It does, actually." Ryouga glanced away momentarily, blushing just a little bit. There was just something about two girls using high level martial arts to try and subdue one another... not that he'd admit to it if asked by one of said females. It was kind of nice not being beaten up.

"Alright!" The pigtailed one slapped his rival on the back. "Let's go, buddy!"

* * *

"Starfire, left!"

Raven's cry was heeded with incredible speed and decisive force as her Tamaranian teammate tore along the ground fast enough to blast up a trail of debris in her wake. Ryouga's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as the red headed humanoid missile bore down on him, emerald energy boiling brightly in her eyes.

Even as he prepared to jump out of the way, as the empathic Titan could feel was his intent, she reached out her hand - a wholly symbolic gesture this time - and launched a mid level psionic attack at his mind. Not wanting to hurt him, she used a modified form of the standard UNETCO panic attack, attempting to merely make him hesitate from indecision.

Impressively, it seemed to work. The Lost Boy, a split second away from dodging, suddenly looked over his shoulder at something that didn't exist and made a quick shutter-step, as if to dodge in the other direction instead. The distraction cost him, as Starfire rammed into his side at full speed, lifting him clear off the ground and blasting the wind from his lungs.

Raven cheered silently in her head as she jogged forward in a meager attempt to keep up with the battle. The armored vest she wore was still cumbersome and uncomfortable, but at least it wasn't slowing her down as much as it had been. Honestly, she didn't even need to follow. Using another standard UNETCO trick, she had implanted a 'partition' of herself into Starfire. Now her alien team mate was acting as a proxy for her, and she could attack Ryouga directly from anywhere, so long as the girl kept her eyes on him.

Old habits were hard to break, she supposed.

Raven still found herself wanting to use her telekinesis and fight directly, but she hadn't realized how much power she had drawn from her father to use it as she did. She still possessed the power, but she wouldn't be juggling transport trucks anytime soon as long as she was trapped in this world.

She supposed she would have to settle with 'just' being the most powerful human psion (that was still sane anyway) ever recorded by the organization. Even in the few days of dedicated training she'd had in the Psi Gym, her skill level had already nigh on increased by half. The instructors and experts in the lab stated they'd never seen anything like it. She doubted they would decipher her mind anytime soon, though. They were still baffled as to how she could partition her mind so many times with none of their training, and were curious how each of her "Emoticlones" actually possessed full reasoning faculties.

That in mind, she forced herself to stop running and closed her eyes. Immediately, she could see through Starfire's eyes as she hurtled through the air, Ryouga crushed to her shoulder. She could feel the wild, exhilarating thrill of the air whipping through her hair and the wild jubilance of absolute freedom -

Consequently, she also felt it keenly when Ryouga suddenly latched onto 'their' shoulder and reared backwards as hard as he could, actually flipping them over in midair. He then lashed out with a kick, catching 'them' in the gut and launching them into the ground below. An instant later, Raven's eyes snapped open and she let out a gasp of sympathetic pain. Twisting about, she gasped again as she lifted the back of her vest to expose her back ... She could already see a bruise beginning to form on the pale skin.

"Aa...!" she winced at the still fresh pain. "I've got to work on not bonding too closely with my proxies... I can only imagine what Starfire is feeling right now."

A blast of green energy erupting into the sky over the next ridge, accompanied by a frightening shout of anger gave her a response to her question. This time, she did start running to close in. The sound of starbolts hissing and rock outcroppings exploding let her know that the fighting was getting 'vigorous' as those two would put it.

It took longer than she liked, and far too much effort, but she finally crested the hill and could see her companions again. The two were duking it out at the center of one of the mocked up urban combat areas. They were probably going to get in trouble for having their 'light training sessions' spilling out into another designated training zone. Well, maybe if they didn't do _too_ much damage -

"Bakusai Tenketsu!" The concrete marker of one of the bunkers exploded right next to Starfire, peppering her with debris and sending her crashing to the ground.

And they had been explicitly told _not_ to damage those...

The alien girl responded with a pair of eye lasers which burned straight through the raining building materials and tore away a bit of the shoulder of Ryouga's tactical vest as he nimbly dodged out of the way.

Reaching out again - she really needed to stop telegraphing herself like that - Raven tried to panic Ryouga, only to be rebuffed violently this time as she tried to enter his mind. She could feel a ... almost a 'shell' of resistance of some sort. Was that his battle aura? Ranma had stated that, once properly focused, the zen-like state of mind offered some resistance to mental attacks, which was still baffling to the girl, as in her world, psionics and chi were not only separate, but completely incompatible, to the point of one not affecting the other at all.

Reeling back slightly, she noticed Ryouga swing his gaze in her direction, a nasty smirk forming on his lips. She swallowed nervously at that.

Moving swiftly, Ryouga tore off a handful of bandannas - he had told them that he would be folding them in some way or another to blunt them - and whipped them in Starfire's general direction. The

Tamaranian gave a shocked squeal as the buzzing swarm of hornet colored bandannas came whirring down on her from all directions. Even as Starfire began to frantically blast away at the bandannas, Ryouga spun on his heel and began to sprint at full speed ... directly in Raven's direction.

Nearly panicking herself, Raven lifted her arm and prepared to activate the generic Psi Amp she wore ... but stopped herself. She didn't want to become dependent on the item, didn't even need it, unlike every other psion in the base, but it just made things _so much easier_...

Her eyes widened as she realized her own moment of hesitation had cost her. She had forgotten how fast Ryogua could move, and in the time she'd decided not to use the Psi amp, he had all but cleared the distance between them. All he needed to do was reach out and touch her and she'd be 'out.'

A blur of black, purple and blindingly bright pink suddenly dropped from the heavens right in front of Raven! The violet eyed Titan could only stare in shock as a burning pink light flared to life and the figure surged forward in a blur. Less than a second later, the battle was over ... It took Raven a few blinks to sort out what on Azar had happened, though.

Ryouga was standing less than ten feet away from her, arms held out wide to his sides and nearly standing on his tip toes as he stretched his chin up as far as it would go. Standing right before him, half in a crouch and with her fist upraised, a maliciously grinning Jinx held her merrily burning hexblade right up to the nape of his throat.

"Umm ... heh heh heh ... I ... give up?" offered up the martial arts master in an extremely nervous voice.

Jinx held her pose for another long second, before finally dismissing her weapon and rising to her feet. Smiling victoriously, now, Jinx nodded. "Damn right ya do. Honestly, you'd think you'd have learned the 'Girl's rule, boy's drool' rule by now."

Rubbing his neck gingerly, though he also appeared to be trying to look like he was _not_ doing that exact same thing - a conundrum, Raven knew - Ryouga muttered. "Hey, if the guy-side hadn't been significantly downgraded to _me, myself and I_, then I'm sure things woulda gone different ... Where the hell did you come from, anyway?"

The pink haired girl didn't have a chance to respond as Starfire, looking a little more bruised than last Raven had seen her, arrived on the scene, a combination of exultation and confusion on her face.

"We are victorious?"

"It certainly seems that way," Raven answered amiably. "Jinx made quite the last minute contribution."

"_Contri_-" Jinx half spun on Raven and looked like she was about to explode on her, but quickly caught herself before taking a second and letting out a calming breath. "Yeah, that's me, Miss 'Contribution'. Man, imagine what I coulda done if I'd actually been in on the plan?"

The young sorceress then turned to look at Ryouga uncertainly for a moment. Apparently not finding whatever it was she was looking for, Jinx then lifted her hands carelessly into the air. "Whatever. Yay, go team. I'm going inside."

Matching word to deed, Jinx then did exactly that and began to stalk away quickly. The three Titans watched her go, with vary degrees of trepidation, aggravation and ... even her empathy couldn't quite place the emotion that Ryouga was feeling at the moment.

Starfire sniffed loudly, crossing her arms. "What is _her_ malfunction? We were victorious, were we not? Why does she not revel in our glorious defeat of the wicked and vile enemy?"

"_Hey!_ I'm standing right here, you know? Besides, how did you think it was going to go? You were fighting me three on one!"

Raven's gaze lingered as she watched Jinx's receding figure. She couldn't help but think of what the girl had said, snide as it had been. "No ... we weren't."

"Huh?"

"Did you say something, friend Raven?"

Shaking her head quickly, Raven turned back to her friends. "Me? No, nothing - nothing. Say, Starfire, I don't suppose you could go ahead and make sure that the Psi Gym has some spots available? I think I need to work on my proxy training some more. I think _my_ bruise from _your_ fall is going to be worse than yours."

Giggling lightly, Starfire flew forward and gave Raven a gentle hug (only causing her to wince slightly as her back flared up painfully) then nodded. "Indeed I shall. I am certain that if Ryu or Tatewaki are present, I will be more than able to ... 'convince' them to make room for us."

The dark Titan rolled her violet eyes. "Those two are _way_ too easy. Try not to break their hearts at least, please?"

Winking teasingly, Starfire began to zip away. "I promise _nothing!_"

And then they were alone, just Raven and Ryouga.

And almost just Raven, as Ryouga, not picking up on the 'I need to talk' vibe that she was giving off like nuclear radiation, began to plod carelessly back to the base as well. Rolling her eyes, she made a rather large production of clearing her throat.

"Ryouga?" she followed up a second later, just in case she was being too subtle. "Do you have a moment?"

Stopping immediately, he turned to regard her. "Hmm? Oh, yeah, of course. I always have time for you, Raven. What do you need?"

Blood threatened to rush to her cheeks, but Raven forced her face to remain its normal pallor by pure force of will. "I wanted to talk to you about something. Is that alright?"

He nodded easily. "Of course. What's on your mind?"

Sighing, she finally bit the bullet. "I want to talk to you about Jinx."

Immediately, Ryouga tensed up visibly, but thankfully didn't attempt to flee. He then lifted his hands wardingly. "Look, if it's about the Cheerios incident, I told everyone that I would talk to her about it, already!"

Raven rolled her eyes again. "I'm certain the Commander or one of the Captains will deal with that personally. No, I want to ask you about something else ..."

She looked around, noting a few large rocks ... actually, a few large pieces of destroyed buildings, but just as good.

"But, can we sit down first? All of this running around is killing me."

Several minutes passed in uncomfortable silence as the pair sat down and tried to figure out how to broach the subject at hand. Raven could tell, just by looking at his face, that Ryouga was preparing for the worst. Was he so convinced that everyone was against Jinx?

Though, now that she thought about it, had anyone given him a reason to think otherwise?

She couldn't think of a single person in the base - aside from Ryouga himself - that would even give Jinx more than professional courtesy since she was reunited with them. The girl would rather drink acid than interact with anyone from India Squad, and they seemed more than happy to return the feeling. Juliet squad was even worse, with half of them just rearing for a catfight. Even the base personnel in general, picking up on the moods of their own - not to mention Jinx's less than pleasant demeanor - gave her a wide berth as much as humanly possible.

Honestly, how were _they_ supposed to deal with the villainous girl? Just because they came from the same dimension didn't mean they were great teammate material. Raven still remembered the bathroom incident earlier that morning. She'd tried to reach out, but Jinx had just snapped at her. Actually, perhaps ... that wasn't completely true. It had been Jinx that had done the initial reaching out, hadn't it? So what had happened to make it backfire so badly?

Sighing, she looked at the lost boy, sensing his apprehension growing by the second. She knew that he wanted Jinx on the team, but she just couldn't see it happening, not really. No one, aside from Ryouga, wanted to work with her, and she seemed even less inclined to work with them.

So ... what did they do? How does one get along with someone that they dislike so strongly?

"Ryouga ... how is it that you can get along with Ranma so well?"

"Wait, what - who said I did?" Ryouga glanced around furiously, as if to find the evil informant just standing around them. "Wait a second ... I thought you wanted to talk about Jinx?"

Raven rolled her eyes. "I do. I mean, you've made it clear that you want her on our team ... but Jinx and I get along worse than cats and birds. How do you expect us to work with her when she verbally attacks us any chance she gets?"

The lost boy frowned at her words. "Look, I'm not asking you to be her friend, or anything. I just ... I mean, _why_ is it so hard for you all to accept her?"

She stared at him through lidded eyes. "Umm, see previous statement? If her tongue were any more acidic, her spit would be lethal to all life on the planet."

"Hey now, cut that out," he replied darkly. "She might have a sharp tongue, but I haven't exactly heard anyone try to take the high road when talking back to her. Hell, she told me about her conversation with Ranma. He threatened to 'beat her up' over some insults? Insults that he provoked in standard insensitive Ranma fashion? Man, he's **so** lucky that I talked to Jinx _after_ I spoke to him."

Raven found herself studying her hands intently. She hadn't expected him to jump to Jinx's defense so fiercely. "Well ... why should we all be held to a different standard than her?"

He matched her gaze seriously. "Because you, and everyone else here, already does - and always has - upheld that standard yourselves. Let me ask you a question in return, Raven." Ryouga paused, leaning forward to rest an elbow on his knee. "Have you, or anyone else for that matter, ever tried to look at things from Jinx's point of view?"

"Jinx's point of view? What do you mea-"

He cut her off with a sharp wave of the hand. "Think about it. Jinx spent most of her life as a villain, acting like a villain, and treated like a villain. It's pretty much all she's ever known."

"Well, yes ... but wha-"

"What does that have to do with it?" he asked, not quite sarcastically. "It means that she's used to only thinking of herself, and doing whatever it takes to get what she wants. And, ironically, what with the Academy, she was actually praised for acting like she did."

Raven frowned. She wasn't certain where he was going with this, aside from reinforcing Jinx's villainous past. "And?"

In a rare turn of events, Ryouga rolled his eyes. "And now, over the past few weeks, Jinx has been trying hard to be good, like she thinks that the Titans are. She's stopped stealing, fighting and all that kind of stuff ... and what happens to her?"

The dark Titan studied her thumbs again, having an odd feeling she knew what was coming next.

"She gets **punished** for it!" Ryouga raised his voice for a moment, but quickly composed himself, shooting her an apologetic look. "Look, I know why you guys did it - though I don't agree - but think of it from her side. She just helped me and Terra save Atlantis, and what does she get for it? The moment you guys get back, you kick her out of the tower and tell her, straight to her face, that you can't trust her."

Ryouga absently ground his knuckle into his perch, powdering the concrete. "Do you know where Jinx is staying now? No? Well that makes two of us. She won't even tell **me** where she's living. She could be in an alley, or a hostel, or something like that, and I don't even know. And what does she do for money? She isn't stealing, and she can't exactly get a job ... so what?"

"I ..." Raven didn't even know how to finish that statement.

"I mean, I try to get her a little cash whenever I see her, but it's like giving blood to a rock." He chuckled a bit darkly to himself a moment later. "Unless, of course, I offer to buy her food. Then she makes Kurumi look picky."

Raven ... hadn't even considered that. What _did_ Jinx do during the day, when she wasn't fighting crime? Raven knew that most heroes, especially the street level types, didn't have their rather lavish lifestyle, but did Jinx have anything at all? Anything aside from Ryouga doing his best to look out for her?

Not even glaring at her now, just the world in general as he continued to demolish the piece of concrete he sat on, Ryouga continued his rant. "So yeah, maybe Jinx can be a bitch, but how would you react in her situation? There isn't a person on this entire base, not you, not me, and definitely not Ranma, that can understand what she's dealing with right now. Sure, it's easy to just file her away under 'once a villain, always a villain' and forget her, but she's **trying** to change; she's trying **so** hard."

"There is a difference between 'trying' and 'doing,'" she replied evenly, though she instantly regretted it. Why had she even said that?

His frown only deepened at that. "And there's a difference between ignorance, and simply choosing not to see what's right in front of you. Everyone still thinks Jinx is a villain, just because she's got a nasty sense of humor, but who was it that dragged Akari through a hundred miles of alien infested forest when she could have easily left her behind? Who was it that personally volunteered to chase down an **Ethereal** just to help Akari out? Who was crying their eyes out because these damn UNETCO bastards refuse to tell her a damn thing about what's going on with Akari since the surgery?"

"Jinx cried? I don't remember that," Raven replied, eyes wide.

Ryouga's jaw clicked shut, then he quickly waved his hands wardingly. "Um, forget that last one. I'm just saying, people around here seem to think words are more important than actions, rather than the other way around. Maybe Jinx already _has_ changed, but no one wants to believe it because she happens to insult them from... time to time."

Raven mulled his words over slowly. Had Jinx changed? It was so easy to dismiss her actions when she considered how Jinx acted towards everyone off the battlefield. Raven wished she could believe it, and she felt a bit bad that she couldn't, since Ryouga made a very strong case for her.

"Look, like I said, you don't need to be her friend," Ryouga reiterated, "But could you at least be a bit sympathetic to her situation? She's trying to do the right thing, but she's universally less loved than _Kuno_ at the moment."

"Maybe I should talk to her about it?" Raven offered tentatively.

Ryouga actually recoiled physically from her suggestion. "Oh gods no! She'd flay me alive if she knew I talked to you about her like this! Besides, she'd never admit to any of it. Of course she insults everyone. She's just like me; she'd rather be hated than pitied. Tell her you feel sorry for her, and you'll be in for a world of hurt, I guarantee."

... A world of hurt? What an odd phrase that was. What did it even mean, really?

"Say, you never did answer my first question," she suddenly asked in a bit of a non sequitur.

He gawked at her oddly for a second. "What question? Oh, you were on about _Ranma_ again, weren't you? How many times do I have to tell you? Ranma isn't my friend; he's my **rival!** I can't _stand_ that arrogant, self important jerk! ... Oh, right, speaking of which, I think I need to talk to him about organizing some training session or another later on. ...Damned Ranma..."

Raven could only smile at the Lost Boy's meandering diatribe. Still, it had given her a plan of attack. She just hoped she could survive said plan.

* * *

Ryouga was late as usual.

Not that the surly lieutenant liked having that simple fact pointed out in a frank and honest manner. Ranma saw Shirokuro run off as soon as her master came through the door, probably to help retrieve her other master. The poor canine had been doing double shifts the last week or so. Ranma smiled at the truly-working dog (she really did deserve something special for all the extra work), and then at his rival, gesturing him over to the table in the meeting room.

The lost one had brought a small box, a packed lunch, with him, and Ranma immediately set eyes on the potential prize. Not surprisingly, Ryouga sat down at the far side of the table, guarding his food with as much dignity as he could muster. Just out of range of any effective martial arts eating tricks, too. You'd think the pigtailed artist had a _reputation_ or something!

"We should have a couple minutes before your little brother shows up," Ranma joked, resting a hand on his own packed lunch. It resembled a bento box, but… the horror. THE HORROR. Why in the name of all that was holy had Akane tried to make him something? Shouldn't she have been busy with her training? They obviously weren't keeping her as busy as he'd thought.

The gods were just too cruel.

"My…?" Ryouga caught the meaning and frowned sourly. "Is that what we're calling him today?"

"I thought of it last night, and it has a nice ring," Ranma admitted. "Especially since you two just get along sooo well."

"You're a riot, Saotome."

"I know. I know." Ranma brushed off the obvious sarcasm. "So what'cha got there?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Ryouga replied, opening the box and using his arm to shield its contents from view. Ranma just tapped his finger on the lid of his own so called lunch.

"Are you trying to make me curious?" the pigtailed one asked, cocking his head to the side. "Because I'll get up and make you show me."

Ryouga warded him off with a cupped palm, as if ready to unleash a ki blast. "You stay where you are, you notorious bread thief!"

"I am **not** notorious!"

"Tell that to Ukyou."

"I never **once** stole her bread!"

"Yeah. Just her okonomiyaki. You're a remorseless food thief and you know it," Ryouga countered, undeterred by the silly statement of feigned innocence. "You just stay over there on your side of the table and don't try anything funny."

"See?" Ranma asked, tensing to stand up. "Now I know you have something good!"

"You have your own damn lunch!" the other man growled, and pointed. "I can see it right there!"

"You call this lunch? You-know-who made it. I should send it down to the Xenosciences lab to be interrogated!"

"Cry me a river, Saotome. At least she tries hard for you."

Something about Ryouga's demeanor, despite the usual banter, had Ranma attention. Could it be…?

"Don't tell me!" Ranma slammed his palm on the table, gleefully pointing at his rival. "Nabiki made you lunch or something? Oh, no, wait… she didn't?"

Ryouga gave a defeated sigh. Turning the box around, he inclined it so Ranma could see inside and satisfy his oft-times insatiable curiosity. Sure enough, the pigtailed officer quickly recognized the contents of Ryouga's bento box. Oh, he recognized them well indeed.

"Is that Akane's food?" the pigtailed fighter literally laughed out loud. "She gave you Akane's cooking?"

"It was _supposed_ to be the lunch Kasumi had made for _her_ this morning," he snarled, turning the box back around. "No wonder I got it on a discount. 'Made by a certain Tendo sister' she said. More like 'let the buyer beware.'"

"So…" Ranma cleared his throat, trying to keep from breaking into full on guffaws. "She SOLD you Akane's food? You paid money for **food** made by **Akane**. I'm not mistaken in saying that, am I?"

"Shut up, Ranma. Just shut up."

Ryouga decided not to mention that, as a token of apology post-facto, Nabiki had included a plastic wrapped sandwich from the mess hall and a note telling him to 'look before you buy next time, XOXO.' …And then a heart with a yen-sign inside it. _Treacherous woman._

He quickly ate that first, before Ranma took notice of it, and then slowly picked through Akane's attempt at rice. Heaven help her, she tried, but how anyone messed up making sticky white rice he couldn't imagine. He boiled plain rice over a campfire often enough, and it didn't come out looking like it had been mixed with rocks and burned. At least it was edible.

"Are you putting wasabi on that?" the lost one asked, seeing Ranma performing some sort of arcane alchemy on his bento box. "What the…? You want some rice with your wasabi, Saotome?"

"Ha. Ha." Ranma wasn't laughing at all. "I'd use Barbeque sauce if it covered up this taste."

Ryouga gave his rival a disgusted look, and hastily went to work putting away what was left of his lunch. What the mad Saotome did, he couldn't begin to fathom, but one moment Ranma was dantily tasting his latest concoction and then the next second it was gone. Wise to his rival's tricks, Ryouga checked the taste in his mouth to make sure he hadn't been the victim of a malicious _parley du foie gras_ attack.

"Blegh," Ranma said with a grunt. He had eaten it after all, but didn't seem too happy about that fact. Ryouga finished soon after, with notably less condimental butchering of the food. At least Nabiki had had the decency to put some real food in with the practical joke stuff. He knew he'd have to find a way to pay her back later.

Despite himself, he smiled at the thought. She was trying to distract him, of course, and probably cheer him up in some weird way. Nonetheless, there would be retribution.

"So," Ranma finally said, resting his head on his palm, propped up leisurely by an elbow on the table. "Yankee Squad."

"Them." Ryouga echoed. "I got your email. Sounds like you had some fun with them yesterday."

Juliet and Yankee had done some cross training the previous afternoon, and they were set to do some more later today, this time with Beta and the still mostly green Delta groups. Four-squad wargames were always done outdoors, and normally, India would be in Yankee's spot. They'd swapped things around to give the Titans more time to work with other squads in the field and in combat simulations.

Things were… still not ideal with Yankee, from what Ryouga had heard.

"Your little bro's kind of like the old you. He puts up with me ordering them around, but I can tell he hates it." Ranma smiled at that, as if it was truly, terribly amusing. "You know the other day he challenged me? Used a letter and everything!"

"I heard."

"All it was missing was a note about 'training in Hokkaido' while the letterhead said 'from Okinawa.'"

"G-r-Ranma...!"

"They're not a bad bunch," Ranma continued, pausing only to take a small drink of water from his cup. "Their you puts up with things better than you did a year ago… for the most part. The Starfire girl is pretty friendly and hard working. That goth chick's a bit… I dunno… sour and sarcastic sometimes, but she's got spirit. And her psi powers? There's some serious potential there to cause havoc. Cyborg's alright, but half the time he's doing his own thing in the Engineering wing."

Seeing that Ranma was serious again, Ryouga composed himself and nodded. It was a similar assessment to his own.

"Then… there's Jinx." Ranma paused here to sigh in open exasperation. "Sharp tongue on her. Follows orders, but only grudgingly. I can see their team is stressed with her on board. Not like we have anywhere else to put her. Good in close combat, though. The pink-powers of hers can be useful, too, if used carefully."

"I like 'em for the most part," he decided, but added a caveat," They seem like the kind of people we should have… would have, back in the day… become friends with. Not like we **need** to be friends with them, we're their commanding officers not their buddies, but I'd like it if things went more smoothly."

"I thought the same thing," Ryouga replied, leaning back in his chair. "Plus, Yasuda wanted to see if they could be 'integrated.' I'm sure if I hadn't done what I did we'd all be getting along. It would've certainly caused less trouble, since it was basically all for nothing anyway."

"You did what you had to, man," Ranma said, trying not to dwell on that subject.

But… but it was also why they were here.

"I wouldn't tell _them_ that."

"What _are_ we going to tell them? Your little brother, anyway?" the Saotome heir asked. "The Commander said to 'keep them engaged,' since they already know some of the situation, but nothing above 06-Blue. They all know about Akari. They probably suspect she's somewhere on base."

"Maybe," Ryouga speculated. "Maybe not. I say we let him fish for information, that way it's easier to keep what needs to stay classified, classified. And we'll see what they already suspect."

"I dunno."

"Talking's your specialty, Saotome, and the guy hates me anyway, so it's in your hands. If you're about to spill anything too sensitive, I'll jump in."

"Thanks a lot, P-chan. I didn't know you had such faith in my ability to keep secrets."

"You're pretty good at it, Ranko."

"Ha! Alright."

A minute or so later, a knock at the door had the two officers take notice. Ryouga stood, walked over to the door, and opened it. In came his literal carbon copy.

"Acting Sergeant," Ranma said by way of welcome, and motioned to a chair. "Have a seat, would you? You got our request, but this is just a little talk."

The young Hibiki eyed his older counterpart warily for a moment, and then nodded curtly to Ranma before taking a seat before the pigtailed officer.

"So, what's this about then? Did you want to discuss the training session? Or ... this isn't about the incident at breakfast, is it?" he suddenly wondered. "I swear there's no physical evidence linking anyone from Yankee squad to that unfortunate ... accident!"

"Uh, no. Though if someone from Yankee was involved, we would hold you responsible and expect corrective measures. Whatever," Ranma said, waving dismissively at the whole discipline and order business. "You've been doing a good job with your team and they've represented themselves well in combat practice. This isn't a 'chew you out' session or anything like that."

Amusingly, the younger martial artist let out a sigh of relief before nodding. "Good, good. Just to reiterate, totally not Yankee's fault." Once he finished with his assertions, he then leaned back, looking a bit leery once more. "Alright then, I'll bite. What _did_ you call me in here for, then?"

"Back on your world, you work under a kid…" Ranma coughed. "A young man named Robin. You probably noticed that he doesn't always pass on everything he knows to his teammates."

"Likewise," the native Ryouga spoke up, "Sometimes, you will need to know things that your team does not. As an NCO – a non commissioned officer – you have higher clearance than the rest of your squad."

Rolling his eyes, the younger Hibiki had to stop himself from scoffing out loud. "As if there's anything that I would keep from my friends. Stop with all the cloak and dagger stuff already and just get to the point already, would you?"

"Geez, impatient much?" Ranma grumbled, scratching behind his ear. He quickly turned serious again, resting his hands on the table. "I guess the easiest way to say this… is that this has to do with Akari. Your team is already involved, so you should know a few things."

Immediately, the impatient Titan grew serious, leaning forward avidly. "You know what happened to her? How did the surgery go? Did she make it?"

"They're calling the operation a complete success. The higher ups and… others are very happy you were able to contribute like you did," Ranma spoke evenly, as if he had practiced the words and sentences before and they were mere rote. "She was given about a day to recuperate before being transferred, and her resorted abilities repaired all the damage done to her body in a few hours."

It was almost heartbreaking to see the guy's face instantly light up in joy.

"That's - that's **great** news!" he enthused. "Man, why aren't you guys dancing on the table?" A moment later, Ryouga was on his feet. "Jinx is gonna have a heart attack when she hears about this!"

"There's a reason we're not celebrating," Ranma replied, simply. "I said Akari's body repaired itself. Not her mind."

The dimensionally displaced Ryouga stared at him, obviously confused. "What? I'm not following, what the heck are you talking about? Is she alright, or isn't she?"

"Shortly after the transplant of the _corona lucis_ your team brought in, Akari - what we should be calling codename "White Iron" - regained contact with the alien group mind," Ranma explained. "Initial reports indicate she has fully reverted to alien control and has henceforth been classified as an 'alien combatant.'"

Seated nearby, the other Hibiki had crossed his arms, his face expressionless.

"Wait a minute... How did she reconnect with the alien mind thing when we're under the mind shield?"

"The operation was conducted off-base for just that reason." Ranma shook his head. Ryouga remembered, then, that Akari must've been kept at that temporary base from before. Hisen. "There would be no point otherwise. It would be like fixing a radio's antenna when there are no stations to listen to. For her to repair her body, they had to keep her temporarily off base."

"Well, I guess that makes sense. Alright, so now that she's here ... she is here, right?" he asked, but didn't wait for a reply. "Now that she's here, she's not connected to the mind again, so she's fine, right?"

"If she were fine, I think our demeanor would be different," Ranma said, with a hint of aggravation. "On this world, she and Akane were friends, to say nothing of what she meant to Ryouga and myself. Unfortunately, no, her personality did not reassert itself once she… transferred here. I haven't been given all the details, but she's under close study. I know that isolated Ethereals and Trenchards often last up to a month in shielded confinement, but that's with natural bio-amps, not the artificial psi-amp they used on her."

"Jinx isn't going to be able to see or speak to her," Lieutenant Hibiki added, his voice carefully controlled. "No one is. Not for some time, and not unsupervised."

"She's a victim,' Ranma picked up from there. "Just like those infected you encountered at the terror site. She may look better, for now, but it's the same damn thing. You need to know, acting sergeant, that for all intents and purposes Akari is dead. All that's left is a body and an alien mind."

Ryouga matched their stares for a long moment before finally sitting down and letting out a weary sigh.

"I knew it was a possibility... more than that, really... But to hear it stated as fact?" The young man lowered his head, resting his forehead on an upraised palm. "I - I don't even know how I'll tell the others, and especially Jinx..." Suddenly, the young man looked up, his eyes narrowing. "Wait a second... You said it was a complete success. That means - that means that you people _wanted_ this to happen?"

"They _expected_ it to," his native counterpart replied. "Though I'm sure some people in the Europe branch were silently hoping."

Quickly, Ranma explained, "The organization has about a dozen Ethereals in captivity around the world. But only have three Trenchards and none like Akari. So, yeah, there were some people who wanted this to happen. I ain't gonna mince words. A lot more - all of us - were still hoping, even when you guys brought that alien in, that there'd be some kind of long shot miracle. That maybe the amp or the transplant would limit the power of the alien mind. Things didn't work out that way."

"No ... I ... I guess they didn't. And now Akari is a lab rat just waiting to be dissected ..." Dropping his head back down into his hands again, Ryouga could only stare at the table. "I - I can't tell Jinx that... can I?"

He actually looked up at the other two officers for some sort of answer. "I mean, she did the **right** thing, damnit. At least we were willing to give her a chance, anyway...! I can't just throw it in everyone's faces that all of our good intentions were just playing into the hands of some immoral scientist bastards..."

"Your intentions were good, huh?" The older Ryouga still had his arms crossed, but the bitter tone in his voice quickly smoothed out. "Even I've heard what they say about 'good intentions.'" He seemed about to say more in that vein, but shook his head forcefully, willing himself to move past it.

The younger Ryouga frowned dropping his hands to the table loudly. "Yeah, I know what they say about good intentions, too. But they also say that all it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing. At least _we_ took action, for better or for worse." With that, he rose to his feet, curling his hands into fists on the table. "Maybe we did try, and fail, and we'll probably end up feeling worse about it than those of you that gave up before you even began ... but at least we'll know we _tried_."

Sensing that things were starting to slip again, already, Ranma quickly jumped in. "If you tell your team anything, tell them they acted according to their conscience and to try and not burden themselves with regrets," he concluded, eyes closed as he concentrated in his breathing. "I know Akari would say, 'I forgive them, they did it to try and help me.' Jinx probably knows that, too, on some level. Isn't that right?"

The elder Hibiki had his eyes screwed shut, but he nodded very slightly. "She was always very forgiving."

The now acting sergeant quickly reigned in his annoyance, as best he could, then nodded to the pigtailed Lieutenant. "I'm sure she'll be thrilled to here that."

He then gave a mock salute to the pair. "Sirs, if I may be excused?"

"One moment," Ranma said, holding up his hand. "I know this isn't what you wanted to hear. I know this is shitty news. But, we have a few more things to discuss …then you can go."

* * *

Back on her Earth, Starfire had only minimal exposure to the Joketsuzoku warrior named Shampoo. The girl had not been present when the Titans visited the village, and the Tamaranian had never really gotten to know the aloof Amazon during the following trial against the HIVE in Jump City. Basically everything she knew was second hand: stories and analysis from Ryouga, comments from Cologne, the occasional reference dropped by Perfume, and from time to time, a partly overheard conversation on the part of other villagers.

From what she saw of this world's Shan Pu, the girl was prickly, a little ruthless, but still pretty friendly… at last towards 'a fellow Amazon.' After a few days, Starfire had heard the other side of the story regarding the Joketsuzoku tragedy: even after being freed, Elder Cologne had renounced her status. She wasn't "Elder," though both girls still tended to give her that title. Starfire could see it was both a form of atonement, for being psychologically broken by the aliens – creating her monstrous duplicate – and as a way of separating the Amazon past from the Amazon future.

The Council, once five, was now only three: Shampoo, Perfume, and Mousse.

The previous night, after Juliet and Yankee had retired from their training, Shampoo had explained to her alien "sister" how they planned to rebuild the village. It would be less a physical place, and more an international community. The fact that Mousse was an "Elder" in it was radical enough; this was a complete restructuring. The exiled Amazons, of which there were apparently almost a hundred scattered around the globe by the old Council, would be brought back into the fold, along with other promising martial artists and their families to form a new core and a new Council.

The Joketsuzoku had been created to preserve martial arts knowledge in the wake of their defeat and retreat from the west. The creation of marriage laws and a matrilineal aristocracy came from an earlier tradition, but taken to extremes. Ironically, this mission mirrored what Shampoo had heard of the corrupted Cologne's ambition – to carry Earth's martial skills to the stars, in service to the aliens, even if it meant forsaking humankind in the process. The new Amazons would have to walk a careful line between isolation and arrogance, or risk repeating the mistakes of the past.

Today, for the first time, Shampoo had invited her new sister-in-arms to train with Cologne in some of the ancient art. And… honestly, Starfire had almost declined. Though she had still managed to uphold her façade before most everyone present, though it had been strained nearly to breaking by her visit to that psychologist, it was still difficult for her to deal with the doppelgangers of her friends from home. Her visit with Dr Phillip had stirred up such powerful emotions in her, brought her darkest angers and resentments right to the surface…

But whatever her feelings for anyone else, Starfire could bear no grudge against Cologne. The honored elder - Cologne would always be an honored elder in Starfire's eyes, regardless of her actual station - was a victim of this war, just as Starfire herself was. Though their situations were ironically inverse, Cologne captured and tortured by aliens, while Starfire was similarly tormented and subjected to endless humiliations by humans, it granted them both great understanding of one another's perspective.

The time she had spent with Cologne, living in her chamber for several days before their current accommodations had been provided, Starfire had found the ancient warrior to be, by far, the closest in personality to her double in the Tamaranian's own world. The analytical part of her mind couldn't help but attribute that to age (much of the deviation between earth histories had occurred within fifty years, so it made some sense that the younger the generation the greater the differences). Nonetheless, though they had never spoken of their mutual times spent in captivity, the support which Cologne had offered had been greatly appreciated. It was only too unfortunate that she seemed to be the exception, rather than the rule in this place.

Of course, Cologne also (privately) spoke the world of her Great Granddaughter, an indulgent vice she never entertained in public or in front of the violet haired Amazon herself. Information flowed both ways there; she had passed on word of Starfire to Shampoo as well. The two of them had worked well together during the 'terror mission' in Russia, for the short time they had been paired up. Not only that, but Shampoo seemed to be one of the few people that she shared enough in common with that it made it easier to look past her own hidden feelings.

And so, here they were, gathered in the 'Dojo' with Cologne, preparing for a rigorous session of the training. The Amazon girl was obviously still smarting from drawing even with Ukyou the day before in a semi-serious fight, and happily put aside time to work on her technique. Which wasn't to say: "techniques" just "technique." Compared to the esoteric metaphysics involved in learning something like the _Hiryu Shoten Ha_, the day's session seemed almost mundane.

"Some fights are won by special techniques or abilities, this is true," Cologne had explained after Starfire had asked. "But what about when your enemy has more powerful abilities than your own? It is one's general skill level: in motion, in attack, in defense, that allows you to use your special techniques at the right time and in the right place. It is an unfortunate mistake in young prodigies, like yourselves, to think that you can circumvent years of training by mastering one flashy technique."

It was a lesson that Starfire already knew well, from long before her encounter with Herb. It seemed a lecture more aptly saved for the likes of this world's Ranma and Ryouga, actually. Sadly, it was more often than not that the Titan's enemies possessed power far greater than their own. Rigorous training of their fighting skills was a tenant that Robin did not let them slack on, not ever.

Cologne promptly reiterated this fact by trouncing the both of them, despite having only one arm, and a mostly burned out battle aura (the injuries to body and spirit a result of her battle with her alien copy). The rest of the session, they fought without techniques or abilities as a crutch. It reminded the Tamaranian of her earlier training at Okaara, repeating and learning the foundations of combat, though far more playful then ever her lessons were under the harsh tutelage of those ancient and legendary warriors. While less severe due to the more friendly atmosphere in which they now trained, Cologne's staff still stung far more than it should have - despite superhumanly tough skin - as she drilled countermoves into her students.

"It is a fact that, realistically, most of your opponents will be men and not other women," Cologne lectured, standing before them. "Now, some Amazons believed we should have a kinship with other, naturally weaker, women in the outside. This was a common and frankly ignorant statement among those who had no contact with the world beyond the village."

Cologne then turned to Shampoo. "Our enemies are both male and female. I have taught you some of our special techniques for… dealing with men, Shampoo, but not enough for dealing with other women. I still consider it of secondary importance, since you'll only really use it against that Kuonji girl, but perhaps it is time. Cherish your enemies and your rivals, granddaughter, even as you train to destroy them. I only ever gave one Kiss of Death in all my years of life…"

She trailed off at that, a little wistful at the memory of rivals long gone.

By the time they finished, Starfire started to worry a bit for the obvious target of Shampoo's training. The young Amazon made very little attempt to stifle her annoyance at her martial arts rival for developing a ki attack and improving as much as she did. The Tamaranian simply could not comprehend the idea of 'the rivalry.' Certainly, Ryouga and Ranma made it look quite entertaining and enjoyable, but other rivalries, such as the one between Jinx and Raven, or Shampoo and Ukyou. seemed much darker and not pleasant at all...

"I will definitely beat her before… a certain mission we have," Shampoo had vowed, though the last part was spoken quietly. "I have to."

They then spent the remainder of their time – in fact nearly half of it – sharing ways to attack non-human enemies. This was undertaken with a more vicious mentality: despite everything, it was clear Shampoo couldn't and wouldn't be trying to kill Ukyou any time soon, whereas the alien menace was a constant threat and an enemy that needed extermination on the battlefield. Starfire's offense was strongest in close quarters, and Shampoo had a wealth of accumulated knowledge to impart. It was then that she leaned that every member of the two squads, Juliet and India, freely shared martial ideas when it came to directly fighting the common enemy.

Finally, after who knew how long, their training drew to a close. Despite their greater training experience, it was somewhat amusing for Starfire to notice that both Cologne and Shampoo were far more winded from the workout than she, herself was. Elder Cologne would never fully recover from her wounds - a cruel fact which greatly saddened the Tamaranian - but, beyond that, Starfire imagined there was only so much that one could do to overcome inherent genetic limitations. She doubted they would ever be able to train themselves to survive the vacuum of space as she did, though, if she believed _anyone_ could, it would be these martial artists she had come to consider her peers.

Taking a small breath, Starfire used a provided towel to clear some of the perspiration from her brow before bowing to the proud Amazon warriors.

"I thank you both **very** much for allowing me the honor of training with you," she said. "I hope that we might be able to do so again in the future."

Shampoo inclined her head politely. "Next time, maybe you can show us more of how those who trained you fight. The best learning flows both ways."

Standing nearby, Cologne smiled at the words. She'd had to drill them into her granddaughter enough. A true master knew when to lecture and when to learn.

Starfire nodded enthusiastically. "Of course. The Warlords of Okaara were ancient before the human race even came into being. Their skills are legendary throughout the universe. I would be glad to impart what small knowledge that I gleaned from my short stay from them."

"Shampoo," Cologne spoke up, walking slowly with the aid of her staff. "I believe I will turn in for the day. …After I teach that cute young man in the mess hall how to make proper tea, that is. I know you have a few things to discuss with your colleague."

"Thank you again, great grandmother," Shampoo replied with a deeper bow, her fist and palm clasped together in martial style. Starfire mimicked the gesture, and the ancient Amazon retreated from the dojo's private training room with a cackle. The Tendos, who technically ran the facility on the base, would need to replace a few tatami mats, but nothing major. Not like when certain martial artists "trained" (aka fought) and trashed everything in sight, including one another.

Starfire glanced at her companion oddly. "You have something with which you need to discuss with myself?"

"It is about our teammates," Shampoo began, glad they could converse in English rather than her unwieldy and still terribly spotty Japanese. Not that her English was perfect all the time either. "Husband and lost boy were planning on pairing some of us up. They want to make us all work together better, I guess. It would be a little like when we first came here and we had older soldiers close by to help us fit in."

The alien girl nodded, seeing the sense in that. "That seems to be a logical progression. Having people more familiar with the rules and protocols of your organization would assist us in acclimating ourselves more easily."

Shampoo settled down into a cross-legged position near the middle of the room.

"They're probably talking it over with your lost boy right now, and should have a list done by tonight. I think you'll probably be working with me. I assume that's fine, yes?"

Mimicking the Amazon, Starfire also took a cross-legged position, though she couldn't help but float several inches above the ground. "I see no problems with that arrangement. I can not say that my team mates will share my enthusiasm, though."

"You don't think any of them can get along?" Shampoo asked. She sounded unconcerned, but wouldn't have brought it up if it hadn't been on her mind.

Shrugging, Starfire shook her head. "It is not that I do not think they can get along, just that many of them tend to get easily ... preoccupied with their endeavors. Unlike ourselves, I am uncertain as to whether or not any of your team mates share any interests with any of my team mates that would allow them to bond as easily."

"If…" The human girl clearly chafed a bit at asking for help, even in this. "If you were to have any recommendations, I could bring them to Husband. He'd be most appreciative of any help you could give in making this work. And we all do want this to work, even stupid Mousse and spatula-girl."

"Hmm, well, I must admit that the knowledge I possess of your counterparts is far less applicable than I had hoped it would be, there are several obvious partnerships I could see." Delicately tapping her chin, Starfire lifted a hand and counted off a finger. "As our liaison with the Titans East, Cyborg has had many dealings with both Ukyou and Kuno. Either of them would make a good partner ... though Ryouga would likely be resistant to having any of us working with members of India squadron."

She then counted off another finger. "Raven had gotten to know Mousse well, however, in our world, she has a very strong friendship with Saotome Ranma. I believe, despite the differences between our worlds, that she would feel more comfortable around him than even she herself would admit."

The alien girl then scratched her head, a look of consternation forming on her face.

"As for Jinx and Ryouga ... they are not so easy to place. The only persons with whom Jinx has shown any affection at all are Ryouga ... and Kasumi. However, I find it highly unlikely, after the vicious verbal barbs between the former, that Jinx would ever agree to work with your Ryouga. As for Ryouga himself, he harbors strong reservations of his own leadership abilities and it seems likely that he would be quite averse to working with _any_ of his Nerimian friends, as he in all probability still equates all of you with how he remembers you from our world and with himself."

"I see. Is…itis hard to imagine lost boy ending up in charge of teams, both here and on your world," Shampoo observed, a little jealously. "He never seemed the type to me. Hopefully Ranma and Ryougas come up with something that works, but I won't hold my breath."

Noting the minor slip ups, Starfire tilted her head. "Um ... would you prefer to converse in Chinese?" She switched dialects without missing a beat. "If it is easier for you, then it is no problem for me."

"No, no thank you," the other girl insisted, holding up a hand to infer the negative. "Everyone speaks English here, and I get enough grief about my Japanese as it is. It's… very annoying: everyone else picked up their English perfectly, but I still slip up sometimes. The doctors said to just keep using it until it comes more naturally." She frowned a bit, and speculated, "I think it may be because I only knew one language before leaving the village. Everyone else started learning English in school."

"Very well then, if it will assist your learning," Starfire replied in English. "Unfortunately, I can not offer any other suggestions. I suppose that Jinx might react more favorably to Kuno, Mousse, or even Nabiki, since she has worked with them all to ... annoyingly efficient effect in the past. However, due to her belligerence to your Ryouga, your versions have already acquired somewhat negative opinions of her."

"She **kissed** Ranma," Shampoo all but growled. "Right in front of me!" Small, powerful fists balled as she reigned in her initial impulse to _remove the obstacle_. "That girl is lucky she's still alive. Acting like that, no wonder she doesn't make friends."

Starfire rolled her eyes. "Indeed, she does enjoy instigating... what was that word again - Shenanigans? I can guarantee that she did not do it for any romantic reasons, her relationship with Ranma is most... antagonistic, in a friendly manner."

Shampoo crossed her arms defiantly.

"I suppose… Husband didn't seem to enjoy it, but he **is** a man. He hides it, but I'd bet he still has a _man__'__s weaknesses_." Her would-be- husband was a particularly delicate topic, but one she eventually dropped, to focus back on the problem at hand. "It isn't like she made a good first impression, I should have said. I don't know who'll want to try and help her… maybe girly-boy Konatsu."

"I am not really overly familiar with Konatsu," Starfire admitted, picturing the unobtrusive, polite young crossdresser. "He did assist in the defeat of the Headmaster... I think...?" It was kind of hard to remember him. "But I saw extremely little of him after the battle. I do not know if Jinx even met him at all... it... might not be a bad suggestion."

Shampoo nodded, both pleased with the idea, and agreeing with how inconspicuous the cross-dressing kunoichi tended to be.

"Before coming here I didn't know much about him either. Ukyou never mentioned him. I assumed he was just another waitress," she thought aloud. "Yes, maybe that will work. We can let the others find someone for your lost boy. Maybe one of the older soldiers."

She paused, thinking over a question she had been wondering about for a bit before presenting it

"Starfire, you're a princess of your people, yes?" They both knew it was true, so she quickly asked the real question. "Why don't you lead your group? You're… stronger than them, aren't you? Don't you have to learn to lead to be a, um…" she searched for the right word. "Matriarch? One day?"

"My ... royal lineage did very little to prepare me for leadership," Starfire explained, a little sadly. "While I did learn combat from a young age, certain ... events occurred which prevented me from going through the diplomatic and military training I would have received as my station would have dictated."

The alien girl looked away, a dark look covering her face as she recalled her grim past.

"I… didn't mean to remind you of that," Shampoo said, by way of an unspoken apology. "Like you would have been, I was trained to be a great warrior and leader of the village; to be like great grandmother was at my age. But that never happened. I mean, I love my Husband, but I sometimes wonder why it isn't ever me in charge of things. I don't think any of my - my other friends I guess, know what that's like."

"It is a lesson that I hope they never have to learn," Starfire agreed forlornly. "It is possible that I _could_ lead, but after working with such strong - such _driven_ leaders - such as Robin, I know I would only feel inadequate in comparison." She then shook her head, studying her hands tentatively. "And Cyborg and I have both come to the conclusion that, despite our greater experience, Ryouga is the only viable choice to lead our group."

Looking up, she gave the Amazon a knowing look.

"We both _know_ that the only reason that we are here together, or perhaps even alive for that matter, is because Ryouga is who he appears to be. Were it not for the curiosity stirred by him being a doppelganger to your own Hibiki, we are quite certain that we would not have been transferred here at all; perhaps we would not even have survived our initial 'interrogations'. Despite hostilities, it is obvious that your commanders are placing some small amount of their faith in your Ryouga onto ours, and without that borrowed goodwill, we would not be in this situation at all. No, it is for the best that we allow Ryouga to attempt to broaden his horizon, if only to put your organization more at ease with a more familiar face."

"That makes sense," Shampoo admitted, smiling at the other woman's honesty and insight. But…

"But it is still kind of annoying to see," she insisted. "Is like fate is saying lost boy have to lead us or something. I remember him acting like a total idiot at even the mention of kitchen-wrecker Akane's name, back when he learned the breaking point from great grandmother. That's why he was always weaker than Ranma. Back then… no, I wouldn't have followed that kind of foolish man."

Starfire shrugged, but smilled as she tried to imagine what things had been like back then.

"I have no such compunctions. Though he at times can be ... whimsical, I have seen him do great things, wondrous things. I may have never looked at him as a leader before, however I trust him with my life, and I know that he will not fail us. He may not be as strong as your Ranma, in fact, he is far from the strongest member of our own team back home, but his heart - his dedication to us... I am quite glad to see him given this opportunity that he might not otherwise have been granted."

She sighed lightly, looking away. "I wish I could know exactly what it was that caused such a rift between our two Ryouga's. They appear to be even greater opposites than your Ryouga and your Ranma."

Seeing the concern it caused her alien sister, Shampoo considered the question when her natural temptation was to dismiss the question as silly. It was hard enough understanding any man, really, much less a thickheaded one like the lost boy. He was like Ranma in a lot of ways, though, so she could guess some of it with what she assumed to be relative accuracy.

"It probably start at Jusendo," Shampoo explained, at least hoping to clear the air with the troublesome topic. "Akane almost died. In fact, everyone thought she was dead."

"Jusendo?" Starfire asked. "I am not familiar with this term."

"It is a mountain near Jyusenkyou. A cursed spring there turn tribe of people into bird-men. Much worse than the animal-powers Musk like Prince Herb have. These have wings and claws." Shampoo assumed that got the point across and skipped to why things had happened there. "They have a King, named Saffron, and he pick fight with Husband, Ryouga, and Mousse. I also ended up… there, but under slightly different circumstances."

Starfire nodded, gesturing for the girl to continue. In her mind, she remembered Kiima, who she had originally mistaken as being Thanagarian. _'So that was her people?'_

"There was a lot of fighting, and everyone thought Akane died. Stupid lost boy tried to act tough, but cried like big baby when he talked to Ranma. I'm not blind like Mousse… I know both of them have feelings for violent tomboy. We all ended up fighting Saffron, and Husband saved Akane." She grumbled that last bit. "Lost boy leave Nerima after that. I think he blame himself for not protecting Akane or doing what Ranma did, or maybe he just give up on her because he was tired of pretending like she could cook and be good wife for strong martial artist?"

Shampoo seemed unable to wrap her head around it: who could fathom why anyone would want to be with any of those crazy Tendo sisters anyway?

"Point is, he left. I learn later he had another girlfriend, named Akari. Not a real martial artist. Weaker than even Akane." The Amazon's eyes hardened, as she described what happened next. "Aliens abducted lost boy and Akari. They paralyze him, like on examination table, and kill her. They took her mind away, and… and recycle body. Lost boy not the same after that. Was only angry for a long time. No could protect Akane. No could protect Akari. So angry all time."

Sighing, Starfire nodded. "I have learned some small amount of that unfortunate situation, yes. I can understand how traumatizing it must have been. I have been in a... similar situation, though I care not to recall it."

The rest, she could all too easily imagine.

Standing slowly, the Tamaranian smoothed out her skirt. "I... wish you good luck in your endeavors. Hopefully my advice will be useful to you and your commanding officers." With that, she quickly turned away to the door. "I... think I will go take a shower now. I will speak to you again later, Shampoo."

Toes floating barely above the floor, Starfire then made her way out of the dojo. A shower did seem like a good idea. She certainly needed _something_ to take her mind off of all the dark thoughts this conversation had conjured up.

Hopefully her friends would not have such disheartening conversations as well.

* * *

As she wandered down the hallway, Raven found herself constantly questioning the course of action she'd chosen. After her discussion with Starfire, concerning _her_ discussion with Shampoo earlier in the day, she found herself leery of what might happen if she left things to chance. And thus, she was where she was, heading to Ranma's quarters in hopes of trying to make certain that she didn't end up with Kuno or someone like that as her 'mentor'.

Raven smirked to herself at the thought. Having anyone from Nerima mentoring 'her'? It was beyond ironic. What could any of them even hope to teach her? Well, of course, there was the structural nature of the organization, which had presented no end of problems thus far, but beyond that... what? Combat? Not really. Psionics? She was already picking that up well enough on her own and with the help of the dedicated trainers at the Psi-Gym. Teamwork?

She nearly laughed out loud at that. A Nerimian martial artist teaching a Titan about teamwork would be like Slade offering lessons on civil obedience and common decency! Still, it was at least a good opportunity to try and rebuild some of the burnt bridges and she knew that Ryouga wasn't one to do so. He'd seemed even more withdrawn than usual since his meeting this morning, and she only had a passing notion what it could be about, since he was keeping tight lipped about it.

Shrugging, there wasn't much to be done about it.

A few more minutes of walking and she finally found herself at her destination. Double checking to make sure she had Ranma's quarters, Raven nodded to herself, and then tapped the buzzer. There was no answer for a couple seconds, and she paused before trying again. The dark Titan wasn't the insistent type, and it was far more dignified to give it a few more seconds at least.

Finally, the door opened. They were all technically on duty, and Ranma was dressed the part, in his usual olive drab uniform. It must've truly gone against his grain to wear it, since she knew he had a preference for bright colors, in particular red and green.

"Raven." Seeing her, he formed a friendly smile and motioned her inside. "Come on in. What's up?"

Gliding past him, Raven entered his room before turning around to face him.

"Thank you. As for why I'm here, I've heard that you were planning on assigning ... 'mentors' to our team?"

"Well, it ain't exactly 'mentors' like that," he admitted, heading back in to sit in front of his small desk. The computer was on, and he had probably been in the middle of writing or reading reports. "More like trainin' partners. To help with technical stuff, introduce you to base staff and stuff like that. I got a minibar-type little fridge over there by the wall, too, in case ya want anything."

Raven waved off his offer. "No thank you, I know how much they charge for those things. As for this partnership idea, I thought I might throw in my two cents, just in case you were still struggling with who you might assign to whom."

"Sure," he said, relaxing back in his swivel chair. "What're ya thinkin'?"

Looking around for a moment, Raven finally settled on sitting down on the edge of his small bed. "Well, honestly, I was considering my own situation. I was thinking that you and I should work together. I've worked with the Ranma in my world quite extensively, so I believe that it would make things go more easily than trying to work with anyone else on your team."

His friendly smile broadened to an outright grin.

"Sounds fine! From what I've seen, you don't really need much help with your training, but I'll be there if ya need anything or if you have something bothersome to deal with like writing up mission reports." He shook his head. "Really, it isn't you I'm worried about…"

Nodding in agreement, Raven let out a belated sigh. "Yes ... I can imagine ..."

"Hey, I know all this has been pretty jarring for you guys. Not just how you were all brought in, but stuck under the ground like this, with about ten levels of superiors watchin' ya an stuff. I spent my whole life trainin' to wander around and fight. Just staying at the dojo for more than a year was kind of stir-crazy. I'm about the last guy to want to be some kind military grunt. So I sympathize with ya, all of ya, and I want to make this as painless for you guys as I can. If you're got any ideas, I'm literally all ears."

Raven allowed herself a tiny, almost imperceptible smile at his offer.

"Well, I spoke with Starfire about this earlier. She seems quite happy with the idea of working with Shampoo, and I believe it to be a good match. Partnering Ukyou with Cyborg would probably work as well, as I can't see him purposely trying to annoy _any_ girl of 'sufficient cuteness'."

She rolled her eyes.

"... I'm not certain that I agree with her suggestion about Konatsu working with Jinx, though. From what little I saw of him, he seemed to lack much in the way of presence at all. Jinx requires a... firm hand, I think, someone that she can't simply ignore on a whim. I honestly don't know who that could be, though, as I'm still working out how to deal with her myself."

Ranma mulled that over for a few seconds.

"I see what you mean," he replied. "But Konatsu seems like the only person she doesn't actively dislike. I've already checked in with a few other squads, both for her and for Ryouga - your Ryouga – to see what options we've got. But, really, I don't know how well she'd mesh with most of the guys and girls on the other teams. They're all Special Forces. Nice enough if you get to know them, but I'm sure you can picture it."

"True enough," she agreed, "Jinx does have something of a history with Special Forces types ... often involving her injuring them during heists she's pulled on government installations over the years. She doesn't have much respect for military types from what I recall, or authority figures in general."

"Yeah. And take the 'military types' out of the running and all we've got left in this mountain is a bunch of scientists and engineers." Ranma sighed in near defeat. "I'll keep my eyes open for anything else, but if nothing else rears its head, I'll have to send Konatsu in and hope he can wear her down. He can be pretty persistent when he wants to be… or needs to be."

"I hope you're right," Raven muttered. Shaking her head, she looked up at him. "How do you do it, by the way? How do you get along with, not just one person, but numerous people that have done nothing but try to make your life hell for so long?"

"Well, it ain't like we always got along!" the lieutenant replied with a amiable chuckle, genuinely amused by the thought. "Heck, we still don't! I guess the important thing is to realize you're not perfect, either. I mean, I'm pretty **great**, but even I'm not _perfect_. So I shouldn't expect others to be either. I never had many important people, and with my kind of lifestyle, the line between enemy and friend… and fiancé… is kinda blurry. Just try not to let it get you down for long."

Raven frowned, not so much at his words, but because he made it sound so damned easy. Then again, this was _Ranma_.

"I'm trying... it's just, well, you've never had to deal with anyone like Jinx before. Certainly, you've had rivals and annoyances, but she was actually a hardened criminal. Despite everything that Ryouga says, how can I trust someone like that?"

Ranma pushed his mouse with his index finger, idly keeping the screen saver from activating. Which was a shame, because Raven found herself kind of curious what his screen saver actually was. All she had seen was a picture starting to slowly fade in before he cut it off.

"I've read Jinx's record," he began, eyes drifting over to the screen and then back to her. "Or what we know of it. I believe much of it came from your report on her. But… and let me see if I can put this diplomatically: Shampoo and Mousse had no hesitation killing people on our first mission against other humans. Herb and his men, who you never met – they were the ones who brought Starfire in – very nearly killed Ryouga, Mousse and myself. I've run into… well, a lot of stone cold types over the years. Ryouga's probably run into even more than me, honestly, and there are things in Konatsu's past that I don't like to think about."

"Not so much 'rob a bank' or 'take over the city' types," he explained. "Just the sort who'd kill ya if ya got in their way. A lot of martial artists can end up thinkin' like that for one reason or another."

He scratched his head, a bit anxious now that he had brought all this up.

"I hate to say it… but there were a lot of people out there who considered me and pops a criminal, too. Or at least a delinquent." He set his arm back against the desk, and settled his cheek against his hand. "But that's in the past, right? And we're trying to do good, now. We're fighting for our loved ones and for our world. It doesn't excuse what some of us have done in the past, and if some of those folks wanna get even, well, that's between us - but maybe what we're doin' will convince people we've hurt or wronged to give us a second chance."

Raven rolled her eyes.

"_You_, a hardened criminal?" she asked, skeptical of even the slightest comparison. "Standards for villainy must be simply _abysmal_ here." She gave a light chuckle of amusement, knowing he had already classified himself as more 'openly delinquent' than actually criminal.

"I have heard quite a bit of your adventures and the people you've run into, most of such from you yourself, actually. Certainly you've dealt with dangerous people, and people who are quite self involved, but none what I've heard of would really fall into the category of what we consider to be serious career criminals..." Raven then shrugged. "Of course, that's neither here nor there. I think I see your point. But how can I give a second chance to someone that won't even give me a first?"

"Well..." Ranma wondered,, weighting how to reply. "I think two things help. You gotta be the better man… or girl in your case… or girl in some of mine I guess… the other thing is a common enemy. I don't know where me, Ryouga and Mousse would be without our team ups against Herb or Pantyhose or some idiot Prince or another."

"Now, I'm not saying you should go out of your way to be friendly or nothin'," he clarified. "Guy or girl, ya gotta stand up for yourself. Don't roll over for nobody. Give 'em a chance, and if they take it, then good. If they don't take it, then too bad for them. Sometimes it takes a while, especially if things are complicated… grudges and stuff don't go away overnight."

He pointed over at the violet haired girl.

"I don't know for sure, but I get the feeling you two are mixed up in something really complicated," he observed. "More than just, 'she beat me and I can't stand being second to anyone' and 'she's a criminal and I stop criminals.'"

"I'm ... sure that I don't know what you're talking about," Raven mumbled under her breath. "Still, give her a chance? I - I think that might be a possibility. I just have to figure out what to give her a chance to do, I suppose."

"Ah, one thing you should remember," Ranma cautioned. "Not to point out anything embarrassing or explicit, but I only really know about this kinda of stuff from a guy perspective. Me and Ryouga didn't really get along until after Akari showed up, and Mousse was pretty nasty up until he felt less threatened about me moving in on Shampoo. If you and Jinx are having, um… _that other kind of rivalry_, as some call it, ya may really have to sort it out first, even if you're just going for basic levels of tolerance."

He could see the topic was starting to hit a little close to home.

"Definitely fight together a bit," he advised with a grin. "Beating up on someone or something the both of you hate is about the best thing you can do to bring people together! Maybe one of you will even save the other, and be like, 'not today' or 'as if I'd let that happen' or something cool like that. 'In trouble again, P-chan?' Yeah, _that__'__s a good one_…!"

"Hmm," Raven hmm'd, separating the useful advice from the Saotome spawned silliness. "Fighting together..."

Ryouga had told her that he was positive that Jinx had changed, and Raven did know one thing that Jinx hated more than anything else and would love to 'beat up on'. A wry grin twisted her lip. She'd had a vague plan floating in her head before, but now Ranma had helped her crystallize it in her mind.

Standing she nodded politely to Ranma.

"That's an excellent idea," she said, cutting off his musings. "I think I'll take your advice to heart."

Brushing off her cloak she then bid him farewell, too excited with her half formed plot to stay any longer. She was quite confident that it would work. After all, it was a plan devised with the help of both Ryouga and Ranma. What could possibly go wrong with such a perfect mix?

* * *

Jinx absently grabbed a few other various things and set them on her tray before sliding further along the craft services table ... or whatever they called it again. She was pretty sure that's what they called it on movie sets. Honestly, for as much as she fought police and military, she didn't care too much for learning their lingo. She'd leave that up to her lame-o companions. ... Speaking of which.

"Hey, thanks for coming to grab dinner with me, Cyborg."

The cybernetic mountain of a man beside her, his tray nearly teetering like the Leaning Tower of Pisa with food, nodded down at her. Offering a broad grin - right on the tail end of swallowing a piece of bacon he couldn't wait to get back to the table - he patted her on the shoulder gently. "Don't even worry 'bout it, Jinx. I know you ain't exactly had an easy road lately, so having a little back-up can't hurt now and then, am I right?"

Giggling lightly, she batted his shoulder - careful not to bruise her knuckles. "We'll, I'm glad I got at least one person not hatin' on me ... well, aside from Ryouga, but he doesn't count."

"He doesn't?" Cyborg responded with a grin. "He obligated to be in your corner now, is he?"

She flashed him a Cheshire grin and nodded sharply. "You're damn right." A moment later, her grin softened into an actual smile. "Still, even if he did put you up to this, it's still nice not having to sit on my own again. All of this stupid 'Sergeant' stuff he has to do is tickin me off."

"Hey now, little lady. Ryo didn't put me up to this." Placing his tray down first, he then gestured grandly. "In fact, I'm pretty much the only person to _not_ get the 'be nice to Jinx' speech. Not that anyone else seems to be listening yet."

A serious look flitted across his face. "I already saw a bit of the hell you went through getting out of the Academy. None of the other Titans might understand yet, but I think I got at least a tiny idea."

Jinx looked down at her food for a solemn moment, before looking back up, smirking. "Yeah, well if you tell anyone else what you saw, I reserve the right to jam you into the trash compacter, get me?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know the routine, Miss Tough Girl." Picking up his tray again, Cyborg began to lead them to the first open table he could find. "You know, you _could_ make the whole transition thing a little easier if you weren't always pushing people back like you were a professional linebacker. Not everyone is out to get you, y'know?"

Scowling, she picked up her own tray and followed in his wake. "Feh, just the people that matter, it seems. I mean, I don't necessarily _want_ to be an uber bitch, but I'm not just gonna sit there and take it when people like Raven and Ranma start making smart ass comments in my direction."

Despite himself, Cyborg couldn't help but chuckle. "Oh, man, you so called Ranma on that whole 'humble pie' thing. That was a thing of beauty there, girl. Still, though, you might wanna ease up a bit, y'know? No need to bite everyone's heads off unless they really ask for it. I mean, you seem downright pleasant right now, with me, so why not-"

Jinx paused, halfway to sitting down in the chair she'd chosen. The odd silence hung in the air, silence which was all the more conspicuous since she was fairly sure she'd been right in the middle of another 'play nice' lecture. Looking around, she noted that Cyborg's tray was at the table ... but her companion was nowhere to be seen -

The sorceress rolled her eyes in disgust as she finally realized where he'd gotten to ... as he was currently hidden _under_ the table, so obviously hiding that it was painful. Plopping down into her seat, she deigned not to even look down at him.

"_What_ in the world are you doing?" she asked in an even tone. "I thought you _weren't_ embarrassed to be seen with me?"

He responded with a harsh whisper. "I'm not hidin' from _you_, I'm hidin from _her_!"

The cyborg jerked his thumb towards the entrance of the cafeteria and Jinx's eyes followed the line he made...

"Cyborg, you moron, it's just Kasumi," she muttered, feeling embarrassed to be seen with him now. "Why on earth are you hiding from her?"

"Look, it's a long, embarrassing story! Just ... don't let her see me, alright?"

Instantly, Jinx went to war with herself. Her right hand was already halfway up, ready to wave Kasumi over and point Cyborg out with great relish ... but the other half of her was actually considering honoring his wishes... Thus the conundrum. One option was decidedly more amusing than the other, after all.

_ 'What to do, what to do?'_

The older, not-Kasumi Kasumi put a few things onto her tray and began to move about looking for a table.

Letting out a weary sigh, Jinx finally decided on a course of action. As Kasumi's eyes scanned the room, looking for a seat, Jinx made certain to catch her eyes. She then gave the cheekiest, most asinine smile she could muster, aimed directly at the Tendo woman. Kasumi could only blink at the obvious signal, stiffening just a bit in confusion and hesitation. Before she could be forced to rudely turn away, a small group of men and women called to her, giving her the excuse to move away and take a seat halfway across the room and sitting with her back to the pink haired witch.

Leaning back, the sorceress then offered a weak smile to her floor borne companion. "Mission accomplished. So, you gonna join me up here, or do you want me to shovel your food down to you?"

Taking a moment to consider the options, Cyborg finally shrugged and slid up into his seat. Making sure that Kasumi wasn't paying any further attention to them, Cyborg smiled at Jinx. "Thanks. You saved my life and my dignity there."

Even though he did just give her the 'niceness' lecture, Jinx couldn't help herself and sniggered. "Whoa there, Cyborg. I'm just a sorceress, not a necromancer. You're dignity is _way_ beyond _my_ powers to revive."

Cyborg eyed her darkly. "Oh, har dee har har. C'mon, lets hurry up, eat and get outta here before she turns around and sees me."

"You're gonna tell me what this is all about, right? Cuz I think I'm about three seconds away from bursting if you don't," she replied teasingly.

"Fine, fine, eat first, embarrassing stories later."

And so, the pair did their best to wolf down their respective meals, hoping to clear out before they garnered any further undo attention. Unfortunately, their efforts would turn out to be futile as a newcomer - going completely unnoticed by all in the cafeteria - entered the room.

"Hello there."

Konatsu literally appeared out of nowhere, silent and unnoticed as a ghost. Shocked by the sudden appearance and voice, a bit of tomato sauce found its way up to Cyborg's nose, causing him to cough. In contrast, Jinx tensed at the sudden appearance but managed to keep hold of her decorum. Konatsu had no tray or plate of food, and despite wearing the unisex uniform of all the military types on base, he still gave off a rather feminine vibe.

"Did I startle you?" he asked Cyborg specifically, and bowed his head deeply. "My apologies. I don't believe we've been formally introduced. Konatsu, of the Sexy Kunoichi Teahouse School of Ninja Arts."

"You ... um, might not wanna go around advertising that last bit there, buddy," Cyborg finally replied after a short coughing fit.

Giggling, Jinx covered her smile with a hand. "Oh, don't worry about him, he's already used to inhaling his food."

"Oh, aren't you just miss Snark?" the cybernetic teen grumbled in good humor. He then turned back to the self proclaimed ninja. "So, what's up 'Natsu? Lookin for a place to sit?"

"Yes. Thank you." Konatsu bowed again, very slightly this time, and sat down next to the cybernetic teen and opposite Jinx. "I hope I'm not intruding on any personal business?"

Jinx looked quickly from Cyborg, to the back of Kasumi across the room, smirk growing by the second. "Depends on what you mean by 'personal', I suppose. But, no, we're just talking shop, is all. Anything we can do for you ... what was it, Konatsu, right?"

"Yes," he replied with a petite grin. "If you don't mind me asking, how have you been doing outside our training sessions? Miss Nabiki told me you recently got new rooms. Are they acceptable?"

"Oh, yeah, my room is the b..." Cyborg quickly trailed off as he noticed the dark look on Jinx's face. "Um... not a fan of the room, girl?"

Letting out a huff, she crossed her arms over her chest. "Feh. The 'room' is fine, it's the room mates I can't deal with. Starfire is _way_ too free spirited, if you know what I mean."

"I'm afraid I don't," Konatsu began, and then took note of Cyborg's stifled grin. "Oh, you mean she's an exhibitionist?"

Jinx rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't go _that_ far, since that implies she _likes_ showing off her goods. It's even worse in that she doesn't even seem to realize she's doing it since it's 'just us girls'. Seriously, who wants to see that?"

Cyborg's hand tentatively rose, only to drop back to the table with a loud 'bang' as she leveled a fusion powered glare his way.

"Seriously," she continued, holding her glare on her 'teammate', "Even Raven can't stand it, but she won't say anything about it."

"I see the problem," Konatsu replied. "Saotome-taichou also seems to have a decided lack of modesty when in his female form. Some of the Americans on base in particular have been shocked by it. People have pointed this out to him many times, to little effect. Still, I believe it may be a good thing she is so relaxed around you. It shows a measure of willing trust and acceptance, or so I've read."

The pink haired girl mulled that over for a bit, taking a sip of her juice.

"I _guess_ there is that," she realized. "Not like I care or anything. So, is there an actual reason you're here, or did you just want to hear about the naked escapades of my room mates?"

"I wouldn't mind hearing abou-" Cyborg's jaw clicked shut as she leveled another glare his way.

"Quite. Recently, I was asked by Saotome-taichou if I wished to participate in a program to assist the members of Yankee Squad. Specifically he asked if I would be willing to work with you, Miss Jinx," Konatsu explained with a bit of nervousness. "As we share some similar roles in our respective teams, it seemed a logical match up."

Jinx stared at the ninja through lidded eyes. "And what exactly would we be working on?"

Cyborg perked up at that. "Yeah, what's goin' on, dude? Am I getting assigned a playmate too?"

Konatsu answered Cyborg first, to hopefully provide another example of the program. "I believe Miss Ukyou was asked, and will likely agree. You are both what could be called the 'heavy weapons' and 'demolitions/electronics' experts on our teams."

"Ch-ching!" Cyborg pumped his arm victoriously before quickly recovering his cool. "Um, yeah, well, I am the expert on being an expert, so it should work out ... yeah ..."

Rolling her eyes, Jinx considered making his chair collapse out from under him, or having his food explode in his face ... but decided to save it for later.

"Same role?" she asked, giving the shinobi boy her attention again. "So what's our role, then? If it's 'Sexy Ninja Girl' of the squad, then I'm all about that."

"In a way, yes, it is. Your fighting style is in some manners similar to my own and we are both what would be considered the 'scout' on our team. We travel light and move fast. In a fight, we take the enemy by surprise or from the flank." He then added, with a demur grin, "And we try and look good doing it."

Running a hand over his bald head, Cyborg smirked. "Yeah, well _some_ of us don't _need_ to try."

"Oh, shut up, Analog Boy," Jinx replied with a smile. "And yeah, I guess that makes sense. Fighting head on is better left as a last resort, or for people too thickheaded to know better."

The knowing glance she fired Cyborg's way was all but expected at that point. "Of course, conditions haven't exactly been ideal lately, with these alien jerks, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, I suppose."

"I've learned some things about the Root style of Anything Goes, which I can tell you practice," Konatsu continued. "I can also tell it is shinobi-inspired in many ways, though… I have heard it was designed more for perversion than combat."

"I don't know much about its origins or anything," Jinx admitted. "Happi didn't bother with unimportant stuff like that. And, yeah, there's a lot of perverse stuff, but the real core stuff is serious stuff." She smiled smugly. "There is a reason he's one of the best martial artists on the planet, after all. If he was _just_ an old pervert, he'd have been dead long ago."

"Oh, I agree," Konatsu continued, nodding in agreement. "It was never my intent to be disparaging. After all, as a kunoichi, my own school of martial arts places an emphasis on seduction, so seeing another school that makes use of... um... 'male perversion' is only natural. Practically speaking, I'd be happy to help you train, if you're interested in working with me. But it isn't for just that reason why Saotome-taichou and others would like to pair you and your friends with my comrades."

Instantly, Jinx felt her hackles rise at the hint of hidden strings attached to what had seemingly been a relatively friendly offer. "Oh, _really_? And just why does _Ranma_ want you to work with me, then?"

Konatsu noticed her changing mood, but pushed forward, trying to explain it rationally, "Please consider a few things, Miss Jinx. First, you are under-age by the standards of this world. We can not employ you in any real capacity, except as 'embedded observers.' Your clearance and access to certain base resources is also limited by this status. By providing you with established personnel, whom you can occasionally work through or with, the organization can give all of you greater flexibility without going through parts of our own bureaucracy."

"... Which means?" Jinx asked, still holding an annoyed tone in her voice.

"Though you have your friends and teammates here, it can be very helpful to have an 'in' so to speak with other officers and base personnel. All of us, and by that I mean both Juliet and India squads, had mentors directly overseeing us for some time. Eventually, those connections, combined with what we learned, made adapting to life here much easier."

Konatsu put it more simply, "I would simply be there to assist you if you needed something, or if you had questions, or other problems. I'm not a superior or an officer, but… well; I guess I'd be a bit like an upperclassman in a school. And of course I'd be happy to train with you, if you are willing. Does that make any sense?"

Gradually, the tension eased out of Jinx's shoulders and she leaned back into her seat. "Yeah, yeah, I guess that's not too bad, then." Thinking it over for another second or two, she relented. "Alright. I guess I'll be your charity case. At least I know that _you_ of all people will have some make up that I can borrow."

She fired yet another glare at her Titanic companion. "And would you quite smiling like a moron? Ukyou didn't like you _that much_ back home, and I can guarantee that she doesn't like you that much here, either."

"Hey, hey, a guy can dream, can't he?" Cyborg replied teasingly. "Besides, I don't wanna step on Ryu's toes here. Doesn't take a genius to see what _that_ guy is looking at when the opportunities arise."

"Ah. Yes. Ryu and Miss Ukyou seem to have become rather close," Konatsu observed, a very faint frown pressing his lips together in a line. "Though… well, no matter. I know Miss Ukyou will be quite pleasant. She's been very upbeat since she and her father broke off her engagement with Saotome-taichou."

"Oh, they did?" Jinx asked, surprised. "Well, good for her. Good to know she's come to her senses a bit in this world, too."

"Miss Jinx, if I may...?" Konatsu coughed, and worried his hands a bit. "Do you, ah… truly dislike Saotome-taichou? Personally or professionally?"

She blinked at that, a little surprised by how serious the question was. "What? ... Um, not really, we get along pretty well, actually. Why, whatever gave you that impression?"

"Some times it can be hard to tell who dislikes the Lieutenant, and who likes him, but finds themselves at odd with his attitude." Konatsu finally shrugged, glad that he had gotten through the hard part of the conversation. "But I'm glad you both seem amiable to this setup. Miss Jinx, feel free to contact me using internal communications or email. I'll try and provide what assistance I can."

"Well, alright then," she replied, and leaned over a bit. "...though, seriously, if you have some lipstick or something I could borrow, maybe some concealer?"

She shot a quick glance to Cyborg. "And not a word, Tin man, or it'll be your last."

The cybernetic Titan just held up his hands, making it quite clear that he had nothing else to say.

Konatsu eyed Cyborg, too, wondering if the teen would inject with some comment.

"Actually," he admitted. "I do have… the necessary tools of my former trade. As it is considered a luxury item, availability on base is very low. Most of the time you have to either order it and wait or trade with some of the older women. Predictably, Miss Nabiki was quick to become involved in this and prices have mysteriously gone steadily upwards ever since."

"Heh, I knew 'Biki still had what it took to make it on the inside." Chuckling to herself, Jinx then let out a sad sigh. "It's too bad she's attached to your Ryouga at the hip, or I might have had a chance to chat with her before everything went downhill. No way I'm getting a preferred customer rate from her now."

"Perhaps," Konatsu ventured. "She… and the Lieutenant, have gone through a great deal to help Yankee Squad, and I don't believe either of them have any serious animosity towards you or your friends. I suppose I'm not surprised you've noticed, or heard, that they're… ahm, very close, but you may want to talk to one or the other some day. We're all trapped in a very small space here, and there's no avoiding either of them."

"Yeah, well I'm something of an expert on Ryouga _and_ Nabiki, from way back home, so I can see the signs pretty clearly. and trust me, the more animosity that Nabiki has towards you, the less likely you are to see it." Jinx shrugged casually. "It's one of the things I like most about her, actually. The girl is just that damn good. As for talking to them? So _totally_ gonna have to pass on that one. Hell, if I had it my way, I wouldn't even let Ryouga _talk_ to his counterpart. I don't want any of your Hibiki's 'qualities' rubbing off on my Lost Boy."

Konatsu pursed his lips at that, but only sighed.

"If that's what you prefer," he said. "As for your earlier request, come by my room; I'd be happy to provide what I can… though most of it is really more my complexion than yours. I think I can definitely help you out with a proper moisturizing shampoo, if nothing else. The stuff they provide on the base here is so rough! Oh, and some eye shadow!"

"Yeah yeah yeah, we can talk more about the beauty secrets when we don't have an spy in our midst," Jinx joked easily. She then stood up, picking up her now empty tray. "Anyway, good talkin' to ya, 'Natsu. I'm gonna head back to my room for a bit now, got some stuff I wanna do before afternoon training."

Offering a small, polite wave and smile to the pair of 'men' sitting at the table, she then turned and made her way to the exit ... She then stopped, deciding she'd been far too low key lately. Spinning around, she waved her arm out dramatically for all to see.

"_Jinx_ is _out_, yo!"

She then brought her hand in and kissed her index and middle finger before flashing a 'V' sign to the gathered masses.

"Peace!"

And then, scene made, she made her way out of the room smiling every step of the way.

Konatsu, left staring at Cyborg, blinked a few times at the impassioned exit.

"She is a very… interesting young woman," the male kunoichi commented dryly. "More of a handful than Miss Shampoo, even. I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew."

Cyborg wiped a tear of pride from his eye after watching the exit before turning to Konatsu. "Naw, don't you worry 'bout her, 'Natsu. Just stay on her good side and you'll probably live through this yet. I'm confident that your bosses picked the right man for the job-"

An uncomfortable pause filled the air for a moment before Cyborg finally lifted an inquiring finger.

"You ... ah ... _are_ a man, right?"

A delicate eyebrow raised at the question.

"I'm just askin'!"

* * *

It was so strange: having two Hibikis on the base. Lieutenant Mario Feretti was quite familiar with the local version, and he had taken part in the mind dive of the new arrival, but it was still so surreal to be around the young man. This was a version of a man he knew, but from a different dimension. Sci Fi stuff, literally, yet here he was: so similar, especially outwardly, but so different in so many other ways. Above all else, this Ryouga Hibiki seemed much more easygoing; not so much carefree, like Saotome tended to be, but possessed of an even keel. Feretti could only see a hint of the intense fire that had driven the native version. For as long as he had known and worked with the man, Hibiki had bend every fiber of his being towards that one, bloodsoaked goal. This young man's motivations were rather... different.

Still, he was confident it was something that could be harnessed, regardless.

Sipping from his cup of coffee, he weighed his approach to the upcoming conversation for the forth or fifth time. Gradually setting the cup down on the small table to his right, Feretti crossed his legs and leaned back to take a measured, relaxed breath. He heard the young man opposite him shift a bit in his chair. The two were in one of the lounges built into an annex on the Living Quarters E-Block.

He'd picked the spot to be a casual, low pressure meeting spot. A black nose sniffed curiously around his leg - Hibiki's remarkable dog, intelligent as she was, clearly had a canine's typical interest in the handful of crackers he had in his other hand. Sighing, the officer slipped one to the hard working Akita.

"Well, then, acting Sergeant," Feretti finally said. "You're probably a little surprised I asked to meet up with you here. For the time being, I just wanted things to be nice and relaxed. I'm still kind of planning out how to approach this. You're situation is a little different than Konatsu's, even if you'll technically end up having a similar rank."

The young man nodded, apparently understanding some of the situation. "Yeah, I think I get that. I mean, I'm still responsible for my whole team, while he's just acting as the second, right?" A pause, the Hibiki tapping his chin. "Does that mean I should have a second in command, too, or would that involve some kind of rank that doesn't exist?"

"Not every squad has a CO and NCO," Feretti explained. "Half of all combat teams have a sergeant leading three squaddies. This means you'll be typically attached to the chain of command under another Lieutenant like myself. This also means you'll have a greater burden of responsibility than someone like Konatsu, who operates directly under a commanding officer on the same squad."

Ryouga nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense, I guess. So what does that mean for me, though?"

"I'll get that that shortly. First: did you read my file?"

The Lost Boy nodded again. "It was ...strongly suggested that I do so. Honestly, I sometimes wonder why I'm even in charge, considering Raven is telling me what to do half the time." Another pause, as the young man adopted a more serious expression. "Is there something you wanted to talk about in there?"

"Just checking. You should always know who you're working with, acting sergeant," Feretti told him in a casual tone, snapping off a corner of a cracker. "Intelligence is one of our most important assets. Learn everything you can about your friends and enemies. I believe that's something this 'Robin' fellow understands, back where you're from, am I right?"

"Heh, I think that might be something of an understatement," the acting sergeant replied with a rueful chuckle. "Robin is ten times the leader I could ever hope to be."

Feretti glanced over at Shirokuro, now lying down next to Hibiki's chair, and sighed.

"That's... another issue. One we need to cover right away. Since you read my record, you know I spent three years doing anti-narcotics work as part of the Carabinieri, and another three in the _Gruppo Intervento Speciale_ or GIS. I've been in UNETCO and the Far East for over eighteen months." He pointed at the young man, "A lot of that probably doesn't mean much to you, if it was all just words and dates on a piece of paper. That's alright. The important thing is that I'm going to try and do what I can to prepare you to lead your team."

"But first," he added as a caveat. "We need to talk a little about your motivation. If this isn't a job you're willing to give one hundred percent at, then frankly its better you say so now. Nothing kills more surely than indecisive or disinterested leadership."

"Hey!" the young Hibiki barked, "There is _nothing_ more important to me than getting my friends home, safe and unharmed. If it means playing soldier, than I'll be the best damned soldier you've ever seen!"

"You know there is every possibility, on any given mission, that all your friends will not be coming home safe and unharmed?" the officer asked, motioning for the acting sergeant to calm down. "Don't get me wrong. Being protective of your subordinates is a good thing. Camaraderie will get people through hard times when orders turn into so many empty words. No one will fight harder than when they see their friends in danger. However, your burden is also to remain calm and aware of your situation and your orders. Do you understand that? Your team is just a small part of this entire fighting force."

"In other words," Feretti clarified, reaching for his coffee. "When you are in the field, there is no 'Teen Titans.' There are no 'my friends.' There are orders, mission objectives, and subordinates. Those subordinates may be the most important, most precious people in the world to you, but in the field, they are still your subordinates. They have to follow your orders and trust in the decisions you make. Just as you need to rely on them, they need to have faith in you. Sometimes, that means not treating them like friends at all."

Settling back into his chair, the Hibiki looked down to the floor, his long bangs covering his eyes.

"I... know that there's a chance that we could all get hurt... or worse... out in the field," he said, soundly unhappy but accepting of that fact. "We've all had fights where we weren't sure we were gonna make it back..."

The acting sergeant's hands tightened on the arm rests of his chair, but stopped short when they began to creak ominously. "But... how can I not treat them like friends? I mean... hell, they're practically my _family_ now..."

"It often isn't easy... but that's part of what we sign up for," the older man explained with a rueful sigh. "You're just a step up from squaddie. Technically an NCO position, even though most everyone in this organization already comes from a special forces background. I'm not saying you have to forsake the relationships you have with the people under your command. But if need be, you need to be ready, willing, and able to put your foot down and give orders. And you need to know, without a doubt, that those orders will be respected and followed. I think that's going to be doubly hard, since you're working with such a free spirited bunch."

"I - actually, aside from my problems, I don't think anyone else will be a problem," Ryouga insisted. Finally looking up again, he held a somewhat proud glint in his eye. "Whatever people might say about me ...or Jinx... The rest of the Titans, they'll do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done. I've seen it before. Even someone as crazy as Beast Boy... as soon as Robin gives the order, they come together like _that_."

The Lost Boy snapped his fingers to emphasis his point.

"Speaking of," the older officer spoke up. "This Robin - why don't you tell me how he leads his team, and the impression you have of him. I don't need to be a mind reader to guess that you're imagining yourself as having to fill his shoes; a task you probably don't think you can live up to."

The younger man paused at that, obviously looking for the words to explain his thoughts.

"It's... hard to explain. I mean, on a team of super powered aliens, robots and ... stranger... he's pretty much the closest thing to a normal guy we got. But - but there's just something about the way he carries himself. When he says 'jump', even I'm already halfway up the building before I know it. It's like he leads by sheer force of will. I can't even explain it, really."

"That's alright. Think about it for a little while. Crystallize your thoughts." Feretti held out his hands, palms up and explained, "For most of us, whether or not we hated our first drill sergeant or commanding officer - and frankly, the job doesn't exactly lend itself to being the endearing type - that image and behavior becomes an indelible part of how we conduct ourselves. It becomes the image in our mind when we have to give orders and the pressure is on you to push your men harder than before. At the same time, it isn't someone to emulate. It is someone to learn from."

"So just take a little while and think about it. Don't even try and explain it to me right away," the older man continued, resting his hands on the arms of his chair again. "How did Robin lead? What is it about him that made people comfortable and willing to follow him? Charisma? Confidence? Assertiveness? Thinking back, what can you learn from that? Like watching another martial artist. Don't emulate him. Don't try and be him. Be yourself, learning from him. Because... you _will_ lead, and you'll do it your way."

His young companion bore a dubious expression for a short time, only to finally nod to himself. He then looked up, a small grin actually curling the corners of his lips.

"I suppose that does make sense ... I just wish I could figure out why this keeps happening to me. At least the first time it made sense, since Jinx and Terra couldn't stand the idea of actually listening to each other, let alone Gar..." The lost sergeant then shook his head. "Still, be like Robin, but still be myself? Sounds like it could be tricky."

"Your situations are very different," the Italian officer reminded him. "Unlike him, you won't be free to do whatever. Everything you do or don't do, everything your team does, we'll hold you responsible for. You'll have a level of oversight I don't think he'd appreciate... but we will give you and your team all the support we can. This isn't something you need to shoulder alone." Feretti grinned, as he then pointed out the even more obvious, "Of course, you're also different men leading different teams. Just remember that you have to set the boundaries for your team mates... and you have to discipline them if they cross those boundaries."

"Well, I suppose that was somewhat comforting, in an ominous, big brother kind of way," replied the martial artist with a grin. "Though, I'm not sure how 'disciplining' anyone on my team would go over. I'm pretty sure that I'm the 'least' dangerous guy on Yankee squadron."

"Good leadership isn't about physical intimidation, Hibiki."

Ryouga nodded at that. "I guess that's true. Lord knows there's enough mental, emotional and psychological intimidation going on here as well. I'm not really suited to those, though."

Before Feretti could respond to the asinine comment, the young Hibiki held up his hand, a fanged grin on his face. "But yes, I understand, sir. I'm sure it won't be an issue, though. I'm sure my team is up to the challenge, too."

The older man nodded, moving on. "I hope so... and maybe, when you do get back home, you'll have discovered a thing or two to show this Robin fellow as well. So, are you feeling ready?"

"Not even a chance," Ryouga replied with a cheeky smirk, "But that's never stopped me before."

"Good! I'll tell you this now, right from the get-go, Hibiki. As long as I'm responsible for you, I'm going to be working you hard," Feretti promised, a strange juxtaposition to his laid back demeanor and easy going voice. "If I can, I'll crush two months worth of NCO training into that head of yours, and I'm - we're - going to do it in _one week_. We'll start with basic tactics, topography, a lot of weapons handling, and some explosives."

He picked up the last cracker and stood up off the chair.

"Once you're passable at that, we'll start drilling what we know about how to fight and kill the alien enemy: what their tactics are, how they think, why they do what they do, what passes for their psychology. Know your enemy. Beat your enemy. Know your team. Protect your team. If anyone under you is giving one hundred percent, then you're giving one hundred and twenty."

If his young ward looked at all daunted by the prospect of such grueling training, he didn't show it at all. Not at all surprising, really, considering he was so closely related to a certain other Hibiki he knew of. The martial artist rose to his feet as well, adopting a serious expression once again.

"Alright then, let's get to work."

"Good!" Feretti strolled by, Shirokuro already up and on her feet and ready to lead her master around. "Hopefully you'll still have that energy after hitting the books."

"BOOKS?"

"Books."

"Hey, wait a second! Can't I just use that mental cheating stuff, like Ranma did?"

"There'll be that, too. But psionic imprinting... that's just raw data. Good for learning something; not so good for knowing when or how to apply that something. A good UNETCO officer, NCO or otherwise, is _always_ learning something new. You'll start tonight."

Obviously, the thought of hitting the books, as opposed to hitting the gym was not the young NCO's idea of a good time. Letting out a weary sigh, the martial artist muttered-

"I can tell _this_ is going to be the beginning of a _beautiful_ friendship."

* * *

Space screamed and sundered, ripping like rice paper as a foreign object punctured dimensional space. The boundaries breached in this transit event were not insubstantial, either, and they did not give way peacefully. In near Earth orbit, the gauge in space-time bled cosmic radiation, a massive pulse of killer X-rays spilling out in all directions. The puncture closed back up within a fraction of a second, glittering particles of anti-matter shooting out one end -

And a silvery disk out the other.


	15. FTA 'Fun, Travel and Adventure' 1

**A/N**  
For those wondering about the name of this arc, "FTA" is an acronym that doesn't always mean 'Fun, Travel and Adventure,' expressing a certain degree of exasperation towards the army life.

* * *

x

* * *

An accident at STAR Labs has hurled half the Teen Titans roster across the multiversal barrier and onto a strange world with no metas, no superheroes and no supervillians. There, the UNETCO organization, also known as X-COM, fights against an insidious and merciless alien enemy. The dimensionally displaced Teen Titans have finally been reunited. Determined not to sit on the sidelines, the four young men and women: Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and their universe's Ryouga Hibiki have been brought together into a special 'embedded observer' team designated CT:Yankee.

Displaced in the Russian Far East, far from any of the other Titans, Jinx had the misfortune of falling into the hands of the alien Visitors. Yet when one of the alien-human hybrids became hexxed by her power, damage to its brain tissue disconnected it from the Cydonian Mind and allowed it to remember who it had once been: Akari Unryu. Together, the two unlikely allies escaped into the forest and made for civilization, forging a close friendship during the difficult trek to safety. However, the same power that freed Akari was also killing her, and together with wounds taken during their escape, she hung on just long enough to reunite with her world's Ryouga Hibiki. Fulfilling her request to let her die, he destroyed the alien donor tissue that was to be used to revive her. The Titans, as Yankee Squad, were called to battle, with Akari's life on the line, succeeding in bringing back the replacement brain of the Ethereal, Whisper.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_FTA  
("Fun, Travel, and Adventure", aka...)_

Chapter XV

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

It was late afternoon, right in the middle of joint training exercises at the psi-gym, when the base alarm sounded, announcing another breach of regional airspace. India and Juliet had been mustered on the spot to respond, along with Charlie and two other teams, to take part in the post-interception UFO recovery. Yankee, not called up, could only watch as the five senior squads left to change and load up at the armory and quartermaster before heading out.

"Not every squad goes out on every mission," Ranma had explained, at the implication they were being kept out of the loop. "Half the squads on the base are staying here, so it isn't just you guys. Hold down the fort and don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

Nabiki was also already at Ops, currently under security isolation from normal base communications, cutting them off from any news of what was going on topside. Unlike before, they weren't going to be allowed into the CIC to eavesdrop. There was really nothing to do but wait it out at this point. There would be no finding out what type of alien craft had been intercepted or what mission it had been on until later, when the base stood down and the Commander debriefed the base personnel.

For Yankee, it was rather a let down, especially after they'd taken part in the terror site before.

"Well ... I guess that's that, then," Ryouga stated to the gathered Titans as they stood outside the hangar. Dusting his hands off he turned around and began to wander back down the corridor. "On the bright side, we can finally have five minutes of peace without those guys hounding us down about 'being best friends'."

Starfire giggled lightly as she floated after him. "Do not be so harsh on them, Ryouga. They mean well, at least, and it has only been a day."

"I dunno, I kinda agree with Ryo, there," Cyborg added. Shocked glances were fired his way an instant later by the females present.

"Y-you do?" Jinx stuttered. "But, you're teamed up with _Ukyou_. I thought you would be all over that like a fat kid on a Smartee."

"A fat kid-?"

"Nevermind, Starfire," Raven interjected quickly, motioning for Cyborg to reply.

He shrugged and gave a reluctant explaination, "Well, I _thought_ it was gonna be cool and that we'd mostly be talking shop and hanging out, but she's taking this 'similar roles' thing way too serious. Listening to her, you'd think that I'd never safely set up explosives before. I mean, obviously I've never used land mines or anything, but it isn't exactly rocket science. We spent all yesterday getting certified for things! I was bored out of my skull."

The mammoth Titan fired a glare Ryouga's way. "It isn't just the regulations and that stuff either; I swear, you Nerima people think just because you can find some tiny way to apply martial arts to something, that you've suddenly reinvented the entire field? Newsflash, guys, doing a backflip before setting a bomb doesn't make it explode any better!"

Even as Raven and Starfire battled vainly to cover their mouths as giggles attempted to leak out, Jinx didn't even bother, bursting out into laughter straight away. "Oh, man, that was _awesome_ Cy!"

The Lost Boy crossed his arms over his chest and glowered darkly at the heroes (and near hero). "Oh, shut up ... all of you. I have a half a mind to drag you all back out onto the training course and show you just how _important_ martial arts is! And that goes **double** for **you**, Cyborg, what with your constant ditching!"

"Oh, right, sorry about that," Cyborg barked sarcastically, "I mean, how selfish am I? Just lockin' myself up in the workshop and working on a dimensional portal to get us all home again. You're _totally _right, I should be out on the training course, blowing up straw dummies to show how awesome I am."

Ryouga considered that. "... Touché."

"Guys, guys, would you two put a sock in it?" Jinx's outcry caught the attention of everyone present. As everyone turned to regard her, she planted her hands on her hips and smirked wickedly. "I think that everyone is missing the important thing here."

"Umm ... to what are you referring?" Starfire asked curiously.

The young witch rolled her pink eyes. "Um, **duh**, our lame-o babysitters have all flown the coop! We've got the run of the base, now!"

"I doubt our hosts would appreciate us going berserk simply because the only people capable of containing us left the base for a few minutes," Raven stated with a wry grin. "I can still sense the nervousness lingering over most of the base personnel, especially around you and myself, Jinx. You wouldn't want to give them the satisfaction of being right, would you?"

"Oh, come on, Raven, I didn't mean it like that," Jinx rebutted in exasperation. "I just meant that we should have some fun or something. They **do** know what that is on this planet, don't they?"

"Hmm, now that she mentions it, I could use a break myself," Cyborg added. "Since we aren't on call, we could probably set up in the dojo like a few days ago, bring some drinks and stuff."

"Oh, yes! Let us have another of the parties!" Starfire cheered "We can do the listening to the music and the watching of movies, just like back at home!"

"Hmm, well, that doesn't sound too bad." Ryouga scratched his chin as he considered it. "And Ranma and company aren't around to say no, per se, so I'm sure I can schedule it as a 'training session'. Lord knows it wouldn't be as ridiculous as some of the training methods that Genma has devised over the years."

"Alright!" Jinx cheered, hopping a bit as she punched the sky. "Finally some R&R!"

"Okay, okay, save it for later, Jinx," Ryouga ordered with a grin. "I'll go see about making sure we get a part of the dojo. Cyborg, can you figure out the TV and stuff?"

Cyborg saluted smartly. "Hell, dude, we can watch a movie on my chest if need be. I'm pretty sure I can scrounge together a proper AV kit for a suitably bass droppin' shindig, though."

"Sounds good to me... the second part, not the staring at your chest all night part," replied the Lost Boy. He then turned to Starfire. "I don't suppose you can head down to the mess and get enough food and drinks to keep us going for a bit?"

"Oh!" Starfire bounced excitedly. "Shall I procure the 'brewskies' that Ryu and the others appeared to be so fond of?"

"What?" the lost boy asked, thrown for a second. "**No!** None of us are old enough to drink yet!"

"But, Ryouga, we drink everyday ..."

Snickering helplessly, Jinx dropped a hand on the alien girl's shoulder. "I'll explain it to ya later, Carrot Top. Just grab some juice or something-" she then leaned in to whisper quietly, "-but, seriously, get a few of those 'brewskies' for me-"

"Jinx!"

"_What_? What did I say?"

Ryouga just glared at her. "Like I don't know what you were thinking. Look, how about you and Raven head up to the Dojo and stake it out for us? I guess you can invite anyone, if you can actually think of anyone you'd want to invite."

Shrugging in unison, Raven and Jinx shared a quick glance.

"Sure, I don't mind being waited on by my 'devoted' teammates," Jinx quipped, looking far too amused with herself.

"Nor do I, actually," Raven added, a sly smile twisting the corner of her lips.

Instantly, everyone fired disbelieving looks her way.

"What? Only Jinx is allowed to be selfish, now? I deserve to be pampered from time to time, too, you know?" She explained in a mock serious tone.

Ryouga, Cyborg and Starfire could only shake their heads as they turned to head off to their assigned tasks. Jinx, on the other hand, could only chuckle quietly to herself. "Man, I don't know what it is about you, but you've changed just a bit, haven't you, Rae?"

Apparently it was a rhetorical question, as the young sorceress then turned on her heel and began to make her way down the corridor. For just a moment, Raven's eyes narrowed as she watched her companion's back.

She contemplated the pink haired girl intently before whispering to herself, "I've heard the same about you ... perhaps now's a good time to see if it's true."

* * *

Bored, after sitting around for a grand total of three minutes and fifteen seconds inside the big, empty dojo, Jinx began to do a few cartwheels to pass the time a bit. For some reason, at the last minute, Raven had taken off towards their shared room, giving only a half hearted mutter by way of an excuse before vanishing. As such, the Sorceress found herself alone once again, and not sure whether to be annoyed - since she'd been ditched - or relieved, since it was Raven that had done the ditching.

In all likelihood, the gothic chick was just gonna wait in their room for ten - fifteen minutes in hopes that the party would be going before she got back, just so she didn't have to spend any time with Jinx. Again, it annoyed Jinx that it actually annoyed her that she wasn't sure if she should be annoyed that Raven ditched her or not...

Yeah, it was something of a conundrum.

A nice relaxing 'backflip - roll - flip back to standing position' helped her clear her mind of the annoying thoughts. She was using 'annoy' a lot, now that she thought about it. She really needed to work on her vocabulary... maybe she could borrow some time on one of those magical learning machines they had here?

"Meh, whatever," she murmured to herself as she began to cartwheel lazily around the room. "Like I even want her near me. Creepy girl. Trying to molest me in the bathroom. And after I was actually _nice_ enough to _speak_ to her."

The sound of the door sliding open caught her attention. Not bothering to stop her routine, she turned her head to the entrance, kind of hoping that Starfire would be the first to arrive. She was _starving_, darn it!

"My, someone's energetic, aren't they?" came Raven's inevitably sardonic inquiry.

Flipping back to her feet, Jinx cocked out her hip and planted a fist on the gentle curve. She glared at Raven for a moment, before starting. "What? You went all the way back to our room just to change back to your normal uniform?"

Jinx gestured down to the dusty fatigues that she was wearing; the standard issue rags that most everyone wore when they trained outside to avoid dirtying up their good clothing too much. They didn't exactly have closets full of identical outfits at the moment, after all.

Smoothing out her navy blue one piece, Raven nodded. "I just wanted to be a little more comfortable, is all. Speaking of which-"

Raven then reached behind her back and pulled out a bundle of clothing, tossing them to Jinx. "I thought you might want to change as well. I can step outside, if you like?"

Rolling her eyes, Jinx took the parcel. Staring at her favorite outfit, she couldn't quite place whether or not it was a genuinely nice gesture, or part of some greater machination that she couldn't see yet. Had Nabiki gotten to Raven? It didn't seem likely; Raven liked Nabiki about as much as Robin liked Slade after all of that Academy nonsense. Not sure what else to do, she offered a grudging courtesy.

"Thanks... and ... just lock the door, please. It's not like I have anything you haven't seen ... not considering Starfire's 'wild and free' attitude lately."

The corner of the dark Titan's lips quirked up into a smile and she nodded knowingly. Raven then turned away and locked the door as Jinx quickly changed out of her dirtied training clothing and into her far more comfortable uniform. A shower beforehand would have been ideal, but whatever, they were just here for a party, she wasn't trying to seduce anyone or anything.

Once she was fully changed, and having tossed the rumpled pile of clothing into the far corner, she took a moment to fix her hair again before turning to stare at Raven uncertainly. Raven had, politely, averted her gaze the entire time, which made Jinx feel slightly more at ease. It would have been a bit creepy if Raven had actually watched her… She shook her head, dispelling that disturbing line of thought. It had been a nice enough gesture, no need to clutter things up.

"Well, alright then. I guess that was cool of you ... you can probably unlock the door now, though."

Rather than move toward the door, to unlock it, Raven moved away from it and towards Jinx. Despite herself, Jinx nearly took a step back at the strange action, and the odd smile on the goth girl's face.

"Actually, I thought that, since we're here and all, that we might take advantage of the situation."

"T-t-take advantage of - ?"

"_Not like that_!'" Raven barked loudly, only to quickly recover her composure and smoothing out her cloak once more. "I meant, why don't we have a friendly sparring match, while we wait for everyone to arrive?"

Jinx could only stare at her companion, wide eyed. "You want to fight me? I mean, you want to _willingly_ give me permission to beat the tar out of you?"

The... far more 'talented' girl rolled her eyes. "Even assuming that you _could_ beat the tar out of me, which is highly dubious, that isn't exactly the point of the exercise I had in mind."

Shrugging, the pink eyed sorceress smirked nastily. "Well, I suppose we _could_ have a nice friendly match ... once I make you eat those words."

Dropping down into a low combat stance, Jinx nodded for Raven to get ready as well.

"So, how do ya wanna do this, then?" she asked. "Full out? Kung fu fighting only? To the pain?"

"Whatever you prefer," Raven added calmly. The cloaked girl merely bent her knees slightly, bringing her hands up to her sides in tightly clenched fists. To Jinx's eyes, it was a painfully novice stance, full of openings and avenues of attack ... of course, that hardly mattered, considering the tremendous power that Raven could bring to bear if she so chose. She would need to do this as fast and hard as possible if she didn't want to have to tear down half the base trying to beat Raven.

Snarling, Jinx kicked off fiercely, a flash of pink energy launching her forward even faster than muscle alone could. She tore across the room in a blink, faster than most people could even move to react -

However, Raven had no need to move to defend herself. As fast as thought itself, faster than the reflexes of even the greatest of masters, a black wall of telekinetic force sprung up before her. Before she could crash face first into it, Jinx swung forward with her left arm - bright pink energy flaring to life around her hand - hoping vainly to cut through the all but indestructible barrier.

Already wincing at the inevitable collision, Jinx found herself greatly surprised when she tore through the inky wall like it was so much tissue paper! She nearly stumbled at the surprising lack of resistance, and at the sudden appearance of Raven standing right before her, a mildly shocked look on her face.

Confused, but not about to let up for a second, she used her forward momentum to keep her sliding forward as she crouched down and began to twist around. Her arms held out wide to maximize her spin, her right hand flared up with power and she slammed it home squarely into the back of the girl's legs as she slid past. The extra 'oomph' of her power - released in a concussive blast - sent Raven flying head over heels through the air. Smirking, Jinx didn't waste an iota of energy and continued her sliding spin, pushing up hard with her right leg and bringing her left leg spinning tightly around in preparation to launch a devastating roundhouse kick to Raven's stomach even as she floated through the air...

Something was wrong, though. Instead of her usual tactics: force fields, teleportation, or simply floating in midair, Raven appeared to be utilizing the less conventional - and less effective – 'wide eyed panic defense.'

_ 'What the hell is she doi-'_ Jinx didn't even have the time to finish her thought as, in her state of heightened focus, she suddenly realized that if Raven didn't do something soon, that the idiot was going to land square on her neck! Biting off a curse, Jinx fought every instinct in her body and wrenched her foot off course, mid kick.

She nearly screamed out loud as it felt like every muscle in the left half of her body pulled at once, but she managed to slam her foot to the ground and slide it forward just enough to catch under Raven's neck a second before it would have slammed to the floor. This allowed Raven's body to land fully on the mats first, which, while painful, was certainly a better fate, all things considered. Breathing hard, Jinx slumped to the ground a second later, wanting to groan loudly at the pain that ran up her side. For a moment, neither of them spoke, but it wasn't meant to last, as Raven broke the silence all too soon.

"That... was a fairly impressive save..." the dour Titan admitted. "I'm not sure how necessary it was, though. I'm sure the mats would have softened the fall enough so I wouldn't have been seriously hurt."

"_What_?" Jinx shouted, before wincing and holding her leg. "You moron! What the hell were you doing? I thought you wanted to fight, not just let me beat you to death? What's the deal; you want me to bruise you up to make Ryouga feel sorry for you?"

Despite the obvious barbs, Raven never lost the infuriating little smile on her lips. Sitting up, she laid a hand on Jinx's leg. The cat eyed girl was a second away from clocking her, when a blue glow suddenly sprang up around the hand, and the pain in her leg immediately began to lessen.

"I'm sorry about that; my powers have been acting oddly lately. I suppose I overestimated myself today," Raven offered in a conciliatory tone.

Jinx glared at the girl, only to let out a relieved sigh at the muscles in her leg and side continued to magically unknot themselves. "Well ... better to find that out now, than in the middle of a figh-"

Suddenly, the sorceress' eyes narrowed as she regarded her rival.

"Wait just one damn second! You **did** find that out in the middle of a fight! Back when we were fighting all those zombie bugs, they were tearing through your shields like butter! The hell, Raven? I might have forgot, but there's no way that you could have! You went into this fight _knowing_ that you couldn't fight back, didn't you!"

Raven looked down for a moment ... then looked up to match Jinx's gaze once more, her smile only growing by the second. "I suppose I did. 'Why?' would be the obvious question, I suppose. I guess I just wanted to see how you would act in a situation where you were given exactly what you wanted."

"Huh?" Jinx inquired eloquently.

"I know there's nothing you want to destroy more than me at the moment," Raven answered a bit darkly, "So I decided to give you your chance. After all, the old Jinx, the one that we first met over a year ago, she would have taken this opportunity for everything it was worth; she would have beaten me to a bloody smear without even a moment's hesitation..."

The dark girl's violet eyes studied her intently as she continued.

"But this new Jinx, that I'm only now beginning to see, she didn't. Not only did you not continue to attack when you easily could have, you actually strained yourself to help me."

Grumbling under her breath, Jinx looked away. "It's not like I did it for you. I just wouldn't have had time to clean up the body before everyone else showed up is all... It's not like - Hey, wait a second!"

Jinx surged to her feet, ignoring the mild stinging that remained in her leg. She then pointed down at Raven, her finger hanging directly between the girl's eyes.

"You were _testing_ me, weren't you?" she asked, anger leaking into her question. "You wanted to see if I'd 'changed' or some crap like that, didn't you - didn't you?"

Rising to her own feet, Raven dusted off her cloak before regarding Jinx once more. "And it seems that Ryouga was right. You _have_ changed; I just hadn't allowed myself to see it because of all of the history between us. I was skeptical when he defended you so fiercely, but now I see why. I'm actually a bit embarrassed I hadn't seen it myself, considering just _how much_ you've changed."

The sorceress could actually hear the tendons in her hands creak as her fists tightened at her sides.

"Oh, I don't think I've changed all _that_ much, _Rae_."

* * *

"Hmm, that's weird," Ryouga muttered as he fiddled with the key card at the dojo door. For some reason, the door had been locked. He actually needed to input the password he'd been given to override the lock just so they could get in. Behind him, Cyborg and Starfire chatted amongst themselves giddily, despite the fact that they were both laden down with such large stacks of junk and junk food that they couldn't even see each other.

"Yo, Ryo, what's the hold up?"

"Nothing, nothing, I guess the girls aren't here yet, the room is still locked ... Ah, there we go!"

With a silent swish, the door slid open, revealing the brightly lit interior of the dojo... and its two occupants. Sitting at the far side of the room, backs to the wall, the pair of girls looked to be in the middle of some kind of discussion, possibly a heated one. At seeing them come in, though, they both instantly clammed up and looked over at them. Ryouga was about to greet them, when he suddenly noticed something.

"Um, Raven ... where on earth did you get that black eye?"

Oddly, the violet haired girl and the pink haired girl shared a brief glance before Raven looked up again, a sheepish look on her face.

"Oh, it's nothing to worry about, Ryouga. I, uh, walked into a door?"

"Oh, okay, well I'm sure that Star has some ice for you." Ryouga waved the Tamaranian forward, who was only too eager to comply.

For some reason, Raven and Jinx let out twin sighs of relief, but Ryouga couldn't imagine what that was about. Apparently neither could Cyborg, as he moved to the far end of the room and dumped his pile of monitors and speakers on the floor.

"Alright, then, my Black Eyed Rae's, let's get this party started!"

* * *

What Ranma had left out was that there was another reason why the Titans had been kept on-base.

"Alright, let's get this party started," he announced. "Entry in fifteen?"

"Copy that. Entry in fifteen," Ryouga agreed over comm channel, all business.

They weren't on Earth.

The actual interception had occurred outside the atmosphere, in so called 'medium earth orbit' roughly four thousand kilometers from the comforting surface of terra firma. While the UFO had been detected a thousand kilometers lower, it had taken time and effort to catch up with the drifting spacecraft, which, fortunately, hadn't been accelerating to top speed. In fact, it had bled off some of its velocity exiting the atmosphere, allowing XCOM to rendezvous with the alien ship at a mere twelve times the height of the International Space Station.

The five teams present waited inside the main hold of the Avenger, geared up and ready to go. Just like before, India and Juliet would be the first into the breech, followed by the powered armor units. The breeching and interception hazards required full NBC and life support precautions: personal armor was entirely environmental – with both NBC (nuclear/biological/chemical) protection and internal atmospheric controls and radiation shielding. XCOM had been upgrading kit and training for the Cydonia mission many of them knew would be coming, and as a plus, it made outer-atmosphere operations that much safer and easier. Assault teams had been picked with this in mind.

Ranma took a few seconds to refresh the settings on his armor, triple checking all the integrity seals and the oxygen supply. Everything seemed to be in order, and he could see that Rachael, Juliet's normal coordinator back at Control had confirmed the go-status of their equipment.

Their target was an alien Harvester, most likely making a quick escape after raiding somewhere Earthside. Satellite and ground surveillance Intel had also recorded a massive burst of X-rays from the point of detection where the UFO had first been recorded, and hyperwave intercepts were completely silent. GenInt thus suspected something was amiss. Regardless, the Avenger was already docked up with it, and India squad was in position to make their push.

The last few seconds elapsed.

The seal connecting the Avenger and the Harvester hissed, and a large door opened, nearly wide enough for two men to enter side by side. India rushed in, following on the heels of a diversionary combination ki attack and flashbang. The lost boy had gotten troublingly good at those sorts of combo techs, and at other unusual adaptations of the _shishi hokoudan_. For his part, Ranma was left playing catch up in that **one** _annoying_ department, ever since the "perfect" version of the attack, back in Nerima. Emitting that much dark, heavy ki, not just from the hands but the entire body, was something only a certain kind of lunatic could be capable of. Attempts to make a "perfect" _moko takabsha_ had, to date, simply ended up making him glow like a big happy lava lamp.

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

Juliet followed behind India, sweeping deeper into the main operating room of the Harvester. There was nothing on the scopes, nothing on motion scanners… nothing even in all the digestion and stasis tubes. It looked like they had all been flushed. Even the usual malevolent-orange solution was gone, leaving clear transparent cylinders and an unobstructed view of the area.

He noticed something else, too.

There was almost no atmosphere. Stupid! – he should have noticed that earlier when there was a much larger than normal rush of air out of the Avenger. There was practically no air _at all_ inside the UFO. This was a known alien trick, actually, when operating in outer atmosphere operations. Virtually all aliens were adapted to survive in the vacuum of space, either biologically or cybernetically. They were known to evacuate the atmosphere of a ship and turn off, reverse or increase the artificial gravity if boarded.

Yet… gravity was still up. There was just no air.

"Rach, what's the environmental?"

"One moment, sir…" Rachael was a nice enough woman; not very talkative, but professional. India had ended up with Nabiki, and by the sound of it, they liked working with her. Ranma wasn't sure he could so easily put aside all the history between himself and the middle Tendo daughter. Besides, he found he ended up bantering with enough women as it was without throwing another into the mix.

"Detecting large amounts of carbon dioxide… residual nitrogen gas, highly elevated levels of sulfur dioxide, argon and helium… and hydrogen fluoride. Other trace molecules, also showing up as dangerous. Sir, what little air there is in there is most definitely not breathable."

"Careful," Ranma warned his squad. "The air is toxic. Watch yourselves."

He continued stalking through the main room, noting the empty operating tables.

"Found something!" Konatsu spoke up. "Dead tango. Looks like plasma damage."

So far, it was the first sign of the enemy they had encountered. None of the other teams had reported a single tango yet, and they had a third team securing the first floor and India heading up to the second. The Captain had the other two reserve teams waiting in the Avenger. Either all of the enemy crew had holed up in one place or…

Or this was some kind of alien ghost ship.

"I'm coming. Hold position."

Moving in a flash, Ranma appeared by Konatsu's side three seconds later, looking down at the Muton. It was dead, alright. A plasma blast had ripped open its side nearly to the spinal cord, spilling charred and cooked viscera over the floor. Given the bloody footsteps nearby, it had wandered around for some time before succumbing to the body cavity emptying wound, and the alien soldier still clung protectively to its heavy plasma rifle.

"India-One, you find anything out there?"

"Nothing much," came the response a moment later. "Lots of blood stains. Two plasma rifles and some other gear left behind in a hurry."

Juliet finished securing the lower half of the ship, still finding literally nothing. No more bodies. No gear, except two plasma grenades left on the floor. The alien food vats were all empty and while the recycling systems were on and intact, there was no material in the cycle. Word came in a minute or two later that India had the engine room secure – the Elerium reactors were intact and almost fully stocked, but other systems showed some signs of damage. Still no bodies. Still no resistance.

"India One to All combat teams. We found something," Ryouga spoke up, suddenly. "Plasma grenade rigged for proximity detonation. Disarming it now. Watch for traps."

With the first floor completely accounted for, Juliet joined Delta and India for an assault on the third floor of the ship. Aside from the ancillary engineering area, the second floor was what should have been more storage. Like the first, it was completely empty. The third floor held what passed for alien living and command and control. It was also the navigation control, and they needed to secure it to get control over the UFO's drift and turn off the FTL… if it was warming up at all, which it didn't appear to be.

Making their move, Delta and India each took the left and right gravity lifts, respectively, before making their assault. Ranma tensed with his team, waiting for the sounds of fighting…

"Clear…"

"Clear."

"Clear."

The multiple voices helped to alleviate some of Ranma's worries, but brought up others in their place. They'd taken the UFO without firing a single shot. Which meant no one had gotten hurt or killed, but… but it was just too strange. Heading up to see the command center for himself, Ranma recoiled a bit at what he saw.

The place was a slaughterhouse.

The crew had been a mix of Sectoids and Mutons, plus a single Ethereal Leader. That crew was scattered, liberally, around the command room. Very liberally. Plasma burns scarred the walls, paining them in swaths of scorched black. The Ethereal was still seated in one of the room's purple hued chairs, the upper half of it vaporized. Empty, tattered, bloody robes had survived the attack, and pooled around the emaciated legs and lower torso.

Near Ranma's foot, he could see a Sectoid and immediately observed that it hadn't been shot. It had been folded nearly in half, its back broken and spindled in three places. Dull, black eyes stared lifelessly upwards. It had been killed in melee…

The Muton corpses were obviously all done-in by plasma blasts at close range. There were superheated scorches of flash fried blood and gore on the floor and even the ceiling. At such a tremendous heat, all the moisture vaporized, leaving cabonized residue and disassociated metals and other trace elements to stain the alien alloy. Instead of dripping, it fell back to the floor as a fine dusty mist.

"Ranma," Ryouga's voice cut off any speculation as to why this had happened. "Crack the Nav. I'll check for records or other data."

Ranma nodded, walking past the carnage. Delta and members of the two martial arts squads were already counting and checking the corpses. As if just realizing that, the pigtailed fighter caught Shampoo's arm as she reached for the Ethereal's blasted remains.

"Hold up a sec. Leave the bodies. Don't touch anything."

"Good idea," Ryouga seconded. "We have no idea what happened here."

Shampoo stood straight gave the body a wary look, and nodded. The rest of Delta Squad also followed the order, standing by. Every man and woman there was ready for a fight. Finding this had been unexpected, and despite the good fortune of not having to fight, there was something terribly morbid and distasteful about the situation.

"Got the Navigator," Ryu said, holding up one of the Sectoids with his right hand, the other still holding a Mind Probe. Its body was beaten, but the head was intact.

"You guys better hurry, though," the Yamasenken master added. "Unless you like doing a corpse dive."

Ranma and Ryouga both placed their hands on the dead alien's forehead, reading and reaching inside. It was dead, and had been for maybe an hour. There was some significant tissue damage, but much less than there would be on a human brain. Aliens had the resiliency one would expect of a telepathic species designed for a life in space. There was just enough to be useful.

Yet...

Even as they extracted and assembled the data...

It felt strange. Like there was something still alive and thinking inside. Faint, though. Strange. Ghostly... _like smoke's shadow_. Sensing the minds invading its host, the psionic force tried to muster the energy and will to do something, but in so doing it only burned itself out. It was the last, dry gasp of a dying candle and then it was gone, and there was only the cold corpse left. Having practiced corpse dives in the base morgue, both officers could feel the difference, but not explain it.

_'What _was_ that? It wasn't one of us...?'_ There was no point speculating now, though. _'Just something to take note of in the debrief later.'_

As he and Ryouga approached the psionic controls for the ship, Ranma remembered back when they had first tried something like this. It had been back on the alien Abductor, before even joining UNETCO, right after that terrible night in Nerima. Back then, even with Nabiki's quick thinking, they hadn't had much of any idea what to do. Both of them had found out how to interface with the alien ship in a limited way, by extending their battle aura and tweaking it just right.

This time, the two seamlessly slipped into the alien control systems, immersing their minds into the programs. Security and control layouts projected into their minds and into the air around them. As usual, all the critical systems were locked and keyed to specific psionic patterns. The psi-amps of the two young officers flashed brightly as they worked, using stolen psionic keys – mental imprints torn from high ranking alien prisoners – modifying them on the fly to fit an 'image' acceptable to the alien security system.

Normally, the process involved capturing live Navigators and using their keys.

With their dead friend, however, the Nav-key was incomplete. That was where the previous security keys and the organization's meticulous record keeping came into play. This, too, was something they had trained for. Bit by bit, they slipped their way into the alien systems, until the two officers had almost complete control. Wasn't it amazing what one could do with months of training, psi-imprinted knowledge, weeks worth of interrogations, and learning first-hand from experienced professionals?

Seizing control over the gravity drive, Ranma confirmed their last course before ordering the UFO to a relative halt. Just as the Avenger pilot and Command had calculated, it was headed in a slow drift towards Mars, though the trip would have taken over a week at this speed. In space, one could let a ship drift, using far less Elerium to travel far greater distance than when in an atmosphere. The question of why the ship hadn't powered the FTL also became clear: it was busted.

Or, to be more accurate, it had been _sabotaged_.

Sabotaged!

He felt Ryouga's presence in the psionic circuitry, in the heart of the machine, and the two exchanged thoughts rapidly. Not only had the ship been sabotaged, but the remaining logs indicated it was one of the dimension-jumpers used earlier in the week. Checking, Ranma could confirm that the EDC had been damaged, but that it was still mostly intact. Whatever had damaged the FTL had also damaged the EDC… or vice versa. Unfortunately, the actual details of what had happened on the ship remained elusive.

If this had been an XCOM craft, they would have monitored the rooms and the control center. There would be recordings of what went wrong. There would be redundant layers of internal security, both for the ship and the nav-interface. The aliens relied too heavily on their gestalt mind link. With the Ethereal's brain turned into free-floating atoms, there was no way to tell what had gone on. It looked like a fight among the crew, but… that was impossible. Just _impossible_.

Aliens just didn't _do _that.

"Let's call in Command."

"Agreed."

* * *

XCOM Research and Quarantine Facility AE14

Also known as Horizon-1 or "Koelle Base"

Looking out one of the now open viewing ports, Mousse cupped his hands behind his back. It was a sight that very few human beings had ever seen in person: an unobstructed view of the Lunar Far Side; permanently shrouded from Earth-based observers by the tidal lock that kept it from ever facing the mother planet. The Sun still shone on its surface, however, illuminating the pockmarked face of Earth's great satellite.

"This place," he huffed.

"Yeah, I never thought we'd be headed back here again," Ryu commented, standing next to the normally nearsighted Amazon. "One off world crisis was enough for me, thanks."

"You two jackasses can't appreciate how many people would give up everything they own for a view like this!" Ukyou stood to Mousse's left, rather more enthralled by the sight. "I for one never get tired of it! This is just too cool!"

"A big, dead rock?" Shampoo asked, her back to the window, checking her plasma carbine. "One that almost killed us last time we were there. I hate to say it, but I agree with vacuum boy."

"Well **I** think the moon is beautiful and romantic!" Ukyou insisted, and turned to someone she knew would agree with her, going so far as to grab the young man's arm. "Don't you, Konatsu?"

"Um, ah, of course, Miss Ukyou. It is quite pretty..."

Thankfully, no one could see his blush due to their personal armor.

"Hey, I'm romantic, too, you know!" Ryu growled, not to be outdone.

Cassegrain and Priestley Craters came into view, along with the edge of the dark _Mare Australe_, the Southern Sea. AE14 was the largest of three Lunar bases operated by XCOM, the others being little more than automated listening outposts. Prior to 2005, UFOs frequently made use of the Moon as a layover on missions to Earth and UNETCO even had cause to believe that an alien base was located there.

In fact, there was no alien base, but there had been a small depot where ships could land and operate in safety near-Earth when the upper atmosphere became too dangerous. XCOM knocked out the alien outpost in late 2005, and since then, expanded their own operations on Luna. This was a place, far from Earth, where they could conduct the most dangerous biological, psionic and physics research without fear of contamination or interference. Despite the occasional alien probe skimming Luna, the aliens had yet to truly test the plasma and fusion ball defenses erected on man's first extraterrestrial bastion.

Command had, after reviewing all the data Ryouga and Ranma could pull out, determined that there was a high likelihood of contamination on board the UFO. Whether that was chemical, biological, radiological or dimensional contamination was unknown. However, they would not be taking it to any Earth base for examination and salvage. No one was willing to risk it. Instead, they would take the ship to the dock at AE14 where any potential problems could be safely contained.

Seiran's Avenger flew alongside the captured UFO, two of the five squads still inside. They would be expected to return home quickly, but India, Juliet and Delta would have to remain at AE14 quarantine to ensure there were no complications after their boarding the "ghost ship" of a UFO. The eight men and women of the two squads had been to the Moon before, on another mission, and had mixed responses about a return. Delta Squad, which had never been off planet before, barely reigned in their enthusiasm but couldn't help staring occasionally out the port windows. Sergeant Kinoshida remained by the two lieutenants, letting her three subordinates indulge themselves a bit before briskly reminding them they were soldiers on a mission and not tourists.

The captured Harvester descended alongside the Avenger, heading towards AE14.

The base itself was located on the Far Side near the southern pole, deep within the body of a large crater. Like most XCOM bases, it was built for secrecy, even out this far from home, and powered by a hybrid fission-fusion reactor. There were only a few concealed solar arrays in operation, which, combined with a backup Elerium reactor (normally used only to power the base defenses), could provide reserve power in case of an emergency.

Like other XCOM bases, AE14/Horizon also recycled its waste and manufactured its own stores of breathable air and other necessary elements. Most of it was dug underground, and the topmost structures were adapted from landed alien craft. In case of an overwhelming alien attack, these refitted alien ships still contained their own Elerium drives, and could function as escape craft for scientists and other base personnel.

A special vacuum compatible double-size hangar opened, permitting the two ships to enter. Only a few bases could accommodate larger UFOs, like Supply Ships or Battleships. Major bases like Seiran had special processing facilities for the temporary storage and reduction of alien craft, for salvage, and a few like Fry Canyon had massive mega-hangars able to maintain and operate that class of ship.

Here at AE14, the Harvester and Avenger eased into designated landing spots. For the Avenger's pilot it was easy, and it landed with deliberate ease next to a parked Firestorm, but the Harvester was much slower and more cautious in its approach. It was to be expected, since it wasn't being controlled by a dedicated pilot, nor was it of XCOM manufacture. Ranma and Ryouga managed well enough, eventually having the ship settle down in place.

The hangar doors quickly closed again, and filters roared to keep out the abrasive lunar dust.

As Ranma and Ryouga extracted themselves from the UFO's psionic Nav interface, they took a moment to get their bearings back in the physical world. Piloting a UFO, or a UFO inspired ship, was like being the machine. It could be exhausting to switch between it and a normal body, especially for those unused to it. Alien Navs were rougher still. The aliens simply seemed to take it all in stride; discomfort really didn't seem to be something many of them could experience.

Ukyou approached the two men. "You two alright?"

"Just a bit dizzy," Ranma admitted, clasping his fellow Lieutenant on the shoulder. "Don't tell me you're seasick, pork chop?"

Ryouga's helmet turned his way. "Don't tell me you're leaning on my shoulder to keep from falling, Saotome?"

Ranma chuckled lightly, feeling himself recover. This was their first real landing outside sims and practice. It hadn't gone off that bad. Not bad at all.

Letting the other officer go, he motioned the others over.

"Okay, guys," he began, taking a second to wet his dry lips. They'd become parched while he was inside the machine. "Usual Quarantine procedures. Leave everything as-is in here. We'll be going single file and they'll be checking us all individually. Remember, there's no atmosphere out there right now, and the gravity's… what? A third of normal?"

"Something like that," Ryouga replied with a shrug.

"Mind the enviro," Ranma continued, reiterating a phrase well drilled into XCOM troops. "We'll probably be back home in a few days unless there's something really weird going on here. And by weird I mean Event Horizon _this-ship-has-gone-to-Hell_ we're-all-going-to-be-driven-insane type stuff."

The lost boy cocked a helmeted head. "What?"

"It was a movie. They showed it at the recc the other day?" Ranma saw the incomprehension in his rivals face and gave a defeated groan. "Man, you're so clueless!"

"Well, none of us are clawing our eyes out," Ryu spoke up; he, at least, got the reference. "So that's a good sign."

"Wait, was that the movie with that Jurassic Park guy?" Ukyou wondered aloud. "And the ship that made people go crazy?"

"Yep. It had been to Hell or something," Ranma reminded them with a somewhat unprofessional shuckle. "At least our FTL drive isn't covered with spikes. Big metal spikes are never a good sign."

Ryouga coughed, hoping to get them back on topic.

"Anyway," Ranma said, noiselessly clapping his gloved hands together. "I'm sure its something psionic. You know how these stupid aliens are. We'll be fine… Now, we'll go Juliet, India, Delta. Expect to get hosed down _a lot_ once we get inside. These guys are real sadists when it comes to decon…"

* * *

Almost as one, the three Yankee girls flopped down onto their respective beds. So weary were they, that Jinx didn't even bother to make some form of smart-alec remark or another as she rolled over onto her stomach and began to massage her temples.

"And I thought an entire day in the Psi Gym would be a nice break from being outside training ... but **damn** those things give me a headache."

Lifting her head just enough to pull a pillow under it, Starfire offered the pink haired girl a sly grin. "Just be thankful that they did not ask you to pay for the machine that you inadvertently damaged. I cannot imagine how many lifetimes of work it would require for you to work off _that_ debt."

Rolling her eyes before burying her head in her mattress, Jinx moaned weakly, "Don't remind me. My brain was _in_ that thing when it went. I still think my neurons are misfiring."

"And that's different from normal, how?" Raven asked, trying to infuse enough humor into her tone so it didn't come across as an insult. Her eye was still stinging a bit, and there was still a dark ring around it, but at least most of the swelling had gone down.

"Oh, ha ha, Rae," Jinx muttered, not bothering to lift her head from the mattress. "You looking for another round in the gym?"

"Which one?" she fired back, smirking wickedly. Certainly in the dojo, Jinx was queen, but in the psi gym, Raven ruled supreme.

"You two had best cease this banter," Starfire interjected, propping herself up on her elbows. "One might mistake you for Ranma and Ryouga if you continue in this way."

"**What?**"

"_Excuse_ me?"

The Tamaranian's gale of laughter drowned out the rest of their outbursts, leaving both girls to just grumble darkly to themselves.

"Still..." Jinx started tentatively. Pushing herself up until she was sitting up, the pink haired girl stared at Raven. "I think you should talk to Ryouga about what we were talking about last night ... _before_ the party?"

Raven stared at her rival for a moment, before nodding slightly. "I know ... I know. I'm just not sure how to broach the subject."

"To which subject are you referring?" Starfire asked curiously, her head tilting to the side as she regarded the pair.

The violet haired Titan looked at Starfire for a moment before finally sighing. "Jinx has pointed out... quite correctly, that I am... something of a liability in the thick of battle now. She - _we both_ - think, that perhaps I should take on a different role in our fights."

Jinx nodded seriously. "Yeah. I've been looking into a few things. It seems like the most powerful people in this organization never even see the front line of the battlefield anymore, they just fly around and lob those mini-nukes from afar and do mind attacks. And Raven is way stronger than any of the mouth breathers here. If she got one of those fancy custom psi amps, she could probably take out half of the battlefield from half a world away."

"I highly doubt I would be _that_ effective," Raven stated, though with an amused smile. It had been a compliment, hadn't it, and from Jinx no less. "However, it would be a good way to maximize my ability to protect Yankee squad from psionic attacks while minimizing my own exposure to danger."

Starfire stroked her chin as she considered; the logic was sound. "Ah, I understand. You mean that you could take the same role as Captain Ben-Solomon? That does make some sense. If you were to remain in a place of safety, you could also take up some of Nabiki's responsibilities as well, with your superior knowledge of our abilities and tactics."

"Well, I don't know if I would want to go that far, it might distract me from-"

A sudden knock on the door distracted the three girls from their conversation. That was odd, Raven hadn't been expecting anyone, and Ryouga had left the psi gym straight away to check on Cyborg, so she wasn't expecting him ... So who would come to visit them?

"Please come in!" Starfire called out loudly.

The door slid open, revealing an unexpected guest. Two, in fact, as Nabiki Tendo followed her younger sister inside. Both were carrying an assortment of items in their arms, though Akane was obviously handling most of the real lifting. Both girls were off duty, and wearing casual clothes instead of their uniform – in Akane's case a knee length skirt and in Nabiki's a pair of jeans.

"Good evening," Akane spoke up, seeing the three tired Titans. "Hope we didn't catch you at a bad time, but we wanted to help spruce up your room a bit now that you're a little settled in!"

"Not at all," Starfire exclaimed, floating up from her bed in an instant. "I had just been planning to disrobe to help cool off somewhat but I can put that off for a time."

"Thank God," Jinx muttered under her breath.

"Thank Azar," Raven added, in an equally hushed tone.

"This should help give the place some green," Nabiki said, stepping around her sister, and holding out a potted plant for the eager Tamaranian to take. It was stemless, with a large rich body of variegated leaves, colored deep green and an almost golden-green at the edges. The middle Tendo was carrying two, and tucked the second one in the nook of her arm.

"These are Japanese Aspidistra, well known for cleaning the air and being easy to take care of," she explained. "We cultivate some of it down in the greenhouse. So, I trust you're all getting along well? No catfights worth catching on tape?"

Jinx suddenly shot back up at that.

"Wait a second!" she yelped. "You're not taping us in here, are you?"

"If I was, would I be missing anything good?" the mercenary girl asked with a grin, but quickly put the younger girl's concerns at ease. "No, I'm not taping you guys. Your rooms ... _should_ be bug free."

"Nabiki!" Akane chided, embarrassed for her sister's lack of tact. "Don't freak them out like that!"

"Well, it isn't Jinx and I that should be worried. Starfire, on the other hand, spends half of her time bereft of clothing," Raven muttered with a deadpan expression. "Maybe you _should_ install a camera if it might dissuade that."

"I do not understand your stifling modesty, friends," Starfire replied with a pout. "You are both lovely young women, how can you be so embarrassed about your bodies? I am certain that many people would appreciate seeing them."

Instantly, Jinx and Raven both pulled pillows to their chests.

"Wow, this brings back memories… didn't I say something like that to you, once, Akane?"

"Ha. Ha. I think I've had enough of perverted guys wanting to see my body to last a lifetime." She then added, for good measure: "No thanks to you, I should add. You just want more pictures to sell to Kuno."

"At least Ranma listens to reason. There are advantages to looking good, you know."

"Then why don't you sell pictures of yourself, hmm?"

The older sister gave Akane a playful wink. "Who says I don't? To select buyers."

Much to the sputtering reply of said younger sister.

Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Anyway, can you blame me? It's easy money!" She then gave Starfire a predatory smile. "You know, if we were back home, I think I'd try and take you guys to the public baths. Even if it cost me money, it would be simply hilarious to see."

The alien girl shrugged. "I fail to see the humor in the situation you describe. What is so amusing about using a public bath?"

"Two shy girls like them?" Nabiki asked, as if it was obvious, referring to Jinx and Raven. "I'd bet dimes to dollars every other girl there would be envious. Natural pink hair? Pale, foreign features? You two are like one hundred percent natural otaku-bait."

"Plus," Akane added in, giving it her personal spin on events. "If we did go, you just know one of the guys would show up for some stupid reason, claiming there was a magic artifact or something in the women's baths. And then Ranma, being a perv, would try and sneak in, and Ryouga-kun would beat him up, and something would explode." Akane sighed sadly. "There's a reason why we've been banned from half the baths in Tokyo."

Jinx smirked. "Yeah, I just bet that Ranma would try to sneak a peek on us. Though I'm pretty sure that Raven already has Cyborg trained to behave himself, likely through rigorous aversion therapy."

"There are inherent problems when you have a large mixed group of teenagers living, unsupervised, under the same roof," Raven explained easily. "Ground rules had to be set early and with great force."

"I hope those ground rules left _some_ wiggle room," Nabiki replied with a wink. "That's part of the fun of co-ed life, if you ask me!"

"Anyhow, we also got you guys some stuff here…" Akane put the box down and popped the plastic top. Tucking some rolled up paper under her arm, she skipped to something really good. Pulling out a small black clock, she placed it on the room's communal desk.

"Thanks to the EM shield we don't get radio down here, but with this, you can hook up to some of the English military stations we filter through. It has a connection or something to the base comms, just like the music that plays in the dojo," she said, patting it.

"Or you can assemble and stream your own playlists, if you have other more particular tastes in music," Nabiki added, also putting the plant down on the desk. "For a small subscription fee, of course…"

"Heh, well unless you like getting paid in toe nail clippings, you're barking up the wrong tree, 'Biki," Jinx replied, her head tilting to the side as she offered the girl a broad grin. "We're 'unpaid' observers, remember?"

"Now, Jinx, you must know there are _many_ ways to pay off a debt." Nabiki returned the grin, still as friendly and easygoing as ever. "I'd be more than willing to work something out. What's life without the finer things, after all?"

The pink eyed girl shuddered noticeably. "You do realize that you just totally overshot today's Lesbian Overtone limit right there? I mean, if you need, like, a foot rub or something, maybe, but if you want to go all the way, I'm gonna have to pass you on to Raven, or Starfire. I'm pretty sure they're both _way_ more open minded than me about that kinda stuff."

"**What?**"

"Can we please change the topic?" Akane pleaded, trying to get angry to cover up her embarrassed blush. "And I can assure you, Nabiki is not a lesbian! She even got you this." The younger Tendo held up a calendar.

A beefcake calendar.

"If anything, she's disgustingly boy crazy," the younger sister said with obvious disdain. "I leave it to you guys if you want to put this perverted calendar up on the wall."

"_Please!_ They're not even naked," Nabiki replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "It's a tasteful swimsuit calendar starring popular cultural icons. I especially like the Master Chief picture I got for April!"

Akane just shook her head, physically fighting down a blush.

"All totally harmless and fun," the elder sister insisted with a shameless giggle. "Not that I don't have racier calendars, too!"

"We ... ah, thank you for your generous gift," the Tamaranian replied, eyebrow raising quizzically as she regarded the interesting 'gift' and cautiously flipped through a page or two. "I am sure we will... seriously consider putting it up... at some point."

"Yeah, the last thing we need in here is something to add _sexual_ tension to all the other varieties already floating around," Jinx quipped off hand before flopping back down onto her back. "Thanks for the clock, though. Now I'll always know what time it is."

Raven rolled her eyes, and then battled to stifle a yawn. "Please try to ignore her. Thank you kindly for your consideration."

"And you guys are free to ignore my sister's attempts to make you as bad as she is." Akane unrolled one of the posters under her arm. "How do you like these?"

The first poster was a picture of the famous Ryōbu-style "floating" torii at Itsukushima Shrine. Torii of that style were iconically Japanese, and had ties to both Shinto and Buddhism, often functionally marking the entrance to a sacred space. It also looked pretty enough that Akane was sure even their foreign dimensionally-displaced comrades here would appreciate it.

"I also have a really cute one with Giant Panda with a baby panda," she added, holding out another poster. "And one of Mount Fuji. I thought they might help add some life to the monotonous grey walls we have everywhere."

"I don't know. I kind of like the monotonous grey walls," Raven noted, rolling her hand absently.

"Heh, you **would**," snarked the slender sorceress from her bed.

"I, myself, am most grateful for the adorable posters of fluffy animals and their infants." Starfire sighed sadly and spun around - still floating in the air - as she looked at the walls. "These gloomy walls of drabness are so off putting, that I was hoping that Jinx would begin to adorn the walls with the sketches of mono-horned equines she so frequently works on."

"S-shut **up**, Starfire!"

"I wanted to get a hot plate or something, too, but couldn't find one…" Akane put the posters on the table, and rested her hands on her hips. "Well, that's it! I don't know if you guys are sticking around or getting transferred to the U.S. or what, but don't be strangers. We're all under the same roof. Well, the same mountain. I'd like it if we could all be friends, you know?"

"Kasumi would have dropped by, too, but she's been called in to work extra late," Nabiki spoke up for the missing Tendo sister. "The Fuji-san poster was her idea. I guess you guys are getting ready to turn in, so we'll see you around. You're still one of my squads, all jokes and other problems aside, so stay in touch."

To varying degrees, each of the Yankee girls waved and offered various forms of 'good bye' to the pair, before the Tendo sisters slipped out the door and they were left to their own devices once more.

Sitting up, Jinx glared at the orange girl. "I swear, alien girl, if you tell anyone _else_ about my sketchbook, I'll **end** you, got it?"

"B-but why?" Starfire asked, plainly confused. "Your artistic skills are quite exceptional. Why would you desire to hide that fact as well?"

Deciding to do her vicious rival a small kindness, Raven intervened. "Some things are just personal, Starfire, and you shouldn't share them if the person involved doesn't want it. I mean, how would you feel if I told everyone we met about Blackfire?"

"Oooh, who's Blackfire?" Jinx asked, suddenly intrigued.

"None of your business," Starfire very nearly growled. "Oh...! I believe I see ..."

Floating back to her bed, the alien girl dropped back down onto the firm mattress and pulled her pillows close. "I apologize, Jinx. I will not tell any others of your sketches of the genetically engineered combat horses-"

"They aren't-" Jinx quickly cut herself short, hiding her face in her hands. "You know, nevermind! Just don't talk about 'em, okay, thanks?"

The violet haired Titan couldn't help but smile. "Look, lets all get some rest. We still need to figure out this team situation thing so we can discuss it with Ryouga, and I think a good nights rest will help with that."

Her companions shrugged and eye rolled to various degrees, before they finally all agreed and prepared for bed. A few minutes later, the bliss of Mind Shielded sleep claimed them all.

* * *

In another part of the base, Kasumi Tendo sat alone, pulling latex gloves from her hands.

_"The adaptation rate is incredible. The left arm has completely rejected the new formula and repaired the damage done. Psionics on a cellular level… just like a Mind-linked Ethereal. Fantastic."_

_"Some of our preliminary data will need to be revised, post-op. These proteins weren'__t present in the initial examination of the patient__…"_

_"Were they produced during its regeneration? Or as a result of the __artificial psi-amp we implanted? We've been expecting that there would be modifications made in vivo__..."_

Strange men and women, most of them from the European bases, had all but walled off a wing of the medical bay adjacent to xenosciences. The object of their fevered study floated silently within a containment chamber the occasional telekinetic crackle rippling through the mixture of gasses within. Akari's arms and legs were tightly restrained, even within the chamber, to the point where she seemed literally bound and chained. Her titian Ethereal's habit stripped away, she could only glare malevolently with white, empty eyes – like a shark's eyes, her dark hair flared out behind her like a fan, marked only by that one streak of naturally occurring pink.

Akari's left arm, which had been poisoned and necrotic just minutes before, was already repairing itself. Her body was emaciated, but it belied the terrible psionic power that animated the otherwise frail frame. Neurological toxins didn't work for more than a few seconds; contact irritants had no effect at all; the chemical warfare unit sent over from Europe were in a fit. Crippling poisons and hazardous toxins never made it past the point of insertion. What little blood flow there was seemed to start or stop on demand, and the body was fully capable of rejecting damaged or infected tissue, expelling it outright, and then regenerating from a clean slate.

As expected, from the powers of an Ethereal.

The test. The _studies_. This sort of warfare had already been deemed impractical on most alien species. It had been used a few times on base attacks against Floaters and Snakemen, but Sectoids and Ethereals were all but immune, and Mutons were resilient so long as they had Ethereals nearby to control them. It had been hoped that Trenchards, being hybrids with humans, would be less difficult to deal with. If a weakness could be found, then the next time a team encountered someone like the Trenchard Cologne or, heaven forbid, Saffron, the issue could be resolved cleanly and easily with less loss of human life.

The subject was, however, more alien than human. As long as the brain was intact, it could function. It would change the rest of itself to fit the environment; Kasumi had seen Akari exposed to vacuum one moment then extreme high pressure the next. Pumping the chamber full of inert gasses had done nothing, and while a cloud of volatiles had seared away layers of skin, even that had been swiftly adapted to and countered.

All through this, her psionics were carefully monitored, so that human psychics could learn the same tricks. Unlike a pure Ethereal, Akari's brain was human enough that they could draw parallels between her psionics and what humans used, especially since she acted through an artificial psi-amp they could remotely access. No doubt every day would bring new breakthroughs, more heartache from the chemwar specialists, and more revelations for the psionic researchers.

It was dark work, though.

Kasumi silently wished she could have called in sick but it would be irresponsible and improper to shirk one's responsibilities whenever they made one uncomfortable. Cleaning out charred flesh from a third degree burn wasn't very pleasant either, but she had learned to deal with it and do her job. To Kasumi, it was the same sort of situation: one simply had to see things through. She couldn't morally make half a commitment.

That said, Kasumi actually didn't have to do too much. She was no researcher or scientist; she was on call in case of either a medical emergency or to handle some lab-based busywork. The Tendo sister didn't even know the names of all the new people they'd shuttled in to run these tests.

_ Scratching of a marker on a whiteboard -_

_ "Let's look at the precedents again, and you'll see what I mean. Broom, 2006, Effects of Jyusenkyou and Molecular Control on Enforced Isolation in non-Human Test Subjects. In those subjects kept under a mind shield, two week mortality rate for Ethereals: 100 percent. Sectoids: 100 percent. Mutons: 100 percent. Need I go on? The only species to survive both Jyusenkyou treatment and separation from the alien mind were one out of three Snakemen. The Ethereals died in days."_

_ "It remains an option once White Iron's estimated operational lifetime decreases to one week, I'd say. We don't have much to lose at that point."_

_ "None of that helps with reversing the situation or treating White Iron. We'd only be prolonging our study of it."_

_ "That's true. What about the Carter Report? The study on isolated alien clones raised in captivity without psionic contact?"_

_ "We were still looking at similar mortality rates for that one, weren't we? Except for things like Celatids and Chryssalids and the other biological terrorist units."_

_ "What I mean is that it reinforces the notion that this isn't just a physiological issue but a mental one. The aliens that expired in that study didn't die from natural causes, they became catatonic. The point of failure likely isn't just in the brain or the body, it is in the way psi-capable alien minds organize themselves. We'll need a way to treat the psionic architecture or else we'll just have another alien in a human body."_

_ "Physical removal of the corona lucis and the new psi-amp will prompt immediate rejection and cardiopulmonary and CNS failure. But if we follow that up with a Jyusenkyou treatment before hypoxia and necrosis reaches critical levels, the new human body could be up to the task of repairing the injuries that carry over."_

_ "Ah, I see what you're getting at. A human-form Ethereal retains the atrophied body it had as an alien, but as a Trenchard, White Iron is in comparatively better shape. With life support we could draw it out for almost a full two weeks, if everything goes well. And in those two weeks we could theoretically map out and filter the mental architecture, separating human from alien."_

_ "Broom tried something similar at Wyndham and both subjects suffered terminal brain damage."_

_ "Broom also used outdated chemical inhibitors. We have stronger, target-specific drugs now. As long as we're in the subject's brain doing a complete deterge, some damage is inevitable, but we can medically mitigate it using NR-80 and a variant of the Broom cocktail."_

_ "Another alternative is assembling a proxy gestalt mind using captured alien subjects and using that to copy the mind whole-cloth. That way we can do the deterge in isolation, minimizing physical damage due to telekinetic backlash. I remember hearing that the South American branch had made strides in coercing Sectoid medics to operate on humans."_

_ "Gestalt Mind research was put on hold earlier this year. I don't know about the captured medic. But even if we could do it, we'd be killing White Iron as we extract, so one mistake and it's gone forever."_

_ "Our treatment options for White Iron are very limited. For the time being, we should focus on our existing studies and not risk getting sidetracked or doing anything to cause permanent damage." _

She sat and rubbed her eyes, trying to keep dignified and alert.

"Kasumi," a familiar face appeared, taking a seat nearby. It was Doctor Pearson, one of the many mixed medical-research professionals local to Seiran. He had been one of the primary researchers into the connection between the martial arts practiced by her friends and family and psionics. He was also the man they turned to when they (admittedly rather rarely) wanted medical or technical insight into the biological or chemical basis of their techniques and body manipulation.

"Doctor," she greeted him politely, and smoothly bowed. He was a nice enough man, very friendly, and even reminded her of Doctor Tofu sometimes. Except, of course, that he was married.

As the good ones often were, it seemed.

"Burning the midnight oil?" he asked, rhetorically. "I was about to get a cup of coffee. You want one?"

She shook her head; even living here this long, she hadn't developed a taste for the bitter beverage. It was nice of him to ask, though. She'd been sent to get drinks for other researchers more than once, and the request – while always politely worded – was getting a bit grating. The female researchers were, if anything, even worse about it than the men and were quick to look down at a low ranking lab rat of their gender. …As if she could help it that she hadn't published a dozen articles or papers by the age of twenty-something.

"Doctor," she felt the need to ask, "What do you think will happen to, um… 'white iron'?"

"That's not up to anyone in this room," he explained, looking back at the score of scientists. "We'll keep her and do what we're told to do until the Commanders pick a permanent location. Or maybe Yasuda will be able to keep her here. In terms of treatment... honestly, no matter what we do to hasten or prolong things, chances are that she'll die. We can't fix her body without fixing her mind, and we just don't know how to do that yet."

"Did you…" Kasumi hesitated to ask, not wanting to sound critical or rude. "I mean, there's been some talk about repeating what freed her before."

"Yes, that Jinx girl's powers." Pearson nodded. "Rather different than anything we've seen before. It could be very interesting as an alternative to chemical inhibitors. Though we haven't been able to actually begin studying her power, as of yet, we're looking into more standard methods of attacking the corona lucis. It's not one of my projects, though."

He gave her a knowing look. "You're tired, Kasumi… and not just physically." He stood up and patted her on the arm in a friendly gesture. It was one much more casual and comfortable gestures shared among Westerners that she had gotten used to over the months. "Get some sleep."

"I appreciate it, but I have to stay," she replied, smiling despite the rather familiar contact that brought a blush to her cheeks. "Personal reasons."

He nodded again, guessing what she meant.

"Suit yourself..." He headed back towards the coffee machine set up in a nearby lounge, but added over his shoulder, "Remember not to burn yourself out."

It took a while before things settled down again. The scientists worked in shifts, so there was always someone around, but by two o'clock in the morning most were gone. The lab became much quieter, with fewer voices and more humming machinery: spinning centrifuges, spectrometers and fluoroscopes warming up and sequencing or printing results.

Akari remained the same, floating within a telekinetic vortex, her containment tube now clear. A catheter, running from the ceiling into her wrists, pumped an XCOM version of the nutrient paste aliens made for themselves. Without some of the more… offensive ingredients, of course. The intravenous feed would be all she ate or 'drank' until her body finally fell apart, however many weeks from now it took. Without a direct link to the Alien Mind, her days were literally numbered.

Cautiously, Kasumi approached the chamber.

A small table sat directly in front of the chamber, and Kasumi retrieved a small box to place on it, carefully sliding a flat piece of plastic equipment over to the side. Opening it, she took out a small piece of coral, wrapped in a bow. Ryouga had asked her to bring it and to say a prayer, since he was unable to get permission to visit himself.

Placing the memento – Kasumi could guess it had some significance to them both – on the table, she softly clapped her hands together and took a minute to pray. She wasn't strictly Buddhist, like the Hibiki family, but the Unryu's were Shinto like the Tendos so hopefully it would all even out in the grand scheme of things. Akari remained unresponsive, staring forward with empty eyes.

"Ryouga-kun says he's sorry he couldn't come," she felt the need to say, though she knew it was impossible to hear through the material separating them. "And… and that he failed to protect you again."

"Please forgive him," Kasumi prayed, head lowered. "And please, find peace."

Making one last prayer, she bowed deeply to the poor girl and finally left. Eventually, the lights dimmed, as work went on elsewhere. No one watched as Akari floated, a psionic genie trapped in a scientific bottle, her expression twisted by centuries of alien hate.

No one ever saw the decorative coral crack, straight down the middle, and fall to the floor.

_**NO**_

No one heard the thought that crawled within the shadows.

_**NO**__** PEACE**_

* * *

Taking a step back, Cyborg smiled proudly at the works he had wrought.

Where he had started with the single bench he'd been assigned, he now had nearly twenty percent of this particular workshop shanghaied to his personal use. It had taken some serious wheeling and dealing with the other techies, a few quick bargains here and there, and a little begging, but the people here were interested enough in seeing what he was doing to let him go a little crazy.

The large double-whiteboard, filled with his dimensional calculations – both sides now - was still giving him some trouble, but at least the hardware, set up on the bench nearest the board, was starting to shape up. The vaguely circular device was still half formed, with masses of wires and exposed components hanging out, but hardware had always been his specialty.

Important work, that was, but no need to rush on it… not as long as the math was still acting funny. He might need to start straight from the basics and work up again; there must've been something about that dimensional difference that Raven had mentioned that he couldn't figure out yet. Downloading all the relevant research from this planet might help him find out what those differences might be, if he could just get clearance for it all (damn slow-ass bureaucracy) ... but even when it all finally came through, the work was gonna be damn tedious and he had much more interesting things to play with in the meantime.

Looking over to another station, one of the fabrication units, much like Ukyou had used to repair her spatula, was working full tilt. He'd placed a **lot** of orders on that machine and couldn't wait to get to work once all the materials were prepared. Then there was the 'Weapon Station', really just another bench, but covered in weaponry: Ryo's umbrella, a few of his mini missiles, not to mention a few more 'exotic' materials to work with.

His real pride and joy, though, was hidden away in the furthest corner, and cordoned off as well as he could to keep prying eyes away. He'd had to salvage a few of his own key components for that project, not to mention borrowing a few UNETCO schematics to incorporate. It was almost done, though, and he couldn't wait to show it off.

Plenty to do, there was plenty to do! Even with the help and support staff he'd been given. Altogether it didn't leave him much time to train with the others, or even hang out with them that much after hours, but damn, they'd be ready for fun the next time something came up. It seemed like all he had was time, after all, so why the heck not take advantage of it?

Of course, the downside of it all was oversight and the joys of 'appropriations.'

"To start with, I've got a few safety concerns with respect to the changes you're making to Squaddie Jinx's personal armor..."

The speaker was Seiran's Senior Fabrication Technician, one Hans Fischbach, a large man, a few inches over six feet tall with bronze-brown hair, hailing from the former 'West' Germany. He was a NATO transfer, in other words, just like most of UNETCO's core staff. Like most XCOM engineers, he wore a functional green and brown uniform outside the workshop and either white Tyvek coveralls or a hazmat suit when inside the fab. Cyborg himself had been fitted with hazmat-equivalent gear for when he got to work. It was all very stuffy, but the organization had a dim view of plain old hands-on tinkering.

"The biggest issue is the lack of safeties on the installed artificial muscle fibers. Before I approve that for inclusion into the armor, I'd like one of the medical docs to sign off on it. I know you kids have super toughness and all that, but if the system mis-reads an impulse, she could be seriously injured. After that, let's have no less than three hours of preliminary tests at twenty and then fifty percent output. We can re-evaluate based on those results."

"Naturally," he quickly amended. "We'll want a doctor on hand for the testing, too. Nothing hits the field that hasn't been properly checked and double checked for safety. That includes the failure and emergency release and the twitch response normalizer. Just prep the system and get back to me with some hours you and Squaddie Jinx can put aside for this and I'll arrange the rest."

Cyborg waved off the overly tutelary concerns. "Yeah, yeah. You'll get your checks. I wanna get this limiter nonsense stuff taken care of, quick as possible. Heck, I know it works already since it's based on my actuators. Just gotta tweak it for flesh and blood. Seriously, gettin' my tech to work on her frame isn't that hard."

He then gestured around the rest of the lab. "Anyway, that's just a matter of scheduling, so it shouldn't be a problem. I don't think there should be any issues for the rest of our armor systems."

"Alright. There's also the experimental e-armor transplant," Chief Fischbach noted, reading off of the digital tablet in his right hand. "The issue was with the power source, since the umbrella only has a single power source that can't be removed. Where was that?"

"Ah, that's it there," he observed, tapping with the index finger of his left hand. "You're really putting together some energy intensive equipment, and there have been some concerns about power supply and weight, especially with how over-engineered some of this is looking."

"The more complex you make something the greater the chance of failure." It was a common point of disagreement Cyborg had with the local engineers, especially when he talked about making any 'transforming' tech. "Specifically an issue was brought up earlier with the power pack we're swapping in. Running a microwave on a D battery and all that. I'd prefer it if we kept the e-armor's power drain to one dedicated, modular system, instead of try and hybridize. One of the HardTac anchor points would be best: I'd suggest small of the back or thigh mount. It's a known chem hazard, so it'd be best if we could make it detachable or ejectable in case of fire or structural failure."

"Aside from that," the Chief Tech concluded. "I'm ready to green light the rest of this. I'll just need copies of everything made in triplicate so we can test it under controlled conditions. Since this is a bit of a rush job, I'll put Surrey, Wong, Baharloo and Laskowski on replication shifts after you finish the prototypes. We should aim to start stress and plasma testing by 0900 hours day after tomorrow. Sound fine?"

Cyborg nodded absently, paying more attention to the screen before him, and the designs on it. He'd already considered all of the battery issues, after all. His initial design had been a rather all-out go-for-broke affair, but the limitation of battery technology in this world had already made him reconsider full integration. It was just another small problem he faced in trying to adapt his world's technology to the systems here.

"Yeah, that's not a problem," he groused. "But I gotta say, the fact that your batteries are so volatile has me a bit worried, so I'm with you on building in some safeties."

"Until the techs find a way to replicate this 'promethium' of yours, these are the best non-elerium tech we've got. Regardless, we have to assume anything we put in the field will get shot up sooner or later, so best to be prepared for it. With that out of the way, how're things going with the big show over there?" he asked, clipping the tablet to a loop on his belt and turning his head to look over the d-portal and associated construction.

Finally, Cyborg's interest was piqued again. This was a topic nearer and dearer to his mechanical heart, and the last few days had seriously strained his patience for endless testing and retesting and technical review-by-committee.

Looking up, he grinned as he regarded his portal.

"You mean my baby? She's comin' along. I still got some work to do there; all of the jury rigging I gotta do to work around missing elements and compounds is taking longer than I would have expected."

Holding out his arm, he allowed Hans to see what he was talking about, via the schematic displayed. "You see, this bit here..."

* * *

Professor Jalila al-Rifai wandered down the hallway, all but aimless in her meanderings. There was no destination in her mind, only problems, conundrums and enigmas. She found that sometimes sitting in front of a computer screen just didn't suffice; sometimes she just needed to get up and start walking to get her mind into motion as well.

Honestly, she was frustrated, and growing moreso by the moment. Here she was, a well known quantum physicist, a noted expert in her field, even, and yet the problems she'd been presented with over the past few days had all but stonewalled her. And to think that she had been excited to be assigned to the vaunted 'Extra Dimensional Craft' that had been found at the last Terror site. The chance to study something new, something revolutionary and unique? It had been like a dream come true!

Especially for a relative new comer to the organization.

At least it had, until the higher ups had started breathing down their necks, constantly demanding results. This was something that had never been encountered before, a device that existed only on the very fringes of their theoretical sciences. Did they expect them to just reverse engineer the thing in a day? Just the concept of dimensional travel itself was a theoretical nightmare; the mathematics alone were staggering. Even with what they knew of alien FTL and coordinating with other labs in the States and Russia, it could take _years_ to devise the theorems that would allow them to predict and understand this machine they'd captured. It was monstrously daunting.

She secretly wondered if any of the other researchers felt as overwhelmed as she did. The organization had a proven track record in quickly and efficiently reverse engineering alien tech, and confidence was high… or seemed to be. Difficulties would be overcome. Humanity would add another jewel to its technological crown, stolen from the enemy. It was amazing the level of accumulated talent and resources they had at their disposal, but it was kind of intimidating, too. What if they couldn't meet the deadlines?

Jalila sighed softly. Perhaps she should return to the lab. It wasn't like walking around the facility would actually help her find inspiration. More likely than that, she'd just get completely and embarrassingly lost. Looking around, she guessed that was already too late.

_'Great. I'm already completely lost...'_

As she wandered past one of the workshops, trying to get her bearings, she was distracted by one of the engineers cutting in front of her without so much as a 'how do you do.' A bit annoyed, she glanced after him, preparing to think of a sharp barb that she could imagine using on the rude person ... but as she stared through the door after the engineer, she noticed a large whiteboard beyond them, utterly covered from top to bottom in mathematical formulae.

Her curiosity caused her to pause long enough to notice that there were some oddly familiar symbols and equations on that board... concepts that had no place being in a room that dealt with practical applications. Moving tentatively, she stepped into the workshop and all but shuffled her way over to stand in front of the wide whiteboard. She muttered silently to herself as she ran her fingers along the equations, hovering just an inch over the black numbers and letters. There was no mistaking it. These were…!

"Um, hey, how's it goin?"

The physicist started sharply at the unexpected voice and gasped aloud when she saw just who - _what_ - it was that had spoken to her. The mammoth figure of the cybernetic male nearly blotted out the light over Jalila, but she did her best to hold her composure. She'd heard about this person. Yes, that was right: she remembered getting the memo that there was a new squad, Yankee, or something or other, that was composed of unusual members, but she'd never actually had the opportunity to meet any of them. Reading something was very much different than living it or bumping into it first hand.

"Ah ... h-h-hello?" she chirped nervously.

"Heh, nice to meet ya. The name's Cyborg." In a very Western gesture, the large African American man held out his hand, obviously offering it to be shaken. Not quite trusting enough to place her hand in what looked to be a mechanical vice, she instead nodded somewhat meekly. A moment later, though, she did a double take.

"Wait a moment. Your _name_ is Cyborg? But you _are_ a cyborg," she stated quite seriously. "Isn't that either a grand coincidence, or tremendously redundant?"

She worried that she might have offended with her frank question, but rather than glare, the large... young man, really, just burst into raucous laugher.

"Ah, yeah, that's a bit of a long story. But yeah, I'm pretty much what it says on tin. Better question, though, is who are you?" he asked. "You don't look like one of the grease monkeys that usually hang out in here."

A bit of a smile crossed her lips at that. "How rude of me. My name is Jalila al-Rifai ..."

Oddly enough, though she was standing before a living, breathing (was he breathing?) full-body cyborg, she couldn't help but feel her eyes drawn back to the board beside her. While bionics and reconstructs in general were fascinating, they were not the field which she'd devoted her life too, and given a choice between the two, she had little doubt in which path to follow.

"Tell me ... Mr. Cyborg. You wouldn't happen to know whose work this is, would you? I'm something of a theorist, myself, and this is simply fascinating research."

A broad grin spread over the boy's face as he gazed down at her.

"Fascinating, eh? Well, that there is _my_ work. Just some theoretical musings I'm putting together." He gestured behind him with a thumb, pointing to a half built ring standing as tall as the cyborg himself. "I'm kinda working on a dimensional portal here, y'see?"

Jalila's brown eyes widened slightly in shock. She then shook her head quickly. "Ha ha, very funny, young man. That's a nice model of a Stargate you've got there, but I'd really like to know who wrote these theorems. Was it one of the engineers?"

"Hey now, lady," Cyborg replied, hackles obviously rising. "I'm tellin' ya, that's my work. Hell, I invented some of the shorthand myself, just to make it work."

"Be serious," Jalila fired back. "How could _you_ have possibly done this? You're just a young man." Suddenly, she recalled another little tidbit of what she'd heard around the base. "Wait a moment ... aren't you the one that was brought in by the police? The one that nearly hijacked a satellite network using a few radios or Xboxes or such?"

Again, the cybernetic teen puffed up. "Guilty as charged. Literally, actually, I was charged and found guilty in no time flat. It's a good thing you guys came and got me, or I'd probably be rusting in jail by now."

The quantum physicist didn't even have the presence of mind to laugh. The more she studied his work, the more things started to make sense. She was half tempted to just straight up ask him to come right down and help her on the EDC. However, given that there were equations added to the whiteboard in a different blue colored marker… equations taken from their own theoretical research, it was clear someone was covertly feeding this young man bits and pieces of their work. Was it the other EDC research team?

"I'm a bit curious," she began, and pointed at one of the equivalency calculations they had yet to prove. It currently had a large question mark near it. "Is that your work, as well?"

"That?" Cyborg saw the equation she was referring to and shook his head. "No, that's something native to this… I mean, that's something I'm using as a reference."

"And this?" she pointed to another equation, in the same color.

"That, too. A lot of stuff I thought would work here, well... it isn't being very cooperative. The, um, 'dimensional walls' I guess you could call them, they're really weird here, and your space is completely bereft of the usual cosmic markers. This dimension is a lot stranger than it looks on the surface."

Professor al-Rifai saw some of her work on the whiteboard, too. One of her equations had been paired up with one of this boy's, as he struggled with the same problem that had been plaguing her research group: the damned dimensional bridge. The EDC had a way of invalidating the quantum discontinuity between worlds. The FTL they had studied from the aliens had a dimensional component, but it was like the difference between wrinkling the sheets and ripping a hole in them.

He seemed to notice her interest.

"See something you like?" he asked with a grin.

In fact, there were a few things.

Yes, someone had managed to involve this strange young man in their research in a roundabout way, but it would have been much better to have him there in person where they could involve him directly. Working on or with the EDC itself. The group copying the EDC was already making a good deal of progress, but no one wanted an experimental probe launch before they could figure out just how the damn thing worked. Just because the aliens could do it didn't mean Command had to mimic the feat before they were ready.

It was so tempting to just bring this curious prodigy to their lab or the hangar. He seemed to be making some unusual assumptions, but he had some very interesting ideas. It was astounding to think all the black print on the board was this one young man's work! On the other hand, being charged with treason and shot didn't sit too well with her either, so she quashed that urge quite easily.

Still, she needed to find a way to get this young man more closely integrated into their research group. She also needed to find out who was feeding him information, and on whose orders. Yasuda, probably. There was no way security would just let someone do this without their knowing. But who was actually coming down here and helping this young man bridge his world's math and theirs? One of the project heads would know.

The question also arose, regarding why he wasn't just being ordered to switch to an R&D track? There were hundreds of skilled men and women that could be sent to the front lines, but less than a dozen in the world who could contribute to this field of research. Commander Yasuda had to know that. Was it possible she was trying to wean this young man into the field where he could do the most good? Why bother? What could be more important? Wouldn't it just be easier to order him off his team and divert him to EDC research where he belonged? Maybe there were other security issues or something else complicating matters?

Turning away quickly, she offered a frantic wave as she began to move to the door.

"I'm terribly sorry to be so rude, but I _really_ need to go. I think I've just had a breakthrough with my research. Don't be surprised if you see me again, Mr. Cyborg."

"You can just call me Cyborg!" he called after her as she sped through the door.

Her smile widened again. This 'Cyborg' seemed like a nice fellow.

Nice, and _useful_ as well.

* * *

In space, no one could hear you scream.

On the Moon, though, everyone heard Ukyou squeal in delight as she entered the quarantine room. It was no grand hotel that was for sure: all twelve members of India, Juliet and Delta squad were confined to a single compartment, virtually empty save for stacked bunks along the walls. The source of the okonomiyaki's chef's excitement lay in her hands. Somehow, despite a decided lack of cooperation on the part of her commanding officers, she had acquired a digital camera.

This was their second trip to Luna and Horizon(AE14), unexpected though it was, and Ukyou persisted in her opinion that it was exciting, and "awesome," and worth recording. It didn't seem like any of them were about to die and they'd been given a preliminary clean bill of health, so why not?

Immediately, she took a picture of the six men and women playing poker, a view of the lunar surface behind them. The room had three pre-set transparencies in the exotic alloy surface, like metallic windows, which the chef quickly reconfigured to meld into a single large panoramic view. The Earth wasn't visible from their angle and current location, but beyond the ridge of the crater the base was set in, one could see the vast expanse of stars, untouched by the Earth's background electromagnetic pollution.

It was just unfortunate everyone was acting so damn mundane.

Mousse was reading a book; Shampoo was as usual catching a cat nap after some light exercise; three of the Delta squad rookies – and it was odd to think of older special forces recruits as 'rookies' – were playing cards with Konatsu, Ryu and Kuno, only paying passing attention to the landscape outside. After a few hours, they'd apparently grown tired of it. The fourth member of Delta, Sergeant Kinoshida (Shampoo's old mentor), was busy working out in an unoccupied corner of the room.

As if two or three days of low gravity would have any lasting effect!

It was just a shame they couldn't go out for a moonwalk or even see more of the facility. A picture of the Earth from the Moon would be ideal, but not really possible given their positioning on the base. Everyone expected they'd be Earthside again within a day or three, and the organization wasn't really into giving tours of their top secret facilities, whether one was a bigwig politician or a trusted space marine. Ukyou giggled at the thought.

"Oh gods, she's got a camera!"

"Ranchan!" They were technically off duty, which meant she didn't have to play good little soldier unless she wanted to. Seeing him and the lost boy enter, she snapped a quick picture of the two. It looked like they had the final medical papers, too.

"Where did you get that?" Ranma asked, sighing as she took another picture.

"Did you smuggle that aboard?" Ryouga asked, playing the part of hardass as usual.

"Actually _I didn__'__t_," she replied, giving the lost boy a mock angry look and sticking her tongue out at him to boot. "And just for that, I'm not telling you how I got it either! You can just sit and stew over it!"

"Taking tourist pictures at the top secret moonbase," Ranma said with a groan. "I can tell this will get me in trouble somewhere along the line."

"Not much of a secret if you ask me," Ukyou giggled spun around to take another picture of Shampoo. "And you'll thank me for these pictures later, trust me!"

"So what's the news, lieutenants?" One of the Delta squad rookies, a young man fresh out of secondment from US Army Rangers, asked as the poker group all turned to hopefully hear the good news.

"We're clean and good to go," Ranma spoke up for them, waving a few papers in the air. "Just like you all guessed by now. We'll be getting our kit back, too."

"We leave late tomorrow, so don't get too comfortable," Ryouga added, crossing his arms. "And, Ukyou, if they do let you keep those pictures, I expect you won't be showing them around?"

"You bet I'll show them off… the day after we raze Cydonia to the ground." She all but floated over to the window section of the wall. "I just can't believe you guys don't want to even try and do anything while we're up here."

Ryu raised a finger as if to speak.

"Not that!" she snapped, pointing at him. "And not _one word_ about the quarter million mile high club, you jackass! It was funny that _one time_ and that's it!"

"I was going to say, how about I take your picture, Miss Kuonji?" Ryu said slowly; obviously thinking up something new to say at the last second.

"That would be very nice of you, Mister Kumon."

"I do kind of wonder," Mousse spoke up, trying to sound innocent. "You think anyone's actually done that up here?"

A long silent fell over the group.

"Probably," Shampoo answered, stretched shamelessly in her undershirt and shorts, and curled up to go back to sleep.

"Some things never change. You guys are still kind of strange," Delta Squad's lone female and NCO smartly observed.

"Indeed," Konatsu gently coughed into his hand. "Flush - I believe I win, gentlemen."

"You know, we should probably be ki training," Ryouga suggested, glancing over at his fellow officer. "This is a good opportunity to test low gravity battle aura techniques."

"That's a good point," Ranma admitted. "But we have a little time. Hey, Konatsu, since Ryu is on damage control, deal me in!"

Watching Ranma rush over to get into the poker game, the lost one sighed.

Hopefully their Yankee Squad counterparts were doing something _productive_.

* * *

It was, in every respect, a creepy old farmstead.

Ryouga didn't particularly like the feel of the nightvision equipment strapped to his combat helmet, and he couldn't help but envy Starfire's superior natural lowlight vision. They'd been brought along for a mission, following up on a shot down UFO, but it was turning out to be a diametric opposite of how the terror site had gone before.

Instead of a city, there was just farmland. Lots and lots of farmland. Wading through a smelly, swamp-like rice paddy somewhere in the rump end of South Korea wasn't exactly what he'd expected when alarms had gone off at Seiran and Yankee had been brought up with the muster. Mountains sat, dark and almost formless on the horizon, and a carpet of lightless night stretched as far as one could see.

It wasn't just one rice paddy either. It was rows and rows and **rows** of them.

It was dark, muggy, and frankly, shitty. As in freshly fertilized. The Skyranger had landed a short distance from the UFO crash and two squads had been dispatched to take the ship. Another was working with Yankee to clear the surrounding farmland. The ground here was flat and open, so the team kept low and advanced on foot to try and not be the one unlucky unit that got sniped by a heavy plasma out of the middle of nowhere.

"Got something faint. About a hundred meters north-northwest," Nabiki, remembering who she was talking to, quickly clarified for the directionless, "That's your right, lost boy."

Ignoring the gibe, he tapped his comm.

"Star. Jinx."

"On it," came the whispered reply from the latter. The two girls were the advance units of Yankee for the time being, while he and Cyborg hung back. Looking up, Ryouga saw the Moon high and mostly shadowed in the sky, a meager crescent providing only a sliver of reflected light to those down below.

Oh, to be back at Jump City… or even Tokyo…

It wasn't like he was a stranger to being outdoors, because he'd spent much of his life wandering around the countryside, but how much better would it be to have an enemy you could see and take down and not play hide and seek with. It was entirely likely they wouldn't see any action clearing the part of the battlefield they were, and he wasn't sure whether that would be a relief or not. He certainly didn't want to have to risk anyone's life out here, but it was… or would be kind of galling if Yankeee ended up the only team to not do anything in the way of beating their enemies after all this trouble.

Maybe Jinx and Star would find another dead ox or something.

"Contact," Jinx's voice was just a whisper. "It's in the third field north of our position. Looks like its prone but Star can see it."

It took a second to realize Jinx was actually asking, waiting, for permission to attack.

"Take it out," he ordered, and signaled to Cyborg to move in double time. Still, they had to be careful. There was no telling where the alien had its focus.

A few scattered flashes of light up ahead of them broke the cover of the night, followed by an undulating wail, thoroughly inhuman, halfway between a child's scream and a tortured dog's yowl. Just hearing it conjured up the sight of something fundamentally wrong.

"Got it," was the only other confirmation. "Target down."

"Marking the spot on our map," Nabiki supplied. "Cleanup crews will handle the corpses."

"There's a large shed up ahead," he observed. It was, like everything, completely dark but big enough that the outline was clear even in the absence of much more than faint moonlight. "We need to clear it?"

"Yep," Nabiki sounded almost chipper. "I'm not picking up anything inside, but the enemy could be laying low."

Sighing, Ryouga followed Cyborg forward, across another dank rice paddy. Star and Jinx could recon the roof and the side of the building while he and Cyborg investigated the front. It was more slow work, and not the sort of thing he – or the Titans – were perfectly suited for. He didn't need to ask to know that Cyborg probably felt like he'd waded through a sewer and Star and Jinx would need a lot of time in the shower to get clean again. He could guess that they all wanted to get this stinking mission over with as soon as possible, but literally had to go at a comparable snail's pace for safety.

Searching the supply shed, Ryouga could see piles of seeds along the walls… a tractor sitting next to another vehicle, covered by a tarp, and what looked like a mechanical sprayer. Other tools and machinery were hidden beneath more weather-proof tarps. It would have been easy to get lost in here if he were alone. There also the possibility of running into a rigged alien grenade, even if there was no alien around. The idea of vanishing in a plume of radioactive fire was not very appealing.

"Anything?" he asked Cyborg, taking a moment to investigate an empty transport trailer.

"Nothin' man," Cyborg replied, the tension obvious in his voice. "This place is empty."

"Let's keep going."

The order left a somewhat bitter taste in his mouth.

After what must've been another five or six minutes, they left the shed and moved down the road towards the silos and the UFO crash. It was hard to try and keep cautious after finding nothing, and Ryouga felt his own tension increase a notch. Despite the night and the time of the year, they were all hot and sticky and filthy and looking for a fight.

They found one when Cyborg saw a grenade arc across the night sky.

The explosion burned a messy scar in the paved road, sending melted shrapnel in every direction. The response to the attack was immediate, though uncoordinated. Green starbolts and a sonic beam tore apart the ground near one of the small silos. Ryouga strained to see the little grey monster that had hidden there, probably under the silo – since it was raised slightly off the ground to deter pests and flooding. Another green blast missed Cyborg as he crouched low, and more destruction rained down on the alien's position.

Rushing ahead, Ryouga saw it moving in the darkness, barely more than a small, bulbous shadow. Closing in fast, he let loose a bandanna, and together with a starbolt, he saw the projectiles close in on the alien. It spun around abruptly, to try and get another shot in, before disappearing in a blast of green. Ryouga shielded his face as he kept running forward, ready to finish the job if need be.

He found the Sectoid cut nearly in half.

Whether it had been his bandanna or Starfire's plasma or what, he couldn't tell. Its side was torn open, but it was still moving, writhing like a fish out of water. Soulless black eyes, wide and long, stared at him as the arm and left leg spasmed. The plasma rifle had thankfully been knocked out of its hands, and lay safely out of reach. It was dying… it had to be dying… with injuries like that.

Ryouga balled his fists; in a situation like this… it had to be put out of its misery, right?

Before he knew it, Cyborg was there, and Starfire and Jinx were slowing as they ran up, too. Ryouga saw them, then turned back to the alien to do… whatever had to be done. But it was already over. The Sectoid was motionless.

"Alien is down," he reported in. It was Yankee's second kill of the night.

They didn't get another.

Finishing their assigned route, they ended up at the UFO. It was a mess; the side had been gouged clean through when it was shot down, probably by one of the ship mounted plasma cannons he'd read about. The crash itself had torn up two fields of rice, digging a trench longer and wider than a half dozen Olympic swimming pools. How _any_ of the aliens had survived the crash was beyond him.

The other teams were present, too. He could see Hotel in their powered armor; they were the most obvious ones. It was harder to tell what the other squad with them was. The one out by the Skyranger was probably Echo. He took a second and checked his motion scanner again, not to just display IFF but to read it. Every team, including Yankee, had transceivers to help prevent friendly fire and the like.

Golf.

Akane's squad.

There was no time for a chat, though. Yankee was directed to cover an area nearby until all the squads confirmed the area was clear of hostiles prior to extraction. After a half hour, lights came down the road and in from the sky: the clean up crew. They'd pack up the alien corpses and artifacts, and deal with salvage of the UFO itself. It certainly didn't look like it would fly any time soon.

Finally, they all filed back into the man made UFO – a "Lightning" class ship – that they'd arrived in. Raven was there, too, making use of her training to provide psionic attacks and defense at a distance. This was her first real go at it in the field, but they hadn't been psionically attacked, so in effect she hadn't had much to do beyond practicing to help coordinate them. He never felt the ship itself actually take off, but the pilot provided an ETA to their return to Seiran, so it was safe to guess by that point that they were airborne.

Inside, Captain Banks finished reviewing the mission.

Yankee, along with the other squads, had fulfilled their objectives… for what it was worth. About ten seconds of actual fighting and two hours of walking through mud and standing around. They'd killed two aliens, but in the debrief, that hardly seemed to matter. They'd finished their patrol and secured the area. Whether that meant killing a dozen aliens or none didn't seem to really matter much.

It was… surprisingly emotionally draining. Maybe because it was less fulfilling than decisively beating an obvious enemy in a straight fight, and then seeing them off to take their rewards at the hands of the criminal justice system. This kind of fighting was… was almost impersonal. It didn't even really feel like they'd won, though they obviously had. They'd just live to see another day. It was complicated, and he wasn't sure if he should celebrate or simply want to lie down and give in to the unusual malaise. Would all their missions be like this?

Would they get used to it after long enough? Should they get used to it at all?

The fact that he even considered that, considered just giving in and accepting the way of this world, actually sent a cold shiver up the Lost Boy's spine. Was he even considering staying here long enough to 'get used' to anything? Was he considering remaining here and becoming little more than a living weapon, resigning himself, and the Titans to a life of nothing more than fighting and killing?

Though he hated to admit it, he felt the need to do well in this organization ... and that worried him more than a little. Did he really want to be pulled into the politics and secrecy here? Was getting to play 'leader' worth it? Looking around, his stare rolled over his companions, first Starfire, then Cyborg and finally Raven and Jinx ... Every one of them looked more haggard than he had ever seen them. Even though each of them had gone through battle far more intense, faced threats far more dangerous ... he had never seen them look so tired before.

This wasn't what the Titans did. They weren't executioners and they weren't soldiers, not really... and he could see it grinding down on them, even Jinx. His eyes lingered on the slender girl, watched sadly as she whispered something quietly to Raven beside her.

He knew that he needed to tell her about_ 'that'_ soon. He'd left it far too long already, foolishly allowing the old indecisiveness to prolong a pain that would only grow with time. No one would like what he had to tell them, but he knew that it would hit her hardest of all. Telling her would be so hard ... but it would be the right thing to do.

Sadly, that seemed to be the story of his life lately.

* * *

Ryouga breathed a small sigh of relief as they finally disembarked the craft. Even the stark grey of the cavernous hangar was a welcome sight after the night they'd had. Obviously the rest of his friends agreed as they all but stampeded past him, leaving the rest of the teams in their dust as they sped across the hangar to the exit. Doubtless they were en route to demolish the showers before anyone else had a chance to get to them.

He supposed at the least he could give them that much. Still, he called out loudly before they could escape the room completely.

"Yankee squad, hold up a second!"

The four heroes ceased their egress and turned to look at him, expressions ranging from curiosity to impatience covering their faces. He did his best to soften his own expression, but found it harder than he'd expected.

"Everyone," he said, raising his voice to make sure they paid attention. "Meet me in conference room four when you're done cleaning up. There's ... something important we need to talk about."

His friends stared at him oddly for a moment, but quickly offered up a few various nods and statements of agreement before going back on their way.

Not really feeling the energy to run, himself, Ryouga dragged his feet a bit more, tracking mud all over the hangar floor as he made his way into decontamination and then the base proper. The other teams soon passed him by as they made their own ways out of the hangar, most not paying him any mind at all, though a very few at least giving him odd looks. Akane, notably, looked like she wanted to say something, but there must have been something about his expression that made her change her mind and join the rest of her team.

Mandatory decon aside, he was glad that he didn't feel the need to get cleaned up like the others - being far more used to slogging through the mud - so the fact that he had just effectively resigned himself to wandering through the corridors aimlessly for the next twenty minutes or so didn't bother him, since he didn't actually have a single clue on how to find conference room number four on his own.

Ryouga knew he probably should have called for Shirokuro. There was no reason not to, since her true master wasn't even around to require her help ... but he just didn't want to bother the poor canine so late at night. And so he wandered. He lost track of the time just as he lost himself in thought. Old conversations replayed in his mind, most notably his chats with Lieutenant Faretti. Being a good leader was harder than he'd expected, and he was still struggling with separating his feelings for his friends from his duty as their commanding officer. Honestly, he didn't see any way that this coming conversation could end well...

Eventually, though, after going over roughly the dozenth possible scenario in his head, he looked up, somewhat startled to see that he was - however improbably - standing outside the designated meeting room. Eyes widening, he marveled at how quickly he'd managed to find his way there on his own. Not quite a smile worthy achievement, he very nearly mustered a weary grin as he opened the door and entered the conference room.

He was greeted by the sight of all four Titans awaiting him - if by 'awaiting' he meant 'resting their heads on the table and sleeping soundly to a man'. They all looked so peaceful to him, the three girls had even changed into comfortable looking pajamas – wherever they'd gotten _those_ from. He felt terrible for the fact that he needed to wake them up; they certainly deserved the rest after what they'd been through, pretty much since the minute of their arrival on this planet.

As an afterthought, he checked the clock on the wall. It had been an hour since they'd returned? Still, pretty darn good for him, but not fair at all to leave them waiting like that. Clearing his throat loudly, he cringed as the gathered teens all shot up in their seats, half formed combat stances and ominous flares of power coming into being. Holding his hands up quickly in a warding gesture, he took a few steps back as the bleary eyed girl's - and guy - glared at him darkly for a moment before taking their seats again.

"Ryo, dude, did you not get a guide to find this place?"

"Indeed. We were waiting on you for a most frustrating amount of time."

Raven and Jinx simply settled on trying to combust him with their glares alone, crossing their arms over their chests.

"I know, I know, I shouldn't have left you waiting like that. I'm sorry." Moving forward, he took a seat at the table, sitting across from all three girls and beside Cyborg. "Still, this is important. There's something I need to tell you ... something that I should have told you already."

Instantly, the dark looks vanished, replaced by curious, worried and sympathetic gazes.

"What is it, Ryouga?" Raven asked in a neutral tone.

Not really sure how to begin, he defaulted back to something relatively innocuous. "Do you all remember that email that went around a bit ago? The one about the elevator and such being off limits?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Jinx asked, waving a hand dismissively.

The martial artist sighed weakly. "Well, it was done for a reason. It was done in regards to a captured enemy referred to as 'White Iron'."

Cyborg snorted loudly. "White Iron? I wouldn't make a paper weight out of that junk. Why didn't they just call it operation 'Pig Iron'?"

Looks of concern bloomed on all of the Titan's faces as Ryouga visibly winced at the offhand comment. It surprised even himself just how much that stung.

Leaning forward, Starfire eyed him carefully. "Ryouga ... just who was this 'captured enemy'? I do not recall any captives taken in the last several days, especially none that would require such security measures."

The look of worry on Raven's face only deepened as it seemed she was beginning to grasp the situation. "And if it were just _any_ enemy combatant why would you be this reluctant to tell us about it?"

Ryouga dropped his head into his hands, slumping forward. "Sometimes I wish that you people weren't so quick. Back in Nerima it would usually take a full blown presentation, or a fight, just to nail the point home. Unfortunately, you're on the right track already."

He looked at each Titan in turn, before settling his gaze on Jinx. The girl began to squirm somewhat uncomfortably under his scrutiny.

"The enemy combatant? This 'White Iron'?" he finally just came out and said it. "...I don't know how to soften this blow any. It's Akari."

"**What?**" Jinx's explosion wasn't the only one, though it was the loudest.

Quickly, Ryouga leaned forward and grasped her hands in his own. Tearing her hands from his, she shot to her feet before slamming her palms back to the tabletop. A flash of pink flared out and large cracks formed in the metallic surface of the table, though it didn't actually fall apart.

"What the hell, Ryouga? Why the hell is Akari being held as an 'enemy combatant'? And why the hell didn't anyone tell us this until now?"

"Jinx, please calm down," Raven stated calmly. The violet haired Titan also rose to her feet, dropping a comforting hand on Jinx's shoulders. It looked like the sorceress was about to shrug the hand off ... but then resigned herself to it and sat back down.

Shooting Raven a thankful glance, Ryouga turned his attention back to Jinx.

"Jinx ... I won't sugar coat this for you like they tried to do for me. Akari's operation succeeded, so much in that it saved her life, but it failed catastrophically at the same time. Since the operation was done outside of the base Shield ... Akari reconnected to the 'Mind'. That's the only thing that saved her life, but at the same time ... she's no longer the Akari that you knew ... she's one of _them_ again."

Starfire let out a gasp, clapping her hand over her mouth in mortification at the news.

Beside him, Cyborg sighed sadly. "We... we knew that it was a long shot; one in a million, but... I was still hoping..."

Raven nodded. "All we were doing was giving Akari a chance, however slim. It's painful to think that it didn't succeed, but at least we made the attempt ... right?"

Ryouga shook his head. "If that were all, I'd say yes, but that's not the worst of it."

"Not the _worst_ of it?" Jinx barked incredulous that there could be _more_. "You just told us that we completely screwed up and that Akari is back to being one of those soulless alien monsters. What could possibly be worse... than...?"

She suddenly trailed off as understanding dawned on her. "They're holding Akari here ... labeled as an enemy. That means they haven't put her down. That means they want her alive, and they'd only want her alive if she had something they wanted." Looking up, Jinx leveled a molten glare his way. "Where is she being held? Is she in the prison section, with all the other aliens?"

Ryouga could only shake his head.

"Then ..." Starfire intervened. "She is in the medical ward, is she not? Akari is a unique specimen, one of the beings they refer to as a 'Trenchard', one created using the material of an Ethereal, making her that much more valuable."

Cyborg's eyes widened in realization. "And they already know everything they need to know about psionics, so there's only one reason they'd be keeping her there. They aren't studying how to cure her, are they? They're-"

"Experimenting on how to _kill_ her," Raven stated with a tone of finality. "And those like her."

Though it hurt, Ryouga eventually nodded. "They may not have said as much, but it was easy to infer. Hell, from the sounds of it, some of the medical staff were actually _hoping_ for this outcome. They haven't even _considered_ trying to cure her. Just like Ryouga and the others, they've already given up on her, not even caring to give her even a slim chance. To them, she's just another resource to be exploited. I - I -"

He shook his head harshly.

"No - no. I shouldn't talk about them like that," he caught himself. "We all know that they're just doing what they think is right ... even if to them, the ends justify the means, no matter how harsh. It hurts like hell to know ... but there isn't anything we can do about it. They aren't even going to let us near her, despite all we've done for her, and them. We... Are - are you alright, Jinx?"

The slender girl was trembling visibly, her breathing shallow. Ryouga feared an explosion of some sort was soon to come, be it physical or emotional...

And then Jinx just... calmed down. An instant later, she waved a hand dismissively. "Well ... ya win some, ya lose some, I guess. It's not like she was the real deal, anyway, just some alien xerox copy. If they want to cut her to pieces to find out what makes her tick, then what's the big deal?"

Starfire's shocked gasp was not the only one, but it was the loudest. "J-Jinx? You ... you cannot possibly mean that, can you?"

Rising to her feet, Jinx hopped over the table and began to walk to the door. "Why not? I'm just the heartless villain, aren't I? Why should I care what happens to anyone else?"

Reaching out, Ryouga muttered a weak "...Jinx?"

But the girl was already gone out the door.

The martial artist stood up, preparing to go after him, when -

"She ... doesn't mean it. She's just hiding her true feelings." Everyone turned to Raven, who was currently studying the cracked tabletop before her. "She _has_ changed ... more _and_ less than I thought. This is hurting her more than I can say ... but she would rather die than show it."

Ryouga sighed. "Well, as long as she's dealing with it, that's good. I'll talk to her about it again in the morning."

Cyborg nodded. "We did our best and she knows it. It might hurt to lose this one, but hopefully that won't make her lose faith in what we stand for."

"I ... I trust that Jinx will not fail herself, or our faith in her," Starfire added optimistically.

"Only time will tell," Raven stated, "But I ... trust her too."

Nodding, Ryouga sent one last glance towards the door.

"Alright, that's enough for tonight. We'll talk about this more tomorrow, all of us. For now, though, everyone get some sleep."

After the conversation they'd just had. Everyone present was far too eager to agree.

* * *

It was late, very late.

Kasumi was getting used to 'burning the midnight oil' as some called it. It might not have been her preferred schedule, but avoiding the less pleasant members of the new medical research team was more than worthwhile. Avoiding certain other people was also an added bonus, as the weight of what she was involved in with Akari still settled heavily on her spirit. The things that she had seen done to ... she reminded herself that it was not Akari. Maybe it had been something close to her once, but definitely not anymore. Like Cologne. Like Doctor Tofu. She had been perverted by the enemy.

Lost to the enemy.

All Kasumi wanted now was a good night's sleep, though she knew she was unlikely to get even that. She arrived at her personal quarters a few minutes later and slid her card through the reader. The door slid open silently and she shuffled through, feeling every minute of the day on her shoulders at that moment.

She didn't even bother turning on the light, just made her way to her bed and began to disrobe before she went to sleep. Turning around, she started undoing her shirt, the dim glow of her alarm clock giving barely enough light to see the darkened interior of her small, spartan room. Her bed, her desk, her computer, the… the twin points of hellish pink light burning at the far side of the room?

"What -"

She didn't even have time to finish her concerned inquiry before the small spheres of light suddenly surged forward. In a flash of motion, Kasumi felt a pair of small hands clamp onto her shoulders and slam her back down onto her bed. Her first instinct was to use her training to break free of the hold, but the second she so much as twitched, her assailant's grip shifted and pain suddenly lanced through her shoulders, paralyzing her in place. At that instant, realizing that she was helpless, fear pulsed through the Tendo sister's mind and she desperately looked up to see the face of her attacker.

It didn't take a genius to guess who was behind this.

_Jinx_. Incomprehension froze her just as surely as the submission hold the girl had on her. The young woman's eyes were still glowing ominously, and her face was almost feral, like a shark staring at its next meal. _This_ was one of the girls that young Ryouga-kun liked?

"Is it true?"

Kasumi stared, wide eyed, barely even understanding the snarled question. Jinx leaned forward, their noses less than an inch apart; Kasumi could feel the heat of her breath against her cheek as she breathed out raggedly.

"Is. It. True?" she repeated.

This was… well, it was completely improper.

It was a shock, too, and rather troubling and aggravating. But it was well and truly **not** how people treated one another. Kasumi took a steady breath, reigning in either the impulse to become ether fearful or angry. Those were not emotional states she knew she should be in.

"Let me go before someone gets hurt," she said in a measured, stern tone. "Then, if you want, we can talk."

"_Shut up_," Jinx barked, twisting her arm further an eliciting another gasp. "The only reason you open your mouth is to answer my questions? Understand? You even _try_ any of that weak ass Tendo school crap on me and I'll break your arm faster than you can think."

Pushing back, Jinx glared down at her intently, her eyes still roiling.

"Now you tell me," she demanded in an angry snarl. "Is it true, what you've done with Akari?"

Kasumi wasn't one to glare, but she did give the younger girl an extremely upset look.

"I will not divulge information under duress," she maintained, and closed her eyes before turning away. "Feel free to inflict whatever injury you believe will make me talk. It will be the last thing you do as a free woman, so you may as well enjoy it."

Rather than snarl in rage or hatred, Jinx sat up and actually _smiled_, though it was a dark thing.

"So it is true, then," the girl muttered. "Your denial is all the confirmation I need."

Pushing up, the slim young girl then quickly backflipped off the bed and towards the door.

"You've not just seen it, you've been involved in the torture," Jinx hissed in a vindictive tone. "You _want_ to be punished, don't you? Well unfortunately, I can't oblige. If you're even a shred like the Kasumi **I** know, then nothing I can do to you could be any worse than what you must be feeling, helping inflict whatever tortures you are on Akari."

Jinx turned away, then, and laid her hand on the panel which would open the door.

"Akari is _dead_, Jinx."

Those four words froze the former villainess as surely as Victor Freeze himself.

"She died almost a half year ago," Kasumi continued, sitting up and watching her warily. "And she died _again_, after saving you. I don't know all of what happened between you two, but we were her friends. We loved her and mourned her; we cried for her and got angry for her. Don't think you're the only one who is hurting because of this."

"But…" she added, seeing Jinx's face contort with rage. "I do know someone who could understand, better than anyone… I can help you if you want to-"

The girl just scoffed loudly, cutting her off. "You seem to misunderstand me. I don't give a crap about _your_ Akari. I only care about _my_ Akari, _my_ friend, the one that you sick bastards are torturing. Why the hell would I give a damn about some girl I never knew?"

"You just don't get it." She turned around to stare at Kasumi. "None of you people care about Akari because she's just a copy to you people, a fake with no worth. Well news flash, _this_ Akari is the only _real_ one to me, so telling me that 'it's okay because she's a fraud' is **not** going to make me suddenly turn around and say 'oh, you're right, I've been so silly.'"

Jinx opened the door then, and stepped into the frame. Glancing over her shoulder, she leveled a cold glare Kasumi's way. "I may be the villain here, but we'll see who can live with themselves when all is said and done."

And then she was gone, the door swishing closed silently behind her.

The entire situation had just been too abrupt, too random for Kasumi to deal with. Immediately, her brave front broke down. She hadn't felt so helpless, so exposed, since she'd been trapped on the alien ship, so many months ago.

Did - did she report this?

Despite the discomfort lingering in her arm, she wasn't seriously hurt… but she had been assaulted in her own quarters. Almost anyone else would have screamed for help, setting off internal silent alarms and causing an immediate inquiry. It wouldn't just be Jinx, either; she'd seen and heard that the younger Ryouga on base was extremely close to the volatile young woman. It was entirely likely he wouldn't just sit by while military police arrested his girlfriend.

Who knew what would happen then? This situation needed to be nipped in the bud before it got even worse. Kasumi believed Commander Yasuda to be a generous and understanding woman, as military leaders went, but she could and would clamp down hard on trouble if she saw it. If Jinx went off and attacked some random researcher or tried to break into a secure area, no amount or forgiveness of pleading would save her. While personally Kasumi didn't have any strong emotional attachments to the lost teens of Yankee Squad, she didn't want to be play a part in tearing them apart either. Her conscience was troubled enough dealing with an alien-possessed corpse in Medical.

Reaching for her dresser, she retrieved a small wireless plug.

"Internal Communications, priority two," she spoke into it. "Connection: acting Sergeant Hibiki."

* * *

Creeping slowly down the corridor, the slender figure easily evaded the obvious security measures of the base: cameras, and the few random military police on the roam. Of course, she couldn't be _that_ proud of her penetration of the facility, as she'd already _started_ inside, on the same level even, and they weren't exactly expecting anyone to actually sneak around like this. Still, she wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth; an easy job was an easy job. A few more twists and turns and she found herself at her destination.

The entrance of the medical ward.

It was still down the corridor, shrouded by the low lights that ran during the night shift, but she could just make out the large door from where she was. Feeling a cloud of uncertainty swirling over her, she began to step down the hallway, hesitantly approaching the one last obstacle between her and her - admittedly nebulous - goal.

About halfway there a low growl stopped her in her tracks. Freezing instantly, Jinx glanced about frantically for a moment, until she finally spotted the source of the sound. Even by her standards, she was a bit surprised to see who Kasumi had sent to deal with her.

"Shirokuro?" Jinx asked curiously.

Crouching down until she was balanced on the balls of her feet, Jinx patted her knee affectionately, and immediately, the familiar, furry shape rushed forward and crashed into Jinx, nearly knocking her to the ground. Squealing happily, she wrapped her arms around the large dog's neck and held on for dear life to hold her balance. For a few moments, she bravely fought off a face licking assault before wrestling the dog down into a sitting position.

Leaning back to a more comfortable position, she then smiled at the affectionate dog, holding its head between her hands. "Damn, now that's just dirty pool, sending the one bitch that I can't get angry at to stop me."

Nuzzling her face into the thick fur of Shirokuro's neck, Jinx relished the soft warmth of the gentle animal. There were few things that she could stand in this world, but who could possibly hold animosity towards such a brilliant canine? Sure, she wasn't exactly a unicorn, but dog was good too. Unusually preoccupied by her canine companion, she didn't actually notice the second interloper until he was already standing over her. She started a bit when she noticed his soft slippers behind Shirokuro, but then quickly looked up, a resigned smile on her face.

"Oddly," she said at his approach. "I'm more surprised by the fact I'm surprised that you're here, than I am at the fact you're here."

Dropping down to a knee before her, Ryouga stared at her hard, hurt, anger and betrayal swimming in his dark brown eyes. No one said anything for a long time; the sound of Shirokuro's panting the only thing breaking up the otherwise eerie silence. In this one case, though, Jinx was certain that she needed to keep silent and let him speak first. She could almost see his temper preparing to snap in the back of his eyes, and didn't want to do anything else to set it off, however justified.

Finally, though, he did speak, in a low, harsh growl.

"What the **hell**, Jinx?"

She hung her head at that. "I know, I know. I'm sorry, but... I just needed to know, I mean _really_ know what was going on."

His face flushed red for a second, but he quickly took a calming breath. His glare never softened, though. "You attacked _Kasumi_? You **attacked** Kasumi? W-what the hell were you _thinking_?"

Jinx's head snapped up, and she met his gaze hotly. "Maybe I was just giving them a taste of their own medicine, alright?"

_That_ was enough to take the wind out of his sails. "W-what on earth are you talking about?"

Clutching Shirokuro more closely, as if for moral support, she sniffed loudly.

"You heard how they all talked. Ryouga, Ranma, even Kasumi. 'Oh, it's not the _real_ Akari.' 'Akari is already dead,' it doesn't matter what we do to this 'cheap copy'. Just because she isn't the genuine article, they treat her like she's not even a person. Well, this Kasumi isn't _my_ genuine article, so why should I treat _her_ like a real person?"

Ryouga shook his head, obviously not following her logic. "B-but you _love_ Kasumi. How could you even bring yourself to raise your voice against her, dimensional double or not?"

"I **do** love Kasumi," she confirmed fiercely, "But I love **our** Kasumi. I mean, you've felt it, right? I know you have; everyone has. These people just _look_ like our friends. Deep down, they have about as much in common with the people we know and love as _you_ do with _your_ double. It's like we're living with freaking pod people. Even, Cyborg has mentioned it. Kuno? Mousse? Kasumi? People that we've gone through hell and back with back home, and that look at us like we might go nuts and have to be put down at the drop of a hat."

The Lost Boy grabbed Jinx's hand, not quite hard enough to hurt.

"None of that _matters_, Jinx. I honestly don't care if Kasumi drew a knife on you, what were you thinking attacking her _here_, in a freaking military fortress? Not only do you _not_ do that kind of crap to _anyone_ here, but what if she'd done more than just call me? What if she'd gone right to the Commander? You could be behind bars right now, damnit!"

"Why do you think I went after Kasumi?" Jinx muttered in a dark tone. "She might be one of those 'I was just following orders' types here, but she's still too soft to just turn me in, if only because of **you**. She might not give a crap about any of the rest of us, but you've still got just a bit of pull with Kasumi Two. Hell, everyone knows that the only reason we're all together here and alive is because you happen to look like their Lost Boy."

"You think I don't _know_ that?" Ryouga barked harshly. "But just how far do you want to push that, damnit? Do you think that they're just gonna look the other way forever? Hell, we're probably on thin ice as it is; it's like everything we do to get on their good side, we do something else to alienate ourselves!" He gave a tired, bone-tired, sigh. "I know a lot of that is my fault, too… I've been a crappy leader, and a terrible example, but damnit, Jinx, what the hell were you even gonna do here?"

"I mean, suppose you _did_ get in there." He gestured to the door behind them. "What next? Break Akari out and make a daring escape?"

"**No!**" Jinx half shouted back. "No ... I ... I don't even know _what_ I was going to do, honestly. Hell, I don't even know if I was gonna break in, alright?"

Dropping back to sit on the floor, she squeezed Ryouga's hand, even as she ran her other hand through the thick fur of Shirokuro's neck.

"I mean ... I **know** what Akari is now." She did. _She'd seen it_. "I know I couldn't rescue her, even if I wanted to. I guess I just wanted to see her, you know? See it with my own eyes. Just because Ryouga and Kasumi don't care about the clone, doesn't mean that I can't, does it? Is it too much just to see her one last time? You already said they wouldn't let us even see her!"

Slowly, he nodded. "I know. And I know it's not fair. But that's just the way it is. We have to play by the rules here, no matter how abhorrent. These people are fanatics about protecting their world from _any_ threats. Even though we've helped them out repeatedly, don't doubt for a second that they'd turn on us like a scorpion if we give them cause. I don't want anything bad to happen to you, to any of us, so you have to use your _head_ more, okay?"

Jinx didn't like the insinuation, but couldn't exactly refute it. Though she still felt justified, Hell, righteous about what she'd done, she knew that she had endangered herself and her entire team with her actions. Her 'team'. It was hard to come to terms with that, considering that most of them had been her enemies until disturbingly recently. The unfamiliar sense of remorse made itself known at that moment, and she had to admit that she wasn't exactly a fan.

"I'm ... I'm sorry, Ryouga," she finally apologized, quietly and painfully. "I screwed up, I know. It's just – just so _easy_ to slip back into old habits, you know? Intimidation is so much easier than just asking."

Ryouga actually chuckled weakly for some reason, the corner of his mouth tweaking up sadly.

The old _'its easier to apologize than ask for permission' _thing.

"Yeah, well, sometimes the right thing might be harder to do, but it's all we got that separates us from the criminals, right? We gotta be the best we can be, cuz if we start taking the easy way out of everything, well ... I don't even want to think of what we come to, then."

The young sorceress matched his tentative chuckle. "Well, at least I'm not as bad as most everyone in this base. Heck, even Kasumi lies, here! Do you know that she actually tried to bribe me by letting me 'talk to someone that could understand Akari's situation?' As if there's **anyone** in this base that could understand Akari's situation!"

Rather than revel in her small, slanderous victory, she instead frowned as Ryouga's face fell instantly. His gaze dropped down to Shirokuro, and he ruffled the dog's ear with halfhearted affection.

"Actually," he said, not looking up. "There is. I have no idea why Kasumi would have made that offer, though. There's... there's no way she would have been able to pull it off. Hell, they've been stonewalling me on that front since I got here. There's no way that some intern is gonna get the most unpredictable girl in the base in there."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Jinx offered with a smile, only to have her grin fade away to nothing as his expression failed to lighten. So Kasumi hadn't been bluffing? Or at least, not lying? Well, it _was_ Kasumi after all. But what had she meant then?

"Who - who do they have that you'd want to see?"

"My father."

Jinx's eyes widened at that. "Wha?"

Ryouga shook his head, clarifying, "Well, not _my_ father. _His_ father, but same difference, really. I ... yeah, you weren't here yet when I found out, but m - _our_ father, here, was captured by the aliens. It's not exactly like Akari. I mean, he's not a clone as far as I know, and he's still in control of himself, and hell, it sounds like he might survive the whole ordeal... but still, he was converted to a Trenchard as well. So, yeah, if anyone would understand, it would be him... good damn luck getting in to talk to him about it."

Ryouga actually let go of both her and Shirokuro, his knuckles whitening as he clenched his fists in impotent fury. Sighing sadly, Jinx leaned forward, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and resting her cheek into the hollow of his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry. Are you alright?"

She felt hands, gentle as anything, rest on her shoulders and carefully push her back to arms length. Ryouga offered her a weak smile before nodding. "Yeah, I'll survive. It is what I do best, after all. Just please, promise me that you won't do anything like this again ... _please_."

Her head tilted to the side as she regarded him. He'd never really asked her to do anything for him before, and he clearly wasn't ordering her to behave herself. It was a plea, nothing more, nothing less, asking her to do this, even if only for her own good. Finally, she returned his weak smile.

"Alright, Ryouga. I promise that I'll be a good girl from now on. We can even go in the morning and a - a... _ask_ for permission to see Akari and your dad, alright? They can't get mad at us for that, right?"

"Heh, I wouldn't jinx it if I were you."

"Oh, shut up."

Shirokuro let out a low growl a second before either teen heard the sound. Footsteps, and coming their way! Thinking quickly, Jinx dragged Ryouga to his feet and slammed his back against the wall. She could see he was about to protest the rough treatment -

When she crushed her lips against his, having to step on the very tips of her toes to do so.

A second later, the beam of a flashlight swung around the corner to settle on them. As one, Jinx and Ryouga both turned to the light, looks of shock and surprise on their faces - manufactured on her part, but genuine on his, though not for the same reason. The guard, a woman probably a few years older than Ryouga, stared at the pair of them, wide eyed. Apparently not at all having been expecting what she'd seen, the MP blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.

"_Please_ tell me that you're Yankee Squad's Hibiki, and not India's. I'm not too keen on my chances of survival if it's the latter."

Ryouga nearly went cross-eyed at the guard's words, while Jinx nearly burst out into laughter.

"_What?_ India squad hasn't even been in the base for a few days, lady."

The guard shook her head, laughing to herself. "Yeah, yeah, guess I forgot in the face of the potentially omega class gossip this could have generated. Just... India Hibiki, out in the dead of night with Yankee Hibiki's girlfriend? Can you even _imagine?_"

"Wow, you're _right_," Jinx gushed. "I doubt the base would even be standing by morning if something like _that_ got out."

"I -" Suddenly, the MP snapped back to attention. "Okay, enough of that. Look, I know that there's a bunch of this going on in the base, alright, and I can sympathize. You two are new, so I'll let you off with a warning, but you should really be keeping this kind of stuff to your quarters. Sneaking off to remote sections of the base just isn't necessary, and it's likely to get you in trouble. So run along, would you?"

Finally regaining his bearings, Ryouga nodded quickly. "Y-yes sir - ma'am- um, I mean, _yes_, we'll move along right away. Thank you very much for your understanding."

The older woman just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, just hurry up before I decide to change my mind."

With that, she turned her back on them, making sure to give them one last, overtly lewd glance over her shoulder before she moved back onto her patrol. A mutter that sounded vaguely like 'all the cute ones are married or gay' echoed in her wake. Once she was gone from sight, Ryouga let out a sigh of relief, slumping back against the wall.

"Damn, that was close," he muttered. "C'mon, Jinx, let's get out of here before someone less interested in steamy office romances comes along and tosses us in the brig."

He tried to push off, only to have Jinx slam him bodily back to the wall. Pressing herself up against him, she looked up at him, a positively predatory smile on her face.

"Hey now, who said I was done with my distraction yet?"

Luck was on their side for the rest of the night, though, as despite several notable delays, they eventually made it back to their rooms without running into another soul. And once all was said and done, Shirokuro was left standing in the corridor, shaking her head in bemusement.

She honestly couldn't wait until her other master got home.

He was far less troublesome to deal with.

* * *

"She did **WHAT?**"

The angry growl would have gone unnoticed had it come from Ryouga Hibiki, and not Ranma Saotome. There was precious little space in the room to have a private conversation and immediately a handful of faces turned to try and discern what was the source of the outburst. Ranma raised a hand to forestall any attempts by concerned friends or comrades to wander over.

"Keep it down, Saotome," Ryouga's own growl was more practiced and subdued. "She wants to keep this low profile."

He was referring, of course, to Kasumi. She'd forwarded subtly worded messages to the both of them about 'the incident' and the subsequent talk she'd had with Jinx's team leader and what she planned to do about it. Both boys could hardly believe it. No one ever manhandled Kasumi. Even Pantyhose Taro, the biggest asshole to hit up Nerima more than once, wouldn't have dared it. Yet… both were quickly to realize that it was a damn good thing Jinx had chosen to jump Kasumi rather than any of the other civilians. There was no way _that_ would stay under wraps.

"This is getting out of hand," Ranma said it in a low voice; still simmering from the email they'd both read. "If your little brother can't handle his group…"

"Yasuda will probably break them up if things don't work out," Ryouga guessed. They both had a pretty good idea of the worst case scenario, but kept their conversation to low tones. "They're all potentially too young to join up and too dangerous to let loose. No country would want a bunch of super powered teenage vigilantes running around. If we can't work with them, then they'll be in holding until the war is over… and _then_ they'll probably end up in US custody after that."

"I just still can't believe..." Hibiki frowned, cutting himself short. "Actually. No. That's not true. I guess I'm not _that_ surprised."

His eyes narrowed and the hurt in his voice was nearly palpable. "Even_ I_ thought about just wanting to force my way in... to just outright demand someone tell me... to see for myself what was going on with Akari with my own eyes. It took more than a week to see my father after we brought him in! Will Akari even last that long? Will the last time I see her be a numbered body bag loaded onto a plane? Just one more life lost because of... because of -"

Ryouga couldn't finish that sentence, setting his jaw against the pain.

"It... that doesn't matter now," he decided, remembering what was most important. "At least Kasumi's okay."

Ranma took a few seconds to massage his temples. They weren't even back on Earth yet, still stuck on AE14 waiting for transfer, and already there were issues waiting for them to deal with at Seiran. Gods, even dealing with a site full of hostiles were preferable to dancing around irrational and unstable teenagers. And this was coming from a guy who wasn't even twenty yet!

"We'll have to talk to her or something," he warned. "We can't just let stuff like this go unanswered. What if Kasumi _had_ been hurt?"

"Ranma. She was way out of line… but for the time being, I think we should let the other-me be the one to handle her. If he can."

It was a surprise to hear Ryouga speak up in the pink haired girl's defense, and a surprise on top of that to hear him put faith in his other-self. It was triply a surprise to hear him be the voice of restraint!

"And if he can't?" Ranma asked in a warning tone. He did not appreciate anyone messing with the Tendos. Well. Kasumi and Akane anyway. Nabiki could fend for herself.

"Then he'll be relieved… and we'll do what we have to do. Well, you will anyway." Ryouga frowned deeply, not exactly looking forward to that eventuality. "Ultimately, Yankee squad reports to you now, Saotome. That's the chain of command. And that means things start and stop with you."

Ranma groaned unhappily at the reminder.

"Lucky fucking me."

* * *

Captain Banks was a busy man.

With a critical eye, he studied the trio of people before him. The first two: acting Sergeant Hibiki and his subordinate, Jinx, were both wearing their uniforms, though the former wore his far more neatly than the latter. Truth be told, there was no way he would have arranged to meet them on such short notice if not for the third member of their group. Kasumi stood with the two of them, her hair neatly tied together behind her back, her uniform without a single crease. She definitely didn't look to be in the company of difficult individuals.

There was an obvious tension between the two groups, most notably Jinx and Kasumi. And, honestly, Banks wasn't the least bit surprised. Of course, he had read Miss Jinx's psychological profile and he'd known Miss Tendo for some time. It was possible to check and see where the acting sergeant and Jinx had been last night, despite the latter moving about without her ID. After receiving Kasumi's request this morning, he had gotten an attendant note from InSec regarding Jinx and Ryouga's movements, someone somewhere being naturally suspicious as to why the former would be helping the pair of problem cases, especially after a visit of barely longer than a minute.

Not only had Jinx been in Kasumi's room, but then she and Ryouga had met up near the medical ward. There had also been a suspicious number of emails sent out at around the same time as the incident, though none had been forwarded to anyone in command. InSec was buzzing, but Wiessman's boys and girls were always doing that. XCOM could be called a paranoid organization, but only Internal was paid and trained to be that way. True, it could have been something as innocent as Jinx simply dropping by to ask for help, but even he felt inclined to believe there was a more worrisome nature to the clandestine meeting.

Kasumi was among the kindest, gentlest and most valued members of the base staff. She'd worked herself _to the bone _for the people of Seiran, filling in medical shifts or whenever anyone got sick. After some missions, she didn't sleep at all, insisting that as long as she could help she would help no matter how mundane or dirty the task assigned to her. Normally, he wouldn't have been surprised to see her contacting higher ups to try and help people out. Just not _these _people. She was a good girl; a good woman. He just hoped she wasn't being taken advantage of.

Captain Banks sighed internally to himself, taking a quick glance around his office as he considered how to proceed. His office was the same as his contemporary's, Captain Ben-Solomon. Much smaller than Commander Yasuda's, there was still ample room for a desk and a small library of books… though, in this case, it was mostly labeled binders full of files and other documents, interspersed with a few actual books. The walls were featureless aside from several black displays set into the metal. Only one was active, and it showed the duty roster for the base. A few pictures of various deployments were also on the walls; the picture on the desk of his family back in the US.

The Captain, a tall African American, more heavily built than his Israeli counterpart, stood and motioned the trio over to his desk before sitting back down. Preferring to get straight to business, he immediately crossed his arms, leaned back in his chair, and told them straight out:

"Director Wiessman has put stops on you two," he explained, and noted Jinx and Ryouga share a look which bordered on 'no duh'. "He's the head of internal security and intelligence. I contacted him – not that I needed to – and he explained that you were both considered security risks around White Iron in particular."

That seemed to catch Hibiki's interest. "Really? Why would I be a security risk around 'White Iron'? **I'm** not the one that tried to kill her off ... with all due respect, sir."

"You still have some personal attachment to the subject. Wiessman's job is to be cautious about who goes where and why." Banks sighed, not one for beating around the bush. "Keep in mind that just because something is being kept from you doesn't mean that it is always personal. Sometimes 'need to know basis' just means 'need to know.' So if I _do_ bend the rules just a bit for you here, do not assume it will be a routine occurrence. This organization is built on degrees of secrecy, at every level."

Ryouga nodded. "I can understand that. Most of the stuff that goes on here we couldn't really be less interested in, but in our defense, this does involve people very important to Jinx and myself. You can't just expect us to stop caring and go about our business just because it would be convenient for you. I just want to see my dad, is all, not a free pass to your deep, dark secrets."

"Everything around you is technically a 'deep dark secret' acting sergeant," Banks replied, tapping his thumbs together as he spoke. "Alright, now."

Captain Banks took a deep breath, and gestured to Kasumi with two fingers.

"Miss Tendo says you need some closure. That she talked about this recently with you, and she brought up how… cathartic it was to let the Lieutenant see his father and… a certain other thing, despite Director Wiessman's initial objections. She made a surprisingly persuasive argument, so we'll bend a little on this. I'll arrange visitation, so long as you have MP escort at all times."

He still had his suspicions, despite how strongly Kasumi had advocated for the pair, so he found it necessary to school his expression when Jinx offered a sincere sounding thanks. It was times like this that he half-heartedly wished he kept a Psi Amp in his desk. It was nice how the sight of it unnerved people sometimes and this Jinx girl had a well schooled facade.

"Thank you so much for your help, Captain Banks," stated the pink haired girl, "We really appreciate everything that you're doing for us."

Kasumi quickly followed suit, bowing politely as she offered a heartfelt, "Thank you, sir."

Ryouga nodded as well. "We're grateful for the help."

Banks leaned back in his chair, absently adjusting the small pin on his lapel, with a triangle and oval. "This is something of a special case, well outside the norm. You got that, so we'll put the rest away for now. Tendo, Jinx, you're dismissed. Wait outside. Hibiki. Youstay."

Jinx and Ryouga shared a quick glance, before the latter shrugged simply. Shrugging back, Jinx then nodded and made her way out of the room. Kasumi followed a moment later.

For his part, the young Hibiki just sat in his seat, waiting for the Captain to continue.

"For some reason, I doubt those two sat down over hot tea and cried about their feelings," Banks observed with a keen eye, watching Ryouga's unspoken body language. "Is there anything I should be worried about, acting sergeant? Off the record."

Ryouga looked back at the Captain, apparently confused by the question. "Um ... I'm afraid I'm not following you. Doubt what two cried over their feelings? Kasumi and Jinx? Jinx and Akari?"

"Miss Tendo and Jinx," Banks answered simply, annoyed by what seemed a blatant attempt at obfuscation. "I know they were in the same room before you sent that email to Miss Tendo. Internal Security knows it. So I'll ask only one more time: is there anything I should be worried about, acting sergeant? Yes, or no?"

Ryouga's eyes narrowed as he stared back at the older man, but any other emotion was quickly quashed. "No. _Nothing_ for anyone to worry about, _sir_."

"Exactly what I wanted to hear, acting sergeant," Banks replied, leaning forward to rest and elbow on his desk. He was tempted to press the subject, but ultimately changed the topic. "When you visit containment, you will observe all security and safety procedures. Mister Hibiki seems harmless enough, and we've had him down there for so long we'd let him out if he wasn't… still having some problems. But White Iron is another case entirely. She – **it** – is extremely dangerous. You are both to take every precaution."

At this, though, the younger man looked at him oddly. "I'm sorry, there's been a small misunderstanding. I'm only requesting to visit my father. Jinx is seeking permission to see ... White Iron. Rest assured, though, I'll explain that to her carefully."

"I expected you would be present for both?"

Shifting uncomfortably, the Lost Boy shook his head. "I ... didn't think it would be appropriate. I closed that chapter of my life on my own terms, long ago. I'll always care for Akari, but as people around here are so fond of saying, not only is White Iron not my Akari, well, she never really was at all."

"Fair enough. I believe your friend must think we're quite horrible to be doing what we're doing. I know the history she had with… with White Iron. What we have in containment may look like her friend, but it is not. It is no different than the Ethereal your team brought down at the terror site. We will study it, learn what we can from it, and then destroy it. So that, however long it takes, our world will be free of alien terror. Everyone who works here has that final goal in mind. And yes, I know _your goal_ is to get back home. We're working on that one, too."

Ryouga smirked weakly. "Well, at least we're on the same page, then. You people are the ones that are going to have to live with what you do, not us. Things are just done differently where we come from, is all, and it's going to take more than just a handful of days to adjust. You understand that, right?"

"It took all of us time to adjust," Banks somberly replied.

UNETCO wasn't just a military organization. Its mandate was sweeping and terrible: to do what nations had failed to do for years before. To pool the very best and brightest to defeat an enemy that saw humans as cattle and fodder. Their enemies were, yes, occasionally human… and these had to be crushed without hesitation. But, at the root of it all, the true enemy was the alien. For victory, for survival, the organization had done things to the true enemy… things that would never have been done to fellow human beings. So, yes, it took time for everyone to 'adjust.'

"You should know we may also be borrowing one of your men for a short time," the Captain said, not wanting to dwell overmuch on that. "Cyborg. R&D is making requests… and we are conducting a review of them."

Ryouga only seemed a little surprised by this news.

Banks continued, "If the Commander approves, you should know that his research can not be discussed with the rest of your group until it is de-classified. Doing so is punishable under military law. In fact, his work would normally be above your level of clearance, but these are special circumstances. As his direct superior, I expect you will help impress on him that this is a serious matter."

The acting sergeant did his best to stifle a laugh at that. "You - you honestly think that any of us can _understand_ the research stuff that Cyborg is doing now? No, I can assure you, that won't be a problem. I'll make sure to let him know, though. And I do admit that I'm not surprised. He's mentioned that he's had more and more eggheads swarming around his workstation as the days go on. Whatever he's working on must be pretty fascinating to them."

"I can't quite understand it myself," Banks admitted. "I believe that's it, acting sergeant. Remember that your squad is on duty today. Schedule your visitation during a designated break period."

"Yes, sir," Ryouga replied, offering an awkward salute.

"Dismissed."

With that, the younger man rose to his feet and offered a quick bow before making his exit.

As soon as he was gone, Banks allowed a frown to settle on his face. He didn't like this situation; not so much that they were making some unusual protocol concessions and bumping heads with Internal Security - the men and women who handled all on-base policing - though that was very bad precedent. The situation just smelt fishy. There was no evidence of wrongdoing, but when psionics and mind control factored into decision making, a level of paranoia was expected.

They'd just have to overlook some of that for the time being, just a little - Yankee's constituent parts were very valuable, most especially the cybernetic youth and the AA psychic girl. For now, they would have to put their faith in the dimensionally displaced Hibiki and in the young man's ability to integrate his friends and teammates into their new world. Even with the ongoing EDC examinations, there was no guarantee it would get them back home. The decision had been made that, for the time being, they'd see what Cyborg's tech alone could do when adapted to this dimension's laws. Then they'd explore the option of shifting him from combat duty to full-time EDC research where he could do the most good.

* * *

"Alright, girl, take me to the girls' room, would you?" Though most would probably question the boy's sanity, giving a dog such vague directions, they would quickly be forced to eat their words, as said canine quickly reacted to the command and began to lead the bandanna clad boy down the corridor.

If there was one, just_ one thing _in this world that Ryouga actually found himself envious of, it was his counterpart's luck in being able to have Shirokuro available to him all the time like this. He was almost tempted to see about absconding with his own reality's Shirokuro, but he didn't really want to uproot her and her puppies. Besides, having someone at home to greet his parents, if they ever managed to make it home from time to time, felt more important than his own personal convenience (though, the puppies had to be a couple months old by now, so maybe…?).

Still, he wasn't one to look a gift dog in the mouth. He didn't exactly have a lot of time to waste. It had taken him some time to set up the visitations, so Jinx and him had to get going. They only had the lunch period to do this, so getting lost would be more than just an annoyance this time. Together they made good time, at least, and got to their destination quickly. Being the 'Leader' and all, he boldly strode into the room, the door opening with a silent _swish_-

A loud, startled 'Eep!' was all he heard before something large, heavy and **hard** slammed into his face and launched him back out of the room. Collapsing to the floor in a heap, Ryouga quickly pulled the ... nightstand? off of his head. Touching a finger to his nose, it came back with a warm, red liquid coloring the tip.

Embarrassingly enough, the bloody nose had _not_ been from the nightstand. Apparently Raven and Jinx hadn't been exaggerating when they were complaining about Starfire's habit of floating around _au natural._

Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, and to give himself enough time to clean up and stop blushing furiously, Ryouga opted to just stay on the floor, pulling out a few extra bandannas to work with as he contemplated the unfairness of life from his horizontal position.

Several minutes later, the door opened again, a very sternly frowning Raven blocking the doorway. The young woman had her arms crossed under her uniformed chest, but no hood shadowing her face, leaving her down turned lips and flashing eyes unconcealed. Unhappy expression aside, she actually appeared a little... well, rosy. Whatever else was happening in this dimension, it seemed to be good for her complexion.

"I am quite certain that we've already _had_ this discussion," she began. "_What_ do you do before entering a lady's room?"

A snarky shout of "Ain't no ladies in here, just us seniorita's, Rae!" came from further inside.

Rather than compound his problems by trying to talk his way out of it, as a certain pigtailed jerk no doubt would, he quickly capitulated with a nod. "Right, right, I'm sorry, Raven. It's just that Jinx and

I have appointments that we need to keep. That, and its lunch time; why is Star even floating around naked, anyway?"

"I do not mind that you are the 'Peeping Tom', Ryouga," Starfire chirped teasingly, waving to him from over Raven's shoulder, but now wearing a towel carelessly wrapped around her torso. "It is no matter if siblings see each other in such states, after all."

"Yeah, well you two _aren't_ siblings," Jinx growled, pushing Starfire out of the doorframe and towards her bed. "Now get dressed already, ya orange skinned nympho, before I tan yer hide ... more than it already is. Just put on some clothes already, damnit!"

Still blocking the door bodily, arms crossed, Raven looked skyward, rolling her eyes helplessly. Behind her, Jinx scurried back to her own bed, apparently making a few last minute preparations for departure.

"So what are these appointments?" Raven asked curiously a moment later.

Ryouga scratched the back of his head, a bit embarrassed he hadn't mentioned it earlier. Everything had been thrown together so last minute after all. "Well, I finally got permission to visit my ...um - Mr. Hibiki. And they actually agreed to let Jinx go see Akari."

Leaning forward, he lowered his voice. "I think they're just hoping that seeing Akari... like she is... will finally get Jinx off their case about it. They still seem pretty concerned about... _things_."

Looking over her shoulder, Raven nodded. "I can imagine why. Why aren't you going with her?"

He shrugged in a melancholy manner. "I think one dimensional variant of a person I care about converted into an alien monster is pretty much my limit for one day. I really don't think I'd be up for seeing her too."

"...Oh ... right," Raven muttered under her breath. She then looked up, turning around again. "Starfire, did you have any plans for lunch?"

"Not as of yet," replied the girl in a cheery tone, regulation on-duty fatigue slacks still unbuttoned as she slipped a belt through the loops of her pants . "Did you wish to dine with me, as per usual?"

"Actually," Raven began carefully, "Ryouga was hoping that you could do a favor for him. Would it be too much trouble for you to go with Jinx to visit Akari? I think having you around for support would be good for her."

"Jinx is going to visit Akari?" Starfire asked, suddenly quite interested. "Of _course_ I will go. I too wish to see the unfortunate soul and ... perhaps apologize for the unintended repercussions of our act of mercy."

"Hey! Who asked you?" came Jinx's immediate and fiery rebuttal.

"Jinx!" Ryouga intervened quickly. "I think it's a good idea. It's not like we're the only ones involved here. Starfire has just as much right to go as you, and, honestly, will be a helluva lot easier to get cleared, seeing as she isn't considered a security risk like us."

"What? Both of you are considered security risks, but Starfire, _an alien_, isn't?" Raven's inquiry was more than a bit incredulous.

Sheepishly toeing the floor beneath him, Ryouga nodded in the affirmative. "Um, heh, yeah. I think Jinx and me are viewed as having ... slight temper problems. The rest of you are in their good books, though. Damned if that doesn't make it all the stranger that they put me in charge."

Again, the dark Titan rolled her violet eyes. "Slight, he says. Yes, it is quite interesting. Still-"

Whatever else she might have said was cut off, as she was suddenly pushed to the side as Jinx exited the door, dragging a bedraggled Starfire with her. The Tamaranian princess was still struggling with her unfamiliar, camouflage patterned shirt, so she ended up floating as Jinx pulled her along, not letting up with the rough treatment.

"C'mon, Red, let's go see if Pinky is actually as beyond help as they say, or if we need to initiate operation 'Ultra-Violent Escape Attempt'."

"U-u-ultra violent...?"

And then the pair vanished around the near corner, Starfire's voice cutting off quickly as they rounded the bend. Turning back to Raven, who was still righting herself and glaring darkly now, Ryouga chuckled nervously and took a step back. As she finished straightening out her fatigues (they were on duty after all, and that meant the uniform dress code) he waved weakly.

"Well, I'll let you get back to lunch, then. I'll ... meet up with you later, then?"

He prepared to make his escape, when-

"Actually..."

The sudden change in tone caught Ryouga's attention and he turned back. Discretely smoothing over her violet hair, getting it just the way she liked it, the dark titan's eyes strayed shyly to the side. Then, emboldened a bit, a weak smile adorned her face as she leaned towards him slightly.

"I don't suppose you would like some company as well, would you?" Raven asked. "Jinx isn't the only one that could use some moral support, and besides, if your father is half as interesting as your 'mother', I think I'd like to meet him."

Ryouga returned her tentative smile at that. Honestly, his double's mother wasn't _exactly_ as he remembered his own (she was a lot more interested in his love life for one), so he had no idea how different this dimension's version of his father would be... but he still needed to know, regardless.

"That ... would be nice, actually." He laughed as an idea hit him. "Heh, worst comes to worst, if they don't agree to let you in, you can just brainwash them or something."

"Or maybe I should brainwash you to stop suggesting doing things that would get us shot on the spot?"

"Ah. Yes..."

Raven rolled her wide, violet eyes. "Let's just go already."

As expected, they met up with their escorts just outside the ACI (alien containment) facility's upper floor. Both were trained MPs, the military police that operated as base guards. Ryouga knew less about them than he did the normal military staff, the sergeants and lieutenants and members of the other combat teams. MPs were the only ones allowed to carry firearms on the base, but he'd never seen one with the "trained psionic" pin that many squad members wore. He remembered that their command structure was different, and they answered to this Wiessman person instead of the Captains.

One of the escorts was female, the other male. The former inclined her head in greeting.

The other MP just grunted in acknowledgement.

Security at and around the ACI and xenosciences facilities put the rest to shame. There were multiple checkpoints, electronic and manual personnel checks, and three layers of biometrics. Each checkpoint had automated security, and the notice on the wall about 'emergency protocols' – including venting the atmosphere, pumping in an incendiary gas, and then igniting all unsecure areas – did not go unnoticed. It didn't help that they were headed into the highest level of ACI isolation and security. Mister Hibiki was apparently housed under 'psionic confinement' in an area set aside for Ethereals and high ranking Sectoids.

They passed by two of the latter once inside. The creatures were just like he remembered, and virtually identical to the ones they had… killed previously. Here, for the first time, they were unarmed and relatively harmless, contained behind transparent alien alloy and under psionic dampeners. Both were aimlessly staring into glowing orange orbs, and paid no mind to the group of humans that walked by.

"Direct psionic stimulation," the female MP explained, seeing him stare. "I think they're addicted to it or something."

Ryouga shrugged. "They get HBO on those things?"

Only to receive an elbow to the ribs a second later. Raven fired him a warning glance. "Ryouga."

"I've heard they use it instead of sex," the MP added with a chuckle. "I guess you get your jollies where you can, even when you're a genderless drone."

Ryouga gaped at that. "My ... uh - my 'dad' doesn't use one of those ... does he?"

"Every cell has one," was the only answer.

_Ugh._ Still…

It was kind of pathetic.

Was this all the aliens had? Fighting, experimentation, and… this? Getting off on psionic stims? From what he had read, they were all clones and copies of each other. They had no families, no lives, no… nothing. It was such a bleak, pointless existence. Was this the future those humans turned into Trenchards had to look forward to?

When they got to the cell further down the row, it was an immediate and stark contrast. There was a bunk, newspapers and books carefully stacked on the floor, and a few other piles of paper. There was actual color and a sense of the cell being more than just six flat surfaces jammed together. Ryouga even noticed a few pictures on the wall, including one of his mother and… and the other Ryouga.

Thankfully, the 'entertainment globe' was retracted into the floor, the spot covered by two thick books. The man inside turned to face them, noticing the visitors. Ryouga immediately recognized it: the flat hair, unlike his own unruly bangs (that was definitely from his mother's side), the easy going dark eyes, and then as he stood up, the tall frame. The father was still a hand taller than the son, though Ryouga had finally gotten kind of close to narrowing the gap between them. Tetsuya had also been given some black-marked civilian type clothes to wear.

He wouldn't say anything about it, but that was a real show of trust. His father's two personal techniques were basically defensive in nature, but one, the _Zantetsuiichou_ (Iron Killing Clothes), could also be a potent offense if need be. They must have cycled out his clothes at a regular basis, before he could attune it to his battle aura. That would certainly have been the… prudent thing to do. **IF** this man had the same techniques, which was no guarantee.

"Ryouga?" he asked, sounding both pleased and surprised at seeing the four visitors standing outside his cell. He turned up an eyebrow at the others nearby. "You usually don't show up with this much company… and did you get demoted?"

Ryouga was about to respond with some kind of attempt at humor... but found that his voice failed him as he stared at the man before him. Tetsuya was tall, taller than his son, with messy forward falling bangs of dark hair and amiable light brown eyes. It was a face Ryouga hadn't seen in... in what felt like ages. Emotions rushed through him in a torrent, threatening to spill out - until he felt a gentle hand on his elbow.

Looking down, he noticed Raven looking back up at him, a concerned expression on her face.

Taking a deep breath, the martial artist turned back to regard his 'father'. Only now, after days of fighting to get to this very point ... did he realize that he had no idea what to say to the man before him. Even if this man wasn't an alien abducted dimensional doppelganger of his father, just what were they supposed to talk about? He hadn't seen his own father in - well, he couldn't even remember the last time he saw the man.

It wasn't like meeting his 'mother', as she'd been a greater part of his youth, having carried him around with her, even when she'd gotten lost herself. Certainly, his father had taught him the very basics of the Art, leaving him to extrapolate and develop the rest as he went, but that was about it. He honestly _wanted_ to be as overwhelmed with emotion as he had been when he'd met his mother earlier, but it was just too confusing.

Seeing the man in prison like this certainly wasn't endearing, but he wasn't feeling the indignant outrage that would drive him to attempt to break the man out. Was it just because he knew that this man wasn't his real father? It seemed unlikely, considering his reaction with is other parent earlier. A gentle squeeze to his elbow reminded him that he'd been standing silently for longer than was strictly polite. Coughing into his hand, he looked back to the imprisoned Hibiki.

"I'm sorry ... sir," Ryouga said, finding his voice again. "Even for you, I think what you're about to hear is going to be pretty strange."

Tetsuya looked like he was ready to believe it. Gods knew that Hibiki's led… 'eventful' lives. Yes. That was a polite way of putting it.

"Stranger than the whole Jyusenkyou, hey, Dad, I-sometimes-turn-into-an-animal thing?"

"Don't even get me _started _-"

"Ryouga, please take this seriously," Raven asked ... well, seriously.

Nodding, Ryouga turned back. "Alright, try this on for size. I'm not actually your son. I'm a Ryouga Hibiki from another dimension, drawn here during a battle with a twenty six dimensional Hypergriffin, then mistaken as an alien clone and attacked and captured by _your_ son and then given something of a job here while me and my friends figure out how to get home."

He then gestured to the girl beside him. "Speaking of which, this is my friend, Raven."

"Nice to meet you," the Hibiki father inclined his head to the girl. But his attention quickly turned back to his supposed son. "Another dimension, eh? It doesn't seem to be April first, and you're not the practical joke type… so… that's certainly unusual. And your friends ended up here, too? None of them… ran into the things I ran into, did they?"

Ryouga frowned. "One of them did, yes. Her unfortunate arrival opened up a whole other can of worms, though, that we're still trying to deal with."

Tetsuya nodded, and sat back down on his bunk. "I hope things work out then. If you're visiting me… well, I guess this explains why Mitsuko's been out of contact for a while. She always did want another kid; I trust she hasn't been too coddling?"

Ryouga shook his head. "Not since I got my own room. It was ... getting a little weird, honestly. Not that I have anything against her or anything, it's just that ... well, y'know?"

"Not really, but I can imagine." They both had the 'Hibiki condition' after all. "You haven't seen your real parents for a while. It must be strange to have us around… or your mother anyway. I'm still kind of wrapping my head around it."

"Well, that and the whole prison cell thing, I suppose. I have to say, though, you certainly look, well, normal-ish, all things considered."

"Before I ended up here..." Tetsuya diplomatically avoided the part of the explanation that involved his son and the boy's team saving Ukyou's father from him, finally overwhelming him in a fight, and bringing him in. "I was given certain medical techniques, most of them developed by Cologne. The alien one. Together with exercise and meditation, it keeps the body from deteriorating. She's got this hang-up about how she looks..."

He sighed and bashfully rubbed the back of his head; an anxious trait Raven found very familiar.

"The doctors told me to 'last as long as I can' so that's what I'm trying to do. There's still a bit of the stuff up here," he said, and tapped his forehead. "But no Voice; no commands; no… Presence. Like having a TV in your head, but there's only this barely audible static and white noise."

"Sounds ... annoying."

An awkward silence fell as, again, Ryouga found himself unable to think of anything to say. What did he ask about? All this alien business seemed a bit morbid, and asking him for pointers on how to beat his real son seemed likely to backfire -

"So, how long have you been held here, then?" Raven asked out of the blue.

"Three months or so," the Hibiki father answered with a shrug. "Maybe four? I'm trying not to think about how long I've been stuck in here, or how long I will be. Can't go outside, even if I really needed to, so I've tried to keep myself busy with other things."

Raven looked back and forth between the father and son, if anything, a cross look growing on her face. Finally she turned back to Tetsuya.

"Busy with other things?" she asked, and made a quick guess. "Like ... say, developing martial arts techniques? That seems like something that _any_ Hibiki would find interesting."

"Yes, that's it exactly!" Because it was obvious that any trapped martial artist would still work on their secret techniques, no matter the strange circumstances. "But all this has given me some fresh inspiration for another book, too! I've seen things from both sides of this war, and I think that's a pretty unique perspective. Maybe this one will even sell outside Japan…"

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold up a second!" Ryouga waved his hands frantically as he stared at his 'father'. "You write 'books'? What's up with that? I'd hate to think you were bamboozling people out of their money selling tour guides."

"What did you think we did for money?" Tetsuya asked, cocking his head to the side. "How did you think we paid for the house? Or your bank account?"

Ryouga scratched his head. "Well, to be honest, I kinda assumed there was gonna be some kinda pay off to the whole 'wandering martial artist thing' down the road. I mean, why else would that be the only real life skill that you and mom taught me?"

"There's a reason there aren't many rich martial artists, son. Ones that aren't rich and evil anyway." He chuckled at that. "We taught you what you needed to survive and to make yourself strong. When you have children, you'll have to do the same, because the fact is, we Hibikis have to look after ourselves. Like the proverbial lion that tosses its young off a cliff... in our case, the young cubs just get lost and fall off the cliff rather than get thrown."

The young Hibiki stared at his father for a long moment ... before turning to look at Raven. "And people wonder why I have temper problems. Can you believe he just compared me to some stray cat?"

"You're overreacting again, Ryouga," Raven deadpanned. "Your parents did the best that they could for you."

"Oh, come on!" The lost bow flung his arms up into the air. "At least they coulda taught me something useful, like algebra or something. Maybe how to talk to girls without embarrassing myself?"

"Well, now that _would_ be a useful skill for you to acquire," Raven replied with a smirk.

"Oh, be quiet."

"Ryouga, it was our duty to give you the tools you needed to survive," Tetsuya answered, giving the younger Hibiki a stern stare. "The core martial arts. Some techniques to start with. Did you really need us to explain the birds and bees? You may not have liked it, but you grew up strong enough to beat the family curse. I'm sorry you think us cruel for focusing on what we did, but above all else we had to teach you to survive."

"Oi, and now I know where I get my melodramatic streak from, too," the young martial artist moaned. "I try to get a bit of my teenage angst out and suddenly I'm getting a lecture on how 'responsible' my parents were. Sheesh."

Reaching up, Raven swatted him upside the head. "What is _with_ you today? Here you have a ... well, maybe a thrice in a lifetime chance to meet your father, and all you can think to do is complain?"

"Of course!" Ryouga barked, rolling his eyes. "Hibiki's are famous for complaining about the unfairness of life. Griping is one of our most prominent skills."

"One of? You're insinuating that you have more?" Raven inquired teasingly.

"Hey now. How do you now that I'm not a master pianist, or something? I have a life outside of martial arts and the Titans, you know?"

Raven offered him a flat glance. "No you don't. And frankly, the only person less likely to have some secret life that the rest of us know nothing about than you is Kasumi. Now would you _please_ try to have a civil conversation with your dimensionally doubled, alien abducted father, already? Not _everyone_ is afforded such opportunities."

"Your friend there has a point. Not so much about me," Tetsuya clarified. "It's probably only a matter of time before you meet your version of me again… but you will need something besides the martial arts. Our family styles aren't really suited for teaching, and none of us can hold down a job in one place for long."

"Even if you marry into a well off family, like your Grandfather did, well… you know your mother didn't always get lost. The Ryouga here has that problem too. The boy is a superb martial artist, but until recently he didn't give too much thought to what he'd be doing in the future. You… look a little younger than him, but you're still eighteen, aren't you?"

"You know, he's not _that_ great of a martial artist," Ryouga seized on that one passing statement above all the others. "I may be younger than him, but I know I can take him."

"Not _this_ again," Raven muttered under her breath.

"Hey!" Ryouga barked, glaring down at her. "Sure, maybe he can master half a dozen special techniques in the time it took me to master one or two, but he is so _not_ out of my league!"

"Hey, hey, what's this all about?" Tetsuya asked, turning to the young woman who had accompanied his sort-of son. "Hibiki's shouldn't fight one another. There are few of us as it is."

Raven rolled her eyes, explaining as best she could, "He's got it in his head that he needs to prove himself, or something, by defeating your son. Apparently their first fight was far too inconclusive for his taste. That and there are certain ... philosophical differences which are causing undo tension."

"I don't need to _prove_ myself! And like hell I'm not gonna fight him cuz 'we're family'. If anything, there's one too many Hibiki's around at the moment!"

Tetsuya sighed at the hot bloody minded pointlessness of it all.

Well, young people would be young people.

"I doubt my son is quite so worked up. You're both **you**," he reminded the young man. "You should be working together against common enemies."

Ryouga just stared at the man. "What? I can't do both? And of course he's not as worked up. He's already convinced himself he'd win, so it'll be that much more satisfying when I finally crush him beneath my boot!"

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Raven sighed loudly. "Just so you know, we are currently helping this organization in their fight against the aliens. Though our main goal is to get home, we can't stand idly by while innocent people are harmed, either."

Ryouga's father nodded, accepting this, though seemingly unsure whether it was a good or bad thing that it meant more promising young kids risking their lives. It was a martial artist's duty to protect the weak, but not every martial artist interpreted that to mean warfare... in fact, many didn't even include 'good works' in most forms to fit the commonly accepted wording and philosophy.

"You'll excuse me for saying so, but you don't seem to be either a martial artist or a soldier, Miss."

The young woman nodded. "Very astute. I'm neither, but that does not mean that I am not a warrior. What I do, though ... I doubt you would really understand on this world. Suffice it to say, though, that I am far from helpless."

Smirking, Ryouga jerked a thumb in her direction. "Dad, please let me introduce you to the most powerful human psychic ever recorded by the UNETCO organization."

"And you're not insane, obviously. No manifesting your emotions or delusions as reality. No unconsciously taking over the minds of your friends or family." He saw something, then, in the girl's well maintained composure. "No. There's something, isn't there? But that's not my business. Pleased to meet you, Miss."

"Raven, Mister Hibiki."

He raised an eyebrow at his son. "An American?" He smiled. "You know I met your mother in the States, Ryouga?"

"No, not an American, but again, not something easily explained. And yes, it was explained in ... great depth, how you met Ryouga's mother." Raven looked down before muttering silently under her breath, "And I haven't manifested my emotions as reality for _months_."

Ryouga rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm just grateful that all of those baby pictures weren't really of 'me', so to speak. It would have been pretty humiliating, otherwise."

"I don't know..." Tetsuya argued with a grin. "You two do look alike. Have the same parents. Granted, you act and talk a little differently, but you're younger than my son here. Who knows what a year's difference can bring out in a man?"

Rather than smile, the younger Hibiki's took on a grim cast. "I know what changes I won't let happen to me. Nothing will ever make me like hi-" Suddenly, Ryouga shook his head. "Look, enough about him. Honestly, I don't really know what I was expecting, or what I wanted to get out of this, coming to visit you ... but it feels like we're not really getting off on the right foot."

Turning, he dropped a hand onto Raven's shoulder. "Maybe it's time we left?"

"Are - are you certain, Ryouga? Isn't there _something_ that you can talk to your father about that won't end in feuding?"

Silence hung in the air for an uncomfortably long time as Ryouga studied the floor beneath his feet. Finally, he looked up -

"No ... there isn't really anything I can think of," he decided. "I never really got to know my own dad all that well..." Turning, Ryouga regarded the doppelganger of his father. "Maybe ... maybe you can help me rectify that?"

The older man smiled at the offer.

"I'd be happy to, son. And you can tell me what crazy adventures you've been having over in the States."

* * *

Unable to contain her excitement, Jinx continued to drag Starfire down the hallway on their way to the medical bay. Despite the Tamaranian's own claims of enthusiasm over getting to see Akari, finally, she seemed to be putting up a lot of resistance to being pulled along. Growling, Jinx spun on her companion -

Only to realize - instantly - why the girl was falling behind.

Muffled utterings were the only sound Starfire could make, what with her shirt wrapped tightly around her face, just the mop of her red hair sticking out of the neck hole and one of the arm holes. Perhaps getting such a firm grip on the sleeve of her shirt hadn't been wise after all? Starfire appeared to be losing the struggle to get her shirt on quite spectacularly, and Jinx dragging her along obviously wasn't helping anything. Absently, Jinx wondered if this was kind of what the Gordian knot looked like.

With an exasperated sigh, she stopped and grabbed the hem of the girl's top. "Lift your arms up already. Sheesh!"

Surprisingly, Starfire complied quickly, allowing Jinx to easily lift her shirt right up and off. As the pair stood there, Jinx trying to twist her shirt right side out and Starfire standing there, arms in the air and topless (save for the 'human grebnak supports' aka bra that Starfire complained about having to wear every morning) a pair of young soldiers rounded the corner.

Needless to say, the guys stopped in their tracks, eyes widening. Politely, Starfire curled the fingers of her hand, waving to the squaddies with her upraised arm, even as Jinx rolled her eyes and finished fixing her shirt.

"Alright, lean forward, Star."

Still smiling brightly at the brightly grinning soldiers, Starfire obediently obeyed and Jinx quickly slid the camo-patterned shirt over the girl's arms and down around her torso, just as nature intended. Since they were annoyingly expected to not only wear their lame army clothes, but wear them neatly, she also had to belt up and tuck in. Taking an extra moment, she dragged Starfire's overly long hair out of the back of the shirt and straightened it out a bit. Finally, once all of this was done, and Starfire had finally lowered her arms and delivered an annoyingly heartfelt thank-you, Jinx turned on the pair of guys. Stalking forward, she leaned towards the pair, hands firmly on her hips, and proceeded to sniff loudly.

"You two are neither officers, _nor_ gentlemen."

Rubbing the back of his head in an oddly endearing manner, the man gave a casual smirk. "Shucks, miss, looks like you got us two for two, there. I hope we didn't offend, it's just, well ... y'know?"

Starfire shook her head quickly. "No offense was taken. The fault was my own. I only hope that you were not embarrassed."

"Okay, enough of that," Jinx intervened quickly. "We got places to go and zombified alien abductees to see. You two can live for now, but only because Star here is too much of a ditz to understand modesty."

Again, she grabbed Starfire's wrist and started dragging her down the hallway.

Behind them, the sorceress heard the guards whisper not-very-quietly-at-all. "Man, I think my hometown would've surrendered if we got invaded by like those."

Jinx paused, mid-step. "Hey, wait a second. I'm not an E ... actually, nevermind, a compliment is a compliment..." Even if it was probably mostly directed at a certain Tamaranian.

She pointedly ignored her companion's giggle as they continued on their way.

It didn't take them long to reach their destination, and, just as expected, there were a pair of MPs waiting for them just outside the medical area. Immediately, Jinx perked up as she recognized one of them. Stepping forward confidently, she nodded to the familiar female guard - the very one that had caught her and Ryouga last night – and offered her a winning smile.

"Why, hello there, unfamiliar guard. How are you doing today? I'm Jinx and this is Starfire; we're here to visit the 'patient'." Jinx added a grand wink, just for the heck of it.

Returning her wink far more subtly, the guard nodded. "We've been expecting you. I'm Sarah, by the way."

"What, not so much as a nod for me?" The question came from the other MP, an Asian fellow looking to be in his early thirties. Not overly tall, he carried himself very confidently and looked like he would be very professional, were it not for the look of mock upset on his face.

Jinx shrugged. "I'm sorry. It's just, well y'know ... she's got breasts. That automatically makes her more trustworthy and approachable."

Sarah offered a superior smirk, crossing her arms under her chest as she did. "You can't argue with that kind of logic, now can you?"

"I ... wouldn't even know where to start," replied the male MP.

"How odd," Starfire muttered, "I was not aware that there was a correlation between grebnaks and honesty. Though, I suppose there is some logic, as Jinx is easily one of the least trustworthy people I know-"

Jinx's indignant squawk cut off whatever else Starfire was going to say. Clapping her hands over her chest, the sorceress spun on Starfire with fire in her eyes.

"I will **murder** you!"

Even as the pair of MP's burst into laughter, Starfire began to back pedal frantically. "Wha-what? I do not understand. I was just applying your own logic-"

"That's not what I meant!" Jinx barked. "I was implying a 'true-false' scenario to having breasts, not a sliding scale of mammary endowment - oh, for crying out loud, now you got me talking like you!"

"Okay, okay, ladies, that's enough." The male MP gave the order in a friendly tone, but it still proved effective as the pair of Titans turned to regard him. "Alright. Far be it from me to interrupt a conversation about breasts, but we _are_ on a schedule here. We need to get going if you want to keep your appointment with White Iron."

Immediately, Starfire nodded seriously. "Indeed, let us make with the utmost of haste."

Jinx shook her head. "Honestly, I wish I knew how these things keep coming up today ... But yeah, let's get this show on the road already."

Nodding, the MP's led them into the medical bay. Of course, White Iron was not being kept in the general area. Being considered a dangerous threat and an invaluable specimen, she was held in a special confinement area ancillary to xenosciences, connected to medical. The group had to go through two layers of internal security - more than even Jinx had anticipated in her aborted infiltration last night – before finally reaching the area where White Iron was being kept.

There was a single researcher on duty in the containment area at the moment, an older looking, dark skinned woman. Thankfully, she didn't appear to be running any tests at the moment, more just gathering and collating data, or whatever it was these people did. In fact, the large tube - which Jinx was, like, ninety percent sure had Akari in it, was currently covered up, possibly for Akari's comfort, possibly for the comfort of the researchers.

At their entrance, the woman looked up from her work and gave an 'oh' of realization.

"Ah, it's that time already, is it?" she asked, and approached the girls. "You must be Jinx, of Yankee squad and ... I want to say Starfire ... am I right?"

Blinking, Starfire nodded, a bit surprised. "Indeed so, however did you guess?"

The researcher offered a broad grin - a grin which actually reminded Jinx a bit of her old classmate/mortal enemy, Bumblebee. "Well, of the three women that came through to this dimension, I was told there was a Jinx, a Raven and a Starfire. Jinx I was told about already and, well, let's face it, you just do not look like the Raven type, now do you?"

Starfire's amused giggle seemed to put everyone in the room just a little bit more at ease. "You are most clever, Dr ... Um-"

"Oh, right, sorry. I'm Doctor Jones ... and yes, I get 'that' joke all the time, so don't bother."

Jinx and Starfire just stared at each other blankly for a moment, before shrugging.

The good doctor frowned at that. "Damn, I think I just dated myself ... I hate that. Anyway, I think we all know why you're here, right?"

Jinx nodded seriously, the gravity of the situation finally beginning to fall on her. This was it, the moment of truth. Probably her last chance to ever tell Akari how sorry she was for how wrong things had gone.

"We're here to see 'her'. Is she ... I dunno, up for company?"

Dr. Jones' smile melted into a frown. "I'm ... not sure what you came here expecting. White Iron is no longer the person that you knew. I know it's a terrible thing to say ... but anything you might want to say to her will be purely for your own benefit. 'Akari' is gone now, and nothing you have to say will have any meaning to White Iron."

"So I've been told," Jinx muttered under her breath. "Just let me see her already."

The researcher nodded and moved to uncover the tall cylinder. Within moments, Jinx finally saw Akari again -

And actually recoiled in shock at what she saw.

It wasn't the girl's naked body; she had already seen that sight and gotten used to it. No, it was the eyes - those blank, white, soulless eyes. The expression on her face, as well. Not just a blank slate, but it seemed almost contorted into a glare… but it was like a doll's expression, completely frozen. Jinx didn't even have a word or phrase that could encapsulate it all. It was all too much.

Even when she had first met Akari, a seeming lifetime ago on the alien ship, even then, the girl hadn't seemed nearly as alien as she did now. What on Earth had they done to her? What had they put into her? This wasn't the same drone, content to do her assigned tasks; Jinx could actually feel the malevolence roiling off of this alien creature.

And from someone that had trained under the Headmaster, that was saying something.

"She ... she looks so different ..." Jinx looked to her side, noting Starfire wearing an expression of horror not unlike her own. Not wanting to appear weak and sentimental like her companion, though, Jinx quickly shook it off and turned back to the tube, to the alien girl glaring down at them, or maybe past them, through the transparent material of the cylinder.

"Well, I didn't come all this way to not say anything," stated the sorceress clearly. "So, alien or not, you're gonna listen, alright, Akari?"

'Akari' stared back at her impassively, giving no indication she even understood what was being said. Jinx could tell, though, from the eyes, those terrible eyes, that White Iron was studying her as intently as if Jinx was the one strapped in an examination tank.

"I ... I'm not even really sure what to say, now," Jinx admitted. "I mean, I guess I'd been hoping that everyone was just lying, or something. That you'd still be you, just that you were too valuable to let go."

She glanced at Dr Jones out of the corner of her eyes and the older woman met her look evenly.

Looking back at Akari, Jinx sighed weakly. "I guess not, though. For what it's worth, I'm sorry. I never wanted this to happen ... Hell, I was promised that exactly this kind of thing would never happen once I went good. The heroes always win, after all, no matter how retarded the odds are against them... But I guess that was just another lie, eh?"

An orange hued hand rested on her shoulder. "Jinx..."

The pink haired girl didn't even have it in her to shrug the hand off. "So I guess the whole 'doing the right thing is its own reward' thing is a crock. I nearly got myself killed multiple times just to help you out, and what do I get out of it? Guilt trips from your boyfriend for 'not respecting your wishes'. Getting hated on by half of Juliet and all of India squad cuz I went above and beyond trying to help you?"

"And what the hell, right?" She asked, fighting to reign in the urge to cry. "Not only do I not even get the satisfaction of knowing that you passed on peacefully, even though I tried everything I could to save you... **no**. You get turned into a murderous alien bitch, and all of these damn scalpel jockeys are gonna be spending the next _God knows how long_ torturing you in every way conceivable to man."

She squinted her eyes shut and took a steadying breath; noticing a strange, broken piece of coral someone had left nearby. It seemed so out of place in this sterile lab, and yet there it was, and for some reason, the sight of it made her visit here even more painful.

Jinx's gaze fell down to stare at her own feet.

"Damn, I hate this world..."

The hand on her shoulder squeezed down reassuringly, and was soon joined by another on her other shoulder as Starfire pressed herself up against Jinx's back. "Are you alright, friend? Do you wish to depart?"

"No. No, I'm fine," Jinx muttered, actually enjoying the sensation of humanoid contact. "It's just... why does everything have to be so damn _hard_?"

The Tamaranian shook her head. "I do not know. Perhaps it is through these struggles, these trying times, that we are able to strive towards becoming the people we desire to be? What has happened here is a great tragedy, but what you suffered through, if only to give our dear friend Akari even a _chance_ of survival ... truly you have come a long way from your villainous roots."

Jinx gave a noncommittal shrug. "I'm not sure it was worth the price."

"Please, do not say such a thing," Starfire ordered forlornly. "Do you believe that Akari would want you to regret being her friend?"

"Maybe." The bitterness in her voice could be all but tasted. Damn it all. "She did tell Lt. Hibiki to kill her, after all. What if I screwed up her big romantic goodbye and this is my punishment? Why wouldn't she hate me after that?"

A loud gasp filled Jinx's ear as Starfire wrapped her in a not-quite crushing hug. "Never - **never**, Jinx! I never knew Akari, but from what Ryouga told me, she was a sweet and benevolent creature. She would never wish ill upon you, especially not for the crime of wishing her to live."

Starfire let her go a moment later, and moved to stand beside her.

"I too, would like to apologize, both to you, Akari, as well as you, Jinx. The blame for the situation does not lay completely on your shoulders, Jinx. We were all involved, we all thought as you did, and Akari is here because of our combined efforts. As such, I am every bit as culpable as yourself for this travesty."

"It's - it's not all a travesty, you know?" The unexpected voice distracted the pair of young women. Turning, they saw Dr. Jones standing right behind them and Jinx lanced the woman with a damning glare.

"It might not mean a lot to you, but not _everyone_ here is interested in only finding ways to kill White Iron, and through her, the other aliens," the older woman explained. "A few of us are trying to cure her. And... even if we fail..."

"Her remarkable regenerative powers... the way she uses psionics to repair cellular damage…" Jones turned towards the floating alien. "It's quite possible that what we could learn from studying White Iron could advance medical knowledge by decades. We don't fully understand how, but as a hybrid, her body has a way to detect and automatically destroy metastasized cancer cells, turning malignant growths benign. This Trenchard technology - she could save more lives than you know, if only we could unlock the secrets..."

Starfire bit her knuckle for a moment, before giving a shallow nod.

"It is ... some small measure of comfort to know that not all of the efforts here are negative."

Jinx couldn't even be bothered to dignify the statement with a response. She simply turned back to stare up at Akari. A moment later, she shook her head.

"It's amazing," she looked up at the floating alien-human hybrid. "You're thinking about killing me right now, aren't you Akari?" A weak chuckle escaped her lips as she turned to Starfire, though it felt like the laughter was all there was that was keeping her from crying. "It was just like this when I broke up with my last boyfriend. I could see it in his eyes, even as I was taking great care to explain to him why I was dumping his sorry butt... You remember Razorwire, right?"

Starfire stared at her blankly for a moment, before nodding. "Ah, yes, I recall him. We... have not seen him in Jump City for some time."

Jinx nodded vindictively, enjoying the destructive feeling running through her at the moment. "In the end, we broke up over creative differences."

"Creative differences?" Starfire asked quietly.

Another nod. "Yeah. He saw himself as breathing, but I was forced to tactfully disagree."

Rather than wait for the light of understanding to flash over the alien girl's head, however long that might take, Jinx turned back to the tank. "Yeah ... I think we're done here. I doubt this could have backfired on me any worse if our MP buddies here decided to shoot me in the back at this moment. C'mon, let's... let's just get outta here."

Turning on a heel, Jinx then made towards the exit, leaving the startled MP's, the serious faced doctor and the utterly confused Tamaranian in her wake. She wasn't used to facing up to her failures like this; didn't like these annoying ass emotions, either. It was too much for one day, hell, this entire trip was too much for a lifetime. She needed something to get her mind off of all of this drama.

Breezing through security, Jinx made up her mind as to where she was going for the rest of the day. She just felt bad for anyone that might be in the gym at the time. Misplaced aggression had always been one of her specialties, after all. Even if they didn't deserve it, _someone_ would pay for all this, and then maybe - just maybe - she could start to move on.

Just a little.


	16. FTA 'Fun, Travel and Adventure' 2

**A/N:**

Hey all, Lathis here, finally getting off my butt and finally posting something myself for once. Not much else to say beyond that. As always, we're very grateful for any comments or reviews you might have on our story, and we'd like to thank everyone for their kind and often insightful reviews so far.

Cheer

* * *

x

* * *

An accident at STAR Labs has hurled half the Teen Titans roster across the multiversal barrier and onto a strange world with no metas, no superheroes and no supervillians. There, the UNETCO organization, also known as X-COM, fights against an insidious and merciless alien enemy. The dimensionally displaced Teen Titans have finally been reunited. Determined not to sit on the sidelines, the four young men and women: Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and their universe's Ryouga Hibiki have been brought together into a special 'embedded observer' team designated CT:Yankee.

Displaced in the Russian Far East, far from any of the other Titans, Jinx had the misfortune of falling into the hands of the alien Visitors. Yet when one of the alien-human hybrids became hexxed by her power, damage to its brain tissue disconnected it from the Cydonian Mind and allowed it to remember who it had once been: Akari Unryu. Together, the two unlikely allies escaped into the forest and made for civilization, forging a close friendship during the difficult trek to safety. However, the same power that freed Akari was also killing her, and together with wounds taken during their escape, she hung on just long enough to reunite with her world's Ryouga Hibiki. Fulfilling her request to let her die, he destroyed the alien donor tissue that was to be used to revive her. The Titans, as Yankee Squad, were called to battle, with Akari's life on the line, succeeding in bringing back the replacement brain of the Ethereal, Whisper.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_FTA  
("Fun, Travel, and Adventure", aka...)_

Chapter XVI

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid

Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

Their quarantine over, India and Juliet squads were free to mingle with the rest of the Horizon One base staff – insofar as their clearance allowed them access to the facility. By necessity, the Luna AE14 was far more Spartan than its earthbound cousins, though it clearly benefited from all that XCOM had learned over the years in regards to base design and recycling environmental systems. It only received UNETCO transport craft once a week on average and was otherwise left to its own devices. There was no attempt to make the base into an interception hub, like so many bases were on Earth. Luna's Horizon was dedicated to research, space observation and local orbital defense.

In the underground sections, the base wound around like a snake. The further down or away from the central areas one got, the higher the security level. The only way in was either the cavernous hangar or the exposed structures that surrounded the main access lift. Any alien attack would come from those points, and the layout of the base would serve to funnel intruders or attackers into a series of kill zones, where the base branched off. It was a design common to those bases built after the fall of Griefswald, back in the early 2000s.

AE14 was, despite the attention lavished on it, much smaller and more compact than even Irkutsk much less a major base like Seiran. Those parts of the facility not dedicated to defense – the Mind Shield, the Grav Shield, the two Fusion Ball Arrays – were slated for research. Horizon was the home of XCOM's most dangerous research, particularly into psionics. In an emergency, compromised sections of the base could be disconnected and left to revert back to vacuum.

This was useful, since "Horizon" also acted as a de facto prison for XCOM's most… _troublesome_… captures. India and Juliet had some experience with that, having made their last trip here due to a research accident involving Class-AA psychics. Quite a few others were still 'on ice' and kept in large stasis tanks for study and treatment. Away from the background psionic pollution earthside, some of the formerly manic and unhinged Class-AAs calmed down and became manageable. Others were still as insane and dangerous as ever and needed to be closely monitored or treated.

XCOM classified this, technically, as 'research.'

A less polite description would have been to describe a third of the base as a sanatorium. Class-AAs were, almost without exception, insane. Some were consciously sane, but unconsciously unable to control their psychic powers. UNETCO included the investigation of growing psionic powers within humans in its original UN mandate and had been apprehending problematic individuals for more than half a decade. The root of the problem was believed to be the Alien Mind on Cydonia, which extended its influence throughout the solar system. Even if it were removed from the equation, it was likely that many of the individuals at AE14 would never see the Earth again, simply because they were so dangerous and because no one else had the technology or expertise to reliably handle psionics of this level.

While the rest of their squads explored the base or caught up with people they had met during their previous trip to Luna, Ranma and Ryouga greeted the base Commander, a man named Richard Felt. Commander Felt was in his late fifties, and like Commander Yasuda, he was not exactly a 'fighting Commander' like the well known field Commanders Sharp, Daniels, or Barett. He was an administrator first and foremost, on secondment from the UK. He kept AE14 running smoothly and, for the most part, independently and without incident.

Maybe it was the half million miles of isolation, but he was also very welcoming of visitors, when he could be. Ranma and Ryouga shook hands with the elderly gentleman, exchanging cordial greetings now that they were out of quarantine.

"Nice to see you boys have a clean bill of health," he said with a jovial chuckle. "How's Noriko been treating you?"

"The Commander's been running us ragged, sir," Ranma replied, also grinning pleasantly. "Just like we like it."

"We had our off base duty rotation recently. I'm sure you read about it?" Ryouga asked.

"Of course I did. Cross dimensional visitors? A cyborg and a new type of alien? Then there's the Class-AA. Fascinating stuff. I rather expected they'd end up here, especially the double-A."

"Not to mention the dimensional double," Ranma added, ribbing his fellow Lieutenant cheerfully.

"You lot do seem to attract more than your fair share of adventure," Felt noted with another short laugh. "After what you did last time, this whole base could do worse than welcome you back. Ah, but I'm sure you have a thing or two to ask. Let's walk while we talk."

"I assume everything's alright with the ship we brought in?" Ranma asked. "Is there anything we should be expecting in an upcoming debrief?"

The Commander, informal enough, already knew the data that would be passed on once it was fully verified. Discussing it with two visiting Lieutenants was unusual to say the least, but the boys would end up in the thick of things soon enough. They may as well hear it straight from the source.

"The EDC was intact, but slightly damaged. We should be able to repair it, except for part of the contact nav-core…"

He strolled down the hall, passing the small experimental greenhouse where they were testing theories on plant cultivation under non-terrestrial habitats. The most important work was on study of 'alien plant formations' like those found on alien bases. XCOM was hopeful that there was still much to learn in respect to the xenoflora and even adapt them to human use someday. They were extremely hardy, and probably genetically engineered for terraforming.

Interestingly, one species of fern that had been discovered – captured rather – from a raid on an alien base, was actually of terrestrial origin. It was also thought to be extinct for several million years. The aliens had been growing a variety of it, engineered to return large amounts of nitrogen to the soil. Its biology had also been optimized to draw more energy from low-visible light conditions and respond positively to high amounts of infrared. The study of the plants, and the altered organelles within them, was truly fascinating.

"As you know, most of the FTL probes we've tested were built and launched from here," commander Felt continued. "Thanks to the boys Earthside at Fry Canyon, we should be testing a scaled down copy of the EDC pretty soon. We're not entirely sure how it works yet, but the aliens are already running around doing their thing out there. Once we know it's safe, we'll be sending an expedition to hunt them down."

"We have teams for this sort of thing?" Ryouga asked, glancing over at the bio-lab and the sight of so much greenery through one of the transparent walls. "I know the Americans have two micro-gravity specialist squads…"

"We don't know what we'll be going after, once we fire up the EDC," Felt admitted. "We'll tailor our expedition with that in mind. Based on what we've researched, I'd guess that the aliens were after something on a parallel Earth. Or a parallel dimension. Tracking them will be hard, and we'll need a strike force that can respond well to unusual conditions."

"Does this have anything to do with the reason the ship was abandoned?" Ranma asked, cupping his chin as he thought back. "There'd obviously been a struggle onboard."

Ryouga gave a dark chuckle. "I'm sure they've been hacking away at the corpses since we came in."

"We did find something. A few things, actually." Felt frowned, then, recalling the reports. "We're still working on the details but there were some strange biochemical anomalies found in the autopsies, especially in the alien's brains. Mutons are similar to humans, so we're making good progress... still... I'd wager they ended up somewhere truly unpleasant. Either that or they were exposed to some sort of mind altering pathogen."

The two young men gave the Commander a questioning look.

"I've spoken with Yasuda and the other Commanders. Some of what we found out was troubling with respect to setting up a manned mission, but we can't stand by while the aliens bring contaminants from other dimensions back into our own. We're gong to have to act as soon as we can to contain the situation before things get worse."

"Worse?" Ranma asked, curious. How could things get worse?

"Normally, our aliens friends have been pretty good about avoiding contamination or causing excessive damage to the Earth and its biosphere," Felt explained, though it was something both Lieutenants had heard before. The aliens didn't seem to want to displace or destroy native plants and animals. They were interested in study and conservation, ironic, given the horrors their experiments inflicted on Earth's native species.

"They don't fire on the surface with plasma beams from their ships; they don't go bombarding cities even though they plainly could. They have rules of engagement, in terms of air to air and space combat much like our own. Despite the terror attacks, they always shut down communications and work to keep a veil of secrecy involved. When they use us for experiments, testing genetic or chemical changes, they use isolated populations. They never let their terror agents, like Chryssalids, run completely rampant."

It was ugly, but true.

The aliens didn't want to take over the Earth. They seemed to just want to cow the governments of the world into letting them go about business as usual: abducting and experimenting and setting up a few covert bases. No one knew what their long term objectives really were, though there were theories backed up by recent interrogations. It was generally believed that the aliens wanted to keep using humans as breeding and experimental stock for as long as they could, before gradually fazing in a 'new human' – like the Trenchards – that would fit into their society, like the Snakemen, Floaters and Mutons and other races. Sort of a gradual colonization effort.

"The same can't be said for whatever they're getting involved with on the other side," Felt said, referring to the other dimension where, presumably, the aliens had set up shop. "Above all else, we can not risk the security of the Earth being compromised by an alien plague or infestation, be it biological or psionic."

That was something they could all agree on.

"We'll do our part, sir," Ranma assured the Commander. "Though the Commander has us on babysitting duty, so I don't know how much…. Oh!"

"Just got it, eh, Saotome?" Ryouga asked, crossing his arms and giving a sardonic huff. "If we have the means to return Yankee squad, then who do you think will accompany them? Their babysitters."

"Oh great, looks like we got ourselves into even more trouble!" Ranma groaned, half resigned half excited by the thought. "Buuut, I guess one last crazy side trip before the Final Event isn't so bad."

"This is all your fault, you know. You're nothing but a magnet for crazy stuff."

"Hey!"

"Who else ends up picking a fight with martial arts tea ceremony practitioners….?"

"I didn't pick that fight! I was minding my own business…"

"A likely story, Saotome."

Commander Felt coughed, instantly forestalling a further argument between the two young officers. It was strange how dysfunctional they seemed to be, yet how well India and Juliet worked together. They were all extraordinary young people, tremendously gifted in their strange ways. Very likely, they would be sent 'over there' when the time came, and probably not just to babysit Yankee squad when Yasuda got around to sending them home.

"Actually, sir." Ranma seemed to remember his earlier request. "We were wondering if we could visit someone while we're here."

"One of the staff?"

"Not exactly, sir. The young woman from 'the incident.'" Ranma knew he didn't have to explain much more than that. "I just wanted to see if she's recovered."

Felt nodded; it was a fair request.

"She's one of our free subjects, these days. I'll see if I can work something in before you go back."

"There was someone else, too. A class-AA I recently brought in." Ryouga asked, a bit more tentatively than his peer had. "Higurashi?"

Ah yes, _that_ one.

"Ah yes, her. A model member of our little community, actually. I'll see what I can do," Felt replied, but made no promises about the second request. "In the meantime, why don't you and your team have a look at some of our newest psi-amps. We're testing some new hands free and implanted designs…"

* * *

Manufacturing Bay Four

Seiran

A few more quick welds secured the plate section firmly in place, allowing Cyborg to slide out from beneath the large metallic construct and pick up the digital display pad resting on the floor beside him.

He began to type away at the touch sensitive surface at inhuman speed, inputting the required alterations to the base code of the activation program. As much as he boasted about his knowledge, he wasn't working under ideal conditions. Unusual materials, inferior power sources, all needed to be taken into account. He was working from a baseline model in his databanks, after all, so being unable to use exactly the materials specified required him to make more leaps of logic than he liked.

Picking a white cloth up from where it was tucked into a belt around his waist, Cyborg mopped a small amount of sweat from his brow. What he was doing wasn't rocket science... it made rocket science look like playing with wooden blocks in a kindergarten. Or maybe LEGOS. So many variables ... so many unknowns. Sitting up, Cyborg found his gaze drawn to his one tenuous safety net.

"How you holdin' up, Pinkie?"

Sitting at a desk halfway across the workshop, Jinx looked up from her work, turning to fire a heated glare in his direction.

"You _ever_ call me that again, and I might be tempted to put one of these toys back together and use it on you, you get me?" Jinx then gestured to the wide array of weapons resting on the top of the desk before her.

Ranging from the smallest laser pistol to a heavy plasma cannon (both obviously unpowered and unable to fire), the sorceress had an impressive armory laid out on the desk. Without even bothering to look back, she picked up one of the UNETCO manufactured 'designated marksman' long-barrel plasma rifles, or at least most of one, before picking up a long cylindrical piece and delicately inserting it into the stripped down plasma weapon.

"As to how I'm holding up...?" she replied. "I'd say somewhere between 'bored' and 'agonized'. I thought you said you were ready to test that sucker already?"

Cyborg rolled his eyes, turning back to his work.

"I said I was almost ready," he reminded her. "Besides, why are _you_ bored? You managed to get them to supply you half of the armory to familiarize yourself with. You'd think that would keep you busy while you waited?"

The pink haired girl gave a very unladylike snort. "Familiarize? Whatever. I just thought I'd take the time to finally find out all the weak points and potential faults in the weapons they use in this dimension. Know thy enemy and all that junk, y'know?"

"Oh really?" he asked, interested despite his rather more important task. "That's actually pretty smart. Find anything useful yet?"

"Mostly the usual stuff with energy weapons, especially the laser ones. They're not so different from some of the models used back in our dimension, though not nearly as compact as the ones that Slade managed to acquire for his drones. Man, where that guy got his tech from, I have _no_ idea-"

"Jinx, you're rambling," Cyborg interrupted with a smile.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up." Jinx waved at him, irritated. "At least there's actual iron sights and space for a scope on these weapons. Aiming is pretty much a lost technology back home. Never understood why. I mean, Black Manta's guys have some okay stuff, but that Intergang junk, as ridiculously overpowered as it is - ...eh, anyway, this is all pretty standard stuff. Lot more safety features than usual, but that's about it."

She then picked up the empty ammo clip for the plasma rifle she was field stripping and assembling. "As for these bad boys, well, I think I was wasting my time looking for some elaborate weakness to take advantage of."

That piqued the cyborg's interest. "Oh really? And why's that?"

Jinx held up the clip between her hands. "This Elerium stuff. Honestly, did you know that it becomes inert on exposure to _sea water_? What kind of alien race comes to a planet 2/3rds covered with something which basically gobbles up their main power source?"

"Oh yeah, I read about that," he replied, double checking some calculations from earlier while he talked. "Technically, its the crystalline structure the element-115 is stored in that reacts and turns the whole thing inert. At least they're not as bad as those aliens from that 'Signs' movie. Just... strangely environmentally sensitive. Still, what does that actually do for you? It's not like you carry a spray bottle of ocean water with you, and even if you did, how would you get it into the guns, little lady? Plus, doesn't -"

Jinx waved her hand absently and interrupted before the tech-speak got worse. "Puh-leeze, Cy. Now that I know what to go for, I don't need actual seawater to wreck the stuff, I just need to simulate the effect. Besides… it's supposed to take **years** for natural seawater to actually do the job. On the other hand, breaking things down is kinda my specialty; I can reduce a stainless steel door to a pile of rust in a few seconds, and _that_ kind of reaction can take _decades_, if not centuries. So yeah, practice makes perfect, but it's a definite start."

"That it does." Cyborg busily scrolled down the tablet in his left hand, narrowing one eye at a potential trouble spot in the design.

"But that is why you're here, after all. Since Raven's powers are on the fritz, having her on hand for 'containment issues' is a no go, so I need someone that can short this portal out with a snap of their fingers if need be. You know, in case there's some weird anomaly where it becomes self sustaining, or monsters start pouring out, or it begins to overload and threatens to blow a chunk out of the earth's mantle..."

"And I want to be here _why_ again?" she inquired, but clearly not too seriously. "So not only am I not even your first choice, but I also get a front row seat to the end of the world? You don't exactly know how to show a girl a good time, Tin Man."

Cyborg chuckled. Luckily, he had left out the part about XCOM techs adding a rather large set of explosives to the device, as part of their own failsafe procedures. The entire maintenance bay was double reinforced in case of catastrophic failure or an Elerium accident (aka an 'uncontrolled anti-matter production event). If Command got a whiff of trouble coming from the newest project down here, they'd first try and cut the power and blow the device itself, then implode the entire bay. Needless to say, those were both less than optimal events given his personal proximity to the machine in question.

"Oh, come on, Jinx, think of it as a trust exercise. I trust you to bail us outta trouble, and you trust me to try very, very hard not to get us into that trouble in the first place." He looked back to the e-tablet in his palm. "On the bright side, shouldn't be more than another twenty minutes before I'm ready for my scheduled test run."

"Twenty minutes?" she snapped, slamming a piece of rifle down on the table. "You said that over an hour ago! What is the freakin' holdup here?"

Cyborg fumed at that. "Hey now! The final calibrations take time, it's not like I can just ramble all this stuff off of the top of my head, you know?"

"You can't? I thought you were the super genius here?"

"I am - I am!" he replied loudly. "It's just that ... well, I'm kinda standing on the shoulders of giants here. It's a bit of a tricky balance, y'know?"

The pink haired hexxer wiped her hands on a static-removal cloth and glanced over at him, a little piqued by the strange comment. "Okay, since I can clearly see that you're not being literal here, what with the lack of abnormally large men beneath you, I'm going to have to ask the obvious: 'Wuh?'"

"It's just an old turn of phrase, that's all." The cybernetic whiz sighed sadly. "It means that I'm just building on the work of those that came before me. I mean, sure, I'm smart, but I'm no dimensional physicist. I mean, come on, no one can be amazing at everything. No, everything you see here, this is all... it _was_ all... my parents work..."

The pink-eyed girl's jaw actually dropped open at that. "Your parents?" The way she said it, it seemed like she imagined he's just sprouted from the JLU Watchtower one day. Or maybe she just had a hard time imagining it. It took a second before she became slightly quieter and more introspective. "Your parents worked on dimensional tech like this?"

For a moment, Cyborg found himself staring at something far more distant than the datapad in his hand, could almost hear the shouting...

"Yes, actually, they did," he replied, with a bit of a sour note coloring his tone. "In fact, you could even say that their last experiment made me the man I am today."

Confusion graced the slim girl's pretty face as she stared at him. A moment later, realization dawned - "W-wait a second. When you say 'the man you are' ... do you mean ...?"

With a sigh, he put down the pad and turned around to look at her. Tapping his chest, he let a wry grin settle onto his face at the sound of the metallic rings. "Yup, that's exactly what I mean. I didn't just lose half my body that day, either, but ... well, yeah, don't really want to talk about that too much."

"...Yeah, I get ya," Jinx muttered in a low tone. "So the theory you're using was created by your parents."

Cyborg shrugged. "Concept... Theory... Portal. Yeah, it was all their research, all their designs. Same with all the tech that went into rebuilding me. I got all the knowledge of everything they worked on all stored up here..." He tapped the side of his skull with a metallic ting. "Just waiting for me to crack the code, as it were, and bring all of their work to its ultimate conclusion: practical application in the real world."

His companion's eyes widened noticeably. "Whoa. That's... some heavy baggage you got there. So you got a head full of crazy, half finished and possibly half baked research in your head... and it's up to you to actually figure out how to make it all work? Wait a second, then does this mean that _this_ portal is pretty much just a remake of, you know, the one that caused all your problems?"

Chuckling weakly, the Titan nodded. "With a few minor tweaks made due to availability, or lack thereof, of proper materials. I know it works, though, seeing as how... well, it _worked_ before... more or less. I just got to make all the calculations and try to lock onto our home dimension is all."

Jinx could only shake her head as she stared at him. "Wow ... dude, seriously. I know people that won't even step onto a plane because they were scared by hearing one take off as a kid ... but you're actually rebuilding the very thing that pretty much sent your life down the tubes on fast tracks? That takes some serious brass b- um, well, you know ..."

Unable to help himself, Cyborg winked at her lewdly. "Hey now, ain't no brass in my construction. You're free to check if you want."

And just as quickly as it appeared, her sympathetic demeanor dropped away. "In your _dreams_, Tin Man! I have half a mind to sic Kasumi on you for that one."

"Oh, come on; don't even joke about that, Jinx. The last thing I need is for her to grill me about the whole 'Dan Hibiki incident.'"

Rolling her eyes, Jinx leaned back into her seat and went back to her rifle maintenance practice.

"Seriously," she told him, head shaking slowly back and forth. "Quit worrying about that. Trust me, this is _not_ the same Kasumi that you've got the hots for. One conversation with her would clear that up for ya right quick, I bet. Now shut up and get back to work already."

With a sigh, Cyborg nodded to himself. "Fine, fine, back to work. Hmm, now let's see..."

He circled the portal a few more times over the next twenty minutes, making small adjustments and calibrations as he went, making sure everything was perfect. Standing at six feet high, and equally wide of course, the large circle was formed of eighteen linked compartments, each housed in featureless metal shells. The dull humming of the initial power-up could still be heard, even through the insulating materials. Nodding to himself one last time, Cyborg performed one last battery of tests before he was satisfied. Moving back towards the center of the workshop, he then lifted his arm and activated his commlink.

"Alright, Commander, this is Cyborg. I'm ready to proceed with my initial test. The workshop has already been cleared of any nonessential personnel, i.e. Jinx and myself, and I've set up a few blast shields, just in case. If you want to send in any guards or observers, now is the time."

Several tense seconds passed.

"Very well," an audio-only response came back. "A team of researchers has already been assembled to watch your test. I've assigned Bravo Squad to back you up... just in case."

"Thank you, ma'am. I'll inform you when I'm about to begin the test."

"Very good. As you were."

Letting out a worried grumble, Cyborg looked up to the dully humming portal, then over to Jinx. The young woman was already getting up and moving off to the side of the device. On the far side of the room, the doors slid open and two small groups entered. The difference between scientist and soldier was quite clear, as easy to discern as the lab coats and powered armor. In fact, Cyborg was able to pick out a familiar face among the less heavily armed of the groups. Immediately he donned a smile and waved her over.

"Doctor al-Rifai!" he called out to her. "Hey! How's it goin?"

The older woman quickly split off from the rest of the researchers, who moved closer to the portal, examining it with marked interest. Cyborg could guess that they'd already seen everything about it – his notes, plans and theories had all been passed through a security filter. This wasn't the sort of organization to just let someone cobble stuff together freely. They'd watched, recorded, and probably copied everything he did. Not that he blamed them. It was invasive, but… prudent.

As the doctor headed over, the soldiers on the other hand, simply held back by the door, prepared to block passage in or out. They were all armed for combat, and carrying fully charged and active "hot" versions of the heavy plasma rifle disassembled nearby.

"Cyborg! It's good to see you again. And, honestly, I think I should be asking _you_ that question. Are you actually prepared to go ahead with your test?" asked the physicist, obviously excited.

"Ready for the test? More or less... 'How am I doing?' Freakin' out a bit. Not sure about doing this test 'here', though. Frankly, given the chance, I'd be doin' this on the _moon_ if I could."

"Moon? What do you know about the moon?" Jalila asked a touch quickly.

He shrugged. "Big, mostly rock, orbits the earth ... Anything else I should know?"

"Ah. Oh. No - no, nothing," came a hasty reply. "So, about the test?"

"Ah, right, right." With that, he moved back to the portal, taking his place at the control panel. Built into a dais which stood several yards away from the portal itself, the panel was clustered with buttons, digital readouts and gauges which were shoddily labeled at best. It wasn't exactly the streamlined version of the design. If it weren't for the fact that he had the schematics in his brain, it would be all but unusable, for anyone other than himself, it would be. Moving to stand at his side, Jalila watched with interest as he began to enter the initial sequence to fire up the portal.

"So... why are the rest of your friends not here?" she asked as he proceeded carefully through the secondary and tertiary activation sequences.

"The Commander doesn't want anyone that isn't absolutely necessary here, for safety reasons," he replied. "And, honestly, I don't really want to get their hopes up. There's no guarantee this will work, after all."

Lights began to flare to life around the outer ring of the portal as the power systems surged to life. A low vibration began to travel through the ground as the portal started to shake rapidly and a high pitched whine began to fill the air. Sweating slightly now, Cyborg entered the final sequence to fire up the portal. As soon as he hit the enter button, the lights in the room actually dimmed at the sudden and startling power drain. Immediately, all of the researchers moved back behind the transparent shields set up for them to observe from a (relatively) safe location.

The vibrations and the whine increased exponentially with each passing moment as the portal battled to break down the very laws of physics themselves.

Then something amazing happened: at the very center of the technological ring, a spark appeared from nothing. It vanished just as quickly, only to reappear again a second later. The tiny light fluctuated wildly for several seconds, before stabilizing into a small sphere of unnatural darkness. A shiver ran up Cyborg's spine as he stared at the phenomena, though it had been years, this very scene had been burned into his memory and was playing out all over again. He knew what was coming next -

Just as he remembered, the small sphere suddenly flattened, being stretched violently outwards to the inner edges of the portal, revealing a swirling vortex of colors that humans were not meant to witness. For a seeming infinity, Cyborg stared at the Vortex, his memory running away with him. All too soon, 'it' would come through the portal, inhuman, unstoppable - then the screams -

Cyborg caught himself halfway to pressing the cancel button, shaking his head fiercely. Jalila gave him a concerned glance, but he simply waved off her worry.

"It's all good," he insisted. "I just need to lock on to the dimensional co-ordinates of my home dimension."

Hands moving quickly, he began to shift the destination of the portal, dialing through the frequencies...

The vortex began to waver.

"Wait... what? That's odd," he muttered under his breath. Dialing up the power a bit, he continued to refine his search, moving further outwards. Jalila watched, a crease wrinkling her brow as she watched his hands move over the control panel, most notably when he reached for the power dial again as he noted the vortex begin to waver once more.

"Are ... you certain that's wise?" she asked. "You should have made contact already."

Increasing the power to the portal again, Cyborg nodded sharply. "No. It's fine. It's just further out than I expected..."

"_Cyborg_! What's going on? It's getting hot over here!" Cyborg looked up to see Jinx backing away from the portal, holding her hands up before her. Thin jets of steam were beginning to shoot out from the portal, and yet the vortex continued to grow more diffuse!

Frowning, he modulated the containment protocols, trying to refine the integrity of the vortex, even as he reached for the power dial again.

"Cyborg, that's enough," Jalila exclaimed, dropping a hand onto his wrist. She pointed up to the worryingly dim lights overhead. "You're taxing the transmitters more than is safe, and the materials of your portal can't withstand these energy levels!"

"B-but I almost got it! It's working, I just need a little more!"

Ignoring the hand on his arm, he twisted the dial further, increasing the power to the portal. More power. That was all it needed!

Just a bit more...

They were almost home! The portal was working!

If he could do this, then his parents -

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?"

Jinx's yell snapped him out of his trance and he looked over to see her all but pinned against the wall at the far side of the room. Even the researchers had moved back from the protective shield. Looking to his side, he finally noticed that Jalila was looking red in the face, and not from blushing. He hadn't even noticed it himself, but the room was growing unbearably hot, as if the portal was a raging bonfire. The lights were almost out, but the room was well lit by the cherry red glow of the portal itself!

Why? Why hadn't they made contact yet? With this much power, the portal should have been extended through the Bleed and then some! It was working. He was sure of it! The instruments were reading positive. There was enough energy in the event singularity to punch through to a half dozen parallel dimensions! Were the dimensional coordinates wrong? Why wasn't the event pinching and connecting like it should have been?

He just needed a bit more power... he was sure of it! But if he did...

"Damnit!" With a curse, Cyborg hit the oversized Kill Switch on the side of the control panel. It was only a matter of time before someone on the outside cut the power, anyway. Thinking that, even for a second, made making the decision easier.

Almost predictably, nothing happened. A new series of curses escaped Cyborg's lips as he immediately tore off the top of the panel and began to go through the wiring.

"The power circuits are fused!" Jalila cried out, catching the error before he did.

That ... was very, very bad.

Stepping back from the control station, Cyborg ran across the room and slammed the large, clearly marked 'Kill Switch', which controlled the power of the entire maintenance Bay. Doing so would cut the hard line between this entire facility and the fusion reactor powering the base, effectively killing the power to the portal and saving the base from any real harm-

The portal continued to glow, the swirling vortex suddenly taking on a much darker color as, without him helming the controls, the proto-wormhole began to slide rapidly towards more stable dimensions, branching out wildly for something to connect to. Dimensions which they had absolutely zero knowledge of or control over! And why the hell _wasn__'__t it powering down_?

The portal wavered, screeching like nails on a chalkboard.

"It can't be...?" he suddenly realized, staring at the rapidly disintegrating but blindingly obvious. "There are no other nearby dimensions? No, that... that just can't be right."

It would mean that this dimension was like a solitary island in the middle of the ocean, no other spot of land visible from horizon to horizon. There was just nothing solid out there: nothing for the portal to reintegrate with. That wasn't just conceptually troubling, it explained why so much energy was building up in the d-portal itself. It would either explode outright or connect for a brief micro-moment with the dimensional space just outside the norm. There was probably energy there, too, but nothing useable: probably just insane amounts of radiation.

A quick simulation run in his head explained, explicitly, just how deadly such a result would be.

"_Jinx!_ Take it out!"

It hurt, almost physically, to watch as Jinx nodded harshly, then lifted her hands before her. It wasn't even flashy, either, just a simple snapping of her fingers, and suddenly a ring of sparks exploded out from around the portal, destroying emitters, frying circuitry and severing power conduits with reckless abandon. Without all of the hardware to sustain it, the vortex lasted only a few seconds longer, before destabilizing completely and collapsing back into the nothingness from which it had spawned.

Silence hung in the air for nearly half a minute, before the lighting finally returned to normal.

Cyborg could only stare at the smoking ruins of the portal.

"... Damn ... It looks like we-"

* * *

"- might be stuck here for awhile …"

Faces fell around the room as Cyborg finished his description of what had happened during the fateful test of the dimensional portal prototype. He had gathered them all in the girls' room, and each of the Titans were sitting on one of the available beds. Starfire was sitting on the edge of her bed, her legs tucked in and her arms lying on her knees. Raven sat cross-legged, a neutral expression on her face.

Ryouga leaned forward, hands clenching his knees as he stared at the floor, breaths coming in slow, unhappy gasps. And finally, lying on the furthest bed, hands wrapped loosely in bandages, was Jinx, her eyes closed.

"S-stuck? But… but we cannot be 'stuck'," Starfire stated, disbelief stark in her voice. "You - you are **you**. You do not fail, you **never** fail! How is it possible that we can be **stuck**?"

Raven looked over at the Tamaranian, sympathy clear on her features. "Starfire, we are not 'stuck' yet. This was merely our first attempt. There are still many other avenues we may be able to use to get home. There are doubtlessly magical artifacts, rituals or spells that should be able to do what we desire." The violet haired woman tapped her chin. "Though, admittedly, we would be unlikely to find any of those as long as we are here."

"Then let's **not **be here!" Ryouga surged to his feet, clenching a fist angrily. "If they can't help us, then there's no reason for us to stay here, is there? We should be out looking for one of these other things, shouldn't we?"

"Seriously?"

Immediately, everyone turned to stare at Jinx, the exasperation in her voice cutting. Not bothering to sit up, she draped an arm over her eyes.

"Honestly, Ryouga, I love you to bits, but do you actually think that these guys are just gonna let us leave?" she asked. "You know just as well what these guys do to the people they think the aliens might use against them. If we decide we don't want to work with them anymore, they're gonna stick us in one of their safe communities, under suburban lock and key until this damn war of theirs is over."

Cyborg sighed loudly. "I wouldn't put it that harshly, Jinx. They got damn good reasons to be doin' what they're doing, and you know just as well as I do that most of the people in those communities are happy to be there, considering the mind shield-less alternative."

"But we would **not** be," Starfire stated emphatically. "It is all well and good if those that wish to hide do so, but they cannot hold us against our will. If we desire to find alternate routes to our home dimension, then what right do they have to deny us?"

"They have the sanction of most world governments, the military might to enforce their edicts, and sufficient fear of this alien threat to do whatever they deem fit," Raven explained seriously. "They also operate in lockstep with dozens of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. We cannot fight them, nor do I have any desire to. They are only doing what they feel needs to be done, though we might not agree with it. Perhaps… perhaps we may be able to convince them to aid us in finding other ways home?"

The bandanna clad martial artist frowned at that.

"Well… I kinda hate to give him any credit, but my counterpart here was able to convince the higher ups to find all kinds of ancient scrolls for him, and to help him get in contact with other masters to ask about their techniques." His frown only deepened as he continued. "Of course, they did all of that because he was thinking up new ways to _kill things_ for them. Spending that kind of resources to help us get home probably isn't all that high on their list of priorities."

Starfire bit her knuckle, continuing to hold her knees to her chest. "But we _must_ get home. I could not bear to stay here longer than absolutely necessary. My heart breaks for our home even now. Is – is there nothing else that you can do, Cyborg? Can you not repair the portal? Can you not find out what the malfunction was and correct it?"

Shaking his head sadly, Cyborg pulled out the chair from the small desk set against the wall and sat down.

"That's just the problem, Star," he dejectedly replied. "There _was_ no malfunction… at least, none that I could see. As far as I could tell, it was working perfectly. No, it was working better than expected, even! It just -" He held out his hands, as if the failure had been his personally. "It just wouldn't 'reach!' No matter how much power I fed in, I couldn't find the frequency of our home dimension, or any other dimension for that matter! The tech here… it just isn't enough to get us home."

"Are you certain you aren't just missing something?" Raven asked. "Technology got us here, after all, so there is no reason it should not be able to get us home. The device you used required merely a fraction of the power that the reactors of this base could provide. I find it hard to believe that our technology is so far advanced beyond that of this world that the small containment device you used possessed more power than this entire base."

"Um, _wrong_, Rae," Jinx snidely interrupted, seizing the opportunity to correct the dark girl. "Unless you forgot, there was plenty of insanity goin' on back then. We had the dimensional prison thing, we had your crazy ass powers going crazier than usual, and we had that damned 26 dimensional hyper griffin stuck in the middle of it all. Who knows what combination of any of those three things could have been responsible for getting us here?"

Cyborg perked up noticeably at that.

"She... she's right!" he exclaimed, struck by the sudden addition of possible variables. "I never thought to try supplementing the portal with your power, Rae. You've already demonstrated a natural ability to pierce dimensional barriers; it might just be the extra kick we need to bridge the gap."

"Yes, but… there's only one problem with that," Raven replied somberly. She glanced down at the bed beneath her. "Many of my powers have been fading steadily since we arrived here, and I think this matter of dimensions is exactly the cause behind it. Though my talents for empathy and telepathy are just as strong, if not stronger with this recent training, my telekinesis and more … esoteric abilities are far from what they once were. I doubt I would be of much help in opening such a portal now."

"Well, that still leaves the griffin, though, doesn't it?" Ryouga asked, sounding a bit hopeful. "If we can get that thing here, then you might be able to use it to get us home somehow, couldn't you?"

"I … don't know, actually," Cyborg admitted. "I mean, I have no idea how we got here in the first place, really, but … I guess it's possible. It's obviously composed of some form of dimensional matter-energy that we don't quite understand. If I can find someway to tap into that, who knows what I could do?"

"Um, yeah, just one problem with that, too." Jinx hopped up to her feet, stalking back and forth in agitation. "Last I saw, the ship that had the griffin on it up and flew away, goddess knows where. For all we know, they could have the damn thing back on Mars by now."

Instantly, everyone stopped and turned to look at Jinx.

Slowly, inspiration began to dawn across the room.

"Is not this organization intending to venture to Mars in the future, to end this conflict permanently?" Starfire asked.

"They _have_ to at some point," Ryouga added. "And that's where they said Cologne and alien martial artists went, too, so they're going to need all of the special fighters they can get to go after them."

"Powerful psions are also in great demand on the battlefield." Raven smiled happily to herself. "Our team does offer a level of diversity that is beyond compare on this planet. Surely our aid would be greatly appreciated on any such endeavor."

"Again, one problem, people," Jinx interjected. "They don't trust us enough to actually take us on any kind of mission like that. We're still just a bunch of punk kids that are more trouble than we're worth at the moment. The two teams that we should get along with best on the whole base can barely stand us, and the Commander looks like she's considering having us shot every time we go in there to be reprimanded. The opinion of us on this base couldn't get much worse at this point."

Their cybernetic companion chuckled loudly. "Well that's good then! If opinions about us couldn't get worse, then that means it won't be too hard to raise those opinions again, right?"

Finally rising to his feet, Ryouga smirked and nodded. "Leaving isn't an option. Neither is sitting around and doing nothing. So I guess that only leaves us with one alternative, doesn't it? And if we gotta play soldier, then we do this right."

"We gotta show these jokers that we mean business," Jinx agreed, "That we're taking this deadly serious."

"It we are going to be stuck here for an unforeseen amount of time," Raven ventured. "It might be prudent to investigate the legal problems which we will undoubtedly encounter if we plan to become more than mere observers in this organization."

"S'not a bad idea, Rae," Cyborg agreed. "We need to start doing everything we can to impress these guys to turn around the way they think about us. And I think a good part of that would involve improving relations with other teams and showing them a bit more of what we're capable of here."

"Heh, that sounds like a lot to cover." Ryouga chuckled quietly, looking from one team mate to the next. "But I think we can do it."

He then held up a fist and clenched it, face burning with determination.

"I think it's time that the Titans put their mark on Seiran Mountain."

* * *

**From**: Sqd. Min Te

**Sent**:-

**To**: Starfire

**Subject**: Hi!

Hi there. This is Mint.

I wanted to send a message to ask if things were doing better. I heard that you met up with your friends in the Japan branch, and that you're in some sort of observation team. I don't really know what that means, but it sounds like you're doing okay over there. My hand is back to normal and I've been put back on active duty again. I hope you find a way home soon. I know I'd be sad if I found out I was in a strange place and my home was gone.

Lord Herb says to keep practicing.

Good luck and swift victory in your future battles. Lime said before that he wants a rematch someday with you, but I told him it probably won't happen. If we do meet up again, would you like to drink tea with me?

Mint

* * *

"Alright, so I've managed to get some help with all of the things we spoke about an hour ago..."

Ryouga sighed, taking a seat at the head of the conference room's table.

"Fortunately, _and unfortunately_, I went to Nabiki to help me," he continued. "As such, I got a lot of really good leads … on the not so bright side; I now owe her 'more than a few favors.' I only hope that my sacrifice on behalf of Yankee squadron won't be in vain."

Raven rolled her eyes, smiling wryly. "Did I ever give you the 'Nerimian Drama Queen' speech that I gave to Mousse?"

The laughter that rose from Starfire, Jinx and Cyborg only served to annoy the martial artist further.

"Oh, shut up already. You don't know what Nabiki is like, Raven. I could be in serious peril here. But, like I said, I'll worry about that later." He held up a few sheets of paper that bore his neat penmanship upon their surfaces. Dropping the papers on the table, he shoved them out towards the rest of the Titans. "For now, though, she gave me some good pointers on what we can do to fit in better, heck, she said that just coming to her in the first place was a decent step that she, honestly, hadn't thought I was capable of."

"Ah, ya just gotta love Biki, don't ya?" Jinx tittered in amusement. "She has an amazing backhand when it comes to compliments."

Jinx then reached forward and grabbed the top sheet.

Scanning it quickly, she nodded. "Hmm, well yeah, I guess that makes sense. Considering who we'd be working for, it's probably one of their minimum requirements. Heck, I can probably get this one taken care of pretty easy on my own. Good old 'Biki was even nice enough to give some contacts on who to go to, to get it done."

Immediately, the rest of the Titans picked up potential errands. After some more quick reading, Starfire handed her sheet to Raven, Raven handed hers to Cyborg and Cyborg handed his to Starfire. Another round of perusals, and each Titan nodded, looking quite satisfied.

"Ah, yes, that makes much more sense," Starfire stated happily.

"It's about time I got some action, yo. I've been stuck in that lab way too long."

"Hmm, I think I can devise something … suitably impressive to make an impression with," Raven added, smirking to herself.

Ryouga nodded, glad to hear they were positive about what lay ahead. "Personally, I'm going to go to the legal department and see about making us an official team, rather than just observers. If we are going to be here for awhile, I'd rather we got all the benefits that everyone else did, like pay and leave and such, so that we aren't virtual prisoners here. Considering none of us are legal inhabitants of this dimension, though … not to mention underaged-"

"Hey, dawg!"

"Well, _most_ of us are, anyway, it might be a bit tricky."

"I'm certain that it is in the best interest of UNETCO to help with that," Raven commented. "I trust that you can succeed. I doubt Nabiki would send you on a wild goose chase … well, I'm fairly sure she wouldn't, anyway."

"Dead end or not, it's worth looking into," he agreed. "Now, let's get underway, I'd like to get as much done as possible today."

Everyone nodded in agreement with Ryouga on that front, and as one, they rose to leave the room.

* * *

Jonas Adler, lawyer for the UNETCO Legal Division and generally regarded 'nice guy', typed in a few last words on the document he was preparing, before saving it and initiating the error checking software. It wasn't exactly the most exciting work in the world, which he felt was somewhat ironic, seeing how he worked for an organization that battled evil aliens on a daily basis, but it certainly paid well, and knowing that he was actually helping to make the world a better place (unlike so many of his ilk, hence their less than stellar reputations) gave him a good measure of job satisfaction.

The Legal Division, really only a smaller adjunct to the Finance Department, wasn't kept nearly as busy as their counterparts, but they found no shortage of things for him to do. Nothing of great import had come through lately. However, he had heard - quite recently through the grapevine - that there might be something interesting coming down the pipes very soon indeed. As such, he wasn't at all surprised when his assistant, Thomas, walked up and knocked on the side of his cubicle, clearing his throat.

Looking up, Jonas nodded. "What is it, Tom?"

"A … well, 'another' Mr. Hibiki is here to see you. He says that a _Miss Tendo_ referred him to you specifically."

Smiling, Jonas nodded. The young Tendo woman was quite a fascinating specimen herself, and she'd gone out of her way to make friends among the legal and financial departments (some said she had tried _too hard_). He knew the kind of maneuvering she was up to, collecting as many 'friends in high places' as she could, despite the fact that there weren't too many 'high places' in this department. But he didn't begrudge her that. In fact, he appreciated it.

A young person being thrust into an unfamiliar situation? It only made sense to try to learn the system and play it as well as possible. And the fact that she'd sent something this potentially interesting his way? It appeared that he owed her one, asked for or not.

"By all means, send him in."

Nodding, his assistant stepped back and was quickly replaced by another young man. Eerily familiar, despite the fact that Jonas had never met this particular person before, the young Ryouga Hibiki offered a nervous bow as he greeted him.

"Mr. Adler?"

Jonas nodded, then waved the young man in. "Of course. And you are our latest Ryouga Hibiki, are you not? Please, come in. I've actually been expecting you."

The young martial artist smirked wryly. "Heh, I'm sure you were. Then I suppose you know why I'm here?"

Again, the lawyer nodded. "I think I have the gist of what you're looking to accomplish. I'll warn you up front, that this will involve a fair amount of time and effort, but it's good that you've shown this initiative earlier, rather than later." He then gestured to the seat in front of his desk.

Ryouga sat down obligingly, and once he was settled in, Jonas continued.

"Still, for clarity's sake, why don't you explain to me exactly what you'd like to happen here…"

* * *

Lieutenant Winther nodded approvingly as his squad went through another technique drill. He watched with pride as his own little 'secret weapon', Akane Tendo, ran her teammates through the proper technique and application of the sweep kick. She followed the attack with a smooth motion of the arms, a move that would end, in combat, with a shot to the back of the now pinned enemy. Basic CQB stuff, really, but strengthening the foundation was always key to improving one's skills.

The fact that Akane had an in with the owners of the Dojo didn't hurt either, as, maybe just once or twice, Golf Squad had been able to finagle themselves more favorable slots for their training sessions. Beside the fringe benefits, having one of the 'Nerima Kids' on his team - even if she was, admittedly, the lowest wrung of that particular hierarchy - Akane had proven to be a strong and capable addition to the squad, not to mention diligent and hardworking.

It was far more subtle with her, of course, when compared to the utterly super human feats that her friends often performed, but her strength, speed and skills could not be denied. Why, with a few more years of actual combat experience, Akane could raise through the ranks like a shooting star, if she were determined to do so. And if she survived the battlefield.

Another series of loud thuds sounded out as bodies hit the mats. The downed soldiers quickly regained their feet and reversed positions to perform the technique themselves.

It was about that moment, that the dojo door slid open. Not expecting any observers or visitors, the Lieutenant was doubly surprised when he saw who it was … floating through the door. The flame haired alien girl had made more than a minor stir among the entire base due to her pleasant personality, good looks (at least among the younger men… and one or two ladies), unusual attire, and most notably, for the rumors that she had taken on all of the infamous Romeo Squad, _solo_ and lived to tell the tale.

The question was, what was she doing here?

Last he'd heard, the newly formed Yankee squad was almost painfully insular and a few of their members were still considered open threats by the higher ups. Though this girl - what had she claimed to be, a Tamaranian? - was one of the less abrasive ones, by a large margin, she had stayed in step with the rest of her team and hadn't interacted with any base personnel unless absolutely necessary. She was also in duty fatigues, which was good. It meant she knew she was on duty and dressed appropriately. Still, that didn't explain her presence.

Curious, he stepped forward and nodded to the young woman.

"Miss…" He remembered the memo about her preferences in terms of naming convention. "Sorry. Miss Starfire, was it? Is there something we can do to help you?"

She turned to him and bowed down politely, before nodding happily. "Indeed, that is my name. And you are Lieutenant Karl Winther, are you not?"

Karl nodded, pleased by the fact that she had apparently gone out of the way to learn his name as well.

"As to my purpose," she continued, "I am here in hopes of fostering amity between our two squads. To that end, I was hoping to join in your training session today. There are many combat techniques unknown on the planet that I may be able to pass on in time, with your permission."

That certainly piqued the lieutenant's interest. She was here to improve relations with Yankee squad? That was interesting indeed. Considering that Juliet squad seemed to be under the impression it would take a crowbar to get these youngsters out of their shells, he certainly hadn't expected to see them taking this kind of initiative on their own.

"By all means," he finally replied, smiling pleasantly. "We would be glad to train with Yankee squad as a whole as well, whenever schedules allow."

The young woman's blinding smile was almost a reward in and of itself. There were so few genuinely joyful people left on this base, and it was always a pleasure to run into one. Slowly, he turned to regard the rest of his squad, all of whom had stopped their training to watch the unusual exchange. Akane, in particular seemed to be regarding the alien girl with mixed emotions. Was Tendo still upset with Yankee squad for their past conduct, or was she just annoyed with the idea that this Starfire seemed to think she had something to teach them all?

Smiling to himself now, Karl turned back to Starfire. "As for today's training, how about we start with a little fun, first? Why don't you and Miss Tendo have a nice, friendly spar? No powers. Just techniques. It would help me to assess just where you stand, after all."

Immediately, a determined expression bloomed on Akane's face as she stared at Starfire, just as a wry grin spread over the Tamaranians.

"Why, I believe that would be quite enjoyable indeed."

* * *

The sound of weapon fire - mostly low yield variants, as Elerium was too precious to waste during training - filled the air. Two of Echo squadron's finest were currently running and gunning through the mobile firing range. Always a great training opportunity, it took forever to actually schedule any time here. Supposedly, the base had lined up funds to build an extension to it, but then run into delays… much to the displeasure of squad commanders who found themselves on waiting lists. It was popular for good reason. Not only was there the challenge itself of just making it through the course, as many of the targets actually fired back, but it allowed for some friendly competition between squad members as they strived to take out more 'hostiles' in a short a time as possible.

Lieutenant Stirling was quite glad to have managed to get this training session today. There was a lot of tension lately, what with all of the recent alien activity, not to mention the quiet buzz in the air as the day approached that this war might be ended for good, one way or the other.

The latest mission, involving the vicious terror attack in Russia, had been particularly stressful. Between the bizarre alien technology that had been discovered and recovered, the alien conspirators that had been captured, and, most notably, the entire business with White Iron … well, things were just tense lately, especially around the dubious Yankee squadron.

Honestly, he wasn't even certain why these dimensional interlopers were being humored as they were. A Class-AA psychic? An obvious alien? An admitted career criminal? And not only was the cybernetic teen - arrested for trying to hijack a satellite system - running around unescorted, they were actually giving him free run of the workshops? What was the Commander thinking? Next thing you knew they'd be letting Blackwater types onto the roster, too.

Unbelievably, the new Hibiki was the worst of the lot. Disrespectful, disruptive and outright disdainful of his counterpart in this world, it was unbelievable that they made the young punk an acting sergeant, even if it was only in an observer role.

Lieutenant Hibiki and the native Nerimians had proven themselves to be invaluable additions to the UNETCO organization. They had potential like Lt. Silver had never seen. They had also bloodied themselves beheading the Sirius Group, and cut their teeth crippling alien operations in East Asia. If this upstart team of dimensional refugees was going to start making waves and generating friction with two well established and well liked teams, well, it seemed obvious who needed to go, here. Maybe send them to South Africa or the Mideast bases for a six month rotation.

An unfamiliar presence made itself known to the trained psion as he continued to watch his squad run through the course. Turning to the entrance, he watched, frown curving his lips, as the door slid open.

The large frame which stepped through the doorway could have easily passed as a suit of powered armor, were it not for the few traces of humanity which remained un-augmented by the cybernetic replacements.

Lt. Stirling didn't even need to do an active scan of the new comer's mind to see the confidence in his step as he strolled up. The officer kept a neutral expression as the self dubbed Cyborg approached him and snapped off a quick salute.

"Lt. Stirling? How are you doing today, sir?"

Hmmm, well, that isn't exactly what he'd been expecting. This kid actually knew who he was? What was his game?

"You're still technically a civilian, kid, so you don't need to worry about the 'sirs' and salutes and whatnot. Not when you're just an observer." He glanced back over to his troops, evaluating their run through the course. "And, as you can see, we're in the middle of training here, so I don't have time to chat."

Cyborg held up a hand, waving it absently. "No worries, Lieutenant. I won't take up much of your time. Acting Sergeant Hibiki just wanted us all to approach other teams to 'improve relations', ya know? I wanted to extend an open invitation to organize some training sessions between Echo squad and Yankee squad. You guys are one of the top squads on base, after all, so we feel that it would be a really good experience for us."

Despite himself, Lt. Stirling felt the corner of his lip quirk up.

Flattery, was it? At least this Cyborg knew the proper approach to butter a guy up. And what was this about Yankee squad attempting to improve relations? What had brought this sudden about face on? Juliet, the teams supposed mentors, hadn't even been on base for days…

Stirling chuckled to himself. Had that been one of the problems? Had saddling the newcomers with Juliet actually hindered their ability to blend in? It would certainly be some kind or irony, he figured, if that were the case. Psych had assumed Yankee would respond better to people their own age, rather than a group of adults who they could possibly see as a threat and an imposition.

"Is that so?" Stirling asked, amused. "So, you think that your team of young pups is ready to train with the big dogs, then?"

The wide grin that bloomed on the cybernetic teen's face told a tale all on its own. "I think you might be surprised at what we can do. We ain't exactly new to this business, y'know?"

"So you say." The Lieutenant turned to look back at the mobile firing range, then turned back to Cyborg, smirking wryly. "Alright then, why don't we make this interesting? Why don't you and me take a quick run through the course. Give me a chance to see what you can do with my own eyes. I'll give you two runs through. Think of it as a performance review."

Looking past him, Cyborg looked to the mobile range behind him. A quiet whirr sounded as the teen's crimson eye cycled through what appeared to be a few settings.

"If you say so, sir. Just … how about ya let me watch a quick run-through first?"

* * *

"So, what do ya say, Sergeant Karpov? Up for letting a pretty little thing train with you guys for the evening?"

Piotr Karpov, NCO of CT:Bravo, stared uncertainly at the pink haired girl that stood before him. Behind him, his squad members had gathered, stepping away from their places at the static firing range, laser rifles slung over their shoulders.

"Well… Miss Jinx," it took a second to remember the name. "As interesting as the idea of training with Yankee squad is, I believe none of you will be able to do 'any' training on the static range until you get proper weapons certifications to handle live ammunition."

He grabbed one of the laser rifles from one of his men and held it up before her.

"This is a deadly weapon, and even in training conditions like this, safety is the chief concern. Even a laser pistol requires full safety certification before we'll even let you _look_ at the firing range."

Moving quicker than he could react, the girl reached forward and snatched the rifle from his hand. With impressive speed, she began to field strip the weapon before him, sticking the parts under her arms. XCOM issue laser weapons used a radioactive isotope as part of the power supply. It took a trained hand to fully disassemble one, rather than just do basic maintenance. One of the other Bravo squad members tensed, seeing her about to remove the radioactive battery. Piotr held up his hand, letting the comparatively tiny girl continue.

In less than a minute, Jinx handed him the stock of the weapon.

She then dug into her pocket and pulled out a small card.

"Actually, I just finished the laser weapon certification test right before I came here. They gave me temporary permission to come train until they could get a proper one done up." She smirked as the raised eyebrow on his face. "Heh, I didn't even need to do all the psionic training that the rest of the Titans are gonna have to do, since I already have plenty of practical experience with energy weapons back home!"

Shaking his head, Karpov could only stare. He shouldn't have been surprised, he supposed. This young woman did have the criminal rep from back home. He hadn't expected her to be familiar with non-kinetic firearms, however.

"Alright then, Miss Jinx, you can train with us tonight," he decided. "We're short one anyway, with Lieutenant Tsushihashi in medical."

"I thought you guys might have some room," Jinx replied with a knowing smile. She'd clearly done her research. That was definitely a good thing. "And maybe later you guys can help the rest of my team at the range?"

"Hmm." The big Russian considered it. "I did hear you four have a lot of unusual talents. It could be useful for keeping us on our toes."

"Alright! Well let's get down to business!" Jinx cheered excitedly. "It's been forever since I shot something!"

"Oh, you'll get to shoot things, young lady," Karpov stated with a smirk. "Just as soon as you put that rifle back together."

* * *

Captain Ben-Solomon watched in interest as Yankee's resident psychic organized the rest of her team according to some unknown criteria. Raven - he still wasn't sure if that was her true name or not, but nothing he'd found in his brief scan of her mind indicated one way or the other - had invited him, personally, down to the Psi Gym for a demonstration she wanted to do. The doctors assigned to her had reported that she was making remarkable progress. So he set aside some time and came.

The violet haired girl, dressed smartly in a proper uniform, though missing any sign of the rank she didn't possess, finally seemed satisfied, pairing off Ryouga and Starfire on one side, and Cyborg and

Jinx on the other. With a few sharp gestures, she then ordered the four Yankee squad members to sit at four of the Psi testing machines, one at each of the four corners of the Psi Gym. Then, one after another, she walked from one to the next, placing her hand on the head of each one in turn. Raven closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the back of each of her companion's heads as they settled into their seats.

Ben-Solomon's eyes narrowed slightly as he actually felt incredibly powerful partitions of the young woman's psyche pass into each of the squaddies, each one slightly different from the next. Once she was done, she returned to the center of the room and sat down on the floor, crossing her legs and resting her hands on her knees.

"Alright, I'm just about ready. I just need to sign in to all four accounts and then I can begin," explained the young psion, her eyes already closed.

The Captain looked around, getting a sense of what was going on. "You're setting up your entire team as proxies, all at once? Impressive."

Raven nodded. "You haven't seen anything yet. I have to sync with all of them first, so I'll need a second to concentrate before I can log in."

...

Cyborg looked up suddenly, finding himself disoriented for a moment. Turning around quickly, he was confused to find himself in, of all places, the garage back in the Titans Tower. H-how had he gotten here? Had it all been a dream? What in the world was happening?

"Dude, seriously, get a hold of yourself. You're just in your mindscape. You haven't exactly been here in your own mind before, though, so it's no surprise that you're messed up."

That voice! More confused than ever, Cyborg spun around.

"_Beast_ - Boy…?"

He looked down at his emerald skinned best friend … and noted the odd green cloak that he was wearing over his standard uniform. Beyond that, there was something else even more odd. The expression on his buddy's face held an unusual amount of confidence, an almost aggressive smile.

"Heh, yes and no, big guy," the green teen replied, taking a few steps forward to stand beside him. "You probably don't recognize me, but really, the cloak should be a dead give away. It's _me_, Bravery! Things have just been, well, a bit odd in Raven's head lately, and we're getting some bleed over from her dreams."

Cyborg stared at the … well, "emoticlone" hardly seemed to fit at the moment, considering the current appearance.

Bravery held out his cloak, checking himself out appraisingly. "Heh, dude, seriously, this body is actually _more_ girly than my old one, and _way_ less appealing to the Males 16-24 demographic, but I think I

kinda like it. I mean, it's nice not being just one of the set, even if it's only for a bit. Besides, BB was pretty hilarious when we were chillin back in Raven's head, so I don't mind."

"Well, I dunno if I should be disturbed at the fact that you're a dude … Bravery - I guess … or jazzed that I get to see my best friend again, even if only for a bit." Cyborg stared a bit longer, before finally shrugging. "Meh, alright, this is pretty cool. So, what do we do, then?"

The emerald skinned and emerald cloaked Bravery smirked and gestured for Cyborg to follow him to … the T-Car?

"Well, dude, this is where things get interesting. You see, you need to let me take over the steering wheel for a bit, and I need to show you how to let me do that so I don't have to beat your brain into submission."

Cyborg looked a little worried for a second, before nodding. "Ooookay then, to the driver's seat it is."

...

"Alright, I'm not a fan of this idea … 'Anger', but I think I get the gist of it," Jinx replied, looking down at the red cloaked Robin. The angry sneer on the boy's face didn't seem to out of place, actually. It kinda made sense to the sorceress that Raven's subconscious would want to take on the Boy Wonder's guise, aside from the obvious color coordination bonus.

She was going to have to ask everyone else what their versions of Raven looked like, too. It would be pretty amusing to see who got assigned to what emotions she was using to create these - what did they call them again? Partitions?

"You don't have to be a fan," Anger growled. "You just need to do what I tell you to do and stay the hell out of my way."

Jinx felt her hackles rise instantly - only to force herself to calm down yet again. "Okay, seriously, would you stop that? We've already established that pissing me off is like a four star meal for you, but I'm not in the mood to get into an epic level catfight here because you want a quick snack, okay? Can we just get to business?"

The Robin clone frowned at her for a moment before letting out a forlorn sigh. "… Fine, alright."

Gesturing to the room around them, the main control room of the Hive Academy, and the room she most connected with running the things in her life, Robin - Anger, muttered in a low growl.

"From here, I can assume full control of your mind," he/she explained. "Not unlike how I seized control of that Sectoid back at the Mayor's mansion. Of course, that was a constant struggle for control, and so not great conditions to work in. However, in this case, if you allow me to take over consensually, then it will work much more smoothly."

Jinx nodded, still not exactly feeling comfortable. "And what happens to me while this is going on, again? Do I go to sleep or something?"

Anger shook his head. "No, you'll be fully aware of what is going on. Depending on what you desire, you will either be able to work with me, or fight against me, however you like. This is your mind, after all, and I'm just a visitor."

"Hmm, well that's a bit of comfort, at least. And you aren't going to go rooting around my brain, right?"

"Of course not. This is a matter of controlling motor functions, there's no worries on that end," Anger explained, sounding frustrated. "Now, just relax and let me know which of these controls are the ones I need to use. Due to the symbolic and abstract nature of the mindscape, whatever you think are the right ones, will be, and the simple act of showing me where they are is like implied consent for me to use them."

Something about that explanation weirded Jinx out, not to mention made her feel just a bit vulnerable … but still, it was Robin - no, wait, it was 'Raven' here, not some ambiguous soldier. As much as it galled her, she knew she could trust the annoying Titan. So, taking a deep breath, she looked around the control room quickly, and after a moment, pointed to one of the panels, feeling, instantly, that it was the one she was looking for.

"Okay, there it is, let's get this over with already."

...

Starfire watched, concerned on many, _many_ levels, as the pink haired and pink cloaked Jinx sat down at the controls of the Tamaranian scout ship. She had to admit to feeling a moment or two of concern towards her dearest friend's mental state, that not only would one of her emotional slivers take on the guise of her greatest rival, but that she had assigned the tempestuous girl to her most joyous of emotions?

The act of watching 'Jinx' taking control of her mind, symbolically as well as psionically, especially with that bright, overly cheerful - even by Starfire's standards - smile, was …just downright freaky.

"_Su-weet!_ I'm in!" 'Happiness' cheered excitedly. "Alright, now all I gotta do is log into the computer and get this show on the road!"

"Um … yes, let us commence with the road-bound show," Starfire responded far less enthusiastically.

Turning around in her seat, even as she worked away on the controls before her, Happiness fired another weapon's grade smile at the Tamaranian. "Oh man, this is so exciting! I'm so super jazzed that I get to work with you! And even better, we get to be on Ryouga's team! How awesome is that!"

"It is … um … super awesome?" Starfire asked tentatively.

"I _know_, right?" Happiness then turned back to the controls before her, tittering happily to herself.

"Okay, all done logging in. Now all we need to do is find the others in the system."

...

"Ah, finally, everyone else has finished," Intelligence commented.

Ryouga smiled up at the slight young emotion, looking remarkably like Terra, only wearing an adorable yellow, Raven-style cloak. It had taken a bit of figuring to determine exactly what it was that he considered to be his 'controlling force'. Eventually she had realized that the only thing in his life that gave him direction was himself, so he'd just perched her up on his shoulder. He'd then handed her the antique, all but useless compass that he had religiously turned to for advice over so much of his life.

"Well, I guess not everyone else is teamed up with an incarnation of pure logic, so it's not shocking it might take longer for them. …Still, it's good to see you again, Terra. It's been way too long."

"Again, I am not Terra, I just happen to have her appearance," Intelligence explained once again. She looked down at him, her perfectly calm expression looking wildly out of place on Terra's usually expressive face. "Though if I were her, I would probably be quite ecstatic to be seeing you again."

Ryouga felt himself choke up slightly at that, but before he had a chance to reply, the yellow cloaked blonde gestured to the odd, cloudy expanse before him, something she'd explained as a sort of portal to what was going on in the real world. It revealed the sight of the psi-computer which they were currently sitting in front of, or, more importantly, the psionic construct that surrounded them as they drifted through the many menus.

She had already found the three other Titans: Starfire, Jinx and Cyborg. There was no need to send confirmation messages, as all of the emotion partitions were in constant contact with Raven Prime, and thus each other. In nearly perfect unison - as there were minute differences from one partition to the next - all four proxies navigated through the menus quickly, their end destination already in mind.

"Umm, so what are we doing again?" Ryouga asked, curious.

Intelligence looked down at him, a ghost of a smile on her lips.

"Would you like to play a game?"

...

Captain Ben-Solomon watched, impressed even further, as Raven went beyond simply using her companions as proxies, and outright taking complete control of them all simultaneously. It was interesting, sensing the subtle differences from one partition to the next, nestled comfortably in the psyches of each of Yankee squad, and the minute differences in how each one sped through the menus and into the 'games' section.

Almost as one, Jinx, Cyborg, Starfire and Ryouga all entered the same game, and the Captain felt the corner of his lip quirk up as he realized what she was doing.

"So that's what you're up to? You're planning on playing _two_ two-player co-op games at once? I don't think anyone has even thought to attempt that." His eyes turned to the seated girl who was the source of it all. "What made you think of doing this?"

One of Raven's eyes cracked open and she looked at him, smirking vindictively. As all four games fired up, each screen showing the same woodland background that was so familiar to the Captain, the music of the Duckhunt game playing cheerfully in the background, she stated, quite clearly:

"I **hate** that dog. And now... **vengeance** shall be **mine**."

* * *

Command was a responsibility.

It was a _pain in the ass_, too, once Ranma Saotome realized all of what that actually entailed.

He'd grown up following his father, training to be a martial artist of the finest pedigree and highest caliber. His upbringing had been, to the standards of most human beings, abusive and borderline sociopathic. He'd been fighting and stealing food since he was old enough to chew; enduring training that would have killed most children or even adults; running from angry mobs and wild animals for endurance. It had honed his body and his fighting spirit, and he'd never seriously been bothered by it until Jyusenkyou – though the damn Cat Fist was a sore spot as well.

Jyusenkyou taking away his manhood, though… that had been horrifying.

He had the body of young Bruce Lee, and he was rightly proud of himself. He was proud of how he looked, how he fought, and how he spoke. At least he got _some_ trade off from the ailurophobia, impractical though it was, but Jysenkyou was just a lot of trouble and no real practical gain. Even then, he'd basically shouldered it, hoping one day for a cure, and gone on: training, fighting, living. He was a martial artist, and one of the best damn ones in the world, even among the highest tier 'exotic martial arts' community.

Re-socializing at Nerima had been… hard sometimes. He didn't particularly want to go back to school. He didn't really want to learn English or Algebra. He rankled at sedately sitting in a classroom. It was annoying to reign in his impulses to pick fights (however inadvertently). Of course, he ended up in fights anyway, but not with the school's "mundane" types. Furinkan had bullies, but he was rarely around to witness any of their troublemaking. They were smart enough, after seeing Kuno get beat, to blend in or vanish when martial artists were afoot.

How, then, to socialize without fighting?

It was hard sometimes. Hiroshi and Daisuke had been his best friends at school, but he didn't know them that well, and they could never really relate. They didn't quite get why he didn't religiously follow the World Cup, or why he didn't ogle the girls at gym class with them, or why he never went to the mall or the electronics store to hang out. They were just so… different. Socializing with non-artists, he eventually decided, was a matter of just sitting around and letting whatever happen.

Tennis Team? Boring. Football? Meh. Basketball? Not really. Some guys called him a jock, due to the martial arts thing, but he really didn't have the mentality. Especially when it was team sports. Crew? Swim Team? As if! Hiroshi had once tried to talk him into joining student government, but that was even more boring. Plus, he dealt with Principal Loony-Kuno and the other teachers enough as it was. SciFi club? Chess? Watching TV was fun, but that was about it.

So, going by his high school record, no one could really say Ranma Saotome had much leadership potential. The _Bōei Daigakkō_ (National Defense Academy of Japan) had sent a note to his mother at the Saotome family's legal residence, and they were the only college to do so, but Ranma had known that the JSDF knew about him and his father for years beforehand. He'd never considered joining the service (or any service for that matter), even though his mother wanted him to at least get an undergraduate degree. His father eventually became persuaded, too, since it would look good for the new Anything Goes Dojo Master to been an educated and respected member of the community.

Dumb, fat panda.

He certainly hadn't said as much back when they were on the road.

Then again, his mother could be… _persuasive_.

Needless to say, he never would really have expected to end up in his current profession. Among his martial arts peers he did prefer to lead rather than follow, but he didn't really get off on ordering people around. Most of the time he fought alone, and he expected others to, too. It was more that he himself didn't like taking orders. He liked being free to do whatever. He liked to bend rules not follow them.

Yet, when Ryouga had gotten him out of that alien stasis tube all those months ago and started this whole adventure… well. Things just ended up as they did. Ryouga had quickly signed himself up and gotten them all involved – actually, the aliens had done that – but the point was that a lot of them were probably going to end up fighting rather than walking away to sit things out.

Given the choice: lead or follow, there was no choice at all... he picked 'lead.'

_'__How hard could it be?__'_ he remembered thinking back then.

He'd organized a fake play before to trick Happosai (it… actually hadn't worked out right at all) and kind of played middle man when he teamed up with Ryouga or Mousse or other parts of the crew. Of course, they all ended up pummeling each other at some point, but at least he tried to kind of play leader. The thing at Jusendo with Saffron had been one of the better examples, probably. _'__It__'__ll be something like that, right?__'_

Not at all.

They weren't just running around, willy-nilly, first of all. Officers higher up told them where to go and what to do. They had rules of engagement and officers needed to know how to interact and evaluate things like clean-up and equipment orders and internal security and tons of stupid little things. He was in charge, but that didn't mean he made the rules. It meant he enforced them. Basically: it was a lot of responsibility and trouble.

He'd tried to skirt it a bit at first. When they'd divided up the teams, he'd ended up with a rather turbulent Juliet Squad. Konatsu was quiet and followed orders to a tee, but he was still pining for Ukyou's attention and had very little initiative. Ukyou wanted to follow him, but less into battle and more to the altar. It as clear from the start that she saw this as an opportunity to be around him and push their relationship… somewhere he didn't want it to go. Shampoo was marginally better. The Amazons clearly knew about battle and about war, and she was willing to follow his lead on the field, but she was openly troublesome back at the base. What she knew she couldn't get away with in terms of chasing him romantically, she funneled into picking fights with Ukyou and demeaning the other Nerima gang nearby.

It was a mess.

He'd tried to just be cool about it at first. Give equal time to each girl, be fair in terms of doling out attention… get people to work together and see that they should be friends. He invited them to dinner with his family sometimes. He put up with the flirting. He mildly admonished the fighting. They had all volunteered to be a fighting team. That should be enough, right? Things would iron themselves out, if he gave it a bit of time, right?

Apparently not. Juliet remained dysfunctional. As they approached the serious activation point of India and Juliet, evaluations by their mentors became more critical of the team. Ryouga had managed to bull India together somehow, but Juliet was clearly not ready for full front line combat duty. Those few weeks had, in retrospect, been more difficult and stressful than any others he could remember… except maybe that one day when he'd thought Akane dead back at Jusendo.

Yasuda and Banks had demanded he get the team sorted out or they'd break it up. His parents didn't know what to do. Mister Tendo was no help. Even Ryouga had just told him to get it together without so much as explaining how. That last one had been particularly damning. Back then, the lost boy had been a seething cauldron of rage, only held together by a desire to kill the aliens that did what they did to Akari. The idiot probably pissed angry ki; you could literally feel the killing intent the moment he let his control slip even a bit.

Having a senior officer as a mentor had been a real godsend. If he wanted to lead, if he wanted XCOM to trust him to lead, then he had to put aside his own feelings and problems. That was the meat of it. And it had been a surprisingly hard pill to swallow, even for someone with his background.

He wasn't a friend.

He wasn't a peer.

He could be, yes, but above all that he had to be their commanding officer. He ended the 'play dates' much to Ukyou and Shampoo's surprise and shock. Their efforts to talk him out of the change fell on deaf ears. He forced them all to practice together, every day, and against other teams. He officially ended the engagements as long as they were all in the organization (and, gods, he hoped the thing with Akane stayed a secret). He assigned them duties in the squad and expected them to excel, both on the field and in their performance reviews.

He _hated_ yelling at them, especially Shampoo and Ukyou, who he had shamefully once made cry. He hated having to badger Konatsu to come out of his shell. He was a 'live and let live' kind of guy, by nature. He stopped asking or suggesting and gave orders. Any off-duty fraternization was to be in groups. Fighting and duels were allowed – they were still martial artists after all – but serious verbal abuse would not be tolerated.

It was probably one of the hardest things he had ever done. It took a while, too, but eventually he saw results. Ukyou and Shampoo still fought, but less and less over him, and less and less viciously. It became more of a rivalry, which he could appreciate, rather than outright enmity. Most importantly, it never seriously showed itself in the field or affected their performance. Konatsu gradually became more assertive, and after his duel with Ukyou, found a new respect for himself that had been sorely lacking. The male kunoichi was now steady as a rock in a fight, and Ranma's right hand man.

Juliet Squad was His Squad.

When he took them into battle, he held their lives in his hands. It all fell on his shoulders. It was his duty, his responsibility, to keep them all alive, but also to fulfill their missions and stay true to their vows. Sometimes, the two conflicted. Not a moment passed when he didn't think about that. Not a mission went by when he didn't try and balance the two. He loved his team, and if needed, he'd walk into Hell with them. And, if the time came, he'd die with them.

Eventually, he'd earned the little stripe and badge that ranked him: "Lieutenant"

And, strangest of all, he was proud and happy to have done it.

"How're things?" he asked, ducking down to check in with Ukyou and Shampoo. The girls, so often at odds, had actually been conversing quietly together in a corner of the Avenger. He almost hated to risk breaking them up.

"Pretty good, sir," Ukyou, on duty, rightly only used his rank or given name. "I got lots of great pictures the other day. Guess who wants one, now that we're heading back?"

Shampoo shrugged easily. "Great grandmother may want one. That all."

"I thought I heard some Chinese?" he asked. Between themselves, most of the group still talked in Japanese rather than English. Shampoo was the only exception, since the language still gave her some trouble.

"Nothing important, Lieutenant," Shampoo assured him. "Just talking."

Shampoo had grumbled in Mandarin more than a few times when she didn't want to be overheard. No one else spoke Chinese fluently except Mousse and Ryouga. Still, there didn't seem to be a problem.

"Okay," he said, letting it go. The girls would tell him if they were up to something important. "We'll be landing pretty soon. Remember that we've all got to help with Yankee Squad. We've missed some stuff while being away, so expect to play catch up. I want all three teams in top shape by Friday."

Ukyou nodded, and Shampoo assured him they were on top of it.

"Good," he finished, and moved on to check on Konatsu. The male kunoichi was with Ryu and Kuno, probably picking up some of the duo's bad habits. The two India Squad troopers were solid team members these days, having seemingly worked out their own anti-social tendencies over the months. They had also developed into the biggest pervs in the group.

Kuno, in particular, was notable in that category. He wasn't a womanizer, at least (it helped that there weren't any younger girls around), but he did flirt with women on base from time to time, and he loved his 'personal collection' which had only managed to grow, thanks to Nabiki. This, despite being locked up in a hidden base under a mountain. The swordsman senpai had fallen in with some of the seasoned soldiers in other squads, and picked up some colorful habits he had learned he had in common with the reformed Yamasenken Master.

Ranma tapped the ninja boy on the shoulder and leaned in a bit.

He could tell by the grins on the other guys' faces what they had been whispering about.

Girls. _Again_.

"What is it this time?" he asked, turning to an appropriately conspiratorial tone. "Not that grease monkey down in Bay Three?"

Admittedly, the woman _did_ have a huge rack. …and she _was_ single.

"Not so, Saotome," Kuno replied with a chuckle. "We were but discussing what we've heard about the other world. And the preferred battle dress of our new compatriots."

_Oh boy._

"Get this, I hear they _all_ dress like that," Ryu spoke up, and snapped his fingers before pointing at the lieutenant. "You know, with the skin tight cat suits and stuff. Kuno here looked up pictures of some of the super hero comic book outfits over in the States and showed 'em to Starfire. She said they **all** fight in costumes just like that and they all have figures like that, too. That is one sexy profession!"

"To think that there may be a multitude of… of fiery beauties to compare with my pigtailed heroine?" Kuno sighed longingly. "I do believe I envy my other self."

"Compare?" Ryu asked, and glanced knowingly at Ranma. "Starfire and Raven are, what, seventeen? What do you think they'll look like at twenty? I bet there are dozens of superhero types over there that make the pigtailed girl look downright plain."

"Hey!" Ranma and Kuno both squawked, but for very different reasons.

"The pigtailed girl is a vision of loveliness, and not simply due to her supple yet well toned body!"

"Exactly!" Ranma seconded, but then grimaced as Kuno's words processed. "Damnit, Kuno, do you have to say stuff like that?"

"What?" the swordsman asked, genuinely confused at the gaffe. "Tis true!"

"Think it. Don't say it." Ranma shuddered. "Man."

"You're awfully quick to jump to the defense of this mysterious pigtailed girl, Lieutenant," Ryu asked, and ribbed the quiet ninja seated nearby playfully. "Eh? What do you think, Konatsu?"

"Um," Konatsu bit his lip, but couldn't help but smile. "Perhaps the lieutenant and the pigtailed girl are somehow related?"

"This blasphemy again!" Kuno shook his head sadly. "When will you fools cease such ill mannered jests?"

"Well, you three can talk all you want, but no touching."

Age of Consent in most of Japan was 13, but god knew what it was for the transplanted Titans. They were obviously all pretty mature, but it was better to nip these sorts of things in the bud. The last thing they needed was trouble from some overzealous idiot trying to talk his way into one of the girls' pants. Not that he could really talk, what with his thing with Akane (and Ryouga's more well known situation with Nabiki), but that didn't change the fact that it was nothing but trouble for everyone on every level.

"Not that any of you have a chance anyway," he quickly added, and elbowed Ryu in the shoulder. "And you know Ukyou will pound you if she heard you going on about this stuff."

"Please. I bet they're talking about guys, too. Probably right now." He leaned back a bit to peek over at Shampoo and Ukyou. "Anyway, its just talk."

"You can't blame them, sir,' Konatsu replied with a muffled cough. "That skirt."

The three broke into a mixture of coughs and repressed laughs. _The skirt._ It hadn't made cross team training easy at times. Ranma sort of wondered if that wasn't the reason Starfire used it? He'd won a rather important fight by flashing his girl side's goods, after all, and the Saotome heir knew that in a fight, _Anything Goes_.

Ryu reigned in his chuckles first, and shook Konatsu by the shoulder.

"Remember that when we get back, you'll be working with one of those girls," Ranma said, leaning back to finish his rounds. "And I doubt a Kunoichi should be getting distracted by panty shots."

Konatsu blushed and shrunk a bit into his shoulders.

"Noted, sir."

Walking off, to near the front of the ship's hold, he saw Ryouga and Mousse sitting down and playing Go Fish. He shook his head at the sight. It was just like that one time on the train, back in that whole mess with Herb and the curse-locking kettle. They looked up, sensing his approach, and nodded respectfully.

Mousse and Ryouga. Out of everyone present, Ranma felt the most history with these two morons. With Ryu having officially reformed the Yamasenken and earning the right to teach it at his new dojo (after the war, of course), and Kuno distracted by other stuff, these two were his only real rivals. They still dueled fairly frequently, some times little more than friendly, experimental spars… sometimes seriously enough that their next trip was always to the med bay and Kasumi's tender mercies.

They'd been there with Pantyhose, with Herb, with Saffron… they'd also tried to turn him into a duck, cut him to pieces, pummel him into the ground with ki blasts, and otherwise clean his clock but good. _Jerks_. But they were his jerks. Maybe it was in spite of all the fights, or maybe it was _because_ of them, but Ranma was sure the three of them were the best friends they individually had. They were all just weird like that.

Who knew? Maybe, some day far in the future, when the war was long over… they'd all get together to complain about their bratty spoiled heirs and cheat at shoji and cards. Maybe in a good fifty years. There was still plenty of time for a few more adventures before settling down, after all!

"Hey there, you idiots."

"Saotome," Mousse greeted. Ryouga just grunted, staring intently at the cards.

"You want in?" the lost one asked, looking up after a few seconds.

Ranma grinned happily, feeling pretty good. "We've got some time to kill. Why not?"

They'd be back at Seiran soon, and even though he wasn't where he'd once imagined his future self would be, it didn't mean he wasn't happy with what he'd done with his life. And it sure didn't mean he couldn't have some fun.

* * *

"They're doing _what_?"

The reports came in right as they were landing. Ranma and Ryouga had both requested a report on Yankee's latest activities, in anticipation of picking up where Juliet had left off. The information on their mission performance was nothing unexpected, and information on their other activities had initially been unremarkable. The failure of the dimensional portal was included, but R&D was already pretty sure that the sort of trans-dimensional travel the Titans were attempting couldn't be replicated whole cloth.

None of that was very surprising.

What was unexpected were the amended reports from the other base squads, and an addendum from Nabiki (who they had been expecting to keep an eye on the new team). Yankee had, seemingly out of nowhere, started interacting more with other squads… even independently organizing more cross team training requests. Previous to this, they had all been set up by either Ranma or Ryouga, piggybacking on agreements and relationships India and Juliet had.

A few of the amendments from the other squads had piqued the pigtailed fighter's interest, as there were a few specific cases pointed out that, frankly, surprised the heck out of him. Jinx was already certified with laser weapons and, by all accounts, was actually a surprisingly good shot. He didn't know if that should impress him, or worry him, honestly.

A personal note from Akane detailed a spar she'd had with the alien girl, Starfire. Despite a rather one sided battle, they had actually hit it off quite well afterwards. Sure, he didn't like the idea of anyone roughing up Akane, but he was far more surprised that his (un)official fiancée had actually taken the defeat in stride and hadn't grown resentful towards the alien girl. It showed how much she'd changed since his own first spar with the youngest Tendo sister.

Far more amusing, and he was torn between telling them now, or waiting for them to find out themselves, was a point in the amendment made by Ben Solomon. Yankee squad's psychic, Raven, had not only beaten Shampoo and Mousse's legendary co-op score on Duckhunt, she'd done it _twice_, at the _same time_, managing four people in parallel! He hadn't realized how far she'd come with her training. After a moment's thought, he decided that, yes, it would definitely be more fun for them to find out themselves.

The one thing that he'd read, though, that had galled him concerned the cybernetic Yankee. Not only had he somehow managed to wrangle his way into a training session with Echo on the mobile range… on his _first _run through, he had managed to break the all time course ten-kill-speed record - Ranma's record, actually – and now proudly had _his_ name on the top of the course record rolls. That shouldn't have been possible! Even if the guy did have missiles and guns sticking out of his ass! No one had beaten his kills per second run from a month back!

That… that kinda _sucked._

It was good for Cyborg, of course. And Yankee. Good show and all that.

_'Damnit.' _

And did Nabiki have to be so _smug_ about having given them 'suggestions?' Evil woman.

As much as it pained him to say, Yankee squadron had stepped up their game in a way he honestly hadn't thought them capable of. Even the younger Hibiki had already shown interest in starting the initial testing required for NCO accreditation. The drive he was showing, apparently studying and initiating discussions with squad leaders throughout the base, was something Ranma also hadn't expected. First things first, though: the Saotome heir was definitely hitting the mobile range when he got back.

"Well… at least, this means less work for us," Ranma stated grudgingly, the first to speak after cruising through the report on the digital tablet. He tactfully didn't discuss anything involving Yankee's performance and skipped to something more pertinent to the situation. "Look at this. Nabiki is suggesting we _back off a bit_. Can you believe this? She even used italics!"

"She knows them better than we do. Somehow," Ryouga remarked, still reading the end of the report. "It was the portal. They think they're going to be stuck here."

"So?" Ranma asked, leaning back in his seat. The Avenger was making its final approach, but it wasn't like anyone could feel the change in speed of direction within the inertialess ship.

"So… what do you think will happen when they find out about the EDC?" the lost lieutenant asked, still reading. "What do you think they'll say when we tell them even _that_ may not get them home? It's just up and down and up and down with this group."

"Man, Geez! Why you gotta be so gloomy all the time?" the pigtailed one gave a defeated sigh.

Ryouga gave an indifferent shrug. "You were there before. It goes in one ear and out the other with that other me. At least as long as I'm around. Either way, they're going to hate that we're hiding the EDC from them while we figure it out, and then they'll hate that even with it, it may take years to find them a way home. Besides, between the two of us, its basically my job to look at the bad side of things."

Ranma glanced down at the tablet, and the digital copy of the report. He had to admit, the lost boy made a point. This was good news – that Yankee were making a genuine effort – but it was obvious it was because they were worried about their future now that the portal had fizzled. Only a big pessimistic jerk would then say: what's stopping them from withdrawing again once they learn about the EDC? But, once said… it wasn't an outlandish question either.

"Maybe," Ranma conceded, but added a caveat, "But maybe not. You gotta put yourself in their shoes, too, man. This whole thing's been real hard on them. So what if it took a little kick in the pants to get them to open up some? Not everyone goes back to being P-chan first chance they get."

Ryouga took the rebuke with a frown but slowly nodded.

There was no point arguing about stuff like that. He'd done his share of regrettable things in the past, just like all of them. Ranma's point was valid.

"I know this has been hard for them," he replied, closing the report and looking up at the other officer. "And its too bad they're in this situation. But our job is to **fight**, not to hold hands or soothe bruised egos. I'd _love_ to get them home. I'd _love_ to be friends. But I'll _live_ with doing our job and saving lives."

"I'll hold you to that, man," Ranma said, pointing at the lost boy. "Nabiki said to give them a little space. Alright. Fair enough. But the door swings both ways. Don't let what happened before make India and Yankee unable to work together. We may not have to baby them, but we should make up and at least get try and along."

"I'm well aware of that, Ranma."

"Landing in twenty seconds," the pilot warned.

Inside the Main Hangar, the Avenger eased into position and settled, the gravity induction engines rippling the air with gravimetric eddies. The trip to and from the moon was less difficult than one would imagine. Once outside of the atmosphere, a ship needed only to accelerate and then coast the distance between orbital bodies.

Delta exited first, chatting amongst themselves about being back on base. They were followed by India and Juliet. Ritually, a small group was there to welcome them back: the Tendos, along with Mitsuko and Nodoka, there to greet their sons. The teams were getting back a handful of days late, but safe and sound. Of the group, only Ranma and Ryouga spared a look down to the far end of the hangar, in an area that was closed off.

Closed off for good reason.

Once the techs finished the preliminary EDC tests, Gods knew what would happen.

* * *

**From**: Starfire

**Sent**: **- **

**To**: Sqd. Min Te

**Subject**: Re: Hi!

Greetings, friend Mint!

It is quite pleasant to hear from you, even if only through this electronic mailing medium. It also warms my heart that you are concerned for my well being. I am also relieved to hear that your injuries have healed well.

To answer your questions … things here were looking quite grim for some time. However, recently, things have improved dramatically. I have become much better friends with Akane after sparring with her (though I will leave you to determine the outcome for yourself - teehee-) and Yankee squadron has made many ties with many of the squadrons on base. Even Jinx (I will have to tell you about her later, as I have only so much time to respond to your message) has begun to speak to others without immediately resorting to biting insults and cynicism.

As for Herb and Lime, please tell them for me, that the next time we meet I will defeat them both at once! I have been working very hard here (I find I train even more here than I did at home, as there is far less to do here for relaxation, which I find to be quite vexing!) and I will be glad to show them both my progress.

And, finally, a most emphatic 'yes!' I am quite hopeful that we will meet again, and if we do, then I will most definitely join you in the consumption of hot leaf juice.

Your friend,

Starfire

* * *

Seiran: Tendo Dojo

While most of the major fights took place in the ancillary side rooms of the dojo facility, certain events were best kept to the larger main room. Soun and Genma taught classes to a small group of XCOM troopers, primarily focusing on improving speed and movement. These were the traits most easily adapted into a battlefield firefight. It was also used for lectures and larger training exercises.

Akane saw Ukyou right off the bat, and raised a hand in silent greeting. The okonomiyaki chef had changed out of her uniform and into a white training gi, her bandolier and clamps for her battle spatula being all that she wore over and on top of the outfit. Akane wasn't here to participate, just to watch and learn, and still wore her on duty uniform fatigues. They were also the first two to arrive, it seemed…

"Hey there, sugar," Ukyou said, giving a quick look around before walking over. "You seen Ranma around? He and Genma are usually here first."

"I saw him with Ryouga and Konatsu down at the armory an hour ago," the Tendo sister replied, glancing over her shoulder. "They're around somewhere. Probably goofing off!"

Ukyou nodded and shrugged. "Guess we won't be starting on time then."

"So how are you doing with the new battle aura?" Akane asked. It was the reason there were all here, after all. "Any progress since last week?"

"A little," the other girl replied, fingers drifting to the comforting hilt of her battle spatula. "I'm having trouble honing my conceptualization. I guess it's because I'm used to cooking, but Cologne said to just keep trying combinations until I get it right. It isn't that hard, but I'm just not having much luck."

Akane gave a sympathetic nod, understanding Ukyou's difficulties. She still remembered when the two of them had barged in on a training India Squad to ask for help improving their skills and technique. Neither of them knew Mousse that well, and Akane's history with Ryu was so-so, but everyone knew Kuno had a soft spot for certain girls, not the least his 'beloved Akane Tendo' and Ukyou had once encountered his affections on the single occasion she went to school in a girl's uniform. Better still, Ryouga was a friend and the guy they knew the best there. Despite… what he had been through, they were sure he would help.

It had been a shock when he'd rebuffed them, giving them a stupid martial arts puzzle to work out while the rest of India Squad kept training. The challenge had been to unseal one of his bandannas, a basically impossible task since neither girl could control their battle auras. Eventually, they'd cheated, and held the bandanna between them, using the pressure between their auras to unravel the ki holding the bandanna stiff.

From that day, India had let them train if they showed up on time… it had been a mixed blessing. India Squad's training regimen was brutal, and they didn't pull punches. Akane had started off learning some of the basic Yamasenken moves from Ryu, which best suited her fighting style, together with a beginner's linear step. Ukyou had attended the sessions more often, particularly in the week or so before her duel with Konatsu. She often ended the day by spending a half hour in the infirmary getting patched up.

It was during the fight with Konatsu, however, that the okonomiyaki chef had developed her ki attack, the _Kenran Hinode_ (Brilliant Sunrise). It was still a mostly raw and unrefined technique, however. Ukyou didn't have the level of control many of the boys had, even Ryu and Mousse, who used their battle auras in very personally tailored ways (vacuum blades and hidden weapons, specifically). Shampoo was better, too, despite not having the reserves for an actual ki or aura attack.

Eventually, Ranma and Ryouga had opened up their one-on-one training and brainstorming sessions, inviting other members of the teams to sit in and either watch or contribute. Attendance fluctuated. The two lieutenants were always there, and often Soun and Genma would come by as well. Cologne was a more recent member of the circle, since being freed and after a few weeks rehabilitation. Akane had made it a point to show up, too, not only to try and see more of Ranma's training on a personal level, but also to pick up pointers for herself as well.

"My Hinode is still more flash than force, and Ran-c... Ranma says I'm wasting a lot of it when I fire one," Ukyou finished explaining the problem, after a little mundane back and forth about their mutual battle aura difficulties. "Like filling up a bucket and then pouring out the whole thing. It means I can't use the attack as quickly as I should. I also need to use it without draining my aura. I tell ya, Akane, it's a lot of work getting this right."

"Ranma didn't perfect his ki attack right away either, and neither did Ryouga," Akane reminded her. "You'll get it."

Ukyou shared a small smile at that. "Thanks, sugar."

There… was a sort of strange look after that, as if the former Osaka native wanted to say something, but couldn't find a good way to do so. Akane wondered, not for the first time, if Ukyou suspected she and Ranma were… well, secretly hooking up. They had been for a couple months now, but had managed to keep it a secret. Only Ryouga, Nabiki and Kasumi knew. Ukyou wasn't an idiot, though, and the chef spent a lot more time around the Tendo sisters than Shampoo did. Did she suspect something?

Akane had a sometimes shaky friendship with the okonomiyaki girl, and didn't want things to go back to the way they sometimes were. If not for the whole Ranma engagement, she knew the two of them could be good friends, and frankly, Akane knew she really needed some friends her own gender and age. Plus, Ukyou had been 'kind of going out' with Ryu for a while, now, too… ever since her father and Genma formally ended the engagement (what with Ranma himself paying back the old panda's debt). Even if she knew, she couldn't expect to be justified about getting angry about it, could she?

It was so confusing, even with the engagement situation 'fixed.'

"Something wrong?" Akane asked, averting her eyes a bit.

"Nah. Nothing." Ukyou flipped her long brown hair, and took a few seconds to face another direction and tie it back up into a neat ponytail. "Just thinking about… some stuff. Like where those two jackasses are. This is their program, after all."

"Oh, hey!" She remembered something, then. "I heard you had a little fight with our resident alien?"

"I did," the Tendo heir replied, crossing her arms as she grinned. "A good old fashioned spar. No tricks."

"No tricks?" Ukyou asked. "I thought she had natural super strength or something?"

"You have no idea!" Akane replied with a chuckle. "I felt like one of my old practice bricks when she got a hit in. She's even stronger than Ryouga! But she was pretty okay about it."

"Who won?"

"Not everything is about winning and losing Ukyou. We learned a lot from our fight."

"Yeah." The chestnut haired chef agreed easily. "But who **won**?"

"Now you're sounding like Ranma-baka…"

As if on cue, the two boys entered the dojo, having changed out of their uniforms into matching training gis. Ranma was laughing about something and patting Ryouga heartily on the back. The lost one was, apparently, at a loss for words, and coughed. He gestured over at the two girls, if only to distract his ever smirking rival.

"Ukyou! Akane!" Ranma gave a friendly wave.

"Lieutenant," Ukyou replied, resisting the almost instinctive urge to say 'Ran-chan.'

"Sir," Akane carefully responded. He always had looked good in a training gi, and she blushed a bit as her thoughts strayed. It was doubly exciting to know, even if only in secret, that he had picked her and none of the other crazy girls after him. _Just her._

"I hope you're ready for a serious workout!" Ranma promised, speaking specifically to Ukyou. "With all that time off-world doing nothing, we'll all have to work double time to catch up."

"I'm ready," the chef assured him, pumping her fist. "With you guys helping me, and Cologne too, I've already made more progress over the last few months than in the last few years! I'll be ready for Cydonia, no matter what they throw at us!"

Of course, no one knew exactly what was waiting for them there. Some speculated there were thousands of aliens there. Some whispered that there were _millions_. No one knew for sure. But there were three former humans they knew waited for them on Mars. Tofu. Ayabe. Cologne. Those three, pushed as they were beyond human limits, were frightful enough. For all her pride as a martial artist, Akane knew that if she ever encountered one of those three, her lifespan could well be measured in seconds.

She also knew a lot of Ukyou's bravado was show. The other girl had confided in the youngest Tendo about what had happened the last time she had encountered the corrupted Doctor Tofu. Even with backup, he had taken them apart. Ukyou herself had been used as a remote control puppet. Akane knew the experience wasn't something Ukyou had forgotten, and that some of the scars, the fear, the anger, were all still there.

"We'll be there, too," Ryouga spoke up, for the first time. "We'll all get ready for Cydonia together."

"And we'll win," Ranma said it like he genuinely had no doubt at all. He gave the two girls an endearing, confident smile, and Akane was instantly reminded of why he was as popular as he was. Ranma Saotome certainly wasn't the smartest guy around, or even the most powerful, but he never failed to impress.

That was, when he wasn't being a total jerk!

"Ryouga-kun, are you okay?" Akane didn't fail to notice her friend, though as he often did, the lost boy kind of took up a back seat to his more outgoing rival. He did in her case, anyway. The same obviously couldn't be said for a couple other ladies here and there.

"I'm fine," he replied, and both his tone and his words were transparently evasive.

"What's up, sugar?" Ukyou asked, picking up the vibe, too. "Even I can tell something's bothering you."

He gave the two young women a suffering, half lidded look. It didn't do much to deter either.

"I have a lot on my mind," he said, but didn't elaborate further. Instead, he quickly changed the topic. "Ukyou, have you been practicing your internal chakra resonance? You'll need it for the endurance training later."

"I still can't get it working right without the array," she admitted, and grumpily added. "It ruins my appetite, too."

"You'll get it. It took me about a week," Ranma reminded her, resting a friendly hand on her shoulder. "I didn't keep much down at all at first."

"Digestion is partly regulated by the Manupura," Ryouga explained. "The last half of the training is the hardest, but we know you can do it."

They were both being very supportive; very encouraging. Akane secretly felt a little jealous. It was stupid and she knew it, but she also just couldn't help it. Both of the boys could be taskmasters when they wanted to, and usually were. Even Ryouga didn't coddle her when she showed up at India Squad practices, and Ryu certainly didn't either. She'd seen Ukyou walk out of training sessions looking like she'd been run over and set on fire. Akane knew it wasn't like they treated the chef in any special way.

They were just keeping Ukyou's confidence up and making sure she stayed the course. They couldn't always be there to make sure she practiced with the array, and they both knew it was hard to put your own body through whatever the training itself did (Akane didn't have enough control to risk it herself yet, so most of her knowledge was secondhand from Ranma and Ukyou). Since they couldn't be there, they had switched to some positive reinforcement, instead of the usual brutal training regimen. Akane knew all this… but still, a little bit of jealousy that she couldn't get the same rose up from deep within.

But it was just a little thing, and never reached her eyes.

"Come on, you guys'll make me blush here," Ukyo said, taking comfort in their words and heartfelt beliefs. "So, who else are we waiting for anyway?"

"Just Elder Cologne, right?" Akane asked. Ryu and Mousse probably weren't coming. Konatsu sometimes showed up, but only to watch. Who else was there that would get the invite?

"Yup," Ranma replied easily, "Though I'm not sure what's taking her. I mean, she's not normally that tardy herself-"

The door to the dojo slid open once more, and the familiar tapping of a cane echoes into the chamber. Smirking, Ranma gestured to the door. "See, there she is right ... now?"

Indeed, Cologne entered the dojo, just as expected. Very much unexpected, though, was the trio of people following behind her. The sight of Starfire, the younger Ryouga, and especially of Jinx caused an uneasy hush to fall over everyone in the dojo. The older Ryouga, notably, donned a patently neutral expression as he watched his counterpart stride in behind the ancient master, chatting animatedly with the two girls with him.

Immediately upon spotting them, the Tamaranian lifted a hand and waved emphatically to Akane. "Greetings, friend Akane! How are you doing this day?"

"Star!" Akane waved and jogged over. Two of the three guests weren't in uniform, instead wearing training gis. The meaning was obvious. "I didn't know you knew about this!"

"So they came after all," Ryouga leaned over to whisper. Ranma nodded.

"You owe me a drink, lost boy."

"I guess I do at that."

"Akane Tendo," Cologne greeted as the young woman ran over to meet her new friend face-to-face. Akane quickly stopped, and bowed to the Amazon elder. Cologne politely returned the greeting, inclining her head respectfully.

"Oh, indeed," Starfire responded once all of the introductions were finally completed. "Elder Cologne invited Ryouga and I personally. I was most excited to come."

"Yeah," Jinx added with a sardonic smirk. "I mean, sure, no one actually thought to invite **me**, but, hey, I thought `_why not?`,_ anyway?"

Smiling affectionately, the younger Ryouga dropped a hand on the pink haired girl's shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. "Oh, don't be that way, Jinx. It's not like anyone here knows much about your martial background. Well, that and you _were_ trained by Happosai. You should know that Cologne was gonna be a little biased towards you."

"I have a pretty good idea what… Happi's training involved." Cologne evaded the actual issue of any bias. "Though it continues to amaze me he took a female student under his wing without warping her in some way."

"You're darn right!" Jinx cheered, winking and striking a perky pose. "He didn't warp me in the slightest!"

The unhinged laughter which followed caused more than one nervous swallow around the dojo. Even her own Ryouga stared at her a bit uncertainly for a moment, before offering a weak chuckle.

"Um ... right. Anyway-" he looked down to Cologne, "-what kind of brutal surprises are we in store for today, Granny? Smashed by boulders? Set on fire? Wrapped up in heat sensitive bondage gear? I've been missing the crazy old days a bit, y'know?"

Jinx perked up noticeably at that. "Oooh, I _like_ the sound of that last one. Can we try that?"

"Those _were_ amusing times," Cologne agreed. "And, perhaps a little later, I may show some of the ladies here some of our Arts. Women only, I'm afraid."

"Techniques for _women only_, eh…?"

"Ranma," Ryouga growled from across the room. "Aren't you perverted enough as it is, without learning you-know-what? As in that _thing_ the other Cologne used against us?"

OH. **That**.

AKA: the seduction-domination voice of doom.

"Granny," Ryouga added. "I think some techniques are best kept sealed. That being one of them."

Cologne all but cackled. "Don't worry your bandanna off. They're a little too young to be learning that family of techniques... but we have plenty of other less-sinister skills that only work for women. But that's for another time."

"Okay. You guys ready?" Ranma asked, walking up to the visiting group. He motioned to the younger Ryouga and Starfire. "Let's get this going."

"Yes. I am rather eager to see how you've all improved," Cologne seconded, leisurely making her way over to the far side of the dojo with a rhythmic tap-tap of her cane. "We can start by demonstrating our battle auras. No killing intent, of course. Just channel the ki outward."

She stopped, watching the seven young men and women standing in a line in front of her. It was only natural that they defer to her, though this technically wasn't her "class" to run. It was a joint exercise and brainstorming session. They were all here to help one another.

"Who wants to go first?" the Elder asked, looking across from one to another.

"I'll go first!" Ukyou said, and hurried up to the front. Ranma and Ryouga both took a step back, and the younger Ryouga and Starfire followed suit a second later. Cologne also shuffled off to the side, but remained at the front wall of the dojo. Much further back, Jinx and Akane took seats, cross legged, on the tatami mats.

Ukyou, now standing at the front by herself, took a few slow deep breaths. Akane couldn't fully conceptualize ki, but as she watched her friend she nonetheless felt – perceived in a very basic way – the expanding and contracting of Ukyou's life force. It sped up, from a slow out and in, as she took mental control over the body's natural processes. Charka moved within the okonomiyaki chef's body, particularly around the abdomen, and in turn it funneled out useable ki.

"Kha!" Ukyou vocalized, and her battle aura sprang out in full bloom. It was a vivid and vibrant red, beautiful actually, pulsing gently with radiating waves of faint yellow-orange. Ukyou lifted two fingers in a concentration pose, and held the aura in place. The fiery aura grew a bit more and started to waver, but didn't recede. Her tied together ponytail wafted back and forth as her aura caused small wind currents.

"Excellent retention," Cologne observed. "Focus more around the legs."

"Hai!" Ukyou opened her eyes, and dropped her aura. She muttered something that sounded a bit like 'always forget the legs' as she moved back over to stand between Ranma and Ryouga.

"Any other observations?" Cologne asked.

"It'll get stronger once I've adapted to the new circulation technique," Ukyou spoke up in her own defense.

"It'll get harder to control, too," Ryouga, the older one, reminded her. "Your interlace needs to tighten up a bit, too, before you can do any other projection beyond Hinode."

"Excuse me, but what is this interlace?" Starfire asked. She had learned much of the basics before, at the Amazon village, while working with her Ryouga on the Hiryu Shoten Ha.

"Just releasing ki out of your body doesn't make a battle aura," her Ryouga actually answered, turning his head a bit to better see her and the other martial artists present. "All you get is a huge rush of energy going out and then into the ground. To take that energy and make it into an aura, you need an interlace, like a net to catch it all and contain it. Or maybe like a balloon. Technically, the interlace represents your mental control over your energy after it leaves your body."

"The 'will to live' forms the basis of most battle auras, but any strong emotion can work to amplify the effect," the other Ryouga continued, explaining further. "In other words, you combine form and substance. The substance is your ki, the form is your willpower. There's also what Miss Hinako does, but that's another story altogether."

"In my case," Ukyou spoke up next. "I focus on my desire to protect my friends and my customers, and the feeling I get when I cook. That's my 'mushin,' my 'no minded state,' and I use it to push my mind out and into the air."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever with all the fancy words and junk," Jinx spouted flippantly. Performing a quick, hands-free kip-up to her feet, the pink haired girl moved to the center of the room. "Here, let me show you how it's done, Ukyou."

Not really waiting for anyone to say yes, or no, and blatantly ignoring her Ryouga's 'not a good idea!' hand waving, she dropped into a shallow crouch and pulled her hands tightly to her sides. Taking a deep breath, her eyes began to glow brightly as she gathered her power. And then she unleashed her battle aura. Everyone in the room scrambled backwards as a massive pink bonfire surged to life at the center of the room, searingly hot and dancing about madly. Before it looked like it would burn out just as quickly as it began, though, Jinx suddenly let out a low, strained growl.

Slowly at first, the uncontrolled power around her began to swirl inwards, forming a surprisingly complex interlace. A moment later, though, and the surprise died away as the style of interlace she was using became quite apparent.

_'So, Happosai even taught her how to harness her battle aura? It appears I not only underestimated this girl's ability, but I misinterpreted her relationship with Happosai completely.'_ Cologne shook her head in wonder. '_I had no idea he would ever _seriously_ teach a woman ...'_

But then, who could have imagined – decades ago – that she would one day teach men?

Soon enough, Jinx's battle aura stabilized into a very clear duplicate of her physical body, clothing and all, though a translucent pink and nearly twice the size. The strain of the effort was obvious on the sorceress' face, but it looked like she wasn't done yet, either. Clenching her fists until her knuckles went white, everyone present could sense her summoning up even more power, her aura growing incrementally by the second.

The sound of something metallic hitting the ground caught Akane's attention as she watched the nearly unbelievable sight before her. Looking down, she stared, puzzled, as she noticed one of her uniform buttons lying on the floor.

A second later, two more buttons spontaneously popped off of her uniform, clattering to the floor.

"Hey!"

Ukyou let out a startled gasp a moment later, as the sleeve of her gi suddenly fell apart at the seams and dropped to the ground. And a second later, a loud crack filled the air as the tip of Cologne's staff split down the middle for no discernible reason whatsoever.

"Jinx! That's enough!" Ryouga cried out frantically.

A second later, Jinx's aura vanished back into nothing. Looking annoyed for a second, the pink haired girl took a moment to glance around ... before suddenly looking down, an embarrassed expression blooming on her face.

"Oh, heh, right..." she said between breaths. "My bad."

"That was… most unusual," Cologne was the first to speak. She took a moment to hold up her staff. A single ripple of ki ran down her arm and seeped into the cane. With an audible crack, the wood mended back together.

"On her world, she's considered meta-human," Ryouga, the lieutenant, clarified. This wasn't something even Cologne would know about... unless Starfire had informed her. "She must've been mixing her power in with her aura. I saw it before when she blasted me."

"Meta-human?" Ukyou asked, not as familiar with the term. "I know they have, you know, superheroes and stuff. Is a meta human like a mutant or something?"

"Mutant nothing, _Baker Brain_,'" Jinx barked in annoyance. Clearly being called a 'mutant' wasn't a compliment where she came from either. "And no, I wasn't _mixing_ my power with my aura. My power _is_ my aura. One in the same!"

The pink haired girl tapped her chin, taking on a more thoughtful expression for a moment. "Besides, my powers are based as much on sorcery as they are on my own spiritual stuff. It took a lot of research and training when I was younger to get even the level of control I had before meeting up with Happi."

"Can you separate your ki from your, ah… sorcery?" Akane asked from the back of the room. "I mean, can you use _just_ ki?"

That brought the cat eyed girl up short. "I ... don't know. I've never even tried, and Happosai never said anything about it. As far as I know, my powers and my ki are pretty much one and the same, so they're basically inseparable. Even Raven says that all she can see when she looks at me with her funky 'aura sight' trick is my usual energy."

Looking to Ryouga, she asked, "I mean, I think Happi would have tried to teach me that if it were possible, right? I was hell on his pipe collection when he was teaching me that trick of his, after all."

"Frankly, I can't believe that old fart taught you a full body aura wrap," Ranma grumbled. "Even if it is a modified one. I could feel the spiritual pressure as it hit my body, so she's externalizing… but she's using her powers as a primary medium."

"I definitely felt a ki in there," the lieutenant Hibiki argued. "Think about it, Saotome. This is Happosai, and the root Anything Goes. We both know what the school uses for ki generation."

"Happosai's techniques are powerful, but come with a price," Cologne agreed. "I wonder if even he knows the full effect they would have on a woman's body."

"I know exactly what that 'effect' is, and so does he," Ranma replied with a shudder. "What's scarier is how good she is at it, when she couldn't have been training with the old troll for more than a few months. But I didn't detect any… well, not much… lust in her battle aura."

"Young lady," Cologne spoke up, hushing the two boys. "Did Happi teach you any internalization? Using your power inside your body instead of outside?"

Jinx shrugged indifferently, having tried to follow the quick conversation. "A bit. Stronger, faster, tougher, able to leap tall buildings and all that junk. It wasn't the main focus, but he didn't skip it entirely."

She then turned to Ranma. "And it's hardly scary how good I am! Unlike you late-comers, I've been manipulating energy pretty much all of my life. People like me and Star, of course we're gonna be better at these kinds of things than you guys are, we've just got more practice is all." She turned back to Cologne. "Also, I've been applying some of my own mystical training to this as well, to supplement some of the things that don't come as a natural fit for me."

"It is a shame Herb isn't here. He is the only one we know of who is capable of such things from birth," Cologne admitted, and turned to Ryouga and Ranma. "How much do you two know about these metahumans?"

"A little," Ranma answered.

"It isn't something we can replicate …yet," Ryouga said a bit more on the subject. "Even Herb said he hadn't found a way to do it."

"The actual execution of the technique was pretty good," Ranma changed topics. The details of the meta-human issue weren't ones they should be so freely discussing. "My pops has one just like it. Once she works out how to merge the formation and interlace steps, it'll be just like theirs. Just a lot _pinker_."

"It was also causing collateral damage," Cologne observed. "That's a classic sign of aura leakage and an unsettled mental state. Don't forget that the brightness and size of an aura is misleading, and that cycling energy more quickly than you can mold it is dangerous to yourself and others."

"I guess it was pretty impressive," Ukyou admitted.

"Actually," the younger Ryouga added, matter of factly, "The collateral damage had nothing to do with aura leakage. That's just the nature of her power. The fact that there was so little damage after she'd gathered that much power is way more impressive than you know, Granny."

"Indeed," Starfire agreed, a bit less supportive as she recalled more than a few times that those same powers had been used against her. "I have seen Jinx perform feats of raw destruction that equal, if not exceed those of what Herb demonstrated during our fight. Even I could feel the intensity of Jinx's aura, beyond the size and brightness."

"Thankfully Jinx doesn't like to throw around power the same way that Herb does. The secondary reactions she'd cause would likely be worse than the intended ones," Ryouga added with a chuckle.

"Oh, shut it, Lost Boy," Jinx barked back. "And I know all about cycling my energy already. My initial mystical training was done in India, after all. I've learned all of the basics of chakras."

"I will have to study this… meta-human power of yours as we train, then," Cologne said, rather intrigued by the possibility of something even more exotic than Starfire's already amazing and unusual talents. "I can only wonder if your Happosai, or your Cologne, truly grasp how remarkable these abilities are when seen from a world which has nothing of the like."

"Knowing Happi? Probably not even a little," Jinx replied with a snicker.

"And seriously, I wouldn't even bother with the 'replicating' stuff," her Ryouga stepped in. "If you think Star and Jinx got fancy powers, you should meet Terra. Like Jinx, her power and her ki are the same thing, but for all the little things I've been able to emulate by training with her, there are things she can do that I will _never_ be able to do, not even if I had a thousand years to train."

"Trying to replicate my powers would be equally fruitless," Starfire added, almost sounding defensive about it. "Just as Jinx posses the meta gene, my powers are also inherent to my species. At best you could attempt to emulate my abilities, but-"

"Just a moment. What is this meta-gene?" Cologne asked, holding up her hand for Starfire to halt and explain.

"Oh!" Starfire smiled and happily complied. "I do not know all of the details, but many humans on our Earth have what is referred to as a meta-gene. This gene gives them their powers, usually as a result of some external stimuli. This is actually very strange, as most species do not have such a widely varying range of powers..."

"That - that raises further questions," Cologne reasoned, shaking her head in disbelief. "I did not know that genetics worked that way..."

"It doesn't," Ukyou spoke up. "At least not here. But our universe doesn't have Superwomen either."

"That's Wonder Woman, not Super Woman." Akane corrected her friend only to ask, "So what if..."

"Alright. This isn't the time or place," the native Ryouga interrupted her. "In fact, I'll ask all of you not to so casually discuss this 'meta-gene.' Technically, its existence is classified above your Angel level of clearance."

"Yeah," Ranma concurred, but more casually. "I'm gonna have to agree. Jinx?"

Said metahuman stepped into the group, holding up her hands. "Alright, alright. Enough about us 'mutant freaks'. So can we get back to the part where you guys are actually supposed to be teaching us stuff? I got to one-up Ukyou, so I've gotten my jerk quotient out of the way for the day, so I think we can continue professionally now."

Cologne nodded, and motioned for Jinx to step back to join the group.

"I guess I'll go up next," Ranma said, and rolled his shoulders as he walked up. Standing in front of everyone, he clasped his hands and kept talking. "I'll be using double circulation, snap interlace, and elemental ki to create wind and cold. Standard aura plus soul of ice."

Tucking his thumbs into his belt all too casually, he licked his lips and without further warning a crisp blue glow enveloped his body. It was like faceted glacial ice, and white wisps rose up from the part that extended a few inches from his body. He unhooked his thumbs and reached out with his hands, making a smooth motion over to the left.

The aura remained tightly bound to his body, but as he moved, a rush of cold wind swept from one side of the dojo to the other. He shifted his stance, motioning to the right, and the wind went along with him. He made a downward motion, then an upward one, before slowly lowering his hands, palm down.

"Very nice, son in law," Cologne commented, but the nickname didn't so much as prick his concentration. The soul of ice was in perfect form.

"It's producing a lot of dryness in my throat, though," Ranma said, his battle aura still up. "And it keeps trying to pull the air out of my lungs."

"You probably have a pressure gradient," lieutenant Hibiki supplied. "My aura pops my ears, too. That thing is like a second skin. Why don't you loosen it up a bit?"

"If I diffuse it, it messes with my moves," the pigtailed one replied. "And _yes_, that includes just diffusing it around my head. I thought'a that already."

"How much wind-generating ki are you using?"

"Right now, about ten percent. Any less and I can't use the Hiryu Kanshou. I kick it up to about twenty five percent for Hiryu Henkei." Ranma grimaced, and looked down at his left palm. "Getting some… you know, turbulence around the hands, too. But it's a lot better than it used to be. The narrower I can make my Hyou Töppa the better."

"That's amazing control!" Ukyou took a very close look at his stomach. "You're double circulating?"

"Slowly," Ryouga critiqued.

"Slow works better for me," Ranma replied, a bit defensively. "I get a more stable output." He did a triumphant little dance; moving to the beat of his awesomesauce. "Not bad huh? Jealous much?"

"You're asking to get punched in the face, Saotome." The elder Ryouga started walking up front. "Granny. Lemme show ya a _real_ double circulation. I've improved my charka flow around both points by about ten percent."

"Excuse me again," Starfire spoke up, even raising her hand a bit shyly. "But what is this double circulation? I have never heard of it before. It refers to the movement of chakra to make ki, yes?"

"That's correct," Cologne answered. Next to her, Ranma evaporated his aura and strolled off to the middle of the pack.

"You were taught that, at least for humans, our main area of ki generation is in the abdomen," the ancient Amazon explained. "Recently, new information has come to light about a technique developed by a man named Shigenosuke. He was not one of my contemporaries, so his work was only recently brought to my attention. He believed that yin/yang circulation in the body should not be thought of as circular, but as a two body rotation."

"Shigenosuke...?" the younger Ryouga asked, recognizing the name. "That was…!"

"The martial arts calligrapher." The older Hibiki answered, crossing his arms and smirking. "The Mark he used on us artificially altered our ki generation, and in turn, our entire body. Rather than recreate it, I learned the secret of how it worked. We don't need a Mark to alter our flow of chakra to produce ki. That same potential can be unlocked by good old fashioned training. What you saw Ranma do earlier was circulate his yin and yang slowly around the Manipura, using orbits rather than a single coiled circle."

"Well, by all means, show us how it's done," the younger Ryouga stated, leaning forward with interest. "I think I got the gist of what you're talking about from what Ranma was doing, but I'd like to see how someone actually _competent_ can do it."

Ranma's indignant growl didn't go unnoticed; just unrewarded.

"Alright. Double circulation. Snap interlace," the lieutenant said. "I'll build up into a full battle aura so its easer to see."

Taking a deep breath and holding up his arms in a defensive, rigid stance, palms open and held upward, the elder Hibiki's aura expanded with a jerk, sticking close to his body. It was a pale white, and almost billowy – a faint and almost frail contrast to Ranma's vivid blue. Letting out another measured breath, Ryouga cycled the aura up. Black and green pooled out from his skin like dark smoke, thickening the white patches and staining them entirely, like ink. Far more poured out of his hands than anywhere else: it quickly became so thick that it obscured his palms from view.

His muscles tensed and his brow creased, as his circulation increased. The movement of chakra was like the wheel of a pump or piston. The interaction of yin and yang produced ki. The emptiness of the mind, produced by a state of mushin, allowed the ki to externalize: it left the body, and there, it was made subject to conscious thought. The full battle aura didn't push far beyond Ryouga's body, but the preponderance of certain emotions – primarily depression and anger – was enough to visibly deform the tatami mats at his feet. The aura crushed deep impressions in them.

"Dark and foreboding as ever, P-chan."

"Shut up, Ranma."

"Don't you mean Ranko?" Ranma facepalmed. "Arg. what am I saying…?"

"Ha." Ryouga actually managed a laugh and smile, despite the swirling vortex of negative emotions around him. "When you circulate this fast, the aura pulses incredibly quickly. This is better for straight up ki techniques, like my Shishi Hokoudan, and your Kenran Hinode, Ukyou. You lose some stability, but you get a lot of power."

"Typical Hibiki," Ranma couldn't help but criticize. "Just keep pounding away until you get what you want."

"You're a regular comedian," the lost one remarked, and turned to Cologne. "Problem is, I'm still getting some interference from the chakra points above and below. I think I'm at the limit of how fast you can circulate just the Manipura before the movement affects other areas of the body. The faster I go, the wider it gets."

"This was a problem we anticipated when we studied the scrolls," Cologne admitted, giving a long 'hmmmm.'

"Yeah. I don't know how to fix it yet. I still can't put out as much raw ki as the other Cologne. I'm kinda close… but…"

"Ryouga," Ukyou asked, interrupting a little hesitantly. "I mean, Lieutenant. Can you turn this way a bit, sugar?"

"Sure," he replied, doing so. He kept his rigid stance, only loosening up a little as he continued with Cologne. "I'm also getting some ki burns when I crank it up this much."

"All ki exits from the epidermis," the Elder reminded him. "It may be a few more weeks before your body fully adapts to the changes. It was much the same way when I developed by Six Element techniques."

He nodded, a bit discouraged by the news.

"Well, that's it," he said, lowering his arms. The aura powered down, bits of it drifting away and the rest seeping back into his body, like a sponge soaking up water.

The younger Ryouga turned to the Tamaranian beside him. "Why don't you give it a try, Star? Everyone seems pretty interested in what you can do."

The flamehaired girl hemmed and hawed for a moment. "I... I do not know. I have no real training in this; I would certainly not be able to make such an impressive display as anyone else has so far..."

"Oh, come on, Starfire," Akane offered in a supportive tone. "You need to start somewhere, right? I'm sure you'll do great!"

"Well ..." Starfire looked around the room, cheeks tingeing red. "I suppose... as long as people promise not to laugh..."

"Ha! Not a chance-"

"Jinx!" Ryouga interrupted quickly. He then turned to Starfire. "I promise, no one will laugh as long as you do your best. I'll personally pound anyone into the ground that does."

Smiling weakly, Starfire floated to her feet. "Very well, since you have given your word."

Floating to the center of the room, the flame haired girl closed her eyes and held her hands to her chest as hung above the floor. Slowly, her hair began to float on an invisible wind as currents of power began to surround her.

"That's right, Star ... nice and easy," Ryouga instructed patiently.

The temperature in the room began to rise and emerald energy began to gather around the alien warriors hands. Sweat began to bead on Starfire's brow as she concentrated harder -

At which point ... she exploded.

A flash of blinding emerald light filled the entire dojo, and when it cleared, a number of very singed, very surprised martial artists were left standing, staring at an extremely embarrassed Tamaranian.

"Wow." Was the first response, predictably from one Ranma Saotome.

"Everyone okay?" the elder Ryouga asked, specifically checking for Ukyou and Akane. Both were fine, though the sudden explosion had knocked the Tendo sister onto her tailbone.

Cologne, inscrutably, seemed entirely unfazed.

"Sorry!" Starfire yipped. "Sorry!"

"That's quite alright, dear." Cologne stepped a little closer. "Give me your hand, and let's try again. You lost your focus. Remember that you must be, at your core, _relaxed_. Even an admittedly dark aura like Ryouga's comes from a steady state of mind."

"I - ah - I believe I will wait until I have trained further before I make another attempt, actually," Starfire muttered under her breath. "I would rather not have a repeat of what happened when Ryouga attempted to teach me the Breaking Point Technique."

Gently, Starfire extricated her hand from Cologne's. "I doubt I would be able to calm myself sufficiently after that lack luster display." She quickly turned to her Ryouga. "Would you please make a demonstration and distract our gathered friends from my near genocide?"

Smiling, and brushing some of the soot off his shirt, the Lost Boy nodded fondly. "Sure thing, Star. Let's see if I can't work some of that double circulation stuff into it while I'm here, to boot."

Dropping a comforting hand on her shoulder as they traded places, Ryouga moved to the center of the room and dropped into a loose Mountain Stance, resting his fists on his hips. "I'll try this in three stages. First, I'll just use my normal ki. Then I'll attenuate my ki to the earth's energy. Then, finally, I'll draw on the elemental ki to bolster my own."

"I have heard rumors you use elemental earth ki," Cologne said as an aside. "It is an ability I have only seen in a select few. I would caution against trying double circulation of the Manipura, however. It took son-in-law and Hibiki here two months to reach their current level. Miss Kuonji is still undergoing circulation retraining."

"I'll draw you up a practice array later if you want," the older Ryouga offered, referring to a sort of temporary calligraphy mark. It helped train the yin and yang chakra to flow in new patterns, like a weight machine training muscles.

"That'll probably help, but I'm pretty sure I can get the basics of it."

With that, Ryouga began to concentrate his chi and immediately a pale, azure aura sprang up around him. What became immediately obvious was the effortless manner in which he brought the energy under control, very nearly on par with Saotome's own level of control. And unlike his counterpart, there was scarcely any emotional taint at all.

Taking a deep breath, the martial artist closed his eyes and moved his hands so that he was holding them on either side of his stomach, as if cupping a sphere in front of his abdomen. Strain began to show on his face as he focused all of his will down on his abdomen. Within moments, despite all odds, the aura around his Manipura began to circulate. Certainly it was very slow and unrefined, but the fact that he could even begin the process was a testament to the fine control he had gained.

Less than a minute later, Ryouga let out a gasp, and the circulation quickly returned to normal. Dropping to a knee, the martial artist began taking air in ragged breaths.

"Ryouga! Are you alright?" asked the Tamaranian in concern, moving forward in case he needed help.

"Yeah ... yeah," Ryouga replied quickly. Shaking his head, he pushed himself back up to his feet. "It's ... not quite as easy as I thought..."

"I did warn you, Hibiki," Cologne intoned knowingly. "Are you able to continue?"

Ryouga rotated one of his arms and tilted his neck to the side, then nodded and dropped back into his stance. "Yeah, I'm good. Let me start again."

Once more, the pale azure aura sprang up around his body, swirling closely to his body in a tight matrix. Then, oddly, his aura just seemed to... vanish. All around the room, people began to feel their eyes just seem to slide off of the Lost Boy, as if he just failed to hold any interest any longer. The only one seemingly unaffected by this odd effect was Cologne. A moment later, Ryouga's aura began to reappear as he generated more power; however this time it was a brilliant golden color.

"Heehee, you're aura looks just like Terra's!" Starfire commented, obviously amused.

"Come on, Star, I'm trying to concentrate. I'm trying to attenuate my ki here."

Another moment passed and the golden aura settled down into a very stable form around Ryouga's body.

"...Okay, now to draw on the elemental ki."

Having a _much_ easier time now that he had returned to his regular manner of circulating ki, the Lost Boy looked much more relaxed as he manipulated his battle aura. Taking long, easy breaths, he dropped down into a lower stance, and a serene expression bloomed on his face.

Slowly, his aura began to grow in size, still glowing the same, beautiful golden color. In fact, there seemed to be no real difference between what he had been doing and what he was doing now, aside from the fact that there was just more ki in his aura.

"So ... um, when does he start 'drawing in the earth ki'?" Ukyou asked, a touch confused.

"He already is, child," Cologne added helpfully. "He has managed to blend his own ki into the earth ki so closely that it is quite difficult to discern the difference. It does make me wonder what possible reason he could have had to pursue such a bizarre path with his training."

"It is ... a long story, Elder Cologne," Starfire replied. "I will endeavor to explain it to you later."

"Yeah, just ... just suffice it to say that he had very good reason to," the elder Ryouga added, surprising more than a few people present.

"Hmm, I suppose I will have to take your words for it, then," Cologne replied, intrigued. She then turned her attention back to the younger Ryouga, watching carefully as his aura continued to grow.

Rather than writhe and blow as Ranma's did, or crackle and burn like Ryouga's, the younger martial artist's aura settled in quite heavily, and flowed as smoothly as polished obsidian. It was unique amongst all of the dynamic auras that had been demonstrated so far, and was proving quite interesting.

On his own, with such subdued emotions, the younger Hibiki fell well short of the raw power generation of his counterpart, but unlike the older Ryouga, he possessed dual sources to draw power from. When drawing upon both sources like this, a process which required the utmost control and willpower, the difference in power dwindled quite rapidly.

It was unfortunate that it was blatantly obvious that their relative experience levels were notably different as well. While her Ryouga had all but mastered his new technique, and could use it to great effect at will, this younger Ryouga was still relatively new to his ability and it seemed unlikely that he would be able to utilize it in battle at this stage in his development.

A moment later, Ryouga's aura died away to nothing, and the young man stood straight once more, breathing easily and smiling brightly to himself.

"I gotta say, it might be hard to pull off, but once you get it right, it's almost invigorating."

"That… was a lot of elemental ki," Ranma commented, cupping his chin in thought. "Were there any physical side affects? I've never even used a fraction as much wind - or fire if you follow the Chinese system - when I change temperatures."

The Teen Titan shook his head. "Not at that level, no. I think attenuating my ki actually helps protect me from that, though, as there are less violent reactions between the two sources as there were in your aura when you were doing it. I could see you suffering much more severe side effects if you were to use a large amount of wind ki, or fire ki, since they'd be essentially battling your natural aura on increasingly even footing."

A somber expression settled over the Lost Boy's face as he considered the connotations. "However, I _have_ seen what can happen if I were to go overboard. So I always take care when I do this, to avoid the same fate."

Cologne closed her eyes at that, remembering. She could guess what that fate was.

She had seen it before, in her own family.

"Attenuation?" Ranma asked. "How did you manage that? Long term exposure to earth ki? Did you bury yourself alive for a month or two?"

A quick nod... followed by a vigorous shake. "Bury myself alive? No, I...!"

For just one or two insane moments, Ryouga did consider that training...

"Anyway, no, I didn't bury myself alive," he answered, not quite entirely writing off that that may have kind of worked. "But I did expose myself to earth ki for a few weeks. That was a part of it. The rest was actually consciously attempting to match my ki to Terra's, to make sure I didn't explode her. One generally led to the point where I made a break through in the other, until I completed the cycle enough times to finally do it properly."

The Saotome heir had a good idea of what that meant, but the process as described wouldn't be something he could emulate for himself. The whole purpose of this weekly get together was to share ideas and training tips. Of course, one of the pillars of the Anything Goes School was also… 'judiciously appropriating and adapting techniques' (Aka stealing). There had to be some way to achieve a similar result…

"I also noticed you're mixing the elemental ki into your aura as you channel it. I know you can make ki blasts with it, too. So can you store the earth ki internally, or does it have to be used as you gather it?" the older Ryouga asked, rather pleased and curious to get another look at the unusual technique. "Also, is that yellow color you, or the elemental influence?"

"I can internalize it," Ryouga admitted, "However, when I do, it begins to have more notable effects. I feel heavier, and it actually slows me down a bit, not to mention I can't jump as high. On the other hand, though, it does seem to bolster both my strength and toughness. No real surprises there, but I already have enough toughness that I generally don't like sacrificing everything else to increase it."

"And the yellow is totally the elemental influence," Jinx offered teasingly. "Just like Starfire said: his aura goes all girly when he does this, just like Terra's. Normally it's that funky blue color you saw ... though I remember way back in the day when he used to get those nasty green and red colors in there all the time, too."

"Anything else?"

"We aren't supposed to add elemental ki until we've mastered externalized emotive ki, right?" Ukyou asked. "Do we get to pick which ki we use? It always kind of seemed ambiguous."

"Yeah," Akane agreed. "I've read stuff that seems to contradict."

"No one knows for sure," Cologne answered. "The general consensus in my day was determinist: that people were born with certain predilections towards certain elements. However, this was not universally agreed upon. Many believed that elemental preferences were defined by upbringing and preferences in style. I, myself, mastered all the forms of elemental ki… though water and wood were always my strongest. But I believe that any skilled student can do the same, and become in tune with all the natural energies …given time."

Dusting off his hands, Ryouga agreed. "That seems quite likely. I mean, sure, I learned the breaking point quickly, but that doesn't mean that it was just a fluke that I happened to be born with the one elemental talent that would let me help Terra. I think the fact that I needed to do it is the reason that I was able to. Not many people are given such a powerful reason to learn elemental ki, after all, especially not when emotive ki is so much easier to master and use. I doubt I would have done so myself, were it not for Terra and ... certain other problems I was having at the time ..."

After a few seconds, the younger Ryouga bowed out and returned to Star and Jinx. It hadn't been so bad, showing what he could do and fielding some questions about it. It felt nice. Kind of good, even. The Titans were great, but they weren't… well, they weren't the kind of crazy dedicated martial arts types like he and some of the old gang were. Luckily, they were also far less frustrating.

"Now that we're all seen what we can do, and the progress we've made in that, let's get to some of the challenging stuff!" Ranma decided, rolling his shoulders and stretching his arms. "We can start off with some integrity training."

"That'll be real hard for you, _Ranma_!"

"Great. Not just Bacon Bits, but now I've got Pinky ripping into me, too," Ranma could only sigh. "For you new guys, we have a few Integrity exercises. These are designed to improve the maintenance and solidity of your ki attacks and aura extensions. Or voodoo powers. Whatever comes first."

"Weight training," the older Ryouga chimed in. "I'll demonstrate two examples."

Flexing his arms, he fell forward.

There was a small spark of green, just before he hit, and it became clear that the lost lieutenant had stopped his fall. He had one arm tucked behind his back, and another flat against the ground… or rather, nearly so. Between his hand and the ground was a glowing ball of ki: the _shishi hokoudan_. Amazingly, it remained coherent despite constantly holding up Ryouga's body weight. The lieutenant leaned down far enough to nearly touch his nose to the tatami mat, and then pushed off.

The arms swapped. He was doing one armed push ups, but with his ki attack hitting the ground instead of his palm. The impacts seemed to do nothing to disperse the balls of energy; one remained in each hand, even as he swapped them, again and again and again. The strength feat wasn't impressive – anyone present could do one armed pushups without difficulty – but maintaining a ki construct like that under pressure was neither easy nor simple.

"We also have some dead weights we're going to take out," Ranma explained. "The idea being to push them, not with one big blasts, but with a sustained application of force. We'll also be doing this."

He slid a screen down from the ceiling, flat up against the wall.

Holding out his right hand, Ranma formed a pale blue ball of ki: a _moko takabisha_ variant. It seemed relatively mundane… until he bounced the ki ball off the ground, into the wall, where it bounced back off and into his hand again. He repeated the gesture, bounding the ki blast back and forth like a basketball.

"I've used this technique to hit enemies from behind cover, or to turn an enclosed space into an inescapable trap. So don't think it's just to look cool, like somthin' outta Tron." Ranma chuckled, and caught the ki ball in his hands. "So. You guys want to give it a try?"

"Sure," the younger Ryouga stated eagerly. "Just give us a quick rundown of how you do it, and we'll go from there."

"The trick to all of these moves is to regulate the flow out and flow in. Even with a very tightly packed ki attack, it'll still use the same basic interlace as your battle aura." Ranma went on to speculate, "That means Jinx here should actually have the easiest time. Starfire, I've seen you fire those starbolts of yours. You're not used to making a full body aura, but I'm sure you can do this with a little practice. It isn't just the interlace, though."

"When you put physical pressure on a ki attack, it loses coherence. It either explodes or it pushes into the target and mushrooms," the pigtailed master continued. "To keep your ki 'solid' like this, you need to regulate the energy so it goes in, then out, then in, then out. Usually, it just goes out. You can't see it with your eyes, but this moko takabisha is both expanding and contracting. Just very quickly and by a very small amount."

He bounced the glowing blue ball, and smirked.

"I can put one of these through a window, down the hall, through a door, and still have enough punch to break every bone in an alien's body… without hurting anyone else next to the target." Ranma inclined his head to the other officer nearby. "Porkchop here isn't much for finesse, but we've both massively improved our range and hitting power using these techniques. As well as a few more exotic uses."

"What kind of exotic uses do you mean?" the younger Ryouga asked. He was taking mental notes of everything that was said, content to learn here and practice later so he didn't waste time that he could potentially be using to learn something new.

Ranma's smirk only grew. "Why don't you show him your Harlem Globetrotter routine, man?"

"Damnit Ranma, don't call it that!" the older Ryouga sprung to his feet. Seeing everyone watching him again, he sighed. Holding out his hand, a small _shishi hokoudan_ materialized.

With a quick flip, the sphere ended up on the back of his palm, and then with a deft flick, it went rolling along his arm, over to his shoulder, across his back, and down his other arm. With a smooth movement, the ki sphere went back the same way, but then down his length of his spine, defying gravity by sticking to his skin – or to be more exact, his skin tight aura. When it reached his right foot, he kicked it back up into the air and grabbed it with his right hand.

"See? Now why can't you do that with a basketball?" Ranma asked between laughs.

"Alright, so it's official. We're being taught by Basketball Jones and the Dodgeball King," Jinx muttered, exasperated. Turning back to Cologne, she asked loudly. "I don't suppose you know any techniques that don't involve playground rules, do you?"

"The point of this exercise is to make other parts of the body accustomed to loading and holding a shishi hokoudan," the native Hibiki explained. "Once part of your body had 'learned' what it is like to have a large weight of ki building on top of it, like we usually do with our hands, it makes it easier to produce the ki there in the first place. Like so."

Ryouga held up his knee, and a dot of black quickly grew into a black and green sphere, a couple inches in diameter. The lost lieutenant then held up his left elbow, and formed another shishi hokoudan there as well. Despite forming these two new ki attacks, he still held the original ki sphere in his right hand.

"I ... am not certain that I see the benefit of such training," Starfire admitted. "The reason that I fire energy from my hands and eyes is that those are the ways in which I garner the greatest accuracy. Trying to fire a Starbolt from my elbow seems like it would be tremendously awkward."

"A good point," the elder Ryouga admitted, walking over to her. Strangely, the shishi hokoudan sphere remained all but glued to his elbow and knee.

"Unless you need to attack at unusual angles," he added. "You wouldn't make any long distance attacks with these. But that becomes less of a problem in the short and medium ranges. And what if you need to attack from two or three or four angles at the same time? What if your hands are busy?"

"What If I've got a rifle in my hands? What if I'm up close?" he asked, and stepped up to the girl, he slowly held out his hand in a fist. She instinctively blocked by brushing the fist aside, only to have the elbow come up to eye level.

"Power is great. The ability to be unpredictable and to attack from any angle… don't underestimate it." He then pointed to his feet, shins and then up to his forehead. "If you don't know, if you can't anticipate, where an attack will come from, how can you defend against it?"

"You still have to gather power to do those kinds of attacks," the younger Ryouga stated. Now that he saw it, however, he recognized it. This was the same technique used in the fight before, when the native Hibiki had fired some rather potent ki attacks from his feet.

"Your intent will be giving you away pretty badly to anyone with a suitably developed danger sense and ki sense. The only reason we can't sense it now is because you're not using any killer intent at all. Besides, considering our normal strength, the added damage is overkill even for Mutons, but still woefully inadequate for something like those big Sectopod type things. Seems like good training and all, but there's no way you're going to be taking Cologne - um, the evil one - by surprise with your trick there."

The other Ryouga nodded, seeing what the Titan was saying.

"Of course, we have specific techniques for things like Sectopods… in case of an emergency… I would not recommend getting close to one. But in a serious fight, I can merge each one of these," he said, pointing to the ki attack at his elbow. "Into my overall battle aura. Which I don't have up right now. As long as I have a basic killing intent _across_ that aura, the attacks are nearly undetectable. Even Cologne only has two eyes."

"Tofu might be a problem, though," Ranma admitted, crossing his arms. "Given what he did to Konatsu. No blind spots at all. But we know from the last fight Cologne's perception isn't _that_ good. Just _close to_ that good."

"This is only part of the actual technique," the older Ryouga explained. "But remember: this is something I came up with for **me**. If you want to tailor the training to your own needs, then all the better. That's why we're here."

The younger Ryouga nodded. "True enough. Well, every bit helps as they say. So anything you can teach will be invaluable."

"After this, we'll do some multiplicity training. That's stuff like this," Ranma said, holding out his hand. One, then two, then three small spheres appeared and rolled around in his palm, each one a mini-ki blast. "Also, forming in each hand simultaneously, and stacking attacks together. We'll also practice some aura shifting, so you can put more power where it's needed more quickly."

"Then last is intensity," the elder Ryouga finished. "This is power and endurance training. We'll be holding our full battle auras the entire time, testing attacks on targets and some thermal and pressure barriers. Any energy you've got left, we'll burn."

"After that," Cologne added. "We'll be discussing some psionic-aura theory. And I am well aware it is the least popular part of the routine, but you have all benefited from it. Even I have learned a great deal, so humor an old woman and try not to pretend to be unconscious."

"I did that _once_." Ranma gave a suffering sigh. "**Once**."

That said, the two teams went back to their technique training.

It was a fruitful five hours.

* * *

Ryouga toweled his hair off one last time before dropping the wrap around his shoulders and giving his head a brisk shake. An amused chuckle from his side drew his attention. Walking down the hallway beside him, towel draped around his neck as well, Cyborg shook his head.

"All that, and your hair looks like it always does. Seriously, don't you ever comb or anything?"

Ryouga glared at his companion. He was tempted to reach into his pocket and pull out a bandanna to snap on, but decided to go au natural for a bit, just out of spite.

"Hey, not all of us have an auto dry option, Baldy. Besides, do you know how hard it is on a comb when you have twigs and squirrels in your hair? I gave up carrying those things around long ago."

Cyborg looked at him for a moment, then shrugged. "Dawg, serious props on the dedication to the mountain man life style. You been one of us so long, I forget where you came from before ya joined up.

Speaking of which, how was the training session with Nega-Ryo?"

"Nega-Ryo?" Ryouga rolled his eyes. "Really?"

"What, no love for the Darkwing?"

"Dark _what_? You know what, never mind. Anyway, I'd have to say the training was… annoyingly enlightening." Ryouga flung his arms up into the air. "Even worse, the bastard was so damn helpful, to boot. He gave me a lot of good pointers on a ki technique and everything."

"Damn him!" The Lost Boy slammed fist into an open palm. "This guy is really making it hard to keep the rivalry going!"

"Point of clarification." Cyborg lifted a finger, obviously going for a counterargument. "First, can you actually be in a rivalry with yourself? Secondly, aren't you both already in monogamous rivalries with your respective Ranmas? Wouldn't that be like … cheating or something?"

"Shut up! You're making the whole thing sound gay!"

Cyborg glared at Ryouga.

"… Not that there's anything wrong with that."

The cybernetic teen nodded approvingly before replying. "Besides, when did this turn into a rivalry? I thought you just hated the guy's guts?"

Ryouga shuffled about self consciously. "Well, I wouldn't go _that_ far. That and having all those guys out of our hair-"

Cyborg quirked an eyebrow.

"-_My_ hair, gave me a chance to calm down. I don't approve of his methods, but at least I understand why he's doing what he's doing."

His large companion studied him for a few seconds, then suddenly donned a smile and dropped a hand on his shoulder. "That's my man! Higher road and all that junk. Now, seriously, let's hit the mess already. I'm starving!"

The Lost Boy nodded and they made double time down the hallway -

Only to nearly run face first into Starfire and Raven as the pair rounded a corner. Startled gasps and amused giggles filled the air as everyone sorted themselves out. This soon died out, though, as Ryouga and Cyborg finally got a look at their teammates.

Obviously having just got out of the showers themselves, the girls' hair was still damp and they were wearing oversized white T-shirts and what appeared to be spandex cycling shorts. The fact that the moisture from their hair was making the tees just a bit … 'clingy' was hard not to notice.

The quicker of the two to react, Cyborg gave a rather unconvincing cough before waving enthusiastically. "Hey ladies! … How's it goin?"

He then jabbed Ryouga sharply in the ribs, just for good measure. The martial artist started instantly. "Umm, _yeah_! Uh, how was your Psi training this morning, Raven?"

The girl's shared a confused glance for a moment, and then Raven shrugged and turned back to them. "It's hard to say, really. Not long after I started my session, Captain Ben-Solomon and some of the other higher ranking Psi Officers asked me to help them with some research."

"Really?" Cyborg asked, interest in his voice. "What kind?"

Raven shook her head and lifted her hands helplessly.

"Unfortunately, they don't want me talking about it yet. All that I can say, is that it was a harrowing experience."

"Harrowing?" Starfire parroted. "For what reason would they require your assistance in researching anachronistic agricultural practices? I fail to see the relevance."

Raven and her male companions could only stare at the alien girl, until Raven finally shook her head. "… Never mind. Anyway, since I can't say, and Starfire and Ryouga have both doubtlessly already told, what were you up to this morning, Cyborg?"

Puffing up proudly, the large teen smirked happily. "Who, me? I was just putting the finishing touches on the gear I've been working on for our team! Next time we go out on a mission, we'll be ready to suit up and head out in style. If you want, I can give you guys a little demo after lunch."

"That would be most exciting!" Starfire chirped ecstatically. "I cannot wait to see what you have been working on these past days."

Obviously not sharing her enthusiasm for Cyborg's work, Ryouga looked around quizzically. "Say, where's Jinx? Wasn't she with you two?"

"She decided not to do her hair, so she went on ahead," Raven explained. "She said she'd meet us for lunch when we were done."

"Hey, we were just about to get something to eat; did you two want to join us?" Ryouga asked.

Ignoring the annoyed look Cyborg gave him, the Lost Boy waited as Raven responded. "Well, I think that was the general idea …" The violet haired girl looked down to take in her apparel. "Though, I think we might want to change, first. Why don't you meet us back here in ten minutes?"

"Oh, indeed! It will finally give us a chance to try on the new clothing which we requisitioned through Nabiki!" Starfire's excitement over Cyborg's achievement was instantly replaced with the new excitement for trying on new clothing. Raven didn't even have a chance to hear whether Ryouga replied or not before she was dragged bodily down the hallway in a flash of white, red and violet.

Left standing there, Ryouga and Cyborg shared a brief look.

"Well, I guess we might as well get changed to, then," Ryouga suggested.

"What do ya mean we?"

"You heard me. Nabiki ordered some stuff for you too. If everyone else is getting dressed up, then you can too."

Cyborg glared at him. "Ah… Fine. But if there's even one sweater vest in there, I'm done, man."

Ryouga just rolled his eyes before heading back to his room.

Roughly ten minutes later, the four teens were gathered once more, this time outside the cafeteria. Looking positively annoyed, Cyborg was wearing a pristine navy blue sweat suit - complete with hoodie. Due to his bulky frame, it was the only thing they could order on short notice that would fit him. Ryouga had put on a comfortable yellow Chinese shirt and a pair of loose fitting slacks.

Starfire, for her part, was wearing a light pink tank top and a pair of black slacks, quite flattering indeed, not to mention a dramatic change of pace. Raven, however looked the furthest removed from the norm. Wearing a sharp white blouse and a dark pencil skirt, she looked every bit the young professional. While Ryouga and Cyborg were reduced to staring, Raven and Starfire shared a quick glance after studying their friends. The violet haired girl smirked as she looked Ryouga over once more.

"Wow, a yellow Chinese shirt … really stretching your comfort zone there, aren't you?"

Starfire giggled in amusement before turning to Cyborg. "You look quite … uncomfortable in your new garments. Do you not like them? I find your new outfit to be quite colorful!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," the tin Titan muttered. "I'm just not used to getting dressed up. It's been awhile, y'know?"

The Tamaranian nodded sympathetically, but after a moment, her spirit lifted once more, and she spun around in the air, doing not just a one eighty but a three sixty. "But what of our new outfits? Do you approve?"

Even as Starfire reveled the attention, Raven blushed slightly at the scrutiny.

Cyborg certainly didn't help as he replied in the form of a loud wolf whistle. "You two are lookin' 'fine!' Even moreso than usual, yo!"

"Um … yeah. You - you _both_ look … nice," Ryouga added, blushing a bit himself.

"Uh … thank you?" replied the violet haired girl, sounding a bit uncertain about herself.

"Yeah, yeah, we all look fly," Cyborg stated loudly. "Let's get down to business and get us some grub!"

Nodding quickly, Ryouga and Raven quickly stepped through the door before them. The room was a bustle with activity, as it was around the lunch hour. There was scarcely an empty table in the entire cafeteria, as people ate and chatted and laughed away in good cheer.

"Hmm, guess we'll have to order to go," Cyborg muttered.

Shrugging, Ryouga moved towards the table holding all the food. "One place is as good as another to eat."

Everyone joined him, picking up trays and starting to load up their plates. Raven followed up at the tail end of the procession, choosing to make a cup of tea and pick up a delicious smelling bowl of chowder and a small salad. For a moment, she wondered if she was having too much, only to look up at the trays her friends her carrying.

The violet eyed Titan could only stare in shock at the towering piles of food that threatened to collapse the trays which strained to hold them; even Starfire's prospective meal was a monolithic affair. Did these people not realize that they could simply get back up and get seconds?

Raising an eyebrow, Raven eyed Starfire tellingly. "And yet _I _weigh more than _you_?"

"Tell me about it."

Startled, the Titans looked behind Raven, only to see Nabiki and Akane standing behind them in the food line. The middle sister smirked and looked down to her own moderate meal, then back to Akane's large smorgasbord of a dinner.

"Akane here can eat like a horse and never gain a pound, while 'I' actually have to watch my figure," the avaricious Tendo sister complained with a sigh. "It just isn't fair."

"Nabiki!" the younger sister tried to cover her plate with her arm, suddenly embarrassed.

"Oh, don't mind her," her sister continued, unperturbed. "So, how are you guys doing today? I see you've decided to try out the new clothes I ordered for you." She gave Raven a quick once over. "Gotta say, it looks good on you, too, Raven."

"Why thank you," Raven replied, smiling weakly.

"Again, please let us give you our thanks for all of your assistance," Starfire interjected quickly. "You are greatly removed from the villainous Nabiki Tendo of our own world."

"I dunno about that," Akane muttered under her breath, not quite loud enough to be heard.

"Umm, yeah, thanks for that … I think," Nabiki replied. "I mean, I know I shouldn't want to be called villainous, but it does have this sexy sound to it. Like 'the Baroness.'"

Chuckling, Ryouga shook his head. "We _all_ want to thank you, Nabiki. You've done so much for us, after all. Why don't you two join us for lunch-" He looked around the cafeteria. "You know … if we can find a seat that is …"

"Over here, you guys!"

Well, the sight of Jinx waving them over to one of the tables was pretty much impossible to miss at that point. It was easy to realize how they hadn't noticed her before, as she was sitting on the far side of one of the long tables, which was currently populated by a full squad of large men. Now that he saw her, though, Ryouga sucked in his breath.

Wearing her hair down, which she hadn't done for weeks, Jinx was also wearing a tight black tube top, held up by a few thin spaghetti straps which crisscrossed artfully. It was certainly… showy, and far less conservative than she usually wore. …That and she looked just damn good in it.

Moving as a group, the Titans and the Tendos flocked over to the long table, and Jinx gestured for them to squeeze in along the benches on either side, taking special note to make a little space beside her for Ryouga.

"C'mon, take a load off, Yankee's! You too, Biki and Kane."

Smirking, Ryouga moved around the table to sit beside Jinx as everyone else managed to situate themselves between the soldiers. As he took his seat, he turned to the pink haired sorceress.

"So, who are your new friends?"

Jinx smiled adorably before gesturing to the seated men. "These are my boys in Bravo Squad! These are the guys that I was schoolin' on how we shoot laser weapons back in the Hive Academy."

"Indeed you did," one of the older men agreed, smiling as he dipped his head. "Poorly and with little concern for your comrades. I do not believe I've ever seen someone try and fire a laser pistol, ahm, 'gangster style' I believe it is called?"

"Hey!" Jinx squawked loudly. Firing a quick glare at the offender, she turned back to the Lost Boy and gestured to the speaker. "This joker here is Sergeant Karpov, head Honcho of Bravo."

The big Russian veteran saluted casually as Jinx introduced the rest of Bravo squad in turn. Once that was done, she gestured to her team mates.

"And these are my … 'friends'? I guess? Anyway, the hoodie wearing linebacker is Cyborg."

Cyborg did not seem at all displeased with the description and shook a few hands around the table. Jinx then pointed to the two girls across the table from her. "And these to pieces of grade-A girl meat are the other two thirds of Yankee's 'Jailbait from the Four Corners of the Multiverse' collection.

"**Jinx!**"

"What is this … jailbait?"

"_What_?" Jinx held up her hands defensively. Then, smirking wickedly, she pointed to the men of Bravo. "I'm just giving fair warning. These guys are real 'dog' soldiers, if you know what I mean. I figure it's best to let them know before they try to pull a Kuno."

The round of laughter that rang out from around the table (including the Tendos) seemed to indicate that the members of Bravo were far from offended by the insinuations. Finally, Jinx leaned over and draped an arm around Ryouga's shoulders.

"And this babe is Ryouga 'Not really a sergeant but they call him that to make him feel better about himself' Hibiki."

The Lost Boy rolled his eyes affectionately. "Well, I am working on that."

"Speaking of babes," Nabiki interjected with a smile. "You're really working that top, Jinx. I wasn't sure you could pull it off when you asked me to order it for you."

Absently pulling at one of the straps of the top, which was showing off a surprising amount of cleavage considering who was wearing it, Jinx nodded.

"Yeah, I'm liking it, though it would have been nice if certain _guys_ had noticed it first." She gave Ryouga a warning glare, who swallowed nervously in response. "Besides, borrowing clothes from around the base just wasn't working. Like that shirt I tried to borrow from Akane. The freakin thing fit like a circus tent-"

A dark cloud began to roll in over the youngest Tendo's face.

"- Especially around the whole chest area," Jinx added, bringing inordinate amount of attention to her own chest by gesturing to it.

Immediately, Akane smiled brightly and reached out to grab Jinx's hand in her own.

"Did I tell you yet that I love you, Jinx?"

"Aww, that's so sweet," Jinx cooed.

"Anyway," Karpov interrupted with a smile. Leaning towards Ryouga, he gave a conspirator's grin. "So what is with this sudden surge of interest lately? Some people are wondering if you aren't gunning for India and Juliet?"

Ryouga looked back at him, confused. "Gunning for? Well, yeah, I guess I am looking to take down Lieutenant Hibiki."

Instantly, Raven rolled her eyes. "Are you still on about that? Fighting the lieutenant is a pointless waste of time."

"Pointless?" Ryouga barked. "How is fighting pointless? I mean, I'm not totally sure how I'd get him to fight me, but-"

"But, friend Ryouga, was it not made clear that the Ryouga of this world possesses techniques more advanced than your own? Even if you were to battle him, how would you expect to win?" Starfire asked the obvious.

"Hey! I'm not _that_ far behind," Ryouga muttered, crossing his arms, cursing certain situational differences between counterparts. "I mean, sure, he's over a year older, but I'm actually ahead of him in a few things. I'm sure I can throw together a nasty little plan to…"

"Umm, yeah, I'm gonna cut you off right there."

Everyone paused to look at Nabiki, a worryingly serious expression on her face.

"I know. So anticlimactic. But I'm going to have to agree with Raven here," she continued, brown eyes un-amused by the thought of a cross-Hibiki fight. "Your grudge match with our Ryouga is a waste of time. And, since you owe me 'more' than one, I'm just gonna put a kibosh on that right now, okay? I don't want you challenging him to a fight over some stupid male pride thing. He's got more than enough problems to deal with without you pestering him."

Ryouga glared back at her. "Pestering? Hey, I have more problems than him to deal with, and I'm still willing to take the time to foster a healthy grudge! He's just got this war stuff to deal with. I've got this war stuff **and** trying to get us back home."

Nabiki rolled her eyes before pointing to herself with both thumbs. "This is me not caring. Despite… despite everything, things have been going smoothly lately. I'm laying this law down for _you_ as much as for _him_. You've been doing really good lately, Hibiki. Don't mess it up by antagonizing everyone in the base with this feud of yours."

Sighing loudly, and stealthily taking the opportunity to lean in on Ryouga more, Jinx nodded. "I hate to say it, since the idea of seeing you kick his butt would be great, but Biki does have a point." Obviously unable to help herself, the slight vixen fired off an impish smirk. "Besides… Starfire is right, big bad would _totally_ kick your butt."

"Oh, thank you **all** _so much_ for your support."

Another round of laughter rose up, and again Karpov was the first to speak, "As amusing as all of that is, it is not what I was referring to. I was referring to all of your team's achievements lately. Most notably Mr. Cyborg's and Miss Raven's."

He nodded to the pair, Cyborg swelling up with pride and Raven nodding her head with a small smile.

"To … how should I put it? 'Come out of the gate swinging?' as you have, you have impressed many around the base. Setting a new record on the mobile target range and displaying a talent for psionics that has never been seen before in the psi gym? One might come to the conclusion that you are trying to show up your fellow 'Special Squads'."

One of the other members of Bravo chuckled, leaning on an elbow. "There's actually a bit of talk going on as to who would win a fight among the three special squads, now. I hear Charlie is betting on you rookies."

"Well yeah!" Cyborg cheered. "We're just that badical!"

Starfire tapped her chin cutely. "Hmm, I had not considered such a thing. True, we did do more than hold our own against India, even when down several members, but they were only using plasma weapons and standard alien tactics."

Ryouga shrugged. "Well, not that it matters, or anything, but we'd take Juliet pretty easily. India would probably be a bit of a challenge, though. Hard to say how that might go."

"You do realize that, just by saying that, you're just asking for trouble?" Raven asked, annoyance obvious in her tone.

"And what makes you think you could take Juliet?" Akane asked, sounding a bit defensive, for obvious reasons.

"Well," Ryouga began, "It's not hard to figure out. I mean, sure, Ranma is crazy powerful, and I hear Konatsu ain't too bad, either, but they do have a weak link or two. I mean, think of it this way. Their weakest members are Ukyou … or Shampoo, I don't know how they stack up here, really. On the other hand, our weakest link is … well, _me_, really."

Jinx giggled evilly. "Yeah, I saw what Ukyou was capable of back in practice. She might be a bit ahead of me fighting wise, but my energy generation and manipulation talents are leagues beyond hers. I'd kick her butt up and down the mountain all day long if I felt like it."

"But, like I said," Ryouga added, "I don't have any interest in fighting Juliet, so it's a bit of a moot point."

"Yeah, like that is going to matter at this point," Raven muttered, dropping her forehead into an upraised palm. "You two really need to learn to stop wedging your feet so firmly in your mouths."

Chuckling, Ryouga shook his head. "Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry, Raven." Then, looking down at his now empty plate, he nodded to himself and stood up. "Anyway, if you guys will excuse me, I need to go talk to the lawyers. I want to see how things are coming along. If there is any big news, I'll call you guys in."

As everyone nodded, he stepped back from the table, gave a quick respectful bow to the gathered soldiers, waved to Nabiki, and made his way to the exit. Silence hung over the table for a moment, people obviously wondering what to discuss now, since the main perpetrator of their last conversation was now gone. The silence didn't last long, though, as Jinx leaned forward, resting on her elbows and looking around the table with a gleam in her eye.

"Alright then! So who here has the juiciest piece of gossip to share?"

For some reason, Akane immediately attempted to hide herself behind her glass of milk.

* * *

With a bit of an uncharacteristic spring in his step, Ryouga strode through the door of the UNETCO Legal Division. Despite the embarrassment back at lunch, he was still feeling pretty good about this morning, and hoped his streak of good luck held up. Moving with familiar ease, he made his way to the cubicle he'd visited several days earlier.

As expected, the middle aged, blonde lawyer, Mr. Adler, was sitting at his desk, working away on some paperwork or another. Quietly, the Lost Boy cleared his throat, and smirked as the lawyer looked up to greet him.

"Ah, Mr. Hibiki! Right on time ... which is, frankly a bit surprising. Did you get some assistance?"

Ryouga frowned slightly, but it was quickly replaced by a smile. "Har dee har har. Somehow I doubt you'd joke like that with my counterpart, here. And, yes, if you must know, I found a nice Squaddie to show me the way. I didn't catch her name, though."

Jonas shook his head in amusement. "Ah, it is true. Youth is very much wasted on the young. Well, enough with the joviality. You're here for a reason, after all."

"True enough," Ryouga agreed. "You said you might have found a possible solution to some of our problems here? So ... have you?"

Smile slowly growing wider, Jonas finally nodded. "Indeed I have. And quite a clever one, as well. Perhaps you should call in your colleagues? They may want to hear this."

The Lost Boy nodded eagerly and bolted out of the cubicle to find his friends.

...

Nearly a half an hour later ... as Ryouga had been too excited to seek help this time ... the Titans were all gathered in Adler's tiny cubicle. Needless to say, with Cyborg there alone, it was something of a tight fight.

"So, I hear you've been able to find out a possible solution to our ... unique legal problems in this world?" Raven asked, interested.

"Yes. I think so." Adler briefly wondered where to begin: the beginning was probably best, just to make sure everyone was in the loop. "I don't know how much experience any of you have with bureaucracy, but below the surface and behind all the fighting and research, UNETCO makes every effort to stick to our legal framework as ratified by the UN. This includes employment restrictions."

He could see that they all understood this, if only in a basic sense. Despite the big guy's technical expertise, they were all really fighter types at heart. He could literally see that they wanted to deal with their outstanding legal complications here as soon as possible. That was only natural, but it would do for them to be cautious and considerate as well. These weren't light decision to be making.

"As you've probably seen, we have roughly twenty-something different nationalities represented on this base," he continued. "Currently, you five are stateless entities. Miss Starfire's case is a bit different, but one of the two true hurdles facing your group is that you must officially be on secondment – a sort of military loan – from a host country. Every single person working here, without exception, does so with the permission of their home country."

"Really?" Jinx asked, "That seems kinda weird. Why can't people just join up as they like? You know, all Men in Black style, where you just pick out the best of the best?"

"We do pick the bet of the best. The majority of our civilian staff, like our researchers, engineers and lawyers, weren't connected to military or government work back home. Even Commander Yasuda wasn't originally military, if you can believe it."

The Commander actually got into the organization after losing her husband, one of the first Interceptor pilots, and used her excellent police record to leverage herself into the application program for ground pounders. That had been early in the war, during the hardest and dirtiest years, too. These days, she kept behind a desk, but no one survived on the ground back then for very long without being in the top one percent.

"In exchange for the broad powers and discretion UNETCO has been given, it must in turn work on good terms and act in good faith with the Security Council and friendly governments. That means, ironically enough, that the organization has to be secret, but not _too secret_. It is transparent in who it hires, provided you're in the know in the first place, as… as a matter of trust, you could say. Of course, once a nation is notified that a citizen will be dropping off the map, literally, they have no idea what that person's deployment or schedule will be."

"That makes sense, I suppose," Cyborg said with a thoughtful nod. "So that means that you need to attach us to a country of this world for us to even have a chance to make this work, right? So does that mean we need to do interviews or something?"

"Yes. All of you, with the exception of Miss Starfire here. We can waive many of the normal difficulties in getting citizenship from most countries…" he saw Jinx start to smile, and guessed what she was thinking or perhaps even about to say. "Let me warn you these arrangements are not forgeries. We are not making 'fake identities' for you. If you remain on this world, these will be you. Legal, binding, documents."

Even as the young sorceress snapped her fingers, Starfire fidgeted nervously. "Umm ... why is my situation different from anyone else's? I am not the only one not native to your world, after all."

"Genetics, I'm afraid. You are all non-native, but all your friends are categorically human. Despite the extensive augments, strange powers, and -ahem- 'undefined ancestry…'" and there, he saw Raven twitch a bit, and glance around at her comrades, none of whom seemed to have gotten the hint. "You, Miss Starfire, identify yourself both culturally and biologically as a non-human alien. In fact, the only non-human alien on record as not hostile to humanity as a whole. You are very, very unique."

"I can not truly be the ... only non hostile extra terrestrial on this planet, can I?" she asked in reply. It seemed completely baffling to her. "Surely there are other beings, at least one or two, less than enamored with the brutal methods of their leaders?"

"I'm not exactly privy to all the information about our immediate intergalactic neighborhood, but as far as Earth – as far as we know – yes, you are the only non-hostile alien we've ever encountered. I can guess your Earth is very different in this regard. But here, we humans are alone. I heard rumors of programs to raise human friendly aliens like Snakemen or Mutons, but who knows how it turned out? There _was_ a legal precedent on the books for alien ex-patriots or turncoats, dating back to 2001, but it's never been used. You will be the very first to apply."

The Tamaranian frowned sadly. "I am not certain that is a claim of which I can be proud ... Still, if I am so different from everyone else, then what will become of me? Will I always be forced to remain behind these walls?"

"I wish I had better news for you; currently, alien life forms have no legal recourse for citizenship… and no legal rights. The UN has not, and will not, extend so called human rights to non humans as long as their genocidal campaign against us continues," Adler explained, and saw a look cross their faces, like something sour in the air.

"Perhaps that will change when we, _if we_, encounter more aliens interested in coexistence. Luckily, Miss Starfire has been extended all of the legal protections given to heavily modified humans, such as the hybrid and mutant children we sometimes free from alien captivity or experiments. For the time being, I'm afraid to say you'll need to remain confined to UNETCO facilities… until member states decide what they want to do with alien populations seeking asylum or residence. XCOM is the only organization that will recognize you as a sentient being, not hostile to humanity. It's the best we can do, at least for now."

Ryouga grunted, obviously annoyed. "Well, that's not exactly the best of news. All the more reason to get home as soon as possible, I suppose. You don't have any actual 'good' news, do you?"

"Acting sergeant, should I have asked 'good news' first?" Adler asked, obviously rhetorically. "Yes. I was looking into the underage issue the rest of you have. It almost never comes up in normal applicants, but… I found a potential host country you may find suitable. It also has a lower than normal age of majority, allowing you to circumvent the fact that you would be underage for service following American guidelines."

"Really?" Jinx asked with a smirk. "A country where we aren't underage? That has some pretty... interesting implications."

The subtle wink she shot Ryouga's way was anything but.

"I have a feeling I'm opening up a real kettle of worms, but…" the lawyer shrugged, easily. He'd had a girl like that too, back in the day. The boy could handle it. Probably. "Here's what I propose."

He tapped a key on his computer, bringing up a blue and white flag.

_Scotland._

"BOOYAH!"

Everyone looked over, shocked at the Cyborg's excited proclamation.

"Dude, this is so awesome! We're gonna be Scottish! Oh, man, I am gonna hit SO many Soccer riots!"

Raven simply groaned and draped her hand over her eyes.

"That's one vote for Scotland. I could try for Cuba, if the rest of you prefer...?"

"Ha! What? Cuba? " Jinx balked. "I'm _all_ for Scotland! I think it'd be awesome to finally go on a pub crawl. I hear they're lotsa fun!"

Raven shrugged. "One country is as good as another. I have no objections."

Ryouga nodded. "I don't know too much about the place, but it sounds fine as well. So ... does this actually mean we're Scottish now, then?"

Alder shook his head. "Well, you aren't anything right now – like I said, you're stateless at the moment. Given a little time, I can draw up the paperwork and place the petition. I won't say 'this is a start' since its more like being halfway there. I'd talk it over with your friends and be sure this is what you want to do. Really, just having your application on record is really good, but you shouldn't dive into it without discussing your future here and knowing where you'll end up."

Jinx shrugged. "What's the big deal? This isn't communist world, is it? So what if we end up in Scotland, we can still travel the world and get stuff, can't we? That's what passports are for, aren't they?"

"Well, yes, but... I know most of you probably must've been US citizens, right? This isn't your US, but it is **a** US? Or did I misread that?"

Cyborg waved off his concern. "It ain't no big thing. It ain't like we actually got anything to go back to in the States. No one we know actually exists there, neither does our home. I mean, if we really get homesick, we can just get work visas or student visas or something to hang out for awhile. Heck, or just head up to Canada. Not really much difference, just, you know… cleaner."

Ryouga held out his hands. "Look, it doesn't matter, one way or the other. We're not here for the long haul, anyway. Especially not if Starfire is gonna be stuck in a hole in the ground as long as she's here. This lets us get to work, that's all that matters. So, let's get to work then."

Around the cubicle, all of Yankee squadron nodded in turn.

It was time to get to it.

"Alright. Scotland it is."

* * *

Shirokuro was a godsend.

Literally.

Lieutenant Ryouga Hibiki wasn't sure where he'd be without her, but it wouldn't be on time. Over the last few months, he'd 'tagged along' (a polite phrasing for 'followed') with most everyone in his circle of peers, including a number of strangers and acquaintances. The first month had been the hardest; having to explain and re-explain that, _no_, he couldn't just follow the base map. As crazy as it sounded, at the end of the day, following a person was always just a fair bit more difficult than relying on Shirokuro, who seemed to know where everything was on base… when, of course, no one had any idea how she found her way to secure areas she hadn't been to before.

He'd left two of her puppies back at the Hibiki home – empty though it was with all his relatives in some form of protective custody or another – and brought the rest to Seiran with their mother. Those were all in the base K-9 program now, excelling far beyond what had been expected of 'martial arts dogs.' Shirokuro herself kept close to her master, though everyone on the base had pretty quickly come to adopt the curiously intelligent canine as a sort of base mascot. Whatever chemistry had developed between Hibikis and their dogs, Ryouga always felt wonderfully comfortable in simply putting himself on autopilot and following her; secure in the knowledge that he would get where he needed to be, when he needed to be there.

Currently, he was so easily following on autopilot, he could concentrate all his attention on the report in his hands. As a nice change of pace, this one had nothing to do with Yankee Squad or general scheduling complications. Oh no. This was a very different, very interesting report.

Commander Yasuda was authorizing some new _toys_ for the upcoming missions.

India was certified and specialized on virtually the entire XCOM arsenal: all the modern versions of laser and plasma weapon, and all conventional arms and explosives, along with a handful of specialized and situational weapons systems. He also had the training to manually command and operate a HWP, as needed. India was also working on getting everyone powered armor certification, but there were difficulties there integrating a monster like the MARS or ARES with their martial arts techniques.

These new items, though. Well, he could imagine why Yasuda had kept them under lock and key. Reviewing one in particular, he shuddered a bit at the possibility of it going awry. Like all the soon to be authorized 'special systems' it had extensive safeties built in, but that only seemed to imply: 'this is _so_ magnificently dangerous, we'll make you go through an extra step before killing yourself using it!'

_'__We__'__ll probably be using these on Cydonia, too,__'_he thought, scrolling down the handheld tablet screen with his index finger. _'__Gods, not like they__'__d ever let us use these things here on Earth__…__!__'_

He hardly noticed entering the elevator, until a flash of pink caught his attention. The martial artist pulled up short as Jinx noticed him as well. For just an instant, he saw her face light up and she actually rose up onto her toes a bit at the sight of his face - only for the smile to vanish as quickly as it appeared. The girl then maintained a steady, neutral expression as she moved to the side to make room for him to enter.

_'__Expecting the other me,__'_ he thought, inclining his head in a silent, polite but basically emotionless greeting. _'__And it__'__ll only happen more often the longer that other me is around. I wish he__'__d dye his hair or something.__'_

He briefly remembered Nabiki suggesting he get highlights, and resisted the urge to shake his head. That was just what he needed for some crazy girl to try and make him look like a Korean pop star or male model or something.

_Highlights: yeah right, not gonna happen. _

Not while he could still pull rank anyway.

Shirokuro sitting down between her master and Jinx; the canny canine had already punched a key for the floor they needed. Trying to refocus back on the report, he stole a look off to the side, a little curious now. Last he'd heard, this diminutive little pinky hated his guts, and he still remembered getting blasted by her before. He didn't hold a grudge – he'd wanted to do the same to himself afterwards – he still thought it was the right thing to do, the honorable thing, but that didn't make it the acceptable or popular option. So, he didn't blame her for that. Nor could he really blame her for… the current situation with Akari. They'd all had a hand in making that mess, and he was trying, _genuinely trying_, to turn a new leaf with the whole 'life defined by vendettas' thing.

Ryouga would've liked to think some of that was mutual now, and that he shouldn't expect to get blasted from behind one day…but the truth was that, deep down, he wasn't sure. Surreptitiously glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the slight girl lean towards him, just a fraction of an inch and then - then she sniffed the air? His curiosity only doubled when her nose crinkled up and she leaned back quickly, obviously trying to be sneaky about it.

_'__Did she just try and sniff me?__'_

Granted, he wasn't fresh-out-of-the-shower, and he had been working all day, but… there was no way she could smell anything from so far away. She didn't have the proportionate smell of a dog or whatever superpowers from her meta-human homeworld.

_'__Maybe I should go back to Old Spice, like Ranma? Even though he only buys it because of those stupid commercials.__'_

He considered asking her just what was the problem, but knew better. That kind of question was an invitation, and he had no intention of sacrificing dignity for curiosity. Or pig-headedness.

All the same, he let himself do some appraising of his own, if she was intent to silently judge him as well. He and the other Ryouga were, he knew, basically the same person. 99 percent of their lives and 99 percent of their decisions were identical. They'd diverged a while back, but you don't have that much similarity between totally different people. Deep down they were both equally Ryouga Hibiki, and they had the same tastes and tendencies.

Which meant that, logically, he should be able to see what the other him liked so much about this girl. At least on some level. She wasn't the kind of gentle, stay-at-home supportive girlfriend he'd imagined himself having, and which both of them had had in their respective Akaris. That was kind of the ideal Japanese girlfriend he'd picked up as a young kid wandering and building his martial arts; the kind of girl who made you little lunches and who demurely supported you from the background. Even Akari hadn't been THAT passive, not by a long shot, and not once you got to know her.

They'd both had that relationship to one degree or another, and entered what could be called the 'troublesome girl' phase. It seemed, in this phase, the Ryouga Hibiki in question instead pursued - or got pursued by – a strong willed, somewhat domineering, quick-to-fight, bossy, greedy, somewhat-evil chick. For him, that had ended up being Nabiki. He'd thought it the most bizarre fluke, but now here was this other him, also involved with an often morally challenged girlfriend.

It couldn't be a coincidence.

Jinx just… didn't seem the right type, though. Of course, whenever he thought about it, it still amazed him that he and Nabiki were together, since he had always imagined she was the exact opposite of what he had wanted in a girl. Personality-wise, anyway, not physically. Jinx, though? He could kind of see it, but not really. Raven, despite being the Daughter-of-the-Devil, literally, seemed the much more co-habitable of the two.

_'__What a stupid thing to think about anyway,__'_ he realized, turning his full attention back to the report. Let her scrunch up her nose at… whatever.

Apparently his own subtle observations hadn't gone unnoticed, as he saw a sly grin spread on Jinx's lips. Then, rather abruptly, she suddenly knelt down beside him and began to scratch Shirokuro's neck and ears with surprising vigor, cooing happily at the canine. He wasn't sure why, but he almost expected his faithful companion to share his opinion of the girl and draw back ... but Shirokuro panted away ecstatically, obviously enjoying the attention.

Well, it was clear his dog liked her. When had that happened, anyway?

Also, if he had learned anything from Nabiki, she was also _teasing_ him.

Still, Shirokuro liked her and she wasn't a dog hater. That was two plusses in her favor. The thought occurred, in an almost silly way: _this is my alternate universe girlfriend._ What kind of weird-ass situation was this becoming, anyway? Despite himself, he smiled a bit at the sight of Shirokuro playing around with the pink haired girl.

'She's actually pretty charming when she wants to be,' Nabiki had said about this girl, not too many days ago. 'And she's got the other you all but leashed.'

He tried to forget the Tendo girl's own smile and appreciative tone of voice.

Laying his tablet over his left elbow, Ryouga crossed his arms. Sure, he was surprised that Jinx and Shirokuro apparently got along this well. But, cute or not, he seriously doubted this was the girl's way of saying things were fine between them. More likely, it was something along the lines of: 'Guess what? Your dog likes me and trusts me. Who knows what else you don't know?'

Several long seconds passed in relative silence, when 'finally' the elevator chime sounded, and the doors slid open. It wasn't his floor, but apparently it was his erstwhile companion's. With a spring in her step, she all but sashayed out of the elevator car, flashing him a Cheshire grin over her shoulder that probably would have sent Ranma screaming in terror. And Ryouga had thought Shampoo was catty...

"What'dya think of that, girl?" Ryouga asked his now lone companion, as the doors closed and elevator continues its ascent.

Shirokuro licked the back of his hand.

"Oh alright," he got the hint. "I'll say something next time."

* * *

The Earth-Moon L5 Lagrange Point

Space pinched, pained, and ruptured with an invisible fountain of x-rays.

Urania-1 was Away.

On Luna itself, within the research halls of AE14, Commander Richard Felt watched it go on a large overhead monitor at airspace control. They had sent along a basic probe to keep a close watch on Galatea as she left on her maiden voyage. His inclination had been to delay launch for a few more days while more research into certain phenomenon played out. High Command, as usual, stressed their desire to push forward with all due haste.

Who knew if they would see Urania again? The refitted and repurposed little UFO carried one of only two intact alien EDC FTL drive cores within its silver shell. She was unmanned, but carried human simulation units, affectionately called 'dummy tubes' (or something like that) by some of the more anime-obsessed staff, to record what the trip across dimensions would do to human passengers. Urania-1 was no mere astronomical muse; she was a pathfinder and explorer into unknown worlds; dimensions; planes of existence even.

Ideally, she would return in twenty four hours with data on where this first experimental trip took her, and whether similar expeditions using manned craft were safe. If they were not, information from her run would help UNETCO scientists work out how to **make** it safe. Command had every intention of hunting down the Enemy, even across dimensions. The world's most brilliant minds would be bowed to the task.

Naturally, the scientific community would glean new insights and information – enough to fill books and databases from this one trip – and the broader base of human knowledge would further inch up towards that of the alien enemy. Urania-1 would, if she returned tomorrow, make several more trips to test out other aspects of the EDC, even while the manned expedition got underway. Commander Felt grinned up at the monitor, now showing space empty save a smattering of cosmic dust.

He was confident.

Urania-1 would return, and when it did, War would follow.


	17. FTA 'Fun, Travel and Adventure' 3

An accident at STAR Labs has hurled half the Teen Titans roster across the multiversal barrier and onto a strange world with no metas, no superheroes and no supervillians. There, the UNETCO organization, also known as X-COM, fights against an insidious and merciless alien enemy. The dimensionally displaced Teen Titans have finally been reunited. Determined not to sit on the sidelines, the four young men and women: Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and their universe's Ryouga Hibiki have been brought together into a special 'embedded observer' team designated CT:Yankee.

Displaced in the Russian Far East, far from any of the other Titans, Jinx had the misfortune of falling into the hands of the alien Visitors. Yet when one of the alien-human hybrids became hexxed by her power, damage to its brain tissue disconnected it from the Cydonian Mind and allowed it to remember who it had once been: Akari Unryu. Together, the two unlikely allies escaped into the forest and made for civilization, forging a close friendship during the difficult trek to safety. However, the same power that freed Akari was also killing her, and together with wounds taken during their escape, she hung on just long enough to reunite with her world's Ryouga Hibiki. Fulfilling her request to let her die, he destroyed the alien donor tissue that was to be used to revive her. The Titans, as Yankee Squad, were called to battle, with Akari's life on the line, succeeding in bringing back the replacement brain of the Ethereal, Whisper.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_FTA_

_("Fun, Travel, and Adventure", aka...)_

Chapter XVII

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid

Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

He would later learn that the email he got had a rather amusing vernacular nickname.

At the time, however, Ryouga had thought it simply routine. As CT:India's lieutenant, he was often contacted by members of his team with issues they felt needed his attention: requisition requests, tweaks to the training schedule, martial arts inquiries and requests for scrolls or documents that would otherwise be off limits. Things like that. A large part of leading a team wasn't martial, after all, it was _organizational_.

Nabiki Tendo was no exception to this; quite the opposite, in fact, given how the two of them needed to work closely together to optimize the performance of the combat team. She was the fifth member of India in all but name, and as coordinator, she had to work with him in a synergistic way. Nabiki was good at it, too. She could guess what people on the team wanted before they even asked, and supplementing that knack for reading people's intentions and desires, she could retrieve information and juggle operations like a pro. She was also the only one who could help him if he got lost, and he found her calm, measured voice helped him keep focused and cool even in the worst sorts of battlefield conditions. She seemed to enjoy the work, too, much more than when she floated around Finance as a junior intern.

It was late, past midnight, and her room was suspiciously dark.

"Um... hello?" Ryouga queried; he knew someone had to be in here. The door hadn't been locked, though, so it was possible she'd stepped out for a few minutes. Behind him, Shirokuro tentatively sniffed the air but didn't rush forward, preferring to loiter outside.

Eyes narrowing at the pitch blackness, he could just make out some shapes: her computer monitor, currently displaying a dark screensaver that provided no real peripheral light, a half open closet built into the wall, her chair. It didn't help that the lightning outside in the hall was at half intensity due to the late hour. Then the door closed behind him and even that meager source of illumination disappeared.

His sensitive ears picked up very faint footsteps and he tensed as a hand, a little fumbling, grasped his arm. He felt himself pulled forward and went compliantly along with it. A second later, as he thought, he felt a short, soft body press into him. Even with basically zero visibility, his body knew the contact. It knew where they lined up when they were face to face, front to front, like this. It took a few tries, but lips connected and he sighed into the embrace. He felt something unusual in what she was wearing, different than her usual clothes, but quickly dismissed it.

This was what she wanted to show him?

Not that he was _complaining_, but...

The two spun around, searching for a wall to press against and instead bumping into the desk chair nearby. In turn, the movement jarred the mouse, causing the computer to stir from its sleep mode. The sudden light source bathed the two in colorless illumination… and Ryouga's breath caught in his throat, shocked, as he stumbled back. He'd felt something odd, but those _robes_, that _black leotard_, those strange jewels, that -

"Nabiki!" He gaped at her, quickly coming to his senses. "What the...?"

"You don't like it?" She asked, pulling back her hood and posing with her hands on her hips, showing off the costume. The very familiar costume. "I said I had a surprise to show you, didn't I?"

She stood dressed like a carbon copy of Raven, albeit with some rather more generous proportions. The cloak only reached down to her ankles, but the red and gold bracelets and mystic filigree were spot on, almost like the real things. His eyes widened.

"The genuine article. Except for this, anyway," Nabiki explained, pricking part of her leotard between her thumb and forefinger. She even had a little red ruby-like dot on her forehead. "She owed me a favor or three, so I asked to borrow them for a little while."

He started to ask something else -

"No, I didn't say _why_," the middle Tendo daughter cut him off. She shifted her stance a bit, to even better show off her curves – the leotard doing less than nothing to hide them. "What do you think? Do I look ready to _fight crime_?"

"More like commit it," he joked, and saw her eyes light up. "I still don't get why, though..."

"There's something very empowering about wearing a costume, you know?" she asked, sauntering up to him. "And there's something naughty about wearing someone else's."

"I'm not complaining." He let her drape her arms over his shoulders, and his not-a-complaint-just-an-observation got interrupted by a pair of soft pink lips. His head started to swim, and despite being larger and immeasurably stronger, Ryouga ended up back against the wall, manhandled by a girl half his size.

"Then don't," Nabiki purred, running her tongue over his lower lip. "You've been so… busy, Ryou-chan. I wanted to distract you… for a few hours."

It was true. They hadn't been _together_ since that night, back at the hotel. They hadn't even talked that much since then, much less had the time for anything intimate. The one night they'd spent together since, he – well, he hadn't exactly been in the right sort of mindset for anything like that. They'd spent the night together, but hadn't done anything but share simple human contact.

It wasn't like he had been ignoring her or trying to neglect what they had. It had taken them months, or really, it had taken _him_ months, to feel ready to take that step in their relationship. She was one of his closest and best friends even before they sort of formally hooked up, things between them growing by leaps and bounds since the rescue half a year ago. Facing the facts honestly, he knew the situation with Akari was still there, in the back of his mind. He thought it put away for good back at the hotel, but then all this…

Which didn't excuse the fact that he was with someone, someone alive and human, who he liked… and who liked him. Nabiki wasn't Akane or Akari. He'd always known, from the get go, that she was much more physical and interested in the aspects of relationships he had the least experience with. It was probably amazing that she had put up with him as much as she had.

He'd have to make it up to her some time, and not just with tonight.

"You know," she added, sensing his slight hesitation. "In most eighteen year old couples, I imagine the guy spends a lot more time trying to get into the girl's pants, rather than vice versa."

Ryouga blinked at that, slowly licking his lips.

"Are you questioning my perfectly normal and totally healthy libido?"

"Lack thereof, maybe." She smiled at him teasingly. "Or maybe my costume isn't Goth enough for your tastes?"

He mock-agreed, nodding slowly as his hands settled on her hips.

"You may be right," he concurred. "Let's get you out of that right away."

He kissed her again by the light of the computer screen, and she responded to his growing attention with a happy giggle. Lifting her up easily, he felt her legs encircle his waist, ankles locking together behind him with a jingle-jingle of borrowed gold charms. Her hands found his shoulders and arms, and then his chest, furiously unbuttoning his uniform shirt. His right hand, freed from holding her up, crawled like a spider up her side and up to her left breast.

Her soft sigh only threw fuel on the fire growing around them.

"Mmm! Is this any way to treat a Teen Titan?" she asked, leaning back as he pinned her to the wall and buried his face in the crook of her neck, working his way down.

"Some Teen Titan! You have an evil, _naughty_ aura," he argued, unabated in his journey south.

"I can prove how good I am…"

"I'd like to see how…"

"**Hostile Incursion detected in local airspace!** Hostile Incursion detected in local airspace!" A female voice blared over the base communication net, cutting off the amorous would-be couple. "**All combat teams assemble and report to duty stations! **Repeat: All combat teams assemble and report to duty stations! Code Three is in Effect!"

Ryouga's forehead introduced itself to the wall with a dull thud.

"I hate that alarm," Nabiki growled, sighing in exasperation as the back of her head hit the same wall. The one night she – _they_ – had and _this_ happened. It was so damn typical!

Resignedly, the two disentangled, still breathing heavily in anticipation. Ryouga was already hastily buttoning his shirt back up and tucking it back into his pants, his belt undone. Nabiki turned from him and started stripping to change into her work clothes. The lost one turned, back to her in respect to her privacy, though it was a bit ironic given the circumstances. If not for the alarm, he wouldn't exactly be shyly avoiding her body right now.

"After this…" she started.

"After this," he promised.

* * *

Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace

Borneo Montane Rain Forest

It rained about a hundred and forty millimeters here on an average February, and the rain forest was living up to that name tonight as well. It was hard to see the trees among the downpour, much less the enemy. In places, debris and mud could swallow a man's feet and have room for half his legs. Rivers and streams overflowed or simply cut new paths through roots and rubble providing surprising and slippery obstructions. In other words, it was jungle fighting as its shittiest.

The highland rainforests of central Borneo were cool and moist and among the most ecologically rich pieces of land on Earth. These montane forests were not quite like the vast canopy of jungles elsewhere, even in the lowland areas nearby. Montane forests did not have giant emergent trees, leaving their overall canopy height is much lower: a 'mere' 10-20 meters high. Trees with buttresses were absent; instead feeding a vast tangle of orchids, ferns, moss, lichen, and liverworts.

They were also among the most remote and untouched areas known to man, with over ninety percent of the forests intact. It was very possible no human being had ever set foot where Ryouga Hibiki was at that moment. It was virgin rainforest of the purest sort.

Or it had been.

Ryouga's darkened form loomed over the broken, twisted and burning mess of a Sectoid. Plasma fire had reduced it to a scalding mess, blackened blood and limbs curled together in agony like the legs of a dying spider. Steam rose from the body and raindrops sizzled as the body cooled.

"Tango down," he announced. His position was mapped for future reference, to aid the cleanup crew that would come once the fighting was over.

"Same," Kuno's voice sounded over the TeamComm, and Ryouga turned to where the swordsman stood, wiping his sword clean with a white cloth, now soaked by the rain. Another dead alien scout lay at his feet.

"Roger that," Nabiki replied. "It's a real mess out there. Watch your backs. Juliet's made contact with another party to your north."

Rivulets of rain washed down over Ryouga's visor, further blurring visibility. Even if it hadn't been figuratively pouring cats and dogs... and literally frogs and dead insects... it was still twilight in the jungle. Visibility was essentially arm's length, even with night vision. The forest itself was a thick mess of vines and tightly packed trees.

In this, the aliens had set ambushes and scouting/raiding parties to maintain a perimeter while they repaired one or both of their downed UFOs. Taking out a pair, like India had just done, would inevitably invite a counter strike later, or encourage the aliens to plant an ambush or traps further in, closer to their crashed battleship and large scout. It was slow, messy, nasty going. There was no room or chance for rapid maneuver.

One simply had to close with the enemy and tear them to pieces.

"Ryu. Mousse. Advance to Uniform-5-2. I want to find those Cyberdiscs before they get a chance to hit and run. Keep moving up."

* * *

"_Star_, sniper at your two o'clock!"

The Tamaranian reacted all but instinctively to her cybernetic teammate's warning, his voice pouring directly into her ear via the commlink in her helmet. Her initial instinct was brutally repressed - her natural response being to throw herself out of harms way - instead she forced herself to remember the newest addition to her arsenal, created by Cyborg for her specifically.

An explosion of searing green light rocked the forest, washing over the massive, curved sheet of metal which now interposed itself between the alien warrior and the distant sniper. The heavy 'bunker shield,' easily four feet tall and wide enough to cover her entire body with ease, weathered the blast well, the concussive energy of the blast only sliding her back a few inches. An instant later, flashes of white and pink - visible through the transparent strip of alien alloy set into the shield - blinded the Tamaranian as her team mates returned fire, saturating the alien sniper's position under a furious and merciless assault. The offending section of the jungle immolated, taking with it the hidden alien shooter.

A fraction of a second later, Ryouga was at her side, though it was hard to tell through the tinted visor of his helmet. The dull grey metal, now slick with the precipitation, gleamed unnaturally in the near darkness as he leaned forward to check on her.

"Starfire, are you alright?" His voice sounded directly into her ear, bypassing the space between them as the helmet mounted communicator relayed his question.

Looking down, the Tamaranian stared at the smoking defensive barrier mounted firmly on her arm. The rest of her armor, composed of the same dull grey metal appeared unscathed. A wide black scorch mark covered most of the face of the shield, indicative of the plasma blast losing much of its cohesion and rolling over the surface of the shield, but aside from a temperature spike and the concussive force, she felt entirely uninjured..

Turning back to her commander, she nodded.

"Indeed. I am merely … surprised that the shield was so effective. I am ready to continue immediately."

Ryouga nodded. "Good to hear."

The martial artist then turned away from them, looking up as Cyborg approached their position. Starfire noted the numerous metal plates that covered most of the Titan's body now, auxiliary armor appliqué composed of the resilient alien alloy. Skidding to a stop beside Starfire, the cybernetic teen lifted her shield and looked it over, smiling broadly.

"Alright!" he enthused, pumping his fist. "It actually worked!"

"What do you mean 'actually worked'?" Starfire asked, suddenly feeling a familiar sense of apprehension.

Cyborg just waved off her concern. "Naw, naw, it's all good. The science was ninety nine percent sound; we just didn't have too much chance to field test it. Looks like the polarization of the armor worked just as well as I'd expected. The intense EM field generated when the proximity alert went off altered the angle of incidence of the plasma blast, breaking up the bolt prematurely and preventing a contact detonation. Using the same tech as Ukyou used in her Spatula let the armor soak the rest without too much damage. The prox sensor was the one I was worried about, but-"

"Okay, that's enough patting yourself on the back, Mr. Wizard," Jinx barked, jogging over to join them. "In case you forgot, we're getting hammered, here. We need to get our asses back into the fight. Raven, how are you holding up over there?"

The pink sorceress spun around as the fifth member of their team ambled up. The Sectoid, moving a bit awkwardly and holding his plasma rifle gingerly, joined them a moment later. Rather than speak, though, they heard the violet haired Titan's telepathic reply.

'_This is a little more trying than expected. Two of the other Sectoids I__'__ve __…__sanctioned__…__ are scouting ahead, but they__'__re taking a lot of fire. There__'__s nothing I can do to prevent the other aliens from knowing that I__'__ve taken control of them, and they__'__re attacking on sight.__'_

"That's good," Ryouga stated, replying via the comm. Though Raven wasn't physically present, she could still hear him perfectly back at the ship, where she was overseeing their progress. "It means that the enemy are revealing their positions before we get there. Let's keep going. Jinx, take point and stay out of sight. Starfire, back her up. Cyborg and I will back you both up."

Starfire nodded. It was grim work, but these were hardly the most oppressive conditions she'd fought in, and there were people depending on them to defeat as many of the alien ambush teams as possible. Lifting her hand, she summoned her power, concentrating to keep the emerald energy inside her hand, rather than letting it spill out and light her up like a beacon.

Pleased with her small display of control, she began to stalk forward into the darkness, following loosely in the trail of the armored sorceress…

* * *

India advanced at half speed, which for them was a brisk twenty kilometers per hour.

High up the hill, a barrage of high explosive 20mm shells airbusted, expelled from the muddy sleeves of a certain Hidden Weapons master. Murderous shrapnel bombarded the area like a steel rain, shredding foliage and forest… and the lone unfortunate Sectoid hunkered down but not fully behind cover.

One plasma rifle silenced.

Yet other responded with gusto, firing downrange. Green bolts blew trees into splinters and vaporized swaths of vegetation. The aliens didn't have flash suppressors, and the full auto fire quickly called down the thunder. The Sectoid, expending its magazine, quickly started to back peddle, ejecting the spent clip and bringing up a replacement.

The ground beneath its feet ripped open without warning, causing it to stumble. Rocky pillars of earth rose up even as it fell into the shallow depression. Its medium plasma rifle clicked as the new clip loaded, locked, and initialized. It never heard the phrase 'breaking point' uttered a handful of meters downrange. The rocks exploded from every side and the Sectoid vanished, torn to pieces and buried in a shallow, muddy grave.

Ryouga waved Kuno forward, to take point. They passed the shredded, still twitching remains of the alien Mousse had killed in his earlier barrage and took up secure positions. It was raining furiously now, droplets as fat as marbles hitting their armor and weapons and soaking into the soft ground. Bits of foliage stuck to the two soldiers' armor, especially around the shoulders and legs, and blood and mud vied to stain the brown and green camo both wore.

"Got something!" Nabiki warned, suddenly. "One of the Cyberdiscs. Confirmed! Coming in hot!"

Ryouga motioned, and the two crouched low.

A second later, and green fire tore into the forest in a long, deadly stream. A giant tree, warped by age and the elements, blew apart at the base and fell between the two soldiers. Neither moved. They could see it: the Cyberdisc was floating amid the canopy, making jerky, zippy movements that broke a swath through the forest sky. Rain ran in long streams down its smooth surface.

Pinpointed, a flurry of vacuum blades cut through the air, leaving trails of cut and distorted raindrops in their wake. Branches and tree tops snipped and sheared, like a barber cutting through hair, all around the alien construct. It immediately banked and zipped around, making two ninety degree turns before firing back at the distant Sergeant Kumon. A missile came back as a reply, the wire guided warhead making for the flying terror weapon.

The Cyberdisc immediately descended straight down, letting the anti-tank missile pass overhead. When it popped back up, it did so with two companions. All three concentrated their fire towards Mousse and Ryu, who – if they had any sense between them – would have already taken cover in the breaking point carved trench Ryouga had created nearby. The forest around them would become an inferno of alien plasma momentarily, and not even a trooper in powered armor wanted to have the full attention of a Cyberdisc for long.

"One. Two. Range: sixty five." Ryouga whispered to himself, plucking the plasma grenades from his belt. Any second now, the aliens would redirect one of the Cyberdiscs to where he and Kuno were hidden. The angle he had now was… not perfect, but good.

Holding the plasma grenades in each hand, knowing they were pre-set, he tripped the caps.

'_Armed_.'

He minimized the charge-up glow of his _shishi hokoudans_, forming the ki blast tightly around each grenade. Tendrils of waste energy rippled down his arms as he bound the weapon and the technique together. Finally, he added the flavor. Green – his frustration and depression – gave the orbs in his hands a deadly, sickly fire. Black – his hatred and rage – seeped in and coalesced around the front of the attack, forming a killing edge. All this, within the span of a second.

It wasn't quite fast enough.

One of the Cyberdiscs turned on a dime, pinprick of light burning like a small sun as it prepared its plasma projector. Steam rose from all around that part of its hull, as water vaporized within a foot of the burning disk. To Ryouga's right, Kuno jumped out of cover, sword slashing at the air. He was just a distraction, but the alien machine took it, firing at the swordsman, who nimbly jumped back under cover.

_'__Die.__'_

Twin screeching ki attacks tore through the rain soaked jungle. Intervening trees, thick as hedges, became pulverized fragments of splinters and woodchips. Tangled jungle vines whipped around and uprooted. A spray of water, torn from the air, formed a spiraling trail along the path of destruction. Nothing could keep the ki attacks from their target... or from delivering their deadly payload.

The weakest part of a Cyberdisc was the bottom half, beneath the armored skirt.

The plasma grenade-ki attack combination found their mark at the bottom of the two disks that had been targeting Ryu and Mousse. Destructive telekinetic force and nuclear fire tore into the exposed sections of the Cyberdiscs, and within the heart of each one, small masses of Elerium-115 reacted at high speed in an uncontrolled cascade, releasing massive amounts of heat and small amounts of anti-matter, but only trivial amounts of gravity waves. The speed of the reaction also released a blast of high energy radiation, nanoseconds before air and ki turned to superheated plasma.

Shockwaves decimated the canopy for a hundred meters, spreading fire and destruction in every direction. At ground level, plants were burned and crushed into the forest floor. Chunks of trees flew for the better part of a mile. The third Cyberdisc, caught in the hellish conflagration, succumbed, and a second explosion distinct from the first, sent two trees rolling end over end like scattered bowling pins.

Kuno contemptuously knocked the barreling tree aside before it could flatten him.

Ryouga stood, arms smoking with black and green mental energy.

"Clear?" Ryu queried over the comm..

"Clear," Kuno replied.

"Clear." Ryouga agreed. "Secure the area. We're taking the hill and then raining Hell on that UFO down below."

* * *

Keeping low to the ground, Jinx slid quickly forward through the foliage. The dense forest offered a plethora of cover, which was both a boon and a curse at the moment. The driving rain didn't help much, for anyone involved, really; she was just glad that her new armored suit was water-proof… Though how Cyborg had gotten her measurements so perfectly without her knowing was a matter of no small concern.

Luckily, their approach was quieter than most of the other teams. With Raven keeping ahead of them with her alien toadies, playing 'Leap Frog-Body Snatcher', she was rooting out Sectoids and tripping ambush set ups like no one's business. As long as the annoyingly powerful psychic had two or three Sectoids running up ahead, as soon as someone popped up to shoot one of the mind controlled aliens, she would just catch sight of the shooter with her remaining victims, or a nearby Yankee member, and use them as a vector to take control of the would be ambusher.

Normally, Jinx would complain about the dark haired titan having all the fun, but she had no love of the fighting in this world. Not that she wasn't used to getting shot at - it was part of the job really - but this was way more… messy than she preferred. The isolation was getting to her a bit as well; out on point, in the dark and the rain, senses stretched to the limit. The Motion Sensor displayed in the holographic HUD of her visor wasn't showing anything sizeable moving around her, but the heavy rain and endless jungle critters were making lots of annoying sensor ghosts. Nevermind the massive spider she had seen crawling along her armored leg not too long ago. Ugh!

No, this wasn't at all the familiar tingle of excitement she got from a solo B the lack of any actual reward being the first notable difference. Rather, she felt an uneasy tenseness as she moved forward, that just wouldn't go away, no matter how far she progressed. They'd had a rather long stretch of terrain to cover, and no enemy contact for a while now. Tension was running high.

She needed to get her mind off of this mess before the stress got to her and made her screw up. The problem was, she didn't have a whole lot of variety as far as distractions went. Starfire was the closest and the one that she would need to contact first if anything happened, so it made sense to open a commlink to her … but what to talk about?

"…Star … you back there, girl?"

"Indeed," came the immediate response, curt and business like. "Have you spotted an enemy to engage?"

"No… no, I just - I dunno … wanna chat…"

"You… desire to chat?" came the puzzled reply over the comm. "What do you desire to… 'chat' about?"

Jinx sighed to herself, glad that, for whatever magical reason there was that her visor didn't fog up, as she wracked her brain for something to talk to about to the other girl. Nothing really came up, though, so for some odd reason she found her thoughts slipping back to her elevator ride with the alternate Hibiki. He looked so much the same, but he was so different in so many other ways. He didn't even smell like her Ryouga; he smelt … artificial, sterile, buttoned-down and proper, just like the base he lived in. His choice in female companionship was highly suspect as well.

"Say, Star… why do you think Lieutenant-Ryouga is with Biki on this world?"

Moving lithely, Jinx leapt over a massive root before sliding beneath a fallen tree in a spray of mud and water. The rain quickly washed the muck from her helmet as she continued her trek through the woods. She had to be careful. Even with no aliens on the scopes, that didn't mean they hadn't left any plasma grenade surprises behind for the unsuspecting. Apparently it was a trick they'd started using after learning from UNETCO's use of proximity grenades. Thanks for that.

"Oddly enough, I have found myself considering the same question," Starfire admitted. "She does seem to share many traits in common with the Nabiki of our world."

"Really?" Jinx muttered as she leapt up to a low branch and kicked off and through a dense patch of canopy, using it to cover her movement. "See, I was thinkin' the opposite: that she didn't have enough in common with our Biki."

"Whatever do you mean? She is every bit the 'wheeler and dealer' that I recall."

Jinx scoffed quietly. "You barely even met the girl, Star. I knew her for months. Our Nabiki, she had a _real_ killer instinct. This Nabiki, she can talk the talk, but I can see it in her eyes… she's been spooked."

"What are you referring to?"

The question took Jinx back a seeming lifetime, to a world of yellow walls and dark secrets. Faces long since gone filtered through her memory, even as she carefully navigated the dense forest. The enemy was still out there, lying in wait, and Raven's puppets couldn't be everywhere or see everything.

"I used to see it all the time back in the academy: new recruits, so arrogant and full of themselves, ready to take on the world. Then 'bam!' something happens. Near death experience, bad run in with some of the 'less than understanding' super hero types, the damn fools nearly kill someone and suddenly realize they don't have the stomach for it, or a dozen other things. Not long after, you never see them again. This Nabiki reminds me of that. Somewhere along the line, both Nabiki's looked into the abyss. Our Nabiki smirked and charged it five bucks for staring back. Their Nabiki flinched."

"If you are stating that their Nabiki decided not to go down a path of villainy, I am not certain how that is a bad thing."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. We all know you guys have a pro-heroism bias." Jinx waved her hand, despite the fact that it was a pointless gesture, out here where no one could see it. "But I dunno, from my point of view it just seems like she's missing something. Kinda like their Kasumi… except Nabiki feels like she lost something and Kasumi feels like she never gained it in the first place…"

Starfire's audio cut off for a few seconds, but she came back soon enough. "You seem to have put an inordinate amount of thought into this. I admit that I have not gotten to know this dimension's counterparts well enough to see what you speak of."

"Meh, I'm probably just over thinking-"

A sudden blip on her motion sensor shocked Jinx back into the moment. It wasn't just a blip, it was a blob on the radar, moving quickly in her direction!

'_Big! Only one thing that could be__…'_

"Crap, Star, we got a Cyberdisc coming our way. Catch me up ASAP!"

Despite the fact that she was wearing her helmet, Jinx felt compelled to whisper as she quickly ducked behind the thick trunk of one of the massive trees. Even as Starfire offered a quick affirmative, Jinx peeked around her cover and sent an Illumination Request ping through the system. It took a little time, but a flurry of lights - flares - fell from above like well-timed shooting stars, filling the tangled canopy with bright chemical light and allowing the reflective sheen of metal hovering silently through the trees to make itself known. The Cyberdisc cut through the air like a predator, as soulless as shark. The red band that ran around its equator glowed dimly in the ensuing darkness, allowing her to keep track of it easily now that she knew it was there.

It was moving in their direction, yes, but not directly at them. It must not have sensed her yet, or was chasing after Raven's Sectoids. This meant they had a great opportunity here. She'd heard the explosions coming from the distance, before they'd split off to head for the large scout ship overlooking the Battleship that all of the other teams were aiming to tackle. India had been making a hell of a mess, and frankly she was starting to get jealous.

Waiting patiently, Jinx held her position, slowly circling around the trunk as the disk floated past her. Several long seconds later, she smiled wickedly as she saw Starfire close in on her HUD. Once

the alien girl was close enough, but not close enough to alert the disk, Jinx gave a quick whistle.

"Starfire, hold where you are. The disk is moving parallel to our course, but it hasn't noticed us yet. We should take it down before it flies headlong into Ryo and Cy."

"Agreed," Starfire replied. "However, a Cyberdisc is a formidable opponent. How should we proceed?"

Jinx's smirk broadened. "I have a plan. Hold your position, I'm coming to meet you."

It only took a few seconds for the nimble sorceress to duck down to the forest floor and sneak her way to the other girl's side. Starfire had found an excellent hiding place, tucked between two grand old trees, and only the IFF transponder tracking system let Jinx find her easily.

Crawling silently she joined the Tamranian, pointing out the Cyberdisc to her. "Do you think you can open that thing up, just a bit?"

"I could," Starfire confirmed. To prove her point, she set down the large, bulky shield she carried everywhere with her now, and pulled out a short device from behind her back. Whatever it was, it looked like a short rod with an odd form of … blade… on the end. "But getting close enough to do so would be quite hazardous."

"Leave that to me," Jinx stated. "Just follow my lead. I'll draw its fire for you."

"That … also sounds quite hazardous …"

"You wanna live forever?" Jinx asked teasingly.

"Is that an option on this planet?"

Fairly certain she was kidding, Jinx looked down to the control panel on the left arm of her armor. Sucking in a breath, she hit the large green 'button' on the LCD screen, which read 'AAS'. Suddenly, at strategic points along her armor, small actuators hummed to life and began to spin rapidly, notably the larger actuators on her knees and elbows. The Armor Assist System hadn't been tested in live fire combat, yet, but now seemed like a good a time as any to try it out. Kneeling down, she prepared to leap out from their cover to charge the war machine, the electric whine beginning to increase in pitch.

"Alright then, let's see what Cyborg's latest toy can do…"

In a spray of mud and shrubbery, the ground below her feet exploded as she kicked off. She was launched through the air, utterly shocked as she soared over forty feet towards her opponent, only her years of gymnastic training preventing her from crashing embarrassingly through the canopy. Once she finally got control of her flight, though, fighting the urge to whoop ecstatically, she brazenly gave away her position as she launched a handful of pink energy at the floating disk. Even as the burst of light washed over the disk's hull to no real effect, the alien war machine instantly began to spin in her direction.

Crashing to the ground in a massive splash of mud, memory roared to the surface as a familiar surge of power built up at the 'front' of the Cyberdisc, a hiss of steam filling the air -

Jinx was already moving even before the first plasma blast tore through the rain soaked jungle. Though not possessing true full auto capability, the damn thing was still able to fire rapidly enough with its sustained beams to keep the sorceress moving. Again, she found herself amazed as the forest blurred around her as she tore around the Cyberdisc in a circular pattern. Despite her speed, though, the disk was not a cheap toy. The plasma blasts kept getting closer and closer, auto correcting and aiming ahead of her in an increasingly accurate prediction of her movements.

A red alarm flashed in her HUD as the proximity alarm suddenly whined to life. Though it felt like she wrenched out every muscle in her body, Jinx pulled back in near total defiance of inertia and threw herself backwards. A fraction of a second later, a plasma blast seared air before her, turning mud into blackened glass and foliage into a cloud of fire. There was no way for her to dodge completely – despite the fact that it would all be over in a fraction-of-a-fraction of a second, time seemed to slow down as the green bolt of excited particles and anti-matter careened toward her. It was definitely going to graze her arm, and considering that her armor was lighter than Starfire's, there was no way it would survive.

The image of another plasma beam, fired by a desperate Akari, and the effect it had on Reaper flesh and bone came to mind. It wasn't a pretty memory. It wasn't how someone should die. Or lose a limb.

Milliseconds before impact, a familiar plane of yellow energy flashed into existence, shaped to the contour of her shoulder, but floating several millimeters above her armor. Eyes widened as the plasma splashed over the point defense force field and rolled away from her, never physically touching her armor as the shields moved along in tandem with the blast. Still, coils of stream and flame lapped up as excess rads and plasma hotter than the surface of the sun turned the segmented strips of alloy on her arm a dull yellow, superheated air expanding out, finding no exposed skin to cook away.

This was Gizmo's tech!

Cyborg had installed the force field generator from Ryouga's umbrella in her armor? No wonder the damn stuff was lighter than Starfire's! It had done what armor was supposed to do: turn a killing or crippling attack into something survivable. Already, XCOM issue tailored pain killers were being administered, though she hadn't even had a chance to feel any pain yet. Her armor had the same basic HUD as all organization suits, and there was no physiological warning popping up, so Jinx felt confident any injury she might have was comparatively minor.

The blast still picked her up and sent her flying, but she was easily able to right herself in midair and land - catlike - to continue her frantic movement. With a hiss, her damaged armor plates detached and partly separated from her body glove, allowing them to air-cool without burning their user. The combination of UNETCO tech and Gizmo's force field had saved her life. From what she knew, Cyberdisc plasma projectors were on par with heavy plasma rifles, and the near pinnacle of alien-portable ground weapon technology.

Jinx let out a breath she had been holding, and swept behind a tree for cover.

"Oh, hell yeah," she muttered to herself, feeling a renewed surge of adrenalin. Looking over her shoulder, she noted the Cyberdisc still closing in on her. It seemed to not at all be put off by her miraculous survival and simply and single mindedly intent on rectifying its failure.

That was until a grey streak cut through the air, and Starfire landed directly below the Cyberdisc, completely unnoticed in the pouring rain and Jinx's frantic flight. Holding the rod she'd pulled out earlier before her, it suddenly extending in both directions, becoming a full length pike, and the odd blade like device at the end suddenly revealed its true nature as it revved to life.

The glowing white blade of Cyborg's arm mounted Sonic Chainsaw, now mounted on the end of Starfire's makeshift Pike from Hell, whined loudly as the Tamaranian thrust up with savage force. An explosion of sparks and the scream of metal on metal sundered the air and Jinx nearly had to cover her helmeted ears - useless as that would have been - at the sound. The only bright side being that the fire on her position stopped nigh instantly as the Cyberdisc suddenly began to rotate frantically, unsure of how to react to the unexpected melee attack from below.

No matter what the disk did, though, flying up, spinning around, or even dropping down, Starfire kept with it, even using the extra force as it tried to crush her to drive the sonic powered, ultra high frequency chainsaw to cut through the comparatively weak armor of the machine's underbelly. Then, seemingly randomly, Starfire retracted her weapon and stowed it behind her back before zipping out from under the Cyberdisc at high speed. Plasma blasts filled the air once more as the alien war machine tried its best to light up the alien warrior.

Smiling, Jinx silently congratulated herself that things were working so well. Using the new distraction, she charged forward herself, her armor augmented speed thrilling her still. Coming to a stop beneath the Cyberdisc, just as Starfire had, she looked up… And her smile only widened, as she saw the broad, jagged hole that the Tamaranian had carved through the under-armor of the disk.

Charging her fist with power, she leapt straight up, and rammed her hand straight through the large gash and just unleashed everything she had straight into the heart of the cybernetic monstrosity in a blinding flash of pink entropy. Landing a second later, Jinx quickly dodged to the side as, without any fanfare or fireworks, the Cyberdisc dropped to the ground a few moments after her, creating a huge wave of mud as it nearly buried itself from the twenty foot free fall.

The alien machine had died before it even touched the dirt, amazingly not exploding.

Though it couldn't be seen, Jinx smiled broadly at Starfire as the alien girl flew back to join her. "See, I told you we could do it!"

"I had no doubt, Jinx. Your plan was most excellent, if a touch reckless," Starfire congratulated.

"Thanks, Red. Means a lot to me. Now, let's get back on mission. We need to hit that ship before the main attack starts on the Battleship, or there will be an awful lot of sitting ducks out there."

Suddenly, their comms crackled to life.

"Jinx, Starfire, are you two alright? We saw plasma fire." Ryouga's voice sounded concerned indeed.

"We're alright," Jinx replied quickly. "Just had to deal with a pesky Cyberdisc. We're going to start moving again, though. Try to catch up; it's pretty embarrassing that you missed the entire fight."

"Heh, we'll see what we can do. Contact us when you spot the ship, then start the recon." Ryouga's order was surprisingly professional. "Oh … and good work you two."

Smile growing so wide it was almost painful, Jinx couldn't even think of a sarcastic comment to fire back, if only for appearance's sake. So, instead, she playfully slugged Starfire in the armored shoulder and gestured towards the direction of their intended target. Obviously catching her drift, Starfire quickly followed her as she began to sprint through the forest at remarkable speed.

* * *

Shampoo _loved_ the weather.

Moving silently through the foot deep mud and a viscous, porous layer of mosses and ferns, she smiled gaily behind her helmet visor. Long streams of water ran down her armor's shoulders and rounded surfaces, down to the heavy laser rifle cradled in her arms. High above, the moon came out full and dim, barely visible through the canopy and the clouds. This was a nice night.

'_A nice night to kill.__'_

It reminded the Amazon beauty of a few years back, during her survival training in the monsoon season in the rain forests of Myanmar. Some older Amazons had work to do in the area and it was seen as a good opportunity. Great Grandmother had personally offered to pay for the trip so Shampoo could visit an old family friend, a reclusive jungle witch who brewed up 'special recipes' for the Council Elders. She had ended up spending two months playing cat and mouse with elements of the Burmese military… the junta dogs being the mouse, of course.

Ah, to be fourteen again, and think yourself Queen of the world!

Pushing uphill, Shampoo took a second to look over to her side. Ukyou Kuonji was her partner for this part of the operation, and the armored chef was making similarly easy progress despite the slope and the jungle conditions. The girl's battle spatula, normally a dull grey, was covered in green and brown splotched camouflage, along with a few strips of guile. They'd had a relatively smooth excursion so far, calling in a mobile arty strike on a pair of Sectoid scouts and their Cyberdisc fire support and them moping up the survivors. They'd pinned down another pair of alien scouts as well, but Command took them as psi-puppets.

Juliet Squad was now moving in on the landed alien UFOs, just ahead of India and Yankee, the latter initially operating close to Bravo Team as support. The Titans had broken off halfway to the crash site, switching to a more mobile scouting role. Of the three, India was definitely making the most of the term 'recon in force' – Shampoo could still hear explosions and sounds of destruction coming from the rapid assault squad's location. When that bunch found an enemy, they didn't just kill them; they made extra chunky mystery-meat-flavored curry.

Juliet squad took the clean kills. The quiet kills. Even Ukyou, their demo-dealer, didn't exactly spam explosives like they were going out of style. Not all the time anyway. Ranma preferred it that way, too. Let India make the noise. Juliet would slip by and hit the enemy where it would hurt the most.

Shampoo huffed, a little missing the death and destruction. She'd heard some rather disturbing rumors floating around the base before they left for this mission, and the Amazon wondered if her ears were the only ones buzzing. There was talk about Yankee, the fresh faced new 'special squad,' nosing in on Juliet's turf.

Now, as a point of fact, Shampoo happened to _like_ Starfire. She didn't have any real problem with Yankee as a whole to speak of. She didn't care much what they'd done about or to Akari or anything of that sort. Those sorts of things scarcely entered Shampoo's mind; what mattered was their strength, their determination, their loyalty and their competence. Ideology? Not so much.

However… Shampoo most certainly did not like the implication that she or her team were in any way second-rate, or inferior to any other. Sure, there were some seriously badass elite veteran units, like Bravo and Hotel, but they were heavy assault teams, not scout recon. Same with India, and Juliet had a friendly sort-of rivalry with them, despite the teams having different loadouts and mission profiles.

But no way they couldn't take Yankee.

A play fight or spar would be one thing, but a serious fight? Shampoo bristled.

Cresting the rise, Shampoo sighted down her rifle at the UFO below them. It had torn a gash in a large hill as it came down, and while the rainfall had quenched the fires that once raged along the groove in the earth, the long line of devastation was still blackened and fat with a river of dirty smoke. The battleship was visible, even though the remaining trees and jungle scrub. Aside from being bright silver, it still faintly glowed – demonstrating the engines were intact and operating. Active spectrum e-jamming meant most aerial recon and remote mapping was a no-go.

Cycling through her night vision sensitivity settings, Shampoo narrowed her eyes and adjusted the smartlinked scope on her heavy laser rifle. Motioning, she saw Ukyou take a defensive position, one hand resting on the hilt of her spatula. The other leveled her plasma carbine. Shampoo backed up against the side of a crooked tree, scanning far downrange.

"We're in position," Ranma's voice was clear over the comm.. "Tell me what you see, Shampoo."

"One second," she replied, sweeping her view enough to see under the cusp of the crash landed alien battleship. Small grey forms moved around behind cover: they'd moved some crates and stasis tubes out to provide additional defense against an attack.

Shampoo's crosshairs rested on one of the aliens.

_'__No. Not yet__…'_

Recon first.

The pudgy little Sectoid turned around, a stubby short weapon in its hands: a 'small launcher' primarily designed to fire stun bombs. Medic, then. Not a high priority target. Shampoo was after bigger, _meaner_ fish for her hungry crosshairs. She saw another alien, a soldier, crouched behind an overturned cylinder of alien alloy.

_'__No. Not you__…'_

She ignored the blast of light and fire from the south, and the crown of overpressure that ripped through the forest flora. A few bits of debris bounced off her faceplate and the body of her rifle. Shampoo paid it no mind. Pregnant droplets splattered against her vision and ran down the length of her laser rifle – it was really a light cannon in all but name.

_'__You.__'_

One of the Sectoids was a bit different than the others. It was nothing obvious: no marking or size difference separated it from its peers. Rather, it was how it moved. Shampoo saw a heavy plasma rifle, a weapon more powerful than an anti-tank missile, and a certain boldness in how this alien walked around and between the makeshift cover.

Leader.

She was sure of it. This was a Sectoid Leader. As long as it was at the front like this, it could more easily direct and coordinate its soldiers. Its psionics would also allow instant response on that front; it could even sense an oncoming blaster bomb strike, depending in its skill level. Just as bad, it would be able to see through Ranma's _umisenken_ and Konatsu's stealth moves.

_'__You have to die first,__'_Shampoo thought, and quickly relayed her findings to her lieutenant.

Ranma quickly made the arrangements.

"Blaster Bomb strike incoming. India will follow up at range," he warned. "Take the shot. Ukyou, cover her. We'll clean up in the confusion."

"Gotcha," the okonomiyaki chef cheerfully replied.

"Taking the shot," Shampoo simply said. She took a deep breath, steadied her aim, and compensated for the fierce rain and less than ideal battlefield conditions. XCOM laser rifles were built for action under virtually any environment, from the vacuum of space to a desert dust storm (Terrestrial or Martian), to a fetid jungle hell. An initial ionization beam would clear a path through rain and storm, allowing the pulsed punch of the laser beam to shine through and illuminate a certain someone with enough wattage to cut the nose cone of an F-16 in half.

A wet leaf landed on the sleeve of the cannon.

Shampoo depressed the trigger and the leafy debris combusted instantly. An invisible beam turned falling rain and damp air into a long lance of steam. The Sectoid Leader seemed to wince, curling to the right as the side of its body bloomed red and orange. Flesh and bone burned away like black chaff in yellow fire, and the hole in its side quickly morphed into a sweeping line across the torso. The laser neatly excised a swath of bone, tissue and internal organs wide enough to run a hand through and not touch the edges. Shockwaves tore through flesh as gasses and vaporized liquids expanded.

A second later, and the alien ripped in half.

"Tango down," Shampoo whispered.

Immediately, the aliens returned fire. A wall of grey, painted over with green and brown, interposed itself. Ukyou planted the mega spatula, edge first, into the ground – the two girls instantly took prone positions, firing down at the aliens to suppress and engage them. Plasma fire blazed overhead, decimating the forest beyond and above.

Then the Blaster Bomb hit.

A visible wave of force expanded from under the landed battleship, followed by a torrent of fire and ash. The aliens, who should have fallen deeper under cover, were instead vaporized by the blast of hellish nuclear fire. The ground below the ship buckled and cratered, like water flowing from an impact, and the battleship itself rumbled on its foundations. India Squad, from their position on a nearby hill, laid down more suppressive fire from above.

Still, sporadic fire emerged from below, as tenacious alien defenders who had taken more effective cover behind the thick pylons under the battleship's body ran out to seek revenge. Ukyou raised her hand, two fingers gesturing to move. Shampoo nodded, and the two hoofed it, scrambling away from their little sniper nest. Ukyou sheltered the two with her spatula, and for good reason.

A moment later and the aliens retaliated in force, landing a blaster bomb of their own.

Trees crashed and spun through the air, uprooted by the explosion and tossed like matchsticks. A dark cloud of debris blotted out the night sky, and Shampoo swore she could feel the heat of the blast through her personal armor. Her psi and radiological warning blared in tandem, and the Amazon warrior steeled her mind.

The psionic panic attacks wouldn't last more than a second, once Ranma and Konatsu got to work. She could imagine them moving in amid the dying embers around the alien battleship. Ranma would be in the _umisenken_, a killer ghost moving from corpse to corpse, the aliens he targeted not even realizing they were dead as he passed by. They would feel it, a moment later, as the effects of the _dokuja toshin shou_ (Poisonous Serpent Spitting True Palm) broke spines and left guts to pool loosely around feet. If one was lucky, it would feel Ranma's ki attack, and be instantly killed by the combination of impact and cold fire.

Konatsu, meanwhile, would simply eviscerate at will. He was a different sort of weapon user than Kuno or Mousse. The ninja boy's blade never struck from the front, like the kendoist's blade. It would sink into soft spots: into necks, groins, backs, under arms or between clavicles. Those that didn't die to the _kansatsuken_ (Flying Killer Sword) would vanish within a flurry of razor edged weaponry that unerringly found eyes or the spaces between muscles.

Only when the carnage was complete, would the two back off and switch back to their carbines.

The enemy fire diminished in the span of seconds. Even as far away as she was, Shampoo could hear one of the Sectoids scream: a high pitched monstrous wail. Shampoo grinned grimly at the thought of what had occurred down below. Even if this wasn't humanity's defense of its world, the aliens should and would pay for the evils inflicted on the Amazon Village and her tributaries.

The fact that it was Ranma, her _airen_, leaving death in his wake…?

Shampoo licked her lips, unashamed to note that it made her want to jump his bones, then and there. Not that he'd let her, of course, even post mission. That unfortunate fact didn't diminish the… respect she had for him. It never had, since he had been turning down her advances for two years now. Just her luck her husband was coyer than a Japanese schoolgirl. Still, there was just nothing better than seeing a master martial artist cut loose and wreak havoc among a deserving and hated enemy.

She just wished she had more of a chance to indulge in some real hand to hand fighting. She didn't have the fancy - or flashy - ki attacks that some of her would be peers enjoyed tossing around so much. She didn't have a _kenran hinode_, like the annoying pancake chef. Fate had given her a rather anemic battle aura and low reserves.

Despite having an actually high level of ki mastery – Shampoo could both perceive and manipulate her aura, what little there usually was of it – she just couldn't afford to toss it around at people willy-nilly. Instead, she concentrated it all into physical amplification, making her tougher, stronger, and faster. Combined with her natural skills, both unarmed and with a variety of weapons, she could more than get her job done in close quarters… and without having to rely on fancy 'announce-my-moves' special techniques. If need be, she had acupuncture and acupressure skills to fall back on, though she was still a novice compared to a living monster like Dr. Tofu or her Great Grandmother.

Getting close to either of those two was a death sentence.

Spilling some enemy blood up close and personal, though, was so appealing it almost hurt. Picking off her targets from a half mile away, despite the danger of counter-battery fire, lacked the visceral sense of danger and personal panache. Her CQCW Custom 'Golden Dragons' hadn't seen action or tasted blood in too damn long…

The ground under the battleship shuddered again, as the enemy counterattacked with another blaster bomb, hoping to cripple or kill the two men in melee. Shampoo and Ukyou kept moving into position, covering their faces as the blast kicked up clumps of charred mud. That stuff, hitting a visor, would impair vision for a potentially lethal handful of seconds. No point taking the chance.

Ranma and Konatsu appeared, without warning, to the girls' left and right.

Shampoo didn't miss how her would-be beloved's right arm was a drippy black all the way up to the elbow.

"Well, we've bloodied their nose a bit," Ranma stated, voice still a bit monotone from the aftereffects of the _umisenken_. "We're to hold the position here before Hotel, Echo and India move in. Then we run support for Echo once they insert."

Shampoo smiled; it was just what the doctor ordered.

"Ukyou. You and Mousse will be setting up a perimeter. Patch into India's channel. Shampoo, Konatsu, I want a kill zone along the western approach." Ranma was all business once a mission turned hot. "If an alien peeks out from a corner, I want its head taken off. Go."

"Yes, sir!" they echoed, and raced down towards the crashed UFO.

Ranma stood, watching them go, and with a single swift swipe shook the vile ichor from his arm.

Ryouga and Kuno landed nearby a few seconds later.

"Hotel and Echo are getting ready to lead the assault," the lost one stated, his stance relaxed enough that the butt of his carbine rested against his bicep rather than his shoulder. "Looks like you got here first after all."

"You guys pick way too many fights on your way to a target," Ranma observed with a chuckle. "Plus, you _do_ tend to get lost."

"Shut up Ranma."

A beat passed, and Ranma turned his head to the lost lieutenant. Rain was washing his armor clean in some places, but leaving it with long trickling stains in others. There was nothing of the pigtailed fighter within to actually see from the outside. The visor wasn't transparent at the moment, though it could be removed if really needed. SOP was to maintain suit integrity and NBC protection, though, so no one did it. There was just his stance and armor numbering and rank to visually identify the Saotome heir. Only once the mission was over and they were on their way back to base would they collectively shed their armor and once more undergo the metamorphosis from soldiers back to young men and women.

"Hey," Ryouga prompted, nudging the other officer. "You okay?"

Even Kuno seemed to notice something, shifting slightly to see what was wrong.

"Saotome?" the swordsman asked.

"Nothin'," Ranma replied, shaking his head. "Just thinkin' about something. Let's get down there and finish this."

"Agreed."

The three jump-stepped, and headed down the hill.

* * *

Raven sat cross-legged in the back of the transport that had initially ferried Yankee to the site. Though her eyes were closed, she could still sense the people around her. They were other psions, such as herself, doing their best to control the distant battlefield. She was only vaguely aware of them, though, as her own attention was focused intently on the same waterlogged forest as the rest of them.

Five Sectoids at once … it was a strain, but she was managing. Raven didn't dare try for more, though, or risk all of them breaking free. She currently had three arrayed ahead of her team, flushing out any ambushes, one following at the rear to watch for stragglers (with a primed grenade as a kill switch), and one running side by side with Ryouga to keep her in the loop. Her initial plan had been to place partitions in each of her team mates for psionic backup, however, once she was informed that there were no Ethereals present, she'd decided to try and take on a far more aggressive role.

It really _should_ have been more disorienting.

She could _feel_ the rain on her bare skin, she could see the foliage rushing past her from five different points of view. The alien perceptions were odd enough on their own, the strange sensations that the elements had on the bodies of the aliens were unlike anything she had felt before … and not in a good way. The psi-gym staff had trained her to minimize the dissonance of entering an inhuman mind and controlling an inhuman body. Putting those techniques in practice was harder, but no longer unfamiliar.

Her natural proclivity towards splitting her emotions made her remarkably well suited to this, giving her an ability to multitask that even the most experienced Psi-Officers were impressed with. She was not just one mind trying to think several things at once; she very nearly had a case of split personality disorder, with each of her personalities thinking independently and yet in tandem.

Raven hated to sound cocky, but she was _really_ good at this.

Turning her attention back to her 'representative' Sectoid, she turned her large, alien eyes to her commanding officer. Were the alien physically capable, it would have smirked at her thoughts. Ryouga's sleek, armored form cut through the woods easily, though not too fast for her to keep up. Between the dense forest and the uphill run, they were barely breaking 20 kph, with Cyborg barreling through the trees like a runaway bulldozer.

_'__I__'__m approaching the hilltop. I can see the ship through the treeline,__'_she sent telepathically to Ryouga.

He nodded, but didn't reply. Rather, she could sense that he was contacting Jinx and Starfire, giving them a heads up that they were approaching the target. He then turned to her, activating the external speaker.

"Raven, hold back at the treeline and wait for Jinx and Star to meet you. I want to take the ship by surprise if all possible. Just scope out the defenses until Cyborg and me catch up. We just got the okay from the Captain to expend your puppets making the initial assault, but I want everyone in place."

Raven nodded, stopped - stopped - stopped - and picked up her pace to catch up. At the forefront, she took great care to find cover. Her alien eyes were quite adept at seeing in the darkness, making it bizarrely easy to search out the enemy defenses. What she saw didn't inspire her with confidence. Just on this side, she could see almost half a dozen Sectoids, all dug in behind cover and sporting nasty looking plasma weapons. They were all alert as well, though many of them were splitting their focus on their own defenses, and overlooking the downed Battleship far below, at the foot of the hills.

It was crucially important that they took out this position, as the Sectoids up here had the perfect vantage point to rain death down on any potential attacks by the other teams on the main target. Some may have complained about being sent after a secondary target, but she realized just how much they trusted Yankee squadron to send them up here. They had the senior soldiers in Bravo for backup, but the more experienced squad simply wasn't able to keep up their pace and would need time they simply didn't have to catch up.

Of course, as with all things with this organization, the trust was only of the 'as far as we can throw them' variety. If Yankee faltered, Command would drop a hammer on this position… however securing the hill and the ship was preferable to flattening it. They had to keep up the push and hold the area, not just scatter the aliens over the surrounding jungle.

The familiar presence of her team mates reached her mind several seconds before she heard the movement. Those of her closest Sectoids held up their hands in the prearranged sign to show they were controlled, rather than enemy combatants, and the two female Yankees slipped up to her side.

"Greetings, Raven, you are looking quite pleasant tonight," Starfire whispered teasingly.

"Yeah, did you get a tan? You're looking a little more lively than usual," Jinx joined in quietly.

Desperately, Raven wished that her face possessed the structures to allow her to glare at her so-called friends.

_'__Are you two quite done?__'_

She couldn't see their faces, but she could feel their mirth. "Indeed, indeed, I apologize, friend Raven. Ryouga tells us that you have located the ship?"

She gestured up the hill. The bulk of the UFO was easy to make out, even in the darkness. Starfire nodded quickly. "I see six Sectoids on this side of the ship, though there are doubtlessly more around the ship, or in hiding. The position is more heavily fortified than expected."

Well, the Tamaranian always was quick, and had very good eyes.

"Yeah, this is gonna be a tough nut to crack," Jinx agreed. "Cyborg seemed pretty confident that we'd be able to pull this off on our own, though. I hope whatever plan he's got up his sleeve is good enough. They don't just want these guys taken out; they want the ship secured, too, as intact as possible. I guess they want to know what they were moving that needed a Battleship for an escort."

Raven nodded again, the leathery lines of her grayish skin feeling odd to her.

_'__They should arrive soon. I__'__ve already started to scout around to the far sides of the ship. There are more Sectoids, all equally entrenched. I__'__d say that they aren__'__t taking any chances here.__'_

Her companions nodded, all of them coming to the conclusion that there wasn't much they could do but wait for the moment. Thankfully, they didn't need wait long. Moving much more discretely now, Ryouga, Cyborg, and the other to Raven/Sectoids arrived at their position. The pair quickly gestured for the rest of them to join in a huddle.

"So what's the situation?" Ryouga asked tersely.

"The enemy are heavily entrenched all around the ship, and an unknown number reside within the vessel. We are outnumbered and outgunned, as it were," Starfire explained.

"That … doesn't sound good," the Lost Sergeant muttered.

"Bah, don't worry about it," Cyborg stated confidently. "Raven, can you let me see around the ship? Let me see their positions for myself?"

_'__Yes, though it might be disorienting for you. I__'__ll need physical contact, though, I__'__m already spread quite thin.__'_

Cyborg agreed, moving to kneel down before her. Even crouched as he now was, he still towered over Raven's alien body, looking more intimidating than she'd ever seen him before. Moving gingerly, she reached out her misshapen hand – the fingers too long by half - and touched it to his head, integrating his psyche in to her mental array.

From all points around the ship, he saw as she saw, the gleaming hull of the craft, the hunkered down aliens and their deadly weapons -

And then they were back in the forest.

Cyborg shook his head, dazed for a moment. "Okay … freaky, but I got the picture. A really good picture actually!" Once he regained his bearings, the cybernetic teen then gave a thumbs up. "Gives me an idea! Alright, here's the plan - Ummm, you okay with me making the plan, Ryo?"

"You kidding? Go crazy, man."

"Got ya, dawg." He turned to Jinx. "Alright … Jinx, you and Raven are gonna be in for the worst of this. Are you up for it?"

The witch nodded, the rain pouring down her visor in long rivulets. "What do you need?"

Cyborg patted her on the shoulder, producing a soft clank. "You and Raven are gonna go full frontal assault. We need you to distract the defending forces for us. Don't worry, I'll soften them up for you before you go in. All you need to do is keep their attention on you."

"What of the rest of us, then?" Starfire asked.

"We're gonna go all Trojan Horse on these guys, take 'em apart from the inside," Cyborg stated matter-of-factly.

"How are we going to do that?" Ryouga inquired incredulously.

Cyborg leaned forward, and Raven could almost sense the smile hidden beneath his heavily armored helmet. "We're gonna take the high road. Don't worry, I got a few tricks to get us by on the sly, though. First things first, though, I'll move to the front, do my thing, then I'll fall back while Jinx and Raven start their attack and meet up with Star and Ryo, got it?"

Raven felt everyone's uncertainty, including her own, but no one raised any note of dissent. Cyborg then gestured for Raven to follow him closer to the ship. Standing near the edge of what passed for the tangled and broken treeline, just a little past halfway up the large hill the ship rested on, Cyborg dropped to a knee and she heard him take a deep breath.

"Alright, let me see all around the ship again, Rae. I got a fun surprise for our friends up on the hill."

She moved forward and placed her hand on his back, sharing her multiple lines of sight once more. Several long seconds passed, until Cyborg nodded to himself. Then, she nearly jumped out of her skin when large panels of armor began to slide and clack loudly, exposing the familiar blue composite's of Cyborg's actual shoulders. A second later, those blue panels slid away as well, revealing his mini-missile launchers. Six barrels extended several inches from each shoulder. Apparently he didn't want to waste his entire payload, as only half of the launchers fired, angry roars sounding as six of the missiles surged out, almost straight up into the air.

"I bet they'll like this one," Cyborg muttered as the missiles continued to climb. Already, the aliens were reacting, several looking up, and others focusing on him and leveling their weapons.

"Took out the normal warheads," he explained, sounding quite pleased with himself. Above them, the missiles began to arc back down sharply, suddenly gaining speed at a tremendous rate as gravity and rocket propulsion worked in tandem. A fraction of a second later, before a single Sectoid could take an accurate snap shot, the missiles air-bursted.

At six, nearly equidistant points around the ship, all of which Raven was able to see, massive explosions bloomed into existence, rocking the landscape with hellfire. Raven's alien eyes widened in shock five times over as Sectoids were sent flying, scurrying wildly in panic, or being blown to gory bits.

"…replaced each of them with a pair of alien plasma grenade cores," he finished. "Now, you and Jinx get down to business! Hurry!"

_'__Already on it,__'_ she replied.

And she was. Even as she watched him fall back, having done a fabulous job of sending the defensive forces into complete disarray with the unexpected multipronged attack, she was already charging forward, plasma rifles firing off loudly. Of course, she didn't have any real training with them, and to rights shouldn't even be handling one, but they made exceptions, since the risk of killing the mind controlled Sectoid didn't rate very high in the eyes of the XCOM organization.

Jinx was alongside her, too, moving much more erratically, and several times more quickly as she made her own move, heading straight for one of the massive, smoking craters that Cyborg had blasted into the hill. Raven had no doubt that things were about to get very ugly. A second later, the world turned white and her psionic connection cut off as one of her puppets' head disintegrated.

Quite ugly indeed.

Luckily, she had more pawns to advance across the board.

* * *

Ryouga waited impatiently as Cyborg fell back to their position, nearly one hundred yards back from where he had began his barrage. Alien counter-fire had already flattened the location into glassy charcoal. That opening salvo had been, admittedly, far more impressive than he'd expected, but he didn't like the idea of leaving Jinx more or less on her own to perform a full on assault on the ship.

"Do not worry, Jinx and Raven will not fail in their duty," Starfire assured him, crouched low nearby. "Nor will Jinx risk herself needlessly."

"Yeah, I know," Ryouga muttered, though he wasn't sure he actually believed it or not. Better to get this thing done quickly so he could get her back in sight again. This command stuff was harder than he expected. Having to continually send his friends off into danger, often alone, as with Jinx on point …He honestly didn't know how Robin made it look so easy, so natural.

Thankfully, he wasn't left to mull over the situation for too long, as Cyborg quickly skidded to a stop before them.

"Okay, get ready guys," he said. "We gotta move fast. The sooner we get in, the sooner we can back up Jinx and Raven."

Ryouga nodded sharply. "What do you have in mind?"

In reply, Cyborg lifted his arms and held up his hands. Surprisingly, the heavy armor plates covering his hands - looking like a pair of metallic hockey gloves - suddenly began to retract smoothly back, revealing his cybernetic hands. Oddly, Ryouga noted a new addition on each: what looked to be a large, white ring on both of his middle fingers.

"Check this out." Then, the cybernetic teen suddenly rammed his fists together, incidentally slamming the rings into one another -

And, in a flash of light, Cyborg was gone? …No, wait, actually, he was still clearly there, he was just… camouflaged, somehow. His armor seemed to shift about, trying vainly to match the forest around him. The effect was imperfect up close, but would be doubtlessly much more effective at range, especially in broken terrain like the jungle.

"A holographic generator!" Starfire exclaimed excitedly.

"Got it in one, Star," Cyborg replied. "I was working on it way back when we were still dealing with the HIVE, before we got stuck in China. I was gonna use it as a disguise to infiltrate the place, but, well, it never ended up being needed, so I just let it sit. Now, though, I can use it to give us just a little bit of extra stealth for our approach, though, that ain't even the best part."

Ryouga could only shake his head in wonder at the display. What could be better than that?

In answer to his unspoken question, Cyborg held up his arm, though it was hard to observe many details with the shifting. He then… flipped a switch.

Ryouga and Starfire shared a confused glance.

"Um … and?" Ryouga asked.

"Heh, you're gonna love this one," Cyborg boasted, "I finally got Gizmo's Psi-Shield up and running. Not only that, but I incorporated some of the Mind Shield tech the locals have, giving it a cloaking range of about five feet. Now, even if they got an Ethereal on that ship, they won't be able to sense our minds as we close in, so we should be able to sneak in completely undetected. Out of sight out of mind – literally!"

"Ingenious!" Starfire exclaimed. "And we can use the storm itself to cover our approach."

"That's right, girl. Now, let's get goin' already! We better hurry, though, the main function of the psi shield is to prevent active attacks, not hide our minds, so we're relying mainly on the Mind Shield components to hide us. And considering that even the base Mind Shield isn't 100% effective, the quicker we do this, the better. You guys both need to be real close behind me, so Star, you pick me up, and Ryo, you get on Star's back."

Not even Ryouga was bashful enough to get embarrassed with the idea of climbing onto Starfire's back while wearing full body armor, so he quickly complied. He might as well have been a flea for all he slowed her down as she flew forward and hefted Cyborg into the air as well. Within a matter of seconds, they were above the canopy of the trees, and several seconds after that, they were lost amongst the dark clouds hanging in the sky.

Ryouga watched, awed, as they soared through the air. Green plasma and the odd flash of pink lit up the ground far below them, as the fighting around the ship intensified. They were far too high for the martial artist to actually see the back and forth of the battle, but as long as those pink lights kept appearing, he knew that Jinx was still alright.

Several seconds later, they were descending again, following an arc not so different from the missiles that had initiated the skirmish. Just as Cyborg had predicted, between the full scale ground attack and the chaos caused by the initial bombing, not a single alien noticed them as they dropped out of the sky and alighted on the top of the ship as gently as falling leaves. As soon as they landed, Cyborg moved forward, towards the center of the ship, dragging Ryouga and Starfire with him, making sure to keep them close.

"Alright, according to the schematic, we should be right above the nav controls. All we need to do is cut through here, and we can secure the ship and start clearing it out."

Starfire nodded, pulling out the impressive polearm weapon that Cyborg had presented her with at the beginning of the mission. She prepared to activate the chainsaw blade, when Ryouga stopped her.

"No, wait up. That'll definitely draw attention," Ryouga explained quietly. "I got this one; just give me a few seconds."

Smirking, Ryouga knelt down. He'd been longing for a chance to really try this out, and this was as good a time as any. Though it annoyed him, he was forced to remove his gauntlets, breaking the 'full environmental' seal on his suit. There was just no way that he would be able to do this through the gloves… he was just grateful that, with his back turned against the wind, that his hands weren't getting wet enough to trigger the change. Every drop that landed still freaked him out a bit, though.

Taking a deep breath, he leaned forward and began to rub his hands across the surface of the ship, carefully taking stock of the smooth alien alloy.

"… What are you doing, Ryouga?" Starfire asked. "Did the Lieutenant Hibiki not say that it was impossible to use the Breaking Point technique upon this alien alloy?"

Ryouga chuckled to himself as he continued to familiarize himself with the alien alloy, focusing his will down and into the exotic metal. It was still hot from the Avalanche missiles that had knocked it out of the sky, and he didn't want to dwell too much on the fact that it was still more than a little radioactive.

"Yeah …with the way he does it and the way Cologne does it, it probably would be impossible. The way they use it isn't much different from your Chainsaw… thing, Star. All brute force and destruction."

There it was. He could feel it now. Instantly, his hands began to move around, forming a large circle in the water pooling of the hull, the pads of his fingers fluttering over the alloy as gently as a feeding humming bird.

"He's strong, I'll give him that, but he's kinda like Terra. When it comes to the breaking point, he's basically trading more power for less control..."

"What are you talkin' 'bout, Ryo?" Cyborg asked, tilting his head as he tried to follow what his fellow Titan was doing. "I missed all the BT talk since we got here. You saying him and you got different moves, too?"

Ryouga nodded, continuing his work, already on his third cycle around. "The technique he's using is a natural extension of the original. Mine is completely different, developed when I trained to save Terra. His is really just all power, while mine is all about control. You remember how we were talking about the metal lattice, right?"

Cyborg nodded, crouching down beside him. "Crystalline structure and all that."

"That's right," Ryouga replied. "Well, to use a similar metaphor – one I used before actually - imagine this alloy as a ladder. That guy's approach is to basically grab it by the foundation and start shaking it until it comes apart. Of course, if the ladder is made of sterner stuff, then it isn't going to budge, just like this alien alloy. The ladder is just too well built to shake apart. My technique, however, is like sneaking in at night and stealing all the screws…"

"Be careful," Starfire interjected teasingly, "If Jinx were to hear you speaking like that, she might be unable to control herself."

Doing his best to stifle a chuckle, he finished his fifth spin around in a circle, before finally being satisfied with his work. Unfortunately, the Avalanche missile had hit the bottom of the ship, so he wasn't able to take advantage of such a convenient point of weakness like Ukyou usually tried to do with her explosives. The hull of this ship was damn tough stuff; not a surprise, since this particular scout had already taken the equivalent of a nuclear explosion to the gut and still remained intact, but all that meant was that it took more time.

Looking up at his companions, he smirked. With everything he'd been learning lately, he was starting to wonder just what the limits of his new fatigue technique could be, especially once he'd mastered that new chi circulation trick. There were a lot of things people called 'indestructible' back home.

"There!" he announced. "It might look sturdy, but you give it one good rap … and it just falls right apart. You wanna knock for me, Cy?"

"Delighted, Ryo."

With that, Ryouga pulled out his umbrella from where it was strapped to his back, and undid four bandannas from around his right bicep. When the others looked at him, he just shrugged.

"Hey, who knows who might be in there?" he asked.

Nodding with a smirk, Cyborg balled his fists. "Alright, knocking in Three-"

Ryouga crouched.

"Two."

Ryouga leapt up, holding his weapons tightly to his body as he rose and began to fall quickly through the air.

"One!" And Cyborg lashed out, smashing his fist into the hull of the ship, dead center of the circle that Ryouga had drawn several times over. With a grating squeal of protest, a roughly circular section of the stressed hull tore itself from its moorings and dropped down into the interior of the ship with a massive clatter, followed a second later as Ryouga arrowed through the opening.

The martial artist landed in a crouch near the back of the control room. In an instant, he took stock of his situation. As he'd feared, he wasn't alone. There were three Sectoids in the room: two of them sitting at control panels, while another stood near the door, heavy plasma cannon at the ready, obviously just waiting for some poor fool to step through and get blasted to ash.

Arms moved in a blur, his right arm cracking out sharply, launching his umbrella at full force - triggering its density control at the same time - and his left arm snapped out left, then right, a hungry 'whir' filling the air as a pair of yellow and black blurs shot out to opposite ends of the room.

The three projectiles struck home at nearly the same instant, all within seconds of his landing. One of the Sectoids squealed in agony as a bandanna severed its torso in half, while the second sitting

Sectoid didn't even give that much as the top of its head slid off in a gory mess. The Sectoid by the door, though, held its position, standing motionless. The umbrella impaled directly through its skull, pinning its head to the wall may have had something to do with that.

"All clear," Ryouga called out. He then moved out from beneath the hole to recover his umbrella.

A few seconds later, Cyborg and Starfire entered the ship, the former moving directly to the control panels while the Tamaranian joined Ryouga.

"You were quite … thorough," she muttered quietly.

He nodded, wrenching his umbrella free. With a wet splat, the body of the Sectoid fell to the ground in a heap. Taking a second to examine his weapon, and another to fling the gore off it with a swipe to the side, he holstered it behind his back.

"Yeah … it helps when I don't have time to think about what I'm doing. We should start emptying out the rest of the ship, then get outside."

"Whoa, hold up there, Ryo!" Cyborg's statement drew their gazes to the far side of the room. Cyborg, standing next to one of the dead Sectoids, motioned for them to join him.

"Something interesting here. This guy wasn't monitoring any of the ships systems or weapons. It looked like he was trying to do something with the… cargo. I got no idea what, though. Even with the local info, I'm not having much luck interfacing with these systems. I couldn't even tell you if there's anyone else on this ship, man."

Cyborg continued to punch away at the navigation console, but his frustrated movements told everything they needed to know about his progress. It was impossible without a psionic key and interface, and no one present had the equipment or the training for a job like that. It had taken some serious practice at the psi gym to even learn how to interact with the strange alien interface technology.

"Hmm, weird," Ryouga agreed, "But not important, now. Let's assist Jinx with the battle outside, first, then we'll check that out after we're sure the ship is secure."

Cyborg nodded quickly. "I'm with ya, man. Still, I can't wait to see what they got down there. I'm totally calling dibs if it's any kinda tech we get to research."

Ryouga rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. Knowing our luck, it's probably just a shipment of those alien porn devices."

"Do not sound so excited," Starfire teased, moving towards the only exit from the room. "We have more important things to worry about then this ship's cargo."

* * *

Things were going well.

Resistance on the battleship itself was, for once, surprisingly light. Intel currently believed that the majority of the remaining alien forces were still out in the jungle, playing an extended and lethal game of tag with Foxtrot and Golf. The thought of that latter team, despite Ryouga's outward professional detachment, always brought some sliver of worry to mind. _Akane_. He couldn't help it.

He didn't have the intense crush he once had, before moving in with Akari, and then after his so called 'cure' to the Jyusenkyou curse, he'd lost the crush entirely. It had been replaced by an almost familial affection, the same that he had (at the time) for all the Tendo sisters. They were friends and familiar faces who happened to be female. When Akane had pushed for her own induction into a squad, independent of Ranma – in fact, in spite of his attempts to keep her out of harm's way – Ryouga had been one of the standing officers to provide a necessary unsolicited recommendation. To this day, he wasn't sure who the other recommendation had come from, but Akane had worked damn hard to train and make friends and earn respect.

Then, in one terrible instant, all his lost memories – everything he had thrown out when he got rid of the damned curse – came crashing back. All P-chan's memories and feelings, once discarded, had been dredged back up and used to mentally break him. Or very nearly so. He still felt… a strong sort of companionship towards the youngest Tendo sister, but it was almost like it was someone else's life and he was just an observer. It was a strange detachment; an inexplicable dichotomy.

So, even committed as he was to being what he was, he worried about her just a bit.

It was, Ryouga knew, a fraction of what Ranma had to live with whenever Akane went on a mission. She wasn't even on the same squad. She wasn't even under the same Captain most of the time, since India and Juliet usually deferred directly to Ben-Solomon and Akane and Golf was almost always under the command of Captain Banks. Ryouga could imagine the worry he would have if, completely out of character, Nabiki got herself involved in firefights and other life threatening dangers. He could still hardly believe Ranma's stories about her duel with Kinnosuke, but the desire to humiliate someone and take their money **would** be the _one_ thing that could convince Nabiki to jump out of a helicopter without hesitation.

"Hey," speak of the Devil, there she was in his ear. He briefly remembered their promise earlier and smiled secretly behind his helmet visor. "Hibiki. I've got Cyborg and other-you on the line."

"Alright," he replied, motioning for Mousse to slow and keep along side. They were just policing the second level of the battleship now. It was already cleared, except for one large section that Kuno and Ryu were sweeping. He paused next to a crumpled alien corpse that had been caught in the initial grenade-ing of the central intersection.

"Yo!" the American vernacular was obviously Cyborg's. "We secured the second ship. Just cleaning up outside now."

"You know, you guys could've let Bravo handle it," Ryouga observed. Still, Yankee's relentless drive had freed up Sergeant Karpov and that veteran unit for extermination operations in the surrounding jungle. "You don't have to do everything yourselves, even if you _can_ do just that… Anyway, you guarded our flanks like pros, so I shouldn't complain. If things are secure up there, start policing the bodies and equipment."

"Yeah, sure thing, boss man. Least we can do after skipping out on all the nasty fighting down the hill. We'll make sure the cargo is secure, too," Cyborg replied in an upbeat tone.

"I don't know why you want to bother," the other Hibiki suddenly cut in. "It figures it would be our luck to get stuck cleaning out a _spice_ freighter. Kinda takes the luster off all of the daring-do we just did."

"Its messy work, but we all have to… wait, _spice_?" Ryouga asked, confused. "Is this one of those pop culture references I always miss?"

"The spice must flow," Nabiki helpfully supplied. "Even _I_ know that."

"Nah, nah," Cyborg answered for his sergeant, "Though awesome catch, there, Biki - there's hope for you yet! See, I managed to get a partial translation done from the ship. Apparently all they're carrying is a big box of spice in the cargo bay. Way too much for a dinner date, but not nearly enough to go commercial. Who knows, maybe we'll be able to 'spice things up' for lunch back at base for the next month or so?"

A low grunt of annoyance filled the line as Sergeant Hibiki made his displeasure known again. "I don't about you, but I don't want to be eating anything these bastards might have been tampering with. Anyway, we'll go secure it anyway, Lieutenant, and meet back up with you guys ... seriously, who needs a container like that?"

Ryouga could almost hear the metallic squeal of Cyborg shrugging over the commline. "Heck if I know. Hell, I don't even know what you'd use saffron on, anyway. Anyway, Yankee squad signing off, catch ya later, Dawgs."

"**Saffron?**" the Lieutenant immediately asked, voice tinting with frantic surprise. "You saw that? Where? How?"

_Coincidence_. It had to be.

"Eh?" the other Ryouga was still on the line. "The computer here translated it on one of the boxes or something. Actually, it was 'Yellow Leaves' and then sub-translated again as 'Saffron.' So I guess Saffron means Yellow Leaves or..."

"Yellow Leaves," the older Hibiki hissed, instantly recognizing the term. "Oh hell."

It was no coincidence after all.

"Listen to me, Sergeant," he said, trying to keep calm. "Pull your unit back immediately! Yellow Leaves is what the aliens call -"

* * *

"Psi Readings! Nabiki yelled, across all her active channels. "Class A! Maybe Double A!"

She paused, checking.

"Positive response! There's a Trenchard out there!"

Back at the battleship, Ryouga could only gape. "A Trenchard? Here? Now?"

* * *

More than a mile away, the soft sound of bare feet on metal floors echoed from the supposedly empty UFO. It was irregular, stumbling, almost lame. A faint whiff of ozone permeated the air along with a spike in ambient temperature. A faint low fog partly obscured the open portal that was the scout's main airlock. As if in response, the rain poured down even harder, to try and quench the building presence below.

Finally, a gaunt form emerged.

It was human, male, completely naked. The skin was pink and fresh, like a newborn's, even reddish in places. A full head of long, wet blonde and platinum hair hung in matted tendrils over the shoulders and most of the face. A long breath expelled a cloud of moist air that hung like cigarette smoke amid the downpour.

IT -

The incomplete thought rumbled in the minds of all present, like a half-formed scream.

**IT BURNS**

The thin man's body warped, without warning, fountains of blood erupting from the hands, legs and back. Beneath matted, tangled hair, two eyes glowed like ingots of molten lead. A primal scream split the air, not just from this one man, but in stereo as his own pain washed into the minds of those nearby. It was blinding, searing, overwhelming, a synchronous meeting of nerves in a symphony orchestra of agony.

Cyborg had not felt pain in his arms and legs in years, but it came back now like a vengeful phantom. Though those parts of his body were long since gone, he could feel – in the part of his human mind that remembered – skin splitting and tearing. For the others, it was even more intense. Through her psionic link, Raven felt it half again, though thankfully not fully four times over. The Trenchard's horrific birth throes sent all but one to his or her knees.

For Ryouga Hibiki, even pain like this was a reminder of simpler times.

A second later, and they caught fire.

Or so it felt; their shared psi defenses preventing the reciprocal immolation. Yet - the man's body was well and truly aflame; a great living bonfire that could not, would not, die. Flesh regenerated within the heat even as skin flaked and burned away. Split flesh became rough and calloused around the hands and legs, and talons tore through fingertips sending nails to fall, like bloody tiles, to the ground. Around it, what was left of the fallen Sectoids also caught fire, forming wreaths and pillars of dark black smoke.

IN **FIRE**

All around the UFO, damp rainforest instantly caught fire, burning an unearthly blue in the night.

IN **PAIN**

The emaciated man finally threw his head back, letting the burning locks of hair whip back like a tide of orange and yellow. A blazing mark on his forehead glowed like the fires of Hell, and with a sick wrenching sound, like cabbage being crushed underfoot, twin wings of fire and feather erupted from the Phoenix King's back.

**I AM REBORN**

* * *

A fire burned in the middle of the Borneo rain forest.

Wings stretched, white feathers nearly lost among the red and orange licks of flame. The burning plumage extended, flexing for the first time in a new body, the tips ascending into the night sky to illuminate the darkness and revel in the uncontrolled bonfire that turned ally and enemy alike into ash. Alien bodies burned; primeval jungle burned; flesh and mind and sense burned; it was an exquisite chorus of pain and fire.

Saffron felt only pain.

It was magnificent, purifying, and he shared it with all within reach. The very concept of 'he' and the 'self' was mostly abstract after his birth. Genitalia had peeled away - _useless_ – and the fire within him was a furnace he knew would destroy him. He would burn and _burn_ and **burn** and then be reborn. There was no death.

Only agony and service.

SERVE

The Mind Commanded it. The will and desire of thousands fell on Saffron's burning shoulders. Service was fine. So long as it did not ask for control. So long as it did not demand restraint. The fire could only burn brightly and then extinguish itself. The Brand burned into its flesh and its mind unlocked the true terrible nature of its existence.

SERVE

Yes. He would. He would become It. It would become Death.

KILL

Saffron arbitrarily picked the first of the _unburned_. For the moment, it mattered not which was which. They would all join the fire. They would all become One in the flames. As a vestige of what it had once been, it whispered the name of the fire it was bringing forth, the anachronistic words drowned out by the roar of displaced, superheated air.

"Hououkin Ouzoku Kyukyoku Ougi."  
(Phoenix Mountain Royalty Ultimate Special Secret)

"Ho-Lee **Craaaap**!" bellowed the largest of its targets, even as the insignificant worm attempted to scramble out of the way of his blast.

The evasion was as futile as its existence, despite clearing most of the attack, the lance of hellfire grazed the towering humanoid's arm and side. Thick, surprisingly thick – ah, yes, it was _that_ metal - armor began to glow red, then white in seconds, before warping and twisting obscenely.

His victim crashed to the ground a second later, swinging his arm frantically, near molten chunks of his protective shell flying off, setting fires on the sodden ground where ever they landed. ... However ... there was no smell of burning flesh, no howls of agony to accompany the fate of being encased in molten metal.

Rather, abandoning the rest of his armored suit in a set of explosive charges, his would-be victim scrambled back to his feet ... apparently wearing _another_ set of armor beneath the first. What was Saffron, what had been Saffron, was troubled by this. The Mind, however, watched and learned.

Even for this fiery embodiment of death, a moment of pause set in.

"Titans! Take him down!"

That voice…

Green bolts of fury tore into a wing, shredding it into fire and strips of flesh. The pain was lovely, but there was something preventing all those present from reveling and sharing in the sensation. Saffron could feel that some of it was getting through, but not all. A strange _black fire,_ not even perceptible in the physical realm, but hanging over all of those present within its mind's eye, was dampening the pain it had to share.

Saffron took a blast to the chest that sent burning blood pooling in midair. Strange pink energy then destroyed the ground at the burning entity's bare bird-like feet. One of the humans strayed close, and a wing flexed to try and catch it. The nimble mayfly managed to escape, however, rolling wildly downhill and then springing back to its feet.

The Mind suggested, and Saffron could hear _her_ voice amid the celestial Martian chorus.

WHO ARE YOU TO INTERFERE WITH MY PAIN BLACK FIRE

For a moment, there was no response.

YOU SUFFER FOR OTHERS; SHALL I MAKE YOU INTO A MARTYR?

The response was defiant and spiteful.

FOR SUCH RUDENESS … YOU SHOULD KNOW ME MORE

...

Raven clasped her hands together in concentration, repeating a calming mantra even as she maintained the link to the rest of the Titans. _The rest of her team._ She didn't feel the flame retardant foam that covered her body, or the protective blanket hastily draped over her shoulders. Two pairs of hands were also resting on her shoulders, to her left and right.

Saffron's pain, Saffron's fire, remained blunted.

...

Another errant attack hit home, this time removing fingers from the Phoenix King's left hand. He watched, dully, as the digits spun in the air, spraying little droplets of blood. Both were already burning away, unable to maintain integrity after being severed from the body proper. As the digits disintegrated, new ones emerged from the stumps.

Saffron was… vexed.

It was unable to share the agony of existence with those it had chosen to bring into the flame. Looking down at a nearby corpse, one of the Sectoid crew, Saffron saw it was already little more than smoking ash. That was how it should have been. This level of resistance was intolerable.

Especially so, given the limited time frame he – it – had to exist at this level.

"Hibiki. Ryouga," Saffron said the name, recognizing one of the mayfly's by its techniques. That move with the ground – _the breaking point the Mind provided_ – and the bandannas - _the Iron Cloth_. Also, some new ki technique, different from what he remembered of Jusendo and from what the Mind knew.

The Mind thought, and shared.

This Hibiki was not the native Hibiki. It had slain aliens on the same battlefield and at the same time as the other. It was a product of The Traveler. That was interesting. There was other information, too, at the edge of the human psyche.

Saffron moved.

The weaker, smaller female. Hibiki would rush to protect it. Burn Him – _the Mind would allow it_ – but leave enough to Take. Cologne was curious. Others were curious, too, and they agreed with her. The Mind Hungered. This world's Hibiki was intransient and had rejected time and again the gentle caress and thunderous demand of the Mind. This one was still an unknown. Perhaps he could be convinced to serve, as Cologne had?

Burning wings spread and encircled the small human. Saffron let the power of the Mind wash through him – it – and into her. Yes. By decreasing what he shared with the others, more could be concentrated into a single target. Enough to overwhelm that black fire. A well timed sonic blast from the armored mayfly and a flurry of bandannas from the Hibiki tore and pierced flesh. Saffron embraced the pain that came from rending muscle.

The girl stumbled, blacking out.

Pain was meant to be shared. She would join the fire.

A hand reached out to reduce her to ash.

"Hououkin…"

...

Never gonna **give** you **up**,

Never gonna let **you** down,

Never gonna run around,

And desert you.

Jinx's eyes snapped open, purely by reflex.

"MOVE!"

Turning her head, the pink haired witch saw a white light like a small sun, floating within arm's reach. Her entire body was wonderfully numb, but she could still feel the light and heat on her face, even through her annoyingly useless helmet. It was like waking up to a bright and beautiful morning.

Never gonna make you **cry**,

Never gonna say goodbye

Never gonna tell a lie

And hurt you…

Except for that damn song.

Jinx blinked, realized that was no sun, and launched herself forward. Fire and ash surrounded her to the left and right, with wings of orange and red. There was nowhere to go but forward. Pushing with all the strength in her legs, she passed under the slowly moving ball of white fire, between and under two malformed legs, and into the clear.

"JINX!" she turned, just in time to see Ryouga running towards the… the thing they'd been fighting.

"Hibiki! Stop!" The voice, like the yelling from before, was Nabiki over their comm.. "Don't get close to it!"

The fire in Saffron's hand faded, and he reached for the charging human. Only to have a pink blast knock the burning hand aside. Ryouga raced in, and both seeing Jinx safe and hearing Nabikis warning, skidded to the side in a last second evasive maneuver. Twirling a full one eighty, he slipped just past the grasping hand and the great burning wing. In that full second he had to execute the move, he left a present behind as well.

The edge of a bandanna, stiffened to the strength of steel, still burned with red and orange blood, more molten than liquid. The second he released his concentration on the weapon, the piece of cloth incinerated instantly and the magma like blood splattered to the ground setting it ablaze.

Saffron folded partly in half at the stomach. Gouts of fire and black smoke poured from the massive wound, but… then flesh and fire stitched back together. What should have torn the Trenchard in half merely sent a more distant and reciprocal jolt of pain into all those present. Thankfully, by this point each and every one of them was fully under Raven's psionic protection, and being no strangers to pain, the feeling of having their gut slashed open was a distant ache.

"Aaa," were the only words it spoke as it turned slowly. "That was nice."

Golden eyes backlit by fire narrowed at the two humans.

"Kotei Kaen..."

Saffron reached back to grasp his wings - when suddenly he was introduced to a new pain.

It was stabbing into his shoulder - no, not just stabbing – it was tearing, ripping, devouring his flesh with a high pitched scream that tore at his ear even as it ate away at his arm. Eyes widened slightly as he stared at the bizarre weapon, even as it ripped through his flesh with abandon. The glowing white sonic energy was not affected by his heat and did not melt into uselessness, and a strength beyond reason was pushing it through.

Within a second, his severed arm dropped to the ground, halfway returned to flame even as it hit. Behind him, the stronger of the two females hissed loudly, grabbing her own shoulder, but did not falter from the pain. That was good.

This was but a taste of what he would share.

Sadly, she did not suffer as much as she should be, standing so close to his person. He could feel her sharing his pain, but that was not nearly enough. He could feel no pain from standing within his heat. If anything, he could feel her own aura growing hotter by the second, as if she were unconsciously trying to match his molten fury.

This one...

"Kotei Kaen Yoku."

(Emperor's Blazing Wings)

One arm and one wing was plenty to execute the maneuver. The female, secure in her own blazing fury, seemed resolved to take the attack head on. Be it for pride, or for glory, or perhaps personal challenge… Saffron could not know. She tore into his blazing wing with an attack of her own, scattering cutting, burning feathers of plasma-hot fire all around her. One attack became a thousand.

Spinning licks of scorching heat and force expanded in a fan-like fusillade of destruction. It extended for half a kilometer, engulfing as yet untouched swaths of forest and feeding fresh tinder for the growing inferno. The ground melted into solid tracks, and the falling rain evaporated long before hitting the ground. The only blemish was the UFO itself, its silver surface ruining the blackened hellscape that should have extended, ever spreading, into the tangled soggy greenery beyond.

Saffron alighted near where the female had fallen.

Still alive. Dazed, but unburned. With a sweep of his still regenerating hand, Saffron shared of himself. Drops of blood stuck to the girl's left arm and side, burning and hissing with an angry alchemical fury where they landed on her armored form. The dark liquid began to bubble and hiss, almost appearing to eat through the resistant alloy like acid. Yes, even though that accursed protective glove, she could become one with him, if only a little.

So lovely.

But then again, this one… was not human.

"You," he - it - said, at the Mind's prodding. There was curiosity. "Will never be one of them. There is no future for you with humans. Come… to me… and… _Tamaran_… will be reborn through you. A dead world shall be recreated. As you wish it to be."

He could hear her hiss in pain as the heat from his blood drew closer to her skin, passing through her metallic shell with agonizing, delicious slowness. Through the lightly tinted visor, he could see her grit her teeth as she glared up at him.

"Tamaran ..." she growled in a low voice as her glare intensified.

"Is not ..." Her glare continued to grow more potent... in fact ... were her eyes beginning to glow?

"**DEAD!**" In a display that baffled even the immortal phoenix reborn, the girl's visor exploded outward brilliantly, splitting her entire helmet like a ripe melon as twin lances of searing green plasma screamed through the air, filling Saffron's sight with glorious emerald eternity. He did not even have enough time to form another thought as his sight was violently stolen from him.

…

Breathing heavily, Starfire rose to her feet, her long, crimson locks unfurling and cascading down her back. The Tamaranian stared impassively as the headless corpse collapsed to the ground in a heap, vicious blood boiling the earth beneath it.

"It ... is over," she muttered darkly.

Stumbling away, she was about to check up on her friends when she heard a familiar voice.

"It isn't dead," Nabiki warned. "Can you hear me, Starfire? It isn't dead."

"I – I can hear you, but…" the alien girl was on the verge of protesting. "It is, I…"

A wet gurgle came from the direction of the corpse.

What she saw shocked her silent. A skull of flame and regenerating bone had emerged from the stump of Saffron's neck. Flaps of flesh and muscle emerged from the insane pyre, bloody red amid blue and orange. Burning bile and blood pooled beneath burning bone, and half formed eyes glared at her from white sockets.

YOU WILL NEVER SEE YOUR HOME

A thunderous psychic attack shook her ramrod straight. She saw, in an instant, the Mind's designs. Helpless on an examination table, Starfire saw _another her_ staring down with empty, soulless green eyes. The other-Starfire grinned, and turned to the right, where an _endless procession of Starfires_ waited on the wings. Each was identical to the one before her, save for some tiny cosmetic embellishment, some as minor as a change in hair style or color. It was the last vestiges of individuality they had.

YOU WILL SERVE

She blinked, and turned to the right, and there she saw something even more shocking. More Tamaranians. _Males_. Lithe, with red hair and green eyes. Another soulless army stretching into the distance.

YOUR FLESH WILL SERVE

A flurry of pink robes suddenly rose into view, blocking the nightmarish vision.

Starfire snapped out of it just in time to see a hand reaching for her. Horror and disgust were pushed aside by survival instinct, but still she remembered Nabiki's warning about direct physical contact. Instead, the chainblade at her side lanced up, burying into the hand and shredding it like a piece of meat in a blender. Another hand lashed out, quicker than before, and grabbed the weapon. Starfire, blood coursing and heart beating harder than she could remember, tore the weapon free at the last second and flew back.

The Tamaranian's eyes widened as the half formed face of her attacker leered at her, Despite the echoed agony she felt in her own hand, the ... _thing_ just kept reaching towards her-

Only to vanish completely in a cone of pounding white noise. The concussive blast of raw sonic force shattered the creature's body and sent it flying across the ground kicking up chunks of seared earth with each ragged bounce.

"That's what you **get**, Freak Show!" Cyborg bellowed, holding up his Sonic Cannon. Steam wafted up from the broad mouth of the weapon, testament to the fact that he was no longer limiting its output. Starfire could scarcely remember the last time she had seen her friend actually unleash the full might of his primary weapon.

There was a reason that it was the most powerful in the Teen Titan's arsenal. Cyborg could reduce an armored tank to scrap in seconds with his acoustic fury, and for the first time, he had unleashed its full potential upon another living being...

_'Though,'_ Starfire mused, _'Living may not be the most appropriate term. What in X__'__hal__'__s name is this monster?'_

The body did not even have time to stop its gory roll when two shapes shot past Starfire in a blur. The larger figure skidded to a stop, dropping to his knees even as he did, digging a long jagged trench in the mud as he ground to a stop. An instant later, he rammed both hands into the dirt, fingers splayed apart.

A ring of furious explosions, limned by an aura of golden energy, rocked the earth beneath the tumbling corpse, blasting it straight up into the air, even as it reduced bone to dust with a merciless onslaught of rubble. Jinx strafed rapidly to the side, forcing every iota of velocity out of her enhanced armor. She didn't wait for this 'Saffron' to land, rather, she began to windmill her arms frantically, and a second later, pink - nearly crimson - arcs of razor thin energy began launching themselves out from her finger tips.

The blades, forged of pure entropy, slashed into the airborne form, filleting it as one might a fish. Jinx juggled the body in the air for a seeming eternity, before her attack finally withered to a stop and she dropped to a knee, her helmet dipping rhythmically as she gasped for air.

With a number of wet splatters, Saffron's remains rained to ground.

For a few long seconds, the pounding rain actually managed to reach the ground. Fires on the periphery dimmed and shrunk down, unable to easily spread in the damp conditions. The rhythmic beat of sheets of falling water brought blessed relief to the blasted and flame raked jungle floor.

Only for a rush of hot wind to blow a hemispherical bubble of falling rain into steam. Amid the bisected body parts, a pair of flaming wings rose up, arcing like illuminated sprays of ragged white gold. Before the great wings could even take shape, a smaller pair rose up in tandem. Bits of bloody remains shifted in the mud, and a skeletal hand wreathed in blue and orange flame clawed at the slushy mire, drying it out with a puff of steam and leaving the surface cracked and worn.

A sliced torso lifted up amid the conflagration, bones sticking out from part of the body. A web of muscle was already expanding rapidly over the lattice of calcium bone. But this time, if anything, it was more monstrous. Bony plates and long spears of pale white extended from the arms and chest, and a dry, hoarse howl roared across the cleared rain forest. Previously diminished fires erupted like volcanoes, spraying ash and chunks of black earth in every direction.

A sonic blast quickly removed the forming skull, and pink blades crashed into the glowing inferno. All vanished amid a rising wall of flame. A moment later, the wall extended, forcing the Titans to scatter. The inferno extended far into the jungle below, and Saffron didn't stop there. More and more walls of flame erupted out of the ground.

They were followed by a lance of pure silver.

The _Hououkin Ouzoku Kyukyoku Ougi_ (Phoenix Mountain Royalty Ultimate Special Secret) dug into the soft jungle soil and carved a trench clean through the ground. As it hit the rise and dip of the hill, it continued without abating, disappearing briefly into the forest almost a mile away. There, too, it burned and incinerated leagues of trees and foliage.

"I... missed?" a raspy voice mused, disappointed.

Cyborg gritted his teeth and fell to one knee. His left leg was gone; only raising his right arm at the last half second had saved it from being in the cylindrical line of annihilation unleashed by the alien abomination. A foot or more to the side, and it would have engulfed part of his core body.

"A mistake easily corrected," Saffron's hands, both of them, glowed with identical energy. "Melt for me, half-man."

Eyes darted to the right.

Wings flexed and tore, this time of their own volition. The _Kotei Kaen Yoku_ did not require the use of one's arms; it simply made it easier and more effective. Jinx and the other Ryouga, who had been moving in from behind at what they no doubt assumed to be a blind spot, were forced to go evasive at the sudden barrage.

Burning hands focused on the troublesome cybernetic man. Unlike the red haired alien girl or the other Hibiki, the Mind had no interest in this one. Technology was unneeded. The genetic and sociological evolution of a race was what it sought to cultivate, to assimilate, to _devour_… Those would know the joy and terror of being born to SERVE. This one… would melt away into a pile of slurry and slag.

A flying blur interposed itself, and with suicidal courage, dared to seize the living fire by the wrists. Foolish creature. Just because its flesh was desired did not mean it had to be sampled whole.

Fire raced along the alien girl's hands and inched down her arms.

Her strength, though… it was incredible. Greater than this flesh shell. As Starfire pushed his wrists back and his blazing palms upward, Saffron could see the pain on her face. Not from physical exertion, for she was far stronger of the two. This close, literally touching, the mutual synchronization of suffering was virtually unimpeded. The delicious sensation of burning and healing at the same time must have made the actual fire creeping towards her chest a distant agony indeed.

"I will not allow you…!" Starfire snarled, pushing him back. Bones in his wrist cracked, reformed, and cracked again. It was wonderful.

Palms flattened.

Energy coalesced, but rather than exploding as a beam, it arced between hands. Blood seeped out from cracks in the bird-like talons, flowing along the lines of fire. The burning blood solidified as it formed, twisting and growing: a round circular head on one end, a pair of wings beneath. The rest became a long staff.

Saffron's power seemed to redouble, and a blast of fire and light sent the Tamaranian crashing to the ground. Glass-like, it shattered from the impact, kicking up fragile shards. Holding the false Kinjakan aloft, Saffron exhaled and a helix of fire lifted up and into the sky, like a twisting, twisted signal flare.

"All that I see shall become ash!" The mad creature exclaimed, breathlessly.

The Mind imposed its will: there was little time. Once the Kinjakan manifested, the fire would blaze more brightly than before, and then swiftly starve. But it would SERVE before it died. A sample was needed of the red haired alien. That was most important. Then, the Hibiki could be taken, and the others reduced to dust and screams.

A biological sample.

Yes. There was one easy way.

"I shall enjoy this," Saffron hissed, and opened his mouth wide, looming over his prey and pinning her with the blazing energy of the Kinjakan. The enslaved Lord of Flame saw confusion, then shock, then disgust and panic as she realized what was to come. Burning fires, like a dozen welding torches, rimmed Saffron's jaws as he leaned down, closer. A leg or arm would probably be easiest.

If she resisted, cutting a piece off would also work.

Emerald energy frantically built behind the girl's eyes, only for the head of the Kinjakan to block her view entirely. A few more inches, and it would burn hair _less_, and cook eyes _more_. Saffron, emotionless in its execution of the Mind's wishes, nonetheless lamented the loss. The look of pain and horror would have been an exquisite compliment.

Cold.

No.

Why was it so cold?

Saffron reflexively covered his face with his arms, stepping away from the trapped Tamaranian. Fingers reached up and touched once fiery flesh, now frozen solid. Brittle. Painful. Painful! But… unpleasantly so. There was no heat. No blood. Just ice in veins and cells split and entombed in a crystallized cocoon.

Only… only one man could do this.

"**SAOTOME!**"

...

Ranma frowned at the roar of unbridled rage and pain and hate that came from the abomination in the middle of the burned and bombed out jungle clearing. Ice ran up his arms in a thin sheet, wrapped tightly within the soft blue confines of his battle aura. He steeled himself.

It was time for Saffron to die.

…

Mayflies.

Damned gnats!

They sting and fly away. They bite and escape retribution. The sight of Saotome was the worst, second only to that demon with the red reptilian eyes. That Herb. Saotome the Killer. Saotome who had **killed** him before. That horrible freezing ice! That cutting wind! Those crushing blows!

HATE

Saffron turned, at the Mind's prompting, and saw the Tamaranian was gone.

HATE YOU

The rage exploded out, bubbling and boiling. Uncontrollable. Unquenchable. Saffron extended his Invitation of Fire to all the interfering horseflies that would dare to nip at him and dance away. Yes. To the native Hibiki, standing next to the red haired alien the Mind wanted. To the foolish swordsman the original Saffron should have killed. To that useless spatula wielding girl assisting the cybernetic man. To the fallen Amazons, standing atop the landed scout nearby. To the other Hibiki and that pink witch and that sneaky wretch hiding in the jungle. And to Saotome.

**Always Saotome!**

_Still, _that damned black fire stood between him and his prey, extending its protection to these latest interlopers. But her protection would mean nothing for what he had in mind. Wings flexed, and Saffron took to the sky. He knew he didn't need to go far. Just high enough to use _that_ move. Just high enough to airburst it and destroy them all.

Tenka Shunmetsu Kokyudan

(Entire Empire Instant Annihilation Emperor Ball Missile)

The Mind - it wanted - it demanded - it –

No.

HATE

Hate drowned out all else.

**All** those below would become one in the crucible, melted together like wax.

* * *

Ryouga watched, impotently, as the winged creature hovered above them, held aloft by the almost gentle beating of its burning wings. It was high above them, smartly out of reach of most techniques, and the attack it was preparing...

Superman's Shits, the energy that this thing was summoning up!

Even what he could see with his eyes, the miniature sun that the alien hybrid held above its head was insane enough, but he could actually _feel_ the true _power_ contained within the attack. How was it even doing it? The Headmaster had been a mouse in comparison to this being. Herb was a faint shadow. Even Happosai's skyscraper sized battle aura was like holding a match up to a roaring bonfire! How could they hope to stop something like that? What the hell _could_ they do in the face of something like that? Ryouga looked down to the meager golden sphere floating lazily between his palms. Not even enough to _reach_ the bastard, let alone knock him out of the air.

Looking back up, the martial artist let his attack dissipate back into the earth, then reached up and pulled off his helmet, letting it drop to the ground with a dull thud. Instantly, the feeling of desert heat blasted against his face, blowing back his hair, but he weathered the discomfort - not even noticeable compared to the silent howl of agony only barely held in check at the back of his mind.

At the very least, he would look his fate in the eyes.

"God damn it."

The voice was his own, but so… so different. The other him was also staring up, his helmet still on. Starfire was next to him, ducking out from under his arm, and by the two craters at the older Hibiki's feet, it was clear – even in retrospect – that he had used that improved jump step move he'd been talking about the other day. It had been fast. Fast enough to get Starfire out of there. Still, Ryouga had seen the Lieutenant's attacks. Ferocious though they were, it was a drop of water compared to the literal nuclear bomb looming above them.

"Look at this," the other him continued, and turned to Ranma, standing maybe a dozen meters away, as if they weren't all on the brink of annihilation. "I told you we should have kept the Gekkaja."

"Man, whatever! You blame me for _everything_. You totally folded when Herb was all like: 'it's a family heirloom' … I swear I saw misty tears in your eyes."

"That's bull and you know it."

The two paused in the bickering, and nodded.

"Konatsu!" Ranma yelled over the general comm.. "I want flares and explosives up there! Anything to disrupt that ki ball! Ukyou, get Cyborg pointed up and firing! Use a wrench if you have to! Shampoo. Keep him regenerating!"

"Ryu, I want you with Konatsu on this," the elder Ryouga similarly snapped into giving orders. "Kuno, you're covering. Intercept anything that comes down. Mousse, get Jinx. I want you two as quick reserve."

"Hibiki," he then called his own name. "You and Starfire are with me."

Amid the 'yes, sirs!' and 'on it!'s one was conspicuously absent.

"Acting Sergeant!" the Lieutenant barked, stalking over and grabbing him by the shoulder. "I said you're with me. Do you understand?"

Tearing his gaze off of the growing ball of flame above them, Ryouga nodded. "I'm with you ... but I don't ... there's nothing I can do against that."

Absently, he unsheathed his umbrella. ...Maybe there was one thing he could do, but there would be no coming back from that. Shaking his head, he looked to his counterpart.

"What's your plan?"

"Yes, what are we planning?" Starfire asked, still a bit shaken but quickly recovering. "You both just started ordering…"

"I know," the older Ryouga cut her off, holding up his hand for them both to just listen. "It's less a plan, and more a feeling. I know that pigtailed bastard is planning a giant Hiryu Shoten Ha counter wave. It's the only thing we've got that's big enough. Starfire, we'll need you to help him. That means a counterclockwise spiral while Ranma is making a clockwise spiral, okay? You two will need to synchronize speeds and I need to know you're good for this."

Starfire hastily nodded. "We have already done a similar technique in a disturbingly similar situation. You should be warned that there will likely be unexpected repercussions from this plan of action."

Ryouga shook his head. "I was passed out for that whole thing, so I really don't remember what happened. But if they're doing that, then what will you and me be doing?"

"We're fuel for the fire," the native Hibiki explained with a glance upwards. "Now, the two of us should have the highest hot ki generation of anyone around. We're going to need to funnel Shishi Hokoudans into the double spiral. Ranma and Starfire will produce the rising dragon and direct it into a cone. If this works, it'll splash the attack and turn Saffron into shaved ice. If any of us mess up, we burn."

The two Titans exchanged a grim, determined look.

"You better get going," the elder Ryouga said, speaking to the Tamaranian, and then added a stricter tone. "Just make sure Ranma doesn't fuck up. We'll take care of things here."

Even as Starfire floated off, muttering how this couldn't possibly end well, and something about telling Raven to move the Avenger to a safe distance, Ryouga looked at his counterpart.

"Wait, what?" he suddenly asked. "Shishi hokoudans? How the hell are we supposed to do that? I haven't even _thought_ about using that for months!"

The elder Ryouga looked around, to where everyone was already at work. Techniques, plasma and laser fire, all shot up to disrupt Saffron's ultimate attack and tear apart his body, by hook or by crook.

Still, they didn't have time.

"Look," the lieutenant said, seriously, facing his dimensional double. "I think it's safe to say we've both shared a lot of the low points in our life, but none of the high ones. I can't speak for your happiest memories. The Lion Roar isn't a lot of roses and sunshine and it never will be; we've both mastered it, and that doesn't happen when you live a life without regrets."

"I know you don't want to go around using all that so called negative energy," he added, seeing an objection forming. "But it's a part of you. It's _in_ you. It _is_ you. Now and forever. Even when we're happy, we're easily depressed, easily pissed off, easily worried about one thing or another. We have all the subtlety of a jackhammer. It isn't pretty, it isn't nice, but we learned a move that really suits our mentality pretty damn well."

The elder Hibiki widely cupped his palms. It was an all too familiar stance: the basic ki molding posture for the shishi hokoudan. A black and green aura shot out from the Lieutenant, intense but still highly contained. A prick of light pulsed between his hands, surging with energy and then releasing it into the air. The tiny ball of ki was the sieve through which his battle aura grew even hotter, saturating the battlefield.

"You can do this," he assured his younger counterpart.

Frowning, Ryouga cupped his hands. "Moron! I already know _how_ to do the move. Giving me a pep talk isn't gonna make it work!"

Instantly, a spark of angry red ki surged to life, dancing madly between his palms. "Damn know it all! Always acting so damn superior, like your crap doesn't stink."

The spark swelled into a small sphere, vitriolic green ki blending in with the violent red energy.

"That's a lot of red," the older him observed. "Short term anger management issues, I see."

Instantly, the sphere doubled in size.

"What the hell did you say? Like I need anger management lessons from the poster boy for **Prozac**!"

"What was that, you little twerp?" the older Hibiki snarled, eyebrow twitching; a hot wash of ki blasted from the man's nascent shishi hokoudan in response to his rising ire.

"You heard me, Old Man! What are you going to do? _Order_ me to kiss your ass, like the rest of your lackeys?"

"No. I'll _order_ you to _like_ it. Brat!"

...

Ukyou didn't think Cyborg weighed as much as everyone thought. A couple hundred pounds, maybe. Maybe five or six. Not that much. Helping stabilize him while he fired that big-ass sonic cannon, though, was a good bit tougher. She was currently using her battle spatula both to support the cybernetic Titan and to steady his aim at the elbow. The vibrations were nothing to laugh at…

Well, maybe they would be later after a beer or two at the mess.

She squinted her eyes, suddenly struck by an unexpected flash of light on ground level. Cyborg seemed to notice it, too, and even paused in his firing for a second.

"Those two are really getting psyched up," the okonomiyaki chef observed with a grin behind her visor. "That's some real hot blooded determination over there."

Cyborg coughed, for once too polite to disagree.

...

"Why don't you cut those huge sideburns, anyway? Did you get warped out during spring break or something?"

"Sideburns are cool!"

"Look, kid, here's a tip. No girl wants to run her hand through your hair and find bits of sticker bushes and poison ivy left in there."

"You damn well know that the poison ivy thing only happened that one time! And considering who you're shacking up with, I imagine your wallet gets run through more than what's left of your hair, anyway!"

Ryouga's notably shaggier hair was blowing violently in the stinging breeze blasting out from the crimson and emerald sphere rotating between his hands, casting a malevolent red cast to his face as he glared across at his hated counterpart.

"How dare you…!" the older Ryouga's voice was a cold fury. "Insulting me is one thing. But no one says stuff like that about my… well… actually she _is_ really hard on my wallet. And she spends so much on things online! Stupid things, too, that we don't need! And she always borrows money, and says she'll pay it back with interest, and then claims to never have gotten the money in the first place. And she'll take ANY opportunity to gamble, even with personal items!"

"I can hear you, you know," Nabiki deadpanned over the comm..

The Lieutenant's ki attack surged with depressed ki as he sadly shook his head.

"Anyway," the older Hibiki slowly recovered, facing his pesky dimensional double. "You're not one to talk. Stringing along more girls than Ranma, even! You're pulling a Tenchi Muyo over there! You've got the alien warrior chick, the prim and proper girl with family issues, the crazy ex-villainess with zany schemes, and probably the little earth Princess you saved, too. I wouldn't be surprised if you had Kasumi involved somehow, you relentless womanizer!"

Ryouga scoffed furiously, his ki attack writhing about nearly uncontrollably. "You - _you_ are accusing _me_ of turning into **Ranma**? Look at you! Having everything just fall into your lap, like you won a freakin lottery! Governments bending over backwards to scrounge up any ancient scroll you could ask for. People bending over backwards to help you with techniques. Stumbling across revolutionary ki manipulation theories by 'pure happenstance'! It's like you snatched that damn lucky horse shoe right out of that pig tailed bastard's ass!"

"Oh ho ho! So we get to the heart of it now!" the other Hibiki snickered triumphantly. "Jealous, much? I know you live in a private multi-million dollar Tower, with some kid who is obviously totally loaded with money, in a world that basically subsidizes superheroes… maybe you should have been making calls and meeting people instead of goofing off and trying to decide which girl you want to hook up with! Oh! You mad, bro?"

"Me? Jealous? Of **you**! You're _barely_ ahead of me now! In a years time I'm gonna be so far beyond what you are now, I'll have to rename you Gosunkugi Hibiki! Hell, I'm already ahead of you in a few things as it is! Unlike _you_, I've actually had to _work_ for what I got. I didn't just take the easy way out every damn chance I could, like _you_ did!"

Small tendrils of black snuck into Ryouga's growing Shi Shi Hokodan, and the dust at their feet began to swirl around frantically, caught up in the growing winds.

...

Konatsu and Ryu tried to ignore the raging bonfire dying the entire area red and green. It wasn't a festive Christmas red and green either. More like a 'deck the halls with broken bodies' chainsaw massacre sort of red and green. The kind of festive colors more closely associated with Valentines Day, and a certain massacre.

"At this point, I'd rather look up at the Dragonball sized ki blast than over there at those two," Ryu noted, pulling back his hand for another long range vacuum blade barrage.

The girly ninja nodded shyly.

"I do hope they don't kill each other after this."

...

"Oh yeah, you had to work _real_ hard. Sitting in that cave all day eating pizza." The older Hibiki rolled his eyes. "Oh, look at me, using Earth energy like one of the Planeteers or something. I bet you have an organic vegetable garden hidden behind the Tower. From what I saw, Cologne handed you the Hiryu Shoten Ha on a silver platter, and then your next big revolution came from humping the ground for a month."

"AND!" he added, the ki blast flaring up with black and red. "While we're on the subject, you do know that something like half my techniques are ones I could never use in a duel. Unless you want to spar with a guy using a rifle or handgun or using killing techniques. Any sort of stalemate you think you could have against me would be because I have to hold back."

"Just face facts," he continued, this time with an evil chuckle. He felt good in an absolutely terrible way. He was in the _zone_. "You're completely jealous. I'm stronger, make I more money, and I actually have a girlfriend. A HOT girlfriend. And not some crazy anime-style love triangle. And when I get back to MY base and MY officer's quarters, with MY private shower, I'm going to take the girl I LIKE and I'm going to screw her brains out. Suck on that and tell me you're not jealous! WHAHAHAHA!"

His eyebrows raised for a second as he noticed the bit of light yellow working its way into his aura. It looked suspiciously like a bit of moko takabsha sneaking in there.

_Gross._

"Actually, maybe I shouldn't have said all that," the older Ryouga realized. "This is a private line, right? Right? Nabiki? ...right?"

"You're an idiot, Hibiki." A pause, and she added, a little less vexed, "And you two better pull this off, or there won't be any screwing of anyone's brains."

For the first time in a bit, the two Hibikis stood in silence.

"Don't look at me like that," the lieutenant among them grumbled. "I only hope I'll be there to see… whichever girl… turn you into her whipping boy. Then I'll give you the same look you're giving me. Brat."

The younger Ryouga almost grinned, but then felt his anger slip in that instant, he noted his counterparts doing the same. Damnit! This was the absolute worst time to come to some kind of damned understanding! They needed more heat, not less!

The younger Hibiki knew he was going to hate himself for this ... which was actually a good thing, as it would fuel the technique that would hopefully save all of their lives, but there was no way this wasn't going to come back to haunt him later. Narrowing his eyes, his lips twisted into a snarl.

"No," he replied. "I'm not jealous of you. You want to know why? You want to know why I can't stand you?"

The martial artist swallowed hard. There wasn't any going back now. Just thinking about what he was about to say caused his own ki attack to swell dangerously.

"You're a coward." He stated it as coldly as he could. "You were too much of a coward to tell Akane about your curse when it actually mattered. You had to wait until your curse was gone and your feelings for Akane were already ash before you could deign to tell her you'd been sleeping in her bed for years."

He could see his counterparts brow furrow, his expression darkening to match the black clouds above, but didn't give him a chance to reply.

He went in for the kill.

"That's not even the worst of it. You know what is? Do you?"

He matched stony glares with the Lieutenant. "Akari. You were too much of a coward to admit that we were just using Akari as a poor man's replacement for Akane. Just how many hours, days, weeks did you take off to train on your own while you were with her? We were just with her because it was safe, convenient. I was just the only one of us to realize it."

He might as well have dropped a bomb on his counterpart. But it garnered exactly what he'd hoped. Both of their attacks approached critical mass at a worrying rate.

Then, something happened to his counterpart's shishi hokoudan. It pulsed, contracted, pulsed again, and then vanished with an angry pop. Ryouga watched this with worry, until he saw the older him's face through his visor. Before, the Lieutenant had been willing, eager even, to trade insults and jibes. Even the stuff that had gotten him angrier hadn't REALLY gotten him angrier. He had just been unloading emotional energy from that little hypnosis trick he used.

Now, as Ryouga saw the older him move his mouth, unable to even properly vocalize, he knew he'd hit the berserker button right on the nose -

And broken it.

The older him took on a sickly glow that literally crackled rather than the raging, but still obviously controlled, battle aura previously on display. Thick black smoke, highly compressed and materialized emotive energy, coalesced around his hands, leaking out like oil pushed through an underwater sieve. It looked for a moment, like he was about to unleash a perfect shishi hokoudan…

When new pinpricks, quickly swelling to the size of marbles, each one surging with dark ki, began to take form. They appeared in his hands, around his elbows, knees, legs, then up his back. Having seen something like this before, Ryouga quickly recognized the tiny ki spheres as fully formed shishi hokoudans.

Eyes, wild and angry, focused on him… then past him.

With a shudder, the ki blasts broke apart, adding massively to the thick miasma of hot ki swelling and surging around them. What had looked like a potential personal explosion… fizzled. Depression replaced black coils of hate and rage. But in that fizzle, all that energy dumped right into the growing vortex around them. It was a victory… of sorts.

For a moment, it seemed the older Hibiki would say something, but he just shook his head.

Everything he had said to himself, he already knew.

* * *

Ranma had no idea what those two lost morons were doing, but they'd managed to put out a veritable ton of ki to contrast with the soul of ice. Huge clouds of depression circled the battlefield, mixed with angry lightning storms of red rage and black jealousy and resentment. It was like a whole convention of Hibikis had passed through and traded sob stories.

That was a good one, actually – Ranma made a quick mental note to remember it for later.

It was also a pleasant surprise to see that Starfire knew what she was doing regarding the counter spiral. It only took a second or so for her to match his speed and movements, compensating for the different radii of where they started on the circular motions with respect to the other's position. The girl was good. They had a nice tight spiral, a solid weave of air currents, and plenty of hot ki to power the tornado.

Ranma handled the actual shaping and trajectory of the attack, as well as the timing. It was actually all extremely complicated, but luckily, he found himself completely comfortable and confident running on a combination of instinct and intuition. It would be ready when it was ready, which would be just in time, and it would totally rock everyone's world! And, even if they refused to say it, everyone would know that Ranma Saotome had saved the day and that he ruled supreme over all.

Something like that anyway.

Extending his senses upward, the master of Anything Goes smirked. Saffron was right on target, and about to unleash a simply monstrous blast. It was even bigger than the one at Jusendo, and the killer intent behind it was like ten times worse. Man, if that actually hit…

But it wouldn't.

Ranma Saotome didn't lose.

...

It began with a rumble.

Across the battlefield, the earth bound found purchase amid the growing tempest of ice cold wind and blazing hot gale speed pressure fronts. Kuno dug his sword deep into the parched ground, lines of frost forming across his armor in parallel streaks. Ukyou and Cyborg braced themselves, columns of air blasting across the flat of the former's battle spatula and the latter's still armored left side. Others had to crouch or stick to the ground using jing, or risk being swept up and blown away.

A circular wave of pressure snuffed out the ground based fires, before the air flow reversed, and sucked in thousands of branches, leaves, small animals, hundreds of pounds of insects and frogs, and streams of falling rain. The suction effect abruptly doubled in strength, uprooting trees and uncoiling long tangled spools of vines.

High above, Saffron narrowed what was left of his eyes at the sight.

He had been literally shot to pieces over the last half minute. Laser blasts had burned away long swaths of flesh and blackened bone. Blades of pink and white had carved and cut. The air around the phoenix lord was thick with clouds of blood and ash. Yet, even with half his face melted and slowly reforming, he could see…

A slowly moving vortex, like a hurricane in miniature, swirling… but not white, like clouds… this hurricane was black, seething with malevolence. It was like looking down into a dying firestorm, the flames long since spent, leaving only dust and ash to move in the currents of air. Angry ripples of red moved amid the living sea, the football field sized dynamo, and a looming chill rose up, hitting the hybridized king like a frigid slap to the face.

"What is this? What am I seeing?"

The Mind, through him, saw. And knew. **She** knew.

_Hiryu Shoten Ha variant. Counter-rotation providing increased spiral cohesion. The Hibikis, plus the fighting spirits of all those below, channeled into a weapon. Saotome__'__s soul of ice, along with his ability to freeze his arms in imitation of the Gekkaja_ –

'_**This**__ is a Hiryu Shoten Ha?__'_

Saffron's mouth reformed - a deep frown warning with a sadistic grin.

'_Strong__'_ The realization was both troubling and exciting. '_As expected, their combined power is strong. This is what I wanted to see. It is impressive.__'_

But…!

With a roar, Saffron released the white hot sphere of Empire Flattening Destruction.

* * *

"What's he…?"

Even though the fog of depression, Ryouga saw it. Saffron's final attack… the Tenka Shunmetsu Kokyudan… the most powerful single psionic or ki attack known…

It was off target.

Cloud cover curled and rolled away from the platinum inferno in the sky. Saffron had finally unleashed his attack, despite being shot to hell by everyone on the ground, and despite having a half dozen people constantly bombarding his forming attack with techniques of their own. Ryouga knew, as Ranma did, that at most the distraction could buy a little time. Yet, to a man, they had expected Saffron to fire it straight down into their midst.

Into the jaws of the Hiryu Shoten Ha.

Yet now, the ball of fire, glowing as hot and intense as the sun itself – bright enough on its own to turn night into day – was streaking down at half the speed of sound. It was off target. Horribly off target. In the fraction of a second it took the lost Lieutenant to calculate the difference in trajectory, he also realized Saffron's plan.

The Tenka was an area of effect explosion, literally like a small nuclear blast. It didn't NEED to hit them head on. It didn't NEED to get into a pissing patch with the Super Hiryu Shoten Ha they'd put together. Saffron would let it go off maybe a hundred meters away from the central vortex of the HSH. More than half the people below would still be caught in the blast. The feedback would probably kill Raven and anyone psionically supporting her, too.

Turning, he saw the other him had realized it, too, at least in some sense.

What the Hell? What the Hell could they do? What would Ranma do?

There was no time. No time to ask; no time to plan; no time to even psionically contact the pigtailed jerk. Knock the Tenka off course? _Impossible_. Detonate it prematurely? _No, it would just vaporize anything it hit before airbursting_. No one had anything that could match that level of power in a fair way. _The HSH-Super was the only option_.

The wind shifted, rapidly, just a bit.

_'__You__'__re going to try that?__'_ he realized, reading his rival's mind via the intention laced within his meta-technique.

Yes. Yes, he was.

_'__Then__…__!__'_

Like a crack of thunder, the ground beneath the lieutenant's feet exploded. The younger Ryouga barely had time to avert his eyes before the elder slammed into him. There was no time to be careful like he had with Starfire. Luckily, Ryouga knew the dimensionally displaced version of him could handle the bodily stresses. There was time for only two _zangansen_ (Stone Cutting Flashes); they had to count.

One: he closed the distance between himself and the other.

Feet touched earth, body twisting, the younger him held with one hand. A bloom of green and black ki, combined with a massive breaking point, flowered beneath the native Hibiki's feet. The tremendous injection of force kicked up blocks of stone and clumps of dirt. Ryouga prayed his linear step was fast enough.

Ripping, brute force, through the shearing, cutting, freezing wind of the HSH-Super, the two martial artists landed in the center of the vortex. Ranma and Starfire were still moving around them, blurs lost within the sound and fury of the tornado. There was functionally very little 'eye' to a Hiryu Shoten Ha cyclone once it was active, and every moment they remained here their bodies would pay the entrance fee.

Trusting that the other him would read his intent, just as he had read Ranma's, the older Ryouga slammed both his palms into the ground.

...

Cutting wind ripped a line in Ryouga's cheek, but at the moment, he could hardly be bothered to notice.

Not that getting shoulder slammed by his older dimensional double had been much nicer. He was just lucky that he was the sturdier of the two; that improved linear step technique, having seen it operate at such a level, made him wonder if his counterpart had broken his own damn shoulder when they'd collided. Neither the breaking point nor the shishi hokoudan were exactly meant to be used as a god damned **propellant**!

Now, in the center of the conflagration everyone had formed, he wondered just what the Hell –

He blinked, and felt it.

It was _that_, then?

Putting palms to ground, he saw the vast web of breaking points that stretched out around them. He also realized and conceptualized what they needed to do. There was, perhaps, four tenths of a second left in which to initiate the maneuver.

Moving rapidly, he harnessed the energy that the Lieutenant had unleashed into the ground, and directed it far more efficiently into the earth. Power was fine, but they only had one shot at this, and his range and control far greater. They both knew it. It was why the native him had gone through the effort of bringing him here. Everyone was relying on him.

It had to be **perfect**.

* * *

Saffron watched, as the Emperor Ball descended.

A second and a half more and it would reach optimal position. Then it would explode, and his promise of turning those below into melted wax would be made into wonderful reality. Not all would be killed, of course. Just the chaff. Probably. Either way, his HATE would be satisfied.

Then, with a crack like an earthquake, the entire hillside shifted.

No – that couldn't be. Saffron's blazing pupils focused on the shifting mass of earth. Part of the hill had simply fallen inwards, producing… almost a giant cup… like an inverted landslide. The entire battlefield had become rearranged. The sides sloped upwards instead of downwards. But why would…?

The Phoenix's eyes widened.

The angle of the giant Hiryu Shoten Ha had been altered from below. By shifting the ground itself, it was now in position to intersect the path of the falling Tenka… and the change in topography funneled more and more power up and into the tornado itself. Saffron's half formed jaw clenched in surprise and anger.

NO

NO

Finally, with a sound like a glacier shattering, the Rising Dragon Wave roared. It crossed the space of hundreds of feet in an instant, spearing the Emperor Ball Missile with ice and unrestrained fury. The greatest attack of the greatest Lord of the Phoenix race squirmed, engulfed the opposing attack, and tried to consume it. It offered heat and hate. The Super Tornado, however, had plenty of the latter, and fed on the former.

The giant sunspot shrieked and melted apart, transforming into a helix of dissolving and disintegrating plasma. Two falling whips of it, close enough to the ground, slammed home and dug trenches long and wide enough to be functional aqueducts. The rest, caught in midair, detonation pre-empted, came apart like paper mache.

The rising dragon, gorged on so much raw power, began to grow in size rapidly, outward as well as upward. Only a few of the gnats below seemed prepared for this sudden change, as the howling winds suddenly surged out and began to pick up and toss about those not fast enough to get to a safe distance, or those suddenly finding themselves on uneven footing.

The large cybernetic being from before crouched down and slammed his hand deep into the ground, anchoring himself firmly while holding one of the girl's close to his side, her oversized spatula being torn from her grasp and sent flying into the storm. The pink energy wielding girl - The Mind identified her as the escapee, Jinx - and the female Amazon were the only others to escape, using seeming foreknowledge, or just pure speed to dash away in time.

Saffron's wings flapped, and he leaned to the left.

The Tornado, he knew, would be after him next. Safely ensconced at its heart, armored in the soul of ice, heedless of the chaos that was consuming his friends, Saotome and the Tamaranian would not waste this opportunity. He knew full well that the pigtailed worm could alter the direction of the tornado a given distance from its point of formation. There was no time to think beyond MOVE -

And then the rush of wind hit.

Ice formed on Saffron's side, encrusting part of his torso, right arm and face. One eye froze solid and cracked down the middle, splitting the pupil in half. Cutting winds followed in the wake of the ice, ripping lines in burning skin.

"YOU LOSE SAOTOME!"

Saffron's broken face twisted into an expression of glee.

"**YOU ****ALL LOSE!**"

In his other hand, held overhead, he had another _Tenka Shunmetsu Kokyudan_, just like the last.

YES. DESPAIR.

LOOK UP AT ME AND DESPAIR!

LOOK UP AND KNOW YOU ARE ABOUT TO DIE!

This was the end.

Even with all that, even with intercepting that one Tenka, it would all be for nothing. From the very beginning, he had known the only counter to his move would be a Rising Dragon Wave. So, while gathering energy for one Tenka, and letting all those below cower in its magnificent glow, he had formed one behind him as well. There would be no mistakes this time.

There would be no **mercy**.

Only victory and pain and **death**!

Preparing to unleash this final, finishing attack, Saffron allowed just a moment to savor the memory he would share, into death, and then into rebirth. Oh, how he would enjoy it. The Mind would be pleased. Cologne would be humbled. In his passing, in his extinguishment, he would be forever remembered and enshrined in the memories of the Mind. All Saffrons to follow would revel in this moment.

Now it was time: time for everyone to die.

"What?" A tug on his right foot interrupted the triumph. There was… something around his leg and ankle. Some kind of little metal balls the size of marbles. Looking down, he also saw -

Wires?

They… they weren't melting; too much of his power had been placed into his attack to protect himself! They weren't melting!

Following the nearly invisible thread with his eyes, he saw a dark figure on the other side of the Tornado, down by the ground. It wasn't alone, either. Saffron balked, and grunted as the wires constricted tighter, pulling… pulling him…forcing him into -

NO!

A wall of ice and wind filled his vision.

NO! NO! I WON'T LET YOU!

With his free hand, he shifted the false Kinjakan, so the burning energy oculus at the head of the weapon could come down and cut him free. It was nearly in place, when a coherent beam of laser light neatly bisected the hand from the arm at the wrist. With one hand holding his second Tenka, and the other now in free fall… Saffron could only watch as the false Kinjakan, the embodiment of so much of his power, also feel from reach. He called to it, willing it to return -

The pulling intensified from the hateful flies below. Wings flapped and muscles strained, as Saffron tried to tear free, but his physical exertions were useless. The horrible wall of death that was the enemy Hiryu Shoten Ha came closer and closer. His mind raced for some means of escape - any means - and then, too soon, he ended up within the point of no return, the singularity around which the tornado's force made escape impossible.

THIS

There was no way to escape!

THIS ISN'T -

And then Saffron, Emperor Ball and all, vanished into the nightmare cyclone.

* * *

"YES!" Ranma crowed triumphantly as he watched his Hiryu Shoten Ha devour the one-time Phoenix King Reborn. All of his planning, all of his power and skill! Not once, but twice he had humbled the Lord of the Phoenix! He could just imagine the glacial winds freezing the bastard and then shattering him to pieces. Even without the Gekkaja!

He really was just too amazing for this world to handle!

His companion, the flame haired alien girl, cheered excitedly as well, their spiral dance coming to an end. Unfortunately, she was the only one he could hear cheering him on, since the black winds blocked his sight of the rest of his teammates.

Soon enough, the tornado would dissipate away and then everyone could congratulate him face to face. Man, but he was gonna love telling this one again and again; riding in to save the day like the god damned cavalry! This was -

It was -

Why wasn't the Hiryu Shoten Ha dissipating?

For that matter… why was his suit registering an increase in the ambient temperature?

The pigtailed martial artist only had a handful of seconds to realize something was dreadfully wrong, but by then it was already far too late. A blinding flash of light bloomed in the sky above his head, directly at the heart of the tornado. He was flattened to the ground a fraction of a second later as a wave of force slammed down on him with the power of a full power Perfect Shi Shi Hokodan.

A second later, he could see stars, the night sky unobstructed by clouds, winds, or torrential rain. An eerie calm hung in the air, as the drastic shift from howling tornado to still night was nearly deafening in its own right. Only one thing marred this otherwise serene scene.

One of those lights in the sky was brighter than the others, burning with hateful intensity, a double pair of profanely angelic wings spreading out to hold it aloft.

NO SAOTOME

I LIVE. **I WIN**_._


	18. FTA 'Fun, Travel and Adventure' 4

"YES!" Ranma crowed triumphantly as he watched his Hiryu Shoten Ha devour the one-time Phoenix King Reborn. All of his planning, all of his power and skill! Not once, but twice he had humbled the Lord of the Phoenix! He could just imagine the glacial winds freezing the bastard and then shattering him to pieces. Even without the Gekkaja!

He really was just too amazing for this world to handle!

His companion, the flame haired alien girl, cheered excitedly as well, their spiral dance coming to an end. Unfortunately, she was the only one he could hear cheering him on, since the black winds blocked his sight of the rest of his teammates.

Soon enough, the tornado would dissipate away and then everyone could congratulate him face to face. Man, but he was gonna love telling this one again and again; riding in to save the day like the god damned cavalry! This was -

It was -

Why wasn't the Hiryu Shoten Ha dissipating?

For that matter… why was his suit registering an increase in the ambient temperature?

The pigtailed martial artist only had a handful of seconds to realize something was dreadfully wrong, but by then it was already far too late. A blinding flash of light bloomed in the sky above his head, directly at the heart of the tornado. He was flattened to the ground a fraction of a second later as a wave of force slammed down on him with the power of a full power Perfect Shi Shi Hokodan.

A second later, he could see stars, the night sky unobstructed by clouds, winds, or torrential rain. An eerie calm hung in the air, as the drastic shift from howling tornado to still night was nearly deafening in its own right. Only one thing marred this otherwise serene scene.

One of those lights in the sky was brighter than the others, burning with hateful intensity, a double pair of profanely angelic wings spreading out to hold it aloft.

NO SAOTOME

I LIVE. **I WIN**_._

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_FTA_

_("Fun, Travel, and Adventure", aka...)_

Chapter XIIX

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid

Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Ranma's eyes widened as the psionic bellow boomed through his mind.

Saffron … Saffron wasn't dead? But how?

SAOTOME. YOU SOUGHT TO DEFEAT ME WITH THE SAME TECHNIQUE TWICE? TO FREEZE THE VERY HEART OF THE VOLCANO WITH YOUR PATHETIC WINDS?

Intuition, or maybe instinct, screamed at Ranma. In that moment, he knew what had happened. Saffron, he had _reabsorbed_ his own attack! He'd used all of that power, all of that heat, to not only survive the freezing cold of the HSH, but to destroy it from the inside-out with a tremendous shockwave. Even the wires that had been tethering him in place had been blasted to ash. Why was everyone coming up with Hiryu Shoten Ha counters these days!

Groans of pain rose up from all around the battlefield. Despite the pain, Ranma tilted his head to check in on the rest of his team; there wasn't a single person on their feet. Starfire, the one closest to him, was barely able to push herself up to her hands and knees, gasping raggedly as she coughed up a bit of green blood.

NOW

Saffron's wings flapped grandly, as the alien hybrid's mangled body began to regenerate from all of the damage that had been done.

NOW YOU SHALL ALL SHARE MY PAIN. YOU SHALL ALL BECOME FUEL FOR

MY FIRE!

Flipping over onto his stomach, Ranma began to push himself up. _'No! Damnit, no! The cold was supposed to work! It __had__ to work, just like last time!__'_

If only they'd managed to get him with the tip of the drilling tornado, instead of the edge!

No one was able to recover fast enough. With contemptuous ease, Saffron gestured with his half reformed hand, and a blast of fiery ki dropped down from the heavens like a comet. Aimed in the general vicinity of Ukyou and the cybernetic Titan laying next to her, there was no way they could dodge -

In a blur of motion, an armored form almost seemed to materialize before the oncoming attack. With a crack of thunder, Kuno's sword swung in a downward slash, not even wasting the breath to call out the name. Alien Alloy and charged air met flame and for a moment, Kuno was consumed…

Only to reappear as the now halved fireball hurtled past the now scorched swordsman. Taking the second he'd bought them, Cyborg rolled over, covering Ukyou with his armored frame as one of the blobs of energy slammed down next to them, exploding into a massive plume of fire, sending the pair flying. Another fireball rained down, this one sending Ryu and the pink haired sorceress running for their lives before it exploded violently behind them.

_'__Those attacks are__…__ surprisingly weak,__'_ Ranma realized. _'__He hasn__'__t recovered yet! He__'__s not back up to full power__…__ he may even be close to burning out completely. But there__'__s no way to know for sure, and there__'__s no way that we__'__ll ever get another Rising Dragon going with him bombing us like this!__'_

Pushing himself up to his knees, he drew in a gasping breath. "Think, Ranma. What… the Hell do we do? We need a plan, we need… a plan..." Gritting his teeth, he tried to pull out the reserves of experience hardened intuition that, more often than not, saved his life in these kinds of fights.

Except, he - he had nothing! Even if he could come up with another plan, that attack had taken all he'd had. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before they were all dead. Maybe it was time to call for a blaster bomb saturation of the area. Saffron was weakened. It could finish the job, but they'd all end up caught in the blast, too!

Ranma breathed, running through possibilities in his mind. Techniques. Maneuvers. Anything. "Gotta snuff out the fire; keep him from moving. Burn himself out. Buy time. Think! Think!"

"Freeze?" The pained gasp drew his attention to Starfire. The Tamaranian was already up on one knee, looking skywards, her hair blowing freely in the scorching winds kicked up by the raining fireballs. Saffron was momentarily distracted, projecting an inferno-like cone of flame instead of a more typical fireball, making it impossible for Kuno or anyone else to defend against it. Her gaze narrowed as she regarded the hovering monstrosity. "Fuel…"

He twitched and began to turn, hearing the Tamaranian's words.

"What was that?" Ranma asked, confused at the seemingly meaningless muttering. "Starfire?"

The alien girl's gaze lowered to meet his, a sad smile on her face. "I am afraid I have not the time to tell you."

The next second, she was gone, tearing across the ground so fast that a furrow of dirt was blasted up in her wake. The fiery haired alien reached out quickly as she flew, snagging Ryouga's long discarded helmet, before tearing out the familiar yellow communicator that had been integrated within in parallel with the standard comm system. Opening it, she desperately opened a line.

STARFIRE.

She had Saffron's attention.

"Raven! I badly need your assistance!"

* * *

Raven, sitting huddled beneath a large blanket and soaked to the bone in fire retardant foam, breathed a sigh of relief as, for the moment at least, the psionic assault on all of the warriors on the battlefield had suddenly dwindled to a manageable level. She had been able to protect everyone present from the entirety of Saffron's burning agony, even at the height of his fury… though it had nearly killed her to do so.

She was used to the pain, though, especially this form of pain. The threat of fire was one she was born with, and Saffron's hateful fires were a pale imitation of the ones she dreamed of on a nightly basis.

So intent on her purpose was she that she nearly leapt out from under her blanket when a sudden beeping rang out. Confused and distracted, it took her several long seconds to realize what it was. She was only confused further when she pulled out her communicator. Why was anyone using this to contact her? They should be using Nabiki, or another proxy…

Still, heedless of the serious looks from her supporting commanders, she flipped it open and answered. Immediately, Starfire's face filled the screen.

"Raven! I badly need your assistance!"

The dark Titan's eyes widened as she listened to her friend's frantic request. Slowly, she looked up to Captain Ben-Solomon. He matched her gaze, obviously calculating the odds of success versus the possible harm that could come from it. Finally, he nodded sharply.

"Do it. We'll back you up as best we can."

Nodding back, she quickly turned to the communicator.

"Alright, Starfire. Just … prepare yourself. This is going to hurt."

Closing her eyes quickly, Raven reached out to every allied mind on the battlefield, doing her best to explain the situation before she began.

* * *

Starfire nodded, and then just dropped the communicator, not caring where it landed. It didn't matter anymore. A second later, she was at Cyborg's side. Ukyou was helping her friend to his feet, admirably supporting the bulk of his scorched hide. Parts of her own armor were on fire, and Kuno had collapsed from trying to cover them. Starfire tried not to think about any of that.

"Cyborg," she pleaded desperately. Her eyes said what there was no time to speak, _'I need your help.'_

He opened his mouth to ask what she wanted, or even what she had planned, when the information dumped straight into his cortex. There was no time for words. Saffron was coming.

TAMARANIAN - DO YOU PLAN TO FLEE FROM ME?

Cyborg and Ukyou started, eyes losing focus for a split second. Starfire's massive team mate leaned forward, grabbing her shoulders tightly, protectively.

"No! What kind of plan is that?" he yelled. "You can't-"

"I **must**!" Starfire barked back, shaking off his hand. Above all else, there was no time to argue. There was no time to remain here. "You must-"

It was too late.

An ocean of flame enveloped them; everything vanished.

* * *

Hanging high in the air, like unto a god, Saffron laughed madly as he rained down hellfire upon his enemies. The Mind was reproachful of indulging his too-human emotions like this, but victory and success accorded him some well earned leeway. A Trenchard was no human; it was beyond human! It was trans-human! But as _that bitch on Mars_ was so fond of arguing: some things were just part of the package, and couldn't be easily gene-engineered away. This was part of their power and their contribution to The Mind.

So, yes, Saffron was _enjoying_ this.

He had used so much power in his desperate escape from Saotome's technique, reabsorbing his own attack and using it to destroy the tornado from the inside, but he still had more than enough left in the tank to vaporize the wounded and beaten motes below. This time, however, he would give them no chance to mount a counter, no hope of defying his will a third time. He would scatter them like the insects they were, keep them scurrying about in the filth until he was prepared to end it all.

The Tamaranian had his current attention, but he was minding the others as well. It was so amusing to see those still able to move struggling to protect their wounded comrades, only to endanger themselves as well. They would not flee the field while their friends were at his mercy, but, like scurrying field mice, it would be impossible to get them all if they fled. And Saffron wanted to kill them all, not just some.

He smiled joyously, relishing the pain as his body burnt and reformed itself with each passing second, and dropped a fireball down onto the pair of Hibikis. The older of the two used his explosive fast step technique to clear the detonation which ensued, but the younger foolishly tried to endure the blast, unsheathing that ridiculous umbrella of his and hiding behind it. Though it did save the fool's life, he was still sent hurtling through the air by the force of the ground below exploding beneath him. Annoyingly, the gnat landed on his feet, only seeming slightly injured by the attack.

It was an unpleasant sight to see, as Saffron still longed to share his pain with them. He so wished that the Black Fire, the faceless entity which protected them from his wrath, would finally do the universe a favor and succumb already. She was spoiling his fun, preventing him from sharing this most agonizingly beautiful experience with them all. Still. It was just a fly on the proverbial cake. A little more, and everyone would be so weakened by his small, fast attacks that they would be unable to scatter and dodge the big, slow ones to come.

Rearing back, he prepared to hurtle down another meager spark of his recovering power -

When suddenly his wish came true! All across the battlefield, warriors collapsed into heaps, crying out in pain, as in an instant, the protective barrier which had held his Essence of Agony at bay vanished like so much dew beneath the heat of the sun. Was it done? Had the Black Fire finally extinguished herself in foolish martyrdom? Or had her instinct for self preservation finally convinced her to abandon her comrades?

Again: it was no matter.

The flames around his body only grew, bringing him even greater agony, agony which he freely shared with the peasants writhing on the ground. The howls of pain only intensified, even dropping the indomitable Hibikis back to their knees, unable to concentrate even enough to mount the slightest defense.

SPLENDID! NOW … WHO SHALL I BURN FIRST?

"Burn **me**, Abomination!"

Saffron's adulation turned to annoyance. He felt arms, impossibly strong, impossibly cold, suddenly wrap around him from behind, crushing his flaming wings to his body. In that moment, the only thing holding him aloft was the flame haired alien girl at his back. Something else was a amiss, as well: some sort of interference with The Mind? What was this?

YOU. "Your defiance is pointless! But -" A gout of flame blasted from his nostrils and mouth. I AM GLAD THAT YOU CHOSE TO COME TO ME! YES. "I will gladly grant your wish!"

A loud hissing filled the air as his aura of flames began to burn brighter, the girl's armor steaming madly. He would leave some scraps to sample later, as was The Mind's express desire, but a piece of liver could be torn from her cooked corpse just as well.

EMBRACE ME AND BURN!

"I think **not**!"

And suddenly a flash of perfect darkness shot out from the Tamaranian's brow, filling Saffron's vision with blackness.

...

Saffron, a magnificent bird of pure flame, its body coruscating with fire of every possible color of the rainbow, floated in the aether of its mind's eye. Distant specks littered the void around it, the feeble minds of its prey, those with whom it shared its pain. The faint sparks flickered weakly, some on the verge of going out forever more, cracking and burning away by simple proximity to the firebird's glorious radiance.

One was closer than the rest, and Saffron turned the entirety of its will down upon her. She would have made a grand ally, but now she would be blasted to ash for her audacity. It would not even need to bring its flame to bear against her; the pure psychic resonance of his pain would cause her body to combust in a flash of anguish so perfect, future Saffrons would treasure it forever more.

Rearing back, the firebird prepared to lash out -

_SAFFRON_

The voice boomed out across the mindscape, stunning him into stillness for a moment. An instant later, a black globe appeared between himself and the alien spark.

_TAP TAP TAP_

Tap tap tap? The Phoenix King tried to divine the possible meaning -

The sphere of blackness exploded - no, seemed to erupt upwards! A fountain of pure darkness welled up and up and up, towering up into the sky. A second later, it spread out to the sides, resolving itself into a great winged shape of its own. Not even certain how, Saffron recognized the form on an instinctual level. The Raven hovered in the ether before Saffron, blocking his sight of all the flecks of light behind it, its blackened wings stretching out into eternity.

He had one thought for the creature.

**COME**

The unfathomable being had a response for his challenge.

_GLADLY_

And then the Raven surged forward, grappling the flaming Phoenix Lord with talons of oblivion.

...

Saffron hissed in rage as his aura, against all reason, refused to grow any more pure. Even as the Tamaranian gnat continued to crush his torso with her alien strength, he could not marshal the power to burn her arms to ash. Not to say that his aura vanished completely. Steam still rose up from her armor, and the surface began to glow dimly… but even that was happening too slowly. Just as vexing, his concentration was divided between the fight in the real world and between his mind and the Black Fire's.

Looking down, Saffron's eyes took note of a display on the girl's forearm.

'Cooling System - Critical Overload'?

Red lights flashed in warning on the display, and a timer ran down showing that there were only seconds left before the entire suits supply of emergency coolant was spent. It was a horribly short sighted and foolish thing to do, as not only would she die once those seconds had passed, but Saffron could actually see the coolant leaking and crusting over those areas of armor furthest away from his body. Half of her would freeze and the other half cook.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH WITH THIS FOOLISH PLOY?

He blanked out a moment, needing to attend to the cursed Black Fire Bitch.

YOU HAVE DELAYED YOUR DEMISE BY MERE MOMENTS.

"What do I hope to accomplish?" the girl hissed through gritted teeth. "Let me show you!"

Yet, she did nothing different. They were moving upwards, but -

No. They were soaring up, and at a tremendous rate! Faster than Saffron could ever have flown on his feathered wings. The wind whipped past them, lashing both of their faces, furious at their defiance of natural laws. A crack filled the air as they shattered the sound barrier, and Saffron felt his neck snap like a twig, though that was a minor inconvenience for him, at best.

Even as he battled for dominance within his mind - he had been unprepared for the mysterious Raven to abandon her comrades to marshal a concentrated counter attack - he vainly struggled to break the

Tamaranian's grip on his body. It was… unfortunate he lacked the pure martial prowess of other Trenchards, like Cologne, Tofu or even Ayabe. Escape was proving… difficult.

Still. Fires burned, armor began to run like melted plastic, a timer hit zero and went black… In mere seconds, the alien would die in his flames. His flames -

His flames -

Were diminishing? It was not from the foreign presence in his mind, either; the Raven girl was unable to overcome him… and yet his fires were dying out with each passing second. The girl's armor ceased melting, and then glowing, as they continued to soar ever upwards. The atmosphere. It was becoming thinner! Understanding dawned on the Trenchard with deadly clarity, every bit as clear as the next breath he tried to take in.

Only, there was no air to breathe this close to space. A moment later, he felt the alien girl release him, pushing him so that he began to gently float out into the endless void of eternity. As a Trenchard, he was capable of surviving within a vacuum… for what time he had left, but it was a new form of agony which he had never experienced before. Even more disturbing, his flames had abandoned him completely, not even a spark of his former glorious aura remained.

It was galling, but he was not as well suited as most for extra-atmospheric conditions. He knew this. It was considered an acceptable tradeoff by The Mind and the other Trenchards, given the power he had in-atmosphere. Being suddenly dumped into an airless environment like this was not something he had planned for. It was not something he was designed for.

Where was The Mind?

Why couldn't he contact the Mind? It would know what to do. That Bitch on Mars would know what to do! Where was the clarity and focus and purpose of a million minds in one?

Saffron vainly tried to flap his wings, to fly back towards the alien girl, or way from her, but with no air to resist their movement, his gentle trajectory changed not one bit. Unlike some of his peers, he did not have the pure telekinetic prowess to will his movement independent of inertia, nor could he manage to find enough extra-atmospheric mass to create a viable ignition.

The Pheonix King Reborn, among the greatest of all of the Mind's servants, created to be the most powerful of all the Mind's agents of terror… was as helpless as a babe in the depths of space. It was a horrible irony and terrible insult for one adopted into the service of a space faring race. It was… it was intolerable!

It was unforgivable!

UNFORGIVABLE!

"I know that you can hear me." The Tamaranian's lips moved, though no sound was transmitted. And yet Saffron could hear her, as clearly as if they had been on the planet's surface, her thoughts ringing though his mind.

"Tell your Mind what I am about to say," she continued, eyes flashing green. "I wish for your master to know the error it has made in crossing my friends and I."

Reaching up, Starfire gripped the neckline of her armored suit, before violently wrenching it off, shredding the interior of the suit which held the plates together, and cast the sundered armor off into the blackness.

"They may have found a powerful minion in you - you that rages and consumes with your hatred and your pain. But know this: you may burn like the heart of the volcano itself."

Suddenly, a green aura of pure power sprang up around the girl – her powers obviously not sharing the same atmospheric limitation as his own – the emerald energy surged outward, only to collapse in on itself before growing outward again, the intensity of the light increasing with each passing instant. An attack of some sort. And, helpless as he was, she had all the time in the world to power it up.

A spark.

If only there was something flammable! If only he hadn't lost the Kinjakan he had formed, that he could strike this little mouse down! If only he had been able to eject the Raven from his mind, that he could concentrate on the Tamaranian. If only he had not taken on that Rising Dragon Wave, the better to crush all show of resistance! So much energy wasted! So much time lost! There had to be some way out! He wasn't dead yet! He still had more fire within him! He could still fight!

He still had more pain to share!

_'What is this?'_ he could only stare at his hand, devoid of flame: the pink skin and bird like claw, exposed, could only stare back, even as the icy depths of space stole the heat from his bones and evaporated the water from his split skin and spilt blood.

Here, hanging on the edge of the atmosphere, he could not burn. For that alone, it was cold, so very cold. And empty. Empty. Where - where was The Mind?

_'I still have power! I have power! I have power! I still have power! Let me fight! Let me burn! I can still burn! Give me something to burn! Give me something... anything...!'_

"You may burn like the heart of the volcano itself! But I…!" Starfire's form became lost in the green glow. "I-!"

Saffron looked over his shoulder, and saw the depth of space… he was facing away from the Earth. No matter the damage done, no matter if he still regenerated, she was going to launch him away from the atmosphere with her attack. Turning back, using what little he had left, he glared spitefully at the little alien girl. So. It was death, then? Failure. He had a moment or two to realize that, and in so doing, he decided to let his executioner have a few seconds of defiance.

He, too, had once had her fire. He, too, had defied The Mind. He, too, had boasted of his power and how he could not be tamed or enslaved. It would not come today, or even tomorrow, but… eventually… her fire, too, would smother and die. Her defiance would burn out.

The Earth was doomed. All those worth saving would serve. There would be no exceptions.

LITTLE ONE

He glared at the alien girl, frozen lips curling into a smile.

LET ME SEE YOUR FIRE

Starfire's body vanished in a flash of light.

"_I burn like a __**Star**__!_"

Saffron, King of the Phoenix felt his body shudder with wonderful, exquisite agony as a tiny green sun expanded to envelope his form. There was no one to share the pain with. But still. Still. It was wonderful.

It was beautiful.

* * *

Ryouga stared up at the night sky, straining his eyes to see something that he knew he couldn't possibly see. He had a better chance of spotting a single grain of sand on the world's largest beach.

"Damnit, Star, what the hell did you do?"

All around him, people were also craning their necks. Some were still breathing raggedly, or hissing in pain from the psychic assault they had endured when Raven's protection ended, but there wasn't a pair of eyes that was not glued to the skies in that instant.

'_There!_'

Few caught it, the young Hibiki foremost among them, but for just for a second, a new tiny star lit the night: a burst of light no bigger than a dime, but impossible for those watching to miss with its obvious emerald luminescence.

"Whoa, I'm getting a radiation spike," Cyborg suddenly explained, examining the display in his arm intently. "Wide spectrum, all across the board! Man … if she'd done that down here …"

Next to the cybernetic Titan, Ukyou was collapsed against her deformed battle spatula. She had used the last of her energy to block the attack that had hit them with a Kenran Hinode, sheltering everyone behind her shield. A few feet away, Kuno was still apparently unconscious, but stable, a medkit strapped to his chest.

"Looks like our observers have picked it up, too," Ranma added, using the display built into his helmet HUD.

"Where is she?" The question drew surprised gazes, as it was Shampoo, of all people, to ask the question. The hardened Amazon sounded upset, a rare slip of emotion on her part.

"I don't know," the young Ryouga replied, the concern in his voice nearly cracking it. "Cyborg?"

The cybernetic teen looked up once more, the sound of his red eye cycling through magnifications surprisingly loud in the tense silence which hung over them. UNETCO had observation platforms monitoring things, but there was no direct link yet. Even when there was, it would probably only be made available to the two officers.

"Locked on to the source of the explosion… scanning… scanning… Ah! And they patched me in! This is more like it. Bout time, if you ask me... they've got a satellite and UAV... there! Something's coming through the atmosphere!" Cyborg gasped suddenly. "Wait. Something's wrong! The entry is way too hot, way too steep! Star … if it is Star, she's completely unconscious!"

"What?" Jinx barked incredulously. Ryu and Konatsu next to her were worse for wear and down on one knee. "She's freefalling from _orbit_?"

"Do we have confirmation?" The Older Ryouga suddenly slapped a hand to his helmet. "Right. Captain. Recall the ATA Interception. We need a midair retrieval on Yankee-Two!"

Kuno, impossibly, picked that moment to force himself off his back. "Can they possibly reach the Flame haired Goddess in time?" He was bracing himself with sword in hand, even his loony tunes like recovery speed unable to fully get him up. "Can they truly save her from such a fall? Is there time to-"

"We'll see," was the officer's answer as he craned his neck to look up.

"The Hell if I'm gonna wait to find out!" Taking an angry step forward, the younger Hibiki furiously swiped his hand through the air. "Do what you can do, but I'm gonna save Star, now!"

"What the hell are you gonna do, Pork Rind?" Ranma asked incredulously. "Last I checked, pigs couldn't fly."

"Incoming!" was the second's warning all three teams had, as a blast of air rushed away from a small silver disk that appeared in their midst, stopping on a dime. It was the three squad's mobile observer, Nabiki's Roaming Susan.

Of course, bringing it down to ground level without a BUDD signal light was very non-regulation.

"Someone need a lift?" she asked, waggling the sides of the mini-UFO in the near universal gesture for aircraft-friendly. "I can't guarantee you won't dislocate your arms, mind you."

Not even bothering to respond to the shocked looks and warnings from those present, the young Ryouga jumped on top of the chubby saucer, and looped his arm around one of the emergency evac/weapons drop straps.

"Nabiki! Let's go!"

"This is insane!" he heard the older him yell. "What're you gonna do when - !"

And then his ears popped, and the world – _good lord the world __–_ shifted. Holding tight to the multi-ton rated straps on the Susan, the breath tore out of his lungs from the sudden change in air pressure. He had no idea how fast this little ship could actually go, since the times he had seen it before, it just winked in and out of position.

A technical guess… would probably be that it was _fucking_ fast.

Worse, it stopped abruptly, with absolutely no warning. Ryouga's body snapped around the side of the little ship, holding onto the straps for dear life. Landing hard on his chest, cushioning the blow just like a landing in Nerima after an orbit punch, he righted himself back up on his hands and knees. His body felt like it had been tenderized and frozen.

And then tenderized again.

Looking over the lip of the Roaming Susan, he saw the ground… in a very abstract way. And through a ton of dark clouds. Beneath the sea of white, there was just a patchwork of faint green and brown.

"Sorry! Sorry!" the words were hasty, but genuine. Ones he couldn't remember hearing from either Nabiki in… well, ever. "This isn't built for two. Or one."

"I'm fine!" he yelled. And lied. God, his arm hurt.

"Hold on!"

This time, the ascent was less abrupt, but no less speedy. Holding tight to the cargo straps wrapped around his arm, Ryouga lowered his center of gravity and planted himself firmly on top of his ride. It moved like reverse lightning, up past clouds and into the thinning air of endless sky. Now, finally, he regretted losing his helmet. With the breather systems, he could have gone even higher, even faster.

_'__Come on!__'_

...

For those down below, the young, reckless Ryouga may as well have teleported. He was simply gone against the darkness of the night sky.

"What the hell is he doing!" Ryu barked, looking up, one hand over the rim of his visor. "Now we have **two** Titans in high-alt free fall!"

"What's he thinking? What's Nabiki thinking?" Ranma growled. "He'll tear his arms off…"

"Even if he catches her," Shampoo worried. "The ride down will…"

Noting the grin on Cyborg's face (he seemed amused at the insane heroics, rather than worried about how reckless it was), Lieutenant Hibiki looked up into the sky, then back to the cybernetic teen. It took a second, but then the intent of their plan was so palpable that it almost spoke to him.

"Don't tell me. Your Ryouga…" he gave the Cyborg a sidelong look. "His umbrella. Does he really have something crazy like that?"

"That's right," Cyborg replied with a broad smile.

"What?" Ryu asked. "What does it have?"

"Ryo's umbrella has a _Helicopter Option_!"

* * *

Nearing the apex of his assisted flight, ground already lethally distant beneath him, Ryouga unsheathed his umbrella with his free hand. It was a slight worry that his trusty T-brella was currently scorched nearly black and mottled yellow, but he had faith that it was sturdier than it looked. Having felt the insane g-forces even a 'gentle' ride on the Roaming Susan put him through, there was no way he could risk putting an injured Starfire through the same.

They were close.

Or so Nabiki had assured him before their last acceleration. The Lost Boy hoped he could see Starfire at all, but the Tendo sister assured him she knew where Starfire was. He didn't exactly have his helmet HUD or banks of radar and other junk. He _really_ regretted throwing his helmet away, now, as the stinging winds forced his eyes closed again. He didn't even have a clue how high up he was… Or, for that matter, how high his umbrella's helicopter option was even rated to take him.

There! That flash of red was impossible to miss! He could see her!

She wasn't too far off, only a few hundred meters and closing fast. He wasn't directly below her, so he shifted the grip on his umbrella, freeing up his hands. As he got closer, the Susan reduced in speed, doing its best to reduce the difference in respective velocity as much as possible.

With his free hand, he reached out. He would only… get… one… chance-

Starfire's insensate form blew past him in a blur, easily ten meters out of his reach.

"Oh **HELL**!"

Letting go of the straps, he jumped.

Angling his body, he raced down, relying on the fact that Starfire's limp body was a much less aerodynamic falling object. It took an agonizing, uncounted number of seconds, as his body cut through the air, closing in on her position.

Wind whipped through his shaggy hair, nearly blinding him, but this time, he didn't miss when he reached out. Pulling her to his chest, he sighed in relief as he noted that, while completely out of it, at least she was still breathing. He lifted his umbrella, and hitting the third button on the handle, the canopy snapped open with a loud clank. Blue fabric that had been present before had been replaced with thin sheets of the fabric-woven alien alloy. An instant later, the thin panels snapped apart along pre programmed angles and then the entire array of blades began to rotate with a loud roar.

Several seconds passed as his descent slowed, stopped, reversed … and then began anew. Gripping down as tightly as possible, Ryouga squeezed down on the throttle for all he was worth. The motor whined angrily in protest to the over taxing, and the vibrations nearly threatened to shake the thing right out of his hands, but he leveled off.

A little stupidly, he looked down…

_Vertigo._

Good _God_, they were high up, but at least they weren't hurtling down at terminal velocity anymore.

"Star, you alright!" He was forced to shout just to be heard over the wind and the rotors, but he got no reply. Starfire's face was much redder than usual, looking like she had a particularly nasty full body sunburn, and her armor was completely gone. No matter what he did, though, yelling, or jostling, he couldn't get any response from the comatose girl.

Seconds seemed to stretch on forever as he descended with agonizing slowness. Why couldn't he wake her up… and for that matter, how long could he hold on to both her and his umbrella at the same time? His shoulder held like it was on fire, dipped in acid, bludgeoned by clubs and mauled by wolves all at the same time. He could already feel the arm wrapped tightly around Starfire's waist going worryingly numb…

_'__Crap, how could this day possibly get any worse?__'_

Instantly, he realized that Hibiki's should never tempt fate, or Murphy. A bright shower of sparks suddenly shot out from the end of his umbrella, and the helicopter rotors ground to an angry, squealing halt. He knew it had already been damaged blocking that blast from Saffron, but that combined with trying to stop the fall of two people? It had just reached its limit.

"Star!" He barked hoarsely as gravity gleefully began to drag them down once more. "Now would be a really, REALLY good time to wake up!"

They hit the unforgiving ground a second later, a loud 'clang' ringing out like the sound of a gong being struck -

_'…Wait a second… We weren'__t that close to the ground. And since when does the ground go __'__clang__'__ when you land on it?__'_

Even as Ryouga mulled over this puzzle, a section of the odd, grey ground close to where they sat, suddenly dropped down and slid open, revealing a small port hole, and a familiar figure suddenly looked out. The eight foot tall suit of powered armor greeted the duo. Captain Ben-Solomon, his heavy helmet visor drawn up, offered a smirk to the dazed martial artist.

"You've just got to love these inertia-less ships, don't you?" he asked, extending a heavily armored hand. "Can take off from anywhere, and get you where you need to be, right when you need to be there."

Ryouga just stared at the man, absently noting the grey expanse of the blunt wings which spread out to each side of him. The Avenger craft was so silent and stable, that he still wasn't sure that he wasn't on the ground, but hell if he was going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Sir, would you be at all offended if I told you that I loved you?"

The Captain cracked a wry grin.

"Of course not. Just don't expect me to be interested is all."

* * *

"Sir, remind me - please remind me - to never, ever, do something stupid like take my helmet off again, okay?"

Captain Ben-Solomon laughed out loud as he regarded the younger Hibiki, his face wind burnt and eyes still watering, and his right arm hanging limply, even as he cradled the Tamaranian with his left.

"I'll keep that in mind, and not just to save your fool head. That armor is damn expensive, you know?" The heavily armored officer gestured to Ryouga and Starfire. "I mean, look at this. You lose your helmet, she loses her entire suit, and from what I heard from Nabiki, it sounds like Cyborg lost the equivalent on an entire MARS suit! Yankee squad is going to be murder on our budget for this month."

Wincing as he chuckled, Ryouga shifted until he was sitting cross legged on the smooth metal floor. "Well, at least Jinx kept her armor on, right?"

"There is no small amount of irony in that." A familiar voice caused the Captain and the Sergeant to turn their attention to the back of the craft. Raven strolled towards them, still absolutely sodden in the white, flame retardant foam they'd used to protect her while she had her mental tete-a-tete with that unholy alien abomination. "I wouldn't have expected the most unstable girl at the party to be the only one with the common sense to keep her clothes on."

The young sergeant looked at his team mate ... then did a double take.

"Whoa ... speaking of parties, did I miss something in here? What's with the party foam? You guys don't throw Jonas Brothers concerts in here while we're out fighting, do you?"

Lifting up her arm and looking at the foam still dripping from her sleeve, Raven glanced up to fire a glare Ryouga's way. "Someone is a comedian now, I see. Just so you know, this is flame retardant foam, and it was one of the only things preventing me from bursting into flames while I weathered the brunt of Saffron's psionic assault, incidentally preventing all of _you_ from going up like roman candles."

The Captain nodded seriously. "It was a good move, keeping her together with Alpha Squad."

A good move indeed, keeping her with the dedicated psionic squadron. And yet, even with support by trained psi officers, it had still been a titanic struggle of wills. He had never actually witnessed a direct psychic battle between two double-A class psions before, and it had been a truly terrifying sight. Usually, battles like this were between a rogue class-AA and one or two more skilled or clever class-As or Bs.

However, this had been something else entirely. Saffron's psionic power had been unprecedented. India and Juliet, all highly trained and competent B and C class psions had been unable to even protect themselves from the assault. Even the two of them that had been offering their assistance directly had felt like children watching a heavy weight bout.

The mindscape of their battle had become a whirlwind of flame and darkness.. Luckily, what the girl lacked in battlefield psionic experience she more than made up for in power and determination. It was honestly a relief that this young lady had proven herself to be trustworthy, as, if she were to turn…. stopping her would be messy. Probably impossible without extreme measures.

Even as the Captain's mind wandered down that somewhat disturbing line of thought, Ryouga shook his head, a grim look on his face.

"We wouldn't have survived without you, Raven. I mean... at the end there, for just a minute, we all felt the full force of Saffron's pain, felt all of what you were shielding us from... I can't even imagine how you were able to withstand so much."

Smiling weakly, she moved forward and knelt next to Ryouga and Starfire. "Let's just say that fire doesn't hold any terror for me anymore. The Captain here was able to block some of my physical pain receptors and share a fraction of the rest of the mental and telekinetic trauma. That, and some of us are simply able to deal with certain kinds of pain better than others."

She lifted her hand, and a dim blue glow encompassed it. Raven then placed her hand on Ryouga's arm, closing her eyes as she concentrated.

"Speaking of which," she said, noticing something. "You are aware that your shoulder is really badly dislocated, right?"

The martial artist shrugged, only to regret the gesture instantly.

"Oh, at the _least_," he replied with an excessively inappropriate amount of humor in his voice. "Probably tore some muscle, too. Feels like bloody hell, for sure."

Gritting his teeth, he waved weakly with his good arm. "Still, can't complain. I was told that that was a distinct possibility when I hitched a ride with Nabiki in the first place. I'll be fine, though. Starfire is the one that I'm worried about. I have no idea what the hell happened way up there, but I haven't been able to wake her up yet."

Raven nodded, turning her attention to the Tamaranian. "Well, you'll have to be fine, because there's nothing I can do about your injuries while you're wearing that armor." Her glowing palm hovered over the orange skin of her friend, and angry pinkish flesh returned to a normal hue ... but that was about all. "This... something... something's wrong. I can't sense anything beyond minor physical trauma, burns and bruising... yet I can't wake her..."

Captain Ben-Solomon frowned. Starfire had more than proven herself as well, and the thought of losing her was not something he wanted to consider at this juncture. This was one of the reasons he hated heroes, always sacrificing themselves in noble, if usually half cocked plans. It didn't help that the alien girl was about the same age as his daughter. Even with all they could do, they were still young people with their whole lives ahead of them.

"Do you know what's wrong?" he asked, concern heavy in his voice. "Is it psionic damage from her close contact with the hostile?'

The violet haired girl moved her hand up to rest on the alien girl's brow, an intense look of concentration settling on her features. "I ... can't tell. There's so little activity. I think we need to get her back to the base quickly, so that more experienced personnel can examine her."

The Captain nodded, and remotely addressed the pilot via his personal comm.. "Rendezvous with the squads on the hill, ASAP, then head back to base at top speed. We have a medical emergency here."

They could send out the Skyranger to pick up everyone else post-cleanup.

The power suited officer then sent a signal straight to HQ.

"Seiran Actual, we have an incoming medical emergency. Prep a trauma team for our arrival," he then added, after a moment's consideration, "I want a xenobiology team up there, too."

The sense of urgency was somewhat spoiled by the inertia-less nature of the craft they were in. Heading up to the back of the ship, he could see that although the pilot looked to be flying for all she was worth, he felt no movement beneath his feet, and heard no sound from the engines. Still, he took solace that it would only be a short while before they were heading back to base.

They hadn't lost anyone on this mission yet, and he intended to keep it that way.

* * *

Kasumi accompanied Doctor Pearson up to the hangar with the rest of the trauma team. It was actually semi-routine for them to do so. Even XCOM medical kits, the life saving ATRISK, could only stabilize truly terrible wounds. On most missions, someone would be coming in, in need of emergency treatment, almost always for massive plasma burns and scarring… sometimes the loss of one or more limbs.

This time was a little different.

A xenobiology team had also been scrambled, along with their gear. The two were basically branches of the same department, given all the medical research and development both staffs often cooperated on. There were just as many 'research doctors' on hand as there were pure surgeons or other medical doctors. None were waiting around idly, however.

Preliminary diagnostic scans and other results were already being forwarded in real time from the Avenger's medical units. She could see the displays projected amid the cluster of doctors. The alien derived technology had been remotely scanning the unconscious girl called Starfire (though the display still showed her other given name in the computer); the scans were an amalgamation of a number of sources, the most exotic being psionic. Those were mostly meant to identify brain damage or lingering effects from telekinetic attacks.

Thankfully, Starfire's biology was… highly unusual, but very humanoid. All the basic organs were there, and they all operated basically the same as in a human being. She didn't use her entire body's muscle mass as a heart, like a Snakeman, she was far from an atrophied walking corpse like an Ethereal, and she didn't have all her organs replaced and jammed into a big metal bulb like a Floater. She hadn't been physically or cybernetically altered.

Actually seeing all those stomachs was… weird, but comparatively not too bizarre. Not once you'd seen inside a Celatid or Silicoid. There were traces of what looked like metamorphic tissue, now inert and mostly reabsorbed. They had already synthesized blood replacements and grown tissue grafts for her down in Medical – it was among the first things they did even before she became adopted into the military program – and, if need be, they could grow proper organ replacements as well. Her immune system was fairly mundane.

What was wrong with her, though?

Nothing looked physically or chemically out of place.

"Doctor," she whispered, leaning over to where Pearson had just paused in a debate with Doctor Lee.

Pearson gave her a quick look. "Kasumi?"

"The report says she used a very large energy attack of some sort," the eldest Tendo sister argued, having read the open file along with the senior medical staff. "It may be something like chakra fatigue Maybe... maybe I could..."

He raised an eyebrow at that, entertaining the notion. It was a known condition among the 'special' martial artists here and elsewhere, usually a result of overexertion of the ki producing engine in their bodies. The process had a noticeable and recordable telekinetic effect, and damage to the system – although functionally mental – produced physical ailment as well. It could also be described as a sort of 'burnout.'

"Take a look," he finally decided, and stepped aside to give her access to the readout. Kasumi's fingers found the holographic keyboard and gesture-pad.

She quickly isolated the psionic readouts, and the mental output graphs. They had pre-recordings of Starfire's physiological status, both conscious and unconscious, thanks to prior medical scans. There seemed no ostensible difference given her unconscious state. Her body was putting out the same amount of cellular energy as before.

"Sourcing it…" Kasumi muttered softly, prompting the readout to split.

It produced a number of graphs, indicating the sources of the output energy. Dominant among the wavering lines was the blue medium, contributing the lion's share of the overall system output. This contrasted sharply with the earlier recording, which showed the yellow source as dominant. This was a definite find.

"The yellow medium is solar radiation from before, according to this," Pearson observed.

"Her body is trying to compensate for the lack of it," Kasumi speculated, from what the data stream showed. It also fit into what she knew of aura damage and chakra fatigue. The body tried to operate at levels it was used to, even if it ended up causing more damage. It was like a bone growing back wrong and needing to be re-broken before it could heal properly.

"Let's get an overlay," the research doctor leaned in to pull up another real time scan. "I want to see if this is endemic or localized. This could become a malignant condition if…"

Starfire's full body scan rotated in three dimensional space and an overlay gradually took form over it as the medical bed on the Avenger followed through with a new query. It showed the regions where blue medium energy generation was highest. What developed was a complex and seemingly random series of blotches all around the body. An additional filter removed the other sources, and then tinted the results to reflect average output intensity over time.

"Highest overall concentration is across the integumentary system," Pearson observed, cupping his chin.

"Ah, but look!" Doctor Lee highlighted an area with a touch. "High levels of compensatory activity here in the peripheral and autonomic nervous systems!"

The other Doctors were also taking note, and making observations of their own, quickly dragging the discussion into matters of technical minutiae. They'd identified what was likely the root of the problem, but then split up between how to immediately treat it, and how to attempt to treat it over the long term. The treatment focused group were already outlining a series of semi-conventional procedures to try and stabilize Starfire's condition. The other group, including a large number of the medical research personnel, were focused on how to ultimately reverse the ongoing condition.

"We should contact her friends on the ship," Kasumi quietly suggested. "They may have an idea of what gave her this… problem… to begin with."

"Good idea, Miss Tendo!" Doctor Horat, a short balding man with a Russian Federation tag on his lapel. He was one of the newer staff brought on recently. "We would do well to learn how this young woman's condition came to be."

It took a few seconds to set up a new link to the Avenger.

* * *

A deep frown etched itself onto Cyborg's face as he tried to independently scan the comatose Tamaranian carefully laid out in one of the Avenger's medical evac pods, eerily reminiscent of an alien examination table inside a stasis tube. His efforts were not exactly a great success; it was all but impossible for him to get a proper reading, the display kept jumping and rolling with lines of static. He'd taken so much damage during the battle with that Saffron bastard, nearly a quarter of his own systems were offline or going haywire. And now he couldn't even help his friend because of it!

Again, Cyborg could feel people pressing at his back. He'd already been forced to scatter his concerned friends a few times; this was hard enough without hearing a gasp or whimper every time he so much as prodded at Starfire. Or when the UNETCO medical machine did something to her.

"Come on, Ryo, I told you to back off already."

"It's not Hibiki... either of them, actually." The deep, baritone voice led Cyborg to spin around quickly. Looking up at the massive form of Captain Ben-Solomon's powered armor - towering over even the Cybernetic teen himself - Cyborg quickly offered a hasty apology. The Captain just waved off his concern.

"Don't worry about it. Now, I just got a call in from the base. The medical team there wants to know if anyone from Yankee might be more familiar with Starfire's physiology than them, and you seemed like the man in the know. You want to take the call?"

The heavily damaged cyborg nodded frantically, tapping into the link with a blink of the eye.

"Hello? This is Cyborg, here. Who am I talkin' to?"

The reply came across with a bit of static - obviously his communication system wasn't running at peak performance either. "This is Doctor Horat. I'm here with Doctor Pearson, Lee, and a number of others. We are currently examining the data we are receiving from the Avenger concerning your most unique friend-"

"That's great!" Cyborg barked. "My scanners are pretty much fried. What can you tell me about the readings you're getting?"

"Um, well, that is what we wished to discuss with you. Your friend seems to be suffering from a... a lack of solar radiation, if what our readings say is correct. Her body is currently trying to compensate, which is actually causing more harm than good. Though we are using a tenuous analogy between her own condition and a common one associated with ki using martial artists, we have never actually seen anything like this before. We were hoping that you could clarify what we are seeing here."

"I can see you have a display HUD hooked into our system," another voice spoke up, Cyborg recognized it as Doctor Pearson, who had done scans on his cybernetics before. "Kasumi, patch him in would you?"

A few seconds later, and a data packet opened in Cyborg's artificial vision. It contained copies of the readouts and data gathered remotely by the medical staff. The teen was actually a little surprised by the level of detail delivered, and how quickly it had been gathered. Medical science here had taken a serious jump since they adapted all these alien toys. On the other hand, it was kind of annoying having to get all this information second hand, despite standing right next to the medical pod.

He checked some of the highlighted findings.

_'Ah, of course!' _

He really should have thought of that earlier. Cyborg had seen much less severe instances of this, especially after prolonged night battles. Looking around, he made certain that no one else was close by, then nodded to himself.

"Alright, I can explain a few things, but can you secure this link?" he asked. "A lot of this is pretty private medical information that a lot of people here don't need to know about."

"Of course. I understand completely. All medical files are strictly confidential, only those with top authorization will be permitted to see them, and only with just cause." Doctor Horat's earnest assurance put Cyborg a little more at ease. Letting out an exhausted sigh, he leaned forward, whispering quietly.

"Alright, for the most part, Starfire is pretty much a baseline Tamaranian. Sure, they look pretty darn human on the outside, but on the inside, and on the cellular level, there's a lot of crazy stuff going on. You probably already seen the organ arrangements, but if you check closer, you'll see that her cells house a number of completely alien organelles that don't exist anywhere on earth."

"Yes, we've noticed her biology shows signs of some engineering in the distant past," Doctor Pearson replied. "Some sort of progenitor race and… Okarrans, I believe they were called? Where was that medical history file?"

_'__They know more than I thought,__'_Cyborg realized. _'__Probably from those psionic scans back at the other base.__'_

Looking around again, to make sure no one was sneaking up or listening in, he continued, "Right. Well, the super strength, incredible durability, ability to fly, ability to survive in space for prolonged periods, resistance to hard radiation and most temperature extremes are all inherent to her species, not to mention the ability to passively absorb certain forms of energy, sunlight being the key one. If humans are the Honda Civics of the universe, than these guys are M-1 Abrams... Seriously, with all the stuff these guys do, they're practically Kryptonian-lite."

"I ... ah, see ... I'm not certain I understand your last reference, but I believe we understand what you mean with the rest," another voice, probably this Doctor Lee, spoke up. "However, you said 'pretty much' baseline Tamaranian. Is there something differing her from the rest of her species?"

Cyborg nodded, mostly to himself.

"Yeah, and this is the strictly confidential part, Doc. Y'see, a few years back, before she came to Earth, Starfire was captured by a group of aliens. Real sick bastards, too, ultra high science, like nothing you or I have ever seen, and about as much humanity as one of your Ethereals. They weren't interested in assimilating her, though; they just experimented on her for the sake of the experiments. Apparently they were interested in the Tamaranian ability to absorb sunlight and convert it to other uses, most notably flight."

"They decided to bombard her with dangerously concentrated energy waves," he explained. "I don't know what they were hoping for…" Metal knuckles ground and popped as his fist tightened at the memory of what Starfire had told him, all those years ago.

"Or exactly what actually happened. Maybe they just wanted to see if she'd go up like a match head, but whatever the reason, they ended up forcibly mutating her physiology. I think normal Tamaranians store maybe a few hundred kilojoules of energy at any given time...? Well whatever it was that happened, it raised her storage capacity to the megajoule range. And I'm talking 'hundreds of'. It had a few other side effects, like the energy blasts and such. Unfortunately, what I think is going on, is that her body has grown accustomed to being super charged like that, and it can't function at such low levels. She must have really given all she had to take Saffron out like that."

"I'm sorry to sound so rude, but, did you say 'hundreds of megajoules'?"

It was a substantial amount to be pumped out by an organic being, and a little shocking, but the medical staff – accustomed to oddity by this point – took the analysis at face value.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Cyborg replied shortly. "But enough of the 'oohing' and the 'ahhhing', Doc. You guys need to figure a way to get her cellular energy reserves back up to a tolerable level quick, cuz I don't think a few hours at the beach is gonna cut it here."

"This solar radiation. Can you be more specific?" Doctor Lee asked, "It is not exactly a precise term."

Cyborg frowned a bit, understanding the confusion. It was a somewhat common response to questions about his native Earth's 'solar powered' metas, even on the part of local scientists and the like. Absorbing radiation seemed to be an unusually common adaptation in many species back home… almost suspiciously so. He hadn't missed the reference before to Starfire's people being genetically tampered with. Probably by the Psions, too, or the Guardians of the Universe or who knew **how many** others.

He'd been joking a bit with the Kryptonian-lite comment, but it was probably accurate.

From what he'd heard, Starfire's home system of Vegan (or Vega on terrestrial charts) had something like twenty or twenty five worlds, plus or minus the ones that had been blown up or the like over the centuries. It sounded suspicious right off the bat. Star systems shouldn't have that many naturally occurring habitable planets. Either something really funky had happened during the star system's formation, or… well, the alternative wasn't a pleasant one to dwell on. No one liked or appreciated the possibility of aliens playing God and tampering with primitive species, especially when those primitive species were one's immediate ancestors.

To the point though, like (more infamously) the tiny Kryptonian two-person immigrant population on Earth, Tamaranians could gorge themselves on solar radiation, most notably the mix of visible, infrared and UV that filtered through the atmospheres of most Terran-type planets (and especially Earth's Sol). You'd think that, with this physiological requirement, that they would spend more of their lives like flowers: just sitting naked in the sun, soaking up rads. Everyone knew the old wives' tale about Superman: yellow sunlight. Whatever "yellow sunlight" was.

Even he didn't know.

Justice League Internal Security probably kept the details under wraps. The sun back home was basically the same as this one, minus some quantum fluctuations and esoteric differences. It didn't put out any exotic radiation that varied depending on the color classification of the star. Following the laws of thermodynamics, there was also not a lot of energy in sunlight to convert, even if a given Tamaranian had the surface area of an obese blimp and perfect energy conversion and conservation. You could eek out an absolute maximum of maybe a thousand Watts per square meter on a good day, and perhaps 70 megajoules per day.

Yet he knew _for a fact_ that Star didn't go out in the buff for eight hours of sunbathing every day. There was another component to it, but it would've required more intensive… and invasive... biological study to get to the root of it. If Tamaranians were engineered to be Kryptonian-lite, then they would probably share a similar mechanism, though obviously not as absurdly efficient. He remembered once passing along a question to a scientist at Star Labs about just that, after giving Starfire a physical, and getting what amounted to a lecture on 'not looking too deeply into certain things' …

Now he regretted not doing it anyway.

Someone _had_ to have more information. He frowned a bit at that thought, guessing two groups that probably did have just this sort information. Dimes to dollars, LexCorp had it somewhere. Probably the US government back home, too. None of which helped them now, here.

"We don't know exactly," he admitted, finally giving voice to his concerns. "It isn't just the energy she absorbs, I'm sure of it. It must have some kind of catalytic effect… maybe at the cellular level."

"We're tapping you directly into our data feed now, Cyborg," this time it was Kasumi who replied, to his surprise. "The Doctors are going to try something."

Cyborg nodded, grimacing a bit as he knew none of the docs or techs could actually see him. His system took a second to link into the secure network the doctors had established, but the resolution still suffered a bit from the damage he'd taken earlier. He realized, right off the bat, what the doctors were going to do.

They'd modified the radiation therapy function of the medical pod to emit various wavelengths of radiation over different parts of Starfire's body. They were looking for some biochemical reaction. The EM spectrum was no short list, however, and they couldn't cycle through things too quickly without giving individual cells time to metabolize and react within a reasonable timeframe.

They were nearly to Seiran, when it happened.

"We've got something!"

Cyborg saw it, too, and leaned in close, his cybernetic eye whirring.

_'__Cherenkov Radiation?__'_

That was unexpected.

Cherenkov light was the result of a high speed charged particle traversing a radiator medium at a constant speed greater than the speed of light in that medium. While 'c' as the universal speed of light was a constant in a vacuum, as per relativity, the speed at which light could propagate in a given material was often less than c. Sometimes significantly so.

Within this medium, matter could be accelerated beyond the local speed of light, that being the phase velocity of light rather than the group velocity of light. Cyborg had seen it before, particularly in nuclear reactors and particle accelerators. Typically, the perpetrator was an electron, but it could be any charged particle… as it travels it disrupts the local electromagnetic field. Electrons in nearby atoms are displaced and become polarized. This in turn causes photons to be emitted as the electrons restore themselves to equilibrium, and normally, these photons destructively interfere with each other in the process. When the disruption occurs faster than the speed of light in that medium, the protons interfere constructively rather than destructively.

But why was it here?

What was happening inside Starfire?

As they collectively observed the phenomenon and narrowed down the biochemical processes involved, Cyborg could see how it fit together. Dense organelles in Star's cells were the cause of the radiation, and also represented the medium by which she passively absorbed solar radiation. The light itself was less a source of power than it was a sort of biological catalyst. Tiny nuclear reactions were occurring in her cells, allowing her body to synthesize new compact sources of chemical energy.

He could also see where the problem was in the system. It was stable in a normal Tamaranian, and indeed, was unaltered in most of Starfire's tissues. The Psions had altered the integumentary and nervous systems in her to use much more energy than normal. As long as those tissues were in place, they were basically wired to continue using energy at the same rate they had been for years.

Her body was literally starving itself, trying to keep operating at peak performance, like a high performance engine readily sucking down the last few drops of fuel in the tank. It had no regulatory mechanism to conserve energy in its damaged state. He heard some of the doctors talk about 'induced stasis,' but his mind was more on how to power her systems back up to spec. Unfortunately, the organic body was much messier than the cybernetics and machinery he was used to, and one couldn't exactly swap out her batteries.

They had to recharge them somehow.

"Okay, guys, we know what's going on in there!" he all but yelled. "What can we do about it?"

"Even if we bathed every inch of her body in the exact frequency of light that triggers this peculiar metabolic pathway," Doctor Lee argued. "It would not replace the energy she expended in time."

They were already bombarding her with the light now, and Cyborg could see it having some positive effect. But that was on the surface, and not even skin deep. The damage to her nervous system would take hours to repair itself with a simple surface exposure, and in that time it would already have started to atrophy. Yet, how had it gotten that way in the first place?

"Excuse me, but I think they must've used some sort of penetrating light source," he heard Kasumi reason, clearly coming to a similar conclusion. "These nasty creatures. They didn't just irradiate her skin. They did it to her whole body."

"Ah! So simple luminosity isn't the answer," Doctor Pearson agreed.

"Doctor Stambaugh here, from Xenosciences," another voice came in over the communications net. "They may have used an artificial carrier wave to stimulate the metabolic pathway with only a peripheral exposure... like forcing open sodium channels with an allosteric modulator…"

"Do we have a mechanism for that?" Cyborg asked, running over the theoretical possibilities.

If only they had more information on the machine that caused this condition!

"We can start work on a synthetic using the existing tissue samples," Stambaugh replied. "James, you should get a new stasis tube ready. We'll need to turn off the safeties to increase the radiation generation threshold…"

"I'd like to be there to help," the cybernetic Titan insisted. "And can you forward the specs you'll be using to me? I've got an idea that might help."

"I'll take care of it," Kasumi said, letting the Doctors focus on their work.

"Thanks." Cyborg allowed himself to smile a bit, and rested a hand on Starfire's medial pod.

_'__We__'__ll save you...__'_

* * *

"Are you sure this is safe?" Koriand'r asked, looking down at the tiny red berry.

"Don't be such a stupid baby," her older sister, Komand'r, had two of the bitter little fruits in her hand compared to her little sister's one. The two were currently hidden in the near dark behind one of the palace tapestries. Starfire just knew she probably should not have listened to her sister and come along to see 'something neat.'

"The warriors eat them all the time," Komand'r reminded her. "It makes them stronger. Don't make me regret giving you one."

Koriand'r looked up from the poisonous seed. "I don't see why I have to try it first."

"Because I'm the one who went through all the trouble to get them," the older girl explained with a smile. "And I say you try it first. To see if it even works."

Koriand'r pouted a bit at this supposedly logical conclusion.

"Do it."

Hesitating a few more seconds, she finally did as her sister asked and popped the berry into her mouth and bit down.

...

_ Hoarse screams filled the air, the agonized howls bouncing off the cold, metallic walls and reverberating madly over and over. Koriand__'__r had long since lost track of which screams were her own; battling the torturous pain, she was just barely able to twist her neck to allow her to see the table resting next to her own. Komand__'__r was fastened to the sterile surface, writing in torment as the beam of concentrated solar radiation bombarded every inch of her body ..._

_ Just as the machine above her own table was doing to Koriand__'__r herself._

_ The Tamaranian princess could not even draw satisfaction from the sight of her treacherous sister suffering such a fate, blinded as she was by her own torture. The excruciatingly focused solar emissions seared her skin wherever they touched, which was everywhere. As was her nature, her body attempted to absorb the energy - and absorb it, and absorb it! There was no end to it, every cell in her body was on fire, every molecule of her being felt as if it would explode at any second -_

_ And then, with the flip of a switch, it ended._

...

Fire

It burned

Then into ice cold water

A moment of relief, and the flame became a painful tingle across the skin

...

_ "The younger of the pair seems to have a slightly lower rate of natural absorption, but it is possible that it is simply a matter of maturation than of any other variables. Related: further interpretation of our data seems to indicate that the ultraviolet range of the spectrum is most critical to the absorption process."_

_ "S-stop this ... I - I com - command you!"_

_ Komand__'__r__'__s voice, her rage causing her voice to crack painfully as she issued her impotent demand._

_ Finally opening her eyes, Koriand__'__r turned to stare at the Psion scientist. His scaled, green face, crested by perpendicular bone ridges which crossed at the crest of his cranium, simply stared back at the dark haired Tamaranian impassively. Somehow the utterly emotionless gaze of the Psion was more chilling, more frightening than the most hateful glare she had ever received._

_ "Both specimens are far beyond our projected estimates. Subject One has just crested 600 megarads of energy saturation, while Subject Two in already nearly 800 megarads of saturation. Rather than break down on the molecular level, as was anticipated ... Their bodies appear to be ... adapting in unforeseen ways."_

...

Eyes open

Can not move

Why

why

...

_ "Today__'__s session has already been twenty five percent longer than standard. Really, I should allow you time to recover before continuing the experiment." At that, a glint flitted through the Psion__'__s glassy eyes. "But this unforeseen adaptation is far too fascinating -"_

_ The Psion reached for the familiar console next to her examination table._

_ "I must see more."_

...

Starfire opened her mouth to scream, to rage against her old tormentor, and instead sucked in water. Gag reflex and panic instantly set in, and she tried to tear free of whatever kept her restrained. Her instinct and lungs screamed for air, or even hard vacuum, anything but a choking mass of lukewarm liquid. She exhaled what she thought could well be her last breath… and did not see any bubbles rise from her lips.

Despite the fear, she took a second to stare, perplexed.

Bright green eyes blinked and adjusted to the light and watery ambiance that apparently surrounded her. It also occurred, just then, that she wasn't drowning. There was no sudden painful rush as her lungs gave their last send off. There was no oxygen starvation tearing through her body and shutting down her heart. Experimentally opening her mouth again and taking a breath, or what passed for one, she realized she was breathing the water.

_'__Liquid breathing,__'_ she realized. _'__Perfluorocarbon…? Or something else…__'_

Blinking a few more times, Starfire tried to adjust her eyes to the light. It was so bright, she could not see outside of the tube she was obviously within. Her body was also restrained by some sort of field, just like when she had been interrogated after being first captured here. The thought, rather than causing a worse panic, was actually somewhat comforting.

She _knew_ this technology, now. There was no way she was captured by the aliens… she knew all too well what they would be doing with her right now if she were in their clutches. This was XCOM technology. Despite the physical restraint field, she was safe. Her friends were probably even nearby, obscured by the annoyingly bright light shining in on her from every angle. Looking around, she confirmed it. She was in one of those big medical tubes she had seen at the base's medical facility.

_ "I know that you can hear me." Her lips moved in the almost airless vacuum of the upper extreme atmosphere. She could see it on the monster__'__s face. It knew what she was saying. _

_"Tell your Mind what I am about to say," she demanded, bolstered by the thought of spitting defiance in this creature'__s eye. And that of its vile handler. "I wish for your master to know the error it has made in crossing my friends and I."_

_Reaching up, she gripped the neckline of her armored suit, unlocking the NBC seals and then the mooring lines that held it together. With one last tug, she wrenched the whole thing off her upper body, in the process ruining the interior bodyglove. The sundered armor fell away and into near space._

_"They may have __found a powerful minion in you - you that rages and consumes with your hatred and your pain. But know this: you may burn like the heart of the volcano itself."_

_ Power._

_ She drew it all out, for one huge blast. _

_"But I…" she roared into the vacuum. "I burn like a Star!"_

Ah. Yes.

**That**.

With all that coming back, Starfire's breathing slowed and she relaxed. The restraint field was not as complete as it had been before, back when it had completely immobilized her. This time, it seemed to be designed just to prevent her from thrashing around and damaging herself or the medical tube. Slow motions were not interfered with, and it took a few seconds for Starfire to test things out.

Her hands could move easily enough, and her arms and legs, too, if she was slow about it. Her hair was still there, drifting slightly to her left and right in her field of vision. Nothing seemed missing or amputated. Five fingers; five toes, her nails were the same length as before, too, so she could not have been in here or unconscious for very long.

A few bubbles drifted up from the bottom of the tank, and Star realized something else.

_'Naked again.'_

That, if nothing else, ensured her friends were likely not around. Maybe Jinx and Raven, but the boys would be in some other room. Probably. Slowly reaching out to the light emitting tube wall, she held her hand up to the surface. There was no way to see through to the outside… and probably no way to see inside, either. Yet, she knew these things had one-way privacy screens. They could tint it so she could see outside but others could not see inside.

Why all this light…?

Shining right in her face, no less?

_ She drew it all out, for one huge blast. _

_"But I…" she roared into the vacuum. "I burn like a Star!"_

And then she had passed out.

OH.

They were recharging her…? That would explain all the light, and why it was basically pouring in from every angle. It would also explain why, despite draining herself dry at the end of that fight, she felt surprisingly good. Despite floating in eerie liquid and breathing the same stuff that you were swimming naked in… despite all that, she felt pretty good.

Some weariness, some soreness, persisted. Her skin was still a bit more reddish than her normal, preferred hue. A nutrient tube of some sort, a catheter, ran up from the floor below into her arms and into some needles stuck in her back and clamped in place with plastic patches. She could also faintly see little marks where other needles had punctured her at her wrists and at least one spot on her upper legs. Sighing into the liquid medium, Starfire let her head drift back until it almost touched the wall of the tube behind her.

A while passed before, to her surprise, the intense light bath ended.

It was replaced by the walls themselves, and as she had guessed before, they were tinted. Except it was not just a one way tint, it was mutual. She could not see outside. A small frown crossed her face but disappeared as the walls flickered, and displayed a bright, almost cloudless sky. It was an illusion, of course, a projection on the walls… but it was fairly convincing, even from someone who had personally flown feely among the clouds on a bright summer morning.

A green and black screen appeared.

'Luminosity has been reduced to normal levels,' it said in simple text. 'How are you feeling?'

It then had options under that for: 'good' 'bad' and 'other'

She lightly touched the free-floating 'good' button.

It winked white, and presaged another question.

'Your physiological status has been updated. Do you want to read your report? YES/NO/REMIND ME LATER'

She was admittedly curious, but she knew what it meant by medical report. She had seen hers back when she first had her exam here. It would not be very understandable, even if she tried to read it.

Starfire clicked 'no'

'You are free to exit Medical Stasis,' it stated, then asked, 'Would you like to exit Medical Stasis? YES/NO/REMIND ME LATER'

Grinning, Star quickly tapped 'yes'

'Full reanimation in progress. Normalizing in progress…'

The liquid medium shifted slightly around the Tamaranian, but she made sure her body relaxed so the machine could do whatever it needed to. The process apparently was not immediate, and a countdown appeared on the screen to let her know how much longer she needed to wait.

Eventually, the tubes removed themselves, the tips being pushed out by some small plastic lip that then safely capped the end. They withdrew like slim snakes down into the floor of the tube. Barely audible filters started up somewhere behind and below, and the fluid level began to recede. As it fell below Starfire's mouth, she coughed and the semi-clear solution flooded out to be replaced by pressurized highly oxygenated air. She took a deep, deep breath, savoring it.

So much better than that breathable soup!

Finally, finally! The tube front opened with a hiss, as the slightly higher pressure air inside met the lower pressure air outside. The inside dimmed by about half, and Starfire stepped out and into a warm blanket. She recognized Kasumi Tendo immediately, and let the older girl wrap the large body towel around her. It was a good deal colder outside the tube than it had been inside, and the blanket served to keep her core temperature stable.

Starfire turned to regard the helpful Tendo sister ... considered her options, and then decided to go for broke. Swinging around, she clamped the older woman in a tight hug, resting her head on the marginally shorter girl's shoulder.

"I thank you very most sincerely for being here to greet me! Tell me, no one was overly worried by my... predicament, were they?" the Tamaranian asked, genuinely concerned. "I would hate to have caused any problems."

"You have some very wonderful friends," Kasumi replied, letting the other girl bury herself into a gentle embrace. She had been through so much, after all. All this fighting could be so traumatic, but it was always a joyous occasion when someone came back from an otherwise life-threatening condition. It was moments like that that Kasumi worked here for.

Starfire gave the older woman a tight hug, but the gentle martial arts sister did not mind it at all.

"Everyone's just glad you're safe and sound," she said. "They're all in the next room, waiting for you. I think there was a running bet how long you'd be in that 'tanning booth,' I believe they called it."

Squealing in joy, Starfire quickly pulled back from the hug, incidentally leaving her towel tangled around Kasumi's arm.

"They await me outside? I must go and greet them immediately!"

"Wait!" Kasumi reached for the swift moving alien, but was a moment too late. "…Oh my."

Starfire had already approached the indicated door, and – this being a medical ward where it was not exactly sanitary to have to touch walls or doors – the portal detected an incoming warm body and immediately and accommodatingly opened wide. Beyond the portal in a makeshift waiting area, three squads of young men and women waited for news.

Some were asleep, virtually all save two sported bandages and grafts under their clothes; Konatsu and Ukyou were both sleeping in chairs propped up against the wall while Ryouga and Nabiki were in chairs next to one another, the latter draped shamelessly over the former and drooling onto his shirt. Ryu and Kuno were engaged in an ongoing card game with Jinx, who appeared to be cheating even more than the two boys were used to. She had managed to acquire a number of personal effects and IOUs from the poor boys.

Shampoo, Mousse and Raven, meanwhile, were hunched over in their chair reading, sitting on the floor reading, or floating in midair… and reading. Respectively. Ranma was napping by himself peacefully, with Akane sitting nearby and trying to keep an almost-discrete distance between them. The younger Ryouga looked like he had recently woken up, and was wearing a very heavy sling over his shoulder, binding his arm to his chest. At that precise moment, the young Hibiki happened to be eagerly staring at the door.

When, as described, it opened.

"My Friends!" Starfire greeted, and dozen plus one pairs of eyes either opened or looked up.

"Woohoo! Free show!" Jinx's lewd cry led the charge of an avalanche of responses as men and women alike got an eyefull they certainly were not expecting.

For her part, Raven just dropped her head into a palm and muttered in a low voice. "... _Starfire_."

The younger Hibiki, despite his clear desire to see Starfire revived, had certainly not been expecting to see _quite_ so much of Starfire so soon. An instant later, he blissfully returned to the slumber from which it appeared he had just awoken.

"Hey, another natural red-head!"

Ranma's blithe comment invited immediate mallet-based retribution.

"My eyes are closed; I don't need your hands on my face," the elder Ryouga observed, two less than discrete hands literally mashed over his eyes and nose on the part of another Tendo sister.

"Camera. Where's that damn camera?" The source of said frantic inquiry needed no elaboration.

One person present, however – one great and noble man – was not so shocked into inaction.

"Flame Haired Goddess!"

Tatewaki Kuno's face made a nice, nostalgic 'mush' sound as it met the open palm of Kasumi Tendo, interposing itself between the still giddy Starfire, her arms wide, and the airborne and amorous swordsman. Kuno's body turned limp a moment later, dropping lazily down to the floor. At least it was better than Saotome's foot. …a little better.

"Now, now, Tatewaki-kun, you know better than that…" Kasumi chided, quickly wrapping the large towel back around Starfire's birthday suit where it belonged. "And, Miss Starfire, you should know better. There are gentlemen present."

"That's right, I'm a gentleman! I wouldn't have looked."

"Much. One second slower and you'd be joining your double on the floor, Ryouga-baby."

"Eh? Ryu, you're still ogling her?"

"What, _me_? Ogling? NO! No! I'm… I'm ah… okay, I don't have an excuse."

CLANG

"Flame haired goddess, my heart leaps to see you well once more," Kuno muttered, looking up from the floor.

"She too strong to die just like that," Shampoo observed, her arms crossed in apparent disinterest. She was, however, smiling. Next to the Amazon, Mousse adjusted his (fogged up) glasses.

"I saw the fight from one of the other hills," Akane said, removing a small mallet from her baka-fiancé's thick head. "We knew you'd make it, Star."

Sighing, Raven returned to her feet and closed her book. "Well, now that any possible sense of drama has been utterly quenched from this purportedly heart wrenching reunion ... I need to get some sleep. Good to see you're better, Starfire, try not to be too loud when you come in the room, please."

With that, the violet haired Titan rolled her eyes, spun on her heels and made her way for the door.

Jinx, using the distraction to casually check Kuno's cards, and not so subtly swipe most of the other personal belongings he'd been using to bet with, fired off an offhanded. "Yeah, good to see ya, Red. By the way, I'm not hauling the Lost Boy's unconscious butt over the base. You broke it, you carry it."

Looking up, she then slugged Ryu in the shoulder, nevermind the giant spatula resting on his near flattened head. "Sheesh, you gonna play a card or what? You'd think you never saw a naked girl before... which considering you're hooking up with the Iron Chef there, I suppose I can see why you've been avoiding it."

Ukyou growled at the insult, and seemed about to snap back –

"I recommend a swimsuit completion to settle this…"

CLANG

Only to soak up the chef's ire again instead.

"Raven's right. So much for pathos," Nabiki agreed with a sigh, and checked her watch. "And we're back on shift in twenty minutes. Take care of the orange streak for us, will ya, sis?"

Kasumi and Starfire giggled, and the latter waved and said good bye as, one by one, people filed back out. Though Ranma ended up slung over Akane's shoulder like a bag of potatoes (provoking a less than amused Shampoo), and Ryouga ended up carrying his other self out in a similar fashion at the request of the other possessive Tendo, mostly one by one they headed back out. Only one was missing from the start.

"Um," Star finally outright asked, just as the last teammate left. "Where is friend Cyborg? Is he…?"

"Victor is getting his leg replaced, I believe," Kasumi helpfully provided. "I'm sure he'll be by later to make sure the treatment worked. He helped retrofit the medical stasis tube we used on you… though your Ryouga had to hold him up on one leg the whole time."

Starfire nodded, smiling fondly as she watched her dear friend being dragged out by the carbon copy of her dear friend. "Yes ... yes, that sounds very much like what the two of them would do. I will have to do something kind to repay them. Perhaps I will cook for them a great Tamaranian Feast of Gratitude...! Though I hope they have the proper ingredients... I would hate to recreate the Pudding of Sadness again by accident."

"A new recipe?" the eldest Tendo sister asked. "I'd love to learn an alien delicacy! Oh... but if they do not have the ingredients for something so exotic here, I remember the mess hall ordering some mochi, which I know our Ryouga likes. Yours probably hasn't had any in a long time." Kasumi smiled affectionately. "I can show you how to make it for your friends, too."

Filled with energy in excess of all those that came to visit her, the Tamaranian all but grabbed Kasumi's arm and began to drag her away from the medical wing.

"Truly? That would be most excellent! We must begin preparations immediately!"

"Aa, aa!" Kasumi dug her heels in, and actually managed to halt the eager young woman. "…After we check to make sure you're back to normal. _And_ get you in some clothes. The Captain gave you the day off, and asked me to make sure you recovered. I think we can interpret that as an excuse to have some fun, but probably not to run around the base half nude."

* * *

The cool splash of water felt good on Ryouga Hibiki's face. Not too long ago, it would have caused a scream… a scream that turned into an angry, indignant squeal, courtesy of Jyusenkyou's cursed springs. Now, it simply ran down his face, dutifully soaking his wary eyelids and washing away – at least in part – his fatigue and tiredness from the night just past. For once, despite being under the protective umbrella of the base's mind shield, he hadn't slept particularly well.

It wasn't just being scrunched up on a chair in medical, either.

_'__Ryouga-sama….__'_

_ He__'__d seen Akari in his dreams, her hair floating freely and eyes wild with fury._

_'__How could you, Ryouga-sama? How could you let them do this to me?__'_

_ He had assumed, then, that she meant the aliens._

_'__You__'__re dead, Akari,__'__ he__'__d replied, feeling her rage mix with his despair. __'__I tried to…__'_

_'__Avenge me? That isn__'__t what I want, Ryouga-sama.__'__ She drew closer, still floating in place, hair like angry serpents. __'__The other you was right. You used me. You lied to me. You said I was beautiful, that you__'__d never been so happy, and then you left to train in the mountains. You were using me! Just like P-chan used Akane. Did you ever love me, Ryouga-sama?__'_

_'__I… I - " he wanted to say __'__yes,__'__ maybe even should have said yes, but, "I don__'__t know… I just don__'__t know. I __**cared**__ for you, Akari. I…"_

_'__You have let them torture me. Poke me and prod me. But I forgive you, Ryouga-sama.__'__ She held out her hands. __'I forgive you b__ecause I love you.__'_

_'__Akari, you can__'__t, you__'__re…__'_

_'__Dead?__'__ she asked, and her mouth turned up in a small smile. __'__No, Ryouga-sama. You__'__re dead.__'_

_ He felt a sudden jolt, and looked down, and saw a burning hole in his chest: a massive blackened crater. Plasma burns radiated out from the impact point, flayed and charred flesh falling from charcoal bone. With a hard thump, he fell to his knees. When had he… been shot?_

_'__And she__'__s dead.__'_

_ At his feet, he saw Nabiki… face down. He didn__'__t need to turn her over to tell. The smoke and the damage could be seen through her plasma fused clothes. Hands reached down to frame his face._

_'__But we__'__ll bring you back. We__'__ll fix you and make you whole. And it__'__ll be prefect…__'__ He looked up, just as Akari__'__s fingers slashed his face._

_'__Ryouga-sama…__'_

Watching the cold water fall from his face, Ryouga's eyes narrowed. He shouldn't be having dreams like that. He'd… he'd made peace with Akari, with his failures, with his _failings_… despite what the other him had said. It was true, but it was part of his past. It was part of him. He had to accept it and move on. Besides which, the mind shield usually ensured people within had sound, often dreamless, sleep.

Reaching up to his face, the lost lieutenant touched his cheek.

His middle and index fingers came back faintly stained with blood. There was a cut, just reopening, on his cheek. Gingerly tapping it with his fingers, he tried to think back to a training match or fight when he'd gotten it. Cheeks got cut up more often than you would think, especially in martial arts duels and the like. Still… he was sure he hadn't had this before, shallow though it was.

Washing off his hands, he sighed and put the worry aside.

Today was another day, and tired or not, there was work to get lost in.

* * *

The armory was a bit crowded and noisy at present.

India and Juliet had been called together for a late afternoon meeting regarding some of their new requisitions and equipment. Those who had arrived early – Shampoo, Ukyou, Ranma and Ryu – had seen Hotel and Echo squads just leaving, presumably from a similar meet and greet. They were deep in the most secure section of the Armory Proper, a few sections removed from the firing ranges and maintenance stations.

They could see, through a transparent pane of alien alloy, one of several Armory Stores. Heavy Plasma Rifles were lined up in neat alcoves along the walls, lighter Plasma carbines stored opposite, on long secure racks. Clips for the weapons were locked below and in adjoining lockers. The room was illuminated by a soft white glow, giving the rows of futuristic yet familiar weapons a pleasant ambiance.

The room the two squads formally met up in was mostly for fitting and testing suits of powered armor. The ceiling was high enough to accommodate a man in eight foot armor making an experimental jump or two, or better yet, there was room enough for a man or woman to safely test their anti-grav systems. MARS mobile armor had a maximum flying speed of 160mph (256 km) and a typical cruising speed of about 75mph (120 km), but one had to float before one could fly, so to speak. India and Juliet had both been in this room to practice with various equipment over the months.

Waiting for them in a plastic chair was Hans Fischbach, Seiran's Senior Fabrication Technician. He was a man known to all present to one degree or another. He worked closely with Mousse in the manufacture of new hidden weapons, and he had been the one who built Kuno's new sword as a pet project. When Ukyou needed to upgrade her battle spatula, he was there for her, and he'd been called on at one time or another to make minor alterations to personal armor when it interfered with the use of certain martial arts techniques.

The outgoing and friendly German transplant was well liked at Seiran, and could be seen supervising maintenance at the Hangar, repairs or new constructions down at the Fab, or making cross disciplinary visits with the pure science techs in the labs. Hans was a world class engineer, and a capable scientist and technician in his own right. One thing it was rare to see him do, however, was to just be sitting around on a chair, waiting.

The early arrivals milled around a bit while they waited for the more tardy members of the martial arts troupe to finally show. Of those currently present, only Ranma knew what they would be seeing in the next few minutes. He and Ryouga had both already been briefed on some of the new toys Command was about to hand down to their loyal grunts for a little extra field testing. It reminded the pigtailed fighter of when they'd gotten the upgraded personal armor, modified for outer-atmosphere and non-terrestrial operations.

Except this time their intro wouldn't be a boring, prerecorded 'how-to operate your new kit' video.

That wasn't the real issue, though.

"Can you believe the nerve of that Jinx? Insulting us all the time?" Ukyou was really getting on the bandwagon, and Shampoo seemed to be on it too. Ranma simply had to endure the two women grumbling about their mutual source of vexation.

"Back in the village, we had ways of dealing with annoying-girl like that…"

"You said it sugar. That's how we do things in the streets of Osaka, too, let me tell you! Plus, she's basically like the last person on this base who can go around making fun of our figures. She's just jealous of us!"

"Is true. No can blame her though, being flat as board."

"Waaaagh," Ranma groaned, rolling his head back and staring mindlessly upward. Five minutes of girls bitching about other girls was worse than getting beaten up by your rivals. Where was everyone? When would they talk about something else? Why HIM? Ryu at least had the presence of mind to stop zoning out and nodded his head with respect to whatever anyone was saying - sparing just enough actual attention to chuckle at the sight of the Anything Goes master in metaphorical pain.

"Hey," Ryouga greeted, entering alongside Mousse, Kuno and a shy Konatsu. "Sorry about being a bit late."

"Yes," Konatsu muttered. "Sorry, sir."

Ranma just shook his head, for once resisting making a 'lost' remark; he was _that_ relieved.

"Finally!" he said with a long sigh of reprieve.

"Honestly, you should be setting a better example, lieutenant," Ukyou said in Ranma's stead. "And don't pretend like you have some good excuse either."

"Nag us more, why don't you, woman?" Kuno grumbled.

"Hey! You're cruisin' for a bruisin' jackass!"

Shampoo just chuckled. Lack of sleep from last night wasn't exactly doing a lot for their tempers, worse in some cases than others.

"Okay, okay," Ryouga interrupted, waving them both down. "We're here now, so let's start. Chief?"

"Yes, let's," Hans remarked, getting out of his chair to walk over to the group of young men and women. He briefly checked his watch, and satisfied, continued speaking. "As your officers here already know, we're here to introduce you to some new equipment."

"We're getting new kit?" Ryu spoke up, surprised. "Since when?"

"Wait, so Hotel and Echo…?" Shampoo asked. "They were here for that, too?"

"You got it." Hans nodded in her direction. "Actually, they were here for an evaluation. They've been practicing with the new stuff for a few days already. None of this is General Issue, yet. Yasuda wanted you in on it, since it looks like you'll be spending more and more time off world and engaged in other special ops."

"Section Nine restrictions," Ryu guessed, sharply putting guesses together. "I know there's stuff we're not allowed to use on Earth…"

"I'll get to that in a little while, son," Hans interrupted. "And when we finish here, we'll be heading over to the Q-" by which he meant Quartermaster "-to take care of the bureaucratic BS and other stuff. For now, this is just your intro course."

"Interesting," Mousse remarked, glasses glinting knowingly in the artificial light. "You know, I've heard about our newest squad getting some unique toys of their own."

"That scifi energy shield in particular looked promising," Ryouga added, in agreement.

Hans must've known all about Yankee's upgrades, since every modification had to be approved by the techs and command staff for use in the field. Back when India had first brought the other Ryouga and Raven in, he had made a particular point in trying to retrieve the so called T-brella. The shield on it had proven pretty resilient. The emitter had been moved since then into Jinx's armor since she had a very light effective carrying limit compared to everyone else, but the fact remained that it was an impressive level of protection.

If they _all_ had a version of that…

"Yes, that," Hans said, familiar with the technology in question. "I wouldn't hold my breath for a miraculous energy shield to solve all our problems in combat. We can not copy the design as-is, since it relies on certain materials native to the alternate dimension. Non-native elements become increasingly unstable over time, just as we suspect Elerium may break down in that other universe. Either way, the shield they have doesn't diffuse or block the entire electromagnetic spectrum… it is interesting, though, it that it seems to be energy sensitive. While most frequencies of visible light and vibratory waves can pass through at low levels of energy, anything that exceeds a predetermined level is deflected… You're not the only group I've had asking about it. As is, though, we'll have to make due until we learn to synthesize these unusual elements they have or come up with workarounds using native technology."

"That's a shame. Something like that would've have made life a lot easier for everyone," Ukyou said with a sigh. "Too good to be true, I guess."

"No chance we can get a scaled down reactive aerosol either?" Mousse asked, cupping his chin. "I mean, sure it's nothing compared to an honest to goodness force field, but still, I've seen them on MARS and ARES armor. Even if we only had a unit for the chest and arms on personal armor, it'd be a real help."

"That, we're working on," Hans assured them. "Your armor doesn't have the full sensor suite that the big powered armor suits have, and it doesn't have as many mooring points. We'll have some upgrades for you kids before Cydonia, though. They're testing the modifications at Fry Canyon as we speak."

"Americans get all the best stuff first," Shampoo growled. "No is fair!"

"They also spend the most money on R&D," Hans reminded her. "Besides, it isn't so bad getting gear that's already been tested and had the bugs worked out."

So much for that cure-all. There was no full spectrum energy shield like in Star Trek or Star Wars - not counting the one currently embedded in the Yankee girl's armor - but getting a version of the powered armor PROTECT Aerosol was a good start. Far from an energy shield, it was a reactive little nub attached to vulnerable pieces of armor. When an incoming plasma discharge was detected, the heat spike would trigger the packet to explode in a spray of special aerosol. It would diffuse and absorb lasers and high energy particles like raindrops scattering light, reducing the penetration of the plasma bolt and often prematurely detonating the anti-matter payload within.

"If we no get new defense gear, we get new weapons, then?" Shampoo guessed. "Good! Best defense is good offense!"

"Agreed," Ranma echoed his subordinate. "Take out the enemy before he can hurt you or your people. That's the best defense we have."

"Saotome, you are uncouth as always, but your sentiment has much merit," Kuno surprisingly also agreed. "Now, good smith, what have you to show us this night?"

More than a few people present groaned at the 'good smith' remark.

How a Chief Tech with two doctorates became a 'blacksmith' in Kuno Land, none could guess.

"I'll start with the Big One, for you kids," Hans said, walking over to one of the storage adjuncts in the wall. Unlocking it, he also keyed open two sections of the floor. Display cases raised up, flowing like water on mimetic beds of alien alloy.

"Anyone recognize this?" the Chief Tech asked, turning around to show them a small metallic ball, perfectly spherical and apparently seamless.

"Um," Konatsu spoke up, for the first time, "That's a Fusion Ball, sir."

Ukyou nudged the male _kunoichi_ in friendly depreciation for showing off. He was quite a study bug, but his technical knowledge was rarely on display since he didn't exactly flaunt… well, anything he did.

"Oh yeah," Ryu remarked with a nod.

"You've all seen what one of these can do on the battlefield. Very similar to Blaster Bombs, but a bit easier to store and manufacture. This is the kind we use in your Fusion-armed HWPs, but the ship mounted ones are much bigger."

Chief Fischbach then held out a much larger, cylindrical device. It was a little less than the length of his arm, minus the elbow, hand and wrist, and a good bit wider. Still, it was smaller than the man portable PAM commonly used for demolitions work. It was also stitched in yellow and black warning tape, with a very familiar radiological warning marker on what was probably the frontal face of the cylinder's body.

"This is one of our fourth-generation Fusion Ball Devices, refitted for Demolitions. In fact, what I have here is a fully functional thermonuclear bomb," Hans said, holding it very tightly and carefully in his left hand. He saw the young men and women of the two squads tense a bit.

"Don't worry about it going off. Not only isn't this one armed, I don't have the codes for it, and if you break it it'll automatically deactivate," he explained. "The trigger is the same basic mechanism in a Fusion Ball, except rigged to generate a much larger thermonuclear reaction: a clean fusion nuke, basically. You can adjust the yield to between twenty tons of TNT up to twenty kilotons with a device of this size. Larger bombs, the ones you'll be taking to Mars, will have yields of up to five megatons, but still be man portable."

"What do we need something like that for?" Ukyou asked, a bit wary. Like many Japanese, she'd visited the Hiroshima memorial as a child, and seen the pictures of what a nuclear weapon of that magnitude could do.

"Section Nine," Ryu answered her. "Among other things, it forbids the use of our nuclear arsenal on the surface of the Earth, and it also sets a minimum interception altitude at which we can use our Avalanche AAMs. Once in space or on Mars, those restrictions won't apply. Cydonia could potentially have millions of aliens in stasis or even waiting for an invasion, and no one knows how big it really is. I guess the thinking is: if all else fails... Nuke it. Nuke it a lot."

"When the time comes," Ryouga continued, slowly nodding. "We'll have the tools to do what we need to do. But, Chief, you don't expect us to have to field test this, do you?"

"Hopefully not," the tech replied, but added, "But it will be there in case you do."

Ranma and Ryouga could both guess what that meant. They'd read the reports prepared by Command after all, and they knew these were weapons being given to them in preparation for their off world expedition. To prevent capture of XCOM technology; to destroy the enemy base or bases in the event of a firepower or manpower shortage; to achieve a strategic advantage…

They would have this option.

Hans Fischbach put the two weapons, the standard Fusion Ball and the Modified Device, back in place at the secure wall alcove. He then turned to address the assortment of weapons and other technology on the tables. Passing by what looked like a plasma rifle, he picked up a grenade, allowing everyone present to get a look. He then handed it to Ranma, so it could be passed around.

"This is one of our amplified plasma grenades," Hans said as they examined the device. "Note the weight. We're suggesting it only be used with the integrated small launcher attached to our carbines and heavy rifles, but you kids should be able to throw it far enough to be safe. Also, you can see that these grenades have both a timer and IFF safety, to make sure they don't go off with a friendly nearby."

"It looks pretty normal. Just heavier," Mousse observed, holding the weapon in one hand and testing the weight. "How'd you increase the yield? More Elerium?"

"Good god no!" Fischbach chuckled at the thought. "Not only is Elerium still in relatively short supply, but the reaction chamber isn't worth re-engineering. Instead, we've doped the warhead with metallic hydrogen."

"Metallic hydrogen?" Konatsu asked, surprised. "Is - is that safe?"

"I thought hydrogen was only ever a gas or plasma?" Ukyou asked, curious. "Why is it metallic?"

"Metallic hydrogen is a form of degenerate matter with a metal-like lattice organization. We can produce it in either solid or liquid form, depending on our needs," the Chief Tech explained. "With our ability to manipulate matter using electromagnetic and gravitic fields, coupled with improvements in power generation, production has become more and more cost effective over the last two years."

"Why put it in this, though?" Mousse asked, passing along the grenade after briefly holding it up to eye – and eyeglass – level.

"Metallic hydrogen has roughly thirty five times the explosive capacity of TNT… among other uses," Fischbach answered. "We've been able to conventionally increase the yield of things like that plasma grenade, or non-plasma warheads, by using this technology. Most importantly, it allows us to save on Elerium 115, which we still can't synthesize."

"Is this allowed by Section Nine?" Ryu pressed. "It seems like another quasi-nuclear tech we can't use on Earth proper."

"There's been some debate about that, and about how it fits into Section Seven, too," Hans admitted. "I'm not even going to try and explain the legal wrangling, but the Commander is going to sanction MH weapons for general use after a couple squads put them through their paces."

"Has this… weapon system… been tested before?" Kuno asked, holding the grenade in both hands gingerly. "I would not like it going off at an inopportune time."

"They've been using it in the US Branch for a few months. Once we try it out, and Europe finishes the trials there, it'll be approved for general use and all squads, worldwide. I've evaluated all this equipment myself, in addition to the trials Hotel and Echo have been running. None of it should blow prematurely."

"This is fascinating, to be true," Kuno diplomatically replied. "But I feel it lacks the true noble air of a well forged blade. I believe you have yet to top the deadly elegance of my Heavenly Thunder Phoenix Sword...!"

"Um. Perhaps… that sword is certainly one of a kind." The tech chuckled a bit at the swordsman's unusual bias, then coughed and resumed the presentation. "Next up, we've got this little puppy."

He hefted a medium plasma rifle that had been on the table next to a heavy plasma. It was in the short barreled carbine configuration; with a red dot scope attached to the rail. It also had red tape coloring the forward hand grip, but the grip itself was a bit different, too, with a longer lip at the end. Other than that, though, it seemed identical. Forward grip types were modular, so a small change like that didn't mean much.

"This is the EX-4 Modified Plasma Munition (MPM)… a pretty heavy modification of the standard medium plasma system you all know and love." Hans shouldered the rifle, then turned it tip up and held it out. "As you know, the normal medium plasma has a less than optimal success rate against Mutons and Ethereals. Penetration is very good, and we get excellent energy transfer, but the aliens designed these weapons first so they use some tricks to protect themselves from its effects."

Both teams nodded in agreement. The medium plasma in carbine configuration was the most popular weapon for scout and recon squads, and extremely powerful in its own right. One could melt down a conventional APC or light tank with it, but it had some limitations, mostly in the form of Mutons and Ethereals.

The latter had a cloak that could significantly mitigate plasma damage below the heavy plasma range, and the former was specifically engineered and artificially armored to be a walking tank. The Muton ability to damage soak was on par with standard powered armor… better, even, against plasma, since Mutons were almost as tough under the armored skin as they were on the outside, and didn't go into shock when they took massive physical damage. Heavy Plasma rifles, in contrast, could kill just about anything they hit (barring Sectopods) but it was also overkill and seen as burning too much Elerium to be as efficient as the medium plasma.

"The boys over in Duiwelskloof came up with this about six months ago… it uses a modified Elerium crystal matrix to change the reaction output. Normally, you get most of the delivery energy dumped in the form of extreme-ultraviolet and X-rays, and it is immediately absorbed by any and all matter in the vicinity."

Most of those present nodded, having learned this before.

Fischbach continued, "The MPM system gives you a much higher incidence of low frequency highly penetrating microwaves and radio waves. Range is a bit shorter due to increased electrostatic bloom and you get less plasma penetration as the surface vaporization is spread over a wider area. I wouldn't bother using this on a Cyberdisc or Sectopod, but against an organic target…?"

The Chief smirked, now holding up the modified clip for all to see.

"The heating is mostly internal; it causes massive thermal and radiation burns and damage to all muscles and soft tissues, including sensory organs like eyes, inner ears, etc. Brain damage is instant and irreparable," he explained, and Ranma tested the balance on the standard rifle before examining the modified clip. "Conductive metals are superheated and will also cause serious burns, too. One report said it fused tissue and metal together on a Floater. Repeated hits will cause what one soldier called the 'egg in a microwave' effect."

"You said it has inferior penetration?" Ryu asked. "But it bypasses Muton armor grafts?"

"That's right. Heating up tissues is actually very difficult due to conductivity. With a normal general purpose plasma bolt, you'll probably blast off an arm or leg with a stray shot, but leave the main body technically intact because the limb you hit steams off. A body shot may or may not cripple a Muton or Ethereal, depending."

Fischbach crossed his arms, watching as the weapon got passed around and tested for weight and handling.

"With the EX-4 modified clip, you'll transfer a lot more energy into the deep tissues even the aliens can't protect. Even a glancing shot will blind the target, and there's something like a ninety percent chance you burn out the nervous system right off the bat."

"All that energy… it'll irradiate everything near the point of impact, right?" Ukyou asked. "Just like with the soft x-rays we usually worry about. That means it has a minimum safe range?"

"Smart girl. That's right," the older man replied. "Even with the radiation shielding in your armor, I wouldn't advise using it within about two or three meters."

"That gives a lot of room to work with outdoors, but less if you're inside a UFO or building," Ryu stated, contemplating the restrictions on the weapon. It was potentially very powerful, but in close quarters, one would have to watch that minimum range carefully.

"If anything, that a baby's rattle compared to this," Hans said, resting his hand on another grenade. Gingerly, he picked it up. It was only one of three with different labels, resting on the table.

"This is the C-2M Exotic Chemical Warfare Delivery System," he explained. "We don't have a lot of bio or chem-weapons in our armory. The aliens are infamously resistant. This is derived from one of their own, though… Celatid venom, to be specific."

"Those floating snotballs?" Shampoo asked, incredulous.

Celatids were extremely dangerous biological terror agents used by the Mutons, both for their ability to passively scan for and sense human brain waves across large distances, and for their deadly venom. It made the acid blood from Xenomorphs in Aliens look downright tame. At the same time, Celatids themselves looked like big floating blobs. It wasn't exactly the sort of thing that inspired terror in the human heart.

"We've weaponized the venom into a kind of pure universal solvent," Hans replied, and pointed to the biohazard warning on the grenade. "Highly concentrated and extremely volatile. The grenade itself can be thrown or used with the launcher; on impact, it releases a cloud of the stuff out to around three meters. The result is rapid degeneration of any matter in the vicinity. Metals and synthetic materials undergo rapid transmutation; complex organic molecules are instantly broken down. An organic target, if hit, will be both liquefied and evaporated, leaving a toxic puddle of semi-solid matter behind."

Not a pretty picture, but they'd all seen pictures of what Celatids could do already in basic orientation.

"If you're using these, you'll also need a counter-agent to sterilize the area and make it safe to pass through again," the tech continued, making sure they got the warning. "Traces of the agent will linger in the air for about a minute, but it's pretty heavy and rapidly falls to the ground. Your NBC scrubber will protect against it for a while but breathing this stuff will burn it out very quickly… and believe me, you do **not** want even a few micrograms of this in your lungs. Give the area a minute or two to clear, and then use the counteragent foam on any surface you'll be touching. This can and will eat through your boots and you won't feel it until the soles of your feet disappear. Just fair warning."

"Lovely," Mousse remarked with an evil grin.

It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

"It can't get worse than that, can it?" Ukyou asked.

"And this… " Hans took that opening to hold up a green labeled grenade. "Is the C-3XX Special version of the ECWDS. Some of you are already familiar with what this can do to the human body. This weapon is still technically under review, and will likely never see general issue. Or even special issue."

"Weaponized Jyusenkyou water," Ranma said it with an undisguised frown.

"Drowned Octopus, I believe. To make sure the target can't move or fight in any way, and since we always fight on land, it'll be easy to identify the victim." Chief Fischbach whistled appreciatively at the implications. "I'll tell you, I've worked on a lot of things since coming here… but more than anything else, this gives me the chills."

"You're not the only one," Ryouga assured him. "I'd rather not have to rely on Jyusenkyou at all. But if everything else fails, it can be our trump card."

"You knew about this?" Ukyou asked the lost one, then turned to Ranma. "Man, you guys…"

"You were never cursed," Shampoo spoke up then. "So you no could really understand. To use this as a weapon… like Mousse tried to do once…"

"Hmf!" The hidden weapons master crossed his arms petulantly. "I wasn't the only one to try. That bastard Taro for one…"

"The point is, it is act of desperation," Shampoo finished, ignoring the male Amazon. "I think only we should have to use this weapon. Is too terrible. No one else understand how bad it is."

"I'll leave that up to you lot and Commander Yasuda," Hans said, carefully putting the weapon back down on the table, and into the groove that kept it in place. The grenade itself had double redundant safeties and warnings covering it.

India and Juliet watched it silently, apprehensively.

"Last, but not least, we have these," the Chief gestured to the assembled rifles and handguns on the other table. They were solid looking weapons, but still bore much more conventional design schemes than laser or plasma weapons. In fact, as the squads gravitated over and started examining the weapons, they immediately saw the implications: these weren't energy weapons at all.

Yet, they were all new designs.

Ryouga lifted one of the handguns; larger than the already big SOCOM he was used to, but with the clip loading conventionally parallel to the slanted ergonomic grip. Despite being rather large, enough to pass off as a small SMG even, it was extremely light, even to someone with his level of strength: a little more or less than a kilogram, maybe. The construction was solid, though, and he could feel with the passive breaking point perception that it was mostly lightweight alien alloys and various plastics. The finish was a matte black and gray, and it had unusual and obvious recoil dampening mechanisms and a charged cooling sleeve fitted above the grip, accounting for much of the bulk. There were attachment points for a tactical flashlight and laser designator, sights or scopes, and even an optional shoulder stock.

Interestingly, there was also no obvious ejection port.

Picking up one of the magazines, the lieutenant was a bit surprised by the weight. The gun itself was light enough, but the cartridge felt much heavier than normal. He looked down and checked it closely. There was a piece of metal covering the top of the clip, to prevent its actual insertion, but Ryouga could see the bullets inside, packed tightly in what looked like blue foam. Each one had a little yellow designator with a silver stripe down the middle.

He looked to his left, then, and saw Shampoo and Ukyou both checking out the rifle versions of the new weapons. Shampoo had what looked to be the marksman version of the weapon, given the length and attached scope. The rifles were all stubby, blocky, bullpup designs… following in the same general design ascetic of the XCOM manufactured laser line. Ukyou's was a shorter compact carbine version, with a detached grenade launcher attachment and red dot sight. Nearby, Ryu was aiming down the length of another bare-bones version.

There was also a heavy weapon of some sort, looking like a light cannon torn off of a vehicle or aircraft, with a very large frontal section. Konatsu was handling the big gun with ease, and examining it with Ranma. Mousse was also eyeing the weapon, his interest made obvious by the fact that he kept anxiously adjusting his glasses.

They were all definitely projectile weapons… just as the report had indicated. Actually seeing them for the first time, though, reminded the lost lieutenant of when he'd first been introduced to the baseline imported arsenal squaddies trained with for emergencies. Yasuda had demanded they master the basic weapons so they could act under Section Seven – the charter restrictions that limited use of alien technology against human enemies of XCOM.

Like the damned Sirius Conspiracy.

"These are fresh from the States," Chief Fischbach said, smiling as the two squads examined the new imports like kids in a candy store. "Special Propellant High Velocity Particle Delivery Weapons; SPHVPDW for short. Of course, that's still pretty long, so a lot of folks are calling them 'Gauss Weapons.'"

"Non standard propellants?" Konatsu asked, handing the heavy gun over to Mousse to examine another handgun, like the one in Ryouga's hands.

"The bullets really make the weapon in this case," Hans explained, "There's no ignition pin, for example, or even a hammer. Instead, the guns fire small gyrojets that use a combination of electrothermal plasma ignition and special liquid propellant, five times more powerful than rocket fuel. As you can see by looking at the see-through model clip, each bullet is caseless, the outer sections disintegrating when the metallic ring on the back end plasmates. Because the bullets are basically self propelled, except for the initial acceleration, there's relatively little recoil. Once it gets going, the bullet will supercavitate allowing it to even operate underwater."

"Why would we be fighting underwater?" Ukyou asked, brushing some of her hair back as she examined one of the safety-sealed clips.

"There's supposedly been a higher incidence of USO type activity over the last year," Ranma replied, shrugging. "My guess is, it's less for our benefit as ground troops and more so we have a way to flush out UFOs puddle jumping in lakes and stuff. Since we can't use nukes or fusion balls as depth charges."

"Unless HQ gets desperate enough to start sending us after splashed UFOs," Mousse reasoned.

"The supercavitation effect also improves accuracy and penetration of the projectile, that last one being particularly important due to the ballistic properties of the MPP round," Chief Fischbach answered.

"Now, as for the rifles themselves, exotic alloy construction was still required to mitigate the intense pressure, bore heat fluxes and extreme surface temperatures the weapon is subjected to as the bullet accelerates and enters a full burn. There's minimal moving parts and it uses the ENL-5 lubrication you're familiar with. It should be good for all weather conditions, and if you take them into space, and there should be no problem with temp extremes or vacuum. It can handle four hundred degree thermal shock, which is a good deal more than you'll see in space or on Mars."

"The one really unusual thing to note," he warned. "Is the anti-proton accelerator built into the base of the weapon. The real punch comes from a tiny stream of antimatter injected into the bullet casing before it fires. On impact, most of the round will disintegrate and ignite."

"So its like a knock-off plasma rifle, then?" Ryu asked. "Just firing a bullet instead of a particle stream?"

"But, um, antimatter injection? Is that safe?" Konatsu softly inquired. "What if there is a jam or other problem?"

"Each weapon has a series of internal diagnostic features to evaluate whether both the bullet and the rifle are 'safe to fire.' Given the nature of this technology, we'd want to take every precaution. If there's something obstructing or interfering with the anti-proton stream, it won't inject, though there will always be a certain amount of anti-matter in the accelerator reservoir once it goes hot or active. There's a manual ejection port in case of a serious jam, but unless its something like flakes of alien alloy, any round firing will annihilate any matter stuck in the barrel. Barring that, the casing can snap open to allow replacement in the field."

Hans then turned to address Ryu's question. "The SPHVPDW project was started as a means to produce weapons comparable to alien plasmas, but without using so much - or preferably any - Elerium 115. Now, we're not Elerium independent yet from top to bottom, but we're getting close, and the less 115 we use in ground weapons the more we have for our Avengers, Firestorms, Fusion Balls and ship mounted weapons."

"High Command's as penny pinching as always when it comes to their precious E-115," the Yamasenken master grumbled, peering into the see-through model Gauss clip.

"With ammo in, it weighs more than laser rifle," Shampoo observed, still testing out the marksman rifle. "Maybe seven or seven and a half kilogram?"

"It actually weighs a little less than our re-chambered 6.7mm MSG-90 sniper rifle, but yes, both the pistol and rifle are a bit on the heavy side compared to most battle and assault rifles. There's also practical size and weight limitations on ammunition capacity per clip, since the individual rounds are larger and heavier than normal. The 12.7mm rifle round is about 400 grain, for example. The ones we got from the US have twelve shots per clip for the pistol, eighteen for the rifles. As for the weight, it'll be light as a feather for someone in MARS armor," the Chief reminded her. "You kids all have that super strength, too, so it'll be like normal for you, I'd bet."

"So they're a supplement for plasma weapons, not a total replacement," Ryu concluded, correctly. "What sort of muzzle velocity are we looking at?"

"That's right. These aren't a replacement for our plasma carbines and heavies," Hans conceded. "Except for the plasma pistol, which Command wants to start phasing out from front line types. Waste of good Elerium. These were made to fill a niche for rapid fire, 115-conserving, support arms. The Heavy Laser is still a beast when it comes to sniping and the plasmas are still our heaviest hitters."

"But," he added. "Laser rifles don't have the refire rate for suppressive duties or room clearing, and really neither do plasmas. Tests proved that an enhanced sidearm needs high refire rather than the accuracy we get from the laser pistol or the raw power of the plasma. These next generation projectile rifles will supplant our existing stocks of laser rifles… at least until the boys over in R&D upgrade the third gen lasers again, and I hear they're having energy storage issues, so it may be 2010 by then."

"So how powerful are these, then?" Ukyou asked, cradling the carbine casually in her arm. "If they're going to be replacing our laser rifles and plasma pistols?"

"Plus, I assume they're our new weapons of choice if we have to go out and fight people instead of aliens," Ryu jumped in with another astute observation.

"Well, a perfect example is the NLP - Mk2E 'Next Gen Sidearm' Lieutenant Hibiki and Squaddie Konatsu have here." The Chief walked around the table to where Ryouga and Konatsu were standing. "It is chambered for 10mm, specifically the XCOM Custom Automatic Multi-purpose projectile (MPP), classified as an armor piercing incendiary explosive. It has superior stopping power and penetration compared to the laser pistol and better fire rate than the plasma pistol."

The tech smirked again, as he picked up the third available handgun on the table.

"Sergeant Kumon asked about projectile speed before. The plasma pistol, for example, fires a particle stream at around eleven kilometers per second. There's no way we'll match that with a projectile, unfortunately, but the specs for the Gauss aren't too bad."

He unlocked one of the straps, and removed a block from the magazine. It had a silver stripe, indicating it was MPP. He then held it up for everyone to see.

"190 grain, about 12 grams. Its speed actually increases with distance instead of decreasing, at least as long as it keeps burning and turning, so its more like a little rocket than a conventional bullet. You see the tip there? The wolfram superalloy kinetic-kill core is designed to mushroom and shatter on impact, delivering massive amounts of kinetic energy to a target and causing catastrophic hydrostatic shock as the round over-penetrates at multiple angles. In terms of speed on impact, the rifle's 12.7mm will typically be reaching two point five kps at the 50 meter mark... the Gauss Heavy Cannon's 24mm round peaks out at around 4 kps, though, giving it a real punch. MPP rounds have the silver tip, SLAP have red. The ones with the blue band are tracer rounds."

"The rest of the round is the gallium arsenide disintegration pocket. That's the section that contains and ignites the injected antimatter. The initial impact force is about the same as you'd get from a old school light fifty then on top of that you add in the explosive effect. Still not as hard hitting as a pure plasma, but pretty close, and Command would rather burn hundreds of dollars per bullet than keep using up irreplaceable Elerium."

"The caseless block itself is very stable," he assured them. "Water-proof, sand-proof, soldier-proof… _maybe_… nothing's completely soldier-proof, but this is close. It will only ignite under precise conditions, so don't worry about it cooking off due to heat or anything like that. The barrel is _technically_ self cleaning after every round fired, but tests have shown you should still manually clean it every two or three hundred shots."

"Don't worry, we've got plenty of operating and maintenance programming and literature to ply you with," Chief Fischbach finished. "We'll be getting you kids certified first thing, then you can hit the range and see what you think."

India and Juliet took a moment to digest all they had just been told. Ryouga glanced back down at the handgun: superior to a laser, but inferior to a pure plasma - little recoil, but even two kps was slow compared to an eleven kps particle stream, much less lightspeed. It packed a nice punch, though, and if Command was _that_ concerned about the Elerium stockpiles worldwide, then a compromise "hybrid" weapon like this had to have merit. It also implied that efforts to manufacture native Elerium-115 were still going nowhere fast, forcing 'alternative approach' type weapons to the forefront.

Looking around, he could see different thoughts in everyone's minds. They were just soldiers, after all. It was up to the tech-heads to figure out what to do about the E-115 situation. Best not to worry too much about it and instead focus on the here-and-now. And here and now...

They'd have to get these to a range and see first hand how they performed.

"What about this?" Mousse asked, holding up the light cannon with one arm. "You said they were keeping the heavy laser around, so I'm assuming this will be replacing the heavy and autocannons?"

Fischbach nodded. "NLPR - Mk5 is our 'next gen squad heavy/automatic.' The 24mm gyrojet round is called the Custom 'Monster' MPP. That's 900 grain and the rifle itself has three recycled-elerium slush particle accelerators. It has a technical rate of fire of 300 rounds per minute."

A small smile bloomed on the Chinese weapons master's face.

"I think I'd like to see that," he muttered, just quietly enough to hear.

"You'll all get the chance," the Chief promised. "I hear Commander Yasuda assured the boys over at the US Branch that it would get a thorough test run."

"Oh, I know it will," Ryouga dryly agreed, holding the handgun up. His expression was impassive, but there was a dangerous glint in his eyes.

The Commander wanted some field tests?

That was just fine. India and Juliet would be happy to oblige.

* * *

With a skip in her step, Jinx, pink haired sorceress extraordinaire, made her way into the Ops section of the base. She remembered back, mere days ago, when she wouldn't have even made it within a hundred yards of the area without an armed guard, but after their recent performance and a few good words put in by the likes of the delightful Sergeant Karpov, she didn't have any trouble at all beyond going through the standard security checks. All she had to do was explain what she was up to, get some quick confirmation, and they let her in gladly enough.

It was the first time she'd been up here, and the first time she'd seen 'The Pit', as it was apparently called. Fully three stories tall, the chamber seemed to have a few offices and such along the second floor, and a large, mostly open area down on the bottom floor. It was divided by low partitions, and generously spaced workstations. Rather than insultingly tiny, isolated cubicles each MilOps operator was graced with a lavish work area. Considering the low walls of the partitions, it was easy to spot her quarry. She'd made a few quiet inquiries among the ladies down in the cafeteria, and if they were to be believed, then Jinx should be just about in time to catch her in time for her break.

Moving over as silently as only one that had trained diligently in the art of being sneaky could do, she slid up around the back of her quarry's work station and leaned against the partition, crossing her arms over her chest. Looking over the seated girl's shoulder, she smirked at what she saw on the screen of the computer that the brunette was studying so intently.

"Comic books, Nabiki? Exactly what aspect of battling evil aliens from beyond the stars is this research for?"

"Jinx?" the Tendo sister yelped, quickly spinning in her chair. Noticing she was alone, however (and not with the pit supervisor or the Commander herself), Nabiki sighed and lowered her arm from her screen, resting her hand back on the mouse and clicking to the next page of the online manga.

"God, as if we don't get enough sneaking around from Ranma and Konatsu…" she grumbled. "I'll have you know that the latest chapter of _Gokusen_ is serious business. Very serious business. We're in the middle of a new story arc."

"Gokusen? What's that about, did that monkey tail guy with all the dragon balls have a kid or something?"

"That's Dragonball. This manga has nothing to do with it. It's about a Yakuza heiress, Kumiko, who…" she gave the younger girl a half lidded stare, seeing she was being baited. "It isn't a _comic book_. It's a magazine."

Jinx giggled, obviously amused. "If you say so. I don't know much about this, aside from the fact that Gizmo had about a million gigs of the stuff downloaded into his backpack. Ever since he tried to show me that La Blue Girl ninja show ... well ..."

"Ah, tentacle porn," Nabiki said with a smile, leaning back in her chair. "Japan is one of the biggest exporters in the world, but once you see the naughty tentacles about everything else just sort of fades into insignificance."

The corner of the younger girl's lips quirked up into a wry grin. "A connoisseur, I see. I had to take Gizmo's internet privileges away for 24 hours after seeing that one. Still, I ain't here to judge, I'm all about the Yakuza, after all."

"Really? We actually used to have a few in Nerima, back when I was little. A group came back last year, too. I'll leave you to imagine what happened when they tried to pull some anti-Chinese racketeering at the Nekohanten,"

"A little Hot Drop Amazon to go?" Jinx covered her grin with the back of a hand. "Still, bad business decisions aside, you gotta have the professional respect for such a slick organization. Not that I'd ever get a chance to join up."

"Really? You think so? Well, it's true you're _gaijin_, so there's that." Nabiki shrugged. The Yakuza was infamously conservative. A hot tempered foreigner girl wasn't exactly what they typically recruited for… at least in any of the fields Jinx would entertain for career advancement.

Looking down to the watch on her narrow wrist, Jinx nodded. "So, it's coming up on your break time, ain't it?" Looking back to the brunette, she gave a coquettish wink. "So, can I buy ya lunch, good lookin?"

"Mmm. Sure thing, but what about today's 'Lesbian Overtone limit' as you called it?" Nabiki smiled back, hoping just a little to unsettle the other girl. As expected, Jinx was immune to this level of embarrassment. She was definitely made of sterner stuff than most of what passed for Nabiki's other age-related peers. Ukyou and Akane were too easy, and Shampoo too volatile. With those three, all it usually took was a wink and a few choice words to provoke a near freak-out.

Jinx tossed her bright pink hair teasingly. "I suppose it is a waste if there aren't any guys to get all hot and bothered around to watch ... Hey, we should totally go grab Kuno, Mousse and maybe that Ryu guy, then give em a real good show. I bet they'd love that."

The older girl laughed aloud at that. "That they would! Though I think we'd be hard pressed to match that show Starfire put on earlier. Reminds me of when Ryouga-baby described Shampoo flashing everyone last year, trying to glomp Ranma. Oh, the 'friends' we have…"

Jinx nodded. "That's definitely the way I'd put it. Still, I do owe you. After all, if it weren't for you, there's no way that Ryouga would have saved Star in time. Of course, if it weren't for you, Ryouga wouldn't have an arm in a sling, either, but then, it's good to put the fear of god into that guy from time to time."

"I know. He thinks he's invincible sometimes, just 'cause he can take a couple tons of rock to the face without noticing… give me a couple more seconds to close up," Nabiki said, and turned to give her full attention back to her workstation. Aside from the online manga, she was in the middle of reading what looked to be a political blog, and several stock market related sites. One was updating in real time. Jinx snuck a peek, but didn't get to see any real details.

There were also a few documents, but Nabiki kept those closed.

"You wouldn't believe what a mess the LDP is becoming," she commented while she worked. "We're going to get completely creamed at the next election… just… there!" Tendo finished up, and her screen switched to a security interface. "Here's hoping we have another day without an alien invasion or monstrous half human rampage."

Heading out of Ops was basically the same as heading in, with the exact same security checks coming and going. Nabiki knew all the guards by first name, and exchanged a few words with both before she and Jinx entered the elevator.

As the doors closed behind them, the sorceress leaned against one of the walls. "So, I've been thinkin' ... What do you think the odds would be that we could talk Mousse and Kuno into a weekly card game or something like that?"

"Technically, there's no gambling on base, so you can usually only scam… ah, _win_… so much. Trust me on that."

The younger schemer waved that off. "I'm not talking about scamming - lord knows I already took Kuno and Ryu for half their life savings while we were waiting for Starfire to wake up. I mean ... y'know ... just to hang out ..."

"Well, anything's better than them getting into more drinking sessions with… certain people. If you ask, I'm sure they'd be glad to work something out. The guys seem to like you," Nabiki admitted, and chuckled a bit. "The girls, less so."

"Heh, well I can live with that. I mean, are _you_ crazy about Shampoo?" Rolling her shoulder to get a knot out, the pink haired sorceress gave a bored yawn. "Ukyou, on the other hand, is just so easy to get a rise out of, it's hard to resist."

"It is," Nabiki agreed. "I'll give her props for calling the Saotomes on the engagement, though. She and Mister Kuonji got a sweet deal on their yatai repayment. I can't believe Ranma just accepted their first offer without even trying to haggle…! Martial artists! No business acumen at all!"

Rolling her eyes, Jinx shook her head. "I can believe it. That guy always takes the easy way out given the chance. The only question that remains to be answered is: how long will it take for him to finally shack up with Akane ... or has it happened already? I'm not as good at reading him and her as I am you and Ryouga, after all."

"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to discuss whether those two are having a relationship, if they are having a relationship at all, which they may or may not be." She saw Jinx's eyes widen a bit at the statement. "Sorry, they have a payment plan." Which explained it perfectly.

Sibling loyalty indeed.

"And Ryouga-baby and I haven't really been as subtle over the last few weeks as we used to be," she added, taking advantage of the relative emptiness of the elevator. "I've heard some stories about the 'me' you know back home. Not exactly the kind of guy she's into, is he?"

Jinx shook her head fiercely. "Not even a chance. She was fond enough of the knucklehead, but definitely nothing like that." She then smirked wickedly. "Then again, our Ryouga wouldn't yell out brazenly that he was gonna take his 'hot girlfriend' back to base after a mission and ... what was it, 'screw your brains out'?"

A suffering sigh.

"Is there _anyone_ who didn't hear it?" she asked. "Despite my trying to keep all that on a private channel?"

"My Ryouga didn't have his helmet on," Jinx answered, for what little it was worth. "Your man had to turn on his external mic to get into their epic little angst fest." She then shuddered. "Man, that whole thing there was _way_ too reminiscent of when the Hive Academy went up... Not a pleasant time..."

"They were… well, I don't think it was ever really out of control until the end," Nabiki replied, looking pensive for a moment as she remembered the younger Ryouga's words. Even far removed from the battle and from the insane battle auras, the Tendo sister recalled cringing when she heard it. It was kind of amazing 'her Ryouga' (to borrow a term) hadn't tried to kill his other self then and there.

Jinx nodded. "Well, I guess that was the point, really. Ryouga knew that good natured ribbing wasn't going to accomplish what they needed. Still, even I'm impressed he went that far. I don't know if he was being ruthless, or suicidal, honestly."

"Both. Things have gotten a lot better, lately, but if this had been a few months ago? It'd have been a bloodbath out there, Saffron or not. One thing you've noticed by now… Ryougas, and Hibikis in general, come with a lot of baggage." Nabiki crossed her arms and looked over at the elevator doors. "You know, I never liked that in a guy, actually. Who wants more drama in their life? And it isn't like I saw him and had some schoolgirl crush. There are still things about him that annoy me, and there probably always will be. Then there's that stuff with Akane, with the curse, and… and Akari."

A flash of emotion crossed Jinx's face, then, but Nabiki wasn't looking and missed it.

"When we all came here, it was hard for a lot of us to adjust. He and I became friends, then close friends, and then… well." She shrugged, unable to fully explain it, even now. "Things happen. We're still friends… and the baggage and complications don't seem as much of a hassle as they used to. Still, I could've done without him yelling about our sex life to everyone in shouting range."

"Yeah, well, that's guys for you in general, I figure. At least you haven't had exes trying to kill you when you decide you need some 'time apart'. Then again, you probably haven't dated the same kind of guys I have. Trust me, Ryouga is _stable_ compared to some of those head cases."

"Well, Kinnosuke and I did sort of try to kill each other…" Nabiki reminisced. "He was kind of a freak, but that _was_ a memorable date." She inclined her head towards Jinx, and for just a moment, a truly evil glint entered her eyes. "I still have the five yen I crushed him with."

A second later and the look evaporated as quickly as it had appeared; the elevator doors opened, and the two girls heading down the hall into Residential Block E making for the mess on the second level. It was a little early, and this meant a higher proportion of military personnel to civilian staff heading out to eat. Two soldiers in olive drab uniforms were already heading down the stairs at the end of the corridor.

"On that topic, I heard what you said, about looking into the abyss and blinking," Nabiki continued, seemingly casually. "I guess you knew us… or the other me, pretty well to make a statement like that."

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Gawd! You were listening in on our conversation! What ever happened to privacy here?"

"Everything you say or hear on a mission is recorded by your Watchman unit and your medical gear. Basically like a human black box," she answered, not put off by the invasion of privacy in the least. "It helps us recognize and counter psionic tampering and other mind tricks. So, yeah, my ears were buzzing. Plus, you know, _it__'__s me_. I am the all seeing eye!"

"All seeing eye, huh?" That brought a smirk to Jinx's lips. "Yeah, I know all about that. Man, you wouldn't believe our Nabiki. She even played _me_ once... and yeah, I did know her pretty well, but if you're talking about _that_, well, that's not just about you. Like I told Star, I saw that kind of stuff a lot back at the Academy. It leaves a mark on a person..."

"I won't ask what it was in your case, though," she assured the Tendo sister, knowing it had to be something major. "Not my business, really."

"Good. Because it isn't something I can or will talk about," Nabiki replied, her tone markedly frosty. Naturally, that made Jinx even more curious, but she knew better than to tempt fate in this case. Nabiki studiously changed the topic, to boot: "I still can't believe your world has a school for… do you really call yourselves 'supervillains?' I'm pretty sure even terrorists don't call themselves terrorists."

"Heh! But that's where all the **fun** is, Biki!" Jinx argued with a laugh. "I mean, guys that twirl mustaches and tie girls to railroad tracks are 'villains'. People that can punch over Fort Knox in one shot, now that's a **Super** villain. I mean, it's a matter of professional pride. Besides, I'm pretty sure the 'heroes' started it; we were just trying to keep pace. Wouldn't want to seem lame in comparison, would we? I mean, what's a plain old villain gonna do against a 'Super Hero'?"

"She'll probably get beaten up and end up in jail," was the rather snarky reply. "Only to break out again, commit the same basic crime but with a slightly different theme, and then get beaten up again, repeating the cycle ad nauseum. I don't know about other-me, but getting punched in the face or manhandled by some muscle bound steroid case in tights or an animal costume is low on my to-do list. I'll stick to white collar crime… not that I'm planning anything of course. But hypothetically."

Jinx shook her head sadly. "Oh, the _uninitiated_," she lamented. "So little do you know of our ways. By the time I took off, other-you already had a technology firm up and running, even drawing interest from massive companies like Lexcorp. Actually, now that I think about it, that may not really be a good thing... Lex being Lex... but not only is she making more money than you, I know she's having way more fun."

Jinx lifted her hands helplessly. "I mean, sure, that might mean taking a beating every once in awhile, or getting tied up to a street light, but that's why she's got minions to play meat shield for her! It's all risk vs reward, after all. Just that for some people, the former is far more seductive than the latter."

"The idea of minions _does_ appeal to me," the Tendo sister admitted. "And yes…" she drawled out. "I've actually thought about this since we brought Raven and little-Ryo in. I just don't think it's that feasible here. We don't have the culture for it. As you said, no super heroes means no super villains. Though… it _is_ the challenge, not the money. I'd rather make a memorable fifty yen than an easy thousand. And I'd rather make a memorable thousand yen than fifty!"

Jinx actually shuddered at that thought. "Oh, hell, I would **not** want to try to set up shop on this world. No offense, but you guys are kinda psycho. I mean, seriously? Starfire crashes into one measly clock tower and she gets half the Chinese army on her ass? ...Then again, if I was a really **big** bad, like Braniac, or something, this planet would probably be a quick snack."

She shook her head.

"Honestly, when it boils down to it," Jinx decided. "You guys are lucky you have such a small universe here. I mean, you guys only got one menace to worry about, and you're already pushing it back. You don't have 'Sun Eaters' or 'Doomsday' or... um... Bizzaro...? Maybe not Bizzaro. But you guys don't have crazy world-ending stuff happening every year..."

"You're not exactly making me want to visit your slice of the dimensional pie, Jinx."

"Oh, come on, you'd love it!" Jinx shook the older girl's shoulders. "Sure, we got big problems, but we got big heroes to deal with them, too. For the most part, people are pretty happy and industrious. Hell, the entire world knows about aliens, and no one even cares."

"That's probably because your aliens don't want to rape and eat you," Nabiki argued, holding Jinx back to quickly check some papers pinned to a wall outside the mess. It was an old style corkboard, with flat pins to keep things in place. Since everyone came to the main mess hall eventually, it was a convenient place for people to make non-electronic announcements or ask for signups or advertise activities. The Tendo sister seemed to be taking a few seconds to look for something.

"I admit, it'd be nice if we had someone who could just fly to Mars and win the war for us. But then what? Maybe it's for the best that we fight this as regular people… and that includes crazy martial artists," she said, still looking for one thing in particular. "Anyway, where is that? Ah, here!"

Pointing to one plain piece of paper, partly tucked under the mess hall calendar menu, Nabiki motioned Jinx over. The paper had some names on it and a date at the top, plus an "A" in a circle. There was also a pen hanging by a string nearby, very old school.

"This is for a big cross-team poker game. I know Konatsu, Mousse and Ryu almost always go, plus a lot of other guys and girls," she explained. "Mostly for bragging rights, but sometimes someone gets something from the outside and puts it in the pot to spice things up. Interested?"

Jinx smirked instantly. "Damn right. If everyone else here plays like Kuno and Ryu, then I'd better bring a wheel barrow to carry everything away."

"Not everyone here is at the level of just mastering the intricate art of Old Maid." Nabiki actually shook a little at the memory of a certain martial artist completely failing at any and every card game. It wouldn't have been worth the effort normally to even bother trying to help out a case like that, but at the time the dojo – and more importantly her room and her stuff – had been on the line.

"Watch out for Lieutenant Feretti in particular," she warned as Jinx added her name to the list. "He seems harmless enough, but he's an old card shark."

"Sounds like my kinda guy." As Jinx scrawled down her name on the list, she turned back to Nabiki. "Still, I was kinda hoping for something a little more... 'just us guys', I guess."

Taking a minute to look around, making sure that absolutely no one was in earshot, she turned back to Nabiki and began to speak in a low whisper. "I haven't told _anyone_ about this, it's kind of a secret pact between us, but you, me, Kuno, Mousse, and Gizmo - one of my old team mates - we had a little WoW guild going."

"Oh, gods, _that_ game," Nabiki said, her tone ambivalent and obviously more than a little conflicted. "My roommate back at Meiji University got me into it and… and it was just a miracle I got any work done that term. Kuno-baby and Mousse were into that kind of stuff? They never seemed like the type. Well, Tatewaki I guess I can see, but he always role-played in real life, so I didn't think he'd bother online."

Jinx gave a dark chuckle.

"Oh, you have _no_ idea," she lamented. "Once he got into his Paladin, he was sold. I mean, it helped that we only had so much personal time allowed, so we couldn't get hooked. When you can only play once or twice a week, it seems a lot more interesting than playing for 12 hours a day. Not to mention it gave us a subtle little chat line once we all went our own ways."

"I kind of lost contact with my old guild," Nabiki admitted, but didn't seem too broken up about it. "Plus, look where I work. I don't think Commander Yasuda would like me chatting up my old friends on some private line. Free memory wipes for everyone! But… out of curiosity… what was other-me's character?"

"Night elf Rogue. She had kinda wanted to play a blood elf, but Mousse was all over that, like white on rice, so she had to go for the next sexiest thing, of course."

"So she ended up Alliance?" the older girl chuckled lightly at that, as the two entered the sparsely populated mess hall. "Nelf rogue isn't bad; belf rogue is better. Of course, everyone hates you in battlegrounds and aims for that sweet blood elf ass. …It'd have been kind of neat to play with some of the Nerima crew back then, I guess. I never did get to see the end of the Tempest Keep or Black Temple raids. Or most of the old world stuff. See, now you're making me want to youtube these stupid things!"

"Bah, youtube," Jinx muttered, walking inside the commissary. "Just do it yourself someday. Anyway, I'm starvin, so let's go eat already."

There was basically no wait this early and the two girls could simply head up at their leisure. Nabiki made a bee line for the buffalo chicken salad, followed by the drink machine. Jinx ultimately opted for a more diverse plate. She and Yankee Squad were still technically on duty, but wouldn't be doing any strenuous work after everything that had happened the night before.

"So, aside from some much needed intelligent company at lunch, what brought you up to my glorified cubicle-of-war?" Nabiki asked, wondering if something in particular was on the younger girl's mind instead of just random company. Which was, admittedly, nice to have.

"Mostly just wanted to hang with a familiar face, even if it is only one-way." Jinx spared a small shrug as she carried her tray to the nearest table. "You've already helped us out so much, to boot, so I figured providing some company for lunch was, literally, the least I could do."

"Well, thanks."

They took a few more steps before -

"If you feel indebted to me, I can definitely think up some ways to assuage your conscience," Nabiki couldn't resist adding with a laugh. "You can start by filling me in on some of the zany adventures you guys had back home. Especially this love quadrangle you guys have that my-Ryouga stubbornly refuses to fill in the details for."

"Love Quadrangle! Heh! He _wishes_." Taking a seat, Jinx set down her tray. "As much as certain people might not want to think it, this little 'competition', has been long over. Unfortunately, Ryouga picked up Ranma's disgusting habit of being unable to actually commit to a decision once he makes it."

"It seems to be a martial arts lifestyle thing. Like the obsession those two had about always climbing into the roof to hang out." Nabiki rolled her eyes. "I won't even get into some of the old fashioned ideas they have. I'd thought Ryouga-baby would actually know better, since he always seemed to be well traveled, but if anything he's even worse. Anyway, never mind that… how'd you bunch get into this situation? I want it straight from the source."

With that, Jinx gave a lengthy sigh. Despite that, though, she didn't seem adverse to the proposition.

"Alright, if that's what you want." She smirked, and added a warning, "But I hope you've got a long break, because this is gonna be a long story."

* * *

Whistling a calming tune to himself, Cyborg continued to fiddle away at the schematic he was working on. Moving a capacitor here, a super conductor there, he struggled to make it all fit together in a logical and ideally cool looking manner. It was restful work, and kept him out of trouble, so he didn't mind. He couldn't be sure, but he got the feeling that a few of the resident engineers were thankful to see him taking a break from running the forges day in and day out, working on crazy, exotic projects.

Projects that probably cost a lot of money, too… but he'd gotten permission for everything he built or altered, so if expense really became a problem, he'd have been the first to hear it. Overall, the requisition and proposal schemes had been relatively smooth and hassle free, a nice surprise since he'd initially assumed he would have to fight for every scrap of alien alloy. No one said as much, but it was likely he had some friends in high places putting checks in boxes.

Taking such a relaxing approach to his work, for a change, he looked up straight away when he heard the main entrance open. He was in for a pleasant surprise, as he noted the shock of familiar red hair that topped the newcomer to the facility. Lifting a hand, finally buffed back to its former, shiny, glory he waved her over.

"Yo, Star!" he called out. "What brings ya to my neck of the woods?"

The Tamaranian quickly floated over to his workstation, before perching herself lightly on the large work bench beside him. She glanced at the screen before him, but he could tell she wasn't interested enough to really examine the schematic - which was too bad, really, cuz it was just fascinating stuff. He'd been down in the research labs, talking to some new friends for half the morning, just to come up with the concept.

"You were not present upon my recovery this morning," she stated in a blasé tone, absently lifting up a random piece of equipment from the bench to examine.

Uh-oh, the cybernetic teen didn't need an array of sensors to detect the incoming guilt trip.

"Oh, come on, Star, don't be like that. You know that I woulda been there if I had had a leg to stand on." Standing up, he gestured down to make his point. Her gaze followed his hands, down to his legs ... or leg and a half, actually. While his one limb was the same as usual, if not a bit shinier, the other leg, the one which had been vaporized by Saffron, had been replaced by an extremely barebones prosthetic. It was so basic, in fact, that it wasn't even half the diameter of the leg it was attached to, giving it an almost skeletal appearance.

Instantly, her eyes lit up with amusement and she squealed giddily.

"It is so _spindly_! It is like the leg of a Danubian Spider Tick!" Holding her sides now, she nearly teetered off the desk. "Or - or, you could be an Earthly Pirate, with the peg leg and the 'Arrrr'ing and whatnot!"

Cyborg glared at the helplessly giggling girl. "Oh, come on, where's the sympathy? Besides, considering what I heard happened at your wake up, haven't I already suffered enough for missing it?"

Leaning back, Starfire glanced at him through lidded eyes. "Are you saying that there is something you would have liked to see, then?"

It took Cyborg a second to tear his eyes away from the Tamaranian's not so subtly displayed body. Giving his cranium a quick shake, he turned sat back down in front of the workstation. "Sheesh, Star, what were you even thinkin' anyway? You know better than to wander around in yer birthday suit by now."

She looked towards the ceiling, offering up an innocent look.

"... Waaaiiit a minute," he drawled, studying her intently. "You did it on _purpose_, didn't you? You were just messin' with everyone!"

The Tamaranian shifted about uncomfortably for a moment ... only for a broad smile to bloom on her face. "I do so enjoy disrupting the feeble human perceptions which people cling to so dearly on this planet."

"Jeez, girl. It's one thing to do it around the tower, but in front of a bunch of people that you don't even know?"

"You are incorrect," Starfire replied quickly. "It is _because_ they are near strangers that I felt compelled to do so. There is almost a... sense of anonymity in this place. I know that we will be returning home some day, and that nothing of what we do here will affect the opinions of those at home."

"Heh, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, eh?" Cyborg quipped with a smirk.

Starfire looked at him oddly. "Why no, friend Cyborg. I was born in the Vegan system, and I did not stay there."

Cyborg shook his head. "No, no, that's not what I - y'know, never mind. Anyway, you probably shouldn't make it a habit. I dunno how long we might be stuck here, and you should probably start thinking of the opinions of the people here, too. Lord knows that Kuno is probably gonna be stalking the showers now, hoping to see you slip out, au natural."

"Perhaps you are correct," she replied, leaning easily against the workshop table. "I believe I have had my fun, regardless. I would not wish to send the wrong impression, after all. Considering how conservative this world is, with its archaic attachments to institutional garments and the uniforms, humans here may regard any form of nudity as an invitation to sexual relations."

The large teen nearly choked on his own tongue. "_Star_! What's up with you today?"

Looking back at him, she fired a quizzical look his way. "What are you referring to? Have you forgotten that I was almost married some months ago? Had the situation been different, I could well have been with child by now. We have both reached the physical level of maturity to engage in mating. Is that not why you and Ryouga spend so much of your time speaking of the opposite sex?"

Well ... she had him there.

"Yeah ... but that's Ryo," he argued. "I mean, Robin's way too uptight to talk to about girls, and BB is still a bit too young, not to mention hung up on Terra. Ryo's a bit uptight, too, but the guy's got some good stories, that's for sure."

"Well, _I_ am not uptight, and I am not 'too young', so why can we not discuss such topics as well? Why is Ryouga a better option than myself?" she asked, an honestly confused look on her face.

That set Cyborg back a bit. "Um ... well, I guess it's just an Earth thing, I guess. Guys talk to guys about girls, and girls talk to girls about guys. You generally don't get much cross pollination going on there… that I know of, anyway. I mean, what would we even talk about? Would you really want to hear me going on about some random hot chick I saw walking down the street? And I can pretty much guarantee that I'd have no useful information in regards to helpin you pick up guys."

The Tamaranian rolled her eyes. "If I desired relationship advice, I would most likely approach Raven. However, she is ... quite uptight as well. Speaking of certain subjects with her is also quite awkward. Can I not just be 'one of the guys', so that we might discuss topics as you would with Ryouga? After all, might not having a female point of view, from time to time, help you with your 'picking up of the chicks'?"

"Hmm ... never thought of that before ..." Cyborg scratched his chin musingly, only to give his head a good shake a second later. "Okay, look, y'know what? How about we just put this convo on pause, and pick it up when I'm not so weirded out, okay? I think this is a concept that's gonna need some easing into."

Pouting for a moment, Starfire finally relented with a sad shrug.

"Very well," she gave in. "If you so desire it. I still think it is unfair, though, that you should be more comfortable around Ryouga than myself. I have known you longer, after all, and he is just my 'pesky little brother'."

That got a chuckle out of the cybernetic teen. They'd been so busy, getting run ragged, that he hadn't seen the two of them have much time to revel in their 'sibling' relationship. From what he heard, Kuno was just lucky Ryouga had passed out. If he had been up when Kuno had 'gone in for the kill', as it were, he woulda got a hell of a lot worse than a talk-to-the-hand from Kasumi.

"Heh, well, like I said, it's just an Earth thing. You know what they say: men are from Mars, women are from Venus."

"Wait, I believed that you said this was an 'Earth thing'? How can human males be from one planet and female humans another? How could evolution possibly allow for such completely different species to mate ... For that matter is not your 'Venus' completely inhospitable?"

Cyborg just stared at the Tamaranian for a long - long second.

"Aaaaanyway, how are you feeling?" he asked. "You really had us worried back there. I mean, that had to be the craziest plan I'd ever heard… and I've worked with Beast Boy on solo missions before. You're lucky you weren't fried to a crisp."

"Luck had little to do with my survival," the Tamaranian replied fondly, dropping a hand on his shoulder. "I am here because of the strength and determination of my friends… of you all. If you had not overloaded my armor's cooling system? If Raven had not locked down Saffron's psionic abilities? If Ranma had not conceived to orchestrate the most awe inspiring Dragon Ascends To the Heaven's Wave?"

A wry grin quirked Starfire's lips. "Why, if what I hear is correct, then were it not for the reckless antics of _Nabiki_, of all sentients, then the chances of my survival would have been quite astronomical."

Cyborg couldn't help but chuckle at that thought. "Tell me about it. I never realized just how potent a combination that a good Nabiki and an insane Ryouga could make. Maybe her and the Lieutenant bein' together ain't nearly as crazy as I thought? If she could get him to do crazy stuff like that…"

"There is no greater motivation than love," Starfire replied, a wistful note in her voice. "For a friend, for a lover, for… your family."

"Oh, come on, don't start goin' all misty eyed on me, Star. We're still baskin' in the afterglow of the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny we just had. You're totally messing up the 'Warrior Princess' image I got in my head now."

She shook her head, her hair flowing from side to side in response to the motion. "No, just one warrior amongst many. What I did was only possible because of the efforts of all."

"Well, true, _I_ was pretty awesome out there. I mean, come on, the whole 'fighting without a leg to stand on' bit? Still, I gotta admit that the baby sun you made there for a second was almost noteworthy… almost." Leaning forward, unable to hide his grin, he gave her another once over (very carefully avoiding any parts that might get him in trouble. "Speaking of which. You sure you're okay? Not woozy or anything from the treatment, are you? I mean, we basically bombarded you with radiation, after all."

"Um, oh no… not at all," Starfire explained cheerfully, only slightly put off by the sudden change in topic. "In fact, I have not felt so good in some time! I may think of investing in such a device for personal use!"

Cyborg let out a bark of laughter. "Well, I might actually be able to help you with that, after I get through all the other projects I got on my plate."

"Oh, indeed?" Looking around to the bench on which she sat, Starfire looked to him curiously. "And what projects are you working on? Have you been here the entire day, so far?"

He shook his head, leaning back into his seat.

"Naw, I was over in the research labs most of the morning, talking to one of the physicists that helped me with the dimensional portal. You see-" He pointed to the wall several yards behind Starfire. Lined up against it were three sets of armor, and one mannequin. The smallest suit, Jinx's, was in mint condition. Ryouga's suit was fine, except for the missing helmet. Cyborg's assortment of Appliqué armor plating was half gone, but he'd managed to salvage a surprising amount, considering the beating it had taken. And, of course, the Starfire shaped mannequin was completely bare of armor.

"I was getting ready to fix up our suits, or in your case, remake them completely, when I had a few ideas for improvements. You gotta admit, we did take a pasting out there, even with all the extra protection."

Starfire nodded, a distant look in her eyes. "Very true. It was a good thing that India and Juliet arrived when they did. Without Ranma's distraction, I doubt any of us would still be here."

"Yeah, pretty much. I hate to say it, but I was pretty slack with making those suits over there, just focusing on defense. I only thought we were gonna be up against Sectoids, and Ethereals and stuff. I never even imagined they'd have something like that Saffron guy. Hell, if we run into _any_ of those Trenchard types, then, aside from Jinx's, those our suits are totally unsuited to fighting them."

He spun around in his chair, dropping his hands on the keyboard of the computer. "Which got me thinking: maybe I need to stop railing against the way things are done here, and start looking at things like they do. If we run into another Saffron, we'll need more firepower, as well as more protection. Which, incidentally, gave me the idea for this."

Gesturing for her to lean forward, he brought up the 3D model of the schematic he'd been working on. It appeared to be a gauntlet, encompassing the entire hand and forearm and with three long ribs that ran down the length of the arm guard. With a click of the mouse, the three ribs lifted up from the arm guard and swung forward, almost appearing to form a set of opposable claws with the hand set firmly at the center.

"What ... is that? Some form of melee weapon?"

"Heh, the opposite, actually. It's still theoretical, but this baby is for you. I was thinking of trying to apply the same technology they use with their plasma weapons to concentrate your own Starbolts. Give em that extra punch they need to punch through armor, or take out the heavier types of aliens and whatnot. I brought it up with Jalila when we were hanging out, and she had a few sweet idea about using magnetogravitic bottles for containment and possibly using a little something special to energize and dope up the reaction. Then the medical guys said messing with your starbolts might amp up the rads, to which I naturally replied 'No _duh_! We're using _plutonium_!'." He paused, chuckling sheepishly. "Also, just FYI, the guys in medical? Not big fans of sarcasm."

"Um.. that is fascinating," Starfire remarked, an unusual expression on her face. "But you must tell me... who is this 'Jalila' that you were 'hanging out with?'"

A pause.

"Wait - what?" he barked. "Out of _all_ the stuff I just said, that's all you picked up on?"

Starfire giggled, an amused smirk on her lips. "It was by far the most interesting! So, who is this Jalila?"

Cyborg could feel his teeth grinding together. "She's ... just some physicist down in the labs. I talked to her a few times when I was working on the portal is all."

The Tamaranian speared him with a half lidded gaze. "Is that so? Does it not seem ... odd, that you would go to a theoretical physicist, before one whose background is more suited to weapon design and manufacture?"

"What? No!" he barked, a little too hastily. "She's just the only one I know down there! I mean, it's not my fault she's kinda hot-"

_Oh crap ..._

"Aha! So I see," Starfire cheered triumphantly. She then leaned forward, grinning conspiratorially. "It seems that your period of 'easing in' has come to an end. You must tell me _everything_!"

Damn, he just knew that there was no way he was getting out of this, now. Not with the predatory look on the alien girl's face.

"Alright, but remember, the first rule of guy talk is: You do _not_ tell girls about guy talk!"

* * *

It was nice to get outside again.

Ryu Kumon ejected the spent clip from his NGP-Mk2E "Special Propellant High Velocity Particle Delivery Sidearm" (man, that was a mouthful - no wonder people just called them Gauss Weapons) and reloaded with relative ease. The system was familiar enough given the training everyone had had with regular conventional arms, but the placement of the extra long extended clip took a little getting used to. It had a special safety that reset with every new clip, and it needed to be flipped with each reload.

Single shot was refined enough, but even with the recoil being limited due to the gyrojet acceleration, the weapon was beastly on semi auto. A little ki easily stabilized his arm by redirecting the kinetic energy, but it would be more of an issue for a normal man or woman. At least at first. The gun did something interesting to compensate for this: when you switched to normal semi-auto, it fired the three round burst so fast it was almost one shot. The bullets all left the barrel before it could incline due to recoil. Even without cheating by using his ki, it would put at least one of the two rounds within a few millimeters of the first.

There was also a default manual automatic caused by holding down the trigger for a second with a switch on single shot. The sidearm then automatically loaded and fired a round at a steady rate of two rounds per second, giving about nine seconds of firing time for a basic 18 round clip. Going all out semi automatic could, by contrast, devour a full clip in half that time and even then only because there was a forced delay between bursts. If there was one truly annoying thing about the NGP weapons it was having to reload more often - pure plasmas had more shots per clip and lasers didn't have clips at all.

It was bulky, too, in terms of size. At a little less than 300mm, the NGP pistol was a little more compact than an MP7. The alien alloy and the rest kept the weight down, and the balance was good even with just one hand, but there was definitely something to be said for locking on the retractable shoulder stock and extending the flip out foregrip. Throw in a collimating reflex sight and silencer, and it really could pass for a proper SMG instead of a sidearm.

Ryu kept his down to bare iron sights as he practiced downrange, enjoying the cool mountain air. India had headed outside to practice a bit while Juliet worked in-base. Later, they'd trade spaces as they got a feel for the new gear. Ryu was of a few minds about it all.

Yes, it was all pretty tacticool.

Overall, the new Gauss weapons _were_ nice… but plasma carbines and heavy plasmas were still their principal weapons in the field. Since the plasma pistol was being phased out from all but a few specialized positions (and the Elerium stockpiles in ammo reclaimed), they all had to become proficient with this new sidearm or fall back on the older laser pistol which would likely remain popular among civilians and rear and support personnel. That was a little inconvenient, but not a real problem. Everyone in XCOM knew how to use traditional handguns and rifles and it wouldn't be hard to readjust to these powered up versions.

The complications came with the SPHVPDW rifle equivalent and the new light cannon squad support weapon. Ryu could see Mousse working diligently with the latter; the Hidden Weapons master was the heavy fire support go-to guy in India Squad, in addition to being the preferred demolitions specialist. Though Ryu had training in that as well, and carried the necessary kit as a backup, Mousse was usually given the job in the field. The Chinese fighter had never been too big on using laser weapons, so it made sense that he would pick up the new autocannon.

That was fine for Mousse, but Shampoo would never leave her heavy laser behind. Not only was she good with it, far better than anyone in their two teams, but the fact was that you became kind of attached to the weapons you used. Shampoo had that heavy laser on personal reserve. It was hers in all but name. Would Juliet bother with equipping the new automcannon at all, then? Probably not. It didn't suit their style of fighting anyway, which was recon and ambush.

Then there was the matter of the 12.7mm rifle replacements. Those could potentially be nice on the next Section Seven operation, but they'd also be serious overkill. Sure, you needed an insane punch to kill some of these aliens with a KE/HE round, but the Gauss rifle would turn an armored car into Swiss cheese - Swiss cheese with a cherry bomb in it. They had been told that due to physics the rounds, on impact, would essentially turn into a spray of molten metal plasma, but against a soft target there could be extreme overpenetration. The risk of collateral damage was bad enough with regular 6.7mm rounds in a regular sniper rifle. Ryu wasn't convinced that most of these weapons would ever be used safely in an urban area.

On the other hand, more kick when facing a rogue psion or alien abomination was appealing.

They should just be allowed to use regular full power plasmas when on a S7 op! That was the smart and obvious answer. UNETCO had been founded in 1999; times changed! Things changed! Why hadn't anyone gotten the Security Council or whatever to revise that part of the charter?

Ryu shook his head, banishing that line of thought.

He was a solider, not a lawyer or politician.

The question was what to do with the new rifles. Not that it was his call, it was Hibiki's and Saotome's, but he couldn't help but think it over himself. He was sure that they were too dangerous to use in most operations. They could switch to low velocity ammunition… but he knew that was just a compromise. The NGPR line wasn't made for just technology restricted field operations.

It was there to situationally replace the T7A2 ALR (Advanced Laser Rifle), and it certainly had the juice to do so… but the damn eighteen shot clips! Even the longest extended clips were a mere twenty four shots! In contrast, all XCOM lasers used a Po-210 radioisotope atomic power cell to provide several hundred shots worth of energy. New batteries were supposed to only be swapped out at the base or at a special field depot. The laser rifle was usually only used as a backup weapon, or when the enemy was expected to consist of 'soft targets' like Snakemen, Floaters or Sectoids. Even then, it was generally only equipped as a primary weapon by scouting parties.

It was nice as a backup weapon to keep in your pack, because if you ran out of ammo for your plasma, you could whip out the laser rifle and blaze away, comfortable in knowing – at least – that you wouldn't have to worry about ammo. The new gauss rifle's real tactical use would then be as a replacement backup… against Mutons and Ethereals. There was a serious energy density issue with man portable laser weapons, and energy weapons in general at the moment. He'd heard veterans tell stories about an entire squad having to empty semiautomatic laser fire into a Muton to kill it. Despite the Muton and Ethereal resistance to normal AP ammo, the new special propellant guns were your best fall-back option.

A situational replacement then.

Ryu's Mk2E barked in a steady rhythm as it cored the hundred meter distant armored target. Tungsten capped rounds easily punched into and through the concrete target block and exploded, sending sprays of rubble away from gauges and craters. He'd practiced on a 60mm steel armor target plate earlier, and at 50 meters, the 10mm MPP rounds had not only blasted through the target, leaving a ragged hole, but also exploded and shredded parts of it nearby. It was supposedly designed not to just punch through a target, but to spread and flatten as the kinetic energy forced it through, making a hole much wider and messier than the diameter of the actual bullet. Then, just after penetration, as the round deformed, the high explosive incendiary reaction would flare up and further spread death and destruction in the wounded area.

He went through another expensive clip before pausing to survey the damage caused. It looked like someone had gone to town with an anti-aircraft cannon or heavy machinegun. Ryu's wasn't entirely convinced it would be effective against Mutons, speaking purely for the handgun version of the gauss firearm line, but if nothing else he could shoot down low flying aircraft. He chuckled a bit at the thought, switching clips.

Not like he needed help taking down fly flying planes or helicopters; he had his hands and the _Yamasenken_ for something trivial like that.

Eventually, things wound down as they individually took breaks, which in turn eased into one longer squad-wide break. They had a lot to talk about, and first thing first were the new weapons and kit. Mousse was still unhappy that they wouldn't be getting PROTECT aerosol hand-me-downs for their personal armor, but he was pleased by the power of the new Mk5 autocannon. He already had plans to stash it away with his Hidden Weapons techniques, and the Chinese fighter was also eager to get his hands on some of the new grenades they'd seen before. He didn't seem worried about carrying a volatile mixture of MH-doped plasma grenades, bombs full of liquefying alien toxins, and even body altering Jyusenkyou water. Ryu just shook his head in amazement.

Frankly, he didn't want to have to carry any of that nightmarish junk.

Ryouga cut off his saying as much to explain that they had been cleared to make a test run with some of the new grenades at a range further from the base. It would be that, then they could head back in and have the rest of the day to do 'whatever.' It was a good deal, and everyone quickly agreed. The lieutenant then turned to Ryu and had him lead the group over (wisely not wanting to get lost trying to find his way there personally). He also made sure they took along a 'special package' wrapped up on a large black bag.

The training ground was the same as before, when they had practiced with Yankee Squad… there was no time to reminisce, however. He and Ryouga took the special packages over to a secluded area, used as a test range for light explosives. It was more modular concrete, with a stand for holding grenade targets. Seeing that it wouldn't suit their purposes however, the lieutenant tore out two old metal rods from a nearby range and planted them firmly into the concrete by hand.

"This'll do," he decided, giving one a nudge with his boot. "Yeah. Kuno, bring over the black bag."

"Aye, but…" Kuno lifted it easily by a loose fold of plastic. Even he could guess, having held it, what it contained.

"I won't pretend this is a surprise. But I think we're all curious what this'll do," he said, regarding the C-2M grenade. Kneeling down, he unlocked and then unzipped the body bag, revealing not one but two corpses stuffed in together.

A Sectoid and a Muton.

Both corpses were still relatively fresh, having been requisitioned for 'weapons testing' from the xenosciences morgue. Both were remarkably intact; the Sectoid was missing an arm, and the Muton had probably been stunned and captured alive. It was dead now, of course. Mutons didn't survive long in captivity, since they couldn't function without constant contact from their Ethereal masters. The Mind Shield and other defenses interfered with that, and so the lifespan of a captured Muton was short indeed.

Lifting the bodies, Ryouga propped them up against the metal rods he'd jammed into the concrete. Both were already stiff in death, so he ended up impaling both to keep them in place. The Sectoid had been as easy as dropping it onto the pig sticker, but the Muton had required a cut be made in the organic armor. For good measure, Ryouga tossed the body bag between the two corpses after tearing off the requisitions tag.

India Squad assembled around their lieutenant, muttering.

They'd never done a weapons test quite like this before. Yes, they'd practiced shooting at dead bodies, and had been present for exploratory autopsies. That was stuff every rookie was expected to do to familiarize themselves with the enemy and to show they were as mortal and killable as anything; that there was no need to be afraid or in awe of the otherworldly menaces that threatened humanity. This promised to be similar, but… still rather different. There was something more macabre about this.

"Let's back up a bit more," Ryouga ordered, and as a group they retreated away from the area. There were a couple partly sunken areas with wood-and-packed earth ramps, and India fell back to the one twenty meters away.

"Alright…. Here it is."

The C-2M Exotic Chemical Warfare Delivery System (ECWDS) grenade in the lieutenant's hand wasn't anything terribly special to look at. It resembled a typical AN M14 TH3 incendiary grenade, but a little more high tech an jazzed up. It had a more heavily reinforced looking case, with an indented section in the middle. There was a very prominent 'biohazard' warning label, and two yellow stripes than ran along the upper and lower halves. Ryouga tore the red safety tape away and took out the locking key.

It was armed now, needing only the ring shaped pin to be pulled.

Shouting a warning of 'Fire downrange' the lost lieutenant tossed the grenade with a single, accurate overhead throw. The cylindrical device twirled through the air, hit the ground near the two alien corpses, bounced an inch or two, and then exploded. Yellow and orange gas erupted from the bomblet, engulfing everything nearby. Chief Fischbach had been right about the density of the smoke. It was thick and it instantly turned murky in the moist air.

"Looks like a small smoke grenade," Ryu observed, narrowing his eyes to get a better look at the cloud. "I can't see too much."

"It should start to fall to ground in a few seconds," Mousse replied, also straining to look.

It took a little while, but the thick fumes did collect and coalesce before drifting down like thick fog. As it did, the air became clearer and the four young men could see bubbling sores in the concrete, filled with white and brown discolorations. The concrete was clearly being rapidly corroded, but the two alien corpses were being downright consumed.

A faint green gloom surrounded the two organic bodies as organic compounds transmuted and broke apart. Some of the material in the form of ammonia and methane, leeched out and into the air, along with an exotic cocktail of other strange gasses. Drops of water fell down the sides of the rapidly decaying forms, mixing in with liquefying tissue. Amino acids and proteins denatured and fell apart, turning the test corpses into mushy slurry and producing an ever increasing haze of evaporating compounds.

Even bones and the remarkable semi-organic armor of the Muton were not immune to the concentrated and refined Celatid venom. Calcium structures warped and cracked, falling apart and turning into dust. The armor of the alien footsoldier curled and steamed, twisting into festering clumps. In a couple seconds, all that was left were two unrecognizable puddles of carbonized formerly organic slag and a twinkling collection of accumulated salts. Ever deepening pools in the concrete continued to fester.

Ryu let out a breath he'd been holding.

"That is some _nasty_ stuff."

It was actually worse than what they knew normal Celatid venom was capable of.

"Agreed," Mousse replied, adjusting his glasses. "I've never seen anything so potent."

"A vile weapon, in my opinion," Kuno rumbled, one hand on the hilt of his sword. "And most dangerous. I would sooner risk life and limb in an explosion or fire than be near that alchemical concoction."

"What about the counteragent?" Ryu asked, remembering the briefing before.

"Right here," Ryouga answered, a large white striped grenade already in hand. They waited a few more seconds, to see if anything else would happen downrange, but there didn't seem to be any more to see. With another toss, their CO sent the explosive device over.

This time, it burst quietly into a fountain of thick white foam, smothering the area. It actually expanded once released, lathering everything in a five meter radius. There was otherwise nothing particularly unusual about it. There was no light or sparks or hiss; just a wet, anti-climactic splatter. India Squad still waited a couple more seconds before slowly making their way over.

"Gas masks," Mousse suggested, pulling four of them out of his sleeves.

"Thanks man." "Most appreciated." "Thanks."

So protected, the four approached the edge of the foamy coat. They kind of lingered along the edge, looking for any sign that there was still toxins around that would, as the Chief put it, 'eat away at your feet before you feel it.' After a few seconds, Ryouga shrugged and stepped into the coated ground. It would probably have been ideal if they had some sort of water or maybe a pressurized hose. The neutralizing foam was supposed to be washed away after use, at which point all the detoxified goo would naturally break down.

"It's impossible to see anything with all this stuff everywhere," he decided, gently prodding around near where the corpses had been. The metal rods that had held them in place were like twisted and gnarled matchsticks now.

"I doubt there's much to see after that," Ryu reasoned, "Just a nasty green puddle."

"Shall we move on to the new BOD-plasmas?" Mousse asked, tucking his hands into his sleeves. With a gas mask on in addition to his normal glasses, he looked particularly absurd. His three comrades stared a second, chuckling.

"What? What's so funny?"

"You look like a frogman. All you need is a comical green scuba suit and a harpoon gun!"

Mousse frowned at the Kumon dojo heir… not that anyone could see his expression.

"I'm frowning at your remark," he explained, seeing no one get it. Of course, that just made them snicker even worse.

With a huff, Mousse pulled the mask up to rest on top of his hair. The rest of the team followed a second later as they strolled away from the C-2M grenade test. They were headed to another part of the grenade range to try out the new explosive packages, but no one needed to actually say as much. They'd all been here before.

"Hey, Lieutenant," Ryu ventured, shooting some time while they walked, "Are you and Nabiki doing anything over the next few days? I've been thinking of asking Ukyou to this karaoke meet up. You know the one?"

"I'm sure those two have got their personal amusements to keep them up at night," Mousse said with a snigger of his own.

"I - we-" Ryouga sputtered for a second. "Look, first, maybe. I'll ask her. Second, shut up Mousse."

"I have never seen Nabiki's boyfriends survive her attentions for more than a week," Kuno observed, arms crossed in stoic contemplation. "For your sake, I hope you can keep her happy, lieutenant."

He scowled a little at that information.

"You make it sound like she had a dozen boyfriends back at Furinkan. And just because it happened to some random guys there doesn't mean it'll happen to me."

"How many boyfriends _did_ she have?" Ryu asked, and noted his COs glare. His hands went up to placate the man. "I'm just asking. Harmless questions!"

"Just a few," was Ryouga's response. "And one in college."

"Mayhap more than a few," Kuno replied. "Most would not have been serious, for she is a predatory creature, but I can think of at least five."

"I couldn't care less."

"Saying that just means you're at least curious now," Mousse said with a grin.

"Okay, maybe I care a little, but it doesn't matter," Ryouga insisted, not particularly amused by all the chatter recently about this topic. "You guys should worry about your own relationships."

"Well, hopefully, I can get Ukyou to open up a little bit. I mean, we're friends and we've been going places, but sometimes it doesn't feel like we're going **out**. You know?" Ryu asked, and saw mixed reviews. Despite being new on the scene, these four were the first real friends he'd ever had in a life of wandering and training. "Come on, guys, help me out here."

"I know what you mean," Mouse answered with a sigh. "I've gone places with Shampoo, but I wouldn't dare call them dates with her in earshot. She _still_ obsesses over Saotome, even now."

Kuno sagely nodded. "The bane of all women strikes again."

"I wouldn't say he's a 'bane of women' but I don't think Ukyou is as over him as she says." Ryu groaned and shook his head in dismay. "I've never had a girlfriend before, but I'd kind of thought we'd be at the fooling around stage by now."

"Pray tell, how far have you gotten with the fair chef?"

"Just little kid stuff. I haven't even gotten her top off yet!"

"But the time you do spend together, you enjoy?" Kuno asked, and somehow no one questioned him giving relationship insights.

"I guess so. She's funny and usually pretty nice, and she's basically the only martial artist girl our age aside from Shampoo, who I consider well and truly taken."

"I trust that is not the extent of your interest in her?" Kuno asked. "There are many fine maidens with great skills, just not here."

"It isn't _just_ that. But there _is_ that," the Yamasenken master admitted. "I want to go out with a martial artist. I want to marry one."

"Why?" Ryouga asked, chiming in.

"Why? Because!" Ryu gave an exasperated sigh. "We're martial artists. Who can understand us better than one of our own?"

"I don't know. I think there's… a kind of perspective from being with someone who isn't like you, or us, and who doesn't have the same sort of lifestyle," Ryouga argued. "It shouldn't matter whether the girl is a martial artist or not. What matters is if you're happy together."

"But having the same sort of lifestyle or the same interests would make the relationship easier, right? Even though we're all martial artists…" Ryu paused, hearing Kuno cough. "Martial artists and master swordsmen… we all have our different approaches. Like Ukyou. She's a chef first, before everything else. I can't quite get that, but her kind of dedication, despite kind of having a different direction, is like my own. It's a kind of ambition we can understand, because we all basically share it. I just don't think a non-martial artist can really understand one of us."

"That's kind of cliquish."

"I'm not trying to make it out that way. But, aren't your parents both martial artists?"

"But Ranma's mother isn't one," Ryouga reminded him. "From what I've seen, her swordsmanship and form are terrible. If the Saotomes had to go through with that seppuku pledge, it'd look like a butcher's shop."

"I guess… but your parents have a better relationship than the Saotomes did, right?"

"Different is a more accurate word than better."

"Ryu has a point," Mousse spoke up, having measured this new turn in the conversation carefully. "There are things about how we think that only those with similar interests could truly understand and reciprocate. This is not to say that a relationship with one outside our… field of expertise… is doomed to failure. Only that it will face some challenges."

"That's true of any relationship," Ryouga countered, but didn't elaborate.

"Well, as I said, you and Nabiki seem to be getting along and having fun, but I could use a little jump start." Ryu crossed his arms and tapped a finger against his bicep in frustration. "I'm kind of tired of just holding hands and crap. I know Ukyou's the same. I mean, neither of us have… you know, and…"

"You want to get into her pants?" Mousse finished for him.

"She'd so totally hit me with her spatula if she heard it put that way!" The other young man laughed a bit. "But yeah. I like her, and I think she likes me. Is it so wrong that I want to... you know...? Why waste time? Either one of us could get blasted to atoms tomorrow and I refuse to die before I get laid!"

"Your determination is admirable," Kuno declared, drawing his sword and striking a suitably noble and inspiring pose. "I shall teach you the ways of the accomplished gentleman!"

"Kuno, you're the biggest virgin here."

"…"

A moment of silence passed as Kuno's expression suddenly and abruptly fell into gloom.

"Perhaps so," he eventually admitted, and resheathed the sword, currently in bokken form, back into the loop around his belt. "But I have been on many dates, especially with the fair pigtailed girl. I know something of the female heart."

Another long silence.

"Kuno, the pigtailed girl…"

"What _about_ the pigtailed girl?"

"…nothing."

"A woman needs attention and gentle coaxing," Kuno continued, undeterred by the doubtful looks of his teammates. "You must show it is not simply a matter of physical intimacy and convenience. If you care for a woman enough to pursue and desire her, then you should show her such. Demonstrate the depths of your affection and endearment! I would recommend flowers, poetry, gifts and a walk in the mountains to invigorate your spirits! Also, have you shown her your diary? There is no surer sign of trust!"

Mousse, Ryu and Ryouga all stared at the kendoist for a few seconds.

"Trying… to sort out the good advice from the bad…" Mousse held his head in mock agony.

"My wisdom is not for the unprepared!" the arrogant swordsman declared with a goofy laugh.

"Some of that stuff isn't a bad start," Ryouga cut in.

Ryu thought a moment…

And turned to the heavens with a anguished cry, "But I don't have a diary!"

…

"Kuno, why must you break people's brains?"

* * *

x

* * *

A/N

CC here. got some author notes for once, at the end of the fic.

The weapons being introduced in this chapter are versions of the "Gauss Weapons" created by XCOM in 'Terror from the Deep.' with so much of the Second Alien War taking place underwater, XCOM needed a new arsenal of weapons. With virtually all of Earth's Elerium-115 stockpile exhausted, they tried to create parallel 'antimatter/particle beam' tech to the old alien plasmas. Much of what I used for the "next gen projectile" weapon group introduces in this chapter is taken directly from TFTD fluff. I've tried to rationalize it and explain it.

Guass weapons were less powerful than the plasma weapons from AW1, but they could be used underwater. In game, they were inferior to alien sonic disruptor technology just like XCOM lasers were always inferior to plasmas. Above ground, plasma weapons were still typically superior (in my opinion), since sonic beam weapons were lacking in the rapid fire department (they were all basically designed for sniping).

The other weapons have been in development in TRTC for months, in prep for Cydonia and "Cydonia or Bust" - the mission that will decide the ultimate success or failure of XCOM. That mission was originally planned for February, but ended up pushed back due to increased alien attacks on Earth altering the timetable. Thus it is now seeing some use on Earth and elsewhere.

From a meta-story perspective, the Alien War in TRTC has been going on for several years longer than in XCOM canon. This has pushed much of the technology forward more than in the normal continuity.


	19. And Breathe 1

An accident at STAR Labs has hurled half the Teen Titans roster across the multiversal barrier and onto a strange world with no metas, no superheroes and no supervillians. There, the UNETCO organization, also known as X-COM, fights against an insidious and merciless alien enemy. The dimensionally displaced Teen Titans have finally been reunited. Determined not to sit on the sidelines, the four young men and women: Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and their universe's Ryouga Hibiki have been brought together into a special 'embedded observer' team designated CT:Yankee.

Displaced in the Russian Far East, far from any of the other Titans, Jinx had the misfortune of falling into the hands of the alien Visitors. Yet when one of the alien-human hybrids became hexxed by her power, damage to its brain tissue disconnected it from the Cydonian Mind and allowed it to remember who it had once been: Akari Unryu. Together, the two unlikely allies escaped into the forest and made for civilization, forging a close friendship during the difficult trek to safety. However, the same power that freed Akari was also killing her, and together with wounds taken during their escape, she hung on just long enough to reunite with her world's Ryouga Hibiki. Fulfilling her request to let her die, he destroyed the alien donor tissue that was to be used to revive her. The Titans, as Yankee Squad, were called to battle, with Akari's life on the line, succeeding in bringing back the replacement brain of the Ethereal, Whisper.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a ****Dark Road**

_...And Breathe._

Chapter XIX

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Ryouga nervously scratched his arm as he stood before the featureless yet vaguely intimidating door. The sling holding his right arm immobile seemed ridiculously low tech for an organization like UNETCO, but really, what else did you need? He really wished they could have had some instant fix thing, but cloning a new arm just for a dislocated shoulder had been deemed just a little too extreme. Not that he actually wanted a clone arm or anything; who knew how long it would take it to get back up to par?

Sighing, he reached down and gave Shirokuro a good scratch behind the ear. "That's a good girl. You can take off, now. Who knows how long I'll be stuck here?"

The faithful canine tilted her head inquisitively, but got the gist quickly enough and began to trot off straight away. It still amazed him how intelligent his counterpart's dog seemed. He supposed that must mean that his own dog was equally clever, but, honestly, he didn't really have enough exposure to notice. The last time he'd seen her, she'd just had puppies (somehow managing to contact him using a television reporter), but otherwise she wasn't exactly interested in showing off her preternatural intellect.

Swallowing loudly, he let the distraction slide away and turned back to the door.

The Commander's Office.

Steeling his resolve, he knocked on the door. An instant later, it slid open, and he took a step in. This wasn't his first time here, though those occurrences had been few and far between. Just as then, the office was decorated in a Spartan manner, the large desk at the center of the room drawing his focus quickly. Sitting behind the desk, a dossier in her hands and several more stacked up before her, was Commander Yasuda. She took a moment to finish reading whatever it was that was contained in the document in her hand, before finally looking up to regard him.

Not exactly sure what to do, Ryouga saluted with his good hand, standing up as straight as possible. "Acting Sergeant Hibiki, reporting as ordered."

The Commander nodded curtly. "As you were, Sergeant."

Not exactly sure what to do ... or what that actually meant, he decided to take a chance and ease up on the ramrod stance. As soon as he relaxed a bit, Commander Yasuda gestured to the chair in front of her desk. "Why don't you take a seat?"

Nodding, he quickly moved and lowered himself into the seat. "If you don't mind me asking ... Ma'am? This isn't about the monthly budget, is it? If so, I can explain-"

"What?" She cut him off, just a tiny bit of incredulity showing in her voice. "No. I don't make a habit of seeking advice from non commissioned officers in concern to the base's budget. Why would I want to talk to you about that?"

Embarrassed, Ryouga fidgeted nervously. "Oh, well, it was just that Captain Ben-Solomon was saying that we, that Yankee, was going to bankrupt this place after that last mission."

The Commander just stared at him, before an expression of amusement slipped onto her face. "Well, the loss of a suit of personal armor _is_ more expensive than most civilians could afford in a year, but here it's more or less just the cost of doing business. In fact, considering the fact that Yankee has an almost negligible use of Elerium, due to your ... interesting tactics, your team is actually comparatively inexpensive to maintain. Not that I'm saying you should make a habit of getting all of your gear destroyed all the time."

"Of course not, Ma'am," he replied quickly. "In fact, we should be even better equipped for the next mission. Cyborg told me of a number of modifications he's thinking of making to our combat kits."

"So I've heard." Putting down one folder, she picked up another ... a thick one. "I've already received his latest _ream_ of requests. Some of these things are barely even past what would normally be considered the theoretical phase, but he's getting ready to jump right into fabrication. I mean, arm-mounted particle accelerators? I'm not exactly keen about approving weapons or modifications for field use on such short notice. And why arm-mounted? Some of his requests seem a bit eccentric, frankly."

Ryouga shrugged. "That's just the kind of guy he is. For a man with a computer for a brain, he's got more creativity that most artists. I'm pretty sure the arm thing is for Starfire, too. Don't worry, though, I'll tell him that his ideas are getting a bit too crazy…"

"No need." She quickly waved her hand to interrupt him. "We've already green lit most of his prospective projects, including that one. Though his documentation leaves something to be desired, he has a remarkable enthusiasm for his work."

"Really?" he asked, surprised. "Wow. I'm impressed by how far you're willing to go to help people once they've joined your ranks."

"Yes," she agreed slowly. "That is ... one of the reasons. Regardless, I've actually brought here to talk to you about your next mission. Or, rather, not. You see, I've decided to temporarily take Yankee Squadron off of active duty, until further notice."

"What?" Ryouga barked loudly. He quickly remembered himself, though, before rising from his seat. "But - but, why? Not only has our performance been pretty darn good, but we did help out with that pretty massive victory against that alien-Saffron, thing."

Commander Yasuda lanced him with a serious glance. "No one is questioning your prowess or that of your team. You are correct, Yankee squad's performance has been exemplary, however, three of your five members are currently either incapacitated, or under observation."

Ryouga looked at her oddly. "Under observation?"

She nodded. "Starfire just underwent an emergency resuscitation procedure that would leave most living things a radioactive corpse. I think keeping her under medical observation for at least 72 hours is hardly unwarranted. Then, of course, there is Cyborg, whose system was compromised fairly seriously during the battle... that, and he's still waiting on his new foot to get finished. He won't be operating at full capacity for several days at least, even longer if he keeps letting himself get distracted on all of these side projects."

For emphasis, she dropped the heavy folder onto the desk before looking back at Ryouga, her gaze piercing. "And tell me, Sergeant, how long till the doctors say that your shoulder will fully recover?"

Scratching at his sling nervously again, he swallowed audibly. "Umm... probably two or three days... It was pretty severe, actually..."

"You're lucky you didn't lose your arm, like _most_ people would have, attempting such a reckless act," she fired back, "Hell, I should be reprimanding you for what you did, you and Miss Tendo both, as she sure as Hell knew that what she was doing was against regulations."

The Commander leaned back, steepling her fingers before her. "However, I understand why you did it, and it all worked out for the best, so I don't really feel the need to fill out all of that extra paper work."

Letting out a sigh of relief, Ryouga bowed his head respectfully.

"Thank you very much, Commander." He then looked up, smiling. "So, we have a few days off for medical leave, then? Not a bad deal for nearly dying, I suppose. Serves Saotome and Hibiki right, showing up late to the party and then forcing us to clean up the mess anyway."

Commander Yasuda's lip quirked up into a grin for a moment, before slipping back into a neutral expression.

"Actually, that is another thing I wished to discuss with you," she stated flatly. "Now, what I want to speak to you about next is very important, and since you aren't yet officially members of our organization, I thought I would seek your input before making any decisions."

Ryouga tilted his curiously, waiting for her to continue. Maintaining her intense stare for a moment, the older woman finally continued, "I am considering permanently dissolving Yankee Squadron, pending on the outcome of this discussion."

Eyes widening in shock, Ryouga prepared to jump up - only to stop as she held out her hand to forestall him.

"Hear me out first," she told him. "Before you jump to any conclusions."

The martial artist's eyes narrowed distrustfully, but he remained in his seat. "... Alright then. But I want to know why you would want to get rid of us after that last battle."

"Actually, it's completely the opposite," she replied, confusing him even further. Leaning forward, she matched his gaze. "On your last mission, four out of five of your members very nearly died. We have determined that this is not an acceptable outcome for Yankee."

"Um ... well, I don't really want to die, either, but I-"

She held up a hand to stop him again.

"It's hardly anything so altruistic. On your team, you have the only benign alien life form we have _ever_ met. You have a scientific genius of incredible potential, from a world with technology even more advanced than our own in various areas. You also have the _only_ double-A class psychic on the planet that is not either clinically insane, or a danger to themselves and those around them. Putting all of these unique and potentially incredibly valuable resources on one team and sending them to the front line ... well, you've heard the term 'putting all of your eggs in one basket', haven't you? Though it's terrible to say, the pieces of Yankee squad are more valuable than the sum of the whole... and the lot of you may be wasted on the battlefield."

Ryouga grimaced. She was right, that did sound pretty terrible ... but, at the same time, it did make an odd kind of sense. Still, he had absolutely no idea what to say, so he just waited for her to continue. Picking up the thick folder again, Commander Yasuda waved it up and down.

"Cyborg has made a number of incredibly impressive pieces of equipment here, but the majority of them have either been specifically tailored for use by Yankee or have been irreproducible, due to differences in dimensional physics. However, several of his inventions and ideas have gained the attention of people in the organization. For example, his idea to polarize the plating of your armor was an elegant and clever concept, and one that we can reproduce... once some modifications have been made to reduce energy consumption. Who knows what else he will come up with, out of all these requests I've approved?"

She leaned back a bit, the seal of UNETCO on the wall behind her back.

"So you understand that in many ways he is more valuable to us in a lab than in the field?" she asked.

Ryouga nodded, a bit uncertainly. "Well, yeah ... I guess so ..."

Yasuda shook her head. "Rather than having him risking his life on a near daily basis, I am considering the option of transferring him to one of our research teams. I have something particular in mind, but even aside from that, having him devoted to research that could be of use to all X-Com operatives, as opposed to just Yankee squadron, is a more effective use of resources."

She set the folder down again.

"Unfortunately, this is one of the areas where I will need your help. According to reports, Cyborg is still harboring an 'Us vs Them' mentality. He shares what he needs to, gets permission where he requires it, but he still seems to think that he needs to work apart from our organization, rather than with it. I would like your help to convince him that we would greatly value his help in matters of research."

"Oh, right, like that big project you were talking about?" Ryouga asked. "The one you can't tell me about."

She nodded. "Indeed. That is one of the things this would involve. And remember, we have no idea how long you may be stranded in our dimension, so this is all conditional on how long you remain with us, but in the hypothetical worse case scenario, we think this plan would be the best in the long run."

"Hmm, well, I guess if you want Cyborg to help out, that's all fine and good, but what about the rest of us? Why dissolve the whole squad?"

"Well, in Raven's case, she is in a very similar situation. Her unique abilities and training would be quite useful if she were able to pass them on. Her ability to form autonomous partitions is fascinating, so I'm told, and her fine control has impressed both of my Captains. Apparently, according to the latest Psi training reports, her mind is also naturally inclined to forming certain mental traps. If she were willing to join the Psionic research division, or if she were to assist in Psionic rehabilitation of other traumatized psychics, who knows what she could accomplish?"

"Lives are not only saved on the battlefield," she reminded him. "Raven has great combat utility, but there is more to fighting and winning a war than simply killing the enemy. Frankly, I am hesitant to risk her on the front line on any given mission, where a stray Blaster Bomb could take her out."

"Well ... that makes sense, I guess," Ryouga conceded grudgingly, not liking the idea of Raven getting atomized by a stray _anything_ one little bit..

"Which brings me to Starfire." Commander Yasuda tapped her fingers together, particularly interested in this topic. "According to her own report, Saffron - and by extension the Alien Mind - appeared inordinately interested in either recruiting her, or at least obtaining a piece of her. Likely a tissue sample. This, we all agree, is completely unacceptable."

Ryouga nodded. "Well, yeah, I wouldn't want anyone chewing my leg of either."

The Commander shook her head again.

"That is not my meaning. I mean, if she were to fall into enemy hands. If the enemy were able to begin creating copies of her, enhancing and experimenting and improving on those copies, as they did with Saffron? They would instantly gain access to an incredibly dangerous new weapon. Imagine an army of warriors stronger than a Sectopod, more plasma resistant than a Muton, able to fly naturally like a Celatid and freely travel through space like an Ethereal. It would be all but impossible to track them, and even worse, if Lieutenant Saotome's opinion is to be believed, she possesses the same ability to increase her power through martial arts training as you and the others have."

There was really nothing Ryouga had to say in response to that. The idea of actually fighting and killing an army of Starfires? Was there anything more depraved he could possibly imagine?

Commander Yasuda frowned grimly. "Consider this: aside from this power-up she recieved at the hands of these Psion creatures, Starfire is a fairly average teenage girl from her world. Yet she could beat either you or Lieutenant Hibiki in an arm wrestling match ten times out of ten. Imagine how much more powerful she would be if, say, she were to be trained intensively by the likes of a Trenchard Cologne from the time of her birth? To make a long story short, we would much rather limit her exposure to the enemy, for _all_ of our sakes. The fact that she also has knowledge of advanced alien technology and may be able to teach us about it would at least give her something to do with her time while here with us. Lastly, there are political factors involved beyond purely military concerns."

Yasuda finished, leaning Ryouga momentarily stunned silent.

"That's..." he finally managed to speak. "I don't even know what to say. That's probably the most horrifying thing I've ever heard... and I've been involved in a few of _Ranma's_ schemes..." Ryouga shuddered for a moment before sobering once more. "Alright, so where does that leave Jinx and me, then? We aren't exactly super scientists or Akira wannabe's."

"My first inclination would be to simply have you both absorbed into other teams. Either of you would be good additions to any team-"

"I'd eat my own bandanna before I worked for Ranma… or me! Myself. Other me... you know what I mean! Not-me!"

The Commander looked at him oddly for a moment before continuing, "However, I've come to see that I might have made an error in judgment when dealing with you earlier. You see, I simply assumed that you would act and react the same as Lieutenant Hibiki. That placing you in command of a team would inevitably end in the same results. This has not been the case, though."

"What! There's no way that he's better than me!"

The woman rolled her eyes. "I'm not inferring he is. I'm talking about the fact that you are far more different from your counterpart than I could have anticipated. He is very direct, in both approach and personality. He meets force with force, and usually comes out on top. It makes him an excellent commander for a heavy strike team. However, I have noted that you appear to prefer more ... unorthodox solutions to problems. Unconventional maneuvers, imaginative tactics and a surprisingly more subtle approach."

Ryouga shrugged, placated by the comparison.

"Well," he admitted. "We run into more unorthodox kinds of problems back home, I guess. That and most of the people I fight tend to be people I can't just overpower like he does. Not to mention that it's a lot more tricky to incapacitate a person than it is to just kill them, so I've had to be a lot more reserved in how I fight lately."

The Commander nodded knowingly.

"That was the conclusion I came to, as well," she replied. "Putting you and your friends on the front line may not have been the most efficient use of your talents. Though very good, your natural inclinations aren't to destroy your opponent. I imagine you have to fight your instincts every time you take down a Sectoid, am I right?"

Impressed with her insight, he slowly nodded.

"It's likely even worse for your Titan companions, as they've been in the 'hero' business even longer than you. I know you only wanted to help, but that kind of hesitation can get yourself and others killed out on the battlefield." Yasuda then looked down to her desk, sorting through the folders. "Besides, there are other options available. First and foremost, I was intrigued to hear about your approach to the Bakusai Tenketsu technique. Almost completely opposite to the Lieutenant's approach, if I am understanding correctly, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I developed my version to save a friend's life..."

She returned his nod with one of her own. "My question is: have you considered trying to develop more medical oriented ki techniques? We already have two combat teams full of martial artists developing killing techniques, one more really wouldn't make too much difference, especially one that isn't naturally inclined to making killing techniques in the first place. However, someone that could help develop ki techniques that could help save other people… that could be quite a contribution."

"That is an interesting idea ... but-"

"As for Jinx," she quickly continued, cutting him off yet again, "Her ability to control the battlefield with her powers could be quite useful. I'd actually be interested in starting a specialized training regimen to see if we could maximize her talents in that area... however... there is another option that occurred to me, one that could work for both of you."

"Both of us?" Instantly, Ryouga's interest piqued.

"Yes. You see, I am aware that Jinx, and to a lesser extent, you, have both had access to a very... specialized training program. Specifically, at this 'Hive' academy you attended."

"Oh ..." he oh'd. "That."

"Don't be worried, this isn't a problem," she assured him, trying to assuage his anxiety. "It is actually potentially very useful. Jinx possesses advanced stealth training, but, unlike Ranma, she also possesses extensive knowledge of infiltration, dealing with advanced security systems and she is specialized in incapacitating rather than killing armed opponents. Konatsu is also capable in these fields, but his dislike of covert operations has been noted by himself and others. Jinx does not appear to be as emotionally or psychologically hindered."

She smiled slyly, matching his gaze. "Juliet is known as a 'stealth' team, but still, when it comes to Section Seven missions, their primary function is typically eliminating a confirmed target. However, someone needs to go in and confirm those targets beforehand."

Ryouga stared dumbly for a second. "Wow ... she - she would actually like that."

"I think this might be a good possibility for you as well. You have some of the same 'unorthodox' training that Jinx does, and you're already far more subtle than your counterpart as-is, almost Saotome-like, really."

The sound of him nearly choking on his own tongue was quickly followed by a wry chuckle from the Commander.

"Sorry, sorry." She held up a placating hand. "I know about the problems there, I just couldn't resist. Still, there isn't too much more I can discuss about that before you and Jinx sign a few nondisclosure agreements." Smiling now, she gestured for him to stand.

As he did, she continued, "Remember, this is all just long-run thinking, contingent on how long you remain with us. We are still researching options regarding your native dimension. You have a few days to think this over before the medical suspension ends and I expect you to use them, so please discuss this with the rest of your team and gather their opinions as well."

Ryouga nodded quickly. "I will. You've ... really given me, all of us, a lot to think about. I'll get back to you as soon as I can, I promise."

The Commander nodded her head. "Very well, then, Sergeant. I look forward to your answer. Now, dismissed. Enjoy the rest of the day."

"Thank you very much, ma'am!" Ryouga replied, almost cheerfully.

With that, he made his way out of the office. He really needed to find the others… He couldn't even imagine what they'd have to say about all of this.

* * *

"Ryouga-baby? What's-?"

Nabiki had to admit, she was more than a little surprised. Despite his impromptu declaration on the battlefield earlier, she knew her Ryouga wasn't really one for public displays of affection, aside from the occasional chaste hug or shy hands-holding. Part of that was just an annoying natural bashfulness when near the public eye, but a good chunk of it was the impression he wanted to maintain on the base: that despite being often times hot headed, he was methodical, merciless, and even somewhat machinelike. It fitted in with the 'killer martial artist' vibe he had given off back when he was revenge obsessed, and he'd tried to keep much of it intact months later. She could understand the need to maintain a public face and had no problems with it.

Yet, for these exact reasons, it was a surprise when he all but jumped her outside her room. They'd both only recently gotten off duty, and in light of previous interruptions and last night's mood-killing it had been a pleasant miscalculation to find he'd come to her with such apparent gusto and need. A passionate kiss in public, where anyone walking down the hall could see them, was unlike him and the thought of it was a sudden tease.

"Sorry," he whispered, breaking the lip lock long enough to explain. "But I've been waiting about twenty hours to do that."

Despite an attempt to keep her own cool, Nabiki found herself smiling more than a little.

"If I didn't know better," she replied. "I'd think you were about to proposition me."

"I made a promise last night… and I like to keep my word most of the time."

"Only most of the time?"

"This one was a no-brainer," he replied, and leaned back a bit. "If you're up to it?"

"If I'm up to it, he says." She rolled her eyes at the light hearted goading, not that it was necessary. Grabbing him by the collar, she pulled him into another quick kiss. _'__Who was the one who sent you that booty call last night?'_

"Should I take that as a yes?" he asked and she pushed him away to smooth over her shirt.

"Your room this time. It's bigger."

He nodded, grinned, and Nabiki slipped back into her room before he left, Shirokuro close by. Tossing off her work clothes, leaving her jacket and shirt haphazardly draped over her room's single chair and her skirt over on top of the bed, the Tendo sister mentally prepared what to change into. The Raven costume had lost its novelty and shock value, of course, and she didn't have all the pieces for it anymore anyway. It was a waste, but the leotard could be reused later for something exotic.

Of course, she'd just be wearing it to take off later, but that was much of the fun in picking it out in the first place. She'd ordered a pair of garters earlier and considered using them now, but didn't want to appear as if she was 'dressing up for the event.' Granted, she _was_ dressing for the event, but she didn't want to make that fact too obvious. Probably. Going through her limited wardrobe, she cursed the difficulty in procuring good lingerie - or even a variety of regular clothes – on a secret military base in the middle of the mountains.

While she did so, Nabiki momentarily thought back to her conversation with Jinx, and about her relationship with the lost idiot in general. She hadn't told anyone but her sisters that the two of them had basically been chaste for more than a month and a half before even trying anything remotely intimate. Now that they had crossed that line, however, it seemed to always be running around in the back of her mind, and probably his, too. They'd only done 'it' a few times, and as enjoyable as it was, she wasn't sure she wanted the relationship to become all about getting it done on the nights between duty shifts.

She thought again about her other self on that other world she had heard of.

Not that there was any basis for a competition between them; their worlds and situations were completely different. Other-her hadn't gone through that terrible situation in Meiji; she hadn't feared for her life on that alien ship burning up in the atmosphere; she hadn't been responsible for… for certain things that had happened in the past. All that Nabiki had to live up to were the silly, freelance mischief she caused back in Nerima. Jinx doubted that version of her really had anyone of the boyfriend sort that she wasn't just milking for money or using for some other purpose. The pink haired girl had remained a bit perplexed by the fact that things had worked out here as they did.

Maybe she had a right to. Trying to close the deal and upgrade their albeit close friendship post-abduction had been her idea, and it had kind of been on a lark. After joining UNETCO, Ryouga had ended up her closest male friend and a valuable resource in finding herself an advantageous position. He was already an officer in training back then, leading a new squad, and time gave him influence and friends in important places. XCOM was, above all, a military organization and the military officers made all the most important calls. Civilians, researchers and engineers and support staff, all just followed along lending aid.

They were friends then, but just friends. They would meet at lunch, plan things out, fill each other in on anything worth noting, or just hang out. It was a surprisingly therapeutic fall back from the tough professional relationships she had with those older than her – and some of whom resented her to this day for her quick rise – and from trying to advance in such an oppressive environment. To have someone you could relax around and even eventually trust? It was a godsend.

Then there had been that thing with the Ryouga Doppelganger, and his order to blaster bomb them both… an order she hadn't passed on. He'd managed to pull off a win after the suicidal order was given, but it had reinforced a nagging worry she had been slowly developing about his welfare and how he had become important to her. It was around then that she'd thought about them becoming more than friends, but the time never seemed right to bring it up. There was also the ever present risk of whether just trying for it would cost them the friendship they had, much less whether they got together and completely clashed. It would make working together later… awkward.

Ultimately, it was actually Ukyou who had convinced her to try.

She had, with her rescued father, broken off her engagement to Ranma and started on trying for a new life. She'd taken a real leap of faith with that, and Nabiki had been impressed by it. It took courage. There were also certain hints that she and Ryouga were getting closer too, having reconciled some of those lingering difference and disputes they had about the old 'Tunnel of Lost Love' affair. Nabiki knew it wasn't so much that she was afraid of competition, if it came to that, but that it was always better to cut potential competitors short before they even had a chance.

She hadn't regretted taking the chance. She and Ryouga were both young and had every right to enjoy their little fling, and if it became something super serious down the road, then that was fine, too. They'd take things as they came. The sex was just something new and exciting; a freebie that came with being as close as they were. After another week or so, it would even out into a nice equilibrium with the things they used to do, too.

Nabiki finally settled in a suitably sexy arrangement that was also casual enough to look like she wasn't trying too hard to impress. Checking herself out in the mirror, she made a few minor adjustments to the sheer black panties and bra, admiring her figure. She didn't quite have the natural athletic form of a Shampoo or Ukyou or even Akane, but she knew she looked good. She exercised regularly in the form of normal stuff: running, stretching, some light martial arts from the old days… no pulling nails out of wood with her fingers, punching indestructible metal or 'jogging' forty kilometers in an hour for her. That stuff she'd gladly leave to the real martial arts loonies.

Black tinted stockings, a conservative skirt, and a work-type shirt and jacket would do a good job hiding what was underneath, and should make for a more alluring reveal when the time came. She didn't have any good heels, but the black work boots she had an alternative to her shoes would fit the bill well enough. Of course, she didn't want to dress up too much; it wasn't like she was going outside or anything. Taking a couple more minutes to ponder her clothing dilemma, regarding boots versus shoes, Nabiki paid little mind to the time she was taking.

Until, finally having settled on the boots for the contrast, she noticed the time on her computer. Finally heading out, she briskly headed towards Ryouga's officer's quarters, in a different residential block. It was only about a quarter to eleven and a few people were still up and about, mostly those taking a shower in the public facilities before going to sleep. Nabiki smirked a little to herself; officer's quarters had small but personal showers, preferable to the ones at the public-rest. Using Ryouga's was both convenient and a little thrilling.

It was just a shame there wasn't really room in there for two…

The first thing Nabiki noticed, when the door opened, was the fact that the lights were dimmed and that a pinpoint of non-electric light was coming from the desk. She blinked a few times to make sure: it was a candle. Candles were among the rarest amenities to bring onto base. They were a potential fire hazard, and while some dispensation was allowed for incense sticks, requisitions had a dim view of waxy materials that set open fires and potentially messed with the base's all-important ventilation and recycling systems. Inhaling, she could tell it was scented, too.

"Man, Nabiki... you sure dressed up a lot for a four minute walk." Ryouga stood up from his chair, holding two plates. She'd changed out of his uniform only in the loosest sense of the word. Replacing his shirt with an unbuttoned throw on must've taken all of five seconds.

"You're such a… a guy!" she huffed, taking one of the plates. "You look like you're going to hang out at the bar or something."

Looking down, she saw a few small pastries in a bowl with a bit of broth.

"I don't remember this being at the commissary?" she then asked, taking an experimental sniff.

"It isn't like I'm trying to poison you, you know," he remarked, eyes half lidded. "It's _tong yuen_. I learned to make it when I was running around China and thought it might be a nice surprise. They usually serve it on Yuanxiao, at the end of the Chinese New Year."

He hesitated a second, then added, "Um… in some places, the festival is also kind of a romantic night for… you know, couples… and I wanted to make something special, so…"

Not waiting for him to finish his stuttering explanation, Nabiki popped the dumpling into her mouth. It was a desert made from glutinous rice flour, mixed into balls and cooked and served in boiling water. These were filled with a sweet bean paste he'd probably gotten down in the base kitchens, plus what tasted like a pinch of ginger and some sesame seeds.

Ryouga stopped talking to gauge her reaction, and sighed in relief when he saw her smile.

"It's actually really good!"

"You sound so surprised…"

"Ryouga-baby, you're not really known for your culinary arts. But you can actually cook when you want to!" She quickly ate another, and added, "Which means I won't have to."

"What about that time you tied to make- "

"Aa-ha! No need to bring that up," she cut him off, and walked over to hold his free hand. "This was really sweet Ryouga-baby. Thanks."

He gently squeezed her hand, and took a few seconds to bask in the praise. It was clear he was trying to do something romantic, and her heart skipped a beat. She'd known he had a lot of old romantic tendencies from back in Nerima – his long suffering barrage of gifts left for Akane back at the dojo, from candies to souvenirs to statues (and one big tanuki statue no one else had been able to move) was obvious enough, but she had also learned about the occasional poetry he had tried to write in his introspective or depressed periods (which, he admitted, did make his shishi hokoudan stronger). This was the first time he'd tried something quite this elaborate with her, aside from that off base date they'd had. Candles and cooking? It was so wonderfully corny and sweet!

"I also pulled some favors and got some wine, and um… I know you like red, so I just kind of got the most expensive one I could…"

Now that was _really_ sweet.

"How expensive?" she asked, a little breathily.

"About a hundred and fifty euros so... in yen, I think that's… a lot?"

"Ryouga-baby," she hushed him with a trailing finger to his chest. "You know just how to butter me up, I'll give you that."

"Because, of course, more expensive means its better," he grumbled, a little sourly. "You've got me spending money like I'm Kuno here."

"Not at all Ryouga-baby! Kuno spends his money on his silly fetish; you spend it on me, and I'm always a good investment!"

Sharing what was left of the hand made desert, the two sat at the edge of his bed and popped open the wine, pouring the rich red Sonoma out into glasses. Of course, there were no proper wine glasses on the base, so they had to make due with typical glass cups… and despite the disservice it did to the Moulin Rouge Pinot Noir, as the two took their first few sips, neither spoke a word of protest. There was only so much either of them could do to treat the other under their usual circumstances, but the effort he had put into all this, and on seemingly short notice, was something Nabiki understood and deeply appreciated.

"I, um, I wanted to say, before we…" he coughed, a little anxiously. "I wanted to thank you. You're… well, you're an indispensable part of India and you've saved our butts a ton of times. And you've done so much over the last week and more… and, um… what I'm trying to say is, ah…"

"Go on. _Say it_."

"Geez, you're not supposed to urge the toast maker on like that! And how do you know what I'm going to say?"

"Because you said it just the other day?"

"… Okay then! I really like you, and I want to screw your brains out. Happy?"

She laughed breathily, and tapped him on the chin. "You know, Ryouga-baby, you may be a stiff necked, too serious, sort tempered idiot with an unhealthy attachment to nineteenth century moral codes of behavior…"

"…"

"But I like you, too. And you're okay in bed, too, so I'll screw your brains out first."

"Good lord, we sound like a pair of total perverts."

"Speaking of that…" she ventured, and hinted at a certain thing. "I don't suppose I could…?"

"No cameras!"

"Aww."

So he was a spoilsport, too. _There was always next time._

* * *

With a sharp jab, the small log tipped over, falling backwards into the fire with a small 'wumf' and puff of ash. Smiling, as she felt the warmth from the diminutive campfire increase, Jinx set her stick down beside her and turned her attention back to the small bundle she held to her chest. The tiny infant, with an incredibly adorable tuft of pink hair sprouting from its head, cooed contentedly as she began to tickle its tummy once more. The two of them weren't the only ones to appreciate the gently crackling flames, either, as on the far side of the fire; Jinx was curled up into a tight ball, chin resting on her crossed wrists. Though the wild haired girl's eyes were closed, the loud 'purring' rumbling in her throat gave away the fact that she was still quite awake.

"Such a good little girl," came a wistful comment from close to the curled up girl's side. "It makes one wonder just where it all went so wrong ..."

Patting the sweet child in her arms affectionately, Jinx looked up to fire an annoyed glare at the withered old man. "Oh, thanks Happi, real nice."

The ancient martial artist shrugged helplessly, taking a long draw from his tobacco pipe. The ember within the bowl glowed red hot for a moment before dying down, and several seconds later, the wizened master released the smoke from his lungs in a long, relaxed exhale.

"You know what I mean, child. We've been lost in this darkness for a long time. Not even I can remember a time when we were _that_ innocent."

Jinx frowned, nodding. Reaching down, she picked up another piece of wood and tossed it on the fire. Within moments, it caught alight, and the halo which encompassed their small gathering grew slightly.

"Yeah, well, it's not like I asked for this life," She said, abandoning the melancholy tone. "Still ... it feels like things have been getting ... better lately."

"Nothing worth having is ever easy, so they say," he reminded her with a contented puff. "Of course, by that logic, I think we have a winning lottery ticket coming our way, because this crap has been ridiculous lately."

The pink haired sorceress - the one that wasn't lying on the ground, or being cradled gently - giggled in amusement. "Tell me about it... I just hope it's worth it. I-"

Silence suddenly descended over the gathering. As one, Jinx and Happosai turned to the side, to the source of the disturbance. Even the Feral Jinx lifted her head, opening her eyes to reveal solid pink orbs, split entirely in half by long, catlike slits, the movement drawing her attention like a magnet.

They couldn't see anything at first, the darkness too complete for their vision to pierce, but they could still feel something out there, something ... different. And then the newcomer came into the light. Jinx and Happosai both sucked in a breath at the familiar dark hair, bright pink streak running through it. The ragged clothing, and the weak, staggering steps of the girl were impossible to miss. There seemed to be a darkness around her eyes, obscuring them completely, but then it was gone and the haggard expression on her face brought Jinx to her feet in an instant.

"Akari!"

"J-Jinx? Is that you?" The young woman looked around, almost blindly. "I can't see you ..."

Jinx nodded quickly. "I'm - I'm right here. W-what are _you_ doing here?"

"You, Jinx ... you're the only one that knows..." Akari seemed to zero in on her voice, her brown eyes now visible but somehow unable to see. "No one else believes, no one else can possibly see the truth."

"Truth? What truth?" Jinx tilted her head, painfully confused.

Leaning forward, Akari clasped her hands to her chest plaintively. "I'm still _here_, Jinx. I'm not dead!"

"You're ... you're still there?" Jinx asked, reaching out to take the lost girl by the hand. "But - but I saw you ..."

Akari shook her head frantically. "No, you only saw 'it', the Ethereal in command of my body. I'm still here, but trapped, trapped within the recesses of my own mind ...!" Clutching Jinx'x hand desperately, she continued. "You're the only one that can help me, the only one I can trust ... you do trust me ... don't you?"

Jinx looked around the fire. Happosai's eyes had narrowed, but he smoked his pipe silently, saying nothing. Feral Jinx stared at Akari, inhuman eyes open unnaturally wide, a nearly inaudible growl rumbled in her throat. Unease settled over her for a moment, but she quickly shook her head.

She helped the blinded Unryu closer to the fire. "Of course I trust you, Akari. What do you need me to do?"

The corner of Akari's mouth quirked up into a smile.

...

Jinx sat up in her bed like a shot. Again, the sharp ring of someone knocking loudly on the door echoed throughout the room, and she saw Starfire and Raven sitting up in their beds, both looking quite annoyed as well. A quick look to the side showed that it was still ten minutes until their alarms were set to go off.

Shaking her head, memories of her night's repast were already blurring together in a distant, vaguely disturbing malaise. This, unfortunately for whoever was at the door, put her in a bad mood, beyond even what she would normally be in just from the rude awakening. She shared a quick glance with Raven and Starfire. The former was clutching her blanket to her chest and looked ready to murder someone or something. The latter was displaying all her glory from the waist up, a confused expression on her face.

Nodding sharply, Jinx swung her legs over and all but leapt out of her bed before stalking over to the door. So annoyed was she, that she didn't even bother to throw anything on over her light tank top and abbreviated boxers. As such, rather than enjoying a good, early morning bitch out of whoever dared to disturb her slumber, the moment she opened the door, she was greeted to the sound of a body hitting the floor.

Sighing, Jinx looked down to see the crumpled form of Ryouga - definitely their Ryouga - on the ground. Looking down further, she took in her own appearance. Maybe she was hanging around Starfire too much? She was starting to get as shameless as Saotome.

With a grunt, she dragged him into the room and closed the door behind them. Behind her, upon seeing who it was, Raven and Starfire quickly scrambled to dress themselves to at least half decent levels with some long t-shirts. Once that was done, the pair came up to join her, the Tamaranian kindly tossing Ryouga up into a chair for them.

A few affectionate smacks later, Ryouga reeled back to consciousness. Looking about uncertainly for a moment, his focus soon returned as Raven dabbed a piece of cloth beneath his nose, rolling her eyes as she did.

"Honestly, Ryouga," she began, sounding somewhere between chagrined and amused. "Do you always have to make such a scene when you visit a girl's room?"

"Hey!" the Lost one barked. "I knocked this time! It's not _my_ fault that you girls lounge around in the nude and answer the door practically naked!"

"Practically naked?" Jinx asked incredulously. She gestured to her clothing, "How is this at all 'naked'?"

Ryouga was forced to turn his head and avert his gaze, lifting a hand to hold his nose. "Damnit, would you three just get dressed already? I just came by to tell you we're having a team breakfast in conference room two in twenty minutes."

"For what reason are we not having breakfast as usual, in the commissary?" Starfire asked, not at all bothered by the fact that the t-shirt she was wearing was overly large and hanging off of her shoulder suggestively.

Swallowing loudly, Ryouga squeezed his eyes shut and barked out hastily, "I have some news to tell you so I asked Kasumi to help me make a special breakfast for you guys. So, will you guys get ready and come out already?"

Raven rolled her eyes, lifting her shoulders to rest her fists on her hips; incidentally lifting the hemline of the t-shirt she wore just enough to give a quick flash of deep maroon panties.

"Well, we can't do anything as long as you're sitting here watching," she said. "Maybe you should leave so that we can get ready? And next time, just send us an electronic reminder. It'll save on blood transfusions."

Frantically nodding, nose firmly clamped, Ryouga didn't even bother to reply, just made a frantic beeline for the door.

Smirking, Jinx nodded to her partners in crime. "That guy is just _way_ too easy. Not that I can blame him, considering how fine we are."

Shaking her head in exaggerated exasperation, Raven gave a small smile. "I admit, it is good for the self esteem ... not that some of us need the validation."

The look she fired directly at Starfire was quite telling.

The Tamaranian simply shrugged in response, "As Cyborg is prone to say, when one possesses 'it', said 'it' must be flaunted."

"Showoff," Jinx muttered, "I'm starting to think Ryu's idea for a Swimsuit competition isn't so bad - just to put you in your place, Red."

Sadly, Raven shook her head. "Why bother? If Ryouga's stories are to be believed, then Kasumi would just win anyway."

"Yeah, we'll see about that!" Jinx declared, defiantly slapping a fist into her palm-

Only for the pair of them to be cut off, Starfire dropping a hand on both of their shoulders before dragging them along.

"Let us just get ready, already."

* * *

About a half hour later, Raven and the rest of the Yankee girl's found themselves arrayed around the long conference table, Cyborg present as well (in fact, he'd already been waiting ten minutes by the time they showed up), and Ryouga was just finishing setting up the final covered tray at the center of the table.

Despite herself, Raven felt a smile tugging at her lips; the faint blush still clinging to Ryouga's cheeks as he went about his business was just too cute. The fact that she could allow herself to notice it, and be amused by it, without fear of losing control of her emotions was something that she relished. For all of the problems with this world, it certainly possessed some unique advantages that made her consider, however theoretically: would it really be all that bad to stay?

Not only was she sleeping better, but she felt good, too, and without the need to strictly meditate she found herself with much more time and energy to burn. It was so much easier to just relax and enjoy herself: to be proud of what she could accomplish, to (softly) laugh when she heard something funny, to get angry but still feel in control. Maybe that was it, exactly. Despite being physically cooped up and stuck in this regimented military base, this world had given her a sense of self-control and emotional freedom that was almost heady.

Even those who knew about her 'nonstandard parentage' didn't seem to care much about it. It was just a shame that almost everyone she dealt with at the psi-gym and elsewhere were all in their thirties or late twenties. Maturity was a good thing, but being the shortest and youngest person in the room got old pretty fast, and she still wasn't so sure how much of the attitude of the local staff would be reflected on the outside. Ongoing alien invasion aside, though, this _had_ to have been one of the most convenient and comfortable universes to get stuck in. Everyone knew the old joke about there being a "zombie dimension" after all.

At the very least, maybe...

Just _maybe_ if they got stuck here for a year... then she could go home and circumvent the prophecy. It was only a _year_, after all, not a _lifetime_. Not like they'd be stuck here forever! Just... seven or eight months or so? Then they could go back home to Robin and the others, and a _certain someone_ could remain in his hellish plane of existence where he belonged! How did the saying go: you make your bed; you sleep in it? It would just be a _real shame_ if the prophesized day hit, and there was no alignment of stars or mythical summoning circle or anything else. Spending a year in a dimension that seemed to abhor magic-as-she-knew-it may have been just what the doctor ordered.

Not that anyone else needed to know about it. In fact, ideally, the whole thing could end up swept under the rug and forgotten. Trigon could just sit on his throne and rot! The vindictive thought almost - _almost_ - made her giggle out loud.

"Alright, everyone, let's eat," Ryouga finally stated, pulling the tops off of each of the three trays.

Instantly, and ravenously, the Titans (plus one) surged forward, filling their plates with piles of food. Raven decided to hang back for a few precious seconds, just to make sure she came back with all of her fingers intact. Once she was sure she was safe, then she finally gathered some breakfast of her own.: eggs, bacon and toast. There was rice, too, and some other Japanese dishes.

She was just about to take her first bite-

"Awww, man!" Cyborg's outburst was quite loud, and followed up by some choking sounds. "What is **up** with this bacon? It just tastes nasty!"

Smiling broadly, Ryouga took a jammed a large fork full of the bacon into his mouth, chewed loudly, then finally swallowed. "There's nothing wrong with the Tofu Bacon. Why, it's just as good as the tofu eggs and the whole wheat toast."

Instantly, Raven's and Jinx's forks slowed on their short voyages to their mouths, uncertain looks blooming on their faces. Starfire, on the other hand, didn't even slow down, shoveling the artificial food into her mouth.

"**Tofu!**" Cyborg's pained wails resonated deep within the souls of all present. He may as well have found a slug in his salad ... had he ever ordered salad. "But Ryo, why! WHY?"

Smiling fondly now, Ryouga stood. "Well, I wanted this to be a celebratory meal, for the good job you've all been doing lately. Then, I thought it might be a nice idea to make this entire breakfast a remembrance of absent friends ... though, I guess technically speaking we're the ones actually absent."

Instantly, Raven's annoyance melted away, and she felt an odd tingling in her eyes. Without a second's hesitations, she took a bite of the tofu bacon, recoiling at the flavor. This ... this was so _sweet_ of him; she never imagined he would have thought of it. Taking another bite, she smiled herself.

"Even from an infinite distance away, Beast Boy still manages to find a way to annoy me..."

Despite trying to be glib, she actually felt her voice nearly crack as she made the joke. No one laughed, though, either at her quip, or at her slip. Rather, thoughtful, distant looks descended on the faces of all present.

Ryouga nodded, taking his seat once more.

"I thought it would be nice to take some time to just sit around and chat," he said. "You know, reminisce about good old days and what not."

It didn't take much more prodding beyond that. The food was quickly (and thankfully) forgotten and stories began to fly. Fond memories of Robin, Beast Boy, Terra and Kasumi began to flow like a fine wine, lifting the spirits and bringing wistful smiles to all. The next hour and a half passed in the blink of an eye as the stories were shared freely. Even Jinx, who remained silent for most of the time, appeared to be genuinely entertained by the outlandish and sometimes outright bizarre tales.

All too soon, though, Ryouga finally brought an end to the heartwarming discussion, business apparent on his face. Standing up once more, he gestured for them to calm down.

"Alright, now, unfortunately, there is some business-business that we need to discuss." Looking unsure of how to proceed, he gestured meaninglessly for a moment, as if grasping for ideas. "As you all know, I was called into the Commander's office yesterday. We had an interesting conversation, to say the least. And, well, I really don't know how to put this diplomatically... but the main topic of our talk was ... um - well ... the disbanding of Yankee squad."

The reaction was as immediate as it was obvious and predictable.

"**What!**"

Instantly, Ryouga waved his hands wardingly. "Woah, woah! Calm down for a second. Let me explain first!"

"_Ohhh_, this had _better_ be good, Ryouga," Jinx growled, glaring at him with arms crossed.

The Lost Boy nodded. "It is, trust me, it is. Honestly, though, you know, you guys really need to learn to listen to what people have to say before you react. It makes you look _panicky_."

Though she wasn't sure why, Raven found this statement to not only be annoying, but ironic as well. Narrowing her own eyes, she stared at the martial artist as well.

"Well, by all means, feel free to explain then," she requested.

Giving a quick sigh of relief, Ryouga took his seat again. "Alright. Now, first off, you've all heard the saying about 'Keeping your eggs in one basket,' right? Well, the gist of the talk went something like this..."

* * *

Ranma privately wondered if his fellow officer had gotten laid last night.

Ryouga seemed to be in an unnaturally good mood, one undampened by even some light joking and teasing about, among other things, 'women leading him around everywhere.' At least Shirokuro had appreciated the joke, and wagged her tail in doggy appreciation.

The two of them stood presently in Commander Yasuda's office, Captain Ben-Solomon off to one side and the Commander herself behind her desk. It was a bright new morning underground, and a cup of dark coffee sat on the base CO's desk. Yasuda, despite not being on active combat duty anymore, still woke up before sunrise – as if they had a genuine 'sunrise' down here – to jog around the inside of the base with some of the staff, both military and civilian. Though neither martial artist could recall seeing her at the mess in mornings and neither considered the jog much exercise. It involved a predetermined course through the long corridors of the base, but it wasn't in the range the teams preferred. India usually went outside for a quick forty (kilometers, that was), and Juliet typically did the same separately.

This morning, they were here for debrief, and some info on their new operation.

"Lieutenants," she began, not yet looking up from her desk computer. She seemed to be finishing something up. "First, let me say you all did good work on the last mission. Up to and including the incident with the Saffron Trenchard."

"Thank you ma'am," they both chorused.

"I've already spoken to Yankee about it. Your cumulative performance has further validated the somewhat unorthodox approach Seiran has taken over the last half year. As you know, that operation was one of three that were occurring worldwide in response to enemy incursions. We believe all three were attempted base assaults."

A large screen on the wall switched from a still faux-painting of a map to an actual digital map, with three dots superimposed over the continents and oceans. One entered the Earth's atmosphere north of New Zealand, another near Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America, and another in the co called 'Greenland pocket' believed by the aliens to be free of XCOM hyperwave surveillance. In fact, coverage had been extended by use of a refitted submarine, turning the blind spot "pocket" into a trap. Enough alien insertions were allowed to enter unmolested to continue the charade, but all were actually monitored closely and taken in-air or on-ground

The dots then accelerated, one heading along a zig zag path towards Indonesia, another making a beeline for the USA, and another heading up along South America in another search pattern. The simulation left lines behind to show the course the alien ships had taken. Green dots, XCOM Interceptors, Firestorms and Avengers, closed in on all three formations, engaging them on contact. The resulting air battles were summed up by the computer in seconds, showing damage done to UNETCO craft returning to base.

"Three alien battleships and three large scouts," Yasuda said, reiterating what had already been outlined by the computer moments before. "We believe one was headed for El Dorado, one for Ocean City, and another looking for a base in the South Pacific. The American branch dropped the battleship into the mid Atlantic, and annihilated the large scout in midair, leaving the debris to the fish. Our target was shot down over Borneo, and the other group ended up in the jungles of Brazil."

"Ma'am," Ranma slipped in as she paused a few seconds. "Are you saying all three attacks were identical? They all had a Trenchard aboard the large scout?"

"That is correct, Lieutenant. Use of this particular entity as a 'terror unit' in a base assault would have been catastrophic had it succeeded. These were scenes from the assault in Brazil."

She pressed a key and the screen showed scenes of devastation.

It was much like the Saffron they had encountered. Jungle was burned in a wide, perfectly symmetrical radius from the crashed large scout. There were also blast craters chewing up the terrain and long grooves burned into the forest and earth. Another picture showed helicopters moving around the site and containment crews working to try and salvage the shredded remains of the alien craft.

"The El Dorado branch authorized use of unrestricted surface bombardment. Everything short of a nuclear response. The UFO was destroyed on the ground and the Saffron entity lured up into the air, where it was taken out with ship mounted plasma beams." Yasuda paused again, and then added, "El Dorado reported the loss of two entire squads to this single enemy, in addition to several wounded and two destroyed HWPs."

"Aside from the Americans, who let their interceptions splash down, we had zero casualties and only a few wounded in the last mission," Captain Ben-Solomon explained. "I imagine Commander Perrikos and Captain Nivelles are regretting letting you guys come back east."

"Sir, is Captain Nivelles alright?" Ranma asked, worried.

The man had been the one to get them into UNETCO in the first place, back when the abductor ship that had hit Nerima crashed. El Dorado had been the first XCOM base they had ever seen, and both men had kept contact with those they had met there, the Captain included. Nivelles was a potent psionic in his own right, capable of telekinetics without the use of a psiamp, and Ranma and Ryouga had shared insights with him regarding martial arts and telekinetics. He was still something of a long distance friend and mentor.

"Their Captain is fine. But this engagement has set El Dorado back several weeks in terms of our timetable for CLEANSLATE," Yasuda answered. "The situation also represents a worrying trend. The aliens have generally been cautious to keep their Trenchard population out of direct combat. This is the first time we've seen them use this particular resource so overtly. Currently, Seiran and Chendgu are the only bases fully prepared to deal with this threat, minus extenuating measures like El Dorado took."

"Herb still has the Gekkaja," Ranma pointed out. "And I saw this Saffron use a knock off version of the Kinjakan. We knew they were making more Saffrons for use as living weapons and we were told R&D would have counter weapons of our own ready."

"We were told the counter weapons would be ready for Cydonia, Saotome," Ryouga spoke up then, crossing his arms, good mood faltering a bit. "I bet no one thought the aliens would have gotten this far so soon. They'd been having problems duplicating martial artists, but Saffron isn't a martial artist in the first place. Every version of Saffron is naturally an exact duplicate of the one that came before."

"So we can expect Saffrons and Asuras to start showing up on missions now and not just base assaults?" the pigtailed officer sighed in open chagrin. "That's just wonderful."

"I've spoken with Colonel Butler," Yasuda assured them. "High Command has also stressed the importance of coming up with countermeasures for these new 'mass production' type Trenchards. However… that is not the only reason I called you here."

"Ma'am?" Ryouga asked.

"As of today, we are taking certain steps towards Operation Pathfinder: the pursuit and elimination of the alien dimensional expedition."

* * *

The various iterations of non-disclosure form were the bread and butter of organizations like UNETCO. Simply being on base required you to consent to one, and the deeper you went into the ranks of the organization and the more involved you became with research and development, the more elaborate and inflexible the clauses became. Cyborg been asked to physically read the document before signing it, and grudgingly did so simply to be polite, but the fact was that he was already so deep into things here that most of it was just more of the same.

His artificial eye flashed as he scanned over the section about exclusivity. Unlike all the other stuff he'd done and signed before, this time the work would be incommunicateable to even his teammates until he received some kind of "pending approval" from Command. That was actually a little unusual… but more exciting than off-putting! XCOM had given him access to a lot of neat toys and new specs, but had always kept some of the juiciest, sweetest, most _awesome_ stuff out of his hands.

They'd let him study basic Elerium tech, for example, as in plasma weapons, but not the alien derived Elerium annihilation reactors or fusion ball or blaster bomb technology. He'd had some help with the unusual psionic tech incorporated into the psiamp and other devices, but they hadn't given him actual specs or examples to play around with or tweak. The inertialess gravity drives used in the manmade UFOs had impressive rates of acceleration and maneuverability, but he hadn't gotten his hands on any of that either – though requesting a small UFO to take apart was probably asking a _bit_ much.

They wanted to _ease_ him into things, he could guess. Give him the lip-smacking bacon-wrapped appetizers before the main course. Soup or Salad (naturally: soup!). That kind of thing.

His clearance level had to be individually adjusted with respect to his position in the organization, which was still in the process of being, well, processed. It was just like Ryo had explained to him at breakfast. They wanted to cut Yankee up, piecemeal, and set them up on assignments that they felt better suited the individual members. While initially he'd been shocked as well … well, if it meant that he got to do fascinating stuff like this, rather than run around in dank, smelly forests getting his limbs melted …

Shrugging, he signed the document.

_Paper!_ So old fashioned! But what did you expect of bureaucracy?

"Well, I made it all the way through and added the old John Hancock," he remarked, handing the papers over to a suit standing next to Professor al-Rifai. The pleased look on her face made him blush a bit, on what was left of his natural face, especially since Starfire's too-interested inquisition the other day was still fresh in his mind.

Jalila was older than him by a decade, probably being in her very early thirties, but she was still a very pretty woman. He wouldn't have thought the age difference to be much of an issue, normally, but it was still there and kind of glaring. He really didn't have much experience with older women, especially not ones that could be considered professional peers. Just his luck he tended to have a thing for older women – Kasumi was another glaring example – while being surrounded by younger ones. Of course, Kasumi was practically a MILF in training, so she wasn't exceptional when it came to that rule either.

If only it was 'Teen - _and Twenty-something_ - Titans.'

As is, he was sure their naming convention was going to end up shuffling potential members over to the Justice League in a few years. As if _that_ group needed more hot women joining up!

"You won't regret signing on board," Jalila assured him, and nodded politely to the legal suit who took the papers and excused himself. Her eyes all but lit up in excitement when the man left. "We've been waiting to bring you into our inner circle! Ever since I saw those equations…!"

"Wait, what?" he asked, holding up her hands to motion for her to slow down. "What inner circle?"

* * *

"This is Urania-1, launched from Horizon Base on Luna shortly after you left," Commander Yasuda explained, showing them a picture of what looked like a modified small scout. The video was taken by an observer craft nearby, and it showed the small three by three by three meter refitted UFO vanishing in a twinkle of light.

"The research probe returned six hours later after a successful EDC test, and has since been launched a second time to a different point in trans-dimensional space." The screen changed to show schematic of the tiny ship and some of the research data it retrieved. "While we still lack a full understanding of all the functions and physics involved in the use of the alien Extended Dimensional Contact Device, we have enough to conduct some important field tests. With the data retrieved from these test launches, we have been able to refine the captured large scout and EDC apparatus."

"Refine?" Ranma asked. "Was it broken or… what?"

"It was captured almost fully functional," the Commander replied. "But we needed to research the operation of the device and understand what physical dangers its use would present. High Command wants to move towards human operations in this field as quickly as possible. We need to send an expedition of our own to investigate and, eventually, disrupt or destroy the alien convoy that entered the dimensional rift."

"Do we have any idea what they are up to?" Ryouga asked, hands clasped behind his back. "They staged a terror raid to cover their escape, so it must be important to them."

"That's an accurate assessment, Lieutenant," Yasuda agreed. "The aliens have invested a lot of effort into this. We still don't know exactly what they're after, but we believe it to center around their own research and development. During the fight with Saffron, the Alien Mind showed a strong interest in one member of Yankee Squad above all others."

"Starfire," Ranma reasoned. "They wanna do to her like they did to Saffron and Rouge. Most of her powers are basically natural, or they can be boosted with forms of radiation. If they got a piece of her, they could crank out copies… maybe not with martial arts at first, but with all her other basic abilities."

"Our alien enemies have already been focused on their research, particularly the Sectoids. The promise of samples found on alternate worlds would be all they need to expend any amount of resources," the Commander said with a nod. "They will likely find a world with something they want and land to begin study of the natives. Once they're secure, they'll scout out more worlds, for more interesting species, and they'll do what they've been doing here on Earth."

"This isn't just a matter of what they do elsewhere," Captain Ben-Solomon added, after the Commander finished. "Their findings will end up back on Cydonia to be used against us, and their ability to operate from a dimensional base means they can and will begin to attack us beneath our air defense network. Command wants this base of theirs found and, if possible, neutralized."

* * *

"The problem we have is much like you encountered with your dimensional portal," Jalia said as they walked, side by side. "Actual extra dimensional travel is hazardous even with a system we know can cross the quantum discontinuity..."

She walked Cyborg over to the lab set up in the restricted hangar area, discretely explaining the situation along the way. She'd filled him in on the captured alien 'EDC' – a major modification of the FTL they use – and some of how it worked. The principles were somewhat similar to the gate he had attempted to build, in some ways more complex and in other ways more crude.

It was also highly dangerous. His own dimensional gate had the possibility of catastrophic destruction, but the alien EDC, if it had an error or failure, would partly convert nearby matter into antimatter producing an explosion equivalent to a dozen nuclear bombs. On the plus side, it had a workaround for the power issues. But it sure as Hell wasn't the kind of solution he'd use. It also blasted out a hell of a lot of energy as hard rads when it had a 'transit event.'

XCOM scientists had hypothesized that there was a 'mothership' with a more powerful EDC Device that could project what they called static 'transit gates' in space time. By making the dimensional transition at one of these points, you could navigate a safe path from one unknown dimension to another.

"Like a worm tunneling through the layers of a tree or onion," Jalila had explained. "Our EDC can't do this, unfortunately, but we believe we can detect and follow the path made by the alien ships. We should be able to travel along that tunnel and back again without too much difficulty once we work it out, sort of like a snake chasing a rat into its burrow."

They'd already made some test launches and determined some modifications that needed to be made to the captured UFO to make it safer for humans. The biosciences people seemed to think that the actual transit could put a great deal of strain on organic matter, besides the threat of going up in an antimatter fireball or making a microsecond's contact with a region between dimensions speculated to contain 'infinite energy due to dimensional friction.'

The picture Cyborg got as he listened and asked about certain findings was both grim and fascinating. It was also very different from what he had learned about dimensional travel back home. The Justice League kept that sort of dimensional technology mostly to themselves, but Cyborg had been given a few confidential data bundles from Mister Terrific given his parents contribution to the field and his own need to know.

Super heroism tended to involve some sort of dimensional event sooner or later, sometimes with alternate earths and sometimes with otherworldly 'lesser dimensional' planes of existence. It was just one of many threats that the community as a whole had to be aware of, and it generally fell on the shoulders of respective team super-science types to plan for it.

It was basically part of the job.

The stuff he had trained for and learned about was very different from this, though. The local 'multiverse' (as Mister Terrific had dubbed it) didn't have the same dimensional barriers Jalila was talking about, and her description of how they thought one could navigate the alternate dimensions wasn't entirely in line with how it was done back home. It was almost as if… as if there was something making dimensional travel harder here. Or, on the flip side, there was something making it easier and more practical back home… though it was still very hard.

If there was a "dimensional fabric" back on his Earth, then there was a "dimensional concrete block" here. Now it made sense why his portal didn't work and why it seemed to keep needing more and more power. It wasn't just some quantum differences between worlds! They were in a completely separate multiverse, with a different trans-dimensional architecture. It was like going from a building with waist high dividers and open spaces to one with concrete walls between every section.

Plus, if this was an entirely different multiverse, then that meant the standardized wavelength system he had checked when first getting here was only partly accurate. He would need to somehow detect and calculate the dimensional variance between alternate worlds both locally and between this multiverse and his native one. Even if the former was theoretically possible, he had no idea how to go about the latter. It was akin to two ships at sea, moving at an unknown distance and unknown speed relative to one another; while you run randomly on one and try to hit a similarly randomly running person on the deck of another. Worse than that, actually. Much worse.

Maybe the best bet was to just try and get somewhere, anywhere, in their home multiverse. It didn't matter where. Once they were back in that local cluster then it would be vastly easier to find a way home. Of course, they would have to _get_ there first, which was still a mean feat even discarding the requirement for accuracy. Cyborg had also heard tall tales about really crazy alternate dimensions: pure speculation… probably… about vampire and zombie and Bizzaro and Nazi worlds. One trollish post on the Cyblog, courtesy of Gizmo, had even joked that, if circumstances had been just a little bit different, then maybe Superman would've ended up somewhere in Soviet Russia.

But those were just old superscience campfire tales to scare kids into not messing with things beyond their comprehension.

Probably…

So yeah.

"We've already incorporated some of the work you did with your dimensional gate, but despite the tests and what we've learned from the alien devices, we don't have much practical experience in this field," Jalila admitted unhappily as they neared the hangar. "Command talks a lot about safety, but they're riding us hard. We'll literally be sending people out on a ship with an engine we don't fully understand!"

It took a second for him to pick that up.

"They're going to be sending someone out already!"

* * *

"Human trials of the EDC equipped large scout are to begin within the week, pending the forth successful trial jump of the Urania-1," Yasuda announced, standing by the screen now. It was already displaying information on the ship and the modifications engineers were making to it. "We will have the crew initiate a transition to two of the already explored 'test dimensions.' Once we're satisfied with the performance of the EDC drive and the ship, then we'll begin combat operations."

It was obvious, given that the two were present (and in fact had been prepared for this since Luna), that India and Juliet would be involved in this inter-dimensional jaunt. Perhaps Yankee as well. Neither was sure about that.

Ryouga spoke first. "What are the objectives for this Operation, Commander?"

"Search and Destroy."

Ranma felt a small chill run down his spine, but both officers stood straight and still.

"Operation Pathfinder is nothing less than the pursuit and destruction of the alien expedition into dimensional space," she elaborated, facing the two lieutenants and fixing them with a serious stare. "Along the way, you are to ensure Earth security by capturing or destroying all alien technology, in particular any enemy versions of the EDC device. We do not want any potentially hostile forces to find a way in through Earth's backdoor."

"Ma'am, we can't take on a battleship in a large scout," Ranma argued.

"No," she agreed. "We will be up-armoring and up-arming the scout with one of our more powerful plasma beam cannons and a fusion ball launcher… it should be a rough equivalent for one of our Firestorms, but you will need to avoid space combat if at all possible. If the enemy can not be engaged and destroyed on-site, then you will return to base, and we will launch a strike using remote warheads."

"Remote warheads?" Ryouga inquired.

"Probes, like the Urania-1, can be refitted into… cruise missiles of a sort. As we can only bring a limited crew compliment along with the large scout, you will have to accompany the retrofitted probe and direct these dimensional missiles onto their target. Rather than detonate, the probe will initiate an unstable dimensional transition. This should destroy anything and everything within the vicinity."

Ranma nodded crisply. "Yes, ma'am."

Ryouga said nothing, but his expression was stern.

"This course of action will cost us an EDC core module," she reminded them both. "And while we can fabricate much of this technology, there is an organic component that we have not found a way to reproduce. Every use of the EDC consumes a small amount of this organic material, so you are to consider it more precious than even Elerium 115."

* * *

"An organic component?"

That was strange. Cyborg said as much a moment later.

"Why would there be an organic component?" he outright asked. The aliens had some nice biotech, but using it in a dimensional device was downright weird. Jalila and her team had no idea why it was there or even what exactly it did, only that according to tests, each transition event with the EDC consumed a tiny portion of it.

"It appears to be grey matter, like the kind in a sentient brain, but it isn't human or alien. It doesn't have a genetic or chemical structure like anything we've encountered before, and we can't clone it ourselves. And if we can't clone it, then the aliens probably can't either, making it a finite resource."

Cyborg paused for a bit to consider that. Was she hinting that XCOM could do what the aliens did? That they could even make a Saffron of their own? They had the genetic samples, probably even the 'original Saffron' somewhere in storage – since Saotome had mentioned bringing him in before – and for that matter, they had extensive genetic and physiological profiles on everyone. Including Starfire. Yet, aside from medical tissue cloning and physical reconstruction, they didn't seem to do too much with it. It was still a little disturbing, though.

And off topic.

"I've never heard of any sort of dimensional crossover technology that used organic parts," he admitted. "I'll have to look at it myself to even begin to speculate."

And yet… even without doing that, his mind was already entertaining one possibility.

The Hypergriffin!

It was what brought them here in the first place, when it interacted with Raven's powers in some anomalous way. Raven's powers which they _knew_ could involve some dimensional manipulation! There were no such things as coincidences in science. Jinx had reported seeing it captured by the aliens. Even without looking, even without seeing those biological scans, he knew in his gut that it was true.

The griffin and by extension this organic component, were the key!

"This way," Jalila said, gesturing for him to follow and heading down to the restricted area ancillary to the main hangar. Security here was tight as usual, and even though she must've just left the site a half hour or so before, the guards required a new round of security scans: retinal, voiceprint, radiofrequency tag, and then psionic with a mind probe. The woman went through it all with practiced ease and little apparent annoyance or discomfort. Having just gotten approval, Cyborg's scans took longer and caused him considerably more aggravation.

He was also anxious to get through and see this thing!

"Alright," the guard finally declared. "You're both clear to enter."

"Finally, man!" he growled and rapped his knuckles against his metal chest piece. "You'd think there were multiple guys built like this trying to sneak in, right?"

The MP, undeterred, didn't even bother to reply.

"Come on, Victor," Jalila insisted, surprising him a little with the use of his name. But then, that had to be in his file, too, of course. He probably should have been a bit annoyed not being called 'Cyborg'; only Kasumi ever called him Victor, after all, but for some reason he found he didn't mind. Besides, the situation was… different than things at home.

Inside the maintenance hanger, he saw a familiar looking UFO.

"Hey! That's the ship we captured!" he yelled, pointing. In fact, Juliet squad had probably gotten credit for actually going inside and clearing it out, but…

Oh.

And that explained why he hadn't known there was anything unusual about it.

"You've met some of the research team before, but that was only one of three." Jalila took him by the arm to keep him focused on the task at hand. "I'll introduce you to the rest. We only have a couple hours before the engineering team comes in to do their work…"

* * *

"Our teams are ready, ma'am," Ranma said with confidence. "Who will we be working with? Yankee? One of the senior squads?"

"Unfortunately, our scientists believe that the ship – after modifications – will only be able to safely support the transit of three teams of soldiers plus a few support staff," Commander Yasuda explained, heading back to her desk to sit down. "They've recommended that we limit the expedition to twelve."

She rested her hands flat on her desk, looking up at the two young men.

"Yankee may or my not end up being involved and I don't want to push our limit until the EDC has seen some field testing. For the time being, India and Juliet will be operating together as the heart of the strike force. Aside from being crack teams equal to any of our veterans, you have a remarkable versatility that is well suited to venturing into unknown circumstances on unexplored terrain. Against strange and unusual threats your record is exemplary."

"If it will just be India and Juliet in the field," Ryouga asked, a little tentatively. "Who will be in overall command?"

Commander Yasuda and Captain Ben-Solomon were silent for a few long seconds.

"Lieutenant Saotome," she eventually answered. "Your piloting skills are ranked the highest of everyone in India and Juliet. We will need you both to be proficient in this, but you, Saotome, are best suited to actually navigate the ship in or out of combat."

Her eyes turned to Ryouga. "Lieutenant Hibiki, for the duration of Operation Pathfinder, you will have the command rank of Acting Major. Bear in mind that I have **not** forgotten your slip up regarding White Iron and you can consider this your chance to rectify that. I expect you to be the strong right arm of our organization and to do whatever is necessary to accomplish the objectives given to you. This includes authorization of the Icarus Protocol."

Ranma straightened a bit more at this, realizing now just why Ryouga had been picked for command. _Icarus_. Of all things. Not only that, but the phrase 'whatever is necessary' was right up India Squad's alley. It was no secret that Hibiki was considered the more ruthless of the two martial arts lieutenants.

"After the success or failure of Pathfinder, you will resume your given rank. I will need both of you at your best for this mission. Ready your teams. Ready yourselves." She tapped a finger on her desk, and added, "You will also need combat support. I will be transferring Miss Tendo to field duty, and she will assume responsibility for both India and Juliet."

"We'll organize some cross-team drills to get her used to working with both squads," Ryouga replied crisply, seemingly unperturbed by the thought of Nabiki getting so close to danger in the field.

"You will both be receiving data packets. Review them and brief your teams," Yasuda concluded. "That is all. Dismissed."

"Yes, ma'am!" "Yes, ma'am!"

A quick salute and the two were gone.

"Commander," Captain Ben-Solomon asked, still standing by the screen, now reverted back to a painting of a map. "Don't you think letting India and Juliet lead the charge in this will only provoke Yankee into coming along?"

"Yankee has their own choices to make, and if they make them, it is best they do so without regrets," she stated, going back to her work. "I've already sent along approval for Cyborg to discuss his latest work with his teammates, and I expect he'll do so shortly. As I told the acting Sergeant, I want them to take a few days to consider their options. Only when will I force the issue and see where things lie."

"You don't think they'll feel the need to come along for Operation Pathfinder?"

"Captain," Yasuda said, glancing up momentarily to better explain. "I am not particularly worried about their opinions regarding Pathfinder. However, if things work out and the expedition is not a complete disaster, then they will have a means to return home. And we will allow them to return home. However... as long as they are a 'combat team' they will move as a single unit and likely go home as a team. However, if they learn how important they are to us and to this world individually…"

Ben-Solomon's eyes widened a bit as he got it.

"Ah. I see…!" he realized. "You're concerned about -"

"Yes. Her. That should be all. You are dismissed, Captain."

"Yes, ma'am."

* * *

The air cracked as she swept her unorthodox weapon about. Despite the impressive tensile strength of the shaft, constructed of the unusual alien alloy, she could still see it flex slightly from the combination of the heavy bladed head and the power of her full strength swings. She wanted to lose herself in the forms of the weapon, half forgotten from years of disuse, but nothing she had attempted had been able to distract her mind from the thoughts running through it.

Not since the breaking-of-the-fast earlier that morning.

With one last spin, Starfire lashed out with the Chainsaw mounted polearm in a thrust, which she stopped so sharply that the entire end of the weapon vibrated loudly for several long seconds. The Tamaranian found herself staring at the gleaming white edge of the blade as it shook back and forth.

It was no good. With a sigh, she slammed the butt of the polearm to the ground and leaned against it. If only there were something else that she could do to take her mind off of ... that ...

"Yours is a most unusual weapon, my flame haired comrade in arms."

Starfire smiled a little at the familiar voice. Dojo use times were scheduled, and usually not just picked up on the spot. Since she was off duty now, she had decided to take her chances with sneaking into the dojo. It appeared that fortune smiled upon her, as her stolen time had apparently coincided with his.

Kuno entered the room with his sword in bokken form, resting lazily against his shoulder. He was wearing part of a uniform she knew to be representative of his preferred school of combat, kendo. It looked a little overdressed and low tech, except for the gloved gauntlets he wore. Those displayed a dull luster from treated alien alloy, altered to be less reflective. They were the same hand covers he used in real combat. He bowed to her in a gentlemanly fashion and walked over.

"Though the proportions more resemble a yan yue dao (reclining moon blade), in your forms I can not help but be reminded of naginatajutsu," he commented with a grin. "I hope I am not intruding?"

Starfire shook her head, smiling brightly. "Not at all. As an unauthorized entrant, I can only hope that you are not offended that I am encroaching on your scheduled time."

Kunou responded with a gasp of mock surprise. "Offended by the presence of such loveliness? On the contrary, I would say that I am blessed by your intrusion." Smiling roguishly, he gestured to her weapon. "But tell me, does your skill match your beauty?"

Doing her best to hide the blush that she felt flooding her cheeks, Starfire lifted her polearm, looking at it appraisingly. "It-it _is_ a fascinating coincidence that the form which I use is reminiscent to anything used on this planet ... though I suppose the basic form and nature of the weapon would lead to inevitable similarities."

Smiling more widely now, she leaned forward further, resting more of her weight on the weapon.

"Perhaps you can show me more of this 'naginatajutsu'," she suggested. "So that I may make a comparison of my own?"

"Of course. I would be most pleased to assist. I have not used the forms myself in several years, yet I learned from one of the best..."

He headed towards one of the dojo storage compartments and, after a few moments of searching, retrieved a bamboo practice naginata. It was a bit longer than Starfire's weapon, and the blade end much narrower. As Captain of the Furinkan kendo club and designated heir to the long and proud tradition of Furinkan excellence in sports and martial arts, he was also versed in the associated styles, including championship level naginatajutsu.

Kuno then proceeded to demonstrate some of the style and techniques passed down to him. Kendo was his preference, of course, and his love. Unlike some of his peers, he was not particularly well versed in a vast array of martial arts styles, weapons or bare handed. Instead, all his skill and love were put into one great skill.

Starfire watched with interest, most notably the amusing way in which the fighter's dress swished about dramatically as he went through the movements of his forms. It was as she expected, though, any similarities were purely superficial, due to the shape of the weapon.

Tamaranian forms were somewhat less ... graceful, relying much more on their inherent strength. There was also an entire, more advanced level of her forms based exclusively on airborne techniques which no human could mimic. Still, as she watched him demonstrate his skills, she did see several interesting techniques that she could possibly attempt to incorporate into her own style.

It was a fascinating concept, since she had left her own skills to rest so long.

"Your people have an appreciation for the form and elegance of armed combat," Kuno guessed. "I wish only that my own battles could be so. To meet an enemy face to face is so much more noble and right than to bombard them with explosives or burn them with vile weapons."

Starfire nodded, appreciating his respect for her people.

"My people's physical superiority in one of our few advantages over many other races," she explained. "So we have developed many styles which attempt to capitalize on this fact."

Taking a step towards him, she twirled her weapon to rest behind her back. "I mastered only a few of the forms, though, being so young during the war on my planet, but such reverence for the armed forms was quite prevalent in most who were my instructors."

"Were your people warlike? Or were you, too, at conflict with a perfidious alien menace?"

"We are ... not a well liked race among the stars. Other races view us as primitive, or ... 'lesser' than themselves." Frowning, she tightened her grip on her weapon, remembering a certain pejorative term that was popular among many races with respect to her kind.

"Tamaranians," she explained. "Are a people of love, and boundless emotion. However we are not one to cower from battle... Though ..." Shaking her head once more, she pasted another broad grin on her face. "Though, that is not overly important at this moment. Your human culture is also quite warlike, though you spend most of your time battling one another. Have you never questioned how odd it is, to wage war upon your own kind?"

"Odd?" Kuno asked, and respectfully put aside the practice polearm to draw his bokken. "It matters little who is the opponent; one wages war for causes: for land, for glory, for nation, for livelihood, for family, for religion, for honor... for purpose. If we had never fought amongst ourselves in the past, we would be fodder for those who assail us in the future. The lessons of war are ones humans seem to learn most attentively. In your world, are humans not among the weakest of creatures? Perhaps we are meant to compensate for this."

"I do not consider humans to be ... weak," Starfire explained tactfully. "You, as a people, possess a great many strengths which are rare among the cosmos. But yes, battling for land, nation, religion ... I still cannot understand these concepts. Our battles were mostly fought to ensure our survival against invading forces."

"Mostly?"

Looking away uncertainly, she shifted slightly. "My people are ... passionate. We have been ... provoked into war on several occasions. I harbor no pride for these wars, and indeed, our own hubris has cost us more than I wish to speak of. All such occasions were before my time, though, so I know little more than what I read in texts."

"Your people sound very human," Kuno observed, but his tone wasn't mocking or critical. "Many of our wars have been sparked by passions. It is only natural that one will fight for home and family, and in self-defense, for no creature wishes for death."

"That much is universal. Yet, there is another aspect which can, perhaps, be best expressed as 'quality of life.' We view the traditions and lifestyles our ancestors struggled to give us as something as important as life itself. Even if these are just beliefs, we hold them dear for they give us not simply the means to live but the desire to. When one threatens what we consider precious to our worldview, it is as if they hold a blade to our necks."

"An example," he added, seeing her think about his words. "You have seen but one of many humans who have been taken by our present foe. No doubt Elder Cologne had told you of her other self?"

Starfire nodded. Cologne had spoken of it, though only briefly.

"She is one of an unknown number. I have heard speculation that the aliens wish to take a select spectrum of humanity into their service. To become what the other alien races are. Were this to come to pass, mankind would survive in the barest sense… the genetic sense. But I am convinced we will in the process lose our soul and our passion. We will lose what makes us truly human beings. Were this to happen to a Tamaranian, I believe the response – the rejection – would be the exact same. For we are both a passionate, willful people."

Starfire nodded, seeing what he meant. "On that score, there can be no doubt. When Saffron propositioned me during the battle, I had never been so incensed." Her eyes narrowed as she recalled her last sight of the vile creature, slowly freezing in the depths of space. "I would rather die than become an abomination such as that."

"That is what we fight for. To preserve the flawed humanity we hold dear. …It is my regret that I have taken lives, both human and alien, in defense of my country and people. The art I practice is meant for life or death combat on one level, yes, but the form I prefer is grounded in sportsmanship and goodwill. It is to strive towards excellence in form and style without bloodshed. Once this war is over, I plan to forever put aside this sword..."

He held his fabricated mimetic alloy blade, still currently in bokken form, with love and purpose.

"Until then," he concluded, looking up at her. "I shall fight with all my strength for those who can not defend themselves. This is my bushido."

Starfire found herself staring at the swordsman for a time, before a giggle escaped her lips. Before the swordsman could protest too much, at her apparently laughing at his dramatic speech, she held up her hand in protest.

"Please, please, take no offense. I am not laughing at you ... it is just that ... well, I believe that I finally see the same thing which our companion Bumblebee has seen in you for some time. On my world, she is quite enamored of you, you see?"

"Another woman, hm?" The kendoist pondered with a somewhat goofy grin. "If she can survive fighting off Akane Tendo and the pigtailed girl for my affections, then she must be strong indeed…"

At that, Starfire was unable to contain her smile. "While I have no doubt of her ability to defeat Tendo Akane, I can assure you that she was never once forced to battle for your affection. In fact, one might say that she had you thoroughly ... what is the term? Whipped?"

"Whipped? Surely you jest! That I, the redoubtable Tatewaki Kuno, age twenty, should be wrapped around a proverbial pink finger?" He chuckled good-naturedly. "I suppose if she were to defeat me, I would consider it."

For some reason, that only made Starfire laugh harder.

"I'll take your laughter as unspoken agreement," he said, sporting a small sweatdrop. "I must say, it is good to see you glow with good cheer and a warrior's resolve. You were most melancholy when I came in."

Stifling her mirth, Starfire found her good cheer quickly draining away. "Indeed, you are most perceptive ... on _some_ things, though I am certain that your 'Ebony Goddess' would agree with me."

Sighing, she floated to one of the benches set against the wall of the dojo.

"You are correct, though. I was.. I am most preoccupied with a topic which troubles me to no end." she admitted.

"You see now, in good conscience I can not stand by while a lady is troubled, much less indulge myself in mock battle. To say nothing of when a beautiful lady is troubled, as in this case, for that shakes me to the very core." To prove the point he clipped his bokken back to his belt. "What difficulties do you face? Mayhap I can assist in some way."

"I do not know if that is possible," Starfire replied morosely. "Though your intentions are noble, my difficulty is most troublesome."

Still, not one to turn away freely offered aid, she patted the bench beside her, signaling him to sit beside her, if he so chose. Taking the offer, the swordsman sat down, but he was truly curious what was troubling the generally free spirited girl. Was it some trouble in her team? It seemed unlikely. They were all close friends from before, and even Jinx – apparently a newcomer to the circle – appeared to be fitting in easily. She also didn't seem to be worried about what had happened before, given her reaction earlier to Saffron. He knew her to be as tough as she was pleasing to the eye, and he had always had a weakness for tough women. What could be bothering her so?

For a moment, he thought of asking outright again, but decided to let her explain at her own pace.

Sighing, and without even realizing it, the Tamaranian took one of Kuno's hands into her own, squeezing it gently for support. "As you well know my companions and myself are not from this dimension..."

Kuno nodded smartly. That was easily the most well known fact of the unusual newcomers.

"Have you also heard that ... that the Commander desires to dissolve the Yankee squadron?"

"Why would she seek to do so?" he asked, growing a bit bewildered. "You fought admirably on several occasions, and few could have stood before Saffron for long and lived. I know this personally."

The alien warrior shook her head. "It was, in fact, our battle with Saffron which pushed the Commander's hand. It was determined, as Ryouga strived his best to explain, that Cyborg's and Raven's abilities are too valuable to risk on the battlefield ... and that I am simply too much of a risk to even allow on the battlefield at all ..."

"A risk…?" It only dawned on him then. "I see. They fear your capture by the enemy. Or even that the enemy acquire enough to pervert for their evil ends."

"That is precisely the problem," she confirmed. "However, that is not why I am so melancholy. It is not the dissolution of our team, though that does sting more than I care to admit. It is the fact that, in allowing our group to be broken up like this ... it is like we are accepting that we will be staying here, indefinitely."

"You will see your home again," he promised her, and rested his free palm on their held hands; despite his easily covering hers, he knew how incredibly strong she was. Yet he wouldn't have minded even if she did crush his hand a bit. It was a man's duty, must less a samurai's, to bring out the best in those around them. Fair maidens included.

"It may take time," he conceded. "The Book of Five Rings was not written in a day, nor a week. Yet even if it takes months or years, you will someday return home. And maybe then you can visit your good friend Tatewaki on the weekends?"

She tried to smile ... she really did, but each word he spoke only stabbed further into her heart until finally she couldn't even bear to look up a moment longer. Dropping her head, she tried to hold in the tears which threatened to emerge.

"B-but I do not _want_ to stay here for years, or even m-months." She bit her lip, squeezing down on his hand to try to contain herself, not noticing the ominous creaking coming from his armored gauntlets. "I ... I am not valuable like my friends. I would never be allowed to leave this place, condemned to a future of living beneath the ground like a common Gribnak. And - and my people, my friends ... and Robin ..."

Looking up, she matched his gaze intently. "_That_ is my home, not this place ... never will this place be a home to me..."

"D-do not cry!" he pleaded, and squeezed her own hand with the hot blooded swordsman's spirit rising up from within. "Would that I had the Wishbringer sword, I could take you home!"

"I can only vow this: that when the war ends, you _shall_ have a place to call home!" he swore it, matching her eyes so she could see he was earnest in his words. "None can replace those dear friends you think of even now, and all resources shall be bent towards getting you back to them, but you shall always be welcomed at the Kuno Estate! And if Japan herself does not wish you on her soil, then I shall buy an island so you may live with the open sky overhead! Until then, please, do not cry."

Sniffing loudly, the Tamaranian did her best to dash her tears.

"If only you had the power to make it so," she lamented. "Sadly, I know that this organization would never allow such a thing, not as long as I remained a possible threat to this world ... Still-"

Suddenly, Starfire leaned forward, wrapping her arms around the samurai and hugging him tightly. Then, for good measure, she planted a small kiss upon his cheek.

"Still, your sentiment is appreciated." Leaning back, she bore a bright smile for the swordsman. "Truly, Kuno Tatewaki, you are a man too noble for a war such as this."

"Things shall work out," he assured her, and stood up, pulling her along. "Even if they seem bleak now, things shall work out, and you will not be left behind."

"Now come, my flame haired goddess!" he danced back, and unclipped his bokken, flourishing it teasingly and grinning roguishly. "Let us forget our troubles and dance as warriors do!"

Nodding, the Tamaranian rose to her feet as well, picking up her discarded polearm. Giving it an experimental twirl, she nodded to herself.

"Very well, I think that a dance would be just the thing to distract me." She looked up, then, with a smirk on her lips, added, "When I have trounced you thoroughly, you must promise not to fall helplessly in love with me."

"Very well. I shall try my best not to. However…!"

He charged in with a ferocious downward strike.

"I _shall_ allow you to date with me!"

* * *

The Lost Boy, as he had been increasingly referred to since his fateful recruitment into the Teen Titans, dragged his feet as he wandered aimlessly down the corridor. He'd been given a lot to think about, more than he really had any business considering. Even despite the good times that he had shared with his friends earlier that morning, all of this new found free time was giving him the chance to really think about his situation again, as well as certain decisions and their possible ramifications. He really hated having the time to think about things. Not only did he still have a habit of looking at things in the negative, but it inevitably led his train of thought down some of the darker stretches of Memory Lane.

He could almost hear her-

He gave his head a fierce shake. That had nothing to do with his _current _situation. He needed to think about the here, and the now. Like how it had been bad enough when he'd been forced into this ridiculous predicament in the first place, then he had been forced to take command of his team mates to boot.

Command wasn't just the word, though, he'd also been forced to take _responsibility_ for his friends. That was the last thing that he should have been doing, especially at this point. Robin was the one that knew what he was doing, the one that could handle the stresses of leadership without ever showing even a hint of the strains. It was impressive, the more Ryouga thought about it, how someone so small, so comparatively frail, could be composed of even sterner stuff than a Hibiki.

Oh, how he wished that Robin was here right now.

The small teen would know what to do in this situation. Having his team taken and split apart? Well, actually, they weren't being split apart, yet. Even after the team would be split apart, they would all still be stationed on this base for the foreseeable future. Any research that Cyborg or Raven needed to do could be done here as well as anywhere else. If Jinx and himself were to go into covert ops, they could headquarter from here easily enough. And - he really hated thinking about this part - if Starfire was to be held a veritable prisoner, for her own safety, well, this was pretty much the most secure place on the planet that he knew of.

Still, this was a military organization, above all else. The longer they stayed here, the more likely it was that they would be split up and sent their separate ways. He couldn't let that happen; he wouldn't, not if he could help it. Of course, that left the question … was there anything he could do to prevent it?

"Shirokuro? Shirokuro?"

The voice came from around the corner and was instantly recognizable as his own. Of course, it wasn't him, it was the other him. The whistling that followed was even an exact match for his own. Instantly, Ryouga's already flagging mood withered and died. If there was one person on the base that he didn't want to see at the moment, it was his dimensional double. Not even taking into account his current foul mood, nor the rather vivid memory of their last …'discussion'… on the battlefield, just the thought of talking with the older 'him' made his teeth clench.

Again, dark memories began to swarm up-

Only to scatter away as, a few seconds later, the native Hibiki son rounded the intersection and started looking around for his guide dog. Their dog, kind of.

"Great. Where is she?" the Lieutenant asked belatedly, before seeing who he was sharing the hall with. Eyes narrowed a bit, but quickly buoyed with hope. "Sergeant, have you see Shirokuro anywhere? She isn't with you?"

The acting sergeant, though he probably wouldn't actually be that for much longer, depending on how people made their decisions, shook his head.

"No, she isn't with me," he answered. "I haven't seen her since yesterday evening."

"She must be helping mom then," the other him reasoned and added, for good effect. "Damn. I don't know about you, but I'm _completely_ lost."

Ryouga found himself smirking, despite his counterpart's cordial greeting, he felt compelled to push a bit, just… just because. "Must suck to be you, then, Lieutenant.. I'm pretty much exactly where I need to be at the moment."

"And where's that?" the older Hibiki asked. "I saw the particle physics lab back there. I think were both in one of the laboratory wings."

Shrugging - well, shrugging with one shoulder, anyway - Ryouga spun around once. "Hardly matters to me at the moment. I've got nowhere to be and nothing to do for the next couple days. Not exactly a lot on my plate, what with Yankee getting retired, you see?"

"Yes. I heard about that." The lieutenant seemed about to walk past, when he hesitated. "You're thinking about covert operations, aren't you? You and Jinx?"

"Hmm, I'm surprised they actually told you about that. Hardly seems like 'need to know' information." Leaning against the wall, not really in a rush to get anywhere, the younger Hibiki studied his older counterpart evenly. "But yeah. I had a few other options, but if that's what she wants to do, I'm not going to let her go alone."

"So it's all her decision then?"

Ryouga nodded, matter-of-factly. "You sound like you're actually surprised to hear me say that." Not content with that, he decided to try to jam in a bit of a barb, just to see if he could get a reaction. "Does it disgust you that I would do that for her?"

"What?" the older man recoiled a bit. "Why would it? I only asked because you have as much right to do what you want to do as she does."

The younger Hibiki shook his head. "No. I don't ... not really. I was the one that got Jinx into this mess. I owe her at least that much in return," he explained, or tried to.

"How so? I doubt you dragged her along by the hair horns," the other Ryouga guessed. "Or is it that you think: 'if she wasn't with me, then she wouldn't have ended up here?'"

"Feh!" Ryouga scoffed, "I might as well have dragged her here. You have no idea what her situation is. If I hadn't fought for her to even operate in Jump city, then Robin and Raven would have chased her off weeks ago. She wouldn't be here at all if it weren't for me."

"Yes, because with your manly charms women can't help but fall head over heels in love with you. I have the same problem." The older Hibiki rolled his eyes in dismissal. If they had been dimensional Ranma doubles, then the statement may not have been sarcastic – fortunately for the universe that was not the case.

He continued, "Let me ask you something: would you repeat what you just told me to her? That you think all this is your fault and that you all but made her come here? You think she'd nod her head and agree?"

Ryouga-the-younger smirked, crossing his arms defiantly. It was darkly amusing to bait his double like this. "Fine then, Dr. Love, why don't _you_ tell _me_ why Jinx is here. Obviously you and Nabiki are going at it like Rabbits, so you must know more about how Jinx and I feel about each other than we do."

"It isn't like I'm asking you about the finer points of Hitsuzendo here – you must remember all those times Akane did things for Ranma. Like jumping into a giant tornado to get a piece of paper he needed? Or training her butt off to be able to help him in some fight?" The lieutenant pointed at the younger man. "You and Jinx are probably like that. It has nothing to do with me and Nabiki… and we are not 'going at it like rabbits' by the way… this is just simple observation."

Sudden flashes of long distant memory tore through the Lost Boy's mind, visions of a swirling tornado filled with jagged debris from a disintegrating cathedral ... The recollection of searing impacts, the incessant drain on his spirit; every second pulling him closer to his death -

And then the flash of pink light filling his vision.

Shaking his head, Ryouga quickly zoned back into the conversation. "Yeah ... simple observation." Pushing off the wall, he ran a hand through his hair. "You can't even imagine what she's done, and unlike Ranma, I'm not the kind to just take advantage of the people around me. There's nothing I wouldn't do to repay her."

"I get that. I do. But it isn't 'taking advantage' to ask: what do I want? And I don't think you really want to be involved in the kind of covert operations we do here…" The lieutenant sighed and glanced up at the soft phosphorescent lightning. "I tried not to think of it when my turn came around, but at the time I was so angry… I guess I wanted to kill, not just the aliens, but anyone who supported them. Your head is a lot clearer now than mine was then. I'm just saying you shouldn't be so hasty to go where you think you have to go."

"I'm ... not sure that you do get it, actually." The Teen Titan shook his head. Honestly, he wasn't even sure why he was arguing, other than the immutable desire to simply be contrary at this point. Still, it didn't take him long to find an argument to latch onto. "This has nothing to do with me wanting to kill people, or not kill people. It has nothing to do with debts of gratitude, or honor! What I want, more than anything else right now... is to be with her. And I know she feels the same way, which is why she's here."

"And I'm saying you have just as much right to decide what the two of you do. You're a grown man! 'I'll just follow you wherever you want to go' isn't the right way to make these kinds of life choices. If the two of you are attached at the hip already then she should care as much about what you want to do as you do about what she does! And don't pretend like you're indifferent enough about it that it doesn't matter what you do, as long as Jinx is nearby."

The younger man frowned in response. "You still don't get it! I've already been making all of the decisions for the both of us. She doesn't _have_ anything else. She's had no choice but to follow along in my wake. I'm finally giving _her_ the chance to have some choice in the matter."

A smile began to form on his face as another thought crossed his mind. "Heh, it seems that you've changed more than I thought. We've _always_ been content to just exist knowing that the girl we loved was nearby. I'm _still_ more than happy to be with Jinx, regardless of the situation ... So why aren't you anymore?"

The older man opened his mouth to retort, but paused to more carefully consider his response.

"I was going to say you were wrong, but…" he took a step back to lean his back against the wall. "I think I'd still be content to just do that. But if you're talking about our thing with Akane, what else did we have back then? I have friends now, and people who rely on me, and responsibilities. Everything's… complicated. It isn't as black and white as it used to be."

Ryouga smirked. "Everything's pretty much exactly the same between us, then. So, what's the difference,? Why would I do anything for Jinx, but you need to carefully weigh all of your options when it comes to Nabiki?"

The other Hibiki gave him a measured stare. "Are you implying something?"

Shaking his head, the young Sergeant shrugged helplessly. "I'm not implying anything, just making ... simple observations. Maybe it's not so much that I'm reckless so much as you're ... I don't know ... scared?"

"I'd say you **are** reckless, but this is good. You proved how accurate your simple observations could be the other day," the native Ryouga said in a blasé manner. "What am I afraid of? Commitment?"

Narrowing his eyes, he studied the older man for a moment.

"... Not in the conventional sense ... no. I think you're just afraid to lose yourself the same way that we used to. I mean, when's the last time that you crawled back to Nabiki, after weeks lost on the road, just to drag back a box of some exotic, expired snack, just in the hope of seeing a smile on her face?"

"Never."

Nodding, the younger Ryouga gave a telling 'hmmm'. "Well ... to be fair, that's a terrible example. There's no way that Nabiki would accept anything that wasn't perfectly fresh, not to mention expensive."

"I'm guessing Jinx isn't nearly as picky."

The older him was still leaning casually against the wall, but Ryouga sound see some tension belying the posture. It was much like how he tried to appear nonchalant when, in fact, he was simply keeping up a calm front. The older man still clearly expected the conversation to veer off into less pleasant territory. Ryouga felt all but obliged to oblige… given the opportunity.

"But I'm sure you and Jinx have had those rough times apart," the lieutenant guessed. "Hence your absolute certainty about your relationship and my hesitation regarding mine?"

Deciding to push his luck, the Sergeant turned his back on his counterpart, studying the wall before him.

"I have no idea what things are like between you and Nabiki," he admitted. "I can only speak about Jinx and me, since that's all I know. My question is, I suppose, have you and Nabiki actually ever had any real trials to overcome to be together? Maybe the reason that you think you're hesitating, is that we just can't deal with a relationship that doesn't involve going through hell and back to achieve?"

It was a little while before he got a response.

"Believe it or not," the other him began. "Most relationships don't involve going to hell and back. Most don't involve kidnappings or battles or near death confessions of love. Granted, these things **do** tend to happen to martial artists a lot, and they probably **will** happen to us when we leave… however Nabiki and I are together here and now because we enjoy each other's company and because maybe, someday, it'll become something more than that."

"It's hard to explain, but _all this_ is important to me…" the older Hibiki gestured to the base in a general way and crossed his arms with some traces of irritation. "I care about what I'm doing here. I can't just walk away from it because of love. Or even family. You don't think that Nabiki or I could end up transferred to the States? Or Europe? Or South Africa or Antarctica or the Mo- or anywhere else? I'd hate it if we were broken up… but I'd go along with it. Because I'm doing all this **for** her, and for everyone, and it's important. Because, if I have to choose, protecting her is more important than being with her… and that is a decision we've faced before and one we encounter every time I go into the field."

"Heh, now you're the one over simplifying things. As you just said, you're mostly with Nabiki because it's convenient. It's easy and safe, and, in all honesty, you know you wouldn't be losing everything if you lost her." Shaking his head, Ryouga turned back to stare impassively at the other man. "Jinx and I aren't together because we 'enjoy each other's company'. We've gone through the kind of hell that even _you_ can barely imagine, what with your horrible war here, and there's no way in hell that I would let some complete stranger arbitrarily decide that it's 'efficient' to split us up."

"For you," he summed it all up. "The world comes first. For me? Not so much."

"You say that like it's a good thing. And easy and safe?" the lieutenant scoffed. "Those are the last words I'd use. But I'll humor you. What 'Hell' have you gone through that I couldn't possibly imagine?"

The younger counterpart shook his head. "Sorry, but you don't get to hear that. Our past is our own, just like yours and Nabiki's is. From the sounds of it, though, your biggest problem is scheduling booty calls and worrying about embarrassing each other on open commlines."

He paused for a moment, debating continuing his tirade, but decided he didn't really care to. Despite the fact that he was truly enjoying doing anything at all to rile up his pretentious double, this was just turning into another 'sparring match'. And, though it annoyed him greatly, he _had_ already promised Nabiki that he wouldn't fight his doppelganger. Holding up a hand, he made a gesture of surrender.

"Look, none of this matters. Our relationships are about as relevant to each other's lives as our antique bandanna collections are. All we're doing is antagonizing each other for no reason whatsoever, so let's just call it a day and be on our way, okay?"

"We're all Hibikis here," the older Ryouga replied, sounding perfectly level and unconcerned. "You can't make Parthian shots like that and then just drop it and walk away. I want to know. Because I'd put good money down that I have a handful of memories that would have you on your knees here and now."

The older man pushed off the wall with his elbows.

"Where do you think my _hate_ and depression come from? From having Akane say 'I hate you?' From having to pick between two girls? No. Not quite. I've been burned by plasma and watched Kasumi scrape the necrotic tissue off; I've been beaten half to death; I've had a hand impale me and try to shred my insides with a shishi hokoudan. I've had a parasitic vine try to eat me alive. I still have phantom pains from that one."

He took a step closer, tilting his head as he spoke.

"How about reliving every horrible P-chan related memory, all at once, after having them stripped away? How about having your mind raped for information and pleasure? Tell me again, how many times have you nearly been killed? But that isn't the kicker… Not by a long shot. How about being strapped down and violated, mentally and physically? How about watching while the girl you maybe thought you loved is dissected alive? It took them _twenty four minutes_ to kill her and when they finished, they got to work on me _with the same instruments_."

He took a deep breath and gradually calmed.

"My biggest problem is booty calls and my ego, right?" The older him stopped a few feet away, arms still crossed angrily. "No. you don't get to walk out on that one."

Not back down an inch, Ryouga just stared back impassively, arms held loosely at his sides. "You see this? This is me not being impressed. You think you can just list off a string of horrors and expect me to crumple down and cry like a girl? Dear lord, man, do you think you're the only person that's had crap happen to them?"

Shaking his head sadly, he half turned away. "You know what? You have my condolences with Akari, but the rest of it? Mentally abused? You don't even have a clue. Having your memories twisted around, stripped away, and then returned en masse? Join the club. Getting impaled? I got tunneled with a frikkin' psychic laser. Dealt with an inhuman invasion where I was forced to watch horrible things happen to innocent people? Been there, done that."

Turning fully away, he closed his eyes sadly. "We've both been through pretty much the same levels of hell. The only difference? You wallow in your pain. I'm trying to overcome mine."

"Oh please. Not this stupidness again." The other him shook his head in disbelief. "And talk about backtracking: I thought, thirty seconds ago, I couldn't possibly imagine the Hell you've been through? Because my life is nothing but booty calls and carefree frolicking? Your problem is that it galls you to even imagine that I might be right about anything or that I've done anything but make mistakes in my deviation from _your_ norm."

"You think you've suffered more," he continued. "Endured more. Become wiser. Become stronger. Found a better relationship. Oh, and let's not forget that you're morally purer! I've admitted to my mistakes. You were dead on with what you said about Akane and Akari. I've failed to protect people. I've used people. And, yes, I put my work ahead of my relationship when they conflict. I'm far from perfect. I've never claimed otherwise. Can you say the same?"

A vindictive smile spread across the younger Ryouga's lips.

"I remind people on a daily basis that I'm not perfect," he argued. "And listen to you. Just listen. 'Oh, I've suffered more than anyone on the planet, and I won't listen to anyone say they've suffered like me'. Well, unlike you, I've already admitted, long ago, that there are people out there that have suffered more than me, either of me. I don't care if you've screwed up or not, I just can't stand the way you always talk down to me, like you're the only one that's experienced _anything_. I'd say it galls _you_ to think that I'm not impressed by your 'war stories'. That I'm not listening in awe to every pearl of wisdom that you think to dole out like you were Cologne herself."

"You little brat. As if you've ever - !"

"Tetsushibari: Kurosu."  
(Iron Binding Art: Cross)

The two Hibikis stopped short at the sudden intrusion. In that moment, a bit of red cloth snaked around both their arms, tightened, and bound like steel. Arms snapped out to the sides, trapped by tension and modified iron cloth. Muscles froze up as the cloth exerted pressure, inducing paralysis.

"WAAA! Why are my babies always fighting?"

Moments after the use of the deadly technique, both boys ended up face first in their mother's chest as she bawled in – presumably – mock anguish. I chorus of indignant muffles and sputtering quickly extinguished any lingering battle aura, and as soon as the last of it evaporated, Mitsuko Hibiki pushed both young men back, pinning them against opposite sides of the hall.

"Now, seriously, I'm getting a little tired of you two fighting like this," she commented, tears completely forgotten in favor of a serious look directed down at them. "It's been going on for far too long, and you may have noticed: your girlfriends are all as sick of it as I am. As your dear mother, I'll make you two get over this animosity… or kill you in the process… heh heh heh…!"

A nervous sweatdrop fell from two respective heads. The Ryouga's exchanged a glance, which transformed into a glare, then turned back to the seemingly towering figure of their mother. Even Shirokuro was cowering far behind the angry woman. Both seemed to weigh the options of talking back along the vein of 'I'm a grown man and I don't need to be treated like this!' or 'You're not _really_ my mom, so I don't have to be treated like this!'

It didn't take more than a few more seconds of glaring to divest them of those inclinations.

"Think about what you've been yelling at each other," she said, tone softening slightly. "No one in the world will ever understand you like the man sitting next to you. Yet you spend every moment together trying to poke the other in the most vulnerable places."

The two had the presence of mind to sulk a bit at that.

"I…." the older Ryouga tried to speak up, but phrased his next few words carefully as he addressed his dimensionally displaced twin. "Look. It isn't… that I want to talk down to you. I just thought… I thought I could help and you… you just blew me off every time."

"And did he ask for help in the first place, Ryouga?" Mitsuko asked pointedly.

"No. No I guess not."

The younger Ryouga went to great lengths to attempt to internalize his groan of anguish. This was far too humiliating to be happening. Worse, the technique his mother was using… he knew of it. It bound the arms and legs and paralyzed them at will.

"Um ... yeah, _wow_. Talk about your touching family moments. Y'know, though-" He twisted his wrist enough to point down the hall. "I should _really_ be moseying on. I - uh - think I hear my mom calling."

Mitsuko's eyes narrowed as she glared at him. She then raised a fist threateningly. "You 'mother' is gonna give you a black eye if you don't take this seriously."

Ryouga stared at the upraised fist for a moment, before swallowing nervously. "On second thought ... I might have a few minutes to spare ..."

"I thought as much," Mitsuko all but growled. "And lucky for you, too, since, if anything, you're the worst of the pair."

"**What**?"

"You heard me," she replied sharply. "My Ryouga might be a bit on the temperamental side, but from what I've been hearing, you go after him like an attack dog any chance you get. And, for the life of me, I don't understand it. Around _everyone else_, you're as pleasant as can be, but as soon as you see my son, your hackles go up."

Looking away, Ryouga dipped his head, a low growl rumbling in his throat. Demanding confessions while stringing them up like common criminals? Why not just get out the red hot pokers while she was at it.

"You know what they say," he muttered, "You can't like everybody."

"What?" Mitsuko barked. "What is that supposed to even mean? This isn't some random stranger we're talking about that you haven't had a chance to make up your mind about. This is 'yourself' that we're talking about. How can you not ... like ..."

A sudden look of understanding dawned on her face.

"... oh."

Immediately, the ribbons holding them in place slackened, and the pair of Hibikis were released. Sliding back against the wall, Ryouga gingerly rubbed his shoulder, hissing slightly at the touch. He was pretty sure his doctor had said that he shouldn't be getting it bound and paralyzed so soon… or at all. Shrugging off the pain, he looked over at his doppelganger, eyes narrowing.

"All it takes is one look at you, and you bring out all the worst things in me that I thought I'd already stashed safely away. Even at the best of times, it's all I can do to just not walk straight up to you and deck you right in the face; I - I just want to _punish_ you for everything you've done."

The Lieutenant could only stare at him, bewildered. "Punish me? What the Hell did I ever do to you? What? Are you still pissed off that I roughed you up at the airport? Seriously, what could I have done to screw you over this much?"

A concerned look spread over Mitsuko's face as she studied the younger Ryouga, but she held her silence as he dropped his gaze.

"Honestly? You _really_ want to know why I feel that way? You really want to know why, beyond the jealousy, the arguments and the fighting? Why, no matter how much you try to help me, or how much we fight side by side, that I _still_ can't stand you?"

He gave a derisive snort. "Well relax, _Lieutenant _because it has nothing to do with anything you've done, or, hell, with anything you'll probably _ever_ do." Turning away one final time Ryouga began to walk down the corridor. "I don't hate you because you're _not_ me. I hate you because whenever I look at you, all I _see_ is me. Are you happy now?"

Not waiting for a reply, Ryouga left his doppelganger, their mother, and their dog behind.

The older Ryouga was stricken silent, and for a moment, he prepared to go after his younger self, only to stop when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he stared questioningly at his mother, her hand on his shoulder.

"I ... think he needs some time to himself for now,' she said, worried for the son that was all but hers. "I never realized ... he always seemed so upbeat ..."

Ryouga shook his head, "I don't understand. All this time, he's been Holier than Thou, Mister Moral Highground, the Hero. The Nice Guy. What on Earth could _he_ have done that would make him despise himself like that?"

Mitsuko clasped her hands to her chest. "I don't know, and I have a feeling that he's not going to want to tell us anytime soon. Though... there might be other people we can ask about it..."

The Lieutenant considered that. It wouldn't be too much trouble to ask Starfire, or Raven if they could help with this mystery ... but-

"I don't think that's a good idea," he reasoned. "The problem is out in the open now ... I think we should just wait as see how it pans out on its own."

"I suppose you're right," she agreed sadly. "I hate to see him in such a state, but I don't think he wants my help anymore than yours right now."

Ryouga shook his head.

"Probably not," he conceded. "Still ... no matter how lost a Hibiki gets, we always find our destination in the end."

"It just takes some of us longer than others."

* * *

Giving the double doors a not so gentle nudge with her platform heels, Jinx slid through the doorway quickly before the swinging doors could rebound and slam closed on her. Smirking to herself, in just an incredible mood, she did a quick twirl before spotting her target.

The long buffet table of the commissary.

Normally, she hated eating alone, but everyone was too busy at the moment to join her - well, Ryouga was just lost somewhere, but she was too lazy to hunt him down - and really, she was actually starting to feel comfortable enough here that she didn't mind strolling around solo for a bit.

She had been given an incredible choice to make, and the idea of it had her atwitter with excitement. Frankly, just the fact that she actually had a choice in the matter at all was pretty thrilling in and of itself. It wasn't exactly the norm for her, and she was enjoying the feeling it gave her, the idea that she had had some small amount of control over her life.

It was also making her really hungry, as well!

All but dancing along the table, she loaded up a tray exclusively with every dessert she could find, though she was disappointed by the lack of strawberries and whip cream. Though, it was probably for the best. The mood she was in, she probably would have swiped the whole tray for personal use later.

It wasn't fair that Nabiki was the only one getting any action around here! Well ... possibly Akane, too. Jinx couldn't say for sure, but she was suspicious by nature. Just not _quite_ nosy enough to investigate.

Besides, now that she was Scottish, she wasn't even a minor anymore, so it was all good, right?

Once she was satisfied, she decided to look for a table -

"Oh ho ho ... what have we here?" Grinning like a shark, now, Jinx glided across the room as quickly as her tray full of sinful delight would allow. Not even pausing for a moment, she then sat herself down on the long bench on the near side of the table.

Of course, considering that it looked like Mousse and Konatsu had been collaborating on something, sitting right next to each other, she had to squeeze in pretty tightly between the men, getting quite cozy before setting her tray right down on the table. Smiling widely as they both looked at her with incredulous stares, Jinx leaned over and nuzzled her head into Mousse's shoulder and wrapped an arm around Konatsu's neck.

"Mmmm," she purred in a way that would make a certain Saotome's skin crawl. "A girl could get used to all this beefcake just sitting around."

Mousse's glasses fogged up a bit, and he hastily inched them back up his nose.

Konatsu just giggled – in a way beefcake really shouldn't.

"Now, ahm," the Chinese weapons master coughed self-consciously. "I appreciate the gesture, but my heart belongs to my dear Shampoo…"

"Can you even see out of those glasses anymore, Mousse-senpai?" Konatsu asked with a smile, and noticed their new companion's tray. "I believe someone to be in a good mood. You wouldn't mind if I…?"

"Have one of my desserts? I suppose I can part with _one_ of them, but only because you look so fine."

Even as she joked with Konatsu, her arm drifted down from Mousse's shoulder, only to settle on his ribs, which she began to tickle mercilessly.

The male kunoichi daintily picked one of the fluffy pastries after spending no less than ten seconds searching and dithering over his choice while humming girlishly to himself. He eventually settled on a victim and popped it into his mouth, gently savoring the treat while Mousse endured the rather friendly assault on the part of their new arrival. Demurely wiping his lips clean with a napkin, Konatsu couldn't help but let a few polite chuckles escape.

"Do you need some help, senpai?" he inquired.

Jinx continued to laugh ad the flustered male Amazon tried to remain cool and composed. "You'd think he's never been tickled by a girl before!"

"Of course I haven't!" he managed to say, gritting his teeth to keep from a dignity destroying laugh. "But I am tempted to retaliate now that I have seen it done."

Instantly, Jinx recoiled back and pressed herself up against Konatsu's side. "_Ohhh_ no! Retaliation is strictly a no-no in these kinds of things! Isn't that right Konatsu? Only girls are allowed to get away with this kinda stuff, right?"

"I believe she is correct," the ninja replied. "But this sort of thing wasn't explicitly covered in the sexual harassment seminar."

"Better safe than sorry, though, right?" Jinx stated. "I mean, what would Shampoo think if she heard you were harassing my sexuals here?"

"She would probably be indifferent," he answered, clearly having thought about it. "Followed by angry. Then haughty. Then indifferent again, but still angry. She would likely also strike me about the head."

"They made us watch the video, but I don't think anyone really listened," Konatsu admitted. "I remember when we got to the 'inappropriate touching part' Miss Shampoo said, what was it again?"

"'Is too, too late,'" Mousse supplied. "And it was. Too. Too. Late."

Jinx nodded, completely serious. "No doubt. Considering the way that she tried to molest Ranma on a regular basis? She's practically a poster child for inappropriate touching."

The male Amazon snorted softly. "The Amazon culture is… rather free spirited when it comes to female affection."

"Is that _so_?" Jinx purred in a sultry tone. Instantly, she was plastered against Mousse's side again. "Then why is it that you're having such a hard time looking me in the eyes? I mean, aside from the fact that those glasses of yours are all fogged up like the back window of a cheap Civic?"

"They… are not," he stoically replied. "And as I said, my heart is reserved for Shampoo. No matter what cute girl tries to tempt me…"

"You know, I did notice Miss Link staring at you last time we were in China," Konatsu interrupted. "Or was that Miss Pink? Perhaps it was both?"

"Ahem! No matter who," Mousse reiterated.

"Are you so sure?" Jinx teased, not quite ready to relent yet.

"That's just the kind of guy I am," he maintained, set like stone.

"Don't worry Jinx. It's only a matter of time before he glomps you thinking you're Miss Shampoo anyway."

Jinx giggled, finally letting up. "Well, there's no accounting for taste, I suppose. I mean, sure, if you're into perky boobs, toned abs, a butt that you could bounce quarters off of, and awesome hair, then I guess you could do worse than Shampoo, just too bad that she can't see a good thing when it's blindly groping the air in front of her."

A deep maroon blush was already rising up on Mousse's cheeks at the vivid description.

"Can you really bounce quarters off of Miss Shampoo's behind?" Konatsu wondered aloud. "It is well toned… oh dear."

A deadly metal spoon found itself pressed against the ninja's windpipe.

"None shall speak of my dear Shampoo's toned and shapely ass in such a lewd manner!" Mousse declared.

"Didn't Miss Jinx just do that, though, senpai?" Konatsu inquired. "Oh, and please look down."

The kunoichi's arm had, at some point, found its way across Jinx to point another vicious metal spoon at the Chinese martial artist's... 'Amazon Pride.' The two men chuckled darkly across the not quite empty space occupied by a pink haired sorceress. Pink eyes moved slowly to the left, then slowly to the right. The two abruptly laughed and spun the spoons around before placing them back on their empty food trays.

The funny thing was, both probably could have killed or maimed the other with even a plastic spoon, much less a metal one.

"So, Jinx," Mousse said, back in mercurially good cheer. "What's got you in such a good mood? And my thanks for the compliment, by the way. One day, Shampoo will see me as I see her, I know it."

Instantly, Jinx clapped a hand over her mouth, just in time to capture the burst of laughter that threatened to rip its way from her throat.

"What? What'd I say?"

_'Too ... obvious!' _

Taking a moment to compose herself, Jinx finally took a deep breath. "...Yes ... yes, that is in no way an ironic statement. _Anyway_, as for me, I've been thinking about what Ryo told us this morning."

Looking back and forth, she inquired in an upbeat tone. "Did you guys know that Yankee was getting broken up?"

"No. Saotome-taichou hasn't said anything about that," Konatsu replied, sounding concerned.

"Ranma and Hibiki were probably informed, but the information hasn't trickled down to us yet," Mousse guessed.

"I guess that makes sense." Jinx shrugged. "Not like it's a big deal, I guess."

Finally picking up one of the little pastries from her tray, she popped it into her mouth and relished its sweet taste for a moment before continuing. "Anyway, I guess Raven and Cyborg are too valuable to risk out on the field like the rest of us mooks, so they want us to _volunteer_ to break up, so that those two can start working on safer stuff. Of course, this sucks pretty hard for Starfire, since she's being upgraded to 'non-official prisoner' here, but they did make me a pretty interesting offer."

"You mean joining another team?" Konatsu wondered.

"Hmm," Mousse muttered, thinking it over more. "That's not exactly what I'd call 'interesting.' There has to be more. What was this offer, Jinx? Section Seven work?"

Jinx nodded excitedly. "That's right. Straight up covert ops, secret agent type stuff. The stuff that I was _actually_ trained for, not this battlefield, laser blasts flying all over the place kinda crap."

Smiling, she wrapped an arm around each of their necks and pulled them in tightly. "In fact, it's lucky on my part that I ran into you two knuckle heads! Now's the perfect time to pick your brains for any hints or tips you might have for this sneaky kinda work. You two are the most assassin-y type guys I know, so you must have _tons_ of stuff to share!"

"I don't think I'd call myself assassin-y… which isn't even a real word…"

"She may be right, senpai," Konatsu argued. "Compared to our comrades, we are… well. It goes without saying. After all, we did spend the last fifteen minutes talking about poisons and how to deliver them."

"Mm," Mousse just grunted.

Instantly, Jinx gushed excitedly, "You guys are talking about poisons? Sweet! Tell me _everything_!"

"Really?" Mousse asked, a bit surprised. "You don't mind this kind of stuff?"

"Miss Jinx was trained at a school for, well, peculiar professions," Konatsu reminded his comrade in arms, then addressed Jinx's interest directly. "As you may know, the aliens we face are extremely resilient to most forms of chemical and biological attack. Of course, against human opponents, we have certain preferences. I use a paralytic toxin on my Habu, usually in combination with Kansatsuken (Flying Killer Sword), but I can use it on any of my bladed weapons. All are designed to deliver poisons. Mousse here prefers to use gasses and contact agents. We've also been given an allowance of conotoxin for certain jobs."

"Fancy, that's some pretty nasty stuff." Especially the conotoxin. "I never really had much call to use things like that myself, but I did have a class on the handling and application."

She started eating, chewing as she thought up a question.

"Do you really need to bother with that stuff most of the time? I mean, I figure when you're going up against norms, you guys would have zero problem with just knocking everyone out and sending them off to the cops, or whoever deals with those kinda guys here."

"It is always better to have a tool and not need to use it than to need a tool and not have it," Mousse said. It was advice he had obviously taken to heart; indeed, he exemplified it with his Hidden Weapons.

"Miss Jinx, you are correct in your assessment," Konatsu answered, momentarily closing his eyes and looking down at his empty tray. "We do overpower normals… but normal human beings are not all of what you face in covert operations… what we usually just call Section Seven Ops. Uncontrolled psychics and alien sympathizers can present unconventional dangers."

"Besides," Mousse added in. "The fact is, that they don't want to take these guys to jail. The existence of aliens on this planet is a secret, and we have to keep it that way. The penalty for harboring alien technology, aiding alien infiltration, or supporting the alien takeover of human governments… is death… either in the field or at the hands of a military tribunal. That isn't all there is to S7 work, but it is part of it."

The sorceress shifted uncomfortably for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, I had heard as much. It's still weird to hear, considering I know people that have done way worse back home and gotten off with a prison sentence. Or trip to the local revolving door asylum. But considering the politics going on here ... it kinda makes sense."

It wouldn't be easy for her, but it wasn't anything she wasn't trained for. She hadn't completed a full Sniper rifle certification back at the Academy because she thought it would help her 'knock someone out'.

"So, you guys have done a lot of Section Seven operations?" she asked. "What other kinda stuff have you run into?"

"Lots of weird stuff," Mousse replied first. "I mean, there are the mundane things… a lot of which we can't talk about in a specific sense, but general things: setting up high risk or special wiretaps, for example."

"The organization has some amazing auto and remote hacking," Konatsu said at that. "So much easier than… well, than old fashioned ways of doing things. Much of the work is assisting HUMInt (human intelligence) on the ground. Sometimes we make quick insertion and capture of a target for psionic interrogation. Sometimes you need to covertly investigate hot areas or areas with suspicious activity. Usually that doesn't involve fighting, but you want to be ready for a worst case scenario."

"Hey, that doesn't sound too bad," Jinx exclaimed excitedly. "That sounds downright fun. I already got a few fun hacking tools, and a few of my own tricks of the trade, but do you guys get any cool James Bond stuff?"

Mousse shook his head. "We don't get a new car to wreck for every mission, no."

"But everything else," Konatsu promised. "We have the world's best R&D working with us, after all. Anything short of alien technology is fair game, and even then we can usually sneak in use of mind probes and some other good things."

That was the reason for calling it a S7 Op, after all: no direct use of alien technology against other baseline humans. UNETCO had already pressed that fine line pretty closely even before bringing in India and Juliet, and later Romeo and other experimental squads. Mind Probes were one thing. Active EM Jammers were another, and commonly in use to scramble all electronics in an area. Both were technically alien inspired, even if XCOM had learned to make them without Elerium 115. Those were only the tip of the iceburg, too.

"You'll usually also get new running papers, too," Mousse explained, remembering a vitally important part of the job. "We usually take control of any ongoing operations in the area through local intelligence agencies, military and police."

They could only watch, slightly worried, at the borderline manic look that bloomed on her face as she wrung her hands together in anticipation.

"Oh man. Oh man!" she muttered between sinister snickers. "Can you _imagine_? Me, running the show for the cops and stuff? That'd be so awesome! I mean, the higher ups would probably want Ryouga to do most of the talking, but once we get out into the field, he would know well enough to let me do my thing!"

Mousse anxiously adjusted his glasses at the slightly disturbing implications.

"I don't suppose I should remind you that with great power comes great responsibility?"

"Nope!" Jinx chirped giddily. "You most certainly shouldn't. Because if you did, that would mean that you'd be harshing my buzz."

Suddenly her smile vanished, and she leaned forward, matching his gaze with such unhinged intensity, her catlike eyes opened almost painfully wide, that even Mousse found himself recoiling slightly.

"And I don't _appreciate_ it when people harsh my buzz."

And then, as fast as it appeared, the manic look vanished, replaced by smiles, kittens and sunny days.

"It seems buzzes are very important to Miss Jinx," Konatsu clinically observed. "I shall remember that."

"I think I will, too," Mousse agreed, and coughed before continuing. "But, yes, aside from the usual sorts of things, covert operations also involve the capture of psychics and, sometimes, martial artists. In the latter case, it can be as simple as asking them to come along. The aliens have been abducting people in our field for months now, and if we identify a target, we have to bring them in and take them to a Sanctuary Community."

The young woman, nestled comfortably between the pair of martial artists, giggled to herself. "I'm surprised you don't send Shampoo on more of those missions. She'd be great for dragging guys back somewhere they don't want to go. Lord knows she has a few years of training."

"We've… um… tried," Konatsu tentatively replied. "Sadly, Saotome-taichou and myself are often more persuasive in that respect than Miss Shampoo or Miss Ukyou."

Mousse made, then, what could only be called a disgusted retching sound.

Jinx gagged as well. "Like _Ranma_ could seduce _anyone_. As a guy _or_ a girl. Seriously, I don't know what Shampoo sees in him, anyway. Honestly, if it weren't for her horrible taste in men, I bet the two of us would actually get along better."

"I'd raise a toast to that," Mousse agreed wholeheartedly. Of course, his glass was basically empty, but still the sentiment was there and shared.

"Now, now, you're too harsh on Saotome-taichou," Konatsu insisted, holding his hands up. "His technique is a little crude, and he relies a bit too much on throwing himself at the target, but he isn't _that_ bad at seducing men. He certainly fooled Hibiki-taichou quite a few times from what I heard. He does well with women, too, though we only brought in that one."

"Enough. I'd rather not even imagine it," the India squad hidden weapons master shook his head to try and dispel the vile images. "I get enough pigtailed girl references from Kuno."

Jinx held up a hand quickly. "Granted, though, that Kuno going on about the 'pigtailed girl' _is_ hilarious. Personally, I wouldn't go for Ranma if I were being paid, which is more than _some_ people can say."

Suddenly, she turned to Konatsu. "Speaking of seduction, are there any sweet ladies out there that you have a soft spot for? I mean, you're pretty much the only Nerima nutjob that I don't really know anything about from back home, so any dirt for when I get back is good."

"Um, well…" the kunoichi tapped his fingers together nervously, a flush coloring his cheeks a rosy red. "That is…"

"He has a horrible crush on Ukyou," Mousse blurted out. But added: "Almost as bad as I have it for Shampoo. They even had a duel to 'understand each other' better. It was pretty good fight, too. That was when Ukyou first developed her ki attack. Also, you should know Konatsu here only knows how to seduce men. Women just confuse him. Or maybe he confuses them."

"Senpai! Please!"

"Ohhh, no!" Jinx lamented. "Not _her_, Natsu. Shampoo, at least, is one hot piece of Grade A girl meat, but _Ukyou_? She passes for a guy as easily as you pass for a girl-" Suddenly, Jinx stopped, eyes widening in realization. Suddenly hesitant, she continued, "That ... um ... that isn't why you're ...?"

"N- no!" he said, flustered already even before the insinuation. "She really helped me out, saved my life really! And she's smart and resourceful and nice…"

Mousse inclined his head a bit as if to say to Jinx 'see?'

"And she's so beautiful!" the ninja insisted. "Even if she can dress like a young man, she can be very pretty when she wants to be! I'm not the only one, either. Ryu fell for her, as you've probably seen… and even Hibiki-taichou says she can be cute, and he's probably spent more time alone with her than anyone except Saotome-taichou. She's very nice if you give her a chance, Miss Jinx!"

Jinx stared at Konatsu for a second, then turned back to Mousse, rolling her eyes in grand agreement. She then looked back to Konatsu, pasting a sympathetic expression on her face.

"Oh, yeah, of course. I'm sure that Ukyou and I will be hanging out and drinking margaritas in no time. Really, though, I gotta say that she's not exactly my type."

"Hmm. I'm curious: is that speaking more for your-Ukyou or ours?" Mousse inquired; he personally this little side conversation about Kuonji was both interesting and a little annoying. One last thing would clear it up some. "Or is the difference between them that miniscule? I always found her abrasive at times, but that's… that's honestly a trait we all sort of share."

Jinx paused for a moment.

"Actually ... I don't think I ever actually even met the Ukyou in our world," she admitted. "I have no idea what the Chef in our world is like. About the closest thing I got to meeting her was in a little mental construct, vis a vis Akari ... or, is it White Iron, now?"

"Wait, a what?" Mousse asked. Jinx had just said a whole lot in not a lot of words.

"What, what?" Jinx replied quickly.

"You said you were in a 'mental construct' with Akari?" Mousse didn't bother with the codename. "And you saw people there you hadn't even met before? It must've been in her mind?"

Jinx nodded. "Well, yeah, we kinda jumped back and forth a bit. Wait, didn't Ranma tell you guys about what happened when I got brought in?"

"I never heard anything about that," Mousse said carefully, turning to Konatsu.

"I don't know that much either," the cross dressing shinobi admitted with a shrug. "The officers probably wanted to respect her privacy. We didn't get much about the mind dive findings from Raven or Starfire or Cyborg either."

"It must've been some pretty bad circumstances for things to get to that point," the Amazon male reasoned. "But I guess you got out of it safely."

"Nah, it wasn't anything too big. Akari and me just took on an Ethereal mental assault, two on one. It was all a part of our escape from the alien base followed by our one hundred kilometer run through a frozen wilderness, fighting off Reapers, Cyberdisks and human assassins to get to civilization long enough for Ranma to finally show up and give me a ride home."

"That latter part we heard about," Konatsu said with a cough.

"Followed less than a day later by a terror site," Mousse added. "That has to be a particularly long forty eight hours. Reminds me of the night after we took the Procyon. That was another long two days."

Konatsu nodded somberly.

"Anyway, we're glad you're here, Miss Jinx," he said, trying to get the conversation back on happier topics. "And on our side. You're one of our comrades now, and we'll back you up no matter what you choose to do. Even though I do wish you and Miss Ukyou were on friendlier terms…"

Shrugging, the slim girl gave a blasé 'meh'. "What fun would it be if all us girls got along, anyway? I know how much guys love to watch a good old cat fight. Honestly, though, this sounds like it could be a pretty good gig, I guess it just depends on whether Cyborg can find a way to get us home ... and whether or not Ryouga actually decides he wants to go."

The two boys gave each other a quick look.

"Um, Miss Jinx," Konatsu ventured, "If you are formally joining up in this sort of capacity, then I'm sure Miss Tendo has spoken to you about setting up a bank account?"

"Bank account?" Jinx asked, sounding honestly confused. "Why on earth would I want to put my money in a bank? Those things get robbed, like, daily."

"They do?"

"You will be hard pressed to sequester fifty thousand in American dollars per month in your footlocker, Miss Jinx."

The young criminal smirked teasingly. "You'd be surprised what I can sequester away in my footlocker, duck boy."

Then, tapping her chin, Jinx took a moment to seriously consider the situation. "Honestly though, she hadn't brought it up yet. I mean, it's gonna take a few days, at least, for all of the legal mumbo jumbo to get cleared up for us, and who knows how long before they get around to minor things like paying us and setting up accounts and such."

"We didn't actually get paid until our second month," Mousse answered. "At which point we got the back month plus one in advance… all new recruits get at least one since the casualty rate used to be over fifty percent. It's still pretty high… But anyway, Kumon put his first four months into securing a new dojo. Nabiki handles most of the finances for both our groups. And you should know I don't turn into a duck anymore; only Ranma still uses those old nicknames."

Mousse realized his mistake instantly, as a sly look spread across the cat eyed girl's face.

"Ohhhh really now? I guess that means I get to think up 'all new' nick names for you!" She turned to Konatsu a second later, giving him an appraising look. "You too, I suppose, though I don't know if you had any in the first place. I'm sure I can think of something suitably smexy for you."

"Oh! What about Konatsu-chan?"

Jinx stared at him flatly. "That's just your name with 'chan' at the end. That's, like, the opposite of a nickname. A nickname would be something like ... I dunno ... 'Pretty Boy', or ... I dunno, something." She paused to point over her shoulder at Mousse. "Like with him, I could call him Four Eyes, 'Boy Toy', or something."

"As long as it is more creative than 'stupid Mousse.' I'm getting a bit tired of that, after something like ten years." He gave Jinx an appraising stare… lost by the thick glasses he wore. "Regardless, all this talk about what if may be a moot point. We may have you and yours home by next month for all we know."

Leaning back, Jinx fired a pout at the hidden weapon master. "Oh, I get it. Trying to get rid of me already, is that it? And here I thought we were just getting to be friends, too ..."

His glasses hid his eyes, but he was clearly in one of his thoughtful moods.

"Not at all," he said in reply. "I expect any and all of you would be welcome to stay here… if that's what you want. I've noticed that some people have idyllic view of their home, and when away, they bemoan all they've lost rather than what they could gain. I am not personally one of those sorts of people."

She shrugged in response. "Honestly, I could care less if we stay or go. The closest thing I have to a friend back home is Master Happosai. The sad truth is ..."

Giving a loud, overly dramatic sigh, Jinx dropped her chin into an upraised palm and looked off into nothing with starry eyes. "The sad truth is ... that I'm just as hopelessly smitten as you guys. As long as Ryouga is there, that's all I really need."

"Aww! Puppy love!" Konatsu gushed.

"Hmf." Mousse just grunted, annoyed by the thought. "I guess I feel the same about Shampoo, more or less."

"And Miss Ukyou…"

"Still," the Chinese martial artist added with a grin. "I never figured Hibiki would ever become this kind of ladies man. I can't imagine where either of them got this 'bad girl' fetish either. Back when we first met, all he did was gush about how good and pure and sweet Akane Tendo was."

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Okay, first off, 'puppy love'? Are you joking? I literally dove head first into a cathedral that was being torn up by a tornado and exploded by a massive underground explosion _at the same time_, just to save his butt."

"As for the 'bad girl' thing," she instantly followed up, pleasantly as could be, "Your Nabiki is about as sinful as whipped cream on hot chocolate. Even if she is on kind of a short leash here, she's comparatively harmless. As for the genuine article, i.e. me, well, I guess it might have had to do a little something with him being brainwashed to like me in the first place."

"Passion Spice?"

"What?"

"... nothing... nevermind... that," was the Amazon's quick response. "You brainwashed him? Accident or Intentional?"

"Well, I wasn't the one doing the brainwashing," Jinx explained. "It was all part of my old boss's evil scheme. So it was pretty intentional, though it wasn't really my idea. Not that I'm complaining. Seriously, I'm so crazy for the guy that I know there's a good fifty percent chance that I got brainwashed to like him too, and I honestly don't even care."

Konatsu made a 'tsk tsk' noise at that.

"Among the Joketsuzoku there was no prohibition against intentional infatuation," Mousse supplied, seemingly undisturbed by the notion. "You could call it unconventional love, and just another way of making sure the marriage laws were enforced against defeated opponents… and by that I mean those beaten by hook or by crook. Still… I had my chance to use a form of brainwashing, a shirokomi egg, on Shampoo. I passed."

"Love is love - is that what you mean, senpai?" Konatsu asked.

"You could say that, yes."

"Then why didn't you…?"

"I've been trying to get Shampoo to love me for most of my life," he said evenly and without bitterness. "When she comes around, I want it to be for the right reasons. The longer the road the more satisfying the feeling of getting where you want to be."

"Dude, seriously, have you ever actually tried changing your approach?" Jinx asked incredulously. "You do realize that Shampoo is exactly the kind of girl that would just go nuts if you started playing hard to get. I bet we could do a whole thing to make her jealous, to, it could be oodles of fun!"

"That… would never work…"

Still, even as he said it, he couldn't help but remember the flashes of jealousy that came up in Shampoo's lovely eyes (blurred though they usually were) – and more importantly her aura – when he talked about Ukyou training with him and India squad. Then there had been that one time he had joked off hand about expecting Ukyou to visit him at night, even though they had been in the Southwestern United States at the time chasing after Perfume. But Shampoo often got jealous of Ukyou, especially since the chef had gotten that new ki attack.

Then there had been the incident with that enchanted statue, though it was a hazy memory.

And Shampoo _was_ the jealous type.

"Even if it did," he reasoned. "Jealousy tends to bring out the worst in the women we know."

Konatsu shuddered. "You can say that again."

"Plus, your Hibiki seems very… ah, protective… of all three of his estrogen brigade."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you said you were 'devoted' to Shampoo, not 'put off by the mildest of obstacles," Jinx stated, rolling her wrist absently. "I mean, if it was someone standing between Ryo and me, well, I wouldn't be afraid of a little ... friendly competition. But hey, I understand. As you get older, priorities change and stuff, I mean, only a mentally unbalanced brat like me would do 'anything' for the one they loved..."

"It may be something to consider as a hypothetical… but would you be doing it purely to spite her?" he asked, the slowness of his tone belying his concern and a bit of danger. "Doing it for 'fun' is one thing, but I don't want to harm or hinder Shampoo, even to win her love, and this kind of stunt may get her in trouble."

Jinx could only stare at the bespectacled martial artist. "Ouch, Mousse, that's just ... 'ouch'. I mean, not only is that taking a nasty shot at me, but what does that say about your own self esteem? I mean, you think it's 'spiteful' for me to try to hook Shampoo up with you? I mean, granted, you're not exactly a prize, but still... come on!"

"No, that's not what I meant…!" he argued, holding up a hand to let him explain. "We all know you and the other girls don't get along and-"

Jinx's bark of laughter stopped him in mid blurt. Immediately, the girl held up a hand and dropped it on his shoulder, giggling helplessly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry - I know what you meant. It's just way too easy to tease you. Seriously, though, I don't really give a damn about Shampoo. My only concern in this is seeing you happy. I mean, sure, if we did the whole 'jealousy' angle, Ryouga would probably end up pounding you into a fine paste, but don't you think that's a worthwhile risk if it's for Shampoo?"

"For Shampoo," Mousse relied in all seriousness. "I would gladly be pounded into even that detestable cheese whiz I've seen some people put on their fries."

"Oh, I love that stuff!" Jinx all but squealed. Then, almost as if inspired by the thought, she suddenly squealed again. "Oh-oh, I know! You could totally give Shampoo the thing she wants most!"

"And what's that…?"

The young woman's smile only widened, bordering on unhinged. "You can lay the smack down on me! Shampoo's wanted to see me get what's coming to me since the very first time I made out with Ranma in front of her. If we set up a little sparring match, and let it slip out that we're having a fight, then Shampoo can totally come by and watch you wipe the floor with me with extreme prejudice. She'd **love** that!"

"Hmmm." Mousse considered it. "That might work. If nothing else, she'd be happy with me for doing it."

"Wouldn't she be able to tell if you two were just faking a fight?" Konatsu asked, also having thought about it. "Miss Shampoo is quite adept at analyzing battles."

"Oh, I'd be willing to take one for the team," Jinx exclaimed excitedly. "Again, there might be ... repercussions ... but if it's in the name of certifiable, unhealthy infatuation, then I'm all on board!"

"…very well!" Mousse raised his empty cup. "To unhealthy infatuation!"

"Alright, let's go tell Kasumi to warm up the crash cart! We've got some serious physical harm to inflict." Rising up from her seat, Jinx held up a hand triumphantly over her head. "Team Jinx, assemble!"

"Um, senpai, maybe this isn't…"

"You mean Team Mousse assemble!"

"Beating up an innocent… well, mostly innocent… young woman may not be…"

"Team Mousse? Ha! Team Jinx!"

"Um, hello?" Konatsu tried in vain to interrupt the manic pair.

"Fine. Team Mousse and Jinx!"

"Jinx and Mousse!"

"Oh dear…" the poor kunoichi rested his head on one hand. _'__How did a nice conversation about poisons go so wrong?'_

* * *

Ranma Saotome couldn't help it. He was just _that_ good.

There were very few ground pounding officers who cross specialized enough to merit much flight training. The UFO Jocks these days lived and breathed at the MMI – the "mind machine interface' also known as the ubiquitous 'navigation panel.' Even the old Interceptors still in use had been modified to use the purloined alien technology. For good reason.

It was incredible. Once you got used to it, anyway. It was actually disorientating and a bit sickening at first, having your mind merge with computerized systems and become something no-longer-human. No one could do it for too long. Yet for a half hour, or even a few hours, it was like nothing on Earth. Even saying 'it was like being a bird' didn't do it justice, because you weren't a bird. You were a thing, slipping through air and space like a fish darting around a reef. But there were no animal limitations: fuel could be exhausted, yet, but there was no fatigue, no need to worry about momentum; there was only the desire to move and the power to do so.

He'd come a long way since he and Nabiki had struggled to understand the alien controls back on that abductor. Back then, he'd had to extend his ki via his battle aura into the controls, basically brute forcing his way into the psionic controls. It was a bit like pressing every key on a keyboard when all you needed was one. Now, here, he'd learned what keys to press, what thoughts to project, and how to synchronize himself with the machine.

Yet very few officers opted for the training.

You needed it to make the promotion to Captain, but that was only part of it. Generally, the fliers lived in their world and the grunts in theirs. Even after months in UNETCO, Ranma didn't really know any of the pilots that ferried everyone around and risked their lives in interceptions day after day. They had their own little clique, and their world, and kept to themselves. Most had ground combat training of their own, but even then they generally trained by themselves.

_'__Air Force and Army don'__t mix,_' he'd heard, so maybe it was just something brought over from existing military prejudices. Still, how strange was it to work with and live near a group of people, putting your lives in their hands always daily, and yet not even know any of them by their first name? He knew more researchers and engineers and doctors even.

Ranma had opted for the training at Commander Yasuda and Captain Bank's suggestion. He had the mind for it, they had said, and should pick up the basics quickly given his skill at spatial movement. Ryouga had come along to round things out more than anything. The lost boy tended to get nervous when piloting, since a wrong turn or hesitation in judging where to go could throw the ship off by a dozen kilometers before you realized it. Ranma loved it though… and he was good at it. That being, in his opinion, the ideal combination of factors.

Just once, his being the best at something came back to bite him in the ass. Well, maybe it wasn't exactly the first time that happened… and maybe 'bit him in the ass' was a bit of an exaggeration… but Ryouga getting senior command over Operation Pathfinder? It was kind of annoying. The old him would've probably objected outright out of pride if nothing else, but the old him wouldn't have done a lot of the stuff he had over the last half year. Thinking about it from an outsider's perspective, he could see the reason and logic in it.

Especially if "Icarus" was being invoked.

Detaching himself from the simulator, Ranma sighed and massaged his temples. The interface was noninvasive, but there was always a bit of dizziness when you came down from the flight-high. Even if it was a simulated flight-high. The longer you flew, the worse it could get. The pigtailed officer passed the next few minutes of cooldown by calming his breathing and clearing his thoughts. It was a common enough meditative practice, and never failed to help his synapses unwind.

Feeling better, he turned and rolled over the small duffel bag leaning against the simulator to the right of his seat. It only took a few seconds to find his white hydration pack. Clipping it to his waist at the belt, he slipped the bite valve between his teeth and made sure the drinking tube was well fastened and untangled. Just his luck that, more than once, the pack had slipped or gotten squished, dousing him with cool water.

The result being instant sexy redhead.

There was obviously something about Jyusenkyou curses that made water-related accidents more than coincidentally frequent. He was also the only one with a curse now, to boot, which made triggering it all the more off-putting. He couldn't even feel better by splaying duck boy or pork chop. On the other hand… no cats on base!

_'__No cats, no Shampoo cat, no ghost cat!'_ There were definite perks to living here!

Sipping the water, he curiously looked around to see if there were any familiar faces around. He'd been solo training for hours now and it was getting a bit late. Really late actually. He had a sudden hankering to pester someone – preferably one of the two Hibikis – but the idiots were probably lost or something. There were no obvious targets….

Oh, except that one.

She seemed to be lost in thoughts of her own, sitting at one of the psionic interfaces over in the 'games and study' section. Was she planning another bout of record breaking to spoil someone else's top score? Maybe Command had her practicing something new, like trapping or psionic interrogation? Or… maybe she was thinking about _that_. He knew all about the recent news. All the relevant officers did: himself, Ryouga, Ben-Solomon, Banks plus maybe Feretti and Winthers.

He decided to go easy on her.

Feet settled easily on the back of her chair, the very tip of his boots using the one available inch of space behind her head to maintain balance. Of course, the chair itself naturally rocked backwards from the sudden weight, perfectly balanced though it may be, jerking Raven gently out of her stupor. Gently being a relative term. If this had been one of his teammates, or even Akane, he'd be perched on their head right now instead of the back of their chair.

"Ohoyo," he groused, looking at her upside down and leaning over her head. "Don't tell me the Queen of Duck Hunt is burned out over here? You have a spaced out look."

The violet eyed girl looked up, any amount of surprise he'd hoped to evoke drying quickly once she realized just who he was.

"Oh, joy. It's you."

"You know, too much sarcasm causes frown lines."

"A worthwhile price if it involves mocking you." The corner of her lip quirked up. "So are you just going to stay perched up there, or do I need to shut down your nervous system for a second and drop you to the floor?"

"Let's not be hasty…"

"Saotome!" One of the psi-techs yelled, and by the sound of it, not for the first time regarding this subject. "Get down from there! What have I told you about standing on random things?"

"Okay, okay! Jeez!" A quick little flip later, and Ranma was feet on the floor. He casually eased his elbow onto the backrest of the chair in lieu of making a nuisance of his inhuman agility. "Some people really blow stuff out of proportion around here…! Really, though, you alright? Usually you look super focused in here, not I-could-jump-on-your-head distracted."

Swiveling her seat around, Raven looked up at the martial artist. She looked to be weighing her options for a moment, until she finally came to some unknowable decision and nodded to herself nearly imperceptibly.

"Well ... I've had a lot on my mind today," she began. "I can imagine you have some idea what I'm talking about, right?"

"I'm in the know about Yankee Squad, yeah," he said, and sat down on a nearby chair, swiveling it around to face her as he got comfortable. "You need a sounding board?"

Raven studied him for a moment. "Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt. ...I don't suppose you actually know anyone with enough empathy to actually act as one, do you?"

"Ha Ha Ha," he said in monotone. "And here I thought Cyborg was the comedian in your group?"

"Yes, well, we're full of surprises, you see?" she quipped quietly. "So, exactly what kind of 'sounding board' do you think you would be able to provide, anyway? I hate to point out the obvious, but my situation is just slightly unique in comparison to your own. And unlike your counterpart, I don't trust you nearly enough to actually open up to you in any meaningful way."

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm just a guy willing to listen. Yeah, it ain't like we're in the same boat, and I'm not the Ranma you know. But I am one of your commanding officers, and your welfare is my concern. Plus I like to think I'm a nice guy people can come to if they want to talk or whatever."

"Well, I suppose if you got over your habit of standing on people's heads, you might come across as that." Still smirking, the often gloomy girl shook her head. "If you're so intent on listening. I guess I'm finding myself... torn. This whole situation, with Yankee being broken up, it's a terrible injustice... but it's also an important opportunity..."

"An opportunity," he repeated, knowing some of the history the Titans all had together. "Well, you can do a lot of good off the battlefield, but I'm betting you mean something else besides that."

She nodded. "For me, this place... this entire world, really, represents something that... well, something that I've never even imagined before. And yet, even as I find myself growing more and more comfortable here, I have to watch as some of my friends spiral deeper into despair with each passing day."

"You're really worried about them." It didn't take a genius to realize that. "I know our world isn't what any of them are used to and that you had a real rough time when we took most of you guys in, but…"

This time, the girl shook her head. "It has nothing to do with our apprehension. It is the very world itself. Just look at Starfire's position."

Raven lowered her gaze, a guilty look growing on her face. "She's going to be held prisoner here until the end of the war, however long that may be. And even once that is over, she'll never truly have a day of freedom in her life. Not only that, but her world, her family, everything that she ever cared about... it's all gone. How could she possibly survive in a world like this?"

"That's a heavy question. Somethin' maybe ol' P-chan might understand more," the pigtailed one admitted. "Starfire's a tough girl, though, and everyone she meets likes her. And that's no mean feat in a place like this, with guys who've hated aliens forever. Hell, she even charmed Herb… somehow…"

He shook his head and got back to the point. "She's resilient. She's been through a lot of terrible stuff before from what I hear, and if the worst happens and she's stuck here, I think she'll find new friends and maybe even new family. Plus, you guys'll be here to support her, no matter what."

"Can you guarantee that?" she asked pointedly. "If we join the military formally, there's nothing to stop them from splitting us all up at their first convenience. And even if they didn't, do you _honestly_ believe that finding a few friends can even begin to make up for the fact that she would be a prisoner for the rest of her life?"

Raven stared him in the eye. "_You_ couldn't go five minutes if you thought you were being held somewhere against your will. But, that aside, there is also Ryouga. I'm starting to get the worrying notion that as long as his counterpart is present this entire world is going to be too small for the both of them."

"Yeah. There's a lot of bad blood there," he conceded. "But what can you do? Those two pigheaded idiots just butt heads on sight. Must be a territorial thing."

Raven was right about the other stuff, too. Commander Yasuda would try to prioritize the Titans if they stayed, and she could probably keep Starfire at Seiran… but if Jinx and the other Ryouga ended up in covert operations, it was likely they'd end up at Ocean City or Andermatt. Ranma wasn't so sure about all the military politics stuff among Commanders, but that was what he had heard. Depending on what Cyborg ended up in, he could also get transferred from base to base as a specialist. It would't happen right away, but… it was likely.

As he studied the young woman, he could almost feel her stare piercing his soul. There was no tingle of any form of psionic intrusion, not that she needed to read his mind to know what he was thinking.

"Yes, I'm sure it's... something like that," she replied in a low tone. "While we're on the topic, I really shouldn't forget about Cyborg. I know he's more along my line of thinking. Staying in this world doesn't terrify him, in fact, he would probably enjoy it... but he's literally unsure how long he may be able to even survive here."

She must have noticed the confused look on his face, since she continued straight away.

"I'm surprised you haven't heard the theory going around. That some of the more exotic elements from our dimension will start to degrade over time here? Well ... Cyborg's systems rely heavily on some of those exotic elements. Though he's keeping himself far too busy to think about it, I can feel the fear building up at the back of his mind. Feel his apprehension at the thought that his own body might start to fail around him. It's all the worse _because_ of his enthusiasm to stay ..."

"I didn't know about that…" Ranma mused, a bit disquieted. "I mean, I'd been told about the thing about exotic elements… but I didn't know Cyborg relied so heavily on them. I'm sure we'll be able to work something out, though, if you guys are stuck here. No one will just let him die, and our eggheads are the best in the world. We know the aliens can backup someone entirely and even transfer bodies. We're not at that level yet, but I think we're pretty close."

Raven released a small sigh at that. "Well, that is at least a minor consolation. Though I doubt he would like the idea of being downloaded, or transferred to a completely different body, it does beat the alternative."

"Still, I think you are beginning to see my potential conflict," she inquired seriously. "This place is all but anathema to my friends ... and yet I find myself wanting to stay more and more. How can I betray my companions, the ones who I owe my life over and over again, like that?"

Ranma chose his next few words carefully, and it showed in the fact that he didn't blurt out a response right away. He could see Raven was torn, and though she had hinted at wanting to stay here, she hadn't said _why_. He wasn't sure, but there was a good educated guess as to the root of her conflict. At least in a general sense. The girl had a lot of censor marks on her profile, even at his level of clearance.

"Raven," he began. "You've said a lot about how your friends feel, and what they're worried about. What about you? You said you wanted to stay here… can I ask why?"

"I..." Just as she looked about to reply, she paused in mid sentence. A second later, she shook her head. "No ... I think not. Suffice it to say, that it is safer for ... everyone involved, if I were to remain here."

A part of him wondered if he should say nothing, but…

Well, he was still Ranma Saotome, after all.

"Your security profile," he said. "It made mention of an unknown xeno in your background. A lot of the information was redacted due to privacy, but… Raven… is he, or it, the reason why staying here looks attractive to you?"

Her eyes narrowed instantly at the mention of the 'xeno.'

"Every time I almost forget that, someone always manages to remind me of the invasion of my privacy by this organization. I doubt I will ever _really_ forgive that, no matter how justified you might have felt."

It took several long seconds for her gaze to finally soften once more. "And yes, for your information. That is the reason, however, your organization may have knowledge of... the 'xeno', as they put it, but they have _no idea_ what it actually entails. They have no idea the power, the hatred..."

The girl shuddered visibly. "The Trenchard we battled, Saffron? To even say that he was like a spark to a bonfire would be a gross understatement. All of the malevolence and hatred contained within the entire Alien Mind ... less than nothing in comparison. This world and Mars would both fall in an instant if, for whatever reason, you were unfortunate enough to draw his attention... and you ask why I would rather stay here?"

He nodded, but frankly had difficulty imagining such a thing. Of course, he had difficulty fathoming the strange gestalt that was the Alien Mind in the first place. There were really a lot of things Ranma knew about on one level but didn't really get or understand when it came to these aliens and weird dimensions and whatever. He was more 'see an opponent, beat an opponent' or 'see a situation beat a situation' kind of guy. Abstracts and vague stuff… not so much.

He focused, for the moment, on something more concrete.

"I don't know if you've been told this, but… I'm sorry you had to undergo that mind scan," he said, and was genuinely contrite. "I wish we didn't have to do things like that, I really do. I know Ryouga feels the same way, though he wouldn't want to say it."

Raven just shook her head.

"There are things which are not meant to be seen by others," she tried to explain. "Your Captain and Ry- and Lieutenant Hibiki are simply lucky that I was able to shield them from the _true knowledge_ of... the being. I don't even know what would have happened to them if they had seen the full truth for what it was; knowledge that is not just academic, not scientific or rational… but… almost spiritual. The 'xeno' they identified is no alien like they assume. It... he... you don't even have anything like him here. I don't think I could even describe it to you in a way you'd understand."

Raven looked away, staring absently at the screen. "Tell me, though, Ranma ... What would you do in my situation? Would you run and hide from something, knowing that it was too powerful for you to defeat?"

His instinctive response was an emphatic NO!

"The Saotome Secret Technique," he said instead. "It is the most powerful technique in Anything Goes. Has P-chan ever told you about it?"

She rolled her large, violet eyes. "I've seen the 'technique' in action, yes. But you're still not answering my question. Would you run and hide if you knew there was absolutely _no way_ that you could win. That you couldn't even fight in the first place, that failure was the only option. Would you hide then? If it meant that all of your friends and loved ones would be spared?"

"I don't believe in an enemy that can't somehow be beaten," he insisted. "But sometimes, that opponent can't be beaten in a certain place or in a certain way or under certain rules. I've been in fights were what matters isn't winning. It's surviving, and saving those you care about."

That horrible memory of Jusendo, with Akane pale and limp in his arms, came and went..

"You're asking me if you should give up and hide," he said, resting his elbows on his knees and crossing his wrists as he leaned forward. "I say: don't give up. Run. Hide. But never give up! Even if I had no way of winning, I'd have to try my best. These are the kind of principles I live by… if I have to die by them, too, then that's how it'll be without regrets."

"But…" he added quickly before Raven could speak. "If swallowing my pride and 'giving up' on the kind of victory I'd prefer meant saving lives… well, that's something I've had to do, too. In the end, it all depends on the circumstances. Things like oni can't be beaten normally. The best you can really do is seal them up."

Contrary to what he'd been expecting, being quite proud of his speech, Raven actually let out a quiet chuckle. She stared up at him a moment longer, a smile growing on her pale lips.

"I suppose I really shouldn't be surprised by that answer ... You've given me much to think about. Just because something is easy to do, doesn't mean that it should be done."

He grinned in response, glad her mood had apparently taken a turn for the better.

"Akane does say I love to do things the hard way!" he said with a smile.

"Well, that does seem to be something you share with my Ranma," Raven replied in a lighter tone, She then graced him with a critical stare, apparently studying him intently. A moment later, she smirked shamelessly.

"It's just too bad that you're not as handsome as my Ranma; if that were the case, I might think about talking to you like this more often."

"Hey!" The Saotome heir squawked, suddenly in direct competition with an alternate self he'd never even met. "What's he got that I don't?"

"What does he have that you lack so desperately?" She replied leadingly. Slowly, she rose from her seat, smoothing out her skirt as she did. "Well, you see, that ..."

And then she spun on her heel and began to walk towards the exit, only pausing long enough to glance over her shoulder.

"Is a secret!"

Ranma watched her go with one quirked eyebrow.

"Girls!" he lamented. "Even being one sometimes, I sure as Hell don't get 'em. And I'm ten times the man that other me is!"


	20. And Breathe 2

A/N

Shorter than usual chapter this week. Wrapping things up for the new arc, and unfortunately, we don't have the same uniform number of pages. Whoops! Such is the fault of writing in arcs and cutting them up into chapters after the fact I guess... the alternative was to make this chapter super long. Longer than even the too-long chapters we've had before. Lathis prefers to cut it in half, and I agree. We may make the next chapter an "intermission" or interlude, before the next arc begins and business picks back up.

* * *

An accident at STAR Labs has hurled half the Teen Titans roster across the multiversal barrier and onto a strange world with no metas, no superheroes and no supervillians. There, the UNETCO organization, also known as X-COM, fights against an insidious and merciless alien enemy. The dimensionally displaced Teen Titans have finally been reunited. Determined not to sit on the sidelines, the four young men and women: Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and their universe's Ryouga Hibiki have been brought together into a special 'embedded observer' team designated CT:Yankee.

Displaced in the Russian Far East, far from any of the other Titans, Jinx had the misfortune of falling into the hands of the alien Visitors. Yet when one of the alien-human hybrids became hexxed by her power, damage to its brain tissue disconnected it from the Cydonian Mind and allowed it to remember who it had once been: Akari Unryu. Together, the two unlikely allies escaped into the forest and made for civilization, forging a close friendship during the difficult trek to safety. However, the same power that freed Akari was also killing her, and together with wounds taken during their escape, she hung on just long enough to reunite with her world's Ryouga Hibiki. Fulfilling her request to let her die, he destroyed the alien donor tissue that was to be used to revive her. The Titans, as Yankee Squad, were called to battle, with Akari's life on the line, succeeding in bringing back the replacement brain of the Ethereal, Whisper.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_...And Breathe._

Chapter XX

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid

Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

A single chime pierced the silence of the room.

"Zero-zero plus thirty seconds and counting!"

"Core initialization complete. Phase Two engaged."

"Connections one through ten established."

"Variance at point zero-zero-zero two."

Cyborg stood in the shielded blast chamber with the rest of the research and development staff safe behind layers of lead and alien alloy as the experiment proceeded. He was attached to Jalila's "Research Group E," one of three teams working on the alien ship. All fifteen research staff were present to see the final initialization trials, and looming behind them – their faces transmitted remotely onto large video screens – Commander Yasuda and three uniformed men also overlooked the exercise. Cyborg didn't recognize any of the names under their transmission IDs except for the Commander's, but they were all probably UNETCO bigwigs.

Jalila was clearly a bit nervous, a sharp contrast with the confidence expressed by the other two research heads on this project. Cyborg kept calm. He'd reviewed the work involved, and today's experiment was only marginally risky… at least in so far as he reckoned things. XCOM took excessive precautions, and they were powering up the EDC very slowly and incrementally.

"Transferring power from Series-B exchange units."

"EDC Conveyer reaching threshold. No problems detected. Threshold passed at zero-zero plus forty two point two one seconds."

"Transmission EPGs engaged."

"Looks good so far," he muttered, turning to check the readings from the main EPG systems. They weren't actually going to open a portal or anything of the sort, not here and not now anyway. According to what they'd learned from the Urania-1 probe, the EDC transitioned things within its area of effect across the dimensional barrier. They wouldn't be doing that here, either. This was just a warm up.

Not that something couldn't go wrong: a catastrophic failure in the superconducting EPG arrays could cause physical damage to the EDC and the associated FTL components, for example. There could also theoretically be a radiation leak if the reaction within the Core became rampant. They were trying to mimic the success of the Urania Probe with their EDC, which had been captured separately and less intact. There were no guarantees, thus the need for tests.

_Battery_ after _battery_ of tests.

It was a lot more than Cyborg was used to, yet most of the staff were if anything, aggravated by the accelerated progress of their work. The brass and the regs insisted that everything be tested rigorously and under controlled conditions. They spent a third of the day testing, a third of the day analyzing the tests, and a third of the day making adjustments or changes. This last part was Cyborg's preference. Building and tinkering with things were his natural preference, not so much the cataloguing and recording of every minute detail.

This was science, though. He'd almost forgotten it in a way. Things were very different in the super heroic field of science, compared to normal industry or academia. For one, no one would sue you if your invention malfunctioned in a public place, for another, most "peer review" took place on the street, and not in a lab. "Street" super science was where all the best men and women did their work, for obvious reasons.

Not that Cyborg missed the pettiness and bitterness that came with academic and industry research, but it did have some appeal, too. One of the main differences from back home was that most of the 'super geniuses' such as himself, tended to work exclusively on their own. He had to admit that there was something about being surrounded by people in a field you found fascinating and just cutting lose with ideas and equations and theories. It was the oversight that he disliked.

"Initializing third connection to ancillary EDC components. Phase Three engaged."

"Connections eleven through fifteen established."

"EDC accelerators engaged. Safeties indicate reaction well within tolerances."

"Converger EPG system at four hundred and sixteen degrees kelvin."

"Detecting beta plus positron emission within the OCU. Gamma radiation spikes recorded."

Displays projected over more ubiquitous alien alloy showed the progress of the experiment. The FTL reactor was up and running, and the EDC was warmed up. Digital dials swirled over to right and locked in place with a series of clicks as connections within the device reached points of no return. Other displays showed heat and radiation levels in the device, particularly from and in the Organic Control Unit (OCU).

The aliens had harvested brain matter from the griffin to provide the necessary component for the EDC to function across deeper dimensional boundaries. They had also done so remarkably quickly… too quickly actually. It was all speculation, but it was almost as if they had experience with this sort of thing before. If the aliens were as old as he'd been told, possibly in the order of millions of years of space faring civilization, then it could well be that this wasn't the first dimensional entity they'd stumbled across. Further guesswork on that would have to wait for later, however.

"Initializing final connection. Phase Four now engaged."

"EDC Core is now fully engaged and online."

"Connections sixteen through eighteen established."

"Transferring all power from Series-C exchange units."

"Dimensional waveform is stabilizing."

"Converger and Transmission EPG systems holding steady."

"Accelerators in cyclical mode."

"Radiation output increasing within OCU."

An actinic arc of light ran across the surface of the parked alien ship in the now abandoned and sealed auxiliary hangar. Aside from that one little display, however, nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. It remained in place, the actual gravity induction drive still offline, seemingly mute and indifferent to the remarkable experiment occurring within it.

"EDC is now capable of transit event. Time is plus six three seconds."

Sixty three seconds.

"System is stable as-is," Jalila said, as she and the other research heads turned to fill in and speak to the watching military heads. "We still have a lot more tests to run, though, and we're a long way from understanding all the physics involved…"

"You have four days," Commander Yasuda cut her off. "Then we will begin combat operations. The timetable has already been decided by High Command."

"But - but we still need to account for the Earth's rotation, the influence of nearby gravity fields, and existing magnetic interference. All previous transits were made at stable and well studied lagrange points!" Jalila argued. "We also need to factor in any changes that may occur due to the ship itself. It is much more intricate than Urania-1, and with the gravity drive and the weapons and stealth systems… four days will be a hard deadline to meet without cutting corners."

"Make no mistake, we are very pleased by your progress, Doctor al-Rifai," another Commander, this one going by the surname Felt, spoke up. "That goes for all the departments over there and Doctors Conner and Perrin. However, we need this refined into a practical and reliable system as soon as possible."

Doctor Perrin, an older gentleman looking very much like a wizened lab master, stepped forward.

"My team will require some more time with CERN to explore these high energy particle interactions around the dimensional fold…" He crossed his arms behind his back. "We may need to up armor the ship to fully protect the crew."

"I'll have the Director give you top priority," another of the Commanders replied, this one a dark haired man around middle age.

"Thank you Commander."

"Outsource any non-critical research," Commander Felt reminded them. "I'm sure Fry Canyon, Saransk or Valencia can handle more of the theoretical and materials testing. Focus all your efforts on the study of the EDC itself and in making sure it is stable enough for transit in and out of combat conditions."

"We can definitely source out the number crunching on the in-atmosphere transit situation," Doctor Conner jumped in. "Once we have all the initial calculations and observations done."

"This was a good step forward," Doctor Perrin insisted. "Our EDC works. We can now move forward on activation. We will be ready to initiate our first near-Earth test transition within four days."

"It will be difficult, but… yes, we can manage it…" Jalila got on board once the other two agreed to the commitment. "Particularly if we have unrestricted access to Urania-1."

Commander Felt scratched his chin at that.

"I'll speak to my people about it," he agreed. "But we want to keep it in space for the time being. It gives us the freedom to try out the more dangerous experiments that can't be done in-atmo. We'll be making our own near-Earth transition in two days using our stripped down system."

"Keep us apprised of any further developments," the fourth Commander said simply, and logged off.

The others nodded, and similarly left the videoconference.

Except Commander Yasuda, who lingered a few extra seconds.

"Once again, good work," she said before leaving. "I expect great things from all of you."

And then all the brass were gone, leaving the small scientific community standing around. Almost instantly, the individual teams broke out into heated discussions, some excited, others in tense tones. Obviously some groups were under more pressure than others to get this thing up and going.

As for himself, Cyborg turned to Jalila and chuckled loudly. "I dunno what the big deal is. This is gonna be cake. Heck, between the alien ship and my research, we already have everything we really need! If I could actually get my hands on the ship, that deadline wouldn't be a problem at all."

"Just because our EDC works doesn't mean we know it's safe to use," she reminded him. "The lives of a good number of brave young men and women will depend on us. We mustn't let them down."

By now, Research Group E was gathered around the two.

"Everyone," Jalila addressed them all then. "We're pushing ahead, but I don't want anyone to get sloppy. Tomorrow, we'll be meeting the heads of the expedition that will be using our EDC, one of which is the primary pilot. Right now, that means our priority is in getting the avionics suite up so they can begin training with it."

Well, at least _that_, Cyborg could get unashamedly excited about. As a pro pilot in his own right, he'd been playing around on the flight simulators on the rare occasions that he'd been dragged out of the workshop and into the psi gym. He was looking forward to testing out a real world psi-navigation suite himself. By the time they got it up and running, he'd show their chosen flyboy a thing or two about how you pilot an inertialess alien spacecraft.

Clapping his hands loudly, he wrung them in anticipation. "Well alright, let's get going then, we still got a whole night's worth of midnight oil to burn!"

* * *

Ukyou's battle spatula swung in a short, sharp arc as she closed into CQC. Ryu juked his head to the side to avoid the rising edge of the weapon, his left hand coming up to slap aside the flat of it before the okonomiyaki chef could twist the handle and turn a near miss into a raking slash. He knew her weapon was in 'unsharpened' practice mode, but that only meant it would go from outright stripping flesh to shearing off a layer.

His right hand, flattened into a spade palm-up, lashed out at her shoulder, followed by his left taking aim for her eyes. Metal blurred as Ukyou parried one blow with the hilt of her weapon and stepped back and out of the way of the other. Ryu's upper body shot to the left to avoid the blunt end of the spatula twirling up and around the girl's body in a series of great arcs and curves, part of it tearing apart the tatami mats at their feet.

Blocking just below the blade head, he stepped forward, and aimed for the stomach with a_ Geimon Tetsu Sen Shi_ (Welcome Gates Fan Finger); at full power the strike could and would hit just between abdominal muscles, cutting clean through like a hot knife through butter. Ukyou's impeccable defense meant she was able to just sense it in time to turn her body. His fingers cut the cloth of her sparring outfit.

'_Missed.__'_

As he overshot and over extended, Ukyou brought her weapon around overhead and down on his blind spot. Tucking and rolling, he avoided the strike, jumping back up and kicking out in midair. Unannounced vacuum blades rippled from his legs and feet, slamming into the hilt and flat of Ukyou's battle spatula. Her defense had improved dramatically since her first training session with India Squad last year.

Not yet ready to give him space, she lowered her shoulders and charged in.

He ducked a strike, retaliated, and exchanged a lightning fast series of blows and counters trying to overwhelm her spinning metal defender. A foot lashed out and caught him on the chin, sending a bit of bloody spittle flying. He maintained enough presence of mind to bring up and lock his arms around the leg before it could retract, and with a single twist, he slammed her down face-first to the ground.

A lesser person, a normal person, would have been a stunned. Most women would have screamed or at least grunted in pain. Ukyou did neither. Silently, she shifted, using momentum to roll onto her back. Her other heel slammed into the side of his face, and then arced around to hit him between the eyes. She was no Hibiki, and neither of them were fighting for anything more than practice, but the strikes still stung. It took all of a second for her to scissor her way out of the hold and flip back up onto her feet.

Now, she yelled, a furious battle cry as the edge of her spatula extended in lunge after lunge. He bounced back, hopping from foot to foot to dead with the sudden assault. A hand tried to grab the weapon below where it flattened to try and grapple, but Ukyou nimbly twisted, nearly breaking his wrist if he had tried to maintain the grip.

He saw her hand sneak forward, and predicted what what would come next.

"Kuonji Big Bang Odoroki!"  
(Kuonji Big Bang Surprise)

Her words were droned out by the explosion as the flat of her weapon channeled it down and into where he had just been standing with the force of a concussive grenade. His ears stung, but Ryu ignored that; he had seen this coming and slipped in from the side. Now, finally, he had her exposed right flank. Opting for something unexpected, he rushed in to take her by the throat. At expected, Ukyou managed to get the very blunt end of her spatula shifted to protect her heart, probably expecting the _Dokuja Tanketsu Sho_ (Poison Snake Deep Hole Blow).

Hit hard and knocked off her feet, Ukyou bounced off the ground, tucked, and trapped his legs while he was in the middle of a downward kick. Bone and ligaments strained against kinematic abuse, and he fell back before his kick could strike home. By the time he recovered, back flipping straight up to try and come down with a descending axe kick, Ukyou's defense was back up and in the way. His foot bounced off the metal wall and his arms had to come up to block a retaliatory swipe as she spun away, a blur of indestructible metal and spinning kicks.

He was tensed to pursue, when he noticed the objects breaking away from her spinning form.

_Okonomiyakidans!_ (Okonomiyaki Bombs)

Eyes darted as he tracked the incoming projectiles.

Not just the bombs; there were mini-spatulas, too, hidden behind the bombs. This was like Konatsu's trick. In that half second, Ryu counted twelve pairs of them, coming in groups of three. Acting on instinct, his palms flattened and he mentally calculated all twelve arcing trajectories.

So: she wanted to trade techniques again, did she?

"Kijin Dai Ran Bu!"  
(Demon God Big Mad Dance)

The basic version of this technique was simply to spam large numbers of vacuum blades, almost indiscriminately. That was then; this was now, and he was using the Reformed Kumon Style Yamasenken, not the original. Exactly fifteen nearly invisible blades, modified to be dull and concussive rather than sharp and piercing, erupted from the spiraling dynamo that was his body in motion. They came from his arms and legs, intercepting each pair of _Okonomiyakidan_ Combo Strikes in perfect little puffs of smoke, like bursts of white and black flak.

Three more closed in on Ukyou, who neatly shifted her weapon perpendicular to her body, blocking all three vacuum blades that swept in from the front, left, and right, simultaneously. Hitting the ground, she blasted into a quick step, shooting off to the left as Ryu tried to pin her down with a quick series of _Kijin Raishu Dans_.

"You've gotten faster, but…!" He concentrated for a second, and stepped forward and into his next attack as his arms swept out. "I've got you!"

"Sai Dai Kyuu Kijin Raishu Dan!"  
(First-Rate Demon God Assault Bomb)

This time, he created a massive sweeping arc to literally divide the room in half at waist level. The giant _Kijin Raishu Dan_ roared across the dojo. In a serious fight, he could and had sliced a building in half with this move. As he'd hoped, Ukyou stopped trying to dodge with speed, and finally stood her ground. He wondered in that instant whether she would try and block the attack outright. If she did, it would at least bowl her over and leaver her vulnerable. Or would she try and jump, taking to the air where she was weakest?

_'__Yes: there it is!__'_ he thought, seeing her plant her battle spatula. _'__She__'__s trying to tank it!__'_

He made a linear step of his own to close the distance, hands at eye level and ready to strike.

He was surprised to see the spatula seem to fall back as the attack closed in, but immediately saw what Ukyou was doing. By angling her defense, normally used as a wall, it would disperse the impact into the ground. But how would she hide behind it when it was at such an acute angle?

The giant size Vacuum Blade crashed into her , blasting back three tatami mats from the imparted force. The edge of it lifted out of place, and he saw her with legs split, holding the weapon deftly in both hands. She had also guessed that he was going to attack straight on, and pivoted the spatula so part of the edge was between her and him.

His bare feet skidded, cutting another straw mat in half. His other foot used the sudden change in vector caused by the friction to kicked the weapon to the side. It was a nice recovery, but she wasn't at his level just yet! His arms slashed outward in an X. On the ground, her defense out of the way, Ukyou took the double _Kijin Raishu Dan clean to the chest._

Even dulled, and only about fifty percent the power of a normal vacuum blade, the technique could cut deep. He'd broken trees in half with it, splintering them rather than using a clean cutting edge, and Ukyou finally grunted in pain as these two hit home. Ryu smirked, as bits of shredded cloth filled the air, and he drew back a palm for a finishing blow.

"Kenran Hinode!"  
(Brilliant Sunrise)

_'__Shit! How did__…__?__'_

The resulting blast was small, smaller than a normal Hinode, but still sufficient to blast him back and away. His bare arms hissed from the sudden burst of heat and light, but he'd managed to cover his eyes, which was the important thing. Ukyou's ki attack was very well suited to blinding or stunning an enemy, especially if they when caught off guard. He blinked, and saw two mini spatulas embedded in the ground nearby… a result of the _Okonomiyakidan_ Combo before.

There.

That explained it.

Ukyou could project her Hinode from any flat reflective surface. Usually, this was her battle spatula, but he'd been there when she learned to use it on smaller mini-spats, too. He'd gotten careless and forgotten that the results of the previous exchange were still lying around. Ukyou hadn't arbitrarily picked a spot to try and counter his First-Rate Assault Bomb. She'd noticed the spats nearby, knowing she could use them as a counter in case she was rushed.

_'__Good. Good!__'_

She was back up now, and blasting away with Hinodes. He had to avert his eyes to avoid them, but he could see that his previous attack had sliced her top into pieces. She was down to just her white fighting _sarashi_, and the winding strip of thick cotton belied some of the bruises beneath it. He was the only woman he knew who wore such old fashioned garments, but in a fight, it probably was the most practical and comfortable option for her. Shame. He'd have loved to see a sports bra for all this effort.

His arms blurred as he stopped and made a rapid series of movements.

Powerful vacuum blades rained down around Ukyou, who didn't even bother trying to cover herself. She had seen from the get go that the attacks would miss. Reading a particularly large Hinde, big enough to envelop a large part of the room, she chuckled at his sloppiness.

"Where were you aiming, Ryu-honey? At me, or…?"

Ukyou finally noticed it.

It took a moment, but bubbles of vacuum stole her voice and caused her footing to slip. He'd missed her, yes, but it was all part of the process of setting up the _Kumon Style: Kyouhu Kijin Dai Ran Bu_ (Frightful Demon God Big Mad Dance). She should have known better. Attacks had gone over her head and to her left and right, completely enveloping her on all sides.

She was caught in it now.

He sent a few more off-target strikes to reinforce the vacuum prison, just to be sure. He didn't want it too strong, just enough to take her out of the fight. He saw her try to form her Hinode again, but the ki hit the pockets of vacuum and tore apart. It was impossible to maintain a fighting aura within the Demon's Mouth. Her legs tensed to try and Akichi out, but she was already trapped.

There was no need for the second half of the technique, though. Instead, he had another option.

"Kinshi Kinbakusho!"  
(Gold Cord Tight Binding Soar)

The rope whipped around the perimeter of the _Kyouhu Kijin_ and its trapped victim, like a oversized lasso, before going taut and closing in. the Gold Cord was itself strong enough to restrain even Ranma, and like most of the martial artists on base who used weapons of one sort of the other, he'd improved the materials and the strength of the technique. Ukyou's arms fell to her sides as the rope tightened around her midsection.

With a tug, he pulled her free of the _Kyouhu Kijin_ area of effect. The Binding Soar was better up close than at ranged against a skilled opponent. It needed to be followed up on quickly, since while it restricted movement, it wasn't really very immobilizing. What it seceded at, however, was in separating Ukyou from her battle spatula.

He'd thought the vacuum prison had all but knocked her out, too, but no sooner was she out of its area than her eyes snapped back open. Her arms, though stuck at her sides, left her hands free. Her palms shot out, and Ryu caught a flash of metal in the light. More mini-spats.

_'__Not nearly enough!__'_ he thought, and used his left hand to catch one while moving his right foot back to avoid the other. That one harmlessly hit the ground with a muffled thwack, burying into the mat at his feet. Ukyou was nearly to him when he noticed the mini-spatulas were attached to a strange brown ball… a ball that looked almost like…

Packed noodles?

_'__Shit!__'_

Kinbaku Gomu Iri Yakisoba  
(Tightly Binding Rubber Collar Yakisoba)

The ball dangling from the mini-spatula between his fingers and at his feet both exploded with a hiss of boiling water and steam, releasing an unforeseen torrent of thin sticky noodles. They expanded on contact, forming a winding net of sweet smelling goop. In the span of a heartbeat, most of Ryu's left hand and his right foot up to the ankle were ensnared.

Ukyou plowed into him head first, and their foreheads met with a loud CRACK.

The Yamasenken master toppled onto his back, his eyes closed from the shock of the sudden strike. He felt legs wrap around his middle, holding Ukyou in place so she could hit him again. He still had the cord around her. It had to be another head butt. Even before the back of his head hit the ground, he inclined it to the left, neck muscles straining.

He heard a curse as Ukyou tried to butt heads with him again, only to impact the mat beneath them face first. Opening his eyes, he saw her leaning back, a little light headed and dizzy, but still willing to fight. His left arm was now stuck to the floor thanks to the noodles, but luckily that floor was moveable. He pulled back with his right, keeping the Gold Cord tight, and punched with his left, hitting Ukyou with the noodle-enveloped tatami mat attached to his right hand and arm.

She tightened her legs in response, damn near crushing his lower back.

Holding the mat between them as a shield, knowing by this point most of his lower body was stuck to the floor, Ryu reached up and deftly looped the _Kinshi_ around her neck, retightening it. Ukyou, with her arms already trapped, had no way to avoid the move and took one last breath before her air supply cut off. Still, she tenaciously tried to do him in, crushing his lower torso with her legs and trying to push past the tatami mat shield.

Finally, after about ten seconds without air, she relaxed and leaned back. Unable to speak, she nodded instead. He let go of the _Kinshi_, and it slackened around her neck and body, releasing her arms. He could see an impression left by the rope around her slender neck, but knew it would be gone in an hour or so. She was one of them, after all, and she healed quickly.

"Damn!" the okonomiyaki chef cursed softly, poking the tender mark with a finger. "Got me again!"

"Had to really work for it today," he replied, and let his arm fall to the side with the mat still attached. "You shouldn't have just stood there to fire off those Hinodes."

"Easy for you to say. Moving at high speed and aiming ki blasts isn't exactly easy."

"Nope. You just need to keep practicing."

"Split my lip, too," she grumbled and pouted, sticking out her lower lip to try and feel the cut. Holding it with thumb and forefinger, her tongue came out to lick the damaged area. "Ouch I hate that!"

He chuckled at the display, amused by her getting worked up about something like that after bashing her head in trying to give him a concussion. Nevermind the cuts and bruises across much of the rest of her body. At least his undershirt was still intact.

"Are you stuck?' he asked, seeing the noodles had spread to her legs as well as much of his lower body. "What do you put in this stuff anyway?"

Experimentally trying to move her legs and hips, Ukyou realized she was quite stuck.

"Sorry, our yakisoba sauce is a family secret. It'll wash off, don't worry." She produced a small penlight from a pocket in her bandolier. "Here we go."

"Is that…?"

"UV flasher," she replied, shining the nearly invisible light onto the smaller tangle enveloping his left hand and arm.

"You hurt anywhere?" she asked while they waited for it to denature part of the mess of noodles. Time and exposure to air would eventually make it hard and brittle, but this was a lot faster. He soon felt the yakisoba begin to constrict and harden becoming that much easier to break.

"I'm good," he replied, taking a quick peek at her. "You?"

"I'll be okay by tomorrow morning."

"Good. You didn't mind me using Kyouhu Kijin Dai Ran Bu did you?"

"Well, you didn't kill me with it, so I won't complain, sugar," she gave the no longer sticky noodles a little jab with her pinky. "That should do it."

Holding his arms up, Ryu grabbed the edge of the mat stuck to his arm and, after a few seconds, managed to tear it free. Tossing the straw mat away, he took a little while to rip away some of the rest of the now encrusted yakisoba. By the time his hand was finally free – including the mini-spatula he had intercepted that was the source of the mess – he let his arms fall to his sides and watched as Ukyou tried to contort enough to use the UV flasher against their tangled legs.

Of course, all she had was a rather tight sarashi wrap around her upper body, and her twisting resulted in a lot of not-unpleasant physical contact. Biting his lip, the Yamasenken master tried to think chaste thoughts. Baseball. Soccer. Manly Sports. Definitely not about the cute girl straddling his waist and gyrating as she tried to…

Ukyou eeped and turned on him.

"Ryu!" she yelped, red faced. "Is that what I think it is?"

He laughed a little sheepishly. "Would you believe that was a pistol?"

"It's some kind of hidden weapon, alright," she said with an angry and embarrassed huff, quickly turning away to hide her flushed face. "Try not to be such a guy while I do this."

"You're basically dry humping me, I can't exactly help…"

"Oooh! If only I had my…!" Ukyou took a slow breath to calm herself, doing nothing to help Ryu's situation as he watched her out of the corner of his eyes.

It took a few seconds of silence before she started to laugh.

"What?" he asked, wondering if she was laughing at him.

"No. The situation is just… well, kind of silly," she said, still working on freeing their legs. "Embarrassing, but silly," she clarified. "And I guess I am moving around a bit back here and… with my legs like this…"

He laughed a little, too. The situation was quite 'compromising.'

With her laughing, he decided this might be a good time to ask a certain question.

"There's a karaoke thing this Friday. I'm pretty sure Ryouga and Nabiki are going, and maybe some others, so… you wanna go?" He asked, and added. "You know, with me?"

"Karaoke tomorrow night?" she wondered, her side still to him. "Sure. Sounds like fun."

Ryu mentally fist-pumped. _'__YES!__'_

That… had actually been really easy. Watching her work, Ryu wondered about this whole thing he had with Ukyou. They went out pretty often, hung out and did things together… and it was great. She had a lot of the same interests he did. She loved sports, of course martial arts, action movies and she had a real interest and appreciation for hardware. The girl could even jump start a car or fix a broken grill in no time flat.

Unfortunately, he still got a bit nervous asking her out. She'd refused to call the first couple times 'dates' on general principle, and had dressed boyishly, but after a while she'd loosened up. She hadn't threatened to flatten him if he called one of their outings a 'date' in like a month. They'd even fooled around a little. Granted, he didn't exactly have experience with girls – training to master the Yamasenken and hunt down the Umisenken and build up a nest egg to rebuild the Kumon Dojo hadn't left time for skirt chasing – but now that he had accomplished all of that, he wanted a girlfriend.

Hell, he wanted a wife to help run the Dojo, eventually.

Everything else was done. His Reformed Yamasenken had surpassed the Umisenken, and he'd won the right to practice and train others in it freely. With the money he'd brought in since joining UNETCO, he had what he needed to rebuild the Kumon Dojo and construction had already started. He wouldn't be poor when he left, and fighting for XCOM would have made his martial arts style famous. He was happier and more fulfilled than he had ever been in his life. Plus, he had friends and peers!

Having read a fair share of mangas about high school and things like that, he knew the only thing missing was a good girlfriend. Things just weren't going like those admittedly fictional portrayals had indicated. The stuff he'd seen on TV and movies hadn't helped much either in working the situation out right. Every time he asked Ukyou out to some movie or other event whipped up by the morale office it was like the first time.

He just couldn't shake the feeling that they were more _friends_ than… _boy_ and _girlfriends_.

"Finally!" Ukyou sighed in relief and wiggled free from the last of the crusty yakisoba noodles. He bent up and helped her rip most of it free until they could stand up again. The first on her feet, she even extended a hand to help him up.

"Ukyou-chan…"

"What's up, sugar?" she asked, looking up while cleaning the last of the mess on her leg off.

"Would you… ever go out with someone who wasn't one of us? A martial artist?"

"Have someone in mind?" she teased, posing with one hand on her hip.

"No!" he blurted out. "Of course not. I'm just curious."

_'__What you like in guys, anyway.__'_

She thought about it for a few seconds. "When Ranma-honey lost his strength, I did wonder about that a bit. Having a strong guy around to help would be nice, but it doesn't matter that much. You can't pick what type of person you fall in love with anyway."

He tried not to frown. That… didn't answer much.

"I guess so."

"What about you?"

"My girl has to be strong, tough and smart," he said, and smiled at her so she knew just who he was describing. "Someone who can help me revolutionize the field of martial arts."

She smiled back, a soft beautiful smile, made all the cuter by how disheveled she looked.

"After the war, um… you said you were thinking of just traveling around for a while?"

"Hm-hmm." She nodded. "A year away from Nerima and all that craziness. At least."

"If you, you know, ever need a place to crash. I'd be great to have someone around to help with the Dojo... and things," he said, a bit carefully but then with more boldness. "It won't be anywhere near Nerima after all. Just you and me…"

Her smile wavered, just a bit, but then she stepped over and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

"That'd be nice," she replied. "I'll definitely come visit."

Come 'stay' would have been better in his mind.

Seeing she was about to go, he grabbed her hand and pulled her in closer. It was probably too bold, but he let her bump lightly into his chest and dipped his head down to capture her lips. She smelled sweaty but traces of shampoo in her hair mixed with it to produce an added sweetness. He felt her return the kiss, her hands on his chest.

"Ryu-chan," she said, pushing off him enough to break the embrace.

"I couldn't help myself," he said with a slightly unsure grin.

"I, um…" She blushed and took a few steps away. "I think it's time to call it a night, sugar. We both really need a shower."

"Alright. I… I'll see you around."

She made a quick exit, and he let out a deep breath, part sigh part groan. Why were relationships so much harder than they seemed? At this rate, it was frankly kind of amazing _anyone_ got married.

_'__A shower, huh? A cold shower more like it.__'_

* * *

"Oh, please excuse me," Mitsuko quickly offered up in apology.

The young man whom she had just barreled into quickly waved off her apology before ducking down to pick up the stack of documents he had been carrying on his way to … wherever he was going. Horribly embarrassed at her lack of attention, even so early in the morning, the martial artist knelt down and went about helping him to gather the papers, picking up a small stack and handing them over helpfully.

"No - no, that's fine, Ma'am, it was all my fault," he explained earnestly. "I should have been looking where I was going."

Of course, Mitsuko knew that wasn't even remotely true. She had been walking about in a complete daze, not to mention the fact that she was dead tired. She hadn't even thought to call Shirokuro to help her get around the base before leaving her room. She was getting to the point where she was willing to consider fall back options: the Saotomes, Tendos, or perhaps Kuonji – though Kazuo was often hard to find.

"Don't be silly," the Hibiki matron replied, "I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. Can you please forgive me?"

Even as they spent the next several seconds awkwardly exchanging apologies and admissions of guilt, she already felt her attention slipping again. She hadn't slept a wink last night, more or less for the same reason that she was walking around in a daze right now. Ever since her impromptu meeting with her son - 'sons' yesterday, she hadn't been able to get the conversation out of her head. She had spent the entire night tossing and turning, just going over the dimensionally displaced Ryouga's words, trying to make sense of them.

Finally wrapping up their little politeness festival, she and the young man finally parted ways, him going one direction, her another. Admittedly, she had no idea which direction was which, but she honestly didn't know where she wanted to go, anyway, so it hardly seemed important. For a Hibiki, sometimes it was just necessary to keep moving, like a shark, in any direction as long as it wasn't still.

Ryouga, her Ryouga, was moody, angry and filled with depression.

He had seen things and done things that almost made her want to weep when she actually stopped to think about it … and yet, there had never been any indication that any of his rage had been aimed inward. It was always outward: always at 'the enemy.' The boy seemed to be literally channeling his grandfather, and Mitsuko didn't consider that an entirely good thing. Still. All of that hatred and loathing had been directed exactly where it deserved to be: at the alien menace which had been the architect of so many of his woes. And hers.

But the younger Ryouga…?

It was so bizarre. He seemed so upbeat, so happy. And why not? He came from a world where he was openly a hero. He was surrounded by friends who obviously loved and respected him. Hell, she'd seen his aura, and it was so serene and calm in comparison to his counterparts that it seemed like he was half way to enlightenment. Sure, it sounded like he had gone through some rough stuff of his own, and by his own admission, his own terrible experiences had been startlingly similar in scope to her own sons, just… different, more fitting the world he lived in.

So why did he hate himself so much?

Just the thought of it twisted her up inside. Even the fact that she knew, deep down, that he wasn't her son, couldn't stop her from wanting - needing - to do something to help him. She couldn't do that, though, if she had no idea what the root of the problem was in the first place. Unfortunately, she and her son had both agreed that prying into his personal life wouldn't be a good idea.

Luckily, it was her prerogative to change her mind as she saw fit. It was one thing to 'say' she wouldn't meddle, but to 'actually' refrain? It was just too much to ask of a mother. Knowing that this alternate version of her son was in such emotional turmoil wasn't just something she could put out of her thoughts and forget about.

Actually confronting Ryouga face to face about the subject, though…? She couldn't see that ending well. Perhaps she hadn't handled things as well as she could have, just tying them up and forcing them to reconcile like she had, but there was no way she could have foreseen anything like that. The truth was she had never seen that much of her son as he grew up, and the experience she had said to basically treat him like his father: the boy was always a martial artist first and foremost. The approach this time had just made things worse. If she brought it up again, he'd likely clam up in an instant.

She needed to do something, but what? Who could she possibly get to help her? Who could she talk to that would be able to help her uncover just what dark secret that Ryouga was hiding?

"Hey, watch it, Lady - oh, it's you!"

Mitsuko started, feeling someone smaller than herself bounce off of her chest and recoil slightly. Looking down, she prepared to fire off another barrage of apologies, when she noticed just who it was that she'd walked into this time.

"Oh my, Jinx, what are you doing here?"

The pink haired girl stared at her incredulously, then looked down to the fluffy pink bathrobe she was wearing and the small basket of bath supplies she was carrying, then back up to Mitsuko.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" she asked with a cheeky grin. "Obviously I was on my way to the firing range. Didn't you hear about the new urban camouflage that they're circulating now? Everyone is gonna be wearing this soon enough."

Mitsuko fired a flat glare back at the girl. Normally, she would be all for the silly teasing, but at the moment …

Wait a moment, wasn't this the girl that had tried to sneak into her room all those days ago, when Ryouga was still staying with her? Obviously, this girl was close to her son; in fact, she'd wager she was quite close indeed to the young man. Forcing a smile, she silently gave thanks to the Hibiki family curse. Sure, it got them lost at the most inopportune times, but sometimes, just sometimes, it led them exactly where they needed to be, right when they needed to be there.

"Jinx … do you have a moment? I'd like to speak to you about something."

Again, the fiesty young woman looked down to the bathrobe she was wearing, then gave a weary shrug.

"Yeah, I guess so," she said. "It's not like I'm on active duty or nuthin', and Ryouga is too busy talking to all the stuffed suits this morning to hang out."

Even more fortuitous. Smiling more genuinely now, Mitsuko stepped forward and wrapped a companionable arm around Jinx's shoulders and allowed the girl to begin to lead them to … well, to Jinx's room, she assumed.

"That's good, actually. You see, it's actually Ryouga that I'd like to talk to you about."

Instantly, the young woman's shoulders tensed up beneath her, and Mitsuko instinctively increased the pressure of her 'friendly hug' to stop the girl from fleeing. Quickly realizing that escape was impossible, the girl gave a pained sigh.

"Oh yeah … I can tell _this_ is gonna be 'fun' …"

* * *

"Ranma? Ranma! Are you listening?"

"Huh?" Ranma Saotome blinked a few times, only then noticing he had spaced out for a few seconds. "'kane?"

"Ranma, is something wrong?" Akane was there, watching him with thinly veiled worry. Like him, she was in uniform and on duty, but unlike him – or Ryouga – she hadn't been up extra early to get extra time in at the auxiliary hangar. She didn't even know about the EDC or Operation Pathfinder. It was well above her clearance level, and even though she knew something was up there, he couldn't tell her what.

"I'm just a bit dazed, I guess," he offered, and returned to picking at his late breakfast. Eggs. Western Style Eggs. Why couldn't they ever have a nice Japanese breakfast?

Sitting next to him, Ryouga didn't seem as troubled, but of course he wouldn't be. He only needed a passing, basic, operational familiarity with the ships systems. Ranma had spent three hours plugged into it this morning, and he'd be in it for another three later today. The real thing was a bit more exhausting than the simulator in the psi-gym, especially since he had to multitask with the EDC, the modified shields, the active and passive stealth and the weapons. All were undergoing test trials, and all needed to be normalized, optimized and tweaked to human specs. Until they were, they'd be rougher on the brain than the final product.

Eventually, the eggheads said, it would be as smooth and easy to fly as a Firestorm.

Eventually.

"It's nothing serious, Akane-san," Ryouga answered, more alert but still not very hungry. Both knew they wouldn't really get their appetite back until later tonight.

"Ryouga-kun, you know you can just call me Akane. You two have been like this for a few days now." Taking in their expressions, she asked, "Does this have anything to do with that secret stuff going on in the hangar?"

"Can't talk about it if it does," Ranma replied, poking a bit of scrambled egg.

"Don't think I haven't noticed Nabiki being sent for more weapons training. Even though she's an operator and not a field agent," the youngest Tendo observed. "Something's going on with you guys."

"Can you just drop it?" The pigtailed officer asked, and added for good measure, "Please?"

"Okay, okay… I just don't like seeing you guys like this every morning."

They ate in silence after that… or to be more exact, Akane ate, knowing she had a full day's training to look forward to, while Ranma and Ryouga spent most of their time staring down at their trays instead of chewing. She knew both boys had beyond healthy appetites, so it was downright strange seeing them so… listless most mornings.

"So," she eventually tried again to start up some conversation with her fiancé and her best male friend. I heard on the graft-" By which she meant base slang for rumors, usually told while in the medical bay "-that you got into a fight with the other you, Ryouga-kun. There any truth to that?"

He made a noncommittal grunt by way of response.

"I guess I'll have to ask Nabiki if I want to hear more then…"

"It wasn't a fight," he quickly said.

She leaned forward a bit, elbow on the table. "What was it then?"

Ranma said nothing, but looked over at his fellow lieutenant.

"Just another shouting match," the lost one replied, and lifted his glass of water as if to drink – only to put it back down before he could put it to his lips. "Mom ended up breaking it up. Maybe it would've turned into a fight. Maybe not."

"Again?" Ranma asked with a sigh. "You know, you two are like…"

"Pigs butting heads, I know. Very funny."

"You heard that one before, huh? Dang."

"What was it about?" Akane asked, "If you don't mind me asking?"

Ryouga frowned a bit. Akane was naturally inquisitive (some would even say nosy) and it had gotten her in trouble more than once. She had also brought this all up in the first place, so he wasn't sure how likely telling her not to bother would be to take effect.

He's lost his memories of P-chan after taking the Jyusenkyou "man curse" water. Doing so had swept away much of the curse-originated affection he had for her. He'd been cordial then, and she'd noticed the difference in his behavior pretty quickly, still wanting to be friends. Ironically, later, when he gotten those memories back and fessed up to being P-chan, he had gone back to her to try and repair what sort of a strange relationship they had as friends. He still liked her, but time and clarity had shown she wasn't the perfect creature his P-chan influenced mind had once imagined.

Or maybe he was just getting more jaded?

"It was about nothing as usual," he grumbled. "I guess our girlfriends and stuff."

"That's not exactly 'nothing' Ryouga-kun," Akane chided. "Was he saying bad things about my sister?"

"No. No. He was… we…" He suddenly found it hard to explain just how that conversation had gone all wrong. "We were both lost at the time and ran into each other."

"HA."

"Shut up, Ranma."

To which the Saotome heir just laugher a little harder, trying ineffectively to muzzle himself.

"Okay. I'm good. Just go on."

"Ranma, stop being such a jerk!"

"We ran into each other," Ryouga repeated, glaring a bit at Ranma now as if daring him to interrupt with another snide comment. "He was thinking about some stuff… about his future here, I guess is the best way to put it. We talked for a bit, and I told him to think carefully about what you get involved in. Good advice, I thought. He said I didn't understand and that he would just do whatever."

"Is that what he said?"

"Not exactly, he just… he seemed to just be willing to go along with whatever Jinx wanted."

"Because they're…?" Akane glanced back and forth, conspiratorially, and made a rather rude gesture with her fingers.

"You've been hanging out with some dirty minded people, you know?" Ranma asked, eyes half lidded in amusement.

"I can think of at least one of them. In fact, I'm looking at the most perverted one right now."

"What? Is Kuno behind me?"

"You know exactly what I mean, baka!" She stuck with the Japanese word for effect, though all three had sort of slipped into using English even in private.

He smirked and leaned in towards her.

"If I'm an idiot, you're a tomboy, tomboy!"

"Ba-ka," she said again, emphasizing it with a playful poke to his head. Ryouga rolled his eyes at the coltish mockery of their old arguments.

"Now, Ryouga-kun, was it because they were together or what?" She asked, "Because that's kind of sweet if you ask me."

"No. More like he feels…" Ryouga realize what he was about to say, and after a second, decided not to reveal too much private material. "It isn't just that. I disagreed with his reason, though, and told him as much."

"Then what?"

"He said some stuff, and I said some stuff. It went downhill from there." Ryouga leaned into the back of his chair. "He said things about me and Nabiki that I took offense to. Insulting me, not her. Other things, too, but I don't really want to go into detail about what."

She gave him a sympathetic stare, but asked, "Did he insult you first?"

"What does it matter?" He shrugged. "I can't even remember."

"It was just the other day. How can you not remember?"

"I just don't."

Akane was silent for a little while after that and both officers wondered if her curiosity had been satisfied. They all had a long day ahead of them, even if no xenos reared their heads, but wouldn't get a chance to really fraternize or hang out until late that night. Ryouga knew both Akane and Ranma considered him their best friend, and usually when they all hung out for a breakfast or with the rest of the Tendos and Saotomes at night, it was a chance to unwind a bit. When it was just him and Ranma, they usually just found a quiet spot and relaxed, saying nothing. When Akane became part of the picture, she always kept them busy with gossip or idle chit chat.

It was nice, but sometimes silence was great, too.

"Do you… do you two hate each other or something?" she finally willed up the courage to ask, without further preamble or pretense. "You guys get along worse than… well, than you and Ranma used to."

Ranma gave a thoughtful 'hmm' sound at that, remembering those times with a sort of fondness.

"I don't hate him," Ryouga replied, cupping his hands on the lip of the table. "I don't like him that much, but I don't hate him. He…"

_"All it takes is one look at you, and you bring out all the worst things in me that I thought I'd already stashed safely away. Even at the best of times, it's all I can do to just not walk straight up to you and deck you right in the face; I - I just want to punish you for everything you've done."_

_"Honestly? You really want to know why I feel that way? You really want to know why, beyond the jealousy, the arguments and the fighting? Why, no matter how much you try to help me, or how much we fight side by side, that I still can__'__t stand you?"_

_"Well relax, Lieutenant because it has nothing to do with anything you've done, or, hell, with anything you__'__ll probably ever do. I don't hate you because you're not me. I hate you because whenever I look at you, all I __**see**__ is me. Are you happy now?"_

"It's complicated," he concluded.

It wasn't much of an answer, though. The phrase also seemed to be one he just couldn't escape from. At least the fight with the Cydonian enemy was black and white. Everything else seemed to be so easily muddied.

"Even if it's complicated, it isn't fair to you, Ryouga-kun," Akane argued, coming to his defense just like in the old days. "You're a nice guy, and you've done nothing but try and help him and his friends. You're also their superior officer. If I picked fights with a CO, I'd be running laps around Seiran…or worse: doing recycling detail down in the Biofilters."

"And there goes what little appetite I had," Ranma said with a grimace.

The other man just shrugged, helplessly. "If I had done that, it'd just be worse. If they want to hate me for whatever reason, that's fine. I'm not running for class president here... or, ah, what was it you had in Krinkan? Class Representative?"

He shook his head, almost wandering off topic.

"I know they'll follow orders on the battlefield. Even if other-me and his girlfriend want to stake me in the back, they won't. They've got that much professionalism at least."

Ranma snickered at that. "Kinda like how I used to trust you not to stab me in the back when we had bigger fish to fry?"

"Sort of like that, yeah."

"Yet, I recall being knocked out from behind when…"

"You slipped and fell on a rock, Saotome."

"Must've been a big rock, P-chan."

"Nope. Fist sized. Mousse helped, too."

"I… must not have been there for that one…"

"Sorry 'Kane," Ranma offered, realizing she was rapidly slipping out of the loop. "That was an adventure for just us guys."

Ryouga nodded and Akane pouted.

'One of the adventures she hadn't been around for?' she seemed to be thinking.

"I can just imagine all the perverted stuff you three must've been up to without a guiding female hand," she half joked, and the two boys laughed easily. The three of them had been through a lot over the last two and a half years, and since joining UNETCO, so much of what had seemed like the greatest and most terrible teenage drama faded into near-nostalgia.

"Anyway, Ryouga-kun, do you think you'll ever make up with the other you?" Akane asked, glad their tempers were where she liked them: affable and happy. Still, if this thing with the two Hibikis didn't get sorted out, it would only crop up again and again. Until, that was, someone just got reassigned.

"He did say some stuff about you, back when we were fighting Saffron that even I… well, even I have some tact about stuff like that," Ranma admitted.

"I don't hold that against him," Ryouga made clear. "He did that for the right reasons, and what he said was true. I don't like having… having my relationship with Nabiki disparaged, or my own personal experiences made light of, but I'm not a little kid. Plus, I've said some stuff that wasn't that nice, too. Then there was what I did to… to White Iron…"

They went silent at that, knowing it needed no explanation.

"The ball is really in his court," he concluded. "I don't want to fight with him or any of them. But he's got to work on his own stuff before any of that… and if he never does, then I won't lose sleep over it. Though mom might."

"Your mother's gotten close to him?" Akane asked, surprised.

"I don't know. Sort of." Ryouga waved that off dismissively; his mother had gotten attached to the younger Ryouga, and was obviously very worried for him, but that was her business. "Anyway, Akane, let's keep the chatter about me and other-me fighting to a minimum, okay? It doesn't do any good."

"If you want it to stop, then maybe you should talk to him," she answered seriously. "Like it or not, Ryouga-kun, you're the older one. You're an officer, too, and we look to you for leadership. That means you've got an example to set. Do you really think you should just sit back and wait for things to get better?"

He thought about a retort, but it died before he could speak it.

"Heheh."

"Shut up, Ranma."

* * *

Mitsuko twisted the corner of her shirt anxiously as she paced down the corridor. Shirokuro faithfully led her through the complex, but even her normally flawless companion had been unable to find their quarry. It was unbelievable frustrating, knowing that he was easily within a half of a kilometer, at the most, and yet she still couldn't find him in this labyrinthine maze of a secret base.

She had, she admitted ruefully, fiercely miscalculated … again. Why was it that every time she intended to do something to make the situation better, it only made it that much worse? It had seemed like a no brainer: Ryouga was sad so: ask a friend of his why he was sad … ? … Profit.

The Hibiki matron shook her head; well, it had been something like that, anyway. Unfortunately, she'd read the situation completely wrong, and now-

Wait, there he was!

"Ryouga!" she called out frantically. She began waving her hand back and forth as she jogged down the hallway, trying to catch the young Hibiki that wore the same face as her son. He was, to her amazement, standing right outside his own quarters, fumbling for the keycard that would let him in.

At hearing her voice, Ryouga looked up in her direction. As soon as he caught sight of her, though, a dark cloud flashed across his face - and Mitsuko felt her insides twist up at the look of barely concealed annoyance. She couldn't let a little parental resentment dissuade her, though. Soldiering on, she sped to his side, taking a moment to catch her breath.

"Ryouga, wait, I need to speak with you."

The bandanna clad martial artist nodded absently. "… Yeah, sure thing, Misses Hibiki. It's just that I've had a really long day. You don't mind if I get changed first, do you?"

He quickly fished out his keycard and swept it through the reader set into the wall beside his door.

"Um, well-" She hemmed and hawed for a moment. _'__Did he just call me Misses Hibiki_?' She shook her head quickly, before taking a closer look at the young man. He looked extremely strung out, like he hadn't slept a wink in days … but this was really important.

"I mean, what I want to talk to you is important, and it shouldn't take more than a minute…"

She was cut off by the door sliding open with a soft hiss.

Though it looked like a struggle, Ryouga scrounged up a sympathetic smile for her. "Don't worry, it'll only take me a few seconds to change, then you can talk all you want."

Without even waiting, the young man then stepped into his room.

"Ryouga, wait! I have to tell you: I think I made a terrible-"

And the door slid shut, closing off the portal with a chilling sense of finality.

"… mistake."

* * *

Letting out the sigh he'd been holding in, Ryouga trudged straight across his room and made a beeline for the bed. He felt terrible about dodging his mo- … about dodging _her_, but he honestly wanted nothing more than to pass out on his bed and never wake up again. This morning had been yet another spent with the lawyers and then Lieutenant Feretti, vainly trying to put together a case for making Starfire eligible for citizenship. Their only ray of hope was a single outdated piece of legislature which had never, ever been used, and so far, no one was at all optimistic about pulling off any kind of revolutionary judicial decisions.

The sound of his door locking with an audible 'thunk' caused him to stop in midstep, a shiver running up his spine. Turning slowly, he felt a presence begin to make itself known as she stopped fighting to contain her aura and let it flow out into the room.

For an instant, just an instant, a smile began to form on Ryouga's face at the sight of Jinx's slight form leaning against the doorframe. Her communicator was clutched tightly in her hand. For a moment he wondered why she was here, and had she actually broken in? No. He had given her access, after all. That was before the wall of murderous intent slammed into his face with monster truck force.

Suddenly on the defensive, he began to run a hand through his hair nervously.

"Um … heh, you've - ah, you've gotten really good at concealing your presence, Jinx."

Either she'd been practicing the techniques she'd learned from Happosai (techniques which she still refused to share with him, or Ranma, despite the latter's arguments that he was one of Happosai's students as well), or his danger sense had decided to go on a most inconvenient vacation. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd seen Jinx this furious.

Taking three long strides forward, the pink eyed fury's arm flashed out in a blur and a loud 'crack' split the air as her hand slapped across his cheek.

"How dare you," she whispered venomously.

Ryouga could only stare at the young woman incredulously for a moment, before an odd sting began to form on his face. Reaching up slowly, he gingerly touched his fingers to his cheek. Pain, fresh and unfamiliar, surged up at his touch, and when he pulled his hand back, he noticed a few drops of crimson liquid dotting his finger tips. Looking down, he noticed several lingering sparks of livid pink dancing along the tips of her fingers before fading away to nothingness.

There was only one thing he could think to say.

"… Ouch."

Before he had time to construct a more comprehensive response, she took another fierce step forward and drove several stiffened fingers into his chest, driving him back a step. Staring up into his eyes defiantly, she spat, "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"Uh - 'Help, I'm being attacked by a crazy lady', comes to mind," he replied (perhaps suicidally). "What the hell, Jinx? What's gotten into you?"

Red hot anger flashed across her features and she crossed her arms tersely across her chest. "Oh, so now I'm crazy? Well, I guess that explains a lot." Scoffing loudly, she tore her glare off of him to stare pointedly at the wall to the side of the room. "Hell, I guess that explains _everything_, now doesn't it."

For a second, the martial artist was torn between reaching out to grab her shoulders and finding a bandage for his cheek … and ended up only going halfway with each. Carelessly rubbing his cheek on the shoulder of his shirt, his hands hesitated halfway to her narrow shoulders.

"What does it explain? I still don't have a clue what the heck you're talking about!" He desperately wanted to hold her, to pull her to his chest, but he didn't like the odds of survival if he did so in her current state of mind. "Please tell me what this is about."

Still pointedly not looking at him, she tightened her grip around her torso. "I talked with your mom … or, more to the point, she talked at me."

Instantly, Ryouga let out a pained groan. He couldn't even imagine what his doppelganger's mother could have said to get Jinx in a mood like this.

"What?" he asked. "This isn't about me not getting along with the Lieutenant, is it? I didn't think you cared-"

"I don't give a _damn_ if you get along with that muscle head," she barked irritably, "I hate that jerk as much as you do." In a flash, she was pinning him in place with a heated gaze once more. "I hate him because he's _not_ you … and I thought that was something we had in common." And just as fast as it flared, her anger died away, leaving a pained expression. "But now I hear that isn't the case … not even a little bit."

Ryouga felt shards of his glass heart crack and fall to dust as he stared at the crazy, dangerous, wonderful girl before him. Unable to help himself, he reached out to caress her cheek.

"Jinx …"

Only to wince as she knocked his arm away with a savage swing.

"Don't touch me!"

She spun on him again, pushing against him savagely, sending him stumbling backwards a few more steps.

"What the hell, Ryouga!" She let up her assault once more, melancholy winning over again. "I mean, I knew that we had problems, we have problems like most people have skittles, but - but I always thought all of those troubles were outside of us, you know? Just you and me against the world, and to hell with everyone else … But that's just not true, is it?"

Not just stunned, but overwhelmed, Ryouga still couldn't wrap his mind around what she was talking about. "What … what do you m-"

She cut him off with a snarl, light flashing through her eyes for a second.

"You _hate_ yourself?" she asked, incredulous. "You want to punish yourself? What. The. Hell? Is that why you're with me? Is every second with me such sweet torture that it's all the punishment you could ask for?"

Jinx surged forward again, pushing him bodily backwards. This time, however, the back of his legs hit the edge of his bed and his balance failed him. His arms flailed out, but with nothing to grab onto, he fell back helplessly, his head making a fascinating 'clong' sound as it banged against the wall on the far side of the bed.

A second later, Jinx was straddling his stomach, bunches of his shirt twisting up into her dainty fists as she lifted him up by his lapels. Glaring at him with fire in her eyes, it was impossible for him to miss the tiny spheres of moisture forming at the corners of those flashing pink eyes.

"It that why you chose me over Raven? Or Starfire, or Terra, or any other god damned girl that you might have rutted around with on your damn lost boy journeys?" The question was filled with as much pain as it was passion. "Are they all too good for you? Am I the only one screwed enough to qualify for your personal little Hell?"

Head still ringing, Ryouga tried to sort through what she was saying. His mom had told her _that_ of all things? Why the hell had she told her that in the first place? Was she actively trying to ruin his life now? Why in the name of God was this happening to him now?

"Well?" Jinx barked, ringing his head off the wall again. "Why don't you say something?"

By pure force of will, he brought his vision into focus, glaring at the pink haired vixen heatedly. How was he supposed to answer when she kept ringing his head like a bell? He was never going to get a chance to explain himself if this damn girl wouldn't shut the hell up for a half a second!

A deep growl rumbled in his throat, then, in a blur of motion, he lashed out, his hands clamping down on either side of her head. Even as shock flared in her eyes at the unexpected reaction, he didn't even give her a chance to respond. Instead, he pulled her in with savage force-

And crushed her lips against his.

"Mmph!" Wide eyes and wild flailing followed until Jinx could tear her head from his grip. Sitting back up, eyes flashing dangerously and chest heaving to draw in breath, she stared down at him in disbelief. "What - what the hell do you think you're…"

The sorceress trailed off, tongue darting out to lick her lips. He had just a moment to wonder if he'd gone to far - when she suddenly lunged forward, pressing her lips to his with reckless abandon. It seemed like a hot, humid eternity, struggling for air as hands roamed to interesting places, fury - rage - depression and ecstasy all blurring together until-

"Ouch! You bit me!"

Jinx sat back up in a flash. Panting heavily and her hair in complete disarray, the badly flushing girl wiped a trickle of blood from her lip. "I - I'm sorry," she replied breathlessly, "Let me kiss it better!"

She was back on him in a flash, pulling at his lip hungrily. Pain mixed with pleasure, and the martial artist relished every second before they finally came up for air again. Stunned silence hung in the air for a long moment, neither one of them quite believing what they'd just done.

"You know…" Rubbing his lip, Ryouga felt a wry smile spread across his face. His lip was still bleeding a bit, but he could hardly care. "If this is my own personal hell … then an eternity of torment sounds good to me."

"Shut up," she barked, struggling hard to keep a grin off her face. "I'm still mad at you … though it's hard to remember exactly why at the moment."

Ryouga's smile slipped slightly at that. He knew what she was talking about now. He also knew why she was as upset as she was. Slowly, he shook his head.

"I remember… I just wish I had been the one to tell you first, instead of you hearing some half understood fragment from someone who doesn't know the whole story."

The pink haired sorceress studied him intently for a moment, but finally nodded. "Alright then, explain it to me. You have everything a guy could want, so why would you feel like that?"

Sighing, Ryouga pushed himself up and back to rest against the wall, incidentally pulling Jinx along with him and bringing her face within an inch of his own. Moving gently, he quickly picked her up and shifted her around so that she was sitting across his lap and could rest her head against his shoulder. She didn't seem to mind too much, and leaned her head back against him, even as he leaned his own head back to rest against the wall.

"It's true. I do pretty much have everything I could want. Friends, family, a cool job and a great place to live…"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" came a pointed inquiry.

Smirking, he shrugged. "Possibly, but I can't think of what it could be-"

A sharp elbow to his ribs was more playful than painful, thankfully.

"But-" he gasped shallowly, "But… you know the things I've done. What I did to the Titans..."

Jinx's eyes narrowed. "But that doesn't count. You can't be held accountable for what you did then, you were brainwashed at the time."

The martial artist shook his head. "But that's just it. I wasn't brainwashed. I was turned around, I was confused … but it was still me. It was _me_ doing all of those things. I mean, Beast Boy?

_ The massive green rhinoceros pushed him back, hot, acrid blasts of its breath washing over his face as its multi-ton mass surged forward. The beast's long, curved horn hovered mere inches before his chest, clutched tightly in his hands. The sound of asphalt being crushed to dust filled the air as his feet dug deep furrows in the pavement, the frail material unsuited to handling the forces being inflicted on it._

_ A grin twisted Ryouga's lips, and he shifted his grip on the emerald rhinoceros. One of his hands tightened on the horn, the bone-like-but-not-bone-at-all structure creaked ominously at the pressure he exerted. His other hand, his clamped down on the back of Beast Boy's leathery armored neck. One thought ran through his mind as his grip became a living vice. _

_ A sharp twist of the rhino__'__s horn and he would snap the Titan__'__s neck like a twig…_

"Or Cyborg?"

_ The titanium-carbide ceramic plating covering the boy__'__s forearm gave a loud 'crack' as, despite all logical sense, a series of hairline fractures began to spread through the blue, nigh indestructible material. Cyborg could only stare in shock as the cracks shot across the armored panel almost too quickly to follow-_

_ And then it exploded. Deadly shards of hardened ceramic material blasted in every direction, peppering the bulky teen's chest and face. But not just that, nearly as much was fired right back into the arm itself, the more delicate inner workings being slashed and pummeled beneath a hail of irony._

_ Staring incredulously, Cyborg quickly swung his wildly sparking and smoking arm behind his back. An instant later, he was backing away from the lost boy as fast as he could, a look of honest fear - an expression completely absent until this point - blooming on his face._

_"__Man, that is so not good!__"__ yelled the now terribly vulnerable youth._

_Ryouga smirked vindictively, nodding in complete agreement. Lifting his finger up threateningly before him, he waved the single digit back and forth as one might brandish a knife. There was only one way to go from here, and it elicited a dark chuckle from the young villain. "Now, just what do you think would happen if I removed the armor covering your __**skull**__?__"_

"Starfire?"

_ The bandanna slashed her left arm just below the shoulder, a spray of green blood flying like rain. The Tamaranian clutched the wound, biting her lip to hold in the gasp of pain, even as her flight became erratic and sluggish._

…

_ Ryouga stared down at the beautiful girl beneath him. Beaten, broken and bleeding, she was powerless before him. He smiled cruelly at that. His fist was already raised, knuckles clenched so tightly that his knuckles looked like polished ivory. When it landed, the alien would be no more. She was resilient, but still only flesh and blood, soon to be mostly the latter. He almost felt like laughing madly, dark emotions swimming through his mind, urging him to finish the job._

His head hung in shame and his voice nearly cracked at what he said next.

"… Raven …"

…

Jinx shuddered uncontrollably in her boyfriend's arms, grim memories clawing their way up to the surface in an instant. Despite the vagueness of his statement, she knew, without even a glimmer of doubt, exactly what he was referring to. It had been long ago, and she had done everything she could to purge that horrible night - for so very many reasons - from her memories, but such a thing was no more possible than changing the stars themselves. How could she forget? After all, she had had front row seats when he - when he had…

_ She tried to flinch her gaze away from the gruesome spectacle before her, but it all happened so fast! Ryouga's leg slammed into the violet haired Titan like the hand of God himself. Raven literally wrapped around the lethal appendage like a rag doll, her arm bending obscenely at a location where no joint had existed a fraction of a second earlier. The young witch felt . . . something rising up from her stomach, a strange sickening sensation spreading through her whole body._

_ Another fraction of a second later, and Raven__'__s broken form was flying off to the side of the church; strangely Jinx got the impression of a puppet whose strings had all been snapped as the blue clad girl flew bonelessly through the air before finally crashing into the far wall. Just above the Titan, a large stained glass window, a scene depicting some Saint or other whom Jinx had never cared about, rattled dangerously, but did not break._

_ She didn't even have the time to figure out why that had seemed so important to her before her would-be fiancé nearly disappeared into another blur of motion. She couldn't imagine why, but he was going after Raven's fallen form! _

When he had come within a hair's breadth of crushing Raven's skull with his bare hands.

In that one instant, Jinx had seen in Ryouga the potential to be a villain. Not just a villain like herself, or Gizmo, or any of the other students at the Academy, half of them just in the meta-game for the thrill and some easy cash. She saw in him a man that could grow to become another Slade, another Headmaster. A true villain… a blood thirsty monster…

She should have been thrilled at the prospect, really, but all it had done was twist her stomach. Despite everything that she was, and everything that she believed in, for some reason, she just couldn't bear the thought of him going down that road. It was pure luck, and nothing else, that she had been able to stop him.

Looking up, she stole a glance at the man that held her so gently now. The dichotomy of her Ryouga still puzzled her sometimes. How could someone so sweet, goofy and naïve be so vicious and wrathful? It had always been a distant concern, though, as never, not even once, had his anger ever been turned her direction, but she had seen the results of it on the few times that it had been directed elsewhere. He was a martial artist. Not just he 'practiced' martial arts. He was a martial artist. His only trade was the expression of violence, and he could be quite good at it.

The look of anguish, of recrimination and guilt that settled on his face as he remembered his past caused her own lips to dip into a pouting frown.

"You… you still care about Raven… don't you?"

Surprisingly, he didn't hesitate in his response, his head nodding slowly in the positive. "I do, and I probably always will. Despite everything, though… I've never been able to forgive myself for what I did to her… what I almost did..."

His eyes squeezed tightly shut and his chin dropped down to rest on his chest. "I know she's forgiven me, pretty much everyone has… but no matter how close we got, I could never get that image out of my head."

Her darkly painted nails dug into his shirt as she tightened her grip on his arm. She hated hearing him talk like this… about _her_ of all people… but even she felt it would be petty to begrudge him of it. In a way, she had been right. He _didn't_ feel worthy of Raven. Even though Jinx would bet that Raven would jump into bed with the guy in a half a second if he _actually_ put in the effort, he simply felt too guilty to take advantage.

"I know you might not understand," he muttered after a long moment of silence from her, "Terra is the only other person I know that _really _understands what it means to so completely betray your friends… and I wish to god that she didn't."

Her first instinct was to argue, remind him that she had turned her back on the Academy… but that was not at all the same as turning her back on her friends. In fact, it was Nabiki, Mammoth and Gizmo that had saved her life, and even housed and fed her for a few days after her stupidly idiotic idea of 'sacrificing herself' after she had saved Ryouga from the destruction of the Academy. No, she was the last person that could talk about abandoning her friends.

"So, does that mean that you hate me too, then?" Jinx asked in a quiet voice. "After all, you wouldn't have done that to Raven if it weren't for me."

…

The martial artist stared at the girl in his arms, eyes shooting wide open in shock.

"God no!" he barked frantically. Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her tighter to his chest. "Never. I could never hate you. Hell, one of the things that terrifies me the most is… is - if I could hurt Raven like that… then it's just as possible that I could do the same to you…"

He still remembered every injury he had inflicted on the dark Titan. Three shattered ribs. Arm snapped in two places. Hairline fractures on her collarbone, shoulder blade and two more ribs from her collision with the wall. Concussion.

This was what it all boiled down to: the final and immutable truth, and the only _real _difference between himself and the native Ryouga. The Lieutenant had been subjected to horrible things. He had been abducted, experimented on, forced to… to watch Akari die… in every way, he was a victim. Helpless to watch as it happened. Ryouga could understand his counterpart's raw, jagged, murderous fury. The rage and hatred of not being able to do anything. But in his counterpart's case, the target for his fury was clear.

For Ryouga, he had no one to blame, no target to unleash his fury on.

Only himself.

It was just poor luck that he happened to run into another 'himself', he supposed.

That was pretty much it, though. The Lieutenant, most every bad memory he had, every dark stain on his soul, it was the result of things happening to him, things being inflicted on him. None of the tragedy he had experienced had really been his fault, not really. For Ryouga, though, he had no excuses. He had been the one to do those terrible things. He had inflicted pain, reveled in suffering… very nearly killed his own friends on several occasions.

People might say that he was the hero between the pair of them, but Ryouga knew, deep down, that he had played the villain first. It was something which he knew that his double didn't understand. Sure, the Lieutenant knew about the Academy, but he hadn't been involved in Ryouga's mind dive. He didn't _know_ what it had actually meant, what he had done while he was there.

But always, at the back of his mind, he knew.

His dark train of thought was derailed as Jinx nuzzled deeper into his chest. With a serious, almost demanding look in her eyes, she stated plainly. "That would never happen. You know that I would kick your ass if you ever tried." Then, in an instant, her serious demeanor vanished, and a saucy grin settled on her lips. "Besides, unlike Raven and Nabiki, I like it a little rough."

Rubbing his head, licking his lip and then gingerly touching his cheek, he nodded.

"So I'd noticed," he diplomatically replied. "But, I just want you to know that… whatever this is that I'm going through, it's got nothing to do with you-"

"The _hell_ it doesn't!" Jinx nearly shrieked. "I meant what I said. Whatever this is between us, it's you and me versus the world. If you're going through this, then I'm going to go through it with you. I know it's not gonna get fixed instantly, but at least we know there's something wrong now."

Smiling again, Ryouga buried his face into the mass of pink hair resting against his chest, enjoying the silky warmth. She was right, there was _no _way that he could figure this out any time soon. This was a burden he had been carrying in silence for a long, long time now. But still… the thought of finally having someone to share it with did give him… hope? Though, the idea of the rail thin girl in his arms shouldering even part of the burden of a Hibiki was quite amusing, he knew she possessed strength that very few could even imagine her possessing.

"I couldn't ask for a better partner in crime."

"Heh, you sure know how to sweet talk a girl."

"I learned from… well, no one, really. I guess I just got lucky this time," he quipped with a smile.

"Not yet you didn't," she replied, "But keep it up and that might change soon enough."

Before he even had a chance to clamp a finger to his nose, he felt a slimmer, softer pair of fingers lift up to pinch down on his nose first. Just in time as well, as he felt his face heat up to epic proportions.

"Yes, yes, I know you that well, Lost Boy. Don't get ahead of yourself, though. My first time isn't going to be a bout of hate sex in some god forsaken bunker in the middle of Japan. I'm not settling for anything less than perfect here."

Ryouga honestly had no response for that, so he could only wait until his heartbeat slowed down again to the point where his face didn't feel like it was on fire. Eventually, he managed to take a deep breath, and gently removed Jinx's helpful fingers from his poor, abused nose.

Smiling again, he rested his cheek against the crown of her head.

"You know… I guess this means I should probably stop giving evil-me grief, doesn't it?"

"Meh, either way is fine by me. You can just jump in my camp and start giving people grief because it's fun, instead of for an actual reason."

"Hmm … tempting." His smile only grew wider as he thought of something else. "By the way, you're probably going to want to wash your hair. All that making out sure didn't stop my cheek from bleeding."

"Ewww, Ryouga! Gross!"

* * *

Mitsuko bowed profusely to the MP outside her dimensionally displaced son's door. He was the second one to show up now, and the first was still standing angrily nearby, having left for only a few minutes to talk with someone in security. It wasn't hard to piece together that Jinx had broken into the young man's room (not after the first disgruntled guard had arrived on the scene), and at this point having security barge in would just be the cream on the cake.

Especially since neither of them had left the room since Ryouga's entrance.

Oh no – barging in just yet would not be wise. Maybe, if they were all lucky, the two had worked out their differences as men and women tended to do. Biometric Security Scans had confirmed they were alone in there. 'Training exercises' would hold the security directorate off, at least for a while. Especially since the room's internal panic alarm hadn't been tripped by anything.

"Breaking into a room like that?" one of the guards rhetorically wondered. "Reckless."

"Like you didn't do anything like that when you were seventeen," the other replied, but didn't smile. The situation would still be the cause of some particularly annoying paperwork later.

"Well, there was this one girl on the second floor dorm in college…"

* * *

**From**: Lt. Hibiki Ryouga

**Sent**: 03.23.2007

**To**: sSrg. Hibiki Ryouga

**Subject**: Misc

I'm probably one of the last people you want to talk to, but I want to state that I would still like to work things out. At the very least, we should not be at each other's throats every time we cross paths. I won't say we have to be best of friends or like brothers, but we are both mature individuals and can handle this appropriately.

If you do not want to talk to me, then I would suggest one of the base psychiatrists with whom you became acquainted when you underwent your initial psych-eval. It is not widely talked about, and I know it seems shameful, but in an organization like this we have all needed to seek help with certain matters from time to time. Myself included. It took me some time to realize I did not have to shoulder my burdens alone and you should not have to either.

Also, I am forwarding a few emails that I'm sure should have been sent to you.

I've already told Cyborg and Starfire to be more careful in entering our addresses. The youtube of Ranma being chased by a cat at the beach was particularly funny. I remember that day. I'm sure InfSec will delete it in a day or two now though so enjoy it while you can.

- Hibiki

* * *

Raven let out a small squeak of anguish as a pair of overly strong hands pushed down on her back. Granted, Starfire's 'assistance' did help her stretch just that little bit further, unfortunately, it did so by nearly folding the poor Titan in half. Her chin now resting firmly on her knee, Raven found the view of her toes, now mere feet before her face, to not be nearly rewarding enough to justify the exertion.

"I no think your friend is _quite_ as flexible as you think she is, Starfire."

The comment, offered up by the annoyingly observant, lavender haired Amazon was just a bit too spot on for Raven's taste. Sitting several yards away, Shampoo was performing some simple stretches of her own, splaying out her long legs in ways that caused Raven to alternate between staring in envy and wincing in sympathetic pain. The smile on the Amazon's face was impossible to miss, but Raven was in no position to say anything about it. Literally at this exact moment.

A second later, she sucked in a lungful of air as Starfire mercifully pulled her back up. She prepared to say something, but following the imaginary tempo audible only in the Tamaranian's skull, the alien girl immediately 'helped' her to stretch down and grab her _other_ foot. Air, so recently reacquainted to her, was blasted from her lungs as she demonstrated flexibility similar to a cardboard box being folded not _quite_ at the seams.

"Do not be silly, Shampoo. Raven is more than flexible enough for such exercises." Raven could not see the smile on the face of the girl behind her, but she could _feel_ it. "She simply needs some coaxing to achieve her full potential."

"You may want to be careful, Floaty Girl. As strong as you are, you could 'coax' a steel beam to be that flexible."

Pulling Raven back up to a sitting position once more, Starfire prepared to continue with the workout, but before she could, Raven quickly pulled her legs in and nearly frantically slid her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them firmly.

"That's enough stretching for now!" she stated quite emphatically, just to make sure she got Starfire's attention before she ended up with her knees getting pressed out through her spine.

The feeble display elicited another chuckle from the Amazon warrior. "Not that I mind, as you more than proved your prowess in our fight against Saffron, Bird Girl," Shampoo offered with a grin, "But I must admit to being surprised that you wanted to join Floaty Girl and me to exercise."

Starfire nodded in agreement, absently grabbing one of Raven's arms and pulling it out straight, only to begin rotating it around in wide arcs… mostly in manners which the human body was designed to accommodate. "I found myself equally puzzled by your expressed desire to join our endeavor. I do not believe that you have embarked upon any training which did not take place within the Psionics gymnasium since coming to this place."

Sighing weakly, knowing that her arm was all but lost to her, Raven simply nodded and accepted the loss. With her free arm, she ran a hand along her stomach, the comfortable, familiar blue material of her leotard smoothing out beneath her touch.

"Yes, well, I've started to come to the realization that if all I do is exercise my mind, I likely won't end up as a huge, giant brain; though, I just _may_ end up as a huge, giant _blimp_. I think I may have forgotten just how much physical activity fighting crime entailed, even taking into account my …unique… approach."

Critically, she brought her hand to her side and pinched her thumb and forefinger together. Much to her relief, there were nearly non existent levels of body fat present… for now. Not to say that she was vain, but she didn't …dislike the way she looked. Besides, any excuse to get out and actually talk to anyone that wasn't A) a member of Yankee, or B) a high ranking Psi Officer (most of whom possessed a queer sense of humor that she didn't quite 'get' yet), was a welcome distraction.

It was odd, now that she thought of it, but she actually knew comparatively little about Shampoo. It seemed equally strange that she was fairly certain that she knew more about the girl's ancient great grandmother than she knew about the vivacious Amazon herself. It almost made her feel a pang of guilt, as Shampoo had been one of the few people that had come all the way from Japan to America to help her rescue the Titans, as well as her own friends.

And yet, Raven had never had much occasion to speak to her, nor Ukyou, or Kodachi, or even Akane or Konatsu for that matter. Certainty she spoke exhaustively with Ranma, and had actually grown fond of Mousse (despite earlier attempts to maim/murder her)… but that was about it. In the seconds she had been lost in thought, the Amazon in question studied her with a critical eye.

"Well… it _does_ look like you could lose a few pounds," Shampoo observed with a wry grin. "Though, I have heard that some males appreciate a more 'well rounded' woman."

Giggling, Starfire nodded enthusiastically. "Oh my, yes. Cyborg has often stated his appreciation of the 'junk in the trunk!'" Leaning over, the alien studied her own posterior. "Sadly, my own trunk is quite bereft of said junk. I am not nearly so lucky as Raven."

It took the dark Titan nearly five full seconds to realize exactly what had been said.

"_What_?" Scowling fiercely now, she wrenched her arm from the Tamaranian's grasp. "Like I didn't get enough of _that_ kind of nonsense when Ryouga was telling me how _huge_ my aura was!"

At that, Shampoo burst into full blown laughter. Waving her hand in front of her helplessly, it took the Amazon several long seconds - seconds punctuated by Raven's pointed glare - before she could finally recover herself. "Y-you should be honored," she wheezed weakly. "Many warriors find a powerful aura to be an extremely attractive trait in a potential mate. The promise of such powerful offspring is quite important to any martial society."

Frown unabating, Raven found herself questioning her decision to join this workout session. It certainly seemed that she was becoming the butt - um, the _target_ of all of the jokes here. Suddenly, an idea flashed into her mind, and a grin split her lips.

"Is that so?" she inquired with faux curiosity. "I don't suppose that Mousse is one of those types, is he? After all, he got a most…intimate… encounter with my aura when I was first brought in."

Instantly, the Amazon's entire frame stiffened. She vainly attempted to cover the reaction a second later with a dismissive snort and a wave of her hand, but Raven hardly needed to be a double A ranked psychic to know what she was thinking.

"Feh! Whatever! Shampoo no care what Stupid Mousse do with Bird Girl's aura."

"Oh, well that's good, actually," Raven replied slyly. "I mean, I've never really had the chance to talk to anyone about it, but Mousse does have just the most _fabulous_ hair, don't you think?"

"Sha - I never noticed," the violet haired Amazon replied, fiercely indifferent.

Perhaps catching onto the joke, or perhaps not, Starfire suddenly leaned forward, excitement on her face. "His hair is quite comely," she agreed, "But it is as nothing compared to the unparalleled beauty of his _eyes_. Never on this planet have I witnessed such desirable optical organs."

A sharp flash of emotion ran through the Amazon at that, doubtlessly uncertain whether to be jealous over Starfire's obvious infatuation with Mousse's eyes, or to be grossed out by the use of the term 'optical organs'. Again, though, the reaction passed as quickly as it had appeared behind the same wall of apparent indifference.

"I wouldn't know about that, honestly. Stupid Mousse always wears his too-too-thick glasses," she replied with an obvious fabrication. Raven knew, from personal discussions with Mousse, that Shampoo thought his eyes nice as well. It was, in fact, one of the main reasons that the poor, blind fool hardly ever wore his glasses.

"Besides," Shampoo followed up suddenly, before Raven had time to think of a new avenue for teasing. "Why are you asking about Mousse, anyway? I thought you had a -" She made a few hand gestures which meant absolutely nothing to the dark Titan. "A _thing_ with your Ryouga? There no way that even _that_ Hibiki deserves to be stuck with that _pink witch_ of yours."

Raven almost felt herself grin at Shampoo's assessment of Jinx, but her good mood fell far more quickly than it arose. Her gaze dropping, she sighed wearily. "Can we… not talk about that, now?"

To both sides of her, Shampoo and Starfire shared a quick, concerned glance. The former lifted her hands questioningly, but the latter simply shrugged helplessly, unable to offer any kind of answer. The lavender haired woman's brow furrowed for a moment as she obviously thought over something quickly, before finally nodding to herself.

"Yes, too-too true. Talking about cabbage headed Hibiki's is only ever good for causing headaches, anyway." Turning to her flame haired companion, Shampoo nodded mischievously. "What about you, Floaty Girl? Have any males managed to catch your eye since you arrived here?"

In response, Starfire's cheeks began to flush and the girl started running her fingers along the rough tatami mat below them. Instantly, Raven felt her melancholy replaced with giddy anticipation as the potential for gossip overcame her own dark mood.

"Well…" she demurred. "Tatewaki _did_ ask if he could escort me to the party tonight… And he has been quite …sweet… of late…"

Raven felt her own brow furrow in confusion. "Um… who? Did you meet some new recruit or something?" Something else struck her a second later. "Also, wait a second. What party?"

Starfire stared back at her flatly. "What do you mean, _who_? Tatewaki… _Tatewaki_?"

Raven turned and offered Shampoo a questioning look. In return, the warrior simply shrugged her shoulders.

"_Shampoo_!" Starfire barked incredulously. "You had _best_ be engaged in the act of 'teasing'!"

Shampoo just turned back to Raven. "Your guess is as good as mine."

At that, Starfire let out a loud, aggravated huff. "You are _both_ utterly _impossible_! How can you be unaware of the first name of Kuno?"

"Oh!" Raven 'oh'd', "… Wait a second. Kuno's first name is _Tatewaki_?"

Shampoo simply shrugged again, just the tiniest hint of a suppressed grin on her lips. "Hmm… 'Kuno'? Does no ring bell, yes?"

Even as it looked like Starfire was seconds away from melting down, Raven turned - doing her best to hide her own near bursting smile beneath a neutral expression - and nodded to Shampoo. "I believe she is referring to 'Stick Boy'"

Instantly, recognition lit up in the Amazon's eyes. "_Ohhhh_! 'Stick Boy'! Why you no say so in first place?" Shampoo exclaimed, finally losing control and breaking down into laughter at the infuriated expression which Starfire currently bore.

Crossing her arms tightly over her chest, the Tamaranian looked up to the side and let out a heated 'sniff' of disapproval.

For her part, Raven could only shake her head ruefully. "Tatewaki? _Tatewaki…._ Odd, it hardly sounds like a real name at all."

"Oh, is that _so_?" Starfire asked hotly. "Perhaps you do not think that 'Koriand'r' sounds like a _real name_ either?"

Grinning impishly, Shampoo held up a hand. "Well-ll… now that you _mention _it…"

"_Hmph_! Well, perhaps I should educate the pair of you as to the closest translation of the word 'Raven' in the Tamaranian tongue?" Starfire stated grimly. Leaning forward, a nasty grin settled on her lips. "Allow me to offer a hint. It does _not_ refer to an earthly bird."

Raven found herself swallowing nervously all of a sudden. "Umm… on second thought, Tatewaki is actually a lovely name. Though, I must say that I'm a bit surprised to hear about him asking you out."

Shampoo, on the other hand, shook her head fiercely. "No. Absolutely not."

Both Raven and Starfire turned to regard the lavender haired beauty. Rising up to her feet, the Amazon adopted a proud and noble stance, obviously preparing to say something of great import.

"As your sister Amazon, Starfire, as well as your Elder, I can not allow you to enter a relationship with Stick Boy."

The Tamaranian stared at the Amazon through lidded eyes. "You are only a year older than myself…"

Raven couldn't help but smile at the decree. "Not that I disagree, 'Honored Elder' Shampoo, but I think what Starfire _meant_ to say was `whyever not, my noble and wise sister?'"

Shampoo just stared at the pair of them like they were missing the most obvious thing in the world. "Is most obvious thing in world! Stick Boy never defeat Starfire in combat. Shampoo doubt he even _able_ to defeat powerful Amazon warrior. As one of the very, very few members of the new Amazon village, and easily one of our most powerful womens, I believe it is my duty as Elder to make certain that Starfire only dates male worthy of her."

"And by 'worthy', you mean 'able to beat her up'?" Raven asked in a blasé tone, despite the fact that she was endlessly amused by this tangent the conversation had taken.

At Shampoo's eager nod, Starfire held up a finger to her chin. "But - but the only male to defeat me in this dimension… has been Prince Herb…"

"Oh ho ho!" Shampoo's eyes widened in glee. Turning to Raven, she gestured back at Starfire. "I _like _ her. She thinks _big_!" Turning back to the alien girl, Shampoo adopted her 'wise elder' expression once more. "Very well, sister Starfire. I condone your decision to pursue Lord Herb of the Musk and bring him into the Amazon village, by whatever means necessary!"

"Wait! But - but I never-"

"Oh, but that means we'll need to send a call to Chengdu for her," Raven interrupted 'thoughtfully'. "Luckily with an Avenger, we could get Herb here in time for the party _easily_. The real question is, does Starfire have anything to wear for such an auspicious date?"

"D-d-date with _Herb_?

Shampoo stared at the Tamaranian appraisingly. "Well… Yes, yes, maybe. I _might_ have something suitable that she could borrow… Then again, we'll likely need to get Great Grandmother to adjust it to actually fit the humanoid giraffe here."

Raven nodded, "Well, I suppose I had better go make a few calls then-"

She didn't even have a chance to rise to her feet before a vice-like grip pulled her back down to land on her posterior. The fiery look on Starfire's face (nearly translating into actual, emerald plasma streaming from her eyes)

"I promise, _dear friend_ Raven, that if you make that call to Chengdu, and if I _do_ have to attend the party with Herb, that you _will_ be coming as well… with _Lime_ as your escort."

Raven found herself swallowing at the sudden intensity in her friend's voice. Not to mention that she'd heard that Lime was a … a bit on the _big_ side according to Starfire's tales. And this was coming from an alien girl that was just a few inches short of Cyborg himself.

Instantly, Shampoo clapped her hands together. "That's a great idea! Hmm, maybe we should induct Raven into the village as well? A powerful psychic with such a strong husband? Why, if any woman might possess the mental fortitude to overcome _that _one's …gifted mind… it would be Bird Girl."

"Hmm, on second thought, this joke has suddenly lost it's humor," Raven stated flatly.

"Ohhh. You so sure, Raven?" Shampoo asked with a wink. "I'm pretty sure I could find a suitably eye catching dress for you, too. It wouldn't take nearly as much fitting as Starfire's, what with her unnaturally long body."

"I'll have you _both_ know that I am of perfectly average height for a Tamaranian female of my age!"

Shaking her head, Raven turned back to Shampoo. "What about you? What would you wear to the party if you keep handing out all of your clothes to your 'sisters'?"

"Oh, I have no intention of going to the party," Shampoo replied matter-of-factly. "I know, without a doubt, that if _I_ go, then _Mousse_ will want to go. And then he'll be following me _all night_ like a lost little puppy. Besides, I have some work I want to get done."

"Hmm, actually, now that I think of it, I think I have some work I might need to do, myself-"

She never even got the chance to finish her excuse, as Starfire's impossibly strong hand suddenly lifted her to her feet with a sharp 'eep!'. Smiling like a shark, Starfire matched her look.

"Oh, you _will _be attending, friend Raven. In fact, I believe we should go meet with Elder Cologne now, and procure our garments for the night."

"Hey! I never agreed to wear anything like that!"

* * *

Shampoo could only shake her head in amusement as Starfire started dragging the helpless Raven away. Honestly, they hadn't gotten much work done, but it had been a long time since she had been able to have such innocent fun, untainted by any jealousy or old rivalries. She actually secretly hoped that Raven would be able to rough things out and come to more of their 'workout' sessions. Not only could the girl use the help, but she was proving to be far more amusing than one could have imagined of the apparently stuffy psychic.

Of course, that in mind, she got up as well. After all, if Starfire was going to be borrowing a dress, likely permanently if it needed to be fitted to her, than she needed to make sure that her great grandmother didn't go and start giving away all of her _favorite_ dresses now.

* * *

Letting out a loud 'whoop' Cyborg finally pulled himself back from the experimental EDC piloting interface. He was still new to the psionic piloting controls, but he was getting the hang of it, and having someone with actual piloting experience who was also one of the researchers was making it much easier to make corrections. They had brought in Ranma and a few of the other pilots in there as well, and their feedback, while useful due to the nature of the psionic control system, wasn't able to give any hard numbers to work with, mostly just their impressions of what they felt and experienced. While some earlier documented work had been done on the effects of FTL travel using the interface, the EDC was less well understood and no one wanted to run any unnecessary risks.

The fact that it was a heck of a good time, flying one of those alien ships (even if it was only in a simulation) hardly even factored into things at all.

"Man, are you sure you guys actually programmed the physics into this simulator right? I mean, seriously, the things you can do in those ships should be illegal."

Jalila looked up from the PDA she was inputting data into to smirk at him. "I can assure you, that is precisely how well a Firestorm can handle. The inertia-less drive that the aliens developed allows for maneuverability unlike any other craft on Earth. You seem to be catching on quickly enough, though; I suppose your previous experience is really coming in handy."

Cyborg nodded in enthusiastic agreement.

"Ya can't take the fly out of the boy, I suppose. Between the psionic interface, the insane weapons and that crazy maneuverability?" He whistled appreciatively. "Damn, I hate to admit it, but your flying saucers here blow my T-ship out of the water. About the only saving grace I have is the fact that my FTL drive is a little over an order of magnitude faster… well, that and I guess there's no real shame in getting out done by a million year old alien race."

"Modesty… almost. I'm impressed," the physicist replied with a smirk. "That's a good way to look at things, as well. Still, all small talk aside, how was the test run? Did you experience any of the difficulties that Lieutenant Saotome mentioned earlier?"

Again, Cyborg nodded. Rubbing his head, he rose woozily to his feet.

"Did I ever! Man, I thought Ranma was bein' a little baby, but once I actually got in there, I felt what he meant soon enough. I'm not exactly sure what the problem is, but I have a few ideas for tweaking the interface to deal with the issue."

"That's good to hear." Professor al-Rifai went back to her data correlation. "Together with the data from Urania's Dummy Model, we should have this worked out soon. It won't do to send out a ship that can severely exhaust and disorient the pilot, especially if it's likely to run into combat situations."

"You're telling me. I don't think I'm up for another run today, it'd probably wipe me out completely, and then I'd miss the shindig tonight."

That seemed to catch her attention. She looked up again, firing an inquiring glance his way.

"Shindig?"

Cyborg's eyes widened. "What? You didn't hear about it? There's gonna be a big karaoke party, so I hear anyway."

Looking back down, she shrugged. "I don't really pay much attention to the social events within the base. My work keeps me very busy, you see."

"Aw, now that just ain't right," Cyborg declared loudly. "How are you supposed to keep your mind sharp if all you do is work? You gotta cut loose and have fun every once in awhile, or you'll snap. All work and no play makes Jalila a dull theoretical physicist with a doctorate in dimensional theory."

Jalila shuffled a bit, looking a bit put on the spot.

"I don't know," she dithered. "We do have a deadline to meet, and there are still so many problems to sort out…"

Cyborg would have none of it. Stepping forward, he plucked the pad from her hand. "Oh, come on. We're still well on schedule, so one night won't kill us. Besides, sometimes you need to step away from a problem for a bit so that you can come back with a fresh perspective. I mean, why do you think I like to work on so many things at once?"

"Because you have the attention span of a six year old?" she quipped with a tiny smirk.

The cybernetic teen rolled his eye. "_Besides_ that. It lets me get my mind off of any one project for a bit so that I don't get tunnel vision and lose the ability to think up different ideas. I don't know if it's just me, but it lets me find a lot of mistakes that I might have missed otherwise."

The older woman studied him for a moment. "Well, you are an unusually talented young man, so it may actually just be you. Still, I think I might understand what you mean," she gradually relented. "Maybe a short break wouldn't hurt, to get my mind off of this for a bit.'

"That's what I'm talking about!" Cyborg cheered. "You should totally come with me to the karaoke party. If you think I can fly a space ship, you should hear me belt out a tune."

Jalila's eyes widened slightly at that. "You want me to… go to this party with you?"

Instantly, Cyborg dialed it back a notch. Holding his hands up in a warding manner, he nodded hesitantly. "Um, yeah, you know, in a purely co-researcher, cutting loose kinda way. Just have some fun, forget things for a bit, maybe sing a few songs and have a few drinks. You know, just have a good old time before we get back to work. Heck, Ranma might be there, so we can pick his brain for a few more off the wall ideas."

The researcher lifted a hand to chew on her knuckle anxiously for a moment … only to finally relax and let a smile settle on her face.

"Well, I suppose a night of harmless fun couldn't hurt," she decided. "Though, aren't you a bit young to be drinking?"

Cyborg waved her concern off casually. "Naw, it's all good. I'm Scottish."

"Oh, I had no idea," Jalila admitted in amusement. "Well, I guess we have plans then."

"Alright! Let's get ready to go!" Already imagining the imminent party, Cyborg started for the exit-

"Ahem! Just where do you think you're going? We still have two hours on our shift."

"Awwww, Dude …"

* * *

Ryouga smiled to himself as he studied Jinx out of the corner of his eye. Sitting on the edge of his bed, she was just finishing toweling off her hair. While they had spent a blissful amount of time - he'd lost track, honestly - just snuggling, she'd eventually broken and ended the pleasant moment. In the midst of muttering something about 'feeling his blood congealing in her hair', she'd dug into his backpack and pulled out a bottle of water.

He still harbored his deep hatred of bottled water, but they wouldn't even let him have a mini fridge in here (not that there was much room anyway), so he needed something so that he wouldn't have to spend eight hours every day trying to find the commissary just looking for something to drink.

While she'd soaked her hair, he'd decided to play around on his computer. There wasn't too much for him to do on the thing, so he'd actually uploaded his old Technology Heist assignment that Jinx and him had wrote back at the Academy. He still liked to tinker around with it from time to time, adding in a new approach here and there as new ideas occurred to him.

Needless to say, he'd been having a lot new tactics introduced to him lately.

Just as he was about to add a new multi-vector assault pattern to the western entrance, an alert flashed in the corner of the screen. It appeared to be the email alert. He'd gotten a few since he'd been here, mostly from Starfire and Cyborg, sending him amusing links and the odd one mistakenly sent to the Lieutenant by mistake. Really, one would think that people would know how to use address lists by this day and age.

Odds were, it was probably another cute kitten-caption picture from Star.

Opening it, he was notably surprised to see that it wasn't the case...

"Well, would ya look at this." He gestured for Jinx to join him in front of the computer. "Look who I got an email from."

Dropping the towel around her shoulders, Jinx obliged. Putting just a bit more sway in her step as she walked over to stand beside him, Ryouga felt his cheeks heat up as she leaned forward to rest her chin on his shoulder. It only took her a second to see what he was talking about.

"Heh, look'it that, other you wants to kiss and make up." A small giggle escaped her lips as she started reading ahead. "Ha, and here he says you're 'both' mature individuals. Has he even met you yet?"

"Ha. Ha."

Despite her attempt at 'levity', Ryouga found himself groaning in annoyance as he continued to read through the email. "What? He wants me to see a shrink? Man, I know he might have good intentions here, but it's like he's taken empathy lessons from Ranma."

"Seriously, right?" Jinx agreed, "It's like he's mastered the art of sticking his foot in his mouth. Seems like that's another thing he's better than you at."

"Oh, shut it. Still … I guess I can try to meet him half way." Lifting his hand, he found one of hers and laced his fingers through her own. "After all, I might not be seeing a shrink, but I think my new therapist is doing wonders for my mental health."

Smirking, Jinx leaned in closely to nibble on his ear. "We'll have to plan another 'therapy' session soon, then. Though, I have to warn you, I charge an outrageous rate for my services."

Shivering pleasantly, Ryouga nodded. "I think it'll be worth the cost. Still … what do you say? Should I give the guy the benefit of the doubt?"

"Feh! Heck no! You should get on his case even more!"

"Jinx!" the Lost Boy barked, "You're supposed to be helping me here?"

The roguish sorceress shrugged impishly. "What can I say? I'm an enabler. Besides, I'm sure you'll get enough positive reinforcement from the rest of your gal pals. I think you need at least one devil on your shoulder, just to keep you interesting."

Noting the irony of the fact that she was currently perched on his shoulder, he could only shake his head. "I'll see what I can do. Still, I do owe Nabiki a few, so I suppose it's worth a try. Maybe if I'm lucky, though, I'll be able to avoid him for the next few days."

"Tut tut tut, no such luck, lover boy," Jinx replied teasingly, running her fingers through his hair. "Knowing Nabiki, I bet he'll be at the party tonight. You'll have to talk to him at some point."

Ryouga straightened up in shock. "… Wait a second. There's a party when? I didn't hear anything about that. I hate parties anyway! I don't even want to go!"

Instantly, an unexpected pressure appeared around his throat as Jinx wrapped her forearm over his trachea.

"What was that, Ryouga? I thought I heard you say 'I totally want to go have fun with my hot girlfriend'. Did I mishear you?"

Moving quickly, Ryouga shook his head. Gasping slightly, he replied.

"Uh - what I meant to say was … 'I can't wait to go with you'?"

A moment later, Jinx's arm left his throat to roam down his chest.

"That's what I thought. You're such a good boy."

Despite the strong arm (literally) tactics, Ryouga found himself smiling happily.

"I'm sorry; I'll try to cut it out."

* * *

**From**: Lt. Saotome Ranma

**Sent**: 03.14.2007

**To**: Jinx

**Subject**: Volunteer Assignment

Squaddie,

As your always friendly and super cool commanding officer, I've signed you up to volunteer for kitchen cleanup duty. You might be asking yourself: "Hey, awesome! But why am I receiving this great honor? Not that I need an excuse to help out around the base?" Director Wiessman, you know, the guy who records our every move on this base twenty four hours a day, kindly informed me of your second unregistered personal intrusion in one week. He and I had a really nice chat, you know, about the weather and the Red Sox and Yankees, and, oh yeah, he mentioned something about being positively livid. Base procedures are to be followed at all times, what with this being a military facility and all that good stuff.

But, "no big," I said, "Hey, Chief! Jinx is a great girl, and she probably just forgot to swipe her ID card and confirm her entry clearance. She definitely isn't being controlled by a malicious alien intelligence out to subvert her NCO, she's just practicing being sneaky." He agreed, especially after I told him you were going to volunteer for some of the dirtier, greasier cleaning details in the kitchen. "What a fine young woman!" he said. Certainly not one we should punish.

So all's well that ends well!

Please note that, in the future, if you and little-Ryouga want to have some horizontal fun, then you should fill out the proper permission forms to provide joint access to his room. Giggity.

Your pal

And your freakin' CO

- Ranma Saotome

PS: Seriously. Don't sneak into any more rooms.


	21. An Intimate Get Together

An accident at STAR Labs has hurled half the Teen Titans roster across the multiversal barrier and onto a strange world with no metas, no superheroes and no supervillians. There, the UNETCO organization, also known as X-COM, fights against an insidious and merciless alien enemy. The dimensionally displaced Teen Titans have finally been reunited. Determined not to sit on the sidelines, the four young men and women: Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and their universe's Ryouga Hibiki have been brought together into a special 'embedded observer' team designated CT:Yankee.

Displaced in the Russian Far East, far from any of the other Titans, Jinx had the misfortune of falling into the hands of the alien Visitors. Yet when one of the alien-human hybrids became hexxed by her power, damage to its brain tissue disconnected it from the Cydonian Mind and allowed it to remember who it had once been: Akari Unryu. Together, the two unlikely allies escaped into the forest and made for civilization, forging a close friendship during the difficult trek to safety. However, the same power that freed Akari was also killing her, and together with wounds taken during their escape, she hung on just long enough to reunite with her world's Ryouga Hibiki. Fulfilling her request to let her die, he destroyed the alien donor tissue that was to be used to revive her. The Titans, as Yankee Squad, were called to battle, with Akari's life on the line, succeeding in bringing back the replacement brain of the Ethereal, Whisper.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_An Intimate Get Together_

Interlude

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

So: it was a date.

Friday came quickly when all one had to pass the time consisted of training and drills, running and shooting practice; mock assaults and squad coordination, advancing with HWPs and testing new gear. All of India and Juliet knew about Pathfinder and the growing expectation of taking the fight to unknown worlds. The objectives would be the same as always: crush the alien enemy, recover technology, defend Earth. The dangers and opposition, however, were a mystery. They were doing what they were often tasked to do: recon in force. So they trained, and drilled, and tested and ran.

Before they knew it, it was Friday.

One day before Pathfinder Trial-One.

And Ukyou had a date.

The okonomiyaki chef picked at the hem of her black jeans, wondering not for the first time whether she should have just gone with a looser pair of pants instead, like slacks or cargo pants. She had a few skirts, too, but didn't particularly like wearing them in what passed for public here at Seiran. Jeans had seemed like a nice compliment for the night, even though Nabiki would probably be wearing them too, but with them on and someone waiting to see her in them she belatedly wondered if maybe they were a bit… tight.

The irony was that her festive 'customer attracting' outfits that she used at work – and that she used to put Konatsu in, too – were much more, well, _revealing_ than anything she had here. And none of those came close to that embarrassing bunny suit she had ended up in before, or that nose-bleed inducing 'dress' she had been forced into at Togenkyou, but this was _different_. Back then, no matter how embarrassingly provocative her wardrobe had been, it was at least something she could excuse as part of the overall effort of winning over her reluctant fiancé. With the engagement to Ranchan over and her wanting – _needing_ – to find a new way that balanced her martial arts and her cooking as the core of her identity, dressing like that didn't have the same justification.

Plus, she didn't want to tease Ryu too much.

It was hardly a mystery just what sort of relationship he wanted, now that they had been going out on and off for two months. When she'd first met him, back when the squads formed, he was almost as gruff and surly as Ryouga had been… well, almost. Back then the lost jackass had seemed within inches of snapping at any given time. Making friends and unlocking the Yamasenken again had done wonders for Ryu and he'd opened up into a much healthier and friendlier guy.

_Very friendly_, actually. Especially his hands. Ranma, despite being her ex-fiancé, had never treated her more than platonically, except for one embarrassing time when he had wanted her to say she loved him (probably one of his many self esteem related misadventures now that she thought about it). Ryu was thus her first sort-of boyfriend, and she was his first girlfriend. Again: sort of. Naturally, he wanted to do what girlfriend and boyfriends around the world and in every culture did.

Ukyou… wasn't really sure how far she wanted things to go. She'd been thinking about _it_ for a while now, and by 'it', she meant _it_. Ranma and Akane were doing it, and had been in secret for some time. Ryouga, who had confirmed her suspicions regarding the two, was in turn doing it now, too. With Nabiki. They'd been going out for longer than Ukyou had with Ryu, and much more seriously, but hadn't crossed that line until recently… a surprise, given the impression Nabiki tended to give, at least in the chef's opinion.

There were also a handful of other, older, fraternizing couples on base that didn't count so much. None of this would be new ground for them, and while 'older' usually meant about ten years, that was still something of a gulf when you were just leaving your teens behind. The thing was: they had friends doing it, now, and that in turn kind of left the impression that they should, too. Shampoo and Mousse were still pretending to not stand one another, though it was obvious the latter was just playing along to be close to his 'darling Shampoo,' and the former was holding out hope of bagging herself a Saotome. They were kind of pairing off, all the same, and that left Ukyou and Ryu…

Who, in his mind at least, should take the next step already.

There was a lot of unspoken pressure and expectation, but Ukyou still found herself unsure. Not that she was holding out for Ranma to suddenly repent – not after he gladly went through signing a contract to repay what his father stole just to get out of the engagement – and even if he did, at this point Ukyou knew she'd be sorely tempted to brush him off out of plain old frustrated and spurned female spite. No, it wasn't that.

It wasn't even that she was uncomfortable with being… intimate… with someone, or that she didn't sometimes get 'that feeling.' Especially after some of the more dangerous missions, the libido seemed to spike out of no where… and it was probably the same for everyone. She was still a woman, after all, and a human being with all the human weaknesses and proclivities. It just seemed like everyone was pushing in one direction, and her natural impulse was to push back rather than go along.

It was confusing, and she knew it wasn't fair to Ryu either.

Heading out, Ukyou finally decided whatever she was wearing would have to do. The black jeans stayed, along with a conservative cream colored woolen sweater and a belt. The pullover was light enough by itself, and since she had no undershirt beneath it, the air conditioned halls of the mountain base would ensure she didn't get too hot. It was a loose fitting contrast with the jeans that hugged every curve of her athletic lower body. She also let her hair down, but kept a red ribbon in her pocket just in case she wanted to return it to a long ponytail at a later date.

She found Ryu at their meeting place at the residential block's main elevator. He was talking to a pair of older soldiers, a duo Ukyou recognized as part of Foxtrot Squad. Both were on duty and wearing their uniform, but otherwise didn't seem to be in any rush to be anywhere. As he saw her, Ryu waved her over with a friendly smile. He was wearing a nice pair of non-uniform slacks and a deep green shirt with patterns on it, a contrast to the olive drab they both wore day in and day out. Approaching the trio, Ukyou tried to remember the older man's name from Foxtrot. She knew Squaddie Seelye already, but the man's name remained a little elusive.

"Kuonji," the older woman greeted, and caught her glancing at the other man. "You remember Squaddie Savoie? You and Juliet were there for his orientation?"

"Charmed," the European gentleman – probably freshly picked out of Special Forces – took her hand and kissed it lightly. "Please, call me Christopher."

"Ey, ey," Ryu broke it up with an intervening hand.

The older man stepped back with a knowing grin. "Sergeant, you spent the last few minutes saying how fetching she is, I was merely pleased to see your words don't do her justice."

"Come on, Casanova." Squaddie Seelye grabbed her comrade by the collar. "We're still on duty. Keep it in your pants and let them have some fun. Besides, Kuonji here has killed more aliens than you've even seen so far. You're not at her level just yet."

"Sounds like just my kind of girl actually…"

Another corrective jerk and the two nodded politely to the younger pair and resumed their duties. Ryu and Ukyou exchanged a look. It was hard to believe that some of the fresh meat, despite being years older, saw and knew of India and Juliet as almost senior squads. The fact that neither had any fatalities in several months of active service together with an impressive kill count and mission success rate meant that many new squaddies either gave them a wide berth or saw them as the youngest group of hard core veterans in UNETCO. Which they probably were, since teams like Hotel and Bravo had a median age seven years higher.

"You look great," Ryu whispered, as if it was a great secret. Corny as it probably was, Ukyou still found herself blushing a bit. She was probably a sucker for compliments like that… Ranma had certainly hooked her with one as an offhand comment.

"You look nice, too," she replied in a soft whisper of her own.

Then she rapped him hard on the chest with the knuckles of her left hand.

"Now, let's get going."

* * *

Karaoke. It was an understatement to say it was more popular among the admittedly small Asian population of Seiran. The Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department was notoriously restrictive when it came to letting electronic entertainment on UNETCO bases and more often than not the best stuff had to be basically smuggled in as personal items then left around so anyone could use them freely. A large number of the base DVDs and Blu-rays in the entertainment library were acquired this way rather than going through the MWRD. Things like x-boxes and playstations were completely restricted, too, since they were considered 'addictive and distracting entertainment.' Luckily, at some point someone had brought in a programmable karaoke machine as a personal device and left it at the Rec next to the mess.

Every so often, someone got the idea to take it out and hook it up.

As Ukyou and Ryu entered the Rec room, they saw and heard a popish Korean song playing, along with unfamiliar Hangul characters next to a generic English translation up on the screen. There was no raised area for singers to stand on since the room was basically converted from a flat ancillary eating and entertainment area. Instead, there was an area cleared out and delineated by outward facing metal chairs.

The lighting was at about half intensity, and the duo could see a few groups of people around a few large tables. There were a goodly number of non-Japanese on base, in both the military and non-military occupations, and Ukyou saw the Koreans together in one area, and the Chinese and South Asians in another. A few other individuals, less interested in planning out what native language songs they wanted to sing, mingled freely or hung out at the bar. Native English speakers were scattered about. Ryu nudged her and pointed over to one table.

Waiting for them there, Ukyou saw Ranma and Akane along with some less expected guests to their table. Cyborg stood out, literally, in any crowd, but the older woman next to him was an unknown. A Ryouga was present, and even without getting closer, the question of 'which one' was answered by the pink haired girl in black leaning possessively into him.

"Where's the Lieutenant and Tendo?" Ryu wondered aloud.

"I'd bet he's probably lost," Ukyou answered offhand, but then added on second thought, "Or Nabiki wants to be fashionably late."

Ryu nodded, wondering whether to ask if she wanted to sit with Ranma after all. It was no secret Ukyou didn't get along with Jinx, and the catty company wouldn't exactly sweeten the pot of hanging out with her ex-fiancé and his to-be, no matter how much they all wanted to still be friends. He took a second or two to think of an excuse to hang out at one of the other tables, at least to start the evening.

"It's fine," Ukyou whisper, leaning over to make sure he heard her. Looping an arm into his, she led them both over to the table.

"Saotome," Ryu greeted. Despite the use of the surname, he didn't add any bitterness to his tone. He and Ranma had settled things months ago. "Akane."

"Hey, everyone," Ukyou spoke up with more friendly enthusiasm. "Akane! You look so nice!"

The youngest Tendo was wearing one of her favorite sleeveless jumper dresses over a light blue blouse. Her fashion sense was actually similar to Shampoo's in color, if not in exotic flamboyance. She was partial to peaches, blue hues, and pinks. Actually pretty girly in Ukyou's opinion, despite her being the tomboy of the old bunch.

"You, too!" The fellow Nerimite stood up briefly to take her hands.

They were still friends, despite the thing for Ranma, but it hadn't really gotten easier despite the end of the engagement. She and Akane didn't have that old saw to fight over, but the fact that it looked to both of them like Ranma had made his choice… well; there was still a _little_ jealousy and bitterness there. Ukyou knew it was on her to get over it, and she'd been trying, but it was hard to put it aside completely even after the time that had passed. Maybe if Ranma hadn't just been sitting right there, smiling like a big idiot…!

They exchanged quick pleasantries all around, including the Titans.

"Pleased to meet you, Doctor." The pair bowed politely to Jalila.

"Oh, that's fine!" the older woman waved a hand casually. "I'm just here to unwind."

"Ya got that right," Cyborg added. He then dropped a massive mechanical hand on Ranma's shoulder. "We were workin all day trying to wring out all the problems with ... um, heh, I mean, yeah, lots of work today, Ranma being a baby, yadda yadda yadda, nothing really important. Say, who wants a drink!"

"Oh, oh, I'll have another one!" Jinx leaned forward excitedly, holding up her empty glass. There was an unfamiliar pinkish tinge on the girl's cheeks and a slight waver in her movements as she seemed to nearly melt back into Ryouga's side, purring every inch of the way.

Ranma smirked at the pair. "You know, usually the guy gets his girl a drink, right? What do you say, lost boy?"

"Ranma!" Akane elbowed her fiancée none-too-gently. "Stop picking on Ryouga. Either of them. I'm thirsty, too, so why don't you and Cyborg get us both something?"

"Man, can you believe this?" Ranma asked Ryu as he stood up. "Fine. What do you want anyway?"

"Another pink one!"

"I'll have rum and coke," Akane decided, and glanced briefly over at Jinx. "Better make them both extra ice."

Ranma patted Cyborg's shoulder indicating for him to sit back down.

"I'll be back in a minute then."

"You want anything?" Ryu then asked as he and Ukyou picked seats next to one another.

"You guys are mixing drinks already?" The chef saw Akane nod and turned to her date. "Dutch courage I guess. Do you remember how to make a Highlander, Ryu-chan?"

"Ah…" he murmured, unsure, but not wanting to say so. "That was…?"

"Coca cola, equal parts whiskey and sake, on ice," she reminded him. "You can use my registry number."

"Got it," he replied and made to leave.

"I always forget that you used to run a bar, too," Akane said with the two boys gone. Ukyou shrugged; it was just part of work. Customers tended to drink more when things were mixed up by a cute young woman. If she also happened to own the restaurant and raked in the dough, all the better.

At the far side of the table, Ryouga grumbled darkly at the departing Ranma's back, but quickly buried his discontent, taking another drink from his glass. Taking a quick second glance at the clear liquid in the glass, Ukyou figured he was either drinking water, or hard lining straight Sake. Considering he seemed just as annoyed with Ranma as usual, it seemed the former was likely.

Once he was done drinking, the Lost Boy turned her way. "So, Ukyou, what's the new guy like? I haven't had much chance to talk to him... well, aside from our little rumble back at the airport."

"Ryu," she reminded him. "He's a nice guy. Not exactly Ranchan's biggest fan, so you two have that in common, but pretty friendly." Not that he was always like that. "He's been helping Akane and me out for a while now with hand to hand training."

"Shitojutsu," Akane explained. Ryouga nodded, apparently recognizing the term. Shitojutsu was the skill of using the thumb and fingers for striking, and part of the overall Yamasenken fighting style.

A moment later, in a completely baffling manner, Cyborg and Jinx began chuckling and giggling into their drinks respectively. Well, it started off that way, but all too soon, the pair of Yankee's had broken into riotous laughter. Jinx even went so far as to reach across the table and grab Cyborg's hands.

"Can you _believe it_?"

Cyborg could only shake his head, even as he clapped his other hand over hers, still laughing away.

"What?" Akane asked, prickling a bit on the off chance she was being inadvertently funny at her own expense. "What's so funny? It wasn't me, was it?"

Lifting up a finger in a lecturing manner, Jinx prepared to explain-

Only to be interrupted as Cyborg clapped a large hand over her mouth. Quickly pushing her back into Ryouga's lap, he shook his head helplessly, trying to contain the mirth, as he replied in her stead.

"N-nothing! Nothing's funny at - at all! We ... we both just spontaneously thought of the same joke at the same time, is all!"

Akane and Ukyou exchanged questioning looks, neither able to figure out the joke.

"Americans," Ukyou whispered. "Go figure."

"Hey, I know this song!" Cyborg suddenly slammed the flat of his hand on the table, head perking up. "This is YMCA!"

"In Chinese," Jinx realized, peering at the two men at the front of the room. After a long moment of silence, she broke into uncontrollable giggles. "It sounds so... freaky!"

Ryouga shrugged. "It's kinda catchy. I have no idea what an 'umcah' might be, but they seem pretty excited about it." He turned back to Ukyou a second later. "So, this Ryu guy is nice and he teaches you fancy finger tricks. That's not it, is there? I mean, I can see the appeal, what with that dandy bandanna of his, but still..."

"Well, it isn't like our parents arranged a marriage and it isn't because he can beat me up."

"Hey!" Akane protested.

Shampoo would've probably said more, were she present for the jibe.

"He's astute, and hard working, and he doesn't forget things like my birthday. He's more reliable than some guys who will go unnamed." She leaned in a bit and relented on what she'd said before. "And it is kind of exciting to be with a guy stronger than you, even if you don't take it to certain cultural extremes."

Jinx let out a wistful sigh. "That must be nice. I wouldn't mind actually dating a guy that was more powerful than me for a change."

"Hey!"

"There, there, sugar," Ukyou reached over to pat him consolingly on the hand. "Strength isn't everything."

"She says to the guy who runs through concrete walls trying to hug people," Akane joked. "Both you and our Ryouga seem to have that problem fixed by now at least."

"Ha! _Him_? Strong?" Cyborg barked. "Ryo can barely even lift my gravitic assist weight set on its lowest setting. And you shoulda been there for the 'Arm Wrestling Affair'. Him and Starfire were up _all_ night, Ryo desperate just to get _one_ win in."

"Oh, shut up, Cyborg," Ryouga muttered. "Just cuz you get lucky in one little sparring match, suddenly you get all cocky."

"Arm wrestling, huh?" Akane asked, thinking back to a soba-based adventure not too long ago. "Well, boys have their pride."

"Drinks incoming!" Ranma warned, holding the two refreshed drinks dangerously over the heads of Akane and Jinx.

"You're asking to get splashed, baka!" Akane tried to take her rum and coke before the pigtailed one could tempt fate. He deftly kept it out of the hands of the two girls before switching them in midair and sliding them onto the table in front of them. Opposite the commotion, Ryu handed Ukyou her cocktail and sat down with a simple gin and tonic of his own.

"Better splashed than smashed," Ranma quipped, and Akane gave him an angry moue.

"I'll show you 'smashed'!"

"So I couldn't help but overhear," the pigtailed officer switched gears, much to Akane's annoyance. "We were talking about how much stronger everyone is compared to Ryouga here."

"Everyone but _you_, Saotome," Ryouga replied with a grin. "You're still the 'little girl' when it comes to straight up muscle."

It was Jinx's turn to pat Ranma's hand comfortingly. "Don't worry, Ranma. At least you're a _pretty_ girl. I mean, I'd totally experiment with you in college if the chance came up."

The pink haired girl missed Akane's face turn indignant and beet red to boot.

"Hrmf," the Saotome heir sulked a bit at the remark. Ryouga's specifically. "I'll take speed over strength any day." Of course, it already took tremendous strength to increase speed to his level, it just didn't measure up to the Hibiki's raw power. "And thank you, Jinx, for the unorthodox and somewhat disturbing compliment."

The group toasted to that and sipped (or in one case liberally downed) their drinks.

"Oh, this song!" Ukyou snapped her fingers and turned towards the makeshift stage. "Isn't this from that anime?"

"That's one of the songs from Slayers," Akane answered, recognizing it. "'Get Along' I think."

"Guess we have some old school otaku in R&D."

"Someone sang 'My Heart Iidasenai' earlier."

"That's from 'Ah! My Goddess' right? That one character…"

"Sounds just like Kasumi. I know, it's weird."

"Which reminds me, I was watching a video on the internet the other day, and this one voice actress sounded exactly like Raven."

"I think I know the one! That's weird, right?"

"Any of you guys go up yet?" Ukyou then asked, eyes glancing around the table.

"Not yet," Cyborg explained, "I figure I'd let all the real excitable people get it outta there system before I go up. Don't wanna discourage everyone so early on with my singing, y'know?"

"_Me?_ Sing?" Ryouga asked incredulously. "I didn't think you'd been here long enough to have drunk that much, Ukyou."

Smiling, Jinx leaned herself back against his chest, wrapping an arm around his neck. "Oh, don't you worry, Ryouga here will be up there soon enough."

"What about you, Ranchan?"

Ranma scoffed openly, and even more loudly than Ryouga had. "That'll never happen. End of story."

"But you did that whole DoCo Ran-chan thing with…"

"NO."

Ukyou looked to Akane for an answer. Ranma and Akane, plus Shampoo, Nabiki and Kasumi, had put on a sow as a singing group more than once. It wasn't exactly a big secret either.

"Ranma no baka here can only sing if he's a girl," Akane explained.

"Real guys don't do karaoke," the stubborn martial artist insisted. "It's lame and it ain't manly."

"Saying things like that is just asking to get splashed by someone's drink, you know," Akane replied, knowing better than to argue what was 'manly' or not with her thickheaded fiancé.

"Nabiki ain't here, is she? As long as I have my back to the wall…" he pointed over his shoulder at the nearby surface guarding his back. "I'm golden. You wanna prance around up there by yourself, I won't stop ya."

"Prance around?" Cyborg could only stare at Ranma incredulously. "Do you even _comprehend_ what 'manliness' involves?" Lifting his hands into the air in disbelief, the cybernetic teen continued his rant. "Ladies _love_ a man that can sing. If you can belt out a good song, that's halfway to bein' a rock star." Leaning forward, he pointed a taunting finger at the pigtailed martial artist. "Anyone that doesn't wanna put on a show up there ain't manly, I'd say they're just... chicken?"

"I ain't chicken, it just ain't my thing!" Ranma protested and turned up his nose at the very idea. "Besides, my mom would kill me if she saw me doing such a corny, geeky thing."

"Well, she was just seventeen,  
You know what I mean,  
And the way she looked was way beyond compare!  
So how could I dance with another, ooooohhh  
When I saw her standin' there!"

"Is that Mister Saotome up there?"

"No!" Ranma quickly replied, stubbornly crossing his arms. "We don't know that man!"

"Well she looked at me, and I, I could see  
That before too long I'd fall in love with her!  
She wouldn't dance with another, whooh!  
When I saw her standin' there!"

"I see Mrs. Saotome up there, too. She looks like she's waving something at him."

"He actually isn't that bad," Ukyou admitted, a little grudgingly. Voice was a bit deep for John Lennon, but it was a surprise he could sing in English at all.

Ranma groaned and downed his drink in one long gulp. "If he starts on 'Thriller,' I won't be held responsible for what I do. Stupid old panda."

Instantly, Jinx leaned over and nudged her elbow into Ranma's side. "Oh, lookie there, I think your mom is finding your dad all _kinds_ of manly right now. I ... I think she's waving her bra at him ... Wow, that's totally not a color I would have thought she'd wear."

"Fine! Fine!" Ranma said with a pained voice, hiding his face in his hands. "Just let me sit here and pretend I'm not seeing my idiot parents' lip lock in front of like thirty people all of whom I work with."

"I guess Mrs. Saotome must've considered him manly enough to marry," Akane reasoned. "So…"

"No, that doesn't explain it and it never will! I'm not even listening!"

Ryouga nodded in a very sagely manner. "You know, that _does_ raise some very interesting questions. I mean, I never got too much into the 'Ranma's Mom' issue, but from what you guys are saying, she doesn't find Ranma very manly, but thinks that his dad is a rock star ... so what does that say about Ranma here?"

"I'm plenty manly!" Ranma growled in self defense. "That old panda is nothing but a freeloader! Even with this stupid girl curse I'm the man of the house and the Master of the School! Ain't no one here manlier than me!"

Ukyou rolled her eyes: Ranchan was just _too easy_ to manipulate sometimes.

"I'll prove it!" He rose up with the fires of determination burning behind him. "I'll go up there and show you real karaoke!"

As soon as his back was turned, Cyborg and Jinx shared a low five under the table. The young sorceress turned to everyone and silently mouthed _'Waay too easy!_' for everyone but the poor pigtailed martial artist to see.

"That's right, Ranma, you show us how it's done," Ryouga exclaimed loudly. "Just don't pick a girly song by mistake. You wouldn't want to set your mom off up there."

The pigtailed one was already heading up but heard enough to say over his shoulder, "Yeah, yeah. Just make sure you don't pick a little kid's song when your turn comes, P-chan."

The dimensionally displaced Ryouga let out an angry huff at that, but mellowed when he felt Jinx pat his chest restrainingly. Only Ranma would bother to insultingly reference both Jyusenkyou curses in the same blasé statement.

"What do you think he'll pick?" Ryu asked, watching the bamboozled lieutenant storm off.

"Probably another American song," Ukyou guessed.

"I bet it strokes his ego," Akane added in.

A couple seconds later, a familiar beat came from the speakers.

"Oh!" Ryu recognized it immediately from that one movie night. He snapped his fingers as he tried to remember the title. "This song!"

Cyborg nodded. "Good taste at least."

"Risin' up, back on the street  
Did my time, took my chances…  
Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet  
Just a man and his will to survive!  
So many times, it happens too fast  
You change your passion for glory!  
Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past  
You must fight just to keep them alive!"

"You know this one?" Akane asked. American stuff wasn't exactly her forte.

"It was from that boxing movie last month," Ukyou explained with a smile; unlike the Tendo sister, she had both gone to and thoroughly enjoyed the movie in question. Ryu and Cyborg were both rapping their hands to the table in time with the beat, knowing the song line by line even without the teleprompter.

"It's the eye of the tiger! It's the cream of the fight!  
Risin' up to the challenge of our rival!  
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night  
And he's watchin' us all in the eeeeyyyyeeee of the tiger!"

"Total classic," Cyborg stated.

"Guess I have to give Saotome credit," Ryu admitted, a little unenthusiastically.

Ryouga shrugged. "I haven't heard that one before, but it sounds exactly like something he'd sing. Him and his tiger infatuation. It wouldn't surprise me if his next song had something about rising dragons in it."

"Oh, hush, Ryouga," Jinx chided, squeezing his shoulder playfully. "He might be as easy to manipulate as... well, any guy on the planet, but at least he puts on a good show."

Around the time Ranma got to "They stack the odds 'til we take to the street, For we kill with the skill to survive" a new pair had entered and slowly walked up to the group. Nabiki was in the lead, as would be expected, and she tapped Ukyou on the shoulder in quiet greeting, since Akane was on the other side of the table. The three girls silently waved, and Ukyou realized with a little pang of jealousy that Nabiki had shown up in jeans, too, along with an expensive looking belt and a long sleeved shirt with various monetary symbols on it. Their Ryouga looked good, too, dressed casually in the same manner as Ryu and Ranma were.

"Always with this tiger related stuff," the older Ryouga observed with a shake of his head. Then he noticed everyone staring at him. "What?"

Ukyou's amused grin slipped into a slight frown as the younger Hibiki immediately rose to his feet. The Lost Boy offered up a quick 'going to get a drink' before making his way to the back of the room. A moment later, Jinx offered a perplexed looking Cyborg a small shrug before she rose and left after him, probably hoping to stop him from leaving the base entirely.

A little uncertain, the cybernetic teen leaned back into his seat, not leaving Professor al-Rifai's side. Instead, he lifted a hand in greetings.

"Yo, Lieutenant. Hey, 'Biki. How's things?"

"Pretty good," Nabiki replied, sitting down first next to Ukyou. "This blockhead's been running me ragged because of you-know-what."

The native Ryouga had watched his younger counterpart leave, but his expression was studiedly neutral. After a second, he too sat down to Nabiki's right, but with his back to the table – clearly expecting to be getting back up shortly.

"By you-know-what…" Jalila caught the reference. "You mean…?"

"Yep. _That_." Ryouga answered briskly.

"Am I the only one here who doesn't know what this stupid secret is?" Akane asked with a sigh.

"Thank you! Thank you!" Ranma stood, soaking in the applause. Of course, now that he'd tasted it, he couldn't just gracefully step down. Not the heir to Saotome style Anything Goes.

"One more?" he asked, having already picked out a song that caught his eye on one of the Top-20 playlists. "Okay! One more!"

"What's that idiot doing up there?" Ryouga-the-elder craned his neck. Then he saw the song title the pigtailed one picked and his eyes became half lidded in a mixture of amusement and disgust.

Ryu laughed openly. "Why am I not surprised he picks a song like this?"

"I'm too sexy for my love too sexy for my love,  
Love's going to leave me!"

Akane hid her face in her hands, now thoroughly embarrassed for her fiancé.

Ukyou on the other hand…

"Go Ranchan! Shake that thing!"

"I'm too sexy for my shirt too sexy for my shirt  
So sexy it hurts!  
And I'm too sexy for Milan too sexy for Milan  
New York and Japan!"

"Must you feed his bottomless pit of narcissism?" Ryu asked in resignation. "His ego is already big enough he can physically crush things with it."

"Oh come on, sugar!" Ukyou pleaded, tears in her eyes as she laughed. "This is funny!"

Cyborg nodded enthusiastically. "It really, really is! Man, I knew that guy wasn't half as uptight as he was actin'. I mean, he's got a serious hankerin' for blasts from the past, but it's all good."

"I don't think any of us know a lot of American pop… or hip-hop I guess?" Akane asked him with a shrug. "Mostly stuff from movies. What kind of stuff do you want to sing when you go up?"

The massive teen offered up a broad grin in response. "Oh, I know what I'm singing when I get up there." He then looked around frowning. "Problem is, I gotta wait for Ryo to drag his butt back here. He's an integral part of my act."

"Maybe we should sit somewhere else then," Ryouga suggested. "There's some space over there by Lieutenant Kinoshida." He even raised a hand in greeting at being spotted.

Nabiki frowned at the idea of being chased off so soon.

"You want to go up and do Equal Romance, Love Panic or Red Shoe Sunday later?" Akane asked, seeing her sister about to argue.

"Without Shampoo or Kasumi?"

Both women were avid singers and normally the backbone of the act.

"We can do it with three if Ukyou joins in."

The chef flushed at being put on the spot. "I don't know if…"

"We could give it a try," Nabiki decided for them, above Ukyou's interrupted attempt at protest. "All right. We'll let you lure Mister Sensitive back so you can put on your show, Cyborg-baby. I want to get a drink and mingle some more anyway."

"Naw, don't even worry about it," the cybernetic scientist replied with a wave of his hand. "Once Ranma is finally done gettin' he groove back, I'll do the impossible and 'Find a Hibiki'! Then I'll-"

Apparently, something behind the middle Tendo sister captured the Yankee's attention, as he suddenly sat up, a smile splitting his face. A second later, he sat up, waving his hand. "Hey, hey, hey! The rest of my back up singers are here!"

Following his gaze, Ukyou turned to see that the remaining members of Cyborg's team had just entered the room. Starfire was wearing an exotic Chinese style dress - where had she gotten that anyway? Did Shampoo loan her one somehow? – looking around with a joyous expression on her face at the ongoing party. Raven, on the other hand, was looking extremely reluctant to be here, but didn't seem to have much choice in the matter as the Tamaranian was pulling on her arm. Not quite an exotic beauty and not naturally flamboyant anyway, she stuck with a stylish short pencil skirt and a dark, navy blue blouse that was just a touch on the tight side.

Almost immediately, Cyborg vanished from the table, obviously going to retrieve his friends.

While he did so, Ranma was just heading back.

"Hey, our original lost boy is back," he stated with a cocksure grin. "And Nabiki's hanging onto his wallet. You guys scare off the other pair?"

"Seems so," Ryouga replied simply.

Nabiki smiled at her likely-to-be brother in law. "I have to say, Ranma, you looked good up there. Akane turned bright red when you stated doing those pelvis thrusts."

"I did not!" Akane yelped, face still flushed pink. "It was embarrassing!"

"We all know it doesn't matter what body I'm in," Ranma said, sitting down casually and leaning back in his chair. "I'm sexy. I can't help it."

"Very modest, Saotome," Ryu observed in monotone.

"He couldn't pretend to be modest to save his life," Ryouga said with a chuckle. "Literally."

"Jealousy," Ranma stated. "It's only natural."

"Ryouga-baby, can you get me a Mojito extra sweet?"

"I have no idea how to make drinks," the lost one reminded her. "I can pour and add ice, and that's it."

A sigh. "Come on, you jackass, I'll show you. But the next round is off your requisition number. Let's see if Starfire or Raven want anything, too."

"Okay, okay… don't pull my sleeve!"

It didn't take them long to run into the trio of Titans, as the colorful teens stood out, even in a room filled with Nerima's elite. It appeared that, rather than dragging them back to the table, he was in the middle of trying to convince the pair about, well, something.

"Oh, come on, Rae! Star's all for it, and I know Jinx will jump at the chance. We can't _not_ have you up there! Having two back up singers just ain't done!"

"Hey," Ukyou interrupted, holding the much taller Cyborg's shoulder to let her get in to address the newcomers. "You two want anything? I was just about to go up and mix up a few drinks on this guy's treat."

Ryouga-the-older didn't seem pleased about this, but nodded.

Raven shook her head. "No thank you. I don't think now is a good time to start drinking."

"Oh, oh! Can you please see if they have any containers of the delicious yellow nectar?" Starfire asked rapturously. "I would be quite grateful."

"Delicious yellow nectar?" Ryouga asked slowly.

"Caramel is kind of yellowish I guess?" Ukyou guessed. "You'll have to be more exact, sugar. Do you mean brandy?" The only obviously kitchen and bar based 'yellow nectar' that came to mind was… "You don't mean… olive oil, do you?"

The alien girl shook her head violently in obvious disgust. "Ugh, no, that would be most abhorrent. No, what I refer to is the most delicious of earthly beverages-"

"She means _mustard_," Raven supplied in a deadpan. "I'm sure I can make my way to the kitchen-"

"And then straight back to your room, no doubt!" Cyborg barked. Dropping a mighty hand on her narrow shoulder, he held the 'helpful' girl in place. "No way, Rae, we just got you here. Ain't no way we're lettin you escape now!"

"Mustard…?" Ukyou was actually flabbergasted. She'd made some weird drinks out of strange things for customers before, but mustard? "You really like that stuff, huh? I guess I could try and make something with it if you don't want anything more…" She avoided the word 'normal'. "Ordinary."

Starfire stared back at the chef oddly. "What could be more ordinary than Mustard? Is it not openly on display at all restaurants, even those without liquor licenses?"

"Yes, but it usually isn't consumed by itself…" Ukyou shook her head, not seeing the point of explaining the obvious. Besides, Starfire was an alien. Of course she would have unique tastes. "I'll make a special drink just for you then. It'll be an interesting challenge! Like a mustard martini or something! ...even though that sounds absolutely disgusting..."

* * *

As Ukyou and the older Hibiki left to fetch beverages, Raven began to look around the large room surreptitiously. Though she was trying to be subtle about it, there was one person she was hoping to see present.

"C'mon, ladies, let's head back to the table and meet up with the others." Herding them along excitedly, Cyborg ushered them quickly to a large table already surrounded by familiar faces.

Ranma and Ryu were there, as were Akane and Nabiki. It still disturbed her slightly that she wanted to feel so at ease around this world's Ranma and Ryu, knowing them both so well from her world. It would never be that way there though, especially since she had no real connection to Akane, Ukyou and especially Nabiki. Getting close to the former wouldn't only be difficult, considering the villainous latter, it probably wouldn't even be appropriate.

Still, she offered a tentative greeting as those present at the table welcomed them with open arms. Starfire returned the greeting far more enthusiastically, immediately sitting beside Akane and beginning to gossip away. Not quite feeling comfortable enough to take a seat, Raven belatedly looked around again. "... So, is Ryouga actually here yet?"

"You mean your Ryouga, right?" Ryu asked, glass in hand and looking over his shoulder at her. "He and Jinx left when Nabiki and the lieutenant dropped by. Might be back later though."

That brought a frown to her lips. Not only had he been there, he'd already left ... _with her_? Knowing him, but more importantly, knowing her, they could be anywhere. A piercing whistle suddenly cut through the noise of the room. Instantly, Raven and most everyone else looked to the stage, where a familiar form, dressed in a daring black halter top and a tight pair of matching slacks was leaning heavily against the microphone.

Even from the distance, Raven could see the pink tinge on the girl's cheeks.

"Has... has she been drinking?"

"Yankee squad!" Jinx called out loudly. "Fall in! Our esteemed lord and master has one last thing to say to the lot of us before we get cut up piecemeal and sold to the highest bidders!"

"Yes ... yes she has," Raven muttered to herself. She felt her own cheeks begin to tinge red as laughter began to sound out around the room at her 'teammate's' antics. Still, Ryouga was standing behind her, looking very uncomfortable. Despite everything, she was curious just as to what he might have to say, if he actually had anything to say at all. Obviously just as curious, she found herself flanked by Cyborg and Starfire as she made her way to stand before the stage.

"What's going on up there?" Akane was also curious and craned her neck to get a better look.

"She _does_ know the difference between a little off duty relaxation and inebriation, right?"

"You tell me, Ranma, you're Yankee's direct CO."

"Gee, thanks a lot, Nabiki. Eh… I'll jump over there if anything inappropriate starts going down."

Ryu just quietly took a sip from his gin and tonic.

Back up on stage, Jinx released the mic and quickly grabbed the Lost Boy's arm, dragging him to center stage. He looked to be struggling weakly, but not enough to actually stop her from getting him in front of the microphone. A second later, the pink haired girl performed a near picture perfect hand spring away from the 'stage' area and quickly perched herself on a stool that she'd pulled up at some earlier point.

Looking around nervously, Ryouga sighed before grabbing the microphone.

"Um ... yeah ... hey everyone ... how's everyone enjoying the party?"

A riotous cheer was the more than abundant response from across the room, thanks to a newly arrived but extremely enthusiastic Tamaranian. Giving his head a quick shake, Ryouga cleaned out his ear with a pinky before continuing.

"Well, I'll take that as a 'mildly adequate'. Anyway, I just wanted to apologize beforehand, since, against my own will, I do have something of great importance to share with my soon to be defunct team."

Odd glances were offered around the room, and it actually looked like Ranma was about to rise to his feet to put a stop to the Lost Boy's rant, with Ryu not far behind...

Which was about the time that the music began to play again. It was a soft, easy going tune, the strumming of a guitar and some haunting sound, hard to place accompanying it. No one present seemed to recognize the song, but relaxed to the soothing sound. Smiling now, despite the obvious and undisguised embarrassment, Ryouga lifted the microphone and began to sing:

"Strange and beautiful  
are the stars tonight  
that dance around your head-"

Everyone present, excepting an obviously ecstatic Jinx, all but bouncing around on her stool, were surprised at the Lost Boy's voice. Even more unexpected, was the fact that he didn't seem to be paying attention to the prompts at all.

"In your eyes I see that perfect world.  
I hope that doesn't sound too weird."

"Don't know this one," Ukyu admitted, approaching the table with two drinks. One was for herself and Ryu later, and the other was the alchemical concoction she'd made for Starfire. Despite the strange ingredients – well, one more than others – she was curious if the alien girl would like it. Of course it made the table smell a bit like a hot dog stand.

"He did spend almost a year over in the States," Nabiki reminded them, taking her drink from the native Ryouga. He'd returned with Ukyou, but refrained from comments. "He's probably well acquainted with his world's American music. Thanks, Ryouga-baby."

He nodded, but his posture alone was a reminder for them to move once Jinx and the other Ryouga finished. It was a large room after all, and there was nothing forcing them together against their will. Nabiki still wasn't happy about having to break company with the people she knew the best and longest, but understood the situation well enough. If need be, they could move around a bit and circle back in an hour or so.

At the front of the room, Ryouga leaned into the mic, closing his eyes as he continued to croon in a low voice.

"And I want all the world to know  
that your love's all I need-"

Despite herself, Raven felt herself swaying to the music. When on earth had he learned this song? For that matter, when on earth had he learned to sing at all? And he was actually good, too. Beside her, Starfire was staring with wide eyes and her hands clasped to her chest, obviously stunned.

"All that I _neeeed_!"

"Damn, Ryo is ownin that song." Cyborg muttered quickly.

"Of course he is," Jinx explained, swaying back and forth to the strumming of the guitar. "It's our song, after all. Now shut up or you'll miss it!"

Too amused to be offended, the cybernetic teen simply smiled and looked back up as Ryouga took a deep breath before leaning into the mic again-

"And if we're lost  
_Then we are lost together_!"

"BWHAHAHAHA!" Ranma's riotous laughter drowned out the speakers. The pigtailed martial artist pounded the table, nearly choking- "L-l- lost together! Really? Pricele-"

The sound of Ranma's head being bounced off the table brought order back to the proceedings. Dusting his hands off, Ryouga didn't even look at his downed comrade.

"Aw, shaddup, already. It's not that funny."

"That must be their song!" Akane crooned, paying no attention to her insensitive fiancé. "That is so sweet! Can you sing like that, too, Ryouga-kun?"

"We'll find out," Nabiki promised, to which her companion let out a belabored grunt.

"I don't know any English songs like that."

"If you don't have any ideas, I'm sure we, and by we I mean I, can find something."

"Ah… I see. In that case, maybe I know one or two."

Back up on stage, the younger Ryouga sang for all he was worth, his audience growing slowly from just Yankee squadron as a few other people began to move forward to join them.

"I stand before this faceless crowd  
and I wonder why I bother  
so much controlled by so few  
stumbling from one disaster to another"

Sitting back, Ryu nodded at the sentiment. Next to him, Ukyou was leaning back and listening - not quite believing what she was seeing. A Hibiki? Singing? A 'Ryouga' singing? And actually doing it well? Some things simply were just _way_ too strange to think about.

The rest of the song passed by in a pleasant daze, Ryouga all but serenading the pink haired witch in front of an entire room full of strangers. Ukyou wasn't even sure why, but she was feeling just a tad envious. What were the odds of any of the guys present singing to her like that? Then again, before all this, the Ryouga she knew had been a hopeless (really, really hopeless) romantic, too.

Finally, looking horrendously embarrassed and flushed with elation at the same time, Ryouga set the mic back into its stand. Taking a few deep breaths and brushing a few drops of sweat from his brow, the Lost Boy took a short bow.

"Sorry, again, for making you put up with that," he apologized. "But I'm done now. Have a good night, everyone."

"That's our cue," the native Ryouga whispered to his date, just over the table's appreciative applause. The two Yankee team members would probably want to head back to where they had been originally sitting, and it was obvious they didn't want certain company.

"Hey, hey, Ryouga!" Ranma, by this time recovered, was leaning on one elbow across the table. "I've got a song for ya: _'__I would walk five hundred miles…__'_"

"Are you going to be like this all night, Ranma?"

"Probably. Most of it anyway. …Why?"

The Hibiki scion leaned in, grinning evilly. "I'm sorely tempted to make you sing soprano, Ranko."

Ranma did the exact same, his smirk growing wider, almost manic. "Why don't you try it, P-chan?"

"Okay, okay. He's my date, not yours Ranma-baby," Nabiki said, pulling them apart via Ryouga's arm. "So no making out at the table."

"UGH!" both all but spat.

"We'll be back a little later," she announced, bidding a friendly 'see you then to Akane and Ukyou and a more polite version of the same to Professor al-Rifai. As the two headed off to another table, singling out some familiar faces, Ukyou turned to Akane and indicated the retreating duo.

"Those two seem… comfortable," she judged. They didn't seem so much ecstatic to be together as they did simply at ease and comfortable in their mutual presence. They knew each other's quirks and habits and synchronized socially remarkably well and while there weren't any grandiose declarations there – they weren't even holding hands – it was clear they were still together. Ukyou held up her pinky finger and Akane saw it and nodded.

Both girls knew the 'red string of fate' story, silly as it was.

"If I may ask: what does this mean?" the Professor inquired, also sticking out her pinkie finger. "Is it some sort of code?"

Ukyou answered with an easy grin. "We're just talking about the' red string of fate'. You see, when two people are in love, as a sign of fidelity and affection, you could say they are bound by an invisible thread. It's..." She chuckled. "It's kind of a little superstition here."

"Oh!" the older woman giggled as she imagined a red string on her own finger. "Something like Valentine's Day in other regions of the world?"

Both girl's nodded, and Jalila responded with an intrigued 'hmmm'.

"Nabiki's been a lot happier these last few months and Ryouga's so much better than he used to be," Akane said, knowing the other girl was in agreement. At least in a general sense.

Ukyou, unlike Akane, had felt the post-abduction Hibiki's constant killing intent and murderous aura. It was all gone now, as long as they were off the battlefield. Seeing the two melding easily into professional company was… well, it was a bit strange. Sure, Nabiki was safe enough, but Ryouga was rarely at the comfort level where he could break out of his shell.

They also seemed to give each other a kind of safe outlet. Nabiki could indulge herself with light schemes and mind games in him without serious repercussion and he had something human to hold onto: in this case a firm hand keeping him above water. On the battlefield, they knew, you needed things like that. You needed your teammates, your friends, the people watching your back and fighting at your side, and you needed loved ones to return to. And those two seemed… comfortably happy.

It looked nice; appealing; worth emulating.

If only things were so simple and easy.

Which instantly brought to mind just how very different her native Ryouga's relationship was from what the younger Ryouga had with that Jinx brat. That one was a harder nut to crack. Not only did the Hibiki in question seem mentally different, far more open (in some ways anyway) than the man Ukyou knew, Jinx seemed more like a hyperactive enigma than anything. There was clearly something there – the little display a few minutes ago was proof enough of that – but it still didn't seem quite so casual.

The other Titans, most notably Raven, seemed a bit surprised by the recent display, which they shouldn't be. If the native Ryouga had gone up and sung a song to Nabiki, no one would have really been thrown by it. At the most the few who knew him well probably would have been a little surprised, knowing him as they did. Even after seeing it just happen, she just couldn't see the older Hibiki singing his heart out like that. It was…

It was almost like those two were pulling what Ranma and Akane were pulling, only less discrete and more passionate. Considering the way that Jinx and Ryouga had been sitting just minutes ago, all but sharing the same chair, and right in front of Cyborg no less...? Not that everyone had to really advertise how they felt about others or what relationships they had... or planned to have… but there was something about it that seemed a bit odd to Ukyou's female intuition. Mostly the feeling seemed to stem around from Raven and her tentative behavior. Love triangle, maybe? God knows they were common enough in her current peer group.

Or maybe it was nothing at all, and she was just projecting a bit.

"Hey," Ryu said softly into her ear as an arm snaked tentatively around her side. "Want to get up and do a duet or something?"

"Sure thing, sugar." She smiled at him, easing into the contact. "After the two up there finish."

In the meantime, she watched the Titans to gauge their reactions, though it was hard to see from so far off. A minute ago, the younger Hibiki had left the stage area. Soon after, he was swarmed by his teammates, Starfire latching onto his arm and Cyborg slapping him heartily on the back. Even from across the room, she could hear the loud Titan exclaim loudly, "Dang, Ryo, you been practicin' on us?"

The response was muted and unintelligible through the noise of the room.

Ukyou's eyebrow quirked up in interest, though, at what was unfolding several feet removed from Ryouga being congratulated by the Tamaranian and the cyborg. Rather than running forward and hug-tackling the lost boy, Jinx was, instead, leaning against _Raven_ and appeared to be talking to her animatedly. The chef strained her ears to the limit, but she couldn't make out what was being said. Even more odd, both girls were actually smiling.

The chef's eyes narrowed. That didn't fit in with any idea of a love triangle that she was familiar with. Back when they were still fighting over Ranma, the only time she smiled at Shampoo was with daggers in her eyes. Even with Akane, whenever Ranma was involved, it was often an effort to be civil. And the less said about Kodachi the better. She still remembered the time that Akane had asked her and Shampoo to try to 'train' her. It had been a miracle that Akane had survived that little encounter.

Soon after Cyborg stepped over and swept up both girls with one massive arm. Immediately, the large cyborg all but carried all of Yankee squad off to one of the walls, beginning to talk excitedly with the small group while periodically pointing to the stage. Ukyou actually bit off a short curse. She really wished that she could have known what Jinx and Raven had said, if only out of morbid curiosity.

The next two up front weren't singing as a pair, which meant they had two more songs at a minimum to think up what they wanted to play. Everyone had switched back over to English again, which was a bit of a problem for the local Nerimities. Most of the American music they collectively knew came from movies and associated soundtracks, some imported pop, and more recently the various US military radio stations the base picked up. They got some Russian stations, too, not that anyone except Ryouga bothered to learn that many foreign languages.

Their pre-existing knowledge of American music was this a bit… slanted.

As she and Ryu headed up, Ukyou mentally went over what she wanted to do. There was a suggested playlist of uploaded and programmed songs they could look through while the other singers in line did their thing. They spent a minute quietly whispering and pointing out the songs they individually knew most of the lyrics to. A handful of possibilities, whittled by practicality, became a vote of one or two.

By the time their turn came, Ukyou felt a little knot of nervousness in her stomach start to take root. Unlike the Tendo sisters, Shampoo and even Ranma, she hadn't been on stage like this before. Sure, she'd been the center for restaurant promotions and shyness wasn't normally one of her personality traits, but now that she was standing in front of so many people she knew anxiety was raising its ugly head. If this had been something related to martial arts or cooking then she'd have breezed through – she knew that – but singing? She wasn't sure she was even that good.

The music started up, and she quickly looked back to where Ryu was watching intently.

_'__Too late now, I guess.__'_

Tapping her foot to the beat, she remembered when she'd heard this song before, and concentrated on the words.

"If I hold my breath  
If I shut my eyes  
If I disappear  
Just for the afternoon  
If I can't help shouting  
If I lock you out  
If it's not important  
Completely unimportant  
To anyone else but me…"

Looking out over the welcoming crowd, Ukyou allowed herself to smile more freely. No boos or jeers so far. She saw her friends watching raptly. Ryouga and Nabiki were with a group of older men and women, both watching her intently. At the table at the far left of the room, Ranma and Akane were with Professor al-Rifai, cheering her on with their eyes. They looked so close from this far away, and with no one crowding them, they almost seemed to be holding hands.

"We could still belong together  
And together is much better  
We're okay so hey don't worry now  
Oh wow…"

"She's got a nice singing voice," Nabiki whispered. "Better than I thought."

"Back in Nerima, Ukyou always was good at barking orders," Ryouga whispered back. "But she's got a nice voice, too. Hard to believe she ever passed for a guy."

"Didn't you believe just that at first?"

"It wasn't like I looked that closely at her before attacking… well, not at first anyway."

"_If_ I interrupt and  
_If_ I cut you off and  
_If_ I like attention  
Other worse things I could mention  
We could still belong together  
And together is much better  
We're okay so hey don't worry now  
Oh wow…"

By the time Ukyou finished, she found herself feeling remarkably good. The applause from her friends, especially, felt really great. One guy, a complete stranger so probably a civvie, even whistled a friendly cat call, to the amusement and laughter of his comrades. Stepping back off the open area but not yet heading back to Ranma's table, she smiled as Ryu made a bit of a production as his turn came.

"Hey there," Ryu began, clearing his throat and readjusting the microphone. "Here's a song I heard while training a while back, and it stuck in my head. I guess it's a bit of a classic for our American friends, but I'd never heard it before then. Here's hoping I don't screw it up too much."

The beat started slowly, guitar then drums, as Ryu tapped his foot in time. About a minute in, it really kicked in, and the vocals finally appeared on the screen.

"Say your prayers little one  
Don`t forget my son  
To include everyoneeee!  
I tuck you in  
walk within  
Keep you free from sin  
'til the sandman he comessss!  
Sleep with one eye open  
Gripping your pillow tight!"

"Hmm." Ranma pondered, cupping his chin in thought. "Looks like Kumon's upping the ante. I'll have to bring out the big guns to put him and those other idiots in their place…"

Akane looked at him in resignation. "It isn't a competition, you know."

"Says you."

"Exit light!  
Enter night!  
Take my hand!  
We're off to never never-land!  
Something's wrong, shut the light  
Heavy thoughts tonight  
And they aren't of Snow White  
Dreams of war!  
Dreams of liars!  
Dreams of dragons fireee!  
And of things that will bite… yeaah!"

* * *

"He's not half bad," Jinx said, glancing up at the bandanna wearing guy on the stage. "These guys are seriously stuck in the 80's, though. Not that I'm surprised with all the thirty-somethings stuffing up the room."

Starfire smiled pleasantly and clapped her hands. "I find the musical accompaniment to be quite soothing. You're earthly 'heavy metal' is most relaxing."

Cyborg shook his head, "Alright, enough is enough. Once the next set is done, I'm gonna show em the _real_ classics. Then, one of you guys is gonna have to introduce these people to the new millennium. Alright, let's hit the book so I can find a good song that isn't older than we are."

Sighing wearily, Ryouga and Starfire began to follow after. Raven, however, shook her head. "Um, yeah, how about you just get me when you go up. I'm going to go find a seat while we wait." The violet haired titan than turned to the slightly tipsy Jinx. "Care to join me while these three jokers plan their eventual humiliation?"

The pink haired sorceress nodded agreeably. "Alright, sweet cheeks, but let's go get another round first."

Raven sighed loudly. She certainly hoped that whoever was up next was going to sing a _long_ set.

Cutting her way across the room, Raven looked for potential places to sit. There was, of course, the table they'd sat at moments ago, with Ranma, Akane and a few others... however, the more she thought about it the more she realized she didn't really want to sit with them. Not only were the pair getting closer by the moment, taking advantage of Ukyou's departure, but she couldn't really think of anything to say to them. Luckily, she spotted a smaller table near the corner that looked like it had been abandoned recently. Rightly, everything on base was recycled, including cups and glasses dutifully returned to the bar for later cleaning.

A tug at her shoulder brought her attention to her side. Cheeks still nearly as pink as her eyes, Jinx smiled broadly and gestured with a thumb to where the drinks were being stored, making her intent to grab one obvious. Raven simply shrugged and nodded to the empty table, letting her know where to meet up when she was done. Nodding back, Jinx gave her shoulder a squeeze - which was frankly a little odd to the dark Titan - and took off.

By the time Raven settled in to her new seat, silently pulling the table back a bit so she could shift herself as close to sitting in the corner of the room as possible, someone else had taken the stage. An older woman that she didn't recognize began to sing some Japanese song that Raven neither knew, nor could understand. Not to say that the lady couldn't sing, just that Raven didn't feel too compelled to pay attention. She didn't even want to be here, really, especially considering Cyborg's inane plan to drag her up on stage.

Still, hearing Ryouga sing had been something else. Almost worth the price of admission, even.

Even more fascinating, was the fact that Jinx was in a friendly enough mood that she'd offered to explain how this singing extravaganza had come to be. It seemed that the Ranma-inspired idea of letting Jinx beat her up a bit had actually worked. The pink haired girl had been not only tolerable over the past few days, she'd been... actually pleasant to be around.

It was confusing, in all honesty, considering ... things... but Raven found it hard to complain. She'd been kept so busy with work lately that she hadn't had much time to really think of anything, well aside from her own personal problem and the possibility of getting home.

Up at the side of the stage, Ranma had joined Cyborg at the song selection display and the pair seemed ready to come to blows over who would get to sing next. Raven shook her head. It was all the more reason for her to stay hidden in the corner.

The solitude, however temporary it might be, was a nice break as well. Living in the same room as two other girls was an abrupt change from having her own personal room, and with nearly every waking minute being spent with psionics experts from the organization... her personal time had gone from abundant to non-existent. It also gave her a few moments to think as well... whether she liked it or not.

Given the company, and what she'd just seen, there was something that sprang to the forefront almost instantly:

_ 'Why her?'_

"Alright, drinks are up, Sweet Thang! Here ya go."

Raven looked over as Jinx plopped down into the seat next to her, a pair of drinks in her hands. Before Raven could even ask if she was overdoing it, the young witch handed one of the bottles to her - filled with a pink liquid of some sort - giving her little choice but to take it.

She quirked an eyebrow as Jinx pulled her chair up close enough to allow her to lean some of her weight on Raven's shoulder. At least she knew why Jinx was acting so agreeable at the moment; she had obviously been taking advantage of her new status as a non-minor. Raven was a bit surprised that Ryouga hadn't tried to keep her under control... but then she remembered that he was a guy, and Jinx was a girl. He'd have about as much luck telling her what to do as he would hand knitting a sweater.

Looking at the drink in her hand for a moment, Raven slowly put it down and stared at her boundary piercing companion.

"_I_ don't drink," she said, straight out. "And I think that you've had quite enough already, even if we are on leave."

Instantly, the pink haired girl began to pout, clutching her arm. "Ohhh, but Raven, it's a _party_. Can't you loosen up for a bit?"

"I don't _need_ to loosen up," Raven replied, "I'm perfectly relaxed already."

Jinx just stared at her. Giving her shoulder a quick squeeze, the former villainess rolled her eyes.

"Riiight, that's why your shoulders could pass for violin strings, right?" She reached over and slid her drink back in front of her. "Here, how about I make you a deal? If you drink this one, then I promise I'll be done for the night."

Raven 'hmm'd' in serious thought. Slowly picking up the bottle, she turned it around in her hand. "So if I drink, you'll stop drinking?"

Jinx nodded, a deadly serious expression on her face. "The fate of my liver may be in your hands, Raven. Will you be my liver's hero, Rae? Will you?"

Rolling her eyes, Raven gave a weary sigh. "Well, it won't be the first time I've done something questionable to potentially help a teammate since I've been here. What am I drinking, anyway?"

Leaning even more heavily on Raven, Jinx waved her free hand carelessly. "Oh, it's just some hard lemonade. It's barely liquor at all ... its _super_ tasty though!"

Dubious, but filled with good intention, Raven took a tentative sip... only for her eyes to widen in surprise.

"This ... actually is good. Definitely not the worst thing I could subject myself to, to save a liver."

"That's the spirit!" Suddenly, Jinx pushed off from Raven's shoulder and leaned forward to rest on an elbow. "Sooo... what else have you done here that you've considered questionable? Anything _fun_?"

Quickly, Raven took another drink, more to cover her flush of embarrassment than thirst. Coughing slightly after putting the bottle down again, she shook her head.

"Ummm, nothing, nothing. Forget I mentioned anything. Didn't you say you were going to explain the whole 'Ryouga singing' thing?"

"Oh, right-right." Jinx quickly took a small sip of her drink before continuing. "It's a bit of a long story, if you don't mind. Where did you want me to start?"

Moving self consciously, Raven tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear as she glanced at Jinx out of the corner of her eye. "Well, when you said that the song that he sang was 'our song' ... what exactly did you mean?"

"Oh, that? Well, I suppose I was exaggerating a bit," the pink haired witch admitted. "You see, that's really Ryouga and 'Nabiki's' song."

That brought Raven up short.

"... **What**?"

All around the room, people winced in perfect synchronization as a minute migraine struck everyone within a fifty meter radius. It came and went so quickly that it left everyone glancing around in confusion for a second, before resuming the party once more. Blushing furiously, Raven crept further into the corner and did her best to hide behind her bright pink drink.

Doing her best to stifle her giggles, Jinx took another drink. "Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. I think I'd better explain from the start, though. So, do you remember…"

* * *

Up at the 'stage', Cyborg had won the right of 'next to sing' (Soundly defeating Ranma 3-1 in a furious bout of Rock-Paper-Scissors). Flanked by his partners: Ryouga, carrying his single prop for the show, and Starfire, bringing only her gorgeous self, which, most assuredly would be all she would ever need. Despite the fact that it was just a hokey little karaoke party, thrown to help some people on base cut loose for a bit, he had a hard time hiding his excitement as he strode to the middle of the designated area, marching directly towards the lonely looking mic stand. He waved to a few familiar faces from the engineering wing, and gave a wink and a point in the direction of Jalila, way back at Ranma's table.

Now that he thought of it, he hoped he hadn't been too rude, kind of ditching her like he had, considering he'd pretty much invited her to come. Still, the older woman smiled and waved back, not looking all that upset. Always a good sign, that. Maybe a good show up here would make up for any slights on his end?

Speaking of which! He was still two lovely ladies short of a trio! It took the Titan a few seconds to spot the pair of them in the crowd, hidden way back in the corner like they were, and chatting away like a couple of girls… but when he waved for them to join them, Raven made an obvious show of shaking her head and waving for him to go on without her.

That cheating sneak! He should have _known_ that she would take any chance at all to back out! He waved again, more frantically, but this time Jinx joined her in giving him the universal 'bugger off' gesture. The both of them then sat back into their seats, crossing their arms over their chests in a sign of solidarity.

Crap, it was worse than he thought! Not only was Raven backing out, but her curmudgeon-ness was rubbing off on Jinx, the perennial party princess. Maybe he had time to run out and grab -

Which was pretty much when the music began to play. Behind him, Starfire swayed excitedly to the high tempo music (her borrowed dress showing more alien leg than an Ethereal cloak and freezing more men in their seats than a stasis field) and she clapped her hands together eagerly, obviously anxious to help her friend out.

Cyborg pouted fiercely as the music began to play without him. The song wasted no time either and he had to play catch up with a hasty:

"_Whoa-oa-oa, I feel __**good**_! _I knew that I would, now!"_

* * *

Taking a long breath, having had to speak fairly loudly Raven to hear her over Cyborg's exuberant performance, Jinx finally ended her lengthy tale.

"...and that's pretty much when you guys came back to the Tower and gave me the big steel toed boot. Thanks for that, by the way. _Really_ appreciated that one."

Rather than respond to the obviously baited statement (she was enjoying this new, drunkenly open and friendly Jinx, and didn't want to ruin it with a verbal battle), Raven simply nodded,.

"Well, that certainly explains a… a great many things," she diplomatically replied. "I had actually been wondering how it was that you came to be in the company of Ryouga and the others."

At that, the pink cheeked sorceress shrugged her narrow shoulders and turned her attention back to their team mates back at the heart of the party. She noticed that her erstwhile rival's gaze was notably _not_ focused on the showboating cyborg on stage. Rather, the girl's odd, catlike eyes were focused entirely on the martial artist waiting in the wings, doing his best to hold in his laughter as Cyborg 'rocked the stage' as it were.

It was easy to notice, considering her own gaze kept slipping that way… from time to time…

Frowning lightly, she slowly sank back into her thoughtful mood. It felt odd to her, sharing space with the girl who had, until less than a month or two ago - where did the time go? - was her most hated rival. Well... she supposed that 'hated' was a bit harsh.

She'd never actually _hated_ Jinx, no matter how frustrating or annoying the girl was with her life of crime and occasion for stealing boys. Though, she had thought that the opposite had been true, that Jinx had loathed her… If that was the case, however, either things had changed or Jinx was getting very good at burying her emotions.

Looking at her pleasantly swaying companion, Raven took in the unfocused eyes and the flushed cheeks that went along with the drink held in her hand. At the moment, the latter seemed quite unlikely. 'In vino veritas' , she believed the saying was. '_Hmmm, a thought…__'_Maybe, just maybe, Jinx might be a bit more open to honest conversation at the moment than normal?

Leaning over slightly, she was a bit surprised when Jinx leaned over as well, resting her weight on Raven again. She managed to take the contact in stride, though, and soldiered forward.

"So... Jinx," Raven tried to sound casually conversational. "...what do you think of this world?"

Jinx didn't even miss a beat, her head tilting carelessly.

"It ain't so bad, I guess," she replied and sighed softly. "I mean, all the Gestapo stuff kinda pisses me off, but hey, at least we're on the right side of it for a change... I - well, I know a lot of people kinda hate me here... but still, I think I have more friends here than I do back home... when I think about it..."

The look on the girl's face, Raven wasn't sure just what to feel in response to what she'd heard. She didn't have a chance to reply, though, as Jinx continued speaking, her eyes taking on a far away appearance.

"It's so tempting to want to stay here... The money, the authority...?" She smiled, just imagining it. "We'd be - we'd be important here, even if no one ever knew about it... and with Ryouga here? The only one I'm missing is Happi."

Raven wasn't sure what was more surprising, Jinx's admissions ... or the sincerity she felt when Jinx said she would actually miss Happosai.

"But, if Ryouga decided to go home, would you ...?"

"In a heartbeat," Jinx answered without even missing a beat.

That gave Raven pause for a moment. She found herself off-put, impressed even, with Jinx's devotion. Perhaps obsession was a better word?

Feeling the warmth of Jinx's shoulder on her own, the silent hum the girl was making, in time with Cyborg's boisterous singing on stage, she couldn't help but smile. The massive Titan dove into a power slide across the floor that served as the stage area, only for Ryouga to rush out a second later to drape a towel over Cyborg's shoulder and begin to help him off 'stage' - only for Cyborg to throw the towel off and break out into song once more. He was such a ridiculous showman, but the audience was eating it up. At this rate it was only a matter of time before someone tried a Michael Jackson impression.

Surreptitiously, Raven studied Jinx out of the corner of her eye.

No, obsessed wasn't really fair. Jinx wasn't some creepy stalker girl, this wasn't just some one sided crush. She could literally feel the emotions flowing off of the young woman at her shoulder. All at once, she flashed back to one of her many late night conversations with her Ranma.

_ 'Look, Rae, I really hate to say it, I really do, but . . . but yer askin' yerself the wrong question. It isn't: Why does Ryouga like Jinx so much more than you? The real question you need to ask yourself is: Why does Jinx like Ryouga so much more than you?'_

Why was Jinx not even questioning this? Why was she so ... unwavering?

"Jinx," she tried again to see what made her sort-of rival tick. "What would you say if I said I might stay here, you know... even if we do find a way home?"

The other girl's eyes lit up. "Oh, go for it, totally!"

Raven frowned deeply. "What? Just like that?" she asked, shocked by such an openly enthusiastic response. "Stay here forever?"

At that, Jinx turned to look at her, surprise on her face. A moment later, the witch slugged her in the shoulder. "What? You were being _serious_? I thought you were just trying to give me a little wish fulfillment there!"

"Of course I was being serious." Raven's already deep frown grew even grimmer. "How could I joke about that?"

Giving her head a disbelieving shake, Jinx stared at her silently for a second. "Really? Well, why the hell would you even be thinking that?"

The dark Titan felt her eyes widen in surprise. "You ... you actually care if I stay or not?"

"Not personally, no," Jinx admitted, leaning forward onto the table again. "Well, I mean, it's not like I don't _care_, it's just that I - I respect your decisions. Of course, I doubt it's _my_ opinion that you're really worried about here."

Raven leaned forward to rest on her elbows as well. "I thought you were supposed to be too drunk to be at all insightful at the moment."

Jinx giggled, taking another sip for emphasis before dropping an arm around Raven's shoulders. "I'm not nearly as think as you drunk I am. Besides, you know as well as I do, that all your little buddies would be crushed if you stayed here. I mean, just think - just _imagine_ the look on Starfire's face if you told her that you wanted to stay behind. ...And then of course, there's Ryouga..."

It was Raven's turn to take a long drink.

"What about him?" she replied, trying to make the question sound offhanded.

The arm draped around her shoulders suddenly tightened, her nails beginning to dig into Raven's arm. Jinx's eyes narrowed as she pulled herself in closer, their faces mere inches apart.

"You _know_ what I mean," she insisted. "As much as I should want to claw your eyes out ... I know that Ryouga ... cares about you. And not in that creepy, brother-sister way he does with Starfire. I _should_ want to just freakin' nail your feet to the ground so you're stuck here, but I know that would hurt Ryouga and - and I don't want anything to hurt him anymore. Even if it means that I have to put up with you."

Not even sure why she was doing it, Raven lifted a hand and rested it over the hand clutching her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. Taking another swig of her drink, Raven shook her head. "You are perhaps the least sensical being I've ever met, but at least think your heart is in the right place."

"Yeah, yeah, bite me, bird girl," Jinx bit back, sarcastic smile on her face. A second later, she pushed herself up to her feet, nearly pushing Raven out of her seat completely in the process, and straightened out her top. "Anyway, I think it's my turn to sing, so I'm gonna go douse Ranma with some cold water before he tries to get up there after Cyborg. Later, jerk face."

Raven's eyes nearly crossed at the sudden change in tone - until she realized that Starfire was rapidly approaching their position, perhaps within earshot, even as Jinx made her way towards the stage. Even as the Tamaranian dropped down into the seat which Jinx had just vacated, making concerned inquiries as to Raven's state of health, the dark Titan could only watch, thoroughly puzzled, as the pink haired witch walked away.

Had that actually helped her with her decision at all, there?

* * *

"Thank you and goodnight, Seiran Mountain!"

Ryouga had to cover his ears to block out Cyborg's over exuberant farewell to his loving audience. While it had been fun to play along, he'd had more than his fill of being the center of attention for one night. Moving as quickly as possible, he exited stage left just in time to hear the familiar sound of splashing water, followed by an equally familiar shriek of female indignation.

"AH! Damnit! What'd ya do that for?"

Ah, memories.

Smirking, Ryouga looked to the side, where the songs were being selected. The sight of Ranma-chan clutching her soaked shirt while Jinx apologized profusely was just too amusing. He was about to go over to join her ... when he saw the native Ryouga and Nabiki sitting at a table at the far side of the room. He looked back to Ranma and Jinx, and then to Ryouga and Nabiki... The former was potentially hilarious, but the latter... it was past due for him to talk things through. He'd been avoiding the situation all night, and now seemed like a good a time as any to have a sit down.

Of course, he would prefer to have an ally at his side as well, but it looked like Jinx was busily going through the song books, now that Ranma-chan had stalked off in disgust, probably finding the prospect of going up front as a girl to sing 'unmanly' and 'lame' again. Not that it had gotten in his way before. Now that the cat was out of the bag, it was only a matter of time before one of the crew forced Ranma to show off his admittedly and surprisingly well polished female singing voice.

Not him, though.

Ryouga waved to Jinx quickly, and when she looked over, he pointed to the couple sitting across the room. Jinx got the idea quickly enough, and nodded, quickly miming the action for him to put his doppelganger in a headlock and punch him a few times. Rolling his eyes, Ryouga shook his head in fond amusement and made his way across the room.

It was nerve wracking, but soon enough, he found himself standing before the mostly empty table. His counterpart and Nabiki had been watching the Ranma/Jinx scandal up near the stage as well, so they both saw him coming from halfway across the room, and now wore potently neutral expressions on their faces as they looked up at him.

Not sure what else to do, Ryouga shrugged internally and grabbed the back of the nearest chair.

"So," he asked. "...is anyone sitting here?"

The older Hibiki gestured for him to sit, and Nabiki made a production of getting up.

"I better catch a certain someone before he finds hot water," she explained. "Ranma-chan's an important part of my evil karaoke plans, after all…"

"I'll catch you later," Ryouga - the native son – said as she walked off with a spring in her step.

"You owe me ten bucks, too," she reminded him. "I told you Akane wouldn't be the one to finally splash him."

"Yea, yea."

The prospect of getting "Akane's cousin Ranko" on stage meant she didn't even bother looking back. The older Ryouga watched her move swiftly around a group, and out of what both Hibikis knew from experience to be 'find someone without getting lost range.' Alone now, the two young men sat in silence, save for the murmured conversations from other people nearby and the music emanating from the front of the room.

"Sooo," Ryouga finally broke the silence, staring at the doppelganger across the table. The older Hibiki was certainly dressed fancier - Ryouga having just opted to go with his usual yellow sweater -, and actually held an alcoholic beverage, as opposed to Ryouga's glass of water. Considering there was only a year's difference between them, his counterpart certainly seemed to be striving for that 'mature' look. Or maybe that was just Nabiki wanting him to look presentable.

"How are..." he searched for the right word. "Things?"

"Not bad," was the immediate answer. "Your friend, Cyborg, has been a real help over in the hangar. We're on schedule and things look good. India and Juliet's duty rotation technically gives us tomorrow off. How's medical leave?"

Rotating his shoulder, Ryouga shrugged. "Boring, mostly. There really isn't anything to do here when you've been ordered to lay off the training. At least it's not much longer."

"I know what you mean. For people like us, medical leave just kind of drives home how… how isolated we are," he said, after taking a second to phrase his thoughts properly. "That's why they have stuff like this. To keep morale up. If it were just missions and funerals day in and day out…" he shrugged.

The implication was clear: _'__it__'__d be bad.__'_

"You been practicing with the calligraphy array I sent you a week or so back?" the Lieutenant asked instead.

A quick nod was his reply. "It's one of the few things I can get away with training. It's been coming along pretty well, I think. By the time I go home, I'll have to teach Ranma how to do it, just to make sure our fights aren't one sided from here on out."

The other man nodded; he'd already done the same, teaching what he had devised to Ranma. Even without a greater threat putting them both on the same side, they were still rivals. That meant an honest rivalry, where each knew what the other could do. If one learned a new move, he showed it to the other. Winning one or two easy fights was nice, but in the long term, both of them improved by fighting on even ground. There was little honor in constantly beating a weaker fighter who had no chance to retaliate.

"Teaching it to Ranma is fine, but I'd like you to be careful about spreading it around. I don't think Jinx should try it, for one," he added, off hand. "I don't know how stuff like that interacts with her powers… even if she does think of herself as a martial artist and Happosai's pupil." He grunted, annoyed but convinced of his logic. "You know what I mean. Not all training works on all types of people."

A frown creased the younger Hibiki's lips, though he worked hard to hide it. The Lieutenant, he was already doing it again. It wasn't even the advice, which he intellectually understood to be a potentially sound concern, so much as his offhanded _dismissal_ of Jinx. As if Jinx was just claiming to have trained with Happosai, ignorant of the fact that he'd not only agreed to train her, but had taken her on as one of his Disciples, fully and completely. Even Ranma hadn't received that level of respect from the Ancient master.

Hell, if his older counterpart said the same thing about Akane, she'd have pummeled him into the floor with a table by now while declaring 'I'm a martial artist too!' But, instead, Ryouga swallowed his annoyance and forced a smile as he took another drink.

"Well, I'm sure that Happosai might have something to say about that," he replied, unable to completely disguise the aggravated tone of his voice. "Besides, she seems to be taking to it fine already, her and Starfire both, actually. I'll keep your advice in mind, though, in case I see any problems arising."

"That's a good idea," the older him seemed oblivious to the gaffe. "The one time I tested the training on a normal volunteer, a non-martial artist, it caused muscle damage. Luckily nothing serious, but it's still dangerous. If only that old man were still alive…" He paused, giving the Sergeant a cold look. "Wait, what was that? They're taking to it fine? Taking to _what_, fine?"

"Manipura arrays," the younger replied.

"I made that one array for you, and only for you," the elder Hibiki said with a groan. "Altered ki generation is still an experimental technique. Still _my_ technique," he said that part with some heat. "That means you come to me and I approve someone and I make a new array to help them train."

"Starfire and Jinx have had more experience with energy generation than anyone else here, including you." Ryouga huffed, trying to keep his cool in the face of the ridiculous and arrogant claim. "Besides, are you kidding? This is martial arts, not patent law. Did we give Ranma written permission to learn the Moko Takabisha? The second one of us gleans enough about a technique to start learning it, that technique is free game."

"I'm not talking about you _copying_ my technique, I'm talking about you _teaching_ it. Common courtesy is to ask the artist you learned the technique from before passing it on yourself, and you know it. For Gods' sake, I spent months learning martial arts calligraphy and the effect it has on physiology, and you think I don't know when and how to apply it? You think I don't have ways of making sure it's safe to use?"

"Common courtesy?" the young sergeant replied, as if sounding out an alien language. "What on earth are you talking about? Hell, the entire basis of the Anything Goes style is blatantly stealing any technique that isn't nailed down… and even that's questionable. In my _entire life_, I have never known anyone to ask for, or be granted permission to teach someone else a technique. Cologne never asked anyone's permission to teach me the Hiryu Shoten Ha, and she sure didn't care when I told her I was trying to teach Terra the Bakusai Tenketsu."

Glaring now, the Lieutenant pointed at the younger Hibiki. "The array I made for you is meant only for you. It's not meant to work for anyone else. Just applying it to two different people with unknown powers is completely reckless."

The younger Hibiki stared at his counterpart incredulously. "And you think that _I_ didn't know _that_? Of course I knew that, that's why I went to Cologne and asked her to help me develop arrays that would be more suited to the pair of them."

Letting out a mirthless chuckle, he shrugged. "This isn't about _stealing_ your technique, this is about doing everything I can to learn about and master it. If it means going to the one person on the base that _is_ as knowledgeable as you, and _isn__'__t_ constantly busy with missions and work, then of course I'm going to do it. By studying how it interacts with Jinx and Star, with Cologne's help, not only am I helping them improve their skills, I'm also increasing my own understanding of the technique. Ranma would have done the same thing in a heartbeat, and you know you would have too. After all, I did. "

The Elder Hibiki scion shook his head in defeat.

"Look… I don't even want to think about that now. Knowing that Cologne is involved at least lets me know that no one is likely to die…" He trailed off at that, and after a second shook his head before changing the topic and remembering that, of all things, they shouldn't be having yet another argument. Yet again, even in spite of the fact that they were in the middle of trying to reconcile, things were already slipping out of control. What _could_ the pair of them even talk about that wouldn't result in a fight?

"You, um… have any hobbies to kill the time?"

Glad for the distraction, as he felt his temper continue to rise, the younger Ryouga quickly shook his head. Honestly, one would think that he was dating Nabiki, and not Jinx, the way that his counterpart kept comparing her to non-martial artists with no appreciable training. Ukyou had been approved for an array, after all, and Jinx was as much a martial artist as the okonomiyaki chef. This alien concept of asking permission to do what you would with a technique was also vaguely frustrating. He supposed that, in a vague sense, he could understand his double's annoyance. He did seem quite proud of the technique, and probably didn't like being left out of the loop, but, honestly, it hadn't even occurred to Ryouga to ask for permission.

He decided to just chalk it up as another strange difference between dimensions.

"Hobbies?" he answered. "No, not really, well, at least not here, anyway. Most of my time lately was spent working with Terra, helping her train her powers. That, and Cyborg hasn't been able to find enough people to get a good Stankball league going. Why? What kind of hobbies can a person even do down here?"

"Cards. Trivia. The hangar's big enough for basketball and even some football. American style football, I mean. Normal football, too. Some people meditate or help out in hydroponics. On the road we… I assume we both… just trained and did some light reading, right?" He decided, after a moment, to give a more personal answer, "Since I met up with mom and dad again, I've been trying to get in touch with some of the Zen Buddhist stuff grandpa used to talk about. It's… calming."

"That all sounds-" Ryouga let out a long sigh. "Really, really, boring, honestly. I know that Star, Raven and Jinx all have hobbies, and Cyborg is pretty much living his, but I can't really see myself doing any of that kind of stuff. I'm sure once I get healed up, I'll be able to get back to training."

"Well, what would you be doing if you weren't here?" the older Hibiki asked. "Probably just more training. How'd you adjust to being so stationary anyway, at that Titans Tower of yours? It took me weeks to get used to not being able to just walk off and clear my head by getting lost."

Ryouga shook his head, smirking. "Stationary? I suppose so, but honestly, I never had the chance to notice. Like I said, pretty much every minute of every day since I joined up with them involved figuring out some problem or another for them. I'm not really sure how you put up with so much downtime between missions here."

Looking around, Ryouga noted Cyborg sitting back next to the scientist lady he'd brought along. The pair of them were chatting away quite amiably, by the looks of it, the unfamiliar older woman even laughing at something the Titan said. The sight of such casual interaction inspired not so old memories to rise up, of his time with the Titans. Despite what he'd said, it hadn't been _all_ training and resuscitating.

"Though, I have to say, watching television, going to movies and going out for pizza with friends are all good ways to spend time that we never really got to do back in Nerima."

The older him grunted in agreement. "I can imagine. All that stuff back in Tokyo seems so small time now. Now that I look back, half of it was us picking the fights in the first place. Hey, Kasumi's living with you, right?"

"Yeah. The Tower has pretty much become her domain now. I honestly don't know how the Titans got by without her in the first place."

"She doesn't miss home?"

A shrug. "Well, if she does, she doesn't make a big deal of it. It's not like she can't call home whenever she wants, after all." Ryouga smiled as a thought occurred to him. "If anything, she's probably lucky she got out when she did. What with Natsume and Kurumi being adopted and moving in, and Ranma's team always dropping over. It's probably crazier there now than it was when we were all still hanging out there."

"You know Juliet squad brought in Natsume and Kurumi a few months ago? They might end up moving into the Tendo Dojo, at least for a while, since they were basically wandering like we used to. Nabiki plans to move out after the war, and Kasumi will probably get a job in the city, so the openings are there." By city he meant Tokyo itself, not just the suburban wards. "Our situation here might end up looking a lot like yours."

That brought a smile to Ryouga's lips. "_Looking like_ being the operative words, what with the lack of supervillainy and superheroing involved, I suppose. Your Mr. Tendo seems like an upright kind of person, though, so hopefully he'll consider adopting them as well."

"I'm sure he will… I think he's used to having a bunch of daughters around to dote after. As long as Akane and Ranma merge the schools when the war is over. Hell if I know what I'll do, then, though," the Lieutenant admitted. "I'll probably end up 'persuaded' to join the JSDF. Either that or get good and lost. From what I've heard of your world, you'll be fighting the same villains till you're a wrinkled old prune like Happosai or Cologne."

Ryouga nodded, having thought this himself. "I wouldn't mind that," he said with a small laugh. "That's one of the good things about what we do, after all. Sure, we might have to fight some people again and again, but we get a lot of new business as well. At least I know my life will always be interesting."

Leaning back into his seat, he took a drink from his glass. "Saving the world seems like a good a retirement plan as any, after all. And as long as I have my friends with me, I-" He paused, looking at the center of the room. "Why is Nabiki dragging Ranma-chan and Akane around over there?"

"She wants to do that DoCo thing. Remember that Christmas we spent at the Dojo after the first year?"

"Yeah," he remembered. "And we went shopping with Kasumi! I never did get to give Akane her present either, due to that thing with Ranma and the fiancé brigade!"

"Same here." The older Hibiki smirked. "Ended up giving it to-"

"Ukyou, right?"

"Yep."

The two relaxed a bit more, remembering those times well. Of course, he'd been heartbroken, having Akane storm by, oblivious to the present he was holding out for her. Not too long before, he'd had the waterproof Jyusenkyou soap incident, and never forgot Akane's words – only overheard because Ranma was holding P-chan at the time – about how his affection had actually _frightened_ her and how she'd feared for her life just being around him. Not that he blamed her, looking back on it, since he had been crushing fiberglass columns in half and bowling over concrete obstructions in what he'd assumed to be a playful bout of 'chase me, tee-hee.' He'd worked hard since then on holding back more, but the words had always sapped what courage and self-confidence his training provided.

It felt almost like a lifetime ago.

The two Hibikis watched now as Nabiki tried to wrangle Ukyou into rounding out the number needed to reenact some of the old songs from back then. Ryouga couldn't imagine why any of them were on the machine in the first place: maybe Nabiki had uploaded them before? Once on stage, the four started on a version of Equal Romance in the original Japanese, with Ukyou subbing for Shampoo. They were all still naturally Japanese speaking, and it must've been easier to harmonize with the more familiar lyrics in-language. They then repeated it, this time in English for the majority of listeners.

It was almost like being back then. Nostalgia had colored some of it in a positive light, of course, but Nerima was still a place and a topic that aroused mixed ambivalent feelings in both Hibikis. There was a good reason why both of them had, at different points in their lives, tried to avoid that part of the city entirely. Nerima was a place that often brought out the worst in its community, along with the best, and while some of the memories of it were nice enough, the majority were the exact opposite: humiliating, de-humanizing, martial arts defeats, pointless fights, curse triggering splashing at the worst damn times… Ryouga often only ended up there once a month, but always he found himself wanting to leave within a few days.

The younger of the pair had opted to leave Nerima behind chronologically sooner than the native Hibiki, and the latter could understand why. They'd diverged on how to handle the P–chan thing. The Teen Titan had fessed up to it, though the exact circumstances were a mystery, while the local Ryouga had preferred to bury it under the rug following the Jusendo affair. By that point in both their lives, P-chan itself had become less and less important, showing up at the Tendos less and less often thanks to Akari, but the question had always been about the exit strategy.

"Oh great. Ranma's up to something again…"

The older one said it, but they both recognized the signs. Ranma had obviously seen something that gave him a sudden spurt of inspiration, and even in girl form, was animatedly trying to clear some room. Nabiki had her hands on her hips, obviously annoyed with being put out of the way, but then Ranma whispered something to her and she started laughing.

"Okay, everyone. If you don't know this one, just try and go along. It's pretty straightforward." Ranma-chan tapped her foot and pointed over to the machine where the song was starting up.

"Well I'm _ever_ upper-class high society…."

He (as she) began in her best Kodachi-like impression.

"God's gift to ballroom notoriety!  
And I always fill my ballroom  
The event is never small…  
The social pages say I've got  
The biggest balls of all!"

The fact that Ranma was singing this as a girl seemed to only highlight the ridiculousness. She even shamelessly rocked her hips back and forth.

"I've got big balls  
I've got big balls  
They're such big balls  
And they're dirty big balls!  
And he's got big balls!  
And she's got big balls!  
But we've got the biggest balls of them all!

And my balls are always bouncing…  
And my ballroom always full…  
And everybody comes and comes again!  
If your name is on the guest list  
No one can take you higher!  
Everybody says I've got  
Great balls of fire!"

By this point those who knew the song were singing along, and to add to the production, Ranma pointed to random men and women at the 'he's got big balls' and 'she's got big balls' chorus, only to motion that the whole room has the 'biggest balls of them all.' From where the Titans were clustered, a whisper predated a rather loud:

"OH YES! I see now! It is a play on the words! Earth languages are most interpretive!"

"Some balls are held for charity  
And some for fancy dress  
But when they're held for pleasure…"

A wild gyration of Ranma-chan's pelvis caused a wave of hoots and cheers.

"They're the balls that I like best!  
My balls are always bouncing  
To the left and to the right  
It's my belief that my big balls  
Should be held every night!"

"I'd say that idiot was drunk, but he's just an idiot," the native Ryouga said with a groan as the song wound down. "Can't go ten minutes without a spotlight."

The younger Hibiki gave a helpless shrug. "Well, I guess what they say is true. The more things change, the more they stay the same."

After a long moment of silence, the older Hibiki took a few seconds to enjoy the moment and look back up where the girls (Ranma included) were arguing over what to do next. It'd be nice – it'd maybe even be okay – to just leave it at that. To leave it at a comfortable silence. They could make small talk or reminisce about past wandering or martial arts anytime. It wasn't really why they were here, though, and it wasn't why Nabiki had conspicuously taken a leave from the potential conversation.

"Look, about the other day…"

Ryouga didn't bother turning back to face his counterpart. As with most guys, he felt more comfortable talking to people without looking them in the eyes. Instead, he continued to watch the girls going through the song lists.

"There isn't too much to say. I have things that I need to deal with."

"Mm."

There was a small huff that passed for: 'alright then' and 'I can sure as hell relate to that.'

"I'd offer to help," he added, after a couple seconds of thought. "But I think the less advice I try and give at this point the better."

Ryouga-the-younger nodded. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I'm sure you can sympathize with the fact that I'm the last person that I want to take advice from. Usually about nine times out of ten when I take my own advice, it backfires on me."

"There is one thing, though," the older him noted, finishing off his lone drink of the night. "Mom's got it in her head you're like my baby brother or something. I'd appreciate it if you forgave her for being a bit over the top."

The young sergeant considered the request for a moment. Finally, he shook his head. "It's hard enough doing this as it is. Her unthinking interference almost cost me something damn precious to me. I can't just... not yet, at least. Maybe eventually, though. I just need more time."

The older man didn't reply to that, except to accept it in silence.

"Your team decided what they want to do yet?" He remembered what the younger Hibiki had said at the front of the room before. "No one's _forcing_ you guys to break up, you know."

Ryouga nodded to that. "I know, I know. I'm just giving everyone a few days to consider the idea first, before I ask them. I mean, I already know that Starfire is against the idea, but everyone else..."

Suddenly, the near empty glass in his hand became fascinating to him. "I honestly don't know what I'll do if everyone decides to go their own ways. I won't abandon Starfire to a life of imprisonment no matter how well dressed up it is... But I can't leave Jinx either..."

Rather than say anything, the native Hibiki just listened to see if the other man would continue. Earlier, he'd seemed adamant about following Jinx anywhere, so he'd probably already made up his mind – at least on some level – about what to ultimately do. Making it and living with it would be a good deal harder, though, if it finally came to that. There were good, logical reasons for breaking Yankee up and letting the individual Titans stand on their own, but it wouldn't be an easy thing. They were all they had from their home.

He found himself somewhat disappointed, when his young counterpart finally gave a non-committal shrug. "Still, when it comes down to it, it's not my decision, so I'll have to wait and hear what everyone has to say. There's no way for me to plan for what might happen, since I can't imagine what might happen to us. I just wish there wasn't so much con to go with all the pros here."

Up at the front of the room, the girls minus a too-bombastic center-of-attention Saotome were finishing another song and receiving shouted requests. For a few minutes, the two Hibikis just sat and watched and listened. Not a surprise – the younger Ryouga seemed more familiar with some of the music suggestions which were, typically, English only.

"Hey," the elder asked, suddenly a little curious about something. "What was it like going back to school, anyway?" Meaning the HIVE. "No bread fights this time?"

That brought a smirk to the young Hibiki's face. "Bread fights? Heh, not so much. There were some shaped charges involved in our shenanigans, and a few high octane lunch room brawls, but it was actually pretty fun. I was only there for a few months, but I certainly learned more than I would have imagined."

"Was it a real boarding school, anyway? I know it was a 'super villain school' but did you have any normal classes at all, or was everything about robbing banks or fighting the good guys?" He chuckled a bit. "If you graduate, do you get a GED or something?"

"Heh, well, the Head Master was named 'Brother Blood', so I doubt he was able to get the proper credentials to actually set up a proper school. Though, Jinx did mention once, that he did take over the school from some old English woman, so I don't know what kind of paperwork she might have done. Still, while the classes were a bit, well, slanted, there was a lot of good physics and such in there."

"What happened to all your classmates when the school went up? They go solo or stick together or what?"

The dimensionally displaced Ryouga gave that question a bit of thought. "Hmm, well Nabiki took off with Mammoth, Gizmo and a few others, started up her team. You know that part already. See-more, E-X and a few of the others got away too. I haven't heard much from them, though, so I don't know if they stuck together or not."

He scratched his chin as something else occurred to him. "Oddly enough, the only person that's completely unaccounted for after the Academy was all but atomized ... was Kodachi. No one remembers seeing her since the moment they all escaped from the self destructing training course of doom."

"Kodachi isn't exactly Miss Popular," the older Ryouga admitted. "But still, I'd think someone would look for her? Even if it is literally looking for trouble."

"Oh, Kuno spared no expense to find her, but to no avail. Wherever she went, I don't think she _wanted_ to be found. These days he's pretty busy, what with him, Ukyou and Bumblebee starting up their own team, so I don't know if the search is still going on or not."

"What about your Kodachi?" the Sergeant asked. "I notice she's not on any of the teams around here."

"Our Kodachi was touring collages in Europe when the organization made the call to start picking up people with our… talents," the lieutenant explained with a smirk. "India got the call to intercept her at the airport, and the _moment_ she saw Kuno..." He chuckled dryly. "Out came the leotard and black roses and paralysis powder. How she got through customs with them I can't imagine."

A bored shrug. "You know Mousse and you're actually surprised? You wouldn't even believe what Gizmo could get through airport security, too."

"True. Anyway, we ended up with the usual Nerima style melee," Ryouga finished – yes, he understood in some way how to sneak things through customs, but Kodachi brought a new brand of loony to it – and cut to the end. "We sent her to a Sanctuary Community over in the States. Last I heard, she was hooked up with Pantyhose."

"BWAHA!" The younger man broke into outright guffaws. "Couldn't have happened to a nicer sociopath! Man, I never would have imagined it, but yeah, those two belong together!"

"Only ones I feel sorry for are Natsume and Kurumi, since they're apparently the ones keeping the nutjobs in check."

"Well, not everyone can get a happy ending, I guess. Still, at least they know they'll get out of there someday."

Finally, Ryouga turned to look at his doppelganger. "...Look, let's just quite beating around the bush here. If I don't do this now, I'll just keep putting it off forever."

Carefully putting down his glass, he took a deep breath. "Alright, here it goes. I'm sorry for, well, at least most of the terrible things I've been saying since I've been here. I mean, I'm still ticked about the whole trying to kill us thing, but that's pretty much water under the bridge at this point... I - you know what I mean, right?"

"Yeah. I do." The native Ryouga had one arm over the back of his chair, still watching the girls up at the front of the room. It was a tasteful distraction, at least. "For my part, I… well, I didn't mean to disparage what you have with Jinx. I - I guess I just thought you would want someone being the' blue oni,' you know? And you've got some real nice moves, too, when it comes to the Art. Some of them I'm a little jealous of, actually."

The young martial artist found him smirking at that. "Heh, now I know you're just being nice. Just what I've learned from you since being here is probably going to change the way I look at martial arts forever... I can only guess where I'll be, skillwise, within even a single year now."

A dark cloud passed over his face. "Though ... I don't think I'll try to adapt some of your other techniques. As you said - not every technique works for every person."

"You know… even I'm of two minds about them," the older man admitted. "It isn't like I like going around making techniques like that. Killing techniques. They're forbidden – or should be – but I'm kind of proud of them, too. They're like… milestones."

The younger man nodded, understanding. "I can totally agree with you there. I mean, hell, some of your stuff is like, straight out of Dragon Ball compared to what I can do. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't ever throught about trying to get the breaking point to work on... living things. You can't help thinking these things when you plan how to improve your techniques. I mean, if you develop a technique, and never use it, is it still wrong? I - I kind of _do_ want to follow in your footsteps, but, at the same time, I'm afraid to."

"Yeah," the older Hibiki agreed, silent for a few seconds after that to finish off the very last of his drink.

"Plus," he continued, "Think about all the masters we know. Even _Genma_. They've all made techniques they considered 'too dangerous' …sometimes I wonder if I'm doing just what Cologne wants me to do, by coming up with what I need t kill her." He turned around to face the table, staring at the empty drink in his free hand. "I've permanently scarred my hands, changed how my body makes and circulates ki… all to perfect a technique. All for the Art. I'd probably have done it even without an enemy, really. Nabiki says it's the craziest, stupidest thing she's ever seen."

He chuckled wanly at that.

"Maybe it is. Maybe I am kind of crazy. Even though I knew about earth ki, I never really thought to use it. Not like you did." He paused, explaining, "I can tell you one thing: I'll never teach the killing point. After the war, I'll take the technique scrolls I've written and hide them. I should probably destroy them but... Hell, I don't know."

The younger man nodded. "Storing them some place safe is probably for the best. I've already seen it enough that the pieces are slipping together in my head. It's all I can do to try to stop that from happening; I'm hoping to forget what I've learned before I figure it out completely... before I become too tempted to try it myself. I don't want to be in the situation where I know I can use it and I have to choose to."

He gave a weary sigh. "Honestly, the Commander's suggestion, to try to create techniques designed to help people? The longer I'm here, the more appealing it is." Looking up, he matched his counterpart's serious stare. "You might think it's funny that I may end up fighting the same supervillains again and again ... but if you stay in the military, you'll likely end up fighting just as long as I do, you just won't be getting any repeat business. It might be naive of me, but I think I prefer my job to yours."

"It isn't about me, though," replied the Lieutenant, "For the both of us, all we can do is fight. So we'll do just that. If the aliens leave Earth, we'll fight them on Mars. If we beat them on Mars, sooner or later, we'll have to beat them deeper in space, too."

The prospect was one he almost seemed to relish – here was an enemy, after all, that neither asked for nor deserved quarter.

"But in the end, all this fighting is for those who can't defend themselves. Of course, if you end up fighting the same guy over and over, I think the problem may be less your methods and more the incompetence of those you hand them off to. If I capture an Ethereal, I know where it'll end up, sooner or later."

The topic ended up bringing a cruel smile to the older Hibiki's face, revealing a hint of teeth and too-large canine. As it always did. No matter how he tried to hide it, or control it, or harness it, he _hated_ the aliens. With a burning passion, with every fiber of his being, he _hated_ them. For Akari, for countless thousands, he hated and killed for those who couldn't fight back. It wasn't healthy, but it simply was. Hibikis had always been that way, for generations.

Up at the front of the room, Nabiki was singing by herself now, for the first time, and he gave her his full attention. Much of the commotion and confusion up there had died down, leaving one of the instigators alone to sing on her own merits. Luckily for her, Nabiki was good. Not only could she sing, she'd been active in Furinkan's non-martial arts chorus, but she liked music. Her massive collection of illegal mp3s was, to him, an amazing accomplishment in copyright infringement. Each room came with a personal computer with half a terabyte of free basic space to use as private domain

Nabiki actually needed an extra drive for all her varied illegal downloads.

Still, he liked her music, both Japanese and American, and she could sing. Usually, it was technical: knowing the words and repeating them perfectly in time. Sometimes, as with the DoCo tracks she considered part of home, she put genuine emotion into them.

"Kiss me… out of the bearded barley  
Nightly… beside the green, green grass  
Swing, swing … swing the spinning step  
You wear those shoes and I will wear that dress.

Oh, kiss me… beneath the milky twilight  
Lead me… out on the moonlit floor  
Lift your open hand  
Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance  
Silver moon's sparkling…  
So kiss me."

For the first time that night, Ryouga saw her watching him and blushed a bit. Even if she wasn't singing it to him, and who could tell for sure, it kind of felt like it. He thought, for a moment then, about the other him seated nearby, and how he felt no regret about going anywhere as long as it was with the girl he… loved… probably. He remembered saying his own relationship was 'complicated' in comparison, and how he couldn't feel confident about making the same sort of blank check commitment.

He knew Nabiki felt the same way, but…

"Kiss me… down by the broken tree house  
Swing me… upon its hanging tire  
Bring, bring… bring your flowered hat  
We'll take the trail marked on your father's map

Oh, kiss me… beneath the milky twilight  
Lead me… out on the moonlit floor  
Lift your open hand  
Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance  
Silver moon's sparkling…  
So kiss me."

...but it was still complicated.

She would also be coming along to run field Ops for Pathfinder. Unlike before, when they'd handled the Higurashi Shrine and a few other hotspots, they would be alone out there, and she wouldn't be safe in a command post or van, surrounded by armed guards. She'd be in arm's reach of whatever trouble they ran into. If something happened, he didn't know what he'd do.

His expression hardened for a second at the thought.

"I suppose this means I'll have to do my part soon," he said to his dimensional double, as Nabiki finished the last chorus of the song. "Can't say I like how big this crowd is, though."

Even as the older Hibiki wearily began to rise to his feet, Ryouga joked, "So, are you gonna sing 500 miles...? Oh, wait a minute… I think you might be off the hook."

Looking over, the senior Ryouga turned back to the front of the room, where Nabiki was still bowing shamelessly to the clapping crowd - only to be pushed bodily aside by Jinx. Even as she playfully shoved Nabiki out of the limelight, Jinx plucked the microphone from her hand.

"Alright, alright," she declared. "You Tendo attention hogs have had the limelight enough for one night, I think."

"I barely got to do anything!" Akane barked, but was completely ignored by the pink haired sorceress.

Smirking, Ryouga gestured to Ryouga, "This looks like it could be amusing; let's sit back with everyone else."

Moving quickly, they rejoined 'Ranma's Table', which, at this point was two tables shoved together to accommodate the bulk of India, Juliet, Yankee squads ... as well as Akane and Professor al-Rifai. Raven and Starfire had moved back at some earlier point, the latter finally getting the chance to enjoy her rather unusual choice in drink sitting across from Ryu and Ukyou, who were sitting next to Cyborg and the good professor, who were in turn sitting next to Ranma and Akane. The pair of Ryougas grabbed a pair of seats down from Akane, purposely leaving an open seat for the Tendo sister that was just finishing letting herself be shooed off the stage.

"Seriously, enough with the classics and cheesy love songs, already!" Jinx exclaimed in exasperation. "I think I speak for everyone that we need a change of pace."

Heads nodded around the room, even as a few of the more sentimental booed jokingly. Raven rolled her eyes. "What is she on about now?"

"And really", Jinx continued, "How does a group of girls stacked like that-" She held her hands out about a foot from her own chest for emphasis. "Have the combined sex appeal of National Geographic magazine? And yes, that includes you, Ranma!"

"What!" The redheaded martial artist leapt up to her feet. "I'm the sexiest thing in this entire damn base!"

A second later, she was pulled back into her seat with a squawk, Akane glaring at him hotly. "Idiot, you're not supposed to brag about stuff like that."

Joining them once more, Nabiki took the seat that her Ryouga had saved for her. Smirking playfully, she shrugged. "Personally, I don't know if I should be insulted about the sexiness thing, or flattered by the fact that I'm some kind of G cup in Jinx's eyes."

"I'll go with the former," Ukyou muttered, crossing her arms over her chest with just enough self consciousness to be a tad obvious.

Back at the center of attention, Jinx strolled over to the karaoke machine. "Let's see if we can't switch up the tone for tonight and make this party just a bit more ... intimate."

With that, she hit the play button and moved back to the monitor.

For just a second, the younger Hibiki froze with apprehension. She wasn't going to sing _that_ song, was she? As soon as the music started to play, though, he relaxed immediately. Looking back, he noted that both Ryouga and Nabiki were giving him odd looks, to which he replied with a sheepish, "Heh, well, I was just worried she might be singing this other song for a second. It was a bit ... risqué."

And then Jinx began singing, her voice dropping into a low, sultry tone. Or, at least an attempt at a low, sultry tone. Her voice was a bit pitchy, and her words just slightly slurred from drink…

"Is that you doing that to me ... with your stare?"

But there was nothing clumsy when, subtly, almost imperceptibly, the girl's body began to sway as her gaze swept over the crowd.

"I feel the temperature start to rise  
and I really take it from there."

Suddenly, the sorceress burst into motion, her hips rolling in a not-at-all innocent manner.

"I start to press my skin to you  
I'm craving it  
I'm feeling you  
Mmm! Relieve me fast."

Her free hand began to slide up from her hip and along her side, lifting the edge of her shirt teasingly for a moment before letting it drop back down.

"Feast your eyes on my display  
Take control  
Follow my way  
Cover me in ecstasy"

The way that Jinx was moving her body wasn't like anything they'd seen that night. Even Ranma-chan's wild gyrations, as playful and entertaining as they had been, didn't match up to the way Jinx's body all but _writhed_. Every shift hinted something, every twist promised something more; while the younger men of the room felt their jaws begin to drop, the older men began to look about uncomfortably, not certain they should be watching.

"Let me ride to heaven  
Let me feel the swelling  
Oh let me concentrate"

Starfire looked on, somewhat perplexed. "Oh. Oh, is this ... another earthly play on words?"

Slowly, Ryu shook his head. "No ... I don't think she could be more literal if she tried." To prove his point, he gestured around the table, pointing out Akane's, Raven's and young Ryouga's bright red faces.

"I can feel it  
When I taste life and when I breathe  
Crawling inside of me baby  
Oh oh oh"

Ukyou could only watch the girl dance, surprise mixed with a bit of pique. At her side, Ryu was trying his utmost to put on a stony expression, but she could see the excitement twinkling in his eyes. All around the room it was the same; hell some of the few younger men were starting to hoot at the top of their lungs, like pervert's row at a strip club. _She_ sure as hell hadn't gotten this kind of reaction (not that she wanted it), so how was it that Jinx with her ... 'slim figure' got this response?

It was also walking a bit of a fine line. There were officers present, and if things got too rowdy, one of them would undoubtedly step in and put the kibosh on the whole night.

"Now's the time for you to let go of  
All your inhibitions  
We can do this one more time  
With a little  
Tease and conversation"

With her last verse, Jinx turned her full attention to the dimensionally displaced Ryouga, piercing him with a eyes filled with what could only be described as hunger.

Across the table from the wide eyed lost boy, Raven stared at Jinx's undulating body, then shifted sideways a bit to look down at her own hips. Her own experience with dance was limited, but none of the other girls she knew had ever… moved like this, unless one counted some of the things she'd seen on late night TV and some of the raunchier music videos Beast Boy drooled over.

"How - how is she moving like that?"

"I don't know," Nabiki replied with an impish grin, "But I'm thinking of asking for lessons. I think she might have taken her training with Happosai more seriously than we thought."

"A female Happosai?" the native Ryouga half asked, half speculated. "My poor gender."

"Watch the way my body moves  
Feel the rhythm melting you  
Mmm this is how it should be"

Starfire felt a smirk cross her lips and leaned towards Cyborg.

"Tell me, what is the perception of a female feeling attraction for another female on this planet?"

"Crawl over you  
I'll dominate  
Your destiny  
I'll be your fate  
I will be your fan-ta-sy"

"Generally accepted." Cyborg leaned in to reply. "Um… though kind of frowned upon in some regions."

He leaned back a second later, forgetting the obvious. "Also, _totally_ hot."

"Here, here," Ryu agreed.

"Oh, shut up," muttered an irate Ukyou. "Honestly, you guys are such… guys."

"Let me ride to heaven  
Let me feel the swelling  
Oh let me concentrate"

Smirking himself, Lieutenant Hibiki leaned over to his younger counterpart.

"So, it's - um - a good thing that she didn't sing the 'risqué' song, right?"

"I'd pummel you if I wasn't in complete agreement," he whispered back.

"...I might be starting to see a little bit of what you see in her-"

"Hey! None of that!"

"Hibikis," Nabiki asked, interest on her face as she leaned over towards them. "What are you two whispering about?"

"Nothing." Came their stereo reply.

"I can feel it  
When I taste life and when  
I breathe  
Crawling inside of me oh baby  
Oh oh oh  
Oh oh oh..."

Relishing every bit of the attention, Jinx repeated the chorus several last times before finally wrapping up her song. The second she finished, and without even another word, she placed the mic back on the stand and walked off, hips swaying dangerously from side to side with each step. She waved flirtatiously and drew her finger teasingly along the shoulders of a few of the younger men that had moved their chairs right up in front of the performance area, garnering a few more loud hoots and whistles.

Then, finally, Jinx found her way to their table and plopped herself right down into Ryouga's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Alright, I think I'm ready to go to bed now. Care to… show me to my room?"

"Ahhhhh - ummm," Ryouga looked around, desperate for a distraction. Nearly frantic, he grabbed his doppelganger's forearm. "We, uh, can't go yet. I mean, Ryouga's still gotta sing. Isn't that right, _Lieutenant'_?"

"Actually, I'd rather not follow an act like that," he answered, shaking back and forth as the younger man's completely un-subtle shaking threatened to knock him out of his chair. "I don't think my hips can compete."

Coughing politely into her hand, Professor al-Rifai took a quick sip from her drink. "That was - ah - quite an interesting performance, Miss. I - I hate to ask, but where did you learn to dance like that? You weren't..."

"A stripper?" Jinx supplied with a laugh. Tightening her grip around Ryouga's neck, the sorceress leaned back and lifted one of her legs straight up into the air. "No, no, however, my martial arts master back home was quite the fan of them. When we weren't hitting raves, or killing me with his training, we were usually hitting the gentleman's clubs. It was a real good way to give the wrinkled prune a quick pick me up before we got back to work."

"It's amazing you could put up with it," Akane said, having listened intently – secretly a little curious herself. "Grandfather Happosai was always… um, what's a good word?"

"A borderline pedophile?" Ranma asked with a shrug. "What? As the saying goes, if it had a bush, he'd-"

A second later, and his face was planted firmly into the table.

"Baka!" came the predictable reply. "Don't say gross things like that!"

"Especially in that body," Ryu threw in. "Really, Saotome."

"You don't even know what I was going to say!"

"I know it'd be perverted." Akane insisted. "That's enough."

An untranslatable mumble was shared between martial artist and table… probably something about tomboys and their less than desirable traits and attitudes.

"If only Mousse were here. Then we could put a pole up and really see how much-"

CLANG

Ryu quickly joined the Umisenken Master face down on the table.

"Yeah. Singing is one thing; grinding inanimate objects with your crotch is another. Interesting as it would be," Ryouga said, and cringed. When nothing happened, he gave Nabiki a quick look.

"Honestly," she sighed. And hit him with a tiny mallet. "Happy now?"

"Everyone was doing it. I just wanted to fit in."

Cyborg looked around the table quickly, pausing momentarily on Raven, then Starfire, then finally Jalila. For a moment, he lifted a finger, as if the speak... only to shake his head.

"Naw, man, it's just not worth it."

Jinx giggled impishly at all the violence she had inspired. "Thank goodness that abusing men is completely acceptable for the female gender. You know, Biki, 'Kane... um... 'Kyou? Meh, whatever. If you guys want, I can show you guys a few moves that'd have these men melting in the palms of your hands."

She tapped her chin for a second. "I mean, not that that'd be hard, considering how whipped they already are... And, I guess, on second thought, you wouldn't really want them going 'soft' in your hands, so much as h-"

"Oooookay!" Raven quickly interrupted. "I think that's quite enough of _that_ line of thought."

Too late.

"Don't you worry about that, Jinx," Nabiki said, leaning over a bit, as if to keep the perfectly loudly spoken conversation in any way private. "If your Ryouga is like mine, he's trained in the Iron Egg, amongst other body hardening skills."

"Oh god, that," both Ryouga's said with a synchronized shudder. "Not a week I like to think of."

They weren't alone, either. Ryu and Ranma, laid out as they were, also shuddered.

"Iron Egg?" al-Rifai, the least initiated to the Nerima group's madness, asked, honestly confused.

"Oh! I heard of this from Elder Perfume!" Starfire suddenly said, snapping her fingers. "It is where human men train their…"

"Don't say it!" Akane 'eeped,' already red faced. "We all know about it!"

"I… think I grasp the inflection," Jalia concluded. "Oh dear. You boys really did that?"

"You have to train the whole body," Ryu answered, his voice low. "No… obvious weaknesses."

"It has other unexpected benefits, too, ladies, as I'm sure Jinx will one day discover!" Nabiki put the nail in the proverbial coffin. The native Ryouga's face slammed into the table out of sheer embarrassment.

"At this point making a fool of myself up front is looking better and better…"

The younger Ryouga nodded, rising to his feet - incidentally dragging Jinx to her feet as well, her arms still wrapped around his neck.

"I couldn't agree more. I don't want to find out who the worst influence is between Jinx and Nabiki, and considering them both, I could see it turning into a competition all too soon."

"Ohhh, Ryoooo! I wanna find out what the Iron Egg training is _now_," Jinx pleaded, pulling herself up to her tip toes.

Looking around, Ryouga was nearly freaking out. "Uhhh, little help?"

Floating around the table, Starfire dropped a companionable arm around Jinx's shoulders, gently dislodging her from Ryouga. Leaning in perhaps a bit closer than necessary, she offered in a sultry tone. "I'm certain that I can help Jinx find our room."

Only to be stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Behind them, Raven dropped her fists to her hips. "I think I had better escort you _both_ back. Just for my sanity's sake."

"Damn," Ryu muttered in a low voice, though not quite low enough.

A moment later, two very disappointed and one very disturbed Yankee ladies had vacated the room, leaving their male team mates behind, looking around a bit awkwardly.

"So ... how 'bout them local weather patterns" Cyborg finally asked lamely.

"Balmy," Ranma replied, smirk on his face only partly hidden by the table. "With chances of perversion."

"Only as long as you're involved," the younger Ryouga stated grumpily before dropping down into his seat. "If you hadn't put on your little ass shaking session, this whole embarrassing conversation probably wouldn't have happened. This is all your fault, Saotome!"

"Yeah, yeah. So I've heard. Tell it on the mountain. I… for one… am going to find some hot water." Ranma finally lifted his face off the faintly imprinted table, rubbing his – her actually – cute little nose. "I saw 'Highway to the Danger Zone' up there, and that's me all over it."

"What?" Ryu demanded, also picking himself up to glare at the aquatransexual. "I saw it too! And I'm still a guy! I call it!"

"I mentioned it first! You can't call a song I just said I wanted to do first!"

"I can and am."

"You're both being childish," Akane hided them with a wagging finger.

"You can both sing it," Ukyou suggested.

The two young men stared at their respective girls.

"That's kinda gay," the both echoed. Which, _of course,_ set off another round on the part of the four.

At least it kept the night interesting.

* * *

With one last heave, Raven dropped Jinx onto her bed. Within seconds, she could hear the girl begin lightly snoring. As soon as they'd gotten away from the party, the witch's hedonism had quickly caught up

to her, leaving her more drowsy with every step they took back to their room. Starfire was, of course, too busy giggling in amusement at the sight to actually help her lug Jinx around. Not that she trusted Starfire at the moment, not after all of the mustard (probably alcoholic mustard to boot) she'd had at the party.

Immediately, the sleeping witch curled up into a ball, somehow failing to look innocent even in the throes of sleep. For a moment, Raven found herself staring at the ex-villainess. Despite sharing a similar pallor, preference for dark clothing... and appreciation of the company of a certain directionless martial artist, they had so very little in common. Jinx was irritating, spiteful, insulting; she attacked people verbally - and yes, even physically - with scarcely any reason at all.

And yet Ryouga saw... something in her. Even worse, Raven was starting to see glimmers of it herself.

Frowning slightly, she made her way across the room and sat down on her bed, right next to the Tamaranian already sitting cross-legged on the mattress. Starfire was staring at the witch as well, an unusually neutral expression on her face, very unusual given the alien warrior's natural passion-predilection. Reaching across Starfire, Raven grabbed one of the standard issue pillows and hugged it to her chest. Apparently liking the idea, Starfire grabbed the other one and did likewise.

The pair sat in silence for a moment, until Starfire finally leaned over, a quirky smile blooming.

"So..." she asked, with a growing smile. "Would you like to initiate in the braiding maneuvers upon each other's hair?"

The violet haired Titan rolled her eyes. "Not tonight, Starfire. I'm not in the mood for bonding."

"You are never in the mood for bonding," Starfire replied with a pout.

"I - I'm sorry, it just hasn't been a hard night." Raven hugged the pillow tighter, her gaze trailing back to the sleeping girl. "Harder than I thought it would be."

Starfire followed her gaze, nodding slowly in understanding. "Whatever ambiguity surrounding the relationship between her and Ryouga... it has been laid bare tonight. I was most surprised by the closeness which they were willing to display."

"I... wasn't."

The Tamaranian stared at her, eyes wide. "What do you mean?"

Raven shook her head. "Starfire, I've been inside everyone's heads on and off ever since we began our psionic training. It's been impossible to not gleam small glimpses of... everything. Memories, feelings, thoughts, in the battle with that Saffron creature alone, I had to dive into the minds of everyone _so_ deeply. It was all so violent, so sudden, I didn't even have a choice."

"Do not feel guilt." Starfire moved nearby and dropped a gentle hand on Raven's shoulder pulling her closer. "There is nothing that I do not trust you to know of my own life. And you only did it to save us all. I doubt any would begrudge you that."

"That's not really the point, anyway," Raven continued. "I've caught glimpses of them _together_. If only in the briefest flashes. Even before we came here. Starfire. I even caught them at the lab, right before we came to this world."

"...oh," the Tamaranian murmured. "I had not been privy to such myself."

"It doesn't matter," Raven stated matter-of-factly. "Trying to deny reality is pointless. What is, is. It's just that - that I find myself wondering: Why her? Why did he choose her over me?"

She tried to resist as Starfire pulled her more tightly to her side, but she might as well have tried to hold up the sky. "I am most sympathetic to your plight. Ryouga has become precious to myself as well, and seeing him so close to her is... bewildering to me."

"That's putting it mildly," Raven agreed with a weak chuckle.

"Still." There was a hesitant note in Starfire's voice as she continued. "I find myself forced to say... you were granted ample opportunity to win his heart."

"'What'?" Raven pulled back from her friend's embrace. "What do you mean by _that_?"

Starfire met her incredulous gaze with serious emerald eyes. "Jinx was not in the picture for months, Raven. I understand that issues between Ryouga and yourself have been complicated for some time, but your approach was... tentative."

"I can't help _that_, Starfire," she replied tersely. "That's just who I am. How I am. I - I can't change that."

"Nor should you. You are wonderful as you are, my dearest friend. However, Jinx is anything but tentative in her own approach. In fact, her devotion is... somewhat disturbing in its own right. I had never imagined her the type to care for any but herself."

Raven found herself nodding. "Neither did I, but I can't deny what I saw right before my eyes. Even worse, they don't look _wrong_ together. And the closer she gets to him, the more approachable she becomes to everyone else. A lifetime of walls, slowly crumbling down, all thanks to him."

"I suppose it just goes to show how far she had fallen, that even _Ryouga_ is able to lead her back on the right path."

Instantly, Raven clapped a hand over her mouth, just in time to stop the bark of laughter from escaping. Glaring darkly, she looked at Starfire's smiling face, unable to do anything for several seconds. Finally, she regained her composure and reached over to pinch the alien pest's arm, eliciting a quiet squeal.

"What are you trying to do: wake her up?" Raven whispered harshly, though she couldn't completely hide the mirth in her voice.

Shaking her head, smile still wide on her face, Starfire dropped a hand on her shoulder again. "Worry not, my friend. Things are as they are, much as you said. However, things may not always be as they are now. Who knows what time may bring? I do not doubt romance will find you again, in one form or another. You are far too much a... how would Cyborg put it? A 'fine piece of ass', for the males of this planet to ignore for long."

"Starfire!"

"Shaddup, over there! Some of us are trying to get hungover!"

Instantly, Raven and Starfire did their best to hide behind their pillows as Jinx half rolled and waved an arm awkwardly in their direction.

"We are most apologetic, friend Jinx," Starfire quickly offered. "We will cease to disturb your alcohol induced slumber."

Even as the alien princess quickly began to float up from the bed, levitating back towards her own, Raven fired a teasing glare her way. "I'll get you back for that one, don't you doubt it. Just you wait."

Rather than be intimidated, as Beast Boy would (much to her satisfaction), Starfire blew her a kiss and a wave. "Feel free to comment on the aesthetic qualities of my posterior at any time."

"Oh, shut up."

With that, Raven flopped down onto her bed, burying her head in her pillow.

She needed a day off from these days off.

Her room mates were starting to go _strange_ on her.

* * *

The five young adults were standing apart for a moment, hanging close by the self-serve area that passed for a makeshift bar. They were all having a round of the same drink: water. The excitement from the evening was beginning to bleed off, leaving them with the anticipation and promise of what was in the immediate future. They all knew it, and it was why they were having a little impromptu group ritual.

"This won't be like the other missions," Ryu finally broke the silence. He was staring forward at a poster on the wall of an AC-130. The gunship, aptly named the Spectre, was raining death on some unfortunate ground targets below.

"We have no idea what's waiting for us," he explained, gauging the expressions on his fellow soldiers. "I don't like not having Intel on a potentially hostile situation."

"We'll have to think quickly if things go down hill, that's all," Ryouga replied, and patted India Squad's Sergeant on the shoulder. "Hell, that's what we always do anyway."

"As long as the ship gets us there in one piece, we'll do what we're trained to do," Ranma agreed. "And what we're ordered to do, of course! I mean, it sounds like an adventure, too, doesn't it? We'll be going places and seeing things no one's ever seen before. Though with what we know about the one parallel universe the Titans come from, maybe they'll all be like Star Trek or X-Men or Serenity something..." He scoffed and laughed at the absurbity of hopping from one movie universe to another. "Yeah right. Though fighting Spiderman and that River chick would be fun."

"All I'll say is heaven help us all if the mission ever rests on me actually using my sidearm," Nabiki joked with an easy laugh. "I think I can hit the broad side of a barn, but I wouldn't bet on hitting the narrow end."

"It is kinda... scary," Ukyou chimed in, raising her glass of water. "This dimension jumping thing. I just hope we don't end up stranded somewhere."

Ryouga raised his glass as well, and tapped a finger against the bar table to get their attention.

"Remember," he said, voice and eyes serious. "This is all just practice for Cydonia. When we put our boots on Martian soil, we won't have satellites overhead, or free-roaming UAVs, or reliable Intel, or local support. We could be dropping into a black hole. India and Juliet got this mission, and I'm glad we did. Commander Yasuda has faith in us. And after we hunt down the aliens and destroy their EDC, we'll come back and finish the job on Mars. And anywhere else they're hiding."

"I'll drink to that!" Ryu grinned, and raised a glass to chime it against the lieutenant's.

"Here, here," Ukyou agreed, and she and Nabiki also ting'ed drinks.

"Hell yes," Ranma said with a cocksure smirk, slapping his rival on the back.

The five downed their water in one gulp.

"We'll chase them down!" Ranma cheered.

"We'll run them down," Ryouga corrected him and stood among his closest friends and comrades. "And we'll do it together."

* * *

**x**

* * *

**A/N**

Alright, just a few quick notes here at the end. For courtesy's sake, we are including a list of the songs used in this chapter, and in case you didn't recognize which ones were being used and might want to go find them.

Secondly, just a fun tip, we'd like to remind everyone reading that Ranma-chan, Nabiki and Akane were all part of the Doco band in the show, and their voice actors were considered quite talented. The same goes for Ryouga's voice actor, though I don't think Ryouga did any singing in the show, his V/A did do some songs related to the show, including one which is a love song to Akane, I believe, and he's considered a decent singer as well. We just thought we'd reiterate this fact before people start wondering if we're just randomly making our characters good at singing for no reason.

The Titan's singing abilities, are, of course unquantifiable since I think the extent of their musical bits revolve around Cyborg singing a 'Cyborg themed' version of the show theme, and the whole crew singing the Japanese version of the theme during the credits of the Titans movie. (In retrospect, having Raven sing an entire song in her hard core monotone would have been pretty hilarious)

Again, a character interaction heavy chapter, and we address a few important topics, but fear not, the plot gets kicked back into gear next chapter.

Song notes:

AC/DC – "Big Balls"  
Lisa Loeb - "We Could Still Belong Together"  
Beatles – "I Saw Her Standing There"  
Sixpence None the Richer - "Kiss me"  
Survivor – "Eye Of The Tiger"  
Right Said Fred – "I'm Too Sexy"  
Hayashibara Megumi 'get along' slayers opening theme  
My Heart Iidasenai 'Ah! My Goddess'  
The Rembrandts – "Lost Together"  
James Brown – "I Feel Good"  
Jakalope – "Feel it"

**Chryssalid here**  
Did some reformatting. This chapter looks _so much_ better with proper indentation. (shakes a fist at FFN formatting rules)  
Anyway. Fluffy chapter. Hence why we're calling it an interlude. At least it sorted out some of the character arcs. And I did warn ya in the last author note last week.

Next week... the interdimensional jaunt arcs begin!


	22. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space 1

An accident at STAR Labs has hurled half the Teen Titans roster across the multiversal barrier and onto a strange world with no metas, no superheroes and no supervillians. There, the UNETCO organization, also known as X-COM, fights against an insidious and merciless alien enemy. The dimensionally displaced Teen Titans have finally been reunited. Determined not to sit on the sidelines, the four young men and women: Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and their universe's Ryouga Hibiki have been brought together into a special 'embedded observer' team designated CT:Yankee.

Displaced in the Russian Far East, far from any of the other Titans, Jinx had the misfortune of falling into the hands of the alien Visitors. Yet when one of the alien-human hybrids became hexxed by her power, damage to its brain tissue disconnected it from the Cydonian Mind and allowed it to remember who it had once been: Akari Unryu. Together, the two unlikely allies escaped into the forest and made for civilization, forging a close friendship during the difficult trek to safety. However, the same power that freed Akari was also killing her, and together with wounds taken during their escape, she hung on just long enough to reunite with her world's Ryouga Hibiki. Fulfilling her request to let her die, he destroyed the alien donor tissue that was to be used to revive her. The Titans, as Yankee Squad, were called to battle, with Akari's life on the line, succeeding in bringing back the replacement brain of the Ethereal, Whisper.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Time And Relative Dimensions In Space_

Chapter 21

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid

Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

India and Juliet Squads assembled, two sergeants and four squaddies getting their first look at Operation Pathfinder's pimped out ride. Though the Commander had them on "Hot Reserve" they had shown up in full kit, just in case circumstances changed. Security was heavy, and the entire hangar was once again closed off, not just the auxiliary depot. To a man and woman, they had all seen landed UFOs before, including dozens of large scouts, but this one was different from the rest.

First, it was floating comfortably in the base hangar. The smooth surface was broken by additional armoring and sensory disks covering each hemisphere. It was clearly heavily modified, to the point where even the alien plasma cannon had been swapped out for two weapons slots at the top and bottom. The weapon apertures burned a dull blue, as did much of the rest of the craft. Cooling towers wormed out of the floor, and a faint mist curled through the air, distorted by the active gravitic induction drive.

Ranma and Ryouga, the two lieutenants, had already entered the ship along with a number of observers and eggheads. One was the doctor from the other night, along with an almost giddy Cyborg. Two engineers in working gear, including orange tech-vest, had followed just behind, with an internal security spook taking up the near-rear. Last but not least was a backup pilot in a characteristic black and tan uniform, wearing the red beret that only UNETCO career pilots wore.

Today's test was the culmination of their work since the Terror Site.

"You think they'll be okay?" Ukyou asked, breaking the silence that had followed the departure of the two officers. It was the question on all their minds.

Next to the chef, Shampoo craned her neck with an audible pop.

"Why bother worrying?" she asked, seemingly unconcerned.

Everyone there knew she had to be at least a little nervous, if only for Ranma's safety. If there was a mechanical breakdown or a technical problem, all the martial arts skill and toughness in the world wouldn't help. Their lives in this test run were completely in the hands of the men and women of the R&D department, and in their own training with psionic navigation. They all knew there was always a chance if death being completely out of one's hands.

It was the same risk, the same fear, they all had when they stepped into an Avenger or Lightning Fighter-Transport for a combination interception-assault. One second you could be waiting, checking your gear, closing the last few seals on your armor or triple checking your ammo... then nothing. Gone. Atoms and light.

A red light switched on with a brief warning klaxon.

"That's it, then," Ryu stated. He and Konatsu were the ranking personnel among the squads now. "Fall in. We'll watch the rest from the rear."

On duty, the four squaddies straightened, offered a variety of replies to the effect of 'yes, sergeant' and turned to double time back out the hangar. Konatsu and Ryu followed. The operation had a research and command center set aside. No matter what happened, they'd be as close to it as they could.

* * *

"Still getting a little feedback in here."

"We're running with double compensation to make sure your mind doesn't disconnect during transit," Command informed the annoyed Saotome. "You'll have bear with it, Lieutenant."

"Maybe you should've drunk less last night, Ranma."

"One drink. Oh! So scandalous."

Ranma and Ryouga were both sitting side by side at the UFO's primary navigation station, but the former was the one actually running things. Ryouga was literally a backup - and on this mission, a backup of a backup - present only for command and experience undergoing transit. To those observing the pair of men in personal armor, they appeared to be staring forward into nearly bare green displays. A rudimentary holographic and traditional 2D interface had been added and expanded, so non-pilots could monitor technical systems. There were no windows open, no outside view, no recognizable HUD.

Only in Ranma's mind could he see and feel.

He saw in three hundred and sixty degrees, and he felt the ebb and flow of gravity and mass. The ship was hooked directly into his mind via psionic interface, and in his perception, the tilted and slightly warped view was dotted by technical information and essential displays. They came and went at will, and in response to his needs and desires. Cycling, he saw 'weapons' appear and disappear in a semi transparent window, then 'environmental control' and 'engine' - he checked and rechecked the relevant displays.

LINK: .Subsidiary CSYS 2.0.34

# TASK636-u204 GUI BOOTUP COMPLETE

[^]Version ()

Subsys V 3.3.0 InOp RUNNING

M.M.I - P.R.I Rev: 21:2:673

CR = 0000

Features = 0.3200000910.5 WTRR,PLEX,XEDC,BVLR,IITS

MD: WTRR : to545208349 (45) [active]

MD: PLEX : to545208349 (155) [active]

MD: XEDC : to545208349 (227) [active]

MD: BVLR : to545208349 (21) [active]

MD: UC : to545208349 (64) [active]

CHECKING: All O/A Devices

stand by...

"Pathfinder is cleared for launch, Lieutenant. You have an open window. Take off at your mark."

Ranma sat still, fully immersed in the nav-interface. His reply, when it came moments later, emanated not from his mouth but from the feedback speakers in the added control system. Two projected MFDs (Multi-Functional Displays) indicated a nearly complete checklist of the ship's systems.

"Thank you, CIC. Let's put this tin can through it's paces!"

Seated to Saotome's side, Ryouga was less attached to the rundown or launch preparation. He really only needed to be plugged in for the transit itself. Momentarily compartmentalizing the nav-connection, he looked over his shoulder at the rest of the test's observers. Most were seated and clearly a little anxious; except for the backup pilot, who seemed to be reviewing the ship's real time log, and Cyborg. The Teen Titan was anxious, too, but only because he couldn't see or feel anything and had been brought along as tech support.

He was the Titan's pilot, too. It was in his dossier, and both Raven and Starfire had mentioned it offhand in the past. Ryouga thought for a few seconds about that. Maybe...

"Cyborg," he said, though his initial impulse had been to call the American 'squaddie.'

Caught staring up at some of the displays - longingly - the Titan blinked with his one organic eye. Shaking out of his momentary distraction, Cyborg looked down at the seated officer.

"What's up?" he asked, as if to say, _'Something you need fixed?'_

Actually, they had the engineers for that, but -

"Why don't you ride shotgun with Ranma here?" Ryouga offered, and Cyborg's eyes, both of them, lit up at the suggestion. "You can have the copilot seat until we test the EDC."

"You sure that's cool?" the Titan asked. "I mean, I'd like to, yea, but..."

"I've been in live fire and maneuver runs before," Ryouga explained, and mentally detached himself from the psionic interface before standing up. "I don't need to be wired up for any of it, so why don't you fill in for me?"

"Sure man, awesome! Thanks!" Cyborg clapped him hard on the back in a friendly gesture on his way to fill the seat left behind. Ryouga gave a whoof at the force behind the move. No wonder the younger Hibiki was so tough, if he regularly sparred with the bionic teenager and that petite Tamaranian powerhouse.

The seat adjusted itself to the new weight, conforming to Cyborg's more substantial frame. He then placed his palms over the interface activators. The actual linkup was noninvasive and invisible to the naked eye, despite the colloquial terms that described it. "Plugging in" and "wiring up" were just easy ways to render down the whole process for conversation. "Mind Machine Interface via Psionic I/O Protocols" just didn't fit into most sentences as easily.

A second later, and Cyborg's body relaxed, his mind entering the machine.

Not surprisingly, he took to the process quite readily.

"Well, if it isn't the backseat driver!" Ranma's voice exclaimed over the speakers, translating his thoughts.

Cyborg's voice laughed over the same channel. "Don't sweat it, man. I'm only here in case you mess up, right?"

"Ha! At least I won't have Hibiki mindwaves throwing our instruments off course."

"That's completely unproven!" Ryouga growled. "One time we go off the set range and you blame it on me!"

"I tell it like it is, P-chan."

"You better not get lost in today's exercises, then. You're favorite excuse isn't even plugged in. Now," he assumed command, cutting short any more jocular exchanges. "Take us to Point D14, then up to 10 kilometers above sea level."

"D14 plus 10," Ranma confirmed. "Easy as martial arts tea ceremony. Releasing electromagnetic tether. There it goes."

Inside, the ship seemed unresponsive.

"Zoom. Zoom."

It took about ten minutes for the UFO to reach Point D14, a restricted section of military controlled airspace on the east coast of Japan. It then took all of four point five seconds for the ship to ascend, straight up, to 10 kilometers altitude.

Like most UFOs, it passed unnoticed by those below, even when it flew close overhead. The gravitic bubble around the ship prevented the displacement of mass that allowed sonic booms to properly form, and active and passive stealth - including the radar scattering propulsion system - concealed the craft from anything but the luckiest radar. Ironically, the unaided human eye was the most effective way to identify an active UFO.

It was also (conveniently) the most easily discounted and discredited.

Cyborg took the opportunity to get a view of the world as it passed by at a leisurely cruising speed of Mach Six. Yet, through the ship's sensors, details that should by rights have been speed-blurred were crystal clear. Quite familiar with the peculiarities and contrasts of the machine and the flesh, Cyborg couldn't help but feel more than a little excited. The performance of this ship's propulsion system was impressive by any stretch of the imagination. In a straight up (non-FTL) dash, even the Justice League's new and super flashy Javelins (which he'd had the pleasure of seeing up close at an air show) couldn't keep up. Then there was the maneuverability he'd seen and tested in the simulators...!

Shame it used such exotic fuel. Of course, the disappointment of that little detail wasn't unreciprocated. When he'd outlined Justice League teleportation tech, XCOM engineers and scientists had all but cried when he described how (he assumed; the source of much of the tech was heresay) it and the other purloined Darkseid tech, like Boom Tubes, worked. He'd scanned for and confirmed that this universe had no Speed Force, and it was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of 'universal constants' that were mysteriously missing. It was a good thing Kid Flash or other extra-dimensionally powered metas hadn't ended up here. At best, they'd just be cut off, at worse... some of the damage to his own systems since coming here hinted at less pleasant possibilities.

So: No teleporters. At least not any based on the ones back home.

The GI-drive was likewise something he doubted he could effectively copy for the T-ship back home. Well, at least not immediately, anyway. Professor Guld had spoken about some research teams working on nuclear powered alternatives to Elerium to try and mimic the gravity drive, but it wasn't promising... The possibility of substituting a similarly energetic element, such as Xenothium was always on his mind, now that Robin had kind of set the precedent for using dangerously unstable stuff on a whim. Then again, the power source on his T-Ship was hardly a combustion engine itself… maybe with time, the many technical hurtles would be overcome.

As they neared D14, Ranma warmed up the active avionics, including onboard radar. Instead of a large high-energy emissions system, though, the Pathfinder refit UFO used a large number of modular mini-radars. Individually, each only emitted low-energy pulses spread over a wide set of frequencies. This made it nearly invisible to all conventional radar warning systems. The array of mini-radar modules could also multi-task and scan multiple parallel scans, reducing beaming time dramatically. At 400,000 pulses per second, it was an impressive, though really unnecessary level of resolution. At double the resolution of similar systems back home, Cyborg was more inclined to tone it down to something more reasonable, like 10,000 to 100,000 pps. He was a crime fighter, after all, and throwing sick amounts of cash around to achieve such levels of resolution just wasn't an efficient use of resources. Plus, most criminals and aliens didn't exactly fly around in invisible aircraft.

Knock on wood.

NCTR (Non-Cooperative Target Resolution) quickly identified four friendly targets loitering over the D14 restricted-airspace area. IFF Transponders and independent scans further ID'd them as four JASDF Mitsubishi F-2s (Interceptor Build), one Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye AWACS and a fourth contact that quickly turned from solid blue to blinking blue with a white triangle. IFF identified it as "Interceptor-2E (Block.E..02.0005)." A friendly ping came over a secure laser PTP transponder.

It was the BVR equivalent of wagging wings.

The two UNETCO craft exchanged private greetings, and Cyborg noted the JASDF pilots were in two circling paths over the area, while the XCOM Interceptor was in a slow flyby all by itself. Security, as usual. There were probably men on the ground, too.

As soon as Cyborg thought about it, the ship translated that into action, and ground scanning radar, lidar and infrared scanned the ground ahead and below, detecting vehicles and infantry clustered in a few spots amid the forested hills and valleys. None of them had appropriate transponders, and the avionics flagged them all as unknown under the default IFF protocols.

Not having to actually fly (being locked out while Ranma was in control anyway), Cyborg helped himself to exploring more of the ship's free systems and scanners. Everything was online except for the massive hyperwave decoder that occupied a nice chunk of the large scout's internal volume. That was more highly secretive XCOM technology, and one of the few he wasn't free to currently explore. It seemed to have something to do with reading psionic transmissions, probably individual brainwaves or the like. Just the sort of thing one built a Mind Shield to defend against.

Suddenly, the ship stopped on a dime and shot upwards, stopping mere seconds later.

"D14 plus 10," Ranma announced. "Sports equipment and power tools."

"We'll get started then," Ryouga said, and Cyborg's view switched to inside the ship to see the observers and the lieutenant in several windows from different angles. The Hibiki turned to check one of the displays.

He nodded at what he saw: reiteration of the instructions from Seiran.

"Stealth systems look good," the lost one noted with an agreeable huff. "Commence all active scans. JASDF are still trying to pinpoint us."

"Unlocking Hyperwave Scanner." Ranma confirmed with CIC. "Just got the go-ahead. Beginning Scans."

The 'unknowns' on the ground began to light up, one by one. A group was also detected underground - previously undetected at all - and another group blinked white. Decoys. There was no fooling the mind scanner. It detected and analyzed the brainwave patterns of those below, up to and including providing an M or F representing the gender of those below. Ranma then cycled through the hyperwave scanner's OP-MODES and picked up individual animals: literally anything with a substantial central nervous system. The collective display turned the map shades of yellow, orange, red and black.

"Gods, what a mess," Ranma described it aptly. "Switching back to sentient-exclusive."

The resolution cleared up, returning only human brainwaves.

"Still nothing from the JASDF?" Ryouga asked, crossing his arms. "Light up one of the F-2s."

It took a few seconds of extended active radar scans, but...

"There we go," Ranma said. "They're trying to get a solid return. The E-2 definitely has a bead on us, though."

"Hit them with our E-warfare suite."

"Already a step ahead of you."

Cyborg had access to this system, too, and almost pitied the JASDF boys on that Hawkeye. Not that they were in any danger, of course, but that this test involved, from the start, frying their gear. The Pathfinder scout had a combination of earth and alien derived e-war jamming systems. Targeting highlighted the slow moving aircraft, in addition to the two fighters. Computers analyzed the radar being used, determined the correct response (noise, pulse, wave, repeater, etc), and directed the intensity, frequency, direction and duration of the ECM response.

Noise mode radiated wide-area emissions to fill the sky with junk readings; Pulse emitted regular transmissions; while continuous gave off uninterrupted signals. Transponder mode worked differently, altering radar reflection by sending back a pulse with a small time delay and a larger amplitude than the original. The result was a reading of a larger target, off course from the true position. Repeater mode conveyed inaccurate positional information by sending back inverse reflections. Intense signals were returned as weak ones and weak ones were amplified to give strong returns.

These were the most benign and conventional of the ship's ECM/ECCM suite. Laser scattering and counter-beaming; IF-False-Signaling, direct ECM Burst attacks using microwaves to damage circuitry, and - if nothing else - the ship could use alien electronic hijacking to knock unhardened fly-by-wire aircraft out of the sky. Cyborg remembered what he'd read about the alien abduction conducted against a civilian commercial airliner... definitely one of the more sinister uses of such technology.

After a minute of active jamming, CIC confirmed a successful test run.

"Armament and maneuver," Ryouga read the upcoming itinerary. Not that either Cyborg or Ranma needed him to do so. The information was also being sent straight into their minds after all.

The cybernetic teen would've smiled if he was fully 'in' his body at the moment.

He'd been _waiting_ for this.

"Armament... Active..." Ranma drawled. "Setting Plasma Cannons for minimum yield. Ready when you are, Command."

"Seiran Actual confirms weapons active on Pathfinder," CIC returned with a level female voice. "Relaying go-ahead to task force."

A couple seconds later, it began... with a salvo of missiles from a ground based SAM site. Via Ranma's view, Cyborg could see the scout's systems lock onto the sudden heat signatures. One ping later, and the still boosting missiles slowed down, along with the world around them. This was one thing Cyborg never fully experienced, despite being only partly organic, and an experience Ranma probably knew well.

Through the navigational interface, reaction times could synchronize with machine thinking speeds. Like the martial artist's Matrix Slo-Mo that Ryouga had described to his team, perception changed, this time to suit the needs of the computer running the ship. It had identified a danger, and forced the both of them into this state to deal with it. Alien navigators, Cyborg had heard, spent _all_ their time, literally their entire lives, in this sort of existence... but for humans that had been determined to be unhealthy. Early pilots had flown themselves nearly to death or gone insane from prolonged use. In this case, the human psyche had yet to catch up to the technology it had stolen and re-appropriated.

The targets were MIM-104F (PAC3) Patriot Missiles, each about six meters long. Propelled by a solid-fueled rocket motor, they could quickly reach speeds in excess of Mach 5. There were eight in all, fired from two separate launchers; Ranma needed to hit each one, starting from a stationary position, and then while performing evasive maneuvers. He also had to wait until they achieved a minimum speed of Mach 4 before beginning the engagement, and only fire upwards to make sure of not hitting the Earth itself.

It was considered a moderately difficult interception by UNETCO standards.

The plasma cannons integrated into the Pathfinder scout craft thrummed with power, ready to burn Elerium and extend lances of deadly plasma and anti-matter. Currently set to their minimum operational output, they were still horrifically powerful. At normal levels of operation, they were veritable weapons of mass destruction.

The first beam crossed a distance of forty eight kilometers, neatly vaporizing one of the Patriot Missiles in midflight. On contact, a flash of light appeared like an actinic spark, only a faction of the antimatter explosion releasing visible light. Most of it bled off as gamma rays that in turn excited the atmosphere creating a spray of "air showers." Pair production interaction created high speed electrons and positrons, which in turn interacted through Compton scattering and _bremsstrahlung_, releasing energetic photons that tinted the atmosphere a faint Cerenkov radiation-blue.

#TASK: A CANNON (Plasma)

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Six seconds until it could fire again.

B-Cannon fired, turning another Patriot Missile into atoms and radiation.

The plasma cannons were not light speed weapons, not like a proper laser, but they were c-fractional to the point where, in an atmosphere, there was only a marginal distinction. Effectively undodgable, if the targeting was accurate, it would hit. And with the ITTS (Inertial Targeting and Tracing) computer and pilot combined had aimbot level accuracy.

Cyborg psionically shoot his head. Earth, his Earth, could've used a few dozen Firestorms or Avengers during the Thanagarian invasion. Like most of the world's superheroes (and supervillains, too, though most didn't give them much credit), the Teen Titans had been forced underground by the Thanagarian control of the air and Earth orbit. They'd fought the birdmen (and birdgirls) with hit and run tactics once the various world air forces gave up on trying to dislodge the Thagarians from LOE (low earth orbit).

Not that the birds were really that impressive in-atmosphere. Granted, they had powerful ECM weapons that could knock out a disturbing number of human weapons and vehicles and turned any and every battle that took place in range of one of their larger ships into a slaughter (He had no way of knowing that this alien tech would fare any better, actually, especially with all the human systems installed, but one could always hope). And, unfortunately for Earth but fortunately for the Thanagarians, anything that could reach orbit with a significant payload was also so slow and unmaneuverable they could intercept it with ridiculous ease.

_However_, on those depressingly few occasions when they didn't have available support from larger craft, or from orbit, the Thanagarians had emerged from air-to-air confrontations trashed - having no long range missiles of their own, and piloting slower and less maneuverable fighter craft.

Frankly, for all the US secret projects back home that superheroes had speculated about, you'd think _someone_ would have just built a big honking space gun already! Earth was constantly getting invaded basically every year, plus the Justice League had the Watchtower in orbit for how long? They didn't even bother putting any KKVs up there either. A couple Rods from God would have saved a lot of lives, even if no one wanted to put a good old death ray up in space anymore. There _had_ been that railgun Kaznia (or wherever) built, and boy would that have been useful! Of course it got destroyed thanks to the usual idiot supervillians hijacking it.

Maybe when he got back home, he'd direct a few suggestions to the JLU about orbital defenses.

After all, the new Watchtower was big enough to have a freakin' sauna and health club on board. If they had the space and money for THAT, they maybe someone up there would at least entertain the idea of a few defensive weapons. From what Starfire had said about the Gordanians, Earth was close enough for them to drop by on a weekend if they wanted to, and then there was Apokolips- the 800 pound gorilla in the room no one knew how to just _get rid of_ once and for all.

Distracted by his runaway thoughts of home - _'that's if I get home in the first place,'_ he reminded himself - he nearly missed something strange. Audible over the psionic link, he could hear a faint humming; not mechanical... melodic. Ranma.

That's right. He'd heard a bit of this before, in one of the test simulations.

The Saotome heir was lost in his task, identifying and destroying the incoming and outgoing missiles, all while directing the ship along evasive courses randomly generated, presented, and organized by preference. The ship was making right turns at mach six, along a flight path that would make a fruit fly on crack look gobsmacked.

HIT

Ranma's thoughts became focused, emotionless, almost machinelike.

Yet Cyborg could clearly hear him humming now, a childlike nursery tune he didn't recognize. It was singularly out of place amid the sky filling with burning wreckage and crackling ionized particles. It was like when he was so in his "zone," so deeply immersed in working on upgrading his body or finishing building some new project that he didn't notice the time or anyone who came by.

HIT

More targets emerged at the edge of the horizon. Targeting reticules immediately pinpointed them and highlighted, scanning, pulsing, almost glaring at new things to atomize.

They were a duo of RIM-161 Standard Missile 3s (SM-3s).

BVR scans revealed the source: a JMSDF Destroyer, the _DDG-174 Kirishima_. Unlike the ground launched Patriot Missiles, the RIM-161 was exclusively fired from warships, as part of the AEGIS system to intercept aircraft, ships, and ballistic missiles. On this world, it had also been employed in an anti-satellite capacity reaching Low Earth orbit. It was already ascending at a tremendous speed, rocket motors burning hot white in an effort to punch through to the heavens.

#TASK: A CANNON (Plasma)

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Five seconds.

Three hundred and fifty six kilometers.

Targets moving at 2.8 kilometers per second.

The Pathfinder scout accelerated straight up, nearly matching the missiles speed at full burn as it closed in at an angle to make the interception. On Earth, one hundred kilometers was not a truly great distance to travel, whether at high speed or not. However, one hundred kilometers - roughly the distance between Jump City's neighbors of San Diego and Los Angeles - was also the distance between sea level and the Kármán line, regarded as the boundary between atmosphere and outer space.

They were already in Low Earth Orbit by the time Ranma got a clear target lock on the two missiles. Plasma flared from the top and bottom of the refitted UFO, spearing both SM-3s with nuclear fire. They disintegrated against the backdrop of stars, fountains of vaporized material continuing upwards while the rest colored the uppermost atmosphere with ionizing radiation. Part of one of the plasma beams continued, having only partly destabilized on impact, and burned a long green trail along Earth's atmosphere, like a small, arclite aurora borealis.

HIT

HIT

The computer scanned: no targets.

NO TARGETS

Ranma's voice trailed off, leaving only silence. After a few seconds, he came back from the recesses of the machine, halfway back to his body. There was a long, deep pause, and a sigh of relief.

"Six targets. Six hits," Ranma stated, not quite up to making a joke out of it yet.

"Good aim as usual," Ryouga's voice replied, openly praiseworthy. Even for his 'cursed rival.' "Let's hope we don't have to use it."

"Yeah... EDC is next, right?"

Another pause. "That's right. Cyborg?"

It took a second for the inflection to make sense. "Oh! Oh yeah. Sure. No problem, man."

Disconnecting was easy, but it left a fleeting feeling of loss behind, and no small amount of mental fatigue. One never felt it while IN the psionic interface itself, only when one left. A part of him also felt an anxious tingle in the back of his part-human part-mechanical mind. These psionic devices could be dangerously addictive if overused... or simply used at all. Helping with the avionics, he'd read up on them, and he knew that XCOM itself considered navigation interfaces to be 'potentially habit forming.' A polite way of phrasing their negative qualities.

They also seemed willing to take that risk to get the job done...

Ryouga reclaimed his seat without further delay, and Cyborg let him have it. Piloting these ships was certainly an experience, even just being along for the ride was amazing, but he'd seen where that road lead. He'd almost gone there himself, lost within the mind of a machine. He glanced back at the backup UNETCO pilot in his separate uniform.

The man looked back with somewhat unnerving eyes.

"Something the matter, kid?" he asked, and he sounded normal enough.

"Nothin' ...just wondering what it's like to do this for a living."

The man gave Cyborg only one last cursory look before turning back to monitoring the ship trials.

He answered, a second later.

"It... changes how you see things."

Cyborg turned back to the two officers and the interface.

_'Yeah. I'll bet it does.'_

* * *

"We are ready to begin."

Now that the combat and flight evaluations were done with, Professor al-Rifai left her seat to help oversee the truly experimental system on board: the EDC FTL. She had to admit she was nervous, not just of being on Pathfinder itself, but also regarding the transit event. They'd tested it, confirmed the findings from Urania-1's trips, and made every precaution possible given the frankly maddening deadline. There was still so much they didn't know; so much they didn't understand; so much they still needed to calculate and investigate and explore.

Now, she was just minutes from - potentially - entering another parallel dimension.

It hadn't even occurred to her at first that she was in orbit, actually in space, and yet that was far from the most exciting thing happening at the moment. Rather than let her mixture of excitement and anxiety show, she focused on her work, and on the EDC. Everything had to be operating perfectly, just like the four previous tests. After that diversion, a few nights ago, she'd actually made some very important breakthroughs - her entire team had, actually, but as team leader hers was the first name on the reports. Eventually, it had given her the opportunity to oversee the final phase of testing first hand.

It was time for the first real human piloted Transit Event.

She felt a shudder run up her spine at the prospect. They already had a good idea what was on the other side, thanks to Urania-1's trips there, but they would be humans making a great leap forward for civilization, science, and progress. Provided they could solve or mitigate the 'OCU degradation' issue, the possibilities were limitless for human use of EDC travel.

Conceivably, it could even lead to an improvement over the existing alien derived FTL system! Or the storage of mass in an alternate dimension, or the use of dimensional space for processing power or as a source of energy... or, of course, as a weapon. Sadly, just about everything was used for that purpose, from bone and rock to fire and the atom. No point dwelling on that, though.

"Beginning countdown," Ranma announced, flipping the mental switch to initialize the EDC. "aaaa ladies and gentlemen... aaaa...you'll notice the captain had turned on the fasten seatbelt light. aaa We're expecting a little turbulence... aaaa... if you look outside... you'll see clouds of neutrinos and mesons... aaa... if you still have complimentary bags of nuts, I'd recommend eating them now... aaa..."

"The pilot is a comedian. I thought he was a martial artist."

"I'm a funny martial artist, pork chop. I don't just win, I win entertainingly."

"You just like to rub it in when you pull a victory out of your ass, that's all."

"That too."

Jalia stared incredulously at the so-called pilot and the so-called commanding officer present. The two were leaning back in their chairs, arguing semantics while the EDC countdown ticked by. How could they be so... so... oblivious to how serious the situation was? It was like the ship was on autopilot (well, it kind of WAS but still!) so they could just relax and let whatever happen, _happen_.

Her shoulders slipped, and she felt some of her own tension drain away.

_'Kind of a pair of idiots,'_ she couldn't help but think. Especially compared to Cyborg, who was about the same age. Maybe they had the right idea, though. Everything was going like clockwork. Whatever happened... happened.

She turned back to the controls, a small smirk emerging.

"EDC Conveyer has reached singularity," she observed. _'No turning back now.'_

"Hey, Cyborg," Ranma's voice asked over the interface externals. "Who'd win in a fight between you and Starfire if you had two days prep?"

Interested at the sudden, and frankly, out of the blue question, Jalila turned to regard the Cybernetic teen, carefully monitoring one of the numerous display panels around the EDC drive. Without even missing a beat, Cyborg looked up, a broad smile on his face. He didn't even both turning to look at the seated Ranma, but actually responded to the ship itself.

"Me and Star, eh? Well, granted, she's a tough nut to crack. I'd put her up against anyone in the base for even money. But _two_ _days_ of prep? Heck, with that much time, I could have _you_ trussed up at the alter, ready to say 'I do!' to becoming the next Misses Hibiki, esteemed Lieutenant!"

"Ha! No way!" From what she'd seen over the last few days, especially that karaoke night, it was a response typical of the young lieutenant. "Okay, how about this one then: Raven versus Starfire. Ryouga here kept saying she pulled some freaky shit back when she was first brought in."

Cyborg shook his head. "He doesn't even know the half of it. There've been more than a few times when we've trained 4 on 1 _against_ Raven, and _lost_, man. Sure, you guys think her mental mumbo jumbo is impressive here, but compared to her TK back home... not even a contest."

"What does it matter who can beat who?" Jalila finally asked, as the countdown passed ten seconds. If these ended up being her last few words, it would be pretty darn ridiculous... but at least it would be in like company.

"It matters..." Ranma got the last word, as the dimensional waveform reached terminal stability. "Because we're _guys_, of course!"

They never heard Jalila's exasperated sigh as the ship lurched, winked out of existence, and vanished in a burst of energetic X-Rays.

* * *

The first thing they heard was a low whine as the Converger and Transmission EPG systems for the EDC FTL expelled the residual charge in the Core. Ryouga blinked a few times, an instinctive reaction to the apparent impairment of his sight. Colors were off, tinted in a mismatched patchwork of purples and violets and greens and near-blacks. There was a strange blur, too, but that quickly resolved itself.

The blue hue took longer to fade.

"For a second there, I thought we were in the blue-themed parallel world."

...

"Actually, that might've been pretty cool," the pigtailed pilot added. "Come on, you know it would've been."

"For about ten seconds maybe," Ryouga conceded. "And weren't we supposed to say something deep and meaningful, since this is mankind's first extra-dimensional voyage?"

Cyborg laughed out loud. "Riiiight. Suuure it is. Bout time you knuckle draggers joined the rest of us experienced dimension hoppers."

Ranma chuckled - _as if!_

"These are the voyages of the UNS Pathfinder, on its continuing mission to seek out new alien life and bathe it in high explosive nuclear plasma," he proclaimed. "I came, I saw, I pressed the red button!"

"Did it actually work?" The lead technician, a man by the name of Coalson, seemed to be looking around for some obvious otherworldly sign that the EDC had functioned as advertised.

"Oh, I think it's working. Ryouga, take a look at this."

Focusing back on the nav interface, he got a first look at Ranma's findings.

Disconnecting again, he let out a deep breath.

"Okay, yes. It worked," he conceded. "It really worked."

"What'd you see out there?" Cyborg asked, checking the screens and silently cursing the lack of windows or projections of the outside. Behind him both the backup pilot and the internal security officer were similarly curious, also checking the screens. The Titan, meanwhile, was also queuing up results from his own dimensional divergence scanner.

"It's what I don't see," the lost lieutenant explained. "No Earth. No nothing. Just the Sun."

"The solar system formed differently?" Jalila speculated, but was otherwise unruffled. She'd known about this already. "Have you found Urania-1?"

"Yep. It's sitting in what should be L4, transmitting clearly."

"Then we did it... gentlemen, we're in another dimension!" She slumped a little at the lukewarm responses. "Isn't anyone as excited as I am?"

"Eh." Ryouga shrugged.

"It's pretty... dull... out here..." Ranma said with a digital cough.

"Totally been there, done that, Doc, but feel free to celebrate anyway," Cyborg added with a warm smile.

"A remarkable achievement doctor." The nameless Internal Security suit cupped his hands behind his back. "I believe celebrations should be reserved for after we get back, however."

"You... guys are so downbeat all of a sudden..." she said with a sigh. "Oh well. Now that we're here, Lieutenants, feel free to take a break. This is where we come in."

"As if I can with this thing in my head," Ranma quipped.

"You mean your head in that thing. And believe me, I feel sorry for it." Ryouga, in command, stood before the group. "Do what you need to do, Doctor. Jacobs, synch up as backup. Ranma, I want a full diagnostic on all of us, first thing first. That means turns in the stasis tube. Um... I guess that's it. I want someone on pilot and security at all times, just in case. We'll rotate between the three of us."

He tapped the side of his head, thinking back to whether there was anything else.

"Cyborg. You needed to scan for something using the special interface, right?" _What was it again?_ "Something about the OCU?"

_That was it. The so called 'organic control unit.'_

The cybernetic teen nodded in reply. "That's right. I need to check for dimensional resonance. If my theory is right, and I'm pretty sure it is, it should let us track down other vessels using the ... OCU's, as you call them. The larger the... OCU the ship has, the greater the signal it should give off."

"You'll need command authorization to access Urania-1's EDC and OCU," Ryouga replied. "I'll get that done right now so you can get started."

"Just tell me when you're ready, man. I'll start preparing for the scan."

"Then I'll start on our discrete analysis," Jalila said, already at one of the consoles. "It can run while Doctor Coalson and myself check the EDC for any post-transit fatigue."

In the pilot's seat, Ranma yawned shamelessly.

"Geez," he said, rotating his shoulder to work out a kink. "I hope the next stop on our incredible journey is more interesting than this snoozefest."

Ryouga and Cyborg couldn't help but give him the evil eye (all three of them).

"Must you always literally ask for trouble, Ranma?"

"Hey. I _like_ a little trouble now and then. Spice of life!"

"Tell me again, how many friends do you have who didn't try to kill you at least once?"

"...that doesn't prove _anything_."

* * *

Silence hung over the dojo as the pair continued their training. Most people would question whether 'training' was an appropriate word for what was being done, as it seemed little was being accomplished. Seated at the center of the room, resting on the rough tatami mats and far from any of the sterile grey walls, the red haired alien beauty and the pink haired meta-human sorceress were surrounded by sheaves of paper, covered in writing. The girls were sitting across from each other, wearing matching

outfits composed of sports bras and bicycle shorts, legs crossed and eyes closed.

With eyes closed and nothing but the soothing sound of gentle breathing filling the air, a less knowledgeable person might have wondered if they had simply fallen asleep. However, certain other individuals could and would have recognized the arrangement and alignment of the calligraphy papers. That same person would likely also be able to, with the proper training, realize that sleep was the furthest thing from the minds of these ladies at the moment.

Someone with the right point of view would be able to see that the room was far from the tranquil scene it appeared, but rather, it was a roiling maelstrom of activity, as invisible auras of spiritual power

surged and twisted about each of the young warriors, recorded and altered and pulled by the papers around the room. Though none of the normal personnel roaming the base would see a thing, any of the psi trained or martial artists would be able to see the green and pink light filling to room. Starfire's aura burned like a bonfire, dancing merrily around her. Jinx, on the other hand, was surrounded by a halo of crackling pink lightning.

Then, in the wink of an eye, Jinx's aura vanished, the young sorceress leaning forward with a wince. A second later, Starfire's aura winked out as well and her eyes snapped open.

"Are you alright, Jinx?"

Nodding quickly , Jinx quickly straightened back up and picked up the pen at her side. Looking through the sheets of paper around her, she quickly found the one she was looking for, covered with odd writing. Using the pen, she marked a notation down on the margins. It wasn't alone, since that particular part of the training was proving especially difficult.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good. The rotation is still a bit wonky, but I think I'm getting the hang of it."

Starfire looked dubious for a moment, nodding. "I noticed a slight shift in your aura, it appeared to have gotten away from there for just a second."

Taking a deep breath, Jinx smirked. "Not like you. You're like a rock over there. First the tornado fist thing, now this? How do you get the hold of these things so quick?"

"This exercise is meant to unlearn the techniques forced on the human body. I am not human, and I have never become wedded to... the circular movement of energy as most humans have," the Tamaranian explained. "I believe it helps that I have also been using energy for as long as I have. I was under the impression that you were of a similar background. I do not understand why you are having trouble, especially considering the range of techniques which you learned under Happosai."

Twisting her neck around until a loud crack was heard, Jinx sighed and leaned back to rest on her hands.

"It's the story of my life, really," she replied. "My power has never been 100% under my control, it's just so chaotic and unpredictable. It was something that Happosai and I had to work on extensively. He thinks my power is just naturally entropic."

"Entropic?" Starfire asked, only to hum to herself. "Though, that does seem to make sense. Just feeling your aura, I can understand what Happosai may have been referring to… Still, are you certain that

we should be doing this without Ryouga or Cologne present to assist? It was him that taught us this technique in the first place, after all."

"Heh, and _he_ just learned it from _other him_, anyway, so it's not like it's a big deal. Besides, I doubt he'd be able to survive sitting here with the pair of us like this."

That brought a smile to the Tamaranian's lips. "I suppose you may be correct."

"Not to mention that he has no more idea on how this will work for us than we do. Heck, did you know that his evil double told him not to try and teach us this stuff? No offers to help us figure it out, no tips or anything, just 'they can't learn this'."

The Tamaranian's lips pursed anxiously; seeing both sides of the issue.

"I can understand that he would be cautious… but it would have been more pleasant if he could have offered aid, rather than just assume that we are incapable or... incompatible. Even with the arrays provided by Cologne, we have made impressive progress in our training, tailoring it to our own unique physiologies. I believe we will both master the technique, given the proper time."

Starfire glanced down at the 'array' itself, superimposed on her midriff. It consisted of a tattoo of sorts, built around interlaced geometric shapes and a few other added pieces of script. As long as they wore it, it would light up when they exercised their auras during these control sessions. It was a training tool of an unconventional sort, even for the two very unconventional girls. Both of them had been given arrays tailored to their... anticipated (following the human baseline)... biology and ki generation systems.

Looking around at the regulation and control papers, Jinx licked her lips to moisten them.

"And we haven't exploded or gone into muscle spasms or anything," she joked, clearly not worried by the possibility. "Thank goodness for granny… evil as she is."

Cologne had been the one to apply the 'trial arrays,' since the native Hibiki had considered it too dangerous. She'd still strongly insisted they take the training incrementally and cautiously, though.

Jinx gently rubbed her shoulder, wincing a bit. "I suppose we can take what we have to Ryouga soon enough; I'm sure he'll be impressed with what we've got done so far."

"Impressing him is important to you, is it not?"

Instantly, the sorceress found one sheet in front of her quite fascinating. "It's not… I'm not… Say, where the heck do you think Cy went, anyway? Guy's been gone all day, not a word. Kinda odd, don't you think?"

The alien warrior looked back at Jinx through lidded eyes and with a smile on her lips. "I am sure that I do not know. Cyborg has many obligations which we are not entitled to know of at this time."

"I know, I know," Jinx griped. "I just prefer it when I'm the one keeping the secrets, is all."

Starfire giggled at that. "I suppose you would." Immediately, she sobered. "Still… I wish we were not kept so far within the darkness…"

"Meh, whatever," Jinx replied with a wave of her hand. Idly fingering the paper one more time, she looked back up. "…Sooo, your observation period is over today, and Ryouga and Cyborg are both back up to ship shape and all that. I guess that means our medical leave is gonna be over tomorrow."

A slow nod was the Tamaranian's reply.

"And… I guess that means we have a decision to make, then, right?"

At that, Starfire shook her head. "It is only you and the others that have a decision to make. For me, there is no choice at all. Still, I would like to know what your opinion is."

"_My_ opinion? On whether we should split up the team or not?" Jinx asked. Her head tilted left then right as she considered the question. "Well, I guess I have been thinking about it, but nothing concrete ever really came from it. I mean, I can go either way, really. I was actually pretty jazzed at the idea of going Section Seven initially. Seemed pretty awesome, you know, going all James Bond and stuff… but then I started talkin' to Mousse and 'Natsu about it."

"Indeed?" Starfire inquired, interest obvious in her voice.

Jinx nodded. "Yeah, what they told me… well, it sounds like, no matter where I go here, I'll be killing people. Or I'll be tempted to. I mean, sure, at least with the Section Seven stuff, I'd be fighting the kinda people I'm used to, and I'd have more control over how I fight and things like that. But still-"

"The thought of killing does not fill you with joy?"

"That's putting it mildly," Jinx admitted. Sighing loudly, she let her head tilt to the side, her long pink hair pooling on her shoulder. "I - I hope you don't think less of me for this, but… but I'm kind of a murder virgin, here…"

It took several long seconds for the Tamaranian's face to cycle through the appropriate responses; incomprehension, understanding, further confusion, bewilderment, then finally amusement. Tittering quietly, Starfire covered her mouth daintily.

"Oh, Jinx. Only _you_ would show concern that others would think less of you for being less evil than you wish to appear." The nigh-topless alien girl paused at that, tapping a finger to her chin. "Though, did you not state that you terminated your ex-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jinx butted in, flapping her hand in exasperation. "The big, bad villainess might have _exaggerated _things a bit to make herself sound a bit more badass. Stop the presses, people."

A slight glower formed on her face at the not exactly welcome memory. "Though, if anyone _deserved_ a good killin'… Bleedin' psycho…"

The Tamaranian shook her head in bemusement. "So, despite your egotistical bluster, you have never-"

"Egotistical _bluster_? I'll _bluster_ you upside the head, ya neon toned bimbo!" Jinx held up her fist threateningly, but was ultimately left unfulfilled as the threat of mere physical violence only proved to amuse the Tamaranian. "But yeah, I've never _intentionally_ killed another person, though, well… things can get a bit crazy from time to time…"

The sorceress gave her head a quick shake. "Whoa, déjà vu. Coulda sworn I'd had this exact convo before…" At the peevish expression growing on her companion's face, she quickly held up a hand. "And _before_ you go all emo on me, Space Case, I'll have you know that I consider _you _to be a person too, as well as any other aliens that aren't mindless killing machines intent on harvesting my organs. Remember that one of _my_ team mates back home was an alien too."

Starfire started at that, obviously having had that piece of information slip her mind. "I am embarrassed to say that I had forgotten. I recall battling him during our siege of the academy, he had the propensity for growing to immense size, did he not?"

Instantly, a reply popped into the sorceress' mind at her companion's question, and before her mental filter even had the chance to register it, she blurted it out. Leaning forward, she wriggled her eyebrows and dug and elbow into the Tamaranian's ribs.

"Well, I dunno if I'd say _immense_, but I can tell ya that he wasn't getting any complaints from the _ladies_, if ya know what I mean?"

"I do no-" Instantly, the Tamaranian's eyes widened to double their size, the emerald orbs threatening to pop out of her head. Instantly, she clutched her hands to her mouth in a shocked gasp. "That is _not_ what I - That, that is _most _inappro-"

It took another second of scandalized muttering before the alien girl finally regained control. Then, suspiciously, she glanced over both of her shoulders, only to lean closer to Jinx. Holding up a hand to the side of her mouth, highly indicative that what was about to be said next was 'secret', she replied;

"Did… did _you_ actually… _you know_?"

Bursting into laughter, Jinx waved her hand furiously. "Of _course_ not. Honestly, I don't even know if he, you know… _had_ one… It was just kind of an inside joke among all us girls. You know, the old 'E-nuk-chuk growth power' idea, taken to it's most …entertaining conclusion."

Again, the Tamaranian could only shake her head. "How did we even stumble upon this most vulgar of conversations?"

Jinx shrugged, "I think you were asking what I thought of joining Section Seven. Unfortunately, it sounds like it's just more of the same. Their first response for everything here is shoot first, ask questions later. I prefer my crime a bit more lucrative and a bit less messy, personally."

Seeing that her training partner was beginning to don a thoughtful 'I am likely to inquire further into your personal business, oblivious to your insular and private nature, because I'm a gangly alien girl with no sense of decorum', Jinx quickly jumped into action. Thankfully, a quick recall of the beginning of their conversation gave her easy fodder to distract the Tamaranian with. "So, what about you, then? You say you don't have a choice about staying here. What does that mean?"

Leaning back herself, resting her weight on her arms, Starfire shrugged her shoulders.

"I think that we are alike in certain ways, Jinx," she began. "Like you, I am a creature of freedom. I relish the sensation of the sun on my skin, of the wind rushing through my hair. As long as I remain a member of Yankee squad, I will maintain a modicum of that freedom. I will be allowed to go on missions and what not - to the best of my knowledge. If we are to separate, I will become nothing but a liability to this organization. I become nothing but a potential enemy, simply awaiting abduction. I would be held here, or somewhere like here, in perpetuity. For my 'protection' of course. Even if I am around when the war ends, I am unsure where I will be welcomed."

Jinx felt her fingers curling into fists, just at the thought of that. Which was an odd thought, since it didn't really affect her, personally, and it hadn't ever really occurred to her that the Tamaranian might be a friend to her.

"Like we'd let that happen."

Again, Starfire smiled, an amused grin. "Do not believe that I had not considered that. I have imagined, numerous times, simply asking all of you to flee from this place with me. Between the talents of Cyborg and Raven, there is surely only a negligible chance that the aliens would ever be able to locate us."

"Heh, yeah, right. Of course, all we'd have to worry about is these X-Com jokers hunting us down like animals and tossing us in the brig in that case."

"Indeed, that is the one weakness in my plan," Starfire admitted with a giggle. She then sobered quickly. "My only real hope in this situation is for us to find a way home."

"You really wanna get home that bad?" Jinx asked the obvious.

"Of course I do. Are you not also frantic to return to our native dimension?"

The sorceress shrugged carelessly. "I dunno, I guess it's kinda like my decision about splitting up. I could go either way, really. There isn't too much there for me to go back to. Then again, there isn't a whole lot really keeping me here, either. I guess you could say that I've… kind of got everything I need with right here with me."

"It pains me to know that you lack the same bonds to our home that I hold so dear." A new frown creased Starfire's face. "My planet, my people? I could not bear to remain in a world where they do not exist. My home, my friends, my loved ones? Even my bed, the couch, the tower in which we live, I miss them all dearly. But, even beyond that, I miss so many things which I only now realize that I have taken for granted."

"Like what?"

Leaning forward, Starfire lifted her knees and wrapped her arms around them, hugging them to her chest.

"I - I suppose that I miss being a hero. I miss being to help anyone that needs it, not just those people which I am allowed to. I miss the excitement; the _fun_ of battling crime with my closest friends. I miss being able to walk down the street and go shopping. I miss being able to go for _the pizza_. And, in all honesty, this world does not need us."

"What?" Jinx asked, seriously surprised. "Are you serious?"

A sharp nod. "Most definitely. Compared to our own world, this world is… quite safe. They have only a single enemy, one which - thanks to the technology they have acquired - they have already surpassed in the arms race. I believe they are quite capable of fighting and winning this war, with or without us."

"Well, I suppose that's true…"

"But our own home is besieged by so many threats, both terrestrial and from the stars, that every person that lends their aid makes a difference. No matter how large, or how small the danger, from alien invasion to alleyway mugger, I feel that what I do holds importance, and I desire to go back to that."

"Heh, well, you are right there," Jinx agreed. "Most of the aliens here, one on one, wouldn't even be able to catch Batman's attention, let alone the League itself. Except maybe those... Chryssalid crab things."

Starfire nodded, a distant look in her eyes. "They do not even know what power is. The being, Saffron, which the aliens in this dimension created… they considered that to be immensely powerful, but compared to the works wrought by my own tormentors, the Psions, he was less than a single point of light in the night sky."

"I don't even know if I _want_ to know what you're talking about, sister. Still, I think I know where you're coming from." Sighing, Jinx sat back up, setting her hands back on her knees. "Well, we'll just have to wait and see what everyone else says when Cyborg gets back."

"Indeed so," Starfire agreed. "So, shall we resume, then?"

"Sure, let's get to it."

A moment later, they closed their eyes and their auras flared to life once more, all but struggling for dominance of the space between them. They were actually supposed to avoid that, but training together was a... safety issue they had agreed to compromise on.

"I'm totally gonna have this mastered before Ukyou does," Jinx muttered under her breath.

Starfire could only shake her head in amusement, even as she concentrated on manipulating the rotation of her body energies. Several more minutes passed in silence, punctuated only by the sound of steady, controlled breathing, meant to relax the body and focus the mind. It also helped to take one's mind off the physical discomfort caused, especially the sharp cramping. It was unfortunate that points in the body centered around the altered flow of energy also closely regulated many of the body's internal organs.

It was uncomfortable, even for a Tamaranian...

Speaking of 'uncomfortable for a Tamranian'… Unable to hold in her curiosity any longer, Jinx finally succumbed to her inquisitive nature. Not willing to wait for herself to falter again, and doubting that her training partner would trip up at all and provide the distraction, Jinx simply abandoned all pretense of the training and dismissed her aura. Opening her eyes, she lanced the alien girl with an intense stare.

"Alright, seriously, I _have_ to know. All yesterday morning, you were giddy as a school girl that Kuno asked you out to that party. And yet, when you finally _do_ show… no Kuno!" Jinx shrugged her shoulders, bewildered. "What up wit dat?"

Several long seconds passed, Starfire's aura continuing to dance about her as she did her best to retain her concentration. Jinx did not relent, though, pinning the alien girl with her stare. Eventually, Starfire cracked open a single eye, peeking out at Jinx.

Several seconds later, she closed her eye again and continued her training. Still, Jinx did not falter in her all seeing gaze. This next passage of time was notably shorter than the first, and Starfire opened both eyes this time, gracing her companion with a put upon expression.

"Am I to understand that you will not resume your training until I answer this highly off topic question?"

A sharp nod. "Yup!"

"Truly?"

"Would I lie to you? …Actually, don't answer that question."

A world weary sigh. "Then… since it appears that I have little choice…"

Finally, the Tamaranian relaxed her body once more, her emerald aura dissolving away to nothing. Leaning forward, she rested her hands on her knees, a bittersweet smile on her lips.

"I will admit that I was quite …tempted… with the idea of enjoying a - a 'date' with Tatewaki."

Jinx shrugged. "I doubt anyone would hold that against ya, Star. I mean, sure, he's no _Ryouga_, but Kuno is still one of the sexiest guys on the base."

"Though his finely coiffed hair and chiseled, aristocratic features did comprise a _small_ portion of my reason for considering his request at length, they did not encompass the whole of my interest."

"Well, if you were interested in more than just how well he could …'handle his sword', then why did ya ditch him?" Jinx asked, still not understanding. Starfire had been absolutely dressed to kill at the party, and from her own experience, you didn't usually go to _that_ kind of effort just to hang out with your glum, violet haired buddies.

Smiling weakly, Starfire held up her hands in a helpless gesture. "Well, on one hand, Tatewaki has never defeated me in combat, and Shampoo has expressly forbidden me from dating any male unworthy of my 'alien might'."

"Oh, I am _so_ calling bullshit right there," Jinx nearly spat. "You had _better_ be joking about actually listening to Shampoo about _anything_. That girl is an absolute _psycho_… and that's the one I know on _our_ world. I can only imagine how many babies _this_ world's Shampoo has eaten!"

Starfire rolled her eyes at that, obviously dismissing Jinx's extremely valid (and perhaps biased) opinion on the subject. Waving her hand about, the alien sniffed loudly. "Granted, I did not know the Shampoo on our world at all, and have only known the Shampoo of this world for a short time, I have _never_ seen her display any of this 'psycho' behavior which you ascribe to her person."

"Did I never mention how _our_ Shampoo tried to _murder_ me once?" Jinx clammed up instantly at that. Actually, she was quite certain that she _hadn__'__t_, since that had been right on top of the short list of 'Things not to tell the Titan's about' from her training trip with Happosai. "Um, heh, on second thought, forget I said anything. I'm pretty sure once Mousse gives her a good 'wink wink nudge nudge, Bob's yer uncle'… that Shamps will _way_ loosen up."

"Mousse… has an uncle named 'Bob'?"

"…Annnnyway…" Jinx shook her head, not sure if she should _ever_ try to explain that one. Stupid English people living in India… "Look, just tell me that Shampoo is not your sole reason for ditching Kuno."

It took several moments as Starfire seemed to struggle to find the proper words she desired, but, finally, the alien girl did respond. "She… is not. In fact, that supposition had been meant mostly in jest. Honestly, the closer to the 'date' that time drew, the more I found myself contemplating my situation… and our home."

Tracing her finger along a bare patch of tatami, her orange finger nail cutting through the tough fibers with almost no resistance, the alien let out a forlorn sigh. "The lovely dress, the excitement of the 'going out', the prospect of the dancing, and the sharing of the company… it all just brought back memories of my first such 'date' …with Robin…"

"_Ohhhh_," Jinx exclaimed, not sure whether to be partially disgusted, or fully disgusted.

Rolling her eyes again, Starfire giggled lightly to herself. "Indeed, such flights of fancy are unbecoming in mature women such as ourselves… but I have not given up hope on returning home." She clenched a brightly colored fist. "We _will_ return home, some day. And with that in mind, it seemed… unfair, to …what is the term? To 'elevate the expectations' in Tatewaki. To toy with his affections, knowing full well that my time in this dimension is limited, it seemed - seemed needlessly cruel."

Jinx just shook her head. "Girl, we have _got_ to educate you on the concept of the 'one night stand'. If getting thrown into an alternate reality doesn't qualify as 'different area code', then you're beyond all hope."

"I am uncertain of that which you speak of," Starfire began in a suspicious tone, "And I feel that it is better if I do _not_ inquire further in this case. Suffice it to say that I am content with the way that things are at the moment."

Giving a disappointed grunt, Jinx gave her hair a quick toss.

"Speaking upon that subject," the redheaded warrior added abruptly. "You and Ryouga seem to have grown closer over the past weeks, too."

Jinx's catlike eyes snapped wide open. "Ummm… what makes you say that?"

Starfire graced the ex-criminal with a bemused glance. "I cannot imagine how I received that impression."

"Is… it going to be a problem?"

"Perhaps not," Starfire replied in an uncharacteristically serious tone. "You should know, though, that I consider Ryouga to be like a sibling. And if someone were to harm him in any way… well, I do have the capability of rending solid steel with my fingers."

"Um, duly noted..." Jinx swallowed nervously. "I'll see what I can do to make sure that kind of thing isn't necessary."

"Just so long as we have an understanding. We do have one, do we not?" Starfire's eye narrowed dangerously.

"Yes!" It came out as a squeak, but Jinx quickly recovered. "I mean, _yes_. Yeah, no problem at all, Star. We're all good here."

Starfire nodded, smiling sunnily again. "That is most heartening to hear, my dear friend."

"Now, let us return to our training. We still have much to accomplish."

* * *

She sensed his presence long before she could see him. The familiar sensation of his mind, his aura, pressing in on her as he drew near. It had been like this, almost from their very first meeting; she could still recall the intensity of his emotions threatening to overwhelm her. Now, though, it was no longer just his emotions that she was perceiving, but intentions, surface thoughts, anxieties, so many things that she had no right to know.

It was so hard to block them out, especially with him. With most everyone else on the base, she could tune them out… with some effort; she could still keenly sense the presence of all of the people in the PsiGym with her, as well as the minds of those in several of the adjacent wings, but a combination of meditation and the base's Mind Shield allowed her to respect their privacy.

But with him… with him, her subconscious wanted to delve into his mind so badly. The desire to fathom the impossible riddles of the male mind, and the impossible logic of this male in particular, was in constant struggle with her conscious mind. She had spent so much time trying to come to understand him, who he was, what drove him, that now that she possessed the raw ability to simply rip that information from his mind on a whim, it was becoming a struggle to just… not.

She hadn't even touched a PsiAmp in days. The last thing she needed was _more_ focus.

As she sensed him close in on her position - stopping briefly to get directions, then again to actually get someone to physically lead him to her station - she considered ending the simulation she was currently running, but couldn't be bothered. Instead, she left her eyes closed, dwelling in the blackness of the familiar simulation.

"Raven?"

The nervous tenor in his voice was mirrored by the tremor in his mind.

"Ryouga," she replied in an even tone. Urges to be sunny and warm battled with a desire to entreat him to glacial coolness, resulting in a tenuously neutral position. Memories of the two of them together over the past - how long has it been, a half a year, a year? - filled her with an unsettling warmth. They had grown so close, been through so much together, she had hoped for just that little bit more…

And then thoughts of him with _'__her__'_ filled Raven with such conflicting emotions. She had spoken to Starfire about this very thing nights before, but it had been lingering in her mind ever since. She felt glad for Jinx, to have someone that brought out the best in her - or at least diminished the worst of her attitude. But, on the other hand, did it have to be _him_?

It wasn't fair; if she just hadn't been dragged to Tamaran on account of Blackfire's _idiotic_ scheme, then Jinx wouldn't have had weeks alone with him to dig her claws in...! But - no, no, that wasn't fair, either. She knew how Jinx felt about Ryouga, she doubted there was a soul on base that didn't at this moment - and expecting her to not act on those feelings was little more than wishful thinking.

"So… what are you working on, Raven?"

She considered his question and how to respond. "Do you remember the first program we ran here? The one that put us face to face with our fears?"

She could picture the grave look which was doubtlessly forming on his face perfectly.

"I remember. It… wasn't pleasant. Is - is that what you're running?"

"Indeed."

"Wha- For how long?"

She shrugged absently. "Forty five minutes, so far. Don't sound so frantic, though. I'm cheating horrendously. I shouldn't even be able to speak to you during this simulation, but I'm only really investing half of my attention to the simulation and leaving the rest outside. Doing that pretty much destroys the entire point of the program, since it allows me to objectively dissect any fear it tries to inflict upon me from an outside perspective."

"… Then… if it's meaningless, why are you doing it?"

"I…" She paused for a moment. Her initial plans for her time in the Psigym had become muddied somewhere along the line. "I think that I'm just running up the clock, really. I've gone through nearly every game, simulation and combat scenario available to me in this gymnasium over the past few days, so I thought I would extend my domination streak from Duck Hunt to… well, everything."

"I… see," came an oddly concerned reply. "That's - that's actually what - Okay, seriously, can you please look at me when we're talking? Knowing that half of your mind is being psychologically tortured while I talk to the back of your head is far too unsettling for me to deal with."

Again, she found herself conflicted. For just an instant, she was torn between respecting his wishes swiftly, and punishing him by ignoring his wishes completely. It was an odd sensation for her, feeling this pettiness lurking at the edges of her mind… and feeling justified in it. Again, she found a compromise. Patiently, she awaited for the timer to click past 46:00, and only then did she nod to herself and disconnect herself from the console.

Slowly, she spun around in the seat, lifting one leg over the other as she did, until they were crossed primly before her. Only once she had steepled her fingers seriously in front of her lips and leveled a blasé glance up at her would-be NCO, did she recall that she was currently wearing a comparatively short skirt.

Head turned staunchly to the side, red still flushing his cheeks, Ryouga nodded seriously to himself once he figured she was ready to talk again.

"It - it has come to my attention that you have been in here, training, nearly every hour of every day since the party."

Raven couldn't help but smirk at that, the corner of her lip curling up in amusement.

"Oh, is that so?" she asked, with a hint of innocence. "I don't suppose it came to your attention roughly a minute ago, when I told you that I've been in here training extensively for the past few days?"

"_No_," he replied in a terse, defensive tone. "If you _must_ know, I've been abreast - uh, I mean, I've been _up to date _on the situation since it started. I've… actually tried to talk to you a few times over the past few days, but you've always seemed so busy."

Looking over her shoulder to the workstation, she then turned back to him, eyebrow already quirked upwards. "Really? And what was so different about today?"

For some reason, the martial artist actually took a half step back, an unusual quaver running through his aura. She wasn't sure why, but she would have sworn that he was upset over something. After a moment, though, he squared his shoulders and took a full step forward again, towering over her. Of course, despite the move, the power dynamic was still in her favor, having the seated position… though, for the life of her, she couldn't figure out why that even occurred to her as something of importance.

"Nothing has changed today," he finally replied, his voice carefully controlled. "And that's just it. Raven, I wanted… I… "

All at once, the Lost Boy's bluster dissolved away as quickly as it formed. Shoulders slumping, Ryouga stared back at her, earnest expression in his eyes.

"Raven, have you been avoiding me?"

That question actually set the unflappable Titan back a step, though hers was more metaphysical than Ryouga's had been. "Avoiding you?" she asked, as confused at the question as he likely was for having asked it in the first place.

"Whatever gave you the impression that I was avoiding you?" she inquired. How could he have possibly gotten that impression? She would never try to avoid him, she had always enjoyed his company. Nothing had ever changed about that, so-

"Well, it's just that I haven't even been able to corner you for a single minute over the past few days. You don't take breakfast with the rest of us, and you haven't replied to any of my emails. All you do is spend your time in here."

Emails? He had sent her emails? Well, it was true that she hadn't really bothered to check her email over the past few days. It wasn't like she had gotten anything important since they had gone on medical leave, so it just hadn't seemed worthwhile keeping up with them.

Looking down, she carefully smoothed her skirt out over her thighs. "I'm sorry, Ryouga. I didn't even know you sent any emails."

He quickly shook his head, lifting his hands in a warding gesture. "No, no, it's my fault for not just finding you and talking to you. It's just that… you aren't upset with me, are you?"

For just a moment, she was struck speechless, staring at him with wide, violet eyes. "Upset? Of - of course not. There's no reason for me to _be_ upset. I've… simply had a lot on my mind lately."

The martial artist stared back at her dubiously. "Look, Raven, I'm pretty sure that I know what this is about. I - if you want, I can explain what's happening between me and-"

Raven held up a hand sharply, cutting him off mid sentence. She met his gaze seriously, not even lowering her hand as she replied. "Ryouga, I can assure you that I am not even remotely ready to have _that_ kind of conversation yet. Can we just say that I am glad that you both have found someone that makes you happy, and leave it at that?"

Ryouga looked hesitant to drop the subject, one of his hands slowly rising up - only for it to drop down once again. Sighing loudly, he nodded weakly.

"I think that we can do that," he said. "It's just that… well, your friendship is important to me, Raven. I don't want anything to change that."

The dark Titan found herself chewing her lower lip for a moment at that. She didn't want anything to change between them either, but it was too late for that. Everything had changed so very much., and so quickly. Not just between the two of them, either, but between her and Jinx, as well. She wondered what Ryouga would think if he told her how terrified Jinx was of her at the moment? Not that Jinx was scared of her in any physical sense, the witch was supremely confident in her own abilities. But the thought that Ryouga might still end up going back with Raven kept the girl up at nights.

Thankfully, as things had begun to settle between the two of them, the fear had diminished as well, as Jinx came to trust that Raven wasn't actually going to actively try to do anything to sabotage her relationship. But still, the fear was there, well hidden from most everyone on the planet.

Everyone but Raven, it seemed, and the morality of her having that knowledge left a bad taste in her mouth.

"Don't worry," she tried to assure him. It was somewhat hard, though, as she wasn't even sure of the words she said. "You'll always be my friend, Ryouga. Not even Jinx can change that… uh - not that I think she would try to, just that - you know, right?"

He nodded, smiling weakly, but no other response was forthcoming. What ensued was a not entirely comfortable stretch of silence. She didn't really know what else to add on to the current topic of conversation that wouldn't immediately stretch it out into _that_ kind of talk. Luckily for her, Ryouga appeared to have come prepared with more than a simple topic in mind.

"So, our medical leave ends tomorrow," he started tentatively. "As you know, I promised the Commander that I would have an answer for her before we went back on duty. I'm waiting on Cyborg to get back from… wherever they sent him to, but I wanted to get everyone together to discuss this before then."

Her head bobbed in acknowledgement. "Indeed. It's been hard not to think about, actually. It's one of the reasons I've been in here so often, thinking of this very question."

Finally relaxing slightly, Ryouga grabbed a nearby chair and pulled it up aside her own. Taking a seat, he rested his arms across the back of the chair. "I know what you mean. Staying as a team, or going our separate ways? There's so much to consider, and it's different for each of us. It… well, it is a… weighty decision."

"I see that you are still a master of understatement," she stated drolly. "But something that needs to be decided sooner, rather than later."

Again, silence descended on them as Ryouga nodded absently. Slowly, Raven began to spin her seat around, looking upward as she did. As the roof circled overhead, a grin spread over her lips. For the first time that day, she actually took the initiative in the conversation.

"Say, Ryouga… do you know who I miss from back home?"

The martial artist tapped his chin, obviously deep in thought. "Is it Robin?"

"Well… yes, but that's not actually who I was thinking of."

"Oh? Is it Terra, then?"

"Umm, yes, I suppose so, as well…"

"Ah, it must be Kasumi then!"

"You can't be serious," she replied with a scowl, one that only deepened at the sight of the obvious mirth on his face.

His smile only widened as he regarded her. "Well, I guess that only leaves one person, but I find it hard to say their name, since the Raven that I know would _never_ admit to actually missing _that_ person."

"Oh, _ha ha_, Lost Boy. You aren't actually going to force _me_ to say it, are you?"

He shrugged in a most unhelpful manner. "I don't think I would believe it if the words didn't pass your own lips."

Her brow crinkled up as she shot a dark glare his way. "Fine. I actually miss _Beast Boy_. There, are you happy?"

"Ecstatic. Also? Flabbergasted." His cheeky grin was a grating as it was endearing. "I still can't believe you just admitted that. It's kind of sweet, actually."

"You're cruising, Hibiki Ryouga. I'm trying to reminisce here, and you're really getting on my nerves."

If anything, that only amused the martial artist further. "Well, then I'm definitely getting you in the right mood to talk about Beast Boy."

That actually stopped Raven in mid glower, and she found herself grinning despite herself. "I suppose you are, at that. Not having Beast Boy around, not having his constant, energetic shenanigans going on around me, it - it makes this place feel even quieter than it already is. I think I would actually pay real money just to see what it would have been like if Beast Boy had actually come through with us. I can scarcely imagine how the Commander, or the other you, would have put up with the likes of him."

Ryouga chuckled lightly, obviously imagining the same scenario now.

"I doubt he ever would have made it out of the lab, honestly. His transformation trick? That probably would have blown the minds of everyone here so badly they'd never recover. I mean, Jyusenkyou is one thing, but what he can do is on another level entirely."

"I imagine his relentless enthusiasm and his 'sense of humor' if you can call it that, would have either made him popular with everyone, or polarized the entire base against him in a matter of hours. Though, knowing him, it wouldn't last for long, even if he did."

"True enough," Ryouga agreed. "From what I've heard about Beast Boy, his talent for turning enemies into allies is even greater than Ranma's. Especially since the people that Beast Boy turns actually _like_ him after the fact. Still… it's for the best that Beast Boy isn't here. Not with what we've had to do to survive here…"

"Well, that goes without saying. Him and Terra both, honestly. Though, I think we would have done much better had Robin come with us."

"Heh, thanks for the vote of confidence there, Raven," Ryouga quipped, "But, you're completely right. I've made so many mistakes here, mistakes that Robin never would have made in my place."

"At least you've kept things interesting for us."

"Yes, that makes me feel _so_ much better! I thought we were supposed to be having a serious talk, here?"

Raven rolled her eyes. "You want serious?" Sighing weakly, she spun around again, facing the console. "Well, what would you say if I told you that I was seriously considering going along with the idea to split up the teams?"

"You are?" came the half panicked reply.

"What would you say, if beyond even _that_, I was to say that I have been considering staying here, regardless of whether we were able to find a way home or not?"

Just as expected, Ryouga was on his feet in an instant. Surging forward, he grabbed the back of her chair, just above her shoulders, the hard plastic creaking under his grip. Despite the fact that he was mere inches away, hovering over her with a frantic look in his eye, Raven still felt perfectly safe, the proximity evoking a different emotion from her.

"_What_? What do you mean?"

Smiling, she lifted a hand and pressed it to his chest, just over his heart. Giving a gentile push, she moved him back to a less… intimate distance.

"Can you really blame me?" she asked in an even tone. "If I were to stay here, I would be given a life of serenity and meditation. I would never see another battle, would never be placed in harm's way again. I would have to do nothing but advance my psionics abilities to their full extent."

The flat look on Ryouga's space spoke volumes. "That sounds… nice?"

Just at the look on his face, Raven couldn't help but leave him hanging in suspense for several long seconds, before the giggle finally escaped from its hiding place in her throat.

"I'm sure it does, to someone that hasn't lived the kinds of lives we have. Honestly, I don't think I could stand a life like that. Without any of the chaos that I'm so used to, the excitement and the adventure?" she asked. "Even as much as I thought it was all a bother, I think changing to a life of austerity might drive me mad more quickly than even refereeing a lightning round of Extreme Stankball."

The laughter which she elicited from her companion filled her with a familiar warmth. She didn't feel like spoiling that with the unsettling implications that had occurred to her as well. Due to her powers on this world, it seemed like the value placed on her life had suddenly been elevated beyond that of everyone else. Ranma and Ryouga, as brilliant as they were, were still sent out into harm's way on a regular basis. They risked dying every time they went out, but suddenly Raven was too important to even risk in such a way?

India and Juliet were valuable assets… but Raven was more valuable still. It was a concept that didn't sit well for her, the idea that other people were considered more expendable than herself. Especially with the curse she had lived her life under.

There was no need to bother Ryouga with worries like that. Instead, she spun around again, gesturing to the console behind her. "I'm not even really sure what I'm still doing in the Psigym, anyway. According to these machines, my Psi Skill has gone from a numerical display to a double-A mark… which I guess means I've passed the machine's ability to measure, since people have been calling me AA since I got here. I should probably be happy or proud, but what's the point?"

That drew a curious look from Ryouga. He waited for her to continue, though.

She shrugged casually. "It's horribly imprecise, I know, but even with the score I'd reached before the machine had topped out, there likely isn't an isolated Ethereal in the system that I can't dominate. Even Saffron, as terrible as he was, mostly just caught me by surprise. The raw rage, the distilled pain which he was suffering; I was not prepared for them, and combined with that, the fact that I had already been spreading my focus, defending the four of you, and then all of India and Juliet as well… he caught me off guard. As soon as Starfire came up with her plan, and I was able to regain my focus, I was able to form an attack of my own. Despite the machine's inability to measure my skill level any longer, I can still feel my abilities growing. In a few months, and with more experience, I wonder if I wouldn't be more than a match for another such being, even by myself?"

"… That's a good thing, though, isn't it?"

"I suppose that, for some, it would be," she replied in a tired voice. "But power, just for the sake of power, is not something I have ever been interested in. What would be the point of building up that kind of strength, if I would never be given the opportunity to use it?"

Ryouga lifted his finger to reply, but she could sense that an answer eluded him. He was a maniac when it came to training, as was every other martial artist on the base, but the main reason they all trained was under the expectation (whether they liked it or not) that they would require those skills to use against some vile enemy. Would any of them be so driven to train if they knew they would never fight again? Somehow, she doubted it.

"I suppose that I might be able to help the AA class psychics which are being held up on the moon base, but I've been getting the impression that any help I would offer would be as much my mind being studied and researched as it would be me actually sitting down and attempting to help them firsthand. Truth be told, I'm not sure how effective a therapist or teacher I would be to some of these people..."

It was not a possibility which filled her with enthusiasm, no matter how noble the goal. She-

"Wait - wait - wait right there! … Did you say _Moon Base_?"

Instantly, Raven froze. That… had been something that Yankee wasn't supposed to know about. It wasn't the only thing, either. There was one thing that Yankee _**especially**_ wasn't supposed to know, and she couldn't risk revealing it, not at the risk of getting Cyborg and herself in what would likely be some very serious trouble.

"Damnit," she cursed under her breath.

Brow furrowing, Ryouga leaned forward. "What is it? What are you talking about, Raven?"

He asked it in a hushed voice, and she replied likewise.

"During the battle with Saffron, I got inside everyone's heads, to protect them, and no one even resisted so... the situation was... I kind of had to go in deeper than I wanted to. I… saw things which I didn't really want to, in everyone." She leaned forward as well, lowering her voice further. "That includes things which aren't just private, but in concern to India and Juliet, things which are outright classified. Luckily, no one knows what has happened, and I plan to keep it that way. If anyone should find out what I know, though, I could get in serious trouble."

"What? I hardly think they could blame you for something you did to save their people."

Again, she shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. We know that they treat us well as long as we remain in line, but we also know that they adhere to their rules and protocols with extreme prejudice. I don't know how they would react to a breach of security this large."

"Well, let's just make sure that it doesn't come to that, then, okay?"

She nodded. "To say the least. It shouldn't be too hard to keep under wraps, since it would take the concerted efforts of half of the Psi interrogation team to break my defenses, but I can't risk talking about anything to the rest of you, just in case."

Ryouga smirked at that. "I'd like to see them try to take you on." His smirk quickly died away. "But… I think we're getting off of topic. You can't tell me anything about this place's secrets, and really, I don't want to know that badly anyway, but… are you really considering staying here? Do you actually want to split up from Yankee?

Sighing, she reached out and rested her hand on his, enjoying the rough texture of his skin.

"There are… numerous reasons for me to stay," she wanted to explain more, but balked at the thought of him knowing about _that_. "However, no matter how logical they may be, no matter how beneficial to me, or to others those reasons might sound... No matter how easy and convenient it would be, and how many problems it would solve, I would always know that, if I did stay, that it would be out of fear, not anything else."

That elicited a confused response. "Fear? What do you mean?"

"I… well, let's just say that it's a long story. Maybe someday, I'll tell you about it." Unfortunately, that day might be sooner than she hoped. "Amusingly enough, though, it was actually Ranma that helped me make my decision. He told me that you should never run from a fight… well, at least you should never run away 'forever,' since he's a strong proponent of running away for short periods of time."

"Heh heh heh, yeah, that's Ranma, alright!" Ryouga laughed. "I've seen his 'crouch of the prideful tiger' more than a few times myself. He's so shameless."

Well, maybe this Ranma was, but she liked to think that her - ahem, _their_ - Ranma was just a tiny bit better. If only out of personal experience and unavoidable bias, she still didn't feel as comfortable around this world's Saotome. There was a bit of innocence that he had lost that she just couldn't fully divorce her perceptions of him from.

"Still, shameless or not, he was completely correct. If I were to stay here, it would be admitting defeat. In the same way, and I don't know if this is just the way I feel or not, it feels to me that agreeing to split up Yankee would be like admitting that we're stuck here. As long as we're together, we're properly positioned to get home as soon as possible. If we let them split us up, then we could be shipped across the globe and never see each other again."

The dark haired Titan graced her companion with a warm smile. "Call me selfish, but I have a feeling that we may be closer to home than you think, and I'm not ready to let go of my friends quite yet."

A wide smile bloomed on Ryouga's face instantly. "Now _that_ is a relief to hear. I was worried that I might have to drag you along with us, kicking and screaming, otherwise."

"As if you could."

"Oh, I would have tried."

Languidly, Raven rose to her feet, using Ryouga's shoulder as leverage. She smiled, enjoying the familiar, friendly banter which had been absent so long between them. It didn't last long, though, and her smile faltered as something occurred to her.

"Ryouga… can you promise me something?"

He shrugged, standing up himself. "Of course, anything for you, Raven."

She nodded. "Alright, I can't tell you, now, exactly what it is that I'm talking about… but, soon enough, you're going to learn something - something that is likely going to make you incredibly angry."

"Huh?" he asked eloquently.

She shook her head. "Like I said, I can't tell you now. Just, when you learn it, and you'll know when you do, I want you to promise that you won't lose your temper, alright?"

"I'm not sure I can promise you something if I don't know about it."

"Ryouga, _please_?" she implored.

For a moment, he stared at her, confusion evident on his face. Finally, though, he let out a tired sigh. "Fine, fine. Like I said, anything for you. You might have to give me a heads up, though. These prophecy things are never as clear as you prophet types think they'll be."

Violet eyes rolled in annoyance. "I am _not_ a prophet. Just do what I tell you and stop being an ass."

That brought a familiar fanged grin to his lips and she felt a tingle of amusement welling up inside him.

"Whatever you say… boss."

* * *

Ryouga didn't need to say it, but he was glad to be back home.

He didn't even mind the hour and a half spent in quarantine. The time spent in medical review and debriefing was also a good opportunity to plan out Operation Pathfinder's formal mission report. The actual return trip back had been uneventful: the EDC hadn't so much as hiccupped, and while the blast of hard radiation that accompanied the trip meant it was best kept exoatmospheric, none of the crew seemed to be showing any ill effects. Everyone had experienced the odd 'blue shift' effect a second time, but the medical staff didn't seem concerned. There was already speculation that the movement between dimensions momentarily altered the perception of wavelengths of light.

Those sorts of details were best left to the eggheads, who had their own reports to submit.

Being stuck in an isolation room was nothing new to either of the lieutenants, but some of the others were downright _antsy_. Professor al-Rifai seemed anxious to get out and back to work, but getting her hands on a summary of the compiled data from the Pathfinder computers had mollified her enough that she was currently sitting down and lost in the numbers and graphs. The engineering team they'd brought were probably used to decon and rad-scrubbing and were presently napping in sterile chairs.

Ranma and Ryouga passed the time either talking about martial arts, or silently looking up at the ceiling. As was their norm, the former did most of the talking, the latter most of the zoning out. They'd been back for a little over an hour, but the actual procedures used didn't take long individually. Next time, they'd just process the whole group all together, like normal decon runs, but for this first trial transition they wanted individual scans, examinations, and decontamination screenings done for every person who went through the dimension jump.

It was also why Saotome was speaking in soprano.

"...but that's not just it," Ranma-chan mused, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees. It was a particularly annoying habit he-as-she had of assuming the most masculine poses possible while in female form. Luckily, fate had provided the pigtailed martial artist with a t-shirt after he got out of the last round of r-scrub.

"I was working with my Hiryu Henki to try and get it to work with the Umisenken, and I tried a few Hakuda Toshin Shous. After a while, I realized a normal mix of the two ain't gonna work." The two officers were also back to Japanese, allowing for Ranma's less refined speech. It was ironic that he'd actually had to work to make his pedagogically engrained English more casual to better suit his tastes.

"That's not a surprise," Ryouga observed, paying attention even though it seemed like he was counting tiles on the ceiling. "Your Henki relies on outputting hot ki to form the tornado effect, just like the Hiryu Kanshou."

"And the Umisenken needs a completely quiet battle aura, yeah. But - and here's the interesting part - I also tried using the Henki first, getting it to stick in place using the contact-aura trick, and then using Umisenken moves." Ranma-chan eagerly bumped her fists together in anticipation. "And I just got some new ideas back when we were sitting around; can't wait to try 'em out!"

Ryouga silently agreed - sitting around on the ship had been boring. At least the scientists had had fun.

"Like what?"

"Like a way to break through that Dokuja Toshin Shou defense you came up with."

"Oh ho?" He glanced back over at the pigtailed boy turned girl. It looked like he wanted to pick up the technique arms race again.

"We haven't had a good, solid spar in a while," Ranma-chan added. "You remember who won that one, don't you?"

Ryouga gave the redhead a hooded frown.

"I remember you winning with a dirty trick," he answered. "Even dirtier than usual."

"Moko Ichigeki Tai. Don't cry cause you got suckered, sucker."

Ryouga groaned_. Moko Ichigeki Tai_, aka " Fierce Tiger Hit Figure." This so called technique of the Saotome School involved pretending you see something on the ground, like a hundred yen, or that you lost a contact lens, or something similarly stupid. In the above case, it had been a supposedly lost tooth, and given they had both knocked teeth loose before, Ryouga had momentarily taken a look around on the floor.

A mistake, clearly.

"Anyway," Ranma-chan continued. "Want a rematch later?"

"You just want a technique dummy that won't get torn up after one move," Ryouga deadpanned, but shrugged. "The Commander'll probably get pissed if we do it before we finish this op."

"Something to look forward to after, then. I wanna see if I can counter that damn Nageki no Yama, Shishi Hokoudan from before."

It went without saying that if Ranma could come up with a countermove, then chances were good that Cologne's Trenchard self could as well. Besides, even if she wasn't part of the equation, it was just how one practiced the Art. Part of why you learned it was to show it off to your peers. Even making silly technique names was no different than an artist coming up with some obtuse or incomprehensible title for a painting or sculpture. It was just the _lifestyle_.

"Hey," Ranma-chan said, ribbing him none-too-subtly. Ryouga turned to see what was up, and followed the pigtailed girl's inclined gesture over to the door.

Where Cyborg, last out of decon, trailed a well covered Kasumi Tendo. In this case, 'well covered' meant she was wearing level-A hazmat suit and only really distinguishable due to her stride and the way she walked. Ryouga frowned a bit just then, well aware of how that particular bit of observational ability had never stopped Ranma or even Shampoo from tricking him before. Despite Ranma-chan tromping around in a decidedly un-female fashion and Shampoo being Shampoo. Those two had a serious misunderstanding about the words 'fair play' ...

Not that he was much better, but... maybe a _little_ better.

Exchanging some quick pleasantries with Kasumi, and letting Saotome poke a joke or two at Cyborg needing to be hosed down and all but disassembled, Ryouga followed the freshly cleared group back to the changing rooms. It was the usual: one for the guys and one for the gals... despite XCOM military personnel only being statistically a little more than ten percent female.

His change of clothes was neatly packed within a sealed plastic bag, a nearby and similarly vacuum sealed envelope holding a few cleaned personal effects. Those were minor: his dogtags, the 'lucky silver dollar' Nabiki had loaned him, a folded picture and of course the bandannas he'd brought along. Everything else had been taken for separate screening and evaluation for the time being. The replacement uniform, an exact copy of his normal fatigues, felt a bit stiff and starched, but it was to be expected. A few forty mile runs followed by normal washing and cleaning cycles would loosen it up nicely.

Meeting back up, Ranma kept quiet, sensing something else was up.

After reuniting with Professor al-Rifai, the first Pathfinder expedition left medical proper and faced a review from the entire command and R&D staff. Commander Yasuda and Captains Banks and Ben-Solomon were there to not only congratulate the entire group on a good day's work - 'humanities first trans-dimensional manned voyage' - and in particular, the research and development teams who made all this possible. It was mostly for the benefit of the science teams anyway.

Provided they had effective ways to track down the alien expedition, all future missions would be entirely military oriented. Ryouga knew it was undoubtedly an incredible achievement, reverse engineering more alien tech and all that, but that wasn't the mission. Discovery wasn't their purpose. Neither was innovation. They were there to Search and Destroy. The techs had done an incredible job, no doubt, and they'd be doing more, too... but future 'manned voyages' would be an altogether different affair in terms of objectives and standards of success.

The Commander also formally cleared Pathfinder for limited disclosure. Back on the ship, Cyborg had jumped at the news that, if things checked out, then he'd be able to tell his friends about the operation. He'd even jumped the gun a bit, fully expecting the medical returns would be on the up and up.

Now that it was formally and finally processed, Ryouga didn't bother to hide a small smile as Cyborg pumped his fist in a muted cheer. Nabiki had called it, back when this first began: Yankee Squad had been a lifesaver before, and now chances were good that they'd be tagging along with the latest mission. With Pathfinder was up and running, the Titans would have their chance. It was already on the "to-do" list, after all. The UN Security and Special Operations Committee had already come to a consensus on the matter.

Commander Yasuda had already given him orders with respect to the possibilities.

He also wondered then if the Commander had planned ahead of time to coincide the first Pathfinder trial with the end of Yankee's medical leave? R&D had already been worked to the bone to meet the deadline. The Commander was clearly sympathetic... and High Command was suitably antsy about closing up this potential hole in Earth Defenses.

_'They have experience with this stuff at least...'_ by which he meant what Ranma called "this dimension hopping stuff."_ 'If we find their home along the way? All the better... since their world was the cause of this security breach in the first place.'_

The biggest "if" was whether Raven would opt to go back, especially given that mess surrounding her apparent parentage... but that was neither here nor there, and none of his business anyway. Still, a part of him had to admit he wouldn't mind if she stayed. Not at all. The organization could always use another powerful psychic on the battlefield, and he knew first hand that there were a great many class-A and Double-A psychics that could be helped if Raven entered the medical and psych-repair fields. On a personal level, she was also one of the Titans he got along well with.

Time would tell, he supposed.

As expected, as soon as the Commander dismissed them, Cyborg headed off like a one ton bat out of Hell. He'd placed an inquiry with his friends as they arrived, and as soon as he got clearance to pass on a message to them through the communications blackout surrounding Pathfinder. The Titans had to have been waiting for an hour or so by now.

"Hmm." Ranma mused, arms crossed and still female. Her issued clothes, designed for male-Ranma, hung loose on the petite redhead's frame.

"What?" Ryouga asked, sensing something more there in his rival and frenemy's tone of voice.

"Nothing much," Ranma-chan replied, tossing back her pigtail and tucking her hands into her pockets. "I just wonder if we'll find their home first? Or...?"

"One mission objective at a time," he decided, staring up at the ceiling again. "The actual order they happen in doesn't matter that much."

Ranma nodded in unspoken agreement. "That's if we can get them back home at all."

* * *

"That… was so not good," Cyborg muttered to himself as he jogged down the halls.

Not the news, of course, which was great! The 'not so good' part was rooted in the fact that batteries of decontamination and medical exams had had left him feeling more drained than that three year old tofu-slurped cup sitting in the corner of Beast Boy's room. It had also made him ridiculously late. For a minute there, he'd forgotten just how anal these people were with their 'contamination protocols' and their 'concern for proper procedures' and whatnot. It seemed like he'd been stuck in the medical for _hours_.

Having an internal chronometer didn't make time fly any faster after all.

His tardiness firmly in mind, Cyborg was somewhat leery as he finally approached the door of conference room three. Even calculating in an extra 45 minutes to an hour for Ryouga to find the first of the Titan girls, that still left a good window of up to two hours that they might have been stuck sitting around waiting for him. Still, it was important that everyone knew what he had to say.

With all of this talk of splitting up the team (as attractive as the option seemed), now was the absolute worse time to do that. If they split up now, they'd lose any chance to actually go along on any future EDC missions, which means they would be completely at the mercy of the organization as far as it came to actually getting home. As long as they were on the missions, at least they had the random chance of landing home straight away, or at least getting somewhere close enough that either him or Raven could get them back under their own power.

Steeling his resolve - Cyborg groaned at his own phrasing - he slid the door open and stepped through boldly. He half expected a repeat of the time that Ryouga had left them all sitting here for an hour or so, the entire crew passed out and sleeping the time away.

Instead, he actually stopped halfway through the door, eyes widening in surprise. Sure, Ryouga was napping away, propped up between a pair of chairs and carefully positioned so that he was facing away from the center of the room. The reason for his about-face was quite obvious as, sitting right across from each other on the surface of one of the long tables, Starfire and Jinx had stripped off their shirts, showing off their sporty sports bras and the somewhat goofy looking tattoos scrawled across their taut abdomens.

He also noticed Raven sitting cross legged on the other tabletop, meditating silently to herself, but it was hard to concentrate on her, as he found his eyes continually sliding back to the pair of near topless girls sitting on the other table. Apparently not having even noticed his entrance, Starfire opened her eyes, leaned over and wrote something on the top sheet of a large stack of paper at her side.

He found himself wondering how long he could get away with staring before someone noticed-

"Roughly zero seconds, Cyborg. Now, if you could stop ogling the pair of Saotome wannabe's, you could tell us your oh so important information?"

Cyborg started as Raven looked up from finishing her tirade, a nasty looking grin on her lips. Giving his head a quick shake, he nodded and entered the room, letting the door close behind him. Moving to the table that Raven was sitting on, he shakily took a seat. "Man, that's just getting creepy, Rae. You mind giving me a heads up when you're gonna jump in my head?"

Raven's head tilted to the side, her hair pooling around her shoulder luxuriously, only to shrug a moment later. "Ummm, no? It's much more amusing to keep you guessing. Not that it takes a psychic to know what you were thinking, coming into a room with our resident pair of streakers sitting around in the buff."

"Oh, come on, Raven, we're, like, fully clothed here. You see more skin at the beach or a civvie gym," Jinx muttered in annoyance. The witch didn't bother to open her eyes to give the response, though, remaining focused on … whatever it was she was doing. "Besides, we can't help it that Cyborg has good taste… or that you're a complete prude. You could totally be flaunting your goods here, too, Rae Rae. Lord knows you got _huge tracts of land _to show!"

Raven just stared back at the pink haired sorceress. "…I'm afraid that I don't understand the reference."

"What!" Cyborg nearly surged to his feet. "What do you mean you don't _understand the reference_! Why, that's the-"

"Just drop it, Cy," Jinx interrupted him, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "We'll learn her up something fierce later on."

The cybernetic teen stared at her for a moment - struggling admirably to keep his line of sight above neck level and nodded. "Alright, alright. Business before greatness, as they say. Still, someone might want to wake Ryo up. He's gonna wanna know what I got to say."

"Oh, I'm not actually asleep." Ryouga's voice rang out, clear as day, from the far corner of the room. "I'm just trying to give a certain, nameless, pair of girls some privacy until they finally decide to get decent again."

"Please, friend Ryouga, both Jinx and I have stated that we do not mind you being a Peeking Thomas."

"Ugh, first of all, Star, it's 'peeping tom', and it's only okay for him to peep at _me_," Jinx barked in annoyance, "You really gotta cut it out with this creepy sibling thing, I mean, seriously."

Flipping himself up and out of his makeshift chair-bed, Ryouga strolled over and dropped a hand on Jinx's bare shoulder. Finally, the girl's eyes snapped open and she looked up, smile blooming - Only for it to falter a second later, when she noticed that he'd pulled his bandanna down over his eyes. Grunting in annoyance, she elbowed him impotently in the stomach before dropping her hand over his, holding it firmly in place.

"Oh, come on, Jinx. You can't begrudge me my best friends, can you? Next you're gonna tell me that I can't hang out with Cyborg at all, since he's naked all the time."

"Hey, yo!" Cyborg cried sharply. "Don't get me involved in all your weird stuff, man."

Rather than look annoyed, Jinx turned her gaze his way, an appraising light twinkling in her eyes. "Hmmm, actually… that would be pretty hot."

"Hey, hey, don't you get any weird ideas-" Cyborg began to protest.

"Hmm." Only for Starfire to open an eye, turning her predatory gaze his was as well. Her lip curled up maliciously as she considered… whatever it was she was considering. "Now that you mention it, I believe that that _would_ raise the temperature of the room by a significant degree."

"I… don't think I understand what that's supposed to mean," Ryouga stated dubiously.

"Alright, already, can we get back to business?" Raven finally intervened in a huff. "Cyborg said he had some _important information, _right?"

Nodding quickly, Cyborg took his seat again. "Right, right. Okay, listen up everyone, cuz this is real important."

Somewhat reluctantly, Starfire and Jinx donned their shirts again, and Ryouga, rather than take a chair, just hopped up to sit on the table between them. Immediately, Jinx shifted closer and wrapped herself around his arm, well, more sedately, Starfire just reached over and slid her hand over his free one. Raven, for her part, just swiveled around just enough to be facing the group as a whole.

Once he was satisfied that everyone was paying attention, Cyborg nodded and adopted his 'Serious Face'.

"Alright, everyone, there's been a lot of talk about splitting up the team. I know some of us might think that's a better idea than others, but I'm here to tell you guys that we absolutely _can not _split up the team right now! Now, before you flip out, you gotta hear me out-"

"Okay."

Cyborg stopped, mid rant, and stared at the Lost Boy, eyes no longer covered by his bandanna. "Wha… Okay? You mean, 'Okay, we'll listen to what you have to say', or-"

"Okay, we won't split up the team," Ryouga replied matter-of-factly.

The cybernetic scientist found himself dumbstruck for a moment. "Umm, but - but don't you want to hear my reason for not splitting up the team, first? I mean, it's kinda important."

"No, that is quite alright, friend Cyborg," Starfire supplied cheekily. "We have long since come to our own conclusion on that conundrum. After all, we did have several _hours_ in which to debate the topic."

"B-but you can't do that!" Cyborg barked incredulously. "You don't even have all the facts, here. Not to mention the fact that I wasn't even here, man! How can you guys just decide to stick together without even hearing what I had to say on the topic?"

Jinx shrugged her slender shoulders. "Like, what's the big deal? You already agree with us, so it's not like we're outvoting you, or nuthin'."

"T-that's not the point! I know important stuff that you guys don't that affected my ultimate decision. Without knowing what I'm trying to tell you right now, how can you make an educated decision here?"

The three Titans stared at him oddly for a moment, though, strangely, Raven looked quite unfazed by the unusual turn in the conversation. Ryouga finally took the initiative to reply. "Well, what do we need to know that's going to make us … well, make us _not_ change our minds about sticking together? And really, I'm still not getting the relevance, since we already agree with you."

Cyborg felt his teeth gring together in annoyance, and was seconds away from blowing his top, when-

"He's trying to tell us that there is a very good chance that we can get home in the near future, but only as long as we stay together as a team," Raven explained in a bored tone.

That shut everyone up right quick. Instantly, Cyborg spun on the dark Titan. "Raven? Did you just scan my mind for that? You know you shouldn't be-"

"Actually-" She cut him off with a raised hand. "I have known about it since the battle with Saffron. I wasn't able to stop myself from learning it, considering just how many people on the battle field were privy to the information."

"So… then you already knew about this whole thing, then?" Cyborg asked hesitantly. "And you didn't mention it to anyone?"

She nodded. "I knew that spreading such sensitive information would only get either you, or myself in more trouble than either of us would be comfortable with. I will admit, though, that it did not factor into my own decision as much as one might imagine it would."

"Heh, well that's cool-"

"No. It isn't."

Instantly, Cyborg and Raven spun to stare at Ryouga. The expression on his face was at direct odds with the glacial chill that had settled across the words he'd just spoken. Face flushed red, and fangs bared, Ryouga growled loudly, "Are you - _both of you _- telling me that there has been a possible way home right here, in this base, and no one _thought to tell us_? Did it not occur to anyone here that this information might be _somewhat pertinent _to our _situation_?"

"Hey, now, Ryo," Cyborg began hastily. Lifting his hands - half defensively, half in a calming gesture - he motioned for the martial artist to stay seated. "You gotta understand that-"

"Understand?" the Lost Boy snarled heatedly. "I need to understand that, even after all the _crap_ we've done for these bastards, that they'd _still_ hide something like this from us? They had us filling out god damned _change of address forms _the other day! What, did they think that we'd just forget about going home because they made it legal for us to drink a year or two ahead of time?"

Cyborg leaned back, but his frantic search for support was short lived, as Jinx was mirroring Ryouga's reaction almost perfectly, and even Starfire didn't look far behind (quite a feat, since prior to this, the angriest he had ever seen the Tamaranian usually equated to a pretty sunny day for the Hibiki). He wasn't sure if he was more worried about them tackling him, or tearing out of the room and causing havoc...

"Ryouga."

Despite the low volume of the word, the voice that said it carried a weight that shot across the room like a cannon shot, instantly silencing everyone. Immediately, Ryouga, Jinx and Starfire turned to look at the violet eyed Titan, still seated serenely on the table.

"Ryouga, you asked for a heads up, well here it is."

Baffled, Ryouga continued to stare at her for a moment longer, until realization suddenly lit up his face.

"_What_? You can't-"

One of Raven's eyebrow's arced upwards.

"You can't just expect me to-"

The dark Titan's other brow rose up, and she lanced the young man with a stare which all but dared him to keep questioning her will.

Even as the girls at his sides, and even Cyborg, continued to watch in utter confusion, the martial artist took a deep breath and… well, he calmed down.

Sighing weakly, Ryouga finally nodded. "Right… right. I'm sorry, Raven."

If anything, Jinx looked even more flabbergasted at the sudden turn, but Raven simply nodded in return.

"You have to realize that they had no idea that the Dimensional ship would even work until the same trip that Cyborg just went on. There was no point in informing us until it actually became a viable option. And then, no sooner do they prove it works, then what happens? Did you think the timing of all this was a coincidence?"

Begrudgingly, Ryouga nodded. "I… _guess_ that makes sense. I still don't like it, but … well, I guess…"

At his side, Jinx grumbled something under her breath, but it was impossible to make out. Still, Cyborg couldn't complain. Raven just did all the hard work for him, and even used some kind of magical power to actually calm Ryouga down pretty much instantly. How she pulled that off, he had no idea, but it sure made his life a lot easier.

"Well, I guess, now that you know the pretty sweet truth… well, I guess nothing really changes, right?" Cyborg offered in a cheery tone.

Shrugging, Ryouga nodded yet again. "Yeah, I suppose that's true. Now we're not only sticking together because we're family, but also because we got a potential way home right here. Seems simple enough. I guess that means I have to go tell the Commander about our decision, then, right?"

"I guess so, man," Cyborg agreed. "You need any company when you do?"

"I could always go with you!" Jinx offered quickly. "I always like rubbing elbows with those stuffy authority figure types."

"Heh, I think it might be better if I go alone."

Raven nodded sagely. "That might be for the best. No need to antagonize the Commander any more than need be."

"Oh, shut up, bird brain."

* * *

The Seiran Complex included more than just the relatively new Dojo when it came to physical training. Despite a premium when it came to available space within the mountain stronghold, when it had been built a generous grant had been put aside for more orthodox exercise, including weight lifting and conditioning. Virtually everyone who entered the military arm of XCOM came from special forces or a conventional military, and needed to remain at their physical and emotional peak to fight the alien menace... and return on the organization's substantial investment.

Still more popular than the new dojo facility, the gym - actually called the "physical conditioning facility" - was currently crowded as always. The attendants were almost entirely military here, especially since the civilian staff tended to come in sporadically or run along the designated 'tracks' inside the base. For the casual runner, actual running machines were considered wasteful when there were plenty of halls and corridors available. Better to save the space, or so the thinking went. The three machines in the gym were always in demand.

The 'conditioning' part of the PCF was actually quite literal.

Back when the war started, and routine missions had a more than forty percent mortality rate, High Command had made the decision to encourage the medical division, flush from its development of the original ATRISK medikit, to invest some time and effort into _optimization_ of existing manpower. The same teams that had developed drugs capable of selectively blocking pain receptors but providing no other physical side effects such as euphoria or chemical addiction, and reverse engineering Floater cybernetics, turned their expertise first to improved therapy for muscle regeneration due to plasma attacks...

Optimizing training came soon after, with more tailored drugs to enhance strength, reflexes and endurance. Most military personnel entering XCOM were probably at what they considered to be their physical best. After SEAL or ALFA training, or the equivalent from a given UNETCO signatory country, one could hardly expect much additional improvement. Yet improve they did. Those who survived a few months in the field and in the PCF, found their strength and speed nearly doubling, commensurate to the effort put in.

They still hit a physical wall, of course - after which doctors and trainers reduced the dosages and improvement leveled off - but the results were still substantial. The best of the best were taken to a new level. After four months under his belt, an XCOM veteran had the training and experience to take on any alien in the field, and a body to back it up. They wouldn't be lifting cars outside powered armor, but sprinting over two hundred meters of rough terrain in a bit more than a tenth as many seconds, in full kit, followed by an extended firefight or CQC engagement? That was where the conditioning really paid its dividends.

A year ago, XCOM forces had taken on what many still considered the worst terror site in history, the infamous "Bangladesh Chryssalid Hunt," in which the same units ended up fighting almost non stop for nearly three days as they tried to neutralize the alien infestation faster than it could spread. The Snakemen controllers had, for the first time, let their terror units reproduce without restraint, and the result had been nightmarish by any measure of the word. However, when it was all said and done, UNETCO weapons had broken down from overuse, but its soldiers had carried on tirelessly, relentlessly, and ruthlessly.

Not that the program didn't have its concerns or long term potential detriments... of course.

The resident martial artists had felt free to benefit from the medical treatments, but not the full PCF program. One of the reasons they had been brought in was to augment and provide further insight into how to further improve human performance. A good soldier could be said to have an effective hand-eye-hand-trigger response time of about three hundred milliseconds. XCOM could train it down to about half that. A ki using martial artist of the sort in India or Juliet had a pure reaction speed a tenth of even that.

Technically, R&D was still working on effectively replicating the sort of ki enhanced training martial artists used with known psionics. Like the conventional training regimen, it would take time on the order of months to bear fruit, but Commanders worldwide were eager to have another hundred or so blatantly trans-human soldiers at their disposal. Unfortunately, the process wasn't particularly effective on adults. Children, however... it seemed to rely heavily in working on a blank slate, preferably one with innate psionic potential to telekinetically remake muscle, bone and nerve.

It made all the difference.

Currently, one such martial artist, a nineteen year old Joketsuzoku 'Amazon,' hung upside-down from a pull up bar. With legs over the bar, keeping her in place, the young woman was using her abs and hip muscles to pull off a hanging sit-up... with an additional four hundred kilograms (roughly twice that in pounds) hanging by a harness under her shoulders. She was on her four hundredth repetition, out of a normal full set of five hundred.

Only the newbies or civilians stared, slack jawed, when one of India or Juliet hit this gym. Those who had fought with the squads on the field and seen them run faster than a car or smash through a wall or destroy a hillside quickly realized that lifting a few tons or pulling off some other feat of strength or endurance were relatively mundane. Really, though, there were two completely different varieties that still stared at the feat, mundane or not. The first were the men (and women) who didn't mind giving up a few seconds to take in the toned but still remarkably - impossibly - feminine form of the Amazon.

The other was Mousse.

Wait - was that Shampoo?

Putting his glasses on, Mousse sweat dropped at the now clear sight of a particularly ripped man doing pull ups. No. No, that wasn't Shampoo _at all_.

Next to the man - _there she was_ - in all her glory, hair tied up into a sloopy bun in a half assed way that the Elders back at the village would have wagged their finger, or more likely their staff, at. Shampoo's violet hair had been the envy of the men and women of the village back when there had been one, the result of a very rare and recessive gene that supposedly harkened back to one of the village founders. Back home, long hair was considered a status symbol of strength and femininity. Males, being weaker, were generally forbidden from having anything but cropped hair. Mousse had grown his own long as an act of childish defiance and often regretted it. It got in the way frequently. No wonder so many women at the village kept theirs in those quintessentially Chinese "ox horns."

While her physical beauty wasn't something he really considered a factor in his love for her, on the occasions where he had his glasses on, or contact lenses in, she really was a sight. Whether she was in a cheongsam, or a sundress, or one of those ridiculous Furinkan uniforms, or in a bathing suit, it hardly mattered. She was beautiful. Covered by a light sheen of sweat in only a tight tank top and shorts - it wasn't a sight he would complain about, even though he knew how stupid his glasses made him look to her. She wasn't looking at him anyway.

If only she reciprocated...

After Jusendo, he had figured it would only be a matter of time. There was a rather limited pool of potential husbands around who could or would beat her in a fight by fair or foul, and she knew her 'stupid Mousse' was one of them. Ranma was certain to marry Akane, Ryouga had thankfully never been interested in her, and Kuno was likewise deeply involved in his two (or more or less) loves. Konatsu only had eyes for Ukyou, despite how she just wanted to be friends, and Ryu, though admitting more than once that Shampoo was definitely 'hot,' didn't want to tread on the toes of his teammate or end up with someone who would demand he leave Japan and his precious new family dojo. So it wasn't like there was any real competition or anything.

Plus, Mousse HAD given Shampoo her freedom back at Jusendo! That had to count for something. She had been acting nicer to him at least, back before the alien attack on Nerima and Cologne's abduction. The time at Seiran had, if anything, gotten them even closer. They spent more time with each other than they did with anyone else outside their teams. They had traveled and worked together to find Perfume and others. After the destruction of the Amazon Village, she had accepted him as a new Elder and equal.

On the other hand, she just Did. Not. **Reciprocate**.

If he tried to hold her hand, she'd punch him. If he tried to give her a friendly, affectionate hug, she kneed him. Yes, he had ended up groping her a few times thanks to his bad vision, that was true... and he'd also gropped a lot of random women who happened to be standing near Shampoo, or who looked like Shampoo, and also sometimes men... but that wasn't entirely his fault! Also a few plants... But none of that was the point! Whenever he tried to edge things closer to the Relationship Zone, he found a fist, knee, foot or inanimate object getting in the way.

_"Play it cool. Don't look for attention; let her give it to you,"_ Ranma had said.

Like that worked for anyone except him. Moron.

_"I don't know about this kind of stuff. If she wants to hook up, she'll say so or something."_ Ryouga. Another lucky idiot when it came to women. That didn't work either! Not with Shampoo!

_"Listen, Sugar, why don't you just bop her over the head and drag her off? That's how it works with you guys, right?"_ No, Ukyou, that **wasn't** how it worked. And he didn't want to force her into a relationship! That was why he'd cured her at Jusendo instead of making her love him.

Ryu: _"Sleep with her best friend. I saw it on TV once and it worked like a charm."_

Mousse nearly facepalmed. Like that would actually work. And Ryu wasn't exactly getting any action, so just suggesting he sleep with some random woman brought up glass houses and stones.

_"Ah yes. A fair question. An auspicious gambit may be to wait for her to get in trouble and then save her. At heart, all women either are or secretly yearn to be damsels in distress!"_

Kuno's accuracy aside, he'd been there; done that. Didn't work. Also Kuno was an idiot.

_"You can lay the smack down on me! Shampoo's wanted to see me get what's coming to me since the very first time I made out with Ranma in front of her. If we set up a little sparring match, and let it slip out that we're having a fight, then Shampoo can totally come by and watch you wipe the floor with me with extreme prejudice. She'd love that!"_

Mousse chuckled. That had all been in good humor, after all. Neither of them had been really serious... not really...

Besides, it probably wouldn't work either. Probably.

Then again, she had giggled happily back when he described India beating up Ukyou during her training. Mousse pondered it for a few seconds. If he had helped deal with Pink and Link personally, maybe... nah! It was a total shot in the dark anyway.

_"Focus on your work. Women like successful men. Fraternization is unprofessional anyway."_ With all due respect to his former mentor, Lieutenant Tsushihashi, he was **trying** that, and it didn't seem to be working. Then again, what alternatives were there these days?

Mousse quickly averted his eyes as Shampoo finished up and hopped nimbly down from the bars and started un-strapping the harness and weights. He focused instead on his own training, which was a bit... esoteric. He didn't need to train much to keep up his current more-than-adequate level of physical conditioning, and the only muscles he really felt the need to improve further were ones most people didn't care a great deal about.

Hence why he had a personalized apparatus attached to his fingers and wrist, allowing certain motions to run against weight resistance machines normally rated for people's legs. Hidden Weapons required a great deal of strength in the fingers and grip and wrists. These particular muscles were also among the hardest to train up to really high levels. It wasn't just strength needed either, but dexterity. Mousse's middle finger twitched, and the weight machine clanked at a dozen weights lifted into the air.

He shouldn't have needed it, but he was secretly also waiting for the opportunity to strike up a conversation with his childhood crush and eternal love. She was between exercises, so maybe he could act casual and take his break, too, coincidentally coinciding it with her own. There was still a lot of new stuff to talk about, from their upcoming Pathfinder missions to the possibility that they might include Yankee sometime soon. A typically short email had gone out about them being reactivated and taken off medical leave. Yeah. That would do it.

His eyes, still behind glasses, darted back to where Shampoo was now seated, sipping water from a bottle. Heat rose and his glasses quickly started to fog up. She was just so... so...

"Squaddie."

"Sergeant Harrison, sir."

And now she seemed be singled out and talking to a bunch of other people. Mousse readjusted his glasses and saw Sergeant Harrison, head of Echo Squad, along with three others. Two of them he recognized as Squaddies Nippolt and Cassiano, the former a tanned Brazilian and the latter a mustached Commonwealth soldier on secondment. All there were Seiran veterans, and Echo was one of the bases designated Lightning Squads, meaning they typically deployed with full kit MARS suits. The fourth had to be the new guy sent in to replace poor Squaddie Kokorev.

Mousse watched and listened at the group introduced themselves to Shampoo. Sergeant Harrison was showing the transfer around, introducing him as Squaddie Brouwer. 'A clogger,' the Sergeant added. Mousse guessed it was a reference for the Dutch Marines the man had originally come from. More recently, he had been sent over from Al Rustaq.

"I've heard about you guys, sure," Brouwer said, after shaking Shampoo's hand in a friendly manner. "Seiran's martial arts squads. You know, I do some martial arts myself, besides the usual. Even before I joined up, I was considered pretty good. You ever heard of Shooto? It was pretty new when I left primary."

"It is a mixed martial art, yes?" Shampoo answered in careful English. "I believe I know of it."

"So, you guys all know Kung Fu? I've heard that's what you guys do."

Shampoo gave an unflustered shrug. "It is like that."

"Squaddie, this woman would fold you like a chair," Sergeant Harrison dryly observed. "Maybe even if you were in your MARS."

Brouwer laughed at that as if it were a joke or exaggeration. Actually, the MARS armor didn't bend that way, and it was made of alien alloys, so maybe it was a bit exaggerated. ...But not by much.

"Why don't you see for yourself?" Harrison asked, and turned his head to where Mousse was sitting, the Amazon's hands still in the resistance machine. The vet turned back to his new Squaddie. "Well, son? She's probably all of half your weight, after all."

"I'm sure she'll beat me good and proper," Brouwer wisely guessed, and both he and Shampoo chuckled a bit. "But if I'm being put on the spot, I'll give it my best."

"Not the most fair fight," Shampoo said, standing up. At five foot five, she was taller than most Japanese and Chinese her age and gender, but still tiny compared to the four men of Echo Squad. "Why not have teammates fight, too? Cassiano? Nippolt? You want to help your new friend?"

"That sounds doable," Harrison answered for them. "You three. Get the training knives and meet her on the mat."

Shampoo brightened at this, and strolled casually over to the CQC training mats on the east side of the gym. Mousse's glasses slipped a bit down the bridge of his nose as he watched the three men of Echo surround her, dull training knives in their hands: they were the same size and weight as the combat knives issues to all men and women in the field, and in an emergency, they could even be locked into position on most laser and plasma weapons as an emergency bayonet. Shampoo carried two special versions on her at all times. In practice, though, most people just used them for cutting wire or forcing open doors or cases. Or cutting open things. Just usually not aliens.

As if UNETCO would let people train with real weapons on base. Still, being so much as touched by one of those practice blades would be a serious loss of face. Not that it would happen, but the fact remained.

Boots inched forward from three angles as the three men closed in a bit at the casually standing Shampoo. Nippolt and Cassiano were rightly wary. They knew the members of India and Juliet, and just what they could do. Brouwer was clearly both more reckless and more eager to experiment. He'd be the first one to strike. No doubt about it. All three had taken off their uniform shirts leaving only loose white undershirts: no hindrance at all.

Shampoo reached up to fix her hair bun and then lowered her arms, unmolested during the opening. She was clearly goading them to try something. That was the point, after all.

Brouwer lunged the moment he lingered in her blind spot, off to her right. The other two Echo men acted at the same time to try and overwhelm the Amazon. Ranma would have spent a few seconds dodging around, maybe even made some quips or other remarks. Shampoo's arms merely blurred as the three trained men closed in.

A second later and Echo Squad's new transfer was face down, his arm pinned behind his back and knife pressed into his own spine. Cassiano, all two hundred and fifty pounds of him, was flattened against a padded wall nearby, and Squaddie Nippolt had his head under Shampoo's left knee, the other ear pressed hard into the mat. In a real fight, the man's head would already be split open, his impetuous friends either stabbed in the back with their own knife or splattered into a nearby wall. Shampoo wasn't Ranma. It was over in about a second and a half.

"Wha- what was that?" Brouwer asked, clearly unhurt but still a bit miffed about how she'd taken them all out in the time it took to curse. "I couldn't even see you..."

"Was too easy," Shampoo slipped a bit in her English, as she sometimes did. It was still far better than her self taught and rather shitty Japanese. "Maybe you should practice some more and try again some other day?"

Squaddie Nippolt tapped Shampoo's knee, and she released him.

"Too, too boring," she stated, standing back up and letting Brouwer go as well. "Plus, you couldn't even see. Maybe I used some kind of trick?" The Amazon didn't even turn her head, her back to Mousse. "Stupid Mousse. Come and help educate new comrade."

The India squaddie blinked in surprise. Of course, she had to know he was there, but it wasn't as if she'd given him any attention. At least not that he caught. Aside from looking at him once when she came in, she hadn't spoken to him or anything until now. Quietly unstrapping his hand from the exercise rig, he stood up.

"Shampoo?" he asked. "You want me to fight you?"

"Only little play fight. Not real." She pivoted to look at him, motioning him over with her eyes. "Show us how men can fight."

Mousse knew what that meant.

"No tricks," she clarified.

Pure martial arts then. He didn't mind. Even if he won, it wouldn't be the same as if it had been a serious match. This was just an exhibition. He didn't have his robes anyway, left in only a sleeveless muscle shirt... not that there weren't things hidden under it, too, just out of habit. A master of Hidden Weapons was never disarmed, even stripped naked.

"That's Mousse, from India Squad," Nippolt told Brouwer as he herded the man off to the side.

"Mousse and Shampoo? Those names are..."

"We know!" Both Chinese nationals said as one.

It was just... a strange coincidence that so many Chinese names sounded strange in English. Especially Amazon ones. It had to be a coincidence. What other explanation was there?

This time, as Mousse stepped onto the practice mats, Shampoo didn't put up a pretense of not trying. Stretching and limbering up her arms and back, she caused more than a few nearby men to take a long look; and it wasn't her trapezius, lats or deltoids that got the attention. Shampoo had a perfect mix of muscle tone and apparently harmless girlishness. The result of all her conditioning was a deceptively soft body that only occasionally gave outward hints of the incredible strength within.

Mousse cracked his knuckles and flexed his fingers as he thought up how to approach this. Back when he'd first come to Nerima, he knew he could've dismantled Shampoo in close quarters if he wanted to, even without the use of the weapons and tricks his fighting style relied on. He got even better over the next two years, while Shampoo remained basically the same. It was only recently, after meeting Perfume and after the fall of the village, that Shampoo got serious about training again. After they'd freed Cologne the Elder, she'd taken Shampoo back under her wing - or cane rather - for some serious and hands on help.

It all depended on how serious she took this.

Shampoo was the strongest (human) woman on base, and in terms of pure power, she was probably even a bit above him now. It was hard to tell for sure, since it wasn't as if they advertised how many tons they could toss at a time. He was still faster, though, but their skill sets were also so different it was hard to compare sometimes. Ironically, he'd fought and sparred with Ukyou far more over the last few months than he ever had with beloved Shampoo.

Before he had too long to think about it, she came in with a rush. He recognized the tiger style right away, seeing how she was starting off with some of the more orthodox versions of Kung Fu actually in use among the tribe. He matched with his preferred Crane Style, taking advantage of his greater reach and forcing her back. Shampoo was not the most patient of women, even when it came to her own schemes and plans. She'd start to mix things up right away by his best bet.

A flying knee deflected off his forearm, followed by a kick and then a flurry of fists and hair - as if he'd fall for the old blind-you-with-long-hair trick - and then a blow to the side snuck in to make mockery of what he'd assumed to be solid defenses. He hadn't put enough force into deflecting that one, and it slipped right through. His body took the hit easily, though, and transferred most of the force down and into his feet, and then into the ground and the mat.

It shook and made an almost inaudible 'whiff' sound.

They kept it pretty solid at first, as Mousse fielded spinning kicks and petite fists that could turn a car into scrap. Dancing back, he avoided a trio of blows from Shampoo's right hand, focusing not on the strikes but on her posture and stance. That was where the blows would be coming from, even the ones that originated at the elbow instead of the shoulder, or at the knee instead of the hip. Those were the exception rather than the rule, however. Neither of them used those forms of attack as often as their Japanese peers.

Brushing aside Shampoo's attacks, Mousse advanced on her, forcing the Amazon two steps back. It created a soft opening that he took, kicking straight up and then bringing his heel down, to crush the temple. Shampoo easily blocked and forced him up into the air where he pushed off, added an artful spin, and landed while trying to plant a toe strike to the neck.

In retrospect, they probably should have stopped there. It wouldn't have been that hard to impress the new transfer to Echo squad, and it had been more than accomplished by that point. Shampoo's fighting spirit was still restrained but obviously fired up and his own was much the same. Maybe it was the growing number of lookers on. Maybe it was a bit of frustration on both their parts, too.

Neither had landed a truly clean, solid point-worthy hit.

He got it in first. They'd moved beyond just simple moves to the fancy stuff, including some of the more difficult 'pure martial arts' techniques. The actual hit wasn't even that much to speak of. Seeing an opening in her footwork, he'd pulled off the age old 'foot stomp' on her. It couldn't possibly have hurt much, since he didn't do it very hard and they were both barefoot. Still, it was kind of an insulting. The kind of thing a master would use against a sloppy student.

Shampoo responded by nearly nailing him in the solar plexus with a palm strike. It was what most of their friends would call a _shoda_ strike, but Shampoo added her nails to the normally open palmed strike, and from the sting he knew he'd not only be feeling it but seeing the marks for at least a day or so. That same strike, against a normal human, could well have disemboweled them. But Shampoo would know his level of endurance.

He should probably have backed off then, looking back.

Instead, he twisted, slammed his foot back on the ground behind him, and hooked his arm under Shampoo's. She left her feet, spinning a hundred and eighty degrees to avoid what would have been an arm dislocating and elbow fracturing move. When she landed, breaking the contact in midair, the mats below her feet split open. Eyes alight, she lunged right back into the attack, and Mousse recognized the move just in time.

Seong Loong Hein Jow  
(Double Dragons Present Claws)

That was a dangerous move. Not exactly the sort of thing used in a practice match like this. Rather than dodge it, however, Mousse decided to answer in kind. He'd learned that move, too, from an exiled Shaolin. Their fists clashed; Shampoo had been able to step into the move properly and had more force put in it, but Mousse was trying to deflect the attack, not stop it entirely. After a bone jarring instant, Shampoo's double fists slipped off his own, and the two stepped outside the guard of the other.

Immediately, ignoring the pain, the two Amazons spun to get the match winning point.

He should've kept at range and used his legs to batter her arms down. Instead, he came in low from a crouch, trying to nail her in the chest. Shampoo had already switched from pronounced aggressive attack to counterattack, and intercepted his strike right off the bat, knocking the hand out of the way at the wrist. It happened quickly, even to their perception of time in a fight induced frenzy. Mousse didn't even blink, and he missed the follow up. The next thing he knew, there was a wall of flesh colored palm covering his eyes and then a moment of black as his eyes reflexively shut.

A spray of blood erupted from his crushed nose, hitting the mats at their feet and covering part of his pants and shirt. Not to mention coloring a third of his lower face in pure crimson. Shampoo finally broke away and jumped back, to avoid the fountain. Only a few drops hit her right foot. Her left hand, however, was all but painted in it.

Mousse's glasses hit the floor, the shatter resistant plastic now chipped and warped into an impression of the bridge of his nose... and part of Shampoo's palm. Being between the strike and the victim had rendered them completely unusable. It looked more like a mashed piece of melted glass than a functional piece of eyewear.

Mousse snorted, and with a thumb pressed up against his nose, sucked up the blood and spat it out onto the floor. It took a few seconds to will the bleeding to stop. It went without saying what that particular move would have done to most men.

"Okay, okay, that's more than enough," Sergeant Harrison spoke up, stepping up to but not quite between the two martial artists.

Both of them immediately straightened up and dropped out of fighting forms.

"You alright, Squaddie?"

"Nobt a probrem, Sergeant," Mousse tried to say with as un clogged a nose as possible.

"I thought you'd be stronger than just that," Shampoo said and looked down for a moment before defiantly looking him in the eye. "Stupid Mousse."

Without his glasses, he didn't see how badly torn up the knuckles were on the back of her hands.

"Get down to medical, both of you. I'm sure they'll be happy to see another member of your squads down there for _yet more_ stitches and skin grafts." Harrison barked.

Neither Squaddie argued.

Instead, Shampoo picked up Mousse's destroyed and distorted glasses, and threw them to Squaddie Brouwer. The former 'clogger' caught the smashed mess of plastic and metal. Flicking it with his finger, he whistled in surprise. It was flexible but hard, and always snapped back to place. To warp it like this, it was almost as if someone had taken a blow torch to it, not a fist or palm.

"This is like the weird stuff that other squad has," he impulsively observed, making the most obvious comparison he knew of. "Pink and green fireworks and the African American version of Terminator."

"This is nothing like them," Shampoo shot back, even as she walked away. "Don't compare real fighting with stupid fancy tricks. Especially stupid pink haired girl's dirty moves."

Mousse followed her outside the gym, holding his nose to help staunch the potential flow.

"Shampoo, I..."

"Don't say anything, Mousse," her reply came in their native Mandarin Chinese.

So instead, they walked to medical in silence.

_'Damnit.'_


	23. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space 2

**A/N**

_There was some dispute about where to end this chapter. Lathis eventually proposed we separate the chapters thematically: pre-mission and mission to mission escalation and points after. I was a bit tempted to go right through the first mission, but a thematic separation is a good idea, and I've proposed it before myself. I think he made the right call now, though. Keeps the chapters cleaner and less disjointed than my initial proposal. _

_It also means the chapters will be a bit skewed, with this week's being a fair bit smaller than next week's._

_So: chapter 22. Or 23. That interlude messed with our normal numbering system._

_Gonna have to do something about that eventually._

* * *

An accident at STAR Labs has hurled half the Teen Titans roster across the multiversal barrier and onto a strange world with no metas, no superheroes and no supervillians. There, the UNETCO organization, also known as X-COM, fights against an insidious and merciless alien enemy. The dimensionally displaced Teen Titans have finally been reunited. Determined not to sit on the sidelines, the four young men and women: Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and their universe's Ryouga Hibiki have been brought together into a special 'embedded observer' team designated CT:Yankee.

Displaced in the Russian Far East, far from any of the other Titans, Jinx had the misfortune of falling into the hands of the alien Visitors. Yet when one of the alien-human hybrids became hexxed by her power, damage to its brain tissue disconnected it from the Cydonian Mind and allowed it to remember who it had once been: Akari Unryu. Together, the two unlikely allies escaped into the forest and made for civilization, forging a close friendship during the difficult trek to safety. However, the same power that freed Akari was also killing her, and together with wounds taken during their escape, she hung on just long enough to reunite with her world's Ryouga Hibiki. Fulfilling her request to let her die, he destroyed the alien donor tissue that was to be used to revive her. The Titans, as Yankee Squad, were called to battle, with Akari's life on the line, succeeding in bringing back the replacement brain of the Ethereal, Whisper.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Time and Relative Dimensions in Space_

Chapter 22

(or 23 if you include the Interlude)

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

They were going to be using a three team arrangement. The displaced Teen Titans had valuable experience, not only with a strange worlds in general, but with the sort of parallel or alternate dimensions Operation Pathfinder stood a good chance of running into. The native Ryouga Hibiki understood this, and saw the necessity of it. The fact that, in the process, they could potentially get Yankee's team members back home - together - was another plus.

It seemed likely that, from the beginning, the Commander had intended for the teens to stick together and take part in Pathfinder, rather than disperse. The lieutenant wondered how much subtle pressure had been passed down from the uppermost echelon to at least make an effort to persuade Yankee to stay and break up. He knew Commander Felt was interested in making use of Raven's unique mental and physical attributes to assist with the double-A related experiments and medical treatment on Luna. He also had heard the American branch wanted Cyborg back to reintegrate him into their admittedly larger and better funded R&D departments.

_'Splitting them up will also make it easier to absorb them into the culture and structure of the organization. Departmental squabbles kind of piss me off... no wonder so many officers never want a Captain's or Colonel's bars.' _

The Commander was right here, though: securing the home front by hunting down the alien expedition had to come first. Otherwise they'd be a specter hanging over people's heads for generations. Not just the aliens either - all traces of the dimension breaching technology needed to be captured or destroyed. If bringing along Yankee Squad in its entirety aided in that, then so be it. Not that it was his call to make anyway. To him, the fact that they should ethically be making an effort to get the Titans home made the decision all the more self evident.

It was hard to believe, as Kuno had partly described, how broken up some of them were about the possibility of staying. Starfire in particular. She always seemed very... chipper. Yet Kuno had said she was "well and truly afraid" of the consequences of being stranded here and kept in relative confinement. The swordsman had, after the experience, been shaken up enough that he felt the need to confide his own concerns with his CO. It wasn't like any of them _wanted_ to have to lock up the free spirited alien girl, but they just _enforced_ policy, they didn't _make_ it. If only they could re-categorize her as an altered-human instead of a pure xeno...

No: it was better she get home, anyway, and sooner rather than later.

Better they all did, with one possible exception.

Said Tamaranian was currently eagerly examining the ship, and bombarding her cybernetic companion with questions that Cyborg struggled to keep up with. Yankee was getting a first look at the Pathfinder vessel (well, it wasn't a first look for Cyborg, but for the rest this was new), pending their admittance to the Operation. They were already medically certified for active duty again, and formally still a team, with no further need to tack on 'observer' status. Everything had worked out behind the scenes to get them legally in the program and on the firing line. Even for an Operation with this level of "sensitivity" they should be good to go.

There were only one or two more things to look into before he, as mission lead, brought them along. Ryouga silently watched and followed the group while Cyborg and Ranma pointed out most of the relevant features: the armory locker and gross weapons storage, the reactor and reaction room, the emergency stasis pods, the psi-nav controls... Pathfinder was a retrofitted and highly modified Large Scout, but a lot of the spare room had been taken up by new and very miniaturized systems not found on even most Avengers. The small Hyperwave Decoder, the active Mind Shield, the reinforced hull and gravitic propulsion systems, and much more. Wisely, no one mentioned the nuclear payload the ship would be carrying, 'just in case.'

It would be cramped enough that three full teams wouldn't leave much room for anything else.

They didn't even have a full powered HWP! Just two 'Roaming Susan' recon UAVs. No Fusion armed HWP meant no automated blaster bomb support. Ryouga hadn't quite realized how much he'd come to rely on blaster bombs and fusion balls for on-the-spot guided artillery support in the field. It was part of XCOM's standard operating procedure. Pin the Enemy; Blast the Enemy; Sweep Up the Remains. They'd be, in effect, three light recon squads if they got into a firefight, and Mousse's Blaster Bomb skills were nothing to write home about. Ukyou's either.

Ryouga shook his head; that was just part of the challenge. There was no room for the HWP no matter what at this point. Yankee would take up the space, and pick up the slack. All three squads, India, Juliet and Yankee, were the most versatile on hand. On paper and in practice, they would have to be capable of handling anything they ran into on this insane inter-dimensional jaunt.

Then there was _'that.'_

He waited for the orientation to end up back near the nav systems, where Ranma and Cyborg started to move away from the script prepared by mission control and get into theories about 'bleeding bluespace' between dimensions or some other non-sanctioned conjecture. Ranma also quickly spring boarded into speculation about his preference in alternate universes and about what to do if they encountered doubles of themselves with goatees and black leather boots. Ryouga rolled his eyes; Saotome really did watch too much TV.

Walking up quietly, he saw Raven turn at his approach. She had been trailing the group as well, silent as a ghost and seemingly content only to watch and listen. He was glad for it. It would make pulling her aside a bit easier.

"Raven," he said, keeping his voice down and leaning in. "Could I have a few words with you in private?"

The expression on her face was almost disconcertingly neutral as she nodded. There was not even a look of curiosity on her face as she fell into step behind him.

"I intend to keep you behind the lines on this mission, just so you know," he began, leading her back out to the hangar.

The door opened, revealing the offline Elerium Reactor.

"Um... wrong door?" He chuckled a bit, and rubbed the back of his neck, heading in the other direction. Of course, out of two possible doors, he picked the wrong one. Not exactly the sort of thing that inspires one's subordinates.

"Anyway," he continued. " You'll be providing psionic support from inside the ship. "

Again, Raven nodded. "That was to be expected."

He gave her a quick look over his shoulder as they stepped out of the ship. The hangar around them was still cordoned off and empty. To make sure there were no eavesdroppers, he led her over to a far wall behind the ship and opposite the auxiliary hangar Ops center. There was nothing there except some currently inactive machinery.

"Since you're going to be in all our heads later, you can probably guess what I'd like to talk to you about," he said, and casually tucked his hands in his pockets. "I know you may not really want to talk about it, and not with me, but it directly involves the mission and our safety. So its my business."

The dark girl shrugged. "I know what you want to talk about, but feel free to explain, just so there is no confusion."

Ryouga carefully considered how to bring it up. For some reason, he wanted to tread more politely around Raven than the other women he had authority over. Really, he should just out and say it. It worked with Ukyou and Shampoo, after all. Maybe it was because this girl wasn't, for once, a violent tomboy he could easily try and see and treat like one of his men. Actually, it was a bit like dealing with Nabiki had been.

"When we first met, you used powers you haven't manifested since. Based on your mind dive, I think we've all reasoned that those powers are directly related to this Trigon creature, and that you being here on this world has effectively disconnected you from him and from those abilities. There is every possibility that, as we undertake this mission, things could get worse for you." He then added, "And in turn, what gets worse for you will get worse for us. Are you sure you want to come? If we find your home dimension, we can always take you back there on a return trip."

"I don't think you need to worry," Raven replied, finally beyond the bare minimum of communication. "Unlike Cyborg, my condition is not ... degenerative. I have reached what you might call equilibrium, here. Traveling further away will not affect me any more adversely than staying here. Unless we actually find my home dimension... or one close to it, perhaps, I believe my condition will remain the same."

He nodded crisply, glad to be getting on track and away from niceties.

"Good. But if you start having problems, I expect you to come to me. Especially if you start getting back in contact with Trigon or any other entities likely to take advantage of your sensitivity."

"Of course," Raven readily agreed. "Though, I do imagine any such... reintroduction would be quite noticeable." Absently smoothing out her skirt, the powerful psion stared at him evenly. "Despite his other shortcomings, your Ranma is quite wise. One cannot run from a battle forever, no matter how attractive the prospect may be."

Ryouga let out a breath, seeing what she meant.

"My grandfather once told me: you can never run away from your enemies. I thought he was talking about the family curse at the time, but it applies to real life in general..." He shook his head. "Anyway, among other things, I wanted to ask you about your experiences with these parallel dimensions. This sort of thing is new to us, but from what Cyborg has shared, your world's dimensional barriers are much more... um... malleable."

Raven nodded to that, almost showing a hint of a smile as she did.

"That is... putting it mildly. I, personally, have experience traveling through dimensions, most notably from my home dimension. I have done research on other planes as well, including the spirit world, but nothing more concrete."

"Good. Good," he replied. "I was hoping you'd say that. I'd like to hear more about it, if you don't mind. Also, I want a formal review of the dimensions you've visited and how they relate to your world. Cyborg has theorized that dimensional travel of the sort that got you here is similar to leaving one country for another, where the laws are different but the people are essentially the same. If we end up crossing into other... I guess localities may be a good word? We may also end up in these sorts of 'local planes' as well. Like that... pocket dimension you were raised in."

"Azarath."

"Like that. I want to be prepared if that happens." He glanced back at the ship. "I can't speak for the other me, I assume he's the same, but I'm not normally what you'd call a risk taker and I don't intend to take unnecessary chances with the lives of my men. And women. Anything you can contribute would be appreciated."

Of course, that didn't change the fact that his request was actually, technically, an order.

"I suppose, considering that your request is, technically, an order," Raven replied with what could only be described as an impish smile on her lips, "That I don't really have much choice in the matter. However, I would be glad to educate you on all that I know of dimensional travel. However, considering the breadth of the material I know, and your near complete inexperience with the esoteric mechanics of dimensions and dimensional barriers, I suggest that we retire to a more comfortable room, as bringing you up to speed could take... some time indeed."

"I can make the time," he promised, crossing his arms. "This takes priority. I also need to fill you in on the mental link India and Juliet use to trap and kill Ethereals. It'll streamline your use of psionic fragments for coordination. I want all three teams operating at their best, and you're going to be one of the essential links holding us all together."

Raven looked at him oddly. "Filling me in on...? Um, yes - yes, I'm certain that would be quite... helpful of you."

Not quite sure what she meant by that, he gave a small shrug and took a step, and paused, falling back on his heels.

"Maybe..." he said a little bashfully. "You should lead?" And then in a smaller voice. "I still can't find my way around this place by myself."

Moving quickly, she took a step before him, obviously intent on leading him off.

"I know a good place," she said, taking point.

* * *

The SPHVWAR rifle kicked into Konatsu's shoulder as he fired in controlled semi-automatic bursts, the sound muffled by ear protectors. Downrange, a simple round target deformed under the barrage as practice rounds designed to cheaply mimic the standard 6.7mm Multi-purpose projectile (MPP) slammed into solid alien alloy, fragmenting and disintegrating from the impact. Unlike the AP-I-Explosive rounds, these were simple 'dumb ball' bullets with tracers mixed in.

Stopping to eject the spent magazine and lock in a fresh one, the male kunoichi took a second to reset and record the range review with a simple fist sized button built into one of the stall walls. A digital display showed the number of shots on target, followed by a calculated percentage accuracy given clip size and broken down by degrees of separation from the dead center. The target, though circular, was torso sized and the ninja boy had managed a passable ninety percent overall accuracy. The number got less impressive when one took note that only half the shots were within the first two innermost target meridians.

The young man sighed; he was still the roughest shot on the team.

Being beaten in that area of expertise by Shampoo, who had learned to use a rifle as a child, or Saotome-taichou, who was practically an idiot savant, wasn't exactly unexpected... but Ukyou was scoring higher than him these days, too! She'd clearly been practicing, and not just her martial arts.

Shouldering the bullpup rifle, he emptied another clip and then switched to the Mk2E on a fresh range target. The system retracted the old one for later recycling, and Konatsu focused on his aim with the new standard issue sidearm. He didn't mind that they were phasing out the plasma and laser pistols, personally. The first was a waste of good elerium most of the time, and only officers and BB-PsiOps boys bothered to equip it anyway. The laser pistol, while nice enough, didn't have a whole lot of punch when it came to anything besides Floaters and Sectoids. Konatsu had, though it all, kept an old SOCOM 9mm as an emergency backup, in case he ran out of everything else and couldn't close to melee.

Many of the others had incorporated firearms into their CQC styles to varying degrees. Hibiki-taichou was quite skilled in using a carbine, pistol and plasma grenades at short or medium ranges of a dozen meters or so and managed to use it to compliment his normal reliance on bandannas and ki attacks. Saotome-taichou had also become very adept, though he had come to forgo grenades since developing his new Moko Takabisha variants. Shampoo never lingered at anything other than long range, where she could take eerily accurate snap shots, or very close, where she could use strength and blades. Ukyou could use her battle spatula and a weapon quite well as she closed the distance, and Mousse was a walking arsenal at all times.

Only Ryu and himself eschewed it in those circumstances. The Kumon hair could spam vacuum blades from his legs and arms even while charging or dodging, and if he got within about twenty meters, he could easily rain down cutting death on an enemy. Konatsu suspected he carried a sidearm more for show than intention to use it. Like his friend in India Squad, the kunoichi also eschewed using plasma or bullets once he got in range of his better techniques. Unfortunately, most of his killing techniques weren't straightforward like a Raishu Dan or Shishi Hokoudan.

Even his Konatsu Andon took a little time to set up and work.

By his own experimentation, he'd basically taken the Füjin Seikyü Senpu (Heartless Bill Whirlwind) to an effective limit, and while he could up the sharpness to the same level as Hibiki-taichou's bandannas, they just didn't have the same level of force. Cutting and piercing required both, unfortunately. He had the advantage in sheer number of cutting and ensnaring papers, yes, and if he got the chance to pull off an Andon, then it was exceptionally deadly. But it wasn't an instant kill either way on any of the tougher targets.

He thought back to his fight with Ukyou, back when she had pulled off her first Hinode and ended the match on a technical draw. Back then, he'd had difficulty closing into close quarters where he could truly dominate, ultimately having to rely on Kansatsuken (Flying Killer Sword) and Rokubu Ichitai (Six Copies as One). At mid ranges, he'd just had to spam shuriken, counting on weight of metal and slight-of-eye to try and get a hit in. It wasn't acceptable. It wouldn't help if he had to face Tofu again.

If stealth ever failed him, closing in to Kansatsuken range would be unacceptably dangerous.

There was always Azemichi (Footpath Between Rice Fields)... but that was more avoiding the issue rather than solving it completely. It seemed more likely he would always be weakest at that range. It wasn't even usually a problem for someone with his training, since a shinobi wasn't supposed to stand and fight with an enemy anyway. He was supposed to kill them when they weren't prepared, not when they were. The idea worked great with human targets... rather less so with aliens and other monstrous enemies that never dropped their guard or that were only encountered in a battlefield firefight.

Konatsu sighed again.

At least his aim with the Mk2E was spot on.

Ejecting the last clip, he eased the ear-protectors off and started back to the armory to return the weapons and confirm the ammunition expended. The range thundered with the crack-crack of energy weapons and the booms of special high velocity projectiles. On his way back, he saw a familiar face - or rather, a familiar back, the individual facing downrange and practicing with a different weapon.

In Mousse's case, he was busy firing one of the new NGPR-Mk5 Heavy "Next Gen Squad Automatics" - basically a 12.7mm gauss autocannon. The Chinese martial artist was taking aim at the exact same sort of target Konatsu had been putting rounds into, but his longer bursts of heavier, faster, deadlier finger sized rounds hit the mark downrange with far more thunder and fury. It'd be interesting to see how the weapon worked against a Muton out in the field, especially with the armor piercing SLAP loadout.

Actually, Konatsu amended that: it'd be even more amusing to see it tear up a Cyberdisk.

_Damn killer frisbees._

Mousse was also firing it from a standing position, barely bracing himself to deal with the recoil. The weapon itself was more than thirteen kilograms, empty, so standing wasn't exactly the most stable position to fire from... for most people. Prone, or kneeling, would be preferred for those who didn't have the benefit of a MARS or ARES suit. Mousse didn't have to worry about that, given his background however. He was letting lose with controlled bursts that ran together as one long roar.

A couple seconds later, and the ammunition drum was expended and the Chinese martial artist lowered the weapon to check how he did. Lifting a pair of safety goggles from over his actual glasses, Mousse also caught sight of the nearby Juliet squad member.

"Hey," he said by means of greeting.

Konatsu could see he still had the bandage over his nose. It had been a very conspicuous addition to the man at this morning's forty kilometer run around the mountain. No information regarding it was forthcoming, save that it was obviously in some way related to Shampoo. Neither of them had to say word one about it. It was obvious to anyone who had known them for a few months.

"Finishing up?" Konatsu asked, and snuck a discrete peek at Mousse's hit percentage.

Not bad at all for a beast of a weapon like that, and from a standing position.

"I believe I'm pretty much done."

Konatsu rested his rifle into the crook of his arm. "I was thinking about making some tea."

"Tea?" Mousse asked with a chuckle; it seemed to out of place here, but it was typical of Juliet Squad's acting sergeant. "Sure, why not? Green tea, right?"

"Of course. Hot green tea. Real stuff, not that sweet 'iced tea' Ryu's been getting high on."

"You know where he is?"

"I saw him when I came down here. Should be at the Q." The quartermaster. "We can pick him up and anyone else we meet on the way."

"Don't know where Tatewaki is," Mousse stated with a shrug. "Probably the Dojo or Psi Gym."

Konatsu nodded, and the two handed in their weapons at the range armory. Every use had to be recorded, and every bit of energy or used up bullet double checked. Internal Security had oversight and was, typically, anal about anything being out of place. After this long working with the system both young men were used to it, and hardly gave the inconvenience more than a passing thought.

"So, we've got some new defense drills coming up," Konatsu began, as they headed down the hall to the Quartermasters and the Main Armory. "Will Nabiki-san be there? Hibiki-taichou's really taking this seriously."

"Field operations are dangerous," Mousse said with a dismissive 'eh'. "It'll be different than simply avoiding civilian casualties while on a mission. We've got to guard the ship and those in it. If she's coming, she'll need some practice, too."

"More like _she'll _be _our_ target practice."

"Just don't shoot her up or mock slit her throat _too_ often."

The two weapons masters snickered at that. Neither of them had a problem with Nabiki, quite the contrary these days, but it'd still be fun to try and get a little rise out of her.

"You know," Mousse said, apparently in a talkative mood. "I'm thinking about what Jinx said the other day."

"About...?"

"About Shampoo."

'_OH.'_

Konatsu, without meaning to, scratched the bridge of his nose. A second later he coughed and, showing proper embarrassment, tried to cover up the gesture.

"Laugh it up. Better a broken nose than a grown man wearing lipstick."

"This lipstick is an essential part of my fighting style, as you well know."

He didn't even feel the need to explain the importance of the admittedly long-winded _Kunoichi ninpou hissatsu kurenai jigoku_ (Kunoichi ninja arts certain kill deep red hell). Like most ninja techniques, it had numerous potential applications, and a good Kunoichi - like a good girl scout - was wise to be prepared.

"Anyway," Konatsu continued, getting back to the point and away from his makeup preferences. "You don't mean you're actually stage this fight, do you? That isn't what you're referring to, right?"

"I'm thinking about it," Mousse admitted. "Why not? After this..." he pointed to his bandaged nose. "Shampoo seemed to spend more time at the infirmary grumbling about 'cheap tricks' than her torn up hands and near broken knuckles. OR my nose."

"What happened anyway?"

"A little exhibition match that got out of hand. That's not important, though."

"Are you sure?" The male kunoichi sensed there was more to it, and to whatever that little fight had turned into. "Your hands are both still wrapped up. It must've been bad."

"We used 'Seong Loong Hein Jow' on each other. You know that move?"

"Sounds Chinese," Konatsu guessed. Actually, it sounded Cantonese. "I don't know many Chinese techniques."

"Forget about it then. I don't know why she went and tried something like that, and it doesn't matter at this point." Mousse waved his hand, impressing on the ninja to drop it. "I doubt she's angry I used the move back or that we got hurt. She's still worked up over that thing Jinx pulled back when you guys brought her in."

"You mean kissing Saotome-taichou and stealing his-"

"Yes. That. Let us not go into details." Mousse gave a disgusted shudder. "All it took was someone comparing her, or us I guess, to Jinx to set her off. Now, if I were to, shall we say: put the offending party in her place..."

Konatsu shook his head. "I still think it's a bad idea. Not just the fight itself, but the fact that you two are staging it. Won't Shampoo get even angrier or something if she realizes its fake?"

"Probably. More likely she'll just call me stupid and leave," the other man speculated. "Besides, I can be convincing."

"You're not convincing _me_."

"Well, I don't _have_ to convince you. So I'm not trying very hard." Mousse chuckled and wound his hands together in anticipation. "If this works, it'll completely make up for whatever I did during that fight. I just hope Jinx is still up for it...!"

Konatsu sighed again. This was _so_ not a good idea.

* * *

"This is _so_ a great idea!" Jinx gushed as her partner in crime helped her drag a badly blushing martial artist down the hallway.

"Indeed so, my criminally inclined compatriot," Starfire replied, beaming a smile of her own.

Generously donating most of the muscle to actually drag a full blooded Hibiki along against his will, the Tamaranian princess was in very high spirits. Jinx wondered if it had anything to do with the fact she was wearing her 'heroing clothes' - though the metallic midriff and arm coverings were a new addition to Jinx's eyes - as opposed to the civilian clothing that Nabiki had garnered for them. Not that Nabiki had bad taste, far from it in fact, but Starfire always seemed to be a bit perkier when she was wearing her own, "armored miniskirt" wardrobe. Jinx, on the other hand, relished in taking advantage of the lavish designs that the insidious Tendo had been able to acquire, her current mauve tube top/flaring black skirt combo having turned a few heads when they'd been bumming around the lower hangar bay.

Struggling vainly against Starfire's vice-like grip, Ryouga tried to dig his heels in, but the smooth metal of the floors were both unyielding and uncooperative. Unlike the pair of them, he was wearing his newly requisitioned uniform, complete with a patch denoting his rank and - the sorceress turned to hide her blush - looked pretty damn sharp in it, much to her surprise. Considering she had an ingrained disdain for uniformed people in general, it was a pretty impressive testament to just how good he was looking that she was nearly swooning over a 'man in uniform'.

"You know, I hate to disagree, b-"

"That's good to know," Jinx interrupted quickly. Smirking teasingly, she gave his other hand a tight squeeze and a sharp tug. "More boys should realize that girls just know better than them."

Immediately, Starfire nodded enthusiastically. "That is so very true, Jinx. Males are quite helpless when it comes to making decisions, or utilizing the common sense."

"Hey! That's not what I meant!"

As one, both ladies turned back and lanced the martial artists with piercing stares. Like a delicate flower beneath the scorching August sun, Ryouga withered beneath their scrutiny. Apparently thinking better of what he was about to say, he waived his right to speech and simply resigned himself to his fate.

Sharing a quick nod between them, the alien and the sorceress then continued to drag the martial artist down the hallway once more. In a matter of minutes, they had led the hapless warrior back to their bedroom, and before he could even consider protesting, dragged him in. Turning quickly, Jinx made sure the door was closed, and then locked, even as Starfire floated over to the small desk they shared and picked up the dual stacks of papers they had been building up over the past week or so.

Standing at the center of the room, Ryouga shuffled around nervously, looking distinctly unsure of what to do with himself. Of the three beds in the room, only three were made up tidily, the fourth serving as something of a 'way station' for whatever articles of clothing that were either on the way to the wash, or didn't make it into a dresser in the first place. Jinx had to admit that most of the clothes burying the bed were hers; she'd never really had an abundance of nice clothing, or much space to put them, so she had a tendency to get lazy when it came to put them away properly.

Sure, Raven gave her some grief about it, but more than a few pieces belonged to a certain Tamaranian, most notably, the hot pink bra sitting right on top of the pile. The hot pink bra that Ryouga was striving not to stare at as he turned to and fro, in a desperate attempt to find a safe place to park his butt.

Rolling her eyes, Jinx walked over and grabbed the Lost Boy's shoulder, quickly moving him around and shoving him down to sit on the end of her bed. She then stalked over and 'happened' to flip the pile of clothing over so that any unmentionables were a bit more buried.

Behind her, Starfire floated to her own bed, adjacent to Jinx's and took a cross-legged sitting position at the center of her bed. Placing one of the stacks of paper on the mattress beside her, the Tamaranian then handed the other to Jinx as she walked past to sit on the edge of her bed. Crossing one leg over the other demurely - not really wanting to sit cross legged in such a daring skirt (though that didn't seem to phase Starfire at all) - and began to leaf through her own sheaf of notes.

Coughing into his fist to cover his discomfort, Ryouga finally broke the silence that had descended over them. "Ahem… So, you two said you wanted some help with the Chi-Rotation technique that Lt. Hibiki showed me? Cologne did tell me that you've been going to her for help with the training arrays we developed for you."

"Quite true. The Honored Elder was kind enough to continue our training, despite certain… misgivings. Though she admits that she herself is no expert in this particular technique, she did work with Lt. Hibiki in developing it initially," Starfire explained.

Jinx nodded, finally setting her notes down on the sheet beside her. "I hate to admit it, but even the old perv back home didn't touch on anything like this. It seriously baffles me how someone in our age bracket could figure out something that people, like, ten times our age don't quite get. I mean, you'd think the people that made the tattoo thing-y in the first place would'a figured it out long ago."

Ryouga shrugged. "Actually, when you think about it, why would he? Maybe he already had? I mean, you guys weren't around when I got the Tattoo the first time. The real Battle God Tattoo is _far_ more powerful, and, honestly, aside from some… utter humiliation issues, it doesn't have any real drawbacks. This rotation technique has several notable, but subtle benefits, but it's no replacement."

That struck the sorceress as odd.

"Well… then why the heck isn't everyone here using the real tattoo?" she asked. "If it's that good, and all you gotta do is put up with looking a little goofy, well, hell, it seems kinda retarded not to just use the real thing."

Frowning slightly, Starfire stared at the sorceress for a moment before nodding herself. "Though I would not use such language, I find myself in agreement. The people here take their mission most seriously. I do not understand why they would overlook such an obvious tool. You seem to be implying that the true Tattoo is quite powerful. How powerful was it?"

"Frankly, it made me all but unbeatable," Ryouga explained. Leaning back, resting some of his weight onto his hands, he smirked fondly as memories washed over him. "I defeated the masters of a dozen dojos just on the way to meet Ranma, and when I finally did…!" A fond sigh. "He couldn't even touch me. I beat him again and again, and effortlessly to boot. Hell, the Tattoo worked so well, that there were a few times that I beat him without even realizing I'd done it."

That elicited a giggle from the pink haired sorceress. "I bet Ranma couldn't _stand_ that. It must have driven him _crazy_, not being able to even stand a chance against you."

"Truly, an understatement if ever I heard one," Starfire added with a giggle of her own. "However, I must ask, why ever did you give up the power yourself?"

Surprisingly, Ryouga didn't dawdle too long before answering. Tilting his head to the side, he gave both of them serious glances.

"I've actually had a lot of time to think about that, lately," he admitted. "For me, I didn't like the fact that it wasn't my power that beat Ranma… I wanted it to be my own skill, my own training that defeated him, not some cheap gimmick. However, my situation back then is a world removed from this situation, now. I'm… honestly not sure why they aren't using the real technique, since it's a matter of life and death, now, not just pride."

Frowning, not really getting it, Jinx ran a hand down her thigh, smoothing out the satiny material of her skirt. "It still doesn't make sense… but I guess if it gets their motors runnin', then that's that. Anyway, let's get down to business already. I wanna make some headway in this, since Cy is too busy bringing Raven up to speed on the Psionic Navigation simulator to work with the rest of us."

"Indeed, we should not allow our time to pass inefficiently. We must do all that we can in preparation for the coming mission."

Despite just advocating the same thing, Jinx couldn't help but laugh. Picking up a pillow and placing it in her lap, she shook her head. "Heh, I still can't believe what a big deal they're making of this. Like they're the first people in all the multiverse to pull this off? Heck, they aren't even the first people on this planet to do it, considering we beat them to the punch by a good few weeks."

"Oh, come on, Jinx, cut them some slack," Ryouga countered. "I mean, it's not like we meant to do it. And even though its old news to you guys, all this dimension jumping stuff is still pretty new to me."

Rolling her large, pink eyes, Jinx sighed. "Fine, fine, whatever. Let them have their 'big step for mankind'." Suddenly, a wicked grin split her face. "_Now_, it's time for the fun part."

They needed to begin working on their rotational technique now, after all, and an important part of that was having a clear view of the array which Cologne had tattooed onto their tummies. In unison, Jinx and Starfire began to remove their shirts. For Jinx, it was a relatively quick motion, slipping her tube top up and over her head. For the Tamaranian, it was something of an ordeal, having to unbuckle the armored midriff of her outfit. Again, just as when they'd done the same in the conference room, Ryouga did that adorable guy thing of trying to avert his gaze, even as he tried to sneak a peek at the same time.

Taking a moment, Jinx found herself staring at the intricate series of lines marring the otherwise flawless orange skin of the alien girl. At first, their arrays had been carbon copies and simple orbital lines, but after days of making notes and taking their findings - '_when I try to manipulate my ki like this, it hurts like a_ bitch' - to Cologne, she had made small additions and careful modifications. A stroke here, a line there, and their tattoos had grown out organically.

Starfire's had grown almost exclusively outward, covering most of her stomach, almost appearing to tickle her ribcage. It was quite diffuse, spaced out, like a graceful, spiraling roadmap running across her abdomen. It was a stark contrast to Jinx's, which had apparently all but collapsed in upon itself. Centered almost completely around a point several inches below her naval, her tattoo consisted of three roughly spherical shapes tightly packed together. Rather than spreading outward, the design spiraled mainly inwards, forming a densely packed pattern that almost seemed to dance the longer she stared at it, standing out so starkly against her pale skin.

As she had said, though, now for the fun part! "Alright, big boy, time to ante up. We showed you ours, now you show us yours."

"What?" Ryouga barked. "That wasn't part of the deal! You don't need to see my array for me to help you."

Starfire leveled a flat stare his way. "I hardly think that is fair to us, friend Ryouga. Perhaps seeing your array may give us ideas as to how to improve our own ki rotation techniques."

Jinx nodded, then casually lifted a hand. A jet of pink flame sprang up from the tip of her finger, and she absently waved said finger through the air, letting the small flare dance merrily back and forth. "Look, either _you_ can take the shirt off, or _I_ can take the shirt off. Depends on whether you think the 'My girlfriend shredded my shirt and tossed it to the wind' excuse will work on the quartermaster when you ask for another one."

Swallowing loudly, the martial artist tugged at the collar of his shirt anxiously. "I… suppose that, in the name of research, it… might not hurt…"

Self consciously, Ryouga slowly unbuttoned his shirt. It was a testament to his control when he managed to not pop any of the buttons off when Jinx started humming a stripper tune under her breath. Blushing furiously, but distinctly looking straight down, Ryouga finished taking off his shirt, leaving only the thin undershirt beneath it. He looked prepared to leave it, but a raised eyebrow from Jinx quickly dissuaded him of that notion.

Sighing forlornly - seriously, what was wrong with this guy? How many guys on this very base would kill to be in this position right now? - Ryouga peeled off the shirt and carefully folded it several times before placing it at his side. Jinx couldn't help herself, letting out a lewd wolf whistle as the blush continued to spread down most of his chest. Even Starfire's gaze seemed to be lingering a bit longer that Jinx would have liked, but she could hardly begrudge the girl.

Finally, she noticed Ryouga's array, tattooed on his stomach. It was… strangely simple, almost basic. Jinx and Starfire found it not just underwhelming, but almost a bit disappointing, actually.

"Hey, what's up with your array?" Jinx snapped. "That looks like the basic one that Cologne gave us. Where are all your customizations?"

Ryouga looked down at his own abdomen, then lifted his gaze to look at her array. Immediately, his eyes widened in shock. And again, when he looked over to see Starfire's array as well. "Wow. What did you guys do? I mean, there wasn't any need for me to…"

Suddenly, realization flashed in his eyes. "Ohhh! I get it! I think I understand." Pointing to his own array, then to Jinx's, he began to offer up his explanation. "This array was designed by the other me, for use on people like me. The Calligraphy school of martial arts was never designed with aliens and metahumans in mind. You must have needed to alter your approach to the circulation technique differently because of that. Sort of like... mine is a copy based on what already works while you two have sketches, with stuff added on the fly."

Starfire nodded slowly. "I do believe that Cologne mentioned … something along those lines. I had merely assumed that everyone had to make small alterations to personalize their arrays. I did not realize that the alterations that Cologne was making to ours were so extensive in comparison."

"Seriously," Jinx agreed. Twisting back and forth for a moment, she admired her own array. "I mean, it is pretty hot, kinda like a reverse tramp stamp, but I'm glad we'll be able to get rid of these down the road."

"R-right. That _is_ good." Catching himself staring at her taught stomach, Ryouga quickly averted his gaze, blushing bright red again. "Anyway, I guess you two should show me how far you've come along with your training. From what the other me told me, the benefits of the training aren't uniform, they vary from person to person."

Sharing a brief glance, Jinx and Starfire nodded quickly and took up their usual positions, sitting across from each other on their beds, legs crossed. Rolling her shoulders a few times, Jinx took a deep breath, then closed her eyes and began to focus inwards.

Ryouga watched carefully as first Starfire's, then Jinx's auras slowly flared to life. Emerald green danced merrily, contrasting sharply to violent pink energy. Now, with something important to focus on, Ryouga found it easier to stare at the girl's abdomens. Several long minutes passed as he intently watched the flow of ki as it cycled through their bodies.

A small frown crossed his lips as, every now and then, Jinx would wince in pain - the result of a momentary loss of control. Each time, she recovered quickly, but he didn't like seeing her hurting for any reason.

Finally, he nodded to himself, then began to flare up his own aura. Taking on a faint gold color, he began to cycle his ki, through the elliptical motion centered on the Manipura, just like he'd been taught. Already, he could feel the shift coming more quickly, though it would likely still be some time before he would be able to adopt the new rotation on a permanent basis. He could already feel subtle improvements through his ki flow.

"Alright then, why don't you tell me what you've been focusing on with your training?" Ryouga asked. "As it was explained to me, there are a few main benefits to this technique, notably an increase in the efficiency of one's ki flow, as well as the speed with which you can make it flow. There's can also an added benefit of increased ki generation."

Deciding to lead by example, he tried to explain his own experience. "Personally, I've been focusing on trying to increase my ki generation. My internal flow is already more efficient than most people here, on account of all of the specialized Bakusai Tenketsu training I did to cure Terra, so conditioning my body to handle greater amounts of ki could help me utilize more earth ki as well."

"That is most odd," Starfire replied quizzically. "I have not noticed any real increase in my own energy levels. I suppose it is possible because my body has already been subjected to its limits of energy capacity and beyond. I rarely attempt to function at my full capabilities."

Ryouga scratched his chin. "So… you're saying you haven't really noticed any benefits?"

"Oh no, not at all," the alien replied, shaking her head. "I have noticed a marked increase in the speed with which I can move my energy throughout my body. I have also found that I am able to generate star bolts much more quickly and with greater concentration than before."

Studying her aura, Ryouga nodded. "Yes, I can see it now. You know, you might want to consider taking a page out of my double's book. Have you ever tried making a star bolt with your feet, or maybe your elbow? You could probably surprise people quite a bit like that."

"Hmmm, I had not considered that… but now that you suggest it… I suppose it is possible…"

Ryouga nodded. "Just food for thought. I should really get around to it myself, but there are other things I need to perfect first." He then turned to Jinx. "What about you then, Jinx? I notice you seem to be having some trouble. Is the technique causing you pain?"

Eyes still closed, beads of sweat forming on her brow, Jinx shook her head. "Not… really… no. Actually, it's… well, it's hard to explain."

"Please try," Ryouga prodded gently. "The more I know, the more I may be able to help eventually."

Resting her hands on the smooth skin of her stomach, Jinx began to trace the array gingerly. "It's not that the array is hurting me… it's… well, when I use the array, it-it _stops_ hurting."

It took Ryouga a moment to formulate a response, despite the obviousness of it. Even then, his voice nearly cracked when he spoke.

"…What?"

Slowly, Jinx's arms wrapped around her torso and she began to rock from side to side as she hugged herself. An oddly blissful smile spread across her lips as her ki continued to cycle. "All those times that I winced… they weren't because the new circulation technique was hurting me, it was because I lost control and reverted back to my normal ki flow. I don't know how to explain it. It's, like, I've been hurting my whole life and just never realized it until the pain finally went away."

"I… don't even know what to say," Ryouga said. He reached out his hand, but didn't know what to do with it; thankfully, Jinx solved his dilemma by taking his hand in her own and resting it on her knee, her hand laying on his. "Do you have any idea what it means?"

"Actually, Starfire has a theory," Jinx replied, gesturing to the Tamaranian. Starfire, who had been sitting quietly, tentatively averting her gaze, suddenly looked up at the mention of her name. "Isn't that right, Star?"

"Ah, yes, that is correct," she stated matter of factly. "I have been studying Jinx's ki flow and her notes as well as my own. After long and in-depth observation, I went about the process of carefully constructing a metaphor with which to explain my findings."

The pink loving sorceress rolled her eyes. "Just get on with it, Red."

"Ahem, yes, indeed." Starfire fired a weak glare at her companion, before turning back to Ryouga. "As I was saying, I had created a metaphor, though I was forced to do so using antiquated earthly technology to make it comprehensible."

Ryouga stared at the girl through lidded eyes. "Any day now, Star."

Annoyance flashed across her face for a moment and she gave a loud huff before continuing. "Very well, my most _impatient_ friends. As you stated earlier, one of the main advantages of this new ki circulation technique is that it increases the efficiency with which our ki can flow throughout our bodies. Well, in Jinx's case I believe this effect is most important. To explain this, allow me to initiate my metaphorical abstraction."

"Please do."

Eyes narrowing, Starfire stuck her tongue out at Jinx, before holding up her hands, several feet apart. "Imagine that one's spiritual energy is likened to hydraulic fluid - that is a human technology, correct, hydraulics?"

"Umm, yeah, pretty sure," Ryouga agreed.

"Good, good." Starfire made small circles with her fingers, holding them beside each other. "Now, imagine that the channels which a sentient being's spiritual energy travels through are like the hydraulic hoses, used to transmit said hydraulic oil. Unless many variables, such as the pressure exerted upon the fluid and the velocity at which it travels, are carefully controlled, the hydraulic fluid will flow in a turbulent manner, not unlike the rapids in a river."

Making small 'explodey' gestures with her hands, Starfire continued her explanation. "This turbulent flow is quite detrimental to the hydraulic system, wasting precious energy in the form of heat which can actually cause damage to the equipment."

Ryouga scratched his head.

"This is why engineers carefully calibrate hydraulic systems to produce what is called a laminar flow in the fluid. This laminar flow produces an optimal condition in which the hydraulic flows through the hoses, wasting no energy needlessly."

"Yeah, don't feel bad," Jinx jumped in, "Even with her 'carefully crafted metaphor', it still took me two or three times to get it."

"If I may continue?" Starfire snapped sharply. "Jinx's natural ki flow is quite turbulent, or perhaps chaotic is a better term. I believe that under normal conditions, her energy is running through her body so inefficiently, that not only is some of her energy wasted, but it is, in fact, harmful to her." Before Ryouga could begin to freak out at the implications, Starfire quickly waved her hands in a calming gesture. "Not in an serious way, I assure you. It is obviously something which she has lived with for so long that she has long since forgotten the absence of pain."

"That's supposed to make me feel better?" Ryouga asked, incredulous. "I mean, what does this even mean?"

He felt Jinx's hand squeeze down on his. Looking up, he saw her staring back at him, still smiling, despite all he'd just heard. "It's a _good_ thing, Ryouga. I mean, I know this technique wasn't made with me in mind, but it's actually giving me something even more amazing that what was promised. Once I master this, and can use it all the time… well, I can't even describe what it feels like. I mean, beyond even that, if Star is right, then this might actually explain why my powers backfire, or go off unconsciously. If I can master this, I might be able to learn to control my powers more efficiently than ever before."

Squeezing Jinx's hand back, Ryouga smiled. "Wow… makes me feel kind of petty for just focusing on trying to get a quick power boost from this technique."

Giggling, the pink haired sorceress wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled herself forward to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Oh, that's alright. I love you anyway, you selfish bastard. I'm sure-"

Whatever she was going to say next, however, was cut off a knock suddenly rang out on the door. Instantly, Jinx's face fell into a grimace of annoyance, and she quickly hopped off the bed. Stalking to the door, she opened it in a huff… only to stare in confusion at the unexpected visitor.

"Mousse? What the heck are you doing here?"

Carefully readjusting his glasses, Mousse stared in the room for a long moment before replying. "… At the moment? I'm just a fly on the wall." Leaning in the door, he looked at the Lost Boy. "Seriously, what is up with you, Hibiki? It's like you've turned into Saotome, only, you know, actually _interested_ in girls."

"Hey now!" Ryouga loudly objected. "No need to go throwing around the 'S' word like that, Mousse."

Mousse waved off his ire, grinning in amusement. "Sorry, sorry. Still, I'm not interrupting something… interesting, am I? I wanted to talk to Jinx for a minute, but if you guys are in the middle of something…?"

Rolling her eyes, Jinx scoffed loudly. "As if I'd let Starfire over there get a piece of my man before I have. We were just working on the ki rotation thing that your boss came up with, no biggie. So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, I was hoping to talk to you in private, if you don't mind," the spectacled martial artist replied.

Shrugging, Jinx walked over to her bed. "Yeah, sure, just let me throw on a shirt first."

After matching deed to word, she then made her way back to the door. Before she stepped through, she turned to look over her shoulder. "Alright you two, no hanky panky while I'm away."

A moment later, Jinx was gone and Ryouga turned to stare at the still mostly topless Starfire. That Tamaranian princess stared back at him for a moment, before finally breaking the silence.

"So… what is this 'hanky panky' to which she was referring?"

Ryouga reached out and grabbed his shirt, getting a little self conscious again.

"I… ah, don't think I'm qualified to answer that question, Star."

* * *

Mousse didn't waste time getting to brass tacks.

"What we talked about the other day," he said, leaning back against the wall next to the door to the girls' shared quarters. "About staging a fight to impress Shampoo. I'd like to do it."

The young woman started at that, staring at him blankly for a moment. "Staging a wha-" Only for recognition to suddenly flash through her eyes.

"Oh, _oh_, right! Right. Sorry, Mousse, I totally spaced on that for a second. Yeah, I remember now." Jinx then took a step towards him, leaning forward slightly to look up into his eyes more squarely. "... What made you change your mind? It's been a while since we chatted about that."

"I..."

_'I don't want to talk about it,'_ crossed his mind. Then again, Jinx was even more of a girl than Konatsu. Maybe she could provide some genuine insight? _'She should know anyway, if I'm going to do this.'_

"We were in the gym yesterday, and Shampoo asked me to fight a little with her to... to show someone something," he began, and shook his head at the memory. "I agreed, and it started out friendly enough, but then she started getting more serious. I fought back enough to defend myself... I really wanted to think of some way to, you know, de-escalate...?"

She nodded, and he continued.

"I'll just say it didn't end that well. I think she thinks I made her look bad or something, so..." he blanched a bit, coming back to actually asking it. "So maybe if I showed you up, or better yet, if I did something to show up Happosai's student..."

He wondered, for a moment, if he had overstepped his bounds as Jinx visibly bristled at the mention of showing up Happosai, but gave a silent sigh of relief when she relaxed a moment later. Instead, she simply shrugged her shoulders, head tilting to the side.

"Well, I'm afraid I can't say too much to Shampoo. Even among girls, she makes less sense than normal. Still, yeah, that might be a good idea. I know that Happi always loved a chance to rub Cologne's face in anything."

The pink haired girl then ran a finger along her cheek, obviously thinking of something. "Hmm, you think I should rile Shampoo up some first, so that she's in full PMS mode? It'd make you beating me down be all the sweeter for her."

"I hate to say it but... if you can get away with it..." He balled his fists and shook one threateningly at the ceiling. "Oh, Shampoo, forgive me, but for love, I must have a heart of stone!" He suddenly switched off the pending waterworks, to add, "Um.. should I need to know what sort of things you intend to do to her? DO I want to know?"

She just stared at him through lidded eyes.

"What do _you_ think?"

She then followed up with a more serious expression. "Don't worry, I won't do anything that'll get anyone in trouble-" She added in a low whisper, "Not that I'd need to with miss Psycho." Coughing into her dainty fist, she quickly smiled again. "We might want to keep this between us as much as possible - obviously - just cuz there might be... implications if certain people find out about our plan."

"I can imagine," Mousse replied, not needing to look back at the door. "I assume I won't have to do anything about your boyfriend trying to kill me? And, ah... how will we do it, anyway? The fight I mean."

Looking over her shoulder, Jinx frowned at the door. "Well... I'll do what I can on that front, anyway, but I can make no promises. As for the fight, either you can be there to 'defend Shampoo's' honor at some point, or I can spread some of the lovin your way and we can start a fight like that. We'll have to frame it as a 'challenge' likely, though, so we don't get thrown in the brig."

"Quite," he agreed. "Especially with this mission coming up, we'd be best served by not blowing this out of proportion." He smirked , but it quickly faded before he turned away to look roughly down the hall. "I can't say I like the idea of fooling Shampoo, or sending someone to further aggravate her, but... you were right before. I have to try something, and waiting and 'playing it cool' isn't working."

"Well, I have to admit that, before I found out about this mission, I probably would have been a bit more leery about going through with this," Jinx admitted, digging her toe into the floor. "I mean, I'd rather get along with Shampoo than Ukyou or Akane... but hey, now that I know I'll be in the clear after this, then taking one for the team to help you out isn't too bad a plan."

Mousse gave her a quick look, curious about part of that.

"I thought you liked Shampoo even less than the other two?" he asked.

He'd never really interacted much with Ukyou before coming to Seiran, but she seemed pretty inoffensive. Well, they had briefly teamed up during the hot springs race, before a splash of water had duckified him and she assumed he'd abandoned her. Water under the bridge by this point. As for the other girl, Akane had some issues and always stuck out her neck for Saotome at inconvenient times, and maybe he'd abducted her one or two times to lay a trap for him, but for the most part things were okay between them. Maybe it was a girl thing?

Or maybe it was because of Saotome?

Jinx shrugged. "I dunno, I guess it's just cuz, for better or worse, Shampoo and I actually have some history, you know? I kinda get her, and she _is_ pretty bad ass. Akane and Ukyou, though? I dunno, there's nothing about them that makes me wanna get to know them."

She smirked up at him. "I guess I shouldn't expect you to understand, what with being a _boy_ and all."

"I sort of get it, but... not entirely... Anyway, what I do know is to not stick my finger into that mess you ladies call a social network. I've seen enough of that back at the village as it is." Mousse adjusted his glasses. "But do you mind if I ask what this history you have with Shampoo - your Shampoo - is? You mentioned fighting with her before."

"Oh, now that's an understatement to end all understatements," Jinx replied with a smirk. "What me and you had in my world was a 'fight'. What Shampoo and I got into? That was a hissing, spitting cat-fight to end all catfights. She literally ordered a helicopter full of gunmen to cut me down once I gave her the slip."

The pink haired girl shook her head in bemusement. "I gotta say, you really learn to respect a girl that has the cojones to send a death squad after you. As much as she pissed me off, I gotta say that she impressed me with that move."

"That does sound like something she'd do," Mousse mused, approvingly. "Sending a death squad after an enemy is seen as a sign of respect among Joketsuzoku women; at least you didn't get the Pink and Link treatment. But I thought your Shampoo was some kind of hero over in the West?"

The second he said the words, Jinx surged forward and grabbed his arm. Too confused to react to the unexpected movement, he found himself dragged down the hallway and away from the young woman's room in a great rush. Taking a moment to look around, once they had reached the nearest intersection, she looked back up at him, deadly serious look in her eyes.

"Mousse, on your life, do you promise not to pass on what I'm about to tell you to _any_ of my friends here?" she asked, voice as serious as her eyes. "Or to anyone that might be dumb enough to pass it on if you tell them?"

"Well, I'm not exactly chatty with any of your friends here, and I'm not the type to get involved in scuttlebutt anyway," he answered, a bit hesitant given the intensity of her examination. "I won't tell anyone unless it's some world ending apocalyptic threat to Earth, I can promise that much. What's this all about?"

Jinx looked around again, then back at him. "And if it is? You know: a world ending apocalyptic threat?"

He smiled darkly. "To my Earth. Whatever you do with _your_ Earth isn't really my business, is it?" He scratched his chin, amused. "So, a version of my dear Shampoo is involved in the end of the world? Neat. Come on, out with it. I promise not to kiss and tell."

Jinx grinned that slightly creepy Cheshire grin of hers. "Hmm, that's not a bad idea, actually. Maybe a little make out session for Shampoo's benefit might be just what the doctor ordered. After all, you aren't too bad on the eyes... you know, in the right light."

Mousse coughed, blushing just a bit behind his thick glasses. "I'm flattered but, despite the occasional off-target grope and or nuzzle, I really am saving my first kiss for Shampoo."

In a blink, Jinx was pressed up against him, not so gently pushing him against the wall to his back. Again, his danger sense failed to protect him, obviously not understanding just what a truly dangerous situation he was currently in. Running a finger along his chest, the sorceress gazed up at him with smokey, pink eyes.

"Oh really? You haven't had your first kiss yet? That makes it a valuable commodity. Very ... tempting to a hardened criminal. After all, if I were to steal that, you'd... never get it back, now would you?"

"I warn you," he replied. "I have ramen breath. Beef ramen."

And just like that, the moment was over. Rolling her eyes, Jinx pushed herself back and away.

"Wow, you just have no sense of decorum when it comes to being seduced, do you?" she asked. "I hope you've never tried something that lame on Shampoo."

He reflexively tucked his hands into his double size uniform sleeves.

"No offense, Jinx, but at this point I consider it a matter of pride. Either I give up on Shampoo, or I save myself for her in every way that matters," he explained simply. "No other seducer shall suffice; only my dear Shampoo. I am flattered that you consider me 'not too bad on the eyes' however. I know how stupid glasses make me look."

She shrugged. "Granted. Anyway, now that I've sufficiently distracted you from all extraneous topics with the most meager application of feminine wiles imaginable - and I mean, really, that took zero effort - I think it's time to get down to business. If you know where Shampoo might be at the moment, I can go put operation Steel Mallard into action."

"But I wanted to hear about the end of the world..." Mousse very nearly wined. "If Shampoo's involved, other-me must've ended up dragged along, too. You can't hint at things like that and then expect a guy to forget after a little flirtation. We love potential violence and explosions too much."

"And _we_," Jinx countered with a wink, "Love teasing guys but never giving up the goods. You'd think you'd know that by now, Duckboy." With that, Jinx spun around and began to traipse down the hallway, as carefree as the wind. "Like I would actually break a promise to _my_ baby Mousse for an alternate reality doppleganger."

"Come on. You were _ten seconds _from telling me," he said, following her at a more leisurely pace. "Maybe less. Don't think I'll drop it now. And are we married to this name: Steel Mallard? You're annoying Shampoo, so why not call it Mad Cat or something?"

She shook her head fiercely. "Nope. Like you said. You need to 'steel' your heart in order to 'steal' her heart, so it's win-win. Besides, I'm doing this to help you, not her... hence the name. And my Mousse had the most adorable callsign when he was still definitely a villain, and so now do you!"

"No way in Hell would I want to call myself anything duck related." He kept walking, counting on his longer stride to keep up with the pink haired girl. "The poor sap must've been coerced. In fact, it sounds like the kind of thing Shampoo would force me to use."

"Come on, you're barely keeping up!"

"You'll forgive me for not skipping and prancing down the halls like I'm on a sugar high."

"You'll do it if you want to hear that secret from before..." she sing-songed as they headed down the hall to find a Shampoo and piss it off.

"I don't want to know _that_ badly."

* * *

It didn't take a terribly long time for Jinx and her erstwhile partner in crime to track down Shampoo. Considering just who it was that they were after, it really cut down on the potential

places they needed to look. If she wasn't on the rifle range, or trying to get into Ranma's pants or good favor (it still baffled Jinx a bit that Ranma hadn't put his foot down on the crazy fiancé war and had instead tried to put it all off until after the fight was won), then the odds were that she was training.

Big surprise there, Jinx mused to herself as she peeked into the large training facility. It was all but impossible to miss the lavender haired Amazon at the far end of the room, going through some

lame Kung Fu kata or other. Jinx only allowed herself the smallest pang of envy at the woman's stunning looks before getting back to the business at hand. Taking a quick look around the rest of the gym, she took stock of any other potential cat's paws she could use.

Hmmm, interesting. It looked like her luck, and Shampoo's bad luck, was working overtime. It appeared that not only was Golf squadron present and working out, but their Nerimian mascot, little Miss Akane Tendo, was with them. Smirking, she turned to Mousse, plan already forming in her mind.

"Say, you wouldn't happen to have a bottle of water, or something, would you?"

The robed martial artist looked at her oddly for a moment, but obediently dug into one of his oversized sleeves. Within half a moment, he retrieved his hand, holding not just one but two bottles of water. To her amazement, there were even a few drops of condensation running down it's surfaces, giving the impression that it had been chilled somehow.

"I've got 'PuR' with the weird European u, and Poland Spring," he said, checking the inventory of his left sleeve. "That's all I've got unless you want flavored water... huh, I don't remember putting a Sobe Green Tea in here..."

Shrugging, Jinx took the Poland Spring, chuckling to herself.

"Wow, I was half joking, too. Anyway, it's time for you to skidaddle. I don't need you getting all anguished on me and running out to 'defend her honor' or any crap like that. Well, at least not until we're good and ready."

"I won't get all anguished!"

Jinx stared at Mousse through lidded eyes.

"I… probably won't get anguished?" he tried again.

If anything, her stare grew ever flatter. Finally, Mousse broke down. "Fine, fine, I'll go then. Just… try not to get anyone killed?"

"No promises," she replied with a beaming smile. "Now beat it, already."

As the martial artist made his escape back down the hallway, Jinx looked back in the room. Resting against the wall for a moment, she gently rolled the chill water bottle across her forehead, relishing

the refreshing coolness on her skin. She probably wouldn't have too many friends when all was said and done, but that hardly mattered at this point. Taking a deep breath, she pushed off from the wall and barged into the gym, full of swagger and bluster.

The pink haired sorceress swung her arms out wide to the side as she entered the room. She performed a quick pirouette and loudly proclaimed for all to hear:

"Hey, hey, everyone!" she announced. "Your personal Lucky Charm has arrived! So who wants to get some training in with one of the legendary Yankee squadron?"

In response to her bold declaration, most of Golf squadron - whom Jinx had gotten to know a bit and was on decent terms with - chuckled in amusement. Even Akane smiled happily at the sight of her and waved her over.

"Heh, 'Legendary' Yankee squadron now, is it?" asked the blue haired martial artist in good humor. Of course, Yankee had been on less than a handful of missions, so any legendary status came more from weirdness factor than an elite record. To Jinx's delight, her reception was better received than she'd

expected. Used to her bravado and joking around at this point, everyone took her silly bragging for the lark it was.

All but one, anyway. Though Shampoo hadn't stopped her workout, Jinx's trained eye had caught the momentary hesitation in her movements, the stone cold expression on her face. It was obvious that

Shampoo didn't care for her flamboyance.

_'This is gonna be easier than I thought.'_

Returning her attention to Akane, Jinx shrugged helplessly.

"What can I say? Now that we're not splitting up, there's even more chatter about what insane shenanigans us newbies might get up to after taking down Saffron like we did. Heck, there was some rookie getting the tour just a few days ago. Me and Star gave him a real fireworks display, surprised the heck right out of the poor guy."

"Oh, I can imagine," Akane replied. "Well, why don't you come and train with us for a bit?" She turned to Lieutenant Winter, a muscular and wolfish older man of the sort who gave the impression of being able to shoot a dozen men one day and visit his newborn granddaughter the next. "If that's alright with you, Lieutenant?"

The perceptive old soldier seemed to notice something was amiss and didn't answer right away.

Undeterred and smiling warmly - it was Akane's input at the moment that mattered most - Jinx nodded. Out of the corner of her eye, though, she noticed that Shampoo had stopped her training now, had stopped in her tracks the moment that Jinx had proclaimed 'Yankee's' victory over Saffron.

"Thanks a lot, Akane. I've got some things I want to work on. I've been training on that Ki Rotation technique of Ryouga's, you know, and I think it's been going pretty well."

"Really? That's pretty impressive! Ukyou's been working on that for some time as well. She said that it's incredibly grueling training." Akane commented, knowing much of it first hand, since she was still working herself up to the point where she could try and use a retraining array. Leading her back to the mat, Akane began to do some quick stretches, and Jinx quickly followed suit a short distance away.

Careful not to turn her gaze Shampoo's way, Jinx nodded.

"It really is," she agreed. "I can understand why Ryouga is only letting the most advanced martial artists try the technique. I'd hate to think what would happen to someone with _no talent_ for ki manipulation if they tried to use it."

Despite not looking back, she made sure to raise her voice just half an octave at just the right moment. Just as expected, she saw Shampoo jerk slightly at her words. Jinx knew that Shampoo hadn't attempted the technique yet, probably more out of being too busy, in all likelihood, as opposed to not being good enough to try, but that just made it all the sweeter.

Dropping down to stretch out her hamstrings, Jinx decided to up the ante a bit more, and turned to one of the rugged and manly Golf men she recognized from earlier and held out her bottle of water.

"Excuse me?" she called out in a plaintive voice, "But can you please open this bottle for me? I'm feeling like such a girl at the moment, so I need a big burly man to help me out." Her voice suddenly dropped several octaves firmly into sultry. "You are, right? A big burly man?"

Even as the soldier laughed, only slightly embarrassed at her shameless behavior, he took the bottle and popped the top off in a single twist. "There you go, young lady. Wouldn't want you to get dehydrated while we were working out."

Smiling sunnily, Jinx beamed in agreement. As she did, she saw that Shampoo had finally had enough. Shaking her head in disgust, the mercurial Amazon snatched up her personal stuff, shot a dark scowl her way - or was it at the squaddie standing nearby? - and stalked out of the gym in a huff.

Like the rest of the people in the room that had been completely oblivious to the small battle that had just taken place there, Akane stared at the retreating Amazon in confusion. "Huh, I wonder what's

up with her? She sure looked like she was in a mood."

Jinx shrugged helplessly. "I can't imagine. I was kind of hoping to get a chance to ask her for some help on my technique later on. Oh well, there isn't really anything we can do about it, I suppose."

Akane stared at the empty doorway for a moment, but then shrugged in return. It was pretty obvious that the Tendo sister wasn't exactly the first person that would run after Shampoo of all people, to offer a shoulder to cry on. All the better for Jinx's plan, really. Honestly, this was almost too easy, but this was just an opening salvo; just a little innocent needling before she really started to escalate things. She hadn't even gotten to any of the good stuff yet, anyway.

Turning back to Akane, she dropped a friendly hand on her shoulder. "Well, how about that training session, then? Just because she's being grumpy doesn't mean we can't have some fun."

"Of course, you're right, Jinx," Akane agreed. She then turned to smile at the rest of her team. "Say… Who's up for a 'Battle of the Sexes?' You know, boys vs. girls?"

As two of the three notably larger men shuffled nervously under the scrutiny of the pair of girls that likely weighed little more than any one of them, Jinx smirked at Akane. The youngest Tendo, by herself, could fight any two special forces men on base by herself, and while she wasn't Shampoo-class absurdly strong, she could work out well above her weight class. Jinx, herself, was an old hand at taking out entire squads of "special forces" back home, so there was no reason to take this too seriously.

Lieutenant Winther handed the two girls dummy-guns; training mockups.

"One hand on the rifle at all times," he told them. "We have time for some practice CQC."

"I guess that's a yes." Akane assumed and confidently held the solid practice weapon in an easy grip. Throwing away your weapon to fight in close quarters wasn't exactly encouraged, even for the most loony of the martial arts savants. Most everyone else made due, in the emergence of emergencies, with rifle butts and utility knives. That sort of fighting required techniques of its own.

Jinx, despite going over general marksmanship at her alma mater, wasn't particularly used to this kind of fight. HIVE had been an academy for junior metahumans, not what most proper villains considered "henchwork." There were _other_ academies for that.

"Ten minute drills!" Winther barked, and the group headed for the mats... which looked freshly replaced for some reason. As Akane's two teammates wielded their mock-rifles with practiced ease in close quarters battle, the added challenge made Jinx crack an honest grin.

This could end up being more fun than she'd expected.

* * *

"Sorry," Mousse told Jinx, a little plaintively. "You're dead. You, too, Nabiki."

Both girls had been well and truly gibbed by a grenade. In fact, the Chinese martial artist had used a plasma grenade, so they were probably charred and blackened skeletons. Or they would have been anyway.

Instead, the flashbang grenade had merely deafened them and knocked both on their mutual rears.

"Damnit Mousse!" Nabiki snarled, already at the end of her rope. "That's the third time you've done that! Are you trying to fuck up my hearing? Are you?" The India squad member quickly suffered a verbal barrage from the irate 'fatality.'

Jinx took it in stride, training with flash bangs was a gentle mercy compared to what she was used to, after all. Back at the Academy, at least since the Headmaster took over, 'mock battle' had gradually been replaced by degrees of lethality. Still, she had to give Mousse credit, blasting Nabiki like that. Jinx was just about to snuff out the Tendo girl herself, since she was India's 'soft target', but rather than give her the satisfaction, Mousse had just blown them both to hell and back. Honestly, she was starting to think that the hidden weapons master was just trying to give Nabiki a bit of a reality check.

It was pretty funny, but she was already bored of hearing the older teen whine about being constantly being "killed" time and again, so Jinx decided to check around to where Starfire had been separated from Yankee, deeper in the woods. She could see flashes of green in the darkness from where Juliet squad was hunting her down. Not bothering to stand, she instead rested her elbows on her knees and caught her breath.

When the three teams had been brought together for 'night exercises' she'd had a sneaking suspicion that this was what this universe's Ryouga had planned all along. This wasn't her first rodeo, after all, and the Headmaster had been a far more merciless taskmaster than Lieutenant Hibiki could ever hope to be. The sad truth was, that no matter how hard he pushed them, at the end of the day, he actually _cared_ whether they survived or not, and that was one gulf that would forever separate him from a true monster like her old instructor.

But, that was enough reminiscing for one day…

On a normal day, they'd stop training about six, get some well deserved grub and then relax a bit before turning in. Instead, they'd been shuffled off outside - where it was cold and wet and pitch black dark - and made to run. They ran up the mountain then down then up and then down again. The only time they stopped was to fight and ambush each other.

It had been fun at first, despite how tiring it was, but this was their sixth stop. After a few free for alls, they'd then started to team up two versus one for the added challenge. Yankee and Juliet had ambushed India, India and Yankee had done the same to Juliet, and then the two older teams of teens had given Yankee a taste of the good medicine. She'd been sniped, hit by bombs, and even killed by Konatsu who'd come out of nowhere to knife her and do 'something' to Cyborg that still had the Titan creeped out. Still, she'd managed to give as good as she'd gotten. Though it had been a bit nasty, she'd managed to drop a tree on Ukyou… and she would never forget the look on Ranma's face when she'd personally taken him out in the last run. Utterly priceless.

Still, it had only reinforced what she knew from before about Yankee's two sister teams: (or 'brother teams,' if you asked Ryu) India was annoying, simply because of their proclivity towards overkill, but Juliet was a nightmare. Ranma and Konatsu threw them off base, separated them, and ran them down. India would at least give a straight up fight, but while they were, Juliet would hit from long range, kill whoever tried to stop Shampoo from sniping, and then go after the 'non combatants' in the rear.

Nabiki, India's 'soft target', was, in every run, forcing India to defend her at every turn. In theory, Raven was supposed to be Yankee's 'soft target', but the Lieutenant obviously hadn't been paying any attention to her progress over the past week or two, or maybe it was more a matter of consistency than fairness; regardless of which one it was, the results had been pretty hilarious. Still, neither were stamina freaks - far more notably Nabiki, who had no conditioning at all - but both were, at this point, being carried from engagement to engagement by their more endurance inured comrades. For Nabiki, it was simply a matter of physical and emotional fatigue.

Jinx saw Raven sitting down nearby, also breathing heavily.

Raven had started off psionically coordinating the teams as they'd run up and down the mountain, but after complaining about the tediousness of her role, she'd stepped in fully as one of Yankee squadron giving them the versatility of a fifth member. Unfortunately, for all of her training lately, the powerful Psion had been over eager in testing out her new abilities. During the first few free for alls, she'd just outright attempted to dominate both opposing teams, at the same time. For anyone else, even the mere attempt would have been impossible, but Raven had nearly pulled it off. In fact, she was still grumbling about how it had been Kuno of all people that had possessed the will to break her control and "kill" her.

Apparently the kendoist had some ridiculously high level of psi strength and defense.

Jinx shook her head in amusement. Raven definitely needed to learn how to pace herself, rather than just attempting to overpower everyone at the same time. By the time they'd actually made it to the last

three rounds, the overconfident girl had been limited to focusing her psionics attacks on one or two people at a time, or just protecting her own team mates from the psionics attacks from India and Juliet - seriously, they were going all out tonight, using every dirty trick in the book from weapons of every sort to mental traps to sensory scrambling.

The highlight of the last battle had to have been when, despite her exhaustion, Raven had tricked Ranma and Konatsu into ambushing an empty clearing. It had been what allowed Jinx to take the pigtailed

fighter down, even as Ryouga had taken Konatsu out… wherever the Lost Boy was now, anyway.

All of the fighting and the running, though - when Raven wasn't being carried - the fighting, the running, the fighting... she looked dirty and frayed, and not just from simple exertion. And, honestly, Jinx could fully relate. The pink haired girl reflexively reached up to the breathing mask over her face to remove it; the thing was slick with sweat and miserable to keep on after this long. It was like moving and fighting in a raincoat with the added weights stuck on, and nearly stifling. Whatever window of opportunity she had to catch a real breather was quickly snuffed out as Ryu entered the tiny clearing in full Sergeant-mode.

"Hands off the mask!" he barked, having seen her fingering the straps under her chin. "NBC gear is to be worn at all times when on mission! If you smell like a jock strap, that means you've had a GOOD DAY!"

Raven sighed, the sound amplified by the frazzled mental link she had with Yankee Squad.

"Starfire's down," Ryu informed them. "Up! Up! Up! Delta Two on the double!"

Oddly, the barked orders brought a smirk to her lips as Jinx thought back to Happosai's own grueling training, though at least then it had tended to be more her brand of fun, and got back on her feet. In a few seconds, she and Raven were standing near Nabiki and starting to run again, with Ryu and Mousse close by and matching their pace... while not-too-subtly pushing them harder forward. Thankfully for Jinx, and to a lesser extent, Raven, they were limited to a pace that Nabiki could maintain, so by this time, it was more of a power walk than an actual run. Deciding to take advantage of the relative lull, Jinx focused on trying to establish her Ki Rotation technique, letting out a weak sigh as, for a moment, all of the aches and pains in her body seemed to fade away.

Flashlights soon lit up the forest nearby as the scattered fighters gradually reassembled on their way to the next set of coordinates. The crescent moon overhead provided only a fleeting hint of reflected light, and Seiran Mountain and the surrounding range were an uninhabited wildlife refuge. Jinx had even heard wolf howls before; she hadn't even known there _were_ wolves in Japan! Who knew what else was out here?

Cyborg, the native Ryouga and Kuno caught up with them first, and then they intercepted Juliet Squad and Starfire and her Ryouga. It wasn't long before they were back in one big group, and Ryouga and Ranma announced the next match would be with Yankee and Juliet against India. That was actually kind of a relief. India sucked at defense. In fact, Jinx rather thought her team was the best at it. The Titans all had a natural inclination to throw themselves in front of random civilians and seemed to be naturally defense minded. India's main strategy was basically 'crush, kill, destroy' followed by 'crush more, kill more, re-destroy' and they had the subtlety and nuance of a pack of wild boars.

Since India was back on the chopping block, Nabiki had demanded Ryouga go back to carrying her as they raced through the rough forest and rocky broken ground. Raven, naturally, hadn't asked

but at some point ended up being carried wedding style by their Ryouga. Jinx found herself kind of envious...

Not of being carried by Ryouga (well, okay, maybe that too) but mostly of just getting a break. Her own endurance was well above the norm for someone of her size and build, much less a girl her age, but this kind of endless fighting and moving was nearly too much. She couldn't help but glare at Ukyou and Shampoo, chugging along and doing the 'martial artist quick jump' from rock to tree and back again; they looked like crap as well, and Ukyou was lagging behind Shampoo as much as Shampoo was lagging behind Ranma and Ryouga, but she had to give them credit for hiding their fatigue behind a wall of stoicism. Even

if her legs burned, even if her heart felt like it was about to explode, even if collapsing into a ditch sounded like a nice break, Jinx wouldn't let up while those two were still going.

She wasn't even hungry anymore, just dog tired.

After another couple miles covered at an Olympian's pace India fell back to let Juliet and Yankee set up an ambush. If anything, this was where it got even rougher. Running at a steady pace, even under bad ground conditions, was bad enough... but it was repetitive and definitely sustainable. Fighting someone was ten times as tiring as just running! Every muscle, especially the brain, needed to be used to the utmost, and it was the pausing to fight what really wore everyone out. Even Starfire, damnable alien constitution and all, looked like she'd been put through the space-wringer.

Well, actually, now that she looked at him, Cyborg still looked annoyingly fresh, his battery still having more than a half a day's charge to go and his body not being subject to the same type of fatigue that the rest of the fragile humans present had to endure. Honestly, just staring at him, still laughing boisterously with a weary Ryouga and bedraggled Ryu, it made her wonder just how things could get worse.

And then - _oh, freaking joy_ - it began to **rain**.

Oblivious to the growing downpour, Ranma gave them orders for the next ambush and then let their Ryouga handle the details. There wasn't any hesitation in the Hibiki handing out orders now; he did it almost by rote, adjusting for terrain and the unspoken levels of exhaustion creeping up on some of them. Nabiki was both tired and a liability in a fight. India would have a harder time than normal keeping her 'alive.'

Jinx had, grudgingly, admitted that she wasn't at a hundred percent, and Ryouga accounted for that, giving her an assignment with Cyborg to scout and tie up the enemy at range. Jinx preferred to get up close, even against someone like Mousse or Ryu, but in her current state that was just asking to be taken down... worse than taken down: it was being mission-killed without any meaningful gain. He and Starfire would be immediate support to follow up while Konatsu and Ranma pulled their tricks under the cover of Ukyou and Shampoo's skirmishing. Raven would remain further back and use Ryouga as a vector to use her flagging powers to try to distract anyone he ran into.

India put up a fight of it.

As the rain fell, both Hibikis ended up rearranging parts of the battlefield, making it harder and harder for Konatsu and Ranma to take advantage of their stealth. Instead of properly guarding Nabiki, the Lieutenant had instead tried to push through the ambush rather than fall back. By the time India and Nabiki were down, Yankee had lost their Ryouga and Starfire in a double suicide with Ryu and the other Ryouga, while Juliet had lost both Ukyou and Ranma to more of Mousse's improvised explosive traps. It seemed like just standing around, the master of Hidden Weapons was spontaneously generating landmines and claymores and booby trapped (thankfully fake) plasma grenades.

Half of India's "kills" in these exercises were thanks to him, though he was far more dangerous in the 'ambush' side of things, than the attacking side, when he was actually given time to properly set up his deadly traps. The only one that offered the Amazon no limit of vexation was Cyborg, able scan for and disable the Weapon Master's explosive munitions with hardly any effort at all. Unfortunately disabling them left him open to attack, but simply allowing his team mates to avoid most of the traps took a lot of bite from Mousse's usual lethality. Of course, scanning for explosives didn't help detect primitive crap like a Punji stake pit or a buried IED. Seriously, though, just how much _god damn barbed wire_ was that idiot carrying on him anyway?

Jinx had taken great, vindictive pleasure in taking down Mousse while Konatsu had distracted him. She was pretty sure that it had been Shampoo to finish off first Kuno and then almost instantly afterward, Nabiki to finish the match, though.

Then, just like that, they were off to the next engagement... Jinx didn't recognize the coordinates, but she did remember the training ground and the faux concrete structures. After another half hour of back and forth mixed teams battle, Ranma announced a break before turning on some nearby floodlights. The night wound down with some weapons training and familiarization, despite the rain which had mercifully expended itself and transformed into a light drizzle. There was particular emphasis on some of the new grenade types the squads would be carrying, and more safety lectures. Always with the safety lectures.

They still weren't allowed to take off their damn masks either. Still, even that wasn't as bad as what her Ryouga had to put up with, forced to wear his full set of personal armor to keep the rain off. She couldn't imagine he was smelling to great at the moment, either.

"Alright, everyone at ease. I think we're done for tonight," Lieutenant Hibiki finally said the words everyone had been waiting for. "You can free-breathe if you want now."

The three squads gave a relieved groan literally at once, echoed across nationality and background and dimensional domain. Breathing apparatus came off across the board - excepting the Hibiki wearing the personal armor, who wasn't taking any chances - with the two lieutenants being the last to unclip theirs and let it hang to the side of their faces. The officers and sergeants, Konatsu, Ryu and Ryouga, remained standing while everyone else either fell to the floor on crossed legs, took a knee, or lay on their backs in the wet snow and mud.

After a few minutes of catching breath, staring at the star strewn sky, and letting abused muscles start to unwind, people started moving and talking again. Ranma and the local Ryouga brought out some organization MRE analogues, and each came with a self heating pouch giving them a messy but warm and relatively good meal to fill their bellies. Many, Jinx included, went straight into scarfing down the foodstuffs and trading and swapping for preferred consumables. The officers had even kindly brought along a 'special ration' of mustard for the local alien's unusual tastes.

Happosai had once said that 'stolen food always tasted better' and she had known it to more broadly mean that a meal you earn, or simply one on an empty stomach, was always more easily savored. It was definitely an adage proving itself true here, and after a while, as the food supply ebbed, people started relaxing and chatting more than desperately stuffing their faces and drinking like their tongue was on fire.

Kuno and Starfire sat next to one another, talking animatedly, while Konatsu, Ryu and Mousse sat down to talk while using a stick to illustrate something by cutting lines in the soft ground. Ranma and the local Ryouga were silently discussing something of their own a little ways away from the others, and even Raven and Nabiki seemed to be quietly catching their bearings together. Cyborg was even chatting up Ukyou and Shampoo, two pouches of MREs in one hand as he momentarily satiated his prodigious appetite. The dimensionally displaced Ryouga, meanwhile, sat down on the concrete block Jinx ended up using for a backrest.

They passed the time in comfortable silence; she wasn't really up to talking, and his helmet didn't make for easy conversation with anyone not also wearing one.

"Okay, everyone. Hey! That means you, Kuno. Put the alien girl down."

"I can't imagine what you're speaking of, Saotome, you womanizing cur, sir."

Starfire giggled, and Ranma made a very droll 'ha ha ha' before clapping his hands loudly.

"Listen up, you crazy kids," he raised his voice. "We're going on another field trip tomorrow afternoon. Should be a cakewalk, so don't worry about a fight or anything. Just focus on all the safety crap we'll get in trouble for if we don't follow."

Next to the pigtailed officer, Ryouga nodded in agreement.

"The next dimensional jump was charted out by Urania-1 earlier today," he explained. "The techs and science types, including Cyborg here, think they've worked out a way to predict where the aliens went, and so our main mission tomorrow is simply to verify their findings and do routine checks. The location should be safe, but after this, we'll start to be on our own with each transit event. That means anything can happen, so remember that alertness out there will be half the fight. Expect every possible jump to be a potentially hostile situation."

"From now on, we'll be doing more light training, but together and against other squads. Great job tonight," Ranma said with a grin. "And I think it was a lot of fun, too!"

"You didn't need to giggle every time you killed me, you know."

"And you didn't need to put those pictures of my girl form online."

"...spoilsport..."

"Nabiki," Ryouga cut in to the banter. "I expect you to spend an hour everyday on additional practice at the range. Your aim was terrible out there, even for a civilian."

The Tendo sister puffed up her cheeks at that in indignant pique.

"I'm not supposed to have to shoot at anyone!" she protested.

"That's how field ops are, and you know it," he continued, undaunted by her grumbling. "The same goes for you, Raven. You have a regulation sidearm. Learn to use it. I don't care how much of a super double-A class psionic you are."

The violet haired Titan simply shrugged her shoulders absently. Jinx knew, for a fact, that every one of the Titans were nearly as familiar as her with firearms, though the ex-criminal had more actual training using said weapons, so the prospect of such training wouldn't be nearly as daunting for her as it would be for Nabiki.

At the head of the class, Ryouga continued his lecture, expanding his attention to everyone. "Every one of you should always be armed and able to defend yourself at all times and under all conditions." He then focused back on Raven and Nabiki once more. "I'll be making sure you both practice, though I'm sure Raven will do it and not try and weasel out while no one's looking."

Nabiki frowned at her partner and CO, but nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I'll put in the minimum effort. Just remember you're supposed to be my meatshield out there, lost boy."

"Maybe, but at least I'm the ranking meatshield," he quipped and turned back to the rest of the squads. "You can all sleep in tomorrow. The transit event will be at three in the afternoon. When you get back, I want you to all review the mission details and briefing before we meet up in the hanger at one for prep and the usual rounds of decon."

"Um, lieutenant," Ukyou spoke up in the lull that followed. "You said they scouted this next dimension already right? S'what can we expect?"

The two officers exchanged a glance, before Ranma answered.

"Flurries."


	24. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space 3

**A/N**

_Finally. The Jaunt Arc begins..._

* * *

"You call this flurries?"

It was an ice planet.

Calling it a frozen wasteland would be too generous.

From space, the planet looked pale blue and habitable enough, thanks to a trick of light, but on the surface this 'Earth' was caked and frozen from horizon to horizon. A gentle snowfall of ammonia-ice fell across ocean-like expanses broken by massive cracks large enough to swallow the grand canyon. They'd taken Pathfinder down for a landing at the insistence of science teams who wanted samples and other data from the otherworldly Earth.

Ukyou definitely kept her mask on for this one. Bundled up in insulating personal armor, and over that, a special ultra-arctic set of weather wear, the okonomiyaki chef wasn't going to be turning into an icicle anytime soon, but the planet wasn't what she'd been expecting. Frankly, the notion of traveling to parallel dimensions and the like conjured up pictures of... well... "Sliders" or _at least_ "Stargate." Maybe at the strangest, they'd end up on a planet full of dinosaurs. Not lifeless snowballs that hurt your eyes to stare at for too long. More _Land of the Lost_ and less _Ice Planet Hoth._

So, there she was, world class martial artist and sort-of super soldier, guarding a drilling machine taking ice core samples. Why she even bothered coming out here with weapons, Ukyou couldn't imagine. There wasn't anything larger than a bacteria on this poisonous frozen rock, and even then the bacteria thing was unlikely. Not like a gun would help with a bunch of microbes anyway.

She looked up at the huge moon.

It looked equally uninhabitable... and also seemed to be on the verge of falling into the planet's gravity well. Not something to be around for, unless you were thousands of miles away and safe in space somewhere. Altogether, it was creepy and boring, a very strange combination.

"This is so exciting!" Cyborg chattered to himself as he ran scans using a combination of personal and organization equipment, pacing back and forth in the poisonous snow. "According to my calculations, and these readings, the planet's core is almost fifteen percent siderophile elements! I've never seen so much iridium!"

Ukyou rolled her eyes, but found herself glad at least someone was enjoying the pit stop.

"I'll take your word for it, sugar."

"Ah, don't worry, we'll get a better find next time!" he assured her, as he stared at a scanner in his left hand. "There's gotta be an okonomiyaki world out there somewhere."

Ukyou smiled at that, behind her helmet and faceplate.

_A world where Okonomiyaki was King. Where no one called it 'Japanese pizza' ... ah, to dream..._

Hunkering back down to the basically pointless guard duty, Ukyou took to wandering a bit, if only to keep the blood flowing. She took care not to travel far from the landed ship, but even in the dusty snowstorm it wasn't hard to keep track of everyone. Each member of the excursion had color coated bands in addition to their grey and white armor and attire. Red for Juliet, Green for India, Orange for Yankee. No one would be getting lost.

She saw a figure she recognized, by posture and armament, as Shampoo and slowly made her way over. The Chinese girl was as still as a statue; small piles of dry ammonia ice had collected on her armored shoulders and the crown of her helmet hood. A trickle ran like sand down the smooth lines of her full length plasma rifle. She didn't even seem to be breathing, but Ukyou wasn't worried. She knew the Amazon was actually at attention.

"Pancake chef," she said as the Kuonji heiress approached.

"Noodles for brains," Ukyou replied without anger. "See anything interesting out there?"

Shampoo shook her head, finally disturbing the growing pile of ice on her hood and causing it to fall down over her back.

"Only dead white world," the Amazon said, and added. "Very peaceful."

"Kind of depressing, if you ask me."

"I trained on a cold mountain once for four months," Shampoo said, and her voice gave an inflection of fondness. Thanks to the English language indoctrination, she could express her thoughts much more easily to her Japanese peers. "It was hard, and I missed having people around, but it was... calming. This reminds me of that."

"Reminds me of that indoor ski resort they've got in Sayama."

"They have one in Shenzhen, too."

"Really?"

The two girls stood around for a couple seconds, neither saying any more. At times like this, Ukyou almost found she liked Shampoo. It helped that she was one of only a few other women in UNETCO military operations, and the only one the chef's age. Working on the same team, despite the animosity, there was always kind of a camaraderie of team and gender pushing them together. Then, of course, Ranma would come up, or cooking, or something about Japanese and Chinese relations, or comparing the two countries, or tastes in cuisine, or any number of topics that would set them off into an argument, sometimes serious, sometimes light-hearted. Even putting Ranma aside, as Ukyou had tried to do - _as she had done_ - it was clear she and the Amazon would never be super-close good pals like most of the boys were.

That didn't mean they always had to be at each other's throat, though.

"You see Starfire and Kuno hanging out the other day?" Ukyou asked, feeling the sudden urge to gossip a bit to clear the air and relieve some of the boredom from this so called mission. Plus, they'd both moved to a private teamcomm channel. "Those two are getting a little friendly, you know what I mean, sugar?"

"Stick boy and alien girl?" Shampoo chuckled. "No have to worry about that. Starfire proud Amazon warrior. Shampoo no allow her to date man too weak to defeat her."

"Oh lord, not this again. That's not natural, you know?"

"Maybe 'natural' is whatever strong people say it is."

"I've heard that excuse before, too." Ukyou shifted position a bit, to rest her rifle against her shoulder. "I thought the two of them were cute together; I never imagined Kuno and a foreign girl like that. He always did like the exotic ones I guess."

"And I'm not exotic?" Shampoo asked with a hint of playful coquetry. "He likes girls who can beat him up. I can understand that, though."

The two exchanged a brief chuckle as the in joke.

"Only one I don't like is that pink haired x-chromosome Happosai," Shampoo continued, her tone of voice assuming a more serious, work-like tone. "She's too arrogant and people indulge her too-too much. Airen should have mind scanned her, but she smooth talked her way out of it. Then she blast stupid lieutenant pig boy. Even if he did something stupid, she was out of place. She's a guest here but she acts like she's running the place as a landlord."

Shampoo paused, and Ukyou could guess a frown was forming on the Chinese girls' face.

"Other day, she said Yankee squad killed Saffron. As if no one had done anything except them. As if they're greatest thing since sliced cheese, or bread, or whatever Americans say. I don't like it." She paused again, and hefted the rifle in her hands before relaxing her shoulders a bit. "I don't like it at all."

"Yeah..." Ukyou had her own dislike for Jinx, but it had mostly dissolved into more annoyance than any serious actionable enmity. "But you heard what Ranma said. 'Best Behavior.' His own words."

Shampoo gave a soft grunt.

"Like I need you to remind me, stupid spatula girl," she remarked, but without real vitriol.

Ukyou just smirked and faced into the falling snow of an alien Earth.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Time and Relative Dimensions in Space_

Chapter 23

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid

Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Raven relished the sensation of the cold as it penetrated through the arctic gear she wore. She was, like Nabiki, supposed to stay on the ship during these jaunts, providing psionic or material support, even as Nabiki coordinated them via radio. But she couldn't pass up the opportunity to set foot on such an exotic world. It wasn't like there was any need for back up here, or any threats to be wary of. Eventually even the Lieutenant - the 'Acting Major' - had agreed to relax a bit, and bundling up tightly, she'd decided to take a few quick steps out of the ship to get a breath of 'fresh air.'

This world was, she decided … quite pleasant. It was just an endless expanse, free from distraction, empty of all the meaningless clutter of their own world. This seemed like the perfect place to get some much needed meditation in after several days of frantic training. Of course, sitting down in a mountain of sub zero snow wasn't an option, so she simply lifted her legs from the ground, levitating above the surface by several feet. It took a bit more effort every time she did this, her telekinesis a mere shadow of what it had been. She really should cease focusing all of her attention to her telepathy, and consider training her telekinesis once more. It could be an interesting experiment to see just how much of her former power she could regain with dedicated practice. Despite feeling utterly powerless now, the fact that she could levitate without a psi amp still placed her heads and shoulders above most people on their host's planet. Still, it was a thought for another time.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

It had been some time since she had said those words, and she could feel serenity course through her mind with each repetition. The permeating chill of the air, the sting on her skin, was invigorating and actually accentuated her focus, rather than distract her from it. She had been given much to think on over the past few days. She had been overconfident in her abilities, or, at least in her ability to use them without repercussion. Still, after yesterday's mixed team battles, she had quickly learned to better pace her expenditure of psionic energy,

Still… how did _Kuno_ of all people, have the most powerful psionic strength out of all of India and Juliet? It was still something of a mystery to her, but trying to puzzle it out was pointless.

There was a matter much more worthy of contemplation: just how long would it take them to get home using such a hit and miss method of dimensional travel? If only she could think of a more efficient-

"Hey, Raven, what are you doing out here?"

Cracking open an eye, Raven looked up from her meditation to see a small group of armored figures approaching her position. The polarized visors made it impossible to tell one from the next, but the

red bands around their arms, and the obvious psionic signatures emanating from each of the four individuals made it as obvious as daylight just who was strolling up to meet her.

Closing her eye once more, Raven continued her futile struggle to center her mind.

"I was just enjoying the local color. What about all of you? What are you doing back?"

Ranma gave an exaggerated shrugging of his shoulders, so as to still be noticeable through the personal armor. "Pork rind figured we've wandered around in the arctic wastes for enough. He called us all up and said we should meet up for a family dinner. Everyone else should be along soon enough."

Raven gave a curt nod, not sure if Ranma would be able to see the movement beneath her parka and insulating environmental suit. "That sounds pleasant. I think I'll greet the rest of them as they arrive, then. I haven't quite had my fill of the view yet."

"Huh, seriously?" Ranma replied, bemused.

"I understand completely." Moving up to stand by her commander, Shampoo tilted her head in greeting. "This world is quite serene, is it not?"

"Very much so," Raven agreed, smiling warmly to herself beneath her winter garb. "Now why don't you all go on inside. I'll meet up with you when the last team has arrived."

"Suit yourself."

With that, Juliet squad marched up into the ship, leaving Raven to her own devices once more. Unfortunately, she didn't have much time to enjoy her solitude, as India squad, followed a few minutes later by Yankee, returned to the ship in short order. The former offered some short pleasantries to the psion, which she reciprocated in kind, while the latter ended up dragging her bodily back into the ship, despite her protests that she still hadn't found her center yet.

Once they were back in the ship, it took several minutes for her companions to doff their armor, quickly scurrying to dress themselves after traversing the frozen surface of the planet. Not even Starfire,

with her ability to survive within the vacuum of space, lingered about in her undergarments for a second longer than was absolutely necessary. There was an annoying amount of childish giggling, notably from the alien princess and Jinx as they scrambled about scantily clad (honestly, when would they get over all that), but it thankfully wrapped up quickly, and they were soon on their way to join the others.

Like Yankee squad, everyone else had already changed into warmer clothing as well, and were somewhat tightly packed in the main chamber of the ship. It wasn't actually any colder than normal inside, but time outside made the ambient temperature seem chillier than it actually was. Rations had already been laid out, either by Nabiki beforehand, or by Ranma and his team when they had gone up some time ago, and she and her friends quickly found places to seat themselves and pick up the proffered foodstuffs.

Raven settled herself down closer to the nav interfaces, setting herself slightly apart from the more cozily packed martial artists. Not that she wanted to appear antisocial, but the idea of physical contact, and more notably the link that such random touches could elicit, was something she wanted to avoid. Even back on her own world, her empathy had had a tendency to kick into overdrive when she physically touched another person, and if anything, that problem had only grown in magnitude as her powers changed.

Captain Ben-Solomon had even given her a pair of gloves, a common garment among powerful psions. Maybe it was time to start wearing them?

Settling in to enjoy her meal, Raven was actually surprised as someone suddenly sat down next to her. Glancing at the slender figure beside her, she found herself somewhat confused to see Jinx at her side, also tearing open her supplied ration. If Jinx noted her scrutiny, though, she gave no sign, obviously more intent on eating than speaking.

Shrugging her shoulders, Raven returned to her own meal. There was enough chit chat going on between everyone else present, so she didn't feel the need to grill the girl for her odd choice in seating. Instead, she focused on her meal… if one could call it that. She had to admit that, back at the tower, even _she_ had become somewhat spoiled by having Kasumi present. Despite the fact that she found herself at odds with the woman more often than not, Kasumi was a sublime chef. In comparison, these rations were a pale imitation of food when compared to her memories.

The flow of conversation continued to ebb and flow as the time passed, though Raven didn't feel inclined to join in at the moment. It was mostly shop talk, anyway, what people saw out on the surface, or Cyborg's excited proclamations of 'massive iridium reserves', so nothing of any real interest to her. As such, she was somewhat surprised when, during one of said lulls in the conversation, Jinx suddenly turned to her, tapping her on the shoulder.

"Say, Raven, I haven't really had the chance to ask, but have you had the chance to train with Cologne since you've been on this world?"

Raven actually looked up at that, caught off guard by the question. She wasn't sure what had prompted the question. Why would Jinx be interested in that?

Shaking her head from side to side, Raven signaled the negative. "No, I haven't. In fact, I don't think I've actually traded more than a few words with her since arriving here. …Why do you ask?"

Jinx shrugged her narrow shoulders. Setting her empty ration down, she smiled at Raven. "Well, you know, you were Cologne's pupil back in our world, right?"

At the far end of the craft, Shampoo suddenly looked up at the mention of Raven training with her great grandmother. Had she not mentioned that since arriving here? She supposed it hadn't seemed like a salient point to just bring up casually.

Finally, she nodded in response. "I did train with Cologne. She actually was quite insightful when it came to my meditation skills… But… you already know that I trained with Cologne, so why are you asking?"

Again, Jinx shrugged, her hair bouncing slightly in time with the gesture. "I was just curious about how your training was with her. I ask, since I've been training with her in Lieutenant Hibiki's Ki Rotation technique."

Raven rolled her eyes. It had been all but impossible to remain ignorant of that fact. The amount of time that Starfire and Jinx had been spending topless lately had been descending into the vaguely disturbing range. Still, it seemed like an actual viable course of discussion, and it seemed like Jinx was genuinely interested.

"Hmm, it's hard to say, really. She was fairly lenient, really, allowing me to progress at my own pace. Really, she mostly provided me with study material, as well as several scrolls detailing various techniques and such." A frown wormed its way onto her lips at a less than pleasant memory. "In fact, that was how I learned to sense ki so astutely that I was able to function while blinded. I'm certain that you remember how that ended."

Even Ranma looked up at that. "Wait a second. You have some kind of ki blind sight technique? Why didn't you mention that before?"

"You never asked," Raven replied flatly. She then turned back to Jinx. "Besides, there were certain obvious weaknesses to the technique that I unfortunately didn't foresee before it was too late."

Nodding, perhaps just a bit overenthusiastically, Jinx smiled proudly. "Yeah, Happosai taught me a pretty impressive counter to that technique. Raven literally didn't see what hit her."

"Oh, ha ha. Very droll," Raven replied, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Oh, don't feel so bad," Jinx exclaimed, dropping a hand on her shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. You only had so much time as Cologne's student, after all, while I'd had a few whole days to train under Happosai before that battle."

"… Actually, I had been under Cologne's instruction for two weeks by that time," Raven admitted.

"Oh…" Jinx muttered in a quiet voice. "Well, still, that doesn't mean too much. Like you said, Cologne is a pretty easy going teacher. I totally know what you mean with that, after getting a few chances to work with her since getting here. Happosai is a lot more demanding when it comes to his students."

Raven nodded, not having any reason to disagree. After all, Jinx had worked under both masters, so she would have more reference to actually base her explanation on.

Suddenly, Raven looked up, an odd feeling catching her attention. It felt hot and unfocused, and experience told her it was likely anger. She was trying not to read anyone's minds at the moment, but her empathy still registered any of the stronger emotions that people were projecting in her vicinity, and that was certainly what she was feeling now.

Not really waiting for an answer, Jinx turned to Ranma.

"Say, why didn't you ever actually try to learn anything from Happosai?" she asked the pigtailed CO. "I mean, I know he's a pretty big perv, but once you get past that, he's a really great teacher." Suddenly, Jinx paused. "Heh, then again, I guess you did, didn't you? After all, you learned from your dad, and he learned from Happosai, so I guess that means you were his student after all, right?"

Ranma looked at her a bit oddly, apparently not really appreciating the observation, but not being able to refute it. "Well… I suppose that's technically true. I was trained in the Anything Goes Style, and Happosai was the creator of the style." He quickly added, though, "However, both me and pops have made a lot - and I mean a lot - of revisions and additions of our own. So the Anything Goes style is as much my own creation as his now."

Jinx nodded quickly in agreement. "Yeah, yeah, definitely. Just that the basis is his, and that even with the basics of his style, you were able to beat pretty much all comers. You have to admit, you have a pretty amazing combination of raw talent and unbeatable style going on."

Instantly, Ranma began to puff up at the praise.

"Well… I suppose that I can admit that," like it was hard for him to admit to at all. "Even if it's origins are a bit suspect, the Anything Goes style is a versatile and powerful school. Say, you actually learned quite a bit of the Anything Goes school yourself, right, Jinx? I never did get to see just how much."

"Yeah, I did, though compared to you, I barely know anything at all," the young witch admitted with surprising humility. "Before I trained with Happosai I'd been interested in learning other styles, like Wushu and such, but Happi told me that all of those styles were just a waste of time and that I should focus on Anything Goes."

Ranma chuckled in amusement. "Yeah, that sounds like something that the old goat would say. Why learn an entire style when you can just pick and choose the best moves and steal them? I have to say, though, that it still baffles me that you actually got the guy to train you at all. You know, on account of your lack of an Y chromosome and all. It was all but impossible for me to get him to take anything serious when he wasn't trying to grope me all the time or pose in stupid underwear for him."

"Heh, well it wasn't as hard for me to get him to behave himself as you think," Jinx replied with an quirky grin. To illustrate her point, she suddenly lifted her hands, cupping her modest chest. "Unlike all the other top heavy ladies here, I don't exactly have a lot that would pique his interest."

Even as Ranma burst into laughter at the frank admission, Ryu chuckled loudly. "Hey, I don't know about that. Looks like you got a good mouthful there."

"Ryu!" Ukyou exclaimed, elbowing him in the side. "Do you have to be so crude? Couldn't you have descried it in basically _any other way_?"

"What?" The martial artist barked. "She started it! I wouldn't want to come across as the kind of jerk that only liked girls with _big breasts_, after all. That would probably be discrimination or something."

Raven still felt a bit scandalized. _'Mouthful'_ Really! Of all the things to say! Of course, like a lot of meta-human women back home, she had what some bloggers and other nosy jerks online called the 'most common superpower.' But there was something to be said for politeness. She very privately found herself more than a little thankful Ukyou had been quick to correct the Yamasenken master's dirty male mind.

Giggling, the sorceress waved her hand carelessly. "Oh, don't worry about it, Ukyou." Jinx on the other hand didn't seem insulted or grossed out at all. "No offense taken and all that jazz."

"Besides," she said, getting back to the topic at hand. "Ranma's question was fair. The idea of Happosai training a girl is probably pretty crazy to anyone that knows him. I guess I just got lucky is all. He's pretty much the most powerful martial artist on the planet… well, our planet, so the fact that I got him to take me seriously enough to actually train me was a minor miracle." She shook her head and a quick shudder ran down her spine as she seemed to be remembering something.

"Not that the training was easy once he did take me under his wing. Honestly, his training made the Headmaster's-" She looked up, noting the blank stares from half of the people present. "Um, the Super Villain that ran the Academy back when I was a villain in training. Anyway, Happosai's training was so grueling that it made even his training seem tame in comparison. Honestly, I can't imagine anyone being a more demanding master, but you can't argue with the results, right Ranma?"

Shaking his head in amusement, the pigtailed martial artist held up his hands helplessly.

"I suppose you can't," he replied, tone turning a bit regretful. "I'll admit that, despite the pain he was, I miss him now that he's gone. I'm actually envious of you, in a way, since you got to know a side of him that I never did."

"Feh, more likely he's envious that Happosai taught you techniques that Ranma was never able to steal from him," the native Ryouga stated, a fanged grin on his lips.

"Well… that too," Ranma admitted sheepishly, "But mostly the first thing I said, I promise!"

"Okay, okay, enough of that," Jinx interrupted. "Enough speaking ill of my dead master there, Hibiki."

Ryouga actually stiffened at the insinuation, right up to the moment that Jinx began to giggle one more.

"Just kidding, just kidding." The witch then leaned over and gave Raven's shoulder another squeeze. "I think your Happosai would rest easier knowing that one of his disciples kicked one of Cologne's student's butts. He was always going on about all the times he pulled one over on her." With that, she leaned forward and winked. "You know, sometimes I get the feeling that he's holding a torch for the old bird. I mean, what guy would actually talk that much about a girl if he didn't have the hots for her?"

Instantly, Raven sensed a spike in revulsion from around the room… a good part of it her own. That had been a mental image that she had most definitely not needed. Neither of the seniors in question were what anyone would consider a GILF. Various coughs and the sounds of gagging quickly filled the air as Jinx laughed in joy at the acute discomfort she'd just caused.

"Sorry, sorry!" Jinx quickly capitulated. "No one needs to think about geezer on geezer action like that. Seriously, someone else pick a topic already. Cyborg, tell us more about all that iridium you found."

Sitting up straight after being singled out, Cyborg quickly nodded his head. Raven wasn't sure if the enthusiasm that lit up his face came from his desire to change the subject, or his actual interest in the planet's unusual composition. Either way, he lifted up his arm, bringing up the display screen embedded in its surface.

"Gladly! You guys have no idea just how fascinating this planet is!"

Raven joined in as a weary groan rose up around the room, everyone apparently sharing her 'love' of exotic elements and whatnot. Well… almost everyone, anyway. There was one person that didn't seem to be paying any attention to Cyborg's lecture at all. For some reason, it appeared that Shampoo had different priorities than the rest of them. For some reason, the Amazon seemed to be focusing all of her attention on Jinx, of all people, the expression on her face as flat and cold as a sheet of ice.

Slightly puzzled, Raven turned to look at Jinx. Apparently Jinx didn't notice the scrutiny, since all she could sense from her perhaps-rival was an odd sense of… what? Gratification? Was she happy about a productive day on the job? Whatever it was, the witch seemed completely oblivious, lost in her own little world. Shrugging to herself, Raven turned her attention back to Cyborg, sighing loudly to herself as she settled in. Perhaps if she was lucky, she would be lulled to sleep straight away.

Oddly enough, through the entire geological discussion, Jinx never lost that odd little smile she was wearing.

* * *

Pathfinder came in slow and easy.

Gliding carefully through the main hangar and into the auxiliary maintenance bay where it was being confidentially sequestered, the retrofitted UFO made contact with the internal gravity tether, producing the first faint momentum jolt the crew had experienced since taking off. There was no landing gear in the conventional sense; the ship's gravity induction drive was designed to make its own landing strips by warping or otherwise deforming the terrain as needed, producing effects akin to the ubiquitous crop circles if they happened to gently touch down in an open field. Aside from supporting the actual landing, the hangar's grav tether also kept the engines from damaging the floor or other sensitive machinery.

After touchdown and secondary security confirmation, plastic over metal frames descended, covering the entire ship in a giant igloo-like enclosure. Hazmat suited techs followed, setting up the first layer of decontamination and quarantine. With them was a unit of men in powered armor for additional security, bearing the logo of Captain Ben-Solomon's Bravo Squad. The Captain himself was also present in his own suit of armor, and the teams exchanged salutes as India, Juliet and Yankee disembarked.

"Uneventful mission as expected, sir," Lieutenant Hibiki spoke first, as his arm lowered.

"No space monsters or anything," Ranma added with a grin.

The Captain's helmet turned a bit, to look over the groups again. "Good. We'll debrief in thirty once the docs clear you."

"Sir?" Ranma sensed there was something up, even through the man's speaker filtered voice. "Did we miss something?" Plus... "I saw Avenger-One on the way in. It looked like it'd been taken out or moved from Pad Three?"

"We'll fill you in after the debrief."

"Sir!" "Sir!"

* * *

Ryouga tried to keep expressionless when he heard the news.

"Kasumi," Ranma immediately demanded to know. "Is she...?"

"She's fine," Ben-Solomon informed them, motioning for the pigtailed officer to relax a bit. "A little rattled, but fine."

There had been a mission while India, Juliet and Yankee were away, but that wasn't the big news. There had also been an accident down at the xenosciences lab. One of the ChemBioWar agents that had been slated for testing had shattered, releasing the deadly cocktail and killing two researchers. Containment procedures had kept the entire facility from being infected, but two Andermatt techs were dead and another from the US Branch was hanging on by a thread. A frank analysis was that he would be gone within the next few hours, even after being put in a stasis pod.

Kasumi, who worked in both experimental medical sciences and xenomedicine, had also been near the accident. While any loss of life, among civilians or military personnel, was a blow to the close knit community that lived with Seiran Mountain, Kasumi had a special place in the hearts and minds of the two martial arts squads, **and** the two squad lieutenants.

"What the Hell happened?" Ranma snapped, angry now that the news had set in.

Both he and Ryouga expected Kasumi to be the safest of them all, as removed as she was from the fighting. Whenever they were injured in the field, she was the familiar face that went with the inevitable skin grafts and plasma-necrosis treatments. Ryouga tried not to express how own rising anger and concern either, knowing there was nothing to gain from it, but sorely tempted to give in anyway. If Ranma hadn't given voice to his own anxiety, it may well have been saying the same things in the same tone.

"No idea. I-S is reviewing footage of the accident. There might have been a malfunction in the isolation hood, or simple human error," the Captain explained, for once sounding a bit helpless. It wasn't his department; he was just a messenger, and a mentor - the heads up about this was a mix of professional courtesy and military camaraderie. Ben-Solomon had been with India and Juliet from the very beginning. Ranma and Ryouga answered directly to him more often than they did the more distant Commander Yasuda.

"Damnit...!" Ranma hissed, but reigned himself back in. "Sir, I'd like to check in with her right away, if I can."

"Same here," Ryouga echoed. "Nabiki will want to come too." He also realized something, but hesitated a few seconds before asking, "This was one of the agents they're testing on White Iron, isn't it."

No: it wasn't even a question. It had to be. Despite some pioneering work helping develop the new Celatid Solvent Grenades, Seiran didn't have a mature ChemBio Warfare division. The scientists were from the Europe Branch where most of that work was based. He'd heard enough talk about the situation and about the well known rivalry between Commander Yasuda and Commander Barrett.

"It was," the Captain confirmed. "And I'd assume there will be fallout about this, too."

"Andermatt wants our Trenchard hybrid," Ranma reasoned. He was more in the loop than he often gave the impression of being. "You think they'll try and get her moved?"

"High Command makes the call on that," Ben-Solomon said, crossing his arms. "We'll keep White Iron here if we can. I think it'll depend on if it was human error or not."

* * *

The winds howled across the endless plains of white. Distant glacial mountains and oceans of glasslike ice, sparkling in the sunlight offered a breath taking panorama for any one fool enough to stand there and appreciate it. Quite literally breath taking, as the ammonia snow drifted through the air, a mixture of gases making up the atmosphere that would choke a person to death in a minute or less without the proper protection.

Jinx smiled, relishing the gale force winds as they rushed over her bare skin, heedless of the painfully freezing temperatures of the air. The stench of ammonia, like working in a chicken barn, didn't reach her nose, nor did the snow burn her as it melted on her face and shoulders. All there was to her, was the splendor of a world unmarked by man, shining like a glittering diamond for her and her alone.

Or… at least, that was what she had thought.

"Wow..." a voice breathily began, approaching from the side. "Have a mission to the Artic or something? Your dreamscapes are usually cozier, Jinx."

Jinx didn't turn at the voice. It was hardly unexpected anymore, nor unwelcome. She could feel Akari's presence at her side.

"Yeah, something like that." Jinx smirked in amusement. That was something of an understatement. "Say, you have any more ideas for me to get under Shampoo's skin? You still know this world's version better than me."

"I don't know her _that_ well," Akari replied, and stood next to Jinx, fully clothed in her usual titian robes. She pulled the hood back to let the chilly breeze run through her long hair, tucking a strand of pink behind her ear.

"Most of the stuff I know is anecdotal, like her almost being married to some ghost cat or turned into a cat? It was something strange like that... Oh!" Akari snapper her fingers, and turned to her friend with a mischievous smile. "I know you don't want to do any real flirting with Ranma, but I'm sure that's probably the best way to get under her skin. Especially since she can't do it anymore."

"Heh, well as fun as that could be, I think I'll pass. I've been getting on his good side again, which I figure is nearly as good," Jinx admitted and then gave a brief chuckle. "I should have known better than to ask a goody-goody like you for advice on how to unsheathe the old claws. I guess I'll have to think up something else better."

"Hey, I can be one bad girl when I want to be!" Akari maintained, giving a childish pout. "You never saw me fight with Rika, the Banryu farm heir. There never was anything quite as sweet as crushing her doped up sumo pigs in the ring!" She turned to face the horizon, and her smile twitched a bit. "I've got sharper claws than you think."

The mental image of Akari exulting in victory of a crushed rival filled Jinx with amusement. Her lips curled up into a grin. "Everyone knows that little piglets don't have claws. Cats have the sharpest claws of all."

As soon as she said the words, though, her smile fell once more.

"So... how have you been holding up? I've been a bit out of the neighborhood for a while, in case you haven't noticed."

"Same as usual. Girl in a glass bottle. I zone out most of the time and put on the autopilot." She even shrugged, seemingly used to the confinement. "I think I'd be a lot worse if I didn't have you to come back to. If I couldn't escape somehow, you know? I kind of feel a little guilty about peeking in on your dreams like this, but it's... it's my only outlet. Ryouga-sama won't let me in at all, not that he seemed to notice when I tried before. They've trained him, so he doesn't even know what's wrong anymore."

Jinx shrugged. Despite her Ryouga's attempt to smooth things out with his counterpart, her opinion of him hadn't warmed in the slightest. For some reason, it didn't surprise her at all that he would block someone like Akari out completely.

"See, I keep telling you that my Ryouga is the better model, but you still keep disagreeing. All I ask is that you don't sneak into any of my dreams that might just happen to involve the lovable Lost Boy, right?"

"We need a sock or something you can hang on the door!"

Both girls laughed at the image, harkening back to the old college dorm room standby.

"You're too harsh with him," Akari continued, defending 'her Ryouga' even now. "It isn't his fault. He was a lot more like your Ryouga before he came here. I know they've done something to him, and someday, I'll find a way to snap him out of it. Even if I am stuck in containment. I'll still find a way to save him."

"It's a nice thing to say," Jinx said with a quiet sigh. "It's too bad you can't do anything useful in that test tube of yours, aside from play cameo in a crazy girl's dreams."

"Maybe..." she admitted, a little evenly. "But you have to fill me in on all the stuff that's going on outside!" Akari insisted, taking in the dreamscape vista again. "Especially where you guys have been. This doesn't look like any real world location, even the poles. Did it come from a movie or something?"

"Heh, like you know anything about the North Pole. Or any other part of the world that doesn't have a pig pen on it for that matter," Jinx barked in amusement. "It's amusing you should say that, though."

Sweeping out her arm, she made a grand display of the exotic landscape. "Since this actually _is_ the earth."

"You act like I didn't get NatGeo on satellite TV," the other girl drolly commented, and tilted her head in confusion at the strange declaration. "If this is the Earth, where are we supposed to be? Is this normal snow? I'm getting the impression from your dream senses that I shouldn't try and catch any of these snowflakes on my tongue."

"Really?" Jinx chirped. "Isn't that smell familiar to you? I heard they have a lot of problems with this in pig barns."

"Well, I don't know what the snow is, so I can't imagine what it smells like," Akari explained. "Not without picking your brain for the answer. For some reason your dream is doing something strange with the sense of smell presentation."

Holding her hand up, Jinx let some of the snow gather on her palm. Soon after, a powerful odor began to rise up from the rapidly melting liquid and the nose of both girls crinkled up in distaste.

"Now, now, we both know what I think about people picking into my brain. As for this... I bet you've never seen snow made from pure ammonia before, have you? We made quite the trip to find this, probably halfway home, if Cyborg is to be believed."

"Ammonia ice?" Akari asked, eyes narrowing a bit. "Wait, what? Halfway home?" Her eyes widened again as it set in. "You've found a way to get home?"

"Maybe, maybe not. I'm pretty optimistic about it, anyway." Jinx shrugged, but was clearly hopeful about both her chances and the opportunity. "Honestly, us coming here all but drops the key to dimension travel into UNETCO's hands, and yet they actually act like it was all their hard work that made their EDC ship tests a success. Without us, or Cyborg, or really even the aliens, they wouldn't even be trying, and yet you'd think they pioneered the theory all by their lonesome. If you ask me-"

Jinx paused and saw Akari looking a bit spaced out.

"Akari?" Usually a few digs at her captors animated the other girl.

"They have..." She muttered, and quickly shook her head, continuing in a quiet voice. "They're very adept thieves when it comes to technology. I guess you'll be going back home soon." She gave a wan smile and held out her hand. "I'm happy for you, but I'll miss you when you're gone. I'll be all alone again."

Jinx paused at that. "Yes... well, I know a thing or two about 'adept thieves'." A moment later, her face fell from neutral to despondent. "It's too bad that we can't take you with us, or anything. There's no way that these guys are ever going to let you go."

"Probably not. But don't worry about it okay?" Akari gave the pink haired witch a confident smile. "I'll think of some way to turn this around. And I'll save Ryouga-sama, too. Just you wait and see! As long as you're here, listening to me, believing in me, being the only friend I have... I sometimes think I have the strength and confidence to do almost anything."

"Heh, well if every time that a Jinx rings a bell, an Akari gains her wings, then why don't you just break out of here already?" Jinx shook her head at the jest. "I woulda broke out three times already in the time you've been stuck in there."

"Easier said than done," Akari joked with an embarrassed laugh. "I did say _almost_ anything!"

It was essentially impossible to escape, of course, not with all that specialized containment and security... even above and beyond the complete physical and psionic immobilization. Jinx wasn't even sure if the Akari that routinely appeared in her dreams was the actual one down in xenosciences or a memory of the one before the surgery and that Reaper's attack, or just a figment. She knew enough about grief and psychology to know the mind was a twisted and screwy thing.

Giving the girl in the Ethereal habit a curious look, Jinx saw her deeply inhale the cold dreamscape air. Thankfully again filtered of the ammonia smell. The wistful and relaxed expression on the girl's was a complete one eighty compared to what she'd seen kept down in the labs. But... maybe...

"Achoo!"

Akari gently rubbed her nose, giggling at the falling snow.

_Probably not._

* * *

It was hard to believe she was thinking this, but Kasumi was starting to get... annoyed... by the hand holding and coddling her family and friends had been lavishing on her since the accident. In her mind, it wasn't even something she clearly remembered; things had gone from routine to, as some military types put it, "Charlie Foxtrot" in the blink of an eye. Something had gone wrong under the hood, one of the visiting researchers had cursed, and then the added containment screens descended and she'd been herded away to the sound of a wailing alarm.

It was terrible, but she was fine.

_ "Kasumi-neechan!" Akane had gone back to Japanese as she hugged her sister tightly. "You're okay! Praise Kami, you're okay!"_

_ "I'm fine," she had assured her._

They'd all been released after checking for ERX-770 and come back clean as a button.

_ "Geez, giving us a scare like that," Nabiki had hidden her concern with her typical cool candor, but also snuck in a quick hug knowing no one was looking. "And I thought I was the one risking my life today."_

By the time Nabiki got back from her new secret mission, Kasumi was actually relaxing in her room. It was so sweet, and Kasumi had smiled and chatted with her younger sister without further mention of the accident at the lab. There was nothing to worry about, after all. It was best to reinforce that by acting normally and calmly.

That was what she always did.

Over the next day, however, the sweetness started to get a tad bitter. The constant inquiries, whenever someone ran into her or visited, about 'if she was okay?' or holding open doors or chairs or worse, interfering to make sure everything was fine when she went back to work. That last one was really the last straw. She wasn't hurt, or traumatized, or so shell shocked she needed chairs chivalrously held out for her like she was on the verse of collapse.

What she wanted was for things to go back to normal.

"Kasumi, you're the one normal thing left in our lives. Overlooking that you were ten feet from being killed while we were away will take a little while," Ryouga had said, after her polite reminder that she was fine and didn't need an escort or a door opener. "Besides, I'm lost and following you is better than some random person."

"Ryouga, really," she chided, but smiled at him as they walked. It explained why he was without Shirokuro, anyway.

He chuckled and bashfully rubbed the back of his neck. Kasumi was glad to see him so normal; she'd been the only one there during his near breakdown after they brought in his father, and for the emotional distress he'd tried to hide from everyone during those early months at Seiran. She'd considered him a family friend and personal acquaintance back in Nerima, but the time here had cemented his friendship as part of her life within the mountain base.

"Would you like some tea, lieutenant?" she asked, as they walked in silence towards the break room in Section Four, close by where she normally did most of her work for Doctor Pearson. She'd end up leading him where he needed to go, but there didn't seem to be a hurry, so Kasumi figured her original destination could come first.

"I'd like that, Kasumi, thanks," he replied, and rotated his shoulder as he walked, loosening up the muscles. "After that, you think you can help me down to the haunt?"

"Director Wiessman's people?" the 'haunt' was base slang for the Internal Security offices.

"Yeah. He wants personal reports after every mission with his own psi-capable agents, and to make it even less efficient and more trouble for everyone, Ranma and I have to go at different times." The lieutenant gave a suffering sigh. "Being in the field is a lot less trying sometimes than being back home."

She laughed lightly at that, demurely covering her mouth.

"What?"

"You think of this base as your home?"

"I guess so," he gave a non-committal shrug. "Home is a place you have a close attachment to, right? Where your family is? That's this place, even if it is a hole in a rock."

"I'll tell you a secret," she said, and leaned over to whisper. "I feel the same way. I believe I'll miss it when we leave."

"I can't wait to fight Ranma in a real dojo again. I almost miss that stupid pond."

"Oh, I do hope the caretaker is taking good care of our koi," Kasumi mused, harkening back to the family estate and the poor abused fish in that well traveled little pond. "The fish must be happy to have a break from all the interruptions. It seemed like every day someone, usually Ranma or Mister Saotome, would end up falling in there."

"Kicked or thrown in there, you mean."

"You fell in once or twice, didn't you?"

"Four times maybe? I didn't transform once due to the waterproof soap. Didn't you guys used to have a big white fish? I saw it when I attacked... when I tracked down Ranma that first night."

"Oh, he was silver, and so beautiful," she remembered. "A cat killed him a few days after you showed up."

"I'm sorry to hear that..."

It was remarkably easy for the two to fall into a conversation about the old days or the world outside. The lounge had two men, both doctors, sitting at one corner, one reading a book and the other going over a printed out journal entry on a clipboard. Ryouga took a seat of his own while Kasumi hummed to herself and set about making some tea. They only had instant stuff, but she had arranged for some proper ceramic cups to be brought in for her personal use, and stored them here where she would use them most during breaks.

She missed having a proper kettle and the other accoutrements from home, but this wasn't the place for them in the end. It was a home of a different sort. Even on break, there was precious little time to slowly and deliberately prepare a perfect cup of relaxing tea. Instant bag-based stuff wasn't ideal, but it was practical, and spending time drinking with a friend could more than make up for the loss of good, traditional flavor and texture.

Finished steeping the tea, Kasumi set down his cup and took a seat opposite.

Ryouga exchanged bows and thanks, and the two young adults relaxed and sipped the hot tea. It was actually hotter than she preferred, since the quality of the tea itself was lower, but such was life. Neither of them said anything for a while, enjoying the silence only broken by the occasional rustle of flipping papers from the other side of the room. Ryouga gave a long sigh of contentment and relaxed even further into the chair, eventually crossing his legs in a T.

"You sure you're alright, Kasumi?" he asked, tilting his head to the side a fraction. "I know you're physically fine, but... still. It must've been terrible to see..."

She knew what he meant to say, and politely interrupted.

"I didn't see much of anything," she said, and stared down at the warm cup in her hands. "You must remember that I'm only a nurse. I have medical experience, but I'm no researcher. If I'm in the lab, it is only to run samples or inventory or to assist in some small way. I... I heard someone yell, and then we were all heading away and rushing to the door. Maybe I should be more... I don't know... shaken, but I'm not really. I feel sad, and regretful, and a little scared about how close I was to it, but... but not really what I expected I would be."

He nodded, expecting that.

"If you want to talk about it, I'll be here. Or there."

"Thank you." In the short silence that followed, she did think of something else, though. "There was one odd thing. I felt a chill right before it happened."

"A chill?" he asked, looking skeptical. "You mean a premonition or... or like sakkijutsu?"

"My sakkijutsu doesn't even work anymore, but no, it wasn't that. It was just a chill." She gave a dismissive shrug. "But the room was cold to help with the sterile atmosphere. I just found it a strange coincidence."

"They're saying it was an equipment malfunction?" he asked. It was the official line at this point.

"I've used that biosafety hood before, and we've never had any problems with it," she said, and added. "Or with any of our equipment."

In her case, the use had centered around more peaceful graft and culturing work central to burn treatment, the organization's number one source of battlefield duress. A constant supply of biomed-aerogel was also needed to keep the medikits at optimal efficiency, and it was all produced in-house. It was all exhaustively maintained, checked, and double checked. Yet the reports had determined there was an equipment failure of some kind?

"Doctor Andrews shouldn't have even been opening the ERX-770. It was in a shatterproof vial. I don't know how we lost containment." She shook her head, honestly confounded. "The rest of us were just lucky I guess, but for the life of me, I can't imagine how it happened. Maybe..."

She frowned prettily; in Kasumi's case, making that face wasn't something she did often.

"Maybe it was kharma," she said in a low, quiet voice, glancing back at the lab spaces with lidded eyes. "For what we've been doing."

"Kasumi," Ryouga cut off that line of thought. "No one deserved that. Hell, I don't like what I know is going on in there... but we all have our orders..."

He saw her withdrawing a bit and sat upright to lean forward and rest his arm on his knees.

"Kasumi?"

"It's just... not just what we're doing, but," she searched for the words for a second or two. "I guess it's a little scary in there. Especially at night. A part of me - a big part - wants to take any excuse I can find to not go back. I think I hope they ship... White Iron... off the base. Even though I know I shouldn't be thinking that, or feeling that, I can't help it."

The confession left them both in silence again for a short time.

"Kasumi," he said, then. "I think... what your feeling is only natural. You're a good person, Kasumi. You're our rock. All of us."

"Thank you for saying so, Ryouga," she said, brightening up a bit. "And for listening to me. But I know not everyone feels that way."

"Who...?"

"It doesn't matter," she insisted with a warming smile, and switched to Japanese for a sentence. "Thank you for being a friend, Ryouga-kun."

He replied in kind. "Any time, Kasumi-san."

"So, if you don't mind me asking, where else are you going today? Aside from meeting up with the Director Wiessman?"

"Actually, I'm checking in with two of Cologne's 'new students,' you could call them..."

* * *

No one could fault Cologne for thoroughness. Her report outlined every change she or the two girls had made to their rotation training arrays. Ryouga found it a relief from Ryu's mission reports which either struggled to be more than three paragraphs or that became bloated with too much detail, or what he'd seen of Ranma's, which were at least fifty percent self aggrandizement and near-embellishment. No, Cologne was an entirely different animal.

She had analytically recorded both pictures and drawn diagrams taken at twenty four hour intervals, along with extensive and color coded notation: black for her own, blue for Jinx and red for Starfire. That Cologne was, herself, a technique genius was something he was quite acutely aware of. The Trenchard version of her had all the old ghoul's techniques, plus a dozen or more others stolen from hunted down martial artists, and she'd seemed to have amped most of those up even further given how she cleaned Elder Cologne's clock when they fought. The original had picked up much of martial arts calligraphy - a school she had virtually no prior experience with - far quicker than he had. The idea of fighting the alien "improved" version still filled the young lieutenant with trepidation.

Ranma may have been an improvisational genius, but Cologne was the Real Deal.

Her well authored notes on the altered training arrays just drove all that home again. He had to stop several times, causing Shirokuro to more than once settle down around his legs to wait, as he re-read certain parts. Calligraphy as it was used here was a mixture of technical expertise and precision, plus a less easily characterized 'spiritual' component. That last addition to his own reports for Project Kataphract hadn't gone over well with the technical staff and research panel he answered to. He'd revised it to imply "psionic" and "mental" components - more acceptable terms to the community he worked for - but in his opinion, "spiritual" was the closest to being accurate.

Anyone could replicate a psionic technique if they had the power and the skill to do so, just like anyone could learn to fire a gun if they put in the time and practice, and had working arms and hands and eyes. In martial arts, however, many techniques were not simply a matter of repetition or going through the motions and consistently getting the same effect. There was an element of luck and belief. He had said as much to Ukyou, months ago, to train up her new defensive abilities. One had to belief in the weapon; in the technique; in the self. And it was hard to train beliefs.

There was also still so much they didn't know about the heretical school of martial arts calligraphy that Shigenosuke, that crazy old hermit, developed. He'd pitched Project Kataphract in December of last year as an effort to completely recreate the Battle God Tattoo, and he'd partly succeeded. "Maybe in a year" he had ultimately decided, after conferencing with Cologne about his findings. Improper application of the tattoo, even for one who understood the principles, would likely result in either death or a complete shutdown of the yin-yang cycle that produced ki in the first place.

Retraining from simple-circular to orbital two-body rotation had been the compromise they'd developed. Since there wasn't a tattoo abruptly rewiring the circulation, the body could adjust gradually, giving a benefit without as much risk. It was a bit like easing into cold water instead of just plunging in... and it worked. On the other martial artists who trained with it.

Ryouga had not used a fully functional array himself.

He'd tested the basics while altering his own ki rotation the slow way. Ranma had been the first, once they were all sure it was reasonably safe to use an accelerated process. The new rotation cycle didn't kill him, thus, it was believed, it likely wouldn't do harm to Ranma either. The Saotome heir had picked up the new rotation quickly, and then they'd moved on to training up Ryu and Ukyou. Command had also approved - see: recommended - a test on a non-martial artist volunteer. The result had been a rather impressive failure. The technique had made the man weaker instead of stronger and done actual physical harm.

With that incident fresh in his mind, he'd naturally been reluctant to approve it for the two Yankee squad girls. Starfire was an alien, and while tests had confirmed that even Sectoids and other humanoid aliens had strange but basically similar ki production systems, it was the sort of project that was best reserved for a lull in activity. There was too much risk involved to just rush headlong into things. As for Jinx, she was what her world called 'meta-human' and her powers were entwined with her ki in ways no one fully understood.

So when he declined to give them arrays, they went behind his back to Cologne. It probably should have rankled him that they didn't think he was qualified to decide who should train in the technique, but that they still wanted it. On the other hand, he suspected he would have done the same thing in their place. He wasn't about to fault people for wanting to be stronger and improve in the Art, and if these reports were to be believed, it could be said he had been either too hasty or too cautious or both.

It was time to see for himself.

Especially with Pathfinder in full swing.

By the time he arrived at the dojo, his preferred venue for this sort of work, he had to check the time and resist the urge to kick himself. Late as usual. Soun and Genma were actually hosting a small class, and the two older men exchanged silent nods of greeting as Ryouga casually lifted a hand in a passing salute. He knew Soun was actually the one who did most of the work at those scheduled teaching sessions; Ranma's old panda of a father preferring to sit back and occasionally correct one of the attendees.

Inside the adjunct fighting room, Ryouga took a few more passing looks at Cologne's diagrams and then unpacked his equipment. Perhaps the most inconvenient thing about martial arts calligraphy was the ink. Ryouga chuckled at that - it was _definitely_ the most annoying thing. All the ink used had to be made fresh and literally on the spot.

The ink itself was a complex mixture and toxic is used incorrectly. In his case, he actually needed two different inks pre-pared before Jinx and Starfire showed up. The more troublesome dye had a particularly annoying mixture of heavy metals and trace rare earths, notably Praseodymium. Checking the time again, he spent a few minutes laying out papers, tacking the more mundane and previously drawn diagrammatics to the cardinal points of the walls (it was very convenient that the dojo was aligned perfectly with the magnetic north and south), and then grinding down the ink to render it down for use. Checking the solutions, he gave a weary sigh and nodded to himself.

He was in the middle of testing the two inks when the door to the room opened.

Just as expected, a pair of young women entered, chatting away animatedly and giggling amongst themselves. Oddly, from what he had seen of the duo for the past week or so, they were both were wearing long sleeved shirts and bulky cargo pants. The both of them waved and greeted various students and Jinx blew Genma a quick kiss.

And then, like the flicking of a switch, their good moods vanished as soon as their attention turned his way. While Starfire was at least cordial enough to retain a polite smile, Jinx's face fell into a full frown. The alien and the witch moved over to join him, and the former bowed her head slightly in greeting. "Good day, Lieutenant."

Jinx, on the other hand, simply scoffed. "You beckoned us, Lieutenant?"

"Huh." _What was with the sour attitude?_ "Yeah.," he replied, and finished checking the ink before standing up to greet them formally with a small bow. "Thanks for coming. Was there someplace you two needed to be? You both said this time was fine in the email."

"No, the timing is most expedient," Starfire replied.

Jinx shrugged. "I dunno, maybe some of us just aren't all that jazzed about the idea of 'training' with the guy that gave up on both of us before he even bothered to give us a chance." She looked around the room. "We were doing fine with Cologne's help. We don't need you to suddenly take interest just because you turned out to be wrong."

"I didn't give up on you," he answered, hefting an arm-length brush and balancing it on his shoulder. "I wanted to wait and see if the technique was safe to use, and if it would help you or hurt you. I didn't think there was a need to rush. 'Not every technique is for every person' - you ask Cologne, and she'll agree with me. But if I'm wrong, I'll apologize and do my best to make up for it. _That's_ why I wanted to meet with you. Now, who first?"

Jinx simply scoffed, obviously not buying what he was selling, and took a step back. Starfire, noting her companion's reluctance, took a step forward.

"What is your intention with this training session?"

"Nothing sinister," he assured her, and motioned to the walls, where a few papers were set up, and to the floor where a sheet of paper lay, with geometric designs on it. "I want to map the flow, waste energy, and consumption of your ki, plus make a full body analysis of your aura. Also I need to check the new arrays. I'll forward you both a copy of everything I learn, just like a medical report. Depending on what I see, I may do one or two things to help you train yourselves like you want." He then asked, "Okay?"

"Um, full body analysis? I think I'm gonna have to pass on that," Jinx muttered in a dark tone. "You go ahead, though, Star."

The Tamaranian turned her glance between her team mate and the lieutenant several times, before staring at Ryouga. "There is nothing... invasive about your techniques?"

"I don't need... geez!" He vigorously shook his head at Jinx, first. "I don't need either of you two to strip! I only need a bare stomach area and head!" He was frowning now, and added, cautiously. "Unless there's something wrong with the Anahata, but that's not likely. Cologne would've noticed... Anyway, look: this isn't some peep show, and yes, it's all non-invasive."

Squaring her shoulders, Starfire nodded. "Very well, you may proceed, then."

"Don't worry, Star, I got my rape whistle handy, y'know, just in case," Jinx quipped with a smirk.

"Make this even more awkward, why don't you? Just enter the circle in the middle of the room. I'll um... you know." He coughed and politely turned around. Thank God, he didn't need either of them to completely disrobe. Was that why they were wearing baggy pants and those long sleeved shirts?

Still moving tentatively, Starfire stepped into the circle. She examined the markings he had made quickly, but appeared too distracted to pay much attention.

"How is your examination to proceed then?"

"It'll be easier to explain it while I do it." He still hadn't turned around. "Tell me when you're ready."

Sighing, he waited while the Tamaranian did her thing, but didn't miss the look Jinx was giving him. It seemed to be part annoyance part amusement. He rubbed his temples to massage away the nagging suspicion that a good chunk of the team he was trusting with his life wouldn't more than bat an eye if he took a plasma round to the face.

"You may begin when you see fit, Lieutenant."

"Alright then." He turned and confirmed her abdomen was bare. Starfire had tossed aside the sweater she had been wearing but, apparently, a full length t-shirt lay under it. Ryouga resisted the urge to facepalm of sweatdrop. If they wanted to be shy about it, then fine.

"You know, you could've just worn bathing suits or something..."

"Oh yeah. I bet you'd _love_ that, wouldn't you?" Jinx bit off sharply. "Maybe you could have Nabiki order some body paint and you can make a party out of it."

He gave the pink haired girl a half-lidded look.

"Well, it would make my job easier, so yeah, I would 'love' that."

He motioned for Starfire to lift the shirt to bare her stomach, and he moved in to inspect the array.

"Should I...?" she started to ask.

"No. Not just yet." He peered at the imprint in the orange skin, nearly invisible at the moment. Holding up his hand, just over the surface of the skin, he pulsed some of his own ki in to check the integrity of the ink. Cologne couldn't actually mix the blocks of it herself, though she could make the solvents, so she had used some of his dry-ink stock supply. Taking a knee, he tested the older sections of the array and then the obviously newer additions.

There was no doubt about it.

"This is really interesting," he said, remembering he'd promised to explain. "I'm checking the ink itself right now. You're wearing it out a lot more quickly than you should. As you can guess, if the tattoo bleeds or the color changes, then so does the effect. Shouldn't be too hard to put together a reinforcement, but I'd like to know why its happening."

The alien shrugged in response. "The accelerated decay of the ink may be due to the nature of my biological energy. My own internal power is maintained at concentrations several hundred percent beyond that of humans." She then pointed to Jinx, who snorted and looked away. "As for Jinx, if anything, her array should be breaking down at an even further accelerated rate, as her energy is not only at a higher concentration than other humans, but is also intrinsically entropic, and naturally inclined to attempt to disrupt any ordered system placed upon it."

"I'll have to re-engineer something from source then," he reasoned. "Okay! I'll just take a print..."

He walked over to his supplies and retrieved a large piece of paper. Kneeling in front of Starfire, he pressed it up against her stomach, smoothed it over, and pressed his palm over her navel. A quick bust of ki momentarily sealed the paper to Starfire, and another removed it, producing an exact copy of her array. He then folded a piece of paper over the print, and used the same technique to copy it again.

"Alright," he explained, holding up this second sheet. "This is the tricky part. I need an exact overlay, so start focusing on the array, just warm it up a little bit, and this paper will stick to the tattoo on your stomach. Then I'll repair the ink, like sticking iron filings to a magnet."

Obediently, the alien girl nodded and closed her eyes.

A moment later, her aura began to trickle to life. The paper adhered easily to Starfire's abdomen again, and Ryouga used the giant brush he'd been keeping on an oversized foldout brushholder on the floor. Two quick strokes briefly colored the paper in a black X that glowed for an instant before fading to gray. Stripping the paper away with his left hand, Ryouga took a knee again to examine the now-ki-excited and refurbished tattoo.

It looked good.

"Now that that's done, let's check your flow," he decided. "Just face one of the walls and look straight at the paper marker. Then arms out at ninety degrees. Just relax and let your body do what it always does."

Again, the girl did as told, facing the wall and holding out her arms. Soon enough, her ki began to flow through her body with fluid grace and speed.

Ryouga went from checking on her - not that he really needed to - to making sure everything was arranged perfectly. He nodded approvingly, and a moment later saw the fruits of their labor. With the alien girl properly lined up, the sigils around her feet turned from black to green and then black again as they absorbed her ki and activated. Crystals within the ink aligned, and it took on a glassy, reflective sheen.

"A bit of warning," he said, wetting the huge brush with one of the milled ink reservoirs. "You're going to feel a bit of ink on your arms and body and it's going to move on contact with your skin. It's harmless, but I need you not to move."

He then dabbed the ink on the girl's arms, where they met the shoulder, the sides of her hips, her forehead, and then the small of her back, near the base of her spine. Starfire resisted the urge to look, but could plainly feel the ink pool on her skin and then start to move. Thick lines stretched and narrowed, forming a tapestry across her body.

"Everything looks good," he determined, checking as he walked around her. Of course, he couldn't see through her pants or the parts her t-shirt still covered up. But in the parts he could see, things looked alright. "No blockages. No knots. No bleeds. Give it another ten seconds and then you can move again and see for yourself."

"Heh, sweet. Looks like Star is going all tribal on us! I can just hear Kuno calling her his 'Savage Beauty' already," Jinx remarked, chuckling to herself.

"Savage or not, warrior cultures here on Earth do tend to love tattoos," Ryouga agreed. " You know I found a tattoo for skin hardening in New Guinea. Makes you look a bit like a humanoid crocodile. Tamaran's a warrior culture, right? Do you have any traditional ritual body piercing or inking?"

Starfire shook her head quickly, her long red hair swaying behind her. "We do not. Tamaranians revel in the natural beauty of our bodies. Even the cutting of one's hair is all but unheard of upon my home world." She finally snuck a quick peek down at her arms and torso. "Though... I must admit that I find these markings to be most... evocative."

Jinx, for her part, just shuddered. "Ugh, and yeah: I'll pass on the New Guinea tattoo. I've had more than enough human crocodiles to last one life time..."

"If you came from any other world, I'd assume that was hyperbole," Ryouga replied, and ended up back in front of Starfire after making a full circuit. "Now, since I'm not a pervert, despite what you may have heard, I'll ask you to check your covered areas yourself."

That said, he turned around again to let Starfire check herself, resting the brush against his shoulder. A second alter, he held up a finger to punctuate one addition: "One more thing. If you're like us humans, things will look kind of crazy down south, if you get what I'm saying? So if you see a thunderbolt or a heart or a Hello Kitty face or something strange, don't assume its something wrong. Just check for bleeding ink or things that look like stoppages."

"Yeah, great job not coming across as a pervert there, Lieutenant," Jinx quipped. "Nabiki must have had a lot of fun corrupting you."

A moment later, Starfire cleared her throat. "I see nothing that raises concern. No complications with the ink application process are visible."

"Good," Ryouga said and turned back around. He gave Jinx a look as if to say, _"And I'm not a pervert, damnit... no matter how much Nabiki tries."_

"If everything's working properly, the next thing is I'd like to take the 'pulse' of your ability to redirect energy. While we're at it, why don't you describe how you feel when you're using the array?" he asked, walking around Starfire and gently tapping her elbow to raise her arm. His fingers found the juncture there and covered the main lines of ink that represented energy flow. "Make one of those starbolts for me, please?"

Shrugging, the Tamaranian concentrated slightly, and a bolt of emerald energy flared to life. "I feel... some slight difference when using the array, but very little of note."

"I see. Next. Can you show me how you prepare those eye beams of yours?" he asked, and craned her neck a bit to check the flow pathways there, pressing three fingers up against them as the Tamaranian fired a low level blast up and into the ceiling. The exotic alloy surface easily diffused the green energy, and then he asked her to float but not separate her feet. The reason for this became clear as the paper mat she had been standing on stuck to the soles of her feet and even retained its rigid shape in midair.

"I really should have done this earlier," he thought aloud, cupping his chin as he inspected the lines across her body. "This is... wow. Your current flow is so... so simple and straightforward, but so strong. How are you doing that? A lot of it looks human, like the extremities, and there are some atrophied systems that don't seem to be used much, but your core flow is... it's like you have two massive conduits to move energy around. In the other Ryouga and myself, its more like a dozen thin straws."

He tapped his chin with his thumb as he thought.

"I can see you're not getting much of a power boost from the array. Your lines aren't dilated from recent strain, which means they aren't being worked hard at all. The report mentioned increased flow?"

The Tamaranian nodded. "Indeed. I have noticed a more rapid reaction time in the use of my powers. The most likely culprit of this benefit would seem to be this endeavor. Though, I have been progressing along a line of training given to me by Prince Herb as well."

"Herb, huh?" Ryouga asked, immediately wondering just what the Dragon Prince had suggested. It could've been almost anything, knowing him, and Lime had mentioned that both Herb and Mint had taken a liking to the Tamaranian they'd brought in. It was pretty clear between the lines that Lime appreciated her strength and spirit, too.

Also her breasts and behind, which he'd seen fit to rave about unashamedly.

Really, Musk. Not very subtle types.

"Yes, Herb. However, that is getting off of the topic at hand. Are there any other tests you wish to perform?" she asked.

"Well, I would like to know what he suggested, since I may be able to help, but I'm done with most of the important stuff," he said with an appreciative nod. "I'd also like to make a few minor adjustments to the existing array before locking it again, but I can do that a little later. I noticed some unusual fluctuations around your throat wheel and you have a tiny secondary generation point higher up, probably around the Anahata. I think that second one is a pacemaker for your emotionally charged abilities, so I won't touch it. I'll add a breaker to help with the other thing. You look good, though. ...Like a fish in water."

Starfire giggled at that. "A simile which my dear friend Beast Boy would take great pleasure in demonstrating. There is little surprise in your analysis, however, as my race is naturally adept in controlling their internal energies, and my sister and myself even moreso."

"Yeah, yeah, you're super duper awesome, Star. Would you quit with the kissing up and wrap it up so we can get out of here already?"

Ryouga glanced at the impatient witch, then back to Starfire.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" he asked. "Or anything you want to check out while you still have the full body tattoo?"

Starfire tapped her chin. "Well, Ryouga did mention that you had practiced techniques for less orthodox distribution and application of your ki in battle. He suggested that I may be able to emulate such abilities as my control increases."

"That makes sense," he agreed, not surprisingly, with himself. "You use those starbolts even more than I use shishi hokoudans. They're a substantial part of your arsenal. From what I can see, your ki current can mimic the process easily enough. You'll just need to train up the generation surfaces on your skin."

"Like such?" Starfire asked. A moment later, her entire aura flared to life, and a dense sphere of energy began to form around her, quickly raising the temperature in the room and, to his eye, rapidly approaching dangerously explosive levels.

"Waoh, tone it down, please! That's not quite what I meant."

In a wink, the worrisome buildup of power vanished in a shower of green sparks which suffused throughout the room. Holding a finger to her lips, sheepish look on her face, Starfire chuckled weakly.

"Um... the 'bad' is mine. Perhaps more practice is required for the 'holding back'?"

Jinx, still leaning against the far wall, rolled her eyes grandly. Clapping her hands slowly, she nodded. "Understatement of the year, there, Red. Not the kind of 'bang' I want to go out with."

"Can I have your arm?" He asked and she complied. Wetting his fingertips on the brush, he grasped two points near her elbow. "Now, focus on making a little starbolt. A little one. I can not stress that enough."

Starfire frowned a bit, but nodded and did as asked.

And winced, as a little spark of green shot out of the side of her arm. She flinched as if pinched hard or momentarily struck by a hot surface. And given her resilient Tamaranian hide, a hot surface was a really HOT surface. He let go of her, and she checked the skin near her elbow where a small patch of red marred the pale orange.

"You can expel a lot of energy as an aura, we know that," Ryouga said and explained. "But that doesn't mean you release the same amount of energy from every point on your body in a coordinated fashion. You can either produce the energy on one point, like your hands, then move it over your skin to the elbow, or you can make it at the elbow. To do that, you need to break the normal current that goes down your arms and build a tight bundle of new channels that lead to the epidermis under the skin."

"This isn't as hard as it sounds," he assured her, pointing to his own elbow. "Since ki channeling isn't like physical veins or nerves or anything. It's a matter of training as much as it is biology. The easiest way is to scour down the surface until you get raw, red skin. Then you focus on holding energy over the wound. A shishi hokoudan in my case, a starbolt in yours. The 'sticking' effect will gradually build up the area, and before you know it, you're good to go!"

"Scrub your skin until it's raw? Sheesh, any other brilliant suggestions while you're at it, Lieutenant Sadism?" Jinx barked, rolling her eyes again. "I bet those star bolts of hers would just pop right out if she chopped her hands off."

Instantly, Starfire gasped, clutching her hands to her chest. "B-but I require my hands for fine manipulation of my environment!"

"Eh!" Ryouga blew off the whole 'oh my god it hurts' angle. "A week of discomfort is a small price to pay for The Art. I applied the technique across most of my body during a slow mission week. Now one of the Trenchards we're after, he had metal screws drilled into his hands and feet, all the way down to the bone back when he was our age. Now that's dedication!"

"More like psychosis," Jinx muttered under her breath, followed by a quick, "And I would know."

"Well, I am certain that I will at least... consider your suggestion, Lieutenant," Starfire cut in with a pleasant smile. "If it might help me better protect my friends, then the discomfort may well be worth while."

Looking down at her, thankfully still connected hands, the alien girl then nodded to herself. "I do believe that is all that I wished to inquire about, though."

"In that case..." Ryouga turned fully to the petite sorceress. "Jinx. Let's have a look at those ki currents of yours. Then I'll be out of your hair until the next mission, if that's what you want."

Jinx eyed him warily. "What? You can't see them from there?"

"Its just a little ink," he said, waving the giant brush. "As long as you don't ingest any, its perfectly safe."

Sighing in defeat, Jinx finally shrugged her shoulders and moved closer to the center of the room. She took a moment to shed her long sleeved shirt and tossed it to the side before spinning around needlessly.

"Fine, fine. I'm your canvas, Picasso, do your worst."

The procedure was just as before, preceded by Ryouga taking a few minutes to inspect the array in its dormant state. By this point more comfortable with the two girls, who he knew quite a bit less well than Shampoo or Ukyou, he also called up some music from the ancillary dojo room's hidden speakers. All incoming or outgoing communications traffic, including radio, came from a two relays located outside the mind shield and the base's EM scrambler network. Control had a tight reign on anything using the bandwith, and that included the limited selection of local and international radio stations. The US military channels were the most popular, since less than ten percent of the base population was actually Japanese.

Jinx's altered array was just like Cologne had outlined, but it had some of the same issues in Starfire's. First among them was the disruption or entropic effect Starfire had speculated about. Instead of an even breakdown of the ink, it seemed to be concentrated at specific points. It implied that either her energy was flowing at a differential rate or that her power was simply trying to screw things up in the worst possible way. Normally he'd disregard that second possibility, but Jinx's "bad luck power" was a known quantity, and his family had a curse that made them get lost. Weird things happened.

Standing up, he stared down at the girl and her tattooed stomach.

_'How to put this?'_

"Your array is degrading at the control points at the sides," he explained. "That's a lot worse than the ink running or discoloring like Starfire's. Let me think about this. I don't think I can come up with any ink that's, um... 'entropy proof'... And it almost looks like the degradation isn't accidental, either. Do your powers work on a subconscious level?"

Pursing her lips, Jinx stared at her toes pensively. "I've... been known to have odd incidents occur around me. Let me tell you, people don't exactly take that kind of thing nicely, and being a cute little girl isn't nearly as great a defense as you think it might be."

He nodded and considered that. It wasn't like the Hibiki family didn't have its own quirks, too. His getting lost had caused enough grief before, and even threatened to get people he cared about hurt or killed. It was a common martial arts belief that training could overcome any shortcoming, any limitation, and weakness, but some failings just seemed to persist no matter how hard you tried.

"No one here will blame you for something you can't control one hundred percent." He took a knee again and built up a very small ball of ki at the tip of his finger, prodding the array's control lines more finely. "Well, I can either reinforce it normally like I did for Starfire, or we could try a blood mixture in the ink. Human ki-saturated iron instead of just pure elemental iron."

He saw her pink eyes widen a bit, and guessed a less than affirmative response was forthcoming.

"I don't-" he began.

"Blood magic? _Awesome!_" Jinx cut him off with an excited squeal. "How much do we need? Does it matter whose it is?"

"Wait - what?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the excited girl. "Oh course it matters who, but..." He took note of the ebullient look on the former villainess's face. "You're kind of enthusiastic about this, aren't you?"

A dangerous glint flashed through her eyes. "Are you kidding? This kind of stuff is awesome! I've only ever read about blood magic, I've never actually attempted it before! ...What about _your blood_, it's pretty saturated, isn't it?"

"This isn't... this probably isn't... the kind of 'blood magic' you're thinking about," he answered, evading the particularly charged question of his own body fluids and their potential uses. "What I'm talking about comes from the Utada School of martial arts calligraphy that went extinct in the Meiji Era. Practitioners would mix their blood with their ink and then try and imbue themselves with the power of the symbols they drew."

One could imagine the usefulness of this if it worked as advertised.

"Unfortunately, according to the elders I spoke to, the style became debased and amoral, like a cult. Which was why it was wiped out. That's also why I don't really want to have to use it. And we'd be using your blood, not mine, so there's no need to look at me like I'm a tasty snack or something."

Jinx pouted at that, obviously having been looking forward to just such a tasty meal. With a sigh, she then reached into her pocket and pulled out a nail file. "Well, alright then. Just let me go a little Raven here, and let's get this party started."

"Hey, wait, no!" he reached out to grab her hand. "Don't just go cutting yourself!"

She stared at him. "What? You said we needed blood, right? I got plenty right here. What's the hold up?"

"If I was going to do this, I'd prefer to have it taken out by a doctor, not slit on the spot," he said, and reached back when it became clear she wasn't going to slit anything then and there. Tapping his finger against the oversized brush he still held onto, he sighed. "Alright. If you're that gung ho, we can do it here."

The young witch smirked, her eyes positively glowing with excitement. "Alright! Don't worry about germs, I once fought a giant crocodile man in a sewer for, like, an hour. I don't think it's even possible for me to get sick anymore after that."

"..."

A crocodile man? In a sewer? _For an HOUR?_

"That... is pretty disgusting, yes," he admitted. "Reminds me of one nice evening I spent fishing stuff out of the sewer with my teeth. Not one of P-chan's nicer memories."

Ryouga shook his head. _'Moving on...'_

"Give me a minute."

He turned back to his equipment, and opened a lacquer case. Two semi-transparent medical gloves came out and he fitted them on, pulling them down at the wrist until they were taunt. He didn't have them for this particular purpose so much as they were a good investment when mixing ink, both because it was sometimes toxic, and because it reduced the likelihood of contamination. It was amusing how, in retrospect, some martial arts calligraphers had gone to great lengths to avoid staining ink or paper with sweat or body oils, and how someone here had just suggested he wear latex gloves.

Checking the solid ink block he'd used for the rare earth mix, he took out a clean ink basin and got it ready. Altering it would be a bit... messy... but doable. Somehow it was just easier to recommend cutting or shaving or otherwise mutilating the body as part of more conventional training, rather than using it as a damned _ingredient_. There was just something de-humanizing about it.

As for using a nail file to make the cut...?

"We'll use this," he decided, taking out a bandanna and hardening it, focusing on making an extra fine edge. It was the sharpest instrument they could use, and would leave an easily healed wound. "Starfire, could you sterilize this for me with some heat? We'll collect the blood in this dish."

Starfire took the cloth, a dubious look on her face. "Are you ... certain that this is a wise course of action? Using one's own life blood as a chemical reagent? The concept is... somewhat unsettling."

"Oh, stop being a big orange baby and cut my veins open, already," Jinx barked in exasperation. "Honestly, what's with you guys? I bet you'd get your panties all in a bunch if I suggested something as mundane as human sacrifice."

"You're joking, of course," Ryouga said, and gave Starfire a quick look. The Tamaranian raised an eyebrow.

"A mere jest."

"I hope so."

Starfire handled the bandanna with a care that came from knowing her world's Ryouga and his iron cloth abilities. The sharpness of the bandanna or belt or other piece of cloth was variable, but it could be extremely dangerous even to someone with her constitution. Hand glowing, she heated up one of the sides, let the energy seep in for a couple extra seconds more than needed, and then handed it back.

Ryouga nodded in thanks and passed it off to Jinx.

He then held the shallow dish out with more than a little apprehension as he watched the witch carefully make the nick on her wrist. The iron cloth imbued bandanna parted flesh with ease, leaving a very slim line that leaked blood at a less than impressive rate. Not everything resulted in a blood fountain, of course, but it dripped at a moderate pace and got progressively messier as rivulets ran along the sides of her wrist in seemingly random ways.

He glanced up at Starfire and saw her looking concerned.

"A little more," he said, looking back down at the dish.

Jinx giggled, eyes wide as she watched herself bleed. Experimentally, she flexed her hand a few times, and the flow of red liquid increased sporadically.

"This should be enough," he finally decided, and took the bandanna back. Snapping it hard, he flicked the blood off the edge and undid the technique that kept it rigid. The bandanna slumped, limp like regular cloth, and with another flick of the wrist he sent it to coil around Jinx's wrist. It tightened slightly, forming a makeshift and already sterilized bandage.

"What now?" Starfire asked, eyes on the saucer of crimson liquid.

"Seirensho Tenketsu."

(Intense Heat Organization/Smelting Point)

Placing his fingertip into the blood, Ryouga quickly brought it to a boil. He held off explaining for a little while. He'd trained with the Smelting Point for months, but it still took a great deal of concentration to actually properly separate elements and break down molecules. It was an order of magnitude more difficult than simply boiling water, even if that water was about nine percent something else.

"I don't need all the blood," he said, as he worked through the hardest part of the initial separation. "Mostly just the iron and magnesium."

Pouting, Jinx stared at the bandage around her arm. "Well, there goes my innocence. I'll probably be cutting myself all the time now thanks to you, Lieutenant. So, what's the next step?"

"I mentioned before that I used earth oriented iron in the ink I used. That's actually not entirely true..." He frowned a bit, a froth starting to develop on the top of the bubbling blood. "Since you two aren't from this Earth, I used meteoric iron to make sure there wouldn't be compatibility issues. Especially with Starfire. It acts like a blank slate, absorbing and connecting with foreign ki. By mixing elements from your blood into the ink, it will become attuned to you and be unusable by anyone else."

"Man, if there were actually some kind of evil application I could think of for that, that would be so cool," Jinx muttered.

Collecting the froth on his gloved fingertip, Ryouga knelt down in front of the clean basin and wiped the detritus off in a line. He then started slowly grinding down a new pool of ink from one of the blocks. The effect was almost immediately apparent: the black solution crackled and shined like a pool of midnight. Finally satisfied, Ryouga put the block away and stood, staring down at the new mixture.

He also remembered what Jinx had said a minute or two earlier.

"Actually, according to the Utada school scrolls, you could use this to..." he trailed off, carefully biting his lower lip. "Well, you could do interesting things with it. Personally, I think this voodoo stuff is kind of creepy. Worse than those remote control pressure points Cologne and Shampoo know."

If anything, Jinx's eyes only widened. "Oh, come on, you _gotta_ spill now. I need me some evil juju!"

His eyes wandered over to her. "I'm sure you can imagine why the Utada school became a cult people felt compelled to hunt down and exterminate. Do you really want me to describe what I heard about them doing?"

Jinx nodded emphatically. "Um, _yeah_! Every gory detail, baby."

"Keep in mind that, like with my Killing Point, I'm definitely not passing any of these techniques on," he reminded her, and smirked a bit, a hint of the old maliciousness rising up to the surface. "Supposedly, masters of the Utada style developed a number of rituals that translates loosely as 'Sin Eating' - they would mark themselves with certain ideas or emotions and become consumed by them so long as the written word was intact."

He narrowed his eyes, remembering what he'd read. "Lust was considered the most powerful human emotion, and they forced their students to undergo rites and orgies to fuel that power. The scrolls also had documents indicating they would abduct people, mostly young women, and enslave them into a life of prostitution... to make money. They could also drive those whose blood they took to acts of violence and rage."

Ryouga sneered in disgust. "But the worst was a written curse you'd call 'Apathy.' The victim stops eating or drinking and wastes away over a week or two. So, there you go. I'll explain it, but don't ever expect me to teach any of this stuff."

"Sounds like my kind of bedtime story." She grinned cheekily. "Though I have to say, I'm impressed that you'd be able to read about that kind of stuff without dying of a nosebleed."

She stared into the swirling ink with fascination. "I'll just have to settle with my blood-charged super powers. You think this will make my pink sparks all blood red and evil looking now?"

"The ink isn't evil... _the techniques_ aren't evil. Its all a matter of who uses it and how."

He firmly believed that. It was just that come techniques did tend towards... misuse.

"Let's do this, then," he said, and pointed back to the paper in the middle of the room. "Back in the center. Same as Starfire. Eyes on one of the papers on the wall, hands to the sides."

He used the same reinforcement procedure as before, making two body-print copies of the existing training array. He would've made the prints anyway, even if the arrays were in perfect working order. They would go into his records and reports and the Project Kataphract database. They would also, most importantly, provide an experimental foundation he could run tests on before applying them to potentially vulnerable human - or Tamaranian - flesh. No one else would get hurt trying this technique if he could help it.

After a little hesitation, he applied the new personalized ink, and rechecked the tattoo on Jinx's midriff. It was adhering properly, and for good measure, he tested it by physically trying to smear it with his thumb. Of course, it wasn't physical force that would do it, but a strong pulse of foreign energy. Jinx moved a bit, making an annoyed sound as he made sure it was all in place and working properly.

"Well, whatdayaknow?" he asked and exclaimed, "It actually worked!"

Jinx frowned at him. "No need to sound so surprised there. I thought you were trying to comfort us here?" She took a moment to twist and turn, trying to stare at herself from all angles. "Still, I guess that's that then?"

"Yep. Now for the fun part. Let's see what you look like." He dabbed the giant brush in a smooth movement, much more comfortable than the Utada school stuff he'd had to use before, and in a flash Jinx had been colored by blots of ink on her arms, hips, and forehead. Ryouga twirled the brush and brought the blunt end down to the floor on his side.

The young woman giggled helplessly, despite herself, as the ink appeared to crawl over her body, vanishing beneath her clothing and out of sight. "He-heehee, oh, what is with this?"

Ryouga 'hmmed' as the lines spread... and bent. Jinx's ki flow wasn't shaping up to be anything like Starfire's, or even much like what he'd seen of Ranma or Ukyou or Shampoo (the latter had been charted for ki flow, despite not having a training array). Instead of straight fine lines, or as in the Tamaranian's case, big thick pipes, Jinx's flow was weaving itself into sharp slashes and jagged waves. It was wild looking, and...

"You're actually a little asymmetrical," he realized, and leaned in a bit to make sure. Not only that, she had branches of ki flow that abruptly terminated in some places. Most petered off harmlessly, but a few just stopped, shunting the flow of internal energy into random tissues.

The jagged lines were also as strange as they were evocative. Why was it flowing like that? It certainly couldn't be optimal. In fact, he suspected it would be extremely uncomfortable. Though it would help to project energy out of the body at random points. Most of it seemed hardwired to go right down her arms, though.

He concentrated less on speculating and more on checking for bleeds or knots.

"Here. Here. Here." he said, and walked around the pink haired girl, pointing at this spot or that. "Lots of little leaks. I don't think they're from this training, though. I think they're because of all these sharp turns your ki is making."

"Sharp turns? What's that mean?"

"I've never seen them before. But, like this," he said, and held up her right arm, pointing to the zig-zagging ink lines. Not only were they glossy, but tinted faintly red when they caught the light. "Your flow goes this way, then that, then back, all the way down your arm."

She nodded. "You mean that's unusual? I mean, it's always been that way, really. I've never had any trouble gathering or projecting my power, after all."

"Not that you'd have difficulty, just that it probably puts a lot of strain on things."

Starfire's head dipped in agreement. "I had suspected that as well. And it does explain why using the rotational array had the unusual effect of eliminating pain in your body, rather than causing it, like in most other people."

Ryouga paced around to the front again and crossed his arms. "Jinx... if you don't mind me asking, when did you get your... um, meta-human abilities?"

The cat eyed girl shrugged. "I was born with them. They began to manifest themselves a long time ago, though, I can't even remember when. All I know is that I'm certain that it's the reason my parents abandoned me in a foreign country when I was still too young to even speak."

The lieutenant's features momentarily hardened at that bit of information, but he knew better than to swell on it or offer condolences. Maybe with some people they'd expect it. From what he could see, Jinx wasn't one of them.

"And you've just gotten used to using powers that must hurt you." Ryouga nodded, once, duly impressed by her perseverance and commitment. "Hopefully, the new orbital rotation cycle will help a bit with that. Your power is entropic, almost self destructive, so the less of it you have shooting out into your body the better. I also guess I've got to give both you girls a clean bill of health, so to speak."

He blinked and added, a second later, "An apology, too. Both for putting this off, and for jumping to conclusions about giving you training arrays. It'd not a perfect excuse, but I just didn't want a repeat of certain... things that happened before."

Come to think of it, he'd been wrong about Akane and Ukyou, too, back when they'd come to train with India Squad. He'd tried to brush them off with a challenge he was sure they couldn't solve, but working together, they had done just that and proven him wrong.

_'I have a less than stellar record when it comes to girls, it seems. They're all full of surprises.'_

Jinx grunted, obviously in annoyance.

"Yeah, well... thanks, I guess, for - for _helping_ us, here," it sounded kind of strained for her, but she said it. "I guess it was _kind of_ decent of you."

Floating up beside her friend, Starfire wrapped the slight girl in a tight hug, giggling. "Such high praise. I am nearly shocked into silence." She then turned and bowed to Ryouga. "Though I doubt I will be able to convey my appreciation as thoroughly as Jinx, I wish you to know that I am most grateful for your assistance."

He smiled, rather appreciating the words of praise more than he wanted to let on.

"No matter what else happens, you're both my teammates and fellow soldiers," the lieutenant replied, shyly chuckling while balling up the plastic gloves. "I'm happy to help any way I can. Though I usually don't use more than two thousand dollars worth of materials in one hour."

Obviously either not impressed, in one case, or not really comprehending the value, in the other's, neither girl so much as raised an eyebrow at the mention of the cost. Jinx merely walked over and grabbed their discarded shirts. Starfire, on the other hand, looked around in confusion.

"Indeed. It is important that comrades assist one another and... perhaps some of us have been more negligent of that fact than others in the recent past." She eyed her companion teasingly, but Jinx just stuck her tongue out at the alien. "Hopefully as we continue to work side by side, we can begin to work past such ... issues."

"I'd like that," Ryouga replied, and went down to pick up and put away the calligraphy supplies. "Anyway, I'll clean up here. You're free to go if you want. I've got some free time now, if either of you want to work on anything."

Starfire nodded, only to look around, a slightly confused expression on her lovely face. "There were several things I might seek assistance with... however, I am perplexed." She turned to stare at the door of the room intently. "Our Ryouga insisted that he would join us here, after a short workout on his own part... I am wondering where he could possibly be?"

Ryouga laughed a bit at the always-atrocious family misdirection compulsion. Shirokuro was really working overtime and a half these days.

"I'm sure someone will run into him and help him get here."

* * *

It was with a troubled mind that Shampoo made her way through the base that all but served as her home and warrior village. Her duties finished for the day, and not up for meeting with any of her companions and team mates, she had decided to retire to her room for the night. It wasn't even particularly late, but something had been gnawing away at her concentration for the past several days, and each passing hour only made her annoyance grow more and more palpable.

Growling under her breath, she felt her fists clench unconsciously as she considered the current bane of her existence. And for once, it wasn't even the bespectacled fool, Mousse, and his omnipresent and unwanted means of affection. No, there had been one person in particular working their way under her skin - no, more like a splinter pushing its way inexorably in beneath her fingernail.

Jinx, that pink haired witch of a Yankee. The proud Amazon couldn't even put her finger on it, as Jinx had been ostensibly acting even more pleasant than usual when around company, but every movement she made, every word that spilt past her lips, were all barbs that caught in Shampoo's skin. The fact that she had somehow managed to even worm her way back into Ranma's good graces, with a few obviously honeyed words...! Every other word that spewed from her mouth was like poison to Shampoo's ears.

Cologne, a permissive teacher? Insulting lies. Happosai, a great teacher? Blasphemy. Insinuating that Shampoo was not skilled enough to receive a ki rotation array? As if she even cared to try it at this time. She had her own techniques to hone, not worry about some doodle that would supposedly increase her power. Maybe, if she were lucky, tomorrow would bring a new day, and it would be free of annoying pink gnats…

Or not.

Now that was odd.

Stopping her forceful stride, Shampoo looked down the hallway, as a familiar… yet not so familiar figure stumbled around the corner. It was, she realized with a lack of any real emotion, the foreign Hibiki. The fact that he was wandering the halls at random hours was no surprise, but the fact that he appeared to be worn to the bone certainly was.

She didn't have any real reason to investigate the oddity, as he wasn't really a friend of hers, nor was she in any way responsible for him, him technically being her acting superior in the field - a fact which irked her more than she like to admit. However, she did find herself curious as to just what he could have been up to, to get in such a condition.

She smirked lasciviously to herself. Maybe one of his devoted lady friends had ridden him to exhaustion? Maybe more than one? That would certainly be a bit of news worth passing on to certain too-curious parties, if only it were scandalously true. As she approached him, she decided that probably wouldn't be the best way to broach the conversation… though it certainly would have been amusing.

Coming to a stop a few feet before the Lost Boy, who was actually using the wall for support at this point, she saw his face was looking a tad flushed and he only then noticed her presence and offered her a weak wave of greeting. Rather than return it, Shampoo tilted her head to the side, staring at him critically.

"What have you been up to, Hibiki?" She left out the Sergeant, since they were close enough to being off duty. "You look like you just went ten rounds with Ranma and lost every single one."

Offering her a tenuous smile, he chuckled to himself. "Heh, so I look pretty much like normal then, right?"

"Your words, not mine," she tactfully didn't disagree. "Still, what have you been getting into?"

Pushing on the wall, Ryouga managed to straighten his back. Giving a quick sigh of relief, he rotated his shoulder several times before replying. "Oh, I was just out jogging for the last hour or so. I'm actually looking for the gym… but I kind of lost my way…"

Shampoo stared at the Lost Idiot... then did a double take. "Wait... did you say jogging? For an _hour_? I've seen you battle tirelessly from dusk until dawn... just days ago for that matter." Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You aren't sick, are you?"

Though it went something against the grain, as she wasn't really the nurse maid type, she lifted her hand and pressed it against his forehead. A moment later, she gasped.

"You're burning up; I think you -"

And then she felt it.

Everyone conceptualized ki differently, of course. The mind didn't associate it explicitly with any one sense, so humans who learned to identify it in any detail got their resolution as a perspective produced by the brain linking ki sensation to one of the more mundane senses. She knew Ranma saw ki as lines and other shapes providing paths to follow, and the native Ryouga saw ki as points to strike. Ukyou saw hers as ingredients, a mixture of sight and smell; Shampoo's conceptualization was more troublesome. Like Mousse, hers was related to touch. It worked easily for the other Amazon because he used touch all the time for his Hidden Weapons, but her own was less convenient. She perceived details in ki by feeling resistance.

His ki, which shouldn't have been above the surface, felt like an unyielding rock.

Well, unyielding to those who couldn't smash through rock, but it was clearly unnatural. She'd felt his battle auras before, and she knew the native Hibiki's ones well, too. What had the idiot been doing? More screwing around with body energies, no doubt. It seemed all the rage with people these days.

"You trying to kill yourself, lost boy?" she asked, using one arm to press him against the wall. She could feel that it was like this throughout his entire body. Idiot. "There are easier ways to do it than this."

"Maybe," he replied with a grim smile, "But none nearly so entertaining. You'd think no one here experimented with elemental ki from time to time?"

"Come."

She dragged him off without a further word of warning; even with her prodigious strength, the cabbage headed martial artist felt incredibly heavy, she actually grunted when he rested some of his weight on her shoulder as they walked. It was just as she'd guessed. The fool was shooting himself up with elemental earth ki. He should have been - had to be - smart enough to know how dangerous that was. All elemental ki or qi was indifferent and overpowering, and incompatible with living, breathing, emotional energy.

All but throwing him at a water fountain, she pointed.

"Drink. You're completely dehydrated." Not that she cared, but there'd be trouble if she didn't help. That was it. "All you dumb boys are too eager to try new things. One day it will backfire. You wait and see."

In that frustrating way that males did when they were about to ignore the good advice from someone that knew better, he smirked an infuriating smirk. Drinking deeply, he nodded. "I suppose that's possible. Believe it or not, but I've actually seen first hand just what can happen if this technique were to backfire."

If anything his smirk only grew. "Of course, I also know that, back home, there's at least one person that knows how to save me if I do screw up too badly."

"You're not home yet," she reminded him, and pointed at the fountain.

She glared at the back of his head while he slowly got to work getting his equilibrium back. The water was part of that, but drinking it would also stimulate his body into expelling more of the earth ki and replacing it with his own. It was the same old ki exhaustion trick she'd learned as a girl during the _yang yù_.

"How you get so much foreign qi in you anyway?" Shampoo asked, though she had her suspicions.

Leaning against the wall, he ran his hand beneath the fountain for a moment, gathering up a small amount of water. He prepared to splash it against his face - only to stop, eyes widening in shock at what he'd just been about to do, and quickly dropped the water back into the fountain.

Coughing into his fist to cover his embarrassment, he nodded. "Yeah, it took me _weeks_ to do, but I managed to acclimate my own ki to all but simulate the ki of the earth. It was an integral part of the ... I don't know what you'd call it, ritual, operation? Anyway, it was important in helping me restore Terra..."

He stared at her for a moment. "... Ryouga and Ranma have told you about her, didn't they? They got all of that from the mind scan, at any rate, I think."

"Us lowly grunts didn't get that sort of information." Shampoo also leaned against the wall, opposite the Hibiki, crossing her arms and kicking back a leg. With a smirk, she asked, "Terra. Another girl, hmm?"

She was oddly gratified to see his cheeks flush red at her words. "It's not like that!" he barked back quickly. "I mean, yeah, she's important to me, but she's kind of... I don't know... my student now? But that's not important now. The point is, that when I first met her, she was a statue."

Shampoo grimaced; given what they were talking about, the connection was obvious. She'd heard rumors as a girl about that sort of stuff, but it was all just village chatter and old Matriarch's tales. No one really thought stuff like that would happen. Too much of any elemental type and you just die; you dry up, or drown with lungs full of water, or something else suitably horrific but rather plausible.

"You saved her from that?" she asked, appraising him again. "How? Don't tell me you can bring back dead to life."

He laughed out loud at that. Gasping for air for a minute, he knelt down and rested his hands on his knees. Finally, he shook his head, straightening his back once more.

"No, no, nothing like that... though to hear her and Beast Boy talk, you'd think that I could. I just found a way to use the Bakusai Tenketsu to stimulate the flow of ki in her body again. It was... painfully delicate work. Months just to learn enough to make the attempt, and even then, the procedure took more than a day. I was literally forced to perfect my technique to a high enough level, because anything less, and I just would have detonated her from the inside out."

"That doesn't explain how she came back from being all stone," Shampoo argued, and then guessed. "You made a copy of her you mean."

He shook his head, obviously amused. "Made a copy? I'm not exactly a cloning expert here, Shampoo."

Sighing, he gestured meaninglessly at the air for a moment as he tried to explain. "You see, Terra is... a unique case. Like Jinx, she's what would be called a meta-human. In her case, though, instead of luck powers, she has complete mastery of the Earth." His eyes closed and a fond grin formed on his lips. "And I don't just mean the cheap parlor tricks that us martial artists can do by manipulating the earth's qi. I mean that her 'life force' is directly tied to the planet's, or at least that's how it feels. She tells the earth to do something, and it _listens_."

He shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "In a way, I didn't even really save Terra, you see? I just hurried the process along. Her body turning to stone was just a natural defense for her, and, in time she would have returned to normal on her own..."

Still, a deep frown creased his face as some darker memory raced through his mind.

"Well, under normal circumstances, I suppose it would have," he ventured. "There were... impediments to her recovery that also needed to be removed first. And after that, all I really did was kick start her own recovery. Actually, it isn't really as impressive as it sounds, but I've been having a hard time convincing her of that."

The Amazon still wasn't entirely convinced. If this girl had been turned into stone, then the original her was dead. People weren't spores. They didn't just turn into lifeless husks for weeks on end only to sprout again when the seasons were right. Plus, Earth qi didn't do anything. It had no thoughts or intentions. As the eggheads here would say, it was simply a function of mass.

But who knew when it came to that other-Earth full of crazies?

"I don't know how you put up with it," she admitted with a scoff. "Being on a world full of people born with free powers."

That actually brought an amused smirk to his face. "It's funny you should mention it. Cyborg actually told me about an argument that Ukyou and BB- um, 'Bumblebee' Starfire might've told you about her - they once had an argument that went something along those lines."

Leaning over, he took another quick drink from the fountain. "It was actually somewhat humbling," he admitted. "Most of those 'people' might have gotten their powers for free, compared to us anyway, but they actually put them to far more use then we ever did when we were running around Nerima. I mean, think about it. We trained our whole lives to turn our bodies into weapons, and then what do we do? We stick our heads so far up our own asses fighting to kill or marry Ranma, that most girl scout troops do more good than the lot of us."

He gestured with his right hand. "But then take someone like Cyborg. He may have paid a price for his 'powers', but in the blink of an eye, he became more powerful than most any of us. But what did he do with this instant power up? He dedicated his life to helping complete strangers, fighting the good fight and all that."

He shook his head somewhat sadly. "We may have sacrificed to accumulate power. But the Titans and people like them, they sacrificed their lives as normal people to use the powers given to them to help people." The Hibiki then lifted his eyes, matching her gaze intently. "So, you tell me, which group is doing more good? Us, or them?"

"Is silly question," Shampoo answered with a dismissive huff. "The village didn't teach us techniques to go out and play heroes." Never mind that most of the stuff he was talking about would get you arrested on this world. "Yes, defend homes and villages, and yes, sometimes we work with outsiders, but that's not what really matters. I thought you would think the same way. What matters is the Art we practice, and it's perfection. Who cares if you save one or two or two hundred people? You know myth of Sisyphus, yes? That's what you describe, if you ask me."

She closed her eyes and let out a calming breath.

"No," she repeated. "No. The idea that someone can just get lucky, become super powerful? Why? Because of magical genes? Because they drink magical formula or toxic waste or get bitten by spider? Even Super Soba not as bad! I don't care if they do evil or good or nothing with powers. It is an insult to those who have to work hard, from scratch, born with nothing but fists and feet."

"Heh, oh really? And what exactly makes us any different?" He asked, amusement in his tone. "We're all pretty much just as guilty of the 'super gene' scenario as any of them."

Taking a quick look around the hallway to make sure they were alone, he lowered his voice. "Just look at Akane, Kasumi and Nabiki. None of them have anything resembling what 'we' would consider harsh training, and yet Kasumi and Nabiki are at the near-peak condition of a normal human, and Akane can jump over rooftops - small ones - and demolish concrete with her bare hands. I know martial artists on my world that have trained years longer and many times harder than all of them combined, but aren't able to perform the same feats that Akane does with ease. So you tell me, is it our training that's the most important, or is there a genetic disposition there for us as well?"

"You sound like other you," she said it, almost accusingly. "He says the same thing. Maybe you both right. Trying to put numbers on things. To write reports for scientists. But we aren't scientists. What we do isn't science!"

She shook her head, trying to get him to see it her way. "Why do you care what people think, anyway? Who cares what American heroes do, pretending to be cowboy? Even Japanese martial arts code says: 'defend weak' - not 'look for and fight all bad men.' Who you think is bad someone else may think is good, right? Why should lucky-lucky men and women with super powers get to decide? Who would stop them if they were wrong?"

"No good answers," she concluded. "Exactly why smart martial artists realize, long ago, focus on Art. Let world take care of itself. That is what Amazon village teaches."

"The Amazon village also taught you to capture any man strong enough to marry, and kill any woman strong enough to beat you. Those lucky-lucky people might be doing questionable things, but at least a lot of them have good intentions behind their actions. The rules of your village only had self interest at their heart."

He lowered his head, holding up a hand. "Look, I'm sorry, that was uncalled for, just that... we've done plenty of bad things with our training, and we know plenty of martial artists that have done even worse. But who was ever around to stop us? Only other martial artists. So if meta-humans can only rely on other meta humans to keep themselves in line, how is that different from us?"

Shampoo opened her mouth to answer, but rethought her rebuke. He did have a point.

For an idiot, anyway.

"Nothing wrong with self interest," she said instead. "Yes, you make a good point, but I still don't like the idea of there being super strong humans who get powers overnight. Starfire is an alien, but Jinx is like... like..." she hesitated a second, not sure whether to say it like she was thinking it. "Like Trenchard. Like engineered human. Maybe the difference between us is small, but it also seems very wide, like big valley."

"Bigger than you might think,'" he agreed finally. "In a lot of ways, we're the lucky ones. We get the opportunity to build up our skills, and the benefit of someone to teach us. People like Jinx, people that are born with unusual and unnatural powers that no one has seen before... how are they supposed to learn to use their powers?"

He held up his other hand. "And what about Starfire? She's an alien, sure, but that's not where she got her powers from. She 'is' like a Trenchard. She was literally engineered by aliens, had powers forced upon her that she knew nothing about or how to use. Does that make her worse than us?"

"Maybe you should ask instead why no one else has powers like your best girl, Jinx?" Shampoo asked back. "Coincidence, maybe? Maybe not. My village was destroyed... almost all peoples killed... because the Elders underestimated dangers from an unknown enemy. From alien enemy. Village on your Earth seems to be exact same. What would happen if some super meta-human just walked in and said 'everything must change' or 'everything must be like in America.' Or like in Japan?"

"Maybe we are lucky to have teachers and experience," she admitted. "In return, we have age old ways. Three thousand years of history. Even you and stupid spatula girl and fat greedy panda know this." She grudgingly added, "Even Happosai. You should not be so quick to throw old ways aside. Some times you have to change, to adapt, but wise fighters never forget where they came from. Even lost ones."

He was about to reply when she held up her hand.

"Enough talking in the hall for all to hear," she decided, and roughly grabbed him by the arm. "You need sleep for the mission tomorrow. Get normal energy back. And if your stupid no-breast pink-hair girl wants to fool around, tell her tomorrow. Keep your head clear."

Ryouga clenched his fist for a moment, a dark glower forming over his features... but then, just like that, it vanished. Smiling, he shrugged his arm out of her grip and began to walk ahead.

"Interesting. I wouldn't have thought you the type to run away from a fight. Don't worry, I'll find my way to my room eventually, whatever the Lieutenant was showing Jinx and Starfire is probably done by now anyway."

As they reached the end of the hallway, and it became obvious that Shampoo was going to go down the left branch, towards her own room, the fool Hibiki instead turned right, giving a jaunty little wave of goodbye. Before taking more than a few steps, though, he turned back, a nasty grin on his lips.

"Oh, and don't forget your own advice. If Ranma wants to make out... well, I guess Akane will just have to say no, now won't she?"

And then he turned his back on her and began to wander aimlessly away. Shampoo watched him go with a curious expression.

_'As if airen ever really wants to make out with anyone, male or female.'_

"Maybe check under wig for pigtail next time you try making out with girl!" she called down the hall. That was assuming half the incidents that had happened on this world did on the other as well. Given the choked snort of disgust that came from the wandering martial artist, she'd guessed right.

Yawning, Shampoo headed back to her room.

Maybe tomorrow she'd get the chance to unwind... and shoot some deserving obstacles. The next stop wasn't to some borig little snowball. Now that everything checked out, they were going to finally start tracking down the alien expedition. Shampoo, for one, couldn't wait.


	25. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space 4

...

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Time and Relative Dimensions in Space_

Chapter 24

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

A nebulous corona of pale blue expanded in the void of space, growing, widening, thickening and then suddenly vanishing as visible light emissions abruptly became replaced by high energy gamma rays. A flattened disk of silver emerged from the pulsar of electromagnetic radiation, transitioning back to real space in the wink of a spectral cosmic eye.

Several hundred thousand kilometers distant, a blue planet hung in space.

Ranma's senses extended, through the ship, and into the void beyond. Pathfinder's sensor suite was far and above that of any other craft its size. Even an Avenger utilized a mixed-source sensor arrangement, being able to divest much of the work of tracking distant enemies beyond the horizon to the integrated sensor network XCOM had access to. In other dimensions, however, that network would not exist. Consequently, Pathfinder had to do all the work itself and the hull was tightly packed with the most advanced and compact hyperwave, radar, and spectrum reading instruments available. Automatic systems and powerful algorithms began searching the moment they entered this new dimension.

As pilot, Ranma sensed it all in time with the machine.

"We're off by a bit," he announced, knowing the rest of the group were near where he sat in the pilot's seat. "Looks like the 'Earth' here is a bit further away than ours would be. Nothing major, though."

"Any information on the planet?"

"Hold your horses, P-chan, I'm gettin' to it!"

There was already a steady stream of data coming in about the nearby world: not just 'Earthlike' it was, for once, a real carbon copy parallel Earth. The first one they, or Urania-1 for that matter, had ever encountered. A spectrographic analysis indicated that not just this planet, but the star and most everything else in range, was all a direct analogue for the one back home.

Standing behind the Saotome heir, Ryouga examined the readouts on the screens. He was in full personal armor, minus the helmet, and so was everyone under his command. Even Ranma. Most of the teams were waiting or looking up at his displays with curiosity and more than a few hints of excitement. Out of all of them, Cyborg was silent, busy double checking results either on the displays or on his forearm mounted display.

"Are we in our, um, extended universes?" Starfire asked her fellow Titan. "That planet does look like Earth."

"No," Cyborg decided after a few seconds. "My scanner is still reading basically the same as before. _Still_ the wrong multiverse." He shook his head, and tapped one of the screens. "And look at this 'Earth' ... It's like someone took an eraser to it. No radio traffic. No nothing. It's Earth, but there's no one down there."

"No one with technology anyway," Ranma chimed in, speaking through the ship's internal comms. "Nothing in orbit either. You guys know what that means! Come on dinosaur planet! I'm gonna find a T-Rex and take it for a ride, just like in Jurassic Park."

Ryu coughed and pointed out, rightly, "That never happened, Saotome."

"...It happened in the book."

"No. It didn't."

"...One of the books."

"I didn't read them all, but I doubt that happens in any of them."

"The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. I choose to believe!" Ranma's digitally rendered voice enthused. "And I'm gonna do it anyway."

"In that case," Ryu declared with a smirk. "If this is a dinosaur planet, then dino-steaks for everyone!"

"We're not eating any of the wildlife," Ryouga cut in. "Or taking it for joyrides. Ranma. Send the ping and take us into orbit. First things first."

"Enjoy your Acting Major rank while you can, man," the pilot replied with a light hearted tone. "Okay, I'm heading in. Hyperwave ping in ten seconds."

* * *

Scanning was a slow business, even when moving at high speed in orbit. There was no miraculous scanner available that would cover every square mile of a planet's surface right off the bat, nor did Pathfinder have the ability to deploy more than three drone satellites to assist in its search. Instead, the actual process substituted simple methodical determination.

Pathfinder's hyperwave scanner/decoder hardware could cover a range of about eight hundred nautical miles, or an area of almost seven million square kilometers. While impressive sounding, this was in fact only about 1.4 percent of an Earth sized planet's surface. Traveling at roughly thirty thousand kilometers per hour at a suitably low orbit, Pathfinder could accomplish the task of scanning an Earth-sized world with 90 percent accuracy over the course of five full orbits, using two unmanned parasite drones.

This, in all, took seven and a half hours.

* * *

With a sigh, Raven watched as the rest of her friends and team mates wiled away the time. Normally, she would have enjoyed the down time which the lengthy scanning process had afforded them. Unfortunately, unlike normal circumstances, there was nowhere for her to actually go to escape the antics of everyone else present. As such, she was forced to attempt her meditation less than two meters away from the ring of martial artists and metahumans that had formed at the main bay of the ship.

The hooting and cheering that ensued each and every dealing of Kuno's... favored deck of cards was just as abrasive now as it had been when they'd started playing over an hour earlier. They'd even dragged Starfire into the game, the poor thing.

As if _any_ of them stood a ghost of a chance.

Not considering that Nabiki and Jinx were _both_ playing in the game.

Raven still couldn't believe those two. All it took was the gentlest of psionic probes to reveal that both were taking cheating to epic proportions, but doing it so well that not even a ring full of martial artists had caught on to either of them yet. She had to give credit to the acquired street smarts, experience and the sheer gall that the pair of cheaters possessed, that let them think they could scam everyone on the ship... even each other.

Of course, while everyone in the game was technically a victim, some seemed to be just a little more victimized than others-

"To the Hell of Ravenous Gophers with this hand!" Shampoo shouted, throwing her handful of cards down to the floor in a fit of pique. Throwing her hands into the air, the Amazon followed it with an incredulous, "I can not _believe_ it! I have not had a good hand _all night_."

Ryouga - her Ryouga - grinned at the lavender haired Amazon. "What's the matter, Shampoo? Haven't quite picked up the rules of the game yet?"

She stuck her tongue out at the Lost Boy. "At least I know where to throw my cards in when I fold, Cabbage Head."

"Hey! How was I to know-"

"Okay, okay, enough of that!" Surprisingly, it was Jinx that broke of the bickering pair - which was almost unfortunate, as Raven found herself intensely curious as to just why the pair were bickering in the first place. Had they even shared more than a single word since her friends and her had arrived in this world?

Jinx held out her hands in a placating gesture.

"Ryouga, there's no reason to get all nasty. We're just here to have fun." Even as Raven's eyes widened at the near unbelievable sight of Jinx actually taking someone else's side against Ryouga, the sorceress turned back to Shampoo. Going so far as to drop a hand on the Amazon's shoulder - causing Shampoo to tense like the extended hand was a striking snake - Jinx offered a broad smile. "And don't worry, Shampoo. Luck is a pretty fickle mistress. I'm sure yours will turn around in no time."

And, just like that, the game began again, quickly reforming the same stale cycle of dealing, betting, winning... which was usually quickly followed by another curse from Shampoo.

Even stranger, was the fact that Raven was able to glean the fact that Jinx was actively using her power to 'help' Shampoo with her losing streak, though not in the way that the Amazon would have preferred. The only thing that she couldn't figure out was why she was doing it. She didn't dare delve any deeper, as that would be noticed quite quickly, especially with someone with as many engrained defenses as Jinx. And besides, considering the way that Shampoo and Ryouga were arguing, it seemed that the most obvious explanation was likely the correct one.

Jinx didn't like it when someone messed with her man.

Raven winced at her own description. "Her" man? Raven didn't like the sound of that all... for completely unbiased reasons, of course. And yet, even as she tried her hardest to concentrate on her own

meditation, she found it impossible not to notice the glances which flashed between the witch and the Lost Boy like so much bottled lightning.

_'Ugh, get a room already,'_ she muttered internally.

That was it, she needed a change of scenery. Maybe someone being productive at the front of the ship would actually be able to provide some intelligent discussion?

* * *

"Hey, hey! Check it out! I've got something."

Ranma's voice was excited, but Ryouga couldn't quite get why. A return could mean only one thing.

"They're here?" Ryouga guessed, and looked over to where the signal was coming from.

It wasn't anything complex. Pathfinder's deep-scan hyperwave decoders weren't capable of all the subtle tricks of the trade the big ones back home used. It substituted a brute force approach that blanketed the area, passively or actively sorting the brainwaves from those below. Computer filters automatically processed the results, looking only for the telltale signs of sentient (or sapient to be exact) life.

"Um..." Ranma droned. "Actually, I'm not sure."

The most tactically useful aspect of hyperwave decoding wasn't just that it could find the enemy in a general sense, but that it could plumb those alien minds for information. It was the exact same thing the aliens did when searching for a hidden XCOM base. They would sweep the area until they picked up brainwaves that effectively incriminated themselves. XCOM was now simply returning the favor.

"What do you mean, you're not sure?"

"Well... these are sapient returns, just not the aliens we're looking for," Ranma explained. "At least I think so. I'm orienting one of the drones to get a visual, but its a mess down there. Jungle or swamp or something."

Ranma's work didn't exactly pay off: the drone's cameras were state of the art and could read a license plate from orbit, but they couldn't pierce the canopy of thick vegetation down below. If there were sentients down there, they were clearly pre-industrial - likely even pre-agrarian - and, as Ranma said, not the xenos they were looking for.

"Ignore it for now," he decided. "Finish our scan for hostiles. If we don't find anything, we'll come back and get a picture for the labcoats back home."

"Ain't we supposed ta seek out new life and new civilizations, Acting Major?"

"No. We're finding the same aliens as ever and giving them the same treatment as ever. You've got another hour and then we'll trade places again."

"Major," Raven stepped in, having just overheard the tail end of the conversation. "I'm not interrupting?"

"Hm? No. Come on in," he replied, motioning for her to head over. The violet haired woman strode up to join them, her gaze quickly moving to rest on Ranma's still form.

"Did I hear that correctly?" she inquired. "Have you found sentient life on the planet?"

"That's what the computer's telling me. Can't get any solid information besides that, though." Ranma's digital self sighed. "I marked the location so we can check it out later."

The Titan's head tilted to the side, a curious expression on her face. "So..." She lifted a hand to her side. "What exactly is the procedure when 'later' comes along? Is this an unknown alien, or more of your friends?"

"Some sort of new type," Ranma answered, reminding her about what they'd found before. "There's no radio or anything, and I don't see any areas where there'd be, you know, farms or factories or cities. So just some 'sentient' or sapient or whatever natives. I'd be surprised if they even had fire down there."

"When 'later' comes around, we'll approach things slowly and carefully," Ryouga provided his own response once Ranma was done. "We'll take pictures, some extra biological samples, and then head back home."

Raven nodded, apparently satisfied with that answer. "Just as long as we don't let any of the less... subtle people off of the ship, I'm sure things should progress well enough then."

"I'm sure everyone will act professionally..." Ryouga began, and saw Raven give him a dubious look. "What? If you're implying certain members of this operation would be inclined to trade half the continent for some beads..."

"Implying? No. Outright stating? Yes. Not that I am naming the names of anyone here that is well known for their love of money and swindling people... just making my opinion known is all. Though, honestly, I'm slightly more concerned about those among the crew with a history of using highly explosive abilities at the drop of a hat."

"Well," Ryouga replied. "Destroying the landscape _is_ a time honored tradition for some of us."

"Yes," Raven replied, staring at the man through lidded eyes. "I am well aware. Perhaps you might consider letting Ran.. um, or should I say ... um... Ukyou, do the talking?"

"We'll have all of two minutes before she hits one of them with that spatula of hers..."

"Oh shit! Shit!" Ranma's sudden bout of out of character explicatives cut them off. "I got 'em! That was it! That one was definitely Sectoid!"

Ryouga whirled on the screens again, his good cheer instantly evaporating. Darkened eyes searched through the screens for mind-scan results and map overlay.

The result was a cluster of fuzzy red.

"They're here?" he asked, surprise and a bit of anger mixing together. "You sure about this?"

"Hell, ask the machine, it's doing most of the work. But yeah. It's them." Ranma paused. "We're decoding now."

A seeming heartbeat later, the words popped up on the screen.

ALIEN RESEARCH

ALIEN ABDUCTION

ALIEN SUPPLY

"Is this...? No, there ain't enough to be the whole expedition," Ranma speculated, his whistle coming out over the speakers as a little distorted. "Looks like a small group. Maybe one ship's worth."

Looking from Ranma, then to Ryouga, Raven shrugged her shoulders, a nasty grin on her face.

"Just one? Why don't you two just drop me off then? I'll take care of them and be back in time for lunch. Then you guys can go and start a war with the other aliens as well."

"See, and people call **me** cocky! Not that I mind. I kinda like overconfident girls."

Ryouga's eyes narrowed.

"Alright, alright," he tried to suppress his smirk as Raven's admittedly cocksure attitude had turned infectious. "Land us nearby... we're going in. All of us."

* * *

The forest was as giant living tangle, with broad leafed trees rising hundreds of meters into the air. Branches as thick as a man was tall arched out and formed a crisscrossing competitive weave of organic matter; an almost entirely separate bubble ecosystem existed far below that rarely caught more than a few glimmers of light. The planet was hot and wet, a greenhouse of hyper-competitive flora and fauna, and no where was it more intense than the equatorial band.

Pathfinder's gravity bubble tore a perfectly symmetrical hole through the canopy as it came in for a landing. Giant branches warped and twisted as the induction shield wreaked havoc on the organic matter and biological membranes that held everything together on the cellular level. An unearthly hum filled the air as it worked, like a gravitic buzzsaw, clearing a path to debris strewn ground level.

A minute later, heavy boots crushed the porous soil underfoot.

Konatsu was the first to emerge from the ship, taking only a few steps to adjust his stride and balance. The footsteps became, in the span of a yard, indistinct and then vanished entirely. The armored kunoichi double checked the immediate environment and then blurred, identical Rokubu Ichitai projections heading out in different directions. The original's movements slowed, his mind divided up six ways, and eventually gave an unspoken signal to those behind.

The rest of Juliet squad set foot on the new world, none having the 'trackless' technique of their pointman, but all moving with practiced silence and ease. The forest floor was dark due to the overlapping and entwined canopy far overhead, and giant insects - children of an oxygen rich atmosphere - buzzed in once the gravitic disturbances ceased churning the air. Juliet squad finished checking out the broader area, and placed a metal stand down near the ship: a positional beacon and recording platform.

India and Yankee emerged soon after, all in full personal armor and NBC protection.

Ryu took point, his helmet HUD providing markers to guide him towards their projected target. The mission CO was right behind him, making sure to both not get lost and to respond to any potential threats, followed by Kuno and Mousse. Recon was brisk due to the thick foliage. A Roaming Susan UAV would spend more time burning through trees and branches than it would spend taking stock of the battlefield. The teams would have to handle things from a purely ground pounding perspective.

Light amplification and motion sensors were the first and primary form of investigation. While the forest canopy itself was a formidable obstacle, once at the forest floor things opened up. A lack of light was the most likely culprit. Weapons swiveled as a creature, some sort of hairy eyeless hexapod, jumped out of the bush.

"God damn cricket," Ryu hissed, sorely tempted to splatter the foot long critter.

"According to my scans, it isn't an insect. Some kind of oversized Entognatha."

"Thanks for the biology lesson, Professor."

"Anytime, dawg!"

Ryouga motioned forward, and they resumed their pace, pushing or tearing through the growth when it got in the way. For the most part it didn't. Ground cover was scarce, except for colonies of faintly bioluminescent fungi that extended thick filaments like webs, some a dozen meters across. Momentarily flickering off the nightvision, Ryu could see yet more faintly glowing shapes in the pitch black jungle floor, like eerie will-o-wisps.

They were about halfway to the target location, when the Kumon hair's sakkijutu went off.

Instinct and experience took over, and he spun, leg coming up to intersect the sudden movement that was already somehow within striking range. The toe of his boot slammed into its target with a loud crunch, a second before the_ Kijin Raishu Dan _vacuum blade traveled in its wake, slicing the assailant in half.

In a split second, it was over, and Ryu actually got a good look at the thing that had provoked the counter attack. It was like that creature from before, but far larger. The front legs were sickle like barbs, one of which had been deflected off his forearm, and what had once been the head seemed to have some kind of extending jaw-parts or mandibles. The eyeless predator had clearly leapt out from some kind of burrow, built like a flap of debris.

The top half of it slid apart, spilling mottled green and yellow ichor.

"..."

Ryu glared down at the dead creature, then turned back to the forest ahead.

"Ambush predator. Like a trap door spider," Yankee-Ryouga remarked from further behind, tied into the same group communications channel. "Got lots of 'em in Okinawa. Big ones."

A few paced behind him, Jinx shuddered. "Remind me never to visit there, would'ya?"

"Cyborg," India-Ryouga order. "Sonar."

"Already on it," he answered, partly reconfiguring his arm and pointing it ahead. "Images are pretty messy. There are more of them up ahead, though. Maybe half could be empty depressions though."

"Move carefully. No flares."

"Yes, sir," Ryu replied, and resumed their advance. Even having a good idea what to look for, the trap door burrows were damn near impossible to spot in all the debris and rotting detritus. The jungle floor here was less tropical and more cave-like. Every so often a mixed cloud of breeding flies and fungal spores drifted past or through the group.

Along the way, they also caught sight of what could only be described as a giant centipede the length of a car, half coiled around a tree. It skittered up into the foliage and parasitic vines overhead, producing no amount of comfort for those below. The ground soon became softer and soggier, nearly to the point where it threatened to sink some of the heavier stepping members of the two teams.

"There's something moving around under there," Cyborg warned, pointing his arm down. "Oh yeah. A couple of em. Big worms or snakes or something."

"Nice planet they've got here," Mousse quipped, seemingly untroubled.

"I find it quite lovely," Starfire commented, looking around to try and catch a glimpse of the critters with all of the excitement of a child at the zoo. "Such adorable, cuddly creatures remind me of some of the pets I had as child."

"I'll stick with dogs and cats, thanks."

As they delved deeper into the root-infested swampland, Ryu motioned them to go near-prone. Figures crouched, and Ryu and Jinx both advanced, following an unspoken gesture from their CO. Advancing slowly through the mire crouched low, Jinx moved a bit ahead and took a knee, pointing just ahead and above. Ryu saw it too and nodded.

"Cyberdisk," he whispered over the comm. "About a hundred meters. One o'clock." He paused, catching it carefully. "Probably a sentry. It isn't moving."

"There'll be another one on patrol." India-Ryouga knew that from experience. This also confirmed, without a doubt, that there were Sectoids nearby.

Ryu patted the rifle in his hands, and he and Jinx crept further forward while Shampoo and Cyborg set up to deal with the stationary disk. Rather than find the second one on patrol, however, they encountered two distant Sectoids, perched on an artificial bulwark. The bulbous creatures were near something else, too: a different sort of alien.

It had to be the local 'sapients.'

It stood three times the height of the tiny Sectoids, but almost seemed to be groveling. Ryu adjusted his HUD to get a 2x zoom, and made out a few additional details. The new creature was apelike, hunched, but with both short shaggy hair and plate like scales. The posture was, in fact, gorilla-like, and matched the short legs, long powerful arms and barrel like body. It also seemed unarmed, but from the angle it was impossible to tell for sure.

"You getting this?" Ryu asked the CO. "What should we do?"

Ryouga's response took a few seconds.

"Once we find where the UFO is, we'll mind control the one on the right. Stun bomb all three in the confusion. We'll hit the Cyberdisks at the same time, then take the ship."

"Roger that," Ryu confirmed, and checked the underslung grenade launcher on his rifle. It had both stun and airbursting explosive rounds prepared, and he made sure it was toggled to the former. Stun bombs were notoriously fragile, and the aliens had an entire weapons system dedicated to their delivery. XCOM had a smaller system able to be installed as a grenade attachment, but it only worked in-atmosphere. For space ops, one would have to end up using the conventional 'small launcher' system.

Three rounds total. No reloads possible.

A minute of chatter later, and Mousse and Kuno were at what they assumed to be the landed UFO's entrance. It was heavily concealed beneath shrubbery and a blanket of fungal foliage. The pilot had landed it "in deep" which meant that they used the gravity drive to push away more and more soil until it became a mound-like rampart. A UFO could, if it desired, turn itself into a hill in very little time, leaving only a concealed entrance or dug out pit to allow entry and exit.

"Blue. Go."

That was the signal.

Shots rang out in the pitch black Troglobite forest, thunder to the lightning of green plasma and invisible laser light. Ryu and Jinx emerged from cover, and the sergeant unloaded a pair of stun bombs. Even as they tore through the air in a slight arc, he could see one of the Sectoids lunging for the other, a bright flash going off and into the forest heights. The native alien howled in surprise and fear, turning just as the bombs hit, bathing the area in paralytic gasses and sending out a psionic shock that even Ryu felt, a football field away.

It was a nice buzz.

Somewhere to the east, the forest thundered as a Cyberdisk exploded.

"Green. Go."

Ryu and Jinx advanced then, and both knew Starfire and Yankee-Ryouga would be pinning down the second Cyberdisk. The flush was in progress, and the game was sure to rear its ugly head. Jinx's plasma carbine barked, and a Sectoid emerging from around a crevice in the bulwark vanished in a spray of red and a cloud of superheated steam. It had been a perfect center of mass body shot.

The death of the second Cyberdisk was, as expected, heard throughout the battlefield. The terror machines almost never went out without a bang. Fires clung to nearby trees, but struggled to do more than stay in place against the soggy forest floor. The roar also elicited a series of shrieks and howls from some sort of native animals as they fled. Something that must've been elephant sized fell with a thud, but it was out of sight.

More explosions came from around the side of the "hill" where Mousse and Kuno were covering the landed UFO's entrance. Ryu and Jinx moved fast, jumping up to where the three aliens had been stun-bombed, and for good measure, they gave each one 'the stick.' The stun rod was an old favorite in XCOM, so popular that it had been improved and miniaturized down to baton length.

Ryu had even heard that some teams had fitted them to their weapons, like bayonets.

He had also heard that some teams used them for hazing rituals, but that was strictly against the regs. Which, of course, meant that no solider would ever think of it. Sure.

Clipping his stun rod back to the slot on his belt, Ryu took a second to kick the local xeno onto its back. This was the first clear look any of them had really gotten of its face. It was no star Trek alien, that was for sure. It had two beady black eyes and a shaggy, slightly sloped face covered in hair and bright blue plates. No - the plates were green-gray, the creature had simply smeared something blue on them.

He and Jinx then headed down to support Mousse and Kuno for the 'red' push into the UFO itself. Ukyou, Shampoo and Cyborg would move up to secure the area outside the ship. Starfire and the two Hibikis would make up the third wave, providing backup where needed.

"Red. Go."

There it was.

Ryu could see Mousse's welcome mat - aka, front door booby traps - had already claimed a victim in the form of a Sectoid that had rushed out, heavy plasma in-hand. It had tripped two claymores set by the hidden weapons master soon after stepping outside. There were pieces all around the trench leading up to the UFO's door, and probably bits in the jungle a hundred feet away. Of course, Mousse had gone easy. He hadn't even used one of his favorite land mines.

Inside, the two were just in time to help clean up the last bastion of alien resistance. A number of remaining Sectoids had fallen back to make a stand inside the cargo bay of the landed Harvester. The two story room was a small maze of retracted and protruding stasis and digestion tubes, glowing in the half light with murky forms within. Sectoids sniped down from across the room or the second floor.

Ryu grinned.

It was a wonderful melee, and the close quarters fighting played to the strengths in their training and personal preferences. Plasma flashed, hexes flew, and a dozen vacuum blades arced behind cover to turn one alien grenadier into an autopsy lesson. In the end, only one Sectoid was left, holding its weapon up in the air in the human-universal gesture of surrender.

Sergeant Kumon raised his rifle to finish it off -

It was being mind controlled, of course. Aliens didn't surrender.

"Hold your fire, Ryu," India-Ryouga said, approaching the alien. "That one's a medic. We'll take it alive."

"If you want, sir."

Without another word, the acting Major jammed a stun rod into the alien's midsection, knocking it out and freeing Raven up to assist with Starfire and Yankee-Hibiki's cleanup on the second floor. Ryu felt his battle high dip a bit as the realization that the engagement was basically over percolated up through a cloud of adrenalin.

"Clear," Yankee-Ryouga announced.

"Clear outside," Ukyou confirmed.

"No remaining hostiles," Kuno said, standing nearby and sheathing his sword. "It would seem we are victorious."

"Over already, huh?" Jinx asked, perched on top of one of the storage bay's stasis tubes.

"Police these bodies," India-Ryouga ordered, and headed back outside... after finding the wrong door first. "Ahh. Damnit." And getting it on the second try. "Ukyou. Shampoo. Mousse. I want you outside. Secure the area."

"Sir." "On it." "Easy enough."

"Sir," Ryu called back to the Acting Major. "What about the native xeno?"

Halfway outside, disappearing into the dark cave-forest outside, the mission CO wavered a bit.

"That'll depend," he replied, and stepped outside. "Just get those bodies tallied up and the gear stowed away."

"You know," Ryu turned to where Jinx was still perched, like a cat, looking down on Kuno. "We usually have newbies police the messier kills."

She nodded, kicking her feet out over the edge of one of the tubes.

"Well..." she replied, grinning teasingly behind her visor. "Have at it, then, Noob. I gotta keep on alert in case something important happens, after all. We wouldn't want to have our heavy hitter wrapped up in sweeping up the corpses when we can just have _you_ do it."

"Cute," Ryu commented, also smirking behind his visor. "Very cute. But it'll be _cuter_ when you're elbow deep in guts. You, too, Kuno. Squaddies are called _grunts_ for a reason."

* * *

One positive thing Ranma could say about Sectoids in general was that they were fundamentally quite simple creatures. They'd made themselves that way. Minimalist in a sense. They didn't have redundant organs or tissues, like an appendix; their digestive tract was exactly the length it needed to be for what the species always ate; there was very little physical variation between any two as befitting a civilization of hierarchal clones.

Their minds, too, were straightforward and indexed from the moment of "conception." They never slept, never dreamed, never lost themselves in imagination or obsession; they didn't have abstract or irrational fears, besides mission and abuse; they didn't lose track of time or forget. Like little biological computers, their brains studiously recorded every event that transpired around them in perfect detail, cross indexed by chronology and relevance. Quite unlike an often scattered or disorganized human mind - or a Floater's or a Snakeman's for that matter - Sectoids were an open book with an easy to read index and table of contents.

Once you cracked it open, that is.

In depth psionic information retrieval was normally done at the base by trained personnel, but most officers and high level psions had varying degrees of training in what to do. It was a much more sensitive and detailed procedure than simply inducing panic or taking control of the body. It wasn't hard to format a computer, after all, or smash it or cause it to have an error... it was a bit harder to break into an otherwise secure system without damaging the data. The hacking analogy wasn't perfect, of course, but it was close enough to get the concept across.

Ranma appeared within the alien's mind at the same time as Ryouga and Raven. It was SOP for deep depth dives to consist of three trained psionics. There was always danger of a back-hack from the victim, especially when it was a psi-capable alien, or other more passive forms of deception. With three independent minds simultaneously making dives and triple checking what they found, someone would always be watching someone else's proverbial back.

The Sectoid's mind space was completely blank save for a featureless orb.

"Guess I'll give us some perspective," Ranma said to the other two, and held up his hand. Grasping apparent nothingless, he pulled it down, and when his hand opened a single line bisected the featureless void. All three oriented towards the new "up" and "down."

It was a comfort thing.

Strolling towards the floating orb up ahead, Ranma tucked his hands in his pockets. In this place, his mind had colored him with his old favorite: a green silk Chinese shirt and pants, while Ryouga was comfortable enough in his uniform to manifest it without wanting or trying to, adding the old bandages he'd worn on his hands and arms back when he was training up his projection points. His hands were even leaking green ki, like back in the crazy days.

Raven was in her old leotard and cloak combo once more, but it was hard to appreciate that fact at the moment. Though her usual blue cloak hung over her shoulders and hood covered most of her face, Ranma could actually _feel_ something like a second cloak shrouding the young woman, though that hardly did the sensation justice. Despite being the smallest person present, the dark Titan seemed to loom over the both of them, an invisible mantle of raw power pressing down on everyone and everything present. Even to Ranma, the girl's ally, being in the presence of such psionic might was a little ominous and off-putting.

Obviously sensing that very same danger, the orb contracted, forming a little shell.

Far more eager than anyone else present, Ryouga's right hand reached out and grabbed the sphere, fingers flexing as the tips cracked and dug into the orb beneath. White and red ooze seeped out, like blood, first a trickle and then shooting out like a geyser. A moment later, and his hand dug into and inside the orb. Ranma could feel the alien mind within it resisting. This part wasn't a matter of power. It was a matter of _desire_.

It wanted to keep its secrets. It wanted to be safe in its little cocoon. You could either coax the mind out, or tear it out. The latter was the preferred method for dealing with non-humans in a time sensitive situation. But you had to _want_ it. You needed to be _motivated_.

Ryouga was 'motivated.'

Finally, the orb dissolved and the acting Major wrenched something from the shell. Ranma's face didn't betray his disgust. This wasn't the first time he'd seem a Sectoid's inner self. It didn't change the fact that it was vile.

A bulbous fetus hit the floor with a wet splatter, slowly moving its tiny arms and head in a bloody puddle. Huge black eyes stared out at nothing in particular and a black mouth screeched in indignation. Next to him, Ranma saw Raven adjust her hood, but give no other visual sign of discomfort or disgust. Despite that, though, and despite her own training, he could feel traces of her disapproval bubbling over. There was no doubt in the Saotome's mind that she knew she could have coaxed the alien out less violently, if she had been given the chance.

But Raven didn't know these aliens like he and Ryouga did. These were the star-faring bastards that had been harvesting and torturing humanity for thousands of years. They didn't have time to play nice, nor did they have the inclination.

As if to prove his point, a combat boot pressed on the squealing alien fetus, as if to crush it underfoot...

Instead, the boot skidded it over to the side slightly, turning it to face upwards and lie on its back. Ryouga then held up one hand, and a long thin needle appeared and grew, stretching to more than a meter long. As the tiny creature saw what was coming, Ranma felt another jet-pulse of resistance. It refused to cooperate. It refused to let them in.

Ryouga's hate muffled the unspoken cries, reasserting command. Ranma knew his 'best rival' hated aliens in general with a terrible passion, and even though he didn't go around glowering and swearing revenge for Akari anymore, it was always there. Under the surface; always burning, like a molten ingot buried in sand. Ranma could almost see that knot of negative energy hovering behind the lost boy. It was ample motivation to cow the alien's comparatively meager will to resist.

Raven looked away a second before he slammed the meter long needle into the alien's forehead, pinning it like a fly.

"See, this is why I leave you to this kind of stuff," Ranma commented, and reached over to place his hand on top of the blunt end of the impaling spike. "I'm just too nice for this line of work."

"I'm not sure the Captain of the Procyon would agree." Ryouga already had his palm down on it.

The pigtailed one scoffed. "Those were... special circumstances. Ones I hope I never encounter again. Come on, Rae."

Hesitantly, Raven nodded and reached out, putting her right hand on top of Ranma's. All three felt the immediate access they had to the alien's memories and thoughts. Whatever will to resist remained had been thoroughly broken and drowned out; washed away into the gutter. This particular alien would probably be comatose for days once they brought it back to HQ. Sectoids were resilient, though. A human, or some of the humanoid aliens, would be a drooling, shitting vegetable.

_ Purpose: Medic._

_ Extended: Study and exploitation of local sentient resources._

Ranma started at the beginning, with the alien's creation. It was the third Medic produced using this particular template. Ranma moved past the more irrelevant details; Sectoids were just programmed life forms. Those early memories were of being in a tube, emerging from the tube, and being immediately put to work.

It had been unexpectedly recent, however, and Ranma soon found himself at what he assumed to be planet-fall here on this alternate world. The alien hadn't been taken out until after the expedition made its transit here. The Sectoid was literally about a month old.

In that short time, however... it had been busy.

Too busy. The alien expedition had only been gone for a few weeks, but there were enough memories and data here for twice that. It had to be another time dilation effect. The ones in the previous two transits had been much less pronounced, but still noticeable. Not a major problem, really; it just meant they'd be gone for two days instead of one. Picking the Sectoid Medic's brain, Ranma could also see that the aliens had been making the best of their 'free time.'

The local aliens from this alternate Earth weren't human, obviously, but they were biologically advanced enough to warrant a 'study' team going down to see if they could be made to 'serve' in some capacity. Among the first ways of 'serving' that the aliens had looked into was also the most abhorrent. Food. Various local animal life was tested, and methods developed to properly render them down to the liquid soup aliens of most types relied on.

With a method in place for proper 'recycling,' the aliens quickly got to work with their other typical activities: chiefly experimentation. They had already performed a survey of the alien population planet-wide, and tested members from different areas. Three isolated pockets of diverging native populations had already been exterminated right off the bat for failing to perform as expected and for being 'dead ends.' The remaining three were slated for systematic 'advancement' and 'improvement.'

Most important to the aliens had been, first, the cultivation of another alien species worthy of uplifting. There were expectations that this group of sapients could, like the Mutons, serve as a source of labor and expendable soldiery. There was also the possibility they could be improved by developing latent psionic or other abilities. Lastly, their genetic material could be of some use in "targeted diversity" within the Sectoid Hierarchy.

Ranma frown deepened the further he delved into the alien depravity.

_'Like they did to us,'_ he realized, and kicked himself for not really expecting it. _'Is this what they did to our ancestors, Kami knows how long ago. This is what they did to us.'_

* * *

The EDC Core was intact.

"An awful lotta trouble fer something so small, huh?" Ranma asked, holding up the special containment case they'd brought along for just such a purpose. The whole thing was small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and without the organic control core, the rest of he EDC was effectively useless.

Ryouga nodded in agreement. "Just don't lose it, Ranma."

"Should I make a joke here about getting lost?"

"It never stopped you before." But he quickly turned to Mousse and Cyborg, who were present and finishing clean-up. "Are the scuttling charges ready?"

"She's ready to blow!" Cyborg enthused. "I, uh, just hope we're not popping this baby where it is?"

"We'll probably tow the ship into orbit," Mousse guessed, and adjusted his glasses with one finger. "And let the pieces burn up on reentry."

"Exactly. Pathfinder can't transit while latched onto something as big as a Harvester," Ranma explained, only to have the three present stare at him. "What? Too exposition-y?"

"Where do you even come up with these words, Saotome?"

"It's called creativity, Mousse."

"Anyway," Ryouga cut them both off. "Mousse. Finish stripping the ship. We've got the Elerium and the EDC core, but if there's anything else we can loot and bring home..."

It was a time honored XCOM tradition, of course.

"Say no more," the Hidden Weapons Master then jerked his head in Cyborg's direction. "Am I on it, or are _we_ on it?"

"Unfortunately, I'll be needing Cyborg and Yankee for another matter, now that the essentials are taken care of," the officer replied with a shake of his head. "Juliet, too. So do what you can with just India. I'll help, too, of course... but I'll be keeping Ryu on watch."

"So just us three? I guess we can strip off the white meat," Mousse said with a sigh, referring to the more modular UFO components. "But what's more important than salvaging this hulk?"

"Science," Cyborg answered seriously. "Even with what you guys took from the aliens, we're only scratching the surface of the ecosystem here!"

Ryouga didn't disagree. "That, too. I also want Yankee and Juliet to check out two of the nearby native-alien villages. According to the Sectoids we took, they've put up clandestine sensors to monitor the aliens they've modified."

"Biochips?" Mousse asked. It was the most common alien 'abduction experience' tracking device, allowing the aliens to track a target (allowing for easier long distance psionic attack) and sometimes, to make on-the-spot physiological modifications. There was a wide variety of them, but morphologically they were all pretty similar.

"Nah. I'm not worried about those. Besides, how would we get them back?" Ryouga asked; of course, they could recover the tech by cutting them out of the native aliens, but there was no need. "These are little floating ovals about twice the size of a Frisbee."

Cyborg stepped in then. "Um, you mean a regular Frisbee or a disk golf Frisbee?"

"Disk what?"

"Disk Golf. Its like golf but with Frisbees."

"Just.. a Frisbee. I don't know!" Ryouga held out his hands. "This big. We need them both taken out. The aliens were also acting through proxies, like the sleeping native we've got sedated in the other room."

"Hm," Ranma thought aloud. "You think we should take them out, too?"

"I'm considering it," he admitted. "Just because the aliens started messing around here doesn't mean we have to let their experiments play out."

"Somatic mutations?" Mousse asked, a moment before Cyborg could.

"Yeah," Ranma replied. "The aim was to make diverging populations. Eventually, all but one would go extinct." He sighed, and looked around the room. "That is... if we do nothing."

Ryouga crossed his arms, clearly disliking the available options.

"Let's see how things go in the field," he finally decided. "It may be a moot point anyway." He sounded almost hopeful of that as he briefly massaged his temples before turning to address the local tech genius. "Cyborg, help me find other-me so I can brief him, hand down the ROE, and get this done."

* * *

"Alright, Yankee Squad, fall in."

It still surprised Ryouga to see his teammates scramble into line before him. At his core, he still felt a combination of guilt and frustration at subjecting his friends to this embarrassment; them being forced to do what he said just because of a dimensional fluke. It should have been Robin here, not him, and if not the masked teen, then Cyborg. At least then he could be confident that the orders that were about to be handed down weren't complete bunk.

Still, they had a job to do, and he had to do his best to make sure everyone survived. He took a moment to inspect his team, now that they were standing neatly in rank and file before the entrance of the ship. At the far right was Starfire, standing ramrod straight. Even with her helmet on, her height alone - taller than everyone on the ship except Cyborg - made the Tamaranian's identity obvious. Then, of course, was her armor. Unlike India and Juliet, all wearing the standard XCOM scout-type or regular Personal Armor, with a few affectations here and there, Starfire's armor was quite unique. A replacement for the suit she'd lost destroying Saffron, the suit she wore had numerous small improvements over the original.

Thanks to her innate strength and flight, they'd gotten approval to "ghetto rig" (as Cyborg put it) some extra modular armor plating in addition to the Polarization technology. It still had the intricate internal cooling and insulation systems of the standard personal armor suits, of course, but field experience had shown that, as an aggressive flier, Starfire attracted a disproportionate amount of enemy fire. The large riot shield strapped to her back, a combination of Cyborg's polarization technology, Ukyou's spatula tech and the standard Xcom cooling systems and just sheer weight of alien alloy, was also impossible to miss. Nothing short of vehicle-class exotic alloy was guaranteed to take a heavy plasma bolt and not be a molten mess, but, if anything, Cyborg would put _that_ piece of armor up against any HWP in the field. Since she used internally generated starbolts as her main weapon at-range, rather than a rifle, it was considered a worthwhile addition to her equipment. Unlike a human, she could actually carry the otherwise completely unwieldy piece of armor without any difficulty.

Next to her, Jinx stood, her slight frame matched with an equally light suit of scout-class personal armor. The scout kit was only up-armored around critical areas, representing an 'all or nothing' approach to protecting just the vitals and statistically targeted areas. In Yankee, Jinx was highly dependant on the force field technology that Cyborg had cannibalized from his T-Brella. Thankfully, for Ryouga's peace of mind, Cyborg had had the time to tweak and upgrade the tech during their downtime, attaching a superior power supply for longer duration missions. The endoskeletal accelerator system had also been blended with UNETCO style of strength enhancement used in more modern personal armor suits.

And in yet another case of Jinx stealing the more cutting edge tech, Cyborg had removed the prototype holographic emitter from himself and installed it into her suit. His own bulky frame was too large, and his training in stealth was pretty much non existent to really take advantage of it, but for someone like Jinx, it suddenly became much more practical. Even better - or so Cyborg had claimed - he was able to hijack the emitter array used by the force field system to project a more coherent image. It was far from perfect but for someone with Jinx's training, it could be enough to gain a useful advantage against the old Mark-One Eyeball. Unfortunately, Cyborg hadn't had a chance to field test it, yet, so to prevent any temptations on her part about using it prematurely, the system had not yet been activated.

As for Cyborg himself, the already large teen was wearing a new set of appliqué armor plating as well, making him seem like a walking battleship. Some, the native Hibiki included, had criticized the "over armoring" Yankee seemed to be attempting, stressing that the best defense was a quick and efficient offense. Speed and training were considered more important than belated attempts at putting on more armor in XCOM, but Yankee was a unique squad with unique capabilities.

Cyborg's extra armor represented that. Taking the Titan's prodigious strength into account, he could be wearing a few dozen tons of armor and it wouldn't even slow him down. There was another new addition as well, the less on the defense side of things. Though his Sonic cannon was still his main weapon, he had mounted an Autocannon to his back, loaded with standard HEAP rounds, for the extra penetration power that his S-Cannon and plasma enhanced mini missiles couldn't provide. All in all, he looked more like a piece of military hardware than the go-to "science officer" of the mission.

And, last but no least, standing next to Cyborg was Raven, clad in her UNETCO uniform, psi badge displayed prominently on her shoulder. Obviously, she wouldn't be going with them physically, but she would still be with them on their mission. Like all of the combat teams, her uniform was camouflaged. In this case, they were all using a variation of jungle-woodland greens and browns.

"Alright," he began. "We've been assigned to locate a nearby village and take out a remote sensor that the aliens were using to monitor the indigenous populations."

"Sounds simple enough," Jinx stated. She slung her assigned plasma carbine over her shoulder. "With extreme prejudice, or what?"

Instantly, all eyes turned her way, though only Raven's glare was plain to see. "Absolutely not," replied the dark Titan in a sharp tone.

Ryouga nodded. "We're not here for genocide; we're here to help these guys, whether they like it or not."

The martial artist could all but feel the smile beaming from beneath Starfire's helmet and her feet floated off the floor several inches. Rolling his eyes, though no one could see the gesture through his own helmet, he then pointed to the Tamaranian. "Starfire, I want you to give us an aerial view of the area. Locate the village and guide us in. We have no indication of them having any technology at all, but just in case they're wicked good at throwing rocks or have bows, keep a nice, high altitude."

She nodded sharply in response, obviously ecstatic at the chance to get some high flying in on a mission. He then turned his attention to Jinx. "Jinx, I want you to take point. Keep in constant communication with Starfire, and stay out of trouble if you can. If you spot any aliens avoid them if possible and give Cyborg and me the heads up so that we can as well."

"Easy-peasy, boss man," the sorceress replied confidently, firing off a sloppy salute.

Next in line was Raven. "Raven, you'll vector with Starfire and Jinx. Keep a steady line of communication open between them, and see if you can't 'dissuade' any locals that might be less than friendly."

An annoyed look flashed across Raven's face for a second, and a slight tensing in Jinx's frame indicated that she likely wasn't any more excited at the prospect, but - frankly - it was a case of 'Tough Beans.' He hated to even think anything that sounded like something his counterpart would say, but those two needed to learn to work together, whether they liked it or not. Thankfully, they had been getting along much better lately, but he knew that it would still take them both more time.

Cyborg smiled broadly, having yet to put on his heavily armored helmet. "So, that means that you and me get to stroll along at a lazy pace while the girls do all the real work?"

Chuckling, Ryouga nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it. I guess that's our burden, working with such damned talented, not to mention beautiful women."

Immediately, hips cocked out and fists were planted on them firmly. Only Raven's wry smile was visible, but it seemed all but a forgone conclusion that it was being shared by the sorceress and the alien as well. "Your burden, is it?" asked the lavender haired Titan.

"If I weren't such a kind and trusting person, I'd say you two were just being lazy bums," Jinx followed up.

"However, your flattery has been appropriately deployed to deflect our ire over being shouldered with the lion share of the labor." Starfire's helmeted head tilted to the side. "With our vanity sufficiently placated, we will endeavor to complete the mission to the best of our abilities."

Raven nodded, still grinning. "Flattery will get you anywhere, so the saying goes. Just try not to make a habit of it."

"Well, don't make a habit of using it to manipulate us poor, impressionable young girls," Jinx amended. "Flattery for the sake of flattery, though, is all good. Keep that stuff coming."

Chuckling, Ryouga could only shake his head helplessly. Finally, he waved to the entrance of the ship. "Just go, already. I don't want people to think I'm an even softer commander than Ranma, here. Let's liberate us some aliens."

Nodding, the three girls quickly stepped over to the airlock and got into a quick huddle. At Ryouga's side, Cyborg slide on his helmet and activated the environmental seal before joining him in watching the female half of Yankee. Raven indicated for the pair to lean forward - and down a bit in Starfire's case. She then placed a hand on the helmet of both girls in a small ritual that Ryouga had been a part of several times already. Though not strictly necessary, the physical contact made the shifting of Raven's 'partitions' - as they were called - all but effortless.

Nothing at all appeared to happen but Ryouga knew better. Starfire and Jinx didn't so much as tense at the mental insinuation, more than used to the sensation at this point. Without another word, Raven spun and made her way out of the room and back towards the cockpit. She would likely hunker down close to Nabiki so as to better disperse any intelligence that Starfire or Jinx might gather from their advanced positions.

Once she was gone, the door sliding closed silently behind her, Ryouga and Cyborg joined the girls and exited the ship in short order. As soon as their feet touched soil, Jinx and Starfire were off in a flash. The former zipped forward and vanished into the dense forest in a matter of seconds, and Starfire disappeared into the canopy in a streak of green light. Giving them both several moments to achieve a sufficient lead, Ryouga idly examined his laser rifle. It was about the easiest weapon to learn to use. 'Point and click interface,' and instant time to target. Plus, no need to juggle ammo clips.

"Man, I can't get over how gorgeous this planet is," Cyborg breathed in awe.

Ryouga simply shrugged. "Meh. You've seen one giant forest filled with giant animals intent on eating you, you've seen them all. I'd definitely prefer a giant koala at the moment to all these nasty creepy crawlies."

"Dude, you just got no appreciation for nature…" Cyborg paused. "… And I can't believe how bizarre that sounds, coming from the cyborg to the mountain man."

"The only people that 'appreciate' nature are the people that don't spend ninety percent of their life lost in nature. Trust me, it gets old quick."

Cyborg shook his head, the sound of metal scraping on metal grating on Ryouga's ears. "Jaded much?" He then looked down to the display on his arm - a transparent plate of the alien alloy had been overlaid over the existing view screen, allowing him to still take advantage of the useful device. "Anyway, Jinx has a kilometer on us now, we should head out."

Slinging his rifle back over his shoulder, the Lost Boy nodded, then began to jog forward into the forest. He kept a relaxed pace; while Cyborg could easily keep up in normal circumstances, he'd likely sound like a bulldozer tearing through the jungle if he did try to run any faster. Of course, that meant that they were still losing ground on Jinx, but not so much that they wouldn't be able to catch up in short order if an emergency came up.

They had quite some distance to cover, though, and even at their tireless pace, it would probably be a half an hour before they reached the general vicinity of the alien village in question. As such, Ryouga wasn't surprised when his secure comm crackled to life again and Cyborg's voice poured into his ear. A quick check of his internal HUD showed that Cyborg had opted for a private channel this time, so they didn't disturb anyone else on the line.

"So, Ryo… I hope you don't mind me asking, but what was up with you and Shampoo back there?"

"Huh?" Ryouga grunted in a non committal fashion.

A large root was smashed to splinters as it attempted to trip up Cyborg in the middle of his charge, and the large Titan gave no indication of even noticing the impediment. "You know what I mean. You were harpin' on the girl pretty much the entire card game. I know you two were never super close or nuthin, but you've barely even spoken to her since we got here, so where did that come from?"

Seeing a low hanging branch zooming towards him, Ryouga opted to leap over it, rather than just crash through it - if only to save on the paint job of his armor. Once he was back in the flow of running, he looked over to his team mate, still trucking along. Honestly, he hadn't even realized it at the time, but when even Jinx had called him on it…

"I guess I'm still annoyed with her over last night. I ran into her when I was doing some training. We kinda got into it."

"Got into it?"

Ryouga nodded to himself before ducking under a low branch as thick around as his torso. "It started off just kind of annoying. I was working on my earth ki techniques, and she started to lecture me on it." He growled under his breath. "Seriously, she's pretty much one of the least knowledgeable people on the base when it comes to actually applying ki, let alone elemental qi. It would be like Ukyou trying to lecture you on cybernetics."

"Ah," Cyborg 'ah'd', "So a case of professional pride and bruised ego is the deal? I guess that makes sens-"

"Actually, no," Ryouga cut in quickly. "I got over that pretty quick. She did have good intentions, after all. But after that, we started arguing about the morality of being a martial artist versus being a super hero."

Cyborg let out a bark of laughter, lashing out to smash a small sapling out of his path. "Just like Ukyou and BB, right? That must have been hilarious!"

Ryouga didn't disagree. "It was… interesting, to say the least. Her main argument seemed to be that self interest was better than selflessness. Of course, I'm sure there are some people that would agree with that completely… right Nabiki?"

A silent moment passed… until the comm crackled to life once more, a new voice joining the conversation. "You know, the gossip feels much juicier when you guys pretend that I'm not monitoring all the transmissions."

"Yeah, yeah, we love you too, Biki," Cyborg replied with a smile. "Now are you gonna keep this under your hat and keep quiet, or are we gonna have to change the subject?"

"What?" squawked the operator. "You can't change the topic now. I wanna know all the dirt, too. I'll keep it private, I promise. I'm pretty sure there's some kind of confidentiality thing going on here, provided whatever is going on between you and Shampoo isn't a matter of internal security."

Looking over at Cyborg's arm display, Ryouga noted that Jinx was still a good distance ahead of them. "No, nothing like that. Hell, we didn't even finish the argument. I reminded Shampoo of the inconvenient truth that we were every bit as reckless and dangerous as any meta-human, but without any of the redeeming qualities of concern for the social good. She kinda gave up there, changed the topic real quick and made a run for it."

"Wait," Nabiki interrupted, sounding shocked. "Shampoo actually backed down from a fight, of any kind?"

"Don't feel bad about getting ticked at Shampoo over that, Ryo. We're from two different worlds, after all. Her views might be completely alien to us, but might be perfectly normal here."

"Actually, that isn't what I'm annoyed about, either," Ryouga corrected. "After all, when you think about it, for all that Shampoo said, what she's doing now is pretty much exactly the same as what you guys have been doing for years. The only difference is that everyone here had to wait for an invitation and permission to play hero."

Cyborg nearly stopped in his tracks there. "Okay, hold on a second. You aren't ticked at her for critiquing your training? You're not ticked at her for questioning your views of morality? Just how many things did you and her talk about, and how could two people possibly disagree about so many things?"

Ryouga waved his hand, before quickly using it to vault over a waist high mound of dirt. "It wasn't any of that. It was… well, she-she-"

"Oh, for the love of money, Ryouga, spit it out already. You sound like the mean old Amazon violated you, or something," Nabiki all but commanded. The note of amusement in her voice was far more obvious than was strictly necessary for the moment.

"No!" Ryouga barked, nearly tripping over his own feet at the mere suggestion. "It's just that-that… she called Jinx a Stupid, No-Breast Girl!" A deep growl rumbled in the martial artist's throat. "Damn Shampoo, who does she think she is? Jinx does so have breasts!"

It took Ryouga three whole seconds to realize that he was by himself. Skidding to a stop, he quickly spun around. There, nearly fifty yards behind him, Cyborg was laying collapsed in a heap. Electronically transmitted gales of laughter assaulted Ryouga from both ends of the line, and he found himself glowering. Stomping back, he dragged the massive Titan back to his feet.

"So," Nabiki drawled, "You seem pretty sure of Jinx's … endowments. You must have some kind of proof of that."

In an instant, Ryouga's spine stiffened and he nearly dropped Cyborg back onto his face. Hemming and hawing, his face blushing bright red, he twiddled his fingers as he attempted to come up with an answer. "Ummm… would you believe 'anecdotal evidence'?"

Pushing himself to his feet, now dripping mud and looking more like Swamp Thing than Cyborg, his massive companion stood up beside him and slapped a heavy metal hand to Ryouga's armored shoulder. "You sure there wasn't a visual inspection involved in this deduction, Ryo?"

"Oh, no, Ryouga is far more of a hands-on kinda guy," Nabiki's voice was hushed, possibly because she wasn't alone in the cockpit, but still filled with mirth. "I bet he's got all kinds of physical evidence to back up his claims."

"Shut up, both of you! Don't make me pull rank!"

"Sir, yes sir!" Nabiki barked, but in such a sarcastic manner that it caused Cyborg to nearly keel over in laughter.

"Well, at least now the mystery is revealed." Shaking his head one last time, Cyborg began to steamroll along through the forest, hot on the girls' trail. "Now come on, man, stop slowing us down already. We got a mission to do!"

Grumbling, Ryouga was tempted to just leave his team mate in the dust, but knew that if he didn't keep Cyborg in sight, he'd likely get lost in less than a minute. Still, the guy was right about one thing; they did have a mission to do.

He just wondered, as he began his easy jog again, whether Jinx had to put up with this kind of crap as well.

* * *

'_So__…__ you seem to have an interesting approach to playing cards. One would almost think that you were more interested in making Shampoo lose than in winning yourself_.'

_'__Ugh,__'_ Jinx groaned internally. _'__Why do I have to put up with this crap?__'_

_'__You are aware that I heard that, right?__'_

_'__I should hope so, I thought it __'__loud__'__,__'_ Jinx countered in a huff.

It was hard enough, vaulting acrobatically through the forest, trying to maintain a tight balance between speed and stealth, not to mention stretching her senses to the limit to make certain that no one got the drop on her. The last thing she needed was psychic static distracting her.

_'__Can we not do this now?__'_ she followed up quickly. _'__I__'__m kind of in the middle of something here.__'_

As if to prove her point, a burst of motion exploded from the side. Unlike Ryu, though, she didn't lash out at the creature that leapt out at her from its burrow. Instead, she twisted around in a tight spiral, letting the predatory insect fly right over her to crash into the brush on the other side of her. Not even slowing her charge, she left the gross bug in her dust. It made a meager attempt to recover and give chase, but it didn't have a chance.

As an afterthought, she opened a quick commlink. "Hey babe, I left you guys some man eating bugs to play with. Keep an eye out for them."

"Thanks for the warning, Jinx. Will do." A short pause from her commanding officer. "Also… can you please not call me 'babe' when we're on the job?"

The sorceress' lips twisted up into an indulgent grin. "No, no I can't. Over and out."

Amusement aside, though, the terrain was far more arduous than she was expecting it to be. The massive trees, the untamed undergrowth and the deadly aliens were a combination of conditions that even she wasn't used to. The fact that it was raining again, making every surface as slick as glass and the ground into a mud slide made it even worse for her, as her particular style of locomotion didn't involve the 'smashing through walls with her skull' that most everyone else here seemed to enjoy.

"Jinx, are you prepared to receive an incoming transmission?"

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Yes Starfire, I'm prepared. What's up?"

"I have located the colony we seek. There are several crude structures visible through the branches, however it appears as if the bulk of the village is taking up residence within the heart of a large tree. I have descended as low as I dare, but have been unable to locate the object we seek."

_'__You know what that likely means?__'_ Raven intruded.

_'__Yeah, yeah. __'__Someone__'__ is likely gonna have to go in and find the damn thing. And if we don__'__t want to pull an India style Slash and Burn, that someone is probably gonna be me.__'_

"Alright, Star, fill in Ryo and Cy. I'm gonna go on ahead and scout it out."

"Roger that."

With that, Jinx redoubled her efforts to remain unseen as she moved through the jungle. She desperately wished she could give the holographic stealth field a test run, but it wouldn't exactly help her if it made her glow neon green or something because she was too impatient to test it. Of course, that didn't stop her from just _happening_ to mutter, "Boy, sure would be _nice _if I had some kind of invisibility field." over the team commline. Instead, she resorted to the old tricks of the trade, utilizing natural cover and using short bursts to minimize her exposure as she moved from tree to tree.

She was about to dart forward again-

_'__Wait. I sense a presence nearby.__'_

Instantly, Jinx plastered herself to the nearest trunk. Her fingers ran over the rough bark, the hard metal of her armor clicked silently as it bounced through the uneven ridges, providing the sensation. Moving slowly, she slid around the trunk, carefully scanning the forest. The thickness of the canopy above her, the rain and the pervading shadows made this difficult even with low light enhancement, but she had a practiced eye when it came to picking out potential threats.

A little mental prodding from Raven to point in her in the general direction didn't hurt either.

It was perched less than fifty feet away from her, and twenty of that was vertical. She had to crane her neck a bit, but saw she could just make it out, mostly in thanks to the bright blue… gunk which it had spread over its plated hide. Like her, it was pressed up against the trunk of the tree, but being nearly twice her size, it cut a somewhat more noticeable profile than she did. It was incredibly still, far too still to actually be asleep.

_'__It hasn__'__t seen me yet, has it?__'_

A moment passed.

_'__Give me another moment. It__'__s mind is primitive__…__ No, no it hasn__'__t seen us. It did hear us approaching, though, and it has caught our scent, but it doesn__'__t know where we are at the moment.__'_

Jinx let out a thankful sigh, grateful for the helmet keeping the sound contained. _'__Gotta give the guy credit for hearing me coming. These alien buggers are sharp. Can you keep him off my case?__'_

Time seemed to crawl by as Jinx clung to the tree. She actually watched as a centipede-like annelid over two inches in diameter and three feet in length slid down the tree and crawled over her shoulder, then down her chest before crawling back onto the tree and on its way. Even through the armor, her skin crawled at the mere proximity of the disgusting creature, but she refused to flinch.

Looking back up, she started in shock - the creature was gone!

Tensing, she prepared to leap out from her cover - when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Spinning, she brought her plasma carbine to bear-

_'__Calm down, Jinx!__'_ This time, the mental echo felt as if it emanated from the shaggy blue alien that had just appeared behind her. The alien creature quickly backed off a step and held its hands up before it. _'__I__'__ve taken control of this alien. Like us, it is acting as a scout for its tribe.__'_

Frowning darkly, Jinx lowered her weapon. As if that hadn't been obvious to begin with. It would have served Raven right if she'd vaporized the alien's skull. See how well she could control it then. _'__Do you have any actual useful information there? Like how far we are from the village?__'_

In a very human gesture - looking all the more alien when performed by the creature - it nodded. Lifting a large, gorilla-like arm, it pointed back in the general direction which they had already been traveling. _'__We only appear to be a kilometer or so out__…__ I think. Trying to interpret time and distance from this creature__'__s mind is __…__ interesting, to say the least. The village itself isn__'__t terribly large, probably only one hundred aliens at the most. I am getting a few scattered memories of the device we__'__re looking for as well. I can__'__t tell you where, though, I __…__ think it__'__s actually mobile.__'_

_'__Well, that__'__s just great. Sounds like we__'__re gonna have to pin it down then.__'_

The alien beast nodded grimly. Frowning, Jinx took a knee, kneeling down on the broad branch beneath her. She tried to scratch her chin, but only scraped the metal of her helmet. It was annoying to try to think on her feet like this while feeling like a sardine in a tin can. Finally, she gestured to the alien. _'__Alright. Get Star to relay all this info to Ryouga. Then you and me will go ahead and scout out the village. We__'__ll find the thing and let Ryouga figure out what to do from there.__'_

A second later, the alien nodded again. _'__Starfire is relaying the situation now.__'_

Not bothering to reply, Jinx just bolted off once more. Surprisingly, the alien creature was actually able to keep pace with her moderate run. Even with Raven at the steering wheel, the alien body flowed through the jungle as smoothly as anything she'd ever seen. In less than a minute, they arrived at the outer fringes of the village proper.

It was a combination of what Star had explained, as well as Raven… and at the same time, it was so very much more. It was… beautiful. It was like a scene from a documentary… or maybe a movie, like Gorilla sized Smurfs In The Mist, or something. As Starfire had said, there were several rough shelters, mostly just branches lashed together and covered with ferns, but there was almost an… artistry to how everything had been assembled. The aliens even had some kind of light sources, fascinating shades of pink and blue contained in dangling gourds. Possibly some kind of moss?

There were aliens wandering around, going about various tasks. Only a few of them were going about their business around these small huts, though, the majority of the aliens were moving in and out of a massive tree at the center of the clearing. The tree towered over all the rest, and she could even see several small huts set up on some of the higher branches. It was like the world's biggest tree fort.

What she couldn't see, though, was an _uberfrisbee_ conveniently floating out where anyone could spot it...

Sighing, she activated her commlink. "Ryouga, come in."

"Ryouga here. Are you in position, Jinx?"

Well, about as 'in position' as she could really get, she supposed. "Yeah, me and Raven are just outside the village. No one has spotted us yet, but we don't have a visual on the MacGuffin."

"The what?"

Jinx shook her head. "Never mind. What do you want us to do?"

There was a momentary pause. "Hold tight for a moment. Cyborg has a plan. I'll patch him in."

A second later, Cyborg's voice entered the conversation. "Alright, Jinx, this alien sensor is gonna be tough. Your carbine might not be able to take it out in a single shot, so unless you wanna charge in guns blazin', I suggest a slightly different approach."

"I'm all ears," Jinx replied. If this thing was mobile and she took a pot shot at it, there was a good chance it would zip off before she could take another shot. And if that happened, then they'd have to find it again and take it out, only with the added joy of having an entire tribe of violent, panicked alien beasties giving them grief over it.

"Rather than sniping it yourself, I want you to paint the target for me. You know what I mean by that, right?"

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I'm not a moron here; we're practically living a military fantasy at the moment. What do you want me to paint it with, though?"

"The laser scope from your carbine should do fine. I already had tracking systems installed in my missile payload, so all you need to do is keep your rifle trained on the target and let me take care of the rest."

"It's about time one of you guys actually pulled your weight on this mission," she replied with a smirk. "Okay, Raven and I will start moving in. We'll let you know when we're ready."

The commline cut out, leaving Jinx alone in her helmet once more. Well, almost alone, anyway. Nodding to the alien at her side, she motioned for Raven to move in normally, then pointed up sharply, indicating that she would come in from a higher route.

Nodding, the blue alien beasty took several steps forward, giving Jinx time to scurry to the nearest tree and begin scaling it. 'Raven' then rose up and entered the village proper. Some of the other aliens lifted their heads and looked at her/him/it for a moment, but beyond that, paid little heed, already wrapped up in their own tasks.

A moment later, Jinx lost track of her team mate as she climbed up the back side of another large tree, one whose massive branches looked like they intertwined with the main tree a few dozen yards up in the air. It didn't take her long to find a limb that suited her purpose: a massive branch as big around as Cyborg was tall. She was well over a hundred feet in the air, but she didn't hesitate for a second as she sprinted across the uneven surface. At the midway point between the two trees, she leapt across to a nearby branch, landing gracefully before continuing her run towards the large colony tree.

As soon as she was close enough, she dropped to her belly and started crawling. The frantic actions actually brought a grin to her face, flashing her back to her academy days. Oh, the things they had been subjected to, the courses and obstacles they'd ran through! She'd done much more urban training, but this was still pretty fun. Sneaking into a colony of over a hundred potentially hostile aliens was an interesting challenge, even if they didn't have buttloads of advanced security to worry about bypassing.

Scuttling as she was, it took her several tedious minutes to actually infiltrate the tree, but now that she knew just how sensitive her victims were, she wanted to make especially certain that she didn't make a sound, and that she didn't get close enough to anyone for the smell of her armor to give her away. There wasn't much airflow in the colony tree, thankfully, though, so she was fairly certain she didn't have to worry about it carrying too far.

Even so, once inside the tree, with its vaulting, cavernous interior, she wondered if she would ever find what she was looking for. A Frisbee in a football field seemed an apt description. She did have a bit of luck, though. Rather than being a series of chambers and tunnels running throughout the tree, it appeared as if it was mostly hollow. The aliens had actually managed to build a series of vine bridges which ran up and around the interior of the trunk providing easier access to the upper reaches of the tree and to some of the naturally occurring platforms where more of their crude shelters had been lashed together.

Climbing close to a smaller version of one of the ledges, she peeked over edge. Thanks to the HUD in her helmet, she was able to start scanning around quickly, but she still had no idea how long such a search would take.

_'__Jinx, where are you?__'_

Raven's telepathic voice nearly freaked the stealthy sorceress right out of her skin. Grumbling, she took a deep breath before replying. _'__I__'__m a few stories up. What about you, where are you?__'_

_'__I__'__m on the ground floor. I__'__ve found the sensor. It__'__s floating roughly twenty feet above the ground, near the southernmost entrance. I__'__m currently several yards from it. I__'__ll lift my left arm, then my right arm so that you can pick me out of the crowd.__'_

_'__Got ya,__'_ Jinx replied. Well, alright. That was good news. They had arrived from the east, so the looked to the right and down quickly. There were probably forty or more of the aliens in sight, all moving around the floor. Considering the distance, she couldn't tell one from the other to save her life - so it was pretty helpful when she saw one of them lift one arm, then the other. The alien in question, then lazily began to move north a bit -

There! Now that she knew exactly where to look, she could see it! It was little more than a dot from ten stories up, but it's silvery hull reflected the light helpfully. Moving silently, she pulled out her carbine and took aim. It was actually somewhat lucky, as most XCOM operatives preferred to use a holographic or reflex scope system, but she hadn't really had any training with that tech, so she had requested the antiquated combo of telescopic and laser sights. Using the former, she brought the alien sensor into clear relief against the background. As soon as it was in her sights, she activated the laser sight, and an instant later, a tiny green dot appeared on the metal surface.

Not a single soul inside the colony seemed to notice to innocuous addition to the sensor as it hung silently in the air, just continuing along on with their lives.

Once she was confident it wasn't going to move on her, she tried to send a thought to Raven. _'__Okay, I don__'__t know if its smart, but you might want to get as many people outta there as possible. Cy is gonna drop something pretty heavy.__'_

_'__I__'__ll do what I can.__'_

That was all they could really do, after all. Do too much, and they'd have a panicked mob on their hands. Satisfied with at least making the suggestion, she sent a signal to Cyborg this time. "Alright, big guy. I got it painted. It's inside the big tree at the center, though. You're going to have to arrow it right through one of those big ass holes first if you want a chance of taking it out."

"I got ya. You need any time to get to a safe distance?"

"No, I'm plenty far. Just give it one minute. Raven is trying to move out any aliens that might be too close, but I don't want to risk this thing moving on us, or anyone tripping over me."

"Understood. Counting down from sixty on my end."

And then the line went dead.

Immediately, Jinx felt her entire body tense as she began to count down in her head as well. Down below, Raven was surreptitiously attempting to push people away from the general area of the sensor. She didn't seem to have mastered the ability of communication apparently, though, as she was meeting with limited success.

Ten seconds passed, then twenty. Jinx felt sweat begin to build up on her brow as she concentrated on keeping her aim true. Thirty seconds ticked by… and still there were at least six of the aliens that Jinx was pretty sure would go up like candles if a plasma grenade analogue went off in their midst.

Forty seconds. Jinx felt her trigger finger begin to tighten up… maybe if she fired a shot, it would scare everyone enough to send them running? … And doubtlessly screw up their entire plan and sent the missile crashing somewhere completely random.

Fifty seconds…

And then a flurry of movement ensued. Without warning, Raven's mentally controlled alien suddenly reached out and struck another of the aliens, only to spin and begin to run away at top speed. Angry shrieks rang out, and a number of aliens gave chase, shaking their fists furiously.

Jinx let a smile play across her lips at the sight of Raven causing a ruckus… only to curse when the gleaming silver disc began lazily drift away from the disturbance.

"Shit - shit - shit!"

Moving her hands as quickly, but carefully as possible, she struggled vainly to keep the tiny dot dancing on the metal shell. If it started to move any faster, though, it would -

A series of terrified howls filled the air, nearly tearing Jinx's eyes away from her target, and a fraction of a second later, a low roar drowned it out. Moving almost too fast to follow, a plume of smoke burst into the massive tree, only to angle nearly straight up once it reached the center of the room. The blurring object slowed down, reaching a parabolic arc… only to dive back down, its speed increasing dramatically again.

Panicking, Jinx quickly focused back on the sensor, adjusting her aim as quickly as possible-

An explosion rocked the inside of the tree as a ball of plasma as hot as the surface of the sun was born as antimatter annihilated itself in spectacular manner.

"Oh shit, did I-"

The smoke cleared blissfully quickly, revealing… nothing left at all. "Yes!" Immediately, she opened the commlink. "I got it, Ryouga! Mission accomplished. We got some freaked out aliens, looks like the start of a riot, but we got it."

"Good work, Jinx. What's your location? Do you have an exit strategy?"

Jinx looked around, starting to feel a bit worried as aliens began to sprint around in every direction. The odds of her getting out unnoticed were going down by the second. "Um… I'm ten stories up, and my exits are drying up pretty quick. I can get out of the tree… but I don't know about out of the village."

"Ten stories up? Then don't worry. We got you covered. Just get outside and we'll get you out of there."

"You got it, babe," Jinx replied with a smirk. "I know you'll save my butt, what with how cute it is and all."

Not giving him a chance to stutter in embarrassment, she leapt to her feet and sprinted for the same entrance she'd come in through. What took her minutes to reach before, took seconds, and she blasted out the large portal and into the outside world again in grand fashion. She could already hear more angry howls coinciding with her movement, but she didn't wait to see how many, if any, of the aliens might actually be on her tail.

Sprinting back across the branch, she heard a familiar whistling cutting through the air, coming straight down on her position. So, that was the plan, was it? Deciding to make it a little more interesting, Jinx leapt off the branch, right into a dead fall, spreading out her arms and legs and laughing all the way.

When Starfire caught her a second later, the girl's frown could be felt right through her helmet. "Was that really necessary, Jinx? You are most fortuitous that I have excellent reflexes."

"Oh, come on, you know you love the drama." Wrapping her arms around Starfire's neck, she gave her a quick hug.

"Now, let's get back to the ship and see how the other guys did with their snipe hunt."

* * *

"Policing" was, without a doubt, the messiest and nastiest work left to XCOM soldiers and personnel. All materials of non-Earth origin were to be removed from site, primarily to preserve the secrecy of the program, but also because XCOM was run by penny pinching Commanders who hoarded or sold virtually every scrap of alien technology or biological matter they could find. HQ's bigwigs had never really gotten beyond the lean early years, and even presently flushed with funds as the organization was, they made every effort to salvage every single nut, bolt and bloody scrap that wasn't melted or vaporized. Hell, even if it _was_ bolted down, XCOM would still take it in no time flat.

Generally, about a fifth of the work was done by soldiers in the field. They were the ones who "packed up" captured aliens and dragged alien corpses out of the more troublesome environs. When a Floater died in a tree, or on a ledge at the thirtieth floor of a skyscraper, or when an Ethereal had its brain exploded all over someone's living room - with living witnesses cowering feet away getting their share as well - the body couldn't be left as-is. So the corpse and its gear was toted away ASAP.

The other four fifths of the work was left to specialist teams. They cordoned off the area, rounded up witnesses for memory deprogramming, and they were the ones who took a fine tooth comb to the battlefield, sweeping up bits of Cyberdisk and bits of Muton alike. What they missed was commercially acquired as "radioactive scrap" from some falling satellite or another... in fact, much of it was mildly radioactive, which made the cover story, and the desire of people to get rid of it, all the more believable. The specialists were also the ones trained for rapid UFO disassembly and recovery.

India Squad was good at demolition, but not that sort of work.

They made due. The more easily removed UFO components, the so called "white meat," was torn out and packed for transport back home onboard Pathfinder, currently parked next to the concealed alien Harvester. Cargo space was extremely limited, so only the most valuable parts were stripped. Elerium, as always, took top priority, and the aliens here had a double-normal supply... a fact that would no doubt receive a glowing apropos in after action reports. Other components using Elerium followed, including every bit of alien weaponry.

Back at the base, alien rifles of all sorts would be broken down or converted into their XCOM equivalents or simply into spare parts. Clips were directly reusable and would, after inspection and testing, end up in the armory. Alien grenades would also be reused, and stun bombs were easy to salvage for the experts at Seiran. It was more work than a field team was typically used to these days, but it was far from unusual or unexpected. If the aliens had a kitchen sink, XCOM would steal that, too... and reverse engineer it and try and improve on it to boot.

One major difference here, for the Pathfinder teams, was in policing bodies and general stuff like alien alloys. The latter couldn't all be salvaged, so it would have to be destroyed. There were procedures in place for that, centering around massive explosions and atmospheric reentry. It would do the job. As for the former...

"And I thought they smelled bad on the _outside_."

"Ah ha! A Star Wars reference. Allow me to provide a contrasting quotation!"

"Knock yourself out, Kuno."

A Sectoid body rolled down the small heap of corpses, only to hit a boot and get pushed back up to the top. A few stomps later, and it was basically in place. Black eyes and clenching hands, frozen in rigor mortis, turned upwards in a mockery of agony and rage. Kuno and Ryu didn't pay them much mind. The two armored men were, first and foremost, focused on tossing buckets of alien chum onto the grizzly pile.

"Slow ahead, I can go slow ahead," Kuno said with a chuckle, emptying the bucket onto the pile. "Why don't you come down here and chum some of this refuse!"

Ryu also laughed, dropping his empty bucket and rolling his shoulders.

"The quote is 'shit' - chum some of this 'shit.'"

"You'll forgive my lack of coarse language, sergeant."

"That's weak and you know it. Though it reminds me... you know, we were talking about movies the other day. Ukyou and me," the Kumon heir clarified. "Jaws came up, and she said she saw it when she was twelve. Said she wouldn't train 'against the sea' for months. Probably thought a shark would jump out of the surf in Osaka Bay or something."

"Twas a memorable film to be sure. American horror cinema at its finest."

"No doubt about it," Ryu agreed, and turned the face of his helmet to the corpse heap. "So, that's it then?"

"Indeed. Save for the two aliens we have in captivity." Kuno rested his hand on the hilt of his sword, a relaxed posture for the eccentric kendoist.

"Crew compliment for a Harvester is usually about twenty," Ryu remarked, having read thoroughly about all the alien ship types and their default crew manifests. Not to mention having stormed more than his fair share over the months. "Plus the two, this one only had fifteen."

"It also had two Cyberdiscs in the field," the swordsman reminded India's sergeant. "Mayhap, the disks and the crew were deployed separately?"

"Must've been. C-Disks can't enter a Harvester except through the bay door on the underside, and this sucker's not just landed, its dug in like a tick."

"Counting corpses as we have been..." Kuno sighed. "Most ungentlemanly. However, it does remind me of things I have read before. I believe some Native American peoples used to scalp their foes as a proof of demise."

"Actually," Mousse interrupted, though he was still inside the ship finishing inventory. He was lurking on the same team comm channel. "Scalping was practiced by both native Americans and Europeans in the Americas. More importantly, the practice predates them by thousands of years. My own ancestors, the Scythian precursors to the Amazons, were the first to scalp their enemies."

"How do you know they were the first?" Ryu asked the out of sight teammate.

"Fine. The first to be recorded."

"We are not so barbaric as to actually scalp our enemies, fortunately," Kuno supplied.

"Yeah. Command just has us take those punch samples," Ryu said, sarcasm evident in his tone. "Genetic scalping."

"Less barbaric, however."

"Watch what you're calling barbaric, too."

"Come on, Mousse."

"Don't act like the Japanese never did stuff like that," the Hidden Weapons master argued, and paused a second or two to finish what he was doing inside the alien ship. "Japanese samurai used to be paid for bringing in enemy heads. And you have shrines to cut off enemy ears and noses."

"What? No way!" Ryu protested, even shaking his head. "You're making that up."

"I don't 'make things up.'"

"I still call bullshit."

"Actually," Nabiki interrupted now. "It's true. The tomb Mousse is talking about is creatively called 'Mimizuka.'"

"I've never heard of it," Ryu insisted, and turned to another potentially credible source. "Kuno, you ever hear of that?"

"The noble samurai did, on occasion, bear the heads of slain enemies," he admitted. "And what Nabiki and Mousse describe does ring a bell. That was the sixteenth century as I recall, the Tensho era."

"Oh?" Mousse spoke up again. "You mean Kuno here actually paid attention in history class?"

"As if!" Nabiki replied. "That idiot was always asleep. He only knows this stuff because he's obsessed." Before Kuno could complain about his 'great academics' being taken lightly, she continued, "And we didn't learn that in school anyway."

"Then how did _you_ know about it?" Ryu asked, in a mixture of curiosity and suspicion.

"These things called books ...and also the internet."

"Were there pictures?"

"Yes, because its so damn hard to find disgusting things in every country's history." Nabiki, though unseen, was sure to be rolling her eyes. "You know what's your problem, you guys? You don't have any really juicy chatter going on. For a team of four supposedly red blooded guys, I never seem to catch anything good."

"And what would you prefer India Squad discuss?" Ryouga asked, his first few words over the last couple minutes.

"You can start by outlining your vices and disposable income."

What followed was a round of silence.

"Just a suggestion," Nabiki added. "Anyway, Juliet is incoming, and Yankee's only about a minute out."

"And there's the friendly IFF ping," Ryu said, checking his HUD motion sensor. It was SOP to broadcast a friendly IFF (friend or foe identity) when approaching other groups. Friendly fire was still the bane of military deployments, even when things were quiet.

"We had best make haste," Kuno reminded his fellows.

"Yeah," Ryu agreed, and took out a canister from a loop around his belt. Instead of an aerosol, it sprayed a thick foam on top of the alien bodies. The martial artist whistled as he finished covering the corpse pile with the stuff. Since there was never a guarantee of working in-atmosphere, much less in an oxygen rich one, XCOM gear was typically designed for all environments, or even none at all.

Rather than a fire retardant foam, this was the exact opposite. Once ignited, particulate thermate within the cocktail would flare up to over two thousand degrees Fahrenheit, regardless of whether it was used underwater, in a vacuum, wherever. It was like white phosphorus's older, meaner brother. It would all but disintegrate the pile of alien bodies.

"Hey," Ryu realized as he finished. "Since we're nuking the UFO up anyway, why not just leave the bodies onboard when we do it?"

"We won't always have the liberty of such a convenient disposal method," Ryouga replied. "Think of it as practice for next time. Besides, it's in our orders, so we do it."

"I guess it counts for thoroughness," Ryu observed, and put away the spray. With the same hand, he tossed the disposable trigger - just a small electrical charger - into the foam. It immediately began to hiss and crackle. A second later, small blue flames emerged from under the blazing foam and the shrinking pile of bodies. Air rushed in as the anaerobic fire started aerobic fires underneath it, quickly turning the blue flames into a familiar orange pyre clouded by a thick stream of ink black smoke.

"I bet that smells absolutely horrible."

Ranma landed in the clearing, having just made a suitably witty intro. The lieutenant was followed a moment later by Konatsu, Ukyou and Shampoo. Ryu and Kuno nodded their heads in respect to an officer, annoying old rival/frenemy though he was. At least Saotome wasn't the type to demand formal salutes at anything but the most dire, and official, circumstances.

"How went your mission, Saotome?" Kuno asked, also politely inclining his head to the rest of Juliet Squad. They all looked pretty muddy, but Ranma in particular looked positively gunk covered.

"Eh," Ranma replied, non-committal. "A lotta sneakin' around."

"Your type of mission then?" Ryu asked with a secret grin hidden behind his helmet.

"Oh, ha ha."

"We didn't hear any alarms, so..."

"No. It went smoothly enough at first," Ranma began.

"Any reason why you look like you took a swim in a pool of vomit?" Ryu asked, blunt as usual.

"As I said, it started out smoothly," the pigtailed one reiterated. "Except at the last second, the little... frisbee just shot off and started going haywire. Must've been when Yankee killed its buddy. It ended up in a... a bad place."

"A bad place?" Kuno asked.

"...a bad place."

* * *

"Did you see what I saw?" Ranma deadpanned as he landed on a nearby branch, having raced through the jungle with his team by his side after the stupid little alien disk. Their chase had, apparently, come to an end.

"Oh dear," Konatsu helpfully summarized the situation.

"Ran-c... Lieutenant," Ukyou quickly covered her on-duty slip. She was standing on the branch, with one hand slowly reaching back for her battle spatula. "That... that's a big turtle."

Ranma's expression fell behind his visor; 'a big turtle' was an understatement.

The stupid, stupid little disk had zipped by and, a heartbeat later, a giant maw had snapped it up. Said giant maw was appropriately attached to a giant turtle... turtle-like thing. It superficially resembled a softshell turtle, but one spawned from the blackest, deepest, foulest pits of Ryugenzawa. It had to be twice the size of the Yamata no Orochi and just as ugly.

There were no multiple heads; just one big beak with a snouty pig-like nose, a massive leathery, slime covered body that looks like it had things growing on it, and a quintet of stubbly little legs. Seemingly satisfied to have snapped something up - anything really - the beast started to churn the mud around it back up as he retreated into a gigantic sinkhole that was more "mire" than body of water.

Shampoo raised her laser rifle.

"That'll just make it harder to find," Ranma said with a sigh, gently pushing the Amazon's weapon down and off target.

"I guess we could just leave it?" Ukyou asked.

"It'll go in one end and out the other. And since we don't have a blaster bomb handy..."

Handing Shampoo his rifle instead, and making one great leap off the branch, the martial artist landed with a wet splash amid the sparse fen ferns. Slapping his hands, Ranma advanced on the giant beast. The instant he got close enough, the head extended via a long almost prehensile neck.

Swallowing him in one bite.

"Oh. I do believe Saotome-taichou's been eaten."

* * *

"..."

"..."

"So, yeah, that happened." Ranma shrugged. "Almost as bad as dealing with the Orochi."

"_Almost_ as bad?" Ryu asked, drawing back a bit.

"That's not a fight we like to talk about."

The officer didn't elaborate. Not with the crossdressing and pretending to be a sexy maiden and all that crap. For a reason most would misinterpret, Ranma Saotome's whole body shuddered. ... Also Akane had been in danger, but Akane was _always_ in danger in those kinds of situations. Grown men in drag, on the other hand, definitely ruined the fight, even when it was against a legendary monster.

"Anyway," Ranma insisted, flicking some sticky ooze from his hand. "I'll be taking a double dose in decon, if nobody minds."

Yankee chose that moment to enter, and at the lead, their tiniest member pointed glaringly.

Ranma held up a single index finger.

"Not one damn word, Jinx."

* * *

Ryouga Hibiki, acting Major for the extended Operation Pathfinder, found himself staring at six of the remaining alien stasis chambers. They were all that remained in the Harvester's storage bay. All the digestion tubes had been flushed and the contents burned along with the aliens that had planned, in time, to devour those victims. The actual samples taken by the aliens for their research had been seized, isolated, and packed for retrieval. His personal inclination had been to destroy them as well, but Command and the scientists back at the base would expect him to bring them back. So he would.

All that was left now were the six hairy primitive xenos kept in the stasis chambers. All were females impregnated with alien-altered fetuses. He'd seen this many times before back home; it was all too typical of the damned Sectoids. By some estimates, twenty percent of humans on Earth had at least some hereditary alien modifications. By other estimates, that number was over fifty percent. It was invisible in most people.

In a very select few over the last decade or so... the changes weren't exactly _invisible_. Or subtle. Or perhaps it was simply that people had stopped exposing obviously alien-looking children out for the elements to kill and that the aliens themselves weren't getting to re-harvest them with XCOM interference. The fact remained that there were XCOM run orphanages full of psionically gifted Sectoid-human hybrids, and in a couple decades time, there would be large adult populations of them. What the Hell would happen then?

Ryouga himself had helped rescue dozens of the infants and children.

It could be that they were, in the long run, the future of humanity. Even if the aliens were driven from the star system, even if they were pushed out of Earth's little galactic backyard, their work would live on. Humanity as a whole would carry that fact in its collective genetic code forever. Whatever "mankind" could have been... it wouldn't be. It was too late to go back, for better or for worse.

These native aliens, though, were another story. They were uncontaminated, and they would remain so... if the test fetuses were destroyed here and now. It was entirely possible to do so, even without harming or waking the aliens in the tubes. Yet... even if one considered the fetuses "enemy alien" - a hypocrisy, since he didn't consider the hybrid children he'd saved to be really less human - should they really be destroyed just for that? What did HQ do with all the biological... stuff... that they brought in after assaults on alien bases and Abductors and Battleships?

Even leaving that question aside, should the alien "plans" for these native aliens simply be allowed to proceed? Should the artificial genes just be allowed to pass down, from general to generation, doing God knows what? Was there some intrinsic right a sapient species had to not be fucked with on the genetic level? Surely it wasn't strange to think so. Shouldn't "preserving" that integrity be worth something? That was a slippery slope even he could see.

He couldn't bring them with him.

He had to let them go.

The question was just: to purge the modified fetuses or not?

Despite his distracted state, the Acting Major sensed a presence approaching even before the side bay door opened. It was useful, since there was no sound of footprints to accompany this particular individual as she floated into the two story open area. Turning his head to the side, he noted Starfire gliding gracefully across the floor - such a useful ability, though he himself preferred to be grounded in a fights.

The alien girl was clad only in a loose t-shirt and a pair of shorts, obviously having gone through decon not too long ago. She'd be back in armor before they headed back to Pathfinder. The lack of attire brought one notable feature to sharp focus, as the intricate series of tattoos that he had personally painted across her entire body were now on display for the entire ship to see. Starfire had been fully dressed at the start of the mission, and had been wearing her helmet for most of the time, so it was easy to forget the dark lines crossing her face and the rest of her skin.

But now, it was impossible not to stare. He could only imagine what Ukyou and Shampoo... or even Nabiki, for that matter, were thinking, seeing not only Starfire, but Jinx so wildly decorated. It wasn't just decoration, but a physical mark that these two had shown the initiative to take another step in their training that even Shampoo was not yet prepared to take. Though that was mostly because of the Amazon's naturally weak ki generating Manipura.

Not sure why, Ryouga had the odd impression that Jinx would take no small pleasure in making sure that certain others were well aware of that fact. Regardless, what was done, was done and he didn't regret it. He remained silent as the Tamaranian floated past him, resting an artfully painted hand against one of the tubes as she studied the alien within with rapt interest. Eventually, it was her that finally broke the silence.

"So... will you release them?"

"Yeah," he answered in the affirmative. "Before we leave. It shouldn't be too hard on them."

Hopefully the aliens, once released, would be able to make their way back to their respective villages. Perhaps it wasn't ideal to leave them to their own devices like this, but it was the best they could do for the time being. The natives here had seen enough 'mysterious bright lights in the distance' to last them generations.

"That is good," Starfire replied with a beaming smile. She spent another moment, almost as if she were memorizing the faces of the contained aliens. And then, she turned around and began to float from the room.

"I hope you are right, that they have not been too ... what is the term - traumatized? - by this," she quietly asked. "They seem like a strong race."

"They're certainly physically quite powerful," Ryouga agreed. "From what we've gathered, pretty much none of them knew what was going on. The one we captured here was from the village you visited, and thought the aliens were 'ancestors' or something like that. The aliens had given him cybernetics to lengthen his lifespan and control him, just like with that corrupt politician you guys caught back at the terror site."

Starfire shook her head, grinning at the Hibiki. "Their physical strength is not what I was referring to. I have seen their community; they are a strong people. They will learn and adapt from this ordeal, likely to become all the stronger for having endured it."

He smiled shallowly, seeing now what she meant.

"We've done what we can to help, I think," he replied, crossing his arms to stare again at the troublesome tubes and the aliens within.

He didn't want to add that there was one last knot to untie. It was kind of embarrassing to admit he was at something of a loss. Everything else had gone over easily enough, even removing the enthralled natives with alien sympathies. There were only two, after all, and Ranma had dealt with the other one quietly and discretely. It was something they had done with human sympathizers often enough, like the bastards in the Sirius Group. So... that was familiar territory. Distasteful, familiar territory. This other matter less so.

What would the Captains do? More to the point: what would Command want done?

"Is there something amiss?"

He blinked, a bit surprised by Starfire's question.

"You are doing the tapping with your index finger," she said, and pointed to his right hand, where, sure enough, his index finger was tapping steadily against his left bicep. "I have noticed when our Ryouga is nervous about something, he sometimes does the same. It is the finger you first learned the breaking point with, is it not?"

The finger froze, by force of will.

"I... didn't know I did that. I wasn't even thinking." He frowned momentarily. He and the Titan Hibiki didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things anymore, due to their divergences, but they still had many similar root traits. What else could Starfire guess from his body language? It was strange having a relative stranger know your nervous tick.

Not so _bad_, though, just a bit strange.

"There is something," he finally admitted. "You've seen some of what the aliens, especially the types we fought here, do. Each one of these native xenos carry an alien modified..." Seeing Starfire staring at him with huge green eyes, he almost refrained from saying fetus. "An alien modified fetus. We don't know what changes they've made to the native genome, either."

The Tamaranian Princess nodded. "Ah, I... see. You believe that your superiors would be interested in what might possibly result from such modifications, and are unsure if you should release the aliens, or take them back for further research?"

"Yes. Well, we wouldn't be taking them back, so much. We don't experiment on aliens in that way, and there's no room." His finger resumed tapping. "I'd be removing the fetuses and putting them in storage. ... I assume they'd be studied and ultimately destroyed back at Seiran. Either that, or I release the aliens and let nature take its course."

"So, of course, you will choose the latter," Starfire concluded. "Since even attempting such an operation would likely be lethal in and of itself, let alone condemning unborn infants to death."

"The mothers' safety isn't an issue in the removal process. They'll be fine either way." It would have been convenient if he couldn't just take the little buggers out, but they were just thumb sized clusters of cells at this point. The tubes had retrieval functions programmed in that would do the trick.

"As for the..." he preferred not to say infants. "Fetuses, maybe you should ask if they should even be there in the first place. These natives were abducted, implanted, raped by technological means. Should we basically force these mothers to carry these modified children to term? Who even knows what stigma they'll face in their tribes, now that we've excised the alien sympathizers. In human women... we give them the choice of having an abortion or not and put them in protective custody to prevent repeat-abduction. I can't do that here."

Starfire tapped a finger against her chin.

"So, you would destroy them before they were even given the chance to develop? As you have said, all alien influence has been excised... so why destroy them? Who can know how they might grow? Is it not possible for them to transcend those creatures which engineered them, and become something greater?"

He nodded, having thought the same.

"Yes, individually. But isn't it also possible those embryos could grow into exactly what the aliens want? Over who knows how many generations and centuries... what if these native aliens, who developed this far by themselves, become thoroughly hybridized by the altered sub-species in their midst? No: what we're talking about could even be seen as abetting the long term alteration of an entire race of sentient beings. Should you stop an unethical researcher, but allow his unethical research to continue in his absence?"

Starfire giggled at that notion. She then held out her arms to the side.

"Very well then. I will not try to steer your decision further. However, I say this. Whatever fate you decree for these pre-infants, you must also inflict upon me. For am I not also the 'unethical research' of an 'unethical researcher'? Is not my existence an affront to pure Tamaranians? Should I not be removed from the gene pool, lest my tainted genetics infect the whole of my species?"

"Obviously you don't kill the pretty aliens. It's an unspoken rule," he joked, smiling a bit. "Judging by your theatrics, you seem to know I'm going to be letting them go."

"But of course." In a shocking move, the alien beauty suddenly flew forward, wrapping her arms around his neck. Then, even more unexpected, she planted a small kiss on his cheek. "Like my own Ryouga, you are a good person, no matter what hardships or tribulations you may have endured. You would no more harm an innocent than you would harm someone as 'pretty' as myself."

"Ranma always did say I was weak kneed when it came to cute girls," he admitted, rather enjoying the impromptu show of affection... and solidarity. It reinforced his own decision on the matter, a decision that had been brewing and hoping for justification. That needed a second opinion to agree, even though he was in command, and shouldn't be trying to pass on the buck or defer decision making. In a crisis situation, he had to make the call, _alone_, and take the heat for it afterwards.

It... was an often unpleasant feeling, worse now without a Captain or Commander around.

"Your me is damn lucky to have a friend like you, Starfire, you know that?" he asked, but the good mood and levity was tempered by the decisions he's suddenly found himself having to make. "I joined up to fight and follow orders. To get revenge and fight until I got killed. That changed over time, but... I'm no good at making snap judgments and decisions, not like Saotome is. I've made so many stupid decisions, so many wrong moves... am I really the type to lead? I wonder."

The alien powerhouse tightened her hug, almost crushing even his mighty Hibiki frame, before releasing him and floating back, a teasing smile on her lips.

"And with each passing moment, you sound more and more like the Ryouga from my world. I am certain that you are able to imagine just how often he has asked himself that very same question since coming here."

Clasping her hands together before her, she floated from side to side a bit as she regarded him. "It is true that there are some people that appear born to lead, such as my dear friend, Robin... but I feel that as long as your heart is true, than you will find that it leads you true more often than not..."

A pause. "Well... maybe not _your_ heart."

"I dunno. I'd say the Hibiki heart is more reliable than the Hibiki brain when it comes to... actually, most things..." He grimaced at the admission.

That actually caused the alien to roll her eyes dramatically. "Actually, I have found, much to my chagrin, that the Hibiki heart takes even longer than his feet to find its way to where it is meant to be."

Ryouga scratched his chin. Combined with some of what he knew before, thanks to Raven, that sounded almost as if...

"Sounds like there's some backstory there."

Starfire just stared at him through lidded eyes. "I am sure that you know much of said back story yourself. I am certain that Ranma would be more than glad to regale us with tales of a certain 'double date' which you went on in your own past."

"Ranma and his stupid stories!" Ryouga dismissively declared. As if they weren't true. "You'd think we were some high school soap opera with everyone dating everyone else at some point."

"Or, rather, with no one dating anyone, but striving with all of their might to do so," Starfire corrected a bit too cheerfully. "Perhaps it is not merely Hibiki's which are so lost when it comes to matters of love, but the very act of training in the martial arts which stunts the development of emotional maturity."

"At least we aren't cutting off body parts or mutilating ourselves for love, like some artists..." he then quietly noted. "Just for the Art..." A cough quickly stifled that line of thought. It was The Art after all!

"Okay, Miss emotionally mature alien girl," he said instead. "Since you've helped me with this little dilemma, and we're all waiting for the science stuff to finish up, how about a little _ting jing_ training to pass the time? I'll tame those super powered thumbs of yours."

"Proceed at your own risk, feeble human! I would hate to relieve you of the one feature which elevates humans above the other mammals which populate your planet." With a wicked grin, Starfire held out her hand and wiggled her thumb about tauntingly.

He cracked his knuckles eagerly.

"Give an alien a couple super powers and she thinks she owns the place?" he headed over to an open area, and the two locked hands. "I'll bring you down to Earth!"

In retrospect, it probably wasn't the most dignified hour spent on this mission, but command and responsibilities aside, it was certainly the most fun.

* * *

There was virtually nothing left of the First Branch Expedition.

This was worrying. This was _unsatisfactory_. The guiding Point Mind considered the possibilities and evaluated the data collected by the navigation pair. The Harvester on the ground had completely dissappeared from hyperwave and particle displacement detection. An emergency psi-probe of the area confirmed what had already been predicted.

The First Branch was gone. _Annihilated_.

Above the alien world, a newly arrived Terror Ship floated freely in high orbit. The servitor minds within soon detected trace, pulverized, production alloy still in low orbit. A theory was postulated that the First Branch Expedition had taken off, suffered engine failure, and blown up above the planet. Much of the rest of the mass had then fallen, unpowered, into the gravity well and burned up in-atmosphere. The servitor minds disagreed as to the likelihood of this occurrence, though all agreed it was not near zero. Accidents did happen, even among their race.

Floating in its titian robes, the Point Mind was not convinced. The Ship should have been delivering additional supplies to the First Branch, while picking up equally valuable processed food and genetic stocks. Progress reports would also be taken and passed on, in time, to the Fleet Point Mind. This was an unexpected and unfortunate interruption of normal duties. This was _unsatisfactory_. The Fleet did _not_ have a replacement Harvester to spare. No others would be forthcoming to pick up where the First Branch left off.

Further scans revealed that the natives were ignorant of the incident that had occurred on their world. Though not generally used for abduction and psionic investigation, the Terror Ship was nonetheless capable. Natives were discretely taken from near the First Branch's former location. None saw anything of value. The research site was a scorched ruin with only circumstantial forensic evidence left behind.

The Point Mind thought again on the circular hole cut into the forest canopy below. There was only one that appeared recent. The old insertion site was already partly overgrown. This new point of ingress and egress was large enough to accommodate a Harvester, again implying it had taken off. Or been forced to take off. Yet, in an emergency of that nature, distress beacons would be launched to inform arriving Point Minds about what had occurred. Failures would not be repeated.

Yet there was nothing concrete.

Only the continued and confirmed existence of some of the research samples, recorded during the Point Mind's previous visit and passed on to the Fleet Mind, acted as a saving grace. Though no replacements would be forthcoming in the immediate future, the work done by First Branch would continue in a fashion. There was thus no need to take further action against the native species. There was too much risk now of interference. It was also not immediately obvious which of the natives were marked for culling and which for experimentation and harvest.

Stocks would have to be replenished elsewhere.

The Point Mind felt an increased concern for the mission. Whatever had occurred to the First Branch could not be allowed to spread. The Fleet Mind and Fleet Base were having enough difficulties as things were. A thought persisted, percolating up from within the servitors, and striking a cord with the Ethereal.

_Humans_.

Could the humans have followed? Were they launching strikes across the dimensional divide? Did the humans have a fragment of The Anomaly; of The Traveler? The Point Mind's atrophied body tensed as telekinetic powers sympathetically drew together muscle and sinew. It was unlikely, but always a possibility. Their interference could not be allowed. It had taken millennia to bring another Traveler to their dimension. If the humans were involved, they could not have more than a fragment or two, even assuming the one on board the First Branch had been taken.

Precautions would have to be taken.

And countermeasures.

To this end, even so far removed, even isolated and alone, all extensions of The Mind would forever be bound to Serve.


	26. Homebound 1

_**A/N**_  
Slightly short chap as a new Chapter Series begins. Why? You'll see at the end.  
Damn cliffhangers don't always conform to the set number of pages we'd prefer.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Homebound_

Chapter 25

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Tonight, Akari let Jinx into her dreams instead of vice versa. It was, to the pink haired girl's annoyance, one big pig farm. She knew the actual Unryu Farm just couldn't be this big, or this rich, but it was Akari's dream so she tried to reign in the criticism a little. It was a nice retreat from the true weirdness she'd encountered off world recently anyway.

"Hyo!" Ryouga said with a flourish, flipping one of the giant sumo pigs onto its back. He motioned with his hands, pointing to his stomach and then the floor. "Lower," he told the animal. "Center of balance should be lower. Root yourself in position to resist the throw."

Of course, knowing either of their Ryougas, they could just as easily have tossed the giant animal straight into the air. It only weighed a ton or so, after all.

"I always loved watching Ryouga-sama train the pigs," Akari said, stepping out into the wooden patio adjacent to the farmhouse. Her bare feet made no noise on the cool stone tiles, flanked by immaculate gardens. She still wore her metallic-orange robes, but held a tray of lemonade on her hands.

"Hyup!" Ryouga tossed another of the elephant sized critters.

"I could never do the upper body strength throws, as you can imagine," she explained, handing one of the dew laden drinks to her dimensionally displaced friend. "We'd have trained an unbeatable champion together, if we'd only had the time."

"Yup," Jinx drawled. "Two piggy people, raising big piggy champions to fight other big piggies... I can't imagine why Ryouga would ever have walked away from this kind of bliss."

"You just don't get the excitement that comes from managing a stable full of champions!" Akari maintained, and sat down on one of the reclining chairs next to the witch. Sipping some of the lemonade with a straw, she followed the comments up with a shrug.

"To each their own," she decided.

"That's putting it mildly. Anyway, aside from watching the Lost Boy get all physical with a one ton porcine, why are we here again?" The pink haired girl narrowed her eyes and regarded Akari warily. "This kind of stuff doesn't ... turn your crank, does it?"

"Hey, I happen to like seeing manly men do manly things," she replied with another shrug. A little bit of color flushed her cheeks a petite pink. "Ryouga-sama beating anything up always kind of got me going, to tell the truth. And I _do_ love pigs." She gave Jinx a small smile. "Don't tell me you don't enjoy seeing your Ryouga beat up some metahumans back home?"

The former villainess shrugged. "Except in my case, the people that Ryouga is fighting are usually hot pieces of ass themselves, and not, you know, PIGS, so I can appreciate both combatants just fine."

She gestured to the display before them. "Seein' our boy up there fighting a potential side dish for my morning breaking of the fast falls somewhat short of that entertainment value."

"Should I list the many wonderful traits of Sus domestica?" Akari asked, taking another leisurely sip. "Or just reiterate that I apparently like pigs more than most? And as for eating them... you've heard of thousand dollar Kobe beef? The Unryu Farm proudly had the pork equivalent." She frowned a little, adding, "It's about the only part of our operation that made money. Times have been tough on small farmers here in Japan."

"Yeah, life's rough all round, from what I hear," Jinx replied, taking a sip of her drink as well. "Unfortunately, no one ever seemed to understand my 'Broken Window' theory as to how to stimulate the economy."

"Probably because theft is only tolerated when its corporate types doing it," Akari joked, leaning over a bit to provide some friendly advice, "Try stealing mutual funds next time."

"Bwkee!" A small black form squealed and hopped up onto Akari's lap.

"Oh, P-chan!" The pig farmer cooed, and snuggled the adorable little porker into her chest. A second later, Jinx coughed, and Akari returned a defensive look.

"He's so cute!" she insisted. "And I know I'm not the only girl to think so."

"Bwee!" the piglet agreed heartily.

"So who would you want to see your Ryouga beat up?" Akari asked, still snuggling the little pig. Lifting a finger, she conjured up a brief image of a silly looking man in spandex. "That kind of guy?" followed by a picture of a sword wielding bishoshen right out of an anime. "This kind of guy?" followed again by a dark, pale, vaguely vampire-esque pretty boy. With sparkles. Damn sparkles."Or maybe this type?"

Jinx's lip twisted up into a grin. "Akari - Akari - Akari. Why so small minded? We are in the world of imagination, after all. Why have him fight some random dope, when-"

The younger woman lifted her own finger, and gave it a twirl just for the added flair. A moment later, the vampire wannabe shifted into a far more familiar form.

It was another Ryouga, only a very much different one from the one already present. This Ryouga oozed danger and intrigue from every pore... no mean feat considering the skin tight leather pants he was wearing. Jinx rested her chin on her upraised hand and let out a quiet purr. "Hmmm, now I don't have to worry about _who_ wins."

"Hey, why is there another me over there?" Ryouga walked up the patio steps, wiping his hands on a muddy rag. "And how did he fit into that stupid outfit?"

"Huh. It took centuries of practice to fit into these pants," the other Ryouga haughtily replied. "Yet," he dramatically monologued. "It came at a terrible price."

"What? You can't get them off?"

"No!"

"They crushed your balls?"

"... **die**."

"Oh, Jinx. It took you all of an hour and now you're turning my nice clean dream into a smutty, shirt tearing, Chippendale show," Akari observed, scratching P-chan behind the ear with a free hand.

"I _know_," Jinx replied in an honestly astonished voice. "I'm just as surprised at my restraint as you are. You must be rubbing off on me, Miss Priss."

Akari stared at her through lidded eyes.

"I should probably object, but I guess I'll allow it." She paused a moment, and glanced back at Jinx out of the corner of her eye. "So, I assume you've been off on more adventures in wonderland?"

"Meh." Jinx gave a noncommittal, disinterested shrug. "I suppose if you're into picturesque jungle worlds. We got to blow stuff up, though, so it wasn't _all_ bad."

"You... blew stuff up this time?" The pig farmer sounded politely interested. "I hope no one got hurt?"

"Not that I know of... but I'm pretty sure that Ryouga and Ranma pulled some black ops stuff behind our backs." Jinx frowned, but looked otherwise unaffected. "No one else really asked, but I know there were a few 'loose ends' that needed to be tied up."

A flicker of emotion crossed Akari's otherwise pleasantly presented face, and her middle finger scratched P-chan by accident, causing it to grunt in annoyance. With a hop, it jumped off her lap and onto the floor.

"I see." And she did. Quite clearly. "Well," she continued in her previous tone. "How resourceful. You sound as if you didn't have much trouble at all dealing with the situation there."

The witch replied with another careless shrug. "Just a ship full of Bulb-heads. Nothing to even slow us down. I don't think anyone so much as got a scratch. Only real trick was clearing their influence out of the alien villages."

"You're so fearless, Jinx," Akari said with a hint of awe. "I'd be terrified if I were in your situation. Who knows what horrible things could be waiting for you on your next mission? Shouldn't you be happy or… or relieved… when things are easy?"

"If things are easy, it just makes you soft for when things get hard again," Jinx stated, matter-of-factly. She favored Akari with a playful nudge. "I mean, sure, it'd be nice to take things easy, but we don't live that kinda life, so I'd rather things keep interesting! Plus, it helps me keep my edge, ya know?"

"I do know," the Trenchard admitted, a little sadly. "Just remember, the finer the edge, the easier it breaks. ...I read that in a book somewhere. Or was it a TV show? Well, I think you get the idea. And I'm sure things will get more 'interesting' the closer you get to the primary EDC."

"I kinda doubt it," Jinx refuted, rolling her wrist dismissively. "I already know what we're up against. What they had in their little fleet. An Ethereal so weak that it couldn't even mind crush lil 'ol me."

Seeing Akari give her the look, Jinx chuckled.

"Okay. Little old us," she amended. "And a bunch of bulb heads, some Floaters, and a pack of Reapers that's long overdue for extermination." The sorceress' pink eyes narrowed at that last bit. "One shaggy bastard in particular is just begging to be put down."

The other girl remembered that Ethereal well, but made no other effort to contradict her friend's assessment of the situation. Instead:

"Onishi was the prize of his litter. A bred champion." Akari mused, and glared. "He also tried to bite me in half. Even a champion has no right to turn on his creator."

"Oh, man, if I had a nickel for every time I heard a mad scientist say that!" Jinx giggled into her hand. "I mean, it's practically a trope or cliché or something!"

Standing up, the lithe girl stretched out her back, letting out a sigh of relief. "I bet in my world, you probably would have found yourself slighted in some ludicrous way, and started raising your massive sumo pigs to try to take over the world. Maybe you'd have been Swine Girl, or the Porcine Proletariat! Or the Baconator!"

Akari joined her friend in standing back up, and broke up the ongoing Hibiki battle in the background with a wave of her hand. She gave Jinx a serious look.

"I don't see why I would need a thematic name at all?" She asked, but did consider the scenario. "Since this is all in America, how about an English version of my last name? Cloud Dragon? It is also a sumo wrestling style, so that fits, too."

"You can't think of anything cool that involves pigs in the name, can you?"

"Not one that translates, no," Akari admitted, but quickly grinned. "How about 'The Tamer'? And I've have an army of pigs with stolen meta-human powers!"

Jinx tapped a finger to her chin, concentrating hard for a moment.

"I... think you'd be good with that. I can't think of anyone else that goes by the Tamer. And an army of meta-piggies is definitely not the zaniest thing I've heard of."

Nodding to herself, the young Yankee slammed a dainty fist into her palm. "Alright, it's decided then! We get you back to my world, and we become a villainous super team, taking the world over in a storm of badluck and a flood of supernatural ham."

Akari's face fell. "I don't have any special techniques, though..."

"Don't sweat that! Tons of big names don't have any real special moves to speak of!" Jinx enthused. "You'd be surprised how far you can get in the business with a positive attitude, a gimmick, and a good costume!" She gave the pig trainer a poke in the chest. "Speaking-of, the costume really is key, and you can't go around wearing that old thing. Why don't you swap it out for something new?"

"This?" Akari asked, pinching a bit of the Ethereal's habit. Jinx nodded.

"That! Think up something new. And sexy! Gotta be sexy!"

"I... I can't," the Japanese girl softly replied. "Even here, I..."

"What?" Jinx pressed, coking her head and getting a bit closer. "What's wrong?"

Akari looked up at the house, quickly, but it was a motion the other girl caught. She turned and saw something move behind one of the windows. Jinx knew Akari had a grandfather, an important person in her life to be sure, but she'd never actually seen him. Was that him?

"Who-?"

"I can't... I can't take this off," Akari said, backing up and clutching the robes. "It's like my skin. I can't. I'm sorry."

A deep frown creased Jinx's lips. "I... see."

And then, just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished. Immediately, the young woman clapped a hand down on her shoulder. "Yeah, well I guess it's for the best. I've seen you naked, after all, stripping you down wouldn't be doing anyone any favors."

"Thank you, Jinx. I - I knew you'd understand." She stressed the next three words strongly. "_I am sorry._ It's... just how things are right now. For now."

She felt Jinx's narrow hand squeeze down on her shoulder, and for just a moment, she noticed a flash of genuine remorse sweep across her face like so much dust on a breeze.

"I'm sorry, too... I wish things weren't like this, either. We just... each have to be true to ourselves, as much as we can... and hope that's enough."

Akari's left hand found Jinx's and squeezed it for comfort.

The girl seemed to struggle to speak, settling for another tight squeeze.

"I... hope that will be enough," she finally managed to say, voice thick with emotion and determination. "More than anything, I hate that I've put you through this."

"But..."

In the darkness of her confinement, White Iron's brows creased.

"But I..."

WILL ALWAYS

And behind dead, white eyes, something stirred, despite the psionic restraints.

_Must Always -_

SERVE

* * *

It was oddly quiet in the cafeteria - not surprising, considering the time of night. All good soldiers and officers (not on night shift) were already in bed, but that didn't stop the trio currently taking up space in the large room. The dim lights were welcome mood to the three, used to operating in the dark as they were.

Jinx took a drink from the water bottle she'd brought from her room. This late, there was no food laid out for them, but the room was still conveniently open, just in case anyone felt the need to stop by. Once she was sated, she lowered the bottle and pointed it at the closest of her companions. Mousse quickly pulled his arm back, just in time for the few drops of water which splashed out from the bottle to hit the table instead. He narrowed his eyes at her slightly, but said nothing.

"So then Akari forced me to watch her Ryouga fighting some ten ton pig, like it was supposed to be impressive or something."

"I never could imagine pigs being very effective as trained fighters, no matter how large," Konatsu commented, sleepily resting his cheek against his hand, elbow lazily propped up on the table. "Not like a good ninja dog..."

"A strangely vivid dream," Mousse said, readjusting his hands back to a comfortable cross in front of him. "Especially since you've never even seen a sumo pig."

"Well," Jinx muttered, "Me and Akari did spend some time sharing the same brain for a bit, so who knows what else I picked up from her during that?"

"Do the terms Gasshohineri or Sukuinage ring a bell?" The gender inverted kunoichi asked.

A bit tired herself, Jinx just shook her head in the negative.

"She didn't get any of the sumo related stuff, I'm guessing," Konatsu reasoned.

"We've all been under stress with these off world missions," Mousse began, adjusting his glasses as he rationalized the situation. "Not to mention all the time we're spending outside the Mind Shield. I've been having dreams, too, since we came back from leave. It'll take time to readjust to being under the shield, that's all."

"You think so?" Jinx asked, perking up a bit. "I've kinda been having these dreams for awhile now... but only when I'm under the mindshield, really, not when we're on missions."

"That shouldn't be right," Konatsu said, while Mousse cupped his chin with a curled index finger.

"Maybe being here is troubling your subconscious," the Master of Hidden Weapons suggested after a moments contemplation and conjecture. "Or you're projecting this as a kind of escape or self expression? It's strange enough that you're dreaming basically every night here. As far as I know, everyone else just nods off."

"And we know..." Konatsu caught what he was about to say and reworded it a bit. "We've all been on examination tables and had psi-dampeners on. It can't really be what you're thinking it is. I-S would be monitoring psionic readings down there twenty four hours a day. Something like that would show up. People would detect it."

Jinx shrugged. "Like I know anything about that kinda stuff. I'm just having weird dreams is all. Didn't you say you were having some odd dreams of your own, Mousse?"

The ale Amazon coughed, self consciously. "Ah-hm, yes. For the first time in weeks, I dreamt about the village." About his home. "It was rather… jarring."

"You mean the attack?" Konatsu asked, concerned.

Mousse shook his head. "No, but it was always kind of in the background. Robe was there, and everything was... kind of different. Perfume was there, too, even though she was exiled before I was born. It was really strange, and I kept expecting, any minute, that if I left the attack would come and I'd be left to pick up the pieces."

"Attack?" Jinx asked, curious. "Something happen or something?"

Mouse frowned, inching his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"The Sirius Group developed a chemical weapon based on Chryssalid venom," Konatsu explained, twiddling his fingers and staring down at them. "We were attacking the cargo ship where they made the stuff... they had been testing it off Pilipino captives, which tipped us off... it was the first mission where we, you know..."

"Killed people," Mousse out and said it. "And it wasn't your first kill or mine."

Konatsu nodded; that was true, though the previous kills weren't ones he considered as... _justified_.

"Shampoo had warned the village," Mousse continued, explaining it in an analytical tone that tried not to betray its anger. "Cologne, the Trenchard one, was still loose, and undermined our efforts to get the village to listen or even go on alert. The Elders: Sink, Pill, Fan, and Pillow, decided to do nothing. Sirius traitors launched their attack in the night. By the time we got there, not only had the aliens landed to pillage Jusendo and Jyusenkyou, but the entire village had become infected. Disposable bodies to stop us from intervening. We saved some outlying towns, rescued a few survivors, but everything else had to be razed to the ground."

"It was a... long night," Konatsu said softly.

"Mm." Mousse agreed with a grunt. "I'd rather not have dreams that remind me of it."

"Sounds rough," Jinx nodded, gloomy look on her face. "I had a long night kinda like that once... but it wasn't my home or anything, so I doubt I can really understand what that must have been for you guys."

"We found those responsible," Mousse said, and his cold tone indicated their fates. "What matters now is building a new village; taking those three thousand years of history into a new millennium. If you dwell too long on tragedy, it becomes a like a wire trap that slowly chokes you to death..." He shook his head again, more vigorously than before. "Don't worry about it. My usual dreams are about dates with Shampoo. Those I enjoy."

"Dates with Shampoo? Ugh!" Jinx rolled her eyes. "To each their own, I suppose, though I'll never understand it."

"Oh, but Shampoo is beautiful, ferocious, ruthless...! A true warrior, willing to do anything for victory! But with a tiny soft spot, too..." he sighed longingly. "She was always loyal to her comrades, even when she was a little girl in the Yang Yu. The lashing she took from Sink on behalf of her troop was legendary; even the male children heard of it. And she was kind to me when I was still getting used to my eyesight, when every other girl her age teased me or mocked me. What can I say?" he asked, and smiled distantly. "It was love."

That actually caught Jinx off guard. Leaning forward, she stared at Mousse intently. "Well... so what happened to change Shampoo so much, then?"

"Nothing. She's still nice to little children." He scratched his cheek. "Asking her to marry me ten minutes later, in front of all her friends, probably wasn't wise... in retrospect. I probably also shouldn't have kept interrupting her training to keep declaring my undying love for her..." he trailed off a bit. "And following her around like a lost puppy didn't help either..."

"Ahhh," Jinx 'ahh'd'. "So _you_ turned Shampoo from the sweet, considerate girl willing to walk through hell for her comrades into the vindictive ... 'girl' she is now?"

"Hey, no! It wasn't me!" Mousse all but cried, and quickly composed himself. "If anyone, I'd blame Pink and Link. They tried to kill her once, when she was little, and she spent every year since them routinely beating them up. Like an anniversary. She was always a little ruthless, as I said, but that wasn't considered a bad thing among the Joketsuzoku."

"Um," Konatsu interrupted. "What was this kindness from before?"

"She helped me up once when I fell."

The ninja boy opened his mouth, but quickly shut it.

_"I'm not one to criticize, I suppose,"_ he quietly muttered to himself.

"You guys are _both_ soooo pathetic." Jinx shook her head sadly. "It's a wonder you two can even talk to a girl, considering how hopeless you are."

"Hey!" Konatsu objected... meekly. "We are _not_ pathetic. I mean. Not really… are we?"

"Eh." Mousse just shrugged. "I guess we are kinda pathetic. When it comes to women. But bear in mind the kind of role models we have."

Perverted martial arts masters, to be specific.

There did seem to be an oddly reoccurring correlation there.

"You see," Mousse continued with a growing smile. "The sexual frustration just builds and builds, and by the time you have fully trained martial artists, they inevitably become sex fiends and then perverted old men. Such is the cycle of life."

Jinx chuckled and gave a half hearted nod. "Well, considering the martial artists I know... yeah, that's pretty much right on the nose." She then looked up, wicked grin on her lips. "Though I don't plan on letting that kind of frustration build up that long, myself! I'm sure I can find some kind of ... outlet, before I turn into another Happosai…or Ranma."

"Please. Like it's hard for a girl to get laid if she wants to!" Mousse rolled his eyes behind thick glasses. "Not even including all the 'battle sororities' girls back at the village used to be part of. It's much harder for a guy, if you ask me."

Jinx rolled her eyes. Talk about a typical response!

"Well, _Duh!_" She leaned back in her chair, hands behind her head. "Hell, I could probably trick either one of you guys into bed in, like, five minutes, if I was actually so inclined." A pause. "Which I'm not. I'm just saying: Guys are so easy, you ought to be embarrassed of yourselves as a gender."

The eyes of the two boys assumed a hooded, humoring look. Mousse conscious adjusted his glasses again, and Konatsu crossed his arms defiantly.

"Our gender, Miss Jinx," the crossdressing ninja replied. "Has its benefits as well."

"Quite," Mousse couldn't resist. "And watching large numbers of women fall over themselves fighting over a guy who doesn't want them... well, it hasn't exactly been a glowing endorsement for the extra X chromosome."

"Ha! That _so_ doesn't count. I blame that entirely on the fact that all martial artists are completely insane." Jinx pointed an accusing finger at both boys. "And, again, like _you two_ are ones to talk. Have either of you ever heard of the term 'restraining order'?"

...

"You can't restrain love," Mousse answered, earning a few sweatdrops.

Jinx just stared at the bespectacled man through lidded eyes. "... Riiiiiight. Look, if you two agree that guys are the inferior gender - I'm pretty sure you already agree, Konatsu, considering all your good habits - then we can move on to new business."

"Maybe I'll admit that when you stop using my cosmetics..."

"Alright ladies." Mousse held out his hands, provoking an indignant huff from the resident 'professional' crossdresser. "I don't believe we'll settle the great gender debate tonight. Instead, I'd like to ask how we're doing with Shampoo?"

"You mean Operation Steel Mallard."

"... yes. That one."

"Say the name."

"That operation."

"Operation what?"

Mousse stuck out his chin, defiant in his opposition to the name.

Jinx giggled into her hand. "Alright then. An update on Operation Steel Mallard it is."

Tapping a finger to her chin, she considered the situation for a moment. "Well, Shampoo is pretty darn ticked, I know that much anyway. It's even starting to spill over into her and Ryouga getting into hissy fits too. I think we're well on our way... it's just that... well..."

"That you're having second thoughts about picking unnecessary fights?" Konatsu suggested, sounding hopeful. "That you'd rather we all get along like good friends?"

Jinx just looked at the ninja like he was every bit as insane as he'd just sounded. "What? No! It's just that, well, I'm not exactly sure how far we need to take this. I mean, if I push the alleycat to the snapping point, then her getting thrown into the brig for attempted murder wouldn't exactly help our case, here."

"We'll be having some two versus two team drills after the next mission, I think?" Mousse asked, not entirely sure of the date, and whether it was before or after the next Pathfinder op. "Hibiki and Saotome will have us paired up so we can get used to synchronizing techniques and the like. We could try and do it then. Ideally, you and your partner could beat Shampoo and whoever she's with, and then I can get 'revenge' for her."

Jinx's eyes lit up at that. "That's actually not too bad. It does give a good set up. And then, after I finish embarrassing you for a bit, we can wrap it up, and 'bang', you're Shampoo's hero again."

She reached over and grabbed Konatsu's hand. "And you can make sure that Ryouga doesn't kill Mousse here, once all is said and done. It's the perfect plan!"

Jinx and Mousse exchanged completely unsubtle conspiratorial thumbs up.

"But the whole thing is full of holes!" Konatsu objected. "Saotome-taichou and Hibiki-taichou will be making the teams and picking who fights who, and, and, AND...!" The male kunoichi's face fell at the unfazed looks on the faces of his two comrades. "And I guess I'll play along. Why not?"

"Yay for evil!" Jinx cheered, pumping her tiny fists into the air. "I love my assassin-y boys!"

She rubbed her chin. "We might need to find a way to get them to set up the proper teams, though..."

"That won't be nearly as hard as either of you think," Mousse said, sporting an evil grin of his own. "We don't need to rig the whole thing. We just need to make sure you and I aren't on the same team or you and Shampoo."

"And just how are you supposed to manage that?" Konatsu asked, skeptical.

"Oh ye of little faith..."

…

"So, I've been training a lot with Jinx lately."

"Really?" the native Ryouga asked, eyeing the hidden weapons master. "You and Jinx, huh? That's a surprise."

_'Guess I better not pair them up as a team later.'_

…

"Hey, Ranma!"

Said Saotome stopped, having been walking down the hall. He gave the pink haired girl a curious look, tucking a clipboard of planned activities and duty papers under his arm.

"Jinx. What's up?"

"I just wanted to say Shampoo and I are looking forward to being a team in those 2v2s later!" Jinx exclaimed with clear and totally honest enthusiasm.

Ranma gave a dismissive "Issatso?"

_'The point is to get together those types who don't normally mix and build their teamwork. Guess I'll have to strike Shampoo/Jinx off the list. Ha! Good thing Jinx was thoughtful enough to blurt out that random bit of information! Too bad for her and Shampoo!'_

Jinx peered at him a second, then skipped off, carefree. "Okay, thanks, bye!"

"Huh." Ranma scratched the base of his pigtail, perplexed - not for the first time - by the fairer and stranger sex, of which he occasionally timeshared a body. "Strange girl. Just strange."

…

Watching from within a nearby shadow, Konatsu just shook his head. Why, oh why, was everyone such an idiot when it came to stuff like this?

Of course, even while pondering that, a certain someone walked by.

"Miss Ukyou!"

Pesky details and glaring flaws in certain plans could be dealt with later.

* * *

Cyborg danced back, holding out his hands steadily; with each step, a dainty fist landed home in one or the other of the heavily padded gloves he wore. He raised his right hand several inches, catching jab, then shifted his left hand to the side, catching a snap kick. Giving a gentle shove, he pushed the leg back and sent his attacker stumbling backwards.

It took Raven a moment to regain her balance, a small frown on her lips as she regarded her bulky sparring coach. A moment later, she charged back in, trying to switch up her attacks as much as possible, but Cyborg's cybernetic reflexes were a bit too quick to let her land a hit on anything but glove. He let her keep up her offensive for another minute before sneaking out with a quick jab of his own, catching her in the chest and dropping her to her rear.

"Now that's no way to treat a lady."

Cyborg and Raven both looked to the bench running along the wall of the gym. Relaxing on said bench, Nabiki stretched out her arms and then covered her mouth for a small yawn.

"Honestly," she continued. "It's bad enough that Ryo-baby has us practicing with guns. I have no idea why you're training in hand to hand, too, and without even having anyone tell you to."

Rubbing her chest, Raven accepted Cyborg's offered hand and pulled herself to her feet. Staring at the Tendo woman through lidded eyes, she muttered, "You didn't have to join us, Nabiki. I just felt that, if I had to work on a physical activity anyway, then I should probably work on my combat training as well. I have been slacking of in that regard since arriving here."

Rolling her wrist lazily, Nabiki stretched and replied, "Well, if I had actually known that, when you used training with Cyborg as an excuse to duck out of firearms practice, that you had actually, y'know, _meant_ it, then I probably wouldn't have. Still, I suppose sitting here watching you wail on tall, dark and Teflon is better than playing around on the firing range. All that shooting was killing my ears."

"You know, you're welcome to join us any time ya want, Nabiki," Cyborg offered in his most charming voice. Lifting up his gloved hands, he prompted Raven to begin her assault anew with a nod of his head. A few light slaps of fist and foot on leather sounded as he began to back off again. "Giving Raven a sparring partner closer to her own speed would help the both of you out."

Somehow managing to lounge _more_ on the bench, the middle Tendo sister let out a bored yawn, quite readily displaying her thoughts on that score. "As if, Tin Man. And, really, Raven? You have an entire base filled with insanely skilled martial artists. Why would you raid the science section for a trainer?"

"Hey!" Cyborg barked, incensed. "I'll have you know that, not only am I a butt kicking crime fighter here, but I've got more than a few years of boxing training under my belt. And let me tell you, little Missy, Balrog kicks Ryu's pansy martial artist butt any day of the week!"

Rolling her eyes, Raven threw out another quick punch, hitting his left glove solidly. "There is also the fact that every other fighter on the base is deeply involved in their own ridiculous training. I don't really want to interfere with anyone else's regimen, and I don't even want to _think_ about what Starfire seems to be planning to do for her training. Cyborg is also the most durable person on the base by a wide margin, so I don't have to worry about harming him."

Both Cyborg's and Nabiki's gaze followed the arc of Raven's next snap kick, which slapped into the padded glove on Cyborg's right hand. Said impact didn't so much as make the sharp 'smack' one expected from a clean hit, let alone budge the titanium teen's bulky arm.

"Riiiiight," Nabiki drawled. "Maybe we should get Cyborg there some extra padding. We wouldn't want you to tear him apart with your bare hands there…"

Blushing slightly, Raven held up a hand. "… Admittedly, my hand to hand skills are… _slightly_ less potent without my telekinetic powers to bolster them…"

Cyborg burst out into laughter, patting her shoulder consolingly. Wiping a tear from his eye with his other hand, he shook his head in mirth.

"Oh, don't worry too much about it, Rae," he tried to sound more consoling and less outright amused. "It's not like you could'a even hurt me _with_ your powers. Ain't no shame in bein' realistic here."

Unfortunately for Cyborg, he realized he'd gone a step too far just a second too late. The evil glint that flashed through Raven's eyes was not nearly enough warning as her arm suddenly shot out. With him patting her shoulder, he was left wide open, and her dainty fist slammed his chest with pellet gun force-

An explosion of pain tore through the cybernetic teen, turning his whole world into a collage of rainbow colors. Clutching his chest with both hands, he dropped to his knees, gasping for air-

And just like that, the pain was gone, like it had never been… Understandably confused, Cyborg looked around for the cause. He found it easily enough as his eyes tracked up to Raven's grinning face. She held her fist up, somewhat victoriously.

"Can't hurt you, even with my powers, was it?"

Cyborg could only stare at her, too shocked to speak for a moment.. A second later, he was on his feet and typing away madly on the computer on his arm. Glaring at the dark Titan, he pointed at her accusingly with his free hand.

"Oh - _oh_, so that's how you're gonna play it, eh? Gonna fire pain stimuli right into my brain where I can't defend against it? Well you know what?" He hit the large green button on his arm and it began to hum, a small piece of paper beginning to pop out of it as the internal printer worked its magic. He then tore off the square of paper and handed it to her indignantly.

"Well that's a Dark Side Point for you, _Darth_ Raven! Yeah, how do ya like, _that_?"

Raven stared at the piece of paper, a large red circle printed on it, an indignant look on her face. She quickly looked around the room, and at Nabiki, but rather than crumple it up, she finally just grumbled darkly to herself and stuffed it into a pocket.

"Dark Side points? Oh man! I bet you have Serenity saved to that hard drive in your head, don't you?" Nabiki coughed to cover up a word that may or may not have been _'nerd_.'

Cyborg nearly choked on his own tongue at that accusation. "S-Serenity? Are you joking? Why would I want that utterly inferior summation of Firefly on any kind of recording medium at all, much less my precious hard drive?"

He stared at the Tendo girl, disbelieving, a smile broadening on his face. "Not that someone whose only window to science fiction is anime would understand what true genius is."

"I think Ive got enough scifi in my life right now as-is." Nabiki replied with a shrug. "At least you aren't at the point where you want to put pictures of naked girls on your equipment. A while back one of the flyboys got it in his otaku head to try and stencil a mascot on Firestorm Two. It definitely showed a certain... creativity with respect to how a girl might handle a plasma cannon, but the Commander didn't find it that funny. But if you want Firefly, I could burn a blu-ray for ya..."

Cyborg tried to stifle a chuckle at the concept of 'burning'. Not that he'd admit it, but he had a terrabyte of former torrents sitting right in his internal harddrive, to say nothing of what he had back home! Certain folders of which were most definitely not for polite conversation. Still, not wanting to appear rude, he waved off her offer kindly.

"Um, heh, yeah, thanks, I might take you up on that later... Besides, you`re way more nerd than you let on, 'Biki, I can smell it. I bet you've done a little cosplay in your day, haven't ya?"

For some reason, both girls got unusually quiet and hid their respective faces.

"Maybe a _little_," Nabiki eventually admitted with a light laugh. "Completely harmless fun."

Raven rolled her eyes, obviously annoyed at the derailment of her training. "Please don't mind him, Nabiki. He's just been overcompensating again. He's still sore that one of the women that brought him in, back in America, _correctly_ informed him that Star Wars was vastly superior to that _other_ _series_ that I won't deign to speak of."

"And somewhere in the cosmos," Nabiki predicted, straight faced. "A thousand angry fans scream in indignation."

"Ha!" Cyborg barked loudly. Pointing accusingly at Nabiki, he broke out into a wide grin. "You are so nerd! Maybe you'd be more interested in combat training if we started using Yugioh cards to fight instead?"

"You wound me, Cyborg!" Nabiki feigned shock and surprise, effortlessly flipping onto her feet. "By definition, girls aren't nerds, especially cute ones like me. No matter how many video games we play or how good we are at Halo or Counterstrike. We have estrogen based immunity."

Cyborg shook his head. "Heh, I'm afraid the community has changed on you, girl. Girls are geeks and nerds now too, no matter how cute they may be."

He paused. "Also, girls are physically incapable of being as awesome at Halo as guys. It's just a scientific fact," he assured her. "XBOX resonance or something."

"If we were online right now, I'd _so_ shoot you full of needles." The avaricious Tendo sister strolled over to the two Titans, but turned most of her attention to Raven. "Back to the point, Raven and I are the brains of our respective outfits. If it comes down to trading punches with some giant monster or alien... well!"

She retrieved a small, ubiquitous hammer from seemingly nowhere.

"This isn't exactly a gravity hammer, you know?" she asked, and spun it around before tossing it to the violet haired Titan. "Better not to get into the fight at all. You ask me, we should be practicing running away, not bruising our knuckles."

Rubbing her bruised knuckles, Raven offered the Tendo a wry grin. "I would agree with you completely... Unfortunately, Ranma has already infected me with his personal brand of insanity."

A serious expression settled over her features, and she cracked her knuckles loudly. Matching Nabiki's gaze intently for a moment, she then turned back to Cyborg and raised her fists.

"I don't **do** 'Running Away'."

"But it's so _easy_!" Nabiki insisted, and wore an overly crestfallen expression at who she was trying to convince. "Sigh." She said, not actually did. "I guess it can't be helped, what with the company I keep..."

Her eyes took on a deadly serious glint.

"Maybe this is the time to pass on my most deadly technique!" Her eyes glinted again, and she spun around, lunging at Cyborg. "Tendo Nabiki style! Black Evil Art Number One!"

Cyborg's electronic eye whirred and his organic eye widened in shock as light filled the room. He staggered back a step as realization set in.

"This - this is...?"

"That's right!" Nabiki declared, holding up a picture for just him to see, and letting him take it with trembling hands. "Kasumi. In a bathing suit. The same bathing suit that won her the beach party beauty contest last year."

Instantly, the picture was torn from his hands. He fumbled to reclaim the picture, but its new owner backed out of his reach quickly. Staring at the picture, disgust clear on her face, Raven looked first to Cyborg, then to Nabiki.

"Honestly, I have no idea _which_ of you is worst."

Grinning wickedly - having already captured a digital copy of the photo anyway, and not _really_ needing the hardcopy anymore – (though he still wanted it) Cyborg raised his hand quickly.

"Oh, that'd be me," he said with a cocksure chuckle. "Because I counter with-"

In a flash, he brought up the screen on his arm, and an image flashed to life in a resolution so fine that the picture nearly leapt out from his arm and into Nabiki's face.

"Ranma and Ryu, shirtless as they're helping me install the security system in the dojo!"

Of course, it was a cropped picture, as right alongside them, Natsume and Akane were also hard at work, wearing light t-shirts soaked with sweat... but he doubted that part of the picture would have much affect on the Tendo woman.

"A little something for everyone in that one," she observed with a wicked grin. "Nice catch. Nice catch. You touched up the shading, too. And I like the angle."

Obviously, she was a bit miffed she didn't have one like it... yet.

"Your friend's proven himself, but as for you..." Nabiki pivoted to face Raven. "Tendo Nabiki Style! Black Evil Art Number Two! All-Consuming Storm of Ten Million Killer Yen!"

The greedy girl spun again, this time adding a flashy pirouette and cutesy pose; as she did, a literal barrage of money - probably stolen - flew out from her clothes. She then clearly tried to sneak away in the confusion. Raven sighed and shook her head, catching one of the useless bits of paper in midair. Cyborg did the same, and took a closer look at the money.

"This isn't even real money!" He yelled, scanners not having to work terribly hard to see the truth. "These are just cheap photocopies!"

"You two aren't bad," the Tendo sister admitted with a haughty laugh. "Okay! Black Evil Art Number Three! Contact Lens Emergency!"

Nabiki stared at the two dumbstruck Titans.

"Actually," she realized, tapping her chin. "Maybe I shouldn't announce that it's a contact lens emergency and then claim I lost a contact lens?"

Raven just let out a groan and slapped a palm to her forehead. "And I thought that the legendary Nabiki would be a _better_ liar than Beast Boy..."

"I think you've been hangin' out with Ranma too much yourself, Biki," Cyborg added with a grin. "... Though, if you did want to bend over and look for that contact..."

"You both underestimate Anything Goes," Nabiki said, standing casually with arms crossed. "Maybe my sneaking away isn't quite as good as Ranma's, but I'm not a fighter anyway. I'd rather be a distraction than get into a slugging match. And while the enemy is confused, that's when someone with some real power comes in and finishes the job. I don't have to win. Just not die right off the bat."

"Also..." she pointed down, fingers holding a black marker, to Cyborg's crotch. Which was presently sporting a big black X. "While you were gawking at Kasumi's twins. Photo Fu is a legitimate part of Anything Goes, as Ranma or Genma will tell you. Fair fights are for chumps. ...Of course, normally I'd use that opening to take an accounting of your wallet, but you don't have one. Darn you all digital types."

Shrugging, Cyborg rapped his knuckles against his crotch plate. The loud ring of metal on metal gave an unsubtle hint as to just how effective her ploy had been.

"Yeah, I'm afraid that hitting below the belt just isn't that much of a concern for me these days." He then held out his arm, and with a serious of loud clanks and whirs, it converted into its Sonic Cannon configuration. Within a second, a bright glowing light surged from deep within the weapon, brightening Nabiki's face and sending her hair to blowing.

"Being distracting is all well and good, but if you're on your own and dealing with someone that doesn't care about pictures of half naked ladies?" he asked. "Well... Boom goes the dynamite, Nabiki."

"Okay. That's true," she admitted, putting a hand on the sonic gun to move the aim off to the side. "I'll probably have to come up with something less fun and more life threateningly dangerous. Doesn't change the overall battle plan, though. Knocking out some over-eager guy at school is one thing; you guys and the things you fight are out of my league and I know it. Besides, I honestly don't like training much. I never did."

"We don't do these things because we like to," Raven interjected. Sighing, the young woman dropped down to sit on the padded floor. "We do them because they need to be done."

A moment later, she smiled wanly and nodded her head in Nabiki's direction. "You are quite lucky though. You'll be staying back with me on the bulk of our missions, after all, so you'll always have someone there to protect you from the scary monsters."

"A lesser person may even feel guilty about that," the Tendo sister deadpanned, and then smiled a little, even if it was at her own expense. "I guess I can put some effort into this..." she relented, and craned her neck back and forth. "Just don't expect me to tear off my clothes and fight in a sexy leotard like a certain someone." She gave Cyborg a wink. "Thought I'll admit I've thought about it."

Cyborg shrugged. "Trust me, _so_ over the whole super heroine costume thing at this point. Honestly, a girl wearing a sweat suit and comfortable sneakers is actually more exotic to me."

"Oh, so that explains why you were practically drooling when Kasumi started going through her 'slovenly phase' back home," Raven observed with an undisguised grin.

"See, now I know your universe is totally twisted. Kasumi? Slovenly?" Nabiki quirked an eyebrow just trying, and failing, to imagine it. "She wasn't even 'slovenly' when she was possessed by a demon. Tell me, is the Pope on your world married? Or just a space lizard?"

"Hey! Don't diss the Space Pope!" Cyborg declared warningly.

"I didn't elect him. He's not MY Space Pope."

"You're such a girl-nerd."

"Like you're one to talk, Astro Boy."

"You both watch too much television, if you ask me."

"Never!" "No such thing!"

* * *

"Alright, peoples of various - and in certain cases indiscriminate - genders, listen up. I'm gonna be headin' up the technical rundown of this mission briefing." Chest puffing out proudly, Cyborg strutted across the front of the conference room. Behind him, a large display screen hung from the wall, a veritable waterfall of theoretical equations and computer animations flowing down its wide surface. Before him, sitting at the long table, were Juliet, India and the rest of Yankee squadrons.

Honestly, the cybernetic Titan had been surprised when Lieutenant Hibiki asked him to elaborate on the data they had compiled. He _had_ been, at least until he'd seen just what their next destination was; after that, everything clicked into place.

Down with the boys, Starfire waved to him ecstatically and Cyborg returned the gesture with a small wave of his finger. A moment later, he cleared his throat and returned his attention back to his job.

"First of all," he began anew. "Let's do a quick recap of the situation, since I _know_ that not all of you have been keeping up on the technical updates."

He sent pointed glares at Kuno and Jinx, the latter who simply shrugged carelessly.

Breaking off his ineffectual stare, Cyborg straightened his back and coughed lightly into his hand to cover up his annoyance. The then reached to the chair he'd set beside the table and very carefully lifted up an object now familiar to everyone present. Taking a moment, he then, very carefully, set it down on the table, the eyes of everyone in the room coming to rest on it with rapt attention.

"_This_, is the Organic Control Module of the alien EDC. It is the key component which makes dimensional travel in this section of the, ah, 'extended multiverse' possible. It is far more rare and valuable than Elerium, possesses properties that would even leave Lex Luthor himself scratching his head, and is potentially the next turning point in this planet's war with the aliens."

He let that settle in for a moment, thoughtful expressions blooming on many faces around the room. Cyborg knew that at least some of the people present had an inkling about the what dimensional travel could provide them, but he also knew, for a fact, that what the locals didn't comprehend was just how easy it could be to weaponize this dimensional technology, and just how devastating it could be if they did. Or perhaps they did, but were divesting that research to another branch on another base?

After all, why bother using it as easy locomotion to bypass defenses, when you could just drop a dimensional bomb right on Mars that could tear open a rift to a dimension where the Earth's sun was a Type O, instead of a Type G? _Bam_! Even if the portal only lasted for a few seconds, the unimaginable forces which existed at the heart of a solar system sized star would tear the planet apart like tissue paper.

Of course, it would be impossible to know if something like that could actually be controlled enough to make certain it didn't destroy the Earth as well, but he knew these military types. In Cyborg's experience, something like the potential annihilation of the human race had never stopped them from trying to turn something into a weapon before. He gave his head a quick shake, realizing he'd let things settle in for maybe a few seconds too long. Trying to regain his momentum, he reached down and gave the canister a sharp twist, scraping along the surface of the table, and leveled a deadly serious stare across the gathered soldiers.

"This is also a tiny piece of brain matter extracted from the Twenty-Six Dimensional Hypergriffin which brought my friends and me here in the first place." Instantly, half of the girls - and most of the guys - present shifted back from the canister. Only the two officers were in no way surprised by this revelation.

Smirking, Cyborg continued, "It's a small amount, little more than a fractional tissue sample, really," he explained, "But that's all that's needed to make it work."

Releasing the canister, Cyborg stepped back to the front of the room and gestured to the display. He doubted anyone but Starfire would actually understand even a fraction of the advanced mathematics that were being displayed, but, then, it didn't really matter too much if they did. Truth be told, he just kinda wanted to show it off a bit.

"As I'm sure at least Lieutenants Saotome and Hibiki are aware," he said. "There is another unique property of this material. In fact, it is almost entirely responsible for our ability to follow on the alien's heels, and were it not for this trait, tracking the aliens would be completely impossible."

He indicated a few of the animated graphics, mostly depicting lines and waves moving over other lines and waves. It made perfect sense to him, but he didn't linger on trying to clarify it.

"Unfortunately, Command wouldn't let me pull the OCM from the Pathfinder to make my point… not that it would have shown you anything, but it would have helped with the visual metaphor-" He paused, noting the impatient glares he was receiving. "Ahem! Anyway - long story, short, is that the various samples of the alien organic material actually produces a _resonance_ when they comes into proximity with each other."

A grin broke out on his face. "And by 'proximity', I mean 'within a few _dimensions_ of each other'." The cybernetic teen held his arms out as wide as they would go, trying to give a ridiculously understated example. "Personally, I think it's some form of natural response by the creature, to be able to put itself back together incase it gets injured doing... whatever it does, across dimensions."

Instantly, Ukyou raised her hand, a perplexed look on her face. "What? But why would it need to do that? Why not just forget about a toenail here or there, and just let it heal on its own?"

Cyborg shook his head. "Because it's not actually an 'animal', per se. It's what you might call an 'entity'. What we perceive as brain, or blood, or tail feathers, are just one aspect of what the creature is and how we, existing in a more limited way, perceive it. Remember, I called it a Twenty Six dimensional hyper griffin."

He pointed to the canister. "That brain sample in there? We can only see _three_ of its dimensions. There is genetic data stored inside those tiny cells that we can't even perceive, let alone conceive of. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if these little pieces were still connected to the griffin on some other dimensional frequency, and _that__'__s_what's making the resonance we're detecting."

He took a deep breath. "Regardless, whatever the cause is, it allows us to follow the aliens wherever they go… and vice versa, if they happen to figure that little point out..." He moved on quickly to gloss over that little tidbit. For the time being, Pathfinder couldn't be moved or based elsewhere. "More pertinent to the mission at hand, though, is not how we're getting there, but where we're going."

"Which is?" Raven asked in a bored tone.

Her unimpressed attitude only made Cyborg's grin grow wider. "Oh, you're gonna love this. The rest of the EDC teams have been going over all of the data we've collected over our past several treks, and they've made a rough projection on where we might be going next."

Sergeant Kumon gave him a dubious look. "They can do that? I thought we were just chasing the aliens. I didn't know they could tell us what kind of places we were going to."

"Oh," Cyborg started. "Um, yeah, well, we can't actually do _that_. When I say 'where we're going', I mean in the most general and broad sense possible. We can no more predict the kind of dimension we're going to land on than Ryouga there could predict where he was going to end up on his morning jog."

"Hey!" The stereo annoyed barks from opposite ends of the room were quite amusing.

"What I'm referring to is the dimensional frequencies we've been recording. I've been comparing them to the initial readings I took when we first arrived - after correcting for all of the variances and whatnot - and we're all pretty sure that our next jaunt is going to take us across the D-Barrier between this multiverse, and our own."

"Wait!" Starfire exclaimed, "Do you mean that we are going home on our next journey?"

The Cyborg almost felt bad at what he was about to say after seeing the excitement on the girl's face. "Well… not exactly. What I'm saying is that we're at least going to be in the right neighborhood now. We'll be back in our own playground, and _our_ rules will be back in effect, so A) I don't have to worry about falling apart, B) I might actually be able to jury rig a way to contact Robin and the others."

"That's great news!" Ryouga-the-younger stated excitedly.

Holding up his hands, Cyborg tried to calm down the building enthusiasm. "Now, now, don't get too far ahead of yourself. It's still no guarantee, and since our main mission is hunting down the aliens, we aren't going to get permission to take any extraneous materials - such as a 'requires too much power to use anyway' prototype dimensional portal - with us that might take up room that could otherwise be used for holding weapons, life support, and/or salvage from enemy ships."

Slumping back into her chair, Jinx crossed her arms over her chest and let out an annoyed huff. "Well, doesn't that just figure."

"Still," Cyborg interrupted, "It is a step in the right direction. Provided nothing… unexpected happens when we cross the D-Barrier, we should be fine, and we're pretty sure that the aliens already did it, so I don't anticipate any problems. Once we take care of business and take care of the dimension hopping aliens, I'm sure we'll get all the permissions we need to start focusing on getting home."

"Well… I suppose it's better than nothing," Raven stated, adopting a position similar to Jinx's. "At least we know we're moving forward, instead of just spinning our wheels."

"I, for one, am excited at the prospect, even if it is no guarantee of success," Starfire added. "Anything which takes us closer to our home is a most welcome development indeed."

"Ya got that right, Star." Cyborg then turned his attention to the native martial artists. "As for you guys, there are likely gonna be some differences in local physics when we make the switch. Unfortunately, there's no real way for us to anticipate how things in our multiverse might affect you, so just be prepared for anything."

"And he does mean _anything_," Jinx supplied cheerfully. "Don't worry, though. We'll protect the _big bad _martial artists from the big scary meta humans."

A few annoyed grumbles rose up from the members of India and Juliet.

"Anyway, I'll pass things back to Lieutenant Hibiki. I have a pretty extensive data store on some of the crazier things we've run across back home that I can make available to anyone that might be interested." Cyborg then moved back to take his seat next to Jinx.

The rest of the meeting lasted for roughly twenty minutes, as the Lieutenant explained what their objectives were and what would be expected from all of them, just as he did with every other mission. Once that was out of the way, everyone was dismissed and made their way to get prepped for the mission.

For the members of Yankee squadron, it was the longest stretch of time of their lives.

* * *

"Oh God! This has _got_ to be the longest stretch of time in my life!"

Giving the straps on her boot one last tug to secure it in place, Starfire rolled her eyes at Jinx as she paced back and forth through the cargo compartment of the Pathfinder vessel. It seemed like they had only just stepped off of this ship the other day and already they were suiting up for yet another voyage into the unknown.

The rest of Yankee was here as well, not having opted to join India and Juliet in the navigation room quite yet. Cyborg was sitting on the floor, making fine adjustments to a section of the appliqué armor he would later bolt directly to his frame. Raven sat in the corner, meditating as usual. Their primary psi operator was wearing her standard 'rear echelon corps' version of the uniform; she had finally broken Lieutenant Hibiki's resistance and been given permission to wear her cloak overtop of it. It did, even to Starfire's perception, look a bit silly, but being able to hide her face in the shadows seemed to give comfort to her friend.

Ryouga, for his part, already had his armor on, and was currently checking over his laser weapon. Their leader would occasionally nod his head whenever he thought someone was sending a comment in his direction, though it was obvious to the Tamaranian that his mind was several dimensions removed from their current location. And then, of course, there was Jinx. The pink haired witch, who had managed to equip all of a single gauntlet, spun on her heel before backtracking her previous path and raising her arms into the air.

"I mean, it's like waiting in line for a wicked awesome roller coaster. Every second stretching on forever as you're constantly thinking 'I don't wanna do this, but I do wanna do this'. You know what I mean?" Jinx asked the question openly, but her attention was clearly pointed in the direction of the one person whose attention was far removed from current company.

Ryouga gave a weak nod, but continued to fiddle away with his weapon. He obviously had very little clue as to what he was doing, since for the last sixty seconds or so he had been clipping and unclipping the reflex scope from its default position on the rifle's accessory rail. The sight of it made Starfire want to sigh; at this rate, she'd have to remember to double check the weapon for her squad leader before they left. Partly, she blamed the design of these weapons themselves. Human weapons design and ergonomics were functional, but had trended too deep into utilitarianism to appeal to the varied tastes on the intergalactic arms market. It was bad enough on her Earth, but this one was _even worse_.

How could a warrior find solace and emotional grounding in a mass produced weapon, after all?

"_Ryouga_! Are you even listening to me?"

Instantly, Ryouga's head snapped up. Starfire giggled at the sight, obviously even in his distracted state, the male mind was able to recognize the sound of female discontent. He looked around, panicked for a second, before setting his gaze on the irate Jinx. "Uh - what? What is it, Jinx?"

If looks were capable of inflicting injury - which they actually were in Starfire's case - then Ryouga would have burst into flames at that moment. Dropping her fists to her hips, only to wince in pain as her metal clad knuckles bounced audibly off her flesh and blood hip, Jinx did her best to glare at Ryouga as she hissed in pain.

"I was _saying_, that this is like waiting for a roller coaster. You know what I mean, right?"

The martial artist stared back at her blankly for a moment, looking utterly adorable to the Tamaranian, before shrugging. "I've never actually been on a roller coaster. Going to theme parks wasn't exactly part of my 'wandering martial artist's' life style."

Jinx stared at the Lost Boy, aghast. "_What_? You've never been on a roller coaster?"

Again, the martial artist shrugged his armored shoulders. "Nope. About the closest thing I've done to that is taking that toboggan ride down from the Great Wall."

Again, the pink eyed girl could only stare at Ryouga, disbelief evident on her face. "…You're making that up. There's no toboggan ride on the freakin' Great Wall of _China_. I think Shampoo's head would have exploded if something like that had ever actually happened."

"Why would I make something like that up," Ryouga asked, earnestly confused. "I mean, it's not exactly a thrill ride, by any stretch of the imagination, but you can get a decent bit of speed in a few places. That, and it cuts down a potentially week long walk to get off the wall down to a nice five minutes of zooming down a metal slide."

One of Jinx's eyebrows shot up and she continued to stare at him. "Okay, now I know you're shittin' me. You're telling me that there's a _super happy fun slide _on the Great Wall of China?"

Immediately, Starfire lifted her hand. "Excuse me, but what did you mean by 's-"

"Not now!" Jinx barked quickly. The young witch then gestured for Ryouga to reply.

The martial artist shifted uncomfortably. "Again… I wouldn't say it was 'super fun', or anything. More just convenient. Honestly, I didn't know it was some big secret, or anything."

Jinx pouted for a moment, before letting out a disgruntled 'hmpf'. "Yeah, well… I'm gonna wiki the heck out of that when we get back. But _still_, I can't believe you've never been on a roller coaster."

"Hey, don't feel bad." Cyborg, who had been chuckling silently to himself at the exchange finally joined the conversation. "It could be worse. You could have gone on a roller coaster with Starfire, over there. I mean, that girl squeals in joy every time she sees a leaf blow, so you'd figure a roller coaster would be a sure fire way to get her fired up."

The cyborg's arms swung out like an umpire calling someone safe. "But _no_! Totally dead faced the entire ride. I might as well have taken her on a tour of the paint drying museum for all the excitement she showed."

"Oh, the Paint Drying Museum! I found that tour to be most exciting indeed," Starfire squealed in joy and clapped her hands together excitedly, thinking of the sights - and smells! Unfortunately, she was only making a jest to inflame Cyborg's ire further. Honestly, humans could simply not comprehend the subtle nuances of the chemical reactions occurring within a layer of paint as it transitioned from wet to dry. That, and most did not possess the visual acuity to truly enjoy the experience.

Oh, if only there _were_ such a museum!

"Argh!" Cyborg cried out. He then gestured accusingly in her direction. "See what I have to deal with? The Great Wide World of Fungus is like the Super Bowl to her, but a roller coaster is too boring to even keep her awake? It's just not human!"

Much to Starfire's gratification, Jinx, Ryouga and even Raven all lanced the cybernetic teen with lidded stares.

"Ah _durrrrr_!" Jinx stated with great enthusiasm.

Giggling, being greatly amused by the embarrassed shade of red that overtook her friend's face, Starfire floated over and dropped a companionable hand on his shoulder. "Do not feel bad, Cyborg. I often forget just how inferior the human race is in comparison to my own. I will not hold it against you, though."

She tapped a finger to her chin. "As for your earthly 'roller coasters'… Honestly, I did not see what you found exciting about them. The heights which they achieve and the speeds which they reach upon their descent are far less than those which I achieve in my daily flights. Simply doing so while seated did not make for a more enjoyable, or exhilarating experience."

"Heh, that makes sense," Jinx conceded. "Like a flier is gonna get any thrills out of an up and down railroad." She nodded her head in Raven's direction. "I bet you don't care for roller coasters either, do ya Rae?"

One of the dark Titan's eyes cracked open. "Roller Coasters are pointless. I spend my time trying to control my emotions, so going on a ride designed solely to stimulate those emotions would be counter productive." A pause. "Also. Don't call me Rae."

"Oh, so you've never been either, is that it?" A pause. "_Rae_."

Starfire burst into giggles as Raven proceeded to glare at her erstwhile rival.

"Okay, seriously, as soon as we get home, we're so getting some time off. We gotta be due for some shore leave, or whatever they call it here." Jinx held a hand to her temple. "Lord knows some of these unetco people seem like the 'woman in every port' types."

Even as Cyborg started to laugh loudly, Starfire only found herself confused by the statement. "I am sorry, but what does it mean to be a 'woman in every port' type?"

"Well, ya see," Jinx began-

"It is nothing you need to be concerned about." Only to be interrupted by a stone faced Raven. "Not only is it needlessly crude, but also quite insulting to the people that have taken us in and offered us their help."

"I dunno." Cyborg, grinning from ear to ear, rubbed his chin in consideration. "Ryu definitely seems like the type. And I know there were _definitely_ a few more lady killers in the ranks."

Again, Starfire found herself lost in the conversation. Was Ryu one of these alleged collectors of exotic females? And was this organization so desperate for soldiers that they would employ known murderers of women? She supposed that such sociopathic behavior could be a hypothetical benefit to a military organization, but it seemed abhorrent to her, and at odds with the obsession with discipline she had observed to date...

"Attention everyone, this is your captain speaking." Everyone looked up as Ranma's familiar voice emanated from everywhere and nowhere at once, slanted by a purposeful comical drawl. "We're almost finished with all the start up routines, so we'll be taking off in T-minus five minutes."

Sighing, Ryouga looked up at the ceiling. "Alright, everyone, enough chatter. Finish suiting up and let's head to the front. Or back, rather."

Moving quickly, Jinx moved over to where she'd stashed the rest of her suit and quickly started putting on her armor. Cyborg quickly slapped the piece of armor onto his shoulder and used a finger mounted ratchet gun to secure it firmly in place. He then started attaching his specially built NBC isolation layer. Ryouga and Raven, both already prepped, rose to their feet and began to make their way to the door. Sighing to herself, Starfire grabbed Ryouga's laser rifle as he walked past.

Ignoring the look he gave her, she quickly reset the reflex scope and checked the charge on the atomic decay battery, complete with a complementary _look_ to remind him who was more technically minded of the pair. Then, and only then, did they make their way through the door.

In the cockpit, the rest of their comrades were already gathered. All of India and Juliet squad were present, as well as Nabiki. As usual, Ranma was in the pilot seat, interfaced with the ships control system. Lieutenant Hibiki and a few of the others looked up and nodded in acknowledgment of their arrival. Without much else to do, Starfire floated over to one of the seats and strapping herself in. Not that she needed to strap in, with the ship's inertia less drive system, but she did not feel like standing, either.

In the seat beside her, Ukyou was already seated, and Starfire nodded in greeting to the martial artist.

"So… you must be pretty excited, right, Sugar?" Ukyou asked, offering a friendly smile.

The question, reminding the Tamaranian of the conversation she had just left, giggled and nodded. "Indeed. It is like waiting for a roller coaster, or so I have heard."

"Heh, I can imagine," the combat chef replied.

Starfire nodded once more. "Though I am no stranger to the pain of losing my home, I have found that experience has done nothing to dull the anguish of being taken from my home a second time. Not a day passes that I do not think of my absent friends… of Robin. Anything which might return us to them…"

She found she was at a loss for words. Despite having assimilated numerous earth languages, she could still not find a word which could properly describe the yearning she felt to return home again.

"So…!" the okomoniyaki chef drawled. "This Robin guy. He must be something special, am I right?"

Feeling her cheeks begin to burn, Starfire did her best to hide her face behind her hands. "Oh, most vehemently yes. He is most special indeed, the most unique and precious person that I know."

Ukyou's eyebrows rose up and a grin spread over her lips as she measured Starfire's response. "Wow, he _must_ be something. I mean, just the way that all you guys keep going on about him, he sounds like he's the most powerful guy on your team. What can he do, break mountains over his knee, shoot lighting from his fingers or something?"

Quickly, Starfire shook her head, honestly surprised at the question. Did their comments about their leader really make him sound as such? Then again, why should they not? He was, honestly, larger than life in the eyes of herself and her friends.

"No," she corrected the misconception then and there. "It is precisely the opposite. Robin possesses no special powers. He is the only, what you would call 'normal' human on our team. Yet, despite his lack of powers, he still leads us fearlessly into battle again and again."

Hugging her own shoulders, Starfire swayed from side to side, a dreamy smile on her face. "Unlike you or I, he was not graced with the superior genetics to provide him with super human combat ability. He relies only upon his mind, his skills and his boundless courage to carry on."

Starfire didn't notice the contemplative look forming on Ukyou's face, but the chef didn't have a chance to respond.

"Pfft, yeah right!" Jinx strolled over, scoffing loudly. "Boundless courage and pretty much infinite funding is more like it. I don't know where bird boy, or his old boss, gets all their cash from but if they wanted they could buy this whole damn ship and everyone on it."

"That is not true!" Starfire replied sharply… only to pause contritely. "Well… _technically_ speaking, it _is_ true… But that does not diminish his dedication to protecting others."

"Yeah, yeah, as if it's his _dedication_ that you're so interested in-"

"Jinx, _please_, could you stop disparaging our leader and friend right in front of us?" Both Jinx and Starfire turned to see Raven, Cyborg and Ryouga sitting across from them, along the far wall. Raven was straight faced, but Cyborg war frowning darkly. Even Ryouga stared at the pink haired girl and shook his head sadly.

Surprising for the Tamaranian, Jinx immediately went silent. Looking down at her feet, the witch shuffled over to an empty seat and planted herself down, looking for all the world like a scolded puppy. A most difficult feat for the extremely feline appearing woman. Instantly, Starfire felt sympathy begin to well up inside her. Despite her abrasive nature, Jinx and Starfire had been growing closer with each passing day they spent in this dimension. Perhaps she should...

"So, how long are you two intending to keep those tattoos?"

Starfire looked up, a bit surprised at the question, as well as the speaker. Standing towards the center of the room, Shampoo graced her with a smile. Honestly, Starfire was not sure why she was surprised that the Amazon had spoken to her. They had spent much time training together when she had first arrived here. It was only recently, once Starfire had started training with Jinx, that she had begun to see so very little of Shampoo.

"The Lieutenant has been assisting us in maintaining the ink markings," Starfire explained pleasantly. "We will probably only need several more days with the arrays before we are both confident to continue our training without them."

"You guys." Ukyou let out a low whistle. "I still can't believe how quickly the two of you are mastering the Rotation technique." The chef then smiled teasingly. "I don't think you should be too quick to ditch the ink, though, Starfire. Once a person gets used to them, they make you look pretty exotic… which is no mean feat considering that you're already pretty much one of a kind in this entire dimension."

Feeling her cheeks begin to flush again, Starfire was about to thank her friend for the compliment-

"Well, your tattoos do look good," Shampoo said, seemingly off hand. It was innocuous enough, but then she added, "Stupid No-Breast Girl just look like broken doll with hers."

There was a hushed sucking of breath from all around the cockpit. Instantly, every set of eyes - excepting Ranma's whose senses were tied into the ships - spun to stare at the pink haired sorceress in question. Even Starfire was expecting an explosion of fireworks any second.

Jinx just looked up and smiled.

"Yeah, well, not all of us can be born lucky-lucky like you, Shampoo. Some of us actually had to earn the right to get training from a true master, not just fall back on good old-fashioned nepotism." Jinx's smile only grew wider, and her head tilted to the side. "I really am envious of a _baissha_ like you."

Instantly, Shampoo puffed up, indignation growing on her face - only to pause in confusion. "Wait, what was that?"

Even Starfire was scratching her head. She'd gotten more than a few languages from … various people during her stay on the planet, but she didn't recognize the word. Not just one, but both Ryouga's were equally stumped as well. For her part, though, Jinx just leaned back, smiling smugly and with no answers forthcoming.

Just when it looked like Shampoo was about to press the issue, Ranma's voice sounded out once more. "_Okay, enough with the c-c-cat fight, ladies. We have reached orbit, and our take off point. I'm lining us up now. Transit in 5...4..._"

He didn't bother with the rest of the countdown. Like the flipping of a switch, the world around Starfire took on a bluish tint as the ship's EDC engaged. There was still no sense of movement, much as when they were flying normally, but the seconds ticked by, perhaps marking just how far from their current dimension they were departing.

Just as what seemed like the fourth second passed by, something caught Starfire's attention.

As if she'd just sat on a hot ember, Raven's head shot up. Her hood fell back, revealing an expression of shock on her face. The dark Titan's lips parted, and she whispered so silently that even Starfire's alien ears could scarcely catch the-

"no-"

Suddenly, the ship rocked to the side - _hard_. In defiance of all of the technology around them designed specifically to skirt the laws of physics, in that instant, it felt like the Pathfinder had been caught like a Frisbee in the wind. Everything and everyone that wasn't nailed down went tumbling through the air, bouncing heavily off walls, floor and ceiling amidst a flurry of pained and surprised barks.

"_Whoa, crap! Felt like I hit something there! I got it - I got it!"_

Then, just as quickly as it happened, the ship righted itself. Acting as if nothing unusual had happened, gravity stepped back in and returned everyone hastily back to the floor, not all in the most dignified of ways.

"What the hell was that, Ranma!" shouted Lieutenant Hibiki, still trying to regain his bearings. "Are we still in Transit?"

"_I'm working on it. Sheesh, gimme a second there, Bacon Breath_!"

Her head still reeling, Starfire felt her gorge attempting to rise, but forced it back with violent haste. As soon as she felt confident that her cookies were not about to be displaced at high velocities, she unstrapped herself from her seat and quickly tried to find her friends in the chaos. Luckily, most people had chosen to strap in, as she herself had chosen to do, so it was not hard to locate the rest of Yankee squadron.

"_Wow, well! That was… just plain weird. I have absolutely no idea what just happened. For a minute there, all the readouts just went completely wonky. Messed up readings everywhere… but now it's reading normal again. It says we're right where we should be."_

Rising to his feet, Lieutenant Hibiki straightened his bandanna. "Do you think it had anything to do with crossing the Second D-Barrier? This is the first time we've made the trip out of our local… multiverse?"

There was a moment of silence from the ship. _"… Yeah, yeah, that'__s likely it. The eggheads back home did say that the dimensional fabric here was like a wet napkin compared to back home. Just like trying to pull your hand out of a vat of glue - it holds you tight right up till it snaps, then __'__bam__'__, your arm just goes flying.__"_

Starfire held up a finger -

"Um... Ranma had an unfortunate incident with glue during one of his fights with his school's principal," Ryouga quickly supplied, snickering to himself.

Lieutenant Hibiki wore a grin himself, but quickly buried it, giving his full attention to the situation at hand. "Well… Cyborg did warn us to expect anything. We'll definitely have to be more careful about securing personal belongings on any future jumps like this, but if that's the worst we have to deal with, then I think we'll manage. So, what can you tell us...?"

"_Wait, hold on a second, Ryouga,__"_Ranma cut in, sounding somewhat confused. "_I just finished a quick diagnostic, but the readings are the same. We__'__re__…__ we__'__re already in an atmosphere. I__'__m reading a completely breathable atmosphere right outside the ship, but I__'__m not reading any major gravitational fields that would indicate we__'__re anywhere near a planet__…_"

That caught everyone's attention. Ukyou quickly unstrapped herself and moved over to stand behind the pilot seat. Leaning forward, she placed a hand on the headrest and tried to look over his shoulder. "What do you mean? Like… there's nothing out there, or the planet's been blown up or something?"

Mousse looked up, just as perplexed as the rest of them. "Wait a minute, you're saying we just dimensionally shifted into an atmosphere? I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm a bit thankful there's no planet here. I don't want to consider what would happen if we'd just blasted out straight into a mountain or something."

"…_No__…__ definitely no planet__…__ But - but, I am reading something smaller. It__'__s only a few hundred kilometers in the distance. Maybe some kind of asteroid or something. Want me to check it out_?"

The officially sanctioned commander of the mission looked around, considering the shape of the various teams. It hadn't really been a serious incident, by any stretch of the imagination. Just a bit unexpected and a little jarring. Finally, he shrugged.

"Take us in. But bring up a visual on the screens so we can all see it," he decided. "I want to see just what the heck we're flying through. How can there be an atmosphere without a planet?"

"_Got ya.__"_

An instant later, one of the large monitors, unetco-make and installed after the ship had been retrofitted, flashed to life. Starfire blinked once, then twice at what she saw. She certainly was not sure what she had been expecting, but it had certainly not been _this_.

Bright golden skies, as if the entire world were caught at the cusp of sunset, filled the view screen, punctuated by fluffy white clouds floating in random directions. It looked for all of the world as if they were flying high above the ground, only, if Ranma's statements were to be believed, there was no ground within several hundred kilometers.

It was, even by the Tamaranian's standards, quite freaky.

"_Okay, we__'__re coming into range. You should be able to see the asteroid soon enough.__"_

Impatiently, everyone shuffled forward, crowding the back of Ranma's chair to get a better view of the screen. At first there was nothing to see, excepting the endless sea of gold. Within seconds, though, a small spec appeared at the center of the screen, only to grow rapidly with each passing second, slowly taking on a golden hue as they approached. Odd features of the unknown mass began to make themselves known, even as far as two hundred kilometers out, until, suddenly, Ryu breathed out, silently awed.

"That's no asteroid…"

In an uncharacteristic moment, Raven actually pushed forward through the crowd, actually physically shoving people out of her way to get closer to the screen. Her eyes widened so far that Starfire feared they would actually pop from her skull if she continued. The Tamaranian could almost see the reflection of the screen in those wide, violet eyes, the shining gold spires and soaring towers which grew up from the floating continent which hung serenely in the vast golden void before them.

"That's… Azarath."

* * *

x

* * *

Oh snap!  
Brother Eye Profiles have returned? _How timely._

* * *

##

BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS  
TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 8011  
CODENAME: Red X

REAL NAME: * Unknown* (Formerly Dick Grayson)

SPECIES: Human  
HEIGHT: 5'9"  
WEIGHT: 125lbs (estimated)

HAIR COLOR: *Unknown*  
EYE COLOR: *Unknown*

KNOWN ABILITIES: Subject possesses a powerful technological suit developed by Subject:203 Codename:Robin. Certain suit capabilities seem to indicate that the basic technology was copied from a highly experimental 'Batsuit' in secret development at Wayne Industries. How access could have been attained is currently unknown. All Xenothium based technology comes from an unknown source, though Subject:7721:Codename:Dr Chang is the foremost expert on Xenothium research in the world, indicating a possible source.

The 'Red X' suit possesses a wide array of offensive and defensive systems (For a full description, read the technical report submitted by Subject:203). Most notable of these are a wide array of projectile weapons, short duration invisibility and short range teleportation. The suit also provides enhancements to strength, and is up armoured to resist most small arms.

The wearer of the Red X suit possesses talent for the martial arts, and was described by Subject:203 to be 'likely around a Class 5, maybe low end Class 6 martial artist'.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: Despite Subject:203's assertions that 'I don't believe that she is a serious threat', analysis of Red X's martial ability and unpredictable weapon systems make her a dangerous opponent. The subject's main weakness is her suit's dependence upon the rare element Xenothium. Depending on belligerence, two scenarios provide the best possibility for capturing/eliminating Red X.

A harrying action, forcing Red X to expend her fuel cells would quickly deprive her of the bulk of her unique abilities, rendering her capture a simple task. ** Special note – due to the subjects skills in infiltration and espionage (see: break in of Titan's Tower to steal Red X suit), in combination with the stealth and evasion systems of the suit, this tactic is best enacted by a team of operatives possessing extreme sensory or tracking skills.

If the Subject proves too dangerous to capture, a properly tuned vibratory wave pulse could be used to detonate the Xenothium in the subject's suit, terminating the threat. **Special note – Xenothium is _highly_ unstable. Do not use this alternative in a population center and maintain extreme distance as the matter to energy conversion of Xenothium is highly efficient.

KNOWN HISTORY: The subject's history is only half known. Created by Subject:203:Codename:Robin, the Red X suit was used in a gambit to curry the favour of Subject:2101:Codename: Deathstroke the Terminator, in an attempt to learn the details of a plot concerning the theft of three top secret computer processors. Despite deceiving his allies and completing the thefts, the ploy failed. After the ensuing battle, the Red X suit was sealed inside the Titans Tower behind a state of the art security system.

It was not until some months later, when a daring raid on Titans Tower, perpetrated by an unknown criminal, very nearly succeeded in stealing the Red X suit... only to reveal that it had been previously stolen in a completely undocumented and undetected theft. The nature of this prior theft left very few clues as to the perpetrator, except that it was believed to have been a member of the now defunct H.I.V.E. Academy. At that time, it was theorized that the most likely culprit was Subject:9782:Codename:Nabiki Tendo (Current whereabouts unknown – latest sighting occurred in Steel City)

This theory was later questioned during a successful heist of one of the world's only Xenothium storehouses. Again, Red X perpetrated a heist, quickly followed by another, as Subject:7721 initiated a similar heist to take advantage of Red X's successful infiltration. An battle ensued, in which Red X assisted Subject:203 and Subject:9779 in defeating Subject:7721's plot to use the stolen Xenothium to power a Disintigrator Ray to destroy Jump City.

Though her identity is still unknown, Robin and the other Titans are highly dubious of the idea of Nabiki Tendo wearing the Red X suit.

Further analysis is required

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: C

PERSONAL NOTE_: Unfortunately, there isn't much to say here... at least, nothing good. 'Red X' was one of the darker chapters of Robin's career. Even his forced apprenticeship beneath Slade was just that: forced. When Robin chose to wear the Red X costume, when he chose to become a criminal to catch one, he crossed a very, very fine line. I can't fault his intentions, as they were as noble as always, and yet... Though it is not a concern for myself, I cannot imagine the reaction of his team mates when they discovered the deception, the deception he had perpetrated upon them, couldn't have been easy for him to handle._

_He is still so very young..._

_And now this? To have one of his greatest failings thrown back in his face like this? Honestly, I don't think I could have been more surprised with the lack of concern Robin demonstrated when he reported the entire situation to me. We know absolutely nothing about this new Red X, aside from the fact that she seems to have no qualms about attacking heroes or villains alike. So flippantly allowing her to gallivant around with the equivalent of a WMD strapped to her waist is not something I endorse._

_The only saving grace of this entire affair is the near complete lack of Red X activity since her disappearance from Professor Chang's observatory. It has curtailed my own, personal, hunt for her and that suit, but frankly if she is disinclined to use it, then we can all sleep better at night._

_Further analysis required indeed..._

##


	27. Homebound 2

...

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Homebound_

Chapter 26

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid

Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Azarath.

Hovering at a cautious speed, the smooth, silver body of the Pathfinder sliced through the strange expanse of breathable air, neither planet below nor space above. The light of the distant sun reflected off its hull, painting it nearly the same color as the gleaming city which it approached. Riding upon invisible waves of distorted gravity, the UFO swooped in low as it closed in on the floating island that was Azarath, skimming a mere dozen meters above the barren, rocky ground for several seconds before the impossibly large city loomed before it.

Only then, less than a hundred meters from the edge of the bronze hued metropolis, did the ship finally land, a ring of dust and stone blasting outwards as it touched down. A moment later and the ship's airlock slid open, allowing its crew to disembark. Out the door first, not even giving anyone else the chance to argue the fact, Raven all but threw herself out of the ship. She had not said a single word since she had given name to her home, far too engrossed with the impossible sight captured on the view screen to answer any of the slew of questions that had been launched her way during their final approach.

Only now, able to feel the gentle breeze in her hair, the warm sun on her skin, the sting of the light in her eyes… did she find that her loss for words was now complete. Even the mock up she had created in her mind during her inner journey fell short of the actual beauty of the city. Old memories, long since buried, blazed to life with startling intensity as she gazed at her first home. Finally, words found her once more, though even as she spoke them, she was almost embarrassed by how short they fell of the occasion.

"It's… exactly as I remembered it…"

The statement came out as barely a whisper. The sound of footsteps a moment later shattered the moment, though, and she quickly reached back and pulled her hood up to cover her face. She didn't want anyone to see her in this state, gawking at her… or at this place… like some lost tourist.

The low whistle from her side let her know that it was Cyborg standing beside her. "Whew… now that is one big city. This place makes Metropolis look run of the mill."

"I have no idea what Metropolis is…" Mousse added a moment later, standing to her other side, "But does it have a giant tower the size of a small mountain rising up out of the center of it?"

The Hidden Weapons Master gestured to the palatial ziggurat-like structure which rose up from the heart of the city, standing easily thrice the height of any other building around and looking like its base covered probably a dozen local city blocks or more. "I'd guess an acropolis or something. Don't tell me that wasn't a city planning nightmare."

Rather than be annoyed by the quip, Raven found a smile slipping onto her lips. It did seem needlessly large, though still breathtaking. On Earth, such a massive construction would have been a commercial building or giant government office… well, maybe five or six such buildings all built on and abreast of one another. In a way, the latter was still appropriate; it was the center of what could be called the local bureaucracy, but more than that, it was the spiritual heart of the entire dimension. It was only right that it occupy a properly monumental structure.

"It is known as Temple Azarath…" she explained. "Really, this entire city is. Named such by the first Azar, who brought people to this plane centuries ago." Clasping her hands before her, Raven continued to stare at the shining city.

'_Azar_.' The name spurred so many memories. Endless hours in study with the ancient, white haired woman, that… almost Goddess. The dark Titan had learned so much from her… it would be a pleasure and honor to see her again. However, there was one person she wished to see far more.

"We should make our way there, first," she offered, gesturing to the distant tower. "We will find help there, I'm certain of it."

Back, closer to the ship, Lieutenant Hibiki studied the city with a measured gaze, even as everyone else stared in wide eyed amazement. There was not a person present that had ever seen a sight such as this, Raven could guess. Not that she could blame them, even having lived here most of her life, the sight of the massive city floating, hanging, in space – it was still nigh unbelievable.

"You're certain that we won't have any trouble with the locals?" the Acting Major asked, cautious tone evident in his voice and tense bearing.

Turning about, Raven quirked an eyebrow at the soldier.

"The people of Azarath have formed a highly spiritual and pacifistic culture," she informed him. "The only trouble we find will be that which we bring with us."

"Maybe so," he replied, mindfully shouldering his rifle and looking warily around. "But no one goes anywhere until I have eyes in the sky. I don't like how quiet this place is."

They hadn't detected any radio signals or other active technology or electronics, and Nabiki already had a drone up and looking for heat signatures. Mind probes of the city had also resulted in 'inconclusive' readings. Their officer had insisted on SOP, even under these circumstances.

He was definitely... cautious.

"Before anyone heads out I want a defensible perimeter up," he ordered, pointing to the venues and areas of approach around them. " Ukyou. Mousse. Cyborg. Ten meters breathing room minimum. When you three finish, we'll organize search teams. Radio contact at all times."

Raven wanted to argue the fact; the very notion that her homeland could possibly be construed as a threat was almost insulting...!

And yet, Ryouga's observations rang uncomfortably true in her ears. It _was_ unusually quiet. Even this far from the city, they should have heard the commotion characteristic to a community of this size. Even a metropolis of meditative monks was still technically a city, and then there were those laborers who provided for their spiritual kin. The lack of curious passerby, or _anyone_ even, was a nagging concern.

Rather than belabor the point, Raven simply waited patiently as the three fighters moved out to secure the perimeter: a simple enough feat, considering the lack of vegetation or any real cover here outside the city. It was a routine procedure they had all trained for. Ukyou and Mousse set up an outer perimeter of tripwires and alarms, and an inner perimeter of claymores and motion sensitive mines, to separate the curious from the truly intrusive. Cyborg provided a backup copy of the layout of the perimeter, and set up additional sensor systems.

There was nothing to do but wait until they finished.

Doing just that, Raven absently lifted a hand and rubbed her temple. It felt like a minor migraine was coming on, likely from the unexpected stress of this unbelievable discovery. She silently prayed that the Lieutenant (the Acting Major, she corrected herself) would let them loose soon.

"Raven," his voice snapped her out of it, and she saw the officer holding out a headset with integrated micro-video feed.

"If you insist on going out without a helmet, you'll have to use this instead." He all but put it in her hand. "It'd be great if this were friendly territory, but until we're sure, we all play it safe."

Taking the device, she looked at it tentatively. Finally, she put it on, though it was a bit of a chore to slide it under her hood and wriggle it into place, but at least it was easy to fit to the right size. A soft earbloom rested in the cup of her ear. Raven was a bit doubtful how well the camera portion would work from beneath her hood, but she was more interested in the audio feed anyway.

That didn't stop her from turning to the XCOM officer. "What I wouldn't do to have my communicator with me. This isn't that comfortable at all."

"Too heavy?" he asked.

Raven shook her head. "I just don't like how it feels against my skin, is all. I had to snug it a bit so it wouldn't keep sliding down... so it's giving me a bit of a headache. Nothing I can't deal with." She graced him with a weak smile. "I guess you just get comfortable with what you already know, right?"

"That's the price you pay for hands-free," Hibiki joked with a shade of a grin. "And yeah, you get used to it. I'm surprised you're having more trouble with that and not your tactical vest."

He gestured to the strapped closed vest he'd forced her to wear. It was the compromise of not having to don the full environmental gear everyone else was stuck with. Everyone else was still in full kit, despite her assurances of safety, and was no doubt waiting for the chance to unhook their breathing gear. This included the two officers.

"So, this is Azarath., eh..?" he mused, glancing up at the sky, or lack thereof. "It's not exactly a Shaolin Temple... or even a Monastery." He kept close by, continuing to look over the surroundings. "Do you remember there being a power plant or something? You should know, Nabiki still hasn't detected anything on thermographics. We're still mapping out an electromagnetic image, but this area of the city seems completely unpowered."

Raven shook her head. "I honestly don't remember," she replied. "My training took up most of my time; I didn't really have much time to concern myself with life outside the tower or… the city utilities…."

Her brow crinkled as she concentrated. She suddenly felt a bit embarrassed that she could recount the nine hundred year history of Azarath like it was nothing... yet she could not for the life of her remember what it was that actually caused the lights to come on at night. Or where the water came from. Or even why the air was breathable without an actual ecosystem.

Honestly, she'd just assumed the whole city just ran on magic... or _something_.

"But... she hasn't picked up _anything_ on the thermographics?" The Titan asked, letting a bit of worry into her voice. "Not a _single_ person?"

"Not a thing," he didn't sound pleased by the result. Though she suspected the ship being mobbed by curious locals would have the same effect through opposite circumstances. "Not even any animals. Not even any _rats_. A city this big... there should be maybe a million people here, maybe twice that, since it isn't as if you can commute off a giant floating rock. I don't like it. No signs of a fight. No bodies. It's like everyone just up and left."

A frown creased Raven's lips as his words sunk in. It - it wasn't like she was expecting a parade or anything, but there was 'no one' here to greet her? Apparently no one at all? And where could so many people have possibly gone, and for that matter, why? There had to be some explanation...

There had to be.

"It's possible that there could be people inside the Temple," she reasoned, attempting to keep the note of hopefulness in her voice from being too obvious, or from appearing too naive. "It's easily large enough to hold most of the population during a ceremony, and the walls are thick enough that it's doubtful that the thermographics would register anything."

Ryouga nodded, though whether he believed the story or not, it was impossible to tell.

As Mousse, Cyborg and Ukyou returned, the Acting Major motioned the teams together.

"Listen up," he began, having spent some time assembling a picture based on their initial intel. "We've got a lot of ground to cover here. Juliet, I want two of you to stick with the ship for now. The other two are to search the immediate area. Keep an eye out for bodies, organic residue, psionic traces, anything. If you encounter possible hostiles, you have permission to defend yourselves, but I'd rather you not immediately engage. Not until we have the lay of the land."

"Yankee," he then addressed the Titans. "I want you to investigate the main temple building. Upload all sonic and topographical mapping to the ship in real time. We'll stream a map to everyone's HUD as we explore the city. Your ROE is the same as Juliet. First priority is to contact survivors. Second is to investigate the area and find out why this place is a ghost town. Nabiki hasn't ruled out chemical or biological contamination. NBC is to remain in place for everyone... except Raven... for the time being."

"Lastly, India will make a parallel search. Mousse, Ryu, your priorities are to check out the local power generators and other technology. We haven't detected any alien tech, but we'll be first response if Nabiki finds anything interesting. ...I think that's everything. Raven - anything else come to mind that we should know about before we head out?"

She shook her head, impatient to be underway.

"Just remember that the people of this city follow the way of pacifism," she reminded everyone, particularly some of the more trigger happy members of the teams. "Please try to resist the urge to shoot first and ask questions later if you do run into anyone."

"Yep. Now, we all have our missions and ROE," Ryouga said, referring to the general rules of engagement. "The locals are basically human, so it shouldn't be hard to spot them. Alright, good," he concluded, looking over the three assembled teams.

"Okay," he finalized it. "Let's do this."

Raven sighed in relief at the order to finally set out. She was even more pleased with the actual assignments. She hadn't thought of it earlier, so distracted by the sheer improbability of appearing in Azarath, but there was another reason to visit the Temple. It would be best to stay silent about it for now, though. In the short term, the most important thing was to find someone, anyone, who could explain what was happening, or what had happened here.

She rubbed her temples, the comm-set only making her headache more annoying.

"Yo, Lieutenant Hibiki!" Cyborg called out to the acting commander. He then lifted his arm and gestured to the small screen embedded in it. "I'm getting some odd interference here but judging from the readings I **am** getting, the atmosphere is safe to breathe."

"Interference?" the senior officer asked. "Do you have any idea what could be causing it?"

The large teen shrugged his metal plated shoulders. "Could be anything, honestly. Different dimensional rules, unusually intense magnetic fields… the fact that we're standing on a giant floating island that defies gravity, reason, and Newtonian physics?"

Scratching his head, Cyborg studied the data on his screen. "Honestly, just trying to figure out what could be causing the interference is already giving me a migraine. Still, like I said, the atmosphere here looks good… and Raven hasn't keeled over and died yet, though it's fully possible that she _could_ have, stepping out into an unknown environment without even checking if it was safe first."

Raven fired a weak glare back at Cyborg, doing her best to ignore the pointed look he was giving her, and the light round of laughter his comment inspired. Certainly, she might have been… somewhat brash, but this _wasn__'__t_ an unknown environment.

This was her _home_.

Lieutenant Hibiki took a moment to study the city in the distance. Finally, he shrugged. "Alright, if the atmosphere is safe, then environmental seals aren't necessary. You don't need your helmets, but I still advise utmost caution."

As expected, Yankee squadron wasted not a second in stripping off their protective headgear. The Titans still weren't comfortable in their full body armored suits, unlike the members of India and Juliet, and while plenty of people in their profession wore masks, very few wore helmets of breathing gear. The other teams didn't bother doffing their helmets; used to the ease of communication they offered between separated squads and comfortable with the superimposed HUD views. Most tinted their visors so at least their faces could be seen.

Shaking out her pink locks, unorthodox hairstyle somehow surviving being crushed under her helmet, Jinx let out a sigh of relief. Hanging the dull metal dome on her belt, she muttered, "Thank goodness for that. I hate wearing that thing for too long. It makes my head smell like feet."

"Indeed?" Starfire asked, running her fingers through her hair to straighten it out as well. "I always found that smell to be most pleasant. Your planet seems capable of generating a most aromatic array of scents unknown to my home world."

Cringing noticeably, Jinx shook her head from side to side. "Umm, _ick_?"

"Alright, that's enough chatter, ladies." Sergeant Hibiki, taking a final moment to readjust his bandanna, waved his arm towards the city. "Let's pick up the pace, already. Something about this place is putting me on edge."

Again, Raven wanted to say something, but found it hard to argue. As much as she wanted to lose herself in the romantic fantasy of returning home to her family, the eerie silence hanging over the area was unsettling, even to her. As such, she said nothing as Ryouga hefted his rifle over his shoulder and steadfastly began to lead them towards the … towards the edge of the floating continent. The dark Titan absently wondered if he would step right off the end of the world before he noticed.

Luckily for the Lost Boy, a laughing Cyborg was there to turn him around in the right direction before he made it too far. Even Raven giggled along with everyone else as the red faced Hibiki quickly strode off, Cyborg and the rest of Yankee in tow. Shaking her head, she fell in step with India squadron as they followed suit. She honestly wished that she could tell them where to start looking for the city's power generation stations… or equivalent radio communications towers, or anything... but, then again, even if they did find such a place, she was highly dubious they would be able to accomplish anything.

Coming from a world where magic was all but nonexistent - an odd concept, since Jyusenkyou curses existed in both worlds, but were inexplicably non magical according to their specialists - it seemed unlikely that any of their technology would be able to tell them anything useful about Azarath or its native infrastructure. That infrastructure being magic-based. Probably. Still, splitting up would certainly give them a better chance of finding anyone.

It took several minutes for them to actually reach the city proper. Even here, on the outskirts, the buildings were raised a dozen stories and more into the air. The architecture of the structures was, at the same time, both familiar and strange. There were obvious hints of earthly design, but the overall aesthetic was far removed from those in any human city. Walking along one of the boulevards, she strolled close to one of the buildings; she could actually see her reflection in the bronze like material the wall was constructed of.

Behind her, the ring of metal on metal nearly caused her to jump. Spinning around, she saw Ryu rap his knuckle against the very same wall. His helmet obscured his face, but the impressed whistle he let out made his reaction obvious.

"Wow... This city must have cost a _fortune_ to build," he assumed, resuming the march. "I mean, what's the going cost of brass these days?"

"I'm not sure," replied Mousse, wearing heavy robes over his armor. "But I can guarantee that just the manufacturing costs involved with making an entire city out of solid metal like this would be out of this world, let alone the cost of the materials."

"A more curious question should be where it all came from," Kuno added his voice to the speculation. "I saw no great source of steels or other materials on our approach. Void surrounds this place as an ocean does an island."

"Maybe they stripped everything when they built the place, you know, like Easter Island?"

"A grim picture. Are you suggesting we shall find naught but primitives among these ruins?"

"Well, it doesn't fit the timeline Raven's given us, but stuff doesn't appear out of nowhere..."

Raven was amused by the comments as the casual discussion continued. Not that she knew, either, where it all came from - imported from Earth maybe? The construction of the city wasn't the only alien aspect evident. Though the walkways between the buildings were large enough to function as small roads, there was not a single vehicle to be seen. Not a car, a truck, or even a bicycle was in sight, nor were there any parking structures, parking lots, or any of the other forms of infrastructure that would support vehicles. Raven wondered how long it would take the dimensionally inexperienced members of India squad to notice that fact, and ponder how a city of this magnitude could function without them. Without public transport like railways or subways, even.

"At this pace, it looks like it'll probably take about three to four hours to get to the heart of the center of the city on foot," Cyborg explained, checking his readout. "According to Nabiki's 'eye in the sky', there are a few larger domed structures to the north west that are about the closest thing she can see that correspond to power plant designs on Earth."

The cybernetic teen followed it up by scratching his head. "…Of course, with the whole city being powered down, it's impossible to tell for sure. As far as we know, they could be this world's health spa."

"I don't remember any 'health spas'," Raven offered. She paused for a moment. "Then again, as I said, I didn't travel out into the city often, so I shouldn't assume."

"I'm also noticing a lack of plant life," Ryouga-India observed, his visor still tinted. "No trees. No greenhouses. Did they import everything?"

Again, Raven helplessly shrugged. "I'm fairly certain they brought most foods and such here from elsewhere via various conjurations and such. Azar was quite knowledgeable about such things, but such basic matters weren't made an important part of my learning."

"Huh."

"Most strange to be sure, lieutenant." Stepping forward, Kuno struck a dramatic pose. "None the less, these new structures are surely something which we should make haste to investigate. If there is a chance we may find anything which might unravel these grand mysteries, then there is no danger too great to obstruct us."

"Sheesh, Kuno, I thought you were trying to hit on Starfire, here, not Raven," Mousse interjected slyly.

"You dare to impugn my honor, base knave?" Sounding quite offended, the swordsman rounded on his team mate. A second later, though, he gestured grandly to both Raven and Starfire. "Besides, can not a true man have room enough in his heart for more than a single beauteous maiden?"

Pulling her hood down lower, feeling her cheeks heat up, Raven shook her head. Sure, it was only Kuno, but still, a compliment was a compliment. And to be compared with Starfire was a new experience.

"Can we please move on?" she asked earnestly. "This is serious. I'm worried about what has happened to everyone."

"Of course, of course," Kuno quickly replied. "I apologize for making light of the situation. We should best be on our way to investigate the unusual structures. On your order, sir."

"Yeah," the CO's casual response was all it took.

The rest of India squadron nodded their helmeted heads. At the next intersection, the members of the senior team broke off and made their way north, while Yankee continued on straight. Raven waited for several minutes before turning about, making certain that India was well out of sight, before turning to Cyborg. She then sent him a telepathic message.

'_Cyborg, can you mute the communications? I want to talk to everyone. In private._'

Her teammate turned to look at her oddly for a moment, only to shrug. With a tap of his finger to his arm, he then nodded. "Alright, Rae, we're runnin' silent here. What's up?"

Immediately, Ryouga looked over at them. "What? Why are we running silent… what does that even mean? What are you two up to?"

Raven held up her hands. "Please, hear me out. I asked Cyborg to allow us to talk without being overheard."

"Why the heck would you want to do that?" asked a perplexed Jinx, "Not that I'm against bein' all shadowy and stuff, but you know a certain someone's gonna notice."

"_Because_, there is something else at the Temple that I didn't mention before. Something that might have changed the Lieutenant's decision to have us investigate there," she began to explain. "As much as they have done for us, we already know that their priorities are not the same as our own."

Cyborg's brow furrowed. He took a moment to quickly check around the corner of a nearby building for any activity before turning back. "Enough with the vagaries, Raven. Nabiki's gonna pick up on our lack of chatter sooner than later. Get to the point."

Nodding, Raven quickly started walking towards the temple, keeping herself ahead of everyone else.

"It's quite possible that our search for a way home is over," she explained. "Inside the Temple is a structure known as the Great Door. It is a portal which leads to the limbo which exists between all dimensions and…" She looked up, letting the distant memories fill her mind. "And, it is what I used to come to Earth in the first place. If it is still functioning, then we could go home immediately."

Startled gasps filled the air.

"But - but that is extraordinary news!" Starfire exclaimed. "For what reason would you not mention that immediately?"

A wry grin twisted Raven's lips. She lifted her arm and rolled her wrist absently. "Well, initially, I had simply forgotten to mention it. But, then… as the Lieutenant was quick to state in regards to the Pathfinder itself, there is no reason for them to know until we are certain it works, correct?"

Immediately, Raven felt something wrap around her shoulder, only to see Jinx at her side, giving her a friendly hug. "Oh, Raven, you devious snake! I _love_ ironic justice! A little payback for getting jerked around just makes it all the sweeter. Remind me to buy you a drink when we get back home, you totally deserve it."

Hmm, getting props from Jinx? Suddenly Raven wondered if she was doing the wrong thing here or not… No, **no**. This was how it needed to be. As she said, there was no reason to concern the Lieutenant with this until they had actually confirmed it was a viable way home. Telling them prematurely would likely just get them pulled from this investigation. The higher ups seemed quite intent on Yankee staying on-mission until the alien threat was dealt with, as opposed to seeing them home safely.

Finally, she ducked her head, doing her best to accept the arm wrapped around her. "Alright, I think that's all we need to discuss now. Once we arrive at the tower, all of the scrolls and materials I will need to make the dimensional trip should be easy to locate."

"Alright, I'm bringing the communications back up. Everyone, act natural." With that, Cyborg hit another switch on his arm, a small crackle of static the only hint of the reopening of the channel. There was no immediate request for an update, or question about what was going on, so it seemed they were in the clear. That was hardly a surprise, considering Nabiki usually spent most of her time on any given mission chatting with India squad, unless actually addressed by a member of another team.

"So," Jinx began casually, "Are we there yet?"

"Seriously," Cyborg asked incredulously. "We're heading towards the one building in this city that would be visible from orbit… if this entire rock was actually big enough **to** orbit, and you're asking if we're there yet, when we are very obviously not?"

Jinx tapped her chin for a moment, before shrugging and nodding.

"Yup!"

Rolling her eyes, Raven rubbed her temple with two fingers. This was going to be a long walk, she could just tell.

And this damned headache certainly wasn't going to make things go any quicker.

* * *

Ranma cradled his rifle against his side as he strolled down the open, cathedral-like space. Perplexed, he gestured broadly above him.

"Well, now. See, this?" he asked, pointing casually with a thumb. "This just raises even more questions."

"You mean about where she got her fashion sense, sir?"

Konatsu was next to Juliet squad's officer, in an identical relaxed posture. Flanking the sides of the vast hallway were murals and statues, the latter in solid stone - marble perhaps - and the former in colored tile against a white or black wall. The texture of the tiles, as much as the color, caused them to instantly stand out.

Displayed in multitudes were religious figures. Most were female, though typically it was a matter of examining facial features to determine which were male and which female, as all of those depicted wore long, flowing robes; many of the figures were also hooded, the cut of the hood dipping down over the eyes in a very familiar manner. There was one central figure which seemed to be shown much more prominently than any of the others, an older woman. No where near as ancient in appearance as Cologne, or her like, but even her statue seemed to radiate a sense of wisdom and compassion.

"Were you, perhaps, expecting everyone here to be attractive younger women running around in leotards?" Konatsu inquired with a polite titter.

"Honestly? Yes." Ranma stated, looking up at a mural that covered the ceiling. "I'm a bit disappointed here." A pause, as he regarded the mural of one of the younger women. "Say… you don't suppose they're all wearing leotards under those robes, do you?"

"You know, you should be careful what you say about desiring to see strange women so scantily clad," Konatsu observed with a bemused cough and hidden blush. "You wouldn't want to confirm Akane's belief that you are a pervert, Saotome-taichou."

"Hey! I ain't no pervert! Just cuz I happen to notice that Raven looks pretty darn good in that leotard don't mean nuthin! In fact-" Ranma gave a full body shudder to supplant his vocal disgust as something else occurred to him. "Kodachi wears a leotard all the time, and I don't care nothin' about that."

"Well…" Konatsu hemmed and hawed for a moment. "Though I don't know her very well, I know what the rest of our teammates would say. Kodachi simply doesn't count on account of being… 'way too freaky.'"

"Exactly right." The pigtailed chuckled to himself as he took another look around. "Still… I guess I was kinda hoping to see just a bunch of girls and middle aged milfs prancing around like priests in a pervy RPG. If that was the case, then Raven would suddenly make perfect sense."

"Saotome-taichou, I really don't think you should let Raven, or anyone from Yankee, hear you calling the missing women here by that term."

"Probably not," the Lieutenant conceded. The last thing he needed was to get on Raven's bad side. He was no expert on girls, despite his first hand experience on the subject, but he was pretty sure that calling her ancestors and possible friends or mentors 'milfs' was probably a good way to tick even the normally stoic girl off.

The two continued the quick survey, speed stepping past the main halls and into adjoining cloisters. This was the largest nearby structure in Juliet's search perimeter, and built sort of like a new age cathedral. Rather than the expected gothic decorations, there seemed to be a strange avian motif. Arching wings were etched onto walls, and balconies were shaped in the form of sharp beaks. He had to admit that the inside was impressive with its odd, bird themed artistry, but the outside was thoroughly dull in anything but its size and the exotic material of its construction. This building was the kind of retro 90's future look that reminded Ranma of those box-apartments they'd torn down in Tokyo.

Not really the kind of look you used for religious junk, in his view. Even right across the road, there was a soaring, spiraling tower that rose impossibly high into the sky that would have been much more appropriate in his view.

The Saotome had certainly seen his fair share of old shrines and even the occasional western inspired church, since his fat panda of an old man had bummed off of the monks, priests and other gullibles at every opportunity. Places based around veneration always had certain things in common. Motifs. Impressions. Common areas that focused on one particular spot.

Returning his attention to his immediate surroundings, as opposed to what was outside, Ranma revised his first impression. This looked more like a museum than a nunnery or a church. There was no alter, no pews, nowhere that a sermon could be given or an audience recieved. There were large chambers, for sure, but mostly they were filled with statues or artifacts on pedestals. He supposed it was just the overtly religious nature of everything in here that had given him the mistaken impression in the first place.

Still, even back home, he'd never had any interest in religious trappings, and even less so when it came to the weird junk from another dimension completely. Idly checking the occasional vase or plate as he walked through the building, the Saotome heir managed to stifle a yawn.

"Okay, I don't think we're gonna find anything actually interesting in here. Let's move on, maybe we can find something that actually makes some sense further down the line."

Moving gracefully, but without any sense of hurry, Konatsu all but glided to his side. The ninja nodded, absently dropping a hand on the pistol strapped to his belt.

"Some of these artifacts are quite fascinating," he noted, sniffing his nose. "But the smell of ash has really been bothering me."

With that, the pair of them made their way for the entrance of the building-

Ranma stopped dead in his tracks. As Konatsu continued to walk past him, the Saotome stared intently at the back of his subordinates head. The dull grey metal of Konatsu's helmet reflected a very minimal amount of light, just enough to gleam in the light filtering in through the vaulting stained glass windows. For just an instant, Ranma felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise up, a cold chill running down his spine.

"Konatsu… you're wearing your helmet."

Pausing in mid-step, apparently not having noticed that Ranma had already stopped, Konatsu half turned back to regard him. Whether the ninja wore a confused expression or not was lost beneath the deathly blackness of his helmet's visor.

"… Um… yes, sir, I am?"

Ranma's eyes narrowed. "Then how could you possibly be smelling anything? You're freakin' hermetically sealed."

"I…" Konatsu's head tilted to the side for a moment. "Actually, I don't smell it anymore." With a deft motion, the ninja lifted his hands and broke the seal on his helmet, before removing it from his head. Taking a deep breath, Konatsu looked first left, then right, the confusion on his face now visible for Ranma to see. For a few seconds, he sniffed the air very deliberately, searching for the missing scent.

"Well, that's odd. I certainly don't smell ash now."

Frowning further, Ranma took his helmet off as well. He sniffed, first tentatively, then more urgently. There was no smell of ash, just a vaguely musty smell of dust and abandonment.

"It may have just been a minor malfunction with the suit's filtration system," Konatsu offered, sounding uncertain of himself.

Looking around one more time, Ranma was forced to nod in agreement. No matter how deeply he breathed in, there was nothing unusual on the air. Finally, he shrugged and put his helmet back on, Konatsu following suit a moment later. With the NBC seals broken, he switched to free-breathing mode.

"Yeah, yeah, I guess you're right. Make sure that you make a note of that when we get back to the ship. It might be minor, but I don't want to take any chances with the environmental systems on our suits. The next planet we pop in on might not be so boring."

"I'll be sure to do that."

"Alright, then. Let's ditch this place already. And make sure that you let me know if you pick up on any more weird things like that."

Nodding, Konatsu made his way to the door. Ranma lingered a moment longer, taking one last look around the large chamber. He almost felt silly, letting himself get so worked up over something as minor as small, possible imaginary, environmental malfunction. Not that he would ever admit to feeling a bit freaked out, there. He just wished he knew what caused that tingle to run down his spine. Giving his head a brief shake, he followed after Konatsu. He just hoped that everyone else was having better luck than them.

* * *

Ryu ran his hand against the wall as he walked down the street. The armored fingers of his gloves skittered over the smooth surface, but gave no real sensation of texture for him to compare. For all he could tell from touching it, the wall could just as easily be wood as it could be steel. Granted, the fact that he could clearly see his reflection in the brass colored wall did grant more credence to the latter over the former.

Still…

The Yamesenken master turned to his direct superior. "Lieutenant, I mean Major-"

"Permission denied, Ryu."

"What?" Ryu asked, incensed. "But you don't even know what I was going to ask!"

The sheen of reflected light rolled over Ryouga's helmet as he shook his head from side to side. "You want to see if you can break down the wall, just to see how tough it is."

That stopped Ryu dead in his tracks for a moment. Scratching the top of his helmet in a habitual, though in this case ineffectual gesture, he finally shrugged. "I guess that means you were already thinking the same thing then, right Lieutenant?"

Stepping over to join him, Ryouga rapped his knuckles against the wall, producing a low reverberating ring.

"I'll admit that it has me curious. It looks like brass, but there's no way they could possibly

make buildings this large from such a soft metal without the entire city collapsing in on itself. So, either they've just used this metal for decoration and have much stronger material forming the support frames… or this is another exotic alien alloy that just happens to look a bit like brass."

"Either way," he decided. "I don't think walking around, randomly destroying buildings is that great of an idea. Wait for when we take some samples back to base." Rounding a nearby corner, Mousse - followed closely by Kuno - stepped into view, quickly moving to rejoin them.

"Indeed," added the swordsman a moment later. "Our squad already possesses a notoriety for excessive destruction. We would not wish to expound upon that rumor by adding random acts of vandalism to our repertoire."

"Ha, I bet you're just worried that your little letter opener couldn't cut through these walls, aren't ya, Kuno?"

In a flash, Tatewaki turned on Ryu, his sword all but appearing to materialize in his hands. "I can assure you that this noble blade is more than capable of reducing any impediment to ruin. Perhaps you desire a more personal demonstration?"

Staring down the length of the sword, still in its admittedly formidable bokken form, Ryu's entire body tensed, prepared to deliver over a dozen different verbal counters to the supposed threat. For several long seconds, the pair glared at each other with deadly seriousness - and then, just as quickly as it began, Ryu and Tatewaki began to laugh in earnest. Relaxing his body, even as the samurai sheathed his blade, the former shook his head in amusement.

"Seriously, though, I'm dying to take a crack at one of these buildings. There isn't a house out there that the Yamesenken style shouldn't be able to bring down!"

"Yeah, well, I'll let you be the one to explain to Raven that you just 'couldn't help yourself' when you toppled her old Daycare center, or Preschool or something." Shaking his head, obviously bemused, Mousse gestured for the rest of his team to follow him. "Come on, we've almost reached our target. I, for one, am curious as to just what happened here."

"Yeah, yeah," Ryu replied offhandedly, before following after the robed soldier. Not that he would admit it, but Raven was the last member of Yankee squadron whose bad side he wanted to be on. Even though their world's Ryouga had managed to surprise him enough to steal a win in their first encounter, Ryu was fairly confident that he could go toe to toe with anyone of her team mates now that he knew what to expect.

But to go up against an AA ranked psychic without any backup?

At least with the other Titans, he knew they were on his level - fighters that relied on their fists and wits to do battle. Sure, some of them might be a bit more exotic than even he was used to, but still, the fundamental principal was the same. But he knew how dangerous other AA's were. Hell, he'd taken down his fair share. But they were unstable, and by their nature hit on a level that was hard to defend against or counterattack. Most of them could hardly even control their powers.

Just how much more dangerous could Raven be, with total control of her faculties, if she were ever so inclined to actually go full out? He kind of hoped that if he was ever given the opportunity to witness it, that he was at her side, rather than standing before her. Of course, that level of power came with its own risks. A martial artist wasn't just power, he or she relied more on technique and training. One wrong move, one sloppy blow, and you could break a bone. One psionic slipup, and the consequences were far, far worse.

Some of what he'd seen, some of what he'd heard, it was... unpleasant.

Shaking his head, the Yamasenken master moved into step with Kuno as they followed Mousse. Their destination, the massive domed buildings Nabiki had spotted via aerial surveillance, were easily visible from several blocks away, even in the densely packed labyrinth of a city. To his side, he noted that the swordsman was continually looking upwards, taking in the alien-yet-familiar architecture of the buildings.

"Walking these ancient streets as we are, and seeing the sights and splendors that are set out before us… it does beg the question," Kuno thought aloud.

Obviously hoping to inflame their curiosity, the kendoist let the statement hang in the air. Finally, if only out of frustration, Ryu finally gave a non-committal grunt, hoping it would prod the would-be samurai on to actually finishing his already tenuous thought process.

"Well, it had occurred to me," Kuno began. "The dimensionally displaced Hibiki, we know that his name is his own. We also know that the flame haired goddess' moniker 'Starfire' is but a translation of her true name."

Ryu tilted his head curiously, wondering where Kuno was going with this.

"We can also be quite certain that 'Cyborg' is simply an appropriate, if somewhat lazy pseudonym chosen to hide his true identity. And, though I am somewhat less certain in the case of the precocious Jinx, I am still confident that her chosen name is worlds removed from her given name."

Looking back over his shoulder, Ryouga muttered, "What's your point, Kuno? We already know that the 'super hero' types from their planet tend to hide behind codenames, for… I dunno, liability reasons or whatever."

"Well, that is just it," Kuno replied. He then gestured to the buildings around them, or, more specifically, to many of the avian themed adornments and carvings which were evident on many, if not most of the structures present. "We walk the streets of Raven's homeland; we step lightly through her very past. As I look around, I find I must ask: is Raven merely a 'sig,' or is it her actual given name?"

That question actually stopped the Lieutenant in mid-step. Twisting about, Ryouga's helmet dipped forward as he considered the question.

"I… don't actually know," he replied, having thought similar things since coming here. "I mean, I was actually involved with her mind scan… but the Captain and Lieutenant that were with me did the lion's share of the actual scanning while I kept her occupied. I didn't even know what this place looked like, though I picked up a few references to it. I didn't actually see too much of her childhood, aside from the cliff notes that the Captain gave me of what he considered important."

The quartet paused for a moment, lost in thought as they pondered the minor conundrum. Finally, though, as was usual in these situations, Ryu felt the urge to get everyone back on course and focusing on what was really important.

"Heh, honestly, with a rack like hers, her name could be Ricardo and I don't think I could care less."

A round of amused laughter filled air before the group continued their trek.

"Alright, alright, cut the shit, Kumon. This is an open channel. Unless you want another sexual harassment lecture?"

"I'll stow it for A-D, L-T."

"Be sure you do."

It only took a few minutes longer, which considering it had taken well over an hour just to get to that point, was a blissfully short amount of time. The buildings which loomed over them now were so large that they couldn't even tell they were domed from their perspective. It was like standing right in front of a sports arena. The entrance was in no way inconspicuous, a massive set of doors which sat near the center of the buildings face.

Whatever this building was used for, power generation or not, it must have involved some pretty hefty work. The doors alone were over three stories high, and nearly half again as wide. Oddly enough, though, there didn't appear to be any obvious stop, or check points that he would imagine such a sensitive facility would usually have. The fact that the structure was nestled right inside the city was somewhat unsettling as well. Sure, with such limited space, the builders here didn't seem to have much choice, but still…

Moving forward tentatively, Ryouga approached the massive door. With quick gestures of his hand, he motioned for Kuno and Ryu to flank sides of the door, while Mousse hung back to provide cover fire. It was likely an unnecessary precaution, but Ryu appreciated it, nonetheless. Better cautious and alive then reckless and dead.

Taking another moment to size up the oversized door, the Lieutenant firmly gripped the large handle and pushed with all his might; the door slide open with startling speed, racing across the runners

set into the ground top of the frame as if they'd been greased. A second later, a massive cacophony rang out as the bulky door slammed heavily into the stops with tremendous force, actually rebounding almost halfway back to closed again before they slid to a stop.

For once, Ryu wished that his team had forgone their helmets, as Yankee had. He could only imagine the look on their leader's face at that moment, and that alone was enough to cause him to break out into laughter.

"Shut up! How was I supposed to know that it would open that easy? Or that it wasn't even locked for that matter?"

Unfortunately, his rebuttal only spurred laughter from the remaining members of India as well. Shaking his head helplessly, Kuno gestured to the grand door. "Perhaps you should have knocked first?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Grumbling darkly, Ryouga quickly motioned for Kuno and Ryu to head in first, while Mousse and him held back to provide support if it was needed. Not even bothering to nod the affirmative, Ryu ducked around the surprisingly easy to open door and lifted his rifle, carefully scanning around the darkened interior of the building. As they traveled away from the light provided from the open door, the darkness quickly became all consuming, necessitating the switch to night vision.

As everything tinted green, Ryu began to take in his surroundings a bit more easily than the twilight light allowed him. The first thing he could tell was that the interior of the building appeared to be one massive chamber. His first guess about a sports arena was a little closer than he'd thought, though still obviously not the case. While there was no heavy machinery, or reactors of any sort in sight, there were countless rows of… he wasn't even sure.

They appeared to be large beds of… what was that, soil? Each bed was over thirty feet long and ten feet wide, and they were lined up from end to end as far as the night vision goggles could see. Not only that, but there was another layer stacked over top of the bottom row, hanging roughly twelve feet in the air. And another layer above that one. On the bottom of each of the hanging beds, appeared to be a long tube… glasslike, possibly an illumination system.

This certainly didn't look like any kind of power plant he'd ever seen. In fact, if he'd have to guess… he would say that this was absolutely the least greenhouse-like greenhouse he'd ever seen. Though… it wasn't actually unprecedented. There were certain crops grown indoors and in controlled conditions like this, such as mushrooms. And, now that he thought of it, they didn't exactly have any spare room for farm land here, so they had to do _something_ to produce subsistence levels of food.

The idea of an entire race living entirely on mushrooms, though, made him cherish even the less than gourmet-class MREs they were forced to eat on various missio-

Instinct kicked in with savage force, nearly seeming to hijack Ryu's body against his will. Moving faster than most people could even see, he dove to the side and spun around, sliding on his knees for several inches as he brought his rifle up level and prepared to fire...

Right into the face of Kuno...

The Samurai was a dozen yards away, but looked every bit as ready to fire. His back flattened firmly against one of the tall support beams that held the higher tiers of soil beds aloft, the kendoist's rifle was leveled right back at Ryu. Just like before, the scene held for a very tense moment, however, when they both lowered their weapons, neither burst out into laughter.

Looking down, Ryu actually noted his hand quivering, just minutely. He'd nearly- he didn't even want to think of it.

"What the hell was that?" he asked rhetorically.

"I… know not," Kuno replied, gingerly stepping towards him. "I - I simply reacted. I felt… I felt a-"

"You felt a killing intent… an impossibly terrifying killing intent, coming from right behind you," Ryu finished. Even as he said it, though, he knew the words did absolutely no justice to what he'd felt.

Except that there was nothing there. He looked down, checking the floor. Aside from the scratches and gouges dug in by his own hasty maneuver, there was nothing. And whatever it had been, it had felt like it was breathing right down his neck… But he'd spun nearly instantly. Nothing he'd ever encountered was fast enough to get out of sight that fast. After all of his training, even Ranma himself would be hard pressed to slip out of his sight quite that easily.

"I saw nothing, either," Kuno added, obviously thinking along the same lines as Ryu himself. "Though, it is hard to discount it as nothing… not if we both experienced it." The swordsman looked around. "Though we know not what… something occurred here, and with each passing moment, I feel more certain that what that occurrence was, was nothing good."

"Heh." Ryu chuckled, if only to cut the edge of his own anxiety. "Afraid of ghosts now, Kuno?"

"Certainly not!" the swordsman replied sharply. "But I respect that the spirits of our ancestors do not always find the rest they deserve. I suggest we tread carefully in these halls."

The Yamasenken master rolled his eyes. Superstitious nonsense and all that. Still, whatever it was that had happened, they should probably report it to Hibiki, if only so he didn't shoot Mousse in the face if the same happened to them.

"L- _Major_. This is Ryu… we have something… odd to report."

* * *

Shampoo, perched on top of the Pathfinder itself, fought back the urge to yawn. Sitting down with her heavy laser rifle in hand, ready and eager to take a shot at something - _anything_ - the Amazon even considered picking off one of the black birds she'd seen flying around. There were even one or two perched on those unsafe-looking walkways between buildings. Hitting something that small from a kilometer away would at least be a nice challenge.

She also found herself wondering what Ranma and the crossdresser ninja were up to. Even the pancake chef. None of them had said anything in what had to be a while. Juliet squad was usually quieter than India, from all she'd seen and heard, but they still chattered a little when coasts were clear. Last she'd heard was some stuff about attractive young women in leotards.

_'Ugh. Leotards.'_

Now, proper Amazon fighting armor, that was something else entirely. Form fitting, yes, but way more suitable than some impractical leotard! And what could Ranma possibly see in that gloomy Bird Girl, anyway? She wasn't even close to being as fit or fine as Shampoo herself was, not to mention at least a year or more younger. Still, at least the cross dresser did get one thing right: the psychotic gymnast most certainly did not count.

Sighting downrange with her integrated scope, Shampoo sighed and decided to check in.

Midway to speaking over the comm, the Amazon sensed the presence a second before she heard the metallic 'tink' of someone landing on the hull near her. Even with her grace and (inferior) skill, the pancake chef was still incapable of completely silencing the sound of her boots on such a hard surface.

"What are you doing up here?" Not bothering to look up from her scope, Shampoo muttered at her companion. "Shouldn't you be patrolling the perimeter?"

With a small amount of scraping and the squeal of metal grating on metal, Ukyou sat herself down next to Shampoo. Lifting a hand, the (inferior) chef rolled her wrist. "We're in the middle of a barren wasteland, sugar. There's nothing I can see down there that I can't see from up here too."

It annoyed Shampoo that she couldn't refute the simple logic of the statement. It was pretty obvious that nothing was going to close with them without being seen beforehand. There was about hundred meters separating them from the closest impediment to their vision, and anything that could actually close such a distance before she could reduce it to carbonized organic waste would likely be able to kill them in the blink of an eye anyway.

Still, having someone to talk to wasn't a terrible proposition, even if it was Spatula Girl.

"So, what do you think everyone is up to? It's been nearly two hours, already, and we haven't heard anything interesting in some time. India is being their usual piggish selves, Ranma and Konatsu are being quieter than usual and… seriously, has Yankee even breathed since they split off?"

Shampoo found herself frowning as that. Absently tracking across the skyline of the city, she let her crosshairs settle on one of the distant birds - Goddess, what an ugly beast - she pondered that as well. Yankee was usually like a pack of chattering monkeys, constantly bantering back and forth, trying to come up with witty one-liners and coordinating every action, as if acting in any solitary capacity was alien to the dimensional travelers.

But since they split off from India, they were as silent as death. Nabiki had actually had to contact them on two occasions, just to double check that their commline hadn't gone dead. And even then, from what Shampoo had heard, she only received a few muttered words of confirmation before Yankee went silent again.

"I mean, I guess I can understand. This has gotta be pretty heavy for Raven. Finding her home… but like this?" Ukyou said and whistled in sympathy. "That's gotta be a lot to take in for a person."

The Amazonian sniper gave a minute nod and a non-committal grunt. "Either that, or she just heard about Ryu commenting on her breasts."

The sound of Ukyou's teeth gnashing audibly over the commline brought a smile to Shampoo's lips. Not a big one, though, considering Ranma had been making his own thoughts on the topic fairly obvious as well. As Ukyou had said, they were traveling through the girl's homeland, so it was natural that she would be at the center of everyone's thoughts… but that didn't make it any less aggravating.

She still wasn't as bad as the pink haired slag, though.

"I honestly don't know what I see in that guy, sometimes. I can't even think of a time when he hasn't responded to anything in the absolute most offensive manner possible!" Ukyou waved her hands in the air. "Who says 'Looks like you've got a good mouthful to me'? In a room half filled with women no less?"

"More like 'Who says that about her?' at all," Shampoo muttered under her breath, chuckling to herself.

Unfortunately, with a mic mounted in her helmet, muttering under ones breath didn't exactly have the same effect it would in normal conditions. Letting out a huff, Ukyou turned to glare at her - at least, that was what Shampoo assumed, as she could only see the blank sheen of the tinted visor as it tilted squarely at her. The pancake chef planted her armored fists firmly on her hips.

"And speaking of shameless, sugar: 'Stupid No-Breast Girl'? Really?"

At that, the Amazon nodded sagely. "Yes, stupid girl is very shameless. I'm still trying to figure out what she called me…"

"Argh, that's not what I meant, and you know it." The chef gestured to the distant city. "Ranma told us to play nice, and then you go and just openly insult the girl in front of everyone? As much as I hate to admit it, she hasn't even done anything to be _too_ annoying lately. We're supposed to be the adults here, remember? What brought that on?"

Incensed, Shampoo shot up to a sitting position and glared at her one time rival. "Nothing to be annoying? You have pancake batter in your ears? Every word that spills past her lips is a thinly veiled challenge." The Amazon stomped her foot in aggravation, as if imagining Jinx's throat under her boot. "Stupid girl just asking for me to demonstrate what I do to obstacles like her."

"See? That's just what I'm talking about," Ukyou stated, exasperated. "What exactly is she obstructing you from? She's not after Ranma. She's not interfering with your training. Heck, she's not even making any moves on Mousse. What could she possibly be doing that is a threat to you? She's annoying and kind of a brat, I guess, but not much else."

"She-" Shampoo paused at that. Sitting still, she stared blankly at the okonomiyaki cook for an uncomfortably long time. "It… it's not about that," she finally muttered. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that she wouldn't be able to explain it to Ukyou any more than she could explain it to Ranma. None of them were actually observant to catch the subtle undertone that every one of Jinx's words had carried over the past few missions.

Honestly, this passive aggressive approach to try and bait Shampoo infuriated her even more than if Jinx would just walk up and stab her in the throat with a rusty knife. At least that, the Amazon could understand: a direct, honest challenge, as opposed to all of this dallying about.

Grunting, she turned away from her companion and lifted her rifle again. "Forget it. It's not important. I'm not going to waste any more effort on her than I need to… Though, if we happen to get matched up in a training match between missions…"

She could hear the sound of Ukyou's sigh, and imagine the sound of her shaking her armored head.

"Look, whatever. It doesn't matter to me," the Japanese girl decided. "Just try to keep civil, if at all possible."

"I'll be just as civil as she is-"

"Security Breach!"

As if a bolt of lightning had struck the pair of them, the Amazon and the chef shot up to their feet. As one, they turned to stare at each other in abject shock.

"Nabiki!"

"Security Breach? How in the-"

There was no time to even finish that thought. Moving as fast as she ever had, Shampoo leapt off the ship, landing on the ground over a dozen feet below as lightly as a feather, before digging in her heels and kicking up huge furrows of dirt as she launched herself to the front of the ship. How on Earth could anything have gotten past them?

Shampoo swore that, whoever it was that had done so, they would surely regret embarrassing her.

Actually, on second thought… she would make certain that they didn't get the chance.

* * *

To say that Nabiki was in a somewhat irritable mood would be akin to accusing Happosai of being 'just a _little_ forward with the ladies.' The middle Tendo sister had no idea what it was, as she sat at on the uncomfortable little stool of exotic alloy extruded from the floor, staring at achingly green screen of her communication console, but her head was just killing her. It reminded her of that night that she and Akane had snuck out to that pop concert months and months ago, managing to steal their way right up within a few feet of the stage.

Ryu's and Ranma's on-and-off stream of sexist and-or misogynist comments weren't nearly as amusing as normal, and Shampoo's habitual whining about Jinx was getting more grating by the day. But none of that was even close to as infuriating as the entirety of Yankee squadron was being. Bad enough that she was supposed to have Raven **here**, with her - the added sense of security of having a AA class psychic within arm's reach was actually a distant second to actually having someone worth talking to aside from Shampoo and Ukyou - but the entire damn team was being frustratingly and suspiciously quiet.

"Yankee, check in, already! Where are you guys, anyway? I keep losing visual with all those twisted buildings all over the place. You aren't letting Ryouga lead you around, are you?" Nabiki released the button with a bit more zeal than was necessary, all but willing a cowed response from her headset.

"Sheesh, 'Biki, what bug crawled up your butt?"

Nabiki's eyes narrowed and her knuckles whitened around the pen in her hand. No need to guess who that response came from. It was a testament to her bad mood, that she found herself wanting to wring the pink haired witch's scrawny little neck, as usually she found Jinx to be at least tolerable. Before she had a chance to remind the girl who she was screwing with, though -

"Jinx! This is a recorded commline, don't talk to people like that!" Ryouga's voice echoed a similar comment made less than an hour earlier, and it was almost endearing enough to put a small dint in her almighty glower. "Sorry about that, Nabiki. We haven't had much to report, is all. We haven't so much as seen a cockroach scurry down an alleyway."

Nabiki nodded to herself. Her eyes in the sky hadn't seen a single animal, vegetable or mineral that wasn't either weird-alien-brass, or a member of their expedition. She tactfully didn't say it out loud, but this city was as dead as Kuno's last poetry recital.

"Understood. Just… would it kill you to actually pick up the phone once in a blue moon? It makes a girl feel clingy if she's the one always making the call, you know?"

Hearing the Lost Boy's embarrassed chuckle, a refreshing sound which she was just a little sad she hadn't heard from her own Ryouga for far too long, actually managed to tweak up the corner of her lip from frown to a neutral line. The follow up, though, of Jinx's scandalized "Keep your hooks outta my Hibiki, 'Biki!", finished the transition all the way to wry grin.

"Alright, Yankee, what's your ETA?"

There was a moment, before a new voice came onto the line. "Yo, Nabiki. Just looking at this dang tower is like trying to size up one of the great pyramids, just, y'know, _way _taller. Regardless, we should hit the front door in ten minutes. How long it'll take to search the place, though, is another question completely. This place is huge and we're only eleven people. Even with all our sensory gear, it could take days to check this place out, and that's just a brief once over."

Now that was not something that she had needed to hear. Just the thought of having to sit here, her head aching and her ears ringing, for several more days, was enough to make Nabiki cringe.

"Understood," she replied. "I'll see if I can't try to figure out a more efficient way to go about our normal survey procedures, you guys just do what you gotta do."

"Understood." It was Ryouga that responded, again, a sympathetic tone in his voice.

He really was too sweet and innocent for this world. The Titans made no secret of having had fought unspeakable horrors of their own, but unlike Nabiki and her friends and family, they still seemed just so damned … young. Sometimes it was hard to believe that there was only a single year's difference between most of them.

Sighing, Nabiki closed the channel and leaned back - though not too far, damned aliens and their damned stools - and rubbed her temples. What she wouldn't do for an Espresso and a handful of Flintstones Chewable Morphine. There was one more thing she could really use as well, but with her Ryouga a few kilometers away at the moment, that wasn't really an option. She grinned at the thought. Sure, boyish charm was all well and good, but there was something to be said for a properly broken-in boyfriend.

While she didn't have him here with her, though, maybe she could sneak a peek at her man out in the field. That in mind, she turned to look at the monitor that was feeding from her Lazy Susan…

_'Wait, why is the screen black?'_

She checked the UAVs diagnostics. Susan was in a search pattern, so it wasn't like she had turned it off. Why was the display black? Fingers tapping keys, she looked from one display to the other, rerouting the feed. As she did so, Nabiki's face drained of blood, a sharp chill running across her entire body, and she leapt to her feet so quickly she felt the muscles in her legs pull painfully.

There, in the monitor, a reflection of someone!

Before she even realized she was doing it, she reacted by instinct, hitting the open commlink on her headset.

"Security Breach!"

The next thing that the Tendo woman did was spin around, preparing to defend herself from-

…From the empty cockpit of the Pathfinder? Her heart still beating like a jackhammer, and her breath coming in short gasps, Nabiki swung her head around, staring frantically in search of the person she'd seen reflected in the screen…

But… there was no one there. All the doors were closed, there were no alarms ringing at an unauthorized access… Everything was exactly as it had been for the hours and hours since they'd landed. Now that she thought about it… what had the person looked like again? It had been more of a silhouette than anything else, black and ominous… maybe a small sliver of color… but nothing specific.

"-iki, come in! What's going on there!"

It took Nabiki several seconds to realize that she was receiving three separate inquiries from across the city. She shakily lifted her hand to respond, but hesitated. What on earth would she say to explain this? She didn't even have the chance to think of something, though, before the far door slid open with a 'swish' and Shampoo and Ukyou burst into the room, weapons hot and ready for action.

The pair skidded to a stop a second later and spun around in tight arcs, scanning the room for any possible threats. When absolutely nothing of note became obvious after several turns, both the chef and the Amazon slowly turned to regard her.

"Umm… Sugar? What's the emergency? I thought you said there was a security breach?"

All at once, Nabiki felt the blood rush back to her cheeks. Slowly, she began to twiddle her fingers together in front of her. Not sure what else to do, she sat back down and took a deep breath. She looked around one last time, almost hoping to see something out of the ordinary, but her search was in vain.

"I… I guess it was a false alarm," she finally admitted grudgingly. The more she thought about it, the more embarrassed she was. She actually managed a weak chuckle. "I must have watched too many cheesy horror movies. I mean, how cliché can you get? Thinking you see someone in the mirror, only to turn around and no one is there?"

Hesitantly, Shampoo shared a look with Ukyou. Shrugging, the lavender haired girl muttered in a low voice. "I'd say the pressure is getting to her… but what pressure?"

"Hey! I'm right here, you know?" Nabiki squawked indignantly.

"Damnit, someone report, already! We're heading back, ASAP." Ryouga's voice brooked no argument this time, and Ukyou quickly hit her commlink.

"Negative, Major. There is no situation. It was just a … false alarm."

"A false alarm?" came the incredulous inquiry from Saotome.

"Mercenary Girl just scared of own shadow," Shampoo supplied with a more-amused-than-necessary tone in her voice. "Just give us a minute to search the rest of the ship to confirm that there's no breach, then we can all get back to our posts."

Nabiki grumbled under her breath, digging her nails into her palms at the feeling of humiliation washing over her, but didn't say anything else. Why had she hit the panic button like that, without even turning around to make sure she wasn't just imagining things? She'd - she'd just been so certain!

Sighing, she straightened her headset out, and took a moment to smooth out her blouse. Now, more than ever, she wished she had Raven here, instead of Shampoo and Ukyou. At least the gloomy girl wasn't likely to be all snaky with her.

"Sorry, everyone," she finally stated over an open line. "My head is just killing me, and I guess I just let my imagination get the best of me."

She heard something that sounded like a gasp of relief that sounded like her Ryouga.

It was quickly followed by a wry, "Well, you have my sympathies, at least. I have a migraine that could put a Hibiki into the hospital. Try turning down the lights in the cabin, I've heard people say that helps with headaches."

Grateful to see Shampoo and Ukyou finally leave to begin their futile search, Nabiki gave a thankful smile for the violet haired Titan. Her wish for non-Nerimian company only doubled in that instant. "Thank you, Raven. I'll do that. Now, everyone, back on task. The sooner we get out of here, the better for all of our sakes."

"Alright," her Ryouga replied. "Just… let me know if you want to get out of the ship. We can have someone else cover for you if things get too bad."

Grumbling again, Nabiki wished that all of this wasn't going on over an open comm for everyone to hear. "Yes, yes. Now would you hush up and get back to work already?"

"Fine, fine. India-One out."

Rolling her eyes, Nabiki rose from her seat and moved over to the main console, making the change to the lighting settings manually. Thankfully, Raven's advice seemed to be right, as the absence of light seemed to decrease the pressure crushing the sides of her skull slightly. Letting out a sigh of relief - however minor - she sat back down and went back to surveying the city. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd been so embarrassed.

As bad as it was to think it, Nabiki desperately hoped that Raven found what she was looking for, one way or the other, and **soon**. She wasn't sure how much longer she could take this eerie-ass ghost city of a dimension.

* * *

Raven fired a disapproving glare in the direction of a certain pink haired witch. As Jinx continued to titter in amusement over Nabiki's embarrassment, the violet haired Titan felt her patience with the girl dwindle rapidly. Did she not have a sympathetic bone in her entire body? Raven, at least, could understand Nabiki's unenviable situation.

One way or the other, she found herself hoping that they could conclude their business here quickly. Rather than fill her with warm memories of her youth, walking down these long abandoned roads set her ill at ease. There were too many questions, questions she was almost afraid to see answered. Something about the unnatural stillness wasn't just affecting her, either. Nabiki's was only the latest in a string of small, petty occurrences being muttered about between the squads.

Even the sound of their footsteps was muted, the brass-like substance that surrounded them seeming to drink up the vibrations, rather than reflect them back. It was no surprise at all that the mind would begin to trick itself in such a scenario. The only surprise was that it hadn't begun to happen with Yankee as well. Perhaps it was because they actually had a goal to focus on, rather than just randomly wandering through vacant buildings.

Glancing critically at her surroundings as she walked ahead of her friends, she took in the familiar looking structures, the pervading motifs and styles. For some reason, the similarity it bore to her dream was as comforting as it was disturbing. Comforting, because she felt it reaffirmed her attachment to this place, that she hadn't been gone so long as to forget it completely. At the same time, though, the city in her dream had not been this quiet, this oppressive in atmosphere. It had been every bit as abandoned, but now, even the shadow of the tower that loomed so high above them actually felt as if it had a mass, dragging down on her shoulders.

They were so close to the tower now. Down the boulevard was a straight run to the main entrance of the mountainous Temple. The soaring double doors that served as the entryway into the temple were taller than many of the buildings surrounding it, and easily as wide. They looked as if they would require an army core of engineers just to open, but she knew, from her memories, that even a child could open the grand portal.

Once they reached the entrance, she would be able to lead them straight to the chamber which housed the Great Door…

Raven paused for a moment. It only now occurred to her. She was fully prepared to leave this dimension as soon as possible, without sparing even an extraneous moment to solve the mysteries which hung over her home like a shroud. Did she just not care about her homeland any longer? Had she grown so callous so quickly? Or was there something else? Something buried deeper in her mind… something darker… something familiar…

Did… did she already know the answ-

The sound of flapping wings sent a jolt through Raven's body which was nearly painful in its intensity. Instantly, she looked up towards the golden hued skies, her hood falling back, incidentally dragging her headset with it and dropping it to the ground with a clatter. She didn't even notice the lost communication device as her eyes zeroed in on the source of the sound. The tiny dot of purest white stood out from the rest of the sky the way the first star of the night did.

"R-Raven? Are you alright, there?"

Raven didn't even register the question; couldn't even differentiate who had even asked it. The sight of the dove, flying through the air, was the only thing that mattered. It was just like her dream, and if the dove was there, then that meant-

Without even thinking about it, Raven's feet left the ground and she began to shoot up through the air at a fantastic rate. As she closed in on the retreating dove, the familiar balcony, high - so very high - up the side of the tower became visible. The sight only spurred her to increase her speed, a primal need driving her toward her goal.

* * *

With a crack of thunder, Raven nearly seemed to vanish from sight right before their eyes. Ryouga could only watch in shock, before he managed to redirect his gaze upwards. In the second it had taken him to realize where she'd gone, the cloaked girl had already shrunk to the size of a doll rising through the air like a bullet.

"W-where the hell is she going?" Jinx barked, every bit as startled. It was followed by a short pause and then, "And - the hell - I thought she couldn't fly like that anymore?"

The acting Sergeant had no answers to give, so he didn't even try. Pointing directly at Starfire, he then gestured sharply upwards. "Starfire, catch her and see what she's doing!"

Not wasting an instant, the Tamaranian took off like a shot as well, blistering the ground at her feet with her energetic lift off. Surprisingly, despite the fact that the alien princess had always been the fastest flier of all of the Titans… she did not appear to be gaining any ground on the dark Raven as she ascended.

"What's gotten into her?" Cyborg echoed his earlier comment, when Raven had first paused. Kneeling down, the cybernetic Titan picked up the discarded headset and studied it. "Girl looked like she didn't even notice this thing fall off."

"Well, hopefully she'll have some answers for us once Starfire brings her back," Ryouga replied, sounding much more optimistic than he felt. Granted, Starfire wasn't gaining any ground, but she wasn't losing any either. Wherever Raven ended up going, Starfire wouldn't be too far behind when she arrived.

The martial artist noticed the flurry of motion just a second before the startled shriek from high above alerted the rest of the squadron. Against all reason, a flock of black birds had burst out of a half a dozen of the large windows and balconies dotting the side of the temple. With countless 'caws' which sent a chill running down even Ryouga's spine, the black swarm of avians intercepted Starfire as she chased after Raven. The Tamaranian's shocked scream was quickly followed by several flashes of green light.

A moment later, a green streak of light shot back out of the wicked cloud of feathers and claws. The flock began to descend after the retreating girl, and Ryouga quickly unlimbered his laser rifle, worried that they might soon be fighting off the army of birds… but as soon as Starfire shot down below one hundred feet, the birds stopped.

They continued to circle around for several long moments, long enough for Starfire to land on the ground again, looking shaken and pale. Once she was down, though, the birds began to disperse… though not too far. Every rooftop within sight was soon crowned with a vile black ring of the birds, their burning red eyes staring down at the lot of them. The cawing quieted down shortly after that as well, plunging the city back into an eerie, uncomfortable silence as the birds just sat there… watching.

"Holy… this is just like that movie, only a hundred times creepier," Jinx muttered in a low voice.

Cyborg nodded, his head moving slowly as the rest of him stood stark still. Obviously the large Titan was no more eager to draw the flocks attention down on himself than Jinx was. "It's like I can feel them hating me…"

Still shaking slightly, Starfire dared to look back up. "They - they came from nowhere, surrounded me before I even realized." Shaking her head, the Tamaranian quickly regained her composure. "But… what are they now doing?"

"It looks like they're… waiting," Ryouga muttered uneasily. He nodded to the Tamaranian again. "Starfire."

She stared back at him, eyes wide for a moment, but finally nodded. Gingerly, she began to rise up from the ground-

One of the birds flapped its ashen wings.

Instantly, Starfire dropped back to the ground.

"They aren't waiting…" Jinx stated the obvious.

"They're blocking the way," Cyborg finished her thought, anyway.

Hefting his rifle, Ryouga seriously considered opening fire on the nearest birds. Looking over, he took in Starfire's condition. Her hair was tangled, a few black feathers trapped within her flaming locks, and a scratch now leaked a few drops of bright green blood down her cheek. More telling, were the series of scratches spread out across her armor. The scratches were shallow, barely noticeable, really, but the very idea of a crow being able to scratch the surface of alien alloy armor made him reconsider his idea quickly.

Instead, he hit his commline.

"Nabiki… I'm pretty sure we have a situation here. I think everyone needs to converge on the Temple ASAP."

* * *

Raven didn't stop flying upwards until the rays of the distant sun lanced into her eyes, shocking her out of her mindless ascent. Recoiling, she quickly pulled down her hood; only after recovering her composure, did she finally realize she had just crested the top of the towering Temple. She had overshot her destination by over a hundred feet, now hovering weightlessly in the air as the warm sunlight played over her face. The dark Titan had been so lost in the near forgotten sensation of flight, that not even halfway up the tower, she had let it consume her.

She took one last moment to take in the all encompassing view of the city, before rapidly descending back to the broad balcony which had been her original destination. The white form of the dove continued to flit around on the railing which surrounded the platform, and Raven arrowed towards it. Even though she landed only a few feet away from it, the bird didn't so much as start at her presence. For a brief moment, the cloaked girl considered picking up the dove, holding it to her chest… but there was something more pressing, something she remembered from her dream.

Turning towards the temple, she stared at the archway which led to the interior of the Temple. The sight of someone standing in the shadows should have shocked her, but it didn't. She also should have been feeling something: choked up, teary eyed, _anything_, but her entire body was numb. Not completely certain what she should be doing, she held out her hand.

"Arella, I've come back."

The shadowed silhouette began to retreat further into the building and away from Raven. Finally, she felt something bubbling up in her chest. Anxiety. Stepping forward more quickly, she reached towards the retreating figure's shoulder.

"Mother… you have to help me."

She felt that something was wrong the second her hand rested on the metallic plate covering the shoulder, but the true depths of her error weren't made clear until-

"But, my dear girl…"

Raven recoiled as if she'd been seared by an open flame. _That voice_-

The shadowed figure, so much taller than she'd realized, so much broader in frame - how could she have possibly missed that? - turned to face her. Taking a single step into the light, the hauntingly familiar black uniform, wrapped in dull grey plates of metal armor were revealed. The next step, taken even as the man spread out his arms as if greeting an old friend, revealed the gleaming mask, split dead down the center into sharply contrasting black and orange.

"Don't you know that you're beyond _all_ help?"

Raven continued to backpedal, nearly tripping over her own cloak in her haste to get away. All rational thought fled her mind in time with her own frantically shifting feet. It - it was _impossible_! She'd seen him die with her own eyes. It had to be some kind of illusion!

"**S-**_**Slade**_?"

Simply saying the name was painful, her voice cracked sharply over the single syllable.

The arch-villain's single eye danced with mirth, conveying all of the perverse pleasure which would otherwise be concealed by the hard metal of his bisected mask. Taking another step forward, only prompting Raven to stagger back faster, his head tilting to the side as he studied her every reaction.

"That's my name," he dryly replied. "Don't wear it out… Raven."

Just the way that her name rolled off his tongue sent a cold chill down the Titan's spine. The only thing stopping her from turning and breaking out into a panicked sprint was her refusal to turn her back on the vicious criminal. As such, it was the sharp pain of her hip colliding harshly with the railing which surrounded the high balcony that informed her that her escape had come to an abrupt end. Hissing sharply, she looked around desperately.

There was no one else within sight. She was so far up the tower now, that even if she had known exactly where she had left her friends, they would be little more than specks to her now. There was only herself, an empty sky… and Slade.

The masked villain had stopped his approach only halfway across the balcony, his arms still held out at his sides. Perhaps not in greeting, but showing that he wasn't holding any weapons? Not that he needed a weapon to be dangerous. Rather than continue to advance, Slade now settled for simply watching her, his mask making him completely inscrutable.

Finally, terror gave way to curiosity. Taking a moment, Raven pulled her hood firmly back into place, using the gesture to regain her composure. She returned her unexpected companion's studying gaze for several long moments before she finally felt confident enough to speak calmly.

"You're not real," she told the phantom. "You're just an illusion."

Slade eyed her a moment longer, possibly scanning for any weakness in her stance as he considered her statement. Then, after a seeming eternity, the villain… nodded.

"That is a distinct possibility." He held up his hands in a careless gesture. "After all, you did see my former Apprentice _end me_. Quite dramatically, too, I might add."

For just a second, his gaze hardened to steel and his head tilted cruelly as he regarded her.

"How is Terra faring these days?" he asked with faux curiosity. "I've heard that her recovery has been nothing short of miraculous."

"W-what?" she asked, incredulous. How could he possibly - wait, if this was all just an illusion, then of course it was possible that he knew everything she did. But still, why was she seeing him, and here of all places?

"Bah, no matter." Slade waved his hand dismissively. "I've already found another talented young prodigy to take her place. That is, after all, old news." Leaning forward, she could see the delight dancing in his eye. "And we have such exciting _new_ business to discuss."

Marshalling her courage, Raven straightened her back and set her fists tightly to her hips. "And what could the likes of you _possibly_ have to say to me, illusion or not?"

Again, Slade held his hands out to the side, displaying them openly. "Now, now, Raven. No need to snap at me. I _am_ just the messenger."

Stepping forward impetuously, she fired a glare at the masked psychopath. "Keep your _message_, Slade. No one that would send _you_ as a representative could possibly say anything that I need to hear."

"Are you so sure about that?" he asked, socking his head playfully to the side. "After all, my message is for… _Daddy__'__s little girl_."

The blood drained from her face and froze in her veins in the same instant, and Raven nearly tumbled straight over the railing in shock. She could only stare, eyes so wide it hurt, at the man before her. All of reality felt as if it would collapse in on her at that moment, her body becoming a black hole of terror that would suck in everything until there was nothing left in this entire dimension.

"No… _No_!" She choked on the word, even as she spit it out. "You can't - It… it's too-"

"Too soon?" he asked, his voice taunting. "Then you should realize just how much your father _loves you_. I mean, it's not even your birthday yet, and here he is, prepared to give you a present. Three of them, in fact."

That did it. The idea, very _insinuation_ that was being made sent a wave of revulsion through her body. It was replaced a second later by a white hot surge of anger, prompting her to take a step forward. She thrust out her hand, pointing and accusing finger at the psychotic criminal.

"Listen to me, whoever, or _whatever_ you are. I don't care what you know, or what you _think_ you know. I don't even care _how_ you know it." She narrowed her eyes, trying to focus all of her anger on the _thing_ standing before her. "Never - _never_, mention _him_ in my presence, ever again. I'm more powerful than I have _ever_ been. If you don't leave me alone, _now_, I _will_ destroy you."

"Powerful?" The amused tone in Slade's voice betrayed absolutely no fear concerning her threat. Instead, he leaned forward, folding his hands calmly behind his back. "Girl, I've never seen you weaker. You couldn't stop me from delivering my message, even if you wanted to."

How _dare_ he? Raven's face twisted into a rictus of rage. "I _warned_ you. I warned you and now I'll _show_ you!"

Her fists clenched and she brought the full force of her mind to bear, crushing down on him like a psionic sledge. Raven did not hold back in the slightest with her assault; she had no interest in scaring him, or dominating him, she only desired to _end_ him. Had it been anyone else standing in that spot, at that moment, every synapse in their brain would have burned out in a flash, every blood vessel would have burst and they would have seized out in a matter of seconds -

In a flash, an endless void of flame and suffering filled her mind, then, at the heart of the maelstrom… Four great and terrible eyes snapped open.

_Pain_! Pain like Raven had never known before pierced through her like a metal spike being driven into her skull. Her head snapped back, a spray of red liquid burst from her nose, and she began to fall backwards. Her world began to flip upside down; the tower gave way to sky, only to flash back to the city as she felt her body slide bonelessly over the railing-

"Not so fast, baby girl."

A hand, like a vice, clamped down on her wrist. Her world continued to swirl with a kaleidoscope of colors, but she was still cognizant enough to feel herself pulled back onto the balcony, but not so much that she could puzzle out why it was happening. She was only able to loll her head around, half senseless as Slade dangled her above the ground, holding her up by her wrist with a single hand.

Slade looked down on her, his expression unreadable. "My, my, wasn't that dramatic? Not terribly smart, but impressive, nonetheless."

Moving in a surprising gentle way, he then set her down, resting her back against the cold metal of the railing. Grabbing her chin, he tilted her head back and forth, looking into each of her eyes in turn, studying her condition intently. "Well, it looks like you still have all of your higher functions, at least." Slade clucked his tongue, shaking his head sadly. "And look at that, you've got blood _all over _your face. Here, let me get that for you."

Raven tried to flinch away as Slade picked up the corner of her cloak and used it to scrub away at her face. It was worrying, just how saturated the cloth was when he pulled it away, and his gentle touch was even more repulsive than if he'd actually struck her with the back of his fist.

"W… what do you _want_?"

"Just what any messenger wants, Raven… for their message to be heard."

Despite her complete lack of motor control, her body still shuddered as he leaned in towards her. His face less than an inch from her own, she could feel his hot breath on her neck through the slits in his mask.

"You know, I have to admit, I never really thought much of you before." His eye bored into her, as if he were trying to hollow out her psyche by proximity alone. "But after I learned about your true nature… what you're destined to unleash...?'

She could almost see a twisted smile on his face as he pulled back and stood up. Casually strolling away from her, he looked over his shoulder at her, mirth twinkling in his eye. Clucking his tongue, he shook his head in disbelief.

"It's always the quiet ones," he wondered aloud.

Raven tried to form a response, but both her mind and tongue failed her. Was this really Slade? If so, how could he possibly know her darkest secrets? "H-h-"

"How do I know all of this?" he inquired. Holding up his hands, he shrugged casually. "That's hardly important at the moment. More important is _why_ I am here, and why you are here as well."

She stared up at the man, feeling completely impotent in her weakness. "…what are you talking about?"

His eye rolled around. "Really, baby girl? Did you really think that you had arrived _here_ of all places as a matter of pure happenstance? In all the sub dimensions of all of the multiverse, you actually thought that you came here by _accident_?"

Realization, as sudden as it was stark, struck Raven with locomotive force. The inexplicable incident during the dimensional shift! She'd sensed… _something_, just before it had occurred, but it had been so fast, and her shock at arriving in Azarath had been so great, she hadn't even thought to analyze the event. But - but the pieces all slipped into place in her mind now, forming an unbearable, inescapable conclusion.

"That's right. My employer went to no small effort to arrange this meeting. He did so miss you." Strolling casually back in her direction, Slade crouched down before her once more. "Which brings us back to your erroneous statement from earlier." He stared at her, his gaze incredulous. "You actually think you're _strong_ now? Looking at you is like looking at a starving kitten, shivering in the cold."

A low chuckle.

"It's all I can do not to _kick_ you." He held up a hand, gesturing to the sky. "You once held the power to bring the entire _world_ to its knees, and now you think a few petty mind tricks make you powerful?"

In a startling motion, he gripped her arms fiercely, eliciting a pained cry as he stared into her eyes manically. "Your father wants to remind you of what _true_ power is."

Raven screamed then, her vocal chords feeling as if they would tear apart as she howled. Black lightning shot through her body, running from Slade's hands and up her arms. Every muscle, every tendon contracted painfully, molten metal seemed to shoot through her bones and she felt her eyes would burn away as the dark energy crackled madly, the excesses of the raw power leaking through her flaring white eyes.

Agony wracked her body for a seeming eternity, she felt as if it would never end, felt that her entire body would disintegrate into ash and scatter across the whole of Azarath-

And then it was over. Not even sure how, Raven was standing on her feet now, Slade's hands still on her shoulders, holding her steady surprisingly gently; not that she needed his support. Oddly, the first thing that she noticed was that her headache was completely absent. In its place, a faint sense of euphoria flitted about. Absently, she held up her hand, and with less than a thought, familiar black flames flickered to life, limning her hand, but not burning her. The sensation, the power coursing though her veins, it resonated within her soul and a sense of - of completion settled over her.

She hadn't realized just how empty she had felt, until she had finally regained what she'd lost. Like a shadow, she had been floating along, doing little more than just existing, fading into the background just a bit more with each passing day. Now, the dark Titan felt as if she had been resurrected, raised from the ashes anew; not just the same, but better than before. All of this power…!

It felt _good_.

With a casual wave of her hand, a wall of purest black appeared between herself and Slade, only to push him back forcefully. He stumbled slightly, but recovered easily, as she had done little more than create some space, as opposed to launching him clear off the balcony. For a moment, she studied him intently, trying to gauge his intent, trying to piece together his motives.

The violet eyed woman found that she felt no fear of the man any longer, was actually surprised that he had frightened her at all. She might not be able to crush his mind, but what did that matter when it would take only a fraction of that effort to crush his body to paste with her true power.

Her eyes narrowed as she regarded him. "You… returned my powers. Why?"

There was something smug in his voice, but it felt pointless to get annoyed by it. "As I said, I was asked to deliver you your presents three. My… _employer_ wanted you to remember that he has always cared for you, always supported you. After all… he is your father."

Something at the back of her mind whispered that she should decry his words… but as she stared at the black energy which wreathed her hand, it seemed pointless. The dark power roiled and flowed across her skin; it made her feel strong, feel _safe_. It had always been there for her, always protected her from harm and catered to her every whim.

Just like the hand of an indulgent father.

Raven gave her head a quick shake. What was she even thinking? She looked up once more, leveling a lidded stare Slade's way. "He is no father of mine. The monks of Azarath, Azar herself, and - and my mother. They were the ones that raised me. They are the ones that cared for me. The people of Azarath were the ones that loved me. Not _him_."

"Tsk, tsk, Raven. Are you so certain about that?"

She spat out a bark of derisive laughter. "You think you can make me doubt my own memories?"

Slowly, Slade began to pace, taking a wide, circular path around her. Folding his hands behind his back as he walked, he absently looked upwards. "Do I really need to? This is how you remember Azarath to be, isn't it?" He turned his head sharply in her direction, lancing her with his gaze. "Tell me, Raven. What color is the sky in your world?"

The dark Titan scoffed aloud at the man. "As you can clearly see, they skies are gol-"

She choked on the word, unable to finish the single syllable. Not even sure why she did it, she looked up to stare at the wide expanse of the golden sky. The longer she looked at it, the more… _wrongness_ she felt. For some reason, memories of her first dream in this world flooded back to her: standing next to Terra, staring at the painting of herself. How, on the surface, everything seemed perfect and right, but the longer she stared at it, the more things seemed, well, _off_.

Turning back to Slade, she glanced at him uneasily. "What is going on? What is this that I'm feeling?"

"Just the truth, nothing more," he replied easily. Far too easily. "Whatever you might think, your father has never lied to you. Can you say the same of those that raised you?"

Just the thought galled Raven, that he would call her family and friends liars. She was about to tell him as much, but something stopped her. Instead, she simply stared at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue.

Shrugging his shoulders, Slade continued his slow walk, the metal of his boots ringing quietly with each footstep he took. "Perhaps we should begin at the beginning." He nodded towards the shadowed alcove which led to the interior of the tower. "With the day of your birth."

Puzzled by what he was saying, she turned to follow his gaze, looking through the large doorway and into the tower itself-

Raven's eyes widened in surprise.

* * *

##

BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS

TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 2101

CODENAME: Deathstroke the Terminator

REAL NAME: Slade Wilson

SPECIES: Human  
HEIGHT: 6'4"  
WEIGHT: 225lbs (estimated)

HAIR COLOR: White  
EYE COLOR: Gray *note - missing right eye*

KNOWN ABILITIES: Subject has undergone a procedure which has enhanced all of his abilities to peak human/super human levels. The Subjects strength has been enhanced to be able to lift a theorized one thousand pounds. Subjects speed has been similarly augmented, and his reflexes are far beyond human norms, allowing him to react to attacks from even supernaturally fast opponents. The subject's durability and endurance are also far beyond human, and the subject possesses regeneration of an unknown level.

The subject is at least a Class 12 martial artist, though his super human abilities make obtaining an accurate assessment of pure skill difficult. The subject has also demonstrated augmented intelligence, as well as exceptional tactical and strategic aptitude. His ability for non linear thinking and anticipating and adapting to his opponents appear to be an extension of this intelligence, making the subject an incredibly dangerous individual.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES:

To date, the subject has demonstrated no exploitable weaknesses. The subject's access to vast resources, advanced technology and extensive ties to the underworld make him incredibly unpredictable and all but impossible to track.

In fact, on the contrary, the subject has demonstrated a marked talent for determining the weaknesses of others and exploiting them to his advantage. The subject has actually battled several League members simultaneously before and has not only evaded capture, but held the advantage for a time.

The subject's advanced planning abilities and habit of using robotic decoys, and even grounding entire robotic armies (See Siege of Jump City) present further questions as to his full capabilites and present yet further complications in any possible scenarios concerning his capture.

Further analysis required…

KNOWN HISTORY:

The history of Slade Wilson is spotty, but several major points have been confirmed. Slade Wilson joined the army at the age of 16, having lied about his age to gain entry. It has been confirmed that Slade served in Korea before returning to America. Slade ultimately reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and also served in the Vietnam war.

Public records show that Slade Wilson married Captain Adeline Kane (Capt. Kane's record records that she was distinguished as a specialist in modern combat tactics and was provided training for numerous soldiers, Slade Wilson included).

The last official records, which had been classified by the United States Government, state that Slade Wilson volunteered for a medical experiment designed to increase one's resistance to truth serum. The procedure was deemed a failure when Slade suffered a violent reaction which left him hospitalized for months. It was not determined until later that this procedure eventually granted the subject his enhanced abilities.

The subject's history after this point are mostly unknown. Due to unknown circumstances, the subject became a mercenary, his reputation quickly growing to world class status. Slade has been documented engaged in missions all around the world, bringing him into conflict with numerous military forces, police forces, and even super heroes.

The subject's most recent activity has centered solely around Jump City, acting as antagonist to the Team Designation: Teen Titans. The subject made numerous attempts to destroy the Titans, or corrupt them, including blackmailing Subject:203 into becoming his apprentice, deploying giant mechanical constructs to sink the island housing the Titan's home, and culminated in the Subject successfully conquering the entire city with the assistance of his latest Apprentice, Subject: 8839 Codename: Terra.

According to reports from Robin, this battle ended with Slade's death, caused by volcano triggered by Terra's loss of control.

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: *Status - Deceased*

PERSONAL NOTE_: _

_What can I say, asides from 'Good riddance'? Deathstroke, or Slade, as he preferred to have the Titan's call him, was the most despicable sort of villain. He had no qualms over attacking his opponents, and especially the Titans, in their absolutely most vulnerable places. Holding the lives of Robin's friends and team mates hostage, just to blackmail him into acting as his apprentice? Twisting and corrupting Terra to betray the Titans by first pretending to be their friend? The man made a habit of manipulating and deceiving young heroes._

_ And yet, I can not deny his ability. I have, personally, faced Slade on several occasions… and I have never scored an actual victory against him. In fact, on my own, I have rarely even been able to gain the upper hand. His interest in taking on an apprentice is also… troublingly familiar. I can't help but see certain elements of myself when I look at this file… and I am absolutely certain that Robin must do the same as well. It is no surprise at all, that Robin grew so obsessed with Slade, above all of his other enemies. There is nothing so disturbing as looking at your enemy and… and understanding them, at least somewhat._

_ Good riddance indeed._

_##_


	28. Homebound 3

...

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Homebound_

Chapter 27

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

The massive doors swung open with surprising ease, even when being pushed by the combined might of Ryouga and Cyborg. As strong as both boys were, it was still surreal to see the enormous, building sized doors swinging open as easily as one might open the fridge to fetch a snack.

The sudden grumbling that emanated from her stomach made Jinx regret thinking about food at that moment. Given the situation, complaining about being hungry would probably get her a whole array of death glares from her companions. Whatever it was that Raven was doing, flying like a maniac to the top of the tower, Cyborg, Ryouga and Starfire were nearly out of their minds with worry. Even as the guys finished opening the doors, the alien girl floated back and forth anxiously, probably using all of her willpower to stop herself from zipping off and leaving the rest of them in her dust.

Sure, Jinx supposed that she might be a little concerned for the mopey girl, herself, but for the most part she didn't know what all the fuss was about. Yeah, those birds were more than a little freaky, but they hadn't attacked Raven, and there didn't appear to be anything else in this entire dimension to cause any trouble. Again, though, she was smart enough to keep that opinion to herself. Panicked people were rarely rational, and telling her friends to chill out would inevitably have the exact opposite effect at the moment.

Without hesitating for a moment longer than necessary, Ryouga and Cyborg proceeded inside the temple, Starfire following closely on their heels. Sighing weakly to herself, Jinx trailed after them. As she crossed through the monolithic doorway, she took in her new surroundings.

It was certainly… a really, really big room, that was for sure. It looked like someone had decided to Goth up a convention center, or maybe an airplane hanger, or something. The ceilings were almost out of sight, and the walls were lost in the darkness. Only the large pillars visible in the light from the doors gave any indication of the inner architecture. Even then, the light from outside didn't seem to stretch out as far as it should, the shadows of the room seeming just a little too dark for her comfort. How the hell would they even know which direction to go to find the stairs? It looked like they could walk for hours in any direction before walking into a wall.

"I hate to say it," she started tentatively. She flinched a bit as everyone turned to stare at her intently. Regardless, she braved on. "But shouldn't we wait for the other guys to catch up before we charge in here?"

To her annoyance, Ryouga shook his head immediately. "It'll take too long for them to catch up. We need to locate Raven as quickly as possible." He turned to Cyborg-. "Cy, can you find us a way up?" Then Starfire. "Starfire, can you give us some light?"

Immediately, the pair burst into action. Cyborg lifted his arm, quickly beginning to scan their surroundings. As he did that, Starfire began to generate large, bloated star bolts, shining brightly, and lobbing them off into the darkness. Brilliant emerald light chased away the darkness in parabolic arcs as the makeshift flares soared through the air, allowing them to see some of the distant ceiling, but not the walls.

"Alright, a sonar sweep is starting to give me a 3-D image of the room. It's damn big, but… yeah, I'm getting something that looks like a staircase a quarter kilometer that way." The cybernetic teen pointed off into the darkness more or less straight ahead.

"Sounds good. Alright, Star, no need to light up the place, just worry about us."

Nodding, the Tamaranian stopped her illuminating bombardment and simply held her hand above her head. A moment later, another star bolt, not quite as large or bright as the ones she had thrown formed, surrounding her fist. It still provided illumination for them, just more subdued.

Again, Ryouga began to walk, only to be redirected as Cyborg dropped a hand on his shoulder and began to lead him in the right direction. Once properly oriented, they picked up their pace to a speedy jog, Starfire close behind once more. Frowning, Jinx hefted her plasma carbine. It was obvious that they weren't going to listen to reason on this, so it was up to her to watch their back and make sure no one killed them. With a sigh, she resigned herself to being the… the responsible one.

She could only hope that India and Juliet caught up soon.

* * *

Taking an uncertain step forward, Raven couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"M-mother?"

No one present paid any heed to her startled inquiry. Even were it not a vision, she imagined that they would have been far too busy to respond to her. Seeing her mother laying on a stone altar at the center of the chamber, her feet perched up in archaic stirrups and her belly swollen in a way which could only indicate one condition, was… surreal. Surrounding her were numerous people, all wearing the robes of the monks of Azarath, and standing at the foot of the altar, was a very familiar woman, an aged figure with long white hair.

Her mother's brow was beaded with sweat and her breath came in rapid huffs. It was obvious that she was already well into the act of labor. The closest circle of monks all held various articles, cloths, pans of water and such, all looking prepared to assist in the delivery.

"This is… the day of my birth?"

"Got it in one, birthday girl." Slade's voice was amused, but not mocking. So unusual for him.

Looking up, as she was still standing on the balcony, looking in at the momentous event, she saw that the sun was still shining. She had always assumed she'd been born at night for some reason, it just seemed more fitting. Taking it all in, it was a fascinating scene.

"See?" she asked. She gestured to the gathering. "I'm surrounded by people that love me."

His head tilting to the side, the light glinting off his mask, he glanced at the congregation. "Is that so? Take a closer look."

Firing a weak glare at the man, she reluctantly did what he asked, curious to see what he was referring too. She wasn't sure what he _could_ be referring to. The older woman, Azar, looked as calm and collected as she always did, and those monks closest to the altar looked very intent on their duty and tending to Arella's comfort. It was just as she remembered-

But then she noticed the people standing beyond the inner circle…

Expressions that ranged from disgust, to anger, to abject terror adorned the faces of the monks. She could hear the quiet muttering of the nearest of the monks. Fierce growls of 'demon child' were met with anxious whispers of 'she's doomed us all'.

"Mmm-mmm. Can't you just feel the love?" Slade asked, thoroughly pleased with himself.

Raven recoiled a step, staring at the congregation, seeing it them all in a new light. "It's not - it's not possible."

"Seeing is believing, my dear. It seems that the people of Azerath aren't exactly happy to see you. But, there is one person that celebrated your glorious birth."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, growing more confused by the moment.

"Push, Arella, push!"

Instantly, Raven turned back to the room, watching with rapt attention as Azar moved right up to the end of the altar, prompting Raven's mother through the birth. She didn't even register Slade as he crossed his arms over his chest and said, "You're about to find out."

Not sure whether she should look away, or not, Raven could only stare, almost in shock, as she watched her own birth unfold. Her mother bore down in time with each of the older woman's orders and within minutes, the otherwise silent affair was punctuated by the shriek of a new life entering the world. The sound was enough to nearly send Raven into catatonia, but it was nothing in comparison to seeing Azar hold up the newly born infant, wrapped tightly in a swaddling cloth.

"And now, why don't you look up to see your birthday present?"

Finally snapped out of her trance, Raven fired a caustic glare at the masked villain. Still, she did as he said, puzzled as to what he could possibly be talking about. Suddenly, she clutched her throat; a stench filled her nose, clogging her throat and nearly choking her. The smell of death - of carrion - filled the air, coming out seemingly nowhere and everywhere all at once. All around the room, monks covered their faces, some even dropping to their knees.

But that wasn't the end of it. Even as Raven watched, her eyes growing every wider with each passing second, the sky began to _darken_. At first it was subtle, like the setting of the sun, the golden skies losing their luster. But then patches of darkness, black as pitch began to form above them, and spread like some form of celestial cancers. With unbelievable speed, the swathes of shadow grew and joined together, and within minutes, all of Azarath was cast into perfect darkness.

The pall lasted only for moments, before pinpricks of light began to flicker to life around the city, and soon enough Azarath was lit up like Metropolis… but that didn't change the fact that their world was now cast into eternal darkness.

"Simply _glorious_," Slade breathed, amazement on his voice. "To think, your father did all of this, just to celebrate his daughters _birthday_."

"Why… why don't I remember this?" Raven asked, still not believing what she was seeing. "Was this just temporary, or-"

"Oh, no, this is quite permanent, I assure you. In fact, what you're seeing now is the true Azarath." For some reason, he chuckled to himself before adding. "Well, maybe _one or two_ other minute details are a bit off, but lets not nitpick."

Spinning around, Raven looked at the blackened sky, still not quite comprehending the sight of it all. "But… I remember the golden skies."

"Are you so certain of that… or perhaps you were just made to remember things as you do?"

"Or, perhaps you are simply trying to make me question my memories?" Raven asked pointedly.

Slade shrugged, not seeming concerned. "Also a possibility. I hate to sound cliché, but why don't you tell me what story feels right to you? If you're as powerful as you say, certainly you can pick out which memories are real."

Frowning, Raven bit her knuckle. It was so hard to sort things out. This blackened sky, as horrible as it was, felt no less familiar than the golden sky which she had grown up with. How was it possible that she couldn't simply cling to her old memories with certainty? Slade was a consummate liar, a shameless villain, why was she even listening to him?

She turned back to watch the reactions of the monks - only to see that they, that the entire scene, was gone. The room was empty, barren of anything, not even a shred of evidence that what Slade had shown her had ever taken place.

No evidence, except for the blackened sky above them.

"I - I don't know what that was supposed to prove," she finally stated, though there was no conviction in her voice. "They may not all have loved me, but the people of Azarath were still my family. They cared for me and protected me my entire life. My father did nothing but ruin the lives of everyone in this dimension, my home."

Again, the masked man at her side chuckled darkly. "Raven, Raven, Raven. You, of all people, should know better than to tempt fate. It seems that your stroll down memory lane isn't done yet-"

Suddenly, Slade looked to the side, distracted by something that she couldn't see. "Hmm, looks like we have some uninvited guests on their way."

"Who-"

"Don't you worry your pretty little head over it," Slade replied, waving away her inquiry. He then gestured to the doorway. "I know what you came to this temple to find. It's not far from here. Why don't you go find it while I go… entertain your new friends?"

His meaning was clear, but Raven found it hard to get worked up, not when her goal was so close at hand. She knew exactly what he was referring to, and exactly how to reach it from where she was. All she had to do was find it. She shifted back and forth for several long moments. Did she stop him, fight him, destroy him? Or did she enter the temple, did she move forward, regardless of the cost?

Slade watched her patiently, his eye tracking her as she fidgeted uncertainly, until, finally she turned her back on him. Moving hastily, more ashamed at her actions than any fear of attack, she fled into the shadows of the temple.

She needed to get away from Slade, away from his words.

The lure of the truth, however unlikely coming from that filth, was also too hard to ignore. Looking over her shoulder, she noticed that Slade was already gone. Raven hoped, with all of her heart, that everyone would forgive her for what she'd done.

* * *

At a full combat sprint over hostile terrain, India Squad could cover roughly six miles in seven minutes. As Seiran's newest rapid assault team, they had trained for the speed and versatility to operate on par with power armored 'lightning rod' teams like Bravo or Hotel. Not having Elerium powered flight, they compensated with straight up ground speed. Every day, they ran forty kilometers around Seiran Mountain, practiced for a full day, and then ended with more point-to-point _akichi_ drills.

Months of this had given even Kuno, their slowest member, a respectable sprinting speed. It was a boon to both strategic and tactical deployment, as improvements to body moment directly translated to combat advantages in flanking, assaulting, and general maneuver warfare. Even in pure close combat, the grinding, brutal daily drills were what enabled quick and effective use of techniques like Kuno's Sokushi Tenrai (Instant Death Heavenly Thunder), Mousse's Kuro Hakuchouken (Fist of the Black Swan) or Ryouga's Zangansen (Stone Cutting Flash).

Yankee's distress message, coming so soon on the heels of Nabiki's own panicked outburst already had the team on edge, to say nothing of the general strangeness that was starting to turn more and more to suspicion. Now, with Raven disappearing on her own and the sky suddenly turning black...? There was no way it was a natural occurrence, even given the strange physics of this dimension.

It took sixty four seconds for both two man cells to meet up, and then they made an immediate beeline for Azarath's main tower complex. Even as they did so, Ryouga had attempted to contact the vanished Yankee-Five psionically.

Unfortunately, without the headset on her or the tracking devices on it, he couldn't zero in on her visually, and unlike more experienced psionics, he couldn't simply blanket search a general area. Her tactical vest's IFF transponder was down as well, but Nabiki's rerouted UAV drone had visually confirmed that the Titan had entered the structure, but had not yet exited. They had nothing about the tower's internal schematics, aside from what Nabiki could see through the UAV's camera, though, leaving Raven off the grid.

Ryouga continued attempts to contact her even as he confirmed Ranma and the rest of Juliet securing the ship. It wasn't just this blatant breach of protocol, either, which he fully intended to chew Raven out for later. There were strange things going on underfoot, and the memories UNETCO had retrieved from Raven weren't encouraging. They knew - _he knew_ - about Trigon, about the prophecy, about Azarath in a general sense.

Had it been a mistake to let Yankee go with her, unescorted?

Should he have held off on searching for tech and information to better secure the safety of the teams?

No. No, he had a direct mandate from high command to acquire useful intelligence and technology. He also had a responsibility to help the Titans to get back home and it would have been remiss to simply turn around. Caution had to be weighed against orders and opportunity. It was too late for regrets anyway.

Jumping and running across rooftops, like humanoid cars speeding along a personal highway, Ryouga briefly double checked the position of Ryu and Mousse to his left, and Kuno to his right. He turned the rest of his attention to the looming tower. Raven was somewhere up top.

It was very ziggurat-like, and luckily nothing like a skyscraper back home. Ascending it would be easy. Experience plotted out his preferred route. Mental guesswork provided an ETA: roughly twelve hundred meters from top to bottom, perhaps three kilometers from their current position, and taking into account all of the non-uniform building heights between them and the tower, ranging from single stories, to over a thousand feet easily, it made their approach difficult to chart out. Still, ten minutes or less.

They'd run and jump right up the side.

The sudden appearance of those strange birds didn't go unnoticed either, nor did their thematic implications. Yankee's audio indicated they had intercepted Starfire. If they were projections or constructs, they'd have to be rendered down with disruptive psionics. Given Yankee's pursuit, making at least one or two good external assault attempts was prudent.

"India-One to Teams. Juliet-All - mark location and move to tactical around Pathfinder. Yankee-All - I have not been able to contact Raven psionically. Her IFF is offline as well. Continue your intercept." _As if they'd stop now_. "India-All will be taking the top of the tower. Confirm."

"Juliet-One confirms... but my sakkijutsu's been acting up lately," Ranma added, sounding concerned for once. "It ain't just a lame Ghost Hunters vibe either."

"I think we're all feeling it," Ryouga replied, jumping off the roof, his _zangansen_ partly pulverizing the rooftop. "Yankee. Your main psi-support is out, so watch your backs in there. Ranma. If something's messing with us, I want you to find a way to block it. You're always saying you're the best at this crap. Prove it."

"Yeah, you bet I'll prove it, Pork Rind!" came the quick retort.

Bristling only slightly at the long since out of style insult, Ryouga forced his mind back to the task at hand, reaching the tower as soon as possible and find out what the hell was going on. He was forced to measure his steps carefully as he leapt to the next rooftop, one of a series of domed affairs with a lance-like spire rising up from its center. Between the rows of half spheres ran a parallel roof with crenellations. Stutter stepping rapidly to keep from slipping off the spherical architecture, he finally rounded the building and leapt for the next on his way to the center of the city. This one, he sped across at full speed, trying to make up for the fractions of a second he'd just lost.

Only then did it occur to him. Had Yankee actually responded to his call? Or his follow up statement? The more he thought of it, the more certain he grew that they had not. They should have replied to confirm their orders. What the Hell was going on with them? He prepared to call Yankee again -

"Major! I have movement! Nine o'clock!"

Skidding sharply to a stop, feet squealing to a stop mere inches from the ledge, Ryouga spun to look to his side. Kuno, who had barked the warning, was pointing to a distant rooftop. It took Ryouga a second to see what he was pointing at. He only managed the briefest glimpse of what looked like a humanoid figure running across a roof, before leaping down and vanishing from sight.

Fingers motioned to Kuno, then to the more distant Ryu and Mousse. India slowed and reoriented to the approaching contact. Reaching to his side, Ryouga triggered the pressure release maglock on his sidearm holster. A few feet away, Kuno craned his neck to try and catch a glimpse of the approaching figure.

Fearlessly, the stranger jumped up onto the edge of the domed roof.

A deafening roar was the first word spoken, and not from human lips. A ten millimeter armor piercing incendiary explosive slug with the power of a .50 cal slammed into the man's thigh and detonated. The sound of shattering bone was almost as loud as the shot itself as the projectile powdered the hip bone and ripped a ragged canyon through the leg proper. Half removed, the lower leg swung like a broken pendulum at the knee, the force of the shot sufficient to spin the person around in midair. One legged and off balance, the figure hit the far side of the dome with a sick crunch, momentarily vanishing from sight.

Something struck Ryouga as strange, even as he watched the man fall.

"Major!" Kuno snapped, surprised by the sudden attack.

"Don't take your hand off your sword, Kuno," Ryouga replied, not turning from the target he had just crippled for life. Jumping towards the apex of the dome where the target had fallen, he searched for the body. He'd shot to cripple, not to kill, just in case.

_'That mask.' _

It only took him a second to find the Tango, having landed heavily on the sloped roof of the central mosque-like structure from which all of the domed minarets rose up. There was less than a dozen meters between them now, as he stared down at the masked man. His eyes widened slightly in shock, as the man stared right back at him. Standing easily, the worryingly familiar figure took a moment to adjust his neck with a loud crack, before shaking out his arms.

He'd seen the leg all but come clean off. How could he not only be alive, but even standing? Was this another damned _regenerator_, like Saffron? Staring, Ryouga couldn't even see a drop of blood staining the man's dark uniform.

_'If not regeneration; is it a psionic construct?'_

Somewhat unexpectedly, rather than move, either to attack or flee, the man instead spoke. The voice was low, but not gravely, flowing eerily.

"Now, that was just rude." The man's head tilted to the side as he regarded Ryouga, and even from his perch, he could see a glint of malice in his lone eye. "What if I'd been a friend, coming to warn you?"

The officer heard Kuno take up position, fingers doubtlessly coiled around the hilt of his blade.

"You don't need your legs to warn me," Ryouga replied, glaring at the man. "And... those Teen Titans didn't paint a rosy picture of you, Slade."

"Well, I don't know about you, but _most_ people tend to die shortly after having a leg blown off. Trust me, I've seen it." A low chuckle emanated from the orange and black mask as the villain shook his head. "Still, I must say that I appreciate the shoot first, ask questions later approach. You're certainly a much more promising Hibiki than your counterpart."

The acting Major narrowed his eyes a fraction at the remark.

Ryu and Mousse were in position, surrounding the target. If he jumped, he'd be cut to ribbons. If he tried to blast through the roof, he'd be hit with explosives. If he attacked or ran, he'd be captured and filleted. Or shot to atoms. It was a shame this probably wasn't a real enemy in the conventional sense.

"Coming from you, I should probably be insulted, but whatever." he brushed off the backhanded compliment. "I have to ask: how was your world's afterlife? Nice?"

Not looking particularly offended, Slade shrugged his shoulders. "I have no real complaints. Why do you ask? Expecting to go to a similar place when your end finally meets you, boy?"

"Just curious," Ryouga admitted, leaning forward a bit. "The dead usually don't come back unless they have unfinished business. Yet, you're here, on Azarath, and not on your Earth? Isn't that strange?"

Slade chuckled darkly. "Child, you don't even know the meaning of the word."

Folding his arms behind his back, the masked villain looked around him. The unconcerned air he exuded as he glanced over Mousse, then Ryu and finally Kuno, was somewhat disconcerting.

"There are things unfolding here which are beyond your ability to comprehend, and I lack the patience or inclination to explain them," the masked man continued. "So, the real question is... what do the four toy soldiers do now?"

"Huh." Ryouga motioned for Ryu and Mousse to stand down.

It was just a guess, but...

"You know what?" he asked and answered in kind. "If you are the real Slade, then this is kind of sad. From what I heard, and what I saw through Raven, you were the worst enemy the Titans had. I mean, I kind of wondered if you were a closet pedophile, especially with that whole Terra thing, but you had them all spooked. That's pretty impressive, since they were meta-human and you were just human."

He let out a dismissive snort. "And now?" Ryouga glared darkly at the infuriatingly impassive Slade. "You're a slave for some filthy alien. Or demon. Or whatever you want to call it. As a human being, you really should have had more... pride. More self-respect."

Though he'd meant to taunt the man into a rage, the razor barb didn't have the effect expected. Rather than roaring in fury, or lashing out, Slade did something even more disturbing. He laughed. He laughed loud and he laughed long. Several long moments passed before he finally recovered.

"Ahhh, from the mouths of babes! A 'filthy alien?" The villain chuckled to himself, shaking his head in disbelief. "Even after seeing the truth from Raven herself, you still have _no_ idea what you speak of."

Pausing for a moment, Slade turned around slowly, regarding each member of India squadron before settling on Ryu. His head tilting to the side, studying the martial artist as one might a particularly interesting insect, Slade nodded to himself.

"I hadn't actually planned to fight you," he said, still calm. "But perhaps a small taste of the reality of your situation is in order?"

Instantly, Ryouga raised his weapon, the hairs on his neck rising up as he felt a killing intent fill the air. It was terrifying, not in scope, like the mindless, agony filled rage of Saffron, but in its pure intensity. This Slade, he wasn't some emotional martial artist out to prove himself, or some half mad alien abomination. This man was a killer, an utter sociopath on a level far beyond even the cultivated bloodlust Ryouga had developed over the past months. A blinding flash of light suddenly sprang up, nearly forcing Ryouga to avert his gaze as - impossibly - a raging pyre of flame suddenly surged up from the roof, consuming Slade entirely.

"**Open Fire!**" he yelled, snapping his rifle up to his shoulder. A rapid burst of plasma rounds and NGP slugs punched widening holes into the roaring inferno. It was quickly followed by vacuum blades and more than a dozen frag grenades. Within seconds, nearly half of the rooftop was shattered in a maelstrom of destruction.

No one even noticed the secondary flash of fire in all of the sound and fury of their assault, though they would certainly wish they had, as this particular burst of flame came from _behind_ one of them. Ryu, even with his trained senses and honed reflexes, didn't quite have enough time to turn around. Even as he twisted his head over his shoulder, trying desperately to see what it was that was emitting such a powerful killing intent directly behind him, his eyes widened in shock.

Lifting his hand, Slade's eye danced with glee. A fraction of a second later, a sphere of flame surged to life in his palm, dancing merrily in the small gap between Slade's outstretched hand and Ryu's exposed side. And then the Yamasenken master just seemed to vanish as the fireball detonated. The explosion expanded so quickly, so violently, that both Slade and Ryu were consumed by its fury in an instant.

Ryouga barely had the time to snarl - praying that his colleague hadn't been incinerated - when a limp figure was shot out of the expanding explosion at ballistic speed. The armored, charred and still burning form of Ryu was spat out of the roaring flames and smashed into the roof, digging a long furrow with one boot before finally grinding to a stop on the far end of the roof.

Finally, the fireball dispersed, revealing the form of Slade, casually leaning against the red hot and half melted spire that rose from the center of his perch. Not even a patch of soot marred the unscathed villain as he regarded the rest of them lazily.

"So..." he asked. "Who's next?"

Ryouga shifted his stance -

"_Who's next?_" The question didn't come from Slade this time.

"... Did I hear that right?" Ryu asked back. The Kumon heir staggered out of the shallow trench his boot had dug in the domed roof, regaining a measure of his composure as both feet found purchase, precariously balanced at the edge of the smoking roof. Fires burned across his armor, consuming scraps of cloth and straps of nylon and kevlar. Two blasted plates of alloy fell from his burning chest to ping off the edge of the roof at his toes.

Reaching up, he de-polarized the visor of his helmet, a ferocious and bloody snarl on his lips.

"**You there!**"

One fist balled, the burning Yamasenken master pointed at Slade... before blasting off in an explosion of roof tiles and dust, one flattened palm reared back and vacuum blades forming in arcs across his body.

"**Don't fucking count me out!**"

* * *

Raven pulled her cloak tight as she walked down the corridor, as if it would shield her from the imagined, and very real evils which might surround her. Though the darkness within the temple should have been absolute, small spheres of azure light flickered to life just ahead of her on either side of the corridor before dying out once more as she passed them. The soft glow illuminated just enough of the hallway to allow herself to navigate; she was already intimately familiar with the inner confines of the Temple Azarath. Even had the lights not appeared at all, she imagined she would have still been able to find her destination, even blinded by darkness.

She was on the uppermost level of the temple; this was where only the most sacred of rituals occurred, where only the most holy of artifacts were displayed. Despite her vision, her birth did not occur right next to the balcony, for all of Azarath to see. That particular event had occurred near the center of the tower, very close to her chosen destination. As her feet struck the floor, the memory of the silent echo bounced off the walls around her. It was a subtle reminder that below her feet, within the bowels of the temple, was nestled the Grand Cathedral. An absolutely massive chamber, staggering in its scale. The chamber was large enough to hold nearly the entire population of Azarath within its confines.

Years and years ago, in her youth - notably, before she had learned to defy gravity - the idea that such a massive space hung beneath them, like a yawning abyss, had terrified her. She had long since mastered that unseemly and unfounded emotion, but still, she felt a small tingle sweep through her legs as she walked these long, cold hallways. She wondered if it was at all akin to the sensation that a miner felt, knowing that millions of tons of earth and stone hovered mere inches above their head every time they traveled below the surface to toil away.

Still, despite all of that, the apprehensions of old were no match for the anxiety she felt with each step she took. For each patter of her footsteps, her chest clenched just a bit more, because she knew where they were leading her. If memory served, she would soon be arriving at a large chamber, octagonal in shape, with a large door leading from the room at each of the cardinal points. At the center of this room was what she sought.

She felt it before the dim glow of the spheres allowed her to see it; the indescribable sensation of a large space opening up before her, like standing on the edge of a cliff with ones eyes closed. A few long moments later, and she entered the grand chamber. To both sides of the door she had entered, more of the small spheres of light lit up around the room, two at a time and circling the chamber nearly a dozen feet above the floor. Even with the weak light offered by each of the orbs, their combined glow was enough to gently illuminate the entire room.

Along each of the four walls which did not contain doors, ancient relics of impossible worth and unbelievable power rested on graceful pedestals of purest gold. She paid no attention to any of them, her gaze pulled inexorably to the heart of the chamber. A massive stone doorway, standing nearly twice her height and wide enough for three of her to walk through side by side, stood patiently, timelessly. This was the Great Door, the Portal to Limbo, the Gateway between Dimensions.

Quickly, she approached the great stone edifice.

All she needed to do was open the door and will her destination into existence, and it would take her there. Once she had proved that it worked, she could find her friends and take them home. It would be the perfect penance. Though no one blamed her, she knew that being trapped in this dimension was her fault. If it weren't for her, the griffin entity couldn't have hurtled them so far beyond the realms of their own dimension. If she could return them safely, deliver them from a seemingly endless exile, then, and only then, could she forgive herself.

Almost excited, she reached out to push open the broad doors...

Only to stop, her hands shivering violently mere inches from the stone surface of the door. At first, she was afraid it was some mental attack, but slowly, realization crept into her mind. It was not compulsion that stayed her hand, but fear. Raw, unreasoning fear; she remembered it had been like this when last she had used the gate. It had taken all of her considerable will to push though her irrational terror, but she had finally succeeded, and she would again now.

She just wished that she knew what had instilled this unthinking gut reaction within her.

_**IF THAT IS WHAT YOU DESIRE, THEN I WILL SHOW YOU**__**…**__** MY DAUGHTER.**_

Raven recoiled as if slapped. That voice - it could not even be called a voice, crashing down on her mind like an avalanche, each syllable slamming into her with the force of a boulder - while it felt like her body would shatter to pieces just from hearing it, it was also strangely… familiar. Through the pain, she was shocked but the utter lack of terror that she was almost certain should have been shaking her bones into dust.

Frantic, she spun around to find the speaker. The first spin around revealed nothing but the same darkened room which she had entered. Her second rotation yielded other results.

The chamber was suddenly filled with light; bright lights reflected off of golden walls, creating a dazzling display and highlighting each and every artifact and relic on display around the room. Even the massive stone door at the center of the room was lit spectacularly, looking almost inviting in comparison to the shadowed edifice from seconds ago. There was another difference. The southern door was also open now, the long corridor brightly lit as well... as was the man running down the hallway. Raven puzzled for a moment, trying to make out the figure. It was a man, and dressed in the robes of a magistrate, though she was not familiar with the office.

That alone, was odd, as Raven had spent most of her life within the Temple. She had met all of the high officials of Azarath over the years, though not always under the best of circumstances. How long ago was this vision, that she was seeing people that she did not know? Who was this strange man, and why was he running?

"By Azar, he's gone mad!"

"Someone stop him!"

"_Juris_! In the name of Azar _stop_!"

Again, Raven boggled. The man, Juris by all accounts, was being followed down the corridor by an entire host of people! Men and women, some wearing robes, other wearing more casual clothing, but all with looks of shock and panic adorning their faces. Even more shocking, at the back of the crowd, just as a glimpse, Raven caught sight of her mother. For just a second, she could see Arella's face, and the expression she bore nearly cracked Raven's cold heart in two.

What in Azar's name could one man have done that could have caused such a ruckus in this most sacred of places?

"You must understand!" Juris shouted over his shoulder, "The child will doom us all!"

It was only then that Raven noticed the bundle in Juris' arms. The small shape, wrapped tightly in a dark blue cloth which chose that moment to fall back, revealing -

Raven nearly collapsed, her eyes shooting wide open as she stared at her own face. Her own face, but many, many years younger. The young babe in Juris' arms, not more than a year old, wore an oddly calm expression, apparently not disturbed by being wildly jostled by a man running as if the hordes of hell were on his heels.

"W-what is going on?" she asked to herself, mortified. What was this man doing with - with _her_? Where was he taking her? What were his intentions? He - he couldn't possibly be planning to...?

Juris burst into the room, but rather than make for one of the other doors, he kept running straight forward. Instantly, his intent became clear, and Raven's heart nearly stopped beating in her chest. She shouted out in shock as she dove forward. She ducked low, angling her shoulder squarely for the man's stomach, hoping that her infant self's natural resilience would protect her from a short fall.

Her forehead cracked painfully off the floor as she passed straight through Juris as if he were a ghost… which, through her spinning, pain blinded mind, was actually closer to the truth than she was comfortable with. It was all she could do to flip over onto her back, her vision swimming as she tried to focus her eyes on the back of the fleeing man. She lifted her hand weakly, vainly reaching out, even though she knew it was impossible to stop what was about to happen.

"-no."

With mad strength, Juris slammed his foot into the center of the Great Door. Even as the massive stone panels swung open, revealing a twisting, abyssal vortex beyond, Juris lifted the baby Raven above his head, holding her in both hands and rearing back to throw.

A crack of thunder rocked the room, nearly knocking everyone in sight to their feet. Even Raven felt the shockwave rush through her, dazing her even further. The crash was nothing, though, just a herald of something far more terrible. Within the doorway, the endless vortex had vanished, swallowed up by a plane of absolute blackness - only for four red slashes to cut into the ebony cloth. A second later, the slashes tore open, forming four massive, hateful eyes of purest crimson.

Down the hallway, shrieks of abject horror erupted instantly, and Raven could hear people scraping helplessly at the ground, as if they could burrow through the floor and escape the baleful glare which seared all of them to the very souls. Juris, however, was paralyzed with horror, the infant still held above his head. The man could not even blink, let alone flee for his life, all he could do was stare.

_** NO**_

For an instant, Raven was blinded as the light of a thousand suns poured through the Great Door. The gout of raw dimensional energy engulfed Juris, snuffing him out before Raven's eyes could even blink shut from the intensity of the light. The last thing she heard over the crackling, roaring torrent of power was the agonized scream of the man whom had dared to break Azarath's supreme law - the taking of a human life.

She blinked her eyes rapidly, squeezing out the tears that blurred her vision as she recovered from the painful light. What had just happened? Juris was - he was… but he had been holding Raven, holding _her_! The sound of monolithic stone doors grinding closed prompted Raven to look up.

Though her vision was still somewhat blurred, what she saw amazed her: the cloth swaddled child resting peacefully before the now closed Great Door. The young Raven was not crying, nor was she injured, not even her blanket had been singed. The only reminder - grim reminder - of what had happened, was the blackened outline of ash marring the floor, an outline holding the disturbing shape of a man with his hands stretched up above his head.

Raven knew she should have been horrified, possibly emptying her stomach onto the floor just at the implication of what had happened, what had almost happened, but - but she did not. The sight of her younger self nestled safely in the center of the carbonized remains of the main that had just been about to murder her was oddly… comforting.

Though no one else had been fast enough, or capable enough to protect her, someone _had_ come to her rescue. Not only had he saved her from this madman, memory flushed through her, a powerful sense of déjà vu, she remembered feeling safe as those hellish flames had washed over her, as if she could come to no harm.

Looking around slowly, her hood falling back to let the light reach her eyes more easily, Raven noticed that no one was moving now. The child, her, was still and silent, as were the panicked mob collapsed in the southern corridor. Not a single one of them had risen to their feet yet, she could not see even one of them scrambling to regain their footing to rush forward and pick up the abandoned child. She could see it in their eyes, all too terrified that they might still be struck down to worry about her yet.

At first, Raven's eyes narrowed as she regarded the cowardly swine huddled on the ground like rats... only for her eyes to soften as she turned again to regard the door. Confusion swept over her, but it did not fill her with anxiety. Merely, she stared at the Great Door.

"You - _you_ saved me," she stated in an awed tone.

_**OF COURSE. YOU ARE MY DAUGHTER.**_

"But, why leave me here?" she asked, trying not to sound accusatory. "You could have taken me, raised me as you wished. _Why_ did you leave me here, knowing that I would grow to defy you?"

_**THE PROPHECY IS INVIOLATE. NOTHING YOU WILL EVER DO CAN CHANGE WHAT WILL COME TO PASS**__**… **__** ALLOWING YOU A PEACEFUL CHILDHOOD WAS NO THREAT TO YOUR DESTINY.**_

Raven puzzled over that for a moment. It - it made sense, in a strange way. Her destiny could not be changed, no matter what she did. Maybe even no matter what _he_ did. As such, her father had… he had deigned to let her grow up with her mother, with those that loved her and nurtured her, rather than take her away to his own realm. It was a twisted form of affection, but from her father, it was almost beyond imagination.

She shook her head harshly from side to side.

Pushing herself up until she was kneeling, Raven half glared at the door. "No! Whatever you've done, I won't betray the memory of my mother! Ever if everyone else in Azarath hated me for what I was, I know that she always loved me. I don't know what you're trying to do here, showing me these things, but it won't work."

Imperious look on her face, she rose to her feet. "I can just use this door and get my friends and me home."

Stepping forward, heedless of the black scorch on the floor - though mindful of the young Raven underfoot - she bravely placed her hand on the surface of the Great Door and pushed.

The door swung open silently, revealing nothing but the dimly lit room beyond it. Spinning around, Raven gasped as everything was dark and abandoned once more, only the pale spheres offering any light. There were no people down the southern hallway, the door was closed tightly. Looking down, there was no child at her feet, nor was there a human shaped burn mark on the ground. It was all whisked away like the dream it had been.

Turning back, she stared at the door, her confusion growing by the second. Why wasn't it working? She knew it worked, had just seen it work-

_**BEFORE YOU GO, THERE IS ONE MORE THING I WOULD HAVE YOU SEE. GRANT ME THIS ONE REQUEST AND THEN THE PORTAL SHALL OPEN FOR YOU.**_

Again, Raven found herself puzzled. She looked about expectantly, but no further prompting came. He wanted her to see just one more thing? Then, he would allow the portal to work for her? It seemed like such a small thing to do. It wasn't like he was demanding her to swear loyalty to him, or anything unimaginable like that. All she had to do was suffer through one more memory? She had to admit, in a morbid fashion, she found herself actually wanting to see what he had to show her.

Reaching back, Raven pulled her hood back over her head, tugging it down low to shadow her face.

After all, how much could one little memory change?

* * *

Fire and vacuum clashed sending hot licks of copper off and away in electric arcs. Mortar crunched underfoot as steel toed brogans and layered alien alloy boots stamped and jockeyed, in the latter case shifting to rapidly redistribute forces down and into the ground from blows about the arms and body. Ryu Kumon was not infamous among the teams for his raw power, like Ryouga or even Ranma were, but in a full out exchange he could and did increase the power of his blows to similar levels. As he and Slade exchanged lightning quick body blows, the sound was less that of colliding bone and muscle and more the thunderclap of displacing air escaping from rapidly collapsing atmospheric cavities.

Gray metal boots ripped into the pummeled ground as the man who had surpassed and reformed the Yamasenken lunged with both hands, palms flattened into murderous spades. Smoke whipped past his elbows and arms as vacuum blades howled. In much the same position, looking rather less worse for wear, Slade's fists glowed with an infernal radiance as he met the attack head on.

"Geimon Tetsu Sen Shi: **Double Tap!**"  
(Welcome Gates Fan Finger: **Double Tap!)**

It was not an elegant collision. Ryu was tossed upwards in a burning parabola, trying desperately to orient himself. Slade went in the other direction, the soles of his shoes digging into the mortar of the church below as he skidded backwards but upright. Chunks of stone tore up and behind him, leaving him ankle deep but unbowed. One eye narrowed as it noted the gash left in the metal over his left breast. There was another, too, in the lower body, that had been aimed for the vulnerable areas between muscle. Each blow had shredded flesh wide open, deep enough to cut through bone: the first to puncture a lung and the second to disembowel.

_'Even after the Double Geimon, he's still intact,'_ Mousse observed with narrow analytical eyes. _'Without my own armor or hidden weapons defenses, either one of those blows would have killed me. What the Hell is this thing made of?'_

Hands in his sleeves, he concentrated on trying to find and disrupt whatever force was animating the construct or golem that they were facing. At the same time, the hidden weapons master was mentally going over his personal arsenal in case he needed to intervene. It was established at this point that whatever they were fighting was more than just a regenerator. Simply tearing it up probably wouldn't do the job, unless it has a specific damage threshold or mass-scatter point.

Whatever held thrall over the humanoid enemy wasn't making finding the right sequence of mental command easy. Usurping telekinetics or disrupting them, as with a common static attack, was the conventional counter to fighting animated enemies (some had even used it to force Ethereals to ground, since they effectively animated themselves). Mousse had intermediate training in the discipline, and a few markers had been isolated easy enough, but now everything else just felt wrong.

It was like... like that 'black telekinesis' Raven had used.

_'Time. I need some more time.'_

Tentacles of flame shot out from Slade's upturned palms, forming intersecting coils and loops as Ryu again tried to close the distance. Nearly invisible ripples of displaced and disruptive air, not quite vacuum blades, filled the air like water from a broken hose, making moves through the air more difficult and shearing pockmarks in the previously smooth stonework. A massive thrown fireball detonated between them and the entire roof began to collapse under its own tortured mass.

Blocks of stone and metal bracing fell from that central point, setting off a cascade across the entire roof. Jumping into the confusion, Ryu kicked two blocks towards the nimble Slade, positioning himself behind the largest piece he could find as it fell.

_'He's planning on using Kijin Raishu Tekidan (Demon God Assault Grenade),'_ Mousse thought, also following the jumping enemy before them. _'Left or right?'_

Slade seemed to sense the attacks, and spun, a column of flame rising out from his position, ascending high into the sky and descending down into the floor of the church, blasting out a winding spiral pattern. Transparent blades hit what would have been Slade's right and rear side but instead dissolved into the spinning plume of fire.

_'So many fire based moves?'_ Mousse was sure it couldn't be a coincidence. _'Less powerful than Saffron, but faster and more reactive. He can use them as a defense, too, adding a spin to the fire and wind to deflect things that move slower than the current. Let's call it an "Infernal Column" for now.'_

As rubble finished the forty meter descent to the floor of the abandoned reliquary, crushing pews and incense lanterns and prayer benches, Ryu began his Big Mad Dance, the Kyouhu Kijin Dai Ran Bu. Mousse alighted gently on top of a thin metal rod still displaying a stylized black tabard. What survived the cave in became ruined in the subsequence Dance as vacuum blades and bubbles shredded walls and murals and glass, using the destruction as cover as Slade counter attacked.

Jumping from place to place, Mousse could see the man - for what that term was worth here - Slade, had no actual _akichi_ or similar move. Instead, he moved more like Ranma, twisting and jumping, and where necessary, blocking blades and soaking the damage. It was no easy task to close with Ryu in mid-dance, not without getting cut to ribbons. The Chinese fighter nearly winced as a blow sent his comrade flying into a pillar, snapping it in half.

Thunderclap like gunshots split the air seconds later, as Ryu ran along the periphery of the church, trying to pin down his target. No one wanted to use Elerium against a regenerator, since ammo was very limited. Not unless they found a way to lockdown on either its movement or its recovery abilities. Instead, armor piercing explosive tungsten rounds blew door-sized craters in walls, cutting the legs off a giant statue in one missed shot and blasting another in half at the torso before finding target. With a similar thud, like blowing a hole in concrete, Slade crashed into a third statue of Azar. Two rapid shots later, at least one to the body, and it all came down in a cloud of dust and spackled stone.

"Mousse?" Ryu yelled, as question.

"Still there," the Weapons Master yelled back, feeling the humanoid construct still animated and 'alive' for lack of a better word.

"Shit," the Kumon heir ejected the spent clip from his sidearm, the metal cast hitting the ground with an audible ting. Expertly reloading, Mousse took a moment to try and lock down the target again with his psi-amp.

A moment later, and red hot cracks began to spread from the pile of rubble.

"What the Hell?" Ryu snarled, craning his neck to see that there were similar marks above as well, and in the base of many of the pillars. "When did...?"

Within seconds the cracks widened, from razor thin to thumb sized, shearing columns in into tens of chunks and bringing the entire remaining structure down in on itself. Even as he and Ryu went evasive to try and escape, Mousse noted that many of the cracks had, for a moment at least, seemed similar, like runic script. Then nothing became visible except falling rock and exploding fire.

* * *

Ryouga and Kuno paused, not when the sound of collapsing buildings reached them, but when another fire wall leaped up to block their path. This was far from the first. Both young men were nearly at the base of the tower and could see the craggy terraces and promontories looming tantalizingly overhead. They'd jumped clean over the first wall as it formed, but now they were higher and thicker, making bull headed passage through impractical. It was like Sink's techniques, but far larger in scale.

"Kokuzan!  
(Sky Arc Decapitation)

Kuno's attack punched a small hole in the wall that lasted for a split second, but it was neither large enough nor long enough in duration for anyone to pass through. The swordsman hissed in frustration, loud enough for it to activate his armor's comm switch. Before either could even look for another alternate route, both had to turn.

Ryouga's arms burned with green fire of his own, and it met red and orange in a spray of mental sparks, batting aside a rapid trio of flaming spheres. Kuno's sword likewise arced and bit through the air, sending out layered Kokuzans, like overlapping dishes in the air, absorbing the oncoming attacks.

In the span of a second, Slade was among them again, coming literally out of nowhere.

Ryouga sneered behind his visor as he stepped back. The distance between them was chosen well: roughly six meters, too short for most ranged moves but too far for most hand to hand or CQB. Just the fact that Slade had already determined his preferred engagement distance spoke for his experience. Virtually all constructs Ryouga Hibiki had encountered in XCOM service were ostensibly powerful, but used carelessly and skillessly. After all, most people can imagine a plane, fewer understand how to fly one well. That took years of real experience, which most projecting psionics would never have in civilian life.

"Damnit," He cursed aloud, drawing the long bandanna from its clip-on spot behind his helmet and hardening it into a blade. The technique took effect just in time, as a downward stroke from Slade's burning pike hit with the power of a meteoroid. A wave of heat lashed out, worse than the impact force, threatening to cut the ki enhanced weapon. Holding the stiffened cloth with both hands, Ryouga privately frowned at his own inability to cut into whatever his opponent was using.

_'That infernal heat - some kind of magic - has to be countering my enhanced iron cloth...'_

As Slade reoriented overhead, angling his feet towards the rooftop, blade and pike clashing two, three, six, ten times before boots hit the ground. Both fighters came around for an eleventh pass, a growing green light meeting a blazing red bonfire and exploding like a plasma grenade. A new crater lying below and between them, Ryouga glanced down at his iron cloth sword.

It had been cut nearly in half.

"Huh."

Briefly ending the technique and twisting it, he broke the weapon in half, and adjusted his grip. Slade simply ran his hand along the partly ruined section of his metal _shareeravadi_, restoring it. Holding his weapons in a _doble baston_ stance, Ryouga stepped in just as Slade did, settling black ash falling from arms and shoulders as body parts blurred into attack. Slade's burning stave met ossified cloth in a dozen rapid strikes and blocks, when suddenly the officer pushed hard forward and locked weapons by crossing his iron cloth and trapping Slade's pikestaff.

The reason became clear a heartbeat later, an arc of lightning and alien steel descended

"Tenchi Raimei!"  
(Heaven and Earth Thunder)

By the time the words left Kuno's mouth, his downward strike had already carved a thin line in the corner of the roof. At the swordsman's feet hit the floor, a triangular section large enough to shelter a small family slid away, creaking and groaning as it ground against neatly sliced stone, cut like deli meat. Kuno craned his neck, his exotic alloy sword, the Tenrai Hououkendo (Heavenly Thunder Phoenix Sword) still crackling with partly spent energy, dancing like electric sparks off a wet livewire.

"Missed him," Ryouga huffed, tossing away the now mundane metal rod trapped between his iron cloth bandannas blades. Two pairs of eyes searched the sides before one of them turned curiously downwards.

To where a hand was just emerging from the rooftop, to seize his ankle.

* * *

Ryu and Mousse arrived just as the last few traces of the building finished falling down to street level. Between the still burning walls of fire and the half leveled thoroughfare, it looked like the set of some surreal war movie. A blow from inside the nearly destroyed structure reverberated, along with a muffled blast of fire, prompting part of the first floor to collapse inward, dragging half of the second and third along for the ride. Another explosion among the crumbling ruins blew out the other side entirely, raining debris and destruction down on an adjacent building. Glass shattered and fires burned all along the street.

Mousse landed nimbly on one of Azarath's strange streetlight analogues.

Turning his head to a nearby wall, he just caught sight of Kuno flying through the air to crash, back first, into the whitewashed barrier. The kendoist hit, cratered, and bounced, falling down onto his feet two floors down. Trying to move his arm, he unlocked one of the broken sections of armor at the left shoulder so it hung loosely. Both India members exchanged a look. If they got back home, the QM was going to tan their hides for all this damage to their equipment.

"Have ye yet to cease this accursed enemy's movement?" Kuno finally yelled, as he and Ryu approached the ongoing streetfight. Neither paid much attention as the upper floor of another building ripped apart, raining fire down in all directions.

"Not for lack of trying," Mousse replied, jumping down.

It didn't look like it from his casual, easy movement and tucked in hands, but he'd been working nonstop on this problem, aside from escaping the occasional collapsing church and other building. Well earned sweatdrops ran down his forehead inside his armor, threatening to fog over his glasses.

"What the hell is the problem?" Ryu growled, craning his neck and tensing to step into an _akichi_. "In case you didn't notice, this guy isn't staying down!"

"The problem is-" Mousse bit back his reply, as the Kumon master rushed forward in a linear step. His roar momentarily drowned out any possible conversation. At least Kuno wasn't rushing right back into the fray.

"The problem is," the Chinese fighter repeated, knowing everyone in the squad could hear, and silently wishing he could adjust his glasses to calm himself. "That I can't isolate what's animating him. There's no obvious source, and I can't back-track to it to figure out what tricks its using."

"Is it even alive?" Ryouga snarled over the team comm. "It doesn't even feel alive, but perhaps we could use... _that weapon_..."

"The water wouldn't work on a construct like this," Mousse guessed. "But if we can't disrupt it, we'll have to wear down its regeneration. It teleports by slipping into the ground, too."

It was a neat trick. _'Earth Movement' _could be a nice name for the AAR, if they got the chance.

"Keep trying. Ryu! I've boxed him in!"

"Got it! Sai Dai Kyuu Kijin Raishu Dan!"

(First-Rate Demon God Assault Bomb)

"If your efforts do not bear fruit, you may also use that move," Kuno said this softly, as he started running into the fight, sword flashing. "You know of what I speak."

Mousse nodded, letting his teammates get into it.

Further down the street, a five story building imploded, collapsing in on itself from the roof downward; a nimbus of dust and splintered, twisted metal was all that remained, jutting out from the rubble like new age art. An arcing wave colored the air, parting a thick cloud of ash and slicing two of the support beams in half, only to crash into a spiraling column of fire. A tornado of embers and ochre that promptly ripped off a walkway from a nearby structure and sent it crashing to the ground, splitting open what had once been a small building with an open front.

Hopefully Raven didn't have many fond memories of this part of her home town.

_'This... isn't going... expeditiously,'_ Mousse thought with no small trace of anger. _'And where the Hell is Yankee?'_

* * *

Again, Raven found herself walking down the long forgotten corridors of Temple Azarath.

The shimmering blue spheres of light were growing to be a comfort to her, holding what little attention she paid as she continued to wander. Her feet had long since chosen a path of their own desire, leading her about with little conscious thought of her own. Her mind had far more important things to do - mulling over the traumatizing, yet comforting memories she had seen - to worry about something as trivial as trying to determine an actual destination.

Between the dueling remembrances of an unknown father and a distant mother, she was still treated to fleeting thoughts of her friends. Absently, she wondered where they were now, and why they hadn't already joined her. She did not doubt that they were fine, not that she was overly concerned when it came to certain members of the team. For all she cared, Jinx could fall down a deep, deep well and the world would only be a better place for it.

Everyone else, though… well, at least the rest of Yankee... were _important_ to her. They were her friends; they were _hers_. She could only imagine how grateful they would be once she had returned them home. It would be good to finally be home after so long. She missed the rest of her friends so much now. Even Beast Boy… well, not a whole lot, but still.

So wrapped up in her swirling thoughts, she was, that she didn't even possess the presence of mind to be surprised when she finally noticed the light shining from the distant end of the corridor. Rather, it came as a rather blasé reality, quickly processed and accepted without concern. All she felt was a mild sense of curiosity as to what she might find now. It was obvious that this was another memory, the one which her father seemed strangely insistent she see.

Moving silently, however unnecessarily, she approached the end of the hallway. Recognition began to filter through her mind and slowly she began to recall just where she had wandered to. The room was just as she recalled it. Dimly lit and sparsely decorated. Aside from several tall mirrors stood up before the four large pillars which ran around the perimeter of the room, the only piece of furniture present was a large throw pillow resting on top of a pedestal which lifted it several feet above the ground.

Resting on said pillow, her legs crossed beneath her and her upraised palms resting on her knees was a familiar young woman. Even without seeing her features, the inky black aura which surrounded the meditating girl, burning merrily like a nightmarish bonfire as it licked away at the ceiling, was all the sign that Raven needed to know that she was looking at herself once more. This Raven, though, looked several years younger, probably twelve to thirteen years old. It was hard to pin down a specific time, as she had spent countless hours in that exact position.

A fond smile found its way onto Raven's face and she leaned against the doorframe, resting her weight on her shoulder as she watched herself hard at work. It had not always been about controlling her emotions, after all. A small part of the reason she had spent so much time in this room was not to escape from herself, her destiny, but to escape those around her. There were many that sought her out, intent on trying to explain the tenants of Azarath to her with ever greater clarity. It offended many that Raven had been given permission from Azar herself that she would not be required to spend time in prayer as all others in Azarath were.

Not to say that she did not pray, or never had.

She followed the religion of her people as well as she could, but had never been able to accept it blindly. Even from a young age, she had always had niggling little questions pop into her head: why do things like this? Is tradition really that important? Is pacifism the only logical response to any situation? Though Azar and Arella had always been patient with her, there were many more that did not appreciate her… inquisitive nature.

Her smile widened as she watched her counterpart's brow furrow in concentration. She remembered many such moments. Struggling with all of her might to bring her powers under control. It had been so difficult, but every small success had felt momentous to her. She remembered when she had been roughly that age, when her Empathic abilities had begun to bloom. Her ability to sense emotions had not merely been one way in those days. Before she had learned to control her empathy properly, she had often found herself manipulating the emotions of those around her, often unconsciously.

Often, but not always. Raven had been at a curious age then. Was it really so wrong to want to see how far one could take things… just for the seeing?

Apparently most everyone in Azarath thought so. She had been drilled gruelingly to control her empathic powers, pushed harder than ever before in her training, until she no longer even thought of using her power for anything but sensory perception. Looking back on it now, after her intensive training with UNETCO, and after unlocking the same potential which had been so painstakingly buried by the monks of Azarath, she found herself somewhat - somewhat _annoyed_.

Everything she had learned in Azarath had been restraint: controlling her powers, eliminating her emotions, reigning in her temper and holding her tongue. She had never been taught, even once, to _harness_ any of her gifts. After a few short weeks in the care of a military organization she had far exceeded what she had even thought possible with respect to her psionic prowess. It almost boggled the mind to imagine how different, how much more _powerful_ she would be now, if she had been trained to utilize her power from birth, rather than forced to do everything she could to stifle herself.

Raven shook her head, somewhat surprised by her line of thought. True, the loss of her potential was… disappointing, but she understood why the monks of Azar, why Azar and Arella themselves, had done what they had done. They did what they thought was necessary to protect Raven from her destiny, however impossible that might have been. What they did, they did only out of love. Her mother, Arella, she had only done what she thought best for the happiness of her daughter. Raven could not fault her for that.

Not when the love of Arella had been all she had known for the vast majority of her life.

An instant later, Raven nearly jumped at the sound of a melancholy sigh coming from directly behind her. Spinning sharply, she found herself only more surprised at what she saw. Standing several feet behind her, close enough to stare into the room, but not to catch the young Raven's notice, were her mother, Arella, and Azar herself. The former wore simple white robes, hood pulled back to reveal her own lavishly long violet hair. Azar, however, wore an elaborate crimson robe. Her sleeves hung low, even wider than those of Mousse's weapon filled robes, and gold filigree circled her neck to match the broad belt that cinched it around her waist. The older woman, her long hair as white as snow, also carried a tall golden staff crowned with a large white stone.

It was odd.

Raven didn't recall ever getting a visit from these two women like this. In fact, it was rare for her to ever see the pair of them together. Raven rarely saw her mother at all during her childhood, spending most of her time being educated in the ways of Azarath by Azar herself. Perhaps she had merely forgotten this day? Perhaps they had little of note to say to her.

"A more lovely child has never graced the world." Arella spoke the words in a low whisper. Her head tilted to the side as she gazed fondly through the door at the young Raven perched upon the pillowed pedestal.

For a moment, Raven worried that she would embarrass herself with heart bursting emotion. Was that it? Had these two just come by to secretly conspire of how proud they were of Raven? The violet haired teenager nearly preened at the idea. As Azar nodded slowly in agreement, Raven felt her smile growing ever wider-

"Lovely, yet frightening."

The grin dropped from Raven's face like a lead shot. Had the words just spoken come from Azar's lips, it would have been one thing. But to hear those damning words coming from her own mother? Raven could only stare at the white robed woman, abject shock on her face.

"Everyday, she becomes more distant. She avoids all of the priests, preferring to spend her time in meditation, rather than prayer," her mother continued, apprehension in her voice.

"Wha- But…" Raven muttered impotently. But that was just because they were stuffy fools. That was no reason to fear her! She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

A saddened expression on her face, Azar shook her head from side to side. "Though we have strived to raise her in peace, her heritage still boils with the rage of Trigon. I fear we may never fully subsume this dark and powerful passion within her."

Clutching her hands together, Arella pressed them firmly to her chest. Biting her lip, Raven's mother continued to stare at the meditating girl, at the column of raw, black energy which rose up around her in wicked waves.

"Though it shames me to say it… I - I fear her."

Raven was certain, very nearly positive, that her heart had stopped at that very moment. It was foolish, of course, and impossible for a simple word to have such a powerful and deadly physical effect, but that was most definitely what it felt like at that instant. She could only stare, wide eyed, at the woman that she had called her mother.

Arella, her own mother, had _feared_ her?

And then she blinked, and darkness surrounded her once more. Raven did not spin about frantically this time, looking for any lingering signs of the memory which had just passed. Instead, she only continued to stare at the empty space which had only moments earlier contained Arella. Agonizingly, she tried to form some word, give shape to some thought that would allow her to express the betrayal she felt in her heart.

Try as she might, though, nothing would come to her.

Instead… she slid down to drop to her knees, the sharp impact of bone on the hard surface of the floor not even registering with her. The pain of her physical body was as distant as her home dimension at that moment. Raven could only gaze out into the darkness, the black void of nothing before her quite appropriate to the feeling of emptiness inside her.

* * *

Slade's foot came up, a ball of fire engulfing the steel toes of his boot. Kuno's sword shifted deftly in his hands, and the orange, white and black tasseled hilt came down to intercept the blow. Left hand resting on the blade itself where it met the tsuba, he adjusted and stepped into a cross body horizontal stroke. Even with Slade jumping back with just one leg, trying to get more distance to avoid the strike, it opened a wide slice in his mid torso.

A human target would be spilling out all over his legs and waist and floor, but Slade's body didn't bleed and the wound hardly seemed to faze him as a two fingered strike to the chest sent Kuno flying. Turning with no time to spare, his hand met sudden resistance at it rose up to block a strike, and four and a half digits curled lazily through the air, neatly clipped off like the buds of a flower.

Ryu's own hand turn curled in, flattened like a stabbing bladehead, cutting down along Slade's arm, opening and peeling it like a side of well cooked ham. The villain ignored the strike for the distraction it was, and countered the real strike, the decapitating strike, to the neck, with his other arm. The bloody and burned young Yamasenken master now in his guard had gone so far as to discard his blasted and smashed visor, revealing eyes like chips of black ice.

"Dokuja Tanketsu Sho (Poison Snake Deep Hole Blow)," he hissed, snapping arms up and down like scissors before plunging them into the joint connecting the glenohumeral shoulder to the clavicle. Unlike the bludgeoning style of his immediate officer, Ryu's CQC specialized in cutting and impaling. He was halfway finished - having removed both of Slade's arms above the elbow - and about to open wide the neck when his impaled target started to twist.

_'Shit!'_

Ryu barely pulled back in time to avoid an Infernal Column, and as his feet hit the ground and backpedaled, black eyes darted from one side to the other. Another spire of flame rose up to the side, and as he turned and dodged it, another to the front. This one caught his arm and started to suck him in with its spiral motion, but a slicing move from his free hand disrupted it enough to pull free. Trailing dying flames, he spun around and planed one foot hard onto the ground, cracking the cobbled street below.

"Just because you've cut off a man's arms," A calm voice lectured, emerging from the first Infernal Column. "Don't assume he's helpless."

Slade nudged his dismembered arm on the floor and kicked it up into the air. Angling his shoulder, it drifted over and reattached, though not very neatly. The ripped and mauled bits were slowly reforming to fill in the gaps. The other arm was further away, and one eye lazily glanced over at it.

"That's a lot of tough talk coming from someone with cheap ass regeneration!" Ryu replied with a enraged snarl. "But, Hell, no point whining about it, right? I guess I'll just keep ripping you up until you cry uncle!"

Opening with a fresh spin kick, Ryu pressed and Slade blocked, the arm nearly buckling from the blow. Scything force traveled in its wake, slicing open yet another gash on the villain's shoulders and mask. A normal opponent would be blinded and bleeding and in pain from the aftereffects of directly blocking Ryu's Yamasenken strikes, but Slade was undisturbed. One armed, he countered the first two kicks and then Infernal Wires extended from the tips of his fingers.

Ryu didn't miss the threat, and turned both arms to extend vacuum blades, cutting into the hand with a visible V. The momentum from Slade's movement did the rest, as that hand, too, fell away save for the thumb. Instead, his boot came around in a wide crescent. The half moon heel-drop slammed into Ryu's shoulder, red energy detonating on contact. A conical burst erupted from the condensed point of impact, driving a thousand abused cobblestones into the air.

Double stepping backward, Slade leaned all the way back, awkwardly enough to break most men's backs, plunging his upper body back and into a nearby wall. Vanishing briefly into the surface, he quickly emerged, fully restored. Craning his neck back and forth, he used his restored limbs to draw a burning sigil in the air.

"You should watch your back."

Even before the end of the sentence, Slade was already turning towards the wall behind him and the source of the voice. One eye widened as stonework exploded, the tip of a gunmetal gray blade emerging amid the masonry spray. Leaning back, the villain's neck twisted but couldn't fully avoid the strike. The razor sharp tip of the blade entered the chin, moving almost slowly from cleft, across the mouth, parting what would have been the nose into equal halves and then clipping the forehead. As Kuno's sword finally broke contact, it left a valley dividing the orange and black mask clean and wide enough to run a piece of paper through. Charred bone could just barely be seen beneath the split mask.

"Shin Kokuzan!"  
(True/New Sky Arc Decapitation)

At the apex of his upward stroke, the kendoist's sword blurred into a half dozen forms.

Slade's right hand came around, moving the burning sigil through the air, a ball of fire still forming around it. Last millisecond adjustments from both fighters changed the course of their attacks, and as the swords came down the sigil roared up. Long lines of fire shot back in one direction, leaving fiery claw marks in one wall that raked all the way down the length of a building and into the street itself. In the other direction, a wild and savage inferno blazed without coordination or control.

One shape stumbled out of the conflagration in a half spin, sword in hand.

Kuno planted the tip of his Tenrai Hououkendo into the ground to support his weight, but only had a second's respite before a steel toed boot slammed into his side. Sword tip blasted instantly out of cobbled stone, cutting one errant rock in half in midair before cutting open a leg at the knee. Slade simply retracted the kick, fell back on what should have been a crippled limb, and slammed another fire enhanced blow into Kuno's midsection, the fires wrapping around a sword that offered little area-effect defense.

Tatewaki Kuno, age 20, nearly hit the ground, but ended up caught by the arm of a comrade. Ryu took only a second to make sure the would-be samurai could still stand before advancing back into the melee.

"Though the Blue Thunder remains forever unbowed..." Kuno said between breaths. "Even I grow weary of this."

"I hear ya," Ryu agreed, and charged.

"The two of you should really just give up," their opponent remarked with casual indifference to bodily injury. "What purpose does it serve, beating your head against a wall like this? One can fight the inevitable for only so long."

"What kind of stupid question is that?" The Kumon heir yelled back. "Even if you turn me to ash, I'll throw that shit right back in your face! So just die already!"

"Hmph." Slade backpedaled, blocking a strike and tilting his head to avoid another. "You do realize that this blind determination you display is every bit as foolish as the 'heroics' that you deride in certain others… don't you?"

Holding his right hand back, Slade's entire body burned white for a moment, as flames rose up from cracks around his feet. Infernal fire looped and merged and bred just inches from his fingertips, coalescing into an alabaster sphere. As it abruptly expanded, from the size of a BB to the size of car tire, red and orange imperfections broke the surface, churning hungrily to introduce their deadly warmth to flesh and blood and sinew.

Ryu's arms shot out to his sides, the street to his left and right ripping open in twin canyons, peeling layers of Azarathean asphalt and artfully laid stonework like the layers of an onion. The distance between them closed in an instant, and then there was only the crack of thunder and the taint of ozone. Watching, Kuno ignored the pelting rain of stone chips, like hail, and the wave of fire.

Not far to his left, a streak of fire still flickered and burned in the air, crackling with static charge.

A long line of flame had cut into the street, straight as an arrow. It continued down to where Azarath's street became an intersection, and there, it crossed the 'T,' bisecting one of the buildings and setting it ablaze. The bonfire only added to the hellish red and orange glow that blanketed the battlefield, as raging Infernal Walls continued to scorch the city, fed by their own persistence rather than any Earthy material.

Slade's gray eye looked down to where Ryu had just barely blocked his attack. Then to his right arm, currently elbow deep in the formerly human villain's chest. The martial artist's left arm, still in a cross block that intersected with Slade's elbow, was blackened and smoking, traces of featureless material still on fire. A hot wind blew in from one of the fire walls closer to the central tower.

The villain's arm slid off, hand and forearm hitting the ground with a wet thud.

"As I said," he remarked. "Foolish."

"Maybe. You're starting to burn up over here," Ryu admitted, his right arm still buried in the man's chest. "Regenerate **this**."

Fingers flexed, and Ryu's arm blurred. A flattened palm suddenly clenched into a fist.

"Dokuja Tanketsu Sho... **Reverse Stab**."

Drawing his arm back, Ryu dragged a dozen compact vacuum blades into one massive bubble, and it came along for the ride on a cross country tour of Slade's torso. His arm had wrecked the place going in, but did ten times worse coming out. Ryu's free left hand was gentle as a newborn in comparison, hitting Slade's shoulder to further push him in one direction as the right hand and arm came back in the other. The Kumon heir closed his eyes, instinct telling him to wait for the splatter to hit his face.

It sounded like a jackhammer plowing through a wooden crate, and in the span of a second, Slade's midsection disappeared entirely, ripped to chunky confetti. It was like an industrial strength drill in reverse, and the hollow cavity it excavated - one wide enough to play tennis through - wasn't the full extent of the damage. Shockwaves reverberated throughout the physical body like sound in an amphitheater, snapping the head back and turning arms into broken caricatures. Hips and knees dislocated, and Slade fell like a rag doll.

Ryu fell to a knee a second later, utterly spent.

He barely saw Ryouga and Mousse land nearby.

"Jesus Christ," the Yamasenken master breathed. "You better be here to tell me he's dead."

"Unfortunately, no," Ryouga answered, and nodded to Mousse.

"But I think I have what I need to bind his movements and interfere with the regeneration," the Hidden Weapons practitioner continued. The two kneeled down, and touched Slade's crooked and broken mask at the forehead.

_'I can't isolate where the alien is controlling him, or it, from,'_ Mousse thought, and knew Ryouga could hear him. Both psi-amps were burning with an inner luminescence. _'But I think we can set up enough static to make control impossible.'_

_'Do it. I'll set up a second wall.'_

Slade's body, the world of natural sight, gradually receded. There was a mindscape to enter, but it was hazy, part-there and part-elsewhere. This was rather unlike anything they had been briefed on or trained for, but it wasn't completely unintelligible. There were forces, like ocean waves, that came in and animated this... thing. This puppet of a man. It was almost like a compulsion or domination attack, but... different. Very different.

The static noise would be like dikes and embankments, like those scattered concrete blocks that broke up waves at beaches. They wouldn't stop the commands and powers from reacting the target, but they could scramble them, break them up, disrupt them. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do. There just weren't many alternatives, and none that didn't present rather substantial potential risks.

_'Five layers done here,' _Mousse thought, blanketing the bubbling sphere that they believed to represent the abstract core of the 'Slade animation.' _'Let me past you, and I'll set up wall three.'_

_'Okay. Careful.'_

_'I know what I'm doing.'_

_'Done here, too.'_ Ryouga thought, repeating the process and leap-frogging over Mousse's efforts. They were getting conjecturally further from the abstract core. After a while, adding additional walls would yield diminishing returns.

_'Okay. Let's switch again.'_

Two or three more. Then they could...

Not even certain why, Ryouga felt compelled to look up. There was no physical sensation here, just interpretations of the psionic realm which surrounded them, but despite knowing that, it did nothing to prevent him from shuddering uncontrollably as he lifted his gaze to the darkened expanse which hung over them. In an instant, a red slash split the horizon, traveling from one edge of his perception to the other and beyond, as if the entire world had just been bisected by a laser. A second was all he had time for, his body and mind recoiling from the sight of it.

And then the slash widened, widened so far upwards that the entire world was engulfed in red. A swirling red maelstrom that radiated such vile, burning hatred that Saffron himself would have burnt to a cinder if he had stood before it. Ryouga found himself unable to move, unable to react… except to gasp in abject horror when he came to an incomprehensible realization.

The great red expanse that now stood before them was an eye… and it was only one of four. Ryouga felt like an astronaut, staring at the earth from the surface of the moon. Only from this vantage point could he even begin to glimpse the full extent - four glaring, misanthropic eyes, each one as vast as all the world and filled with all of the rage in the universe stared back at him, stared through him, studied, weighed him and measured him, before ultimately finding him unworthy.

_**INSIGNIFICANT**_

It was all the warning they were given, snapping the officer out of his stupor. He barely even had the chance to turn to the near catatonic Mousse at his side.

_ 'Mousse! Shield y-'_

In the distance, a great _boom_ filled the air, the sound of a hundred fusion bombs detonating at once. In the blink of an eye, the ocean vaporized, a shockwave of raw psionic force unlike anything they had ever seen expanded outwards in all directions - awesome and unstoppable, and utterly unavoidable. Fueled by pure desperation, both psionic trained martial artists frantically raised their defenses in the form of psychic shells. Mousse was a thought too late, as focused as he was on finishing his static wall.

_'D-D-damn-'_

His thought, cut off, as the blast wave consumed them in a wall of blinding light.

Ryouga, a ball of abstract thought, was crushed by the shockwave. His psychic shell might as well have been the fragile white shell of an egg as it shattered and disintegrated around him. There was no defense, no trick he knew against the raw power that assaulted him. All he could do was endure the agony as his psionic projection into this mind was wracked with suffering, twisted and torn asunder by the waves of force.

Not completely blinded by the attack, he spared a thought to their works, only to perceive that it was worse than he'd expected. Their carefully constructed static walls had been blasted clean through. This level of raw power - the force animating Slade - was unlike anything they had ever encountered. It was on a level beyond Raven's Double-A rating, hell, the alien Mind itself was likely nothing in comparison. It was damn likely nothing they could have done would have survived that assault, no matter how careful they could have been with their preparations. Now, without locks on the static walls, they'd blown their one golden opportunity.

This whole expedition was turning tits-up.

That was the last thought he could spare, as the pain momentarily subsumed his consciousness completely. Ryouga's eyes snapped open in a flash, just in time to see droplets of slick red liquid splatter against the inside the visor of his helmet. He only had a second to stare, absently curious as to where the mystery blood had originated, when his body suddenly collapsed to the ground as if someone had cut his strings. Around the edges of the blood marring his visor, he could do little more than watch as his limbs twitched spastically.

_'__Shi-shit__…'_

Instantly, real fear hit home. There was always this kind of danger, when performing a psionic insertion of any type. If the victim was more powerful than the attacker, there was a very real danger of psychic backlash. He had heard stories of XCOM officers having their synapses fried after having jumped into the wrong person's skull. Was that what had happened to him? Had the surge of power from that damn Trigon creature shorted out half the synapses in his brain?

A moment later, he was being lifted up, and his helmet forcibly removed.

"-ajor! Hibiki! Are you alright!"

Ryu looked down at Ryouga, shocked expression on his face. The Yamasenken master tossed the bloodied helmet away before turning back and slapping Ryouga across the cheek softly.

"Yo, Ryouga! Are you still in there?" He looked over to the side. "Kuno? How's Mousse? You got a pulse?"

Swiveling his eyes in their sockets, as the rest of his head seemed far less inclined to move, Ryouga saw the swordsman hovering over Mousse, carefully checking over him in the same way that Ryu was doing for himself.

"He… I have a pulse, and his breathing is steady. His limbs seem to possess a mind of their own." Moving quickly, Kuno pulled out a small flashlight and flashed it into the weapon master's eyes. Whatever he saw caused him to sigh in relief. "He is able to follow the light. It appears that our illustrious comrade is still in possession of his higher brain functions… so much as he ever was. I would hazard a guess that their minds were just overloaded by what they were subjected to."

Ryouga sighed in relief himself. The diagnosis, while rushed, sounded likely. He didn't feel brain damaged… and, in fact, he could already feel the tips of his fingers again, though it might be another few minutes before he could reassert normal levels of control.

Careless. They'd gotten careless!

Shaking his head in obvious relief, Ryu looked back down at Ryouga. "Sheesh, Major, you scared the bejeezus out of me. Think you're gonna be alright? Or is Mousse gonna outshine the legendary Hibiki toughness here?"

Slowly, Ryouga tried to work his jaw. His breathing was coming in more controlled gasps now, and he worked hard to bring his tongue back under his control.

"… th … that will be the - the day."

Letting out a relieved chuckle, Ryu pulled him up to a sitting position. Giving him a strong pat on the back, the Yamasenken master shook his head in disbelief. "Good to see you're still with us. Should have known you wouldn't let something like… well, I don't even know what happened in there, actually."

Coughing weakly, the Hibiki scion tasted blood in his mouth, and felt more it trickle down his nose. A warm blanket of suffering was wrapped around his mind and soul, but it was quickly receding back to a tolerable buzz.

_That__…_ had been sufficiently horrible.

"Have I-" Mousse managed to choke out a few words of his own, having been helped up into a sitting position as well. The pained expression on his face was all but obscured by his long hair as he dropped his head. Taking a deep breath, only to spit out a glob of red stained mucus, he finished his thought.

"Have I mentioned how much I _hate_ eldritch horrors?" the Chinese fighter growled.

Despite the half humorous nature of the comment, Ryouga couldn't help himself from nodding in agreement. That had been… He didn't even have words. More than a bit apprehensively, he turned to stare at Slade's mauled body, the top of the man's torso still resting on the ground, his head tipped forward, chin almost resting on his chest-

Slade's eye shot open, spinning about to stare directly at Ryouga.

"Boo."

Instantly, Kuno and Ryu whirled on the mutilated corpse with weapons drawn. It almost shamed the Hibiki to actually feel even a sliver of fear for something that lacked arms, legs, or even torso, but this deathless version of Slade had proved to be far too dangerous already, and far too full of surprises. Since normal attacks hadn't worked, and now psionics had backfired, they would have to try either disintegration or physical containment. His mind immediately went to one particular grenade, as yet unused. Slade wasn't alive, and it was a risk, but...

Slade's body began to convulse, then, popping and cracking and twisting at the joints to the chorus of breaking cabbage. The massive hole in his torso was still there, but in defiance of logic, the masked face seemed to take in a breath. Apparently not privy to the utter agony which all of those stomach rending sounds entailed, Slade continued to match Ryouga's gaze with a calm, steady stare.

"Now _that_ was fun," the mangled corpse said with a mirthless chuckle. Lifting a quickly reforming arm, it appeared as if the man was about to begin pushing himself up - when suddenly he looked up and away, as if distracted by something. Whatever it was, though, it lasted for only a moment, and Slade returned his attention back to the four of them.

"Hmm," the mangled corpse let out a rattled breath. "Unfortunately, boys, it looks like we'll have to pick up our little sparring match another time. It appears I have something a little more pressing to attend to."

And with a fiery crackle, roaring flame surged to life around the masked madman, swallowing his butchered body before vanishing upwards into a spark of nothingness, leaving no trace that Slade had ever been except for a black scorch mark on the sorely abused roadway. Ryouga furiously cracked the ground with a string of breaking points, but Slade's mental presence was already long gone. He was gone.

"I wish I could do that," Ryu mumbled.

Only for the rest of his team to glare at him.

"What?" he asked. "None of you were thinking the same thing?"

"I do believe we have other problems," Kuno remarked, pointing to one end of the street - a fire wall - and then another - another fire wall. He then pointed off to the side, where a fire wall loomed in the distance behind a ruined building, and then to the forth side, where yet another wall was giving off an identical performance. Far above them, as Nabiki's eye in the sky flew by, no less than two boxes of fire surrounded the four of them, enveloping three blocks of buildings and covering streets and alleyways.

"Oh, son of a b- !"

* * *

It was impossible to know how much time had passed. Hours? Minutes? Seconds? Years? The concept seemed to have lost any meaning. Why care about something so abstract? Why care about anything, for that matter? Her world - the fragile thing that it was - had just been turned on its head and she had no idea, no frame of reference for which to reconcile her disillusionment. If her own mother was too fearful of her to actually love her, then how could anyone love her at all?

The sensation of a hand coming to rest on her shoulder was unexpected. However, while she normally would have shrugged the offending limb off, or reacted in some other more physical manner, the apathy encompassing her stayed her response. The fact that the hand was warm, just shy of uncomfortably so, was a welcome distraction from the chill which had settled over her.

"Pretty rough, kid." Slade's voice somehow flowed smoothly enough that his grand case of understatement was not immediately and heinously offensive to Raven's ears. An impressive feat, to be certain.

"I have _nothing_," she replied bitterly. "Not even my memories are a comfort any longer. My home, my family? Was it all a lie?"

"I can't answer that question," Slade stated evenly. "Not that you would believe me if I tried."

A wry grin twisted her lip at that thought.

"I can only tell you one thing," he continued. "Whatever the monks of Azararth did to you, whatever Azar attempted to teach you, no matter what your mother may or may not have felt for you; whether every single minute of your life in Azarath was a lie, or not, there is one thing that you should always remember."

Raven couldn't even be bothered to look up. Letting out a sardonic grunt, she shrugged her shoulders. "And what would _that_ be?"

The fingers of Slade's hand squeezed tightly around her shoulder, not painfully, but still with surprising urgency. "That your father was _always_ with you."

She scoffed loudly at that, only for her throaty reply to trail off uncertainly. Lifting her hand, the black fires of her power flared to life, almost without thought. Raven stared mutely at the dark energy, at her legacy, her heritage, relished the familiar feeling of it, so long absent.

"Terrible as he is, Trigon has never lied to you, girl," Slade stated with certainty. "You have always known that you are The Portal. You have always known your destiny. He has never tried to hide that from you, never filled you with delusions of trying to alter fate itself."

Oddly, Raven found herself slowly nodding. It was true, though her father was legendary for his deceptions, he had never attempted to hide his true nature from her. There were so many ways he could have manipulated her as she grew from a child, yet as far as she knew, aside from saving her life from the maddened Juris he had never interfered. Still…

"I am _useful_ to him, and that is all," she argued, bitterly. "A tool for him to use and nothing more. Why attempt to lie to a mere implement of his greater scheme? Besides that, I am nothing to him."

"That's where you're wrong, kiddo. You're everything to him. He is always watching you. Always listening to your silent prayers. Always protecting you. Even given _what_ he is, he is still a father, after all."

That… struck an odd chord within Raven's heart. She didn't want to believe Slade's honeyed words, or to even listen to them at all, but the earnestness in his voice was compelling in a way she couldn't explain. It was almost as if he…

"And how would the likes of _you_ know anything about that, _Slade_?" She made the inquiry with a sharp tongue, turning to face the murderous criminal - only to gasp in shock as she finally caught a glimpse of the man.

A large cut ran down the center of his mask, and his uniform was in shambles. Sparks of black electricity crackled under the surface, and Raven could even see the odd spur of bone poking out through some of the larger slashes torn into his armor. Slowly but inexorably, she could see the wounds, the damage, receding.

She could only stare in shock, which, apparently the masked villain took as permission to respond.

"Believe it or not, I know what it means to be a father, Raven," he explained in a tight voice. She could only watch, transfixed, as the narrow slit which divided his mask in twain slowly closed up, like liquid flowing together. "I know what it means to be willing to do anything for one's children… and I know what it feels like to lose a child."

Honestly, Raven couldn't decide what she should be more floored by, the sight of the grievous injuries which covered him from head to toe, or the frank admission he had just delivered. Slade? A Father? Even more unbelievable was that she could actually _feel_ his heart at that moment, try as he might to hide the faint emotions which fleeted through the cold dead thing.

Not even sure why, she reached up, tentatively at first, to brush the tips of her fingers along the smooth black metal of his mask.

"W-what happened to you?" She wasn't actually certain what she meant by the question herself. It was a thousand questions in one, each one begging an answer. Did she ask about his distant past, about his unsettling appearance, or the immediate present and the wounds he bore? Releasing her shoulder, Slade leaned back out of her reach, then rose to his feet. Giving his neck a crack, he shrugged his shoulders casually.

"What, this?" he asked, gesturing to the former gash in his mask, to the slashes covering his body. "I was just playing around with your new friends, was all. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the blood thirst of this Combat Team India. They're not terribly bright, but any one of them would make a fortune as a mercenary back home."

Raven giggled at that, the thought quite absurd. She doubted many world class mercs back home spent half their time chatting about girls or otherwise being quite so inane. Not to mention the long winded rants and arguments about the 'pigtailed girl,' the chronic lack of direction, glomping inanimate objects and playing poker with pornographic cards. Real Professional mercenaries there.

She rolled her eyes. "They are... _something_, to be sure."

"I wonder," Slade agreed in a mirthful tone, like a father ribbing his daughter. "Have you considered transplanting your affection from your Hibiki to their world's version? He is a vastly superior model, after all - ready to kill at the drop of a hat, fueled by rage and trained in the arts of war. If the role were not already taken, I would offer to make him my apprentice."

"I'm certain that he would be damned by your praise," she replied with a smirk, only for it to fall into a frown once more. Glaring at the masked man, she continued. "And, no. He may be a more deadly fighter, but he is not _my_ Ryouga, and that is all that matters."

"Well, that is a pity." The man's helmeted head tilted curiously to the side as he regarded her. "I suppose the young Hibiki is serviceable enough, though. At least we know he shares the same potential for ruthlessness. Perhaps with the proper… education..."

She could all but see the grin on his face as he chuckled.

"Naturally, I suppose the rewarding task of shaping the idealistic young warrior into a bloodthirsty killer is not something you are particularly enthused with," he guessed.

The violet haired Titan stared at him through lidded eyes.

"To quote a certain pink haired witch: 'Ah _Duuuur_'." Reaching around herself, she clasped the fringes of her cloak and pulled it more tightly around her. The warmth of the hand on her shoulder had felt pleasant, but it only reminded her of just how frigid the rest of her body now felt in comparison. The disturbing mental overlay forming in her mind, super imposing the acting Major overtop of her own Ryouga did little to warm her spirit. The time and circumstances that separated them wasn't much in the grand scheme of things.

"Ahhh, and Jinx," Slade reminisced. "I still remember the day I hired her and her team to destroy all of you. She seemed to have such potential. A shame to see her squandering it by going soft."

Raven's lips twisted down into a deep frown at the praise of her rival. Of course Slade would appreciate a criminal like her. The self centered brat. What did Jinx know about suffering? What did she know about loss? All she did was take what she wanted. Raven had nothing now, not even the love of a mother. From somewhere deep inside her, rage bubbled up and spilled out into her words.

"To Hell with her," Raven spat. "We should never have let her stay in our city. She's been nothing but a irritant to everyone and anyone who crossed her path."

Pacing around her slowly, Slade gestured meaninglessly to something down a random corridor. "Well, that isn't exactly true, now is it?" he asked leadingly. "There is one person that seems quite taken with the girl. I don't think that the young Hibiki would agree with your assessment."

Twisting about savagely to glare at the man - a surge of dark power shattering the walls around her to powder as her temper soared - she very nearly snarled, "Because of a _lie_!"

The sight of the crushed masonry tumbling to the floor noisily around her caused her to start.

Taking a deep breath, she continued in a more even tone, though retaining the same bitter edge, "She could probably have whoever she wanted, travel wherever she wished in the world, and yet she is compelled to stay _here_, in _my_ home, and force herself on _my_ Ryouga. It is so obvious what her true reasons are: to make my life a Hell on Earth, just to satisfy her own perverse pleasures!"

"Well… that _is_ what _I_ would do," Slade admitted in an unapologetic voice, all but proving her point for her. Jinx was a criminal, just like him, so their motivations couldn't be that far removed from one another.

"Still," he continued a moment later, "Who deserves to shoulder the blame? The person that acts, or the person who watches and does nothing? Jinx may be doing as she desires, regardless of the morality of her actions, however -" He stopped dead, mid pace, to stare at her starkly. "- _You_, are the one that allows her to do so."

Raven recoiled from the sharp accusation. "Wh- But what can I do? As troublesome as she is, she hasn't… hasn't _really_ done anything wrong."

Slade's eye narrowed and he glared at her heatedly.

"_Excuses_," he barked sweeping his arm through the air angrily. "If you actually _cared_ about any of those things: Hibiki, Jinx, your friends, then you would have _done_ something about it. You were not born with only the power to protect yourself, Raven, you were born with the power to take what you want. You were _born_… with the power to change the world."

"Or end it…" Raven barely heard the sound of her own whisper.

Still, his words, as wicked as they were, still rang with truth. What had she actually done to further her own cause as of late? Watch Ryouga and Jinx with longing gazes as she hid within the shadows? They weren't't even **hiding** their illicit affair any longer, flaunting their manufactured love for anyone to see! It was sickening, and she had done nothing at all to change things.

"You said it yourself, girl, Jinx only lays claim to what you want by virtue of a lie." The silent ring of metal sounded out as he began to pace around her. "You have the power to rectify that mistake, though. You could free them both from something which was forced upon them. Who knows… maybe even Jinx herself might be grateful for such a thing."

That thought caused Raven to start, surprised she hadn't thought of it herself. It was really quite obvious, now that she considered it. _Of course_ neither Jinx or Ryouga wished for the Headmaster's dark work to be undone, not while they were still fully under the effects of his power! But - but would they still feel the same if his insidious tampering were removed?

It was a fair question: would their supposed "love" for one another survive even the first minute of cold, stark reality? What if Jinx and Ryouga had hated each other fiercely from the very beginning, and were now trapped in a prison of artificial affection? If that was the case, then wouldn't it be far crueler to leave them together? Never able to be truly happy, always having that niggling uncertainty looming at the blackest fringes of their minds of 'what if'.

But…

"… But, they would never let me help them," she surmised aloud, her reasoning intact even as her emotions swirled around her, growing unchecked. "None of them would let me do what needed to be done, even if it is the right thing to do. It wouldn't even need my power. They could have had it done any time back at Seiran."

"I could do it," she seemed to realize it herself then. "But... but they..."

The dark Titan nearly jumped when she suddenly felt a pair of strong hands come to rest on her shoulders. Standing very close behind her, Slade leaned forward, his mask so close to her ear that she could feel the heat radiating from it.

"Often, children do not know what is best for them," he whispered. "Sometimes, a parent must be strict. Sometimes a friend must be as well. Call it tough love."

Yes, yes, it made perfect sense. Cyborg, Starfire, Jinx… Ryouga, they were all still practically children compared to her. They didn't know - couldn't know - or even understand what she did. They lacked... perspective. It was only natural that they wouldn't be able to understand that sometimes unpleasant things needed to be done for the greater good.

"Accept your true nature, Raven, and everything you desire can be yours. You possess the power to repair the damage to the minds of your friends You know that. All you have to do is... _use_ it." Moving smoothly, Slade's face pulled back, only to slide close to her other ear a second later. "You desire to return home? All you need do is ask. You desire Hibiki's heart? All you need do is _take_ it."

Raven felt herself falling, even as she stood perfectly still. The warmth of Slade's breath on her ear, the hypnotic lilt of his voice, the pleasant rewards he promised; they swirled around in her mind headily. Combined with the already intoxicating sensation of the power flowing through her veins - she had never felt so much power before, as if she were a living conduit for Trigon's might - it was getting hard to think straight. There was so much good she could do with her powers, so many things she could make right. Getting her friends home, freeing Ryouga and Jinx from their emotional shackles, those were just the beginning!

She feared she might lose herself in the evanescent confusion-

And then, her confusion was gone.

Lifting her chin, Raven turned to stare at Slade, a thin smile twisting her lips. "Yes," she replied, hauntingly. "I see everything now. It is time for me to stop hiding behind my own cowardice. It is time _I_ began to _act_."

Slade nodded, red light glinting off of his mask from some unseen source. "I thought you might… see things our way. Very well then, I'll leave you to your business then and go see if I can find some entertainment with your new friends in the meantime."

Raven threw her hand up into the air dismissively.

"I could care less what you do with them," she muttered. "Just make certain that no one interferes until I've finished."

For some reason, Slade actually dipped his head, offering her a shallow bow. Though the gesture seemed odd, Raven found she liked it.

"As you wish."

A moment later, a column of flame leapt up to consume the masked villain. Though a flashy display, Raven could see through the strands and weaves of power easily, an inherent understanding which was nearly incomprehensible in and of itself telling her that he had just teleported to the far reaches of Azarath, near to where the Pathfinder was landed. It seemed like an interesting ability, teleporting so far in a single jump.

She decided that she could do the same. It took her only a second to decide upon her destination, the auras of her friends close enough to sense almost instantly.

Raven vanished in a column of ink black fire.

* * *

"Hey, Star, do you think you could put up a big flare?"

Ryouga waited as Starfire looked to him, then turned about several times, likely trying to determine the scale of the room he wanted her to light up. Finally, she turned to him and nodded. The Tamaranian then held her hands out in front of her. Cupping her hands, he could sense the general flow of her energy as she began to gather it rapidly, the rotation of her ki quickly taking on a more elliptical flow inside her abdomen. The result was a brightly glowing sphere of harlequin green, nearly white light that grew at a surprising rate. It was actually putting out surprisingly little heat, Starfire somehow controlling her internal energies to produce mostly visual spectra.

Then she launched the massive, beach ball sized orb of incandescent light up into the air. It whistled loudly as it soared upwards, shedding fresh illumination out across the entire chamber.

And what a room it was. Cyborg had done his best to describe the scale to him, based upon the model he had constructed via the usage of sonar technology, but the large Titan's words failed utterly to do the chamber justice. It wasn't until Starfire's flare had risen fifty feet into the air that they were finally able to catch even fleeting glimpses of the grand chamber. They stood at the heart of a massive amphitheater, though an indoor coliseum might have been a more fitting description. They stood upon a broad, flat dais which rested at the heart of the room, easily over one hundred yards in diameter. In the brief moment that the flare was still close enough, they were able to make out a vast, intricate array of arcane symbols worked into the floor beneath their feet.

Beyond the dais, circling around the entire chamber were countless rows of seats, each line of stone benches elevated above the ones before them. As the blindingly bright star bolt continued to climb, it lit up the distant walls up the chamber, all covered with more seating, continuing ever upwards. Within a minute, the star bolt was so far away that it was little more than a spark in the blackness revealing no more detail of the chamber.

And then, finally, there was a small burst followed several seconds later by a dull, echoing 'bamf' that signaled that the plasma bolt had finally reached the ceiling.

Cyborg let out a low whistle, still staring upwards. Ryouga, for his part, waited for his eyes to readjust to the perpetual gloom which Starfire provided with the much more subdued star bolt she used to illuminate their travel. Even with just the comparatively weak light source held over the Tamaranian's head, Ryouga could still see that various religious paraphernalia which was scattered around the chamber. It was, after all, a place where many - if not all the people of Azarath came to listen to someone speak, so he wasn't surprised at the large altar at the center of the room.

A large podium stood before the altar, a massive book splayed open on it, waiting for someone to read from it. And spaced evenly around the upraised dais were several rings of statues, all depicting various robed individuals, mostly women wearing familiar looking hoods. The first ring of statues, easily two dozen in number and each roughly fifty feet from the altar, stood a mere ten feet high. A second ring stood beyond that, at twice the distance, twice the number of statues, and twice the height. And finally, a third ring stood on the outer edge of the dais, half again as tall and numerous as in the second ring.

Beyond this last ring of statues was where the seating finally began, the lowest of the seats equal with the heads of the tallest statues, providing an uninterrupted view of the altar and the podium, where the speaker would be standing. Surprisingly, Ryouga saw no sign of a sound system that would actually allow a single person's voice to carry across the cavernous chamber. Either the acoustics in this room were simply mind shattering, or some kind of crazy mumbo jumbo was involved.

Ryouga chuckled to himself. Either that, or everyone here was psychic, too.

"Man," Jinx whispered in a low voice. "It must take them _years_ to pass around the collection plates."

Cyborg's sudden bark of laughter told Ryouga that what Jinx had just said was funny, but neither him, nor Starfire got the joke, whatever it was. He was about to ask why she was whispering, only to realize he was about to whisper the question himself. Something about the massive chamber seemed to bear down on him, the weight of ages demanding a certain sense of decorum from all who walked within its walls. It would be like yelling at the top of his lungs in the heart of a Buddhist temple.

Hmm, actually, that was probably exactly what it would be like, now that he thought of it.

"Alright, people, as impressive as the scenery is, we don't have time to stand around gawking. Cyborg, is there another staircase going up? I don't know if I'd be comfortable running up the walls in here."

The cybernetic teen nodded in understanding. "Yeah, feels like it'd be a bit sacrilegious. Also, pretty unnecessary. There's another staircase on the northern wall… though, it does get kinda steep towards the top. We better make double time, though, cuz it's a looong way up."

Face hardening with grim determination, Ryouga nodded fiercely. "Alright, let's go then. We have no idea what kind of trouble Raven could be in up there. We have to find her as soon as possible-"

_THAT WON__'__T BE NECESSARY_

Every member of Yankee squadron froze mid-step as a voice, every bit as familiar as it was alien, sounded out directly into their minds. Though there was no source to track the voice to, Ryouga still found himself spinning towards the center of the room, his gaze dragged to the altar by a will not his own. A cold chill ran down his spine as he did; he had had Raven's voice in his head on a multitude of occasions since being cast out of their home world, but it had never sounded-felt like _that_ before.

A pyre of black fire burst upwards from the heart of the altar, only to vanish as quickly as it appeared. Standing in place of the dark conflagration, a robed figure now stood, dark blue robes appearing jet black in the dim light, and hood pulled down so low that not even a shred of illumination touched her face. Normally, Ryouga would have felt elation at the mere sight of the slight girl, Raven's presence always a cause for warmth and affection in his heart.

Now, though, not even Starfire flew forward for a reunion hug filled with reckless abandon. The Tamaranian floated next to Cyborg, both of them staring, transfixed, with incomprehensible expressions on their faces as they stared at their oldest friend. It likely, Ryouga surmised, had something to do with the punishing aura of malevolence which emanated out from Raven in waves. Even though the black fires of her entrance were gone, he could still feel a towering aura of power burning merrily around her.

"Holy shit," Jinx whispered, standing right at Ryouga's elbow, "Why does it feel like that Sephiroth guy's theme just started playing in my head?"

Reaching out a hand tentatively, Starfire managed to mutter weakly, "R - Friend Raven. Are you well? You… had us concerned for you."

_THERE IS NO NEED FOR CONCERN, MY PRECIOUS FRIENDS_

Instantly, Jinx's ire was raised; after all this, Raven was just going to show up on her own?

"You know, you really had us running -"

_I HAVE DECIDED IT_

Her fiery declaration was cut off, mid syllable, and then Raven slowly lifted her chin and her eyes flashed open. Even within the deep shadows of her hood, the four crimson slits which served as her eyes burned with promises of pain and suffering.

_I WILL MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER_

* * *

x

* * *

CLASSIFIED  
DOCUMENTATION  
UNETCO: VEN6861:13:201  
DATE: 02.20.2007

MEMORANDUM TO: Cmndr. Yasuda

CC: Lt. Saotome; Lt. Hibiki

FROM: Drtr. Weissman [Internal Security and Information Management]

SUBJECT:  
Analysis of Security Threat: Trigon, Security Threat: T04 Alien "SKYFATHER" Entities (A/O 2.20.07)

OBJECTIVE:  
COMPILATION OF SECURITY THREATS REGARDING XENO-ENTITY DESIGNATION TRIGON. EXTENDED ANALYSIS OF SECURITY THREATS POSED BY INCURSION OF ANOMALOUS EXTRADIMENSIONAL ENTITIES FROM MULTIVERSE T04A1

ABSTRACT:  
Extensive data mining and psionic examination have revealed a number of strange anomalies present in the multiverse native to our Yankee Squad members (hereafter referred to as T04). These have been compiled and included in this document as they relate directly to what we know of the entity "Trigon." GenINT believes this information to be accurate, but as it has only been verified through psionic means and not actual independent intelligence gathering, it can be considered bias or potentially compromised. Nonetheless, it also represents what little we know of T04 and Trigon in particular.

In keeping with Patient Confidentiality clause 0412:4001C this information is to be considered HIGHLY SENSITIVE. My department has been specifically requested not to disseminate this information with respect to the members of CT:Yankee.

From what we have gathered, a number of "godlike" entities are known to operate on the Earth of T04. Curiously, the most readily recognized were commonly known members of the Hellenistic Pantheon. Every member of Yankee was aware of at least some of these beings, not as mythological beings, but as actual entities. CT:Y Jinx and CT:Y Cyborg displayed the most in depth knowledge. [Transcripts are attached as Appendix A, B]

These "godlike" entities appear to be primarily active within certain "rogues galleries" relating to the T04A1 Justice League, notably members 103 (Wonder Woman) and 422 (Doctor Fate). Also of note were the presence of "supernatural" entities within the League itself; see member 308 (Etrigan). According to CT:Y Cyborg these "gods" are quite real, however, he refused to refer to them as such. There was some confusion regarding the existence of non-Hellenistic entities masquerading as deities, particularly with respect to near-Eastern, Indian, Native American and East Asian religions.

It has been speculated that these threats may be localized anomalies within T04 specifically; within T04 those entities may reside within "planes" perpendicular to and intersecting with all parallel dimensions [speculation]. Our best guess is that Entity: Trigon represents another of these SKYFATHER class beings. Analysis of CT:Y Raven has not yielded any genetic or physiological data pertaining to her non-human parent. [see Appendix C]

It is the recommendation of this department that T04 and all related dimensional coordinates be removed from the EDC until further research is conducted on the threat posed to troops stationed within that multiverse. We do not believe our existing psionic arsenal to be a feasible deterrent to mental or physical contamination, as CT:Y Cyborg has more closely related the effect to that of Jyusenkyou [see: "Molecular Control"] which we have no reliable counteragent for at this time.

Though an incursion into T01 by an extra-dimensional entity of the SKYFATHER variety is considered highly unlikely, due to dimensional discontinuity, it is no guarantee against tampering of off-world operatives and/or interference in off-world actions. If travel to T04 and extended dimensions can not be avoided, IntSEC requests a mandatory deep-psionic and physical examination of all crew immediately upon return to T01.

FULL REPORT FOLLOWS


	29. Homebound 4

**A/N**

A quick note or two here, some of it reiterating what I (Chryssalid) said on the spacebattles forum for this fic: namely that, yes, I am aware of everything we do in this fic. Every chapter passes proofing and inspection by both Lathis and myself. Hell, every scene is basically written twice. More importantly, sometimes compromises need to be made for the plot. If that means brutalizing my own characters a bit, then so be it. Besides, what goes around comes around.

(Ain't that the truth. I'll just say this, at the rate we're going, Cyborg is going to have one of Nabiki's Roaming Suzans for a body after all the beatings he's taken, and Star is probably going to be seeing shrinks for years what with the whole 'mind rape' fiasco. :p Just saying, neither of us have exactly been gentle here - Lathis)

Hopefully, if nothing else, the fight scenes and the creative efforts of those involved can stand out despite the apparent futility of it all. As always, we get some readers who enjoy how certain things play out, and some who don't. I rather expect there'll be more controversial stuff to comment about than the fight with Slade after his chapter, however.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Homebound_

Chapter 28

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid

Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Pathfinder shimmered with prismatic radiance in the churning pit where it had previously landed, the actual surface of the craft indistinguishable underneath the helixial sphere of forces it generated and manipulated. The ever shifting mélange of colors and humors reflected the mind of its pilot. Seated simply in the chair before the psionic navigation interface, Ranma's mind was whirling: seeking, testing, experimenting, adapting... searching. Konatsu, on guard nearby, felt the efforts of his commanding officer as well as any.

On watch outside behind a defilade wall, Shampoo and Ukyou kept position. In addition to the ship's sensors, they were Juliet's Mark-One eyes and ears. Through the team's mental link, the girls felt Ranma's presence ebb and flow as he tested new means of countering the strange sensor baffling that was either affecting their equipment or themselves. Unfortunately, they couldn't even be a hundred percent certain that the anomalous interference actually _was_ doing anything malicious, let alone what it might be, or what was generating it. Still, after India's recent meeting with the supposed dead man, Slade, a healthy dose of paranoia was not unfounded… and at least it gave them something to do while everyone else was running around the city.

Her visor up, Shampoo slipped a piece of rock candy into her mouth as copper brown eyes scanned the disturbingly static landscape. Working the piece of hard sugar between her teeth did little to ease the still mounting sense of wrongness pervading the section of Azarath around them.

_'We should've just nuked this entire fucking rock,'_ she thought bitterly. _'Just melt it with plasma till it glows. Instead we run around like headless chicken, the Titans lose goth-girl, and now teams get attacked by not-dead zombie man.'_

The comfortable weight of her heavy laser rifle in a cross body grip gave way to a soft sigh. Covering her six, Shampoo knew Ukyou was also growing increasingly anxious. Spatula-girl was probably fingering the hilt of her silly looking spatula weapon, as she often did when expecting to be attacked at any moment. Molars found the candy in her mouth, and Shampoo resisted the urge to bite down, instead shifting the confection to her tongue. It was troublesome to admit, but she was as nervous as anyone. After India Squad's last report on things, who wouldn't be?

"Suck on that louder, why don't you?" Ukyou abruptly grumbled.

"Shampoo give you something to suck on, pancake chef."

Great, and her English was slipping too. You'd think she was some six year old Amazon scrub.

Covering Shampoo's back, Ukyou chuckled. "No wonder people think you swing both ways."

"At least no have spatula shaped dildo," the Amazon replied, also laughing. "Unlike some."

"Better spatula shaped than a duck bill, sugar."

It was so filthy, the two girls moved from chuckles to giggles. Shampoo smirked, running the diminished rock candy around her mouth again, silently thankful for the quick exchange of words. Maybe it was all the company they kept over the last half year, maybe it was Ukyou having spent her formative years pretending to be a boy, but it was almost refreshing to have a little coarse banter. It reminded the Amazon of her cohort years back in the village, years ago.

Stupid spatula girl.

It should probably have been depressing, but her rival in all things of import - Ranma, cooking, martial arts, _Ranma_ - had also sort of become her only real close friend. Of course, they didn't really fight much over the pigtailed officer anymore, but still, there was all the rest in spades. She and Ukyou were always at each other's throats, and had even nearly killed one another under the influence of an Ethereal a while back. There was no mistake: there was definite dislike between them, but in the company they kept, competition was so closely removed from affection that it was hard to truly hate the enemy you spent time obsessing over.

So, yeah, Shampoo supposed she disliked Ukyou. The Japanese girl was annoying, nosy, prissy, a show off, interfering, a potential obstacle, strong enough to be a challenge, had a ki attack when Shampoo herself didn't, occasionally spouted offensive things about China and Chinese foreign policy, thought she could cook when all she made was disgusting okonomiyaki, and was generally a pain in the ass half the time. Still… Shampoo was used to her rival watching her back, and vice versa. It was strange. Different than the camaraderie she'd felt towards her battle sisters back home.

Different but kind of good, too.

"Motion," Ukyou suddenly said, voice quiet. "Five o'clock."

It was one of the proximity motion sensors set up thirty meters from the ship.

"Confirming target," Shampoo replied, the calm of imminent battle flushing the pre-engagement jitters away, leaving a professional and well trained edge behind. Sighting downrange with her laser rifle's telescopic sight and rangefinder, the Amazon identified the target. Mil-dot reticules zeroed in on the masked face India had warned them about. He had already blithely tripped several wires and alarms, heedless of the racket suddenly thrown up.

"Cocky bastard is just gonna tap dance right through our perimeter," Ukyou all but snarled, insulted by the whole 'yeah, I'm an immortal regenerator, whatcha gonna do about it?' thing. Shampoo had to admit it was rather frustrating. "You ready to light him up, sugar?"

"You need to ask?" The Amazon took just a moment to readjust her crouched stance and the line of the rifle from her shoulder to the enemy downrange. An unannounced blast of superheated steam came from the front of the heavy laser. It was no warning of what was to come, as by that point, a lightspeed skewer of collimated light pulsed to the tune of three tenths of a second had already struck.

Slade's visible eye vanished, instantly replaced by a crater eight centimeters in diameter and almost four centimeters deep; against an actual flesh and blood target, like a side of beef, the effects would have been considerably worse. As it was, Slade's demonically enhanced constitution kept the majority of his head from vanishing, as matter absorbed light and quickly reached energy states beyond vaporization. That first crater, packed with matter-turned-plasma, was completely excavated in a little over fifty microseconds.

Pressurized to over a thousand atmospheres, the ionized gas attempted to expand, driven outwards rather than into the next oncoming pulse of coherent light. Far above the material strength of chemical bonds, this miniature firestorm expanded like waves of water, pushing aside intervening molecules and atoms in a rush to escape. Like a small grenade, matter erupted out from the cratered wound, a highly concentrated explosion roughly equal to the energy output of the beam itself.

Three more pulses hit, drilling at a rate of two tenths of a meter per second.

Shampoo's finger eased off the trigger, exercising well engrained fire control.

Down field, the left side of Slade's head resembled a cored watermelon, a ragged, spalling, charred-to-black hole drilled through where an eye should have, would have once, been. Shockwaves from the massive energy dump broke bones across the walking corpse's upper torso. Despite the gory display, the total result of the deadly barrage was effectively little more than a momentary stagger in the man's steady advancing pace. Ukyou and Shampoo tsked at the same time, noting the ineffectiveness of even a direct headshot.

Slade's foot found a hidden landmine, a second later, and disappeared amid the resulting explosion. Against most opponents, the M2 Selectable Lightweight Attack Munition (SLAM) was overkill. The target's torso and limbs would have gotten a rather permanent divorce and what survived intact would be reduced to hamburger by supersonic shrapnel. The additional detonation of two nearby M18A1 Claymores, each with a lethal engagement radius of almost fifty meters, should have been overkill stacked upon overkill.

Seated atop the defilade bulwark, one leg tucked under her and one over the edge, Ukyou aimed her M-144 ATX MRL towards the swirling conflagration. The recoilless antitank weapon gave a single mechanical roar, unleashing a lone 84mm rocket from one end and a vectored backblast out the other, the latter aided by an evaporating counter mass recoil management system. As the MK-308A Frag-HE missile accelerated from the reusable Command Launch Unit, laser-guided fin stabilization targeting took over, the whole system utterly devoted to playing matchmaker between target and high explosive.

The proximity detonation carpeted the blasted minefield with fire and overpressure.

"I do love that sound," Shampoo noted, biting down on her rock candy.

As Ukyou swapped weapons back to her plasma carbine, the two warrior women opened fire, targeting any burning, twitching, unliving flesh they could see downrange. Chunks vaporized, glassy craters were scoured, and a dark ashen pall fell on the battlefield, the judgment of dozens of beams, bolts and tens of pounds of composition-four.

Her finger on the trigger, Shampoo paused, the pupil of one eye, the other closed shut, widening and narrowing as she searched for remains of her target. Nearby but out of sight, Ukyou also hadn't fired in several seconds. Neither girl relaxed, sweeping the ends of their rifles across the area, watching, waiting, expecting. Nothing moved save the choking black clouds of poisonous smoke.

"No tango," Ukyou finally said what they were both thinking. "Repeat: no tango. I don't see a damn thing."

"Same here. POC is empty," Shampoo spoke, knowing Ranma heard them. "How much more time do you need, lieutenant?"

Gods and Goddesses, was it hard sometimes not to say 'Airen' or even the English 'husband.' It was just so easy to fall back on the familiar when shit started hitting the fan.

"I think I almost have it, but..." a pause of the comm. "Damnit... okay, both of you. Fall back to the ship! I'll work it the rest of it later in flight!"

"You won't hear me complainin'," Ukyou quipped, backing away and towards the ship.

Without words, reading only body familiar language, the two young women stepped out of each other's lines of fire and projection, getting ready to quick step towards the ship. No one could get in while the grav drive was up, but once at the door, the airlock projector would activate and they'd be able to jump right up into the halo of alien light.

Two pairs of legs tensed, putting pressure on the ground -

Only to come up short as an infernal pillar rose up in their path.

"Leaving so soon?"

What stood before them now, emerging from within the torrential flames, was little more than a weather ravaged corpse. Skeletal ribs and finger bones stuck out from mangled armor and white jutting bone dripped molten earth from the crater that occupied half its face. Shambling more than stalking, Slade took a few laborious footsteps towards the pair of girls, his feet leaving burning imprints on the ground.

"Next mission maybe we should bring some holy water," Ukyou remarked, hand drawing her battle spatula.

"Holy water? I wonder if that would actually do any good?" Slade wondered aloud, ruined skull tilting slightly in amusement. "Probably not."

Raising one hand, skeletal fingers formed a fist, fiery cracks formed under his feet, further separating the two Juliet squad members from their ship. A handful of indistinct screams, of agony or of rage, came from below, as swirling forms merged into the rising inferno. Black inhuman shapes emerged from coalescing ash, producing horrific mockeries of human faces.

"Now that you've had your fun, girls," the charred mask declared. "Why don't you show me what you can _actually_ do? If anything."

The okonomiyaki chef and the Amazon each gave the other a quick, confirming glance. The formerly shadowy forms were now rising up all around them: vaguely humanoid bodies with whip-like arms of flame and human faces frozen in anguish. Shampoo sighed inwardly. So much for a quick step over to the ship. Rolling a ball of dissolved rock candy around in her mouth, visor still up, she spat right into the face of one of the Living Flames, watching impassively as it sputtered and popped on contact.

"Hey," Ukyou chose that moment to speak up. "You know who this guy sounds like? Ron Pearlman."

"Oh?" Shampoo nodded, remembering. "Oh yes! Two face mask man does sound like guy from silly Hellboy movie! Strange."

"Hm-hm. Well." The chef's battle spatula came out in full force with a blast of grill-hot wind. "Shall we?"

Locking her heavy laser in place behind her, Shampoo popped the latches on her tactical knives.

"Let's."

Without another word, they moved. Shampoo saw Ukyou score first blood, the edge of her battle spatula ripping open one of the Living Flames, the wake from the strike churning its insides into the equivalent of burning confetti. Chunks of cinder filled the air as the master of the Kuonji Style spun and sliced, aiming for the thickest line of the enemy. Burning whips and remains bounced off the flat of her spatula or the armored sections of her body.

Ukyou's was the strongest defense of the two squads, not because of physical toughness or body hardening, and not because of speed or superior _sakkijutsu_. She was far from the strongest, fastest or most durable, and she had fewer potent special techniques than most any of their male peers. Ukyou's defense was strongest because of her absolute faith in her battle spatula and in her ability to read an attacker's intent and put that metal surface between her and the incoming attack. The fact that it was large enough to shield her entire body was a bonus.

So she spun, and twirled, and metal sliced through fire and false flesh. Flame whips descended on her back, only to be blocked or intercepted by the constantly moving battle spatula, or on her flanks, where they met unyielding alien alloy. The more that surrounded her the better, as whip-arms became entangled in their efforts to get to her or as a result of her spinning movements. Nor was the flat or edge of the spatula the only threat, as the detached blunt counterweight whizzed through the air on a wire, the weight hitting with crushing force, or the wire with decapitating fury.

"Kuonji Big Bang Odoroki!"

(Kuonji Big Bang Surprise)

A thunderous explosion enveloped three of the attacking Hellsparks, the blast wave ripping them into motes of charred rock. _Yes. There was that, too._

Shampoo, meanwhile, had her own way of saying hello.

By comparison, her defense was rather less impressive; however it was compensated for with brute force and speed. She was faster than Ukyou. Stronger than Ukyou. And, best of all…

She was _meaner_.

A flip of the wrist, and two of the Living Flames impaled by her tactical knifes lurched and folded away, bodies contorting into a Y shape as their top halves flickered and burned, faces cut clean in half. Shampoo's right foot slid along the parched ground, kicking up dust into the faces of opponents. Blows from concrete demolishing fists distorted burning bodies, sending them into nearby allies, while knives reaped a murderous harvest.

It didn't matter to the Amazon what her enemy was. Human? Alien? Undead? Some sort of angry elemental monster? She struck where experience and instinct indicated weakness: without hesitation, without mercy, without compassion or regrets. For an Amazon, fighting was the truest expression of existence. A life without an enemy to point a weapon at was an empty one; an enemy was like a lover and Shampoo had no desire to live a celibate life. Perhaps that also explained much of the internecine disputes within the community, but it was nonetheless how she had been raised. Be strong. Kill obstacles. Repeat.

And there was obstacle number one, standing with arms crossed, undead flesh regenerating with each glance she stole his way.

Standing between her and him were a half dozen of the Living Flames, recovered from the initial charge into their forming ranks. Somewhere from behind, Shampoo heard Ukyou curse, but didn't bother looking or giving it much thought. If the chef was in trouble, not only would she say something, but it'd become obvious in her aura. Right now, to Shampoo, she simply felt angry, so whatever she had just taken couldn't have been life threatening.

The rank of Hellsparks ahead of her formed up, aligned, and attacked all at once. It was in the middle of dodging their first volley of whip-like tendrils that Shampoo noticed a particular mark burning just above their tortured faces, like an S with two dots. That was...? She stole a half second to confirm the mark on two-face's mask. It was the same. The same mark.

The Sparks moved differently than that first bunch, advancing together and attacking with coordination. They weren't just faster than before, they were smarter. It was potentially troublesome, and all the more reason to bull rush to the source of the problem. Anything than risk getting bogged down in a quagmire of respawning fire creatures.

Clamping one tactical knife in her teeth, Shampoo reached for her NLP - Mk2E. Steadying her aim with her left hand, still clutching her other knife, she opened fire at full semi-automatic. Explosive bullets blew through - and apart - the ranks of Living Flame, hitting each of the relatively diffuse targets with a sonic boom, as metal slowed but failed to encounter enough resistance to stop. Shampoo found herself frowning as she passed the half-empty point on her clip. These sorts of weapons just weren't good at fighting low-density targets. Lasers and plasmas wouldn't be very effective either.

A surge of danger and intent came from below, and the Amazon's attention turn down, to where a pair of burning tentacles had shot out of the ground at her feet. Blocking one with the tactical knife in her left hand, and the side of her handgun with the right, she lifted one foot and brought it down with full force. The partly buried Hellspark underfoot briefly emerged only to smother itself as Shampoo's stamp crushed and cratered the ground.

She didn't realize it was a diversion until after one of those damn whip-arms finally hit home.

Spinning around from the force of the blow, Shampoo wondered if they all hit that hard, or just the ones with the symbol overlay? There was no need to look down to see that it had gotten a fairly solid blow in, striking the armored upper body that was her torso. It hadn't penetrated, but had nonetheless exerted some kind of force that went through layers of material.

Blocking another trio of whip attacks with her arm, Shampoo didn't wince at the cuts that were somehow forming beneath the inner impermeable layer of her armor. Instead, she smirked and charged back into the fray, tucking her sidearm away into a loop around her wrist and retrieving her other tac-knife. The charged Hellsparks were caught off guard by her sudden switch from under attack to berserker charge.

_'Good.' _

Slicing two of the Living Flames in half at what passed for their legless torsos, Shampoo nimbly ducked and avoided two waving whips of fire while striking with her fists, sending the burning, dying elements back into two of their peers in a satisfying explosion of charcoal. Three more moved to take their place, one from the left, one from the right, and other from the blind spot behind, surrounding her.

Shampoo smiled as she thrust her whole body back and up, hitting the one in midair with her elbow. A concentric blast of fire fountained from the strike, a literal explosion, mixed with dusky black of animating earth and clay. Still in midair herself, Shampoo used the force of her own strike with that of her opponent's self-destruction to alter her direction back from where she had just jumped. The two whip-armed Hellsparks were now closer together and angling up to catch her with their arms, four burning tentacles reaching up.

Shampoo landed behind them, cracking the ground beneath her foot and knee.

Whip arms fell to the ground in dry clumps, sliced to pieces. They were followed a second later by the bodies of the two Living Flames. Shampoo didn't spare them another glance. Instead, her eyes momentarily darted to the burning line cut into her upper arm, clean through the body glove and bypassing the armor there. Aggression had its downsides, after all, but what was an Amazon without a few scars?

There was no time to hesitate, or wait for more of those Living Flames to summon up from beneath Azarath. Unfortunately, between her and her real enemy stood a different creature, much larger than the Hellsparks. A bell shaped helmet covered what was probably the face and upper body, together with horned shoulders, leaving the rest of the body completely bare from chest to toes.

"Oh?" Shampoo asked, standing up. "Is anatomically correct, too?"

"These ones don't come with the loincloth," Slade, his mask already half reformed by this point, explained from behind the Abyssal creature. "Sorry about that."

"Not a problem," the warrior woman replied with a shrug. She took in the strange double headed glaive it wielded. "I see even monster need compensate sometimes."

As if piqued by that insult, the demonic humanoid attacked, swinging the axe-like end of its glaive down with remarkable accuracy and speed. It seemed that the bell shaped metal hood, though blinding, didn't impair its ability to find and attack an enemy. Shampoo nimbly hopped back, away from the strike.

_'It has a good grip on that weapon. This is no simply monster,'_ she realized, but didn't look at it as a down side. _'Good. Carving up simple minded monster not as much fun.'_

Jinking back and forth, Shampoo kept her eye on the other end of the glaive, with the crescent head. By now, a dull orange color had seeped into both ends of the weapon, suffusing it with considerably more power. It was probably best not to test either one straight on unless absolutely necessary. Glowing of one sort or another was always pretty much bad news.

The Abyssal warrior took a few more steps to keep her at the right striking distance and orientation, further proof of its intelligence. As the Amazon lunged, it brought the crescent blade into play, sweeping it across the ground and churning the earth in its path into molten slag. Shampoo spun, blocked the weapon at the base above where the glowing began, and tried to step into what should have been a blind spot for most human beings, with forward angled eyes.

Sure enough, the giant humanoid demon adjusted its footing, spinning its glaive around as it struck with lunges and feints. Shampoo parried only at safe spots where there was no orange glow, her tactical knives flashing as they tried to find joints, fingers, or tendons between muscles. Despite its size, the giant seemed to get faster as it parried the strikes, even finding room to counter attack with a sudden kick to Shampoo's midsection.

She hit the ground with a huff, booted feet cracking the ground.

Then it took a thunderous step forward, the crescent end of its glaive shooting repeatedly through the air as it jabbed, giant muscles cracked by lines of fire straining with its rapid fire stabs. Where it hit the ground, it left a burning molten trench, and as she escaped from the main body of the attack, the glaive finally scored a hit on one of her blocking tactical knives. Alien alloy turned yellow-white hot, a color Shampoo hadn't seen in the material outside of a freshly nuked UFO, and impact force sent her flying back and into the defilade wall.

Steel struts buckled and earth caved as her back buried itself into the packed half-hill. In terms of speed and strength, the giant wasn't as monstrous as some of her peers - the image of Starfire came to mind for some reason - but that glaive, that _weapon_, was something else. Even with armor, getting hit by it would be... bad. Quite bad.

Her helmet open, Shampoo spit a bloody wad to her side and got back on her feet.

"That was a good hit. You're... strong." Shampoo licked her lips. "But so quiet? Why you no speak?" she asked, cracking her neck.

"I know." The Amazon brought her tactical knives up to eye level. "Maybe Shampoo make you scream her name."

A moment paused, with no response from the Abyssal giant.

She ran straight in. No tricks. No roundabout strategy. As the Abyssal reared back to repeat its rapid-jab performance, Shampoo lined up for front row seats. It was probably suicidal, against a weapon like that. Except -

_'I only need to avoid his first lunge. I know he's going to jab at me. It doesn't matter how dangerous the weapon is, if I can dodge that first strike...'_

One great, bare foot stomped, as the upper body moved -

_'Where? Where is it?'_ Shampoo's eyes widened. _'__Where first strike?__'_

With a great rush of air, the crescent shaped infernal blade, dyed in Trigon's power, thrust to bisect the charging woman. It struck true, hitting the oncoming Amazon's midsection, but just an instant too late. White-hot sparks flying from her tactical knife, and the thin space between her and the weapon, Shampoo pushed forward and up, knocking the edge aside and spinning into the Abyssal's guard.

There, too close for it to counterattack with the axe head or stab with the crescent head, its massive and demon charged weapon was useless. Smart enough to know to move rather than keep attacking, twenty inch sized bare feet pushed off, propelling the giant humanoid back, trying to get some room. It could then have the distance it needed to bring the axe down from above, or the crescent up from below. Oversized fingers readjusted their grip on the glaive in anticipation.

Only to stop.

Held in a double reverse grip, Shampoo's tactical knives were both buried in the massive wrists of the Abyssal. Its arms straightened as its feet hit the ground, nearly pulling Shampoo forward from inertia and mass alone. Muscles strained on the part of the demon, and Shampoo gave a grunt of effort as her arms and body tensed against the strain. The wrists didn't - **couldn't** - move, nor could the glaive spin or attack, immobilized as it was.

Without a sound, Shampoo rushed forward, her knives cutting straight through the Abyssal demon's arms, from the wrist across the forearm, down to the elbow, and then across the bicep. Fire and blood blasted from the horrific wounds and a guttural moan came from behind the metal hood as the creature's body tried again to wrench itself free.

Shampoo finally withdrew her knives, using the motion to slash open the Abyssal's chest. Her entire body spun one last time, one last full rotation, before stopping. One knife held in front of her in her right hand, one behind her back in her left, Shampoo slowly rose from her crouch. Behind her, the Abyssal fell to its knees, a stream of fire and unmentionable innards spilling from its slit abdomen.

Opening her left hand, Shampoo tossed aside one severed organ in particular.

Walking around the crippled humanoid demon, she took a second to strike at its unguarded back, right beneath the metal hood. Something there broke with a loud crack, and as the Amazon twisted the knife in and tore it out, the Abyssal finally gave a deep rumbling groan and slumped fully forward into a pile of its own blood and viscera. Its glaive embedded in the ground, crescent down, the orange glow dimming and dying along with its master.

Slade clapped, partly skeletal hands giving it a wet, splatter-like sound.

"As I'd expect from one of the legendary Joketsuzoku," he complimented, back-handedly. "Will you castrate me, next?"

"What's the point?" Shampoo asked, wiping a smear of demonic blood off on her armor. "Everything just grow back."

"Then what _will_ you do?" Slade asked, stressing the that one word condescendingly. "Give up?"

Shampoo laughed prettily, one knife-wielding hand on her hip.

"Silly two-face. If Amazon woman have to die, then dying in battle is best, no?"

Slade chuckled, amused, and summoned his pike. It expanded from his open right hand, the tips burning with infernal fire. One thing seemed to bother him, however.

"I'd ask that you not call me 'Two-Face', if you don't mind."

"What's wrong with 'two-face'?" Shampoo asked, all but a visible question mark appearing over her head.

"It..." Slade paused, for a moment, a little awkwardly. "It just gives the wrong impression."

Spinning his much more nimble pike - at least compared to that massive demonic glaive - Slade took two steps and met Shampoo's own charge. Expecting to face the girl's blade work, a partly regenerated eye narrowed introspectively as the Amazon instead tucked the tactical knives away in their sheaths, without so much as looking. Instead, her hands flashed to her hips, and emerged with two nondescript sticks.

Sticks that inflated, morphing into beachball-headed chúi.

Yet Shampoo's speed with the unwieldy and heavy maces didn't diminish in the least, and her combat style and techniques instantly morphed into something new. Metal screamed as it clashed, Slade's pike spinning to block on the left, then the right, then above, then below. Shampoo spun away from a downward strike that smashed the ground, her momentum morphing into a descending axe kick.

Slade narrowly avoided the strike, ducked, pivoted, and reversed his pikestaff, driving the burning tip back and into his opponent. It met the rounded head of one of Shampoo's chúi in a spray of sparks before deflecting off to the side. The Chinese maces came around and up, to smash bones and bodies to pulp, but Slade brought the other end of his staff around and used it as a spare leg to push himself away and out of harm.

Shampoo didn't give him an instant of breathing room, regardless of whether he was undead and unkillable or just as mortal and vulnerable as a man. Strikes rained down like meteors to break arms and necks, and after a particularly damaging exchange, the masked man had to release his grip on his pike and bring it up to unleash a wave of fire.

Shampoo backflipped clear up, spinning like an insane and murderous acrobat, and slashed with one of her chúi. This time, the mace-head of the weapon detached, a small chain keeping it attached to the base and handle. The round metal projectile also morphed, memory metal shifting, to develop sharp, flanged edges. Pike spinning, Slade stepped back to set himself, deflecting the first surprise strike.

Still in midair, the bloodlusted Amazon had already detached the second chúi mace-head, and sent it on its way. Her arms became a blur as the directed the killer weights, crashing and whipping and flattening anything in their path. Again, Shampoo landed with a hard crunch, focused entirely on leveling and destroying everything before her.

Finally, the mace heads retracted, snapping back into place atop the chúi.

Light brown eyes looked up... to where Slade floated in midair.

"You can fly, too?" Shampoo asked, raising her voice. "Lucky not-dead man."

"Not-dead man?"

"Either that or two-face."

"I suppose it's a slight improvement," Slade quipped. "I _also_ suppose I can spare you a few more minutes..."

And then he shot downward, fists burning. Chúi glowing with her own enflamed battle aura, Shampoo lunged upwards to meet the attack head-on. It really was a shame, she supposed, that this man was some kind of demon possessed zombie. Back on the Titans World, he'd have made a nice catch for some young Amazon. But that would have been _then_, and this was most certainly _now_.

And they were deep in long-shot, all-or-nothing, what-the-fuck territory.

And _that_ meant...

Shampoo smiled, even as the fire enveloped her.

That meant it was time to try something a little _crazy_.

* * *

Raen's cloak billowed around her frame, caught in the wild surges of darkness that danced throughout her aura; the black energy still burning brightly around her. The sheer influx of power which was being granted to her was still hard to bring completely under her control, but she was not concerned by this fact; rather, she reveled in it. The near ecstasy she was experiencing would have destroyed a lesser mind, but she was so much more than that now.

Staring down her nose at the cowering, armored forms of her companions and teammates, Raven could feel the anxiety rolling off from them in waves. As she hovered in the air, the tips of her boots hanging fractions of an inch above the ancient stone altar which rested at the heart of the cavernous chamber, the dark Titan could not help but be confused by their odd reactions. They had been looking for her, after all, and now she was returned to them! Beyond that, she was returned to them far superior to what she had been before. She had been transformed from a pale shadow into a towering juggernaut of pure will! That they were not overwhelmingly pleased to see her gradually began to mutate confusion into irritation.

Her outwardly impassive gaze swept over each in turn. Jinx's irate stare was no surprise, the slight girl's stance was one of mixed aggression and preparedness. Of course the pink haired harlot wouldn't appreciate Raven's gracious offer. Despite being what was best for her, Jinx was far too narrow-minded to understand the wider ramifications of her selfishness. But that was no matter, it was no concern of Raven's whether Jinx ever even left this mausoleum of a dimension.

The expressions of trepidation on the faces of Starfire and Cyborg, though, her oldest and dearest friends… that was somewhat disheartening. They were not openly prepared to battle, as Jinx was, but they were certainly not off their guard, either. The Tamaranian even went so far as to flinch when Raven passed her eyes over the young woman. Why did these two people fear the sight of her? Were it not beneath her, their reactions would have been… frustrating.

But even that did not incense her as greatly as Ryouga. _Her_ Ryouga. It was not the tightness of his stance as he stood his ground before her, nor the expression lost halfway between caution and optimism at the sight of her. No, what offended her was _where_ he stood; less than a hair's width separated him from Jinx, the pink haired girl looking nearly glued to his elbow. The would-be sergeant then took a short step forward, almost imperceptibly shifting to the side to interpose himself between the two women.

That simple gesture, as subtle as it was telling, caused Raven's eyes to narrow as she stared at the martial artist. It was obvious who his concern was saved for now; it was obvious who he had chosen to _protect_. And yet - and yet, it wasn't his fault. A narrow smile curled her lips at that thought. Yes, she knew what she needed do first. The fact that she would enjoy it so much was only a sinfully gratifying perk.

_DO NOT FEAR ME, MY FRIENDS _

Her mental assuagement did not generate the desired effect in the rest of Yankee squadron.

_I NOW POSSESS THE POWER TO RETURN US HOME, I NOW POSSESS THE POWER TO BRING PEACE TO OUR WORLD_

At her proud declaration, Starfire took a step forward. Lifting a hand tentatively, the alien gestured to Raven.

"This - this power of which you speak," she ventured, her tone of voice almost naively curious. "H-how did you come into possession of it? Never before have you displayed so much - so much abandon."

_THIS POWER HAS ALWAYS BEEN MINE TO COMMAND_

She attempted to explain, without the use of her archaic vocal chords. A part of her understood, now, why so many of the aliens had difficulty reducing their thoughts to base vocalizations.

_I WAS MERERLY TOO FEARFUL TO USE IT, BUT NO MORE; I HAVE ACCEPTED MY TRUE NATURE, AND NOW FEAR HOLDS POWER OVER ME NO LONGER_

_"_Umm… yeah, that's great and all," Jinx interjected rudely. Raven's ire only increased as the slight witch placed a hand on Ryouga's shoulder as she took a step forward to stand at his side. "But if you got all this fancy new power, then why the heck haven't you already taken us home then? What's with the run around?"

Lifting her energy shrouded arm, the cloaked Titan slowly uncurled a finger to point at the huddled duo as they stood, bodies tense. Though she did her best to hide it, Raven could feel a ripple of fear pass through the witch's aura, even as Ryouga took another step to place himself more firmly in front of Jinx.

_I WILL RETURN US HOME, HOWEVER, FIRST I HAVE A GIFT FOR YOU_

"You have a _what_ for me?" Jinx asked, edginess tainting the question with growing suspicion. "What could you possibly have that I-"

_I OFFER YOU THE GIFT OF FREEDOM, FREEDOM FROM THE SHACKLES OF AFFECTION WHICH THE HEADMASTER SO CRUELLY AFFIXED TO YOU _

While Starfire and Cyborg shifted about uncertainly, confusion clear on their faces, Jinx's head snapped up, her entire back straightening as if a ramrod had just been inserted into her spine. For the first time in memory, Raven felt true terror in the pink haired harlot's heart. Seeing that; sensing that…

It actually felt rather good.

"You - you can't do that, Raven," Ryouga implored, no, he all but begged. Stepping forward he held out his hands in some form of crude warding gesture. "You don't have the _right_ to alter our minds like that!"

The mere notion was as amusing to the empowered woman as it was nonsensical.

What right did she have?

_I HAVE EVERY RIGHT - I DO NOT INTEND TO _ALTER_ YOUR MINDS, ONLY TO UNDO WHAT WAS DONE_

"Whoa there, chill out Raven!" Finally, Cyborg entered the conversation, though his input had been neither asked for, nor desired. "I'm not a hundred percent on what you guys are talking about, but you can't be goin' around messin' with people's heads if they don't want ya to."

Her head twisted sharply and she lanced the cyborg with a heated glare. The bulky teen took a step back himself, recoiling from her scrutiny.

_ I DO AS I WISH - YOU ARE MERELY TOO BLIND TO SEE THE TRUTH_

She turned her searing stare back to the martial artist and his witch.

_THEY WILL THANK ME WHEN I AM DONE, YOU WILL SEE_

With that, Raven began to float forward, small fissures and cracks forming in the surface of the marble alter as the force of her aura washed over it. The dark Titan lifted her arms to her side, gathering dark flames in her upraised palms. She would do her utmost to make things quick… though she was not as worried about painless.

_NOW LET US BEGIN_

"Friend Raven, you are not yourself! Please stop these fearful actions of darkness!" Floating quickly several inches above the floor, Starfire flew to Ryouga's side. The alien lifted her fists before her, the emerald energy surrounding them increasing in intensity from gentle lighting to weapon's grade starbolt plasma. Though she looked incredibly reluctant to raise a hand against her friend, a familiar glint of determination shone in the Tamaranian's eyes.

"I'm sorry, Rae, but we can't let you do that," Cyborg added, moving to Starfire's side.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Jinx barked, anger mixing with her irrational fear and nearly cracking her voice as she spoke. Not quite brave enough to step out from behind Ryouga completely, the pink haired witch shook an irate fist in Raven's direction. "Did you just totally freakin' snap your damn brain upstairs? What the fuck _happened_ to you?"

Raven didn't even bother to dignify Jinx's questions with a response. It didn't matter what she thought. It didn't matter what Starfire or Cyborg thought, either. Neither of them were involved; they had no stake in the matter at all. The alien and the cyborg had no real idea what had been done to both Ryouga and Jinx, which made it all the more irritating that they dared to interfere with her desires.

There was only one person whose thoughts actually mattered. Narrowing her focus, she brought all of her attention down to one person, took in every detail of his face; the fangs just teasingly visible as he drew in ragged breath, the fluttering yellow and black material of his bandanna blown back by the winds of her power, his dark brown eyes, like twin vats of molten chocolate.

Oh Azar, how she desired him.

Why - why couldn't he simply see that? Why didn't he feel the same way?

"Raven."

The sudden sound of Ryouga's voice snapped Raven out of her reverie. She hardened her gaze as she stared at him, offended by the concerned expression on his face. Taking a step forward, separating himself from the rest of his team, Ryouga held out a hand to her.

"Raven, I - I don't know why you're acting like you are, but - but please stop. You need to come with us," he pleaded, and followed it up by saying about the worst thing possible. "We can help find out what's wrong with you..."

_WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?_

A tremble of fury shot through Raven's body. What was **wrong** with **her**? The audacity! All of them were blind fools – all of them - to even insinuate that the problem lied with **her**? It was an unforgivable insult.

_ENOUGH!_

Her mind roared, flush with newfound power, saturated by the fact that she finally had the training and the inclination to do exactly what she wanted to do.

_I WILL SHOW YOU THE TRUTH, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT! _

Her friends had only a second to prepare themselves as she swept her arm out. All four of them scarcely had the time to cross their arms before their faces as a wall of purest black crashed into them. The wave of darkness crested over twenty feet high, arcing across half the dais and surged outwards at nearly the speed of sound. The roar of crushing stone was deafening and debris was thrown through the air as the floor was shredded by the merest exertion of her will.

And then the wall struck home. Instantly, Titans were blasted into the air. Starfire's form soared upwards into the air, vanished quickly into the darkness as she hurtled far into the distant seats with circled the platform, a muffled crash sounded out from wherever she landed. Cyborg's far heavier frame was sent skidding across the floor in a shower of sparks. Looking much like a comet trying to escape its shining tail, the cybernetic teen arrowed between the statues only to fly off the edge of the upraised dais completely and slammed into the barrier wall beyond it with enough force to shatter it like so much glass.

Jinx was not even as fortunate as Cyborg. Rather than fly between the towering statues, she was hurled right into the knees of the stone woman directly behind her. A flash of yellow surrounded Jinx's slight frame for a second before she was buried straight into the stone. A second later, jagged cracks raced up the length of the statue, only for it to shatter completely a moment later, burying the unfortunate sorceress nearly completely in the rubble.

A long moment passed before Ryouga tentatively lowered his arms. Looking first to his left, then to his right, the lost boy adopted an expression which perfectly suited his namesake. The floor was destroyed all around him, except for a small strip of undisturbed stone floor which extended only a few scant feet before him, before narrowing back down to nothing almost immediately behind him. His confusion only increased as he noted that he was now standing alone, and not even Jinx, who had been right at his side, remained present. Then, slowly, he looked forward once more.

Raven smiled down pleasantly at him from where she floated, now three feet above the shattered remains of the floor. The look on his face was so adorable, that it actually made her weigh her options for a moment. Her head tilted first to one side, then the other as she regarded him. His body was still tense, but his aura betrayed the shock he was feeling, the confusion as to what had just happened. Finally, though, she reached her decision.

Her hand shot out, and faster than even the shocked martial artist could react, a large claw of black energy flew out, hurtling unerringly in Ryouga's direction. One of the talons tore a narrow channel in the floor, sending out a spray of rubble as it covered the distance between them in the blink of an eye. His knees had only begun to bend in preparation of leaping out of the way, only for his feet to be blasted from the floor entirely as the claw slammed into his chest like a runaway locomotive and lifted him into the air.

Pushing forward with her hand, Raven then willed the claw construct to slam the martial artist bodily against the nearest available statue. Ryouga crashed into the heavy stone so hard that, even with his near indestructible alien armor on, the impact was enough that a splash of crimson stained his lip when his skull bounced off of the structure. A moment later, black energy flowed out from the claw, wrapping over his arms and legs and binding him tightly to the base of the statue. She took special care to encase his hands to prevent any 'explosive mishaps'.

That done, Raven lowered her hand, the long tether of dark power that had tied her to her construct dissolved away, no longer needed. Taking a moment to examine her handiwork, she then floated forward, finally landing on the floor to take the last few steps to Ryouga with her own feet. With no small feat of will, she then forced the excess, roiling energy of her aura to retreat back into her body where it was no longer visible. As the martial artist shook his head, quickly shaking out the cobwebs from the heavy strike, Raven looked down at her feet and closed her eyes.

When she looked up, only two violet hued eyes opened, rather than four slits of crimson. Smiling demurely, she gazed up at the bound martial artist, his feet held several inches off the ground. Reaching up, she gently traced the line of his jaw with a single finger.

"I… didn't hurt you, did I?" she asked timidly.

Ryouga didn't flinch away from her touch, nor did he lean forward into it, either. If anything, his reaction to her sudden shift in appearance and mannerism had only set him further off balance. He studied her intently for a long moment before he was finally able to find the presence of mind to set his jaw to working again.

"I - no, no. I'm not hurt, but - Raven, what are you doing? Why are you doing this?" There was desperation in his voice and if anything, it only made him more attractive to her. The strength of his emotions, positive or negative, the intensity of his passions: they were simply intoxicating to the empathic woman. She wanted more; she wanted all he had to give.

Taking another step forward, she rested her hand on his armored chest, the black energy peeling back from the area her hand touched.

"I'm doing this for you," she explained. "I'm doing this for you and Jinx, both. I can set _everything_ right. I will _make_ everything right. Once I free you from the Headmaster's control, then you'll be free to be with whoever you want again; free to be with me, just as was meant to be."

Instantly, Ryouga's eyes fell, the boy unable to match her gaze. Absently, she found her mind wandering - the skin of his cheek was so smooth, had he even started shaving yet? She knew so little about boys…

"Raven, please, stop this." He shoulders shifted slightly, but he didn't appear to be trying to break his bonds. Instead, he forced himself to look up into her eyes once more. "You don't know what you're doing. What we have-"

"Hush now," she whispered, trailing her finger across his cheek to rest it on his lips. "Haven't you ever imagined what could have been between us? Don't you remember how wonderful things were, just between the two of us-" She fired a glare to the pile of rubble a dozen yards to the side. "-Before _she_ interfered?"

Her annoyance spiked at the look of concern that suddenly bloomed on his face as he finally realized where Jinx had ended up after Raven's attack. Now Ryouga began to struggle against his captivity, twisting and turning the sound of steel grating on stone hurting her ears. Clenching her fist tightly, she willed the black energy to pull tightly. Instantly, Ryouga's limbs were pinned fiercely to his side, small spider webs of cracks forming along the statue from the pressure. The martial artist let out a hiss, but had time to do little else as Raven grabbed his chin and forced him to look forward again.

"Look at _me_," she demanded in a harsh growl. Her feet lifted up from the ground until she was high enough to stare him straight in the eyes. "Why do you only ever look at _her_? Why can't you see _me_? See how _I_ feel about you? How can you be so _blind_?"

The martial artist could do little more than stare at her, his eyes wide. Her nails dug into his chin, though she knew it would take someone with Starfire's strength to actually cause him any discomfort in such a way, but he didn't resist her hold. She could feel the emotions swirling madly in his heart. Righteous fury, desperate hope, crippling guilt and… and something else, something she couldn't recognize. Her tongue darted out, wetting her lips as she stared at him, her chest heaving as she took in ragged breaths. She could hardly contain herself - why was she even trying to?

"Then let me _show_ you."

Her hand dropped down and she grabbed the collar of his armored suit with all of her strength, only to pull herself forward. She crushed her lips against his, kissing him like she had never done before… literally in this case. Her own eyes widened and then closed, the dark Titan could scarcely believe what she herself was doing, but she couldn't stop herself. She suddenly realized that she had never, ever, actually kissed another person; she had no idea how to go about it, had no idea what it was supposed to feel like, other than it was supposed to be pleasant. All she could do was emulate what she'd seen on television and what she'd read in books. At first, Ryouga didn't respond at all, but as she continued to experiment, darting her tongue out tentatively, he began to lose himself.

After what felt like an eternity, Raven released her grip on his armor, floating back several inches in a daze. Licking her lips again, she noted an odd taste there; touching a finger to her lip, she drew it back to notice a crimson stain on her pale skin. Looking up, she also noticed the blood still staining his lips as well, only smeared about now. She found herself staring, transfixed. His skin had gone pale, likely from shock, and the sight of that, combined with his natural fangs and the fresh blood splattered across his lips; the image he invoked was of a vampire straight from the most gothic of her novels.

She dove in again, greedily stealing another kiss. More certain this time, she sated her desires more thoroughly, relishing in the metallic tang as she ran her tongue across his lips, only to nearly start when she heard a low moan of ecstasy, and realized that it had been her own. She could have stayed like that all day, trying to devour her lover's lips, but a basic need for oxygen forced her to retreat once more.

Resting a hand on her chest as she fought to take in air, Raven could still barely believe what she'd just done, twice. Ryouga was little better, a small trickle of red pooling on his top lip from his nose. The martial artist was also struggling for breath, a vacant look in his eyes. Finally, he shook his head, vainly trying to recover his wits. Once he had, he stared at her, every bit as disbelieving as her.

"Raven, _stop it_," he half pleaded, half ordered. There were no further struggles to escape, just a look of betrayal. Did he forget that he was the one who had betrayed her? "You're more important to me than you can know, you _are_, but we can't _do_ this. I know you don't want to hear it, but Jinx - Jinx and me, we…"

"_No_!" Raven barked, cutting him off sharply. "There is _no_ Jinx and you. Don't you see? It's all the Headmaster's control! That's what's making you think this way! As soon as I remove that, all of those imaginary feelings will vanish, Just. Like. That."

He shook his head. "My _feelings_ are not _**imaginary**_!"

Suddenly, Ryouga began to struggle once more, straining mightily against his bonds. The ominous sound of groaning stone filled the air, punctuated by shotgun-like 'cracks' as the fissures in the statue widened and new ones began to form, sundering the unfortunate medium between an unstoppable force and an immovable construct.

"I don't care if the Headmaster is responsible," he growled. "All I care about is how I feel about Jinx, here and now!"

For just a second, Raven's aura bubbled up from her skin. Her fists clenched painfully and she rose higher into the air, a painful itch spread across her brow as another pair of hate filled eyes threatened to open once more -

And then, just as quickly as her wrath was stirred, it was calmed once more. Slowly, Raven floated back to the floor, staring up at Ryouga in a new light. Her head tilted to the side, her violet hair pooling on her shoulder and a crooked grin curled the corner of her lip.

"You don't care that your feelings for Jinx were created?" she asked, a calm belying the storm beneath. "You only care that you like her now? Is that it?"

Ryouga's struggles ceased, a confused expression settling on his face at the odd question. He examined her for several long seconds, possibly trying to divine the reasoning behind her unusual inquiry.

Finally, he replied, though guardedly, "T-that's right. Raven, I never wanted to hurt you, I swear, but I… I think I love Jinx…"

Rather than scowl, Raven nodded, her grin blooming into a full smile. Reaching up, she cupped his cheek and gave his face a reassuring pat. "I believe you, Ryouga."

"I - wait. What? You do?"

Raven nodded again. "I do believe you, Ryouga. I believe, full well, that you love Jinx."

He could not seem to decide whether to tense up anxiously, or to relax in relief that she had finally agreed with him, so he did neither. Instead, he just stared dumbly at her as she tilted her head to her other shoulder.

"You _do_ love Jinx," she stated matter-of-factly.

A pause.

"… And then you loved _me_."

His entire body jolted as if he'd been jabbed with a live wire, only to go completely limp a second later, a puppet whose strings had been cut. All of the light in his eyes drained away, leaving only a glassy expression in which Raven could see her own reflection. Slowly, though, as the seconds ticked by, sentience returned to the young man. Finally, he lifted his chin once more, staring her straight in the eyes. Gone was the glass-like expression, and in its place was something much more gratifying.

Utter devotion.

"_Raven_."

The way he spoke her voice, no, the way he _breathed_ her voice, it sent a shudder through her body. With an extraneous wave of her hand, his ebony prison evaporated away to nothing and he dropped lightly to the ground. An instant later, he dropped to his knees and grasped her offered hand, pressing his lips to the pale skin of her knuckles.

"I am yours," he continued, "My heart, my body, my soul, they all belong to you."

A giggle bubbled up from Raven's throat, her heart filled with mirth. Running her hand through his shaggy hair, she nodded happily. "Why yes," she agreed. "Yes they do."

This, this was even better than what she'd planned. If her Ryouga was perfectly fine with people altering his mind, then obviously there was nothing wrong with doing… this. It was just giving him more of what he wanted, and giving _her_ what she wanted as well. It was the perfect arrangement, really. And even better yet, now that she didn't have to worry about any lingering attachments that he might suffer, there was no need for her to bother helping out a certain, pink haired wi-

She sensed it a fraction of a second before she saw it, and saw it a fraction of a second before she heard it. The wild, uncontrolled surge of livid pink power which suddenly sprung up from the heart of the rubble pile which had buried Jinx exploded outwards violently, scattering, or outright disintegrating hundreds of pounds of solid rock as if it had been less than nothing. Nearly the entire chamber was lit up like an early morning sunrise as a suddenly unfamiliar pink aura began to jump and arc about angrily like so much bottled lightning.

Standing up straight at the heart of the conflagration, Jinx's eyes flashed dangerously and her wild hair danced about in an unseen wind as pink lightning continued to arc all along her body. There was a small streak of crimson running down from a gash on her forehead, but it burned away almost instantly.

"What the _hell_ did you just _do_!" she roared, blinking away a bit of blood.

Raven nearly laughed at the display. Did Jinx really think that she was the offended party, here? That she was the one wronged? The sight of the pink haired witch trying to act the hellish part of a woman scorned only amused the Titan further. But it was a dark amusement. Jinx could not even begin to understand the true meaning of that age old adage…

But Raven would be glad to show her.

"Ah, Jinx. I was just thinking of you," Raven explained lazily. "About how it wasn't really all that important to keep you around anymore. Or even alive for that matter. After all, if Ryouga has already moved on to someone better, then it hardly matters just how _ex_ his ex is, does it?"

Somewhat fascinating to Raven, she noticed Jinx's aura begin to flow differently, even as she seethed with rage. In her abdomen, where a normal person's internal energies would swirl around serenely in a perfect circle, an odd pattern began to form in the flow. Was this the 'orbital flow' which Starfire and the witch had been practicing so diligently of late? It didn't look that impressive, yet - yet Raven could actually sense a noticeable increase in the intensity of the young woman's aura.

The dark Titan's brow arched up curiously as she regarded Jinx now.

Even as her fists shook from rage barely restrained, the witch's breaths came in even, measured inhalations. It was an unusual combination of perfect control and complete abandon, and seemed to be no small feat for her to maintain. Still, maintain it she did, in fact, Jinx actually lifted a hand to point accusingly at Raven.

"Undo whatever the _hell_ it was you just did, or I will break every damn bone in your body and then _make_ you do it."

Raven blinked, slowly, leisurely. "No."

A low growl emanated from Jinx's throat. "Damnit ,Raven. _Don__'__t_ make me do this. You know that I will!"

"I know that you will _try_," Raven responded blandly. "I also know that you will fail."

"You wanna _bet_?"

The ground beneath Jinx actually exploded as she kicked off, sprinting across the room in a diagonal arc to gain advantage on Raven. The speed she moved was on par with even what she'd seen this world's Ranma attain - likely due in no small part to the augmented armor which she wore - and it would have been nearly impossible for Raven to follow the slight girl visually, as she was little more than a grayish blur in the darkness. Then again, she didn't need to.

Rather, Raven simply closed her eyes, her smile never faltering.

* * *

Jinx sprinted across the uneven remains of the floor faster than she had ever moved before, the electronic whine of the actuators mounted in the joints of her armor spiking with every step she took. In a matter of seconds, she cleared half of the dais and sped to the outer rim of the upraised surface and amidst the numerous statues. A single leap sent her flying through the air to land nimbly on the head of one of the twenty foot statues in the middle ring, Raven's back squarely to her.

_'__Heh, can__'__t keep track of me, can ya, Rae?__'_ she muttered to herself proudly.

Lifting her fist, she gathered her power quickly, surprising even herself at just how swiftly the pink energy flowed into her hand through the use of the modified ki rotation technique. Energy danced up and down her arm, but she paid it no heed; she simply thrust out her hand to fire a full power hex at the foolish cloaked girl's exposed back -

A bolt of what appeared to be raw, pink lighting exploded out from her hand. It crossed the intervening space in less time than it took to blink an eye - where it promptly was deflected by a black dome of energy and shot straight up, to slam into the distant roof in less than a second. Everything happened so fast, that it looked very nearly like the attack was still leaving her hand even as it slammed into the roof… and that by the time the bolt of pure power had already struck the roof, she hadn't even had time to realize that she'd been completely thrown off balance and was falling backwards.

Scrambling quickly, she managed to regain her balance, only to stare at her hand uncertainly. The smoking remains of her gauntlet, the indestructible metal platelets scattered to the wind when the protective undercoating had been blasted or vaporized from the inside out, stood in vivid testament to something that even she didn't fully understand.

"T-that's new," she muttered. It was the first time she had ever tried to use her full power while using the orbital rotation - which, granted, had been a bit boneheaded - but she certainly hadn't been expecting that. It had been so fast, too!

How on earth could Raven have possibly known to block it like that?

_ MORE EASILY THAN YOU WOULD EXPECT, WITCH. BUT YES, THAT IS NEW, ISN__'__T IT? IT IS ALMOST__…__ MILDLY IMPRESSIVE._

A curse spilt past Jinx's lips at that. Shit! She'd forgotten that Raven was intimately familiar with how to get in her head after all this time. How the hell was she supposed to surprise her now?

_YOU ARE NOT_

_ BY THE WAY, LOOK UP_

Jinx was about to scoff at the lame deception - except that she suddenly became aware of the familiar whistling sound of something falling at great speeds from a very great height. Looking up, her eyes widened in shock as several massive pieces of masonry plummeted out of the darkness above. Letting out a shocked shriek, she launched herself from her current perch and landed on the ground, only to sprint away at full speed. She just barely made it out of the crush zone as the massive, smoking section of roof slammed into the ground with the force of a bomb. The shockwave of dust and debris was still enough to pick her right up off the floor and send her flying through the air.

Even as she twisted around to regain her balance in midair, she saw a second one of the massive slabs land directly on Raven - except that it never actually hit the ground. Unlike the massive explosion like the one caused by the slab that had nearly flattened her, the section of stone and metal hung serenely, a mere ten feet above the floor, now coated in a cloak of darkness. A moment later, even as Jinx landed safely on the floor and skidded to a stop, the massive block floated back up into the air, only to be tossed almost casually away to crush a massive section of the stadium seating.

At the heart of the room, looking not a whit worse for wear, and with Ryouga still kneeling at her side, Raven stood, looking totally relaxed. Despite her own bravado, Jinx found herself swallowing a lump in her throat as she stared at the cloaked woman, her four red eyes burning brightly beneath the folds of her hood.

The memory of another four eyed monster in that stolen form briefly stabbed the primal part of her mind, along with the sensation of dying, over and over and over -

Still… still, Jinx knew she didn't have any choice in the matter. No matter what the cost, she had to put Raven down, here and now. Some head doctor back in Seiran could probably fix whatever insanity she'd inflicted on herself - probably - but they couldn't do that if Jinx let her murder everyone in this dimension. Besides, Raven wasn't the only one with a new trick - apparently - so she was still fairly confident that she could take the snooty bitch in a straight up fight. Standing again, Jinx casually dusted some debris from her shoulder and leveled an even gaze at Raven.

"Raven, you know… I don't care what you've done to yourself," Jinx admitted with a widening grin. "But if you wanna play rough, then I'm all good with frying your fat ass and letting the boys back home try to stitch you back together."

Dropping down into an aggressive stance, Jinx lifted her fists and began to gather her power once more, now more cognizant of the way it arced around her body like so much pink hued electricity. Then, almost as an after thought, she unhooked the helmet from her belt and slipped it on, locking it in place.

_I HAVE WANTED TO SAY THIS FOR A LONG TIME, JINX_

"What's that, Rae?" she barked back snidely.

_BRING IT ON, YOU RAIL ASSED BITCH_

* * *

California

Jump City International Airport.

Two fingers buried deep in a bag of mixed nuts, Slade Wilson stole only a quick look out the window before going back to reading the Times. There really was no going back to flying coach, not after years in First Class, and as the commercial jet came in for a landing, he used the knuckle of his thumb to wipe away a bit of sleep from his eyes. It always felt a bit strange, using the polymer cover for his right eye, but the simple (and sad) truth of it was that not many people still used eye patches these days. It was just too distinctive.

Munching on de-shelled walnuts, plus the occasional pecan and dried cranberry, he relaxed into the chair and resisted the urge to yawn. Indonesia to the States was a ten hour flight, from Jakarta to Los Angeles, and then a quick leap north to Jump City. It'd mess with most anyone's internal clock, world class mercenary or not. That was just part of the business, though.

When they finally disembarked, he took only a single piece of carry-on luggage and a nondescript notebook computer. He had a dozen passports, all fakes, but the American one was the closest to real. There wasn't a suspicious thing on his person; for all intents and purposes, he was just one of thirty million air travelers flying commercially this year. Opening one of his carryon bag's pockets, he retrieved a nondescript letter, briefly tucked it under his arm, and then closed the pocket back up before transferring the letter into his brown coat.

Walking to parking lot three instead of taking a cab or shuttle, he used the free time to finish the paper and get a look at the nearby parts of the town. Jump City was large...ish, but not very impressive. It really didn't rate high on his personal list of 'great cities' which was a polite way of saying it wasn't on the list at all. It was no London, Tokyo, or Gotham, much less a Paris. It wasn't even at the level of Los Angeles, Metropolis, Chicago, Abu Dhabi, or other new-age styled commercial hubs. It was... like Seattle, except even less iconic.

Jump was a large, rich, relatively well managed American City, with all the perks and pitfalls that entailed, but it was also dull. There was no history here, no monuments, no true legacy. Its parks and streets may as well have been nameless. It was probably a nice place for an enterprising couple of white, middle class, generic types to settle down and raise two and a half children, but it wasn't the kind of place where one went in his 'line of work.' He sighed, having entered Lot Three through the main building.

Opening the letter again, he flipped out the folded note within.

It didn't take long to find the cream colored, nondescript midsized sedan. Approaching it, the fob activated the lights and unlocked the doors. Momentarily suspicious, as always, Slade took a cursory few minutes to double check for any obvious explosives. He'd be swapping it for something else as soon as possible, naturally, even if it was clean. Finally getting in and taking it out the parking lot, he checked the navigation system. He'd looked over Jump City's street plan, but it was a totally new system, and even with near perfect memory one could get lost in a hell of unexpected one way streets.

Dialing a number on his cellphone, he let it ring twice and then hung up. Driving downtown, he also tried to see this busy but dull town in a new light. It was an opportunity, of sorts: a chance to try some new things and to break ground, so to speak. Plus it was largest contracted job he'd ever been offered, and that was no small expenditure given his status as an extraordinarily expensive world class mercenary. So Jump City was something of a blank slate? It was a chance to be creative without butting heads with more established _company_.

Parking and dumping out some quarters into a meter, he soon found the appropriate place, and headed inside. It was a pretty typical coffee-bread-sandwiches-and-soups type of store, full of young businessmen and twenty-somethings. At the counter, he mentioned needing 'his lost briefcase, the one with the black stripe across the top,' and that he had called before about it. He hadn't, but the young woman didn't bother questioning the situation. A customer had - obviously - accidentally left his briefcase in the store, and someone had picked it up. One of her coworkers, to be sure. Who else would, after all?

Thanking the young redhead and ordering a coffee, some French onion soup, and procuring an isolated table in the corner, he strolled over without a worry. So far, Group-III had fulfilled their part of the bargain, and before the flight, he'd confirmed the transfer of ten million dollars into three of his overseas accounts... each. Of course, he had no idea who the members of "Group-III" actually were, except that they were a consortium of "interest groups" and "concerned individuals" who were willing to shell out big bucks for serious help.

Beyond that, they could be the Brotherhood of Evil, or a cabal of insane Thanagarians, for all Slade Wilson cared. Money was money, and he valued professionalism. Again, that was the business. If an employer or employers really were the kind of scum you couldn't stand, you just did the job and then came back later for their collective heads.

But you **did** the **job**.

Regardless of motivations, Slade Wilson already had a pretty good idea of what he was hired to do in Jump City. Unlocking the briefcase with the key he'd been mailed a week ago, he took stock of the documents and other notes inside. Five brown manila folders were tucked neatly into the upper case, while the lower held covered and stapled documents, two more folders including the mission header, some smaller cases with gadgets inside, a map with highlighted locations and phone numbers... Slade nodded to himself. Professional. Very complete.

He started with the mission header, and pulled out some abstracts regarding the mission in Jump, Group-III's list of objectives for him, and of course, the targets. Yes, the targets. It was as he expected. The airport was right next to the bay here, and it was hard for anyone flying in to miss that obnoxious, gigantic T-shaped monstrosity sitting out there. You'd think zoning laws didn't apply to meta-humans?

So: it was the _Teen Titans_, then?

He flipped through the dossiers quickly, then reread them more carefully, one at a time. Beast Boy was first, the order being alphabetical, and sported a picture of the little brat from his Doom Patrol years. He even had the ridiculous mask. A hasty stick-it note on the paper next to the picture added 'no mask' so apparently the boy had changed up his threads a little.

Beast Boy was fairly well known as the Doom Patrol's 'token kid sidekick' but there wasn't much hard info on him. Personality profiling notes, probably from Brotherhood sources, indicated he was hyperactive, possibly ADD, indecisive under pressure, and fond of wisecracks. Another speculative note, with a question mark, wondered: Vegetarian/Vegan? Beast Boy had dropped off the map, literally, after leaving the Doom Patrol.

What was he doing here with these new Teen Titans? Getting back in the game? Trying to buck the sidekick mould and join the big leagues?

Cyborg was next. This kid was clearly the tech head and engineer of the group, or maybe the 'brilliant bruiser' was more appropriate. There was very little on the extent of Cyborg's actual education, but he was estimated to be a class-6 intellect "plus or minus 1" with a strong robotics and general engineering background. There was speculation he briefly interned with another genius-hero type, maybe Mister Terrific, but nothing concrete. Meta's were notorious for their bad record keeping. He'd been seen doing some solo work out here on the West Coast, but now he was apparently in bed with the Titans.

Curious. A kid like that would normally get picked up by one of the established East Coast teams. Either that, or he'd be on the fast track to an internship with the Justice League.

Raven was the biggest unknown. There was almost no information on her at all, except some speculation of "telekinetic and/or magical abilities." Which could mean just about anything as far as meta-humans went. She appeared to be quiet, unobtrusive, with no records or citizenship papers. The dossier had her down as human/meta-human, but even that was probably a guess. Slade took a sip of coffee. It was clear he'd have to conduct some on the spot research of his own to determine what the extent of the girl's abilities was.

In fact, wasn't there a HIVE Academy out here somewhere?

He'd have to look into it later.

Next up was Robin, but Slade put that aside to look over instead at Starfire's dossier. Female. Tamaranian. The mercenary tapped his chin in thought, but couldn't remember hearing very much about that particular alien race. Tamaranian? They were only about two dozen light years away, from what he recalled, which was basically the apartment next door as far as galactic distances went. Yet you never heard much about them. She had a fairly generic assortment of stereotypical "alien powers" - flight, super strength, green energy attacks of some sort. The usual. The picture of her had 'green on green' eyes that momentarily reminded him of the 'blue in blue' eyes from the Dune novels he'd read in his youth.

She was obviously the "action girl" of the Titans, in the vein of Supergirl or the like. It meant that she was well above his own enhanced-human strength, and with flight and the rest, it could be a particularly annoying mix of powers. Still, experience had shown that aliens on Earth tended to become rather careless, so it'd be ideal to take her out of the fight early if it came to it. He'd have to compile some psych profiles from scratch, too. It wasn't hard, but it would take time.

Then it was back to Robin. _The Boy Wonder_. Batman's 'old chum.'

What was that kid doing way out west on the other side of the country? It was hard to believe the goddamn Batman would let his pre-teen bull's-eye go off on his lonesome, even if the brat was probably, what? Fifteen now? Sixteen? No one knew, really. The Boy Wonder was famous and recognizable, and he hadn't even changed his costume here, but still no one knew much about him beyond the obvious: his fighting abilities, trained by the Bat, deductive skills, highly competitive.

Then, out of the blue, he left Gotham for sunny Jump City? Slade didn't buy it. If the boy wanted to go solo, why not some place closer? Why not some place with more actual crime? Like Boston, or (Slade chuckled) Bludhaven? Why Jump City? The Bat had to have eyes and ears out here checking in on the kid, and the fact that the fresh faced Teen Titans were operating out of a giant T-shaped tower and not renting out rooms at the local YMCA meant they had some serious backing. Frankly, it smelt like fresh guano.

Out of the whole Titans Bunch, Robin was, without a doubt, the most experienced of the group. Beast Boy was a solid second, but none of them would have had the experience of facing down the Joker at, what? Age 13? Even if the boy was out here to get away from the cape and the cowl, he'd definitely be leading these Teen Titans. Slade briefly wondered how the boy's abilities compared to those of the Dark Knight.

He also considered the objectives Group-III had set out for him.

They wanted general – generic even - chaos to cover up certain illicit deals and activities, and they wanted the Titans shut down, but _preferably not killed_. That wasn't a surprise. Killing a bunch of promising young heroes would invite immediate retribution from their seniors, but sending them home, tail between their legs? _That_ would certainly do the trick. Maybe one or two replacement types would set up shop, but they wouldn't be nearly as potentially troublesome.

Stirring his French onion soup, Slade considered his options and initial plans. Unlike previous jobs, he'd been given access to some substantial resources in the city. The down side was that he would have to stick around in one place until the job was done. No more globe trotting. No side jobs. He'd be stuck in Jump City for upwards of two years. Still: it was a job, and he intended to see it through. That settled, he pondered his assignment some more.

Ideally, the easiest way to break up a team was to go for the head, in this case, a certain Boy Wonder. Since utright assassination was out, maybe... subversion? It didn't even have to be Robin, really. A mole in the Titans would drive them apart. Were they still recruiting? Was there anyone good on their current roster he could make use of?

Raven, maybe? Or Starfire? Perhaps the alien girl had something he could blackmail her with? There was the incident surrounding her arrival on Earth. Perhaps he could introduce a bug into Cyborg's programming? That one would depend on how much human was left under all that chrome. Robin was just ideal, though. Not only would it be a great challenge, but the boy was already well trained in martial arts, engineering, deduction, and all the tricks of the trade. And wouldn't it just be the height of irony to make an... _an apprentice_ out of the Dark Knight's own former sidekick?

He'd be the best of both worlds, dyed in white, but choosing to play black.

He'd be an ideal successor, one who understood the futility of these nonsensical heroics first hand. One who grasped how the heroes of the world simply reacted when others moved, but never did anything on their own. One who understood that the way of the mercenary, the way of the man who looked out for himself only, was the only way to truly live in a world of all powerful reactionaries and belated visionaries doomed to inevitable failure. Robin alone would be able to truly grasp this, as he came to know both sides of the coin.

_'A rebellious youth, seduced by evil.'_

Well, that was a overly melodramatic take on it. But a side benefit would be sticking it to Batman and the rest. It was a long shot, but it was appealing, and it would get the job done.

Finishing the soup, and nibbling on some bread, Slade put all that aside and instead focused on his new image. This job was very different than what he had done before, and didn't really fit the 'Deathstroke' image. It could be worthwhile to make some adjustments, and not just to his work clothes. Maybe a new name, too? Like... Deathpool? Or Deadp - No. No. That was just silly, and he wasn't actually killing anyone anyway.

Well, there was plenty of time to work on it.

This Jump City job was looking... interesting.

* * *

Fire on steel, no not steel, so close, explosion making it hard to see -

_'Where did they...?'_

* * *

Buried.

Burning.

Dying.

Did… did my own apprentice… just kill me?

* * *

Legs aren't moving. Why are my legs -

* * *

Good God.

Another day in the courthouse. Adeline's lawyers would probably have shocked Gorilla Grodd with their ability to manipulate things in their favor. The house. The children. Not to mention that she already _**took my right eye**_. Why not the clothes off my back, too? At least they can't touch my hidden accounts overseas. _Bitch_.

None of this will keep me down, and none of it will change that Joseph and Grant are my sons, with my blood in their veins! One day...! ONE DAY!

* * *

It's easy to forget Cambodia out here. Lillian and a cool drink by the beach. The dimming light of the day promising an enjoyable night to come. We won't be able to stay here much longer. Work... work beckons. The work I love. I'm a professional, and that comes before women, before family, before even my own life.

Lillian understands this, accepts this.

Her hand brushes past my shoulder, and I know she's -

* * *

My legs are moving.

_Someone's moving my legs._

Fire rises up from within, denied, enraged. Infernal.

* * *

Slade's foot paused in mid stride.

One eye opened, and glared down past the solitary steel toed boot to the endless abyss below. Literally bottomless… this was the end of it all. The edge of Azarath's floating landmass. The beyond stretched seemingly into infinity, a drop into a starless, endless nothingness. Against his own will, the thought came: one more step.

_One more step._

_ Take one more step._

Forcing his head back and craning his neck, he saw just the hint of something behind him. The foot came back, setting down at the edge of the end of the world. His right hand circled, and a red hot blast of infernal flame shot out, covering the back of his body and anything nearby. Something released, a pressure literally in the back of his skull, and he slowly turned.

Shampoo landed out of range of the infernal blast, clutching her right hand. The tips of her fingers were burned nearly to black from her use of the Remote Control Acupressure technique. The rest of her didn't look much better. She and Ukyou had tried to gang up on him, how long ago? Minutes? Seconds? The latter being the final distraction so the former could get behind and try a last ditch technique.

What naughty girls they were.

"To think that there was an _enkakusousa_ practitioner among the Joketsuzoku?" he remarked, stepping away from the edge and towards the worn down Amazon. "I'm surprised. Very surprised."

For a moment, he wondered where the other one was. Trigon's All Seeing Eye supplied the answer, now that his thoughts were once again his own. She had limped back to that saucer shaped ship. The Amazon's trick, using tactile telepathy like she had, was risky but quite clever. By maintaining her hold on him, specifically by imprinting her fingers into his skull, she had very nearly tossed him over the very edge of Azarath back there.

Absently, he realized that his summoned minions must have dispersed without anyone around to give them proper direction. And, despite the ingenuity of her tactic, Trigon's power had not allowed the Amazon to make the attempt unscathed.

How long had she held on, despite the burns she suffered?

Slade was about to remark to that effect, when he noticed two large pieces of her armor that had been burned off in the last attack. They were suspiciously intact. A gray eye shot up towards the one detonator held in the girl's teeth. Rolling it around in her mouth like a cigar, she pressed the ignition button with the back of her charred right hand. Everything vanished in a blast of white.

* * *

Shampoo watched the explosion consume the promontory that overlooked this part of Azarath's outer edge. Guard rails flew away and into the bottomless deep, along with several tons of rock and stone, including two decorative statues. Slade, however, disappeared amid the flames. Searching desperately for some sight of his body, ideally of it tumbling into the starless abyss below, her brows creased when she saw nothing. No limbs. No mangled torso falling into the void.

_'Shit.'_

Turning to quick step away, she instead faced an oncoming fist. Shampoo barely had time to block the strike, wincing as she had been forced to use her injured hand, and then she found the quickest opening and made a hasty, short range, linear step. As her boots touched down, skidding from the uneven application of her dwindled ki, she barely saw the incoming fireball as it hit home.

Slamming front first into and through a wall, across the tiled floor, and into one of the hundreds of Azar statues that dotted the city, Shampoo tasted blood and briefly saw double. The sudden impact, the blurred vision, the pain - she could guess that she probably had a concussion. She mentally cursed.

_'Move. Move. Move! Stupid body! MOVE!'_

More blasts descended from outside, and the walls of the small temple or shrine became an incoming wave of debris. Shampoo rolled to her side and away from the crushing blocks, scrambling along the floor and around the sturdy statue of Azar. Desperate for some breathing room, she pulled one of her plasma grenades free and hurled it back on a short fuse.

Hunkered behind the statue, Shampoo grimaced as the blast wave swept over her, engulfing the front half of the shrine in an ionized firestorm. Stone melted and delicate metalwork fused into runny streams. What had been blown inwards by Slade was now thrown out again at mach speeds. A particulate cloud blasted outwards, and Shampoo held her breath as she got back up and ran through the rear of the shrine, shouldering her way through a large metal door, destroying it at the hinges.

Beyond it was a long hall with yet more statues in a variety of poses.

Tossing a proximity mine behind her, Shampoo ran to duck behind one of them, detaching her HV-ammo sidearm from the wrist lock. Training her aim at the room's only entrance, she had to quickly adjust her aim as, for once, Slade didn't come right in, tanking whatever traps were left in his way. Instead he came in through the wall, fire shooting from his arms like a double flamethrower. Shampoo got off a quick three shots before ducking further behind cover.

Taking a quick breath, she peeked back around into the waves of flame, identifying a target. Firing again and cursing her still blurry vision, she shot the legs out from two nearby statues, bringing them down on what she assumed to be her opponent's position. The walls of fire abated, momentarily, as Slade's arms swept up to blast away the falling marble edifices.

Firing as she charged, Shampoo saw at least one shot hit, passing through Slade's near fully restored chest, as she moved in. Now in arm's reach, she attacked with her remaining tactical knife, trying to maneuver for another clean shot with her sidearm. Slade blocked her initial strikes and retaliated with an elbow to the face that opened the Amazon's cheek and then a boot to the hip that would've crippled most fighters for life. Shampoo barely landed on her feet, and fired another three shots, barely missing as Slade vanished in a column of infernal fire.

Her NLP - Mk2E ejected its spent clip.

Searching for an exit, she started to run towards the back of the hall, but cracks of flame spread, like crackling lightning, at an even greater pace, and small explosions undermined the bases of nearby statues. Fifteen foot tall monks and robed figures came crashing down, and just as she reached the end, Shampoo was forced to pause before a rising fire wall. Turning on her heel, she caught one of the falling statues before it could crush her.

Blood spurted out from her burned fingers, and with a cry she heaved the multi-ton statue away. Unfortunately, the effort left little time or opportunity to block a smaller, faster target, as Slade's pikestaff extended and crashed into her chest, sending her back through the fire wall. Pinned there, within the flames, she would have quickly roasted, if she hadn't also instinctively drawn back her elbows to shatter the physical wall behind her. Weakened by Slade throwing her into it, and then by the double elbow, it quickly caved in, allowing her to fall back and out of the infernal fires.

They were outside now, back in the open air of a courtyard. Rolling back, Shampoo avoided another strike by Slade's pikestaff and then a second. Finally, as she tried to flip up, the burning weapon found her left shoulder. Smashed back down from the blow, she twisted onto her back, again to try and flip up onto her feet, but with that, the staff came down a fourth time, the tip hitting the chestplate of her armor like a bullet.

Slade's feet came down next as he descended, one catching the Amazon's burned right hand, and the other her left elbow. The ground beneath both cracked from the impact, and Shampoo bit back the urge to scream, especially from what her right hand had endured. The villain's pikestaff, meanwhile, continued to press down on her torso armor, not quite able to penetrate the alien alloy.

"Reasonably resilient material," he observed, as the burning tip of the demonically empowered weapon screeched and twisted against the foreign metal. "Stronger than promethium, perhaps. Still, I'd bet this hurts."

Worming out from the end of the weapon, infernal fire crept in past the alloy into the body glove and below. Shampoo hissed loudly, trying to hide the agony wracking her as the heat ablation systems in the interior of her suit began to rapidly break down, plasma retardant foam beginning to fizz out from between the armored plates. Her body wrenched as she tried to throw him off, displaying remarkable strength, even from such a prone position.

Failing repeatedly to escape, she finally resorted to wiping blood from her split lip with her tongue. The Amazon then took a shallow breath and closed her eyes, relaxing her body. Slade ground her right hand into the cobblestone street, but she didn't so much as whimper.

"You know," he suddenly spoke up in an oddly conversational tone. "Of all of the deluded young vixens that throw themselves at that Saotome child's boots with such desperation, you have the second most potential. I would almost be tempted to take you on as an... apprentice… if only you weren't so lacking. In common sense, especially."

Delicate brows knitted together, and her eyes opened again, still defiant.

"You speak nonsense, not-dead man," Shampoo growled, managing to hide the pain in her voice. "Shampoo is strongest girl in all of Nerima! No one have more potential."

"...Really?" Something about the way he said the word pissed Shampoo off even further.

"Only competition are Stupid Chef and Kitchen Destroyer," she replied, calming enough to correct the occasional slip of grammar. "That means there is no competition at all."

He withdrew the pikestaff, and took aim at her neck. Giving a casual shrug of his shoulders, he studied her passively.

"Believe what you will, it makes no difference in the end."

A moment passed, but the attack never came. Instead, Slade's attention turned to the side. A single man stood in the charred ruins of a nearby building, wearing armor identical to the beaten woman at Slade's feet. His identity was obvious, even before Shampoo spoke.

"Ranma," she said the name with palpable relief. "Lieutenant!"

Slade seemed to think, for a moment, about following through with his attack on the downed Amazon, but instead lifted his foot off her bloody mess of a right hand, and then off her elbow. One eye met the younger man's mirrored visor until they were just a couple meters apart.

"It wasn't very smart, you know," Slade said. "Leaving your ship to come here."

"That could be," Ranma admitted with a shrug. "I'm just here for Shampoo."

"She is of no interest to me," Slade replied evenly. "Still… if I were to interfere?"

"Well, if that happened, I'd have to fight ya," the cocky Saotome didn't seem bothered by the prospect for some reason. "But it ain't like I didn't expect it, comin' here. Also..." he pointed behind them to the center of Azarath. "I'll probably destroy that tower over there. The one with Trigon's baby girl in it."

Slade's eye twinkled with cachinnation. "Slaughtering five of your comrades to save the life of one? That's an … amusing bluff."

Ranma actually chuckled, apparently unconcerned. "Yeah, it is. I don't wanna hurt anybody if I don't have 'ta, and I actually like Rae... but I also don't like losing or seeing my friends get hurt, not when I can do somethin' about it. So how about we not put it to the test, huh?"

The demon possessed corpse craned its head to one side and then the other in mock thought. There was a long pause, as Slade considered the young man's deadly bluff.

"Your threat is more empty than you know…" he finally said, and looked away. "But, in all honesty, I see no need for further battle. I have accomplished what I needed to do. There is no need to press your fragile ego."

"My fragile ego? You sound like a certain tomboy I know," Ranma grumbled, ducking to carefully pick up Shampoo in a bridal carry. "Anyway, what the heck are ya talkin' about? What do ya mean, 'I did what I needed to'? Threats aside, most bad guys can't wait to take a swipe at me!"

Slade gave his pikestaff a single twirl, before burying one end in the ground near his feet.

"I can't imagine why," he replied, with no small degree of undead sarcasm. Even beyond the bluff, however, there was something about the boy's insufferable tone. He at least thought he had some kind of ace up his sleeve, beyond just the bluff. For a moment, he was almost tempted to push the young man, interested in seeing if he was actually as ruthless as he was trying to appear. Perhaps another time…

"However," Slade continued. "While the prospect of battling you is as tempting as it is tedious, I have greater reasons to let you live for the moment."

Ranma seemed on the verge of replying, but held his tongue with some difficulty. In his arms, Shampoo said nothing, but her brown eyes glared at the masked man none of them had, as yet, found a way to permanently kill; insult to injury, the bastard was now fully restored and looked as fresh as he had when he'd first appeared. The girl's left hand clenched tightly as she nursed her rage and humiliation at being unable to follow through and needing rescue. So she said nothing beyond the murder in her eyes.

Turning away from Ranma and his subordinate completely, Slade instead turned to stare at the distant tower rising up from the heart of the city. Almost as if he could see everything that was occurring over several kilometers away behind likely a dozen yards of solid metal, the masked man's head tilted in obvious interest.

"There are things unfolding which could have greater ramifications than you could possibly imagine," he said.

Ranma's eyes narrowed at that, but he didn't immediately turn away from Shampoo, still in his arms. Checking her right hand, he had to resist his own urge to 'take a swipe' of his own at a particular someone. Hot blood, burning below the surface at the harm done to his unwanted fiancé, but precious friend, cried for it. It was blood barely held in check by his iron clad control over his aura, and a Soul of Ice turned down to sub-zero.

Ranma, the part of him that was an officer, held it all in check. There was still no guarantee he could protect his squad from this man, even with what he had found out. What was important now was getting Shampoo back to the ship. If that could be done without a fight, then it would be done without a fight.

At least for now.

"The temple huh?" he asked, and turned to walk away. "It doesn't take a genius to see this whole thing was a setup to get Raven in there."

"It was." Slade replied, letting him go. "Yet you still fail to realize that one's true nature, despite all she has shown you. What is happening inside that temple is a pivotal moment. Try not to be disappointed when things do not turn out as you might wish."

Ranma scoffed.

"As if things _ever_ turn out the way I wish they would."

* * *

"So - so, how do ya like that? Huh? … You… had enough yet?"

Raven considered the questions, tsk'd silently to herself as she regarded Jinx's heavily cracked helmet - most of the visor had fallen out completely, revealing her pale face, blood speckling her lips - and the manner in which she was desperately struggling to draw in breath. Despite it all, the girl was still bravely attempting to conceal her fear behind a thinly veiled strong front. It was - Raven concluded - bothersome. As such, she tilted her head to the side, a sly grin on her lips.

"No," the demon spawned Titan decided. "No I haven't."

With a flippant wave of her wrist, Jinx's ebony cocooned body was slammed into the ground; the sorceress hit the shattered floor so hard that her already abused helmet split in half and went skittering away wildly. All along her body, sparks shot out from her personal armor and the last few stubborn patches of the yellow energy shield finally died away to nothing. The girl's pink eyes fluttered several times but slid closed.

"It looks like you finally have, though," she muttered vindictively.

Fairly certain that Jinx wasn't getting up immediately, Raven took a moment to appreciate their surroundings. Three large holes in the walls allowed daylight to flood in and illuminate the grand chamber. Shattered statues littered more than half of the dais, each one a testament to just how quick Jinx was, and there was scarcely an undisturbed inch of floor in sight. Long swathes of destruction ran up and down various sections of the coliseum seating, the sharp slashes Raven's handiwork and the jagged, smoking tracks the result of Jinx's wild new attacks.

Lifting her hand, the psionic construct clutching Jinx's torso lifted her out of her personalized crater, the girl's long pink hair dragged messily along the stone as she was pulled into the air. Twisting her hand until Jinx was more or less upright, Raven watched as her head lolled about loosely. A quick shake and Jinx's eyes snapped open and a cough wracked her body, spilling more crimson liquid past her lips. It took several seconds for her cat-like eyes to refocus before they finally spun about to land on Raven once more.

"Still with us?" Raven asked in mock concern.

"F-_fu_-"

Raven reintroduced Jinx to the floor once more, though a bit more gently this time. The girl wasn't wearing a helmet, after all, and Raven needed her brain at least mostly intact. 'Intact' being a relative term when it came to the pink haired witch. Grinning at her own cleverness, Raven dragged Jinx out of her crater once more, only to drop her down to her knees. Barely conscious enough to even look up, Jinx could do little more than kneel, her arms hanging limply at her sides.

"That's more like it. No reason we can't be civil, now," Raven chided the girl. Stepping forward, she lifted her hand, dark power gathering in her palm. "Now, I did promise to set you free, and the whole 'freedom in death thing' is so overdone these days; so why don't we get started with the rewiring?"

Reaching out, she cupped Jinx's cheek with her hand, lifting the girl's chin enough to allow her to meet her gaze. There was still some small amount of defiance in those pink eyes, though she was having some trouble keeping them open.

"Don't worry, though, you'll thank me when I'm done here." Raven couldn't have hid the lascivious, predatory smile that bloomed on her lips even if she had cared to try. "I can _guarantee_ it."

Now, all she had to do was find those pesky altered memories and tear them out. Once she'd removed all of Jinx's feelings for Ryouga, then maybe she would make a few other _improvements_ to the girl as well. She wasn't the first person that had said the pink haired menace could use a little _attitude adjustment_, but it did amuse her endlessly to know that she would very well be the last to do so.

Her hand stretched out as she prepared to rest her hand on the girl's forehead. For a job as intense as this one, physical contact would be necessary, even for her.

A wall of darkness rose up to her side, mere seconds before the blazing emerald starbolt slammed into it. The flash of blinding light and concussive force of the explosion sent ripples flowing through the shield, but even the surprising power of the bio-plasma projectile was lacking compared to the lancing pink bolts of lightning which Jinx had been throwing around moments earlier. Unconcerned, Raven allowed her protective barrier to recede into the ground once more and turned her head just enough to allow her to glance at the Tamaranian out of the corner of her eyes.

"This doesn't concern you, Starfire," Raven deigned to remind her teammate. "Leave while you still can."

Starfire hung in the air, her long scarlet locks blowing gently in the winds generated by the intensity of the swirling starbolt surrounding her upraised hand. The alien beauty's armor was scratched and dirtied, but the Tamaranian still gave off an impression of power, a righteous valkyrie passing judgment from on high. The imagery offended Raven; if Starfire was cast as the angel, then what did that make Raven, staring up at her enviously?

"You know we can't let ya do that, Rae."

Turning to look over her shoulder, Raven saw Cyborg slowly walking towards her, his powerful sonic cannon leveled at her. A pained expression was painted across his face, but his aim wavered not even a millimeter off target, glowing white power building up at the end of his weapon. A dark scowl etched itself onto Raven's face.

"You." She all but hissed. "You would choose _her_ over _me_? You would raise arms against your _real_ teammate for some harlot that you barely even know?"

Guilt flashed across Starfire's face for a moment, but she quickly shook her head and retrained her starbolt on Raven once more.

"The reasons for your actions is a mystery, but what you have done to both Ryouga and Jinx are inexcusable. Please, cease this madness and come with us," her voice was imploring, enough to tug at the heartstrings... were the situation different. "We can help you, friend Raven, if only will allow us to."

Again - _again_ they dared to insinuate that the fault was with her, that it was her that was acting irrationally! That there was something **wrong** with her! Looking to her other side, she saw Ryouga, still kneeling exactly where he had been since she'd commandeered his affections. She supposed she should have given him some form of orders, or maybe had him fight Jinx in her place, or some such, but it hadn't really occurred to her. He looked perfectly content where he was, anyway, staring blankly forward since she'd stopped paying attention to him.

"Help _me_?" Raven snapped back. "I'm the one helping all of you, and all you can do is interfere and fight. Why won't any of you see reason?"

"Reason?" Cyborg shouted incredulously. Gesturing sharply with his hand, he pointed to Ryouga's insensate form. "What the hell did you do to Ryo? The guy is a freakin' zombie! And what the hell were you about to do to Jinx? Stand down, Raven, or we _will_ put you down, for your own good."

A cruel laugh escaped Raven's pale lips. "As if you could. Haven't you noticed? My powers have no limit here; can you say the same?"

She turned to stare at Jinx, still barely clinging to consciousness after their pitched battle. "And what do you mean 'what _was_ I going to do to Jinx?' The question is, what _am_ I going to do to Jinx? And if you are that interested, then allow me to show you."

Twisting her hand, she pulled Jinx straight up to her feet and reared back with her other hand, ready to plunge it down onto the girl's head.

"_No_!"

"_Raven, stop_!"

Raven chuckled darkly, her dark barrier springing up once more, surrounding both herself and Jinx. A second later, lances of emerald light and a veritable battering ram of white noise crashed against her defenses, shattering like waves upon a levee. The dome wavered slightly, rippling noticeably beneath the combined onslaught, but failed to do more than distract her. Content in her safety, she turned to face Jinx again, the girl's eyes were finally beginning to register just what was about to happen, and Raven could see the fear within those wide pink eyes.

And then her hand slammed home, clutching the witch's forehead tightly.

Jinx's screams pierced throughout every inch of Temple Azarath.

* * *

Ryouga's head snapped up sharply. In an instant, his mind came into razor focus, the haze of confusion which had been hanging over him falling away to reveal a much different battlefield than he recalled. The martial artist had no idea how long he had been out of things, or what had even caused him to blank out as he had… he didn't even know what had caused him to come out of it like he had.

Jinx's agonized shriek cut straight through his soul and froze the blood in his veins in the same instant.

Shifting to his side, his knees grinding loudly in the gravel, Ryouga couldn't even believe what his eyes were showing him. Starfire and Cyborg were moving rapidly around the shattered remains of the central temple platform, unloading all of their power on a black dome of energy. Despite the black tint of the dome and the repeated blasts of power slamming into it again and again in spectacular flashes of light and sound, Ryouga could still clearly see the occupants of the dome, as if in a photo negative.

Raven - so beautiful, so perfect - Ryouga shook his head violently. Raven was standing at the heart of the dome, and hanging in the air before her, limbs twitching spastically and with Raven's hand planted firmly on her forehead, was Jinx. Another scream of pain echoed through the chamber and Ryouga's hesitation evaporated like the morning dew.

"_Jiiiiinx_!"

Not even having a semblance of a plan, Ryouga threw himself forward, pushing every muscle in his legs to near snapping in his desperation. The stone floor crumpled to dust beneath his feet, protesting violently at the gross violation of physics as a human body was suddenly accelerated to over sixty miles per hour is less than a second. Ironically, it was that very thing that inspired him in the split second it took to reach Raven's formidable defenses. No weapon he had, no ki blast he could generate, would have even a chance of defeating her barrier, not if even Cyborg's sonic cannon was unable to pierce it.

At the last moment, just before he would crash face first into the ebony wall, Ryouga dove forward and stabbed all ten fingers deep into the platform. Moving faster than sound, lines of ki spread out from his fingers in every direction, energizing breaking points as they went, moving from one to the next in an ever expanding star field.

The dome did nothing to stop the spread of breaking points. Raven only had time to look up at him, shock evident on her features as she realized what he'd just done.

And then the entire dais exploded underfoot.

The world was, for a seeming eternity, transformed into a maelstrom of flying stone and streaking debris. Ryouga was pummeled mercilessly from every direction, thrown bodily up into the air by his own wildly desperate attack, but he ignored the pain and oriented himself in mid air, kicking off some of the larger slabs of airborne shrapnel. He landed on his feet seconds later, debris crashing down all around him. Distantly, he noted that Cyborg landed safely as well, looking little worse for wear, and Starfire had already been out of range of the explosion and had only been peppered with a few smaller fragments.

At the center of it all though, was… nothing?

'_Oh shit_!' Had he completely buried both of them?

A pool of darkness sprang up right where Raven had been standing, and a moment later, a dark silhouette rose up from below. The living shadow, only vaguely humanoid, stood there for several long seconds, only to eject Jinx's insensate form from itself and resolve itself back into the familiar from of Raven once more. Jinx's body hit the floor like a rag doll, and it almost seemed like Raven might join her a moment later, her body wavering as she clutched a hand to her head. Her lip was bloodied now, and a trail of blood ran down from her hairline.

And then Raven turned to stare at him, incomprehension on her face.

"You - you attacked me…" Her voice betrayed her disbelief. "But how? You - you're supposed to love me!"

Guilt wracked the martial artist for a moment, he lips falling down into a grim frown. "Don't you understand, Raven? I've loved you since the day I met you… you didn't need to twist my mind to make that true. I just love Jinx in a different way, and nothing you can do can change that."

It broke his heart to say it. It did. Raven would always be important to him, but what he had with Jinx - he didn't know how to explain it.

The dark Titan could only shake her head violently from side to side.

"B-but I _can_ change it!" she insisted, determination warring with incomprehension as the words sunk further in. "Don't you see? I have the power now to do anything! Why won't you just… why won't you just _let_ me?"

He winced at the frantic tone in her voice. "Because it's not right, Raven, and you know that. At least, the Raven that I cared about would know that. I'm - I'm not sure who you are at all."

Recoiling as if she'd been struck, Raven could only stare at him, incomprehension in her eyes. Did she not even understand what she was doing at the moment? What on earth had happened to her in the brief time since they'd lost track of her? How could things gone to shit so fast? It was all he could do not to stare right past Raven to Jinx's unconscious form. Every fiber in his being wanted to rush to her side, but he just knew that if he did, it would only cause this whole situation to explode again.

"What do you mean, Ryouga? Don't you understand?" she asked, almost pleading. "I was doing this for _you_, to be with _you_…! How can that be wrong?"

"Stop it! If you can't even see how wrong, how insane, you're acting, then you're not the Raven I know." He pointed sharply to Jinx. "Look at what you've _done_! Jinx was your team mate, your comrade, and you brutalized her! When have you _ever_ done that to anyone? How is _that_ for the best for _anyone_?"

Again, Raven stumbled back a step. Looking down at Jinx, as if the girl had only just appeared before her.

"J-Jinx?" she asked, and shook her head, not liking the sight set before her. "What… what happened to her? I must have… but I never meant for - for _this_."

Moving silently behind Ryouga, Starfire and Cyborg positioned themselves over his shoulders. He paid them no heed, though, all of his attention on Raven. The cloaked girl was clutching her head, hand tangled in her hair, staring frantically between Jinx, Ryouga, Starfire, Cyborg, and then all around taking in the sheer destruction she had wrought in the most holy chamber in this entire dimension.

For just a moment, Ryouga thought that things might just work out. The shocked expression blooming on Raven's face, the mute horror at her own actions, though heart breaking, at least showed that she was starting to comprehend that what she'd done was wrong…

And then Ryouga was nearly blasted off his feet and a burst of darkness exploded out from Raven, buffeting everyone with gale force. The martial artist, the Tamaranian and the cyborg were all forced to lean forward into the uncontrolled outburst just to maintain their positions. Raven, clutched her skull with both hand before collapsing to her knees, a grimace of anguish on her face.

Even the Lost Boy could feel the swirling vortex of emotions rising up inside Raven, threatening to swallow her up completely. This - this was very bad! Ryouga knew, as did his companions, that Raven's powers were completely dependant on her emotions. He'd never seen her draw upon as much power as she had here, and he'd never seen her so completely losing herself. There was no way to guess what could happen if they couldn't bring her under control.

"Raven!" he yelled, hoping his voice got through to her. "Snap out of it! You have to get a hold of yourself!"

"I - I can't!" she cried helplessly. Collapsing forward, she buried her face into her hands as larger and larger arcs of ebony telekinesis arced off of her body, smashing into distant walls and slashing long gashes into the stone seats around chamber.

"Crap! Ryo, we gotta do something!" Cyborg shouted to be heard over the howling of Raven's power. Ryouga almost wanted to curse, as if what Cyborg had said wasn't the most obvious thing in the world.

Pushing forward, Ryouga tried to fight against the pressure of Raven's aura. Each step was like trying to step through a concrete wall, but he wouldn't let anything stop him. Not when everyone was counting on him.

He just wished he knew what the hell he could do to fix this.

* * *

"I - I - I... can't fix this," Raven muttered to herself helplessly falling into a bottomless well of her own subconscious, nothing but dark walls and immeasurable emptiness below.

She couldn't see –

Couldn't even feel… herself… anywhere in her mind…

"What can I _do_?" Bits of her began to break away, shearing off like the scales off a fish, lost in the swirling vortex of darkness: an ebony sea of nothingness, with no shelter or floatsam in sight. "What can I do...?"

'_You can disappear,__'_ her own voice seemed to say. A defeated, beaten, resigned voice. _'__You can give up.__'_

"No," she wanted to scream defiance, but even her mind struggled to stay intact enough to think. "Not like this! I don't – I can't! Not like this! What can I do?"

"Hey, now. Why donchya try startin' with opening those pretty purple eyes of yours?"

The dark Titan started at the unexpected voice. For just a second, she forgot that she was having a massive mental break down and looked up, blinking her eyes. The vortex was -

"What?" she asked tentatively.

Kneeling at her side, familiar black cloak draped over his shoulders, Ranma smiled back at her. The cloaked martial artist dropped a hand on her shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze before helping her to rise to her feet.

"There ya go," he said, offering a comforting smile. "Up on yer feet now, Rae."

Giving her head a quick shake, Raven could only stare at the pigtailed fighter, incomprehension clear on her face. What was going on? Hadn't she just been in the middle of a psychic maelstrom of her own creation? Or of her own self-destruction, for that matter? Why was she suddenly standing here, having a conversation with Ranma, and why was he wearing that cloak?

Where was _here_ anyway?

"All good questions," Ranma replied. "Though some are more easily answered than others."

With a sweep of his arm, Ranma gestured for her to look out around them. And, just as he had promised, many of her questions were answered in an instant.

"…oh," she muttered quietly.

They were standing on a wide stone platform hanging suspended in nothing at all, exactly the sort of floating stone slabs which riddled her interior mindscape. She had apparently slipped or fallen into her own mind without even realizing it. Slightly more puzzling, was the sight of all of her emotional partitions standing in a ring around the outside of the platform, backs facing inwards and their hands held up before them, looking for all the world as if they were all pushing something back with all of their might.

Said 'something' appearing to be a towering tornado of scything ebony winds. The wicked gales of her own uncontrolled emotions clawed away hungrily at the edges of the stone island, slowly eroding it down with each passing second. The yellow cloaked Terra, the orange cloaked Starfire, the pink cloaked Jinx, the green cloaked Beast Boy, the gray cloaked Cyborg were all in attendance. As were two newcomers, which surprised Raven more than a bit: a brown cloaked Mammoth and a purple cloaked Blackfire. She would have asked them what their deals were, but they seemed far too busy holding back the hurricane of angst to be bothered.

Oh, and of course she couldn't forget the red cloaked form of Robin, not considering he appeared to be twice his normal height and his four red eyes were glowing so brightly that excess crimson energy was leaking out into the air around him. Despite all of his power, he was hissing and spitting to himself, almost as if he couldn't' decide whether he should be fighting the tornado out of pure spite, or just letting it in and reveling in the chaos.

A pair of fingers snapping an inch in front of her nose drew her attention back to the pigtailed fighter at her side. Black Cloak Ranma ignored the annoyed glare she fired his way.

"Hey, Raven!" he interrupted with typical Saotome style bluntness. "This is no time for sight seeing!"

"What's – what's going on?" she fired back testily. "What are they doing? Have they, all of them, regained control of our emotions? Is everyone in the temple safe?"

"_No_! All your emotional partition types in here have just managed to push back enough of the chaos to give you a chance to think in here, but it won't last for long!" Ranma explained fervently. "Your meltdown is still goin' on, full blast, back in the real world! And if you don't stop it soon, you're gonna bring the house down in a damn literal fashion."

"But _how_?" Raven gestured around to the endless storm, in whose eye they currently stood. The howling black winds went on for as far as the eye could see, as if the entire dimension was a massive hurricane with only this one tiny pin prick of sanity left to stand on. "There's too much power, too much chaos! Did - did you see what I did to Jinx? What I did to _Ryouga_? I've completely lost my mind! I've lost everything!"

"You already know how to," Ranma replied quickly, "You have all the tools you need; you just need to use them!"

For a second, Raven was tempted to strangle the martial artist. "What kind of vague, half-baked crap is that?" She grabbed him by the collar of his cloak. "We don't have time for riddles!"

"B-but that's how things are done in here!" Ranma recoiled, head lolling comically back and forth as she shook him.

"Damnit, Ranma!" Terra suddenly shouted. The slight blonde was staring over her shoulder, her face a rictus of concentration as she attempted to hold back the emotional storm and bitch out the pigtailed martial artist at the same time. "Just tell her to look at her left hand, already! _Sheesh_, newbie!"

Ranma offered Terra a notably rude gesture in response, but Raven didn't wait for him to speak again. Immediately she lifted her left hand, wondering just what it was she was supposed to see. Suddenly, realization struck her like a Hibiki's umbrella. Without even needing to think about it, two concentric rings appeared over her left hand. Single rings then floated out from between the two black ones in a variety of colors.

The composite control imprint!

She had completely forgotten she'd even been given the damned thing! It had been so long ago, back when she had first been brought in by Ryouga and the rest of India. It had been Captain Ben-Solomon himself that had made the imprint, for exactly this kind of situation. Raven nearly laughed aloud; she remembered when she had first received it. She had dismissed its usefulness completely, never imagining she could possibly need -

"For the love of Trigon, just use the goddamn thing already!" Robin's irate roar caused everyone present to flinch.

Shaking off the shock quickly, Raven nodded fiercely to herself. Studying the imprint for a moment, she noted that the rainbow bands disappointingly failed to match her partitions in any portentous manner. In fact, there was no way to tell if it was even functional anymore. Not like there was a choice.

She activated it.

This time it was Raven's scream that cut through the air. Lances of pain shot up her arm and spread out through every inch of her body, as if her blood had just been transformed into liquid agony. All around her, her partitions collapsed and vanished into nothing, only to be followed an instant later by the emotional storm. In the blink of an eye, the black winds were gone, her entire mindscape as quiet as the grave, save for her own pained howl.

A seeming eternity later, as she lay panting on the ground, her back arched painfully off the ground… the pain finally and abruptly stopped. Slumping bonelessly to the ground, she greedily swallowed several desperate (and wholly unnecessary in this metaphysical existence) lungfuls of air. That… had not been _at all_ as advertised, though, to her chagrin, no one had ever actually explained to her how the imprint would actually work.

"Whooha! That sure looked painful! I say you give old Pork Butt a good kick to the face for that when we get back to the ship."

Instantly, Raven's eyes swiveled about in their sockets, arrowing in on the Black Cloaked Ranma where he knelt beside her. Taking a moment to recover more from the unexpected shock, she finally gained enough control to mutter:

"What are you still doing here?"

Ranma shrugged. "Meh, like I said, some questions are easier to answer than others. Why don't ya ask me again when the world isn't ending or something? I mean, if we see each other again, anyway."

Gingerly sitting up, Raven ran her hands down her legs, trying to rub away some of the tingling still running through her extremities. "What do you mean by that?"

"Heh, just like I said," he replied, unflappably infuriating. "You don't have time to sit around chatting with me. Get your butt in gear already and get to wakin' up. Things are so very much not what they seem at the moment, and Yankee needs to get the hell out of Dodge, and fast."

Not waiting for a reply, Ranma reached over and dragged her to her feet. He then prepared to give her a metaphysical shove back into consciousness -

"Raven, wait!"

A new voice drew both of their attentions and Raven and Ranma spun to see who had spoken. The sight of Kasumi, wearing a flowing white cloak was easily the last person whom Raven had been expecting to see at that moment. For several seconds, the Black Cloaked Ranma stared uneasily as White Cloaked Kasumi, but was unable to maintain his stare with her four burning eyes. A second later, he faded away to nothingness right before Raven's eyes.

Giving her head a quick shake, she turned back to Kasumi.

"W-what is it? Ranma seemed to be insinuating that there was something important happening, and that I needed to get back as quickly as possible."

The eldest Tendo sister nodded quickly, even as she strode forward to wrap a gentle hand around Raven's elbow. Without even slowing, the taller woman began to pull the dark Titan away from the center of the platform. "He is not incorrect about that. However, there is something else you need to know before you leave. It is, of course, something that you already know, that you have always known, but it's crucial that I remind you before you wake."

Raven could not recall ever seeing Kasumi, in any incarnation, looking so anxious about anything, and it made the gravity of the situation seem just that more pressing to have even a dream Kasumi speaking to intently about anything.

"Though Trigon brought you here to corrupt you… and very nearly succeeded," Kasumi continued, ignoring the shamed expression that bloomed on Raven's face. "He is far too overconfident. He does not realize that he has made a crucial mistake in bringing you back to Azarath like this."

"A mistake?" Raven echoed, not quiet believing what she was hearing. She was only vaguely aware of the scenery changing around her as Kasumi continued to pull her through her mindscape. The cloaked Titan was far too confused by the concept of her father, of Trigon, making any form of error. Was he not omnipotent and omniscient?

"Yes, a mistake," Kasumi confirmed. "And you cannot - _cannot_ - allow yourself to leave Azarath before you capitalize on it."

"What do you mean?" Raven asked, a little wary of staying anywhere her father could exert so much influence. "What do I need to do?"

Finally, the Tendo sister stopped pulling Raven around. Only at that moment did Raven finally realize where she was. Her mouth formed a tiny 'o' in a mixture of recognition and awe. She had only been in this place once, for a very solemn event. Secretly, she had hoped to never return.

"Good. You remember where you are." Kasumi smiled, looking relieved. "That's good, because before you leave, you must make your way here."

"There is something you must collect if you are ever to leave this place."

* * *

Ryouga's hands were less than an inch away from Raven's shoulder. It had taken all of his strength, battling her aura just to reach this far. Several panels of his armor had been shorn clean off by a few errant blasts of telekinesis, but he hadn't allowed that to stop him from reaching his friend. Just a little… bit… more -

The telekinetic storm vanished in the blink of an eye. Even more rapidly than it appeared, the maelstrom of destruction was gone, and without the impossible force to fight against, Ryouga found himself launched through the air, soaring over Raven's shoulder completely. The change had been so sudden that he didn't even have time to realize what had happened before he plowed into a pile of rubble nearly ten feet behind the cloaked Titan and dig himself a respectable trench before skidding to a stop.

Understandably confused, he allowed himself to lie in his personalized crater for several seconds so as to come to grips with the new reality of the situation. Taking those precious seconds to also stamp down his irritation and humiliation at his pratfall, he finally sat up and turned to look at the collapsed Raven, and only a few yards away from her, the collapsed Jinx. For a moment, indecision wracked him as he struggled over whose side to rush to.

Thankfully, the decision was made for him as Starfire zipped forward in a flash of scarlet and steel to kneel at Raven's side. The Tamaranian gently lifted the cloaked Titan's head up onto her lap and began to check her condition. Satisfied that the violet haired girl was in good hands, Ryouga didn't was another second and sprinted to Jinx's side, skidding to a stop mere inches away from her. Reaching down, he ever so gently lifted the girl up into his arms.

"_Jinx_," he whispered desperately. "Jinx, are you alright?"

There was no response, but leaning forward, he could clearly feel the warmth of her breath on his cheek. At that, he let out a monumental sigh of relief. She was bloody and beaten, but she was alive, and at the moment that was the most wonderful news he could ever possibly receive. Hugging her tightly to his chest, he struggled to fight back the tears that were threatening to spill out from his eyes.

"Yo, Ryo! What do we do?"

Sniffing loudly, trying to eliminate the remnants of the looming tears, Ryouga turned back and stared blankly at Cyborg for a moment. What _did_ they do? This whole thing had been an unmitigated disaster. If ever there was proof that he wasn't fit to lead a camp troop, this was it. Why the hell was the more experienced teen even looking to him for guidance?

Still, as he thought about it, the answer was pretty damn obvious.

"We get back to the ship, ASAP," he answered, determination setting back in. "And we need to find out why the hell we haven't gotten any contacts from Nabiki for the past twenty minutes or so. I know we're morons, but why hasn't anyone else been filling us in on what they've been doing?"

Cyborg nodded quickly, lifting his arm and bringing up the small display screen. He began to type away immediately.

Ryouga then turned to Starfire. "If Raven is well enough to move, pick her up. We need to get out of here now."

"Of course, Sergeant," the Tamaranian replied. "We will be ready to vacate immediately-"

"No…"

"Huh?" Everyone present turned to regard Raven, amazed that the girl was even awake after that display, let alone able to speak. It quickly grew from amazement into utter shock, as the dark Titan weakly pushed herself up and to her feet. Though shakily, Raven stood under her own power and leveled a serious look Ryouga's way.

"What do you mean?" Ryouga asked suspiciously. Was she reverting already? Would she try to fight them again? The prospect nearly made him want to collapse to the floor himself.

"We can't leave yet," she explained. He couldn't read her expression well, as the young woman's violet eyes were fixated down on her booted feet. "I - I know you have no reason to trust me, but - but there is still something we need to do before we leave, something we need to retrieve."

"Ummm, are you nuts?" Cyborg asked, incredulous. "We went through all this crap just to get you outta here, and now you wanna take us deeper into this ghost town? No offense, Rae, but I think you might want to wait for a head scan before you go making any suggestions for our sight seeing."

The cloaked Titan shot a quick glance at the cybernetic teen, shame coloring her face even further. She gave a shallow nod, but soldiered on, regardless. "Ryouga, please, you have to believe me. There is no excuse for what I've done, but I promise that this is important. If I - if we don't do this, I doubt we'll ever be able to leave this place… at least, not on our own terms."

The sergeant scrutinized Raven's face intently for several long seconds. He had come to know that face very well over the past months, every gentle contour, those fathomless violet eyes. Though she was as mysterious as the ocean itself at times, and he was as clueless as they came, at the moment, he felt he could read her like a wide open book. If it were anyone else in his position, they would have shot her down, hell, if it had been his counterpart, they probably would have just shot her dead, but …

"What do you need to do?"

Raven's shocked gasp as she looked up to stare at him, amazement in her eyes, was echoed by Cyborg's and even Starfire's disbelieving barks. Ignoring both of the latter, he matched Raven's gaze with deadly seriousness.

"We need to recover a pair of artifacts, the most powerful artifacts in all of Azarath. However, they are stored within the Tomb of Azar, buried deep beneath the very Temple in which we stand. I - once it is discovered what we are attempting to do, though, I doubt our journey will be an easy one."

"Ryo, dude." Cyborg turned to his NCO in the squad. "I know this is Raven, who we all love and respect, but you _cannot _be serious about this! We can't go ahead like this. Jinx is hurt and we need to get her back to the ship. Hell, we need to find out what's going on outside this damn temple. I just checked and we aren't getting any signals at all. I can't even call Nabiki for an update, let alone receive anything."

Ryouga frowned grimly, but finally nodded. "You're right. We have to get Jinx back to the ship. But, I believe Raven as well. If there is anything here that might help us, we damn well need to find it. There's no way that I'm going to let this clusterfuck be for absolutely nothing."

"But , friend Ryouga, we cannot do both at once," Starfire stated uneasily.

"Yes, we can," Ryouga countered matter-of-factly. "And we will."

For a moment, indecision wracked him. He looked down at the girl in his arms, then to the three Titans standing before him. What did they do? What did he do? Damnit, why couldn't someone else make this decision for him? He already knew his decision, as boneheaded as it was. He only hoped the Commander didn't fillet him alive for it later.

"Alright, Raven has been recovered, so the situation isn't critical anymore," Ryouga stated carefully. "The interference issue is troublesome, so it's best to proceed with caution. I'm going to take Jinx back to the ship, I want you three to head to the Tomb and collect whatever you think can help us."

"Is that wise?" came Starfire's entirely too valid concern.

Nodding quickly, Ryouga turned to Cyborg. "Cy, point me a dead straight line to the ship. I'll stick to the rooftops and not turn at all. As soon as I'm out of the tower, I'll try to contact everyone else, as well."

"Dude, I'm not sure that's a good-"

"That wasn't a suggestion!" Ryouga winced instantly at the tone in his own voice, but refused to back down. It pained him to bark at his friends, but as stupid as it was, it was the only thing he could do at the moment.

Cyborg regarded him silently for a moment, to the side, Starfire and Raven shifted uncomfortably, but said nothing. Eventually, his face growing cold, Cyborg nodded. A few keystrokes to the display on his arm, and the cybernetic teen swung a bulky arm up and to the side, aiming at one of the massive holes that Raven and Jinx had punched through the outer walls.

"Fine, Sergeant, just go straight once you get out there and that'll get you there eventually."

It took all Ryouga had not to apologize right then and there, instead he forced himself to nod. "Alright, once I've contacted the other squads, I'll send backup. I'll do my best to meet up with you after I've gotten Jinx back to the ship safely."

Not waiting for a response, nor really wanting to hear what his friends might say to, or about him at that moment, he swiftly began to leap up and made his way to the gaping hole in question. Five jumps later, he was standing in the hole, more of a chasm really, being over twenty feet deep. The city stretched out before him, though for some reason the skies were black. At any other time, the incongruity would have thrown him, not even mentioning where the light was coming from that allowed them to see, but at that moment, he pushed all those concerns away for later considerations.

Sparing one last glance back at his friends down below, he let out a pained sigh. Then he leapt out into the city.

* * *

Raven frowned weakly, noting the strained expressions on the face of her friends. Though Ryouga had trusted her implicitly, far more than he should have, really, Cyborg and Starfire were obviously still questioning his judgment and her veracity. It nearly physically pained her to see her friends looking at her in such a way, but she could not blame them in the slightest, not after what she had done.

If only she could say something to assuage their fears.

But what could she _possibly_ say to regain their trust?

"Tsk tsk, a poor commander, that one. Leading with his heart like that is only going to get him in trouble."

Raven froze stiff at the sound of that voice. She - she had completely forgotten about him! Ryouga was out there and had no idea what kind of danger was lurking! As one, all three Titans spun, eyes widening in various degrees of horror as they stared at the speaker, perched carelessly on one of the longer sections of undestroyed benches above the shattered dais.

"It is not _possible_!"

"_SLADE_!"

Sarcastically, the masked villain - looking even less injured than last Raven had seen him - clapped his hands together slowly. Looking down on them with his one good eye, the fallen criminal mastermind chuckled in amusement.

"Oh, good. You both remember me! I must say, it's _good_ to see the both of you, too." He then turned his attention to Raven. "You, on the other hand, have proven to be a great disappointment. You were offered something astounding, and _this_ is how you respond? One would think that you didn't want to go home at all, little lady."

"We don't _need_ the kind of help you offer," Raven bit off angrily. "We can escape without your help."

To Raven's sides, Starfire and Cyborg alternated between gaping at Slade and gawking at her. Obviously the fact that Raven was not surprised at Slade's appearance, and was having a discussion with him concerning some mysterious offer of aid was quite disconcerting.

"Oh, yes. No doubt you are referring to the Rings of Azar," Slade drawled lazily.

A shocked gasp escaped Raven's lips. How could he have possibly figured it out so quickly? Still - still, it changed nothing. Putting on the bravest front she could, she nodded with determination. "Yes, that is exactly it. And there is nothing that you can do to stop us."

"Stop you? Why, I wouldn't dream of it," Slade replied in a mockingly genial tone. Rising to his feet, he dusted off his pants in a careless manner. "However, there's nothing that says I can't make things a bit more… challenging for you. After all, there are so many people here who have just been _dying _to finally get a chance to meet you and all of your friends."

"But - but there are no other entities in this dimension," Starfire stated nervously. "To what 'people' are you referring?"

For a reason that Raven could not even fathom, the headache which had been silently festering at the back of her mind for the entirety of her stay in Azarath returned in full force, only to be accompanied by a stabbing pain in her gut, a feeling of sickness that nearly made her retch. It was all she could do not to collapse back to her knees as she felt the entire world begin to twist around her.

"Yes, that's right, Raven, _drink it in_," Slade offered up, the mirth all but dripping from his voice. Lifting his arms in a grand gesture, his eye glinted with vindictive mischief as he stared down at her. "This façade has long since served its purpose. After all, they do say that the _truth shall set you free_."

And then, on the masked villains order, the world shattered. Raven only managed one quick look at the reality which was revealed, but that was all she needed. This time, nothing stopped her from emptying her stomach on the ground. Laughing madly above them, Slade reveled in the world he had just unleashed on the unprepared Titans.

Azarath, the _true_ Azarath, torn from darkest nightmare and made manifest.

"Welcome home_, _Baby Girl."

##

BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS

TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED

SUBJECT: 9795

CODENAME: *Unknown*

REAL NAME: Ranma Saotome

SPECIES: Human  
HEIGHT: 5'7"  
WEIGHT: 170lbs

HAIR COLOR: Black  
EYE COLOR: Blue

KNOWN ABILITIES: Subject is a highly skilled martial artist, conservative estimates rate him at a Class 17 martial artist, though super human abilities make this classification difficult to assess. The subject's abilities and raw talent have been analyzed from the recording of subject 9795's public battle with Subject: 10001: Codename: Brushogun within the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Japan. Visual evidence indicates that the subject possesses super human speed, reflexes, strength and endurance. The full limits of the subject's strength are unknown, as his style of combat seems oriented upon utilizing his superior speed and reflexes to outmanoeuvre enemies, rather than rely on a more direct form of attack. The subject has also demonstrated several 'esoteric' abilities, described to be 'ki-based' in nature, though such demonstrations of raw ki are without precedence in any recorded cases. Already superhumanly fast, the subject has shown the ability to strike with his fists at speeds close to, or exceeding supersonic. The subject has also demonstrated an ability to discharge energy bursts, termed 'ki blasts' by resident experts. According to sources, the name of the subjects attack is the 'Mouko Takabisha', or 'Pride of the Fierce Tiger', or perhaps 'Fierce Tiger Domineering' based upon the translation. Most fascinating of all is the 'Hiryu Shoten Ha', or 'Flying Dragon Ascends to the Heavens Blow', or 'Wave'; again, translation is debatable with only audio files to work from. Through currently unknown mechanisms, the subject was able to generate a massive tornado by simply circling around an opponent several times. Considering the destruction caused by this attack, the absolute power level of the subject is still unknown, but this display (strangely inconsistent with any other showings) is cause for concern.

The subject has also demonstrated highly tactical thinking patterns, as well as an extremely adaptive and lateral thinking mind. Reports have stated that he has, on at least one occasion, spontaneously created new attacks which worked in combination with those of his team mates, one such attack used to destroy one of Subject: 10001's minions.

EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: Subject is afflicted with a condition termed 'Jusenkyou Curse'. According to reports, if the Subject comes into contact with 'cold' water, his body will transform to that of a female of the same age. Despite this affliction, visual showings by the subject show that this transformation does not create a sufficient weakness to exploit, unlike other Jusenkyou curse victims.

The subject does show strong attachment to one Subject:9790 Realname: Akane Tendo. As evidenced with his battle with Subject: 10001: Codename: Brushogun, the subject will take extreme risks if her safety is at stake. Highest probability for incapacitation of subject should involve the capture of Subject:9790 and taking advantage of his emotional weakness.

KNOWN HISTORY: Ranma Saotome has a long, and somewhat sordid history of petty thefts, assault charges, rampant property destruction and other such criminal files trailing back throughout his life and creating a rather interesting path throughout most of Japan and portions of China as well. Though most of these records are unsubstantiated, or attributed to his father, none of them have actually resulted in an arrest. Asides from this string of criminal records, there is very little information on Ranma Saotome's personal life, asides from the 'local legends' which have sprung up in the Nerima ward of Tokyo since the subject took up residence there, at one: Tendo Dojo.

These rumours, most of which have been confirmed by testimonial from Subjects: 9783:Weapon Master, 9784:Blue Thunder, 9785: Nujiézú, 9786:Ukyou, indicate that the subject was deeply involved with a convoluted array of 'arranged marriages' and 'heated rivalries'.

The most current, and accurate records of Ranma Saotome begin with his association with a member of the Tokyo police force, one Lieutenant Uehara Daizo. Occurring shortly after the first incident involving Subject:10001, Ranma made his presence known by joining forces with Lieutenant Daizo to drive off one of Brushogun's minions, incidentally saving a number of injured police officers. Quickly following this event, Saotome became a close confidant of the Lieutenant, and the pair cooperated to defeat several more of Brushogun's minions.

Soon after, Saotome began attracting allies of his own. Subject:9791 Realname: Ryu Kumon, Subject:9792 Realname: Natsumi Tendo, Subject:9793 Realname: Kurumi Tendo, Subject:7544 Codename: Lightning and Subject:7545 Codename: Thunder. Saotome and his new team mates went on to defeat Brushogun and gain worldwide recognition for their efforts. Currently, Saotome and all of his team mates are founding members of the new 'Super-Normal Defence Force', with Lieutenant Daizo as Commander of the task force.

CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: C

PERSONAL NOTE_: This young man is definitely one to keep an eye on. Even beyond his obvious martial prowess, his esoteric abilities, and his utter inability to give up, no matter the odds, there is something 'special' about Ranma Saotome. It's almost like he lives at the eye of a hurricane, or perhaps a blackhole would be a more apt metaphor, as he seems to have an uncanny knack for drawing things to him. Enemies, allies (sometimes both are the same, if the stories are to be believed), strange events and whatever else one can imagine._

_I know a few other people that share this 'talent', a certain Kryptonian for one, but Clark has never had much talent for 'converting' his enemies into staunch comrades. Whoever this Ranma is, he seems to be able to bring out the worst in people, and the best, often at the same time. One just has to look at his battle with Brushogun to see what I mean. Even one of Brushogun's own minions, one of his __**creations**__ actually defected to join Ranma's side. I think, with a more years of experience under his belt, this Ranma Saotome could become a truly formidable leader, as well as a monstrously powerful warrior._

_I hope that, someday, Robin and Ranma will be comrades as well. I can only smile, imagining what the two of those could create if they combined their talents._

_The Justice League can only watch so much of the world, after all._

##


	30. Homebound 5

**A/N**

Notes (hm. no notes this time?)

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Homebound_

Chapter 29

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Konatsu was glad to perceive, through Pathfinder's systems, both that Ranma had returned to the ship, and that he had done so with Shampoo alive and intact. It was all he could do to wait, running the systems of the ship a step above autopilot, for the moment when he could be relieved. He was a warm wet brain for the nav interface to work with, but it was really all he could do to keep Pathfinder in place, much less make any precise movement or targeting. He may as well have had 'placeholder' tattooed on his forehead, and he knew it.

Ranma soon reintegrated into the ship, and not soon enough for the male kunoichi's comfort. It was a discomfort to use the interface with his limited level of training and experience, and that fact was made worse by the modifications the lieutenant had been working on before he left to help Shampoo. On top of that, Konatsu also wasn't terribly happy that he had been ordered to hold the ship steady instead of head out to retrieve their teammate himself. He was more than capable – he was Juliet's second in command - but Ranma had insisted he go and not bothered to explain why.

_'Everything is as you left it, Saotome-taichou.'_

_'Good job, Konatsu.' _Ranma's tone was calm, professional, and that attitude spread to those under his command. Konatsu put aside his earlier concerns and waited for his next orders... and if those involved disconnecting from the alien derived technology that controlled the ship, then all the better.

_'Sir.'_

_'Go ahead and disconnect. Then help Ukyou and Shampoo. We're in a bit of trouble and I want them on their feet and able to fight in ten.'_

_'Yes, sir.'_

Released from the nav interface, Konatsu took what felt like his first breath in a half hour. It had been only a fraction of that time, of course, but everything felt... different, accelerated, twisted, inside the mind-machine interface. Eyes blinked, and soon the inside of the ship became clear again. Seated opposite, Ranma was back in control of the ship, his fists clenched despite the interface's normally paralytic grip.

"Konatsu?"

It had been Nabiki asking the question, as his ears remembered how to hear. The Tendo sister was at her own station, trying desperately to fix what was wrong with inter-team communications. Sometimes they got through, but other times there was simply no response. Hardware and software checks all came back green. The problems had to be with the people using the machines, but the psionic warning devices were curiously silent.

"You alright?" she asked, turning slightly to watch him.

"I am. Thank you." He bowed politely and excused himself. "Please continue your work. I will return with Miss Ukyou and Shampoo."

Collecting himself as he headed back to the adjacent room, he soon saw Juliet squad's (in)famous pair and reflexively clenched his teeth at how badly they'd been manhandled. Ukyou was the better off of the two, having withdrawn from the fight early. At the time, Konatsu had been the one to help her inside, and he had treated and wrapped her leg after pulling out the still-hot metal that had become buried in her upper thigh. She'd gotten back in her lower body armor while he'd been holding the ship steady, damaged though it was.

Shampoo, moments removed from the fight, looked far worse. Propped up against a metal crate secured to the floor with straps, she had a bloody cord between her teeth. Ukyou was still disinfecting her hand with a spray from one of the medkits, and between that sensation and the other injuries across her body, the Amazon did _not_ look to be in a good place. Finally spitting out the bundled length of Teflon coated polymer, Shampoo hissed aloud and waved her teammate away.

"Don't be stupid!" Ukyou growled back, but didn't get closer to the wounded woman. "You need some topical painkillers!"

"No! Not before fight is over!" Shampoo snarled, and pointed at Konatsu with her right hand. Gods, but it was a bloody mess. "Girly boy! Sergeant, I mean. Please get knife and skin-pad things. And lots of gauze." She then pointed a bloody finger to Ukyou. "You go help Ranma."

"You're such a stubborn jackass of a mule!" Ukyou yelled, but gently put the medical kit down on the ground. Getting up, she tossed her hair angrily. "You better not lose that hand."

"This is my favorite hand," the Amazon insisted. "Girly boy is better than you at this anyway."

Ukyou frowned - Konatsu being the most skilled of them with the medkit was true at least - but nodded and hurried past him. She paused only to give his arm a quick squeeze, a split second gesture that encompassed all of 'take care of this jackass' and 'make sure you aren't next.' Even before Ukyou disappeared into the main room with Nabiki and Ranma, he saw Shampoo's disposition change slightly, no longer burdened by the presence of the Amazon's rival or her beloved commanding officer.

"I saw what happened," Konatsu said, kneeling down next to the ATRISK between them. He took Shampoo's wrist without her fighting it, and handed over a small cutting knife. He could see, right off the bat, that some of the material that made up the body glove had ablated right onto the skin, despite Shampoo having taken her actual glove off to use the 'Remote Control Acupressure' technique.

Cutting off some of the larger strips around the wrist, along with pricking some of the blistering areas (he'd told her not to, but she was of one mind about it - as an obstacle to getting right back into the fight), they then used a medical adhesive to deal with the bleeding and apply a topic cooling effect. Shampoo's near ruined hand still winced and flinched from the occasional contact, though her face betrayed none of the pain she felt.

"After this," she said, eyes looking up. "Help with broken rib. I can fight again after that."

"There's no way Saotome-taichou will -"

"He may not have a choice," she cut him off. "Undead man still out there. _Friends_ still out there." Her eyes narrowed as she glared up at the ceiling. "This fight isn't over yet."

Konatsu sighed - why were these girls so... un-ladylike?

"Since Miss Ukyou isn't around, I'm assuming you'll have that painkiller now?" he asked, and saw the Amazon silently nod.

It didn't take long to finish up to the point where she could dress it herself with her good left hand. Wrapping a dry sanitary tape around her hand in a few quick loops, then tightening it, fastening it under a loose loop, and then repeating the process, she dressed her scarred hand quickly and efficiently with the grace and ease of an origami folding master.

Konatsu then unlocked part of her armor at the seals and hiked it up in one piece to get access to where her rib had broken, beneath the surface. This was technically only a minor injury, but as anyone who had had one knew, it was incredibly painful. Every breath was a labor. As an internal injury, it was also difficult to administer a localized tailored anesthetic.

The concussion she may or may not still have was frankly more worrisome.

"You know," he felt the need to remind her. "Some wounds require more than just a band-aid to fix..."

"We have three thousand years old Amazon saying," Shampoo replied, unperturbed, "Wounded pride heal more slowly than wounded body."

"I'm sure pride is a comfort to people who die from infection," he countered and did what he could to inject a localized numbing agent. It was doubtful how it would hold up if the bloodthirsty Amazon warrior did go tossing herself right back into the fray.

Tightening and tying off one last strip of cloth, Shampoo ripped it away from the roll with her teeth. Not even waiting a few more seconds, she made a fist and shrugged off of the crate to get back on her feet. A black glove followed, covering up the mummified looking hand; it then reached for the grip of her NGP sidearm, flinching slightly at the contact. A moment later, he took the weapon off the crate and quickly holstered it.

"Ready for duty, Sergeant," Shampoo said, taking a deep breath and standing straight.

Konatsu shook his head in exasperation, but accepted the Amazon's determination to return to active duty. It was clear she wouldn't be the sort to sit out a fight, even if she was injured; not when Ranma was leading them, not when Ukyou was watching, and not when people's lives and pride were on the line. Still, she needed his assent.

"I guess it can't be helped," he decided, and raised his voice a bit. "Fall in."

"Yes!" She grinned, the promise of another fight perhaps helping her put aside the pain.

Together, they entered the navigation and command room. Inside, Ranma remained at his seat, plugged into the ship. Nabiki and Ukyou, however, were staring at the monitors. The latter was still in her seat, but her neck was craned up as she stared, transfixed. Ukyou was standing, but likewise completely absorbed in what she was seeing, her back to the two new arrivals. No one so much as said a word.

But the fingers of Ukyou's hand were teasing the hilt of her battle spatula, a sure sign of anxiety.

"Excuse me," Konatsu asked, polite as always. "But what's going on?"

Ranma, his back still turned to the lot of them, supplied an answer of sorts. "I... knew something was wrong, but not to this extent. Our senses are being fooled, spoofed, and normal fixes aren't doing anything. The interference just keeps on rolling, no matter _what_ I do, it's - it's like it's _mocking_ us, for god's sake. I'm not surprised you didn't notice it when you were in this chair, Konatsu, but..." Abruptly, the martial artist let out a surprised gasp. "What the hell? This is...!"

Whatever else the pigtailed Lieutenant was going to say was drowned out as a dozen alarms all throughout the Pathfinder suddenly began to blare loudly all around them. Like a snap of the fingers, red

light began to flood throughout the ship as the visual signs of proximity alerts, intruder alerts, environmental alerts and psionic interference alerts all went off at once.

"Look at this!" Nabiki yelped, staring at her console in disbelief. "All of these alarms, the timestamp on them...! They've been going on nearly from the minute we've arrived here! Every psionic alarm in every suit of armor out in the field is going strong, and according to this, I've been in communication with everyone for every single minute. Wha – what the hell is going on!"

As one, everyone in the cockpit turned to Ranma. Tied to the ship's sensors as he was, he was the most likely to have a clue. Despite his body being locked in veritable stasis as he piloted, it didn't stop the martial artist from replying to Nabiki's frantic inquiry through the ships internal systems.

"As I said, the senses of everyone on this rock are - were - being fooled. That includes you, Nabiki. This is no different than any other situation we've faced. Remain calm and don't forget your training."

If their commanding officer was half as shocked as they were, he didn't let it show. Yet he was exactly right. The number one rule of combat, and psionic combat in particular, was not to panic. Cool heads didn't always prevail, but they sure as Hell had a better chance of making it home intact. No matter how the situation turned against you, or what you saw or heard, no matter what thoughts suddenly intruded seductively in your mind, you were to remain calm, think clearly, and fall back on your training. Taking their queue from him, the tension and fear in the room remained undiminished, but also under control.

In that interlude, Shampoo bulled past Konatsu and Ukyou alike, intent to get closer to Ranma's physical form. Dropping a hand on the back of his seat, she looked at him hawkishly.

"Ranma," she said his name carefully, speaking first and foremost to her superior officer and not her would-be husband or even friend. "How bad is it?"

"In all honestly," he replied, the digital voice pausing a bit to search for words. "It wasn't looking great to start with, and this is... a lot worse. A lot worse. See for yourselves."

The tone in Ranma's voice just then, it wasn't one that Konatsu had heard him use before. As strong and confident as their leader always appeared, as he was trained to appear, no matter how bad things became, even the pigtailed martial artist could not completely hide the mix of awe and mute horror as he spoke. Apparently none of the girls, far more knowledgeable of the officer than Konatsu himself was, had either, as they all pushed past him to get a closer look at the screen.

Curious as to what could be so bizarre that it would even affect Ranma, let alone the shocked gasps it elicited from Nabiki and Ukyou, Konatsu rose up to his tip toes to see over the girls. Peering forward, he tried to make out what was on the large monitor, finally gently moving the two women aside. They shuffled to the side in silence, and Konatsu saw what Ranma meant.

He saw what was outside the ship.

"Oh."

* * *

It was almost like burning paper on a charcoal fire. The entire surface of Azarath, that was. A low base rumble had rolled in from the tallest structures as they unraveled, facades peeling away like spalling flecks of paper retreating from the flame. The beauty of Azarath returned to the fever dream it had come from; gleaming brass turning to rusted ruddy iron and majestic columned stone rotting into soot tainted, acid stained wreckage.

It was the _foulest_ of sorcery.

Kuno simply had no other way to describe it.

Before, what had been a triumphal street lined by statues, the unraveling magics revealed a boulevard redone as a charnel house. The cobblestone streets, so beautifully evocative of old world engineering and care, threw off their cloak of lies. Those same streets were lined not with intricate stones, but the crushed bones and debris of a thousand panicked masses, burned and crushed into a macabre plaza befitting the playgrounds of the damned, not the pious.

Familiar shapes that had once seemed ostentatious or grand became broken shadows of their former selves. Buildings he had felt guilty, not minutes before, for damaging in his battles, Kuno now saw revealed as only slightly more ruined abattoirs. Compared to the defilement now being laid bare, the leveling of buildings and the destruction wrought by his teammates had seemed to literally be an improvement. Surely it was better to be destroyed than corrupted by this demonic magic.

The infernal fire walls - the bane of India Squad's attempts to reach an entrance to the city's main tower or to ascend via wall jumping and climbing - now expanded and exploded, raising and releasing a far more diffuse flame cloud throughout the atrophied city of Azarath. Taking a step back, reflexively shielding himself from the fires, Kuno tried to ignore the crunch of bone his foot made in the street.

All this time: was this the true face of this world?

A whiff of the air quickly prompted him to close his visor and helmet back up. It was not simply a foul stench, but a familiar one. It was a smell he had experienced on terror sites, and in the depths of the worst human suffering. It was the smell of a Chryssalid infected zombie, bloated flesh and alien tissue roasting under the mercies of a plasma grenade. Yes. He knew what this smell was.

It was the familiar smell of blood and shit and fire.

Yet, at the same time, impossibly, his body and mind felt lighter, freer, than he remembered since coming to this vile dimension. It was as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders; one he hadn't even been able to notice until now. Had he, too, been trapped within this fictional world? Sorcery! Damned sorcery! How Tatewaki Kuno hated sorcery!

"What the fuck _is_ all this?" Ryu growled over the comm. "I mean, what the fuck!"

"India! Form up! Defensive positions!"

The swordsman immediately shifted position as Mousse landed nearby, tension evident in his armored and robed posture. Ryu and Ryouga appeared just as quickly a few seconds later, assuming a staggered square – a parallelogram - to maximize range of movement and arcs of fire while minimizing exposure to a high explosive or attack from within the formation. In the former case, they were already spread out, making it impossible to take out the whole team, and in the latter case, each could instantly turn and freely engage.

Kuno didn't like it. India wasn't a defensive team. It suited neither their training nor their inclination nor their mentality. Hopefully, it was only a temporary position.

"Nabiki!" Their acting Major barked. "I want new topographics, and I want them now."

It took a few seconds before -

"I - I just can't believe..."

"Nabiki," he repeated, firmly. "Topographic map. **Now**."

"But I...!" Another brief pause and a deep breath later, and she started to snap out of it. "Right. Right. Running mapping program. But... but how do we know it isn't another trick?"

"We don't," Ryouga replied quickly. "We've been toyed around with since we landed here, but we'll make do with what we have."

"Major!" Ryu called out just then, grinding his foot into the corpse strewn street beneath them. "I think we need to move."

Kuno kept his hand on the hilt of his sword, ready to draw. Things were picking up, and this accursed world seemed about to vomit up something new atrocity. Licks of fire were rising up from cracks in the streets and buildings around them. As one, the team tensed to jump to another, safer location.

Then the vomit metaphor proved unusually apt, as a fountain of blood and lava erupted from one of the hellish cracks, spewing up an unnatural collection of what lay below. It was a scene that repeated around the four men as irregular geysers of the sickening commixture shot out from the ground and the walls. As one, the four struck at the ground beneath them, preemptively crushing several forming fissures and knocking away dismembered human remains that, eerily, caught fire despite there being no nearby heat sources and little to burn besides bone and sinew.

"Guys," Nabiki sounded more than a little panicked. "Guys! This whole place is -"

"Save that thought a second," Ryouga replied. Kuno sucked in a breath of recycled air as he saw what was happening all around them. That disgusting mixture of bones and viscous blood and fire wasn't merely nauseating.

It was moving.

"If I'm reading this right... there's movement..." Nabiki seemed almost at a loss to put it in words, the normally unflappable woman's bird's eye view of Hell obviously having a less than motivational effect on her. "Movement all around you! All over the city! **Everywhere**!"

Ryu summarized everyone's thoughts at that moment.

"Aw. Fuck."

* * *

"Ranma," Ryouga's voice was rather calm, almost detached. "Please tell me what we're seeing isn't what we're seeing."

"Sorry, man..."

Plugged into Pathfinder as he was, the Saotome heir could offer no physical platitudes. His senses were stretched to the limit, his body momentarily left behind. He hated it, now, for different reasons than Konatsu did. He hated it because it kept him from fighting alongside his friends. He hated it for the responsibilities it forced on him. He hated it because being the best at things had, finally, come back and bit him in the ass.

"I told ya things were messed up out there."

"Ranma. This is a little bit more than messed up."

"Yes, well, I've been looking into that," he offered, for what that was worth. "But I wasn't sure at the time that what I was seeing was -"

"Do. You. Have. A. Way. To. Fix. This?"

"I'd recommend fire."

"That's a real laugh, Saotome. Do you have any good news at all?"

"Actually I do."

He explained it in ways even his pigheaded rival and mission specific CO could understand. Ranma didn't have to overhear the signs and sounds of fighting on the other end to know things were going south. India weren't the only ones to step out of the frying pan and into the fire. It appeared Yankee was between a rock and a Hibiki's head at the moment, contact being reestablished just too late for it to make much of a difference. Whatever was in that central city tower, it was the heart of this whole nightmare, and the source of all this mess.

Not for the first time, Ranma's thoughts strayed back to his own team, and what to do with them. Ukyou and Shampoo. It had hurt like a kick to the balls to let them, to basically order them by omission, to stay outside the ship. It was because of that, because of him, because of order and protocol, that they had been hurt.

Seeing Shampoo's hand like that, and before that, the shrapnel pulled out of Ukyou's leg, every fiber of his being had wanted to throw caution and investigation to the wind and fight. It wasn't because they were his fiancés - ex-fiancé in one case - and it just wasn't because they were women. Honestly, that was a factor, but it wasn't the end of it. It was because they were his subordinates and his friends. Captain Banks had always warned about that. Sometimes teammates died, and as an officer, those lives were in your hands. It was a horrible burden to not only lose someone precious, but to know it happened because of you. Because of your orders.

It churned his stomach to even think about what could have happened.

Yet he also knew he couldn't keep either girl out of danger. Even Akane, who he had spent two years protecting on and off from some threat or another was now throwing herself in danger without him even being in the same god damned dimension. He couldn't protect Ukyou or Shampoo. All he could do was try and lead them and not let them down. All he could do was make every injury they suffered worthwhile.

"I see," Ryouga replied, clearly between breaths.

"Well, acting Major?" Ranma inquired. It was, after all, ultimately Ryouga's call. Command had vested its trust in him, for good or for bad. "What do you want to do?"

The mission commander didn't respond immediately.

"Ryouga," Nabiki, listening in all this time, finally spoke up again. "You don't -"

"Even if things go to Hell," he said then, interrupting her. "You never leave men behind. IFF shows three Titans still inside, two heading out. We're going to clear some room near the front of the tower. Bring in Pathfinder and the Susan." A second passed, along with a grunt of exertion and a muffled crunch. "And we'll concentrate our forces and hold out for the rest of Yankee."

"Nabiki," he quickly added. "Please tell me you can patch me through to them? Because I could really use some good news right-" Another grunt, as he jumped. "Right now."

He didn't say as much, but things were looking rather grim.

* * *

The burnt out skeleton of the wall collapsed beneath Ryouga's armored boots, quickly transforming into a deadly avalanche of blackened metal and dimly glowing stone. Only years of training and inhuman reflexes allowed him to work his feet frantically enough to stay on top of the wave of smoking debris as it carried him down towards the ground – and inexorably in the direction of an ominously churning lava flow which cut directly across his path.

Dancing madly from one tumbling fragment of masonry to another, his every movement was a desperate maneuver to save not only his own life, but that of his precious cargo. That single, inescapable thought left him absolutely zero room for even the slightest hesitation or apprehension. Instead, he focused all of his attention to the matter at hand; never mind the stink of death nearly choking him, or the searing heat that threatened to boil him alive, or even the soul numbing wails which had come to fill the air, there was only one thing that mattered at the moment.

He kicked off a small section of the collapsing building, a meager five foot slab of the formerly thirty story structure, and launched himself through the sulphurous air and directly at an even larger section, what appeared to be an entire balcony shorn off from one of the top stories and now hurtling down towards him at terminal velocity. Sparks shot out wildly as his feet dug into the slowly tumbling terrace, and moving his legs quickly, Ryouga sprinted up its side until he was riding on top of it, and was finally surfing atop the crest of the wave of destruction.

His body shifted of its own accord, maintaining his balance without any conscious thought at all as he rode the oversized piece of debris down. Then, less than a handful of seconds later, more or less as he'd figured, the ruined balcony, riding on top of several dozen metric tons of detritus, slammed into the molten river. Ryouga unslung his umbrella hastily, hissing to himself as he was forced to shift Jinx's insensate form to carry her with only one arm, and unfurled the indestructible alloy canopy just in time to deflect several gouts of plasticized igneous stone before it could burn the flesh from his bones.

A second later, he was charging forward again, and then airborne. Even as the shorn off balcony began to tip over, sinking slowly into the wide river of flowing lava, he soared through the air, clearing the boiling death trap by a mere thirty feet. Even after landing, he still didn't have a chance to relax, as the intense heat of the lava flow still threatened to suffocate him at that meager distance. Digging his feet in again, he broke into a full sprint.

He didn't stop sprinting until he could finally feel his armor begin to cool down to more manageable levels. Then, and only then, did he let out a sigh of relief. Giving his umbrella a quick shake to knock off a few chunks of quickly cooling volcanic rock, he re-sheathed it and used his now free arm to reposition Jinx to a more comfortable position. Not even the horrific smells that assaulted him could strip the smile from his face as he gazed at her pale face at that moment.

At that, thought, though, he briefly considered putting his helmet on, finally, if only to block out the stench. A moment later, though, he shrugged and slipped the helmet over Jinx's head instead. Sure, it was too large for her, and wouldn't seal with her suit, but at least he wouldn't have to worry about any random piece of debris catching her now. It wasn't like he hadn't dealt with worse…

Ryouga took a moment to look around -

Okay, seriously, he had _never, ever_, dealt with worse than this. It was one thing to have your otherwise pristine, if a bit musty, world suddenly literally go to hell on you. But to have that shift happen in the midst of roof hopping and while carrying the critically injured love of your life? He honestly wondered if he'd have been able to have pulled off his miraculous save there if he hadn't had Jinx with him there to give him the focus necessary to shrug off the apocalypse unfolding before his very eyes.

His meandering thoughts were cut off as he broke out into a violent coughing/gagging fit. The stench, now mixed with building levels of volatile gasses, it really was too much. Without any alternatives, though, he undid a few bandannas and –very lightly – doused them with water. After wringing them out a bit, he then wrapped several of the clothes over his mouth and nose, like those bandits in the cowboy movies. It didn't help much, but it took enough of the edge off that he figured he'd actually be able to function.

…It was about then that he heard the movement. It wasn't loud, or even close, but something about it set his nerves on edge. Shifting quickly, he scanned his surroundings. Worryingly, nothing stood out – at least, nothing stood out as far anything could stand out from a hellish nightmarescape brought to life.

_'__No, wait!__'_

There! He'd only caught the briefest glance, but he'd definitely caught some movement.

Normally, whoever it was would have been too shadowed by the inky shadows cast by the shattered husks of the buildings, but whatever the thing had been… hunkered low to the ground and moving smoothly and quickly… it seemed to be carrying its own light source with it.

Moving carefully, Ryouga unholstered his laser rifle and rearranged his various loads so as to at least be able to take tentative aim with the weapon. As soon as he was done that, he checked his motion sensor. The IFF tracker clearly showed the location of everyone else now – that was odd, since it hadn't shown them anyone else while they'd been inside the tower – as well as the ship. Was it just him, or did the ship appear to be moving? Damn, he knew that it was a good likelihood that his near brush with the lava stream might have disoriented him, but to even see his scanner swirling around like that? Still, it was a dot, and he'd had enough practice moving towards a dot with the GPS that had been installed in his Titan communicator

Checking his back one last time, he cautiously began to move towards the largest blinking light.

"Sergeant Hibiki, are you there?" the approaching light inquired in an unmistakable voice. "This is Nabiki, can you read me?"

The silvery edge of the saucer shaped UAV emerged, rising up slightly as it navigated over the broken terrain. Having seen it quite a few times before, and even ridden the damn thing once, Ryouga recognized it immediately and lowered his weapon. Even a stray shot could cause serious damage to the vehicle, or so he had been told. It resembled an alien Cyberdisc, but it was unarmed and drastically underarmored compared to that alien terror weapon. It was no HWP.

"Nabiki?" he asked, emerging from behind cover.

"There you are!" The voice came from the seamless surface of the UAV as it rotated a featureless face towards the lost one. "And you have Jinx. Good. Follow me."

Ryouga nodded, not knowing if the gesture was actually meaningful in anyway to the alien looking craft. Looking around quickly, he noted several more of the bestial shapes pacing around them, staying not quite out of sight as gutteral glows followed each one wherever they went. Taking a quick step, he ducked around the low piece of rubble and moved closer to the disc.

"Nabiki, you need to get me to the ship as fast as possible, Jinx is hurt." Another glance over his shoulder. "And be careful, we're not alone out here."

"This entire city is crawling with... with things. We have a new LZ and extraction point set up on the south end of the tower. God, not like there is a 'south' here." She quickly took the UAV higher to float just above Ryouga, almost like she wanted to peer down at Jinx to see how she was faring. "Do you think you could grab one of the Susan's straps like before? Even while holding Jinx?"

Ryouga nodded. "If it meant getting her back quicker, I'd hold on with my damned teeth."

Not 'quite' that desperate, though, he carefully shifted Jinx so he was cradling her with one arm again and, regretfully, was forced to holster his rifle. Reaching up, he then grabbed the nearest available strap and tightened his grip until the armored glove he wore began to groan in protest.

"I won't be able to fire like this, Nabiki, so make it quick."

"Hold on."_ Like she even needed to remind him._ "I'll have you there ASAP."

The Roaming Susan leveled off with the new weight, and started gently by raising the young man and injured girl off the former's feet. They were flanked by high building walls, and the only way was straight up. It was an easy maneuver for the UAV to shoot a thousand feet up into the air, but the G forces would not be pleasant for Ryouga, and perhaps fatal for his injured comrade. This part needed to be done delicately. Both their lives were in Nabiki's hands, literally.

It was during that time frame that the source of the guttural growls from before became clear. It could well have been mistaken for a dog, at a distance, though admittedly a very large one. At the current distances between predator and prey, that comparison held little water. It looked like a pitch black _shishi_, or Chinese 'guardian lion' statue, but melting rivulets of thick red sap down its haunches and muscled body. Like everything in this damned dimension, it also seemed to be on fire, and rather enjoying it to boot.

A hideous face leered up at the ascending UAV and its two passengers, a yellow toothed maw parting hungrily. As it did, spaces in the stonework mane about the neck creaked open, revealing two twisted human faces, eyes and mouths wide. Behind this first creature, more quickly appeared from around a corner, and in the shadows of an open door.

"Nabiki... _Now_ would be good."

Three of the creatures tensed, as if to jump or pounce.

"Just a ... there!" The world blurred, driving home why this was not considered a practical mode of transportation. The UAV, like all UFOs, moved by shooting from one point to another at high speed, negating the insane G forces this exerted within their gravity bubble. Ryouga's arm strained as his whole body, and Jinx's, threatened to shoot off in the direction it had been abruptly accelerated and then decelerated.

His grip on both the Susan and Jinx held, however, and as he looked down he could see they were perhaps two hundred feet above street level. Pacing in angry circles down below, the demonic mastiffs were either glaring upwards, or in the case of three of them, getting back up from having jumped at their prey and missed. Ryouga allowed a quick breath to pass between his teeth. At least they were out of jumping range for those things.

It was about then that the first ones began to spit.

Small, messy balls of red caustic slime, trailing smoke and fire, shot up from street level. The first several wads of gunk flew far wide of the UAV, and by proxy, of Ryouga and Jinx as well, but with each successive burst, and with each creature added into he mix, it became clear that it was only a matter of time before they were slathered in liquid death.

"Nabiki, I really don't want to rush you, considering that Susan Surfing is kind of becoming our new thing, but we need to go, n-nnnn-"

He was cut off mid sentence as one of the streaks of burning acid missed him by less than an inch. The caustic dart just clipped the edge of the UAV, and to Ryouga's shock, he could actually see the alien metal, thin as it was, begin to corrode before his eyes.

A second later, another salvo of acidic bursts were sent their way. Unfortunately, there was only one thing that Ryouga could think to do to prevent Jinx and their ride home from being dissolved right out from beneath his nose. Legs flashing out frantically, he rapidly snapped his feet out to intercept two of the acid streams that actually looked like they would hit the UAV, praying that the armor of his boots would survive long enough to get them back to the ship. Even as he watched, wide eyed, as wafts of smoke began to rise up from his quickly blackening feet, he barked out:

"Nabiki!"

Rather than respond, the Roaming Susan accelerated along its calculated flightpath, shooting in a wide arc to try and dampen the sudden, brutal G force loads on its riders. There was no sudden stop this time, as it spiraled lazily around several hundred feet above the burning city. This high up, and at a basically constant speed, Ryouga could see Azarath in all it's splendor. Needless to say, it wasn't the sort of sight that would grace many postcards or tourist ads.

He also saw Pathfinder, and as Nabiki had described before, it was at one of the sides to the central tower. It also seemed to have cleared the area around it, or India Squad had. Cleared, in this case, meaning nearly everything within a football field's length was leveled or in the process of being completely demolished. The ship seemed to be hovering just off the ground, and Ryouga could see several partial fire walls burning throughout the city nearby.

Across the blasted land that separated the ship from the ruined and defiled towers and venues of Azarath, explosions and streaks of manmade fire crisscrossed arcing volleys of infernal flame, and the occasional fiery form charging into melee against a hailstorm of crossfire. The ground had been broken up further by the breaking point, creating depressions to funnel avenues of approach. Beyond that, however, more and more ominous fissures were beginning to form, all around them.

The UAV slowed, making only two more stutter-jumps before bringing them down and in.

At Ryouga's feet finally touched the ground again, he saw the other-him already turning, the rifle in his hands steaming like an angry kettle in the fecund air. A visored helmet turned to the right.

"Konatsu!" he yelled, not brothering with internal comms only. Juliet-Two appeared a second later, dropping literally out of nowhere into a low crouch. Blessedly, he had a medical kit in his hands, and his rifle slung back over his shoulder.

Not waiting for the kunoichi, the bandanna wearing martial artist made his way straight for the entrance of the ship. "Treat her inside!"

"Sir, of course I'll take her inside," Konatsu quickly cut him off, and held out his hands.

"Acting Sergeant," the commissioned Ryouga spoke up again, using the particular tone of voice he adopted when there was approximately zero room for discussion or debate. "Konatsu doesn't need you looking over his shoulder. Retrieve your helmet and get over here! I want a report on what the _Hell_ happened to your squad back there!" He then turned to look down to the no-man's land around the LZ. "And get your weapon out. We've got company coming."

Reflexively, the younger Hibiki fired a spiteful glare his elder's way. For just a moment, he was tempted to tell the older version of himself to go to hell, but the redundancy of that statement was far too obvious. Finally, biting off a short curse, he gently slid his helmet off of Jinx's head before handing her off to the kunoichi. He considered firing a warning glare Konatsu's way as well, just out of spite, but instead nodded sharply. Besides, none of this was Konatsu's fault. It wasn't the Major's either.

"Please..." he implored the other Sergeant. "Please, just take care of her."

Returning his nod, Konatsu then began to head back to the ship at top speed without another word. Grumbling to himself, Ryouga slid his helmet on and locked it in place - taking a few seconds to relish the miracle of a built in air filtration system - before unlocking his rifle from behind his back and turning to his commanding officer.

Offering a mostly sarcastic salute, he grunted, "Acting Sergeant Hibiki reporting or duty. What would you like to know again, _sir_?"

"Watch your tone, Sergeant. First, I want to know why you're **here** and not with your **team**!" the acting Major snarled. "And then you can tell me what the Hell happened with Raven! We travel in pairs at all times! ALL TIMES!"

_'I wish I knew myself,'_ Ryouga thought to himself. He still had no idea what had happened to Raven, or even what had caused her to go off on her own.

"I know that," he replied instead, trying to bite back on his own hostility in the face of the older Hibiki's ire. "I - I have no explanation for Raven's departure yet. As for why we separated, Raven identified an object which she stated could be important in actually allowing us to escape this dimension and the three of them went to retrieve it while I brought Jinx back to have her injuries tended."

For a moment, it looked like the other man was about to rebuke him for his choice in mission assignments; probably something along the lines of 'you should've sent Starfire.' Flight was a major advantage, but primarily outdoors, not inside the bowels of a building. Hell, it wasn't like it hadn't crossed his mind, too, but at the time, there had been no clear and present danger, so there had been no reason to consider who was more combat capable. Unfortunately, things had since become... less than clear cut.

Rather than a rebuke, however, the older Hibiki turned back to the ongoing firefight.

"We're going to hold this position until Yankee returns or until their IFFs register as terminated," he said, simply. "So let's hope they don't take their time. Or get lost." He huffed at that possibility. "Now, I want you supporting Ukyou and Shampoo on the left flank, near the ship. They're both wounded and I want you to protect that position. They'll follow your orders."

Ryouga grinned darkly to himself at that sentiment. "They wouldn't if they knew what was best for them," he muttered in a low voice, enough that he was sure even Nabiki wouldn't overhear.

"And believe me, we'll talk later about what we do with commanders who leave their troops in the field," the acting Major promised, already taking aim at an enemy downrange. "Get moving."

Finding the threat oddly empty at this point, he gave a shallow shrug and turned to go. Checking his IFF, Ryouga easily found Ukyou's location and began to move towards it. As he made his way, he hefted his rifle to shoulder level and did a quick check over to make certain it was still functioning. Once he was satisfied it was good to go he opened a quick commline into the ship.

"Konatsu, this is Yankee 1," he said, feeling a bit of guilt now for the personal request. "Can you please inform me if - _when_ Jinx wakes up?"

Knowing that he really shouldn't be asking, and that he likely wouldn't get a response, he didn't slow down in his run. A few seconds later, he saw the pair of girls, both hunkered down behind cover and aiming their weapons out away from the ship. Moving quickly, he sped right past Shampoo and slid to duck down behind a shattered pillar between both members of Juliet.

"So, what's the situation on this side of the ship?"

"Not good, sergeant," Ukyou replied, reloading her plasma carbine behind the cover of her battle spatula. "We're low on explosives."

"Visibility is good, though," Shampoo reminded them, her heavy laser trained down along the scarred venues a hundred meters away. A slight tremor passed down her right arm, but her finger didn't depress. Not until there was an enemy in her sights.

"We had a few spitter-things come in from the east, but Shampoo here took care of them," the okonomiyaki chef continued, also aiming across the cratered field. "They rushed us twice before, and I've only got three grenades left. Maybe enough for four _okonomiyaki-dans_. H-E is about the only thing I have that works on the fire-critters. They're too diffuse. Lasers, plasma, bullets, go right through them."

Ryouga looked at the laser rifle in his hands, then up towards the encroaching hell beasts. Shaking his head, he gave a weary sigh. It seemed that, as bad as it had already been, the day was far from getting better. Hell, if he didn't hear back about Jinx, and soon, he'd just run the hell out there and remind the acting Major just what a real Shishi Hokodan looked like again.

"Looks like it's all on Raven, then," he muttered. Then, looking to both of his charges, he nodded to himself. "Alright. When these things reach ten meters, I'll go out and engage them myself. You two are injured, so I want you to get to a safe distance and cover me, or at least distract some of them."

Cracking his knuckles, he lifted his rifle. At least he could try to slow them down first.

* * *

"This – this is so damn messed up."

Cyborg's voice was muffled, having to filter through his re-breather system; he'd been forced to deploy it within moments of the - he didn't even know what the hell to _call_ what had just happened – due to the sickening stench. Leaning heavily into his side, her face so pale it was worrying, Raven desperately pressed a small, portable oxygen mask to her face. The cybernetic teen was dead certain that the stricken expression on his cloaked comrade's face had anything to do with the stink on the air.

"By X'hal. Never have I witnessed such horror… what could have wrought such destruction?"

Starfire's voice was also altered, being channeled through the comm system of her helmet. Her visor was tinted as dark as it could go, so Cyborg couldn't see her face, but it took very little imagination to guess the expression she bore as she slowly gazed across the blasted wasteland. Even the massive tower, the sky touching monolith of brass and stone they had fought Raven within, had been scoured away like so much sand, exposing trace skeletal scaffolding, scorched red lands and the endless fires which now surrounded them.

"We – we don't have time for this," stated a voice shaken by grief and terror, yet still filled with determination.

Surprised, Cyborg stared down at the girl leaning against him. Without another word, Raven pushed herself away from him, only to grab his hand and begin to pull him through the ruins. Or, rather, that had been the intent, as the very first step that she took was punctuated by the echoing snapping of something dried and brittle on the ground. Looking down, the trio spied the object which had shattered beneath her boot.

The long, blackened femur was impossible to mistake, nor were the dozens of other bones scattered across the blasted remains of the Temple grounds. Not just bones: entire skeletons, scoured clean by fire and left to rot years ago. A strangled kind of shriek tore itself from Raven's throat and she collapsed back into his arms again. He nearly would have staggered under her weight and from his own shock if Starfire hadn't suddenly appeared behind him, her impossibly strong hand coming to rest on his shoulder and bolstering his own flagging will.

"My dearest friends, I know that the horrors we are witnessing are beyond explanation… but we must continue on." The Tamaranian then pointed to the north, where movement could already be seen. The sound of shifting bone and cracking mortar to reveal unspeakable abominations tearing themselves from the earth came from every direction and a low wail carried on the winds. "I fear we have little time before we are surrounded."

Nodding shakily, Raven straightened her back once more, pulling her hood down low to cover her ashen face. "Follow me. I know the way."

Moving quickly, the trio soon found a gaping chasm in the ground less than a hundred meters from their position. It had once likely been a grand staircase leading beneath the Temple proper… but now an ominous red glow filtered up from the broad hole and little remained of the stairs themselves besides rubble… and bones. Girding themselves, none of them hesitated, instead plunging right down into the depths.

The crunching sound beneath their feet as they rushed down the tunnel was a constant and disheartening reminder of their current reality, but Cyborg did his best to ignore it. The distant sound of weapons fire and the howls of inhuman creatures could be heard, even as they traveled deeper, letting him know that things were already literally going to hell outside.

"How far do we have to go?" he growled in an urgent tone. "Things are getting bad up top. I'm registering massive weapons fire and it looks like the ship has moved to the entrance of the tower. If I were to guess, I think they're setting up a perimeter for us… or at least trying to."

"That means that Ryouga must have reached the others and explained the situation," Starfire added, excitement and relief mingling in her voice. "He will not allow them to abandon us!"

"He might not have a choice, if we don't hurry," Raven muttered in a low voice. "The tomb is not far, but I doubt it will be left unguarded. Now hurry!"

Cyborg nodded – only to stop midstep. Dropping a heavy hand onto the cloaked Titan's shoulder, he spun her around to face him.

Staring down at her seriously, he forced her to meet his gaze. "Raven, you have to tell me… are you good? You just tried to kill Jinx and mind rape Ryo back there. Can. We. Trust. You?"

A flash of _something_ passed through Raven's eyes and he could nearly feel her entire being collapse in on itself for a moment at his words. But as quickly as it came, it passed once more and the girl nodded sharply, a stone-like expression on her face.

"I can understand your hesitation," she replied, voice flat at the admission. "I don't expect any of you to forgive me for what I did… but – but you have to believe me. We _must_ find the Rings of Azar. If we do not, my – if we do not, then _Slade_ will never allow us to leave this place."

The cybernetic warrior stared down at his comrade, his companion of years, carefully measuring her response. Looking up, he sent a pleading look in Starfire's direction. Her polarized visor only offered an eerily faceless stare, devoid of the young woman's normal good cheer. Finally, Cyborg released a weary sigh and removed his hand from Raven's shoulder.

"Alright, then, Rae. I owe you at least the benefit of the doubt, here. Just so ya know, though, I'm doing this for old time s sake, not because I'm a push over for a pretty lady, like Ryo is."

Indignation and embarrassment warred on Raven's face for a moment, producing an amusing array of red across her cheeks before she quickly turned away and began to walk down the rough tunnel again. "We don't have time for jokes!"

Starfire's giggling actually seemed to lift a portion of the heavy pall which had settled over the three of them. Cyborg offered the Tamaranian a quick nod and a thumbs up before they both resumed after their fast stepping friend.

The tunnel, growing wider as they continued, continued on for several hundred meters. A quick glance at his scanner showed that it was continually spiraling down upon itself, angling roughly thirty degrees and taking them deep underground. The further they traveled, the less obvious the damage became; some stairs were not completely destroyed, and small patches of smooth wall or ceiling would show through the twisted, rusted mass that had ravaged the realm. At the end of the descent the tunnel opened into a larger chamber. Easily forty feet wide and one hundred feet long, a vaulting ceiling rose nearly three stories above them. Statues lined both walls and a straight path led through the room and a large door was visible at the far end of the room.

However, while once this room might have been a glorious display of the beauty and wealth of Azarath, it was now a morass of corruption and filth. The walls were corroded and pitted, the color of rusted iron… or dried blood. The floor was cracked and waves of heat and jets of steam rose up from some of the larger cracks, the orange glow of flowing magma evident beneath the surface. And finally, the statues, which – if the other statues they had seen before were any indication – had once been of wise and kindly sages, were now twisted and vile depictions of unspeakable horrors. It was hard for Cyborg to even look at them, his one human eye seeming to slide off of them of its own accord.

"We just need to make it through this chamber," Raven remarked. "There is only this room, honoring the most noble of Azarath, and then the Tomb of Azar herself beyond it. We must -"

The rest of her words were drowned out as a wild, chittering, cackling suddenly filled the chamber. The maddening sound bounced off the walls and assaulted the ears from every possible angle. It was all Cyborg could do to stop himself from slapping his hands over his ears to block it out, instead focusing all of his attention on their surroundings.

Slowly at first, shapes began to emerge from the furthest corners of the room, crept out from behind, or crawled right over the statues. Some even dug their ways out of the volcanic vents, the voracious fires of the earth not affecting the creatures at all. Why would it, after all, each _thing_ was little more than a skeletal husk, low flames licking over every inch of their boney frames. But whatever these creatures were, they were not - could not - have risen from the fallen of Azarath.

Cyborg didn't even need to refer to his biology data files to see that the skeletal structure was all wrong. The legs were too long and double jointed like a great cat's. The rib cages were too broad, yet shallow, hellish light flickering out from the interior, pulsing in a disturbing pattern. The arms were nearly twice as long as was natural, the wicked claws crowning their three fingers dragging along the scorched ground.

Last but not least, though, was the freakishly long, almost spindly looking tails of spinal bone that jutted out behind each one. Unlike a natural tail, used for balance, these slowly burning tails rose up into the air behind them, dancing from side to side, reminding Cyborg of nothing so much as a snake preparing to strike.

"Oh crap," he muttered to himself.

"Indeed, it does appear that the fecal material is about to be flung into the motorized air circulation device."

Groaning, Raven slapped a hand to her face. "Would both of you shut up and start shooting already?"

"Best idea I've heard all day," Cyborg muttered. Then, with a flick of his wrist, his hand converted into its sonic cannon configuration and he lifted it purposefully. Quicker to the punch, Starfire had already thrown three star bolts in that time, the blasts of green energy firing out from her hand in a rapidfire burst. The searing hot projectiles slammed heavily into one of the advancing skeletal creatures; each one burst brightly in an explosion of plasmatic fire and force.

He heard Starfire's gasp clearly as, when the flashes of light dispersed, the creature was still standing, a few cracked ribs showing, but otherwise very little the worse for wear. It didn't take a genius to realize that the high temperature of the star bolts had no effect whatsoever, relying entirely on the kinetic energy of the attacks to actually do damage.

Well, that suited Cyborg just fine. "Time to bring the noise!"

His sonic cannon _roared_ to life, a massive beam of solid sound blasting out and bisecting the room in half. Unlike the plasma weapons used by his friends – while undeniably high powered – Cyborg's sonic assault did not stop at the first thing it hit and explode. Instead the wave of white power tore across the entire length of the room, slamming heavily into the double doors at the far end. Nearly half a dozen of the creatures had been standing directly in his line of fire, but all were gone now, bones shattered to dust under the assault. That number again had been close enough to be clipped and arms legs and tails were shorn off completely, dropping two more to the ground in scrabbling piles.

Unfortunately, the display of his technological dominance did nothing to dissuade the creatures from advancing. In fact, several of the closer ones lifted their tails threateningly and prepared to charge forward.

Twin lances of punishing emerald force strafed across three of the closest abominations, shattering their lower rib cages and destroying their spines completely. The ruined things collapsed to the ground a second later, their flames dying away soon after. Turning quickly, Cyborg nodded to Starfire; the Tamaranian held her helmet in her hand and her crimson tresses flowed freely down her back, painting the very picture of a warrior goddess.

Another flash of movement behind the alien princess suddenly caught Cyborg's attention. Moving swiftly, he lifted his cannon and -

A thick wall of black energy knifed up from the ground, scattering bone and ash; a second later, two of the creatures slammed bodily into the force field and scrabbled madly against it, their claws finding no purchase against its impenetrable surface. With a wave of her hand, the wall suddenly surged forward, bulldozing across the room and picking up another handful of the creatures and it scrapped across the floor. The wave of force slammed heavily into the wall a second later, toppling one of the statues and crushing the trapped creatures to splinters.

Frowning at the frantic smiles worn by Cyborg and Starfire, Raven quickly turned away. "Just because I've been out of sorts lately doesn't mean that I've forgotten how to use my powers."

"Never doubted ya for a sec, Rae!" Cyborg chanted. A moment later, the three Titans turned back out to face the coming horde. It was hard for Cyborg not to grin. As terrible as these things looked, they had just picked the absolute worst trio of people to attack. Between his devastating sonic cannon, Star's punishing kinetic eye beams and Raven's… well, Raven-ness, the primarily melee ranged monsters were at a massive disadvantage is such an enclosed space, and as pressed in as they were.

A few minutes later, Cyborg dusted off his hands, grinning wildly to himself. All around the room, shattered bone littered the floor and not a single statue, wall or ceiling was left unblasted. It was pretty much a miracle that they hadn't brought the entire house down, but they didn't really have much time to worry about that in the heat of the battle.

"All right, let's go already," Raven offered in a terse voice.

Shrugging, still too wired over the brief firefight, Cyborg didn't offer any dissent, just followed in the girl's wake. A small plane of force proceeded Raven as she paced across the room, shoveling the detritus out of her path. Behind Cyborg, Starfire followed, keeping a careful eye out for any other possible enemies.

"Man," Cyborg boasted proudly, "That was almost too..."

"Don't say it!"

"No!"

"Easy," Cyborg finished lamely, heedless of his companion's anguished yells.

Instantly, Raven and Starfire fired heated (and glowing) glares his way. "I thought only _Beast Boy_ was foolish enough to say things like that."

Cyborg waved his hand absently. "Oh, please, what's the worse that could happen? We're already there." To prove his point, he gestured to the large set of double doors less than twenty feet away from them.

Just in time for said doors to be smashed violently off of their hinges. The massive metal doors bounced and spun through the air; moving quickly, Cyborg grabbed Raven and spun about just as one of the heavy slabs of metal slammed into his back and sent him skidding forward several yards. The other half of the door was blasted out of the air by another powerful optic blast and sent hurtling into the wall with a tremendous crash.

Groaning weakly, Cyborg straightened his back – noting only some minor resistance from damaged servos and warped armor from the impact. His weak groan transformed into a pained one a moment later, as a bright orange glow flowed out of the shattered doorframe. A sharp tremor passed through the room, followed by another and then another in a rhythmic pattern. All too soon, a towering figure could be seen in the doorway, appearing to be half mountain – half volcano and yet moving of its own accord.

The cybernetic teen winced as he felt a psionically empowered elbow slam into his side. Looking down, he saw Raven glaring back up at him, the promise of wrath dancing about in her eyes.

"This is _so_ your fault."

* * *

Despite acting as fast moving small squads, neither India nor Juliet were equipped as traditional light infantry. In testament to this fact, the steady drumbeat 'thump thump thump' of two Mk.47 "Striker 40" grenade launchers reduced an oncoming platoon of Living Flames and Infernal Infantry into shredded burning detritus. Pulped bone fragments and crushed embers rained like rice at a wedding, while copper and black soot streaks splashed across the landscape like splashes of demonic paint.

Mousse and Ukyou alike paused in the merciless barrage of crossfire, the latter from her position to the left flank of Pathfinder and the former occupying a forward position on the right. The sweeping, plunging volleys of 40mm air-bursting high explosives, quickly coordinated thanks to Nabiki's eye in the sky, mauled this wave of the massing enemy, leaving only stragglers moving in from the sides. Return fire came down hard, but varied specifically by target.

Too much of the standard array of weaponry was ineffective against the Living Fires that launched themselves along the ground and through the air. Bullets, lasers, even plasma bolts, went right through. Those weapons were reserved for the more solid ranks of the enemy.

Near Ukyou, Shampoo's heavy laser fired, removing the bell-like head of a charging Infernal Brute, the spalling from the heat momentarily revealing a skull-like visage, before that too burned away and exploded. The headless body, almost seven feet of fire cracked muscle, stumbled forward and ran for another few steps before tripping over the uneven ground and falling into an uncoordinated tumble.

Its partner elbowed past its decapitated comrade, heedless to the fact that the rest of its wave had been annihilated. It knew only the rage and hate of its master, and unlike those few of its kind vested with a shred of intellect, this one was merely a mindless, senseless vessel to deliver destruction. The crescent and axe polearm it wielded raised overhead in eager anticipation of the inevitable carnage to come.

Its leg vanished as a result of a hastily emplaced landmine. The rest of its body fared no better. The other leg tumbled end over end across the air to land in a ditch, and one of the arms, still somehow holding the polearm, hit the active Pathfinder gravity wake, disintegrating on contact. The majority of the torso, disemboweled and ripped open up the middle, hit the ground and rolled end over end for a meter before falling into the final innermost perimeter ditch around the Pathfinder Extraction Point.

No sooner did it find its grave than a fresh roar sounded from the other end of the battlefield, as the seemingly endless hordes massed at a new location. Closing in like a stadium sized half-moon, glowing eyes emerged from the shadows and ash clouds and the chaotic drumming fire whips beat the ground like a discordant drum. Arcs of burning, cancerous expulsions fell from above in a haphazard stream, less interested in precise applications of force, and more possessed by the desire to attack, to overwhelm, to overrun.

"I'm out!" Ukyou followed the statement with a rather unlady-like curse. "Feed number three is empty!"

Dropping the Mark 47 40mm autocannon and momentarily ducking behind the cover of her battle spatula, the soldier-chef brought back out her plasma carbine, strapped behind her back as a reserve. Checking her ammo count, rather than curse again, she just gave a low, resigned sigh. Deciding to conserve what was left in terms of elerium based ammunition, she switched to her sidearm, and took careful aim, firing in controlled snap shots.

"Even I'm running low," Mousse announced, a statement no one had ever expected to hear from the Master of Hidden Weapons. "We'll be throwing our guns at them in a few minutes at this rate."

Ejecting a clip from his medium plasma, Lt. Ryouga Hibiki took a second to survey the battlefield while his hands worked by rote, reloading the rifle. The enemy was concentrating their attacks along three routes, and every wave got closer to the inner perimeter. They were completely surrounded, but with their backs to the tower ruins, the majority of the enemy had to come right into their prepared fields of fire. It wouldn't be long, though... every time they massed to attack, the teams expended more and more of their high explosive ordinance.

"Switch to Fifty Meters engagement range!" he ordered, holding one hand under his wrist, palm to the enemy, to fire both _shishi hokoudans_ and plasma bolts downrange, depending on the target. A flying Hellspark dive bombed in at an acute angle, but a blazing ball of ki ripped it into three pieces. A flaming tendril, an arm-like whip, landed near Ryouga's foot, and he sneered as he caught sight of an advancing dog-like creature, vomiting up more caustic projectiles.

He wouldn't - couldn't - say as much, but this was a pretty fucked up situation.

They were elbow deep in shit creek and sinking fast. Communication with the Titans was intermittent, but they were close to their goal. 'Hope' wasn't the sort of word anyone wants to hear from their commanding officer, but Ryouga hoped to hell that the Titans got back, and fast, while there was still a ship to get back to.

It was with that depressing thought on his mind, that the acting Major saw something massive bulldoze through the building ranks of formless fire and red eyes back where the nightmare city began and the battlefield ended. It seemed to erupt from another of those fissures in the ground - warning signs he and the other Hibiki were constantly alert to counteract with breaking points whenever they were found to be forming nearby. This particular fissure must have been monster sized, as it spewed forth a creature of elephantine proportions.

A giant arm flailed, leveling part of a crumbling building, and four bright red orbs burned inside a headless black body, mounted on top of a rounded skull-like stub. It seemed to have no mouth or face otherwise, but it burned with the color and fury of this realm's hellspawn. More of Trigon's brood, clearly, but on a whole other level than the other lesser fry. The size of a double-decker bus, the great creature thundered forward, smashing anything in its way, including structures or unlucky or unwary allies.

"Would ya look at that thing...?" Ryu gaped. "Ho-ly shit!"

"Mousse! MH-load!" Ryouga roared, already taking aim and opening fire. "Everyone else. Take it down!"

"Another attack wave on the left!" Ukyou yelled, frantic. "I'm using the last of my H-E!"

Her voice was nearly drowned out as, three seconds into the Thunderer's charge, the monster heedless to the damage done to it by anti-tank rated plasma rounds and one huge body-shielding arm literally being stripped to the bone by incoming fire, everything vanished in white. The flash of the metallic hydrogen warhead, delivered via a modified 84mm MK-308A missile, was more than capable of permanently blinding anyone looking at it without protective gear.

Living Flames, escorting the Thunderer, were compacted and reduced to smear-like shadows burned into the ground. The missile detonated on proximity, and the force of the ground quaking explosion flattened most of the creature's body into the ground, a pressure wave peeling away long cords of hellspawned muscle and sinew away from oversized bone. Forward momentum from its charge bucked the rear end of the creature up and into the air as the explosion crushed and pulped the front. Man sized chunks fell back into the teeming fire pits at the edge of the city at cannonball speeds.

Even before the corpse could begin to cool, more of the enemy swarmed over the smoldering remains.

* * *

On the other flank there was no time to think much about the landscape rearranging explosion unleashed by the Master of Hidden Weapons and the liberal application of extremely high explosives. Another attack wave was incoming, consisting of a veritable storm of whip-armed Imps and polearm wielding giants. Heavy laser and plasma fire thinned out the latter from a safe, sniper's distance, leaving only the former to be dispatched in close quarters -

The acting sergeant Hibiki had finally had enough, standing up from behind his cover with a sneer of disgust. Looking down at the all but useless laser rifle in his hands, he frowned at the surging mass of flaming enemies. Less than one hundred meters separated them at the moment, and they were closing fast. Without Ukyou's high explosive saturation fire, nothing was going to stop them from breaking their half of the perimeter first. Like hell the younger Hibiki would give his superior – purely in ranking – counterpart the satisfaction of seeing him fail for yet another time this mission.

"Shampoo," he barked just loudly enough to activate the commline in his helmet. The armored Amazon spared him a moment's glance, likely wondering what he wanted. In response, he held out his rifle and tossed it to her, the metal of the weapon's casing slapping heavily into her open hand. He could almost imagine the puzzled look on her face. "Hold on to that for me. I'm going to hold the fifty meter line. Stay and cover me."

"Are you sure about that, Sugar?" came Ukyou's disbelieving reply to his order. "We're almost out of ammo and this pistol-" She held up her sidearm to make her point. "-Isn't exactly that effective against a horde of demonic hell beasts. Let us back you up in close!"

"Absolutely not," he fired back sharply. "You two are injured already. Hang back and cover me, as ordered."

"Stupid Lost Boy not-"

"I _am_ in charge of you two." Ryouga's words were, perhaps, overly harsh, but he didn't have time to argue. "You two would only get in my way, anyway. So just do as I say, Damnit!"

He could hear indignant huffs from both girls, but they finally relented. They may not have been used to taking orders from him, but they knew their rank and the chain of command. A second later, Shampoo tossed his laser rifle to Ukyou and the chef moved back into firing position with tense, jerky movements which telegraphed, quite clearly, how she felt about the situation. The acting sergeant didn't waste any more time, unsheathing his umbrella and charging forward to meet the oncoming horde. Even during the few seconds he'd spent fighting with the two members of Juliet, the demons had already pushed forward over thirty meters, despite renewed weapon fire.

As he closed, Ryouga began to cycle his ki using the acting Major's modified technique. This was the other reason that he wanted both girls to hang back. This would be the first time he'd actually used it in a real battle, or even outside of the alien alloy walls of Seiran. He had no idea how unpredictable it might make his attacks now, but they had no choice at this point but to pull out all of the stops.

Each step he took slammed more heavily into the scorched earth, his boots sinking just a bit deeper into the hardened stone as a burnished golden glow began to suffuse through his aura as his body drew on the _elemental qi_ around him, tainted as it was. Moving as fast as he was, he'd already reached the twenty meter mark before the horde had moved another five, but he still needed to slow them more. Thankfully, careful reshaping of the battlefield earlier had forced the enemies to be funneled down towards them, which made that prospect much less daunting.

Tearing off several bandannas from where he'd wrapped them around his forearm, he reared back and began to infuse his ki into them, just as he had a thousand times before-

The Hibiki was nearly surprised by just how quickly and efficiently his ki flowed into the thin strips of cloth. He could almost feel every miniscule strand, one by one, being reinforced with his internal energy, growing stronger, and... heavier? Looking up, he noted the golden glow limning each bandanna now, not unlike the Lieutenant did with his own, but rather than growing sharper and deadlier, all he could feel was a surprising new heft and strength in them, like the roots of a mountain bound in cloth form.

As curious as he was fascinated by this unexpected turn of events, Ryouga lashed out, hurling the three bandannas into the oncoming army with all his strength – only to be shocked to a near standstill himself by the results. Unlike the normal angry buzz of his bandannas, not unlike a pack of angry hornets, this trio of glowing golden discs sent up a roar that sounded more like he'd just tossed off a handful of airplane propellers than a handful of headbands.

The first disc hit one of the larger dog-like beasts, but did not bisect through it cleanly as the Major's empowered bandannas would. Instead the beast all but burst around it, as if it had just been hit by a speeding bus. There were no edges on these bandannas, which only made the carnage they wreaked that much more gruesome as they slammed into and through the front line like spinning hammers.

Stutter stepping in surprise, he was snapped out of it quickly as twin beams of coherent light lanced past him and began to cut into another of the canine beasts and scorched harmlessly through a small cluster of the Hellsparks. Unfortunately, he'd startled himself far more than the enemy, and the tumultuous mass of living flame hadn't even lost a step in its advance.

Ducking his shoulder, he charged forward once more. Thirty meters – forty meters – fifty meters and then he was upon them, or them upon him, really, as they outnumbered him quite savagely. Not letting a petty thing like weight of numbers slow him down, Ryouga instead ducked down at the last moment and slammed his open palms to the ground. Even faster than he would have expected, powerful explosions blasted upwards from either side of him, blossoms of shrapnel filled the air, a hail of stone flechettes filling the massed forms of the enemy. Chaotic, semi-gaseous forms rippled and swelled and writhed.

Despite narrowing down the vector of approach even further, Ryouga was still surrounded by creatures within moments. He lashed out with fist, foot and umbrella, smashing bones, dispersing flames and crushing the flanks and rear of the enemy that tried to surge past him towards the sources of laser and projectile fire that decimated their ranks of infernal officers. He flipped his umbrella over his shoulder a second later, the canopy snapping open to catch a mouthful of acidic spittle before it could splash across his back. Then, with a grim smile, he hit another button on the weapon's hilt.

This time, there was no allusion to the sound of a rotor roaring to life as the helicopter option began to rotate the indestructible alien alloy panels of his umbrella around at super sonic speeds. Spinning around once, twice, then thrice, he nearly lost sight of everything as his visor was painted black with the vile innards of demonic creatures. Taking several quick steps back, he used another bandanna to wipe off his helmet as his umbrella slowed down to a loud idle.

Severed limbs and shorn bodies were scattered everywhere, a few smaller chunks of unidentifiable gore were still raining down from the sky and his umbrella now looked like the sawblade from a slaughter house.

Right then and there, Ryouga promised himself to not ever do that again, as his gorge rose in his throat. Even that, though, hadn't slowed the mindless advance of hell spawn, and again he found himself losing ground. Looking back, he had already been pushed back to the forty meter mark just by that maneuver alone. Frowning, he closed his umbrella and holstered it again, dropping into a low stance. Pulling off several more bandannas to buy himself some time, he began to gather his power. There was one thing he could do to stop this wave of abominations dead in their tracks, it would just hurt like hell to do it. Barring that, the _Bakusai Tenketsu_ was still his best bet.

Lifting the bandannas, already glowing again, he prepared to throw them –

Only to stop. Even as the nearest creature scrabbled forward madly, less than five meters separating them, Ryouga's world seemed to grind to a halt as he stared at the slowly spinning piece of cloth in his hand. The iron cloth technique, used to stiffen, to strengthen the otherwise flimsy material of his bandannas, and even his umbrella, to near steel levels of strength. The earth qi which saturated the bandannas, the energy which he could sense, the energy he could control all the more keenly now thanks to the orbital ki rotation technique, was not strictly necessary in this case but the combination of the two held right in his hand, made something click in Ryouga's mind in a blinding flash of epiphany.

Time seemed to stand still for one desperate, life and death second. The Lieutenant – the acting Major that is - had mentioned a Joketsuzoku elder that had made extensive use of certain elemental ki attacks, ones that the officer had himself not been able to emulate. Pi Lu, was it? And then, in that instant, Ryouga suddenly understood why. He knew now not only why his counterpart hadn't adapted it yet; he suddenly understood just how he could!

The flaming hound pounced, hurling itself bodily at Ryouga, planning to crush him under its bulk, but the martial artist didn't blink, didn't even attempt to dodge. Instead he knelt down - surprisingly fast, despite feeling like he was moving through molasses – and touched a single finger to the ground.

A fraction of a second later, a roughly hewn stone spire erupted from the earth, impaling the hell hound in mid flight. A spray of gore splattered Ryouga, the beast less than a foot from his face, but its momentum was stopped dead instantly, the force of its leap only serving to drive the stone spike deeper into its belly until it tore through the creature's back, shattering its spine completely.

Smiling wildly, Ryouga finally had an actual, viable plan that didn't involve nearly killing himself. Still kneeling, he looked up at the oncoming horde, a smile barely visible through his gore stained visor. And then he jammed all ten fingers into the ground before him. A tremor passed through the ground as Azarath seemed to groan in protest, but several long moments later, his will won out and a wall of jagged earthen spires, each over a yard in diameter, tore themselves from the charred hellscape, lancing up directly beneath those stragglers behind the front most runners of the army. The bulk of the hell spawn wave broke on the far side of the makeshift dam, standing well over fifteen feet tall, and those few that were two quick for him to catch were swiftly mown down by concentrated laser and plasma fire from down the range.

Exultant at the feat, Ryouga prepared to leap up and over the damn wall and back into the mess – only to nearly stumble and fall at the mere act of trying to regain his feet. Letting out a startled gasp, a momentary flash of panic tore through him as his body failed to respond to his will. Dropping a hand to the ground, just to stop himself from collapsing completely, he boggled at just how bone weary, how utterly exhausted he felt. Even bolstering his own ki with elemental _qi_, raising a wall that size had pushed him nearly to his brink. Even worse, he could barely even close his hands into fists, an unsettling stiffness running through his fingers. Was it just his imagination, or did he hear a grinding sound when he tried to clench his hands?

Letting out a low curse, he forced himself to his feet and then half scrabbled, half hobbled back to the Pathfinder's perimeter where Ukyou and Shampoo were still covering him.

"Status?" he finally asked, trying and failing to hide the strain in his voice

The pair of women stared at him for a moment, but no expressions could be seen through any of their helmets, for which he was secretly grateful. After a moment, Shampoo looked back down the field and fired a shot. "That... wall won't hold them for long, but it certainly makes it easier to take them out as they crawl over or around it."

Ukyou nodded. "I think you bought us some time on this front. Hopefully we won't need to draw on any of India's ordinance for a bit longer now."

"That's good," Ryouga breathed heavily. Trying to make it innocuous, he forced his hands to open and close several times, hoping to regain full feeling in them sooner rather than later.

"Speaking of which, what do we have left for the next wave?" he asked.

"I have this, and my sidearm," the okonomiyaki chef said, holding up her trusty spatula. Almost as an afterthought, she tossed his laser rifle back to him, forcing him to scrabble to catch it with numb hands. She glanced worriedly out towards the direction of the next attack. "No H-E. No more plasma. Maybe 90 rounds for my NGP, but metal slugs go right through the fire-guys."

Shampoo was meanwhile inspecting her heavy laser.

"One hundred shots maybe?" she guessed. "And 60 rounds for my sidearms."

He considered his options for a moment. Despite his pride demanding that he be the one to hold back the wave of enemies, he couldn't afford to let that self same pride get them all killed. Thanks to his ill advised, though most illuminating stunt, he wasn't in much better shape than either of the injured girls at the moment. That in mind, he made what he hoped was the right decision.

"In that case, Ukyou and I will cover you."

Ukyou didn't offer a word of complaint. "You got it, sugar."

Leveling her rifle again, Shampoo simply stepped back and crouched into position

Standing ahead of her, forming a front line, Ryouga saw Ukyou's shoulders hic for a second. Then he heard the chuckle. Flipping her battle spatula ahead of her, she held it in a reverse grip with one hand, the other sporting her NGP 'next gen' gauss pistol.

"I've got your right, Hibiki," she said, adding with another small laugh. "Don't let them separate us this time."

It took a second, but he quickly got the reference.

"I wasn't the one who let those ghosts separate us, you know," he replied, remembering that fight in the Tunnel of Lost Love, alongside his world's Ukyou back home. How long ago had that been for him? Or for this Ukyou? Years?

"Another wave forming on the left flank!" Nabiki warned over the teamcomm. "Two more fissures opening up! Big ones! One east, one west!"

Ryouga cursed quietly. There was no way his wall was going to stop one of those damn Thunderers. He doubted he would survive attempting to raise another one, either. Unfortunately, he had a feeling he would be forced to use the technique again all too soon… he would just have to be a hell of a lot more conservative with it, lest he ended up like Terra. Giving a resigned sigh, he tightened his grip on his umbrella and lifted his rifle, one handed, and began to line up a shot. What was it they said, again?

Two fingers reached out and adjusted him aim for him almost ninety degrees.

"That direction, jackass."

"Oh. Heh. Thanks?"

No rest for the weary it seemed.

* * *

Raven stared up at the titanic beast, an odd sensation rolling over her as it glared down at them with rage and hate filled "eyes". With heavy, ground shaking steps, the demonic behemoth stepped out of the large corridor and into the room. Once it did, it revealed that it had actually been crawling to get through the twenty foot high door, as it actually seemed to expand outwards, rising up to its full height once it was clear of the doorway. The flames of its body scorched the ceiling, which its back nearly brushed as it now loomed over them.

"Scatter!"

Cyborg's barked order snapped her back to reality, and she quickly shot straight backwards, even as he and Starfire split off in opposite directions, towards the walls. Seeing that she was dead in line with the beast, she prepared to defend herself from the inevitable charge. Lifting her hands, she muttered words of power which had lain dormant for far too long.

"Azarath Metrion –"

The Thunderer reared up, smashing heavily into the ceiling and dropping back to its feet, then turned and gave chase to the cybernetic teen.

"Zinthos?" she finished of lamely.

Even as he ran, Cyborg reached back behind him and fired off his sonic cannon. The beam of white noise pulverized the beast's stone hide, but its sheer mass relegated the otherwise devastating attack to little more than annoyance. A moment later, his assault was joined by countless star bolts, the plasmatic bursts raining down on the Thunderer's flanks and sending small showers of stone-like hide skittering to the ruined floor.

All the while, the dark Titan couldn't shake the sneaking suspicion which had been building up in her since their fight with the tailed demons, unfortunately that one had been ended too quickly for her to be certain.

With an unexpected burst of speed, the Thunderer lowered its "head" and bulled right into Cyborg. Raven winced, the entire room shaking as it crushed the metallic teen between its unstoppable bulk and the immovable wall. For a moment, the beast's legs worked, trying to grind him to scrap… only for its igneous talons to begin to scrabble against the course stone of the floor. It would have been impossible, were it anyone else, but Raven only smirked as the Thunderer began to slide backwards.

As if not understanding what was happening itself, the beast thrashed and howled, roared and fought, but could not stop its inexorable retreat. A moment later, Raven could see Cyborg again; looking a bit worse for wear, far more scratched up and soot covered than before, the cybernetic teen was latched firmly onto the lower rim of stone that served as the creature's "neck", just below its flaming face. Despite the ridiculousness of the image, the metal plated teen took another step forward, and the entire mass of the building sized Thunderer slid back an equal amount, its feet digging deep trenches into the floor.

Rolling her wrist over, Raven willed an ebony claw of telekinesis form, which she then promptly slid beneath the Thunderer. With only minor effort, she then lifted the creature from the ground. Without the traction to fight his push, Cyborg let out a surprised bark and he suddenly started all but sprinting across the width of the room, only to smash the Thunderer bodily into the far wall. Massive cracks ran up the walls from the impact and several large shards of masonry crashed to the floor.

A moment later, Cyborg hopped back and moved to Raven's side as the creature recovered from the impact, shaking its behemoth head from side to side. Again, she prepared to meet its charge head on, gathering her power…

Only to watch, eye twitching slightly, as the mammoth beast suddenly charged directly after Starfire. The Tamaranian gave a startled 'eep', obviously not expecting the random change in targets herself. Much quicker than her metallic teammate, though, she had no trouble keeping out of the creature's reach as it chased her around the room. Again, white sound and green plasma pummeled its hide, but to little real effect. It seemed like they were at something of an impasse, and, frankly, Raven had reached the end of her patience.

Turning to Cyborg, she pointed to the shattered door with the Thunderer had pushed through. "Get in the doorway."

He stared at her for a moment, looking like he was about to argue her command, only to stop as she lanced him with an aggravated glare. Without another word, he broke off from her side and made a full speed spring across the length of the room. Moving at a somewhat more sedate pace, Raven followed after him. As she did, she beckoned for Starfire as well. "Follow him! Get into the doorway, I'll deal with this."

"Are you certain, Friend Ra-"

"Just do it already!"

Giving another startled 'eep', the Tamaranian instantly arrowed to the side, shooting across the room so quickly, that she actually snagged Cyborg from the floor as she passed him and carried him through the doorway completely. Roaring in fury, the Thunderer skidded to a tumultuous stop, only to begin a reckless charge of its own across the massive chamber. Raven didn't even bat an eye as the entire room quaked around her. Rather, she just continued her swift glide until she was floating sedately in the doorway. Then, she simply floated to the center of the large door and crossed her arms over her chest.

At which point, she waited.

The Thunderer crossed the halfway point of the room seconds later, shattered bones and fallen debris dancing madly with every thunderous step it took. Still, Raven held her position. It showed no signs of slowing its charge as it came close, forty feet – thirty feet -

Raven stared at the beast, unconcerned.

She was not surprised at all when, as it hit the twenty foot mark, the Thunderer suddenly slammed its feet to the ground, trying to stop its frenzied charge. Its legs scrabbled frantically on the pitted floor and stone chips and bone flakes were sent flying up at Raven in a wave that likely would have stung painfully if an ebony shield had not deflected the shrapnel less than a foot from Raven's face.

A moment later, wobbling under its own bulk, it managed to stop its charge, less than five feet separating it from Raven. Four glaring red eyes settled on her as the beast regarded her. She could almost imagine the thing sniffing at her tentatively. Yet, despite all obvious reason, the creature did not attack her.

She grinned to herself.

"That's right," she said, urging it on. "Go on. Destroy me. Crush me. Grind me into dust."

The Thunderer paced back and forth, only to take a defiant step forward, bellowing for all it was worth. Raven's hair and cloak were blown backwards by the heated howl of rage, but still she didn't move, didn't lose her grin. The beast growled helplessly several more times, less loudly, but Raven only shook her head in amusement.

"That's what I thought." She held out a hand and made a dismissive shooing gesture. "Now scram!"

Much to her eternal amusement, the behemoth of demonic stone and fire did just that. Shying back like a dog that had just been struck by its master, the Thunderer took several cautious steps backwards, only to spin about and charge out of the large chamber entirely and up the distant staircase. Chuckling to herself, she turned to regard her friends, both staring at her in utter shock. Shrugging her shoulders, she floated down to join them.

"We all know how loathe Slade is to give up on anything that he wants," she reminded them. "I just figured that if he had been so interested in turning me to his side, then he would be unlikely to be willing to sacrifice me so easily."

Cyborg frowned for a moment before finally nodding. "Yeah, Slade was willing to let us all survive, rather than risk destroying Robin that time with the nanobots. Makes sense that he'd still be that obsessed."

"But… do you know why Slade has become so obsessed with you in the first place?" Starfire asked, concern plain on her face.

Not wanting to get into that topic yet, Raven just shook her head. She doubted she could, or even should hide her secret for much longer, but _now_ was surely not the time for such discussions. "If we're lucky, we may never find out. Now hurry up, let's go already."

Again, her team mates looked prepared to debate her dismissal… but the knowledge that their comrades were fighting for their lives on the surface left them little time to waste. Instead, they both nodded and the three of them rushed down the rest of the short corridor.

What they found was most unexpected. The room was pristine white, and filled with all of the beauty and splendor which they had come to expect from Azarath. It didn't even look as if the monster from before had entered this room at all, merely hidden itself away in the corridor between this room and the next. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to take in the sight of this undefiled oasis hidden within a sea of corruption.

Though it pained her to be so disrespectful, Raven rushed straight to the center of the room, to the large sarcophagus which rest at the heart of Azarath. There was no top on the stone box, the magics of this place preserving the person held within perfectly for any who might wish to visit and pay their respects.

"Azar," Raven stated breathlessly.

The old woman looked just as she remembered her: long white hair and brilliant red robes made the woman a commanding figure, even in death. Though she wanted to take a moment to make a small prayer, or offer some token thanks, or any of another hundred things to pay her respects, but she just didn't have time. Instead, she simply bowed her head regretfully, and then reached out to take Azar's wizened hands. Just as she expected, a band of solid gold circled the finger of her index finger…

"Wait a moment, there should be two of them," she explained, plainly startled.

"Do we need both?" Cyborg asked, sounding quite worried.

Moving gingerly, wincing with every shake of her forced on the preserved body, Raven slowly removed the ring from Azar's finger. Taking a moment to hold it in her hand, she could feel the power coursing through the deceptively small circlet of metal. All of Azar's power had been stored within these rings, if the legends were to be believed, though it felt if anything… it felt like even more than that. She couldn't define it, couldn't explain it, but...

A hand on her shoulder snapped her out of the trance she hadn't even known she'd been in.

"Friend, are you alright? Is the ring what we seek?"

Shaking her head, Raven finally nodded. "Yes… yes. This is one of the Rings of Azar. As long as we possess this, T – _Slade_ will not be able to use his powers against us. With even this one Ring, he will not be able to prevent us from escaping."

"Well alright!" Cyborg cheered. "Now what's the quickest way outta this place?"

At that, Raven grinned. Now, she offered a small prayer to Azar, then turned back to her friends. "The quickest way out is straight up. You might want to inform the others that we're on our way."

"Oh yeah, one 'Big Damn Hero' moment on the way!"

With that, Raven created a sphere of darkness around them all.

A moment later, the Tomb of Azar was empty once more.

* * *

"Fissures detected in outer perimeter! 60 meters north west, fifty meters south east, fifty meters north east! There's a large force moving south to try and get around the flank!"

"India Actual to all units! We are unable to hold the perimeter! Prepare for CQC!"

And the Blazing Imps, for the first time, breached the inner Pathfinder perimeter.

The acting sergeant Hibiki met them head-on, stepping up to the rise that provided Shampoo and Ukyou with cover, the tip of his umbrella introducing itself to the first of the blazing animated flame demons. The impact partly penetrated, but also had enough mass to push, and push it did, driving the Imp back and into the one behind it. The two flew back from the lunge, whip arms flailing and slashing wildly.

Surging, enraged, past the martial artist towards the two girls and their barrages of laser and plasma fire, the ones on Ryouga's right didn't bother to defend themselves as the umbrella came back down and around. Living Flame, animated embers, blasted apart as metal forced it into the ground, twisting as it buried into its victim. Two more close range shots were all the trio had before it devolved completely into a melee.

A burning whip-arm slashed down, but met the alien alloy butt of a heavy laser rifle; a moment later, the high tech weapon became a brutal club in the hands of a bloodthirsty Amazon, batting away and deflecting whip-fast killer tentacles as easy as one would a gymnastic ribbon. Against this sort of enemy, blunt force trauma was order to go, and Shampoo delivered with grim, desperate efficiency. Opposite her, on Ryouga's right, Ukyou's much larger signature weapon flashed in warding arcs, knocking aside one before spinning around, the flat edge descending like an executioner's axe to plunge into a second, ultimately planting it into the ground like a piece of paper beneath a gardening spade.

"Now!"

As he said it, the younger Hibiki fell to his knees, and slammed one hand to the ground. Waiting breaking points triggered in a cascade, first one then the next, blasting apart the disordered and savage ranks of the leaderless Flames. Following up the storm of detonations, he then slapped his other hand to the ground, and twin lines of stone lances shot up like curved claws, impaling anything left standing in their path.

"Kenran Hinode!"

Blinding light preceded the trio making their counterattack. As they battered the weakened and stunned Living Flames, another shape descended from above. Landing on top of one of the Hellsparks, concealed blades and a blinding whirlwind of thermate-laced paper engulfed the creatures. Konatsu. Nimble forms, trained martial artists among the best of their esoteric craft, weaved between a dozen burning whip arms, avoiding the coils of killer pyroplastic tendrils to hammer home with umbrella, fists, feet, or blades.

As the last Living Flame fell apart, the forces holding it together overwhelmed by the fury of the four humans, two of the humanoid giants were rushing in, late to the party. Too late to oversee their footsoldiers. Uncaring that they had gone from leading a numerically superior charge to being themselves outnumbered, the charging demonic grunts spun their glaives and heedlessly committed themselves to the attack.

Ryouga and Shampoo took one, Ukyou and Konatsu the other.

It was far from a beautiful fight.

As the two martial artists avoided the first two spinning strikes, they sensed the intent of the other, silently agreed, and lunged. Parrying the giant poleaxe, Ryouga saw the giant stumble, one of its legs filleted, the rippling muscle hanging loose to the knee like flaps of raw meat at a butcher's shop. Together, he and Shampoo struck, burying their right fists into the chest of the humanoid demon, shattering bones and rupturing infernal internal organs.

Beneath the bell shaped armored hood, the giant reeled, and even as it fell, the two didn't let up. An umbrella to the wrist sent the glaive flying, and in the reverse swing, cracked open the armored headpiece. As it hit the ground, blades found its neck and forehead, burying so deep they hit the ground. As if not overkill enough, the thing still thrashing madly to strike back even as it died, Ryouga's heel came down like a meteor, caving in the chest. It was followed a second later by an identical and equally brutal strike by the armored Amazon, turning the glaive wielding demon's chest completely inward.

Kicking the bodies away, to roll back into the battlefield, the four young men and women exchanged a wordless moment, accessing the states of the others. There was nothing to say in that moment, and barely anything to think. Adrenalin was like a drug, and all four were higher than they'd been in a long time. Around them, burning ember corpses and spilled demonic blood painted a landscape of carnage.

It took a second for Ryouga to realize they were looking to him for orders.

It didn't get driven home until Konatsu vanished in a quick step, heading off to another part of the fight. He was jumping back and forth, from flank to flank, supporting whomever needed it. Seeing him go like that, Ryouga had to literally fight himself not to ask about Jinx. Konatsu wouldn't be here, wouldn't be fighting, if she was in bad shape. He had been told not to worry about her, but that didn't make it possible. How could he _not_ worry?

"Positions!" he finally said. "Is there anywhere to fall back?"

Ukyou ripped her battle spatula out of a simmering Living Flame, now quite dead.

"I don't think so, sugar!"

"Then we'll hold this spot!"

"The Titans are on their way!" the older Hibiki announced over the comm. "Hold the position! Ranma! We're going to need that surprise of yours!"

Overhead, Nabiki's Roaming Susan came to a stop directly above Pathfinder. From its vantage point, it was easy to see how the battlefield had shrunken. With their heavy weapons exhausted, more and more demonic bodies pressed in, unafraid and undeterred. What had been a great half-moon was now a fifty-something radius circle, save for the small quarter left open facing the tower ruins.

Around them was a seething sea of fire and demon flesh.

Blades flashed, vacuum strikes severed, ki charged fists annihilated, weighted chains and chui crushed, and still the eight martial artists took steps back, pressed hard by sheer numbers and unrelenting fury. Burning whip arms slashed exposed sides and arms, in one case sending an armored form, sword in hand, down to one knee. An infernal glaive found its target, slashing through a vacuum blade and into armored plate. Corrosive spew warped visors and burned the skin beneath NBC insulted armor.

It was in this chaos that another form rose up from four nearby fissures, the earth separating the sundered ground shattering and exploding outwards in a miniature cataclysm. Lava drenched hands slammed down, crushing a black hooded demon and two smaller Imps beneath a four fingered, onyx clawed hand. Then the other landed, and a smoky form emerged from within the tainted, diseased bowels of Azarath's corrupted heart.

A charred and flame-crested head finally breached the abyss, the Greater Demon's jawless maw howling a funeral dirge like a trumpet. Black chains ran down its body like hair, each large and thick enough to moor a small ship. Plates of black armor covered the shoulders of the arms and the forearms, in the former case concealing the divergence points where thinner wing-like arms also emerged, growing and spreading out to shade dozens of the demon's lesser brethren below.

Amid the chaos, two Thunderers charged through the ranks of their allies, side by side.

"Ranma!" the commissioned Hibiki roared over the comm. "Now or never!"

Ranma didn't even bother adding a quip to his response.

"Disruption pulse in Two," he said, simply. "In One."

His emotive energies keyed into and through the ship's Mind Shield, a yellow-orange pulse of bright, warming ki shot out from Pathfinder. Ranma Saotome was a master of the soul of ice, able to maintain it under even the most adverse conditions, but he was also a prodigy in the use of a wide range of emotive ki developed first during his development, or invention rather, or the _moko takabisha_. He had even developed a pulsed means of delivering opposing emotive ki like the peaks and valleys of a sine wave, the resulting ki-annihilation having a natural psionic disruptive effect.

It was this trick that had saved the two squads once, during Operation Winter Triangle.

Now, a similar trick was repeated on a far grander scale, channeled not through his hands but through the power of Pathfinder's miniature Mind Shield. The yellow pulse of energy passed harmlessly over the closest ranks of the demonic army, too diffuse to have much of an effect. The two Thunderers continued their charge, trampling their own comrades in the rush to bear down on their victims and pound them into bloody smears. The unholy energies animating them, driving them forward, and granting them unnatural power and resilience were undeterred, and behind them, the raging Colossus was only now rearing to its full five and a half story height.

Then the valley of the wave hit in the wake of the peak, and lingering emotional ki met its opposite, annihilating like matter and anti-matter. Crackling static charges raced briefly among the demon ranks as the psionic EMP left ozone heavy air and stunned demonic constructs in their path. Living Flames shuddered, trying to hold their diffuse forms together; more solid creatures howled or writhed in momentary disorientation and agony, not of their physical shells, but to their connection to their master. It burned like magical poison, like Nth metal, and as they reeled, death counterattacked with the fury of the cornered.

"NOW!"

Prearranged pairs stood side by side, facing the stunned regiments of the enemy, multiple voices yelling as one.

"Triple combination attacks!"

"Shishi Hokoudan: Fukahi Soutou!"  
(Lion Roar Shot: Unavoidable Annihilation!)

"Kuro Hakuchouranbu!"  
(Flight of the Black Swan!)

A pillar of green light preceded the modified Perfect Lion's Roar, but even as the giant orb began to coagulate, it ripped apart into a hundred arcing bomblets, each one bearing a passenger in the form of a black, forearm-length blade in the shape and likeness of a metallic feather. Like discharge from a cluster bomb, they rained down in every direction, devastating the demonic ranks in staggered rows, but the worst came after the horrific impacts, as nearly invisible razor wire finished what the impacts and murderous black feather barrage didn't. As those same black feathers retracted along their coiled wires, back into Mousse's robes, they formed a threshing machine large enough to cover dozens of square meters, leaving ruin in their wake.

"Kyouhu Kijin Dai Ran Bu!"  
(Frightful Demon God Big Mad Dance!)

"Konatsu Andon!"  
(Konatsu Paper Lantern!)

Against the onrushing behemoths, one of the two staggered, waves of semi-transparent force slamming into the ground all around it, first in a diamond shaped square, and then as one concentrated spike. Around it, Living Flames and Imps that had survived the reckless charges of their hulking brethren warped and screamed in the vacuum forces, gaseous hides being ripped from physical forms like meat off the bone. For the Thunderer in the center of the attack, even it had to pause as a long gash ripped open along its side.

Into that gash, a storm of paper converged, sucked in by the same vacuum that had made the wind cut in the first place. Adhering into the insides of the beast, high explosive incendiary composite burned and exploded in a series of merciless explosions, going deeper and deeper the more they went off. The creature managed to keep running, keep charging, even as its insides took on the consistency of molten lead. Only a few meters from its hated targets did it give out, falling face first into the dirt.

"Kenran Hinode: Big Bang Surprise!"  
(Brilliant Sunrise: Big Bang Surprise!)

"Bakusai Tenketsu!"  
(Breaking Point Technique!)

Mere meters from Ryouga, hands flat on the ground in seeming supplication, four curving earthen teeth erupted at his will, arching up not just to stop the onrushing Thunderer, but to usurp its momentum, steal it, and use it to further impale the creature. The first two stone spears were shattered instantly on impact with the creature's iron and muscle shoulders, but then it hit the ditch dug between the two pairs of lances, and its massive arms tripped up.

The second row hit the exposed flanks, burying deep into the hide and cracking from the forces placed upon them before finally shattering like glass. Four blazing dots of crimson glared at the man who had not just wounded it, but stopped its hateful charge, just feet from its victims. Spurts of black ooze shot out from its sides, but before it could make another move, Ukyou jumped off Ryouga's back, battle spatula in hand.

Alight with her Hinode, specifically a small white orb in a concave depression, her battle spatula arced through the air and into those four baleful eyes. Not just a ki attack, it relied on actual contact with the enemy, using the spatula, akin to her normal _Big Bang Odoroki_. The impact force triggered the accumulated ki attack to release, and the concave shape of the spatula perpendicular to the explosion produced a 'Munroe Effect' and a jet of plasmatic steel and mental energy into the Thunderer's blinded stub of a head. Partly shielded from the effects by the flat of her battle spatula, Ukyou nonetheless saw the titanic splatter on the other side of the weapon, gore rushing out as rocky hide split and spilled demonic blood, yards from the impact point.

Finally -

"Sokushi Tenrai!"  
(Instant Death Heavenly Thunder)

"Roar, Heavenly Thunder!" Kuno cried, the exotic alloy blade in his hands flattening and lengthening from 66 cm to 99 cm, the length of a nodachi, forming a blade akin to Ganryu Kojiro's famous sword _Monohoshi Zao_. "My sword cuts through all the world's evil!"

The normal whistle of the kendoist's sword became an actual roar as he surged forward, lunging so fiercely it took his arms and body along for the ride. In a straight line ahead, psionic EMP stunned Imps ripped apart and one of the hooded officers commanding near the front twirled like a ballet dancer. The upper half of him did, anyway. The lower half fell backward from the forces exerted in divorcing it from the rest of the torso, a rainbow kaleidoscope of red and black and green filling the air from the now empty and spinning body cavity; a fountain of gore from a demonic sprinkler.

In the path of destruction cut by the swordsman, Shampoo quick-stepped past the midair spray, droplets of blood and viscera splattering against her as she moved through it. By this point Kuno was making an uncoordinated face-plant of a landing, unable to stop his own momentum properly. Shampoo bounced off his butt, at that point a more stable launch position than anywhere else nearby, and rocketed upwards.

Into the maw of the Demonic Colossus.

In each hand, she held a single C-2M Exotic Chemical Warfare Delivery System (ECWDS). The building sized titan swiped at the rude and suicidal mayfly, a lava sheathed hand large enough to crush a car very nearly catching the Amazon. Instead, she bounced off the wrist, across the giant chest and rusted black chains, to the shoulder, and them up into the burning maw and demonic visage. Again, four slitted eyes, zeroed in on the human gnat. Around its face, orange flames surged into a crown and mane.

Shampoo's left foot hooked up and into the Colossal's hollow cavity of a nose, and from that precarious position, she plunged her hands into the lowermost of its four eyes. A blast of fire and blood shot from the wounds, billowing like the heart of a furnace and the soul of a backdraft. Blown away, Shampoo tumbled through the air, arms aflame.

Two of the wing-arms reached for her, closing in from the sides and above, aiming to crush and burn and crumple like waste paper. Other hands came up to the blinded eyes, and the Colossal gave another trumpet cry, loud enough to shake the earth and kick up dust. Inside its face, in the hollows that had been its eyes, the chemical warfare grenades exploded.

"Die." The free-falling Amazon hissed.

Weaponized Celatid venom, the near universal solvent, instantly began to dissolve everything it came in contact with. The crematorium level heat within the titanic beast did little to abate this process, instead spreading the gaseous death even faster and forcing it to expand into every nook and cranny. Green poisonous gas spewed from a burning jawless mouth, and the black chained Colossi reared and writhed and recoiled in torturous pangs, unable to reach or quench the chemical fires that burned within.

Ecstatic at her defeat of the greatest threat on the field, Shampoo was still forced to acknowledge that she was still hurtling through the air with a good part of her body on fire. Even worse, the Colossal had torn open a great fissure with its violent entrance and the Amazon was careening down into the abyss at its feet. The gaping chasm was simply filled with jagged stone ridges and a worrying red glow could be seen from the depths far below.

It seemed that fate had chosen to reunite her with her village, her sisters, her ancestors... Maybe, it would even be a _good_ death, gloriously lost in battle. The thought didn't worry shampoo as much as it may have others. She had long since decided that, if she saw it coming, she would accept death with silence and a smile, in a manner befitting a true Amazon of the old ways. But the latter, that resigned smile, even now seemed elusive.

_'Ranma... I...'_

The wind was blasted from the Amazon's lungs as something suddenly slammed into her side with incredible force. Much to her shock, it was not a demon, or some razor stone which had smashed into her; rather, it was an armor clad warrior, a flowing mass of crimson hair revealing the identity of her savior in an instant. It was all that the proud warrior could do to not laugh out loud as Starfire instantly pulled up, lifting them up into the air and above the sordid combat below.

"Greetings, my friend!" the alien girl shouted to be heard over the whipping winds. "You do no mind that I have intervened with your duel, do you?"

Waving her arms sharply, she used the winds to blow out the flames on her arms. Then, Shampoo quickly dug her hands into the girl's hair and pressed her visor to the girl's forehead – wishing for a moment that she could take her helmet off first – and activated the external mic.

"Never have I been so glad to see one of my Sisters on the battlefield!" Taking a moment to look around, she felt compelled to ask. "But, where are Tin-man and Bird girl? Weren't they with you?"

Starfire smiled radiantly, pointed down to India's side of the ship. "Cyborg is moving to assist our friends already. Raven, on the other hand, has stated a desire to make a more appropriate entrance."

That left Shampoo metaphysically scratching her head, but she shrugged a moment later. "As long as she's quick about it. Now, take us back down to the ship. I can't let Spatula girl get herself killed while I'm not there to enjoy it."

Giggling, the Tamaranian nodded, and soon enough, they were zipping back down to the killing field.

* * *

Both Ryouga and Mousse breathed heavily, having just unleashed their combination attack. The fallout of their mutual strikes were still wracking the battlefield, the enemy forces on their entire flank of the ship still reeling from the collaboration of pulse wave and rain of death. Already Hellsparks and Living Flames began to rise up from new fissures in the earth. Groaning, the elder Hibiki prepared to enter the fray once more.

There were only two trump cards left in his deck, and one was the 4th Gen fusion ball nuke.

Taking the question momentarily out of his hands, a salvo of missiles flew over his head, slamming into the front line of the gathering hellspawn, each plasma tipped warheads reducing everything in a dozen meters to powder and ash. It was followed a second later by several rapid fire bursts of white and blue energy which bulldozed through the few small pockets of Hellish Imps left standing.

Spinning around, the acting Major couldn't help but grin at the sight of the wayward Titan; Cyborg, his sonic cannon still smoking, offered the senior officer a thumbs up and a broad smile.

"Yo, Major!" the teen waved a hand. "How y'all holdin' up?"

"Better, now that you three are back!" He looked around for a moment, worry crossing his face behind his visor. "You… are all back, aren't you? Where's everyone else?"

Cyborg thumbed over his shoulder. "Star's over helping Juliet. Raven is getting ready to wrap things up. You'd better tell Ranma to land the ship, to boot. We're gonna want to fall back pretty quick, I imagine."

"Best news I've heard all day," Ryouga replied. "What's Raven's plan? Did she give you a signal?"

"Oh, there's gonna be a signal alright."

* * *

Across the entire battlefield, the war continued unabated, sporadic ki attacks and flashing blades replacing cutting lasers and destructive plasma blasts. In the center of it all, the Pathfinder slowly began to lower to the ground, preparing for evacuation and opening a window in the gravity drive. Even with the addition of two fresh fighters, the outcome still looked grim. Even the Colossal, reeling and half blind, was beginning to stagger forward, intent on spitefully burying the martial artists beneath its tortured and slowly melting bulk.

And then the sky began to darken, no mean feat, as the skies were already blackened. Even the fires raging from the Living Flames and the rest of the hellspawn began to gutter and flicker, as if whatever fuel had succored them was running low. Already disorganized, the enemy forces now grew listless and lethargic.

Several seconds later, a pool of darkness formed within the remains of the ruined Temple, any creature standing in this patch of blackness sinking into its depths in writhing pain. Soon after, the ebony energy rose up, and up, ever higher. The dark power didn't stop rising until it was well over twice the height of even the massive, flailing Colossal; only then, did the ebon tower resolve itself into a recognizable form.

Great wings spread out, covering the entire battlefield with shadow and a loud keening sound echoed across all of Azarath as a beaked head rose up and reared back magnificently. With a contemptuous slash of a wing, the towering raven construct crushed the suffering Colossal to the ground, then tossed it back down the fissure which spawned it.

Only then did the towering construct collapse in on itself, revealing the floating figure of Raven, hanging serenely in the air. Surveying the battle from on high, she clutched the ring of Azar tightly in her palm. Even now she could feel its power coursing through her; could see the effect it was having on all of her father's minions. Within the influence of the ring, her father held no power, which meant that his domination of the hell spawn was severed. Without his wicked will to guide them, no new creatures were rising up to join the fray, and those that remained were barely able to muster up even enough intelligence to continue their assault.

Smiling to herself, she watched as the Pathfinder finally landed, the gravity drive partly shutting down and making it approachable by her comrades. It only took her another moment to spot the mission leader, and with a thought, she teleported to his side. Appearing in a flash of black, she offered the acting Major – once he and Mousse recovered from the slight shock of her sudden appearance – a quick salute.

"Hello again, sir," she said, understated in light of her arrival. "I think we can leave now, whenever you're ready."

"Hello, she says." A tinted helmet shook back and forth in exasperation. Whirling, he pointed back to the landed ship. "Everyone inside! India, provide cover!"

Overhead, Nabiki's UAV also descended, reconnecting to its mothership and smoothly locking into place inside a recessed groove in Pathfinder's hull. Cyborg, Starfire, Shampoo, and then the rest of the squads quickly entered, boots gratefully leaving the dusty, despoiled soil of Azarath behind. It was, to be polite, a long awaited exit.

The last to step on board, India's commanding officer noticed a far off shape, standing atop the crumbled wreck of a distant building. Eyes twitched, and a zoom feature in the armor activated, giving a clearer picture of what - or who - they were leaving behind. For just a moment, the officer considered ordering Ranma to open fire on this hellhole, and that one man in particular, with the ship's main plasma cannon. Turning this entire godforsaken rock into a melted radioactive chunk of glass was rather appealing.

Then he thought better, boarded Pathfinder, and gave the order to leave.

Twenty four seconds and sixty kilometers later and the saucer shaped left Azarath forever.

* * *

The gleaming silver vessel vanished from sight in the blink of an eye, leaving the floating graveyard which was once Azarath to float listlessly in its absence. Only one being in all of the ruined remains of the once glorious city remained to watch the departure, a single, critical eye gazing at the dark patch of sky where last the ship was last seen. All around him, hellish minions began to reform, regenerate and then sink back into the charred soil, prepared to wait another eternity to perform their dark lord's bidding. Even the damage to the city, what little destruction had not been wreaked by Trigon himself, also slowly reverted, stone spires sank back into the earth, jagged craters puddled and filled like so much water and even toppled buildings, ever so slowly, began to rise once more.

Such odd, wasteful _sentimentality_, for a cosmic entity of unspeakable evil…

Amidst it all, the masked villain continued to watch after the ship, still able to feel the increasingly distant pull of Raven's dark power. Soon enough, it would be gone, completely banished from this dimension. He could no longer grin as once he had, but still, he raised a hand and gave a small wave.

"Bye bye… baby-girl."

A moment later, the mercenary's body began to disintegrate. Starting from his head and slowly working down to his feet, he was scattered away on the volcanic winds, leaving not even a trace that he had ever existed at all.

"We'll meet again… in time."

* * *

x

* * *

INITIAL AUTHORIZATION GRANTED

...Alpha Level Clearance Confirmed - DECODING  
...Omega Level Clearance Confirmed - DECODING

FULL AUTHORIZATION GRANTED

NOTICE: This data bundle and any attached materials that are not otherwise marked are classified as **Throne/8X**. If you are not **Throne/8X** clearance or above, report immediately to your supervisor or face disciplinary action. Unauthorized distribution of **Throne** level correspondence is punishable by summary execution.

-Original Message-

From: Cptn. Ben-Solomon  
Sent: Monday, April 2, 2007, 16:32  
To: Lt. Cmdr. Yasuda  
Subject: UNIDENTIFIED INCURSION (PXR-5001.02)

Commander,

I am forwarding my initial analysis of the PXR-5001.02 Event.

At 01:21 hours this morning, an unidentified flying object entered our airspace via a dimensional breach. Our scientists have confirmed that the transit event was consistent with the performance of an alien EDC dimensional drive, and from the size of the transit window, we have calculated that the craft was most likely a Scout class vessel.

PXR-5001.02 opened this transit window at (2° 11' 24.81") South by (106° 11' 15.46") East, approximately 0.9 kilometres above sea level. This resulted in a sizable irradiation of the surrounding area, which is still in the process of evacuation under the oversight of the Indonesian military. Field ops have been inserted to study the effect of an low-atmosphere transit window on the local population and to assist in medical relief.

B9 (Wyndham) has sent us their Hyperwave decoder logs, and they are identical to those of Seiran Actual. PXR-5001.02, though detected via the international radar network, had no Hyperwave signature. There was no Hyperwave manifest, no residual signal, and no active brainwaves onboard. Manoeuvres conducted by PXR-5001.02 are consistent with alien autopilot regimes, so it is possible this was an automated craft, however inconsistencies with that theory are immediately apparent.

Eye in the Sky imaging of PXR-5001.02 detected irregularities and discoloration within the gravity bubble. Additionally, interviews and psionic scans of survivors on the ground indicate that the ship could not have been on autopilot.

PXR-5001.02, following its arrival in our dimension, immediately headed for the closest cluster of human mind waves, ignoring larger population centers and traveling in an almost straight line. Conducting active mind scans to search for abduction victims is believed to require the presence of at least a single alien navigator, yet none appeared when the craft was highlighted by Hyperwave decoders at both Seiran and Wyndham.

The craft made no attempt to avoid detection. It headed for a small farming community and proceeded to abduct a number of humans, parking itself directly above the center of the village. According to eye witnesses, it "sang" to those present, and a random assortment of villagers of various ages, and both genders, left their homes and hiding places walked up to and into the vessel. Those who attempted to prevent the departure of their friends and family were rendered comatose. We have psi-ops investigating. None have recovered as of the timestamp of this email.

PXR-5001.02 then lifted off with a total of twelve victims on board (see the formal report for a full listing, along with ages and other physiological data). It headed for the original transit window at the coordinates mentioned previous and initiated a second transit event. In all, from transit-to-transit the incursion lasted nine minutes and twenty four seconds (09:24:00 EST-Incursion), too fast for our Interceptors to enter firing range.

This is an extremely troubling breach of our air defences. In my opinion, there is little we can do to prevent other events like this from occurring. While the transit events themselves are destructive enough to be easily detectable, there is simply too little time for an interception to effectively occur. If this is the work of our Cydonian enemy, using an EDC and extra-dimensional base, then we may soon face more concerted attacks from beneath our air defence network.

Just as worryingly, this abduction pattern, and the absence of hyperwave signals, may indicate we are not dealing with the enemy we know, but one whose methods and methodologies are unknown.

- Ben-Solomon

Joshua Ben-Solomon  
Captain  
Far East Asia Branch  
United Nations Extraterrestrial Combat Organization  
Ext. 1322 - phone  
Ext. 8008 - fax

* * *

From: Lt. Cmdr. Yasuda  
Sent: Monday, April 2, 2007, 18:32  
To: Cptn. Ben-Solomon; Cptn. Banks  
Subject: Combat Teams: INDIA, JULIET, YANKEE (STATUS)

Captains,

In following with standard operating procedures, I am changing the status of CT: India, CT: Juliet and CT: Yankee to INOPERATIVE. As all three teams are more than a week overdue, we have no choice but to list them as Missing In Action pursuant to Pathfinders return. Please ensure that public records continue to list the teams as ON MISSION. The INACTIVE and MIA status is clearance-sensitive at Seraphim/6G and Above. I would like to keep base gossip to a minimum.

To repeat:

CT: India (INOPERATIVE)

Hibiki, R. (Lt) (MIA)  
Kumon, R. (Srg) (MIA)  
Mu Tzu (MIA)  
Kuno, T. (MIA)

CT: Juliet (INOPERATIVE)

Saotome, R. (Lt) (MIA)  
Konatsu (Srg) (MIA)  
Kuonji, U. (MIA)  
Shan Pu (MIA)

CT: Yankee (INOPERATIVE)

Hibiki, R (Srg) (MIA)  
Starfire (MIA)  
Jinx (MIA)  
Stone, V. (MIA)

Additionally:

Tendo, N. (MIA)  
Raven (MIA)

I have no intention of changing their status to KIA prior to CLEANSLATE. However, if they do not return by the end of the month, I will handle writing condolence letters to their next of kin. I know they were your boys and girls, Joshua, but Pathfinder was my mission. I can only hope they return to us soon.

- Lt. Cmdr. Yasuda

"Nihil aliud scit necessitas quam vincere."  
Syrus

Noriko Yasuda  
Lieutenant Commander  
Far East Asia Branch  
United Nations Extraterrestrial Combat Organization  
Ext. 1716 - phone  
Ext. 7948 - fax


	31. Trespasser 1

The transit event pinched space and time...

But in neither the time nor the place that had been expected.

From that miniscule crease in the dimensional weave, the distortion expanded, but not in anticipated vacuum. Instead, large amounts of matter occupied the intervening space. The transit window broadened, and as it did, the volatile aperture turned molecules and atoms into a kaleidoscope of charged gas and plasma. The nuclear forces unleashed brought with them a tremendous release of hard radiation. In a millionth of a second, preceded by a blinding flash and accompanied by a spherical blast of discorporate and energized matter, Pathfinder completed its Transition.

It didn't take much beyond that first impression to drive home that something had gone terribly wrong. Ranma perceived it through the ship's sensors, the machine in his mind dutifully reporting the unanticipated situation, and the crew felt it with their bodies as Pathfinder lurched, crashing headlong into the plasmated and burning wreckage that surrounded it in all directions. Warped metal supports and scaffolding tore apart as the gravity drive carried the large scout class UFO forward and into the smoldering, ruined mass ahead.

By the time Ranma regained his bearings and brought the forward momentum of the ship to a halt, it had already carved a rough and burning scar through the artificial structure it had dimension jumped into. Hitting solid matter at more than mach speeds did no favors to the alien alloy hull either, despite being shielded by the induction drive. Energized matter retained and conserved its mass, and could not all be pushed away from the hull. Ionized streaks of what had once been carbon and iron and a dozen other elements mauled Pathfinder in turn, punishing it for its violent trespass.

All this, in the time it took to blink an eye.

Inside the hold of the ship, the ragged and weary members of Juliet, India and Yankee squadrons felt a fraction of the forces that assailed the hull and the world outside. It was still enough to toss them, hard, off their feet or in some cases into a wall. Loose weapons hit the ground and equipment skidded across the floor. The lights never dimmed, there was no alarm, but even without the strange lurch, it was obvious something was wrong.

Very wrong.

The "blue shift" effect lingered, but along with it came a malaise that hit the dimension jumpers like a blow to the gut. As their vision and senses returned, colors seemed brighter, sounds seemed louder, the air thicker, and the shadows deeper. Yet - something was wrong. Fundamentally wrong.

Back to the wall, his personal armor still on from the rapid retreat from Azarath, Acting Major Ryouga Hibiki resisted the sudden urge to clutch his head or remove his helmet. At that moment, he didn't want anyone to see his face, or how worried he was; a stark transmutation from the relief he had felt as they escaped the last cursed dimension with all their people intact. At the very worst, they should have been transitioning into the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere. What was going on? He could only assume they'd suffered some kind of impact, but what?

"Ranma! What the Hell, man!" Ryu yelled out at this ship around him, featureless alien alloy walls currently separating them from the pigtailed pilot at the moment. Righting himself and helping Kuno back to his feet, the irate Yamesenken master followed up with a derisive, "You sure you know how to drive this thing?"

"Hey! You bet your ass I do!" Ranma's voice came in over the ship's comm. The ship may as well have been his actual body at the moment. "There's just... I don't even..."

"Saotome?" Ryouga asked aloud, reigning in his patience. "What happened?"

"Yeah, man? What gives?" Cyborg had managed to stay on his feet, and supported Raven with one hand to her back.

Nearby, Shampoo and Starfire had both been bowled over, and Ukyou, Konatsu were holding onto the straps keeping one of their cargo containers in place by the wall. The younger version of himself, predictably, had used his own body to prevent Jinx's stasis tube from flying across the room to pulverize everyone standing in its way. Even now, the young Hibiki was too busy checking the tank for any possible damages - a ludicrous notion, as the things were alien alloy and basically indestructible, even to the Lieutenant's breaking point, a fact that had broken one of the officer's fingers months ago - nonetheless, he was too occupied there to show even an ounce of concern for any injuries he might have acquired or exacerbated himself. Or - the officer in Hibiki couldn't help but note - that he had a whole team to attend to as well.

Moving swiftly, the older Ryouga moved to the nearest door and lifted his palm to the panel on the wall to open it. With a silent hiss, it slid open and the acting Major stuck his head through to check on the occupants of the navigation and control room. Near the front of the room, Mousse was visibly holding himself steady with one hand on Nabiki's chair, while the Tendo sister was nursing her forehead from having just slammed it into her arm. Ranma's seated form at the interface itself seemed unmoved.

"You ain't gonna believe this," Ranma replied, activating some of the ship's screens to reflect what was outside. "Just... just look."

"This better not be Azarath again..." the Major warned.

"It ain't. This is..." Ranma's voice growled over the comm. "Just look!"

Almost immediately, Ryouga was nearly pushed through the door as a half a dozen martial artists and heroes swarmed at his back at the apparently open invitation, trying to push past him to see the screens that Ranma had just switched on. There were a few annoyed grunts and the sharp ring of metal elbows digging into metal plated sides, but the rough housing quickly died away when the first glimpse of the outside became visible.

At first glance, it looked like darkness. Just blank, black screens. Only on closer inspection, outlined by the ship's pigtailed pilot, did some unusual details become clear: heated metal, burning white and red, flanked the sides of the ship and back along a trail of destruction in its wake. Within that destruction there was symmetry and pattern: twists of metal and perhaps even steel, like desiccated corridors in a building or another ship.

Were they _inside_ another ship?

"Ranma," Ryouga began, taking a deep breath to calm himself and doing his level best to ignore the small mob at his back trying to get a look at what was wrong. "What are we seeing?"

"I think... I think we're inside something. We transited _inside_ something! Something **big**. I - I can't even... the sensors are just..." Pathfinder's pilor struggled to explain it all, even as it bombarded him through the psionic navigation system. "Just plug yourself in and see, P-chan. Ya can't see everything that's wrong with just yer eyes. This sure ain't Earth, and I hope it ain't someone's backyard either!"

It was tempting, but -

"Cyborg," he said, directing his attention to the genius teen back in the hold. "This may be more up your alley. Help Ranma figure out where we are. Everyone else - I want medical checks. Konatsu. Ryu. Get on it. Ukyou. Mousse. I want an inventory check ASAP. If we aren't back home, I want to know what our capabilities are."

Immediately, people began to move around to fulfill freshly minted orders. Moving quickly, Mousse made for the far door of the navigation room, obviously not wanting to bull through the mob plugging the near door. Cyborg, for his part, reacted far more sedately, pushing through the throng of martial artists absently to get to the psionic nav-interfaces. Now that the shock of the rough transition, and the heat of the battle had passed, it seemed that whatever veneer of bravado the titanium plated Titan was displaying earlier had all but vanished. Giving only a weary salute instead of a cheerful boast, as he was always want to do, Cyborg wearily stepped towards the co-pilot's seat and proceeded to plug himself in.

Ryu and Konatsu, both full sergeants by rank, quickly ducked back to retrieve their medical kits before starting to see to their respective squads. As the injured started to shed their gear, the acting Major looked over his squads and finally unsealed his helmet with a hiss of air. From what he'd heard, and what he was now seeing, Shampoo and Ukyou were among the worst immediate cases. The violet haired Amazon had deep burns on her right hand, possibly a broken finger, at least one broken rib, and from the look of it, a circular burn on her chest, too, right over the heart. Ukyou had more marks on her arms, from those whip-like appendages the things had used on them back in Azarath, not to mention the fact that she'd had shrapnel plucked out of her left leg just minutes before going back into action.

Of India Squad, they were only now getting the chance to check themselves. Nabiki kept him apprised of every mission affecting injury she was aware of, and as CO, he could personally monitor physiological data from anyone under his command via their suits' systems. It only tracked truly life threatening injuries, however. It was still critical to have human eyes to evaluate whether a bone was broken and how, or how bad a burn was, or whether someone was going into shock or not.

Ironically, Ryu himself was probably the worst off of his squad.

"See to yourself, too, Sergeant," he reminded the Yamasenken master.

Said martial artist already had a suture needle in hand and an idea of what injury to address first. With his armor off, he had been quick to discard his bloody shirt, exposing a long cut in the muscle of his abdomen. Ryouga knew that kind of wound well. A few stitches, some medical adhesive, and it would close up well enough. Hurt like hell, though. Slade, and frankly most of the creatures back in Azarath, had been kind enough to use searing attacks, but contrary to urban myth, this did not entirely stop bleeding. That had been achieved through the environmental layer of their personal armor that could act as a temporary sealant, and the body control they all had as martial artists. Altogether, the Kumon heir had taken a real beating earlier, much more than either Mousse or even Kuno.

Luckily, XCOM always packed away lots of burn treatment in-kit.

Seeing everyone momentarily occupied, dressing down or seeing to their accumulated injuries, Ryouga noted the other, younger-him nervously hovering at the far side of the room, not having moved from his spot by Jinx's medical tube; not even interested at trying to see the screens of the outside world. He only had eyes for one thing, luckily, Konatsu had already tended to her before dropping her off in their sole medical tank, so Ryouga was confident that Jinx was physically stable.

The pink haired girl had likewise been through a rough spot, not even one involving being badly thrashed around like the rest of the unfortunate passengers on this flight. There had been passing mention of some kind of psionic or mental attack. _Gods_. If true, that wasn't good. They needed to get her back to base to treat that. The tank could fix up a body, but couldn't do squat for the mind.

Knowing it wouldn't be too long before he had to appear to be in control and in command again, Ryouga took a few seconds of distraction to hold his head in his hands, the events of the last mission coming back in a blast of confusion and recrimination. To think it had all started with seeing that gleaming floating city from Raven's memories. Then: letting her go with Yankee to investigate, sending teams out to look for tech and information, then the sudden separations, the communications problems, the strange events...

Then worse: ambushes by that Slade person, now in Trigon's thrall. Attacks on the separated squads, Raven running off from Yankee to do God knows what...! There was so much he only knew about peripherally, too: some kind of altercation in the central tower with Raven and Jinx, those hordes of demonic creatures coming out from a suddenly transformed landscape, holding a new evac point while Yankee split up again, this time to go chasing after something.

After the last few missions, maybe he had become complacent? An older commander, a more experienced one, wouldn't have let people wander around. He wouldn't have indulged Raven and let her wander around, knowing what he did about Trigon and Azarath. He wouldn't have let things get so out of control. He would've investigated the situation more thoroughly before sending out parties to explore. Ultimately, everything that had gone wrong on that mission - everything that had almost gone wrong and cost peoples' lives - was on his shoulders.

Not for the first time, and not for the last, he felt Cologne's Scar and the dead remnants of her parasitic blood vine throb painfully beneath his skin, as it often did. Sometimes it was when he was under stress, sometimes when he tried to sleep, sometimes when he exercised, sometimes when he tried to forget. It was always there: a cancerous pain that burned under the skin all along his right arm. Sometimes, he could swear he felt something moving, stinging, biting, beneath the scar.

It wasn't alone either. Like a voice alerting a chorus, it seemed to exacerbate the other less serious wounds he had accumulated in the last fight. Ryouga Hibiki was not an easy man to injure. The breaking point training had dramatically hardened his constitution, and he had trained to resist terrible extremes of heat to master the Smelting Point and... _other techniques_. Glancing at his side, he took note of some internal bleeding and an open wound on his mid torso, under the left breast. Ryu wouldn't be the only one getting stitches, both solid and liquid, during this break. Damn those glaive wielding ... things. Demons? Xenos? Who the hell knew. He sure wasn't going to risk anyone's life capturing one so the eggheads back at Seiran could take it apart.

Thinking back to their enemies, he couldn't help but also remember what he knew about Raven's past, and connect that to her suspicious disappearance, Jinx's injuries, the wary pall hanging over Yankee. A sour mood that was exemplified, even now, by the fact that Raven was by herself, hood pulled up over her face to hide her eyes, conspicuously distant from all her friends. That wasn't even bringing up the fact that this Trigon thing that was somehow her father had sent what could only be called a demonic horde after them.

Then there was that, admittedly impressive if not a bit intimidating, stunt she had pulled as everyone extracted, using her power to finally push back that last overwhelming wave of enemies. Had she always been that powerful, or was it Azarath itself to blame? He could scarcely imagine how her initial capture would have gone, back at that airport, if she had demonstrated _that_ level of power. It was beyond anything he'd seen before. He would probably have sanctioned lethal force... and that thought - the thought that he would have ordered and justified the killing of this girl - disturbed him, now that he had so come to see her as a human being and not simply as an enemy. The fact that the months of fighting had made him more callous, more ruthlessly pragmatic, was not a revelation. He was aware of it, and sometimes, privately, it sickened him.

That was his own problem, however. The more pressing issue was Raven.

What was he going to do about her?

He knew the answer, of course. First, he had to talk to her. He couldn't just react without thinking... but he also knew he couldn't over-think things either. He did have a tendency to do that, taking more from his mother than his father in that respect. Either he jumped to some conclusion at the drop of a hat or he thought too much about things and muddled up what good sense he may have started with. Ryouga made up his mind: he'd talk with her, first. Then with his younger self and maybe Jinx, when the girl was ready to leave the med-tank. Neither proposition was terribly appealing, really. It wasn't hard to see the restrained hostility both teens had for him, even at the best of times.

It was... hard to work with people who disliked you.

Which made Ryouga wonder why Ranma had put up with so much from his 'rivals?' This was the pigtailed idiot who had even bent over backwards to work with assholes like Pantyhose Taro. Ryouga Hibiki really didn't have a fraction of the pigtailed one's patience when it came to that kind of thing. He had little time or interest in going out of his way to help those who would just as well stab him in the back... not that either Jinx or his younger self would ever actually stab him in the back, what with their oft touted _heroic_ mentalities… well, at least his double wouldn't, Jinx was a little harder to read.

Regardless, getting tricked trusting the untrustworthy didn't count, of course. Neither did acting according to duty, obligation, and personal honor. All those fell under 'extenuating circumstances relating to social inadequacy.'

_'My god. I've even thinking like Nabiki now. If I ever start thinking about profit margins, I'll really have to mind wipe myself or something.'_

Taking a long, deep breath, he felt the roar of the battle rush finally and completely dissipate, leaving an emotional exhaustion behind. Mentally, he recapped the things he had to look to. First, he'd patch up that rip on his side. Nabiki wasn't fond of blood, after all ('it devalues everything it gets on' as he recalled) and change into a clean undershirt. Then he'd start on either this Raven business, or keep pressing Ranma and Cyborg to figure out just what on Earth, _or off it_, they were dealing with outside. Then he'd take a piss. It was the sure-fire sign of a refitted UFO: a tiny, but functional, bathroom.

Decided, that just left the pressing question, one that defined his life.

Where the _Hell_ was he now?

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Trespasser_

Chapter 30

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Pulling her hood down as low as it would go, Raven found herself loitering in one of the corners of the hold, staring discretely at everyone present and trying not to draw attention to herself. Now that the battle had ended, she could already feel the emotions of camaraderie and relief fading away. Now uncertainty, fear and in a few cases, even suspicion were beginning to raise their heads. Across the room, she spied the most powerful source of emotion, almost visible in the air.

That source being "her" Ryouga, hovering intently over the ship's lone stasis tube, his fingertips resting on the transparent material just above the unconscious sorceress' lips. In sharp contrast, the acting Major, his heart silently swirling with a lusterless confusion, was alternating between looks of concern for his men and for the mission, and more pointedly: looks of uncertainty when he glanced her way. She was on his thoughts, and Raven knew him well enough to guess why.

_'He doesn't know what to do with me,'_ she guessed. It didn't take a mind reader to come to that conclusion. _'None of them know what to do with me anymore.'_

The realization was a bitter one.

_'I can't say I blame them, either.'_

The rest of her companions were no more certain of their feelings. Cyborg had lost himself in analyzing the situation, leaving the hold entirely for the ship's CIC, while Starfire was speaking with Kuno in hushed tones. The only ones not filled with conflict at the moment were Ukyou and Shampoo, both too busy having their wounds properly tended to allow the current situation to unsettle them at the moment. It was obvious that they trusted Ranma and Ryouga - _their Ryouga_ - to see them through whatever this new crisis was.

Sparing one last look to her own version of Ryouga – she desired, so very much, to go to his side, to try to explain, to _apologize_ – Raven could only shake her head sadly. Instead, she drifted over towards the injured soldiers. The two girls were already being tended by Konatsu while Mousse lingered around Shampoo avoiding her attempts to swat him, so she headed straight to Ryu, attempting to tend to his own wounds and knelt down at his side. The martial artist offered her an odd look, which only deepened as, without a word, she rested her hands on his own and moved them away from the wicked looked cut he had been suturing.

The look of confusion quickly melted away, though, when she placed her own hands on the injury and a blue glow emanated from her fingers and suffused into the gash. The young man's eyes widened noticeably as his flesh began to knit together of its own accord, without the need for needle or thread. Even as the grimace of pain vanished from his face, it settled on her own, but she was quite schooled in hiding the discomfort of this sympathetic healing. The searing pain that blossomed on her abdomen was hot and fresh, but nothing she hadn't dealt with before.

"It hurts you to do this, doesn't it?" he asked, voice low enough to almost be a whisper. He'd caught the look after all; the Yamasenken master was a bit more perceptive than he tended to let on.

"No more than it hurts you," Raven replied, only a minor waver in her voice. "Do not worry yourself, though. While I may not be as durable as our respective Hibiki's, I am every bit as... experienced in managing my pain."

"That's not necessarily a good thing. The only way to learn to deal with pain is to experience it." He took a moment to look over at Ukyou, then back to the healing wound on his side. "Thanks."

She shook her head. "It's the least I can do."

The dark Titan looked around at the injured girls as well. "I'll see if I can't help them next... if they'll let me."

"Hey, don't worry about it." He brightened a bit for her instead, and even smiled. "You know, I've seen you do some crazy stuff, but this healing trick is something else. We're all pretty good at wrecking stuff in one way or another, but I don't know anyone that can actually fix things. Or people."

The attempt at good cheer almost managed to reach Raven, but all it took was a glimpse of yellow and black bandanna out of the corner of her eye to kill the small, happy bit of herself that tried to rise to the surface. Instead, she looked down, averting her gaze.

_'Fixing things. Azar's blood, that's one way to put it.'_

"It's not something I do often," she explained. "Most of my... friends aren't comfortable letting me help them like this."

A small spike of pain caused a wince she wasn't quite able to hide, but she continued to apply her powers to the slowly vanishing wound.

"Besides," she muttered under her breath, "I deserve this more than you..."

At that, his hand reached over and caught hers, ready to push it away.

"Hey. Don't do this to punish yourself." His smile faded to a neutral expression at the implication. "I have no idea what happened back there, but we were _all_ being messed with. I get the feeling you were on the receiving end of most of it. Maybe that excuses it. Maybe it doesn't. But I'm not the kinda guy to watch someone hurt themselves out of guilt."

"Then allow me to do it out of duty to my fellow team mates," she replied. Finally, she forced a small grin onto her lips. "After all, from a tactical stand point, three healthy martial artists outweigh one compromised psion."

It was then that she sensed another presence approaching their small corner of the cabin. Raven could only hope that she would be given the chance to finish what she had started here.

"So who was that freak anyway?" Ryu asked, changing the topic given the new company waiting nearby. "The Lt here called him 'Slade.' Bastard refused to die."

Hovering a short distance away, Ryouga huffed but didn't explain, plainly letting the resident Titan describe the man however she felt fit. The knitting flesh under her hands almost shifted as the name conjured up some nasty memories, some old, some fresh. It took her a moment to calm herself again, the healing process far too precise, and dangerous, to perform while her emotions were out of control. Taking a deep breath, she finally answered.

"I... honestly don't know what he was doing there," she explained. It was mostly true, at least. "In our world, he was a dangerous criminal, one of the most diabolical we ever faced. It nearly sickens me to think of how many times his machinations have nearly pushed us to the brink of destruction."

Shuddering silently, she forced herself to continue. "However... however, his treachery finally caught up to him, at least we thought so. I - **we** saw him... saw him die. Terra threw him into a river of lava right before our eyes..."

"He pulled an Anakin Skywalker?"

She shook her head again. A part of her, a small part, was almost ready to deride him for his mention of the prequels, which no doubt would have somehow caught Cyborg's attention as well, but she didn't feel quite up to joking around yet.

"No, he fell _into_ the lava," she said, lowering her eyes as she remembered. "There was nothing left for us to recover."

"I won't ask for an explanation of who, or what, I put my hand through then," Ryu decided and took a deep breath, seeing the mostly repaired wound in his midriff flex with the motion and hold. "This'll do, I think. I don't mind it hurting a bit. It reminds me it's there."

Taking a deep breath of her own, Raven nodded again. "Very well then."

She then rose to her feet. "I'll go tend to Shampoo. I can feel, even from here, that she has at least one broken rib. Konatsu won't be able to do anything with that, but I should be able to."

"Raven," Ryouga spoke up then, as she knew he would. The differences between the two genetically identical Hibikis in the room were many and varied, but she recognized the tone of voice right away. It carried notes of worry and resignation, and of an inability to avoid something potentially uncomfortable. Oh, how she knew that last one.

"When you finish with Shampoo and Ukyou," he continued. "We're going to have to talk about some things. Sooner being better than later."

She nodded compliantly. "I know."

Without another word, she moved over to where Shampoo was seated. Unlike with Ryu, she didn't bother interrupting Konatsu's ministrations and instead simply pressed her hands to the Amazon's ribcage, just below her breasts. As one, both girls hissed loudly at the initial contact, but were equally too stubborn to acknowledge the unique, agonizing sensation of bone knitting itself together beneath the skin.

The pain was actually a welcome distraction at this point. It allowed her to forget about the upcoming conversation that she was about to have. How did she explain what happened? How could she? Did she even explain it at all? She had to - unlike her friends, this man knew. _He knew_. Either way, being honest, or at least trying to lie to his face, it would likely spell the end of her involvement on these missions. Rightly so.

After several minutes, Raven moved away from Shampoo, both her torso and her hands vastly improved after her treatment, and knelt at Ukyou's side. The chef's injuries were far less severe, but after treating two heavily injured people already, they were no easier to heal. Still, she grit her teeth and bore the pain. Was she perhaps hoping that her selfless deeds here would gain her some small measure of leniency? It certainly felt like far too little, far too late by this point.

_'No,'_ she decided, adamant. She would not try to scheme her way out of this. _'No!'_

No deceptions; no currying for favor; no obfuscation. She would simply explain what had happened and allow him to make his own decision. That thought in mind, she waited until the worst of Ukyou's wounds received tended to, before giving the older woman's leg a gentle squeeze and looking up at her.

"Are you alright now?" she asked. "I think my talk with the Major is now long overdue."

"Much better," Ukyou replied with a thankful, cheery smile. "You know, whatever happens, you came back to us. That counts for something in my book, sugar."

Their eyes met for a second, and Raven bowed her head a bit before standing. The older Hibiki was currently leaning against the doorway, obviously planning to speak with her in another section of the ship, and Raven couldn't be certain if his desire for privacy was distressing, or relieving. His arms were crossed and he'd changed into a fresh white undershirt of the sort preferred by all the young men in India and Juliet squads to wear under their personal armor. She could see an index finger tapping the bicep of his left arm and the growing anxiety in his guarded posture.

He looked like he wanted to either panic or howl injustice to the heavens.

Sensing her approach, he nodded sharply to the door, gesturing for her to go through first, only to follow her a moment later. Once they reached the center of the control room, he then turned and walked briskly over to the reactor room door, opposite the nav station. Physical and psionic contact opened the door, and he stepped inside, Raven following silently behind. This was technically the third largest room in the ship, but it was still boxed full of accessories to the steadily pulsing Elerium reactor and EDC that was the core of the ship. There was still more room here than in the small storage areas and antechambers on the right side of the ship, but just so.

For a few seconds after reaching the eastern wall of the room, the door closing behind them, he watched her without saying a word. No doubt he had thought about what he wanted to say; which meant he had to be letting her stew a bit for effect. It was a trick Robin had employed often enough. It wasn't something she had ever thought she would be on the receiving end of, but she bore the silent treatment stoically, regardless.

"Your hood," he finally said, to her surprise.

It took a second to sink in. She reached up and pulled it back, revealing her face and her eyes. It was always a bit of a crutch, her hood: a way to hide herself when she was uncomfortable with what she felt she had to show others. The accessory was common in Azarath, or had been, but Raven knew herself pretty well. She knew it meant more to her to have it there, to bring it up, to _disappear_, if only a little while.

Seeing her face again, Ryouga sighed; a mixture of acceptance and weariness.

"Just tell me the truth," he said, though whether it was meant as a question or order, she didn't quite know. Maybe both. "What happened back there?"

It wasn't, she reflected, a very fair question. So few words which demanded so many in response. Now that she'd reached the moment, she realized that she still wasn't sure how to explain what had happened. Frowning, she finally replied as simply as she could.

"I... I let my guard down," the fallen Titan tried to explain. At the uncertain expression on his face, she attempted to clarify.

"I've been in your world for so long that... that I forgot how insidious my father's influence can be." Looking down, she stared at her own feet, ashamed. "It all began just like a dream, and by the time I realized what was happening... it was only because Ryouga was able to bring me back to reality."

A weary sigh followed. This would be it, here, now.

"I have no excuse. At no point was I not in control of my own actions. Everything that I did... it all seemed like the right thing to do at the time."

"You left your teammates behind," he said, and there, finally, she heard hints of anger and disappointment.

"I saw..."

"**I don't care what you saw!**" he snapped and she flinched. "We move as units. As teams. We watch each other's backs! You _know_ that."

Not raising her eyes, she accepted the accusation. It was true. She knew. She _had_ known.

She'd done it anyway.

"I know about Trigon."

And there was the difference between him and... her friends, who she'd gone so far to hide the truth from. Her friends who she had lied to and deceived. And, while she was being brutally honest with herself, if the choice had been there, she wouldn't have shared _that_ with this Ryouga or anyone else in the organization they worked for. Not just because it was personal, so very personal, but because it was... it was something that terrified her to the core. It was a terrible, _heavy_ burden to bear, knowing that you would bring about the end of days, and that there was nothing – _nothing _that could be done to stop it. No one should have to live with that stark truth; no one should be forced to embrace that utter hopelessness.

It was so much better, so much easier to hide it; to cover it up.

"I _knew_. And I gave the orders. This is my fault, too," he admitted, voice still tinged with tempered anger, kept at a low simmer. Honestly, she knew that he still _didn't_ know, not truly, just how hopeless her situation was, but she chose not to correct him. He knew, but he couldn't truly understand.

"But you're right," he continued. "You _don't_ have excuses. You were seduced, not controlled. You let down your team and your friends and you're going to have to live with that."

Raven kept her eyes closed, her already fragile emotions starting to bubble up. Treacherous eyes began to water, and she cursed them for it. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had talked to her like that. Like this. It was so much worse hearing these words, that note of disappointment, in **his** voice than it would have been coming from Robin. This Hibiki wasn't her Hibiki, but rational thought wasn't in great supply at the moment. She was still human. She still bled. She still hurt.

And hearing that _hurt_.

"Raven," he said her name a little more softly now. "You have more power here than anyone. More than me, or Ranma, or Starfire or Cyborg. I know the lengths you've gone through to keep that power from turning you into something you don't want to become. I also know you've done this alone. I think I know a little what that's like. But you have a dozen people out there that I guarantee you can rely on. You just have to give a little to share a heavy load."

"It's not that I don't want to," she stated so quietly she could hardly hear it herself. "It's just... my friends... none of them deserve to bear this burden."

But… now that she thought on it, what had that mindset actually gained her? Attempting to shoulder all of her troubles by herself? All it had taken was one slip, just letting her defenses down for a moment, and what had happened? By relying only on herself, on her own strength, just a single moment of weakness had nearly cost her everything. If not for the psionic overlay she had been given...

At that precise moment, the true weight of what she had done crushed on down on her and she couldn't stop the broken, choked sob that escaped her throat. What she'd done to Ryouga. What she'd done to Jinx? Her world began to spin around her.

"Oh, Azar...!"

She hid her eyes, and for an instant, Raven felt her powers begin to buck against her control, using her own emotions to try to run wild. Realizing just where they were at that moment, the delicate Elerium reactor literally several feet away from her, she clamped down hard on her surging power, ashamed at the near loss of control. Above even that, though, she was ashamed of what she had done to her teammate, to her _comrade_.

"How," Raven bit back another cry, trying to at least sound a little composed. But it was all but pointless. She covered her face with her hands, not wanting to face anything anymore. "How could I have done that to her?"

"Raven," she heard her name, and felt a familiar pair of hands steady her by the shoulders. There was comfort there, an offer of assistance, but it came with costs attached: honesty. Brutal honesty. Rough fingers gently lowered her palms, and she looked up to see Ryouga looking down on her with worry. He was angry, too, and disappointed, but more than that, he was concerned and there was a longing desire to help that flowed empathically into her, lighting a small spark of light in the darkness.

"What did you do to Jinx?" he asked, gently. "I want to help you, both of you, but I _need_ to know what happened."

"I... I honestly don't know," Raven's answer wasn't what he wanted, but it was earnest. "I had just beaten her, _so_ badly... and then I - I just remember thinking that I would set her free. Fix her." She borrowed Ryu's words from before with shame. "But then Ryouga interrupted the process, shattered the ground out from beneath our feet... I don't even know how much I was able to accomplish, or what actually took effect."

For a moment, she dared to hope. "It's possible that... that he disrupted the entire process! That maybe nothing happened!"

She didn't see that hope reflected in the older Hibiki's face.

"I'd like that, but..." He didn't need to say: _'but I doubt it.'_

"I don't know if I should even take her out of that tank," he admitted, sighing and glancing upwards for a moment. "She isn't in there because of her wounds. She's in there because we don't know what's in her head, and while Ranma and I can mind dive, we can't... can't do anything to help. We aren't trained in that sort of thing."

Everyone knew of the (probably one sided) animosity between Jinx and this Ryouga. A part of Raven probably wouldn't have been too surprised to hear him say or think some of what she had herself felt, deep down: that he didn't _like_ the pink witch, that a part of him didn't want her up and about on the ship at all. That she could just stay in the tank until the mission was over. In that moment, a jealous little spike shot up within her, angry that even _this_ Ryouga seemed to have a soft spot for the pink haired witch. That even _he_ liked Jinx more than her.

**No** - Raven caught that, nipped it hard in the bud.

It wasn't that. It was just obligation.

_Where had that thought even come from?_

Over the next few minutes, she repeated everything that she had seen and experienced: the lies, the truth, the reality that had dared to contradict everything she believed sacred. Or so she was starting to think. Raven could hardly believe, as the words spilled out, starting as a trickle and becoming a deluge, how much of a relief it was to just... babble. To **not** hold back. It wasn't even that she expected anything in return.

This wasn't her Ryouga. He didn't care about her in any romantic or deeply personal way. He didn't care about Jinx, either, not like that. There was no emotional baggage, no nagging voice telling her _'don't say that - what will he think?_' Yes, he had all but ordered her to spill what had happened, and there was that, but he wasn't forcing it out of her. Once she started, once she began to unload all the things she felt and thought, to talk to someone about it all, it felt good. It was a relief.

Maybe he'd see now if he wanted to share some of the burden, like he had claimed.

By the time she was done, Raven found herself wishing the reactor room had a seat. Something. Anything to sit down on. Her legs felt weak, as if she'd been walking all day without rest or respite. Done, satisfied, she felt an almost guilty pleasure. Whatever happened now was out of her hands. Even if she ended up locked in a room, or if she took Jinx's place in a stasis tube, it would be based solely on her merits and failings alone. No more lies.

"I..." he finally said, decided, a frown long since in place. "I believe you. When we get back to base, HQ will want scans done to confirm it, but I believe you. This Ring of Azar?"

Raven opened her hand, the fragile ring resting in her palm. She'd retrieved it during the retelling, taking some solace in its quiet power and solid substance. It was tangible proof, not just of her story, but of Azarath. The Azarath she had loved and remembered. It was still with her.

Ryouga reached out and closed her hand around the ring. "Keep it. More than anyone, you'll need it. I guess it's part of your legacy."

He released her hand and sighed, a weighty sound that implied he was about to say something harsh to counterbalance the silence and gentility of before. His features hardened as his thoughts coalesced, passed muster, and finally became a decision. When he spoke next, it was as the leader of this expedition.

"You know this, but I'll say it anyway," he began. "We aren't back home. We aren't anywhere _near_ home. For the time being, I'm confining you to the ship or to immediate escort by India or Juliet squads. This isn't permanent. Yankee - the Teen Titans - are your friends, and they'll need you as much as you need them. I just don't want... the situation we're in now to become... volatile. Especially if, or when, Jinx gets up. Do you understand?"

Raven nodded weakly. "I expected no less. It is only a logical precaution to take, considering all that happened. I can only hope that the Commander will be so... lenient with me once we return. If - if my actions here have destroyed my friends chances to get home... I don't think I would ever be able to forgive myself."

He also nodded in agreement, having his own reasons for wanting things resolved... cleanly.

"One more thing," the Major added, his tone betraying some growing reluctance. After a second, he finally continued. "You don't have to answer this if you don't want to. Hell, it's..." He groaned, squinting his eyes for a second. "It's awkward to even ask. But your Ryouga, the one out there, do you... love him?"

At that moment, more than anything, Raven really wanted to cover up under her hood. Her free hand even reached halfway for it before she caught herself.

"W-what kind of question is that?" she said instead, hoping it didn't quite come out like a squeak. "I - I mean, I said before that... that I..."

"You said you wanted _him_ to love _you_," he stated, reiterating her own words. "That you _ordered_ him to. Raven. Your father isn't the only one who can take something like that - an... an emotional dilemma you don't know how to handle - and use it against you. Far more than anyone I've ever met, you need to control your emotions, and I think it's clear that when it comes to him, you're having some difficulty."

She straightened, defensive, at that frank assessment, accuracy aside.

"As a commanding officer, I should probably say something like: 'don't let your emotions jeopardize the mission' ... then again, I don't think rehashed phrases will help," Ryouga said this with a curt laugh. "But if anyone can deal with this, it should be you. You're about a million times better at managing your emotions than I am. Make a partition. Find an outlet. Get laid if you have to. I don't care what. Your emotions are your power. Get things under control again."

The Titan's normally pale skin flushed bright scarlet. Out of _all_ of the useful and productive things he had suggested, only one registered clearly with her and it was all she could do to stop from sputtering indignantly. Especially as it repeated in her mind over and over and over.

"G - g - get lai-" She cut her stuttering off right there, staring at him lividly, her cheeks flushed bright enough to almost glow. "Acting Major, that is _highly_ inappropriate! As much as my emotions may be pertinent to the mission, what I do with my sex li - personal - my-" She pulled her hood up to cover her flaming face, buying herself a moment to recover. "I'll get things under control. I promise. But what I do in my 'free time' is of _no_ concern to you, do you understand?"

"Sure, sure! At least you're not going crazy for Ranma like most girls," he remarked with an amused smirk, tilting his head to the side in good humor. "Alright. I've said my piece. Let's go see what new crisis we have to deal with."

Cheeks and ears still feeling like they might combust, Raven nodded far more sharply than necessary. Spinning quickly, she made her way for the door and back into the command room. With even greater speed, she then ducked around the corner and found the nearest door leading back to the hold, trying to get as many walls between her and the acting Major as possible.

Honestly, what kind of advice was that?

_'Get laid if you have to!'_

Why did it keep repeating in her head?

As if it was even that easy.

As if she could just turn around and even find anyone _interested_, let alone willing -

Raven ground that train of thought into the dirt right then and there. That was _not_ a productive line of reasoning right there. Not in the slightest. Definitely. Defiantly not. No. The fact that one or more of her emotional partitions seemed to be happily repeating the advice in her cluttered brain only lent it a schizophrenic air.

That was it; she needed to start her rigorous meditation regime all over again. Right this very instant, even. She would find a dark corner, set herself down and utterly destroy anyone that so much as disturbed her for the next several hours.

She glanced around the room briefly.

Well... maybe she could start right after she checked on Ryouga.

Another look at "her" Ryouga, at his slumped shoulders and defeated expression as he stared helplessly at the unconscious Jinx, especially coming right after her emotionally charged discussion with the older Hibiki, nearly broke Raven right then and there.

…Then again, maybe not.

* * *

Ranma and Cyborg made a very interesting dichotomy when it came to explaining what was going on. The pigtailed one had actually disconnected himself from the ship to talk to them in person, and filled his flowing descriptions of what was outside and what had happened with colorful and often irrelevant metaphors that ultimately left most people wondering just what the hell they'd heard.

Cyborg, in contrast, started on a long seminar-like explanation of what had happened, or didn't happen, or could have happened, punctuated frequently by discordant slang. Together, the pair of them did their best to explain the situation to the gathered mass of operatives all now squeezed in tightly in the control room; unfortunately, their rather haphazard approach was garnering somewhat mixed results.

"I see," Starfire was the first to respond, nodding understandingly.

"Well I don't." Ryouga-the-elder stood off to the side, looking more than a bit frustrated at his lack of comprehension. "Just summarize it again? In three sentences."

"To put it in Hibiki'ese... we're lost," Cyborg replied.

"Really, really, _REALLY_ lost," Ranma clarified. "And we're inside some kind of... giant structure. That goes on for miles."

"And the EDC is toast, man," Cyborg added, only to pause for a second. "At least... I think it is. Kind of. Wait, how many sentences did we have again?"

"The EDC isn't the problem," Ranma corrected. "The software is fine. Diagnostics come back green, but there's a short or fault or something."

"Yeah, that's kinda what I meant."

"We ain't got the parts to fix it either."

"Not that we're exactly sure _what_ it is that needs fixing yet, either."

There, at last, they came to the heart of the problem.

"I'd like to have this ship ready to transit back home as soon as possible," Ryouga cut off further digression between the two. "Cyborg. Can you fix it?"

"I just said we ain't got the parts, P-chan," Ranma grumbled, arms sourly crossed.

"That pretty much sums it up, Ryo Senior. I hate to admit it," the cybernetic teen truly did. "But ya can't fix a bear trap with duct tape. This thing was already jury rigged together so quickly that I doubt it would survive any more of the MacGyver treatment."

"And even if we can fix that," Ranma hastened to add. "We can't transit out from in this hole. She ship'll be cut to ribbons when the window opens."

"And the outside?" Ryouga asked, trying not to show any discomfort at the news.

"Now _that_ is interesting!" Cyborg gushed, despite the dire straights they found themselves in. "We're literally buried in the middle of what looks like another ship. Sensors have mapped out dozens of levels, with rooms, equipment, all sorts of stuff! Some weird things too: places with pockets of air, other places without it, plus over a hundred bulkheads and compartments. Like a crazy maze or something."

"That's not even all of it, either," he quickly added. "I'm almost one hundred percent sure that we're not just crashed into 'a' ship. Mapping sweeps picked up solid rock: nickel iron and silicates, merged into the structure. There are a couple energy sources we've detected, but they're all different. I think, if we go out and look, we'll discover this isn't just one ship, ya get it...?"

He hung on the word, leaving the implication unspoken, but only got confused stares in response.

"It isn't one ship, man! It's a bunch'a ships! Four or five? Maybe just to start!" He cupped his hands together. "Who knows how many are out there? Ten? Fifty? We could only accurately scan the stuff within a couple hundred meters." He cupped his hands together. "It's like we're trapped in a crushed up ball."

"And how did we get here, anyway?" Mousse asked from the back, standing against the door. "Why aren't we in... in our dimension?"

"Again, I got no idea," Ranma admitted with a heavy sigh. "It was like, one moment things were fine, the next we come out here. I just fly the thing. I don't know how it does what it does."

"I'm looking into it," Cyborg explained. "But it'll take some time, y'know? Maybe we hit an inter-dimensional wall movin' from our metaverse back to the one you guys are from?"

"No contact with the outside at all?" Ryouga asked, wary but hopeful.

"Some EM noise. Lotta background rads. No radio that we can make sense of."

For a couple seconds, the men and women of the teams were silent, digesting what they'd heard. It was bleak news. At least Azarath had seemed nice enough at first glance. This was an out and out mess, ready to bloom into full blown disaster if they couldn't fix the dimensional drive. Sitting next to each other, Ukyou muttered something to Konatsu, and it quickly started more than a few hushed conversations among the teams.

"Our number one priority has to be fixing the EDC," Ryouga spoke up again, his mind made up. It helped that he'd heard some of this already and had some extra time to think things over. "Number two will be clearing a space for us to maneuver. That means a demolitions team. Cyborg, we'll be counting on you. Anything you need to cannibalize, anything you find out there that you need, you tell me and we'll get it."

The mechanically inclined genius' voice resounded with self confidence.

"You got it, boss man!" He readily agreed. "As soon as I have a more reliable diagnosis of what the damage is, I can start putting together a list of what we need. After that, Star and I can head out to start trying to free the ship while the rest of you search the area. No offense, Ukyou, but combat demolitions and construction demolitions are two entirely different things, so you'll have to pass up on a perfectly good chance to chill with me out in the frigid void of space."

"That's okay, sugar. I was always more of a Kansai, warm weather girl anyway," the chef replied with an upbeat laugh. "Always good business at the beach."

"I've forgotten what a beach even looks like," Ryu joked, sitting behind her.

"I bet you only went to ogle the girls."

"Hmm... maybe."

The quick bit of banter lightened the mood, something for which Ryouga was thankful.

"While you guys work on that..." He looked over the assembled squads; a dozen faces turned in his direction. They looked tired, haggard almost after their experience in Azarath, but ready and willing to go back into the thick of things. India, Juliet, Yankee alike. He felt proud to be entrusted with them in that moment, more so than ever before.

"Let's face some facts," he continued. "We're beat up. We're tired. And I bet we're all hungry. So let's break out some rations, calm down just a little, and then we'll get to work. We'll start demolitions once we've identified more of the area. The ship is in hard vacuum at the moment, so no leaving without full environmental gear. If your armor is damaged, we've got some replacement parts. Fix them up and double check them. You don't want to be gasping for air out there."

Having been spaced before, he was aware of that personally.

"Starfire, Ryu, Kuno, Konatsu, you're gonna be on immediate recon. Two teams. Just a quick sweep of the area. Put out some beacons, drop some lights, the usual. We'll take this one step at a time, alright?"

The prospect of a break energized the group, and Ryouga smiled.

"Alright! Dismissed."

* * *

The passing minutes dragged by for the young Hibiki as he sat on the floor, leaning bodily against the stasis pod which held his... he still wasn't sure what word to use, and that frustrated him far more than it had any right to at the moment. All around him, people were busy doing things that needed to be done: eating rations, patching up armor, or even just discussing the upcoming crawl through the alien craft to find whatever it was that Cyborg would eventually require to repair the ship.

At this point, not even the fact that they were trapped inside a derelict vessel, lost in yet another bizarre dimension, fazed him. He had simply passed the point of caring mere moments after they had smashed into this new realm. As it was, he doubted he could even stomach a ration, nor did his armor require any repairs, aside from some minor chemical scoring on his alien alloy boots. They would need to be replaced when they got back to Seiran, but they would be fine for now.

He could only imagine what everyone else must be thinking of him at that moment. Even Raven, sitting in a dark corner at the far side of the hold was shooting glances his way from time to time. How pathetic he must seem, that even the guilt ridden girl was looking at him with worry in her eyes. Him, the proud super hero, the scourge of the battlefield, creator of techniques that not even his far more talented (evil) counterpart could copy… sitting huddled at the feet of an unconscious girl. So worthless that he couldn't even pretend to contribute to the mission at the moment.

Not that they should even want his contributions at this point.

His foolishness had nearly destroyed them all. Letting Raven go off on her own? …Well, there hadn't actually been anything he could do about that, not even Star had been able to catch the girl before she was out of reach. But, still, she was his responsibility, as was Jinx's safety, and the safety of the rest of his team. It might as well have been him that had beaten Jinx unconscious, rather than Raven.

Sighing morosely, Ryouga traced his finger along the floor. It wouldn't surprise him if he was stripped of his 'acting sergeant' rank after this. He almost welcomed the idea. Not for the first time, he found himself wishing that Robin had been dragged into this with them. The smaller Titan wouldn't have embarrassed his entire team as Ryouga had. Hell, the masked vigilante probably would have already shaped Yankee squad into one of Seiran's elite teams, not the bases 'problem child' that was barely tolerated for their individual talents.

Still, whatever problems, whatever reprimands were to come, none of it mattered as long as Jinx was alright. Konatsu had assured him that the slight sorceress was physically fine – comparatively speaking after taking such a pummeling – and that it was just a matter of time before she woke up. That thought alone kept the more lost than ever boy relatively calm, and it was what kept him rooted to his spot.

It wasn't long, then, before an unwanted but generally expected intrusion came his way.

"Hibiki."

It was the other-him. _Of course_. There was a pause as the Titan's dimensional twin leaned perceptibly forward to peer down at the unconscious hex mistress within the stasis tube.

"You don't need to be here," the acting Major explained. "She's physically fine; you know we'll do everything we can for her. Right now, you should attend to your squad." He made as if to reach for the younger man's shoulder, but thought better of it. "You can't just be their friend. You're their leader, too."

The younger Ryouga nodded, only to let out a bark of derisive laughter a moment later. To explain his bout of dark mirth, he gestured to his various teammates.

"The kind of leader that's not even as competent as the people he's supposed to lead." Pointing from one to the next: Starfire, assisting Shampoo with repairing and replacing the damaged sections of her armor, Cyborg, in the other room, plugged into the computer system and hunting down whatever problems plagued the ship, and finally Raven, serenely meditating and already looking more centered than he, himself felt. "The only one that actually needs tending is Jinx... for everyone else, I'd just get in their way and probably screw up what they're trying to accomplish."

The slightly older version of himself made the same circuit with his eyes.

"You may be right," he admitted, saying it slowly as his eyes and attention gradually returned to Jinx and her vigilant watchdog. "Maybe they'd be annoyed to have you butting in."

For a second, it seemed he'd leave it at that.

"Or maybe they'd be glad to see you taking an interest," he added. "A little attention and a little confidence can go a long way, especially when a team has been through a rough time. You don't have to babysit them, but you shouldn't make it seem like you're lost in your own little world. That isn't helping anyone."

"No," the younger Hibiki replied with a chuckle, running a hand down the semi-transparent curve of the medical tube. "But you have to admit... It certainly comes naturally to us, doesn't it?"

"It does."

The simple admission needed no further elaboration. Blame it on background. Blame it on a lack of social skills. Blame it on a strength that made it hard to get close to others. Blame it on just getting lost all the damn time. Most of the time, indeed, for most of their mutual lives, Ryouga Hibiki had been quite literally lost in his own little world. And it didn't help anyone, himself included.

Sensing there was more that had to be said, here and now, with this crisis past and another looming, the older Hibiki took a quick breath. "You know why I asked the Commander to form India Squad, right?"

Sedately, Ryouga nodded. He didn't think he needed to mention her name, but he was fairly certain that had been the main reason behind the formation of his counterpart's entry into the military.

"I... have a pretty good idea," he finally settled on, not wanting to offend, for once.

The other Ryouga seemed to appreciate that.

Her name was still... touchy.

"I hate to admit it, but at first, I didn't care much about any of them back then. Mousse. Kuno. I didn't even _know_ Ryu. I just thought they'd be the best weapons I could have nearby. I knew they were strong enough to fight. It took a while to realize I was still in my world, and doing nothing. I'm just glad I realized that before anyone got killed..."

He sighed, summoning up courage to say what came next.

"There's nothing worse than feeling powerless," the acting Major whispered, just loud enough to hear. "The only thing that made me keep going... that gave my life meaning... was trying to get back the control I lost that night when they took her. To fight back. To strike back. I'm still trying to deal with it, honestly. But I found new things to fight for, and not just to die for: my friends and my team. I'm not even sure when it happened, really. Things just... worked out that way."

"You may not understand why," he said, seeing the younger Hibiki paying some attention now. He inclined his head towards Starfire, and then Raven, and then over to Cyborg in the other room. "But they all look to you. Not look up to you. They look _to_ you. You weren't put in command of Yankee because you're a version of me. You were the one the others wanted. Now, the question is what you're going to do about it?"

Finally, Ryouga rose to his feet. Looking around the room once more, he let out another weary sigh. As much as he liked to think the acting Major had just come over to give him a pep talk, he knew that wasn't the case.

"What will I do?" he asked. It was rhetorical, of course. "I guess I'll get my well deserved dressing down out of the way, try to scrabble together any remaining shards of pride that might remain after that, and then try to do right by my friends... Does that sound about right?"

"It does," the older Hibiki replied, curtly. "I trust you to handle it, sergeant." This time, he didn't look anywhere else than at his counterpart. "About this dressing down. You should know I'm also not going to hold your hand or nitpick every decision you make. But if you needlessly endanger your men, _my men_, then, yes you'll hear about it, but we don't want second guessing in the field. We'll both get enough of that when Intel goes over everything your team has been through with a fine tooth comb."

A sigh, directed not at the acting sergeant, but at certain covert branches back at base.

"We'll deal with that later..." he promised. "Right now, let's start with you telling me your assessment of what went right back there and what went wrong..."

Feeling an odd combination of resignation and relief over finally getting this over and done with, the younger Ryouga proceeded to do just that. Admittedly, after everything that had happened, his memory was a bit spotty in areas, but he did his best to recount the exploits of Yankee during their stay in Azarath. He recalled how normally everything had start out, right up until Raven's abrupt departure, quickly followed by Starfire's aborted attempt to catch the girl on account of a swarm of unnatural bird creatures. He breezed through most of their time inside the tower, as most of it had just been traveling up massive flights of stairs until they had reached the main chamber.

It was here, that the younger martial artist found himself choosing his words carefully. Raven's sudden reappearance; his brief, one-sided bout with the young woman. He still recalled every word that Raven had spoken to him, and did his best to repeat the conversation… at least, he did until a certain point. No matter how honest he wanted to be, an entire stretch of his memories was all but gone. One moment, Raven had been saying something about believing him, and then, just like that, he was on his knees in the shattered remains of the once great chamber, Jinx's screams echoing through his ears.

No, that wasn't entirely true.

There were no memories, but he could still feel something… some lingering emotions, or feelings that he couldn't explain. He – he had a vague idea of what Raven had tried to do - what she had done? – but he hadn't actually confirmed the events with anyone. That, though, was the one thing that he didn't, couldn't put in his report, though he doubted he was doing a good job of hiding it. How did he tell his superior officer, just on the tail end of an inspiring speech about his friends needing him… that just the idea of talking to Raven at the moment filled him with so many conflicting emotions that he was just as likely to kiss her as he was to kill her…? Or possibly both at the same time.

He trusted her, of that there was no doubt. Consciously, he knew that what had happened hadn't been Raven's fault… not entirely. But he wasn't the kind of person that thought rationally most of the time. Honestly, the beleaguered Hibiki had no idea how to reconcile the situation in his mind. So he didn't. Instead, he chose to simply gloss over the whole fight and just move on to his decision to take Jinx back to the ship. He already knew it hadn't been the best decision he could have made, though, had he known the world would go to hell mere minutes after he chose to split up, then he probably might have made a very different call.

Then again, probably not.

Still, that was it, really, not really a terribly long report, as there wasn't any point in retelling a battle that the elder Hibiki had been a participant of. In hindsight, he didn't regret any of his decisions. Though trusting Raven had been a gamble that no one else would have taken, it had paid off in all of their favors. Returning to the Pathfinder himself, rather than sending Starfire, had been based totally on his emotions, but in the end his combat techniques were well suited to the kind of mass combat that had ensued, helping out greatly in holding their position. Not to mention proving again that desperation was the mother of all invention.

Not that any of that mattered, as both of those decisions could have just as easily gone the other way and ended up with everyone dead. The only thing that did matter, was the acting Major's thoughts on the situations, and so Ryouga did the only thing he could once he finished his rattling diatribe of near disaster. He straightened his back, lifted his chin and waited for the older Hibiki to lay into him.

"I'm not going to relieve you," the commissioned Ryouga Hibiki said, having thought about all he'd heard. "But I don't envy the after action report you're going to have to write either."

The younger shuddered, not very fond of the bureaucratic paperwork he knew lay ahead.

"See to your team," he concluded, walking away, likely to check in on the inventory efforts of damaged and repaired equipment. Leaning back, relaxing his posture again, Ryouga's heel tapped the side of Jinx's stasis tube, a physical reminder of all that had happened, and of the confusion over what was going to happen in the future. It was so tempting just to stay here, watching her, waiting for her... but it wasn't productive, and there was no cave to sequester himself in, or road to get lost down. So...

There really was no choice, then.

Giving his head one last rueful shake, he muttered to himself, "Still… That actually wasn't too bad. Old man Hibiki must be going soft."

Grinning to himself, and to his amazement, it was not forced in any way, he decided to make good on the acting Major's not quite official order. Placing his hand on the smooth alien metal wall to his side, he began to walk around the perimeter of the room, looking over everyone present, as if for the first time since he'd boarded this ship. Not that he needed the physical anchor to get him around the room, but it was still a small comfort to him as he allocated the bulk of his attention to studying his friends.

Cyborg was sequestered with Ranma and Nabiki in the navigation and command room, but it was that relative isolation that made the prospect of checking in on him first attractive. And with the helpful assistance of the cool, metal wall, it was a simple matter to make his way to, and through the door to the control room. Ryouga found him, as expected, in front of an array of displays next to Pathfinder's pigtailed pilot. Strolling sedately, he reached his friend's side and dropped a hand on Cyborg's shoulder.

"So, how are you holding up, Cy?"

Looking up from his work, the cybernetic teen actually did a quick double take as he realized just who it was talking to him. He covered it up by swiftly giving his head a shake and donning a broad smile. Immediately, Cyborg dropped a hand onto Ryouga's and gave it a not so gentle pat.

"I'm doing good, Ryo. You gave us the easy assignment, remember?" Almost as quickly as it appeared, the older teen's grin faded into a frown and he leveled a serious look at the acting sergeant. "The question is… how are you holding up, man?" A human eye shifted quickly past Ryouga back to the door from where he came, beyond which one girl sat meditating and another in medical stasis. "Things got kinda… kinda rough for you in there."

Ryouga refused to let his own eyes wander, forcing himself to match Cyborg's stare. That was, putting it mildly, a somewhat massive understatement, but admitting to being a bit off put over his near mind crushing and the trauma of carrying around the unconscious body of the girl he loved through the fires of hell – and it wasn't even a metaphor this time – probably wasn't the best way to go about instilling confidence as the senior Hibiki had advised. So, instead he settled on a somewhat more sedate approach.

"I'm… I'm doing fine," he replied, trying to sound sure of that fact. "Nothing that can't be hashed out once we get back to base, anyway… and once Jinx wakes up."

"Hey, don't even worry about it," Cyborg stated almost instantly. Swinging around in his chair, he slapped a heavy metal hand to Ryouga's shoulder, nearly staggering the mighty Hibiki before gesturing to the far room, in the general direction of a certain pink haired sorceress. "Girl may look like a pipe cleaner, but she's as tough as nails, she'll be up in no time."

Ryouga nodded thankfully, glad for his friend's support-

"_Hey_! Wait just a second!" he barked, instantly on the defensive. "_Who_ looks like a pipe cleaner?"

"You know, that's not necessarily an insult there," Ranma suddenly interjected spinning around in his seat. The mirth that danced in the pigtailed man's eyes was anything but innocent. "I mean, those wiry little things can bend into just all kinds of positions, can't they?"

Even before Cyborg had a chance to burst out in laughter, or Ryouga had a chance to bellow a time honored 'Who Asked You?' the offending martial artist was quickly silenced by a smack to the back of the head. As one, the three young men spun about, just in time to see Nabiki recover her hand, wincing slightly and blowing on her reddened fingers after making the mistake of assaulting Saotome's most heavily tempered region: a skull plate reinforced by two years of Akane-based pummeling.

"Honestly, how can you talk about Jinx like that at a time like this? I'm tempted to tell Akane what you just said, just to see what she thinks of it," stated the middle Tendo sister imperiously. She quickly followed it up with an under the breath mutter, "You sound almost as bad as Ryu."

"Hey, hey! No need for those kinds of threats," Ranma said frantically. "I'll be good, I promise!"

Nabiki just looked at the martial artist through lidded eyes before shifting her gaze over to the pair of Titan males. "I don't know how you two managed to stay as innocent as you are… it was kind of silly at first, but now I'm wondering if you should try to hold on to it a bit longer. We could use a little more childlike wonder at times like this-" She paused then as her own words sunk in. "Also, don't tell anyone that I said that… ever."

Offering a final glare in warning, setting all three boys back an inch, Nabiki then rose gracefully from her seat and walked purposefully away from them. Considering that even Ryouga was fairly certain that she didn't have any actual purpose in mind, and was just doing it to save a bit of face, it was a most impressive display. Finally, he gave his head a shake and turned back to the would be space ship pilots.

"So… where were we again?"

"I think Ranma was mentioning just how flexible Jinx was-"

"_Okay_, that's it! You're obviously doing fine. I'm going to check on someone else!"

* * *

Nabiki didn't mention it, and certainly had no intention of thinking too deeply about it, but she had observed a particular irritant to her line of work. It was one that was easily on display as she left the command room and entered the main hold. As the voice over the comm, even to India Squad of which she considered herself a now-integral part, her appearance often became somewhat intangible. There was a certain "battlefield camaraderie" she had seen readily develop between those who physically fought alongside one another, and despite her critical role in the grand scheme, that instinctive reaction didn't seem to extend to the voice of mission control and coordination.

It wasn't that she was expecting salutes or a great deal of attention, but she could feel the difference there: a sensation of others knowing you were there but opting to leave you alone. In fact, Operators at Seiran didn't interact personally with their teams most of the time and her efforts to do so were somewhat irregular. Likewise, 'command staff' outside of field operations didn't mingle either except with other officers. It was probably more military tradition or carryover or even just human nature, and Nabiki didn't exactly lament it, but at the moment she felt that space between herself and all the "field operations" members of their close knit teams.

Near the airlock, Kuno, Starfire, Ryu and Konatsu were getting ready to step out to perform some close-area reconnaissance of the immediate environment outside the ship. Ryouga was with them, discussing some last minute protocol or another, or maybe just making sure they were prepped to head out under an officer sanctioned ROE. As always, the situation defaulted to 'potentially hostile' but no one would be using the usual perimeter strategy. Among other things, they lacked the usual assortment of explosives.

Walking over, she also saw Raven meditating by herself with her back to the wall. Nabiki hadn't missed the fact that Ryouga had had a talk with her earlier, and she could imagine what it was about. Things had really started running downhill on the last mission when the pale girl ran off, and while she seemed to have gotten back in control of herself and even come back with a literal vengeance, a whole lot of something had taken place out of sight and especially with respect to her team. There was going to be some serious work there to deal with the repercussions of it all.

Shampoo, Ukyou and Mousse were seated next to Jinx's medical tube, having moved from ship stores to personal inventory, of which an assortment of weapons and cooking utensils-turned-weapons lay scattered around the trio. Of Jinx herself, Nabiki didn't have a grasp of all that went down. She had taken a beating, that was clear just from the physiological monitors built into her personal armor, but she had also sustained some sort of serious psionic attack trauma. Ryouga and Ranma were really the only ones trained to deal with that, but they all knew that what they needed was to get the lithe hexxer back to base. Maybe it would be best if she slept through this little detour, for everyone's good.

It would be easy, too, to reconfigure the stasis tank to keep her unconscious.

Ranma could have done it with a thought from the nav interface, and Nabiki knew she could have done it with a few keystrokes from her work station. It wouldn't be the first time a victim of psionic attack had to be kept knocked out for a ride back to base, and in this case it wouldn't even involve a compulsory application of a stun-rod (an old XCOM standby). It would just be a matter of keeping her under. It was something she'd have to bring up again with the one person who had to actually make that call.

"Yes, sir, Hibiki-taichou," she caught Konatsu saying, polite and formal as always, and still attaching formalities to people's names, even in English.

"We'll follow your lead then, Konatsu," Ryu said immediately after, nudging the smaller young man. It seemed Juliet Squad's sergeant had been given field command for this, since both he and Ryu technically held the same rank (just as Ranma and Ryouga both did) a senior officer had to lay out the immediate chain of command.

"You boys," Nabiki spoke up, and inclined her head to Starfire. "And girl," she clarified. "Ready to head out? It looks like the set of 'Alien' out there."

"Thank you, Tendo Nabiki," Kuno replied with a smirk. "Your comparison is truly encouraging."

"We'll avoid anything trying to get _intimate_ with our faces," Ryu agreed.

"Indeed," Starfire added solemnly, "I too have learned the vivid and worrisome lessons of that particular documentary."

Kuno raised a noble eyebrow at the Tamaranian.

"You've got seven minutes," Ryouga reminded them. It was ample time to get everything ready. He turned his head Nabiki's way and added, "You, too, Nabiki. We'll need you at Ops. I'll be there, too."

"In that case I'll make sure you don't get lost on your way over."

"Even_ I_ can't get lost in here," he replied, and nodded curtly to the two recon units of Konatsu-Starfire and Ryu-Kuno. "You've got your orders. We go at signal green-blue-green."

"Watch your backs out there," Nabiki said the obvious, and frowned a bit at how much of a mother hen she probably sounded. It was hard to avoid that sort of thinking when you monitored everyone going into harm's way.

"We shall watch each other's backs," Starfire responded with a grin, and then gave Ryu and Kuno a half lidded stare. "Backs, that is, not back-sides."

The two young men laughed cheerfully at that, leaving poor Konatsu to silently blush. Nabiki nearly pouted. Honestly, Kuno-chan had always been an open pervert almost as far back as she had known him, but Ryu had quickly morphed from a sullen, brooding type into the swordsman's main rival in lewd... mannishness. Not that Nabiki herself was free of the occasional scandalous thought, but that didn't mean she reveled in it.

Not that _much_ anyway.

Hanging around a bunch of soldiers in a confined mountain base really hadn't done a lot for their manners, it seemed. Even Ranma was showing a bit more of his inner perv these days. Nabiki momentarily wondered if that was in spite of having gotten rather closer to Akane over the months or directly because of it? There was a sort of loveable - and _tease-able_ - innocence that she kind of missed in the pack of idiots.

Walking easily side by side with her, Ryouga relaxed his shoulders just a bit and sighed, ripping open a hand sized dried ration bar. It was a quicker and cleaner meal to go than one of the self heating MREs, and as he did, he held out a companion bar as a silent offer. Gentlemanly as always, he waited to see if she wanted it before taking a bite out of his own. It was really all they had the time for at the moment.

Taking the proffered provision with a nod of thanks, she ripped it open and bit down. It was probably supposed to be some sort of chocolate facsimile, but clearly science wasn't yet up to the task of making it both nutritious and deliciously, truly chocolaty. Wandering no where in particular, they ended up on the side of the ship's hold left of the airlock, rather than right, where most of the remaining teams were gathered. It was emptier here, with additional machinery and modifications to the ship and the hull.

"You talked to Raven?" she asked, after maybe a minute of comfortable silence. Taking the acting Major's water pouch, she squirted some fresh H-2-O into her mouth to wash down the would be snack bar turned meal.

"Yep," he replied, barely more than a grunt.

"Aaand?"

"And I'm keeping her confined to the ship for now," he explained, quickly, glancing over at her. "She doesn't look it, but she got put through a ringer back there. I don't even know where to start..." he muttered that, and reached up to massage his temples. "All I can do is try and keep things from blowing up in our faces."

She paused a second, sensing there was something else he wanted to say, but was working up whether to bring it out or not. She gave him the time. Nabiki knew him well by this point, and that he would tell her things he wouldn't say among the others. The reverse was true as well. Sometimes it just took a little while.

"I mean, I'm angry, too," he finally admitted. "But what good does that do?"

"That has to be the most ironic thing you've ever said," Nabiki observed, leaning a bit into him to provoke a buried grin in the young man.

"I know, really?" he asked with a near chuckle. "You don't know how tempting it is sometimes to just want to punch something." He looked down at his right hand, palm opening and closing. "This job... I'm trying to be like Lieutenant Feretti, or even Captain Ben-Solomon, you know? Everyone respects them. Likes them. Even I feel like I can do anything when the Captain is there to give us orders. But all I'm doing is copying them and trying to fill that spot on the roster. I kinda wish Ranma had command here."

"You'd get sick of taking orders from Ranma pretty quickly, I think."

"Yeah, probably," he admitted. "But I'd still do it."

"You're doing alright, Hibiki," she said, and leaned into him again, this time less playfully and more as a form of unspoken support. "I was worried you idiots got in over your head back there, you know."

"You mean holding the door open for Yankee?" he asked, and nodded once. "Yeah, that was... messy."

"I don't know if Lieutenant Feretti would have made that call," she said, straightening back up, but giving him a friendly nudge with her elbow. "That sort of pig headed, all-or-nothing decision was right up your alley, though."

"Was that an insult or compliment?"

"A bit of both," she replied, playful coquetry coloring her tone.

His smile broadened a bit at that, but faded a little a second later. "How about you? You alright?"

She touched her forehead with two fingers. "Bumped my head, but nothing broken if that's what you're asking."

A part of her wondered if he'd, for once, be insightful and ask if that was all, but it seemed to be enough to placate his concerns. He huffed and let the inquiry drop. She wasn't hurt or in an outright panic, so clearly there was no need to dwell on the matter any further. Then again he was a Hibiki. They were collectively about as subtle as a brick to the back of the head.

"You think we'll get out of this?" she asked, having milled the question around in her head for a while. A large part of her didn't like asking it; it sounded more than a tad defeatist. Plus, looking to Ryouga for reassurance was still a bit of a strange concept - this was a guy who literally smacked people around with his depression.

"Ranma and Cyborg seem confident enough."

It was an evasive answer and she called him on it.

"Ranma and Cyborg could power the ship with their combined levels of confidence," she replied. "Anyway, I asked what you thought, not what they did."

He shrugged in response. "Right now, they're the ones we're all relying on. Either they come up with a solution or they don't."

"Fatalistic as always."

"What I really don't like about this is how in the dark we are," he explained, crossing his arms in irritation. "We could be anywhere, and there could be anything out there. I can't do anything about the EDC or whatever, but I can try and keep the ship safe. So that's what I'll focus on."

"Hopefully it won't involve another last stand against alien hordes."

"Hopefully."

"There is _something_ else," she remembered, and began, "About Jinx..."

* * *

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

Letting out a long, calm breath, Raven slowly drew in another, her ribs expanding and her lungs filling with precious albeit recycled air. She could feel the muscles in her chest stretch and slide over one another as her back straightened with the inhalation, could feel the slight tingle in her legs as she floated just a few fractions of an inch above the hard metal floor. She hadn't realized how far out of touch she'd gotten with her physical being lately, having focused so intently on her psyche for the past few weeks. What she had nearly forgotten was that her powers – her true powers – were not purely mental. They were _spiritual_, as well, an extension of her entire being, mind, body and soul.

It was time she got back to work on training all three aspects once again. It was exactly that weakness of spirit, her complacency, which had lulled her into a false sense of security. If she had been back home, living with the steady reminder of her father's evil, she highly doubted she would have fallen for Slade's honeyed words. Looking back over her own actions was nothing short of embarrassing, but there was no point in beating herself up over it now. She had no doubt there would be plenty of that yet to come when she got back to Seiran.

It was about that point, that she noticed the far door leading to the control room slide open. A moment later, looking quite turned around if the annoyed expression on his face was any indication, Ryouga – her Ryouga – re-entered the hold. He'd gone back only fifteen minutes ago, not long after a somewhat lengthy discussion with the elder Hibiki, but she couldn't imagine what he could have accomplished in such a short time up front with Ranma and Cyborg.

The bandanna clad martial artist muttered a low curse under his breath, at least Raven assumed he did, noting the tiny movements of his lips, then looked around the hold. His eyes lingered on the stasis tube for a long moment, seemed to gloss over Raven herself painfully quickly, only to finally settle on the Tamaranian, standing right before the airlock, preparing to go out on recon with the three impetuous males she'd been grouped with.

Starfire noticed Ryouga's arrival as well, and Raven watched, fascinated, as an entire conversation seemed to unfold between the pair from across the length of the hold and without a single word spoken. Concerned inquiry, placating assurances, shared amusement, weary longing and finally resigned disappointment. Even being an empath and a trained psion, Raven was unsure how two such disparate and opposite people could possibly share such a profound understanding, nor would she get the chance to delve deeper into the phenomenon as, a moment later, Starfire finished bundling up her hair, donned her helmet and turned back to the airlock. The inner door was already open and the rest of her team were waiting inside.

So that was what it had been: a promise of a later discussion which, unfortunately, Starfire did not have time for at the moment. As much as it was obvious that both Ryouga and Starfire were equally desperate to make certain that the other was alright, duty was duty, and the elder Hibiki had assigned the alien warrior a mission. Without a single word spoken between them, Starfire entered the airlock and the door sealed shut behind her, leaving both Raven and Ryouga staring blankly after her absence.

For the second time in as many minutes, Ryouga donned a lost expression, as his destination had just been swept out the door by circumstance. For a moment, he waffled about, looking left and right, but eventually his sights settled her way once more. Half of her was elated at the attention, but at the same time, the other half of her wanted to shrink back down inside herself and vanish from sight. The expression on his face was so neutral that it was impossible for her to get a reading on the usual open book of a Hibiki.

With measured steps, he approached her little cordoned off section of the hold, and she forced herself to match his emotionless expression. It wasn't too difficult, something she'd had much practice at, and she was thankful for it now. She would have hated for him to see what she was really feeling. She'd already gotten chewed out by a duplicate Ryouga, and that had had been surprisingly painful in its own right. The idea that she might be in for another such discussion, only from the genuine article this time, was more off putting than she had any desire to let on.

As such, Raven was justifiably shocked when she suddenly realized that Ryouga was kneeling in front of her, cupping her cheek tenderly. She didn't even realize that she had actually leaned into the touch, pressing her cheek into his rough hand, lost in his eyes as he gazed at her longingly -

As one, both Titans' eyes shot wide open, realization at what was happening suddenly settling over them. Looking swiftly over Ryouga's shoulder, she saw Ukyou, Mousse and Shampoo staring at them, eyes wide as well. An instant later, they flew apart, Ryouga leaping up to his feet and Raven's back bouncing off the wall behind her as she tried to make space between them. With a harsh tug, her hood slid down to cover her eyes and shadow her burning cheeks. Ryouga did not have any such convenient method to hide his own embarrassment, and forced himself to stare forward and not acknowledge the existence of any onlookers.

It didn't take a psychic to realize what had just happened.

Looking down, Raven muttered under her breath, "I'm sorry about that. I – I can fix that for you… you know… if you want me too…"

She cursed herself instantly at the leading tone in her last statement. Merely suggesting that he -

He cut off her self-recriminations, his face looking every bit like the stone that he crushed so easily. Again, he knelt down, though more stiffly and with the distance still between them this time. He matched her gaze silently for a moment, and she could all but see the thoughts racing through his mind at a mile of a minute as he attempted to formulate something – anything – to say. Would he shout? Would he mimic his doppelganger's disappointed speech? Would he tell her he hated her and couldn't stand the sight of her anymore? After what she'd done to him, she wouldn't blame him for any of those things now.

The feeling of a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze surprised the young woman again for the second time in as many minutes. She found herself staring at him, her mouth dropping open slightly as she tried to divine the meaning of his action.

"I'm not exactly sure what happened back there," he finally stated at length, "I'm not too interested in knowing, either, honestly. I know it wasn't good, something that most people would probably never forgive."

Were it not for the hand on her shoulder, Raven would have floated away from him, the guilt beginning to well up in her soul again. His strong, but gentle grip held her implacably in place, though, and he forced her to match his gaze.

"As for me, I have only one thing to say on the entire situation."

This was it. Raven forced herself to keep looking up, though she wanted nothing more than to slip through the floor and out into space. She could only imagine the soul crushing bomb he was about to drop on her-

"I guess we're even now."

The dark Titan stared blankly, not understanding the statement in the slightest. "What…?"

And then it struck her, the inexplicable words suddenly making perfect sense. There was no accusation in his eyes: no anger, or bitterness. But, at the same time, there was no guilt there, no secret anguish as he stared at her. It had been there so long, a subtle, constant reminder of a dark, dark day many months ago. The hand on her shoulder was not tense with apprehension or jittery with hesitation. It had been so long since he'd looked at her in such an open and frank way, that she'd nearly forgotten what things had been like between them, all the way back in the Amazon village.

"Look, we can talk about this more, later," he replied to her incomplete question, taking a moment to look over his shoulder, "Maybe when there are less eavesdroppers listening in..."

Several pairs of eyes in the hold suddenly found the ceiling or floor very interesting.

Ryouga placed his other hand on her other shoulder as well, holding her reassuringly. "Whatever happened back there, you made it right in the end, all on your own. Everyone makes mistakes, it's how we deal with them that's important, and you saved us all, every last one of us."

"If it weren't for me, no one would have been in danger in the first place," she replied in a hushed tone.

He shook his head quickly. "That's not true and you know it. Things would have gone to hell even if you never left the ship. However, if you didn't leave the ship, then you never would have found that ring to let us get out of there. Don't worry about what will happen when we get back to Seiran. I'll have your back every step of the way. I won't let them do anything to you for one little slip up."

At that, Raven actually felt the corner of her lip twitch upwards. "It was hardly a little slip up."

The fanged boy – and it had been some time since she'd actually been close enough to take note of his oversized incisors – chuckled darkly. "Hey, if they let Evil Me off the hook for intentionally frying Akari's replacement brain, then there's no way that I'll let them throw the book at you for having a momentary lapse here."

Well, at least she could appreciate his optimism in the face near certain doom. Despite that, though, she found her own fears over her future to be a distant, muted concept now. How could she care about the probable admonishments from people she didn't know, when Ryouga had, in essence, not just forgiven her for harming him, but actually forgiven himself for hurting her as well. In one instant, possibly one of the lowest in her life, he had suddenly shifted them back to square one, a clean slate with no lingering fear or guilt between them.

It was something of a heady experience, opening up a world of possibilities that she couldn't even fully contemplate at the moment. It was also about that moment that she realized that his hands were still on her shoulders. He realized an instant after she did, and pulled them back, but not in a hurried or embarrassed fashion this time. In fact, he actually grinned at her, winking easily.

"So, why don't you fill me in with what's been going on with this crazy dimension?" he asked. "I have to admit that I … haven't exactly been paying much attention lately."

That, at least, was understandable. Offering him a shallow nod, she then proceeded to recount everything she thought might be pertinent. Though, to be honest, she hadn't exactly been paying much attention herself.

Still, it was hard to worry; it seemed like nothing could go wrong now, the way she was feeling.

* * *

Floodlights pierced the darkness around the crashed UFO but in a curious reversal, it was the humans to this dimension, and to this place, who were the aliens. Naturally, the alien among them shared in this curious role reversal. It was pitch black, the only light sources coming from Pathfinder itself and the destruction it had left in its arrival to this plane.

Fortunately, there was a roughly earth-like gravity present, perhaps three fourths of normal. As bright lights illuminated the structures around them, it became clear that it wasn't quite built to human proportions. Metal girders and supports seemed universal in design, but there were stretches of russet colored sheet metal that decorated some of the gutted rooms and halls Pathfinder had carved clean through. Long shadows raced away from broken alien equipment forming twisted shapes against walls and pooling in dark corners.

Cracking a chemical flare, Konatsu tossed it into the middle of one such room.

Bright white light chased away the darkness, revealing what may once have been rows of beds or bunks of some variety. They were set at odd angles along one wall, and in long ovals with metal supports. Recessed areas in the floor formed a checkerboard of open and closed footfalls. Together with the slanted walls, it gave an almost disorienting impression to the place, like it had been sheared or bent at an angle when it was built. A large oval shaped door sat, mostly submerged into the floor, at the far end of the room.

"What do you make of this, Miss Starfire?" Konatsu asked, kneeling down before one of the closed ... lockers, he supposed it may have been. The floodlight attached to his helmet moved, to reflect his focus not just on that, but on the rows of empty... beds?

The Tamaranian Princess shook her head at what could only have been a loss of life, the many beds left empty and abandoned. "If I were to offer a hypothesis, I would state that this a military vessel. Such barracks style chambers are usually reserved for large numbers of troops."

Leaning down, she grabbed a sheared off floor plate, only to bend it easily in her deceptively gentle grasp. Despite the horrible squeal that should have pierced their ears, perfect silence accompanied the display. The only sound was her own breathing, and only the commlinks in their helmets allowed them to hear each other.

"It is odd, though," she mused. "The materials used to construct this room are most primitive. Our vessel smashed through numerous layers of the ship with very little resistance. I would surmise an early stage star faring race. It would not surprise me if they were still reliant on chemical weapons, as most of humanity apparently is, based upon the primitive metallurgical processes displayed." Her eyes narrowed as she looked around. "However... if this ship did indeed crash, as Cyborg believes... then why have we not located a single occupant yet?"

"Or bodies," Konatsu observed.

Careful not to indulge his curiosity by prying open more of the open lockers, he still checked around to see if there was anything obvious or interesting lying around. Checking a loose cache by one of the beds, he saw a few miscellaneous bits of junk. In truth, it may have had some cultural significance, but they weren't here for that. They were here for technology: something that would give Cyborg back at the ship an idea of what was nearby to salvage.

"Any luck over on your side?" he asked, checking with his partner. "There must be something around here."

The Tamaranian shook her head in the negative, and approached the far end of the room to pry open the door and get a good look through. The stark silence that accompanied her acts of precision destruction were off putting to the ninja. So used to his sharpened senses picking up every little sound around him, something that he sometimes relied on for his very survival, that the perfect silence of a vacuum set him on edge.

That, combined with the near complete darkness, only barely held at bay by a few flares, and all of his other senses being trapped in a metal suit of armor... the male kunoichi could scarcely recall ever feeling so - so isolated before. It was almost a claustrophobic feeling, despite standing at the center of a fairly large chamber. Fighting in atmosphere was far preferable. Surely, this was what things would be like on Cydonia, when the war finally came to that alien redoubt.

They had orders not to stray too far, but the acting Major surely wouldn't object to being thorough in their investigation. Moving up from behind her, he saw Starfire turn and point to her eyes, then to the door. She could as well have said "look inside" but he understood the signs easily enough, if not the reason why. Shining a light inside, he saw what Starfire had just discovered.

And here were the bodies they wanted.

Or... bits and pieces of them. Not really bodies, either. Bones and dust. This second chamber was perhaps the equivalent of a wash room or an exercise room or some combination of the two. It was fairly large, built to fit what must've been some larger-than-human aliens. Of those, there were strangely shaped remains: large conical bones, the size of a man, with rib-like protrusions and hundreds or even thousands of finger sized vertebra or the like, scattered everywhere. There were eleven bodies, going by the eleven cones, along with some long abandoned equipment.

"I suppose we found our crew..." he didn't want to sound to macabre, but this had been what they were looking for. "Do you think the life support failed?"

Visor scanning the room, Starfire offered her own analysis.

"No," she said, and looked up. "They were killed."

Konatsu followed the Tamaranian's attention upwards, to a door... on the ceiling? It was pried open, clearly. Just wide enough to shoot through, or to drop a small grenade.

"This ship was full of liquid. These creatures were aquatic." She turned around a bit to try and get a better look. "I believe the direction of the ship itself to be either upwards or downwards in orientation, and not horizontal as humanoid ships are normally made."

"That doesn't do us a lot of good," Konatsu replied, quickly connecting the dots. "It means we'll have either this ships' engines or the entire hull up the front sitting on top of us."

"Not necessarily," Starfire corrected him. "You think of up as the way we must go because the gravity is pushing us down. That may not be the case."

That took a second or two for him to really grasp. "You've been in ships like this before?"

"Not exactly, but built upon similar concepts," she explained, "Many races inherently capable of flight, such as my own and the Gordanians, also employ designs which humans might find difficult to navigate."

"This makes things harder, but I believe we still need to determine which way the ship's oriented. Sooner or later we're going to need to blast our way out." He turned to her, heartened she had some experience with this. "Any ideas, Miss Starfire?"

Turning to look back out into the barracks style room they passed through, she seemed to have an idea or two.

"Well," she replied, and look another quick look around. "Upon rapid scanning of this area, the beds are clearly affixed to either what we consider the bottom surface of the room or the side of it. Though we cannot be one hundred percent certain, it does give us at least a possibility that that is the direction in which gravity would have been facing during standard space flight."

Floating back into the room, demonstrating her own mastery of the airless vacuum of space, the Tamaranian moved to take a closer examination of one of the beds. "I see no obvious harnesses or localized restraining systems that would hold a being stationary during rest in an environment with zero gravity, so some force would need to keep them affixed to the beds while not in motion."

"If the beds are all on one side, and if we assume that all the footlockers on the 'floor' were actually on the walls above the beds, and the storage lockers on the ceiling were on the adjacent wall..." Konatsu paused for a moment, before nodding to himself and pointing with his left hand to his left side. "Gravity might have originally gone from that way..." he pointed to the right now. "To this way."

Starfire nodded, quite impressed with the humans quick grasp of the concept of non humanoid construction in the design of space vehicles.

"That does seem most likely," she agreed. "Do you believe we should report our findings, or continue our search?"

" Go ahead and call it in," he decided. "They should be glad to know we're making some progress... and Hibiki-taichou will be happy to hear this ship is deserted."

The alien stared at him oddly for a moment. "You believe that he would be pleased to know that we have found the mummified remains of numerous extra-terrestria..."

She trailed off, mid thought. "Then again... considering who it is we speak of..."

A couple seconds later, and both Cyborg and the acting Major were on the comm, having been filled in as to the suspected alignment of the ship. Somewhat predictably, Ryouga was indeed rather relieved not to have to deal with any living aliens in their efforts to further blow up parts of the ship to free Pathfinder. It made a certain degree of sense, but...

"Would not living aliens have been able to help us?" Starfire couldn't resist at least inquiring.

"Maybe," the older Hibiki had admitted. "But I doubt it."

"If they're dead then that means they didn't find a way to survive here," Nabiki reasoned. "Which means we'll be in trouble if we end up here for too long. Whatever happened to them we can't let it happen to us."

"If they were killed by their crew members there may have been a fight for food or water," Ryouga then speculated. "Or whatever those things ate and drank. Good find, though."

"Shall we explore further a field, sir?" Konatsu asked, politely slipping into the conversation.

"I'll leave it up to your discretion, sergeant. Priority is still to find some examples of the local technology."

"I think the question is: are they 'locals' here?" Cyborg wondered aloud. "Or did they get here the same way we did? If that's the case, I'd really like to get a look at their D-drive in particular."

After a minute of quick discussion, it was decided to send Starfire and Konatsu on slightly deeper reconnaissance in the expectation that they could get a better bead on where the alien dimension drive was located. Ryu and Kuno would remain close by and conduct further searches of what appeared to be a system of living quarters around the Pathfinder transit crash in the hope of finding a command node or equipment cache.

Navigating upwards through the wreck was easy enough for the Tamaranian, but her partner had to rely on handholds and fancy shinobi footwork to scale the vertical halls and twisted geometry of the alien ship. It was a strange and disorienting design, and the pair had to keep their bearings by leaving a trail of homing beacons to make sure they wouldn't get lost... or have to crash through any potentially structurally unstable walls to get back to Pathfinder.

Along the way they found scattered remains of the crew left in a haphazard fashion. The fact that they were all so thoroughly reduced to calcified bones implied that for some time these halls had sustained an atmosphere and bacteria, or fungi, or some sort of life that in turn rendered down the remains. There was none of the scorching that would accompany large scale use of fire as a consumptive agent, after all. It made the fate of the crew here, if anything, even stranger.

Why would they be left to rot in the halls?

When had the ship finally lost its liquid environment?

Helping her partner up over a ledge, Starfire was surprisingly quiet, or perhaps, to Konatsu, everything was just too quiet. Nothing made any noise in here. Hadn't Cyborg mentioned that there were pockets of atmosphere detected here and there? Where were they? It would be nice to go back to an at least semi-habitable environment.

"We appear to have hit a dying end," Starfire said, pointing to her left and then right down the easily curving arterial hallways. "I believe this forms a ring that goes around."

"That may not be a bad thing, Miss Starfire," the male kunoichi speculated, glad for the chance to fill the empty air with some conversation. "We have these driving circles called 'round-a-bouts' ... perhaps this is something similar?"

The alien girl remained silent for a moment, until she finally shrugged. "That is possible. Though, considering the aquatic atmosphere this ship contained, it is possible it was intended for a more functional purpose, such as allowing for proper circulation and oxygenation - or whatever chief element - of the liquid. There is no real way for us to know at this time."

Not really sure how to respond, the kunoichi deigned to reply with a simple nod. It was quite impressive, how she appeared to be so knowledgeable about ship design, especially of such obviously non humanoid races. It was so easy to forget that she was, in fact, not human herself. She simply fit in so well with the rest of the Nerimian regulars, strange abilities and all, that most people wouldn't even think twice of seeing her with them.

It was that thought, which actually sparked another train of thought. Silence reigned for several minutes as Starfire continued to examine the architecture, until Konatsu finally worked up the nerve to ask the question that had brewing quietly for several minutes now.

"May I ask you something, Miss Starfire?" Rather than simply continue with his question, however, the formal young crossdresser waited for permission. Even from a technical subordinate.

Instead of answer via the comm, Starfire simply nodded in an affirmative.

"Do many aliens back where you come from fly?" he asked, curious. "Have they always been able to do so?"

Again she nodded, absently and over her shoulder this time. "It is a most common ability, yes. And it has been this way for as long as recorded time, to the best of my knowledge. Frankly, it is more odd that humans cannot fly. Why do you ask?"

"I was curious if we humans appear very alien to you?" he wondered. "After all, we are all someone else's 'xenos' as the officers often call them."

"In truth, you do not," she replied lightly, "But I find few races to be truly 'alien'. The very term, alien, possesses unusually negative inflections among your kind. An 'alien' is something to be feared, mistrusted, to be kept separate from one's society. It is the 'Other.' I do not find humans to be alien at all, as I hold no fear in my heart for your species, as I have seen some of the very best of what your race is capable of..."

She turned back to regard him, her green eyes visible through the visor of her helmet.

"It is, unfortunately, something which we do not share in common."

Konatsu blinked behind his own visor. Was she referring to someone personally? It almost seemed that way. "What do you mean?"

Pausing for a moment, the young woman finally floated to the ground and turned to regard him fully. Resting one fist on her hip, she lifted the other and gestured back towards the ship.

"Though I try not to think of it, it is impossible to not notice the hatred that your Hibiki, and to a lesser extent, the rest of you possess in regards to all alien life forms. Even this unknown race, regardless of whether they were great villains, or wondrous saints, you revel in their demise."

"I wouldn't say anyone is 'reveling' in it. It is simply expedient," Konatsu argued, but also bent a bit in lieu of the facts. "But you are right. Maybe in time, if we meet more aliens like yourself, things will change. But it is hard to fight an enemy that you... that you humanize. So most don't."

The Tamaranian drew back slightly, obviously not impressed with his response.

"It is that form of thought that will prevent such enlightenment from occurring, not usher it in!" She snapped at him, leaning closer so he could see her face. "You choose to believe the worst of all races that are not your own! Even Raven's people, enlightened pacifists, would have been met with bared weapons and demands of compliance!"

Konatsu leaned back a bit, slightly thrown by the temperamental response.

"Starfire...?"

She turned away and started to walk down the corridor.

"I apologize," she quickly said, wrapping her arms around herself. "I did not mean to be so... what I mean, is that I have met other races that share such... opinions on all species not their own. Justifying hatred with expedience." She paused for a moment. "Tell me, would it have been 'expedient' to have found the crew of this vessel deceased if it had been of Tamaranian origin?"

"I believe that would depend on the reception waiting for us," Konatsu argued, catching up with her and then taking point as was his role. "In our current state, a ship full of men and women with your powers would overwhelm us."

_'And perhaps that is what they deserve.' _A sibilant seductive whisper, against all reason and compassion, gave voice to the most fleeting and regretful thought, pooling it like poisonous mercury in Starfire's ear.

It was a moment before she realized she had stopped walking and that Konatsu was staring at her.

She shook her head, forcefully.

"That is exactly what I am referring to." Her voice grew more heated as she continued. "Even though I have proven to be a valued compatriot, you only consider me to be a threat to you! You do not even consider the possibility that my people could be allies, only enemies bent on your destruction!"

"That isn't what I..." Konatsu tried to say.

Starfire huffed and hurried her feet to move away from him. "Perhaps it would be my people who would be the ones endangered if they were to meet you. No doubt you would find any excuse at all to slaughter them."

Konatsu recoiled at the vitriol of the remark. _'She didn't act like this with Ryu-san or Tatewaki-san.'_ In his thoughts, privately, he considered a darker possibility. _'Is it just me, or is this how she really feels about us?'_

"I am sorry you feel that way," he replied, watching her during the uncomfortable pause that followed. A part of him, deep down, railed against politely holding his tongue. It was most uncharacteristic and gave him a moment of self reflective worry. The stress was clearly fraying nerves.

_'Not that it will do any good to say so.'_

"It is not myself whom I feel sorry for," she cut him off. It was quickly followed by a low whisper, something that she had likely meant to keep to herself, but had been just loud enough to trigger the internal mic in her helmet.

"I doubt you would have been so thrilled if all the dead here were _homo sapiens_."

Uncomfortable with the implications of the remark, clearly not meant to be overheard, Konatsu tactfully chose not to respond to it.

Instead, the pair made their way along the curving rotunda. It was several steps later when they saw an abrupt shift in the walls. The earthy russet color suddenly ended, replaced by a pitch black, like onyx. It wasn't simply the color either. The texture was all wrong, far too pitted and irregular, broken into sharp ridges. A closer look confirmed that it didn't simply disturb the symmetry of the wall, it literally cut into it.

They were looking at what... could only be a rock or a meteorite of some sort that had appeared rather than crashed into the section of the ship. The metal wall ended and the rock began, seamlessly, and the former extended up from part of the floor to part of the ceiling as well, nearly blocking the passage entirely. There was still enough room to squeeze by, and without words, they decided to do so.

Both were careful enough not to touch the strange rock as they slipped through.

Here, as the ring shaped corridor terminated, they caught sight of what was beyond the ship. While the strange black rock had melded into part of the alien vessel without serious damage, here something had caused a serious breach in the structure. Beyond the inner area there was a bulkhead or honeycomb separating the ship's innards from the outermost hull. A great tear in it exposed a burning halo beyond, and a vast sea of dark ragged shapes.

Carefully moving into the gap, Konatsu and Starfire got a clearer picture: it was akin to a hollow sphere, vast and irregular. A billion strange shapes made up the inner surface, broken and disorganized. Some were huge, and clearly captured meteors or asteroids. Others were the spires of ruined hulls, broken and crooked and warped. At the base of the crashed ship in which they were taking shelter, a massive form, like a vaguely humanoid robot or maybe even an armored body the size of a building, lay in a twisted heap, partly propped up against the ruins and rubble around it. Everything was mottled with the blotted stain of decay.

And in the center of the vast hollow sphere, a prismatic cloud of light and fire burned with a hot actinic flare, bathing the graveyard in shifting, chaotic radioactive shadow.

"X'hal..." Starfire whispered in awe.

Konatsu himself was simply speechless.

_'X'hal... is her god...'_

He stared mutely up at the hollow world-prison that vanished into infinity, and the maddening, chaotic gyre within it, beating like a nightmarish heart, like a bloody stain on the universe itself. Like a malevolent, lidless eye. It hurt to even try and see it straight on. It hurt to even try and think about it.

_ 'I doubt even her god can hear her here.'_

And why did that thought make him want to despair?

* * *

A brief intermittent light came from the small panel, followed rapidly by several more as Cyborg continued to perform yet another series of status checks and manual diagnostics to the Pathfinder's solid state systems. Without the proper components to actually bring the EDC online, he'd instead begun to busy himself by taking care of the numerous little red flags that they'd found around the ship after their rough landing. The conduit he'd just re-sealed had been relatively minor: just a coolant line running through the outer wall of the cargo hold. Under normal situations, the automated redundancy systems would have been able to reroute around it and keep things operating within acceptable levels of efficiency. He'd heard stories of ships like this one surviving having as much as twenty percent of their mass being removed by weapons fire.

This was not a normal situation.

To the best of his knowledge most of the systems, aside from the EDC itself, were functioning, but he wasn't about to take any needless chances, not when most of the repairs could be done quickly and easily. If no one found anything useful on their first trip out into the wilds, he'd probably head outside next. He'd picked up a number of small hull breeches and micro fractures that should probably be attended to before they even tried to head back the way they came…

Speaking of which, while the cybernetic teen began to add to the tally of things that he still needed to take care of, he still needed to hook back into the system and do a more precise scan of the interior of the vessel they'd flown through, most notably the hole they punched into the immobile hulk. If they were going to fly back out, he needed to calculate how much cutting would need to be done to the super structure of the alien vessel to allow the Pathfinder to escape. The gravity drive gave them a certain ability to "burrow" through the alien hulk if push came literally to shove, but it really wasn't designed for something this high-mass. If they were in zero gee, it wouldn't have been too bad, but thanks to the gravity that the crashed ships were exerting, he was also going to have to determine the structural integrity of the ship to figure out just how much they could and couldn't cut without bringing the whole down on their damned heads.

In a way, he was glad they were out of explosives, for the most part, as he had no doubt that some of the more impatient among them would want to try just blasting their way out, regardless of how dangerous it would be. No, he'd have to hand pick who he wanted working on the project, the Major's orders be damned on this one. Good intentions were fine, but he wasn't about to let them all get killed due to a lack of knowledge in engineering principals.

Sighing, he closed up the panel and locked it up again, then brought up the display on his arm. There were just a few more minor repairs, such as some small damage to one of the cargo restraints. Again, nothing serious, unless of course, they went into another tailspin and suddenly a two hundred pound steel crate went careening through the air and into someone's face.

For the most part, everyone was staying out of his way. Ranma had been quite helpful in pointing out and cataloguing a lot of the small issues, being more experienced in operating the thought controlled alien computer systems, but when it came to actually making said repairs, he was about as experienced as anyone else present. Shampoo, Ukyou and Mousse were just finally finishing up with the ship's inventory. Raven and Ryouga had gone up to the control room and were trying to help take stock of the situation with the Lieutenants and Nabiki.

Starfire, Konatsu, Kuno and Ryu were still out searching the adjacent alien ship, but were due back soon.

_'Damn, that reminds me!'_

He needed to get permission to leave the ship, too, if he could. Though it had nothing to do with repairing the ship, which was Cyborg's only real concern at the moment, Star had mentioned something about a crazy glowing sphere of… _something_ floating somewhere inside the mass of ships. Unfortunately, the scouting parties had no equipment to take any proper kinds of readings on the anomaly for him to actually analyze. As tangential as it was, the teen genius found himself fascinated by the potential astronomical event that was literally within astronomical reach. If he could just get a better look...

His train of thought was derailed by an alert blinking on, on his arm. Following Ranma's lead, he'd tied himself into the ship's systems as well, though more in a diagnostic manner, as XCOM had been kind enough to install some more conventional monitoring systems within Pathfinder. As such, he had set it up so that he would be alerted when anything of note happened in or around the ship. This, of course, included the opening of the exterior airlock. Turning around, he moved over to the far side of the hold, smiling broadly as he could see the entrance cycle initiate, eventually leading to the interior door sliding open a moment later. He held up a hand and waved in greetings as a pair of armored figures strolled into the hold.

Cyborg's smile fell slightly as he noted the dour look on Starfire's face, her helmet already removed by the time the door had opened. For some reason, the Tamaranian fired a dark look at Konatsu – _Konatsu of all people!_ – before quickly floating in to greet the cybernetic teen. The bulky Titan was actually surprised when Starfire suddenly through her arms around his neck and crushed him in an oddly desperate hug.

"Greetings, my dear friend!" She muttered into his ear. "It warms my heart greatly to see you again!"

Not exactly displeased by the situation, but understandably confused, he returned her hug quickly and gave her a good pat on the back before offering up a weak chuckle. "Um, heh, you haven't been out there that long, Star. I don't think you were gone even a whole hour."

Burying her face into the nape of his neck, he shivered a bit at the feeling of her breath on his skin, what little there was of it. "Accept my words as true: my trek into the ship felt closer to an eternity than it did to a mere hour."

Not sure what else to do, Cyborg just let her get whatever it was out of her system, shooting an odd look at the kunoichi over her shoulder as he did. All Konatsu could do was offer an enigmatic little shrug in return, answering none of the cybernetic teens questions. If anything, he was more confused than anyone. Finally, the powerful Tamaranian released her hold on him and pushed back. Staring him directly in the eyes, she then asked.

"Do you know where Ryouga is? He had hoped to speak to me before I was cast out of the ship, I wish to cash in the precipitation monetary note on that conversation."

_Cast out?_ That was certainly an odd way of putting things, though it was hardly the oddest turn of phrase she had used, even in that same sentence.

"I'm going to assume you meant 'rain check' there," he guessed. "And Ryo is up front. You head on up, I'm sure he'll be glad to see your pretty face, too."

And just like that, everything was right in the world again. Bright smile on her lips and cheeks flushed with joy from his compliment, or possibly the prospect of catching up with her other friends, Starfire looked just as happy as he'd ever seen her, and an instant later, she was floating towards the nearest door, post haste.

Which was right when an alarm sounded on his arm again. Huh, it seemed like the swordsman and the home wrecker had been closer on Star and Konatsu's heels than he'd thought. Lifting up his arm, he double checked the alert to see if they'd entered the airlock yet -

Wait just a second. That wasn't the door alarm!

Cyborg's human eye widened excitedly, and he turned after the departing alien girl and barked quickly, "Yo, Star! Go get, Ryo! I think we just got some good news for the lost boy!"

* * *

Pain, as familiar as it was unwelcome, heralded her return from the void of unconsciousness. It took her several disoriented moments, floating in a sea of darkness, to finally realize that she was actually no longer sleeping. In retrospect, it shouldn't have been that hard to figure out; she was fairly sure that she'd never had a headache of such epic proportions in a dream before. It wasn't just her head that felt like it wanted to split open, either, every inch of her body felt like it had been bludgeoned and tenderized with a pinch of sea salt.

Oddly, though, beyond the discomfort wracking her slight frame, a strange sensation was settling over her. It was almost like she was floating, a feather in the wind, a leaf on the stream; the feeling was quite relaxing, almost serene, and it was almost as if the pain was being leeched from her body, one prick as a time. Why, if she were more coherent, she would think that she were submerged in something…

_"She's waking u… - that really safe, Cybor…"_

Hmmm? What was that? She was fading in and out a bit, but she'd thought she'd heard something. It was muffled, and sounded so very far away, lost in the darkness.

_"-hope so. Ryo-Two… risky… stew in there… ore than a day."_

A weak groan bubbled past her lips. That – that voice had sounded familiar. Louder, too… a bit easier to make out. The darkness seemed to be losing some of its cohesion as well. A dull red glare, filled with small patches of kaleidoscopic colors began to fill her vision. It was just like when she stared at the sun with her eyes closed, not even the lids of her eyes could totally filter out the light completely.

_"A more pertinent question may be: do you believe it is… wise? Not to be rude, but – but she is merely in the next room."_

She'd caught all of that one, at least. The far more reserved and gentile voice was in stark contrast to the loud, bass voice that played counterpoint to it. It was also familiar, now that she thought about it, just not as familiar. Though… who was this 'she' they were talking about? It wasn't her, was it?

Jinx twitched a finger, only wincing minutely as a series of pain signals fired directly up her spine and into her brain. That was a lot sharper than it had been before, more acute. The numbness was rapidly receding.

_"Hey now, 'Natsu, you don't know what went down, so try to keep the speculation down to a minimum, man. I'm sure our girls will be able to sort out their issues right quick."_

What – what the hell had happened again? What girls had issues to sort out? Considering how they were talking, it seemed likely that she was one of the offenders, but then who could be the other? The last thing she could remember was – was a hand, skin every bit as pale as her own, surging forward, filling her vision.

Suddenly, Jinx remembered everything. Raven!

_"On a related note, Cyborg-san, I was somewhat curious as to Starfire's behavior earlier. She seemed most upset at our responses to the ship's crew outside..."_

The name rolled through her mind, gathering a healthy coating of vitriol as it made its rounds. The inane conversation going on around her was all but forgotten. Memories of the fight, shaky and fragmented, began to reform. So frantic, so hectic, so exhilarating… so one sided. Raven may as well have been a dark goddess herself, her power without limit, without end. It had been like trying to hold back the tide.

_"What responses to the crew? They're dead."_

Fuming, Jinx clenched her fists to her side and petulantly held her breath … only to finally let out a foamy huff. Knowing her luck, the fat assed goth chick would no doubt have scrounged up some excuse for making camp firmly in Darth Raven territory, and was no doubt already back in the good graces of everyone on the ship. That meant that popping out of bed and blasting the girl to ash, though potentially immensely cathartic, would doubtless also be frowned upon.

_"They are, yes. I believe that what she took exception to was our attitude regarding their deaths..."_

Hmm? What was that? Someone died? She must have missed something there. Curious now, instead of just angry, she finally forced her eyes open. The sensation of warm liquid settling over her open eyes was somewhat disturbing, and the odd refraction of looking through the liquid and then the glass tube finally let the last few clues slip into place.

_'Crap, I'm Akari 3.0.'_

_"Huh? That's kinda weird. I mean, it ain't like we killed them."_

Yup, it was definitely Cyborg and Konatsu standing outside the medical holding-tube-thing that she was floating in. Despite them supposedly being the attentive doctoring types at the moment, they appeared to be deep in a conversation with one another, discussing something that in no way had any bearing on Jinx's current status as 'among the living'.

Crossing her arms firmly over her chest, she reached up and rapped her knuckles on the transparent material, preparing her most heated glare for the foolish males. As one the pair jumped, at the sound and turned to stare at her.

"Oh, look, she's finally awake," Konatsu chirped happily.

Cyborg, on the other hand, shuddered visibly. "So – so angry."

Moving quickly, he began typing away at the side of the container, at some panel or another outside of Jinx's line of sight, and soon enough, the liquid began to drain out, lowering the slight sorceress until she was lying on her back, minor protests rising up from seemingly everywhere at the contact. Thankfully, it was all manageable pain, she was fairly certain that nothing was broken, or anything missing, so she doubted it would stop her from moving around once she was out.

Speaking of which, once the tank was fully drained, the hatch of the tube let out a quiet 'hiss' before sliding open as well. Reaching down into the tube, Cyborg slid his hand under her back and helped her sit up. Though normally such a gesture would have gotten him slagged, at the moment she was just grateful for the help. Her entire body felt like jelly. Apparently there was such a thing as too much relaxation. Even before she could dry off, a white shirt - surprisingly warm to the touch - covered her, providing a modicum of modesty.

That didn't stop her from lancing him with an icy stare. She relished his fear for a moment, but… well, he did help her out here. Finally, she relented and offered him a weak smile. Then, lifting her dripping arm, she shook out a few strands of medical grade goo from her fingers.

"Why am I all sticky and sore… and naked?" Pink eyes drifted between the two boys. "Did I miss something fun?"

"Miss Jinx," Konatsu greeted her amicably, as he did most everyone most all the time. "Welcome back. You were quite badly hurt when I put you in there. Your muscles won't work for a minute or two, so I'd recommend lying down and getting your bearings..."

* * *

Flying through the ship as fast as its narrow doorways would allow, Starfire made her way from the hold to the Navigation room in short order. Awaiting her in the control room was the remainder of the vessel's crew. Both Lieutenants were present, both Hibiki and Saotome. While the latter was again plugged into the ship's psionically operated control system, the former was, much to the Tamaranian's surprise, actually discussing something with the younger, Sergeant Hibiki.

"-probably not a good idea for either of us to go wandering out into an endless labyrinth of crashed ships. Besides, Cy has been hinting that he might want me to help out with clearing a path for us."

"As annoying as it is to admit, you do have a point."

Also present were Nabiki, seated at her station, though watching the discussion with amusement, and Raven, standing at their Ryouga's elbow, an odd little grin on her lips that had most certainly not been there when last Starfire had laid eyes upon the young woman. The proximity between Raven and Ryouga, the ease with which the martial artist held his position… It was enough to give the alien warrior a moment of pause; floating to a gentle stop at the back of the room, she watched, spellbound for a moment.

Had something changed in the short period of time since she had departed out into the alien vessel? She could scarcely imagine what could have happened in so short a time. A sudden frown creased her lips. Was it possible that this was residual fallout from Raven's mental assault on Ryouga? Had not her female team mate attempted to win his affections to herself?

It was deeply troubling to the Tamaranian. Long had she secretly hoped that Raven would win the martial artist's heart, for her own sake, as well as his own… but – but not in this fashion. It was -

**No.** She shook her head fiercely. She was just imagining things; seeing that which was not there. Either way, it was not pertinent to the moment. Lifting her hand, she quickly returned her mind to what was important.

"Ryouga!" she called to him. "You must come back to the hold! Cyborg has stated that something of great import is occurring."

As one, everyone (minus one pigtailed martial artist) in the room turned to regard her, notably, both the acting Major and the Sergeant stared at her expectantly. Obviously her declaration had not been quite specific enough.

"What's going on, Starfire?" asked the latter.

Waving her arm, indicating for him to follow her, she nodded her head frantically towards the door. "It is Jinx, I believe she is awakening!"

It was a good thing that she was already in motion, as she would have been trampled, otherwise, as the bandanna clad martial artist charged after her. Following closely after him, Raven moved quickly, an expression of grave trepidation sliding onto her face. At the tail end, the mission CO and Nabiki also began to move after them, their pace indicating more mixed receptions to the news.

Leading them through the narrow door and into the hold, Starfire glided to the center of the room, halfway to the now open stasis tube. Much to her amazement, the pink haired sorceress – looking slick with medicinal ooze – was already sitting up, one of Cyborg's hands on her back, and his other hand holding one of hers, helping her retain her balance. On the other side of the stasis tube, Konatsu was hovering over Jinx with concern. A large shirt covered her lithe form with room to spare.

"...You were quite badly hurt when I put you in there," Juliet squad's sergeant was reminding the tired girl. "Your muscles won't work for a minute or two, so I'd recommend lying down and getting your bearings."

Rather than reply, Jinx just lifted an arm and gave an absent roll of her wrist, dismissing his concerns. Considering the uncoordinated nature of the normally simple nature, Starfire wondered if, perhaps, Jinx should be more heedful of the ninja's advice. Before she could decide to float forward and joyously congratulate her team mate on her recovery, she was stopped by someone bumping into her elbow. Turning to her side, she found herself staring into her Ryouga's wide, fathomless brown eyes.

The martial artist was staring forward, wide eyed and, unless she was mistaken, his breathing appeared to have ceased. Rather than feel concerned for the imminent suffocation which threatened to end her friend, she felt a strange, indefinable warmth growing in her chest. She disliked the reality which had become obvious of late, but she could not deny that her dear friend had become more overtly affectionate of the sorceress.

"Behold! We have returned from our excursion with strange and otherworldly trinkets from yon derelict!"

The sudden proclamation stole the Tamaranian's attention, tearing it from her dear friend and focusing it towards the entrance of the ship. The interior airlock door, just finishing its return to the closed and sealed position, was no flanked by a familiar pair of martial artists.

"Okay, okay, keep it down there..." As he said it, Ryu waved a hand at the boisterous swordsman to keep him from breaking into monologue. It took some small effort to do so, as his hands were a bit full. They'd taken their license to pillage quite seriously and ripped up most anything too interesting. As such, an assortment of alien tech was bundled under arms, or in Kuno's case, dangling from his sword like a bundle.

"Ah, but a noble proclamation, from time to time, invigorates the soul," Kuno argued, ever in defense of his enthusiastic embrace of the supposed-samurai lifestyle.

Finally noticing the rather large gathering already taking place inside the hold, the two paused in their sudden interruptive appearance.

"They let the cat out of the bag, huh?" Ryu bluntly remarked, seeing Jinx up and out.

"You two..." the older Hibiki began to say, raising his voice, obviously torn between the two situations.

Not showing any offense at the Yamasen-ken master's comment, Jinx instead turned to the swordsman, waving him over to her side with a weary arm. "Kunou, you beautiful man-child, why are you way over there instead of over here serenading me?"

"Alas, my arms are full of alien baubles... ones I would be glad to be relieved of." He nonetheless walked over. "But are you well, Jinx? You were quite injured upon your return from that strange tower."

Patting a hand to the samurai's cheek with a wet slap, she chuckled weakly. "Naw, I'm all good, just a little sore. Though, I gotta say that I'm a bit surprised that I'm the one stuck in this tube."

It was impossible to miss the scathing glare that fired through the air. The target could do little more than pull down her hood and shuffle a step behind Ryouga's back. Starfire wanted to leap to her friend's defense, but it was hard to begrudge the feline eyed female her wrath, all things considered.

"Ryu, Kuno, you can leave that stuff in secondary storage," the commissioned Hibiki quickly tried to take care of the one most easily resolved issue. "I'm sure Cyborg here will want to take a look at it."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get right on that once we're sure that Jinx here is fit as a fiddle." Cyborg gave his reply out of the side of his mouth, the bulk of his attention still on Jinx, and the medical readout mounted on the side of the stasis tube.

To the Tamaranian's side, she noticed her Ryouga turn to his older counterpart. With most everyone else distracted by the rest of the goings on, the younger Hibiki leaned over and whispered conspiratorially:

"Not that I'm ungrateful, but - but why _did_ you decide to allow Jinx to wake up?" he asked. "Isn't it SOP to keep victims of mental attacks unconscious?"

"Unconscious for hours, not days," the other -him replied, also in a low tone. Neither seemed to suspect anyone was listening in with not quite human hearing. "I don't want a fight breaking out in this ship, but I don't want her mental health to potentially get worse, either."

His good mood too obvious to even try to hide, the younger Hibiki chuckled silently. "Probably for the best. Technically speaking, I likely should have been knocked out in there with her." A teasing grin. "You're just too much of a softie for your own good, aren't you, Mr. Hibiki?"

"That's Lieutenant, acting Major or Sir, not mister. Mister's my father's name."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure that Dad's name is Tetsuya or 'old man,'" Ryouga quipped lightly. Rather than continue teasing the overly serious officer, he opted instead to finally approach the stasis tube and the lovely young woman which it contained.

Somewhat more hesitant, Starfire glided to Raven's side before the both of them followed at a distance from the exuberant Hibiki. The Tamaranian could see her own trepidation mirrored in her companion's eyes. Though for very different reasons, neither of them were overjoyed with the Lost Boy's… amorous affection for the criminally inclined girl. Still, it was terribly romantic, to see such an archetypal display of unfettered emotional attachment. A girl could find herself growing jealous of such a bond.

Bodily pushing Kuno and Ryu out of the way, the pair acquiescing happily, both eager to relieve themselves of their technological burdens, Ryouga sidled up right to the side of the tank. A broad smile displaying long fangs, the martial artist enthusiastically dropped his hands onto Jinx's slim shoulders, giving a comforting squeeze. It was all very much as Starfire expected it to be after such a tense separation.

What was not expected, however, was Jinx's reaction. Unlike his reaction, she turned to regard the Lost Boy with a neutral expression on her face. Not even sure why she did it, Starfire clutched her hands to her chest, something unsettling about the display. The look on Jinx's face... it wasn't right. She should have been overjoyed, and yet...

"Jinx," Ryouga clearly had to work to keep his excitement in check, "How are you feeling? Are you alright? You _are_ alright, aren't you?"

For a long moment, she regarded him; if Starfire were not more knowledgeable, she would have sworn that Jinx was… confused by the sudden development.

"Um… yeah, I'm feeling fine, Sergeant," the pink haired girl replied at length. In that instant, all of Yankee squad started in unison. Raven's hood fell back, Cyborg looked up from his monitor, and Starfire's armored gloves creaked, she was clutching her hands so tightly. Before any of them could react further, though, Jinx continued in a sharp tone.

"I am kind of confused as to why you're touching the merchandise, here." She pointedly looked down to the hands on her shoulders, combined with the fact that she was wearing only a large white shirt at the moment. "Not exactly conduct befitting an officer, is it?"

Not even Ryouga's blind optimism could miss that, the smile falling from his face. Guardedly, he looked down to her slim shoulders as well, staring at the hands covering them as if questioning whether they were his own or not. Lifting his gaze to meet hers again, he started in a more uncertain tone.

"I – I'm just so relieved to see that you're okay, Jinx…"

"Yeah, well," she shrugged, clearly trying to get her point across. "Be relieved with your _eyes_, not with your _hands_… with all due respect, sir."

That actually set Ryouga back a step, his hands slipping off of her shoulders and down her arms. For a moment, a expression settled on his face, one which nearly caused physical pain in Starfire simply from the sight of it, but just as quickly, it was covered up with a weak laugh. Arms still held out to his sides, Ryouga chuckled again, though there was even less certainty in it this time.

"T-this is a joke," almost as a painful after thought, he turned it into a question, "Right Jinx?"

To the Tamaranian's side, Raven lifted a hand to cover her mouth, her skin taking on an even whiter shade of pale then was the norm. Jinx, for her part, simply tilted her head to the side, looking at Ryouga strangely.

"I'm not sure what you mean, Sergeant," she replied, clearly confused. "You don't see any of the other officers fraternizing with their subordinates, do you?"

The sorceress shot a pointed glance in the elder Ryouga's direction, causing the man to shift uncomfortably at his own, not so discrete, relations. Even if they did wriggle around the 'direct subordinate' rule.

Concern and curiosity waging war inside her, Starfire took a step forward, lifting a tentative hand. "Umm… Jinx? You recall the designation of my person, do you not?"

The pink haired witch turned her way, staring at her incredulously. "Um… yeah, Red. Kinda hard to forget the six foot alien super babe that helped me figure out the Lieutenant's crazy ki technique. Raven might have kicked my butt back there, but I'm pretty sure I'd remember if I forgot anything."

Lifting an inquisitive finger, only to drop it a moment later, Starfire gave her head a quick shake.

"Ah, yes, well… be that as it may," she finally continued, albeit uncertainly, "Are you certain that you are not… misremembering things, such as, using a random example, your harboring of strong emotions for Ryouga?"

Immediately, the fanged boy looked up, hope lighting up in his eyes as he waited, desperate, for Jinx's answer. Again, though, the sorceress stared at Starfire in confusion.

"Harboring strong- ? What the heck are you talkin' bout?" Sudden understanding flashed across her face and she made a low 'Ohhh' as she turned to regard the forlorn fighter. "Oh, you're talking about the whole Headmaster thing! Well..."

Jinx stopped in mid sentence, puzzlement clouding her face. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up there. I know it wasn't exactly a shining moment for me, but I thought we already hashed all of that out?"

"What exactly is it that you believe was… hashed out, again?" Raven asked, her own worry forcing herself to take a step toward Jinx.

"You know, the whole 'brainwashing Hibiki and pretending to be his girlfriend' thing? Look, I know it was all kinds of messed up, but it wasn't like I had a lot of choice in the matter," replied the slight girl defensively. "Why are you guys bringing it up now?"

"P-pretending?" There was no question as to whose shell shocked inquiry that had been.

Again, Jinx turned back to look at Ryouga, as if just seeing him for the first time that night. A dark surge of epiphany roared through Starfire at that moment, and she felt that she knew exactly what was to come next, as the slight sorceress gazed at the fanged martial artist, the corner of her lip twisting up just so. Fate, sadly, left her no time to intervene.

"Ummm, duh? C'mon, we already figured all this out, Hibiki! You know it was all fake; smoke and mirrors right? I mean, seriously, you'd just kicked our collective butts, way back then, even _you_ must have realized that me suddenly turning around and fawning all over you was just totally messed up."

All around the hold, silence reigned, every person still present struck speechless by the abrupt and cruel reversal. Each word of her diatribe had set Ryouga back another step, and the blood drained from his face. That alone was enough to force Starfire into action. Stepping forward quickly, she dropped a hand on Jinx's shoulder.

"Please, friend, do not say such things," she implored the former villainess. "Surely it could not have all been falsehood. It - it simply could not have been; all that you have _said_, all that you have _done_…"

"Jeez, Star, what's your damage?" asked the frowning sorceress. "I know I played my part pretty well, but in the end, that's all it was. Hibiki was just another job. A _good_ job, but just another job. Besides, 'old news is old' right?" She blinked hard and looked around the room. "What's with you guys?"

Raven, looking torn between blistering anger and crushing guilt, took a step forward herself, preparing to say… something, perhaps a rebuttal, or maybe an explanation, or even an apology- but whatever it was she had been preparing to say was lost as she suddenly clutched her hands to her throat. The dark Titan's eyes nearly bugged out as some form of shock seemed to grip the woman. Starfire was about to fly to her friend's side, frantic to know what was apparently suffocating her.

And then she felt it herself. A wave of anguish rolled over her, instantly dropping her feet to the floor. Not being even a fraction as sensitive to the emotive ki of others, Starfire was still stunned by the intensity of the feelings flowing out from the young Ryouga. The Tamaranian dropped her head into her hand, trying to stop the world from spinning around her; Raven, however, was not so fortunate, and collapsed to her knees, not prepared in the slightest for the painful influx of raw emotions.

A moment later, Ryouga spun on his heel and darted for the nearest door. Barreling towards the left end of the ship, he just barely managed to open the door before slamming bodily into it. It wasn't until he slid through the opening, vanishing into the small cargo annex set between the hold and the control room, and the door finally hissed shut behind him, that Starfire was able to push herself off of the stasis tube. Moving swiftly, she knelt down beside Raven, wrapping her arms around the girl's shaking shoulders.

"Oh _Azar_… Ryouga, I'm so sorry," was muttered under her breath, but the target of the violet eyed Titan's act of contrition was already gone from earshot. Moving weakly, she tried to regain her feet. "I - I need to go speak with him."

Only to be held in place by Starfire's implacable strength. Shaking her head slowly from side to side, she simply stared at the closed door. "I… I think it would be best if you did not, at this point in time."

Still sitting in the stasis tube, Jinx looked around in confusion.

"Sheesh, what's everyone's problem?" she asked, particularly perplexed by the drama that has gripped her teammates. "You'd think someone died with the way everyone is going on."

Not receiving any immediate answers, she instead turned to the most senior officer present.

"So, what's the situation?" she asked him. "All this laying around has me antsy, I'm itching to get back into action! Also clothes. I'd like to get into some clothes, too."

The question seemed to pass through the other Ryouga, who had been watching this and seemed to have to fight to keep from staring back the way his younger counterpart had fled. While not sensitive in the sense of Raven or even Starfire, he felt and understood the pain that now coursed through the young man's heart of glass - it was _his heart, too_, after all.

It took Nabiki whispering a quick rebuke to focus on the situation to snap him out of it.

"R - right..." he caught himself, finally, and cleared his throat. "Konatsu... um, Sergeant, make sure she's physically fit for duty and get her some off duties. I'll need to get Ranma," he quickly explained, realizing he was stammering a bit. "You'll also need to be checked psionically, Jinx. Raven informed me of a psionic attack used during your fight. It may have altered your perceptions in certain ways."

The pink haired girl shrugged, obviously unconcerned despite the reactions of her team around her.

"Sure," she readily agreed. "Whatever you say, boss man. I don't remember anything like that, but then again, I wasn't exactly too 'awake' for a bit there."

Cut off preparing to explain the necessity of the call... he was caught short when she agreed. Of course, he could have and would have simply made it an order, but clearly was surprised by her amiable response. Shoulders raised slightly, but relaxed as he decided to not pursue the topic any further.

"Good." He turned briefly to their coordinator by his side. "Nabiki. Why don't you help Konatsu and fill Jinx in on things? The rest of you, I'd like you to come with me for a moment."

Staring at the exchange, still not believing what she had just witnessed, Starfire tentatively lifted Raven to her feet, and moved to the Major's side. Offering him a weak nod, she then waited for him to lead the way. Cyborg, Ryu and Kuno followed right behind, leaving Nabiki and Konatsu alone with the freshly revived hex sorceress.

"Sir," Kuno spoke first, as they reached the other end of the curving hold. "Did something happen?"

"Yeah," even Ryu seemed to get it. "What...?"

"I don't know yet," Ryouga cut him off, and held up a hand to the rest as they seemed about to pepper him with questions and concerns. "But I have an idea and we'll work on it. This isn't a side show, and we all have work to do."

"But what of Ryouga?" Starfire asked, not at all cognizant of the vagueness of her statement. "He... we must... we _cannot_ leave him in such a state."

"We aren't," he assured her. "Ideally... I'd like to make everything status quo: put it back the way it was. But if I can't... if things are stuck like this for a while, he's going to have to pull himself together and deal with it. I can tell he's also dreading me coming after him right now to tell him that."

"I - I should really speak with him," Raven offered quickly. "It wasn't supposed to be this way, this isn't what I wanted. I have to let him know-"

With a weary sigh, Starfire placed her hand on Raven's wrist, giving a gentle squeeze.

"Sir," the Tamaranian argued, "Perhaps it would be best if you allowed me to speak to Ryouga first. He and I share a... unique bond amongst us all. I may be able to break through to him... once he has had time to calm himself..."

"I think that may be best," Ryouga agreed, and gave Starfire the go ahead, but refrained from saying too much. He pointed to Ryu and Kuno. "Cyborg, check what these two brought in. I'm keeping Star and Konatsu back here for now, so you two will have to do double duty setting up the monitoring devices outside. I'll move Ukyou and Mousse up as a reserve if you need backup."

Getting going, he started to feel a little more confident again about making snap decisions, and pointed to Raven. "You're with me. Ranma and I will need you present when we check out Jinx's mind." He then turned back to the alien warrior Princess present. "Starfire. I'd like you to take the back route to the command room when you're done with your Ryouga. Right now what's happened to Jinx is too personal for all of you and it'll just confuse her if you cross paths."

Not exactly certain what he meant by that, the Tamaranian opted to meekly nod, rather than argue with orders. Cyborg, his gaze continually sliding to the general area of the ship that Ryouga would be sitting in at the moment, nodded absently as well. Ryu gave a quick, sharp 'sir' and Kuno stretched his arms in preparation for another trip outside. Whether they liked it or even agreed with it or not, they had their orders.

Only Raven seemed outwardly unhappy with the assignments given, but not even she dared to debate the decision. Given the situation, it was the only course of action that really made sense.

"Good," Ryouga then punctuated it with. "Go."

Cyborg, Ryu and Kuno quickly left to sort through what they'd brought in and ready the external sensor packs they'd be taking with them on the next expedition into the vacuum, including the careful removal and transport of the Roaming Susan. Starfire floated back to try and deal with the situation all but locked in one of the ancillary compartments. Left with Raven, finally, Ryouga gave a quick, exhausted sigh.

"Alright," he began, and checked to make sure she was staying close by. He also noted she had her hood up again, but didn't say anything of it. It was actually better right now that it was. Pointing back the way Starfire had left, he picked the opposite direction as the one they had come from, silently cursing the rotten as the grave sense of direction he and the younger him shared.

On the way back and around, by coincidence, the two ran into Ukyou, Shampoo and Mousse. He took a minute to fill them in as the small group passed by Jinx, Nabiki and Konatsu. He could still tell that Jinx's eyes were keenly set on the hooded Titan in the group's midst, but surrounded as she was she was also lent a measure of passivity. Ryouga could guess Jinx was wary of Raven and could well appreciate it at least appearing that she was under escort.

Privately, his hopes weren't high for being able to get things back to the way they had been with Yankee. Not as long as they were stranded here, wherever 'here' even was. Messed up as things were, the Titans would just have to deal with it for now.

_'Somehow.'_

* * *

x

* * *

VICTOR. STONE .V.2831.0039  
DScV. Val ACTIVATED 34.0002183.120

: RECORD  
: DISPLAY  
: ACTIVE

: PROCESS OUTPUT

SCAN COMPLETE: DIMENSIONAL VARIANCE DeTecTedD - FrEqQenNcY ?-/+ ERROR  
Warning: ERRORS DETECTED  
Sys MalFunct ERROR  
Dim. Val DOES NOT EXIST  
READTIME MALFUNCTION  
NO DATA . 021.2221  
NO DATA . 00.00600  
NO DATA . 01.40680

ERROR  
ERROR  
ERROR  
ERROR  
ERROR  
ERROR  
ERROR  
ERROR  
ERROR  
ERROR  
ERrOR  
ErROR  
ERROr  
ErROr  
ErRoR  
eRrOR  
ErRR0R  
EERrOR

Emergency Program TERMINATION Engaged

VICTOR. STONE .V.2831.0039  
DScV. Val DEACTIVATED 34.0002183.582

Data. RECORDED  
Data. PURGED

Crash Report LOGGED


	32. Trespasser 2

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Trespasser_

Chapter 31

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Before Ryu and Kuno headed back out, and during their debrief with Cyborg on what to do, the pair took a few minutes to powwow with their backup in the form of Ukyou and Mousse. The mission ahead of them was pretty straightforward: they'd trace the path Konatsu and Starfire had marked with beacons and set up a small monitoring probe to scan what was going on outside - for what good a word like that was to a strange place like this. They'd also be checking to see if there were any routes to use to get the ship's Roaming Susan UAV outside for high speed, in-depth reconnaissance.

If this involved using plasma to cut a path through bulkheads or obstacles, so be it.

All in all, it promised to be a couple solid hours of work in sub-standard gravity and hard vacuum. Like Konatsu had, they couldn't help but compare it to their prior experiences on Luna, and the reduced-grav preparation teams had undergone for Cydonia. It was all to be taken in stride: whether the battlefield was a jungle, a desert, a frozen wasteland or even in the depths of space. They had the equipment and the training; the only thing starting to slip was, privately, morale. Not that any of them made it obvious.

"You know, this would be a lot easier if you could hide the Susan up your sleeves," Ryu couldn't help but observe, as they ran one last systems check on their kit.

"I would if I could," Mousse replied, buttoning up his robes over his personal armor. They looked the worst for wear after all the fighting on Azarath. Due to his own use of flammable materials, particularly in the 'Phoenix Roar' technique, the hidden weapons master's robes were highly flame resistant, but they had nonetheless ended up battered and in some places suffered from chemical burns. He'd tried to mend those quickly in the interim, but it was a stopgap measure.

Kuno already had his helmet on, but not sealed up. "We shall have to do this the 'old fashioned way,' as they say."

"Yep," Ryu replied with a grunt. He turned to the fourth member of their excursion. "Your leg okay, Ukyou?"

"It's fine. Hurts a bit, but fine." As if to prove it, she bounced easily on the balls of her booted feet. The motion did nothing to stop her from bundling up her long hair to make it easier to fit back into her helmet. "You got beat up more than I did, sugar."

"Nothing I can't handle!" he boasted with a chuckle.

"And this isn't anything I can't handle," she returned, but smiled. "Thanks for asking, though."

Ryu grinned happily at that, and inclined his head to the other India squad members present. "Hey. Give us a second or two, would you guys?"

"Hmh." "As you wish."

"So what's it like wandering around out there anyway?" Mousse asked as the duo headed to the airlock.

"Most strange," his sword wielding comrade answered in hushed tones. "I kept hearing curious sounds, like the creaking of wood about to give way..."

"Ryu?" Ukyou asked, watching Mousse and Kuno walk off, and then inquiring to the man himself. To her surprise, he reached out and took her gloved hand, abruptly pulling her a bit closer. She didn't 'eep' but she did take in a surprised breath, interposing one hand between them to keep some distance. Blushing, she quickly looked back to Kuno and Mousse, neither of which were paying any attention. It instantly became obvious that they had the rest of this part of the ship to themselves.

"What?" he asked, sounding a bit perplexed. He put on a roguish smile and lifted a finger to keep her focused on him and not the chatting swordsman and hidden weapons master. "I'd say we've got a minute or two... and you know you look cute with your hair up like that..."

The compliment hade her blush despite herself; even now, she wasn't used to being called cute by any guy. It was hard to undo all those years of pretending to be a boy, albeit a very bishoshen one. A rosy tint reached her cheeks, but that didn't change her outlook.

"What's gotten into you?" she asked, part angry whisper part confused concern. "This isn't..."

"I just put my arm through a guy's chest a while ago," he explained... poorly. "Maybe it was all the fighting, but I feel frisky enough to take on an entire sorority. I know a good fight gets you going too, Ukyou-chan..."

"I - it..." she coughed, keeping down the stammer. "That doesn't matter. We're on duty."

"Ah... yeah. Yeah." He seemed only then to really remember that fact. He quickly let go and looked down at his feet, rubbing the split on his lip with a gloved finger. "Sorry. I don't know... I just. Nevermind."

"I can see you're a bit..." Ukyou's blush darkened. "A bit frisky, sugar, but you've never let it get in the way like this before." She shook her head, and had to ask, "And a whole sorority, really?"

"Maybe just one floor of one," he corrected, not exactly bashful. Just a bit repentant he had broached things when, as she had pointed out, they were at work.

It was strange and he had never done it before.

Professional. They were professionals. What they did off duty was their business, but what they did here and now was another thing altogether. He knew that. He had always known that. Ryu paused, now a bit confused by himself as well. Yes, the last few hours had been damn stressful and physically taxing, but no worse than when they'd handled those hellish back-to-back terror sites and alien assaults at the end of last year. It really wasn't even as emotionally draining as the fights at the Amazon village or in North Korea.

_'For some reason... I just really need to...'_ he nearly grimaced at where that thought was heading, and squashed it. _'Damnit. This pisses me off.'_

"You alright, sugar?" Ukyou asked during his momentary pause, resting a concerned hand on his shoulder. "Ryu? Ryu-honey?"

"What?" he blinked, just hearing his name.

"You zoned out for a second there," the chef answered, watching him with no small amount of worry. "You back among us, lover boy?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," he hastily replied, and slipped on his helmet, hands reaching up to familiar locations to close up NBC environmental seals. "Or at least I will be once we get out of this pit."

"Good," Ukyou replied, smiling at him in a way he couldn't help but see as alluringly and unfairly coy. "After this mission, I'm sure we'll have some time to relax. It'll be something to look forward to. We'll sure have earned it, right?"

_'Whenever that is.'_

"You can say that again," he said, instead, and finally composed himself. It was easier with the helmet back on, and the armor systems booting up. "Suit up and let's do this, Squaddie."

* * *

Tatewaki Kuno strongly suspected that the chemical flares and beacons, though designed to work for many hours at a time, were operating at a dramatically diminished capacity. He had dropped one or two of them near the ship, and after getting back outside, he could've sworn that they had dimmed. In fact, he very nearly did swear it, but asking off hand if his companions noticed anything amiss, he had quickly been told that they did not.

His eyes then, had to be playing tricks on his noble self.

Their progress was slow, backtracking along the route laid out by Konatsu and the fair Tamaranian, Starfire. Along the way they had to stop and take note of any potential means of blasting or cutting space for Nabiki's UAV. It was tedious. Mayhap if they had more explosives, demolition equipment or ammunition for their plasma rifles, they would immediately get to work clearing a path. As it was, they took their sweet time, in the kendoist's opinion.

All the time, he could see their light sources fading in and out. Once again, he remarked that their fluorescence was spotty, and once again his immediate NCO observed that they seemed to be working fine. Indeed, whenever the swordsman mentioned the problem and they took a few seconds to check one of the flares, it burned as brightly as ever... only to spitefully dim again once no one else was looking. Kuno tried to put it out of his mind.

There was still much work to do.

Eventually, they ended up back at the precipice that Konatsu and Starfire had discovered, and the two young men had gotten their first look at the so-called world they were crashed on. The hollow sphere of it was disorienting, to say nothing of the irregular patchwork of what could only be crashed ships and a multitude of other shapes that made up the surface of the interior. It was actually painful to try and make out too many details amid the sea of chaos and ruin. All the while a twisting helix of light and nebulous clouds churned within the very center of the accursed graveyard, like a malevolent, spiteful, cancerous eye.

Yet, as uncomfortable as it was to look upon, there was a strange, eerie alien beauty to it as well. The more one looked, the more one almost saw strange patterns amid the interplay of lights and colors and shadows. Trick of the light perhaps, but for a moment, Kuno could've sworn he saw the pigtailed girl's face across a stretch of crushed rubble and metal several square kilometers across. Then the light shifted, as it always did, and the shadows twisted hideously before becoming inhuman and then thankfully abstract. Purple and black waves dyed the surface around them, momentarily blanketing the two soldiers in ethereal, unnatural darkness-that-wasn't-dark.

"We've seen some strange stuff, huh?" Ryu finally asked, resting on one knee behind the cover of the cracked alien hull. "I didn't think much would top Luna, and then there was Raven's floating city, and now this..."

"We have surely seen much," Kuno agreed, somber. "Yet, if each day brings something new, what more have we yet to behold?"

"Stranger than this? Stranger than Azarath turning into the Christian Hell?" The Yamasenken master gave a weary sigh. "I can't believe I'm saying it, but I look forward to going back to fighting nice, mundane aliens."

The two shared a brief laugh as other, more educated types - one Cyborg in particular - got their own look at what was before them, thanks to the monitoring probe the pair had stuck to the hull outside. Neither had any clue what the teenage Titan would discern from the readings it collected. Both were fighters and soldiers solely, not just specialized, but devoted entirely to their field of expertise. Here, before another strange manifestation of the universe, they could only stand and wait for orders.

"Heaven, to keep its beauty,

cast them out, but even Hell itself would not receive them,

for fear the wicked there might glory over them."

Ryu turned his head at the spoken words, surprised. "You been studying, Kuno?"

"In my off time, I have, yes. Someone once pointed out I had insultingly misquoted the Bard," he explained, not elaborating further on his earlier attempts at quotation that failed to live up to his personal enthusiasm. "Fortunately, I take more quickly to the psionic learning devices than I ever did to my old Western Literature teachers."

"I've never heard that quote before, though."

"You would know this one better, from the same author and the same body of writing," the swordsman responded with a dark chuckle. "_Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate_. 'All hope abandon, ye who enter in.'"

A long silence stretched the airless vacuum around and between the two martial artists.

"Abandon all hope, huh?" Ryu finally asked, adding a sarcastic tone to the question. "I can't do that. I've got a Dojo to open, after all. And a cute girlfriend waiting for me to sweeten the deal."

Kuno didn't reply immediately. He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the sound of creaking from the walls. It had to be old and worn down by its time in this nightmare dimension, but the sound was distressingly ominous. It was almost as if it would... nay, _as if it wanted_... to give in under the weight of the intruders present, crushing them in an act of suicidal spite. No matter the strange alien remains littered about or the engineering prowess in its construction.

A ghost ship was still just that.

No: this whole world was just that.

A phantom realm, entire.

_'To be anywhere else but here...'_

* * *

"Oh, what I would give to be anywhere else but here…"

"Huh, what was that, Star?"

Immediately, Starfire looked up, embarrassed that her silent utterance had been heard. She had not even meant to speak aloud. Turning to Cyborg, she offered a weak smile and a wave of her hand. "I spoke nothing of importance, my friend. I am merely exhausted from our unending tribulations."

The cybernetic teen swung away from the set of monitors he was examining and set his hand s on his knees. Regarding her for a moment, he returned a weak grin of his own.

"Man, don't I know it! We've come so far, and now it seems like we've still got forever to go. I still gotta fix up the outer hull a bit, but I want to be here when Kuno starts transmitting data on… whatever it is you found out there…" Cyborg paused for a moment, studying her closely, a thoughtful look overcoming his features. "That's not all, though, is it? You got a few other things on your mind, don't ya?"

Looking down at her armor plated gauntlets, the metal plates ground silently together as she wrung her hands. "Far too many things," she admitted, "Our many battles, the direness of our situation, the – the worrisome implications of Jinx's recovery. And other... thoughts."

A tired sigh passed for part of his response and a sign of his agreement. "I don't even want to think about that. I mean, the look on Ryo's face back there? It was almost as bad as Beast Boy's when Terra… you know?"

Starfire shuddered at that, and tried to hug herself, only for her armor to get in the way.

"That was not a memory which I needed rekindled at the\is moment," she muttered. She then held out a hand to her friend. "Please, can you assist me in removing this armor? Its cumbersome weight only reminds me of the other problems which assail my heart as well."

"Cumbersome? On you?" he joked, "Between the two of us, we could probably get a good game of Frisbee going with the ship, but… wait a minute, what do you mean other problems?"

Standing, she gestured towards a distant corner of the control room, empty of equipment and martial artists, with a nod of her head. Together, the pair of them moved over to the more private area, and once they were somewhat more secluded, Starfire turned her back to Cyborg and swept her long flowing hair over her shoulder to reveal the catches on the back of her armor. Staring at her curiously, the cybernetic teen then dutifully began undoing the various latches and seals which secured the breastplate in place.

Looking conspiratorially over her shoulder, she spied Ranma and Nabiki seated near the front of the CIC, neither of them paying any attention at the moment. Once she felt more secure in their preoccupation, she then caught Cyborg's gaze out of the corner of her eye. In a low tone, she muttered,

"Of late… I have been reminded of the unceasing, irrational hatred that our dimensional counterparts harbor for any and all alien life forms," she whispered. She felt Cyborg's hands stop their work for several long seconds, his strong hands hovering over her side before he quickly began to fumble with the next latch.

Cyborg glanced away, not particularly liking what he had heard, or the tone with which his friend had expressed it. "Um…" he ventured. "Don't ya think you're bein' a bit harsh, there, Star?"

Forcefully, she shook her head. "I am not."

She reached out to cup his chin and force him to look at her again. "I am **not**," she insisted. "I know they may have reason to distrust some aliens – we have all encountered species with whom discussion is impossible – but their xenophobia goes beyond all reason. They were elated that the crew of that vessel was dead, _elated_ to find a ship full of corpses! Did you not hear it in their voices? Did you not -"

Starfire caught herself, her own voice raising tellingly in her ire. Quickly, she regained control of her passions and let out a weary sigh instead. It quickly transformed into one of relief as, a short time later, the main segment of her armor slid off, allowing her to freely breath fully once more. The arms and gloves came off shortly after, all of the seals now undone.

Finally, that job done, Cyborg replied, "I... don't know if I'd use the term 'elated' Star. But, yeah, I guess I can see your point there. They do have a nasty habit of lumping everyone that isn't 'with them' pretty firmly into the 'against them' camp. I guess it's just too easy for them to forget that you aren't exactly human yourself, when they make those kind of thoughtless comments around you."

Starfire nodded, feeling somewhat mollified - and secretly a bit vindicated - by her friend's understanding. She knew, at the very least, that he would never betray her. Konatsu, and his comrades, though? She had no idea if she could trust them fully any longer. Not when all she had to do was give them a _single_ reason… and then those friendly smiles and kind words and promises of camaraderie would disappear, replaced by killing intent and the sort of murderous hatred that sometimes it seemed only _humans_ were capable of. And they would set upon her like a pack of savage Earth wolves.

The Tamaranian paused, confusion setting in. Turning around, she stared expectantly at Cyborg, the bulky teen standing behind her, his hands floating uncertainly in the air and a slight flush in his cheek. Frowning, she fired a lidded gaze his way. "For what reason have you ceased your assistance in the removal of my armor?"

If anything, Cyborg's discomfort only increased, his eyes trailing down, past the tight white t-shirt she wore, down to the remainder of her armored suit which covered the lower half of her body.

"I… uh…" he coughed, nervously. "You don't actually need my help with this other part, do ya, Star?"

Ah, that was it. _Human_ modesty… or male hormones, one or the other. Either way, it was endearing, and perhaps even somewhat flattering. Not that she could blame him or any other male here; she _was_ regarded as a beauty even among her own race, and there were few humans that could compare with even the average standards of Tamaranians. Indeed, she had _seen_ what passed for average among the _human race_, and it was nothing to be proud of. How many humans, back in her adopted Jump City, had let themselves waste away into disgusting, unhealthy blobs? How many abused their bodies and minds with drugs and drink and those toxic burning sticks? Such vile excesses had never, to her memory, occurred on glorious Tamaran.

Starfire closed her eyes, to keep her thoughts from straying -

Cyborg. _Yes._

Smiling coyly, she even flattered him with a coquettish wink. "What is wrong? Do you fear that you cannot trust your hands, my good friend?"

"H-Hey now, none of that, Star! I know how to keep my hands to myself, no matter what the temptation might be." To prove his point, he quickly took a knee and got back to work in removing her armor, only pausing long enough to mutter under his breath. "Damn girl better not be goin' commando."

Not quite sure what he meant by that, as obviously she was acting in a military capacity which could easily be classified as a 'commando' role, she decided instead to ignore the odd statement. In a moment of kindness, she also refrained from teasing him needlessly. Her modesty was more than preserved by the same white, cotton undergarments worn by all of the female members of Juliet squadron beneath their armor, the stark white material in great contrast to the natural, earthy hue of her skin.

Relishing in her new found freedom she spun about and gave her dear friend a quick hug, doing her best to ignore the deep blush and the way his hands suddenly flew out to his sides as she did. "I offer you my thanks, my friend. Though I am not certain how, speaking with you has made me feel much better than I was previously."

Chuckling nervously, Cyborg very carefully began extricating himself from her grasp. "Yeah, well, I do what I can, yo. It might be time to pass it along, now, though. I think you might want to check on Ryo before he blows this entire ship up from the inside out."

Though it was unpleasant to think on, Starfire could not deny the statement. Never had she forgotten that night, so many months ago now. A dark, abandoned cathedral, a dark and cloudy night… and a glowing column of emerald light which lanced the heavens themselves. As impressive as the inhabitants of this world were in their martial proclivities, she had still not seen any display of raw emotional energy generation that even began to approach that terrifying display.

As frightening as it had been, though, it had been most… fascinating as well: the boundless power of his heart and his soul put so vividly on display. How much like a Tamaranian he appeared from time to time.

_'He is ... wasted ... as a human.'_

Shaking her head, dispelling that odd thought, she patted Cyborg on the shoulder.

"Forgive me for my distraction," she said with a smile. "You are correct; I should tend to our friend. Though… I must admit that I am tentative to approach him so soon. I can scarcely imagine how Jinx's words must be affecting him now."

The cybernetic teen shook his head forlornly, doing his best to keep his eyes above throat level. "Again, I don't envy you that. I – I don't even know what he could be thinking." Sighing wearily, he looked off to the side. "I – I was actually a fan of him being with Jinx; Lord knows that you and me butted heads over that a few times."

She glared at him through lidded eyes. "I seem to recall such debates, though I find it far harder to recall you giving any rational explanation for your position."

He actually let out a frustrated grunt at that, banging a fist to the wall, though not hard enough to startle everyone in the room. "It just doesn't make any damn sense, Star. I talked to the girl - she was so damn earnest! It never even crossed my mind that it might not be real, not for a second."

The Tamaranian was not certain how to reply to that. When had he had a chance to speak with Jinx? And what could she have possibly said that would have made him actually favor the criminal girl over one of his oldest and closest friends? It must have been, how did earthlings put it? 'Quite something.'

"Yes, well… I do wonder if either of them should be involved with him at this point," she said, expressing a growing consternation that she had not been keen to give voice to before. "So much pain has transpired in such a short period of time."

"Can't argue about that, but I guess that's something they need to settle among themselves…" He paused for a moment. "Y'know, after you disarm a Hibiki level meltdown."

"Indeed, indeed, I am departing," Starfire replied in a huff. Giving him a not so gentle push, she then spun in the air and began to float her way to the door which would lead to the small cargo alcove where last she saw Ryouga enter.

"Ah, Star? Before ya go, you think you might wanna change first?"

Looking down at her current garb, she turned to regard her friend. "Whatever for?" she asked innocently.

His only response was to shake his head – a most unhelpful and uninformative gesture – and follow it by moving quickly back to his work station. Honestly, Starfire couldn't help but reflect, humans were such confusing creatures sometimes, and the males particularly so. Though, as of late, even the females had begun to show _flaws_ in a disturbing quantity. She had never been fond of Jinx consorting with Ryouga, but now even her faith in Raven had been quite shaken by her actions in Azarath. Despite how things had either begun or ended, both women had, at one point or another, used mental coercion to force the poor boy to love them.

It was…

_Disappointing._

Seconds later, she was before the door to the rear storage area, and it slid open silently before her. The first thing that she noticed was that the interior lighting of the cargo annex had been deactivated; not actually all that surprising, when all things were taken into consideration. Not wanting to disturb her quarry too abruptly, she opted to leave the illumination off and entered the room. The door slid shut behind her a moment later, plunging the room into near total darkness once again.

She said 'near total' as every few seconds, a small burst of jade light could be seen flaring up from the far side of the room. It did not take a markedly gifted intelligence to determine the source of the exotic illumination. Floating around the numerous crates and containers, most just recently set back in their places by Shampoo and the others, she soon found the young man. She only caught the briefest glance of him, the intermittent bursts of emotive ki from his aura stopping in time to her arrival within his proximity.

"Hey, Starfire…" The voice sounded from the darkness, nearly choked with pain.

Smiling fondly at his recognition of her person, she lifted a hand and a small spark of emerald fire began to dance in her palm. She doubted the meager light it provided was enough to do more than provide visibility of her own face to Ryouga, but to her keen eyes, it revealed much more. The martial artist had also stripped off the majority of his armor, sections of the alien alloy shell scattered around the room in no apparent pattern. The young man himself was curled up, pulling his knees to his chest as he sat against one of the walls. He still wore the lower half of his armor, though his boots had been discarded, so she could not imagine he was terribly comfortable at the moment.

"How did you know it was I?" she asked, already guessing at the answer.

He was currently resting his brow upon his knees, and did not look up to respond. "Not too hard to guess… You're probably the only person I know that could sneak up on me without even trying." He paused, taking in a long, shuddering breath. "I must seem pretty pathetic right now, falling to pieces like this."

The sight of his hunched posture, the rawness of his voice, it was all that the Tamaranian could stand. Immediately, she flew to his side and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him close. Half sitting, half laying beside him, she leaned forward to whisper into his ear:

"No. No, my dear friend. Nothing could be further removed from the truth." Not content to look at his shaggy hair, she lifted his chin with a finger and forced him to face her. Again, a flicker of energy bloomed up from her free hand, just enough to reveal -

"You... you have been crying?" she asked, surprised. Even with his volatile emotions, she was not certain she had seen him shed actual tears before.

She was certain that, had it been anyone else with him, he would have tried to dry his cheeks, or dash his tears, but he did neither. He just matched her gaze, new droplets of liquid flowing down to follow in the path of their predecessors. It was all she could do to stop herself from reaching out and wiping away one of the tears with her thumb.

"Yeah… I guess I have," he admitted, and punctuated it with a dry wracked self depreciating attempt at a laugh. "Like I said: pretty pathetic. I mean, what kind of man cries over something idiotic like this?"

She felt her lips crease downwards at hearing his lament. A moment later, she punched him lightly in the shoulder. "You should ask, rather, what kind of man would _not _weep after experiencing what you just did," she countered hotly, "Your heart was just broken in as cruel a manner as I have ever seen. Were you not to shed tears of sadness, then you would not be the man for whom I care so greatly."

The fanged martial artist stared at her uncertainly for a moment. "You – you really mean that?" Before she had a chance to reply, though, he shook his head in frustration. "But still, I doubt the Lieutenant would be acting like this. He probably wouldn't have even blinked if the same thing happened to him."

The envy, even admiration, in the young man's voice was not only misplaced, but it was actually offensive to the Tamaranian's ears. Snorting in a not so silent manner, she nodded sharply.

"Oh, I have no doubt that he would not be at all affected by such an emotional event!" She followed it up with a muttered, "For a time I thought otherwise, but he may well be even l_ess human _than those which he hunts…"

Or, perhaps, he was far more human than she was giving him credit for. The more she thought of it, she could not recall another human that did not conceal their emotions in one way, or another. It was as if the entire planet had chosen, at some point in their history, to don masks over their hearts… some more literally than others. In retrospect, aside from his murderous bent, was there so much difference between the Lieutenant and Robin? Both would prefer to suffer physical agony rather than show even the briefest _glimpse_ of what they truly felt.

Did they really think that denying their own hearts made them stronger?

It was easily one of the most frustrating attributes of the human race, as a species, and a rule to which her Ryouga, her Ryouga, appeared to be the exception to. To so freely reveal his emotions for all to see, to wear his heart on his sleeve – as she believed the saying went – it was frowned on by human society. But in Tamaranian society, such openness was not only the norm, it was most commendable.

"What was that last bit, Star?" Ryouga studied her face, having strained his ears to hear her last few words, "I think I missed what you said there."

Starfire started at his seemingly sudden inquiry. What _had_ she been thinking again? Then again, it hardly mattered. Instead, she quickly repurposed the conversation.

"It was nothing of import," she stated honestly. "I just wished to tell you that you should not be ashamed of your boundless emotions. You should never strive to conceal that which you truly are: your heart. You have been hurt, this is true, but do not deny the pain, do not try to hide it or store it away as others would. You must embrace the anguish, accept it as a part of yourself now… and in that way, release it, now stronger for the experience, rather than burdened by an unbearable weight."

The martial artist studied her silently for a moment, before dipping his head almost imperceptibly. "I think I understand… and I sincerely wish it was as easy as you made it sound."

Shaking her head, she patted his cheek affectionately. "Never did I state that it was easy. It is, in fact, far more difficult than you could think. I imagine that is why most humans choose to avoid such emotional honesty, it is far simpler to deny, or hide from one's pain than it is to accept it. However, I believe that you possess the strength to do this thing, my Ryouga."

Smiling weakly, the scion of the Hibiki rested his hand on her own. "Well… if you think so, then I guess I have to at least give it a try. Still, even I don't know why this – this is _hurting_ so badly. I mean, deep down, I knew that this was a very real possibility. It was – it was almost comforting, you know? Having that assurance: 'don't worry, she has no choice but to like you.' I know it's terrible to say that, but it made everything so effortless; ironically, my feelings for Jinx just felt so natural."

It was, really, a terrible thing to say, but she knew that it was not truly his fault. The Lost Boy had been the victim in both cases. He could not help but love Jinx; honestly, it was a wonder why no one else seemed to understand that fact. The only tragedy here was that while Jinx's programming had apparently been erased, Ryouga's own was still present in full force.

"The fact that you still care this deeply, despite all that has occurred to you, speaks highly of the man you are, Ryouga," she stated forcefully. "Be true to your heart, but do not let it rule you. Though Jinx no longer seems to share your affection, her affection has not transformed into loathing. I believe that you may yet be capable of salvaging something of your former relationship with her."

'_Not that she deserves such a chance._'

If anything, she felt her own frustrations growing, rather than lessening. This young warrior in her arms, he possessed so many of the traits that would have made him a spectacular Tamaranian. His passion was unrivaled; that which he loved, he devoted himself to with all that he was, and that which he hated, he hounded to the very ends of the Earth to punish. His skills as a warrior, his strength and his endurance – for her own reasons, she took his hand in her own, squeezing it with force that would shatter stone – yes, if only he possessed the ability to fly, he would have made a fine Tamaranian indeed.

'_Neither Jinx, nor Raven are worthy of him.__'_

All they did was cause him pain.

_'I wish they were not even -'_

She shook her head again, suddenly realizing that Ryouga was snapping his fingers in front of her face. Startled, she replied with a rapid, "What? What was that?"

"Heh, nothing, I was just thanking you for the vote of support… but then I kinda lost you there for a minute. The light went out, too, so I wasn't sure if you were just preoccupied or not."

…That was odd.

She did not remember releasing her hold upon the sliver of power she was using to burn away the darkness. She had not even noticed that they had been plunged back into a perfect darkness until he had pointed it out. A sudden thought occurred to her, and she realized that she could take advantage of this fact.

"I do apologize for my distraction..." Smiling to herself, Starfire slid her hand down to rest on his chest. "However, rather than rely on myself to provide illumination, why do you not do so?"

She could almost imagine the confused expression on his face. She realized she was probably being vague and perplexing, but there was another thing that Ryouga was capable beyond the human norm, indeed, beyond even that of most Tamaranians. It was something which she had not seen him do for quite some time, and though the reason for that was a good one, it still saddened her slightly that he had not. It was, after all, something which made her feel an even greater kinship for the Hibiki.

"I know it is wrong of me to ask, but – but can you show it to me once more?"

"S-Star?" The confusion, and embarrassment in his voice was palpable, so she decided to clarify before his mind manufactured something… unintended from her request.

"The Lion's Roar Bullet," she explained more clearly. "I know that you have been unable to use it of late, but with all that has happened do you believe you could generate it now?"

She could feel his muscles tense beneath her fingertips, but soon enough, he relaxed once more. She could feel him shift about slightly, and then was forced to look away as bright light suddenly surged to life right before her eyes. Blinking rapidly, she forced out a small tear, then gazed silently at the small sphere of jade light which hovered over Ryouga's upraised palm.

"Oops, sorry about that," he muttered quickly. "I wasn't actually expecting to be able to call one up that easily after all of this time."

"Do not be," she muttered absently. She could only stare at the ethereal orb of spiritual energy. Unlike her own energy, which danced and burned like a small star, the gathered power in his palm roiled around slowly, like a tiny thundercloud captured and harnessed within an earthly snow globe. The intensity of the emotive ki was obvious even to her still developing senses, and she could see small slivers of pale azure and inky black light cutting through the heavy depressive green energy, adding a breadth of emotions to the potential ki attack which, frankly, Starfire found tantalizing.

Lifting her own hand, arcs of emerald lighting crawled up her forearms, only to gather in her palm and spawn a small starbolt. Her own attack, roughly the same size as his, spun quickly, shedding even more light on the darkened room.

Smiling as the twin spheres bobbed and dipped next to each other, she whispered to him, "Do you remember our first battle?"

He nodded, chuckling despite himself, "I don't think I'll ever forget that fight again. You know… I don't think I've ever actually beat you in a fair fight. It's kind of annoying."

Giggling to herself, she answered, "Well, you are only human, so it is good for you to have reasonable expectations. Still, I was thinking back to a more specific moment in our battle."

To illustrate her point, she inched her hand closer to his own. As her upraised palm moved towards his, and her Starbolt drew closer to his Shishi Hokoudan, angry green sparks began to fly as flashes of bright green light flared in between the warring energies. At the sight, Ryouga's eyes widened, only to settle as a smile settled on his lips.

"Ah, yes," he realized, finally. "I do remember what you mean, now. We did have a rather… volatile reaction to each other, didn't we?"

"I would call it something that was greater than the sum of its parts," she countered with a mysterious smile. Finally tearing his eyes away from the potentially explosive pair of energy attacks, he turned to look her in the eyes. Or, at least, that was his intention. Being male, it was impossible for his gaze not to… _slip_ downwards, even if only for a moment.

Like a soap bubble, the infant Shishi Houkodan popped back into the nothing from which it had come, causing her to lose her own concentration, and for her Starbolt to fade away as well.

"W-What are you wearing?" he asked, sounding a cross between shocked and scandalized for some reason.

Frowning, punched him in the shoulder again. "Do not _dare_ attempt to derail the intimate and productive atmosphere which we had been enjoying with your frustrating notion of human modesty," she stated in a warning tone. "I am merely wearing that which all of the female members of our expedition wear beneath their armor. It is no more revealing than even Raven's standard uniform. You are not permitted to become squeamish now."

Again, she could feel his entire frame tense up and feared that he might attempt to bolt, but finally, he relaxed once more.

"Heh, yeah," he agreed, though he didn't lost his nervousness. "I guess you're right, Star. Besides, what I can't see can't hurt me, I guess. Still… I'm not sure I'm ready to go back out, yet. Um… how long do you think it'll be before the lieutenant - the acting Major - comes bowling in here to drag me back to duty?"

She smiled broadly at that, though it was a gesture mostly lost in the darkness. "If he knows what is best for his person, he will not interrupt us until I inform him that we are ready. I will remain here with you as long as you require."

"Thanks… Koriand'r..." His words, and her real name used by him, here, warmed her heart. "That means the world to me, right now. I honestly don't know how to deal with Jinx, or Raven at the moment."

"You need not put your heart into perfect order in a single night, Ryouga," she replied, her good cheer reflecting in her tone. "You need only settle your emotions enough so that you can act as a leader, for now. The rest can come later, once we are removed from danger and have returned home safely."

"That's… I think I can do that, at least." He gave a slow, relieved sigh. "Thanks, Kori, I don't know what I'd do without you."

She giggled loudly at that. That much was patently obvious. Males possessed so little sense of their own. He was quite fortunate indeed to have at least one female that he could rely on during moments of crisis. "Luckily for you, you will never have to learn just how doomed you would be in my absence."

'_You will always be with me__…__ for now and... forever.__'_

* * *

Unlike Ranma's navigation interface, Nabiki's command and control setup was entirely manual, from the communications systems to the Roaming Susan's controls to the endless streams of smartlinked equipment updating in real time. There was a high degree of automation, but the triple-C systems were all human in design and purpose. The alien equivalent was their group mind, a system they could neither replicate nor adapt, and so operators or coordinators were essential. Managing the affairs of three teams at any given time, Nabiki Tendo worked hard to live up to the trust and expectations placed on her shoulders.

Not to mention her monthly paycheck.

At present, with only four people on active duty outside the ship or on immediate standby, most of her attention was on the newly released UAV that was her eyes and ears in the field. In this one manner, she really did envy Saotome seated next to her. It would be so much easier to control the Roaming Susan with her mind rather than use the programmed control routines and other manual schemes.

Free to explore and extend the ship's scanners, Pathfinder's Roaming Susan was sending home reams of data on the vast chamber around them and everything within it. She had several pre-planned search routines in the system that it was faithfully executing, zipping around at several times mach speed, mapping out topography and taking pictures and scanning the vacuum for anything of interest.

What it had seen so far confirmed the speculation from earlier. The hollow sphere they were currently trapped within was made up of not tens or hundreds of ships and other junk, but hundreds of thousands or even millions. It wasn't just ships and other artificial debris either. Much of the structure was captured asteroids of bizarre composition, warped and twisted and... merging into the captured ships. Privately, it looked to her like the ships were being absorbed into one twisted, jagged, chaotic mass.

_That_ was what they were trapped in.

The space itself was vast inside the sphere. At about three thousand kilometers in diameter one could almost squeeze the entire moon into the volume they had scanned so far. One of the landmarks they had identified may well have actually been a captured moon or planetoid once: it was just a hump, now, like a mountain amid a turbulent sea, absorbed into the walls of this twisted place.

According to some of the preliminary data Cyborg had gone through, the warping effect was essentially universal. Parts of ships melded together, or sunk into the strange asteroids. Other pieces ripped free to float through space, some becoming part of the small burning nebulas that churned in the center of this graveyard and others migrating far away to land somewhere else, further adding to the discordant melting pot.

The anomaly in the center was not entirely unique, either, though it was the largest of it's kind. The Susan had picked up gravity and particle anomalies all over the structure, some moving, some stationary, some appearing out of nowhere and other disappearing the microsecond they were recorded. All the while, sporadic and unpredictable blasts of radiation shot out from the blinding cancerous pulsar-like ... thing ... in the center of it all. The surface immediate to the inside of the sphere was immensely hostile to life as they knew it, and any excursions would do well to take place beneath the surface levels. Luckily, Pathfinder's alien tested, alien approved, and XCOM assimilated radiation shielding was expected to be up to the task of getting them from point A to point B.

_'If it comes to that.'_

"That looks like a hand, doesn't it?" Jinx asked, standing somewhere behind the Tendo sister. As usual, the girl had snuck up on her, but Nabiki could see what she was referring to. It was strangely easy to see shapes in the patterns of light outside. One in particular looked like a massive hand, kilometers across: a smooth form amid the ragged and rough textures all around it.

Zooming in a bit, she noticed strange lines worn and weathered by centuries in this hellish dimension. What may once have been a dome was now a mount of rubble eroded into a pitted heap. What may once have been towers of steel or alien material were battered stumps. It looked almost like the black asteroids that...

She blinked, the obviousness of it all hitting her suddenly, punishing for not even thinking it before. Was it possible the 'asteroids' and other meteor-like formations were in fact weathered down, warped hull matter? How much time must have passed to decompose a ship until it resembled nothing more than rock? What was this place?

"It does look like a hand..." she mused, nibbling on her lower lip.

"What does?"

Nabiki glanced back at the pink haired girl, thrown by the question. "What do you mean, what does?"

Jinx, still recovering but determined not to show it, was still out of her armor and patched up as best they could manage, but Ryouga wanted her kept close to either Konatsu or herself. Jinx didn't seem to mind the order, and Nabiki had asked her if she wanted to get the first real pictures of whatever sort of place they were presently stranded on. Or in.

The confusion on Jinx's face, though was... weird.

_'She was the one who saw it first. Did she lose sight of it or forget?'_ Nabiki corrected herself. _'No. That doesn't make sense... did... did I imagine it?'_

"This," she said, pointing to the screen. Except now the shadows had shifted again, and what had looked like a giant hand now... was just another formless mass of broken shapes. "It did... look like one..."

The feeble explanation forced an embarrassed frown to Nabiki's face, and she focused on the readouts.

"Anyway," she quickly said. "It doesn't matter."

_'So why even bring it up? What's wrong with you?'_

"Anyway, I still can't believe you're up and walking around already," Nabiki switched topics, and not just to cover her own little slip - or had it been Jinx's? "If I were you, I'd be hopped up on pain killers and fast asleep... dreaming of someplace warm with lots of cute guys and lots of fat wallets."

Still looking raptly at the monitors, Jinx simply shrugged her slim shoulders. "Not like this is the first time I've been beaten unconscious. Besides, there aren't any cute guys worth dreaming about on this tub, anyway."

"Not a lot of fat wallets either, to be honest," Nabiki agreed.

"No cute guys, huh?" a familiar voice inquired over the ship's invisible speakers. "I'm not surprised ya forgot about ol' pork butt, but you can't have forgotten I'm here, too."

"I haven't forgotten anything, Lady Fingers. You don't even rank in my top-five list of possible lesbian escapades, let alone the straight ones." With a swift motion, the nimble gymnast spun around Nabiki's chair, only to drop herself right into the Tendo girl's lap and wrapped her arms around Nabiki's neck. "Any guesses on who _might_ be on that list?"

"What!" An indignant squawk, predictably (and sadly) came first and foremost from the ship's pilot. "I'm two - **no** - three, times hotter than 'biki!"

"The scary thing is that I'm flattered and even a little... curious," the avaricious Tendo sister nonetheless quickly lifted the playful witch's arms from her shoulders. "Curious, that is, about who else is my competition on this list, particularly if Ranko here isn't in the running."

Placing a hand on the back of the seat, the younger girl gave a teasing wink, a lewd smile, then leaned forward, bringing her lips within an inch of Nabiki's ear.

"Do you rea-ally wanna know?" Jinx whispered... and then she spun up and out of the seat, retaining her position as sentinel behind the coordinator's seat. "Anyway, seriously, 'Bland-a-tome', have you figured out what's going on here yet? I thought you had an entire ship here to act as your brain for you?"

"Hey, all this science stuff ain't exactly what I trained for! That's what we brought along the Six Million Dollar Man here."

"Ranma," Nabiki jumped in then. "Do you even know what the Six Million Dollar man was?"

"Sure I do! A movie, right? Something about Robocop? Robots?"

"Close enough, really," came an unexpected reply from the far side of the control room. Spinning around in his own seat, Cyborg held up one of his hands to wave to them. "Though, seriously, with the way the economy is these days, you'd be lucky if six million would even get you one of my hands."

"Speaking of money and selling things," Nabiki turned her questioning to him giving Ranma a reprieve to recover from the two girls' teasing. "How come you never sold any of your tech? I bet you could make a killing working for Bose or Sony or something. Or the military, if you wanted. Don't tell me you _choose_ to be poor like all these penniless martial artist types?"

"It isn't a choice," Ranma corrected. "Its part of the lifestyle and the tradition of putting the Art first."

"Says the guy who makes enemies because he has to steal food."

"It wasn't - I didn't ...! You're just...! Argh!"

The cybernetic teen shrugged. "I do have a few patents out there, but you'd be surprised what kind of operating expenses we have to deal with. Even with Robin's... anonymous benefactor, upgrades cost money, and investors back home shy away from anyone living my..." He borrowed a term from the local martial artists. "Lifestyle."

He paused, looking at his raised hand intently for a moment. "Besides, a lot of this tech isn't exactly 'mine' per se. A lot of it is based on my parents' work, or other people at S.T.A.R. labs, so I can't actually sell anything that isn't radically redesigned from their original schematics."

"You've mentioned this STAR Labs before," Nabiki asked, "Is it come kind of think tank?"

"Yeah, it's pretty much one stop shopping when you wanna pull a good tech heist," Jinx stepped in, grinning wickedly. "I think they're government backed, but I don't know for sure. They do got pretty impressive security, though."

"Obviously not impressive enough," Ranma guessed.

"Bah, don't blame them, it's nearly impossible to keep up with all the insane things that super villains keep coming up with these days," Cyborg muttered. "And no, they aren't government run, they're a privately run corporation. International in fact. It's pretty much the most well known one on the planet, though not the only one like that."

"I _think_ I remember hearing the Headmaster talk about some other one... Cadmus, or something," Jinx added, obviously straining her memory, "But I never heard anything too interesting about that it."

"Cadmus, huh?" Cyborg asked, clearly not familiar with it himself.

"Yeah, well," Ranma began. "I..." Only to come up short and pause. "Just getting something form the Susan. Nabiki?"

"Already on it," she assured him, switching quickly from conversation to application. "Is this...? Hold on a second... Oh! I think I've found something!" Nabiki tapped a holographic key with her middle finger, bringing up a display of EM radiation along certain frequencies. The internal search engines had isolated a repeating signal among the fierce winds of electromagnetic noise. "There! That's it!"

The prospect of a genuine find was enough to lift her spirits again and she grinned.

"Cyborg!" she yelled. "I'm getting a signal! Radio! About a hundred hertz; real low frequency."

"I got it," the large teen replied, not nearly as excitably. "Just gimme a sec to see what it is I got, here."

This part of the operation relied on the Titan and the Tendo and both devoted their full attention to the job leaving Jinx to lean against Nabiki's chair and wait. For a while, the two teens exchanged quick words as they started to clean up and then decipher the radio signals. Together with Pathfinder's normal SigInt software, it didn't take long for them to start down the path to figuring out what they were intercepting.

"The first part is repeating machine code," Cyborg explained, following Jinx's bored inquiry. "Very basic: One dash, two dashes, three dashes. Like that. Up the scale and then down."

"It isn't encrypted," Nabiki added, though it was really an educated guess at this point. "I think it's a broadcast."

"An SOS?" Ranma asked via the ships' systems. "Its coming from a pile of rubble."

"I'm sending the Susan to get a closer look now," Nabiki explained. "But I don't think it's coming from the surface."

"They could be like us, phasing in inside the structure," Cyborg reasoned, and contemplated what all this seemed to be pointing towards. "They'd only be broadcasting if they need help."

"Whoever 'they' are," Nabiki cautioned.

"Meh, so what's the big deal about that?" Jinx asked, already looking bored. "Probably just some alien brain suckers lookin' for a quick meal. Besides, if this place is big as you say, then it'd probably take us weeks to even reach whoever's sending the signal, and I don't think the air in those suits would last that long."

"Not even close," Ranma replied. "We'd have to fly the distance."

"We _are_ freeing the ship," Cyborg reminded him. "And we could fly close enough to land..."

"And what? Pick up passengers?" Nabiki asked. "I hate to say it, but we don't exactly have a lot of air or room in here, much less supplies to burn playing good Samaritan."

"Not to mention the fact that we haven't even _started_ freeing this ship up," Jinx re-reminded the cybernetic genius. "Kuno and his buddies spent all this time just cutting enough room for the Suzie Q to get through."

"Geez, like I don't know that?" Cyborg grumbled. "Once I get the rest of my work in here done, I still need to finish up the repairs, then I can start coordinating the efforts to actually cut the ship free."

"See? Our problem here is that there's only one Star Fleet engineer and no red shirted ensigns," Nabiki joked. "Guess I better ring up the lost lieutenant and tell him the good news."

"You do know," Ranma started to say, hesitated a second, and then continued, "I really hate to say it, but if there's another functional ship out there... with parts we need..."

Stopping mid-chuckle, obviously appreciating Nabiki's jest, Cyborg instantly whirled on Ranma. "Whoa, hold up right there, buddy. I sure as heck hope you're proposing a Trek style 'co-operative bargain' thing, there. You guys are already on thin ice with Star. If she heard you guys talking about taking out an alien ship just to steal their tech..."

"I told ya I hate ta say it," Ranma tried to explain, the sour taste the idea left in his mouth audible through the digital thought-to-speech systems built into the ship and the nav. "But if I was in charge I'd be at least thinkin' it. Hell, I _am_ thinkin' it. I just don't like it."

"Thinking what?" Ryouga asked, entering the room through the door to the hold. "I just got word that something's new with the search?"

Wringing her hands, Jinx spun around and let out a wicked cackle. "I'm starting to like your Ranma, here. These guys think they just found an alien ship out there, and the first thing that he wants to do is go out and kill them. He isn't even _considering_ doing things peacefully! This is awesome! I so volunteer for that mission!"

"Hey, shut up, everyone," Cyborg barked in a hushed tone. "Seriously, I hate to agree with Star on this, but what's _wrong_ with you people? The first thing you do when meeting a new alien race is **not** planning to kill them and jack their ride!"

"Yer takin' this outta context! I was just sayin' that... that if we haf'ta... that if it's us or them, ya know?" Finally Ranma seemed to harden a bit, his officer training kicking back in, despite the previously informal atmosphere. "If its us or them, we gotta responsibility to bring our people back."

"I wouldn't be arguing if that was what you were sayin'," Cyborg growled back, "But it ain't. You're talking 'Shoot first, ask questions later'. There's 'responsibility', then there's just bein' murdering pirates."

"So what?" Nabiki quipped. "I mean, would you look out there? It looks like a lifeless radioactive wasteland that, oh yeah, I forgot, also killed everyone on every other ship here."

Cyborg scowled at that and was about to question her point when Ryouga cleared his throat.

"So you found a ship," he summarized. He didn't have to raise his voice to remind them he was in charge: the decisions were his to make, and only his. "Or a signal of some kind?"

"A radio signal," Cyborg answered him. "Repeating. Artificial. It could be a call for help."

"Or a trap," Nabiki cautioned. "If they're thinking what you're accusing us of thinking."

"It isn't an _accusation_."

"Alright. That's enough of that," Ryouga said it quietly, but they all heard it clearly. "Nabiki, you've sent the Susan to check it out?"

She nodded in the affirmative. "I did. But the signal's from underground, just like us. So there's nothing on visual or infrared."

"Can you send a signal back?" he then asked. "Not from Pathfinder. Just from the UAV?"

"It... it isn't really designed to do that," she replied, a bit unsure whether it was even possible. "Maybe?"

"Just work on it," he ordered, voice flat. "Try. That's all I'm asking. And if you can get it working, then send another signal back. Like... like um..."

Cyborg could see what the officer had in mind. He wanted to be able to communicate, but in a way that wouldn't reveal where Pathfinder was. Kind of paranoid, but... maybe prudent, too.

"Send the same one we got," Cyborg suggested, "So they'll know we understand what it is. But what about after that, Ryo-Two?"

"After that," he answered. "Mark the location. If we need to, or if we have the opportunity, we'll take a look." He quickly added, "But Ranma is right. We have a responsibility to get this ship and everyone in her back home. We... **I**... will not put our survival in jeopardy with some mission of mercy unless it also offers benefits to offset the potential risks. It's cold hearted but if you have a problem with it, you can feel free to record that in your mission reports when we get back to Seiran. Clear?"

Cyborg nodded firmly; it wasn't the response he had hoped for, but it was what he'd expected.

"You'll be sure that I will, sir," the Titan replied. "But like you say, nothin' I say matters here, so I'll just get back to work on fixin the ship, y'know, so I can _save_ lives, instead of just endin' them."

Jinx snickered loudly at that, leaning back more heavily on Nabiki's chair. "Sheesh, Cy, since when did you turn into such a big softy? I think Ryouga and Ranma here have a good way of thinking. Maybe I should request a transfer, eh?"

Ranma's digital voice harrumphed indignantly at the implication.

"Cyborg has a point, and I do appreciate his opinion, but the call is mine to make," Ryouga clarified, clearly hoping this would be the end of it. That done, he turned his attention to the bantering sorceress. "Jinx, you aren't tired at all?"

"She's been prowling around back there for almost an hour," Nabiki supplied, her back to them as she worked. "I don't know where she's getting the energy from."

"Tired? You gotta be kidding me!" The slight sorceress scoffed, rolling her wrist dismissively. "The way I'm feeling right now, I could run half of India right into the ground. C'mon, L-T. When are we gonna **do** something here? If you wanna tech heist pulled on an alien ship, then I'm your go-to girl! I got straight A's in tech heists back at the HIVE! Let me at em!"

"See?" Nabiki asked, clearly with a rhetorical flavor. "Clearly getting beaten up just fills her with energy."

"I guess that's a good sign that you're up for the mind dive later," Ryouga inferred, voice lowering a bit at the end. "Anyway, if you're that excited, you can keep Shampoo company in the hold. She's training back there, too, despite her injuries. And send Konatsu in here while you're at it."

The feline eyed sorceress seemed to drain of enthusiasm almost instantly, twirling her finger as she muttered a sarcastic, "Girl time with the alley cat... yippee."

Ignoring Jinx's dampened enthusiasm, Ryouga cross his arms and tried to appear amused and in control. It was unfortunate, then, that things seemed to be spinning more and more out of control and there was nothing to be amused about basically anywhere. And where the Hell were Starfire and the other-him? Still locked up? There was sympathy for the younger Hibiki's situation, yes, but there also wasn't room on the ship for a catatonic NCO. That would have to be next on the shit list.

"Let's concentrate on the task at hand. None of this recon matters if we can't get the ship free."

* * *

Every motion of her hand sent a fresh jolt of pain racing up her arm in protest. Shampoo didn't bother to hide the grimace that blossomed on her face as her grip tightened around the hilt of one of her chui war maces, flipping the heavy weapon around like one would a switchblade. Delicate, destructive fingers moved in familiar patterns, muscles healing as they bathed in agony, the intense reaction prompting her internal ki to flood into the damaged regions.

Raven's healing was truly an impressive thing, especially coupled with Konatsu's tender ministrations. Plucking burned debris out of scar tissue wasn't fun for either doctor or patient, and the Amazon suspected it would take weeks to iron out the scars, even with the grafts applied. In the meantime, she would have to simply endure it and learn from the experience. The desperate application of mind control acupressure in the heat of battle had been risky indeed, but she couldn't say she regretted the effort. It had been her best bet at the time, her literal trump card; she had played it and in the end that was all life as a martial artist amounted to.

She just wished Mousse would leave her alone for once.

At least he was being quiet in what was a definite change of pace, and one she approved of, but there was simply no need for him to be watching at all. She knew her limits well enough to practice without opening her wounds or exacerbating her injuries. She wasn't some neophyte and she most certainly did not need coddling or babysitting.

When the time came for the next fight; the next enemy; Shampoo would be ready, willing and eager to get into the thick of things, ideally against mortal enemies she could cut or crush or shoot down. It was really only in a good honest battle that a martial artist found peace: between fights, there was only training and planning and anticipation of what was to come, but during the fight itself, the constraints of fear and worry were lifted. Fleeting concerns of what could have been or what may have been were rendered moot by the urgency of 'here and now' and worries of the future were banished as 'what is to come' centered on the fight and its immediate conclusion. For some, battle was confusion, but for her, it was clarity.

_'Stupid Mousse…'_ she still couldn't help but think, stealing a quick look at him. Or rather where he had been. The annoying duck seemed to have disappeared.

_'Good. Maybe he went off to bother the pancake chef or lost boy.' _

The ironic thing was that she suddenly kind of missed his attention. It was so annoying when she had it, but kind of troubling when she didn't. It had always been like that between them, for around a decade now. Every time she started to forget his… habits… he would appear and remind her of them, reinforcing once more why they were incompatible. Shampoo knew she had long since come to realize this, but her would-be paramour? He just didn't seem to get it.

Maybe he never would.

Vexed at the unwanted intrusion into her normally battle hardened thoughts, Shampoo tried to expunge the foolish male from her mind and focus entirely on her movements and the feeling of painful rejuvenation in her right hand. First, she would train with the chui for forty minutes, then the knives, and then a half hour of trigger control with the rifle … safety on, naturally. No one wanted the ship getting shot up or the weapons wasting ammo.

In a brief lull between repetitions, he also wondered just how the ship's Cyborg tech-head planned to free them from their burrow in the alien derelict. Hopefully she would be able to contribute when the time came to rip, tear, blast or shoot Pathfinder loose. It was definitely handy to have such a talented male around. Cyborg, despite being as much machine as man, was a credit to all outsider males. He would've been a fine catch for an Amazon, too… had the village still been around and provided he had some genetic or somatic material tucked away somewhere.

Who had been that one girl back at the village; the one obsessed with bringing in more modern technology? Shampoo found she couldn't quite remember. Lotion maybe? She would've been a prime candidate to toss at such a technically skilled outsider. Not only would she probably enjoy the union, but a high status catch with both technical and fighting prowess would add esteem to her entire family.

But that was the old way of thinking, wasn't it?

In the new more… informal village system she and Mousse were designing with Perfume and the other outcasts, there would be no mandatory marriage laws or other "arrangements." Things would modernize to better fit the altered sensibilities of those liberal Amazons exiled over the decades. It was a fact Shampoo accepted but couldn't entirely find the heart to embrace.

Thoughts meandering back to the rest of Cyborg's circle of comrades, Shampoo felt an instant and immediate dislike for the pink haired witch. _Naturally_. The girl was trouble, and revelled in that fact. If what she had heard had some accuracy, dark bird girl had finally snapped and done something to try and rectify that situation. It was a shame she couldn't change more while she had the chance, in Shampoo's opinion. There was just too much about Jinx herself that rubbed the Amazon the wrong way and that challenged her alpha-female inclinations.

Starfire was too… Joketsuzoku-like to really dislike, though recently the alien girl had been giving off an odd stand-offish vibe. That was right before she disappeared into the command room to meet with her friend and, presumably, see what was happening with their lost boy. That last one, their lost boy, presented a particularly strange case to Shampoo. Sometimes he was like the "old" lost boy: stupid, wishy-washy, indecisive and childish, and sometimes he was like a true rival for her _airen_, her lieutenant, her Ranma. In those brief moments he was as an outsider male should be.

But then some things inevitably happened, and he would revert to form.

It was pathetic really. She saw some of the same cracks in the Hibiki who now commanded them, "their" lost one. Mercenary girl really had her claws in him, and Shampoo doubted he could function half as effectively without her. Nabiki Tendo was no Amazon. She was smart, yes, but weak and lacking in martial prowess or courage. To rely heavily on someone like that was itself a weakness. A true, proud outsider male needed no one but himself. This was what made his conquest by a worthy Amazon so…

Necessary.

_'Yes. Necessary.'_

A flash of white caught her eye, and turning towards it, Shampoo – for a second – saw what looked like Mousse. Except he was not there. In that place, walking through the door to the command room, was even less likely (or likeable) company.

'_Pink hair bitch?'_

Strolling in as if she owned the entire damned ship, Jinx swung her hips from side to side in an exaggerated manner, as if just trying to draw attention to herself. The first thing the dangerously cocky girl did was nod to the male kunoichi at the far end of the hold.

"Hey, 'Natsu, the CO wants you up front!"

"Ah. Thank you, Miss Jinx." The unobtrusive young ninja, all but invisible in a shadow of the hold, emerged with a polite bow and started towards the command room. Shampoo had to hide her surprise at Konatsu being present. Of course, yes, it made sense that he was. Yet his presence just seemed to disappear entirely. More so than usual.

The cat eyed witch was content to wait for the ninja to leave, leaning casually against the nearest wall. Her wide, pink eyes followed every step the ninja took with great interest, however, the second the door slid shut behind him, her gaze suddenly snapped back to Shampoo in a flash.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my _good friend_, Shamps." Pushing off from the wall, she linked her hands behind her back and began to pace languidly around the room. "So... what ya up to, _Shamps_?"

"What do you care?" the Amazon asked, trying to sound disinterested. It was impossible to hide her annoyance, however.

Maintaining a most convincing front of disinterest of her own, Jinx shrugged her shoulders lazily. Her strides remained calm and fluid as she paced around Shampoo. "Because we're friends. That, and the Major told me to come back here and _help_ you."

The pink haired witch smiled shamelessly. Tilting her head, she then lifted a finger to her lip, donning an innocent expression. "I guess he was worried that you weren't back up to speed yet? That, maybe, you needed a little guidance to get you back on track?"

"Ah. I see." Shampoo nodded acceptingly. "He sent you to as target practice dummy. Is very considerate. Just what I wanted." The chui in her hands spun around dangerously. "You still quick on feet? Or is that brain damage slowing you down?"

A grin. "It is one of the hazards of actually having a brain to damage, I suppose. Of course, from what I hear, it isn't _my_ dodging skills that need work."

Lifting one of her hands casually, Jinx tightened it into a fist. Instantly, the hair at the back of Shampoo's neck stood on end, a sense of apprehension filling her. A second later, arcs of pink energy, looking very much like neon hued lightning began to dance up and down the sorceress' forearms.

Shampoo had not seen _that_trick before.

"Maybe we should test how well, _you_ can dodge? What do ya say, Shamps?"

"As long as we no break anything, lost boy can no complain, yes?" How lucky. Most of the ship and the equipment was all but indestructible to boot. So what if this witch had some new tricks? Shampoo just wouldn't let any of that pink fire connect. It was really no different than she had always imagined it.

"First one back in healing tank is loser."

"I don't have a problem with that."

"Good."

Her fists tightened on the hafts of her chui, the sight of the insufferable girl's smug grin beginning to cause her blood to boil. The fool didn't even bother to take a stance; she just stood there, staring at her own crackling fist as if she held the Goddess herself within the palm of her hand. It sickened Shampoo, just looking at the pathetic excuse for a warrior: she had barely enough skill to count as a real martial artist, but hid that fact behind some unnatural, _unearned_ power as if it made her superior.

The Amazon had never been one to drag a fight out needlessly; she felt no inclination to approach this fight any differently. She would smash the idiot girl's head and knock her right back into the well deserved unconsciousness from which she'd just risen. She was already visualizing the battle to come. It would be over in seconds. Shampoo would charge forward, her body moving forward faster than most humans could even follow. Jinx, if she was lucky, would maybe get a single shot of her disgusting pink fire off, Shampoo would dodge around the projectile, and then her chui would connect with the girl's temple and it would all be over.

A vindictive grin crawled its way across her lips, one that was matched by the girl standing across from her. No doubt Jinx was also calculating the odds, though she no doubt had deluded herself into the foolish notion that _she_ would actually win.

Neither moved an inch, holding their positions perfectly, waiting -

The nearly silent hiss of an opening door acted as a starting pistol. In that instant, the world slowed down to a crawl as Shampoo's perception sped up to super human levels. Even with her enhanced senses, her foot lifted and moved forward at apparently normal speeds, as opposed to the slow motion of the rest of the world. She gloried in the raw acceleration of the moment, allowed herself an instant of pride at her speed. There were few people on the planet that could match her speed, and she knew that Jinx was not one of them. Not without her fancy modified armor.

Still, Jinx did not need to match her speed, as, rather than begin to move as well, the sorceress simply stretched out her hand before her. It was mildly impressive, that her opponent could appear to move at almost normal speeds herself during Shampoo's heightened state of perception, the sorceress carefully lining up the only shot she would get.

For an instant – just an instant – Shampoo's instincts screamed that something was terribly wrong. Rather than build up a small sphere of pink energy, which would inevitably bloom out into a burst of comparatively slow moving flame, the arcing bolts of pink energy crawling up and down her arm – still moving almost too fast to see – began to flow down her arm and over her hand. Jinx's fingers splayed outward like a fan, hot lines of burning electricity jumping between her digits as the power built up.

_'A wide angle attack! C-can I dodge?'_

Shampoo's eyes narrowed and her body reacted quicker than mere thought would allow.

_'I can't read where she's aiming. I'm going to get hit! But - but that doesn't matter!'_

Sudden realization dawning on her, she swung her massive chui forward with all of the strength and speed she could muster, to strike Jinx down before she could unleash her power -

_'I'm still faster! Stronger! I'll crush her! Hand, arm, body and soul! I'll crush her! DIE!'_

In a flash of motion and a sudden, bone crushing impact, it was all over. For a second, Shampoo could only stare forward, not quite understanding what had happened, curious as to whether it had been herself, or her enemy that had fallen from the exchange.

"What the _hell_ is going on here!"

The furious outburst snapped Shampoo out of her confusion, and she was finally able to piece together what had happened. Much to her delight, it appeared that Jinx was every bit as confused as she was... far less amusing, was the expression on the face of one Hibiki Ryouga, having somehow interposed himself between the pair of them. Both of his hands were held out, his left hand gripping the sizeable head of her chui. Tentatively, she tried to pull the weapon back, but it might as well have been held in a hydraulic press. She imagined the only reason her weapon wasn't a crumpled piece of scrap at the moment was due to its alien construction.

Ryouga's other hand, held up over his head, was grasping Jinx's wrist, having forced the girl's hand up and towards the ceiling. There was no scorch mark there, indicating that the girl hadn't let off her attack, but her wrist was still coruscating with bottled lighting. In that moment, Shampoo's widened a fraction of an inch; black smoke was rising up from Ryouga's hand around Jinx's empowered wrist, neon energy flowing over the metal gauntlet that he wore. To the Amazon's surprise, the indestructible alloy of his gauntlet was tinted a faint pink and parts of the inner glove actually flaked off even as she watched, yet the fanged martial artist gave no sign of discomfort.

Finally realizing that she was harming her own CO, Jinx immediately released the power she had been holding, her eyes having gone even wider than Shampoo's. The younger Hibiki studied the pair of them for several long seconds, and then finally released them both, giving each of them a forceful shove back and away from each other.

Now that the tense moment was past, Yankee's Hibiki cooled down from outrage to simmering anger. The sight of the armor clad warrior, righteous wrath clear on his face, was somewhat spoiled by the fact that the alien girl, Starfire, was hovering right at his elbow, wearing nothing more than a tight white t-shirt and a pair of matching panties.

_'Why is she out of uniform? …What exactly were they doing in that room?_' crossed the Amazon's mind briefly.

Still awaiting an explanation, their Ryouga finally got fed up and let out a harsh bark of, "Fall in, Squaddies!"

Shampoo could only stare at the man. _What was that?_ Had this pathetic cry-baby just tried to give her an order outside of a combat situation? Yes, they were still technically on duty, but…! She looked to her side, seeing that Jinx was every bit as incredulous as she was. The pink haired girl gave voice to what both of them were thinking.

"Um... are you serious, _acting_ sergeant?"

For a moment, the irate Hibiki faltered, looking to his side. Floating forward, Starfire quickly rested a hand on his elbow and gave him an encouraging nod. "Do not be afraid to do what you must."

Nodding firmly, Ryouga then turned back to them. "_Fall in, Squaddies_, before I break both of your legs and use each of you to prop the other up!

In that instant, the young Ryouga sounded very much like another Hibiki present on the ship, and Shampoo found herself snapping to attention more by engrained martial reflex than desire. To her side, Jinx stood stock straight, a perplexed look on her face as she regarded the furious NCO.

"I don't know what the hell that was all about," he started hotly, obviously referring to their fight, "But it was not acceptable." He turned to Jinx. "I know exactly what you were about to do there, Jinx. That is **not** a technique that you use during training. Even if it wasn't something you just devised, and have no experience with, it's too damn dangerous. What were you thinking?"

Rather than reply, Jinx just stared down at her feet, actually possessing the grace to look abashed for a change. Shampoo's spiteful glee was spoiled, though, as a moment later, Ryouga turned to glare at her. "And you? About to use _lethal force_ on an already injured fighter? What do you think would have happened if I hadn't arrived in time, or been even a second slower?"

Unfortunately, Shampoo didn't have a good answer for him either. In fact, she was taken so badly off guard at actually being admonished by this near child that she could scarcely form a reply at all. And he was right. What had she been thinking? No matter how angry she had been. What the hell **had** she been thinking?

Frowning deeply, the acting sergeant shook his head.

"Actually, no, I'm not going to pretend that I don't know what all this is about. I know neither of you like one another, and even I'm guilty of not acting in a professional manner in regards to it, but that ends now." He held up his now scorched hand and gestured to her chui. "We may not be family here, or even friends, but we are _team mates_, damn it."

Taking a deep breath, obviously needing to calm himself, he finally regarded them again. "Alright, both of you. You're not to train with each other until you've settled whatever the hell it is between you. Consider that an order." He turned to the violet haired Amazon. "Shampoo, I know I'm not your CO, but I'm still your superior officer, so I expect you to follow that until someone countermands my order."

The martial artist quickly looked around, taking note that the four of them were the only ones present in the hold, everyone else either in different parts of the ship, or outside scouting. "However, I'm willing to accept that this was an isolated incident that, in light of a far larger emergency, doesn't really need to be brought to the attention of the Lieutenants at the moment, so I'll leave that up to your discretion as to whether you want to tell them about what just happened here, or not."

At that, Shampoo stared at him uncertainly. He wasn't planning to report this? It certainly wasn't proper procedure... but on the other hand, the thought of trying to explain how things had spiralled out of control so fast was... less than appealing. Why had it happened? The Amazon couldn't even fathom what had happened herself, now. Why had her first instinct been to strike out with deadly force? There were other actions she could have taken. Blocking with her weapons, trying to fall back and out of the way of the attack, despite the fact that it wouldn't have led to a direct advantage...

She would have to consider her course of action further before she decided what to do.

So, she simply nodded and replied in the way she'd been trained to so stringently over the past several months: "Yes, sir."

He then turned to Jinx. "And you? Do you have a problem with that, or do I need to tell Hibiki what you nearly did myself?"

"No, sir... I'm good... sir," the pink haired witch finally responded a bit grudgingly.

"Good," Ryouga asserted. He held up a hand, pointing at each of them in turn. "Now, seriously, get your shit together. And I want you to take special consideration of just how screwed up it is that **I'm** the one telling you guys that your petty grudge has gotten out of control."

With his piece apparently said, the acting sergeant then turned to his scantily clad subordinate and motioned towards the front of the ship. "Alright, Star, let's go find the Major. We need to find out what else is wrong with this damn place. Lord knows he's probably ready to crucify me at this point as it is."

Nodding diligently, Starfire quickly grabbed his elbow and began to lead him towards the command room. Before turning away fully, though, the Tamaranian took a moment to offer both Shampoo and Jinx a look of sympathetic support. Obviously the alien girl approved of Yankee's NCO actually acting his part for a change, but was not totally at peace with seeing her friends being yelled at so angrily.

Even if they had deserved it.

And a moment later, the pair were gone, leaving Shampoo alone in the hold with the insufferable witch once more. Glaring through lidded eyes, the Amazon fired a heated glance the girl's way... only to pause as she noticed that the girl was paying no attention to her. Rather, Jinx was staring at the door through which her team mates had just passed through. And the look on the girl's face was one that Shampoo could not quite place.

"Hubbah hubbah...!" Jinx all but catcalled. "When did _he_ grow a spine?"

Speechlessness was the immediate response, followed by:

"…"

More speechlessness.

Maybe dark bird girl's mojo wasn't as strong as people were saying.

* * *

Starfire and Ryouga entered just as Ukyou finished her rundown of the ship's inventory. Included in the tail end of the report was a summary of emergency supplies, notably pure water and calculated expenditures of oxygen. This was followed by a repeat of what military stocks and free ordinance remained after the expenditure on Azarath. Not surprisingly, almost all of it had been used up establishing the perimeters for the landing and extraction zones back on that expedition. It was somewhat ironic that they had more unconventional ordinance left than conventional: including a dozen chemical warfare grenades of the Jyusenkyou and Celatid venom varieties, and of course, the fourth generation fusion ball tactical nukes.

The elder Hibiki gave no immediate reaction to their presence, nor did anyone else, allowing the two to smoothly insinuate themselves into the small group without interruption. Everyone (except Kuno and Ryu) were present in the flesh (so to speak), with Ranma leaning back in his chair facing his peers rather than zoned into the navigation interface that, surely, had to be putting a great deal of stress on him after so many hours of use. Nabiki was cross checking everything with the smartlinked systems central to her workstation while Konatsu and Cyborg stood at opposite corners of the area.

"Lastly, there's the matter of, um… the unofficial weaponry we have," Ukyou concluded, leaving the most vague for last. "Most of us should be back up to normal levels of ki by now, though I'm not sure how useful that's gonna be outside. Ryouga here says his attack doesn't work in a vacuum… Ryu's won't of course… mine might, but it isn't as powerful. In terms of more normal stuff, I've got enough ingredients for two maybe three more okonomiyakidans, Konatsu has enough for one more small Andon, and Mousse still has some emergency bombs and incendiaries. We could probably use the thermate to cut through metal beams and the like, but that's just speculation. We also have some raw C4. Twelve pounds of it left…"

The elder Hibiki took a few steps over to the two new arrivals as Ukyou finished.

"Anything I should know about, sergeant?" he asked in a low voice.

"Nothing I haven't handled," the other replied.

That was all that was said about it.

"You got here just in time," the acting Major said instead, and raised his voice. "Thank you, Ukyou." She bowed her head slightly and took a seat next to Nabiki. "Cyborg?"

Immediately, the cybernetic teen took a step towards the center of the room, nodding to the elder Hibiki. Offering a quick wave to the new arrivals, he quickly got around to business. "Alright, all. I got bad news, and not quite as bad news. Also, some of the bad news is that there's more bad than not quite as bad news."

Taking a moment to gesture all around them, for effect, he then continued. "The bad news is as follows: We punched a hole clear through this hulk, and the straight up truth is that we're buried and deep. Even though we were only in motion for a second or more, I calculated that we're a little over eleven hundred meters in. The second point of bad news is that we don't have nearly enough conventional supplies to cut ourselves out. We'd run out of thermate in under an hour and judging by the size of some of the support beams we sheared through, the amount of C4 we would need to blast through them would be totally inefficient."

Letting out a frustrated grunt, he dropped a fist into his palm.

"Not that we'd want to, anyway. This mass of ships and other junk is so large that it's generating its own spotty, weird gravity. If we just started using high explosives to try cutting our way out, it's damn likely we could bring a mountain of metal down on our heads, and then we'd never get out."

Ukyou released a dissatisfied sigh of her own. "That's an awful lot of bad news, sugar. You sure there's no good news at all?"

"Hey, I did say I had some not quite so bad news," Cyborg countered, holding up his hands before him. "On the not so grim side, I've already been using the data from 'Biki's Suzie Q to make a structural report of the tunnel we carved out when we made our not so spectacular entrance."

"Hey! I'd like to see you pilot this tub any better!" came an irate outburst from the pigtailed pilot.

"Dawg, I've been flying ships since before you could even throw a ki blast. Anyway, due to the delicate nature of the work, and our limited supplies, I've had to take stock of the unorthodox abilities possessed by our crew. This place is literally a death trap, so anything that relies on powerful strikes, explosions or just complete overkill are out of the question. Only people with high temperature cutting abilities, such as myself, the Lieutenant and Star, or with more esoteric abilities to weaken or destroy metal in a non-energetic fashion, such as Jinx or Ryo, back there, are gonna be able to help out."

"What? What about me?" Ukyou asked, sounding a bit offended.

"Sorry, Ukyou. But there's another reason I want to keep a small team, as well. With just the five of us, we can use these." He held up his Titan communicator, and in response, the rest of Yankee squad did as well. "To keep in contact. Instead of depending on Nabiki for spoken cues or HUD updates from the ship, I can send actual graphical data to everyone, directly from my hard drive, letting them know, in real time, just where they should be cutting and what the structural integrity of any given point in the tunnel is. It's a much more efficient way for me to disseminate information, really. Besides, if we just let loose with a dozen martial artists just blasting away out there, it'd cause far more damage than good. Like I said, construction and destruction are two totally different things."

"That makes sense," Raven admitted. She stared at her communicator for a moment, before handing it over to the Lieutenant. "I believe I would be able to assist as well… but being confined to the vessel, it is probably not a possibility."

"So, there's just one last bit of not so great news," Cyborg added while the elder Hibiki examined the T-communicator Raven had given him. "This is gonna take time. Best estimate I can give at the moment is anywhere between fourteen to twenty four hours, maybe more depending on what kind of problems we might run into out there. On the bright side, that'll give you guys plenty of time to look for more tech to fix the ship… and I guess we could use this as a chance to save on some breathable air, if we lower the atmosphere in Star's suit to the bare minimum levels to transmit sound, or just hook her up to communicate with a small keyboard or something."

The Tamaranian nodded solemnly. "If it means prolonging the amount of time we can remain here safely, then it seems a wise step to take."

"Thanks, Star," Cyborg replied. He then turned to the acting Major. "So, what do you say? If you're okay with everything, I can start making the preparations immediately."

The elder Hibiki tapped his bicep, arms crossed as he considered the options.

"Starfire, I'm no xenobiologist, but most living things that can breathe do so for a good reason. I know you can operate without oxygen, but for how long? There must be some side affect or you wouldn't breathe at all."

The Tamaranian replied, though it was grudging, "Indeed, this is true. Though Tamaranians are capable of extended survival in the harsh conditions of space, it relies heavily on less efficient reactions within our bodies, mainly involving the absorption of certain forms of radiation. I will not go into specifics, though it is tied to my enhanced ability for regeneration. However, all Tamaranians still require the regular intake of liquids and food, and my capability to remain outside in a vacuum is far from indefinite."

"I see. It was my understanding that as long as we had power, we could recycle oxygen on the ship?"

"Yep," Cyborg replied. "As long as we've got hydrogen lyin' around in the tanks, scrubbers to separate CO2 from the air, and power to electrolyze good ol' H-Two-O, the ship can support us indefinitely. Those reaction packs in the personal armor, though, that stuff'll burn out sooner or later. Simple chemistry there."

"We've got four reserve packs for everyone here," Ukyou supplied, gesturing back at the hold. "Some of us will need to be swapping out soon. So that's about twenty four hours of breathable air per person if they're outside the ship."

"And there's no way to recharge them," Ryouga half asked, already knowing the answer.

"Nope. Once they're used up, it's just a caked up mess inside," she answered with a sigh. "They're designed to be disposable in the field."

"Okay. While conserving air is definitely important, I don't think we're at the point yet where we need Starfire here to suck vacuum to buy the rest of us a few more minutes." He nodded to himself as thinking out it further convinced him of his decision. "On the other hand, we are already rationing oxygen consumption for off-ship teams so it could be worthwhile to stretch out supplies a bit. Our sensor sweeps before did detect air pockets so there must be some sort of life support systems running out there. I think we'll do well to put that on our to-do list while Cyborg pulls together everyone and everything he needs."

"Ehh… on that topic," the acting Major then asked the resident tech. "I… don't suppose I could say, 'you've got six hours' and expect you to miraculously do the same job in a fraction of the time?"

Cyborg let out a bark of laughter.

"That's not how it works, _Captain_. You see, I'm the one that gives you a way over estimated number of hours, then when it takes less time than I state, I seem like a miracle worker. Besides, _you're_ gonna be working with us every step of the way, so if you don't pull your weight out there, who knows how long it could take."

"Great. I'd say we've clearly been deceived by TV and movies," he concluded. "Alright. Those of us that can help will do so. I'll leave it to you to determine the shifts you want and the progress we need to make. Everyone else not on rotation will be used to investigate the anomalies ahead of the work teams, and then to investigate some points of interest that have been brought to attention."

"Shifts? Heh, someone is an optimist. And here I thought you guys were big, tough martial artists. Well, I'm sure I can figure out a more reasonable schedule if you aren't up for going all out." That said, Cyborg moved back to his work station. "I'll get back to ya soon enough and then we'll head out to get to work."

"Please, excuse me... but, what are those 'other missions?'" Starfire asked, clearly expecting one to involve the distress signal from before. "Those 'points of interest'?"

Ryouga seemed to take a second or two too long to answer that.

"I'll brief relevant parties in the particulars of those missions as Ranma and I review them."

It appeared that the Tamaranian wasn't satisfied with his response, but before she could comment on it, a hand on her shoulder stopped her. Looking to her side, Starfire calmed quickly as the younger Hibiki gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. The acting sergeant shook his head. "Don't worry about it, Starfire. None of those missions will involve us, at least until we've finished cutting the ship free."

"Yes, you are correct. I understand."

"Good. I'm sure we'll be kept far too busy to worry about those poor saps having to wander around in the dark looking for new toys. Now, why don't you get Raven to help you suit up, then go tell Jinx that she's about to be on demolition duty. At least that should put her in a good mood."

A light giggle was Starfire's reply, and with a quick gesture to Raven, the dark Titan moved to follow the alien girl to the corner of the room and they began to prepare for the upcoming mission.

"Everyone else will need to get ready as well," the acting Major added, growing clearly excited at being able to move forward again. "Nabiki, call in our field ops and explain the situation."

The Tendo sister smirked at his enthusiasm. "Will do, Ryo-baby. It's about time we got this show on the road."

"You can say that again," he replied, balling a hand into a fist. "If the way is blocked, we'll just make our own road home."

* * *

"Alright, time to carve this turkey! You guys ready?"

Both Starfire and acting Sergeant Hibiki stared back at Cyborg, nonplussed expressions on their faces.

"Must you use such distasteful terminology?" asked the former.

"And how did we get stuck on the first shift, again?" inquired the latter.

Rolling his eyes, the cybernetic Titan let out a put upon sigh. "Oh, come on, Ryo, are you still on about that? The Lieutenant still needs to organize everything with Ranma, so he'll be joining us later. And I think Jinx should actually rest for a few more hours, preferably after getting some healing from Raven, before she engages in this kind of strenuous activity. Don't worry, you guys won't be alone for too terribly long."

Taking a moment to adjust his armored glove, mindful of the small patches of sealant he'd applied from Jinx's 'soft touch,' the acting sergeant nodded.

"Fine, fine, so where do we start then? In case you haven't noticed…" With a grand sweep of his arm, the Hibiki gestured to the nightmarish collage of twisted steel and inky darkness which surrounded the ship. "It's a bit hard to tell where our ship ends and the huge ass mess we need to clean up begins."

Cyborg, not exactly thrilled with the massive and daunting task which lay before them, could sympathize with his fellow Titan. They wouldn't be able to go for more than a few hours at a shift, either. Considering how exhausting the work was going to be, and the limited air supplies available in Ryouga's armored suit, their bull headed NCO would probably need to head back into the ship every four hours or so, just to be on the safe side. Starfire, obviously, was not so limited, but her method of material removal would be more energy intensive than Ryouga's, so she would likely need to rest more often.

Only Cyborg, with his internal power cells and enhanced life support systems, would be able to go for extended periods, and with minimal downtime to recharge between shifts - literally only to recharge from the ship's reactor. He didn't feel bad about that, though, as this mission was his baby, and, honestly, he was leery about letting the four normally highly destructive members of his 'construction crew' run around with free reign. Probably about two hours in, he'd start rotating in Hibiki and Jinx, and then work it by ear from there, depending on how long it took people to exhaust themselves.

Nodding towards the gaping maw in the hull of the massive hulk torn by the Pathfinder, he gestured towards several obvious support beams and bulkheads which were bent backwards towards them, like jagged teeth. The metal had been pushed backwards on their entry, which, though it provided a survivable entrance, would make any attempt at an exit like trying to pull your hand out of a bucket of fish hooks.

"You guys are gonna start over there, removing the more obvious obstructions. I'm going to start on the Pathfinder itself, and cut it free of the wreckage currently pinning us down." Lifting his arm, he brought up the display on his arm. Like Starfire, he was somewhat lucky in that he didn't actually need to wear a fully pressurized space suit, he only needed a properly sealed helmet to allow him to breathe and communicate properly. As such, all of his weapons and tools were still available to him… though, unfortunately, like Ryu, his sonic cannon wouldn't be too useful in hard vacuum.

His plasma cutter, on the other hand, would work just fine.

Taking a moment to go over the readings once more, he checked the structural integrity of the surrounding area. Nodding to himself, he picked a few good places for his companions to start. "Okay, Star, you come with me, I'll point out where you can start. Ryo, you just hold here, and then I'll get you working as well, okay?"

Receiving words of agreement from both, he carefully led the Tamaranian off to the far left side of the cavernous hole in the ship. While she could easily glide around, he was forced to carefully navigate the wild jungle of jutting beams and twisted, jagged floor plating. The entrance of the Pathfinder had not been a gentle one, and the size of their ship, even as inconsequential as it seemed in comparison to the ship which now housed them, meant that they hadn't come in neatly between floors. They had torn a savage, angled path through a number of decks, meaning that they didn't have a nice, even floor to work from.

It kind of reminded him of the asteroid from Armageddon, only less redneck oil drillers, more pretty ladies, and a lot more razor sharp metal threatening to cut them to ribbons. On the bright side, he was fairly certain they were in less danger of stumbling upon a gas pocket that might detonate and send one of them flying into space…

He was _reasonably_ certain that wouldn't happen…

Once they'd made their way to the work site, Cyborg then pointed up to the top of the hole.

"Okay, Star, since you can fly, you're gonna start up high and go from there. You need to cut through any hanging obstructions that could damage the ship on our egress. Unfortunately, you can't just let them drop, since people will be working under you, and because that'd just make more of a mess at the bottom of the tunnel we'd have to clean up again anyway. It's a pain, but we should try to be tidy about this, as much as is reasonable, anyway."

He could see her frown through her visor, but she finally nodded.

He then lifted his arm again. "Get out your communicator, would you?"

Complying quickly, Starfire retrieved her communicator and flipped it open. He then typed away at his arm, bringing up a three dimensional wire image of the tunnel on his arm display. Touching his finger to the display a few times, several of the visible structures lit up a bright yellow color. "Okay, I've highlighted the first dozen things that look like they'll be possible obstructions. Tell me when you're done with them, and I can update your communicator remotely from wherever I am."

"A most fascinating application. It reminds me of our venture in restoring Terra to flesh and blood." After studying the matching display on her communicator, she then looked up to the overhanging edifice of alien metals. "Very well, I shall endeavor to clear away the potential obstructions post haste."

With that, the Tamaranian warrior zipped up into the air and floated next to the nearest blockage: a long hanging support strut, twisted inward towards the Pathfinder. Without even a moment's hesitation, she flew right up to the base of the beam lifted her hands. Grasping the metal hard enough to deform it beneath her grip, she then brought up her other hand, now glowing like an emerald star, and simply began to drag it through the steel, melting it with surprising ease. Within less than a minute, as the beam was over two square feet in diameter, the multi ton lump of metal began to drop.

It started to drop, but stopped a second later, as Starfire pulled back up, stopping its descent instantly. Then, casually, she swooped down and laid it carefully on a more open section of flooring, before zipping back up to begin on the next one.

Smiling to himself, quite satisfied with the rate at which she was working, Cyborb made his way back to his other companion. A few minutes later, they were set up on the far side of the tunnel, though on the floor this time. It didn't take him long to give Ryouga a similar set up, supplying a list of the most likely obstructions that would need to be removed.

"So, how you gonna do this, Ryo?" Cyborg asked, curious, once they were finally all prepared to go.

Ryouga studied his first obstruction, a wide section of deck plating, easily a dozen feet across and teen feet high, also twisted up and back like a vicious, razor edged steel wave. Running his armored hand over the surface for a moment, the martial artist shrugged. "This stuff isn't anything spectacular. The only thing stopping me from just bending it back into place normally is the fact that it's so thick and there's some kind of structures between the sheets. I don't think this will be a problem, though"

To prove his point he gestured for Cyborg to follow him to the other side of the nasty blockage. With the floor plating curled up as it was, they had to balance about on the support beams that ran beneath the floor originally, but moving nimbly, Ryouga moved across from one end of the sheet to the other, running his finger across the base of it as he did. At first nothing happened…

And then, with a groan of anguished steel that could not be heard within the vacuum, the entire metal wave just collapsed forward, suddenly unable to support its own weight any longer. In an instant, the massive obstruction was reduced from ship killer to minor speed bump, easily navigated by the ship or brushed aside by the rending gravity bubble it generated.

"Well… alright then! Looks like you got things in hand! Just remember to keep your communicator open, and if ya get lost, just get Star to point ya in the right direction."

"Oh, ha ha. Shut up and get outta here, Squaddie."

"Whatever you say, Sergeant."

With a shared chuckle, they then parted ways, Ryouga following his communicator to the next obstruction a couple meters down the way, and Cyborg made his way back to the Pathfinder. Within a few minutes, he was perched on top of the Unetco craft, staring at one of the bent I-beams that was pressing right down on the hull, pinching the ship in place.

Looking from left to right, he could see another four such slabs of alien steel jabbing the ship, just on the top where he was standing. With a weary sigh, he deployed his plasma torch and began to cut away at the wreckage, sparks flying wildly as he worked.

This was going to take some time, but he had to get it done.

_'__No one else is competent enough to handle this__…__ it__'__s all on me. ...All on me.__'_

* * *

Six members of India and Juliet squads stood assembled before Ryouga in the main hold. Next to the officer, two large cases were propped up and locked in place against the inner wall like massive metal coffins clamped shut with interlocking steel teeth. Per orders, Kuno, Konatsu, Shampoo, and Mousse were present in their usual armor kit, Ryu and Ukyou without it. Jinx had also opted to attend, if only out of curiosity, and was thus sitting down on the lip of her now-closed medical tank. The presence of the two metal containers and the two unarmored soldiers could only mean one thing.

"Listen up," Ryouga said, cutting off the low chatter that threatened to get started at the sight before them. "Your mission assignments are as follows: Konatsu. You are to lead a team to investigate three anomalies that lay on or near our projected exit path. Kuno, Shampoo, Mousse, you three will be operating under him."

"I want all of you to exercise extreme caution," he continued, pacing a few steps in front of the two metal caskets. "We don't know what's out there and we'll need to plan for any changes in our demolitions schedule if these anomalies are dangerous. Nabiki will be conducting a full briefing on each one and what we do know about them via your suit's heads up display."

"As for Ryu and Ukyou, as everyone here has probably guessed, they're going to be taking our two MARS suits out," Ryuga wrapped his knuckles against the first of the large metal containers.

Inside was one of two suits of flying powered armor that they had in storage. Both India and Juliet squads were classified as 'light infantry teams' by XCOM standards, Juliet specializing in recon and India in assault. Typically they wore regular-style or recon/light versions of personal armor to take advantage of their natural speed and flexibility. It had also taken some time to train up their 'special techniques' for use with personal armor body gloves and other gear.

MARS suits were rather different. While it was arguable that personal armor itself could be considered light powered armor, it was still no heavier than conventional tactical protection worn by infantry around the world. Power Armor proper was a full-body enclosure with no exposed body glove or other vulnerable sections, capable of extended and augmented operations under any environmental condition with optimal protection from plasma and conventional weaponry. The MARS version was also uniquely equipped with anti gravity propulsion systems similar to those found on Cyberdisks or the Roaming Susan UAV.

Ryouga could see a few questions pending on the faces of his subordinates and he quickly explained the situation. "Ryu and Ukyou. You two will be taking the MARS suits out to investigate the distress signal we received earlier today. The situation topside is even more hostile than it is down here, and to get to your destination you'll need to cross several hundred kilometers of space. This can only safely be done with powered armor."

"Sir," Shampoo spoke up, seeing an opportunity to object without outright objecting. "Why Ukyou and Ryu?"

Meaning more: _why Ukyou?_

"I am aware that you have about a dozen more hours of powered armor training than Ukyou," Ryouga replied. "After talking it over with Ranma, I've decided to keep you close to the ship. Your injuries were more extensive, especially the damage to your right hand. Using the MARS requires fine motor control for extended periods of time and this mission will take almost half a day."

Shampoo's shoulders slumped just a fraction, and her bandaged right hand clenched shut.

"If that what you think best," she relented, bitter traces in her tone.

"Again, I'll fill in the relevant mission specific details using the armor's internal comms and HUD. Everyone got all that?" He nodded to them when there were no further questions. "Good. Konatsu, move your team out as soon as you can. Ryu, Ukyou – let's break out your new formal wear. Jinx, how about you lend a hand? Just try and keep the hexing to a minimum. We don't want anything exploding in the field."

The pink haired girl shrugged innocently. "Well... accidents _have_ been known to happen." Still, she was clearly at least a little happy to be actively involved in things. "But I'll try to be careful... I _promise_."

"Not exactly very comforting there, sugar."

"I don't have a problem with it," Ryu said with a shrug. "I'm pretty sure she doesn't want me dead. Right? Pretty sure."

This time, Jinx just stared at the martial artist through lidded eyes, an enigmatic smile on her lips. The Yamasenken master found himself swallowing nervously.

Using a passcode and command clearance, the psionic locks keeping the powered armor in its cases clicked open, revealing first one suit and then the other. They were hulking gunmetal grey constructs with open clamshell sections around the upper legs and torso to accommodate an occupant who was as much pilot as soldier. Inside, it was very similar to the personal armor, with a visible layer of spongy soft, body conforming material. This was used to monitor physiological status, maintain body temperature and moisture, and would form a sealant in case of catastrophic breech or failure preventing terminal blood loss or shock. Unlike personal armor, the powered armor was all one solid unit, and couldn't be completely disassembled into separate sections for arms, legs, torso, etc.

This was why XCOM personnel wore little beneath their armor. As Ryu and Ukyou helped Ryouga remove and open up the MARS suits for insertion, systems powered up and activated via Nabiki's control link in the other room. There was no moving the armor from its little alcove and still plenty of space to squeeze in.

Backing up into the bottom half of the torso section, stepping onto metal ramps built into brackets holding the legs in place, first Ukyou and then Ryu slipped their feet into solid massive "boots." Like old style ski-boots, these were a single solid piece, and thus the first part of the armor people put on. It wasn't unusual to require a little wiggling to get in, the spongy environmental layer slowly giving room and then conforming to the warm body on contact. The rest was actually easier: arms and hands entered gauntleted forearm sections, and activation systems kicked in.

The process was automated enough that it didn't technically need a second person, though for safety, it was good to have someone to help and double check. As Ukyou's slim fingers entered the inner control glove, rings tightened around her fingers along with a metal framework that allowed her to control the mechanical hand several inches ahead and around of her own. Forearm sections sealed tight, and cylindrical seals rose up, rotated, and lowered, LED lights flashing green to indicate a successful lock. Sections around the upper legs and arms followed, with overlapping clamps magnetically sealing in position then going taunt and locking in the opposite direction.

Ryouga and Jinx merely had to oversee the process and make sure nothing got caught and none of the lights came back red. Nabiki was likewise monitoring the entire activation sequence from her smartlink control center. The upper torso came last, locking together to fully enclose the martial artist inside with a hiss. It then allowed for a few seconds of inactivity as the user adjusted their breathing. Ryouga took the opportunity to help Ukyou make sure none of her hair was in position to get caught or stuck when the helmet locked in place. Jinx had an easier time roughly tucking Ryu's white headband back behind his ears and giving his cheek a teasing pinch.

Then, the final 'go' command given, the open faced helmet rotated and lowered into place.

"All good in there?" Ryouga asked, knocking two knuckles against Ukyou's flat alien alloy chest.

"Tight as usual," she replied, and gave Ryu a look. A well deserved one, to boot, since he was grinning like a schoolboy at his own vivid imagination.

"Sheesh, man, why don't ya just take a picture," Jinx whispered teasingly. She then banged her elbow against his side. "Or, should I say, get Nabiki to take a picture for you? She's got access to the girl's washrooms, after all. You'd be able to see just how well her armor fits then."

"Yes, well," the sergeant muttered, trying to recover his split dignity. "It _is_ a bit tight in certain places. You'd think the techs would learn to loosen things up a little?"

"Oh, I'm _sure_," Jinx playfully tapped his armor's crotch plate.

"If you're able to joke around, you're able to get to work," Ryouga spoke before Ryu could try and clarify his 'problem' for a T-rated audience. Both soldiers grinned and reached up with a gauntleted hand to the catch on the side of their helmet, itself activated by the control link at Nabiki's workstation and the armor's internal systems detecting a "all ready" status.

The faceplates then extended and snapped together, fully concealing Ukyou and Ryu from view.

The male of the pair was the first to take a step out from the armor's upright container, displaying a practiced familiarity with the equipment. He took two steps to Ukyou's one, and then lifted his entire eight foot bulk up on what passed for the 'tips of the toes' of his mechanical metal boots, testing the balance. Ukyou meanwhile spent a few seconds moving her fingers and rotating her wrists.

When Ryouga tossed her something from off to the side, she caught it seemingly without looking, the formerly oversized battle spatula she normally wore now seeming rather petite. There was no room inside the ship for any theatrics, so Ukyou easily adjusted her grip and locked it in place to a magnetic connection point on the upper left arm, like one would holster a giant knife to a strap on the upper arm.

The two then retrieved the standard weapon for any powered armored trooper: the heavy plasma.

"We good to go?" Ukyou asked, finishing her loadout by clipping a backup rifle and sidearm to her back and right hip respectively.

"One last thing," Ryouga said, holding up his hand. "Ryu. You're aware of the Icarus Protocols."

"I am," was the powered armored fighter's response.

"I'm assigning you one of our fourth generation FBs as part of your mission loadout," the CO explained. "You'll know what to do with it… just in case."

"I do," Ryu then said, after a second's thought, "If this is a trap, it'll be the last one they ever set."

"Good." Ryoua nodded crisply, pleased with the serious response from his immediate subordinate. "Hopefully it won't be necessary. I think we could all really use some good news for once. The Susan will be with you the entire way. Our estimates are that it will be a four hour trip to the site at cruising speeds."

"Four hours," Ukyou said with a huff. "And no in-flight movie."

"It's freaky enough out there as it is," Ryu reminded her; he knew that fact from first hand experience. "Four hours of the end of 2001 a Space Odyssey. What's not to love?"

"At least we've got an autopilot feature on these babies."

After a few more words, the pair saluted their CO and were given clearance to leave the ship. They had a long flight ahead of them. With Konatsu's squad also heading out on their mission, that left Ryouga and Jinx behind in the hold. For his part, the latter seemed quietly concerned about sending so many people out… especially given what had happened during the excursion to Azarath.

"Now…" he finally said, convinced that what was done was done. Turning to Jinx, he gave her a serious stare. "The Mind Dive."

* * *

It was hard to decide, in Raven's opinion, whether her current isolation was a blessing or a curse. She had been left, all alone, in the hold. Most of her team was already outside, and the only thing stopping her from helping them was a standing order to remain in the ship until further notice. Everyone else was gathered in the front of the ship, preparing for the various other missions that would doubtless take them out of the ship as well, leaving her alone yet again. So, on the bright side, she was being left to her own devices, free to meditate on her actions of late.

On the less bright side, it meant that she would not be able to make any contributions to helping them escape from this dimension… sub-dimension? It certainly wasn't like any place they had been to, yet; more bizarre than even Azarath. Unfortunately, she had no way of making any real comparisons, as she wasn't able to go out of the ship. She wasn't sure which was worse: the feeling of uselessness, or the fact that she'd lost the trust of so many people.

No, actually she knew what was the worst thing was: the knowledge of what she had done to Jinx, and more painfully, through her, what she had done to Ryouga, was silently tearing her apart. Having all of this time to herself was only forcing her to go over that fact again and again, and rather than settle her emotions, it only caused her more guilt. She actually found herself praying for distraction. She hadn't even had a chance to speak to Ryouga, looking much improved after spending time with a scantily clad Starfire…

Something _twisted up_ inside Raven at that thought, but she quickly pushed in back down into the dark corner from which it had arisen.

As it was, she was doing little more than shifting from room to room, trying to find the least populated area at any given time when her presence wasn't expressly requested. As troubling as her isolation was, without a proper psychologist on board, there wasn't exactly anyone she felt comfortable discussing these things with. The acting Major was receptive, and she could tell he was trying, but he was... difficult to speak to in his own ways, and not simply because of who he was and who he resembled. His priority was the mission, not her personal well being, and being a Hibiki, he wasn't exactly predisposed to long, meaningful, emotional discussions.

Not that she was, either.

Still, sometimes a good kick in the butt was all you needed to get you back on track, and sometimes, it wasn't. It was a concept that the Nerima elite likely weren't familiar with.

The spiral of her inner thoughts did not stop her from sensing the presence a moment before the door slid open. She was mildly surprised, though, at the sight of who it was that entered the hold. Of all of the people she had been expecting to come in, the pigtailed pilot was the last. He had been all but plugged into the ship since they'd crashed. Rather than wonder what he was up to, she simply delved more deeply into her hood, pulling her cloak more tightly around her, and floated further back into the corner. The last thing she needed was to see another suspicious look fired her way. She would just wait until he was done whatever he needed before she did anything.

The purpose of his excursion became clear when he stretched a drinking straw from his water pouch and unscrewed the cap. The hold had the only dispenser of essential liquid water in the ship and everyone got thirsty sooner or later. A hands-free source of refreshment was part of all their basic equipment, from the personal armor to even the light tactical vests like the one she had worn before. Ranma was no exception, and had clearly come in for a refill.

Seeing no one else around, though, instead of immediately leaving Ranma walked over and – to Raven's surprise – sat down on the floor nearby, crossing his legs in a relaxed posture. Carefully dribbling a little water into his palm, he then dabbed it on his forehead, getting a little in the bangs of his hair. He didn't seem to mind that his presence and the act itself had caught her attention, and Raven could see he was clearly being careful to not use enough water to cause an unwanted transformation via Jyusenkyou curse.

Apparently a bit refreshed, he leaned his back to the wall and closed his eyes, breathing slowly.

It occurred to her then that he had to be mentally exhausted. She had some knowledge of what it was like to use psionic devices for too long, and after the short amount of training she had received so far, she knew that navigation interfaces were not very pleasant to be constantly connected to. Yet Ranma had been plugged in almost since they took off from Seiran. How many hours had that been? Yet, to the pigtailed one's credit, never once had he uttered one word of complaint about it; just the usual lighthearted umbrage about defending his flying and his immense ego.

Not sure whether to say anything, she instead closed her eyes and went back to her own belabored meditation. She did think briefly about leaving to move somewhere else: he hadn't asked for her to be nearby, but on the other hand, he had chosen to sit down close by. It would be rude to leave if nothing else. Decided, she also considered whether he had some purpose in doing so: perhaps to admonish her for hr behavior earlier. It wouldn't be uncalled for.

A few minutes passed with her all but anticipating it, but the only sounds that came from the young man were slow, steady, calming breathing. Embarrassingly, she was forced to choose that time to suppress a yawn as her body seemed to suddenly remember all it had been through and how little it had to look forward to. Covering her mouth with the back of her hand, she silently cursed its betrayal. Meditating was dignified. Yawning most certainly was not.

Clearly it was contagious, as Ranma quickly covered his mouth as a reciprocal yawn, just a small one, claimed anther victim. He took the motion to switch to leaning forward, hands on his knees. They probably could have, or even would have, spent another few minutes in comfortable silence, but he seemed to suddenly feel the urge to ask something.

"It sucks not being able to go out there, doesn't it?"

Feeling safe within the confines of her hood, she shrugged casually. "I'm sure that I don't know what you're talking about," she muttered dismissively. "From what I hear, there isn't much out there to see."

"Nah. Not too much you'd want to write home about, in my opinion," he agreed, letting his slightly damp hair fall coolly over his forehead. Finally he started wiping it dry with his sleeve. "But for me personally, I'd rather be out there with my team than in here waiting for them to come back. It ain't the same either, watchin' them through the ship's eyes. I guess I just gotta trust in 'em for now and help out how I can and be ready if they need me."

"Me trusting them isn't the issue. But yes, you are correct. I would much prefer to be out there, with them, rather than trapped in here." She looked down at her hands, worried together. "At least with them, I would be able to do something to help."

"You'll get your chance," he assured her, all but ribbing her with the words. "Stuff like this… sometimes it takes a while for everyone to sort out."

The hooded Titan sighed wearily. "I understand that. I'm sure we'll settle things eventually... you know, provided we survive this latest ordeal." Her head dipped again as she twiddled her thumbs to occupy herself. "At least, I hope we will. I wonder if some things will ever be the same... after what I've done."

"You know… that…" By which he clearly meant her question. "I dunno, Rae." Seeing her glance over at him, he continued, "I ain't trying ta be mean, but maybe things won't ever be the same, and maybe they won't go back to the way they were. We ain't got a reset button on this ship as far as I know."

The comment very nearly elicited a grin from the hooded girl, and Ranma smirked at how she hid it.

"But since when do things stay the same, anyway?" he asked. "From what I've seen, this thing has been buildin' up for a while with you guys. I mean, not as long as me jugglin' fiancés for two years, but still pretty long. I doubt any of ya could have put it off forever."

For some reason, his comment did elicit a small chuckle, though it sounded somewhat self deprecating. "I suppose that is an apt comparison... so much in the fact that you had made your decision long ago, with Akane, and Ukyou and Shampoo just hung on out of some blind, foolish hope far longer than reason would dictate. The only problem here... is that I'm not Akane in this scenario. And unlike Shampoo, or Ukyou, I actually did succeed in destroying their happiness..."

"Don't get me wrong, Rae. I ain't gonna condone what ya did or why ya did it. But it's done, right? We gotta move on, not wish things were back to the way they were yesterday."

Seeing that this comment didn't have the desired effect, he switched tacks.

"Hey. I'm gonna let ya in on a secret. Somethin' only you and pork butt know. And I trust you'll keep it a secret, okay?" He saw her give a small nod, and smiled. "You know Ryouga an' Mousse an' Shampoo all got the cure for their curses. And ya have to know I still have my curse, right?"

She stared at him. "I certainly hope that isn't your secret. If it is, I think you might need to look up the word again."

He chuckled amiably. "Nah. It ain't that. Do ya know why, if there's a cure out there, why I haven't taken it? It's pretty clear I could have it if I wanted it, right?"

"I think Ryouga muttered something about... certain drawbacks of your cure, after a brief conversation he had with your Lieutenant. I didn't inquire too deeply, though. It must have been something quite notable, for him to not even consider it."

"It represses your memories of what ya did in yer other form," Ranma explained, "Or almost all of it, anyway. I don't know why. Some little bits still seem to slip in. Shampoo still acts a little… ah… cc-c… she still acts kind of annoying, but she doesn't remember all those times she jumped at my face, and Mousse doesn't remember much about how he used to be able to fly, though I think he kind of remembers the feeling of it…"

"Ah," Raven replied, understanding in her voice. "And for someone that spent so much of their time in their cursed form, such as yourself, you were worried at just how much of your memory, of your experiences, you would lose?"

He nodded slowly and none too sadly. "You got it. I'm not proud of it, but the fact is I had a lot of great fights in my girl form and I learned a lot of martial arts in it, too. Without that…" he coughed, self consciously. "I'd still be the best, but not by a lot."

"Well, I understand your reasoning. I'm just not completely certain as to the relevance." She lifted a hand, the folds of her robe falling away to reveal her pale legs. Staring at her hand, she glanced at the man out of the corner of her eyes.

"Well… it wasn't just the martial arts I was worried about," The admission, and the embarrassed tone in the young man's voice seemed to drive home just what he meant. Raven blinked, a bit surprised she hadn't figured it out sooner.

"Akane…?" she guessed.

"Yeah. All those times I saved her, or that she was nice ta me or…" He trailed off for a second. "An awful lot of that stuff was when I was a girl."

He sighed, but it was an easy thing, without remorse.

"Perception is a powerful thing. I mean, on one hand, I do honestly think losin' my memories of being a girl after all this time would make me kinda weaker, but mostly, I didn't want to forget all the good times I had with Akane. When I saw what happened ta Ryouga when he lost his memories of bein' P-chan, I was… hell, I was kinda scared it would make me forget why I loved Akane, ya know?"

He gave a soft snort at that, as if it was a silly reason to keep himself cursed.

"If someone took all that away from me, I'd be pissed, but..." He shook his head sadly. "I think I'd be a little relieved, too. Because they'd made the decision I couldn't, because I was afraid. And because I have to believe that, even without those memories, I'd still… love that dumb tomboy."

"It's a big mess," he summarized in about the most Neramite way possible. "And I think if ya ask a dozen people, you'll get a dozen different ways of lookin' at it. One thing's for sure though: if Jinx still ends up falling for your Hibiki, and her head is clear of any sorta programming, then I'd say it sure wasn't a coincidence she did the last time."

Well... that wasn't exactly as pleasing a thought as it was no doubt meant to be. Still, she supposed it made some sense, and it was bluntly honest. It just wasn't terribly _encouraging_.

"Still... it's not really the same thing," she argued. "You had a choice, and you made it. Jinx - Jinx didn't get to make that choice. She was genuinely happy with her feelings before, and I took that away from her."

"I'd say that Headmaster bastard took it away from her with what he did in the first place," Ranma replied. "And he did the same thing to yer Ryouga, too."

Raven's face fell a bit. "Are you saying the Headmaster and I were… that we did the same thing?"

He quickly held up a hand to prevent her from going down that road. "No."

"But…"

"I'll be honest, Rae, I didn't want to have ta say this… but what the Headmaster did to Jinx and your Hibiki back there was as good as rape. It was worse than the damn koi rod, because he knew _exactly_ what he was doin, and he did it ta a pair of _kids_."

Momentarily clenching his fists, Ranma shook his head. "And if you didn't look and feel so _painfully_ bad about what you did, Rae, I wouldn't be sitting here next to you and I don't think officer porkchop would be willing to stick his neck out to keep you out of trouble. We both believe in you, and even if we can't make things the way they were, we can help ya try and make things right."

That puzzled her somewhat.

"Then... what do you mean? We did the same thing, didn't we? Warping a persons mind against their will." A part of her wished he or the acting Major would just yell at her: berate her for what she did. Punish her for it, even. But he wasn't. Neither of them were. Somehow it made her feel both worse and better at the same damn time.

"Why?" she asked again. "Why am I any different?"

"Do you think the Headmaster regrets what he did?" Ranma asked. "Or just that he got caught? Rae. I've killed people over the last half year. I've _killed people._ A whole bunch of 'em. Probably more than most of the villains you guys fought back home. Do you think I'm the same as them? If you were with your team back on your world, and you saw me doing what I do, you'd think I was murderer… and maybe I am. But I got my reasons, and I regret that I gotta do what I gotta do, but I still gotta do it."

She frowned at that, realizing he was probably... close to right.

"I know ya love this angsty loner thing - ya got that in common with pork butt - but, Hell!" He shook his head at her plight. "You look like you wanna fire off a shishi hokoudan. Worse than that. Ya look like ya wanna cry, but ya can't."

"I don't _do_ crying," she muttered with a reproachful glare. "And worse... at the time, I _didn't_ regret what I did. It's only now, after the fact, that I do. I know we all do things we don't like, but none of us are beyond reproach. Whatever reasons we have, do they excuse us for the things we might do?"

"I'd say it counts for something rather than nothing. But ultimately that's somethin' you'll have to answer for yourself," Ranma replied, somewhat amused by her slightly defensive 'no crying' declaration. "The only one who can deal with how you're feeling is yourself. You made some pretty serious mistakes back there, Rae, and I think a part of you, a guilty part of you, doesn't _want_ anyone to forgive you for it. Go ahead and tell me I'm wrong."

She stared at him flatly.

"You're wrong."

"I guess I was asking for that one," he admitted. "I guess even I swing and miss sometimes."

"Yes, well…" Raven softly cleared her voice, glad he didn't try and press his luck on his earlier assumption; his ego was big enough as it was without her admitting he was right. "This discussion doesn't involve martial arts, so your guarantee of victory is nonexistent." She offered him a weak grin. "Still, I do appreciate what you're trying to do for me. I just wish that there was something I could do to make up for my failings in the short term, rather than the long."

"If you're asking about some kind of shortcut to absolution or whatever, I'm afraid nothin' comes to mind. But that's religion, not martial arts, so my track record there ain't great," the Saotome heir said with a shrug. "You can start by working with P–chan and myself when we do Jinx's mind dive. Since we three are the only ones certified to do that kind of thing."

"I wasn't referring to absolution," she explained, sounding a tad annoyed. "I just meant that I wanted to be doing something useful to help, rather than just sitting here. Personally, I would not mind helping with Jinx. The question is: would she allow it?"

"That's what Ryouga should be asking her right now." Ranma leisurely rose up to his feet and extended a hand to the seated Titan. "And don't sweat being useful. Just because you're stuck inside doesn't mean you can't contribute. After the mind dive, how'd you like to help me out with running the ship for a bit? I feel like I've been doing math problems for four days straight. And I **hate** math."

Now that did elicit a genuine giggle from the girl. "Oh, that I know well enough! Yes, actually, I think I would like the chance to help you... with your homework, as it were. I think it would feel, maybe, just a bit familiar."

"That's the spirit! Now come on, we've got a whirlwind tour of Jinx's brain to do!" he exclaimed, taking her hand and effortlessly helping her up. Chuckling to himself as he began to lead her away, the martial artist shook his head. "Man, I just wish I'd had a math monkey around during my last year at Furinkan."

"Saotome..." Raven gently placed her free hand on his, a dark glow burning under her hood where eyes should be. "Call me a 'math monkey' again, and you won't make it to the next room."

A small sweatdrop ran down the young man's temple.

"I'll stick with 'Rae' then."

Her grip on his hand suddenly increased by an order of magnitude, dark black telekinesis squeezing down on his knuckles. "Just for reference, I am quite fond of the Ranma from my world; we've spent many nights whiling away the hours in companionable conversation. Perhaps it is not fair, but my fondness for him has not transferred to you quite as completely."

He looked at her oddly. "Umm-"

The Lieutenant was cut off by a sharp look. "I just want you to keep that in mind when I tell you that even _my_ Ranma knew that you do _not_... call me 'Rae'." And then she released his hand and offered him a winning smile... or at least the closest approximation that she was capable of producing. "Just consider that a point of interest. Just something for you to... consider."

"Uhmm… consider it duly considered."

* * *

x

* * *

/ARCHIVE/

CLASSIFIED  
DOCUMENTATION  
UNETCO: COR1121:95:503  
DATE: [ERROR]

MEMORANDUM TO: IntSEC (SEIRAN)

FROM: Tendo, N.

SUBJECT:  
Pathfinder Report (24hrs)

NOTES:

Director.

Included in this file, in addition to my report, please find attached a summary of our plans to extract Pathfinder.

Twenty four standard hours have passed since our initial transit event. As described in Pathfinder(18hrs) we remain trapped within the Sphere Construct. Have been unable to discern whether this is only a part of a larger universe or some sort of pocket dimension like Azarath. Some ship functions still problematic, particularly sensors, despite overhaul. EDC also potentially damaged or unresponsive. Priority is currently freeing ship.

Re: the combat teams

As expected, CT:Yankee is having some difficulty adjusting after the events of Azarath. Group dynamics impaired. Srg. Hibiki attempting to rectify, but also emotionally invested. May not be able to maintain professional distance given this. Will observe and advise as necessary. Jinx's ability and willingness to contribute to mission is, if anything, improved. Victor Stone troubled, but focused. Raven is despondent but not uncooperative.

There are other issues that have come to my attention that need to be mentioned in this report. First is the increased incidence of "disruptive events" including growing animosity among the crew and brief moments of lost time (or blackouts). Have brought concerns to Major Hibiki. He believes it to be stress. I am not so sure.

Four unrelated blackouts have occurred according to (unsubstantiated) talk among the teams, with possibly others going unreported or unidentified. One possible event was recorded while on operations outside the ship (video and biodata included: Kuno_Event_A). Will go back and search for others as time permits. These events only seem to be noticed while in the middle of a conversation or activity, but if systemic and not a result of exposure to the area outside the ship, it may indicate a pervasive malaise or something similar.

Second: I have observed a troubling pattern of behaviour regarding squaddie Starfire (Koriand'r). While some lingering animosity is to be expected given her experiences in Chengdu and her apprehension, from what I have seen, her current reactions to certain remarks and command decisions is anomalous. I have gone over several recorded conversations and compared the timestamp with physiological data gathered by her personal armor. The results are included here (Starfire_Data_A).

Please note increased heart rate coinciding with her discussion of her team mates, from 90 to 160 bpm, accompanied by spikes in blood pressure. The armor's medical sensors also detected increases in NRE and EPI - epinephrine and norepinephrine - and helmet recordings indicated increased pupil dilation during this period. All the classic signs of heightened agitation were present that we are told to look for, as they occur outside of an actual combat situation. Having also listened to her, I can pick up the inflection in her voice if nothing else. She's acting clingy towards certain people and increasingly confrontational towards others. I really hope this is just her way of dealing with stress.

I have also experienced unexplained incidents of a peculiar nature.

We are all under a great deal of stress, and things will only be getting worse as the work shifts continue outside. Some rest and relaxation may do us all a lot of good. After Azarath will be on alert for any tampering, but so far have not detected any. Next report will include prelim on Jinx Mind Dive.

- Nabiki Tendo  
Primary Operator: Pathfinder

/ARCHIVE/


	33. Trespasser 3

_**A/N**_

Just a reminder from Lathis and myself: if you hate the fic and think Lathis and I are "sick fucks" for whatever reason, then feel free to not read the story. Seriously. Not like there aren't a million other fanfics you can find that aren't this particular one, right? If you have some criticism for us, that's fine. Just do more than quote the tvtropes page for the story (or ttlb's or trtc's tvtropes pages) as proof of what bastards we are. Hell, Lathis has had it next to his name for every chapter: 'enjoy if you will, tolerate if you won't' ...

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Trespasser_

Chapter 32

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Jinx may well have given her verbal consent to having Raven present in the mind dive procedure, but once inside the witch's brain it became quite clear that her subconscious had different opinions on the matter. Ignoring the two young psionic officers, more than a few uncoordinated mental defenses tried their best to make Raven's stay as uncomfortable as possible. The harmless annoyances were little more than offensive images, sounds and other mental detritus thrown her way in the first few minutes, but there were also a few attack bodies that tried to expel her outright.

Not that she was in any danger. Her own psionic arsenal was up to the task of defending herself, and both Ranma and Ryouga were constantly watching her back just as she was theirs. She had trained extensively with both young men and meshed well with them here in the psionic realm: their skills and personalities were all different, and each of the three covered bases and vulnerabilities left by the other.

In addition to this, the three-man formation was naturally resilient. So long as one of them remained insulated from whatever defenses or dangers appeared, the other two were safe. Like three minds acting as one, or like the links in an overlapping chain, they supported each other. The redundant safety net accorded her another added layer of relief... not simply because of any hypothetical threat to her in this mental plane, but because she could well have been a threat herself. To Jinx.

After all, the last time she had touched Jinx's mind...

Well. That was what they were here to fix, wasn't it? And aside from the nuisances, which frankly they had expected from the get go, Jinx's mind was a veritable bastion of normalcy compared to her own.

An ocean-like unconscious had receded at their request, and a spherical body – the collected memories and consciousness that was 'Jinx' – emerged from below the depths. Ranma and Ryouga were running the operation and setting the pace, ensuring all interaction with the pink haired witch's mind was read-only. That meant absolutely no modifications, even if she wanted to, which Raven most certainly did not.

At Jinx's request, the two officers would also be filtering which data Raven had access to, for privacy and 'professional' proposes. It was clear what that meant. Jinx had, after all, been a rather accomplished young up-and-comer among the teenage super-villain community. While the girl didn't seem to mind either of the Lieutenants stumbling across information about various hideouts or accomplices or other sensitive memories, Raven was still in an unfriendly camp.

Remembering the mind dive conducted on her by Ryouga, the Captain, and Lieutenant Feretti before, Raven was now on the other side of the situation. For safety and in the interests of thoroughness, everyone's minds worked closely together to sift through information. Ranma and Ryouga did most of the point work, while they relied on her to filter through and double check anything unusual.

Surprisingly, it was both easier and harder than one would expect.

Most human beings didn't remember every minute of their lives. Most couldn't clearly remember most of what they did most of the time, even if it was just a day before. Essentially, the brain compiled its memories into one big, generalist haze, reserving those few it considered more relevant. Or catchy. Or repetitive. This meant that there was actually far less to sift through than one would expect.

It was also surprisingly easy to go through a person's mind. Emotional queues were divided between the conscious and subconscious. It was like the difference between getting bitten by a spider, and thus hating spiders, as opposed to having an unconscious dislike of them, as in a phobia. Another way to look at it was the "rational" and "irrational" approach to the basic feelings people took for granted, whether the object of those feelings was a person, a place, an animal, a smell; virtually anything and everything. This would have made looking into them seem daunting…

Except that the brain also automatically catalogued and sorted its memories and feelings._ Self organization. _It was a necessary function as primitive and ancient as any part of the brain. This "primordial search engine" was in turn hijacked and used by skilled psions to do days or weeks of work in minutes or even seconds. The entity that was "Jinx" already "knew" deep down how it felt and when those feelings became noticeable. Thus, the "rational" part of "experience" was easy to track down to certain already highlighted personal memories.

Unconscious, irrational queues were harder to pin down to a specific moment in time and experience. Instead, they were isolated just as one would pick out a red string from a tapestry of multiple colors. Given a subject one could then backtrack from it using the brain's metaphysical wiring, like following a light to a wire and then finally to a battery.

Ranma and Ryouga both had some training in all this, included in the general curriculum for psionics operating as commissioned officers, but most of what they knew was geared towards applying changes, not correcting them. In fact, they were neither trained nor comfortable with using their psionics in anything that wasn't an offensive or defensive battlefield application. Entering an enemy mind to deceive it or destroy it presented no confusion or difficulty for them; entering a girl's mind without a senior officer present, all to make sure she was okay? With the pretences of the world outside gone, Raven could feel that they were nearly _terrified_ about what damage they might inadvertently do.

So they took it slowly and carefully.

Though Raven had a general idea she had done to Jinx's mind during her time in Trigon's thrall, the work itself had been a very rough brute-force application of what she had learned back at Seiran. In a fight there was no time for elaborate exploration of an enemy's mind. Instead, a psion encouraged (or forced) a victim to think about what needed to be altered and then basically cut and pasted a pre-determined, almost pre-written, set of commands or modifications. It was actually rather like searching a document for a phrase and then deleting or rewriting that phrase in bulk, often without bothering with context. As a result, while Raven knew what she had changed, she didn't really know anything about how it all meshed together in the final product.

It was following these threads and breadcrumbs that she saw some of Jinx's memories, filtered for relevance and privacy. Ranma and Ryouga had both seen it, and were compiling and reviewing their findings. As she'd expected, they'd found that Jinx's "implanted affections" - to whatever extent they had initially been inserted – were now simply gone, torn away by Raven's callous hand. The memories had shifted, in fact they were still shifting themselves, to better suit the new personal perspective, attempting to make sense of the rough changes made to her world view.

While the two exchanged thoughts about the situation, Raven noted something… odd. A strange resonance in Jinx's mind. It took her a moment to determine exactly what it was, and immediately she felt compelled to 'look' over her shoulder to make certain that both of her superior officers were still preoccupied before turning her attention back to her discovery.

It was a memory. Not just that, it was a _shared_ memory. A memory possessed not only by Jinx, but by Raven as well, and, as memories were want to do, noticing Jinx's memory only spurred on her own memory, rekindling it and bringing it back to the surface. Reacting quickly, she separated a partition of herself, leaving most of her consciousness to remain and continue working with Ranma and Ryouga.

Neither of them had seen this memory yet, and it was not one that they should, or even needed to see. The reason they hadn't seen it, was because it was a recent memory, literally days old, and one not considered relevant. She remembered the moment clearly herself now, as it had happened in one of the lulls between their dimensional jaunts, just before coming to Azarath, actually.

When they had first begun the mind dive, she had directed them back towards the general stretch of time that she imagined Jinx first met Ryouga. There was, after all, no need to scan through months and months of memory, especially those that happened after coming to their new comrades' dimension, not when it would be arduous enough just to sift through the pertinent memories to try and find what they needed. It was bad enough that they needed to do so at all; rifle through Jinx's memories that was. Raven still recalled her own less than pleasant memories of having people peer and pry into her own deepest recesses.

…She gave her head a shake. That hadn't come out quite right.

Anyway! The memory that she had stumbled across here, she knew why it had resonated, more so than any of the other memories they had doubtlessly shared. One could scarcely share a room with two half neurotic girl friends for… what was it now, a month, more? - and not garner a healthy collection of shared memories.

But this memory was special. This memory was for them and them alone.

Taking one last 'glance' at the officers, she turned back and began to relive the memory… though Jinx's eyes...

* * *

Moving with the grace and ease she had earned from tireless, endless hours of constant training, Jinx slid down the corridor. Her back pressed against the wall, her hands held out to her sides and gently trailing the metallic surface, she slid through the dimly light corridors, indicative of night shift here in Seiran. It made sense, after all, what with it being midnight and all.

The sound of footsteps caused her to freeze in place mere inches away from the corner before here, two hallways crossing one another traveling north/south and east/west. Pulling a small mirror from the hard tac-pack hanging from her side, she used it to peek around the corner and noted the armed guard, flashlight in their hand. Almost instantly, she recognized her as the female MP from before, and had to fight the compulsion to pop out and start chatting to the older woman… if only she could remember her name.

Her mission, though, was what really mattered at the moment. Waiting until the female guard turned her back to check something or other, Jinx quickly stepped back, only to sprint forward and perform a no-handed cartwheel directly across the intervening hallway and land on the other side with barely even a whisper. By the time she heard the MP's soft foot falls coming closer again, she was already at the next intersection.

Checking the chronometer on her wrist, only risking a single second to light up the display to read it, she nodded to herself. Eleven fifty-seven. Still three minutes to get to her destination. Nodding to herself, she quickly continued her stealth run. She only encountered one more guard, every bit as professional and aware as the last… and just as easily circumvented. In fact, she arrived at her goal with a full minute to spare.

Looking around one last time, making certain that she was alone and had not been followed, Jinx stood up straight, pulled off the black, ski-mask style hood she had been wearing, and shook out her long pink hair. Taking a moment to straighten out her lengthy locks (she hadn't had time to put her hair up, so it tumbled messily around her shoulders), she finally felt ready. With that, she strode up to the door before her, stared with narrowed eyes at the electronic lock which held the door shut, took a deep breath…

And entered the password which she had been given to open the door.

Sliding open with hardly a sound at all, to receding sheet of metal revealed the Saotome family's dojo in all of its dull grey, boring as heck and in serious need of a woman's touch, glory. Well, 'revealed' was a bit of a stretch, as the lights were still out, and it was nearly pitch black inside. Was it possible that she had gotten there first? Well, that was hardly a surprise. Jinx _was_ the mistress of all things stealthy and otherwise awesome.

"Heh, slowpoke is slow," she whispered to herself as she closed the door behind her.

"Yes, you certainly are, Jinx," came a voice from within the darkness. It took more self control than she liked to admit to stop herself from jumping out of her skivvies at the sudden reply, but she covered it up with an annoyed '_humph__'_a second later. Reaching out behind her, she activated the lights in the room… only to blink painfully several times at the stark contrast in brightness to the dark she'd become accustomed to.

Her only consolation was that Raven looked to be just as stricken by the sudden shift in illumination.

"Ha! Slow? Me? I'm damn near as fast as Shampoo is easy!" Jinx boasted proudly.

Her familiar blue cloak draped around her, covering her body from neck to toe, and her hood pulled down low, she could still see Raven roll her eyes. "Considering that Shampoo is as much of a virgin as anyone else here… excepting maybe two or four notable exceptions…"

Jinx tilted her head expectantly as Raven's response to her amusing slander just kind of trailed off. Another moment passed before Raven finally found her voice again, her eyes wide with surprise.

"W-what are you _wearing_?" asked the dark Titan, almost sounding a bit scandalized.

Grinning cheekily, Jinx swept her arms down to gesture to herself, twisting her leg to show off her profile a bit more. The skin hugging body glove which she was wearing started as a straight slash across her throat, and moved down to cover every last inch of her body, right to the ends of her fingers and the tips of her toes. When she'd looked herself over in the mirror, she'd been amused by the idea that she looked like she'd been dipped in midnight blue paint up to her neck. It was a shame it wasn't straight black (much more stylish, that), but hard-black outfits actually made it harder to blend into shadow, no matter how cool they looked. The only accessory that marred her otherwise absolutely Spartan outfit was the small tactical pack, same color of course, belted to her side.

"Why? Ya _like it_?"

Raven continued to look at her uncertainly for a moment. "It… certainly doesn't leave much to the imagination… that is for certain. Where - where did you even get that?"

Waving her hand dismissively, Jinx flipped her hair over her shoulder and ran her black clad fingers through it. "Oh, I ordered this thing a bit back. Actually, I got Konatsu to order it for me. You remember when I was thinking of going all Section 7, right?"

The hooded girl nodded.

"Yeah, well, I kinda got all excited about getting back into the wanna-be ninja life, so we started looking up some equipment I might be able to use. This is a pretty basic stealth suit," she explained, slightly embarrassed at the excitement she was trying to hide. She was almost geeking out as bad as Cyborg! "Of course, I wouldn't wear _just_ this on a mission. This is just the inner layer; there are a bunch of modular kits I coulda got to go with it. Armor pieces, extra pouches to hold stuff, etcetera, etcetera, ya know?"

She thumbed her nose, planting her other fist on her hip. "Of course, Konatsu told me to hold off on ordering any of that other fun stuff, since, well, ya know… we haven't actually been _paid_ yet, and this isn't strictly speaking '_standard issue_'."

Raven grinned impishly. "Well, at least he was kind enough to share his make up with you. Though, it is somewhat ironic that you should come with a new outfit."

Smacking her lips a few times, wishing she could see the dark lavender she had painted her own lips (Konatsu had tried to shy her away from wearing such a dark color, what with her pale complexion, but she was a girl that loved sharp contrast), she looked at her companion oddly.

"Ironic?" Jinx asked, squinting her eyes. "Why's that?"

Shrugging lightly, Raven dipped her head, looking a bit embarrassed. "Well… actually… I wore a new outfit as well. I doubt I'll ever get a chance to actually wear it here, and it seemed a bit… fitting, I suppose, all things considered."

Curiosity bubbling up inside her, Jinx stepped forward, eager to see what Raven could be wearing that she 'doubted she'll ever get to wear'. At least that explained the robe, anyway, being all concealing and what not.

Her pale cheeks tingeing almost-pink, Raven looked to her left and right. It was really a pretty silly gesture, since it was only the two of them here. In fact, only the two of them even knew they were here at all! Finally, though, Raven lifted her arms, flipping her cloak over her shoulders and revealing…

Jinx paused, halfway through letting out a disappointed huff. On first sight, it had looked very much like Raven was wearing her usual boring leotard… but in a half a second, Jinx noted some very notable differences. First was the fact that her new outfit was sleeveless, cut off sharply at the shoulders and exposing all of her upper arms. Her forearms and hands were covered by long, navy blue gloves which were also fingerless. Large red gems rested on the back of her hands, just like before, giving the impression of familiarity.

Most notable though, about Raven's new dress… was the fact that it _was_ a dress. Rather than exposing her legs entirely, a long piece of material flowed down the to cover the front of Raven's legs all the way to her ankles. Again, 'front' was the operative word, as it looked like what would have otherwise been a floor length, very conservative dress, had had both sides cut right out, all the way up to her hips, giving the dark Titan a full range of motion, while still providing just a tad more modesty than her regular outfit did.

"I… is that _backless_?" Jinx asked, feeling a sharp stab of envy which she quickly squashed back down as she stared.

Blushing even more fully now, Raven turned her shoulders and shifted her cloak to reveal that, yes, a large swath of pale skin was visible between her shoulder blades. Quickly pulling her cloak back over her shoulders, Raven disappeared back within the dark folds of her robes once more.

"I know… I know. It's so embarrassing… you can see why I could never wear this normally."

"Are you kidding?" Jinx barked in disbelief. "That's _way_ sexier than your normal look! Normally you're showing off all your goodies all the time, but that dress gives you a bit of mystique, you know, a bit of tantaliz.. Um.. ation? . . .I guess?"

Instantly, Raven let out an annoyed huff, crossing her arms over her chest. "'_Showing off my goodies_' I'm not sure how you could have put that more offensively…" Suddenly, the dark Titan began to grin nastily, glancing Jinx's way. "Though… the fact that I appear to be covering up a bit more, while you seem to be, how did you put it? '_Showing off all of your goodies_', is a bit of a switch, isn't it?"

Rolling her eyes, Jinx gave another dismissive wave of her hand.

"Whatever! Not like I was planning to wear this out on the town. People would probably accuse me of being Junior Catwoman or something! Just need some goggles!" Jinx held her hands up to her eyes, thumbs and index fingers touching to frame her eyes, and her other fingers flaring out wide and to the sides. "Oh, meow! I hope you have a cat fetish, Batman! I can't decide whether to rob a bank or flirt with you or both!"

Despite herself, Raven nearly giggled at the huskily-voiced impression. Gotham's "night life" was a bit infamous for... its colorfulness. Especially in their fields of work.

"But wait a sec...!" Jinx lowered her hands to her hips. "Where the _heck_ did you get that outfit, anyway? I think I'd have noticed if it was standard issue around here."

Absently rubbing her shoulder, picking away at an imaginary piece of lint on the dark blue material, Raven glanced to the far side of the room.

"You remember the karaoke party, right?" the Titan asked. "Well, if you do, then doubtlessly you remember the dress that Starfire wore when she arrived."

Jinx nodded again, feeling a mix of jealousy and amusement at that seemingly distant memory.

"Heck yeah! I remember!" Jinx replied with a cheeky grin. "Starfire jumped up a good spot or two on my list of potential lesbian encounters right there!"

A scandalized, choking gasp from her prudish companion set Jinx to laughing. Grabbing her sides, the former villainess shook her head. "Hey, what can I say? Super tall Amazon type women are just sexy, don't try to deny it."

Even as it looked like Raven was about to do just that, stuttering badly every step of the way, Jinx stopped her with a raised hand. "Okay, okay, enough! We didn't come here to exchange fashion tips, after all."

At that, the violet haired sorceress nodded seriously. "This duel is long over due ...are you certain that you weren't followed?"

The pink haired sorceress scoffed out loud at the very notion. "Are you kidding? I'm like a frikkin' ghost in the night over here! My only question is, how the heck did _you_ manage to get here ahead of me? And did anyone see _you_?"

A cocky, almost Saotome-esque smirk crooked Raven's lip. "I walked straight past three guards on my way here… however, not one of them 'saw' me. You may be the master of stealth and of breaking standard security," she intoned proudly, "But bypassing the psionic security employed here is _my_ specialty."

Jinx nodded at that. Granted, they hadn't actually _needed_ to do any of that, since what they were doing here wasn't technically illegal, or anything, but it had been great fun. That, and absolutely no one was allowed to know that they were here... doing _this_.

As Raven had said. This duel was _long_ overdue. It would not do for anyone to interfere.

Taking a few steps back, Jinx stretched her arms out to her side, then brought her hands together, cracking her knuckles loudly enough to cause Raven to wince.

"Not bad, Rae, not bad. If I didn't hate you so much, we'd make a pretty awesome team."

Taking a far less energetic approach to her preparations, Raven simply tilted her head first to her left shoulder, then her right.

"You don't. And we did, actually," she riposted with a wry chuckle. "You recall the mansion in Russia?"

"Heh, yeah, that was pretty good times. You keep wearing that outfit and I might reinstate your 'sexy bitch' status, Rae!"

Again, Raven rolled her large, violet eyes. "I'm not certain that that is the incentive that you think it is. Now-" Raven finally took her ready stance, spreading her feet roughly shoulder width apart and holding a single hand before her… waiting.

Nodding, finally getting serious, Jinx took her own stance. On foot far back for balance, she bent her front leg and held out both of her hands before her. Giving Raven one last glance. "You sure you have enough power for this? Just so you know, I've been practicing ever since you suggested this fight."

"I should have enough for this, at least," Raven replied, eying her warily, "And I've been practicing too, just so you know. And once I learned the truth about you… I knew that this fight, quite possibly our last fight… was inevitable."

Baring her teeth in a mockery of a smile, Jinx nodded in agreement. "The duel to end all duels! Well, I hope you're ready then!" With that, Jinx gathered her power, forcing bright pink sparks of flame to roll down her arms and gather in her waiting hands. "_En garde!_"

And then, just as she had trained for, days and days of practice since Raven had stumbled across her dark secret (it was impossible to keep secrets from nosy room mates, it seemed), Jinx forced her gathered energy to take shape. Squeezing down on the energy held in her hands, placing one hand firmly on top of the other and her fingers curled nearly into fists, bright pink energy shot out of the top of her hand, growing longer and sharper, just like the energy claws had grown to become one of her preferred techniques.

But when all was said and done, this 'claw' was a single, straight blade, four feet in length and glowing brightly with pink luminescence.

Grinning, across from her, Raven's eyes narrowed in concentration as well. The hand held out before her was soon encased in raw black telekinesis (something that Jinx knew took tremendous effort on her rival's part these days). A second later, seeming to coalesce from smaller patches of darkness appearing from thin air and joining together, a long, crackling blade of black energy appeared in her grip.

For a long moment, the two warriors stood across from each other. Raven held her ebony hued blade of pure force in a single hand, her stance reminding Jinx of the fencers she'd seen in various swordsman movies over the years. Jinx, for her part, held her own saber of pink light in a two handed grip which a certain Kendoist would likely approve of quite heartily.

Finally, Raven broke the silence.

"Impressive… not a single immature penis jo-"

"I see your Swartz is as big as mine!" Jinx declared, giggling.

Raven let out a disgusted groan, slapping her free hand to her face. "I suppose I walked into that one. Anyway… _have at thee_!"

And with her brash battle cry, the epic duel was on!

Raven lunged forward, thrusting forward with her shimmering blade of darkness. Her speed was surprising to Jinx, not the actual speed of her body, that was, but the fact that the blade was effectively weightless meant it didn't act as any actual, physical weapon that Jinx had encountered would.

Skipping back a step, she lifted her own 'sword' over her head and brought it crashing down to knock her rival's strike away. Her own movements were odd to her, sure, she had trained with her energy claws a lot, but it was still pretty much fighting with unarmed strikes. Trying to swing around a four foot blade that had no mass to it… it was something like fighting with a flashlight!

Their blades clashed, and a huge shower of rainbow sparks burst outwards as her saber knocked Raven's force blade down to the floor!

Instantly, both girls took steps back, looking at their own weapons forged from their respective wills.

"That… was _so awesome_!" Jinx squealed in excitement. It was even cooler than she thought it would be, and she had been picturing this battle, playing through this EPIC DUEL in her mind ever since Raven had stumbled across her dark secret.

Who had even said that the nosy Titan was _allowed_ to look through her sketch book! It was bad enough that Raven and Starfire both knew about her love of unicorns, but to have that snoopy Raven read through her personal property and find the sketch she'd been working on of a sexy Twi'lek Jedi sporting a serious pair of light sabers…

All they needed now was some John Williams music!

Giggling to herself, Raven dove back in, waving her sword back and forth with reckless abandon. Matching her motions, Jinx met each broad slash with a counter of her own, and each crossing of blades elicited a colorful explosion of sparks which rained down on them harmlessly.

Master swordswomen they were not.

"I never would have guessed that _you_ of all people, were a closet Star Wars fan!" Raven exclaimed, amusement clear in her voice.

"And you better make sure that no one _else_ guesses that, either, bird brain!" Jinx retorted. Hopping backwards, she suddenly sped to the left, swinging upwards with a diagonal slash that, well could 'possibly' have bisected her opponent… y'know, if she had been Kuno. Or hell, even _Akane_.

Hastily, and with as little grace as possible, Raven stumbled backwards and slammed her own sword down onto Jinx's, causing another shower of multicolored sparks and knocked the strike well off target. Smiles as bright as their blades, the girls continued their dance, after all, how many people got to have _real_ light saber fights?

"_Jinx__…__ I __**am**__ you father_!"

"NO! It's not true..." she groaned. "That's IMPOSSIBLE!" She paused in mid swing, tapping a finger to her chin. "And I _really_ mean it. Like, for a whole _multitude_ of reasons."

Pausing as well, Raven dropped a fist onto the curve of her hip, a wry grin on her lips. "I find your lack of faith… _disturbing_."

"Heh heh heh, do or do not, there is no try!" And then they were back into the thick of it. Jinx leapt up into an overhead slash and Raven just barely sidestepped, lifting her blade to deflect the pink sabre to the side at the last moment.

"Now _I_ am the master!"

"Only a master of evil, Darth Raven!"

Childish giggles of delight interspersed every wild swing and every sloppy riposte. There was no grace to their fight, that wasn't even the point.

"Oh yeah? Well… well I'm not left handed!"

"…You're already using your right hand, Rae…"

"_I say thee nay!_"

"Huh? What's _that_ even from?"

"I dunno… mythology, maybe?"

"Whatever. Bring it on, nerd girl!"

Fuming, Raven charged back in with a series of thrusts, her cloak billowing out wide as she surged forward. Swinging her own sword back and forth as only a perfectly weightless weapon allow, Jinx fell back as she knocked the assault away.

"Nerd girl? I'll make you eat those words!"

"However, by that point you'll be torn to pieces!"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"Oh, it does, you just don't _get it_!"

Around and around they went, the tempo of the fight increasing as they both started to get a feel for their new weapons. Soon they went beyond the basics, and even as Jinx was running along the walls, laughing with abandon, Raven was zipping around, floating above the floor in defiance of gravity and keeping up with her every step of the way. Jinx was starting to wonder if this fight would ever end.

A part of her wondered if she did want it to end. She couldn't ever remember ever just… just _playing_ like this before. The fact that it was with her most hated rival, and noted 'most serious face in the base' hardly even factored in. …Or did it?

"_OH__…__ EM__…__ GEE!_"

Instantly, both young women froze as if they'd just been doused in carbonite. Both in mid strike, both of their heads turned with glacial slowness to look to the one and only entrance to the dojo…

Standing just inside the doorway, his body taking up most the entire frame, Cyborg stared at the pair of them, his human eye as wide as Jinx had ever seen it. Lifting a hand jerkily, he pointed accusingly at the both of them.

"Y-y-you guys are having a _light saber duel_…" It was hard to tell if he was shocked, scandalized, or titillated by that fact.

Jinx felt her face begin to flush, horrible embarrassment starting to twist up her insides. This was supposed to be just between her and Raven. Raven, even _more_ of a closet Warsie than herself, could understand her, wouldn't make fun of her for her appreciation of an otherwise geeky movie. Her grip on her weapon tightened, threatening to disperse the thing completely as she tried to find any escape from the incessant teasing she was about to receive-

"And _you guys are doing it all wrong_!" Cyborg exclaimed.

"Huh?" Jinx looked up, confused.

"Wha?" Raven mirrored eloquently.

Instantly, he stalked forward, pointing at their weapons. "Seriously? Using TK to make a lightsabre? That thing wouldn't react like the real deal at all. I mean, there's no temperature to it, it's just pure force. And look at the way you were floating around!" The Cyborg waved his arms around in the air. "You totally looked like Kagato, there, not a Sith lord! And a _black _lightsabre? There's no such thing! Contrary to what some would say...!"

Even as Raven fell back, shell shocked and probably having no idea who 'Kagato' was, Cyborg spun on Jinx. "And you? I've seen better swordsmanship from Kuno!"

"_He__'__s a master swordsman!_" Jinx squawked incredulously.

"Excuses excuses... and don't even get me _started_ on your style. You were totally using an Ataru style offense, but considering Raven's basic style, you should have been using the Makashi form, and changed the shape of your blade to a more curved grip."

Falling back on her heels, Jinx back peddled bit herself. This… this was not the moment of ultimate humiliation she had been expecting. In fact it-

"Wait just a damned second! How the heck do you even know all of this?" Jinx barked in utter confusion.

Cyborg scoffed loudly and derisively. "Oh please! Just because it's an utterly inferior universe that's more science _fantasy_ than science _fiction_, doesn't mean that I didn't download all of the stuff on the internet about the movies. I mean, how am I supposed to explain just how crazy those ICS calculations they use are without data to crunch?"

Slowly, Jinx turned to look at Raven, and Raven turned to look back at Jinx. Slowly, the pair came to a silent understanding. Nodding her head, a nasty grin forming on her face, Raven asked absently.

"Say, Jinx… do you know what I see there?" She pointed a lazy finger in Cyborg's direction.

Jinx shrugged her shoulders, matching the predatory grin. "I'm thinking a big old battle droid, ready for smashing?"

Cyborg, entire body stiffening as realization sunk in, slowly took a step backwards. "Um…."

"No," Raven drawled tauntingly. "I see a _red shirt_."

Instantly, Cyborg pointed frantically to his arms. "No! Blue shirt, blue shirt! Look, look!"

A second later, seeing that his treatise were falling upon deaf ears, the titanium titan spun and made a dash for the door - only to watch it slide closed, a single gesture of Raven's hand closing it from across the room. Licking her lips, enjoying the taste of Konatsu's borrowed lipstick, Jinx lifted her energy blade with unholy glee…

* * *

Raven shook her head in amusement, not needing to see the rest of that particular memory. A second later, though, her shoulders hitched and she felt a lump form in her throat. It was true that she and Jinx didn't get along perfectly, even after that night they had still ribbed each other endlessly, but they had come so far. Ever since the karaoke party, ever since she had actually sat down and had a drink with Jinx and bothered to speak to her as a person, rather than an enemy…

True, they probably never would have become BFF's, painting each other's toenails and gossiping about the cute guys they might see… but… but she had felt that they might have been, if not already, slowly becoming …friends.

Her shame only increased, as she realized just how worthless her 'friendship' had been. She had not been in Azarath for even an hour… and her thoughts of Jinx had turned to spite with hardly any effort at all. Had it even been her father's influence at all… or was that just a convenient excuse?

And another realization struck her. All of this time, ever since they had left Azarath… Raven had been tearing herself apart over what Ryouga had lost… but now she had to question, what about what _she_ had lost? Would Jinx ever be able to forgive her for what she had done?

Would - would…

Sniffing loudly, Raven pushed the memory away, suddenly finding it more painful than enjoyable now. Rather quickly, she found herself wanting to finish this mind dive as fast as at all possible. Taking a moment to gather her composure, she squared her shoulders and rejoined her partition, still working with Ranma and Ryouga. The pair of them were still hard at work, sifting through days and weeks of memories, trying to find the full extent of the damage Raven had caused.

Determined now, to get things over with and out of Jinx's mind, she quickly looked around for the first _relevant_ memory she could find. Whatever memory it might be that could help them… just as long as it didn't have anything about herself in it. Raven doubted she could stomach another shared memory at this point.

As such, she was almost relieved when she stumbled across an interesting thread of memory, one which had no resonance with any of her own memories, and decided to move in for a closer look.

* * *

Akari did something with her touch; activated something within the apparently plain robe. It constricted slightly, touching Jinx's curves for a moment before relaxing. A gentle heat soon began to permeate the strange alien fabric. More than that, it soothed her mind and her nerves as well, until it felt like she was wrapped in a soft blanket rather than a loose gown.

"That's ... ah ... that's pretty nice, actually." Feeling embarrassed for a reason she couldn't completely understand, Jinx quickly turned away and sat herself down on the floor, carefully sweeping her arms under her to make sure the cloak stayed underneath. Turning only far enough to glance at the merrily burning fire out of the corner of her eye, she began to study the dancing flames with intense scrutiny.

"So," she asked, searching a bit for what to say. "...what do we do now?"

"We can rest for a few hours, then keep going towards the town," Akari suggested. "I don't know if you should sleep or not, even in your condition. If we cover another forty miles, we'll be safe. Pretty safe anyway."

Jinx replied with a noncommittal grunt. "Not exactly feeling tired anyway, not with an army of nightmare creatures hunting us down like animals."

The witch began to run her fingers along the oddly silky material. It shimmered beautifully under the firelight, but it didn't seem like any kind of cloth she'd ever seen. An odd tingle ran along her fingers as she did, creating an interesting sensation.

"I ... I don't suppose you had any crosswords stored in this thing ... maybe Sudoku?"

"Afraid not," Akari said, sitting down by the fire with Jinx' clothes laid out over her legs to dry. It also gave her a bit of modesty given the situation. "When we wanted to... I guess relax is the closest word... one of the landed ships had an entertainment module. It stimulated the brain using psionics, allowing you to feel intense pleasure, like a mental orgasm. I guess it would seem like a drug to you. The gray aliens, the Sectoids, used it all the time. I tried it a few times, too, but it brought back some of my blocked memories. I don't think the engineers have really perfected it for use by hybrids like me yet."

Jinx's cheeks burned hotly at the older girl's frank description.

"Yeah, well, I don't know anything about that kinda stuff, thank you very much... So please don't get any crazy ideas about what kind of entertainment value I offer."

Akari gave the other girl a coy smile. "You know, Ryouga-sama loves that embarrassed, innocent girl routine. I know firsthand; I've done it myself. But I bet it's a side you don't show to him, do you? Can you tell me how you met on your world? If you don't mind...?"

Jinx frowned at that. Ryouga liked that kinda stupid stuff? She couldn't recall ever acting like that, but then she'd had a bit of an edge when it came to that inside job. Things had mostly just fallen in place. How much harder would it have been to play that part without the headmaster's handicap?

"First time anyone ever accused me of being innocent," she muttered, but there was no harm in filling her new... ally in on things. "As for how I met Ryouga, well, you might not like what you hear. You sure you want to know?"

"If it isn't prying too much," Akari replied.

Shuffling about so that her back was to the disrobed woman, Jinx took a moment to find a good starting point. The bare walls of the small cave offered little distraction, but more than that, she wasn't exactly eager to point out her part in abducting and mind controlling the dimensional double of Akari's boyfriend. Sure, he wasn't the same Ryouga, but he was a Ryouga, and Akari seemed the soft-hearted type. Definitely a goodie-goodie at heart.

"Fine," she decided. "Just remember that you asked for it..."

She began the retelling with Jyusenkyou. It was as good a primer as any. It was almost cute the way Akari gasped at the mention of the cursed springs and the idea that any sane person would go there. Not that Jinx had a choice in the matter. When your evil criminal mastermind of a mentor sends you across the globe to do a job you do it. That, at least, was something this Akari was sure to understand. She hadn't had much of a choice when it came to her place of employment recently either.

After that, explaining the beatdown her team suffered at the lost boy's hands was easy. Of course, poor Mammoth and Gizmo ended up cursed, yet another condition Akari was aware of.

"At least you didn't fall in the spring of virtuous woman!" Akari joked, and when she spoke next, she didn't sound as reproachful as her words implied. "You worked for some sort of criminal organization then."

Jinx paused, a bit surprised by the tone.

"I'm not one to judge at this point," the human-alien hybrid simply stated. "So you got sent home with your tail between your legs?"

"WE DID NOT!" Jinx immediately objected. Still, keeping her back to the other girl, Jinx smiled. Wrapped in the warmth of Akari's alien robes, she felt relaxed and increasingly at ease. Normally recounting what was obviously a botched failure of a mission would have ticked her off, but despite the joke or two, Akari wasn't mean spirited about it, or even sarcastic or snarky. She was just curious and a little playful. Hard to imagine... considering what she had been doing just a day or two ago while under the thrall of those _things_back in the forest.

The next part was the hard one: Jinx explained how she had returned with the Headmaster. How they had captured Ryouga. How they had turned him. Jinx didn't see Akari's face - couldn't with her back to the other girl - but she could imagine it was, at the very least, pretty disapproving. It was a blessing not having to see anyone glaring at her for it. Not that she had anything to be ashamed of. It was just a job, and choice didn't factor into it. It was just better this way.

Smartly, Akari asked instead about the Headmaster himself, and about his psionics. He had left some defenses in Jinx's mind, after all, so that sort of information was useful to have. It was obviously a way of distracting them both from the... questionable actions of that night, months ago. It was nice of her.

Too nice.

"You're probably gonna hate me after what I tell you next," Jinx figured, but seemed equally emboldened by the possibility, too. "But it hardly matters at this point. Since he couldn't dominate him, the Headmaster chose to alter Ryouga's memories... make him believe that he was one of us. Of course, to do this, he had to take existing memories and tweak them a bit."

No response; not yet.

"Fortunately for us, the Lost Boy had managed to have himself a bit of a romantic interlude with one of those Titan b- ahem, girls. So, a little mental cut and paste and -bam- Ryouga goes from liking Raven in the middle of nowhere, to cozying into his new surroundings, liking his new girl ... me."

Jinx snuck a peek over her shoulder, to see Akari's expression.

Akari was silent for a few moments, her long hair partly concealing her face.

Then: "You volunteered to do it?"

Jinx shrugged.

"The term 'volunteer' doesn't exactly come into play where the Headmaster is concerned," she explained. "I was deemed the most appropriate, as I was already in his memories, so switching things around would be easier."

Akari was still silent.

Frowning at not getting a response like she had expected, Jinc huffed and turned back around, this time to stare at the roof of the cave. "There were rumors floating around that the Headmaster might have 'improved my attitude' to the situation, but there's no way that I can be sure one way or the other... I usually just don't think about it, but I guess that's how it went down."

"I see. I know all about... coercion..." Akari admitted. "So you took this 'Raven' girl's place in his heart? It doesn't sound like you regret it, even now, even though you know it was wrong."

Overhearing everything, Raven felt herself slip deeper into the memory; closer to the pair of women.

"Ha!" Jinx barked out a dismissive laugh. "What makes you think that I think it was wrong? I'm a _villain_, Akari. That's just the kind of stuff we _do_. The fact that it wasn't a total waste of my time was just icing on the cake."

Yet the smirk on the witch's face didn't quite reach her eyes.

She shook her head, and tucked in her legs. "Someone like you couldn't understand what it was like, living in my world, with the people I knew. I told you there were rumors about what the Headmaster did to me? Well, can you guess what my so called friends thought? What they did?"

Jinx closed her eyes to rest her forehead against her knees.

"Nothing," she said. "Worse than that. They thought it was funny. A joke. I'm not gonna whine about it, or about what went down, but... but it would've been the nice if..." She took a deep breath, releasing a long sigh. "It... it doesn't matter anymore. But it was kind of nice having a guy to dote on me, even if it was a sham."

"I met Ryouga-sama because he beat my strongest sumo pig," Akari explained, speaking up a few seconds later. "Do you think him being stronger than a giant animal is a good foundation for a relationship? I was never... I never had anyone I could like before I met him. You think I wasn't desperate to find someone I could love? Someone who could love me?"

The farmer girl sighed sadly.

"Maybe not exactly, but I think I know how you feel," she cautiously began again, now a bit unsure how to explain herself. "But saying: 'I was lonely' or 'I deserved it because of what I went through' isn't very honest, is it? What would he have wanted? You were both victims of..."

"I wasn't a victim! I _make_ victims, _damnit_!" Jinx growled, glaring over her shoulder at her companion. "Don't act like you're so innocent yourself, either, respecting his wishes and crap like that! None of that stopped you from forcing yourself on him, did it? Ryouga told me a few of the stories. You were just like me, just taking what you needed from him to get what you wanted... weren't you? Didn't matter to you that he liked someone else, did it? All that mattered was your own interest."

She let out an amused bark of laughter. "Maybe we're not all that different after all, Akari. I think I can actually respect that. Only think about what you want, and to hell with everyone else. Look out for number one, that's all that matters."

"It wasn't like that!" Akari replied heatedly, but Jinx refused to face her. "I loved Ryouga-sama, and I think he loved me, but that didn't mean we didn't have our differences and problems. I also loved my farm and my pigs. And Ryouga loved The Art. More than anything, he loved The Art." Akari hesitated, wondering if she was getting through to the other girl.

"Yes," she admitted. "I was 'little miss persistent.' I knew he had feelings for another girl and I didn't let that stop me. I admit I was thinking about myself: about how lonely I was; about how unlikely it was to meet another good guy who could beat Kastushini; about how his Jyusenkyou curse made him perfect for me. I tried everything I could to win him over... I even tried to throw away who I was when I learned he didn't like pigs."

"I can... I can guess why we broke up back on your world," she continued. "But I'll always love Ryouga-sama. I even thought: maybe if we had a family, we'd always be together. He'd never leave me if I let that happen. But love for selfish reasons isn't just wrong - it makes it impossible to find anything better."

"Who the hell said anything about love?" Jinx asked with an angry trill. "I was just leading on some clueless stooge by the nose so that the Headmaster could brainwash the guy properly at his leisure. Sure, like I said, it was fun having a guy that worshipped the ground I walked on, but I don't understand why you're making such a big deal out of it."

The ridiculousness of it all actually made her laugh. A self-depreciating, disgusted laugh.

"And you don't know what I'm even talking about," she realized, shaking her head in defeat. Still, she smiled to herself, feeling a bit better at getting to finally chew someone out properly over this. "Listen. I don't care about right or wrong. As long as I'm happy, who cares what I do or how I do it? You can believe what you want, but don't talk down to me. You have no idea what my life is like."

"I guess love is sort of selfish by nature..." Akari finally relented. Jinx squared her shoulders, still giving her a cold reception. This particular topic was over. End of story.

"We all want to know there are others thinking about us and that we aren't alone in the world. But it sounds to me like the basis of your relationship is the feeling he had for this other girl. I can understand why he's confused, and I think you are a little, too. Imagine if someone did to you what that Headmaster did to him. Don't do what I did and assume you can just make everything work out to fit your own fantasies. A relationship means compromise, not just acceptance, and that's hard."

At that, Jinx turned to fire a literally burning glare the other girl's way. She could feel the pink energy leaking from her eyes as she stared down the alien hybrid.

"What the hell are you talking about?" she angrily demanded and shot up to her feet. "Love, love love? Why do you keep going on about love and relationships? I just explained the whole damn situation to you! Why can't you just get it through your _thick skull!"_

As her voice rose higher and higher, her frustration getting the better of her, Jinx started to stalk around the small room...

"Sorry," she heard Akari say, and it actually sounded like the meant it. Jinx hesitated, but didn't completely turn to acknowledge the apology. "It... he isn't my Ryouga, but I guess I still worry about him and care about him. About who he's with. To me... it feels like just the other day, we were together, eating dinner and watching the stars. Even though I know that was months ago, that it wasn't even the same man... anyway, I'm sorry."

"...Whatever," Jinx finally replied. "I..."

She bit back her own apology. She didn't even regret saying it, so the fact that she was thinking of apologizing at all was... confusing.

She considered storming out of the cave at that point, but she could hear the howling winds even from how deep there were in the ground. Torn between getting away and just ignoring her forced companion, Jinx finally settled for plopping back down onto the ground as close to the tunnel as possible, back turned to the fire and Akari. Her jaw worked, but the words refused to form.

She and Akari didn't speak any more at all that night.

* * *

Raven could only stare, confused. That had been… very odd. Disjointed almost. True, it had seemed quite natural to begin with, but then things had gone… almost Twilight Zone-ish. After a certain point, it was... it was almost like the two of them were having two separate conversations. Nothing concrete, or obvious, just an eerie sense of wrongness that had pervaded the latter half of the conversation.

It didn't take much thought to deduce the time this memory had occurred, during Jinx's escape through the wilds with Akari. But… was _that_how the two girl's had spoken to each other during their escape? Considering how wildly protective of Akari that Jinx had become, Raven had honestly been expecting something more. Much more, in fact, as this moment in time made it seem like Jinx had barely even stepped outside of the Academy before the accident at Star Labs that transported them all here.

Unless... unless this was one of Jinx's now altered memories. It certainly seemed to have some very telltale signs of such strangeness. Of course, if that was the case, then Raven found herself forced to wonder. If that was how Jinx remembered that scene now…

Then just what was it that she had forgotten?

Feeling vaguely disturbed for reasons she couldn't quite fathom at the moment, Raven moved on, moving much further into the past, passing by weeks and months without even a glance. The newest memories would be the most subtly influenced after all, still so fresh in Jinx's mind. They needed to get closer to the heart of the disruptions if they wanted to see the full extent of whatever damage may have been done.

Once she felt comfortable that she had traveled far enough back through Jinx's personal timeline, she finally picked up another strand of memory to examine.

* * *

The nearly ancient VHS cassette skipped a few lines on the screen as if mocking just how closely associated it was to obsolete projector based education. Around the auditorium, more than a few voices continued chatting and whispering or horsing around while two still-screen credits appeared on the display. Finally a grainy time-worn background started to play from the HIVE gym's state of the art acoustic systems.

The scene changed to what could well have been a hallway in the average high school, save for the out-of-place addition of a flickering Tesla coil sticking dangerously out of the ground nearby. A row of large generic lockers covered the wall. Two boys walk by in red costumes and the view moved away from them, past a poster advertising 'Henchman Fashion Club" and then to two young women: one a serious looking brunette, the other a pigtailed blonde. Both were wearing tight latex costumes; the dark haired girl's also sported wings while the light haired one had protective bright red bracers around her arms and legs… needless to say, both were bearing their midriff above frilly short skirts and had the outline of a letter somewhere on their person.

Among the crowd, Jinx resisted the urge to facepalm. "I can't believe people used to wear costumes like that… haven't they made any of these things since the seventies?"

Two seats to her right, her winged school mate, Angel giggled emphatically, hiding her lips behind her hands. "Tell me about it. I mean, could they _possibly_ be baring any more skin?"

"Huh?" came a confused interrogative from between them. The space filling girl looked down at her own alternating black and yellow costume, the abbreviated top clearly revealing her own chocolate toned abdomen for all the world to see. Her brow scrunched up, crinkling her nose as well, and finally Bumblebee let out a huff and fired hot glares at both of them.

"What are you two talking about?" she demanded. "There's nothing wrong with their costumes!"

This time, Angel was forced to clamp her hands down over her mouth to stop from bursting out into laughter. "N-no, no, of course there isn't, BB," she managed to get out before dissolving into giggles.

Jinx wasn't far behind, waving her hand rapidly to placate the fuming Bumblebee. "Of course not, Bee. We – we're sure that you'll be the- " She nearly snorted loudly, battling vainly to hold in her own laughter. "-the most famous _pole dancer_ the Academy has ever produced!"

"Oh, that is _it_! I can fly, ya know? So that means I got no problem breaking _both_ of my feet off right up in both your bony butts!"

A sharp shush came from the back of the room, no doubt originating from the stern Head Mistress herself, and it instantly set the three girls straight in their seats and as silent as the dead. Suddenly the film playing before them became the most fascinating thing any of them had ever watched.

"Hey, Jenny," the brunette began as they stood in front of their lockers. "How did the heist go last night?"

"It didn't go as planned… but," she added cheerily, "The night wasn't a total waste! I met a **guy**!"

"You did! Was he cute?"

"He sure was! And I **really** like him! But…" And now Jenny's face fell into sadness. "I don't think my friends or parents would approve of him."

The dark haired friend of Jenny cocked her head curiously. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Well, he's… he's… he isn't like us," Jenny struggled to explain. "He's a _super hero_."

"Oh oh." The picture froze, and an elderly man in a labcoat with a full head of shock-white hair walked in front of the paused pair of girls. "Well, folks, it looks like Jenny's got herself in trouble again..."

Jinx's expression fell. It was another one of "those" stupid videos, starring Jennifer "Jenny" Jones, aka "Blast Girl" and her endless stream of mistakes and successes in villainy, all narrated by a retired old coot. And if the topic of this train wreck was what it seemed to be, the question was "why?" Gods and Goddesses, why?

"Hi. My name is Doctor Larsen," the man said, as he always did in these dumb things, and walked to the side to too-casually plant one shoe on the seat of a conveniently placed chair. "Also known as the incredible Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. You might remember me from such classic informative video pictures as 'Mad Science: Fact from Fiction' and 'Radiation: Friend of the Modern Age!' Today, we're going to talk about a very serious issue: villain-hero relationships."

A collective mixture of groans and laughs rose up among the HIVE Academy's student body. Especially from the male half who immediately started catcalling the names of the hottest heroic women they daydreamed about fighting on the job one day. Jinx had not been aware, in retrospect, that so many HIVE boys had a thing for the Star Spangled Girl.

Still, couldn't they have gotten a _real villain_ to do these videos, like Madam Rouge?

"Whether male or female, a bright career in super-villainy inevitably means you'll run into your reactionary counterparts," Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, aka Dr. Larsen, continued. "Studies show that in up to ten percent of cases, healthy, productive 'arching' can become not just a professional, but personal pursuit. Or a matter of all important revenge against a certain someone!"

He coughed, self consciously.

"Or one that negatively affects your ability to operate in this high stakes, highly competitive field."

Stepping off the chair, he walked for a short while, in a totally unscripted way.

"With the ever increasing diversity found in the workplace, it is all but guaranteed that at one point or another you will at least be tempted to consider a relationship with your do-gooder counterparts." He pointed at the camera. "But don't take it from me. Let's see what happens the next time Jenny meets her new crush."

The picture crudely side-wiped to show 'Blast Girl' with four henchmen. They were in a warehouse and the five of them had a young man in a corny red and white costume tied up from the ceiling with a bomb at his feet. This was the generic "Atomic Boy" of the series, who always showed up whenever they needed a stock super hero. The silly looking blond mullet really ruined whatever sort of threat his ill-defined powers provided. Clearly he had 'atomic powers' though. Whatever those were. Nice package, too, in Jinx's opinion (unless it was a codpiece, like she'd heard some skin-tighters wore).

"He he he he!" Jenny aka 'Blast Girl' chortled, demurely holding her hand over her mouth in a noblewoman's laugh. "I've got you now, Atomic Boy! You'll never escape from those high tech power-nullifying _aluminum_ cuffs!"

"_I dunno,__"_Bumblebee whispered conspiratorially, "_I think this movie might actually go up a few notches if he did manage to __'__slip out__'__ of something.__"_

Immediately, Jinx's cheeks flushed and she nearly choked trying to swallow a laugh, lest they be scolded again.

"You won't get away with this, Blast Girl!" Atomic boy insisted, despite being loosely trussed up.

"It really is a shame you won't join me, Atomic Boy," Jenny leaned in to tease the beaten hero, running a finger up and how his chest and then whispering in his ear.

"Sorry Blast Girl, but I'm already engaged… **to justice!**"

More than a few students facepalmed.

She then leaned back. "I knew you'd say something like that. Farewell, Atomic Boy. It could've been fun for both of us! Come, henchpeople, to our secret lair!"

_'__Henchpeople.__'_ Jinx stifled a laugh. '_At least they__'__re politically correct.__'_

And so Jenny left her arch enemy to get blown up in a not-so elaborate trap that consisted of him being mostly tied up and there being a nearby bomb directly under him and his powers, probably, being somehow nullified. Before he could no-doubt escape, the picture froze again, and Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man (Dr Larsen in other words) reappeared, once again resting one foot casually on a nearby chair.

"Oh oh. Looks like Jenny made a mistake back there. Can you guess what it was?" he turned his head, and the scene changed to when she was teasing him. Larson then pointed to where one of Atomic Boy's hands slipped something into Blast Girl's bracer: a tracking device.

"Oh dear," Larson narrated with badly acted shock. "It seems Jenny's secret lair won't be a secret for much longer! Let's see another example."

In this, even more comical, scenario, Jenny is shown trying to put on a new costume over her old one. It had a large number of gadgets and other accessories in gold, pink and black. Plainly having trouble, she was struggling with a belt when her unnamed (more competent) brunette friend walks in.

"Jenny! What's the hold up! We're running late!"

"I can't help it. This new costume is so-o-o hard to put on!" Jenny whined unhappily. "And it's so heavy, too!"

"Why are you wearing all that stuff anyway?" the brunette turned conspicuously to the camera to shrug, totally on queue. "What was wrong with your old costume?"

"I saw Atomic Boy teaming up with Soldier Girl the other day…"

Another combination groan and facepalms among the audience.

"And he seemed really impressed by her gadgets. So I thought I'd try and use some too. And the both of them make their own equipment, so I made mine by myself! Wait until he sees me in my new look!" Jenny cheered, and took a few steps before a loud ripping sound could be heard.

Then, unceremoniously, a bunch of straps and mechanical junk fell to the floor.

"Oh no! My costume!" She clapped her cheeks dramatically. "And the Bank Robbery is in less than an hour!"

"Looks like Jenny's learning this hard way so _you_ don't have to." AVM Man walked out front again. "Don't change your costume to impress your enemy. Keep it functional but identifiable. And only use tested and approved sources of apparel certified for use in super-villainy..."

"_Hey, how come we never get to see movies about the brunette_?" Angel asked in a low whisper.

"_Yeah,__"_ Bumblebee agreed, "_She seems way more on the ball. Plus, flying is so much cooler than just throwing energy blasts around.__"_

"_Hey, I got an idea, why don__'__t both of you shut your face holes, before I __'__blast__'__ you both into the next room_?"

The 'educational video' continued, showing more stupid scenarios involving 'Blast Girl' and her attempts to screw up her own career as a villain by being silly or overemotional or just an idiot. At least in Jinx's opinion. Fighting the urge to go straight to sleep – like Gizmo, sitting on her other side, who had a trail of drool running down his chin and his hand pressed deeply into his cheek in an effort to prop his head up – or like Mammoth, who currently seemed to be staring at the screen in an attempt to look right through it. Maybe he was picturing Jenny's black haired friend naked?

Why were they watching this? None of them were going to get involved with any stupid hero types any time soon. Yes, they were getting close to graduation, and yes, most of them were horny teenagers who would very likely end up fighting other horny teenagers in dark alleys and solitary warehouses and abandoned buildings and moonlit rooftops… fighting hand to hand and tearing their costumes off as they rolled around, struggling for dominance...

Jinx shuddered at where her thoughts were venturing.

_Damn you hormones!_

So, what? Had one or two of the older students gotten into some kind of mess? That would explain why the entire student body was being made to pay for it. The question then was which upperclass idiots or dumbass graduates had gone and fooled around across the blue line? And with who? Personally, her money was on Shimmer. Mammoth's tramp of an older sister seemed like a shoe-in for this kind of mess... well, psychosis aside, anyway.

On the screen, Atomic Boy just finished saving Blast Girl from an exploding building (probably one of her own idiot schemes gone wrong, Jinx could guess) and was flying (he can fly now? Stupid generic nuclear powers!) slowly down to the ground with her in his arms.

"I can't believe it," she exclaimed, "You saved me… why?"

Jinx visibly gagged, actually clutching her own throat for added affect. "_Please, someone promise to shoot me if I __'__ever__'__ find myself in that kind of situation.__"_

"_Oh, I__'__ll totally do that_!" Bumblebee agreed quickly.

"_Not if I shoot her first_!" Angel countered amongst a gale of giggles.

"_Just so you know... I hate you both_."

"It's what I do," Atomic Boy replied with an almost-charming grin. "You're better than this Blast Girl. Stop trying to take over The City."

"I… I don't know…" she dithered, blushing. "I've always wanted to take over The City. Can I really throw away all my ambitions and my entire career that easily?"

"Yes," her heroic rescuer replied. "Yes you can."

"Oh boy. It looks like Jenny's about to make a Serious Mistake," Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man said, appearing in front of the couple and facing the camera. "And she isn't the only one. Every year, promising villains male and female face situations just like this. I just hope Jenny doesn't do something she'll regret."

Switching back to Atomic Boy and Blast Girl, the two seem frozen in time for one romantic second.

"Bwa-hahaha! I'll never give up!" And then she punched him in the face with a huge explosion.

Hence: Blast Girl.

It went without saying that those students who had been watching, even half heartedly, broke into a chorus of laughter. Blast Girl then went on to comically kick Atomic Boy while he was down, creating an explosion every time. This in turn, kicked up a lot of dust and gave the impression of fight straight out of Looney Toons. At least she wasn't having at him with a mallet or other ridiculous, oversized weapon. Really, who did that?

As the program drew to a close, with Doctor Larsen explaining the many obvious morals of the story, Jinx rolled her shoulders, eager to get off the gym floor and find some place actually comfortable. What a waste of thirty five minutes this had been! And it was all because some idiots had to go and screw around. Literally. Sure, there were some cute guys on 'the other side,' but in the end Blast Girl had gotten it right. The career came first.

Not like there were many options… up in boring old Jump City anyway.

As they filed out, they passed by the Head Mistress, the stern demeanor on her aged face kept all of them silent until they were well past her and down the corridor. The second that they felt safe, though, the volume raised dramatically as the laughter and gossip fired up to full force all over again.

"Seriously, can you _believe_ that 'Jenny'?" Jinx asked in disbelief. "Like anyone would be stupid enough to let some loser screw up their chances of becoming a super villain just for a little action on the side."

"Oh _really?_" Gizmo sidled up beside her, a taunting look on his face. "Weren't you just dating that skeezoid loser _Kid Cold_ not all that long ago?"

"_Shut up_!" she fired back, scandalized at the accusation. "I dumped that moron like the bad habit he was! Besides, he totally didn't count; he might have been a complete idiot, but he was still a villain!"

Mammoth laughed loudly to himself, stretching his arms out behind his head. "Wow, talk about givin' a guy the _cold shoulder_."

A second later, the mammoth sized teen villain slammed into the wall, projected forward violently by an energetic application of plasmatic entropy. Spinning around slowly, Jinx glared at all of her classmates through lidded eyes.

"Anyone _else_ feel like either making a bad pun or teasing me about any of the guys I used to date?"

Rather than be intimidated, Bumbleebee strode right up to her and dropped an arm around her shoulder and began leading her back down the hallway and towards the cafeteria. "Jinx, Jinx, Jinx. We aren't here to tease you about the guys you used to date. We're here to tease you about the guys that you might date in the _future_."

"Oh, yeah, I'm totally seeing her getting all cozy with a sidekick," Angel tittered, making googly eyes at her classmate. "Maybe a Superboy or a Speedy or a Robin? Wouldn't that be adorable? Jinx and Robin, both wearing their sexy little tights and traipsing around Jump City?"

Pink energy began to flare around Jinx's fists. "Don't even _joke_ about that! There's no way I'd _ever_ get tangled up with _any_ hero. Especially not a walking fashion disaster like the Boy Blunder...!" She took a moment to look down, admiring her own legs. "Still... my tights _are_ pretty sexy, aren't they?"

"Oh yeah. Those legs of yours are almost nice enough to make up for all the areas in which you are _seriously _lacking."

"Bumblebee! I'm _going to kill you!__"_

Growling furiously, she started chasing after the quickly miniaturizing bee themed girl as she zipped down the hallway on fully functional insect wings. Once she swatted her annoying friend a few times, she was sure that she would feel better. Still, their accusations were annoying.

She was going to be the best villain there ever was!

Like she'd ever let herself fall for some loser hero.

* * *

Drifting back, away from the memory... Raven felt a wave of confusion settle over her. That memory had been – it had been, well, to be honest, a bit embarrassing. But it had also been fun, and amusing; the whole thing had a strangely 'normal' feel to it, despite being a school of wicked villains. It was a memory unlike any Raven herself possessed. She had never had the benefit of going to any institution of public learning, so the whole scenario seemed a bit bizarre to her, but also like it might have been... fun?

Was this what Ryouga felt when he had attended the Academy?

Still, Jinx's feelings had been quite adamant. It had been impossible to miss the young witch's drive: her determination and desire to excel in her chosen field. She had been very serious about not letting any guy, let alone one of the non-villainous persuasion, derail her from her goal. So, how had it come to pass that she had literally tossed her entire future in villainy away for Ryouga like that?

The answer was painfully obvious. She _hadn__'__t_, not by her own choice, anyway. With that thought in mind, it was a simple matter for Raven to pick up the proper 'thread' of memory that led away from that particular memory and follow it to its ultimate conclusion.

* * *

He looked down at the girl in his arms, one of his eyebrows raised questioningly.

She looked back sheepishly and shrugged.

"That's never happened to me before, I swear," she said, almost in apology.

Ryouga rolled his eyes and dropped Jinx flat on her butt.

* * *

Raven couldn't hold in her laughter at the little snippet of memory that she'd just witnessed. It seemed that Ryouga had quite the habit of sweeping girls off their feet, only to drop them onto their posteriors. It reminded her of her own first meeting with the young man, and she actually felt her own tailbone sting in sympathy for Jinx's rail thin rear. She wasn't sure if she should feel jealous at her spending time in his arms, or a sense of kinship with her, at their mutual admission to the 'unceremoniously dropped on their asses' club.

There had been an odd mix of emotions running through Jinx's mind there. Embarrassment, muddled gratitude, anger, exasperation, confusion, and, maybe – just maybe – the tiniest spark of something else.

Honestly, how did that boy manage to intrigue girls considering the rough way he handled them? Then again, was that something to be said about him? Or was it more something about Jinx and herself that she should be concerned about? Either way, she found herself continued to follow the thread further-

* * *

"J-Jinx? What are you doing here? Why would you stop me from destroying this monster?" he wheezed painfully. He waved an arm behind him gesturing to the Headmaster's crushed form.

The young woman looked to the side, her eyes closed now. "I can't let you hurt him, Ryouga." She then looked back at him, her eyes beginning to glow with a frightful pink energy.

He stumbled back a step. "Jinx! You don't need to protect him, this man is a – a monster! You don't know the things that he threatened to do, what he wanted to make me do," he pleaded.

Jinx raised a hand, now wreathed in pink flames as well. "You don't understand Ryouga . . . I know exactly what he's done, what he wanted to do," she whispered quietly. Then the flame that surrounded her hand shot out, a blazing neon projectile. His eyes widened in shock and a scream tore itself from his lips, as the blast crashed into the ground at his feet. Suddenly the earth heaved and exploded under him, launching his slashed and battered body into the air. He landed harshly a moment later, lying at the feet of the terrible and lovely young woman that had attacked him.

He stared up into her strange pink eyes, as the world slowly began to fade away around him. Her lips began to move as she spoke once more.

"After all . . . I'm the one that led him to you."

* * *

The dark Titan recoiled violently from that memory, the sting of painful emotions still tingling annoyingly through her psyche. She had been doubly unprepared for what she had seen, there. Having come from such an amusing memory, only to be hammered by such treachery? _That_ was what had happened to Ryouga in China? It hadn't just been the Headmaster that had kidnapped him... Jinx had actually been there as well? And _she_ had been the one to strike the final, telling blow?

Did Ryouga remember this as well? He must have; they had checked his memories. The Martian Manhunter himself had taken care of things! The imposing alien had assured them that Ryouga was no longer suffering from any memory loss; more an abundance of memories that he was loathe to part with. But, if he remembered that, then how could he _possibly_ be so enthralled with Jinx?

It didn't make any sense at all, which was why, she supposed, that it all made _perfect_ sense in the end. Jinx, with her drive to become a great villain, and Ryouga, being betrayed by the girl who he had saved only two weeks earlier? How _could_ such a disparate pair actually fall so madly in love with each other? The mental conditioning of the Headmaster was not only the obvious answer, it seemed to be the _only_ answer.

There had been emotions in the last memory as well: Jinx's feelings. They had been mixed, obviously. Guilt was the most prominent, but was littered with many others, but that seemed to be it. She might not have liked Ryouga, but even Jinx had felt terrible at dragging him in like that. Yet, despite whatever misgivings she might have had, Jinx had done it, and without hesitation. It was overtly obvious what the villainous sorceress considered more important between her career and some random guy.

Again, doubt filled the violet eyed psion. Jinx and Ryouga hadn't even liked each other at all before this whole debacle began. The only thing that had brought them together had been the Headmaster's control. Not only that, but both of them had even had things they were already interested in pursuing. It begged the question: was the result of her actions really so terrible, or had it just been setting them back on their original paths?

Unable to help herself, Raven tugged at one last thread of memory.

* * *

The yelling seemed to go on forever, and it was only the Headmaster's 'insistence' that she remain where she was, that – well – she remained where she was. The large metal chair she sat in, colored the same gaudy yellow as every other damned thing in this Academy, was incredibly uncomfortable, but at least she wasn't forcibly secured into her seat via heavy metal restraints.

That honor had been reserved solely for their newest guest: one Ryouga Hibiki, martial artist extraordinaire and very recent thorn in her side. She wasn't exactly sure what the Headmaster was doing to the poor bastard, but it involved a lot of holding the guy's head while the Headmaster's eyes glowed with their usual 'I'm totally screwing with your mind, so deal with it' crimson energy, and apparently a lot of pain. Her master had mentioned something briefly about 'making Hibiki beholden to us', by which the Headmaster no doubt meant 'himself'.

She wasn't exactly sure why she was required to be there, either. Sure, getting a chance to see a master at work should have been a great experience to stick on her resume later, but she found that her stomach was embarrassingly weak when it came to prolonged torture. Being forced to sit there and watch as the bandanna clad martial artist writhed and screamed as arcs of red power danced around his head… it was uncomfortable to say the least.

Finally, after a seeming eternity, the Headmaster removed his hands from the young man's head and stood back to his full height once more. A light sheen of perspiration on the aged man's brow was indicative of the strain of what he'd just done, whatever that might have been. Taking a deep breath, allowing his glowing eyes to close for a moment, the robed man opened them once more, revealing normal, human looking pupils – well, aside from the look of cold, calculating mania that danced around in those dark depths.

"There. It is done."

Curious, but hesitant to show it, Jinx tentatively raised her hand. The Headmaster stared at her blankly for a moment, only to eventually nod, giving unspoken permission for her to speak her mind.

"That's great, Headmaster. But – um – what exactly _is_ it that you just did?" she cautiously asked. "I mean, you were just brain washing him, weren't ya?"

Giving a dark chuckle, her master shook his head. "No, my dear Jinx. Unfortunately, his will was stronger than anticipated. I was unable to simply dominate him as I have... others. Instead, I was forced to take a somewhat _different_ route."

Jinx's head tilted to the side, clearly signaling that she had no idea what he was talking about. Rolling his eyes, he gave a weak sigh. "It would take too long to simply break his mind and bring him under my control. So instead, I have decided to merely alter his memories in a specific manner to ensure that he would be loyal to us."

Jinx tilted her head to the other side, eyeing her master owlishly. "Um... and you did that how?"

"More easily than I would have imagined possible, actually. A most... convenient opportunity made itself known as I sifted through this young warrior's mind. It seems that he had recently met a young woman, an acquaintance of yours actually, and managed to become quite _taken_ with her. Affection is a powerful emotion, my young student, which means that it is all the easier to twist to your advantage, if you know how."

The young woman battled not to roll her pink eyes. His words all but stunk of a 'let this be a lesson to you' style speech, warning her about the pitfalls of forming attachments with others. As if she needed a talk like _that_. She loved Gizmo and Mammoth as much as it was possible for a functioning, intelligent human to love another: i.e. she was just barely able to tolerate them enough that she didn't try and choke the life from them on a daily basis.

Hmm, but that left the question: how did Ryouga falling for one of the Titan girls – after all, who else in China could possibly be considered an acquaintance of hers – help them at all?

"No doubt you are wondering how his affections for that dreary, hooded Titan could possibly benefit us-"

Ahh! So the martial artist had fallen for _Raven._ Ick! Honestly, Jinx had done the guy a favor, getting him out of a possible tryst with _that_ girl. Lord knows that in a week she'd have them both running razors over their wrists 'just to feel alive again'. As if there weren't better uses for a virile young guy...

"Well," the Headmaster continued, thankfully cutting off her line of thought. "I have merely transplanted those emotions to a more... let me say _amiable_ target." Suddenly a broad, disturbing smile spread across the Headmaster's lips. "Tell me, Jinx... What do you think of this boy? Do you find him in any way appealing?"

Instantly, the blood drained from Jinx's already pale face.

'_Nononono, not good.__'_ She began to squirm in her uncomfortable metal chair, though no position would make her more comfortable at this moment. "W-well-" she stuttered warily, "I mean, sure, he's _kinda_ cute, in a rugged 'I get beat up for a living' kinda way... But I don't know a thing about him! Not to mention the fact that he not only kicked our butts back there, he made us all look like morons."

The look of amusement on the Headmaster's stern face quickly began to drain away, leaving an impossibly harsh, critical gaze leveled her way.

"_But_!" she amended quickly, "But! I think I know where you're going with this, Headmaster! You... you made him like _me_, didn't you? So you need me to pretend to be his... his girlfriend, or something, right?"

A slow nod.

"Perceptive," he answered, approvingly. "I suppose I should have asked you before if you would agree to this plan. I had just chosen you as you were already present in the boy's memories, making it an easy substitution. But if you believe you are unable to perform this duty, perhaps one of the other girls could work instead? ... Ah! Bumblebee, perhaps?"

Jinx's fidgeting only increased as he let the inquiry hang in air expectantly.

Quickly, she spoke up, "_No_! I mean, no. No, I can do it! You don't need to give this job to anyone else. I'm... I'm sure I can be pretty convincing. I mean, how hard can it be?"

"Ahh, that is my good girl. Still... only 'pretty convincing'?" Suddenly, the expression on the Headmaster's face transformed to frozen marble, his stare going so utterly cold that it was all but inhuman. An instant later, his eyes flared red and Jinx heard a tiny electronic whine surge from the chair beneath her. It was all the warning she had before heavy metal restraints, mirroring the ones on Ryouga's chair, shot out of the arms and base, clamping down on her limbs painfully and locking her in position. She struggled violently for a second, panic welling up in her chest at the unexpected turn of events.

What the hell was happening? Usually she could read the old man like a book! Staring at him now, through frantic eyes, Jinx watched as he shook his head mockingly, clucking his tongue as he studied her.

"I'm afraid, Jinx, that 'pretty convincing' will not be sufficient for what I have in mind. I will need time to bring the boy properly into my control, and I have other plans that need to be initiated in the meantime. I am going to need a much more... _committed_ performance from you, my dear."

Eyes painfully wide, Jinx fought against her restraints until her wrists began to ache, but she couldn't escape, couldn't even budge a millimeter. Taking a sedate step forward, followed by another, then another, the Headmaster's lips began to twist up into a grim smile once more. The glow in his eyes only intensified as he grew closer to her.

"Don't worry, though, Jinx. This will be _far_ easier on you than it was him."

The last thing Jinx could remember was a pair of glowing red eyes filling her entire world.

* * *

It was with a desperate gasp of metaphorical breath, that Raven tore herself out of the last memory. That had been... that had been terrible. She didn't even know what to say about what she'd just seen. Was _that_ what Jinx's life had been like before she had left the Academy to join them? Raven knew that it was no justification for her wicked acts, but it did not stop her for feeling sympathy for the entropic young woman.

If anyone understood what it was like to live under the thrall of a dreadfully powerful monster, one that dedicated its existence to deceiving and manipulating everyone, it was Raven. Granted, there were levels of scope and scale to be considered, but at the same time, her own inner demon was far removed, in another dimension.

Jinx had lived under the same roof with hers.

Shuddering violently, Raven decided to retreat away from Jinx's memories. She had seen far more than she had wanted to. It was time to meet with the two officers. Hopefully they would be done their mind scan at that point, and they could leave. As much as they were doing this for Jinx's benefit, Raven could not emphasize how very much she wanted to be done with this mind dive now.

"…at least four primary points that are causin' all this mess," Ranma was arguing, his mental projection wearing a red Chinese shirt and pants, arms crossed. "It's all 'cause 'a that stuff back in China."

"I assume you are talking about the experiences Ryouga had when he met me there?" Raven guessed, slipping into the conversation.

"Yeah. That red eyed freak back there made some adjustments to when Jinx met pork butt, since he was tryin' to synch up Ryouga's feelings before he met you with the ones after." Ranma held out his hands and moved them back and forth, palms flat. "I found few spots where he tried to deal with the difference. All pretty obvious blanks now."

"I think we have a good grasp on how the original changes were made and how they were undone," Ryouga said. The acting Major's psionic presence was dressed much like his younger counterpart often did in real life: in loose green pants and a yellow muscle shirt. It was in contrast to the fact that his psionic projection was usually dressed in-uniform.

"Jinx's mind has already tried to cope with the changes and rationalize them," he concluded. "Beyond that..."

"You don't think we should do anything?" Ranma asked, but sighed. "Yeah... I kinda agree. I just wish I could say things were back to the way they originally were in here, but ya can't completely separate emotions from experiences and expect everythin' to be the way it was."

"What do you think, Raven?" Ryouga asked, tilting his head her way. "We can explain to Jinx what's been done to her, but I'm worried about what her reaction will be to being manipulated on this level. Plus, can Yankee still function as a team with a Jinx whose motivations have rewired themselves?"

The question gave the hooded Titan pause. They were both such large questions, questions for which she had no idea if she actually had answers for. How _could_ they go about explaining this - this entire debacle - to Jinx? Did just they just tell her that she'd been in love with Ryouga? But she hadn't really been before, and she certainly didn't seem to be after the fact?

"I... I honestly don't know..." she admitted. "I think Jinx deserves to know the truth, but - but at the same time, if we tell her how she'd been forced to feel, would our actions unintentionally put pressure on her to think that is how she is supposed to act? That it is how we want her to be?"

Slowly, her gaze shifted between the pair of martial artists. They had no more actual experience with this than her, and had no more idea of how to deal with this than her, which was probably why they were asking her in the first place. The only difference was that they had to hide behind a veneer of competence and confidence, while she did not.

"As for the second," she postulated aloud, "...well, that's not really for me to say. I think Ryouga, our Ryouga, needs to determine that for himself. He needs to determine just what her motivations are now and if he still wants her on our team."

"Um…" Ranma was clearly hesitant to say what was on his mind, but it was on all their minds as a result, since none of them were actually saying anything. They were literally thinking it. "If this is what's been going on in Pinky's brain, is it wrong that I'm a bit worried about how P-chan's holding up? Not only do we got what looks like only one of 'em without the conditioning, but the other with… what? I think we need ta take a look at his head. I'd bet it's twice as screwy as this one. In a way, It'd have been better if they both got deprogrammed or neither did."

It was not something she ever recalled doing, but Raven found herself chewing on her lower lip as she forced herself to consider _that_ potential route. Again, it was quite appealing, not only from a moral stand point, but, unfortunately, it had a grimy little stain of self interest that made it far too uncomfortable for her to offer a valid opinion on. It made sense for so many reasons. There was just one problem with it.

Ryouga didn't want it done.

"I… can hardly argue with that point logically," she conceded, "So I'll do it irrationally. As terrible as it is... I don't think I could stand the idea of seeing Ryouga hurt, yet again, because of something I did, or said."

"Our superiors already looked into his head, and accepted that the original alterations wouldn't be an impediment to operations in the field," Ryouga-the-elder stated and briefly closed his eyes as he thought about the dilemma. "But that was before we even knew Jinx was around. I can't help but wonder if they'd make the same decision now."

"You can't force him to go through having the old programming removed," Ranma reminded the other officer. "Regs…"

"I know. The only thing I can do is relieve him of duty if I think his judgment is being impaired." The older Hibiki tapped his foot in growing vexation. "And I'd rather not do that. It is also possible that once he understands that Jinx's implanted feelings are gone and not coming back that he'll want the same for himself. I know I'd be tempted if I were in his shoes. One-sided affection… isn't a very pleasant experience."

"You say that as if there isn't a person in this mind, on this _ship_, that doesn't know that," Raven muttered in a low voice. At least her Ryouga had been taught, starting with Starfire herself, to see beyond himself, and struggled to do so. "I say to leave them both, be. It is up to them to decide what happens. If we force them to make choices they don't want to... just like I did, then we become no better than the Headmaster. And considering what a monster you all seem to think he is, I doubt you want that, correct?"

"She sure called you out, didn't she, P-chan?"

"Shut up, Ranma," was the genetic Hibiki response when, as always, there was a lack of a good comeback. "Clearly I'm not going to force either of them to do anything other than their jobs. I'd think you two would know that about me by now. I'll have a talk with your Ryouga," he said this to Raven. "About what we've found in here. I don't really want us to be the ones to have to try and remove any of the Headmaster's programming anyway. That's something we should leave to the psi-ops people back at the base."

"And Jinx?" Ranma asked.

"We'll tell her the truth and let her act on it in whatever way fits her," the acting Major replied. "Raven, its uncomfortable, but I think you should be present when we speak to her about this. There's no point pretending you aren't involved and Jinx will have to accept that you're here among us. I'd like all of you to go back to working together as soon as possible."

Letting out a tired sigh, the violet eyed psion nodded. "I understand. Well, I suppose it's best to get it out of the way as soon as possible, then."

"I believe so, yes," Ryouga agreed. "Alright, then…"

"Actually," Ranma interrupted, but seemed to think again about whatever was, for a moment, on his mind. "Actually… no, no, never mind. It's nothing."

The two gave him a curious, questioning look, but the pigtailed one didn't elaborate.

"Alright," their commanding officer continued. "Then let's get to it. Jinx and I have to head out to work with Cyborg soon anyway, and it'd be best to give her some time to digest the news."

And with that, for better or for worse, they left.

* * *

Tap, tap, tap.

At least, that was what Ryouga should have heard. As it was, the only thing he could hear was the sound of his own, labored, breathing as he tapped his finger against the base of the twisted and warped bulkhead that jutted up into the Pathfinder's entry tunnel. It looked very much like the massive slab of metal had been laying flat, only to be dragged to an upright position as their ship had torn through the massive space hulk that trapped them. It was annoyingly large, easily eight feet long, four feet thick and nearly a dozen feet high. Whatever was buried beneath the surface, though, was locked firmly in place, and he hadn't been able to simply push it back down.

And so, here he was, tapping his way around the bottom of the spire of steel. Each tap sent out a minute burst of power which spread out into the metal, disrupting and breaking down the atomic structure of the metal, severely weakening it. It was certainly much slower than a standard Bakusai Tenketsu, not having any breaking points worth speaking of to detonate. It was, however, far more energy efficient, as all of the power that would be lost in violently tearing the material to pieces was instead channeled further into the metal, sundering the crystalline lattice structure as it went.

It was hard to be pleased with his progress, however, despite everything. A single look over his shoulder drained all of the enthusiasm from him as surely as anything. On the distant side of their spaceship carved tunnel, Jinx, standing out distinctly thanks to the unique style of her armor, was working away at an obstruction of her own. Both her, and his older counterpart had only joined them nearly two hours ago, both having received the same quick rundown and deployment from Cyborg that Starfire and himself had.

Initially, he had been tempted to go over and speak to the slight girl. His courage hadn't even held out long enough to take a single step. Beyond that, not only had she not sought him out, she hadn't even so much as glanced in his direction. In fact, on the numerous occasions that she had caught him staring at her over the past few hours, she had sharply looked away.

Ryouga knew that he was supposed to be accepting the pain, absorbing it and assimilating it so that it wasn't controlling him... or, at least he was fairly sure that was what Starfire had been trying to explain, but it was, well, every bit as hard as she had said it would be. He wasn't very good at dealing with his feelings at the best of times, and being trapped in a horribly hostile alien dimension sure wasn't the best of times.

Tap.

All he could think of was the beautiful pink haired witch. Every minute of every day that he had spent with her kept flashing through his mind. Just so much had transpired between them; they had grown so close... even his feelings for Akane now felt like an embarrassing infatuation compared to how he felt about Jinx.

Tap.

And now, literally in a matter of seconds... it was all gone. Had everyone else been right about them? Was it all really just because of the Headmaster's manipulations? It all just seemed so impossible. Even if that had been the basis for them getting together, it just didn't seem plausible that it could all be a lie. All of those precious, stolen moments. Every intimate moment, every anxious kiss... how could it all be wiped away so easily?

Tap-

The martial artist recoiled, a bright flash of light and a shower of sparks blinding him for a second. He shook his head violently, waiting for the colorful spots to stop dancing around his vision. What the hell had that been? Once his vision recovered completely, he took another look at the piece of metal he had been fatiguing.

A ring of molten metal was still glowing around the edges of a narrow hole... a hole roughly the same diameter as the finger he'd been using to hit the metal. A moment of confusion came and went. He hadn't accidentally stumbled across some fancy new technique; he was just losing control of his emotions. It was just like he'd explained to Cyborg, right after Terra's battle with Adonis. The 'fatigue fist' technique relied on incredibly careful application of power. Too much would just violently burn out the lattice work, generating an effect visually similar to the rapid oxidation caused by a cutting torch.

No doubt his double would be interested in the concept, as it seemed at first glance to have certain similarities with his 'Smelting Point', but Ryouga already knew from experience that this misapplication had almost no practical applications. It was too dangerous to use in combat, it required too much power – though that wasn't really an issue at the moment, as his aura was overcharged with depression anyway – and he couldn't even use it to render down or separate useful elements, as the slag it created could hardly be recognized as metal any longer.

That and the still-liquid beads of super heated metal rolling over his armored glove pointed out yet another drawback of the 'technique' if it could be called such. If he hadn't been wearing his gauntlet, he would likely be in quite a bit of pain at the moment.

Annoyed, he touched his finger to the bulkhead again, and instantly a blinding light surged up, prompting him to polarize his visor, leaving only a small point of brightness at the center of his vision. He dragged his finger across the surface an inch, then pulled it away.

"Sunnova bitch," he muttered under his breath. The jagged, molten cut etched in the steel now was not what he wanted to see. Taking a deep breath, he tried to send a controlled pulse of energy into the metal... and again a blinding light filled his vision. Even concentrating, he couldn't get it to work right.

Still... on the bright side, it did look pretty awesome.

That gave him a sudden, impulsive idea: he should totally show Starfire! He'd bet good money that she'd like it. Star always loved it when he did things that made him seem a little more Tamaranian in her eyes. This 'ki plasma' cutting would probably get her to clap her hands and giggle in that adorable manner of hers. That alone would brighten the hellish day he'd been having so far!

Tap.

And a carefully modulated burst of ki flowed into the metal, weakening it significantly, though the damage wrought was invisible to the human eye...

"Oh, for the love of-!"

Stupid Shishi Hokodan! It was just like when Ranma tried to trick him all over again! Now that he actually wanted to show someone, he couldn't because he was too damn happy to have it work right! Still... at least he could actually get back to work in an efficient manner again and not have to worry about splattering himself with molten metal all night.

Tap.

A flash of white light and a spray of glowing metal shot out everywhere.

Ryouga stared at the widening gash he'd cut into the metal with a flat stare.

"Oh yeah... I do not miss emotion based powers."

He could tell that this was not going to get any better for him, so with a groan of resignation, which only bolstered his swelling depression further, he polarized his visor and just leaned in, drawing his finger across the base, cutting a vicious slash into the bulkhead. He couldn't even tell how deep the cut was going, or how long it would take him to do a proper job this way, but he was sure it was going to do nothing but piss him off the longer he was out here.

"Yo, Ryo!" A voice in his helmet's earbloom cut him off. "This is Cyborg. Your shift is up, man. Feel free to drop what you're doin' and head on in. You can pick up later on."

"Gladly!" Ryouga nearly yelled in his relief.

Rising back to his feet, having been hunched over at the base of the bulkhead for so long, he gave his back a good stretch before staring at his handiwork. If anything, it only made his mood worse, as his formerly flawless work now looked like some maniac had taken a blow torch to the base of the bulkhead. He'd even been relatively close to finishing, too, before his screw up, which only made it that much more frustrating.

Grunting, he turned to head back to the ship – only to lash out with a back kick powered by every iota of his annoyance. The bottom of his boot struck so heavily that the impact rang through the inside of his armor and rattled his eardrums. With a sharp jolt, the entire damn slab of metal shifted six inches away from him, revealing a familiar boot print now pressed deeply into the face of the bulkhead. He could only have imagined the horrible screeching that would have filled the air had there been actual air to carry the sound.

Then, moving with an eerie slowness in the reduced gravity, the spire of steel slid away, only to topple back into the gap that it had been torn from, tumbling away into the dark void and vanishing from sight. This was punctuated every few seconds by a rumble that shook Ryouga's feet. That... probably hadn't been a great idea, but hell if he felt up to lugging around a piece of metal that big at the moment, anyway.

Looking at his right gauntlet, and the now thick coating of still dully glowing metal it sported, he groaned again and refrained from trying to wipe it off on his leg. That'd only spread the mess and it'd be easier to get off once it had cooled down, anyway. That in mind, he spun around a few times until the Pathfinder was finally in sight and made his way back. Thankfully, halfway back, Starfire dropped down to his side, obviously going off shift at the same time as him.

The alien girl looked at his glowing hand tellingly for a moment, to which he simply shrugged, not feeling up to explaining things. Rather than press him, she returned his shrug with a tired one of her own and they quickly made their way back to the ship's main entrance. It didn't take them long to get in, passing through the airlock in a thankfully minimum amount of time. Almost the instant that atmosphere was vented into the too-small airlock chamber, the liquid metal on his hand stopped glowing as it was finally able to cool properly.

Once they were finally back in the ship proper, he let out a weary sigh and removed his helmet, making sure to avoid touching his right hand too much before it had had enough time to cool to safe levels. Again, now devoid of a helmet herself, Starfire graced him with an amused glance. The alien, despite her own energetic method of metal removal, was not splattered completely with molten metal – how, he had no idea – and was doubtlessly wondering how he had made such a mess of himself. Again, though, she did not bother him to explain himself. Instead, she just nodded towards the small chamber on the far side of the hold, where they had been held up earlier.

He returned her nod and added a tired grin. "Yeah, just gimme a minute. I just want to talk to Raven first, then we can go catch some sleep in there."

"I relish the thought," she responded in a surprisingly tired voice. She then zipped in for a quick hug – somewhat lost on the fact they were both wearing full body armor – only to pull away a second later and scoot off towards the far end of the hold post haste. Even as he waved to her one last time before she vanished through the door, he began to turn around, looking for the other door.

"So... what is it that you want to talk to me about?"

Ryouga nearly jumped out of his skin as Raven's voice suddenly sounded over his shoulder, at least until he realized that it wasn't just coming from behind him, but all around him. The darkest of the Titans was talking through the ship... for some reason.

"Umm, what's going on, Raven? Is everything okay?"

"Of course," the disembodied voice stated calmly. "I'm just standing in for Ranma for a spell. He's been hooked into the ship for long enough as it is."

Ryouga chuckled to himself at that. That lazy guy, all he had to do was sit there, and he still needed Raven to do his job for him? That was just like Ranma. Well, not that it had anything to do with him, so it wasn't his business. Instead, he turned his attention back to, well, the ship.

"Well, I'd wanted to talk to you about something," he began. "But... is there a slightly more private way we could talk? I don't really wanna tell the whole ship about this."

As quickly as he asked it, the voice that replied didn't come from all around him, but only from a single direction, right behind him. "Of course, Ryouga. I can control where I speak through the ship quite easily. I don't sense anyone back in the hold with you, either, so you should be free to speak now."

Despite her assurances, the fanged martial artist still felt far from comfortable, but a quick scan of the hold revealed that, yes, he was actually alone, so it could be worse. Still, he felt compelled to make his way to the darkest corner of the hold, between one of the walls and a cargo bay. Once he settled in, he finally worked up the courage to mutter aloud.

"I – I wanted to ask about Jinx," he said, grimacing at the fact that he was basically talking to a wall. "You performed the mind dive, didn't you? I was just – just a bit curious how that went… you know?"

There was a long pause, and he doubted that the physical barriers which separated them did anything at all to hide his anxiety from the violet eyed psion currently monitoring the ship's systems.

"Yes, we did," she finally answered. "What did you want to know?"

"Come on, Raven," he muttered in a low voice. "You know exactly what I'm asking about. Did you… find out what was wrong with her? You know how to fix her, right?"

Another pause followed, this one seeming to stretch on forever to the Lost Boy. He planted his back against the wall and slid down until he was sitting on the cool floor, waiting for her response.

"Fix her? I'm – I'm so sorry, Ryouga, but… you don't seem to understand." Despite the fact that she was speaking all but telepathically, she hesitated, letting out a tired sigh. "There is nothing wrong with her to be fixed."

"Wha- but, that can't be right." It _couldn__'__t_ be right. How could there be nothing to fix? "You saw how she was acting! It was like she forgot everything. How can there be nothing to fix?"

He was actually glad that she wasn't there to see him in person, as he wasn't sure he'd be able to stop himself from breaking down at this rate.

"I don't know what to tell you, Ryouga. When I… when I did what I did to Jinx, it was very traumatic for her. I – please, you have to understand that this isn't what I wanted – I didn't remove anything that wasn't implanted by another, but her mind… it wasn't able to comprehend all of the inconsistencies, so her memories are still trying to make sense of everything. To sort out the cognitive dissonance. Unfortunately, that means that not everything she remembers will be the same as how you remember them."

"And you can't fix that?" he asked urgently. "You can't restore her memories to how they were?"

"I'm sorry, I'm _so_ sorry… but, I can't. I don't know what her memories were from before, so I have no way of changing them back. I don't think anyone could. The way she is now, that's – oh, Azar, I'm sorry, Ryouga – that's who she is now. I don't know what she might remember in the end, or how she might remember it."

And… that was it, wasn't it?

What more could be said?

This Jinx was the new Jinx? A Jinx that couldn't even stand to look at him? She was...

"But - but didn't you explain the situation to her?" he asked, clearly grasping at straws. "Didn't you tell her what had happened between us?"

"I did… we did." And he could tell instantly, even through the filter of the ship's systems, that what Raven had to say would not be pleasant. "But that's the oddest part."

"Odd?" he echoed in a hollow voice.

"It's just that, well, during our entire explanation, Jinx didn't say anything. It wasn't until we were done, and even then, she only said one thing."

"Do I even want to know?"

"All she said was: 'That explains a few things.'… and then she left."

Ryouga blinked… then blinked again. "That was all she said?"

"It wasn't even what she said," Raven explained in a perplexed tone. "It was how she said it. It was like – like she may as well have been commenting on the weather, not responding to life altering revelations. And then, without another word, she just… left. I'm sorry."

The martial artist could only stare at his hands. By this point, the once molten metal dribbled on his right hand had solidified completely. Two of his fingers were now immobilized, held firmly in place by a sliver-sheen of carbon steel. Something about the sight resonated with him, seemed appropriate. It did feel as if his heart was freezing over as well.

A single clench of his fist, and the metal shell shattered violently, sending shards of metal flying off across the hold. _'__Ah, now that'__s far more fitting.'_

Frowning, not feeling enough to even shed a tear at the moment, still too shell shocked to really know how he should respond, he finally dragged himself to his feet. Banging his fist against the wall to remove the few lingering fragments of metal, he began to listlessly walk across the hold.

"Are… are you alright, Ryouga?" Raven asked, her voice following him.

He nodded absently, wondering if she could actually see it. "I'll be fine, Raven. I'm just tired, is all. I'll be able to think more clearly after I've gotten some sleep."

"Oh… alright, then. Still, if you need to talk, well, you know where to find me, right?"

Another weak nod. "Of course – actually no, not really, but I'm sure someone will be able to point me in the right direction. Anyway, I'll talk to you later."

Well, at least he hoped he wasn't just lying to make her feel better. He'd just been awake for so long, so much insanity happening in such a short time. Maybe – maybe he would wake up and find out that this had all just been a wacky nightmare. Just something to… well, this wasn't even the kind of dream he could tell Starfire, or Cyborg about and laugh over. It really was just too terrible to even talk about, let alone joke.

If not, he certainly hoped that Starfire had some more comprehensive instructions concerning the 'dealing with one's emotion' thing she'd been talking about. If not, he wasn't sure how much longer he'd be able to keep up even this meager front he was managing.

Because this... all this... just couldn't be happening.

_'__Oh lord, please - please let this all be a dream.'_

* * *

It quickly became clear, as more and more areas adjacent to Pathfinder's molehole were scouted out, that the initial reconnaissance had been conducted in one of the more stable and structurally intact areas of the overall complex. Further back along their scalding entry, in places where shared and warped metal still radiated without benefit of an atmosphere to cool down, things devolved into a tangle of collapsed ships and distorted black and amethyst mineral. Whatever technology there was here to salvage had been long since lost to the corruptive forces that wracked this dimension.

The job of 'A-Group' as they were being classified, had been to find previously detected anomalies, confirm them, and then mark off any dangers for the ship and de-construction teams. Along that general path, they were also tasked to investigate any unusual occurrences or suspicious locations. There was a little over a kilometer of space to cover along Pathfinder's impact corridor, and then about a quarter more of that to the surface. All according to projections and initial intel, all of which needed to be confirmed by boots on the ground.

In this case, those boots belonged to Mousse, Shampoo, Konatsu and Kuno.

The Group's first anomaly had been the cause of much interest. Getting to it had not been hard, but once there they had taken it slow. Konatsu had taken point with one of his multi-body techniques, as the disturbance in space-time had been expected to be somewhat hard to see. In fact it had turned out quite the opposite.

The anomaly was visible thanks to particles and bits of dust and debris that had been caught in it. These covered the delineation between it and what passed for 'normal space' in this dimension, looking somewhat like a layer of dust over a clear mirror. Cyborg had directed a few scans of his own via a remote device to confirm that it was what the ship's sensors had indicated: some sort of warp in space. A closer look and one could see strange twirls and curls on the walls and materials inside the eddy, like twists ice cream cone. It was not the sort of place where one wanted to physically end up or stumble into.

Mousse had marked it off with a tracker beacon stuck to the wall, three meters from the surface of the anomaly.

After that, the curious and dangerous work became routine, and the time they all spent isolated in their armored suits lead to prolonged periods of silence. Konatsu and Kuno covered one side of Pathfinder's trench, and Shampoo and Mousse the other. Novelty faded, and the difficulty and monotony of the work came to define it far more than any chance of strange and wonderful scientific discovery.

They did no real discovery, in fact. They did not have the amazing scientific equipment to plumb the mysteries and depths of the strange anomalies, much less the bizarre distortions that pockmarked almost every square kilometer of this twisted dimension. Pathfinder, though equipped for some scientific duties, was first and foremost a reconnaissance and warship, petite though it was. Survey was what it was meant for, and some assault accurately described as 'aggressive recon in force.' Despite having Cyborg with them, there was no earth shattering or perspective altering discoveries to be presented to them as a result of their work.

Their only reward would be when they freed Pathfinder and found a way home. It was that thought that drove them forward as they carefully dug through the collapsed remains and burned out corpses of various ships and… other things… that were, by now, all but fused together into a single massive hulk. They checked ahead with sensors and lights and LIDAR, detected anomalies, reported them in, put down a hazard beacon, and moved on to the next one.

Some of the distortions were dangerously close to the trench Pathfinder had burrowed into the hulk, others almost a hundred meters away. A break came when Mousse and Shampoo got close to one of the previously identified 'potential pockets of atmosphere' that had been mentioned in the briefings. The two were able to identify what looked like part of a ship, partly crushed, and also partly destroyed by Pathfinder's entrance. A few remote readings led to the conclusion that the ship had once been mostly intact, and with a high density methane atmosphere.

Part of it was still intact, and still had atmosphere, despite the Saotome-piloted UFO shearing off part of its outer hull. It was compartmentalized, and after a half hour of work, Mousse and Shampoo were able to remove enough debris to gain entry to the section exposed to vacuum. Looking around, they could see what had once been complex machinery and electronics, much of it now visibly ruined. Tell-tale swirls in the materials indicated the culprit; one of the anomalies had passed through here, or been present here once. Maybe the ship had simply flown through it on arrival?

Hopefully their system of warning beacons would help prevent a similar occurrence if the warps in space decided to suddenly expand or contract or shift position in unpredictable ways. Mousse glanced off to his right, checking in on Shampoo, and then continued his own investigation. Reaching out to touch one of the warped metallic surfaces, gloved fingers trailing along the lip of a coil of some frozen fossil, he saw his own reflection in the mirror-like surface, partly obscured by a free floating methane haze.

_'__It__'__s hard to believe,__'_ he couldn't help but think, _'__A peasant boy from the mountains of China is all the way out here...__'_

Not too long ago simply leaving the village and visiting a nearby city had seemed like a great adventure. Going against convention; going against the grain, seeking training outside the village and practicing forbidden martial arts… simply visiting foreign lands had not been enough adventure for the near sighted peasant boy named Mu Tzu.

Excited, invigorated, inspired and above all desperate, he had gone further and further, all in the pursuit of Shampoo's respect and affection. And… he had to admit to himself, for his own personal well being. He never had the inclination or the mentality of an Amazon man. Even if he had tried, there was no way he could have been happy fitting into the mould expected of him, especially given his disability.

Now, now...?

He was here, across time and space and _dimensions_, where no man had gone before. Well, where no man from his dimension had gone before. There was an awful lot of wreckage here, after all…

Fingers still touching the swirl, the imperfection, in the mirror metal, Mousse felt his breathing slow and his mind drift. The him in the reflection seemed to quietly stare back, even through a black tinted one-way visor. Hand slowly dropping to his side, the mirror Mousse almost seemed to make the motion before the real one did, the patched robes over his personal armor starting to sway in an alien breeze. The mirrored him cocked his head, curiously, and Mousse found himself doing the same. Or was he?

It was… hard to tell.

_'__Am I the real Mu Tzu?__'_he wondered for a long, long second. _'__Or the reflection? I__'__m the real one__…__ aren__'__t I?__'_

For a while, the two men, one real, one reflection, stared at each other.

Then, one of them reached up, hands quivering, and grasped the sides of his helmet. Thumbs reached under the chin to find hermetic environmental seals, and with practiced ease, unlocked them. A shirt hiss of air heralded the removal of the helmet itself, and inch by inch, Mousse's face revealed itself. There was no sign of panic or discomfort, despite the poisonous methane atmosphere in the alien ship.

As the bottom edge of the helmet passed over his nose, revealing the deep, _lightless hollows around the eyes,_ Mousse jumped and gasped, recoiling from his reflection. His breath came in ragged gulps, and instantly his hands flew up to his helmet to make sure everything was in place. Eyes blinked furiously just to be assured that they were _still there._

_'__What__…__ what the hell was__… what the hell was that?'_

"Stupid Mousse. Stop daydreaming!" Shampoo's irate tone caused him to turn, confusion and surprise starting to force back shock and thinly veiled panic. He saw his partner with one hand on her hip, looking at him like he'd gotten lost on the way to the bathroom or something.

"I wasn't..." he cut his statement short.

_'__Was I?__'_

"I told you three times now, we're heading back outside. There's nothing in here worth taking." She motioned for him to follow and headed back to the exit, leaving Mousse to wonder just how long he'd been standing there.

And just what he had seen.

* * *

Using the breaking point with treated and tempered metals provided a certain difficulty when compared to most forms of stone or ceramic. Acting Major Ryouga Hibiki reflected on this, and on conversations he had had with Cologne about why the breaking point training was what it was. Structurally, it required a great deal more energy to affect changes in a metal lattice than most forms of silica because one could more easily exploit the macro structure of the molecules: the gaps, essentially, that could be turned into natural flaws, and then 'breaking points.'

It wasn't that metals were more naturally resilient or due to their human manufacture or anything of the sort. It was simply that, generally speaking, metals presented far fewer naturally occurring breaking points that were conceptually large enough to exploit. The Smelting Point training, which ostensibly taught one to find breaking points in liquids, also weaned one off of using natural breaking points – instead, the user created artificial breaking points, replicating at least one naturally occurring point hundreds of times. Provided at least one naturally occurring breaking point could be found somewhere in the material type, it could be copied _ad infinitum_. This was the problem with alien alloy – it had no naturally occurring breaking points at all, and all efforts to create a theoretical breaking point for it on the fly led to failure.

Even gasses had 'breaking points' ... it was just damn hard pinpointing one to use.

This was one of the fundamental differences between his own Smelting and Killing Points, and even his Breaking Point, and that of his younger alternate-self and subordinate. There were benefits and drawbacks to both approaches, of course. The younger Hibiki had demonstrated that before by nullifying artificial breaking points faster than they could be created and by using his Fatigue technique on even alien alloy. It was unfortunate that the two approaches had diverged so radically in principle. Even academically understanding the other's approach, it was nearly impossible to use it to improve one's own technique… at least any time soon.

Ryouga Hibiki reflected on this, and on the efficiency of his own technique, as he mentally arranged for the cutting of another piece of dangerous debris. Resting his hand on the tip of the twisted beam, he extended his aura into the material, arranged a precise alignment of breaking points below the base and triggered them. To make up for how taxing the technique could be to use over and over and over again he kept the cuts as small and precise as possible. It took a bit longer but it conserved energy.

The bracket of titanium alloy shuddered as a parallel line at the base turned from a solid to a granular elastic. Thus weakened, it was easy to break free and toss to the side at one of the designated debris dumping sites. It wasn't quick work, and there was apparently no quick fix, but he could already see Cyborg's plans taking shape. The cavern Pathfinder had excavated on its crash landing was now taking on a distinctly smooth appearance, and an abundance of lights at strategic points allowed him to see down the trail of destruction almost half a mile.

_'__So far, so good. Hell! We__'__re making some actual progress!__'_

Finished with one area, he prepared to move on to the next. He could already see Jinx working a dozen meters away, using pink fire to clear a mass of wires and tubes, circuitry and twisted aluminum. Her method was unusual, even by Nerimian standards. Rather than melting the debris, as Cyborg did, or shearing it, as he was doing, her unearthly power just seemed to consume the metal, reducing it to so much dust and rust. True, it was a job better suited for the now resting Starfire, since the cables were some distance off the floor, but gravity wasn't an issue for the sorceress, even at only about half Earth normal. The nimble girl was able to use a combination of jumping, hanging and blasting with pink hexes to eliminate obstacles almost completely.

Seeing some faint lights further down the kilometer long excavation, Ryouga squinted at them and saw that they were moving. It had to be one of the pairs of A-Group, since Cyborg was in another section. Walking over to the next flagged piece of offending material – a large section of a ship that had been uprooted in the disruptive wake of Pathfinder's gravity field – he rotated his right arm at the shoulder, grimacing at a faint ache caused by repeatedly using the breaking point.

"Nabiki," he said, realizing he'd been working in silence for quite some time. It was actually very easy to lose track of time out here, and that could be a serious problem when you had a limited air supply. "How are Konatsu and the others doing?"

Expecting a quick reply, perhaps delayed only due to her thinking up something witty, the officer was a bit surprised when he didn't get a reply at all. Checking the line, he saw that, yes: it was online. Hopefully not the kind of screwed up online from Azarath. They had Ranma checking in on that, after all. Maybe she wasn't paying attention?

"Nabiki," he said again, raising his voice slightly. "Nabiki? You know you're supposed to announce if you're leaving your station!"

There was a moment of silence during which he truly wondered if she'd taken an unannounced, and thus improper, leave from her work station… and then her microphone reactivated, and a second later, she answered in a guilty tone he was all too familiar with. It was just not one he had heard from her while they were at work. Nabiki Tendo was more professional than that. Much more.

"S-sorry. I…" she paused briefly. "I was checking the logs on the Roaming Susan, and Ryu and Ukyou, and… just lost track of time. It won't happen again."

He was about to get back to business, and to ask about the other teams and for a report, but something told him to put that off for a second. Not only was it really unlikely for Nabiki to just zone out or 'lose track of time' – the girl was a skilled multitasker. Even if she was talking to Ranma and Raven at the same time, she'd still have attention to spare for everyone in the field. And on a strictly personal level, that worried him, to say nothing of what it could mean for them in terms of operations.

"You've been at your station for more than half a day," he said, leaning slightly against the debris he would soon be blasting down. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine, Ryouga-baby. Just had a little slip, that's all." He imagined in the brief pause that followed that his asking at least gave her cause to smile a bit. "And if you guys can burn the midnight oil in hard vacuum out there then I can do the same in here."

Nabiki may not have been a strict field operative, but she didn't lack for determination, that was for sure. He smiled to himself and gave an exasperated mock-sigh.

"I just hope you're not expecting to get paid for overtime."

"Silly Hibiki. We're under contract, not by the hour. _And_," she added, sounding quite pleased. "I'm already getting a bonus for this mission. The perks of being in harm's way."

"You're getting a hazard bonus and we're earning same-as-usual?"

"You already earn more than I do, Ryouga-baby."

"Yes, but it's the principle of the thing…"

"As if you even know what to do with the money you have."

"Sure I do! Save it."

"That's the kind of thrifty thinking that's hurting the Japanese economy and you know it. We'll be in the recession for fifty more years with consumers like you. You and Ranma here don't consume anything, actually! Except food and scrolls to write martial arts techniques on."

"And those scrolls are expensive!" he argued, and quite passionately.

A proper martial arts technique scroll wasn't just plain old paper. It had to be a specific sort of parchment, approved or blessed by Shinto or Buddhist monks for use, and certified as spiritually neutral and this free to accept the 'intent' of the writer. It then had to be recorded in a solemn and quiet place of meditation, like a garden, but a city park was good too, so that the calligraphy fully reflected the desires and feelings of the martial artist inscribing his thoughts and sacred techniques for posterity. It was essential that the paper be able to accept this, and of course, that it have the right feel itself in terms of texture, material composition, and durability. Specifically, it had to be easy to destroy, but not _too_ easy.

"You just spent ten seconds thinking about those stupid technique scrolls of yours, didn't you?"

"… okay, yes, I did."

"I think you're the one we should be worrying about then," Nabiki said with a studied 'tsk tsk tsk.' "Anyway, you probably didn't call for a friendly chat, did you?"

"No…" he thought for a second about making another joke, or trying to, but instead got back to business-mode. "I wanted a status check on the teams. Start with B-Group."

"Sure, sure…"

She quickly got down to tacks and summarized the progress Ryu and Ukyou were making towards their objective, and their status in flight. The MARS armor they had was protecting them from the rads topside in a way normal personal armor just wasn't up to the task of, and they were making good time coasting along at a cruising speed. Since it was vacuum, they had simply gotten up a good acceleration and let their inertia drive them forward, making the occasional course correction to conserve elerium.

The trip was apparently both tedious and a bit disorienting, but basically uneventful. It had been pointed out, by both Cyborg and the younger Hibiki, that Starfire could have made the trip in rather less time and without the need for the MARS armor, but that was hardly an option. Sending anyone off on their own just wasn't going to happen, to say nothing of whether it was safe for her to be making the trip unprotected. It has also been brought to the officers' attention that the alien girl had something of an attitude problem lately, as if they were in the wrong for wanting to deal with xenos in the most expedient manner possible.

He gave his head a brief shake, clearing that minor irritation and distraction from his mind.

Konatsu and Kuno had identified and marked a half dozen individual anomalies and were almost to the end of their side of the trench. They'd also stopped to investigate two ships along the way, one scheduled, the other one had been opened to space and had been checked out on the fly. They're recovered what they hoped to be some sort of data storage device, but there wasn't much chance of decoding a completely foreign form of encoding using just what was on the ship. In fact, Pathfinder did have the software to at least try, but not the hardware. It was all designed for data mining and signal intercepts using known methods, particularly those employed by the alien enemy. He'd have to detail Cyborg to work up an interface to allow them to crack and read non-standard drives. If worst came to worst, they could fire up the EM Scramblers. The alien technology was designed for remote access of electronics, but only worked on devices outside the ship, not ones inside.

A facepalm worthy oversight, in retrospect.

Mousse and Shampoo were on the second to last of their scheduled anomaly checks, and were very nearly at the initial entry point in space where Pathfinder had made its transit. After that, they were expected to take some Mark-One eyeball investigations of the area around the transit point where Cyborg intended to continue their excavation. When all was said and done, they'd be able to clear enough to smash their way back out, or, ideally, squeeze out with minimal risk of damage. Either way Pathfinder would be free.

As for what they did with the ship after it was loose… well, that was another matter.

"How about the others in the ship?" he asked, satisfied with the run down so far.

"I think they're asleep, or… trying to sleep. It's actually been pretty quiet since Ranma took his little cat-nap. Raven's not big in chatter as you well know. I saw Starfire drifting around earlier. Cyborg is, well, Cyborg. He's still working outside. Lemme check here…" There was a short break as Nabiki checked in on the others in the hold. "I wonder if other-you snores?"

"I do not snore," he spoke for both Hibikis, and then added with a chuckle. "I wonder if other-you kicks?"

"It isn't _kicking_, it's _stretching_."

"I think nocturnal violence is just part of the Tendo genetic code."

"You always did get a bit mouthy at night, Ryouga-baby. Not that I'm complaining."

That, finally, made him stutter in embarrassment. "Okay, okay. Inform me when B-Group gets close to their objective. I better finish up here."

"Sure thing, Ryouga-baby."

"Acting Major or Lieutenant, please."

"You always say that when you want to end a conversation."

"I'm not saying I don't."

"Okay then, acting Major stuffed-shirt. I'll keep you informed. That is my job after all."

"Well, back to destroying anything and everything around me…"

"Oh, but _acting Major_," Nabiki mock cooed. "That's what you're the best at, right?"

At that, he laughed.

* * *

Two pairs of heavily armored boots touched land for the first time in hours, blasting away a fine layer of pulverized and irradiated dust. There was little to recommend the area where Ukyou and Ryu made footfall: like everything in every direction as far as the eye could see, it was nothing more than a twisted, brutalized heap of refuse and alien space debris. It was the same dismal, disheartening sight that they had endured on the long flight over, and the more one thought about it, the more hopeless it all felt.

Turning around to try and look back the way she had came, Ukyou Kuonji realized, and not for the first time, that what passed for 'home' and even sanctuary in this twisted realm was now impossible to even see. Not only was Pathfinder buried, but the landmarks she and Ryu had seen and remarked on as they left on their excursion were now completely lost amid the featureless landscape. If they lost their means of communication, or of electronically finding Pathfinder, never in two lifetimes would they find it again. Instead, like countless others, they would die in this nightmare vacuum, alone.

Despite being on the verge of death before, the thought of being alone here– of the death that would follow – shot a pang of fear and loss into her heart. Being left to wander this warped space would itself be worse than death. Four hours had been wrenching to endure, and she knew she had four more on the way back, and that was alongside someone she knew and trusted. It was worse than a wasteland, worse than being lost at sea. A day here, seeing nothing but this silent graveyard of an inverted world…

"Ukyou, do you see the entry point anywhere?"

Ryu's question snapped her out of her increasingly bleak thoughts. Powered armor moved around her as she scanned the area. The actual source of the distress signal was believed to be underground, and thus they needed a way to gain access to it. Nabiki's UAV, scouting ahead, had identified a few promising locations.

"Over here!"

Walking up to a gouged out section of alien hull, she activated one of the high intensity floodlights attached to her armor's right hand, left shoulder and the side of her helmet. A bright path illuminated the darkness below and in front of her, casting away the strange shadows created by the cloud of lights in the center of the hollow sphere and left to play across the blasted landscape.

"Ah, there it is!" Ryu came up alongside her, a mechanical gauntlet reaching out to tear free some of the debris blocking off the tear. Between the two of them it didn't take long. Cyborg had cautioned them against using more high explosives, so they peeled away metal plates by hand and, as necessary, used plasma cutters to widen the breech.

While Ryu finished up with that, Ukyou dropped a probe down into the crevasse. This was actually the second one, if you counted the initial endoscope investigation as a 'probe,' and it took the form of a small remotely operated micro-UAV. This was a simple robot modeled after small alien probes, like the ones they'd encountered on the jungle planet, but with limited range, speed, an instrumentation. Given the dangerous anomalies present in this dimension and the hazardous nature of tromping around in decrepit alien ships in four hundred pounds of powered armor, it was a necessary precaution.

Directing the probe with her armor's HUD controls, Ukyou carefully checked out the areas below, panning their route beforehand. There didn't appear to be any space time warps, but they couldn't afford to run blindly into even one. It was harder to gauge the structural stability of the ground that would be under their feet once they got down a level. Checking out the immediate area below, and then finding a path that took them in the direction they needed, Ukyou finally turned to Ryu and gave him a green 'go' light.

"I'll go first," he said, hand moving to motion her back a bit.

"No ladies first?" she asked, doing as ordered.

"Like you want to be the first one down here," he joked, "Besides, leading means jumping first. So…!"

And with that, he hopped down, using his armor's anti-gravity system to soften the fall. The floor below didn't buckle or collapse, and Ukyou followed him down a few seconds later. Reasonably confident there were no immediate dangers waiting for them, they nonetheless had their rifles out and ready. They both knew there was a strong possibility that the 'distress signal' was a trap or some attempt at ambuscade.

The halls of the structure they were in now were larger than human sized, and there was plenty of headroom, even inside seven foot tall powered armor. The sides of the alls were slightly curved like a convex indentation and in the floodlights' brilliance they appeared to be colored in an almost gaudy regal purple. Perhaps the aliens who built it found the color soothing like humans preferred more moderate tones?

Checking the area in person, Ukyou pushed open one of the partly shut doors, feeling the metal groan under the pressure of being forced. Past the door was a large storage space… long since looted. They weren't the first people here by a long shot, and they wouldn't be the last either. Desperate crews had used everything they could to survive, and that included doing what the three squads were doing: salvage and exploration.

They checked these side rooms out as they continued, but there was little to find.

"We're getting close" Ryu warned, associating danger with proximity to their destination. Ukyou had his back, keeping an eye on the sides and rear for anything suspicious.

It wasn't long before the ship they'd been in gave way to the hull of a new one. This structure was a bit more normal in terms of conforming to human design preferences and aesthetics. The hull was flat and solid, and clearly the outside of a new ship. It looked pretty heavily scarred, likely from the same hot entry they'd experienced themselves, but uncompromised. Following it, they could guess than this was the source of the signal, given its assumed size.

"An intact ship?" Ukyou wondered aloud.

"Could be," Ryu replied. "Command? Pathfinder-Actual, are you getting this?"

"We're reading it," Nabiki responded. Ryouga, Ranma and Cyborg were also present as far as Ukyou knew. Raven had been taken off the ship's controls when A-Group approached their target, and hadn't made a peep since, but she was probably there as well.

"I wish you guys had a mass spectrometer out there… damn, I'm coming inside, I can't see much detail on my integrated display," Cyborg remarked with a sad sigh.

"Something for the next trip, maybe?" Ukyou asked, with a grin, though, it quickly faded away. So... he hadn't actually been inside the ship? How long had Cyborg been outside again? He'd been out there long before she'd left... Giving her head a quick shake, she turned to shine a light on some ragged, parallel scratches in the hull.

"Looks like it came in at an angle," she observed, noticing how the scratches and the gaps between the ships lined up. "I'd say it cut into this other ship physically. There's a lot of damage everywhere."

"We're still looking for a hatch, but we should also consider shooting our way in," Ryu said as they continued going around the debris, eventually dropping down a level. "A few shots from a heavy plasma could do the job."

"Let's reserve that for an emergency," Ryouga suggested, back on Pathfinder.

"The hull is curving here," Ukyou said a few seconds later, touching the surface with a heavily armored hand. "Like an upside down sailing ship."

"It could be symmetrical in the floors below," Ryu noted, "More like a big oval."

"If it isn't, then that's where you'll probably find an entrance or docking hatch," Cyborg advised from hundreds of miles away.

"Guess we're headed south," Ryu approached a section of floor that had been sheared away. The two soldiers took a minute to peel away the intervening structure, cutting it with plasma as necessary. It provided a way further down, and that was where they hit jackpot.

The vessel was, in fact, more akin to Ukyou's 'upside down ship' description than it was Ryu's symmetrical oval. A distinct lip cut away halfway through the floor of the other ship. There was also a massive accumulation of smashed rubble around what had once been the bow of this alien ship, but somehow much of it had been cleared away. That was the first clue that they were on to something.

Lights pierced the darkness, focusing heavily on the ship and its smooth surface. It wasn't quite the eerie, seamless smooth of a UFO, though. This was a clearly manufactured appearance, sleek and advanced, but built to be both form and function, as opposed to the alien design philosophy back home which was function-above-all.

Then Ryu's searchlights found a symbol, and Ukyou's met it a second later.

It was… green?

"You seeing this, guys?" Ryu asked, his light swinging away as he kept searching for a door or hatch to open. Ukyou's remained on the strange green sigil on the alien hull. It was like a big fat O with some brackets on the top and bottom.

Like a bulb or something.

There was a strangely long pause. The pair stared at each other patiently, waiting for a reply, any reply, really. Obviously no one knew what such a generic symbol could be, so why didn't they just-

"Ho... Lee... _Shit!_"

"Excuse me?" Ukyou asked, more than a touch shocked. She was fairly certain that had been the first time she had ever heard _Cyborg_, of all people on this ship, seriously swear. "Wait a minute! You know something?"

"Dudes! You - I - _Holy Crap!_ You - you don't even _know_, Spatula girl! How can you _not_ know what that is!"

Another voice, somewhat more droll, cut in. "Of course they don't know what that symbol means, Cyborg. That ship isn't from their universe... it's from ours."

"One of yours?" Ryouga asked, incredulous tone clear over the intercom, and now mixed with a trace of wary suspicion, not-too-uncolored by the recent Azarath incident. "You know what that symbol means?"

The ensuing gale of Cyborg-grade laughter that burst out of their ear pieces was not the reply that either Ukyou or Ryu had been expecting, considering their Lieutenant's misgivings. It took nearly ten full seconds, plus at least one suffering utterance on Raven's part of 'Cyborg,' for him to finally calm himself enough to reply.

"One - one of _ours_? Oh, lord, where do I even begin?" Whatever he was going to say was quickly cut off as he broke out into a strangled chuckle. "Holy crap! You guys were thinking…? Back then, you were thinkin' gonna try and fight _them_? Ha! You don't know how right Starfire was, and how lucky you are that you got us here to set you guys straight!"

"Cyborg," Ryouga growled, growing impatient.

"Just tell them already," Raven's command was terse, and Ukyou could all but see the young woman massaging her temples in frustration.

"Dawgs, seriously!" He finally just told them, "What you've got there... is a _Green_ _Lantern_ ship!"

* * *

x

* * *

LOGIN CONFIRMED  
PATHFINDER ACTIVE  
WELCOME USER  
Raven A/02B (sSqd)

NOTICE:  
MANDATORY REMINDER: submission and archiving of all Form 396-AB-R (AGAR) records must be in place within twelve hours (12 hrs) of receiving an injury, no matter how minor!

REMINDER: Given the mandate of our mission, we must take the utmost care when it comes to the health of our teams. Everyone will submit to MANDATORY health inspections at least once every 24 hours. You are to report ANY disruptions of normal duty to Nabiki. These include:

- Possible injury that has occurred on OR off-duty,  
- ANY medical treatment beyond first aid,  
- Loss of consciousness for ANY length of time,  
- Aggravation of injuries or illness sustained prior to mission.

The following is medical data (First Aid) that does NOT need to be formally recorded in reports:

Diagnostic procedures or prescribed drugs  
Non-prescription medications at non-prescription strength  
Antiseptics  
Tetanus immunizations when administered as treatment after an injury  
Cleaning, flushing, or soaking wounds on the skin surface  
Wound coverings (bandages, butterfly bandages, etc)  
Non-rigid means of support (elastic bandages)  
Temporary immobilization devices  
Irrigation or swab to remove foreign bodies not embedded in, or adhering to, the eye

Let's all watch each other's backs and make sure we stay ahead of any possible dangers. This means accurate record keeping and being paired off whenever possible. We can't afford a repeat of the Azarath fiasco.

- Hibiki

NO ADDITIONAL NOTICES

Press ENTER to Begin Session

* * *

/ARCHIVE/

CLASSIFIED  
SUPERVISORY MEDICAL REPORT 003-B

Archival: "Medical Investigation, Reporting and Recordkeeping"  
Keywords: Medical. Injury. Status. India: All. Juliet: All. Yankee: All.

MEDICAL REPORT OVERVIEW

COORD: N. Tendo  
- none  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

INDIA: R. Hibiki  
- Minor burns  
- Minor Psionic blowback resulting in short term vertigo and neurological imbalance  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

INDIA: R. Kumon  
- Minor burns  
- Second Degree Burns on chest, right arm, left leg  
- Fluids drained from blisters  
- Irrigation, tweezers, swabs used to remove foreign material  
- Penetrating abdominal trauma (PAT)  
- Administered wound closing devices  
- Administered O2  
- Administered Telekinetic Reconstruction  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

INDIA: T. Kuno  
- Minor burns  
- Significant contusions on chest, shoulder  
- Minor concussion  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

INDIA: Mu Tzu  
- Minor burns  
- Minor Psionic blowback resulting in short term vertigo and neurological imbalance  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

JULIET: R. Saotome  
- Mental exhaustion due to Psionic Navigation Interface  
- Administered O2  
- Administered Stimulants  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

JULIET: Shan Pu  
- Minor burns  
- Second Degree Burns on arms, hands, chest  
- Fluids drained from blisters  
- Irrigation, tweezers, or swabs used to remove foreign material  
- Drilled fingernails to relieve pressure  
- One broken rib; one cracked (right side)  
- Administered O2  
- Administered Anesthetics  
- Administered Telekinetic Reconstruction  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

JULIET: U. Kuonji  
- Minor burns  
- Significant contusion on abdomen, left leg  
- Cuts, lacerations, punctures potentially contaminated with infectious materials  
- Irrigation, tweezers, swabs used to remove foreign material  
- Administered IVs  
- Administered Wide-Spectrum anti-microbial  
- Administered Anesthetics  
- Administered Telekinetic Reconstruction  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

JULIET: Konatsu  
- none  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

YANKEE: R. Hibiki  
- Potential Instability as a result of Psionic Attack  
- Depression and Lethargy  
- Minor burns  
- Administered O2  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

YANKEE: Koriand'r  
- Minor burns  
- Minor contusions due to impact  
- Localized hyperaemia (note: alien physiology)  
- Heightened stress due to Psionic Attack  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

YANKEE: Raven  
- Psionic blowback resulting in short term neurological, hormonal imbalance, elevated stress level  
- Cephalalgia due to Psionic Activity  
- Biofeedback due to Psionic Activity  
- Administered Psionic Evaluation  
- Administered Analgesia  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

YANKEE: V. Stone  
- Minor damage to combat chassis  
- Minor damage to artificial musculature due to blunt trauma  
- No tissue damage recorded  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

YANKEE: Jinx  
- Potential Instability as a result of Psionic Attack  
- Superficial contusions on chest cavity  
- Minor concussion  
- Loss of consciousness  
- Administered Therapy Tank ADocPV Program (6hrs)  
- Administered Psionic Evaluation  
- Administered Mind Dive  
Conclusion: FIT FOR DUTY

/ARCHIVE/


	34. Trespasser 4

_**A/N**_

no notes

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Trespasser_

Chapter 33

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Ukyou stared uncertainly at the strange, alien vessel. _A Green Lantern ship?_ Was that supposed to mean something to them? The way that Cyborg had said the name, it obviously meant something to _him_, that much was certain. Something from his dimension; his multiverse. It probably should have inspired confidence in her that they knew something about this vessel before they got inside, but given some of the insane things she had heard about Cyborg's universe... and after Raven's hometown of Azarath... it only made the chef increasingly apprehensive. Her stomach twisted, and her sakkijutsu spiked for a short, shocking instant, warning her against what was before her.

Cyborg's spoke again, humor in his voice.

"Yo, Ryu! You might as well put your rifle away. You could unload your whole clip into the side of that thing and you wouldn't even score the hide. The guys that made that ship are so ancient they make your alien invaders look like a bunch of terrible toddlers. Not only that, but if there _is_ anyone actually alive on that ship, those pea shooters of yours would just piss them off."

"You aren't exactly painting a rosy picture here, Cyborg." This comment came from their CO, of course, clearly focusing on the negative implications of the Teen Titan's excited exposition. "Not only does this mean we can't get inside, it means we'll be in danger if we do."

A few more chuckles ensued, and Ukyou could all but hear the squeaking sound of the cybernetic teen shaking his head. "Yeah, yeah, sorry 'bout that, boss man." Another quick chuckle.

Ukyou found herself scowling.

What was there to joke about in this situation? _What was so damn funny?_

Suddenly growing angry, and not even knowing why, Ukyou took a calming breath.

"Cyborg," she said, "Please just explain what we're seeing."

"Yeah, okay," Cyborg finally coughed and composed himself again. "Look: about this 'in danger' thing. You got no worries on that end. G-L's are pretty much the goodest of the good guys. They're literally the policemen of the universe... or galaxy, I'm not sure which, anyway, but something like that. To put things in perspective, if your aliens broke into our universe, _these_ would be the guys that took them down, and hard. Man, maybe I should get Star to fly _me_ out there! I'd _love_ a chance to see an actual Oan ship up close! That and I think I could speak the 'I come in peace' lingo a little better than Ryu, out there, if someone is actually home."

"Hey, I come in peace!" Ryu protested. "I… just carry a big gun, too."

"Well, some of us carry bigger guns than others," Cyborg replied cheekily, "We just don't go pointin' em in other people's faces everywhere we go!"

"If they're your universes' galactic police," Ranma spoke up then, "Then why are they _here?_"

"Well," Raven's voice cut in, "Why are any of us here?"

That question, and the statement it lead to, quieted them for a few pregnant seconds.

"Ah ha! Here we go! And what do we have here? I think… I just found an airlock!" Ryu's enthusiastic declaration coincided with his lights finding a heavy scuffed and scarred section of the hull. Assorted debris was strewn around it, but none of it from the ship itself.

"Looks like someone tried blasting in," the Yamasenken master reasoned, examining the scoring, none of which came close to penetrating the ship's hull. "And when that failed, they tried smashing their way in with this junk. Seems intact though, and this definitely looks like a hatch."

It did. Despite grooves cut into the surface of the hull, and shallow craters hammered into it… and blast marks and carbon scoring, it was intact and uncompromised. A large rectangular seam ran across part of the hull, below the 'lip' of the upper hull. It, too, bore the mark on the ship, but this was uncolored and instead took the form of a slightly depressed indentation. There were no other markings and no obvious panel with which to gain entry, though there were indentations on the sides of unknown function.

Getting closer, Ukyou added her own light to the search effort, and venturing closer than Ryu had, she took a surprised step back as a green light suddenly flickered to life above the airlock. It faded and struggled for a moment, and then pulsed with almost visible effort, momentarily bathing the two powered armored martial artists in viridian fluorescence.

"You hear that?" she asked, in the silence that followed. "I just heard it say something in Japanese."

"My suits blinking with a psi-warning," Ryu confirmed.

"I see it, too," Nabiki seconded. "Low level psionics. Telepathy maybe?"

Ryouga growled, unhappily, from back in Pathfinder's CIC. "I don't like this…"

"What did it say?" Cyborg asked, sounding unabashedly excited.

"'Speak the Words,'" Ukyou explained. "That's what it said. First in Japanese and then again in English."

"What? It said _what?_ Can you repeat that?" came the Titan's oddly excited reply.

"It said: 'Speak the Words,'" Ukyou repeated. "Like… a password maybe? Ryu? Did you…?"

"It just sounded like a mutter to me," he replied, floodlights moving slowly across the hull.

"Oh, oh!" Cyborg jumped in again. "I think I know what it's askin' for! The Green Lanterns have something kinda like a catch phrase. Something they say when they wanna sound cool... or possibly there's some other reason behind it, I can't remember at the moment. Like a declaration of purpose. Anyway, Ukyou, repeat after me."

"Um... okay," she agreed, trying to sound more confident than she felt at the moment. Something about his zealousness was starting to creep her out a bit, honestly.

"Okay, okay, how did that go again... here, I think this is it! Okay, start repeating: You who are wicked, evil and mean, I'm the nastiest creep you've ever seen! Come one, come all, put up a fight. I'll pound your butts with Green Lantern's light!"

Frowning tersely, Ukyou twisted her lips; trying to force herself to repeat what she had just heard -

The sound of something like flesh slapping metal, hard, quickly interrupted her, to her eternal gratitude.

"Idiot, that's not it. Tell her the right one."

"Sheesh, Rae! I'm just havin' a little fun. No need to go all Tendo sister on me."

"Whatever. Just do it. And why is everyone calling me Rae, now?"

"Okay, Ukyou," Cyborg cleared his throat, growing serious again. "Try this one on for size..."

"In brightest day, in blackest night,

No evil shall escape my sight.

Let those who worship evil's might

Beware my power - Green Lantern's light!"

No sooner were the words out of her mouth, than her so-called boyfriend sniggered.

"The first one was funnier," he explained, unrepentant at what he correctly assumed to be an angry glare hidden behind her helmet's faceplate. "What? It was."

The two stood and watched the door to the alien ship. Despite the abuse that had been inflicted on it, it did seem functional, and the flickering green light above it continued to glow in the lifeless vacuum. Insider her powered armor, Ukyou's shoulders rose and fell at the fact that she had just blurted out a rather out of character phrase, and even added some real feeling to it, all for nothing. Putting away her rifle, she put her hands on her armored hips and glared at the ship.

_'__Stupid thing. Just open up already!__'_

"There's gotta be a weak spot around here we can… Woah!" Ryu jumped back a step as the door suddenly hissed, escaping atmosphere pouring out. "Guess I spoke too soon."

There was no airlock in the normal sense. A flickering field lay behind the door, small bursts of air shooting out, like a bubble straining to hold form. Beyond it, the interior of the ship was hazy and indistinct and marred by a static-like effect. Despite Cyborg's encouragement from before, Ryu's hands flexed and he anxiously stole a look down at his rifle, clearly resisting the urge to bring it up to his shoulder.

"It… opened?" Ukyou asked, and then phrased it for Command. "What next? Should we go inside?"

A pause. "Um... why is everyone looking at me?" asked a perplexed Cyborg. "I'm just the master of all things technical and otherwise awesome. It ain't up to me if you guys go in!"

"Ryu. Ukyou." Ryouga spoke up a second later. "Secure the ship."

"Yes, sir!" Ryu immediately replied, and strode forward into the flickering… it could only be called a force field. Pressing it first with the tip of his heavy plasma, the field yielded allowing the solid matter through with little resistance. Covering him, Ukyou watched as he surged through and into the alien ship.

They immediately lost radio contact.

"Ryu!" Nabiki yelled over the comm., noticing it first. "Ukyou! Get him out of there!"

"Do it," Ryouga mirrored, pausing to probably consider whether in sending her in after him, he was leaving them both trapped with no way back out. The okonomiyaki chef understood this, and taking a deep breath, stepped into the strange airlock field. There was some sense of resistance against her movement, but no actual sensation. She passed through it without missing a beat.

In doing so, she got her first look at the inside of the vessel. After Cyborg's glowing apropos earlier, she had expected it to be… more intact. Instead the horrors outside seemed to be mirrored even here. Sophisticated, maybe immeasurably advanced, alien machinery lay deliberately smashed all around her. Ryu was standing with his back to her, looking up.

There was a hole in the ceiling, and tell-tale dark red stains all around it. Dead wires and fiber optic-like cables hung from the scar in the ship, and a door hissed painfully as it repeatedly tried to close, yawning open and then closed over and over, like a broken jaw trying to chew. Ukyou felt her heart briefly plummet. After getting the door open, she had secretly hoped that – after all Cyborg had said and despite her trepidation – just maybe they had found someone to help them, or at least something to get them home. Or maybe even some place that was removed from the degradation and corruption that so defined this spiteful, god-forsaken dimension.

"Huh," was all Ryu said, taking in the wrecked ship's insides.

"Command lost contact with you," Ukyou remembered to explain at that unhappy sound, his own thoughts mirroring hers despite the confident, cool attitude. "Ryu-honey?"

"Right… right. I'll step outside and let them know we're okay." He relaxed his posture and his stance a bit, before heading back outside. Watching him go, Ukyou stared up at the hole in the ceiling, briefly wondering if there was room to fly up through it. A closer look gave the impression that there wasn't, not with her armor on.

Moving instead to the malfunctioning door, she carefully pushed it open, and heard it click in place. It was only then that she also noticed that her armor had analyzed the composition of the air inside the ship: a nitrogen-oxygen mix similar to Earth's, but with a few traces too much argon. It was still flagged as basically breathable.

Looking down, she saw a copper-red stain along the floor, blackened by age and dried to flaking paint. Grim though it was, something… compelled her to follow it, even though she knew she should be waiting for Ryu. Armored footfalls echoing in the dead Green Lantern ship, the chef followed the blood trail. The next door ahead of her was functional, and it opened obligingly at her approach. This was a large room, like a suite, covering two floors. Suffering controls and struggling lights provided some meager illumination, quickly supplanted by her armor's floodlights.

A steady 'click-click-click' came from her motion sensor, detecting the broken door.

Still following the grizzly trail, Ukyou took note of the more intact second floor. Then her attention shifted as she found what lay at the end of the red and black road. It was a body. An alien… or… a human, maybe? It was hard to tell. It looked alien in the same way Starfire did, which was to say not much. This one was reddish in skin color, almost russet, but hairless. At some point in its life, its clothes would probably have been green, but now they were a tarnished mélange of brown and green and decayed crimson.

The alien's stomach was splayed clean open, revealing the cause of death.

Yet… that wasn't the end of it, either. Still driven by some instinctive curiosity, Ukyou noticed a few droplets painting a less obvious path. Cerulean blue eyes followed the trail, and she activated her armor's flight mode to hover up to the second level. There, atop a pedestal, almost lost amid the darkness, a small form lay crumpled in an equally small chair. No: it wasn't just a chair, it was a command chair, with flickering displays trying to project controls into the air, flanking and framing the dais with static. Wide arms and a high back indicated more than just practicality. This was the kind of seat the captain of a ship would command from.

The body was shriveled and still; humanoid but out of proportion. Like a Sectoid, the head was too large for the body, but unlike a Sectoid, this humanoid had a very human face. Ukyou saw a nose, eyebrows, lips, a chin... again, the skin color was off: a faded shade of blue. Long, frayed white hair stuck out from the sides of a weathered cranium. Red and white clothes hung from the frame, stained by blood. One hand gripped the armrest of the chair, but the other was clenched in a loose fist. Both were dyed in decaying crimson.

Driven, Ukyou reached out and delicately touched the loose fist. A gauntleted finger twice the size of the humanoid creature's entire hand gently pushed aside the small blue digits. Enclosed within that bloody hand was something small and... green.

_'__Is that a __…__ ring?__'_

* * *

He had always been told, growing up, that you shouldn't read in dim light; it was pretty widely accepted that it would strain your eyes and just wasn't good for you. Obviously, for Cyborg, such a concern seemed pretty petty at this point. Still, that didn't stop him from increasing the brightness of the display on his arm to compensate for the greatly reduced light levels inside the ship. It was a small act of kindness of the Lieutenant's part, dimming the lights enough so that people could actually sleep.

While Ukyou and Ryu were still out checking the Oan ship, and would still be checking out for the next few hours likely, pretty much everyone else was dead on their feet. After the extended run in Azarath, running straight into hours of exhausting work in this dimension, there wasn't a man or woman that wasn't worn down to the bone. Practically everyone had either been asleep for an hour, or had been struggling to sleep. The only ones that weren't passed out in one form or another were himself, Raven – currently running the ship in Ranma's place – Nabiki – barely able to keep her head off of her console, just in case Ryu or Ukyou called in – and finally, acting Major Hibiki.

Not that the officer was much better than Nabiki when it came to fatigue. He was barely keeping his eyes open in another one of the chairs. The senior officer said he needed to stay awake; that someone needed to be up at all times – apparently Cyborg and Raven didn't quite cut it – in case of an emergency. All that it meant was that the guy wasn't going to be anywhere near peak condition the next 'day', and that the recovery efforts to free the ship would be just that much slower.

That thought brought Cyborg full circle again and he returned his attention to the display on his arm. It displayed, in exhaustive detail, the accumulated progress they had made in clearing the tunnel.

'_Damnit__…__ over six hours of work and we barely even made it two hundred meters?__'_

His projections were already shot to hell. Unless things changed dramatically for the better, and it seemed unlikely (since he'd been working under the impression that the martial artists would be able to work around the clock) they'd be lucky if they could finish in thirty hours. It would probably be closer to forty if these 'sleep breaks' were going to become the norm. He knew that the air supplies for everyone's suits were limited, and if things kept going the way they were, then the people on clean up detail were going to be pushing the limits of theirs. Then there was the situation with the EDC...

There was, perhaps, another option, though. Cyborg's life support systems shared more in common with the regenerative system of the ship than the disposable systems in everyone else's suits. There was nothing limiting how long he could work outside Pathfinder.

'_Hell, working by myself would be better. Not having to constantly clean up after everyone else would double my output.__'_

Nodding to himself, he turned to the present CO. "Yo, Ryo squared. You still awake over there?"

"Yeah." The older Hibiki was sitting up between Raven and Nabiki, brows creased with keeping himself focused. "I'm still here."

Chuckling quietly to himself, Cyborg stepped over, his feet clanking loudly on the floor plating. "Good, good. Okay, here's the deal, I'm gonna head out and keep working at clearing the ship, alright? If not, we're gonna be at this for days."

"Progress is that slow?"

He nodded forcefully. "It ain't lookin' good. No offense to meat bags, but people are tiring out more quickly than I was thinking they would. I, on the other hand, am already fully charged and ready to go!"

"You recharged already?" the officer asked, cocking his head in tired but clear curiosity.

The cybernetic teen smirked. "First thing I took care of when I came inside. Did it while doing more cluster checks on the EDC. Only took thirty five minutes to top-up using the Elerium reactor."

Ryouga nodded; it made sense to charge up while in the reactor room checking the d-drive.

"Well, if you're good to go, I won't stop you. Just keep your comm open in case any news comes in. I'm going to give Saotome a few more hours and then he'll take over for me. Unfortunately we don't have anyone trained to take Nabiki's place except Raven, and she's in the pilot's seat."

"Alright, sounds good. I'll catch you guys in a few hours then." Cyborg turned to Raven. "Yo, Rae, you wanna let me outta the ship when I get to the front door?"

The girl's physical form didn't move, but her voice did issue from a nearby wall. "I can... but aren't you tired? Mentally fatigued, I mean? I know you can recharge easily, but I thought you needed sleep, too."

At that, Cyborg actually caught himself mid yawn. A bit embarrassed, he shifted his arm down to his side, trying to be inconspicuous, and then gave a weak chuckle. "Well… yeah, I generally do sleep every night. It's better for my organics, y'know? Not to mention it helps me feel a bit more on the normal side. However, it's not actually a strict requirement. In fact-"

Lifting his left arm, he brought up his life support system display. It was a ridiculously over simplified menu in this case, but with good cause. All it took was a single slide of his finger, and the allocation appropriately labeled as 'Sleep' was deactivated. Instantly, his entire body jolted and instantly, he was as wide eyed as he'd ever been. Though it was obviously a far more complicated process, involving a number of recalibrations to his life support systems, but the overall effect was directly obvious.

Smiling broadly, he dusted his hands off, feeling quite satisfied with himself. "Okay, Rae, good to go! Hook me up with some of that sweet, sweet wireless interface and let's get back to work!"

"Just like that?" Ryouga looked at the cybernetic teen with a mixture of incredulous awe. "I've got to say, if I could turn off needing to sleep…"

"If you did, you'd just spend every night training," Nabiki said, resting her head on her arm atop one of the consoles. "Instead of doing something neat or fun."

"Training IS fun," he assured her, glancing away from Cyborg for a second. "Anyway, I don't think I'll get much shut-eye anyway. Not until everyone's back at the ship and in one piece. So its stupid, yeah, but I'm kinda envious."

The cybernetic teen fired a grin at his CO.

"Hey now, just remember that the less sleep you get, the less useful you're gonna be outside the ship! You don't want to let the younger model Hibiki make you look bad, do you?" he asked with a grin.

"Please, just get out of the ship, already, Cyborg," Raven's disembodied voice muttered. "And please never use the term 'sweet sweet wireless interface' around me again."

"Ohh?" Nabiki made a cooing, teasing sound as she lifted her head. "It sounds like you two are hooking up. Literally! Are you sure you want to use the wireless and not the USB?"

Ominously, the lights on the bridge dimmed. Again, Raven's voice emanated from the walls, nearly in a growl. "Unless you want me to make _you_ USB compatible, I suggest you zip it, Nabiki."

"Aw but this is so boring!" she wined and rocked back in her chair. "We can't even see what the two lovebirds are up to on that alien ship, or what kind of stuff they're finding. The least you two could do is indulge in some witty back and forth with me!"

"I think you're barking up the wrong tree," Ryouga replied with a small shrug. "And I'd keep the sexual innuendo to a minimum while on duty, thanks."

"See, you," she pointed at him. "I'm not surprised to hear this from, but Raven?" She then pointed over at where the girl sat. "She shouldn't mind going a few rounds. I know there's a sharp wit there under that gloomy hood. How about we chat about boys until mister serious here leaves?"

"Cyborg," Ryouga quickly said, hoping to change the topic. "Watch your back out there. We don't have anyone ready to head out if you get in trouble."

Waving his hand casually, the titanium plated - actually, now that he thought about it, considering his numerous 'mishaps' over the past few weeks, he actually had as much alien alloy covering him as he did titanium at this point - Titan made his way to the door.

"Don't worry 'bout me, boss." Opening the door, he looked up seriously. "I'm operating at 92% efficiency. Debris removal operations will proceed optimally."

With that, he made his way out of the ship.

He had work to do. _Work only he could do._

* * *

Dusk fell quietly on the Joketsuzoku like it had for ages throughout the long three thousand year history of the Amazon village. The sun had retreated behind the high mountain walls that encircled the valley cutting it off from the outside world, both physically and spiritually. While the Phoenix people resided in nearby Jusendo, and the Musk ruled themselves in entrenched isolation, the Amazons were vibrant and strong.

Generators provided power to a handful of lights in parts of the village, notably the homes of the more well-to-do residents, though consumption was rationed according to the strict hierarchy of the martial society. The result was very little light pollution to either obscure the clear night sky or reveal the village to passing planes overhead. It was near one of those twinkling lights in the darkness that a trio of young warriors gathered to settle their disputes in the traditional fashion.

Concealed by the shadows of a closed shop stall, Mousse watched with satisfaction as Shampoo dispatched the two upstart twins, dealing with them as swiftly as she always did. She was not simply beautiful in battle, but elegant… a vision for a man with little of his own. His heart surged and it was all he could do to restrain himself from giving himself away. While he always hoped she would be happy to see him, whether his absence was as short as a day or at long as a half year, she never was. Worse, her rejections were directly proportional to the enthusiasm of his greeting.

It was just his luck he'd fallen in love with the strongest and most temperamental Amazon of their generation. Pink and Link were girls from a tributary village, and quite skilled themselves. He'd seen their remarkable abilities with poison and plantlife in their yearly fights with Shampoo, and their conventional martial abilities were about average for the great village of Amazon warriors, which was to say far above the normal. Nonetheless, Shampoo always made short work of them, only drawing out the punishment if she was in a particularly foul mood.

Walking away from her victims, Shampoo tossed her long violet tresses, and Mousse slinked back into the shadows. The temptation to congratulate her was strong, and it wasn't as if he had anything better to do since coming back from Japan. A surprising restraint and presence of thought held him back, and he sighed, opting instead to drift a bit.

With Ranma and the rest left back in Japan, things had returned to normalcy. There was no man worthy of Shampoo outside of the Musk, and that bunch already had arrangements with different Amazon families. He had heard as much from Herb himself. Unless Shampoo actually went out to look for a strong outsider, the changes were nill of her finding one who would stumble into the village. Even if one did, years from now, it would be too late. Almost all Amazons choose to marry by their twenties, and Shampoo was nineteen this year. He was the strongest available man in the village, likely even the entire Province. In time, she'd realize that, and they'd be together.

Patience.

He simply had to be patient.

Without Ranma around, anything and everything was possible. Time and space had helped to negate most of the lingering animosity there, along with the secure knowledge that the pigtailed jerk was both a proper monogamist and tied down with Akane. Shampoo was completely off his radar. It was just like before – better even, now that Shampoo had learned not to get involved with foreign men!

The village at night was peaceful and the air cool; a faint cloud of moisture formed when he let out a long slow breath. In the distance, some dog barked before being hushed by its owner. There were only a few people still around outside attending to business, an those were mostly other Amazon males. A few watched him walk down the street with envy, some with suspicion. Mousse didn't mind either. He was one of them, an Amazon male, but not just one of them. He had broken that mould with no intention of ever being forced back into it again.

Maybe, one day, he wouldn't be unique – he'd be the one setting a new trend.

A new way of life.

That was for the future, though. First and foremost, his dream took the form of a beautiful, mercurial princess of the village's strongest and most esteemed family: an impossible goal for most any man. In his wandering, just then, he paused: there was something else, wasn't there? Some responsibility? He shook his head, dispelling the distractions. The confusion.

It was a nice night, though his appreciation was less visual and more tangible: the chill of the air on his face, the warmth of a light, the sounds of the village going to sleep… life was good. Good and getting better.

Cleaning his glasses - the new ones being so much lighter than the old cheap ones he had worn before going to Japan – Mousse turned about to head home on the outskirts of the village proper. His mother would be waiting for him, and glad to welcome him home after his training trip. She was really the only woman of the village who supported his efforts to get stronger and win over Shampoo, but more would come to accept the inevitable. Eventually, inevitably, reality would catch up to them.

Glasses back on, a moment's curiosity had him glance up at one of the sentry towers near the east gate. The Joketsuzoku village had no formal walls, but it did have lookout towers and sharp eyed guards. It was a great honor to be given the duty of enforcing the village's laws, and that was doubly true of the women permitted to watch over both those who approach the village and all those who live within it. Mousse knew many of them by name, having run into them and other patrols on his trips to and from the village.

They were all older women, absolutely loyal, who valued strength above all things, even – sometimes – gender. He had more respect for them than he did many of the younger girls and women who trained to fight, but were as green as a blade of grass when it came to outsiders or the deadly conflicts of the outside world. Tonight, however, it seemed some of them were slacking off. He could only make out one hazy sentry on the tower: itself a relatively modern construction atop the stone masonry foundations of an ancient predecessor. Some guards even had modern equipment, like nightvision scopes, thanks to a few trusted village traders with contacts in the outside world.

Curiosity growing a bit stronger, and again, given that he had nowhere else to really be, Mousse walked closer. Even with his new glasses he could barely make out the other sentry towers, but each one was lit up almost like it was on fire. Turning around for a second, Mousse could see other unusually bright lights forming a crown around the village. Why so much light?

The air seemed to become harder, thicker, more resisting.

The dog from before started barking again, and this time he or she was joined by a half dozen canine peers. Pressed by the sudden commotion, Mousse tried harder to reach the sentry tower. They were under no obligation to tell him anything, much less even talk to him, but it was possible he knew who was on duty there tonight. Something seemed… wrong. _Very wrong._ A feeling in the pit of his stomach, heavy as lead, almost made him stumble.

He was halfway to his destination when he saw Shampoo cross the street, perhaps returning from one of the public baths. She didn't seem to see him, despite his being in the middle of the street, but then the air around him became like cast iron and it was all he could do to stand up and still breathe. Fire caught in his lungs and at the sound of a sharp CRACK he turned his head up.

_'__This - this is__…__!__'_

The sight of something overhead, high overhead, exploding gripped him with a mad fury. It was quickly followed by two others, as trio of rockets cracked open over the Joketsuzoku, one a hundred feet from the street level, one half again as high, and the other very nearly over the roof of a three story building. They might as well have been fireworks, and duds at that. Virtually no one paid them any attention compared to the franticly barking canines in town.

No one saw the deadly cargo released by the missiles, ones assembled and fired by Sirius Group operatives, ones working virtually on the orders of Cologne. No one saw or smelt or felt the chemical agent falling to earth like an invisible cloud of sulfur dioxide. Weaponized Chryssalid venom. Without a doubt, this was…

This was the end of the village.

This was _that_ night.

Mousse opened his mouth to scream a warning, but if any sound left his lips, he himself could not hear it. Other voices carried across the cool night air, ones laden with curiosity and annoyance, and now women began to emerge from homes and closed shops to see what the sudden commotion was. Staring up at the now noiseless night sky, they waited to see if – indeed – some young fool was having fun firing off some fireworks.

Shampoo coughed.

That one noise nearby made Mousse gasp in one last desperate bid to escape the invisible chains that held him. Mere moments after her, however, others began to cough as well, as the airborne toxin invaded their lungs and seeped into their blood. It was a minute amount, far, far less even in concentrated form than a Chryssalid would normally inject in a host. The effects were far from immediate; they were slow. Painful. Horrific.

Hearing signs of distress, others came to the aid of their friends and family. The invisible cloud of gas, heavy and expanding, rolled into houses through windows, ventilation, doors, anything. Even those who later took shelter in cellars would find no respite. The killer entered every crevice and spared no one, man, woman or child.

Then it began.

People began to lash out, the venom driving their bodies and minds berserk. What began as a push away, for air or personal space, devolved into an actual fight, without rules or restraint. Those who tried to break it up involved others and the endemic of violence spread. In an hour, the skin would turn yellowish from the build up of toxic chemicals produced by failing renal glands and other organs, but for now it was as if the entire Amazon village was rapidly going mad.

Mousse could do nothing but watch, not only as so many others succumbed, but as Shampoo fell to her knees, fighting it. What happened next came and went as if a blur. Faces. Blood. Weapons. Sisters killed sisters and mothers killed sons. Elders turned against Elders, destroying any of the weaker fools who happened to get in the way or be nearby. Some fled or boarded up their homes. Some banded together to try and fight and survive.

Then the sky became fire, and the ships came.

These were Cologne's new village and new family: her masters and servants from beyond the stars. Sectoids and Ethereals emerged, mentally dominating the weak survivors. Those few uninfected deemed worthy were taken as per Cologne's requests – subjects in the alien pursuit of 'mass production' martial artists. Snakemen were sent to Jusendo to kidnap Saffron and slaughter the villagers there. Chryssalids stalked the countryside, hunting down the frightened tributary villages, where Amazons on duty fought them... and as they died, the proud warrior women were impregnated by the hellish alien nightmares to breed yet more star-spawned nightmares.

Through it all, Mousse saw Shampoo, her body wracked and despoiled, but... but still alive.

And then, frozen, he could only watch as one last group of intruders descended on the Amazon village. Men. Men in dark armor: some in the sky, some across the ground. These men came, and they killed. They killed and killed and killed and _killed_ and _killed_.

And Mousse recognized them.

One with a sword. One with thrown bandannas. Another with arms and legs that cut bodies like a knife cut meat. One with an unending steam of blades and explosives. All bringing the sweet mercy of death. Mousse saw it all, relieved it from outside. Then the other team came, but minus one member.

Juliet squad. Ranma's squad.

Amid the carnage and the madness, they swept in, and finished what was left of the fallen village, until there was only one left. Shampoo remained, clearly resisting the alien impulses and corruption that had invaded her body and mind. Stumbling towards the men and women she had known, that they had known, Shampoo reached for them, perhaps for comfort, perhaps for relief.

Weapons shouldered, they gunned her down.

* * *

Konatsu wasn't sure what was wrong with everyone. Yes, it was true, they were stuck on this ship, and that was cause for discomfort, but why did it seem like so much of that discomfort was directed his way? With morning came new duty shifts and new mission assignments, and turns at Pathfinder's single, tiny washroom. Saotome-taichou had opened the window ports around the ship, a feature they had purposefully disabled thanks to the disorienting effects of dimension transit, but there was little to see but darkness outside. It was far from a nice morning, but that was no reason to be impolite.

It had started uneventfully enough.

"Up and at it, boys and girls!" had been their wakeup call, courtesy of Sergeant Kumon. He must've come back from patrol with Ukyou over the night. "Hands off your junk and on your socks!"

"To what is this 'junk' which you refer?"

A whispered answer from Shampoo elicited a giggle. "Oh! I see! The Warlords of Okaara had a similar expression!"

It was shortly after that, that Konatsu noticed something unusual: no one was willing to look him in the eye. This was particularly egregious when he caught up with Ryu, his peer in rank and a man he considered his friend, to discuss what had happened with the mission to the distress signal and to get filled in. Ryu and Ukyou would certainly be wanting to get some sleep of their own now, and that meant the only senior sergeant in the ship would be the male kunoichi. Both Ryu and one of the Lieutenants should have been there, first thing, to get him up to speed and to assign new duties.

Instead, Ryu all but snubbed him, telling him to 'find out from Saotome or Hibiki.' Knowing that his friend did get cranky, and that this wasn't a completely unfair or unreasonable request, Konatsu had finished getting dressed and done just that. The two officers were in the command room with Nabiki and Raven, just like he remembered from last night. It was amazing the two girls were still awake, much less this animated.

Their talking stopped the moment he entered, and they spent a good five seconds just staring at him.

Confused, Konatsu even took a moment himself to look down and confirm that everything was in place. He wasn't naked, and he didn't have stripes and spots on at the same time, or white after labor day. He hadn't broken any cultural faux pas that he was aware of. Why were they looking at him like he had mange? Or fleas. He hadn't had fleas since leaving the 'care' of his step-sisters and step-mother!

"Reporting, sirs!" Konatsu said, eager to get back to work.

Suspiciously, Nabiki and Raven seemed to share some kind of low whisper, and the two men also exchanged a split second look. It was so obvious that Konatsu just couldn't chalk it up to strange hours or frayed attention spans. Ranma cleared his throat, and… dismissingly waved him off.

"That's quite alright, Konatsu," he said, condescendingly. "We'll call you if we need anything."

"But…" the ninja bit off his complaint. "Sir? Really?"

"Yes, Konatsu," Ranma replied with a cruel smirk. "Really."

He tried to work up the courage to ask again, but… but he couldn't. his lips just moved wordlessly.

"Dismissed," Ryouga said then, taking Ranma aside again.

It took a debilitating second or two more for it to sink in, and then Konatsu saluted his superiors – their backs turned to him – and went back in the hold. This time Cyborg was there, too. He took one look at the shinobi and seemed to fight to restrain a laugh. Konatsu felt his left eye twitch, but then he took a deep breath and walked over.

"Is there some problem?" he asked the much larger teen.

The question, loud enough to be heard across the hold, monetarily drew the attention from everyone else there. No: not everyone. One person was looking at him, but not with veiled disgust. It was Ukyou. Almost blessedly, she seemed to just be confused by the way everyone else was reacting.

"Nah, nothin's wrong, man!" Cyborg answered, crossing his arms and cocking his head.

The looks on so many other faces painted him a liar. Even Jinx and Starfire seemed to be disgusted by something. Not only didn't Konatsu understand what was wrong, he couldn't grasp why people were making a deal of it now of all times. Didn't they have bigger problems?

"You'll excuse me, please, but I would like to know what is going on!" he all but yelled.

Silence was his own reply, at least until:

"What _is_ going on, you guys?" Ukyou asked, clearly confused. "Did I miss something?"

"I guess you haven't figured it out yet," Ryu finally responded, pulling her aside. "We found out something about Konatsu here."

The okonomiyaki chef tilted her head curiously at that. "What could…?"

Konatsu was about to ask the same question when a flash of movement at one of the ship's portal like windows turned his head. Attention refocused, he could see something in the darkness. Something _moving_.

A face.

_That_ face.

"I guess he never told you, Uuchan," Ryu continued, "About the first person he killed."

"He said he'd killed before we went on Winter Triangle," Ukyou said, sounding curious. "But so did Mousse and Shampoo. What's the problem?"

"That's the surprise," Ryu told her, and pointed at the crossdresser. "See?"

Drawing back a step, it took the legendary kunoichi a moment to realize his fellow NCO wasn't pointing at him, but past him. Slowly turning, he saw that face again, this time above the portal. A neck and body began to take shape out of thin air as it grew closer. Konatsu blanched, the blood draining from his face. This man. This man had…

_"__Konatsu. We have a request from a client. This is a mission you are uniquely suited for __–__ one where your youth and true gender will be an asset for once. I trust you will not bring shame to the Sexy Teahouse Kunoichi.__"_

"Stay away from me," Konatsu warned, the warmth and politeness gone from his voice. To the advancing specter, he leveled only contempt and disgust. "I killed you. You can't be here."

_'__You did kill me,__'_ the figment seemed to mouth the words. Ghostly hands reached up to the loose flap of skin and muscle around the neck, where a garrote had bitten deeply into the flesh. _'__And after all I did for you__…'_

"You…!" A pall fell over Konatsu then, his normally sedate aura spiking with uncontrolled, uncoordinated killing intent. "You. You. You. I'll. I'll **kill** you."

"Konatsu?" Ukyou spoke up then, seemingly able to see the specter of feel but not notice or feel the hate rolling off him in waves. "What did…?"

_'__That__'__s right. Tell her.__'_ The hallucination's head lolled limply from a broken neck. _'__This girl is the only one who doesn__'__t already know what you really are. What you__'__re really capable of. Why don__'__t you tell her?__'_

"no."

"Tell me what?" Ukyou pressed, this time touching his shoulder.

"NOTHING!" he snarled, and lashed out, knocking her back and into the wall of the ship. He gasped and his eyes shrunk in shock and shame as he realized what he'd done, and at the mocking looks in everyone's faces. He turned back to the phantom of his first kill, but it was gone.

"Don't look at me like that," he hissed, backing away from the men and women in the hold. "Don't. Don't look at me like that. Don't. Don't. Please don't."

Shaking hands tried to ward them away, but they were dripping with blood.

"Don't look at me like that!" he screamed, the damning eyes of those he had considered his friends and peers boring into him, peeling away at his mind. "I didn't do anything wrong! Just **go away**! Please! **Leave me alone!**"

* * *

Kuno woke up with a ragged gasp, his hand reaching for the sword next to his sleeping roll. Fumbling for only a second in the low light, he felt relief and comfort flood into him at the familiar feel of the hilt in his hand. His dreams had not been pleasant ones and he no longer looked forward to the well deserved rest he had been promised. He also took a moment to curse Saotome – had the trickster and seducer of women turned off the ship's mind shield? Why were they having dreams at all, much less such damned disagreeable ones?

Sitting up in his roll, the kendoist rubbed his eyes with his free hand and looked around at the state of his comrades in arms. Mousse and Konatsu were the closest, and both were thrashing in their sleep, the latter almost squirming. Further away, Shampoo was curled in a tight ball so much that her sleeping roll resembled a coiled spring. The younger Hibiki and Starfire were sleeping close together a few meters closer to the command room's door, the Tamaranian sprawled out perpendicular so she was using her NCO's body as a pillow.

Jinx was propped up against the opposite wall, her back to those present, but enough of her pink hair sticking out that it was clear who occupied the small sleeping roll. Sleeping against another wall further down the hold was Saotome himself - making Kuno's earlier thoughts regarding his scheming less likely – and from the looks of it, the womanizer was either uncomfortable or also suffering from less than happy dreams. Perhaps he was dreaming of his rightly deserved punishment for seducing the fair Akane Tendo and pigtailed girl? Two women who were plainly already heads over heels in love with a much more eligible and well bred bachelor.

Absent were the genius Cyborg, his comrade Ryu, the comely Ukyou Kuonji, the acting Major, the enchanting Raven, and… oh yes… that perfidious materialistic swindler Nabiki Tendo.

Poking Konatsu first with the back side of his sword, still in bokken form, Kuno easily roused the sergeant. It was just as well that he used his bokken, for the moment Konatsu awoke he swatted at the sword, knocking it away with a clang. It was the kind of sound that came from metal hitting metal, which meant the light sleeper had some kind of weapon on his person. It was hardly unusual. They all slept with weapons, after all.

Rather than wake up fully, however, Konatsu hissed something incomprehensible and curled up to go back to sleep. Sighing, Kuno prepared to wake up Mousse in the same fashion, but a fresh look in that direction confirmed that the Chinese master of hidden weapons was already up. The fact that his glasses were back on was a pretty obvious clue. He hadn't moved from his spot on the floor except to raise his hand to his face, resting his hand on the side of his glasses.

Rather than ask him what was wrong, Kuno nervously ran his hand through his hair.

'_Something is wrong with__…__ with...__'_

He paused, the thought uncompleted, and his hand returned to his hair. Feeling around with his index and middle fingers, he felt something unusual on the crown of his head, deep within his proud wavy black hair. Parting some of it aside, he identified what could only be a lump of some sort. Which was strange, since as far as he knew, he hadn't gotten beaten up by anyone lately. No, this bump didn't hurt either, though it did itch a bit.

Checking with his fingers, he couldn't help but feel the bump again. It had a definite shape up there, but it still had the texture of normal scalp and skin, rather than scar tissue. Scratching it a bit, he checked his fingernail but it was singularly unhelpful. Putting both hands into is hair, he ruffled the whole mass, and then went back to trying to feel this strange protrusion that was so marring his noble scalp. In fact, any other concerns he had were quickly overshadowed by this bizarre worriment.

Finally getting out of his sleeping roll, Kuno stumbled over to the washroom.

There was a mirror there. He would be able to see, not just feel, just what was up there. Determined to get to the bottom of this unexpected and unwanted mystery, he was satisfied to see that the restroom was unoccupied and thus that there would be no delay in his investigation. Inside the cramped bathroom jury rigged to the interior of the former UFO was a shatterproof mirror, and it was to that instrument that Kuno immediately turned, not even bothering to close the sliding door behind him.

Hands parted his hair, feeling out the bump and – yes – confirming that had even grown larger than he'd thought! Trying as hard as he could to look up past his eyebrows to catch the crown of his head reflected in the mirror at just the right angle, Kuno squinted at how unfavorable and annoying and HARD it was to see the top of your head. Finally he got a few good glimpses, and saw that the bump looked…

Looked almost like…

Like **a palm tree**?

'_Oh gods!__'_ He started back, slammed into the side of the small washroom, and spun around, slamming an elbow painfully into the half open door. His mind lurched and reeled and damn near vomited. It couldn't be! Not the… the thing… his cursed, insane father had.

'_No! No! No! No!__'_

Crossing the blurry room, his eyes searched frantically for… something to cut it off with. With sudden recrimination, he remembered there was something close at hand. Picking his beloved exotic alloy sword up, even in the low light, he easily switched it from bokken to sword Form-One. Breath coming in ragged dry gulps, he brought the weapon up to excise the cancer his father had inflicted on him. Never would Tatewaki Kuno become like _that man_. Never would Tatewaki Kuno suffer the indignity! Never! Death would be preferable!

Shaving the offensive lump away, he laughed, glad to be rid of it, and lucky to have found it before it grew too large. No one had noticed it yet. No one ever would!

He didn't even notice the blood streaming down his forehead and neck.

"Kuno? Kuno! What the Hell…!"

It was those words, in a voice that distantly registered as belonging to Mousse, that snapped him out of his dazed state. A second passed and he was slammed into a wall, the sword wrenched from his hands. His comrade was out of his sleeping roll, now wide awake, with one arm across the kendoist's chest and another holding him by the head. The jarring shock and rush forced the nobleman to blink a few times, his head clearing.

"Why are you...?" Kuno began, and then felt the sticky mess running down his face. "What is this?"

"You tell me!" Mousse snared, as angry as Kuno had ever heard him. "What were you doing!"

"What's going on?" "What? Morning already?" "Xhal's grabnaks, must you two be so loud?"

As they stirred, seconds away from noticing the bloody sword and scene that was about to unfold, Tatewaki Kuno could only say one thing. One thing he had just realized. One thing that chilled him to the core. Mousse had asked him what he was doing: _what had happened_.

"I…" Kuno struggled to answer, "I don't know..."

* * *

Floor by floor, Ryu and Ukyou conducted a methodical investigation of the Oan derelict. At several times the internal volume of Pathfinder, roughly equivalent in size to an alien Supply Ship, the work took some time. Recording equipment in their powered armor digitally copied down everything they saw and heard, and there was much to see even on the lifeless alien craft.

The most notable discoveries were the bodies. Ukyou had already found the disemboweled red-skinned alien and the shrunken blue mummy, but they were not the only two former inhabitants of the doomed vessel. Another egg-shaped xeno had been crushed into a bulkhead so hard the entire structure was deformed and mashed together like a gruesome fiesta bowl. Given the structural toughness of the alien ship as demonstrated by its unmarred external hull, the incident bespoke a rather insane level of blunt force trauma. Just what the mangled alien might have looked like in its entirety when alive was literally open to imagination and interpretation. Crushed bugs were more intact.

Another two bodies were found in what may once have been living quarters, huddled together on the charred remains of a bed. The entire room has once been filled with a near-plasma inferno, and what was left of the duo was now a waxy mess of carbon and jutting, calcium bone. Recording it all with a sick stomach, Ukyou didn't miss the fact that there were two of the strange looking rings nearby, both of them smashed flat and broken. Each one went into a separate plastic bag for later analysis. In the search she also noticed, but nearly overlooked as irrelevant, a pair of green-hued … buckets, perhaps. Both had been prominently cracked open at the base of the bed, and seemed to almost be the epicenter of the destruction that had engulfed the quarters.

What may once have been scrawled letters – an epitaph or last words even – were now blackened and unreadable, even if one had translation software for the bizarre alien language. Everything was too badly damaged by the flames that had completely consumed the room. Only the layout of the bones seemed to tell the tale: the pair on the bed were intertwined, melted together until they were almost indistinguishable.

In her left hand, Ukyou could almost feel the ring she had recovered, and it almost seemed warm to the touch, despite all the metal and mechanics between her and it. Approaching the remains, she muttered an apology under her breath and retrieved two small samples for the techs and xenobiology eggheads back at Seiran.

Scraping some bits of what could once have been flesh and bone into the test tube, she repeated the process for what visibly appeared to be the second set of remains. With very careful manipulation of her powered armored hands, she then marked one of the tubes with a "3" and the other with a "4". Plugging the caps, the tubes automatically sealed and went back in to a metal case with a number of others. The macabre work done, she backed away, uttered a short prayer and headed back.

Everyone in this ship Cyborg had so touted was dead. The inescapable conclusion, and the one she knew Ryu must have come to as well, was that they had killed themselves or each other. In the process, one or all had also vented their frustration and feelings on the ship itself.

Particularly jarring was the sight of one of the bodies, another humanoid in strange green and white spandex, slumped against a console in her room. The 'her' was an assumption since, bizarrely, she/it seemed to have breasts and the figure of a human woman (like with Starfire, human morphology seemed pervasive in their home dimension), but what wasn't an assumption was what had killed her... this anonymous Green Lantern. A long mane of weathered pink hair still ran down what was left of her crushed skull, and the ruined console was likely still sticky with ancient and un-decomposed gray matter.

It was also easy to see that the blow that had split her head open had come from behind.

The walls of that room had been like a scene from a mental institution. Scrawled crudely in... some dark fluid... dozens of warped faces and alien scribbles had covered the ceiling, floor, walls and even furniture. It was during the search of the personal quarters of the crew (each of them was lucky enough to have their own rather large room, a fact Ukyou envied given she'd be sleeping in a hold with a half dozen other people back on Pathfinder) that Ryu called her over to help catalogue the strangest of them all.

In this room, similar to so many others, there was another humanoid body that also appeared badly burned but mostly intact. Strange, cancerous growths gave it an asymmetrical appearance. In the center of the room was what one could only call a shrine of some sort, put together with a combination of scrap and torn-apart furniture, all crushed together into a crude pedestal or podium or even altar. A circle with jutting spikes at random intervals had fallen, discarded, off to the side. On top of the shrine was another of the strange green buckets, this one split cleanly down the middle. Unlike the other jars, though, this one had been… _filled_… with various… things. Ukyou hesitated to try and identify them.

She wondered, briefly, if some of that filling had come from the corpse in the room, or if…?

Ukyou shuddered inside her armor.

Was this what every corner of this horrible dimension was like?

Was this what they had to look forward to?

Following protocol, the two UNETCO soldiers collected a sample from the body for analysis back home. Neither had spoken much beyond the basic 'found something' or 'I need a hand here.' Really, what was there to say? Maybe, just maybe, there would be something onboard that would help them get home, but it certainly wasn't looking like a sure thing anymore.

Letting Ryu finish where he was, she returned to the area with the little gnome of a man. The one Cyborg had called an 'Oan.' The alien and his 'green lanterns' –

_'__Oh! Of course...! Those buckets... they__'__re lanterns! Like old oil lanterns? I guess that makes sense. Sort of.__'_

Anyway, these men and women were far from home and, it seemed, they would never be returning to their friends and family. Importantly, they had no idea why these Lanterns were out here in what Cyborg believed to be dimensional space removed from their "Multiverse." Deciding that she'd had enough of corpse duty and policing bodies for the time being, Ukyou instead turned her attention to what was left of the ship's operational systems.

Some of them had helpfully activated when she used Cyborg's passphrase to open the ship's airlock. This included what was very likely the ship's computer, but it was so damaged and scrambled that normal UNETCO remote hacking and data mining hadn't even been able to take hold. The Cydonian aliens used a sort of electromagnetic remote-scrambler or something to break into unshielded electronics and other systems, like a form of mechanical telekinetics. Most abductees saw it in action when they lost power to their car or cellphone or flashlight, but it could remotely read and control computers and other devices.

XCOM, naturally, had copied this technology for themselves and learned to defend against it.

She had set up an auto-hacker an hour ago, but Nabiki still wasn't getting signals through the Oan hull and the device by itself wasn't getting anywhere in accessing relevant data. Last she checked, all they had were some superficial ship's logs. She and Ryu checked in on it intermittently, but it was still just sitting there, telling them it was 'searching.' _Useless._ Frustrating. It wasn't as if either of them were going to be helping in that respect either. For the two martial artists 'computer hacking' basically meant 'computer smashing.'

Approaching the broken projection screens and crackling holograms, Ukyou tried to see kind of rhyme or reason in them. Someone had set up that distress signal after all. Feeling stupid and more than a little frustrated herself, the okonomiyaki chef reached out to try and interact with what almost looked like an interface in midair, but her gauntleted hands passed right through.

Trying a few more times with the other broken projections, she eventually gave up. There was no easy way to repair what could have been… gods… hundreds or thousands of years of malfunction and decay. Maybe more? Some of the bodies in the ship look almost like they had died a few days ago, not even showing signs of bloating or rotting, and others looked like they'd been mummified in the sands of Egypt for ten thousand years. There was just no reason to this place. Only twisting and chaos and… insanity.

She turned to the dead Oan.

_'__I don__'__t suppose you could help me out, huh, sugar?__'_

The blue midget, of course, kept his silence. Back to the controls, Ukyou opened her hand and looked at the intact ring. Unlike all the others in this place, this one was undamaged. Many of the bodies had them, and then there were those strange green lanterns… ah! Again, she felt like kicking herself. Green Lanterns! Those lantern-buckets had to be more than purely ornamental!

The name and the obvious description couldn't just be a coincidence, could it? So many of the 'lanterns' had been deliberately destroyed, just like the two rings in the room with the severe burns! Did the ring in her hand have had a paired lantern, too, or would any of them do the trick? She and Ryu had found seven of the buckets so far, either smashed open or otherwise defaced. That was one for each of the crew, including the blue mummy, plus one. What did they do anyway? Cyborg hadn't been terribly clear, if only because these 'lanterns' kept mostly to themselves.

Maybe if she found one, they could rig something up?

It certainly couldn't hurt at this point.

It was when she was on the verge of heading out to check that she saw something she nearly mistook for a trick of the eye. The dead Oan's hand. She had opened those small, stiff fingers to retrieve the ring now in her hand. Now the hand was closed again into a fist.

Had… had it always been like that?

No. she was sure it hadn't.

_'__He couldn__'__t be__…'_

Leaning closer, she half expected the alien to suddenly lunge at her, screaming. Instead, the blue skilled humanoid remained still as the grave.

_'__No. No, of course not.__'_

* * *

There was no change outside. It was just the same as when they arrived: a maddening kaleidoscope of warped and fractured hulls that stretched on into infinity; until they became just a dizzying blur of mutating shadows on the opposite side of the hollow sphere. There was no visual landmark to aid either Ukyou or Ryu in getting back to Pathfinder. There was only Nabiki's waiting UAV and the distant encoded homing beacon directing them to safety and home.

The two specks took off from the ruined surface they had entered hours before, leaving behind the Oan ship. The two power armored teens, neither of which had left the confines of their MARS in the entire venture, flew home under a pulsing chaotic sky. Their backpacks and on-armor pouches were loaded to the brim with any and every bit of useful technology and other salvage, including what they believed to be data storage devices, both of the intact alien bodies sealed safely in vacuum bags, three of the strange green rings and two of the less badly damaged lantern-devices.

The additional weight posed no problem for their elerium powered engines.

It had taken four hours to get to the crashed ship, and it would take four hours to get back to another crashed ship, this one with its crew still alive. Both martial artists were eager to get back to the company of friends, but the sight of the oppressive, hostile world above and around them was an unspoken and unacknowledged downer. Launching herself back into the void, Ukyou also couldn't help but think back to the ship they had just left, and not just what was inside.

Exiting the ship, she had heard it whisper to her, just like when it asked for the passphrase.

_'__Are you leaving?__'_ it asked, and almost sounded…

Afraid.

It had followed, a second later, with a simple: _'__Good bye. Green Lantern.__'_

Ryu hadn't heard it at all that time, and it had actually taken some serious willpower on her part to turn away and leave the derelict behind. She'd looked over her shoulder only once as she left; just enough to see the flickering, struggling green light above the airlock dim and fade away. It was just anthropomorphism, but… maybe -

Ukyou shook her head, dispelling the strange thoughts.

"You both check out," Nabiki said over the restored communication line. "Any problems on your end?"

"Just the usual," Ryu quickly replied. "At the rate we're going, the next dimension we visit will either be a paradise or… or it'll be really bad, you know?"

"Very astute, Mister Kumon. Ukyou?"

"I'm fine," she answered. "Systems are all green. Setting autopilot."

"In that case, I'm uploading your logs. Hibiki here wants to go over them himself."

"Good work, both of you," Ryouga commended them over the comm line. "Were you able to disable the distress signal it was sending out?"

"Well, about that," Ryu began. Short of blowing the ship up, they hadn't figured out how to do that. They'd barely scratched the surface of the computer systems onboard.

"I'm not detecting it anymore," Nabiki helpfully supplied. "So whatever you did in there worked."

"I'm not actually that sure what we did, besides tear some stuff out and set up the data miner," Ryu admitted, not willing to just take credit for something he hadn't really done. "We didn't know it was off until you told us just now."

"Were you able to find the ship's engine?" Ryouga asked. "Or their EDC equivalent?"

"No, sir. But we should be able to come back if we need to."

"We left a coded beacon behind," Ukyou spoke up after Ryu. "The ship itself didn't even seem to have a normal engine. It was just living space and other amenities. Wait 'till you see the bathrooms onboard. Pretty freaky stuff, sugar."

"Right... according to Cyborg, these 'Green Lanterns' and the Oans they work for can both fly in space unaided, like Starfire does. Seems pretty convenient, if you ask me, but it begs the question of why have this ship? Unless they needed it for something, and I'd bet that something is the dimension drive. Once again, excellent work. We'll debrief on your return. Nabiki, transfer the recordings to the secure command unit on my helmet."

"Shouldn't take more than a few seconds to… there. All yours, Ryou-chan."

"Mm."

What followed was a long silence as the two armored martial artists cruised along in the empty vacuum. For a minute or two, Ryu passed the time by humming to himself and Ukyou just few and listened in silence. It wasn't long before the Yamasenken master ran out of bawdy rhymes passed on to him by Kuno and the older guys at Seiran; eventually he gave a predictable sigh and things returned to unnatural quiet. Stuck on another long flight, Ukyou could feel the tug of sleep trying to draw her eyes closed.

Sleep depravation training kicked in, and she turned her attention to going over mission specifics and what she would write on her reports when they got back to base, and even martial arts techniques. It was undoubtedly true that she was tired, mentally and physically, but that could all be put off until she was back at the ship. Then she would allow her body to give out and she'd go out like a light, but until then, her training demanded alertness. Sleep later; stay alive now.

An hour later, passing by a melted monolith of a structure that had to be larger than Tokyo Tower, Ukyou started to get a bit weary . To her right, Ryu was cruising along, the same as always. Past her feet, the pockmarked ground was a patchwork of colors and textures and shadows, like a field of swords at twilight. Despite the endlessly shifting chaos of this dimension, it all became maddeningly monotonous after a few hours of nothing else.

The silence didn't make it any easier.

For a little while, she contemplated bothering Ryu. A quick check, sending a confirmation ping to his suit, quickly returned green. He was still there. Still good. Still awake. A look over at him showed his armor raising a hand in greeting. Suddenly, bothering him felt a little silly.

"Nabiki, you still there?"

The Tendo sister only took a few extra seconds to respond, though when she did there was a definite fatigue in her voice. "Yep. I'm here."

"Good."

After that one word, Ukyou felt her lips clam up and things became quiet again. Maddeningly quiet.

"Hey," she said again, realizing how uncomfortable she was becoming. "Nabiki, do you… want to talk or something? For a little while?"

"I guess. Not really a lot of scenery to enjoy is there?" the mercenary girl joked, sounding more and more alert.

"Not. At. All." Ukyou smiled a little, glad she wasn't going to be mocked – yet – for just wanting to break the tedium a little. "But I bet there isn't much going on over there, either."

There was a moment of silence, and then Nabiki replied with, "So what did you want to talk about?"

"I dunno. Anything?"

"How about economics?"

"…not that."

"Politics?"

"Also not really something I know a lot about."

It was also probably something that would quickly turn into an argument. Arguments about politics, religion and anything divisive were favorite pastimes of most service personnel to kill time, but Ukyou just couldn't feel in the mood for it now. She was still recovering from trying to play peacemaker back at Seiran when she'd butted in on two American operatives going back and forth about abortion.

Politics was definitely out.

"What about college?" the chef asked. "You and Kuno never talk about what it was like."

"Eh. It was okay," Nabiki replied, plainly dismissive.

"Come on, sugar," Ukyou asked again, "There must've been more to it than 'it was okay' right?"

"It was… a lot like prep school," the Tendo sister explained. "Nothing crazy like at Furinkan. The martial arts club at Meiji wasn't full of guys who could destroy buildings or anything. It was a lot like a normal prep school, except you stayed at a dorm instead of with your parents. Or by yourself, in some cases."

"You had a roommate then?"

"I did," Nabiki admitted. "But we had a falling out."

"Oh. Were the classes hard?"

"Some of them. You couldn't breeze through without studying. Not all the time. But you didn't really have a lot of choice in what to take as a freshman. It was interesting learning from actual professors, and learning economic theory and history and practicing English…" She chuckled at that. "Not like English classes will be very hard once more of this psi-tech hits the market. Of course they still gave us homework, like we were in high school or something…"

For a while, Ukyou listened as the slightly older girl explained what courses she had taken as part of the business track. Ukyou was a businesswoman herself, in addition to a chef, but she had never really planned to go to college. Her grades at Furinkan had been quite good, and she'd often thought about it, but there were reasons both for and against spending several years at an institution like Meiji.

Nabiki had just finished describing a particularly cute associate professor when she shifted gears.

"Anyway," she decided to summarize. "I'd say college was about eighty percent boring, fifteen percent exciting, and not a lot in-between."

"I bet that fifteen percent took the form of parties, eh, sugar?" Ukyou had to admit that was one collegiate draw. "What was the ratio of guys to girls?"

"Pretty good." Nabiki amended that, "Actually it was probably about fifty-fifty if you get into the actual statistics. But it usually _seemed_ pretty good since we were always going out in groups."

"Anything stand out as really crazy?"

"Unfortunately, I don't find drunkenness that attractive in men or women, so those kinds of parties weren't that appealing to me." She seemed to shrug in the pause that followed. "But I guess a lot of girls… and boys, too… were excited to get away from their clingy parents. Daddy was never like that when it came to me, so I just did what I wanted as usual."

There was another short pause.

"I did see a three-way once at this one party. Both girls must've been drunk off their asses." Nabiki then cautioned, "Unfortunately, there were two other people there, and we all had cellphones, so the recording I had was basically useless."

"That's terrible!"

"I know!"

"No, I mean its terrible that-"

"I know what you meant, _Ucchan_," Nabiki said her nickname in a too-cutesy voice. "But if you're going to make out with some frat boy and some random girl you don't know, then the smart thing to do is make sure one of you locks the door. That and don't drink yourself senseless in a building full of horny guys."

"Of course nothing bad happened to the Ice Queen of Furinkan high," Ukyou guessed.

"Nothing… like that, no," was the other girl's response. "I met a lot of people but, guess no one I really connected with. You know, everyone always says you'll meet your best friends in college. The friends you'll have for the rest of your life… but I guess that doesn't matter now. You guys will have to do."

"'We'll have to do?' That's not exactly a ringing endorsement."

"You're all insane martial arts types," Nabiki said with a laugh. "Which says something about me, too, I guess. I don't know. Normal people are just kind of boring."

"Funny, you and Kasumi both seemed pretty _normal_ to _me_."

"You implying we're boring, Kuonji?"

"No," Ukyou answered, and honestly. "Some of my best customers are normal people. In fact… _all_ of my customers are normal people. Other martial artists usually end up being enemies, rivals, or freeloaders."

"Now, Ucchan," Nabiki quipped. "There's nothing wrong with freeloading… as long as you're the one doing it."

"I'm not surprised at all to hear that from you."

"That's because you know me; I have to work a little to get your money." Nabiki laughed contentedly on her end of the line. "Anyway, that stuff from before about sums up my year at university. You'd probably have liked it."

"You think I'd like going to parties and getting pawed at by some random boys?" Ukyou sounded insulted. "No thank you, sugar!"

"I never said anything about getting 'pawed at.' But, first, college students spend a lot of money on food and going out. Guess which restaurant caters to both of these needs? Second, I thought you'd want to get a business degree?"

"My restaurant is not a sushi-sports bar. But, yes, I know what you mean." Ukyou thought for a little while before addressing the second point. "And I did think about getting a business degree. My father never got one, you know. And neither did my grandfather. It would be kind of nice to be the first Kuonji with a degree."

"So what's the problem?"

"I guess… I guess the problem is that I already have a restaurant. And a yatai for the beaches and resorts. I don't really need a degree. It isn't like I want to start a franchise or anything big like that. For a practitioner of the Kuonji Style, our fight revolves around our kitchen, and our customers, so being a businesswoman for me is second to being a chef. Why should I spend tens of thousands of yen to get a piece of paper when I have everything I need?"

"You were willing to trade all that away for Ranma, as I recall," Nabiki remembered. "Back when we faced the Gambling King. Of course, knowing you, I bet you thought: even if Ranma loses, and the King takes my restaurant, he'll still leave the Tendos and be indebted to me."

"…Okay, yes, that was what I was thinking," Ukyou admitted, a little uncomfortably.

"I have to admit, it was still a big risk to gamble so much on someone else. Especially Ranma, who couldn't keep a poker face if his life depended on it. I caught him and Ryouga-baby playing Majong once, and they spent half the game cheating and trying to kill one another. The idiot rubbed the face off of one of the tiles with his thumb! They wouldn't even tell me where they learned such ridiculous moves. Neither of them should ever be let within ten kilometers of a casino, ever."

"Nabiki," Ukyou said with a sigh.

"Those two aside," the other girl continued. "I just don't get why you'd risk everything for, what? The chance to get Ranma all to yourself? Makes no sense to me. It never did. Back when he was my fiancé, and I was going to try and sell him off to one of you three, would you really have handed over everything you owned for him?"

"Probably…. maybe," The okonomiyaki chef answered, a little hesitantly. "Of course, Kodachi would've outbided us all if it came down to it. Shampoo has pretty limited disposable income unless you count dangerous magical artifacts."

"You see my point?"

"Nabiki, let me say right here that Ranma _is not_ and _was not_ a piece of prime bluefin tuna to be auctioned off at market…"

"Actually, I got a good price when I used him as collateral once…"

"Wait, what? When was this?"

"About a year ago? I was having a duel with this Kinnosuke guy. I needed Ranma to cover some debts so I foisted him off on some… people. Anyway, a group of thugs or _Triad_ or _whatever_ is a half hour's work for him. I doubt he even broke a sweat when he got free. No big deal!" The avaricious Tendo sister gave a musing sound. "You were saying?"

"I'm _saying_," Ukyou began answer with a huff of annoyance. "I loved Ranma, so of course I wasn't afraid of losing my restaurant to get him. Yes, my shop is important to me, but I can always rebuild from scratch. Material possessions come and go. If you have someone you love supporting you, that's hardly too much to ask."

It was a while before Nabiki found the words to respond.

"That's so corny!" she declared. "Really? You think that?"

"I know it," Ukyou asserted.

"Yet you broke up with Ranma and ended the engagement? That seems like a contradiction to me if you loved him."

"That's…" The armored girl struggled to phrase it. "That's hard to explain."

"How so?" Nabiki insisted. "It seems straightforward to me."

"I did love Ranma. And I did break it off between us. The two are not mutually exclusive."

"I notice you're using the past tense there."

"You can love someone one way, and then in another way later," Ukyou argued. "Or even fall out of love entirely. That's all I'll say about it."

"I still say it makes no sense," Nabiki maintained.

Flying across the emptiness of space, insider her power armor Ukyou didn't reply, causing a drawn out silence. It hadn't been her intention to get involved in a talk about _guys_. Ranma was one thing, since so much of her life was inextricably tied to his actions and presence – or lack thereof – but this was still a sidetrack she'd have preferred to avoid. Then again, for Nabiki, money and love were probably one and the same.

"What do you suppose Ryouga-honey would give up for you, Nabiki?" she asked. "You two have certainly gotten pretty close."

"He doesn't count," Nabiki quickly countered. "He has the same irrational martial arts code Ranma has. Worse even. But let me guess: you were going to follow up your question with something like 'what would you give up for him?' Right?"

"You're one step ahead as usual," Ukyou dryly observed. "Well? What's your answer?"

"I don't have one," the older girl admitted, unabashed. "I don't _give_ things up."

"That's just avoiding the question."

"It's a question that goes against my grain." Nabiki didn't sound really annoyed by the pressing, but then she gave an inquisitive 'hmm' and elaborated. "Ryouga-baby is a close friend and I like him, but I don't think I'd throw my entire life and future away if he said, 'come wander the earth with me.' I'd say 'drop by when you can and send postcards. And gifts.'"

There was a short pause then as Nabiki seemed to realize something.

"I'm just now realizing the parallels. Anyway, I'm adorably eccentric, and occasionally evil, not completely crazy like you and Shampoo."

"I seem to recall hearing a story about you jumping out of a helicopter with no parachute…?"

"That was all part of a well calculated plan to scam someone," Nabiki said, a little defensively. "And there _was_ a parachute. I was trying to sell it. That's not crazy; it's a good business plan!"

"…"

"And he still didn't buy it! Imagine choosing death over spending money! Kinnosuke was really something. To this day I wish I'd scammed him out of more than just a few measly yen."

"You're definitely not a normal person, Nabiki."

"No, I guess not. It just seems like it sometimes, even to me." She ended that sentence with a change in tone, growing serious again. "Huh."

"What?" Ukyou inquired, but didn't get an immediate response. "Nabiki?"

"I'm picking up… actually. Hold on." Ukyou heard a ping as others were routed into the communications channel. "Hey, guys, I'm picking up something unusual. A big, diffuse heat source. Marking it on the map. I could be another ship."

"EM?" Cyborg asked, clearly quite busy outside the ship.

"Just a lot of noise," Nabiki explained. "Nothing that looks organized. Its showing up bright as a light on the Susan's scanner, though."

Ryu, having checked the location on the map imposed on their armor HUD, spoke up, "That's not too far off. We could check it out."

"Alright. Approach it cautiously. Send the Roaming Susan out ahead," Ryouga ordered. "Ryu, I'll leave you to decide how close you get. Your priority is to get back to the ship with everything you've retrieved. Unless this is something really promising, I don't want any delays in your primary mission."

"Yes, sir."

"Sending out new security codes…"

The two MARS armors turned sharply in 'midair' and, together with Nabiki's UAV, they vectored down on course tangential to the original. Skimming lower down to the scarred surface, they accelerated above cruise velocities and boosted into strafing speed. Without air resistance, it was trivial to exceed the normal operating speeds of the flying armor and stay there for long periods of time.

In a scant few minutes, Nabiki's 'strange heat source' became clearly visible on the armor's 12X telescopic sights. Slowing to a hover near a single large 'wing' sticking out of the heavily cratered ground, Ryu motioned for Ukyou to take a position slightly further away. A blue light on her HUD blinked twice, and he gave the order for 'weapons out.'

In the distance, two ocean swells were clashing and twisting and giving off tremendous amounts of waste heat. It was a strange spectacle, even for this alien dimension. As the two viscous bodies crashed and ground against one another, it became clear that one, tinted red and black, was burying the other, more gray, with its sheer mass. As it did so, clouds of flakes flew away from the points of friction and impact.

"I'm moving closer. Failsafes are active." Nabiki's warning came as her Roaming Susan zipped off at top speed, nearly faster than the eye could follow.

"What's going on out there?" Ukyou asked, unable to make out anything specific. "What is that stuff?"

"No idea," Ryu breathed, nearly speechless. "But I'd say those things are about as big as an alien Battleship. And there's more heat coming off from underground than there is above. IR is calcing the temperatures at thousands of degrees. Hot enough to melt steel."

The two watched, anxiously, ready to fire or, preferably, make a hasty retreat.

"This is amazing. Those flakes are tiny machines the size of bugs." Nabiki described, having gotten her Susan closer to the fray. "Smaller than any of the micro-robotics we use, and there must be millions of them."

"Nanotechnology?" Ryu asked.

"One of the most overused terms today," Cyborg cut in, also reviewing the incoming data. "I'd say these are old school von Neumann machines. Not the kind of scifi nanotech you're thinking about, man. I wonder how they got around the waste heat issue? Hey, Nabiki! Check that out! They're fighting over a power source. Like bees, they're killing the other group with heat caused by friction."

"So there's an intact ship down there?" Ukyou asked.

"Was a ship. Whatever's left after these two finish will probably use it to make more of themselves... at least until the power runs out," the genius teen speculated. "I've heard of some guys back home working on smart nanotech, before they dropped off the map. If this is like that, then it could be serious trouble."

"I've heard enough," Ryouga cut in again, having been listening in while reviewing the logs from the Oan ship. "We're still operating under the radar and I'd like to keep it that way."

"You got it. Ukyou."

"Right."

The two were already retreating when they heard a vexed hiss over the line.

"Oh oh. Um… they're throwing something, themselves? At me?" Nabiki sounded a little worried, despite her talking about the UAV and not herself. "Definitely at me."

"Do you need support?" Ryu asked, still leading Ukyou as they pulled back. "We could -"

"No," Ryouga interrupted. "Continue on course. Nabiki. Get the Susan out of there."

"That's what I'm trying to do! But it's like moving through a rainstorm and not getting wet!"

"What's going on?" Ukyou asked, quickly looking behind her but seeing only a faint glittery cloud in the air. It looked almost like raindrops, frozen in space. "Guys?"

"Continue on course!" Ryouga snapped. "Nabiki."

"I said I'm trying, that means I'm _trying_!"

The two MARS armors zipped across the scarred surface of the hulk, moving in a fast, erratic zig-zag pattern directly incorporated from their UFO forebears. Ryu had them on a ground hugging course, and whatever was happening back with the machine swarms quickly became obscured by the ruins and rubble around them. All Ukyou could make out was the sound of Nabiki frantically trying to recover her UAV.

They were just cresting a rise when she heard Nabiki arguing.

"We can bring it back and…!"

"That was an order." Ryouga's voice was firm. "Do it."

"But… I can still... aw, d-damnit!"

Ukyou's visor and HUD automatically polarized, and she foolishly, instinctively, started to turn around, when she caught just a hint of the flash. It was like the world's brightest lightbulb flaring and dying in an instant. As part of the stated Icarus Protocols, each member of the off-ship expedition carried a Fourth Generation Fusion Ball Mine. In case of compromise or capture, they were to detonate, utterly destroying any XCOM technology and anything within proximity.

There was a single great flash and then nothing beyond the horizon of rubble, as low to the ground as she and Ryu were. Their Roaming Susan, the third member of their team, had been ordered to execute a judicious self-destruct using its FBM. At over a thousand kilometers per second, the incandescent particles that had once been the UAV were now accelerating across the vacuum of this alien space, so far apart now that they may as well have been invisible.

"Continue on course," Ryouga's voice was a relief from the tension, and confirmed that, even without the Susan as escort, they could still make it back to Pathfinder. They weren't alone in the void. "Cruising speeds only. We're uploading a new course for you to follow."

"A new course?" Ukyou asked, a tad worried, but not willing to let that fact become obvious in her tone of voice.

"A course away from Pathfinder," Ryu said, getting it quickly. "In case we're being followed."

Ukyou's shoulders slumped in resignation, but saw the reason for caution. It took a mere moment to steel herself to that fact, accept it, and move on. Even if it took twice as long, they would get back to Pathfinder. She believed that with every fiber of her being.

"Uploading new course changes," Nabiki said, sounding truly tired, the hours awake and the fatigue of losing her UAV all coming back to hit her in a spirit crushing rush. "New ETA is…"

"Six hours?" Ryu groaned. "Good god."

Ukyou could only shake her head sadly. "Six hours."

* * *

By the time Ukyou and Ryu returned, they had been gone for a record fourteen hours.

This was, amazingly, not the longest mission in terms of consecutive hours on-duty that the two martial artists had endured. There were a few terror sites on record as lasting more than a solid day of non stop combat and clean up, particularly ones that involved extensive Chryssalid infestation. Both India and Juliet had the honor of taking part in one of those missions.

Nonetheless, spending more than half a day in a suit of powered armor was a record no one else in the special martial arts squads came close to rivaling. While none of the time spent had included actual combat, Ukyou personally felt like rating it as the most grueling and exhausting mission of her life, particularly as it followed directly on the heels of the incident on Azarath. It literally made her long to be training against the sea as a child… and that training had nearly killed her. The only thing making it bearable was the constant though often silent company of Ryu next to her and the occasional conversation with Nabiki over the secure communications channels.

Had she been alone out there, for even a few hours, it'd have likely driven her insane.

Dropping down into the 'Pathfinder trench' as it had taken to being called, Ukyou saw clusters of familiar lights and friendly beacons welcoming her home. Relief flooded into her, so much that she almost broke down in tears, the unexpected and unlikely up swell of emotion catching her by surprise. If she never saw the surface of this god forsaken nightmare of a dimension than it would be cause for celebration. The trench – it looked a bit more like a ragged mole hole to be accurate – was a welcome change of pace and promise of sanctuary.

_'__Almost there.__'_

Her body felt near collapse, too, without even adrenalin to keep it going. It was just so much easier to stay awake and alert when you had something to fight. Flying and fleeing and watching your back (and finding nothing) for hours on end wasn't exciting. It was draining. Horribly draining.

On entry, the martial arts duo sent the usual precautions: they confirmed their arrival with Nabiki and sent friendly IFF pings to those working outside the ship. Despite expecting them, they were promptly given an identity confirmation via psionics. It was the typical XCOM paranoia at work, but neither Ryu nor Ukyou were flustered or annoyed by it after all these months. If anything, it was routine enough to actually be kind of invigorating.

Advancing down the trench, walking instead of flying, Ukyou saw a handful of her teammates at work a couple hundred meters from the ship. Cyborg and Starfire stood out the most, and the IFF on the other one in power armor confirmed it was the younger Ryouga. The two Titans were working on one of the larger pieces of debris that had to be removed, with Cyborg directing his comrade in what she had to do. Ryouga was further away, currently cutting into a pillar of hull plating the diameter of a car.

"Hey, guys," Ryu spoke up, using the open comm on all channels.

Ukyou quickly did the same, and went one better. Taking a few quick steps up to Cyborg, the closest, she clasped him on the shoulders and upper arm and actually lifted him up off his feet. "Am I glad to see you, sugar! I can see you've been pretty busy while we were out running errands!"

Her good mood drained away just as quickly as it had appeared. The way the Titan stared back at her... no, it was like he was staring right through her, still focusing all of his attention to the task at hand. In fact, even though she was holding him up by both of his shoulders, he managed to shift his arm enough to stare at the display on his arm, only to frown more deeply.

"Put me down, Kounji. We're way behind schedule. If we don't catch up from this mornings... incident, then we'll never get out of here."

She lowered him down, more than a little confused by the response. Usually he was so, well, _boisterous_ was probably the best word. Even Ranma and Ryouga, both of whom stiffened severely when on duty though to differing degrees, lost that trait more often than not. Of everyone, she'd expected Cyborg to be the most animated about their return (or even just her return).

Plus, they had tech! **Tech**! For _him_!

"Is something wrong?" she asked, and turned her view to where Starfire was drifting.

The Titan nodded sharply, but before he could respond, he spoke up loudly. "Hibiki, be more careful! If you don't take that support out properly, you'll collapse the whole damn structure on your head!"

There was something that sounded like a low curse over the commline, and an annoyed wave from the distant martial artist before he went back to what he'd been doing.

Only after that exchange was done, did Cyborg turn back to regard her. "I just told you what was wrong, Kounji. We're behind schedule."

"Right. Sure…"

"Let's go," Ryu ordered, and they continued to the ship.

She kept it to herself, but privately the short exchange had left Ukyou confused and a little hurt. It wasn't like she expected to be welcomed back with trumpets and fanfare, but after an ordeal like she'd been through, a little 'hi and hello' would've been common courtesy. _Something_. The cybernetic teen may as well have been replaced by a robot back there.

Finally, Pathfinder opened her doors, or airlock rather, and both Ranma and Ryouga were present to greet the returning pair. The former looked tired, but alert, arms crossed and uniform loose but in order. The latter was still pressed and proper like he always preferred, but it was easy to see that he was as worn to the bone as he'd ever been. Dress him up, and it'd be a repeat of all those times he'd stumbled into Nerima, half dead, after running all day and night to get to a duel with Ranma… three days late.

_'__He looks like I feel.__'_ Ukyou realized, _'__Hell. It__'__s probably how I look, too.__'_

Safely inside the ship, Ryu and Ukyou followed an unspoken signal and reached up. It only took a few seconds to clear the helmets on their MARS armor for removal, and as the airtight seals broke, there was a rush of air out and air in. Ukyou inhaled, tasting the difference in the ship's recycled air and that of the powered armor. Naturally, she hadn't realized it before, but half a day in one tight space – even given the high tech filters and recyclers – still left a lingering… well… funk, to be brutally honest. Pathfinder's air was just as recycled, but the volume of air was much larger, and the system more completely and easily ventilated.

Another deep breath followed, as her helmet disconnected and retracted back behind her head. Free of the constraints, Ukyou freely whipped her head around, strands of hair finally coming loose from their bundle. It felt refreshing just to be out of that stuffy helmet. It felt even better to have some relatively – comparatively – fresh air to breathe. She only let the enjoyable sensations take hold of her for a second or two, however.

Primly, she and Ryu saluted, bringing heavily armored hands up in lieu of their own.

"Sergeant Kumon and Squaddie Kuonji reporting and awaiting deactivation!" Ryu announced.

"This is acting Major Hibiki," Ryouga replied, as he and Ranma formally returned the greeting. "Your watchman units were deactivated on entering the ship. At ease."

The two soldiers lowered their arms and relaxed slightly.

"We've brought back bags and bags of goodies," Ryu then said with a proud smirk. "Enough for a dozen Halloweens!"

"You'll have techs wanting to shake your hands in the halls," Ranma joked, but it was also probably true. "Good job, both of ya."

"We've cleared a section of our inventory space for everything you brought over," Ryouga added.

"Including the xeno corpses?" Ukyou asked.

"Pathfinder has freezer space for them," he told her. "Ranma. Let's take care of that right now, then we'll debrief."

"Cyborg requested we preserve the Oan," the pigtailed officer reminded his CO as he led them over to the secure storage space. "It seems mostly intact. We cold get some data off it."

"I don't like reserving use of our only medical stasis device like this," Ryouga argued, but had clearly already conceded to the request. "We'll take care of that before we debrief."

First came the freezer. Ryu had been carrying the body of the red alien, the one that had had been disemboweled, and after the four of them squeezed into the small secondary hold the Kumon heir retrieved the black plastic body bag he'd been carrying behind him. It had been vacuum sealed with some of the original atmosphere inside and as a result, the body hadn't suffered any significant damage or dehydration due to exposure to the elements, or lack thereof, on the trip over. Under a controlled fumigation hood, built into the ceiling in the secure hold, Ryu revealed the transparent section of the bag that covered the alien's face.

It was hard to believe that this was one of Cyborg's so called 'Green Lanterns.'

They placed it in the freezer, bag and all, and locked it. The next dozen minutes or so consisted of removing various samples and salvage, identifying it in front of both officers, labeling it, and then putting it into storage lockers. Most of that in turn involved packaging it into secure alien alloy crates of various sorts that were then locked into place in miniature vaults built into the walls. Everything was scanned, recorded, and put into the database.

"This is one of their rings. The only intact one we could find." Ukyou placed the curious green ring into her Lieutenant's hand. "Two others had broken bands, and two were completely crushed."

"The only one, huh?" Ranma asked with a frown. "According to Cyborg, these rings are part of the Green Lantern's power. Some kind of weapon that responds to thoughts, like a psi-amp."

"That could explain why they were all deliberately destroyed," Ryouga observed with a disgruntled huff.

"What should we do with it?" Ukyou asked, looking from pigtailed former fiancé to lost boy.

"This is no different than anything else." The acting Major did at least seem to consider making an exception, for a few seconds. "Tag it and bag it. Restricted Access. Highest level."

Ukyou watched quietly as the two officers held the ring up to have a picture taken, then another, then another, including in each one the security tag they'd attached to it, lopping through the mouth of the ring with a piece of string. A code was then entered, recording it and where it was to be stored. Ukyou watched all this, and felt a bit of loss, though she couldn't really fathom why. It was… her ring now, wasn't it?

_'__No, of course not.__'_

Eventually, it ended up in a secure case, and then the lid closed and it was out of sight. Out of sight… but not entirely out of mind. Ukyou could almost sense it… feel it in her hand. On her finger.

She shook her head to dismiss the silly thoughts and hoped no one noticed.

The last few bits of salvage followed, and exceptions were made for a few items deemed needed for immediate study. Foremost among those were the scrambled data logs that they believed they had retrieved, both from an ancillary computer system and two of the private quarters. No one had any idea what kind of encryption was on them, or if there was anything that could be read at all, but it was on the short list of things to investigate post-haste.

There were also items for Cyborg: schematics, readings on the ship, some technological mish-mash related to critical systems. The EDC was apparently still having initialization problems or something along those lines, which meant Pathfinder could still fly – if it got out of the hole it had burrowed for itself – but not transition out of this dimension. It gave Ukyou the impression of this whole place was like a huge Ant Lion trap, with hapless insects able to fall in but unable to climb back out. The only thing missing was some vicious critter waiting at the bottom to throw stones and eat whatever came in reach.

Thinking of the present situation as _ari-jigoku_... Ukyou shuddered.

Eventually finished with their job of dutifully recording everything brought onboard, the officers led their two subordinates back into the main hold section of the ship. There was a lot more room here, and they attended to the last bit of business: the Oan. It was here that they were also met by some of their comrades, who were waiting around near the medical tube where the alien would be studied and interred.

Mousse and Kuno were both present, of course, but the latter had some bandages wrapped around his forehead that looped over from the crown of his head to under his chin, which clearly hadn't been present back when Ryu and Ukyou left. He looked haggard and embarrassed about something, particularly when under scrutiny by his returned teammates.

"Kuno, you alright man?" Ryu asked first. "What happened?"

"There was… a mistake made on my part," the swordsman explained. "I'm not entirely sure myself what occurred." He decided to divert attention from himself to the large bag in Ukyou's arms. "Is that the alien?"

"Great. Another dried up old mummy like Cologne," Mousse observed with a dismissive snort. He caught part of the transparent wrap and some of the face. "Make that Happosai, but blue."

"Oh, please, Duck Boy," came a new and unwelcome voice to the conversation. Strolling up from the back of the room, obviously still off duty, judging by the way she was only half wearing her uniform, Jinx slugged the Hidden Weapon master in the shoulder in a not-quite-friendly way. "Happi never had a head as freakishly big as this... well, Freak."

Jinx then took a moment to study the dead alien, before finally snorting to herself.

"So," she asked, cocking her head to the side. "_This_ is one of the infamous 'Guardians of the Universe', eh? Don't look that all powerful to me."

"Looks like a cross between a senior citizen and blue man group," Ranma couldn't help but say with a little chuckle. "Ten bucks says it smells like a nursing home when we open the ziplock bag."

"I'll bet ten dollars-" Everyone started suddenly, as yet another voice joined the debate, this one coming from the walls of the ship itself, as its owner was still in another part of the ship. Despite not being able to see her face, the tone in Raven's voice was impossible to miss. "- that were it the Guardian studying _your_ corpses, he would be infinitely more respectful."

"Aw, come on," Ranma began. "I was just-"

"She's right, Ranma, and you know it." Surprisingly despite his deep seated loathing for most all things alien, this came from their Ryouga. "According to Cyborg, this alien is basically a galactic police officer where they come from. And it's dead. So let's show some respect."

"Thank you," came Raven's contrite response. "At least _someone_ seems capable of human compassion."

"Sheesh," Jinx muttered, not quite under her breath, "Sounds to me like our computer may be on her period or something..."

At that the lights of the ship dimmed fractionally.

"May it rest in peace, regardless," Kuno said, speaking for himself and Mousse. The Chinese weapons master merely adjusted his glasses.

They bowed their heads in a moment of respectful silence, and seeing them do it, Ukyou and Ryu did the same, though still in their powered armor. Getting the deceased Oan into stasis couldn't be considered the most respectful and dignified of acts, though. With everyone stepping back to make room, but still plainly gawking in naked curiosity, they had to be shooed back by Ranma while Ukyou assumed the job of unwrapping the alien, stripping it, and putting it to containment. Unlike the other dead Green Lanterns on the ship, all of which had met violent ends, the Oan seemed to have simply died, peacefully, in his sleep.

Closing the alien derived medical bay, it locked, activated, and the transparent hood tinted.

"Alright," Ryouga spoke up then, stepping between everyone and the tube. "Ryu. Ukyou. Return the armor to storage, and meet myself and Ranma in the CIC. If anyone wants to volunteer to help remove the armor, I'm sure it would be appreciated."

Five minutes later, with a little help from Mousse and Kuno, and the pair were both free of the confines of their powered armor (now returned to its storage sites) and stretching legs and arms. There was always a short grace period of getting the body readjusted to normal movement. It was a relief to be able to naturally move and flex again – if only it had been packaged with a hot shower and soft bed.

A quick meal and a change of clothes would have to do.

The self heating packaged meal was quickly devoured by both martial artists, relished not so much for its lackluster taste as it was for simply being hot food and fuel for the fire. The cool, fresh water supplied by the ship was even more welcome. Sleep, blessed sleep, was next on the menu, but for now it still had to wait.

The bare attire that had been worn in putting on the armor was replaced by fatigues in white and gray camo pattern. Once bare feet were given a short time to breathe and then came the socks and laced up boots. Ukyou let her hair down after having it bundled up for more than half a day inside her helmet, and Ryu slipped his white bandanna back around his head.

Then they reported for their debriefing.

Ryu, as the ranking NCO, began by summarizing their mission specifics and objectives. He described the trip over first, and then allowed Ukyou to fill in with anything he had overlooked. Much more time was spent on the investigations undertaken inside the ship, when contact was broken with Pathfinder, and on anything not obvious given the downloaded visual record. Particular interest was paid to any potential psionic contact made. By the time they finished, following their descriptions of events after the destruction of Nabiki's Roaming Susan, traces of weariness were visible in exhausted pair.

A few questions followed, until at last satisfied, the two officers began to fill Ryu and Ukyou in on what had happened during their absence.

"Let me first explain what happened to Kuno back there," Ryouga started, taking a deep breath to collect his thoughts before presenting them. "While you were at the midpoint of your mission, I was resting our people according to shifts. At a certain point, Kuno woke up and began experiencing a delusion or hallucination. He believed there was a growth on his head."

"One resembling a palm tree," Ranma explained, tapping the crown of his own head for emphasis.

"I don't get it…" Ryu began, already confused.

Ukyou, however, saw what it meant right away.

"A palm tree?" she asked. "You mean like that disgusting thing on Principal Kuno's head?"

"Exactly," Ranma replied.

"Panicking, he decided to remove it with the first sharp object that he could get a hold of. That ended up being his sword." Ryouga clenched his jaw at this. "It was a lucky thing that Mousse had woken up at the same time. He was able to restrain Kuno before he could do lasting harm to himself. As it was, he required about fifteen stitches to reattach part of his scalp."

Ryu licked his drying lips. "That's not all, is it?"

"No," Ranma responded, completely serious. "After Ryouga and I looked into this, we confirmed a number of other incidents. Some were just strange dreams, but there are a lot of worse cases. People have been seeing things. Hearing things. Twice now, Konatsu was caught throwing weapons or lashing out against what he identifies as a 'ghost.'"

"A ghost?" Ukyou asked, having trouble believing it. "But it isn't…?"

"No. there's nothing on the ship's cameras or sensors. He was just attacking thin air, just like Kuno only imagined he had a growth on his head." Ranma closed his eyes and resigned with a sigh, sounding almost defeated. "We don't know what's causing it. On Azarath, we were being actively deceived by an entity called Trigon that was baffling us with false senses and altered terrain. There's no pattern or sense in what we're seeing here, and no source we can identify."

"We think it's possible that everyone is experiencing it. Possibly without even realizing it," Ryouga said. "_I_ didn't realize it."

"But," Ryu tried to argue. "Ukyou and I… we didn't… did we?"

"After going over your records, we've found at least four incidents both on the alien ship and the trip to and from it where we believe one of you blacked out for short periods of time," the acting Major continued. "It isn't just you or me or Kuno or Konatsu. Maybe Cyborg is immune. We don't know. There's a ship's log of Ryouga, the other one, staring at a wall for _ten_ minutes. He doesn't remember it. Shampoo has sworn, several times, that she saw the lights in the ship go dim. Mousse has twice experienced tracks of time when he can't hear anyone or anything. One of these occurred in the middle of a conversation with me about what happened to Kuno."

The news hit the already weary pair like a blow to the stomach, nearly knocking the air out of them. Ukyou could hardly believe it. She'd been focusing and working hard on keeping herself alert on the flight back home. Surely she'd have noticed during all that if she'd blacked out? It… it was true that the armor had been on autopilot… but…

It just.

It just seemed hard to believe.

_'__How could I not have noticed? Why didn__'__t anyone say anything?__'_

"You said Cyborg was unaffected," she reminded them. "Why…?"

"We _believe_ Cyborg _may_ be unaffected," Ranma clarified. "We don't know. Right now, _we just don__'__t know_. But we're working on it."

"So what do we do?" Ryu asked, taking a deep calming breath. He looked to the two officers just like they all had learned to. Ranma and Ryouga had their faults - serious ones really – but the command staff had entrusted everyone's safety in them, and they had led their teams out of one battlefield after another. Not always unscathed, but always alive.

"Right now, the most important thing is to remain calm and have a cool head," Ranma told them. "Just like during any psionic attack. If you see something out of place, don't act. Think. Use your training, and keep an eye on your partners."

"We're hoping that self discipline will help with it," Ryouga continued further. "I'm also ordering that, whenever someone falls asleep, two people must be nearby. They will watch the sleeper and the other watcher. We will all rotate. We're all in this together and, just like in any fight, we all have to watch each other's backs. As a safety measure, I'm also disarming everyone at all times."

"Cyborg will be keeping an eye on everyone when they work outside," Ranma filled in the part Ryouga had missed.

"There's no way around it. This is going to be rough." Ryouga's hand rose up to rub his eyes. "None of us can handle this alone but we _will_ get through this."

Ryu and Ukyou couldn't help but exchange a look with the other.

"We will get through this," their CO repeated.

_'__What are the chances someone on that other ship said the same thing?__'_ the treacherous thought squeezed into Ukyou's mind before she could squash it. _'__And look where they are now.__'_

Rather than risk saying what she thought, Ukyou parroted Ryu in a quick, affirmative:

"Yes, sir."

* * *

That night – or was it really morning? – Ukyou tried to recuperate from the exhaustion that had laid claim to her after hours of fighting and travel. The lowered lighting within Pathfinder's hold did little to ease her transition into restful sleep, and even the presence of Ryu next to her and Ranma and Ryouga close by couldn't change the fact that when she closed her eyes, she saw the endless, brutalized expanse of ruin, like a graveyard pounded into a hollow ball, that rested on the surface above their crashed ship. Layers of sleeping bag between them, she was silently, secretly thankful when her sometimes confusing first attempt at a boyfriend provided a warm surface to mold her body into.

Finally, sleep came, and with it, that endless, hopeless expanse.

* * *

"Yorrlon Varto's log. Day of the [translation error]. Week of the Tower. Cycle Seventeen of the [translation error] Era."

The alien on the holographic display bore the face of the one in the ship's freezer. A red, bony and scaly face stared impassively forward, a pair of plates twitching beneath a solid jaw. It wore its green and white skintight uniform primly, without a wrinkle or fold to crease the muscled lines. It was, perhaps, the spitting image of a Green Lantern.

"Research continues on this dimension [realm?]. Two of our members were lost making the incursion into what we are told is 'non-Malthusian' space. These are the third and fourth Green Lanterns to have given their lives to this project after the disaster at [error: syntax not recognized]. [Translation error – recording corrupted] and I only wish they could be returned home to full honors. This mission is of the highest secrecy, however, so their sacrifices will have to be recorded off the books. To their friends and comrades back at the Corps, they will have simply disappeared in the line of duty. [Translation error – recording corrupted] accept that this is what is necessary for the good of the Corps and the good of our universe as a whole."

The picture skipped, abruptly, so the alien was now facing away and off to the side.

For a few seconds, the audio was only scrambled gibberish, and the body jerked in fast motion.

"[Translation error – recording corrupted] … citation for bravery. We were not expecting to be attacked immediately on incursion to this multiverse [unknown]. Romax and Thavor have once again distinguished themselves under fire, showing both restraint and tactical awareness. It will not show up on their permanent records back on Oa, but even the Esteemed Guardian himself lauded them for their success today. Maybe when this mission is declassified they can receive the [Translation error – recording corrupted]…"

Again, the transmission interrupted, skipping.

"...Should know better than to fraternize within the ranks! Just because we have been away from Oa and our homeworlds for a few Cycles [Years?] does not mean [Translation error – recording corrupted] … families back home. [Translation error – recording corrupted] but short of expressing my disapproval, there is nothing more to be done. We are [Translation error – recording corrupted]…"

Another skip, an the image became full of static.

"… fairly routine. This space is an empty as any I have ever seen, but the Guardian has never been so excited. Not that you can tell easily, but after working as long as I have among them, you learn to pick up on the signs. Exactly what he is so excited about, I still don't know. Something about dimensional variance and what he called a World-Soul [Spirit? Guide?]. The difference between our dimension, our universe, and… [Translation error – recording corrupted] … entropy? No. It is pointless to speculate. The Esteemed Guardian will inform us as it becomes necessary, if it becomes necessary."

"[Translation error – recording corrupted] seen many things. So much is the same. Worlds. Races. People. Stars. I [Translation error – recording corrupted]… sometimes think back to my own homeworld, and when I can return to patrolling my sector of space. That time will come again. Our new shields seem to be working. We have not lost a comrade to a dimension jump since [Translation error – recording corrupted]…"

The image cleared up, but the audio became low and partly scrambled.

Yorrlon, however, appeared haggard, his eyes bloodshot.

"Happened to… [Translation error – recording corrupted] Did something happen to our shield system? I can't [Translation error – recording corrupted] so what could [Translation error – recording corrupted] haven't seen anything like that before…[Translation error – recording corrupted]…"

The image skipped again, this time to a hand, and then back to the alien's face staring at the listener.

"…Esteemed Guardian has issued no less than three contradictory orders over the last Millicycle. I believe that, for once, he may be as confounded as we are. I never thought I would live to see the day a Guardian did not know what to do. I would find it almost a little amusing if not for the fact that two of those three contradictory orders were with regards to internal security. How am I to execute these orders if [Translation error – recording corrupted]…so what? I thought the same thing!"

The crimson alien leaned in closer to the recorder.

"Think about it. Why restrict access to the ship's computers and logs only to rescind the order just as its being implemented? Why [Translation error – recording corrupted] system? I need... I have to... think clearly! I need...!"

The Green Lantern took a deep breath, briefly closing his eyes.

"Yes. That's it! That's what I'll do! I'm going to send Lora over to look at the shield... and to talk to Sin'nan. I can trust her. Voor's species was nomadic, and from what I remember, their burial ritual was to be 'returned to the stars'…but there are no stars here."

The face twisted into what almost be an uncomfortable grimace.

"Not unless you count that... that _thing_ topside. No. I think it would be better to hold into his body for now. We'll give him a proper burial when we return to our dimension. We'll have to blank the memory of Sin'nan, too, and discharge her. The woman is... well, it was a mistake to assign her to this mission. I'll deal with that mess later. Romak Varto's log. Session Terminate."

More static followed, as the next few entries were clearly corrupted.

"[Translation error – recording corrupted] transgressions are becoming more and more blatant. I tried to remind them, all of them, that a Green Lantern embodies the ethos of discipline and willpower, not willfulness! Yet those two continue to flaunt their illicit relationship! Can't they see what it is doing to the discipline of this ship? And Doan - DOAN! he had the gall to [Translation error – recording corrupted]… is he trying to challenge me? I know he's been conspiring behind my back. Behind the Esteemed guardian's back!"

The alien was now stroking his chin-plates.

"…am I going to do about him? Maybe… I've been too lenient. I'll move some of the duty shifts around. Reassign who is free when. If they refuse to listen to reason, then they'll learn to listen to force. A Lantern must be Obedient, as the Guardian says. Yes. A leader should – a leader **must** have the moral fiber to [Translation error – recording corrupted]…"

Another grainy image took the place of the one before, this time the alien was toying with the ring on his finger as he spoke, rubbing it back and forth in a nervous tick. The once black eyes now had a reddish hue, possibly from lack of sleep.

"…certain of it. Someone sabotaged the shield. Sabotaged the dimensional drive. Sabotaged the ship! Sabotaged the mission! Someone entered the wrong coordinates… Someone…[Translation error – recording corrupted]... but who...?"

The next image showed the alien leaning in close to whatever was recording it, all but spitting on the screen.

"Qwardians! It has to be Qwardians. I KNEW IT!" He spun around, taking an enraged swipe at the air and then going back to staring straight into the recording device. "One of them is ON THIS SHIP. Someone here is a Qwardian _sympathizer_. I saw this happen before, you know. With Darkseid's agents. On Merax Five. This time... I'll catch who did it. This time... I'll make them pay...!"

The image distorted as the rant continued, then cleared up again, this time with the alien pointing at the recorder.

"Don't think… I haven't considered that maybe I'm jumping to conclusions. I am not. I am not. I am not. I am not!" The alien repeated, not just twice, but six times. "I am not! I am not! I have proof!" The insane Lantern leaned in close enough to the screen to glare at whoever was watching the recording. "I swear to All the Gods... He won't betray us again. With Alpha Team heading off to deal with the Guardian's special request, I'll finally have the chance to do... what has to be done... with traitors...!"

The alien angrily logged off without repeating its name, and the recording skipped to another entry.

This time it was just holding the recording device and laughing, tears running down its scaly cheeks. He was shaking, and there was blood splashed across his uniform and face. The plates around his jaws twitched with an epileptic fury, and whatever words he tried to speak were slurred gibberish.

[Translation error – recording corrupted]. [Translation error – recording corrupted]. [Translation error – recording corrupted]. [Translation error – recording corrupted]. [Translation error – recording corrupted]. [Translation error – recording corrupted]. [Translation error – recording corrupted]. [Translation error – recording corrupted]. [Translation error – recording corrupted]

[Translation error – recording corrupted]

[Translation error – recording corrupted]

[Translation error – recording corrupted]

[Translation error – recording corrupted]

[Translation error – recording corrupted]

[Translation error – recording corrupted]

[Translation error – recording corrupted]

[Translation error – recording corrupted]

[Translation error – recording corrupted]

Nabiki tore her eyes away from the screen to rest her face in the palms of her hands.

Hours.

The datafiles had hours of _this_.

They didn't have the heavily encrypted ship's logs yet, but they had been able to break through the light security restricting access to the crew manifest and personal recordings. This was the result: hours of static, interspersed by old deleted messages, personal logs, and eventually, fraying and snapping and madness. She could still hear one particular recording the computer had translated, of a female alien, just crying: sobbing for what seemed like hours as she held herself, rocking back and forth. She didn't say a word. It was heart wrenching.

_'__You__'__ll be doing the same, soon enough__…'_

The clocks told them that it had been almost three days since their crash in this dimension. Roughly 60 hours. It felt like an eternity.

Her body shaking, the Tendo sister felt hot wet spots form in her palms, and it took a second to realize she was crying. Nabiki actually started to laugh, but only for a few shuddering seconds. A deep breath followed and she forced herself into some semblance of cool composure.

_'__Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.__'_ the mantra repeated; an uphill struggle that had gotten harder and harder with every passing hour, every restless attempt at sleep, every damn platitude, every iota of slipping sanity she could see in her friends._ 'Oh god... it's happening to us..'_

She stared up at one of the hidden cameras in Pathfinder's CIC.

_'It's happening... to me...'_

* * *

x

* * *

/ARCHIVE/

AUDIO Encoded  
Bundle: (D.4.6.102)  
INTSec Priority Violet

TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS  
Voice Identification Confirmed: Y5/Jinx (99.6 percent)

SESSION Begin

...

Jinx's personal log

(pause)

Though, I guess 'Dear Diary' works pretty much just as well.

(pause)

God, I can't believe I'm actually doing this. This is so stupid. Why am I even recording this? It's not like I'm ever going to listen to it again. What the hell is the point of a 'personal log' anyway? I already know what I'm thinking, do I need to tell myself, or some crap?

(pause)

Still, the shrink back at base did mention it was a good way to 'unburden' myself

(pause)

and lord knows I have more than a few things to get off my chest

(pause)

Hmm, that was odd, for a second I thought I heard Hibiki chuckling?

(pause)

I'll kick his butt later if he was.

(pause)

Anyway, getting things off my chest, yeah. God knows it was a pain in the ass to actually find five cubic centimeters of my own to actually do this. (laugh) And I thought the lack of privacy back on 'Sucky Earth' was bad. This anchovy tin is a nightmare, even without the added benefit of a nightmare dimension. Bad as it is, though, it doesn't even rank on my list of things that have been right pissing me off since waking up.

(pause)

Let's start with number one. Everyone starting to go nuts all over the place. I mean, what the hell is up with that? Konatsu, probably the sweetest guy on the ship - y'know, for a killer assassin type - is taking swings at ghosts? And Kuno actually tried to scalp himself? Damn guy's hair is pretty much his best feature, he didn't do himself any favors, I gotta say.

(pause)

I mean, yeah, sure, I guess things are rough all over. I probably stepped over a line when I nearly killed Shampoo and all. (laugh) The stupid cow didn't even have a clue how close she came to being Korean barbeque. Serves her right, anyway, trying to kill me right back, but I _guess_ it's a good thing that Hibiki stepped in.

(pause)

I think the strangest thing is that I actually feel a bit bad for almost killing Shampoo

(pause)

And not even for the 'failing to do so' bit.

(pause)

Yeah, so, I guess the going crazy stuff isn't that annoying. Sure, we're probably all gonna die from it and rot away for eternity, but them's the breaks.

(pause)

One of the things that's _really_ grinding my gears since I've woken up, is that it's like I've _woken up_, like, from a dream, or something. I mean, just sitting here, alone, in the dark, it just suddenly hit me: how is it that Starfire, or Ryouga, or Raven… hell, not even _Cyborg_ have noticed that these X-Com jerks have been treating us like damn slaves. I mean, normally I'd give Cy a pass, being the best looking guy on the ship by a pretty wide margin, but he's supposed to be the _smartest guy on the planet_! Smartest sardine in the can now, I guess, though the competition isn't exactly stiff here."

(pause)

I know that I wasn't a model employee before coming to Azarath, and then here, but looking back on it, I can't even fathom how I behaved myself even as well as I did. These _bastards_ lock us up in a mountain, send us out on borderline suicidal missions _again_ and _again_, and give us jack and shit in return.

(pause)

Oh, yeah, we get _new gear_

(pause)

Except we don't cuz they can take it away in a second. We get a chance to go home… except we _don't_! Hell, even when they _knew_ we were heading back to our own universe type place, and they knew we could get home on our own, they found some convenient excuse to force us to stay with them, to keep fighting their fights for them.

(pause)

I wonder if they'll ever let us go home, considering how valuable Cy and Rae are to them

(pause)

Hibiki is useless. He's letting them run over us roughshod, and he doesn't even _realize_ it! _I_ wouldn't put up with the crap he has. I - I

(pause)

I _wouldn't_ put up with it

(pause)

I _do_ know what I _would_ do, though

(pause)

(pause)

Crap! Someone's coming! Looks like it's time to sign off. More to come later, I am so _not_ done bitching yet!

...

SESSION Terminated

TRANSCRIPT END

/ARCHIVE/


	35. Trespasser 5

_**A/N**_

Hey all! Been a while since we had one of the longer chapters, hasn't it? Well, here's an extra-early extra-long chapter for you guys.

Thanks again for all the reviews and comments!

Also:  
**Reflections Lost is now over a million words long**. _Ding_.

* * *

x

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Trespasser_

Chapter 34

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Acting Major Ryouga Hibiki wished, at that moment, that he could wipe a hand across his brow. Unfortunately, the hard vacuum which currently comprised the atmosphere (or lack thereof) around him made that a suicidal prospect, at best. Having been exposed to the affectionate embrace of the airless void before, he was in no way interested in a repeat. Sighing, he wondered briefly just how long he had been outside the ship, cutting away at alien scrap metal. He had a feeling the actual number would depress him, and not in the productive way that would increase the output of his emotive ki.

"Major, you need to focus. You're lagging behind, and you and Jinx need to be in tandem here."

Actually, he took that back.

Considering that he'd been getting minute by minute 'updates' on his progress from Cyborg since he took his first step out of the ship, he knew exactly how long he'd been out here. It just _felt_ like it had been an eternity. To say it had already traversed into the realm of utterly frustrating long ago would have been an understatement. Yet, at the same time, though it was his prerogative, he couldn't actually countermand Cyborg's steady stream of advice, the cybernetic teen being the foremost authority on all things technical on this mission.

That fact did nothing to alleviate the simmering resentment he was feeling. _Really?_ He was falling behind Jinx? That stung.

With an annoyed blast of air from his nose, he turned his attention back to the job at hand. They were working on a nasty section at the moment: a skeletal framework hanging from the top of the tunnel, but had since collapsed and become entangled with an upwards thrusting hull torn up by the shearing passage of Pathfinder's initial transit window. It was easily the most troublesome of the obstructions in the tunnel, mixed as it was with erratic, still somehow active, power lines and other miscellaneous inconveniences, all of which combined to make it almost entirely responsible for the fact that they were still one hundred meters from the surface despite the length of time they'd been working.

CT-Yankee's Ryouga and Starfire had already started work on this section, and had made good progress, but then, neither of them had the entire weight of the mission crushing down on them. Neither his younger self, nor the increasingly belligerent alien girl were constantly getting contacted by various members of the crew, receiving constant updates on anything that was deemed relevant or important. Naturally Cyborg was making no allowance for that, demanding he keep the same schedule as the girl prancing around in the rafters above his head.

He could just barely make her out, pink sparks giving away her position, though the dark metal of her armor blended into the dull mash of alien structures. In the distance, he could see Cyborg as well, studying every single movement they made from outside of the mess of twisted metal. Even across the distance, he could see their foreman tap a hand to his arm.

"Jinx… you must be more careful," Cyborg was speaking slowly and methodically, "Control your output."

"I know – I know! I'm trying!"

Ryouga started at that exchange. Looking up, he noted a bright flare of light in the superstructure above him.

"Hey, hey," he grumbled, feeling the vibrations in the hulk through his feet. "What's going on up there?"

"I've got – it – _wait_-" came Jinx's frantic reply.

"No, Jinx! Stop what you're doing!" Cyborg barked back, even more frantically. It was immediately followed by, "Hibiki! Move! Get outta there!"

It was all the warning he had before a sudden jolt nearly shook him from his feet. Again, he cursed the hazards of operating in vacuum. Doubtless, if he'd been on earth, the entire structure would have been groaning in agony as the stressed metal shifted sharply. As it was, even as hundreds of tons of metal collapsed towards him, it did so in an eerie, perfect silence. Worse, it made it hard to determine, based on his earthbound experience, exactly where the collapsing debris was falling towards.

Another heavy jolt, as a section of the falling framework smashed to the ground ten meters to the side, snapped him back to reality. Letting out a curse, both at the situation and at his loss of concentration, he sprang into action, sprinting in Cyborg's direction. One foot slammed heavily to the floor plates, followed quickly by the other, but the reduced gravity was making it hard to maneuver as he normally would. Two tumbling rafters came in from the sides like broken pincers and he slammed his palms into them, forcefully knocking them aside and using the twin blows to cancel out the inertia they, in turn, had imparted into him.

If this has just been Earthside, at least he could ground himself to misdirect the momentum. Here, any given blow threatened to overwhelm the magnetic treads on his boots and send him careening in the opposite direction. Flipping over a gash torn into the floor, he hit the floor on the far side in a crouch, skidding under a twisted pipe, finally shifting back into a full run again-

The wind was blasted from his lungs as something impossibly heavy slammed into his back. This time, he did hear the sound of metal groaning in protest to insane forces, but this time the noise was coming from inside his armor! Whatever it was that had caught him slammed him face first to into floor plating, crushing him right into the floor as the deck plates buckled and folded around him. He tried to twist around, but his limbs were getting tangled up in the shearing metal and endless cables. His body instinctively reacted to destroy the oppressive weights, to lash out with a full body breaking point, but while he could technically use the breaking point with any part of his body, it was not possible to project it through any and every part of his armor.

A second later, his chest slammed into something solid and unyielding, and he felt his ribcage nearly explode as the pressure on his chest suddenly spiked exponentially. He couldn't feel or see what it was, and despite working and operating in personal armor for months, thinking of it almost as a second skin, he suddenly felt blind and bound. It was hard to concentrate. To reorient. To fight back in some way – any way! His lungs burned, unable to draw in any life giving air.

_'__Not __–__ not like this__…__!__'_

He'd been so close, and now he was going to be crushed like a beer can in a construction accident? After all he'd been through? It had to be some kind of sick joke.

Then, just as quickly as it happened, the pressure on his chest suddenly… abated. Raggedly, he drew in a breath, but even that was scarcely a relief, as his breastplate felt like it had been warped, preventing his diaphragm from expanding fully. Still, it was enough to stop the burning sensation in his chest as sweet recycled oxygen filled his lungs. A moment later, he felt himself lifted off of the ground and thrown over someone's shoulder. A painful jolt later, he was outside of the hole he'd just been punched through.

The sight that greeted him was… a disaster. Dust and debris hung in the air, obscuring vision beyond a few meters. Twisted and snapped steel surrounded them in every direction, hanging over their heads like an angry maw.

Only a few meters to his side, Cyborg stood, his body vibrating madly as he held the massive section of the ship's skeleton, the very same section that had been resting on the officer's back mere seconds ago. For just a moment, it looked as if the Titan was holding up the entire world on his shoulders.

Ryouga actually balked a little at the sight. It was rare indeed to encounter an incident where his own physical strength was lacking. But this...? He had been _told_ about Cyborg's "super strength," but he had never really understood just why his double had sounded so awed when he had tried to explain it. Until now. Ryouga couldn't even see through all the debris that had fallen around them.

This was... bad.

Even as Cyborg dropped the massive section of dead ship, letting it drop right back into the hole, Ryouga was dropped to the floor as well, landing on one knee. His mind was already trying desperately to determine just how much of a cave-in they were dealing with. He'd spent more than a year tunneling through Japan with the breaking point. He knew all about collapses, about the many ways to die underground, but that was Earth, and this... was far from home.

"Major, are you alright?" Jinx stared at him intently through her visor, kneeling down beside him.

_'__Are you alright?__'_ he thought, bitterly. _'__That has to be sarcasm, there.__'_

"Major?" the second query came from Raven, over the comm, ironically identical to that voiced by Jinx a moment before. "Are you alright?"

"What - what happened?" he asked, swallowing his pain and his other concerns, directing the question at the former villainess. _'__First things first. First things first. Don't panic. Don't ever panic.__'_

"I - I don't know," Jinx replied frantically. "I was trying to cut the thing that Cyborg told me to, then... everything - everything just started falling down!"

_'__An accident.__'_

An accident that had nearly killed him.

_'__Just an accident.__'_

"Major," Raven spoke up again from the communications line. "Your…!"

He sucked in a breath, and then his entire HUD flashed with an emergency warning. It was the words any and every man in space feared: SUIT INTEGRITY COMPROMISED. The armor screamed, bringing up an inventory of the affected areas. XCOM personal armor was already compartmentalized, so a single breech to an extremity would not decompress the entire suit, but along with the warning claxon, the officer also heard an unmistakable hiss.

"Ah. Ah? Ah!" Eyes darted, first from the display of damaged sections, then across the visor, searching frantically for the crack or tear in the helmet. No: no it couldn't be in the helmet itself. It was solid alien alloy. It had to be somewhere in the body glove. His mind raced, and he momentarily ignored the air venting out of his left glove and lower back. The familiar touch of vacuum, like a caress from the grave, sent chills down his spine. Six months. It had been six months since he had volunteered to die in that airlock. A half a year. Now, at last, the specter of vacuum-exposure had come to finish the job.

_'__Where? Where is it? Where is it?__'_

"I'm venting air. I've lost containment on my helmet!" he yelled, adrenalin forcing him back onto his feet, the pain from moments before momentarily forgotten. "Leak! Does anyone see a leak?"

Immediately, Cyborg was at his side, running some form of scanner over him.

"Yeah! Hold on!" The teen sounded, ironically, much more like himself than he had all day. "I got it, there's a shard of metal in the neck - holy crap! It bit into your throat, Ryo! An inch or two to the side…"

Leaning in, the bulky teen clamped onto his shoulder, holding him in place. "Hold still, man, I got it."

Ryouga felt a small tug, followed by a louder hiss of escaping air. Thankfully, it only lasted for several more tense seconds, before the self-sealing layer of the suit finally closed the gash. Letting out a sigh of relief, he prepared to push himself up to his feet.

"...Crap."

Cyborg's sudden, and stark statement stopped the CO dead. Instantly, he turned to stare at the Titan. "What?"

"Your life support system was smashed, Ryo. It's still contained... but it ain't recycling your air anymore! We need to get you back to the ship, and fast!"

The life threatening leak found, Ryouga reached into a pocket strapped to his thigh and retrieved a small cylindrical canister. Cracking the top, he held it up to the spot under his neck, and a thick foam blasted out to cover the area, quickly dehydrating on exposure to vacuum and becoming a hard sealant. With the debris removed, he could feel it touch his skin as well. That bit of metal had not only cut through the body glove, but left a cut in the muscle of his neck as well. He hissed as the sealant filled _that gap_, as well, finishing the job the environmental layer started. It hurt like hell, but it wasn't life threatening.

He spared a few seconds to find the other, less critical leaks.

Finally, the armor's computer recognized 'integrity restored' and downgraded the alert status, removing the painful siren sound from the officer's ears. His eyes found the display that indicated the damaged recycler. It was a modular system, designed to be replaced. Once back on Pathfinder, he could swap out a replacement. In the meantime, recycled or not, he had by his own estimated a bit more than twenty minutes left.

His helmet began re-pressurizing and reheating the air, and he felt the pressure on his eyes give way. He could guess that they'd been left bloodshot, and searched for the tint function on his visor.

"I still have time," he said, tossing away the spent sealant can. "Ten minutes. No: fifteen."

At that, Jinx looked around, bringing Ryouga's attention back to their immediate surroundings. The steel jungle of twisted metal and choking dust was still there, the particulates hanging in the air unnaturally in the low gravity.

"Fifteen minutes?" Jinx muttered in an anxious tone.

The officer frowned. "Cyborg. Raven."

Rising to his feet, Cyborg began to scan the mountain of scrap around them. "This... could be a problem. If we can't cut out in time, at the very least, they might be able to get another pack to us." Then, and unexpectedly, Cyborg actually chuckled. "Still... on the bright side... not much point in being careful now."

"Subtlety isn't a specialty of mine anyway." Walking up to the caved-in remains of yet another alien ship, he took a second to locate the sections most vulnerable to his techniques. It was a complicated amalgam of parts, with far too many gaps between them: more like a bale of hay or a pile of sticks than a good, solid mass that could be taken apart with a chained breaking point assault.

_'__Assuming I operate at normal aerobic levels... Fifteen minutes. Twenty max. Then oxygen depravation, nausea, seizures ... then death.__'_

"I can't be certain what just happened," Raven also began her report-in. "But almost a fifth of the tunnel has collapsed over your position. I was going to… Nabiki has already left to get the reserve team ready. Also, in case you haven't noticed, your parts per million oxygen will reach dangerous levels in ten minutes. Not fifteen."

"I've trained in the mountains," he told her, wishing he was as calm as he forced his reply to sound. "I can deal with limited oxygen depravation and low ppO2. Make sure Nabiki returns to her post. Cyborg. Can Starfire and the other me get to us in twenty minutes?"

"With us cutting our way out ad them cutting in?" the Titan asked, and looked up at the solid mass of starship above them. "Maybe. I don't think we can move it without more falling back in. And there's about thirty meters of twisted scrap directly overhead." He followed the analysis up with an understatement of the week award candidate. "This is kind of a mess, man."

Ryouga turned slightly to watch Jinx, more than a few traces of suspicion lingering, despite all rational analysis. It had to be this place, and he knew it. He didn't _really_ suspect Jinx had gotten sloppy, or that she'd let it fall. That was paranoid. He wasn't paranoid. He wasn't paranoid. He wasn't going to become paranoid.

_'__I__'__m not paranoid. I trust her__…'_

Of course.

_'__She hates me, though. Hates me for what I did to Akari. For what __**she**__ did to Akari.__'_

That… was also true.

_'__She hates me. She wants to kill me. She wants to kill me.__'_

He closed his eyes, trying to clear his thoughts.

_'__She turned Akari into what she is now. She did that. She__'__s responsible! Her! Her!__'_

A slow ragged breath escaped his lips, and Ryouga held out his left hand.

"Okay. Jinx. Cyborg," he said, tone steady and markedly neutral. "You're both familiar with the Lion Roar Shot and Breaking Point? The old style of the techniques, not the new versions?"

Both nodded quickly.

"I also got a pretty good grasp of Ryo's alternate breaking point as well, if that helps," Cyborg offered, hoping that any small bit might be of assistance.

The acting Major touched a gloved finger to a fallen metal baam.

"Jinx," he asked, glancing back at her. "Have you used your abilities together with anyone else before? Your Ryouga, maybe? Or someone at that school of yours?"

The young woman frowned, but eventually nodded. "Once, yes. Ryouga, Terra and I... we... combined our powers, sort of, to blast something. But we never tried it again..."

"Was there some problem? You don't sound like you're remembering it very fondly."

"It was... draining," was all the slim girl offered in response.

"Explain to me what happened." It wasn't one of the incidents he was aware of, and he didn't like having to press her on this, but the possibility of something going wrong had to be addressed if there was precedent. "How did you combine your abilities and what did it do?"

She shifted about uncomfortably for a moment, before replying.

"It was because of Terra, mostly. She's got more power than any of us, 'cept maybe Raven, but she's crap at manipulating raw energy. So Ryouga got the bright idea, since he was still dabbling in attuning his ki to hers, to just feed her aura into his and use it to power his... well, it sure wasn't a shishi hokoudan."

The slight girl huffed angrily. "It pissed me off that he was able to...I dunno, synch himself with her so easily. So I kind of inverted what little I learned from Happi about absorbing ki, and force-fed him mine, too. After that, he fired off the attack... damn thing nearly killed all three of us."

"I see. So it was like that." Ryouga turned around, right hand reaching up to touch the cut on his neck, now encased in flash sealant. "I'd like not to try this on the fly, so I'm going to explain what I'd like to do and why."

"As you've seen, I can chain my breaking point across material boundaries. If a rock is made up of quartz and several types of silicate, or if you sandwich several blocks of rock or ceramic together, the breaking points can penetrate from one to another. I've become quite good at this, but I can't use the breaking point where there is no mass, like in space, or across gaps. There's too much space in all this debris. And, in case you're curious, the Lion Roar Shot also won't work in vacuum."

"Neither will my sonic cannon," Cyborg added, sounding annoyed by the limitation.

"Yeah, yeah, you both suck equally," Jinx snapped. "Get to the point already!"

"I want to combine my… false Killing Point with your metahuman power, since it isn't dependant on a material medium," he explained, lowering his hand to his side by force of will. It really was starting to sting and become… an irritant. How many minutes were left, again? "In other words, I want to generate a vibration and carrier wave that will take your energy where I want it to go, so it can do what you want it to do, and keep it there until the job is done."

Cyborg frowned as he quickly determined what that sort of maneuver meant.

"But..." the cybernetic teen protested, "From what I heard, if it gets into her ki, what happens if it gets back into her body? Wouldn't that kill her in the most gruesome way imaginable? I'm all for tricks, but I don't wanna risk blowing Jinx up."

"That is why we're going to practice first."

_'__I__'__m running out of air. I can almost hear it. Every breath is a tick of the clock.__'_

Ryouga picked up a piece of debris – a flat metal panel – and held it out for Jinx to take in hand. "Take this. I'll put my hand on top of yours, and we'll work on getting a carrier wave that doesn't bounce your power back into our bodies. Cyborg. If you have some way to measure vibrations and heat, that'd be a real lifesaver."

At that, Cyborg nearly laughed out loud. "Do I have anything that can measure vibrations, he asks?" Moving to stand beside them, the cybernetic teen touched a finger to the piece of metal, a long disused display sliding out of the side of his forearm.

"This thing was a sonic scanner before it was a sonic cannon, dawg, and sound waves are just vibrations! I got a little laser reader here that'll do the trick even in vacuum! As long as you don't kill yourselves on your first attempt, then I should be able to tune into the vibration your using and use that to warn you of any 'backlash.'"

"Hold on just a minute!" Jinx insisted urgently. "With all due respect, sir, as I just said, the last time I tried something like this, it went incredibly badly. Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Hmm." Ryouga flipped the metal plate between his fingers. "I understand if you're afraid to try. There's always a risk involved in developing new techniques..."

"I never said I was _afraid_!" she countered hotly. "If you order me to do it, I'll do it. I just want to make sure that you're aware of the full extent of the risks."

Immediately, Cyborg dropped a hand on her shoulder, only to have it shrugged off a second later. "Hey now, Jinx, don't be so worried. This is going to be as controlled a condition as we're capable of creating, here. Like I said, I'll be here, too, making sure nothing goes wrong. I was already working on this problem for our Ryo..."

The cybernetic teen's instantly shifted to the acting Major, then back again. "For... unrelated reasons..."

"Unrelated," he didn't buy it for a second. "Of course."

Ryouga gave Jinx one last look, shrugged, and turned back to the shell of rubble surrounding them, specifically the patch he had been accessing before. "I won't order you to try something untested; I won't ask you to do anything I myself wouldn't do. If that's what you want, then we'll just do our best the old fashioned way. Raven. Status on the backup team?"

"Wait," Jinx barked, cutting off whatever Raven might have said. Dropping her fists on to her narrow hips, the young woman stared at him seriously. "I never said I was unwilling, sir. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay with the fact that this might backfire."

Not waiting for his confirmation, she spun around and let out a resigned sigh, muttering mostly under her breath, '_Can__'__t believe I__'__m doing this__…'_That out of the way, though, she quickly turned back to face him, standing up straight and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Alright. But just so you know, Major. If I die, I intend to file a serious grievance." She lanced Ryouga with a serious stare. "And if we both survive this little 'above and beyond the call of duty' thing, I'm expecting a few good words from you on my behalf, sir."

_'__We__'__re in this situation because of you,__'_ a vicious voice whispered in his back of his head, and as much as Ryouga disliked it, he recognized that it was his own. His own thoughts. It made them much harder to ignore.

Instead, he said: "If anything goes wrong, it'll backfire on me, too. Now, let's stop wasting time."

He wasn't sure if he just imagined it, but it almost seemed like the young woman was eying him warily, but it passed too quickly to be certain. She nodded quickly, then, and placed her hand on the piece of metal. As soon as she did, Cyborg placed his finger over the piece of debris as well, calibrating his scanner again.

Placing his left hand on top of Jinx's, he prompted her to draw out small amounts of her entropic metahuman power. He had felt it before, and not just when he'd been blasted by her back in Russia. Ranma was the kind of genius who could and did develop his best moves on the fly. Ryouga's own talent came less from improvisational martial arts and more from careful preparation beforehand. The fact that he was naturally less adaptive than his rival was a fact of life he had come to accept.

_'__You lack talent in certain fields,__'_ his grandfather had once remarked, a stern and humorless shadow looming over a young boy, barely seven years old. _'__Work harder. Foresee what you will need to overcome. When you meet someone, plan how to use them and how to fight them. If you are caught unprepared by an equally skilled opponent then you must accept the possibility of death.__'_

Jinx's energy burned.

She had said so herself. It damaged her body, and as he tried to channel it and force it to follow in the wake of his ki, it lashed out. He had expected this. His hands, already scarred from his killing point training, flinched. It felt like cracks were forming in his skin and in the pads of his fingers.

He couldn't help but marvel at it. _'__Such a destructive, evil energy? I__'__m surprised she hasn__'__t killed herself yet using it. But__…'_

Ignoring the growing sense of pain, he told Jinx to increase her output to useable levels. His hand over hers, he began sending out test waves. First through her armor, then into her hand to attune with and absorb the malicious pink energy, and then safely out her armor's body glove, and then into the target material. Last came the hardest part: keeping the vibrations from bouncing back, reverberating, and turning on their masters.

"Careful," Cyborg warned.

Jinx just sucked in a breath.

Ryouga didn't ignore them, but he was in his own world. Unlike with his own body, there was no way to be sure Jinx wasn't absorbing too much in the transition from him, to her, to metal plate. Even if he kept the combined energies from turning on them, she was still being used as a conduit for a killing move. Too much, too fast, too little carried through with pink energy, too much absorbed into soft tissues… and she would begin to boil.

"Let go of the plate," he ordered, fingers squeezing her hand, pressure points forcing her grip to loosen, releasing the piece of debris.

"Hey - !"

Any further complaint was cut off, as the metal shook apart while falling through the vacuum. Snowflakes peeled off, like chips of dried paint off a wall. A deathly white and pink glow momentarily engulfed the material in a wisp-like aura, and when it finally hit the ground, it shattered like it had been made of sand and not steel.

"Good," Ryouga released her hand and crouched to get a good look at the gritty, degraded material that had once been space-worthy aluminum and steel. "I think this should do it. Cyborg?"

The technical genius studied the display mounted in his arm intently for several long seconds. Finally, he nodded. "Yeah... yeah, I think that could do it. Just like you said, your power is acting like a carrier wave, leading Jinx's power where it needs to go to do the maximum amount of damage. You're still gonna have to be careful about doing too much, too fast, or you'll still bring things down on our heads."

"Targeted destruction." _A family specialty._

One hand found the surface of the collapsed ship, alight with pink fire. Next to Jinx, Ryouga placed his hand on top of hers. The two stood there in that airless space, testing the vast hedgerow of metal ruin and rubble. Testing, searching, finding, isolating, preparing.

"Major," Raven's voice came in over his helmet's comm.. "Your oxygen concentration has fallen below the recommended levels. I've taken the liberty of turning off your suit's warning siren."

"Thank you, Raven."

It was true: he didn't need the distraction, and there was nothing to be done about the lack of breathable air. Slow, measured breaths sucked in the air that was still available, forcing his heart to slow down. It was said that there were Masters who could enter states of suspended animation through meditation and self-control. It was a skill that would have been handy, in retrospect.

"Jinx. You ready?"

"Yeah." The pink haired girl took a deep breath of her own. "Just try and keep up with me!"

She began without him, her power reaching the previous practice levels, and then beyond. For someone who had been ostensibly worried about the combination move blowing her up, she seemed to be getting pretty fired up. Literally. The amplifying energy sent fresh pulses of pain down into his hand and arm. It felt almost as if it wanted to come apart; tear at the seams; split into pieces.

_'__Good. Good.__'_ In his mind's eyes, he could see the cascade of destruction.

The symphony of annihilation.

"Raven," he said between slow, steady breaths. "Make sure no one is near the other side of this wall. No where near it."

Cyborg wanted it done with some measure of caution. It would be. Everything else would be suffused with the vibratory wave, the seeds of Jinx's poisonous energy planted in every vulnerable surface, every destructible support, every plate and wire. Jinx poured out more and more, and he directed it all. Even as his body protested, he directed it all. So long as none of the entropic poison came back at them; so long as they maintained control.

_'__Good.__'_

And then, as he should have expected, an even greater pain stabbed his right arm and side.

_'__Ryouga-kun. Don__'__t be mad. This pain is nothing__…'_

That voice: the voice of his nightmares, the voice of the woman – the thing – he secretly feared. **Cologne**. The **demon** waiting for him on Mars. The remnants of the parasitic vine, removed months ago, jabbed at him from beyond the grave. Like fingers, he felt hot hands moving seductively over his shoulders, fingernails cutting into his skin.

_'__This pain is nothing, compared to that suffered by one you claim to love.__'_ Cologne's voice whispered, echoing his own repressed impulses. '_Compared to Akari, this is nothing. And who caused her this suffering? Who would she curse, if only she could scream?__'_

He knew the answer even before she said it.

_'__Jinx.__'_

It was all her fault. Akari should have died a human death. Jinx had condemned her to an existence of misery and experimentation and, finally, the death every alien suffered when removed from contact with the Cydonian Mind. Twice now, he had failed her. Twice, he had left her to suffer. That first time, he had been too weak. This second time, Jinx had ruined everything.

_'__Hate her as she hates you.__'_ This time it was Akari who whispered in his ear. _'__Teach her suffering. The suffering she inflicted on me. Avenge me, Ryouga-sama.__'_

"H-hey, Major," the voice of the creature brought him back, his control slipping further and further. "You're… crushing my hand…"

_'__Obey me, Ryouga-kun! Or will you let me suffer alone?__'_

"Ryo! Your core temp is - !"

"Be quiet." He ordered. "Just be quiet."

He released Jinx's hand, pulling her back from the surface of the wall. She stumbled a step, holding her hand. He frowned at her, the voices of spiteful women fading away.

_'__Just be quiet and die. All of you.__'_

"Jinx?" Cyborg came up to her side.

The ship above them pinched, contracting like the pupil of an eye. Microfractures spread like an inverted typhoon, at one point either invisible or not there, and then suddenly everywhere: on every surface and every beam. They crumpled like burning paper mache, the emptiness what was vacuum filling with a million glittering diamonds of shedding steel, falling like snow.

That falling ash scattered as blasts and ruptures opened rifts around them, carving out widening arcs and paths, concentrating in one direction, one hemisphere. There was a long pause, and countless tons of ship turned instantly into granules of sand and strings of angel hair. Broken wires, a thousand times severed, sparked in the darkness. Freckles of fire, pink and green, crackled amid the falling ember storm; pyrotechnics within widening clouds of dust, burning with actinic lightning.

A pained grunt and he stepped forward, brushing away drifting detritus.

Searchlights pierced the hail, finding the trapped trio.

"Jinx…" He hated that it took some effort to say her name. Looking over his shoulder, he saw her and Cyborg looking through the falling flash and ember. "Are you okay?"

The girl stood next to Cyborg, but failed to respond.

"Um... Jinx?" asked her team mate. "You alri-"

His question was answered abruptly, when the sorceress suddenly collapsed as if her strings had been cut. Cyborg barely moved quick enough to grab her before she hit the ground.

"Shit, Jinx!"

"…Damnit," the mission commander cursed, glad Cyborg had been quick enough to catch her. He started slowly toward the searchlights of his comrades and teammates. He couldn't tell what, but something felt wrong with his arm and in his chest. Even aside from the throbbing, familiar agony in his right arm and the burning cracks that he imagined were spread across his left.

"Pathfinder Actual. Jinx and I are both injured," he said, on the open channel. "Please have a medic ready when we get back to the ship."

What he couldn't say was just how close they'd come to replacing the words medic in that sentence with body bag. Or body bags.

_'If you won't make her suffer... then you will suffer in her place..._' Cologne's cursed voice tingled his ear. '_Ryouga-kun...'_

* * *

"Jinx? **Jinx** did this?"

The source of the question was one Nabiki Tendo, and she should have known better than most just what had happened outside the ship. Instead, she recoiled at a sight she should have been prepared for. Ukyou very nearly did the same, despite having no forewarning at all. She had seen a lot of injuries in her life: injuries to herself, to others, in books and in her training – all martial artists worth their salt understood the human body and how to fix it, break it, or push it to its limit.

Nothing like this.

The Ryouga they knew had a respirator held up to his face with his right hand, taking slow breaths with his eyes closed. The inside of his personal armor had been sticky and stained with blood, and when they'd torn off the sealant patches, fresh bubbles and droplets had broken the surface on his neck and side. Despite the exposure to vacuum and other abuse, they weren't terribly worrisome.

"Holy shit, man."

Ranma whistled as he took in his rival's left arm before glancing warily over to where the younger Hibiki and Raven were dealing with Jinx. The petite villainess was still unconscious and being cared for by her friends and immediate teammates. Ukyou was amazed. It was almost amusing, seeing how frantic the pair was acting, as if the insensate girl was actually in rough condition… compared to what she had done to Ryouga. The pigtailed one lingered on her, as if struggling to connect her to what he had seen etched on the elder Hibiki's flesh.

Momentarily removing the breathing mask, Ryouga coughed into the back of his hand, flecks of rusty red staining his knuckles.

"Ranma," he ordered. "Forget about that. Get everyone back to work."

"Yeah. Yeah, right," the pigtailed one sighed and nodded in agreement. "Konatsu!"

"Ranchan," Ukyou spoke up. "I can take care of this. Konatsu is… he's…"

"Again?" Ranma asked, growing angry. His temper had become more erratic lately; his fuse noticeably shorter to set and more easy to light.

"He isn't the only one with medical training," Ukyou insisted, not wanting her CO to storm after her tormented teammate. "Just give him a few minutes."

"Its… fine Ranma," Ryouga said, once again removing the breathing mask. "It isn't as bad as it looks. Get people moving again... Get us out of this hole."

The Saotome heir nodded, roughly, and carefully patted his rival on the shoulder as he left the hold for the command room. Nabiki remained behind, still taking in what Jinx's power had done to Ryouga's body. It wasn't pretty to look at, and Ukyou could guess some of what the older woman was thinking.

There were strange, burning cracks spread out along his left arm and hand, like the contrast of broken glass and black background. Speckled blood dried across parts of his chest and across his arm, and the blood that leaked out from the larger of the cracks, making his skin seem almost like weathered animal hide, was a dark, greenish black. The sanguine smell of blood was one any person could detect in sufficient quantities, and Ryouga's nearly blanketed the hall.

It looked like a third of his upper body had been lashed by a medieval torturer…

"Nabiki," Ukyou began to ask, "Do you want to help with…?"

The girl's hands immediately came up, warding the question away.

"I'm sorry… but…" she took a deep breath and lowered her hands. "Ryouga-baby, I'm not great with blood. Not like this. I just - "

He nodded to her, still breathing with the mask.

"Did..." he said slowly weaning himself off the oxygen mask, "Did you find anything in the ship's logs?"

Nabiki shook her head in the negative. "No. Nothing useful. Just…" She looked away, ashamed. "More of the same."

"Keep looking," he ordered, taking some breaths without the mask. "You told me once: the more you know, the stronger you are. We… we need to know what's happening to us." He nodded shallowly to himself. "Also… I'd like you to check Jinx's recordings on that last mission. I want to know what happened with her."

"Do you think she…?"

"No. No. No, of course not." The fact that he repeated it like he did didn't do much to dissuade what looked, to the two girls, clearly like suspicion. "I just want to know what happened… Nabiki. I trust you to come to me… with anything you find."

"You know I will," she answered, and when Ukyou started wiping away the blood from his neck, the mercenary girl quickly made herself scarce. Watching her go, up and until she disappeared behind a door, Ryouga closed his eyes and blindly reached over to turn off the oxygen feed to his respirator. Long, long breaths followed as he shifted back into normal breathing and metabolic patterns. It was an ability Ukyou herself had to a lesser extent, having trained to endure hours immersed in freezing winter as a child… those had been long, hard nights of training, but the mountains of Nara, close to her home of Osaka, had been beautiful beyond words.

Those simple breathing exercises had likely saved Ryouga's life.

"You don't look too good, sugar," she said, scrubbing the gritty sponge over his left arm, cleaning the surface but opening barely-closed fractures. "I can't believe Jinx did this to you."

"Not her," he said, in a noticeably weaker voice than he had used with Ranma and Nabiki. He was letting some of his weakness finally show. "I did this to myself."

Ukyou tilted her head curiously at that. "What do ya mean? Why would you…?"

He grunted; his lip curling in pain as she finished cleaning the worst of the rips on his forearm.

"I'll heal from this more quickly than she will. A fraction of a percent of our attack kept leaking through; no matter how careful I was, I couldn't prevent it, so I directed it into myself. I had no idea how… terrifying…" he seemed to pick the word carefully. "Her powers are." He turned to look over at the sleeping villainess and her friends. "Is she really human? I'd almost think she was Raven's sister or something."

His eyes narrowed a fraction.

Ukyou joined him, but followed by quickly shaking her head and drying him off with a clean antiseptic cloth. He hardly moved, and said not a word as she administered an antiseptic spray that burned like whiskey but smelt sweet as a honey. The solution soon disappeared into Ryouga's arm and chest, replaced with a faint emerald glow.

"Ryouga," Ukyou said his name rather than rank to make sure she had his attention. His eyes opened after having been closed for some time, and he looked at her, her legs tucked under her as she sat next to him. "I don't know what these… these cracks on your arm are. It looks like some of them will close up, but… your fingers and… the inflammation means…"

"I know," he assured her, and held out his hand.

She took his hand, and gently put it on her lap. Holding it down, her free hand retrieved a flat tool. One edge of it slipped under the nail of his index finger, already split in half. They were already low on topical anesthesia, and Ukyou was forced to accept that Ryouga was fine going without it. The flat tool entered under the broken nail, separating it from the skin and nail bed. It came out with a wet crack, and so did its other half. The chef winced at what she had done to him, and quickly bandaged the finger as he mentally controlled his bleeding.

"We're almost done clearing the tunnel," he said, as she removed the next nail, this one broken into three parts, one of which hung by only a thread. "We're almost done," he repeated, as if the words helped with the pain. "And we still have nowhere to go."

Ukyou glanced up at him, surprised by the sudden musing. "Ryouga?"

He shook his head once, sighing. "Nothing. Nevermind."

In the silence that followed, he remained completely impassive, like a robot or a lifeless doll, as she removed the third broken nail from his ring finger. Miraculously, his thumb and pinky had remained unharmed. The swelling probably made them painful, but they wouldn't have to be removed. While she wrapped the finger up, he used his right hand to pick at and inspect one of the larger cracks on his left arm.

"These big ones will probably scar," he said as Ukyou finished. "Nabiki won't like that."

Ukyou blushed a bit, imagining the nature and circumstance of the Tendo sister's critical and discerning attention. Everyone knew the two of them were… intimate. It was still kind of hard to imagine for the okonomiyaki chef, who had known them both for a year and a half back in Nerima. Ryouga had always been Akane-obsessed, not to mention vicariously alternating between helplessly shy and single mindedly violent, and Nabiki had always been a troublemaking opportunist, selling out her sister or potential brother-in-law for a handful of yen. Ukyou's opinion of them hadn't been very high.

True, she had taken advantage of Nabiki's yen-obsession and mercenary nature. Even more true, she had taken advantage of the Akane-obsessed Hibiki to try and fix the fiancé problem the youngest Tendo sister presented. Ryouga had been kind of a friend, and at least an ally, up until the Tunnel of Lost Love and the fight they'd had. Nabiki Tendo, she had never trusted, plain and simple. You didn't put money before customers. That was an iron clad rule of the Kuonji Clan, and one that Nabiki repeatedly violated in her dealings.

To this day, she didn't know when the two idiots had hooked up.

It was before Baghdad and the fall of Wyndham, but it had to be after Winter Triangle - that left a few weeks when they'd either kept it a secret, or been touch and go. Ukyou was pretty sure she knew what Nabiki saw in the lost jackass. She remembered her first kiss, slurred slightly by how much she had drunk that night after finally finding out the truth from him about Akane and Ranma and what the pair were up back at the base; an affair that was still under the radar. Ryouga was kind of an idiot, but he was strong and loyal and… and Ranma-like in a lot of ways, and now that he was a commissioned officer – a well known one in the Far East theater even – that was probably an "in" that appealed to the greedy Nabiki Tendo.

What he saw in _her_, Ukyou could only guess.

"My old man had a lot of scars," she said, wondering if it would cheer him up to hear it. "You can't be a martial artist and not have a few." She smiled as she realized something. "I bet Mrs Saotome thinks they're manly, so at least you can show up Ranma a little."

He chuckled at that, his chest reverberating the more he imagined it.

"Well, I do like showing up Ranma," he remarked, and left the wound alone for now. Holding up his bandaged left hand, he slowly moved the fingers and then planed both hands on his knees, his legs crossed underneath him. "I've stopped the bleeding, but there's some muscle and internal damage, too. At least concentrating on healing will give me something to do."

He set his jaw, and his brows lowered as he remembered something. "Konatsu is…?"

"Not doing that well," Ukyou answered, knowing the question before it was uttered. "He's still seeing things and he's using _that technique_ again."

"I thought Ranma told him not to?" Ryouga asked, exhaling as she tended to the cracks in his skin and flesh with a liquid stitches and scaffold adhesive. It would make it easier for tissue to form in the gaps, since they couldn't be easily closed by forcing the nearby skin together.

"He did," she replied, shaking her head sadly. "Konatsu says he doesn't remember using the technique. He says it just happens."

"Techniques don't just _happen_."

"I know. But that's what he says. Maybe he does it and doesn't remember?" Ukyou leaned back a bit, and then held up his arm to get at the underside. "We've all been losing track of time… losing track of what we do."

"I know. But this is exactly why I've had everyone's weapons taken away. Even Mousse. Konatsu should know better." Ryouga's right hand came up to massage his temples. "I'll have to talk to him."

"Speaking of Mousse," Ukyou casually shifted the conversation a bit ostensibly paying full attention to her work on his arm. "We were talking to Raven about Starfire…"

"Not that again."

"Well, we were asking about _that_, but then we started talking more about aliens, and Green Lanterns came up, thanks to the guy we have in stasis," Ukyou rambled a bit, and coughed to better focus her upcoming arguments. "You know what Cyborg said about them. That ring we have could be just what we need to get out of here. I bet if… if someone had it, they could clear the rest of the debris, and we wouldn't risk anything like this happening. We could also send a third person out with the two MARS armors."

She could see he was frowning and about to object.

"We're already using alien technology all around us, sugar," she reminded him, and held up the medikit for emphasis. In fact, it wasn't alien technology. But it was high tech and close at hand. And made of alien alloy, so it _kind of_ counted.

"I just don't like it," he said, before she could try anything else or bring up any other examples. "Ukyou, they had a whole ship full of people with those rings. And all it meant was that it was easier for them to kill one another."

"We don't know that," she argued, letting go of his arm. "Not exactly. We don't know what happened."

"We know they're dead. Some of the damage to the ship must have been done with those 'power rings' they use." He shook his head. "It's just too risky."

She persisted. "Whoever used it could take it off when they come back in the ship."

"We don't even know how to use it."

"It responds to thoughts, right? Just like a psi-amp. We can learn to use it!"

He looked at her seriously. "Ukyou… where would you learn to use it? In the ship, right?"

"No, I…" she quickly caught herself. "Alright, whoever used it would probably have to practice a little in the ship. But… come on, Ryouga-honey!" She quickly corrected herself, "...Major, I mean. Can things really get that much worse?"

"Yes," he insisted. "Yes they can!" He held out his hand. "Form of: a big ball! And four people get crushed against the walls. Or maybe someone thinks of a ki attack, and the ring starts blasting raw energy. In an enclosed space! You see why I do **not** want this weapon being used on my ship?"

"I … I do," she admitted, scooting back and away from him a little. Biting her lip, she restrained herself from pleading. It was true: ever since they'd put the ring back into storage, she… she felt like it was being wasted. The ship had called her a Green Lantern. The ring had drawn _her_ to find it. _She_ could use it to help. The more she thought about it, the more she heard from the Titans, she more she was sure it was… destiny. _Her_ destiny.

"Please just think about it," she said, seconds passing in silence between them. "I don't care if it isn't me. Give it to Ranchan. Or you could use it!"

"Or Shampoo?" he wondered. "Or maybe Jinx?"

Ukyou was on the verge of snapping a hasty NO! But she caught herself and only crossed her arms.

"Maybe I care a _little_ who uses it," she conceded. "But we have what could be the most powerful weapon in the universe sitting in storage. Maybe we'll do okay without even looking at it again." Ukyou leaned in closer, looking him in the eye. "Or maybe it's just what we need. You saw what things look like out there. How much of the tunnel just collapsed?"

He sighed again, and she was very nearly tempted to call him out on his timidity. This wasn't the Ryouga she knew. This wasn't the same man who led India Squad against the enemy, was it? No. Maybe this _was_ the Ryouga she knew. The Ryouga from back in Nerima, who was too afraid to speak more than a few words to Akane, much less admit his love for her, all because of the possibility of rejection. Maybe, deep down, he was now and always would be a _coward_.

Ukyou blinked and lowered her eyes, regretting the thought.

_ '__That__'__s just this place. I don__'__t really think that. That__'__s not me.__'_

Still. Did the jackass have to be so damn indecisive sometimes? If only he were more confident… like Ranma. Or even Ryu. Hell, if he had been more of a man back at the Tunnel of Lost Love, then they wouldn't have gotten separated by the ghosts. They'd have walked out of there as… best friends. She was sure of it. But instead he had to be wishy-washy!

"It isn't like I haven't thought about it, Ukyou," he finally responded, also crossing his scarred arms. "I'll talk to Cyborg and Ranma about it again. Maybe it's worth… a try."

"I knew you'd come around, sugar!" Throwing her arms around him, she all but glomped the lost officer, Shampoo-style. "You won't regret this! I promise!"

"I haven't said who'll use the ring yet," he reminded her, going a bit limp in her bear hug.

"I know. I know!" she enthused, backing off and clasping her hands together. "I just… can't wait to see it in action! That's all!"

He seemed to accept that at face value and started to stand up. "Okay, then. After I check in on Jinx, I'll look into it. Ryu and Mousse should be back by then."

"Of course," she agreed, also getting up.

So, Ryouga wanted to check in on Jinx first? Even after the damage she had caused? Even after nearly killing him? That was a bit of a mood killer.

It was annoying enough that the other-Ryouga and Raven had been chattering away constantly in the background the entire time she'd been tending to the acting Major's wounds. Didn't they have anything better to do than watch that stupid girl sleep? The abrasive little witch wasn't one of Ukyou's favorite people even on a good day, and the last few days had not been 'good' by any stretch of the imagination. Close contact sure hadn't done much to bring the girls of the three squads closer. Mathematically, they were a little under an astronomical unit away from painting nails and having a sleepover.

It was lucky that Jinx stuck to pestering Shampoo.

_ '__Soon. Soon I__'__ll see __**it**__ again.__'_

Ukyou Kuonji could hardly wait.

* * *

Raven allowed herself a small moment of out of context whimsy as she watched Ryouga across the hold, doing his utmost to shoo Starfire back out of the ship to help Cyborg determine how bad the damage of the collapse actually was. Her Tamaranian teammate was understandably reluctant to leave their sides, having so frantically sped back here carrying Jinx's insensate form, but the young woman seemed to be fine.

More troubling by far were the suspicious or wary glares being cast at the young sorceress by a disturbing number of the crew, as if Jinx herself had returned a whole different person. As much as Raven would have appreciated Starfire's company at the moment, her friend was already a touch volatile when it came to the members of India and Juliet, and having people pretty much accuse Jinx with their eyes would undoubtedly set her off. Not that it seemed to take much recently. Cyborg would no doubt need assistance outside of the ship, anyway.

With a soft hum under her breath, she started removing Jinx's glove. It was an annoying procedure, consisting of breaking environmental seals, undoing latches and other such things that Raven had little personal experience with, never having worn the personal armor herself except for a single orientation and training seminar. Unfortunately, she wouldn't be able to do anything to help the girl until she was in her skivvies, as it were, so the armor was going to have to go.

The sound of someone letting out a tired sigh, moments before dropping down to sit at her side, drew Raven's attention to the lost boy next to her. He looked so… drawn… so stretched to his limits, and not just physically. Emotionally. She knew that it wasn't the hassle of shuffling Starfire out of the ship that was the cause, either.

Letting out a small sigh of her own, Raven finally finished pulling off the armored gauntlet and gently set it on the floor beside her. Beneath it, the Jinx's normally flawless, pale skin on the back of her left hand was bruised and swollen. No wonder it had been so hard to work the glove off. The sight caused something to twist up inside her that had nothing to do with Ryouga for a change.

Why did Jinx always have to be so _reckless_? Didn't she realize she was mortal like the rest of them? Compared to every other fighter on the ship, Jinx might as well be made of glass, and yet she never backed down; never hesitated to jump right into the thick of things.

It… reminded her of Robin, in an oddly twisted kind of way.

Robin, if he could unleash complete destruction with the wave of a hand, anyway. She couldn't help but glance out of the corner of her eye to look over where the acting Major was stripping out of his armor. Ranma, Ukyou and Nabiki were all hovering around him, exchanging words at the sight of his injuries.

Raven almost wanted to gasp herself, now that she had seen it, at the amount of trauma that had been inflicted on his arm and chest. Was this what they had mentioned before? The officer had gaping, bloody cracks in his skin, fissures that glowed unnaturally. It was selfish of her, but Raven almost hoped that he forgot about her healing abilities for the time being. She had no desire to experience the kind of pain he must be feeling at that moment. She turned away when Ukyou began removing his fingernails to relieve the swelling.

"Can you believe that the Major's attack backfired so badly?" she asked her companion as she began to work away at Jinx's other glove. "As if things weren't bad enough around here."

Closing his eyes, the younger Hibiki gave a abrupt grunt in tandem with a sharp nod. Crossing his arms over his chest, he dipped his head down low.

"I'm not surprised at all," he muttered in a low voice. "There's a world of difference between combining two attacks and actually melding your ki with another person's. It's not really the Major's fault that he wouldn't know that, though, I had to learn it the hard way myself."

That piqued her curiosity, as it reminded her of something that she had heard not all that long ago at all. Hadn't Jinx mentioned something about…

"What do you mean?" she asked, slipping off the second gauntlet more easily than the first.

He shrugged, his eyes still closed. "I did something similar myself, with Terra and Jinx, once. It turned out pretty damned bad…"

That! That was it!

"Wait," she said, remembering. "Jinx said something about that when she was talking to the Major. She mentioned that it was 'draining'?"

Ryouga started at that, his eyes snapping open.

"Huh?" He sounded genuinely surprised. "She told him that?" He frowned at the implication. "That just makes it all the more confusing. I just can't _believe_ that she agreed to do something like that again!"

Gazing at Jinx's pale face, he brushed a few stray strands of pink hair from her forehead. "We nearly died, all three of us. Hell, if it weren't for the fact that we had our friends right there to help us… we definitely would have. There's… there's no way of really keeping track of what another person's ki reserves are during something like that…"

A low rumble rattled in his throat as something a frustrating thought obviously occurred to her companion. "Worse, I can't believe that no one thought to consult _me_ before they did it, either. Jinx is smart, and Hibiki is talented, but neither of them_ know_ the dangers of mixing ki like that."

Raven shook her head, still looking at the bloody officer. "Well, I think at least he's learning something of them."

The sergeant shook his head at that. "The damage he suffered is pretty extreme, worse than I suffered, anyway, but that's not nearly the worst that could have happened. Sure, part of it was probably Jinx's power, part of it was doubtlessly the intent they both possessed while doing the technique, but … damn, it's hard to explain."

Smiling encouragingly, she motioned down to Jinx. "How about you try to figure it out while you help me take Jinx's armor off?"

Instantly, Ryouga's eyes snapped close again, and he shifted to the side.

"I - I…" he stuttered, starting to blush with embarrassment. "You don't really need my help for that… do you?"

Giving an annoyed huff, she grabbed his hand and dropped it on Jinx's armored shoulder. "Would you please man up for a bit? We still need to give Jinx a proper check up, and I can't do that while she's wearing layers of exotic alien alloys and plastics."

Gingerly, the Lost Boy opened a single eye, then, tentatively, as if expecting retribution any second, he began to fiddle half heartedly with one of the fasteners.

Rolling her eyes, Raven couldn't help but smile. "You know, you're probably the only guy I know that isn't ecstatic at the thought of getting his girlfriend out of her clothes…"

Her mirth, and the tiny pang of jealousy that accompanied it were quickly quashed when Ryouga fired a _scathing_ glare her way. Actually leaning back slightly, she was unprepared for his bitter response.

"You _don__'__t_ get to _joke_ about that," he whispered, angrily.

Lost for words, Raven lifted a hand to her lips, trying to find what she could possibly say to apologize for her thoughtless comment… only for Ryouga to give his head a weary shake. Reaching out, he gently took her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.

"I – I'm sorry, Raven. I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just…just…"

Dropping her other hand over his, she shook her head.

"Don't worry about it," she assured him, not wanting him to go on. "It's my own fault for saying something so foolish. I know how you feel about Jinx, I – I don't even know why I said that…"

She was a bit saddened when he withdrew his hand from hers, but was quickly reassured when he began to unbuckled Jinx's armor without hesitation. Far more experienced with the armor than herself, even with Jinx's more unique and slightly damaged set, Ryouga started to remove sections of armor with practiced ease.

"Hmm… well, consider this. If I use too much elemental ki, or if Ranma does, it will start to backlash and eventually destroy us," Ryouga began, completely out of the blue. Raven paused in her work for a moment, working on one of the latches to the clamshell styled chest plate, to stare at him. "And we told you about my fight with Star, right? How violently our attacks reacted to each other? Well, imagine what would happen if I tried to inject ki right into her body if we were both in that state of mind?"

Raven shuddered at that thought. She wasn't sure where he was going, though, he seemed to be half rambling, jumping from one thing to the next without really explaining.

"Actually, better yet," Ryouga suddenly started again, changing the direction of discussion. "Think about a blood transfusion. I mean, blood is blood, right? You need it to live, and everyone has blood in them. But, if someone gives you the wrong kind of blood, blood that isn't like your own… well, you can die."

With a clatter, the shin guard of Jinx's armor was dropped to the ground, and Ryouga started removing the rest of her lower armor. Studiously avoiding looking at any of the exposed skin, he remained perfectly focused on the task at hand, not even blushing.

For her part, Raven nodded in understanding. No doubt the metaphor was over simplified for her benefit, but it made sense. That just led to the question, though, of just how unique a person's ki was? It did lend a somewhat different bent on just what Ryouga had done when he had saved Terra from her petrifaction so long ago. Had that been when he'd learned this information?

"It's part of the reason that I haven't made any real headway with any non combat related techniques," he admitted as he started gingerly removing the last piece of Jinx's armor. Noticing what he was not allowing himself to see, Raven subtly reached over and pinched the edge of Jinx's underwear to prevent them from being pulled off with the armor as well.

She allowed herself just a single moment of wistful melancholy. The memory of her 'battle' with Jinx, so recently relived during the mind dive, made it impossible for her not to notice that Jinx was not wearing the dark stealth suit as she said she would. The young witch had been severely disappointed when they had told her she couldn't wear it under her armor, though Raven couldn't remember the reasoning. The thought left a strangely bittersweet taste in her mouth, but she forced herself to focus on the now again.

"Hmm?" Raven muttered absently, readjusting Jinx's 'garments' a bit more modestly once the armor was fully removed.

"Well, I dabbled with the idea here a bit, after the Commander suggested it… but it always ended badly. I could help Terra because I spent weeks trying to make my ki as much like hers as possible. With anyone else, though, I'm just as incompatible as anyone else… well, except maybe with other-me, anyway." He gave a rueful chuckle. "I kind of gave up on it pretty quick. Any technique that requires spending weeks 'getting to know' the patient isn't going to be useful as far as battlefield medicine goes."

She nodded absently, even as she began to hover her hands over Jinx's unconscious body. Blue glow encompassing her hands, she began to probe into the young woman's body, psionically and telekinetically searching for any possible damage.

As a wartime measure, anything requiring that much time to prepare was going to be a non-starter, and considering how convenient her own powers were, she doubted he felt too pressed to really work out the issues. Whatever those issues were, anyway. She still didn't understand half of the things that any of these martial artists could do on a good day.

With a low grunt, it didn't take Raven long to find injuries. To her chagrin, most of what she found were older, slowly healing wounds, the ones which Raven had inflicted herself back in Azarath: some deep tissue bruising, other, less identifiable but still painful annoyances. Then there was her hand, a number of hairline fractures ran through the delicate bones of her fingers. What on earth had caused that? Had she hurt her hand during the collapse of the tunnel outside the ship?

Either way, it didn't really matter too much. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, she smirked to herself as Ryouga studiously looked away from their unconscious teammate, his eyes closed tightly while she did her work. Pressing her hand fully to Jinx's taut stomach, Raven began to pull her rival's injuries into herself. She had already attempted to heal Jinx, and had dealt with a shameful array of more serious wounds, but she was not surprised that so much had been left undone.

Sympathetic healing had its limits… being painful at best… potentially lethal at worst.

Still, with most of the heavy lifting already taken care of earlier, this second round was going much more smoothly. She could already feel the pain in her own chest swell, then fade as her own enhanced healing began to deal with it-

_'That – that's odd…'_

Turning to her side, she nudged Ryouga with an elbow. "Ryouga… I'm healing her injuries… but Jinx's breathing is getting more shallow…?"

It was probably nothing, just exhaustion, or something like that.

After all, Raven couldn't feel anything physically wrong…

Even as Ryouga's eyes snapped open, and he leaned forward frantically, Raven let her own vision begin to swim as she stared at – through- Jinx. Sort of like crossing her eyes for too long, the visible spectrum began to blur and grow indistinct. A moment later, new sensations began to fill her senses, translating loosely into visual representations.

Then entire hold filled with swirling gatherings of light. Powerful auras, possessed by a pair of Hibikis, a Saotome, and herself, nearly blotted out everything else in the hold. Ukyou's neutral aura flickered between the oppressive weight of the four spiritual powerhouses, and Nabiki might as well have been invisible, drowned out completely by everyone else.

But Jinx… Jinx should have been as bright as a star. Though not a physical powerhouse like the rest, Jinx's energy generation, tied so intimately to her own aura, far exceeded anyone else present excepting herself. Raven actually had to concentrate, to focus as intently as she possible, looking past all distractions as she examined Jin-

"_No! _Why didn't I_ see this?_" Ryouga's panicked gasp struck Raven's ears, but she didn't understand what he meant until several long seconds later, when her own focus finally solidified.

Jinx's aura, normally so exuberant, was barely even visible! Traces of livid pink still shot through her body, flowing from her abdomen out to her extremities and back again, but the flow was so weak… so slow…

And it was fading!

"_Shit_, not _again_," her companion barked hoarsely. "Not like _this_."

"What – what's happening?" Raven asked, though a grim suspicion was beginning to settle in her stomach. The thought that – that something like this had been happening to Jinx… and she had let herself be distracted, had – had been _flirting _with Ryouga even as Jinx started to fade away?

"Catastrophic ki depletion. Just like in Atlantis… and with Starfire after Saffron," he explained, his hands trembling above the pale sorceress' body, as if he was unsure of what to do with them.

Raven's eyes widened in true fear. She had no idea what had happened in Atlantis, but Starfire had required emergency medical intervention, the kind that was simply not available here. Hell, what kind of pod could they even put together to recharge a metahuman? Even back on their world, few understood how metahuman powers activated or functioned, much less how to medically diagnose problems with them!

A sudden bolt of pain stabbed deep into Raven's gut, causing her head to drop down onto Jinx's hip. She forced herself back up a second later, but forced herself to take deep breaths to help her focus. What – the hell had _that_ been? Examining Jinx again, she noted that the girl's chest was scarcely rising and falling at all anymore. Looking 'through' Jinx again, trying to interpret the psionic impulses that were attempting to cannibalize the witch's injuries, Raven started to realize what was going on.

Oxygen deprivation was beginning to set in! Jinx's body was prioritizing, keeping what little oxygen it could still take in to the heart and brain… but other organs and systems were being forced to go without. Not sure what else to do, Raven did her best to transfer the damage to herself, breathing heavily to try and mitigate the same harm in herself.

How long could she possibly keep this up, though?

Reaching frantically to his side, Ryouga grabbed the medkit and tore it open. He began rifling through its contents frantically, looking for anything to use. He pulled out a large needle, pre-prepared adrenaline sorted by dosage, she recognized from their mutual training, and he stared between it and Jinx.

"…_No_, that won't help," he whispered harshly to himself. She understood what he meant instantly. Jinx's body was physically fine, her heart still beating, her lungs still respiring. A jolt of adrenaline might counter the symptoms for a minute or two, but it would do nothing to stop what Raven was suddenly realizing just might be the inevitable. Ryouga dropped the kit to his side and just stared at Jinx, a look beyond mortal terror beginning to creep onto his face. Turning to look her way, he held up his hands, desperate to find something to do.

"R-Raven? What can we do? We don't – we don't have _anything_…"

Worse than pain, a dull numbness began to spread through Raven's chest as Jinx's body howled for air.

"I – we…" Raven faltered, not having any idea of what to do. The medkit? It had nothing to help with something like this. Call for help? Call to who, and to what end? Who on this entire ship had even the slightest idea of how to start someone's life force flowing… again…?

Were her hands not already busy, she would have slapped herself upside the head. Again, Jinx's words from not terribly long ago rang through her ears:

'_So Ryouga got the bright idea, since he was still dabbling in attuning his ki to hers, to just feed her aura into his and use it to power his...__'_

Things began to click in her mind, faster and faster. Small discrepancies which hadn't meant anything before, and had been forgotten as quickly as they had been revealed, suddenly began to take on an odd sort of sense in Raven's thoughts. Ryouga's use of elemental ki, was it possible that _that_ was the reason? If _that_ was true, though, then perhaps…

_'__It pissed me off that he was able to...I dunno, synch up with her so easily. So I kind of inverted what little I learned from Happi about absorbing ki, and force-fed him mine, too__'_

Was it possible? It seemed so far-fetched, and yet…

"Ryouga," she spat out, barely above a whisper. "You – _you_ can do it!"

He looked back at her, obviously not understanding. "What are you talking about?"

She wanted to smack him, for missing the obvious. "Just like you did with Terra! You can use your own ki to supplement Jinx's, and start it flowing again! You can _save her_."

Ryouga looked at her like she was crazy. "What? Weren't you even listening? If I try that, I'll _kill_ her before she has a chance to die _anyway_. I'd have to match my ki to hers almost perfectly, and I don't have _weeks_ to do that right now!"

She shook her head fiercely. "Don't you see it? You've already _had_ those weeks. You've spent more time with Jinx than anyone else since we've _gotten here_! And what about in Atlantis, when she fed her power right through you? That _had_ to give your body an idea of what her power is like."

"I..." He paused in mid retort, finally pausing to think about what she was saying. Disbelief morphed into incredulity, then concentration, taking a detour into wonder, then finally into realization. "I – you're… _could _you be _right_? I don't know… but – but!"

Looking forward, the martial artist lifted his fist, staring at it as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world. A dark green aura sprang up around it, oozing with streaks of black and red, a vile, corrupt aura that simply looked toxic to the touch…

But, slowly, it began to fade, dark, heavy emotions shedding away to reveal a serene azure tint.

"But I'm sure as hell not going to let reality start getting in my way _now_!" he bit off with a savage grin. Raven would have smiled, were it not for the pain lancing through her body. Before her, she could see Jinx's aura continue to slow, continue to fade.

"Ryouga," she reminded him. "We're running out of time."

Nodding sharply, Ryouga quickly dropped his hand to his knee and closed his eyes, taking several long, calming breaths. It was critical that he brought his emotions under control, she knew that much, if this was to have even a chance of succeeding. He needed to purge all of his own personal baggage if he could even have a hope of trying to emulate Jinx's entirely different set of baggage.

As such, she kept it to herself when she noticed Jinx's aura die away completely.

Hiding her own reaction, she desperately focused more of her power into preserving Jinx's newly minted corpse while Ryouga concentrated. Even without breathing, they still had several precious minutes before brain death set in, and Raven hoped that she could prevent any serious damage as long as Ryouga acted soon…

Another long, soothing breath.

…as long as Ryouga acted soon…

She glared out of the corner of her eye as the martial artist continued to gather himself.

…as long as _Ryouga_ acted _soon_…

A long, drawn out exhalation of air.

'_Oh, for the love of-__'_

"Ryouga," Raven stated in a painfully strained voice, "I don't want to put any undo pressure on you, but I think Jinx's heart just stopped."

"_Raven_-" Crap! She could hear frantic fear begin to bubble up in him again. Her attempt to focus him, having the opposite affect.

"_No_!" Reaching out, she actually slapped the panicking martial artist across the face. "Concentrate! I can't do this without you! You're the only one with the training and familiarity to do this! If you don't calm down and concentrate, she is going to die."

She made the last statement with such silent intensity that he reacted as if she'd slapped him again, but with a forklift. Growling darkly, the martial artist stared around the hold, obviously staring at all of the people that were stoically ignoring their desperately hushed conversation to tend to their commanding officer or to deal with Konatsu and Kuno. None of them seemed to know - or care - what was going on. Of course, Ranma wasn't piloting the ship; the ship's internal sensors were off.

Finally snapping out of his building fury, Ryouga nodded sharply to her. Taking a deep breath, he sat back into a lotus position and closed his eyes. Though it likely took all of his willpower - as well as what little she could offer him in return while she vainly tried to keep Jinx's systems from shutting down, one after the other – his breathing slowed and she could feel his emotions begin to settle properly now. She couldn't even begin to describe the exquisite agony that she was experiencing, feeling her body die from the inside out as her glowing hand rested on Jinx's abdomen, but not even for an instant would she consider switching places with the Lost Boy at her side at that moment.

His aura began to manifest itself fully now, invisible to the naked eye, but as obvious as a lighthouse to a ship lost at sea. Her hand grasping his, she could feel the swells and eddies in the flow of his ki, could feel them smooth out and shift as the rotation of his spiritual energy took on a familiar, elliptical form deep within his abdomen. What she had proposed would have been utterly ridiculous for anyone else to even consider… but it just had to work. All of the pieces to the puzzle were there; it was just a matter of whether or not he could put them together in time.

Or whether what she asked was even possible in the first place.

As she watched intently, focusing through pain with experience born through long practice, his aura began to grow, taking on the achingly familiar azure color which seemed to represent his soul at its most calm and collected. When she had first met him, those same vitriolic greens and shades of black and red had been common sights: rage, hatred, envy and a host of other dark, negative, heavy emotions poisoning his soul. In recent days, the golden hue, reminiscent of Terra's unique, elemental spirit had been the norm. He used the elemental qi at every opportunity, possibly too much for Raven's comfort, as she had no idea what kind of negative effects it could have on him.

Still, he had spent many hours, many days; weeks working to earn the ability to summon up that power. He had spent countless hours reshaping his own spirit, altering it and acclimating it. He had lived beneath the earth, had spent entire nights sleeping directly on the cold stone floors… all in an effort to make his ki compatible enough to travel through Terra's body without destroying it in the process. But even then, after that, his ability to use earth qi had not been overly impressive. He strived hard to master it in the weeks following Terra's restoration, but it had been a very slow process.

Until he returned from Atlantis…

Raven still had no idea what had happened in that undersea kingdom, she and the rest of the original Titans had been tricked away to Tamaran by Blackfire. But now, now she had been given a hint. A hint by Jinx herself, bless the girl's black – hopefully soon to be beating again – heart. After all, Ryouga's mastery of earth qi had been markedly greater when she had next seen him, after they had returned to Earth, but no one had had any explanations, asides from training. She certainly hoped that, in this case, Ryouga was not nearly the prodigy he thought he was, and that her hunch was right. If not…

Raven glanced down at Jinx's still face, slowly going even paler than was normal for the already ghostly girl. Squeezing Ryouga's hand tighter, though it probably had about as much effect as a gnat landing on his skin, she tried to urge him to quicken the process.

_ '__Do it now, before it__'__s too late!__'_

Taking in another long breath, eyes still closed, Ryouga reached out and touched a hand to Jinx's ankle. His grip was as light as a feather, his fingers shaking slightly as he caressed the sorceress' naked skin. It was, in Raven's opinion, a testament to how serious he was taking this.

"You can do this," she whispered in a low, encouraging voice. "Just like with Terra. You saved Terra, you can save Jinx, too."

Apparently her words must have held more weight than she thought, as his fingers stopped trembling. Gradually, too slowly, his aura began to shift. Rather than brightening, on the way to the color of sunlight, it darkened… taking on a reddish hue.

_'__Yes!__'_ Raven gasped internally. There was a chance! If Ryouga could make his ki compatible with Terra, then maybe, just maybe, he could do so with Jinx as well! After all, if Raven was right, it was possible that feeding her power straight through him had actually increased his ability to emulate her spirit energy. It didn't give him her powers, not even in the slightest, but it did have other advantages. Jinx had mixed her power with his as well, and considering all of the countless hours he had spent in… in intimate contact with her… he just might be able to make his energy compatible with hers as well!

"What are you two _doing_?"

The question, asked in Ryouga's voice, but not by Ryouga, nearly shocked Raven right out of her trance. For an instant, she keeled forward, the pain overwhelming her as she struggled to control it, and she felt a series of violent tremors shoot through the younger Hibiki's aura like the aftershock of an earthquake. Hissing violently, she forced herself up, her hand squeezing Ryouga's so hard that her knuckles went snow white. Digging her nails in, with added talons of telekinesis, she tightened her grip until she felt her fingernails pierce through his breaking point hardened skin..

The pain focused him, rather than distracting him, and she quickly felt his aura calm once more, beginning to lighten from its dark red hue. Cracking open an eye, Raven stared up at the officer.

"No time… to explain," she bit out. She then turned to the Hibiki at her side. "You have to do it now. Wait any longer and it won't matter how close you get."

Eyes snapping open, her Ryouga nodded sharply. Perfect calm on his features, he smoothly leaned forward, looking almost unnaturally composed. Resting a single finger on Jinx's forehead, he held his other hand over her lower abdomen, arraying his fingers out in a circular pattern below her navel. Trained as she was, Raven knew well the chakra points he was aligning his fingers to contact. If they had had more time, they would have attempted a more familiar technique, applying energy to all of her organs simultaneously… exactly as they had done with Terra.

But Jinx didn't have that kind of time. '_It might be too late already__…'_ Raven shook her head to rid it of that wicked thought. Ryouga's hand rested over her _Sacral_ chakra, also the largest reserve of ki in the human body. Jinx's was all but empty, the poor girl had been drained nearly dry. It had been amazing that she'd still been breathing when she'd been brought back.

There was nothing that Raven could have done. She could heal damaged organs, shattered bones and torn muscle, but she could not _replace_ someone's life force. But perhaps, now that Raven had healed Jinx's old injuries (mostly), perhaps her body could begin to replenish itself… if someone was just able to give her a helping hand… though 'jump start' sounded oddly appropriate in this situation.

With a thought, Ryouga pulsed his aura, and Raven watched in awe. Tiny, incredibly tiny and carefully controlled bursts of ki entered Jinx's body, immediately sinking into the chakra points and shooting down the girl's internal meridians like tiny stars.

Nothing happened.

"Again," she whispered harshly.

His aura pulsed again, this time a greater surge of power flowed into Jinx, before flowing through her system. Raven winced as she felt a sympathetic spike of pain shoot through her body. "Be careful," she hissed, "Too much and you'll kill her." _'__Maybe not just her.__'_

She felt his hands almost lift away from Jinx, but she forced him to hold his position.

_"__Again.__"_

The shroud of light hanging over Ryouga darkened for a moment, then grew lighter as his brow creased in concentration. Though the amount of energy he had just expended had been so miniscule that it could scarcely even be noticed by even most of the people on this ship, he was already sweating heavily from the exertion. Again, his aura pulsed, and again, tiny points of light shot through Jinx's body. Several, in particular, swirled rapidly around her abdomen, round and round they went, almost cycling-

"Again," Raven breathed this time with hope in her voice.

And again he did. More reddish light flowed, cycled, circled… dimmed…

_A flash of pink!_

Raven's eyes widened, so wide that it hurt. She strained all of her senses, ignoring the visual spectrum entirely as she focused all of her will upon the spiritual. The reddish sparks of Ryouga's infiltrating ki continued to dim, cycling around and around but not damaging any of the sensitive tissue through which they passed. They would fade away entirely soon – another pink spark appeared, this one not vanishing in a flash like the first.

"Ryouga, again," she ordered.

She could only imagine how eager he was to comply, but not a trace of it showed on his face, nothing but grim concentration showing there. Again, his aura pulsed, and only now did it strike Raven just how familiar this scene must have looked. All they needed was a pair of shiny paddles and a distinct lack of knowledge on how defibrillation actually worked, and…

It started off as a trickle, but within moments, the tiny stream of pink life force began to build up once more, cycling weakly, but stably through Jinx's slight body. For a moment, Raven nearly smirked – they were lucky, in a way, considering just how tiny Terra and Jinx were. How much ki did they actually really need to power those willow-thin bodies of theirs? Even though she could feel eyes burning through her from above, neither her, nor her Ryouga took their eyes off of Jinx.

_'__Wait, something is wrong.__'_

"Raven, she's not breathing!" Ryouga barked, his calm veneer beginning to crack.

Yes, yes, that was it. The astounding martial artist had managed to rekindle the spark of her life force… but the damn girl's body hadn't realized it had been resurrected yet! The tepid flow of ki which Ryouga had just nurtured was already beginning to slow again. Desperation danced in the back of Ryouga's eyes as he sent another pulse of his power into Jinx's body, artificially bolstering the flow of her ki. It was something of an odd reversal, where now Raven was watching as he was keeping her alive.

"W-what can we d-"

The obvious solution slammed home with painful clarity. Instantly, she glanced down at Jinx's pale face, her even paler lips, then turned to stare at Ryouga, aghast. Indecision wracked her. "I – you – Ryouga?"

He caught on to her meaning quickly enough, his eyes widening to saucers.

"Ryouga, you have to-"

Cutting her off, Ryouga gestured to his hands with a sharp dip of his head. Both of them were still resting on Jinx's brow and her abdomen. He made his point, quite clearly, that he wouldn't be able to help. Anxiously, Raven felt her face begin to burn with embarrassment… but one last look at Jinx helped to steel her resolve.

Taking a deep breath, and closing her eyes as tightly as possible, Raven did the last thing that she ever thought she would do: applied CPR to her greatest rival. _'__Not rival. Your worst enemy,__'_ her thoughts betrayed her. Pressing her lips over Jinx's, doing her best to try to form a seal, just as Robin had taught her – Azar, what an uncomfortable week that had been – she forced a blast of life giving air down into Jinx's lungs. Sitting up, she took another deep breath, puzzled as to why Jinx suddenly had a ring of bright red lipstick on, until she realized it was blood, undoubtedly her own blood, and repeated the process. She then sat up again, only to rest her hands on the slim girl's chest, applying pressure in evenly timed intervals.

Azar knew that they didn't want a Hibiki trying to do that – for a multitude of reasons.

Taking another deep breath, she began to breathe for Jinx again, forcing air into her lungs and causing her chest to swell with each exhale. She then began pressing down on the sorceress' chest again. Forcefully compressing Jinx's chest, she counted quickly in her head, trying to reach the optimum rate of one hundred compressions per minute. She wasn't just trying to get Jinx breathing again, but to stimulate the blood flow through her body. There was no magic trick to starting a stopped heart, the use of defibrillation in movies and television was criminally inaccurate when it came to proper usage. It wasn't used to restart a stopped heart, just to restore proper rhythm to a person suffering from tachycardia or fibrillation of the heart.

However, the proper application of cardiopulmonary resuscitation could, in some cases, actually stimulate just enough of a rhythm that defibrillation, or something similar, could be used. On her third round of compressions, she turned to Ryouga. "Stimulate her heart, now!"

The martial artist stared at her in shock for a moment, but hid it quickly. Swallowing loudly, he swiftly moved his hand from her brow and placed it on her chest. Again, it was not dissimilar to what he had done with Terra, though he had used acupuncture needles (in the loosest definition of the word) to transfer the energy in that case. They didn't have that luxury at the moment. Instead, he had no choice but to squeeze his eyes as tightly as he could, then press his hand down on Jinx's chest, forcing a pulse of ki directly into the meridians that ran through her heart.

Jinx's entire body jerked up off of the floor, every muscle in her body going taut and arching her back. A sharp gasp sounded loudly, and Raven and Ryouga both nearly fell back from the unexpected reaction, but leaned back in frantically to check on the raggedly breathing sorceress. Chest rising and falling unevenly, several long seconds later, Jinx's eyes actually fluttered open. Her eyes rolled around for a moment, disorientation and confusion keeping her from understanding the situation.

Soon enough, though, the young woman found something to concentrate on. Slowly, her gaze slid first over Raven, then Ryouga. With glacial slowness, her eyes then trailed down to their arms… to where Ryouga's one hand was pressed to her abdomen more than an inch south of her navel, and his other hand was, for all intents and purposes, cupping her left breast. Looking up again, something else seemed to occur to the slight witch, as she gingerly lifted her hand to wipe it across her mouth.

Looking at the bright red blood that was now smeared on her hand, then back at Raven's lips, smeared in the exact same shade of red, Jinx came to a distressingly understandable conclusion.

"… rape… whistle…"

And then her head fell back down to land on the towel that Raven had placed on the floor, her eyes sliding closed once more. Instantly, Ryouga snatched his hands away from Jinx's body, and Raven quickly reached for a towel and began to wipe away the blood that was smeared on Jinx's face; and her own. Still… it looked like she was going to make it.

"Thank god, I think she's going to be alright," Ryouga breathed in exhausted relief. Raven felt herself grow a bit embarrassed, watching him as he stared at the unconscious witch, the calm that he had been maintaining crumbling to dust rapidly. She could only stare herself, entranced by the array of emotions which flashed across his face: fear, love, relief, anguish, joy, only a Hibiki could possess such wildly uncontrolled feelings in such rapid order.

Reaching out, she grabbed his hand, heedless of the minor injuries she'd inflicted herself. "Ryouga… I am so sorry…"

He looked at her as if she was mad. "Sorry? For what? You just saved her life! You're the most amazing girl in the world!"

It took all of her self control to stop from blushing herself. Obviously, he didn't understand what she was talking about, but, honestly, she didn't feel like spoiling the moment by trying to explain it again. That, and she could still feel the intruding presence of another looming over them. Rather than acknowledge it, she went back to checking Jinx, and it was several long minutes before she was finally confident that the young woman was, in fact, no longer in any danger.

Only then, did they finally look up, sharing a quick glance.

As an afterthought, Raven released her Ryouga's hand, not even aware of when she had grasped it again, far too weary to heal the damage that she, herself, had done to it. She was sure he would stop bleeding in a few seconds regardless, damned immortal martial artists. As one, they both took in long, shuddering breaths, before finally turning their attention to the acting Major Hibiki, staring at them with a mixture of confusion and curiosity. On a whim, Raven muttered the first thing that came to her mind.

"You…" she searched for the right words. "You look like a bloody mess… but you're going to have to wait a few minutes if you're looking for any healing."

"Your nose is bleeding," he said it without panic, but with some clear concern. "And you've clearly exhausted yourself. So, no, I'm not going to ask you for that. I want to know Jinx's status."

Ukyou, meanwhile, crouched close by and handed her a handful of tissues to clean herself up. "Here ya go, sugar."

Raven took the offered tissues and began to clean herself off better. To her side, she saw Ryouga stare up at their commanding officer, nearly vibrating as he battled to contain his emotions. Sighing, she dropped a hand on his shoulder and answered for him.

"I think that she's stabilized," she answered. "We were able to catch the problem as it occurred, and I don't think her heart was stopped long enough to cause any permanent damage, I hope…"

Taking another deep breath to calm himself, her Ryouga glared, but not at the acting Major.

His ire was directed at the chef by her side.

"That should be compensation enough for you and Nabiki, right Ukyou?" He asked tersely. "After all, it's only fair, considering - wait, how did you put it? 'I can't believe Jinx did this to you'. What? Did you think we couldn't hear you two over there?"

Ukyou glared back at him, unrepentant.

"Yeah, well, I still can't!" she snapped back at him. "I've never seen wounds like her power caused! It isn't natural!"

"Yeah, Jinx is the monster here," he growled in response. "She hurts him as she's trying to save his life, and he kills her while he's trying to save his own ass."

"Didn't she cause the collapse in the first place?" Ukyou retaliated, still kneeling by Raven.

"Okay. That's enough," the elder Hibiki said, coughing into his hand. Neither of the two martial artists seemed to heed him, however, their hackles already rising in mutual antagonism. The younger Hibiki's lip was already curled in mid-growl, revealing an oversized canine.

Sweeping his arm out before him, Ryouga rose to his feet. "That was a god damned _accident_! You have no idea what the Hell it's like out there! Cyborg doesn't even trust you to pick up after us, let alone actually help tear that mess apart! That could have happened to anyone out there!"

He then pointed directly at Hibiki, though his glare was still locked on Ukyou. "What _he_ did was _no_ damned accident! He intentionally sacrificed Jinx to save his life! I was _watching_ what he did! He used her like a damn battery, just directing her and bleeding her dry! So why don't you shut the Hell up before you talk about something you aren't even skilled enough to understand?"

Ukyou stood up a moment later, not willing to be looked down on, and jabbed him in the chest with a finger. "Oh, Hell no! You're the one who doesn't know what happened! But what do you expect from a big talker who's done _nothing_ but pick up techniques from _better fighters_!"

A tense silence hung in the air as Ryouga stared at her. Raven struggled to rise to her feet, obviously fearing an explosion of violence-

And then Ryouga burst into laughter.

Everyone present froze, Ukyou looking just as shocked as Raven felt in that instant. A moment later, Ryouga nearly doubled over in laughter, before finally managing to straighten up. Finally, wiping a tear from his eye, he just stared at the battle chef incredulously.

"W-wow, really? You, actually just accused _me_ of stealing techniques? I guess love really is blind, not to mention hypocritical." He grinned, chuckling at her expense. "Also pretty idiotic, to boot. Why don't _you_ tell _me_? Where exactly did I pick up the technique that I just used to save Jinx's life? It sure as hell wasn't your Ryouga. It wasn't your damn, _thieving_ Ranma, either. Hell, I doubt even your _Cologne_ knows that trick. So, please, oh wise and ancient sage of the martial arts, please enlighten me as to who I'm stealing all of my moves from?"

"You - you cocky _jackass_!" She lunged at him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. "Just because you can pull a miracle out of your- "

A hand found Ukyou's shoulder, and another the younger Hibiki's. Bandaged fingers, red from blood under the surface leaking through, pressed down on the latter. Ukyou's eyes immediately shot over to the hand on her, realizing the touch was anything but friendly. A cold icy spike of killer intent shot out from that hand like the heart of a glacier. An identical feeling shot through the Titan opposite. It went without having to be explained that, if he so chose, Seiran's native Hibiki could literally kill them both with a touch.

"You're annoying me," a dark, angry voice snarled from within the officer's throat. "You both are. And you're acting unprofessional. I said: _that's enough_. Don't make me prove it."

Pushing them apart, the elder Ryouga looked darkly from one to the other.

"You're fighting over _nothing_." He turned to Ukyou again. "What happened out there was an accident, but we still need to check the logs and find out what went wrong. That's common sense." He then turned to face his dimensionally displaced double. "And I will never purposefully hurt Jinx. She's my subordinate, and I made a promise… to someone to look out for her. I made every effort on my part to keep her from being hurt, but accidents happen when people combine moves and _you know that_."

"Second," he drove home. "As officers we are held to a standard, and that includes not baiting our subordinates. We stop fights, we don't start them."

Still looking right past the Acting Major, Ryouga grinned darkly at the Chef. "It wouldn't have even been a fight. That implies that she was even physically capable of _hurting _me."

"I've never met anyone so fucking-!"

"Both of you!" The officer barked loudly, cutting off any remaining argument. He then lifted his hands, allowing them to mutually take steps back. "Remember where we are and what happened on that other ship. Don't let it affect you."

Staring at the blood on his shoulder, the acting Sergeant Hibiki sneered with disgust, making it obvious just what he thought of the blatant threat of lethal force the Acting Major had just issued as a means of controlling his subordinates.

Pointedly staring at the superior officer, he growled right back, "Try to remember that, yourself, _sir_.

Raven found herself sharing the sentiment, and even considered questioning the hypocrisy of the elder Hibiki calling others unprofessional mere seconds after using a very literal death threat to intimidate both Ryouga and Ukyou, but ultimately decided it would not help the already tense situation. She doubted he would even realize what he had done. Lethal force was just so common among the members of India and Juliet… would anyone else on the ship even care? She – she had to hope that it was just the effects of this damnable dimension affecting everyone.

"Oh," the young sergeant added, almost as an afterthought as he looked past the elder Hibiki once again and set his gaze right back on Ukyou. "And try to keep your fan girls in line, please. I don't think we want any repeats of a certain wedding."

Ryouga turned a wolfish grin back at Ukyou. "Wouldn't want anyone tossing around explosives just because they can't handle reality."

She flinched visibly at the reference. "H-how do you even know about-"

"Nabiki told us," Raven explained, taking a step between them. She then turned to Ryouga, a deep frown creasing her face. "And, please... enough. I know you're angry about what happened to Jinx, but you can't take it out on everyone else."

For her part, Ukyou was silent, though whether she was stewing or genuinely rethinking her words from before was unclear. The chef seemed determined to not look at either Hibiki and instead frowned off to the side where the ship was empty.

"Now," the elder Hibiki began anew. "What happened? She was breathing when we brought her into the ship."

Sighing, Raven pushed Ryouga a step back before replying, "It's just as Ryouga said. I'm not saying it was intentional, but the technique you used was incredibly dangerous. Destroying such a huge mass of raw material in such a short time drained her life force to critical levels."

Frowning, she looked down at the unconscious girl in question. "Compounding that with internal damage she had already suffered before, her body just... couldn't handle the strain. We were so lucky. If Ryouga wasn't here... there's no way she would have survived."

The officer looked down at Jinx, but quickly returned his attention to Raven. "Internal damage? How? I mapped out her body during the technique. ...All of the blowback was routed into myself."

Raven shrugged.

"I wasn't there, I have no idea what might have happened. It's quite possible that she was still wounded from... an earlier incident," she answered evasively, despite the fact they both knew exactly what she was talking about, "None of us have really had proper time to recover from our injuries from Azarath." Tapping her chin, she amended, "The injuries to her hand are definitely new."

"I can account for that, unfortunately." Ryouga shook his head and turned to where the stasis tube was housed at the other end of the hold. "If I had known she was in a condition like that... and then, during the technique..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "But there's no point dealing with what-ifs. What else can we do for her?"

"Keep Ukyou and Nabiki away from her, for one thing," Ryouga snarled under his breath.

Raven elbowed the martial artist in the side, though he showed no sign of noticing. "There's nothing anyone can do for her now. She just needs time to recover is all. Physically, she's no worse off than anyone else, just drained. Give her a few hours, and she'll likely be on her feet again."

Still... she couldn't stop herself from commenting, "Acting Major. What you did, it was far too careless. I know that sacrificing yourself for the Art is a noble cause to you people... but should you be so willing to sacrifice others?"

"Raven..." he replied in a even measured tone, "You should know better than to ask me that." His frown only deepened. "Do everything you can for Jinx. Neither of us are in any condition to get work done outside, and my armor was damaged in several places. We've just lost half our work detail. We're going to have to look into other options..."

This time, it was Ryouga that stepped between the two of them. Leveling one last heated glare at the elder Hibiki, he finally relented, letting out a tired sigh. "I don't think that will be necessary. I'll head back out now and help Starfire and Cyborg. As reckless as your trick was, it did clear a lot of wreckage. Between the three of us, I'm pretty sure we should be able to clear the rest of the way… eventually. That, and I'd rather not have anyone else come out, not with how badly some – _all_ of us are reacting to... to whatever is happening in here."

A short pause, which was soon followed with an exhausted sounding "With your permission, sir…"

"Granted."

With that, Ryouga departed from the small gathering, setting about collecting his personal armor. Sighing sadly as she watched him go about it, Raven turned back to the CO.

"Perhaps you should consider allowing me to go out, as well?" she asked. "I know that I'm supposed to be confined to the ship, but considering the circumstances..."

"No." He thought about it again, but still decided, "No. I want you close by. You're the most powerful person we have. Right now, letting you outside is a risk I don't want to take. Not if there are other options. I want you as... insurance."

That sounded more than vaguely ominous. "Insurance against what?"

"A Green Lantern Ring."

Raven's violet eyes shot wide open at that. "What on Earth are you talking about? I know we found a ring..." She paused, her eyes narrowing as she studied the older Hibiki. "You aren't seriously considering actually letting anyone _use_ that thing, are you? The way some people are acting on this ship?"

"It isn't coincidence that I kept it locked up all this time," he said with a defeated groan. Checking to be sure the other him was distracted, the officer's shoulders slumped slightly. "I don't like the idea. I really don't. But I can't ignore the damage caused outside, or the fact that getting this ship free will help morale. Our suits are low on air, and we're all on an edge, waiting to be pushed off."

"I'm aware of that," she replied seriously. Pulling her hood up, feeling the need for a touch of comforting claustrophobia at the moment, she glanced at the martial artist herself. "Which is all the more reason to leave that thing locked up, and let me go out and assist with cleaning out the tunnel."

Though it was rare for her to admit it, she couldn't suppress the tingle of anxiety rolling down her spine. "I'm honestly not certain that I _could_ stop a Green Lantern, if push came to shove. Especially not if it was someone like Ranma that went berserk with it."

He nodded, understanding the nervousness she felt at the prospect. It was a feeling he shared.

"I'll discuss the matter further with Cyborg and Ranma. But if we have to test it out, I want you there to do what you can."

Seeing that she wasn't likely going to get him to bend on his decision, Raven let out a beleaguered sigh. "Very well. In the meantime, I'll watch over Jinx."

He smiled at her with the corner of his mouth, glad to have her spoken support. "Thank you, Raven. If only I had been more careful... Maybe if I had done nothing...?" A circumspect second passed, and he turned to Ukyou, who had been silent during the exchange. "But what's done is done. Let's find Konatsu. If he's using that _god damned_ shadow-walking technique again...!"

As she watched them go, Raven lifted her hand to stare at the stained tissues she was holding. That had been bad, far too close for comfort. They had nearly lost Jinx to a foolish accident, and now it looked like two more members of the crew were at each other's throats. Watching their CO go, she didn't miss Ukyou's glare being directed at the younger Hibiki. Normally, Kuonji was a friendly enough woman, albeit one with a short fuse. The look in her eyes now was positively murderous.

Raven dabbed at her bloody nose again.

She couldn't help but wonder, as her mind drifted back to Jinx and the accident: why was it that only the members of Yankee actually seemed to care about the danger she had been in? Even Ranma, who benefited the most from misplaced affection from her own dimension's counterpart, hadn't spared so much as a glance or word their way while they had been tending to the downed sorceress.

She knew that Jinx hadn't made any friends, but they were still all comrades!

_'Can I trust any of them?' _she wondered, despite herself. _'He said he wouldn't do anything to hurt her, but look what happened to Jinx. Ukyou actually seemed glad that she nearly died...'_

The violet haired Titan shook her head violently at the dark thoughts. No, it was just this place. This god forsaken place. It was affecting... _them_. That was all. If it wasn't for that, none of them would act that... cold towards one of their team mates.

'_Would they?'_

_'Would you?'_

Worryingly, Raven found that the answer to that question was elusive indeed.

* * *

"Wild flower in bloom  
Weeping in the mountain air  
Warmer times shall come

Long for gentle arms  
Let me hear your voice once more  
Leave me with your smile

Burden clouds my eyes  
Beacon of light amidst gloom  
Believe in my love

Fair pig tailed girl…"

Tatewaki Kuno tapped his chin as he considered that last line. 'Fair pig tail-ed girl' or was it 'fair pig tailed girl'? Five syllables or Four? The swordsman sighed and nibbled on the end of his stylus, carefully considering the words he was to put down on his electronic tablet computer.

English-style haikus were proving somewhat difficult. He had been given a specific working knowledge of the language thanks to the psionic devices back at Seiran, and he had taken English courses during his elementary education years, but using it creatively took practice. Even for one as esteemed and cultured as Tatewaki Kuno, age twenty, the Blue Thunder of the Far East.

It did much to ease the mind, at the very least. It also served to keep his thoughts away from the itchy stitches on his scalp and the rapidly healing tissue there. The incident that had left him with the humiliating marks was the very same that had driven the commanding officer, that one time rogue Hibiki, to keep his best fighter and most lauded teammate off active duty. It was widely known by all that the loss of Seiran's sharpest sword had been devastating to the morale of all those who looked to him as an great example, an upperclassman, and shining star.

It was amazing that they were coping as well as they were.

Pondering the next few verses of poetry, Kuno gave careful consideration to extolling the virtues of fair maidenhood, as exemplified by the pigtailed girl and Akane Tendo. On his return, he would personally present them both with the manuscript and embrace them as they swooned. Of course they would play hard to get – the proper role of a fair maiden – and not allow themselves to truly succumb to their affections. The two girls were very close, after all, and it surely had to be a point of contention between them who he loved the most.

In fact, that was good material! The question was just how to phrase it and how to allude to the two girls? One couldn't just say it outright. Perhaps if one was summer, the other spring, oh to lament the choice between them! From one came relief, as winter nights gave way to new life and a fresh start; from another came the vibrancy and full bloom of nature and the bosom of its bounty.

_'__Yes, yes, that__'__s good__…__ I like that__…'_

The door hissed open, momentarily distracting the budding poet from his work as he checked the syllable count and jotted down the next few lines. Finished and satisfied by the impeccable script, Kuno looked up and saw the CO and the lovely Miss Kuonji. The latter looked as comely as always, when she eschewed her manly attire and masculine mien; the former, however, looked as though he had mounted a woodchipper. …Which was not much of a stretch since he was known to be in relations with Nabiki Tendo. The poor fool.

Quickly stretching and hopping up onto his feet, Kuno gave a quick salute. Elsewhere in the small room, Shampoo, their would-be jailer – pardon: watcher – more languidly rose up to stand at attention. The Amazonian had not been given much to do of late aside from watching over her fellows. Apparently recovered from her wounds and the experience on Azarath, she was every bit the pure fighter, but lacked the special skills that would serve the learned Cyborg clearing rubble outside, or the extensive training with powered armor to be given the long distance patrols sent out the other day.

Yet, she had also not suffered the… episodes… that had plagued some of their number. She did seem somewhat tired, which was a bit strange since she seemed to sleep quite soundly, but perhaps that was simply boredom? There was little to do when so trapped within the ship. Some argued, naturally, over inane things like which celebrities they would sleep with (Jinx's list, supplied on the spot and without inquiry, had been composed entirely of unknowns, but despite that it had been curiously unnerving – who or _what_ had a name like 'Aqualad'?), or who would prevail in fights between fictional characters, like Iron Man versus the Red Ribbon Army. Others had taken to spending their uneasy hours aboard writing or reading.

Only one activity had been explicitly forbidden.

"Konatsu," Ryouga said, stepping past Kuno and Shampoo.

The source of his inquiry was still seated, cross legged, on the other end of the room, his back to the wall. Kuno's attention shifted in that direction as well, taking in his comrade's haggard appearance. Konatsu had an unusual affection for rather effeminate dress and mannerisms, but one of his truly manly traits was a thorough appreciation for keeping up a dignified and kempt appearance.

Whether it was the lack of facilities or not, Konatsu seemed to have eschewed his normal good grooming: his long brown hair was loosely draped around his shoulders instead of groomed and styled back in a neat tail, and no amount of makeup could conceal the darkness under his eyes. He had been completely disarmed, as had they all, but neither Kuno nor Shampoo had missed the ninja quietly rubbing his nails together. The swordsman knew his teammate, Mousse, to practice something similar. The Chinese master was able to conceal small needles under his nails.

The kendoist wondered briefly, if those, too, had been taken away.

Konatsu, however, was not doing well for himself. He had explained to most everyone on the ship that he could get no rest or reprieve; as some specter seemed to haunt his every waking moment. He said nothing about his nights and his dreams, but one could guess they, too, were unpleasant. The legendary kunoichi had been the second person taken off active duty and put on a permanent watch.

"Hibiki-taichou…" the ninja boy lifted himself to his feet. "Is there something wrong, sir?"

Ryouga glared at the weary young shinobi. "You know there is."

Konatsu cocked his head in curious inquiry. "I can't imagine what- "

Kuno also blinked, and missed seeing the lieutenant of India Squad blast across the room. Though clearly wounded, he seemed capable of using a rather speedy 'shooting step.' The larger martial artist had followed up on the movement by crushing Konatsu up against the wall, his right arm pinning the ninja across the chest. A sharp, hard press, and Konatsu's chest broke and he vanished in a puff of smoke.

Leaving a straw dummy to fall at Ryouga's feet.

"He was a…?" Shampoo gawked. "But…! When…?"

"Multiple Body Technique," Ryouga growled, turning around to look at the three martial artists present. His eyes searched from one to the other. The room was small enough that a few men would be pressed together shoulder to shoulder, from one side to the other.

"Oh dear," the polite ninja whispered, barely loud enough to be heard. "That was quite fast."

"Konatsu," Ryouga said again, eyes narrowing. "You better not make me look for you."

"Konatsu-honey, why not just come out?" Ukyou asked, her hands on her hips. "This isn't helping…"

Ryouga's right foot tensed to move –

And the ninja appeared behind the chef, his hands in his pockets. Slowly, he raised them, having at least the grace to admit he had been caught. Ryouga's heel returned to the ground, and he slowly walked over, his face etched with unhappy fury. Ukyou stepped away, also looking displeased by the antics she had been involved in.

"I was just practicing my Tachikiru Hitokage," he explained, abashed at being exposed. Kuno frowned. The 'Severing Shadow' technique was, as he recalled, an assassination technique. Konatsu quickly added, "Just the hiding part, of course. Not the killing part."

"What part of 'no special techniques and no weapons on the ship' do you not understand?" The angry officer grabbed the ragged ninja by the front of his plain white undershirt. "Huh?"

Konatsu shied away for a moment, deferring as he always did…

Only to frown and glare back at his commanding officer.

"I don't see how it matters," the kunoichi grumbled. "So what if I make a copy of myself?"

"You know why!" Hibiki snarled back. "I gave the order for a reason! And you'll follow it!"

"It's… it's a stupid rule!" Konatsu hissed back, reaching up to try and shake off the bigger fighter's hand. "I don't see why I have to follow someone who gives bad orders."

Kuno shook his head, and wondered if he'd have to get involved. He truly didn't want to; he wanted to go back to his writing and his poetry. Ryouga's upper lip curled and he got closer, invading Konatsu's personal space. The ninja seemed to consider getting more physical, but ultimately he looked down and dropped his hands. It didn't help his cause that Ukyou was inching over to the side, and Shampoo was also clearing tensing her shoulders.

"The Rokubu 'Six Copies' technique is the only way I can get away," he finally said, sounding absinth-bitter. "I don't want to be here, Hibiki… taichou… _I don__'__t want to be here_. I _**really**_ don't want to be here! Without a copy, he'll go back to _me_. He won't leave me alone…"

Ryouga's expression didn't change, but he did let Konatsu go, carefully laying a hand on the ninja's shoulder. He started to reply, but paused, taking a breath to compose himself. At last, his expression softened.

"Listen, Konatsu…" he began.

"I know it isn't real!" Konatsu snapped, mercurial anger rising to the surface without warning. "What's real and what's not doesn't matter!" He bit his lip, and winced as he scraped the inside of his mouth. Pointing at the officer, he sneered, an expression Kuno couldn't recall seeing in the polite young warrior before. "What's driving me crazy is you, Hibiki-taichou. You and your… your stupid orders! You want me to stop? What are you going to do if I don't?"

Laughing a bit, Konatsu caught sight of Ukyou, and took a step away from her, too.

"What are you going to do?" Konatsu asked again, eyes back on Ryouga. "Because, respectfully, I don't think there's a damn thing you can do to me that's worse than this. That's worse than what's already happening." He ducked his head and ran his hands through his unruly long brown hair. "What _can_ you do? _What can you?_"

At that, the acting Major seemed to be at a loss.

"You don't even know," Konatsu concluded, backing into the wall near the door Ukyou and Ryouga had entered from. "You don't even know…"

A shiver seemed to run down Ryouga's body, one that had nothing to do with the cool seventy-something temperature within the ship. Kuno wished again he could just lose himself in his writing. It wasn't that he didn't care – _he did, truly_ – but this was so out of his element, he had no idea what to do, or how to respond. On the other side of the small room, Shampoo was watching her CO. Of them, Ukyou was the first and only one to approach Konatsu and try and comfort him, cautiously and carefully holding him by the shoulders and trying to calm him down.

"None of you really know," Konatsu said, even as Ukyou crouched down at his side. "Slipping away was so easy, you know. Hibiki-taichou." Dark brown eyes turned on Kuno, and the swordsman felt the urge to back away. "Why don't you take a look at what Tatewaki's been writing? Or ask Miss Shampoo why she feels so tired all the time?"

Instantly, the ninja boy seemed to catch up with everything he had said, and he looked up, like waking up from a dream, his eyes wide. Quickly bowing his head, he stood up and went ramrod straight.

"I'm – I'm sorry, Hibiki-taichou!" He sounded genuinely contrite. "What I said, I – I didn't…"

"Sergeant," Ryouga used his rank, and it got an immediate reaction from the would-be kunoichi, as he sharply inhaled in preparation for a dressing down.

"Sir!"

"I know… you're going through something rough," Ryouga began, but made no move to get between Konatsu and Ukyou's comforting presence. "None of us can imagine what it is, no matter how you try to explain it. But you are a soldier under my command, and you'll follow orders. You aren't helping yourself by doing this. No techniques in the ship."

"But… I never leave the ship…" Konatsu almost pleaded. He slumped a little. "I can… I can control it if…"

"If you make more and more copies and hide in people's shadows?" Ukyou asked, this time. "Konatsu. Running away and hiding isn't the answer. It isn't you."

Konatsu turned to her, but shook his head.

"Why this one thing? This - this man you killed?" she continued, still holding his shoulders. They all knew some of what Konatsu was seeing… and hearing. But he had never explained any more. "Is it something you regret…?"

"No!" Konatsu all but yelled. "No. I don't regret it at all! I don't know why I… I never… I don't know why now…" He ran a hand down his face. "I did the world a favor by killing that man."

"Some mens just need killing," Shampoo provided, still standing and with arms crossed.

"I just want to be left alone," Konatsu said with a pained groan. "Just for a few hours."

"You know I'm here if you ever want to talk about it, sugar," the chef offered, and unless Kuno was mistaken, it was an offer Konatsu seemed to genuinely fear. He pulled back slightly from her, looking instantly apprehensive.

"Konatsu," Ryouga spoke up, regaining the ninja prodigy's attention. "Let me make this clear. This is your last warning. No more techniques inside the ship. This is for the safety of everyone. No more."

"H… hai… yes, sir…"

Accepting this, the officer nodded slowly. The situation defused, Kuno walked a little closer, his stylus still in hand. Shampoo also seemed to hover a bit closer, but to Ukyou and Konatsu. The Amazonian was rubbing her hands against her arms, either nervous or cold. It did seem to be getting a bit chilly for some reason.

"Kuno," Hibiki said, and his eyes turned to the tablet the swordsman had been writing on. "Do you mind if I see that for a second?"

The noble swordsman shrugged and handed it over. "Ah! Of course not. I have been thinking much of late, and felt the need to express myself in written form. Haiku in English is a first for me, and these are but rough drafts truly, but…"

While the esteemed kendoist explained that these were but one of a trilogy of soliloquies planned for the pigtailed girl, Akane Tendo, and the lovely Starfire. Of course, these were only first draft materials, but Kuno soon saw his lieutenant's expression register some surprise at the quality of the work contained therein. No doubt he was duly impressed by the verisimilitude of the emotional narrative and the heartfelt eloquence of true love. Faced with such fundamental truths, any man of even rough culture and breeding would be shocked silent.

"You wrote this?" Ryouga asked, looking up from the tablet.

"Just today," Kuno replied. He looked at Konatsu with sadness, and resolved to also write a few more lines about the sufferings of all the crew on this mission into the darkness.

"I see."

It was a strange response. What did the lieutenant see?

After a few more seconds, he handed back the electronic pad.

"Did you see some error within my verses?" the kendoist asked. "I have written in script, and thus have no self check feature on which to rely."

"No… nothing like that," the leader of Juliet squad concluded, and padded the face of the tablet computer with his hand, concealing the fine script. "Just keep that to yourself for now, alright? I… don't want Ranma hearing about it."

"Ah yes!" Kuno reasoned – that made sense. "He would grow jealous, and we need his admittedly meager talents. No doubt he fears the day Akane Tendo and the pigtailed girl escape his grasp, and how my words would touch their innocent hearts!"

"That's basically it, yeah," Ryouga wisely agreed. "So keep it a secret for now."

"Of course I shall."

Tucking the pad under his arm, Kuno never saw the look of shock and worry on his commanding officer's face as he turned away. He never saw what had really been written down, by his own hand.

* * *

She floated serenely, suspended in the dark nothingness which seemed to envelope and swallow whole this entire dimension. Her hair drifted lazily around her, long streamers of flame-red follicles dancing about in the absence of gravity and atmosphere. Her helmet floated several feet to her side, rotating on a whimsical axis, all but forgotten as she stared at the one thing worth beholding in all of this otherwise bleak and hopeless reality.

_'__So__…__ beautiful__…'_ she thought, unable to speak in the hard vacuum of space.

The object of her affection was clear: the massive, chaotic sphere of kaleidoscopic light which served as the heart of this dimension, shrouded teasingly behind long wisps of vapor and twisting about as if moving to the rhythm of some unheard song. It was utterly captivating to the Tamaranian.

Hanging nearly a kilometer above the inner shell of the hulk of destroyed alien ships, Starfire smiled faintly, holding her hands out to her sides, as if to embrace the loving light given off by the shimmering helix of plasmatic energy. The tingle of unknown radiation, apparently lethal to humans according to Saotome's readings, only invigorated her, filling her to completion with an almost unwholesome sensation of ecstasy.

She alone could luxuriate in the wondrous experience. The human species truly was a pitiable race. So fragile were they that the merest exposure to the vacuums of space could be lethal. So delicate were they that bombardment by high energy particles would break down their cellular structure, rather than energize it. And so aware of their weaknesses and shortcomings were they that they lashed out violently at anything, or anyone, even the slightest bit different – or _superior_ - to themselves.

A frown creased her otherwise joyous face at that last thought. It was not universally true, in retrospect. Her friends, at the very least Robin, Beast Boy, Cyborg and Ryouga, they were all unfortunately flawed, pitiable Homo Sapiens in nature. However, none of them shared the same xenophobic mores so prevalent among the rest of the humans she had been forced to interact with in the dimension of their banishment. Perhaps they were merely the exceptions which proved the validity of the rule?

That did seem far more likely. After all, none of her friends had shared the macabre sense of humor demonstrated so blatantly by the members of India and Juliet squadrons. The Tamaranian's shudder had nothing to do with the temperatures of deep space. To relish the death of an unknown race of aliens? To state, without regard or remorse, their willingness to kill others if it suited their purposes. To joke about the deaths of an entire vessel of Green Lanterns?

It was obscene!

The only human equivalent she could imagine would be to travel to a war memorial and to deride the veterans come to pay respects to their fallen comrades. What kind of sick monsters would so openly disrespect heroes fallen in such a senseless and tragic manner?

Not for the first time since being released into the custody of those that controlled the Seiran Mountain facility, Starfire reconsidered her choice to assist the UNETCO Organization. She had sworn, a seeming eternity ago, to the young Mint that she could never become an ally to a group that acted so malevolent as theirs. Even now, she wracked her mind, trying to recall how things had twisted around on her.

It had begun with the hijacking of the civilian aircraft. That much, at least, made sense. Her desire to protect the innocents caught between the crossfire of two implacable foes had overridden any other concerns she may have had at the time. And, for a time, it had seemed like she had made the correct decision. Her new allies had proven to be helpful and driven and even friendly towards her…

But had it all merely been a cover? As long as Lieutenant Hibiki and his fellows held the upper hand, as long as they felt secure in their superiority over their enemies, they were filled with levity and good will. However, as soon as their fragile egos were challenged, as soon as they felt themselves pushed into a corner, their true natures began to emerge. Their prejudices, their paranoia, their willingness – no, _eagerness_ - to resort to lethal measures, all of their vile vices were surfacing like maggots crawling out of a rotting carcass.

Her only solace was that her friends seemed to share her opinions, though perhaps not as purely, as biased as they were towards their own species. Raven had been the one to tell her of the morbid jokes made at the expense of the Guardian, and her own disgust with their 'antics'. Ryouga had proven a constant and stoic companion, thankfully never allowing himself to slide to the same levels of merciless bloodlust which had unfortunately consumed his counterpart; as human as his body may be, his heart was that of a Tamaranian, and for that she loved him boundlessly.

Even Jinx had provided an unexpected though welcome source of friendship and strength over these hard times. Starfire could not understand why so many others were turning against the slight female – the accusing glares focused on Jinx after they had carried her back to the Pathfinder after the accident had been all the proof of that she had required – however, their scorn was for naught. If anything, Jinx seemed to draw strength from the spite aimed her way. Ever since she had awoken from the unfortunate battle with Raven, her drive and determination had doubled.

And… a small part of Starfire found herself even more at ease around Jinx, now that the young woman had seemingly lost all interest in a relationship with their Ryouga. Though she wanted very much to say that this was a purely selfless thing, silent congratulations for Raven, now free to pursue Ryouga's heart at her leisure… she could not lie to herself. Whatever it was that she felt for their Lost Boy, even she could not put words to it, was something that did not bear rivals gracefully.

_'__No human is worthy of a Tamaranian.__'_

No, it was for the best. Without Jinx fawning over him, Ryouga would be able to concentrate much more ably on his duties as an officer. Without Jinx acting as her rival, Raven would be able to interact with the young witch in a much less hostile manner. The relations of all of Yankee squadron would doubtlessly grow less tense, and their team would only benefit from this new dynamic.

Speaking of her squadron members, Cyborg was doubtlessly expecting her back by now. He had told her to 'take five' while he surveyed the damage caused to the tunnel by the unfortunate accident earlier. She had been more than eager to take him up on it, and had flown up here to enjoy the spectacular view. Reaching out, she grabbed her slowly spinning helmet and carefully shifted her lengthy locks back into place to allow her to put it back on and form a proper seal. Once the green warning light of the environmental seal blinked on, she reactivated the air recycling system, only to the barest minimum levels, just enough to allow her to speak.

It was yet another drawback of the human members of the crew. While everyone else was dangerously low on breathable air outside of the ship, her life support system was still in peak operating order, and at the current levels, would remain so for days if need be. Only Cyborg would be able to remain outside of the ship indefinitely with her, once everyone else's air supplies failed completely and trapped them inside the Pathfinder for good.

All the more reason to finish their work.

That in mind, she zipped back down the cavernous maw below her.

* * *

"Well, it could be worse," Cyborg explained to Ranma, the officer nearly a full kilometer away and safely nestled away inside the Pathfinder. Shifting his boot several inches to the side, he kicked up a small pile of what appeared to be snowflakes. Of course, these 'flakes' were actually composed of hardened steel, rendered into so much detritus by the unholy combination of Hibiki's Killing Point and Jinx's entropic energy.

Thankfully, most of the waste material had simply fallen down between the massive holes and gashes in the 'floor' of the tunnel. Of course, there were still massive piles of the stuff standing about all over the place, resting on the few sections of flooring that were still in place. Not that those would be any trouble at all. The gravitic drive of the ship would blow those away like so much sand; it wasn't even worth going to the effort of cleaning up the messes. It was still a bit mind boggling. Despite the fact that it looked like so much snow, the flakes still possessed the normal density of steel. There were literally hundreds of tons of the junk material sitting around, all destroyed in mere moments by two people.

Hell, Jinx and Hibiki could get out of the fighting business and into the demolition business. They'd make more money than even the ridiculously overpaid X-Com operatives could imagine, and not have to get nearly killed on a daily basis.

Though, he might have to try to convince the acting Major to omit this bit from his official report. He'd hate to think of what his higher ups might think of such a devastating combination. Cyborg didn't really like the idea of Jinx being turned into some kind of super weapon to be used against the Cydonian aliens.

"They cleared out a good twenty percent of the collapsed material, I would wager," he continued with his assessment. "Unfortunately, that still means that we're actually further back than we were before we even started this section. And considering that Hibiki is pretty much a lost cause to the cleanup crew, and Jinx is down and Ryouga is still keeping an eye on her, well, that means that it's just gonna be Star and me cleaning up the mess for the foreseeable future. …I hope one of you guys has a deck of cards on you in the ship, cuz this might take awhile."

"Actually, the Little Lost Boy is already on his way back out to meet you," Ranma told him over the wireless. "He literally just stepped out of the airlock. Still, that doesn't sound like good news to me, Cyborg. Any idea how long this minor catastrophe set us back?"

Looking around the vast expanse of the tunnel, now all but choked with scrap metal for the last hundred meters or so to the surface… he let out a weary sigh. "Wouldn't be surprised if this debacle set us back another day. Still, as I said, it coulda been worse. Honestly, considering the conditions we've been working in, and the lack of real training on pretty much everyone's part, it's a minor miracle that we got this far without any major accidents, as is."

Looking back down the tunnel and towards the ship, Cyborg zoomed in his sight. There, just as their pilot had stated, he could see Ryouga's distant form plodding gloomily through the poorly lit causeway, coming in his direction.

"Huh, so Ryo's already coming back out to help? That's great news. Even better, really, since that means that Jinx must be fine, right? No way that anyone'd be able to pry him away from her otherwise."

There was an uncomfortable pause from Ranma's end of the line.

"Actually, from what I just heard, she nearly bought it back there, though we only really have your Ryouga's word on that bit of news. Physio reads from the armor were all-good until they started taking it off. And of course, it happens the second I step away from the Nav. If you ask me, it can't have actually been as bad as all that if Bacon Bits was able to magic her back from the dead. Probably just another play to upstage his big brother, y'know?"

Cyborg stared at his communicator, aghast at the comments made by their superior officer. What? Jinx had nearly died, and he was playing it off like a power play from Ryouga to make himself the big man on campus? He was about to reply with a biting comment… but bit his tongue. No, it was just likely the effects of this damned place. No way that Ranma could possibly be that callous, even about Jinx, under any other kind of circumstances, and, frankly, compared to the disturbing levels that other members of the crew were descending to, if that was the worst Ranma was pulling, it was far from a problem at the moment.

"Hey, while we're on the topic of Yankee squad, Nabiki is telling me that Starfire is up on the surface? What on Earth is she doing up there? She's supposed to be assisting you, not site-seeing! And apparently she's not even wearing her helmet?"

"Hey, whoa there. Chill, man," Cyborg quickly countered. "I told her to take a break while I surveyed the damage. If she wants to go float out in space, then it ain't no big deal. As for the helmet thing, I'll talk to her about that. She's still got her chronometer, so she'll be back when she's supposed to."

Another short pause.

"Alright," Ranma relented a bit. "I'll leave it up to you, for now. But seriously, Cyborg, this isn't just me being a hard ass. If something were to happen and she's out of contact… to say nothing of just what the Hell kind of sunshine she's soaking up out there… I know you can handle things, just try to help out the rest of your team, okay? Not everyone is as rock solid as you in this damned place."

The cybernetic teen felt a weak frown slide on to his face. "Yeah… that's me, the Rock. Don't worry, the mission is my main concern at this point. I won't let anything endanger that."

"Good to hear, man," Ranma replied, the relief in his voice obvious. It sounded like he was about to end the call, when some else's voice suddenly filtered into the background. It was too far from the comm for him to hear whoever it was that was speaking clearly, but it hardly mattered as Ranma's voice sounded out clearly a second later. "Actually, change of plans. The acting Major wants to talk to ya back here in the ship. Why don't you collect Starfire and your Ryouga and bring them back as well? Sounds like this is gonna involve everyone."

Rolling his eyes, Cyborg nodded absently. "Yeah, sure, why don't ya tantalize me a little more? Alright, Lieutenant, I'll collect my posse and we'll be back asap."

Only then, did the commline finally go silent, leaving Cyborg alone in the darkness once more… well, save for Nabiki eavesdropping on everything he said, anyway. Speaking of which:

"Hmm," he spoke aloud, obviously to no one, as he was alone, "If only there was someone out there that had tips on how to impress Kasumi. A guy sure would pay a lot for that kind of info… too bad I don't got no idea who I'd ask, or what to do with all the cash burning a hole in my pocket…"

"Mmm." A feminine voice cooed. "Music to my ears..."

Cyborg gave a faux gasp of shock. "Nabiki! You weren't listening in on my innocent soliloquy, were you?"

"Consider me your cupid. The little voice on your shoulder helping you to seduce my sister. And all for a low, low fee."

"Heh, now that didn't sound at all evil. Still, maybe we'll be able to discuss your rate structure later, in a less world ending kinda setting?"

"I'd be happy to. Just remember Tendo for all your matchmaking needs. That's Nabiki, not Akane, Tendo." she chuckled at her end of the line, but turned a bit more serious. "I'll be here if you need anything."

"Including if I need a three ton girder moved by sundown? You know, a little exercise outside the ship can do a body good."

"It isn't like I enjoy being stuck in the ship. Especially with my Susan gone..."

Cyborg chuckled in amusement. "Heh, well don't worry bout it, 'Biki. Ain't like you're missing any scenery or nothing. It's-" Looking up, he noticed Starfire rapidly approaching down the tunnel towards him. "Whoops, looks like Star is just about back. I'll have to catch up with ya back on the ship."

"Sure. Look, Cyborg, " she added, more quietly. "Ranma may not sound it, but he's pretty angry. I'll talk to him before you guys get back. I have a feeling Starfire will listen more to you than either of our officers these days."

Cyborg grinned. "Her and pretty much every other member of our team. Okay, peace out, pretty lady."

As soon as Nabiki went silent again, he let out a weary sigh. Honestly he had no desire to 'talk to' Starfire about any possible infractions. Really, he should be getting Ryouga to handle that, the Lost Boy being their team leader and all. On the other hand, though, Ryouga was going through a crappy enough time as it was, without anyone cutting him any slack at all, and Starfire was pretty much the only one getting him through it. Cyborg couldn't really, in all good conscience, tell his buddy to turn around and yell at Starfire over something as lame as taking her helmet off in hard vacuum. She probably just wanted some time alone.

That in mind, as their errant Tamaranian gracefully landed at his side, he adopted the sternest expression he could as he regarded her. It was really a pathetic attempt on his part, the only result he garnered from Starfire for his efforts being a confused, slightly concerned look.

"Are… are you well, friend Cyborg? You appear as if you have slipped your camshaft again," she asked tentatively.

Groaning in embarrassment – would he never live that down? – he shook his head and refocused. Dropping a large hand on her armored shoulder, he matched her gaze intently. "Starfire, I want to know. Are you alright? You didn't take your helmet off again, did you?"

"Wha-" she stuttered, obviously startled at the sudden question. "Why would you - how - ?" Only for her expression to harden. Brushing his hand from her shoulder, she 'hmph'd' loudly. "And what if I have taken the occasion to remove my odious head coverings? It is not as if they provide any additional protection to me in these conditions, and the vibratory function upon my communicator is still perfectly functional. You would have had no difficulty contacting me if you well and truly needed me."

Unfortunately, the girl had a point. Her Titan communicator was perfectly capable of vibrating and sending and receiving text – not exactly advanced features – so it wasn't like she was completely out of contact at any point. The only thing that taking her helmet off did was prevent Nabiki from recording every single thing that Starfire said and did.

_'__Well, that didn__'__t sound paranoid at all,_' he thought to himself. It did suddenly put something of a 'Big Brother' vibe on the standing order to always wear her helmet. _'All because of this psionics crap.'_

"Yeah, well…" he muttered less certainly now, "Orders are still orders, y'know? It's a safety issue."

Judging by the look on her face, that approach was going to fly about as well as a brick. A different approach, maybe? A quick look over his shoulder revealed that Ryouga was over halfway to their position now. Wait, that was it!

"I mean," he continued, "You might not agree with them, but you wouldn't want to get Ryouga in trouble now, would you?"

That gave the Tamaranian pause. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it. Ryo is responsible for us, so if one of us disobeys orders, no matter how silly they might be, then it'll look bad on him, right? It'll make it seem like he can't handle commanding our squad. You wouldn't want to see him kicked out, would you?"

Sure, it was dirty pool, but it wasn't too far from the truth. He still felt like a bit of a heel for going there, though, especially when the look of despair settled over Starfire's face like a funeral pall.

"Never would I desire to see Ryouga punished for my misdeeds!" she frantically replied. "I promise that I will do my utmost to follow all of the inane rules and regulations laid out by the officers of this mission."

"Well, that's all I can ask, Star." He drew her in for a quick one armed hug. "Don't feel too bad. This place is messing with all of us. Granted, some more than others, but we gotta do our best to get through this together. I'm sure when we get back home we'll all look back at this crazy mission and laugh."

Starfire fired a flat stare his direction.

"Far, far in the future, with flying cars and robot butlers and junk," he conceded with a grin.

"Do we not already have both of those things present in our own current time line?" The alien princess asked her question, tapping a metal clad finger to her chin as she contemplated his words. Again, she had something of a point, but she was missing the point that that wasn't the point!

"Yeah, well, we'll figure out the semantics." Gesturing back down the tunnel, he took a step in the direction of the Pathfinder. "Come on, let's go collect Ryo. Hibiki wants us back in the ship; apparently he's got something he wants to talk about."

"Go back to the ship?" The confusion was evident in her voice. "But we have barely stepped outside of the ship as it is. At this rate, our vessel will succumb to fossilization before we have a chance to free it."

Normally, the cybernetic Titan would have laughed at the joke… but considering the unnatural process which seemed to consume all of the vessels in this dimension, her whimsical comment struck far too close to home for his comfort. How long would it be before one of those space warps found its way to the Pathfinder? It was impossible to predict how many of the warps existed, and how they moved about, but it seemed that it was all but an eventuality that their ship would become their next victim. It was just a matter of when at this point.

Macabre thought on his mind, he gave Starfire's arm a gentle tug, coaxing her back towards the ship with him. "Yeah… wouldn't want that, yo. All the more reason to get back. The sooner we sort out what they want, the sooner we can get back out here."

Nodding sagely, the Tamaranian quickly floated past him, obviously excited to meet up with Ryouga again, despite the fact that it hadn't even been a half an hour since she'd seen him. Before she flew too far, though, she paused and looked back over her shoulder.

"Truly, I am glad to have you here, my friend. I admit that – that my locomotives of cognition have been somewhat grim of late. I can not say whether this place is the cause or not, but I take great solace in the fact that you are immune to the debilitating effects which are affecting the rest of the crew."

And then she was flying at high speed, her toes cutting wide furrows through the snow like metal flakes scattered across the deck plates below them. Cyborg could only stare at her back as she flew away, her words echoing through his head.

"Yeah, that's me."

Slowly, tentatively, Cyborg turned to look over his shoulder, gazing down along the lengths of the now dark tunnel. All of the construction lights beyond that point had been destroyed, and only the nearest light, some twenty meters back was illuminating on their position, casting impossibly long and dark shadows across the twisted morass of shattered steel.

A flicker of motion registered just on the corner of his vision. Holding perfectly still, holding his breath, he tried to unsee the motion. Disbelief did not help; ignoring it did not make it go away. Sweat began to bead on his brow as he tried to force his sight straight ahead, but inexorably, like the pull of a black hole, his eye slid to the side…

Greenish ooze bubbled up and flowed over a distant mound of scrap metal. His eye widened, even as his pupil contracted to a pinpoint, his entire body quivering at the sight. It wasn't ooze; it was a blob of protoplasm, an amoeba like creature, as horrifying as it was familiar-

His human eye snapped shut, every ounce of willpower he possessed preventing it from opening again. The second it closed, the second his electronic eye began providing all of his optical input, the ooze vanished. No, it had never been there to begin with. It was just an illusion, a phantasm of memories long since dead.

Looking down, he brought up a specific display on his arm. A gentle touch of his finger to the pressure sensitive screen allowed him to make modifications to the system specifications and allocations. Sliding his finger a quarter of an inch to the left, he shifted fifteen percent more of his higher functions over to the artificial half of his brain. A second later, he opened his human eye…

The creature was gone. It had never existed. It had merely been a manifestation brought on by fatigue and deleterious psionic interference from the dimensions unusual properties. He did not sigh in relief at this deduction.

After all… it was only logical.

"What!" Ryouga's irate bark cut through the commline. "But I just got out here! What do you mean we gotta go back in?"

From the distance, Ryouga waved to him. "Cyborg, what's going on? Did they say what they wanted? Or, for that matter, did Acting Major Jack-Ass explain why he didn't tell me about this roughly five seconds ago, before I got all dressed to come outside?"

Cyborg studied his commanding officer dispassionately for a moment… Only to shake his head vigorously. Feeling a bit off, he waved back, working up a weak grin as he walked to join them.

"Naw, man. Saotome left me hangin' in suspense. It's gotta be something big, though, if they're distracting us from our main objective, here."

Ryouga nodded. "Well, all I can say is that it better be. Now, pick up the pace, squaddie. Let's get this over with."

Without further ado, the Hibiki and the Tamaranian turned and made their way back to the ship. Sparing one last glance over his shoulder to the empty darkness behind him, Cyborg joined them a moment later.

_'__That__'__s me__…__ reliable as a Swiss watch.__'_

* * *

It had been another dead end.

Since the exploration of the Oan ship and the destruction of Nabiki's UAV, Pathfinder Actual had sent out further 'long range patrols' to map, scout and investigate other promising wrecks and derelicts. The two suits of MARS armor each had miniaturized oxygen recycling systems like those on the ship itself; as long as they had power for electrolysis and other chemical processes, and the filters remained functional, then air could by recovered indefinitely. The only limitation was the elerium power plants in the armor, and compared to the output needed for maintaining antigravity propulsion and induction, life support was trivial.

These two man patrols searched the area nearby, identified surface wrecks, and marked areas for later navigation. First priority was given to marking dangerous anomalies or other perturbations that could prove dangerous to a freed Pathfinder. They were also tasked to gather information on the other drives and technology used by other ships similarly trapped in the maw of this dimension.

An unspoken objective was also to relieve some of the tedium certain embers of the crew felt.

Every soldier was accustomed to waiting; it was a natural part of life. Soldiers waited between missions, between deployments, between rotations. On Pathfinder, unlike Seiran, there was no room to practice martial arts and no privacy to be had at all. For those members of the crew who could not assist Cyborg outside, a long range patrol – though far from a pleasant experience – was the only thing to break the unexpected and unfulfilling tedium of watching others go out, work, and come back exhausted.

Ryu Kumon and Mousse were the latest to be given that duty, returning with samples and some alien technology of dubious usefulness, but no good news. They had verified and identified three more large anomalies for Pathfinder and future teams to avoid, providing a rather detailed map of the immediate area around where the ship would exit. None could risk traveling too far without Nabiki's UAV. Once Pathfinder was loose, it would have to reduce speed to a near crawl and use its own sensors to avoid running into any invisible surprises.

More importantly, they had confirmed that there were no nearby threats.

It was a small bit of good news, though one that had been expected. There was nothing alive anywhere outside. The last ship they had gotten entrance to had been an ancient mile-long wreck full of empty rooms and degraded equipment. A few trinkets had been salvaged from a locked area, but most of the ruin had been consumed by twisting anomalies and warping energy: discolored and melded together like a frozen metallic soup. It had actually been a small reprieve from the even worse sights of the world topside.

They had finished with their report to the officers and the resulting catalogue of alien tech when the airlock opened, revealing someone surprising. Mousse nudged Ryu, halfway finished with wiping off his face with a wet towel. The sergeant followed the Hidden Weapons master's gaze to Cyborg, Starfire and the younger Hibiki, all freshly returned from the work outside, and all clustered together. Yankee was being more cliquish than usual.

"What do you think Cyborg is doing inside?" Mousse asked, keeping his tone conspiratorially low. "He's logged more hours outside than he has inside."

"You saw the mess out there," Ryu whispered back. Indeed they had seen the mess. It was hard to miss it clogging up half the tunnel on the walk down the molehole. "Maybe we're finally going to try using the main guns to blast our way out."

"I doubt that," the other man answered. "Must be important, however."

"That's up to Hibiki and Saotome," Ryu decided, shrugging at the implications. "That's what they get paid for, after all. I thought you wanted to check in with Jinx?"

Mousse said nothing to that, but he did adjust his glasses in the sort of manner that implied he didn't want to say any more than he already had. Both martial artists had heard about the pink haired witch getting injured – _again_ – on the way back from their mission. The acting Major had also been hurt, but the man was a bloody tank. It was easier to count the missions and incidents when the blast-hardened meat-shield didn't end up damage soaking something or another.

Instead, the Amazon's hand snapped out, and a comb appeared mysteriously between his fingers.

A bright pink comb.

The Kumon heir raised a questioning eyebrow at the choice in color.

"Ummm... isn't that a _girl__'__s _c -"

"I am aware," Mousse cut him off. "Of the color."

"Just making sure." Ryu simply ran his hands back through his hair, roughly aerating it into a messy mop. Finished with cleaning themselves up a bit, the two martial artists crossed the hold over to where Jinx was resting, next to the alien in the stasis tube. The little blue man was still being checked out, or so it seemed, by the ship's bigwigs. Neither Ryu nor Mousse knew exactly what anyone hoped to learn from the withered old corpse.

Jinx was laid flat on two sleeping rolls directly adjacent.

"She doesn't look like she's had a brush with death," Ryu observed, as the girl stretched, kicking and scrunching up one of the sleeping rolls under her. It looked more like she was catching a catnap.

"You worried for stupid pink hair girl?" Shampoo asked, from her perch on top of the stasis tube. The Amazon had clearly been tasked with watching over the villainess, which in turn meant that Ukyou must be with Konatsu and Kuno. Of course, everyone knew Jinx and Shampoo got along like cats and dogs, but Shampoo was still a soldier. If ordered to, she would watch over her worst enemy.

"I expected her to be the one in stasis after what was relayed to us," Mousse remarked with a shrug. "Shampoo. How have things been?"

The violet tressed Amazon leaned back to touch her shoulders to the wall. She didn't seem to give any discomfort over the fact that she was sitting on top of the dead blue alien's resting place and that it was still transparent. For her, it was seemingly just another place to get off the floor and find a spot to hang out on. Privately, Ryu found it rather catty behavior, but he kept that phrasing to himself.

"Usual crazy," she answered, repressing a yawn and covering her mouth with her hand. "Ninja boy almost picked a fight with pig boy."

"Konatsu?" Mousse asked, genuinely surprised.

Ryu was as well. "I can' believe it. …where is he now?"

"Crying with pancake chef," Shampoo replied with a casual huff. "Probably. They're supposed to be talking." Her brows knitted into a small, shallow frown. "Ninja boy used Severing Shadow and Multiple Body moves. I didn't even see him use them."

Shampoo glanced off to the side.

"Stupid spatula girl better watch that one carefully," she added, in a low voice, then more loudly, "Hibiki let him off this time, but he'll do it again. You wait and see."

Ryu and Mousse shared scowls at that. Konatsu was becoming… volatile. If he had been a squaddie, then that would be one thing, but he was an NCO. The only other formal NCO in the group, since the younger Hibiki was just an acting junior rank. This left the current command structure as Ryouga, Ranma, then Ryu… and then a mass of lower ranks. It was clearly up to the officers to try and salvage things, and that included dealing with an increasingly unstable genius kunoichi.

The question was how.

"No matter that," Shampoo concluded, facing the two and stretching her neck, one hand working out the kinks. "How was your mission? Good?"

"It was about the usual," Ryu answered.

"Wandering around. Dropping beacons. Trying to scout around without going insane or seeing things that aren't there," Mousse elaborated. "We checked out two wrecks. The small one had been gutted by an explosion. The bigger one had some tech we took back…"

"Little alien pea shooters," Ryu supplied, making a teeny-tiny gun with his right hand. "And some other junk."

"Nothing very useful," Mousse continued. "Only two bodies, though, and that ship must've been large enough for a hundred of the aliens."

"Yeah. That's kind of been the norm though, hasn't it?" Ryu asked, scratching behind his ear. "We almost never find many bodies. The ones Mousse and I found were locked up tight in the room with the guns. Everything else was clean. You'd think we'd be finding lots of bodies on these ships. Or vacuum suits or something."

"It's as if most of the victims just disappear when they die," Mousse wondered aloud. "Or maybe they all just jumped out an airlock and floated away?"

"As if creepy place needs to get creepier?" Shampoo barely repressed a shiver. "You think something is taking the dead ones?"

"Who says they're dead when it happens?" Ryu asked, intending it to be a witty quip.

Instead it came out… disturbingly macabre.

A long, ghastly silence stretched on between the three as the remark took on a life of its own.

"Hmm." Mousse pondered. His head turned and Ryu and Shampoo's attention also shifted towards the approaching group. Ranma and Ryouga were at the lead, and the latter was carrying a small box. From the shape, it looked to be one of the storage compartments where they'd been keeping alien tech and other salvaged artifacts. Cyborg was right behind the officers.

"Something going on, sir?" Ryu asked either of the officers as they got closer.

"Oh, there's somethin' goin' on, that's for sure," Ranma replied. "We're clearin' the front of the hold here."

"For what?" Mousse asked, glasses glinting.

"A weapons test," Ryouga answered enigmatically.

* * *

"So," Ranma began.

"Hm." Ryouga grunted.

Tossing the ring up into the air and catching it with one hand, Ranma balanced it on one finger, lifting it up to eye level. "It really doesn't look like much, does it? The Furinkan High class rings we got were fancier."

"Try not to drop our Ultimate Weapon, Saotome," Ryouga commented, arms crossed as he turned to Cyborg, standing at the officer's right side. The Titan was in turn flanked by a quietly observant Ukyou. Ranma was to the lost boy's left, and to his left, Ryu stood crisply at attention with a wary Raven. Other observers were forced further back, at the edge of the hold: Nabiki, Starfire and the younger Hibiki.

"Cyborg," Ryouga asked, "Are you sure you need to actually _wear_ the ring? You were my first choice, so if there's any way to squeeze it on or anything…?"

Shaking his head in the negative, the bulky teen shrugged helplessly. "Honestly, I don't know nearly enough about how these things work to say one way or the other. As famous as they are, for all I know, you could eat them and they'd work fine. However, I have only ever seen them used while worn."

"Also," Raven spoke up from the sidelines, "I have heard rumors that not just anyone can use the rings: that they actually choose only the bravest and most noble of people to bear them."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" barked the cybernetic genius in a terse tone.

"Ranma," Ryouga ordered, holding up a hand. "Give him the ring. Maybe we'll get lucky."

"No problem." The pigtailed one took a few steps and held out the still spinning ring, balanced on the tip of his finger. "Here ya go, man. Maybe it'll click for ya or something. I wouldn't recommend eating it, though."

Carefully picking it from the martial artist's finger, Cyborg examined the ring in his hand. Absently, his gaze drifted over to the display housed in his arm, though what he was looking at, no one could tell. A moment later, he focused his attention back to the ring, rolling it over in his palm. He didn't even bother trying to put it on; even his pinky finger was obviously too large for the small emerald band, and he didn't want to risk destroying it in the attempt. Rather, he simply closed his hand around it, dipped his head and closed his eyes.

His brow furrowed in concentration, and he appeared to be muttering something under his breath... but after several long seconds, nothing at all happened. Letting out a frustrated grunt, he opened his hand and casually tossed the ring back to Ranma.

"Damn," he grumbled. "Guess I'm no John Stewart. Looks like someone with somewhat more slender fingers than me is gonna have to try."

"Ranma," Ryouga said, watching as the ring arced through the air and back into the Saotome heir's hand. "You're up next. You've got the highest psionic skill here and the most experience."

The assembled teens watched as, this time, the ring finally found a willing and properly sized finger.

"Feels kinda cold," Ranma commented, holding up his right hand and staring at the ring on his middle finger. "But it fits." His brows creased for a moment as he concentrated. "I can feel something there. Not quite like a psi-amp."

"Psionic encryption?" Ryu asked, curious.

XCOM manufacture amps came in two versions: generic and personalized. Every field operative used a personalized amp with a five hundred and twelve bit key encryption. Just like smartlinked weapons, they couldn't be used by anyone except their owners or a field op with clearance from command. If this ring was like a psi-amp, as they believed it to be, then it was likely the deceased user had rendered it useless by dying and not recording his key.

"Nah. Not like that, I don't think," Ranma continued. "I can kinda feel it there, but whenever I give a little push it pushes right back."

"Maybe that's normal?" Ryu speculated. "Maybe you need to, you know, mentally overpower the ring to be able to use it?"

"Yeah," the younger Hibiki snarked, "Try overpowering the alien super weapon. Nothing could possibly go wrong there." Then with a sharp gesture, he point to his cloak wearing team mate. "And, are you joking? Raven is the most powerful psycher here by leagues. Why not let her give it a go?"

Immediately, the dark Titan shook her head.

"Please, no," she quickly replied, holding up her hands in a warding gesture. "I'd rather not. Not only would it make me unable to act as a possible counter to the ring, I... doubt it would react well to me."

"I've already talked to Raven about this," the elder Hibiki also spoke up. "She's declined and I'm not going to force anyone to try and wear it."

At that, everyone began to stare anxiously at one another across the hold of the ship. There were as many people that looked dubious about trying the ring, as there were that looked excited about the prospect. Unexpectedly, though, someone did finally step forward.

Moving to stand before Ranma, Starfire held out her hand expectantly. "Allow me to attempt using the ring. It is possible that this particular ring is simply more attenuated to more alien life forms?"

Her inquiry seemed to draw out an awkward silence.

"What is wrong?" she asked, still holding out her hand. "May I not at least attempt it?"

Ranma glanced from her to the acting Major.

"Starfire," that Ryouga began to explain.

"What?" she asked, growing visibly angry at the perceived stonewalling.

"While you may be right about it being attuned to non-humans…" he continued. "There have been some concerns raised about your lucidity."

"Lucidity?" she asked, hand lowering and starting to tense up. "What you mean is that you no longer trust me? Or do you only wish a _human_ to wield such power? Is that it?"

"This dimension is affecting all of us to different degrees," he began again, trying to sound both placating and stern. "If this ring reacts to thoughts, I would prefer those thoughts to be as stable and even tempered as possible. I will not be trying on the ring either. It isn't that you're non-human."

"More likely it is the fact that-"

Whatever else the increasingly irate Tamaranian was about to spit out was lost, as she stopped mid speech. The cause of her silence was a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to regard its owner. Instantly, her grim expression melted away as the young Hibiki gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"Don't worry, Kori," he stated with a somewhat nasty looking grin. "That ring would be wasted on you, anyway, as powerful as you are."

Pacified with surprising speed, Starfire nodded and happily gave him a quick hug. Even as she did, though, the Lost Boy regarded Ranma, his nasty grin widening.

"If you're going to be giving out power boosts, why not give them to someone that actually _needs_ them." He then proceed to stare directly in the direction of a certain chestnut haired female. "Why not let Ukyou give it a go? I mean, at least then, if she goes mad with power, then we won't have any trouble putting her down."

"What? You've got some kind of problem with Ukyou, now?" Ranma asked, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, it's nice not being the sole target of all Earthly vendettas for once, but I'd kinda like to be kept in the loop, too."

"We had a falling out earlier, lieutenant," the chef explained, sending a cold glare at the younger lost boy. "Over some perceived remarks I made."

"That's right," Ryouga agreed with a growl. "You made a remark that would have earned you a one way trip through the wall if we'd been back in Nerima, and I just happened to _perceive_ it."

Then, in an almost comical turn shift of mood, Ryouga turned to regard the pigtailed martial artist. "Also, what? I haven't had a problem with you since we got here, so what's that all about? You have something against me now?"

"Uh. No," Ranma replied. "I'm just wonderin' what's goin on. Neither of you Hibikis ever got really angry at Ukyou before, even when she smacked you around."

"I never smacked anyone around!" Ukyou protested.

"You kind of did," the elder Hibiki said, but kept his voice low.

"So what'd she say that's got ya so worked up?" Ranma asked, still holding the ring in his hand and on his finger. "Must've been something really bad."

Surprisingly, someone else deigned to answer the question before the Lost Boy could even draw in a heated breath in preparation for the oncoming diatribe.

"It's not important at this point," Raven stated in a voice that cried 'drop it'. "Anyone's insensitivity, real or imagined, is not the issue at hand at the moment. The issue is, and may I state that I am still against it entirely, is who is to use the ring."

Ranma shrugged. "I guess. Ukyou?

Ryouga nodded. "Go ahead."

"Here ya go, Ucchan." Ranma took the ring off his finger and handed it to his subordinate and old friend. "Give it a shake. Maybe it's like one of those watches…"

"Oh, like those ones that power themselves with your arm motion or something?" Ryu asked, giving it altogether too much thought.

"Yeah. You shake it and it powers up. Or maybe it's like a magic eight-ball?"

"I doubt it works like that, Ranma," Ryouga argued, and the three men watched as Ukyou slowly slid the ring down on her right ring finger, following the western tradition of where to wear a non-engagement ring. The okonomiyaki chef fitted it in place near the base of the finger and slowly opened and closed her hand. Looking down at the fixture, she said nothing.

"Ukyou?" Ryouga asked, prompting.

Ranma shrugged at her lack of response.

"Hey, Ukyou?" Ryu repeated, taking a tentative step forward. "You okay?"

"I feel…" she finally replied, closing her eyes. "I knew it was _me_. You _wanted_ me."

Her mouth began to move, but failed to produce any words. Instead, her battle aura spiked - the clear blue turning almost instantly green, like a bucket of dye dropped into a churning pool of water. Bits of black and green struggled amid the aura, trying to form properly into shapes and solid matter. With an audible 'snap' bands struck her wrists and hands, adhering like liquid tape to her body. Others coiled around her chest, and legs, constricting tightly.

"Shit!" Ranma cursed, and he and Ryouga both rushed forward.

"Ah! Ah!" Ukyou held up her hands to ward them back, and she stumbled, bumping into Cyborg. One of the loops of black material was around her throat and another seemed to be trying to form a domino mask around her eyes.

"Aah!" she gasped, trying to pry the material from over her eye. "W- w- "

Ranma and Ryouga both tried to reach into the swirling maelstrom of her aura, now more like a tornado as black alien cloth spun snapped at anything in reach. The two martial artists could only pull back, their hands burned by green fire. Ukyou's battle aura was now fully solidified into a barrier, and no longer permeable. Even Cyborg, who had also been trying to steady her, was forced back by a pulse of green light.

Heedless, Ryu pushed past the two officers to try and at least free her throat. His left hand formed a blade wrapped in a vacuum, fully capable of cutting through tempered steel. It bounced off Ukyou's green hued aura, and another reactive pulse knocked him back into Ranma and Ryouga.

"Raven!" the latter yelled. "Contain it! Now!"

Holding out a hand, the Titan's violet eyes burned white with power. An instant later, a dome of black energy solidified over the green maelstrom of power. Standing around her, Ryouga, Ranma, Ryu and Cyborg looked torn between trying to intervene and keeping a safe distance. In the end, Ryouga made the choice for them.

"Back up," he ordered, forcing Ryu and Ranma away from the sphere. "Back up! We can't get through that aura anyway."

"But…" Ryu growled. "We can't just leave her in there!"

He grimaced at the storm of energy inside Raven's barrier.

Inside the black bubble, Ukyou struggled, finally clasping her hands against the surface. Hunched over, she shook her head as more and more of the black material latched onto her, furiously tearing away her clothes. Slamming a fist against the barrier, she spun around, now little more than a silhouette within the ebony sphere. Spikes of green light jabbed out, striking the onyx shield with enough force to make it shudder. Finally, one jade lance broke clean through before retreating.

At last a bright green glow completely enveloped the capsule, and the okonomiyaki chef disappeared entirely from view. For a few seconds, nothing could be seen inside.

"Raven," Ryouga barked. "Cyborg! Any idea what's going on in there? I'd really like to hear that this is normal for one of these rings!"

Frowning, Raven clenched her fist, and the dome doubled in thickness in response to her will, the damage caused sealing over. "I have no idea," she bit out, "None of us have ever seen a ring put on before!"

"And I can't read a thing through Raven's barrier, let alone the one around Ukyou," Cyborg added in frustration. "It sure as hell doesn't _seem_ normal, though!"

Unannounced and unanticipated, a pair of palms outlined against the black shield. More than one of those assembled jumped at the sudden appearance, but rather than go limp, the hands pulled back slightly. Two of the fingers on the right hand came together, and they tapped three times on the obsidian surface.

Looking to her commanding officer, Raven saw him nod, and dropped the shield sphere.

As the black energy receded, Ukyou's form became clear. Gone were the flurry of black and green cloth, along with her aura. All had been condensed into a form fitting bodysuit. Green formed a mantle over her shoulders and her collar except for a banded ring of black around her throat. A black domino mask had formed over her face, narrow over the eyes, and contoured green colored the costume over her lower legs and forearms. Conspicuously absent was any form of material over her midriff, leaving it somewhat scandalously exposed.

At the sight, Cyborg chuckled loudly and leaned over, nudging his teammate playfully in the ribs. "Hey, looks like someone is biting your style there, Star."

The Tamaranian merely replied with a dismissive sniff.

"Ugh." Ukyou groaned reaching up to her face. Digging fingers into the mask, she ripped it off and threw it to the side, where it disintegrated before hitting the floor. Stumbling a few steps she ended up near Raven before steadying herself with one hand against the wall.

"This feels… breezy…" Ukyou finally said, and looked down at her bare stomach. "What the…!" Quickly covering herself with her hands, the chef also noticed the rest of her costume. "Why is this so tight? Why is there a boob window? All the boys turn around now!"

The younger Ryouga waved dismissively. "Oh, please. Even _I'm_ not shocked at your new look. You look pretty much like half of the girls that went to the Hive Academy."

"Heck, you're more modest than some Super Heroines I've met in my day, too," Cyborg added, though his grin was far more amused than his team mate's.

"I really want to visit your dimension, you know," Ryu commended with a cheeky grin. "I like its fashion sense."

Turning around, the embarrassed and irate chef took a few calming breaths.

Hands on her midsection, she willed more of the costume to… to cover itself up and be a little modest for god's sake! They weren't here to attract horny customers to buy food! Compliantly, black fabric shifted to cover her midriff. Just as quickly, she did away with the horrible transparent "boob window" by filling in the hourglass/lantern shape with more green.

Taking in the color change around her arms and legs, she frowned at it. Bits receded, forming smaller bracers and then thickened to form textured bricks along the back of the forearm. Black fell away from her hands, leaving the gloves fingerless. Lastly she forced a green belt to form around her waist, along with a bandolier like the kind she preferred for holding mini-spats. Feeling over her shoulder she also made sure it had the clasps for her battle spatula.

"Your world must be perverted," Ukyou grumbled to the ring as she turned back around. "This thing better not be like that Battle Dogi."

"Battle Dogi?" Cyborg asked.

"Perverted clothes," Ranma answered with a grin. "Long story."

"I don't know how you guys even work in these costumes," Ukyou said, this time to Raven. "At least it doesn't have high heels."

Raven looked down at her own costume, clearly confused as she held her cloak out wide for a better view of her leotard. "I'm not sure I understand your meaning. I wear this _because_ of how easy it is to move in while fighting. But high heels? You should see Black Canary..."

Ryouga the elder picked that moment to interrupt. "Ukyou?"

"Ah, yeah! I forgot!" the chef quickly held her hands together holding her hair behind her head and sealed the chestnut hair together with a green and black clasp. She then stood at attention. "I'm fine, sir. I think the ring was just having trouble adjusting to me. It feels sort of… weak. And old. But it still works!"

She winced, and touched her stomach.

"And..." she hesitated. "I don't know. I think it did something to interact with my battle aura."

"Clearly," Ryouga replied. "I'd like Cyborg to take a look at you first, before we go any further. I don't want it… draining the life out of you or anything like that. I can't sense your normal aura at all."

Ranma nodded, also having noticed that fact. "I can't either. Not even a trace."

"Me neither!" Cyborg added loudly, only to chuckle loudly to himself. "You guys and your crazy religions. Anyway, let me get a few scans going. Not that I'm planning on being able to understand too much. The power the GL's use is supposed to be as old as the universe itself. A bit beyond my pay grade there."

"Just do what you can," Ryouga told him.

"I feel fine," Ukyou assured the two officers as Cyborg crouched down and started scanning her and checking the readings on his arm-mounted computer. "A little weird… and a little self conscious at being stared at… but fine. I think the ring's just routing my aura into it."

"And you don't find that a little troubling?" Ranma asked, frowning at the implications. "What happens if you take it off?"

"I'm not powering this thing down until I get some new clothes!" she quickly answered. "But it won't kill me. It just wants to… to work closely with its user. Since I had my aura up, it… I guess it tried to integrate it or something? Don't worry about it!"

"We can't help but worry about it, Ukyou," Ryouga grumbled. "At least with a rifle or psi-amp you can just put it away…"

"Actually, it's a lot like that, Ryo," Cyborg muttered as he continued his scans. Not bothering to turn back to them, he waved his arms up and down Ukyou's hips. "It's not an alien symbiote or anything like that. It's just a tool, admittedly a super intelligent one, but it can be removed pretty easily."

Looking up for a moment, obviously sorting through his memory, Cyborg began to count off on his fingers. "I mean, Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner... Guy Florist - or something like that - anyway, we got a laundry lists worth of Green Lanterns on Earth, and not a single documented case of a ring reacting poorly with one of them."

"So, do I have a clean bill of health?" Ukyou asked, clearly eager to test out her new abilities.

Cyborg 'hmm'd' as he continued his scans. "Well, you got some pretty nasty split ends there that you should probably get looked at, but that is as absolutely as far as I'm gonna go with teasing the new human super weapon while directly within spatula range."

"And that's why you're a super genius while the rest of these guys spend most of their time getting uppercutted or malleted. Oh, but I can't wait to test this out!" Ukyou all but _squeed_ in girlish glee. "I can already feel it trying to teach me how to use it!"

Ryouga motioned Ranma and Ryu back as he walked over. "That is why we're here. Raven. Can you seal the three of us off? You can stay outside or inside, as long as you're able to react to what happens…"

Before Raven could reply, however, the rather distinct sound of someone going 'tap-tap' on a metal surface rang over the air. A half dozen pairs of eyes searched the room, some wondering if they had imagined the sound, others already trying to pinpoint it. Very slowly, all their attentions turned to the cylindrical tube set into the floor.

"Is that…" Ranma began to say. "What I think it is?"

The younger Hibiki stared, wide eyed.

"I..." he licked his lips, taking a step back. "I think the guy that Shampoo was just sitting on is awake..."

Ryouga didn't bother to speculate. "Ryu. Ranma." He pointed quickly to the sides around the stasis tube. "Nabiki. Take Jinx to the CR. Everyone else back."

It only took a second for the training in the two martial artists turned soldiers to kick in. They moved with blinding speed, taking up positions, ready to strike. Nabiki, silently watching all this time, quickly complied and picked up the still sleeping Jinx, getting a restless hand pressed into her face while doing so. Ryouga waited until the two girls were in the control room, and the door closed, before taking the last few steps towards the stasis tube.

Holding up his hand, he made a fist, and the room fell silent.

Leaning over, and switching the lid from tinted to transparent, the officer's eyes widened slightly. No sooner had his eyes made contact, however, than he stumbled back a step. Lowering his arm, the acting Major took a few seconds to collect himself.

"It's…"

He blinked, slowly shaking his head.

"It's… alive." He scowled, fighting a voice only he could hear. "I can't believe it. The alien is _alive_," Ryouga said, and slowly turned to face Ukyou. "And it knows your name."

* * *

x

* * *

"Romak Varto's log. Day of the Spiral Horn. Week of the Vestment. Cycle Seventeen of the Sarsonian Era."

"I met our Guardian, today."

A pause.

"Redact that. Our Esteemed Guardian. I have been loaned to him on special Corps business."

Another pause.

"My first impression of Trespasser is... that he is methodical and efficient, but cold and aloof. As with all Guardians of Oa, he is ancient beyond the normal measure of time, but Trespasser seems somehow even older than the others. He is organizing this expedition under the direct aegis of Foundation. He must have quite the influence among his fellows. As is my duty to Foundation, I have not been made privy to additional details nor have I pressed for them."

"This will be my second tour of duty under the direct supervision of a Guardian who has left his post on Oa. Both were research expeditions that also required armed escort. I do not expect this mission to be as uneventful as the one to the former Empire of Tears. Though he does not seem prone to excessive exposition, no more than any other Guardian, I believe I could hear between the lines that Trespasser is expecting additional losses among embedded personnel."

Another pause.

"The 'embedded personnel' being the Green Lanterns recommended for this mission. We shall protect the Guardian with our lives, of course. We serve the Corps as the Corps serves the Cause, and our Cause is Just. What is more curious is that our normal Rules of Engagement have been changed, including the free use of lethal force. One would think we were going into the Darkest Night or the like. Well, regardless. This will only be a surprise for the other Lanterns. Hopefully they will adapt quickly."

"Though I was briefed on them beforehand, and have read their profiles, I have not worked before with any of the other Lanterns assembled for the expedition. All in all, though, they seem to be a good group. None of them knew each other either, so I have arranged for some joint exercises to help us get to know our individual skill sets. They do not know what I am, of course, nor do they know about Foundation. Hence why I am in command. I do not particularly enjoy keeping my fellow Lanterns in the dark. Why has Foundation not staffed our security with only those who have taken a Second Oath? It would make things so much easier."

"I believe that will be all for now. Romak Varto's log. Session Terminate."

* * *

/ARCHIVE/

AUDIO Encoded  
Bundle: (D.4.6.103)  
INTSec Priority Violet

TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS  
Voice Identification Confirmed: Y5/Jinx (99.2 percent)

SESSION Begin

Hello me, it's me again…

(pause)

Heh heh heh, I love that song. I _totally_ need to get the Hibiki twins to sing that, it'd be so sick it's _contagious_!

(pause)

Well, anyway, finally got another few seconds of time to myself. Though, actually, in retrospect, it's not as hard as I had originally thought. It's not too tough to get alone time when most of your team mates seem to hate you like you were Courtney Love.

(pause)

Well, not everyone, anyways. At least Star still treats me like a normal human being… a bit ironic there, considering that she's harbouring a bit of an anti-human sentiment lately. Then again, if she wants to put me into the 'superior to humans' group with her, then I won't argue.

(pause)

Hmm, I think I'm getting side tracked. Anyway, where was I again? Things that piss me off and that I need to get off my chest. …Yeah.

(pause)

In retrospect, now that I've had some time to chill out, I _might_ have been a bit harsh on the whole unetco thing before. I mean, if _I_ was them, I'd be doing the same thing. I mean, we're practically begging to be taken advantage of. It's only natural that they'd take us up on it.

(pause)

One of the odd things I've noticed is, on the few occasions that I've spoken with the acting Major, everyone is always cringing, like I'm gonna explode in his face, or something.

(pause)

I don't get it. I think Hibiki and Ranma are actually doing a good job. I mean, yeah, they're still a bit on the newb side, but they're learning quick. And the way they handle things… man, if we coulda got these guys into the Academy back home, they woulda been _super stars._

(pause)

Form us up a little Just-Us League… (laughter) Yeah, that'd be pretty awesome! Naw, the Lieutenants are both all good, my kind of people even, but there has been someone else that's been on my mind a lot lately.

(pause)

It's kind of funky, thinking about it now, how things come full circle. I remember talking to Starfire about Nabiki, this Nabiki, and the Nabiki back home. I remember saying how our Nabiki was the real villain, and how this one was a goody two shoes. And now, again, the topic of Nabiki came up with Starfire again, just a few hours ago…

(pause)

I think I made a serious mistake in my initial assessment. A full blown, fatal error that could be the end of me if I'm not careful.

(pause)

It wasn't unetco that took advantage of Cyborg and Star and the rest. It was _Nabiki_! She played Yankee squad, before they were a squad, like a _violin_!

(pause)

Just listening to Starfire explain it - I really should have asked about this long ago, but it hadn't seemed important - it was just so… so _masterful. _

(pause)

Ryouga, Raven and the rest, they had been right on the verge of sitting back and behaving themselves. I mean, sure, they were antsy to do _something_, but had no idea what that _something_ might be. But then along comes Nabiki, and a happy little coincidence in the form of a mid-air abduction.

(pause)

(laughter) Just how _helpful_, how _accommodating, _Nabiki must have seemed. Going out of her way to make sure that Raven and the rest could get into the Pit to see the interception. How above and beyond the call of duty she went to pull strings and convince people what a good idea it would be to _help_ the Titans get in and see what was happening.

(pause)

Nabiki knew _exactly_ how they would react to seeing the kind of horrors she drummed up for them. Just from my own experience, I would say that she was _counting_ on it.

(pause)

(low whistle) That magnificent bitch. I don't know whether I should burn her eyes out for getting me into this, or bow down before her in adulation. All it took after that was some minor convincing here and there, getting the Lieutenants to agree and the Commander to okay it, and 'bam!' Combat Team Yankee was born.

(pause)

I had said that my Nabiki was the more deliciously evil of the two… but now I wonder. Cuz, the more I think of it, the more I realize just _why_ Nabiki did it. I know her too well. It wasn't to _save the world, _or to help innocent people. No, she did it for one reason, and one reason only.

(pause)

She did it to give her Ryouga a few more pieces of cannon fodder to help keep him alive.

(pause)

This Nabiki, this magnificent, manipulative Nabiki, took four naïve, wide eyed kids - and one witty, lovely me - and threw them into the meat grinder of a war that had nothing to do with them, and that they had no _real_ understanding of. All just to give her boyfriend a little better chance of living a little longer.

(pause)

Top grades, Nabiki Tendo. The Headmaster would have _loved_ you.

(pause)

Man, this has me in a weird mood, now. I honestly don't know why I'm so pissed. I mean, I wouldn't have done any different... well, aside from the fact that I doubt I could have come up with such a plan so easily or so quickly… and it's not like any of the Titan's are _really_ my friends…

(pause)

So why is this burning me up so much? Why is it making me think so much about my own criminal past? Why is it filling my head with such strange ideas that never occurred to me before?

(pause)

I… I swear that I just had the strangest epiphany, like, an hour ago. Like a crystal suddenly just solidifying in my mind, I had this crazy idea. Like I _understood_ why it was that villains always lost to heroes, despite heroes being so weak, and stupid and so utterly outclassed.

(pause)

I don't know why, but it's almost like I'm looking at the whole damn thing from the outside in, and only now can I see the whole truth… It's-

(pause)

Ah, crap, here comes the _acting major_. Time to put on my game face. Model Soldier number two-five-six reporting for duty. These guys think I'm just a nutty psycho? I'll show them how well I can play their game.

(pause)

Hmm, ah well, time to go, I guess. The L.T. says it's our turn to work on clearing the tunnel again.

(pause)

All I can say is 'Thank God' to that. We're so close now.

(pause)

Almost out…

SESSION Terminated

TRANSCRIPT END

/ARCHIVE/


	36. And with Strange Aeons 1

_**A/N**_

Okay. Sorry guys, but this is a long author note.  
Also, yes, we're kind of late with the upload (this being Friday night). Lathis and I have ended up in the situation where there's a potentially minor issue with the chapter and one or both of us don't have normal internet access. It can be tough keeping to the "every Friday, weekly" schedule, believe you me!

Moving on:

First of all, let me point out (since I don't think we've mentioned it here on FFN)

Reflections Lost has a tvtropes page!

I'd like to embed a link in the chapter, but FFN filters out links, so you'll just have to google it or go to tv tropes and check there.

Second: I'd like to address some things brought up in the tvtropes page, mostly regarding characterization. A lot of the problem I have, I think, stems from the fact that not everyone who reads Reflections Lost has read "The Road to Cydonia" and thus may not grasp the background of the characters from that story or what they've dealt with and been through, and what their motivations are. Lathis and I have always tried to write Reflections Lost so that a reader of just one of the core stories can dive right into the crossover with a minimum of confusion. It was why we made those introduction chapters, and it was why we did all those "Brother Eye" and "CLEANSLATE" files.

Nonetheless, I think quite a few things have slipped through the woodwork, and ended up interpreted in strange ways. Normally, that wouldn't be a concern - everyone interprets things differently - but a few weeks ago, another reviewer copy/pasted bits of the tvtropes article to point out how Reflections Lost was fundamentally flawed. I suppose to dissuade us from continuing it.

Anyway, I've taken this author note to break down the issues in question:

**Re: Konatsu being a closet psychopath who dreams of dismembering people**

**(and him not using paralysis poison)**

From chapter 9

"That was the name of his sword, or rather, his sword technique. There was a special groove, like the empty fang of its pit viper namesake, to serve as a reservoir. At least with humans, he could use it to kill cleanly and without suffering. One of his many failings, as his step sisters so often enjoyed pointing out, was that he really wasn't that good at being a shinobi. He didn't like to - _didn't want to_ - hurt anyone. It was an unfortunate twist of fate that he was particularly good at doing something he didn't really enjoy. There were no reliable poisons when dealing with the alien enemy, but even there, if he could, he killed softy and painlessly. It was the least he could do."

_TRTC and Reflections both mention that Konatsu's preference in poison is numbing/paralysis, just like the namesake of his sword. This is mentioned as far back as "Not Yet" and the duel he had with Ukyou, yet oddly the tvtropes article claims the exact opposite. The whole point of Juliet's mission to Roanapur was to minimize casualties. ... And they did just that._

_On Konatsu specifically, he even took time to make sure that the people he knocked out didn't suffer head trauma when they hit the ground._

Chapter 10

"Habu wanted to be released. Konatsu very nearly reached for the hidden blade, even as Boris fell back, unable to let out the strangled gasp that ended with his broken ribs. He would be unconscious before his head hit the ground. Ripping his hand away from the temptations of his murderous blade, Konatsu blurred around, quickly catching the Russian man and easing him to the ground. He had gotten... sloppy. The broken bones were one thing, but he could have suffered brain damage by hitting the ground at that angle."

_Despite the high and excitement of battle, the training and the ability to fight without restraint, Konatsu is clearly and constantly doing just that. The point is that he's a "genius ninja" with a gift for all sorts of ninja arts, all except the killer instinct, which is constantly fights down. At least until this recent arc... where you can see the space hulk dimension is wearing him down very badly._

**Re: X-COM Ranma (and Ryouga) being "perfectly willing to kill outmatched opponents even if not necessary."**

Chapter 9  
"Roanapur was a lawless city and far from the first world climes that she had gotten used to operating in. They had basically no one on the ground to help them if push came to shove... Which wouldn't really have been an issue if they were there to take out a target or two, but the Lieutenant didn't want that. They were to get in and out with the briefcase and the two infiltrators."

_A few sentences later, Ranma reminds them that they're not going to screw up, and that they'll measure success in the mission by NOT killing anyone. To which everyone in Juliet cheers (except Konatsu who just smiled meekly). _

_In fact, the ONLY casualties caused were when Lagoon and the Russians wiped out the Colombian mooks who ambushed them, and when the human-form alien used a mental lance to kill two Hotel Moscow soldiers. And of course the unfortunate Sirius cultist who was used to incubate the Chryssalid larva._

_In Chapter 1, Ryouga also puts himself (and Mousse, who quips "I don't want to get killed so you can indulge another hardcase psychic") in personal danger to wait for Kagome to confront her mother ("this isn't our fight") so the situation can be resolved relatively peaceably. Mousse even jokes that he's being a "softie."_

_The only "outmatched humans" killed by India and Juliet have been heavily armed Sirius operatives. On the Procyon (Operation Winter Triangle), they were ordered to clear the ship, and spent weeks mentally and physically preparing themselves for that fact. They carried out their mission. As has been said a few times, the war against the aliens isn't being conducted as a set of duels._

_It isn't "fair" to saturate an enemy position with Blaster Bombs or to snipe them from four hundred yards away. It isn't "fair" to shoot down a large scout UFO that can't fight back against a Firestorm or Avenger. It isn't 'fair' to mind control an alien and use it to shoot it's comrades.. If you're fighting "fair" then you're doing it wrong. That's XCOM's philosophy, and after Sirius wiped out the Amazon village, decimated the Phoenix Tribe, and constantly plans to abduct friends and family of XCOM operatives in a captain of terror... no, India and Juliet lost a lot of their hesitation towards dealing with them. Of course, you could argue that many - maybe most - Sirius operatives don't even know about the horrible masterminds controlling them. That's the flipside, and I admit it. I wrote it after all._

_But outside of a direct Sirius-fighting op (in which case they have their orders, to boot) both India and Juliet, Ranma and Ryouga, go out of their way to handle people delicately and to not kill. This is pretty clear to anyone who has read TRTC, and should be clear to anyone who has read Reflections, too._

**Re: Kasumi willingly participates in torture**

_Really. Re-read the scenes in chapter 15. First, Kasumi is a nurse and lab orderly, she isn't an actual researcher; never has and never will be. Second, she's clearly distressed by what she sees being done, despite the fact that she thinks Akari has become consumed by the alien tissue that kept her alive. Jinx speculates that Kasumi is directly involved, but she has no actual idea - she's running on rage in those scenes and barely thinking clearly. She expressly targeted Kasumi in the first place because Jinx knew she'd be feeling guilty and because she was "too nice" to report Jinx for sneaking into her room and accosting her._

**Re: Shampoo as a "sociopath soldier"**

From chapter 10

"In the grand scheme, it didn't matter where in the world they had been sent to or who they had to fight. The approaches, the tactics, the mission objectives - those would all change to suit the situation, but in the end it was the same simple equation. They had enemies. Enemies were obstacles. Obstacles were for killing. A good and proper Amazon warrior no more worried about killing obstacles than she did about eating or breathing. It was a natural part of life."

"She had been told by Seiran's base psychiatrist that this wasn't very healthy thinking. Shampoo personally chalked it up to a cultural difference of opinion. She was an Amazon of the Nyuchezuu. She had been born one and she would die one. Even if everything else changed, even if the Amazons themselves had to change to survive in the modern world, in her heart Shampoo was completely comfortable and at ease with what she was, who she was, and how she had been raised. When everything else became unsteady, the traditions and values buoyed by 3000 years of history would be a refuse against even the worst storm."

_Shampoo's state of mind is never portrayed as what most people would call normal. She sticks very closely to the mores and norms in which she was raised. I guess you could call it sociopathic (it is never written as something most people can easily relate to) but "extremely sociopathic?" Look at the examples on that page and compare them to Shampoo in this fic. Is she ruthless? Yes. Is she much more aggressive and willing to kill someone than Ranma? Definitely. She knows this herself, and even says so a few times. If you're her enemy, or if you're threatening her or her comrades, are you in deep shit? Oh yeah._

_But Shampoo never has and never would turn against her teammates or "battle sisters," and she would never target or harm civilians or non-combatants. Hers is a very black and white world: enemies are enemies, everyone else isn't. You treat one set one way, the other set another way._

_Of course, this is also colored by the fact that she hates Sirius and all those associated with it, since they wiped out her village with a freaking biological weapon. Not to mention the other issues she has regarding being overshadowed by others, especially Ukyou and now Jinx, being deemed not even worth talking to by Trenchard Cologne, and the fact that her Amazon culture seems to be dying around her. Canon Shampoo isn't a very nice girl, and TRTC Shampoo isn't very nice either, but I find it very ironic that she fits the tvtropes description of "token evil teammate" (it's true, I do write her in that role) more than I think she's a "sociopathic soldier" given the odious examples on that page._

**Let me say here...**

That I love tvtropes. I've lost many hours there. It should be obvious from the fact that we had Jinx directly mention "tropes" in the story that we love the site and all the work people put into it. Lathis and I love having a Reflections tropes site. I personally check it a few days after every chapter update to see if anyone has added anything new from the most recent chapter or story arc. I love it when I find a trope that someone found that I didn't even notice at the time, despite being one of the authors! There's nothing like seeing it there, going "oh, yeah!" and realizing that you troped without even noticing it.

That said, you'll forgive me for also disagreeing with the interpretation of some of the stuff in there and wondering if perhaps things were uploaded after skimming through certain scenes instead of actually reading them? Especially since those particular comments have been up since Chapter 3, when (in my opinion) they were just as inaccurate as they are today, 30 chapters later.

I'll also say again that the Cydonian Mind has **nothing** to do with Buddhism or Islam or Socialism, though it IS an Eldritch Abomination (not as bad as T'leth's Mind, though) and canonically the aliens are addicted to psionic entertainment modules in XCOM, and it is also canon that when the Brain on Mars dies, the aliens in the solar system cease to function and die soon after. The only "political statement" regarding the aliens is really vis-a-vis the human Trenchards and what the future of humanity should be. Should the human race stumble forward on it's own or should it be uplifted to become part of the Starspawn, with all the terrible sacrifices that entails? The Mind itself, and the xcom aliens, do not make relateable antagonists - they're too monolithic by game design. Thus I made the decision to have the story be as much about humans vs humans as it was humans vs aliens.

Okay. That's it.

Also: Onoshi (the Reaper that mauled Akari) should be spelled "Onishi" - if someone could correct that on tvtropes, too, that'd be great.

**That** should be it.

Again: sorry for the long rant of an author note. But 3 pages out of a 1000 shouldn't be too self-indulgent, I don't think. Here's your regularly scheduled chapter, and the beginning of the new story arc.

* * *

x

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_In Strange Aeons_

Chapter 35

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Blind eyes, white with cataracts, opened.

The alien, the Oan, could not have known in that instant the consternation it had caused among those around it, or the debate the strange matter of its impossible survival had caused. So long as the aliens they encountered were long since expired, the XCOM trained operatives in India and Juliet squads were comfortable in following known and given patterns of behavior and general interaction. Even under duress. This situation, however, was so far outside the norm it was alien itself.

Disagreement soon became outright arguments.

"I can scarcely believe what it is that I am hearing!" Starfire protested, looking desperately towards anyone but her Ryouga for agreement. "The Guardians are the most lauded and respected of all races!" She held out her hands, willing for the intransient human crew to understand her. "Since the stars themselves were young, the Guardians of the Universe have been bastions of justice and... and goodness... in our galaxy! In all galaxies! It is the greatest honor even to meet one, and you would cast accusations towards him?"

"You guys said that before. That these guys are like Space Police," Ryu argued, his arms crossed and his tone defiant. "But Police get paid. Police have families to protect. What do these Guardians have to gain by it? Especially if they're as old, and all-powerful and totally isolationist like you guys say they are?"

"That's funny. _We_ help police _our_ city, and we don't get paid, we don't have any families to protect," Cyborg replied, a telling grin on his face. "You saying we're too good to be true as well? Besides, like anyone here is actually competent enough to try and claim to understand the behavioral patterns of a race that predates humanity by… oh, all of time itself."

Ryu was left speechless for a moment, not certain how to respond to the cybernetic teen's rebuttal without insulting all of Yankee squadron. When it became obvious that nothing was coming to him on that front, he quickly shifted gears with a huff. "So why run around making space cops if you don't need to? I just don't get it."

"We never said they were _omnipotent_," Cyborg explained. "Just immensely powerful. Moreso than any of us can really understand. Still, the universe is a _big_ place, and the way I hear it, there aren't too many of these guys. A few thousand Green Lanterns to run around and keep an eye on things for them is hardly a strange idea. Heck, just think of it this way, by your logic, why bother having soldiers, when you have nukes that could destroy all of your enemies with the press of a button?"

Ryu shook his head, still not completely convinced.

"The Green Lanterns," Starfire continued to argue, casting a quick, somewhat envious look in Ukyou's direction. "Are the greatest force for good known. It is they who prevent tyrants from enslaving their fellow sentients; they are the ones who protect less advanced and less powerful races from their neighbors."

"How many Green Lanterns, how many Guardians, do you actually know of?" Mousse asked from where he stood, his hands cupped calmly behind his back.

"Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner all originated from our Earth," Cyborg answered, weighing just how to reveal what he knew. "Obviously there's a ton more, like I said, thousands of them, but not even the Justice League was given a full list of them. No need for it, really."

"Why not?" Ranma asked, quirking his eyebrow. "I thought this League of yours back home was top dog when it came to super-stuff?"

"Do you have a complete list of every soldier from every military on earth, even your allies?" Cyborg replied, stating the obvious. "Besides, why would a universal level organization feel compelled, at all, to give up all of its secrets to some backwater little planet out in the middle of nowhere."

"I know it's hard for you guys to understand," Cyborg explained with an amused chuckle. "But the Earth isn't the most important place in the universe. Just... one heck of an oddity."

"Anyway, back on topic." He gave the soldiers in the hold a knowing look. "Just so you know, Hal was an air force pilot, and Stewart was a US marine. Not saying they're any rhyme or reason to it, but I figure that might mean something to you guys. Also, generally speaking, at least one is always on Earth as part of the Justice League. That's John Stewart."

"The Earth is _quite_ blessed," Starfire added, a little bitterly. "The Vegan system, including my own world of Tamaran, has, for all of recorded history, been regarded as an 'off limits.' Despite being, as you call it, a stone's toss from Earth. None knows why this is, but no Green Lantern has ever entered our system, nor offered us aid, no matter how desperately required…"

There was a moment of awkward silence, as no one was quite sure how to respond to her statement. By this point few were surprised by it, but if it was true - and there was no reason to believe otherwise - it had some unusual implications. The younger Hibiki, seemingly having a somewhat better grasp on her mood, did what little he could to console the Tamaranian and whispered something short into her ear.

"Ummm… well, _Rayner_ seems to spend most of his time outside the solar system; that's more his sort of area," Cyborg finally continued, further explaining the situation. His tone changed, became more confident, as he addressed Ranma and the Major again. "But Hal Jordan and John Stewart are right up there with Superman and Batman, as far as the big heroes go. I'd trust either of 'em with my life, and they trust the Guardians."

"And now we have to trust one of them, too?" Ryu wondered, sighing as his opposition gradually weakened. He gave the mission's commanding officer a quick look, and shook his head. "Sir. You saw what was on that ship. I'm not the smartest guy here by a long shot, but I know what damage caused by a fight looks like. Two of those bodies on that ship didn't just die - they were murdered. One from behind. Maybe they were good people - aliens, whatever - but in the end, they turned on each other."

"They killed each other," he stressed that fact, gesturing towards the deceptively still stasis and medical pod. "And that guy in there couldn't stop it. Maybe he didn't want to." Ryu's scowl deepened. "Maybe he _helped_."

"If there was a human in there, you would not be so hesitant to release them!" Starfire snapped, angrily. "You would not be so hesitant to trust them."

"That's not true and you know it," Ryu snapped back.

"He has a point," Nabiki spoke up, standing a few steps behind Raven and acting Major Hibiki. "What he _was_ may not matter. He was on that ship. Either he couldn't stop what was happening or he succumbed like everyone else. Then there's the fact that their ship was still here, all this time." She clapped the back of her hand into an open palm for emphasis. "Meaning he - they - couldn't find a way to escape, either."

"What choice do we have?" Raven asked, violet eyes skirting back to the older woman. "What do we really have to lose? Even after we free the ship, we can't leave this dimension until we figure out what's wrong with the EDC." She turned her attention back to the one man who had to make the final call. "Aren't we already taking risks sending people out searching for clues, Major? How is this any different than what we've been doing for days?"

"None of those risks were taken right here, inside the ship," Mousse replied. "We're already low on supplies. Our security is already stretched thin..."

"That's not true, and you know it," Raven countered. "We risked everything when we tested the Green Lantern ring, _inside the ship_, as you might recall."

Mousse frowned, but had no rebuttal to her sharp reply.

"Let's be honest, here. We risked the ship and everyone on it to test the ring, out of growing desperation," Raven said, glancing around the room. "The ring worked out for us; however, our situation has not yet improved. Trusting the Guardian might be a risk as well, a negligible one in my opinion, but if we continue to do nothing but argue amongst ourselves, then our own destruction will be all but assured."

Nabiki scoffed, but she sounded more amused than dismissive. "Yes. All we have to lose is our lives." Her eyes closed and she wanly smirked, the situation both depressing and sort of exciting. For a gambler. "But that bet's already on the table anyway."

"Your call," Ranma said to his old rival, having kept quiet until then.

"This alien is from their dimension," Shampoo chimed in from where she leaned, casually, against a featureless gray wall. "So they'd know best about it."

Starfire sent a small, thank-you smile to the Amazon before going back to staring at the ship's CO.

Ukyou remained conspicuously silent.

"Alright," Ryouga, the acting Major, finally said, raising a hand to bring the muttering and conversations to a close. He had been contacted, telepathically, by the Guardian still in the stasis tube. The Oan's call had been weak; a mirror to his seemingly dead corpse of a body. Those with similar psionic training, really, everyone at this point, were ordered to guard themselves. There wouldn't - couldn't - be a repeat of Azarath. _Never again._

"Alright," he repeated. "I've made my decision."

In the end, the arguments of the Titans and their supporters had swayed him.

It was into that environment that the Guardian finally opened its – his – eyes. Ryouga and Cyborg stood immediately over the withered body, Ranma and Ryu poised nearby and prepared to act if things went downhill. Nabiki and Raven had ducked out to observe from the ship's internal sensors and man the Nav. Not that many were exactly comfortable with the notion of having to fight a being even the Titans called 'powerful beyond description' despite how dead-on-it's-feet it seemed to be. Even the makeshift contingency plans put in place were of dubious effectiveness given what they had heard.

The mouth of the alien stasis tube yawned, exposing its contents to the air of the ship. There was no smell, but a few wisps of steam did rise up from below to coil in the air. Weakly, tentatively, a blue skinned humanoid held out its hand, tiny fingers twitching.

His voice was not a voice:

'Your species…?'

All those present heard it, regardless of their respective defenses.

'Human...' It knew the term; across the hold, various members of the three teams exchanged looks of apprehension and curiosity. 'A Tamaranian as well…' Starfire's eyes lit up, and she squeezed her Ryouga's arm tightly enough for him to wince.

'Yes,' the Guardian's thoughts coalesced, growing more forceful. 'This is acceptable.'

That last thought echoed in the minds of those present, and Cyborg flinched in surprise, while Starfire very nearly glowed, looking quite pleased to be regarded positively by the Guardian - to be singled out by him even. The elder Ryouga, who had heard it before, only stared down, half expecting some sudden move.

"He wants to see you, Ukyou," he said, and off to his side the chef was a mere two paces away. Keeping her back, the officer stared down at the alien. "I hope for your sake you mean well, Guardian."

That said, he and Cyborg stepped to the left and right, giving the chef turned Green Lantern room to squeeze past the two. Chalky eyes followed her movement, and the fingers twitched again, almost hungrily. Compelled, Ukyou didn't even hesitate in taking the creature's hand. Nearly mummified digits, the blue skin tone reduced to an icy pallor, clutched her slim fingers with unnatural speed and strength, and almost instantly the Guardian took on a fresh, faint glow.

The chest expanded as a great breath was taken; dry and frozen lips moistened, and air rushed in from the surrounding atmosphere with an almost visible shockwave. Glowing skin ripped and reformed, the pale blue becoming more and more vivid. Dead eyes burned green and trails of particulate ice floated from the open mouth as the Oan reanimated itself. Ukyou winced in the alien's hold, but made no effort to try and flinch or remove herself. Stark white hair seemed to thicken, and red and white robes materialized over the alien's body.

Finally, the Guardian let her go, and the grasping hand fell to grip the edge of the stasis tube.

'That will do... Green Lantern."

The thought-turned-speech preceded the alien slowly rising from the medical bed, robes flowing below it as it unsteadily hovered. The India Squad members frowned instinctively, previous experience with floating robed aliens coming to mind. A shaking hand rose up, and the Oan glanced down at it, as if taking in its physical form for the first time.

Burning green eyes then turned back up at the assembled humans.

"Do not be alarmed."

A second later, and alarms blared throughout the ship.

"Massive Psionic intrusion in-" Nabiki's voice, clear over the intercom, cut off mid-panic.

At the exact same time, Cyborg clutched his head. "W-what…"

"I see," the Oan said, ignoring the looks of panic quickly turning to action around him. "Fascinating."

Others were already moving. Ranma and Ryu were raising plasma carbines and a churning sphere of green and black was forming between Ryouga's hands. Sirens continued to wail, but the three attacks were preempted by Ukyou appearing directly in front of the hovering Guardian, manifesting a bright green shield that multiplied and overlapped like the shell of a turtle around them.

"Ukyou!" Ryouga snarled. "What the Hell are you-?"

Ranma instinctively lifted the barrel of his rifle to take her out of its line of fire. "Get out of-"

"Please," she pleased. "Just… let him finish. ...Trust me!"

Over the ship's intercom, Raven gave a disquieting hiss of effort, as if struck. Before anyone could do more than notice, Nabiki stormed through the door to the command room, pushing open the door when it stopped mid-way. The Tendo sister's face betrayed open shock and fear.

"It's trying to break our encryption!" she yelled. "I don't know how, but it's finding backdoors inside!"

Still holding his ki blast, Ryouga grimaced, his training kicking in with what the squad controller meant. XCOM encryption, psionic or otherwise, was either 512-bit or 1024-bit. Bremermann's Limit defined the maximum computational speed of a self-contained system in the material universe as 1.36 times 10^50th power bits-per-second per kilogram. A computer the size of the Earth, operating at that theoretical limit, would still take 10^75 years to break through with brute-force hacking. The most secure encryption was an order of magnitude above even that.

But as with any system, there were psionic backdoors.

_'__It__'__s reading our minds?__'_ he could only guess. _'__Somehow duplicating our security clearance? Is that even possible? It can't be - the Nav is genetically and telepathically encoded!__'_

"This technology was not created by either of your races," The Guardian stated, and the burning green eyes narrowed. "I see. Your species' natural adaptability could be of use to the Corps. I believe this shall suffice."

Still shielded by Ukyou's green energy construct, the Oan blinked, and the green blaze in its eyes abated. Sirens continued to blare within the ship, however. Cyborg, appearing to have also been hacked – or mind read, or both – was also standing and trying to steady himself. Glancing quickly over his shoulder, Ryouga could just barely see Nabiki and Raven in the control room, trying to contain the situation.

"I have analyzed and solved your problem," the Oan continued, unperturbed by the disturbances he had caused. He addressed Ryouga directly, "Hibiki, Ryouga, Major, United Nations Extra-Terrestrial Combat Organization. You have already reviewed some of my logs from the other ship. You may identify me as TRESPASSER, a GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE."

The alien cocked its head to the side.

"I have the means to return you to your dimension."

* * *

"Isn't this what we wanted?"

Following the Oan's declaration, the squads had been split up. One group had been left to watching the Guardian in the hold, consisting of Shampoo, Mousse and Ryu, with the Kumon Dojo heir in charge. Most everyone else had been crammed into the command room, the door fixed so it shut properly once more. Raven was still in the ship's pilot seat at the nav interface, and next to her, Nabiki had swiveled her chair around, looking frazzled.

The above question had been posed by Ukyou, still in her Green Lantern uniform.

"I mean," she tried again. "Isn't it? Guys?"

Pacing anxiously between Nabiki and Raven, the elder Hibiki was furiously tapping his finger against his bicep, his arms tightly crossed. His _shishi hokoudan_ from before had been dismissed, but the dark mood that formed it still prevailed. He did not look ecstatic about the new situation handed them.

"Nabiki," he said as he paced. "What's the status of our computer systems?"

"I… I don't even know where to begin," the Tendo sister said with an exasperated sigh. "I don't know how he got in, but my best guess is that he copied three preliminary authentications and made several simultaneous login attempts: yours, Cyborg's, and mine. When his hack using my login encountered the 'parallel administrator' safeties, he somehow snuck in by entering Raven's mind. Luckily, she doesn't have the ship control privilege that you and Ranma have. I just… I have no idea how he managed it. It shouldn't even be possible."

Ryouga then turned to Cyborg for some kind of answer.

"I don't know either, man. I've been hacked physically before, and with TK," the teen Titan explained. "I have safeguards, but the guy just walked right through 'em."

"Suggestions?"

"He didn't hit our encryption head on," Nabiki answered, running a hand through her short hair to tuck it nervously behind her ear. "Actually, I think he did try at first, but then he stopped. We need to tighten our login protocols. I can randomly generate 'black keys' for each psi-reader log-in attempt. No one will know what the key is until it's been generated, and they won't get their encryption key until they psionically enter it. But…"

She frowned. "But if this guy left new backdoors I don't know about or… or _I don__'__t even know_. None of this may matter. It'll keep him from reading our minds to copy our authentication, but he shouldn't be able to do that in the first place! Maybe I could try some other tricks to try and limit security access? INFSec taught me how to work the ship's data security, but I think I'm out of my league here."

"Do it. Do anything you have to," Ryouga ordered, still pacing. "I will not lose control of the ship or anything that leads back to Seiran."

"We also need to do something about it reading our minds like that," Ranma spoke up from where he leaned against the wall, also looking displeased. "Once it got that... power up... it wasn't using normal psionics. It even read Raven's mind… _despite her being in the Nav_."

"I did not even realize it at first," the Titan added over the ship's intercom. "Even when I realized what was happening, there was nothing I could do. It was like chasing a ghost."

"It…" Ukyou hesitantly interrupted. "It isn't an 'it.' _It_ is a _he_."

As if this crossed some line, both Ranma and Ryouga locked their eyes on her.

"Ukyou," Ryouga said, and thrust out his hand. "The Ring."

"What?" she asked, momentarily dumbstruck. "You mean?" She looked very quickly down at her hand. "But why…?"

"You stood between us and an alien actively usurping our ship's systems," Ryouga explained, his tone of voice less than pleased. "I'm concerned that it may be having an effect on your judgment. The Ring, Squaddie. Now."

"But I… Ryouga-honey, you don't think that I…?" She quickly shut her mouth, saw Ranma was just as adamant at the acting Major, and straightened with a salute. "Y-yes, sir!"

Starting to remove the power ring she hesitated for just a second, and then wrenched it off to quickly hand it over to her CO. At the same time, Ranma appeared next to her, draping his shirt over her – it was sufficiently long to protect her modesty in the case of her uniform dissolving. Clutching it to herself, Ukyou felt and saw the green parts of her GL uniform vanish in little puffs of green smoke…

Leaving the black body suit behind.

Looking herself over - as surprised as those present - she could see that the black part of the uniform now covered her completely. Only the green parts were gone.

Privately, _secretly_, she also felt the power of the ring still burning inside her… almost as if it were one with the course and flow of her battle aura, as if it had merged with her Manipura chakra. Touching a hand to her stomach, she could almost feel it in there, under the surface. The realization was both troubling and… strangely comforting. The ring may have been physically taken away, but they were all but one, so perhaps it didn't even matter.

"At least it doesn't strip me down when I take it off," she said, once-more-blue eyes looking up at Ryouga and her ring. She coughed politely and returned to an at-attention position, back straight.

"Very good, Squaddie," the acting Major said with a pleased nod of his head.

"Sir," Ukyou quickly added in her own defense. "I intervened because the situation was volatile and I wished to prevent a firefight. There was no time to ask for permission, sir."

"It would have been nice if that 'Guardian of the Universe' out there had _asked_ before jacking into our systems and setting off every alarm we have," Ryouga remarked, pocketing the ring. "At least when we do it, we make sure the ships are empty first."

Then again, they usually did it by killing off everything in said ships… so perhaps it wasn't that bad of a trade off.

"Ukyou brought up a good point before, though," Ranma said with a thoughtful 'hmm.' "We should have expected something like this when we decided to thaw it - _him_ out."

"At the time, he looked like a dried up old mummy," Nabiki reminded him. "No offense to Cologne or any of our other respected but shrunken elders back home."

"He looked more alive than the Ethereals we fight," Ranma countered. "Looks are deceiving with those big brain types."

"I think the question is what to do now," Ryouga reasoned. "We have to at least hear it out. He says he can fix the EDC and get us home. This is exactly what we wanted, what we _hoped_, to hear… which is why I'm suspicious now that I've heard it. It sounds too damn convenient."

* * *

Trespasser floated serenely in the hold, mere inches over his now closed and recessed medical tube.

"You have many questions," the Guardian stated.

Around him, the entire crew had been assembled, including the beleaguered Kuno and Konatsu. The Titans were spread all across the room, Starfire floating close to his side, while Raven hung near the very back of the room, with Ryouga and Cyborg each leaning against respective walls across from each other. In contrast, Juliet and India squads were huddled together in the center of the hold: Shampoo and Mousse hung out near Kuno and Konatsu, watching them while at the same time taking in the situation. Ukyou was nestled between Ryu and Ranma, still wearing the latter's shirt over her form fitting black uniform. The elder Ryouga hung out on the edge. Only Jinx wasn't present, having slept soundly since her brush with death after the accident outside.

"You can start by explaining where we are," Ryouga stated.

"This is not unexpected," the Oan replied, slowly blinking its faint green eyes. "Having scanned your minds and assimilated information on your culture, I will attempt to phrase it in way you can visualize. You are already aware of the fact that your groups are from different multiverses."

"Imagine one of those multiverses as a… city block, with multi-tiered structures. Buildings. Standing on the top of one building, you can see the tops of others, some shorter and some higher. From the top of one building, you can descend into the lower floors quite easily, or with difficulty, you can leap from one roof top to another. Some even have bridges between them, making this less dangerous. The gap between buildings in the multiverse we come from has a name: _The Bleed_. Those who fall into this area of non-existance do not return."

The Guardian continued in a bored, emotionally detached tone.

"Imagine now that the flat surface on which those buildings are constructed… is but one face of a three dimensional dodecahedron. Imagine now, not twelve faces, but thousands. At the edge of each distinct plane, one can still attempt to jump to other planes, the trip obviously being much more dangerous."

A blue finger rose up to accentuate the coming point. "Alternatively, one can go deeper, into the basement of any given building. Below the surface of each plane of each multiverse, towards the center of the whole. Here, one does not need to jump to adjacent planes. We are within that theoretical space, not between multiverses, but beneath them. This is but one of many… sink holes… that litter this 'space.'

He seemed to contemplate saying more, but declined. "This explanation will suffice for the time being."

"I've heard that Guardians have almost godlike powers," Ukyou spoke up, shyly raising her hand as if waiting for a teacher to call on her in school. "You probably can't get us out of this dimension, but can you free the ship for us?"

"That would be a wasteful expenditure of my power," Trespasser answered in the same emotionless tone. "Additionally, it would be dangerous to do so."

"Dangerous?" Ryu asked when the Oan failed to elaborate. "How so?"

Trespasser took a second-longer breath in what could have been the equivalent of a sigh. "You have detected the warp ripples that plague this dimension. If I were to use my powers on any great scale, a resulting warp bubble would form, engulfing myself and everything surrounding me. The feedback would be immense and destructive. None of you would survive."

"The power of the Lantern before you will suffice to assist in the extraction of the ship," he concluded. "Doing so will be adequate practice for what is to later occur. You, Lantern, and you, Tamaranian, are ideally suited to assist me."

"Assist you in what capacity?" asked Starfire, paying rapt attention to the blue skinned alien.

"I require a strong right and left arm, as your races put it."

That seemed to unsettle the alien princess for a moment, but then she quickly regained her certitude and nodded enthusiastically. "I will gladly render any assistance which you require!"

"What about your last crew?" Nabiki asked her voice lowered to a casual, analytical tone. "Why weren't you able to help them like you're helping us?"

The Guardian deigned to glance down at the mercenary girl directly.

"That crew was compromised soon after entering this dimension. Overuse of their abilities accelerated their mental and physical deterioration." The corners of his eyes crinkled as he stared at her. "Consider this: their lives were devoted to the Corps and to the ideals it represents. You all understand what that means; your society is among the most militaristic we have encountered. The Lanterns who accompanied me here each fell in the line of duty."

"We saw bodies throughout the ship," the Tendo sister pressed, leaning towards him.

The Guardian's face was as impassive as stone. "As I have said, they fell in the line of duty. Where they fell, or how they fell in the end, is essentially irrelevant. You have surmised that what happened on my ship is happening on this one. You do not wish a repeat of this, nor do I. Cease pointless inquiries. There are more important things to discuss."

Despite this being all but an order from a godlike being, Nabiki frowned, about to do the exact opposite.

"Don't think she's the only one with those sorts of questions," Ryouga spoke up in her defense… but followed that by agreeing, "But that can come later. I think we're all curious what your big plan is."

"My big plan," the Oan repeated the words as if they were uniquely childish. "My recommendations are the following. You have the means to leave this dimension, even as twisted as it is, but the Navigator you are using has gone… insane."

"Insane?" Ranma asked, looking to Cyborg for an explanation.

Cyborg shrugged, looking back at Juliet Squad's lieutenant. "Dude, you have been pretty twitchy lately, and, seriously, you gotta be kinda crazy to wear your hair like that in the first place..."

"Hey! Not me! And don't diss the pigtail, baldie!"

"Guys…"

"This ship," the Oan interrupted. "Uses part of a unique multidimensional entity to direct itself through the non-space and Bleed-friction between multiverses. We Guardians have encountered these creatures before. My ship used part of one, now long since gone. With a functional core, it is possible to navigate blindly but safely through the hazards in this non-space. You are fortunate to have such a device; most who end up here have not even that."

Trespasser sounded almost – almost amused. "However, the same psychosis that is slowly affecting all of you has had an accelerated effect on the core. Like a cancerous body, it is being rejected by the other parts of itself scattered across the other dimensions. Like an infection, the other fragments of the entity act to isolate this part of itself to preserve the greater whole."

"To escape," he finally told them, "We will need a way to cheat the fact that your navigator is insane. We will need to trick it into becoming 'accepted' ... I can do this."

"How?" Ryouga asked, eager to get to the point.

The Oan shrugged his small shoulders, answering only at his own pace. "I will require three materials in addition to the technology in this ship. First, we will require an alloy called 'Nth Metal' in our dimension."

"Are you stating that there are crafts of Thanagarian origin trapped within this area of null-space?" Starfire asked, fascinated.

"Thanagarians?" the younger Hibiki asked. "You mean like that bird lady, Hawkgirl, or something like that?"

"Starfire, you've mentioned Thanagarians to us at least once before," Ryu said, looking over at the alien girl. Needless to say, it was in better times.

The Tamaranian Princess eyed Ryu coldly for a moment, and then nodded. "Indeed. They are an older race, native to our dimension. Though seemingly constantly embroiled in various wars, they have adopted several unique technologies, one of which is the widespread usage of Nth metal."

"Heh, yeah," Cyborg added with a wry grin, "They almost turned the Earth into a Hyperspace bypass once, too. So: not exactly one of our closest interstellar friends out there."

"What is this Nth Metal?" the older Ryouga inquired, "And what does it do?"

"Nth Metal is imbued with the power of a godlike entity native to our multiverse," Trespasser explained, speaking as if such an occurrence was commonplace. "An entity superficially similar to… the creature Trigon, which some of you are familiar with. I can use it to trick the intact Navigator on this ship."

"I hate to sound slow," Raven asked in a quiet voice from the back of the room, "But how, exactly? I know some of the properties of Nth metal, myself. I've never heard of it being used in this manner before."

"You are aware of its anti-magical properties." This was a statement, not a question. "You are not aware that we, the Guardians, have taken steps to control the rather rampant use of magical forces within our universe. The weakness in the barriers between magical planes is… something we are aware of and have attempted to remedy. I personally know numerous uses for Nth metal that you do not."

Stepping away from the wall, the younger Ryouga shrugged carelessly. "Yeah, you know everything about everything, no doubt. But didn't you say that there were _several_ things you needed? What else do you need besides the metal?"

Unperturbed, Trespasser returned to his… recommendations.

"There is only one source of Nth Metal that is locally available to us. A Thanagarian ship crashed here soon after we did, using a piece of the same trans-dimensional entity used in my vessel. As a large command craft, it possesses an Nth Metal Forge. One of the last missions assigned to my Lanterns was to retrieve this metal from the ship. To my disappointment, by the time we had identified what we needed, they were too far gone and unable to complete my objectives. You are more capable… at the moment. A team will be sent to retrieve no less than two of your kilograms in pure Nth Metal."

The Oan quickly added, "You will be able to identify the metal more easily than you expect. Thanagarians are a rather primitive and barbaric race. Given such a powerful metal from their 'god' they then turned it into axes and clubs. I expect their ship to be strewn with such weapons. Retrieve eight or nine of them, intact, and uncorrupted. I can extract the pure metal from the alloy they use. The task is straightforward. I leave you, Major Hibiki, to determine who you send."

The elder Ryouga said nothing at that to indicate his agreement… or acquiescence.

"Additionally, I will require... certain information about this dimension and a source of…" Trespasser seemed to think about how to describe what was next. "You may think of it as a dimensional record. Furthermore, while the core of your E-D-C is intact, it will require some adjustment and improvement. A map is required, as is information and perhaps... parts from another ship, one similar to this one."

"Similar to this one?" Ranma asked. "Wait a sec! You mean an alien ship? _Our_ aliens?"

"Yes." the Guardian replied. "Your aliens. I am aware of a ship of theirs that came here, ages ago, but it has been lost. First and most importantly, we will need a piece of an entity I know as 'Heresiarch,' a heretical god expelled from its home multiverse. Over the eons, Heresiarch has been all but consumed by this dimension. Only whispers of it remain and I alone can decipher those whispers and learn the truths I seek. What Heresiarch knows, I must know."

"Ummm, ya kinda lost me there," Cyborg butted in, looking a bit annoyed, actually. "I was with you on the Nth metal thing, since that actually makes sense. But now you want us to pick up God chunklets out there?"

"That is exactly what you must do," Trespasser replied, as if explaining something truly elementary. "Heresiarch's corpse is not difficult to find. Return a piece of its inner recesses to me. I will be able to know what it knows."

"Psychometry?" Nabiki guessed.

"More pseudo science mumbo jumbo, you mean," Cyborg countered.

"Haven't you said you know magic users in this Justice League of yours?" Mousse asked. "I'd think you were used to pseudo science and mumbo jumbo?"

Holding up his hands, the younger Ryouga waved his hands. "Hey, whoa. I think you're all kind of missing the major point here. This guy wants us to go grave robbing a God, and you're worrying about semantics?" Turning to Trespasser, he frowned. "I'm guessing there's some catch here. Exactly why would it be so easy to find this guy's corpse? This place is practically an inside-out planet, where are we gonna find him?"

"I shall point you towards Heresiarch's corpse. You only need to return with a small piece of it. The danger is… not terribly significant, for those with sufficient willpower."

"Again, that doesn't answer my question at all," Ryouga growled. "What's the catch? For that matter, why do I get the feeling this isn't some body in a coffin you're sending us after?"

"As this is the only way for any of us to escape this dimension, it should not matter what… catch there is. I have answered your questions. I have given you what you need," Trespasser's burning green eyes moved across the assembled teens. "You have been told what you must do."

The eyes focused hard on one in particular.

"Will you?"

* * *

Ranma could see the uncertainly on his old rival's face as he paced. For the moment, the only ones in the command room were himself, Ryouga, and Nabiki. The NCOs would be let in later, and technically Jinx was still sleeping in a corner, but right now it was up to the two officers and the one mission coordinator to figure out what to do. Ranma knew full well that Ryouga, as acting Major, had the authority vested in him by Seiran and Commander Yasuda to make nearly any decision in the field.

He could set or modify ROE, mission objectives, squad deployments, etc. Some officers would do just that, and make their decisions based entirely on their own experiences and insights. Ranma knew his old frenemy, and knew that Ryouga simply wasn't the sort to be entirely confident in the choices he alone made. He would and could make the split second calls, but he would never be entirely happy with them. If possible, he would almost always try and look for the opinions of those he trusted. A CO did not run a military unit by popular consent, nor did he confer with everyone under his command. He couldn't. Nabiki and Ranma thus represented the smallest unit of alternate viewpoints that could be discretely called together regarding command decisions.

They expressed their concerns in reserved, thoughtful tones.

Letting Nabiki go first, Ranma cupped his chin and reminisced for a moment. Not only was this whole situation almost insanely far removed from Nerima, it was a veritable lifetime away from the routine sort of work they had been picked and trained to do for UNETCO. It was still strange to think of Ryouga, the pig headed, pig cursed, idiot, as a superior officer, even in only an 'acting' capacity. It was somewhat strange how little Ranma minded being second to his rival, at least in this _**one**_ thing.

The truth was that he had never enjoyed being in command. Neither of them did, as far as he knew. They were loners at heart. It was simply the kind of mentality one had to develop in the interests of the Art. Making decisions that others had to follow; considering the safety and use of others, especially those weaker than yourself, presented troubling implications for people who took seriously vows to protect the weak and to defend your friends at all costs. Training and reason told him that the mission had to come first, that there was more to the world than your clique of friends and subordinates, but it could only go so far against the grain.

Ranma Saotome didn't mind being partly absolved of that responsibility. He would look after Juliet and those under his command, but between the two of them, Ryouga was and would always be the more ruthless and, in a strictly tactical sense, even more practical. He wouldn't cling to a failing strategy or course of action due to pride. Setbacks, however temporary, were something he understood to be part of life. Ranma Saotome, on the other hand, did not and could not bear to lose. And he knew it.

Nabiki finished explaining her concerns and took a few slow breaths. She had a number of very good points: they still knew very little about this alien, Trespasser, and had little reason to trust him, or it, with their lives. Every Green Lantern on that other ship was dead, and by the looks of it, many had killed each other or even themselves. Where had this Guardian been then? When pressed, it seemed like he just wanted to dismiss the whole issue of the other ship and the other Green Lanterns. Trespasser was also clearly giving suggestions that were functionally orders.

That set a very dangerous precedent, especially given the lack of control that ate away at most of the crew.

At the same time, they couldn't be too overt in their opposition to the Oan either. Ranma presented the case for a measured response: currently, Trespasser was their only source of fresh, actionable information, and he had the only passable plan anyone had thought up since crash landing. Dismissing his 'suggestions' was entirely out of the question, but so was bowing to them with helpless compliance; they had to integrate the Guardian into the command structure in a way that maintained military discipline and the existing command structure. Elements could not be allowed to deviate and form a 'command within a command' – the crew would splinter and tear itself apart.

This being a more delicate matter, Ryouga left it to Nabiki and the Saotome heir to figure out just how to pick from column A and column B without falling entirely into one or another. Ranma knew he mostly went with his gut when it came to these things, and said as much. Luckily, Nabiki was already a step ahead.

They brought Trespasser into the command room with them, alone, and agreed to the basics of his plan, provided he gave them some additional information. At first, this was the material relevant to the two mission targets, which he readily supplied. Amid that albeit necessary information, they were also able to acquire more data on the dead Lanterns on the ships, and the decryption used on their logs. Trespasser gave this over and agreed to assist Ukyou in the use of her power ring in one sentence, seemingly unperturbed by whatever his 'Lanterns' had recorded in their spare time... or final hours.

Dismissed, the Oan left, and Ranma silently wondered if they had been mind read during the meeting.

He wondered if they were being mind read _now_.

"You'll go crazy if you think like that," Nabiki had said at the notion. "It usually doesn't do any good to over-think things anyway, especially when it comes to you two idiots."

"We still have the psionic pacification bands," Ryouga reminded them… and himself. Clearly it had been in his thoughts.

"You think they'd work on that guy?" Nabiki asked, sounding doubtful.

"I kind of doubt it," the lost one admitted. "But he wasn't the one I was thinking of using them on. "I get the feeling that if we went at each other's throats that this Guardian wouldn't twitch a neuron to help any of us. So we'll have to help ourselves… and police ourselves, too."

"That's crossin' a line, man," Ranma observed with a frown. "You think it'll go over?"

"I honestly don't know."

They returned to the material at hand: Trespasser had given the location of the two mission targets. One was about five thousand kilometers away. The other, the supposed Thanagarian ship, was located in a flat expanse Ryu and Ukyou had crossed near before, and about two hundred kilometers away. In light of how massive the structure was, it was surprising that even one of the targets was that close by. They went over the rest of the data, and made some preliminary selections regarding which groups would go to which targets.

Finally, they brought the active duty NCOs in: Ryu and the younger Hibiki.

"I'd like Raven brought in, too," Nabiki reminded them as they made the call. She didn't need to elaborate why.

* * *

Raven wearily sighed as the debate continued to unfurl as to who would be sent on the respective missions for the Guardian. Honestly, the dark Titan's initially star-struck impression of the nigh legendary race had tarnished surprisingly quickly upon her first actual meeting with one of said aliens. She knew that the Guardians were supposed to be as old as time and all knowing, and that she supposed it made sense that such a hyper intelligent being would have little patience for answering such base inquiries, but still… he was kind of a jerk.

Regardless, she was hoping that the Major would finally rescind his senseless order restricting her to the ship. If they were to be searching out the body of a god, then, well, who other than herself was more qualified to go on that mission? Even forgetting the Guardian's needlessly cryptic statement concerning willpower, which limited the field of viable candidates to herself and Cyborg regardless, she didn't like the idea of sending any of her friends into such a potentially volatile situation.

_'__That is not dead which can eternal lie, _

_ And with strange aeons even death may die.__'_

It was not a quotation which she took lightly, not with the life she had lived. In her experience, there was no such thing as a 'dead' god, not in the way that a mortal could possibly understand the concept.

It wasn't like she didn't have outer space experience, either. She was a trained pilot, even in her home dimension, though not nearly as proficient as Robin, Cyborg, or Starfire; UNETCO had trained her to handle outer atmospheric operations; she was more than capable of taking care of herself. In fact, she had never felt stronger. Her time in Azarath had not just rejuvenated her, it had saturated her with her father's dark power, filled her almost beyond her capacity to contain. A small part of her – _a very small, seductive part_ – secretly desired to test the power of their vaunted new Green Lantern. Their strength was all but legendary, but she had never seen one in action first hand. How much of the legend was truth, and how much was simple hyperbole?

_Crushing even a fledgling Green Lantern with her own power would be __–_

An unexpected sound derailed her (increasingly disturbing) train of thought. Even as the rest of the discussion continued around her, Raven looked to the source. There… curled up not-quite comfortably in the corner of the room, was Jinx. The pink haired witch was lying right where Ryouga and Nabiki had moved her back when the Guardian had awoken some time ago. Much to Raven's amazement, she watched as Jinx's eyes fluttered open.

She had been expecting the sorceress to be unconscious for at least another hour or two, but she was already waking up? Once again, Jinx was proving to be more resilient than her tiny, wiry body would indicate. Groggily, the slit-eyed girl sat up on her sleeping bag, lazily rubbing one of her bright, pink eyes as she took in her surroundings.

Slowly, the conversation drew to a close as everyone else present finally started to notice Jinx's unexpected awakening. For a moment, she looked confused as she obviously tried to puzzle out what was going on, but the second her eyes settled on Raven, they narrowed and she shot up to her feet. A second later, Raven pushed herself up to her feet as well, shifting into a defensive stance as Jinx stalked across the room, directly towards her, finger held out accusingly.

"You," hissed the irate sorceress.

Immediately, their Ryouga shifted over, holding up his hands wardingly –

"Now Jinx…"

- Only for Jinx to deftly juke around him so fluidly that it nearly left him spinning in her wake. Starting to grow concerned, Raven lifted her hands as well, holding them defensively, rather than in a placating manner.

_'__Is __–__ is she actually going to attack me? After I helped to save her?__'_

She actually felt her temper begin to slip at that thought. How ungrateful could the pink haired brat, be? Not only had she helped her, but she'd defended her against the unfair accusations and dismissive attitudes leveled her way by Ukyou and the others, and this was how Jinx repaid her? She had a half a mind to…

Jinx stopped her angry march right in front of Raven, less than three inches separating their noses. Normally, Jinx would have been looking down at Raven, but without the platform boots that made up part of her normal costume, she was surprisingly close to Raven's height – not counting her hair, which rose up another good eight inches above them.

The dark Titan held her action, not wanting to be the one to initiate any attack, but the proximity was starting to make her nervous. To both of her sides, she saw the older Hibiki stepping in, looking equally intent to break up the potential confrontation before it began.

Jinx darted forward, faster than anyone could react… crushing her lips to Raven with startling ferocity. A second later, her hands found the back of Raven's head, weaving through her violent hair and holding her firmly in place. All she could do was flail her hands ineffectually as Jinx lip-locked her into submission.

"MMmmph!"

Needless to say, her would-be rescuers were stopped dead in their tracks, eyes going wide as teacups. A pindrop could have been heard throughout the rest of the room, until, finally, Jinx pushed her back, and right down into her chair. Wide eyed herself, Raven could only stare as Jinx suddenly leaned forward, placing her hand on the back of her chair as she loomed over the shocked Titan.

"There!" she declared. "How do you like knowing you just made out with the most unbearable person you've ever known and not being able to do anything about it?"

Needless to say, words failed Raven at that point. Frankly, she was surprised that her body was still able to remember how to breathe after that shock. Which only made it all the more disorienting when Jinx suddenly spun away from her, turning her hot glare on their Lost Boy so quickly that he still hadn't recovered from the last shock he'd received.

"As for you, Mr. Hands," she all but growled. That sobered him up quickly enough. The master martial artist actually took a step back as Jinx poked a finger into his chest, the look of righteous female fury threatening to reduce him to a cinder…

And then, just as quickly as her fury built up, it faded away to nothing, leaving Jinx staring at him, a questioning expression on her face. "You… whatever it was you were doing, it was to help me, wasn't it?"

It took him a moment to recover from the sudden reversal. Nodding quickly, he took a moment to stand straight again and straighten out his uniform. "That's – that's it exactly. You're a member of my team, Jinx. I would never do anything to hurt you… you should know that by now."

The sincerity in his voice actually set Jinx back a step, the uncertainty on her face only growing as she stared at him. It quickly faded away, though, as she looked down to the floor. "Right… because I'm a member of your team…"

It looked like Ryouga wanted to say something more, but before he had the chance, Jinx spun away again, grinning wildly at the rest of the people gathered in the Control Room. "Anyway! Looks like I've been out for a bit!" She fired a coquettish wink Ryu's way. "I miss anything gossip worthy, Mountain of a Thousand Fists guy?"

* * *

"We've done some visual scouting of the areas in question," Nabiki presented, activating two of the displays to show first, a large view of the topside of the hulk, and a zoomed in view of one spot in particular. "Luckily, not only is this one fairly close by, but because of the hollow-sphere we're stuck in, we can check it out from long range with our basic recon kit. So here it is. We believe that _this_ is the Thanagarian ship."

The picture showed a somewhat grainy vessel, half buried in the cratered and jagged terrain. A large buttress rose up, like the tail of a submerging fish, frozen in place. The main body seemed to have been scuttled. It wasn't so much 'compromised' as it had been blown completely away from the inside out. There must have been bits of it scattered for hundreds of kilometers, and the ship itself seemed to once have been the size of a modern football stadium.

"It looks a bit like a toilet bowl with handles and a beak," Ranma couldn't help but comment, and the display changed to highlight three sections. "We've identified the areas most likely to have intact Nth metal salvage. Trespasser wants two kilograms, but we're setting a goal of three times that, just to be in the safe side. Apparently there were some serious 'warp ripples' or the like out there, but things have cleared up. We'll need to find metal that hasn't been… altered by the bad mojo."

"How will we know the difference between the good stuff and the bad?" Ryu asked, standing next to the younger Hibiki, and Jinx, who had been allowed to stay since her recovery. Raven, who had also been brought in, was seated next to Nabiki.

"According to the big-head out there, 'impure Nth metal' will… um…" Ranma coughed, not quite sure how to put it. "It'll… have _tentacles_..."

Instantly, the pink haired witch's hand shot up, and she waved it back and forth frantically. "Ohh, ooh, not it! Not it!"

"Not a fan of the tentacles, huh?" Ryu gave the witch a playful nudge.

Hopping a whole foot away from the martial artist, she leveled a glare his way. "Hey! I know how you Japanese guys are with your 'tentacle' fetishes. Just keep all your wiggly parts to yourself, buddy!"

Ryu laughed but turned back to his immediate commanding officers.

"Seriously, sirs," the sergeant asked again, just to be absolutely sure. "Tentacles?"

"Yeah," Ranma replied in a monotone. "Tentacles. And eyes. Or so we've been told. The mission is just sounding better and better, isn't it? Apparently this metal is… weird… even by the standards of its own dimension. And when I asked 'how big' the tentacles were, your Oan buddy said they were 'limited by nearby organic matter.'" Ranma said that part with too-deep mocking tone. "Anyway, we can blast those if they get too frisky. Or naughty."

"Well, we do all love blasting things," the younger Hibiki stated absently as he studied the image. "Do we have anything else on this site?"

"We do. The area around the ship is pretty flattened. We've identified some extensive ridges that you can see as dark patches up there. We plan to approach from the open areas on the left side of the image. One team will take insertion point Whiskey-Blue, and the other will use Whiskey-Red. Blue is near the main body of the ship as you can see, and Red is by the intact rear. ROE is free fire. Engage and destroy any perceived hostiles."

"Aside from the tentacles stuff, are we looking at any other opposition?" Ryu then asked. "Is the ship still operational? It looks pretty trashed."

"We won't know that until we get to the site," this time the acting Major answered. "While our primary objective there is to acquire this Nth metal, I also want, if possible, a hack done on the ship's computers and the usual salvage of alien technology. Trespasser mentioned that this ship arrived here using a piece of a 'navigator' and it could be useful to see what kind of EDC equivalent these Thangarians used."

Once he finished speaking, the younger Ryouga spoke up again. "Wait a minute. Two teams? How many people are you sending there? I thought the idea was to hit both targets at the same time, you know, to reduce the amount of time that we're all being driven slowly insane?"

"That's right. But the other target is too far away to run two parallel missions using just the MARS armors," the elder explained. "The target designated Whiskey-Alpha-One, the corpse of this 'Heresiarch' thing, is outside the range of anything except Pathfinder itself. Given the experiences of Ryu and Ukyou in long term travel topside, I've decided not to send out expeditions that will be exposed for more than two hours at a time. Once Pathfinder is free, all teams will be inserted as close to their targets as possible."

Ranma further clarified: "Unit-Red will insert at Whiskey-Red, on the Thanagarian ship. Unit-Blue will do the same thing at Whiskey-Blue. Unit-Gold…"

"It should be Unit-Yellow, Saotome."

"Gold is cooler than Yellow."

"That doesn't matter, it's a primary color."

"And this is why your technique names are so lame and boring…" Ranma waved off his technical CO and pesky rival. "Anyway, Unit-GOLD will insert at Whiskey-Gold, several kilometers near WA-1. Since we've been unable to scout WA-1, we'll be doing that with Pathfinder as we make our approach. So three teams."

"That seems like a bit of a waste of time and resources," Ryouga grumbled. Not caring about the glares that were fired his way, he simply shrugged. "In the time that everyone else will be able to reach the Thanagarian ship, Starfire would be able to reach the other target. If you actually let Raven out of the ship, then it'd let Starfire tow a full team with her easily."

Raven nodded, obviously agreeing with his assessment. "It is quite possible, and it could save us a lot of time and effort."

"Speed is obviously important," Nabiki answered, agreeing initially. "But the space overhead is riddled with hazards and who knows what else. Since we… since I… lost the Roaming Susan, we have to rely on Pathfinder's sensors and finding a compromise between going fast and being careless. Besides, there is no top speed in space. What limits how fast any of us can travel up there is how fast we can map anomalies."

"I'm also not sending anyone out alone," the elder Ryouga declared. "Don't forget that personal armor is not fully rated to protect any of us from the conditions topside. We have to be careful with how we deploy."

Both Ryouga and Raven shared a look.

"No one was suggesting you send anyone out alone," stated the latter.

"That's right," Ryouga reiterated. "Starfire would be bringing a whole team with her, and Raven's power would be protecting the rest of the team. And if they took Cyborg with them, well, he has sensors, too. I bet he'd be able to get the squad through with a minimum of fuss."

"And if anything happened to Cyborg or Starfire, you'd be unable to navigate back," the older Hibiki reminded them with a frown. "Not to mention that we don't know yet if Raven can actually shield anyone from the radiation topside; not to mention that we want to _avoid_ exposing Starfire to the glow up there. And the fact that all of Cyborg's sonic-based technology won't function in hard vacuum. **And** the fact that I want him on the Thanagarian ship to access their computers and check their EDC equivalent. It may be a waste of time and resources, but it's the safest course of action. We're not so desperate we need to drag people around in a tethered bubble."

"We'll have the ship free soon, and it presents the safest means of transportation," he said, and moved on, "Now, Units Red and… Gold will be surface deployments. Those will have to include the two soldiers in MARS armor. Unit Blue will insert from Pathfinder almost directly into the alien ship with minimal vacuum exposure."

He gave Raven a knowing look. "You want to be on the team that hits WA-1, don't you?"

She simply nodded.

"You should know we have almost no information on that target," Ryouga reminded her and the NCOs as well. "At least with an alien ship, we know what we're looking at… basically anyway. But Trespasser's been very vague about WA-1. We have a location and that's virtually it."

"I am aware. All the more reason for me to go," she replied evenly. "No one else here is as versed as myself in the esoteric arts..."

She shot Jinx a quick look, but the pink haired witch simply looked away and sniffed silently.

"As such, my experience would be invaluable in the case of any unforeseen circumstances. Knowing our luck, there will almost certainly be something unusual there. Also," she added, a bit self consciously, "The Oan did mention that Willpower would be an important attribute in this particular mission, and aside from Cyborg, and Jinx - who's been asleep most of the time - I do believe I have been holding up significantly better than the bulk of the crew."

Walking over and leaning in close, the older Hibiki turned her chair around. "Are you sure about this?" he whispered. "You heard what the Oan said. What if you're… susceptible… to whatever is out there?"

"Then why send anyone out?" she whispered back. "Anything you fear happening to me is just as likely to happen to anyone else. Honestly, I think if we were to run into a hostile entity, I would be more capable of defending myself now, having more experience in such situations."

He stared at her, hard, as if looking for some kind of ulterior motive.

"You can trust me," she said, sensing it was what he wanted to hear. "I won't make the same mistake twice. I can do this."

He sighed, reaching up with his wounded hand to touch his temples, only to pause and let the hand drop.

"… Alright… you're in. You do have the most experience with this sort of stuff. Just... watch yourself." Mind made up, Ryouga turned her chair back around and addressed the others present. "Listen up. We're going to hash out exactly what the team makeup is going to be here. Raven. Since you have experience with these sorts of _things_, you and an NCO will have Unit-Gold and the mission to WA-1. You'll be given Ukyou's personal armor, since she doesn't need it at this point."

"Yipee, Miss Perfect gets to be team leader." Holding up her hand again, Jinx muttered in an annoyed voice, "Permission to switch back to the tentacle ride of horror mission?"

"I know you're eager to get out and do something more interesting than dismantling enemy ships," the acting Major observed, walking back to stand near the front of the group. "But you just recovered. We haven't even checked to see… Raven said that your hands were injured, too…?"

Jinx held up her now bandaged hand, only to fire a glacially flat glare the acting Major's direction. "Oh _really_? I can't imagine how _that_ might have happened, _sir_."

"An accident," he replied, plainly. "But you see my point. Raven, I guess you'll want sergeant Hibiki to investigate this 'Heresiarch' with you? You'll probably want Cyborg, too, but..."

Again, she nodded in agreement. "They have both proved stable so far. To round out the team, I would recommend either Ryu or Shampoo, as neither of them have shown any signs of… discomfort. Though that might mean you may want to keep Ryu in reserve to assist with the Thanagarian vessel."

"There's no need to send two sergeants with one group," Ranma reminded her.

"I'll be sending Ukyou," Ryouga said, now having a good idea of how things should be arranged given the recent little additions. "I doubt we'll need her or that ring to retrieve some of this Nth Metal, and her 'green light' powers should help if Unit Gold encounters unexpected trouble."

He didn't add that Trespasser had specifically 'suggested' that the Lantern be sent on that mission, further necessitating sending Raven along as a countermeasure. A fact the Oan had to have expected as well. It was a measure of how bad the situation was that there was little Ryouga could think to do to circumvent this fact. It was hard even thinking straight sometimes; the damage across much of his body further draining his mental resolve.

The officer then announced on the other teams, most of which had been decided beforehand:

"Ryu, you've got Unit Red. You'll take one of the MARS armors and sortie with Starfire as a pair. Buddy system rules. Watch each other's backs. Ranma, you'll have Blue: Mousse and Cyborg. I want his technical expertise on the ship. Find out everything you can about the EDC, their Nth Metal, their tech... anything and everything. Raven, Shampoo will accompany you in Gold with the other MARS. Hibiki, Raven and Ukyou will give you cover whenever topside. I'd like all of you to stick together to make sure you're protected from exposure; we have no idea what's inside WA-1, either, so move carefully."

"Oh joy," the younger Hibiki growled. "I get to play peacemaker between Ranma's fiancée brigade, only now they're gonna be super charged with a Green Lantern Ring and powered armor?"

"Heh! That'd be the most epic cat fight ever!" Jinx cheered. A second later, she spun around to glare at the Major. "Um, asides from the awesome grudge match you've set up, you appear to be missing one integral piece of this 'plan'. What am I going to be doing? And it better not involve sitting around here babysitting the nutters. That's what you got Biki for."

His silence after the statement implied that was just what he had been planning.

"You were injured," he reminded her. "You're probably _still_ injured. At the very least, you must be exhausted. The safety of your teammates should be your first concern. If circumstances change, I may amend the teams later. Hibiki, Kumon, any questions?"

"Now probably isn't the time to express a concern for my own life, getting stuck between Ukyou and Shampoo, then, is it?" The former asked, "Well, other than that, I have no problem."

"Shampoo and Ukyou will follow orders," Ranma stated with finality. "They may have their differences, but it won't get in the way any more than my putting up with P-chan here."

"Or my dealing with Ranko."

The two officers gave one another a narrow glare and shrugged.

"Plenty of time to fight later, once the missions done," the older Hibiki concluded, "If there are no other questions, we'll review one last time, and I'll leave you to brief your teams with the specifics. We'll set out as soon as Cyborg and Ukyou finish clearing the last of the debris outside."

For some strange reason, after watching that display, the young Hibiki dropped his head into his hands.

"I'm so doomed..."

* * *

The way Cyborg described it; she was probably the first 'Green Lantern' who didn't like to fly.

The very notion of being able to "fly" simply by wanting it, rather than by at least using powered armor or another mechanism, was a lot to wrap one's head around. It had been hard just getting the allegedly "built in" environmental failsafes in the ring to work to the point where Ranma and Ryouga were willing to let her outside.

The officers had insisted on a thirty minute trial run in the airlock, first in her armor **and** with the ring, and then without the armor. It had given her time to practice and refine the skin-tight environmental seal field the power ring could produce under more controlled conditions. As she was going to be out in another mission later, Raven had been likewise suited up in Ukyou's armor and brought into the airlock, so the two could practice covering themselves and others in small protective bubbles in case of an emergency – though Ukyou preferred simple boxes that were, for her, easier to visualize and conceptualize.

Only once the concept had been proven and repeated and sustained under those conditions was she allowed outside with Cyborg. Raven had also been given permission to leave the ship, but mostly so she could get used to being in her borrowed personal armor. Ranma was the only other one outside, her lieutenant present in case of an emergency that would require spare breathers and a speedy return to the ship.

Raven quickly got the hang of levitating in the armor, but Ukyou preferred to walk.

It was disconcerting to be so exposed in hard vacuum. Comfortable reliance on technology was nothing new; reliance on this ring and its unusual power would take some time. As if sensing her disquiet with it, the power ring sent reciprocal pulses of warmth and encouragement into her aura, helping her feel more at ease, and encouraging her to be more adventurous with it. Sometimes this was a subtle pull, other times it was a more forceful push. The ring seemed almost eager to have a new owner and to be put to work. It wanted, _so badly_, to serve its masters and to do _good_.

Seeing Raven float by, Ukyou closed her eyes and thought about doing the same. Her feet, shielded by a faint energy field as they were, left the ground to glide over some of the previously demolished debris underfoot. It wasn't like flying was hard, even – the ring did all the work translating thought into action – it was all deceptively easy! At the same time, it was also strange. Her martial art, unlike Anything Goes, was reliant on proper body grounding. She was like Ryouga in that respect.

Lowering back down, she instead worked on using her _Akichi_. Her battle aura wouldn't, and apparently couldn't, manifest normally while she wore the ring. Techniques would have to be adapted or even partly relearned. Unfortunately, the ring didn't seem to provide any easy or obvious speed or strength boosts, though she knew they had to exist. If nothing else, she was sure she could "will" herself, and the energy field around her, to mimic super strength and speed. It only took a few tries to get a linear step to work with the field covering her feet but it was, if anything, a little slower than when she had been able to use her aura without complication.

_'__Some things will be easier. Some will probably be harder. And a lot of stuff will be new.__'_

Practice was the answer.

Through practice and training, anything could be accomplished.

The ring on her finger purred as they approached the collapsed-in section of the tunnel that needed to be cleared. Ukyou could almost feel what it wanted her to order it to do: blast the rubble! Scoop it up! Make a sled and push it away! Making a big hand and rip it up! Finally feeling a tad annoyed, Ukyou asserted her own will, and ordered it to wait and settle down. _'__We__'__ll start once Cyborg finishes his explanation.__'_ The green ring submitted, but the assertive nature of her thoughts only made it simmer with excitable, eager energy.

'The ring is a tool. One we have designed to be welded by those strong of will. Do not doubt. Do not know fear. You have been chosen by the ring, thus you are capable of using it.'

They were words of encouragement… sort of.

Ukyou was determined to live up to them in the spirit of how she assumed they were given. She was even more determined not to let down Ranma, or even Ryouga, both of whom had given her this opportunity. They were her commanding officers and her friends. She would show them what she could do!

"Alright," Cyborg finished, stepping well away from the collapsed wreckage. He studied the debris dispassionately for another second before turning to glance at her. "I guess that's it. Time to see what that ring is capable of."

Looking over her shoulder at Ranma and Raven, both of whom were waiting, Ukyou focused on the starship remnants and warped debris ahead of her – the stuff that had nearly killed Ryouga and Jinx, and that now blocked Pathfinder's escape. Raising her hand, power ring on her right ring finger, she plotted out what to did – visualizing it – just like she would with a martial arts technique.

_'__There,__'_ she thought, with her minds eye, and a laser thin green light shot out. _'__There. There. There. There!__'_

Just like okonomiyaki.

_'There! There! There! There!'_

She would _package_ it.

Right angles formed around and inside the hill-sized mass, connecting to others in a rapidly expanding pattern. Enclosed areas glowed with a fierce green light as lines grew into walls and then into planes. Square shapes, packages, cut into the rubble, and provided a platform for more of them to take root. She spoke the words that first came to mind, knowing they'd be heard by the tiny microphone pressed up against her lower jaw.

"Ao: Assai Bento."  
(Green Light: Crushing Bento Box)

At her command, the first of the boxes to form began to compact, crushing everything within. The planes of light intersected as they shrunk forcefully into one another, and at about half the original volume, the perpendicular green walls folded over and in forming decorative lines. One after another, the featureless six sided geometric shapes took on the form of giant delivery boxes, falling to the ground. Each was packed with compressed matter and completely encapsulated.

_'__That__'__s it. And now__…__!__'_

Concentrating hard, Ukyou's fist tightened, and the boxes began to arrange themselves into a neat pile for later removal and transport.

* * *

From a safe distance away, Cyborg watched the unorthodox display of power with a clinical eye. His internal sensor suite carefully tracked every aspect of the undertaking and broke down the raw data for his examination and interpretation. The structural integrity of the tunnel, the vibrations caused when some of the large pieces of metal slammed heavily to the ground after being somewhat clumsily sheared off by the ring's power, biometrics on Ukyou, energy output of the ring, and a dozen other things beside.

"Azar help me... she actually named her 'attack'," Raven muttered under her breath, but not quite silent enough to escape the microphone in her helmet.

Despite his cold calculations, Cyborg couldn't help but chuckle at her reference to the unusual idiosyncratic tendency that so beset the Nerimian martial artists. It was one thing to hear Ryouga shout the name of one of his esoteric martial arts techniques, but to hear Ukyou call out an attack name for even the most basic of applications of her power ring? It was amusing, to say the least. Would she shout out a different name for every single thing she thought up?

_'__Green Light: Boxing Glove! Green Light; Ultra Hyper Attack Stopping Barrier! Green Light: Action Power Toe Nail Clippers of Doom!__'_

Yeah, the potential there was pretty much limitless. Everyone had seen John Stewart trap various Legion of Doom types in a green bubble. Ukyou's move seemed the same on the surface, but Cyborg could see the difference with his cybernetic eye. She wasn't visualizing boxes at first: she was visualizing six intersecting planes, and using pure force to push the paper thin 'sheets' through the metal. It was probably a crude application of the ring, but it worked in a purely utilitarian way. Folding and then compacting the result was fine for debris, perfect even, but it sure wasn't something he wanted to see applied to anything _living_.

Still, the Ukyou he knew (both of them) was a quick learner – so hopefully she'd get past these 'baby steps' soon, and then they could carve out the last of the molehole. They had already wasted way too much time that could have otherwise been spent out here, working. If Ukyou wanted to get them back on schedule, she was going to have to do a lot better than boxing up a few cubic meters of metal at a time.

A tap on his shoulder distracted him from his number crunching. Turning around, he found himself quite surprised to see who had just diverted his attention. Her armor was immediately recognizable – as he'd designed and built some of it from the ground up – even through the rather substantial beating it had taken. About the only part of Jinx's suit that he hadn't custom made, and Cyborg wept internally at the overhaul that would be necessary to bring it back up to snuff, was the gauntlet that they'd been forced to replace completely after she had... detonated the last one with that new trick of hers.

He was about to greet her, as well as ask her what she was doing out there, when the slim girl gestured for him to follow her back a bit. It didn't take too much to guess why she wanted that, as both Ranma and Raven were relatively close by, though closer to the emerald lighted demolition. Curious, he nodded and followed her back a few more yards away from the spectacle, though he really wondered if it was necessary, considering how intently the pigtailed boy and the violet haired Titan were watching Ukyou.

Once they were far enough back for Jinx's comfort, she fired him a wide grin through her visor and gave him a not so gentle rap on the arm.

"How's it going, Tin Man?" Interestingly, Cyborg noted that the sorceress had addressed him via a direct channel. It meant that the only people that could hear her talk was himself and, of course, Nabiki. Obviously she didn't feel like drawing anyone else's attention to her appearance outside of the ship.

Rather than address the topic directly, he decided to play along. Lord knew that the girl had had a rough enough time of things lately. "Could be worse, Dorothy. The Emerald Wizard over there is tidying things up nicely, but she's gonna have to start picking up the pace, soon."

Nodding, Jinx looked around his broad frame. He heard an annoyed grunt from her, then she punched him in the side for good measure. "Hey, I want a better view. Gimme a lift already!"

Grinning, endlessly amused by her polite way of asking for help, he knelt down a bit. It was more a gesture than anything else, as she leapt up to sit on his shoulder with ease and planted her elbow on the crown of his head to hold her balance. He'd seen her leap over twice his height easily in the past, and that was before she'd vanished on that whirlwind tour of the States with Happosai. Still, he couldn't help but feel good about the turn of events, as it seemed to indicate some form of bonding between the two of them. Normally, she hardly even acknowledged his existence, but now she was actually hanging out with him intentionally.

"So, if I'm Dorothy, and you're the Tin Man, then that must make Raven the Wicked Witch," Jinx added, shifting about a bit to find a more comfortable perch on his shoulder.

"Just as long as you don't accuse Starfire of being the Scarecrow, or Ryouga of being the Cowardly Lion. I doubt either of them would appreciate the comparison."

"Heh, oh really?" she drawled, tapping a lazy finger against his visor. "Funny that you should be the one to think of those analogues first then, isn't it?"

"Hey, now, none of that!" he fired back. "I think the more interesting question is: Just what the heck you're doing out here, again?"

Sure, he hadn't wanted to address the topic, but she'd kind of pushed him into a corner there. Topic shifting was the only way to go. Luckily, the young woman didn't seem too offended by the direct inquiry; he could feel her shift slightly, likely shrugging her shoulders.

"Didn't take much. I just sat down besides Nabiki and told her I'd keep saying 'Are we there yet', in a really high pitched voice, until she agreed that I was okay enough to come outside and help out a little bit."

"Really?" he asked, more than slightly surprised. "That actually worked on Nabiki? I thought she would have at least charged you an admission fee to watch the 'Magnificent Ukyou' at work."

"Yeah, I kind of thought that too," she agreed, leaning more of her weight on his skull as she absently watched Ukyou at work. "In fact, she caved like nothing. Heck, it was like she was eager to get me out of there. Gave me 'permission' to come outside in a real 'you can go get hit by a bus playing in traffic, for all I care' kinda way. I've gotten more courtesy from Shampoo in the middle of cat fight."

Had he not been prepped for hard vacuum, and had the propensity for wearing shirts even when he wasn't, the titanium Titan would have tugged nervously at his collar. "Ummm... you do know that Nabiki can hear everything we're saying, right?"

A loud, dismissive scoff was her reply. "Considering what Ryouga informed me about what happened while I was out, Nabiki is fully welcome to come out here and bite me if she doesn't like it." At that, Jinx leaned over his helmet until she was looking him nearly face to face. "Did you hear that Nabiki and Ukyou actually blame me for the Major getting a little cooked while we were doing that stupid trick of his? Like it wasn't his idea in the first place, or that I didn't warn him that it was a lousy idea."

He was about to lift a hand to make a counterpoint-

"And that's not even the worse part," she barked. "How is it that no one on this ship, excepting my actual teammates, even batted an eye at the fact that I got hurt, too? What kind of crazy, backwards world is this, where the walking tank gets babied and the gorgeous and alluring damsel in distress gets ignored? It just ain't natural, I tell ya."

Cyborg had to laugh at that, and took it as a small sign that she wasn't actually taking it as personally as she was claiming to. Honestly, Jinx seemed to care about others' opinions on her about as much as he cared about listening to Raven's lengthy retellings of the latest anthropological documentary she'd just watched. It was a good sign, as he knew that most people in her place would probably start buckling under the constant scrutiny before too long. On the other hand, though, it did cause a small spike of guilt to stab through him.

"About that..." he started awkwardly. "I'm sorry about that, Jinx. I totally let you down there."

She stared at him blankly. "Ummm, what? Did you somehow organize for the entire crew of the ship to become heartless jerks with no appreciation for a great pair of legs?"

It was probably unnecessary for her to lift her legs out in front of her to make her point, considering they were clad with armor, but he still appreciated the view. Something about a girl plated in exotic alloys always got his motor revving.

"Not that," he replied quickly. "It's just that I promised that I wouldn't let anything to happen to you... and look at what happened to you. I screwed up pretty huge there."

"What are you talking about?" she asked curiously. "I didn't explode into a fine mist, so I think you did okay. I mean, sure, I passed out a bit, but no real harm done, right?"

That brought the cybernetic teen up short. He could only stare at her incredulously for a moment. Finally, he said the first thing that occurred to him. "What? You – you mean that Ryouga didn't tell you? That nobody told you what actually happened? You think you just over exerted yourself?"

Immediately, he wished he hadn't said it. There was likely a reason that no one had mentioned her brush with death to her. Doubtlessly, Ryo just hadn't wanted to panic her, or just couldn't bear to tell her, but the higher ups probably just wanted to avoid a potentially volatile situation they'd inadvertently had a hand in creating. Granted, he hadn't actually been there when it happened, but he'd never heard of such a uniformly cold and uncaring reaction to a teammate nearly, or in this case actually dying before. While Jinx might have been annoyed that they didn't care when she thought she'd just been a bit tuckered out, what would she think when she realized that no one even batted an eye when her heart had stopped?

"Well... yeah, pretty much." She eyed him suspiciously. "Why? What are you talking about? Did something else happen? I mean, I already know that Raven and our boss molested me a bit to wake me up, but that's about it."

Desperately grasping at straws, he instantly began to laugh and nodded frantically. "Oh, yeah, so you already do know about that... I wasn't sure that you did... Pretty crazy, yeah?"

The slim sorceress rolled her eyes with extreme prejudice. "Sheesh, is that all you were talking about? I thought someone died, the way you were going on. Anyway, it's not that big a deal. Trust me, I already taught Raven a lesson that she won't soon forget. I let Boss man off the hook for now, though. He's just so hopeless, y'know? It's kind of hard to stay mad at him too long for some reason."

"You do know that they were helping you, right?" he asked. "Most people don't have 'revenge' as their first go-to when it comes to gratitude. You sure you don't want to reconsider? Maybe give the Lost Boy a wee peck on the cheek, or something? He did go above and beyond, and Raven right along with him."

"Whatever." She waved a hand dismissively. "Raven only helped me out cuz she wants to get into our illustrious leader's pants-"

It took all of Cyborg's will power to prevent himself from exploding into laughter and likely dumping the sorceress on her butt in the process.

"Though why she hasn't had any luck, I'll never know. I'm _pretty_ sure the guy ain't gay. And as for him, well, it's kind of hard to feel all special when you know a guy is only helping you because he's been mentally reprogrammed to worship you. Honestly, the only guy on this boat that doesn't treat me like an alien is you."

He frowned at her comment, even though it paid him a vague compliment. "I'm not sure that's fair, Jinx. Ryouga would have done what he did for any one of us, not because he's programmed to, just because it's the kind of guy he is. I don't think you should dismiss him just like that. He's really got it bad for you..."

For just a second, it looked like she was considering his words –

"Ugh, can we just drop it, already?" But apparently not. "Knowing that he'd have helped anyone else the same way makes me feel even less special. Besides, it's practically his job to do that kind of stuff. Look, can we just watch the sideshow, already?"

For a few long moments, he felt the desire to keep the argument alive. There were probably a dozen other good reasons for having his team mates get along better that he could think of right off the top of his head, but, honestly, it all came down to one simple thing. Ryouga was his buddy, and Cyborg could tell that, as well as he was holding things together, this latest tragedy in a growing string of tragedies was really starting to eat away at him. Even for a perpetual doom and gloomer like Hibiki, the human heart could only take so much.

Just another reason that everyone should upgrade to cybernetics, just like him.

"If there's one thing that I just can not stand, it's watching a total newb playing with their powers."

The sudden, and out of left field comment, prompted Cyborg to lift his head and glance at his diminutive passenger. "Huh? What are ya talking about? Green Lantern Ukyou not up to your standards?"

Waving her hand before her dismissively, Jinx snorted loudly. "Oh, please. We used to get punks like this coming through the Academy all the time. Either they just stole their first battle suit, or were just recently mutated in toxic waste, or some other kind of freak accident. Anyway, long story short, every couple weeks, we'd be subjected to some total newbie coming in and showing off whatever 'amazing' power they had, as if they were hot shit, or something."

Jinx lifted her arm, gesturing to the distant, emerald girl. "Just look at her. She's 'packaging' the debris for delivery? And she's flying like she chugged a six pack of beer, first."

"Oh, come on," he chided, "Ya gotta walk before ya crawl. You know that. Ain't one of us out here that didn't have to figure out how to use our powers properly off the start."

"Well, yeah," Jinx conceded peevishly, "But putting everything else on hold while she practices? Heck, put Raven to work, too! Not only would she be about a jillion times more efficient, but she'd actually do it with style, to boot. She's had it too easy lounging around the ship all the time anyway."

It was Cyborg's turn to roll his eyes. "That's an awful lot of respect, considering how much you hate Raven."

"Pshaw, whatever," she bit back hotly. "She's just a ghetto bootied thorn in my side. It's not like she's even worth hating. I can at least give her props for not being a complete novice when it comes to being meta. Not to mention the fact that she tastes pretty good, all things considered."

At that, Cyborg nearly did collapse. Before his mind had the time to compile just exactly what Jinx could have possibly meant by that, the sorceress slipped off his shoulder and dropped to the ground in front of him. "Look, whatever. I know that Hibiki and Ranma don't really trust Raven, and I don't even blame them for that after what happened back in her hometown. If they don't want her tearing the place a new one, then I'm fine with that. Still, that doesn't mean that I can't go out there and show up Miss Lantern."

Cyborg cocked an eyebrow. "You really think you can show up a Green lantern?"

Jinx held up a hand and began to chuckle malevolently... only to notice the fresh new gauntlet that adorned said hand. Instantly, realization settled over her face and her wicked chuckle dissolved into a nervous giggle. "Ummm, actually... maybe I'll start off a bit slower? Maybe just pick up where I left off with the small stuff?"

He nodded sagely. "Not a bad idea, little lady. We don't exactly have a warehouse full of spare gloves for you to explode trying to out do one of the most iconic powers we know of. Besides, I think more people than just you and me would get in trouble if I let you knock yourself out trying to go full out so soon after you... after you passed out back there."

Gesturing to a not too distant pile of scrap, he said, "Why don't ya start over there, where I can keep an eye on you while I monitor Ukyou? I know you want to prove you're not out for the count, but no need to kill yourself to prove how much better you are, right?"

She nodded even as she waved off his concern with a roll of her wrist. "Yeah, yeah. Big Brother is watching, and all that crap. I'll behave myself."

With that, she wandered towards the designated work site and began to limber herself up, obviously preparing to get to work again. Nodding to himself in satisfaction, he turned his attention more fully back to Ukyou. Her progress was steady, and he was pretty confident it would increase as she got more comfortable with the ring. His main concern wasn't how quickly she worked, though, but her power output. No one had thought to mention it, yet, but while GL rings were supposedly limitlessly powerful, that did not mean that they had unlimited power.

He hadn't had a chance to check whether any of the Lanterns they had collected actually held a charge or not. Add to that, the fact that he had no idea when Ukyou's ring had last been charged up, or even how long a Green Lantern ring would hold a charge when fully powered... he was quite worried that her powers could fail her at any instant. All he could hope to do was note any fluctuation in her power output and warn Ranma quickly enough to get a breather to her, and then get her back to the ship as quickly as possible.

He preferred to be optimistic, though. If they were lucky, power wouldn't even be an issue. There wasn't too much trash left to move, just a few hundred metric tons was all. As long as her ring held out for that long, that would be all they needed.

Once they freed the ship, they would be as good as home.

It was all just a matter of time.

* * *

"…and that's the tactical situation on the ground," Ryu finished, making a few last second notes down on the mission touchpads both he and Starfire had to review. He dotted down on the area between the insertion point and the main body of the Thanagarian ship. "Of course, we'll be getting some updated info once we've got an eye in the sky, so to speak. But... if things pan out below like they are up top, this should be a walk in the park. Any questions about ROE or anything else?"

The Tamaranian shook her head. "None. I have already read all of the pertinent material concerning your 'standard operating procedures' in extra-atmospheric operations."

"In that case we should be good 'till the supplementary intel comes down the pipeline," he craned his neck and leisurely rubbed his neck. "You know…" he began.

"What?" Starfire inquired, sounding suspicious.

"We've got some time to kill before we put boots on the ground," Ryu reminded her with a friendly smirk, tucking his pad comfortably under his arm. "I was thinking of rounding up Kuno and Konatsu, maybe Mousse and Shampoo, too… see if we can get a game of cards going, or Chinchirorin. Try and lighten people's moods, you know? You ever play four-five-six or other dice games?"

Not even looking up from her pad, Starfire shook her head sharply. Instead, she began to scroll through the information again.

"I am uninterested in learning your human whimsies. I must endeavor to consider all possible complications which may arise on this mission. I am well aware how defenseless you become when introduced to the harsh conditions of vacuum and sub optimal gravity. I must be prepared to compensate for any inevitable short comings."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Well, that was kind of harsh." He shrugged instead of let it irritate him. "But I can't fault you for being over prepared. It shouldn't be hard to find me if you change your mind."

She shrugged. "That seems unlikely. If you require my expertise, you will know where to locate me."

Watching her get up and float away, Ryu repressed a sigh.

_'__So much for that.__'_

* * *

The gravity induction bubble extended, doubled, and cleanly cleared the walls of the neatly excised, oval-shaped tunnel. After days of confinement, Pathfinder shot through the meager couple hundred meters of formerly debris-strewn molehole in all of three seconds, exiting at what passed for extremely low speed. The work of hours upon hours sped by faster than the eye could see.

On the surface, the saucer shaped craft emerged smoothly from a clean hole in the battered outer layer of the hulk, leaving behind only a few bits of technology in the form of navigation beacons. The silver disk left its confines without fanfare or great production. For this occasion, the windows along the sides of the ship had been opened, and the crew had gathered at the portals to watch (and cheer) as black and metal prison transformed into the hellish but blessedly different neon nightmare that painted the inner hollow of the hulk with violets and reds. As twisted as it was, it was a form of freedom.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Ranma announced on the ship's intercom as they took up a designated position. "We have left the building."

"Actually," Cyborg cut in, staring out the window, grin on his face. "We just 'entered' the building. We kinda got ourselves a Dyson Sphere thing going on, and we're on the inside now. I gotta admit, this is really neat."

"Ah, Cyborg, you and your… _OH HELL!_"

A sudden curse cut off whatever else Ranma was about to say. No one felt it, but those at the viewports could see the ship suddenly MOVE, **fast** and **hard**. An already blurry panorama became a spray of colors and sparks as Pathfinder rotated and accelerated, then a frozen picture as it stopped on a dime, and then another blur as it shot off again.

A brilliant bright flash turned, for just an instant, even that view a solid white.

"Status!" Ryouga barked, heading for the secondary nav.

"We're being fired at!" Nabiki yelled, fingers dancing at the projected keys of her workstation. "Three vectors. Nuclear warheads detected and incoming!"

"The windows!"

"On it!" The transparent alien alloy shifted, tinting to block a potentially blinding blast of light.

A second later, two more quick flashes dully colored and reflected on the tinted ports, longer than the very brief blast from before. The ship stopped for a moment, and a thin white beam arced across the darkened viewport. There were no theatric sounds of explosions or buzzing of beams. Even near misses couldn't be felt or perceived, except only briefly, from the passing flash of light outside.

"I can't keep this up!" Ranma yelled. "Permission to counter-battery at all angles!"

Moments from also entering the secondary psionic nav, Ryouga flinched at the frantic question. Everyone knew Ranma was not the type to panic easily. How bad was the situation outside? Everything was happening too fast to deal with outside the nav. There was no time to think.

He glanced over his shoulder at the others present in the command room at that moment. Cyborg was also moving quickly towards the displays around Nabiki's station, and Raven – still in Ukyou's armor – looked like she also regretted being out of the loop. The loop being the nav and the ship's eyes and ears. The others in the rest of the ship had to be pressed against the tinted windows, wondering what the Hell was happening.

Wondering if, at any millisecond, they would be reduced to atoms.

_'__All because we got free? Why? Why are we suddenly being fired at?__'_

"Ranma," he finally gave the order. "Destroy them."

He entered the psionic navigation system in time to feel the last of Ranma's maneuvers and finally get a good eye on what had been happening just seconds before. Inside the kaleidoscopic view of the insane sphere that was horizon and sky and ground in one, the pigtailed pilot had already located the sources of attacks. He had also highlighted the incoming attacks still to be dealt with.

In the nav, it was, for a moment, like a still picture.

Missiles. Old. Half of them misfired from their launchers, but they were being launched in cluster batteries of about six. The computer was able to read which ones were decoys and which held still functional nuclear warheads, each in the twelve kiloton range, just a percentage or two weaker than the bomb that wiped out Hiroshima. They were weaker but similar to the nuclear warheads XCOM still deployed, from time to time. Pathfinder was not designed for very heavy combat; unlike an Avenger or even a Firestorm. Luckily, Ranma was doing a good job of moving the ship around and spoofing the missiles.

The other problem arose in the form of a crashed ship's undamaged guns, firing wildly and saturating the air with a mix of nasty looking energy weapons. There, too, the ship had already identified the enemy: lasers with a visible tracer component and low yield pulsed particle beams. The ancient ship, half ruined, was nonetheless peppering everything nearby in a mad frenzy ignited by the appearance of an active ship within sensor range.

The third threat was actually moving along the surface. A large body of von Neumann machines, as Cyborg had called them, were spraying out plumes of micro-machine probes, identified by the computer as 'incoming.' They looked like dandruff or even pollen, shed by clusters of dark mushrooms on the surface. Nearby rubble indicated the possibility that these probes had lain in wait under the surface until a promising target got close.

"Executing," Ranma's single thought filled the computer's commands. "Executing."

Pathfinder juked to the side, firing first on the crashed ship. Twin lances of green, existing for a fraction of a second, moved from the surface of Pathfinder's hull to take seed on the surface of the derelict. Energy dumped instantly into armored plating and weapons turrets, turning house-sized masses into ionized gas as anti-matter annihilated within the green plasma beam.

Shockwaves and expanding matter, pressing away from the initial point of contact and removing anything in its path, molecular bonds be damned, sheared away great swaths of the enemy ship. Red and orange drops of molten material peeled away like drops of blood from a cut, the car sized ingots of liquid metal filling space like high speed rain.

The plasma cannons onboard Pathfinder queued up as recharging.

On target, the enemy ship, far larger than the small flying saucer, lay gutted twice over. Most of it was flattened out against the hulk around it, scrubbed out by an ionic abrasive until it became a pair of ragged, messy craters large enough to bury a row of houses. Whatever power had been feeding the ship's guns on board the derelict then exploded outwards in a brilliant flash of light and inaudible fury.

Six seconds until the next shot.

Ranma brought Pathfinder down, low, to near the surface. The enemy missiles tracked down, vectoring after their prey. They were fast: almost mach 9 by that time, but not nearly as maneuverable as the inertialess UFO. More earth flattening explosions trailed along as the warheads proximity detonated with the ground: airbursts meant to do the maximum damage to a target, peppering it with plasmatic debris. Inside the nav, the six seconds between shots seemed to last an eternity, as Ranma piloted the ship close enough over the ground for the gravity bubble to shear off long, thin trails of static charged fire that sparkled in their wake.

Around in an arc, Pathfinder blasted straight up again, twisting upside down as it did so.

Red rectangles highlighted two points on the global view. Freshly charged just a half second before, Pathfinder's cannons roared once more; this time, instead of a single target, each of the remaining threats received a single specific citation.

The missile racks below, recessed behind shifting protective plates, were caught unleashing another barrage. Safeties in the nuclear warheads - proving that aliens and humans could think alike - did not trigger a secondary explosion. Instead, the launchers were reduced to blistered slag and the missiles blown to scraps as the fuel within became part of the nuclear conflagration. The plasma beam there dwelled and moved for a quarter second, carving out a glowing trench wide enough to swallow an apartment building.

At the same time, the other beam burned through a small cloud of micromachine probes, continuing on to burst above one of the von Neumann spawning towers. Far more fragile than the armored ships that were the other targets, the machine structure flew apart like a broken glass full of water. The outer shell shattered and the inner components, more liquid than solid, were reduced to a molten river and expanding gas cloud.

Spinning, searching for more targets Ranma adjusted position, and the ship entered a pre-programmed 'zig zag' so characteristic of the UFOs XCOM faced. One pattern became another random one, and when the cannons warmed up, Ranma fired them again, utterly destroying the missile platform, and burning more of the von Neumann probes out of the irradiated sky.

The other threats eliminated, the ship's pilot then concentrated on the remaining enemy. The machine probes were swarming towards the ship; Pathfinder had an ally in distance, but an enemy in numbers. Switching to low powered shots, the cannons cycled at one shot per second, and Ranma created a barrage of its own. Tiny nuclear blasts salted the space in which the machines attempted to swarm or approach, devastating them. The second cannon switched to full power, and responded with full force on the ground, melting long stretches of machine infested terrain.

Finally, the towers retracted back into their holes, like worms away from the burning sun.

Still, Pathfinder fired, turning the entire region into a molten, radioactive lake.

Ryouga could feel the psionic nav and the responses within it tainted by adrenalin, the completely analytical and dispassionate mind of the aliens that had designed it far removed from the human norm. Sensor reads shot from point to point, frantically, almost eagerly, looking for another enemy to burn to atoms. Long eternal seconds passed, and finding none, Ranma fired again into the glowing amber lake that had been a threat just a quarter minute before.

"Ranma."

Targeting reticules searched frantically, hungrily, for something to destroy.

"Saotome!"

"Y…Yeah. Okay, yeah." Ranma's thoughts were a battle high only coming down with difficulty. "Targets destroyed. Airspace secure. For now."

"Damage looks minor," Ryouga observed. "Missions are still go."

"You sure you want to take over as pilot while I go off with Unit-Blue?" The thoughts of the pigtailed Saotome were clear: he didn't think anyone else could've handled the sudden firefight.

"Ranma. I can't lead a team. It's taking all I have just to move."

"I know. But…"

"Deploy the sensor modules. With the Susan gone, they're the only remote sensors we have."

"Won't take long. Computer's got some points that are semi-stable. I'll keep an eye out for any other surprises and get us in position."

"Good. I'll be back then."

The conversation, taking a second in all, was soon followed by Ryouga removing himself from the Nav. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he felt his wounds, old and new, come back to greet him like the bosom buddies they were. Compared to his body at the moment, setting up camp inside the computer would be a relief. Turning the chair around, he let out a breath and rested his arms.

"We have control of this airspace." His eyes narrowed as he spoke, a pre-set comm also sending it to the rest of the ship. "Insertion at Whiskey-Red and Whiskey-Blue will continue as scheduled. LZ is to be considered hostile. Prepare yourselves as appropriate."

* * *

"There's a problem with Yankee Squad."

Ryouga had been expecting to hear that, so when Nabiki said it, he didn't show any surprise or shock at the would-be revelation. It seemed like there was _always_ something wrong with Yankee,_ like a perpetual thorn in his side_. His eyes fluttered and he fought back the exhaustion that wracked his body. Correcting his breathing, he reinforced the façade of being unhindered and in charge. Ranma knew the truth, perhaps one other did, too... but no one else. He would keep it that way.

"I know," he replied still seated in the auxiliary navigator's chair.

"They've been whispering among themselves," Nabiki said, standing to his side with her hands angrily on her hips. "No one was supposed to know about Jinx's condition, but – and here's the big surprise – your_ little brother_ couldn't keep his mouth shut, or his sense of impartiality, and now they're all muttering about how no one cares about any of them."

"I know."

"You know?" she asked, leaning in closer and sounding unusually critical. "What are you going to do about it?"

"There's very little I _can_ do," he admitted with some bitterness. "They'll follow orders. Who cares what they say?"

"You should shut them up."

He blinked at her, surprised, and watched as she disappeared behind him. "What? I…"

"Commander Yasuda wouldn't put up with their poor discipline," she continued, this time out of sight. "It's all because of your 'little brother.' He and Ryu are the only NCOs left, and they're supposed to be keeping the crew together. But instead of doing his job, the brat is sowing dissent. You should censure him. You should _deal_ with him."

The acting Major frowned as, for a moment, he considered it.

"If you don't show them you're in charge, Ryouga-kun…" Nabiki's hands dug into his shoulders. _"They__'__ll tear you apart."_

"Ryouga-baby," an identical voice cut in. "There's a problem with Yankee Squad."

Ryouga **blinked**, and the feel of nails digging in skin vanished. Nabiki was standing to the side again, her hands on her hips. There was… a problem with Yankee Squad?

Yes. That was right. He'd been expecting that. It seemed like there was always _something_ wrong with Yankee, like a _perpetual thorn_ in his side. His eyes fluttered and he fought back the exhaustion that wracked his body. Huffing angrily, he reached up to touch his shoulders, feeling for the marks there. Ranma knew the truth, the real truth, perhaps one other did, too... but no one else. He would keep it that way.

The chain of command… had to be maintained…

"Ryouga baby?" she asked again, brown eyes narrowing at him.

"I know," he replied still seated in the auxiliary navigator's chair.

"They've been whispering among themselves," Nabiki said, giving a wary sigh as she looked up at the ceiling. "Most of it is the usual stuff with Starfire, but now we've got this Jinx thing, too. They're pulling away from the rest of us. Becoming paranoid. That's true for all of us, I guess," she admitted. "But Yankee is the only group that's potentially polarizing."

"They weren't supposed to be chatting about Jinx in the first place," he reminded her. "The sergeant is supposed to be keeping his team integrated. Spreading rumors about how no one gives a shit about his team is directly counter to his orders and his responsibilities." The officer ground his teeth together the more he thought about it. "I should…"

Nabiki drew back a bit at the tone of voice he was using, and he groaned.

"I should… calm down…" he finished, reaching up to massage his temples. "I'll have to think of something. Just keep watching them."

"I'm watching everyone," Nabiki said, and amazingly, it didn't sound like she enjoyed the job. "You included, Ryouga-baby."

"What does that-?"

"How badly are you actually hurt?" she asked, looking away from him at the door. They were alone in the command room… for now. The only other presence was Ranma, and he didn't count. He knew all this already.

"I'm not…"

The Tendo sister turned her eyes on him again, this time her stare was clearly disapproving.

"Just tell me," she demanded.

"It feels like frostbite. Across my body…. in my lungs." He cleared his throat with a wet growl. "It isn't pleasant, but I can handle it."

"You should have Raven…"

"Raven has a mission, and I want her focused on it," he cut her off. "And after what I saw with Jinx, I'm not going to push her to the point where something in her breaks." Unconsciously, his left hand reached up to rub the scar on his right arm. "I can deal with it. I've fought through worse."

_'__They__'__d tear me apart if they knew the truth.__'_

_'__That__'__s right, Ryouga-kun,__'_Cologne's gift seemed to mockingly agree. _'__Without strength, everything falls apart. Without strength... you__'__re useless.__'_

"But," she pressed.

"Drop it," he snuffed the topic with his coldest tone.

"I can't," the mercenary girl insisted, and suddenly reached out to grab his left arm, still cracked and weathered by the combined attack earlier. Despite being far from the strongest woman on the ship, her strength was enough to make him visibly wince. A hiss shot out from his clenched teeth.

"I'm watching everyone," she repeated. "And that means I'm watching you. You explicitly told me to. I can't just drop it."

He scowled, and reached over to remove her hand.

"Sir," she said, and the rarely used formality gave him a moment's pause. Looking up, he saw her watching him – the look on her face telling him right off the bat that she wouldn't put up with or accept a rebuff. "Tell me the truth."

"I'm… having some trouble fixing the internal damage," he finally admitted. "My movement is impaired, too. I said I'll deal with it. The mission comes first. Getting this ship home comes first. That's all there is to it."

It took a second or two, but she let go of his arm on her own accord.

"Yankee," he reminded her. "You mentioned them. I know about it. Raven told me."

Nabiki lowered her eyes at that, also knowing it. "You're relying pretty heavily on her, considering what happened just a few days ago."

"She's been keeping… relatively level headed," he tried to explain. "I need someone to step in… in case I pull him off active duty."

'Him' of course, being the younger Hibiki.

"That makes sense," Nabiki agreed, walking around to slip behind him. For a moment, he wondered if this Nabiki was… like the last one? Would she disappear, too? Was she even real?

"This mission will decide how much I can invest in her," he continued, and closed his eyes, expecting to feel her hands on his shoulders, nails digging in.

"And what about Jinx?" she asked from behind.

"What _about_ Jinx?" he answered the question with one of his own. "Do you have something in mind? You let her out before."

"If she has the energy to annoy me, she has the energy to get to work," Nabiki explained, and instead of claw his shoulder, her hand ran playfully through his hair. His eyes opened.

So: she was real then.

_'__Probably.__'_

"Mousse," Ranma said, just then, over the ship's comm.. A few seconds later, and the robed martial artist entered the CR, half dressed in his personal armor, a petrified look on his face. Shakily adjusting his glasses, he took in a deep, slow breath and stood at attention.

"Hibiki. Saotome." He chewed on the next few words carefully. "I… I think I need to be taken off duty."

* * *

"You know, while you're gone… I'm going to kill someone."

The statement, uttered completely out of the blue, snapped Mousse's attention from cleaning part of his still disassembled personal armor. The voice had, undoubtedly, been Konatsu's, and the actual statement had been made with such complete and casual ease that it took a few seconds for it to really register. Baffled, the weapons master turned to Ryu, who was nearby suiting up in his MARS armor.

The sergeant didn't seem to register the comment in full.

"You have anything specific in mind?' he asked, cleaning the inside of the powered armor helmet with a clean anti-static cloth. "Or… what?"

"One or two things," Konatsu replied. The ninja was still ragged looking, but he and Kuno had both shown up to see off their gambling buddies and comrades after a couple rounds of cards and dice. Both were sitting in fold-outs extending from the ship's wall nearby.

"What are you…?" Mousse finally tried to ask. "What did you just say!"

"Who I should kill and how," Konatsu replied, staring up through matted brown hair. "I was thinking Shampoo. Who would you kill if you had the chance?"

"You…" Words failed the Chinese martial artist for all of a second and a half. "What the hell are you saying! If you touch a hair on Shampoo's head…!"

Taking a forceful step towards the insane kunoichi, Mousse came up abruptly and unexpectedly short as Ryu caught him by the shoulder. The unanticipated action and the Kumon heir's own substantial strength were enough to force Mousse back two steps until his back was to the wall. Glasses ratted but still in place, Mousse could only gawk at the fact that everyone was staring at him for the outburst while ignoring the actual threats just uttered seconds before.

"Mousse! What the hell, man!" Ryu let go of his shoulder, but took a step to get between them. "What's gotten into you?"

He glared at the sergeant. "You didn't…? What did…?" Mousse then pointed at Konatsu. "Didn't you hear what he just said? I should be the one asking what the Hell's gotten into _you_?"

"Did I say something strange?" Konatsu asked, sounding genuinely confused.

"You said you were going to kill Shampoo!" Mousse snarled, pushing off the wall as if to have another lunge at the smaller soldier. "I heard you!"

"I… did I?"

"You didn't," Ryu answered. He held out his hand to Mouse again to try and calm him and diffuse things. "Mousse, he was talking about what he'd eat if we were back on base. Didn't you hear Kuno talking about filet mignon?"

"I…" _He hadn__'__t, but:_ "Are you sure? What…?"

"Kuno and I went back and forth for like three minutes about what cut of beef is the best. I said porterhouse. He said filet mignon?" the Kumon heir tried to jog his comrade's memory. "You didn't hear any of this?"

"I…" Mousse fell back against the wall, shaking his head.

"How can that be?" Kuno asked, also poised to get up onto his feet in defense of the still dazed Konatsu. "Did you not tell us moments ago that flank cut steak is your preference?"

The scary thing - that only hit Mousse then - was that flank cut _was_ his favorite. It was. He must've said so at some point. He must've been at least paying some attention to the conversation. Why couldn't he remember any of it? _Why was it all a blank?_

"You've lost it," Ryu said, shoulders slumping. "We should just toss you out the airlock now, before you hurt someone."

Mousse's eyes widened, and he tensed to move –

When he caught himself. Forcing his instincts back, he crushed his eyes shut and tried not to hear the others talk. The more he heard, the worse it became, until the sounds blurred into a horrific dissonant scream. During it all, the hidden weapons master tried to remain calm and remember his training, treating it like a psionic attack. He froze, trying desperately to clear his mind and not make an act that he'd regret.

The episode lasted all of thirty seconds…

But the curses and gibberish echoed in his head, over and over.

It was rather worse than the previously minor issue of simply not hearing people from time to time. Eventually, holding up his hands for silence, the others got the hint and kept quiet. Still, he could hear things: whispers from deeper in the ship, low enough not to be readily comprehensible, but just loud enough to be suspicious. Even with Ryu and Kuno and Konatsu completely quiet, their mouths shut, Mousse could hear whispered parroting from within the alien walls.

"I… I need to go," he said, and even his own words came out as a string of profanities. Only the fact that the others present nodded, understanding what had been said in the most basic and unmistakable fashion, gave the weapons master any confidence in what he himself had tried to say.

* * *

Explaining this to Nabiki and Ryouga took a literal leap of faith, Mousse's own words still sounding like incomprehensible gibberish to his own ears. It was a stroke of luck and intuition when the former, sensing his difficulty, gave him her touchpad tablet. Written words came out smoothly and honestly, and he hastened to explain it in written form.

The two talked… about horrible, unmentionable things.

Mousse closed his eyes again and concentrated on breathing exercises.

There was just… no way… he could deal with this. Not on a mission. Not so quickly. Everything that had come before, he'd dealt with. Deep down, he had been rather proud of himself for not ending up like Kuno or Konatsu he was a steady rock for India and always had been. Maybe he had even started to make light of… whatever this place did to people.

And then, in seconds, an irritant had become… debilitating.

Hiding his eyes behind his glasses, Mousse tried – seriously tried – not to think about how much worse it could or would get. Instead, his right hand clenched into a fist. He didn't even need to be told. He had asked for it after all. He was going to be taken off duty and confined.

And there was nothing he could do about it.

_'D… damnit… why now?'_

Using the pretense of adjusting his glasses to hide his face, Mousse fought the urge to slam his fist into the wall. Now, more than ever, he needed to exercise self control. Yet the one remaining question continued to plague him in the silence he forced himself to endure:

_'…Why me?'_

* * *

x

* * *

Sin'nan was another humanoid alien, tall and lithe and feminine with light violet skin and a long mane of very fine slightly darker-purple medusa-like tentacles that ran down her back and over sharply pointed ears. Her pupils were dyed green by her power ring, but they bore only a soft glow and remained large and emotive, set into oval eyes. Alone for the moment, she buzzed happily around the communal lounge on the ship, setting places on a table she had set up. Despite the glow and power of her ring, she seemed to prefer to work by hand. Her uniform reflected that minimalist mentality: it was sheer and skintight, with patches of green on the hands, feet, and shoulders only. Green marks, possibly tattoos, curved around her mouth.

The ship's sensors recorded her with disinterest as she finished, placed her hands on her hips in a very human-like gesture, and took in her handiwork. It wasn't long after that another figure entered the lounge, raising a hand in greeting.

"Done already, Sin'nan?" the newcomer asked. He was red-skinned, with delicate, chitin-like plates framing his jaw and face. In contrast to the female alien, this one's uniform sported prominent green all across his torso, plus boot-like coloration over his feet below the knee. His arms were black and his hands bare-red.

"Pretty much," the violet woman replied, and touched him gently on the forehead. "Happy Maker's Day, Commander Varto!"

"Blessed Maker's Day, Sin'nan," he replied, inclining his head slightly, displaying his own traditions regarding the apparent holiday. "The others should be along shortly."

"It must've been trying to leave the ship," she said, standing aside so he could have a seat on one of the solid-green chairs.

"The emotional spectrum in this dimension is too different from the one at home," he agreed, relaxing as he leaned back into his seat. "Thank the Guardians our new rings still work." He craned his neck to give Sin'nan a confident grin. "You'll get used to it after a few more jumps."

"Will Trespasser be joining us, too?" she asked. "Did you talk to him?"

Varto shook his head and gazed upwards at the ceiling. "No. This sort of... event isn't really his preference. You know how Guardians are with emotional displays and superstitions. Besides, he's too worked up about finding another universe without an Oa."

"Hard to believe we're the only Green Lanterns in this entire universe," Sin'nan mused. "In all the universes connected to this dimension, even!"

"Sin'nan, greetings," another figure entered the room. This one was roly-poly and almost egg shaped, with a single prominent eye. Four arms sprouted from the wide torso, two of which were raised in amiable greeting. This alien's Lantern uniform was again distinct, save for the green-on-white motif in the center. Green stripes radiated out from the sphere-shaped alien over and between arms and legs. A wide frog-like mouth split into a toothy grin.

"Happy Maker's Day, Doan!" Sin'nan turned and greeted the other Lantern, touching a finger to his forehead, just over his single eye.

"Warm Maker's Day," he answered, simply, searching for a chair. One notably on the opposite end of the room from Commander Varto.

He was followed by a pink haired female entering the room. She was generally humanoid, like Varto and Sin'nan, with dark-pink skin that contrasted with her neon-pink locks. Her uniform was a lighter shade of green, with intricate white sections curling up her hoofed feet and exposed skin sections on the upper thighs and arms. A tail stood straight, for balance, behind her - like a raptor. She clasped her fellow Lantern on the shoulders with a friendly smile.

"Triumphant Maker's Day, Sin'nan," she said, addressing the other woman first, and then the two males. "You, too, Varto. Doan."

The two acknowledged the sentiment more quietly.

"Happy Maker's Day, Lora!" Sin'nan smiled at her friend, but peeked over her shoulder, expectant.

"Voor and Romax should be along in a minute," the other woman guessed at her friend's curiosity. "Thavor's still meditating, but I knocked on his door loud enough even he had to hear me. R'rix. should be almost done regenerating, too."

"I synthesized drinks for everyone," Sin'nan explained, walking with her friend over to the table. "And, yes, Doan," she quickly assured the egg-shaped alien. "Yours is non-alcoholic. Ammonium-salt."

"Ah!" The four armed alien eyed the one sealed-glass on the table. "Really?"

"They call that fertilizer on my planet, you know?" Lora commented, patting the rotund Lantern on the head playfully.

"Your flora has good taste," Doan snickered.

Before long, the others entered as well. The first was a humanoid, male (if it followed human appearances), with a conservative black uniform; the only green being around the torso and the Lantern symbol. White gloves were stretched over four-fingered hands. His skin was the color of most of his uniform: an almost onyx-black. Behind him, a huge, muscular Lantern with bear-like features sported a uniform of banded green and white and black, like tiger stripes.

Sin'nan was quick to greet and identify the two arrivals, the former being Voor and the latter Romax. They were followed by a crystalline being that moved slowly. It had to use it's ring to communicate vocally, and even then it did so with a strange, somewhat distorted monotone. The rocklike being greeted Sin'nan with an extended ritual of crystalline growths that shifted colors. This was R'rix, and clearly the most alien of the alien Green Lanterns.

The last to arrive was a small bodied, aquatic looking alien with large eyes and a small mouth. Mottled gray skin was almost entirely covered by plan black; the uniform also sporting a curious geometrical arrangement of green diamonds that changed from front to back, like the camouflage reflex of a cuttlefish frozen in mid-adjustment. Unlike R'rix, this alien could speak, it simply seemed to prefer not to. It muttered a very quiet greeting and sat down on the second to last remaining chair.

"I know we're all busy," Sin'nan addressed her comrades and fellow Corps members, raising a glass. "But today is Maker Day, and I'm really glad we could all get together for it to have a toast."

"Here, here!" The burly Romax was already raising his glass high.

"I know even on my world, not everyone believes in Maker's Day," the violet female continued. "But I think what matters the most is spending important days like this together, with friends and family. That's what's really important, more than any actual spiritual obligation. I mean, there are so many special days on so many planets, I feel kind of guilty asking you all to come together for mine, instead of... for... well, anyway! I'm rambling." She blushed darkly and inclined her head to Varto. "Commander?"

The red-skinned Green Lantern cleared his throat and stood, to address his peers.

"Maker's Day..." he began, slowly. a few seconds passed, as he thought up what to say.

"Maker's Day," he said again. "Is a lot like my race's Beacon in the Night... it celebrates life and hope. It is that shared belief that transcends worlds. So, this Maker's Day, let's join Sin'nan and give thanks. And just not for five safe dimensional jumps in a row, and not just for the many greater cycles we've been on this mission. If anything, seeing all the other dimensions outside our multiverse, I think we should be thankful _for_ our universe. We are thankful for our stars, which give us light, for our worlds, which gave us a chance to evolve... we are thankful for the miracle of life, in all it's many forms."

"We aren't in our universe," he concluded, looking around the room to read the faces of his comrades. "But still, we give thanks. Because it is Maker's Day here, too. Even if everything is different. We are Green Lanterns. We are defenders of the miracle of life."

"Blessed Maker's Day," Varto finished, raising his glass.

"Triumphant Maker's Day," Lora joined him.

"Happy Maker's Day!" Sin'nan cheered.

"Warm Maker's Day." Doan.

"Great Maker's Day!" Voor.

"Maker's. Day." R'rix.

"To those who came before!" Romax thundered in a booming voice, part of his own personal toast.

"To those who come after," Thavor finished, much more quietly.

The eight Green Lanterns toasted and drank and laughed, the event recorded by the ship's dutiful internal sensors. It was one of the last intact recordings before their final, fateful jump. A transit event that should have taken them home.

It didn't.


	37. And With Strange Aeons 2

A/N

Here's a little warning for anyone else thinking of doing crossover fics with other authors. Something I'd learned before, forgotten, and now just remembered/realized. Keeping formatting uniform across emails and different editions of Word... is annoying as hell! ARGH! I knew the html on these last few chapters was wonky (clunky, with font enforcement all over the place). Now I see why. I will have uniform html or die trying!

(froths at the mouth and passes out)

EDIT: I will destroy your sleep (and mine!) with late night/early morning updates!  
To all our awesome reviewers: We're getting to the descent into madness now, me boyos! Hope you guys like it. A lot of these scenes were a hoot for us to write.

* * *

x

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_And With Strange Aeons_

Chapter 36

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

Ryouga stared intently at the warrior across from him. Every muscle of his body was like a spring, just waiting for her to make her move. It had been an incredibly tense encounter; the pair of them having sequestered themselves into the side room, agreeing to avoid the rest of the gathered teams. Neither of them wanted anyone else to catch wind of this particular battle.

"Do you have any two's?"

Shampoo smiled back at him with a vindictive, victorious expression. "No, no have no silly two's, Lost Boy."

Cursing silently, Ryouga slid a card off the deck and shuffled it into his hand.

"Shampoo still can no believe you talk me into playing stupid, silly card game," muttered the proud Amazon under her breath.

"Yeah, well, you know we both stink at cards, and sitting around in the hold with a gaggle of card sharks isn't my idea of fun. At least this way we can practice a bit without getting embarrassed," he countered, staring at her through lidded eyes.

And that was the crux of the matter, really. He knew that Shampoo was every bit as proud as he was, and couldn't stand to lose at anything, even as inane as cards. That fact only made their lack of talent for card games that much more annoying.

"Yes, yes," she all but growled, "But why did it have to be stupid baby game? No one else plays Go Fish. Why not play Poker, or Twenty-One, or something else?"

"Hey, ya gotta crawl before you walk," he fired back. "Besides, I don't have any money on me, anyway."

Grumbling under her breath, Shampoo looked through her hand of cards. "Do you have any Queens?"

"Damnit." Pulling a card from his hand, he flicked it at the warrior woman with deadly accuracy. Without even looking up from her hand, the Amazon, superior grin on her lips, snagged the card from the air and tucked it into her hand before promptly pulling out a number of ladies from her hand and dropping them to the floor in front of her.

"So," Shampoo began, only to stop to cover her mouth as a grand yawn fought its way to escape. Once she was done yawning, she stretched her arms out over her head in a way that probably would have made Mousse froth with mad jealousy, but only excited Ryouga in that it gave him an accidental flash of the cards in her hand. "What do you think about what is going on lately? You know what I mean."

The Lost Boy could only shake his head. "I don't even know what to think. Everything has been so bizarre over the past few days. I still can't believe that that freeze dried alien just rose up from the dead like that. Or what a jerk he was, considering how everyone else kept building those Oan guys up to be super amazing."

Impressively, considering their mutual antagonism, his comment actually garnered an amused chuckle from his opponent.

"At least we agree on that much," she replied. "Shampoo… I... don't like the way that 'Guardian' operates. Reading our minds and overriding our computers without permission."

"Oh yeah, nothing worse than getting a taste of your own medicine, right?"

"Shut it, Pig Boy, or you'll get a taste of my chui," she fired back with a glare that wasn't quite as hostile as it could have been. "We do what we need to survive and win. Don't need to justify ourselves to you."

Holding up his hands in defeat, he shrugged helplessly. "Hey, hey, I was just kidding. No need to upset our attempt at amiability here over a joke. Lord knows that tempers have been short enough around here, my own included. You don't know how much it worries me that you're the only one I feel comfortable talking to from India or Juliet. At least being a bit sleepy beats some of the other insanity we've been seeing lately."

She stared at him balefully. "I thought you _didn__'__t_ want to start a fight? But… it is curious... it's like everyone is being changed differently, but the only Yankee that seems to be strongly affected so far is Starfire." Shampoo shook her head dejectedly at that - her 'Amazon sister' didn't even want to talk to her anymore. "Which is just as worrying to me as it is to you, since she is by far the most likeable person on your team."

Ryouga nodded reluctantly, the cards shuffling absently in his hand all but forgotten about. "I know, I know… I didn't want to see it at first, but even I can't ignore things lately. I'm going to have to talk to her about it, but I'm not sure how to frame the discussion. I'm not sure if talking about it will even _help_, or just make it worse. If I'm not careful, I could only reinforce her slipping attitude."

"Considering how you Hibikis are with talking to women at the best of times, I actually think you've made the right decision." The amused twinkle in Shampoo's eyes was hardly necessary, but he didn't begrudge her the accuracy of her statement.

"Har har. At least I'm _trying_."

Ryouga slid his cards together and placed them on the ground in front of him. The gravity of the situation was growing worse by the day, and it was feeling increasingly like he didn't have the ability to do anything about it.

"The way the officers keep shutting me down, I can hardly get a word in edgewise that they actually listen to," he added, not so much with anger as it was with concern. "The only people from my team they listen to are Raven and Cyborg. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be able to get anything done."

Shampoo shrugged at that. She hadn't been present for the meeting, or was out on missions during the incidents he was talking about, but she didn't call him a liar, either. "Old Pig Boy likes Young Pig Boy about as much as other way around. You haven't exactly been running a tight ship, lately."

"What?" Ryouga barked incredulously. "Raven and Cyborg have been rock solid, and Jinx has been working harder than anyone here. Granted, Starfire has been getting a bit anti-social, but it's not like she's mutilating herself, or freaking people out with murderous ghost visions. And if you're about to point out what happened on Azarath... don't. That was... a special case, and it's in the past. Just because Hibiki is barely holding it together here and now better not mean he plans on pinning any of this crap on me."

"What are you talking about?" Shampoo asked, narrowing her eyes at him in careful scrutiny. "What do you mean 'barely holding it together?'"

The martial artist just stared at her. "Come on, Shampoo, do you think that I could actually hide something like that from _myself_? The guy is barely able to stand, despite that strong front he's putting on…! Still, he's got a lot on his mind, I get that. As two of the more lucid people on the ship, we should probably try to help him keep that unfortunate little fact under wraps. At least until we head out on our own mission."

Shampoo's look became contemplative, and she glanced down at - and past - her cards.

"I'm not certain if I should be honored at being sent out to possibly face a God, or annoyed that I'm going to have to put up with stupid Pancake Girl and her lime green alien toy," she grumbled in annoyance, the emotion clouding whatever else she felt at the moment. Whether she believed him about the CO's condition, she didn't state her opinion one way or the other; probably for the best, as there was nothing to be done about it, really.

"I'm not exactly thrilled at the prospect of having a super empowered Ukyou on my team either… or the fact that it isn't even my team, despite me being the NCO." Ryouga admitted, a tad annoyed by that reality, but thankful for the topic change. "But I… or should I say, Raven, can count on you to help keep an eye on her, right?"

The violet haired warrior nodded sharply. "Of course! Why even ask silly question like that? Shampoo not-ever fall behind Pancake chef! No care what kind of cheap tricks she might pick up!" Once her obligatory rant was out of the way, she sobered slightly. "And I always look out for my teammates. Though... I do agree that it is odd that Raven is all but the leader of our mission. It must be something of a breach of the chain of command, or at least protocol, or…" She searched for the right word. "Or something."

Despite his agreement with her opinion, he waved off her concern. "As odd as it is for us to actually be in agreement on so many things, it's probably best to just let it lie. The sooner we find the junk that the Guardian wants, the sooner we can go home and stop worrying about getting murdered in our sleep. Provided any of us still have a job after this mess, we can put all of this insanity behind us."

Nodding again, Shampoo lifted the cards in her hand, studying them distractedly. "Yes. Not having to stoop to looking to you for company would be paradise. Also… do you have any six's?"

"Hey! I'm pretty sure it's my turn!"

"Stupid Lost Boy. You even lose your turn in stupid card game."

"Oh, shut up."

* * *

"Oh shut up."

Raven glared at the pink haired girl laying on the crowded bench before her. Annoyed by the attitude of her 'patient', the violet haired Titan pinched the girl's shoulder.

"Ouch!" Jinx barked, jerking back from the vicious assault. "What was that for?"

Raven stared at the sorceress through lidded eyes. Then, grabbing Jinx's shoulders, she forced her back down on to her back. "Don't tell me to shut up. Especially when I'm trying to help you. Now just do as I say and lie down, _calm_ down, and shut your big mouth, already."

The chuckle that emanated from the cyborg that resided in the far corner of the crowded engine room, busily scanning some component or another of the engine, was as annoying as it was unsettling. It was reminiscent of his normal mirth, but very subdued… almost artificial in sound. Cyborg looked over at them, a ghost of a smile on his face. "I don't know which one of you has the worst bedside manner. It's customary for the doctor to be kind and polite, but, at the same time, the patient isn't usually a jerkass."

"Hey! _Who__'__s_ a jerkass!" Jinx crowed, threatening to sit back up again-

Only to be shoved back down forcefully by Raven. "You are," she muttered. "Now just let me help you, already. I was only able to fix so much damage last time, after all of the other injuries I've been working on over the past few days. I want to make sure that I haven't missed anything, and that you didn't exhaust yourself too much with your reckless display outside the ship."

She then spared Jinx a moment to fire a lidded glare at Cyborg. "And I still can't believe that you let her work on clearing the tunnel, even after all of that."

Holding up his hands defensively, Cyborg backpedaled a few inches. "Hey now, Rae. I know better than to try tellin' a woman what she can and can't do. Besides, she took it easy, didn't even try to explode anything violently."

Grinning cheekily, Jinx tilted her head from side to side playfully. "I'm such a good girl!"

"Good, my butt," Raven muttered under her breath.

Still, now that it seemed that the cat eyed girl was subdued, Raven held her hands out over the troublemaking villainess' abdomen and a blue glow began to encompass them. It didn't take long to take stock of her internal ki reserves. Though far from her peak, Jinx appeared to be well out of danger, and recovering steadily. Given another day or two of rest, and she would be fine. There was still some soft tissue damage throughout her body, mostly deep bruising probably of Raven's own creation several days earlier. It was harder to reach, and thus harder to repair, but now that she, herself was rested, and with no other distractions, it was easier to reach down in and begin to address the injuries.

"Mmmm… that… that actually feels nice," Jinx mumbled under her breath. Raven could actually see the entire girl's body begin to relax, and the sorceress' eyes closed and a satisfied grin spread across her lips. The shifting about was causing all sorts of wrinkles to mess up Jinx's uniform, but Raven resisted her perfectionist urges to smooth them out. No doubt the pink haired girl would sort herself out when they were finished.

"I'm so glad that you approve," Raven replied, more teasingly than sarcastic for a change. "Still, I don't think I've missed any critical or subtle injuries. As long as you can avoid annoying half the ship until they pummel you unconscious, you should be fine after this treatment."

"Oh, ha ha. When did you turn into Miss Comedy?" Jinx retorted, more sarcastically than teasingly. "I'll have you know that I'm the most popular girl on the ship!"

"Even if that were true," intruded an unexpected voice. Everyone present turned to look up at the top left corner of the room, where Starfire had been floating silently for the duration of their conversation. Looking up from the tablet she was reading, the alien girl fired an annoyed glance in Jinx's direction. "You speak as if being liked by these… 'humans' is desirable."

"Yo, Star, would you cut it out with that 'humans' stuff, already? In case you've forgotten, we're human to," Cyborg barked with muted heat in his voice. He then paused, looking down at his own cybernetic body, then across at the violet haired Raven and her cat eyed patient. A moment later, he shrugged sheepishly. "Well… y'know, mostly, anyway."

Removing her hands from Jinx's torso, Raven lifted herself up to sit on the bench next to the pink haired girl's head. She frowned up at the floating alien as well, sharing Cyborg's consternation.

"Starfire, we know it isn't you talking, it's this place, but can you please try to temper your words… at least around the others?" she asked, and Raven saw a glimmer of _something_ pass through the Tamaranian's eyes. "Ryouga wouldn't want you to get in trouble over something so frivolous."

For a moment, Starfire looked prepared to argue the statement, but all too soon, her expression fell into a full lipped pout, before finally fizzling completely. Raven resisted the urge to shake her head. Starfire was, if anything, growing more predictable as the days passed by. If her tolerance towards the rest of the crew was dwindling by the hour, her devotion to their Ryouga was only growing. It was like their Hibiki was becoming her life preserver, the only thing keeping her afloat in a sea of growing madness.

"Speaking of our intrepid leader," Starfire segued a bit peevishly, "Where is Ryouga? Why is he not here, with us?"

Cyborg shrugged. "The only reason we're all in here is because I wanted to check on the engine after Ranma's bit of amateur-hour piloting, and Raven and Jinx needed a place that wasn't filled with wandering eyes to do an examination. Still, to answer your question, Ryo said he wanted to talk to Shampoo. Something about their upcoming mission, I think."

"I can only imagine how pleasantly that conversation is going," Raven commented wryly. "I wouldn't be surprised if they were at each other's throats at this point. Still, it _is_ a good idea to coordinate with Shampoo. He should probably speak with Ukyou as well, since she's going with us."

Jinx giggled loudly at that. "Oh yeah, I can imagine how pleasantly that conversation would go! Not that I'm rooting for Ukyou, the tarted-up wanna-be chef. If Ryouga weren't hotwired to like me, I'd actually be flattered that he's getting so worked up on my behalf, there."

"Hey, enough of that, too," Cyborg reiterated, "Can we just stop with all the hating, already? Things are bad enough just being in this dimension. We don't need petty grudges making things even worse than they already are. Ukyou's got a lot of stuff to figure out now with that ring of hers. I doubt she'll have too much time to question any orders."

"I wish I could be so certain," Raven stated coldly, "And I mean that sincerely, since we're going to be putting a lot of faith in her control of her newly acquired powers in our upcoming mission. I don't even know where she is at the moment to speak to about it. She's been spending all of her time with _the Oan_, and I'm even less comfortable approaching _him_ than I am _her_."

"What?" Starfire asked incredulously. "Why would you suspect one of the vaunted Guardians of the Universe? It is far more likely that _she_ will find some way to corrupt and pervert his great gift to her than any wrong doing will come from his part!"

Raven frowned, sharing a quick shared glance between herself, Jinx and Cyborg. As a group consensus, they silently agreed not to push things further with their Tamaranian friend. As long as she didn't go beyond dissatisfied comments and into the realm of actual physical violence, as others already had, then the problem would be tolerable. They would probably have to pressure Ryouga to intervene sooner rather than later, though, as it was doubtful that Starfire would listen to anyone else at this point.

"Whatever," Jinx finally blurted out in annoyance. "Ukyou is Raven and Ryouga's problem, not ours, so let them deal with it. Am I the _only_ one here that's mortally distressed over the fact that we're being sent to recover evil psycho metal from a nest of writhing _tentacles_?"

"First off," Cyborg lifted a hand, a single finger sticking up. "No, I am not at all distressed by writhing tentacles." He then lifted a second finger. "And 'two' ...what do you mean 'we'? You're ship bound, little lady. The only things you gotta worry about are wonky ninjas, grabby samurai, greedy Tendos, and intense boredom."

That managed to get a grin from the pink haired girl. "Grabby samurai, eh? Well at least that might give me something interesting to do with my time." Suddenly sitting up, Jinx flipped up to her feet and quickly began smoothing out her uniform. "In fact, I think I'm gonna go see about getting a head start with Mister Kendo. Teasing hopeless guys was practically an Olympic sport back at the academy."

Raven rolled her eyes. "I'd say that you're 'incorrigible', but you'd doubtlessly take it as a compliment."

"You know it!" And with that, the cheekily grinning sorceress made her way out of the engine room.

Only to bump into a body entering the room. For a moment, it seemed as if the sergeant was back and coming to check in on his squad – but just as quickly the differences set in, and not just in the bars on the uniform. The bandages across the left arm and hand made it far more obvious that this was the other Hibiki scion. He stood in the doorway and held up a hand to indicate he was checking in and that they should remain at ease.

"You're all here. Good." Of course, he knew exactly where they were, having seen them all enter the engine room earlier. "Raven. You're finished with Jinx?"

The violet haired Titan nodded. "She's not in any immediate danger." She then fired a lidded gaze his way. "Which is more than I can say for some people. Why don't you have a seat, yourself, Major?"

"In a moment," he answered, quickly realizing she also knew something was wrong with him. Perceptive women were, it seemed, _annoyingly perceptive_. That was something to discuss in private. He turned instead to the petite witch standing just inches away, after nearly bouncing off him moments before. "Jinx. Mousse is off Unit Blue. He specifically requested you take his spot, and I've agreed, provided you're back up to speed."

The sudden, one might say 'out of the blue' statement actually left the witch in stunned silence. It took her a moment to finally give her head a shake and look up at the uniformed Hibiki. Not taking a step back, she actually propped herself up on the tips of her toes and leaned in, bringing her face as close to his as possible, interest written on her face.

"What? Really?" She asked, shifting quickly from excited to a little worried. "Wait. What's up with Mousse? Is he okay?"

"He's been moved to 'inactive' for the same reasons Konatsu and Kuno have been."

She considered that for a moment... then shrugged absently. "Man, sucks to be him. He didn't kill no one, did he?"

Her mock-levity failed to find a reciprocal audience. "No," the Major replied, "Mousse was smart enough to realize something was wrong and bring it to our attention before a 'situation' developed. He's got it under control, but there's no way he can function as part of a combat team right now." He gave Jinx a serious, humorless stare. "I assume you're fit for duty?"

She gave a quick, slightly sarcastic salute. "You betcha I am, sir!"

He stepped aside to let her through the door. "Ranma will handle your tactical review. Suit up and get ready."

Hearing that, Cyborg stood up as well, dusting off his hands. Gesturing for Star to come down from the ceiling, he began to head for the door. "Guess that means we're up, too, then. I'll help ya get ready, Star."

"That would be appreciated," the Tamaranian replied, lazily floating through the air until she was at his side.

Looking around as everyone began to file out, Raven shrugged helplessly. "Well then... I guess I'll just hang out here, then, until I'm needed for something."

"Unit Gold should be having a final briefing soon. Once Ukyou pulls herself away from your Guardian." Ryouga watched the other leave until it was just the two of them left. "So," he added, once the others were gone. "You noticed, too?"

Raven rolled her eyes. "How could I not notice? The... injuries you've suffered are affecting more than just your physical body. I can feel the tremors in your spirit from halfway across the ship." She looked at him oddly; he guessed it to be feigned confusion. "Why? Is it supposed to be a secret, or something? If so, then you should already know that our Ryouga is very likely to also be aware of your condition."

"I'd be surprised if he _didn__'__t_ know something was wrong." The older Hibiki sat down on the bench Jinx had been lying on earlier. "And I'd rather not advertise my condition. As long as I can move, I can do my job."

She pressed her hands to his shoulders and began her attempt to coax him down onto his back. With a wry grin, she nodded. "Well... considering your job is just telling the rest of us what to do, I can hardly argue with that logic. I'm sure Cyborg could cobble together a wheelchair for you, if mobility is your main concern."

"That isn't what I meant and you know it." Lying on his back, he explained anyway, "I need to be strong, no matter what happens. Even if he's dying, a good officer spends his last breath getting his men to safety. I can't afford to look weak."

Rolling her eyes, Raven gathered her focus for what was likely to be an unpleasant experience. Slowly, her hands began to shimmer with a faint blue aura once more. Taking another moment to fortify herself, she then pressed her hands to the CO's chest.

Instantly, she hissed at the sensation that rolled into her chest, but quickly subdued it.

"You know," she stated tersely, "Contrary to popular belief. We_ aren't_ your enemies. You don't have to cow us into submission every second."

"It isn't just about your friends," he replied, eyes closing as he felt her power etch into him, feeling out the damage under the surface. "Kuno, Konatsu… and now Mousse…? Even at the best of times, India Squad followed me because I was strong. Ranma only respects me as a rival because I'm strong. The Commander gave me this job because I'm _strong_. If Starfire loses it, or Mousse, then it's up to an officer to deal with them. Ranma is there to pick up the slack, but I can't put all that _and_ piloting the ship on his shoulders. I _have_ to carry my weight. I have to."

Raven drew back as he finished, her hands reflexively curling, as if exposed to a fire. It had nothing to do with what he had said. The damage to his body was… it was almost like he had been poisoned, and the entropic toxin was flowing through him, seeped into his ki itself. There was cellular and tissue damage of a sort she wasn't sure she could fix. Just trying to patch up the scabbed over 'cracks' that marked his left arm had sent a white hot jolt of agony into her, coupled with a sudden and horrific image of the exact same injury creeping from his skin onto hers: spreading like withering fire on dry leaves, ripping open her pale skin and burning her from the inside.

Ryouga saw it, too, and looked at her for a second before closing his eyes again.

"The technique we used was... _magnificent_. I shouldn't be surprised that the tiny amount that backfired is doing this to even me." He even smiled, mysteriously. "You know, my grandfather was known as 'Hibiki of the Hundred Flowers.' During World War Two, with the rest of his unit annihilated by enemy fire, he supposedly killed a hundred armed men in one night, maybe even with _a single technique_. That technique I used with Jinx could do the same… in the blink of an eye. Honestly, I'm kind of proud of it, but at the same time I'm... terrified of what we did. What I did."

Narrowing her eyes, a little disturbed by the story and the implications, Raven shook her head.

"As well you should be," she told him. "The damage that such a technique could unleash? I'm no stranger to beings of incredible power, but that is one of the most... indiscriminate I have ever seen. The fact that it did _this_ to you... and that it killed Jinx, if only for a time, should hopefully dissuade you from every attempting it again."

Giving her head another shake, she quickly adopted a less critical stance. "But you're wrong about why you're here. Our leader, I mean Robin, is by no means the strongest of us. In fact, in terms of raw power, he is by far the weakest of us all. However we follow him because we respect him, his courage, his abilities, and his intelligence. We don't follow him out of fear of his power."

"All of you paint such a picture of him..." Ryouga replied, looking pensive. "But..."

Raven saw through his frown that he was trying to measure his thoughts.

"But... I don't have Ranma's charisma, or your Robin's ability to be inspiring." He sat up, self consciously touching the mark Cologne had left on his right arm. "I'm not good with words or a genius with tactics. I follow orders and make sure others do the same. That's my best asset." He shook his head slowly. "Anyway, you've seen the damage for yourself now. I already guessed you couldn't heal it, not without seriously endangering yourself. Go get your team ready. Familiarize yourself with your personal armor. I want you at one hundred percent out there."

Pushing him back down with one small hand, Raven eyed him seriously. "I'll be the one that says whether or not I can fix the damage." It wouldn't take much for him to brush her off, so she gave him a friendly grin. "If I recall from Cyborg's Star Trek episodes, the doctor outranks the captain in these situations, correct?"

He tensed but didn't resist, rolling his eyes as he lowered back down.

"You'd have to ask Ranma or one of the others. UNETCO doesn't have dedicated field medics." Still, it felt… distressingly good to lie down, for once, and to surrender some control over himself. He had to fight the urge to keep his body from giving in and just collapsing; regardless of Raven's would be ministrations. "You have five minutes, 'doc.'"

"That's all I'm asking for."

* * *

The eye that was the core of the vast hollow hulk had swollen into a fat pulsing sore in space, retching out long serpentine streams of sickly green, red and black against a writhing purple hue. Distended and irregular, utterly chaotic, parts of it seemed to compress and draw in as others bubbled and seethed and exploded. Cooling crust-like remnants of molecularly bonded metals and poisonous ice swirled and flew away from the maelstrom, coalescing like clouds to rain down on the ground far below like snow. Static charges crackled visibly within these storms, arcs of lightning rising up from the ground to fork into the air.

A radioactive undertow, an invisible wind, sent fresh sparks alight amid the dying storm, until finally a blast of gravity waves sent the gathering ash flying as Pathfinder came to a stop near insertion point Whiskey-Blue. Not far away, the burst open ruin of the Thanagarian battlecruiser lay on its side like a beached whale, skeletal ribs arching up from the massive tattered mass of sinew and decaying flesh. The beaked prow of the otherwise rounded head of the craft was split open like a crushed skull, half buried in the sand. Ancient hawk-faced prows and golden, winged figures that adorned the hull now reflected the hellish light, their features melted and warped into horrific mockeries of long dead glory.

A low sheet of green vapor coalesced around the ruin like a fog.

The airlock on the hovering silver discus opened, and two forms emerged, jumping out into the glacially falling metallic 'snow.' The largest of the pair went first, the suit of MARS armor leaping into space. Black and white along the body shifted slightly as it read the surrounding environment and reflected the alien light from above. The giant size-twenty-plus boots of the powered armor hit the ground with a splash, easily creating an imprint in the dusty ground covering. A much smaller pair of feet drifted down moments later, creating no disturbance at all as they came to a stop several inches above the marred surface.

"Unit-Red is on the ground," Ryu called in from within the MARS. "Visibility is good, despite the flurries. Red-One confirming safeties off. Weapons hot."

"Red-Two also confirms," Starfire said a second later.

"Reading you both,' Nabiki answered, the voice of mission control over the ever present teamcomm. "Continue to your objective."

"You got it." Ryu's left hand reached out to signal Starfire: keep low; watch my left.

She probably wanted to fly right in, but they were taking point on the crashed ship for good reason. They were about the hardest targets Pathfinder's crew could present, so if there were any surprises that weren't buried deep within the ship, Unit Red would hopefully flush it out. It would be much easier to deal with if things like that could be lured out to face a team that had strategic and tactical mobility.

Advancing through the dusty, debris strewn field ahead of the Thanagarian ship, Ryu turned to look up as Pathfinder accelerated and zipped away. Then it was face forward again as he and Starfire continued their approach. The wreck wasn't particularly inviting, especially with the strange lightshow going on in what passed for the 'sky,' the bizarre 'snowfall' and the creepy green haze of mood lighting.

Even inside the armor… it felt like walking into a graveyard, the piles of blasted starships sticking out like tombstones. Approaching one of the larger, still fairly intact, structures, Ryu could see that the prongs at the front were part of a larger body. One maybe nine meters long. It had to be some kind of small fighter craft. Something that small didn't look like it could be piloted and a quick inspection found that the exposed 'cockpit' was packed with machinery.

An… interceptor drone maybe?

It looked _almost_ like someone was supposed to squeeze in there, but that this particular one had a machine jammed in instead. Curious.

"Sergeant. I have found a body."

"That didn't take long," he couldn't help but observe. "I'll be right there."

Leaving the smashed interceptor drone behind, he moved towards Starfire's position. She was only a few long strides away, having excavated another of the smashed fighter craft, upending it onto its side. He could see why she had done so.

So: this was a Thanagarian.

Or what was left of one, anyway. Dark gray wings emerged from a humanoid – very human-like actually – body. The upper torso was mostly bare except for some faded red spaulders and a cross of gold colored metallic material that met in the center of the chest and back around an ornate gold and black insignia. Together with a hawkish helmet, adorned with golden tresses that only covered part of the face, it sort of gave Ryu the impression that maybe this race of aliens cared a great deal about showing off their huge pects and abs? And maybe not quite enough about surviving in a genuinely hostile environment.

Race of body builders or not, the lack of environmentals hadn't done this guy any favors. Exposure had almost certainly killed him within seconds, and long after the life had left the Thanagarian's body, the warping elements and currents of the dimension had done worse. Starfire kneeled down to inspect the body and flinched as her hand came back… sticky. It was only then that Ryu noticed that the body wasn't buried in the rubble below.

It was _fused_ into the ground, and instead of being dehydrated and hard, the skin had a runny, clammy-wet sheen to it. Making a quick check with thermals, Ryu could confirm that it was as cold and dead as the rest of space. The vacuum would have evaporated any moisture left. It had to be… something else at work. God knows he couldn't explain why it was merged into the ground.

"I don't see any Nth metal," he said, looking around. "These guys were all supposed to have weapons, right?"

The Tamaranian nodded in the affirmative, her helmet bobbing up and down. "Yes. They are a race of warriors. I have never heard of anyone meeting a Thanagarian whom was not carrying a weapon of some sort."

"Not much of a uniform on him," he gave the body one last look and then started searching the nearby area. "Think these are the same faction of guys that attacked your Earth back home? If this is a different group, they may play by different rules."

"There is no way of knowing. I am unaware of any other factions of this race." Studying the corpse more intently, Starfire let out a weary sigh. "It is impossible to determine how long he has been here. He could just as easily be thousands of years old, as he could be months..."

"Yeah. This place is just… too weird to tell. Nothing to do but keep looking."

"Agreed."

The grit covered landscape wasn't exactly conducive to casual investigation, to the two relegated their search along predetermined pattern that led towards the main body of the craft. If they couldn't find anything, they'd head towards the gash in the front, and hopefully the bridge. The closer they got, the more large wreckage they found, along with a few other bodies. Shifting light cast an ever changing sheen on the exposed materials, but nothing showed up as a positive return. Until:

"Here's something."

Heavy armored boots stopped near what looked like a twisted hilt: ragged yellow cloth loosely wrapped around a metallic shaft. It was buried in the ground and warped at an angle. Taking a knee to reach down and brush away the sediment that had accumulated on and around the weapon, Ryu's armored hand cleared the detritus away. The upper half of the weapon, unfortunately, wasn't just buried… like the Thanagarian corpse, it was melded and warped into the black pockmarked surface at their feet. A messy pattern of gray coiled away from where the weapon entered the surface, as if turned to liquid and mixed in, like vanilla swirls in chocolate.

The top half was the part with the Nth metal, too.

"Damn." He stood back up and looked around. "I don't think we're going to be finding much out here. It's all been melted down and fused into the ground."

Walking close by, Starfire stopped and nodded. "The Guardian assured us that we will be able to find some usable Nth metal. We merely need to travel further into the wreck."

"Agreed." Ryu started back along their course, this time at double speed. "Let's head towards the front of the ship. Maybe we'll have more luck there."

* * *

Pathfinder was small enough to easily enter the hangar of the crashed Thanagarian ship. Normally a large cylindrical section, hollowed out from the middle of the ship along the vertical axis, this one had also been cracked open by the same explosion that gutted most of the ship after landing. From the get-go, the expectation had been that the LZ would be a real mess, but that if it was intact, it would also provide invaluable access to the core of the ship.

Unit-Blue inserted on a relatively clear and stable inner ring of this hangar, on a section mostly free of starship debris or smashed fighter craft. The entire hangar bay was about eight stories high, and wide enough to accommodate the magnum launch of dozens of fighters at once. These were still stored in pre-flight positions along mobile racks set into wings on different levels. At least forty were still on the racks when whatever happened to the ship happened. Triumphant golden eagles straddled the many fighter-clamps, some cracked and others deformed.

Most of the rest of the hangar had been blown to pieces or scattered throughout the open area. Half of the circular space was a twisted and un-navigable mess. Tangled support beams and collapsed sections were jammed with crushed or blasted fighter wreckage, and other sections had been torn apart by internal explosions and detonating magazine compartments. The upward facing section of the ship faced that side, and there would be no entering it from the hangar bay.

Ranma's boots hit the ground, magnetizing to deal with the low gravity. They were followed by the blue and white boots of Cyborg and lastly, by Jinx in her set of personal armor. The pigtailed lieutenant gave a salute to the ship, and nimble in his UNETCO issue armor, motioned for the two to follow him in. Scans had already identified a possible route, and they were eager to get 'out of the cold' – so to speak – and into the meat of the ship itself.

Pathfinder would, for a time, wait hovering in the hangar.

A few large pieces of debris blocked an intact door, and behind it, possible atmosphere. The most obvious impediment was one of the gold-pronged fighters, lying on an angle and blocking the way to the door. Having no need for delicacy, Ranma grabbed one of the yellow colored wings and heaved it away to tumble off the edge of the launch rack. Cyborg, meanwhile, easily moved another crashed ship, this one little more than a smashed cockpit and engine, to start getting a better read on the door and his surroundings.

"You think we can get in this way?" Ranma asked, walking up to the Titan's side. "It'd be nice to open it, but blasting through's just as good."

Cyborg nodded as he quickly accessed the situation. "The power systems to the door are fried, but I can probably pry it open without too much trouble."

"Knock yourself out, man." Ranma watched patiently at the cybernetic teen got to work. "Too bad ya didn't get to hotwire any Thanny ships back in that attack you guys mentioned. Sure be useful to just press a button or two and have control over what's left of this wreck."

"'What's left' being the operative term here." Chuckling hollowly, Cyborg took a step forward and cracked his knuckles, before setting his feet apart in a wide stance. Then, in a sudden movement, he thrust out his hands. With an inaudible squeal, his fingers tore right into the metal, and with a heave, the heavy metal doors twisted and warped, nearly tearing out the frame completely.

Once Cyborg felt that he'd opened the door wide enough, he took a step back and dusted off his hands. He then gestured to Jinx, grin on his face. "Ladies first?"

Jinx held her ground for a moment... only to jab her elbow into Ranma's side. "Hey, he's talking to you, man."

"Ha. Ha. I'm a guy. Now and forever." Ranma slipped through the open door. Floodlights provided illumination, displaying the hall beyond in green and blue, walls and floor. Bright gold filled in the gaps and provided direction and form to break the monotony of lime and cerulean. "Man, not the most eye-pleasin' color scheme these guys've got."

The other two members of Unit-Blue followed.

"So what happened with you guys during the attack, anyway?" Ranma asked as they advanced, looking around the derelict. "I can't imagine ya both just kept yer heads down and tried not ta get involved."

"Oh, we totally did," Jinx replied perkily as she wandered down the garish corridor. "Seriously, those guys drove the Justice League underground! Dunno how they did it, but they _did_ ...thanks to Hawkgirl. What were a bunch of punk, kid criminals gonna do? Heck, we were actually able to take advantage of the chaos and get some real nice jobs done on the down-low, what with all the heroes in hiding, and the Thanagarians not really caring about their human 'friends.' Plus you wouldn't believe the money people paid after the war for Thanagarian tech! Not even scientists or mega-corps, either! Our world's got _a lot_ of alien collectors and fetish types."

"Hmmm…!" The thoughtful sound came, of course, from a listening Nabiki. "Interesting…"

Ranma rolled his eyes. "What about you, Cyborg?"

Sighing sadly as he scanned the walls, looking for any traces of power that might lead to either a control panel, or an energy source, Cyborg shook his head. "Unfortunately, despite Jinx's obviously evil approach to things, we weren't much better off."

He lifted his arm, took several steps then lowered his arm as he continued his sensor sweep. "The Thanagarians didn't just invade; they occupied the entire damn planet. We had to go into hiding as well. Unfortunately, none of us really had anything that you could call 'secret identities,' aside from Robin, so we had to be especially careful about staying out of sight."

"Hah!" Jinx scoffed, "So the big heroes did even _less_ than us?"

"Hey, I didn't say that!" Turning on the slim sorceress, Cyborg puffed up his mechanical chest. "We might have been underground, but that didn't stop us from putting up our own little resistance movement. We weren't able to do anything large scale, but we managed to score a few little victories throughout the occupation. We were able to help others like ourselves get into hiding, and some guerilla style tactics."

Jinx twirled her finger in the air. "Woohoo. A fat lot of good any of that would have done if the big blue boy scout hadn't shown up at the last minute, as usual. To save the day. _As usual_."

"What! I'll have you know-" Cyborg paused, suddenly, mid rant. Swinging his arm back a few inches, he checked his display again. "…I'll have you know… that I think I got something!"

Gesturing quickly down the corridor, he immediately began to move off in the seemingly random direction, excitement visible through his visor. Ranma kept pace, and Jinx took the rear. Cyborg was also mapping the ship in real time and correlating that with a real time map on Pathfinder. Still, as they picked up the pace, Ranma played it safe and dropped a homing beacon, just in case.

"So what are we running to?" he asked, as the group turned a gold trimmed corner. "Power source? Weapons cache? Room full of alien space booty?"

"Heck, for all I know, I just found the powerline that leads to the space washrooms. I'm not familiar enough with the tech to know exactly where the power is being routed to. And there's only one way to find out."

"Cyborg," Nabiki spoke up them over the team's communication channel. "I think I see what you're onto. Sensors are indicating a thicker atmosphere in a pressurized section close to where you are now. I think parts of the ship are in standby mode. The ship's outer hull is pretty thin, so the inside must be heavily compartmentalized."

"Lead away, man," Ranma chimed in. "Best thing we can do now is follow your nose."

"Will do!" With that, Cyborg led them further into the ship. "If we can find some pressurized sections, who knows what else we might find? Maybe even survivors?"

"Um…" Jinx asked at that. "What do we do if there are survivors?"

"P-chan will make that call," Ranma told her. "If they're alive, though… well, I doubt they'll be friendly. Not with how this place messes with yer head."

"True enough, man." Cyborg muttered under his breath, "I don't even want to think about that possibility."

It didn't take them long to navigate the eerily empty corridors, following Cyborg's mystery signal. There were a few sealed bulkheads in the way, but they hadn't needed to tear them open like the first door. Wherever the small power flow was coming from, he'd been able to reroute a small amount to unlock and open each one that they came across with a minimum of fuss.

It was a hard earned skill that the cybernetic Titan had gained during the Thanagarian occupation. Capturing and reverse engineering their technology - looking for any obvious or exploitable weaknesses - had been his primary concern, not unlike the UNETCO organization he worked for at the moment. The Nth metal weapons and anti gravity harnesses had been something he hadn't been able to duplicate, owing everything to the special properties of the material itself rather than to any form of technology used to create it. Not that basic anti-gravity itself was exactly new tech on Earth – rumor had it even the Nazis had it back in the forties.

During the occupation, he had managed to capture several small computers and taken a few discrete scans of a few vehicles, though, so he wasn't completely ignorant of what he was looking at here. This was actually a great opportunity to fill in a lot of the blanks on his knowledge of Thanagarian technology He was still disappointed that he'd never been able to get close enough to the 'Hyperspace Bypass Generator'. Sure, it would have turned the entire planet inside out… but damn, what a feat of engineering that had to have been! At least until Bats crashed the Watchtower into it.

Opening up another wall panel, he quickly performed another power reroute, almost by rote now, and the final door slid open between them and their destination. Cyborg let out a low whistle as they found themselves standing in what he was fairly certain was their main engineering section. Apparently he'd been following the power flow in the opposite direction he'd thought, but this was way the hell better than finding the lavatories. As Ranma and Jinx filed in behind him, he decided to close the door and seal it up once more.

"Looks like we hit paydirt," he explained excitedly.

There was no small amount of damage present. No doubt the FTL drive was a total loss, judging by the large tower and half-a-wall of molten slag that stood at the center of the room, but several of the smaller power generators were still humming away silently. There even looked to be one or two computer stations that didn't look completely smashed up. If he could interface with one of those…

Not even waiting for the order to do so, Cyborg strode over to the nearest terminal and activated the screen. As expected, a large amount of Thanagarian writing, understandably similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics began to scroll up the screen. One of the bird loving race's greatest weakness had been how easily Cyborg had found it to crack not only their language, but by extension, the rather simple minded encoding they had used during the occupation.

Two things had made his success possible. First had been the fact that Thanagarians had visited the Earth before, long ago. In their arrogance, they had set themselves up as veritable gods, integrating themselves into a very specific (and short lived) dynasty that ruled part of Egypt. Having a few thousand years of research from archaeologists had been an incredible boon in translating their language. Almost a no brainer, actually.

The second factor had been their 'warrior culture' mentality. So inured to war and battle were the Thanagarians, that if it didn't involve bigger and better (or more extravagant) ways to destroy their enemies, then certain branches of research tended fall to the wayside. After all, their main opponents, the Gordanians, weren't exactly enlightened individuals either, so the idea of such indirect attacks, via hacking of systems and such, wasn't something they seemed to focus on. Both sides were at their happiest when they could fly into melee and beat on the other with axes and fists, trying to capture ships or prisoners as trophies. It reminded him somewhat of the so called "Flower Wars" waged by the Aztecs, centuries ago.

Running the same translation program he'd slapped together during the invasion, Cyborg was quickly able to decipher what he was reading on the screen. What he saw brought a smile to his face straight away. Turning around, he waved Ranma over.

"Yo, Ranma! I mean, L-T. Check it out. This terminal is still up and running. Looks like Nabiki was right. Despite the damage, there are still a lot of sections of the ship that are still pressurized. With a little work, I can return power and life support to all of those sections, bringing on the lights and making the atmosphere breathable again. It'll also let me access the frozen functions elsewhere in the main computer. Want me to go ahead with that?"

"You get all that, Pathfinder Actual?" Ranma asked, not bothering to even try and decipher the funny looking alien hieroglyphics. He gave Cyborg a nod and a go-ahead order. "If ya can, get this baby purring. But I want NBC on until we're sure the air's clear. Then we'll switch to filters-only. Set up an auto-hack for us, too."

"Not a problem," Cyborg replied, and got to work.

The auto-hack was the easiest of the bunch. The Cydonian EM effector tech had no problem here, unlike with the Oan vessel, and once in place it quickly established a read-only link between Pathfinder and the engineering console. The cybernetic teen had already uploaded a copy of his decryption protocols for Thanagarian tech, and Pathfinder's dedicated E-War systems broke through the meager local security encryption and firewalls in seconds. A few backups kicked in, requesting telepathic access to 'restricted archives' - it was a prudent failsafe, but XCOM had dealt with psionic lockouts and security before, and the system barely hiccupped as it cut through the barriers.

While the ship handled the sorting, copying and scanning of data packets, Cyborg concentrated most of his attention on fixing damage and getting things back up and running. An uploaded schematic of the Thanagarian battlecruiser and a date for its commissioning indicated a few differences, besides the obvious, between these hawkmen and the ones that had attacked Earth.

It was almost surreal when he loaded up a propaganda vid left in a video buffer.

Trumpets sounded and a children's chorus sang as a huge ship - Cyborg quickly realized it could well have been _this_ ship - left drydock, pulling itself free from its moorings in a large, clear, artificial lake. Other, smaller vessels floated in parade formation as the ancient vid recited, for all to hear and be in awe at, the many weapons and innovations on display. In contrast, there were also pictures of wrecked alien ships, prows and plaques from boarded or destroyed enemy vessels. One ship was being retired, after many victories, and a new one taking it's place.

It then switched to pictures of Gordanian prisoners, awaiting execution. A side reel showed a laundry list of charges, and footage of ships firing on other ships. The narrator belabored the failure of 'Gordos' to reign in the many vicious pirates and merciless slave traders that plagued nearby systems from their sanctuary in the Vegan system. _Starfire's home system_. Since protests to the Green Lantern Corps had proven fruitless, and to protect Thanagarian shipping, fleet assets were being moved closer to the Vega Sector to enforce the peace. Furthermore, a bounty was being placed on any and all Gordanian raiders captured in the 'de-militarized zones' ... effectively turning them into a warzone.

A Thanagarian Assembly cheered the news, weapons clamoring as a High Council of Elders - all looking like grizzled old veterans themselves - announced that there would be 'many prizes' for daring Thanagarian privateers. The vid reel promised glory, riches and fame for those who dealt a blow to the Gordanian menace in the DMZ. It ended with pictures of hundreds of armed hawkmen and women taking to the air, glittering with gold and white finery, their weapons held eagerly in-hand.

Cyborg boggled at the ancient history: Gordanian slave traders and Thanagarian privateers?

This ship was actually pre-war! In fact, if he had to guess, it pre-dated the formal war with the Gordanians more than a thousand years. It seemed as though the two races had a long "history" together. Something about Okaara, too, which was very strange. Okaara wasn't the Gordanian homeworld, though it was in the same system and sector. What would anyone want with a wasteland like Okaara, though? From what Starfire had said about the place, not only was the surface almost completely uninhabitable, but it was the home of the Warlords of Okaara. No one in their right mind was going to start trouble with _that_ group, not considering their prowess was so legendary that races from all across the universe sent representatives there for training, just as Starfire had been sent.

Putting aside the history lesson and going back to the ship and the systems, Cyborg could confirm that various compartments in the ship had been shut down and isolated, including engineering. In fact, engineering had 'dumped' atmosphere and life support from all the surrounding sections. They had also taken over after the destruction of the forward bridge…double checking, he brought up additional records, indicating repeated data purges. Maintenance routines also complained about numerous bulkhead doors being not just shut, but welded closed.

Making note of that, Cyborg found the life support routines and warmed them up.

Lights brightened, and compartments around the ship winked from a dull orange to a bright gold – the Thanagarian equivalent of 'green' or 'good.' Others remained red, and like their Terran counterparts, that color meant compromised or failed. The generators left in stand-by mode cycled up as the teen booted up more of the ship's damaged systems. Where necessary, he had to parallel process some of the applications, and as a result the Thanagarian computer became increasingly sluggish. Still, it did the job, and they wouldn't be here for too long anyway. A quick job took precedence.

While he handled the tech, Ranma and Jinx prowled around the engineering wing's open areas, occasionally pausing to inspect a fallen alien or a promising looking artifact. The pair returned with an assortment of gear, but no obvious weapons. It didn't take Cyborg long to confirm that they wouldn't be getting anything more than a few scraps of Nth metal from what they had here.

"I don't get it," Jinx grumbled. "Every one of these bird guys had weapons back when they attacked us. But now, when we actually want them to have weapons with them, we're coming up empty?"

"I don't think the guys in here were warrior types," Ranma guessed, tapping the chin of his helmet with his thumb. "I had Ryu send over an image of the ones he saw outside. The ones in here are different."

Leading Cyborg over, he rolled over one of the more intact bodies.

"The helmet is different," he observed. "And so's the color scheme."

He was right. Unlike the Thanagarian outside, this one – indeed all the ones in this compartment – wore plain white helmets, rather than gold and red, and the crossed bands over their torsos were also unadorned. They lacked shoulder armor or spaulders, and instead had plain straps and armbands. The one thing Ranma hadn't pointed out, Jinx did.

"These guys aren't ripped, either," she said, and ran over to another one nearby. "This guy is actually kind of skinny. These guys are…" She chuckled at the very idea. "Like, Thanagarian eggheads?"

"I guess they'd need some tech-types," Ranma reasoned, walking over to one of the female bodies, this one torn in half at the waist. She had a golden mantle around her chest, different than the rest. He reached down and took off her helmet, revealing a human face and short, red hair. "Another redhead…?"

About to stand up and look elsewhere, he caught sight of something he'd missed before. Unfortunately, its current location caused the pigtailed officer to hesitate in retrieving it. Quickly looking back at Cyborg and Jinx – to make sure they were distracted – he took a deep breath and reached down… into the woman's cleavage, where she'd hidden something: a microchip or data disk or something, definitely technological.

"Lieutenant! Really!"

"IT ISN'T WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!" the instinctive yell immediately alerted Jinx and Cyborg, who turned to regard him with wide eyes. "D'mnit, Nabiki."

"Hahaha! You should see the look on your face, Saotome!"

"This ain't what it looks like," he repeated, more calmly, as his teammates walked over, curious. Ranma held up a small device he'd retrieved, like a gold trimmed key. Like it was his fault that even alien women just had to hide things… there. He wasn't a pervert, damnit!

"I'm not a pervert," he insisted, and tossed the device to Cyborg. "Check this out. Looks fancy."

The metal plated Titan studied the object for a moment, before nodding. "Well... it sure _looks_ like a key. I mean, I dunno what you'd need a boob key to unlock. On the other hand, the systems are up and running, so we could have a look around."

Under her breath, Cy was pretty sure he heard Jinx mutter, "What kind of tramp hides stuff _there_ anyway?"

"_Anyway_," he reiterated quickly, "Now that the power is flowing, you might want to let Ryu and Star know what's going on while we look for whatever this key might be for... unless, well, y'know, it's _not_ a key, but a super nano explosive or something."

"That would be just our luck," Ranma agreed, and radioed things in. "Blue-One to Red. We just kicked the generator in here."

* * *

"Read that, Blue-One," Ryu responded, the lights on his powered armor pushing through the gloom around the crashed ship and the glacially falling metallic snow. "Red is nearly at the front door. Still no candy."

"Keep your eyes open, Red-One, Red-Two. We'll see if we can patch into any more ship's systems from here. The ship had a security system, so there should be cameras or something in here."

"We'll keep eyes open, Lieutenant."

Ahead of Unit Red, the bow of the Thanagarian battlecruiser loomed. It was partly crushed by the impact of the ship who-knew-how-long ago, and a stylized beak along the prow was almost comically bent at an angle. It was almost like how a cartoon character, after falling off a cliff, would end up face down, with the nose sticking out and the rest of the head smooshed in. In this case, the facefault had also cracked open part of the ship's front, exposing five or so floors to vacuum.

Unit Red took to the air and floated over. There were no outer bulkheads, and contrary to what some had speculated, the outermost compartments weren't used for storage or cooling. Ryu and Starfire passed through the cracked hull right into what seemed to be a commissary of sorts. There were long tables and chairs strewn around and literally tons of other assorted debris, including some interesting – and expensive – looking goblets and mugs. Large racks along one of the walls looked like the cellar of a winery, with sequestered vats of alien alcohol stored behind giant publicly accessible taps.

"A beer hall?" Ryu speculated, still reliant on the light from his suit.

They weren't at one of the pressurized and powered sections yet.

Examining one of the stein-like objects, Starfire nodded thoughtfully. "That does seem likely. Thanagarians were renowned for a certain variety of powerful intoxicant... it was quite popular back on Tamaran. I can not vouch for it, however; I was not old enough to ever imbibe it and paid very little attention to such things in my youth."

"We've got drinks on base, for off hours, but nothing like this…!" Ryu stomped over to one of the casks set into the wall, carefully tapping it with his powered armored hand. "I guess these guys were real Viking types when off duty. Tell me if you find a giant turkey leg or a sign saying where they kept their wenches."

Rolling her eyes, Starfire muttered, "As if you would know what to do with a wench, even if you purchased one from the intergalactic slave consortium."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Ryu asked, picking up one of the goblets for a closer look. "As long as they've got the right equipment, I've got the goods to handle any space wench! No problem!"

Smirking evilly through her transparent visor, Starfire turned around to stare at the male. Leaning to the side, she rested a fist on the curve of her hip. "Is that so? I find that hard to believe, judging by your lackluster performance in terms of the Japanese chef of your world."

"Ukyou's no wench," he answered seriously. "A girlfriend is entirely different. I don't have a problem waiting and taking things at her…" he caught himself and huffed. "Anyway, its totally different."

Flipping her hand dismissively, she turned and began walking away. "Ah, of course, I should have known that to be the case. You are merely too intimidated by any female that is not weak and servile. Obviously, Ukyou has... what is the earth-term? 'Whipped' you into submission?"

"Hey! You're no older or more experienced than I am, you know," he informed her back and shrugged as he headed another way to check a side of the feasting hall. "You can feel free to criticize my lack of experience when you've bagged yourself an Earthman or two. Unless our crazy mating customs are too complex for the mighty Tamaranian to handle?"

Instantly, Starfire's entire body tensed like steel chord, stopping her dead in her tracks. She appeared frozen for a moment, only to turn her head with glacial slowness to glare heatedly at the martial artist.

"You should not speak of topics about which you know nothing," she bit off coldly. Moving stiffly, and notably 'not' floating above the floor, she started stalking across the room. "I am going to examine the vessel's bridge. There will doubtlessly be something of use there."

"_Man, what__'__s got her panties in a bunch?_" he whispered, but decided to let it go for now. Much louder, enough to catch the mic in the helmet, he announced, "Hey! Don't stray too far. We're right next to a pressurized section."

He then approached a pair of near identical statues along the far wall overlooking the mess hall. They were similar to busts, all wearing identical hawk-themed hoods occasionally with an arm holding a weapon in front of them. Unlike the rest of the ship, they looked to be made of sandstone or some other material, not a metal, and seemed purely decorative. Paint around the eyes provided darkness and contrast. Showing a bit of forethought, even in light of their mission, Ryu stopped to include a more thorough visual record of the finds.

"If I had to guess," Nabiki said in his ear as he took a slower look, pausing to take a high quality snapshot or three from his HUD. It was all being recorded, but he could also save pictures for later personal review. "Based on the information from Cyborg's decoding program, it looks like these were former captains of the ship. Or the ship's namesake? After dying, they became… household ancestral gods, kind of. Former leaders who looked after their crew and their ship from the afterlife."

"It looks kinda…"

"Egyptian?" she guessed. "Yes. It seems there was some cultural contamination in the past, back on that other Earth."

"Which way?"

"That's… not entirely clear. The Titans' ancient Egypt is very similar to ours, and we _know_ no Thanagarians visited our corner of the multiverse. They had an actual Atlantis, too, back then... so maybe that played a part?"

"Huh."

Near one corner of the hall, there seemed to be less ordered writing on the wall. It was the same symbol, over and over, written under a large plaque of gold. Ryu checked, and saw the same symbol under the statues. Moving some debris out of the way, including an overturned stone table, he found something interesting. The marks in the walls were gashes, probably made by something sharp.

"Hey, Nabiki. What's this mean?" He pointed at one of the hieroglyphs.

"Roughly translated, I believe it means 'Kuk' in Ancient Egyptian," the Tendo sister answered. "It seems to be the ship's name."

"Kuk?" Ryu asked, pronouncing it 'cook.'

"Kuk is also the Egyptian god of primordial darkness, chaos and the unknown," Nabiki helpfully explained. "I'm sure the name here is _just a coincidence_."

Behind his helmet, the Kumon heir raised a dubious eyebrow.

"Awesome. A ghost ship named after a god of darkness. Because fighting across half of Hell and getting trapped in the goddamn Twilight Zone isn't bad enough."

"You want out, Ryu-baby?"

"You have to be joking. I was born for this kind of stuff!" He smirked as he cleared away some of the mess around his feet. "Besides, I've got a dojo waiting for me back home. My new family dojo. I've already decided I'll march through Hell if it gets me there. This'll just make the Kumon Dojo even stronger."

Eyes widening, he smiled as he found the knife that had been used to carve up the wall. He'd been hoping it wasn't just a butcher knife, and as he picked it up, he took in the ornate hilt and double edged blade. It was still a knife, less than a hand long, but it looked pretty important. Maybe it was the Thanagarian equivalent of a combat knife?

"Think this is Nth Metal?" he asked, holding it up.

"Could be. Cyborg is the only one who could tell for sure."

"I'll just pocket it then. Finally found something!" Dropping the weapon into one of the sealed compartments attached to the lower back of the MARS armor (in lieu of a backpack), he checked to see if there was anything else nearby. Finding nothing of note, he headed over to where Starfire had ducked a corner. He was starting to regret letting her out of sight, even for just a few moments. They should have stuck close together, verbal sparring or not.

* * *

Pathfinder Actual.

"Look at this," Nabiki queued up a global view of the next mission target, courtesy of one of their orbital surveyors left in a pocket of stable space before the last two insertions. "We've got another one of those storms forming."

"You think we should scrub Gold's mission?" Ryouga asked, seeing it himself via the navigation interface. It was all but impossible to tell where these little anomaly storms or other phenomenon would hit, but they were being careful to map out the areas where they'd be putting boots on the ground.

"Either that, or we push up their drop off by ten or twenty minutes," she suggested. "The ship can't be in two places at once, Ryouga-baby."

"A delay is unnecessary," an alien presence intruded in the ship's psionic circuitry. "There is nothing at either site your subordinates can not handle. Time is your greatest enemy."

Twitching within the soul of the machine, Ryouga flexed his thoughts, and he felt the alien coalesce into an almost solid form. The Oan was as he appeared before, in the physical world, but floating serenely amid the displays and documentation of the navigation HUD. The only difference was that, as he moved slightly, there was an odd visual distortion, like a flicker, of one image slowly superimposing over another.

"I'll be the one to decide that," the acting Major informed the Guardian. "I don't know how you've entered our nav, but I'll ask that you leave."

"I am not in the Nav. I am merely within your uppermost consciousness. However, I will comply, if that is what you wish…" Trespasser agreed, and started to fade out.

"It is." Ryouga insisted, and focused on the ship. "Nabiki. Activate Unit Gold. Tell them to get ready for insertion. They have five minutes."

"A logical decision."

"I asked you to leave," Ryouga repeated, seeing the Oan still present. "This is a secure military system."

"Of course." The Guardian of the Universe began to fade again. "But it is in my interests to see that your group performs as expected. Yourself included."

A mental twitch. "And that means what, alien?"

"Trigon's offspring wasn't able to relieve you of your injuries," the Guardian phrased it as a statement, one he was completely confident in. "Naturally, I am aware. It is my function to be aware." The aliens glowing green eyes narrowed in introspection. "Like your own abilities, and that meta-human's, Raven's powers are not well suited for dealing with serious injuries. Her powers are inherently destructive. She... is inherently destructive."

"Just like my abilities, eh?" the officer asked when a virtual sneer. "I suppose it isn't anything I didn't already know. So what?"

It was true: Raven had not dared to try and fix anything other than the peripheral damage, and even that she had only risked limited exposure to. Her 'healing' hurt her in turn, much more than normal, and though she had stubbornly refused to just give up and admit it, he had not wanted to risk her wellbeing for his own comfort. Maybe if she hadn't been so intimately involved in Unit Gold and that mission to Heresiarch, then… at least he would have been open to letting her keep trying. As it was, she was only hurting herself for no real gain on any of their parts.

"You think highly of her, and you are sympathetic towards her plight," Trespasser stated, with some disapproval. "I would not rely overmuch on that one. She is working hard to prove herself, but her true nature can be seen in your own mission logs and recordings. You know her heritage better than her own friends, who she continues to lie to. Yet you wish to be able to trust her? You should know better, acting Major."

The Oan seemed to peer through the psionic nav and right into the officer's soul. "You've done well, so far, but in your current state, can you really take on faith that no one will try and buck your control? To usurp command? Konatsu has already defied you, and he is hardly the most powerful of individuals on this ship."

"I… I am aware of that fact…"

"It is not in my interests for you to be replaced, or for another mutiny to occur," Trespasser continued. "I will fix the damage done to you."

The assurance and authority in the statement caught Ryouga by surprise. It made sense. It felt right. The Guardian, the Oan, was beyond even Raven and Jinx's exotic powers. Cyborg had described them as all but god-like. Deep down, he had always suspected it was possible… what had held him back from asking?

The lost Lieutenant actually had to struggle to reject the offer. "I don't need your charity."

"It is not charity," the Guardian replied, undeterred. "Your xenophobia and suspicion are clouding your judgment. You have already put your trust in aliens." _like Starfire, like the entire group of dimensionally lost travelers._ "In alien technology." _like this ship. _"With my aid, you will have no difficulty maintaining control. Our goals are identical. We should not be at cross purposes."

"Ryouga-baby. There's some static in the line. What's going on in there?"

Trespasser seemed to twitch at the interruption, and faded away into nothingness.

"Consider my words, acting Major." The eyes were the last to vanish. "It would be… pitiable if your squads tore themselves apart so close to getting what they need…"

"Hello?" Nabiki asked again, clearly not having heard the Oan's words. "Is something wrong? You can hear me, right?"

"I can hear you," he answered, the navigation displays returning to normal. A window appeared at his thought, with Unit Gold waiting outside the airlock for deployment. The younger Hibiki was leading them, nominally, with Raven as a tactical advisor. Shampoo and Ukyou were there for added security and to back Raven up in recovering the fragment from Whiskey-Alpha-One. Heresiarch.

They were close.

Close to the insertion point.

Close to finally getting home.

"What was that static before?" Nabiki asked again. "It just cleared up., but you must've noticed it."

Watching Ukyou and her green ring, her new uniform, Ryouga momentarily wondered what her allegiance actually was. He hadn't forgotten her actions before in shielding the Guardian. She'd made no secret of fussing over her new powers and prying every available ear for ideas or information on these 'Green Lanterns.' Then there was Raven and the younger Hibiki - not too long ago, he had fought them back in Japan, and he had never forgotten the power the former displayed when pressed. He _wanted_ to trust Raven, he really did, but he couldn't just forget what he had seen and heard and known. Shampoo, at least, was reliable and unchanged, but she was only one… among many.

"Ryouga-baby?"

"It was nothing. We continue as planned."

* * *

Starfire was not in what could be considered a good mood.

"_Hmph_," she growled as she stalked down one of the darkened corridors.

How dare that – _that human_ - speak to her in such a way! Her own comments were well founded upon objective observation of his actions, and those of the females with whom he consorted. She had merely intended to tease the male, and… perhaps, to harmlessly flirt, if only to see how easily she could stir his passions. But then he had said those horrible things…

Her furious gait slowed to a forceful march as realization began to sink in. No, it had not been what he had said that had offended her. Even as founded in ignorance as his statement had been, he had not meant it to be vindictive. Nor was it his childish rebuttal that had sparked her fury. It was what his words had reminded her of. The second the vitriol had spilt past his lips, she had found herself transported back to a nightmarish realm of memories only half repressed. It had only been a flash, but it had been enough to freeze her blood in her veins and ignite a rage she had only barely contained.

Another step down the darkened hallway, the walls only showing their tarnished golden color under the swinging light of the lamp mounted on her helmet, did nothing to cool her temper. Though she could not fault Ryu for his words, she could not forgive him for rekindling those hated memories. Even worse, now that it had entered her mind, she found she could think of nothing else. The mission seemed a distant concern in comparison…

_She hammered against the cell wall with all of her strength. Tiny divots formed in the metal, dents caused by her naked knuckles as she attempted to batter her way to freedom, but her thin arms did not possess the strength to truly damage her prison. Minutes later, she fell back, breath coming in raged, exhausted gasps and her knuckles oozing green blood; the bare metal of the floor stung her uncovered skin with its uncomfortable chill, but she lacked even the energy to lift herself into the air-_

Starfire staggered to the side, her shoulder slamming heavily into the wall of the Thanagarian cruiser. The weathered metal twisted and warped under the force and the indestructible armor she wore, but she paid the incidental damage no heed. She clutched a hand to her visor, sucking in a frantic gasp of air.

"That was…"

_ She huddled in the corner, her position a desperate bid to conserve what little warmth she could, rather than out of some long forgotten sense of shame, or modesty. The lighting was barely enough for her to see her hand in front of her face. Oh, how she wished she could turn back the darkness; she prayed to X'hal that she could be delivered from this black pit of despair._

_ Just as she speculated what could possibly be worse than the fate she was currently suffering…_

_ The door of her cell slid open-_

"-fire! What's going on?"

The brief snippet of Nabiki's voice sounding directly into Starfire's ear was drowned out by her own shuddering, panicked breaths. Instinctively, she began sprinting down the corridor; bouncing off of walls and kicking straight through anything that would have threatened to trip anyone else-

_ "What a pretty little thing you are, young one."_

_ Even from across the small, dirty cell, the words alone, and the vile hiss with which they were spoken were enough to make the young Tamaranian feel soiled. The massive, reptilian alien, standing easily over six feet tall, its entire body wrapped in a sheath of hardened green scales, smiled down at her mockingly. It's disgusting, toothy maw was ill equipped for the normally pleasant expression, but the rapid swishing of its sinewy tail belied its growing excitement._

_ "G-go away," she whispered near noiselessly. "X'hal, **please**… please…"_

_ "What was that?" The Gordanian asked tauntingly. A moment later, the alien shook his head, obviously not caring, and leaned forward, leering at her bare, naked form. "My, my… how you have grown, young one. I remember when they first brought you in, and now look: you're so fleshy. So different. What is it like, to have such soft skin? Are you slimy, like an eel, or pliant, like cloth? I've always been curious about your kind."_

_ 'X'hal! Protect me!'_

_ "Let's find out, shall we?"_

_ The Gordanian's hand reached towards her, his jagged claws filling her vision-_

"Starfi-"

"**NOOO!**"

Emerald light flared like the sun as she howled in terror. A fraction of a second later, her visor exploded right out of her helmet and twin lances of roiling plasma slashed through the ceiling above her. Her hands clenched painfully to her sides, her back arched as she unleashed all of her fury on the Thanagarian craft. An eternity later, though only a few seconds in actual time, a loud _whoosh_ was the last thing she heard as the remaining atmosphere in her suit vented out into space.

A small cloud of frozen vapor hung before her face, creating a sparkling field of view as she found herself staring back out into the inky darkness of space… and the distant, violently dancing orb of beauty, through the massive hole she had burned straight through the hull of the once mighty ship.

What had once seemed majestic, though, now filled her with horror; she would later swear that the swirling sphere of colors had actually winked at her, like the eye of a Gordanian Gaoler. Before she even knew it, she was soaring down the corridor at full speed. A bulkhead exploded before her as she soared right down the throat of the ship. The only thought on her mind was escape…

_Help._

_Help me._

_Help me!_

A brief flash of reason stopped her in mid frantic flight. In the handful of seconds which she had been flying, she now found herself standing before a large, golden double door. Puzzled, she checked her hand held display device.

This… this was likely the bridge! It was also, if the display was to be believed, pressurized, and capable of supporting life! Yes! The Thanagarians, _they_ would help her. They were not like the humans; they would not deceive her, or attack her needlessly. They were also enemies of the hated Gordanians! Surely they would understand her plight. They would help!

Hope of finding survivors transformed into certainty as she charged forward and reactivated the re-energized door controls. A sharp vibration jolted through her hands and feet as she felt something that was likely a heavy locking mechanism disengage, and the doors began to slid apart. A brief flash of blue-white light filled the gap between the doors – doubtlessly an atmospheric containment force field, and nothing to impede her.

Excitement getting the better of her, Starfire flew through the door -

Only to stare in shock.

The bridge was in immaculate condition; brightly lit walls of gold shone majestically, emphasizing the unique architecture of the Thanagarian vessel. The entire chamber appeared to be a massive sphere, with numerous raised platforms running in several layers around the circumference of the room, all meeting at the massive circular viewing port with dominated the entire far wall. A single long ramp ran up the center of the room, suspending a comparatively small dais ringed with control panels, level with the center of the view port, high above the floor.

It was, actually, a design ethic which was not unfamiliar to her, as it was obviously built with inherent flight in mind. Only the central dais was actually accessible by foot, all other work stations, the suspended platforms attached to the walls, had no obvious ladders or stairs leading to them, meaning that the only way to reach them would be to fly to them. While it was simply ergonomic design from a Thanagarian, or Tamaranian perspective, it was also a tactical advantage as well, as it made the act of storming the bridge of the vessel by more land based opponents a most dangerous operation.

The familiar design, however, was the last thing on her mind as she stumbled into the room. The sight of the bridge crew, most sitting dutifully at their stations, but with a few standing on the lower level beneath the entry platform, almost sent the Tamaranian to her knees with relief. In fact, she was so shocked by the discovery of actual survivors, that she wasn't even sure how to proceed.

Several long seconds passed, both Thanagarians and the single Tamaranian sitting or standing perfectly still… until finally, as if by some unseen signal, everyone began to move at once. Slowly, heads began to lift, looking away from lighted consoles, and hands slid away from control panels. At the center of the chamber, upon the raised dais, the large captain's chair swiveled around to face her.

For a brief moment, Starfire found herself envious of the radiant, red haired woman who occupied that lofty seat. Her dark blue armor was flawless, and her tightly fitted golden helmet, evoking the semblance of an earthly falcon, tilted to the side as she regarded Starfire. She was breathtakingly beautiful, like X'hal herself, and her polished golden armor shone like a star against a field of ink black. Sea-blue eyes lit up at the sight their guest, relaxing a second later in quiet reflection.

"G-greetings!" Starfire stuttered quickly, hoping she had not offended her Thanagarian hosts with her unannounced entrance. She absently waved her fingers nervously as well.

The winged woman seemed to study her for another moment, before:

"You are Tamaranian," she stated warmly, invitingly.

"Indeed!" Starfire replied emphatically. "I am a fellow warrior, and a fellow enemy of the Gordanians!"

"So you are, Tamaranian, and it pleases us greatly to see you in this dark place." The crimson haired captain pushed herself up to her feet and began to move to greet Starfire more properly. All around the room, the rest of the seated hawk people also rose from their stations and moved to stand at the edge of their respective platforms. They all shuffled about, excited whispers passing from one to the next.

Clearly, they were thrilled at the sudden appearance of a new ally.

"Finding you here, having survived for all of this time, fills my heart with joy as well," Starfire replied earnestly. "In fact, if you are amiable, we may both be able to assist each other in escaping this most inhospitable dimension!"

"Escape. But of course," the Thanagarian captain replied, her smile growing wider by the second as she continued to approach, revealing perfect pearl-white teeth. The taller woman's gait grew quicker with each step, the heavy Nth metal axe on her hip bouncing against her thigh with each stride. "We would do anything for a fellow _alien_, you need only ask."

Starfire winced slightly at the sight of the smile – not even sure why, herself – but quickly repressed the odd feeling, and did her best to match it while not harming her own face.

"That is quite generous of you," she started to reply. "In fact, the favor we ask is most small. All that we require is a small sample of your Nth-"

The rest of her request was interrupted when she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning quickly, she noted that Ryu, still wearing his bulky powered armor, had finally caught up to her. Rather than greet her properly, he began to gesture frantically, making hand signs so quickly that she could not make out what he was trying to convey.

Confused, she waved his concern off and turned back to the Thanagarian, now having cleared more than two thirds of the distance between them. "I apologize for my rude companion. Why he has not thought to activate his external speaker, I cannot say. Humans handle stress so poorly…"

She was proven horrifically correct a second later, as Ryu cut her off, hefting his plasma carbine and pointing it directly at the advancing captain. The martial artist gestured with the weapon silently, as if he were trying to order the captain to stand down. Again, Starfire did not know why he wasn't simply speaking to them.

"Ryu," she started with forced calm. Gesturing to the Thanagarian woman, she did her best to explain the situation, "The captain has already agreed to assist us. There is no need to make pointless attempts at intimidation."

Apparently, the Thanagarian was more confident in her ability to talk Ryu down, as she hadn't stopped her approach, even in the face of the deadly weapon...

Again, Ryu made a series of rapid fire gestures to Starfire, but they were too fast, too frantic to be made out. A second later, he grimaced furiously behind his visor and turned his attention back to the approaching captain. Despite her welcoming smile, her hands held out to her sides in a welcoming gesture – had not that axe been on her hip, rather than in her hand? - Ryu took aim with his weapon, lining the sights up directly with the winged woman's head.

What in the universe was he thinking of doing?

It almost looked like he was going to shoot the Thanagarian captain!

Ryu's finger began to tighten on the trigger.

"**NO!**"

Green light flared, and a pair of optical plasma blasts caught Ryu dead in the chest. The punishing lances of raw power lifted the martial artist straight off his feet and clear across the room. The armored warrior was slammed into the wall so hard that the metal plating warped and deformed around him until he was literally embedded in place. The surface of the armor over his chest was now charred completely black, wafts of smoke hung strangely in the air around the point of impact…

"Ryu!" Starfire yelled. "By X'hal, what are you think-"

The rest of her incrimination was blasted from her lungs as something impossibly heavy slammed into her back with monstrous force. In a twist of irony, it was her that was sent flying bodily through the air, her short flight ending only when her head rocked backwards after crashing sharply into the golden hued wall.

For a second, her world became a wash of dancing colors and lights which filled her vision to bursting. A combination of warrior instinct and blinding pain quickly shook her out of her disorientation, though, and she quickly found that she was now lying on her back on the floor, staring straight up...

Straight up at the massive gash torn into the hull of the ship. Realization struck as heavily as whatever had struck her in the back. The bridge was exposed to space! A brief glance to the display on her arm showed a series of brightly flashing red lights, including the space where her locator beacon was now showing. But – but she had been so certain! How could she have been so…?

A flash of movement caught her eye, and Starfire looked straight above her, towards the center of the bridge. If everything else had been a hallucination, then surely the Thanagarians had also been one as well.

A sight spun straight from purest nightmare awaited her.

Instantly, Starfire spun over and pushed herself up to her feet, unable to believe what her eyes were seeing. Stumbling back, still dizzy, she let out a pained hiss as her back slammed into the wall behind her, but she ignored the discomfort completely.

The Thanagarian captain, standing not less than a foot away from where Starfire had been seconds ago, sent a terrified shiver of stark disbelief through the Tamaranian. She had thought that it had all been a hallucination, but the ship's captain was still standing, staring at Starfire with cold, dead eyes. It was not a metaphor, but purest fact, as the three inch diameter hole blown straight through the Thanagarian's exposed stomach was not a wound that anyone could have survived.

As horrifying as it was, though, the gruesome wound was not even the most disturbing thing. The heavy axe lolling about lazily in the hawk woman's hand, blade chipped and warped and thirsting for bright green blood, was – _suddenly the Guardian__'__s description popped into her mind, most apt indeed _– the Nth metal weapon was _tainted._ C_orrupted. __…__**Horrific**_.

Just as the Guardian had explained, numerous dark patches, almost like tarnish, mottled the surface of the broad axe, and from each of the tainted areas, small black tendrils were growing and seething. The tentacles were not limited to the weapon, though, as they had been told. The protuberances had also wormed their way down, digging hungrily into the winged woman's hand and arm. It was as if the weapon was… assimilating or even consuming its wielder. What else could explain how someone so mortally wounded could still move?

It was so bizarre, so fundamentally disturbing, that Starfire had trouble just stopping her body from trembling, but pure pride managed to accomplish what mere desire could not. Slowly straightening her back, she lifted her fists. Thanagarians were known as great warriors, but she knew that she could defeat this abomination-

Dozens of birdmen shuffled about on their perches, both high and low. They all possessed weapons, she could see… though not all were holding them, as the captain were. While some were wielding their weapons, others possessed their weapons only by virtue of their killers being unable or unwilling to pry them from their dying bodies. She could see a male with a spear rammed viciously through his chest, and another with a short hafted axe nearly splitting his skull in half, but those same insidious tendrils grew from both bodies, animating them regardless.

_'T-that is okay,'_ she thought quickly, trying to calm herself, _'They cannot reach me__…__ Beast Boy__'__s zombie documentaries made that quite clear that-'_

As one, several dozen pairs of wings unfurled, and Starfire was quickly reminded of one of Nth metals more unusual properties. Even in the vacuum which enveloped the bridge, the Thanagarians rose into the air, the graviton inversion of the Nth metal repulsing the gravity and allowing the animated corpses to fly, regardless.

_'B-but how is that possible?'_

Still, she could still destroy the closest zombie, and then escape! Surely these slow moving monstrosities would be unable to follow...

Her meager self assurance was cruelly shattered when the captain suddenly swung her axe to the side viciously… then broke out into a full charge, sprinting at Starfire with surprising speed for one so dead. Starfire's eyes widened and it was all she could do to pull a combat knife from the leg of her suit as the captain closed the distance in a flash.

_"Mesnef!"_

* * *

Cyborg had identified the artifact as an "absorbacron" – a telepathic database used by Thanagarian officers. It was the most prominent of the trinkets and personal effects found in the chief engineer's security locker. In a strikingly conventional move, the engineering bay was constructed in a simple, efficient arrangement around various critical systems. With Cyborg's decoding, it had been easy to locate the offices and workstations of the various department heads.

Shandra Mal had, in life, been the 'Chief Technical Rector' of the Dimensional Research Division.

She had also been, as Ranma found out the moment his mind touched the absorbacron, driven completely insane. A flood of jumbled and demented thoughts and emotions, a literal tsunami of madness, threatened to overwhelm the martial artist's mind. Only months of psionic training allowed him to erect and reinforce mental safeguards against the corruption. Like a great wave, Shandra's most recent memories and emotions broke against the psionic defenses.

"Well! That… was unpleasant…" Ranma muttered, momentarily removing himself from the alien device.

He saw Cyborg and Jinx waiting for news, and held up his hand to keep them quiet while he collected his thoughts. He had been expecting a typical psionic data interface connected to a conventional backup or data storage system. The absorbacron was… both more advanced and more primitive. Instead of simply recording the things imprinted on it, it just seemed to copy the user's mental and emotional state so long as it was active and 'receiving.' It was definitely not the kind of storage system Ranma Saotome would recommend anyone but the original user actually try. It was like a flash drive that dumped a new operating system into every computer that tried to access a mp3 or picture or document.

And it was insane, to boot.

Still recovering, the lieutenant was surprised when a crackling sound came from the ankh-shaped device. Half expecting it to explode or be otherwise booby trapped, Ranma tensed to grab Jinx and head for the door. Instead of explode, however, a static filled image projected from the head of the device. Struggling lines of light connected, forming rough holographic polygons that skipped and buffered. After a few seconds, the picture became clearer and smoother, revealing a bust of the woman herself, as she had been in life.

As the image stabilized, the crazed look in her eyes became indisputably clear.

"Gou!" She screamed, as the recording played back, her voice shrill and strained. She was shaking the recording device as if to destroy it. "Gou! GOU! Cencoss, Gou waxas miodow axas! Gou f'ralth! Whis belm foick gnewn axaukot! Hist dis! DIS! DIS! Rak zo bom eb zo Ixthultu weld! Ixthultu weld gor!"

Then the view shifted, as the device left her hands, creating a blur of darkness.

"Pit bleg, el nor pit whoaxadow vaxan, pi zo rem!"

The sound of something closing, and one last look at the woman's panicked face, put a context on the frenzied recording. This had to have been right before the locker was closed for the last time. Right before the Thanagarian woman was killed.

As a further surprise, the screen flashed, and a series of glyphs scrolled down.

At the side was a slowly rotating circle with a line through it, making a motion similar enough that any computer user would recognize it. It was loading something.

Again, the face of Shandra Mal appeared, this time looking much more lucid. Her helmet was off, revealing a human face and thoughtful, slightly slanted blue eyes. While sane, she clearly looked to be under a great deal of strain. Her eyes were bloodshot, and the lighting was low enough to give the impression of her making the recording somewhere hidden. Taking a few deep breaths, as if to steel herself, the Thanagarian woman licked her lips and nodded slowly.

"If you are hearing me, then it means the translation software has worked properly, and you are biologically compatible with our telepathic interfaces. I hope no one was harmed by accessing this absorbacron. If they were, you have my deepest apologies. My name is Shandra Mal, and I am Chief Technical Rector of the Battlecruiser Kuk. We left Thangarian space in the Year of Our Lords seventeen thousand, eight hundred and twenty two."

She leaned in closer, eyes darting to the sides quickly. "Please listen carefully. You must destroy this ship. It has become our tomb. We can not escape. Ixthultu, the Old One, is being reborn through us!"

Mal took a shuddering breath, and wiped a sheen of sweat from her forehead. "I'm sorry. I… I will start from the beginning. If you are here, you must know about the effect this… place has on your mind. We have been unable to determine why this is so prevalent, but my teams of technical-priests have determined that the effect is not limited to biological matter. The warping and corruption of base elements and materials is widespread. Much of the ship became contaminated in our original crash landing."

"At first, the medical division attempted to combat the outbreaks of psychosis and treat the wounded. The dead were kept in storage and the apothecaries did what they could to tend to the afflicted." She swallowed nervously. "Medical was completely overrun by the third day. Warped diseases spread among the crew, spreading the psychosis. Fights broke out – many more than usual – and the soldiers stated killing anyone who they thought infected."

"I… can not describe… the horrors…" Another shudder of a breath followed as the woman held her head in her hands and tried to keep calm. "But the worst… the worst among them all… I think it started with the Lizarkon. One of our servant races. They were below decks with the other workers and started… turning on each other. The other ones across the ship became like animals, even my friend Dimin. Security shot him when he tore poor Liam's arm off and started... ripping and... eating... I - I... oh! It was horrible! Warriors started to sweep through the ship, killing all the other races on board."

There were tears in her eyes that she quickly wiped away.

"I don't know what happened down there after that," she struggled to continue without breaking down. "There was a communications blackout. Sections of the ship started trying to isolate themselves from the rest. The last thing I heard from outside was when the noncombatant staff tried to escape out of the hangar. Just a cycle later, and we started hearing commands again from the bridge."

"Ixthultu …" she whispered, afraid of the very sounds that made up the name. "Our Old God. They were worshipping Ixthultu! We'd been studying the warping effect, so we'd just thought the officers had gone insane. Bremmar managed to get some security footage of the upper sections. What we saw... Ancestors forgive us, I don't even know how to describe it."

Covering her face again, the Thanagarian tech needed a few seconds to get herself back under control.

"They were…" she began, hesitant. "They were… their weapons had succumbed. Changed. Taken them over. Their bodies were being taken over. They were capturing others. The voice on the ship's comm kept screaming about creating a new Ixthultu. A New God. That this horrible place was our promised land. Our new paradise."

"This wasn't why we came here! This isn't what…! It was beyond madness!" Shandra Mal was wide eyed and all but begging whoever – whatever – would listen. "We've tried to stop them. We've tried to contact the other sections of the ship. We tried everything! Nothing worked. Even the _ship itself_ turned on us! With nothing else… no other hope… we tried to destroy the Kuk by setting off the reactor, but we can't… not with the failsafe and overrides."

"If you're hearing this, then the ship is still intact," she concluded. "You have to destroy it while you still can! We found a way to use the life support systems to turn the atmosphere toxic. It will kill everyone on board, ourselves included. We believe the Nth Metal isn't able to consume dead bodies. Only living ones. We will make one last attempt to reach Commander Kreiger and acquire the self destruct key. Almost certainly, we will die."

"Please…" she begged, tears running down her cheeks. "Please…! Finish the job! Destroy this ship and all the nightmares it has given birth to! We came as explorers. Not monsters. Not monsters. Not monsters… mother, daughter… Elders… forgive us…!"

As the image died out, replaced by crackling static, Ranma reached up and activated his psi amp, willing the telepathic device back off. Visor tinted, he stared down at the absorbacron in his right hand, silence speaking volumes. Placing it back in the locker, he kept his back to the other two members of Unit Blue.

"…should've known," he muttered, just enough for the mic to pick up and relay over the comm. Louder, he asked, "Cyborg. Can we destroy this ship with the explosives we brought with us?"

"Unlikely, unless you want to set up one of the fusion balls right next to the power core," Cyborg replied matter of factly. What he said next, though was said in a far different tone. "The question is: Why would we? We can't do anything until we find the Nth metal. And going out of our way to destroy the ship would not only endanger ourselves, but squander an excellent chance to learn more about Thanagarian technology."

"That's true," Ranma admitted. "The mission will always come first." After a beat, he added, over his shoulder, "But when the time comes, I wanna be ready. If this place crawls as bad as this woman thought it did…"

Jinx flaunted forward at that, rolling her wrist dismissively. "If this place crawls with _what_, Lady Fingers? You heard her, she was completely nuts. Talking about some ancient god possessing people? What is this, a Lovecraft story? We've been through half of this ship and haven't seen anything."

"We've been through a few decompressed areas and engineering," Cyborg corrected.

"No one who would be happier if this place was as clean as it looks on the surface," Ranma told her. "Red One. Red Two. Status of the forward sections?"

"Not much to speak of. Found one or two things that we can melt down." Ryu paused then. "Starfire. She isn't answering the ping."

"You let her out of your sight?" Ranma growled. "Nabiki!"

"On it," the coordinator replied. "She's just standing still outside the room. I figured she was just brooding..."

"Ping her again."

"I'll go check."

Listening in, Ranma heard a muffled thump, as Red-Two suddenly slammed her body into a wall. A curse from Ryu indicated he had heard it too, but the last words they heard from her were cryptic.

"That," the Tamaranian gasped. "That was…"

"Starfire! What's going on?" Nabiki yelled. "Starfire! Answer this instant! Starfire!"

"**NOOO!**"

And then only the buzz of a disconnected feed.

"Shit! Shit!" Ryu cursed. "She's…!"

"Blasted her faceplate off," Nabiki continued. "She's rushing through Section B! Ryu!"

"Damnit she's fast! Faster than I can move in a MARS!"

That seemed to snap Cyborg out of his calm demeanor. Instantly, he lifted his arm and activated his own scanners. "Ryu, what the hell is going on!"

"She's just plowed right through into another section! I'm right behind, but - FUCK!"

"I'm using the emergency shock feature!" Nabiki cut in. "But… I don't think she's even feeling it!"

"How the Hell did she squeeze through here?" Ryu snarled, obviously meeting an obstacle.

"Nabiki, can you patch me through to her suit's camera?"

"I'd love to, but it's down! She must've used those eye beams of hers. Blasted the optics to hell."

A few seconds, and Ryu was through. "There! Check my feed. I'm close!"

Ranma did, and his eyebrows rose as he saw what Ryu saw as the Yamasenken master rounded a corner and entered the Thanagarian bridge. Starfire was there, standing casually at the center of the room, and - and it looked like she was holding a silent conversation. This was all the more disturbing, as the rest of the room was interspersed with an assortment of corpses, all of them hawk people and all of them _walking_...

"Command," Ryu began, almost calm and serene in the face of the madness in front of him. "Situation. Situation here! Ten! No, twelve hostiles! Requesting permission to hose down this entire place with plasma!"

"Negative," Ranma yelled. "Extract Starfire. Do not get bogged down in there!"

"I'm trying! Star! **God damn it!** Star! Her helmet's compromised! Shit, I gotta take the shot-"

And then Ranma's live feed view became a blinding green, as the Tamaranian blasted Red-One off his feet.

"Saotome. Motion detector!" Nabiki suddenly yelled. "Check your motion detector!"

Grimacing at Ryu's situation, the pigtailed officer's eyes darted quickly to the display in the lower corner of his armor HUD. Two friendly blue dots were next to him in the center, but they were not alone in adorning the display.

Red, unidentified lights – a dozen at least - were popping up all over the area.

Which made it all the more inappropriate when Jinx began to giggle in an unhinged manner. "Game over, man! Game over!"

Ranma finally turned to face the two.

"The crew compliment on this ship was twenty thousand. If only ten percent of those are still active and hostile…" One word summed it up. "_Shit_."

Thumping Cyborg and Jinx each on the chest, he started back the way they'd come. "Both of you! With me! Now. We're all about to get our hands dirty."

* * *

Starfire's back slammed into the wall a second time, the force of the Thanagarian's charge pushing her back with surprising strength. Only a deft twist of her combat knife slid the descending axe off of its deadly collision course with her face to slam heavily into the wall right beside her helmet. The lusterless, corrupted blade tore through the hardened metal surface with no resistance at all, only stopping when the large, ragged head of the weapon hit the wall hard enough to bend it inwards.

As the hawk woman struggled to tear her weapon free, Starfire reversed the grip on her knife and slashed at her opponent's arm – only for her attack to be deflected away in a harmless shower of sparks as, at the last second, the Thanagarian twisted her arm about so that her armored gauntlet intercepted the blade. Despite the fact that the combat knife was forged of alien alloy as well, and with all of her great strength behind it, there was little more than a jagged scratch in the armor to show for it.

With one last heave, the abomination – the tentacles which had only appeared to be protruding from her arm now writhed and danced madly in the gaping wound in her gut as well, almost like they were reaching out to Starfire themselves – tore her axe free from the wall, staggering back a step and already preparing to bring the hellish weapon back down. Not waiting for her to recover, Starfire slammed both her hands into the wall above her head, digging her fingers into the metal, only to lift both of her legs and lash out with a double kick to the Thanagarian's chest.

The blow landed with the force of a cannon blast; she actually felt ribs shatter and organs liquefy in the instant before the thing was launched straight up the center of the room. Just a second before she would have slammed bodily into her former chair, and likely destroy the entire raised dais, the captain's wings snapped out, ignoring the vacuum of space that enveloped them, and the Thanagarian stopped in mid flight, utterly unperturbed with the devastating damage inflicted to her torso.

_'__By X__'__hal__…'_

Releasing the wall, Starfire dropped down to the floor and lifted her knife before her. For a brief moment, she considered charging the remains of the captain… but reason battled back against instinct, and she instead took a moment to study her surroundings. While the captain was still the closest, and had already finished recovering, there were more than a dozen other of the abominations in the air and gliding in her direction. Most distressing of all was Ryu, still embedded in the far wall.

Could she hope to defeat such numbers on her own? If she tried to fight them, would some of them ignore her and attack Ryu instead?

Her weapon shook in her grip, fury and reason struggling for dominance. Finally, though, her base nature finally won out. Closing her eyes for a moment, she then cried out silently and unleashed a sweeping optic beam which sliced through the super structure of the ceiling of the bridge. Within instants, large fragments of debris and metal began to fall down onto and before the advancing creatures.

Using the distraction, she fly to her side at full speed and pried Ryu's armored bulk out of the wall and then zipped back to the main entrance of the bridge so quickly that a trail of green light was left in her wake. She tossed Ryu through the open door bodily, and then dove through herself, twisting around to hit the door controls in a single motion. Even as the heavy doors began to close, she could see figures approaching at worrying speed. She ducked around and unleashed a rapid fire barrage of starbolts into the oncoming swarm-

Only to dive back and away from the slowly closing door as a lance of bright white light fired right back at her, cutting a glowing hole into the wall behind her.

_'__Mesnef! Mesnef! One of them has an energy weapon! How could they still possibly possess the cognitive abilities to use something like that!__'_

This time, she dove right across the narrow profile of the closing door, firing off starbolts and optic blasts as she did, trying to catch a count of what was still coming. Again, the Thanagarian wielding the massive, shoulder mounted energy cannon – and sporting a wicked looking axe jutting out of his chest – fired, this time hitting the reinforced door itself, and only cutting partway through.

A second later, the door slid closed with a heavy 'thud' that vibrated through Starfire's boots. Moving quickly, she re-engaged the locks, and then, for good measure, used a tightly focused stream of plasma to melt the seam between the doors, welding them together.

_'__That will not hold them for long,__'_ she thought, growing more concerned by the second.

She then moved over to Ryu's form. Grabbing the armored plate that covered his chest, she gave him a few shakes and hastily typed a quick message into her communicator and sending it to his HUD.

[r u ok?]

Lifting a hand, the armored gauntlet opened and closed. Starfire quickly remembered the shorthand motions she had been shown, more than once. Like the 'sign language' she had heard about, it wasn't something she had paid too much attention to. Her race could learn spoken languages through physical contact, and even then, they were quite good at understanding the telling cues of body language. But, it had never occurred to her before coming to Earth that any humanoid species capable of speech would bother to generate a language based purely on gestures.

This 'language' was basic, raw, straightforward.

[Fine.] His hands quickly motioned to the sides, and then fingers curled into numbers. [Left. Two. Right. None. Above. Six. Below. Four. Ahead. Three] The door she had just closed. [Six, plus Four, plus three, plus two.]

She nodded, and his armored form stood.

[Back. Keep close.] He was intending for them to fall back. Without her HUD, Starfire was forced to look to the small display screen embedded in the arm of her suit - combined with the motion sensor - to see her map of the facility. Unfortunately, it was far less convenient than the in-visor display and possessed far less resolution. Still, given time, she should be able to find a viable escape route…

Ryu's hand flew out and released a pair of proximity grenades. The limpet mines stuck to the walls, activated, and launched four feelers into the floor and ceiling opposite, producing an invisible web of tripwires in addition to their proximity sensors. The MARS armored trooper then spun around and headed back.

Fingers curled and pointed.

[You. There]

Starfire quickly realized he wasn't completely retreating. He was setting up an ambush.

Her hastily welded door was blown open, seconds later, by another shoulder mounted high energy weapon. Warped and mutilated forms surged into the beech and were immediately surrounded by explosive fire. In the airless space between the walls, a thousand supersonic shards produced a veritable lawnmower, cutting down the charging creatures like grass. Dismembered limbs and a cloud of gray feathers blanketed the hall, and the walls were burnished by white, colorless, unnatural blood.

In the wake of the ambush, a fusillade of semi-automatic plasma hissed down the corridor, catching another Thanagarian at the shoulder. Vaporization and expansion instantly removed the top half of its body and the Nth Metal axe embedded in what had once been a young man's skull. Another pushed aside the body, uncaring for the fact that it was drenched and painted by the white blood of its comrade. It swung its weapon in a vain attempt to block the next plasma bolt – a pointless effort against a stream of particles moving at more than twenty kilometers per second – and exploded like a meat grenade.

Yet more kept coming.

Starfire pulled back a hand, burning with a starbolt of her own to add to the fray, but something inside hesitated. Her mind raced and reeled – this... _this_ was all she and her friends had done since joining with Ryu and the others. Kill. Kill and kill and kill and kill. Was there nothing else they could do? Would Ryu have so readily opened fire if these had been Nth metal corrupted humans?

She blinked, and the memory of bloated human forms, shambling forward, Chryssalids buried within them, came back like a splinter that couldn't be removed...

Before she could think more about the correlation, her eyes caught sight of something behind and below: a crack in the floor. A long gash formed as the tip of a weapon sawed through the thin metal under their feet. Turning slightly, expecting to see little progress from whatever was trying to cut its way up through floors, Starfire's eyes widened as… a long black and red tentacle, thick as an arm and even more muscular, emerged from the rend in the floor.

It was joined a second later by a twin, this one covered in blinking yellow eyes.

_'__(I see you.)__'_

The abominations vanished as quickly as they appeared, slipping back under the floor. Shaken, Starfire turned back down the corridor, staring at the incoming Thanagarian abominations. It was so very wrong, everything about this situation was... so X'hal damned wrong!

But she had no choice!

Clenching her fists together, she focused all of the fury, all of the heat she could possibly produce into her clasped hands. Sweat beaded on her brow as a green glow built up around her hands... and then she released her power, a stream of searing hot starbolts firing faster than a fully automatic weapon and to devastating effect. The wild bursts of energy destroyed everything they hit, shredding and melting walls, blasting flesh to ash and warping and shattering alien armor.

A second later, she ducked back into her cover, panting heavily, though there was no atmosphere to fill her lungs: it was reflex alone. She looked across the way to see Ryu staring at her, a shocked expression on his face quickly replaced by a reassessment of the situation. She looked to him, unable to communicate, but hoping he understood.

What next?

The answer came as a pair of appendages whipped out from the former bridge, snapping and slashing blindly for the two invaders. The sinewy mass roiled with teeth and one sported three pairs of grasping humanoid arms fused hideously into the fleshy mass. Flattening herself against the wall, Starfire tucked in a leg before it could brush the flailing horror. Another long tentacle shot back from the other side of the hall, and the redhead barely had time to duck and roll away as it smashed into the wall where she had been standing.

Starfire saw Ryu, despite the limitations of his powered armor, narrowly dodge around one of the writhing masses of corrupted flesh and metal. Then, as quickly as the blind appendages had arrived, they retreated, sucked back into the bridge area and past the burning, blasted Thanaranian corpses. Rolling back on her feet, Starfire saw a flash of motion out of the corner of her eye, gasping as she saw a great black mass swamp her armored partner, dragging him to the ground.

Her distraction cost her; in a blur, a harsh impact knocked onto her back. Weight settled on her chest, pinning her to the floor; straddling her was the Thanagarian captain from before. The woman's head lolled back, and for the first time Starfire saw that not only had her stomach been blown away, but her throat cut as well. A trio of thin black cords, like fingers... like worms... wriggled hungrily within the wound. Once-blue eyes, still bright with an insane simulacrum of life, focused on the pinned Tamaranian.

The woman's arm reared back, and it was impossible to see where the fingers of her hand ended and the hilt of her axe began. It was all one solid, warped, horrible aggregate. In the vacuum, the Thanagarian abomination gave a horrific wail that echoed in Starfire's mind. The axe descended with a force driven beyond death, not skilled, but insane: more like a psychotic slasher than a trained warrior.

It should have been easy to shake the savage creature off, but Starfire found it all she could do to keep up her arms and either deflect or block the strikes and not let the vile weapon find purchase in her flesh. The ground to either side of her head sparked and screeched, rent open in wide gouges as the axe fell again and again in a mad frenzy. Finally, she caught the hilt just below the blade, but before she could turn the tide, Starfire winced as something wormed beneath the metal plates of her gauntlet and began to burrow into the softer material covering her palm.

_'__Cannot__…__ touch them__…__!__'_

_'__(Let me inside you! I want to be inside you! Let me into your blood!)__'_

Kicking up, she wrapped her legs around the Thanagarian woman's head in a display of impressive flexibility. The captain's helmet began to cave-in, taking her skull with it, as powerful Tamaranian legs squeezed together, but even as freakish, white blood began to leak from the abominations nose, it was all Starfire could do to wrestle the dead woman back and onto her side.

Catching the creature's left arm, with her legs still around the abomination's shoulders, Starfire twisted at the torso and wrenched the Thanagarian's arm out of its socket, wet flesh jerking as the move snapped a pair of ligaments under the surface like tightly wound strings. Instead of being crippled by the move or, at the very least momentarily dazed, the animated hawk woman thrashed even harder, nearly tearing her ruined arm completely off as she rounded on Starfire again in a manic compulsion to impale or disembowel her opponent.

Barely dodging the next slash, Starfire fired a quick bolt into her enemy, but a blackened wing intercepted the pulse of light, feathers and flesh coming apart in a wash of ash, obscuring her vision. Something fast and heavy found the side of her helmet then, and her head was rocked to the side by the blow. She could see fragments of smashed alien alloy scattering across the hallway as the axe finished its deadly arc before her face. Pushed, feeling panic begin to grip her soul, Starfire did the first thing her flight or fight responses demanded, and lunged forward, lashing out at the enemy before she could be hit again.

_'__(Taste your flesh! Your flesh is Our flesh!)__'_

Tumbling until her eyes cleared, Starfire found herself on top of the psychotic Thanagarian turned monster, and without even thinking, decked it across the face. White blood splashed from the eyes and mouth, and a rolling white and blue orb bounced and skidded across the floor, trailing a thin line of white. For Starfire, there was no time to contemplate the horror of what she thought she had just seen. A moment later, a knee connected with her groin – thankfully her armored suit absorbed most of what would have otherwise been a most painful strike – distracting her as a haymaker to her helmet knocked her back and onto her side.

Within a heartbeat, the former Thanagarian officer was above her again. Even with one arm hanging – no, flailing – uselessly at her side, the abomination hacked down at her mindlessly with that twisted, flesh-eating weapon. The wicked edge of it, serrated and chipped by misuse, came down again and again and again, frantically trying to find Starfire's exposed arms or head. Guarding her face, she knocked the weapon aside twice, three times, four, the horror of almost feeling it cut into her and spread its infection sending a panicked need to attack shooting into her brain.

_'__Attack attack attack attack attack attack!__'_

_'__(Attack attack attack attack!)__'_

Her fist flew, driven by desperation, hitting the Thanagarian in the face again. The already abused beaked helmet shattered completely, and flesh pulped as another spray of white flew from the impact, but the frenzied berserker assault continued. Cursing, Starfire tried to form a starbolt again, but the light drew the creature's attention, and its remaining wing blinded her as the rending axe slashed and stabbed madly...

And then the Thanagarian woman paused.

Starfire blinked, confused... then saw the captain's head… enclosed within an armored hand. Metal fingers were digging, clamped down, into the brutalized flesh and bone. With a jerk, the entire head twisted like the top of a bendy straw. Then it wrenched back in the other direction again and then back, breaking over and over. Finally, her entire body flew back and off the Tamaranian as Ryu and his MARS armor pulled back.

Still – _still_ – the body continued to thrash, as if the realization that it was merely being beheaded bit by bit was only a momentary distraction and interruption. A thick tentacle erupted from the cut in the neck, slapping wildly at Ryu's arm and starting to wind around the armored wrist. Heedless, still holding the thrashing, twitching corpse, Ryu hurled the Thanagarian abomination through the air.

A blazing starbolt finished the job, blasting the body out of his hands and into the wall.

What was left couldn't even be called a Thanagarian anymore. One wing had been blown clean off, and the torso, formerly sporting a single clean punch-hole, was now an open crater, burning with embers of starfire. The weapon arm continued to flap around like a fish out of water, despite being attached to a thoroughly destroyed body, but slowly it, too, began to realize it was dead. Pooling white organs spilled out, pushed away by more black, twitching tentacles from within.

The one blue eye left in it's socket seemed to wink at its killers.

_'__(I still see you.)__'_

Brushing red strands of hair from the gauntlet of his powered armor, Ryu quickly checked on the other 'dead' Thanagarians around them. The severed remains of a massive black tentacle lying on the floor terminated in a burning stump. Starfire saw it; eyes dancing quickly back to the blighted bridge, and then back to the Thanagarian. Next to her foot, alone on the floor, she saw the other blue eye… staring.

_'__(It sees you.)__'_A sibilant, alien thought invaded her mind. _'__(It sees into you, and it knows who you are-)__'_

The sensation of the eye squishing beneath her boot was far more gratifying than the Tamaranian would care to admit.


	38. And with Strange Aeons 3

A/N

(none)

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_And With Strange Aeons_

Chapter 37

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

"What the **Hell** is going on down there?"

Trespasser, an esteemed and ancient Guardian of the Universe, gave no indication of discomfort at being lifted bodily up by the collar and indignantly manhandled. The Oan's expression never wavered from its look of undisguised disinterest. The ancient being didn't spare even a glance at the images on the monitors of the fast paced talking and fighting going on thousands of miles away. When the alien's eyes did stray, it was to the one screen where Unit Gold was already approaching Heresiarch.

"You knew-!"

"I was _aware_," the Oan corrected, leisurely returning its stare to the military officer holding it by the lapels. "That much of the Nth Metal on that ship was corrupted. This is true. At the same time, I was unaware of exactly how things inside that ship played out."

"There's no difference!" Ryouga snarled, letting the alien go to glare at the frenzied screens.

"You should return to piloting this vessel," the age old entity advised, the tiny body going slack as it floated in midair. "There is no reason to panic or act rashly. I would _prefer_ we remain near Heresiarch."

The officer gave the xeno a stare that seemed to ask _'__what the hell does that mean?__'_

"This area of space is more interesting, from a scientific standpoint. Heresiarch's reaction to intrusion will affect how I assimilate the information it contains…" the Oan described this analysis with clinical, emotionless precision. "You worry too much over the other teams and their more mundane assignment."

Angrily, the Major sat back down in the pilot's chair, already reaching with his mind for the psionic interface. He and Nabiki were the only two present, besides the Oan, the latter being allowed entry for 'technical advice' on the Whiskey-Alpha-One site. Ryouga was seething with anger at the perceived deception, but Nabiki was watching silently.

"You believe you must act because they are in danger," the alien continued, this time with a very nearly smug tone. "But danger is a part of their lives, and you can never prevent that. For the sake of the grand scheme, you must be willing to put your feelings aside and lead. After all… only one of five needs to return with the materials we require for their mission to cumulatively be considered 'a success.'"

"You're wrong," the officer snapped back.

"Am I?" the Oan asked, slightly amused. "Or are you being too emotional? The Captains and Commanders you look up to… do you think they would hesitate to send your team, or any other group, into danger for fear that they will lose one or two men?"

Hellish green eyes narrowed smugly. "Of course not. With every order you give, you should accept that it can lead –_that it will inevitably lead_– to the death of those under you. For your war, thousands of soldiers have lost their lives. For justice and peace, too, the Guardians would sacrifice a thousand Green Lanterns. And more."

Ryouga turned away from the blue alien, seeking refuge back in the psi-circuitry of the machine.

"Accept it," Trespasser's voice echoed, booming and all consuming, even inside the Nav. "And you will be stronger than you are now. You _must_ remain near Heresiarch. You know I am right. I must see… it…"

As the alien's voice faded, Nabiki took that moment to coincidentally speak up.

"Sir," she asked, formal despite the panic earlier with Starfire. "Are we moving to pick up Units Red and Blue? They're both under attack."

_'__You must remain near Heresiarch.__'_

"I…"

Two separate courses appeared under the navigation plotting headings.

"I..."

* * *

The halls ahead swarmed with the creatures, once Thanagarian, now… something else.

The section was multi tiered, with open areas permitting flight from floor to floor and gantries crossing overhead. Once, they had been elaborately and lavishly decorated. Now, rotted parapets and defaced, torn flags hung limply in the emptiness of vacuum and once triumphant murals reflected tortured faces in running glass and paint. Hastily assembled covers adorned two sections, one high on the third tier, and another down on the first, where Thanagarian factions had bitterly fought lifetimes ago.

The vast hall now _crawled_. The handful of flight capable creatures had been immediately dispatched as they swooped down on Starfire and Ryu, making long, lopping arcs in the air that all but begged for them to be blasted out of the proverbial sky. A much larger number were streaming out of a crack in the ducts and another from an open doorway on the topmost fourth floor.

These Thanagarians had either lost their belts, and thus the means to reduce their personal gravity, or they had lost their ability to soar when their wings changed. Once gray feathers were, on these creatures, now entangled by toothy black spines and tendrils: skeletal wings remained, deformed and warped by growths of corrupted Nth metal, like thin clawed fingers. These abominations crawled like spiders along the walls; weapons fused into their right or left arms. Crablike, these limbs - studded by blinking yellow eyes and metallic spikes - had stretched and grown with black and red veins as thick as ropes, giving them a horrific lopsided appearance.

Ryu's armored feet crashed down on the back of one of the fallen Thanagarians from the first wave.

Two gauntleted fingers motioned forward and then pointed to a door on the lower floor. He jumped again, Starfire close behind, her hands snapping as she fired Starbolts to cover their landing. The attacks rent and tore into the abominations they hit, but the resilient former hawk men and women reacted to the fatal injuries by entering an even more frenzied rage.

They rushed in, and it became a mad melee.

Much of Ryu's Yamasenken was useless without an atmosphere, but his strikes and experience alone were telling. His hands struck like hammers or bladed spades. A warped Thanagarian face with a large yellow eye protruding out of a formerly form-fitting helmet splattered under one of the blows, a loosened jaw hitting the ground a second before most of the rest of the body followed, cleaved clean through at the left shoulder.

Blackened wing-fingers arched down only to meet alien alloy as an armored arm came up, blocked above the Nth metal tips of the nightmare appendages, and then came down to wrap up and hold the attacking 'wing' at the base. An open palmed strike followed up, right into the abomination's chest and then head, caving in the former like the crust of a pie and splattering the latter like a ripe, maggot infested melon. Still, the weapon arm swept down to try and slash at the powered armored soldier. Rather than avoid or block it, Ryu twisted the animalistic body in his grip, throwing off its aim and breaking it in half.

Dropping the body, he stomped to finish the job, already intercepting the next target. His strikes were precise and practiced for both midair and zero-gravity: not just to hit the enemy, but to grab part of the enemy and then strike. Even without proper grounding, this 'sticking' ensured the most efficient transfer of force from one object to another: it was not designed to send enemies flying left and right. It was not showy and always utilized short, quick thrusts and strikes.

It was designed purely to destroy.

The flat of a gauntleted hand came down like a sword into the neck of one of the noiselessly shrieking abominations. The precise strike turned the otherwise blunt edge of Ryu's armored hand into a razor, biting and hewing into the corrupted flesh like an axe into a tree trunk. Bone snapped and ligaments broke. White, drained, lifeless blood erupted like water from a fountain. As was his trademark, however, it was Ryu's thrust in or thrust out that did the most damage. As he withdrew, shockwaves propagated through the thrashing former Thanagarian. The collar split apart like a chicken's wishbone and the revolting skull – a corrupted knife buried into the left eye adding to the defilement – sprang from the creature's shoulders trailing ropes of sinew and hungry black tentacles.

_'__(The flesh crawls. It will crawl within you. Within your soul.)__'_

Another of the abominations attacked, this time with a pair of maces. It was – had been – another female Thanagarian. Like all her race, she seemed to have once been physically beautiful, with curvaceous hips and a petite waist, full breasts and beautiful silver hair. Her 'uniform' left little to the male imagination either.

That was in the past.

In the present, her arms were both transformed into gangly belts of discolored muscle and corded fiber. A gibbering mouth with two tongues snapped and screamed from her right shoulder, and two eye stalks rose up from behind her back. A tiny arm was growing out of her right elbow, the fingers all growing at whatever insane lengths they felt appropriate. Instead of hands, two spiked battle maces crackled with some sort of static electricity, the hilts growing right into fused-together fingers and cancerous former gauntlets.

Lunging with her left and swinging with her right, the corrupted battle mistress resembled a nightmarish banshee, howling into the airless void. Heavy powered armor slowing him more than he was used to, Ryu made a little jump back, opting to avoid a hand-to…hand fight. With no space to reequip his carbine and its nearly depleted ammunition supply, he snapped open the holster on the right hip of his powered armor and retrieved his next-gen-projectile (NGP) sidearm.

There was still no time to take the snap shot, as he pivoted to block and parry another of the sparking maces. The head of it looked dangerous, so he angled his wrist to stop it below that point. Frothing at her mouth, the Thanagarian monster kept up her relentless attack, undaunted by the first setback or two. Blocking again, trying to jockey for a good shot, Ryu caught movement and saw another of the creatures jumping in, a long knife-blade where its right hand had once been.

Knocking aside the woman's next strike, he saw the head of the mace connect with the reckless new menace, and the lunging abomination was hit by what almost seemed to be a small grenade. There was a flash of white as the strange electrical field dissipated or discharged. Fulminating arcs of it crackled along the body of the crushed Thanagarian; lingering traces from the initial blow... a blow that had flattened the creature into the ground like a humanoid pancake.

'_I don__'__t think I want that hitting me__…'_

_'__(Kill. Kill or Die. Die and become Part of Me! Kill and Feed Me!)__'_

The woman's weapon arms swept back up again, and she clearly preferred the still charged mace in her left hand. Blocking the right one less cautiously, encouraged by the lack of the electrical energy field, Ryu still felt the blow to his arm, even through the armor and layers of thermal and environmental protection. He winced as the plates on his arm dented and warped slightly under the assault; the only impacts it was really designed to block were from fragments and shrapnel. It wasn't meant to tank a psychotic alien abomination with magic warhammers for hands.

Ryu resolved to make some recommendations to the engineers back at base.

With one of the woman's maces blocked, Ryu stepped in and broke her next predictable and frenzied attack. This was the one he had watched for: the other still glowing mace. One of his arms came up as the other came down, and, sidearm still in his right hand, he caught the mad woman's arm in a scissor, snapping it at the elbow. White bone erupted out from under the robes of black and red tissue.

_'__Not yet!__'_

Stepping and pressing up, he made it a compound fracture and twisted the woman around. No bone broke the surface, but her upper arm snapped in two places, the edges of the broken bones ripping open muscle.

_'__Not yet!__'_

Pinioning her around, he used his grip on her arm to throw her off balance. MARS armor was not exactly designed to be super flexible or nimble, so Ryu gritted his teeth and forced his opponent down lower until he could hook one leg up and bring his arm down. His boot finally connected with the woman's shoulder, right on top of that vile snapping mouth and two swollen purple tongues, but it left him open. A skeletal metal bladed wing slammed into his shoulder and then the Nth metal tips came together and scratched a long trio of parallel gauges in his faceplate.

Holding the harpy down, Ryu ignored the damage and fired clear into the back of the woman's silver haired head. The forsaken woman's skull vanished in an aerosol spray of white blood, black fibers and garnet red brains, still somehow intact even after her perversion. Not leaving it at that, he emptied two more rounds, each with the force of a .50cal anti-material rifle, into her other arm at the shoulder, and then into her center of mass. The weapon arm was amputated completely, and the body continued to shudder and thrash, even with a basketball sized crater gauged into its back, having turned the spine and lower body into a ragged bowl.

_'__(More. More. More. It wants more!)__'_

Breathing heavily, the MARS armored martial artist kicked the body away and turned to see Starfire blasting another of the creatures into the wall with bolt after bolt of green energy. Not fully thinking through how she would react, he quickly grabbed her hand – a nearly formed starbolt blazing between their fingers - doubting she would be paying attention enough to reflect on a hand sign.

Unexpectedly, she acted without even looking back. Pulling with all of her strength, too fast for him to even let go, he was lifted right off his feet – powered armor and all – to careen into the wall right where she had finished blasting the last of the creatures. The already weakened wall buckled under his weight as he slammed into it, parallel to the ground, and he looked up just in time to see the Tamaranian's eyes glowing with unholy green fire...

And then she finally seemed to recognize who he was. Her brows came together in consternation, as if to ask, _'__What are you doing? I almost hit you!__'_

Unable to reply in any detailed fashion, having to dig himself out of the wall first, he instead motioned and ran for the airlock he'd pointed to before. The doors parted at their approach, and they ran past a handful of un-desecrated Thanagarian corpses and a pile of scorched and half melted debris. A shot rained down from above as another hawkman with a ranged weapon took potshots. It was too slow, and as soon as they were past the doors, the heavy mechanisms closed. A row of seats blurred by, and then another set of doors, and then at last relief.

Starfire felt it while Ryu could not: Air?

They were in a pressurized section of the ship. A medical facility by the looks of it. There were overturned beds and stacks of boxes everywhere, along with smashed machinery and other equipment. Impact craters and scorch marks marred the walls and floor, along with grimy red blood covering the walls like butcher's graffiti. It would have been a horror itself, but compared to what was outside, it was a relief. Nonetheless, Ryu quickly swept the area with his sidearm, half-expecting something – anything – to pop out and jump them.

Breathing a sigh of momentarily relief, he keyed the release on his helmet, and the scarred visor lifted away with a hiss. Air rushed in and, tasting it, he gagged. It was sour, and the smell was horrible. Quickly turning back to the door, he narrowed his eyes. It was closed, and seemingly unmolested.

"Roger that, Cyborg," he said, loud enough for her to hear. "Thanks for the assist."

"I wouldn't hold out for too many more like that, Ryu," came the cybernetic teen's reply through his ear piece. "We're busy on our end too."

A second later, the pair of them started as an unexpected sound rang out across the room. Even as Ryu spun around, looking for the source, Starfire flushed with embarrassment and realization. Reaching down to her hip, she retrieved a small yellow disc which hung there, and which was beeping loudly in a familiar tune. One that had been inaudible moments before. Flipping open the communicator, Cyborg's face filled the small screen.

"Yo, Star! There ya are! How ya holdin' up, girl?"

Grinding her toe into the floor, the Tamaranian hesitated anxiously. "I... I am fine but... this place is most troubling..."

The small image of Cyborg nodded – only to duck rapidly out of the shot, several bright flashes of light filling the screen, then reappear a moment later. "Woop! Take that, ya sneaky bird faced bastards!" Looking back her way, her teammate gave her a reassuring smile. "Just hang in there, girl. We're still not sure if we should meet up with you, or just have you two bug out and get to safety. I'll get back to ya in a few. You gotta get Ryu out of there alive, so keep it together, alright?"

"I promise I will do all that I can, Cyborg," she replied, her voice surprisingly even... at least, it was for a moment, before she pulled the communicator closer and whispered into it harshly. "Just promise me that you will not leave me waiting too long..."

"You got it, Star. Cyborg out."

And with that, she put the device away again before turning Ryu's way once more, an expectant look on her face.

"I guess it's a good thing you held onto that," Ryu said, pointing to the yellow Titans communicator. "We're uploading a map of the area into it now. We don't have very long. Review it and take note of the areas highlighted in red, and the one in orange. I got our orders a few minutes ago."

"Also," he added, holstering his pistol and walking closer. "The bodyglove of your hand has been breeched by something. I want to check it out."

Starfire looked down, saw the damage herself, and tentatively held out her hand.

"It was... it had to be one of the tendrils," she guessed. "The breech occurred when I grasped one of the weapons, almost too fast to react to. I was not expecting the weapons themselves to be alive..."

"Now we know what the Guardian was talking about," Ryu replied, walking up to her and holding out his hand to reach for hers. "Hell, I've seen a lot of fucked up things… but this…? I really can not wait to get back home."

Taking her hand with his MARS armor's gauntlet, Ryu peered down at the Tamaranian's glove. Eyes narrowed and he leaned in close. Taking a sudden and intense dislike to his intense scrutiny, the Tamaranian pulled her hand back, quickly hugging it to her chest.

"Our enemies are most... unnatural, indeed," she agreed, narrowing her eyes at the human male. "We must focus on what we must do next. Why do you think that the others may be considering not rendezvousing with us?"

"Unfortunately, we can't move until we get further orders from Ranma," he answered, frowning at her reaction. "Saotome's group are under attack, too, as I'm sure you noticed, but your buddy thinks he might have located an armory. They're hoping to find some clean weapons we can take back, but cross your fingers."

At Starfire's perplexed expression, he shrugged and continued on. "Anyway, Cy's still mapping out where the worst of the warp bubbles or whatever damaged the ship, so keep an eye on your gizmo for proximity alerts. We'll be avoiding those areas at all times. You should know Ranma is still deciding whether or not to destroy the ship. If we go down that route, then that means finding some kinda master key or captain's key or something so we can arm the self destruct."

Oddly enough, Starfire's reaction to his summation was different from anything he had expected given the situation.

"Wha- That... that _obtuse dimwit!_ We were just _battling_ the captain, and _on_ the bridge! Following that course of action would involve battling our way _back_ through all of the infested regions which we just traversed moments ago! And if the key was _on_ the captain, then it is not unlikely that it was outright destroyed in our struggle. Why did he not think to mention any of this several minutes ago, when you apparently spoke to him?"

"Ranma said 'he' when he talked about the ship's head birdman," Ryu explained. "I dunno how they got the info, though. Something about factions fighting among the crew and some absorbo-cron… that stuff doesn't matter, anyway. While we're here, though, we could probably verify the specifics, you know, check the medical records and ship's roster? It'd give us something to do while we wait for them to get back to us."

That seemed to mollify the Tamaranian quickly enough. Nodding, she quickly moved to the nearest terminal and produced her communicator once more. "That... is actually a clever idea, Sergeant. All of Cyborg's translation algorithms are already stored in the communicators, so deciphering the records should be a simple feat."

"Now?" he asked, holding out his hand, palm upturned.

A little warily, she let him take her hand again.

In response to an internal trigger, the large gauntleted forearm of the MARS suit folded open and partly detached, allowing Ryu's actual arm and hand to get free. His fingers lifted away from control interfaces and small control anchors, like rings for his fingers. Holding her arm with his still armored left hand, he clearly planned to use the right for more careful work.

Opening the safety latches to the glove section of her personal armor, he pulled it off and put it down on his knee. The armors were all modular in construction, allowing for environmental redundancy and rapid medical assistance in the field. With the glove itself off, it didn't take a doctor to see Starfire's hand wasn't looking natural. The ochre skin was pale, and there was a clear, festering black lump growing fat just under the surface, like a dime-sized maggot.

"Fuck," Ryu summarized his diagnosis.

Starfire's eyes widened in horror and she recoiled at the sight.

"No! No!" she repeated, lifting her free hand, panic rising in her throat. "I will not become like them! I will not!"

A roiling sphere of super heated plasma sprang into existence, making her intention as clear as crystal. She didn't betray even a second of hesitation as she prepared to drive the raw energy right into her open palm-

"No, wait!" Ryu cried out desperately. He felt her jerk her hand out of his grip – it still shocked him just how monstrously strong the girl was, even beyond the Major's inhuman strength – even with his powered armor, he might as well have been a child trying to hold onto his father for how casually she broke his hold. Looking down at him seriously, the alien girl defiantly met his eyes.

"…you desire me to cease in purging my body of this vile infection?"

He waved his hands frantically. "I don't think it is an infection. It looks like it might just be a parasite or something. We need to save a sample anyway, in case we need a cure or something later!"

Her serious stare grew into a heated glare. "That is your only concern at this moment?" she asked incredulously.

"No! No! It's just that burning your hand like that is too dangerous. You could spread it or make it worse," he claimed quickly. Ryu then reached out for her hand again, holding his own out expectantly. "Now, just give me your hand. I'm going to cut it out. Trust me. This is the safest way to do it. I promise."

He waited patiently as Starfire eyed him skeptically. Her eyes flicked between him and the worrying discoloration on her palm several times, but, finally, she let out a sigh of resignation and placed her hand in his own. Flashing her a quick attempt at a reassuring smile, he then leaned forward and began to work.

His fingers flicked, making a quick slash, and a tiny vacuum blade formed under the Yamasenken master's middle finger. Knowing it wouldn't last long, despite being stuck to the invisible ki aura around his hand, Ryu moved, fast. A quick move and the tip of his finger brushed along the surface of Starfire's skin. As if his fingernail itself was a razor, the tiny vacuum blade cut into tangerine colored skin in a thin line with surgical precision.

Immediately, as green blood and an odd, clear liquid began to ooze out of the incision, part of the black lump beneath was exposed and it wriggled to try and escape the air and light. Ryu's fingers were faster, and he caught the tiny black maggot between thumb and index finger, nails biting down on the little tentacle's sides. Miniscule spines flexed as it resisted being pulled out, and green blood pooled up around the wound.

Ryu cursed again, under his breath.

"Star," he asked, not glancing away from the parasite. "Heat up a finger and press it down close to this little bastard."

As Starfire watched him work, so quickly and efficiently, her glare began to soften into something different. Focusing past the swell of pain blossoming in her palm as exposed nerve endings were scraped agonizingly by the wicked creature's struggles to escape, she lifted a single finger and focused a small iota of power to the tip. Pressing it down into her palm right next to the open cut, she winced slightly as a tiny curl of smoke began to rise up.

Finally pulling free from Starfire's hand, the tiny black tentacle resembled a segmented annelid with a silvery metal backbone. Curling away from the light, Ryu was quick to swap it into the alien alloy left hand of his MARS armor, letting go of Starfire's arm. Pinching the parasite safely, Ryu could see that even in the two or three seconds that had passed, his fingers and nails had become scraped down. A bit of blood welled up, but it was a trickle compared to his comrade's hand.

Quickly, he took her hand again, and brought it up to his mouth. Like drawing out snake venom, he inhaled and sucked at the cut, hastily spitting out a wad of green blood. If there were any fragments of the thing left behind, they would have to be removed. It was basic first aid, and he tried not to think about the fact that it was an alien's blood he was tasting, much less the risk of getting whatever was in her blood in his spit, even for a second or two. _'__Treat the wound first.__'_ Starfire was supposedly human-enough, anyway. There would be time to reflect on whether he had just poisoned himself later. There was a technique to drawing blood quickly and removing it with minimal exposure – that came first.

Guessing he had gotten the most of it, he spat a few more times to clear his mouth, and wiped his lips with the back of his hand. It was the best he could do right now. The little maggot was removed and the wound cleaned. Disinfection was next, then wrapping it.

His eyes fell on the squirming little thing caught in the armored fingers of his left hand.

It was crushed almost flat but still… slightly moving.

"Starfire. I've got a medkit on the left hip of my armor. Take anything you need out of it." He assumed she knew what to do with what was inside. "And give me a glass vial so we can bottle this... _thing_..."

And, just as quickly as her gaze had softened, the Tamaranian's expression hardened once more. She could only stare at Ryu's side as he turned away from her, staring at his prize with seemingly rapt attention. She stared down at her lacerated hand, still steadily leaking blood onto the floor, and then at his profile once more. She could still feel the lingering sensation of his lips on her hand; the seeming care he had for her now cooling on exposure to the air.

In that instant, she felt quite the fool, indeed. For a moment, she had thought his concern may have been genuine, but as soon as he had retrieved his precious sample, his true colors had shown through once more. None of her friends would have acted thus: Robin, Raven, Ryouga, Cyborg, any of her _real_ friends would have quickly discarded the parasite into a container, or better yet crushed it underfoot, and then assisted her with bandaging her hand.

She knew it was a small gesture, and inconsequential, but the act of kindness itself was not what she found to be telling. It was how his actions shone a light directly on what his priorities were. With her friends, teammates came first. With Ryu and his companions, the mission was all that was important. They didn't care. None of them really cared.

They just acted like they did.

_'(Liars!)'_

Frowning darkly, she jammed a brightly glowing thumb right into the shallow cut in her palm, swallowing the hiss of pain that threatened to escape as she cauterized the wound. The action had another intended effect - Ryu noticed the action, smelled it even, and stared at her with surprise. She smirked at that. Ignoring the acrid smell of her own burning flesh, she then opened the med kit and pulled out one of the glass vials. Handing it to him sharply, she waited for him to take it.

"There is your sample container," she stated in a chill voice. "Now I will proceed with the scanning of the medical records. If you will excuse me."

With that, she made her way across the room, towards the nearest terminal.

"Star, what's…?" He trailed off asking her what was wrong, wondering if it would even do any good. "Star? Geez."

Instead, he 'bagged and tagged' the little black and silver metallic parasite he had removed from her. The vial was transparent alien alloy, and with the cap on and sealed, there was no escaping it. By no means scientifically inclined or adept, Ryu Kumon was a soldier of UNETCO, and he knew procedure when it came to potentially infectious or malicious alien life forms. Even under these circumstances.

_'__Besides... Is this thing really the same as what we__'__re after?__'_ he wondered, staring at the vial and its squirming occupant. His right hand slipped back into the MARS armor's gauntlet. _'__This Nth Metal?__'_

Slowly, the black tentacle curled and coiled into a ball… before turning white.

Red and yellow pigment flowed to the surface, pooling into a tainted eye with multiple pupils. Ryu stared at it, as fascinated as he was disgusted. Within seconds, the a few of the black pupils aggregated into a larger body, staring back at him, pressed up against the walls of the transparent vial.

_'__(Kumon Ryu.)__'_ A whisper. _'__(Kumon Ryu. Kumon Ryu. Kumon Ryu.)__'_

_'__You__'__re just another specimen,_' he thought back, and smirked to himself as he pocketed it in one of the storage straps built onto the outside of the MARS. _'__So why don__'__t you just sit tight and shut up.__'_

* * *

The most honored and sacred part of a Thanagarian ship was, apparently, its armory. From the information Ranma had taken from the absorbacron and from Cyborg's translations of data packets in engineering, the Thangarian system was a curious mixture of alien and conservatively human. Among the most obvious curiosities was the native naming convention the hawk people had used.

On a Sectoid ship, naming conventions were straightforward: navigation, engineering, storage, etcetera. On a Thanagarian ship, engineering wasn't just a place where the tech-heads helped maintain the ship's systems and the like. Engineers were 'technical priests' who, from the scattered memories of Shandra Mal he had perused, seemed to be both religious and technical officers. Thanagarians were undoubtedly scientifically accomplished, the evidence of that was all around them, but their technology – especially the Nth Metal – was wrapped around a sort of superstitious core of beliefs. Shandra Mal had both calculated variances in meson conversion and _prayed to the metal_ at the same time, even on the same occasion.

Thus, the Armory of a ship wasn't just strategically important, or essential to security, it was _venerated_. The actual word for it was less accurately 'armory' and more like 'arsenal.' It wasn't just where weapons were stored. The ship manufactured its weapons, too, and _produced_ Nth Metal. Sections had armories that were, in practice, more like chapels… and there was a priesthood within a priesthood who worked the primary armory, which translated loosely to 'oracle.' Ranma found himself kind of boggled by it. His old panda of a father had never bothered with much religious education, and like many Japanese in his generation, he was kind-of lay Shinto, but mostly secular and a-religious.

It was… kind of strange seeing these Thanagarians, and having some of Shandra Mal's memories.

For her, the existence of her 'old god' wasn't just a matter of faith. It existed. It had existed. It would exist. The fact that they still had Nth Metal was proof of it. Yet she was not worshipful of what she prayed to. She was terrified. She believed in her old god, prayed to it, and _hated_ it.

Seeing another small group of Thanagarians ahead of Unit Blue's small strike force, Ranma didn't have to imagine why. It was clear by what the Nth Metal had done to them. The moment Blue came into sight, perhaps even a second before they did, the Thanagarians turned and attacked. Their bodies were mutilated and mangled, even beyond the cancerous black growths that covered them.

Flagellation marks scared bare chests and thighs, as if they had repeatedly scoured themselves with their weapons – many of the cuts were deep and had, long ago, given in to infection and gangrene. Thick black lines ran up their necks from corrupted and consumed arms, breaking the surface of the flesh only to spout spines or glassy yellow eyes. Loose jaws wretched and gawked as their bodies moved after untold years of frozen death. Their weapons surged forward and dragged their former owners along for the ride.

And, here, in an atmosphere, they screamed.

Gods, they screamed.

Instantly, Ranma dropped into a crouch and pulled his plasma pistol. He glanced at the weapon for a half second, not really wanting to waste the precious ammo, but kept it out regardless. Muscles tensed and he nodded sharply as Cyborg shouldered up beside him, lowering down himself and deploying the massive shoulder mounted autocannon attached to the back of his appliqué armor plating. The cybernetic teen returned the nod, before disengaging the safety on his weapon with a loud 'clack'. The pair of them prepared to unleash hell at the utterly corrupted Thanagarnians charging mindlessly right at them.

"Oh, for Hecate's sake, would you two muscle heads get out of my way?"

The Lieutenant found himself shoved harshly to the side as Jinx squeezed in between him and Cyborg, liberally doling out elbows and full body pushes until they had both been pushed right to their respective walls. Gracing him with a catty grin – sending a shiver down his spine which even the mutated alien bird men didn't do – she absently tossed something his way.

"Here, hold on to these, Lady Fingers. I know you got nice, soft hands."

Jinx then took several steps further down the hallway, heedless of the half a dozen howling Thanagarians, their corrupted Nth metal weapons thrashing back and forth wildly, just thirsting for their blood, and cocked her hip to the side, vaguely setting her stance. She then lifted her arms before her. Ranma looked down at the objects in his hands, realization setting in. He was holding a pair of metal gloves, as well as the entire forearms that went with them. The very same pieces of armor that should have been covering Jinx's pale, exposed arms and hands. The witch's black nail polish gleamed in the flickering light.

Bafflement quickly melted away, his keen senses kicking into overdrive as he noticed something unusual happening in Jinx's narrow frame. He'd had no occasion to train with Jinx for some time now, so he'd never seen it himself, but as her commanding officer he had been updated on the activities of the Titan's resident trouble maker. He knew she had actually made some progress in the ki rotation technique that Hibiki had developed. So, though he wasn't shocked to see her begin to alter the flow of her life energy into a familiar elliptical pattern, he did find himself just a bit impressed. Ukyou had been at it far longer than this girl, and hadn't made nearly as much progress...

His train of thought derailed right there, as he spotted the first arc of what, for all the world looked like pink electricity run down the girl's arm to start dancing frantically between her fingertips. Now what was she up to? He knew he hadn't seen her do anything like that before.

A crack of thunder nearly split his eardrums, the blast taking place literally less than two yards away from him, and he barely had time to lift his arms to catch Jinx as she slid back into him at ridiculous speed, her boots kicking up a shower of sparks and squealing as piercingly as the Thanagarians. Skidding backwards a good yard himself, before he was finally able to kill the force of the push... he blinked slowly as he looked down the hallways.

Or, the aftermath of the hallway, anyway.

It had all ended in a single flash, lasting no longer than a lightning strike, and pink lines still danced in his vision, burned into his retina for a few seconds. All he had seen had been a wildly arcing ... 'lance' didn't really do it justice, as the walls, floor and ceiling of the corridor were blasted and blackened for as far as the eye could see, and a wash of smoke and debris was already flying back their way from where Jinx's unbelievable attack had struck some unfortunate bulkhead or wall far down the way.

The less said about the handful of Thanagarian berserkers that had been charging forward to dismember them, the better. All he could think when he looked at the nearest, sad bastard, flat on his back and his hands clutching the air above him, now frozen in death, was it looked like someone had unloaded a plasma rifle right into their chest, then torched them with a flame thrower...

"Mmmmm, I was right, you do have nice hands, Lieutenant," Jinx purred, pressing herself up against him bodily, some parts of her anatomy more aggressively than others.

"You're cute when you destroy things, but I already have a few too many fiancés, thanks," he replied, and handed her gloves back. "We need some clips or something for you if you're going to keep doing that." A quick check on the motion detector confirmed the area was clear and back to business as usual. "Pathfinder Actual: tangos down in this section. Let's secure the lift."

Pushing off, Jinx stuck her tongue out at the pigtailed fighter. "Pfft, like you're actually serious about any of them. Ah well, you're no fun, anyway."

Rolling his eyes, Cyborg gave the slight sorceress a gentle nudged down the corridor. "Alright, alright, that's enough flirting in the face of death. Honestly, you two are shameless, ya know that?"

"What do I have to be ashamed of?" Ranma asked with a chuckle. "I can't help being a girl magnet. Good work though, Jinx. Just don't burn yourself out with those. I got a feelin' there's worse stuff waiting for us the further we go."

"Meh, I wasn't plannin' on it," she replied flippantly. "Just having a whack of fish in a barrel like this was too tempting to ignore. Besides, gotta have my fun while there's atmosphere to actually play around in. I can't exactly take my gloves off in vacuum."

Shaking his head, Cyborg frowned at both of his companions. "Come on, can't both of you stay serious, even for a minute? Speaking of 'worse stuff waiting for us', I still think blowing the ship is a bad idea."

As the trio moved forward, some of the still twitching bodies, mangled and burned though they were, continued to convulse. The arm of one, still possessed, actually wrenched itself out of the mauled shoulder of its owner, the limb that had once been an arm coiling and rolling like a snake in its death throes. The crooked head of the Thanagarian mace, now wrapped in black and with one golden eye on the side, slammed ineffectually against the floor, enraged that its host was unable to use it anymore.

"Watch yer feet," Ranma advised, stamping down on the abomination and crushing it at the ex-wrist. It twisted and coiled from the impact, like a worm under a stone, before giving up and going slack. "I'm aware you want to salvage this wreck, Cyborg. I won't order it destroyed unless it fits our tactical goals."

Cyborg stopped in his tracks, swiping his hand through the air. "And yet you're considering sending Star and Ryu on a wild goose chase through infested sections of the ship to look for some key that might have been destroyed centuries ago, just in case you might want to? Things are bad enough on their end as it is, you should have them bug out straight away."

The Saotome heir was almost at the loading dock door, a response already on the tip of his tongue, when, watching one of the fallen Thanagarians, he felt a surge of memory and conscience hit him. He blinked, momentarily disoriented, and saw the fallen alien again… this time, recognizing the face. Even with the self inflicted cuts and the cancerous black growths. He recognized it.

_ "Shandra! Shandra! Chief Rector!" the young technician, a mere Youth of the Altar, was holding out some electronic form to be filled. She blinked, taking it in her hand and saw it was requisition requests._

_ "Why the delay?" she asked, after quickly reviewing the information. "The Sacristan shouldn't need two whole day-cycles to fill our order."_

_ "Apologies, Mistress," the youth said with a quick bow._

_ "It isn't your fault, Lano." Her expression softened and she gave the likeable young man a friendly smile. "I think I know what the problem is and how to solve it. I have Commander Kreiger's ear."_

The rest of the memory faded, but was still vaguely present, as he reasserted control. Shandra Mal's memories. Probably one of the few that snuck in before he erected his psionic defenses. Staring down at the dead Thanagarian, he now knew it… he… had a name. The poor bastard had been a gofer for the bigwigs in the lower engineering section, itself under the command of the Arsenal Overseer. They were the ones who handled the production and distribution of stored Nth Metal.

He saw on the corpse, aside from the damage Jinx had caused, many still visible slashes that seemed to have been ritually inflicted on himself. Even blasted as it was, parts of it continued to move, including the head, gasping or biting at something only it could see.

'_What were you thinking when you did this to yourself?__'_

_'__(Into them and through them; within them; whispering, feeding, drinking, being)__'_

With a crack, Ranma broke the corpse's neck with the side of his boot.

_'__(It hurts!)__'_

The sudden thought, fleeting and distinct from the whispers before, stopped Ranma cold.

For a moment… it had sounded like the boy from Mal's memories. Was it possible they were still… no. No. That was impossible. These xenos had been dead and frozen for God knows how long. They couldn't have been. There was a way he could tell, but touching the mind of one of these things, even with the safeties built into the psi-amp and his own training, well… it wasn't appealing.

"I know, and it isn't just a matter of getting that key," Ranma replied, remembering Cyborg's disagreement from moments before. "Our mission is to find uncorrupted Nth Metal and get home. If it exists on this ship…" He frowned, standing straight and facing the door. "Then we'll find it. Or Ryu and Star will. Keeping two teams in the field, actively searching, doubles our chances of success. I also doubt that whatever is animating these things will just let us go our merry way so we can nuke it from the safety of our ship."

Staring at him oddly for a moment, obviously taking note of the suspiciously long pause in Ranma's reply, Cyborg replied in a measured tone.

"Whatever is animating these guys, if there 'is' a 'thing', it won't let us go on our merry way to set the self destruct, either. And even if we do, then do you think it'll let us just wander out, with a timer counting every step we gotta take to get out of this ship?"

Cyborg's gaze softened for a moment. "Look, I know you want to do right by the Thanagarians, and you think I'm just interested in the ship, but that just ain't the case. Our team is by far closer to the most likely source of Nth metal, so our mission is looking pretty good so far. But if we start running all over hell's half acre in this ship, looking for a way to blow it up after we get what we wanted, we're just gonna be creating our very own personal death trap."

"And trust us," Jinx stepped in, smiling in a slightly disturbing manner, "We know a few things about death traps. Besides, who cares if a few bird people are stuck in eternal torment when we leave? Looking at these guys, most of the people on this ship chose their own bed; let them sleep in their own personal Hell for all I care. Let's just smash, grab and gone already."

"We won't divert from the mission to pursue this. If we can get what we want and safely extract, that's just what we'll do," Ranma assured them, walking over to where the cybernetic teen was opening the door to the next room. "Let's just get to the _Lower Stable_ before more of the crew show up."

"The loading dock," Cyborg corrected.

"It... it's the same thing," Ranma grumbled, annoyed with himself for the slip of tongue. "Anyway, I know our mission. And while I appreciate the second opinion, the call on the ground is mine. Now crack open that door and let's see what's crawling around in the basement."

"Already done," Cyborg replied, stepping to the side with a flourish. Pressing a button on his forearm, the door began to slide open remotely. "And I'm gonna hold ya to that, Saotome."

Beyond the door lay the 'lower stable' – the loading bay – situated beneath a transfer dock adjacent to part of the hangar. Racks of the interceptor craft were rotated through a switch into this bay for maintenance and body work. Weapons could be swapped out for special roles, and ammunition and power supplies could be stored here. In the case of an accident, like a fire or an explosion, it would be confined to the dock and not spread to the rest of the hangar.

If the ship had been intact, it may even have been possible to get straight to the hangar from here. Unfortunately, the section of the 'upper stable' connected to this bay was collapsed. Inside, the switch mechanism that dominated part of the wall was jammed, with a rack of fighters still sticking out. Grapple-hands were bowled over, and aside from two interceptors still stuck firmly on the rack itself, the others were left in various states of disarray.

Some had been disassembled on elevated platforms, having been under work while the crisis raged, and some had been knocked down during some fighting. One clearly had been blown up, and the prongs of it were still facing the door Unit Blue entered by. A huge pile of them lay scattered over one forth of the floor, including broken open containers and other mechanics debris. Dim red lights gave the chamber a deathly glow, but there was no movement – no life. No obvious threats.

Life support continued pumping in from vents high in the ceiling above.

Area secure, the trio wasted little time in moving to the large loading platform that dominated the far side of the bay. The funicular was large enough to shuttle an entire fighter or two, side by side even. Rectangular and notably lacking in guard rails or safety warnings, aside from a simple red outline where it connected to the bay proper, it stood waiting to be activated. Two sets of matching lift controls met, back to back, one moored in the loading bay and the other to the elevator platform. Cyborg went to work on it without needing any prompting.

Ranma and Jinx stood idle while he worked, covering for any surprises. There were a few crates still sitting on the lift, neatly lined up side by side. A conspicuous streak of red, blotched and rusty, ran from near the crates off to the edge of the funicular, where it abruptly terminated. It was impossible to see down the incline without moving the lift itself, but it didn't take a world renowned detective to guess that whatever had happened had occurred down at the bottom level, where that edge of the elevator connected to the lower floor.

While they waited, Ranma saw Jinx clipping her gloves to her belt, jury rigging a fix with the loops and buckle meant for a medikit. They looked pretty secure there, and never mind that they were dangly no matter how she tried to fold them in, he still didn't feel that great about her going without full environmental coverage. Since they had a few free seconds, he said as much.

"I'd kind of prefer you keep those on," he said, motioning with his chin to her waist and the gloves there. "There's no telling what we'll be running into, and exposed skin is asking for trouble."

Rather than comply straight away, Jinx winked at him. "Look, Lady Fingers, I know you can't control yourself, but you have to try to keep it in your pants just cuz I'm flashin' a little skin here."

This time, he didn't banter back. "I'm serious, Jinx. We have sealed armor for a reason."

At the tone in his voice, Jinx's eyes narrowed and he could see her body language suddenly shift into a confrontational tone. "You gonna make that an order, sir? Sounds like you're getting a bit paranoid to me."

He shook his head at her, disagreeing. "A couple minutes ago, Ryu and Starfire had to dig out a piece of one of these things that burrowed into her hand. I'd rather not have a repeat of that. So, yeah, gloves back on. Ya' can take em off again later if it's an emergency."

Jinx eyed him dangerously for a moment, then slowly began to slide her gloves back on. Silently fuming, she walked over to check on Cyborg's progress.

Without a word of warning, the lift beneath them shifted and started to move. Cyborg turned, giving a silent thumbs up, and then went back to overseeing the operation. After a second or two, Ranma and Jinx could see magnetic rails peeking out from under the edge of the lift attached to the incline. Like much of the rest of the ship, they were operational but befouled, and as a result, the funicular itself continued slowly and startlingly, skipping and jumping slightly every couple feet, like an old rollercoaster on a bumpy, wooden track. Eventually, they hit a long even patch and the ride became smoother and faster.

No one felt the need to comment on the haphazard and distinct splotches on the rails that caused the discomfort. The lip of the lift ended in poorly lit darkness below, making it hard to see to the bottom floor. Within seconds, there was virtually no light at al. The emergency fixtures in the ceiling were all blown out.

Lighting a pair of flares, Ranma tossed them onto the floor.

Yellow chemical light illuminated the slowly descending elevator, even as the rails whined and hit some strange magnetic bump. One of the flares jumped and rolled near the edge, but stopped when Ranma quickly caught it under his boot. A second later and it slid, skidding, up against one of the neatly stacked crates.

No sooner was that done, then the air split with a hoarse screech, like a broken record, that mutated into a broken base rumble. Echoing through the elevator shaft, it took a second to pinpoint the source as coming not from the lift itself, but up where they had come from. Piercing the darkness were three swaying red embers, hot like lanterns but not giving off more than the barest minimum of ambient light.

With a loud clang, the source came partly into view of the unaided eye. It was the yellow prong of one of the Thanagarian fighters, now brackish and discolored. It seemed to be bent and warped, more like a talon or a fang, than the aesthetic edge of a ship. More came into view, as mechanical segments and coils of black and gray, thick like ivy on a dead tree and studded by thin spines, covered the 'leg' of an asymmetrical machine.

Judging by the largest pieces, it had clearly once been once, or even two or three, Thanagarian interceptors. Now it was a hodgepodge of pieces, bound together by corrupted Nth Metal and strange organic growths. Swaying, sinewy tentacles moved around a tightly packed body and legs stuck out: three above, three below, ambling into the slanted loading shaft. A scream rose in pitch, cracked and painful, from deep within the body, mutating into the base roar from before.

At the sight, Jinx let out a long sigh. "Yup... those are honest to goodness tentacles, alright..." She then proceeded to unclip the plasma rifle from her back.

Ranma didn't bother giving the order to fire. He opened up with his plasma pistol, sending round after round of green death downrange. Anti-matter exploded, washing streaks of molten and vaporized metal away from the twisted construct. A beam of white and blue joined in, along with a cascade of heavier fire from Jinx's carbine. Fleshy shields rose up in response, together with pieces of ship armor, blocking most of the incoming damage.

Then it returned fire. The three swaying red orbs were the glowing eyes of fighter grade pulse cannons, and all three unleashed their fury to the sound of the devoured pilot's maddened howls. The actual bolts that came down were much slower than Ranma had expected, a mere fraction of the speed of plasma bolts, slower even than most bullets. They were big and red, and he half expected them to be highly explosive, but when they hit the floor nearby, they gave off a small shockwave and little else.

Ducking behind one of the crates, flipping it up and over with his foot, Ranma ejected his spent clip.

"What the hell is it firing?" he yelled.

"Thanagarian weapons," Cyborg warned, also seeking cover. "They're like radiation packets! They do much more damage to organic enemies than ships."

"Aim for the weapons then! Take out those guns!"

Steadying him aim, Ranma took two quick shots and then went back under cover. He'd given the order but it was a hell of a lot easier said than done. The patchwork construct was erratically jerking back and forth as it moved, and the metal plates it used as shields were constantly jerking around. It was damn near impossible to get a beat on any one part of it for long.

Mimicking their frustration in being unable to deliver a killing blow to the machine, it gave another wailing below and charged forward, the tips of its clawed legs scraping sparks along both the ceiling and the floor. One forward leg curled in, clearly intending to sweep the length of the slowly descending lift. Anything not knocked aside; it would then burn down with fire from above.

"Cyborg!" Ranma ordered, pointing with his left hand.

The cybernetic Titan was already moving before the order left his mouth. With heavy strides that rang across the platform every step of the way, Cyborg skidded to a stop halfway across, only to stamp his feet down into the metal of the flooring plates, warping and bending them as he did. The explanation for his bizarre tactic was revealed a second later, as he swung his arms out to his sides and braced himself.

The twisted construct's leg slammed into Cyborg's chest with enough force to level a building, only to be stopped dead, mid-swing, as the comparatively diminutive Titan caught the appendage and pinned it against his chest. The ground around his feet nearly collapsed beneath the strain, burying him halfway up to his shins, but he didn't let out more than a grunt from the effort. Holding the massive appendage firmly with his left arm, he reached up with his right arm, and started to unload into the creature's underbelly with a salvo of armor piercing autocannon rounds.

"Yea! How do ya like the taste of th…" Cyborg's boast trailed off, as the smoke from his attack cleared, revealing an armored panel blocking his line of attack, barely even showing a scratch from the assault. Despite the size of the autocannon, it was never designed to pierce the hulls of old god corrupted alien spacecraft.

At which point, the creature began to buck, trying to shake off the clingy pest. Though it certainly hadn't been his intention, Cyborg took advantage of the fact that his feet were now firmly embedded in the deck plates, and grabbed onto the deadly leg with all of his strength, tossing the useless autocannon to the side.

One of the three deadly beam weapons began to swivel in his direction.

"Jinx!" Ranma ordered, scouting to be heard. "Up top!"

Laying down a quick three shots into one of the gun pods, drawing away an armored plate, Ranma heard a loud whine of actuators as a blur of motion shot past him. Obviously utilizing the odd motor acceleration technology that Cyborg had installed in her armor, Jinx blew across the platform in a blink, firing off several three round bursts in the general direction of the Thanagarian guns.

None of her shots hit, but the attack had the dual effects of causing the creature to protect itself with its mobile ship plates, and also of shifting its attention away from the pinned Cyborg. A second later, the construct dropped its defenses and began to rain down rapid fire blasts of red death at the nimble sorceress. Moving far too fast for it to compensate, Jinx juked back and forth between the wild radiation bursts, closing ground with her quarry with every maneuver.

Lifting his pistol, Ranma tried to take a more careful aimed shot, but was only rewarded with the crack of alien weaponry as the construct fired his way. Dodging it, he cursed – it was damn near impossible to take an aimed shot under these circumstances.

Taking advantage in the mechanical monstrosities split focus, Jinx suddenly shot forward, closing most of the distance to the beast in a single burst of speed, the staccato beat of weak detonations following in her wake as red flashes lit up behind her. A single leap launched her through the air, easily clearing a dozen feet, to land nimbly on the leg trapped by Cyborg.

Crouched down, her hands gripping the machine appendage, Jinx paused for several dangerous seconds. Driven by whatever madness had consumed the Thanagarians, the twisted construct turned on her with a vengeance. Even as it unleashed the full wrath of its energy weapons down on her, one of its wicked, jagged claws swung down and under it, and one of the flailing tentacles whipped around with lightning speed, attempting to flay her flesh to the bone for her transgressions.

Jinx's joints hummed loudly for a fraction of a second, and then, in the blink of an eye, she appeared to vanish. Ranma's trained eyes followed her, as she had all but flown straight up, flipping around even as she arrowed through the air. Her feet slammed into the ceiling with a loud 'clang' and in the second that her momentum caused her to crouch down against the surface, she began to unload her plasma rifle into the creature's back from above.

Far closer to the ground, a stray bolt of energy, a furiously snapping claw, and a spined tentacle slammed into the joint of the leg, smashing into the heavy metal hard enough to shatter the armored shell-

"Booyah!" Heaving with all of his prodigious strength, Cyborg twisted around, and in a shower of sparks and a squeal of agonized protest, the leg tore free from the amalgamation's body. Tearing his feet out of the floor, even as the construct battled to regain its balance, dancing around unsteadily upon two spider like legs, even as the three legs on its back tried to stabilize it against the ceiling, the titanium Titan didn't even bother going for a weapon. Swinging like a major leaguer, Cyborg turned the monstrosities own plan against it, sweeping out both of its bottom legs, destroying all three appendages in a mass of twisted steel and Nth metal in the process.

Even before it could begin to fall, Jinx was already kicking herself off of the ceiling. Spinning around in midair, she launched bolts of sun-hot green plasma at the legs on its back, knocking them around wildly, even as it scrabbled frantically to try to catch a hold on the ceiling.

With an enormous crash, the fighter craft monstrosity fell to the platform, the impact actually causing the entire freight elevator to suddenly slide down several yards before slowing down once more. Jinx landed heavily beside it, and quickly dove for cover as a half a dozen tentacles and another wicked looking claw lashed out at her. Cyborg quickly tossed away the remains of his bludgeon and fell back as well, moving towards the rear of the creature and out of the line of its energy weapons.

"Half of its shields are pinned now!" Ranma shouted, realizing the sudden advantage that had been created. "Take out the guns while it's still disoriented!"

Unfortunately, it was around that point in time when Ranma heard the familiar sound of howling, gibbering madness… And it wasn't coming from above them.

"Three, Seven, Eleven! Incoming!" His aim swerved hard to the right even as he yelled the words, discharging a shot into another corrupted, flagellated Thangarian that had crawled out over the exposed lip of the descending lift. The hissing bolt of Cydonian fire disintegrated the alien's upper body in a flash of irradiated light and superheated steam, leaving the lower half to fall back down into the darkness.

It was a shame it wasn't alone.

Ranma's aim turned instantly to the next target, pushing past the splattered remains of the first he'd dispatched. This one was a woman with only one wing, scrambling forward on all fours, the blade that had grown into her left hand making squealing scratches against the floor. A flash of green took her by the right shoulder and blasted apart her torso, the explosive effect of her superheated body actually propelling an arm into the face of another of her gibbering comrades, splashing it white with bleached blood.

A flex of the wrist, and Ranma ejected the spent clip from his plasma pistol, instead bringing his arm around to bludgeon a charging Thangarian on the side of the face, sending it spinning through the air like a top. A flash of movement and _sakkijutsu_, and he jumped, rolling along the floor as a thrashing mechanical leg crashed down, the claw-like tip tracking him as it slammed down once, twice, three times. One of the careless Thanagarian berserkers, having attacked with a spear-like arm, was too slow or too heedless as the martial artist dashed past, and it ended up crushed by the claw of the insane construct, vanishing in a messy crunch of broken bone and splayed limbs.

Jumping, Ranma holstered his pistol with one hand and grabbed a flying Thanagarian with the other. Snaking an arm around its neck in a midair lariat, he heard a crunch from the alien's broken neck, twisted around to plant his feet on its back, and kicked the still howling and slashing body down into an oncoming cascade of red beams. The tortured corpse wracked and convulsed as the red bolts seared it. A half second from hitting the mechanical monstrosity, it slammed into a fleshy shield and exploded.

Three red orbs jerked around, firing in every direction, at any moving target. Cyborg rammed his hand into the deck plates and ripped up an entire section as it acquired him; red energy splashed against the improvised barrier, and almost instantly the insane machine lost interest and moved on. Jinx cart wheeled between the crossfire between the construct and a pistol armed Thanagarian resulted in the latter's annihilation. Killing its comrades and allies didn't seem to register as a negative to the mad construct. Anything that moved was fair game for its remaining limbs, grasping, crushing tentacles and corrupted pulse guns.

Then one of the weapons pods jerked up as Ranma landed on it. One hand came down, digging into a crack in the housing, and a palm slammed down with an audible slap.

"Moko Takabisha! Persistent Tiger!"

A blue glow pulsed down from the martial artist's hand in three rapid waves, leeching through the housing and into the vulnerable machinery below. Ukyou had once asked him; back when they'd been training up her own ki attack, why Ranma didn't just make his attacks more powerful, like Ryouga had done. What, she had asked, was the point of making a ki attack 'bouncing' or 'sticky' when it could just blow things up?

Jumping away, Ranma had the satisfaction of seeing his ki attack continue to build and hold form inside the defiled machine's weapon pod, burning it out from the inside. Blue fire mixed with yellow as it began to tear apart, spreading tiny secondary explosions down into the rest of the abomination of flesh and technology. Legs kicked up and the central body thrashed and spun on its back like a dying spider. If Ryouga's ki attacks were like bombs, then his were like incendiary grenades.

"One down! Cyborg! Jinx!" Ranma yelled, drawing back his arms as he righted himself in the air. "Incoming Toppa! Don't move!"

Mere feet from the floor of the elevator, Ranma punched his hands forward. Biting winds whipped around the lieutenant's arms, collecting together with an iota of frost. He didn't have the time or setup for a full power Hiryu Toppa, but the twin horizontal tornados he unleashed didn't have to be Cologne-force. The funnels bulged and then narrowed to tips of razor wind and murderous ice, raking mercilessly across the flat of the elevator.

Tightly packed and swarming Thanagarians shrieked as the frost and flurry sliced open arms and torsos, spreading ice like an infection. Those few caught in midair had their wings torn clean off, falling into their comrades below. One impaled another with a long sword-arm, and another plowed into a fellow, sending both off the edge of the platform – crushed moments later as it descended.

Winds rushing by her on either side, Jinx obviously didn't trust Ranma's expertise, as, even though the tornados began to twist around her, she quickly shot up into the air again and leapt clear of the attack. White and ice blue shot by for two seconds, and then it was over. She landed several yards away, and for a second, nothing moved.

Then, one of the wounded aliens spun at her, its axe-for-an-arm intending to cleave her in two. The frost and shock, however, had left it slow, and when she kicked right up and into the base of its arm, flesh sheared and shattered.

Pirouetting backwards to gain some room, Jinx slashed downwards with both arms, and in a burst of pink light, a pair of crossed crescent blades over six feet long each, blasted outwards. The razor sharp pink 'X' tore into the Thanagarian and kept on going through, drops of white gore shooting from its back. A column of white light and sound streaked by a second later, hitting the body and another next to it.

Adding to the confusion, the burning, twisted construct was advancing right into the middle of things, swatting away friend of foe as it lurched from side to side on its remaining three legs. One of the semi-functional legs unfit for supporting its bulk, it used to swing back and forth, while the two weapon pods left fired frantically in any and every direction, zealously cutting down anything that dared to stand still or just get in the way.

A wounded Thanagarian, minus its arm, made the mistake of stumbling into one of the construct's swaying tentacles. It quickly became entangled, and more shot down from the core of the construct, ripping it apart and sucking the pieces inside into a pair of crablike mandibles. Not that any of the Thanagarian's brothers or sisters in arms cared – screeching and crying in a chorus of agony and single minded madness, they rushed to swarm and overpower the three invaders, hacking and slashing until there was nothing left.

Cyborg's fist, still stuck in its sonic cannon form, plowed into one of the attacking aliens, shattering its ribcage and actually burying itself a half inch into the bruised flesh. The sheer impact caused the Thanagarian's body to jerk so violently that it would have been thrown back, if Cyborg hadn't also taken the chance to grab it by the shoulder. The wounds would have been fatal, but the Nth Metal consuming the alien continued to struggle, determined to find flesh on this cybernetic opponent. Before it could do so, Cyborg leveled a dark grin her way.

"Boom goes the dynamite."

His sonic cannon flared to life and the Thanagarian was blasted across platform, chastened and coming apart into a widening cone of shrapnel that tore into its companions. Said companions didn't even notice, trampling each other in the rush to swarm their target.

A giant metal crate took that moment to tumble past, thrown from the other side of the platform. End over end, it tumbled, crushing and flattening a score of the insane Thanagarian aberrations before passing Cyborg and smashing into the wall. In the confusion, another of the creatures jumped onto Cyborg's back and left arm. It was another woman – former-woman – her face wet with ritualistic scars a massive black growth over her right cheek. She was actually gnawing ineffectually at his metal armor with savage glee while her left arm drew back with a small sword, hoping to stab down into something soft.

Leaning forward, he took two heavy steps back and slammed her body into the wall behind him with all of his weight and then some. The deafening sound of snapping and splintering bone filled the air as she was crushed between an unstoppable force and an immovable object. Cyborg winced as he heard the gruesome sound of his passenger scraping against the elevator as it continued to slowly descend. Her wings snapped behind her, breaking and scrunching up, but, somehow, she still held on. The Nth Metal blade fused into muscle and skin came down off target, the tip running across the metallic plate covering part of his face, but with so little force that it didn't even nick his armor.

Slamming her back again, all but bursting her like a tomato, he brought his cannon arm around and fired point blank. Part of her vanished in the sonic fire, and the rest he forcibly ripped off by dragging himself along the moving wall. Ducking, he barely avoided a rumbling machinegun barrage of red light from the still upright construct. Plowing past another Thanagarian, he saw it get caught in the crossfire and come apart under the salvo of mercury.

A second later, something exploded, but it was impossible to see what or how. Finally finding a spot to stand back up, he saw the construct tottering on its three legs, one of them now skidding uneasily against the moving incline next to the lift platform. The body seemed to swivel in confusion at the difficulty it was having: two legs on a solid, moving surface, and another on another surface moving in the wrong direction. Another of its weapon pods was a smoking, burned wreck, spraying acidic fumes and radioactive slag into the air and down its body in dribbling droplets.

Seeing opportunity, Cyborg seized it by the throat.

Barreling forward, elbowing a stunned Thanagarian out of the way, he introduced his shoulder to one of the construct's legs. It screeched and ran along the floor, but he was not just content with knocking it off position. Seeing a vulnerable joint, flexed and under stress, he flattened his hand and buried his fingers in. Making a fist and ripping out whatever he could get hold of, Cyborg found his hand wreathed in twisted black vines, spurting red and white slime, wrapped around and insinuated into metal and plastic tubes and wires.

Corkscrewing around, he twisted the entire ruined leg, and the construct came crashing down, unable to balance on just two limbs. Thanagarians caught below were instantly crushed, and then ground further into the gore drenched floor as the machine kept thrashing and bucking, desperate to get back up. The consumed and mutated pilot inside the former fighter craft screamed again, howling and hissing and spitting and cursing like a banshee; the tentacles that been underneath the construct gagged and twisted, disgorging a mass of black and white ooze, along with a half-chewed arm and leg.

The remaining weapon pod tried to zero in on Cyborg, and the defensive plates struggled from such a prone position, but green fire streamed down together with the thunderous THOOM-THOOM of Ranma's NGP rifle. The pod exploded violently, showering toxic material and burning plasma over already half-molten components. More and more poured in: Jinx's plasma carbine in particular vaporized long, molten streaks of Nth Metal and corrupted components. The lieutenant's rifle simply blasted entire sections away with pure kinetic energy. Neither let up. Neither showed mercy.

Finally, after a short eternity, the pilot's agonized howls and base rumble faded away.

Mere seconds after that, the elevator reached the bottom floor with a thud and drawn-out, bone-rending crunch. The lift platform was a mess: bodies covered it, in some places stacked two thick. It wasn't possible to take so much as a single step without either crushing something underfoot; rivulets of white formed stagnant pools and streams of corrupted ichor. Amid even all this, some of the flagellated Thanagarian berserkers continued to moan and move, their weapons animating their broken and useless bodies.

"Clear," Ranma announced, sweeping the area. "Confirm."

"Not what I'd call 'clear,'" Cyborg responded, turning to check his half of the area. "But there's no more movement. Aside from... you know."

Taking a bit more glee in their victory than good taste would have warranted, Jinx leapt up onto the chest of one of the downed warriors like a child might splash into a puddle or stomp down on a pile of leaves. She giggled at the sickening crunch her heels elicited from the ribcage, before dancing along the rest of the platform to catch up with her companions. The HUD in her helmet displayed an overlaid map of the ship, and showed that they were only a short corridor away from the armory that Cyborg had identified.

In fact, she could already see the massive set of double doors, even from where they were. The massive golden doors were every bit as elaborate as the even more massive doors of the Temple of Azarath. Ranma really hadn't been kidding when he'd said these crazy bird people worshipped their weapons. It just made the idea of running in and swiping their toys all the better!

The three of them approached the ornate portal cautiously, though, honestly Jinx wasn't feeling all that concerned over another attack so soon, and Cyborg immediately stepped forward and began to examine the door. A probing shove demonstrated that it was locked – no surprise there – and the only access seemed to be a gaudy looking locking terminal mounted on the far side of the door, well away from the exquisite artwork that covered every inch of the door itself.

"Cyborg," Ranma asked. "Can you open it?"

Walking over to examine the doorway, the Titan shrugged. "Should be able to, but this isn't gonna be as easy as any of the other doors. This could take me some time, and there's no way that we're blasting through this baby… unless you feel like bringing the Pathfinder down to provide some heavy fire support."

Not looking particularly thrilled by the statement, the CO took it in stride. "Alright, get on it, then. Jinx, keep an eye on the corridor and make sure we don't have any more surprises sprung on us."

She nodded, checking the motion sensor embedded in the arm of her suit. "Seriously, these things are way too easy to ignore, even with the HUD overlay. And why do they never seem to work when you actually need them?"

The pigtailed martial artist chuckled at that. "Probably because you're too busy ignoring it to actually see any hostiles show up on it."

"Blah, blah, blah," Jinx replied cheekily, mimicking a flapping mouth with her free hand. "Maybe if you put a Tamagachi on this thing, it'd be worth keeping track of."

Sighing, she looked down toward the gore covered elevator, and mentally checked off every air vent, access hatch and loose deck plate that any given psychotic bird brain might suddenly pop out of. Her motion sensor was clear, though, only showing the friendly IFF blips of Ranma, as he patrolled the area a bit, and Cyborg fiddling around with the control panel, trying to gain access.

Boredom settled in quickly after the third minute, though. Honestly, how long was the big metal dork planning on taking to do this? He'd hacked every other door in under a minute flat, was this one really that epic? Not having much alternative, she turned to Ranma.

"So, Lady Fingers, do you know if the Ryouga and his collection of my least favorite people in existence have started their mission to collect that Hanky Panky thing?"

"Raven's Unit inserted a couple minutes ago," he replied, craning his neck to check one of the broken-open ventilation shafts near the ceiling. "Aside from some bad weather – if ya can even call it that – they haven't encountered any hostiles. Hold on a second. I've also got Ryu and Star on another channel."

Jinx frowned at being dismissed, but guessed their CO was getting some new information for them. Just as she'd expected, a minute later their HUDs chimed with an incoming mission brief, courtesy of Nabiki routing and uploading data from Unit Red. It seemed Starfire and Ryu hadn't just been spending the last couple minutes fooling around in the upper decks after all.

* * *

"This has got to be the guy," Ryu observed, pointing at the screen.

It had been easy, once inside, to limit the search of the ship's medical records to just those of officer rank, or what passed for it in the somewhat convoluted Thangarian Expeditionary Force. Ryu had let Starfire do most of the technical work together with her Titans communicator, while Nabiki uploaded their findings to the ship. The first relevant find had been the size and makeup of the ship.

The crew, at time of launch, had been nineteen thousand, four hundred and eleven.

Apparently, aside from the officers who all had personal quarters and even personal attendants and courtesans, living in veritable luxury, the rest of the crew were packed like sardines. Cheap sardines even. The ship also had some 'servitor races' that lived in _even worse_ conditions. It was an impressive feat of engineering to support such a large population on a single ship, even with the use of 'hibernation chambers' – assumed to be an equivalent to the stasis tubes the Cydonian aliens operated. It also painted a picture of there potentially being a LOT more hostiles spread out throughout the ship.

After that, they'd searched for any references to the ship's command or flag staff and any information that would be useful in getting to the nearby 'Officers Armory.' It was within that section of the database that they had discovered some interesting things. The first had been the ship's Commander.

The man looked like an ogre.

Part of it was probably age. There were deep, dark lines around his sunken, scowling eyes. Scars marked his face telling a story written in burns and claws and blades. His head was shaved bare, making no effort to cover the marks left on his skull by surgery. Black hair ran across his thick jaw into a sharply trimmed beard. According to Cyborg's translation software on his vitals he was almost two meters tall and over a hundred and sixty kilos at standard gravity.

"Kreiger Hol," Ryu read the name, an armored finger skimming past a long, scrolling list of citations. "Yeah. This is definitely him."

Starfire nodded, sitting beside him and reading from a twin monitor. "Indeed. We have gravely underestimated the size of this vessel, as most of it was buried within the wreckage. It is not merely a battle cruiser, but a fully staffed Command class Warship." Gesturing to the downloaded map of the entire vessel, she pointed to the bridge, where they had just been, then to another structure, further within the ship. "We had only ventured into the secondary bridge. The woman that I had assumed was the Captain was in fact only a navigator and senior member of the command crew. One 'Gilana Sor'."

"She wouldn't have the self destruct authorization, but she _would_ have had access to the Officer's Armory." Ryu 'tsked' at the lost opportunity. "We'll have to try one of these others. Man, it sucks not having super hacker powers like Cyborg. It'd save us a lot of trouble."

He pulled up two other dossiers.

"Looks like this is the chief medical officer: rank of 'Cantor Commandant.'" He pointed to a severe looking man with a hawkish pointed nose and thin hair. "If were lucky, we'll find him nearby somewhere. According to this, he has Upper Armory access, too."

"I do not believe we have seen anyone matching either of those descriptions," Starfire interrupted.

"This guy would be ideal, too. Senior Sacristan Belucius Ro." The picture accompanying the name was of a barrel-chested Thanagarian with pale blue eyes. Unlike the others, the wings behind him were a natural white, instead of the more typical gray or brown, but they were also thinner and weaker looking, as if they were too delicate and frail to do more than flex imposingly for a picture. The side view of him, in profile, with his helm on, showed that it was of different design than the usual ones, with long white cloth over the front obscuring the face from view.

All except the eyes, which were left to peer piercingly through a slit in the veil.

"Says here he has full access to every Armory on the ship," Ryu observed, gesturing to the security clearance portion of the dossier. "Including the Nth Metal Foundry!"

Sighing loudly, Starfire fell back into her chair, cradling her wounded hand. "Unfortunately, all of this information is all but useless. In a ship this size, filled with enemy combatants, it will be all but impossible to find the exact people whom we are looking for. The only thing we would find is an unending army of abominations intent on our deaths."

"It doesn't matter what they throw in our way. We'll line 'em up and take 'em down." He gave the back of her chair a friendly pat, just enough to jerk it, and her, forward a little bit. "But you're right. Let's try to find a target by location. See if you can search by living quarters? If this database is like the one at Seiran, it should have a cross reference for medical emergencies."

"That much I can do," Starfire confirmed. "Perhaps we should attempt to see if they possess any locational devices, such as our own IFF transponders? That would make it much easier to try to locate our intended quarry, instead of blindly sweeping the ship…"

Quickly getting to work, the Tamaranian's hands moved swiftly over the keys.

"Here we go. Ah yes!" Seeing something potentially interesting pop up, Ryu held up his hand for her to pause, and pointed to a part of the map. "Look at this! This level's different from the others. See?"

He was right. It was part of the lowest section of the officer's quarters wing, and while every other floor was identical in layout, this one had some unusual differences. A few walls had been taken out, creating larger chambers. It also had four antechambers, each one with increased security – the computer was also reading two of the four doors, not including the main one, as 'unlocked.'

"Those are the Commander's quarters," Starfire read.

"Yeah. At the very end. I'd guess the other parts are a trophy room or something, but look at the side rooms. This one belongs to the woman Ranma referenced before, Shandra Mal. Opposite hers is Gilana Sor. This other one belongs to another female officer, Tyria Hun."

"What about the fourth?" Starfire asked, and brought up the last dossier. "The door on that room is still locked. One moment…"

Cleverly, after only a little work, the Tamaranian princess was able to bring up a security feed from two of the four rooms. One was of Shandra's room: it was large, plush even, with hints of luxury in the darkness. The Thanagarian woman clearly had high standing, perhaps from nobility, to have been given her quarters. The other camera showed Tyria's quarters. They could see the woman still in her room, long dead, with a gun in one hand, and an intact mace in the other. She seemed to have barricaded herself in, and now lay draped across a pile of furniture. Despite losing her life, she had not succumbed to the Nth metal plague as so many others had.

"Both doors are locked," Starfire observed. "But one is locked from the inside. The other from the _outside_."

"That's strange…" Ryu muttered. "From the outside?"

"There appears to be a block on who is in the other room." Starfire narrowed her eyes as she worked, using Cyborg's software to further convince the computer she was one of the legitimate staff techs. A stroke of luck hit when she noticed that the machine had already detected ship-wide medical emergencies due to the compromised – see: sabotaged – life support systems. Confirming the emergency, she found new levels of access.

"I have it!" she declared, bringing up the fourth profile.

It was another woman, but she was clearly not Thanagarian. She had no wings, and her skin was extremely pale, with tattoos under her eyes and over her forehead. Her hair was a strawberry blonde. She stood out against the militaristically regimented and clean cut Thanagarians on that alone. The dossier indicated that she was roughly above-average but otherwise similar to human female in height and weight: a little more than a foot taller than Ukyou or Shampoo. Her unusual, spiteful features aside, she looked human…

"Is she human?" Ryu asked, wondering.

"No. ...She is not." Starfire pointed, this time, to a strange un-translated word. "I know this symbol. Where I come from, **all** people know this. It is the mark of Apokolips."

Ryu raised an eyebrow at that, clearly not understanding.

"And that means…?"

* * *

"Technical advisors, according to our little blue buddy back on Pathfinder," Ranma relayed to his team. "He says it shouldn't be an issue. 'Course he also says the same thing about the hordes of nasty shit we're running into down here. Either way, we're to continue as planned."

He quickly added, just in case they'd been living under a rock and forgotten UNETCO's modus operati: "If we find any interesting tech, especially weapons tech, tag it and bag it. The usual."

His team answered to the affirmative, and Ranma nodded at them.

What he kept to himself was that he felt the tug of Shanda Mal's suppressed memories, taken from the absorbacron. The Saotome heir had already compartmentalized them for later deletion. His already existing mental discipline and psionic training made doing so relatively easy, even with his concentration being somewhat… strained of late. There was useful information there, but it was potentially troublesome to try and access too deeply. The face of this nameless woman from Apokolips, however, brought something back. Shandra had known her. Or at least, she had strong memories of her.

There was no time to dwell in them.

With a quick, self congratulatory 'booyah,' Cyborg backed away from the Arsenal door, pumping his fist. It was opening. The gold disk in the center of the door rotated with a gentle hum, part of it retracting. Seams widened, forming a cross through the middle, breaking the blast doors into four segments. As those quarters separated, the gaps between them growing, the nearby light from electro-chemical flares illuminated spiraling screws within, slowly rotating and unlocking.

As the armory prepared to reveal its secrets, speakers in the walls crackled to life.

A hoarse voice droned in a rising and falling credence, chanting in warbling, alien gibberish. It was painful to listen to, and as the voice build to a screaming, shrieking climax, it screamed the last few words as if it's voice was about to give out entirely. "Ai Gol Va! Ixthultu un Urgrund Va!"

"More gibberish," Cyborg growled, glaring for the source of the sound. "Even the personal babblefish can't make heads or tails of it."

"Ignore it," Ranma ordered, tucking his NGP rifle into the crook of his arm. "It's the same chattering I saw in Shandra Mal's memories. One of us must've triggered something. Ryu. Star. Finish up there and get moving, ASAP. Cyborg. Jinx. My six and ten. Watch your weapon arcs."

The trio advanced as the last of the vault doors receded into the walls.

"Ai Gol!" The voice repeated, screaming at itself. "Ai Gol Va! Ixthultu un Urgrund Va!"

Ignoring the insane ranting, the actual speaker long dead, floodlights splashed against the floor and walls. Racks of machinery adorned the latter, along with tons of machine parts. Webs of vein-like black and red growths, in some places fat and cancerous and the size of a human head, covered the forgotten contents of the armory vault like blackened spider webs. Spaced erratically across and within the vein-like growths were strange black chains, looping around old weapon and fighter parts.

Splayed across the floor, they found half circles of blood, spilt in great arcs and loops of arterial spray. Tossing a flare and bringing the light attached to his rifle up, Ranma caught sight of the first body. An eye twitched behind his helmet at the discovery dangling from the ceiling.

It was a Thanagarian torso, minus the wings and arms, left to bleed out like a carcass in a slaughterhouse. The xeno hung motionless from a brackish chain, impaled by a massive meat hook, the black tip of which could actually be seen protruding from the sternum. A few scraps of upper body armor remained, but the rest had been torn off. The unmistakable crisscross marks of lashings covered the front of the body and the thighs like stitches of dried scarlet, while strange sigils and meandering text had been drawn in blood all across the skin. Under the scrutiny of Ranma's light, he swayed slightly in the breeze of a nearby air vent.

"Man... I do not like this," Cyborg muttered.

"Join the freakin' club," Jinx whispered back, anxiously swinging the illuminating light of her rifle around the room. "Even I'm starting to get over the whole House of a Thousand Corpses vibe we got goin on."

Swinging his light around and then up to the ceiling, Cyborg shook his head. "That's not what I'm talkin' about. It's... and I know this is gonna sound crazy, but it's the Guardian."

"What?" Ranma asked, suddenly interested in what he was saying.

Looking around for a moment, Cyborg cut his mic and stepped closer to the pair of them, gesturing for them to do the same.

"Just think about it. Doesn't it seem messed up to you guys? I mean, sure, the guy is a Guardian, so I buy him knowing about this ship, and knowing that there's Nth metal here is a foregone conclusion... But how could he possibly know about some random lady from Apokolips hiding away in a room, let alone that she was a 'technical advisor'?"

"What are you getting at?" Their CO asked.

"I... don't really know, yet," Cyborg admitted. "He didn't know anything about the corrupted Thanagarians, and there was no sign of a Green Lantern war party sweeping through here. So... where is he getting his info from?"

"That's a good question," Ranma replied, with some trepidation. "I think Nabiki's wondering the same thing. She 'accidentally' left an open line back on the ship so I could hear the conversation, and when she asked where he was getting his information, his only answer was that it was 'obvious' the Thanagarians couldn't have come here by themselves. Then P-chan said to focus on the mission and not get 'sidetracked.'"

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" Cyborg replied sharply.

Jinx stepped forward, interposing herself between them a bit. She then fired a serious stare Ranma's way. "Weren't you guys super pissed at Ukyou, when she stood up for that guy? What are you gonna do if Hibiki starts doing the same?"

"I…" Ranma reigned in his impulse to admit he had 'ain't got no idea.' He could see it wasn't what anyone in his team needed to hear. "Look, Ryouga's our commanding officer," he said this seriously, just so Jinx wouldn't forget it. "But if he's unable to remain impartial and clear headed, an' put the mission and the crew first, then I'll take over. That's part of my job, too."

Jinx continued to study him through lidded eyes, then finally nodded. "Well... _that_ hardly fills me with confidence, but it sure beats the alternative."

"Agreed," Cyborg added, "Well... on the alternative thing, not the lack of inspiration part. Still, we'll worry about that when we have to. No point in dwelling on it while we're still up to our own eyes in crap."

Not wanting to say any more on that subject, Ranma motioned them to resume the search. He could understand, Hell, even share, their concerns and not just about the subject of Trespasser's knowledge. The idea of Ryouga brushing Nabiki off like he had done back there, for the offhand dismissal of a xeno? One they had no reason to even trust? It was unimaginable. Especially for Ryouga.

Yes, Nabiki was still a greedy, petty, troublemaking bitch half the time, but she'd worked hand-in-hand with India for so long that, her little fling with Hibiki aside, Ranma knew Ryouga trusted her. He trusted her opinion and insights and instincts. There was something going down back on the ship, and Ranma Saotome knew the sooner he got back to see it for himself the better.

The question was: if he did order Ryouga to step down, would he do so without a fight?

"Another one over here," Cyborg announced, highlighting another dangling torso, this one female. It had suffered the same treatment as the one before: beaten, lashed, the arms and wings removed. Strange and obscene text covered it in winding paths, like some insane, fleshy piece of parchment.

The voice of the ship's comm, meanwhile, continued to chant and drone. "Ai Gol! Ai Gol Va! Ixthultu un Urgrund Va!"

"Motion sensors are clear," Ranma reminded them. "Let's keep moving."

The place was blighted in the most foul sense and it only got worse as they approached the rear section of the Arsenal. There were workbenches here, where cloistered engineer-priests should have been slaving away to produce or maintain Nth metal maces and axes and swords while their more experienced brothers and sisters worked on the occasional rifle or pistol for the officers or heavy weapons teams. Now the tables were deserted and abandoned, some smashed in a rage or violently overturned.

Others should rightly have been destroyed, but were instead drenched in blood. Where racks of neatly lined weapons should have been stored, the three members of Unit Blue found more bodies. Some were Thanagarian and hung by more of the meathooks. Most were… alien. Humanoid, but lizard-like, with heads and toothy maws that looked straight out of Jurassic Park. These alien-aliens were stapled to the walls in rows, crucified with their hands over their heads, in varying states of dismemberment. Some were missing legs and more than a few had been ripped open with anything but surgical precision; almost all had been beheaded, and many seemed to have had heads from one affixed to the necks of another. The damage done looked too erratic, too un-disciplined, to be the work of anything other than a butcher and a madman.

"I'm guessing these are the Lizard-kin or whatever," Ranma asked, shining a light over one of the bodies. Mal had mentioned them in her last message. "The ones they killed below decks."

"There's nothing useful here," Cyborg stated cooly, actually drawing an impressed glance from Jinx. "If the rest of the Arsenal is like this, then we might have to rely on Ryu and Star to check out the Officer's armory, after all."

"Nothing to do but keep looking… maybe we…" Ranma suddenly hissed, rifle already pointing in the direction of the blip on their sensors. "Movement! There!"

Two other lights followed, seconds later, zeroing on another corpse bolted to the wall. Unlike the others, the wings and arms on this body were intact. White cloth and golden armor were intact, but stained by black and red. Chains and hooks pierced the flesh, pinning it to the wall and stretching the skin almost to the point of ripping. Dull yellow eyes reflected the light, the glassy orbs protruding from malignant growths that covered the body and fused it into the wall.

Behind the slowly writhing Thanagarian corpse, the trio could barely make out a faint blueish glow, as high-tech lines lit up. Behind transparent crystal and gold plated vestments and ornaments, machinery began to come to life. Strange pumps began to move, beating like pumps in a mechanical heart, their rhythm increasing in tempo as they came back to life.

A light caught the Thanagarian's face, hidden behind long white cloth…

Two bright red sparks glowed in the darkness behind the veil.

_"(I__…__)"_ A thunderous voice shook the vault, and limbless corpses swayed and shook from their chains, drops of red falling with a pitter-patter chorus. _"(I can. Smell you.)_ WHORES. FILTH." The words suddenly became clear, though no less booming. "Your minds are unclean. You smell of shit."

Obviously long since desensitized to the madness, Jinx leaned over and jabbed Ranma in the ribs, stage whispering, _"Psst! I think he's talking to you."_

"The Sacristan," Ranma said, still taking aim at the crucified Thanagarian monstrosity. "Shandra Mal thought him dead.'

"The unclean. UNWASHED IMPURE. Part of this body was once known by that name. Keeper of Vestments. LIES. ALL LIES." The chest wrenched, and black slime oozed from the mouth behind the veil, a poisonous path running down the alien's torso. "Ixthultu in Urgrund Reborn. Ixthultu the Nightmare Bringer. My eyes were forced open. PEELED AWAY. Cut the skin. Draw it back. He Is Inside You. Inside You. Inside You!"

"Enough of the babbling nonsense," Ranma yelled, flicking on the laser sight so it painted a clean dot on the abomination's forehead. "Give us whatever clean Nth Metal is left and we'll leave."

"The blood of Ixthultu?" the Sacristan asked, strange things moving behind his veil. "NEVER. MINE. It is wasted on the impure! HATE THEM. SCRAPE AWAY THE MEAT. Only I may shape it! Only I am worthy! MINE. MINE. MINE! MINE MINE MINE!"

With a sudden crash, a rack covered by mutilated corpses fell, tipped over by a dark shape rising out from a fleshy tomb. Like a puss-filled fungal scar, it swelled and disgorged and tore open. A mechanical leg ripped free, trailing embryonic slime, and it was not alone. Fleshy sacks crawled out from under smashed debris and pulsing, bleeding veins. Jinx swiveled her light to catch one as it paused, looking like a fat, bloated tick, one massive yellow eye growing from its swollen abdomen. Then it vanished under the tipped over rack.

"PAIN. You can not be allowed to defile this place. NO! Suffer. SCREAM! You will please Ixthultu with your pain!" With a wet, tearing sound, the Sacristan ripped free from the wall and vanished in the darkness, the chains along the walls and ceiling creaking and chiming in frantic unison.

From under the rack, smaller shapes began to move. Spinning, Cyborg caught light of something fast adhering to one of the headless corpses they had discovered before. It was one of the fleshy things released before. The tick-like body had already burrowed into the mutilated corpse, legs sinking into flesh like hooks around the gaping neck. The one lidless yellow eye stared into the light, warped and monstrous and unblinking.

The body it attached to began to stir.

"You will be raped with knives and spread over hot steel!" The Sacristan howled from the darkness and shadows. "CUT THEM OPEN. Your skin will be flayed away and fed to you! Your bowels will be opened and your eyes removed! REMOVE THE IMPURE! I will stretch apart muscle from bone! Great Ixthultu will have you! Great Ixthultu will TAKE YOU. **I will purify your flesh!**"

Ranma, Cyborg and Jinx were already firing, gunning down the first of the faceless monstrosities as it rose. Still more came. Headless hosts were taken first, but even those left mostly intact were quickly absorbed. The black ticks burrowed in, sawing away part of the neck to hungrily attach and take over. Others, bolder than their kin, eschewed a dead host for a living one, jumping straight at the three intruders to either be splattered by weapons fire, a pink hex, or by a fast moving fist.

More laboriously, pinpricks of light from rising twisted constructs broke the concealing dark.

* * *

**Heresiarch**

It was a mountain in the form of a man. There was very little stark topography within the inside of the dimensional hulk, as ships and captured meteors and other space debris became worn down by endless storms and cycles of warping energy. Heresiarch, designated site Whiskey-Alpha-One, rose like a pyramid against the desert: a clearly artificial structure where they should be none.

It was no underestimation to call him – it – a literal mountainside either. Visible from afar as a mere peak of some sort, the true scale of it only became apparent as one drew closer. At its base, Heresiarch stretched in a couch semi-circle, like a crucible: a massive prominence four kilometers high and nine kilometers wide along the face. An eon ago, the coal black surface may have been the body of a nickel-iron asteroid, partly hollowed out.

Within the prominence, appearing as if carved from the mountainside, was the at-first vague humanoid form. Legs stretched from the base and roots of the alien eminence, a fainter white than the surrounding mass, meeting in a seat at the center of the hollow. What may once have been boots or feet disappeared below the ankle into the all-consuming dimensional hulk below. Rising higher, kilometers higher, the outlines of fingers could be seen, grasping the sides of the mountain like a throne. Much of the rest of the body was indistinct, having sunken into the asteroid-mountain, but a barrel shaped head almost a half kilometer in height slumped forward in silent, eternal repose.

Seeing it all appear, Raven had momentarily been reminded of another mountain she had once hoped to visit, and whispered its name. _Gosainthan_. The "place of the saint" or "Abode of God" … it was more commonly known as Nanga Parbat. For those who studied the mystic, it was said to hide an ancient and legendary monastery, spoken reverently of even on Azarath. She had seen the treacherous face of the snow covered Rakhiot before, in a dream, but had never managed to scale the mystical retreat in her meditations. That great White Mountain was in contrast to this Black Throne.

Yet surely, if ever something had earned the name, "Adobe of God" this had to be it.

"In-incredible…" she heard Ukyou mutter, in Japanese, before switching back to the English. "Wow."

"Topography has identified an insertion point in the middle section," Shampoo observed, sounding a bit too hard to be professional. There was a hint of worry still discernable in her voice. Raven didn't blame her. Had she spoken at that moment, she suspected she would've sounded the same.

They were approaching the colossal edifice, the dead body of a True Titan, in a small green and black bubble that must've seemed like a mote of dust. Literally insignificant in comparison. Inside the tiny sphere of air, Shampoo stood in her MARS armor with one arm on her heavy plasma rifle, a seven foot giant towering over her comrades. Ryouga was in personal armor, his weapons put away. Ukyou was at the front, one hand palm up and forward as she projected the green bubble from the ring on her hand. Raven was to the girl's left, maintaining a faint secondary backup bubble that would power-up and take over in an emergency. The redundant barrier was considered enough to make a brief trip through the hulk's topside level relatively safe.

"Alright, ladies, let's not lose perspective here," Ryouga stated in a forced even tone, "If you've seen one mountain sized guy sitting in a hollowed out asteroid-chair, you've seen them all. We still have no useful information about this place, despite the fact that this Guardian is supposed to be all knowing. That means everyone stays on their toes, because we're going in blind here."

Tapping his helmet, he brought up the link with the ship. "So, Nabiki, have you actually gotten any interior scans of this place yet? Or, for that matter, has our new boss actually told us what we're actually looking for yet?"

"We can't penetrate the inside with any of our sensors," she replied in the negative. "There are some natural caverns in the meteor surrounding WA-1. Recommend you send one of our recon probes in first once you find an entrance. ...and there is no 'new boss.' The Major is in command. Your Oan just keeps insisting we stay close by and observe. Which doesn't sound suspicious at all, now does it?"

"Not at all," he agreed, "As Cy would say, 'I'm just sayin' is all'."

With that, the NCO turned to his team as they rapidly approached the insertion point. "Shampoo, get the probe ready. This place is already about a million times bigger than the Thanagarian ship, and we're down a person from them, so we're likely going to need to split up if we want even a chance of finding whatever it is we're looking for."

Gesturing first to Shampoo, the odd coruscating green and black flashing over her in bands, he then pointed to Raven. "When we get there, Shampoo, you'll back up Raven. Ukyou, you're with me. We'll determine our routes once the drone gives us a map."

"That reminds me," Nabiki said with a polite cough. "Raven, how are you and Ukyou holding up? Any problems out there? Your funny little powers don't show up that well on my medical-feeds."

"No problem here," Ukyou replied first. "This ring is great! I could keep this up for hours!"

Lifting her arm, Raven twisted her hand around, still getting used to wearing Ukyou's discarded personal armor. Her visor had been set to full polarization, though, so no one present could read the expression on her face. That was a feature she had been quick to learn to use. It was really the next best thing to having a hood.

"I have not had to exert myself, as of yet."

"Good. Good. Raven. I'd like to check something with your visuals real quick, since you're new to the personal armor. You're getting the IFF ping I just sent, right?" As Nabiki asked it, a yellow circle superimposed over Raven's motion-sensor IFF display, down in the corner of her transparent armor HUD.

It also came with a text message.

'Say 'yes' if you can read this. I am moving us to private channel.'

Nodding redundantly, still far more used to dealing with a visual component in her communications, Raven replied in the affirmative.

"Why are you moving us to a private channel?" she asked, quietly. "I would prefer not to keep anything from Ryouga."

It took a few seconds for the text response to come through.

'Your alien guardian is listening in on everything that occurs on the nav here. Luckily he is focusing his effort on Ryouga-baby. I wanted to discuss this in private. Ryu and Star found something on the ship not too long ago. One of the crew apparently came from a planet called 'Apocalypse' (am I spelling that right?) – do you know about it?'

Behind her helmet's visor, Raven's eyes widened, too shocked to even comment on the fact that such stealth was likely useless in such proximity to such an incredibly powerful telepath.

"Yes, I do," she answered with a trace of disgust. "It is the home of one of the most powerful and evil beings in all of existence. And before you accuse me of hyperbole, consider who my father is."

'That's about what Starfire said. A being of great evil and all that. Do you have anything more concrete? Why would someone from there be here? Why on that ship? I take it you've run into these sorts before?'

"Not personally, no. But others have. I have heard terrible things about..." Only then did something occur to the violet haired Titan. "Wait, did you say she was an actual member of the crew? _Not_ a prisoner? I do not like the sound of that. Anyone willing to deal with the likes of Darkseid is not someone that I would trust."

A longer than normal pause indicated Nabiki had gone back and deleted something, rethinking her response.

'If what your Oan says is even slightly true, than that Apocalypse woman is the reason the Thannys got here in the first place. If you know anything about why those aliens would be working together, please tell me first. I'm hoping something you've heard will help me figure out what's really going on. Bear in mind we do not know why Trespasser came here either.'

Raven shook her head, though she tried to stop herself, not wanting to draw any undo notice. Ryouga, Ukyou and Shampoo were all paying all of their attention to the insertion point and not her, unable to hear her speaking.

"Unfortunately, I have no idea what they could possibly want here; Darkseid's followers, the Thanagarians, or even the Guardians. But if I were you, I would be starting to get suspicious at this point, so many people coming to this place, on purpose no less."

'I know.'

A few seconds later, Nabiki added, almost as an afterthought:

'I don't like being used. And right now, I'd bet every dime I have that at least one of these missions has nothing to do with getting home. Be extremely careful and keep an eye out. The Oan probably sent Ukyou here for a reason.'

At that, Raven eyed the would-be Lantern in question. Suddenly, she found herself wondering why Ryouga had chosen to split them up in such a way: her with Shampoo, him with Ukyou. Unlike everyone else here, though, she knew that he was the one person that she could trust without reservation.

Totally oblivious to all of this conversation, Ryouga appeared to be discussing something with Shampoo. Everything about this situation was suddenly getting worrying. What in the world was someone from Apokalips doing on the Thanagarian ship? What was it that the Guardian wanted from this place? And how would she be able to protect Ryouga from a possible betrayal by Ukyou if they were all split up?

It was about then, that Raven noticed that Ryouga had turned her direction.

"Um, Nabiki? Is Ryouga talking to me?"

An annoyingly long delay.

'Crap, yes. He just asked you if Ukyou's armor was fitting okay. I'm switching you back to the main line.'

A second later, Raven nodded, seeing her channel status change. Stuttering for a moment, trying to improvise a suitable response, she said the first thing that she could think of -

"It's not hindering me, though, it is a - a bit tight in the hips."

"Ha!" Ukyou interrupted, her mood quite bright given the task ahead of them. Her ring flared a content viridian as they few closer to the chest of the dead Colossus. "You'll get used to it, sugar. You don't know tight till you've been in one of these Green Lantern outfits. Talk about form fitting! Even that one-piece bunny suit Konatsu's sisters forced me to wear had more room. Of course, that was humiliating in and of itself. I'm not a fan of looking like a Playboy Bunny."

Raven rolled her eyes.

"Yes..." She replied drolly. "I could never imagine wearing anything at all like a form fitting one-piece. You have my sympathies over how humiliated you must have been."

Though, the less anyone said about bunny ears the better.

"We're getting pretty close. Time to switch over." Ukyou announced, turning her palm into a lightly closed fist. The bubble around them shifted, forming straight lines. Angular shapes were still easier for her to finely visualize and control, so the bubble reverted to a cube. They picked up speed, shooting up along the vast expanse of Heresiarch's chest towards a diamond shaped crevasse in the upper center of the megalithic torso.

"Trespasser-dono said we needed a fragment of this thing's inner self," she reminded them, though it had been previously covered in the briefing. "Remember not to physically touch it if you find it."

"Yeah," Ryouga acknowledged, "We all received the same incredibly vague and not entirely useful mission objective. Hopefully it won't be too far from the 'tears of a happy oni', or the 'dreams of a nightmare'."

Ukyou gave him a disapproving look. "You should take this more seriously, Sergeant. The Guardian is putting a great deal of trust in us."

"A great deal of trust in you, don't you mean?" he asked back. "The way he looked at me, I'm pretty sure the only reason he isn't scraping me off his shoe is that I'm twice his height." He then turned to Raven. "Do you think you'll be able to figure out what this 'inner self' thing is? Ukyou sounds like she'll know it when she sees it, but I'm a bit more dubious."

Raven shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea, honestly. This is actually somewhat of my area of expertise, but... well, this is a bit beyond anything I've dabbled with before."

"We don't even know what this thing is," Shampoo said, craning the neck of her MARS to stare up at the vast body looming over them. "You say this 'god'? No look like 'god' to me."

"Heh, actually," Ryouga replied, "I've heard of plenty of religions that would revere something like this as a god. Heck, even in Japan, I doubt this wouldn't stick out too much in that regard." He took another look for himself, straining his eyes to try to take in as much as possible. "Granted, this is a bit bigger than anything back home. Looks like it might have needed a few gods to make it, at the very least."

"Shampoo thought your family was Buddhist?" she asked back, still dissatisfied. "This seems more like a monster than a 'god' to me."

The Lost NCO shrugged absently. "Like I can keep what I know straight in my head, with all the traveling I do."

"And you would be surprised how many 'monsters' are revered as 'gods'," Raven added in an odd tone. "At one time, even lightning was revered as a god. Sometimes divinity is just a matter of perception…"

The tiny diamond shaped hole they had detected from afar was, up close, almost half the height of Titans Tower. Inside it were other diamond shapes depressions, each smaller than the one preceding, forming a multi-dimensional staircase towards the center, with each step being taller than a man. As they drew closer, and despite the shields around them, the four noticed something.

"Is this… frost?" Shampoo asked, looking down at her armored left hand. There were flecks of ice, like hoarfrost, or at least what looked like it, forming on the surface of the MARS. A sympathetic tremor passed through them as they crossed some unseen barrier.

"Psionic readings just spiked," Nabiki warned the team. "I'm making adjustments."

Ukyou had it on her, too, despite the ephemeral green shield that hugged her like a skintight barrier. Brushing some of the psionic rime away from her ring, she set them down on the innermost diamond within the formation. It led directly into a dark cave, so thick with ice that it presented a solid massive wall. Despite the angled floor, an unearthly gravity seized them, and they righted themselves so that the world was at an angle, and they were standing straight. It was a strange and slightly off-putting change of perspective.

"Should I bust it open?" Ukyou asked her team leader, sounding almost eager. "Or cut it open or melt it or what?"

"You sure that this is ice?" Shampoo asked, cautious. "Is kind of ironic coming from me, but maybe we shouldn't go breaking our way in?"

"It might behoove us to try to find another entrance, one that isn't blocked," Raven quickly agreed.

Looking around, Ryouga nodded to himself. "Yeah, before we start blasting, everyone have a quick look for another point of insertion. Nabiki? A little help?"

"Pathfinder's topographic survey hasn't picked up anything as large as this one on the chest," Nabiki supplied, quickly double checking. "I'm uploading locations of the most likely alternatives you can check out."

A second later, and the pictures came up on Ryouga's personal armor HUD. The first was a crack on one of the fingers, of unknown depth and penetration. Topographic scans indicated it was wide enough to squeeze through, but not large enough for Shampoo and the MARS. Things were more promising around the legs and 'ankles' where absorption into the dimensional hulk had created a large number of seams and ruptures, many quite large. It was extremely far from the center of mass where they were now, unfortunately. Other small cracks had been detected, but would be hard to squeeze through.

Despite the titanic mass of Heresiarch, it was remarkably intact.

"Sheesh, Nabiki, why do you gotta go ruining my day like that?" Ryouga grumbled into his comm.

"Sorry Hibiki. Your call if you want to head back down to the base and work your way up inside. There are caves in the rock, too, but we've got no idea where those go."

"And no real idea on how deep this entrance goes, either," Ryouga added, not overly pleased, "Seems like we have a choice between going in blind, or backtracking a few miles down to the feet and going in blind again." Hmm'ing to himself, Ryouga finally let out a sigh. "Well, I guess we might as well go in here, then. I'm feeling way too lazy to go all that way for the same odds that we have here."

Instantly, Ukyou lifte her hand, ring beginning to glow. "Alright, then I'll open the way for us. It shouldn't take more than a few sec-"

"Whoa! Hold up there, squaddie," Ryouga barked quickly.

The three girls turned to regard him, Ukyou visibly more annoyed than the other two at the sudden order. Gesturing her back, Ryouga approached the obstacle himself. "You, Raven and Shampoo need to conserve your power and ordinance as much as possible. I'll see if I can't take this 'ice' out in a less explosive way, first."

With that, Ryouga lifted his hand and pressed it to the icy surface, looking for any suitable breaking points to work with. That it wasn't ordinary 'ice' had been apparent by the fact that it materialized out of nowhere, and in the absence of any real moisture. Bits of it were clinging to his armor, and as he placed his hand on the wall, most of it spread from his palm across his hand.

It definitely wasn't natural.

Experimentally pushing, he found his hand going into and through the 'ice' like it was water. There was resistance there, not insubstantial, but it flowed away from pressure. It didn't crack or shatter. Pulling his hand back, he saw the psionic rime pour back in to fill the gap. He could almost feel breaking points in it, but it was shifting, transitory… almost illusionary.

"Hmmm, on second thought, it looks like blasting will probably be unnecessary." Reaching out, he pushed his arm further into the 'ice' all the way up to the elbow. "Why... I bet I could just walk right through. Just let me-"

"Ryouga!" Raven barked, concern tight in her voice. "I don't think you should do that so casually. At least let me protect you first."

"You can't even fly, you jackass!" Ukyou also objected, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him back out. "What if it just becomes a sheer drop inside?"

Ryouga shrugged, obviously not too concerned. "And what if it turns into Tapioca on the other side? No way to know unless we go. Sheesh, when did you girls turn into such Panic Nancy's, here?" He turned to Shampoo for support. "Am I right? Since when has everyone been so concerned over little things like falling to our doom?"

"Close eyes and jump is very impressive strategy! But Shampoo also have better idea." Stomping forward, she plucked a round ball from the side of her MARS armor and abruptly forced her arm – longer than Ryouga's thanks to the battlesuit – into the ice.

"This is…? Ah," she hissed, annoyed. "Too thick. Thicker than even armor-arm. Probe can't make it through by itself. How deep this stupid ice go, anyway?"

She pulled her arm back out, and turned to Raven and Ryouga. Putting away her heavy plasma, her hand found a clip on the hip of her armor. A quick tug revealed a length of exotic alloy wire, used for pulling or towing, like one could find on a military HMMWV or Humvee.

"Let me go in first," she offered. "Just need someone to hold wire to make sure I can come back."

Ryouga shook his head. "All three of you are less expendable than me."

Taking the wire, he wrapped it around his wrist several times. "There, now I don't have to worry about falling."

"Excuse me? What kind of reasoning is that?" Raven asked, almost raising her voice.

"It does raise a good question," Shampoo noted. "Who leads group if you die, lost boy? Most officers send squaddie in first. Macho-macho pride maybe not like it, but rank means you should not put yourself in unnecessary danger."

"I'm the most powerful now," Ukyou added in. "Let me go first."

"That's debatable," Ryouga fired back, over his shoulder. He then looked to Shampoo again. "And you're saying that you'd prefer I put you in unnecessary danger first? Lord knows that you'd be able to take my place, and do a better job of it, if anything happened."

The male martial artist frowned beneath his helmet. "Fine, you win, Shampoo. You're the most heavily armored. And it was your idea, too, so you go first. I'll be ready to pull you back at the first sign of trouble, though."

"Good. You're stronger than either of these two, anyway," Shampoo said, referring to the uniquely empowered duo of Ukyou and Raven. "Will be one tug for good, two for bad, three for 'run for life.'"

Not waiting to see the disagreeing pout or annoyed huff on the super powered girls' respective faces, the Amazon strode into the rime-frost barrier. Holding fast to the towline, Ryouga braced himself and watched as her large, MARS armored form disappeared completely behind the surface, swallowed whole as if she had never passed. Only the line from her armor to his arm protruded from the strange curtain of ice.

"I've lost contact with Gold-Two." Nabiki warned. "Even her IFF transponder."

For a few long seconds, Ryouga could only watch the reflective surface of the barrier.

Then he gave the line a single quick tug. There was a brief pause, and a tug came back. He waited, but that was all. One tug. Shampoo's quick, basic code for 'good.' Based on her strides, the "ice" had to be incredibly thick for her not to be through it yet. At her pace, she must've covered at least twenty meters.

A handful of tense seconds passed, and the line gave one more tug, and then slackened. Ryouga's grip tightened in anticipation of pulling her back through… but then the line grew taunt again. For more than a solid minute, Shampoo continued, out of sight and out of contact.

"How deep is she?" Ukyou finally asked worrying the ring on her finger. "What's that stupid hussy _doing_ in there?"

"Hey! Watch the language, squaddie," Ryouga barked, still holding onto the wire as if it were his own life line, and not Shampoo's.

He had been afraid of that: losing contact. Odd magical ice walls were never a good sign. And the fact that he'd never run into one before did nothing to change his opinion on that score. So the trio waited. And waited. A quick glance at his armor's chronometer showed that it had only been a few minutes, but just standing there while someone else risked their life tended to skew his mental clock. Growing a bit anxious, he gave the cord a quick tug.

This time, it took a few very long seconds for Shampoo to reply, again, with one tug: 'good.'

"There's something going on in the ship. The Thanny ship." Nabiki broke the silence. "Hold on. This is going to need my att-"

Growing increasingly impatient and perhaps more than a little concerned for her rival, Ukyou turned her ring on the ice wall. "There's supposed to be some way to see… though walls or something. Isn't there? Shouldn't someone else go in? They can follow the wire, right?"

"Stop!" Ryouga lanced her with a deadly serious glare. "I didn't tell you to start trying to mess with the wall. What happens if you do something that shuts it and Shampoo can't get out? I know you don't like it, but just hold your position. Shampoo knows what she's doing."

Watching the exchange silently, Raven shifted slightly. It was probably a good sign that Ukyou was still worried about her 'rival' Shampoo, but she was slowly starting to wonder how long Ukyou would put up with taking orders as she was. Raven appreciated Ryouga's vote of confidence in her abilities, but wasn't 'too' interested in testing that one hypothetical she had considered before. Ukyou may be a greenhorn Green Lantern, but still…

The okonomiyaki chef gave Ryouga a look that was part angry, part disappointed. For a second, she did nothing, then her hand clenched shut and her arm lowered. Training, and more than a little psionic indoctrination, kicked in.

"Yes. Yes, sir." She took a slow deep breath and closed her eyes. "I'll wait for your say so."

They were again left to wait, but not long. This time the tug came from Shampoo, first. It didn't take long for Ryouga to realize it wasn't just a pull on the towline. It was retracting from Shampoo's end, which meant she was on her way back and it was automatically cutting the slack.

"I think she's headed back," he said, testing the line. "I'm pretty sure."

"Do you think she found it already?" Ukyou asked, staring at the glassy wall. "I thought only Raven or I could retrieve it. Whatever it is."

Ryouga shrugged, but felt far less as-ease than the impression he tried to give. "One can only hope, but I don't trust my luck that far. We'll wait and hear what she has to report."

After a few more minutes, an indistinct shape came into view beneath the surface of the psionic frost-wall. The silhouette paused there, and then a hand came up and broke the surface, pushing out. Shards and crystals of ice fell from the armored fingers, having coated them entirely. More and more of the hand emerged, blindly warding away anyone nearby.

Except for Ryouga. Letting go of the towline, he took Shampoo by the hand, and pulled, helping her through the crackling, breaking surface of the barrier. More of the MARS powered armor revealed itself, and it wasn't alone in its dramatic emergence.

Shampoo dropped a frozen body at their feet.

It was another Green Lantern, that much was obvious by the skintight green and black bodysuit. It was animalistic looking, with a short canine snout and a huge, muscular body and bear-like paws instead of hands. The lantern ring on it's right hand glinted, reflecting some strange otherworldly light. It didn't move or shift once dragged out of the icy morass - the contorted body and face remained frozen in rigor mortis, one hand up to shield its face and the other reaching out. The bear-man's dull yellow eyes were wide and his mouth open, as if he had simply stopped living, mid-sentence.

"Was… was two of them… in there…" Shampoo explained, breathing heavily within her powered armor. "Other one was... was almost Sectoid looking alien. Was cold. Deep. Like bottom of ocean. Hard to… describe..."

Ryouga's frown only deepened at that. "So... we're not the first people that got sent here? And for some reason our illustrious guide didn't think that it might be pertinent to mention that he already sent two people on this mission, and none of them were ever seen again?"

Instead of Nabiki, however, another voice responded.

"So. Romax and Thavor. Dead." Trespasser said with a dismissive 'hmm'. "Heresiarch must have rejected them. How petty. I was certain Thavor, at least, would be granted admittance."

"Why are you on this line?" Shampoo asked, immediately perking up. "Where is Major lost boy?"

"He is unfortunately preoccupied by some business on the Thanagarian vessel. As is his _woman_." There was a short pause. "Do not worry … I am watching over you now."

"And we can't tell you how thrilled we are by that," Ryouga replied with an audible growl. "So, were you planning on telling us that you sent two Green Lanterns to their death here? Oh, and while we've got you on the line anyway, maybe you can fill us in on this 'accepting us' crap? I'm not sending anyone else in there if there's even a slight chance of them dying! So you better explain and explain now, got it?"

"Your subordinate in the power armor is alive, is she not?" the Oan asked, already sounding bored with having to explain himself again. "At the least, logic dictates that she made it as far as the Lanterns I sent before. Yet she lives."

Shampoo was quite alive, though the look on the face behind her mask wasn't the expression of one about to celebrate. She was glaring at Ryouga, but he knew the look was meant for the intruder over their communications system and not him. Raven also looked quietly concerned behind her half-tinted visor. Ukyou was still looking down at the dead Green Lantern, chestnut brown bangs concealing her face.

"You are all... uniquely suited for this mission," Trespasser further assured them. "All four of you. What does it matter if those who came before failed? You will _not_ fail."

"Yeah, I bet that's what you told your Lanterns too, isn't it?" Ryouga muttered under his breath. "And that still doesn't explain anything that I wanted explained, or just why we're 'so special'. Seriously, is Evil Me even awake over there? Why the hell are you being intentionally evasive here? I thought we were all on the same side. Can't you just answer a damn simple question with a damn simple answer?"

"Ryouga..." Raven started in a warning tone, but didn't actually stop him.

"Cease being obstinate and obey the orders given to you." The Guardian's voice was tense and betraying a hint of annoyance. "I tire of answering prattling questions. If you wish to return home, you will do as you are told. Enter Heresiarch. Retrieve the Fragment I require. Lantern, you are not to return without it. If your comrades are remiss in their duties, then you will continue alone."

"H-Hai!" Ukyou answered, her head jerking up and away from the dead Lantern Shampoo had pulled free.

But the link was already terminated.

Ryouga let a bark of laughter out at that, and then turned to the chef. "Is that right, 'Lantern'? If I were to 'order' you to stay right where you are, you would countermand that order and go in on the word of Big Blue back there?"

"No, I – I would…" Ukyou shook her head, her eyes squinting as she furrowed her brows. "I would follow orders. Your orders. You are my… superior officer." Even as she said it, it seemed almost difficult for her. "But I – we have to do this. You have your orders, too."

Ryouga nodded. "That I do, that I do, but I have a bit more leeway in how I work with those orders."

Pausing, he sent a reassuring glance Raven's way, looking for a bit of reassurance in return.

"Besides, I have every intention of going back in; I was just hoping your new best friend might actually try making himself useful for a change. I'm not exactly a fan of finding out that he didn't even consider two dead lanterns worth mentioning before sending us in there."

He then gestured to Shampoo and then Raven. "Alright, you two are going in first, I want you to reach where you found the Lanterns and stop there. Raven, once you're there, see if you can... I don't know... 'divine' any answers as to what the hell is going on."

Turning to look pointedly at Ukyou, he grinned. "Ukyou, you and me are going to hang back for ten more minutes, so we can maintain contact with the ship for as long as possible, and give Raven a chance to relay any info she might be able to glean, back to us. After that, we'll go in as back up, got it everyone?"

"Yes, sir!" Shampoo and Ukyou both responded by drill.

Raven simply nodded in acknowledgment, and then drifted towards the ice wall. Without a moment's hesitation, a shell of darkness encompassed her, and she slid through the barrier with almost no apparent resistance. Standing back at the threshold of the barrier, Shampoo paused only to make sure Ryouga had the towline just like before. She then stepped back in, flakes of psionic hardfrost falling from her MARS armored form.

The violet titan was a short distance inside, slowly looking around.

The fact was that the "ice wall" was more like an ocean. It didn't seem to end at all. There were strange shapes, dark within the sea of strange ice, but they appeared distorted and bizarre like mirages or tricks of the eye. The darkness was also quick to recede, making actual pathways seem to form one moment and vanish the next. Even the ground at their feet was nearly insubstantial. Raven blinked, and her perspective changed.

She saw Shampoo standing nearby, but at a perpendicular angle.

"May be best to hold on," she said, extending an open hand. Her voice was, despite the short distance, muffled and warped, like someone yelling through water. "It is… strange inside here."

Raven considered the offered hand for a moment, then opted against taking it. Instead, she simply fell in step behind the heavily armored Amazon and placed a hand on the towline herself.

"In case you need your hands," she gave as way of answer for her action.

In the MARS, the Amazon – normally the same height as the Teen Titan – towered over her like Cyborg himself. They probably looked somewhat silly, walking slowly forward, one behind the other like they were. The towline was the true lifesaver. It was kept taunt, and as the icy world-ocean around them twinkled and surged and shifted, it remained their only reliable form of simple, constant orientation.

"This way. Time strange inside. Keep eye on internal clock."

Raven realized what the other woman was saying about her armor's chronometer: seconds seemed to pass too slow or too fast, without any real pattern. As they went deeper, movement itself also began to feel strange. Despite keeping a steady, perfect pace, sometimes she almost tripped from her steps being hurried along, and sometimes it felt like her stride was twice what it should have been. Shampoo's armored frame kept ahead of her, like a lighthouse against a featureless horizon, increasingly indistinct but still comfortingly, reliably there.

Risking a look far to the right, Raven saw distant twinkles and dark, motionless shapes. It was a bleak and strange world, removed even from the bizarre existence of the dimensional hulk. Yet despite that, the impression of nothingness, of void, of lifelessness, was almost overwhelming. What, Raven couldn't help but wonder, had this place been like when this 'Heresiarch' was alive? Or was it even truly dead? Would this strange place exist in the absence of such a thing?

Quickly losing track of the time, as constantly checking her chronometer was getting disconcerting, she soon noticed an anomaly in the nothingness that surrounded them. It was small at first, and only the fact that there was nothing else to see made it noticeable at all. Rather than rush to investigate, though, the Titan simply continued to follow Shampoo, as she was already heading in the direction of the... object?

In a long-short time, details soon became clear... and Raven felt her stomach sink at the sight. The emerald green uniform was impossible to mistake, even stretched out as it was over the odd, vaguely Sectoid shaped alien that wore it.

It was obviously the second Green Lantern that Shampoo had mentioned. Raven had no idea what race the noble warrior had been, but it was true that it did superficially resemble the 'Sectoid' race that XCOM battled. It shared the large head and black oval eyes, but the fingers were thicker, shorter, and webbed and the arms and legs slightly more muscular. The skin was a lively and mottled yellow and green with some blue tints to it, instead of the featureless and colorless gray. It didn't evoke any of the instinctive fear and loathing that every human seemed to feel towards Sectoids.

Perhaps... this had been the race... as it was meant to have been?

Did this mean that the Sectoid race existed in their universe as well, but... different?

A prominent green ring adorned one of the creature's fingers, and it's large eyes were still open wide... perhaps in terror? Perhaps in realization? Not able to help herself, Raven drifted forward and knelt by the long dead alien's side. Reaching out gently, she slid the Lantern's membranous eyes closed and muttered a small prayer to Azar for its soul. To see so much tragedy, in so short a time, Raven almost felt overwhelmed for a moment.

Noting Shampoo's comforting presence at her back, she quickly regained her composure and rose to her feet once more. As much as she had been pleased to finally meet a legendary Guardian of the Universe, Raven had to wonder just what kind of callous being could so casually toss away the lives of those that had sworn to defend and serve them? There was, of course, a strong parallel to the leaders and commanders of the world from where her current companion hailed. Even to the world from which she hailed. But even there, Raven got the sense that Commander Yasuda, or Captain Ben-Solomon, would not spend – or expend - the lives of their soldiers with so little regard.

_"__What does it matter if those who came before failed? You will not fail__.__'_

The cold, impassive words of the Guardian in regards to the deaths of these Lanterns was chilling, even to one as passionless as herself.

_'__If you wish to return home, you will do as you are told__.__'_

Refusing to frown at her grim thoughts, she turned to Shampoo. "This is where Ryouga told us to go to, correct? If so, then I'll see if I can sense anything of possible importance... Though, unfortunately, I still have no idea what I'm looking for. So please watch my back."

Shampoo's face was visible through her visor, and Raven saw her nod sharply. Satisfied, Raven sat back down, pointedly faced away from the dead Lantern, and closed her eyes.

Darkness consumed her, and trapped as she was within Ukyou's borrowed armor; it was akin to being in a sensory deprivation tank. She could see and feel so little, aside from the constant pressure squeezing down on... certain areas of her body, that the lack of sensation was almost a distraction itself. Still, she forced herself to focus past all of that.

Raven's mind reached out into the void around her.

_'__Was cold. Deep. Like bottom of ocean.__'_Shampoo's words were true, and they applied not just to the strange physical realm they had entered. Even on the spiritual level, even on the psionic level, it was like the bottom of the sea. There was nothing to hold onto: no soul, no consciousness, no thoughts save those of herself and her companion. It was not simply empty, it was frighteningly so.

It was like looking up, and seeing not a single star in the sky.

It was as if an entire universe had died within this vast, trackless, unfathomable space.

Yet even here, there were some of those strange shapes, and seeking out even the most meager presence, she felt one among them flicker like a dead ember among a bed a charcoal, marginally stronger than the rest. Her mind's eye retracted, and she came back to herself. Quickly looking for Shampoo, she saw the armored form of the Amazon woman standing close by, holding onto one of the marking beacons. It was pulsing with a regular, steady light, akin to a heartbeat.

"Lost boy and… coming to…" her voice crackled, but cleared up a bit as she leaned down and pointed. Two other shapes were appearing, heading in their direction. Had it been ten minutes already? Checking her clock, Raven saw it had actually been fifteen. Shampoo's towline was still taunt, which meant she had probably been tethered to something outside.

It was impossible to see, but by the way they were approaching, Ukyou and Ryouga had to be using something similar, but much, much thinner. Raven recalled seeing Ukyou use wires before, especially with the counterweight on her battle spatula. They must have rigged up one of those piano-wire thin lines as a substitute. Without them, navigation inside this 'Heresiarch' would be daunting, even with the copious use of homing and marking beacons.

The four of them left both an electronic marker and a flare behind at the site of the frozen Green Lantern. Then they continued on towards the ember Raven ha felt before. The vision modes in Shampoo's MARS, together with the integrated psi-amp, had helped her find the dead Lanterns, but did nothing to locate the obscure 'fragment' Trespasser had mentioned as their objective.

She and Shampoo took point, with Ukyou and Ryouga trailing a short distance behind.

Minutes passed in strange fashion: nothing ahead, nothing beyond, nothing above and nothing below. Inevitably, they hit the end of their towlines. It took several minutes, especially without reliable communications, but Ryouga and Shampoo managed a workaround. Ukyou's line was retracted, and fitted to the end of Shampoo's. A pair of bandannas were also removed, and a technique used to unravel them. Strung together, the makeshift line allowed the group to carefully continue, everyone keeping one hand on the team's lifeline.

Yet there seemed no end.

No end to the void. Despite a conservative pace, they had walked almost a mile, perhaps more, in a straight line given their physical connection to the outside world, and yet there was no end. Raven could feel something in the direction they were facing, but distance and time were impossible to discern with any clarity. They could as easily stumble on it within a few feet as they could walk for an eternity and never reach it.

Raven didn't even notice it, at first, the changes were subtle and not to the environment. Slightly ahead, Shampoo's form became more indistinct, the heavy powered armor seemingly to wash away in layers. Only noticing it when it became obvious, Raven turned to her hand and tightened her grip. The wire was still there – she could still feel it – but layer by layer, her borrowed personal armor was vanishing. The HUD lingered even as the helmet disappeared.

Her first impulse was to stop, but her legs kept moving of their own accord, as if possessed. Forward. _Ever forward_. Soon, even the HUD was gone. The last of the personal armor's bodyglove faded away, as if is erased by some cosmic artist, and then the clothes beneath. Stripped bare, her pace continued and all concept of time and space seemed to vanish in a haze. The wire in her hand, the lifeline of her sanity, remained taunt and almost painful in her naked hand, her only connection now that everyone and everything else had given way to an endless blanket of white.

How long had she been walking, she wondered at that moment. There was no chronometer anymore. No sense of scale at all. Her legs were tired. Her whole body felt weak. Had it been hours? Days? It was hard to remember when she hadn't been alone, the only thing within nothingness.

_'__Who am I again__…__?__'_ It felt hard to think. _'__I__…__ I__'__m__…'_

Eyes down as she pondered the strange, unhurried question, Raven blinked at seeing two bare feet. Two feet. With ten little toes. Surprised, remembering that feet were something she had too, Raven suddenly remembered who she was and where she was going. Blinking a few times, she followed the feet up and saw... herself. Herself standing in front of herself. But this Raven wasn't naked. She wore the usual black cloak over herself, hood pulled back.

Her lips moved, but it took a few seconds for Raven to hear her own voice.

"I should stop."

Thought barely even occurred to her, as she stared at herself. There were no considerations of strangeness, or incomprehension. She was Raven. Raven was standing in front of her. She replied, almost as if by rote, with the first thing that spilt past her lips.

"Why?"

"I don't think I can exist beyond this point," Raven informed her. "If I disappear, I will die."

It seemed like a simple enough statement. But something tugged at the far end of her mind. If she might die here... something... She wanted to recall something, something which seemed important to her...

Weren't there others with her? She felt that she should be feeling something-

"What will happen to Ryouga?" she asked, actually feeling something twist in her chest. She could barely even recall where the name had come from, in her mind, but for some reason it seemed much more important than her own welfare to her.

"I lost sight of him," she answered herself, eyes tightening in mirrored concern. "They're all gone. I didn't notice it, but they walked past me."

"Then I have to follow," she replied matter of factly. That was all there was to it, really. She wouldn't - _couldn't_ - abandon him, not now and not ever. Willing her own feet to move, she took a step forward.

"Look behind me."

It was phrased so strangely, yet Raven knew what it meant. This Raven was her. Look behind me meant "look behind you." Raven did, and saw a shape motionless on the floor. One hand was clutching an invisible wire, the same one she herself still held, but this Raven's grip on it was weak. She had already collapsed, face down, her bare legs slowly and painfully trying to move beneath her. Unlike the Raven Ahead, the Raven Behind had no cloak, and a thick layer of frost was accumulating on her pale skin, faintly etched with red runes. Her breath came in ragged, labored gasps.

Raven turned from the pitiful sight to Herself-Ahead.

"Without a doubt. If I take two more steps," this Raven said, and pointed at the her-in-the-Middle. "I will die."

The absolute certainty in her own voice, in thoughts that echoed her own, caused the middle Raven to falter. The one behind coughed in response, still trying desperately to move.

"…Just like those Green Lanterns." Raven-Ahead adjusted her aim, until her finger pointed at the nearly dying girl in the floor. "Y-you," she struggled to distinguish herself from herself. "You don't belong here. You are part of me, and you don't belong here."

It was only then, when the Raven-Behind looked up, that she could see the red glow in the dying girl's eyes. _'__You__'__re part of me, and you don__'__t belong here.__'__'__At the least, logic dictates that she made it as far as the Lanterns I sent before. Yet she lives__.__'__'__Without a doubt. If I take two more steps__…__ I will die.__'__'__You are uniquely suited for this mission__…__ you will not fail__.__'__'__I didn__'__t notice it, but they walked past me.__'_

Her hand tightened, still feeling the wire press into her skin.

_'__So. Romax and Thavor. Dead. Heresiarch must have rejected them. How petty. I was certain Thavor, at least, would be granted admittance__.__'_

It was another Green Lantern, that much was obvious by the skintight green and black bodysuit. It was animalistic looking, with a short canine snout and a huge, muscular body and bear-like paws instead of hands. The lantern ring on it's right hand glinted, reflecting some strange otherworldly light. It didn't move or shift once dragged out of the icy morass - the contorted body and face remained frozen in rigor mortis, one hand up to shield its face and the other reaching out. The bear-man's dull yellow eyes were wide and his mouth open, as if he had simply stopped living, mid-sentence.

_'__I was certain Thavor, at least, would be granted admittance__.__'_

It was obviously the second Green Lantern that Shampoo had mentioned. Raven had no idea what race the noble warrior had been, but it was true that it did superficially resemble the 'Sectoid' race that XCOM battled. It shared the large head and black oval eyes, but the fingers were thicker, shorter, and webbed and the arms and legs slightly more muscular. The skin was a lively and mottled yellow and green with some blue tints to it, instead of the featureless and colorless gray. It didn't evoke any of the instinctive fear and loathing that every human seemed to feel towards Sectoids.

Perhaps... this had been the race... as it was meant to have been?

Did this mean that the Sectoid race existed in their universe as well, but... different?

_'__Yeah, I bet that's what you told your Lanterns too, isn't it? And that still doesn't explain anything that I wanted explained, or just why we're 'so special'.__'_

Ranma, Cyborg, Mousse, then changed to Jinx. _'__You will be Unit Blue.__'_

Ryu, Starfire. _'__You will be Unit Red.__'_

Ryouga, Ukyou, Shampoo, Raven. _'__Unit Gold.__'_

_'__You are uniquely suited for this mission__…__'_

_ 'You are part of me, and you don't belong here.'_

"I… see…" Raven said to herself, waking up as if from a dream. "This is as far as I can go?"

She was back in the void, nothing and no-one behind, nothing and no-one ahead. Her fingers tightened again until she could feel the comforting bite of the wire - the lifeline - that even now held her Unit together. Holding still, clearing her thoughts, she could feel the faint vibrations in that line. She couldn't see it, but she could still feel it. Feel them. A step. An anxious grip, testing. A little shake as someone pushed against it.

They were still there.

They were still there: ahead of her, somewhere.

How had she missed it?

Looking up, knowing she couldn't continue with them, Raven searched with her eyes and her heart. They were out there. Naked and helpless, it didn't matter. She wasn't alone. Her team would continue on, they'd succeed, and then they'd go back together. She knew who she was, what she was doing, and she knew what to wait for.

Standing tall, she was nonetheless stunned when a line appeared across the horizon, separating top from bottom. It shrunk, pulling together, and within moments the line fattened to become an oval, and then a circle. The line in her hands jumped. Something was happening.

Something – but what?

The vast circle, a black line against the endless white, settled down somewhere in the distance ahead of her. It could have been a few feet away and a dozen feet wide, or it could have been a light year away and astronomical units in length. It was impossible to tell. Impossible to know.

(You Are.)

The thought, the impression, the godlike voice, was just a whisper.

_'__You are,__'_ she thought back: you exist.

(I Am.)

_'__I am,__'_ she mimicked, feeling it respond. Her bare skin tingled with sudden warmth.

(It Sends You. No Truth. It Sends You To Me.)

Something akin to a shock ran through her body at the incomprehensible statement. _'No... truth?'_

_'It sends you... no truth?'_ What did that mean? _'No truth? Lies? It sends you... lies?'_

Uncertainty gripping her mind, Raven looked back over her shoulder, half expecting to see the huddled Raven, her four eyes glaring in defiance of her wretched state. But there was nothing. No normal-Raven, standing a few steps ahead, no demon trailing a few steps behind. Only her. The her that was both demon and... and...

_'It?'_ What was 'it?'

(It Still Lives. It Sends You.)

'It still lives?' she puzzled. What could it possibly be referring to? Was it referring to itself? But it wasn't sending her here. In fact, the only thing they've even met in this dimension that wasn't dead was-

The dark Titan gasped.

'It - _He_ sent me to you... to die?'

(It Was Told Never To Trespass Here. It Is Not Truth. There Is No Truth. This Is Heresy.)

Raven's brow creased as she tried to divine the meaning of the words. Heresy? What did that mean?

'Trespasser tried to come here... and you rebuffed him?'

(It Approached Me. It Wanted To Know. None It Had Could Enter.)

'What did he want to know? Why could he not enter? Why can I not enter?'

(You Are Too Small To Hear Me. And I Am Dead. What Remains Will Not Allow You Within. Death. Death But Not As You Know It. Intentions. Gone. Only Heresy Remains. Only Knowledge.)

Raven's frown only increased, and she found her hands tightening into fists.

'I won't let you harm him. Whether you intend to, or not. What will happen to him within you?'

(Four Are Within. Four Seek My Heresy.) There was a short pause, and the vast circle contracted slightly, perhaps a mere planet's width. (Three Approach These Dead Words. One. One Poisons This Place With No Truth. They Are. Will They Continue To Be?) The circle contracted again, the sides squinting.

It didn't take her long to determine who could be the one carrying the poison. The connection was too blatant to miss. But, at the moment, in this situation, the Titan carried no concern in her heart for the others. She was too deeply within herself now. She could only feel the most base truths in her heart.

At the same time, her heart told her to trust in him. It was so very easy to do. Relaxing slightly, her fists unclenching, she let out an imaginary sigh.

'He'll survive,' she assured herself. 'It's what he does... But what truth does Trespasser want? What could be so important?'

(It Is Afraid. It Is Angry. It Seeks That Which Brings It Fear. That Which Ends. My Heresy. Your Heresy. Buried. Rejected. Exiled.) The circle suddenly expanded, growing vast enough to encompass half of creation. **(My Dead Words Hold The First Lie. The Lie That Kills.)**

That... sounded horrifying. What could a Guardian possibly want with that kind of knowledge? And who would he use to experiment with it first? There were very few still living in this dimension, and none of them were those she wished to see 'expended' as those Green Lanterns had been...

'What could Trespasser do with this knowledge? Is there any truth in his words at all?'

(Guilt. It Is Not Truth. Truth Is Not Always Fact. Regret. Atonement. This Is Why It Seeks My Heresy.) The circle contracted again, settling over the featureless horizon, and Raven winced at the headache coming on - as if her mind was overflowing and about to burst from what she had heard. (For Your Kind. Ask It: Has Krona Seen Truth. Speak This Only If It Trespasses. Not If It Is Not Truth.)

The pain throbbing in her skull only increased, and Raven collapsed to her knees, clutching her skull.

'Who... is Krona? I - I don't understand...'

(You Can Not Understand. Understanding Is Death. My Words Break You. You Are Too Small To Hear Them.) The circle receded, shrinking to the mere size of a planet, and then turning back into a fading line. (Think. Pray. And Hear No More Of This Heresy. Watch For When It Is Not Truth. Only Then May You Speak.)

'Only then?' she echoed weakly, the throbbing ache in her skull transforming into lancing pain. It was too much to take in; though she could not comprehend anything of what she had heard, it felt as if she had just learned every secret in the world, crushed into her skull all at once.

Leaning forward, Raven planted her free hand on the ground beneath her, trying to support herself. It was all she could do to retain her consciousness... but it had told her to think-

To think, and to pray.

She could not fail her friends; she would not allow herself to fall here. If she could not hear The Truth, then she would have to divine her own truth, instead. Taking a breath, if there was even air to fuel her lungs, she swallowed her pain, and passed through it.

"Azarath..." The wire in her hand shook with her beating heart. "Metrion... Zinthos..."


	39. Even Death May Die 1

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Even Death May Die_

Chapter 38

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid

Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Ryu took point as they advanced down the deserted corridor, his powered armor taking small steps as he pivoted to cover the right arm of an intersection. A cut down plasma carbine swept the empty space, searching, waiting, anxious to make introductions. He didn't need to check his motion sensor or even his peripheral vision to know Starfire was at his back, one glowing hand making a similar motion to sweep the left intersection.

_'Even if she's acting funny... I have to trust her. I have to trust in my teammates.'_

It had not been an easy lesson to learn for the Kumon heir. As far back as he could remember, as long ago as it mattered, he had been alone. His father had died in the dojo collapse. He never knew his mother. No one had helped him to master the Yamasenken. No one had supported him in his quest to rebuild the family dojo or track down the Saotomes and the Umisenken. He had been alone, and taken strength in that fact: he would succeed or fail entirely on his own merits.

Ryu had thought much the same when approached to join UNETCO. He had expected to be like one of those one-man army characters in movies and mangas. Real combat, he had learned, was not like that. On the battlefield, where death could come at any time, from anywhere, no one could be a one man army. A soldier survived because he protected his allies, and because his allies protected him.

That lesson had been drilled into him by his mentor, Sergeant Karpov; by skirmishes with veteran teams, by hours and days and weeks of training, and by time spent in actual combat. There was nothing honorable about war. There was nothing glorious about it. There were no duels. You fought an enemy to kill him: it didn't matter if you dealt the deathblow or if it came from a comrade a half mile away. You killed the enemy. You accomplished your mission. You went home.

By most accounts he was aware of, Ryu Kumon had developed into a fine soldier. His mentors spoke well of him. He could lead in the field, as needed, and he understood the tactics required to fulfill his mission objectives. The weeks spent so close to so many peers and allies had - apparently - made him more personable, too. He supposed that it helped that he finally had some friends, for basically the first time in his life, and some people he actually cared for and respected. His success rate was exemplary, his scores in battle simulations were in the top ten percent, and he had never had a disciplinary infraction or black mark on his record.

He finally had his dojo, his new family dojo and dream, and it was all because of UNETCO.

It was because he had learned to trust in his teammates.

Starfire. He trusted her. Despite the obviously deleterious effects she was suffering from, he trusted her and in turn, he was prepared to protect her. Not from enemies - she was a soldier after all - but from herself. As they cautiously advanced, he knew there was a distinct possibility that he would have to do something to keep her from slipping away. He had made a mistake losing sight of her before and letting her wander off. She could have died, and as her NCO, he would have been responsible.

_'It won't happen again.'_ It wasn't just what he thought. It was fact. _'I'll watch her back. We'll kill whatever is in our way, we'll accomplish our mission, and we'll both get back home.'_

It was terrible to see her look at people with thinly veiled anger and suspicion, where once there had been burgeoning camaraderie, friendship, and even respect. Ryu liked Starfire; not like he liked Ukyou, but he wanted her back: the plucky, vivacious alien girl he had trained and fought with. They all did, even if no one dared to say as much. Morale was plummeting as it was without anyone pointing things like that out.

_'She'll be fine once we get back,'_ he assured himself. _'Just have to make sure we get back at all. That's not such a tall order, is it?'_

The halls in this part of the ship were wide, wide enough for even four MARS armored men and women to stand line abreast, and richly adorned. This was the officer's section of the ship, with larger rooms and amenities the dregs below probably could've imagined. While hundreds had slept in hibernation chambers until their masters called for them, the upper crust - the warrior elite - of Thanagarian society had lived like Pharaohs.

There was a high-tech aesthetic to all these Thanagarian walls, hidden within the fugly green and blue and gold color motif. They had many vertical sections and high corridors to take advantage of the widespread flight of the crew: where humans would have put ceilings, Thanagarians put railings and catwalks. Back when the ship was manned, it must've been quite a chaotic buzz, with hawkpeople flying from level to level, or leisurely walking across catwalks with no guard rails.

Scanning up above, Ryu paid only cursory attention to the gilded adornments in this section of the ship. Particularly, there were a great many flags and triumphant banners hanging from walls, and a crisscross lattice of semi-functional lights built into the arcing ceiling high above. In this, the Thanagarians showed a preference for primary colors: reds and yellows, no blues, but lots of black in between. Hawks and birds made for common outlines, especially in a stark red and black that reminded Ryu a bit of what he had seen in certain history documentaries about another regime back on Earth.

And, throughout it all, there was that god-forsaken ranting over the ship's communications net.

Flickering screens on some of the walls projected various images. Most were either static, or pure black with a strange glyph displayed in red. A few had scenes from other worlds, with Thanagarians marching and 'showing the flag.' Martial triumphs, Ryu supposed. Scenes from the glory days of Empire, an Empire now all but gone, if the stories from the Yankee squad members world were all true.

"Anything suspicious on your end?" he asked, lowering his rifle slightly as they continued, side by side. "Starfire?"

"Nothing," she replied in a tight tone, "Which, in and of itself is most suspicious..."

"Exactly. Not so much as a peep." The light from his rifle brushed past a flickering propaganda vid to a crate dropped on the floor. The contents had spilled out, revealing some shriveled black lumps that may once have been pieces of fruit and other foodstuffs. "If we end up fighting ghosts next, I will not be happy."

"It is not as disconcerting as one might think," the alien girl muttered, in an off handed tone, as if she were talking to herself. "Raven taught me several lessons in contacting the Nether Realms... it was a most enlightening experience..."

"You two chatted with dead people?" he asked, genuinely curious. "Didn't they have an afterlife or reincarnation to get to? Hell and Heaven and Jesus or whatever? All that Bible thumping stuff?"

Carefully monitoring the wide spaces above their head, the shaded alcoves and freefloating catwalks providing perfect havens for horrid creatures to ambush them, Starfire let out a weak snort.

"As you can imagine, neither Raven nor myself are in anyway advocates of Christianity, nor any other of your Earthly religions. You would have to ask Raven more of the specifics, but there are many restless spirits that roam the worlds. Granted, some are more... congenial... than others."

"Well, I guess its no different than Saotome. He says he's sealed up ghost and onis and other crap. Not that I ever saw any of that weird stuff when I did my martial arts 'walk the earth' thing."

Ryu focused more on the ground level. There were some trays and other bits of junk left here or there. Oddly, there was a pile of clothes left, too. He walked over and quickly fished out one of those fancy looking Thanagarian belts he had seen the others wearing.

"May be something in this we can salvage," he said, checking for any weird tentacles or other blights on it. Finding none, he put it away in one of the MARS armor's external pockets. They then continued on, following the directions on his armor's map.

"So not big on our Earth religions, eh?" he asked, "I've heard you say 'X'hal' before kind of like how we say 'god' or whatever." He chuckled as he thought of another interpretation. "Or like we curse. But I doubt it's that."

"X'hal is a living Goddess," Starfire explained, a touch of awe in her voice. "Her glory and resplendence are without compare."

She paused for a moment, then turned to regard Ryu. "And I would not say that I am not 'big' on your beliefs. I just have trouble reconciling what you _say_ your religions are, with how you actually go about practicing them. It is far too confusing for me to understand."

"I guess it doesn't help that basically no one on Earth agrees entirely with anyone else." Armored shoulders gave an exaggerated shrug. "So X'hal is like a living saint or something? A flesh and blood person?"

Sweeping her hand up and over her head, spinning around slowly as she continued her scan of their surroundings, Starfire shook her head.

"I did not say that she was a saint. Though legend has it that she was once a High Priestess of the Okaarans." Starfire half shuddered, half exalted as she spoke of her goddess. "X'hal is no mortal being. Once, in a moment of uncontrollable rage, she utterly destroyed three of the twenty five planets of the Vegan system."

"Yeah, I guess that isn't too saintly." Ryu responded with a polite cough. "Any reason she went all biblical wrath on those worlds?"

The Tamaranian's gaze dropped, obviously trying to remember anything specific.

"I... am not certain," she admitted, a little hesitantly. "I recall hearing an ancient priest recount stories during my time among the Warlords. I... think it had something to do with a... a son? But it all happened so many millennia ago, who can say for certain?"

"The Okaaran Warlords who trained you?" he asked, but also motioned her forward towards a set of doors at the end of the grand hall. "So X'hal herself was an Okaaran? Not a Tamaranian?"

Following his lead, she nodded and floated over. "So the legends go, yes. The Okaarans are a truly ancient race, far, far older than the Tamaranians."

"It's just strange... it seems like your species adopted their religion. Your people must've had, uhm... indigenous beliefs before you met these Okaarans, right?"

"If so, then they were lost to history long before the recording of time," she replied, not seeming at all disturbed by the idea. "It is for the best, regardless. One cannot deny the awe and majesty of X'hal. It makes things much less... complicated than they are on Earth."

"Variety is the spice of life," he disagreed. "Or so I've heard."

Motioning with his hand, Ryu counted down and they breeched the door. He took overwatch, due to the height and size of the MARS armor, and they clean-sweeped the dimly lit corridor ahead. With a muttered 'clear' and her similar response a second later, they continued advancing towards their objective.

"Anyway, it isn't like there aren't a bunch of religions in Japan, and we're one of the more homogeneous countries. But things must be really crazy on your Earth with so many aliens hanging around," he guessed. "Friendly aliens, I mean. I don't think any missionaries will be trying to find converts among our brand of 'visitors.'"

She shrugged at that. "I am not certain that I know what you speak of. Why would the presence of extraterrestrials make the Earth from my dimension suffer from insanity?"

"I didn't mean literally crazy," he explained. "I meant it must be even more confusing than normal. People are pretty curious, I think. I wouldn't be surprised if there were folks on your world who worshipped super-powered types, or picked up alien religions, or who tried to convert aliens to believe what they believe."

Moving forward, hand held out before her and glowing brightly, Starfire gave an disinterested 'hmph'.

"I do not know," she replied. "I have never heard of such occurrences. I suppose that it is quite possible. Never has anyone discussed subscribing to my way of life, or asked me to do likewise."

"I guess it isn't a big topic among the crime fighting crowd?"

"It rarely comes up in conversation," she admitted.

The hall they were in was dominated by murals on the walls, interspersed with hieroglyphic writing. There were also prominent displays in the form of pictures depicting battles and spaceships. It all seemed a bit ostentatious to the Kumon heir, but then Commander Yasuda's office and those of the Captains had maps and pictures from battles and other things. Maybe this was similar, but meant to be seen before one met with the office caste, instead of during the encounter?

"You still haven't said why you worship X'hal, though," he remarked. "Aside from the admittedly impressive feat of destroying a couple planets. Usually, people worship creation-god types, or mother figures, or... I don't know. Beings that represent enlightenment?"

At that, Starfire turned to regard him, quite curious indeed. "Why do I venerate X'hal? You might as well ask why I breathe the air, or soar through the skies. It is simply the way things are. Why does any one possess faith in another?"

"Maybe I didn't phrase that right," Ryu said, and tried it another way, "I mean, is X'hal like your god? Or is she an enlightened being or prophet you emulate and revere? She doesn't seem to represent any one specific thing, like fertility or ... well, she does seem kind of vengeful... but I doubt she's some Kali-like god of death?"

Starfire's brow began to furrow at the continuous stream of inquiries; turning, she leveled a heated glare the martial artist's way.

"We revere X'hal because she _is_ a Goddess," she answered, a note of finality to her tone. "It is becoming increasingly obvious that you do not understand the concepts of faith and devotion. Do you ask everyone you meet such invasive and disrespectful questions?"

"Sorry," he offered, deciding to let the topic end there. "Guess it just isn't something I can wrap my head around."

"Ai Gol! Ai Gol Va!" the mad recording continued, chanting and screaming. "Ixthultu un Urgrund Va!"

In the absence of their conversation, the gibbering recording continued to rant over the intercom: a litany of crazed nonsense, alternating between hushed supplication and screeched canting. Maybe that was part of why the topic of religion had come up. On Earth, there were madmen within the Sirius Conspiracy who all but worshipped the aliens XCOM fought, and here, the Thanagarians had worshipped the 'old god' the Oan had mentioned. In the short term, such allegiance had probably appeared fruitful. Human conspirators were given cures for disease, wealth and power and influence... and ultimately death, at the hands of their masters or UNETCO. These Thanagarians were no different. They had this miraculous Nth metal, but where had that gotten them now?

Madness.

What would compel people to do such a thing? It wasn't something Ryu understood. This X'hal, too - what had it or she done to deserve such devotion? Was it just that he didn't have the right mentality, he wondered? It was hard to just accept invisible boons, or have faith some distant entity, or even to just believe in luck, when all your life you'd made your own way, with your own strength.

"Zr'agh minis ax ax axlo rist eb deel, _the young and the old, the rich or the poor! All shall be taken!_"

Pausing, the MARS armored trooper held up a hand, signaling Starfire to also stop. It took a second to fully realize it, but... had some of the words actually... made sense back there?

"Rr'hrl caso vir T'thens eb orox! Yrum ahm caxal din!"

Ryu shook his head: had he imagined it? He must have.

There was no way these Thanagarians would be broadcasting in Japanese of all things.

"Yrum ahm caxal din!" the voice cried, raising in pitch. "_Within Us! Within Us All! _Ixthultu un Urgrund Va!"

By the way she perked up, bright green eyes searching for the source of the raving tirade, he could guess that Starfire had heard it, too. He frowned; it had been a lot easier to zone out the jabbering recordings when they had been unintelligible. Frankly, he didn't even _want_ to understand whatever insanity it was trying to spread.

"You heard something in Tamaranian right now, didn't you?" he asked, and she nodded, confused and wary.

"And I can assume that to mean that you heard it in your own tongue as well?"

"Great," Ryu muttered, angrily. "It's getting in our heads. That's a _real_ good sign."

Coming up to the next room, he pointed to the two entrances, and the supposedly inoperative lift built between them. This latter obstacle was slanted, not purely up-down like elevators on Earth. Thanagarians seemed to fly naturally up and down, and so mechanical lifts were reserved for heavy transport or secure areas. Why they preferred the slanted orientation for them, Ryu couldn't imagine, but then he wasn't a weird flying bird-alien-person. What was important was making sure it was clear so they wouldn't get jumped from the rear.

Ducking into the lift, checking up first and then down, he saw a crooked shape several meters away. They wouldn't be getting any guests from below, at least not unannounced ones, but the upper section of the lift's shaft was still exposed. It would've been nice to have a spare proximity grenade to toss in and stick to the wall. The sergeant silently cursed their diminished supply of explosives and tactical kit. If only they'd had a layover after that debacle on Azarath!

Directing Starfire to enter from one of the doors while he took the other, he started a non-verbal countdown. They both breeched at the same time, rifle and star-fire ready. Motion detectors hadn't picked up anything inside, but one could never be too careful.

Ryu's rifle lowered at what he saw.

_'That's... this is...?'_

It was... he wasn't sure what it was. Some kind of trophy room, maybe? There were racks of shields and pieces of ship hulls hanging from the walls, next to the preserved leering upper bodies of giant alien animals. Crossed spears and swords rested behind glass, along with prominently displayed flags - enemy flags, not the red and black hawk-images the Thanagarians preferred - some tattered or partly burned. That these aliens would devote a large space, one big enough for dozens of armored men to move and fight, to such a frivolous and ostentatious display...? Well, Ryu had to admit, it was both stupidly wasteful and undoubtedly impressive.

But that wasn't even half of it.

All along the walls, set under the displays and trophies, were tables loaded with nearly every variety of food and drink imaginable. The fragrance of roasting meat somehow even entered his sealed powered armor, and it was not alone. The air was sweet with another, even headier fragrance.

Soft pillows were arrayed all around, on both sides of the room, and feminine forms appeared from curls of incense. Some crawled on all fours towards him, others lounging on body length pillows and beds. He blinked at the strange and sudden sight. The improbable... impossible sight. The room was filled with men and women, but mostly the latter. The former were drinking and boasting around the tables, and the latter...

Ryu tried to look away. The latter, the women here, were in engaged in... less than ladylike activities.

Despite wanting to avert his eyes, he couldn't help but watch as two of the Thanagarian women licked and poured some sort of glaze off the naked curves of a third. Another pair were lip locked, a brunette pressing a curvy redhead against the wall under a pair of crossed swords as she tore away a loose, almost transparent white robe. Angelic wings ground against the wall as the smaller Thanagarian woman surrendered to her stronger sister. Ryu coughed, his breath catching. Another woman, just a few feet away, was watching him with smoldering eyes as her hands crept down between her thighs.

"What... the hell... is this...?" he muttered, having difficulty even thinking clearly enough to pose the question.

It was just so... disorienting. So out of place. There were intoxicating scents in the air, heady and thick like the smoke in an opium den. An armored foot slid back, as a moaning Thanagarian's wing brushed up against his leg. The blonde woman was squirming under the ministrations of another alien woman - a red skinned female with human features save for a pair of tiny horns.

Reflexively, reacting to the brief contact even with his armor, Ryu's rifle came up to his shoulder and he took aim at the pair...

Yet there was no fear in them at the sight of the weapon. Instead, the one on top licked her lips hungrily, and the one below her moaned, staring up at him expectantly. A third prowled over on all fours, her wings folded delicately behind her and her nubile movements calculated to show herself off in all the most sensuous ways. One hand came up, fingers curling to beckon him over - to invite him in.

_'Take off your armor, sergeant.'_

_"Won't you join us?"_ the red skinned girl with the little horns leaned down to gently nibble her willing and eager Thanagarian victim. _"We'll have so much fun together"'_

_"We've been waiting for you,"_ another whispered, standing just out of reach and holding out her hands. _"We're all yours..."_

He sucked in a breath, forced his eyes closed, and tried to ignore the fact that - somehow, impossibly - he could almost feel their hands on his body, their fingers tracing hot lines down his chest and up his thighs. Something hot and wet, a tongue, it had to be, ran slowly up his neck, the trail broken by nip-like kisses and caresses. The thick scent was everywhere now, far too much for even the armor's environmental systems to filter out.

_"Give yourself to us..."_ a sultry voice sighed into his ear. _"And we'll give ourselves to you..."_

* * *

With a single savage kick, Starfire sent the concave, bent metal remains of the door flying into the room. Rolling forward quickly, the Tamaranian princess-warrior brought her hand up, a restrained star-bolt enveloping her fist and her other hand holding her wrist to steady her aim. She swept her 'loaded' hand around the room several times, looking for enemies...

But it was not opponents that she saw.

Blinking several times, Starfire found herself most confused. She - she appeared to be, of all places, back in the main room of the Titan's Tower! The massive bay of windows allowed brilliant sunshine to pour in, lighting the entire, sprawling chamber. Just as she remembered it, their large, semi circular couch sat at the center of the room, and the small kitchen was nestled back towards the central elevator.

What - _how_ had she gotten here?

_'There you are, Starfire. I__'__ve been looking for you.'_

The Tamaranian girl nearly felt her heart burst from her chest. That voice! Spinning around, she found the source of it standing behind her: a crooked, cocky, yet somehow bashful smile sitting just below the ebony mask that hid his mysterious eyes from the world. The sight of his face, so long absent from her life, set her heart to beating a mile a minute, and her arms dropped to her sides uselessly.

"R-Robin?" she asked tentatively. Lifting a now un-empowered hand, she reached out towards him, afraid that he might vanish like an apparition. "Is that you? Are you truly here?"

The caped hero, resplendent in his bright red and green costume, nodded enthusiastically.

"Of course Starfire. Where else would I be?"

She puzzled over that simple statement for a moment. Indeed… where else _would_ he be? This was their home, after all! Donning a warm smile once more, she felt a thrill pass through her body when Robin took her offered hand and led her to the couch at the heart of the room. Taking a seat, he then pulled her down beside him, never letting go of her hand, a simple gesture for which she was quite grateful. Any moment, she still feared he would disappear, but with his hand in hers...

"Robin," she began, feeling her cheeks begin to burn beneath the intense scrutiny of his gaze. "My heart is bursting with such joy at the mere sight of you! I - I can not even begin to describe the trials I have faced… without you by my side..."

His face fell somewhat at that, obviously sharing her pain at his prolonged absence. His grip on her hand tightened, and as he shifted closer to her, she felt a tingle pass through her as their knees just brushed up against one another's. Looking up into her eyes - she had forgotten how much shorter he was than herself, his image in her memory taking on larger than life proportions - he offered her a weak smile.

"I'm sorry that I put you through that, Star," he stated sincerely. Then, a moment later, something in his expression shifted to… something she had not seen before, and had no idea of the meaning. Lifting his other hand, his smile widened into something… different. "You said your heart was bursting? Maybe I can help you with that, at the very least?"

His hand then came forward to rest directly on her chest, nestled boldly between her grebnaks! Starfire nearly recoiled from the strange and unexpected contact, but had nowhere to go with the couch at her back. Instead, eyes wide with shock, she stared at him, filled with incomprehension.

"R-Robin!" She squeaked, biting her lower lip. "Wha - what is it that you are doing!"

Rather than answer her question, Robin focused more of his attention away from her eyes. His hand began to - to _move_ across her chest in… ways. Despite her confusion and shock, a tiny half-moan half-gasp escaped her lips. What was it that he was doing? It was so unexpected, but - but it was not… unpleasant.

Having trouble keeping her breath steady, Starfire felt herself falling back into the thick cushions of the couch. Moving with her, Robin leaned forward over her, his other hand releasing her hand to begin roaming on its own. The touch of his fingers was electric, and she was beginning to-

"Wait! No!" she barked frantically, pushing the smaller hero up and off of her. "This - this cannot be right!"

Clutching a hand to her chest, still fully clothed and armored, she scooted back along the couch, staring at the masked Robin uncertainly. "We… cannot do this…"

"Why not, Star? Isn't this what you always wanted?" His question cut right through her, and the expression on his face softened, returning to its caring, sincere façade. Not at all sure of herself, she continued to slide back - until she felt her back run into something hard and unyielding.

"Of course it's not what she wanted, Robin," came another, deeper voice from behind her.

Spinning, she almost gasped with relief to see Ryouga sitting on the couch behind her, her back nearly pressing up against his broad chest. He would protect her, he was unto a sibling to her, after all...!

Suddenly, Ryouga's arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her close, even as his free hand rose up, lifting her chin with a gentle but surprisingly firm finger. Gazing into her eyes, something… unfamiliar danced in those voluminous brown orbs. Something… hungering.

"After all, how could just 'one' human possibly satisfy a Princess of Tamaran?"

This time, Starfire did gasp, as she suddenly felt Robin's hands on her shoulders again, his breath hot on her neck and he pressed up against her back. Her head began to spin, heat building up, uncomfortably within her chest as the two males trapped her between them. The dichotomy of strength and deftness, of skill and power, of soft whispers and growled urgency was overwhelming.

"My, my, my, now what do we have here?"

Were she less… preoccupied, Starfire would have jumped at the new, completely unexpected voice. The sound of heavy soles clopping along the floor, walking around the couch and bringing the speaker ever closer, was barely enough to steal Starfire's eyes from her own debacle. A flash of dark purple, gun metal grey, and midnight black was enough to confirm the identity of the speaker.

Blackfire, standing at the end of the couch, stared at the three of them, their limbs entangled in a most unseemly manner, with a broad smile on her face.

"Oh," she brushed her lips against her fingers in mock surprise. "Sister Dear... I had no idea that you were so _bad_."

Stealing back a gasp of air, Starfire shook her head, "I - I am _not_," she affirmed. Unfortunately, her bright red face and mussed up hair spoke otherwise.

"Don't be so modest, Starfire. I never realized that we had so much in common," her sister continued, actual pride and happiness in her voice. Gliding forward, she wrapped a hand around Ryouga's neck and pulled him back from Starfire to greedily bury his face into her chest.

"Just give in, Sister Dear," Blackfire commanded, haughty even as her breathing started becoming more heavy and excited. Behind Starfire, Robin gave a happy chuckle in amused agreement, his breath hot on the side of her neck.

"Join us…" Tamaran's eldest daughter purred, husky and alight with glee. "And we can be loving sisters, just like you always wanted."

She gave a shuddering gasp and a pink tongue darted out to find one of Ryouga's fingers as it brushed past her lower lip, the rest of him hidden from view as the elder sister leaned in, closer.

"Sisters that share… _everything...__'_

* * *

Training.

He had trained for this.

Hadn't he?

Sensory... manipulation... and... and...?

Through the fog, Ryu tried to remember. It was important. As important as martial arts. As important as life or death. Why couldn't he remember? He groaned in strain, already lightheaded, almost drunk from the smells and sounds and sensations, but he _tried_ to remember. This - _this couldn't be_. There hadn't been any motion in the room. He couldn't be surrounded by these women, these alien women. It wasn't rational. He had to remember that. He had to remember... something.

It didn't help that the sheer amount of female flesh around him was enough to send most guys he knew into a literal nosebleed coma. Ryu Kumon had never had that problem. His problem, instead, was severalfold. One was the redheaded woman nibbling on his ear, her breasts rubbing against his arm as she mewed softly in some alien language. Another problem was the red devil-woman with the little horns, but only the top of her head was visible: a crown of long pearl-white hair gently swaying back and forth and up and down. The rest of her, including most of his own lower body, was hidden behind the angelic white wings of the woman's blonde Thanagarian friend, who had pulled herself off the floor to compete with her sparring partner in a new contest.

'This... this isn't...' He tried to concentrate, to reject the illusion. The falsehood. It shouldn't be real.

_'I'm not...'_

It shouldn't be real, because it just wasn't. He knew that.

_'I'm not... getting a blowjob from two women...'_

His eyes tightened at the thought.

_'I mean... I wouldn't be unhappy if I was...'_

_"That's right,"_ the one on his arm whispered, her nails dragging painfully across his shoulder. _"You want this. You want us. To be a part of us."_

An uncomfortable pinprick, a strange interruption in the heady stream of pleasure, prevented him from answering right away. Ryu ignored it, and took the chance to gaze languidly around the room. There were so many women here. The handful of Thanagarian men in this little Den of Sin clearly were too busy drinking and laughing and minding their business - they obviously wouldn't, or didn't, or couldn't, object to a lucky Earthman having a few of their girls.

Like five or six.

He was only human, after all.

The uncomfortable little pinprick interrupted again, and he pulled a hand from the white hair pooled around his lap to touch the afflicted spot. It wasn't a hickey. Ukyou had given him one of those once, and...

_'Ukyou...'_

_"Who?" _the woman at his ear asked, and moaned. _"Ryu-sama... That one isn't important now. I need you to take me..."_

He frowned.

_"Take us all,"_ she murmured, sweet and alluring: with a promise of infinite pleasure._ "Become one with us..."_

His hand remained on the spot at his neck. The sting was gone, but he knew what that precise place on his body meant. It was where the MARS had its 'operational shocker' - sometimes pejoratively called 'the motivator' - the tiny discomfort device that was used to give a physical warning to operatives when verbal and visual stimuli failed. He knew that spot. He knew it because of his training.

He knew what it meant.

_'I'm in trouble...'_ His expression hardened. _'My team is...'_

_"Let them do what they want, Ryu-sama,"_ the Thanagarian seductress on his arm gave a throaty sigh, her nipples raking against his chest as she moved to get a better position. _"It's too late for you to turn back. Too late for either of you."_

And Ryu felt his strength - there, willing, wanting - but unable. Even finally desperately wanting to, he couldn't fight it. He couldn't shake off the women on him; suddenly, terrifyingly, he was all but helpless.

A frightful, frustrated hiss slipped from between his clenched teeth.

_"But don't worry." _The redheaded woman lovingly cupped his cheek. _"We'll show you more pleasure than you can imagine. We love you. We love both of you."_

* * *

Starfire purred in delight, very nearly unable to contain her ecstasy at her current situation. The sensation of Robin's arms wrapped tightly around her, his chest crushing against her with all of his might, the feeling of his lips running along the back of her neck... it was exquisite. She pressed herself back into him, relishing his touch, and they sank further into the embrace of the sofa.

Beyond that, though, she was finally getting to indulge in the most forbidden desire she possessed, that secret, hidden thing which she had always wanted to experience more than anything else in the universe. Every second was an unholy joy that sent shivers up and down her spine, but she could not – would not, even were she able – put a stop to it.

"...and, I'm also _so_ sorry for attempting to marry you off to Glurdlescletch and having you banished to his swamp moons when I took over Tamaran," Blackfire apologized, adding to the long list of apologies she had already offered her dearest sister.

Preening, Starfire nodded excitedly, playfully swatting one of Robin's hands as it began to wander somewhere that could possibly distract her from her sister's lifetime long overdue atonement for her many crimes. Granted, Blackfire's words were thick with distraction, her older sister sitting on Ryouga's lap, her arms wrapped around his neck. The martial artist's deft fingers danced along the raven haired Tamaranian's back, and with a metallic 'twang' another of the metal bands which covered her abdomen snapped open and dropped to the floor with a clatter, revealing tender, orange skin.

"And then there was the time that I tried to have you arrested in my place by those Centauri policemen."

"Oh yes, Sister Dear," Starfire tittered in reply, "That was most unsisterly of you. You should be punished for that somehow."

As if in deference to her thoughts, her sibling suddenly shot to her feet, letting out a sharp shriek and spinning around to glare at the fanged martial artist that had been acting as her seat. The cause of her action was made abundantly clear, as she began to rub her buttock most vigorously, and Ryouga lifted a pair of fingers and made a pinching motion while he chuckled malevolently.

Reaching out, Starfire gave her sister a stinging slap on her bottom, eliciting another startled shout, then pushed Blackfire back into Ryouga's waiting lap. Red faced, the older woman glared at both of them, but it quickly melted into a mischievous glance as she turned her attention back to Hibiki. Using her superior strength, and her superior grebnaks, Blackfire buried his face back in her chest, letting out a wild laugh of her own.

Laughing in triumph and in joy, Starfire joined her sister, reaching back to run her fingers through Robin's hair, unable to forget his presence as he continued to make it known with his lips and hands. A few moments of frivolity passed, when something occurred to Starfire. Pausing for a moment, she glanced at her sister through new eyes.

Blackfire, trying to direct Ryouga's struggles to remove enough of her body armor to allow her top to finally be removed, didn't seem to notice this new scrutiny, too busy laughing and teasing. It wasn't until Starfire cleared her throat, that her dear sister finally turned her gaze away from her playmate.

"You are not yet finished," she stated in a neutral, bordering on ice-cold tone. "There is still much to apologize for."

Sobering quickly, as did her living seat, Blackfire began to study her uneasily. With a weak chuckle, she nodded. "Well... yes. I suppose there was that time that I snuck into your room when we were children, and gave you that atrocious haircut. Oh, what pranksters we were!"

"_No_," Starfire snapped, feeling the indulgence release a knot of pent up anger that had been repressed for too long. "That is not what I meant. I care not for your childish jokes. I refer to those acts for which you should _truly beg_ for forgiveness!"

She leaned forward, quickly forgetting about Robin as she focused all of her attention on her sister's uncomfortable face. Something tickled her neck, and she brushed away at it absently, not wanting Robin to disturb her in this crucial moment. This was what she desired, more than anything.

Her sister began to rub her bicep, crossing her other arm across her exposed midriff, as if suddenly embarrassed at her exposure. As the intensity of Starfire's gaze only grew, Blackfire seemed to shrink in on herself, unable to find the words she needed to say. The squirming and the hesitation only heightened Starfire's anticipation to heard what she longed to hear. What she needed to hear.

"I... I..." the black haired Tamaranian stumbled over her words, "I... you... on Okaara..."

Starfire leaned forward further, literally on the edge of her seat in anticipation. Another out of place tickle at her neck was brushed away with frantic haste. No distractions.

"Go on," she goaded. "Say it."

Blackfire's gaze fell to the floor, unable to meet Starfire's own. Her next words were every bit as small as she appeared in that moment, but the younger of the two sisters heard them clearly, drank them up with glee.

"I... am sorry... No, no... I beg of you..." There were tears in her eyes as she pleaded, hoping for compassion with every fiber of her being. "Please," she begged. "Please forgive me... for trying to murder you during our time on Okaara..."

Starfire sucked in a breath, her mind reeling from what her ears had just relayed to her. She shivered, a tingle running down her spine. She nearly reeled physically as well, unable even now to believe what her sister had just said. It had been so long ago, a seeming lifetime ago. So long ago that she had nearly buried the incident completely beneath mountains of memory and desperate desire for her sister's love.

That memory burned anew, rising from the ashes like the legendary phoenix itself. Miles below the surface of Okaara, hidden away in a dark and secret corner of one of the endless caverns which the mighty and wise Warlords claimed for their homes. The memory bore witness: the image of Blackfire coming at her, again and again, vicious sword already stained green with blood. Even after Starfire had admitted her defeat, her older sister had not yielded, consumed with hatred and bloodlust, intent only on slaughtering her younger sister...

And yet... as horrible, as wicked as that memory had been, even that was not what she was referring to. Even trying to murder her only sister was not Blackfire's greatest crime, as boggling to the mind as that sounded. There was something else which her sister needed to atone for.

"That is not what I wished to discuss, my sister," she continued in an even tone, just barely containing her building excitement. Were she more feral, she would have imagined herself lunging for Blackfire's throat, ready to tear the words from her.

"I... know," Blackfire admitted reluctantly. "I-"

_'__Starfire!__'_

Starfire started, shaking her head in confusion. What... where had that voice come from? It was so familiar, and yet not. All around her, the room flickered, and panic suddenly gripped the Tamaranian. Turning back to her sister, who was also looking around, confused, Starfire grabbed her hands frantically.

"No!" She hissed. "I must hear you apologize for... for that! Hurry!"

_"Starfire! Starfire, you may not have noticed, but we're in a bit of trouble here. Maybe more than a fucking bit of trouble!"_

The unwelcome tickle on the side of her neck was back, and the sudden cry for help gave the Tamaranian pause. Again, the world around her flickered and the entire room of the Tower seemed to jump, not unlike a television channel suffering from poor reception.

Blackfire grasped Starfire's hands more tightly, staring at her desperately. "No, sister! You cannot leave me! You have to stay with me! Stay with me forever! If you leave, then I won't be able to give you what you need...!"

Starfire winced as she felt her sisters nails dig into the skin of her palms. She – she did not know what to do! Or even what she wanted anymore. A cry for help was something that she could not ignore... and she swore she knew that voice from somewhere... but her sister needed her, actually wanted to be with her, as a family! She wanted to apologize! Starfire could not turn her back on that.

_"Shit. Shit! Shit! Can't break... If this doesn't work...!"_

The sensation that came with the voice was dulled, but familiar. Trying to remember it, however, proved difficult. Starfire's head swam, and she saw something in the corner of her eye, but before she could address the potential disturbance, Blackfire reached up to cup her sister's cheek and forcefully turn her head so they were eye to eye once again.

"Sister," she said, her voice intense. "Look at me."

"Look at her," Ryouga agreed as he came up from behind, finally unbuckling the last of the dark haired Tamaranian's bands to slide away cloth and expose bare shoulders. His hands then slipped over the exposed skin towards the girl's collar and beyond.

"Listen to her," Robin whispered, hushed as if privy to all the wisdom in the cosmos.

_"Starfire. Check your fucking three o'clock!"_

It was hard to imagine tearing her eyes away, but the abrupt shout struck a chord in her, and Starfire managed to pull her eyes away for just an instant. Check your Three. Check your Three. **Check your Three!** It was almost instinctive. Green eyes darted to her right.

What she saw was... not an activity that belonged in Titans Tower.

Her eyes were torn away almost as fast as they had shot over, but the image of it remained, burning her cheeks a bright pink. If she had not been well and truly mistaken... then there was a young man, two Thanagarians, and a white haired woman by the kitchen, doing things Kasumi probably would not have approved of. In fact, they were things Starfire had never even considered. How could two females... and, he was human, so there was only one...? How were they...? What was this man doing here...?

Who was-

She blinked, and remembered. She knew him. That was Ryu Kumon. This was her partner. Why was he on the receiving end of a Centauri Handshake with those strange females? Eyes hooded, cheeks still rosy red, green orbs drifted back over to double check. Just to be sure.

_"What the Hell? Why is the Lieutenant making out with...?"_ the foreign, human, and expressly male thought entered her mind fast and frantic. _"Ah, never mind that! A little help?"_

Instantly, her cheeks began to burn impossibly even more deeply.

What help could he possibly want from _**her?**_

She surely did not care for him enough to engage in-!

"Ignore them, my beautiful, wonderful, only dear Sister," Blackfire whispered, leaning in to run her lips over Starfire's earlobe. "I'll go 'help' him later, if he still asks for it. What's important is you and me... I'll give you everything you could ever want. Just. Look. At. Me."

"_Starfire. By help... I mean, can you please __**blast these bitches off me?**__"_

At the unexpected request, Starfire looked down from her sister's face, to their intertwined hands. Why Ryu would be desired to be rescued from such a situation was beyond her. She knew him to be a most base human... and besides, to assist him, she would have to turn her back on her sister. And she had not yet been given what she truly desired.

"I - I do not desire to... My sister wishes me to stay with her."

_"That's your sister?"_ The thought sounded kind of impressed. _"I mean: it may look like her, but it isn't. You aren't-"_

"Your friend shouldn't be interrupting us," Blackfire shot a quick, fed up look over to the side, but then she returned her proper attention to her beloved, perfect sister. Deep violet eyes trapped Starfire's own, and a sudden wave of pleasure washed over her as her sibling's words and the very skillful hands of her dearest people wrapped her in a velvet embrace. Starfire's body weakened, becoming pleasurably pliable. It was as if the sensations before were all coming back three fold, overwhelming...

"Starfire. I love you. And the people you love, I will love," Blackfire promised. "...**Forever**."

"Y-yes..."

And then a blur cut her elder sister off as she leaned further in to seal the promise, the vow between sisters. It was quick, just a ripple in the air. Starfire felt a slight sting on her cheek, but her eyes widened in shock as her sister's face parted, revealing darkness under the skin. A hand, small but powerful, raised up to try and cover the cut across her face that stretched from shoulder to eyebrow.

_"Starfire!" _Ryu's thoughts roared, breaking through the mental interference. _"It's now or never! Do you wanna get out of here or not?"_

The Tamaranian stared at her sister, horror spreading across her face as she tried to comprehend what she was seeing. Where was the gout of green blood that should have accompanied such a vicious wound? Why was she so silent? Why was there not so much as a bark of pain; a curse of vengeance against her attacker?

Blackfire would never forgive such a transgression...

Blackfire... would never... forgive...

Starfire's eyes widened, only to narrow an instant later. Blackfire would never forgive... nor would she ever beg for forgiveness in turn. Never in her life, had her wicked sister so much as offered an apology, and now, _**now**_ she was admitting her guilt for all - _almost all_ - of her crimes?

"This is..." Starfire growled, familiar fury building inside of her.

The violation, the treachery.

"This is all..."

"_**This is all a lie!**_" Surging to her feet, a column of emerald light exploded out from her body, slamming into the roof like a thunderbolt, only to reflect back down and spread across the chamber as the column expanded outwards in a wave of hatred fueled destruction.

The apparitions - the cruel, false lies in the forms of her friends, the fawning Thanagarians, and even Ryu - all vanished in the jade conflagration. Shaking her head as she screamed, Starfire did nothing to abate the energy as it roared out of her, dulling the pain. Lies. All Lies.

_'Starfire. I love you. And the people you love, I will love.'_

"Lies..." the word gasped from her lips as the firestorm subsided. "X'hal..."

She distantly felt her knees hit the floor, and her hands followed moments later. Her palms hit something soft even as she gasped for air, her lungs rebelling against the pain in her heart. Starfire just closed her eyes to squeeze away the anger and violation she felt. Crackles of green arced from her shoulders as they shuddered and she hung her head, trying to control herself; trying not to think about the tears staining her cheeks.

The sound of a gunshot made her - forced her - to open her eyes and turn. It was Ryu, back in his powered armor. His rifle was up against his armored shoulder, and firing with a steady, CRACK-hiss. There were still... things on the far side of the room. Black, writhing masses. A trio of them, covered with yellow eyes, vanished in the nuclear fire along with a whole section of the wall nearby. It, too, had been thick with black veins, growing like nightmarish ivy.

She looked down, too, and saw the blasted pieces of more of the vile things. In front of her. Behind her. Everywhere. And pinned to the wall, burned now due to her blast, there were bodies and pieces of bodies: wings and arms and legs torn from trunks. They were tangled among the thickest masses of tentacles, now reduced to charred mash. Small green tinted fires burned, here and there, lingering energies from her outburst.

Patting herself down, she also confirmed that her already abused personal armor was back, but no longer intact. The body glove had not been designed to withstand such abuse, and without it, heavier plates and protective elements were hanging by a literal thread. Something... something would have to be done...

Hearing Ryu stop firing, she shook her head and wiped her eyes.

She felt so tired. So used. And still so damned angry.

_'Hate,'_ a voice whispered. _'Is just as sweet as love.'_

_"...it shall take what you love and bathe in your tears, for all is as nothing before Our God! Your pride alone damns you. My children... to be saved, your vanity must be eaten away!" _The droning Thanagarian voice laughed, the sound forced and artificial. _"It must be..."_

_"Stripped AWAY!"_ the walls screamed, trembling like vocal cords. _"The failing and weakness of rotten flesh! Your Soul? Your Hopes? Your Dreams? All belong to the Nightmare Bringer, for he is insidious, impartial. Eternal. Great Father Ixthultu! Praise Him and Tremble! Praise Him and Tremble! He is Love! He is Terror... He is Hopelessness..."_

Starfire felt a tentative hand lightly brush her back.

Ryu stood over her, looking down. "You saved my life back there. You okay?"

Normally, she would have attempted to put up a brave front, or spare her friend or comrade the trouble of worrying over her... but even the idea of deception, no matter how minor, filled her with revulsion. So, instead, she simply shook her head, feeling the tears continue to spill down her cheeks.

"No..." she said, her voice near breaking. "I... do not believe that I am..."

For a few seconds, Ryu just stood there, and it was entirely possible he was about to order her to get moving and 'walk it off.' It was typically the attitude he and most of his peers professed to have when faced with even the most traumatizing psionic attacks, in practice or in actual battle. Walk it off, finish the mission, don't think about it, work it out when you're heading back to base.

This time, though, his expression softened with sympathy, and he let out a deep breath before giving her one last touch on the shoulder. He then stood up straight.

"I'll watch over you," he said. "When you're ready, we'll move out."

Despite having recently conflicting opinions of the human, Starfire could hear the empathy in his words, and feel it in that brief touch, separated as it was by the medium of his powered armor. It was far from the warmest condolence she had ever received, but the simplicity and sincerity of it exuded a certain strength. She allowed her head to hang down again, and took in several long, shuddering breaths, before finally pushing herself up to her feet.

As much as she wished she could just curl up into a ball and imagine this had never occurred, she... they... did not have that luxury. Her head swam: flushed with confusion, disgust, horror and anger. She embraced that last aspect. If this place was evil, and it was, then it needed to be cleansed with righteous fire.

The sound of a metal plate hitting the floor rang out, drawing her attention downwards. One of the solid plates attached to the upper arm was laying at her feet. And the mere act of lifting her arm to better see the damage prompted her another piece of armor to tear away from the all but vaporized body glove. A weary sigh transformed into an angry hiss, and with several powerful swipes of her arms, she ripped away the most damaged sections of her armor that would likely impede her in the next battle, and, as an afterthought, tossed away the gutted remains of her helmet as well.

Allowing her hair to drop down around her now unarmored shoulders, she was reduced to a more abbreviated set of armor. Modular sections, the legs and forearms, were still functional enough. Fortunately, so was much of the torso clamshell, the jointed section of which was the only part still intact over her slim shoulders, albeit padded by the shredded black remains of the environmental suit underneath. Raising her chin, Starfire sucked in a breath of air, still tainted by the smell of charred, eldritch flesh, and reached back to tie together her hair with a scrap of black fabric torn from around her upper arm. Letting one's hair flow freely was Tamaranian tradition, but it wouldn't due to let it get snagged on any of the now exposed bits of armor.

Lowering her eyes, she nodded to herself.

"I am ready."

Still watching her, Ryu didn't ask, 'Are you sure?'

Instead, he nodded back with professional courtesy. "Good to hear. And... thanks, by the way..." he smirked behind his visor. "You got me out of a real pinch back there."

"Any one of my friends would have done so more quickly," she admitted, her voice heavy with guilt, "And with far less reluctance."

Ryu considered that for a few seconds before answering, carefully picking his words.

"'For he today that sheds his blood with me, shall be my brother.' ... Kuno said that once, quoting a famous play." At Starfire's curious look, he quickly explained, "It means that we're all brothers and sisters in arms, no matter what happens. I dunno how anyone else would've handled that weird shit we just got thrown at us, but you came through, and who else could've nuked the whole room like that?"

He cheerfully bumped her with the side of his rifle. "So buck up. We've got nasty stuff to kill, and you're the number one girl for the job."

For a long moment, she considered his words, his mannerisms, and his mood. She still felt wretched, for far more reasons than she cared to count at the moment, but she could not help but offer up a flicker of a smile.

"Just as long as killing is the only 'job' which you desire from me. Comrades we might be, but I am not nearly as companionable as those phantom females you were cavorting with."

Ryu laughed openly at that, though she could tell it was strained. "Now if only they hadn't been figments of my own fucked up imagination. I think that red one with the white hair was from an anime I watched... man, Ukyou'll kill me if she hears about this..."

He stepped forward, letting out a deep breath. While not terribly skilled in XCOM's psionic warfare, even Starfire could tell that the martial artist was unnerved by his experience. It didn't seem to have had the same haunting level of personal malignance as her own near-fall, but it had still struck at a soft spot: a shameful vulnerability. Armored fingers clenched and flexed; a clear sign of worry as he tried to mentally prepare himself for whatever horrors came at them next.

"Ryu."

He glanced back, the expression behind his visor a stormy sort of calm.

"Thank you as well for... helping me," the words were harder to say than she had thought. Hearing them, Starfire felt a little disgusted with herself. She had meant to sound genuine, yet her speech sounded bitter and gudgeoning.

"I mean it," she said, before he could reply. "I do."

He turned away. "No one is ever alone in the field, Star. There'll always be someone watching your back." ...and then lifted two fingers to motion her forward. "We're almost to our objective. Form up and keep sharp."

"Yes."

As she did so, however, she couldn't help but ask:

"But... that thing they were doing to you," she innocently wondered. "I would think it would be painful, or at least uncomfortable, but it is true that human males enjoy such things? It is most strange indeed, because Tamaranian men do not become stimulated by..."

"Um, Star, I really don't think I want to have this conversation..."

* * *

Between the two of them, there was no need to use a charge or even a plasma round to open the door from the trophy room to the Five Quarters. The doors themselves were quite solid and built to be recessed into the walls and floor for added security, but once pried open, it wasn't difficult to force them open. Starfire's strength was particularly well suited to the task, not to mention the fact that she also had smaller fingers to slip between the gap in the doors.

Overall, it was not very impressive security.

In fact, if Ryu's opinion, it was decidedly sub-par. One could almost speculate that the Thanagarians would hardly expect their ship to be boarded in the first place, but they clearly had the capabilities to compartmentalize sections, and they had force fields for quarantine. The medical bay had contained some broken sections that looked like they were 'energy field' versions of confinement tubes. He'd also noted that there was a brig or prison facility, and could guess it used similar technology.

Yet most of the Thanagarian passages were either completely devoid of any security barriers or obstructions, or they used fairly simple sliding doors that one could move out of place with brute strength… well, provided said brute had the strength of Starfire, or maybe the acting Major. There was no counter-intrusion mechanism or anything that he could see, which admittedly didn't mean a whole lot. But then there were the really strange things, like one section he'd seen that was closed off with a jumble of spikes, randomly and messily interlocking, yet leaving enough room to just reach a hand through. That just couldn't be either functional or effective.

It had to be some weird cultural relic, like sliding paper doors back home.

Starfire entered first, presenting the smallest potential target, and Ryu followed, having a bit more difficulty squeezing his powered armor through the widened gap. The inner court that greeted them was structurally similar to the trophy room, but untouched by the corruption that had seeped up from below. Nabiki, monitoring the pair as they checked for any threats, soon gave a green light for psionic disruption and Ryu pointed over to the closest door on the right.

While the Tamaranian princess went to work ripping the door open, Ryu covered her back. There didn't seem anything ominous or otherwise amiss: just a mural on one wall, a metal bust of some old Thanagarian, and a pair of flags that sported the usual black and red hawk-motif, but with some scrawl on the sides. Of some note was a portrait of another Thanny in what probably passed for full military regalia. Three others were resting on one knee around him, also armed and wearing some ceremonial garb.

Brining up the Commander's picture from the armor's GUI, Ryu double checked it with the new picture. The face was younger, less scarred, and the bald head was replaced by long, thick dreadlocks of black hair, but it was the same winged xeno. It wasn't that huge of a surprise. His personal quarters were right around the corner, and Unit Red had every plan of fleecing the place for Nth Metal. Even if that meant raiding the underwear drawer.

'Actually, I think I'll leave that location to Starfire...'

With a long creak, and a short, sharp snap, the entry was made to the first of the quarters they intended to search. This was the most promising of the bunch. He and Star had already checked it out using the surviving security feed. Given added illumination, it proved to be just the same as they had originally found: furniture had been piled up into a makeshift barrier facing the door, and most everything was wrecked but intact. A few boxes of dried and frozen rations were on the floor.

Next to them was the body of Tyria Hun, an ordinance officer of some sort, given the rough translations provided by Cyborg's hacking software. Like most of the dead and uncorrupted corpses on the ship, her body was ravaged by years in near vacuum, and only partly thawed. Otherwise, she was intact. From the direction they entered, they could see the front of her, too, for the first time. The cause of death became immediately apparent. Her forehead had been blown away, obviously by the pistol that was now in her lap, still gripped by the hand that had pulled the trigger.

Suicide.

There was no time to dwell on it.

"Starfire," he ordered, walking past her. "Check the room for anything worthwhile. I'll take these two."

Reaching down, he claimed the pistol first, easily removing it from the Thanagarian woman's pale, dead hands, and then he snatched up the flanged mace she had also carried with her. Inspecting both, while Starfire went through the rest of the room, he searched for any signs of the mottled, diseased corruption that was so prevalent elsewhere. There was a piece of cloth wound around the hilt, and as he stretched it out, he could make out black characters on it.

"Death before surrender...?" Or so the translation went.

He stared at the body of Tyria Hun and nodded in respectful agreement.

"You were true to it, ma'am." Thinking about it for a second, he bowed his head, once, and observed a brief moment of silence. Turning back around, he was a bit surprised to see Starfire watching him.

"Didn't find anything, huh?" he asked, and held out the battle mace, flipping it around in his armored hand so the hilt faced the Tamaranian warrior. "Hold on to this then. You know how to make it get all lightning-smashy?"

She nodded quickly, taking the weapon from him to study it. "It is a simple mechanism… quite archaic, actually. Yet, fundamentally, it is not vastly different from the energized melee weapons used by our own people, and many other races beside."

Then, rather than test the balance of the weapon, she simply strapped it to the back of her armor. At his questioning glance, she shrugged. "Our only purpose is to find untainted Nth metal. It would be quite foolish to spoil the one sizeable sample we have found by using it in actual combat against corrupted enemies."

Well… he couldn't argue with that logic.

It didn't take long to finish searching the other two rooms belonging to Gilana Sor and Shandra Mal. The former was a wash - the walls were covered by insane scribbles and crude X's repeated over and over on the ceiling and floor - but Shandra's quarters were mostly untouched. Unfortunately, she was the more scholarly type of Thanny, and there was little worth taking aside from a few handfuls of documents and recordings. There was also a large map on the wall, displaying the region of space around Thanagar and beyond. Starfire had pointed to a cluster of worlds at the leftward edge - spiralward by the impression on the map - and identified it as her home sector.

That map was probably the most interesting find, and Ryu had it folded up and stowed away.

What was left was the Commander's quarters, which was unfortunately blocked off by a force field that precluded Starfire simply ripping her way in. It would have to be plasma. Leveling his rifle, the powered armored martial artist aimed to the side of the door and winced as he burned through even more of his already limited elerium ammunition. The tight trio of accelerated particles and anti-matter melted away the metal of the wall instantly - only to flash dramatically, washing against the force field which expanded past the doorway itself and just beneath the surface of the wall.

Rapping a knuckle to the side of his helmet, he cursed. He should have realized that no intelligent species would leave such an obvious weakness in their security, having a force field guard a door, but leaving the force field generator completely unprotected. He briefly wondered if he actually had enough ammo left to try and burnout the energetic obstruction, when a frantic sound interrupted. He'd nearly zoned it out, like he was trying to do regarding the damn chanting over the ship's intercom, but this was different. More high pitched. It wasn't the screaming of some of the unhinged Thanagarian abominations either. These were words, muffled from trying to reach through walls.

He paused, and saw Starfire had heard it, too.

It had to be the fourth side room, the one they had been saving for last. The room that had belonged to the Apokolips woman. Of course... she was supposed to be dead. _Everyone_ on this God-forsaken ship was dead.

Starfire stared at the door, surprised herself. But her shocked expression quickly descended into one of extreme trepidation, Ryu would almost say outright fear. And considering how stalwart she had been through the literal hell of Azarath, that was saying something.

She turned to face him. "I... I was afraid that this might be the case. The residents of Apokolips are all but immortal... And if she is actually what she appears to be, then we may be in mortal danger."

"She clearly can't get out," Ryu observed, sounding neither disturbed nor comforted by that fact. "It wouldn't be hard to just come and go and leave her in there, would it?"

Starfire shook her head. "No, it would not be..." Still, she relented with a tired sigh. "And yet, despite my trepidations, we will not do so, regardless."

"If she's a hostile, we'll kill her," he stated with a shrug. "If she's friendly, we won't. Simple as that. You could break out of that room, Starfire. If this woman can't, then I'm not too worried about being able to handle her with you present."

As he approached the locked door, he hesitated.

"Help... help me..." he had heard words, faint, plaintive, coming from behind the door.

But these were...

"That's English," he realized, wondering aloud. "Why is she speaking English?"

Starfire's brow furrowed at that. "She... should not be. Judging by the age of this vessel, she was trapped here before the language even developed on your planet..."

"I... I can hear you...!" The voice behind the door broke into almost inaudible laughter. "I can hear you! You must be real! The lights. The air! Someone turned the main computer back on. This isn't another trick is it? Say something. Say something."

Ryu and Starfire exchanged a worried look, and a moment of silence followed.

"I command you!" The voice behind the door roared, and then shuddered, plaintively. "Please! Please! Speak to me! Tell me... tell me you're real..."

Ryu frowned, and beckoned Starfire over, turning around so they could converse in lower tones.

"Definitely English," he whispered. "Were you serious when you said her people were immortal?"

"And often unbelievably powerful," she added, "We may be fortunate, finding her in a greatly weakened state. If not, then she could very well tear through the both of us like so much of your decorative wrapping paper."

Taking a step closer to the door, the Tamaranian took a deep breath, bring up a hand before her, but not yet generating a star-bolt.

"How should we proceed?" she asked quietly.

"Hmm. I guess we..."

"Excuse me," a voice interrupted, and Ryu stopped himself.

"Nabiki?"

"I've been listening in," she said, but then grew too quiet for Starfire to overhear. Ryu could hear her, however, and his eyebrows gradually rose up at what he heard. The trapped woman behind the door, meanwhile, reiterated her demand to be told she 'wasn't hearing things' and that she be freed from her confinement.

Starfire waited, but kept her star-bolt held at the ready.

"Alright. Alright, I'll try it," Ryu said to Pathfinder Actual and turned to take a step or two closer to the door. Taking a deep breath, he reached back and slammed his fist against the cold metal.

When he raised his voice, it was almost a boom.

"Calm yourself, woman!" he roared. "Who are **you** to give **me** orders?"

There was an immediate and lengthy silence.

"Who... who am I?" the voice asked, wavering between defiant and cracking with hope. "I am Reava! Fourth of the Furies! A Handmaiden of our Lord Darkseid! He! He has sent you! You speak our tongue! I knew he would not abandon me! I knew it! I knew if I had faith he would send others to... to... unless... you have come to kill me?"

Something loud moved behind the door, like a rustle of heavy chains.

"No! No!" she screamed. "I - I have been loyal! I have served Him! What happened was not my fault!"

Ryu looked over at Starfire, for some explanation or input.

She simply shrugged, before whispering, "The Furies are known throughout the galaxy as the personal guard of Darkseid himself. They are among the most fearsome warriors known; I have even heard of them battling both the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman, toe to toe. What she is speaking of, though, I have no idea."

"I can't believe I'm going to do this..." Ryu said with a sigh. Back to the door, he roared, "Your fate is no longer your own, woman! It will be decided by me. I shall free you, and you shall tell me how you failed Our Lord so spectacularly!"

"... yes. Yes! Whatever you wish! Please! Just help me!"

"Very well!" he boomed in his most melodramatic, villain-voice... and gave Starfire a quick nod. "Fury! Open this door!"

Starfire looked at him oddly for a moment. She then pointed to herself and mouthed, 'Are you speaking of me?'

After receiving a rapid nod, she shrugged simply, then proceeded to tear the door open with the same ease with which she did the others. Despite being a fellow race gifted with flight, the Thanagarians were definitely not so blessed with the same inherent strength of Tamaranians. It disheartened her to know that so much of their ship was designed in such a fragile manner. On Tamaranian ships, walls and doors were designed to keep people of their own level of strength in or out, respectively; what she had encountered so far was woefully inadequate.

Being the one creating the breech, however, she was the first to see the room's occupant.

Just as in her picture, the woman was clearly no Thanagarian. Her skin was pale, possessing a complexion eerily similar to Raven's. A disheveled stream of faintly cherry blonde hair fell from her head over her face and shoulders, where it met the remains of a skin tight black and red costume. Intact and clean, it clearly would have made a seductive and low cut appearance for a female villain, revealing ample feminine attributes and slender shoulders. It was neither intact nor clean, however. Long frozen and evaporated bloodstains had leeched into the fabric, like organic ink, ruining it, and there were whip-long and thin rips and tears all across it. Intricate red tattoos danced from the corners of her glaring eyes down her cheeks to her neck and up over her forehead.

She lurched forward with a groan, but came up short as her wrists caught. She was bound by spiked chains displaying the characteristic corruption of defiled, reverting Nth Metal. While she clearly had some freedom of movement, the chains would not stretch enough for her hands to meet in front of her, and similar chains bound her ankles and neck. Some of the spiked cords had been broken, and ran around her body like dead snakes, but new ones seemed to have grown to replace the old. Where they met her flesh, hungry black tendrils whipped and scarred the skin.

The walls of her room oozed with vein-like growths and pulsing pupae, and an eye on the floor stared up at her with an unblinking yellow orb. The smell of the place was terrible, and encountering it first, Starfire recoiled, reflexively bringing her hand to her mouth and nose. Apparently offended by her rescuer's disgust, the chained woman hissed, a faint green cloud escaping from her black lips.

The rest of the door beside Starfire was kicked down, flat to the floor, as Ryu entered.

Starfire frowned at how he roughly brushed past her, but then she caught the act he was putting on, ignoring the bound woman to glare around the diseased and defiled room. Arms crossed, his rifle slug behind his back, the power armored trooper loudly scoffed and stamped down on the yellow and white mass on the floor, rubbing out the eyeball in a spray of viscous gore. He then sniffed haughtily and walked around to the side of the woman.

"Disgusting," he declared in his most arrogant, affronted tone. "How did you end up in such a state, woman?"

"T- treachery..." she snarled, only daring to look up at him for a moment. "Everything... was going to plan... but then we came here. This... horrible place..." She gritted her teeth, in fact, it was more like she bared them, her upper lip curling in anger. "The madness spread. Ixthultu. The Old God himself. Worse. I lost my... control over Kreiger."

She spat, furious at herself and everything around her, and a silvery mercurial droll ran down her chin.

"But...!" The Fury glared at Starfire, then at him, but quickly averted her eyes downward again. "Master. Sister Fury. We are not too late. Please. Release me. And... tell me your names. I wish only to serve Lord Darkseid and to redeem myself!"

"This is Star Fire," Ryu haughtily explained, inclining his armored head to the Tamaranian. Picking up his queue, she raised her hands and lit them up with roiling, hungry fire.

"I am War Dragon," he then said, and reached over to jostle one of the chains. "I will have you freed, and you will be given a chance to redeem yourself. You can start by explaining everything you remember of your mission and your failure."

"As you command it." Reava winced as the rough treatment further injured her wrists. "War Dragon."

"Star Fire. Free your fallen 'sister fury.'"

It was all that Starfire could do to cease from rolling her eyes. No doubt this odious plan was by Nabiki's design, but it revolted her how easily Ryu went along with the deception. Mere minutes after their own traumatic experiences, and their condemnation of the horrible nature of their enemies... here they were, enacting those very same lies and falsehoods upon others.

Gritting her teeth, she nodded, but did not trust herself to speak. Instead, she took a step forward and lit up one of her hands until it shone like a star. Not wanting to take any further chances of infection, she swiped that empowered hand through the chains, melting them in an instant and releasing the Female Fury.

"Ah! To be free!" She roughly pushed Starfire away, and tore at the remaining chain around her neck. After a savage couple seconds, the Fury was finally able to release herself. Shoulders shaking, she cackled with glee and fell to her knees, her laugh growing even more manic.

And then, just as abruptly as it began, the mad laughter ceased.

She turned to Starfire with wild eyes. "You have my thanks. Sister. I shall not forget this..." she spat the word. "Kindness."

Growling loudly, Starfire hissed back. "I only did as ordered, _fool_. The only _kindness_ I will ever grant you will be a quick death!"

The heat in her voice and her gaze came easily, as she felt fury rise up within her, just saying the words. Yet her righteous fury was aimed only at herself. Fortunately, the other woman failed to see, or perhaps even to understand, the distinction.

"Make no mistake. It was not kindness," Ryu snarled, looming over her and using sheer mass to intimidate. "It was expedience."

"Of - of course, War Dragon..." The Apokoliptian recoiled slightly, as if expecting to be struck down at any moment. "I meant no disrespect. Yet, am I not the Senior Fury here...?"

He just continued to glare at her, leaning in even closer. "You will obey _me_. Now speak. I won't repeat my questions a second time."

The blonde Fury nodded until he backed off, at which point she began rubbing her wrists. She had already torn most of the vein encrusted chains away, but a black pestilence remained on her skin, eating away at it. So she scratched with her nails, drawing blood in an attempt to get it off: to get it out of her body.

"I'm sure Granny Goodness already told you... but," she began, casting one heated glare at Starfire again. "But I was sent to seduce and control the Thanagarian Warlord, Kreiger Hol."

"We know this," Ryu briefly cut her off. "But continue. We must know where you went wrong."

Reava nodded again, eager to explain herself. "Things went very well at first. The fool and the rest of his race... they were so convinced of their power, their greatness... their innate superiority. We already had agents among them, driving them to greater heights of conquest and destruction. We were well placed to influence events when we discovered that the hawkmen had a piece of the Guardian's dimensional entity. The same one that had caused the disaster in sector fifty one thirty."

"They did not trust us enough to let us have the fragment or to provide a presence in an expedition outside normal dimensional space. However, they also lacked the technical expertise to do little more than dabble in theory." The Fury scoffed dismissively at her former partners and captors, to say nothing of her Thanagarian lover. "In time, they came to realize they were helpless without us. Our technical-men were able to create an engine to take us beyond the domains of even the Four Worlds."

"The Thanagarians believed there would be easy conquests and glory to be had," she continued, and slowly rose up, trying to stand on wobbly, weak legs and injured ankles. "The blind fools. They could never have imagined that Lord Darkseid himself had his eyes on them. While the hawkmen drank and cavorted, we were to uncover the secrets beyond our universe. The secrets Beyond the Source Wall itself..."

Her eyes lit up then, at her success. "We did it! We went beyond the Source Wall, where That Which the Master Seeks is said to lie, hidden."

At that, Starfire noticed Ryu fire her a nearly imperceptible glance out of the corner of his eye. She could see the question in his eyes, but, unfortunately, she could only reply with a subtle shake of her head. She honestly had no idea what the mad woman was speaking of. This was all so beyond her ken. If only Raven, or perhaps even Cyborg were present, they might know what was being spoken of.

"Continue, Fury," Ryu prompted, maintaining a stone cold appearance.

"We...well..." Here, she began to falter a bit in her recounting. "Somehow we... ended up here... in this place. The moment we arrived, we were attacked... by things. Weapons. Dead ships. Insane Machines."

She shook her head, angrily.

"They - they...!" She bit down on her lip, forcing herself to remain semi-calm. "The Captain defended the ship. Fighter craft were launched. But... in doing so, we brought an even worse plague on us. The ship, and many of the fighter craft, passed through... vile twists in space. Ones these winged buffoons had not detected! Or maybe just ones they were too stupid and careless to avoid. Those who returned to the ship and those who encountered the twisted space were _changed_."

She eyed the blood and charred marks on his powered armor.

"You... you must have seen them yourself," she reasoned, despite her burning rage. "They went mad, as did many of my own servants and agents on the ship. The Commander himself was among them and he rebuffed me. So I attempted to incite a rebellion among the filthy lesser races below decks. I had hoped the bulk of the Thanagarians on this vessel would be killed, but... but the lesser races were, sadly, as inferior as one would expect and not up to the task. They were massacred as were the technical-men brought from Great Apokolips."

Fists balled together, already bloody from scratching away at her wrists, she continued.

"I made one last attempt to either control or kill Kreiger - Warlord Hol, I mean - but the ship had descended to Urgrund itself. Literally! The metals these fools used in their weapons, even in some of their _computers_... it was tainted by Ixthultu himself! The Damned Old God!"

"That voice you are hearing?" She pointed up at the ceiling, referring to the chanting intercom. "That is _the computer_, not a member of the crew."

She shook her head in dismay. "I never imagined his essence, or that of any of the Dead Gods, could manifest beyond his tomb, deep below Apokolips. Yet I have seen with my own eyes... these creatures..."

Reava hung her head in shame as she got to the worst part.

"I was... beaten..." She visibly shuddered. "Kreiger chained me here... to listen to the whispers of his filthy Dead God! He said, 'As I have fucked a New God, so shall Ixthultu rape your entire race.' The... the blasphemy... of that man! The things he said, the things whispered to me... of Lord Darkseid and Great Yuga Khan! I will not repeat them. I can not. I ... can not..."

"You claimed to know of a way to salvage your mission?" Ryu asked, voice uncaring for whatever indignities or horrors the Fury had experienced. In fact, he quite effectively made himself sound as contemptuous and callous as possible, going so far as to sneer at her.

The Fury looked up at him with bright, almost worshipful eyes.

"I do! I do, Master War Dragon!" She all but pleaded with him. "Ixthultu taunted me often. We are New Gods, and he hates us beyond reason for what we did to him and the other Old Ones! He claimed to have what Lord Darkseid had been searching for. The one who would have what we want... what we need... is the none other than Kreiger himself!"

She hastened to explain, seeing him frown.

"The fool. The fool! I believe he wished to make himself the avatar for a new Ixthultu! Even now, I know he watches over the Forge of Living Metal. What pure blood-iron is created is then corrupted into the filth you have fought before. It seeks to spread itself into the ship... and beyond. This is Ixthultu's weakness! He will tell us what Lord Darkseid wishes to know when we control his beating heart! I am sure of it! I - I would bet my life on it!"

It was a fool's bet, if ever Starfire had heard of one. She almost felt pity for the miserable creature before them. Just as her masters before, now _they_ would use her, then, in all likelihood, discard her when her usefulness came to an end.

"I will consider this," Ryu responded with a cruel snort. "We have other warriors fighting in this ship."

"No! Master War Dragon! Allow me! I must redeem myself!" She reached for him, and he contemptuously swatted her arm away. The speed of the strike, combined with a Yamasenken vacuum blade, forced her to flinch back, holding her arm. The sight of a shallow cut - a warning - dribbling flecks of red blood... only seemed to further entrance the addled Female Fury.

"I said I will consider it. Ready yourself in the meantime." He began to walk away, ducking through the remains of the door created not too long before. "Star Fire," he added, speaking without turning around. "Watch her for a moment and then join me outside."

Her feelings kept to herself, the Teen Titan-turned-Fake Fury nodded, once.

She didn't miss the jealous, fuming look sent her way from the real deal.

* * *

Pathfinder.

Konatsu sat, his face to the wall and his back to Kuno and Mousse. There was no point talking to either, what with the Hidden Weapons master meditating to try and block out the outside world, and Kuno lost in his own personal world of haikus and samurai romance. Likewise, the male kunoichi tried to ignore the other two occupants of the room besides the two weapons users. It was bad enough being stuck with Kuno and Mousse, he also had to deal with two dead people.

Thumbnail met fingernail as Konatsu worked. He'd been told not to sharpen his nails, but despite what everyone believed, the pilot of the ship was not omnipresent. There were no obvious cameras to hide from, but Konatsu had been trained to use the nav interface. He had synched up with Pathfinder once before, back on Seiran, in a practice run. He remembered the blind spots. Besides, they'd already taken away all his weapons - what if he needed to defend himself? As a human being, he had that right at least.

It'd been years since he had to fight like _that_, though.

"Remembering someone else you killed, Ao-kun?"

"Shut up."

Stupid corpse. The dead weren't supposed to talk.

"Don't be so mean to me, Ao-kun. Isn't it bad enough that you killed me...?"

An overly familiar hand ran slowly along Konatsu's shoulder, only pulling away when he flinched and shook it off. The source of the unwanted conversation crouched down to the ninja's right, lazily resting his forearms on his bent knees.

Aiuchi was the corpse's name. Konatsu gave him a hateful glare and went back to his fingers. The man was of no consequence: forty something at age of death, thin, unremarkable, wearing the same dirty, bloodstained shirt and suit pants he'd died in. His black tie hung loosely like a noose, but that wasn't what had taken his life. A ruby red necklace circled his throat above the fifth cervical vertebra and his head hung loose from where it had been broken. The human body could not and did not survive such injuries. He should have been dead. He was dead. Stupid corpse.

"Shut up," Konatsu hissed again.

"You were always a naughty one," Aiuchi croaked, straining to be heard despite his ruptured throat. "But that is what I paid for, so I shouldn't complain. You won't even talk to Nii-chan."

Konatsu stole a quick look over his shoulder, to where a seven year old girl was busy peeking over Kuno's arm to look at his poetry. Nii. 'Red.' Still in that same red sundress. It was still wet from the bottle that had cracked her skull open and ended her life. Konatsu shook his head and tried to put that out of his mind.

"She's dead. You're dead. I don't talk to dead people."

"Of course not," Aiuchi agreed. "But really, Ao-"

Konatsu forced his eyes closed. "I'm not Ao," he explained, and not for the first time. "Don't call me that."

"So you've said."

"Just shut up."

"But life here is so boring!" Aiuchi insisted, leaning in and cupping his chin. "Let's play a game, like we used to. Nii-chan can watch if she doesn't want to-"

Konatsu's fingers entered, and passed clean through, the man's eyes. It was disappointing. But of course, Aiuchi was dead. Not just dead. Buried. This version wasn't real. All the more reason to ignore it. Withdrawing his fingers from the phantom's head, the digits slipping out and leaving the face annoyingly intact, Konatsu screwed his eyes shut again.

"Hnn, you know...!" Aiuchi began again, leaning back on the balls of his feet. "Have you seen that blue alien anywhere? The Guardian that your Ukyou-chan is so taken with?"

Konatsu's upper lip twitched as he fought back a sneer.

"It's in the command room," he answered. "You know that already."

"I do?"

"You do."

"You're so knowledgeable, Ao-kun!" Aiuchi said with a croaking laugh. "But I wonder why that is? I mean, isn't it strange? Can you really trust it up there?"

"That's Hibiki-taichou's call, not mine."

"But it doesn't seem very smart. Who knows what that thing is up to?" the dead man asked, head lolling from side to side as it made a mockery of pondering the situation. "Hnn, Ao-kun, you know I just realized, didn't things get a lot worse when they brought that alien back? Funny coincidence, huh?"

A tiny sliver of fingernail hit the ground.

"It is," Konatsu admitted.

"Hnnn! I also wonder why you three are the only ones locked up like this?" the apparition asked aloud, and reached out to poke Konatsu on the arm. "Isn't that strange, Ao-kun? Are you sure you should be in here?"

"Shut up," Konatsu hissed. "Shut up!"

"I mean," Aiuchi continued, regardless. "Wouldn't it have made more sense for Ryouga-kun to go with one of the teams off ship? Why Ranma-kun? Of course, they don't trust you to pilot the ship anymore..." The dead man chuckled at that. "I wonder why? After all, didn't they let Raven-chan pilot the ship, not so long ago? And we know what she did back on that other world."

The voice whispered the answer in Konatsu's ear, "She betrayed you. All of you. Why let her run free?"

"...shut up."

"Do you think they trust her more than they trust you?"

"Shut. Up."

"Why let her do whatever she wants? She must be having so much fun!" Aiuchi stood back up, walking around behind the ninja boy's back. "Her and that Guardian. I wonder if Ryouga-kun is even thinking straight with them around?"

Konatsu didn't reply, and for a few seconds, all he had to endure was Nii's giggling at Kuno's terrible poetry.

"But..." And then Aiuchi leaned down to whisper in his left ear. "Isn't sitting around and waiting what got Nii-chan killed?"

The male kunoichi's fingernails aimed this time for the already cut and broken neck, passing cleanly and bloodlessly through the carotid. Of course. Of course there was no blood. Aiuchi was dead. Aiuchi wasn't there.

"Maybe," the phantom continued in a hoarse titter, even with Konatsu's hand still three inches buried in its throat. "Maybe that'll be what gets Ukyou-chan killed, too. I mean, she's not my type, but-"

Konatsu's hand slowly withdrew, his eyes narrowing at the words.

"...just shut up. _I'll kill you_," said in a barely audible hiss, Konatsu hardly even recognized them as his own. But they felt right. Aiuchi just laughed, the thin line of red around his neck weeping blood.

Crystal sharp brown eyes drifted to the blind spots in the ship's internal sensor network.

* * *

"You will be pierced with knives and spread over hot steel!" The Sacristan howled from the darkness and shadows. "CUT THEM OPEN. Your skin will be flayed away and fed to you! Your bowels will be opened and your eyes removed! REMOVE THE IMPURE!"

From under the rack, smaller shapes began to move. Spinning, Cyborg caught light of something fast adhering to one of the headless corpses they had discovered before. It was one of the fleshy things released before. The tick-like body had already burrowed into the mutilated corpse, legs sinking into flesh like hooks around the gaping neck. The one lidless yellow eye stared into the light, warped and monstrous and unblinking.

The body it attached to began to stir.

"I will stretch apart muscle from bone! Great Ixthultu will have you! Great Ixthultu will TAKE YOU. I will purify your flesh!"

Ranma, Cyborg and Jinx were already firing, gunning down the first of the faceless monstrosities as it rose. Still more came. Headless hosts were taken first, but even those left mostly intact were quickly absorbed. The black ticks burrowed in, sawing away part of the neck to hungrily attach and take over. Others, bolder than their kin, eschewed a dead host for a living one, jumping straight at the three intruders to either be splattered by weapons fire, a pink hex, or by a fast moving fist.

More laboriously, pinpricks of light from rising twisted constructs broke the concealing dark.

That was twelve seconds ago.

* * *

The bloated tick literally exploded from the force of Ranma's elbow, thick braids of blue tissue expanding from the impact as the skin ruptured like a greasy, green tomato. The single yellow eye vanished as it popped, spraying a hot, wet slime. Far worse was what lay inside, revealed by the carnage: chips of bone and skull, embedded with mottled black, parasitic Nth metal. The source of the plague of reanimating head-ticks, attaching themselves back to the bodies they had been severed from, god knew how long ago.

There was no reason to hold back. One hand was still on his sidearm, but the other free. A strike to the collar of one of the reanimated bodies crumpled it, but Ranma knew from the previous ten seconds of fighting that it wouldn't put it down. Instead, the strike was accompanied by a halo of confident blue and yellow ki that stuck to the tick atop the corpse's shoulders. The telekinetic ki burned on contact, cooking the fleshy parasite better than a shrimp tossed in pan of frying oil.

The charred creature immediately jumped from the shoulders of the body it had buried into as it fell, still cooking from the psionic fire. Ranma was already on his next target, feet backpedaling before bracing him as he delivered two crushing blows to one of the raptor like alien bodies. Protrusions of bone and black flesh had grown out from the dismembered trunk, and the martial artist blocked two jabbing, mantis-like blades in the same smooth motion with which he counter attacked.

Sakkijutsu, the life saving sixth sense of a martial artist, gave Ranma the hint of warning he needed to summersault over another charging abomination. From above, a heavy chain lashed out, a giant black hook spearing and sectioning the tick-controlled lizarkon corpse. The wicked end of it finished cutting the body in two and then scraped along the floor in a spray of sparks, skipping like a stone on a lake.

Landing, Ranma barely dodged as it shot past, missing him by inches. In so doing, it hooked another of the reanimated monstrosities by the shoulder, dragging it away into the darkness as it retracted. There was little time to even think about the close call. Another leaping head tick entered his peripheral vision, only to encounter the same Saotome foot-interrupt his fellow Nerima Crew knew so well. The boot immediately came back down, and the head-tick splattered against the ground, half of it spiraling like a broken watermelon shell.

Another of the half-dead monstrosities ran in from the side, dragging a squirming black blade.

_'(Give me your flesh!)'_

Ranma's NGP sidearm gave it something instead: a 190 grain slug, served hot at two kilometers per second. Recoil dampening technology gave the hand cannon a fairly modest kick, one fifth of what it should be. This did nothing for anything on the other end. A high explosive round meant to kill or wound a cloaked Ethereal or armored Muton blasted an impact wound out of the Thanagarian abomination the radius of a compact disk. What wasn't excavated outright from the shot compressed, decompressed, and trembled with a shockwave that broke bones and shredded vile flesh. The charging abomination instantly changed direction: the torso being knocked back from the impact, and the limbs and head trying, straining, to continue forward.

The lieutenant slapped down the head-tick that tore free from its mooring, staining the right side of his NGP sidearm. Calculating that he had a two second reprieve to get his bearings, he took in the world in perceptive slow motion. Two seconds wasn't great, but it would do.

His eyes darted behind his visor.

Four more of the abominations were closing in on him, two from the left, one from behind, one from the right. Two were chasing Jinx, or trying to. She was in midair, having jumped from one collapsing rack of ordinance to another, further back the way the trio had come. She also had the attention of one of the risen constructs; the twisted and assimilated Thanagarian fighter craft was stomping after her, heedlessly crushing any of the abominations that got underfoot in their rush to find something and kill it. It was also firing those red radiation beams on full auto. Ranma could clearly see the cover Jinx was trying to head for.

Good.

Cyborg was currently knocking one of the head-tick infested corpses away as he tried to fire back at the construct chasing Jinx. Two more of the creatures were jumping down on him from on top a disassembled engine or other piece of large equipment, and he had an intact tick crawling up his chest. He'd clearly gotten sloppy while trying to help Jinx.

Not so good.

There was also constructs number two and three, the former smashing through a butcher's row of bodies, some in the process of being taken over by head-ticks, some falling to the floor or being crushed. Three of the pod-weapons that extended from the mechanical aberration's core were glowing red and ready to discharge. The third was still in the process of pulling itself together, emerging from a cocoon of black veins.

Then there was the Sacristan, hiding somewhere and using those fuck-off murderous black chains.

_'I can't let that third construct get up... there's no way we'll be able to fight three of them at the same time, plus all this other stuff...'_

Ranma's left hand twitched, already moving, as fractal crackles of ki emerged from the glove.

_'If P-chan were here, the idiot would probably just use his breaking point to blow up half the room. Awfully handy having a technique that can turn basically anything into a bomb. What to do?'_

A trio of semiautomatic shots thundered as Ranma fired, aiming for about three feet over Cyborg's head and shoulders. Too fast to follow, two of the three shots found their mark. One of the descending abominations was caught between the shoulder and the neck, and half the body tore apart, split down the back and side like a Thanksgiving turkey. The other was caught in the leg and unbalanced by the massive injection of energy and momentum. It started to tumble uncontrollably.

Palm turning down to face backwards, the Saotome heir blindfired a full power _moko takabisha_. Sparing a half second to confirm the kills, he saw the trailing end of the golden ki blast. Within it, one of the damned Thanagarian corpses had been properly beheaded. The other had been caught a bit too far off to the side, but enough of the beam had hit to blow off an arm with the pure kinetic impact force. Both were in the process of being bowled over. Rather than try and finish the mauled but not mission-killed body, Ranma stepped into an _akichi_.

He came to a stop next to Cyborg, just as the teen splattered the head-tick crawling up his chest by slamming his arm back and into it. Bits of gore stuck to him even as he looked away to try and find a new target. Ranma smirked. Decontamination back on Pathfinder would have to be worked overtime to make up for this little detour.

"We need to take out that third mecha before it gets up! Cyborg!" Ranma yelled into the teamcomm, turning to cover the Titan's vulnerable back. "I need you to gather up the trash. Jinx! I need hexxes on the ceiling. Doesn't matter where. Just make them big! Bring the house down!"

* * *

Cyborg looked down at the martial artist beside him, trying to divine just what he was thinking. He glanced upwards towards the high, slightly arching ceiling. Why on earth did he want Jinx to blast the… ceiling? The gleaming metal of the ceiling suddenly made the cybernetic teen's mind kick into overdrive.

'Heh, heh, heh… oh yeah!'

An instant later, with only minor grumbling from the sorceress, a flare of pink light fired up from across the large chamber, angling up towards the ceiling, signaling the start of her work. Far above them, geometric lines of pink energy lit up the ceiling, rapidly tracing a neon rectangle in the ceiling, followed immediately by a loud grinding squeal as one of the large deck plates began to slide free from its moorings. What started slowly, accelerated quickly as it finally dropped free of its brethren, and the large ceiling plate began to drop down towards them.

"Nonono! Bringing it down like that won't work!" Diving out of the way, not wanting to be anywhere close when the multi ton slab crashed down, he hit his comm. "Yo, Jinx! Hold on a sec! Drop the ceiling but don't just disassemble it, make the nastiest mess you can! I'm talkin' twisted wreckage, yo!"

The heavy plate of metal slammed to the ground, making a deafening 'clap' and helpfully flattening a few of the damned ticks, but Cyborg didn't have any time to reflect on the minor success. Instead, he sought out Jinx, trying to pick the slender witch out of the rest of the chaos that surrounded them.

He spotted her a second later. The armored sorceress, on the far side of the room, was ducking behind a large machine, weathering a searing assault of high radiation energy blasts from one the constructs. Her immediate reply was, "Are you serious? Wreckage is way harder than just dropping!"

But it was quickly followed by a loud groan. "Alright, Big Guy, I got ya. One light show, extra recycling on the side. You need to give me an opening to get up top, though!"

He lifted his hand-cannon and fired off a sonic blast at the construct pinning Jinx down. "On it!"

The column of bluish-white light slammed into the aberration's side with locomotive force, staggering it to the side several yards. The second it was distracted, Jinx flew out from behind her cover and started leaping up the walls with surprising speed and agility.

"Once things come down, I'll need five un-interrupted seconds," Ranma explained, turning away from Cyborg to crater another tick-headed Thanagarian monstrosity emerging from a pile of rubble. "I'm going to psi-hack that third mecha before it joins in. Then we take out the fodder, take out the other two mechs, beat down the chain bastard. That order. Be ready."

Cyborg chuckled. "Sounds good! We'll get it done."

A second later, a string of explosions rang out far above their heads. Great bursts of pink light and plumes of neon fire danced all along the roof of the Armory. The silhouette of the sorceress could be seen soaring through the air from one raised platform to another. Moments later, much more manageable debris began to rain down around them, slamming into the floor like metallic rain. Amid the deadly shower of falling beams and plate fragments, Cyborg lifted an arm over his head, deflecting another slab of metal as it came free, exposing dark tendrils of corrupted metal between floors. A flicker of movement from his side was all the warning he got as Ranma vanished, making a bee line towards the almost fully emerged third construct.

Chuckling, the cybernetic teen lowered his arm and brought up the built-in display panel. "Yo, Jinx! Can you cover Ranma and me from up there? He's got a crazy ass plan, and I gotta do some runnin' and gunnin' while I work!"

Though he couldn't see her, lost up in the darkness, a salvo of high energy plasma bursts arrowed down from on high. One caught a Thanagarian abomination that tried to intercept the fast moving lieutenant. Another vaporized the skull of a vile looking lizard creature that was staggering out of the mess made by the raining debris and had been heading in his direction.

The third plasma blast nearly caused Cyborg to shout in terror, as it lanced straight into a pile of munitions stored near a rack of weapons that had been in the midst of being refurbished countless centuries earlier. The errant blast triggered a chain reaction of violent red explosions as deadly crimson radiation saturated half of the room, doing unspeakable things to anything in range.

Sprinting as fast as he could, Cyborg leapt clear of the devastation and skidded behind a fallen piece of plating from the ceiling. "Yo! Watch it, Jinx!"

"Sorry, Tin Man! It's not exactly like I'm firing point blank, up here!"

Grumbling under his breath, he nodded. "Yeah, yeah, whatever, just keep it up, I need you to keep everyone off of me while I work."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it. Ranma's almost on target, anyway." There was a moment of pause, punctuated by another hail of plasma bursts from somewhere high above. When, suddenly, Jinx's voice sounded again, a different tone than from before. "Um, Cyborg…?"

Looking up from his arm, and taking a moment to swat one of the more over eager head-tick things that was scrabbling up his leg, he glanced upwards in puzzlement. "Yeah, what's up Jinx?"

Another pause. "…Nothing, just forget about it for now."

Huh… well, that was odd, but he didn't have time to worry about it now. Even as plasma fire continued to rain down around him, and Ranma's speeding form drew attention like a fireworks display, Cybog brought up a schematic of the ship.

"Now… let me see…"

* * *

At the same time, and across the expansive alien Armory, the feel of a psi-amp powering up, not just with one attack, but with two running programs in parallel, was completely different than something like the _moko takabisha_. Those, Ranma knew, he could fire off almost in his sleep by this point.

Intent focused emotion, emotion entered aura, aura extended, aura detached. Done. Of course, there were a dozen complexities involved in that overall process, but it was something that lent itself well to being reduced to rote behavior. Train and train and train, and it became second nature.

Psionic attacks were never second nature, not for normal humans. The amp made everything a whole hell of a lot easier, partly due to the actual amplification effect that mimicked alien biological tissues, but also because it came with a lot of pre-set programming. It was a bit like having someone with a calculator versus someone with an abacus or sliderule. Sure, a really good 'analog' psionic could do some impressive stuff, but it was just faster and easier when you had the amp to handle the more troublesome bits.

The problem was that even then, there was little mental capacity to do high level stuff, like moving at thirty or forty kilometers per hour, fighting hand to hand, or scrambling along a crumbling platform full of fragile looking munitions... while also preparing not just one but two significant psi attacks. Jumping off the tumbling end of a smooth bodied piece of alien hardware, Ranma cursed how sluggish he felt.

_'If I didn't have that covering fire...'_

There was no point dwelling on it. What he had, he would make due with. The psi amp was programmed and ready. It was time to throw caution to the wind, and either pull off another Saotome miracle, or fuck up royally. At least if he did the latter, it'd be similarly spectacular. Saotome style!

The emerging mechanical aberration loomed directly ahead, standing on four pointed legs made from cannibalized Thanagarian fighter craft. Another three arched overhead, tittering and snapping like pincers, anxious to sink into vulnerable flesh. The three weapons pods were wet with an umbilical mucus, but already powering up, the concentric circles that made up the firing end starting to burn a radiant ruby red. A snapping, mangled mesh of black veins, thick as ivy, still covered much of the twisted construct.

Two quick steps away, it saw him, identified him as a threat, and the weapon pods readjusted.

Luckily, before firing, it made the mistake of trying to impale the martial artist with a segmented, yellow armored leg. Ranma took the attack as an opportunity, adjusting his jump to partly overshoot. With his one free arm, he grabbed the leg as he passed it, and used his momentum to spin around and angle up. Blasting around the leg twice, too close for it to fire down and not hit itself, the Saotome heir went airborne, bouncing off one of the upper legs around the crown of the horrific machine monstrosity.

Landing on his threes: two feet and one hand - the one with his armor's internal psi amp drawn back, Ranma let his smirk grow. "Perfect!"

Now, all he had to do was not blow his brain out his ears.

"Geistlance!" Slamming his hand down, Ranma unleashed the combination attack he'd prepared. First: the lance. The telekinetic attack so loved by the elite of alien enemy. Alien lances were generally circular, but Ranma could see his was much more ragged, and roughly palm shaped. That was fine. He could see a faint outline against the alien armor he'd struck.

_'Wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it...! Don't tell me I missed?' _

Then, from within the now thrashing and flailing abomination of a machine... Ranma felt something shudder in pain. Blue eyes widened, having found their target.

_'There!'_

The second attack instantly triggered: a mental attack. Pain would be the crack in the door. This would be the axe that broke the crack open. He hadn't overlooked the fact that the construct they had destroyed back at the elevator had some remnant of the tortured pilot inside. There was a brutalized, insane mind in there. Thoughts. Sentience. Bits and pieces of personality.

A name.

In his mind's eye, Ranma seized it in his hand and snuffed it out.

In its place, he injected self. Self took over. Self was Command. Physical response was rejected. There was no need to place oneself entirely into a machine that had already driven its pilot into a screaming, gibbering ball of twisted meat, bone and teeth. Before it died inside, nerve and circuit would obey Self.

_'Mind Control... Successful.'_

Ranma stood, grounding himself firmly onto the top of the mechanized aberration. His body, his real body, felt distant and slow to respond. Instead, he commanded steel and corrupted flesh, born of Nth metal ...and all that was the easy part.

He moved his right index finger, and one of the weapons pods jerked up. His left index finger; one of the legs shifted. His left thumb; another leg lifted slightly. Flexing his right calf caused a sudden discharge of red energy from another of the weapons pods. Blinking, he saw the world through three fish-like eyes. It was a completely foreign, completely alien, completely inhuman body with seemingly random responses. Ranma instantly committed every move he made, and every response, to memory.

A thunderous leg stamped down on an overeager Thanagarian abomination.

The trio of weapons pods glowed, like three malevolent eyes in the dark.

"Jinx. Cyborg. Let's do this."

It was time to clean house.

* * *

_'__It__'__s time to clean house!__'_

Reaching down to his side, Cyborg quickly tore up a piece of the floor and hurled it, Frisbee style, into a charging Lizardkin abomination. The hunk of metal caught the beast straight in the chest, the sound of bone being crushed to powder audible across the room, and picked it clear off its feet. It whipped through the air for several yards before bouncing through a small group of former Thanagarians and splattering against a wall.

A second later, a burst of plasma from his right side shocked him out of his complacency, and he shot a grateful look up far above his head, where Jinx was still out of sight. He could see over a dozen of the infested monstrosities scaling the walls to reach her, another point which Cyborg found quite interesting. Spinning out from behind his tenuous cover, he let out a bark of laughter as he saw Ranma riding one of the constructs madly around the room.

"Rookie drivers are awesome," he joked to himself.

It was a good thing Ranma's plan had worked, though. There were more of the twisted freak Thanagarians and their slaves popping out of the woodwork by the second, he could count three bakers dozens right in plain sight, and who knew how many of those damn tick things that were scurrying around like a priceless metal version of the damned Flood. Even with Ranma handling one of the big bads, there were way too many to fight in any way that didn't involve serious injuries, or worse.

The reason for that became apparent, as the high pitched rattling of metal on metal gave him the split second warning to dive to the side. A fraction of a second later, a flash of darkened, tainted metal shot through the space his head had occupied. The black chain shot right on past, before goring one of the Thanagarians, only to pull back and tear the poor bastard right off his feet to vanish into the darkness.

Cyborg shook his head at that. Everything else, he was getting used to, but the living chains crap was still freakin' him the hell out. Still, not to worry much longer! He turned his attention back to the display on his arm. The diagram of the ship was clearly highlighted and he quickly hit a few last commands. Several more lights flickered from one color to another, and, finally, he was ready. His finger hovered over the display, ready to enter the last command.

"Ranma! Jinx! Hold on to something!"

"What?" was all the reply the Lieutenant managed, in tandem with Jinx's surprised bark, before Cyborg hit the big red button on the display. It took several long seconds, giving Cyborg more than enough time to activate the maglock systems in his feet, firmly planting him to the floor

…and then a loud groan filled the room.

For just a second, all movement in the chamber ceased, the blood thirsty monsters probably looking for another target that might have been the source of the ominous noise. Cyborg held in the bark of laughter that was struggling to get out as he watched all of the flightless Thanagarians, Lizardkin and tick freaks.

A moment later, the room's gravity reversed itself. In an instant, up became down and vice-versa. A moment of disorientation overcame Cyborg, but compared to what happened to everything else in the room, it was a small price to pay. The poor damned Thanagarians, their wings rendered useless by the Nth metal infections and too slow witted to use their Nth metal belts in time, flew upwards at approximately 9.8 meters per second per second. The Lizard monsters and the tick creatures didn't even have the option to save themselves, hurtling up like a rain of rotten meat…

Right onto the jagged and twisted ruin that Jinx's power had created when she had blasted the ceiling for Ranma. The upturned metal ridges were soon painted white with alien blood as bloated corpses slammed into them after falling over a dozen meters. The real calamity began, though, near simultaneously, as the massive constructs fell lazily through the air, crashing to the ruined ceiling in massive clouds of debris.

Well, all the constructs, minus one. Cyborg had to chuckle as he looked directly across from himself, seeing Ranma dangling from his co-opted construct, even as it dangled from the floor/ceiling, it's long, spindly legs impaled deeply through the floor plates.

"There," he stated proudly, "Now _that__'__s_ a proper display of the meson/graviton inversion properties of Nth metal. I love artificial gravity!"

The sound of Ranma's half panicked/half amused chuckle over the comm was a welcome intrusion in the cybernetic genius' ear. "I gotta admit… that's one way to take care of the small fries."

Jinx, on the other hand, was not quite as supportive.

"You Tin Plated Moron! It's rainin' men down here, and not in the good way! If you actually had an ass under all that metal, I'd kick it across this entire dimension!"

Cyborg let out a low whistle. _'__Harsh. Alright, someone__'__s cranky.__'_

He didn't have time to respond, though, instead letting out a nasty grin. '_Well, let__'__s see how miss grumpy pants likes this, then_?'

With that, he hit the button on his arm again, instantly reversing the gravity back to its original setting. The startled shriek of Jinx was like music to his ears… unfortunately, a shortcoming to his plan became apparent quite quickly, as the gore and entrails from two dozen mulched aliens rained down on them. To his side, Ranma's not-so-noble steed flopped back to the floor, but quickly righted itself in the restored gravity. The other constructs were not so lucky, slamming back to the floor with deafening crashes.

Unfortunately, unlike the flesh and blood monstrosities, the falls did little damage to the massive mechanical abominations, and within moments, both were struggling back up onto jagged, spider like legs, the squealing of metal as they tore themselves from the shattered deck was agony. All too soon, glistening, ominously glowing weapon pods began to swivel in Cyborg's direction.

The closest construct stumbled heavily to the side as a salvo of crimson energy blasts slammed into its side. Sadly, the high energy radiation bursts weren't nearly as effective against the corrupted vehicles as they were against the organic creatures spilled out all around them, but it was still enough to knock the creature off balance. Even better, the unexpected attack drew the attention of both mechanical beasts.

Immediately, Ranma was forced to duck for cover on his own construct as return fire began to pepper its hull, the wild vehicular creatures scrabbling forward to attack it physically as well. The frenzied beat of metallic legs puncturing the floor as the hulking beasts stormed across the room was nearly deafening, and the Lieutenant quickly forced his hijacked construct to fall back and away, still pouring on the weapon's fire. It was two against one.

A flash of pink from far above was all the warning they got, before Jinx rejoined them on the ground floor. In fact, she rejoined them with extreme prejudice – the armored sorceress hollered madly as she rode a massive support beam all the way down from the ceiling several dozen meters above. The make shift lance crackled with pink energy… and crashed down onto the 'head' of the farthest vehicular abomination.

Armor shattered like glass under the sheer mass and velocity of the section of support beam, and the legs snapped loudly, dropping the beast to the floor in a great cloud of dust, gore and shrapnel. Still perched on the end of the beam, Jinx leapt off, flipping once, then twice in midair, and landing on the back of the impaled construct, now pinned firmly to the floor like a butterfly in a collection. Spinning around, she then unleashed a torrent of flaming pink energy into the gaping wound torn open by the beam, frying the internal components of the mechanical creature in a gout of steam and acrid smoke.

"Well… damn. Welcome back to the party, Jinx," Cyborg muttered, wide eyed. He gave his head a quick shake a second later, and started charging the remaining beast. "Lieutenant! Keep that thing – whoa-!"

His impromptu run was ended as quickly as it began, the large teen's foot catching on something large and heavy, nearly dropping him flat onto his face. Looking down in shock, Cyborg saw what it was that he'd just tripped over.

His eyes widened slowly at what he saw. The Thanagarians and their slaves hadn't been the only things tossed about wildly when he'd flipped the gravity around on them. All of the weapons, munitions and raw materials that had been laying around had been thrown across the room willy nilly, and, like the massive ship creatures, their weapons were far too resilient to be damaged by a couple of drops.

Granted, the behemoth, two man Thanagarian cannon had seen its better days. It was also obviously as corrupted as everything else on this damned ship: it had grown a number of blackened spikes, and there was a gibbering maw on the side, complete with teeth, on the side. Most unnerving was the single, bloodshot eye that stared back at him, sitting right on the top of the eight foot long energy cannon.

It was utterly insane, but -

But the constructs were completely corrupted, and yet their weapons still worked. Shrugging, he ducked down, picked up the weapon, and slung it up on his shoulder. Immediately, small black tendrils began to worm out of cracks in the plating, trying to dig their way into him. Even as he leaned his head away as much as he could, he found himself chuckling. There wasn't anything for the tendrils to consume on him, and no weak points in his armor for them to slip their way into.

Standing back up, hefting the malignant cannon, easily over a hundred kilograms in weight, he lined it up with the remaining construct, still intent on destroying Ranma and his stolen mount. The two monstrosities were stitching the air thick with red pulses of energy, barely bothering to aim and instead using sheer, maddening weight of fire. Neither gave half a damn what else was nearby, not with Jinx already safe under cover.

It was a perfect opening that all but screamed: FIRE!

_'…Damn, but I don'__t wanna unload this thing half blind.__'_

Glaring at the eye, matching the malevolent look it leveled his way, Cyborg pulled out an I/O cable from his arm and jammed it into the control system of the weapon. "Yeah, let's see how you like it, big guy!"

Narrowing his eyes, he forced his way into the operating systems of the cannon, using the translation programs he'd been using in the rest of the ship. To say the process was… disturbing… was an understatement. The corruption went beyond just the physical, even the programming had gone insane, but he bent it to his will, regardless, rerouting as much as he dared onto his own processors.

As fraction of a second later, a thousand-thousand computations having occurred in the blink of an eye, a targeting reticule appeared in his internal HUD, linked directly to the target control systems of the blighted weapon. Resting his finger on the trigger, Cyborg took a deep breath.

"Alright, let's see what you can do!"

He pulled the trigger.

A literal vomit of sickly aurulent yellow fire erupted from the end of the massive, cancerous weapon. Corrupted spines on the sides shivered with orgasmic glee, and the mouth merged onto the side - Cyborg really hoped it wasn't taken from somewhere - screeched and spat, a trail of bloody red drool dripping from broken, decomposing gums. A blast of steam shot from recessed pores in the body of the corrupted cannon, and the purulent beam of light shifted colors, lighter and then darker and then greenish. The discharge was haphazard, and heedless of any real attempt at aiming, some of the energy lance chaotically going off at an angle, and another coiling around the main beam.

Yet, for all that, when it hit, the result was devastating. It just nicked the leg of the ambling walker Ranma had engaged, and immediately melted it away like candle wax from a blowtorch. Molten metal and... something else, a vile greenish ichor, splashed from the impact point, spreading a poisonous rain of acid and slag for a dozen feet. The nightmarish mixture devoured anything it touched, eating fallen corpses and steel support and webs of black vein-growths with equal gusto.

And once fired, it was a battle to make it stop.

Howling like a banshee, the cannon discharged another beam, and another, and another, none the same as the one before. One was just a little cough, another a long stream, and another forked apart as it left the mouth of the insane machine. In its madness, though, there was also bloodlust. It seemed to know what Cyborg wanted it to kill, and most of the wild spray fell on the now wobbling construct, reduced to a tripod.

The brackish yellow beams hit, and drops of fire seared flesh from Nth metal bone, turning black growths into a runny dribble of festering, melting death. Two of the three weapons pods on the machine tried to swivel from Ranma to Cyborg, firing non-stop all the while, but they were too little too late. The nightmare cannon on Cyborg's shoulder consumed them, a dragon's breath of corrosive ethereal fire that burned and melted all it touched.

Within seconds, there was nothing identifiable left... just puddles of molten metal and steaming chunks of carbon-slime. Eerily, as it finally deigned to stop firing, Cyborg could hear laughter. From the weapon itself.

* * *

A moment of stunned silence hung over the room in the aftermath of the display of unbridled carnage. It was only broken a second later by the sound of Jinx landing on the floor. Taking a few steps forward, she tapped her cybernetic teammate on the shoulder and he spun about to face her. She rolled one of her wrists absently, gesturing to the massive gun.

"So... that's a nice new toy. It a keeper?"

Cyborg considered it for a moment. "Hmm, it _is_ pretty damn effective. I think I could get it to work for me."

"When in a pinch, use the enemies weapons against him," Ranma said it with a chuckle, even as his hijacked mech staggered into the open. "I like it. Looks like we took out all the trash."

Jinx took a moment to look between the hideous construct which Ranma rode into battle, then to the massive cannon straddling Cyborg's shoulder.

"...Damn," she fumed, stamping her foot. "Where's _my_ gibbering madness weapon? I'm getting totally ripped off here."

Laughing, Cyborg hefted his newly acquired BFG a bit higher onto his shoulder, the over two meter long cannon swinging though the air ponderously as he shifted around to better face Jinx.

"Well, I'd offer ya mine," he added jokingly, "But I think it likes me."

Studying the weapon warily, Jinx cringed just looking at it. Never mind the fact that it was longer than she was tall. Hell, it was longer than Cyborg was tall. The thing was covered with nightmarish sores, spikes and that one freaky ass eyeball. Even if she could carry the thing around - which she was fairly confident that she could! - the very idea of sitting that thing on her shoulder freaked her right the heck out.

"Umm, yeah, no thanks," she muttered tritely. It was probably for the best anyway, she reflected sourly, she'd heard what happened to Starfire when she'd grabbed one of their weapons. Unlike the impenetrably thick headed and steel-skinned Cyborg, Jinx was wearing the same style of armor as her alien teammate (well, for the most part) so she didn't like her chances of getting away with her hands intact.

It was still annoying, considering that that pigtailed jerk of a Lieutenant had ordered her to keep her gloves on and not use her cool new trick. She was really gonna have to start thinking of cool names for her different abilities. Everyone else around here did it, though most of them were horrendously goofy and would be far too embarrassing for her to shout out. Hmm, maybe if she tested out her new attack on Ranma a few times, he'd be able to help her pick a name for it?

'Oh gods, I'm burnin' to death!' did have a nice ring to it.

Taking a quick moment to survey the scene, Jinx nodded to herself. "Still, like you said, looks like we took care of the small fries easy enough. Guess we just have to find out where Preacherman ran off to."

"He's not far," Ranma stated more warily, carefully perched on the back of the vehicular monstrosity. "There's no way he's letting us off that easy."

Boastfully, Cyborg lifted his free arm. "Hey, no worries man. The guys a chain marionette. All I gotta do is configure my sonic scanner and we'll ferret the ugly SOB out of hiding in no-"

Whatever her teammate had been going to say was drowned out by the deafening screech of steel on steel, heralded by the ghastly rattling of living chains. Instinct kicked in faster than reason, and Jinx was already in motion before she realized why. One of the vicious shackles, barbed black metal links tipped by a bloody hook, slammed into the ground she had been occupying a second earlier. It was followed up by a second, third and a fourth, all arrowing in from different angles and at different speeds. She was forced to duck, dodge and weave her way through the storm of steel before she finally found her way clear.

In the second of freedom she had bought herself, she checked on her teammates. She saw Ranma first, perched on his mount. The Lieutenant had obviously been reluctant to abandon his ride, as one of the gory hooks had latched onto his shoulder, hooking right under the plate of his armored suit. His mind controlled construct, far too large and slow to avoid the onslaught had fared even worse. Dozens of chains had dug into its bulk, digging hungrily under the armored panels which served as the beast's makeshift 'skin'.

And then, as one, the chains retracted. A sound so horrible that it defied description filled the air, as the construct's armored shell was ripped from its body. Torrential gouts of black ichor sprayed in every direction as metal panels were tossed carelessly in every direction, disgusting trails of tendon and tendrils flopped like gory streamers as they flew. All that remained of the creature was a fleshy bulk, pouring out life's blood from every square foot of its body. A second later, it collapsed to the ground with a wet splat, shuddering violently as metal legs curled and squealed.

Ranma was thrown clear of the slaughter, pulled sharply away by the hook lodged into his shoulder. The martial artist recovered quickly, though, and twisted in midair. The conflicting forces quickly overcame the modular integrity of his suit, and a stitch of upper body armor was torn away, vanishing into the darkness above them. Bodysuit still vaguely intact, the martial artist landed a scant second later on all fours.

For some reason, rather than looking back at Jinx as she watched him, she noticed he was looking past her. She spun around to catch what he was watching – only to see instantly. Cyborg was still standing, a grimace on his face. The cause was obvious; showers of sparks were shooting out of his left arm, right shoulder and left leg. Large metal hooks pierced his sturdy armor and long metal chains receded into the darkness, the lengths of metal vibrating with taut fury.

Jinx felt an odd sensation well up in her at the sight, an odd twisting of her stomach. She had seen what those chains had been capable of, just seconds earlier, and the thought of that happening to him-

She managed to catch his gaze, and he reached out a hand towards her.

"Jinx!" he said, gritting his teeth. "Get outta-"

And then he was gone. His words were torn away, the chains pulling back with blinding speed, tearing the bulky Cyborg right off his feet and through the air. The movement was so fast that it was almost just a blur of white, blue and ghastly gold as his form vanished through a hole in the wall, the same damn recess that that Sacristan bastard had first appeared.

"Cyborg!" she shouted, running several steps forward in shock. Oddly, all she could think of as she reached out towards the black abyss that her team mate had just vanished, was just how hollow her shout had been. Puzzled at her own reaction, she spun to find Ranma, and when she did, she fired a desperately imploring look his way.

_'__What should I do?__'_

"Jinx! Eyes forward!" The words had barely left his mouth before he moved, running right into her with the fastest linear step she could remember seeing. The world spun and blurred, and then Ranma's feet skidded against the ground as they came to a stop.

A crisscrossing web of black had engulfed the room where she had been standing: and though it took a second, it quickly became apparent that the web was made of more chains. Small and large, they came down and shot up at random, forming an interlocking nest of spines and hooks. An instant later, and the web unraveled, unfurling as the chains retracted like a hundred rolls of metallic measuring tape. Sparks flew from the floor and walls and debris as errant hooks spliced and sheared their way, ripping into anything with the misfortune to be in reach.

Amid the whirlwind of eviscerating, fallen metal, a white form fell from above.

It was the Sacristan, finally and fully revealed. The Thanagarian's wings were splayed out behind him, his arms held up and fingers curled into claws. The white and gold armor from ages past were tattered and soiled by ancient blood and malignant growth. Yet that was not the long and short of it. The chains that has lashed at them before, and seized Cyborg, were also... wound around and into the Sacristan himself.

There was no other way to describe it. Hooks and nails were jammed into the insane alien's body, stretching skin and muscle away or wrapped so tight they drew beads of blood with every movement. It didn't even look possible for the Thanagarian to move or breathe, not without tearing off long scarlet ribbons of himself. The wings were intact, but bent and entangled. Barbs, like fishhooks, even peeled back around the eyes and face, except for that part obscured by a white veil. And beneath that veil, glassy golden eyes all but glowed.

"You three." The Sacristan's voice thundered, shaking the walls of the Armory, almost as if it were his voicebox itself. "IMPURE. But ... strong. You three are strong. BONES AND STEEL AND KNIVES AND FIRE. I will do great things. Make great things! With your arms and legs and fingers and faces!"

Ranma immediately leveled his NGP sidearm at the mutilated psychopath.

"Where the hell is Cy-"

The pigtailed one didn't even have time to finish his sentence. An undulating whip of corrupted Thanagarian steel crested like a wave, a black gleaming hook at the front of it like the head of a snake. For something longer than eighteen wheel truck and not insubstantially thick and heavy, the chain moved with lightning speed, and even as Ranma dodged it, releasing three semiautomatic shots as he moved, something blurred.

And the lieutenant went flying, crashing straight into and through a tipped over metal rack. Jinx could barely follow the movement, except to see, after the fact, that the single chain had somehow multiplied into four. It whipped around and back, like a cat-o'-nine-tails, and the sorceress barely avoided one of the jagged hooked barbs at the end as it whizzed by.

At the same time, she heard a strange metallic TANG, reverberated so fast, it was hard to tell if it had been one sound or two? or even three? The three shots fired by Saotome's weapon? Spinning around, she refocused on the Sacristan, and saw the Thanagarian still on his feet, blurry black clouds drifting around part of its torso.

_'Did - did this freak survive getting hit?'_ she couldn't help but speculate. _'How?'_

"Your powers," the Sacristan said, looking up at her as something moved beneath its facial veil. "NEW GOD. I couldn't get the other one, but now I have two. YES. YES! PEEL AWAY THE IMPURITY!" The Thanagarian's wings flexed, and hooks rained down from the ceiling. "Your flesh will scream, girl, but your soul will be set free!"

"The hell it will, ya damned freak!"

Cart wheeling to the side, she narrowly avoided another whipping chain. Her lateral movement instantly shifted to vertical less than a second later, as the chain split apart – or at least seemed to, now that she saw it up close, it was actually four narrower chains twined tightly about one another – and lashed out to tear away at her. She thanked a few dark goddesses that Ranma had bitten the bullet on that trick already, or else it would have caught her, too.

Eyes narrowing and glowing with power, she lashed out with her free hand, and a burst of pink light washed outwards and over the chains. The sections closest to her disintegrated to dust, but the assault fizzled out after only a few seconds, far faster than she had expected. Instead of following the chains back to their sources, only a scant few yards of the wicked metal was destroyed, doing little more than removing the vicious hooks from the tips.

That was all the time she had to reflect on the fact, though, as a deafening rattling filled the air behind her. A series of back flips just barely managed to keep her one step ahead of a hail of barbed hooks, sharpened metal implements stabbing into the floor with painful screeches of tearing metal in rapid-fire succession behind her. A second later, the hooks pulled back, tearing up a section of the flooring over a meter wide and a dozen long, and shredding the deck plates into razor shrapnel as they pulled apart.

Gasping, she swung her right arm up, plasma rifle still in her grasp, and fired off a salvo of plasmatic death in an upward arc. The first and last blasts went too low and too high respectively, and slicing through errant chains and gouging out long streams of molten metal on the inner hull of the ship where they impacted. The second burst, though, was dead on target, and heading straight down the damned bastard's tracheotomied throat-

And then she discovered how the bastard had survived earlier. Already in motion, shielding him even before she pulled the trigger, a veritable wall of chains, shooting in from every direction, converged directly before the Thanagarian priest. The sheer bulk of metal protected the abomination… for the most part. The plasma burst exploded violently on contact with the wall of corrupted steel, vaporizing metal on contact, and unleashing a shockwave which slammed into the Sacristan and nearly sent him flying. White blood sprayed everywhere as the hooks digging into his flesh dug deeper at the unexpected tension.

She didn't even have time to see the aftermath, already on the move again. Not having time to feel panic, shock, or anything else at the moment, instead she tapped her comm. "Cyborg! Are you there? Can you hear me?" No response came immediately. "Nabiki! Can you tell if Cyborg is still in one piece?"

Jinx had expected some news, some response, either good or bad. What she got instead was gibberish. It sounded like Nabiki's voice, but the words were completely mixed up. In fact, while the CIC had become incomprehensible, the ranting over the ship wide loudspeakers was starting to become easier to understand. It... probably wasn't a good sign.

Neither was the looming metal plate, ten meters wide or more, that a pair of black chains had wrenched into and torn bodily from the ceiling. The wall of metal descended like a massive fly swatter, clearly intending to turn pink haired sorceress into pink haired smear on the floor. Black boots sheared across the floor as she desperately tried to reverse course.

Jinx disappeared under the crushing weight.


	40. Even Death May Die 2

_**A/N**_

A note to readers. After/with chapter 40 (so: next week), we may be switching to an update every 2 weeks instead of every 1 (ch40 will also likely be a longer than normal chapter).

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**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Even Death May Die_

Chapter 39

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Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

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It was a little after four when the dusky clouds overhead began to fall to Earth as a gentle dusting of flurries. The bridges and walkways, the trees and overhangs, dotting both side of the Dōtonbori canal were already taking on a light white crust of snow, but it did little to dampen the spirits of the men and women of Osaka as they went about their business. 'Office girls' and 'salary men' in dark suits mingled with the occasional tourist and those who catered to them, selling everything from replacement batteries to takoyaki, all available without stepping off the street.

Ryouga Hibiki wandered past a group of un-uniformed schoolgirls, the gaggle of teenagers eagerly chatting and texting on their cellphones. They didn't pay any attention to the young man except perhaps to point at the yellow and green umbrella, still closed, but perched conspicuously on his shoulder in case the snow got heavier. Already a little of the stuff was starting to collect on the shoulders and rim of his overcoat, the frosting of white standing out against the light brown. Or, perhaps, it wasn't the umbrella: it was the backpack.

_'No, I'm not a tourist! Geez.'_

This wasn't his first time wandering through, around, or even under, Osaka. The city itself was sprawling, massive, like a metropolitan forest of buildings and neon that stretched on for miles in every direction. With a plethora of dead ends and unmarked - or poorly marked - roads, numbered seemingly at random, it was easy to get lost in even with a perfect sense of direction and a digital roadmap. While Ryouga did have the latter, the former was... well. It was just something he'd learned to live with.

Carefully cradling his cellphone in his left hand, he used his thumb to scroll around the colorful little map of the city. Normally, he would just wander around until he ended up outside the city limits, or in a city park, or even on top of a roof. Then he'd pitch tent for the night, and it would work nicely. If someone got pissed off, he'd jump off the roof and go somewhere else for some shuteye. He - they in fact - had been doing just that for the last three days.

Apparently it was time to get a real room, with a real shower, and actual running water.

'At least once a week,' she had said, following it up by pointing out that if he started to 'smell like a pig, then I'll treat you like one.' Given her background, he really did not want to be treated like a pig. So: a room. He had to find one for the night. Preferably one that would fit in their budget.

_'There has to be a good... cheap... hotel or something nearby,' _he thought, licking his dry lips as he looked up from the cellphone to try and get his bearings. _'Hmm. Maybe... across the canal?'_

A pair of arms abruptly encircled Ryouga's middle.

"Nihao, airen!" Shampoo tittered from behind his right shoulder, letting him go to spin around and stand in front of him. "So lost even in Japanese city. At least you stick near canal."

"Feh," he grunted. As if he wanted to stick close to any body of water, given his unique situation. "I'm not lost. I know exactly where I am."

With a grin, he grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her to his chest. "I'm just where I want to be..."

He trailed off oddly for a second. For just a moment there, something struck him as odd... but then the sight of vibrant purple hair nestled to his shoulder caught his attention, and not even realizing why, he let out a silent sigh of relief.

_'Yeah, that's right. I am where I want to be.'_

"Shampoo just where she wants to be, too," she said, and pecked him on the cheek. It was downright chaste compared to the first greeting she had given him, more than a year ago in China. Once they'd sorted out that Jyusenkyou business anyway.

In fact, the Amazon was smiling brightly at having successfully tracked him down. _Again_. As a matter of fact, tracking him down was something she was getting exceedingly good at, treating the need to find him time and time again like a good sport. Or like training. Not that either of them really felt like they were in a huge rush, but he was starting to become confident that they'd track down his mother and father in no time. Relatively speaking.

"Oh, and Shampoo found good place, too," she replied.

"How much?" he asked.

"Eight thousand yens. Used your credit card." The Chinese Amazon ducked over to his left side and tucked her hands in the pockets of her jacket to retrieve a pair of delicate, black leather gloves. Slipping them back on, she wrapped her arm around his, letting him flick off his cellphone and return it to his pocket.

"Eight thousand isn't too bad. One room?"

"One room plus bathroom and shower," she answered. "What was word? Suite?"

"I guess it'll be nice to sleep in an actual bed for once."

"Sharing bed roll not so fun after twenty or thirty times," Shampoo said with a giggle.

He couldn't stop the corner of his mouth from quirking up. "Oh, I don't know. It's definitely preferable to 'some' of the things I've woken up to find in my sleeping bag."

"Too, too silly," Shampoo playfully chided him, her mood bubbly. It helped that they hadn't seen Mousse for over a month. The idiot must've gotten lost in the mountains. The two walked along the street by the canal arm in arm.

"Oh, also," she remembered. "Is laundry building close by. We take care of that too tonight."

He nodded agreeably. "Sure."

"Let's see..." she wondered, cutely nibbling her lower lip. "Is all I think, yes?"

His brow creased as he tried to consider if she'd forgotten anything. Nothing came to mind straight away, though. She'd found them a place to get out of the falling snow, after all, so what else was there? The sudden growling of Ryouga's stomach was loud enough to startle a nearby stray. Coughing loudly into his fist, trying to cover his embarrassment, he nodded nonchalantly a second later.

"Ahem... I think, that... maybe... something to eat wouldn't hurt?"

His lovely companion merely shook her head, glancing at him through lidded eyes. "Shampoo think we had better feed you before you become danger to self and surroundings."

"Oh, come on, it isn't _that_ bad."

The bubbly Amazon tightened her grip on his arm, even as she reached out with her free hand to pat his stomach. After a few pats, her teasing pat became a gentle caress, and she nodded to herself, looking quite satisfied with what she found. "No, is not bad, is not bad at all."

Giggling to herself, she wrapped both arms more tightly around his and began to pull him along. "Still, Shampoo getting hungry, too. We go find nice place to eat, then worry about cleaning up."

"Sounds good to me," he agreed.

As famished as he was, and despite being down to his last basically clean shirt, honestly, all he wanted to do was get to the promised bed. It had been a long, long day, in a series of long days on the road. Granted, the company made the days far from unbearable, but the thought of a nice, soft mattress was calling out to him.

That in mind, he started looking over all of the business signs as Shampoo started dragging him down the street, looking for the nearest restaurant. It didn't take long to find what they were looking for. If they were where he thought they were (a half decent possibility, thanks to his handy new cellphone), then this small area of the Namba district of Osaka was apparently home to a swinging nightlife, and it certainly showed.

If anything, there was too much in the way of choice. Dozens of signs littered the street, marking various restaurants, cafes and bars. He resorted to looking in the large windows of each establishment as they walked past, taking in the enticing offerings that each one offered. In one such display he saw a mouth watering serving of Tonkatsu, advertised as free range and organic, but Shampoo carried him past the restaurant in question, not interested in anything too heavily breaded and deep fried. Then next restaurant offered Ikayaki and a variety of Kushikatsu that looked quite tasty as well.

He was about to lead them in, when he suddenly noticed something down the way. It looked like something of a lineup waiting outside of one of the eateries, an excited air hanging over the crowd. His curiosity piqued, Ryouga nodded to the gathering, signaling to his companion that he wanted to find out what was going on.

As they approached, he glanced at the sign above the restaurant.

_'Kounji's? Never heard of it. Not very big, but it looks popular.'_

As they reached the back of the line, the wanderer tapped one of the young men standing around. When he got the guy's attention, he tipped his head towards the restaurant. "Hey, do you mind if I ask what's going on here? What's with the line up?"

The young man, out with a few of his friends and their dates by the looks of it, gave him a quick look (not to mention a blatant double take at the sight of the gorgeous purple haired Amazon on his arm). Covering up his faux pas quickly, the guy chuckled uneasily.

"What?" he asked. "You don't know? This place is pretty much the most popular okonomiyaki in town. They say you can't find better anywhere in Japan."

"I heard the cook's daughter is _really_ cute," stated another of the young men, only to receive an annoyed swat to the back of the head from a cute brunette that could only have been his date.

"Huh, best okonamiyaki in all of Japan? That's quite a claim." He turned to Shampoo. "What do you say? Feel like putting that claim to the test?"

The bubbly Amazon pouted. "Shampoo no know. Was kind of hoping to find some nice Chinese food. Or maybe Korean." Her head tilted slightly to the side as she considered his offer further. "Still, might be fun to see how poor 'best' food in Japan is. Make you want to go back to village all the faster."

He grinned at that. He would be the last one to deny Shampoo's culinary skills, or those of the other women back in the village, but at the same time there was something to be said for the tastes of his native land. He was actually pretty excited about trying something so highly regarded. Still, he decided not to argue her point and simply dropped his hand on to her own and gave a reassuring squeeze.

In the end, they didn't have to wait terribly long. It was a bit later, so a lot of diners were just finishing up their meals when they had joined the lineup. All told, it only took twenty minutes, time which seemed to breeze by as he joked with Shampoo and the people in the line, before they were let into the restaurant.

Once they entered, Ryouga got a good look at the interior, and was quite impressed. The food may have been as good as they said, but the restaurant still had an earthy, old style feel. It reminded him of the country restaurants you could find on the road: a 'mom and pop' place where the food spoke for itself without any of the frills. Dark wood tables were spread throughout the large dining area, and cozy looking booths lined the walls. There was even a long bar, attached to the main grill at the end. The grill was currently a flurry of activity, but the Lost Boy couldn't quite see what was going on through the small cluster of excited people crowded before the grill.

His curiosity only grew as they finally reached the head of the line, but he was forced to put it on hold as a waitress, or maybe the maitre de, or whoever she was, came over to lead them to their seats. Predictably, most of the menu was based around okonomiyaki, the Kuonji family specialty, but they had a wide assortment of items from winter-special oden to old school Osaka wheat-flour udon noodles with vegetable and shrimp tempura. Browsing through the many varieties of okonomiyaki, Ryouga nearly missed the sudden spike of directed intent, not malicious, but strong and curious and definitely - and conspicuously - _there_.

His right hand snapped up, index and middle finger catching a piece of paper thrown with blinding speed.

It was the drinks menu.

"Yo."

A man Ryouga's age, about twenty, strolled over. He was wearing casual clothes favoring red and black, a long black pigtail running a bit past his shoulders before curling back up slightly. Ryouga knew it, and so did Shampoo; it was obvious just from the man's posture and the way he walked and carried himself. Even if he wasn't 'projecting' himself, it was a presence as clear as day. This man was _like them_. Not that anyone else in the restaurant noticed.

"We got a special here at Kuonji's, ya know?" the pigtailed man said with a confident grin. "Martial Artists eat free. ...If they're good enough."

"Ohh?" Shampoo mused, cupping her cheek and resting an elbow on the table. "Is we good enough?"

"Looks like ya may be," the man answered, and inclined his head just a fraction. "Name's Ranma. Saotome Ranma. Anything Goes."

Ryouga and Shampoo exchanged a quick look. It didn't look like this was going to turn into trouble and it wasn't that often that either of them encountered genuine peers. Old folks aside, of course. Shampoo was a league above anyone remotely her age back at the village, and barring a few encounters, Ryouga hadn't crossed fists with anyone to give him a run for his money... not for a while. Not since Mousse, back when he'd first ended up at the Amazon village.

"Hibiki Ryouga," the lost one replied, and bowed back. "Hibiki Survival style."

"Shampoo," the Amazonian champion said a second later. "Tribe of Women Heroes."

"So why do martial artists eat free?" Ryouga asked, wondering if there was some catch.

Ranma shrugged as he stopped in front of the booth table. "We're building a rep among the community."

"We've got a community?" Ryouga joked, and Ranma chuckled. It was true: there was no real martial arts community on the level the three of them operated at. Things tended to get volatile when too many quirky personalities with building destroying strength got together. "Sounds like you're asking for trouble."

"A little trouble keeps things interesting!" Ranma replied, still smirking.

"If make strong friends, then bad mens less likely to cause trouble," Shampoo stated and nodded at their pigtailed host. "This your restaurant then?"

"Nah. Not... not really," Ranma answered with a shrug and briefly glanced over at the grill. "Ucchan and Pops run stuff. I help out a bit, mostly when we go on the road, and if anyone causes trouble, I got dibs on kickin' their ass out. Anyway..." He turned and waved over his shoulder. "I'd recommend the okonomiyaki 'big triple' plate. I've already had 'em waive the bill. Drop by the back before ya head out."

"Hey," Ryouga said to the Anything Goes practitioner's retreating back. "Thanks."

"No problem." Ranma just waved a hand as he kept walking. "There's a little setup on the roof for people like us... just in case ya want a friendly spar or anythin' like that."

As he watched the man go, Ryouga gave a silent grunt. There was... something about that guy. Not something bad, per say, but something. For the life of him, he couldn't put his finger on what exactly. Finally, he shrugged and turned to his companion.

"So, what do you say? Up for a workout tonight?"

Shampoo leaned forward at that, grinning wickedly. "Oh, Shampoo very much looking forward to 'good workout' tonight... but can wait until after we spar with pigtail boy."

Shampoo was a little loathe to admit it, but this Japanese 'okonomiyaki' had actually been surprisingly good. Drying her hands off before leaving the ladies room, the Amazon wondered if she could copy the recipe. Her _airen_ was Japanese, after all, and a strong outsider male. It was unlikely that he would be willing to _completely_ break ties with his homeland, and even though Matriarch Perfume had loosened the rules regarding outsider marriages - liberalized them, really - Shampoo wasn't too keen on giving her new husband even more opportunities to get lost. He needed to be acclimated, and thoroughly.

She smirked at the challenge. It wouldn't take more than, say, two years at the most, and then her _airen_ would be well and comfortably settled in the village. Shampoo wasn't too worried about how. He was about as pliable as outsider males got and even more obsessed with the Art than most. She'd have Great Grandmother ply him with more secret techniques, first of all. Cologne didn't have much else to do anymore anyway, not since leaving the Council. That alone would be a solid foundation.

The next thing would be starting on a family... or so the Elders always said.

After all, Amazons married outsiders on the general theory that it would breed strong daughters and increase the pool of martial arts knowledge in the village. For village champions it was really either that or settling for a 'partnership' arrangement with the Musk. Strong bred with strong; like with like. It was the system, and it had endured for three thousand years, give or take a few centuries.

The very first thing to be done after securing the outsider _airen_ was to at the very least 'break even.' The first child was always a girl. Failure to have one was considered a faux pas - especially since there were exercises and techniques that any truly competent Amazon could learn to rig the conception event. It was all part of her duty, especially given the fact that she was from one of the village's strongest and most prominent bloodlines.

Taking a few seconds to stare at herself in the mirror, Shampoo sighed.

It _was_ her duty, yes, but the truth was...

Another woman entered, and Shampoo shook her head, dispelling the conflicting emotions before they could go from stirring to percolating. There was plenty of time left before they wandered back to China, and even then it could be months or years before they not only found the lost boy's parents, got their consent, and then ended up back at the village. And once there, who was to say they wouldn't get lost again? It was just so... 'inconvenient.'

Leaving the restroom, she saw her _airen_ waiting a short ways back towards the main room of the restaurant, his back to her as he looked up at one of the flat screen televisions near the bar. Apparently there was some kind of disturbance at a beach down on one of the southern islands. Something about a marauding octopus stealing bathing suits? Shampoo shrugged and walked up alongside her husband.

"This funny news?" she asked, wondering if it was one of those comedy programs.

"You'd think so," Ryouga answered with a slow shake of his head. "A perverted octopus? What is this, the Fisherman's Wife?"

It took a little bit of back and forth for him to explain that reference. Something about an infamous Japanese picture or painting? It was all French to the Chinese girl, but Ryouga seemed amused by it.

"Well, let's see what this Saotome guy can do," he finally decided and started to move before catching himself. "Um... which way was it again?"

"This way, lost airen," Shampoo said, taking his hand and leading him around to one of the back rooms, specifically back the way they'd seen Ranma head earlier. He'd mentioned something about a roof...

Ignoring a locked door that probably led into the basement, they headed up a flight of stairs to the second floor. Like many live-in type restaurants, the second floor consisted of rooms and the like for the owner. There was another door there, and another flight of steps that led ultimately to the roof. As expected, these doors were open, and as the last one gave way the pair felt a blast of chilly air from outside. The flurries had partly abated, now falling so sparsely it seemed they were just the same handful of flakes sweeping up and down in the wind.

The roof itself was bare, but solidly built. A fence encircled it on all four sides and there was a clearly delineated area in the middle that looked to have once been recessed. To the sides of the stairway were supply rooms and a humming air conditioning unit. It made a nice little retreat, in Shampoo's eyes, and she could see it was well kept. No weapon racks, though. This Ranma was probably a bare hand fighter, then.

Speaking of their host, Shampoo turned to the side and saw him emerging from one of the supply rooms with some folded sparring mats. They were bundled straw, it looked like, and clearly meant for the slightly recessed area. The only problem with that analysis was -

"Why those blue?" she asked, pointing at the mats. They were blue. It was a strange color for straw.

"These ain't real tatami mats," Ranma answered as he walked by. "Synthetics. Waterproof. Saves on the bills, since we'd just wreck normal mats."

"Makes sense," Ryouga replied.

"Ah, it was Ucchan's idea. I'd probably've just gone with whatever."

"Need some help?"

"Yeah, sure! Grab four more of 'em and we'll be set."

Tucking her jacket in, Shampoo opted to lean back against the wall and watch as the two young men set up for their spar. She was actually pretty curious what kind of a fight this 'Anything Goes' brought to the table. There was something about the name that had been bugging her all through lunch. Something familiar.

In fact, it wasn't just the 'Anything Goes' martial arts reference. It was strange, but the way this Ranma Saotome person moved around, and the way he looked, it was... it was like she had heard of him before. Or met him? Maybe that was it. There were a lot of obscure martial arts styles here in Japan, especially around that Nerima Ward back in Tokyo. That had been an interesting couple days. The swordsman and his crazy sister had been a real treat to fight, and the acupressure-acupuncture doctor practicing there was more knowledgeable than anyone Shampoo knew of outside the village.

And yet...

_'I feel like I'm forgetting something,'_ she couldn't help but think. _'But I can't imagine what.'_

Finally, Ranma and Ryouga started walking around the open area, stretching arms and legs and necks as they warmed up in the faintly falling snow. Ranma hung up his shirt beneath a small overhang, and Ryouga did likewise, folding his jacket and shirt over and onto the back of a chair. It was chilly, but neither seemed to care, as mutual battle auras started to manifest and a building surge of adrenalin warmed the body and soul.

"Weapons okay?" Ryouga asked, twirling his umbrella. "The roof is reinforced, right?"

"The entire third floor," Ranma replied, cracking his knuckles. "Still, don't try and bring the house down if ya can help it. Weapons are fine, sure. 'Anything Goes,' remember?"

"Alright."

No sooner had that pleasant declaration left his mouth, than Ryouga accelerated, the tip of his umbrella cutting across the ground as a prelude to an upward thrust. It was a strike Shampoo had once seen knock a speeding runaway eighteen wheel truck clean off the road. Most anything slow or unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of her _airen's_ umbrella uppercut would either get demolished or punted across town.

Fast - faster than her eyes could track - Ranma stepped into the strike and blocked it at the forearm. A resounding woosh blasted away from the two fighters, sending flurries of snow twirling erratically in the new air current. Before it could even begin to settle, the two boys were circling and striking and dodging in an artful display of speed and technique. Shampoo's eyes narrowed as she watched.

This was... familiar too... for some reason.

She had to be imagining it. These two had never met before. In fact, they hadn't fought before either. She was easily able to recognize, at the start of the fight, how they felt out each other's style. Normally, if that first phase of an encounter didn't end the fight to begin with, than it lasted a little while as they tentatively tested and probed for strengths and weaknesses. That was what would normally be the case, but... within a few seconds, Ryouga had started fighting with almost casual familiarity, and Ranma was quickly catching up. That shouldn't be possible, no matter how good the two of them were.

_'It's almost like they've fought before. It makes no sense, but - but fists don't lie.'_ Shampoo frowned as the possibility. _'Is this really their first time fighting each other?'_

"Hey, looks like they're really going at it!" A woman's voice followed the opening of the door and the emergence of a forth member of their little roof club. Shampoo kind of recognized the voice, too, which was making a strange set of coincidences seem even stranger.

Unlike Saotome, the newcomer was dressed clearly as a member of the restaurant staff downstairs, peculiar though that dress code was. A white apron covered an otherwise form-hugging black and purple ensemble, not just covering the front, but the upper arms as well. Long brown hair, clipped together plainly and functionally, ran down to the middle of her back, cut maybe eight inches shorter than Shampoo's own lavender locks. A white bow and a bandolier... they also seemed strangely familiar.

_'Do... do I know this person?'_

The woman took a second to stare at Shampoo, too... and there was a pause there. Not an uncomfortable one. Just... a pause, identical to Shampoo's own. There was a small crease around the brown haired woman's eyes, and the Amazon could all but see what the Japanese girl was thinking.

_'She... she's thinking the same.'_ The conclusion was bizarre, but inescapable. It couldn't just be coincidence. _'We know each other from somewhere!'_

"Um. Hey there, sugar." Their hostess quickly composed herself and gave a polite bow. "Kuonji Ukyou."

"Shampoo," the Amazon said, almost adding: _'but you know that already, don't you?'_

"Nice to meet ya," she brown haired woman bowed one last time and then focused on the sparring match on the roof. "That must be... Hibiki-san, right? Ranma mentioned your names earlier."

Shampoo just nodded, also going back to observing the fight. It was a nice distraction from the strange thoughts that were starting to run around her head. At the same time, she was trying - _hard_ - to remember if any of them had run into each other and nothing - _frustratingly nothing at all_ - came to mind.

Back at the sparring match, Ranma danced back away from a flurry of blows from his opponent.

"He's fast," Shampoo said, appraisingly.

"Ran-chan's more than just quick," Ukyou replied, eyes on the fight. "He can dodge from angles of attack that even an acrobat couldn't imagine. One of the principal tenants of Anything Goes is freedom of motion." Then she winced, as Ranma shook out his hand from having blocked another hard body blow. "Hibiki-san must be strong for Ranma to be feeling it."

"Airen is strongest Shampoo know." Well, except for the Musk, but those people didn't count. "Very strong. Very tough. Will be tougher after more training back at the village."

"Airen?" Ukyou asked, and guessed, "That means... husband or intended?"

"Husband," Shampoo confirmed. "Not married yet in Japan, but village laws are absolute. Absolutely."

The chef seemed to be considering that for a few long seconds.

"Sounds... familiar. Like something I heard about on TV maybe?" She shrugged, not wanting to try too hard to figure it out. "So you guys met in China?"

"Airen walked in to village," Shampoo recalled, and smiled at the memory. "Too, too lost. Was group of girls working up courage to fight him. Lucky for him, he get ..." She quickly caught herself, and truncated the story to omit personal, Jyusenkyou business. "He get away from them and end up meeting Shampoo. After short talk, he seem nice and strong, so Shampoo attack. He win. That how we met."

"So you married him because he beat you in a fight?" Ukyou asked, and chuckled politely. Shampoo spared her a cross look, sensing she was teasing. "Sorry," the okonomiyaki chef quickly apologized. "It's just that I kind of got engaged to Ranchan because he kept stealing our okonomiyaki. Back when we were little kids. I guess it doesn't matter where you're from... martial arts is the same everywhere."

"If he strong enough to take food, he strong enough to stop others from taking food," Shampoo reasoned, nodding approvingly. "You still practice?"

"I'm not as good as Ran-chan, but I'm still pretty good," Ukyou replied with a soft smile. "I get the feeling you're pretty strong, too... it'd be great if we could go a few rounds."

The Amazon gave her a curious look. "Why not? You sick?"

Ukyou shook her head.

...and patted her stomach.

"I'm expecting, sugar. Ran-chan'd have a heart attack if I did anything serious."

Shampoo blinked, hard, at that. For some reason, it seemed completely baffling.

"O-oh." It took a second for her to remember herself and keep from looking for some more obvious sign of it. "Congratulations. You no look... I mean..."

"Only sixteen weeks," Ukyou answered, looking down at herself. "Yeah. It isn't too obvious with these clothes on. The customers will figure it out in a few months, though."

Not entirely sure how to respond, Shampoo nodded hesitantly. "Look good. But... how long you and pigtail boy married?"

"We've been together for about ten years now," the other woman responded, and went back to watching her 'Ran-chan' fight. "But we only got married two years ago. What about you and Hibiki-san?"

"Six months," Shampoo answered, and tried to keep from frowning. Those six months had been among the happiest and most carefree of her life. It had also seemed like a long time to be together... from the perspective of never giving any male in the village so much as the time of day before getting beaten by her _airen_. At the same time, these two had been together for _years_.

And they were _expecting_.

Why - why was that... hard to fathom? Yes, on one level, it was a reminder of how she herself was putting off getting knocked up, 'for Village and Council' as the saying went, but there was more to it than that. These two. This Kuonji woman, and this pigtailed Saotome. Why was something about them nagging at her subconscious, and growing louder and louder by the minute?

"Do you need to use one of those things?" Shampoo asked, leaning over to inspect the wooden box, even as Ukyou used it to grind down some fresh katsuobushi tuna.

"A lot of places don't bother anymore," the chef admitted, her arm blurring as she made incredibly swift, precise strokes. The katsuobushi kezuriki was an old style utensil, and this one was older than Ukyou herself. It had been meticulously used and maintained over the decades, preserving the rich heritage of the Kuonji family style. The tuna shavings were collected in a tray, fresh and ready to be added to an okonomiyaki topping mix.

"But it doesn't take long, and you get better hanakatsuo this way," she explained, putting the block of dried fish to the side and pulling out the drawer with the shavings. "Of course, the sooner an okonomiyaki gets on a customer's plate, the better, but the Kuonji style doesn't sacrifice tradition or rely on expedience. We get everything done faster by perfecting the Art, not by cheapening it."

Shampoo nodded appreciatively, and the two returned to the grill. The Chinese Amazon was interested in learning some Japanese dishes for when she and Hibiki returned to her village, and she was picking up how to cook okonomiyaki fairly quickly. She already had a lot of experience, not just in the kitchen and with food, but with martial arts based cuisine. Noodles were clearly her specialty, and the two women had spent a half hour comparing notes on that alone.

Ryouga and Ranma were probably still fighting - the lunkheads - but Ukyou found herself getting along with Shampoo very easily. They had a lot in common; it was just a shame she couldn't cross fists with the Chinese girl at least once before she and Hibiki left. It wasn't like a few weeks of pregnancy turned you into a porcelain doll, but Ranma and his father were already anticipating their new son/grandson and easily slipped into overprotective-mode. Not like it was guaranteed to be a boy, either.

Ukyou smiled at Shampoo, watching as the Amazon intently added shrimp to her test dish, placing them not just in a hemispherical arrangement, but doing so with a flick of the wrist. They were even all curled in the same direction and orientation. The thing that seemed to be giving her more trouble was the spatula - it was clearly something she wasn't used to using hot on the grill like this.

Luckily, they had the back half of the kitchen to themselves, while Ukyou's father manned the main restaurant counter grill. It was fun, actually, showing someone else how to cook her favorite food. It'd been so long since Ranma learned, and he'd just picked it up and been done in the span of ten minutes: just enough time to learn to make it for himself in an emergency.

"You don't need to make it pretty," Ukyou reminded her new friend. "In fact, I think customers like it when an okonomiyaki is a little messy and frazzled. Maybe because it seems more like something spontaneous or home made?"

"Home made?" Shampoo asked, pondering that as she added a smattering of bento flakes.

"Every okonomiyaki is different," the warrior chef expounded, happily inhaling the sweet smell of the kitchen. "It reflects the customer, but also what's in your heart when you make it. Almost anything can be an ingredient. It can be any size, you can make it soft and runny, or crunchy and hard all along the crust, with toppings inside or outside... almost anything you can imagine! Just cook how you feel."

"You really love okonomiyaki..." the other woman stated the obvious. "More than Shampoo love noodles. Surprised you no marry sauce and be done with it."

Ukyou made an 'o' with her mouth as she remembered. "Actually, that reminds me...!"

"What? You really marry sauce?"

"No!" She spun around and walked over to a special, sealed cupboard. Unlocking it, she reached inside and easily lifted out a large pot that towered up to her waist in height. It was completely plain except for a little bit of writing on the side: 'Uc-chan 96.' A firm seal on the top was tied down with a piece of rope, and under that, a thick band of elastic.

"What that?" Shampoo asked, staring at the strange vase.

"This," Ukyou explained, undoing the knot and opening the top of the pot. "Is my special sauce. For friends and family... and super special customers only. Since you're one of my new friends, I don't see a problem giving it a try!"

"What make it so special, though?" the Amazon gestured towards a much smaller plastic container. "How different from this sauce?"

"I made this sauce right before Ran-chan and I were engaged, a little more than ten years ago," the Kuonji heiress replied, taking a clean brush from a rack. "Using the secret family recipe that I... borrowed from pops while he was busy drinking with Mister Saotome. It represents a lot to me... I mean, I can definitely make a technically better sauce now that I'm older and know better, but this sauce represents my dedication to the family art, to okonomiyaki, and to Ran-chan."

"Is very special then," Shampoo said, waving her hand. "No need to use when I just learning..."

"Nonsense, sugar! This is your first okonomiyaki, and you'll be making them for the guy ya love, right?" she asked cheerily. "Well, then I can't think of anything better!"

Brush in hand, and coasted with the thick otafuku sauce, she applied it to the still cooking okonomiyaki on her half of the two person grill. A deep breath and she could all but taste it: the sweetness with a hint of spice! A little too much pepper, actually, but if the sauce itself represented her years with Ran-chan and the Art, then it was more than called for. There had been some hot and tough times mixed in with the sweet.

"Smells good," Shampoo agreed, mimicking her tutor.

"Yeah," Ukyou said with pride. "The sauce came out perfectly. I..."

And then she hesitated, pausing as something jabbed into the back of her brain.

_'This sauce it...!'_

_ She recoiled from the okonomiyaki, disbelief and disgust at war over which should come first. It didn't seem possible! She'd taken the sauce out of storage, hardly able to contain herself after so many years waiting, and when she used it?_

_ "This is... terrible..."_

_ And, Gods, what did that say about her a chef? Or as a woman? When she'd put her heart and soul and love into making this stuff? Where - how - had it gone so wrong?_

"This sauce was..."

Ukyou slowly shook her head, stepping as much as falling back and away from the grill.

_ Finally, after all this time, she had him. Ranma Saotome. Finally._

_ Revenge._

_ And the idiot didn't suspect a damn thing!_

A sharp pain from her stomach caused a wounded grimace.

For a second, she wondered if it was the baby or...

"No," she realized, eyes widening. "I..."

_ "I can't believe they're getting married!" she all but roared at Konatsu, thundering over to retrieve her battle spatula. "Don't forget to bring gifts, she says?"_

_ Sure, the invitation was from Nabiki, but the wedding was all Akane's doing._

_ It had to be!_

_ "Oh, I'll bring them a wedding present alright," Ukyou growled, glowing anger slowly giving way to a resigned, and icy calm. "It'll be a blast."_

"I'm not..." she clutched her midsection, the world growing hazy. "And Ran-chan and I... aren't...!"

_ Everything was happening so fast, it was hard to keep her head above water: hearing about the destruction of her restaurant in Nerima, and then being picked up by the feds, and flown from one secret location to another? How many hours had it been since she was cooking okonomiyaki to sell to eager tourists, between visiting her old man at his restaurant? Now she was in the middle of the mountains somewhere, having agreed to join Ranma in fighting ... aliens of all things._

_ And this was her mentor?_

_ She'd expected some kind of chiseled American soldier with... scars or something. Or even one of the clueless young men in uniform who sometimes stopped by for exotic Japanese food during their tour at a base somewhere. This woman was nothing like that. All nordic features and sharp blue eyes and well groomed blonde hair. _

_ Was she really a soldier?_

_ "Ukyou Kounji," she said, introducing herself. "Okonomiyaki chef and martial artist."_

_ The older woman greeted her with a warm smile. "Sergeant Kimberly Lofquist, formerly of the Ordningspolisens Nationella Insatsstyrka. The Swedish National Rapid Response Unit."_

Dead.

Lieutenant Lofquist was dead.

"This." A green glow struggled to ebb out from the palm of her right hand, and she reached out and grabbed the air, cracking and crumpling the firmament it like cheap paper.

_ "Alright… alright! I see!" Konatsu held up two fingers, and focused his energy into them and into his two clones. "Let us put an end to this, Miss Ukyou!"_

_ The other two Konatsu clones took a step forward, brandishing four shuriken in each hand. Meanwhile, the glow beneath Ukyou's hand began to take form and shape, developing into a twirling discus of vibrant gold. As her ki built up to a whirling crescendo the ribbon in her hair came undone, flapping away and hitting the wall behind her._

_ "This is your last chance, Konatsu-kun," Ukyou raised her voice to make sure he could hear her. "Your last chance to give up!"_

_ "Don't think you can avoid or block this one, Miss Ukyou!" Konatsu, for the first time, let out a savage snarl. "When I unleash **six hundred and forty shuriken**, there will be no where to escape, and if you hide behind your battle spatula, enough will still ricochet off the walls and still hit you from the sides and behind!"_

_ And with that, Ukyou began to move her hand down the length of Hera-sama. Seeing the motion and sensing the release of energy, Konatsu acted. Pointing with his ki charged fingers; his two clones shot their hands out wide. A steel storm of sixteen shuriken filled the air._

_ "Goudoujutsu: Shuriken Kakezan Kamaitachi!"_

_ (Combination Technique: Shuriken Multiplication Whirlwind!)_

_ And then multiplied into sixty four, and then again, until it seemed like a tidal wave of spinning steel filled half the room, bearing down on the other half. Ukyou's pupils grew small as she saw the oncoming attack, but she pressed onward, trusting in the inner power she had found. Her fingers reached the edge of Hera-sama's heated surface, and then whatever it was, was free. Bright all consuming light filled the world in front of her, and she knew then what to call it._

"Kenran Hinode."

(Brilliant Sunrise)

Green and white blasted from her, tearing apart the falsehoods. No: not falsehoods. Not lies. Not Illusions! Those memories. Genuine memories. That child. Those years together with Ran-chan. Those had been real. Those had been... her.

But not **her**.

Another Ukyou on another Earth.

"It isn't me," she hissed, not mad, not disappointed. Simply determined. She'd almost forgotten who she was and become that other Ukyou. She's almost forgotten the years of struggle, of training ceaselessly against the sea, of ridicule for being left behind, of giving up her femininity for revenge. She'd almost forgotten the battles, the rivalry, the humiliation and the loss. She'd almost forgotten the living and the dead, her friends and her family and the war she'd been tasked to fight in!

_Almost_.

She _almost_ forgot.

_'That's right! Let nothing stop you!'_ a voice whispered, faint, weak, straining to be heard. _'You were chosen to do this one thing! We exist for this! Will it to be so! WANT IT AND I WILL GIVE IT TO YOU!'_

"I want... my own life back! Our lives!" Ukyou yelled, her voice reverberating against the infinite. All was white. All was nothing. Yet still she reached for what she knew to be there.

**"I want what I came here for!"**

Within the infinite expanse of Heresiarch, Raven felt the bass rumble as less of an earthquake, and more of a cosmicquake. Though lasting only a moment, every fiber of her being reverberated in place like a string on a guitar being plucked. Her eyes watered and crushed shut, and when they reopened, she could see - though indistinct - the hazy impression of her borrowed personal armor's HUD. The screen was flickering in and out, but it was clearly there. On some level. It was there.

Yet when she reached up, her hand passed right through the visor to touch the bridge of her nose.

She had been meditating on Heresiarch's words, cryptic and painful though they were to try and comprehend, but there was no spiritual perspective here within him. Or It. She had even briefly wondered if, when the entity had said 'pray,' it had been referring to itself? Though dead, and not-dead, it was almost as if a universe existed in miniature within it. Or through it. The more she meditated and tried to empty her mind, the more she felt herself slipping away into the infinite precipice that lay invisible and imperceptible, just ahead of her.

Blinking to clear her vision, Raven looked up and saw the sky straddling arc she had spoken to, if that phrase was even an accurate way of describing it, waver. Part of it seemed to break away, budding from the main body and contracting, pulled together into one point on the metaphorical horizon. As it reduced to a single distant pinprick, it twinkled like an exploding star light years away.

'What's happening?' she thought out, struggling to get back on her feet and stay there. 'Did they...?'

To the relief of her now dwindling headache, but the exasperation of her curiosity, Heresiarch remained silent. Reason dictated that something had happened. What she had witnessed couldn't just be a regular occurrence within this dead void, much less the fact that it - whatever it was - had narrowed down to a space somewhere ahead. Without any sense of perspective, it could well have been a million miles away, but it was just as likely it was only a couple feet.

'Shampoo. Ukyou. ... Ryouga.' She had faith in them. 'It has to be you three. Did you get it? The fragment Trespasser wanted? What'll happen when we bring it back to the ship?'

_(Guilt.) Heresiarch had said before. (It Is Not Truth. Truth Is Not Always Fact. Regret. Atonement. This Is Why It Seeks My Heresy. For Your Kind. Ask It: Has Krona Seen Truth. Speak This Only If It Trespasses. Not If It Is Not Truth.)_

What did any of that mean?

_(You Can Not Understand. Understanding Is Death. My Words Break You. You Are Too Small To Hear Them. Think. Pray. And Hear No More Of This Heresy. Watch For When It Is Not Truth. Only Then May You Speak.)_

It still made so little sense.

Right now, all she knew for certain was that she had been forced to stay behind while her teammates went on. They'd gone somewhere where she couldn't follow. In spite of the fact that she had come along on this mission as a self professed 'expert of sorts' on these sorts of things. What use had she been? It was a bitter, helpless feeling she wasn't used to experiencing.

Raven closed her eyes and calmed herself. Even if she hadn't been able to help with the fragment directly, it was fairly likely she was the only one to 'speak' with Heresiarch. It wouldn't have given her its words, despite her being 'too small to hear them,' for no reason.

The mission wouldn't end with the fragment or its retrieval.

The words - the so called heresy - it was possible they were the real treasure in this place. She had to figure them out. All their lives could well depend on it. Yes, she had been forced to stay behind, but it wouldn't be for nothing.

_(Understanding Is Death)_

'Even if it is... I have to...'

Something swelled up ahead: mist-like forms emerging from white shadows.

(Remember.)

Raven jerked, having actually heard the voice that time, but the circle that enveloped space and time was done. One hand still holding the vital lifeline that was the tension cable attached to Shampoo's powered armor, and in turn, the exit from Heresiarch, Raven gave it a small jerk. A moment later, someone reciprocated, and a vital sigh of relief escaped her lips. It wasn't much, but it was _something_. Seconds slowly passed, and Raven allowed herself a well hidden smile as no less than three forms became increasingly distinct, all holding onto the cable in her hand.

Yet, as the figures got closer, and as she made out some of the details...

_(It Is Afraid. It Seeks That Which Brings It Fear. My Heresy. Your Heresy. Buried. Rejected. Exiled.)_

She could feel it in the pit of her stomach...

_(My Dead Words Hold The First Lie. The Lie That Kills.)_

Raven could feel it, and in her bones, she knew...

That there was something **vast** and **terrible** clutched within Ukyou's right hand.

* * *

The frail girl vanished under the slab of steel, and Sacristan felt a titter of pleasure at the crunch the steel made as it met the ground. On one hand, there wouldn't be much left of her to reuse later, but on the other, glorious Ixthultu was all but orgasming within him at the sight of so much death and suffering. If only the girl could have been crushed more slowly, more painfully, howling as her feet, then legs, then pelvis vanished under the murderous weight. Alive and in pain as she watched her body break and splatter.

Ixthultu's iron claws retracted from the plate, their merciless will done.

More. They (it) he (we) wanted more!

Sacristan's flesh stretched and screamed as the Claws of God surged and warred to find more flesh. To bite into it. To hook into the soft bits. To pull and rip and mangle beyond redemption or recovery. To defile and pierce and plunge. The Commander was wrong. There was no purpose to raising Ixthultu! There was no reason behind it! There was no promised land! It would be done because it could be done! Because the impulse struck them! Everything else was just a lie!

_'I can. Therefore I will.' _

Beyond that, beyond the spur of the moment, there was only madness and self deception!

_ ' I will. Therefore I am.' _

Only one left, now.

A glacial chill drifted across the now still Armory. Sacristan moved slowly to face the source of it: a faint blue haze that ebbed out from a collapsed rack of broken weapons and twisted body parts. Dead eyes set behind a white veil contracted slightly as a wintry wind blew past, bits of psychic frost and ice starting to collect in the air and on nearby metal surfaces.

A pair of hooked chains whipped out in a blinding flash, ensnaring the thrown fighter engine a meter from the Sacristan's self. Feet planted firmly as Ixthultu's gifts ripped into the engine block like a giant pair of centipedes coiling around a stuck mouse, squeezing and crushing and gouging with serrated black spines. At very nearly the same instant, a trio of projectiles, far too fast to see, slammed into the Sacristan's chest - or, almost did. The attack was stopped a mere hand's breath from hitting flesh by another of Ixthultu's blessed gifts: the gift of invulnerability. His Blessed Blade Barrier.

Suffering. Pain. Despair. Yes.

But Fear? No.

Ranma exploded from within the rubble, and the Sacristan tried to find him, eyes darting as he scanned the dozen flying objects that now filled the air: pieces of machinery, whole bodies, a single dismembered torso, two plates of sheet metal, a lathing device...

_'There!'_

...

Ranma jumped out from the shadow of the Thanagarian corpse he had been puppeting, pushing it aside and away as it became speared by a flying hook twice the size of a meat cleaver. With his right hand he took aim and fired again, the NGP round thundering off the chain barrier that instantly rose up to defend Sacristan's face. A blast of sparks and fire did little more than obscure the blighted being's vision, and Ranma had to tuck his legs in and spin to avoid a pair of black chains tipped by jagged, twisted hooks.

Kicking off a tumbling barrel and then rolling along the ground, he swapped out his NGP pistol to instead release a flashbang on a delayed detonation. More of the chains descended, whipping and twisting erratically in patterns that would make Kodachi envious. The ground beneath his feet cracked as he shot straight up, bouncing off the ceiling, fists pumping as a dozen small _moko takabishas_ filled the air. Black coils erupted in a flurry, shredding them before they could even get near their target.

Ranma didn't pause.

He shot off again the moment he made contact with any solid surface. An undulating whip chain blasted right out of the ground a quarter second too later, and the Sacristan was forced to move to keep the pigtailed fighter in his line of sight. The Thanagarian's hands balled into fists as six of the large black chains retracted, like the weaving, poised legs of a demented spider. Then they moved again at blinding speed, some going to tear up objects to throw, others blurring in the attack.

Hitting the ground, Ranma stomped, and a large plank of metal shot up to form a shield. Hearing the distinct toll of metal striking metal, and seeing the tips of two of the hooks punch clean through, the martial artist kicked, knocking the obstruction aside. Black chains tangled as it spin in midair, and Ranma lined up his next shot, not with the NGP, but with his last resort plasma pistol.

The alien inspired weapon coughed in his hand, discharging a bolt of green at the same time the flashbang went off. Acting purely on instinct, Sacristan's head turned towards the explosion of sound and light. Still, black metal moved of its own accord as the trigger depressed, rising to intercept the 11 kilometer per second particle beam. The Thanagarian tumbled from the blast, but survived, and then his wings flexed, yet more chains unwinding from around the abused appendages.

"Aw. Nuts."

Four chains came for Ranma this time, and each one did the splitting trick that got him before. Rather than dodge, knowing he'd get hit anyway, the martial artist braced himself and took one of the hooks head-on. One hand on the serrated head of the monstrous weapon, just above the point and barbs, another holding the alien alloy plasma pistol against the bend - he managed to stop it right before it would have dug into the juncture of shoulder and collar. The force of it still took him clean off his feet, crashing into and against a yellow piece of fighter craft... and then skidding against it and into the ground, kicking up a trio of broken bodies.

Reorienting himself, Ranma snarled and pushed down hard, forcing the hook into the ground with a resounding clang. It caught there -

For all of a second, before tearing free and retracting.

"Gah! Okay then!" Ranma screeched one foot back to brace himself again, one hand surging forward. "HIRYU TOPPA!"

A winding spiral vortex snapped to life around his arm, chasing the retreating black chain. With no friendlies around, and a properly chilled atmosphere, it was much stronger than the weaker move used back at the elevator. This was a full power ice tornado, and bodies and debris along its meandering path snap froze and cracked. It was Ranma Saotome's most powerful attack.

And it missed, as the Sacristan's body blurred.

_'Shit! He can move, too!' _

A chunk of one of the destroyed twisted constructs slammed partly into Ranma's side as he tried to dodge. At the same time, it became clear how Sacristan could move so suddenly. He wasn't jumping or running or using _akichi_. He was pulling himself from place to place with those damn chains. Anywhere he had rooted himself, he could pull himself there in the blink of an eye.

_'I see. So... it's like that, huh?'_

Another crash, and Ranma flattened against a solid wall, the bulkhead denting slightly in an impression of the pigtailed fighter. Blue eyes shot left and right, looking - and then his right hand came up to deflect another hooked chain, a bright green bolt of fire instantly tracking it to source. Even as it did to, another blade came in from the left, aiming to bury itself in Ranma's neck.

His foot moved, and a corpse flew up, catching the hook instead.

Then, suddenly, Sacristan pulled himself closer. Chains retracted close, and then exploded outward in a spiral, hitting everything around him in an indiscriminate wave of destruction. Bodies tore apart into gibbs of red and black, white blood flowing around in an artist whorl. Machinery flew from the mad attack, and solid surfaces howled an ear splitting chorus as they scratched and gouged open.

Ranma was already airborne, aiming directly down. Plasma discharges traveled all of two and a half meters, less than a body length, but still hit the Sacristan's blade barrier. The resulting explosion warped and twisted along the edge of the spinning Thanagarian's attack, mauling the ground and scarring the walls and floor with long splashes of plasma that ate the surfaces like acid on tin foil. The metals twisted and exploded themselves, and the tortured corner of the room became engulfed by poisonous fumes and fire.

"You can't do it."

Sacristan's voice came from the toxic, killing cloud, even as he emerged, licks of fire trailing down his burning wings. Black chains uncoiled around him to wave freely through the air, possessed by a life of their own. A guttural puking sound followed as something hideous moved beneath the corrupted Thanagarian's veil. Arms raised, and in response, the chains wrapped partly around them and hooked into them began to surge and snap.

"You can't kill me! Mal!" he howled, pointing at Ranma. "WHORE! The Master knows you have her memories! The Whore's memories! I know. THE MASTER KNOWS. That you want to destroy this place. That you think you can kill Kreiger! Silence the Oracle? MINE MINE MINE! But That is for ME to do!"

Ranma narrowed his eyes behind his helmet visor.

"You... and this whole ship," he growled. "You're all fucked up beyond belief. You're damn right I'm gonna nuke this hellhole!"

Sacristan just laughed. "You will never see the Eye of Ixthultu. You will never behold the The Furnace of His Nightmare. I WILL SHAPE IT. The last thing you will see WHORE is what I will do to the corpses of your friends. They will make excellent weapons for when I take back what is rightfully mine!"

Letting out a deep breath, Ranma relaxed his body, even as the Sacristan's storm of bladed metal and black hooks reached out like a hundred fingered hand to engulf the room. He activated a green 'go' signal on his HUD GUI and began to fade, literally, from view. Not quite invisible, but imperceptible.

This was the Umisenken! The Thousand Fists of the Sea!

Sacristan's golden eyes widened in anger. "I won't let you run away, MAAAALLL!"

As one, the bladestorm became a tornado of its own in mimicry of the Hiryu Toppa, encircling and zeroing in on the slowly vanishing Saotome. At the last second, Ranma moved, an imperceptible blur. Sacristan's roar deepened, shaking the foundations of the blasted and abused Armory, the Tornado of Chains making a sudden ninety degree turn, going over or through any obstacle in their collective, murderous path.

Ranma barely had the time to appear in one spot, near a grill built into the wall when the tornado overcame him. Arms crossed at the last second, but were no defense against the onslaught. Bladed hooks tore away at armor and razor sharp spikes hacked and butchered. The wall itself became a victim, as the furious attack tore right into it, some of the chains going clean through the bulkhead and others splashing away from the impact.

Then Sacristan saw a pair of wings torn from the body. _'That...!'_

"Goshin Ryü Sei Fu!"

(Self-Protection Falling Star Cloth!)

Ranma, ducking below the torrential tornado of blades, flashed an unobtrusive blue cloth from one of the pockets of his personal armor. And then he _moved_. Twisting and zipping around the narrow coil, the tornado itself.

"What...?"

Sacristan's golden eyes strained, bulging out as his flesh tore, unable to either retract or break the chains free. Ranma could almost see the incomprehension turning to realization, as the Thanagarian monstrosity noticed. It wasn't just the cloth binding the now tangled tornado of chains together. If that had been it, then it would've still been able to move away as a single, huge mass.

Only then did Sacristan notice.

The tornado had torn right through one of the still intact work benches, firmly supported and rooted into the superstructure. Much of it had been ripped away, but the metal skeleton was intact, and tangled within the mass of chains and blades. It wasn't all, either: a number of metal beams had been jammed into the coiled mass, and together with the strange blue cloth wrap, it had bound and pinned the swarm of black metal.

Ranma's hand came up, plasma pistol taking aim -

"Damn you...!" Sacristan hissed, and forced the remaining metal wrapped around him snapped up to cover his front like a shield. As long as it was up there, God would not allow harm to come to him.

"You think you've beaten me?" Spittle and slime dribbled from beneath the Sacristan's veil. "MAL! You... you...! SHIT STAIN? Ixthultu's gift is mine and mine alone! I CAN'T DIE! The MASTER won't LET ME! But you? ... I'll kill you. I'll kill you a hundred times before you die!"

Ranma kept his aim, but didn't fire. Not with the blade barrier still up.

"Why?" he asked, surprisingly conversational. "Why do you hate Mal so much? Weren't you...?"

"She's a whore!" Sacristan's snarled, trying to worm some of his chains loose. Blood oozed from the hooks in his body as the effort proved impossible. "Betraying me for Kreiger! That bastard! THAT UNBELIEVER! I was the one closest to Ixthultu! Me! Why should that man get to become one with My GOD?"

Ranma could only shake his head. "Pathetic. You call this being one with god?"

"Don't you dare speak even a single blasphemy," Sacristan hissed, a long strip of flesh pulling away from his arm, as one of the chains managed to curl up through a loop in the binding Falling Star cloth. "A filthy, misbegotten New God like you could never understand. What it means. To be! ONE WITH G-"

"Just shut up already."

"G- g- " Sacristan struggled to finish, and then looked down.

To where a quintet of glowing pink knives protruded from his chest.

"You," he gargled, glaring over his shoulder, past his still charred and mangled wings, to where Jinx still behind him. Alive. "How?"

"Like I need to explain something like that to you," Jinx replied in a killer calm. Her left hand reared back, wreathed in a murderous pink hex crafted into claws. "And didn't I tell you to shut up already?"

Hexxed talons came down, and Sacristan's body lurched as it shredded above the shoulders. There was a flash of pink, and then two more. Ranma jumped past the now slack and immobile chains and saw Jinx toss the corpse aside with her left hand, the other wiping at the visor of her helmet.

She seemed fine, aside from all the blood on her visor. In fact, she looked exceptionally good for someone who should've been splattered into paste. If what he suspected had happened was in any way accurate, then it was a lucky thing that she was as small and slim as she was. He had seen her fall near the tear in the floor caused by Cyborg's nightmarish BFG, but hadn't been able to shout a warning or assist. Of course, as a commanding officer, he had a real time rundown of everyone's physio-status, so he'd known she wasn't killed. Still, it was a relief to see her in the flesh and know wasn't suffering from anything obvious that the armor's sensors didn't report.

"Good job," he said, landing next to her. "But..."

"He isn't dead," Jinx growled, still wiping white blood from her visor.

"What?" Ranma asked, and looked down at the headless corpse of the Sacristan. Not only had Jinx's hex-claws mauled it like a cat handling a rat, it had taken the head clean off the neck. In fact, it had gauged out a whole lot of the neck, leaving a ragged crater. Ranma sucked in a breath as he saw it.

"Aw, come on!" he groaned. "You mean this guy was one of those tick things...?"

A deep chuckle came from a far corner of the room as one of the seemingly destroyed fighter constructs from before began to reanimate. A claw reached out, dragging the second destroyed construct closer, and into a web of pulsing black veins. Even before the eyes of the two, martial artist and ex-villainess, the laughter became louder and sections of one construct detached, only to meld and merge into the other.

No less than five weapons pods activated, shifting to take aim at the duo.

"Why so surprised? Bodies are just killing machines!" Sacristan yelled, if anything happy to be in another, more massive body. "If it can't kill anymore, what good is it? Your bodies will discover this truth once you give them to me! I swear it!"

...

Jinx blistered across the shattered and debris littered floor, crimson bursts of energy detonating the deck plates just at her heels. This new abomination's level of firepower was approaching the unbearable. With five weapons blazing, neither she nor Ranma were getting a second's rest to catch their bearings. The glowing pods each swung about independently, tracking after them with deadly accuracy, unleashing their deadly payloads with the speed and fury of a demonic machinegun.

A second later, she dropped to her knees and leaned backwards. Sparks shot up from her knees and the back of her helmet as she slid beneath a massive, jagged claw that shredded the air with its passage, missing her visor by fractions of an inch. Reaching up over her head, an explosive burst of hex energy launched her off of her back and into a front flip, still flying forward through the air. Flipping twice, she hit the wall and kicked off, powerful hexes blasting from her feet and sending her hurtling through the air up and over the vehicular monster's 'tail', a massive cable as thick as a man's torso.

Even with its 'back' to her, the Sacristan's new body still continued to unleash hellfire in her direction, one of the weapon stalks reaching up and over its own head to see her. Twisting through the air, she grabbed onto one of the long spindly legs that the beast was actually using to scrabble across the floor, and with a bit of gymnastic finesse, kicked up and flipped herself around in like it was an oversized parallel bar. Pink energy trailed her fingers as she rotated around the appendage, and a second after she let go – launching herself horizontally through the air and clear of the creature's whipping tentacles – a loud 'snap' rent the air and the leg sheared off behind her.

Just as it looked like the construct would lose its balance and tip over, though, three blackened chains suddenly shot from the side, tearing into the abomination's hull and stabilizing it. Jinx could only stare in shock for a second, before a blast of energy nearly took her head off, and she was moving all over again.

"Shit!" she cursed herself. "Decapitation has never failed me so badly before!"

It was insulting enough that the only reason she survived getting crushed was because she was rail-thin enough to dive through a hole carved in the floor a few seconds before the plate had hit home, but for her epic win to be turned into such a colossal screw-up like this was just pissing her off. Again, chains began to shoot in from every direction, some even getting blasted by the constructs main weapons, but it wasn't like the damn thing didn't have plenty to spare.

Thrusting her hands out to her side, she marshaled her concentration and willed power to flow down her arms. Just as before, pink light danced along her fingers for a second, before jetting out from her fingers into wickedly curving blades of raw energy. It was just another of the things she hadn't tried with the new elliptical rotation technique, and the increased efficiency was affecting it in ways she hadn't expected. These new 'talons' were even more intense than her original cutting torch style claws, and even longer than the 'hex blades' that she had used against the reapers.

Spinning around like a top, three chains lanced down at her, intent on impaling her fragile body… and three chains were reduced to glowing scrap metal as her claws tore through them. Sacristan didn't lack for the damn things, but these new ones weren't individually as deadly as the ones he's used earlier. It was only a small comfort, though. Jinx hit the ground at thirty miles per hour and slammed a hand to the floor behind her, a shower of sparks and globules of molten metal shooting up behind her as she tried to drag herself to a stop.

Looking quickly to the other side of the Sacristan, she saw Ranma equally occupied. Having three of the energy weapons trained on him, as well as the bulk of the creature's attention, he was hard pressed, but not even that stopped him from fighting back. Amazingly, he created another of those tornado attacks from his arms, even as he ducked and weaved through the chains… only for the cyclonic attack to break against the side of the ship like waves against the cliffs. After all, what could arctic winds hope to do against hulls designed to work in the void of space, much less the monster these things had become?

Growling to herself, as the ponderous bulk of the creature shifted around to bring more of its lethal appendages to bear on both of them, Jinx swing her hand forward, and launched a set of her sizzling neon claws forward, shining bolts of entropy which hurtled through the air at ballistic speeds. Two hit armored plates off the creature's side, melting deep furrows into the metal but failing to fully penetrate. One tore through several chains, while another missed anything and everything before cutting deeply into the far wall. The last one, though, tore a gash in the side of one of the weapon pods as it danced around trying to vaporize her. Crimson sparks shot out from the side of the cannon, and Jinx was about to cheer at destroying it...

When the superficially damaged armament spun her way and unleashed another blast of organic destroying radiation. It was all she could do to dive out of the way before the blast could detonate her flesh like a egg in a microwave. Even then, she landed poorly, her feet hitting a ghastly pool of blood and sending her tumbling to the floor in a heap.

"Jinx!" Ranma's voice called out.

The nimble sorceress flipped over onto her back, just in time to see the bus sized construct looming over her, three long, spider-like legs rearing back. First one dropped down at her, tearing downwards like a nightmarish sewing machine. She just managed to roll to the side before the razor sharp appendage sank over three feet into the floor behind her, the squeal of metal tearing metal nearly deafening her. And then another leg fell, and she was forced to roll back, only to slam right into the first leg again. A second later, she found herself pinned between both, as the latter speared into the floor just a few inches to her side.

Across the room, Ranma let out a desperate shout, and unleashed a trio of plasma blasts from his pistol, but before he even pulled the trigger, a web of chains shot out from every direction and absorbed the destructive blasts in a spray of molten metal and radiation. An instant later, the martial artist was sent flying when a leg crashed into his chest with tractor trailer force. Jinx didn't have any concern to waste on her companion, though, as she watched the third leg lift higher yet.

Frantic, she reared back with her own arm, racing to reform her cutting claws-

The floor erupted in a volcano of vomitous yellow light, mixed with a thousand other shades of equally unpleasant, offensive colors. The furious column of raw, chaotic energy shot straight up, eating through the floor and hungrily tearing away at the distant ceiling above their heads. A moment later, though, the beam began to drop down on an angle, and descended on the Sacristan construct like the burning hammer of God himself.

The familiar discharge of unholy energy melted through the armored hull of the beast like pure liquid murder. The damage it wrought probably wouldn't have even been possible for the weapon to inflict under normal condition, but possessed by an evil deity as it was, the massive energy cannon seemed to have shed the meager rules of physics completely.

The torrent of vile energy vomited forth for several more long seconds, continuing to drop downwards until the construct fell to the floor as well, in two horribly messy halves. Finally the lance of light itself slammed into the floor, gouging out a long trench. Only then, did the carnage finally end.

Taking a moment to pray to a few dark deities of her own, Jinx wriggled her way out of her makeshift prison, and kicked up to her feet, a painfully wide smile straining her lips. Following the newly carved ditch back to its source, she was not at all surprised to see their reinforcements. Cursing like a sailor, the bulky frame of Cyborg, massive energy cannon still perched on his shoulder, stomped and tromped his way out of the still molten hole he'd just dug for himself. Half a dozen chains were attached to the cybernetic teen across various parts of his body, nearly wreathing the already metallic Titan in even more steel, but most of them hung limply, and rattled like the chains of the eternal damned.

With a sharp jerk of his shoulder, Cyborg snapped one of the remaining taunt chains with a sound like a gunshot, before he stepped out of the hole completely. The huge teen then fired a grin her way and a quick salute to go with it.

"Yo, Jinx!" he called out. "I miss anything?"

"Not a thing, ya sexy beast!" she fired back teasingly. "Way to not die, ya lead lined loser!"

"Not dying is one of my goals in life," Cyborg joked, and took a second to look around. "Sorry I took so long. Bastard took me for a ride before I broke loose."

Another pause. "Speaking of which... where the hell _is_ that chain-y bastard? And for that matter... what the hell was that thing I just blasted? All I could see from down below was a huge ass power signature that matched those constructs... and that your IFFs weren't in the direct line of fire."

Lifting his arm, he tapped the display imbedded in his armor, a roll of static running up the screen before it settled once more. "At least... I think you both were... Um, Lieutenant?"

"Over here," Ranma's voice was soft, parched between pants, and only audible thanks to the teamcomm. "I've got our chain-y bastard, too."

A ping popped up to direct them over. The ground still crawled with a few unliving remnants of various bodies and tenaciously clawing twisted machinery. The still hostile detritus was much more an annoyance to Jinx than Cyborg, who kicked or stomped a path through the ruins around them.

They found their CO standing over one of the fallen former Thanagarians. The corpse was jammed into the ground with a quintet of metal poles, like rebar but smooth. Three had been bent just above where they stuck into the body, effectively pinning it down by the shoulders and pelvis, and two were put clean through the wrists. Amazingly, the 'corpse' was still at least trying to move, the legs feebly kicking and digging into the blood stained Armory floor.

Ranma's boot was on the white veiled head, pinning it in place.

"I think we've had enough of your body snatching and scurrying around, pal," the pigtailed one huffed, pressing down his boot a bit. Something vile 'moved' under Sacristan veil, the tips of pointed segmented legs briefly visible behind the cloth.

"Oh. Wow... that is _so _gross," Jinx muttered under her breath, before raising her voice. "Yo, Lady Fingers. Why haven't you stepped on that thing yet?"

"G-g-g-" The 'head' under Ranma's boot spat and snarled, unable to escape.

"Because it can still talk," he replied with a sniff. "And I've got some questions I want answered."

A bit more pressure applied.

"You. YOU. You think pain will make me talk?" Sacristan spat. "ME?"

"Belucius," Ranma said, tilting his head as he spoke the name. "Do you even remember what your actual body looked like? Or how it felt? I noticed right away that the one we first saw you in wasn't yours."

Sacristan's rotted yellow eyes tightened.

"Well?" Ranma prompted, pressing down with his boot.

"Mal," the vile creature spat. "Mal's damn memories. Damn her. DAMN her. That body was frail! Weak! Who would want a body like that? Why wouldn't I make use of something better?"

"And that something better is... this?" The lieutenant scoffed. "Like I said. You're pathetic." His eyes narrowed behind his visor, visible to all now that it was fully transparent. "But I can give you something you want."

The abomination of a creature glared up at him.

"You can take us to the Living Metal Foundry."

"...!" Sudden realization sent a shock through the head and it wormed around under Ranma's boot. "Yes. I can. CAN BUT WON'T. Kreiger will... will...!"

"Die. He'll die. We're going to kill him," the officer said without a hint of hesitation. "And anyone else who gets in our way. Shandra Mal remembered it. Do you? Do you remember your Commander cutting you down?"

Sacristan all but seethed with hate. "I DO."

"You can either die now or die after we kill Commander Hol," Ranma explained. "Pick quickly."

The veiled monstrosity spat again, the disgusting, scuttling legs under its veil twitching as it thought. A pair, long and spider-like, reached down to scrape two bloody gashes along the collar and neck of the corpse it was currently controlling. The yellow eyes dimmed and gradually, the impaled body ceased to move.

Sacristan spat again, a black phlegm staining the ground. "I would... see. SEE AND HEAR. And watch as he dies! Do what you wish after that."

"I knew you'd come around. Or, Mal's memories implied you might." Reaching under his left arm, Ranma unclipped a hand-length utility knife. Ducking down, he wrenched the head free from the body it had attached to, cutting and snapping ligaments and insect-like legs. It was less than pleasant work, and Jinx and Cyborg found elsewhere to look while it was being done.

Finally, Ranma held up the dripping, severed head.

"Urgh." Sacristan grunted, yellow eyes gleaming as he bored holes in his captors.

"Now. Let's hear it!" Ranma demanded, giving it a little shake. "I want to know about everything between here and the Forge, and everything you know about how to kill Commander Hol. I also want you to tell me everything you know about the dimension drive that got you here!"

"I... will tell you," the disembodied head gargled as it continued to glare at them. "But if you die before you win, I'll have your body. Yours." He spat at Cyborg, and then leered at Jinx. "AND YOURS..."

* * *

The Thanagarian slumped to his knees, teetering for a moment. Then, slowly, a line bisected his torso from the left hip to the right shoulder, and the halves slid apart. White corrupted blood gurgled from the massive wound, and then the whole thing came apart in a tumbling mass of split entrails and spilled viscera. Part of the body even remained slightly upright, one gnarled black arm continuing to twitch and strike at anything nearby, even with the rest of the body so thoroughly ravaged.

It was truly a _fine cut_.

War Dragon's technique was a strange one, but Reava could see the beauty in it. If he had been female, it would have been a fitting move for a Fury. She remembered Granny Goodness to be fond of any technique that lacerated or whipped or otherwise pained the foe before it died. If those invisible air blades could be toned down, they would be just delightful for torture. She could just imagine the attacks beating down on a weakened enemy, soft enough not to cut all the way through, but hard enough to draw blood and rip open flesh, flaying a beaten foe layer by layer until only a twitching, masticated corpse remained, alive but not yet given the right to die.

Her fellow Fury, Star Fire, on the other hand was most... brutish.

The woman's green energy attacks were undoubtedly powerful, and her strength was quite great given that Reava had seen her easily tear open closed doors and metal frames and the like. The use of her moves, however, left much to be desired. There was little finesse, and she did absolutely nothing to prolong the suffering of her victims or even kill them in a manner that was the least bit... artistic. Of course, in the privacy of her own mind, Reava also knew her assessment was colored by some small measure of professional jealousy.

She had not been given one of War Dragon's interesting array of weaponry, for one. Despite him having an assortment of fascinating and deadly looking devices at his disposal. She had been given only time to tend to her 'appearance' - her wounds were, apparently, part of her appearance - and then the group had resumed the mission, with her as a third wheel. The Female Fury longed to prove herself, but knew to wait and observe for a time. It would not do to hastily end up in the path of one of her ally's attacks. Aside from being potentially dangerous, it would be terribly humiliating.

Instead she waited and kept an eye out for an opportunity, wrapping a salvaged cape around her shoulders into a makeshift cloak and mantle. She had been given the impression that many styles had changed over the centuries on Apokolips. Most Female Furies, for one, wore form fitting or at least form accentuating outfits... by Granny's orders. Why Granny wanted her girls to look so, Reava couldn't imagine, but such was her desire. Even when a Fury wore armor, it was always designed to exemplify, flaunt and even celebrate her femininity.

Star Fire clearly wore a damaged set of functional armor that, perplexingly, looked to have been unisex in design. Much of it had been removed, bearing upper arms and the like, but the aesthetics of it didn't look all that Apokoliptian... then again, there were some units in the army that tended towards a more utilitarian approach. Had the Old Guard regained power and influence? Or was this just a one time thing? It was strange, and it left Reava feeling rather out of date and out of style, to say nothing of being covered with blood and her arms and ankles black and blistered ugly by captivity.

"Ah!" She gasped, seeing a little something almost lost amid the freshly slain blighted Thanagarian monstrosities. "Is that...?"

It was!

Casually kicking away one of the white blooded creatures, she bent over and picked up the unsullied corpse. It was Thanagarian, like the others, but uncorrupted. This one had died fighting its peers or perhaps it fell when the life support pumped that vile cocktail into the ship's air. Checking carefully, Reava slammed it up against the wall, pinning it there with her arm. With her free hand, she opened the eye, checking for any signs of corruption within.

"What are you doing?" The voice of War Dragon interrupted. "Leave that alone. It's dead."

"Yes. It is," she agreed and turned to her leader, bowing her head slightly. "But it is unsullied."

"So?" he asked, resting the bulk of his particle cannon against his armored shoulder.

Star Fire, too, seemed curious and put her hands on her hips to watch.

"I dare not use my ability on one who is tainted by the blood of Ixthultu," Reava explained, and happily patted the corpse she had found on the head. "But this one is clean. I have been without for so long... I can hardly remember when last I used my power."

The red haired Fury next to War Dragon raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"The reason I was chosen for this mission... you must not have been told, but, my ability has a secondary benefit." She faced them, still effortlessly holding up the fully grown Thanagarian by the hair. "By consuming part of another being, I not only gain their powers, but their memories as well. Furies are renowned for their prowess in combat, but this side effect ended up proving very useful. I do not know if I could have infiltrated this ship without it."

"So you... can gain someone's memories by," War Dragon paused, but only a heartbeat. "Eating them."

"I do not need to eat the whole thing, thankfully. Just... a little bit."

Pulling the face of the dead man close, Reava tilted her head and tested the cheek with her tongue as she breathed a faint green mist onto the pickling flesh. Sadly, the taste was far from palatable, soured by a long forgotten death in this cursed ship. It was better than nothing, though, and it was safe, so the Fury swallowed her distaste and bit down. She had two sets of sharper than normal teeth on her upper and lower jaw, and as her breath softened the weathered, dead flesh, a meaty strip easily tore free.

_'Yes. Yes! And it is uncorrupted. Praise Darkseid!'_

She greedily swallowed the strip of cheek and ran her tongue along the new wound. There was no blood anymore, but that was only a minor loss at this point. Sighing softly in pleasure, she threw the body away to smash into the wall behind them, no longer interested in it.

"This one was a mere midshipman... but he knew these halls by heart." Reava took a look around, now confident of where she was and even where they were going. She felt stronger too, more vital. It was but a pale imitation of her best, but 'the beaten couldn't be the beater' as the saying went.

"That's an... interesting ability," War Dragon admitted, sounding - to the Fury - more than a little impressed and perhaps even a little jealous. His companion, on the other hand, stared on with open disgust on her face. Smile filled with self satisfaction, Reava cocked out her hip and dropped a fist onto the gentle curve.

"You do not approve, my _sister_?" she asked with a smirk. "I had not thought one of our ranks to be so... squeamish."

Star Fire's fists rose sharply, roiling emerald flame springing up around them – but before she could do more than hiss furiously, War Dragon held his hand out between them. All it took was a look from the male and her fellow Fury dropped her empowered hands back to her sides. Reava was about to gloat at the obvious reprimand, only to be pre-empted by her rival.

"You mistake me ..._sister_. I am not disgusted by your act, but rather by you, yourself." The stark, and heated statement was spoken in a tense voice. "To feed upon the powers of another is not power at all; you are no warrior, merely a parasite, a scavenger feeding from the scraps of your betters."

It was Reava's turn to hiss in indignant rage. That – that _fool_! How _dare she_ say such -

"That is enough, ladies," War Dragon decreed, brooking no argument. He shot a pointed glance in the junior Fury's direction, but finding no hints of remorse for her actions, he turned back to Reava. "Are there any short cuts to the large area two floors down?"

"The galley?" Reava asked, slightly surprised at how quickly to topic changed, and shook her head. "No. I don't believe so. Not with all the damaged areas we have to go around."

"How much did you learn from just that?" he then asked. "I'm amazed you could get anything from something that's been dead for so long."

"It works best on a living victim, of course," she answered with a cruel smile. It mattered not what her fellow fury, thought. If War Dragon favored her power, then nothing else mattered. "I don't need more than a sliver, but the more I can consume, the more I know. To learn something completely foreign to me, like some esoteric science, I would need to have much more than a bite or two. As I said, this was why I was given the honor of this mission."

She chuckled viciously and gestured around them.

"As you can imagine, it was much easier said than done to convince the Thanagarians to allow us a presence on this costly venture. Kreiger was already my target - we had hoped to facilitate his rise in power. But Thanagarians are not the most trusting of creatures. Fortunately, our agents learned that the Hol patriarch had a mistress... a frail little flower he used to escape his shrewish wives. Once I had her memories, everything else was easy."

...

The knife cut the young woman's throat wide open: a savage blow, not a careful calculated assassination. It had to look like a jealous murder, after all. Reava fondly remembered slashing, over and over, into the struggling young Thanagarian woman. In such carnage, who would notice a few bits mission, cut from the gaping, bloody lacerations? The mewling little kitten even had the temerity to try and die with dignity, but the tears in her eyes belied her fear. It was a perfect night.

...

"We'd already identified which of his wives was most likely to interfere, and with the knowledge I had, it was child's play to frame her for the murder. I've heard Krieger was furious and that he had the woman lashed fifty times in a public square... before the judges took her."

Reava sighed fondly at the memory.

"And let me tell you, the one thing I will miss from Thanagar is their executions. They have this curious tradition called 'giving on top of the stake.' A form of impalement reserved for traitors and those deemed particularly dishonorable. I believe it was originally a punishment for those who murdered tax collectors. She 'gave' to that stake for three hours before she died."

The evil Fury licked her lips at the good times had all-around.

"After that bit of fun, seducing Kreiger was as simple as reminding him of his poor, lost lover," she happily exclaimed. "So you see, only I could have come this far! And when we finally had the secrets of other worlds, when we knew the truth Beyond the Source Wall? All those Thanagarian scientist-priests who thought they could hide their findings from us would fall to _me_! I would bring back their knowledge within myself, as Darkseid's chosen Vessel of Truth!"

Reava's good cheer faded slightly. "If only we had ended up anywhere but here..."

To the side, Star Fire spun about, turning her back to the both of them. The tall girl's fists shook with fury at her sides, but she said nothing else. The reason for her rage was obvious. The fledgling Fury must have been insanely jealous to hear of another amassing such favor on such a prestigious mission and having so much fun off-world! A neophyte like her would have had no chance at all of accomplishing even a fraction of what Reava had. She had to realize now how much of a junior she was.

Speaking of which -

"Master War Dragon," she asked, walking up to his power armored form. "We are to meet your other subordinates, are we not? To mass our forces to retake the Living Metal Foundry? Surely there must be one I could... take from... to replenish my power?"

For some reason, he found this amusing.

"I rather doubt it. One is mostly metal, one is cursed, and the other would give you indigestion." He turned away, and motioned them to continue. "You're free to ask, however."

Star Fire followed close behind him, giving her senior Fury a look of... what, exactly? It was hard to read, as the young warrior was fiercely attempting to school her expression now. Reava sneered, deciding it was probably a refuge-in-contempt. The woman was her junior, yet she had War Dragon's ear. The ease with which they fought together against common enemies was proof of that. It would be difficult knocking the young woman down to her proper place.

Reava licked her lips, hungrily.

_'I'll need to be stronger to fight Kreiger. To become the Vessel of Truth once more. I won't let the glory be taken from me again! No matter what...'_

* * *

Heresiarch

The strange icy membrane-mirror gave way as an armored hand emerged. An arm followed, and gradually, Shampoo emerged from the cracking, shifting portal, back in her MARS armor. It had rematerialized fully on the way back out as the rest of their senses auto-corrected back to normal. She was the last to emerge, just as she had been the first to enter.

Outside, Ryouga, Raven and Ukyou were already present and waiting, the former two both still holding onto the cord that had been their collective lifeline. It had served its purpose well, saving their lives and guiding them back out after... the strangeness inside. With everyone safe and sound, the acting sergeant quickly went to work detaching the makeshift extension. Once it was free, Shampoo activated the retraction mechanism for the cable, and it sucked back up into a circular housing attached to her powered armor, near the hip.

"We all make it?" she asked. It was clearly kind of hard to describe how she felt at the moment. Memories from inside Heresiarch were still fresh and, frankly, rather strange and unsettling.

Fortunately, Nabiki picked that moment to interrupt.

"And that's Shampoo. Good! Great even! You're all back on my screens," she remarked. "Do you have the package? Is anyone injured?"

"We're all fine," Ryouga answered for all of them. He then turned to glance at Ukyou, uncertainty obvious on his face. "As for your first question... Ukyou, you sure you have it?"

"I have... no idea what this is..." she replied, glancing down. "But, yeah."

She was still cupping the fragment in her hands, the luminous artifact thoroughly encased in a solid green shell. Within and around that barrier, however, her ki flowed in and out, but light of her _kenran kinode_ mingling with the occasional spark and shape escaping from within. Removing her left hand, it was clear that whatever it was, she had encapsulated it within a roiling green and white sphere.

"Yeah, I've got it," she reiterated. "I've got it contained."

"Then we're going to come in and extract you, ASAP," Nabiki announced and a ping on their HUD revealed which extraction point they'd be using. "I'm marking a location. ETA sixty eight seconds."

There was a quick pause then.

"...what?" Nabiki asked, sounding surprised. "But... alright. Unit Gold. Please be advised that our Oan here will be meeting you at the airlock to take possession of that whatever-it-is. ID code is Sigma. Scabbard. Bloom."

This time, it was Raven that replied, touching a pair of fingers to her helmet. "Nabiki, are you certain that that is a wise course of action? We still have very little idea of just what exactly it is that we have."

"Believe me, I know," the Tendo sister replied with obvious annoyance, "Since you have some concerns, I'd encourage you to see_ one of us _ about them later. For now, we all have our orders."

Even through the visor, Shampoo couldn't miss the tight expression on the girl Titan's face. Raven didn't make any further statements though. Rather, the dark girl simply turned to look at Ukyou, then nodded to herself.

"Then let us waste any further time, then," she decided. "Everyone get closer."

Where Shampoo was only slightly tentative about trusting the younger girl so implicitly, considering certain earlier events, her reaction was positively neutral in comparison to her two companions. Ryouga stepped to his subordinate's side without even a second of hesitation, dropping a hand on her shoulder. Ukyou, on the other hand, shifted in obvious discomfort at the idea. Still, orders were orders, with a grunt and a head nod in her rivals direction, Shampoo moved next to the Titan girl, and Ukyou soon followed suit.

"Alright, make space bubble and get us back to ship," Shampoo stated matter of factly.

For some reason, Ryouga and Raven shared an enigmatic glance. The former then chuckled wickedly. "I don't think we have time for that. Get us back, quickly as possible, Raven."

"Of course, sir," replied the armored psion in an amused tone. She then lifted her arms to her side, dark energy engulfing her limbs.

Shampoo prepared to lift her feet for the shell of darkness which would begin to form around them... when suddenly a circle of black pitch appeared beneath them. "Hey, what going on-"

And then the darkness shot up, engulfing all of them. In an instant, a cold unlike anything Shampoo had felt lanced right to the core of her body, as if she weren't wearing anything at all. Gone was the massive stone monument they had been standing on, only an abyssal stretch of eternity which seemed to eat away at her soul - and then, just as quickly as it had begun, the darkness receded, and Shampoo found herself standing on an earthen platform hanging in the air, far above the twisted surface of the hulk. Spinning around, confused, the Amazon balked as she noted the mountain that was the Heresiarch... literally a mile away.

A quick check revealed that they were already at the pick up site.

"Alright, now that we're here... what exactly happened to the three of you in there?" Raven asked in an impassive voice.

"Was about to ask how on Earth you get us here, but this not Earth so Shampoo not bother." The Amazon's armored helmet turned to Ryouga and then Ukyou. While her natural inclination was to just blurt out whatever, she found herself somewhat hesitant now.

To Raven, she explained, a little carefully, "We were in... in, um..."

"We were in the bodies of another us," Ukyou explained, looking up from the encapsulated orb in her right hand. "The us from the universe that thing came from, I think."

Ryouga nodded. "It was... disturbing."

"What so disturbing about it?" Shampoo asked, crossing her power armored arms. "Was not us-us, so of course things different there."

"Easy for you to say," Ukyou muttered darkly.

"Ah. I. I - " the Amazon actually stuttered at that. Of course, it would've been most jarring for her. That other Ukyou had been...!

"I'm... Sorry," Shampoo hated to apologize, but still. "You - "

"It doesn't matter," the chef insisted, closing her eyes and taking a calming breath. "And I don't want to talk about it either. So just... drop it. ...Please."

There was no point arguing over it.

"You feel same way, lost boy?" Shampoo asked him. No want to talk about it at all?"

The lightly armored martial artist stared back at her for a moment and she could see his eyes turn away as he met her gaze. Instead, he stepped even closer to Raven, nearly rubbing shoulders with the slightly shorter woman.

"...I don't really see what would gained from it," he finally said. "We got what we wanted, and we got out. What else is there?"

"Fine. Clearly was too-too terrible experience for everyone else," Shampoo replied, shrugging her alien alloy plated shoulders. "Probably not even recorded by armor systems, so no one know truth except who reads mission reports." She then pointed at Raven. "Actually, you were no there, were you? You no became part of other-world Raven?"

"Your English is slipping, Shampoo," Ukyou reminded her with a hint of amusement.

An armored foot stomped as the squaddie huffed. "Shut it, pancake chef."

"Make me, noodles for brains!"

"Maybe I will!"

"Anyway," the two said in stereo, and Ukyou continued to ask Raven: "So, did you pass out or something, sugar?"

The Titan shook her head and - Shampoo actually wondered if she even realized she was doing it - leaned back into Ryouga's chest. "I ... was caught at a crossroads of sorts. Unable to go forward and unwilling to go back. Still, it was an... an enlightening experience."

Before further questions could be raised, a surge of light and energy heralded the arrival of their ride. Pathfinder appeared roughly fifty meters overhead, stopping on a dime and resembling nothing to much as a solid mass of rotating metal and kaleidoscopic silver light. It was actually the wake from the gravity drive, and as it cycled down the shimmering surface and twinkling lights dissipated, revealing the hull and the not-quite saucer shape beneath the induction bubble.

Ryouga paused, exchanging psionic clearance, and a second later the ship lowered down.

"You're cleared for entry," Ryouga, the acting Major currently piloting the ship, told them. "Nabiki and Trespasser are expecting you. Hand over the fragment and see me for a preliminary mission debriefing."

* * *

Pathfinder Actual

One of the benefits of being both quick and stealthy was that you rarely needed to wait for someone else to open the door for you. Nabiki hadn't even noticed when Konatsu slipped passed her, using the momentary opening and closing of the command room door to gain access. If the blue skinned so-called 'Guardian' accompanying her did notice the nearly invisible movement then it spared neither mention nor attention. It was quite possible the alien was utterly focused on the return of Unit Gold and ... whatever it was they had retrieved from their target.

As the door closed behind him, Konatsu spared a split second to look back and see Aiuchi and Nii walk through the wall, ghost-like forms wavering between the physical and the phantom. He'd told them both to stay in the other room, but of course they wouldn't listen. They never listened. They weren't even real.

"Konatsu," Ryouga's voice sounded from within the machine. The ninja saw his body in the pilot's seat before the nav interface, completely limp.

"Hibiki-taichou," the legendary kunoichi replied.

"I assume you've been waiting for a chance to sneak in here," the acting Major said. "This is one of the better times, I guess. For the moment, there's no one on the ship to interfere."

"I just... wanted to talk... Hibiki-taichou," Konatsu assured him, walking over to the seat next to the pilot. "I'm worried. About the ship. About that alien you let in here..." He saved the most important for last, however. "And about Miss Ukyou."

Rather than wait for the officer to give him permission to speak, he quickly continued:

"I don't trust that alien. That Oan creature. I don't trust it with Miss Ukyou's life." Konatsu frowned, eyebrows twitching to fight a downward turn. "That ring you let her wear is what started this. I don't think I like what it could be doing to her. I don't like the way she talks about that fucking alien!"

Catching himself, he touched his lips.

"Oh. Ah, I'm sorry," he meekly apologized, doing a complete one eighty. "What I meant to say, is that I don't think letting her wear that ring is healthy for her. We both like Miss Ukyou, don't we? We're her... friends and we have to look out for her. Protect her. Isn't that right?"

"... Konatsu. Her putting on that ring, and now these missions," Ryouga hesitatingly explained, "These are the best chances we have to get back home. Besides, it was a command decision. I stand by it."

Konatsu opened his mouth and his jaw wavered, as if on the verge of yelling something. But he relaxed as quickly as he'd nearly flown into a rage. Aiuchi chuckled, and the ninja swiped at the damned apparition, to no avail. No matter how many times he killed Aiuchi it didn't matter. He was already dead. The bastard.

"Miss Ukyou..." he slowly replied. "Miss Ukyou is not just something to use to help us get home. Hibiki-taichou, if it was the only way to get us home, would you sacrifice one of us? One of Yankee Squad? Or a subordinate, like Miss Ukyou? Before you answer..."

He then leaned closer, as if to whisper to the body in the pilot seat and not the man in the machine.

"Before you answer me, please consider... Miss Nabiki is also one of your subordinates. Surely you wouldn't throw away Miss Ukyou and allow Miss Nabiki to live? That would be most unfair."

"..."

It was a long pause before the male kunoichi got a response.

"Don't say things you'll regret. Konatsu."

"I'm just saying what's on my mind... Hibiki-taichou," with that said, he stood back up and headed back to the door. Not even turning around, he hesitated before the door and added, almost as an afterthought: "We're both Miss Ukyou's dear friends. So let's both look out for her, okay? I'm starting to think... that if getting home means losing someone we love, maybe it's better we all..."

A deep breath.

"Just... die..."

* * *

Trespasser floated, his arms behind his back, as he watched Unit Gold enter the ship's airlock and go through decon. Next to him, Nabiki has her arms crossed over her chest. She was tired, hungry, and the headache she had started feeling earlier was gradually building in force. Managing Ryu and Starfire and now accounting for that third 'Female Fury' woman... not to mention handling Ranma's group and their fight... plus waiting for the ship to get some return on Unit Gold and the Heresiarch mission? She'd dared to do some of her own database searches, too, going through the decoded text and logs recovered from the Oan ship.

It was all very... taxing.

And disturbing.

Plus, as if that hadn't been enough, there was the situation with the inactive-listed crew. Oh, and not to forget the potentially most disastrous development she could see brewing between the acting Major and Trespasser. The damn Guardian was doing something. Influencing him somehow. She was almost certain it had snuck into the nav interface somehow, either through the pilot himself or a backdoor in the system. It had gone from giving suggestions and being their way to get home to all but handing out orders.

The situation was spiraling out of control and she wasn't sure how to handle it. Nabiki liked to think that if she just had a few free minutes: to talk to Ryouga, to sift through the Oan records, to just put the pieces of the puzzle together... then maybe some solution would start to materialize. Hell if she trusted in the so called Guardian to get them home at this point. The one saving grace was that Ryouga hadn't yet given in to the Oan. He still stubbornly refused its aid or its offer to 'heal' him, which even he knew must have come with strings attached. He'd kept his psionic defenses up, too.

He may have been listening to the alien, but he didn't trust it.

_'Thank god for that,'_ she couldn't help but think, and wondered if the Guardian was listening in on her thoughts. She wasn't a trained psionic like so many of the others. She couldn't force an entity out of her mind or defend it from intrusion. All she could do was focus her thoughts and clear her mind, setting up a screen that hopefully no one would bother tearing down.

The airlock doors opened, and Unit Gold emerged.

"I - I can feel it." Trespasser held out his hands, moving towards Ukyou and ignoring the others. "At last. At last. Give it to me, Lantern. I must have Heresiarch's fragment. A splinter of a living universe! The secrets within... will guide us all... home."

Ukyou, to Nabiki's silent despair, didn't even hesitate to hand it over.

"Of course, Trespasser-sama," she deferred without batting and eye. "It is all yours."

Before anyone else could speak or act, he laid a pale blue hand on the green orb. A ripple passed through, and the green shell of willpower momentarily changed ownership. In that split second, despite shielding her eyes, Nabiki saw something in there: a strange purple beneath the white and green, and the garbled characters for... something. It seemed ludicrous, but it almost looked like kanji. Words. A flickering mass of them.

"This is...!" Trespasser's eyes widened, and as he drew back, he held the orb in his hands, cupping it lovingly. After a moment of breathlessness, he looked up at the team that had retrieved the artifact, ocular green fire partly hidden by narrowing eyes.

"This is," he repeated. "Very satisfactory work. You've done what was asked."

It was probably an example of the highest praise the Oan was capable of.

"You're all back in one piece, too, let's not forget that," Nabiki said, welcoming them back. "Ryouga-baby will want your prelims in a few minutes. Probably while we fly back to the Thanagarian ship."

Both the acting Sergeant and the female Yankee shared a telling look. The Tendo sister didn't miss it, knowing well that the two could communicate so much with a single glance. India, Juliet had been trained extensively in a formal language of signs, codes and psionics, but there was something to be said for a level of understanding that only came with time and personal experience. It was what made Ranma and Ryouga - on the rare occasions they tag teamed someone - so dangerous, but even those two had known each other for years. How had this younger Ryouga formed a bond with such a strange girl in such a short amount of time?

_'Well, not that it matters right now. Maybe we can use it, though.'_

The young Ryouga then nodded to her. "We'll head right up. I think he should find our debrief to be... interesting, to say the least."

"You've all been out of contact, so standard procedure is to debrief you separately to make sure everything synchs up. I don't think we've got the time for that though," Nabiki said with a sigh. So much of this mission had become ad-hoc and regulation breaking. Not that she usually minded breaking the rules from time to time, but they were there for good reason in this case.

"And you," she said, pointing at Trespasser, not particularly caring how 'godlike' the blue xeno from the Titans universe was. "Report to us what you find. When Ranma and the rest get back with that Nth Metal, the acting Major and I will want a timetable for the return voyage filed and ready. Understand?"

The Guardian inclined his head obligingly; Ukyou, however, frowned at Nabiki's tone.

"Of course... I understand," he answered simply. "Come. Lantern. I require solitude. You will ensure I am undisturbed."

The once fiery okonomiyaki chef deferred instantly. "Yes, Trespasser-sama."

Nabiki didn't hide her own frown at the two as they headed to the far end of the hold. Instead, she sent a pointed look to Raven and headed back to the bridge. The meaning was clear: it was time for a little talk... off the record.


	41. Even Death May Die 3

_**A/N**_

Cap'n - Well, Lathis and I had a talk about things. We won't be switching to the chapter per 2 weeks schedule, instead releasing to the end of this arc on the normal once-per-week schedule. However, we will be taking a short hiatus after the end of this arc. I know people will be annoyed by this, but you have to put yourselves in our shoes and realize how exhausting it had been to keep going at this pace for this long. We've released well over a million words and done this for something like a year. Taking a break between arcs will give us time to deal with RL stuff and write up the last 2 arcs much more casually.

Lathis – Indeed. It's time to step back and take a deep breath. We've been working on this thing, writing pretty much day in, day out for as long as I can remember at this point. Frankly, if we don't take a break now, we'd probably end up annihilating one another with the perfect efficiency of matter colliding with antimatter.

So, the tentative idea, as he said, was to finish posting what we have of this arc, wrapping up the whole 'Space Hulk' trip, and then going on hiatus. Then, if we're smart (sadly, that's unsubstantiated), we're going to do what we did in the beginning, just write and keep writing till we finish the entire damn story, then get back to posting again. I don't know about anyone else, but the idea of even bi weekly updates is daunting to me (which is odd, since I was once able to actually write and update TTLB, with 10k chaps on a weekly basis, and that wasn't even with writing out chapters ahead of time).

I guess we'll have to apologize here, and if you want someone to blame, I was the one that pushed for this break. I can't say how long the break will be, just that it won't be permanent (like we're going to give up after going this far)

So Cheers all, and hopefully you enjoy the chap

* * *

x

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Even Death May Die_

Chapter 40

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

The TNV Kuk

Cyborg averted his eyes as Jinx finished off a straggling former Thanagarian with ... somewhat unhealthy exuberance. The girl was unpredictable, to say the least. Every few minutes, she seemed to stumble across some talent or ability that tickled her fancy, only to abandon it for something else as soon as tedium set in. Fiery hex bolts, that frightening lightning styled attack she had first used on Raven, then those nasty claws she'd enjoyed for the last battle.

She was already dabbling with something new to use against the tortured stragglers they were running across, charging her limbs with crackling energy and trying to detonate her victims with a single blow a piece. So far her results were... mixed... not to mention messy, but she more than made up for her inexperience with unbridled enthusiasm. In all the time he had known the villainess, she had never displayed such an unbridled viciousness in the use of her powers. He couldn't help but speculate whether this change in her now was more due to what transpired on Azarath or on this last, nameless nightmare of a dimension.

All the while they advanced, Ranma watched the fighting with mild interest, only stepping in when more than one enemy appeared at a time. The gibbering, severed head of the Sacristan hung by a clamp on his hip like a bloody Celtic trophy in a barbarian movie. The Lieutenant was watching their surroundings, constantly scanning every possible angle from which an attack could come. That, and staying in constant contact with the Star's team and the ship. Something had him a bit spooked, and not just because of the hordes of corrupted Thanagarian crew they had cut through to get where they currently were.

The communications they had recently received from Ryu had to be among the things occupying Ranma's thoughts at the moment. It was a good thing they had received it when they had, as they were already en route to meet up with them. The large Titan still couldn't believe that not only had they found a woman from Apokolips of all places on this ship, but she was actually alive - and uninfected - after all of this time. Orders had come down, and now they were playing her for a chump and pretending that they were working for Darkseid as well.

'Playing for the other team'... as the saying went.

It was exactly the kind of deception that always ended up biting them in the ass whenever they tried it themselves. Robin could testify to that with annoyed certitude. Heroes who faked a face turn almost always ended up with some masquerade shattering moral choice or some other complication that screwed over the initial plan. How regular cops and the like could stay undercover for years, cyborg couldn't imagine.

Still, as long as they played it cool, there was a slim chance they could pull this little charade off. Their UNETCO partners seemed a lot more accustomed to this kind of shadowy morality, so as long as they took the lead, they just might be able to play the part without the hesitation Cyborg knew he and certain others would have had. Which was a little troubling in another way - what does it say about someone that they can so easily pretend to be evil - but circumstances and situations had become progressively crazier over the last few months since the accident at STAR Labs.

Picking up his pace to catch up with Jinx and Ranma, both apparently quite eager to reunite with their missing team mates, Cyborg checked the display in his arm. They were almost at the meeting site; the blips of Ryu and Star's ID-tagged signals were less than 60 meters away and closing. The team interlinked motion sensor detected and broadcast the location of a third figure with them, which was obviously the Fury, but without the usual IFF transponder return. Nabiki had helpfully logged her in as blue, to separate her from the other non-IFF pings that defaulted to hostile red. There was a large chamber between them, and that was where they would meet.

It was essentially a giant meat locker located close by the ruins of what had once been the ship's galley. As expected of such a massive ship, storing and preparing provisions for the sizeable crew was a logistical nightmare. At any given shift, back when the ship was up and running, almost a thousand crew would have been eating and drinking at a time. If Thanagarians and their other alien slaves followed the multiple-meals per day routine humans preferred, than there could've been as many as thirty or forty thousand meals served daily. It was a staggering amount of food, water and labor.

Despite being spacefaring aliens, much of what Cyborg saw passing through part of the kitchen area was familiar, just in bulk. No gas, of course: all the heating, cooking - all the ovens and other appliances - were electronic and self cleaning. Much of the vast industrial kitchen had also been trashed, but thankfully there were no scenes of things being put to nefarious purpose. Which was actually a little surprising, given all the other horrific things they'd run across.

Finding a giant crock pot full of heads and arms or something would've been right in place.

In fact, some of the displays that had re-initialized indicated that the machinery was just humming and waiting to get going again, and that there were still tons of food and water left onboard. Long metal surfaces were cleaned and ready to assist what must've once been a small army of stewards and cooks. The area where they'd agreed to meet up was by the area's storage of perishable meats, since it was heavily reinforced due to the refrigeration apparatus. Part of the kitchen proper had collapsed.

As they neared the spot, Jinx - clearly unable to contain her curiosity - kicked open the locker doors. A blast of cold air escaped, and inside, bathed by the glow of UV sterilization lamps, Cyborg could see the crew's last would-be meals, uncut and uncooked. These would have been reserved only for the officers and other high-up types: not just pre-packaged meals, but food prepared on site. Packed in rows by the dozen were the flanks of various animals, hanging and ready for use.

His sensors also detected a fine layer of non-organic material sprayed over the meat: some kind of thin preservation membrane, maybe? Interesting tech, though agricultural science wasn't his field of expertise. Since they had a little time, he quickly took a sample. XCOM loved tech as much as they loved sticking it to aliens. It was definitely a facet of the organization Cyborg could appreciate much more than the combat. Hell, according to just the numbers, the organization employed more than three times as many scientists and engineers than they did soldiers.

Maybe, someday, something here could do some good besides being used as a weapon.

"Alright, we're on the spot. Hey! Jinx," Ranma said, pulling her away from the locker. "Come on. We got a minute or two, so let's get ready."

"Time to get our game faces on, you mean?" Cyborg asked. "Gotcha."

"All we have to do is act like crazy psychos so that the Fury thinks that we're on her side, right?" Jinx inquired, obviously quite happy with the idea.

Ranma answered for her, nodding gravely. "It sounds like she has access to information that could be vital, so tricking her like this is necessary. I'll also be tweaking her perceptions a bit with psionics. It's better than using outright mind control. For now. So let's just try to follow Ryu's lead here."

They didn't have long to wait.

The sight of motion from the far side of the room heralded the arrival of their absent team mates. Ryu looked quite the same as he had the last time they'd seen him, though a bit more painted in the bleached, corrupted Thanagarian blood of his victims at the moment. Starfire, on the other hand, looked like hell worn over. Cyborg had already known that her armor had been extensively damaged – he was keeping track of everyone vitals at the moment through the handy smartlink system XCOM had attached to everyone and everything – but to actually see her in it was something different entirely. She didn't look like she was staggering around in agony, so she couldn't be _that_ bad off, but she'd clearly had better days.

Then, of course, there was the newest member of their expedition: the Fury...

Her skin was pale, though not quite as unnaturally so as Jinx's pallid look, with curving, claw-like red tattoos around her eyes, on her cheeks, and across her forehead. Reddish blonde hair that would probably have been meticulously cared for was frayed and roughly brushed back to pool behind her back. She looked human: in build, appearance, body type, tall for a woman, but not shockingly so. Not like she had giant space-elf ears or anything obvious revealing her true nature. Aside from the tattered brown mantle she'd thrown over her crimson costume, this Female Fury could probably have walked down the street of Jump City and no one would bat an eye, except maybe to ogle her tattoos or her admittedly curvy body.

Which was actually kind of a disturbing notion, just how easily some random Fury from Apokolips could blend in... if she actually tried to or wanted to. It was kind of a lucky break that it probably wouldn't even occur to them to show up and not go on a damn rampage. At least: it wouldn't occur to the current combat-crazy crop of Furies that the Justice League dealt with. Still, one could literally be living next door in pleasant suburbia and people would be none the wiser... at least until Batman drove up in the Batmobile or Superman crashed in through the window or something.

Despite wanting to run over and give Starfire a big hug, utterly relieved to see her again, the sight of the Fury reminded him of the gravity of their situation. Instead, he steeled himself and did his best to maintain a stern expression and offered only the briefest of nods to Starfire in recognition. Ranma took a step forward to greet Ryu, the NCO snapping a grim salute and starting to speak-

When, striding purposefully, Jinx walked right up to the Fury... and decked her right across the face, apparently as hard as she could. The alien woman spun around, a spray of blood flying from her lower lip as the sound of indestructible metal gauntlet colliding with flesh and bone filled the air. The Fury spun from the blow, bounced painfully off the edge of a cutting table and collapsed to the ground only to scurry back to her hands and knees a moment later. Holding her jaw gingerly, the alien woman stared up at Jinx hatefully... but oddly enough, without the slightest bit of confusion.

"You should be honored, old crone!" Jinx barked in a snarling voice. "I have deigned to show you your rightful place, at my feet, rather than simply kill you for being so pathetic! Were it not for our Master's wishes, I would have done so without hesitation."

The Fury, "Reava" if Cyborg recalled correctly, glared murderously for several moments...

Only to nod reluctantly.

"I... understand, Sister," she complied, licking the blood from her lip as she stood back up. "Please, tell me your name, and that of your Master."

Cyborg hid a frown as he watched Jinx play up her part more than was strictly called for. He had to admit that she did look a bit intimidating in her head to toe armor, banged up and bloody as it was, but did she have to enjoy it so much? He got his reply soon enough, as the ex-villainous let out a self gratified noblewoman's laugh.

"OH-hohoho! You may call me Apokolips Maiden! I am foremost Fury assigned to this expedition, and you had best remember that!" She then swung about, gesturing to Ranma, who was clearly struggling not to look bemused or shocked. "And this is my Master, and Commander of the overall mission, Dark Horse."

Ranma gave a dismissive gesture.

"Yes, yes. Reava, is it?" he asked with a shrug. "We thought you were dead. How nice you're not. Are you still of any use?"

"Master War Dragon has filled me in on... our situation," she replied, sucking on her once split lip. The split in the flesh had healed in seconds: another special ability perhaps? She was about to say more on when the cruel woman noticed something hanging from the Ranma's hip.

"Hm?" Ranma noticed her interest, and picked up the head by the hair, holding it up to her. The head glowered darkly, sick yellow orbs hidden behind the veiled face promising an eternity of torment and suffering. The insect-like legs that had once dangled from the chin and neck had been crushed and severed, rendering it immobile. Hopefully permanently.

"You recognize this?" Ranma inquired, sounding amused.

"I do!" she exclaimed. "You killed the Sacristan? We are but a step away from access to the Living Metal Foundry!'

"Bitch!" The head hissed, spitting up a viscous black slime. The disembodied head of the Sacristan could speak, albeit with some gargling difficulty, even without a body. Or lungs for that matter. Then again, given that it was less a head and more a mutated tick-face thing, the biology of it had to be non-standard.

"**REAVA**," it snarled, "Reava you smear of underworld SHIT! Why? _WHY? _Why aren't you dead? Why hasn't the Master Taken You?"

"Oh?" the Female Fury cooed, delighted by the fact that the head was still alive and able to curse her out. "Oh! How lovely! You're nothing but brain in a box now, aren't you Belucius? How appropriate! All you need now is a muzzle!"

"There's no need for that," Ranma intervened, holding his hand up in front of the Sacristan. "After all, he's agreed to help us. So do try to get along?"

It was phrased quite nicely, quite politely, but with that little bit of hard assed inflection of: 'I speak softly but carry a big stick.' Reava nodded eagerly.

"Now," he said again. "I asked before if you were still of any use?"

"My captivity has left me weakened," the Fury admitted. "I need the flesh of someone strong and it cannot be one corrupted by the blood of Ixthultu. Almost any flesh will do at this point. It has been... I assume centuries since last I ate. I can still fight... I was trained in hand to hand, like War Dragon. Permit me to prove myself!"

"You'll have the chance," Ranma promised. "What can you tell us of Kreiger? And what capabilities he has now?"

"Ah, yes, him," she replied, and glanced past Ranma at the meat locker. So: that had been why the officer had picked this location? Kind of disgusting, but Cyborg could see how it made sense.

"When last I saw him, he had taken his personal guard and a select few others to secure the Foundry," Reava explained, frowning at the circumstances back then. "There were twenty... or maybe twenty four of them and they were killing anyone they came across. The 'unworthy' he called them. The Sacristan there tried to either stop them or join them - I don't know which - and Kreiger had him stapled to the wall and impaled. The elite guard were the finest warriors on the ship, mostly nobles."

"None of them had any Nth metal weapons with them," she then said, to Cyborg's surprise. "Not even those stupid belts these animals so love. In fact, they were stripped completely bare except for some body paint. I suppose as some sort of purification rite? I recognized some of the symbols on their bodies as religious rites. Even unarmed and unarmored, they cut down all they came across, including my own retinue of Parademons."

"You were beaten by naked men?" Jinx asked, harshness tempered by amusement.

Reava shook her head. "No. Only Kreiger. He had become younger and stronger somehow, and he was already quite impressive even in old age. I was..." Here, the Fury hesitated for a second to explain. "I was _humiliated_... and left to suffer in the room where War Dragon found me."

She sneered and her hand clawed impotently at the air near her arm.

"He isn't to be underestimated!" she insisted. "I can't imagine what he's become since finding the Foundry and the Heart of Ixthultu!"

"_Hm_."

Ranma's grunt was noncommittal, but Cyborg already knew he was serious about the upcoming fight in the heart and soul of this damned ship. Whether it was Shandra Mal's memories or just his own inclination, he was all but driving them down there.

"Master Dark Horse, if I may?" Reava asked. "Until I recover more fully, I would be better able to fight with a weapon of some sort..."

"That's impossible for you," he replied with an annoyed sigh. At her confused look, he explained, "All of our equipment here is keyed towards our individual sets of armor and... other things. You couldn't use it. Let me make this clear: while you were originally in charge of this operation, right now, you're here in a support capacity. For the most part, I want you to assist..."

Ranma gestured back to the one and only-

"Soundwave."

Cyborg smirked. Yes. Definitely a good backup name if he had to play the bad guy.

"Do you understand?" Ranma asked, pressing with the question. "You do what he says. You do what War Dragon says. You do what I say. You do what Star Fire or the Maiden says. If you mess up, you'll wish you were left in that cell to rot."

"I won't!" Reava all but roared. "Even if it costs me my life!"

"Good." The officer then pointed to the three Titans. "You three. Double check your kit. Soundwave. I'd like some rigged explosives ready, since we're all out of grenades. 'Biki says you've got some of those mini-missiles left. They ain't much use indoors like this, so see if ya can do anything with 'em. Reava, if you can find anything that... suits your tastes, do whatever. War Dragon. With me. We've got some stuff to cover before we head out. This is it. Smoke em if ya got em, take a piss if ya gotta - this is the home stretch."

Various iterations of 'yes, sir' were offered up to the Lieutenant, some more sarcastic than others, and then Cyborg watched as everyone else split up and went about their business. He kept an eye on the Fury for a moment, but she honestly looked too pathetic to be any kind of threat at the moment. True, the alien woman seemed to be shooting challenging glances in Starfire's direction, but every time Jinx so much as shifted in her direction, the Fury flinched.

It was probably for the best, then, that the Tamaranian floated off to the far side of the room, obviously looking for some solitude before they continued on. It didn't surprise him, he could only imagine how she must be feeling, having to blatantly lie to, and physically abuse this woman – however evil she might be, being a servant of Darkseid and all – just to get what they wanted. The less time she spent in proximity to the Fury, the less chance she'd have of getting too sentimental.

Jinx, on the other hand, seemed to take great pleasure in pacing around Reava, playing up the fact that she was just looking for an excuse to end her. Even as the Fury began to root through the Thanagarian dead, looking for a weapon, Jinx just kept needling her, making snide remarks any time she went to choose any given implement.

Sighing, Cyborg found a relatively clear table and swept off the remaining cutlery and junk. Setting his cannon on the floor behind him, not really trusting the table to support its weight, he then took a seat himself. Ranma wanted some IED's, after all, so he should be able to comply. Granted, he wasn't sure what Ranma was talking about, saying his missile launchers weren't of much use indoor like this. With the guidance systems he had on his babies, he could thread them through the eye of a needle without even blinking. Okay: maybe that was a _slight_ exaggeration.

Still, orders were orders. No need to leave all of their eggs in one basket, or his shoulders as the case may be. Popping open his internal missile launchers, he carefully removed the ordinance and began to set it on the table before him. He only set out four of the missiles, one for each of his team mates, and left the remaining two armed and ready. Closing up his weapon bays, he then set about to work. It was, he noted, just a bit fitting to be converting these missiles into grenades. After all, he had used alien grenades to convert his original low yield warheads into powerful plasma missiles.

He'd have to be careful, though, since each of these were double the strength of a standard alien grenade (designed to be safe to throw by hand), so a little slip up would likely reduce them all to atomic vapor. But, honestly, volatile plasma was hardly the craziest thing he'd worked on while his friends were in the blast radius. Hell, the T-Ship alone could have reduced the entire tower to slag if he'd screwed up at a few key junctures. He'd long since gotten over any fears in such regards, probably a worrying mindset to take in retrospect, but hey, that was the world of super science for you.

In fact, the work of field stripping the high yield, enhanced plasma warheads quickly became tedious, and he found his attention beginning to wander. Glancing about with his human eye, even as his cybernetic eye remained perfectly focused on the task at hand, he noted Jinx still taunting Reava. Frowning, he opened a private channel to the girl.

"So... Apokolips Maiden, was it?" he asked. "That's a pretty hefty title, ain't it?"

A dozen meters away, Jinx stopped her pacing and half turned to regard her. She probably noticed they were on a private channel, and was curious as to his motives. A moment later, though, she turned back to Reava and began to pace around her again.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," she finally responded, and the only person present that could hear her was himself, "Apocalypse Maiden is way more fitting for Raven, considering the crap that we saw back on Azarath... but you gotta admit, it sounds a lot cooler than Dark Magical Girl."

Cyborg shook his head at that. "Can't argue that. Heh, nice pick on 'Dark Horse', too."

"Well, it was either that, or 'Lord Lady Fingers.' Way more appropriate, but not really what we're aiming for, I suppose."

"Heh, I doubt Ranma would agree with you there." He chuckled lightly to himself... for a moment. His mood quickly sobered, though, as he recalled something from their earlier battle. "Hey, Jinx, was there something you wanted to talk about? It sounded like you wanted to ask me about something earlier..."

That stopped the lean girl mid step. This time, she actually did turn to look in his direction, completely forgetting about her victim. She seemed to hesitate, shifting away, then back and again... until finally, she gave up all pretence and walked over to join him. Sitting down on the long bench beside him, her back to the table, she dropped her hands on her knees and began to examine the floor at her feet.

"I... well..." She huffed and just said it, "There's something that been confusing me for a bit now... I just don't know who to talk to about it..."

"Hmm?" Curious, Cyborg looked to the girl at his side. She was sitting on an angle so that her back was to him, as well as the table, so he couldn't get any kind of read on her face. "What's on your mind, girl? You know I got your back."

"That's just it," she replied in an odd tone of voice. She then turned to face him, and he could see the troubled expression on her face through her visor. "Do you remember why I joined the Titans?"

Cyborg nearly dropped the proximity fuse of warhead he was dissecting. Luckily, no one was watching his near gaffe. No doubt they would have freaked out, likely not realizing that simply dropping it would do nothing, as this style of fuse wouldn't initiate without being subjected to ballistic levels of acceleration for at least three seconds. It was just one of the basic safety precautions taken to make sure a missile didn't blow up in his face, or his shoulder for that matter.

Taking a moment to lay down the fuse so he could jury rig it into a time delay mechanism instead, he tried his best to organize his thoughts before replying. "You... you're having problems with your memory? What makes you think that?"

Her fingers tightened on her knees. "It's just something that Lady Fingers said, back when I woke up. He asked me if I'd forgotten about Ryouga, for some reason... I thought he was just being a moron, like usual... but I've been thinking about it, you know, whenever we aren't fighting for our lives."

"The more I think about it, though... the less sense things make!" She pumped a fist into her palm, angry and frustrated. "It goes all the way back to the final battle back at the Academy. I can remember most everything like it was just yesterday, but there are a few... a few blurry parts... important parts, too. It's like my life has gone all South Park. Step 1: Become a villain, Step 2: Get to the top of the class, Step 3: Big freaking question mark and Step 4: Suddenly I'm a... hero? I'm sure you can see my frustration here."

Cyborg wasn't sure he liked the sound of that. "And... you can't remember anything about why you joined up with us?"

Jinx shook her head from side to side. "No, and it's pissing me off. I can remember so much, so clearly. Everything that's happened since we dropped in on UNETCO Earth is clear… some kinda odd spots, but I remember everything. Even before that, I remember finding Happosai and becoming his student, and all the adventures we went on. I remember staying with Nabiki after the Academy went down, and that wearing spandex makes her ass look huge!"

Cyborg chuckled quietly, just a bit jealous of not being able to check out Nab's booty himself. Jinx, however, was not nearly as amused as him.

"But then, when I try to remember stuff past that, back at the Academy, there are all of these really blurry bits. Things that I can't _quite _remember, or things that don't make sense at all anymore."

"It's like..." The sorceress' eyes narrowed as she studied him. "Like... I have the strangest feeling that I ran into you during the big fight at the Academy... but I can't remember what the heck we spoke about. All that I get is a headache when I think about talking to you."

Cyborg instantly hunched forward over his work, avoiding her gaze completely. He could still hear the ringing of bone on steel; could still see, with perfect clarity, Jinx attempting to cave her skull in on his chest plate. It baffled him that she could possibly forget that meeting, but then, it had centered entirely on her burgeoning relationship with Ryouga. If she had been forced to forget him, then none of the rest of that meeting would make any sense at all.

But how did he respond? Did he play along with her new view of the world, or did he try to remind her of what had brought her to this point? It frustrated him, seriously, to think of what had been done to Jinx, and even more so, how she was acting now. For months now, he had been a not so subtle advocate of Ryouga and Jinx being together. When he had 'run into' Jinx back in the Academy, her feelings for the Lost Boy had been so earnest, so passionate...!

How could that have all been a lie? The thought that such feelings could just be – be switched off, just like that? It was offensive, and struck just a little too close to home for the cybernetic Titan. The situation was only made worse by the fact that Ryouga hadn't received a similar treatment, and was still obviously agonizing over the entire damned situation with Jinx. What had happened wasn't fair to either of them.

Coupled with her worrying proclivities since she'd woken up recently, Cyborg decided that the best way to go would be to just be honest with the girl. Giving a tired sigh, he dropped a hand on her shoulder. "Jinx… Ranma wasn't just being a tool when he asked you about Ryouga. You know all that stuff that you're having a hard time remembering? Well… it all has to do with him. With Ryouga."

She stared at him oddly. "Ryouga? What about him? I mean… sure, he's kind of interesting, but aside from the Headmaster's big goofy plot, I hardly know the guy."

At that, he matched her gaze. "And you don't think that's odd? That this guy, that you were forced to spend pretty much all of your time with for months, would be a complete mystery to you? Even if it was just part of a scheme, don't you think you would have at least chatted with him? Got to know him a bit? Or at least formed an opinion on the guy?"

The young woman studied him for a moment, but he could tell that while her eyes were on him, she was not seeing him at all.

"I… don't know…" she finally admitted. "I – now that you mention it, I've never met a guy that I've thought so little of. Heck, even Konatsu has made more of an impression on me than the leader of our own team, and that guy is pretty much just a generic ninja with stalker issues for the cross dressing pancake chef."

"You might wanna keep that opinion to yourself. Konatsu's been a bit… twitchy lately."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," she replied with a dismissive wave of her wrist.

"Seriously, though," he continued tentatively, "There is a reason that you're so confused lately, Jinx. Something… something bad happened to you back into Azarath. Something that messed up your memories, just like Ranma said. You might not believe me when I tell ya this, but a lot, and I mean a lot of stuff has gone on between you and Ryouga. You mean more to him than you know."

At that, she scoffed loudly. "Look, I know _all_ about the guy's _infatuation_! The Major and Raven tried to explain what happened back in Azarath, so I know what you're talking about already."

Jinx clenched her fists tightly, rubbing her knuckles into the armor of her thighs.

"I mean, they _tried_ to explain what happened. But just saying, again and again, 'hey, you used to love Ryouga because of the Headmaster, but now you don't because Raven messed with your head'… it doesn't _really_ explain _anything_! Even forgetting the whole thing about me having no reason to believe them, what does it even _mean?_ They couldn't tell me anything that I may, or may not, have done with Ryouga… or why I chose to do any of the things I did, besides the 'I was in love' B.S. What does 'you were in love' even mean?"

"It's bad enough that I gotta deal with our Ryouga givin' me the puppy dog eyes all the time, too," Jinx muttered in frustration. "I mean, I know it's not his fault, but everyone knows that it's just all mind control. You don't love your computer just because you programmed it to like you, right?"

"…I see what you mean, but still…"

Cyborg waffled; how did he explain it properly?

How _could_ he?

How did he explain it at _all_? Despite what he thought, he hadn't been around for all of their most intimate moments. He didn't know why Jinx had decided to go hero, or what Ryouga had done to actually convince her to give up her evil ways. Hell, there was a damn good chance that she was right. He was so sure that Ryouga's feelings for Jinx were real, but, at the same time, he'd thought the same thing about Jinx's, and look where they were now. If she had changed this much, then who was to say that Ryouga's reaction would be any different if the same happened to him?

Finally, Cyborg sighed in defeat. "I'm sorry. I really shouldn't be confusing you like this. This is something you need to figure out on your own. It isn't fair for me to try and sway you one way or the other on this, just because it's how I want it to be."

Pushing herself up to her feet, Jinx punched him in the shoulder, eliciting a loud 'clank.'

"I'd be disappointed if no one tried to take advantage of a suggestible young woman! Besides, you never did get around to answering my question. I didn't want to know about Ryouga, I wanted to know about me. Why am I working with the good guys?"

"Well… like I said, this is something you need to figure out for yourself," he replied carefully. "Just think about this: whatever your reason, you did end up going good, right? So, even if you can't remember it, doesn't it stand that whatever that reason was, it seemed like a good idea to you at the time?"

"Hmm… I hadn't thought of that. I might have to think about it. If there's one person in the world that I trust, it'd be me." The sorceress chuckled to herself before she started to walk away. "Then again, maybe I was wrong before, and maybe now's a good time to fix that mistake. Either way, I guess we'll see how it goes."

Not exactly heartened by her response, he watched her as she moved to rejoin Reava in searching through the kitchen area. He didn't like that parting remark, but he didn't have the time to deal with it at the moment, either. Whatever she was thinking, they were all on the razor's edge, here. Odds were that she was just screwing with him for laughs, but this dimension was having disturbing effects on everyone. It was easy to forget with all of the running and gunning, but the recent comments on Konatsu quickly reminded him.

At this point, they would just have to rely on self interest to keep everyone on task.

Speaking of on task, he looked down to realize that his task was complete. The four missiles looked… pretty much exactly as they had before – it wasn't like he had a foundry here to make new casings. He'd have to explain the specifics to everyone when he handed them out. Sighing, he picked up the ordinance and went to check in with Ranma. Hopefully he and Ryu would have their next move figured out by now. As much as he wanted to relax, the sooner they got out of this god damned dimension, the better.

* * *

_'Ranma, are you sure you're alright?'_

_'I'm fine. You two worry too much. I have everything under control.'_

Was what he had said, but the truth was a bit more complicated. The personality overlay feature of the Absorbacron, whether intentional or not when used with non-Thanagarians, had been suppressed but not entirely eliminated. The effect was localized but as long as he kept using the recovered memories as a reference, they would continue being... difficult. Post-mission, he'd have to purge the lot of them. During-mission, he'd just have to deal with it. That was all there was to it.

"Hmrf."

The grunt came from near the Saotome heir's waist, where the Sacristan's disembodied head hung from a storage clip. The defeated abomination had been mostly quiet since the group left the galley. Now, Ranma could see it was glaring at someone again with those amber-yellow eyes. At first, he'd just suspected more animosity between it and their new Female Fury.

"What is it?" Ranma asked, hoping it was something productive.

"That... that cyborg. The one with the durantium carapace," Sacritian's voice was, for once, somewhat subdued. "How was he made?"

Ranma frowned a bit at the question - it wasn't really his place to say, it was Cyborg's.

"He was like us, but there was an accident," the martial artist decided to say, after taking a few seconds to think it over. "They fixed him up enough to survive. The weapons and stuff he added on later."

"..."

The normally ranting, bile spewing head was usually more acerbic than this.

"Why?" Ranma asked.

"It... reminded me of... something. I... I want. WANT!" There it went. Back to normal. "I - I deserve. MINE! Mine! If you hadn't interfered, it would be mine! His body would be mine! His technology mine!"

Ranma could imagine the result of such a thing: some monstrous, half mechanical half human hellspawn, twisted and warped by the black nightmare that so infected this ship. It would probably resemble that corrupted energy cannon Cyborg had picked up and still carried around - covered in unblinking yellow eyes and black spikes and pestilent growths. The possibilities became even more repulsive when one considered what the Sacristan would've done with Jinx and himself, if given the chance.

"It'll never happen," Ranma flatly informed him.

A gurgling snort came from the vile creature, and for a moment at least, he tried to put it out of his mind.

* * *

Thanagar

There were no larger drydocks in the Empire than here, in the former Maladar Basin. One of Thanagar's many great canyons, it had been converted more than a hundred years ago into the planet's most impressive shipbuilding and refitting facility. A series of "beds" ran along the length of the canyon, now overgrown with a forest of construction equipment, living quarters for workers, and the massive gravity locks. There were three berths for the largest of ships in the Imperial Thanagarian Navy and a half dozen for smaller vessels. All could be worked on in tandem.

Shandra Mal watched as the gravity locks burned a blinding white as they assisted a massive cruiser down from orbit in a column of light. The sheer amount of Nth Metal required to create the titanic gravity locks had made them the single largest and most expensive investment known to Thanagarian-kind; a veritable wonder of the known galaxy that had required more than fifty years to construct. A city had grown around the drydocks, sprawling out into the formerly inhospitable desert that made up the planet's equatorial belt.

As her shuttle landed, Shandra stepped onto the windy landing pad.

Not too far away, in one of the three titan-class berths, she could see her ship, the TNV Kuk, being refitted. Only the top-most part was visible from where she stood, the rest submerged within the superstructure of the drydock. The Kuk was already among the largest and most sophisticated of vessels in the Thanagarian Navy and now it was being hastily prepared for some sort of special mission.

Exactly what that 'special mission' was, Shandra didn't yet know. She had simply been transferred by order of the Council, and this place was a far cry from her laboratory back at the Imperial Sanctum and Astronomical Observatory. A hot desert wind blew in and she shielded her face, quickly slipping on a pair of shaded glasses and brushing back her short, red hair. It was hard to believe that the ship down there would be her new home and workplace for 'an unspecified duration of time.' This was exactly why she hadn't wanted to join the military or sign her life over to the whims of some Warlord...

Yet here she was, conscripted anyway.

"Quite a sight, isn't it?"

Shandra turned to the voice. "Hm?"

"The Kuk, I mean." The speaker was a man in an medical-assist carapace. "Those plates are being reinforced by an Nth Metal filament. You can tell just from the shine they have under the mid-day sun. This is one strange project they've got going here."

The gold color of his carapace reflected the desert light, but parts had also been covered by white cloth, making it out almost into a simulacrum of a normal Thanagarian shape. But it was clearly too bulky and, most damning, there were no wings. Shandra's own flexed instinctively at the sight of someone without them. The face of the man inside could be easily seen, exposed to the air and the elements. He was a frail looking fellow with exotic brown eyes that almost bordered on gold.

"I've never even seen a battlecruiser before," Shandra admitted, politely trying not to stare and so turning back to the shipyard. "Much less served on one. Are you...?"

"Yes," he answered, and a mechanically assisted hand reached up to rest on the railing. "I was transferred from the Shezmu."

"The Shezmu?" she asked, surprised. "Isn't that the flagship of the Imperial First?"

"The very same." He turned to face her and bowed his head within the medical exoskeleton. "Belucius Ro. Ship's Sacristan."

"Oh! Shandra Mal," she replied, and quickly bowed in return. "Chief Technical Rector."

"Pleased to meet you, Shandra."

"Likewise, Belucius!" She smiled at him, glad to have met a new friend and colleague. To have risen to the rank of Sacristian despite a physical disability - the man must've been quite skilled indeed! Hopefully the rest of the crew would be as friendly and capable. "It looks like we'll be working together!"

He returned the smile and they both turned back to the drydock and their new ship.

Their new assignment...

* * *

Ranma held up his hand, fist closed, motioning the group to stop. Two fingers emerged from the fist, pointing quickly left and right. Ryu was already in motion, having sensed the danger with his sakkijutsu. Starfire picked up on his queues right away, and they backed up and to the left. Cyborg and Reava fell back while Jinx took Ranma's right. A quick check on the motion sensor confirmed it a second later.

Something big was incoming.

The question was: what?

Up ahead, the ceiling puckered in reply, the metal peeling away as something forced its way through. For a second, whatever it was retreated back... and then, with one forceful heave, it smashed right through and into the narrow hall. A mass of black and pink flesh studded by mottled Nth metal wormed out like a lapping tongue, slamming bodily into the walls with enough force to dent them.

Then an eye emerged on the bulky tentacle, spotting prey, and the whole thing surged down on them. Fire met it head-on, as Jinx opened up with her plasma from a crouch and Ranma and Ryu added to the barrage with a mix of NGP and ki attacks. Fleshy craters and kinetic energy knocked the giant mass to the side to scrape and smash into the wall and explosions of plasma and superheated steam blanketed the hall in a fresh coat of paint.

It took only a second and a half to reduce the onrushing appendage to shredded, masticated gibs.

The walls rumbled, and the mass withdrew as quickly as it had appeared, wounded but still semi-functional. There was barely time to catch breath before a heavy weight slammed down along the length of the hall, knocking lights and wires and fixtures out from broken panels and panes of steel. A coil of sparking conductive cable fell to Ranma's right, heralding the sudden emergence of a long, arm-thick black spike.

It was just the first of many: in the span of a second, the spikes shot down from the ceiling and up from the floor like a forest of sprouting trees. An armored foot skidded, the heel hitting one of the nearby spikes at the base and snapping it off. Ranma's elbow hit another one. Starbolts and a flash from hexbolts raced down the hallway leading forward, cracking or weakening a dozen of the black spines.

"Cyborg!" Ranma yelled, not needing to explain.

"Right!"

The Titan rushed past, already building up to ramming speed with what little of the space around them others had cleared. Shoulder down he crashed into the forest of spikes, shielding his face with his oversized cannon as they smashed to splinters around him. The rest of the group followed close behind, Ryu turning to take the rear as smaller tendrils broke in through the walls.

They were nearly to the light at the end of the tunnel-

When that light tightened and pinched, contracting like the end of a tube being squeezed by some great force. The entire wall shuddered and bodily moved, wrenched to the side. Ranma braced himself with one foot to the side of the wall, now at a forty five degree angle, but he heard Jinx curse as she slammed shoulder first into it. The floor beneath them bucked, and Cyborg skidded to a stop.

"What the Hell is going on?" Ryu yelled.

The way they'd come was also bending and twisting.

"I can't tell!" Nabiki hissed in a frustrated tone. "Gods! The entire area around you is rearranging...!"

"We need to go straight down!" Reava hissed, tearing a thing black eyestalk out of the floor, her back to Cyborg's. "Master! We're a floor below where we once were!"

"Dragon! Star!"

"On it!" "Yes!"

The pair spun, back to back, Starfire throwing her arms to the side as she glared downward. Green fire blasted from her eyes as Ryu slashed his arms in an arch overhead. In the blink of an eye they exchanged places, Starfire using her eyes on the ceiling and Ryu slashing at the floor. Past them, the hallway had crunched almost completely closed, and fleshy tongues were racing down from yet more punctures in the structure. Facing forward, Cyborg was already braced and blasting away at something that roiled and wound wildly against the walls like a demonic pipe cleaner.

Then the hallway sliced in half, breaking like a snapped icicle.

Jumping from the rapidly squeezing tube of metal in which they'd been trapped, Ranma saw movement all around them: long sheens of light against the darkness. It took a moment to realize what it all was. They were two floors below in the Gravitational Annex. It was essentially a massive cylinder laid on its side, about two stories high and two stories wide, rigged by a smattering of catwalks. The walls themselves were moving, the reciprocating ribs that lined the Annex slowly churning and squeezing and rotating. This was essentially the Thanagarian version of the 'gravity drive' that Pathfinder used, but instead of being built into the hull, it was a separate system. One capable of keeping even the massive battlecruiser 'afloat' in the gravity well of a planet.

Which meant they were in the bottom section of the ship, around where it had melded into the ground-level of the dimensional hulk. Landing on one of the catwalks, the gantry shook and groaned in protest. Doubly so when Starfire flew by and dropped Cyborg down a couple meters away. The rest of the group was fine. Ryu was flying thanks to his MARS powered armor, as was Star. Cyborg was nearby, and Jinx and Reava had maneuvered themselves onto a higher catwalk on the opposite end of this section of the Annex.

Above them, the remains of the hallway they'd been walking down were hard to discern from the crushed and ruined expanse of structural steel and metal that had been the intervening floor. It all came crashing down second later anyway: the two halves of the hallway, twisted and broken like crumpled cans, and innumerable chunks of debris. They all fell from between the reciprocating ribs of the Grav Annex, along with a jungle of tangled wires and cables.

The source of the attack also became clear.

Long black tentacles snaked amid the structure, retreating. They were huge enough that their movement distorted and crushed bits of hull in their wake, visible as worms burrowing through topsoil. Having lost their prey, they fell back, returning to where they'd come from.

"Behold...!The Maw of Ixthultu!" Sacritian commented from his hip, black dribble falling from a veiled, lipless mouth. "It was but a little thing when last I saw it. It won't let you to the Heart. **IT HUNGERS.** It won't let you past. **FLESH FOR GOD OF FLESH**. What will you do now, you ghost of a whore?"

Ranma frowned. "The Maw of Ixthultu..."

Why did that sound familiar?

Hundreds of feet ahead, four ribs along the Annex stopped moving, bent at the ceiling, and twisted out of position. A ripple of gravity shot down the length of the curving length, the stress on the gantries and catwalks causing one to upend entirely. Squeezing out from hole torn in the Annex, a giant leech-like mass emerged. Once the bulk of it squished past the remaining metal ribs, tentacles like segmented worms unwound from the main mass, their bulk smashing down into the grated safety scaffold down below.

That part of the ship was also clearly suffering from its close proximity to the dimensional hulk: strange growths of metal had punctured up and into the belly of the Thanagarian cruiser and likewise, other sections were merging into the ground below. Bubbling distortions in space-time and wavering mirage-like images were more than a little discouraging: falling to the lowest level here was not an option. One of the flailing tentacles learned that firsthand as it brushed against a strange distortion and came apart, parts of it melting and other freezing as it fell apart, slouching silently off the metallic bone.

Then the bulbous section reoriented to face them, and a mouth like a building sized lamprey opened, twitching black teeth as long and thick as a man's leg leading towards a grinding tongue and beak. Tentacles as thick as a car raised up, extending down the Annex towards warm blooded prey.

Ranma sneered and held up a hand, surging with pale blue ki and layered by ice.

"HOSE IT DOWN, BOYS AND GIRLS!"

* * *

"We have _what_ on board?"

"An Apokaliptian." Tyria all but spat the word.

She was one of the ship's security officers, transferred from Warlord now-turned-Commander Hol's personal retinue. The two were also sleeping together, but that was hardly unusual. It was customary for high officers and their subordinates, male and female, to reinforce the 'bonds of loyalty.' At least among Thanagarians, polygamy and polyandry were still rather common, though the southern tradition of monogamy was becoming more and more popular since it seemed to be aligned with the galactic norm. Regardless, a dalliance among command staff or even professional partners were hardly cause to bat an eye.

Yet, if what Tyria and a select few were hinting at was true...

"Why would one of _them_ be here, much less with the Commander?" Shandra asked as the pair walked by the nearly complete Gravitational Annex. It was being reinforced and rebuilt for increased stress and higher tolerances. There was no telling what they'd run into once they started making dimensional transitions.

"I don't know for sure, but rumor has it that they're helping us with the Kuk's DOD," the other woman said with an angry huff. "I don't like being left in the dark, and I don't like this. Everyone knows not to trust New Gods, whether they're from Apokalips or New Genesis. They're all the same. Backstabbing freaks or double dealing schemers. Dealing with them...? Why not just make an idol to Ixthultu or Razatoth while you're at it?"

"Actually, that would explain some of the progress we're having in getting the drive functional," Shandra mused. "But I'd never imagined our mysterious 'off world consultants' were from there of all places..."

"We'll have to be on the tips of our wings," Tyria said, using an age old Thanagarian phrase. "Commander Hol's been very... worked up lately. We should all do what we can to make sure he's kept safe from corrupting influences. You know how men are. Even great men."

Shandra nodded. "Do you think... you could make introductions?"

"I believe so," Tyria replied with a sly grin. "We must do what we can to keep this ship clean and its purpose pure."

* * *

Fire answered blighted alien flesh.

The massive gaping Maw of Ixthultu howled and spat white and black blood as it writhed under the nonstop barrage. Ranma and the rest advanced from catwalk to catwalk, pressing ever forward. He led from the front, ejecting a spent clip and hammering home a replacement. In the same motion he used to reload, he released a Hiryu Toppa from his elbow, arcing the freezing, slicing horizontal tornado into a massive black tentacle-arm.

Killing winds cut into a multitude of eyeballs dotting the base of the tentacle, ripping them open in streams of frozen clear pus. A sonic blast raked along the length of it, followed by a trio of pink hexxes and then a discharge from the Blighted Cannon Cyborg had purloined. Taking point, Ranma slashed his arm, detaching another tornado - the Hiryu Kanshou (Flying Dragon Intervention) - to shear away at what remained and blow it off to the left.

An explosion tore into the toothy maw of the nightmare, removing enough of it to fill a half dozen bathtubs. A charred black tooth spun through the air, and Ranma ducked his head to the side, letting it fly past. A trio of shots from his NGP rifle punched into the screaming Maw - another giant tentacle came crashing down the moment they landed, undulating as it smashed gantries up above. Scales and muscles along its length flexed, and hundreds of black spines unfolded from where they had previous been flat against the body.

Ranma adjusted his aim but-

_'This isn't...? Oh shit!'_

Except rather than try and wail away and hit someone with the freshly grown spikes, the tentacle positioned itself and flattened, bringing the surface to bear on the advancing squad. Then the spines shot out from their housings, instantly filling the air. Finally, at this, the onward push of the combined squads paused.

"Kijin Raishu Heki!"

(Demon God Assault Barrier)

Ryu was as reliable as ever; the instant he'd detected an area of effect type attack, he'd switched to the defensive techniques of the Reformed Yamasenken. Many, like this one, revolved around using the fists rather than the flattened hand - for someone of Ryu's skill level in the Art, he could alter the consistency and shape of his vacuum blades. A wall of the flattened blades materialized in the air, like a tightly bound net, shredding or breaking apart the black spikes before they got too close. Everyone else had to make due jumping for cover or reading the attack.

"This thing... isn't going to just let us kill it!" Ranma yelled, slipping like a ghost away from a half dozen of the intact black spikes as they punched clean into and through the catwalk he had been on. "Concentrate on taking that tentacle out!"

Already, the aberration was morphing to adapt to the techniques they had used. Heavy plates were growing out from under the flesh to cover areas that had been bombarded and the tentacle that had just shot at them wound together tightly and then separated in a spray of red slime. This time, instead of hundreds of spines, a half dozen appendages emerged, looking almost like the proboscis of a sea snail. Weapons fire cut into the tendril, blowing out chunks of flesh and two of the proboscis like extensions.

Then they fired, but different than before.

Ryu snapped up another unnamed vacuum barrier, but the toothy serrated projectiles punched right through it, and worse, they turned in midair to adjust their aim. Jumping clear off the catwalk, Ranma could see a nerve-like connection between the projectile and the proboscis, a moment before it detached. Whatever the mechanism, it had incredible penetrative power. Luckily, most of them were targeting him specifically, and he was far and away the fastest person present.

Catching a safety rail with his free hand, Ranma suddenly reversed his jump back, spoofed another spine attack, and then flipped himself back and over the edge. Jumping at top speed from one gantry to the next, he made a risky jump - letting one of the spines go past and impale itself into the moving metal of one of the Annex ribs. It served as a last millisecond handhold.

During this time, the tentacle had been targeted by every other member of the group and was a cratered, burning mess. Three more of the proboscis spines tried to fire, but a plasma explosion ripped them free of their mooring points. The now armored Maw of Ixthultu howled, and in an act of pure spite, detached and threw the burning mass of flesh towards them. The tumbling ten or eleven tons of pulsing meat and living metal smashed anything in its path, especially the various catwalks the two teams needed to stand on.

Too late, Ranma saw Cyborg starting to fall, the supports holding his section of the gantry destroyed. He was already speeding towards the location with his fastest Akichi when he saw Reava wind a coil of metallic rope around her left arm and grab Cyborg by the other. With a level of strength even Shampoo would've found impressive, the Fury hung on to the Titan and nimbly swung them down to a lower level.

Adjusting himself to jump one last time off of the collapsing catwalk, Ranma landed next to them.

"Soundwave," he had to remember not to yell anyone's true name. In the heat of the moment, he'd almost forgotten. "I need some suppression fire! There's no way to get close to the body as things are!"

Cyborg looked at him oddly for a second and then smirked as an idea started to take root.

"If you give me a sec I can widen my beam out into a set of decent sized cones. Even at the reduced angular containment, it'll be enough to easily tear up those damn 'fly by wire' nerve-things!" The cybernetic titan immediately lifted his arm and began to tamper with the controls on his free arm, carefully balancing the massive cannon on his other shoulder as he did. "I'm gonna need a few seconds, though!"

"Heggra's cunt!" Reava hissed, ripping one of the expended teeth free from where it had punched clean into a metal beam. "What in Urgrund is it doing now!"

Per the Fury's frantic observation, there was something strange happening under the armored maw. It had pulled back its smaller tentacles to a defensive arrangement, and a smaller mouth was extending from the main one. This one looked more solid, but still broken into four toothy quarters. Something hot glowed inside it and Ranma's armor blared a warning about atmospheric pressure and composition changes.

A half second later, a massive beam of light escaped from the twin jaws. It cut like a knife across the middle of the chamber and upwards, lasting a full second or so. Anything it touched melted away. Where it hit the walls and ribs of the Annex, it cut clean through, and by the time it receded, there was a long, molten scar that cut diagonally through the ship. Other bulkheads and sections could be seen through the hole punched in the ship, and they, too, had been cut through and melted like wax at the tip of a red-hot knife.

"Some kinda chemical laser!" Cyborg yelled, still making the adjustments to his cannon arm. "Hydrogen Fluoride, maybe! Or Oxygen Iodine? I'm just about done!"

"It shoots lasers now, too? Wonderful. My suit's detecting toxic levels of fluorine gas in the air!" Ranma barked, and started running forward. "Dragon, you're with me. Clear the air! Sea-Mountain combo! The rest of you put down suppressive fire!"

"You're gonna use that, huh?" Ryu asked with a laugh. "Awesome! In that case, I'll go crazy too!"

Vaulting over an upturned section of catwalk, Ranma felt his smirk widen. The Umisenken was meant to be used against creatures with two eyes and a predictable range of vision, not this freakish monster. The invisibility effect would be dubious as a result, but that wasn't what he was counting on anyway. Ice was already collecting on his arms in prelude to his _Hiryu Hyou Töppa_, all courtesy of his re-mastered _Toppatsu Higi Hyöga Reppö Soku_ (Instant Secret Art - Glacier Storm Breath).

Now, to take it a step further.

Ryouga had his Zangansen (Stone Cutting Flash) and Satsugai Tenketsu (Killing Point), but pig-boy wasn't the only one refining and perfecting his techniques. Even with killing techniques, a class of moves Ranma found he had little taste for, the martial arts arms race continued. Plus, against Cologne, all their normal moves had proven useless in the face of her overwhelming skill and power. A one-shot murder technique was the only possible chance either of them had to win: counting on a split second opportunity that would never be repeated more than once per fight. Which meant it was time to show off his own instant-killing combo.

Standing still for a full second felt like exposing himself for an eternity. He concentrated, building up more and more ice around his _legs_ in addition to his arms. Normally, he'd vanish into the Umisenken to do this, but that wasn't going to work perfectly here. For a full second or two, he would be vulnerable.

Another chemical laser began to charge up within the Maw of Ixthultu, preceded by a blast of poisonous gasses that scalded and burned the moisture form the air. More threateningly at range, two of the remaining large 'master tentacles' were rising up and preparing to fire a new volley of guided tooth-spikes. Ranma's _sakkijutsu_ was already screaming for him to go evasive or find some sort of cover. He ignored it, putting his faith in his team.

Starfire kept at range and opened up at full auto, blanketing the area on and around the Maw of Ixthultu. Even before the bolts started to hit home, the creature adjusted its aim to the apparently greater threat at range. Ranma saw, in the half second left to wait, the proboscis-like tendrils loaded with black toothy spears sway and adjust their aim.

It was as he started to move that he saw the two at mid range take action. Jinx had, at last count, the remainder of their collective plasma rifle ammunition. 'Snap shots only' he'd told her. 'Conserve ammo.' She was doing this now, taking aim as best she could at the man-sized targets sticking out from the flat worm-like tentacles. Luckily, she didn't need to do more than aim for the base of the fleshy mass itself. The plasma bolt that contacted would explode like a rocket propelled grenade, eviscerating anything within two or three meters.

"Kijin Tanketsu Sho!"

(Demon God Deep Hole Blow!)

That was the signal.

Ryu's Yamasenken combo raced past Ranma as he moved, jumping like chain lightning from one broken catwalk to another. It was superficially similar to his other vacuum blade attacks, but as they closed in on their target, the crescent shaped blades aligned, one behind the other, instead of spreading out. It wasn't the kind of technique to use against a super mobile enemy, but against a single, stationary, hard target?

The first blade hit like a crack of thunder, carving a trench in the defensive tentacle that had been presenting the now shell and barnacle crusted flat of itself to them. The strike would have been essentially harmless and ineffective in and of itself, but another vacuum blade them struck the exact same spot, a quarter second behind its forebear. The ragged cut widened and deepened, and then the third and forth struck, biting deeper and deeper into the bus-sized tentacle. Ultimately, it slashed fully half way through, and a torrent of black ink-like slime rushed out of the wound.

Crippled, it wasn't nearly fast enough.

Tooth-spears fired, but Cyborg's wide area blast reciprocated, frying the nerve-cables that connected and guided the projectiles in mid air. Unguided, they were much easier to read, and if their trajectory could be read, then they could be dodged. Ranma twisted, moving his shoulder out of the way as one of the two meter long teeth passed by, narrowly missing impaling him from neck to hip.

"Hiryu Henkei," he whispered, now seeing the path available.

(Flying Dragon Metamorphosis)

The tornados around his arms and legs surged, rocketing him through the air. Two smaller tentacles tried to snare him, curving around him like a pair of waves... but he blasted right through, landed hard against the larger crippled tentacle, and blasted off again, leaving a ragged spiral crater behind.

_'Two steps!'_

Holding out his right hand, Ranma released the tornado around it forward, stopping his forward momentum. There were no more handholds or footholds. There was nothing to jump off of or move against, yet here was the difference between his Henkei and Ryouga's Zangansen. The lost boy needed a solid surface to blast off of. As long as Ranma had air to manipulate, be could _make his own surfaces_.

_'One step!'_

Orienting his left arm, elbow back, he released the tornado backwards.

The personal hurricane shot him forward in response. The back of the creature was now visible and completely exposed and vulnerable. There were no tentacles here. No spines. No shell-like growths. It had clearly never expected to have to defend itself from any other angle.

_'You made a stupid mistake! Your weak spot...! The enemy will always try and strike there first!' _Ranma cupped his hands as he closed in for the killing strike, a building sized wall of flesh filling his vision._ 'I'd say learn from your mistake, but we won't give you the chance!'_

There! He was in range!

_'Dokuja Toshin Shou!' _

(Poisonous Serpent Spitting True Palm)

His hands moved and strike at Amaguriken speeds, glowing a furious icy blue. The creature's hide was soft here... almost too soft. It didn't impact his use of the True Palm, since his arms were sheathed in sharpened wedges of ki, but then his feet hit the surface.

And stuck.

_'W-what the...!'_

Pulling back, the Saotome heir tried to jump away. All around him, the Maw of Ixthultu began to heave and bubble from the ki attacks injected directly into it. Once under the skin, it was all but impossible to 'harden' the internal organs against an invasive ki attack, emotive or otherwise. Ranma had left no less than forty _moko takabisha_ level ki attacks primed and ready to explode within his target, and half that many set to 'burn' and spread throughout the mass of the titanic aberration.

And now he was stuck to its surface!

_'This is... like glue!'_ Ranma thought, frantic. _'I can't jump free! In three fourths of a second, my ki attacks will go off. I can't stay here!'_

At most, he had a forth of a second to consider his options.

_'I used the Hiryu Henki around my legs already... and I directed all my emotive ki into my arms. I don't have the time to use a Moko Takabisha with my feet. There's nothing to grab onto. In half a second, what can I do? What the Hell can I do?'_

His body and instinct acted even before it thought of it.

_'Happo Dai Karin!'_

(Happy's Big Fire Bomb)

It didn't even take shape in front of him. There was no time. All he did was wildly call up the explosive energy and let it loose. Despite being given the appearance - and often, the impression - of firecrackers, the scaleable output of a _Happo Dai Karin_ could be devastating up close. Just one blast would blow him free, but...

Ranma blacked out.

One wouldn't blast him free, even in a half second, but it would without a doubt disorient and cause him to black out. One wouldn't do. Two. It had to be two! The other had to be forming to the point where, even unconscious, he could complete it. It also had to be timed and oriented perfectly to both the first explosion and the inertia of his body. Even blind and limp, it had to go off as he fell, face first, towards the lethal conflagration below.

The second blast forced his eyes open.

_'I'm... moving away... from the floor?'_ Ranma smirked inwardly._ 'Damn I'm good. Bought myself at least two and a half more seconds. That's... about all I can do...'_

On the verge of passing out again, Ranma saw a hand reach out - an armored hand!

"Gotcha, Saotome!" Ryu said, keeping his voice suspiciously low. "You owe me one."

_'Heh!'_

"I guess I do," Ranma conceded. Ryu literally skidded to a stop in the air, the gravity drive built into his MARS armor leveling them out. Ranma pulled himself up to balance with one foot on top of the Ryu's armored boot. His handwork had paid off.

The Maw of Ixthultu was a writhing, squirming mass of burning meat. Explosions had torn out its backside along a tennis court sized expanse and from the mangled remains of its front, it was being bombarded. Blown apart on both sides, and burning from within, it was unable to concentrate its defenses or start to properly adapt. One tentacle tried to form into a chitinous shield, but green fire and white sound hammered into the base, ripping off the limb.

Losing mass at a rapid rate, it rolled back and around, momentarily facing Ryu and Ranma. The toothy maw looked like it had been punched by the spiked fist of god. A hole ripped clean through part of it before their eyes, spilling out strange shaped organs and tissues, some still aflame with blue fire. Still slowly spinning in its death throes, it vomited up a mass of man-sized chunks immersed in a red and white mucus. Mixed in, bits of once humanoid bone and metal fell from the mangled jaws.

And then the whole thing ripped free from the ceiling, falling down to the warped floor.

The dismembered Maw hit with a wet splash, a third of it vaporizing or warping into the ground below on contact. The rest lit up with a hazy white bonfire, continuing to thrash even as it became mercurial tinder. What remained of the bulb-like connection it had with the smashed Annex ceiling spasmed harmlessly, discharging a few more spurts of white and red sludge before finally running dry.

"Ho-ah!" Ryu breathed in relief, half chuckling at the kill. "That's one tango I'm glad we don't have to bag and tag."

"No kidding." Ranma commented, and looked up at the hole in the ceiling, then down to the other end of the Grav-Annex. "We're almost there. If it gets worse than this, I'll owe ya a drink."

* * *

Shandra took her friend's hand and heaved a sigh as the stronger woman pulled her back up onto her feet. Tyria was clearly a warrior, and unsurprisingly, she easily won every time they sparred. It was a good thing the stalwart bodyguard was on her side; Tyria Hun would've been an implacable enemy. It was a fact that that a certain Apokaliptian bitch was learning first-hand, not that Reava deigned to fight with a "mere Thanagarian" despite the goading.

"Speak of the Old God," Shandra commented, wiping her forehead with a towel. Pointing, she gestured past her friend to the source of their common dislike.

"What are those things with her?" Tyria asked with disgust. "They aren't what I think they are...?"

"Let's go find out."

Shandra snapped her fingers and a Lizarkon wash-slave approached with a bowl of water and clean cloths. The reptilian humanoid bowed its head and presented the offerings. The Thanagarian women gave the creature only a passing thought: both quickly washed their faces and exchanged used towels for fresh linens. Despite Tyria easily manhandling her scholarly partner, the last hour had seen been quite tiring. Shandra would be the first to admit that combat wasn't her forte, no matter how vaunted the Thanagarian warrior-culture valued martial prowess. Teaching someone of her skill level was exhausting in different ways.

Dismissing the slave, they walked over to where Kreiger and Reava seemed to be having a little spat. The woman inclined her head, eyes darting to the side at the approach of one of her chamber mates. Shandra had only met the furious woman a few times, but already had a deep dislike of her. The fact that she was close to Tyria had cemented the mutual dislike, just by association.

Kreiger Hol gave them a quick look, too, focusing mostly on Tyria. The woman was one of his consorts, after all, and head of his personal security detail. Still, Shandra felt his eyes on her, albeit briefly, and she quickly averted her own blue eyes in response.

Kreiger was an attractive man, even in middle age. He was square jawed and built to the high standards of Thanagarian eugenics, with well muscles arms and a smooth, powerful chest. As a younger male in pictures, she had seen him sporting a full head of pitch black dreadlocks. Those were tinted by age now, with streaks of dignified grey, and a bit thicker on the sides than on the top, but he was a fine specimen. There was also the fact that he was a superior officer and renowned for his strength and bravery - all three were traits Thanagarian women found appealing, and probably always would.

Reava, in contrast, was an alien snake who shouldn't even have been allowed to set foot on Great Thanagar. Especially given the past experiences Thanagarians had with so called gods, Old or New.

"Tyria," he said in a measured, deep timbre. "I thought you might be here. Do you see these worthless maggots?"

He gestured towards the misshapen creatures Reava had brought with her. There were a dozen present, and each wore a gold harness across the chest with small protruding wings - almost a sad imitation of the majestic ones all Thanagarians had (well, most, anyway). Beneath that was some sort of green jumpsuit or light armor. Golden gauntlets and boots up to the knee presented a garish contrast in colors. The haggard and misshapen looking humanoids were all bowed on one knee, their heads mostly lowered. Only a few looked up from beneath their gold and green masks.

"Parademons," Tyria spat. "What are they doing here?"

"They are gifts from Lord Darkseid," Reava explained, patting one of the creatures on the head. "To better protect his investment and as a show of respect and friendship between our peoples."

Tyria snorted balefully at that. "Oh, really?"

"Think what you will," Reava replied with a dismissive sneer. "But remember that Thanagar alone could not have come this far. Without our assistance, where would this project be?"

"We appreciate that, Reava," Kreiger interjected, holding out his hand between the two women. "But what we need from Apokalips has already been sent. These... things are worthless. I wouldn't use them to guard a latrine, much less play a part in so ambitious a venture as this."

"You have yet to see them in combat," Reava argued. "True, they would be no match for myself, or you, but few are... and they are as loyal and subservient as any soldier you could wish for."

"I have no interest in mindless creatures," he replied, but shook his head. "Yet I see you will not just let this go. I will indulge you then, my dear." He turned to look around the room, and then back at Tyria and Shandra. "You," he decided, pointing at the latter. "You are Shandra, are you not? From one of our Sciences departments?"

"Chief Technical Rector Mal, from the DRD, sir," she answered, bowing her head.

"Yes, now I remember. We met once before, and Tyria has spoken of you," he recalled, nodding to himself. "Are you a fighter, Mal?"

"No, sir."

"Have you had basic self defense training, Rector?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Then for the next millicycle or two, you will play the part of a warrior." He plucked a mace from one of the gymnasium slaves and tossed it to her. Shandra caught it, but with surprise clearly written on her features.

"Sir, I... ?"

"You," he then said, pointing at the closest parademon. "If you can take that weapon from that woman, then I will reward you. Fail, and I'll have you killed."

"But, sir, w- !" Shandra's objection was interrupted, rather rudely in fact, as the parademon leapt at her with a savage swipe of its claws. A last second parry with the hilt of the flanged mace deflected the attack, and, momentarily surprised and panicked, the Thanagarian scientist yelped and backed away, almost tripping on her own bare feet.

"Oh-hoho! See how she almost falls?" Reava chortled from the sidelines. "Why her of all people here, Kreiger? She's barely even sport?"

Rather than reply, the Commander merely crossed his arms and watched.

Shandra, meanwhile, had her hands full. Swinging the mace wildly to try and ward away the frosting-at-the-mouth parademon, she tried to steal a moment to look back and make sure no one else was around. Or better yet: if anyone nearby would help. To her dismay, everyone else had stopped in their sparring and exercising to watch the fight - a fight clearly ordained and sanctioned by Kreiger himself, no matter how unfair or one-sided. Thinking about it, she had to admit to herself that if she had been in their shoes, she shamefully would've just stood by and watched, too.

The parademon snarled - an inarticulate, animalistic sound - and just kept at her, swiping wildly to try and snatch either the body of the mace or maul her enough that she would give it up. One of the attacks managed to hit her bare forearm, and the technical priest winced and nearly cried at the sudden lance of pain. There were four rather nasty looking cuts on her where before the skin had been unmarred and well oiled.

_'No one's... going to help me...!'_

Another mad swipe nearly hit her shoulder, and she jumped to the side and rolled, frantically looking for some route out. Or some way to escape this situation.

_'I'm not a warrior! Why do I have to fight like this?'_

"This is pathetic, Kreiger!" Reava gleefully observed. "My parademon is merely toying with her!"

"Perhaps," the man admitted. "But its performance thus far has been no more impressive than hers."

Insulted by that, the Apokaliptian woman glared at the two fighters. "That is true. Parademon! Do as you were commanded! Take that weapon this instant!"

"Rrr-rr." Dull thoughts congealed in the creature's hooded eyes, and then it roared, bearing a mouth full of sharpened teeth. "RAWR! RA! RAA!"

With a spray of spittle, it charged right at its victim.

"Shandra!" Tyria called out. "Don't just stand there!"

"I don't- !" Again, her sentence cut off, as the parademon reached for her, missing, and settled for grabbing one of her wings. Fingers clamped down on the vulnerable extension of her body, and Shandra felt a flare of panic mix with a sudden, hot wave of desperation. The creature had already slashed at her arm. If it was holding back, it wasn't by much. If he broke her wing...!

"LET GO!" A sudden swing hit the parademon by the arm, hitting the gauntlet and forcing it to release her. It was only a glancing strike, though, and it roared again in response. Dull, black and white eyes, colorless and malignant like the eyes of a doll, focused on her.

And she could guess what it would do.

Predictably, it tried to swipe at her again with its claws, using the other hand. It wouldn't fall back. It wouldn't think up some new way to get at her. It would just go right at her, over and over again, no matter what. Flapping her wings forward, Shandra nimbly moved back a step and a half, tucking in her stomach to avoid the claws. The parademon realized it would miss a moment before it did.

In that moment, Shandra brought the mace back to her right and hit it on the side of the face. The demon from Apokalips spat blood and teeth, staggered, and spun around a hundred and eighty degrees. It didn't take a single step back. Even after being belted across the face and nearly killed, it lunged right for her again. The pain - it seemed completely alien to the alien. It would do as it was told until it died.

Unfortunately for it, while it was spinning around, exposing its back to her, Shandra was already bringing the head of the mace around, her arm making a quick windmill. Before it could land a blow, the mace took it by the gut, burying in and breaking ribs. The paradmon hunched over from the impact, but still reached up to try and claw at her. Shandra caught the arm by the wrist with her left hand, and screaming for her life, pulled the mace back and around, slamming it clumsily into the side of the creature's head, just above the ear.

It fell to the ground, spitting up blood.

Breathing heavily, chest heaving, Shandra backed away, holding the weapon ahead of her. She'd reacted literally on instinct. Only now was she finally starting to realize what had happened in the last few seconds.

_'Did... did I do that...?'_

The parademon gurgled and snarled, trying to get back up.

Kreiger's foot caught it by the neck, twisted, and snapped. The beast of a warrior went limp, falling face first into a puddle of pooling crimson. Shandra's eyes were still stapled to the dead creature, almost expecting it to still get up and try and attack her. Only when she heard Reava's frustrated hiss did she dare look up.

"That... doesn't prove anything," the woman began.

"It proves everything," Kreiger cut her off. "Your parademons are tenacious, but mindless. There were a hundred ways they could have approached this, and every time it went right at her. The moment she remembered that she had to fight, that she could fight... then it was doomed to fail. The Chief technical Rector here has had only the most basic training."

Reava looked about to object, and he held up his hand for her to be silent.

"I would prefer a single subordinate who is weak, but who has courage in a pinch, than a hundred mindless brutes who can't even understand what that word means," he said, and that was the end of it. "You may keep four of them as personal attendants, Reava. Send the rest back or I will have them disposed of."

The woman barely controlled her rage at the humiliation.

"I see," she said, relenting. Bowing her head, she growled at the parademons still kneeling. "Come, you dogs! We will decide who gets to live elsewhere."

The dozen grunting, abused brutes followed her out, eyeing their comrades like pieces of meat. The sight of them gave Shandra a momentarily chill, and she looked briefly down at the one she had just beaten. It was still dead. Parademons - she had heard about the Dogs of Apokalips: dregs that had been broken and mind-washed to be ruthless and slavish soldiers for their betters. Slavery was hardly an Apokaliptian invention, but even the lowliest slave on Thanagar could expect better treatment.

"I must apologize for putting you in such a position," Kreiger's words snapped her out of her trance.

"W-what?" she asked, and saw him standing on front of her. He placed a hand on her shoulder, and she saw Tyria standing to her side, one hand on the bloody mace.

"Oh. Um. Yes." Shandra let it go, and her friend took the weapon away to hand to an attendant.

"You did well. Reava can be most persistent when it comes to these things," he explained, and personally took some sanitary cloth and wrapped it around her arm. She looked up at him and blushed at the contact. She had never been so close to him before.

He smiled. "I saw you sparring with Tyria before. I thought you could handle yourself, Chief Rector Mal."

"Um. Please... call me Shandra."

"Shandra then," he said, standing back. "You've impressed me. Would you like to see something? Tyria, you can come as well."

The technical-priest blinked, confused. "See what?"

...

The walls themselves parted as a circular aperture opened, unlocking and rolling into two halves that retreated into the ceiling and floor. Beyond lay a massive circular chamber, the walls rising straight up for about twice the height of a man before arching into a dome. In the very center of the room, rising from the floor to the apex of the domed ceiling, was a black cylinder still surrounded by scaffolding. Construction and monitoring equipment were strewn around the device, along with more than a dozen busily working technicians.

"Ah!" Shandra gasped, quickly realizing where they were. "This is...! The Dimensional Oracle Device!"

"That's right." Kreiger chuckled at her excitement. "Built into the heart and soul of the ship. The Oracle requires vast amounts of Nth Metal to protect the ship when we start making jumps, so we've hooked it up into the Living Metal Forge."

"I've seen the calculations, of course... and we've been programming it, but..." She stared in awe at the chamber. "But I sort of never expected to see it. They say it can't be reproduced."

"They're right," Kreiger confirmed. Tyria stood to Shandra's left, looking around with pride.

"Do you remember the Borus Accident a few years ago?" he asked, and she shook her head. He smiled at her apparent naiveté. "It was a research station where we were studying how to build a Hyperspace Bypass. A sort of transportation hub. There was an accident... the relay destroyed the planet it was on."

She didn't remember that - but then it was probably kept a secret, and she hadn't been cleared for military secrets until very recently. He continued:

"When we entered the system to investigate what had happened, we found the Green Lanterns already there. They'd never sent a serious expedition into our area of space before, but there they were. I was there," he added, and stared off into the distance for a moment. "I remember... some of them using purple energy, not just the green we all know about. They had also destroyed another ship. A ship from Apokalips, we learned later."

"They were all trespassing in our space, and when reinforcements came in, we discovered a piece of what they were all after. It was a creature of some sort... drawn to the accident that destroyed the planet. Or was it created by the accident, or did it cause it? It took years to begin to unravel its secrets, and years more to work out the deal with Apokalips that you know of. All for this. All to create this. The Dimensional Oracle Device."

"The bridge to other existences," Shandra said, and looked around the dome. "But... what's all that writing?"

The walls and the dome were covered by lines of digital light, glowing over arcane looking glyphs and words written in the Old Script. She could only read some of it. It would take a Reader of Secrets to fully interpret the ancient tongue: it was both incredibly complex and incredibly organized, but in ways only the initiated could understand.

It was a language that had been taught to their race by the _Old Ones_.

"They are wards," her Commander told her, also looking up at them. "Prayers. This isn't just a ship to take us to other dimensions... to other worlds... for conquest. We do expect to return home with something valuable, but it won't just be mundane things like technology, or slaves, or plundered valuables."

Tyria laughed at this, her hands on her hips.

"So," Shandra asked, a little confused now. "What are we doing all this for then?"

"This ship," Kreiger replied reaching up his hands to the domed roof and its prayers. "The Oracle itself... it is a reflection of our hearts and souls, Shandra. We, who were raised by Old Gods, and who cast them out and rejected them. Why do we exist? Why have we suffered as we have? What is our destiny, as a race? Through the Oracle, we finally have a way to find the answers. It will show us how to open the akashic record - the 'universal supercomputer' that some believe guides all things in the multiverse. Others call this the Great Source or the One Above All."

He faced her, triumphant and excited.

She never even noticed another friend of hers, watching them from afar.

"We, Shandra, _we_ will oversee it," Kreiger Hol declared. "From here, we shall conquer something greater than worlds! We will conquer Fate Itself!"

* * *

_'...Fate Itself,'_ Ranma thought, filing the memories away. _'Is that really something you thought you could conquer? I've always thought we made our own fate. That there was no pre-destination. Never, for one moment in my life, have I doubted that I had control over everything I did. Good or bad. Right or wrong.'_

The walls shifted around them, unlocking in a choreograph of seamless engineering. Sections retracted into other sections, folding up and moving away, leaving the final door exposed. Holding up the Sacristan's head, some hidden mechanism scanned it and the door recessed and divided in half. Circular locks turned, and the halves rolled away before rising up and dropping down.

"This is the place where it all began," the blighted head of the Sacristan gargled. "Where it all shall end."

"We're here," Ranma agreed, lowering his arm and stepping forward.

* * *

Pathfinder

"I... have begun to see..."

Ukyou stood with her back to the Guardian, one hand forward: her ring projecting a privacy screen around them and this section of the hold. To any would-be interlopers, it would appear as a seamless green wall. That was only part of it, however. She had also integrated the barrier across the surface of the walls, the ceilings and the floor. Trespasser-sama had requested absolute privacy, and she was committed to carrying out his orders to the best of her ability. Pathfinder had many security and intrusion devices after all.

She also carefully kept the outer layer green while leaving the inner surface the natural, dark purple. Ever since returning from Heresiarch, it had been easier and easier to use the 'inner' lantern she had been gifted, rather than just the 'outer' lantern rings.

Trespasser had impressed on her that the green colored willpower rings were recognizable and iconic, and her use of the color would ally suspicion. Purple, however, would draw immediate inquiries. He was not interested in wasting time explaining it to outsiders, and she was a solider. It was her duty to obey. To obey. In all things.

Inexplicably, the Oan started to laugh. "So this is...? The question leads to more questions. Heresiarch, is this what you learned? Is this why you left? Is this why you fled? This is definitely it."

"May I ask what you have found, Trespasser-sama?"

Her back to him, she wondered for a moment if he had even heard her.

"I have found the Forbidden Hand of God. The first few words of the Lie that, if spoken, Extinguishes Hope and Life." The esteemed Guardian gave another low laugh. " With just this, I could prove to Foundation that everything... our world... our lives... our existence... our universe... all a Lie. All a Lie. Yet if you were to turn around now, Lantern, and see what I have seen... your sanity would be shattered like glass."

Ukyou inclined her head at that, but didn't dare to actually turn around and tempt Fate.

"This is what you were looking for, isn't it?" she asked, genuinely wondering why he didn't sound... well, happier with his discovery. "Besides that, is it truly safe for you to be so exposed to it, Trespasser-sama?"

"No Lantern. I have nothing to fear." Behind her, Trespasser grew silent and contemplative. "Truth. No Truth. Teacher. Krona. What would you have me do? Embrace the Lie that is Truth or...?"

There was a long, painful pause.

"Or... perhaps... that?" Trespasser's voice began just a whisper. "Yes. I am no Oan. I am Malthusian! And if the Universal Truth is malleable, then I shall bend it... until it breaks..."

* * *

"This is the place where it all began," the blighted head of the Sacristan gargled. "Where it all shall end."

"We're here," Ranma agreed, lowering his arm and stepping forward.

The central chamber was much as Shandra Mal remembered it. Gone were the construction scaffolds and half complete Oracle Device. The domed ceiling all but glowed like the night sky with hieroglyphs and incantations and prayers, dyed in a soft neon hue. It was a majestic and overwhelming sight: a crowning achievement of the Thanagarian race, more singularly impressive than the effort put into the rest of the battle cruiser combined.

The sigils even ran in neat geometric rows and designs along the floor. A chorus of black pillars capped by smooth rounded domes of their own rose and fell in a rhythmic pulse all around the chamber, moving like the expanding and contracting of one's chest as they breathed. It was the heartbeat of the ship. It was the arterial blood of the Oracle. The metaphor was even more appropriate, as the beating black cylinders were cracked in some places, hemorrhaging a quicksilver-like fluid, droplet by droplet. Taken together, it left expanding pools of the stuff around the pulsing structures.

In the center of it all lay the Device, encased in a sheath of protective black and covered in sacred wards and verses: not just the digitally embossed inscriptions either. Reams of thick, gnarled paper - like papyrus - were stuck to the surface by stamped wax seals. This structure was immobile and moved not an inch. Instead, it gave the impression of the universe moving about it.

"This is it," Reava gasped, starting to move ahead. "The Oracle Device. The true form of Ixthultu will have manifested itself... and hidden itself... somewhere in here."

"The bodies," Ranma said, and held up a hand to keep the woman back. There were bodies, nude Thanagarian corpses, left scattered around the chamber. They resembled nothing less than men and women sleeping. There were no bloodstains, no signs of violence...

"Soundwave," Ryu said, stepping up to shield the rest of the group with his armored bulk. "Scan the area. Anything stick out?"

"Nothing," Cyborg replied, tracking his gaze back and forth across the chamber. "But there's... weird readings. Interference. I can't pin it down exactly."

"These are the ones you mentioned?" Starfire asked, directing it at Reava despite her dislike. "All these bodies are stripped bare."

"These were his elite guard, yes," the Fury replied, eyes searching the chamber.

"I think I get it," Cyborg speculated, walking with the group as they carefully inched forward. "Yeah. That has to be it! There's no Nth Metal on them! Not even the tiniest scrap. They must've gotten rid of it to keep from getting infected...?"

"Yeah, whatever," Jinx groused, rubbing her palm against her visor in a fairly useless gesture. "You seen one stripped naked bird person, you've seen them all. I don't know what it is, but something in this room is giving me a wicked headache."

Moving forward to one of the corpses, she dug the toe of her boot in and flipped the dead man onto his back, his arms, legs and torso painted in strange blue runes. There were no marks of a struggle. No signs of damage. Nothing to indicate cause of death.

He looked to have just... keeled over.

"Maybe it's that silver gunk?" she asked, pointing to a nearby corpse half in and half out of one of the puddles. "Mercury is supposed to mess with your head, right?

"That's not mercury, that's pure Nth Metal," Ranma explained, passing by her. "Probably the only uncorrupted stuff in here. Once we've secured the area, we'll collect what we need. There's just... one thing..."

He passed the other bodies, left in apparently peaceful repose. There was one that stood out. One that was eerily familiar. Set among the wax parchments and neon inscriptions that adorned the Oracle, a single body hung limp and exposed. Unlike all the others, this one had a comparatively obvious cause of death.

This one had been impaled.

To be exact: it had been impaled into the Oracle Device itself. Near his feet a jumble of makeshift equipment lay in ruins. Emerging from the chest was a single, roughly-made pole or spear, little more than a slender spike with no discernable handle or hand-hold or grip. It had to be him. The head full of black and gray dreadlocks was unmistakable. This was Kreiger Hol. This was who they had come to kill.

"So, he was dead?" Reava asked from not far away. "He came here to die? I don't... understand..."

"**You... never did...**" A voice replied, and the dead man's head turned upwards. "**Understand us.**"

As one, the five assault team members raised weapons. Starbolts charged, NGP rifle and sidearm found their target within red dot reticules, Sonic cannon transformed, and the butt of a plasma rifle found a slim, armored shoulder. Kreiger's head lolled weakly, the rest of the body seemingly unable to move.

"**You... should not have come...**" Kreiger groaned and painfully looked up through his thick locks of hair. "**You are... corrupt.** _Corrupted_. You _glow_ with the Blood of Ixthultu. I am **His Vessel. Prison.** I am His Eye... and..."

The silence of the chamber suddenly split into a litany of screaming, chanting voices.

_"__**I SEE YOU.**__"_

A pulse of black light erupted from the center of the room, blasting past and into and through the six assembled warriors, even as they opened fire. Charged pulses of plasma and anti-matter, high-explosive-incendiary gauss gyrojets, blazing starbolts, beams of sonic fury... all crashed into a sickly yellow barrier that circled the Oracle Device and the body impaled upon it. None penetrated. Behind the shield, an eye that had been forced shut opened - a white and yellow eye with three diseased pupils, oozing still-red blood.

Caught in its gaze, Ranma and Ryu flinched in mid-movement. The surface of their armor, stained by the blood spilled across the length and depth of the corrupted Thanagarian battlecruiser, began to bubble and boil. It was the stains themselves, the blood and ichor from their boots to their helmets, that began to squirm and cook. The men inside roared in anger and pain, frozen in place-

And then the first spike erupted from Ryu's shoulder armor. A worm-like tendril unwound from the sudden growth, wrapping clingingly around the arm wherever it could find purpose. The spilled and congealed blood thickened and grew, coming back to life. Like a creeper it spread everywhere, and even unable to send penetrative roots into the alien alloy beneath it, it nonetheless found nooks and crannies in which to find purchase.

"Aw, shhhhiiitt!" Ryu managed to scream, reaching up to tear a tentacle off the shoulder of his own MARS armor. "SHIT! Shit! Shit!"

_"Take what you love. What is precious to you. Destroy it. Rape it. Ruin it. Where is your Soul? Forsake it. Cast it aside. Your Hopes. Abandon them. Curse them! Reject them! Embrace me!"_

Cyborg gave a strangled cry as something snaked around his throat, the sleeping cannon he had taken before suddenly springing back to life. Thick coils of living matter were already wrapping around his arm, inducing some sort of chemical and electrical paralysis. Turning to try and see the thing, even as he reacted to rip it off his body, he could see the one eye staring mindlessly at him as the mouth growing from the side of it gibbered and laughed, trying to replace his right arm with itself.

_"The End of what you Are has Come. There is only The Nightmare of Creation! The horror of Rebirth!"_

As Ryu and Ranma turned around, their helmets were completely subsumed. In place of the smooth metal, tinted though it often was, there was only a fleshy cap studded by bead-like black eyes, five in a row. White and yellow teeth were already growing from the pulsing mounds of flesh, and a jet of steam breath gusted from the half formed maws.

_"The trappings of sanity; the pretension of existence, these have no place here! What is your Life but a festering mold that grows on discarded bread? You ARE NOTHING! YOU ARE ROT. I am Flesh. I am Flesh. I AM FLESH!"_

"NO! NO!" Kreiger howled, managing to reach a hand up to the eye. "NO MORE! I am... YOUR MASTER!"

_"You are weak. You are ALL WEAK. ... __**Kill Yourselves**__."_

With a bestial roar, the former Ryu and Ranma took off. While corrupted, their speed and techniques were clearly intact within - both used their personal brand of linear step. A tentacle covered hand caught Jinx by the throat before she could move, much less take a shot. Her head swam and then the room spun as she spun around, thrown to the ground. Standing above her, Ranma's corrupted form was at war with itself again, one hand trying to tear off the other. She rolled away as a boot stomped down, narrowly missing her chest with crushing force.

Looking up, Jinx leveled a heated glare up at the Lieutenant.

"Oh, it's on now, Lady Fingers!"

...

Cyborg staggered as an armored hand slammed into his chest. The fingers were alien alloy, but flattened into a Yamasenken blow, the Dokuja Tanketsu Sho. It was an attack fully capable, when used by a human on a human, of ripping out a heart or tearing free a rib; luckily for him, he had neither. Tendrils squirmed like fat grubs, wriggling wildly around the dent formed into the heavy appliqué amour plates covering his existing frame.

The fact that Ryu was able to even mark the alien alloy armor at all pointed to the fact that something wildly unnatural was happening, and Cyborg's eye shot wide open with shock. Together with the still present abomination at work on his right arm, he felt his human, organic mind begin to swim. The chanting growing louder and louder and louder like an insane orchestra. He began to stagger backwards, unable to even raise a proper defense as the maddened Yamasenken master prepared to strike again-

"KA!" "GO!"

A pair of speeding forms tackled the now blighted powered armor encasing Ryu. Starfire and Reava had both moved, independently of the other, and reached the enemy at the same time. One struck high, the other low. Ryu's feet left the ground, momentarily, but then hammered back down, bracing the entire armored form in place. The head thrashed in a pained, tortured growl, but the encrusted arms moved of their own accord, spade-shaped hands flattened and aiming to impale.

...

Moving quickly, the Starfire planted a foot to the Apokoliptian's back and launched her, flying wildly through the air, out of the way of the downward slashing attack. As much as she despised the evil warrior, she could not abide the thought of the woman being harmed while she still believed herself to be their ally. Her response of kicking the woman out of harm's way had been a rash one, but removing her from combat entirely seemed like the only way that Starfire could keep the woman out of danger.

Keeping herself out of harm's way, however, was another matter entirely. Rather than fall back from the upward arcing attack, aimed to separate her head from her neck, Starfire lunged into it aggressively. Her hand slapped down around his forearm, below the deadly blade formed by his hand, and her grip tightened like a vice. Her eyes widened and then squinted at the amount of strength he was able to bring to bear, even beyond what the MARS powered armor should have augmented him, but it was still not enough to press his attack.

Not giving him a chance to respond, she spun tightly in place, tearing the heavily armored warrior from his feet completely, and hurled him bodily through the air, aiming directly for the conflicted Saotome's back. Not distracted enough, though, as the blighted and corrupted Ranma leapt up and over the humanoid missile with ease. Ineffective as it had been, though, it did buy her precious seconds. Spinning around, she flew to Cyborg's side, gasping at the sight of the weaponized abomination which was apparently trying to devour his arm whole-cloth. Not wasting the second it would take to ask his condition, she grabbed his shoulder with one hand, and kicked her legs up to plant her feet firmly on the oversized energy weapon that had, until moments ago, been a boon to her friend. Writhing tentacles and a gibbering maw attacked her armored boots, but were unable to find purchase quickly enough.

With a mighty grunt of exertion, Starfire straightened out her body, uncoiling like a living spring. A horrendous sound, part squeal of agony, part shredding flesh and splintering bone sundered the air as she used all of her strength to tear the two meter long cannon from Cyborg's arm and send it bouncing and skidding across the room. With a sigh of relief, she turned to her friend.

"Cyborg! Are you-"

Her concerned inquiry was cut off by a startled gasp as an armored hand, impossibly strong, clamped down around her throat. Starfire could only stare, unable to even draw breath, as Cyborg stared blankly up at her, his arm lifting her up and off the ground completely.

And then his hand began to close.

...

Reava watched the unfolding battle with clinical intensity. It baffled her that the two highest ranking warriors present would succumb so easily to the corruption of Krieger, or rather, Ixthultu. Unlike most other races, New Gods had an innate resistance to the vile corruptive abilities of their forebears and pseudo-peers. Their unexpected attack had been rather unimpressive as well, leaving all of their opponents alive and squandering the advantage of surprise, but it was also clear they were fighting themselves from within.

They had not been completely consumed by the transformation.

Really, she should have just been thankful. Reava gingerly rubbed her throat, where one of War Dragon's flat handed strikes had nearly separated her head from her body. Had it not been for Star Fire intervening and ejecting her from the battle…

Reava's eyes narrowed hatefully. Star Fire. The bitch! It was one thing to be saved, or to assist an ally in combat, but to be saved by so base a creature? One who acted not out of duty or loyalty, but out of what was clearly pity and altruism? That was an outright humiliation. How she even had the stomach to be a Female Fury, Reava wasn't sure. Clearly she had been brought in for her combat abilities, even if her attitude was somewhat lacking. It was all the more reason to spite the damn redhead.

Which was exactly why she watched on in amusement as the large cyborg, Soudwave, proceed to crush the life from the woman. Any moment now, perhaps, they would be treated to a bloody show as the ochre skinned female's head popped from her shoulders like a ripe Tuva fruit. Wouldn't that be a sight? Sadly, it was more likely that her neck would break, providing rather less fanfare.

The Apokoliptian looked past the orange skinned woman, where her other untainted comrade still battling. The Apokolips Maiden, now she was more a true warrior of Lord Darkseid. Where Star Fire had seemed at times soft and hesitant, the Maiden never wavered. She had a hardness truly befitting a Fury. It was no surprise that she had been made the Prime Fury on this mission, especially since this 'Nabiki' she had heard spoken of and to did not seem to be a fighter herself, but some sort of technician.

_'Would that we two were the only Furies here.'_

As soft as Star Fire was, though, Reava knew that, in her current condition, she could never defeat her. Still, there was more than one way to defeat a foe, a lesson that Reava had taken to blackened heart long ago. If she happened to …let the cyborg finish off her rival, and then ingratiate herself to the Maiden, then she would be one step closer to the position she truly deserved. She could devise proper routes of… advancement… once she reached that point. First step first, after all.

_'Besides,'_ she thought, eyes moving around the room._ 'There is no advantage to be had fighting losing battles. Kreiger is the source of this. But how to strike at him?'_

"The fewer who make it back," a voice hissed. "The more glory left for me."

Reava glared at the source of the voice: a disembodied head lying on its side. The Sacritian.

"Belucius Ro," she sneered.

"I KNOW. I Know. What you're thinking. I know!" The head spat. "From the very beginning, I knew." The Sacristan's cancerous yellow eyes twinkled and narrowed in accord with a sinister grin, concealed behind stained white cloth. "The Heart of Ixthultu. THE HEART! Where could it be? I don't care what happens to anyone else. That's what you're thinking. REAVA."

It... was true.

"So what?" she asked, and walked over, raising her foot with the last step. "I'll crush you."

The Sacristan, dropped in all the confusion, and unable to move with his hidden legs broken, could do nothing more than laugh despite his helplessness. It hardly seemed to matter to him at all.

"Kreiger has the heart, you imagined. NO!" The head spat. "No. Kreiger. IS THE HEART. He is the heart! It beats within him. It beats, it beats, it beats! And it talks. It hungers!"

"Ah!" Reava turned away to where the struggling Thanagarian warlord was still impaled and at war with himself. Impaled by a spear of purified Nth Metal. "Then the spear... what he has impaled is...!"

Stepping away from the vile head, the Fury reconsidered her options. Kreiger was still trying to fight the control of the Eye Within him. She had thought about it before: running in and taking advantage of the apparent opening. But something instinctive was telling that would not end well. Aside from the bits of abandoned equipment, the area around Kreiger and the Oracle was remarkably... untouched.

Sacristan was still laughing.

"What will you do?" he asked, but his chortle caught as she reached down and picked him up.

"Maybe I'll throw you and see if you fry," she suggested, bringing back her arm.

"WAIT. Wait. You are blind. You can not see!" he yelled, forestalling the move. "BLIND EYES! Ixthultu! The Nightmare! The Nightmare surrounds him! I saw it. SAW IT. The moment we entered here. None may get close... none who have been tainted by God's Flesh."

"And?" Reava snapped, shaking the head by the hair. "And?"

"A... baptism..." Sacritian explained. "A baptism is required... Whether any of you can survive it. Who knows?"

Reava scoffed, but didn't toss him.

"We'll have to test it on someone and find out."

* * *

A nightmarish chorus of inhuman voices filled Cyborg's ears, piercing his mind and scraping his soul with a rusty blade. He could scarcely see a thing, his vision filled with a tornado of chaotic colors that hurt just to see. Worse than either of those things, though, were the few flashes of sight which he could steal. Starfire! Hanging in his grasp! Her eyes rolled back and her body starting to go limp...!

'_N-no! What__'__s… what__'__s happening. Can__'__t __–__ can__'__t concentrate, can__'__t… can__'__t hold it together!__'_

What the hell was he doing? Why was he attacking Star? Why couldn't he control himself? He couldn't think straight…! The cacophony of sound bypassing his ears and assaulting his brain directly was unbearable, how was he not on his knees? Inch by inch, he could feel himself slipping away, being drawn into those black voids that tore across his sight, each one tearing away at a different piece of him, trying to rip him into a thousand sparking pieces.

'_Scream! I wanna scream __–__ can__'__t scream! Why can__'__t I use my mouth?__'_

'_Why can't I __**scream**_!'

He could feel his mind begin to crumble around him, could feel something else sliding in to take its place. Some hideously bloated, slime coated monstrosity that violated every part of his psyche that it touched. He – he had to-

EMERGENCY PROTOCAL INTIATED – MENTAL CONTAMINATION CRITICAL

Like a neon sign flaring to life, the automated warning superseded the chaos, appearing across his internal display. For a moment, hope filled his heart… only for stark realization to strike home like a hammer.

'_No! No wai-'_

INITIATING COUNTERMEASURES

…

Starfire hammered away at Cyborg's arm with her fists, but his up-armored frame did not so much as budge from her desperate attacks. Nothing she had done had worked, and yet, even as she felt her trachea buckle beneath his vice-like grip, she could not bring herself to do anything that would truly harm her dear friend. She was being left with precious little choice, though; another second, and she would have to do something, or... or she would die-

And then she found breath flowing into her body. Gasping desperately, she looked down at Cyborg, her entire body shuddering and her eyes wide in shock. Her team mate stared back up at her… she was fairly sure he was, at any rate. His human eye was closed - he almost looked asleep! – but his cybernetic eye still burned an ominous red color.

"C-Cyborg?" she called out tentatively. "Are… you well?"

Cyborg lifted his free arm up between them, a swift, efficient movement which struck the Tamaranian as …odd. And why had he not let her down yet? What was he...?

A loud hissing sound emanated from Cyborg's for arm, followed a second later by a loud 'clacking' sound as heavy metal plates slid apart, then back to reveal his cybernetic limb beneath. The clacking continued, though, as the blue and white plates of his arm also slid apart. Starfire's eyes flew wide open when the form of his Sonic Chainsaw shot out from his forearm, locking into place with a loud 'kchunk'.

_ 'Surely he is not-'_

A second loud 'clank' sounded out as, bafflingly, the Sonic Chainsaw suddenly extended from his wrist a second time… revealing a familiar, long haft! Setting her down, finally, Cyborg reached over and pulled the weapon from his arm, and the second it cleared, the haft of the wicked polearm extended to its full six foot length. With a perfectly flat expression, he handed the weapon to her.

"You will require this. Proceed to assist Yankee-5. This unit will engage India-2."

Something about his voice sent a chill running down Starfire's spine, but she did not hesitate in taking the offered weapon. She very much wanted to ask what was happening with him, but she saw Ryu was already fully recovered and even as they spoke, Jinx was engaged in battle with Ranma. There was simply no time for questions!

Nodding firmly, she clutched the weapon in both hands, taking heart in the loud whine of the energized blade, and shot off to help Jinx at full speed.

* * *

Jinx kicked herself back up to her feet, taking the split second distraction supplied in the form of a flying Ryu, and quickly performed a series of back flips to open some space between herself and her corrupted commanding officer. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the man, his face completely hidden from view and dark spikes and tendrils jutting out all over his body. He wasn't even that much taller than her, an inch at the most really, but that didn't stop him from looking pretty freaking intimidating at the moment.

Ever the observant one, though, she didn't allow herself to forget what had come previously in the face of what was happening in this instant. Looking down at her hands quickly, Jinx noted vile white blood covering her own armor as well, though, oddly, thin trails of acrid smoke were wafting up from some of the trailing edges of the ichor. Was there anything stopping the impaled freak from taking her as well? Was he just controlling Ranma and Ryu at the moment so he could watch as they killed each other? If things went on too long, would the bastard just take control of her anyway?

Not bloody likely!

Biting her lip hard enough that she could taste the bitter tang of blood on her tongue, Jinx built up power in her belly. Ranma was already landing from his jump, and he would doubtless be on her a second later, and she already knew, from personal experience, some of his nastier tricks. Unfortunately for her 'boss', she wasn't the kind to be conflicted over attacking her comrades, and doubly unfortunate, in that martial artists weren't the only ones to learn from their mistakes.

Growling angrily, Jinx threw her arms out to her side… and a second later, pink fire burst out around her hands, only to quickly expand outwards, scouring every inch of her armor. An annoying array of alarms went off in her HUD display as the living flames hungrily consumed every contaminant on the outer surface of her suit. Then, a second after that, she thrust her arms out over her head, and all of the roiling energy flowed up her body and gathered between her upraised hands. The sphere of pink death danced furiously in her grip, and she eyed the possessed Ranma viciously as he began to stalk her way.

Then the ball simply burst, less like a bomb and more like a soap bubble. Harmless pink energy floated away, and Jinx dropped into a low crouch, gearing up the actuators in her suit. Fast as he was, Ranma wouldn't get the drop on her now that she was ready for him.

He also seemed to be battling himself, one arm beating ineffectively against his chest.

Despite that resistance, the part of him that had been subsumed showed absolutely no interest or concern. Bone covered jaws unhinged from where the lieutenant's helmet had been, huffing a cloud of black smoke... before blasting forward. Jinx juked to the side, just barely clearing Ranma's charge. Even with her opponent seeming to fight himself at every turn, he was still blazingly fast. Months of training with Happosai himself had just barely brought her up to the point of being able to merely follow his movements with her eyes. Even then, this Ranma was even faster than her native version.

A grim smile split her lips. There was such a thing as being 'too good', sometimes.

Spinning around, she dropped into a low crouch. By that point, the wickedly corrupted Lieutenant had already rebounded off an Nth metal containment cylinder, and was already shooting back at her at terrific speed. His 'speed step' technique, Aikichi, or whatever Akari and the others had called it, was something to behold, light years ahead of the basic technique that Happosai had taught her. Despite being a slug compared to the likes of even the infamous Kid Flash, Ranma's linear speed was staggering to the young sorceress, and he knew how to use it. If he closed into striking distance and used one of his more dangerous techniques, it would be... unhealthy.

_'But... I've seen Ranma fight, and I've seen others fight him. I just have to not make a single mistake, that's all!'_

Her grin widened as she snapped her fingers.

Instantly, the martial artist's forward momentum was transformed into a vertical plunge as the metal before his sliding feet suddenly ruptured upwards, catching his ankles hard enough to send up a shower of sparks and a grating squeal. Ranma was, of course, too good to be caught by such a simple trick. Already falling forward at near ballistic speed, the mutating martial artist stuck out his hands to catch himself, no doubt to go into a front flip and launch a devastating kick Jinx's way.

The metal decking below Ranma's hands corroded away to flecks of structurally worthless rust just a fraction of a second before his hands hit the floor. Instead, they dropped into the holes with almost no resistance, and a nasty, echoing 'thunk' echoed out as Ranma's former helmet smashed heavily to the structurally sound section of flooring between the two holes. There was a distasteful wrenching sound as well, as his body nearly bent over backwards trying to absorb the momentum of his own forward motion.

Jinx let out a wicked laugh at the sight of her comrade's misery. It'd be a miracle if he didn't dislocate both of his shoulders after that. Compassion wasn't even an afterthought to the young sorceress, and she shot forward her fists charging with pink energy at each step. Her first strike slammed into Ranma's back hard enough to shatter an entire section of carapace like corruption which had spread out from his suit-

And then the pink energy around her hand detonated.

Jinx was blown backwards by her own attack, landing on her back and skidding several sparking yards before finally grinding to a stop. _'__Shit, still haven__'__t gotten that right!__'_

By the time she recovered her feet, her cursing only became more blistering. Through the cloud of debris that her attack had kicked up, she could already see Ranma's corrupted form on his feet. As the obfuscating smoke cleared, she noted that both of his arms hung limply at his side, and acrid smoke still rose up from a charred looking section on the back of his personal armor. However, if he showed even a hint of discomfort, Jinx was unable to see it; it was just damned unfair, her skull was pounding like a hammer, and he wasn't feeling a damn thing.

Swallowing, and not out of nervousness she reminded herself, she lowered herself into a crouch once more. Lifting her hands before her, she gestured to her opponent. "Well, come on then, ya mindless bastard! Let's see ya do that again!"

Then, to her shock, Ranma lifted his arms before him – no, that wasn't quite right, black tendrils of corrupted material slid out from the crevices of the Lieutenants armor, latching onto his arms and forearms. The tendrils then pulled up and back, lifting his arms up into a mocking mimicry of a combat stance.

Then, with a sickening crunch, both of his shoulders popped back into their sockets. Had Jinx possessed a slightly weaker stomach, just the sympathetic thought of such exquisite agony would have made her lose her lunch. Again, Ranma gave not even a sound of discomfort, instead, he just started forward once more. Apparently he'd learned his lesson this time, though, as he stalked forward more carefully now than before.

Frowning, Jinx didn't wait for him to take back the initiative and thrust her arms out. A pair of lighting fast bolts of pink light launched from her fists, a foot or so separating them to make dodging more difficult. She followed by leaning to the side and breaking into a running strafe, firing off more hexes as she sped around in a wide arc. Despite her attempt to saturate the area, the damnable contaminated martial artist still managed to evade her bombardment, ducking and weaving through the projectiles with annoying grace. Frowning, Jinx let up on her attack and started to fall back, reaching swiftly behind her back as she did.

The second she ceased fire, Ranma charged again, but without the use of his 'speed step' move. He was still fast, but not nearly so fast that she couldn't react. His attack was every bit as speedy as she'd imagined, a devastating round house, leading into a combination of hand strikes that could shatter concrete. She ducked fluidly beneath the kick, rising back up just in time to face the flurry of blows, her hands rising up before her.

Ranma's body hurtled through the air, slamming into one of the tall cylinder style structures hard enough to deform the heavy metal around his body. Letting out a relieved sigh, Jinx spun around once, twirling her newest weapons out before her. Cyborg had thought she was insane, asking for them when he'd asked her about her suit of personal armor, and she hadn't had cause to use them against any of the aliens they'd battle so far. But the twin pair of alien alloy smoking pipes gripped tightly in her hands were a godsend at that moment.

Pink energy arced along the lengths of the implements, but unlike a standard materials from back home, the destructive energy did not begin to break them down. It was a sight of beauty, and she wished that Happi were there to see it. It was a cheap shortcut, sure, but she'd finally found a way to master his infamous pipe toss! Dropping back into her crouch, she frowned as Ranma was already back on his feet and moving in once more. It was like fighting a damned zombie, nothing she did so much as even registered on the guy, he just kept coming. She tried to anticipate how he might come at her again-

"j-ji-" The syllable barely escaped the creature's maw. "l -look ou-ou-"

One of Ranma's hands grabbed at the other, but couldn't stop it from rising up in front of him. Jinx's eyes shot wide open as, against all her expectations, a sphere of bright yellow light sprang to life between his mottled and disfigured fingers. It was... it was the _moko takabisha_... but there were spots of diseased black infiltrated within it. The whole thing contracted, sucking air forcefully enough that she could almost see and feel it, and then it expanded five fold, emitting a painfully loud bee-like drone.

_'I have to move... I have to... but where is he aiming?'_ Jinx remembered Happosai reminding her to watch her opponent. To read the body language. To follow the eyes. To predict. To anticipate. To see before it happened.

But there was nothing to read here.

_'I - I can't tell where he's aiming!'_ Cursing, she tensed to dodge - somewhere, anywhere!

The sibilant ki attack fired, widening until it nearly encompassed her entire front. Jinx moved, hitting her highest speed in the first direction that struck her. Against all reason, the _moko takabisha_ itself seemed to morph, no longer even close to a perfect yellow: it became a seething orange and black sun, as corrupted and aberrant as its wielder.

Her arms moved with glacial slowness, trying to cover her front-

When the ki attack exploding brilliantly in midair, intercepted by a shining green star of light. It was followed a second later by a vicious swing by a loudly roaring chainsaw mounted on a six foot staff as Starfire forced the pigtailed martial artist to give ground. The alien girl spun her weapon around in several flashing arcs, trailing white light from each slash, then fell back to float a few inches to Jinx's side.

"Are you unharmed?"

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered, "For the moment, anyway. I've been holding him back for now, but I already know how this dance is going to end if nothing changes."

Starfire nodded, an anxious expression on her face. "Indeed, I had not expected him to retain so many of his abilities while controlled in such a way. We must proceed with the utmost of caution, lest we harm him unduly."

Jinx could only stare at her companion incredulously. "You're worried about hurting him? Try worrying about us for a second!"

That said, she had just enough time to violently push the Tamaranian away, mere split seconds before Ranma's corrupted form tore between them. A trio of sparking slashes lit up Jinx's chest plate, but she managed to kick into a backwards cartwheel before any serious damage could be done by the lighting charge. Flipping back to her feet, she sped back to Starfire's side, shoulder to shoulder. Grimly, she watched Ranma, already coming around in their direction.

"If you have any bright ideas, Red, now would be the time!"

* * *

Cyborg had his hands full. In the roughly fifty one seconds they'd lost track of Ryu, what was left of the martial artist's internal resistance to his condition had swiftly dwindled. By the time he re-emerged, his MARS armor had been subsumed, literally, from head to toe. Serrated black spines emerged from his arms and shoulders and a pair of tentacles were growing from festering growths around his elbows. A scorpion-like pair of mandibles grew out and over the already monstrous visage completely covering the armored helmet. Five bead-like yellow eyes grew along the head in a row, notched between chitin armor plates. Other yellow eyes were blinking across the body, looking in seemingly random directions.

"Cyborg," Nabiki's voice was strained, had been strained this entire time. To the girl's credit, she had remained remarkably calm and analytical, but at the moment, such personal consideration was disregarded as non essential. "Ryu is still in there. According to these readings he's unconscious. I think he's put himself into a meditative state. You need to get that... that stuff off of him."

"That conclusion has already been reached," he opined. "Aggressive decontamination in progress."

The blighted armor that was the sergeant took two haggard steps, and then blasted forward. Cyborg's sonic cannon fired, glancing the side of the fast moving target; internal sensors and prediction algorithms attempted to compensate. Bits of broken chitin fell from the shoulder that had been hit, but Ryu's corrupted form continued on heedless.

A list of likely attack vectors were calculated.

Cyborg's head juked sharply to the left, a bit of vacuum blade clinging to the armored black hand skittered across the deployed armor plate covering his human cheek. As expected, Ryu was aiming to use piercing attacks to more vulnerable areas. Cyborg's mind, fully devoted to the task and no longer burdened by unnecessary distractions, like being human, produced a list of spots deemed likely targets. These were then mathematically sorted by vulnerability and anticipated chances of attack. Having a list of where he would be attacked, sorted by the chance of that attack occurring, he then calculated the probable angles of attack as determined by the position of his opponent relative to himself.

: 86 percent chance of attack to junction of left elbow  
: initiate counter

Pulling back his left arm just as Ryu's arm and leg came up in a scissor, meant to fracture the joint in three spots, Cyborg's ongoing calculations quickly included an almost identical mathematical analysis of where to attack and how. His cannon arm swiveled thirty four point three degrees to the left.

: 72 percent chance of successful attack to right leg  
: initiate attack

Even as Ryu pulled the vulnerable limb back, the sonic discharge managed to tag it. White and blue washed over black carapace but left gunmetal grey unscathed below. The MARS armor.

: compensate for known strength of UNETCO MA-3C Mobile Armored Response Suit  
: initiate compensation

Overcharging the beam would provide for more optimal removal of structure: black carapace, from MA-3C armor underneath. Two high-volume capacitors ejected from the sides of the sonic cannon, already glowing hot and bleeding off heat. Two internal counters appeared, listing number of safe shots left followed by risk-quintiles associated with those shots incurring higher structural damage. Another timer listed how long he could continue to shunt power to the overcharged capacitors, regardless of whether they discharged or not.

: 48 percent chance of attack to right knee (1)  
: 41 percent chance of attack to left side of neck (2)  
: initiate counter (1)  
: initiate counter (2)

The instant the aberration's foot touched the ground, directing momentum into it, it was able to attack again from an increased number of angles. One hand blasted down, narrowed to a cutting edge glowing with power. Another pulled back, deceptively releasing a forward vacuum blade. Most of Cyborg's body was up-armored already, and Ryu's cutting attacks would not be able to penetrate the solid sections of alloy. A shift in his footing compensated for the danger to his knee, a solid plate moving to blunt the edge of the attack there. The other was negated by smoothly raising an arm and tucking his head down lower.

: 81 percent chance of successful attack to right arm (upper)  
: opportunity window (est) 00:00:00:480 +/- 00:00:00:130

: initiate attack

Another blast, coming off as soon as his sonic cannon could complete a recharging cycle, required only slight readjustment. This hit the now momentarily stalled Ryu's right arm, shearing away reams and strips of black flesh and horrific shell and the impact sent the smaller figure spinning wildly to the ground. Ryu's recovery from the attack was within projected parameters, and occurred before full charging of the Sonic Cannon could complete.

: WARNING  
: 98 percent chance of attack by [unknown: classification non-human appendage]

: initiate counter

This time he was not quite fast enough. The programming was willing, but the hardware was not as swift. One of Ryu's tentacles, the ones emerging from his elbows, crashed right into Cyborg's face. Instead of merely hitting him, however, it stuck in place, obscuring his sight.

: WARNING  
: VISsys Impaired  
:: TacIR (50792-6992-DNM-L)  
:: TacVS (24819-6992-DNM-L)  
:: TacUV (28010-6992-DNM-L)

: Initialize  
:: TacSON (00293-0045-DNM-E)

Calculating a counterattack, even as his visual mode switched to sonar-pulse-spectroscopy (Mode Two), Cyborg bulled into the body of his opponent, trying to knock him back. Reaching up to try and remove the tentacle would provide a unacceptable increase in risk of successful counterattack to vulnerable areas one (1) through eleven (11) and thirteen (13) to fourteen (14). Sonar vision was disorienting to self under normal circumstances, but with his electronic brain assuming primary calculation and initialization, the transition only took 00:00:00:650 +/- 00:00:00:050.

Over the next 00:00:42:500 (seconds) Cyborg underwent precisely ninety four (94) Initializations; sixty one (61) involving counter-initializations and twenty nine (29) involving attack-initializations and four (4) involving initializations registered as OTHER. At that point, a system diagnostic and run-time audit uncovered a disturbing calculation: effectiveness of initialization strategies was down a shocking eight (8) percent. Further data analysis indicated that decreases in efficiency were increasing non-linearly with relation to time.

: Recalculating Strategy  
:: Please Wait

A blow to Ryu's chest, carefully calculated to impart maximum damage to the carapace, but minimum damage to the suit's occupant, sent the corrupted MARS trooper back precisely eight centimeters. There was a moment where calculations indicated it was finally within safe operating procedures to reach up and remove the obstruction preventing use of TacIR, TacVS and TacUV. His visual modes. Freeing them up would increase StratEff by (est) ten (10) percent +/- three point five (3.5) percent. This could theoretically serve to offset the decrease in efficiency over time for up to four (4) more seconds.

: Initiate

Cyborg's hand began to move -

: WARNING  
: Safety Interrupts ENGAGED  
:: GLOBAL LARsys  
:: LAR (004-066-MBS-U)  
:: LAR (005-066-MBS-U)  
:: LAR (006-066-MBS-U)

:: LAR (018-130-MBS-H)

: WARNING  
: HIGH ENERGY readings DETECTED  
: WARNING  
: CHEMWar Suite ( local)  
:: Operator WARNING  
:: Unknown Organofluorine compounds DETECTED  
: WARNING  
: EMWar Suite ( local)  
:: Operator WARNING  
:: Ionic Discharge DETECTED  
:: User Threshold Set:(a):(b) [09000.000]:[99999:999]

Sonar imaging revealed the source of the distress: within the cavity of the corrupted Ryu's maw some form of... what could only be called cilia... were unfurling. Some sort of energy field was containing and compressing an unknown chemical reaction, one that was ultimately producing a rather substantial amount of plasma and energy. A blast of chemicals injected into the mixture and part of the bubble bust, releasing a roughly columnated beam of light, less like a proper laser and more like a micro-seconds exposure to the surface of the sun.

: initiate counter

Striking with whatever was available, regardless of how it affected vulnerable areas, Cyborg fired with his sonic cannon, aiming to draw the beam up across the chest to the jaw. At the same time, he began to move himself away from the calculated projection point of the attack. In addition to even that, the emergency long range munitions he'd kept - his remaining stock of micro missiles - fired point blank. That last maneuver, while in agreement with calculations that every possible countermeasure had to be taken, had to be carefully calculated to prevent the death of the target.

The missiles still had the proximity safeties engaged and would not explode in proximity to his IFF.

The power of their impact and the rocket motors attached hit Ryu's corrupted form, doing more to knock off his orientation and aim than anything else. Before the micro-missiles, rockets still burning, skidded off the former trooper's carapace they knocked him back and forced his jaws up. Light and fury erupted from within, only nicking part of Cyborg's armor and resulting in negligible damage. The rest of the beam was spent cutting a massive slash across the 'Oracle' Chamber and into the ceiling.

: initiate attack

: initiate attack

: initiate attack

Ryu's head came back around, violet fumes rising up from within the now energy beam expelling maw, but Cyborg's carefully controlled punch knocked it away again. The abuse kept it pointing away from Cyborg himself, even as another collection of energy and chemicals began to coalesce, but it didn't impede the aberration's attempts to fight back. If the situation did not alter soon, Cyborg would be forced to disengage the safety protocols involved in recovering India-2 in acceptable condition...

A powered armored boot locked down on Cyborg's knee, catching on the protective plate there. His own boot skidded back, losing traction. Before he could compensate, his knee was forced down, bringing the leg with it and partly immobilizing him. The blazing maws of the corrupted martial artist tried to come back around and bring their nightmarish chemical laser to bear.

: initiate counter

: initiate counter

Cyborg's arms swept up to try and grab the blighted MARS armor by the shoulders. With better leverage he could throw it back or at least turn it away. Yet even as he did so, Ryu's hands intercepted, catching Cyborg's hands with his own. Fingers locked with fingers, or in one case, they simply wrapped around the end of the transformed Sonic Cannon. Acting swiftly, the later discharged, blasting away blackened flesh and spiked integument.

Ryu's right hand, however, was not idle - it clamped tightly, and grub-like tendrils wrapped out and into the gaps in Cyborg's armor that allowed the fingers and hand to move so dexterously. The contaminated martial artist was attempting to overpower his frame, but the calculated odds of Ryu succeeding at such a task, taking into account strength levels, augmentation provided by MARS armor and augmentation provided by alien contamination was found to be roughly two tenths of a percent. This was an acceptable level of risk and Cyborg disregarded his opponent's grip on his hand, focusing attention to the more immediate threat.

Ryu's 'mouth' bore down, conflagration of nightmare energy and toxic compounds building between black teeth and wavering cilia like a pufferfish hovering in a nest of poisonous sea anemones. Discharge of the beam over twenty one percent of self was calculated if no countermeasure was taken. A failure analysis simulation chirped up, estimating this would result in complete system failure in 00:00:02:450 seconds, power failure in 00:00:05:340 seconds, structural compromise of both primary and secondary unit frame in 00:00:06:020 seconds, and finally, loss of core SysData at (est) 00:00:08:200 seconds.

Loss of Backup HD was calculated at eighty two point four (82.4) percent.

"Unacceptable outcome," he finally spoke, decision made.

: Safety Overrides Disengaged  
: Initiating

Survival protocols overrode his directives to protect the life of India-Two. Strength limiters and operational safeties deactivated all across Cyborg's body, and all systems cycled to maximum output. Pulling back his arm, alien tendrils and alien alloys started to strain and stretch. Unconcerned by the physical tug of war, the armored aberration relentlessly continued to try and find an angle to fire its maw cannon from. In Cyborg's vision, an overlay superimposed as a cone with its point of origin between those burning jaws. It was a cone that turned from yellow to orange as it got closer. Forcing his right arm between them, Cyborg pulled back with his left and pushed up and forward with his right. The maneuver exposed him to the cone of fire, and potential attack, but only for an (est) 00:00:00:600 ms.

Ignoring the impending damage to India-2, Cyborg clenched his left hand into a heavy bludgeon and then, allocating full power to the attack, regardless of calculated threat assessed to Ryu's life, launched his fist directly into the contaminated martial artist's chest. The blow struck home hard enough to launch the suit of MARS armor off its feet and into the air; stressed to the point of fracture, black flesh tendrils snapped like sinew around where the pair had locked hands. Pulsing muscle and living alien metal shredded and twisted, reducing the lower arm of Ryu's MARS armor to ruin. Despite the destruction, tenacious bundles of Old God corruption stuck to Cyborg's now free arm, abandoning a smattering of metal finger plates and other 'inedible' materials to fall to the ground with a loud clatter.

The blow struck home hard enough to launch the suit of MARS armor up through the air and across the entirety of the large chamber, Ryu's limp body clearing over one hundred meters in less than 2.1 seconds, his flight only stopped by slamming into the far wall roughly 6.7 meters above the floor and imbedding approximately 18 centimetres into the metal plating. . The force of the strike had also had the added benefit of forcing the martial artist's aim straight down and the accumulated power of the energy attack was directed into the floor, cutting through several decks and inflicting only negligible damage to both of their structures.

A trail of shattered carapace and alien contamination littered the floor between the two fighters-

"Cyborg! What the hell are you doing? Ryu's armor just went haywire, system failures everywhere!" Nabiki's voice screamed into his ear, losing much of the calm she had possessed earlier.

"Safety protocols were disengaged. Cessation of hostilities is required. Initiating further countermeasures," he replied emotionlessly.

"What? Further counter... Wha – what the hell are you doing?"

He did not bother to explain, as his actions were quite obvious, in retrospect. Using his own wireless link to Pathfinder, he quickly used the security codes he had been provided and hacked Nabiki's own system. It was a simple feat once one had the 1032 bit encrypted firewall codes, especially with all of his processing power dedicated to the purpose and without regards to disrupting his organic components functionality. Nabiki's terminal was not psionically encoded. In a matter of seconds, he broke through her meager personal encryptions and hijacked her Oversight Link with Ryu's MARS armor. From there, it was a simple act to usurp the Operator Privileges and remote access to the suit's systems.

"How the – what – Cyborg! What are you doing?" Nabiki quickly realized what he had done. "You've just powered down his suit... and you've disabled his life support! He'll die in there! What are you thinking!"

"I am initiating cessation of combat," he replied, matter-of-factly.

* * *

Starfire dove forward, scooping up her chainblade in mid-flight, even as she dove beneath another of Ranma's frustrating attacks. Their own fight was not going particularly well. No sooner had she entered the fight to provide aid than Ranma had started to use his wind techniques to freeze, disorient, or knock them off course... and to augment his own speed to boot. While the freezing nature of the attacks were of less concern to her than Jinx, her own use of flight actually made her more susceptible to the kinetic nature of the attacks, and it was difficult for her to force herself to stay on the ground to compensate.

The second her weapon was in hand, she spun to get Ranma back in her sights.

Only for an intense explosion of light and sound to erupt from behind her. Instinctively, the Tamaranian turned to see Ryu go flying across the room. Remnants of whatever had caused the explosion, and carved a bottomless looking chasm in the floor between the two males, trailed from an odd maw-like structure on the Sergeant's helmet as he soared through the air. Cyborg, his armor looking scorched from head to toe due to proximity with the obvious near miss, looked on with clinical dispassion which Starfire had seen echoed only in a few nightmarish scenarios.

Ryu landed heavily, slipping out of the crater his body had made in the wall, however, it began to rise again almost immediately. This despite the fact that much of the carapace that had grown over suit of MARS armor was now a shattered mess, many areas of the suit clearly visible again. Showers of sparks shot out from between several of the armored plates and the mechanical apparatus making up the right hand was a twisted wreck. Despite all this the corruption still seemed to be in control of the unfortunate martial artist.

Then, just as quickly as the contaminated martial artist began to move forward again... it suddenly just dropped to the ground once more, as if it were a puppet with its strings now cut. Despite her own situation, Starfire could only watch, confused as the MARS armor continued to twitch and wail on its own, but seemed unable to move more than a few inches.

"Starfire!" Nabiki's panicked voice suddenly cut through Starfire's distraction, shocking her back into the moment. "Starfire, you've got to do something! Cyborg has gone nuts! Ryu is down, but Cyborg just deactivated his suit's life support systems!"

The Tamaranian gasped in shock. It seemed impossible, her friend was simply not capable of such an act... but the way in which he had looked at her mere moments ago... and the way that Cyborg now studied Ryu's form at the moment. There was no spark of emotion on his face, not even a hint of humanity left on his normally expressive face.

"Jinx!" She yelled. "Occupy the Lieutenant! I must help Cyborg!"

"You _wha __–__ Oh shit!_" Whatever Jinx's response was to be was lost as she was forced to flee another one of Ranma's unpredictable attacks.

Flying across the room Starfire tried to reach her teammate's side, desperate to stop him from doing something unthinkable. During her flight, she noted something that seemed all but impossible. Staggering to its feet, despite the total lack of power and the total damage inflicted – the fingers of the right hand were broken, and smoke still wafted from the helmet where the devastating energy attack had emanated - the corrupted MARS armor still yet moved to engage them.

Impossibly, unimaginably, flesh slouched away from it, running up the tentacle at the elbow there. It reared up, split down the middle three ways and started to part... forming another mouth. Another face studded by eyes! The maw opened, and not even bothering to cover the rest of its victim's body, more of the nightmare energy started to collect, taking aim-

And then an arm snaked around, covered in silver.

It hit Ryu's helmet in the face and ran up, as if trying to wipe away the horrific and tenacious corruption clinging on there. Whoever was touching it had to be getting burned in the process. Cydonium normally cooled very quickly but only before a certain threshold. One that had clearly been passed here. The silver-yellow tint Starfire could see on some parts around the 'maw' were a color she recalled from one UFO she'd seen... after it had been shot down by nuclear missiles. Touching it was madness. Yet the arm and hand persisted, and amazingly, the fingers latched into and tore free the blight as easily as one would peel the skin from an Earth Orange.

The air split with an unearthly screech, and more and more of the thing removed itself. Pulled like ruminant's skin from the proverbial lupine. Even the tentacle with the three-part jaw came free, uprooted and squealing as it came apart. Ryu's form, now almost fully revealed again, fell to its knees and then down on its face, all eight armored feet of it.

Standing behind it, Reava tossed the remains to the side, scalding steam rising from her burned arm. Yet there was something else there, too. Some sort of mercurial silver.

_'__Silver...? Or...!__'_

Starfire's eyes shot over to the pools of Nth Metal around the cylindrical devices. Pools of Nth Metal – no! Not just Nth Metal. Pure liquid-state Nth Metal!

_'__HOPE. Hope is a CANCER. Despair. Despair. You will all become FLESH FOR ME.__'_

Tearing her eyes back to the center of the chamber, Starfire could see the Thanagarian commander. He was still again, save for his left eye. It was open and glaring at them. A pulse of dark energy filled the room, hitting the walls like a wave and passing over everyone present. Starfire could feel it, like a thousand insects crawling and biting her skin.

On her arms and hands, she could see black spots... like _boils_ starting to fester and grow.

* * *

Cyborg watched as the alien designated as Reava used the purified Nth metal to remove the corruption from India-Two. A rapid sensor sweep of the martial artist revealed that the contamination levels of the martial artist had dropped to zero in short order. A trio of confirmation scans were made and an internal signal went off in his head.

"India-Two no longer a threat. Disengaging aggressive decontamination measures."

"Ryu - Ryu's armor, it's coming back online!" Nabiki's voice was filled with both surprise and relief, but Cyborg paid it no heed. "Gonna have to administer a targeted stim... there it goes, but…"

Instead, he turned his attention to the rest of his companions, noting the various levels of contamination they were undergoing. Juliet-One was a tactical threat, and Yankee-Two was quickly approaching critical levels as well, though, defying logic, Yankee-Five's contamination levels were nearly nil - that fact was quickly catalogued for later investigation. In regards to Juliet-One, similar countermeasures used to subdue India-Two would likely be required... however, Reava's action provided a new option.

: Recalculating Strategy

:: Please Wait

* * *

Jinx winced as Ranma's blighted hand just barely nicked her, but the moment of contact completely fouled her balance and sent her tumbling. It wasn't just being hit physically, there was all that damn wind, too... wind she couldn't see or counter in close combat. His arms and legs and body were all but wreathed in the stuff. Keeping a distance wasn't much of an alternative, since he was almost as fast on his feet as he was in close.

Cursing loudly, she dove to the side, hitting the floor heavily and sliding across the ice-slicked metal. A second later, another of those damned vortex attacks of his tore through the air she'd just been occupying, freezing the vapor in the air with its unnatural cold. She was forced to kick up to her feet and into a front flip an instant later, as a mottled yellow and black ki blast shredded the deck plating right at her heels.

Only drawing in breath long enough so that she could begin unleashing another string of vitriolic profanity, Jinx slid behind one of the tall Nth metal canisters and planted her back against the heavy metal container. It wasn't ideal cover, but it beat the hell out of being out in the open. As far as she'd seen, he couldn't go through it at least.

"First..." she said between gasps. "Gonna kill Star…" Blinking, she tried to get a drop of perspiration out of her eyes. "Then... I'm gonna kill Ranma."

A quick glance showed that the Tamaranian tart was a good distance away, and that there was no way that she'd be able to clear that much space without taking a shot of _something_ in the back from her psychotic former commander. Even when he was freaking out and trying to kill himself, an arm or leg was always up to the task of punishing anyone who tried to take advantage of the momentary lull. It was bad enough that she had to play _nice_, but to have her own team mate just _ditch_ her like that?

A low growl rattled her throat. "Fine! Kill Saotome first. Then kill Star."

It'd serve him right for delaying her from dishing out some red hot retribution on her _supposed_ partner. She was sick of the stupid pig tailed bastard's ugly face, anyway, and judging by how Cyborg had damaged Ryu's armor, no doubt compromising the enviro-seals, it seemed like all bets were off at the moment. A wide grin nestled itself on her pink lips as the idea of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Ranma began to settle into her mind, comfortable as a big squishy love seat.

She leapt, then, roughly a tenth of a second before a fist blurred in from the side and formed a watermelon sized dent in the side of the metal containment unit. Flipping through the air, she nimbly unclipped her right glove, letting the piece of armor slide off and drop to the floor loudly. The second she landed, she started sprinting evasively to the side.

"No more Misses Nice Guy," she muttered quietly to herself, sizing up her opponent. Ranma was hardly recognizable any longer, his helmet having transformed into a monstrous visage of yellow eyes and blackened chitin. Spikes glinted in the dim lighting, jutting out at every numerous angles, and slimy looking tentacles swayed and shot about, trying to grasp at anything in reach of his body. Each passing moment brought more fluidity to his motions as well, as his resistance to the creeping subversive mass weakened.

A quick glance to her own arms confirmed that a few fledgling psuedopods were beginning to wriggle out through the seams and joints of her own armor. Even though she'd burnt most of it off, corrupted blood was still infesting her suit...

Not that she cared at the moment. She already owed too many people a nasty death to let some stupid ancient evil go ahead and take the decision out of her hands. She'd finish Ranma off long before she succumbed, once that was done, her and Cyborg could vaporize this entire damn ship and that shiskabob'd psycho with it.

Crouching down, Ranma charged forward hands already dancing around madly in the familiar gesture which inevitably heralded another of his wind tunnel type attacks. Already, the air began to twist and wail in protest, water vapor freezing into glittering ice crystals, the power of the attack growing with each hurried step he took. Growling, Jinx charged straight ahead, head on into the attack. Arcing sparks of light danced along the skin of her naked hand and a surge of euphoria shot through her at the sensation of raw power coursing down her arm. Leaning forward, she pushed herself even harder, accelerating to superhuman speeds in the flash of an eye.

Ranma's tornado attack fired off first. The horizontal column of arctic winds howled furiously as it rent the air asunder, surging towards her with an almost unholy hunger. Ironically, this was what Jinx had been waiting for. The only time Ranma was anything resembling immobile was when he was actively directing one of those frost tornados. Time slowed to a crawl as the monstrous column of wind approached her, the three hundred mile per hour winds dragging out into a lazy sprint to reach her.

The bottled lightning which danced up and down her arm, though, did not slow at all. If anything, it seemed to quicken its frantic dance, the furious light building up to a near blinding crescendo. Her body was not quite fast enough to keep up with her mind, so her lips could only begin to quirk up into a vicious smirk as the world unfurled before her, countless possibilities opening up to her, only to be narrowed down to a single inevitable outcome.

Ranma's tornado was powerful, true… for a non-meta, anyway, but there was too little substance in it. Effectively, this meant her own attack - and all the power within it - could avoid being wasted in a head on clash-of-energy.

_'I'm sure I'll get him...!'_She thought to herself as she lifted her hand, the crackling arcs of neon power splitting the air with deadly impatience. Vivid memories of detonated Thanagarians and a blackened corridor painted a vivid image of the traitorous fighter's imminent fate, but she didn't let herself hesitate in the slightest… Of course, that did still leave the incoming ice tornado, but one thing at a time here. Turning her shoulder into the attack, she gritted her teeth, after all, she'd only have one shot at this.

_'The bastard's attacks have been off by maybe six inches every thirty feet. So, if I'm right, then..'_

Jinx planted her feet and pulled up her left arm to shield her face. Ranma's hiryu toppa filled her vision for a horrifically long heartbeat, right on target... and then it went slightly wide. _'Six inches!'_Cutting ice covered her arm as she caught the outer edges of the tornado, but not the spiraling drill of a point. Moisture froze and hardfrost quickly coated her left side. It wasn't as bad as it looked - her personal armor was insulated for more extreme changes in temperature and armored against the cutting winds. As long as she avoided the drill-tip, she could tank it.

_'My turn!_'

The entire chamber was struck silent as a crack of thunder rocked the grand foundry. The flash of light which preceded it by mere fractions of a second was enough to turn the entire chamber a bright, hellish pink for less than a tenth of a second. Even so, Jinx had forced herself to keep her eyes open, she needed to see it. Needed to see her very first human kill…

On the other end of the exchange, Ranma was already dodging - reacting to the movement of her hand - but had been betrayed by his own technique. He might as well have been trying to dodge Shampoo's laser cannon after she'd already pulled the trigger. To Jinx's eye, the single, narrow lance of fluorescent lightning reached out to touch Ranma's shoulder the very same instant it left her hand…

_'Huh? What was that?'_

The crackling, livid bolt of energy slammed into the martial artist's shoulder dead on. Ranma's entire body shot straight, power snapping the fleshy mass of muscles around him taunt simultaneously. Thick bodied tentacles and dark chitin were ripped away in a fury of pink energy, shooting off from the main body in slow motion. Smoke and smaller fragments of corrupted blood and skin trailed behind the larger chunks of alien corruption, like the tiny tails of coin sized comets

Yet, despite all the damage, Jinx could only stare, aghast at the meager display of power. That hadn't even been a fraction of the power she had used to snuff out those Thanagarian abominations they'd faced before. It should have been an attack that flash cooked the damned martial artist, but with his armor, his tricks and his just plain inhuman endurance, Ranma's violently twitching body was nearly intact. It looked like maybe, just maybe, the attack had been at least enough to send him stumbling backwards…

But his foot skidded back, preventing him from falling.

_'What… what the hell!'_

She could only stare at her hand, shock and betrayal tearing through her. Ranma should be dead! She had meant to use her full power… but the attack she'd unleashed had been a shadow of the one she'd used on the Thanagarians. And _that one_hadn't even been as powerful as the insanely reckless first attack she had unleashed on Raven during their battle in Azarath…

Ranma's body was already beginning to cease its twitching, and doubtless he would be upon her in seconds at the absolute longest. And yet… she couldn't bring herself to care about that at the moment. All she could do was stare at her hand, perplexed. In fact, the more she considered it, the less sense this entire battle was making. Why was she fighting Ranma the way she was? Fighting a mid and close range, where her opponent held every advantage. While he might be stronger, faster and tougher than her in every way that counted, her own energy generation abilities were far beyond his own.

Especially considering that she had nullified his linear step… why wasn't she fighting smart, from a safe distance? She… she hadn't even been using her armor's boosting system yet. With that, even if she couldn't match the speedy martial artist, she could at least keep him at enough of a distance that her advantage in raw firepower should at least even things up a bit…

It… it was almost like Ranma wasn't the only one at war with himself.

She might not be punching herself in the face like her corrupted opponent, but was she subconsciously holding herself back in far more subtle ways? She wanted to kill him. Needed to end him! If she didn't fight with everything she had, she would be dead in less than a minute. She knew that, but, for some reason, her spirit wasn't on the same page as her mind, and because of that she'd uselessly squandered her only guaranteed shot at ending this fight in her favor.

Finally shaking off the last of his paralysis, Ranma began to stalk towards her again, more carefully this time. He'd already learned that coming straight at her, full speed, would only end in disaster, and now he had a new, insanely fast attack to contend with (as limited as it currently was), so it seemed that he was prepared to size her up for just a few seconds longer.

'_So… I can't trust myself to do what needs to be done, eh?_' she sneered self deprecatingly. _'Well, if Ranma can get over his hesitation to kill me, then I can do the same.'_

Smirking, she slipped a hand behind her back, reaching for something other than her alien alloy smoking pipe. _'And all I need to do, is to use something that I know won't let me down.'_

The repurposed missile-come-grenade was quite a bit heavier than the standard issue alien grenade, and from what Cyborg had told them, had at least twice the explosive yield of one as well. If dropped close enough, one of these would reduce even Ryu's MARS armor to molten slag. Ranma, in his personal armor would be all but vaporized if she could get it in range. Of course, one little slip up, and she'd be in the same boat.

Jinx lifted the grenade in her un-frozen hand, smile growing wider by the second, and prepared to prime the weapon before tossing it directly on Ranma's smoking form. There was maybe eight meters between them. That wasn't even a safe range to throw a normal plasma grenade, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

"Yankee-Five. Cease termination procedures. Alternate strategy has been determined."

Jinx cursed aloud as she heard Cyborg's voice buzz in her ear. Shaking her head, she growled vindictively. "What? No! I wanna kill him! I'm totally gonna do it!"

Her thumb hovered over the missile's warhead, now the trigger of the grenade. All it would take if a sufficient amount of pressure and-

A part of her wanted to throw the explosive right then and there. Even with those wind shields up, if she hit the ground near his feet than maybe-

"Negative. As the highest ranking member of Combat Team Yankee, I order you to desist. You will decontaminate the target via application of uncorrupted Nth metal reserves. Failure to comply will result in disciplinary action as mandated by Article 11-9 of the..."

She actually spun to stare at her teammate in shock. "Are you joking?" The massive cybernetic Titan, looking twice as large as normal thanks to his appliqué armor plating was not even looking back in her direction. "I'll decontaminate him via application of antimatter! Why do you even care if I do it or not? He's not your friend!"

The huge Titan's head turned at her words, glancing at her over his shoulder. A brief shudder rolled down her spine as his gaze landed on her, his crimson cybernetic eye glowing in the near darkness. "I do not care about the welfare of Juliet-One. I have merely calculated that our chances of survival increase by roughly 33.33 percent if he is decontaminated as opposed to attempting to destroy him. 53.75 percent higher, considering that your attempts at termination have a 95% chance of resulting in your own death."

Hmm… well, now that was the kind of logic she could get behind. She was a bit weirded out by the lack of some lame moral argument, but found it to be a pleasant change of pace.

_'Is it also weird that I find his disregard for human life to be totally hot?'_

Nah, probably not.

Grinning, she looked to the grenade in her hand, then to Ranma once more. One of his hands was back to trying to pull his 'face' off. The other was still projecting one of those protective tornados around it. There was every chance now that, even if she let the weapon fly, it would just be redirected back at her.

_'Damn.'_

With an unhinged laugh, she primed the grenade and gave it a good toss, well over Ranma's head. Then, against all reason, she followed it a second later. Stretching her arms out to her side, she sprinted forward at full speed, glimmering talons of livid energy stretching out from her fingertips. She hoped to take the martial artist off guard, but the damned bastard still managed to slide out of the way of her first slash, only losing the tips of a few spines and a tentacle that were just a bit on the long side.

Then they were into it. Jinx's arms spun around frantically, claws carving up the floor plates into molten slivers of flying metal as she did her absolute best to cut her enemy to ribbons. She knew it was suicide, utterly foolish, but didn't care. As fast as she was, Ranma was faster. The guy could hit hundreds of times per second, after all. His one cooperative hand weaved in and out of her attacks, knocking her arms aside with annoying ease and his body twisted out of the way of her claws contemptuously.

In a blink, faster than she could even follow, suddenly her assault ended. She winced in pain as armored hands clamped down around both of her wrists, stopping her arms as surely as if they'd been cast in steel. Even worse, her unarmored wrist burned as if on fire, as wriggling black filaments began to dig hungrily into her body glove and past that, into pale skin. Dark black swathes began to spread out along her wrist as Ranma held her still, though the progress was torturously slow compared to what had happened to the others. The vile eyes and gibbering maws that covered his body laughed mockingly as madness began to overtake her mind…

And then she finally reached '5' in her head, and a wild smile split her lips.

The grenade exploded with surprising force. The initial shockwave didn't hit them, as an obstruction was standing in between the pair and the improvised explosive, however, the tall Nth metal container was simply not designed to resist the kind of damage that a plasma blast of that power could dish out. The walls of the cylinder heated to critical levels, then buckled, cracked and finally shattered apart like crystal. The explosion sent a veritable wall of shrapnel and liquid metal flying outwards at high speeds.

The wave of liquid metal slammed into Jinx and Ranma with tsunami force, knocking them both from their feet and sweeping them away in a torrent of silvery torment. Jinx felt as if her entire body were aflame all over again. The shocking sensation seemed to last forever, but, finally, it began to subside.

She found herself laying on the floor, nearly a dozen yards away from where they'd been standing. Less than a foot away and still holding her wrists in a death grip was… Ranma. She was pretty sure it was him, what with the disappearance of all of the unspeakable horrors adorning his armor now. A bubbling, festering puddle of melted flesh was polled under him, and under her for that matter, while droplets of mercury-silver still clung to parts of his armor. Only one way to tell for sure, though. Grinning through the pain, she inclined her head in his direction.

"So… you still alive in there, Lady Fingers?"

"A - aa!" He released her, reached down, and broke the seal on the bottom of his helmet. Lifting it as quickly as he could manage, he rolled over, hunched up, and vomited. The inarticulate, pained groans that interspersed this were undoubtedly human, albeit only in their suffering.

_"Atlantean Wretch! I am the Cure to the Sickness in your Soul. I am that which answered your Prayers. I Fathered the Horrors that lurk within your chromosomes. Worship me! Exalt in me! EMBRACE ME for I am the Secret Sin!"_

_"I am more than evil."_

"I am more than evil," Ranma gasped and, in that moment, stared at Jinx with wide, frightened blue eyes. "Gods, it was... was...!"

_"I am the Eye of the God Ixthultu. I beheld the shaping of a universe. And I see within you all."_

The ground around them glowed red, and Ranma swung his hand. _"Move!"_

A blast of wind and ki tossed Jinx away, rolling side over side. Quickly righting herself, she saw Ranma now opposite her, and between them - where she had just been - lay a reddish patch of ground. Strange purple and pink flames were rising up from the dyed metal surfaces: shapes within the flame crying and howling and flagellating themselves in ethereal torment. What was - what the hell was that?

_"Why do you flee? My sight shall wash away your imperfection. Your imperfect, worthless souls! Flesh. Flesh is all that shall remain! I shall leave only the Purity of Flesh!"_

Rolling along the floor, Jinx barely avoided the otherwise invisible beam of projected red light as it raced along the floor. In its wake, the purple and pink fire became brackish and dark but still tainted by the tortured shapes that played tricks on her eyes. Again, she faltered, her steps devolving into staggers as the pain that had been silently pounding at the back of her head for the entire battle suddenly surged, just in proximity to the unnatural beam of light. Even her sight was getting blurry, an odd blue sheen coloring her vision as she blinked her eyes furiously.

And then the unnatural beam of red light washed over her.

_"__I will strip your ragged soul bare.__"_

The sorceress curled into a fetal position, she could actually feel it: could feel her mind begin to unravel at the assault. Red light filled her vision and a maddening chorus of discordant voices filled her ears. Living insects burrowed beneath her skin and her organs boiled inside her body, the world twisted, crumbled and burnt away, shifting in new, horrific ways with each passing second.

_"__Unravel. Embrace the Nightmare. Un-Become. Escape the prison of your sanity! There is no Source or Presence to Save you here!__"_

She tried to scream, but her mouth was filled with writhing maggots, and her eyes felt like they were going to burst. And all through it, the red light only grew brighter…

Red light? It actually looked purple… no, wait, it was shifting back to blue again…

_"__You. What you were is nothing before me. Atlantean. Did you think you came this far without my willing it so? You are mine. You are all mine.__"_

_'__**No. She is not**__.__'_

In an instant, every trace of the red light was banished from her sight, blinding azure pushing it away. The pain in her head spiked, localizing to a single point on her forehead, but, to her shock, all of the rest of the agonies assaulting her body vanished as if they had never even been. All Jinx could do was blink as a familiar, booming voice resounded through her skull.

And then she crumpled to the floor.

* * *

That light...

That hellish, X'hal forsaken light -

The air shimmered and Starfire felt the orientation, the very gravity, of the room begin to warp and shift. Already keeping herself hovering in midair, the sudden shift produced a disorienting wave of nausea as blood flooded her head. Still in place, the ground upended and vertigo threatened to empty her stomach. A blinding wave of something overtook her and the next thing she knew she was flat against the ceiling of the chamber.

_"I see a Pureblood and a gaggle of Bastard Children, but one of you does not belong."_

Ixthultu's gaze engulfed her and his - its - voice became a screaming credenza.

_"Fly no more, Tamaranian."_

* * *

Ranma could've sworn he only blacked out for a second. He'd been caught in his fair share of hurricanes and tornados over the years - it kind of came with the territory - but this was downright unfair. Between Shandra Mal's memories, kept confined to a neat little mental pocket for the most part, and the last few minutes of being consumed and grown-over by a wave of grade-A nightmare-fuel monster flesh, and now being buffeted around in some sort of metaphysical storm...? Being slammed into one hard surface after another to the point where even he almost passed out was something akin to refreshing. At least with the physical abuse you just got back on your feet and sucked up the pain.

"Need... to find..."

It was around then that he noticed he was fire.

No. Not just regular fire. This isn't burn. This was... this was what he had seen before. It was the Focus of the Eye. The thing he had tried to push Jinx away from. But what had happened to her? What was this? Breath sucked in through his clenched teeth as he began to see tortured shapes within the pink and purple flames and the grip of boney fingers raking down his skin, through the layers of armor.

_"You are no more immutable than these pathetic Thanagarians. Do you think yourself safe, coming from Beyond the Facade? I need only See you to give you Form. Who are you? You are Nothing!"_

And then Ranma was back on the floor, and falling to his knees. He could feel his body shrinking, changing.

_'Is this... Jy-Jyusenkyou...?'_

No - this was...!

He screamed as his back tore open.

* * *

Sensor systems were being spoofed somehow. External data acquisition was no longer reliable. Systems check was in progress. Diagnostics were-

_"Another Atlantean. Yes. I see into you as well."_

Cyborg's vision wavered and cleared but-

_"Child of Iron and Flesh; which is the body and which is the soul? Even a machine can be taught to weep. Even a computer may learn to despair."_

System diagnostics came back negative!

There - there were no systems to diagnose!

Looking out through fleshy membrane covered optical devices - eyes - Cyborg saw his arms. No: he had no arms. Those systems were not responding. These could not be arms.

: Systems Check  
:: ERROR: NullSys Det. Re.403012. 31308.6

Was this blood? Why were sensor systems offline? How did he even make the leap in logic to assume that it was blood on his hands and arms? It was impossible to say with any accuracy.

: Systems Check  
:: ERROR: NullSys Det. Re.403012.31308.i.6

:::ERROR

:::ERROR

:::ERROR

:::ERROR

Where? Where were his systems?

Where was the hard drive?

Where was the LAN?

Where was the memory?

Why was every program failing to run? How could he think? How could he be? Memories, Programs, Circuits, Flesh. Were these hands? Was this skin? Organic visual acquisition organs - eyeballs - beheld two bare, human hands. No circuits. No metal. Flesh.

: Systems Check  
:: ERROR: NullSys Det. Re.403012.31308.i.6

: Systems Check

: Systems Check

: Systems Check

: Systems Check

: Systems Check

: Systems Check

: Systems Check

: Systems Check

: Systems Check

_"I am Decay and Rot. And yes. Even an Iron Soul can be made to tremble."_

* * *

_"And... at last... we come to you. New God."_

Her hand hit a third barrier, just inches from Kreiger's twisted, possessed face.

Frozen, caught in place, Reava stood otherwise unfazed among the flames. Her right arm was burned from purifying War Dragon and dried chips of flaking Nth Metal coasted most of her body. The rest of the Chamber had become engulfed by Ixthultu's Eye and burned with shadowed flame. Otherwise weaponless, she had covered herself with as much of the pure Nth Metal as she could and attacked while the Eye tossed everyone else around, engulfing them one by one in the span of a second.

If only - if only there had been three barriers and not four. Sheathed in the mercurial Nth Metal, she had been able to break through one molecule-thick barrier after another, pushing her way closer to the Oracle Device itself. Ixthultu's defenses were, as the Sacristan warned, both present and in depth. She pushed hard to try and get through, but the transparent nearly-invisible god-shield held firm.

Then the Eye turned on her, and she was repulsed entirely.

The next thing she knew, her back was to one of the walls. The force was incredible, like a hundred gravities. Her vision blanked out and it became impossible to breathe. Yet Ixthultu's flames, Ixthultu's Vision, could not sear her.

_"Fallen God, Fallen Angel, cursed misbegotten spawn! How vile your existence is. How pathetic. You should have been killed in the womb, yet I see... that simpering brat, Highfather, has extended his protection to you..."_

"S-shut your mouth!" Reava snarled, her vision starting to come back. "Don't even say that bastard's name! I - I serve Lord Darkseid!"

_"You Fourth World Scum are all the same to me. I am Ixthultu! I Beheld the Hand. I heard the Curse of Creation. I was ancient when your so called god Darkseid sucked at his mother's teat. You think your faith in him will save you? He has long since forgotten your name."_

"NO!" She fell to her feet, her entire body feeling as beaten as a common slave's. "NO."

Forcing herself forward, into the gaze of the Old God, the Female Fury smirked.

"You. Ixthultu. Don't you know you're dead already?" she asked, squinting as it became unbearable to look forward and into the Eye of Madness.

_"You would speak to me of Death?"_

"The real Ixthultu is dead and sealed!" Reava roared, bearing teeth in anger and spite. "You are... just... a mistake! A mistake made by coming to this place. We. **Made**. You."

_"..."_

If the Eye had a response to that, it didn't share it. Instead, the wide cone that was the Focus of its Eye narrowed down. Instead of encompassing almost a quarter of the room it receded, turning a great cone into a narrow laser. Red and purple fire dwindled around her-

And concentrated on her stomach.

Under that concentrated gaze her skin began to split and bubble and burn. Even in spite of whatever divine protection she still had as a New God of Apokalips. Pinned and unable to move, Reava could do little more than stumble forward two steps and fall to her knees. Blisters broke open and a strange black infection began to pool within the bloody scars.

"You made me?" Ixthultu asked, speaking directly through Kreiger now. "**YOU MADE ME!**"

Fire and hate lanced into Reava's belly, but she managed to fall to her side, covering herself with her arms. The purified Nth metal protecting them vaporized almost instantly, and as it did, her arms began to get the same treatment. Crushing her eyes closed, she saw Darkseid - no, it was a great statue of him, from back home. Back on Apokalips. It was the statue she had gazed at and prayed to, how many years ago? The Order on Apokalips. The Tyranny that gave life Meaning. She saw the statue in her most coveted memory... and watched as it blistered and melted.

"You made me," Ixthultu repeated, as if still in disbelief. "I am hunger! I am sickness! I am lust. I am greed. I am the maggots that will eat your corpse!"

Curling up and twisting away, she merely spread the effect, the Old God's words now ringing in her ears and in her mind.

"I am the virus that pollutes your blood!" The deafening roar split her ears and she felt blood run down her face from her ears. "I am the Stolen Breath! I am the Beast that Feasts on Itself. I am your Death."

And then, just like that, everything became numb.

"I -a-" the voice whispered. "a."

"By X'hal," another voice cut in. "You will cease your vile existence!"

At the center of the chamber, the Eye of Ixthultu remained focused on Reava, the dilated quintet-pupil staring at her. The previously solid beam of nightmare that had been projected by it was now flickering and sending out twisting, uncoiling streams of purple fire. The iris of the horrific orb contracted and tried to move, to refocus...

But couldn't. Not with a jagged tip of metal embedded in it from the side, piercing the sclera and the white of the eye, in this case a white tainted yellow. Clear viscous mucus dripped from the pierced eyeball and it tried to move again, this time dilating and contracting fiercely - desperately. The tip of the madeshift blade shook, trying to go further in, but couldn't.

Past the Nth Metal coated edge was an pink skinned hand, likewise coated in the silvery metal, holding firmly onto the jagged remains of a support rail. The hand, however, was trapped halfway through one of the glass-like transparent barriers. Like Reava, it hadn't been able to force its way through. Unlike the Fury, this one had had a weapon, likewise coated, but driven home with righteous fury and force.

Star Fire hissed, trying to force the impromptu blade in further.

...

Shandra Mal flexed her wings.

Of course this - this wasn't actually her body. The torn and abused armor was of a strange design and - and memories were pushing forward. It hurt. It hurt to remember, much less to move. Her wings felt sticky and bloody and hamstrung.

_'This room... this is the Oracle Chamber...?'_

Get up already!

_'I can't move-'_

The Hell you can't!

A hand took hers and pulled her to her feet. Looking up, Shandra saw a red-headed girl, her hair braided behind her and peeking over her shoulder. Wingless. An alien? Why was it so hard to think?

Then she saw Kreiger. Ixthultu. Ixthultu Reborn. Their Mistake.

Their responsibility.

Sudden strength pooled in her legs and she forced herself up. The red-headed girl without the wings pulled her forward and before she knew it she was running. There was someone else just ahead of her. Some other wingless Thanagarian or... no. No. Human. Another red headed human, but with her long hair flared out behind her and not wrapped up in a little braid.

Ahead of them, in the center of the chamber, the Eye possessing Kreiger was focused entirely on somewhere or someone else. All of its terrible attention was literally confined to a narrow beam.

_'This is our chance!'_

Her body, her loaned body, moved incredibly fast... but then she hit a strange patch of gravity that took her off her feet. Her wings flapped instinctively, providing reorientation that pushed her forward and down instead of up. The entire chamber was a twisting helix of warp energy, playing havoc on the senses. Pieces of the floor and ceiling were uprooting and swirling around at high speed.

Nearly stumbling as a patch of the floor uncurled like a rug, rearing up to eye level, she stopped to try and find a way around. But there was so much - so much flying debris, so much strange energy, all tearing through the air up ahead. Shandra felt the red-headed guide pulling her along. No. That wasn't it was it? Kreiger - Ixthultu - did something. This was that other girl's body.

Realization clicked.

And as it did, she felt the other girl - or was it a guy? - take over. He or she was fast, zipping between flying metal panels large enough to crush someone between them and skidding across the ground to slip under a lick of purple energy. Shandra could hardly believe what she was seeing and feeling being done. Yet, as they cleared the field of burning, nightmare debris, the other girl was still ahead... thanks to her hesitation earlier.

She had some kind of shaft, the top of it sheared off into a jagged point, and that point was just piercing part of Kreiger's face. Churning spirals of strange matter and warp energy were spilling out in an inferno, no longer the narrowly focused beam from before. This mysterious female warrior - Starfire was the name that suddenly entered Shandra's mind - was also stuck, her arms encased in some kind of field. Ripples and cracks spread from where she had plowed into it and from where the Nth metal coasted speartip had penetrated, but...

It isn't enough!

_'It isn't enough!'_

Shandra felt her leg already in motion. She had started to move and the other-her, the person normally in control of this body, had corrected it. Falling backwards, she felt her wings touch the ground, skidding as they slid forward. Her foot pulled back, lined up with the blunt end of the broken polearm, and at the right moment kicked-

Heel hit home, driving the makeshift spear up-

And right into the Eye of Ixthultu.

_'Kreiger. I-'_

Existence pinched, strained, and split like a bursting bubble.

* * *

There were a great many orphanages on Apokalips, as one could imagine.

The Headmistress' head, or what was left of it anyway, hit the ground with a wet splatter. It looked rather like a split cabbage, actually, or it did until a metal pipe hit it again, cracking bone and spraying brains over the floor. It was a mess, but no one present really expected to have to pick it up. A bare foot rolled the corpse face-up (what was left of the face anyway) and a hand bent down to rummage around for a certain necklace kept around the collar. It didn't take more than a few seconds to find what it was looking for.

Fire.

The fire felt good at her back. Reava sucked it in, the smell eliciting pleased, satisfied feelings deep inside her. Other children rushed past her, some in a panic, others in joy. They fled from the burning orphanage building and into the perpetually dark and smoke-choked streets of Apokalips and the endless, towering maze of spires and pipes and alleyways. Here in the vast teeming underbelly of the planet wide city, the sky was a charcoal black and vomit brown, as distant as the stars themselves.

A speeding vehicle hit one of the fleeing orphans, not even bothering to stop as it raced down the street, killing the boy or girl instantly. Traffic continued, heedless of the carnage - uncaring - as wretched lines of dregs shuffled in the shadows. Another speeding vehicle flattened the corpse, and then another, until it was ground down into the gutters of Apokalips.

Reava chuckled darkly at the macabre sight.

It was an amusing distraction, but the fire still had most of her attention. Why she found it so fascinating? She wasn't sure. Probably the smell. It was what she'd always imagined the great Firepits smelt like if one was fortunate enough to live near one: like brimstone. Like the old being thrown in by the young.

Glancing over at the back of a mile-high statue in the distance, she wondered what the front would look like. It was a monument to Lord Darkseid, after all. A monument to God. As far back as she could remember, she had always been able to see the back of it from her cell in the orphanage. God had never once answered her prayers, but he had always been there, turning his back to her.

_'Before I die... I want to see God's face.' _

"Hrm. Look at these brats," one of her conspirators said, snapping her out of her reverie. "None of them will last more than a year out here, if I had to bet."

It was the boy known as Timebomb. He was the one who had set the fire. They wouldn't have been able to kill the Mistress or her goons without him. He'd stolen some sort of lighter in the confusion and seemed to be soothingly burning his left thumb. Orange haired and fair skinned, he was one of the older kids: all of twelve years old. A jagged scar ran across his face courtesy of one of the Teachers.

"Who cares? They're just fodder to cover for us anyway." Mayhem.

Androgynous and thin, he had messy black hair and shallow eyes that moved slowly when looking for prey. He still had the piece of rebar he'd used to beat the Mistress to death resting comfortably against his shoulder, a souvenir not only of the kill, but of his old home: it had been ripped from his cage before it had been used to open the school master's skull. It was still wet with the woman's blood, and probably a couple other people's too. Still, Mayhem didn't seem to mind a little gore dropping down his shoulders or back.

Or hands.

Or face.

"Better ten seconds of freedom than an eternity of confinement. Mayhem. If you take your last breath as a free man, you should consider yourself fortunate."

"Like you have a right to talk all fancy and crap!"

The dark haired youth spun the piece of killer rebar around-

Only to have it stopped short of its target. A hand had it by the base, stopping the swing with little apparent effort. This was Vedic. Also thirteen. He was bald, or maybe he shaved his head with something - no one knew - but he was otherwise forgettable. His skin was a pale blue. This wasn't an uncommon imperfection in 'Lowlies' like themselves, children of the dregs of Apokaliptian society. Many had strange skin colors. There were even some with pitch black skin, or so Reava had heard.

Vedic let the rebar club go, and Mayhem let it fall to his side.

"Don't do pointless things," he advised the unstable young killer and calmly buttoned up the clean black shirt he had taken from inside. It was a size or two large, but it wasn't bloodstained. He obviously hadn't gotten it from one of the dead guards then. Vedic was, needless to say, the one who had planned their escape, being the brains of their little cabal.

"Life is a series of pointless things," Timebomb observed, still burning himself to contain his excitement. "But we're free now, right? What're you guys gonna do?"

Another pair of freed orphans ran into the shadows that fell from the towers above.

Most were still inside, having their fun with the beaten orphanage staff.

"Heheh!" Mayhem answered the question with a smile, his teeth all files to points. He glanced back at the burning orphanage behind them. No one would be coming to put the fire out. Not on Apokalips. Not in this shit-hole. Not in the gutters of the city.

"I dunno!" The dark haired boy admitted with glee. "Kill some folks, I guess. Make a name for myself!"

"That isn't a bad start," Timebomb replied, clicking closed the lighter. A moment later and it vanished into the palm of his hand. His thumb was still smoking, but it wasn't burned. Timebomb didn't get burned.

"As for myself," he continued. "I just want to do some interesting things before I die. What about you, Reava? Vedic?"

"Huh. I'm not too sure," Reava answered, resting the bloody palms of her hands on her hips. Then the twelve year old New God pointed out to the far off statue. "First thing I'm going to do is see what God looks like! I'll decide the other stuff later."

Vedic didn't respond; he was already walking away.

"Oi, you turning your back on us?" Mayhem snapped, sticking his chin out.

"We all agreed to go our own ways once we were free," their ringleader said, pausing to turn his head just enough to make eye contact.

"You got somewhere to go?" Reava asked with a snort. "This is the last time we'll see each other, isn't it?"

Vedic turned away.

"I'm not like the three of you," he explained. "If it seems like I'm in a hurry, that's because I've already wasted too much time." His head dipped for a moment and angled upwards: it seemed he was looking up at the massive towers that blanketed the city in darkness and fire.

"I don't have an interest in anything on this world." Vedic shrugged in disinterest. "Reava. I hope what you find on the other side of that statue lives up to your expectations. As for me: I won't let my being born on this planet decide my future."

And that said, he walked down the steps and into the shadows of Apokalips, never turning back.

"Heheheh!" Mayhem chortled, and also descended towards the streets of waiting victims. He raised one hand to them as he left, and as a parting farewell added, "Of course... if I meet up with you guys again later... I'll kill you."

Timebomb smirked at that, and also started on his way.

He'd apparently already said all he felt he had to, and left in silence.

Reava watched the three of them go and turned to the far off Statue of God.

_'Everything will become clear... once I see God's face!'_

And then she, too, was gone.

* * *

_'God!'_

Reava flung her arm to the side, a crimson spray coloring the smooth metal floor of the Oracle Chamber. The madness of the last few minutes had finally and completely subsided, not that it did much to fix her own wounds. She was mess but - but she had _God's Gift_, weakened though it was, and it kept her alive. It had always kept her alive. It was the only thing in the universe that she could rely on. God's Gift would not let her die, not here!

Shambling towards the center of the room, one arm hanging limp, the blistered and burned Fury pushed forward.

_'God!'_

Her good hand clutched at her stomach, a grimace of pain clouding her eyes. She felt sicker and more violated than when she had actually been sick, or actually been violated. But none of that mattered. The old her had died the moment she and the others burned down that orphanage. Ever since then, ever since she had fought and killed her way across miles of urban jungle, ever since she had gazed upon the Face of God...! She was a body, a hollow vessel, an instrument and a physical means of enforcing the will of God! She had sought Granny Goodness out. She had never needed the conditioning and brainwashing and torture that so many others needed.

She had **Faith**.

_'God! God... Lord Darkseid... give me Strength!'_

She passed the unconscious Soundwave without stopping. The man had been transformed, turned wholly organic, and now lay curled up in a fetal position. A position Reava herself had been in not more than a minute ago. Though the Eye had been destroyed, the Will of the Old God persisted... at least for a time. It was a good sign. It meant it wasn't too late to salvage the Heart.

Reava saw War Dragon, still in his armor, and still apparently unconscious. The cocoon of flesh that had covered him was gone, as were all the other growths and disturbances that had once threatened to spill out and overflow the chamber. She ignored him for the time being, looking for where Dark Horse had fallen. Counting the bodies, and missing one, his had to be the winged Thanagarian form. It was wearing his armor... despite the bizarre transformation from male to female... and across species no less. Still, he - she - was face down and unconscious.

Star Fire, nor pale skinned and unconsious, was next to him/her, too, and for a moment, Reava entertained killing the woman.

She thought she was so special? So merciful? Like _him_...

Her eyes hardened, but she turned away from the fallen Fury. She didn't matter right now. She wouldn't matter. Not when Reava, and only her, found the Heart of Ixthultu... and from it, the Secret of Secrets. The one thing in all of creation that would light up the Face of God.

The Anti-Life Equation.

Kreiger. Ixthultu's Avatar. He was still again. Dead. Star Fire's makeshift spear had been plunged clean through his possessed left eye. For a moment, the Fury took in the man's face. The Warlord she had been sent to seduce and deceive and manipulate. _Thanagarian fool._

_'If you had only listened to me...! Now look at you. You...'_

She reached her hand back-

"You failure," she whispered, and plunged her hand into his chest. Fingers became claws as she tore away. She had none of War Dragon's technique. She could not simply and cleanly put her hand through someone else. Not in her current condition anyway. It was not neat work. Kreiger's blood was red. Surprisingly, amazingly, uncorrupted... untainted...

She still didn't want to taste any of it. She didn't want to know what he knew. She didn't want him inside her. She didn't want to experience what he had experienced.

Finally, she found it.

_'God! God...! Do you see me, Lord Darkseid? I haven't failed yet!'_

Wiping off her right hand on her left arm and the remains of her clothes and mantle, she opened her palm and cleaned off some of the membranous shell that surrounded the Heart of Ixthultu. It had been partly impaled by the spear stuck in Kreiger's chest, but it was still mostly and miraculously intact. Perhaps it had shifted position within him at the last possible second? Perhaps Kreiger's men had hesitated or wavered in driving the point home? In the end, it didn't matter. Peeling away a coil of white, like layers, there was a sudden hiss...

And in her hand, finally...!

A tiny, black form: a bulbous head and tail-like body, like a tiny fetus with closed eyes.

"Ixthultu! This ship may be a ruin, but I have you at least," she gloated, raising the little fetus to eye level. "I have you! Old God! Our roles are almost reversed, wouldn't you say?"

She chuckled, but failed to elicit a response.

"Speak quickly," she warned, cupping her hands. "Or..."

"**Or what?**"a voice boomed from the tiny organic mass in her hands. "**You'll kill that which can not die? I am the meat and the bones of this damned vessel. My roots run deep in this forsaken place. I will be Reborn.**"

"Maybe," Reava replied, and pressed her hands together. "Maybe not."

"**... enough..."** the thunder relented, fury smoldering.** "You wish a divination? That is why you and these fools had this so called 'Oracle' created, is it not? To find the secrets that are hidden in our universe? Hidden from the prying eyes of mortal races? Hidden even from the cursed eyes of your so called God-Child?**"

"That's right," the Fury answered, and opened her hand to glare down at the little fry. "You taunted me for a seeming eternity about knowledge that predates the New Gods. Knowledge that predates even the hated Malthusians! You will tell me now! What is the Secret of Anti-Life?"

"**Such a secret can not be expressed in words, New God. It can not be given.**"

The tiny black fetus in her palm laughed, a deep, terrible sound like grinding tombstones, deafening as it echoed within the Oracle Chamber.

"**But I know how you gain knowledge. It hardly matters that words alone can not express the Secret. You were born for this moment ... You were sent here for this one purpose! Devour me! Learn all that I know. Only then will the Secret of Anti-Life be revealed to you. Only then will you have what you've come so far for! Endured so much for! Suffered for! Consume my Heart and know the Truth!**"

She eyed the harmless Heart of the Old God, small enough to be crushed between her fingers.

"**Why do you hesitate, Little God? Is it ... fear?**"

"...no."

"**Of course, even being a New God, the forbidden knowledge of Creation will change you. Once heard, once understood, you will never be the same. Are you really willing to give of yourself... utterly... all for your little whelp of a so called God?**"

"I am."

She picked the little black mote out of her hand and lifted it up to her mouth.

"I am!" Reava repeated, more forcefully. "For Lord Darkseid! I've already thrown away everything else! My body! My heart! My soul! My pride! There is no greater honor than to be a martyr for God!"

Lifting the dark heart higher, she prepared to devour it, to learn all that was forbidden. All that was terrible and desired by her Lord! All that would bring about the darkness and perfection of Anti-Life!

An armored boot slammed into her cheek with crushing force. A moment later and Reava was knocked completely off her feet, her head bouncing heavily off the floor where she landed. More important than the agony, the searing pain that coursed through her, the tainted heart flew from her grasp! Even as her world spun around her, her eyes remained glued to the dark lump of flesh as it twirled through the air… she reached for it, cursing herself for losing it.

Only to see it land in the slim, armored hand of the so-called Apocalypse Maiden. The diminutive Fury unhooked her helmet with her free, naked hand, and flipped it off with a single motion, revealing a shock of bright pink hair, the same hue as the energy she threw about with such abandon earlier.

"Would you shut up?" the Maiden growled, a furious grimace twisting her surprisingly young face. "Any moron knows that you never consume an energy field bigger than your head! And I'm pretty damn sure that 'Insane Madness God' falls into that category!"

"I..." Reava forced herself back up, her head spinning and threatening to toss her, sprawling, back onto the floor. "I am... only a vessel ... a means... to bring the Anti Life Equation back..." She slipped and had to work to get back onto her feet. "Break my arms and legs if it makes you feel safe. I don't need them. But I won't fail - won't fail him..."

A dark laugh punctuated her apparent helplessness.

"**Such... devotion. Forever... unreciprocated...!**" Ixthultu rumbled, the sound alone causing the Maiden's hand to tremble.

"**But such is the Way of Gods."** The Ancient One chortled, tiny eyes squinting from wrinkled eyelids to star up at the pink haired Fury. ** "There was a time, Atlantean, when your people worshipped me as devoutly. How pitiful their descendants have become in my absence! Do you worship Zeus, now? Or Poseidon? Or Itzamna? Or Shiva? Have they done anything to warrant your Faith? Yet I know one God you have no prayers for: a stone faced buffoon who sits on a stolen throne and dreams of Anti Life...**"

"Blasphemy!" Reava snarled, finally back up, albeit unsteadily. She held out her hand. "Maiden! You must. This is the will of Lord Darkseid."

"Lord Darkseid, huh?" was the ambivalent response; the Maiden making no move to hand the prize over. "Pathetic."

And then, to add blasphemy to insult, she spat on the floor, missing Reava by inches.

Stunned, whether by the blow or by the blatant insult, Reava lay there, shocked. Her mind raced, reaching for a reason: why? What was this Fury doing? Was she out of touch with reality? Ages may have passed back home, but Lord Darkseid was Lord Darkseid. He was unchanging. Indomitable. Did they no longer need the Anti Life Equation? When why had they -

Her head hurt and her eyes flashed.

Why did they -

Were they -

Slamming her fist into the floor, she felt the thought-thought purified and broken free in the moment of pain.

_Lie!_

Was it a lie when they said they were here to complete the mission? Had they lied about serving Lord Darkseid? Had they lied about serving Apokalips? Had they lied... lied about...?

Why was it so hard to think clearly?

"You," she groaned, glaring up at the so called Apokalips Maiden. "You. **YOU!** You're not a New God! You're not from Apokalips! What in Urgrund are you?"

Jinx smirked. "I'm the future, you stupid bitch, and neither of you have a place there!"

Lifting her hand, the Maiden held the heart out before her, tauntingly within Reava's reach. Before she could reach out to take it, though, pink energy began to race up and down the false Fury's arm, teasingly dancing around the heart but threatening to destroy anything else that drew close.

"So," she continued with more than a little satisfaction in her voice. "The only question left is: is Ixxy the only one I put out of its misery or do you want to join him in Hell?"

"You...! You can't! Wherever you come from, Lord Darkseid will know! He will come for you! He will..." Lip curling with an enraged sneer, Reava suddenly looked down, noticing the traces of blood in the treacherous Fury's spit, a finger's length from her hand. It was distasteful, but... but maybe it was enough. Enough to at least get some glimmer of the world the Lord of Apokalips would one day grind to dust. Just as he would grind all of Creation to dust!

Yet, the Maiden seemed to say, by her silence and superior grin: _'go ahead.'_

Grimacing, the Ancient Fury licked her finger as a flood of thoughts entered her mind-

...

"**Jinx. You have given her a great despair. Inflicted a wound deeper than even I could manage. How cruel. How wonderful.**"

As Reava's eyes widened and her breath came in short, truncated gasps, she fell forward onto her hands and knees. She said not a word. She just shook her head in confusion and despair. Ixthultu was amused. It was... it must have been... madness to her.

Unbelievable, to her. Earth. The Fat and Festering Cradle of the Life Entity itself. Of course IT knew. IT knew the Entity's True Name. In their own way, they were both Old Gods. Gods of creation, life, and reincarnation. Neither could ever truly die.

"**Yes. Yes. Seeing this amuses me! It makes my current ignobility almost bearable.**"

The Heart pulsed within Jinx's hand.

"**Do you see how her so called Faith wavers?**" it inquired, despite being sheathed in the meta-human's murderous energy. "**Do as your heart desires. Kill her. Jinx. Spill her blood. Then crush me. I know you want to. Do it!**"

...

Jinx. Reava now knew the lying witch's true name to be _Jinx_. She had heard the Old God's words. And... and she nodded. A wide, unhinged smile began to stretch the young woman's face in disturbing and painful looking ways. Lifting her free hand, pink lightning began to gather in the palm of her hand. It was a killing light, this power she gathered, this energy which she prepared especially for the time lost and faith forsaken Fury. Ixthultu's madness fed into the fire, tainting it a sickly black.

Though it was an odd final thought, it almost gave the vastly older woman a measure of comfort. Though this witch did not worship Darkseid as a god, she seemed to follow his ways regardless. Maybe there was some hope for this... _Earth_... after all.

"**Do it**," the Old God boomed again.

"I really, really do want to," Jinx breathed, a giggle in her voice. "At this point, it'd be doing her a favor."

"That's right." Reava stared up at her killer and forced herself not to look away. "That's right. It would be a favor. Kill me. Isn't it what I deserve? Do it or I'll make you do it!"

"**Kill her now.**"

Shrugging, as if it were the most casual thing in the world, the armored witch nodded amiably. "Well, if it's what you really want, then who am I to say no?"

With that, she held out her hand, the arcing bolts of lightning beginning to gather in her palm. The incandescent light bathed Reava's face and an unseen wind began to blow across her skin as the crackling power built to a crescendo.

"You are Jinx, my comrade, my friend... and you are no executioner."

A hand dropped down onto Jinx's wrist and pulled it up and away. A hiss of pain filled the witch's ear and she looked to her side, her confusion growing by the moment. The voice had been familiar, and the bright red hair was unchanged, but dark orange skin was now delicate and pink. Who...?

Starfire, or at least that who Jinx thought it was, was struggling to hide a grimace of pain as she held onto the witch's empowered forearm. Even though most of the power was gathered in her palm, the skin on Starfire's hand was already turning a bright blistered red. Pulling her hand back, surprised by how easily she was able to break the grip, Jinx stared at her in confusion.

"...Starfire...?" It was hard to believe. "Is that you?"

Finally releasing her arm, the gathered power already dissipating, Starfire quickly clutched her hand to her chest, even as she nodded. "It is I, Jinx. But what has happened to me is not important. What is happening to you? Never have you shown such a thirst for blood."

_"Kill her."_

Jinx shook her head, a sudden wave of uncertainty overcoming her. Why... why did she want to kill this loser again? Killing wasn't her style, killing was for chumps that weren't good enough to do the job cleanly. Why was she even thinking like this?

"You again!" Reava hissed, but not at her would be killer. Forcing herself up, the physically and mentally beaten Fury seemed to put that aside to direct her hate at her savior. "Don't interfere. Don't get in the way...!"

The sorceress glared at the Fury, lifting her hand again... but no power flared this time. S-should she? It had seemed like the right thing to do a second ago.

"**Yes. You want to do it."** A vast and seductive voice reminded her, and it was right.** "What more reason do you need? Kill her. The only thing you should ask yourself is: How should it be done? How will it most please me?**"

That polarized Jinx in an instant. Reava, the ancient Apokaliptian, she was pathetic, not even worthy of note. Not any more. But there was something she _could_ do.

She nodded to Starfire, as odd as her appearance was.

"You're right, this has-been isn't even worth killing." Grinning vindictively, she lifted her other hand, pulsating black lump of flesh clamped in her fist. "But **this** is!"

"No!" The Fury screamed, leaping at her in a frenzy.

And in that instant, Jinx became a slayer of gods. With the ease of crushing an egg, the shrunken and shriveled Heart of Ixthultu splattered to ooze in her grip before burning away to ash... acrid smoke rose from her hand as her power burned and cleansed the diseased flesh. Tightening her fist, the witch sneered, as if physically crushing what was left would make its destruction any more thorough. Reava's attack, meanwhile, only came up short, as Starfire's now pink skinned form got in the way, expertly intercepting and throwing the larger - maybe even stronger now - woman onto her back with an deft throw.

Stunned nearly beyond words, the Fury lay, back to the floor.

"No... no!" she moaned. "No! That was... my last chance..."

"Kukukuku!" The sniggering laughter of the Sacristan suddenly seemed to echo off the walls of the Oracle Chamber.

"Wasn't that something?" The laughing died as it spoke. "Your group did just as you said they would. But I'll admit I'm still a little disappointed. I would've loved to have seen you end up like Kreiger... Reava. When I saw intruders heading to where you were imprisoned, I was certain that was how this would end. But you took too long. And now... it's so quiet without the Master..."

"Oh, and that is just about enough of the talking head, too," Jinx growled darkly. Stalking over to the severed cranium, she lifted a boot and put it on the Sacristan's crown, preparing to step down. Looking over her shoulder, she nodded to her companion. "You mind if I tie up this loose end? I don't think anyone will miss this piece of crap."

Keeping a wary eye on the collapsed Fury, the ... no longer Tamaranian shook her head. "Whatever that creature is, it ceased being a person long ago."

"No, Jinx."

The interruption - the order - came from one of the unconscious figures, now recovering. Jinx hadn't noticed it herself until now, but her armor must have been pumping her full of stimulants. Everyone except Cyborg would be getting a much heavier remote treatment. Further away, Ryu's busted right arm was starting to slowly move. Yet this first one on his or her feet: the wings that had grown out of the back were starting to flake off, like they'd been made of dust and ash, not flesh and bone and feather.

"Jinx," the winged woman's voice changed slightly, becoming a bit more high pitched. Like Ranma's girl form's voice. "That's... that's for me to do. _Augh_, this does not feel good. Starfire. Are you...?"

Starfire, her skin already beginning to darken once more, nodded quickly. "I am recovering. I can feel it."

Jinx, for her part, let out a huff of frustration. "Yeah, yeah, big whatever. Now why can't I squash Mister Positive over here again?"

Still under her boot, the severed head of the Sacristan gargled a laugh. "Yes, yes? Why not, Mal? Or Saotome? Or whichever of you is in charge right this moment?"

"How does it feel? Huh?" Ranma asked instead, directing the question at the severed head. "Now that Ixthultu's dead?"

"Dead? NO! Not dead!" The head snarled, incensed more at the insult than at the possibility of being crushed. "Just... Quiet. Kreiger is gone. I am gone. Another will be used instead."

Motioning Jinx to back off, Ranma stopped when he towered over the veiled head that had once belonged to Senior Sacristan Belucius Ro. The vile skull managed to return the glare for only a few moments before the yellow-pale eyes closed. For a long handful of seconds, neither said anything. Nor did Ranma move to fully replace Jinx's boot with his own.

"She knew," he finally said, in Ranma-chan's voice. "She knew you sabotaged the Oracle."

At this, the eyes shot open.

"Impossible!" the Head snapped. "None. None may read the runes and sigils as I can! None could see what I... what I... ah!" It suddenly realized it had incriminated itself. "Yes, well. That hardly matters now."

Ranma's armored form looked up at the ceiling. Almost everything in the chamber was back to normal, save for the damage to the floor and to the Nth Metal generator pylons. The intricate weave of carvings and glowing digital runes still hung overhead like a canopy of arcane stars. Behind and around the Oracle itself, and Kreiger's corpse, hundreds of pieces of parchment tied together by rope and wax... remained.

"Kreiger believed the Oracle to be a reflection of the hopes and dreams of the Thanagarian people," Ranma said, seeming to still stare upward. "The answer to 'why are we here' and 'what is the meaning of it all' - that was why it was called the Oracle. That was why this room is covered by prayers."

"The Commander's enemies... Reava's enemies... the slightest mistake, and the ship would collapse in on itself. So they said," the Head explained, and paused. "But..."

At the mention of her name, Reava turned her head, blinked.

"But it wasn't enough just to **destroy** this ship!" the Sacristan replied with a mad laugh. "That was not nearly enough! This room is covered in prayers? I gave Kreiger and his whores a prayer! May they all suffer an eternity of torment! May their dreams become a nightmare!"

"Even if it cost me my life, even if I have to sell my soul, that was my fondest wish!" The Head roared, spittle flying from its veiled mouth. "All of you! I have a prayer for you as well! May you be there, to kill the ones you love! To turn on the ones who trust in you! You are already lost! None of you will ever escape this place!"

Ranma's boot descended, finally snuffing out the voice with a grizzly crack.

A pained groan rose up from behind them, and a familiar voice was heard.

"Alright... L.T. ... you're totally gonna have to explain what the hell all that was about, cuz I don't think any of us know what you're talkin' bout..."

Looking over, Jinx couldn't suppress a smile as she saw Cyborg staggering back to his feet, looking and sounding like his normal self again. Dried bits of skin were falling away as Ixthultu's Will continued to unravel. Without some consciousness guiding it, it could not longer impose itself on reality. Yet it went without saying that the Old God, even if it was a bastard copy of one, was not dead. Merely slain. Merely sleeping. Merely waiting to be reborn.

"Man, I just don't get why I'm still stuck in my girl body," Ranma whined, and looked over his back. "At least the freaky Phoenix Tribe look ain't permanent. As for the rest of this stuff... one of the last memories I kinda uploaded with that Absorbacron was that Shandra and her techs figured that the Oracle, the dimensional drive they used here, had been sabotaged somehow. This ship was never gonna get back to your universe. Not from the start."

He frowned, though in his girl form it was still kind of pouty.

"These poor bastards were dead from the get go. Just their bad luck they ended up here instead of blowing up. Or imploding. Or whatever."

"But why would he sabotage the ship?" Starfire inquired in a puzzled tone.

"As simple and stupid as jealousy," Ranma guessed, but glanced at Reava, too. "Mixed with a few other reasons."

The Fury narrowed her eyes at the so called 'Dark Horse.'

"He was a fool. A weak piece of trash with a broken body no one would ever want," Reava sneered from where she lay on the floor. A hand hammered the ground in frustration. "It was our mistake. Putting a Thanagarian in charge of anything is asking for failure. A race of primitive, flying monkeys!"

"But he wasn't alone," Ranma reminded her. "Kreiger's enemies? Your enemies?"

"My enemies?" the Fury inquired with a disgusted scoff. Now that it didn't look like she was going to get her death wish, her attitude seemed to have taken a turn for the worse again. "All my enemies are dead. Except for you five. There was..."

She blinked, then.

"Or. No. No, that can't be. That can't be!" Reava yelled, now sitting up with one leg tucked under her. "Who could have...?"

Her eyes widened as some sudden realization hit home with the force of a sledgehammer. "That Green Lantern we killed! He must've been a distraction. They knew we were after them! They knew we had part the dimensional beast! But... but Lord Darkseid said... he obviously didn't forsee...! How could he not have known?"

Jinx stalked forward at this and dropped a heavy boot down on Reava's thigh, pressing down with most of her weight. "Alright, you freakin' love birds. Enough with the vague, half spoken crap. Just explain to us what the hell happened, or I'm gonna start killin' people again!"

Unfortunately, this made the Female Fury clam up almost instantly.

"As you... humans... say: go fuck yourself."

Save for some creative language anyway.

For a moment, Jinx looked very much like she was about to unload enough pink energy to burn out a circus. Luckily, a back-to-normal Starfire was able to pull her back from a deed that would've further made a mess of the chamber. Ranma had not been aware that the witch could spit pink fire from her mouth too.

"You're a fairly valuable prisoner," he told the Fury, trying, but failing, to impart some menace to his girl body's tone of voice. He was holding his left arm in obvious pain. "Starfire did a good thing keeping you alive. We're going to pick your brain for information."

"You..." Reava hissed. "You and War Dragon... Ryu... you did something to me. Your psionics! You were the ones who made it so hard to see through your tricks!"

"Guilty as charged," Ranma freely admitted, crossing his arms. "But before we get to all that. Jinx, Star. Use the alien alloy ties and keep our guest on a short leash. Starfire. Check on Ryu. Cyborg. You and I are going to set this 'Oracle' on Rinse, Reheat and Impode. Get all the scans and steal all the tech you can while we're at it."

Cyborg shrugged. "Unless Krieger has that key thing, or whatever it was you told us about earlier, I won't be able to rig this ship to blow at all. I suggest you use those alien memories of yours to figure out where dude might have hidden it before we keep going. I'll check the ship for tech and collect some Nth metal while we wait, though."

Not caring about any of that stuff, Jinx went about the enjoyable business of binding Reava's hands together, doing her best to make it as absolutely uncomfortable as possible.

"As long as his head's mostly intact, we're fine," Ranma replied, walking towards the Oracle and Kreiger's corpse. The device and the body everyone on this ship had died for. With the Heart and Eye of Ixthultu destroyed, whatever life had been keeping the Thanagarian warlord alive had dwindled, to say nothing of the hole Reava had torn in his chest. It was over.

"The command key is telepathic," he explained. "Just like the Absorbacron."

His eyes hardened at the sight of it all.

_'I'll need your memories one last time, Shandra. One last time...'_

It was time to put an end to this cursed vessel and it's tortured crew.

_'__We did it. We won.'_


	42. In the Land of the Blind 1

**_A/N_**

Yikes. Cutting it a bit close tonight.  
I blame Thanksgiving. Oh. And happy day-after (American) Thanksgiving!

* * *

x

* * *

"**Another** one? What is this, a hostel? A day spa!"

The Major didn't sound too pleased to hear that the Kuk Expedition had landed with five warm bodies and were leaving with six.

"You know we only have live containment for one," he growled.

"Containment not currently being used," Nabiki reminded him.

Ranma listened to them on the encrypted teamcomm as he led his team back towards the hangar. While it would've been nice if crushing the Heart of Ixthultu meant that everything was clear and that the ghost ship was full of released spirits and not more reanimated Thanagarian corpses, that would've just been too convenient. Ixthultu could not die in the normal sense. It permeated far too much of this ship to be so easily purged. Still listening to Ryouga and Nabiki argue, Ranma stepped over the still switching body of the Thanagarian flagellant, minding both the conversation with Pathfinder-Actual and the occasional fight on their way to the exit, stage left.

"Yes, I realize that," the acting Major responded to Nabiki's somewhat curt correction. "But keep in mind we aren't supposed to be taking prisoners at all on these operations."

"What do ya want me to do, P-chan?" the pigtailed one finally just asked. "Tell her to face the wall and put a bullet in her head? Dump her out in hard vacuum? Or maybe I should tie her up to something so she can wait for the D-bomb to go off?"

"Look, obviously I'm not suggesting you shoot a POW," he answered, but hastily added the caveat, "Not that she's really a POW. She's a non-human combatant and a legal non entity."

"Ah," Ranma commented dryly, "Just like Starfire was, then?"

"From what you've told me, she's no Starfire."

"No, she isn't," Ranma snapped. "Not even close. But I ain't gonna give her the old yeller treatment either. You can feel free to dump her out the airlock when we're back on the ship if that's what you want."

"Saotome," Ryouga said, after a few seconds of silence. "What's with this attitude?"

"I..." The lieutenant minded himself and coughed. "I dunno. This has been one fucked up mission, man. Everyone's frayed at the edges here, and god knows we're all probably gonna be spendin' the next month either under hot lights or on a head doc's couch. We can handle her. Besides, I _know_ you agree with me, you just want to take the long route to justify it."

Ryouga and Nabiki were silent for a few long seconds.

"Fine," the CO finally decided. "We'll pack her up and bring her home."

"What's she doing now?" Nabiki asked. "I don't like not having a live feed from her."

Ranma smirked and glanced off to his right where Reava was bring herded forward by Starfire while a revived Ryu and Jinx handled point, the former with some difficulty. Cyborg was in the rear of their formation, leaving Ranma, Star and the Apokaliptian in the center. The former Fury had her hands tied behind her back and seemed to have finally given up on impotently glowering at and cursing the lineage of her captors. An extra backpack had been stowed on her, packed full of high tech salvage and other loot for the eggheads back home. Their more precious cargo was, naturally, kept in other people's bags, but for now she was a handy pack mule.

The martial artist rather suspected most of the haul was pretty useless, though, but one never knew. Hence the tried and true X-COM method of taking everything that wasn't fused into the bedrock. 'Loot it all and let the techs sort things out' in other words.

"She's helping us with the luggage," Ranma told the squad operator. "Didn't take long to realize she was the type who'd fight back against someone mean like Jinx but get morose when Star's herding her along."

"And the mental locks you and Ryu put in?"

"Well, she's seen through the ruse, obviously, but they're still technically there. It doesn't look like she's had a lot of training against psi-attacks. At least not the sort we can use." He frowned a bit. "Why? You want me to make her more docile or something? Put in a program not to try and screw us over later?"

"...well..." Ryouga did seem to have at least thought of the possibility. "No. No, there's no need to be that invasive right now. Priority for captures is to bring them in intact and unaltered if possible."

"Speaking of captures," Nabiki spoke up. "SoP on contact with a new hostile species is to obtain at least one corpse for study. I'm not recording any weight distributions on anyone that fits."

"Aside from finding an ... unaltered Thanagarian corpse at this point?" Ranma asked. "Eh. We've got some tissue samples packed away. You really want to us to head back to engineering or something to try and stow away a clean body?"

"We don't have room for it, not with those dead Lanterns we've got on ice," Ryouga replied in the negative. "The tissue samples should be fine. We'll go over the specific mission data at Seiran."

"Sure. Man, though, it'll be good to get back home! Speaking of: how're things with our blue meanie?"

"The Oan has been... cooperative," Ryouga seemed to search for the right word for a second.

"Meddling is more like it," Nabiki corrected him, sounding angry.

"Yeah, well, at least once I get back you can unplug from the Nav."

Again, Ryouga's response was clipped and a bit leery. "...that's right. We'll talk about it when you get back."

Intercepting one of the berserker Thanagarians that broke past Ryu and Jinx, Ranma blocked its arm and stiffly slammed it, face first, into a bulkhead. Elbow to the back of its neck, he twisted and broke the reanimated humanoid abomination in two places. Two of the sharp, bone protrusions that had emerged from the face like misshapen tusks broke off, and Ranma tossed the body away as he continued forward. Even as he did so, however, he winced in pain. His shoulders still hurt, despite being reset, and they were low on pain killer meds.

"Nabiki," he said, sure Ryouga had left the channel. "Is there something going on up there?"

Very much unlike her, the middle Tendo sister also took a few seconds to craft a response.

"Things are... _fine_," she eventually told him, but her emphasis on the word was not encouraging. "But they could be better. Get back soon and get back safe, Ranma."

He blinked at that - was she trying to imply something?

"Right," he replied. "Sure."

* * *

The last leg of the trip took them back through de-pressurized sections of the ship. These were thankfully abandoned and mostly free of actual enemies - most having died before they became properly infected by the corrupted Nth metal on their person - but the lack of atmosphere and the heavy damage provided hazards of their own. To make matters worse, a warp bubble had been detected along their previous route, and so a last minute detour was now required.

Reava listened mutely while Dark H -

While _Lieutenant Saotome_ explained the situation.

Most of what she'd stolen from Jinx's memories was already starting to fade. It was all one could expect from ingesting such a pithy and disgusting piece of the witch and her bodily fluids. Only some of the more stunning and horrific revelations were so flash imprinted on the Fury's mind that she wouldn't - that she _couldn't_ - forget them.

Earth. The Earth Jinx came from. _What a horrible place._ To have repulsed, to have defeated, the Great Darkseid himself, not just once, but multiple times? It was unheard of. It was like New Genesis all over again, but... but worse! Half of the Earther Gods seemed to be constantly fighting the other half. These... 'super villains' they were called. There really weren't appropriate ways to describe them on Apokalips. There were no 'villains' there, only the _strong_ and the _weak_.

Reava had been thinking while tuning out the slow march through the ship. At first, she'd wondered about this Earth Jinx came from and what she'd do... how she'd escape... once she got there. Lord Darkseid had to still have some spies or agents there. His Reach Was Vast after all. It was only a matter of time before she escaped and found her way back home.

But what then?

Failure.

Without a doubt: _failure_. She had failed, colossally. All was lost. Who knew how many millenia had passed since their expedition left the local universe? Or multiverse? If she returned to God after all this time, and she had nothing to show for it...

He would erase her. It would be the Omega Beams. She would suffer worse than the torturer's ministrations and then she would be erased. Granted: she did deserve it. Lord Darkseid had spent considerable time and effort manipulating and undermining the Thanagarians to try and instigate more proxy wars in their sector of space. All that had been put on hold and thrown out in the rush to get involved in the dimensional expedition. She had been entrusted to bring back the Anti Life Equation, or at least something that could help construct it. All that was gone. Undone. The ship was a total loss.

What little research had been done, she had no idea how to retrieve. Saotome and the rest probably had a copy of it, but Reava knew there was little there. They'd been pulled to this Darkseid-forsaken place basically from the get-go. Damn the Sacristan and his sabotage! Damn his Oan puppeteers! How she longed to see them pay for their endless interference in the affairs of the Fourth World! Even after their so called 'Green Lantern Corps' were repulsed from an outright attack on their betters, the Malthusian plague continued to play universal Corrections Officer. Their time would come!

Reava sighed.

_'Someday, anyway,'_ she thought bitterly. _'Not that I'll probably ever see it at this rate.'_

The problem was that, looking back, it was becoming less and less likely that she'd accompany the 'Teen Titans' and their pink haired pet witch back to their Earth. Why would they want to bring her back, after all? She wasn't just dealing with some mindlessly altruistic scum from back home. Saotome and Kumon and the rest were from some other Earth, one Jinx didn't know much about. Was there a Fourth World there, too? There had to be! How could there be a backwater shithole like _Earth_ and not a New Genesis or Apokalips?

Yet - terrible as it was, she was starting to wonder...

"You there," she growled, finally speaking up. With her hands tied behind her back she couldn't point disdainfully like she wanted, but at least she could straighten up her posture to glare at her tormenter. That tormenter being specifically-

"Starfire," she spat the name. "I demand to know if I will be returned to your... to _our_... proper dimension."

The flame haired girl stared back at her for several long moments, apparently trying to form a proper answer. Finally, after several seconds, the Tamaranian's gaze dropped, a stricken look forming on her face.

"It is... unlikely," she answered with a degree of melancholy. "The organization for whom we currently battle, they are - are reluctant to part with any form of specimen."

The others, the humans, were checking and double-checking their gear to go out into vacuum. Damaged sections of armor and exposed flesh were being covered by some sort of foam, perhaps to mitigate low-pressure tissue freezing. It had been a long time since Reava thought about precautions for exo-atmospherics. Some New Gods needed protection; others didn't. As a Fury, her body had been... specially treated and trained... to survive for quite some time in space.

"You - you can not mean to leave me on a world like...!" Reava bit her lip, hard enough to draw blood. Lowering her voice, she leaned closer to the alien girl. "I must return to Apokalips. I must know if... I must see Lord Darkseid. I can explain my failure! He - He'll remember me. Give me another chance! But I can not be confined to world with _No God_. No Darkseid! I can not."

She hated how desperate she sounded. It filled her with disgust, but her getting home could well depend on these 'Titans' taking her with them. Even if her fate was to be burned away by God's Omega Beams, it was her duty to face that end. She deserved to die for her failure anyway. She was... sure of it. It was the way of Apokalips. It was the Order of Tyranny. Treacherously, even if the thought of it filled her with a cold, gnawing sense of fear. If only - if only that pink haired bitch had killed her before! Killed her before her resolve began to slip.

Doubt was even worse than death!

The false-Fury could only shake her head morosely. "I find your belief in your ability to dissuade a monster such as Darkseid from destroying you to be... highly dubious. However, I cannot even say that it is out of mercy that we would not take you with us."

Sighing weakly, the alien girl continued, "Not only have we not found a way home as of yet, we are only even being given the opportunity to make the attempt in exchange for assisting the XCOM organization in their own mission. They owe us no loyalty and I doubt, very much, that we would be able to make any kind of argument on your behalf that would move them to compassion."

The pale Apokaliptian glared daggers into the other woman, her amber eyes almost turning red.

"I am...! I am a _New God!_" she snarled, and just as quickly, deflated. "Not some... not some wretched Lowly or Hunger Dog! I am no Gutter Rat! I am a New God... I am a Female FURY! Not a... a trophy! Not some... laboratory vermin to be experimented on!"

"I am afraid that that is very much what your fate may be," admitted Starfire. "These people are not like the humans I grew to know on our own Earth. They perform horrid experiments upon their own friends..."

The Tamaranian very noticeably lowered her voice then, pointedly looking at the back of the pink haired witch leading their procession. "Not unlike the tragic Akari girl... if they have no regard for that one, I have very little hope for one such as you."

Reava exhaled slowly and licked her lips, eyes darting from the humans back to her captor.

"Yet here _you_ are, safe and sound, with pity to spare," she grumbled sourly. "That Jinx witch, too." At that, a wicked smirk graced her features. "Since these bastards are already in my mind, it isn't like I can pretend to be friendly and harmless. But how can you be sure they'll let you go back home either? Aren't you another valuable specimen?"

"We have no guarantees, if that is what you are referring to," the alien girl replied. She then gestured around them. "And I am not exactly certain to what you refer when you say 'safe and sound'. We have risked our lives many times since becoming displaced, and it is debatable if this is even the worst dimension we have stumbled into during our explorations to find our home."

"Also," Starfire added as an after thought, "I do not believe Jinx holds any pity for you in her heart at the moment."

"Yet she couldn't kill me," the Fury huffed with open disdain. Turning from Starfire, she looked over at the so called meta-human. "Deep down, she's as weak and pathetic as you are. If Saotome or Kumon had wanted to kill me, they would have done so long before you could've intervened. I must've been truly blinded to ever think either of you had the mettle to be a Female Fury. You're both just trash."

At that, the infuriating girl actually had the audacity to grin.

"To be told that I am not fit to be a Fury, the personal dogs of Darkseid, is perhaps the greatest compliment I have ever been paid!" Starfire said with a smile. "In thanks for your kind words, I give you my word that I shall do everything that I can to bring you with us when we return to our home."

Had the Fury possesses eye beams of any sort, Starfire could've been assured that there'd be a hole between her eyes. Even if she had been ... asking for help, and being given the slap in the face that was pity, she could've done without the insult to God. Better to be a chained hound of Hell than some stray mutt. Snorting angrily, Reava snubbed her nose at the Thanagarian.

What did she know anyway?

"Alright, ladies," the so called 'Dark Horse' interrupted. At the vexed look the two gave him, he gave a particularly shit eating grin and playfully inquired. "You two gettin' along okay?"

Two near identical 'hrmf!'s were their reply.

"Good to hear!" he announced, closing the last environmental seal on his helmet. "Since you two can survive sucking vacuum, you should be fine. Stick close. We'll be moving through some collapsed sections and then going down into the hangar instead of up. That means moving through some rough patches. Star. You and Ryu will be catching any butterfinger types who fall."

"Do not fear, Ranma, I will most assuredly catch you when you fall," Starfire replied with a grin of her own.

"Atta girl!" He two-tapped the visor of his helmet - some sort of motion or sign language Reava didn't understand. They had used it before, too. This Starfire and the so called War Dragon she now knew was actually named Ryu Kumon.

Of course... Starfire had no way to communicate with anyone once they were in vacuum. It made sense that they would have hand signs and the like. It was just annoying to not know what they meant. And, in a dark and almost forgotten place, Reava felt a little...

_'Why are they all still working together? When they'd been fighting just before?'_ she stole a look at her Tamaranian tormentor. _'Why are they acting like they trust... even like... one another? Why! After everything they've been through in here, why!'_

She felt a little... jealous.

"Keep moving," Starfire prompted, as the group got underway again.

"Bitch," Reava hissed, but shouldered the weight of the pack they'd saddled her with.

_'Damn them all. I just ...don't understand any of these bastards...'_

* * *

Shandra could see through Ranma's eyes as his team moved through the tangle of wrecked and twisted metal that lay between the outer hull and the remaining inner pressurized sections. Despite everything they had been through, the group moved quickly and efficiently through some fairly treacherous terrain. It was really impressive to watch, especially for a bunch of humanoids incapable of flight. Even Thanagarians with high quality military grade personal gravity belts would have moved more slowly, but perhaps it was urgency pushing the group forward.

Seeing Reava among them, though...

It elicited some rather mixed feelings.

The other half of the 'space' she was trapped in resembled wooden walls and planking. It was probably the inside of some building known to her... well, there wasn't really a good word for what Lieutenant Saotome was to her. Vessel? Most words would imply she had some control over the situation, when in fact she did not. She was basically locked in this cubical room, half-wood and mat, and half-view screen.

The effects of the Absorbacron on this 'human' body were rather different than on another Thanagarian. Shandra didn't feel angry or insulted that she was confined like she was. Somehow the basic memories and consciousness of the old her - the now dead her - had melded with the human thought patterns of her host. And didn't a word like 'host' make her seem like a parasite? 'Guest' was a better term maybe. It wasn't as if she'd planned to take over or infect the mind of some alien. She'd just wanted to get across the information and urgency of the situation and the need to destroy the TNV Kuk.

She wasn't even the real Shandra Mal. She was more like a copy of a copy, made first by the Absorbacron, and then by Saotome _from Saotome_ with her memories and basic personality superimposed. Kind of a mix of human and Thanagarian, but neither. Which was peculiar. It implied 'humans' and Thanagarians were very similar on many levels: mentally and even genetically. If the Absorbacron had been used on, say, a Lizarkon, then it would have recognized the different species and only imparted a basic set of memories. It must've thought that this Ranma Saotome was another Thanagarian, so it attempted a straight download-and-save of the memory files and personality extracts. It was like saving a program with the similar but not-quite-right codec to the wrong part of the brain.

That... would've been potentially very bad.

A victim of such a malfunction could've ended up maladjusted with the implanted information in the same hypothetical space in the brain as the genuine experiences. But still: why had it happened at all? This Saotome person had been able to deal with the unusual information dump, hence why she was here now, isolated to a little virtual box in his mind, but it - it shouldn't have happened in the first place!

How could the Absorbacron's internal diagnostics have so misread what species was accessing it? Even after thousands of years, the safeties were hard coded into the machine. If they'd failed or become corrupted, it was designed to automatically cease functioning entirely. What were these 'humans' anyway? They did kind of look like some of the more baseline New Gods, yes, but they also seemed very... Thanagarian. Some of them knew about her people, too. Shandra hoped she was misreading some of what she'd overheard, but it looked like her people had attacked their world at some point. Probably another military blunder from the sounds of it.

On the view-screen like half of the room, she saw one of the men in the powered armor helping the bionic humanoid across a rather large gap. It was airless out there, but there was still spotty pockets of gravity. From the look of it, it seemed they were moving through one of the collapsed loading docks. There was still a lot of damage there from when some of the munitions stockpile went off. That had been during the first few hours after they arrived in this dimension.

A few moments later, though, she caught sight of something alien.

It was a silver-mercury disk, glimmering with some sort of barrier. It wasn't Thanagarian technology and no one could look at it and say it belonged amid the smashed ruin of the central hanger. There was a large spherical gap in one of the walls. This machine must've burned through, or phased through, or something similar. Shandra couldn't help but be excited by the new technology, and reminded herself that she wasn't just dealing with a group from her dimension. There were others too! If only she could study them! If only-

Well, if only she were still alive.

She felt a presence occupy part of the room in the same sense as one could feel a large body enter the same body of water. There was a mental displacement of sorts and when she turned to the side, she saw her 'host.' He was wearing a very plain white and black uniform, sort of like a bath robe actually. A black belt tied the garment together at the waist. For a moment, her eyes turned to his shoulders, looking for wings, but then she remembered he had none and she glanced back at the view-half of the room.

"Sorry... for putting you through all this," she began. "I'm lucky you're... well... that you have the training to protect yourself. Not many Thanagarians are capable of telepathy.."

"We call it psionics, and yeah, you're damn right we're both lucky," he informed her, but didn't sound all too mad. Ranma walked over, bare feet on some kind of straw mats. "You know why you're in here, right?"

"I do," Shandra answered with a sigh. "You don't want me infecting the rest of your mind. But why'd you let me out earlier?"

"Keeping everything under control while being eaten alive by alien goo or transformed against your will... is kinda tough," he admitted, and added with a grin she could almost hear. "Even for someone as awesome as me."

She snorted, but didn't argue with him about the 'awesome.'

"You know that Jinx girl was trying to kill you for a while there," she said.

"I can read killer intent," he replied.

"And?"

"And this place is affecting all of us," he reminded her. "As for what's coming..."

"You're going to purge me," she guessed, glancing over her shoulder at him. Her wings flapped and folded up behind her. "That's alright. I was never supposed to be anything more than a set of memories anyway. And you've done everything I could ask for. So I don't mind disappearing again."

She frowned a bit and closed her eyes, shaking her head sadly.

"I just... I can't believe we're all dead," she muttered. "And that_ she's_ still alive."

"Hrm. Yeah." He crossed his arms and stood next to her. "I know what you mean."

"If we were Thanagarian..." she ventured.

"I'm sure you'd have clubbed her with one of those maces long ago," Ranma observed with a laugh. But it wasn't a happy one. "She's potentially valuable."

"So she lives," Shandra reasoned, the bitter edge to her voice undisguised. "And everyone else who came here, everyone she planned to betray... almost twenty thousand men and women! We all die. And **she** _lives_."

"It isn't fair, I know..."

The Thanagarian Chief Tech shook her head. "You don't need to justify it to me."

"I don't," he agreed. The two watched as Ranma himself and the others boarded the unusual saucer-shaped ship. "Just like you wanted. We'll implode the dimensional drive. One of our nukes would probably spread bits and pieces of Ixthultu for thousands of kilometers, but this..."

He sighed, crossing his arms tightly. "This will finish it."

The others began to board the silver saucer-shaped vessel.

"Kreiger's dream... was to bring a new age of glory to Thanagar. To show us our place in the universe. The Conquest of Fate he called it." Shandra Mal slowly cupped her hands in her lap, her legs neatly folded beneath her. "I wonder how many others ended up trapped here in this Dimensional Abyss looking for the same thing? Did we deserve this?"

"Was this divine punishment for our working with that bitch from Apokalips?" she wondered aloud, sadly shaking her head. "Or did we simply reach too far in pursuit of the unknown?"

Her host was silent at that.

Finally, he simply said, "I'm sorry. I... don't know."

* * *

Ignition was automatically triggered after distance from target reached two hundred and twenty kilometers. The crashed wreck of the Thanagarian Battlecruiser, TNV Kuk, shimmered as the Oracle dimension-drive predicted a new transit event. It brushed up against the barriers that enveloped this dimension, failed to penetrate, and attempted an automatic shutdown.

Before it could, several pounds of C-4 equivalent detonated, physically severing or destroying critical systems, followed immediately by a trio of elerium-plasmation events that vaporized much of the rest of the Oracle's control chamber. The dimensional drive, now initialized and running, was neither able to safely shut down nor open a transit window. A yellow and orange eye blossomed in the center of the Oracle itself; a caged fragment of a long dead Beast roared; space and time stressed, pulled, sheared and pinched.

A translucent hemispherical bubble three kilometers in diameter enveloped everything surrounding the downed ship. A light from within shifted from red to yellow as the whole thing became a nuclear fireball that suddenly contracted. In the vacuum, there was no wind, no great blast wave. Excavated in a massive circle around the contracted bubble, a blast of base elements erupted into a miniature solar flare. Hydrogen impossibly fused into helium, bathing the inner sphere of the warp damned hulk with high energy radiation. The donut-shaped toroid of nuclear fire lifted up over the blazing dome like a crown.

And then the bubble warped, blended, and contracted into a singularity.

Space continued to flare and blister with secondary dimensional warp bubbles, wracking and torturing the massive spherical hole dig into the mass of the hulk, deep and wide enough to bury a city in. Within that murderous, malignant caldera, dark fused metal and ancient remains long since warped into a solid mass all cooked in the empty space, venting their exposed hatred the only way they could. It glowed like an ingot of molten glass and the convection-less dark of space provided no relief.

It had been cleansed.

* * *

She couldn't see it. Ranma couldn't see it. But they both knew.

"It's done, isn't it?" Shandra asked, and closed her eyes. "Alright. I'm ready."

Ranma nodded and held out his hand.

"Don't worry," he promised her with a small, weak grin. "I won't forget you. _I swear it_."

The fingers closed into a fist - and the room crushed down into nothingness.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a ****Dark Road**

_The Land of the Blind_

Chapter 41

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Ryouga finally set down the yellow, hexagonal communicator, leaving it gently on the dull gray metal of the floor. His fingers actually ached; he had been fighting an endless battle not to crush the small piece of technology into a crumpled yellow ball with each and every shout of fear and pain that had echoed over the integrated commline. Listening in on the running battle of their teammates, but being unable to do anything, had been an exquisite form of torture.

"They're on their way back now," he finally stated, the relief in his voice palpable.

His two companions let out more silent, but equally relieved sighs of their own. Raven actually pressed a hand to her chest, seeming to deflate slightly now that the tension was finally being relieved. For her part, though, Shampoo leaned back heavily against an unmarked crate and lifted her gaze to the ceiling above, a smile adorning her lips.

The lavender haired Amazon then looked back to them, her grin growing. "I told you that everything would be fine. They have _Airen_ with them. You two worry like pair of old men."

"That's odd," Raven replied, turning a lidded gaze the Amazon's way, "I could have _sworn_ that it was you that was … how should I put it? _Gratuitously_ concerned when Ranma had been consumed by Ixthultu's power?"

"Ah! Hmph!" Shampoo replied, abashedly crossing her arms over her chest and wrinkling up the material of her olive green uniform. "Was just concerned for _others_. They all just lucky that Ranma not able to fight all-out or they would have _all_ been lost."

"Heh, you just keep telling yourself that, Shampoo," Ryouga countered in good humor. He felt like pointing out that it had been _Jinx_ that had finished off the… whatever the hell it had been… but, then again, considering his own _slight_ bias, he'd probably sound every bit as bad as Shampoo when she gushed about Ranma.

"Still, sounds like we have maybe five minutes before they get back to the Pathfinder?" he wondered, making a rough guess based on what he'd heard earlier. "Now that the big bad is gone and they're safely through the pressurized areas of the Thanagarian ship, it's just a matter of finding a way into the hangar."

Raven nodded, smoothing out her own uniform. "It will be a relief to have everyone back together. I don't like how the …situation… is evolving here on the ship, and having a few more level headed people around would certainly make me feel better."

Both Ryouga and Shampoo nodded at that. There was a reason they were in the small side storage room. Several reasons, actually. The engine room was currently occupied by the Guardian… and Ukyou, of course. Anyone that wasn't one of the aforementioned, or Major Hibiki, were _strongly_ encouraged to stay the hell out of there.

The main entry room/cargo hold was where Mousse, Kunou and Konatsu had been ordered to stay. All three had suffered mental breakdowns of sorts, the deleterious effects of this damned dimension hitting them harder than anyone else so far. No one really felt quite comfortable hanging out back there, not when it was easier for the Lieutenant to keep an eye on the trio via the ship's sensors. Considering the unsettling actions of both Konatsu and Mousse, and their propensity for stealth and utter lethality… it just seemed safer that way.

It still struck the sergeant as odd, how hit and miss the dimension's mental disruptions were. The three of them, in this room, hadn't seemed to have been affected in any noticeable way yet, but even with them, it merely felt like it was just a matter of time. After all, Cyborg and Jinx had seemed mostly unaffected as well… but what he had heard during that last battle was troubling, to say the least. Plus, Mousse hadn't shown signs of distress until his sudden breakdown. It was like an assassin in their midst, one against which there was no defense.

Of course, worrying about the mental health of the rest of the crew only brought him back to the last reason they were here. Originally, they had been set to watch the mission inside the Thanagarian ship from the Control Room, with Nabiki and the acting Major. It only made sense, since they had to make their report on their mission to the Heresiarch anyway.

But the way the Lieutenant had _stared_ at him...

Weirdly, the older Hibiki had been downright _glad_ to see Raven, and had accepted her report on the mission raptly, but when Ryouga and tried to add his explanation of what had happened deeper within the… whatever the hell that had been… he had just received the most unsettling look from the Lieutenant. It was almost like he was planning a funeral, and that Ryouga was the most likely volunteer to fill the coffin. He'd still finished his report, of course, but rather than try to figure out what the heck was going on, he decided to fall back here where he could listen in on the mission without distractions.

He had actually been surprised when Shampoo had joined him and Raven, though he didn't bother to ask her reasons. The flighty Amazon, a thorn in his side a mere two missions ago, now felt like a lifeline to him: like she was the only member of Juliet or India that he could actually talk to without causing more problems than he solved. Which was really bizarre when he thought too much about it. Then there was that... experience they'd had in Heresiarch.

Shaking his head, Ryouga let out a wry chuckle. No point dwelling too much on _that_.

"I'm with you, Raven," he agreed. "Knowing that Jinx, Star and Cyborg are all back here, safe and sound, is gonna do wonders for my mental health at least. It was like listening to a radio horror show, what they were going through…"

"Hopefully _Airen_ and Vacuum Boy are not too injured," Shampoo added, "Your friends can be… surprisingly ruthless when pushed."

"I just hope that Cyborg can explain what happened to him. I have _never_ seen him act in such a way before," Raven stated emphatically. "Using his full strength on a human, even an armored one? Never even mind the fact that Ryu is our friend… and the sound of his voice when he explained what he was doing…"

Shuddering, Ryouga rose to his feet and began to pace the room.

"Well, whatever it was, he seems to be over it," he reasoned. "Hopefully that will hold for now. It's Star that I'm the most worried about, actually. Whatever happened to her at the start of that mission, even _before_ that _thing_ started messing with them… I don't know if it's safe to send her out on any more missions if that kind of thing could happen again."

Lifting herself up to perch on one of the crates, probably not liking the idea of him looking down on her, even in the most literal sense, Shampoo nodded forlornly to herself. "Is good that you are willing to see it. Though Starfire is like a sister Amazon… her actions lately have been…off putting."

"So, you're going to take her off duty, then? Like Mousse and the rest?" Raven asked in a neutral tone.

Ryouga shrugged helplessly. "What else can I do? Jinx and Cyborg only started acting erratically when Ixx- whatever the hell his name was - showed his ugly face. They didn't go any crazier than Ranma or Ryu did, but the problems with Starfire have been building up for days now."

The violet haired girl's shoulders slumped slightly, but she finally nodded.

"Like Shampoo said, Star has been a bit 'off putting' lately." He grinned darkly at that. "Though not nearly as off putting as the Major. I mean, what was up with that, anyway? Usually, it's me wanting to tear his head off. Seriously, do _I_ look that threatening when I glare at someone?"

Raven and Shampoo shared a quick look, before turning back to him.

"Not even remotely," Raven stated helpfully.

"Ryo – I mean, you - look more like growly puppy when you glare," Shampoo added with a grin.

"Oh, shut up, both of you." He let out an annoyed huff. "Anyway, it's not a big deal, or anything," he insisted, running a hand through his hair. "It's just weird is all."

He took a moment to crouch down and pick up his communicator. A quick check on the screen showed that the absent teams were close by, and approaching the ship. A minute or so later, following standard operating procedure, Cy even sent an IFF ping. Despite the fact they were the only things outside the ship at the moment.

"Anyway, before you guys decide to embarrass me anymore, let's just go and check on the others already." Matching word to deed, he began to walk to the southern doorway.

Shampoo quickly moved to follow him, a visible spring in her step as she was doubtlessly excited to see Ranma again. He could only shake his head at the girl's poor taste in men. Mousse really needed to step up his game, if only to save her from Saotome's clutches!

"Actually, I'll be there in a moment. I just want to check in with the acting Major first," Raven stated, rising up to her own feet. Taking a moment to brush out her skirt, she gestured to the eastern door. "He'll likely want to start discussing the next mission, and I want to make sure he's pointed in the right direction before he speaks with Ranma. I'll just be a few moments, I'm sure."

Though it annoyed the younger Hibiki that Raven wanted to go talk to their overall CO, he could see the logic in it. Nodding, he began to turn back to the south exit, even as she made her way out the east.

…Except his foot refused to move. For just an instant, he felt a twinge in both his head and his chest as he watched her step through the door. Before he even realized what he was doing, his foot actually began to move in the opposite way he wanted.

When Shampoo's hand helpfully smacked him upside the back of the head. "Ugh, Lost Boy is _such_ a stupid _man_. No can even stop thinking about girl for five seconds!"

Ryouga shook his head, far more to clear his head than out of any harm done. Giving it another shake for good measure, he fired a _glare_ the Amazon's way. "What are you talking about? Let's just go already."

Seriously what had that been about? Shrugging off the odd moment, he straightened his own uniform and made his way to the door. After all, he needed to make certain that Jinx…and everyone else… was fine. Behind his back, he couldn't see Shampoo's grin, but he definitely heard it when she giggled to herself.

"Just like growly puppy."

* * *

"Hold up just a minute, sugar."

Ukyou interposed herself between the Titan and the rest of the control room. Her tone was polite and friendly enough, the usual for the okonomiyaki chef, but it was accompanied by a malicious green glow that ebbed and flowed over her body like a sheen of liquid film. A faint amethyst ringed her formerly blue eyes, now green, dying the whites around her pupils.

"For God's sake!" A voice behind the Lantern interrupted, trying to push the threatening hand down. "It's fine. Not like she's interrupting anything!"

Ukyou started to argue, "I was told tha..." But, mid sentence, she shook her head and relented a bit. "...okay, fine. I guess it's not a big deal."

The chef lowered her arm and stepped aside. Notably, to her right, where she was once again between the new arrival and the Nav, occupied by the mission CO. Trespasser was there as well, floating right behind the officer, his small blue hands cupped behind his back. Neither paid any attention to Raven's entrance or Ukyou's behavior.

Nabiki pulled Raven over to her station.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Ranma can't get back here fast enough," the Tendo sister muttered in a whispered voice.

The violet haired Titan nodded her agreement. Glancing over her shoulder at the emerald clad chef, her eyes narrowed. "She certainly is being... exuberant with the displaying of her new powers. Do you mind if I ask just 'who' it was that gave her this order? I don't recall being told that we weren't supposed to enter here."

"I can tell you it wasn't me and it wasn't Ryouga-baby," Nabiki answered.

Raven couldn't help but grin at that. "Nabiki, you couldn't even order Kuno to stop hitting on Starfire if you wanted."

Pouting for a moment, Nabiki shook off the jibe quickly and leaned in a bit closer. "Raven. Are you sure you can't heal the damage from before?" Referring of course to the wounds inflicted on the acting Major by Jinx's entropic powers back when they'd been trapped under a pile of debris. "Even just a little? Anything?" Nabiki asked, worried.

"Not without damaging myself nearly as much in return," she replied in the same hushed tone. "His injuries are not... normal. They extend down to the cellular level. At least it feels that way to me. Were they _just_ cuts or burns, it would be one thing, but with those wounds..."

"It is more like he was poisoned." The Titan dropped her gaze. "I would be willing to try, regardless, but he has been reluctant to risk it. Unless you can change his mind?"

"No. The idiot already hates the idea of you hurting yourself to heal other people, and you're too valuable to leave you injured," Nabiki replied, knowing all too well that the objection wasn't just personal and prideful, but practical as well. "They won't let me get close enough to see, but that Guardian of yours is doing something to Ryouga, isn't he? Can you sense it or anything? Ryouga-baby refused to let Trespasser heal him before, but that's what's happening now, isn't it?"

The empathic girl turned her head, just slightly, towards the front of the room, where the pair in question were positioned. She didn't even blink for several long seconds, before turning back to Nabiki.

"I don't want to risk a telepathic contact as long as **he** is present... but even a passive scan with my empathic abilities seems to confirm what you're implying." Raven's eyes narrowed, first glancing to the Oan, then over her other shoulder to Ukyou. "It's hard to put into words, but it does feel like his reservations to... a great many things... are starting to dissolve."

"This isn't good," Nabiki whispered, for what little good simply lowering her voice could do with that Oan in the room. "You remember before, when that blue midget somehow hacked into our databanks? I've gone over our systems, and I'm pretty sure even with that that he can't fly the ship."

Raven waited, sensing there was more than just that.

"Or activate the EDC," the Tendo sister whispered. "I probably shouldn't have to say it, but if **I** were trying to take over this ship and make sure everyone did what I wanted them to..."

"You'd be doing something similar," Raven guessed. But that also meant: if I have a general idea what someone would do to take over the ship, I'd have a general idea how to undermine it.

As if sensing Raven had come to the right conclusion, Nabiki avoided further discussion of that subject. It would be difficult discussing a plan to backstab a telepath and god-like creature like an Oan. Even if it didn't seem to be paying attention.

"There are protocols regarding the commandeering of this ship by unauthorized entities," Nabiki said, weighing her words carefully. "We don't want to cross those wires, and I personally don't want Ryouga-baby stuck in the Nav for much longer. I have to do something to stop this."

She turned a pair of brown eyes over to the Guardian and the acting Major. For a few lengthy seconds, she just watched, unable to see or feel what Raven had described. She didn't have any serious psionic training or mental powers. Even without a Green Lantern ring, Ukyou alone would have been more than sufficient deterrent to prevent Nabiki's interference. Raven wondered what she was thinking at that moment.

"Raven," she began, voice still conspiratorially low. "Do you trust me?"

There was a looooong, very uncomfortable silence.

"...Define 'trust'..." Raven warily asked.

"I'll take that to mean 'yes, Nabiki-sama, I trust you implicitly!'" And with that, she took a deep steadying breath, stood up straight, and lifted Raven up to eye level with her hands on the Titan's shoulders. Brown eyes flitted to the right again, then back, and she took another deep breath. Raven arched an eyebrow in curiosity; it looked like the older girl was about to scream or something.

"Raven! It's just that this dimension...! It's doing strange things to all of us!" Nabiki declared, more than loud enough to get Ukyou's attention. The chef glanced over at the duo. "Even me! I just... I just...!"

Raven was on the verge of saying, 'what?' when, out of the blue, Nabiki's face dipped and closed the distance between them, locking lips with her half open mouth. Her question was muffled into a surprised half-squeak, half-yelp of indignation. A tingle ran down her spine and she felt Nabiki's grip on the front of her uniform tighten, muted as that seemed compared to the fact that the older girl was nibbling sensually on her lower lip.

A strange inner voice couldn't help but also observe that the Tendo sister was pretty good at this.

"Aw! What the Hell!" Ukyou yelled in the background, shielding her innocent, virgin eyes. "What are you doing!"

"Oh," Nabiki broke the kiss, daintily licking her upper lip. "I'm so..."

An evil glint flashed across her eyes.

"I'm so embarrassed!" she cried in mock-panic, abruptly hurling a shocked Teen Titan across the room with all the force she could muster. Right past Ukyou, who was still shielding her eyes. Right into Trespasser, who was on the verge of turning his head at the sudden and completely unexpected interference.

Raven bowled into the Guardian of the Universe, hitting him with her back with almost pinpoint precision so he ended up flattened beneath her when she hit the ground. A blast of emerald energy, previously invisible, twisted and snapped like the strands of a delicate web hit by a falling branch. Raven almost felt them wrap around her before they came apart completely, vanishing into nothingness.

"**You**!"

Trespasser's voice and mind thundered like a distant hurricane, and Raven fell forward onto her hands and knees as a force pushed her up and away. The enraged Guardian all but erupted from behind her, unharmed by the 'accidental' collision. A blue hand, the size of a child's fist, rose up in anger to mete out divine punishment.

Only to freeze in place as Ryouga's right hand snapped out, grabbing the Oan by the wrist. He remained seated in the Nav chair, but he was clearly back in the here-and-now. As usual, he sounded angry, but his intent was aimed at the Guardian.

"...What do you think you're doing?" the Major's voice snarled, both from his mouth and from the ship's internal comms.

Trespasser glared at the hand around his wrist.

"Ryouga-honey," Ukyou began, "Let him-"

"Eee! I'm so embarrassed!" Nabiki continued to squee, twisting in place with her hands over her eyes.

Lifting herself to her feet, Raven scrubbed her sleeve across her mouth. "Why does this keep _happening_ to me lately?"

"Your body is not fully healed," Trespasser stated in a cold rage. "Release me." Ominously, he repeated the command. "Release me."

"Disciplinary action will be administered according to the chain of command and only according to the chain of command. Raise a hand... raise a FINGER... against one of my people again and I'll kill you," the acting Major stated, murder in his clouded, distant eyes. He let the Oan go and stared down at his hand and arm. "And... I feel fine. This is good enough."

"It is not enough. You are not healed. You are not restored."

"Listen to him, Ryouga-honey," Ukyou added. "He-"

"Squaddie," the officer snapped, cutting her off. "Escort our guest from the CIC. Saotome is almost here, and I want our EDC fixed. NOW."

The okonomiyaki chef turned Green Lantern flinched at the order, but immediately straightened up. "Yes, sir! Trespasser-sama, please, with me?"

The Oan's lip twitched, but slowly Trespasser's glowing green eyes closed.

"...of course. Yes. The Nth Metal." The Guardian of the Universe didn't seem pleased by the reminder, and as they opened again, a look into his smoldering green eyes revealed a lake of green fire. No one could see that furious expression and assume that this one exchange had been the end of it.

"It shall be attended to."

Trespasser decided. Enraged or not, he followed Ukyou out and off the bridge.

"Ooo! What would Daddy think? I don't like girls!" Nabiki continued to mockingly freak out, up to and until the door closed behind the two intruders. Then her expression changed as quickly and sharply as a candle being extinguished, turning serious.

And then, to ruin that, too, she licked her lips and smiled impishly.

"Oh my," she mused in a mock-Kasumi tone. "It seems we caused some trouble back there."

Glaring at the shameless Tendo, Raven let out an indignant huff. She made sure to wipe off her lips one last time before growling, "Is there a reason you couldn't wait for _Jinx_ to get back before you did that? At least she seems to be into that kind of stuff."

"Why, Raven, I don't know what you mean," Nabiki feigned innocence with a sly wink. "Besides, there's just no getting over that unapproachable introverted dark magical girl charm you have."

"Unless you want to be _in-verted_, and I mean from the inside out, I suggest you keep your _hormones_ in check." She then turned to level her glare on the Hibiki in proximity. "And you were saying that _I_ was the one that needed to get laid?"

"Hey, hey," Ryouga asked, pointing from one of them to the other. "Just what's all this about? I felt a spike of killer intent... more intense than... but anyway, what happened? What's going on?"

"Just a little accident," Nabiki told him, sitting back down in her chair. "More importantly, how do you feel, Ryouga-baby?"

"My arm feels... mostly fine," he replied, still partly within the nav computer, his eyes eerily unfocused. "My head, less so." He tapped his forehead, as if to breaking point his headache away. "I was trying to keep the security locks on the Nav in place, but... I guess I blacked out?"

Nabiki crossed her legs and casually rested a hand on her knee, clearly still in thought.

"Hmm," she mused, mind straying for a moment. Then she blinked and bowed her head in apology. "Anyway, Raven, sorry about that. I honestly don't know what came over me. I'm just glad no one was hurt."

Clueless, the acting Major glanced between the two girls in confusion.

"Not _yet_ anyway," Raven muttered. She then turned back to the acting Major. "Speaking of injuries, you should let me check yours, now. I'd like to see just how much that the Guardian was able to heal."

He agreed after considering it for a second. "That's a good idea. Thank you." Seeing her approach, he added, "But I don't want you doing anything to hurt yourself, either. I need you at one hundred percent in case something comes up, not to mention for the next mission. Understood? We're not out of this dimension just yet."

Raven dipped her head in acknowledgment, before pushing him back into his chair. Leaning forwards slightly, she looked him straight in the eyes as she laid her hands on his arms.

"Don't worry," she began, a grin twisting her lips, her face only a few inches from his. "Unlike _some_ people, I can control myself."

"Or so she _says_." Nabiki coyly pressed a finger to her lower lip. "Ryouga-baby, I don't suppose you'd be up for a threesome, would you?"

"**WHAT!**" A certain Dark Titan and Lost Boy all but roared, faces burning red.

"More importantly," Nabiki continued, giggling for a moment becoming serious again. "Ranma and the others are almost here with the Nth Metal. That means you can finally take a break from the Nav and let Ranma pilot again."

At this, Ryouga expressed a grunt that may or may not have been agreeable. Behind him, Raven was still glaring daggers at the crazy Tendo sister and her insufferable ability to switch from one mood and topic to another at the drop of a hat. In fact, it was amazing this Ryouga had managed the same. Clearly he'd been corrupted in more ways than one even before this mission.

"Saotome is... injured, and probably exhausted," he replied, turning away to face the Nav controls and interface directly. "Besides, I'm the one responsible for the ship. For the mission. I have to keep an eye on... on the others... on everything..."

"Ranma is the pilot of Pathfinder," Nabiki reminded him. "Those were Commander Yasuda's orders."

"The circumstances..." Ryouga muttered, starting to waver. "I need to... need to keep control... that's why I had to fix my arm and my body," he insisted, fingers tightening and curling around the lip of the chair's arm rest. "If I weaken, it'll all tear apart. They'll turn on ... each other. I can't be weak. I can't be. I have to watch them..."

Raven frowned at that.

It didn't take a telepath to see that this dimension was affecting their commanding officer, too. In fact, his words reminded her of a set of logs from the Oan ship that Nabiki had passed on to her the other day. _'You need to see this,'_ Nabiki had said, adding a note of her own to the files. The more Raven thought of it, actually, the more similar it seemed. What had that other Green Lantern's name been? The one that had turned paranoid? Hadn't it been the Corps' commanding officer back on that ship?

"If that's the case, Ryouga-baby, then you shouldn't push yourself to the point where you become impaired. You know what being in the Nav too long does to people. Isn't that why we have backups?"

"I... yes," he admitted, wavering a bit more. "That's true..."

"I thought you'd agree," Nabiki continued, her way with words accentuated by a calm, convincing, and confident voice with more than a little affection thrown in to drive it all home. She then addressed Raven, "So what's the prognosis, doc?"

The Titan looked up from her work, her glowing hands hovering over the Major's left arm. "It is... surprisingly good, actually. While far from fully healed, a great deal of the more traumatic damage has been reversed. With enough time, I could probably undo the rest of the damage myself."

He glanced back at her in response to the news. Looking Ryouga in the eyes, Raven donned a more serious expression. "But... tell me, Major. Who is it that you're worried will turn on one another? And if you really are worried... wouldn't it be easier to keep everyone in line if you weren't trapped in the Nav?"

"With the Nav I can see anywhere in the ship," he argued, but frowned as well. "But I also can't move out of this chair." Massaging his temples now, he grimaced at a sharp pain. "I guess..."

His eyes narrowed... and snapped open.

"They're here," he announced, focusing on the ship's navigation interface. This close to him, Raven was surprised by the sudden flash of psionic interference that shot from him back into her. She had been close to both Ranma and Ryouga before when they keyed into the interface - though never quite like she was presently - but this was a feeling she'd never quite encountered before. It was only an educated guess, but it seemed almost like there was an incomplete connection between Ryouga's physical body and the Nav... like an antenna connecting into an otherwise secure system.

Stepping back a bit, she noticed Nabiki watching them. The Tendo sister seemed to sigh and beckon her back over. Without even thinking, Raven blanched, evoking a bemused look in the older woman as if to say, _'I won't bite. This time.'_ Anyway, she looked mostly serious.

Spinning a chair around, Nabiki motioned for Raven to sit next to her.

"By the look on your face, you found out something interesting," the scheming squad coordinator guessed, again keeping her voice low. "And don't look at me like that. I said I was sorry, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did," she replied. "Whether you actually meant it is a completely different matter, though. I'm half tempted to just pass you over and go to my Ryouga with this information."

"And leave me out of the loop?" Nabiki asked, seemingly interested in whether Raven was serious or not.

"At least I can trust _him_ not to randomly kiss me..." A pause. "Wait, that doesn't sound like something I should be bragging about..." Raven gave her head a quick shake. "Regardless, I can't think of a better way to, how do they put it... 'Mess with you', then by cutting you out of 'the loop', as it were."

"I _am_ actually sorry," Nabiki whispered. "But we were being watched and I needed something spontaneous to break up what they were doing. If I thought too much about it beforehand, we'd just have given ourselves away."

She sighed and rested her cheek against her hand, seeming ill at ease. "I also wasn't lying when I said that this dimension is affecting me, too. If something happens to me... I've determined that you're my best bet when it comes to looking out for my squads."

"Despite everything," she continued, seeing Raven's level expression. "I trust you." Slowly grinning, the mercenary girl couldn't help but add, "And I like you. Even though your kissing technique needs work."

Raven felt her eye twitch at that, but managed to stop herself from saying anything else to potentially embarrass herself. Tightly twisting her fist into her skirt, she simply nodded.

"Whatever," she insisted. "Like that kind of stuff is actually important to me. Anyway, what I learned is..."

Nabiki listened as she described the partial healing done by Trespasser, and more critically, what she'd sensed about the vulnerability he had tried to set up in their human-navigation interface. Ryouga's health was important, and Raven could see that clearly in Nabiki's aura if not her expression, but the professional coordinator kept her inquires to what was immediately mission relevant. It was impossible to tell for sure, but Raven was confident that whatever had been set up was incomplete. For the time being, they still had at least some secure control over the ship, and thus, their destiny here.

Having heard all that, the Tendo sister leaned back in her chair and thought.

"Interesting," was all she said at first. "Hmm." A few second later, catching her voice, "Yes."

"I suspect your Guardian is going to try and get rid of me soon, maybe even kill me," Nabiki calmly observed, running scenarios over and over in her head. "I've been a thorn in his side, I have too much information, and it's what I'd do in his shoes. Not that I'd fit in his shoes, but still. He'll probably try it while everyone else it out on the next mission, which is a problem, since I don't particularly want to die just yet."

"I need some insurance in case he succeeds," she thought aloud and pointed at Raven. "That means you."

Raven frowned at that, troubled by the very implication.

"You think he would actually attempt something like that?" she wondered, hardly able to believe it. "I know he's been acting deviously, but to actually make that attempt, with so many people on this ship?"

It seemed... well, insane.

"I'll have to time this right," Nabiki mused and fixed her opposite with a hard stare. "Okay. I think we have time for two, maybe three, more conversations before I'm forced to act. I'm going to give you access to my terminal here. It is important you know everything I've found out, but that I **not know** everything you've found out. Alright? You understand what I'm saying, right?"

"I think you're skipping the part where I'm supposed to know everything you do, because I'm quickly getting lost in this scheme of yours." Raven lanced the brunette with a frustrated stare. "_Why_ do you think he is going to kill you? He needs to get out of this dimension as much as the rest of us, how would killing you help that?"

Nabiki pursed her lips and gave an airy pout.

"How to put it?" she wondered, rolling her eyes. "Imagine you're in a poker game, gambling. Two people have the most chips. One has a very good hand, but not as much money as the richest person, who has a weaker hand. That person places a bet, then raises it, then raises it again. At a certain point, neither one can back down. They both have too much money on the table."

"At that point," she explained, cupping her hands together. "One of the two gamblers has to destroy the other. They don't need to say it. They can feel it in the air and see it in the other person's eyes."

"That Guardian has put too many of his chips on the table," Nabiki continued, looking Raven in the eyes. "We've both reached the point where we have to either fold or call, and he isn't going to fold. Conveniently, I also happen to be the weakest person on this ship, and the only one who can't leave. I'm the most expendable and he's currently the most invaluable. We're trapped here without him, after all. Therefore, I have to lose the game or die calling his bluff."

Raven could only give the older girl a confused look. "I don't... play cards?"

"Don't worry about that, anyway. It isn't important right now," Nabiki assured her with a casual wave. Her right hand snaked over to the control interface near her chair, fingers dancing over holographic keys. "We don't have a lot of time, but I've already noted most of the stuff the person picking up my remaining chips needs to know. If we're lucky, Cyborg and maybe even this Reava woman will have the last few pieces of the puzzle..."

* * *

Jinx let out a sigh of relief so heartfelt that it was actually picked up by her helmet microphone, transmitting her audible gratification to everyone present. The sight of the Pathfinder, hanging silently in the perfect vacuum that currently occupied the massive hangar of the Thanagarian ship, was far more welcome than she would have ever imagined for the goofy looking UFO. Her sigh garnered a weak chuckle from Cyborg, the massive, doubly armor plated teen dropped a companionable hand on her shoulder as the started making their way back to their little home away from home in this maddening dimension.

"Sure is a sight for sore eyes, right, Jinx?" he asked, sounding like she felt.

"Yeah, well, I suppose if you're actually _in_ to that whole 'bastion of safety in an unspeakable hell dimension' thing," she replied flippantly. Rolling her wrist absently, she gestured to the cavernous, nearly pitch interior of the hangar. Ruined fighters, vaguely reminiscent of the biomechanical monstrosities hung at odd angles, half hidden in shadows. It was enough to send a shiver down her spine, remembering their earlier encounters. Luckily, this section of the ship was 'dead' and simply destroyed instead of outright blighted by the madness that had festered within the lower decks.

"One of the _only_ things keeping me from ranking this place as worse than Azarath is fact that I'm way more of a fan of the fire and brimstone motif they had going. Way more stylish, if ya ask me," she added cheekily.

"Oh, I dunno," Cyborg replied, his grin visible through the transparent visor which covered his face and protected him from suffocating to death. "I think the twisted technological look they got in _this_ unspeakable hell dimension is way more interesting than your clichéd 'fire and brimstone hellscape'."

"In your_ dreams_, Tin Man! If we weren't all being slowly driven mad, this place would just be _dull_! I mean, seriously, you've seen one crashed alien ship, you've seen them all. And this place is nothing _but_ crashed alien ships! Talk about tedious!"

"Is that so? Next I suppose you're gonna tell me that your flaming army of hellspawn was scarier than an entire warship filled to the brim with infected, flying space aliens?" He narrowed his eye as he looked down at her, carefully navigating a large gash torn in the walkway leading them back to the ship. They were so close now: only a little more to go. "You know, I'm starting to think you might be biased here, Miss Spellblade."

Jinx let out a bark of laughter at that, slugging him in the shoulder. "Look who's talking, ya Space Marine wanna be!" She started waving her arms to the side mockingly. "Uh-oh, are you runnin' low on juice, Cyborg? You'd better _construct additional pylons_!"

For just a second, he looked about to rebut her statement… only for a stifled snigger to twist his lips. He battled vainly for another second, but in the end – as if there had been any doubt – he broke down laughing.

"Okay, okay, you win. Maybe we're _both_ a bit biased here. Let's just agree that we're not adding either of these places to our list of potential vacation destinations, alright?" He then added, unable to resist, "And besides, we _require more vespene gas_."

The far more lightly armored girl chuckled and nodded, only too happy to agree. Only to stop when Ryu – pausing in his march and allowing the pair of them to catch up to him – fell into step beside her. The sergeant was _not_ looking good, though Jinx kind of hoped that was mostly just the armor. That last fight had been _rough_ on the poor guy, to say nothing of playing host to an extra-dimensional monstrosity. The left arm of his MARS armor was a mangled mess, pretty much coated in that gray goo stuff they used to seal environmental breaches, and there was a massive dent in the heavy chest plate. Every once in a while a few sparks would shoot out from between some of the armored panels.

Even the martial artist's face was only intermittently visible, as the lights inside his helmet blinked on and off randomly, but it didn't seem to worry him, so she figured it would be fine. Once he was at her side, he nodded to her.

"Hey," he spoke up with a slight wheeze, "Isn't that just one reason, though? I thought you said there were a couple of reasons that you ranked Azarath as worse?"

Jinx grimaced at the reminder. "Well, the 'literal hell' thing _was_ pretty bad. But not only was there that, but I also had the _pleasure_ of getting the ever loving _crap_ kicked out of me by _Raven_, to boot! Not only that, but we got ripped off, too!"

"Huh? What do ya mean by that?" he asked, obviously confused. Ryu wasn't the only one, since Cyborg's reaction mirrored those of the sergeant.

She threw her arms up in the air. "Seriously? We had a freakin' _Zombie Slade_ running around, and none of us even got to see the guy! I mean, sure, he tossed all you guys around, then pounded Shampoo into the dirt, but not even so much as a '_Hi, how ya been, Jinx? I haven't seen you since I hired you to destroy the Titans.'_ Talk about rude!"

Ryu looked past Jinx at that, firing in inquiring look Cyborg's way. "Umm…she actually got hired by that fire psycho to destroy you guys?"

"Well… as far as I know, the fire and zombie stuff are new," the Titan explained, "But yeah, we got some… _history_… with Jinx here, as well as Slade. Remind me to check the combat recordings you guys got of him at some point. If there's even a chance we might run into him again when we get back home, then I think the more we know, the better."

"Yeah, not a problem," Ryu responded, "I don't even want to think about that freak right now. As bad as those mutant bird guys were, at least they had the decency to stay dead when ya killed them. Regeneration like that is just cheap."

"Ah well, there's always next time," Jinx bemoaned teasingly. She then shot a glance over her shoulder. "Hey, Star! How is our prisoner?"

Starfire, and Reava, both trailing several yards behind them – just in case Starfire had to react to someone falling and catch them – ignored her completely. The Tamaranian and the Fury didn't so much as turn their heads to acknowledge her question as they trudged along. Needless to say, this annoyed Jinx, and she felt her face go red at the insult.

"_Hey!_ I'm talking to-"

"Jinx, yo!" Cyborg cut her off, giving her shoulder a little shake. She spun on the Cyborg, glaring daggers, only to note the wry grin he was sporting. "Heh, what are ya thinking, girl? Neither of them have helmets, and we're in vacuum. Even if you had your external speakers on, which, by the way, ya don't, just FYI, they couldn't hear you."

Instantly, Jinx's face went bright red, but for an entirely different reason. "S-_shut up_! I… I knew that, it just – just slipped my mind is all!"

"Yeah, yeah, of course ya did, String Bean."

"Okay, that's enough chatter back there," Ranma's brusque voice cut into their conversation/teasing. Even from Jinx's current position, several yards behind the officer, she could tell he was in pain. It wasn't just in his voice, either, as every few minutes the pig tailed martial artist would subtly try to reach up and rub his shoulders, not that the gesture would offer any comfort through his armor. It didn't take a genius to guess that he was conserving pain killer meds. Jinx wasn't sure whether his doing so was prudent or stupidly macho.

Of course, given the option, she always defaulted to 'stupid'.

"We're almost back. Cyborg, send out a matching IFF ping to let them know we're home," the Lieutenant added a moment later.

The sorceress and the cyborg shared a quick look, and then a mutual shrug. Tapping something on the side of his helmet, Cyborg did as ordered, and then they made the rest of their approach in silence.

Soon enough, the Pathfinder was above them again, its gravity bubble shimmering almost imperceptibly in the gloom. The vast, silver hull stood out keenly, nearly as large as a small house, far longer than it was tall, kind of like an odd, metallic 'X'. The airlock was obvious, even if only from experience, as the portal was a faint outline in the otherwise perfectly smooth metal surface.

As if expecting them, which they probably were, actually, the bubble receded away from the entry point, and a moment later, the door slid open in an oddly liquid fashion. Not wasting a second, Ranma motioned them through the airlock door. Faster than her peers, Starfire followed in his path, carrying Reava with her like so much dead weight. For his part, Ryu activated the anti-gravity harness on his MARS armor, and slowly drifted up towards the portal. Jinx prepared to make the leap herself, only to pause when Cyborg stopped her with a hand on the shoulder.

She let out an indignant squawk a second later, when he picked her up and set her on his shoulder. She prepared to clock him – for what little it would do – but his grin gave her just a second's pause.

"Please, allow me," he stated cavalierly.

And with that, blue flares of light sprang to life from beneath his boots, and they quickly began to ascend towards the ship, following closely in Ryu's trail. Not expecting a free ride, Jinx enjoyed it nonetheless. She kicked out her heels excitedly as she felt the slight thrill of acceleration.

"Heh, in normal gravity, my boosters are pretty much just glorified jump jets. In this place, though, they might as well be directional thrusters," explained the boastful Titan.

Jinx rolled her eyes.

"Even more of a dork than Ryouga, I swear," she muttered playfully. _Hm, that was an odd thing to say… _Then, once they were close enough, she kicked off from his chest and arrowed herself through the narrow opening of the airlock. Once Cyborg was in behind her, the gravity bubble reappeared, and she felt herself suddenly return to her full weight.

Not that that was anyone's business!

A quick re-pressurization and a decontamination spray down later, the interior airlock finally opened and they were let back into the ship proper. As expected, there was a hold full of people waiting for them. Well, waiting for everyone else, anyway. She highly doubted anyone was actually happy to see _her_ there.

Slipping off her helmet, she took in a deep breath of sweet, non-slaughter filled air. After being stuck inside that god awful helmet for so long, it was like a little slice of heaven here in this ship. Once she shook her hair out, her pink locks falling flatly across her shoulders – gods, but she needed a shower in the worst way! – she finally took in her surroundings properly.

Of course, Kuno, Mousse and Konatsu were all present. Last she heard, they were all more or less confined here. She still wasn't sure why Kuno was locked up, though, since he didn't seem any more loopy than normal lately. That, and if anyone would be happy to have one more 'beauteous maiden' around, it would be her would-be-samurai. Mousse was silently meditating, making sure he didn't do anything potentially disruptive or dangerous, and Konatsu was leaning against the wall, his hands behind his back.

Also present were Shampoo and Ryouga, the former speaking quietly with Kuno when the door opened. Something about the scene struck Jinx as odd, though. As she took it in, it became more pronounced and she realized what it was. Though Shampoo was talking to Kuno, she was standing far closer to Ryouga, and by correlation, that meant that Ryouga was standing close to _her_… and even stranger, they both looked …comfortable… with the proximity.

It was almost like they didn't even notice it.

A second later, Jinx shook her head violently. Why the heck would she care what the lost boy and the bimbo were up to, anyway? It didn't even matter as, a second later, Starfire – dragging an unfortunate Reava behind her – shot forward and slammed into the bandanna wearing martial artist with monster truck force. Letting out a grunt at the impact, the acting sergeant smiled brightly nonetheless. Wrapping his arms around the flame haired girl, he pulled her tight to his chest.

"Good to see you too, Star," he wheezed out.

"Almost as good as seeing _me_, right, Sergeant?" Cyborg barked out, slapping a hefty hand against Ryouga's back, eliciting another gasp of muted pain. It brought a grin to Jinx's face, and she almost wanted to join in on the 'painful reunion' thing.

"Ha! You wish, Cy! The only one glad to see you back is Raven, and that's only because she wants someone to fix the A/C."

"Oh, cutting deep there, Ryo, cutting deep! I'm gonna start feeling unappreciated if you keep up with that kinda stuff," Cyborg fired back, an expression of mock hurt on his face.

"Yeah, well, it's not like-" Ryouga suddenly paused, mid repartee, back suddenly going ramrod straight and a glassy look filling his eyes. A moment later, he shook his head wildly. "Whoa.. weird. I just had a sudden, inexplicable desire to wring Nabiki's neck... maybe this place is starting to affect me more than I thought?"

"No, that just normal response," Shampoo responded with a catty grin.

Before Ryouga could say anything else, though, Ranma, his helmet now off, stepped in between the two of them. With a jerk of his thumb, he pointed to Reava. "Sergeant, I want you to secure the prisoner… well, somewhere. We need to report in and get this Nth metal to work."

The Lost Boy's gaze slipped to the scowling Fury, only for a vindictive grin to slide onto his face. "With pleasure, sir."

An odd look sprung up on Ranma's face, mirrored by the same one on Jinx's no doubt. Whether from the easy acceptance of the order, or the eager tone with which the lost boy had said it, she couldn't tell though. Shrugging his shoulders, the pigtailed martial artist then made his way to the front of the ship, gesturing for Cyborg and Ryu, both laden down with all of their Nth metal, to follow him. Without even needing to be prompted, Ukyou and Trespasser emerged from the opposite side of the hold. They didn't pay any attention to the new arrivals as they headed to meet up with the officers and make sure their loot from the Thanagarian ship had been worth the trouble.

As soon as they were gone, the attention of those in the room settled back onto, of course, Reava. The Female Fury was staring, wide eyed, at the bridge doors, a look of genuine terror on her face. Her back was pressed hard up against the wall, almost as if she wanted to push herself through it and back out into space. It was entirely different from the desperation and despair she had exhibited before. She looked even a shade paler than normal.

It had to have been the Oan that elicited this reaction.

It took a few seconds, but her expression turned neutral, calculating, and then the normal angry. The blonde Apokaliptian turned her stare first on Starfire, standing so close to the martial artist's side, then she directed a downward, imperious gaze onto the acting Sergeant.

"So, what are you then?" she asked. "Another of these pathetic, coddling –_hurk!"_

Whatever she was going to say was cut off cruelly when Ryouga clamped his hand around her throat and lifted her off the ground as casually as most people would lift a paper clip. He leaned forward, pulling her close until their faces were only inches apart, his heated glare trying to burn away the Fury's own eyes.

"I am someone that does _not_ abide by seeing my friends insulted, do you understand?" he asked in a low growl. Reava's eyes bulged slightly from the pressure he applied to her throat with his vise like grip. "Don't think I didn't hear _every word_ that you spat at Starfire while you were on that ship."

Worried expressions began to grow on a few of the faces around the room, most notably on Kuno's and Starfire's. Not giving Reava a chance to respond, Ryouga effortlessly carried her to the far corner of the room, and pulled out an alien alloy tie from his uniform pants. A second later, he used the tie to anchor the ties already wrapped around the Fury's wrists to one of the cargo loops built into the wall. Her wrists raised over her head, hands crossed, the New God sniffed angrily but put up with the position she'd been put in. It was no secret that the Thanagarians had done much, much worse when they'd finally captured her after the race riot she'd incited.

"Now," Ryouga continued, still not removing his hand, "Just let me reiterate. If I so much as _think_ I heard you insult one of my friends, I will _break _you."

Only then, did he finally release her. Reava gasped loudly for breath the instant his hand moved away from her throat, but she was not even able to reach her own neck to rub it with her hands - not with them strapped to the wall above her head. Ryouga simply matched her gaze, apparently waiting to see if she would say anything… but after several seconds passed, the Fury said nothing. Nodding to himself, Ryouga then turned his back on her and moved back to the center of the hold, where Starfire and Shampoo were still standing. The former looked at him, concerned look still on her face.

"Ryouga…?"

Shampoo, however, wore an odd little grin. "Hmm. Maybe puppy starting to grow up?"

Jinx head tilted at that, whatever the heck it was supposed to mean. Anyway, at least now she could have some peace and quiet. She started to make her way to the side storage area, where hopefully no one was lurking. Now that Star finally had Ryouga to herself, and what with that weird, kinda kinky relationship they had, there wasn't a power in the 'verse that could pull those two apart.

Considering all the trauma that the alien girl apparently went through, the Tamaranian would probably be crying on his shoulder for the next hour, then trying to slip her way into his pants for the hour after that. That meant Jinx could hopefully sneak a nap in while no one was paying any attention, too-

"Jinx, wait."

Jinx, doing so more out of shock than obedience, actually did just that. Nearly frozen in place, she turned to look over her shoulder… only to stare incredulously when she noticed Ryouga standing right behind her. Several yards past him, Starfire watched the pair of them, an … impossible to read expression on her face. A moment later, though, when she noticed Jinx noticing her, she quickly turned away and began to speak to Shampoo.

Not sure what was going on, Jinx waited for Ryouga to say something first. What exactly _was_ going on? The wide smile on his face, though it looked like he was fighting vainly to contain it, set her a bit on edge.

"I just wanted to make sure that you're …alright," he started lamely. It sounded, for all the world, like he'd wanted to say something else, but then settled on some last second improvisation instead. It was something she'd seen before, though usually it only happened when guys were trying to hit on her.

"Umm… thanks, Sarge," she replied a bit uneasily. "I'm good to go, though. It was craptastic in there, but I got through."

He nodded, the relief on his face palpable. "That good to hear. It's … it's good to see you again. '_Alright', _I mean! It's good to see you _'_alright', or fine! Yeah, it's good that you're fine," a moment's frantic pause, "Um, not to say that you're not _always _fine, since you are, but, I'm just glad that you're … un-hurt?"

Despite herself, Jinx felt the corner of her lip twinge upwards. She was pretty sure he was simple enough to have missed his own double meaning there, not that she minded being told just how _fine_ she was, but it was still cute. She just wished she could figure out why he was acting so oddly. They'd already hashed out the whole 'Headmaster issue', after all. …Hadn't they? So many things were still so… so iffy to her lately.

"Well, thanks again, Hibiki," she amiably replied. "Is… that everything?"

He quickly shook his head, only to step in just a little bit closer, almost conspiratorially close.

"Actually," he added in a quiet voice, "I wanted to thank you, too. For figuring out how to bluff that Fury lady." A wide grin now. "She must _totally_ think I'm a second away from popping her head right off."

Jinx's eyes shot wide open at that. She fired back in a quiet whisper of her own. "You mean… you were just _acting_ back there? _I_ thought you were gonna kill her!"

"Heh, at least I didn't _deck_ her, like _someone_ here did," he reposted cheekily. "I think that should keep her quiet, at least for a little bit, don't you?"

She nodded, unable to hide her own smile. Who woulda thought he'd have that kind of deviousness hidden in him? Then again, he did take the same class she had in Acting for Evil and Profit.

"I guess it will," she agreed. She then looked down at her own appearance, noting her mightily abused personal armor. "Alright, as amusing as that was, I wanna get outta this tin suit in the _worst_ way. Is there anything else you need?"

This time he nodded, though a most serious expression settled on his face, dispersing all of the mirth he'd been displaying a moment earlier. Glancing over his shoulder, he let out a weary sigh.

"Actually… there is one last thing I need to do," he told her. "Before you get changed, I don't suppose that you could… I dunno, back me up? I don't expect any trouble, but still, I don't know if I'll be able to do it on my own."

She tilted her head to the side. Now, what could he have possibly meant by that?

* * *

Acting Major Ryouga Hibiki relinquished the Nav with obvious difficulty, but having already been talked into it by Nabiki and Raven, he was in no position to argue. When he finally rose from the pilot's seat, his body was in better shape than when he first sat down, but his mind was clearly worse off. He was also shivering from the loss of contact, experiencing the separation from the psionic circuitry almost like withdrawal.

Muscles tensed as he watched Ranma take the seat instead, but Raven's hand on his upper arm brought a certain resigned and forced acceptance. Instead, his arms crossed and his brow kitted as he fought to remain under control. Neither Nabiki nor Raven nor Ranma had to say so, but it was clear that either this dimension or Trespasser or both were taking their toll on the Pathfinder Mission's commanding officer.

With just a thought, Ranma was back in the Nav - he remained peripherally integrated and turned back around in the chair.

"So," he began.

"So we have the Nth Metal," Ryouga confirmed, picking up at the lieutenant's prompting. "And Trespasser has... whatever it was he got from Heresiarch. One more stop, then, and we'll finally see if he can really get us home."

"I still ain't happy having to rely on this guy so much," Ranma said, his displeasure evident in his disembodied voice though not showing his face. "Even if he fixes the damn EDC, who knows were we'll end up. Maybe your dimension, Rae, maybe somewhere worse. I wouldn't be surprised if he sends us to wherever Heresiarch came from."

"Unfortunately, I have very little knowledge of either what was retrieved, or where that entity was from," Raven explained, sensing that there were unspoken questions there. "Though my mind touched his... it... it was like an ant trying to fathom an ocean. Our perception of reality and our places in it were that different."

"See, that's the kinda stuff that ain't exactly encouraging," the Saotome heir argued.

"And what have I told you about calling me 'Rae?"

"To only do it if it's funny, I think?"

"_Nonetheless_, the facts are that we don't have many options," Ryouga stated, arms still tightly crossed. Walking away from Raven, he slowly paced the far side of the room. "Cyborg is the biggest brain we've got and he doesn't know how to restore EDC functionality. We also saw just minutes ago that even a working d-drive causes a destructive reaction in this space. We can't stay here, or we'll end up like those Green Lanterns. So, if we're a fox caught in a snare, and the only way out is to gnaw our leg off or trust a weasel to do the same, then that's what we'll have to do."

"More like a fox and a scorpion," Nabiki said, still seated by her console. "You remember how that story ended, don't you Ryouga-baby?" She smirked. "Then again, sometimes foxes eat scorpions, too."

"The next mission on the Guardian's itinerary was to retrieve this 'archive' he spoke of." Raven hovered by Ranma and the Nav, though not literally. "I assume that's what he'll be using to get us out of this 'snare' of a dimension, everything else being parts necessary to power up the EDC."

She licked her lips, betraying a slight anxiety as she and calmly added, "You're all probably aware of this, but if we do return to 'my dimension' then Trespasser will be far more powerful than he is now. The only thing keeping him in check here is that he doesn't want to risk a backlash."

"He's already more powerful than any of us put together," Nabiki stated. "Even I know that."

"In case of capture or compromised security, Icarus..."

"I know, Saotome," Ryouga cut him off and sighed. He turned quickly towards Raven, the one person present who wouldn't know about that protocol.

"She knows already," Nabiki spoke up, explaining. "We need someone to take my place if I become incapacitated."

"Ah. Well, that's fine then, I suppose," he decided, approving of the choice. Not that there were many. That one incident aside, the dark titan was efficient and effective, the two things the acting Major held in the highest esteem when it came to their line of work.

"I already plotted the course to our next navigation point and prepared our recon elements. We've got a few hours and our people need to rest," Ryouga continued, fighting a wince as another shiver ran down his arms. He looked down at his formerly cracked and hexxed hand - it was still marked by splits in the skin, but not so deeply, and not tainted by reddish energy.

"We could all use some time to eat and sleep before we commit to the next mission," he said, addressing those present. "First, let's go over the mission you just returned from, Saotome. Not just the tactical logs, either. We need to know who we can afford to send out again and who we have to keep on the ship, for whatever reason. I'm also inclined to at least keep Cyborg onboard to keep an eye on the Oan while it works its magic on our drive."

Ranma sniffed. "Sure. Good place to start as any. Oh yeah... there's also our newest captive."

"You didn't consider her a danger when we spoke before," Ryouga wondered. "A shame we don't have a muzzle."

"Or a ball and gag," Nabiki added with a giggle. "What? I was the only one thinking it?"

"You were," Raven answered, deadpan.

"I don't think she's a serious threat at this point," Ranma explained himself, coughing abashedly at the implied kinkiness. "But I was talking more specifically about her treatment as a prisoner. We have limited food and water, even with the recycling systems. She also requires some medical aid but I'd rather not dip into our limited supplies. Unlike the Guardian, we already have a psionic lock on her, so one of us should interrogate her as well."

"Since you're piloting the ship, then it'll have to be me," Ryouga realized... only to have his eyes stray over to a third option. "Raven. You'll come with me. Together, we shouldn't need Ryu or anyone else."

She seemed about to suggest, _'I can do it myself, if I have to...'_

But instead inclined her head. "Yes, sir."

Expression schooled, Nabiki kept from smirking.

* * *

With one last, loud snap, the remainder of Starfire's ruined armor dropped to the floor with a clatter. Kindly, Shampoo held out her hand and offered the Tamaranian a pair of trousers, and with an exhausted smile she accepted the article of clothing and donned them post-haste. Mousse, who seemed to be having some trouble communicating lately, and Konatsu, who's moods had been... worrisome of late, were bashful enough to look away as she changed. Kuno, on the other hand, seemed to be very much himself at the moment.

Not paying any mind to the swordsman's piqued interest in the tone of her skin, Starfire turned to Shampoo. "I thank you greatly for your assistance. I had not realized the extent to which I had damaged my armor. I would not have enjoyed wearing it for the rest of our voyage."

"You do realize that your Metal Man is going to kill you when he finally has time to realize that you've destroyed yet another set of armor which he made for you," the lavender haired Amazon fired back with a grin. "I've never cared much for modesty myself, but you almost seem to prefer to be without clothing."

"Now, now, my comrade in arms, you say that as if it is distasteful." Kunou grinned broadly, sitting forward from his position against the wall. Despite everything, his uniform still seemed to be nearly pristine, and his hair seemed only partially diminished by their lengthy time without showers. "The far greater crime would be for such a vision of loveliness to forever hide her beauty from the world."

Despite herself, Starfire could not help herself from blushing slightly. Of course, it was only logical that a mere human would be so stricken by the beauty of a Tamaranian woman, but she enjoyed the attention nonetheless. Ryu, on the other hand, and despite his previously friendly nature, had turned out to be totally uninterested. But his disdain for her was quite overt indeed. Not that the traitorous human was even worthy to gaze upon her-

The Tamaranian gave her head a furious shake, sending her crimson locks whipping through the air. Ducking back quickly, Shampoo narrowly avoided getting smacked in the face by follicles, and let out an annoyed grunt.

"What that all about?" she asked. "You feeling alright, Floaty Girl?"

"Oh, of course," Starfire hastily replied. She stole a glance over her shoulder to see Ryouga still speaking with Jinx. Her eyes narrowed at the sight. At least Ryu's fixation on Ukyou made some small sense. Why her Ryouga was spending time with _that girl_ was beyond comprehension. After the... the _reprehensible_ way she had treated him? Finally revealing her true nature after all of this time.

Uncaring, cruel, wicked and just so _human_ -

"Hey, Floaty Girl!" Shampoo's bark quickly spun Starfire's head back and around to focus on the shorter, though older girl. The Amazon eyed her warily. "You aren't having problems with your teammates, are you?"

"O-of course not!" Feeling her face heat up, the Tamaranian began to study her bare feet intently. "I just find it... baffling, is all. That Ryouga would still show such concern for one that so hurt his heart."

This time, it was Shampoo that glanced past Starfire. An odd look settled on the Amazon's face as she studied the pair, but she quickly looked away as well. Turning her full attention to the alien girl, Shampoo pierced her with a serious stare.

"Starfire... I don't know much about the way things are between the people in your team. Nor do I even want to know anything about the Pink-Haired Witch. About Lost Boy I do know, though ... more than I ever wanted to. You need realize - you need _to_ realize that, even though Pink Witch lose feelings for Sergeant, his feelings haven't changed at all."

Worse than the fact that Shampoo had said it, was that she seemed so sure of it.

"It is... hard to just ignore what your heart says, even if all it brings you is pain," whispered the Amazon in a low tone. Starfire could only nod. It was something she had come to know, and she had no doubt that Shampoo spoke from personal experience as well. She knew, keenly, how the Amazon felt about her Lieutenant, about her Ranma.

Was there anything more tragic than love unrequited? Starfire had experienced the feeling herself, not so long ago, but nothing to the extent which Shampoo had been subjected. Or what it seemed that Ryouga would soon experience himself. Why did things not ever seem to work out as expected, as people promised they would?

They both held their silence for a moment, until finally Shampoo raised her gaze from the floor. Looking past Starfire again, her eyes widened for a moment. "Oh, Starfire, there is something I should tell you..."

"Indeed, what is that?" she inquired. Had something occurred during their absence? Things seemed far from ideal lately, but what could be minor enough to slip her companion's mind, yet important enough to engender such a tentative declaration from the fierce Amazon?

"It is about your Lost Boy. He..." Shampoo cut off her revelation with a sharp curse. "Damnit. It is not my place to tell you, but – but you need to know..."

"Need to know what?"

"I-"

"Hey you two." As one, both women started at the unexpected voice. Both turned to see Ryouga and Jinx standing behind them, and the pair wore hard to read expressions, expressions which were most definitely not ones of joy. The latter had yet to change out of her battered and abused armor, and actually looked far closer in size to the sergeant than usual. It was something of a disquieting sight, actually.

Ryouga offered Shampoo a polite nod, which was returned, and then turned his attention Starfire's way. The Tamaranian swallowed nervously, not even certain why the sudden interest he demonstrated was causing her such unease.

"Starfire," he began. "There's something I need to do... but I want you to understand that I'm only doing it because I think it's for the best."

The Tamaranian tilted her head as she regarded her dear friend. "I... am not certain I understand your meaning, Ryouga. What is it that you feel compelled to do, but that you feel concerned over doing?"

As the acting Sergeant let out a tired sigh, Starfire felt a hand drop on her shoulder. Turning, she offered Shampoo an odd look, the Amazon giving a reassuring squeeze to her shoulder when their eyes met.

"Starfire." Ryouga began anew, squaring his shoulders and speaking firmly, in a manner most unusual for him. It was a manner of speaking she found much more fitting to be used by the hard edged Major, not by her own sweet Hibiki.

"Starfire," he said in one breath. "You are hereby relieved of duty."

A long pause followed in the wake of the statement. Starfire felt her jaw hang open, the words not making any sense to her. Staring at her dear friend, confusion clear on her face, she strived to eliminate the obvious misunderstanding.

"Excuse me?" she asked, blinking. "You have confused me with your statement. It sounded almost as if-"

"There's no mistake," he replied, "I'm taking you off of active duty for the remainder of the mission."

"B-but for what _reason?_" she asked, in fact, she very nearly pleaded. "I performed ably on our latest excursion!"

He nodded, as did Jinx, though she did more subtly, but the expression on his face did not change. "You did. No one is denying that. However, you also suffered several severe instances of... instability."

"B-but everyone was affected negatively by our time on that ship..." she argued weakly.

"That may be true, but the reports I read when I returned stated that you suffered from a near breakdown close to the start of your mission." Ryouga stared at her forcefully, though she could see the sympathy hidden at the back of his eyes. "You were also suffering from delusions. You – you even attacked Ryu at one point. And all of this was before contact with any of the... things which began to affect everyone else's perceptions."

Looking down, the acting sergeant absently smoothed out his uniform shirt, careful not to pop off the shiny buttons. "Starfire... I'm afraid that it wasn't the Thanagarian... entity... that was affecting you. I think it's the result of this damn dimension we're in."

Stepping forward, Jinx gestured to Kuno, Mousse and Konatsu, the former and the latter looking around uncomfortably, while Mousse still bore an expression of meditative detachment. He couldn't trust anything he heard, and was usually making a conscious effort not to act on anything he thought he heard. The other two, who very well could hear what was going on, reacted differently. Konatsu closed his eyes, schooling himself behind a mask. Kuno frowned in sympathy.

"It's not just you, Star," Jinx reminded her. "It's happening to all of us. It's just affecting some people faster than others, for some reason."

The Tamaranian stared at the former villainess, bewildered for a moment. Why – why was Jinx trying to comfort her? She had callously torn Ryouga's heart from his chest, metaphorically speaking, without even a second of hesitation! So why did she even care to try and mitigate Starfire's own dilemma?

"It's not just that, either," Ryouga quickly added. Pointing to the pile of scrapped armor on the floor, he continued, "You've also lost your NBC protection. I know you don't need to breathe in space, but what if we run into some kind of poisonous gas, or acid cloud, or biological ... thing on the next ship we search? There's no way I can risk sending you into something potentially dangerous like that, no matter how insanely tough you are. And considering it's me saying that, hopefully that should drive home just how irrational my fear is that you could get hurt."

Despite herself, Starfire felt the corner of her lip twitch up. She could feel that his concern was genuine, misplaced as it was. She could also see that his joking facade was far more strained than he would have liked to let on. No doubt he had been listening to the latter events of their own mission; was it really any surprise that he was so reluctant to see her place herself in harm's way after such a harrowing experience?

Turning around, she glanced at the three other soldiers whom had been relieved of duty. Konatsu still had nothing to say, and Mousse lacked the ability, however the swordsman rose to his feet and took several steps forward to join them. Nodding solemnly, he took her hand into his own.

"I know well it must pain you to be removed from the field of battle, though you still possess the will to continue fighting." He offered a compassionate smile. "But our duty is not only to ourselves, but to our comrades as well. With... with the accursed effects this hellish place is invoking within us, it is possible, however unthinkable, that we might become a threat to the very friends we wish to defend."

Matching her gaze with his dark, walnut colored eyes, he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Also, you would be granting a much needed boon to myself, in this, my time of greatest need." He nodded back to his companions. "For many hours I have been asked to hold company with these louts. Enjoying the company of such loveliness would surely pull me back from the brink of darkness, for what power exists that cannot be banished by the unfathomable power of love?"

Her face flushed with heat and Starfire lifted her free hand to hold her cheek as she felt a smile fight its way onto her face.

"Okay, that's enough of that, Lover Boy!" Jinx barked in obvious annoyance. Swatting away at the kendoist, the pink haired, fully armored girl shooed him back and away from Starfire. Giving one last shove, Jinx then turned on Starfire, rolling her eyes fully. "Sheesh, that guy is smooth, but _so_ shameless!"

Taking a step forward, the pink haired-witch draped an arm around Starfire's shoulder, or at least tried to, having to reach up quite a bit to do so, and began to drag her to the front of the room. "Come on, training buddy. Let's go tell the CO what's going on; get you away from the lechers for a bit."

Starfire tilted her head, regarding the sorceress oddly. "You... still recall our time of training back in Seiran?"

"What? Of course I do! Kind of hard to forget something like that, don't ya think?"

Glancing back over her shoulder, taking in the crestfallen expression that settled on Ryouga's face as he heard the exchange, she could only shake her head sadly.

"I... do not know what to think, as of late..."

With that, she allowed herself to be led to the ship's Command Center.

Doubtlessly she had yet another unpleasant discussion awaiting just beyond this door as well.

* * *

"This is our target."

The screen displayed a rather amorphous looking blob, set into the vast expanse of the hollow sphere that was the dimensional abyss. Like with Heresiarch, the scale of the so called target was clearly massive, and the weathered surface was warped and flattened almost beyond recognition. Superficially, it seemed almost like the mountainous throne that bore Heresiarch, but this mountain was broken up into sharp cliffs, fjords and ridges. They were too distinct and angular to be natural.

An overlay first mapped out the area topographically and then put numbers to the dimensions: the conglomeration of structures was more than ten miles across but now lay mostly buried, consumed by the weathering and warping effects of this hostile dimensional space. With the overlay providing more contrast and relief, the mess of structures resembled the elevated promontories of an alien southwest, replete with deserts of shifting metallic sand.

"According to Trespasser, this is the uppermost portion of a megastructure larger than any city on Earth," Ryouga the officer explained, staring evenly at the displays. "One that predated his own arrival in this dimension by at least twenty million years. The technology within it is of particular interest... because the aliens that constructed it are the predecessors of the ones who built this ship and our EDC."

"Woah, hold up," Cyborg said, holding up a hand. "You mean the aliens you guys are fighting... the ones attacking Earth in little scout ships like this... built city sized suckers millions of years ago?"

"We were never able to learn much about the aliens outside our solar system," Ranma answered, still seated comfortably in the pilot's Nav. "From what we know, they run things in a very... umm, what's the word?"

"Compartmentalized," Nabiki suggested.

"Yeah," Ranma said, nodding at her. "Compartmentalized. Groups of 'em form these communal minds, like the one on Mars, and only the Minds communicate with other Minds. They seem to be organized to do specific things. Our aliens have been experimenting and visiting and fucking up Earth for like a hundred thousand years or more. None of the aliens live that long as far as we know, not even Ethereals, but the Minds can probably keep going for however long they need. I guess spending a couple millennia screwing with humans for whatever reason seemed like a good use of time when you're immortal and crap, and its worked fine for 'em up until a few years ago."

"This is the first time XCOM has found alien technology on this scale... or this old," Ryouga told them, now glaring at the screen with cool contempt. "To my knowledge, anyway. It also implies that the aliens on Mars aren't an accurate representation of what their kin elsewhere in the galaxy are capable of."

"It could be lost tech, too," Cyborg suggested. "Wouldn't be the first time an ancient alien civ became a shadow of their former glory and all that. Happens pretty frequently back home from what I hear, right Star?"

The Tamaranian princess, looking particularly dour, having not long before the meeting informed him of her dismissal from active duty, nodded. Looking away, her eyes firmly on the floor, she answered in a low voice.

"It is true. Legend has it that the Okaarans possessed a civilization which reached to the stars themselves over a billion years before humans even evolved. However, some unknown tragedy struck their home world countless ages ago. Now they are content to remain hidden beneath its surface, forever perfecting their mastery over both the concepts of war, and peace..."

"Technological stagnation I can buy, but regression?" Ryu asked. Despite returning from the mission to the Thanagarian ship, he seemed far slower to recover than Ranma, and the Yamasenken master looked haggard and exhausted aside from the bandages covering his chest and left arm.

"I dunno," he grumbled. "Just seems weird for people to go backwards like that."

Ryouga faced the assembled squad members of India, Juliet and Yankee. "Regardless. Given that this... thing has been here for so long, I have my doubts there is anything left to salvage from. Trespasser has informed me that while it may be possible to fix the EDC and transit out of here without the data in the so called 'archive' on that ship... he estimated our survival to be some absurdly low number. I'm pretty sure he was just pulling it out of his blue ass."

There were a few muted laughs at that; the Oan was not present at the moment.

"Still, if we can pull this off, it will help our chances," the acting Major said, "And twenty percent is twice as good as ten percent, right?"

He took a deep breath and continued, "Now, I don't need to tell you guys that we can't search a structure the size of Tokyo, New York and Moscow put together with a handful of people. It just isn't possible. Instead, we'll first be breaking up into two-man insertion teams. Your objective will be to find any signs of functional technology. We need to know if there's anything still working in there, despite twenty million years of warp bubbles and other crap scouring away at the original ship."

"From what we've mapped of the surface, it has basically been worn down to a metallic desert twenty or thirty meters deep. There are no remaining insertion points that look safe for almost a hundred kilometers in any direction." Ryouga huffed. "Basically, this is a tough nut to crack."

"So how are we gonna get in?" Ukyou asked, hands on the hips of her green lantern uniform.

"We have two options," Ryouga replied. "First, we're going to try and detect open areas within the buried complex using ground penetrating radar. Once we've found a few areas that look promising, we'll use Raven to teleport small teams down to investigate."

Raven spoke up, feeling the need to explain, "It isn't really teleportation. Not exactly."

"However you want to describe it," the officer pressed on. "As necessary, Ukyou, you'll be on hand to protect and stabilize any areas we move teams into. A collapse under these conditions..." Ryouga trailed off, seeing they understood the magnitude of the potential danger. "If we can determine the location of this Archive in what is basically an underground city-sized ruin, then we'll dispatch a small team to retrieve it. Scans show the area to be pretty calm on the surface, when it comes to warp bubbles and other disturbances, but we don't know how bad it gets deeper down."

"Actually, theoretically, we're already close to the center of this place," Cyborg explained. "What we think of as 'going down' or getting deeper is actually moving away from the center, so its more like tunneling our way up not down."

"There is no up or down in space and all that." Ranma tapped the nav console loud enough to be heard. "If we're lucky, though, we'll have clear weather down there, up there, or whatever it is."

"We'll also have a limited number of times we can try this," Ryouga continued, pacing around to the ship's controls again. "Having Raven move herself and other people this distance under these conditions is a desperate move on our part, and we don't know how many insertions she'll be able to safely execute. We also don't know how much longer we can all stay in this dimension. As a rough estimate, I'd say we have an absolute maximum window of opportunity of three days."

"In the meantime," he concluded. "You should all get some sleep and recover. We'll be determining teams early tomorrow. Okay, that should do it, so you're dismissed 'till then."

The teams quickly started heading back to the hold to break into the ship's rations and recycled water. Some were more notably tired than others, but the sense of relief in having just 'one last mission' was mixed and tainted by the fact that, again, it was a dangerous trek into yet another alien ruin. There was an unspoken anxiety that hung in the air despite everyone's determination to see things through and try and get home.

"Cyborg," Ryouga walked up to the teen, catching him before he could leave. Predictably, he was one of the last out, since he hardly needed any sleep and - if absolutely necessary - only minimal food and water. The acting Major pulled him aside to where Ranma was seated.

The titan followed, looking between the two officers. "What's up?"

"We'd like to discuss what happened earlier on the Thanagarian ship," Ranma answered, speaking for both of them, at least at first. "Specifically, what you did when you hacked through your commline and got into Nabiki's coordinator privileges."

The cybernetic teen nodded, obviously not at all surprised by the topic being broached. "Fire away, guys. Course, if you're gonna be upset about it, I'd suggest you wait till after we get outta here before you hold the court martial."

"That isn't the issue. I'm not going to punish you," the aching Major said it calmly, clearly having thought the matter over beforehand. "We have the recordings and if we get home I'll be more than happy to take the heat for my teams. Right now, the priority is getting home in the first place."

"So," he asked, straight out, "What happened back there? Some sort of combat mode? Did you trigger it or did it go off by itself?"

"Combat mode?" Cyborg parroted, sounding a little offended by the description.

"Or a 'battle focus' or something," Ranma added.

Shaking his head, the large Titan stared at the Lt for a moment before answering.

"Ah. No, I didn't trigger it, at least not directly. It's actually a failsafe mechanism that I programmed in response to all of the psionic threats we've run into in your world."

Cyborg tapped the metallic side of his skull, resulting in a metallic 'tang' sound. "When any form of mental contamination gets too rampant in my brain, the failsafe kicks in and switches all higher functions through the CPU. With the security measures and... other means I've been integrating to protect my cybernetics against psionics, it makes it pretty damn unlikely that anyone is gonna be takin' control of me. Likewise, if anyone uses that machine TK stuff to take over my electronics, it'll automatically swap back to my normal brain."

"You've had this tested against both telekinetic tampering and telepathic intrusion?" Ranma asked.

Cyborg nodded. "Mostly the telepathic, thanks to Rae. The TK hasn't had as much testing, but then again, just trying to randomly flip switches in my brain without any knowledge of my systems has a pretty low chance of doing anything anyway. Pretty much even-odds of an Ethereal rewiring your brain with pure TK, i.e. pretty much nil."

"Cyborg," Ryouga asked then, sounding grave. "I'm going to ask you something a little personal, but I'd like an honest answer here. Have you been seeing or hearing things, or having other problems that are likely related to this dimension? Don't answer right away. Think about it for a bit."

Cyborg did. He had been for some time. It was why his systems had been so sensitive to a psionic disturbance back on the TNV Kuk. How to explain it, though?

"Yeah," he admitted after a few discrete seconds. "Yeah. I have. I've been routing more and more of my sensory data through my electronic systems. Pretty much since we started clearing the tunnel. I..." He glanced away, scowling at himself. "I can't entirely trust my human half anymore."

"Why?" he asked, turning to the pair of martial artists. "I've got things under control, at least for a while."

The two officers exchanged looks, and what seemed to be quiet, unspoken agreement.

"This pure-electronic mode. Could ya trigger this mode now, without anyone actually getting in your head first?" Ranma asked this time. "And are there any other problems with its use? Besides the observed increase in lethality?"

At that question, the cybernetic teen frowned, not particularly liking the implications made. "Theoretically, there's nothing stopping me from activating it whenever the need arises. The problem isn't a matter of 'increased lethality', though."

Cyborg's frown only deepened, and he held up his hand before him, clenching it into a fist. "When I do that, when I go that far... I stop being _me_... I'm... just a machine. A purely logical machine, unimpeded by emotions and morals. Clever as I am, even I can't predict what I might do whenever I turn it on."

"Cyborg." the Hibiki said, then, with a deep breath. "I won't order you to do this. But I would like someone to watch Trespasser. Someone who can't be influenced or controlled without our knowing."

Instantly, the mechanical genius ducked his head and looked around, as if looking for an eavesdropper right behind their backs. He turned back a second later.

"Hey now, hold up a second," he whispered harshly. "My tech has been field tested against 'Ethereal' class psionics. I got no idea if it would actually work against something like a Guardian. Hell, that guy sliced the ship's computers like nothing, and those things are hardened _specifically_ against psionics and TK tampering."

Suddenly, a far away look entered the man's eye, something obviously occurring to him. "Though... maybe if I integrated some of the ships security encryptions... though there is the worry about any back doors the Oan might have left behind... hmmm..."

"Ya don't have to be un-hackable or anything like that," Ranma replied. "We need a tripwire. You may not be able to stop him, but you'll know if he's messing with you."

Ryouga then added, "I don't know if we _can_ secure our systems against him. We just need a pair of eyes we can trust. Right now, the most reliable pair of eyes for the job are yours. If he does anything to you, you'll know... and we'll know."

"Hell if I know what we'll do if we do find out he's up to something," Ranma added, a caveat to Ryouga's statement just before. "But we won't go blindly into it."

Cyborg sighed, seeing the situation at hand. It wasn't pretty.

"Alright then," he agreed. "Fair enough. What did you have in mind then?"

"While I'd like to take you on the initial survey teams tomorrow, I want you here, watching what Trespasser does to our EDC," Pathfinder's CO explained. "I'm not saying you should be able to predict what he's doing, but if anything fishy comes up, you report it to both myself and Ranma. If we do need to take you down to the ship... or city or whatever it is we're headed to... then we'll isolate the dimensional drive. In other words, no one gets near it without you being there, too."

"Look at me, I'm blushing," Cyborg replied with a grin. It quickly dissolved away, though. "Least, I would be, if this situation wasn't so damn screwed up."

Quickly grinning again, he pointed at Ranma. "Somehow, this has to be your fault. I never even _imagined_ it would be possible to suspect a Guardian of the Universe of being anything but good, but then, you got a pretty impressive way of bringin' out the worst in people."

This time it was Ranma's turn to grin, broadly and gladly. "What can I say? I have that effect on people!"

"Just be glad he hasn't acquired any extra dimensional fiancés," Ryouga commented, snorting in derision.

"Yet."

"Heh, that depends," Cyborg quipped. Pointing over his shoulder with a thumb, he tilted his head to indicate the back end of the ship. "On whether or not you count our mail-order Apokalyptian bride back there or not. Ranma did seem pretty dead set on bringin' her back with us, after all. I think she's kind of into him, myself."

"Akane'll kill me if I come back with another would-be wife," Ranma joked, not sounding all too concerned.

"We'll deal with our prisoner," Ryouga insisted. "Again, Cyborg, I don't like having to ask you to do this. But we're in a real pinch here."

"Make whatever preparations you need and introduce yourself to our little blue friend."

Rolling his eye, Cyborg nodded. "Oh yeah... I bet 'that's' gonna be tons of fun."

Still, the reluctance in his words did nothing to stop him from moving towards the ship's control panel and beginning to get to work.

* * *

Raven glanced over her shoulder as she took her leave from the ship's small CIC. Behind her, Lieutenant Hibiki and Saotome were stopping Cyborg, speaking with her large teammate in hushed tones. They would likely be doing so for several minutes at least, by her estimation, as nothing involving the cybernetic Titan ever turned out to be simple or straight forward.

That meant that she had time.

Time to do what she needed to do before the alternate Hibiki followed her and applied his own unique form of... tact... to the proceedings.

Raven's thoughts turned to Reava, the Female Fury brought back from the Thanagarian ship. It was quite possible that she possessed information that could be vital to their mission. It was also quite possible that she could turn out to be completely useless and know nothing at all worth knowing. It was the second possibility which worried her more, frankly. Raven knew, full well, just how far that the organization was willing to go when it came to extracting information from 'alien' combatants.

She didn't care a wit for the Apokolyptian, nor did she owe the wicked woman any favours. But, at the same time, she did not like the idea of the Lieutenant tearing her mind apart in search of information which simply wasn't there, especially not with his comparatively crude methods, and especially not in his current... condition. If Raven could handle this herself, and quickly, she could prevent more than a little needless suffering.

Ironically, however, that self same sense of morality pushing her to do so would doubtlessly make her appear weak and toothless to the very person whom she was trying to assist. It also made it quite unlikely that Reava would cooperate with her, as the Fury only seemed to respect strength and ruthlessness.

She did have two bits of insight to assist her, though. Jinx had proven that it was not terribly difficult to deceive the Fury... though just how much of an 'act' her pink haired counter-part's ruthlessness was, was subject for debate. The psionic deceptions Reava had been hit with would also have faded by virtue of being revealed, making her much more wary. That was where the second bit of insight could just come in handy. That bit of information, far more interesting than the first, had been regarding Reava's reaction to the Guardian when first brought aboard. Raven had felt that spike of anxiety, of outright fear, from clear across the ship.

Hopefully it would be enough.

That in mind, Raven quickly slipped into the small storage room on the west end of the ship. It was where they stored all of the less essential materials, such as rations, some assorted medical equipment, and, of course, their personal effects. If she wanted to give the proper impression, she felt she should at least dress for the occasion.

* * *

Words could scarcely describe the discomfort which plagued Reava, though if she could find such a word, even that would be infinitely too meagre to give weight to the indignity which she was suffering; a far worse thing in her mind. True, she was chained by her hands to a _cargo strap_ of all things, stashed conveniently away in the far corner of this tiny ship's hold, but, after countless centuries and eons of writhing torment within that damnable ship, even her current arrangements were a blessing bordering on the miraculous.

At least within the bowels of the Kuk, however, she had not been subjected to the curious leers and pointed glances of such complete vermin. Pathetic did not even do justice to the motley crew of "humans" that were contained in the holding area of this abysmally primitive and infantile space craft. Just listening to their words, it was clear that most of the humans in the hold with her were being held here for reasons of security.

What a feeble, insignificant species humans were, falling victim to the degenerative effects of this dimension so rapidly. From the sounds of it, they had not even been here more than ten or twelve cycles and already half of their crew were unfit to serve their betters. Even the _Thanagarians_, worms that they were, had lasted longer... while she, herself, had little to worry about so long as she paced herself properly. The fools here had clearly been exerting themselves, accelerating the degeneration in their ignorance. She would give them one gudgeoning compliment: their discipline was good, and they'd kept from killing each other. When the Kuk had tried to segregate the afflicted, hundreds had been killed. Still, there was not a single soul on this vessel that would even merit the briefest notice of her God and Master, Darkseid...

None, barring that thrice cursed _Guardian_.

By _all the gods_, old and new, by Heggra's cunt and Yuga Khan's cock, she still could not fathom what _that_ creature was doing _here_, and with these maggots. The mere implications of what its presence could have on her continued existence were... unpleasant... to consider. Was it even possible for her to find a way to twist this to her advantage?

It seemed inconceivable, but she had been in dire straits before. Granted, this situation seemed to grow less bearable with each passing moment, but with vapid, weak willed fools like the Tamaranian counted amongst her captors members, perhaps there was a chance. If she could consume a sufficient amount of flesh from the right victim, she would not even need to leave any alive; she would be able to fly the ship on her own. Not that there was anywhere to fly it TO in this godforsaken dimension, but the option would be there.

And yet, there was the Guardian.

Would her powers even work on such a being? For once, she just wasn't sure. She knew she could feed on other New Gods and most any other sentient species. Even some of the really bizarre ones. But a Guardian of the Universe? Would she even survive any attempt to get close enough to try? The answer to both questions seemed to be emphatically negative in her head. If only there were some way...

Reava stopped, mid-thought, an odd sensation washing over her, almost like a trickle of ice cold water running down her spine. And she was not alone, either. Everyone present in the hold, the three unnamed males, the pink haired and lavender haired girls, the Tamaranian whore and even the brutish oaf who had chained her so carelessly to this wall, all looked up at the same time wary expressions blooming on their faces.

Then, as if heralded by the ominous omen , the left-most door towards the middle of the ship slid open. No light exited the room, the interior illumination deactivated, only the light streaming through the open portal gave any clue as to just what lie in the room beyond.

'What' appearing to be a dark silhouette that hung in the door frame. The nature of the figure became more apparent as the unknown person slid forward into the hold. Though 'slid' did not seem to be the right word. The figure, wearing a dark blue robe which concealed their entire body, and a deep hood which shadowed much of their face in darkness, seemed to _glide_ across the floor, the billowing length of the cloak making it impossible to tell if they were walking along the floor, or floating above it.

Immediately, two of the people in the hold, the one wearing the yellow and black head bandage, and the Tamaranian filth, moved forward. However, a thin arm sliding out from beneath the long robes gestured with a small, dismissive wave before vanishing back beneath the dark material.

In response to the small motion, both warriors immediately backed off. Not just that, but all present turned their attention away from this strange newcomer, suddenly finding other things with which to occupy themselves. Reava's eyes narrowed suspiciously at the display. True, it could have very easily just been a prearranged signal known between these people. However, the way everyone responded... she had seen similar reactions to similar gestures before, and the cause had _never_ been simple communication.

Instantly, Reava went on guard. Every muscle in her body tensed and she lifted herself up until she was standing straight and defiant. As the hooded figure approached, the Fury noted several small hints: full lips, gentle curves in certain locations, even through the thick cloak, all of which revealed the gender of the mysterious woman. She wasn't certain how to respond to that otherwise inconsequential piece of information.

On Apokalips, she answered to females of great power, of even greater ruthlessness. Granny Goodness, for one. Here, all of the females had proven to be weak, spineless creatures, unwilling to do what was necessary. Something about this female's presence, though, and the way she carried herself, made her uncertain as to just which category she belonged. This uncertainty led her to hold her tongue, and simply study this unfamiliar new woman as she closed in. It was best to try and get a feel for all her captors and their relationships with each other if she had any hope of eventual escape.

The cloaked figure stopped several feet away, yet, oddly, even this close, the light could not seem to pierce the darkness of her hood. Only her pale lips and a pair of piercing, darkly violet eyes were visible. The eyes in particular, seeming to cut through the shadows just to see her, were slightly unnerving, locking on to her with a cool intensity.

"So... you are the Fury," the hooded stranger stated, not asked.

Reava lifted her chin proudly as those violet eyes trailed down then back up, examining her. Returning the clinical look with a hot glare, she nodded fiercely. "I am Reava. Fury of the God, Darkseid."

The stranger continued her silent study for another moment, before finally shaking her head. "I must say that I am ...under whelmed."

Reava's eyes narrowed with silent indignation.

"Are you?" she hissed, keeping her voice low.

A thin smile twisted her interrogator's lips. "Quite pathetic, indeed, really," the woman continued, as if she had not even heard Reava's words. "I've heard tales of Furies which possessed the power to battle Kryptonians on even terms; that could destroy entire fleets and lay waste to planets with their bare hands."

_'Kryptonians?'_ Reava couldn't help but catch that reference.

For once, it was something she knew and recognized. Kryptonians were the inhabitants of the Rao System: they were a technologically advanced race, but isolationist. It was commonly believed that they died if taken outside their home system. Nonetheless, fighting one wasn't what Reava would call a great feat. They were a physically mundane race, weaker even than the humans she had seen here.

The girl did have some point, though. Those New Gods picked as Furies for their physical power had just that: a lot of power. Most were also generally too stupid to use their strength efficiently. Those with great power were often the most blind to their limitations. Reava was not a 'power' type Fury. Her power was of the most use in clandestine acts, not blustering battles. Granny Goodness herself had said so. Yet she doubted that fact would impress this smarmy little girl-pup.

In fact, the girl's smile grew even more unbearable, and a slim arm, wrapped in a tight blue material which clung to her skin, gestured up and down in Reava's direction. "Yet _you_... I doubt that you could even hold your own against our communications officer, let alone one of our actual fighters."

Reava bared her teeth, a hiss emanating from her throat. "Tell me your name, _little bitch_, so that I may spit it like a curse! Tell me what _you_ know of power? I serve _Darkseid_, greatest of the New Gods, Son of Yuga Khan and Lord of Apokolips! And I know you know that name. Don't think that the luck of your world has done anything but delay His Wrath."

Rather than spew back with a biting curse of her own, or any other angry response at all, the woman's insufferable grin only grew, her head ducking slightly in amusement.

"If you are so insistent, then I suppose I'll tell you... my name is Raven, not that the word will hold any meaning for you. And yes, I _know_ who you serve, Fury." This Raven's dark smile grew slightly wider. "I know who Darkseid is, and what he has done."

Then, leaning forward, almost conspiratorially, Raven continued in a hushed voice. "I also know that _my_ ...master... is _greater_ than yours."

Reava nearly burst out into laughter at that, but something about the quiet tone and the distracted expressions that Raven's companions still bore stilled her outrageous mirth. Leaning in as much as her restraints would allow, she growled.

"Lying bitch," she silently snarled, her tone sibilant and laced with hate. "There is none greater in all the universe than my Lord."

Raven nodded at her words. "Indeed, in _your_ universe. However, my... master... does not reside here. Tell me, do you know the name 'Trigon'? How many millennia have passed while you were chained within that Thanagarian ship?"

"Trigon?" Reava asked, snorting dismissively and shaking her head in the negative, a few dark golden locks falling over her face. "The name means nothing to me."

Vexingly, this Raven bitch still seemed untroubled.

"I see," she replied, taking a moment to think up her response. "You are quite ancient, so that isn't a surprise. Maybe the name _Neron_ will stir up a memory?"

"Neron?"

Despite attempting to school her expression, Reava's sharp intake of breath gave her away before she even had a chance to feign ignorance. Yes: she knew of a Neron. But it _couldn't_ be the same.

"Neron... _the First Seated..._?" she asked, glaring at the human bitch.

"So you _do_ know of him," Raven said, sounding complimentary.

"Of course I know of him...!" Reava whispered, momentarily looking away.

The knowledge of Lord Darkseid and the New Gods was vast, as one would expect from the children of the universe's first Gods. Following Creation and the Godwave, shortly after, the multiverse had become populated by upstart scum. Some, in fact, were... well, one didn't normally talk about it as a point of comparison, but there was knowledge of beings of remarkable power, and by "remarkable" there was the implication of them possibly being more powerful than even Highfather.

Names like Rama, Ganthet and Quintessence. Little was known of them, but most likely these would be upstart Gods and the like, created after the splitting of Urgrund. Above them would be the Gods that Gods worshipped: The Endless, who were thought to predate even the Old Gods, the Anti-Monitor, the Source, the Presence and Lucifer. In a separate category, but the same tier as the first, were more cosmic unknowns like the Spectre and the Parallax Beast.

These were 'local' gods, though, that operated on the base planes. The New Gods were aware of the lower planes as well, and this was what this little Raven bitch seemed to be talking about. The Infernal Realms were (in her time) believed to be ruled by Neron, with Asmodel and Belial subordinate to the so called "First Seated of the Infernal Dominion." Reava knew all too well, all too personally, about those... things.

"Your master, this Trigon, is an archfiend?" the Fury asked, mindful to keep her tone conspiratorial. If true, it would place him - or it - in some rather infamous company. Only the most insane of the Old Gods, or the most desperate of the New, would sup with archfiends.

This 'Raven' simply nodded. "Perhaps you require some small shred of proof?"

With that, Raven held up a hand, and a black aura sprang to life around it. Reava, as she possessed no powers of the mind, nor any great talent for magic or any other mysterious abilities, could not really glean many details from the display. However, she knew precisely what the power was and what it meant.

Despite the young age of her interrogator, the power she wielded...

Reava withered Raven with cautious, calculating eyes.

"That black energy..." she whispered. "That is your _malefice_ then?"

This was her first time seeing infernalist energy in the flesh, but it fit the descriptions.

It felt like...

Reava sneered, a lip curling high enough to show teeth. "What are you, then? Some sort of half-fiend succubus?" She snorted and looked away.

A flash of white flight burned in Raven's eyes for an instant, a glare marring her expression for just the briefest of moments.

"You wish to know what I am?" she asked in a heated tone. "Then listen and listen well, Reava. I am the one being on this vessel you should fear _most_." Leaning forward, their faces only inches apart, Raven spoke slowly and with great certainty, forcing the Fury to look her in the eyes. "Know this, Fury, there is one reason, and one reason alone that I have revealed this to you."

"It is possible that you might possess knowledge that could be useful to us. The commander of this mission has asked me to retrieve this information." A vindictive grin, baring white teeth split her face as she paused for effect. "If need be, I can simply rip your entire mind right from your skull and scour it clean."

Reava kept her expression studied and neutral despite the witch's proximity. Shifting slightly, she angled her face away and considered her options. This information was too strange. It hit too close to home. What was an infernalist doing on this ship?

On Apokalips, she'd have been killed the moment she used her malefice in the open like that. Archfiends and their cursed spawn couldn't be trusted, no: not only couldn't they be trusted, most of them couldn't even be counted on to act rationally. They were just as likely to kill you and kill themselves in the process as they were to follow any sort of proper plan. There was no up-side, no reasoning with them. They were damned. Too powerful to control, too irrational to rely on or reason with. Their entire existence centered around destruction, even beyond the blood soaked visions of Lord Darkseid himself…

Why was this succubus bitch here, alive? Did she have the rest of the crew in thrall?

No.

No, that seemed unlikely. Possible, but unlikely. It didn't fit with what she knew about Ranma and the mostly faded memories stolen from Jinx. Was it possible they tolerated and allied with this infernalist despite knowing what she was? That just didn't make sense either. No one from their home dimension would be so foolish!

To make matters worse, the witch also claimed to be practiced in that damnable mind control that the others had used. That wasn't good. Reava had been trained to resist known forms of de-programming and counter-brain washing, and while she chalked up her deception before to being exhausted from eons of captivity and brutality, she didn't feel confident in repulsing a determined mental assault. Physical torture she could have taken. The Thanagarians had done far worse to her body than the soft men here would ever imagine doing. But her mind... her mind needed to be clear to think. Even _mother_ wouldn't be able to fix a scrambled brain.

"What do you want, witch?" Reava finally asked, glaring daggers at the younger woman. "If you can take what you want from my mind, why not simply do so?"

Reava leaned back, but her interrogator only leaned forward more. "Frankly, I don't have time for it, and the idea of entering your mind is repugnant to me. So, instead, I will tell you something and let you decide if you will assist us willingly or if I will be forced to act in a way you would most assuredly regret."

The Fury let out a long, shuddering breath, not even sure what she could say at that moment. So, instead, she simply tilted her head to the side inquisitively, silently signalling for Raven to continue.

Looking over her shoulder, towards the front of the ship, which Reava had not yet seen, Raven motioned to the far door.

"We are currently trapped here, just as the Thanagarians were. That Oan, which I know that you saw, is quite possibly our only way to get home again." A short pause ensued as the violet eyed woman turned her attention back Reava's way. "However, beyond that, we do _not_ trust him. In fact, we are almost certain that he is going to betray us. As such, we need any _possible_ advantage that we can find to counter whatever plans he might be scheming against us, even as he repairs our dimensional engine."

It took the Fury several long seconds to fully digest what she had just been told. An Oan acting in such a treacherous way? True, her first inclination was to agree with the description... and yet, she knew their reputation for compassion. What could this Guardian have possibly done to engender such distrust?

"So, you are saying that you trust me more than you trust your pet Guardian?" Reava asked sarcastically.

"We _trust_ that you are no threat to us at the moment," Raven replied haughtily, "And that you are not interested in dying before you have the chance to explain yourself to your beloved master. So, now, what do you say? Will you cooperate, or are you going to force me to a more ...unpleasant course of action?"

Rather than answer, Reava posed another question; one that had just dawned on her.

"How long has that Guardian been here?" she quietly asked, referring to the dimensional abyss they were all trapped in. Seeing Raven hesitate in replying, she explained, "Your people recognized the Oracle. They knew about the 'organic component.' They knew about the trans-dimensional beast. If the Guardian is fixing your drive, and it uses something similar, then he also came here the same way... but not with you. How long has he been trapped here?"

"Centuries...?" Raven wondered aloud, speculating. "Millennia? It was impossible to get a proper timeline from their ships computer, and reports of the ...state... of the ship were quite inconclusive. Why does that matter?"

"So you don't know?" Reava asked with a smug little laugh. "It seems my ship, my mission, was dumped into this cesspool between dimensions by someone working for your precious Guardians of the Universe." Her face twisted to reflect what she was: Fury. "Because of them, I failed Lord Darkseid. I failed him..."

At this, she leaned close to whisper directly into Raven's face. "I have spent most of my life chained in a room, tormented by an Old God. Before that, I was beaten, and whipped and _flayed_. I was _violated_ by _slaves_." A bit of froth collected in the corner of her mouth, teeth grinding together behind her lips. "And now, even if I do return to my God, it will be to die. Painfully."

"All because I ended up here," she finished in a pained, murderous undertone. "All because of them."

Grief began to ebb through the rage. "I lost _everything_...! Everything! You have no idea what I had to do to earn my master's trust..." Reava's expression wavered, and she stared down at her chest in deflating defeat. "Or, perhaps you do..."

If her declaration at all affected her captor, Raven gave no sign. Instead, she merely inclined her head to the side. "Then what is your answer? Trust in the Guardians good will? Or assist us in finding a way to defeat him if the need arises?"

The Female Fury pulled hard against the alien alloy straps mooring her in place.

They didn't give, even a little.

"I really couldn't care less that happens to you, witch, or the rest of your little band." The Female Fury snorted, taking a few seconds to collect herself again. "I'm not sure if going back home just to die is that appealing either... but I hate the Guardians and all their servants. I want them to pay for what they've done to me."

A cruel smile pulled the Fury's lips up as she smirked at the young infernalist.

"Very well..." She hissed, leaning closer to the girl, close enough smell her. Close enough to bite her. "I'll help you."

* * *

x

* * *

Ryu ripped open the pre-packaged meal kit, inhaling deeply as the smell of hot food entered his nose. He could pick up a rich mix of scents: smoked turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, carrots. It wasn't exactly a proper and traditional Japanese meal, but it was steaming and inviting and the martial artist's stomach growled in anticipation.

"What this? Chicken?" Shampoo asked, holding up the package.

"It's turkey." Jinx explained, already forking a slice of the cured and formerly vacuum sealed birdmeat into her mouth, together with a bit of mashed potato. She gave the Amazon a curious look, even as she chewed. "You've never had turkey before?"

"Don't think so," Shampoo remarked, sniffing her plastic meal-package again before pulling back the last of the non-transparent gray film.

"It's perfectly edible," Ryouga assured her from where he sat next to Starfire, the Tamaranian trying not to look disappointed at the lack of mustard in today's MRE.

"I guess so." Ryu coughed into his hand, and speared one of the slices, dipped in gravy.

Everyone was, for once, present in the hold to share what passed for dinner... or lunch... or something that was both and neither. Mousse sat next to Shampoo, eating quietly, and even Konatsu lingered close by, trying to remain invisible. Kuno quickly began explaining some of the mixture of poetry and 'autobiography' that had been consuming his free time (and that the Major and Lieutenant didn't want anyone to read 'until they got home').

Ranma sat to Ukyou's right, the chef having picked a spot next to the Yamasenken master, placing herself between her former fiance and her mostly-sort-of boyfriend. Not surprisingly, Nabiki and the acting Major were also sitting next to one another. Cyborg was crossed legged, sitting behind most of his smaller teammates. Raven was off by herself, strangely close to where their newest captive hung from the wall. Reava had refused to eat 'human food' and had her nose turned up in disdain, probably put off more by the sight of comrades eating together than of the actual foodstuffs consumed. Trespasser, forced to not be 'out of sight' was floating with eyes closed, appearing either aloof or asleep or both.

Ryu wondered, then, if she had acted the same when the Thanagarian crew got together. He hadn't forgotten the drinking and feasting halls back on that alien ship. Those bird-people had been pretty gregarious from the look of it. Surely it wasn't that odd for a crew to gather to eat? Maybe the Fury was just on her peroid.

He chuckled to himself, the sound muffled by carrots and masticated turkey breast.

One more mission to go.

"We all made it back," he said to himself, remembering his thoughts back when he'd nearly lost Starfire on the Kuk. _They tried their worst, but we made it through, watching each other's back_. After the horrors they'd been through, he couldn't imagine the world had much left to throw at them.

Coughing again, he wiped his mouth clean and finished his cup of water.

"Ryu-honey?" Ukyou asked, leaning close and touching his shoulder in concern. She still wore that Green Lantern outfit. It was sexy, sure, but he kind of missed seeing her in normal clothes. "Are you alright, sugar?"

"Yeah," he assured her. "I'm fine."

To prove the point, he dribbled the remains of his meal like a liquid slurry into his mouth.

And then he licked the plate.

"Ugh. You guys!" Ukyou elbowed him playfully. "Oh, not Cyborg too! Ran-chan! Gross!"

"Hey, I'm hungry." "I ain't gonna waste food!"

_One more mission to go._


	43. In The Land of the Blind 2

_**A/N**_

Evil beware… we have waffles!.

* * *

x

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_The Land of the Blind_

Chapter 42

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid

Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

x

* * *

Nabiki clasped her hands behind her back, pleased with how things were working out. The next twelve hours would determine whether things went to seed or according to plan. Due to the peculiarities of the situation, she sort of hoped for both. First thing first, though, she had to find their resident Green Lantern.

There was no real guesswork involved in locating Ukyou. She would be close by Trespasser. Nabiki checked the EDC-FTL and Elerium reactor and wasn't disappointed. The little blue Oan was there, arms crossed, acting a part out a panel from the Watchmen as he mentally arranged and assembled parts for the new reinforced dimensional drive seemingly out of thin air. Pieces drifted in midair, some of them too small to perceive except as faint metallic twinkles of reflected light. Gaseous green energy bubbled from the small alien's eyes, obscuring his pupils, and despite the relaxed posture the Guardian had, he seemed to be sweating from exertion, or concentration, or both. The effort appeared taxing, and as she watched, the alien twitched in apparent pain. This had to be why the Guardian was reluctant to use his powers in this dimension: if he pushed too hard, the rules of this insane place would push back, hard.

Cyborg was there as well, acting as a technical observer. He was leaning against one of the walls, watching and measuring the alien's work with calculated precision and the determination of a chess playing computer. Nabiki expected he would be up to the task of 'watching the watcher' so to speak, but she wasn't betting the entire ship on it. When the stakes were high, it was always prudent to have a bet within a bet, or better still, a trick card or some other cheat under the table. There was no more reliable way to win.

Ukyou Kuonji was the one she was here for.

The okonomiyaki chef turned soldier turned Green Lantern was watching the watcher watching the watcher. In other words, she was keeping an eye on Cyborg for the Oan. That much was obvious by the way she hung around the opposite end of the reactor room. She still wore that strange green and black, skintight costume that the ring had covered her with before. Her eyes, however, were completely pooled by green, so much so that they were literally green-on-green, far removed from her normal brown. More influence on the part of the ring she wore, Nabiki expected.

One of those green-on-green eyes turned her way as she entered.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," the Tendo sister remarked with a smile, sending it Ukyou's way. "But we need to talk for a bit. That isn't a problem, is it?"

"Me?" Confusion replaced some of that default wariness, worn on the female GL's face. "What do you want to talk to _me_ about?"

Nabiki gestured for her to follow. "Just a few harmless questions. Come on." She paused, smirking. "Unless you're busy doing something?"

Ukyou hesitated a moment; just long enough. "No. I'm not. But..."

"But?"

"Is this really important, sugar?"

"It's important enough," Nabiki answered, and added in a hint of authority to her tone. "I won't keep you for very long. Then you can go back to meditating and all that other martial arts mumbo jumbo."

Despite running in deep-electronic mode, Cyborg retained enough presence of mind to bark out a single, emotionless, "Ha."

"I'm not-" Ukyou nearly protested, but shrugged her shoulders. "Alright. Fine."

She glanced over at Trespasser, but he was as expressive as a statue. A circular link of Nth Metal wound its way through a delicate lattice of circuitry, all assembled in midair. Another coil followed, and then another, forming wafers that twisted the filigree of silver around and around before, in one move, the wafers came together and melded, forming a smooth cylinder ringed with rounded protrusions. Lights danced along the surface, cutting and crafting.

Nabiki held open the door.

Ukyou huffed in obvious displeasure, but stepped out. Nabiki wasted no time in maneuvering her towards a private corner. The chestnut haired Green Lantern rested her back against the wall, glancing furtively over Nabiki's shoulder to see if anyone else was in eavesdropping distance. The lack of trust was rather endearing, but misguided, at least in the Tendo sister's opinion. Ukyou had always been rather clever, though that aptitude was typically squandered in single minded pursuits.

"How's the ring?" she asked, casually, pointing at Ukyou's right hand. "I never liked wearing rings, myself. They always get tight and uncomfortable. Cut off circulation, too, you know?"

"I don't even feel it on," Ukyou answered, and what she had said seemed to surprise her. She glanced down at her hand, as if realizing for the first time that she really didn't feel it. The green band firmly in place, the indented head sticking out for all to see. It wasn't clear whether it was being worn under or over the black and green costume it generated. Or whether it was a part of it, or her.

"Huh." The chef frowned. "Anyway, it... feels fine."

"You've had it on much longer than Ryouga-baby planned."

"That can't be helped," the answer sounded quick, rehearsed. "Once put on, a green Lantern Ring can not and should not be easily removed."

An eyebrow arched. "Really? So you can't take it off, then? That's inconvenient." Not to mention interesting, as it ran contrary to what Cyborg had told them earlier. It also flew in the face of Ukyou being ordered to take off the ring soon after putting it on, and doing so without incident.

"I can take it off, but," Ukyou's frown deepened, as she sensed she was being out-talked. "Look, sugar, what's all this about, anyway? You didn't drag me out here just to make small talk."

"I don't consider this small talk," Nabiki flatly informed her. "That ring you're wearing." She pointed again. "That's UNETCO property. You know that, don't you? That goes for more than the ring. It goes for everything salvaged by this crew and this ship."

The Green Lantern grumbled something, but quickly nodded her head. "I am aware of our standard operating procedures with respect to recovery operations and salvaged alien artifacts."

"Then you can take that ring off, if you're ordered to?"

"If I absolutely have to," Ukyou replied, unhappily. "And if that order comes from a superior officer."

"Good!" Nabiki chuckled, shrugging and tilting her head coyly to the side. "I just wanted to make sure you hadn't forgotten little stuff like that."

The other girl made as if to walk away. "Is that it, then?"

"Nope," the Tendo sister cut her off, literally, by putting her arm in the way. "Actually," she informed the Lantern, without pretense. "If you could, I'd like you to tell me what your 'Trespasser-sama' is up to in there."

For a long couple seconds, Ukyou didn't reply.

"You make it sound as if I shouldn't be using an honorific," she stated.

"I just find it funny, that's all." Nabiki didn't let her casual expression slip. "So. Answer the question, Squaddie. What is he up to?"

Ukyou's response was simple, straightforward, expected: "He's fixing the EDC."

"That is what we asked him to do," Nabiki admitted. "And that is why we have Cyborg double checking his work."

"Sure it is, sugar." Ukyou's expression became something approaching smug. "That's exactly what he's doing."

The older woman nodded, knowingly, understandingly.

"Let me tell you some interesting things," she began, and saw Ukyou's attention perk, just a little. "By my own estimation, we have a week before some really bad things happen on this ship. Ryouga-baby is getting paranoid. Have you noticed that? You are his friend, aren't you?"

A guilty look came and went, and then flashed again in response to being repressed. Ukyou looked away, unwilling to lock eyes with the manipulative Tendo sister. After a second or two, she sighed and leaned her shoulder against the wall instead of trying to walk away.

"I know he doesn't trust me like before. Because of this." She held up her right hand, and the Green Lantern Ring fixed to it. "Is it really that bad?"

"Not yet. But all the little things he'd normally overlook, or that he'd have others check in on..." Nabiki trailed off. "You know where I'm going with this. This place, this dimension, is doing this to us. Even me. I bet you're feeling it, too."

Ukyou didn't respond to that, either in the negative or positive.

That was alright. Nabiki pressed on. "None of us like it, but Trespasser in there is the only way we're getting out of here. Without him, we've got nothing. With him, we've got something, however slim. I'd just like to know what that something is."

The Kuonji heir tensed... but let out a breath and relaxed, just slightly.

"He isn't doing anything... sinister or wrong," she explained. "He just wants to repair the EDC and go back to his research. I don't know much more than that, but I trust him. You should, too."

"Me?" Nabiki asked, drawing back a bit as if in shock.

"I can understand why you're acting like you are," Ukyou replied, and put her hand on the older girl's shoulder. "But this is an opportunity for all of us! That means you, too! We should have faith in Trespasser. He's a Guardian of the Universe. A very special one."

"You mean The Foundation?" Nabiki asked, cautiously.

"He thought you might have learned about that," Ukyou admitted. "He's on a search for Truth and Justice. We should be honored to have him aboard."

She saw Nabiki frown at that.

"I know. I know. He isn't telling us everything, but he will. He will." She sounded completely sure of that fact. "I guess maybe trust is a bit much to ask... on such short notice... but you know he's our only hope. Doesn't that count for something? If you'd just hear him out, you'd see what I mean. And then you could convince Ryouga-honey to do the same. He listens to you."

"I don't know." Nabiki shrugged off Ukyou's hand.

"It won't hurt to try, would it?" the chef asked, sensing Nabiki's indecision. "The best thing for everyone is if this ship works together, not against one another. People trust you... at least when it comes to missions and stuff like that."

"There's little value in a dead client."

"Exactly!"

Nabiki dithered for a bit. "I still don't know. Maybe. I'll have to think about it."

Ukyou smiled, imagining a small victory on her part. Or, to be more specific, on Trespasser's part.

* * *

Simulated Night.

Second shift.

Ryu awoke with a start, hand half forming a vacuum blade along the edge of his fingers. A hand caught his, just as his realization of the situation prompted the vacuum blade technique to disperse. Stray wisps of air from the collapsing vacuum caught Ukyou's hair, brushing a few loose strands against her cheek. Ryu blinked, shaking his head, making sure he'd seen right. He tried to remember their watch shifts. Why was she waking him up?

"Hey," he muttered, about to ask if it was Shift Four already. "Sorry about that."

He was, honestly, sorry. Someone could have easily been hurt because of his frayed nerves, and he had no one to blame but himself. It wasn't the restless half-sleep he'd been able to catch, and it wasn't the cumulative injuries from the last few days to blame. It wasn't that he still felt worn from the battle on the Thanagarian ship. It was something as stupid as a bad dream.

Real men, he knew, had to have better control. He'd been through martial arts duels, charged through plasma fire, stormed alien battleships and even an alien base - he'd faced down psychic horrors and, against all odds and expectations, reformed and saved the Yamasenken style. He'd risen to the rank of full sergeant. To be frightened like a little boy because of a dream was... humiliating. There was no other word for it.

"Sorry," he said again, and let out a breath he'd been holding. Ukyou was just staring at him. He got up on one elbow. "What's wrong?"

She didn't reply, and he looked around, wondering for a second or two if he was still dreaming. Or hallucinating. You could never tell in this fucked up dimension. His arm protested with a jolt of pain, and he figured that at least it felt pretty damn real. Sleeping on basic futons in the main hold, he could see most everyone else. The Titans were close together, except for Jinx, who was asleep on a perpendicular cot, her back to them. The Acting Major was with Nabiki, the former with his back to a wall, the latter sprawled over his side and drooling on his shoulder.

Konatsu wasn't around, but he saw Kuno and Mousse in meditative postures, keeping themselves calm and controlled despite the psychosis-inducing effects of this place. Shampoo was standing, her back to them. That made sense. She was on watch this shift. Their captive, Reava, was hanging limply from the ceiling, her eyes closed. It seemed even her kind needed to sleep, and she had gone from captive, to free woman, to captive again in the span of a couple hours.

"Ryu-honey," Ukyou finally whispered, and to his surprise she ran a hand through his hair.

"What's going on?" he asked, perplexed. Not that it felt bad to have the girl he liked running her hand through his hair. Not at all. He liked it when she did that, but... this wasn't really the time or place for it. He fought back a cough, cursing whatever curse he'd gotten on the Kuk that hadn't died with the ship.

He reached up and caught her arm.

"Ukyou," Ryu asked, more forcefully. "What's up?"

She smiled, and took his hand, pulling him off his back.

He wasn't a light guy, but Ukyou was no normal girl, and without offering token resistance, she effortlessly pulled him up and into his feet. Scratching his head, Ryu Kumon took one last look around the room. Sure enough, just like before, everything seemed fine. Except Konatsu, but he was probably hiding in the shadows somewhere. Is that why they'd woken him up? It hardly seemed like an emergency. Kuno and Mousse and Starfire were the only other security risks, besides Reava and Trespasser. The Female Fury was secured and asleep, the Oan was being watched by Cyborg 24-7, supposedly, and the two compromised India Squad members were under control.

Ukyou took his hand and lead him towards Shampoo.

"Uhm... hey. What..."

She held up a finger to shush him, and he frowned, but complied. They'd only taken a few steps before Shampoo turned and stopped her squadmate. She leaned in, whispering. Ukyou whispered back, a little more hotly. After a second or two of their private exchange, Shampoo nearly stamped her foot, holding herself back at the last second. She was definitely upset by something.

Giving up on her friend and rival, Shampoo turned to Ryu instead.

"You should no be doing this," she hissed, keeping her voice just low enough to be heard. "We still on mission. Off duty, yes, but still on mission!"

"Are you going to cause trouble or not?" Ukyou raised her voice, but only enough to match the Amazon. "You said you didn't care."

"I don't care," Shampoo argued. "But this still stupid. So stupid. Ranma is piloting. What if he-"

"If he has a problem with it, he can step in and stop us," Ukyou interrupted, brushing past Shampoo. "Come on."

Ryu was tempted to dig his heels in, or better, lower his center of gravity to stick to the floor. "I still don't know what..."

"Open this door," she demanded, leading him to the artifact storage room.

"I can't do that!" he whispered. "Why do you want to go in there anyway?"

"So we can have a couple minutes of privacy," she replied, motioning to the door.

"What for?" he asked, still hesitant. He _could_ open the sec-storage door, yes. But why?

She leaned up to whisper into his ear, and the next few words she said sent a tingle down his spine. "You'll see."

He drew back, staring at her with wide eyes. She _couldn't_ have been implying what he thought she was implying, was she? No. No way. But then, it sure as hell _sounded like_...! He very nearly glanced back at Shampoo, who was supposed to be on the duty watch. No wonder she had objected. You couldn't do **that** during a mission, even if the mission had lasted... Gods, how long had they been in this fucked up dimension? How long had it been since they left Seiran? A week? More? It felt like a month.

And, _God damn it_, but he _had_ been wanting this, dreaming of this, for a long, long time.

Especially after all the fighting he'd been through. There was a very positive correlation between life threatening experiences, between a very real sense of danger, and the human libido. Most of the time, it was something to joke about: 'Oh yeah, firing off that heavy plasma? I totally got a boner.' or 'Did you see that building go up in smoke? Better 'n sex!' Not that Ryu had anything much to compare it with, but that's what guys joked about. Guys who weren't virgins. Probably. Maybe it was this damn dimension, but the feeling had been, if anything, even more... irrepressible.

As if to mock his normally pretty rational thought processes, his treacherous body seemed to develop a mind of its own, and that mind was realizing that the girl he most wanted to be with was offering to fool around with him in a storage room. The fact that Shampoo knew about this wasn't deterring it, either. He tried to remind himself that this was very much against mission rules and SOP, and even that Ranma was probably in the nav and could well be watching.

"Ryu," Ukyou whispered his name, and lifted the hand she had been pulling him by up to her chest. "Do you want to do this or not, sugar?"

Oh. Oh fuck.

Fuckyfuckyfuck.

The right thing to do would be to remind her that inappropriate relations between personnel while on a mission or on general duty was expressly against standard operating procedure and UNETCO rules of conduct. Then maybe cite the regs to completely kill the mood. It would also be prudent to remind her that they were both under a great deal of stress, and likely under the influence of a mind altering dimension. He would then go back to his futon, and he would continue to dream about drowning in his powered armor until his duty shift, after which he would stand at attention for three hours to make sure no one killed anyone else in their sleep. That was what he _should_ have done.

Fucky fucky fucky **fuck**.

It wasn't what he did.

Mentally kicking himself, he put his palm to the secure storage door. It identified him as Kumon, Ryu. Srg. CT:India, and opened. No sooner had it done so, than Ukyou grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him inside. The walls within were lined with secure shelves and lockers, all probably requiring at least a lieutenant's clearance level to view or open, and all flat and flush with the gray alien alloy walls. Two material stasis tubes, meant for corpses, were doing their job: two of the dead Green Lanterns recovered from the alien ship were contained within, barely silhouettes behind the tinted alloy, waiting for the day they were returned to Seiran for study.

Ryu was momentarily reminded of the pair of aliens he had found on the Oan ship, locked in an embrace in a bed. Dead together. He'd thought, right away, that it looked like a double suicide: two lovers choosing to die together rather than face the hopeless, insane dimension they were trapped in. The memory came and went, and the Kumon heir really wished it had stayed locked in the back of his mind where it belonged.

The door behind them closed, and Ukyou didn't waste any more time.

She spun him around, putting his back hard to the opposite wall, and leaned in and up, kissing him fiercely. He had kissed her before, what with them sort of being a couple for well over a month now, but normally the okonomiyaki chef was hesitant and unsure about how intimate she wanted to be with a guy. He hadn't much liked that fact. It wouldn't do much for his chivalry to point out that he really, really, **really** wanted to sleep with her. He had from the get go. Now his stomach was in knots as the very thing he'd often dreamed about made him feel guilty and... and... there were people just in the other room, sleeping!

If all that had just been able to put a damper on his libido, then maybe there wouldn't have been a problem. Just his luck he was nineteen going on twenty, and he'd probably have been eager and able to perform in the middle of a crowded subway. Unconscious. Before long, he'd given up trying to second guess what was already in the process of happening, and switched to making up excuses: 'we weren't thinking straight' 'we were under stress' ... etc. Basically all the stuff from before, repurposed.

He didn't question why Ukyou had suddenly undergone a complete one eighty, from mostly-shy girl-next-door, unwilling to take off her bra, to biting his neck while her strange green and black uniform peeled away. His head swam and before he knew it, her bare chest was moving against his own, tickling him in ways he hadn't imagined. Her hand ran across his cheek, and he felt her lantern ring press against his skin. It was cold.

"Come on, Ryu-honey," she murmured, huskily, between kisses. "Do something." She stopped, breathing heavily, licking her lips. They were close enough that her doing so meant she licked his lower lip, too. "Don't just leave me hanging, sugar."

Smoothly, he muttered, "I-uh. I..."

"Okay." She smirked mischievously and her green eyes flashed. The entire room seemed to drawl green, all around them, like a carpet stretching to envelop the walls and even the ceiling. She kissed him quickly and then started lower, descending down his chest towards his navel.

"What are you...?" _Hell_, he _knew_ what she was doing.

He couldn't quite believe it.

A few seconds later, Ryu closed his eyes and forgot all about the curtains of green energy covering the walls. He didn't notice two extra rings, one on her left hand, another on her right. They appeared and disappeared, fading in and out, like phantoms copies of the one that remained on her right ring finger. He didn't notice the deep purple glow that ran from her hands, up her arms, and into her body. It didn't happen in the blink of an eye. He could have noticed; perhaps he would have noticed, under different circumstances.

Before Ryu knew it, though, he was getting what he had so furiously wanted.

For better or worse, he wasn't the only one.

* * *

Raven's entire body shuddered uncontrollably, emotions and impressions completely foreign and unknown coursing through her. Her eyes were frozen wide open as she lay on her side, a thin blanket draped haphazardly across her body; she desperately tried to control her breathing as she stared blankly at the featureless silver door across the room, but this passion, this …disquieting, terrifying …_euphoric -_

"Aa-aa-"

A sudden spike of uninvited, sympathetic emotion echoed through her, nearly forcing a shocked gasp from her lips. The Dark Titan bit down on her knuckle, trying to focus on the pain and block out the unwanted sensations, but the effects were so marginal as to be useless. She could scarcely even concentrate enough to puzzle through this bizarre and unsettling... situation.

She had innocently been struggling to get to sleep, not even all that long ago, caught halfway between exhausted wakefulness and restless slumber. She wasn't even certain what had tipped her back towards the former; perhaps it was the hushed whispers just barely overheard, or the subtle sounds of people moving around the hold? In all honesty, even that shouldn't have been anything to merit much attention. Even stealing a quick glimpse of Ryu and Ukyou speaking silently to Shampoo hadn't set off any sense of alarm or anything but passing, fleeting curiosity. It seemed mundane. Harmless. Forgettable.

When the former duo had slipped away into the darkness of the secure storage hold, she had thought nothing of it, either. It was just two people going somewhere to speak, and actually being courteous enough to do it somewhere that wouldn't wake up or disturb everyone around them. Raven hadn't been prepared to give it another thought, and had already shifted her attention back to her vain attempt to get to sleep.

And then the first wave hit.

It had been Ryu. She knew that without a doubt, and the emotions he was experiencing were beyond anything Raven had felt in others before. All too soon, the stream of raw sensation was joined by another, by Ukyou's… and she was...!

Raven's head swam, her breathing growing more ragged with each passing moment. A hand drifted down to rest on her stomach, it was so – so warm…

This had _never_ happened before. She had no idea what to do; how to make it stop. This mission was the first time that she had not slept beneath the base's mind shield since she started training her psionic and telepathic abilities. It had never even occurred to her that something like – like _this _couldeven be possible! But with nothing to shield her, and with _that_ going on less than ten yards away?

"_Mmmmm_…"

Raven froze solid, biting down on her knuckle so hard she could taste blood. Azar's Blood! Had that been _her_?

No… no, wait. It _hadn't_ been her! Slowly rolling over, Raven's eyes, wide as they were, froze in shock. All around her, people were beginning to shift about in their sleep. Another muffled moan disrupted the silence of the hold, this one coming from Nabiki as she twisted about against her Ryouga's arm.

'_Nonononono!_'

It wasn't _just_ her! She was _projecting_! Raven had trained herself to stop doing that years ago… especially with how disastrous it could be... but, but she couldn't stop, couldn't control it! A long, shuddering sigh suddenly racked her body, and a half a second later, a sympathetic response echoed through the room. To varying degrees, everyone, from Mousse to Jinx was being affected.

Rolling back to face the door, she noticed that only one person was unaffected so far. Shampoo, still standing on duty watch, was too busy fidgeting and glancing over her shoulder at the door behind her. Her unease was obvious, as was her discomfort, but the feelings were so weak as to be all but drowned out by the unrestrained sensations washing out from the storage room behind her.

Clenching her eyes shut, not wanting the Amazon to catch her awake, Raven started chanting in her head...

'_I am __**not **__feeling this!__ I will __**not**__ feel this!__ I will __**not**__ allow it!'_

She just needed to regain control. Just needed to calm her mind and close out everything else. But-but it was so _hard!_ Azar, that was not how she wanted tot hink of it, either. Why couldn't she focus? After all of her training, everything she had learned? This should be the simplest thing in the world…

'_I am __**not **__feeling this!__ I will __**not**__ feel this!__ I will __**not**__ allow it!'_

That was it. She could do this. She could control her powers.

She could. She... _wanted_ to...

A sudden gasp, different from before, caused her eyes to snap open. It had come from – from in front of her. Again, she felt her eyes grow wide, painfully so, until she had to crush them shut. Standing before, no, leaning against the store room door now, Shampoo suddenly clasped a hand over her mouth to stifle another such outburst. The Amazon was red faced, blushing more than Raven had ever imagined the warrior woman capable of blushing, and staring intently at the closed door. Was she angry or embarrassed or both?

Instantly, eyes open again, Raven averted her gaze to the floor, uncomfortable with watching the display. Confusion, excitement and violent fury warred on Shampoo's face as she glared at what she knew to be the source of her discomfort. What she _suspected_ to be the source, anyway. Doubtlessly, the warrior woman had even less idea of what was happening to her than Raven did, only that she was feeling… good… because of it.

And it did feel _good_.

'_Nonono!__ Stop, please stop!'_ The harder she focused, the more she felt her powers slip from her control, greased lightning flashing every which way but within her grasp.

Then something happened. Raven's eyes quivered violently, her pupils shrinking to pinpricks as she watched a hand slide out of the shadows behind Shampoo's back. The graceful, slender arm, wrapped in deep violet material sinuously slid across the Amazon's mid section. It was followed mere moments later as another arm emerged from the shadows, this one sliding up to cup one of Shampoo's breasts.

The Amazon's muffled gasps only increased at the stimuli, as the violet clad figure flowed more fully out of the shadows, its only intent being to bring pleasure to the Chinese warrior. Long, raven colored locks swished in and out of the shadows and glowing purple eyes glimmered in the darkness as the strangely familiar woman leaned bodily into Shampoo's back…

Then, almost as if a switch had been flipped, Shampoo's eyes snapped open. Realization that something was very, _very_ wrong was etched on her face, and with a single look down, she stared at one of the darkly clad arms in incomprehension.

A second later, Shampoo's startled, angry hiss echoed across the hold. A knife was in her hands as she turned, intending to cut whatever was behind her from stomach to collarbone. The effect of her snarl was as abrupt as it was sudden; in less time than it took to blink, the vision of the woman behind Shampoo vanished into nothingness around the still moving blade, leaving it to cut into nothing but unyielding alloy wall, the blade slashing harmlessly against the surface. All around the room, people began to sit up, confused and half asleep mutterings beginning to fill the room!

Panicking, Raven swept out her hand, while she still could.

'_Sleep!'_

And just as quickly, everyone gradually dropped back to the floor, Raven herself pretending to join them. Closing her eyes tightly, she rolled over, turning her back to Shampoo, and the door behind her. The Amazon cursed groggily under her breath but refused to give in to the compulsion, determined to stay awake. Raven her a 'snik' as the combat knife returned to its sheathe. She released a breath - no one was the wiser. Even Shampoo seemed only half alert.

It provided a moment where the knot in her stomach dulled the sensations she still felt from only yards away. Using the momentary lull, the dark Titan vainly tried to puzzle out the mystery of what was happening around her. Had that been one of the delusions she heard others speaking of? Was this dimension finally starting to affect her perceptions?

Was any of this actually _real_?

Azar... but it _felt_ real...!

A low breath escaped her lips and she curled into a loose ball under her blanket. Ryu had been what she'd felt first, and that sensation had been strange. Exciting, alien... _male_... but now, more and more, she felt Ukyou mirrored, and Ukyou's body, Ukyou's feelings... and sensations... were far less alien, and far more familiar. Raven could almost feel hands on her body, a man's hands, venturing where the like had never gone before. She felt a firm grip move up her thigh to squeeze her hip, the fingertips trailing like fire over her stomach and up to her chest. And then-

Calmer, more rational, Raven slowed her breathing, her whole frame shaking under the covers. How far were those two going to go? How much would she feel? A guilty part of her wanted to know; to experience it. All of it. It wasn't her fault she was so sensitive, so empathic, so in tune. Besides, how likely was it that she'd feel something like this again? Just thinking about _it_ had been taboo... back _home_, before... before she'd known the freedom and pleasures of living in a world where the curse of her birth had no sway.

She tried to see it as a good chance to... _learn_...

Her duplicitous mind recalled that Ryouga, her Ryouga, the innocent and wonderful young man she had bumped into back in Jyusenkyou... he was sleeping close by. Close enough to touch. But he was thinking of another girl, dreaming of another girl, a girl with bright pink hair. Raven liked him, and, she realized almost painfully, she _wanted_ him. She wanted to be with him and share with him things she had never shared with any other. And there was so much of her she had never shared. Never dared to share.

Never _would_ share. With anyone.

Their stop at Azarath had proven that, hadn't it?

Her dark thoughts soured her clinical mood, gradually filling the void in her heart with hurt. Who didn't know, by now, that Jinx had already won? How long would it be before Ryouga left her? Before he and Jinx struck out on their own? She would be alone and then, on the appointed day, she would die. Alone.

Alone.

Yet, for all her melancholy, Raven also couldn't help but stifle a moan as warmth filled her. No: not her. But still her. Ryu, she could guess, was at least trying to be gentle, though Raven could imagine his exuberance, see it almost when she closed her eyes. She had seen how he stared at the okonomiyaki chef. The hunger in his eyes as he mentally undressed her, imagining what was beneath. Maybe he loved her. It was a feeling Raven realized... a feeling she wanted to experience for herself.

Her legs rubbed tightly together as she felt more. This was it. They had paused in the other room. To say something maybe? Raven stopped fighting it, and felt a tingle on her lips as they kissed. An intimate moment, not stolen - she told herself - shared. Inadvertently shared. And it felt so _good_. And then more. So much more.

Raven bit her lip, just hard enough to feel.

She was losing control, and for once, she couldn't muster up the fear to care. A little taste of forbidden fruit; out of a lifetime, was that so wrong? Was she so damned for wanting just a little bit of what everyone else got to have? A stray hand moved across her belly button, pressing down, trying to mimic what she felt Ukyou experience. Up, gently along her ribs, and then under her shirt to find an even more interesting place. Never in her life had she been so aroused, and while she had always forbidden herself before, Raven had a good idea of how to make herself feel better.

Closing her eyes, she could almost picture what was going on in that room.

Closing her eyes, she could almost imagine it was her... and her Ryouga... lost in a passion they couldn't hold back any longer. A forbidden tryst that that they couldn't deny. It didn't her take long. Shamefully fast, even. Raven cursed the sounds she couldn't completely keep down, but the others around her slept on, oblivious.

For a few minutes, she forgot all about the horrible dimension they were trapped in, the mission ahead in which they would risk their lives, the tiny hope they had of getting home, the responsibilities forced on her by Nabiki...

She forgot about Azarath, about the horror she would visit on her world on her eighteenth birthday, the boyfriend she wished she could have, but knew she had lost forever...

Breath coming in ragged gasps, faster and faster and for just a little while, she forgot how alone she really was, on this ship full of friends...

Burying her head in the pillow of her futon, Raven felt tears on her cheeks, wet against the fabric. Her body was flooded with a guilty, heady high, but the tears didn't stop. No one came to comfort her. No one knew how she really felt. There weren't any arms holding her, or a voice to reassure her. There never would be. Feeling dirty and wrong in ways she hadn't ever imagined, Raven had only herself.

"Why... why does this always happen to me...?" she whispered into her pillow.

Tucking into a tight ball, the lone Titan willed herself to sleep, and her treacherous, exhausted, sinful, _half-demon_ body - satisfied by its stolen exertions - finally complied.

* * *

Groggily, Ryouga Hibiki, Acting Sergeant of Yankee squadron, rubbed the sleep from his eyes. As every other time he'd awoken on this god forsaken ship in this god forsaken dimension, his skin felt clammy and his clothing clung to him uncomfortably after another night sleeping in them. Running a hand through his hair, he could feel the odious build up of oil and grime that came from going a few days without a proper shower. Sitting up wearily, he stripped off the light t-shirt he was wearing, only to reach over and slip on his dress shirt.

As an afterthought, he tore the black t-shirt in half, then wrapped it over his head, kind of like he'd seen Cyborg do from time to time when they hit the volleyball court on the roof. It was a more old-school method of wearing a bandanna, that and wearing one over your face like a kind of mask, but it seemed that old school was just new school waiting to happen all over again. He lifted up his more standard bandannas, the long, thin strips of yellow and black cloth hanging limply in his hand.

Shrugging, he tied them around his right bicep (he'd seen the other-him do this before, and it was a handy place to keep the bandannas with a helmet on). One never knew when he might need them, after all… Though, it was probably just a matter of time before they got taken away as well. He was pretty certain the only reason he'd been able to keep them when all the other weapons got taken away was because the Lieutenant hadn't relinquished his, either… and, really, he could pretty much weaponize all of his clothing if he wanted, so forcing him to walk around naked was the only real way to enforce that particular rule.

Taking a moment to lift his shirt open a few times, relishing the feel of a bit of fresh air against his skin, he undid the top two buttons again, just for comfort's sake.

A quiet snore drew his attention to his side. Starfire, wearing little beneath the thin blanket which covered her body, was curled up like a cat, some of her flowing crimson hair draped across his lap, from where she had been using him as a pillow earlier that night. Normally, such a sight wouldn't have caused him the slightest of pauses.

But after that dream last night…

A brief shudder ran down his spine, and he quickly but gently brushed her hair off his leg and rose to his feet. Taking a quick stock of the situation, he saw that the hold was still fairly full. A few people were still asleep. Ryu, Mousse, and Starfire. Not even sure why, Ryouga shuddered violently when his eyes passed over his bandanna wearing compatriot. He couldn't shift his gaze away from the Yamasenken master quickly enough.

Thankfully Konatsu was asleep as well (and not just for the distraction value). Even Ryouga was starting to get nervous when he lost track of the male kunoichi lately. He just hoped that the sleep was genuine, the thought of being watched at the moment creeped him out. Cyborg was nowhere to be seen, nor were either of the Lieutenants, Nabiki, or Ukyou. Not that any of that was a surprise. Those five practically lived in the CIC and engine room lately.

Everyone else present was in various states of wakefulness. Kuno and Shampoo were both awake, sitting a yard or two apart by the far wall of the hold. The former looked to be fully absorbed in his poetry or novel writing, or whatever it was that he was recording for posterity onto the tablet in his hand. The latter still looked quite sleepy, and was staring ahead a bit blankly, but not in a 'losing time' kind of sense.

Reava, the alien woman was awake as well, glaring at everyone for all she was worth, but he couldn't even be bothered to waste the energy to glare back. Instead, his gaze instinctively sought out more appealing company. Which he found a moment later… but only for a second. He only managed to catch a glimpse of pink hair as Jinx vanished through the door to the CIC, not even so much as a 'good morning' for anyone as she left with apparent haste.

His first instinct was to sigh forlornly, his second was to go after her and thoroughly embarrass himself with some proclamation that would somehow bring back all of her forgotten memories and win her heart back like a rock ballad in a bad 80's movie. Ridiculous and ridiculously futile romantic gestures had always been a forte of his, and his abysmal track record was enough to give him pause, right then and there.

In the end, he did neither.

Simply shaking his head sadly, he took several steps to his side and dropped his hand on the shoulder of the last person present, the young woman already on her feet and feebly trying to do a few stretches to fight off the last vestiges of sleepiness. Raven nearly jumped out of her skin at the gentle contact, but calmed down quickly when she saw that it was him standing beside her. The heated glare she had been constructing quickly melted away, and an embarrassed glance took its place.

"How are you holding up?" he asked, noting that she was looking a bit more frazzled than usual. Her normally flawless violet hair was half flattened from sleeping on it, and her skin had a slight sheen of sweat on it. Like Shampoo, she also looked quite tired, almost exhausted really.

Offering up a weak smile, Raven replied while trying to fight through a small yawn. "I'm – I'm doing fine… I don't think I'll ever get used to sleeping on the floor like this, though. My entire body feels as stiff as a board. I could really use a real bed."

Head tilting to the side, Ryouga gave her shoulder an experimental squeeze. Immediately, he rolled his eyes. "I think you've gotten spoiled by sleeping on such a huge mattress all the time. Just a few nights on a nice comfy floor and your muscles got more stress in them than Kodachi's psychiatrist."

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking abo-_ohhh_!" Whatever else the dark Titan was about to say was lost, when, without any real warning, he grabbed her other shoulder and started to dig his thumbs into the tightly wound muscles of her back.

"Here, let me get that for ya," he offered in a helpful tone. Of course, he had to be careful, but his confidence in his abilities was one of the few things he had left to keep him going lately.

"I – _ah_ – you don't –_oh, right there…_"

Smiling broadly, he continued his gentle ministrations. His sensitive fingers detected several tiny bumps beneath her skin, across her shoulder blades as he continued his work. The telltale signs of bruising were enough for him to recognize the relatively harmless, though annoying stress deposits for what they were. A little gentle coaxing was enough to break down the pesky little buildups. Each one elicited a small gasp of momentary discomfort from the young woman before him, but it was quickly replaced by sighs of relief.

Reaching up, he brushed her short violet hair away from her neck, his fingers fluttering over his delicate skin like a warm breeze. Again, a small shudder ran through her frame, but he just took that as permission to continue his work. Carefully, he massaged the sides of her neck, her head starting to loll about like one of Beast Boy's bobble heads in short order.

"W-where did you _learn_ this?" asked the pale skinned woman in a breathless voice.

He considered teasing her a bit with a little evasiveness… but something in the tone of her voice compelled him to answer immediately and obediently.

"It's mostly just from my martial training. Basic pressure point application and defense. Plus, I've learned the human body pretty well, my own and others, and I know a bit more than just the basics when it comes to treating injuries and whatnot. Pretty much anyone from India or Juliet should be able to do the same, if not better."

A listless nod was her reply. "… Now that you mention it… Mousse did demonstrate a bit of a hidden talent himself… though not to _this_ degree…"

Instantly, a flare of something flashed up inside Ryouga. His grip didn't alter in the slightest, but for just an instant, his gaze flashed over to the meditating and unaware Hidden Weapon Master, a surge of white hot jealously burning to life.

Giving his head a quick shake, honestly confused about where that had come from, he went back to his work. He was making Raven happy, after all, which was the only thing that mattered now. His entire world was little more than the light rustling of the thin fabric of her shirt as his powerful hands expertly kneaded her muscles. He could feel the tension bleeding out of Raven's frame, and he could almost feel her joy at the sense of relief.

"How does that feel?" he asked, keen to serve any way that he could.

Another boneless nod, followed by a distant, "Just wonderful…"

He nodded to himself, quite overjoyed at his accomplishment. He only wished he could know what she wanted, so that he could serve her better. If only she would tell him more-

'_Lower…_'

Without even questioning, his hands began to work their way down to the middle of her back, finding entirely new sets of muscles, still filled to the brim with tension. His smile only grew, knowing that he was pleasing Raven, his Dark Goddess. Anything she asked, anything she desired…

'_Mmmm… lower…'_

More than eager to obey, he nodded, even as his hands began to slide down her back. "As you say."

And then, instantly, as if Ranma had just jumped through the door and doused the pair of them with a bucket of ice water, Raven's entire body went ramrod straight, and he could almost feel a quake of unknowable emotions rock through the violet haired psion's aura.

"I _didn't_ say anything."

Just as quickly, Ryouga withdrew his hands, shaking his head furiously as his mind suddenly went all topsy turvy on him, a veritable 'train wreck of thought'.

"Y-you didn't? I could have sworn…" Giving his head another shake, he took an uncertain step back, his surroundings feeling unfamiliar for a moment.

'_What… what was I just thinking again?'_

For her part, Raven looked no less confused than him. Not just confused, but embarrassed, shocked and even frightened all at the same time. Her wide, violet eyes looked up at him, concern filling them up with alarming swiftness.

"Ryouga, I– I–"

He stared at her oddly for a moment, absently lifting his hands. They were still warm, from… what had he been doing again? Oh, right, he'd been helping Raven out a bit.

The Lost Sergeant instantly felt his face heat up. H-he'd been _massaging_ Raven? And his hands had been straying _where_? A feeling of discomfort swept over him like a wave, and he started to stutter-step to the side, noticing that Raven quickly began to match his movements, though in the opposite way.

"Um – I think I need to-"

"Something I need to –"

"The Nav and-"

"Back of the ship!"

With all the grace of a piglet tossed into a dryer (the 'damn you Ranma' being a given) the pair of them awkwardly circled around one another, Raven heading to swiftly for the front of the ship, while Ryouga – being Ryouga – arrowed directly to the side of the ship and away from anyone at all.

It wasn't until he heard the swish of the door closing again, that he finally let himself relax and take in a much needed breath of air. The young Hibiki couldn't even begin to fathom what had just transpired, and had no clue how he should be feeling about it, either. So, instead of tax his already limited mental fortitude trying to work his way through the problem, he simply shifted it away to the back of his mind, to store it safely with all of the _other_ conundrums that were proving too frustrating for him to solve lately.

Sighing wearily, the Lost Boy finally realized that he was standing next to the bulk of the ships supplies. The secure store room, 'alien artifact containment', or something equally lame and militaristic, had quickly filled up to the point that their dwindling stock of food stuffs had been moved out into the hold and along one of the less trafficked walls.

Well, since he was here, anyway...

Kneeling down, he rooted through the supplies until he found something appealing for breakfast. Not feeling any appetite at all at the moment, he opted to simply grab a juice box. A quick glance over his shoulder informed him that Kuno and Shampoo were still the only other people of note that were awake. With a weak shrug, he grabbed two more of the annoyingly small boxes and made his way over towards them.

With a barely verbal grunt, he tossed one of the boxes – apple juice, judging by the disturbingly urine colored liquid depicted on the side of the box – at the Kendoist as he approached their position.

"Kuno, head's up."

Without looking up from his writing, Kuno obligingly lifted a hand and lazily caught the proffered beverage before lowering it to rest on the floor at his side.

Shrugging his shoulders again, Ryouga stepped forward and held out the other box to the lavender haired Amazon. She liked orange juice the best, preferably with extra pulp, and he offered it up without even really considering it. Scarcely even looking up herself, Shampoo reached up and took the box from his hand. He didn't even notice it as her fingers brushed over his when she took the drink.

With a tired sigh, he sat himself back down between the pair of martial artists. "Man, what a crummy night's sleep. I had the _weirdest_ dream last night."

Shampoo's expression was guarded and unreadable, but he caught the slight tensing of her muscles as it betrayed her own unease. Efficiently, almost viciously, she stabbed the straw into the top of her juice box.

"You don't even know the _half_ of it, Lost Boy…"

Ryouga studied the Amazon for a moment, and even Kuno looked up momentarily from his work pad. Not wanting to pry, Ryouga gave a non-committal shrug and inserted the straw into his own drink. Grape: not bad, not his favorite, but not bad. Surprisingly, it was the swordsman that broke the brief silence first. His attention quickly redirecting downward, the Kendoist nodded shallowly.

"Yes," he mused. "I too experienced a …vivid… repast this last night. But I find myself curious as to what befell you to elicit such a response, Shampoo."

Both the Hibiki and the Amazon turned to regard the Kendoist queerly. Honestly, Ryouga wasn't sure if he had _ever_ heard Kuno refer to Shampoo by her actual name before. Shampoo seemed to share his confusion for a moment, but quickly shrugged it off. Taking a quick sip from her drink, her head tilted to the side, causing her hair to bounce about playfully.

"Is... hard to explain. Honestly, I didn't even think I _was_ asleep at the time… It was when I was on watch... I thought I thought I _saw_ something." She shook her head back and forth. "But it must have just been a waking dream, or something like that. There was nothing there, after all, but it had just been so…so…"

Ryouga's head tilted curiously to the side as he watched her hunt for the word she required. "So...?"

Instantly, a flash of mortification shot across the warrior's face almost too fast to see. It was quickly hidden behind an indifferent mask. "So _nothing_. Just like I said. Just overactive imagination."

Again, not feeling like prying, and being more than acquainted to the sight of Shampoo going into one of her 'It's none of your damn business' moods. It was always best to just let her have her way when she got like that. As such, he nodded agreeably.

"So, either of you two have any idea what's going on with our next mission?"

Kuno didn't bother to reply this time, giving a sub-verbal 'hmph' to signify his lack of interest.

Shampoo shrugged her shoulders, lifting the box of orange juice up in front of her face, twisting it back and forth as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world. "Aside from what we heard before, I don't know. It seems the only people that Major Hibiki discusses things with lately are that blue big-head alien and dark bird girl. Well, them and airen, I suppose. Rest of us just seem to find out what's going on when it comes time to assign the teams."

Ryouga nodded absently, taking a long draw from his drink… only to frown as the sound of his box going dry made itself known far too soon. Grumbling, he crumpled up the piece of refuse and tossed it to land in one of the storage boxes on the far side of the room.

"Well, figuring out who might be on the theoretical team is getting easier by the day, here," he replied glumly.

"Ryu likely isn't going out, not with the damage his MARS armor sustained," Shampoo supplied matter of factly, "Major Hibiki is still not fully recovered from Jinx nearly killing him."

Instantly, a growl rattled the Hibiki's throat… only to fade away to nothing just as quickly. He honestly just didn't have enough emotion left in him at that point to get angry, not at Shampoo, and not over such a minor comment. No, all of his emotions were being carefully packed away and stored securely in the back of his mind. A ticking time bomb, for certain, but considering everything that had happened lately, he was pretty sure it was the only way he could even function, such as he was. He was actually starting to prefer the empty feeling in the hollow of his soul to the tempest of anguish buried in the darkest depths of his mind.

"And Star is out of it now, too," he added listlessly, "And Cyborg and Ranma are both busy, doing their oh-so-important jobs." A nasty grin split his lips. "Ah, yes, and we mustn't forget how useless Nabiki is in these situations."

A harsh bark of laughter was Shampoo's reply to that. "Mercenary Girl like nipples on a male. Fun to tease, but serve no real purpose."

Not sure whether to blush, or laugh himself, the acting sergeant settled on the latter. "Heh, we better be careful not to let the Major hear us talk like this."

Again, Shampoo shrugged her elegant shoulders, looking patently unconcerned at the idea. "If Nabiki was a real warrior, she wouldn't need him to do her fighting for her."

Absently, Ryouga nodded. It wasn't something he usually thought about, but he'd seemed to have developed a certain preference for formidable women himself lately. He wasn't sure when it had begun, but it definitely wasn't a personality quirk that he minded. (One of very few that he actually approved of)

"Well, what's that saying again? Different strokes for different folks? Or something like that. I'm pretty sure Cyborg mentioned it at some point."

Immediately, a naughty smile adorned the Amazon's face. Doubtlessly, she was formulating a suitably vulgar, yet humorous response to his innocent statement…

But his attention was quickly diverted as he heard the door to the command center slide open. The sight of both Raven and Jinx entering the hold at the same time, walking side by side and appearing to speak in hushed tones, grabbed his gaze and dragged it along with inexorable force.

Even as the two young women, neither of them sparing so much as a single glance in his direction, continued their trek from one side of the hold to the other, their discussion lowering and raising in pitch with each step they took, Ryouga felt his eyes riveted to the pair. Unable to explain why, his mind quickly began to swirl with powerful, conflicting feelings and emotions. Left and right, back and forth, his eyes flickered, unable to make a choice on where to settle. Then, as abruptly as they entered the hold, the pair of Yankees exited it once more, this time slipping into the artifact storage room.

Ryouga's gaze lingered on the door for what was probably an unsubtly long time…

* * *

Raven sighed in relief as the command center door slid shut behind her. Leaning back against the cool surface, she relished the chill metal against her burning skin. The Dark Titan tried to banish the phantom sensation of strong hands working their way down her back. Not just some echoed emotion, this time, but real flesh and blood hands, caressing her actual, physical body.

Her breathing came in hastened gasps and she pressed her hand to her chest in a vain attempt to calm herself. It was all so confusing, so conflicting. Not even six hours ago, she had all but given up and admitted her defeat to her rival in romance, consigning herself to a life of solitude and sacrifice. But Ryouga's actions… his intent… his interest...

She hated herself for even thinking it, loathed herself for the excitement it sparked within her, but this game, which she had thought all but over…

It had been blown wide open.

True, Ryouga still loved Jinx, but now that the pink haired sorceress could barely even seem to tolerate his presence, her main competitor had all but stepped out of the race. Logic dictated that if her reaction to having the Headmaster's tampering had been so extreme, then Ryouga's would inevitably be similar. Despite just how depraved her actions had been, it certainly seemed as if she had been… right.

It was easily possible that she wasn't thinking straight, almost certain really, considering the deleterious effects of this damned dimension, and …_perhaps_… she may have not completely recovered from the – the _incident_ last night, and was being driven by unfamiliar emotions, but at the moment, she could hardly bring herself to care. All she could think about was how to capitalize on the situation. How she _had_ to capitalize on it, while there was still that small glimmer of hope.

Really, all she needed to do was learn from Jinx's example, and become more aggressive. There was little standing in her way, any longer. Even Ryouga's own guilt was no longer an issue. Granted, it had probably been the most loathsome thing she had ever done, tearing away Jinx's memories, and forcing him to love her, even if incompletely…

Raven gave her head a quick shake, not quite believing the thoughts running through her own head. What was she thinking? '_Probably'_? It was easily one of the most repugnant actions she could even imagine, and she was sure that, given time, she would be buried beneath the shame of her crime… and yet… right this second, all she could recall was Ryouga's words, from mere days earlier:

_"As for me, I have only one thing to say on the entire situation."_

_This was it.__ Raven forced herself to keep looking up, though she wanted nothing more than to slip through the floor and out into space.__ She could only imagine the soul crushing bomb he was about to drop on her-_

_"I guess we're even now."_

It wasn't something that any sane person would be thrilled to hear. He had nearly killed her physically, and now she had all but killed him emotionally. She had no idea if what they had each done were in any way comparable, nor did she care. Ryouga, all but indestructible in body, and her, a towering pillar of pure willpower, both striking the other where they were most vulnerable. Even as her mind twisted in on itself, trying to spin things into a positive light, she felt baser instincts guiding her thoughts. When it came down to it, all that mattered was that Ryouga had forgiven her, not only that, but he had forgiven himself as well. The potential seemed limitless…

Well, provided they actually lived long enough to escape this dimension, anyway. She nearly giggled at that errant thought.

True, the odd …reactions… he had been periodically showing since they had escaped from Azarath were potentially worrisome, but again, provided they actually survived, she was sure it was something they could sort out. Forced devotion was more or less one of the greatest taboos when it came to telepathic powers, but as long as she was able to control herself enough, and refrain from taking advantage, then the repercussions should be quite minimal once they sorted things out.

Honestly, how hard could a little self-control be? Even in light of the problems last night. As long as she was aware of the fact that she was likely losing her mind, she should be able to remain objective about her actions and realize when she might be crossing any kind of line… right?

That made sense, right?

"-you _know_ that you've just been _waiting_ for an excuse to do it. Well I'm giving it to you."

Raven started at that, having somehow forgotten that she had stumbled right from one room populated by a Ryouga, to another. Jinx's voice caught her attention in particular, and she looked up, eyes widening slightly. The sight of Jinx speaking with Major Hibiki, _willingly,_ and without biting sarcasm was a rare sight indeed. The fact that they appeared to be discussing something serious, based on the expressions worn by both, was even stranger.

"I'm not going to deny that he's been causing problems, however, what makes you think-"

Suddenly, the older Hibiki cut himself off, mid sentence. His dark brown eyes finally took in Raven's arrival, and shot up to stare at her intently. An instant later, he turned back to Jinx, waving a hand dismissively.

"We'll have to continue this discussion later."

Looking over her shoulder, Jinx caught sight of Raven, and the dark Titan nearly winced at the heated glare that was fired her way. The pink haired sorceress gave a curt nod in response to the dismissal, and spun on her heel, making her way for the exit. Raven sent an inquiring glance in Lieutenant Hibiki's direction, her curiosity as to just what he had been discussing with Jinx palpable.

His only reply was to turn his back on her, returning his attention to the various computer displays which dominated the front end of the command center and the nav interfaces. Raven felt her eyes narrow at the brusque gesture, but had little time to comment, as she was forced to step out of the way, lest she be physically pushed as Jinx stepped quickly past her and lifted her hand to press it to the door's control panel.

A moment of hesitation wracked the violet eyed Titan, and her gaze flitted between the CO and her teammate. Not even sure why, she let out a weary sigh and turned back to the slim girl at her side. Even as the door slid open, she blurted out a hasty: "Jinx, we need to talk."

Silently, Jinx stared at Raven out of the corner of her eyes. She could almost feel the young witch judging and weighing her with her gaze, the door before them unable to close as it sensed someone so close to the opening. Finally, Jinx gave a careless shrug.

"So talk then."

"I-" It wasn't until that exact moment, that Raven realized that she had no idea what to say. '_Sorry for destroying your cherished memories, ripping your love from your heart with blackened claws, betraying any bit of trust you might have had in me and ultimately ruining your life?_' Seemed a bit trite at this point. A pretty staggering case of 'too little, too late', if ever she had seen one.

"I… I'm-" Raven paused, coming to an important realization.

"I'm talking to an empty doorway…"

Staring flatly ahead, Raven quickly broke into a walk to catch up to Jinx, already a few steps into the hold. Almost immediately, Jinx cut to the right, and Raven had to stutter step embarrassingly to get beside her again. Letting out an annoyed huff, she glared at her companion through lidded eyes.

"You're not making this any easier, you know?"

Jinx just stared straight ahead, her expression as flat as polished onyx. "I wasn't aware that I was obligated to."

The dark Titan balked at the sharp riposte. "You're not - I mean, I…" She took a deep breath before just blurting out what she felt needed to be said.

"Damnit, Jinx, I'm trying to apologize," she bit out in a hushed tone, "Could you _please_ stop marching around for five seconds and let me do that?"

They were already halfway across the hold at this point, and the pink haired sorceress showed no signs of slowing… or caring. "And what do you think you need to apologize for, Raven?"

Raven let out a weak sigh as they continued to walk. "Please don't be like this, Jinx. I – we were so close to becoming friends… maybe we already were. What I did to you was unforgivable, but I don't want to throw that away."

Finally, her slit-eyed companion stopped in her tracks, if only because they were now standing in front of the room to the alien artifact storage room and had nowhere further to walk. Pathfinder was not a large ship. There was only so far one could go to get away from anyone else. Pausing for a moment, Jinx glanced surreptitiously around the hold, apparently taking note of the people who were present.

"Friends, huh? Sounds like something interesting to chat about." Moving quickly, Jinx placed her hand on the door mechanism, and the durable metal alloy sheet slid open revealing the darkened interior. Had Ryu forgotten to lock it last night, after...?

Raven quickly cut off that line of thought as Jinx continued to speak, this time in a conspiratorial tone. "Not here, though. Ryouga is _watching_ us again. Let's talk in here."

With that, the slight girl took a backwards step into the room, nearly seeming to melt away into the darkness; only the faintest glints of light on her wide, cat-like eyes and her wide, Cheshire grin were visible as the rest of her vanished from sight. Not even sure why, Raven swallowed a lump in her throat. Something about the sight reminded her strongly of a number of Beast Boy's cheesy horror movies. Still, this was Jinx, after all. Jinx, her friend, and on a ship filled with more of her friends, all ready to jump in at a moment's notice…

Somehow, that last thought wasn't nearly as reassuring as it normally would have been.

Swallowing her small (insignificant, really) fit of panic - '_I don't __**do**__ fear_' – she stepped into the room as well. A moment later, the door slid shut behind her with a near silent hiss, casting the room back into complete darkness once more. All it would take was a single thought, properly transmitted, and the room's lights would activate, and she was a split second away from doing so-

A sudden pressure on her arm, painful in its intensity, derailed any thoughts she might have had. A second later, before she could even register that she should be panicking, she felt herself slammed against the wall. She didn't even have the time to gasp into the darkness, as suddenly the pitch black was burned away by twin points of blinding pink light. Raven couldn't even blink her eyes, the hateful, pinpricks of pink fire dancing less than an inch from her eyelashes, so close that she could feel the scorching heat on her face.

It took several long seconds for her eyes to adjust to the abrupt change in illumination, to realize that Jinx now had her pinned against the wall, and her hand held mere inches away from her face. It was hard to see around the pair of extended fingers, each one wreathed in livid, living flame, looking ready, almost eager to plunge right into her vulnerable eye sockets.

Raven felt her entire body freeze, shock and terror paralyzing her in a way that she had never experienced before.

"_Wha-what-_"

She couldn't even choke out her question as Jinx leaned forward, pressing her forearm down over her trachea. All the dark Titan could do was wheeze ineffectually, even as her eyes shook helplessly, glued to the deadly pink hexes.

"I should _fucking kill you_ for what you did!" the scowling sorceress hissed into her ear, hot breath washing over her neck.

"No one would even blame me, you know?" Jinx offered with dark satisfaction. "When we got home? They'd just go 'oh, it was just that place driving everyone crazy. It wasn't _really_ her fault.'"

Raven struggled to swallow, but she was so afraid that even that minute gesture might cost her, her eyes, that it ended up as a high pitched whine. This – this couldn't be happening! It all seemed so unreal, so impossible. Why couldn't she _do_ anything? It felt like a bad dream, where all she wanted to do was run, but her legs refused to listen.

"You said were my _friend? _My friend? _Really?_" the sorceress continued, her tone incredulous. "What kind of _sick_ joke is that?"

Raven was paralyzed with fear. She needed to control it! Needed to regain her senses! She could end this with a thought; just shut off Jinx's powers, or send her to sleep in an instant… if she could just _concentrate_! No matter what she did, though, all she could do was stare, mesmerized at the hotly shining death hanging before her eyes.

"You know what the worst part is?" Jinx asked, almost making the question sound rhetorical. "I don't even _care_ that you beat me down. What I don't get, what I don't _understand_, is _why _you did it."

The fingers darted a fraction of an inch closer and Raven let out a choked squeal of terror, twisting her head to the side. Strong fingers clutched her chin and pulled her face forward a second later, those deadly fingers dancing teasingly in front of her face once more.

"You did it for _him_?" Jinx barked, disbelief wracking her. "You beat me, you tortured me, you – you _betrayed_ what I _thought_ was a _real_ friendship… and you did it all for a guy that _only likes me because he's brainwashed?_"

Some of the pressure released from Raven's chest as Jinx leaned back, rolling her eyes grandly. She wasn't sure, but she almost swore she could see tiny glints of moisture at the corner of her would be killer's eyes, flashing brightly in the incandescent pink light. Instantly, the sorceress was back in her face.

"All you had to do was _ask_, and I would have _helped_ you get him back! Between the two of us, we could have convinced him to get his memories set straight, easy. Hell, I don't know why the hell we haven't done it _already!"_

Raven swallowed helplessly, as Jinx suddenly leaned forward farther, pressing her head the dark Titan's chest, apparently on the verge of breaking down completely. Whatever emotions swayed the unpredictable girl, though, her fingers didn't waver in the slightest, the fires didn't dim one wit.

"You're right, I _thought_ we were becoming friends," Jinx whispered, pain lacing her voice, "…I should _so_ kill you…"

Raven felt her heart clench. Did Jinx really mean it? Would she actually-

And, as quickly as they had formed, the pink flames winked out of existence. Instantly, they were plunged back into blackest pitch. A moment later, Raven felt a warm hand wrap gently around the side of her neck, but it wasn't an attack, the fingers weren't constricting around her delicate windpipe.

Without warning, the lights suddenly came on, eliciting a gasp from the nearly blinded Raven, and forcing her to blink repeatedly before she could finally see anything but a white and pink blur. For several long seconds, the lion's share of her vision was filled with a crop of bright pink hair, Jinx's head still pressed to her chest and her hand clutching the back of her neck, more for support than anything else.

A seeming eternity passed, before Jinx finally pushed back. The redness around her eyes was impossible to miss, but the slight sorceress quickly brushed her sleeve across her face.

"I _should_… but I won't," she continued, her voice losing its timid waver. "We all do stupid crap sometimes… and you _did_ help save my life, even though you did it a few days after you tried to _end _it so enthusiastically."

Resisting the urge to raise a hand to her face and make certain that all of her features were still present and unburned, Raven took a deep breath, _finally_ beginning to shake off the soul numbing terror that had paralyzed her so painfully.

"I – I won't say that I didn't deserve that…" she muttered in a low tone. "But did you _have_ to scare the life from me like that?"

Weak smile adorning her face, Jinx nodded slowly. "Yeah… yeah, I kinda did. Honestly, I don't know if we'll ever be able to go back to what we were like before Azarath… but I guess it doesn't matter too much."

Raven tilted her head at that odd, and frankly depressing statement.

Lancing her with a serious stare, Jinx gave a curt nod. "Friend or not, you're an important part of my team, Raven, and I can't afford to lose you. I want you to always remember that."

And then, the slight sorceress spun away from her. "But for now, for _right now_, I _seriously_ need some personal space. So could you please get the hell out of here for a bit?"

Not exactly sure what to make of her teammate's contradictory, and frankly confusing parting words, Raven ended up shrugging helplessly. This had been, in no conceivable way, what she had expected when she had initiated this discussion… but in retrospect, it had probably ended up going better than it possibly could have. She supposed that giving the unpredictable young woman some time alone was the least she could do.

"If that's what you want."

With that, she stepped to the door, which had been mere inches away from her this whole time.

* * *

"-and then, after you remove your finger, you give one last twist, and _voila_!"

Shampoo paused, waiting for the inevitable Hibiki reaction to what she had just said (yes, living on a base populated by older women, some of whom were much more 'experienced' than herself did have advantages), said 'reaction' either being 'boyish squeals of shock', or just plain passing out…

Several seconds passed, and yet no such response appeared to be forthcoming. Frowning now, as she rarely indulged in such immature antics with her own team mates, and the idea that Ryouga, of all people, would consider himself too 'mature' to laugh irked her. Turning to regard her companion, wondering if he might have just passed out while sitting up… she finally noticed what the problem was. The young acting Sergeant was staring blankly at the far door, doing little else besides breathing.

"Stupid Cabbage Head losing time _again?_ If he keeps this up, he might get taken off the mission as well." Letting out a frustrated huff, Shampoo lifted a small fist and prepared to knock the Lost Boy out of his stupor.

"Wait."

Caught in mid-strike (she wasn't holding back, taking into account the abnormal thickness of the Hibiki skull, and the above average thickness of _this_ Hibiki's skull in particular) Shampoo's fist stopped less than a millimeter above the Lost Boy's t-shirt wrapped head. A bit shocked, she looked over her shoulder to see Kuno, still looking fully absorbed in his writing. Despite the fact that he was looking down, and was even in the middle of writing some passage or another, it had clearly been his voice that had stopped her.

"What is it, Stick Boy?" she muttered in an annoyed tone. Couldn't even be bothered to look at her when he spoke to her?

Then, surprising even the Amazon herself, Kuno did not only stop writing, he actually set the datapad down in his lap. What came next appeared to be a feat of pure will on the part of the swordsman, but he finally tore his gaze from the electronic device and met her inquiring look.

"Have you not noticed it?"

Shampoo stared at the swordsman oddly for a moment. Even now, she could see his eyes flitting back to the pad in his lap, but he was managing to keep his attention on her. "Noticed what? That baby Lost Boy is losing mind like rest of us?"

Holding up a finger, intent on making a point of some kind, the swordsman replied with a self assured: "Ah-ha. But _is_ he losing his mind like the rest of us?"

With a blasé gesture, Shampoo pointed over her shoulder to the comatose fighter. "Sure look like it to me."

Nodding in a sagely manner (apparently the prospect of lecturing her was more interesting than even his poetry at this point, as his struggle to ignore his poetry was noticeably easing), Kuno made a lazy gesture with his hand. "I suppose that, to the _untrained_ eye, this particular Hibiki's episodes of delusion are just as random as the ones which have afflicted the rest of us. However, with my… shall we say _superior_ instincts for romance? I have noted a most fixed pattern to the young Hibiki's problematic issues."

"_Superior_-? You _must_ be joking. You have romantic instincts of horny panda," Shampoo replied, incredulous at the moronic statement. Still… she did find herself just the tiniest bit curious. Not that she cared even the smallest bit about the brain addled Hibiki, but – but if it was something that could actually help the mission, then it could potentially be important. "Alright then, _Master of Romance_, tell Shampoo what wrong with Cabbage Head."

Shaking his head in a vaguely condescending manner, the kendoist held out his hands in a grand gesture. "I suppose, though it is quite obvious to myself, that it would escape the notice of one such as yourself. But, after careful observation... I have had chance to do little else but observe since coming to this dimension, and being relieved of duty… the young Hibiki's tribulations do strike a chord within mine own heart – thus I believe I have divined the root of his hardships."

The Amazon rolled her eyes, waiting for the man to stop speaking and start actually saying something. Complying sooner than expected, the kendoist gestured past her, and to the oblivious Hibiki. "As I said, his troubles are quite familiar those I have faced in the past. Though it was not obvious early on in our stay in this odious dimension, due to certain situations, the cause has become more blatant the longer we remain."

With that, likely noticing that he was incrementally inciting her wrath, he gestured to the distant door. "The young sergeant's blackouts are not random, like most everyone else's. His own episodes have all happened while within proximity to both the mysterious Raven and the vivacious Jinx."

"'Vivacious' not word _I_ use to describe her," Shampoo muttered under her breath. "But what do you mean? Are you saying that those two are causing him to black out?"

"Not intentionally, no," Kuno replied quickly. "However, I, moreso than anyone else, knows the burden of holding two proud women in my heart."

Shampoo scoffed at that idea, loudly. "And exactly _what_ does being an indecisive, spineless bigamist have to do with him blacking out?"

Holding a hand to his chest in mock wounding, the swordsman replied in a pained tone. "Surely you cut to the quick, my fair comrade. However, I think you are failing to see the true depths of the quandary which our new friend finds himself entangled. Surely you heard the rumors of how his relationship with Jinx first came to be? Considering recent events, it would be all but impossible for you to lack such knowledge."

It took her a second to realize what he meant but soon enough she was nodding slowly. "Lost Boy and Witch Girl were both brainwashed into loving each other… Only now Witch Girl free of spell… but Ryouga is not."

A solemn nod. "And though we have been given none of the details of what dark events occurred within Azarath - and in this I speak of the ominous deeds which led Jinx to be so injured, and Raven to be so openly distrusted by even her own beloved team mates – I believe we have _all_ noted certain… unusual interactions between the sergeant and his darkly alluring companion."

Shampoo found herself nodding again, things starting to add up when all the pieces were presented at the same time. "Sometimes… just once or twice that I've seen, he's gotten this – this _look_ on his face, like he is _worshipping_ her. I have seen similar expressions before… mostly from males affected by Passion Spice, or other similar magics."

"Quite so," Kuno agreed, dipping his head. "I know well the pain one can experience, harboring love for two fierce and worthy women… but can either of us imagine just what he must be going through, to not just love two women… but to be _compelled_ to love two different women?"

The swordsman stared sadly at the insensate martial artist to the Amazon's side. "As I said, his blackouts only occur around both of his lady loves, but not whilst he is interacting with them. I would say that his issues only arise when he has time to think, or, more to the point… when he finds himself trying to _choose_…"

The Amazon actually found herself considering his words. Was that it? Was this dimension combining with, or conflicting with, opposing mental suggestions to such a degree that it made it physically impossible for him to choose between two women? It certainly seemed ridiculous. Not only was the witch an utterly ridiculous match for the powerful warrior, but she did not even harbor the same feelings any longer. How could he possibly have trouble choosing Raven, whose own desire for him was almost embarrassingly obvious?

It was about then that she realized just who it was that she was speaking to. Giving her head a good shake, Shampoo let out a sharp bark of laughter. "Oh, you almost had me there, Stick Boy. All of this crazy talk about love and such. But do you honestly expect me to believe that _you_ are that observant?"

"Is that so?" Kuno met her challenging glance with an amused one of his own. "Then, mayhaps you will tell me exactly what it was that transpired between Hibiki and _yourself_ during your mission to recover the fragment of the ancient, dead god?"

Instantly, Shampoo's entire body stiffened, and she felt her jaw clench shut. "W-what do you mean?" she managed to squeak out, though not in the dignified manner she would have preferred.

Giving a careless shrug, Kuno gestured to nothing at all. "Well, if my powers of observation are so lacking, than surely I would have been incapable of noticing that Hibiki and yourself were nearly at each other's throats prior to our arrival here. Sharp looks and sharper words have been your weapons of choice lately, as the two of you fought your prolonged duel, and I doubt there was a soul on this ship that could not see the animosity which had bloomed between you."

"I – we – it was never _that_ extreme," she rebutted, not certain why she felt so put on the spot. "We had simply had an argument before leaving on a past mission. It was nothing of consequence," she assured him. "Merely heated words."

"And yet, now the pair of you are not only reconciled, but go so far as to actually seek out one another's company?"

"That means nothing," she riposted sharply. "As annoying as he can be, lost boy is one of the few people that is still acting like himself in this damned place. And we were set on the same team by the Big Head alien. It only makes sense that we would strive to work together in the face of our problems."

"Indeed, indeed," Kuno agreed blithely, "But at which point does professional courtesy transform into the sharing of company, the fetching of drinks, and the gentle teasing which you rarely engage in even with other members of your own team?"

"I – I don't know-" Uncertainly, Shampoo looked to her side. Ryouga was sitting between herself and Kuno… but he was easily several inches closer to herself than the swordsman; their knees were almost brushing from proximity, and she had not even noticed the closeness until now. She then glanced at the empty box in her hand. Of the three juices he had brought, had it just been a coincidence that he had handed her the one she would enjoy the most?

She knew, of course, that it had been no coincidence at all. She did her very best not to think of it now, but she honestly found herself wondering if there was anyone on this entire ship who understood the Lost Boy as well as she did… or if anyone _knew _her quite so intimately as this particular Hibiki now did. It was odd as, logically, she knew next to nothing about him at all. And yet, they had shared a seeming life time together… It was not something so easily explained to another.

"Alright then," she began anew with startling suddenness, "Suppose you _are_ right. If Cabbage Head is just too stupid to choose between underage jailbait girls… then how do we prove it?"

Leadingly, Kuno's gaze drifted to the martial artist sitting between them. Getting the signal easily enough, this time it was with great relish that Shampoo lifted her fist into the air.

One solid strike later (and after hastily waving her bruised knuckles around to try to shake out the sting) Ryouga Hibiki, acting Sergeant of Yankee squadron was back with them. Giving a short shake of his head, and tentatively lifting a hand to rub the back of his head, he turned back and forth to regard the pair of them.

"Oh, look, Kuno is back with us…" He noticed them staring at him. "What? Did I say something funny?"

Shampoo and the kendoist shared a quick rolling of the eyes. The Amazon then gestured to the swordsman to begin. Taking her cue, Kuno leaned forward and clapped a hand to the bandanna clad martial artist's shoulder.

"Tell me, my friend, is the fair Jinx not the most lovely creature to grace our mission?"

Not seeing the glare that Shampoo was firing over his shoulder at the swordsman, Ryouga fired back a suspicious glare of his own. "_Yessss_… she is… Why do you ask, Kuno? You aren't planning anything… are you?"

Not giving her partner in psychology a chance to embarrass himself, Shampoo grabbed Ryouga's other shoulder and spun him around to face her. "But Raven has a much more 'womanly' body, wouldn't you say? Surely she's more appealing than some witch that looks more like a boy than a girl?"

An annoyed expression flitted across the martial artist's face. "Well, yes… Raven _is_ really beautiful, too…" Suddenly, a distant look entered his eyes. "She's just so… so perfect…"

"More perfect than Jinx?" Kuno asked, interest obvious in his voice.

"Yes – _no_! I mean, I _love_ Jinx…"

"So, then you _don't _love Raven?" Shampoo cut in sharply.

"What? _No_! Wait, I mean yes!" A confused expression bloomed on the Lost Boy's face. "Wait, which one means that I _do_ love her?"

The Amazon felt her eyes narrow as she watched the indecisive waffling grow exponentially. Leaning forward, she barked, "You can't love _both_ of them. Which one would you _choose_?"

"I-I-I-I-"

Over his shoulder, Kuno shot her a look which seemed to say 'Are you happy now?' If anything, it only infuriated the Amazon more. If he couldn't choose himself, then maybe she would just _force_ him to.

Whatever loosely formed plan she might have had was quickly dashed, though, when the far door suddenly shot open – the door which led directly to the command center – and _Nabiki_ ran into the hold. The fact that the older girl was running was, in and of itself, startling enough (Shampoo knew how much the middle Tendo sister hated physical activity), but the expression on her face spoke volumes to the surprised Amazon.

Nabiki looked like she was being chased by a gravid Chryssalid.

Instantly, Shampoo, Ryouga and Kuno were on their feet. Before they even had a chance to catch the girl in her flight, though, Major Hibiki was through the door a second after her, and he stopped her as gently as was humanly possible for one so inhumanly strong.

"Nabiki! What's going on?" came their CO's concerned exclamation.

* * *

Internalizing her sigh of relief, Raven stepped back into the hold. Though she had never been so afraid in her life, she actually held out a small amount of hope that she might yet be able to work things out with her alienated team mate. It would be a tragic shame if Jinx could-

"Nabiki! What's going on?"

The alarmed inquiry dragged Raven directly out of her ruminations and back into the present. Immediately, her attention swung to the center of the hold. The Major was present, which was a bit odd considering it was still so early in the morning, and was holding Nabiki in his arms. Even more unsettling, Nabiki was even more pale than Raven herself was on a good day. Even a cursory scan of the Tendo woman's emotions revealed stark terror… but why?

Something about Ryouga's voice seemed to get through to Nabiki, and the woman managed to calm herself down through pure force of will. Her breath still a bit ragged, and hands shaking almost imperceptibly, Nabiki eventually recovered enough to speak.

"I… I'm sorry, Ryouga. I – I think I just had another hallucination…"

"Is that all?" he asked, obviously not quite believing that something so simple would have had the normally unflappable Tendo running scared. "I mean, you ran right past me, and this isn't the first one..."

The brunette shook her head. "I'm… I'm pretty sure that's all it was. It's just that it felt so _real_. And it just looked so _terrifying_. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it, not even in those stupid American horror movies. And it just appeared out of nowhere, too. I mean, I was just stepping out of the engine room, and then... then _there it was_."

Raven frowned at that. She didn't like the sound of that. If even Nabiki's hallucinations were getting this bad, then it didn't bode well for the majority of the crew that were all but living weapons.

"The worst part was the _eyes_," Nabiki explained, still shaken visibly, "The rest of it was indistinct, hard to make out… but those _eyes_, like twin pools of bubbling, melted flesh… like – like someone had just burned them right out of the things damned head…"

The dark Titan winced at that graphic description-

Only for her entire body to shoot up, ramrod straight as realization struck her like a hammer.

'_those __**eyes**_'

Suddenly, visions of the past night came back with enough force to knock her back a step. Shampoo, encircled by violet shrouded arms, a vaguely familiar face melting out of the shadows with glowing, purple eyes. And now this, a shapeless monstrosity whose only defining feature was a pair of eyes melted away as if by fire…

Raven felt like an utter fool for not making the connection already. How could she have been so oblivious to what was happening?

Moving silently, struggling to avoid any undue attention, the dark Titan slowly glided to the furthest, most isolated corner of the hold. Sitting down, she quickly began to recite her familiar mantra of 'Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos.'

More so than anyone on this ship, she could _not_ afford to lose control of her mind. If she was correct about what was happening, and it seemed blatantly obvious that she was at this point, then she already knew what kind of problems were awaiting them.

"Why, why, why do these things _always_ happen to _me_?"

* * *

Trespasser, Guardian of the Universe, Esteemed Member of FOUNDATION, ironically did not think of himself as such. What was a "Guardian of the Universe," after all? It was just a childish title, bandied about as a result of collective racial guilt. It was a banner raised to great heights by a self destructive and self loathing elite, perpetuating myths that couldn't be scientifically proven. For that matter, what was "Foundation"? It was merely a group of old dreamers and hopeless, starry eyed idealists, searching for truth behind the backs of the established order. That name would change, and had changed, just as the membership reflected the times. Names. Names! Names! They were all so... empty.

Even Trespasser was another hollow title, to be used and discarded.

What he was, was _Oan_.

No: he was _Malthusian_!

Above and beyond all things, he was _Malthusian_. He had known Krona. He remembered a time before his people atrophied their forms: he remembered when they were strong and proud, in body and mind. Contrary to what some thought, Oans had not "evolved" or otherwise changed themselves into a higher form. Nonsense. They had not altered themselves to become more powerful or more "in tune" with the universe. Foolishness! _Superstition_! Propaganda. They had not cast aside their natural bodies out of hermetic obligation. If only they had!

No. It was laziness. It was sloth. It was arrogant and misplaced _pride_.

_Others shall work that we may study._ The Manhunters will see to troublesome species. Interaction with the universe? Why bother? When the Manhunters revolt, as Foundation warned the Council that they would, replace them with an Army of devoted followers! Problem solved. Point them here and there and watch them go; fearless in their blind misuse of the Ion Entity! How noble! How wonderful, this Green Lantern Corps.

Tell them to "overcome great fear" - after all, that was the quickest and easiest way to turn raw recruits into something useful. Who cares if most don't live more than a few years? There are trillions of other beings to take their place, and a million Green Lantern Rings wait in storage, programmed to seek out replacements. Oversight? No. Let the rings themselves decide. More time for research! Not that any worthwhile research had been done in the so called "laboratories" of Oa for millions of years. Most modern "Oans" had given up on finding anything _new_, much less accomplishing anything significant with their unending, pointless, decadent lives.

The whole Green Lantern Corps was a sick cosmic joke. Spacemen giving ray guns to primitives. The vice of Sloth was so infectious among the Oan elite that it was a miracle they hadn't withered away or turned to dust. No. It was a curse. It meant that same elite would dictate policy until the entropic death of the universe. When that time came, they would probably still be sitting in the same chairs, in the same room, with the same expressions of slack jawed, dull-eyed disinterest. The White would come again, as the Life Entity reabsorbed the Emotional Spectrum, and just _maybe_ one of them would mutter, before the end: 'oh, yes, I had forgotten, maybe we should look into-'

**No.**

Trespasser was an Oan. An Oan of the old school. A Homeworld Oan. **A Malthusian!**

Fighting evil in the universe? It was a wonderful gesture, he was not opposed to it, but something like that was really just a side project; a diversion from serious work. What did the humans call it? "Humanitarian Aid?" A conceited term, but it got the point across. There was certainly nothing wrong with it. It was in the interests of all Guardians to promote an 'orderly' and 'just' universe, after all, though such a thing was of course impossible. One may as well search for mathematical proof of God.

At that thought, Trespasser couldn't help but smile, though he fortunately did not laugh. His thoughts had strayed into a true irony. Perhaps there was more merit to promoting an "orderly and just" universe than he had thought, in light of recent discoveries?

Regardless, the whole endeavor, the whole disastrous course of events that had befallen the Malthusian race, it was due to great and mighty Krona and his lack of preliminary research. The elites had latched onto one improvable hypothesis that suited their agenda and blown it all out of proportion, whipping the rest of the Malthusian race into a frenzied panic. Reorder the entire culture! Change the species! Even the females were gone. Trespasser didn't blame them. Only racial and gender solidarity had forced him and so many others to adjust to the times, though it had forced others away... and a few into the shadows.

'But what,' some Malthusians had protested, 'if Krona's Sin was not the Sin of all Malthus?'

More shockingly: _What if the Cosmic Instability had not been caused by Krona at ALL?_

The trick was proving it.

The Foundation had maintained that goal for longer than some stars had been in sequence. Prove that Krona's blunder was not Malthuian Sin. Prove that the universe had no natural order to disturb! Prove that there was no "introduced error" to the universal beginning! Prove that the elites had turned superstition into fact to promote their political agenda! Prove that the truth, the **scientific truth** of the universe itself, was being actively covered up and obscured...!

_Undo the Oan self-imposed genocide._ Accept the Natural Order of the universe instead of an Imposed Order, enforced by the Central Battery!

TRUTH.

The highest principle, the highest order, the most esteemed Oan, the greatest force, the ultimate aspiration!

Truth!

There was a truth. One Truth. Trespasser knew there was. No Truth disagreed. One of them would be proven right and the other wrong. Science would determine which. No Truth _had_ to be wrong. Trespasser was willing to see the research to its conclusion to find out, but he knew... no, he strongly suspected... that No Truth was in error. The trials and sufferings of the great Malthusian Race, of the Oans All, could not be for nothing. Truth.

Trespasser would find Truth.

He would find Truth and seize it by the throat until it bled and spat answers.

Nothing else mattered.

In this universe or any other.

* * *

Jump City, back on Raven's Earth, was among the largest metropolitan areas in the American Southwest Coast, covering more than a hundred and sixty square kilometers. Practically speaking, this meant that there was typically one Teen Titan available for every thirty square kilometers of city. During the exodus to the suburbs, that translated to one Titan for every eighty thousand residents. During the work day, this became one Titan for every half million.

Raven normally didn't think much about the actual numbers and scale of what they did. Cities on Earth had a lot of people in them, and the United States where most metas were costumed was actually one of the least dense! Of course, compared the tens of billions of Thanagarians that lived throughout their empire the population of Earth was fairly insignificant. Just remarkably condensed into one little world.

That thought sparked yet another in Raven. With them so squarely in her mind lately, she wondered if there was even _one_ Green Lantern for every ten billion sentient beings existing in the universe they were sworn to protect. Or even one for every _trillion_?

True, that bit of trivia did put her personal level of responsibility into perspective. Still, regardless of galactic scaling, when Robin had proposed that they "watch over" the city, she had privately considered the idea somewhat ludicrous. Jump City was so large you couldn't see all of it from Titans Tower. It just stretched and stretched and stretched on in one big sprawl until buildings and lights became a blur.

One hundred and sixty square kilometers.

The task before her - before all of them - had been presented as numbers. Data. Those did not do it justice. One could take Metropolis, place it in a giant pit, and then layer Gotham directly on top of it, magically held up by the towers beneath, and then add Coast City and then Jump City on top. One after another, you could mount them, like the layers of a cake. This would still not equal the size of the theoretical alien structure that they were being asked to search.

The alien ship had, to no one's surprise, been outlined to resemble a massive saucer: a huge, fat, upside-down mushroom shaped saucer. Over _five thousand cubic kilometers_ was Cyborg's estimate for the volume. Ranma and Ryouga had woken them up, given them insertion points, and told them to get to work.

"Let's get the first thousand out of the way today!" Ranma had enthusiastically joked.

She hoped he was joking.

The next twelve hours of her life had been spent either shuttling people down, through the desert-like surface of the vast Dimensional Hulk, or waiting to do the same. Each insertion was conducted after ground penetrating scans and calculation of risk and possible gain. They were aiming for large areas that were neither collapsed, degraded by millions of years of cosmic bombardment and warp energy corrosion, and that were likely to possess some sort of information gathering interface. No one expected to hit jackpot and find the "Archive" they were searching for, but there was hope that they could get close or find some kind of clue. Some kind of hint about where to go.

In her mind's eye, Raven saw the pockmarked surface of the hulk below. It was a black, unending expanse of metallic sand, swept by cosmic winds and nightmarish warp bubbles. How many hundreds of ships or... dimension traveling entities... had fallen on top of the ruin they now explored, their corpses and souls fused and broken down into the toxic desert below? Raven couldn't begin to imagine. Hundreds. Thousands. Over Twenty million years of wear and abuse, death and corruption. All those innumerable ships and corpses had been ground down to a fine, poisonous dust.

Storms from distant warp implosions kicked up long curls of the fine particles, reflecting colors she didn't think there were names for. Starfire had taken to watching them out of a window. Raven had seen them, too, since the officers cut all travel to and from the ship when an anomaly event occurred anywhere nearby. Her eyes _still hurt_ from looking at the discordant shapes and lights reflected.

They had been here, plumbing these lightless depths, _for three days_.

She woke up in pain. The mission required that she move a minimum of two people from the surface, through anywhere between thirty to sixty meters of warped rock and metal, down into sightless, twisted passageways that hadn't been touched by light since before volcanic activity gave birth to Atlantis. Up above, it was lifeless, ceaseless, oppressive desert and mind numbing light.

Below, it was a tomb. The stable sections were silent, airless, hostile but only in a passive way. The unstable sections they never stayed in. Cosmic wear meant that toxic particles were everywhere; simply brushing up against a wall would release a cloud of them. There was nothing down below, no matter how deep they went. On the second day, they made jumps: sixty meters to a safe spot, forty meters to another safe spot, fifty meters to another. By the end of the day, they had descended more than two hundred meters with one team.

Her mind conjured up the briefing, days before: _five thousand cubic __kilometers._

Azar's Blood.

_It hurt_. It hurt moving people through so much, through such horrible, hostile space. Ironically it was actually easier here than back in UNETCO's dimension, but she paid for it. Sometimes there would be a "warp reaction" in response to her movement through an area more than once. Even when things went smoothly, her nerves burned and her mind ached. She felt sick. Food didn't stay down.

Every painkiller from every medical kit had been reserved for her personal use. She had been assured that they weren't addictive. After three days of using them, Raven wasn't sure if that was true anymore. Her head swam and sometimes it was hard to think. Three times she'd been caught blacking out, but she wasn't the only one. Everyone was missing longer and longer stretches of time. When anyone noticed a comrade losing it, they tried to cover for them. Nerves and minds were steadily fraying and falling apart all around her.

That wasn't all, either. She had been forced to 'assist' Ranma with tracking down 'unexplained psionic anomalies' across the ship. Every time, it had been one of the crew complaining of strange hallucinations. Some were terrifying, others were harmless and amusing, yet others were… too private to speak of openly. Raven was not so far gone as to not make the connections to those moments when she had felt terrified at the prospect of dying here, or when Starfire had actually broken from her sour mood long enough to share a rather off color joke with her.

Or when she had caught herself striving to recall the feelings she had experienced during Ukyou and Ryu's discrete indiscretion… The only small miracle was that her own team mates were too distracted to make any such connections themselves, and that no one else here had any knowledge of that dark night from so long ago.

Yet her own problems were not even the worst of those affecting the crew.

"This mission is impossible! **Impossible!**" Shampoo had yelled, fresh from another deep excursion into the massive wreck. They still didn't even know what it was called; if it had ever even had a name. Still, Shampoo losing her temper wouldn't have been too strange, if not for the fact that she had followed it up by lunging at _Ranma_ of all people.

He had caught her by the wrist and effortlessly flipped her onto her back, twisting her arm. Even more surprising than the unexpected attack and counter, though, had been that Ryouga, _her_ Ryouga, had instantly leapt forward to Shampoo's defense. Breaking Ranma's hold and helping Shampoo away to recover.

It was all just so bizarre… and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Three days they had been here, floating inert over this alien city/craft.

This damned... horrible place.

The officers hadn't moved anyone else off the active duty list. This was probably less because they were confident of everyone being perfectly sane, and more because they needed the manpower. Mousse still couldn't hear anyone properly or take orders in any form unless they were hand signs. Kuno had gone completely silent, writing down poetry and random thoughts and trying not to look at anyone around him. Konatsu spent more time in the shadows; hardly anyone saw him anymore, though he was clearly still on the ship. Starfire spent all her time brooding or looking out the window, wanting less and less to do with anyone else. When the windows were all tinted black, sometimes she cursed and screamed and demanded they go back to the way they were.

It was just horrible. There were no other words. This place was _horrible_.

The last week as a whole had been the worst she could recall. The normally iron discipline that the teams prided themselves on was crumbling all around her. She could see it, THEY COULD ALL SEE IT, but there was no cure. No solution. No fix. Ranma and Ryouga were down to using force to keep everyone in line. Nabiki was useless. She spent all her time with Trespasser and Ukyou. Even though Raven had expected this, even though she had been _warned_about it, it didn't make her life any easier.

Yesterday, "Day Two," she had tried to get in contact with her emoticlones, but her mindscape was like a fractured mirror. She could vaguely sense that they were still there, inside her, but all she could perceive of them was a broken face or a flash of a metaphysical limb or cloak. When she tried to speak to them, or just to listen to them, the voices in her head spouted curses and gibberish instead of wisdom. She had an odd epiphany that her emotional partitions might not be limited entirely to her own mind lately, but refrained from sharing that frightening possibility with anyone else.

It would have been funny, in a darkly amusing sort of way, except it meant that she was well and truly losing her mind. Literally. They were _all_ losing their minds, though some in far different ways than others. They still had some food and plenty of recycled water (she tried not to think about how recycled), but they would be as good as dead long before they starved.

Raven detached herself from the ache in her mortal body and considered that. _Dead, here?_ After the literal Hell they had experienced in Azarath? At the _least_, at the very **least**, she wished that there was some way for her to bring her dear father, Trigon, into this Gods Forsaken Dimension. He could _rot_ alongside Heresiarch: bleached bones like the facade of a bombed out building, dried red _cracking skin_ over a withered, split skull, staring up, BLIND, into the **Abyss**.

**"Raven!"**

She blinked, dazed. _What - what had she been thinking... just before?_

"R-Ryouga?"

Raven saw him standing in front of her, wearing his excursion equipment and personal armor. Jinx was with him, alert but still terribly tired. She wasn't sleeping well, and it showed. Shampoo and Ukyou were group-two, and also prepared (the resident Green Lantern also needing to wear some enviro-gear). The Acting Major Hibiki was also suited, except for his helmet. He would or could be coming down if any of the groups, for once, found anything even slightly useful. Ranma was taking his turn on the ship's Nav, which mostly meant looking out for anomalies and warp distortions.

"Okay, listen up," Hibiki-the-officer barked, adding enough anger to his voice that it demanded attention, even from the listless and drifting crew. "We're at the limit of our environmental supplies, not to mention our pain killer meds. Today will be the last day. We have identified only three excursion points, all more than one kilometer down."

Raven did her best to hide her wince at the mere word. '_A __**kilometer**__down?_'

He looked across the most cognizant of the remaining crew. "Last night, Trespasser informed me that the new EDC is ready to initiate a transit event. If we do not locate the archive today, then we will jump without it twelve hours from now, while we still have enough Elerium 115 to power the reactor. Without a fixed dimensional coordinate system, estimates are that we have a five to ten percent chance of ending up... somewhere. We don't know where. But it will be _somewhere_ that isn't _here_."

It was sad, but that was what passed for good news.

The CO held out a plastic case and opened the top, rolling five small pills into his open hand.

"In the event that you cannot return, I am issuing you each your P-11s." He didn't need to describe what the pills did, or what a P-11 was. Raven knew about cyanide capsules. She had heard that astronauts and others had them for... emergencies. Shampoo and Ukyou each took theirs without a word.

Raven frowned, but did the same. She put the little white pill in a pocket she hoped she'd never have to open. She turned to watch Jinx take hers with the same lack of fanfare that the girl's of Juliet had displayed. The only one to yet take his was her own Ryouga. Which made it all the stranger, when the young sergeant, rather than frown, or hesitate… began to laugh.

It was a slightly worrisome laugh, and instantly it elicited a furious scowl on the face of Lieutenant Hibiki.

"Is something _funny_, _Sergeant_?"

"No – no," he replied, still chuckling between each word. "It just… kind of occurred to me. It's just that… well… we're going into an airless void, y'know? Just to _take_ these pills, we'd have to _take off our helmets_! Makes the whole suicide pill thing seem kind of redundant now, doesn't it?"

Raven actually started at that, and she noticed Jinx do the same. She looked to the pocket she'd placed the pill in. Just _how were_ they supposed to take it without killing themselves in the first place? She almost felt herself want to chuckle herself, and she even saw the corner of Jinx's lips curl up in amusement.

The Lieutenant, however, was as far from amused as was possible for a Hibiki. Raven actually saw his arm lift up, as if preparing to lash out. She wondered if he actually would, and if her Ryouga would retaliate…air, finally managing to suppress his laughter. "Yeah yeah, I get you, Lieutenant. Suicide is no laughing matter, though… now that I think of it, wouldn't _you_ killing _me_ be kind of like-"

Noticing the dark glower on his counterpart's face only growing worse by the second, the sergeant quickly picked up the pill and tossed it up and down into the air a few times before placing it into a similar pocket on his suit. Disaster seemingly narrowly averted, they made final suit checks, activated their communication links and batteries, and headed for the airlock. This was the last day they had. In Twelve hours, it would be over, one way or another.

_Five thousand square kilometers._

Less than ten hours.

She would never say as much, but now would be a nice time for a miracle.

* * *

The black avian shadow expanded, stretched, and deposited the two teams deeper than they had dared delve before. Above them, almost a mile of twisted, worn and blighted alien metal formed a crust denser than that of the Earth itself. No signals or communication could penetrate to the surface far above. It was not a distance that could be covered on foot. Only Raven possessed the ability to safely navigate from their current location to Pathfinder itself.

They were alone, as if on another world entirely.

Raven had also deposited them, to her surprise, in the top of a vast chamber. There was no footing, and immediately the entire group began to slowly fall. Drift was probably a better word, since their movement was more due to the momentum of their entrance/exit than the negligible gravity. Not a single thing could be seen around them; not even with night vision. It was as if they had been dumped into a vast and lightless sea, bottomless and endless.

Green light formed a bubble around them, keeping everyone from drifting too far. Shampoo activated the floodlights on her MARS armor, but even they couldn't pierce the depthless gloom. The light merely attenuated out into infinity, in the end dispersing before it could reach anything substantial. Others tried different angles, and Jinx had the idea to shine a light up, at the ceiling. That, at least, they knew was there.

Sure enough, her light hit a solid surface.

"Reminds me of the HIVE," she muttered, sounding a little amused. The others looked up, and saw dark, empty honeycombs, each one large enough for a man to stand in. Lights moved across the ceiling, illuminating more of what they had passed through. The honeycombs just repeated, in the tens, and then in the hundreds and thousands. Some were empty, some with a glassy, hazy surface over them; altogether, they stretched on and on until the light from the explorer's dimmed.

"What _is_ all this?" Ukyou couldn't help but ask, craning her neck to try and take in the sights and the impossible angles, barely visible in the darkness.

"It's an alien spaceship, _obviously_," Ryouga replied, his tone openly mocking. Blatantly ignoring the heated glare the green lantern fired at his back, he popped the top on the glowstick he had just fished out of his pocket. It crackled to life immediately, creating a bright light and plume of red smoke.

"My second to last flare," he explained matter-of-factly, then nodded his head to the ring wearing member of Juliet squadron. A hole appeared in Ukyou's green bubble a second later, and he flung the sparking flare down into the night below them.

It fell.

...And fell.

...And _disappeared_.

"_That_ is pretty darn deep," Jinx noted, taking a knee and trying to see some hint of the light below. "We aren't going down there, are we?"

"I saw something else," Shampoo said, then. Within her powered armor, she had a more extensive sensor suite than any of the others. An armored hand pointed in what seemed to be a random direction. "Over there. Two hundred meters."

"Two hundred meters," Ukyou confirmed, and the green bubble projected from her power ring began to accelerate. They continued through the darkness, thin slivers of light moving, searching...

Finding, _finally_, another solid surface. It was massive and curved, running up like a tower from whatever was below to whatever was above. It was vaguely helical, coiling around and around like a titanic DNA strand. Circular protrusions and ancient relic machinery stuck out from some points, but it seemed sturdy and basically intact. The teams searched for a few minutes for some sort of way inside. The tower was wide enough that you could fit Titans Tower inside it like a wooden peg.

Finally, they found a large, yawning entryway. It was circular, and roughly bus sized, both in diameter and depth. Ukyou directed them inside. The walls within were strange and twisted, but again, intact. Light seemed to pool in some areas and dip away into crevasses in others, producing an eerie, discordant ambiance. For the first time, they saw colors: dull metal blues, mostly, but in various shades. A few wide golden rings stood out, helping them keep oriented.

Within the tower, there was yet another, smaller tower.

Like the primary it resided within, this construct rose up from infinity and continued on into infinity; darkness below and darkness above. Protrusions projected from the inner spire into the outer one, connecting the two. A strange yellow dust shifted, forming a cloud that drifted in the airless void. There was ground here, however. A projection led into the inner spire, ending below a much smaller portal of some sort.

"Want to check it out, Sergeant?" Ukyou asked, carefully setting them down. She had already guessed his answer to be yes.

"May as well," Ryouga confirmed, managing to refrain from any more cutting comments now that they were actually on mission. "Just be careful."

"Yeah," Jinx agreed, leaning over the edge of the green bubble. "Bottomless pits. No railing. What is this, Star Wars?"

Shampoo chuckled at that, and then they were on the surface.

It easily supported their weight, despite twenty million years without maintenance. It was clearly built of stern stuff. They walked the rest of the way and Ukyou switched her ring from 'construct' to 'flashlight.' The beam it provided was, naturally, green, but also far stronger and more coherent than any of the electric floodlights. It was powerful enough that they could see the ceiling, just barely. It appeared to have been twisted and collapsed in on itself. Part of the inner spire had broken and was now wedged in place diagonally. The prospect of it falling was present, but unlikely.

Ryouga handled the door, prying it open. Something within the walls crumbled, already weakened by age, and the two halves of the portalway fell back into the recesses of the wall. Watching where they stepped, the explorers ducked inside. In contrast to what lay between the inner and outer spires, the inside of the central spire was a dazzling, cascading blue. Even after untold ages, it shimmered like a lagoon frozen in time and wrapped tightly into a tube. A clear liquid was also present all along the inside, giving the impression of it as a being a giant capillary or vein.

"Look at this," Ukyou said. "Sergeant. Over here."

She shined her ring at a console, set partly into a concave recess in the wall opposite. There seemed to be a screen, encrusted by a plaque-like buildup of salt or some other mineral, but beneath that was a very faint, flickering light.

"All you have to do is go through that ooze to get there," Jinx observed. "Any volunteers?"

Immediately, all eyes turned to the power-armored Amazon.

Shampoo sighed. "Alien slime," she joked in a sugar-sweet tone. "Shampoo's favorite!"

Sensibly testing it first with a chemical probe, the Amazon then made sure she could move both in and out of the strange, viscous liquid. Her armored hand and arm entered and exited, and convinced it was basically safe, Shampoo used her MARS to float right into the soup. It appeared to be a very stable and non-volatile substance, possibly a preservative solution of some sort. It wasn't murky with debris or clouds of worn particulate matter. It was actually remarkably clear, and the adjacent walls were in better shape than the exposed ones elsewhere.

Reaching the salt-encrusted console (it was salt-like anyway), Shampoo carefully brushed away the accumulated millennia of grit. The mechanisms beneath looked both intact and fairly tough. More crusty matter came off under her armored hands, and a brush across the flat screen removed the last of it. Still partly illuminated by Ukyou's ring outside, Shampoo could see the console wasn't just intact... it was functional.

The light from the machine grew, as it detected her proximity: strange glyphs flashed on a screen.

Her armor's computer immediately began to try and identify it.

TRANSLATION SOFTWARE ENGAGED

Please Wait...

[Preliminary Translation] (20%)

[Initial Translation] (28%)

[Breeder Supposition Translation] (42%)

[Extrapolated Translation] (98%)

A window in her armor's HUD GUI popped up, displaying its attempted translation.

"This is..." Shampoo said, amazed. "Everyone! Sergeant... this is Sectoid. This writing is Sectoid!"

The sergeant's voice sounded into her helmet, soft laughter responding to her excited words. "Don't sound so surprised, Squaddie, it _is_ a Sectoid ship after all. Can you actually get anything useful from it?"

"Yes. This. This is - I think this is some sort of transportation tube." Shampoo frowned at the translated script: it was sectoid, but, strange. Old. The software was highlighting quite a bit of it as 'speculative translation.'

"This ship is sort of like other ship with tentacle aliens," she said, explaining her thoughts as they came to her, "Aquatic is word. This tube is like big railroad inside ship."

The display also indicated that much of the 'network' was also damaged or destroyed. Familiar with psionic interfaces, Shampoo nonetheless had some difficulty getting this one to work. It was like she had been trained to read a digital clock and this one was analog. The Sectoids who built this ship must have used a different, more primitive sort of psionics.

"There are still some passages open and safe to use. I think." Shampoo turned to face her teammates. "Activating it may be hard. Normal psionics don't work much, and ship so old..."

"There is no point in activating it," Raven cut in, her words curt, "If we have no reason to. Does the terminal actually give any viable information on what we are looking for?"

"There is map on it. Like subway line map in big cities." Shampoo tsked as her slip in English. "Hold on. I'll stream you my camera feed."

It didn't take long for the experienced Amazon to set up the video overlay along with the audio feed. Every member of the team had a helmet and integrated GUI as part of the smartlink system. Soon, they could all see what Shampoo saw in her MARS armor. The console was displaying an intricate series of pathways, like nerves, splitting and streaming across what should have been the alien ship. Most of those were darkened, implying that they were inactive. Major areas were already displayed with warning text. Others needed to be queued up.

"That's pretty fancy, Shamps," Jinx joined in on the conversation, "But I don't suppose you can Google us up some 'Get us the hell out of this crap sack dimension', can you?"

"I wish." She tried to will the console to cooperate, but something was missing. It recognized her psionics... but it was like she had a wrong codec or something. "This stupid thing! Is like trying to use VHS player with CD disk!"

She heard Ryouga mutter some half formed curse. "Is there anything you can do, Shampoo? Maybe Raven can try to psionically hook you back up with Ranma, or Cyborg on the ship? Do you think that might help?"

"It wouldn't hurt to try," the Amazon admitted. "Psionic stuff isn't really my specialty."

"Alright then, Raven, can you set it up?"

There was a short pause. "I... should be able to, yes. I'm not exactly at my best either. Give me a moment..."

It didn't take as long as the Amazon might have thought, before she felt a presence intruding into her mind. It was a familiar presence at this point, as the psionic Yankee had been inside her head on numerous occasions at this point. It wasn't long before another familiar presence joined them.

_ 'Ranma, can you hear us?'_

_ 'Yep. Lemme bring Acting Major P-chan into the chatroom, too.'_

_'Shampoo_,' the Hibiki CO was in no mood for lighthearted games. _'We're out of electronic contact, but we need to see what we're dealing with. I'd like you to surrender control of your body for a minute or two.'_

The Amazon acquiesced quickly, knowing the situation. _'Yes, sir_.'

Shampoo voluntarily receded back into her mind, and Raven - the closest psionic - took primary control. Ranma and Ryouga focused on the console. The two were immediately transfixed.

_'I can see why the computer's having a damned time translating this stuff. This language is so... choppy and archaic_.' Ranma's thoughts drifted for a moment. _'More importantly, I think I can see the problem. Rae: I'd like ya ta try and access this sucker like you would the interfaces back home, alright_?'

_'My home, or your home_?' replied the dark Titan with a tinge of amusement in her 'voice'.

_ 'Our home, Rae. You know you've always been good to stay with us if ya wanted to.'_

As requested, the Titan used Shampoo to try and access the psionic interface. Just as the Amazon had described, it reacted, registering the attempted contact and information exchange, but couldn't read the incoming data.

_'There's no reciprocation,'_ Ranma observed, and quickly explained, _'Usually, when ya project yer thoughts inta a psi-device, it sends a confirmation signal back and then establishes the psi-link. This one can't do it. I don't think it's broken, either. This ship may just have been built before the aliens started using purely psi-tech. Even then, whatever they're using feels really weird.'_

_'You learn to walk before you run, and you crawl even before that_,' Ryouga reasoned. _'This is just like back on the ship... the first one. When everyone was abducted.'_

_ 'Oh yeah. That's true.'_

_ 'So let's try a regressive approach: very simple thoughts and commands. The system should keep interpreting them and eventually give us the command we want. Let me bring Shampoo back up.'_

Disturbingly, the Amazon soon joined them in the back of her own mind.

Ranma and Ryouga explained the problem, the similarity to what they'd encountered after the Nerima Abduction site, and how they'd managed to gain limited access to the ship at the time by extending their battle auras into the psi-nav. Of course, Ranma and Ryouga were the two most experienced men in their peer group when it came to battle aura manipulation (except Herb, anyway). Shampoo, in contrast, had a fine level of control... but functionally very little aura to extend.

_ 'I'd say either use the Sergeant for it or Ukyou_,' Hibiki bluntly appraised the situation. _'But you're still our most emotionally stable soldier, Shampoo.'_

_ 'I just need a boost to my battle aura_,' the Amazon argued.

_ 'We should see if Shampoo can do it herself, first_,' Raven stated, a bit of strain in her thoughts. _'The less people we have to bring in, the better for me. If Shampoo is incapable of generating enough of an aura, though, it might be necessary to bring Ryouga in.'_

_'I'll try my best,_' Shampoo promised.

_'Good luck down there,_' Ranma thought, cutting the psionic link.

_'That goes for all of you_,' the Acting Major added, also severing the psionic connection.

Feeling all of them except Raven leave, Shampoo regained control of her body again. Before her, the uncooperative console remained in the same state as before. With what Ranma and Ryouga had said, she knew the technical details behind what she needed to do. A neutral battle aura needed to be extended out and into the device to form a primitive connection with the psi-receiver and reader. Very basic commands and desires could then be passed on. If this form of psi-tech was archaic, using the most basic form of interface was their best bet.

Shampoo's problem, as always, was power.

Holding her armored hand out over the console, she concentrated. Unlike Ukyou, Shampoo had learned how to externalize her ki years ago, back when she learned mind altering acupressure. She had no problem perceiving other battle auras. Just... just her own available supply of raw ki was low. It always had been. Everyone in her family, from the generations even before Cologne, had massive ki reserves and impressive chakra generation. For whatever reason - genetic, environmental, Shampoo didn't know - her own chakras could only generate a rather anemic battle aura.

She made the best of it: efficiently using that energy to augment and improve her physical abilities. When she learned externalizing techniques, they were all ones that got maximum effect for a minimum of energy. She used weapons and terrain, ruthlessness and tactics, all to compensate for that one glaring vulnerability: that one failing she couldn't overcome. None of that helped here, now.

Her aura... just couldn't extend far enough from her body...

_'Damnit. Damnit!'_ she cursed inwardly, and realized Raven was still there. She'd forgotten about the Bird Girl in the back of her mind.

_'Pathetic, isn't it?'_ she asked, lowering her hand slightly. _'That I'm the only one who can't do this. Even you and the pink witch. Even the pancake chef. But not me.'_

_'Considering that I'm the most powerful psion present, I'm not sure the 'even' really applies to myself_,' the self titled Titan replied wryly. _'However, I think you are selling yourself short. You're control is quite impressive. As someone else who has trained under Cologne, if only for a short time, I can see much of her teachings in you...'_

There was a short pause then. _'However... unfortunately, control is not what we need at the moment... Unfortunately, as well, I am in no condition to assist you in this matter. I am already stretched painfully thin. I am going to have to bring in either Ukyou, or Ryouga to assist you. Who would you prefer to work with?'_

_ 'All Ukyou uses now is that ridiculous green glow,_' Shampoo replied with a disgusted huff. _'Lost boy is better pick. He hasn't forgotten what he is yet.'_

_ 'Very well. Give me a moment please.'_

There was another space of eerily silence within her own mind, the Amazon still trapped at the back of her own mind and out of control of her body. Thankfully, it did not last long this time either, as Raven, and another familiar presence made itself felt to her.

_ 'Um... hey there, girls... You two can hear me in here, right?'_

_ 'Of course we can, Cabbage Head,_' Shampoo replied easily. It dismayed her that, here, inside her mind, it was all but impossible to disguise the fond, less than insulting nature of the jibe, as she would have using normal speech. _'And what are you doing? You need to be in here with me if you want to help me.'_

_ 'Do I... do I really need to come in there? Can't I just offer a good, morale raising 'commanding officer' style speech from back here?'_

_'Now I __**know**__ that you're just trying to get on my nerves. Be a man already and walk into the giant tube of alien goo and hold the Amazon warrior's power armored hand_,' Shampoo all but ordered her superior officer.

An odd twinge came from Raven's corner of the mindscape, but as she was the dominant psychic present, her thoughts were impossible to hear unless she wished it. Ryouga's mind, on the other hand, was an open book, and with an overt show of disgust, he stepped into the large cylinder of preservative slime. Honestly, he was wearing an armored space suit, she didn't know why he was acting like such a little boy about the whole thing.

_ 'Oh, ha ha. 'Little Boy' jokes, how droll_.' Despite his words, the Lost Boy's thoughts were more amused than irate. Pushing through the goo, the acting Sergeant made his was to her side in short order.

Offering her hand, she nodded her head in the martial artist's direction. With only a modicum of shy discomfort, he placed his armored hand into the bulky gauntlet of her powered armor.

_ 'Alright, so what do you need me to do? I've never tried to hack into one of these systems before, but if other me can do it, I'm probably a natural.'_

_'Hmm_,' Shampoo purred teasingly, _'Shampoo like when you talk like that. Sound just like Ranma, when you act so cocky.'_

Reacting quickly, she clamped her hand down around Ryouga's as, an instant later, he recoiled physically, complete with overblown gagging sounds and pained gasps.

_'Alright, you two_,' Raven cut in, sounding quite sharp indeed. _'Ryouga, you need to use your aura to bolster Shampoo's. With her experience and training, Shampoo should be able to provide all the direction required.'_

_ 'Oh, is that all – Wait, __**what did you say**__?_' She felt a sharp quake run through his psyche, _'Please tell me that you guys are all trying to cheer me up by plotting a big, ridiculous practical joke._' When no reply was forthcoming, she felt a sudden flare of hot anger burn through the Hibiki's mind. '_You __**are**__ serious? Doesn't anyone realize that melding your aura with another person's isn't as easy as they seem to think?'_

_ 'I don't think I have ever actually seen anyone combine their aura with another person before,'_ Shampoo admitted, feeling the need to jump back into the conversation, _'But... but isn't that what you did to help Jinx, earlier? So wouldn't that make you the ideal person to go to for this?'_

She felt a sense of self satisfaction rise up in the martial artist, only to be quashed immediately. _'Actually, your Lieutenant did something similar with Jinx... but it was his lack of understanding, using her power to do what he needed, that directly led to me needing to do what I did.'_

Shampoo felt Ryouga's attention turn back to Raven for a moment. '_Well, at least you were cognizant enough to bring me in on this. Even asking Ukyou or Jinx to attempt this would have likely ended up with everyone dead or dying.'_

The Amazon couldn't 'feel' the dark Titan's embarrassed squirming, but she knew it was there regardless. All she could do was pointedly 'not' think about Raven giving her the choice between Ukyou, or Ryouga for her backup…

_ 'I… __**what**__, seriously_?' Ryouga's frustrated bark drew an equally frustrated hiss from Shampoo. In her current state of mind, she wasn't much less of an open book than the irate Hibiki, and attempting to not think about something was pretty much a surefire way to make certain it was front and center in your thoughts.

'_Argh, whatever_,' the Sergeant fumed to himself. She felt his focus shift back to her, his emotions leveling off quickly as he began to focus. '_Look, Shampoo, there is a good reason that martial artists just don't go around 'boosting' or otherwise mingling each other's auras like this, and it isn't a fear of intimacy_.'

She did not need to give words to her annoyance at being lectured at, nor to her curiosity as to just what he was referring to. Ryouga caught on quickly enough and continued without prompting.

_ 'You're right. I did do something very similar to what you're proposing with Jinx. However, that was a very unique situation, and one that I won't be able to replicate with you,'_ he explained, still a touch annoyed, though she knew it was not aimed at her. '_If we just rush headlong into this, then the results of our 'team up' will most likely end up just like the Major's team up with Jinx. I don't think I need to remind you about that, do I?'_

The vivid image of cracked skin, oozing blood and the offensive smell of copper filling her nostrils was more than enough of a reminder for the proud Amazon.

_ 'You mean… trying to use your aura to strengthen mine could cause that kind of damage?_' She felt herself frowning. '_But I thought that the damage to the Major was just because of her crazy 'pink' powers?'_

_ 'That's a part of it_,' Ryouga agreed easily enough, '_And, admittedly, it's making it worse than it normally would be, but it's not all of it.'_

'_You see_,' the Sergeant continued, '_The Major isn't just being 'hexxed', or whatever you'd call it, his aura has actually been __**poisoned**__. He has foreign ki trapped within his own, and it's not at all compatible. It's disrupting natural flows, preventing him from healing, and I'm pretty sure it's the reason that Raven can't heal him either. It's not __**his**__ ki, so he has no control over it… just like when he injects his own ki into another person with his killing point… so he can't expunge it. And it's not a psionic issue, so Raven can't just pull it out of him and into herself. And, hell, it would be stupid of her to do so.'_

_ 'Excuse me, but I __**am**__ right here_," Raven cut in, temper piqued.

An immediate wave of regret and contrition swept out from the Hibiki's corner of their little mental gestalt, but Shampoo quickly gave a mental 'bark' to snap him out of it and get him back on track.

_ 'Stop interrupting, Bird Girl. You didn't do it, so obviously you aren't stupid, alright?'_

She felt a deep bass rumble come from the powerful psion, but it quickly went silent.

'_Ahem… thank you, Shampoo. Anyway, where was I?'_

_ 'Major's aura is poisoned, I believe,"_ Shampoo supplied helpfully.

'_Right, right. So yes, Jinx's power is causing additional problems, not to mention the fact that their shared intent was so destructive and violent, that it's no surprise that the backlash was as vicious as it was. Though…_' There was a speculative pause. _'…that might actually work to our advantage… hmmm.'_

_ 'No can read mind, Cabbage head_,' she snickered silently, '_Actually, __**can**__ read mind at the moment, but still, tell me what you're thinking.'_

'_Well, I've just been thinking of the situation with Hibiki and Jinx, but our situation is actually quite different from that. First, Jinx's aura is markedly more powerful than the Major's, whereas, in our case, your aura is…'_

There was an uncomfortable pause.

_ 'Well, your aura is… slightly less, um, abundant than my own?'_

Shampoo grumbled darkly, but at least appreciated the feeble attempt at tact. There was no use getting frustrated over such an obvious truth. If there were two more polar opposites when it came to actual martial artists and their ability to generate raw ki, then she could not imagine them. Even her Airen had never demonstrated the raw power of a shishi hokodan… and Shampoo could barely even generate a battle aura at the best of times.

'_Beyond that_,' Ryouga added quickly, obviously sensing her grim line of thought, and eager to distract her, '_They were focused completely on causing as much damage as possible, so their intent was more or less of the killing variety. Our intent is anything but. In fact, __the less__ intent __I have, the better__ this could work.'_

Well, that, at least, made sense. If he was just going to provide power, and she was going to attempt the computer hack, then the only controlling force that mattered was her own. It was like him providing the amplitude and her the frequency.

'_That's right_,' he agreed amiably. '_And that gives me a final idea on how to make this actually work.'_

Outside of the mental landscape they had been conversing in, she felt Ryouga pull his hand from her grip. A moment of inquiry flashed through her mind, but she quickly saw his plan beginning to unfold before her. Holding his hand out before him, though towards her as well, so that his outstretched palm was between them and facing out towards the computer terminal, he gave her a small nod. Understanding what he was intimating, she lifted her own hand and placed in against the back of his hand, splaying out her large armored fingers in a mirror image to his own.

_ 'Alright, I think you get the gist of where I'm going with this,_' Ryouga stated, just a touch proudly. _'I'll generate a battle aura, but I'll try to do it with as little 'intent' as I possibly can. Then, rather than try to meld our auras, like the Major and Jinx did, you just try to… hmm, how to explain it?… You just kind of 'push through' my aura, kind of like wearing a glove.'_

Shampoo nodded slowly, mentally picturing the process in her mind's eye. Yes, she could almost see it. The plan was for him to essentially _surrender_ control of his own aura. To empty himself of all intent. Then, rather than bring his aura into her body and risk poisoning herself, she could send a small amount of her ki into his aura and use her focused intent to give direction to the power he gathered. Yes, it would be rather like just slipping her fingers into a borrowed glove, as opposed to the both of them pouring all of their souls together in a dangerous, intimate union.

But...

_ 'But… but won't I still be infusing some of my aura into you?_' she asked, unable to mask her concern completely. _Won't we be risking poisoning you, just like with the Major?'_

She saw him nod through his helmet. '_Yes, but it's an acceptable risk. I hate to keep bringing it up, but your aura is much less potent than mine. The amount of power that would be transferred into me, especially doing it this way, will be much, much less than what the Major was infected with. On top of that, your intent is going to be benign, rather than malignant, so I doubt your ki will be so inclined to hang around and cause problems for nearly so long.'_

The young sergeant gave a weary sigh. '_I'm pretty sure that I'll be okay, Shampoo, and getting a little sick seems like a pretty small price to pay for getting the hell out of this dimension, don't you agree? So let's do this already.'_

With that, at least, Shampoo could not agree more. Still, she found herself smirking. _'Alright Sergeant. Still, you might want to be careful. All of this self sacrifice? I think your silly 'super hero' side is starting to show again. I thought you were getting over that by now?'_

'_Ha! Not likely! Why, I-'_

_ 'Enough already!'_ Raven's voice cut off their banter with a sense of profound finality. '_We don't have time for this ridiculous teasing. Every second counts now.'_

Frowning to herself, Shampoo could not help but feel there was more heat in the Titan's voice than merely wasting time would warrant. After all, what she called 'teasing', Shampoo considered to be time well spent mentally preparing herself for the task at hand, as well as trying to distract herself from the very real risks entailed. She decided not to say anything further though, and nodded sharply.

_ 'Very well. Let's begin. Just... start generating your aura_.' Despite the explanation offered by the young Hibiki, it still annoyed Shampoo that she had almost no actual knowledge of the technique that she was asking him to perform. It was yet another short coming of her condition, as there was little point in training in techniques she would never be able to use.

Though, in all honesty, it did not bother her quite as much in this particular situation. It was, after all, a very, very advanced technique, and even her world's Ryouga had been unable to perform it safely, albeit with Jinx's naturally unstable entropic energy. Being partnered with the only person she knew of that had proven capable of this trick, reliably and safely, was more reassuring than she felt comfortable admitting.

Soon enough, she felt it. She could feel the Lost Boy's aura pressing against her own, to her it felt... raw, raw like an open wound as opposed to pure. She knew that he had been through much lately, but suddenly facing the actual possibility of sharing that pain...

For just a moment, she found herself reconsidering this idea.

_ 'I'm sorry. Emptying my mind of intent, and keeping my emotions in check are kind of at odds here… I'll try to keep my baggage to myself, as much as possible, anyway.'_

She shook her head, her pride refused to let her show any hesitation. _'No time for that. We need to do this quickly. So let's do what we have to do.'_

_ 'If... if you say so_,' he replied tentatively.

And then her ki pushed into his. It began slowly, a gentle probing. She let out a startled gasp at her sudden intrusion into _him_: a wave of emotional pain mixing with a heady sense of euphoria as power like she had never possessed before suddenly came to be at her disposal.

On the psychic plane, things transpired at the speed of thought, but even so, it felt as if it took her forever to bring things back under control. Whatever it was that the Hibiki was doing, her intruding ki bent his own, aimless ki to her will with surprising ease. She could follow it with ease, feel it as it flowed through him, settled in his belly and with each passing moment, it grew more... comfortable... less alien.

_'I... Wow..._' Words failed her for a moment, but she remembered that she wasn't alone with Ryouga in this place. _'Let's get started.'_

With that, she 'pushed' out with her mind, through her own hand, and into Ryouga's. With a thought, her borrowed power extended out from their clasped hands, easily, almost eagerly, as if seeking her approval. Was this… was this what it was like to be a warrior like her airen? To wield almost unimaginable power at the very tips of ones' fingers? Even as the thrill of commanding such power filled her, she felt an aching sadness begin to gnaw away at her from the inside as well…

Shaking off those foolish thoughts and useless regrets, she refocused her mind on the task at hand. In the blink of an eye, she found herself making contact with the alien console. This must have been what Ranma and Ryouga felt when they used their battle auras on the Abductor, all those months ago. She had to act quickly, but carefully.

It was a matter of probing, finding what primitive mental impulses triggered what response, and then memorizing them. Fine control would be impossible, but fortunately she wasn't being asked to pilot a ship or anything intricate. All she needed was to be able to tell the console where to send them. But -

She forgot all about Ryouga, and Raven, as the link grew stronger.

This... this wasn't normal psionics! If felt like her body was growing cold: machine-like. Something was happening, she could feel it, but what... what was...? Pushing back, regaining her prior sense of self, falling back on the mental connections she had with the younger Hibiki and the dark Titan in her mind, Shampoo heard a warning go off in her MARS armor's physiological/medical status.

"These aliens... what madness is this?" Shampoo re-read the report. "Alien ship... these are... these aren't just psionic controls." Her eyes widened as she realized what the warning on her armor meant. "This technology doesn't only interface with the mind. It... alters the body."

"What are you talking about?" It was Jinx's voice sounding in her ear. She could sense that Ryouga was too busy concentrating, she could feel his body beginning to protest her borrowed stewardship, and it was all he could do to stop his natural defenses from trying to eject her. Besides, he already knew the answer, as closely linked to her as he was.

"That's a good question," Ukyou's voice joined in over the commlink. "What does it mean? You okay in there, sugar?"

Shampoo recoiled slightly from the console.

Psionics already could alter the physical form, of course. But in a very predictable, safe fashion. The beyond-normal-human abilities of martial artists like herself were due to her telekinetically modifying her body, incrementally improving her muscles, her skeleton, her nervous and circulatory systems. It accelerated natural regenerative processes and allowed for what could almost be called subconscious micro-engineering of the self.

This... this technology was different. It didn't just want to interface. It wanted to meld, mentally and physically. Contact had nearly provoked an extreme allergic reaction as it somehow tried to seize control of her very molecules, using them to create alien structures and chemicals within her body. Shampoo could only imagine what sort of horror the result would have been if she hadn't been more alert. What kind of creatures would subject themselves to that sort of... of mutilation?

"This... this alien technology is very dangerous..." she started to explain. But how to? And, they needed to get this working, didn't they? If it improved their chances of getting home, then at least for her, the risk was worth the potential benefit.

Ignoring the other queries, and acting before Ryouga lost his concentration, Shampoo pushed back into the alien machine. Just like before, as she established the rudimentary mental contact via her on-loan battle aura, she felt the machine try and make her... "more compatible." The strange technology, the "molecular control," was like a perverse, primitive form of psionics: dirty and crude but powerful. Shampoo pulled back, until it gave up trying to alter her, and then delved just a fraction more. There had to be a perfect, coordinated balance.

A little too far, and the console would be unresponsive.

A little too deep... and she would not be going home as herself.

Shampoo felt beads of nervous, frightened sweat pool on her forehead -

_There_.

The console lit up brightly, accepting her presence and acknowledging her as willing transport. The conduit was functional, as far as she could tell, and safe to use along designated pathways. But this technology was monstrous. She couldn't let anyone else use it.

_'You get that, Bird Girl?'_ Shampoo asked, knowing Raven was there, in her mind, listening in and watching.

_'I did, just... be careful please, for your sake as well as Ryouga's...'_

_'I won't let some stupid old machine take over my body,'_ Shampoo assured her with an angry snort. _'Or your lost boy's.'_

To the others, she said, "I think... I know where we need to go. This can take us almost to alien navigation and control. Only short walk of mile or so after we get off."

"That's great," chimed in the pink haired witch. "Tell Ryouga that he did a great job!"

The Amazon bristled at the thinly veiled insult. Even more than usual, she found the pink haired witch's attitude to be intolerable. It was almost impressive how many levels of derision could be so finely layered in such an innocuous statement: the obvious dismissal of Shampoo's talents, the insincere nature of the 'compliment', since she was quite certain that Jinx didn't even mean it, and was just offering false praise to get a reaction out of Shampoo.

Even worse, was the blatant swell of pride coming from Ryouga, his emotions, his very life force still tenuously within the grasp of her control. If Kuno was right, then she could feel nothing but pity for the poor fool. Forced to love someone so abhorrent. Honestly, she was starting to question the village's own use of such tactics, if this was a possible result.

Fortunately for the bratty menace, Shampoo had no time for her childish games. Turning to Ryouga, not quite able to see the goofy smile no doubt adorning his face through his tinted visor, she elbowed him lightly in the side. "Sergeant?"

Instantly, the ranking Hibiki on the scene nodded. "Of course." Giving a sluggish gesture, the ooze hindering his movement somewhat, he signaled everyone else to join them. "Fall in, Squaddies. Everyone into the goo."

With reactions ranging from rolling of eyes, quiet giggles, to narrowed eyes from a suspicious looking Ukyou, the remaining girls of their team joined them within the translucent ooze.

A moment later, with only a simple command from Shampoo, and transmitted via Ryouga's borrowed aura, the alien transportation tube warmed, a current passing through the thick fluid that made up the conduit. There was a slight sense of movement, a marginal shift in the pit of the stomach and a pressure difference in the inner ear. It became clear that they were moving through the conduit like blood cells through a vein, but in a much steadier and more controlled fashion. So much of the inside of the conduit was featureless, however, that the eye couldn't really pick out any contrast to base the impression of movement upon.

For minutes, they could only wait, suspended but traveling at high speed, as the conduit tube directed them deeper into the Paleolithic alien ship. As one point, they passed some sort of adjacent structure or hub, damaged by age. It sped by in the blink of an eye, and was gone from around them.

Only that instinctive sense of balance tipped anyone off to the fact that they were, finally slowing - and ultimately coming to a stop. They had reached the effective end of the road: the channel beyond wasn't considered safe due to internal failure and collapse. The rest of the way would have to be covered by foot.

Greeting the visitors was a yawning opening in the conduit. Through the clear light-blue transport fluid was an open space and vast structures. They emerged into the open vacuum one by one: Shampoo, in her MARS, to scout and sample the environmental conditions, then Ukyou sheathed in a protective green glow, and then the sergeant, Jinx, and lastly Raven. The conduit had dropped them off at what had once been a depot of some sort.

That must have been eons ago.

A warp bubble had damaged parts of the alien city before them. The depot they were in had been partly excavated and collapsed. Five warehouses-worth of containers lay around them. Some were still neatly stacked in rows, but others had been collapsed and melted together into rolling hillsides of faded color. The levels of structure overhead appeared like plastic, peeled back and melted on contact with a blowtorch.

Beyond even that, nearly invisible in the suffocating darkness, were hints of structures hanging from above like warped stalactites. Shadows and curves ran in strange, alien angles: from above, and below, and even the sides. The style of architecture was bizarre to a race accustomed to neat lines and right angles. Like the conduit they had traveled through, the aliens appeared almost to be mimicking the design of their ship on that of a massive life form, with veins and nerves as structures. A deathly green fog shrouded whatever was above and whatever was below. Merely trying to follow the angles or the "buildings" - if they could even be called that - was disorienting and headache inducing.

Not even wasting the air to speak, Ryouga simply gave several sharp gestures, hand signs which held specific meanings to those trained operatives present, and immediately they began to move forward into the strange cavernous chamber. Even these simple actions were enough to remind everyone that time was not on their side. As promising as their discovery was, it was much more likely it was yet another dead end and they only had so much time to explore more of the ship.

Standard procedure would have been to scout out any potential threats, and then search through anything and everything present in search of useful technology. The young Sergeant gave little thought to the first, and none at all to the second, and there wasn't a person present that felt the need to question him on it as he rushed them forward. Normally, UAVs would be deployed as necessary to help provide overwatch, but none of Pathfinder's attached drones were of use here, and the man-portable devices were all dead from overuse. The entire team was at the end of their material rope and everything had to be done by hand and eye.

All together, it made the job of scouting ahead that much more difficult for Shampoo, especially when her NCO was nearly stepping on her heels after a few minutes of walking, but she kept her comments to herself. Behind them, everyone else had taken a more staggered approach pattern, easily a dozen yards between Raven, Jinx and Ukyou... it was blatantly obvious that none of them were overly interested in conversing with each other, or even interacting at all at this point. There wasn't even anything in the environment to take interest in: the bizarre alien topography was best not dwelled on. The more Shampoo tried to think about how all these angles and spaces lined up in the dark recesses of the chamber, the less she wanted to explore it.

"How much further?" Ryouga's voice sounded into her ear via her comm link.

"Not much," she responded curtly. Looking over her shoulder, she prepared to remind him that 'scouting' usually involved 'more than five feet between you and the rest of the team', when she noticed something odd. "Sergeant... is there something wrong with your gloves?"

Starting, obviously having been taken off guard by her comment, the Hibiki's gaze shot up from where he had been staring intently at his gloved hands. His fingers were still curling and uncurling, even as his attention left them. "No, no, nothing's wrong... Just my fingers are a tingling a bit. Whatever was going on in that machine felt strange."

The Amazon felt a spike of concern, but quickly quashed it down. Though it had been her in control, it had been Ryouga's aura doing the work. If she was susceptible to the insidious effects of the machine, he would have been just as vulnerable.

"Are you alright?" she asked in a cool tone. "I can assume command if you need me to."

Though most would have been insulted at the mere mention of being relieved of command, Ryouga merely shook his head, still clenching and unclenching his fingers. "No... it's fine. It just feels a bit like when I did that new variation of the Bakusai Tenketsu, back in Azarath. My fingers just feel... stiff..."

In an instant, an errant memory struck the Amazon, and she latched onto it with zeal. Glancing back over her shoulder, she let out a quiet snort. "I warned you about using too much earth qi."

"What? When did you ever-" A short pause as the Hibiki fell in step beside her. "Ahhh, right. Our little argument, back before the jungle planet... Man, how long ago was that again?"

"Too, too long ago," Shampoo replied in a mutter. "Then pride-stung Cabbage Head start insulting Shampoo every chance he get." She fired a superior sneer at him, though it was mostly for show. "All because Shampoo know better about martial arts than you."

"Feh, that'll be the day...! Besides, that isn't even the reason that I ...may... have been a bit – a bit terse with you lately."

"Sure it isn't, Lost Boy. Your stunt back in Bird Girl's home already proved that I was right."

"That didn't prove anything," he rebutted lightly, "All techniques have a bit of a 'rough stage' to them. And it _isn't_ the reason for our little disagreements lately."

"Alright, what is this alleged reason then?" she asked leadingly. "It must be a good one, considering what an ass you were being."

"An ass, was I? Well, just for that, I don't think I'm gonna say, now." The stubborn martial artist even made a show of stopping mid-stride, obviously prepared to let Shampoo walk right past him.

Not giving him the satisfaction of stopping, the Amazon let out a weary sigh. "...Stupid Cabbage Head does realize that he is wearing a comm-set, and that walking away isn't going to get him out of conversation... doesn't he?"

A short string of colorful curses brought a tiny grin to Shampoo's lips. Some of them she hadn't even heard before, but sounded like they might be fun to remember for later on. Despite her stoic nature, though, she actually felt her curiosity getting the better of her. If not his pride – more or less the most important thing a male had, well, aside from his - anyway, if not his pride, then what possible reason could he have to hold such a petty grudge?

"Well... If you must know..."

"Oh, I must," she interrupted with a teasing tone.

"Fine, fine," came his exasperated reply, "It was actually because-"

"Sergeant. I think we've got a problem here!" Ukyou's voice (in)conveniently cut through the conversation like a green laser through butter. Shampoo very nearly cursed out loud as an annoying cone of emerald energy swept past them, cutting through the eerie half-darkness and towards something still in the distance ahead of them.

Immediately, the Sergeant's attention followed the line of the green light, and his pace increased, betraying his eagerness to see what it might be that Ukyou had seen. He stopped short close to the Green Lantern and Osaka born martial artist. It wasn't so much what she saw, or what he started to see, but what they couldn't quite make out.

Warp bubble.

It had to be. Most were invisible to the naked eye and could only be detected by radar or particle displacement sensors. This one was a little different: it was hemispherical and it refracted the light from Ukyou's ring, coloring a majority of the otherwise transparent distortion like a shimmering prism. The ever shifting, chaotic, "lightstorm" (for lack of a better term) was in turn bleeding off erratic coils of light in a multitude of colors. Ryouga saw bright blue, pale indigo, and a sickly orange all spiraling away into the darkness. An intermittent stream of red, like contrails of smoke, unwound from another part of the warp bubble. Yellow and violet were reflected down, illuminating a melted structure forty feet off the side of the bottomless drop below. An impossible color also escaped the prismatic warp distortion: black.

Was black really a color?

"Those colors..." Ukyou wondered, agape. "Are they...? No!"

Quickly, she cut her ring out, before the faint black light got close to them.

In the absence of her power illuminating it, the huge warp distortion faded and disappeared from view. Ryouga and Shampoo both directed floodlights to try and mimic the effect, but to little success. They had both seen the size of it and were wary of any smaller bubbles nearby.

The area up ahead showed all the signs of being subjected to warp destabilization. Alien surfaces were melted and fused into a hardened glassy black crystal and some of the surfaces were runny, like metallic slime. Nothing could survive in one of this universe's warp distortions. Tentatively, Ukyou shined her ring at the fallen sections ahead of them. It gave them a much less spectacular but still functional view of the obstacles ahead.

They had been walking along what was, for all intents and purposes, a horizontal building that branched into a 'Y.' There were massive arterial constructions running all around like the coiling, muscular insides of a massive metallic snake or worm. Within the huge vein, building sized branches intersected and formed crisscrossing webs.

Warp distortions had brought down part of the vein's "roof" far above, causing street-long sections of alien metal and plastic to gradually stream down, like a slow moving waterfall. As they left the radius of the distortion, these re-solidified, forming bizarre walls and misshapen hills of fused material. Through the crack up above, Ryouga could see distant shapes the size of skyscrapers, hinted at in the eternal gloom beyond the reach of their floodlights.

"Not just the big one," Shampoo said, her attention focused on the way ahead. "Little warp bubbles. All over area."

"Great. We can't catch a break, can we?" Jinx growled. "I don't suppose we can punch our way through?"

"Anything I put together with my ring will just get... refracted," Ukyou replied with obvious annoyance. "I think we need to take a detour. Sergeant?"

"Agreed," Ryouga said. "Our only option is below. Ukyou. Keep that light ahead of us at all times."

"Yes, sir." She added, a moment later, "But... for the record... I can't control where the refracted light goes to. Please avoid it. _Especially_ the black light."

"I didn't know those rings did other colors besides gaudy bright green," Jinx commented, already walking over to check out the side of the building they were on. It was a long drop down. "Except Sinestro's I guess."

"Sinestro?" Ukyou asked, carefully forming a transportation platform for them at the slanting side of the floor. Keeping that intact, she started to chart the area ahead for a safe route free of warp distortions.

The slim sorceress shrugged her armored shoulders. "A pretty big bad guy from back home. He was some kind of green lantern... just evil, and he used a yellow ring instead of green."

Raven nodded in agreement. "Like the Lanterns he battled, though, Sinestro rarely comes to Earth, so very little is known about him... at least not by me."

"Pretty much," Jinx acknowledged. "The intergalactic level guys like him don't tend to 'slum it' on Earth too much, or work with the locals. Even when I was a full on villain, I had only ever heard stories about Sinestro... not close to Darkseid level stuff, but an evil Green Lantern is not something you want to mess with."

"Well, it's good to know, at least." Ryouga let out in a mock-relieved sigh, "Last thing I want to run into is an evil Lantern type so early into my super hero career. Anyway, enough dawdling, let's see if we're heading for a dead end or not."

A few curt nods answered the young sergeant, and silence quickly fell over them as they continued their trek into the unknown alien vessel.

According to Shampoo's original estimate, the walk to the Archive should have been roughly a mile. The detour around the warp ripples turned that into more than twice the distance. Even after they managed to go around the destabilized area, the footing in the resulting adjacent sections was treacherous and weakened. The tube they had been following, itself long enough to swallow a block of homes alongside a road whole, opened up to what had once been a massive amphitheater space, perhaps a vast garden.

It was all long dead, now. Skeletal husks reached down from terraces and twisted ceilings, and the ground was crumbled to the consistency of rust. It was eerie and silent as a dozen graveyards, the endless rows of dilapidated headstones blurring into a menagerie of formless shapes that hurt the eye. Yet, amid the pallid cavern, there was the occasional flickering light, still semi-functional even after millions of years in the most hostile of environments.

They floated slowly through, in a double layered protective bubble of their own. Shampoo directed Ukyou, across, and then checking her internal map: up. Their target was another massive vein-tube. This one was still filled with faint blue transport and preservative fluid, though much of it had spilled out from the opening. Unlike before, it appeared that some sort of disaster had hit, not just a warp bubble, but an explosion.

The group carefully entered.

Within, they were immediately met by bodies. Dead bodies. Almost choking the transport tube like a blood clot. Sectoids, millions of years dead, were still intact within the blue fluid, and their lifeless black eyes and inhuman faces mocked the visitors to their decayed, lost city. In this tube alone, there had to be a thousand of them or more. All dead and all frozen in time.

Raven sucked in a breath as Ukyou's lantern-bubble started to fade. The thought of being immersed in the same fluid as thousands of dead aliens was clearly unpleasant enough to get, in some small way, through her stoic facade. Jinx, for her part, gave a disgusted and undisguised groan. They had been dropped off near a functional console, and Shampoo and Ryouga swam through the alien solution to reach it.

"Hey, is it just me... or are these guys... a little different than the ones from before?" Jinx asked, pushing away one of the alien corpses.

"It isn't just you," Ukyou answered, watching Shampoo and Ryouga activate the console. She turned to reach out and move one of the floating bodies. "These Sectoids look... strange."

They weren't quite normal: the slightly webbed feet on a normal Gray were larger and more frog-like. The jaws of these ancient Sectoids were also more pronounced and there were small bumps that along a faint ridge that ran up the middle of their bulbous heads. The eye sockets were also slightly sunken around their huge black eyes, giving them a more primitive, recessed appearance. They were all identifiably Sectoid, yet racially distinct; a strange thing given the uniform nature of the Hierarchy back home.

"It feels almost as if they're watching us," Raven said in a level voice.

"Oh, thanks! Like I needed to hear that!"

"Yeah, sugar, really."

"Well, it does," Raven admitted, but at least sounded (just a little) unnerved herself. "Rather disconcerting, actually."

"More like creepy as hell," Jinx corrected, and then they were moving. Through the field of frozen alien corpses, even. This was a short trip, compared to the one before. A blur of bodies and horrible dead faces sped by, and the transport tube mercifully deposited the group at their destination.

There were bodies, too, even after they left the tube, but these had been melted by the strange effects of the dimensional abyss. They were a part of the ship, and their bodies were fused into the floor like mutated cancerous lumps. There must have been hundreds of them littering the floor, once. As the group of young adults cautiously advanced, it was like treading on a street paved with fossilized remains. Had there been an atmosphere, their footfalls would have undoubtedly made disturbing crunching sounds.

Up ahead was a door, weathered by time and the warp. It had melted into its own housing and frame. A faint light registered the group as they approached, and something in the wall tried to reactivate. The result was an inaudible groan, lost to the unforgiving vacuum. Already "lighting" the way for warp bubbles, Ukyou formed two green walls and forced the ruined door further open. It fell apart under the pressure, and crumbled like graphite, giving them a large space to move through.

Within this final room was the Archive they had searched for.

What greeted them was... a tomb. A massive tomb, with a single, huge casket, set at an angle into the far wall. Hundreds of tubes, some still pulsing with a semblance of life, covered the floor, the walls, and the slanted ceiling. They all radiated outwards - or towards - the slanted, rectangular coffin-computer. A sigil was carved into the otherwise featureless tomb-machine. Struggling, ancient lights shone down light from above as Paleolithic sensors detected life for the first time in millions of years. In one of those shafts of light, the sigil on the tomb became clear, like a reflection of water against a black background.

"Ral - Leth," Raven read the symbol, and saw Ukyou give her a surprised look. She quickly explained: "I studied some Sectoid after the Saffron incident. Just enough to get by."

"Probably the name of this ship," the okonomiyaki chef guessed, frowning. "I hope if that... thing is basically this city's version of the Cydonia Mind that it isn't alive."

Shampoo, even in her MARS armor, hesitated to approach the flickering console - one of many - set before the tomb-mind. Close by her side, Ryouga took a few seconds to stare up at the thing.

"It isn't dead," Raven said, turning to give Jinx and Ukyou a little smile behind her personal armor's visor. "Not completely."

"How do you know?" Jinx asked, a trace of accusation in her tone.

"We need information from it, don't we?" the dark Titan reasoned. "This is the Archive we were told to access. Just like Heresiarch." She faced the tomb. "Just like that."

"Hopefully not just like that," Shampoo said. "This is just a computer."

"If it is like the Mind on Cydonia, it isn't just a computer," Raven corrected the Amazon. "Or... it wasn't. This machine is or was a collective for millions of sapient minds, with a vast, gestalt consciousness." But, as if to allay the concerns of those present, the resident psion added, "But I think that part of it died along with all the other aliens here."

"So what are we looking for, anyway?" Jinx finally asked. It was the million dollar question after all. Just what were they looking for down here?

"Trespasser believes that the aliens used a... a primordial EDC," Ukyou explained, this time giving details left out before. "Like the one we have, but ancient and incredibly powerful. This dead Mind should still have the dimensional addresses... or, not addresses... vectors is maybe a better word? It would know where we need to go to get home. Just like with Cyborg's plan to map EDC passageways."

"We wouldn't have to make a blind transit event," Ryouga summarized, having been briefed on it himself earlier. "The question now is how to get the information."

"If it is in there... we will get it." Shampoo led the way up to the console, armored hand reaching out. "We will!"

She didn't need to add: _'Or we'll die trying.'_


	44. In the Land of the Blind 3

_**A/N**_

Alright everyone, finally getting this chap posted, a mere 23 and a half hours late... So much for our flawless streak, and a mere three more weeks until our break, as well. Hopefully this isn't setting a precident. Unfortunately, things have just been crazy lately, and there was some last minute stuff we really wanted to jam in here.

Anyway, hopefully you guys will be able to forgive us our tardiness. Also, just so you know, we're coming to the head for the current arc, so things are going to come fast and furious from here on out. If the Chapters end in abrupt, or unsatisfactory manners, don't think of them as cliffhangers, but more or less that the last four chapters here all blend into a single chapter and we're just cutting at the most expedient points.

I think you'll get what we mean soon enough, anyway.

Sorry again and hope you enjoy

Cheers

* * *

Waves rolled into the pale, volcanic beach. Black rock stood out against white sand with stark relief, until it met the gentle blue sea that stretched to the horizon and into infinity. There was neither sun nor moon in the sky above: no stars or clouds or heaven, only a soft uniform glow. Clear blue water rose up to kiss some of the black volcanic rocks before shyly receding. It would have made for an inviting swim, if not for the chill in the air and the impression that the blue sea was as cold and dead as a tomb.

Shampoo's bare feet made small impressions in the sand as she walked along the beach. Looking back, she could see that her footprints stretched along the sandy shore as far ass he could discern. She wasn't done walking yet, however. Something was drawing her, compelling her forward. She felt no danger or strangeness in that, only certitude and determination. What was compelling her was her own desire. Her own will.

If only it were warmer.

At last her mind and body found what it had been looking for. The patch of beach was no different than the rest, but as she stopped, paused, and faced the gentle ocean to her side, she knew she was in the right spot. She waited, finding in this place no real conception of time, only the slow beating rhythm of the sea against the shoreline. Her feet moved, and her toes touched the cold water, those same toes instinctively digging in and squishing moist sand between them.

Before her, the water rippled, and a form slowly emerged. Blue fell away from the rising object, revealing paper white, alabaster flesh. Slim shoulders became distinct, as did a tapering, rippled frill like hair turned flesh or scale. Hands, faintly webbed between the fingers, slid down from obscuring the face of this creature of the sea, revealing delicate human features and deep black eyes, so dark the pupil could not be separated from the white. As it stood, Shampoo could see that it's body was human, too, and female, with eerily similar proportions: the two stood eye to eye, identical in shape if not cosmetic appearance.

The creature inhaled, as if tasting the air for the first time, and blinked.

Shampoo tried to imagine how to speak to it, when it spoke to her.

"Hello T'leth," it said, in her own voice. "I am Ra'leth. It is my pleasure to accept you into me."

"a." Shampoo's voice had some difficulty translating her thoughts to conversation. "a-a"

"Oh. I see." Ra'leth tapped her chin with a pale finger. "Allow me to fix that for you... There. Fixed."

"-must be the..." Shampoo's voice suddenly kicked in, and she had to catch herself out of surprise. "What? Did you...?"

"You aren't really very compatible with my systems, are you?" Ra'leth asked, and smiled in a friendly manner. "I have enabled communication between us."

Shampoo instinctively reached up to check her throat. She coughed to clear her throat and her thoughts. Waves washed up around her ankles, a chilly touch of the sea beyond sending a shiver up her spine.

"Thank you," she decided on saying, first. "I'm Shan Pu."

"No," the woman from the sea politely corrected her. "You are T'leth."

Shampoo was about to object, but-

"Oh. Excuse me," Ra'leth quickly said, holding up a hand for silence. "You are also Shan Pu. To me, however, you are T'leth. I can feel her influence in you, and it is somewhat difficult to frame my thoughts on the individual level. I will fix that now."

Ra'leth blinked and craned her neck, as if flipping some switch inside her.

"Now," she continued, still gracing Shampoo with a smile. "How may I help you?"

"I need something, but..." Shampoo hesistated for a moment to ask. "You are... you're this ship, right? Some sort of Mind?"

"Yes," Ra'leth replied, without reservation. "It seems I've been dead for some time now... but it is nice to be alive again. It is nice to have something to do."

"Not to ask for trouble or anything," Shampoo said, anxiously licking her lips. "But you don't seem like... well, I mean... you aren't what I expected."

"I'm not?" Ra'leth inquired innocently, and then answered herself. "Oh. I see. Yes, this dimension is rather hostile, isn't it? What interesting experiences you have had. I assure you, T'leth-Shampoo, that I am the Mind of Ra'leth, though my body and my systems are almost entirely dead. As are my individual minds..."

She clarified: "The 'aliens' are as you see them. When the last of them died, I died as well. They can not exist without me, and I can not function without them."

Shampoo paused to compose her thoughts. The entity before her was nothing like the malignant cancer that had been described to her by her friends in their retelling of the battles on the Thanagarian ship. Neither was it like the experience Shampoo had, firsthand, inside Heresiarch. It wasn't even anything like the all-powerful Guardian of the Universe. It seemed... helpful.

She decided to test the waters a bit by asking a few more indulgent questions.

"Your form," the Amazon noted, pointing. "Did you model yourself after me?"

"In a sense," Ra'leth answered, still amiable as can be. "I recognize the form within you. T'leth. The form you had and could have again. T'leth. Not Shampoo."

"I... don't quite follow," the warrior woman admitted. "The form I had and could have?"

"Your friend, the one you are using to contact me. Hibiki. Ryouga." Ra'leth blinked twice and frowned. "I can fix that, by the way. But by his experiences, he could think of me as Atlantean. This is the form of those precursors introduced to your world. By T'leth. I assume, anyway. I think it likely she will correct the mistakes taken in your development over the last million years. In you, or in your descendants. Eventually."

"T'leth... then T'leth is the Mind on Cydonia!" Shampoo guessed, clapping her hands together in excitement. "The one that has been tampering with human evolution!"

"I can not confirm that. My database has no information on T'leth subsequent to her maiden voyage." Ra'leth quickly changed the topic. "As I mentioned a moment ago, I can fix the problem you are having interfacing with my systems. You don't need to use that young man as an intermediary."

"Fix it?" Shampoo asked, growing cautious despite her earlier exuberance. "How?"

"Our molecular control networks are synodium based," Ra'leth explained, cocking her head to the left, still smiling. "Your current molecular control network is organic. Carbon based. I assume this to be a recent development. Your experiences indicate it is called 'psionics.' You can not fully interface with me... you do not have the proper hardware, is a way of phrasing it you may understand."

"Psionics isn't molecular control?"

"No," the dead Mind answered, and even shook her head. "I don't know who developed this system of interaction. It did not exist when I was functional. I can not fix myself with the power I have, but I can fix you."

She pointed at the Amazon turned soldier.

"You asked: how. I can create a small synodium input/output node in the reticular formation of your brain stem."

"No!" Shampoo snapped, trying to step back and away. Cold water from the sea beyond lapped over her feet, but she couldn't move from where she stood, at the edge of the beach. It was like her feet were frozen in place.

"It would allow me to more easily share the information you require," Ra'leth coached, her expression still one of cordial reception. "You would no longer need this Hibiki, Ryouga."

Shampoo hissed, angrily. "No."

"I know you aren't satisfied with your current limitations," the ancient Mind continued. "You are using that young man because you can not accomplish this yourself, is that not accurate?"

Shampoo's struggled slowed, and she glared at the pale entity.

"It is accurate," Ra'leth answered for her. "What you call your 'ki.' The balance of your internal energies, focused through your mind. Your body is incapable of the levels of energy generation you have observed in some of your allies."

The Mind held out a hand, and a memory of Ranma came to live in the air over her fingers. He was glowing with a confident blue battle aura. It changed, to one of Ryouga, a dark green and black mass of negative emotion fueling his aura, tinted by murderous, killing intent. Then Ukyou, holding her battle spatula to fire off a blazing white Hinode.

More images followed, more quickly: the younger Hibiki, his dim aura so thick with earth qi Shampoo could feel it even before touching him. Jinx, wielding pink fire like it was a gift from the gods. Starfire, who burned like her namesake, effortlessly, a product of her alien biology. Raven, whose powers were even more exotic.

Then their enemies, as the memories multiplies to play all at once and in parallel. Ethereals, floating ominously in titian robes, kept alive solely by the power of their minds. Saffron, flying overhead and raining destruction. Doctor Tofu, now subsumed as a Trenchard, controlling others like puppets... like his old medical skeleton, Betty. Then there was Cologne. The young, beautiful, inhuman Cologne.

She had her back to her grand-daughter.

_"Shampoo. You don't interest me anymore. Get out of the way."_

The voice was still cold; the memory still fresh and painful.

_"Don't you understand? From the moment they had me, the rest of the village became irrelevant. There is nothing you or your sisters could contribute to the future that is not already within me."_

The memory seemed to grow larger, the taunting voice drowning out the sound of the sea.

_"You're a failure, Shan Pu, and you know it. Your mother… your grandmother… they had some potential, but you…? I have trained four generations of geniuses, and your abilities are sorely lacking. A boy child could have filled my heart with more pride."_

"Stop," she finally said, softly, not raising her voice. "You've made your point."

"I can fix this problem," Ra'leth said, closing her hand and ending the replay of stolen memories. She was still smiling. Still amiable. "Would you like the ability to generate a battle aura like the young Hibiki here? I have sensed others, too. Jinx. Raven. Kuonji. Would you like their power?"

"I do..." Shampoo whispered. "I..."

The ancient Mind still smiled.

"I can give it to you," Ra'leth promised. "I can fix you. Hibiki, too. I can get rid of his... curse, I believe you call it? The one from this hot spring you both fell into? I can cure him. I can give you power. You want it. I know you want me to fix you. And him. All of you."

Shampoo sucked in a breath, her head swimming.

"Stronger. Faster. Smarter! I can unlock the potential in you. You can all return home... better than you were before...!"

"No." Shampoo focused her thoughts, recoiling. "NO!"

The sea was up to her knees.

Half-in and half-out of the clear blue, ice cold ocean, Ra'leth frowned for only the second time.

"You will regret not taking my offer, T'leth-Shampoo," she warned. "I only want what's best for you. I only want to help you... become what you want to become."

"I don't care what you want," Shampoo growled, a bit of fear in her eyes as she realized she had been drawn in. No more. No deeper. "None of us. None. Want that."

"You say that now," Ra'leth replied, sounding put out.

"Wishes like that always come with a high price," Shampoo said. "No."

"I am not asking for anything in return," the Mind insisted, holding out a hand. "I do this because I can. That is all the reason I need." When Shampoo failed to reciprocate, however, the pale lady smirked. "Then again, perhaps one of the others will be more open minded? Hibiki or..."

"You deal with Shampoo!" The Amazon reached out this time, focusing her anger and her willpower. The water around her rippled, and the same was mirrored around the hips of the partly submerged Ra'leth. She glanced down in discomfort, and then back up.

There was a wild, unhinged fire racing beneath her black-on-black eyes.

"How inflexible," the dead Mind grumbled, unhappy. "I am bound to obey, however. T'leth. There was a time when three million minds communed within me. Now, we are one. Even if only a sliver of you is part of me, you are within me, and we are alone, and we will obey you."

"Good!" Shampoo let out a calming breath and tried not to think about how dire her situation had been becoming, or even how bad it potentially still was. The water was just over her knees, but not rising. She wasn't slipping further into the cold sea that was this dead alien Mind.

"We came here for an archive. A record of all the places you traveled," she said, and clarified. "Every dimension, and the data you recorded from it."

"Yes. I know. We know," Ra'leth now took on a disdainful huff. She twitched, and her mood ebbed back to being, at least, mostly receptive. "That information is mostly intact. I will compile it, but my systems are not compatible with the psionic circuitry of your armor's psi-amp. I may not be able to transfer it without corruption."

She smiled again. "If you would allow me to fix..."

Shampoo's scowl deepened.

Ra'leth bristled at the rejection, as she always seemed to.

"Very well," she complied. "I will see what can be managed in using your... aura... and Hibiki's. It may be possible to modify your amp's data storage module. Like my systems, it stores data as molecular vibration within a crystal lattice. However... the transfer may be lengthy and... inefficient."

"I don't care about that," Shampoo said. "Just do it."

"As you wish," Ra'leth replied, her good graces slipping for just a second.

"While you do that," Shampoo added. "I want to know about this... T'leth. And about how the aliens know how to use dimensional drives like our EDC."

Ra'leth complied.

There was much to share.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_The Land of the Blind_

Chapter 43

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid

Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

Trespasser's blue eyes glowed softly, as he processed the news.

"They have the Archive," he stated in near-monotone. "This is satisfactory. There is just enough time to apply it before the deadline to our transit window."

"Well don't spaz-out in joy or anything," Nabiki joked, hands tucked into her pants as she stood next to the door that connected the reactor room to the CIC. She had entered to share the good news and, probably, to gauge what sort of reaction it had. Unfortunately for her, their Guardian ally seemed loathe to deviate from his default aloof disdain. Only the Heresiarch fragment had made inroads into cracking his demeanor.

Heresiarch... had been a special case.

Very special indeed.

"I guess," she quickly continued, sparing the ever-present Cyborg a quick look. "I better take care of that _other_ stuff."

"Do so," Trespasser deigned to confirm the order. "I will be observing your actions. If your methods are flawed or negligent I will know."

"I get the picture," Nabiki replied with an annoyed expression. "Toe the line and all that." She turned to leave, tapping Cyborg on the arm as she left. "Cy."

When the Tendo sister was gone, the Titan's attention returned to the Guardian of the Universe.

"I have catalogued all of your verbal communications with Operator Tendo." The cyborg made his observation without any hint of emotion in his voice. It was inconsequential, but a clear sign that the human had relinquished most all of his higher functions to the computerized half of his brain. The acting Major had seen it as a necessary precaution against any possible treachery on Trespasser's part.

Cyborg continued: "Such a marked change in her perceptions towards you is indicative of mental tampering via telepathy."

Trespasser seemed neither insulted nor amused by the statement.

"She was surprisingly pliable and open to reason." The Oan's eyes glowed for a moment like small stars. "Like yourself, Victor."

"Your statement is erroneous. My systems have several layers of redundant security to protect against and alert me of psionic tampering," Cyborg corrected the ancient alien. "And I have been ordered to intervene, by any means necessary, if your actions deviate from your stated goal by a specified amount."

The Oan studied the Cyborg out of the corner of his eye, evaluating him silently. The young man, his brain running in an electronic dependant mode, was processing the world via pure logic. He could not be swayed with honeyed words or promises of wealth and power. Which was just as well, as Trespasser possessed the patience for neither form of platitude.

Notable, but really less interesting, was the presence of a potent field active around the youth which prevented Trespasser from using his mental abilities to subtly alter the cyborg's thought processes. It was a technology far different from any other he had scanned in this ship, and seemed far more _familiar_. A cursory analysis indicted that it was likely something developed in their own dimension, and thus more closely attuned to the harmonic telepathy and telekinesis used there. All in all, it made the towering human a most logical choice as an observer.

However, as noble a pursuit as it was, so-called "pure logic" was also a double edged blade. After all, had not the Manhunters, in their own compliance to logic, risen up and turned upon their own creators? Had not the synthetic intelligences of this dimension, too, seemingly gone insane adhering to the commands and protocols of their long dead creators and masters?

An emotional being, even one as supremely controlled as himself, could never truly understand the mind of one without. As paradoxical as it sounded, it was almost impossible to predict just what actions such a purely logical being could take. Emotion, either positive or negative, for good or for ill, was deeply ingrained in the decision making of most all sentient species. An act that appeared utterly insane to a thinking, feeling person could so easily be computed to be the most logical, the most expedient action to a being not so hindered by emotions.

It had been a hard learned lesson for the Oans… Necessary, but hard learned.

It was subsequently a lesson which Trespasser had taken to heart.

"Pending further observation of your actions in regards to the EDC, the standing orders to stop you 'by any means necessary' may necessitate the initiation of our emergency failsafe," the Titan freely continued. "As you are aware."

Trespasser made no attempt to refuse his own knowledge.

"This Icarus Protocol," he stated, not at all impressed. "A series of self-destruct devices designed to destroy this ship utterly, either by uncontrolled ignition of Elerium-115 or by initiating a resonant cascade in the dimension drive. Failing that, I believe there is a sizeable nuclear device that can also be triggered. How prudent, to take such measures."

"Yet," the Oan added. "You do not have authorization to enact this protocol yourself."

Cyborg shook his head from side to side. "I have not yet received authorization from the Major or Lieutenant."

"That is the first failing of the system," Trespasser lectured. "If no one can trigger it, it will fail. The weakest link is at the start: with the operators themselves."

"This is true," Cyborg reasoned, cybernetic eye lighting up and then dimming. "However, both officers are heavily compromised by contact with you, or via the degenerative effect of this dimension. Logic dictates that standing UNETCO policy - in regards to initiating the self destruction of the Pathfinder, rather than allowing it to fall into enemy hands - takes precedence over any orders currently issued by commanding officers."

Trespasser said nothing, instead closing his eyes and facing the enhanced EDC.

There was no need to see: just to wait.

Behind him Cyborg had lifted his arm, the display on it lit up with blinking with bright red text as he worked. "Due to negligence and rapidly declining mental faculties of the command staff, commandeering control of the Icarus Protocol can be achieved without interference. This oversight shall be corrected."

Once again, Trespasser said nothing; silence was often more powerful than speaking.

"Icarus Authorization successfully obtained. I now possess equivalent security clearance to the acting Major and Lieutenant. Icarus Protocol can now be initiated remotely. " Cyborg stated aloud, a few seconds later. He was thinking, now. Processing data in that straightforward, mechanical way. Just like a Manhunter...

"Is it logical?" he wondered. "If we assume your analysis is correct, is it logical to allow emotionally compromised individuals access to a means of destroying this ship? The acting Major, especially, has demonstrated irrational hatred of alien life forms, compounded by increasing paranoia. If the effects of this dimension were to erode his self control sufficiently, he may be unable to control his emotions."

For a fraction of a second, Cyborg's artificial eye flashed a brighter red color, indicative of heavy computation.

"You are... correct," he realized, a little haltingly. "Neither officer is mentally fit to hold such responsibility. It is impossible to predict, given the numerous variables present in this scenario, whether they might detonate the ship for reasons outside official mission parameters. This is another oversight that must be corrected."

Trespasser cupped his hands behind his back as he waited. Yes: the ship's self destruct protocols were troublesome. Normally, he would not be concerned about it. From what he had read in the minds of Saotome and Hibiki, both were loathe to lose any of their 'precious subordinates' or friends. They were not nearly as hardened as their superiors back home believed them to be.

However, it was not them that were threatening to initiate the self destruct. It was this cybernetic being that 'had his finger on the button' as it were, and the Oan knew, beyond any doubt, that if given a reason, then Cyborg would destroy them all in the wink of any eye, regardless of the lives of his friends and comrades. It was a delicate situation, and one that was best handled with tact and subtlety.

He waited.

"Access to Icarus Protocol has been terminated for all other system users," Cyborg finally announced. "System streamlining complete."

Trespasser didn't move or otherwise acknowledge the news, but be was satisfied with the outcome of his inquiry. It was time. Tilting his head to the side, he regarded the cyborg more closely.

"Now, tell me, Victor. Cyborg. As a fellow man of science, I am curious regarding your opinion on something," he said that without the amusement he felt, deep in his Malthusian core. "When you visited the Thanagarian ship, you must have noticed the importance that culture placed on militarism and the warrior ethos. Honor. Duty. Courage. All the potent and typical martial virtues that arise in primitive cultures."

"Modern Thanagarian cultural mores are similar to those observed onboard the Kuk," Cyborg confirmed. "Though with less religious overtones."

"The way of the warrior is common on your world as well," Trespasser continued, once again facing the EDC and not his only company in the small reactor room. "Your commanding officers seem to follow it very closely. Or they aspire to do so."

"Your observation is flawed, based upon a highly skewed sample population," Cyborg corrected. "The vast majority of the human race has abandoned the 'warrior' code of honor. Highly militaristic organizations are prevalent, but the individuals present on this ship are not representative of the common mindset in regards to personal combat."

Trespasser suspected as much, given the memories and mind of that Tendo girl. Virtually all of the 'martial artists' on the ship were alike to varying degrees, warriors that clung to a sense of 'honor'. Some stretched it in the interests of practicality, others hewed close to it out of tradition, and others deviated from it by pure necessity. All, however, strived to live up to their own conception of a code of honor. It made the inclusion of Cyborg on this mission something of a puzzle, or to be more exact, it made him an outlier.

"Tell me, Cyborg. What importance do you place on this concept of honor? Of the warrior code, so prevalent in those less enlightened regions of the universe? What utility does it have, compared to, say, the interests of science?"

There was not even a second of delay between question and response. "Scientific advancement is of far greater utility. The 'warrior ethos' is an inherently flawed concept which ultimately inhibits a society's ability to progress. The Thanagarians provide a suitable example of the downfalls of adhering to a warrior culture. Embroiled in constant war, as mandated by their 'warrior civilization' mores, the Thanagarian race has entered a protracted state of political, societal and technological stagnation."

"I could not agree more," Trespasser stated, his voice disinterested. "There can be no greater contribution to the universe than the simple act of discovery. A warrior leading this crew is to invite inefficiency and irrationality."

"Correct," Cyborg readily agreed. "However, decisions regarding command are made by those in command."

"Is that not circular logic?" the Oan wondered, and let out a breath as he waited.

This time, for a few seconds.

"What do you value more? Duty to a self perpetuating military hierarchy, or duty to the scientific community?"

This time, the answer came quickly and emotionlessly. "Scientific study supersedes military obligation. The study and research of the universe benefits all aspects of life, while military expansion does not. Therefore, it is only logical that the pursuit of knowledge is of greater priority."

Floating slowly around the room now, his arms held loosely behind his back, the Guardian finally reacted to the conversation with a small, seemingly contemplating nod. Considering this one's personality before he had shifted to this pure logic mode, Trespasser highly doubted he would have received replies any different, regardless of when he had asked them. In fact, it was easier this way. This Cyborg had no emotional attachment to the crew... the ship... or his friends.

It was actually somewhat pleasant to meet a kindred (in the most limited sense of the word) spirit, hidden away within a ship filled with short sighted, bloody minded fools.

"I have thought of something," Trespasser began, turning his full attention back to his erstwhile companion. "My supposition is this: If I am true to my word, and am fixing the dimensional drive as stated, then there is no need for the Icarus Protocol at all. Correct?"

A simple nod was Cyborg's reply. "Correct."

"If my repairs and the archive do not perform as expected, and we suffer catastrophic failure during the transition event, then we will be destroyed, and then there is no need for the device. Correct?"

"Correct."

"If I were to betray you all, and steal this vessel to continue my studies, then there is no need for the device. Correct?"

That gave the young man a second of pause.

"...Explain."

Holding up his hand, the Oan extended three of his fingers. "In the case of a betrayal, there are three scenarios which are most likely. The first is that, improbably, the crew of this vessel rises up and defeats me, in which case the threat is resolved and there is no need for the device."

He lowered one of his fingers. "Second, and equally unlikely, the crew of this vessel rises up and fights against me. The ensuing battle causes damage to the ship, either destroying us outright, or stranding us here permanently. In either case, we will die, and the use of the device is redundant."

Cyborg nodded, reasoning it for himself. "This is true."

With that, Trespasser lowered his second finger, leaving only the single digit upraised. "Finally, in the most probably scenario, my betrayal succeeds, leading to the incapacitation or death of those members of the crew who oppose me. In this case, as all members of UNETCO are dead, so again, the use of the device is, at best redundant, at worst an act of petty spite."

"I am uncertain of the logic of this statement," Cyborg replied, eye flashing red. "It is UNETCO policy to prevent organization equipment and vehicles from falling into the hands of enemies. Destruction of the Pathfinder would seem to be mandated in this third scenario."

"Your reasoning is faulty," Trespasser countered. "Your own words state that the use of the Icarus Protocol is to prevent your ships, and hence, your technology, from falling into enemy hands. However, I have no intention of returning to, or desire to stay in, the dimension that berthed this vessel, therefore it is impossible for me to be an enemy of the organization. Furthermore, the technology of this vessel is painfully primitive, in every conceivable way, in comparison to the technological advances of the... Oan civilization. Allowing this vessel to fall into my hands grants absolutely no technological or tactical advantage to one such as myself, save for the ability to return to my dimension."

Cyborg shifted to the side slightly, his eye glowing more brightly for another short moment. "Technically, your arguments are salient. That does not change the nature of my orders."

"Ah, but did you not earlier state that the pursuit of knowledge supersedes the blind adherence to military dogma?" The Guardian hovered across the room, lifting from the ground until he was less than a foot from the cyborg, staring him in the eye. "In this third scenario, though those people who are identified as impediments may die, it would allow my research to continue. Destroying the ship would avenge their deaths, but it would also end my own work."

Cyborg stared at him, silent as death aside from the silent whirring from inside his skull. Leaning forward, Trespasser nearly smiled.

"What is the more logical course of action? Destroying the ship to avenge the passing of a few insignificant, transitory life forms? Or allowing my work to continue, unabated? Which of these outcomes presents the greatest net benefit to the universe at large?"

Slowly, Cyborg lifted his arm to stare at the swiftly blinking amber display embedded in his arm. "Revenge serves no civil or societal purpose. There are zero gains to be achieved through such action. The greatest benefit would be achieved by the continuation of your research."

Without a further second of hesitation, Cyborg tapped a finger to his arm. With surprisingly little fanfare, the amber letters suddenly began blinking green, then the display dimmed entirely.

"You are correct. There is no logical benefit to the destruction of this vessel. I will prevent activation of the Icarus Protocol."

Turning around in midair, lazily clasping his hands behind his back once more, the Guardian returned to study of the EDC. It was really so much more interesting than these humans and their transitory lives and malleable minds. It was a stroke of genius to use purified Nth Metal to bridge the gap between the corrupted organic core and the rest of the multi-dimensional entity. Now, with Heresiarch's heresy ready, and soon the ancient dimensional archive, everything was in place.

And all it had taken was to die, just once.

Honestly, Trespasser had been expecting to repeat the process a few times with a few crews before getting it all done. Sadly, none could see the beauty of the new EDC, and what it could do together with Heresiarch's fragment and the First Lie. Even another Oan wouldn't be able to see it. Except No Truth, of course.

"It is good that we have had this little talk, Victor," Trespasser remarked. "You may return to your duties."

The sound of hard metal boots moving across the floor behind him gave the Oan no concern. A moment later, the large Cyborg was standing at his side, studying the EDC intently.

"I have not yet processed the validity of your experimental procedures," Cyborg admitted to the ancient alien. "The concepts are intriguing, but esoteric."

"Actually, the concept is not completely foreign to your race," Trespasser told him, relaxed in the topic of choice and the company, now bent to his will. "In the memories of that girl, I saw that she had knowledge of what was called the 'Akashic Record' - a flawed theoscopic notion of a database containing past, present and future knowledge. Concepts of this sort are fairly common among cultures aware of the possibility of pre-destination. It is crude, lacking in predictive capacity, but nonetheless there is a superficial similarity."

"I call it Conditionality. Vibrations in existence formed by choice." Trespasser spared Cyborg a look, and his mouth turned up in the smallest, yet almost painful, smile. "Of course, as an Earthling, you must be aware of the cosmic significance of your world. The seat of the Life Entity. Your planet sits amid a singularity of Conditionality."

Cyborg had no expression to speak of, but his pause indicated some shadow of surprise.

"I remember well, when we first found _the Entity_ there." The Oan turned back to the constructed the completed EDC in the center of the reactor room. "_And_ when we returned to deal with the White Martians. I remember well when we saw what they had done to your ancestors, and to what you call the 'meta gene' ... I have seen much; done much, and it has all led me here. My choices, my Conditionality, have reverberated throughout our universe and even several others."

"But that is ancient history," Trespasser added, guessing Cyborg was about to inquire for further information. "Ancient for your race, at least. What matters is that, finally - _finally_ - with Heresiarch's knowledge, I can chart Conditionality not simply within a universe, but across them."

"Yet," Cyborg cautioned. "By your own admission, Conditionality is an imaginary unit. It is a hypothetical that cannot be proven to exist outside of the effect it has on matter and energy."

His red mechanical eye burned hot as he calculated and deduced.

"You have measured this phenomenon?" he asked, and then realized: "That is why you know of the EDC. That is why you left our local multiverse. For statistical samples. For controls. To observe from the outside."

"Yes," Trespasser confirmed with a now smug grin. "I have seen the effects of Conditionality. On our multiverse. On every one I visited. I have seen it. Measured it. Studied it for millions of your years."

"I have seen so many facets of it, Victor. In the one you call the 'Spectre' on your world," Trespasser actually sniggered at the name. "My peers and I have measured it in so called cosmic entities, in fifth dimensional imps, in the Endless, even within our own ranks. Conditionality - the reverberations of the First Choice, of the Presence and beyond... our universe is not a closed system. Matter and Energy are contained within the multiversal boundary, this is true, but Conditionality leaves and enters freely!"

"Multiverses!" Trespasser declared, his emotionless mask slipping as his small blue hands raised up. "Are they really as separate as we were led to believe? What if the choices we make are influenced by other universes? A Great Oan once postulated that there had been a great many 'resets' of our universe. Resets that were localized to just - our - multiverse! If our local cluster of universes is a pond, so full of frenzied fish, then who or what is throwing foreign matter into the water?"

"It is the ultimate question. The greatest Truth ever sought by a Malthusian! The Truth that we were forbidden to explore out of fear and guilt!" Trespasser's arms slowly lowered to his side as he calmed down, stepping back from the precipice of... over-emotion. "If Conditionality enters our universe... was it there when our universe began? How much of what occurs is of our own making, and how much is influenced from outside?"

Lucid again, his voice returned to a serene calm.

"The Archive. With the data in that Archive, I can finally calculate where Conditionality crosses the multiversal boundary. More of it enters our universe than leaves it, and I believe there to be a True Source."

"An initial Conditionality," Cyborg reiterated. "You may be aware of this, but among humans, this experiment could be considered an attempt to confirm the concept of the creation myth, or even a Creator. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of religions that believe in one 'originating deity', or another."

"I do not seek a deity, per-say," Trespasser corrected. He reached out to touch the Nth Metal casing of the new, massively enhanced dimensional drive. "Another multiverse, or a single universe. A precursor. One from which all Conditionality in our own universe is derived. It may or may not be a being at all. But... I must know."

Cyborg craned his neck, lifeless electronic eye dimming back to its usual, lusterless red color.

"Everyone," he corrected the Guardian. "Everyone must know."

Trespasser ignored the amendment. He was so close. The Truth was at hand. _No Truth_ would be disproven, and the Malthusian race redeemed! No matter the cost. Much of this ship's crew would not be necessary for the trip to come, but the little female human had been convinced that reducing the crew size was unwise. Trespasser had been sorely tempted to have her removed as well, but she knew the other humans and was a potentially useful cat's paw. Her life, and theirs, would depend on her ability to keep them out of the way. Even the scientist, Cyborg, that had been tasked to watch over him was, in the end, another potential threat.

A potential liability.

Just like all those failures he had come to this dimension with. Green Lanterns! Weak, stupid, short sighted little _maggots_. All their loyalty and dedication of the corps, their much vaunted "willpower," had evaporated when they lost their fragile minds. Even the one Corpse member had failed in the end... needing to be put down. No one else could be trusted. No one else could be truly relied on! They were all threats to the great experiment; to Truth!

"Nothing," Trespasser said, to himself as much as Cyborg. "Can be allowed to interfere."

* * *

Ranma's psi-signature dropped off the navigation interface. This was not unexpected and Ryouga quickly moved to take over his piloting duties. For the last few days, they had both been plugged into the nav for just such an occurrence - one could compensate for the other whenever a blackout or other 'episode' occurred. Even in the heart and mind of the machine, it was possible to lose consciousness or become imbalanced due to the ever increasing delirium of this forsaken dimension.

"Nabiki," he transmitted his voice over the comm. Readjusting his "eyes" he accessed the monitoring devices in the CIC. Ranma was slouched back in his pilot's chair, eyes half lidded. Nabiki was already checking him, carefully holding open one of his blue eyes to check for dilation.

"Another lapse," she said, backing away from the martial artist. Hands on her hips, she looked up and around, knowing he had a ceiling-centric view when in the ship. "But he should be fine when he gets out."

"Record it in the logs," Ryouga told her, and focused his attention back on keeping the ship stable.

Inwardly, however, his mind was troubled. Deeply troubled. His crew were frayed by their time here. So many subordinates, so many people, that he had thought he could rely on, even in the worst of situations, were turning into liabilities. Starfire, who he had come to value, was all but insubordinate and unapproachable. Konatsu was growing increasingly and dangerously out of touch with reality, spending all his time using Severing Shadow to hide from people. Cyborg still sent in regular reports, as ordered, but they were increasingly technical, and getting beyond his ability to understand.

Mousse and Kuno, especially the former, were incommunicable. Ryouga hadn't realized it that much, but the blind hidden weapons master had been a rock solid confidant and backup man in India. The sounds and sights the two of them were being bombarded with had gotten worse by the day, and both were forcing themselves to remain in isolation for everyone's safety. Ranma was still active, but Ryouga had caught him talking to thin air more than once. One time he had been arguing with Akane, reliving some petty dispute from two years ago.

Even Nabiki, who had always been there as India's coordinator, was becoming more erratic. It wasn't just the occasional bouts of terror she had, sometimes at night and sometimes in the middle of the day. For a few days now, she had given up on searching through the recovered Oan Logs and instead started spending time with Trespasser. It was worrying. Ryouga didn't trust the blue xeno. But then, at this point, he didn't feel like he trusted _anyone_ around him.

Not like before.

Not after what Konatsu had pulled... how long ago? Days? Or was it a week?

Searching through the ship's views, on an impulse, Ryouga noticed the ninja standing near the airlock doors. That in and of itself wasn't any reason for concern, but Ryouga still found himself watching the male kunoichi. Konatsu looked disheveled and worn, physically and emotionally. How long had he been using his shadow hiding technique? Hours? What was he up to now?

_'I should have just kept him tied up like that Reava woman-'_

Distracted, his mind divided between the nav, the ship's internal security, and his own body... he suddenly started to feel light headed. It became hard to focus. Slumping, the Acting Major fell forward, face first into the backup nav panel. The ship wobbled, but stabilized itself, waiting for one of the two logged in pilots to respond.

He didn't feel a hand run through his hair; he didn't hear a familiar voice whispering an apology.

"Sorry, Ryouga-baby."

* * *

"Starfire," Nabiki greeted the now rather hostile alien girl. She had been staring out the one transparent window, as usual, transfixed by the madness inducing lights outside. "Trespasser told me to send you to him."

The once perky Tamaranian threateningly narrowed her green eyes at the Tendo woman. "And he sent _you_?" she asked hotly. "Why?"

"Well, I don't know a lot about the experiments and stuff he's doing," the older woman admitted, holding out a hand placatingly. "My concern is just to get us out of here, alive. So, why don't you go see him?"

"I will... but only because he requested it, not you, Nabiki Tendo." Starfire painfully turned away from the strange mosaic outside, and brushed past. She didn't pay any further attention to the Tendo sister, or to Konatsu, who had appeared close by. The two humans were beneath her notice by this point, and it was all she could do to focus on the present.

Trespasser, a Guardian of the Universe, had requested her by name!

Still tied up and suspended from the ceiling on the far side of the hold, Reava's eyes followed Starfire and the others. Straining against the alien alloy ties that kept her helpless, she exhaled slowly. Nabiki and Konatsu gradually turned to face her, as the only other semi-sane presence in the hold.

"And what about that one?" Konatsu asked. "She isn't one of us."

Nabiki didn't reply at first, instead pondering her options.

"I'd rather avoid bloodshed," she finally told him, loud enough for the fallen 'new god' to overhear. "The more people get hurt, the harder this will be for us in the long run."

"I don't care about that," the ragged solider-ninja admitted, slowly advancing on the Apokaliptian. "I'm doing this for Miss Ukyou. That's all."

"Miss Ukyou," Nabiki said it with a little laugh. "Of course."

* * *

The door opened with a silent '_swish_', revealing the beating heart of the Pathfinder beyond. A moment of timid hesitation held the Tamaranian in place, but she quickly straightened her back and steeled her resolve before stepping into the engine room. The chamber, as it always seemed to be, was cramped and crowded, with the enlarged EDC engine taking up much of the room, and various other equipment filling up quite a lot of the rest of the space.

Despite the mess, though, it was still easy to spot the rooms two occupants. Her gaze first drifted to the more familiar of the two, the faintest ghost of a smile flitting across her lips. Though the rest of the '_true_' humans on the ship had steadily devolved into repulsive caricatures of sentient beings, their base natures and shameless self interest growing more grating by the minute… Through all of that, Cyborg had remained true to himself.

Not just true to himself, but more so. In his infinite wisdom, Cyborg had shed his '_humanity'_ like the mange-ridden cloak it was. If anything, she felt a closer bond with him now then ever before. She heard the muttered words of her '_human'_ companions over the past days. The doubts they harbored in regards to the cybernetic Titan's intentions and duties. The subtle fear of something growing increasingly unfamiliar.

It was no surprise to the Tamaranian. The less human Cyborg became, the more openly the members of India and Juliet feared him… just like Starfire herself. The only ones she could really trust now were Raven and Jinx, their mixed heritage and impure genetics separating them from the rest of the humans as well.

She paused for a moment; forgetting someone.

Those two, and, of course, Ryouga. He was her brother, after all, and thus beyond reproach. If only he did not spend so much of his time in the company of the Amazon of late. It was… vexing.

The sight of movement brought her back to the present. Moving with serene, casual motions, the reason for her presence in the Engine room continued his arduous task of repairing the EDC. The Tamaranian allowed herself a moment to watch, entranced, as he moved the components of the engines about by pure force of will.

How could anyone distrust the Guardian? Who else would have been so brilliant to imagine using Nth metal to act as a dimensional bridge between the piece of organic material present in the drive, and the rest of the 26 Dimensional Hypergriffin… wherever it might be at the moment?

Granted, even a cursory scan of the Pathfinder's Faster than Light drive revealed that the improvisational nature of the repairs would result in at least a twenty percent reduction in the efficiency of their 'in dimension' flight speed… but that was hardly a concern at the moment. Slightly more worrying were the number of systems that she could see, even from her position near the door, which appeared to be cannibalized for components.

A second glance to her cybernetic companion, to the constant glow of his artificial, crimson eye and the silent '_whir'_ emanating from his skull. She was forced to wonder just how many of the ships systems were being routed through Cyborg to keep the ship functional? After all, what other computer on the ship could possibly possess the raw processing power to compensate for the modifications being made?

A small smile graced her lips for a moment. It made her proud to know that her team mate, that her cybernetic friend, was contributing far more to their continued survival, and to their chances of getting home, than any of the '_humans'_. _Especially _the Acting Major, strutting about so proudly, acting as if it was by his will alone that the ship still functioned… not even realizing that they all no doubt continued to draw breath only because Cyborg saw fit to maintain the environment.

Finally, after taking precisely the amount of time required to do so, the Oan completed one last modification before turning his attention in her direction. Eyes as ancient as time studied her with clinical detachment… and just for a second, Starfire's entire body shuddered involuntarily. The image of glassy, black eyes staring down at her from above flashed through her memory too quickly for her to even repress.

Suddenly feeling ashamed for some reason, the Tamaranian straightened her back once more, and matched the Oan's gaze proudly.

"You called for me, Trespasser?" she asked respectfully.

The slightest of nods. "I did." It seemed that a moment of attention was all he could spare for her, as he soon moved on to some new task.

"Tell me, Tamaranian. This… power you possess, your ability to generate plasma without external aid. Is it now common to your race? During my time, such an ability was unheard of for your people."

Starfire shook her head, feeling a touch defensive, but also curious. "No. My powers are… unique… almost. It is not the result of nature." Growing uncomfortable with the topic, she quickly grasped onto another. "You said that you knew of the Tamaranian people in your time before coming here. Please, tell me, when was it that you met the Tamaranians?"

The Oan lifted his hand, waving it about lazily as he controlled the movements of several small devices through the air. "My memory of the time is not perfect… after so long in this dimension. However, I do recall why the Tamaranians were brought to my attention. I believe, at the time, they were… at war. Yes… at war with the Trillarians, if I recall."

Gasping loudly, Starfire took a step back. "The – the Tri- But… but there have been no Trillarians in this galaxy for over _five thousand_ years!"

"Hmm, that seems a likely timeline. It also answers my question as to how the conflict ended."

Glaring, the Tamaranian took a step forward, clenching her fist over her chest. "The Trillarians were great butchers! Even after millennia, our history still tells of their savagery! It was they – it was _they_ who-"

"They were the ones who originated the term 'Troq' ...which, even in my time, set your people into such a fervor."

She nodded, glaring heatedly. "To this day, that offensive term still haunts my people! Their insult against our people was unforgivable! To have outlived even their vile race, it is like some cosmic joke!"

"It must have been truly unforgivable," Trespasser agreed, glancing at her for a moment, as if knowing some sinful secret. "Unforgivable indeed for your people to purge them from existence. But it must have been an impressive feat to exact your justice on them, Tamaranian. The Trillarians were an advanced race in their own right. I imagine the young Tamaranian Empire must be quite extensive in this new age."

Starfire frowned, uncertain if she was being mocked or not. "That… is not the case. My people… they have suffered much over the millennia."

"Indeed?" The question was asked in a quiet voice, almost leading, really. "Such a powerful race, it surprises me that they did not expand. What do you suppose led to your people's downfall?"

Shifting, Starfire dropped her gaze to the side. As much as she did not want to think on it, she saw no reason to lie. "The historians say that… for a time our people held an empire that spread throughout the stars. However, we were a… that is to say, during those days, we were an overly proud people. We learned, painfully… that no race can stand against the entire universe."

"And it follows that the empire you once held was pushed back, pushed all the way back into the Vegan system, where none would follow."

That brought fire back into the flame haired warrior's heart. Her head snapped up and she glared at the Guardian. "Indeed! Where _no one_ would follow!" She swung her arm out angrily. "Not even the vaunted _Guardians of the Universe_!"

The Oan turned his head in her direction, a white eyebrow arching curiously.

Taking a step forward, she pointed an accusing finger. "Your kind claimed to offer aid to _every_ race in need! Guardian! But where were you? Where were the _legendary_ Green Lanterns when Tamaran was attacked, again, and _again_, and **again?** The Gordanians? The Citadel? **The Psions?**"

Tears stung her eyes and she took another step forward as she yelled, giving vent to years of frustration. "**Where were you!**"

Despite his silence, even Cyborg looked up at her outburst, sparing her a single, emotionless glance.

Rather than answer her question, the Guardian asked another of his own. "Tell me, child. If not by nature, how did you come by your powers?"

"Wha- but I…" Sighing helplessly, she dropped her gaze once more, clenching her hands before her chest. "It was an experiment, performed upon myself and my sister… by the Psions."

That, actually seemed to garner a glimmer of interest from the ancient alien. "The Psions… Interesting. Yes, I see. It makes sense that they would do that. Do you believe that this experiment is repeatable?"

That set Starfire back a step. Just the _thought_ of what had been done to her… "I… yes. The… _procedure_, as you might call it, had a one hundred percent success rate. I see no reason why it could not be repeated. But – but why would you _want_ to?"

The smallest of shrugs. "Your powers make you formidable, do they not? Even beyond the norms of your already powerful race. Tell me, would the short term suffering involved in the process involved be a worthwhile sacrifice to increase the ability of your species to better protect itself?"

Even as Starfire recoiled from the very notion, Cyborg nodded slowly. "Even with only limited sample data to draw from, the evidence does suggest that the Psion experiment did not create a random mutation, but rather accelerated the course of Tamaranian evolution by force. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that this favorable genetic trait could be inheritable. Enduring pain to enhance the species as a whole is the most practical course of action."

"I concur. And if we return to our home dimension, it is within my ability to facilitate." The Oan clasped his hands behind his back, slowly floating over a small auxiliary power generator lying on the floor. "Considering the… limited nature of the Psions, it is likely that a superior method could be formulated to make the process more… palatable."

"I… wha…" Starfire could scarcely find the words. "You would help my people? But – but why now? Why have you not before?"

"The _Oan_ race has… made many shameful compromises throughout the infinite stretches of time. The situation concerning the Vegan system is one of these compromises."

"Compromise?" Starfire asked, still trying to process the meaning and intention behind Trespasser's offering. "I do not understand."

"The situation in your home system is… complicated. Suffice it to say, though, that I, and others like me, did not agree with the decision that was made there." Then, almost a smile. "Though I am bound by my word, as all Oans are, there are always… ways to circumvent such things. After all, while the Guardians are forbidden from interfering in the Vegan system…openly… as are our Lanterns, that does not mean that the Tamaranians can not assist themselves."

Starfire was not certain what to think. The Oans themselves were _forbidden_ from interfering in the Vegan system? But… but why? And what force in the universe could enforce such a ban? Even Apokolips itself existed in an uneasy truce with the Guardians.

Yet, the idea of uplifting her people… of making herself the norm, rather than a freakish outcast… What could her people become capable of, if all Tamaranians were like herself? The thought was… strangely unsettling.

"It is… an intriguing thought. But, in all honestly, my powers are not so great. Even if my whole people were made as such..." She sighed loudly, "I do not believe it would make that great of a difference. I do not believe it would protect us from the Citadel, or other such threats."

The Guardian turned back from his nameless task to study her carefully. Nodding to himself, he lifted a hand to run a finger along his chin. "Your situation is that dire, is it? Then perhaps there is another alternative. One that could grant you the power you require to protect your people."

"An alternative?" Starfire asked, her interest - and her hope - growing by the moment. "What do you mean?"

"It is obvious, is it not?" The Oan inquired, clearly expecting her to have deduced it already. "The power of a Green Lantern would allow you to protect your world against any threat."

The suggestion was startling enough, that even Cyborg rejoined the conversation. "That does not seem to be a legitimate alternative. You have stated that Green Lanterns are forbidden from operating in the Vegan system. Henceforth, it stands to reason that Starfire would not be able to operate in her home system in this scenario."

Starfire nodded, hoping despite her own better judgment. "Indeed. If I can never return home, how could I protect my home?"

Lifting a finger in the manner of one about to lecture a child, Trespasser calmly answered them:

"I said that the Oans cannot act _openly_ within the Vegan System. It is true that you would be unable to operate openly as a Green Lantern while in your system. However, there is an option that you are unaware of. Let me ask you… have you ever heard of the 'Corpse Lantern Corp'?"

The Tamaranian shook her head. As did Cyborg. Their responses actually seemed to imbue their alien mentor with an unusual sense of satisfaction.

"That is reassuring. It is also key to what I propose." His shrunken body floating up and over the various equipment scattered across the floor, Trespasser glided to a stop before Starfire. "To put it succinctly, the Corpse Lantern Corp is a secret organization, even within the Lantern Corp itself. If you were to be inducted into its ranks, you would be able to act anywhere without implicating the Green Lanterns, and through them, the Oans."

"Fascinating. A secret society of Lanterns? Such autonomy would allow for greater utility in the actions which the Corp can undertake," Cyborg mused to himself.

"I… do not know…" Starfire was not certain what to think. "Is such a thing even possible?"

"More so than you know," Trespasser stated, "You have already met a Corpse Lantern, in the form of your own ally, Ukyou Kounji. And you could be so much greater than the human female. Her mind is small, limited by her human experiences. She has not seen interstellar warfare, as you doubtlessly have. She does not understand the true scope of what a Green Lantern is capable of, what their true role is in the universe."

The corner of the Guardian's lip twisted up a fraction of a millimeter. "Considering your already considerable power, you could become of one the greatest Lanterns ever… and not a soul would ever need know about it. You would answer to no one, save myself, and you would have complete discretion in how you protect your world. Is that not an interesting proposal?"

"Y-yes, it most certainly is," Starfire agreed wholeheartedly. "But – but why? Why would you do this for me? I have been of no help to you, despite my desire to do so… I have done nothing to deserve such an honor…"

"I disagree. You have supported me from the time of my awakening." Reaching a hand out to his side, the Oan seemed to 'twiddle' his fingers. Starfire's eyes widened, fascinated as she watched a section of the alien alloy wall began to _melt_… then float through the air towards them. "You have been a loyal warrior, and you performed admirably during your time on the Thanagarian vessel. It is only practical to increase the capabilities of my allies."

With another effortless gesture, the liquefied metal began to wrap around Starfire's waist, as well as her arms and legs. Even as she watched, it began to flatten and spread out in a familiar manner.

"And a warrior should be with their trappings, should they not? Unless I miss my guess, was this not the fashion your people preferred during my time?"

Giggling as the cool metal slid across her skin, it formed into thin flexible bands, just as she had always worn before coming to earth. A small amount even slid up to form the jaggedly sharp faceguard preferred by Tamaranian warriors. Reaching up, she gently ran a finger down the smooth piece of armor, marveling at the seemingly casual feat.

"This… this is a great gift," she stated, breathless. "Are you certain there is no way that I can repay you? You offer so much and have asked nothing in return."

"I desire only the same thing we all do…" He replied with a slow, long breath. "To go home. If you are to do anything, do as your friend Cyborg does. Merely make certain that none of these primitive, irrational humans can disrupt our plans."

Starfire nodded eagerly at that. His words made perfect sense to her. Even at the best of times, their human 'allies' were untrustworthy, xenophobic and violent. Considering the level of degeneration that so many of the humans have suffered, it was impossible to know whether anyone might simply lose their mind and go berserk, threatening all of their survivals.

"Yes. I understand. I will not allow any of the humans to endanger our return home."

"That… is precisely what I desired to hear."

* * *

Raven let out a breath she hadn't even realized she was holding. Finally, after a stretch of time that had lingered for a seeming eternity, Shampoo, and by extension Ryouga, had pulled their consciousness' back out from the massive tomb/would-be-computer which had once been the heart of this truly mammoth ship. Though they couldn't have been 'linked up' to the core for more than a half of an hour, Shampoo was beyond exhausted, Raven could actually feel the proud Amazon's weariness through their mental link.

But she had done it. She and their sergeant, both. Riding the razor's edge of control and corruption the entire time – Raven had possessed a front row seat to every tense second of fear, determination, panic and elation – Shampoo had navigated the antiquated (pre-historic, actually) system, risking having both her own body, as well as Ryouga's, violently re-written by the vile machinery.

The archive which they had been so desperately searching for was now safely downloaded into the integrated psi-amp of Shampoo's MARS suit. They had also made backup copies in Ryouga's, Jinx's and Raven's own suits, just out of pure paranoia. After all of the work they had done, all of the suffering they had been subjected to, the merest thought of something happening to undo it all was too much to bear. The feeling of exultation that Shampoo felt, as she stood hunched over, her arm wrapped around Ryouga's shoulder for support, was echoed strongly in the hearts of all present.

It was almost enough to make Raven forget her own exhaustion, if only for a moment. Every muscle of her body ached, and her head was ringing. Even the relative rest she had been afforded during Shampoo's dive into the computer, had done little to alleviate her pain. The very best that she could say was that at least her condition hadn't deteriorated further in the past half hour. Of course, there was still the daunting thought of their return... but that wouldn't be an issue for at least ... what, ten more minutes?

"So... that's that, then?" Jinx asked tentatively, probably still not quite believing that the massive, days long search they had embarked on had all culminated in thirty minutes of computer hacking.

Guardedly, Shampoo nodded, the gesture only visible because her visor wasn't fully tinted at the moment. "I have the archive... and copied as much of the rest of the data in the core as possible, just in case. This ship... it was from my dimension. As long as Big Blue Headed Alien didn't lie to us, this should... get us home..."

For just a moment, Raven almost wondered if the slim sorceress would actually jump over and hug the tired Amazon. "And... and both of you guys are alright? Not feeling... all mutated or anything?" Jinx followed up, a surprising amount of sincerity in her voice.

Shampoo met the witch's gaze suspiciously for a long moment, before shaking her head. "Not that I can-"

"They're both fine," Ukyou cut in sharply. The ring on her finger flashed with emerald light for just a second and her black clad feet rose up from the deck plating beneath them. "The important thing is that we have what Trespasser-sama needed."

The Green Lantern then turned to the exhausted Amazon and their CO, her eyes narrowed. "And he is a _Guardian of the Universe_. Not a 'big blue headed alien.'"

Everyone turned to regard the irate ring-bearer, but surprisingly, no one said anything. All the outburst did was remind Raven of certain, unpleasant implications that Nabiki had risen some days ago...

Giving his head a small shake, Ryouga eventually nodded. "Yeah, for what it's worth, she's right. Shamps here and I aren't growing any third arms, or second faces, or anything, so our main priority is getting back to the ship with the archive now..." He tapped his chin in thought, "Hmm, come to think of it, even if we _were_ growing second faces, getting back to the ship would still be pretty darn high on my list of priorities-"

He was cut off as Shampoo unwrapped her arm from his neck and gave him a powered elbow to the ribs. "Cabbage Head lose all ability to take life and death situation seriously? Almost getting as flippant as _airen_ lately."

Even as Ryouga's second round of disgusted gasps of denial brought a smile to Raven's lips, she felt compelled to get them back on track. "Enough already. Ryouga is right about Ukyou being right. It's time to head back to the ship."

Asides from a small amount of laughter shared betwixt the resident CO and the Amazon, no one else felt the need to add anything else to the proceedings. Moving with renewed purpose, the five of them began to retrace their steps back through the ship. With their foreknowledge of the hazards, most memorably the fields of warp bubbles, the return trip – as always seemed to be the case – went by much quicker than their original descent.

Within a seeming flash, their mutual excitement bubbling over, they reached the initial transport tube without any further tribulations. Though, 'their' mutual excitement was, perhaps, a bit of an overstatement. Raven wasn't sensing any such urgency from their Green Lantern. In fact, Ukyou's mind had grown quite guarded as soon as they had recovered the archive... almost suspiciously so. Even Jinx's mind was open to Raven; a wide array of emotions spilling over as quickly as the dark Titan could label them, feelings of camaraderie blossoming even in the heart of the obstinate girl after their shared ordeal.

And yet, despite their achievement, the chef had, if anything, increased her distance from the rest of them, a neutral expression settling in on her face to stay. Normally, it wouldn't have done more than set the violet haired psion ill at ease, but again, she found her mind wandering back to her last meaningful conversation with a certain Tendo sister.

Hiding her frown easily behind her polarized visor, she joined the rest of her team as they stepped into the viscous fluid of the transport tube. Without even a second thought, Shampoo and Ryouga stepped forward in step to begin operating the control system. The lost Sergeant offered up his ki with surprising ease and speed, having gotten plenty of practice already apparently, and the Amazon took control of it without a word, simply moving on to the task at hand.

Not certain why their increasing proclivity towards team work was grating on her so much, Raven did her best to suppress it as they began to shoot through the translucent goo at high speeds. There was something far more important to concern herself with than Shampoo and Ryouga's uncharacteristic closeness at the moment, that was for certain.

Shooting a furtive glance in Ukyou's direction, noting that all of the Lantern's attention was on Shampoo at the moment, Raven turned her attention to her Ryouga. Reaching out tentatively, she formed a direct line of communication to his mind.

'_-I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you. I know you were right-'_

In an instant, Raven 'saw' that all of the martial artist's attention that wasn't set to assisting Shampoo move them through the ship was locked firmly on the silent fifth member of their fellowship – though '_fellow_ship' might not be appropriate, considering they were eighty percent women... Thankfully Jinx was oblivious to the attention, but Raven wasn't sure if she should blush in embarrassment, laugh in amusement, or grumble in annoyance at the cheesy love song rambling through their NCO's mind. She actually had to push forcefully just to be noticed through the unintentional mental barrier the song was creating.

'_Ryouga!'_

Instantly, his head shot up, and the song came to an abrupt end. '_Raven! W-what do you want? I wasn't thinking anything about anything!'_

Rolling her eyes, she let out an annoyed huff. '_Nevermind that now. I need to speak to you... and Shampoo and Jinx as well. I'm going to set up sort of a 'closed circuit' telepathic gestalt between us.'_

_'Hmm? No Ukyou? What's going on?'_

Careful not to make any physical gestures to give away their discussion, and giving a mental suggestion that Ryouga do the same, she replied uneasily. '_Nothing... for certain. I simply find myself inundated with suspicions lately. Nabiki mentioned some worrisome things to me several days ago... and certain precautions were taken just in case. But now that we're on the cusp of completing our task, all of her worries are coming to the forefront once more.'_

_'Alright then. Make the connection.'_

Again, forcing herself to not nod or otherwise give herself away, Raven went about subtly contacting the minds of the Amazon and the witch. It took only a fraction of a second to bring both women up to speed with what she had just revealed to Ryouga. Unfortunately, she had nothing concrete to give them, just misgivings and theories passed on to her from Nabiki. Honestly, she scarcely believed them herself, with her own passing knowledge of the Guardians and what they represented.

And yet... there was Ukyou and her aloof behaviour...

It didn't take them long to reach the initial transfer terminal, the place they had first entered the transport system. It was only a short walk from there to the edge of the platform where they had landed after entering the cavernous abyss which composed this section of the ship. The only real question, Raven supposed, was whether they just try to head to the surface from here, or have Ukyou float them back to their initial entry point.

"There's no point floating back to the initial entry point," Ukyou stated quite succinctly, "It would just be a drain on resources and, honestly, wouldn't get us any closer to the surface."

Ryouga, Jinx and Shampoo all shifted about uncertainly for a moment, until Raven held up her hand. Letting out a bone tired sigh, she nodded. "She's right. No matter where we go, we'll still be a..." She swallowed hard at the next thought, "A... _kilometre_ beneath the surface..."

She could sense Ryouga's frustration, and was not surprised when he turned to the Green Lantern. "Look, Raven is pretty much bone tired. Why don't you use that fancy ring of yours for something useful and start cutting us a tunnel to the surface. Raven has already done more than enough just getting us down here in the first place."

Almost instantly, it was the Green Lantern's turn to shuffle about nervously. Looking in every direction but at Sergeant Hibiki, Ukyou was obviously searching for an answer. "T...that's not a good idea, Ryouga. I mean, if I just start blasting away here, I could bring the whole ship down on us. Besides, if I waste the entire charge of my ring cutting us out, then I'm as good as dead out here."

Ukyou then gestured to Raven. "Really, Raven's mode of transit is the safest for us to use, and it's less dangerous for her to exhaust herself, since she's still wearing an environment suit."

Through their private link, Raven felt Ryouga's temper flare. As quickly as his mind could think it, she realized that he was less than a second away from blowing up right in Ukyou's face. At the speed of thought, she quickly interjected.

'_No, Ryouga. It's alright. For some reason, I was expecting something like this.'_

Luckily, no one could see the confused expression on the Lost Boy's face, but taking the lack of response as opportunity, Shampoo snidely commented, "So _glad_ we bring magical ring girl with us now."

In an almost shocking sign of solidarity, Jinx actually gave the Amazon a gentle nudge to the ribs and nodded along. "Yeah, having the universe's most dangerous flashlight with us _really_ made this mission easy."

Even though Ukyou's mind was (relatively) closed to her, Raven could still sense anger blooming in the chef. Would she actually attack them so soon? It seemed unlikely, Ukyou needed to get at least one of them back to the ship, since the Green Lantern was the only one _without_ a recording of the archive on her, and that meant that she couldn't risk confrontation at this point, most powerful weapon in the universe or not.

'_Easy ladies,' _Raven signalled to both women, '_Now is definitely not the time to try pushing Ukyou's buttons. I don't like her behaviour any more than the rest of you, but we need to know where this could possibly be going.'_

With practiced ease, neither girl turned to regard her, nor even nodded in response.

'_Stupid Spatula girl was never a coward before. I don't like this one bit.'_

_'I'm with Shamps on this one. I think that Guardian and his Green Slattern are way too old school for their own good. I'm getting 'back stabbing' vibes from this deal that predate Treachery 101 by a few millennia.'_

_'Ooh,' _Shampoo fired back, amusement in her thoughts, '_Green Slattern? You have a better vocabulary than I thought. I 'like' that one. Can I use it later on?'_

_'Feel free. It'd have more hit coming from you anyway.'_

_'...What's a slattern?'_

_'Not now, Ryouga-'_

_'That's enough!'_ Straining to bite back an annoyed bark, despite the fact that the entire exchange had only taken a second or two, Raven turned back to Ukyou.

"Yes, of course you're right. Don't worry, I'll get us back to the surface." She then turned to regard everyone. "Just... be prepared for a bumpy ride. I've never tried to make such a long jump in one go before."

Well, it was technically true. In Azarath, she had effortlessly teleported great distances, could have easily teleported clear from one end of the floating island to the other with the merest thought... but that had been there, and this was here. Despite the fact that her connection to her father was still present in this sub dimension, her body had simply reached the limits of its endurance. Even a fully fuelled car would fail to move if the engine died...

She gave a small wince to the worrisome nature of her metaphor. She certainly hoped things didn't get that far. Giving herself a few seconds to collect herself, and giving her head one last shake for good measure, she gestured for everyone to close in around her. Despite her brave front, at that very moment, she wanted nothing more in the entire universe than to simply shed her armor and have Ryouga massage the dull ache from every muscle in her body.

It was actually a testament to how exhausted she was, that she didn't even blush at the thought, could only imagine the sweet relief that it would bring after the past few days. All she could think of now were the countless dives into the ship, passing through countless dozens of meters of decayed and disintegrating alien metal. Even as she visualized their return trip, every invisible warp bubble that had crossed their path was remembered, as well as the sharp jolts of pain and distraction they entailed. Granted, such a reaction was quite minor compared to the effects those same warps in space had on other matter, but all it did now was fill her with that much more trepidation.

"You ready?" Ryouga asked, concern in both his voice and his mind. "I could try tunnelling us out if-"

"No, that won't work," Ukyou cut in. "Using your technique is even more likely to cause a cave in than using my ring. And you'd never know if you were just about to jam your finger right into a warp bubble. Raven's power is the only way to do this."

A low growl caught in Ryouga's throat, but Raven quickly dropped a hand on his shoulder. "I'm ready to do this. Everyone hold hands first, though. I'm going to need every bit of help I can get on this one."

Moving quickly to comply (some more quickly than others), all of the gathered fighters clasped their hands and then Jinx and Ryouga grabbed on to Raven's left and right hands respectively. Nodding to herself, the dark Titan took several long breaths, looking over her companions one more time. Ryouga, wearing his near standard armor. Shampoo, wearing her massive set of MARS armor. Ukyou, donning her chromatic green and matte-black Green Lantern's uniform. And finally Jinx, clad in her impossibly light, incredibly scarred and damaged armor.

'_Now!'_

Blackness rose up to engulf them all. Much like inside the liquid filled tubes, there was little sensation of actual movement where they now were. All about them, a void surrounded the five warriors that made the maddening abyss of this hellish dimension seem welcoming in comparison. This was the darkness which had all but broken Dr Light when she had set him adrift within it, without her to provide her protection, without her to guide the way.

Though no one could sense it but her, she could 'feel' the ship pass around her. Time did not apply here, not really. To her, it seemed to take forever, to an outside observer, their exit from the ship would be separated from their departure by mere fractions of a second. Despite the near instantaneous nature of the travel, it almost felt like she was physically climbing each and every meter, clawing her way to the surfa-

And then it hit her – very literally in this case. A wave of nausea and disorientation, spiked with familiar yet unwelcome lances of agony. It was worse than any she had encountered yet, likely larger by an order of magnitude than any other she had passed through, but the sensation of passing directly through the heart of a Warp bubble was absolutely unmistakable.

Her stomach twisted in on itself and her mind went white for a moment. Behind and all around her, panicked thoughts, mental screams of fear and concern washed over her as her concentration disintegrated as surely as the alien metals being so thoroughly digested by the vile warp bubble.

Only the sensation of Jinx's hand slipping limply from her own shocked her back to reality. Her violet eyes widened in shock as their human circle broke open, Jinx swinging sluggishly away from her, and Ukyou and then Shampoo drifting slowly off in that direction as well. Only Ryouga's grasp on her other hand, and in turn Shampoo's, kept the chain of people intact. Striving to regain her center, Raven concentrated on trying to regain her momentum, on struggling towards the surface.

Another shocked outburst shattered that very same concentration. Looking back down, Raven let out a shocked gasp of her own. Jinx's free hand swung about wildly, trying to latch onto Ukyou's outstretched hand. The same hand that was, inch by inch, losing its grip on the witch's armoured hand. Raven tried to do something, _anything – 'What is Ukyou doing? Is she even conscious?'_

She didn't even know what would happen to Jinx if she were to be cut adrift here, caught beneath an endless ocean of stone and alien steel. Would she be perfectly fine? Would what had happened to Dr Light happen to her? Would... something worse befall her?

Seeing the same thing she did, Shampoo tried to shake Ukyou awake, or at least back to her senses, but all the action did was break Jinx's tenuous grip on Ukyou's hand. Time seemed to crawl to a stop as Raven watched Jinx's finger slide down the length of Ukyou's emerald clad finger, nothing but the barest of contact still between them-

With every fiber of her being, Raven _wrenched_ them all to the 'side'. The direction, of course, was meaningless, so much as the intent. Not even certain where they would end up, of if they would end up anywhere at all, the dark Titan tore them out of her dimensional travel and flung them to the closest 'open area' that she could perceive...

And again she was assaulted by pain. Both stabbing through her mind at the unprecedented manoeuvre, but also through her body, as five heavily armoured people suddenly crashed to a crumbling metal floor in a tangled heap of limbs and agony. Not even sure if she was on the top of the pile, or the bottom, Raven could only groan as every inch of her body felt like it was on fire. There was absolutely no light to see where they were, or what had happened, but Raven could sense that the four members of her telepathic link were present... Jinx included.

A gentle green glow, emanating from somewhere closer to the center of the pile, indicated that Ukyou had also made it with them. At the moment, Raven wasn't exactly certain how she felt about that particular revelation.

"Y...you know..." From somewhere else in the pile, it was impossible to tell from where over the comlink, Ryouga's voice sounded out. "I don't think there is a guy in this dimension that wouldn't kill to be in my position right now..."

Instantly, Raven winced again as someone – doubtlessly aiming for the lost boy – elbowed her sharply in the side. It was followed by a short burst of pained barks as everyone with an extra X chromosome and an elbow tried to find the offending male to punish, and more often than not, ended up hitting each other instead.

A few moments later, once the violence had subsided, a quite bout of laughter filled the line. Somehow, the fact that it was Shampoo's didn't even surprise Raven at this point.

"Now I _know_ that you've lost your mind, Cabbage Head. Thinking that you're man enough to survive a fivesome with the _four of us_?"

"Hey, beats the hell out of a cyanide pill."

And that was it for that. In a torrent of scandalized gasps, gales of laughter, stuttering denials (at this point, Raven would literally climb over every other girl present for another kiss), and furious shouts, the pile of prudishly promiscuous powerhouses pulled apart. At the bottom of the pile, still laying on his back and chuckling weakly to himself, Ryouga just stared up at the... at the incredibly low ceiling.

There was less than five feet of open vacuum above their heads, and the 'room' they were in was, at best, ten feet in diameter. All around them, alien metal ran like melted wax, shimmering a bizarre blackish color. Under the collapsed sergeant, as well as the knees and hands of the scrambling ladies, the warped material crumbled and shattered like antique glass.

Obviously not caring about the decor, Jinx reached out with a leg and gave Ryouga a half hearted kick to the side for good measure. "Considering that you _are_ the last man in the world down here, I'd _almost_ be tempted. But _no way_ are you a good enough CO to rate _that_ kind of action."

Again, Raven hid her face, and her epic blush. The exhaustion wracking her body was doing... unsettling things to her libido, and she wasn't quite sure if she agreed with Jinx or not on that point. Luckily, she could chalk her current mindset down to dimensional insanity and not worry about it until later.

Ukyou, still red in the face, quickly began swinging her ring around the small room, a cone of green light apparently scanning their surroundings. "Damn! According to my ring, we're still several hundred meters away from the surface." The Green Lantern turned on Raven. "What the hell happened back there? You could have gotten us all killed. It's practically a miracle that we stumbled across this little hole."

In a flash, the playful (if a bit indecent) mood that had settled over the group burnt away as a surge of white hot anger flared to life. Ryouga sprang up to his feet, actually smashing his head against the roof, sending a spray of black material shooting across the room, and pointed a shaking finger at the chef.

"What the _hell_ did you just say? Raven is the only reason we're still _alive_!"

Rising up to a kneeling position, Shampoo jabbed an accusing finger Ukyou's way as well. "And what about _you_? You let go of Stupid No Breast girl."

"What! I did _not!" _Ukyou hemmed and hawed for a moment. "I mean, not _intentionally_. We all got hit by that warp bubble, not just Raven. I was stunned, and I'm the only one here without a suit of powered armor to help me out. Besides, why should you care? You hate Jinx more than anyone. I'm surprised you didn't let go of _me_, just to get rid of _her_."

The Amazon physically recoiled from the accusation. "You... _you!_ How could you even say_-_"

"That's _enough_!"

As one, everyone froze where they were, Ryouga's furious shout still ringing through their ears. Shouting was _highly _unnecessary when one was wearing a commlink right in their ear, but it was certainly effective. Swiping his hand angrily through the air, the Sergeant let out a low hiss.

"Look, we don't have _time_ for this. I honestly don't give a shit if every single person here hates each other's guts like the fires of hell at this point. Our only priority is getting out of this glorified urinal and back to the ship. Does anyone here disagree with that, or am I gonna have to pull rank until I can strangle the lot of you with it?"

For a long, long moment, the four young women stared at the raggedly breathing CO. It was all but unheard of for Raven to be on the receiving end of a rant from the Hibiki, as unintentional as it might have been... but the sudden display of unwavering authority was... well, it didn't bear thinking about at the moment.

"...Y'know..." Jinx started off hesitantly. Lifting a hand, she gestured Raven's way with her thumb. "I don't really _hate_ Raven here..."

And just like that, the tension drained away, quiet chuckles filling the comm. Pointing towards the large, MARS wearing soldier, Raven added, "And I'm actually a bit fond of Shampoo... when she isn't poking fun at my figure with Starfire."

"Hey! Shampoo say that lots of men _like_ full bodied women like you," Shampoo replied cheekily. She then gestured to Ukyou. "And I suppose, at the very least I _respect_ Stupid Spatula girl."

For the first time since they had retrieved the archive, Ukyou actually cracked a smile. Turning back Ryouga's way, the chef-Green Lantern let out a small chuckle. "And I wouldn't say that I hate you 'like the fires of hell', anyway."

Trying to straighten up, only to bounce his head off the low ceiling a second time, Ryouga shook his head, laughing quietly to himself. Rubbing the back of his helmet, he regarded each of them in turn. "Man, would you just look at all of that... not hate. Gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling right inside my heart..."

"You girls sure you're not up for that fivesome?"

...

It took Ryouga a full minute to drag himself back to his feet after getting pummelled by green energy constructs, black telekinesis, pink hexes and powered armor, but thankfully for their CO, no one was quite incensed enough to put more than a token amount of force into the punishment.

"Man, what is _with_ you, anyway?" Jinx muttered in disbelief. "Normally a girl just has to _say_ 'boobs', and you're passed out on the ground. Yet here you are, suicidally trying to talk your way into the pants of the four most diametrically opposed girls in this dimension."

Raven was a bit curious herself, but considering how this dimension was affecting her own... affections, it seemed quite likely that he was being affected in a similar manner. It would certainly explain a few other 'incidents' as well.

Ryouga shrugged, and the dark Titan felt an odd tug at her mind, like a great weight was settling down somewhere inside her web. It suddenly felt just a bit more cold and lonely in her mind for some reason, and that chill seemed to be coming from the Hibiki's direction.

"Fear of death is solely a concern of the living."

"What the _hell_ does that mean?"

"Alright," spinning around, Ryouga gestured back to Raven. "Raven, have you had enough time to rest? We need to get moving again. If we don't get back soon, evil-jackass-me might get it in his head to try and leave without us."

Raven stared at the martial artist uncertainly. He certainly seemed chipper enough... but his comment just then...

"Hey!" Jinx barked irately. "I asked you a-"

"Raven. Exit. Now. Please."

Not sure what else to do, sparing a moment to glance Jinx's way, Raven finally nodded. Despite the lack of rest, the small amount of laughter they had enjoyed had actually done more to disperse her splitting headache than an hour of rest would. And, beyond that, the martial artist was correct, in that they didn't have an hour to wait for her to recover. Every minute they were down here, was a minute closer to the Pathfinder trying to make a dimensional jump without the archive they'd suffered so much to find.

"A-alright..." she answered uncertainly, only to balk at her own timidness. Taking a breath, she nodded sharply. "Yes. I'm ready. Provided we don't hit another massive warp bubble, we should be able to get out. Not to say that it will be pleasant, but you've all suffered through the worst of it already."

Moving quickly, Ryouga shuffled over and grabbed her hand. He then held out his other hand to Ukyou, the chef being closest to him. Without much hesitation, she took the offered hand. Shampoo and Jinx seemed to share a concerned glance between them, but within a few moments, they completed the circle once more.

There was much less fanfare this time, as Raven summoned up her power once more. Fuelled by little more than pure will power at this point, she dove into the blackness with everything she had, and pushed upwards like a salmon fighting its way upstream-

She certainly hoped that hadn't been some form of unintentional 'spawning' metaphor on her part.

Again the strain of moving so many people through so much solid material threatened to break her, both body and mind, but the certainty of their proximity to the surface, the absolute need to see her friends back to safety, drove her on relentlessly. Pain just seemed to bleed away to nothing, everything was blackness, and nothingness was everything...

And then... like a diver coming up for air after going just a few meters too deep, they broke the surface of the alien ship. The form of the magnificent ebon raven disintegrated to nothing within instants of forming, slowly leaving the five figures to begin drifting lazily through open space. In the distance, the gleaming silver hull of the Pathfinder slid into, then out of view as Raven slowly spun through the vacuum, head over heels and helpless to stop herself.

The edges of her vision began to blur, and the last thing she could recall doing was reaching out towards the painfully close, yet impossibly far hand of the armoured figure with the yellow and black bandanna wrapped around his bicep.

'_Ryouga... wait... you need to know something...'_

Her world slowly faded to black...

* * *

The surface was of a discordant sea of metallic sand.

Ukyou's head hurt. Her entire body hurt, really, but the lances of pain that rammed into the sides of her skull was the worst. The region they had emerged from below into was currently whipped into a cloud of almost impenetrable dust. There was no piercing it, not with her emerald enhanced eyes, and not with any of her other senses blinded by the vacuum that ruled supreme beyond her protective Green Lantern force field.

"CIC!" She tried to call in Pathfinder, or at least to ask for assistance. "This is Kuonji to Pathfinder Actual. Copy? ...Anyone? Copy?"

The comm returned only static.

"Sergeant!" She cried out, mute except for the one lifeline she had to the others. "Ryouga? Shampoo?" Stumbling forward, she warded her face as she moved against the ionized sandstorm. "This is Ukyou. Someone return my IFF." She tried to ping her 'friendly' ID transponder. Still. Only static.

"...Anyone?"

_you lost them_

Not hearing any coherent response, she tensed to fly upwards: if she could fly above the storm, then maybe she could locate the ship against the maddening cosmic background. It wasn't an option she relished falling back on, however, not the least because it meant potentially leaving her team behind. The ring on her hand warmed, providing some comfort, and bolstering her spirits. It also gave her an idea to go with that resolve.

_but is that really so bad?_

Projecting a faint tracer beam out, perpendicular to her body, she narrowed down the plane of green light. She couldn't see if it passed over anything as she moved her arms, sweeping from right to left, but she could feel it through the ring. If the others were around-

_you will turn on them_

Ukyou flinched at the words. The whisper. It didn't sound like her voice. It didn't feel like her own thoughts. Troubled, she continued to try and search -

_they don't trust you_

It was... a voice in the static...

_'Shut up,'_ Ukyou mentally steeled herself. _'There!'_

_he doesn't trust you either_

It didn't matter who 'he' was. Ukyou mentally marked where she'd found someone, and concentrated on picking up the rest. The temptation to move right away was high, but she had to put it aside. Making one incomplete search after another, moving from spot to spot, was less efficient than-

_he'll kill you_

- than doing it right the first time. Do it right the first time.

_do it right the first time_

Ukyou shuddered, shaking her head. Three. Four. That was everyone. Now to get them back together.

_do it right the first time_

The sooner they left this place the better.

* * *

Ryouga heard a voice.

He knew it wasn't real.

It was a radio signal, over the comm.

He knew it wasn't real.

It wasn't.

It wasn't real.

"Is anyone out there?" Terra sounded panicked and afraid. "Help! Help! Someone please help!"

It wasn't real.

The woman in his arms was real. Raven was real. He was sure of it. She didn't move or speak, but she was real. He had to ignore the things that weren't real. He had to find the others. He had to find Jinx. He had to-

"I'm hurt."

His heart skipped a beat, his breath coming in ragged, pained gasps. A hand tried to find comfort, uniformity, in the ground underfoot. It shifted and writhed like a bed of tiny serpents. There was nothing concrete or sacred in this place. Every atom of it felt monstrous and wrong. Its existence made his earth ki sensitivity sick.

"Everyone else is dead..." Terra's voice continued, broken by intermittent static. "We came here to try and find our friends. I hope..."

The static took her for a moment, but she returned.

"...they didn't end up here. This _place_... the ship's broken. Everyone's gone. Or... or dead. Robin-"

Ryouga shook his head: not real. It wasn't real. It wasn't real. **It wasn't real.**

He tried to calm himself; cradled Raven close. She was hurt. She was **real**. Unconscious. His thoughts raced, lost and at war with themselves. Raven was real. She needed help. The team was separated. He had to find the others. He had to help them. but nothing was working. He couldn't see or feel anything. If they got lost, here, in this storm... so close to finally getting back to the ship...!

"I can't move. And my body hurts. I - I don't want to die here. I don't want to die alone."

_'Not real,'_ he repeated the mantra, over and over. _'Not real. Not real. Not real.'_

It just couldn't be real. It couldn't. Yet: he could imagine it. Robin and the others. Trying to find their friends, they wouldn't stop, wouldn't give up, even across inter-dimensional space. Maybe the league helped, but they found a way. They always found a way. But they went too far, came too close, somehow ending up in this graveyard; this god forsaken abyss...!

"Please," Terra's voice grew faint amidst the static. "Someone. Please. Save me. I don't want to die here. I- I don't-"

A tortured sound escaped Ryouga's lips, and despite all his discipline, his body started to move.

Only to stop, halted, by something clamping down on his shoulder. eyes blinking behind his visor, he saw a green and black form emerging from within the sandstorm. Training compelled him to check his personal armor's IFF - _is she real? _- and confirm that this wasn't just another sensor ghost or whisper in the static. Because that wasn't Terra. It couldn't be. _It wasn't._

Ukyou's mouth moved, but no sound crossed the space between them.

The look of frustration had to be genuine. She held up her hands, tapped the palms together, motioned with two fingers, and then to her ring and then to her eyes. IFF systems were messed up, but he stood, accepting this woman as real. She had to be. They needed to find the rest of their team. Yet, he couldn't assuage his concerns or forget what Raven had said before she blacked out. Her concerns about the Green Lantern, Ukyou Kuonji, who was even now engulfing them in a green sphere to find the rest of her unit.

"Beast Boy..." Terra's last words faded into the static that smothered Ryouga's ears.

It wasn't real.

None of it was real.

* * *

Shampoo had Jinx's arm in her armoured hand as she lifted her out of a sandbar of crackling, lightning charged particles. Her MARS felt sluggish and unresponsive; but it was still functioning better than her communications and information exchange systems. Everything was a damn mess. A damned, damned mess-

Shampoo gasped, nearly jumping out of her skin.

There was a shape in the churning hurricane of sand around them. No: not just a shape. It was an unmistakeable silhouette: tall and trim, with smooth lines. The robed outline flitted just beyond the spiralling granules, unconcerned by the hellish environmental conditions it gracefully moved within. Part of it moved, and the impression of long hair sashayed from side to side behind it.

"Shampoo," a pleasant, almost seductive voice cooed.

"You," the Amazon snarled, taking out her sidearm and aiming down at the figure. "You can't be here."

"Shampoo," her voice, the voice of a younger, impossibly stronger, Cologne repeated. "I'm not interested in you."

The statement - the same as before - made the Amazon warrior's blood boil. Her aim, however, remained steady. Her lips were dry. Cologne. The Trenchard Cologne. There was no way she could fight her, even in a MARS. She had toyed with Ranma and Ryouga at the same time; survived being shot by plasmas point blank, and even come back from being hit by plasma grenades and blaster bombs.

"I'm not afraid of you," Shampoo hissed.

"I'm not interested in you," the Trenchard repeated. "I want her."

It only took a moment for Shampoo to realize just what she was hearing. Her eyes shot to Jinx, who was still recovering. She was also looking around, confused.

"You want her?" Shampoo asked, and laughed. The plasma pistol fell from her armor's hand. "Of course you do," she shook her head within her helmet and crushed her eyes closed. "Of course you do. Everyone want Jinx. Jinx's powers. Jinx so much better. So special."

The silhouette floated just out of sight, the silence of it broken by the static of the dead comm.

"You..." she finally said. "Are too weak to be my grand daughter. To weak to ever earn the title of Elder. Shampoo... I have never had the slightest interest in you."

Shampoo took a step away from the outline in the sandstorm.

"Of course. You can prove me wrong."

Trying to block out the insidious whispers - not real! - Shampoo realized Jinx was also staring out into the churning sandstorm. Her hands were glowing an uneven pink.

...and her back was turned.

Reaching out, Shampoo used an armoured hand to pull the slim girl back. Jinx spun, shocked by the sudden movement, almost attacked - but Shampoo held her hand up, gauntleted palm open. She pointed to herself, then slowly, up to her helmet. Her flattened palm then made a motion over her faceplate. Jinx nodded, and kept close, shutting her eyes and ears.

"You see?" Cologne whispered. "I was right about you..."

Eyes closed, Shampoo didn't see the silhouette. Not that it mattered. It wasn't real. It wasn't there.

A green bubble extended, pulling the two girls in.

* * *

The green bubble lifted up through the metallic sandstorm, winding trails of strange particulate elements streaming along the sides like rivulets of water. Within the protective sphere, Ryouga still held the unconscious Raven, but never failed to glance over at Jinx if only to reassure himself she was actually there. None of them could communicate, electronically or verbally, but they all seemed to be both real and alive. Shampoo turned her armoured head upwards, looking anxiously for the exit from the turbulent hellscape below.

Then, suddenly, from storm to space.

The static in Ukyou's earbloom warbled, and a strange note took it's place. Grainy and almost inaudible at first, it crackled and cleared... into a sad, faint violin playing a familiar note. Like a time lost radio signal, the sound of Silent Night found her ear. By the look of the others, they also heard something similarly unexpected. Ukyou focused on projecting them ever upwards and away from the buried ruins of the alien ship far below.

Above the localized storm, the vast, hollow expanse of the Abyss welcomed them. A kaleidoscope of alien, impossible lights and shapes moved like a living carpet across and through the dimensional warp. Nebula-like clouds melted and vaporized and froze near the eye of chaos that pulsed and roared at the heart of the dimension. Entire landscapes of ships and worlds and captured entities stretched into infinity before looping around or becoming an indistinct blur. Rhyme and Reason, too, became only a fading memory on the palette of the abyss...

Though the static, a voice returned, briefly: Male. English. A slight accent.

"But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.' Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

And then Silent Night, and the time lost voice... returned to static.

Before them, Pathfinder appeared in a blink, the airlock open and inviting. Ukyou didn't see Jinx wince, or hear her mouth the words:

"I've got a _really_ bad feeling about this."

* * *

It was circumstance, not necessity, that forced the recovery team to enter Pathfinder in mute silence. It was also all for the best. Ukyou's studied expression - of concentration, of focus - never wavered as she eased everyone into the airlock. Within the ship's protective field, the strange time-lost electromagnetic disturbance over the comm lines quickly cut off, until even the static was replaced by empty, deafening silence. She could imagine what her comrades in arms were thinking: a mixture of profound relief, building anxiety, and a touch of excitement. Soon, they would be leaving this place, this horrible place, for good or ill. The matter would be out of their hands, delivered into the arms of fate.

Inside the airlock, there was a rush of air and re-pressurization.

A familiar light signalled when it was safe to break environmentals, and no sooner did the little green light appear over the inner door than Jinx unlocked her helmet and tossed her hair, sucking in the recycled oxygen. Their NCO had all his attention on Raven, taking off her helmet to check her pulse. Without the smartlink features between armors in place, he couldn't ping her suit and request a physiological status update. Ukyou felt some worry for the overworked titan herself, but wisely stayed back and out of the way.

Trespasser - she knew - would have observed that this situation had turned out almost to their ideal. They had the archive, and the most troublesome member of the team had helpfully rendered herself insensate. Yet Ukyou felt no pleasure in that fact. She didn't dislike Raven personally, despite privately wondering how much of their being trapped here was the young woman's fault. The fact was that Raven was a team member. She was a _comrade_... and she had worked herself to the bone for the mission and for the squads. Ukyou could respect that. She DID respect that. Deeply.

Yet -

The inner airlock doors opened wide, revealing the small ship's hold that had been the crew's one, meagre sanctuary against the madness of the last week and a half or however long they had been trapped here. It had sheltered fourteen young people, plus guests, in its confines, providing them with safe air to breathe and a solid ground to sleep on. It was the source of their food and water. the heart of the small silver UFO was their crowded, antiseptic, monotonous refuge. Returning should have filled them all with palpable relief. Yet -

Ukyou saw Trespasser, waiting for them, and clutched her stomach, feeling sick.

Yet - she had been _dreading_ this.

_why_

_you_

_you know what to do_

The ring she wore burned, hot. _Eager_. Angry. It almost felt like it was about to surge away from her, ripping her hand off to tear across the ship. Ukyou clamed down on it, her hand tightening into a white knuckled fist. She heard words being exchanged:

Trespasser. Satisfied. Confirming the download of the Archive data.

Ryouga. Worried. About Raven. Where was the Lieutenant or the acting Major?

Shampoo. Still with her helmet on. Impossible to read within the MARS armor.

Jinx. Looking around. Wary. Looking for the others. Where were the others?

Ukyou staggered back a step, her vision taking on a greenish hue.

"This is acceptable," Trespasser offered his praise. The small blue Oan floated with his hands behind his back. "You have performed as requested, and within the self imposed deadline."

A hand slowly fell to his side, raised up, and a single finger extended.

"There is one other matter you should be aware of before you formally debrief," he continued, his voice as cool and disinterested and emotionless as always. "What am I about to say can not be heard more than once. Listen well..."

Trespasser's mouth moved, and Ukyou formed small green earplugs to deafen herself.

"And Despair..."

What he said next, Ukyou had no desire to know. They were words beyond words. Sounds that should never be made. They were things that should not be heard. If they were even words at all. The mere utterance froze the listeners on the spot, just as Trespasser had said they would. Jinx became straight as a rod, a chill running down her body hard enough to shake her arms. Ryouga did the unthinkable, and actually dropped the woman in his arms, Raven - who he had been holding so carefully. She fell, still unconscious, and hit her head against the hard floor.

Warily, Ukyou discorporated the earplugs.

"...it is done," Trespasser finished, and blinked his large, burning green eyes. "Now. Lantern. Deal with the rest."

Ukyou lowered her eyes in deference. "Of course, I-"

Shampoo _moved_.

As fast as lightning, quicker than Trespasser's blink, she had a combat knife in an armored hand. The partly serrated edge streaked towards the Oan's closed eyes, the blade itself as long as the alien's head was wide. Trespasser was unmoving, and opened his eyes to find the razor tipped end of one of those murderous blades millimetres from his faded silver eyelashes.

The Blade, and Shampoo's entire powered armor's arm, was intersected by a plane of green light.

"As I was saying," the Oan said, unconcerned by nearly losing an eye and half his face. "Lantern."

"Hai. Trespasser-sama."

Shampoo's helmet turned, just slightly, to where Ukyou was standing. The Green Lantern had her hand extended, and a thin line of light connected her ring to the rectangular two dimensional plane that had trapped the Amazon's arm and hand. Actuators in the armor, and formidable muscles in the Amazon, strained, but could not free herself. The knife's edge trembled, but couldn't reach the implacable blue Guardian of the Universe. It occurred to Ukyou then that Shampoo must've muted her audio input.

She hadn't heard _IT_...

"Spatula girl," Shampoo's voice was strained, not with effort, but with emotion.

"Shampoo," Ukyou replied, and jets of purple light drowned out the green in her uniform. "I'm so sorry, sugar." Flat planes of light engulfed the Amazon, once by one, intersecting, closing in. Ukyou's eyes vanished within a torrent of blazing violet.

"But this is for your own good."

* * *

It was terrible, but necessary.

The ship's control room floated in a sea of memories, constructed from the shared subconscious of the two pilots. Nabiki knew not to stray far from the small, protective psionic cocoon she had been drawn into. With her sub-par psionic training, she was a mere observer here. Standing between the two pilots was the image of their mentor, Joshua Ben-Solomon, assisting them with yet another training exercise.

The tall Israeli's eyes, however, glowed an unearthly green.

Trespasser had to be careful, even with the two young men drugged, their minds divided and weak, partly within the Nav and partly trapped in their bodies. If the Oan pushed too hard to seize operational control of the ship's EDC then failsafes would shut it down or otherwise interfere. If he pushed too softly, then he would be ejected from the psionic controls and the two martial artist's minds. The Guardian was, however, patient, methodical and ruthless.

XCOM and their own upbringing had taught the two young men to value drill and repetition of exercises. Within this shared mindscape, they were reliving their training in the operation and security of the psionic Nav, over and over. For days. With every iteration, with every manoeuvre, with every tiring repeat of procedure, the two became more and more susceptible. Very soon the system backdoors would be thrown wide open, and Trespasser would have unrestricted access to the ship's operation... including the EDC.

Then, _at last_, they would be able to escape from this place.

Nabiki took no pleasure in her part in things. Trespasser wasn't simply powerful: he was literally their only chance of survival. He held all the cards and the deck was stacked in his favour. If he so desired, he could have waited for the Pathfinder crew to completely lose their minds and then spend however long he needed to jury rig and activate the EDC. So long as he kept the use of his powers to a minimum, he seemed better able to survive the madness of this dimension.

Or... maybe he was already mad?

It was impossible to tell, and in the interests of the game, irrelevant. The crew would tear itself apart if it stayed; any risk was thus a potential profit if it meant their escape. It had taken only a brief talk with the alien to come to this realization: his way or the highway, as the saying went. Given the priority on survival, that meant his way. For _now_.

Sadly, she knew well that Ryouga and Ranma would not be so easily swayed. She knew about Icarus, and the protocols to destroy the ship and all UNETCO technology rather than let it fall into unauthorized hands. Ryouga would enact it, especially in his current state of mind. Both officers needed to be subdued. It was treason, but it was the only way for Trespasser to get what he wanted, and if he didn't, then someone was going to end up dead.

As for what the ancient Oan wanted...

Even Nabiki wasn't sure. He didn't share the details with anyone: not even Ukyou, his pet Lantern. It involved backtracking some sort of 'dimensional gravity' to its source, or so she had managed to piece together. He had ordered the old Oan Logs from the other ship to be destroyed. Nabiki had encrypted them instead. Before coming to her senses, she had heard about what Trespasser was doing, what he was looking for, what this 'Foundation' was searching for.

Krona. Alternate multiverses. Malthus. Extra-dimensional influence.

And one condescending mention of 'The Presence.'

The shared mindscape shimmered, rippled like a pebble thrown on a pond. On Ryouga's side of the dreamscape, painful memories became more solid: so many were dominated by the alien enemy. Memories of fighting them, killing them, and over and over, the tortures of being restrained by them, watching as the one thing in the world that you cared for died. Nabiki had never been in his head before.

Above it all floated a writhing, churning mass of black and red ki, manifesting as a malevolent little star. It was not entirely natural, even here. Paper wards, mental impressions of the self-hypnosis technique, floated within geometric shapes around the knot of dark ki, controlling it... and feeding it. Again, Nabiki had known about the technique for months. She knew he used it to augment his emotional attacks and battle aura. But here... even in a place with boundaries and images set by his own mind... it looked like an ugly stain on his soul.

Ranma's half of the worldscape was a maddening stream of consciousness, as his mind flashed from one thing to another, unable to obsess properly over any one memory or thing. It was like a dozen television screens: memories of Akane featured prominently, sometimes within a warm blue glow, sometimes within a frustrated red. Genma, too, had played a great role in shaping the young Saotome's worldview. This not necessarily being a good thing. At least on his end of the spectrum, somewhat schizophrenic as it was, there was no artificial mental construct to foul the free flow of thought and memory.

If they could - if they survived - maybe she would bring that fact up with her 'Acting Major.'

"Soon. Very soon," she heard Trespasser say, in Ben-Solomon's voice. "You two will be ready. This next transit will be the most trying to date. You must be ready. You must follow my instructions."

"Yes, Sir," both young officers muttered in tandem, sounding worn to the bone.

They saw only their Nav Interface before them, not the tumult of memories that swirled about them like a hurricane. She felt herself lower, down to the level of the three. Moving past Ben-Solomon, she put a hand on their two shoulders. For just a moment, the two heartened, and snapped partly out of their trance-like state.

"Nabiki?" Ranma inquired, shaking his head to clear cobwebs. "That's right. Are the teams ready?"

"Everyone's waiting on you two," she assured them, glancing quickly back at Trespasser-as-Ben-Solomon. With a smile, she slipped a hand into her Ryouga's hair. "Don't worry. I'll be helping out, too."

"Everyone's counting on us, P-chan," Ranma said with a smirk.

"I'm aware of that, Saotome," he replied, and faced forward into the Nav. "But we aren't ready yet?"

"No," Trespasser answered, and he pushed Nabiki back and out of the way, her job done. "You two must be extensions of my will. My Will!" Green light leaked from the false man's eyes. "Only then can we take this ship... _home_. The barriers before us have never been broken before. Not even by Fifth Dimensionals."

"We will return home," he repeated, but the expression on his face was a sneer. "And we will have our answers. We will have Truth."

"Does this have anything to do with the Presence I read about?" Nabiki dared to whisper, not liking her highly junior status, even in a psionic mindscape where she had no power save that of her voice and her influence. "Is that why you needed the Anti-Life Equation?"

She saw the human Avatar of the Oan flinch.

"...I think we need to be prepared for the fact that we may not be able to get... home... in one go," she argued. "You've said yourself that this is dangerous. We should-"

Trespasser's human form glanced dangerously over his shoulder.

"I didn't let _my own death_ stop me," the mad Guardian hissed. His eyes narrowed in the kind of mirth only the insane took refuge in. "Pray to your gods, girl."

He smirked, bearing teeth.

"They may not answer you, but they _will_ answer to me."

* * *

The first thing, Raven noted, as consciousness incrementally returned to her, was a double dose of throbbing agony pounding away at the sides of her skull, followed closely by and an overly loud, crackling static sound drowning out other, more rational thought processes. Instinct and experience instantly kicked in, informing the young woman what was going on, and how she needed to react to the aggravating situation.

"_Beast Boy_! Turn down the TV!" she barked, swinging her arm through the air in an attempt to tag the evasive emerald annoyance...

Or, at least she _tried_ to swing her arm around. The uncoordinated gesture dragged her other arm with it, a sharp pain lancing through her wrists and shoulders as bone was pinched and muscles were pulled awkwardly. The sudden jolt prompted her violet eyes to snap open... which only preceded a shocked gasp a moment later.

Her wrists were bound together! A small, narrow band of dull, lusterless gray metal was wrapped tightly around her wrists, an alien alloy version of one of those stupid plastic draw tie... things. This unwelcome revelation quickly set her to taking in her surroundings, panic starting to bubble up in her still dazed state.

She had been carelessly stashed in the far corner of the hold, lain out on the cold floor between a crate of supplies and the bound and unresponsive Fury which had been chained mercilessly in that same place for nearly half a week during their desperate search for the alien archive. Reava's face was down turned, seeing nothing but the floor beneath her, or she would have, were her eyes not closed.

So still was the vindictive alien woman, that were it not for the nearly imperceptible rise and fall of her chest, and the veritable death grip she had on the metal band chaining her to the wall behind her (the same device binding Raven's own wrists), one would almost believe that she was dead. Dead to the world, at any rate.

So much the better, all things considered.

Past the alien prisoner, and her own, distinctly prisoner-esque situation, the scenario unfolding throughout the rest of the room seemed to, as incredulous as it sounded, get much, much worse.

First, it was impossible to miss the predicaments of her Ryouga, and of Jinx. Both were propped up against the wall across from her; both were bereft of their helmets, but were still wearing their armor. More telling, though, was the glazed, absolutely empty expressions which took up residence upon both of their faces. Unlike Reava, they were not looking down at the floor. The both of them were looking straight ahead... just that whatever it was they might be seeing was not anything within the confines of this small vessel.

Then, of course, there were the large emerald boxes which surrounded both young heroes'. Raven sneered with disgust at the stylized. fold-reinforced takeout boxes which 'contained' both Jinx and Ryouga (Obviously they were still considered serious threats, despite the bizarre state they were both in... whatever could have happened to them?). The source of the makeshift prisons was not difficult to guess, nor to locate.

The sight of the green and black clad Kounji was nearly as disappointing as it was expected. Despite Raven's own doubts, Nabiki's prediction had proven far, far too accurate. Apparently Raven's own lapse of morality had not been a good enough lesson for the chef, as her betrayal was all too obvious. She idly wondered if the acting Major had betrayed them as well. Such an act would be the height of irony after his lengthy lecture on her own failings.

Shampoo was also present, near the north end of the hold, between the two doors that lead to the front of the ship. Still wearing her own armor (it was probably too much of a hassle to strip it off of her, and, honestly, even with it she wouldn't be any kind of threat to a Green Lantern), minus helmet, the Amazon had also been bound in place using a number of the alien alloy strips. The lavender haired warrior was obviously quite alert as well, but could do little more than glare at the one guarding her.

Konatsu, who was also guarding the near unresponsive forms of Kuno, Mousse and Ryu – all three hunched over close by Shampoo – did little to acknowledge the Amazon's ire. All there were unconscious in a more conventional sense. She could imagine that it hadn't been hard to knock them out, with Kuno lost in his own little world, Mousse in deep self-meditation and Ryu growing sicker and weaker since his return from the Thanagarian ship. Konatsu simply stood there, as still as death, staring down at the immobilized trio, just _waiting_ for them to attempt something.

Most disheartening of all, though, was Raven's own jailer.

The sight of the lovely Tamaranian, her close friend, clad in her dark purple top, skirt and boots – now accompanied fully by metallic bands which covered up her midriff, arms and legs which would have normally been bared by the outfit. She even wore a dull grey 'head guard' similar to the one she had worn both when she had first arrived on Earth, and again when they had visited Tamaran for her 'wedding.' The sight evoked some very vivid memories of just what a terror Starfire had been when she had first met them.

Not one hundred percent certain what to make of the situation, but far too concerned with the welfare of her friends to care at the moment, she tried to reach out to Ryouga mentally. Perhaps he could fill her in on what had happened, or at the very least, she could snap him out of-

A familiar, if unpleasant, buzzing filled her skull as the merely annoying static from earlier grew to unbearable levels in a fraction of a second. A startled gasp dropped her back to the unforgiving floor with a dull thud. Disorientation gave way to confusion... which gradually gave away to realization. Staring down at her, struggling to maintain an indifferent air, Starfire crossed her arms over her chest.

"You have been fitted with a psionic suppression device," her Tamaranian friend explained with a triumphant, confident grin. "Please do not attempt to use any of your powers, as it will only cause increasing levels of discomfort."

Raven felt her eyes narrow as she glared at her oldest and dearest friend... only to soften once more. Only utter hypocrisy would allow her to grow angry with her friend at this juncture. At the very least, though, this betrayal stabbed home with enough pain to, perhaps, give her a small taste of just what she had inflicted on the rest of her friends in Azarath...

Still, though, a psionic suppressor? Why was she _not_ surprised? Stories of Raven's physical prowess must have made their way around the crew of the Pathfinder, as with the simple application of the infuriating device on her head, it was obvious that she was considered no threat at all. Even Starfire was spending most of her time glancing at the other prisoners, most notably Ryouga and Jinx.

As obvious as Ukyou's betrayal had been, and as forgone a conclusion it was that Konatsu would follow her... she had never guessed that Starfire would join their ranks. What about the others? What about Cyborg, or Nabiki, or Ranma?

Glaring once more, but aiming her heated gaze directly towards the center of the ship, to where she imagined that the damned Guardian was still tinkering away with the EDC, or maybe just bathing in its presence, she let out a low, angry growl. How much time did they have before the mad alien attempted the transit? Minutes? She had no idea how long she had been unconscious, after all. None of them even had a clue where the Guardian planned to _actually_ take them. All that she could guarantee was, considering this betrayal, it was _definitely_ not any place they desired to go.

So... minutes to unknown doom... half of her friends turned against her... the other half insensate, imprisoned, or both, and herself incapacitated in every way that mattered. It certainly seemed like their captors had considered everything in this little coup.

Almost.

Waiting a few seconds for Starfire to turn her attention back to Ryouga and Jinx, Raven turned to the Fury chained to the wall at her side. Smiling grimly, she muttered in a half whisper.

"How is the weather on Apokolips?"

It took several long seconds for any response, but with great apparent difficulty, the bound and subdued Female Fury finally opened her eyes and twisted her head just enough to glare heatedly down at Teen Titan beside her.

"The fire pits are lovely this time of year," she hissed, sneering enough to bear sharp teeth.

Raven nodded slowly. Starfire turned back to regard them, curiosity and confusion flitting across her face at the odd dialogue, but she said nothing.

"Perhaps the Oan will take us to visit the Necropolis?"

A disgusted look. "Better that the Dreggs devour you than face Lord Darkseid."

With that, both women shared a nearly imperceptible nod before turning starkly away from one another and ignoring the other's existence. Raven then turned her attention back to her sadly deceived team mate.

"Starfire," she pleaded, trying to reason with the captivated Tamaranian. "Why are you doing this? How could you betray us to the Guardian? What did he **do **to you?"

The alien princess shifted uncomfortably beneath her scrutiny, but held her position. Leaning forward, her attention fully on Raven, the Tamaranian kneeled down to look her friend in the eye.

"I am only doing what must be done to return us home," she explained, the affection in her voice and in her actions clearly at odds. "The Guardian is the only one that can save us... but these... these _humans_, they cannot be trusted! Their xenophobia and paranoia would turn them against us, even though we have done nothing but help them at every possible turn!"

Starfire gently rested a hand on Raven's shoulder. "You must understand, friend Raven. You must. It is not _you_ that we distrust, but the Major and the Lieutenant. And all those who follow them! The rest of the members of India and Juliet? They are all blinded by their hatred of non humans."

Raven stared at the Tamaranian evenly. "And what of Ukyou and Konatsu? Are they not also human?"

Starfire hesitated once more, obviously not completely certain in her position... or at least not comfortable with trusting Ukyou and Konatsu any more than she trusted any of the other humans on the ship. Green eyes darted over to where the two humans stood. Ukyou was also watching closely, looking rather more menacing than Raven ever remembered her seeming before.

"The... the Guardian says that they can be trusted..." Starfire finally answered. "And he is the most knowledgeable being we have ever met. We simply need to trust in him..." She nodded to herself, convincing herself that she was making some semblance of sense. "Yes! And we can not risk any of you attempting to stop us out of blind ignorance!"

Raven rolled her eyes at that. "Blind ignorance? That was highly uncalled for. I can assure you that _I_ am not the only one acting blind at the moment."

It was something of a double entendre, that last line, and she hoped her attempt at wit didn't give her away. After all, not only was Starfire's devotion to the Oan blinding her to the obvious betrayal he was perpetrating. It was also keeping the Tamaranian's gaze pinned down on Raven, as she attempted to defend her position. As she attempted to show the reason and logic behind her own actions.

Starfire did not even notice when Reava silently slipped her hand free from the metal band – which Raven had loosened just before, and re-tied just after, _each_ and _every_ mission down into the hulking alien spacecraft below them. Nor did she notice it when Reava subtly reached down towards the alien looking device hidden at the small of her back, just beneath her belt analogue: a harmless looking cybernetic implant all but fused to her skin.

* * *

Shampoo was less talkative than the other sane woman in the ship's hold. Not the most subtle of people, the Amazon's cold and impassive expression said more than her lips ever needed to. Like many martial artists, it wasn't when she was raging or snarling that she was truly furious: it was when she was quiet, thinking, calm… a seething river with an unbroken surface.

Her former comrades had left her locked in a prison of her own protection. The MARS armor that encased her body, save for her now-removed helmet, had effectively become a metal vice that limited her movement. Metal straps – mooring straps meant to hold down or tie together spaceships – bound her gauntleted arms and armored legs. She had about as much luck breaking the cords as a normal human would of pulling down a bridge support. The actual straps were tied tightly around the non-articulating sections of armor around her wrists and ankles: yet, unable to reach the seals in her powered armor, she couldn't free herself and was thus trapped within her armor, which in turn was all but bolted into the wall of the hold.

It was… vexing.

Muscles bunched and tensed inside the armor. Her palms eased out of their control surfaces. Shaking her head and letting her long purple tresses fall over her face, the Amazon's expression disappeared from view, save for the murderous glare directed at her team-mate: at the one other woman she had dared to start to think of as a true battle sister.

"Don't look at me like that," Ukyou warned, having endured the evil eye in silence. The Green Lantern's attention was divided between maintaining the energy constructs that bound Jinx and Ryouga, and keeping watch over the rest of the hold. She was the Right Arm of the Guardian.

"I said don't look at me like that," she repeated, frowning at her former teammate. Ukyou's eyes were unreadable, lost within a pale green and purple fire, but the way she gestured at herself was all too human. "You think I _like_ doing this?"

"Listen, sugar, I'm restraining you – all of you!" She pointed to the rest of her captives. "For your own good! Everyone here is losing their mind! You're irrational."

"And you're not?" Shampoo finally spoke, still glaring from behind the curtain of her lavender hair.

"No. No… I'm not much better," the chef admitted with a pained look. "That's why we all have to put our faith in Trespasser-sama. Don't you see?" she asked, walking closer to the armored Amazon. "Our own judgment is impaired. Every one of us. We can't just do what we think is right – we need guidance from someone, something, that isn't coming apart at the seams!"

Ukyou shook her head, snorting a breath from her nose. She hated the conclusion she had come to – that she had been talked into – but it was the only thing that made sense anymore. When she looked back up at Shampoo, a pale purple light within her green eyes flickered.

"This is the only way to keep order on the ship," she insisted, utterly convinced that there was just no other way. "Ran-chan and Ryouga-kun can't make the decisions for us anymore! Mousse and Kuno have been drifting in and out for days! Konatsu… even Cyborg…"

The flame in her green eyes wavered, like a candle in a breeze.

"And Ryu-kun is..." she glanced away, catching her breath, trying to keep composed. "He isn't getting any better."

She turned her eyes back at her comrade, back at Shampoo.

"If Yasuda or Banks or Ben-Solomon were here, that would be one thing! But there is no chain of command! There is only the Guardian!" She pressed closer, anxiously licking her lips. "You understand what I'm saying, don't you, sugar?"

"This," she insisted. "This is the only thing that makes sense."

Silent, Shampoo's expression – cloaked as it was – didn't change.

A trickle of blood ran from her lower lip, down her chin, to drop to the floor.

"Shampoo," Ukyou continued, daring to get even closer. "When this is all over, you'll see I was right. And we'll laugh about this. Just like that time we almost killed each other? Do you remember? When that Ethereal was messing with our heads?" She blinked, trying to smile. "We'll laugh about this some day. We will."

Veiled by her hair, the Amazon briefly closed her eyes.

"Spatula girl," Shampoo said it without malice. Slowly, her eyes opened again, just a tiny fraction. "You only with Shampoo or against Shampoo. Which is it?"

"As you are right now?" Ukyou floated back a fraction, shaking her head. "No. No. Trespasser-sama will-"

Having heard all she needed to, Shampoo's head whipped to the side and her hair flowed with it. The cascade of lavender tresses actually seemed to lengthen as they sliced through the air, hitting the okonomiyaki chef turned Green Lantern in the face. The Japanese girl hissed and cursed as a burning sensation seared her skin and blinded her eyes; like they had been dipped into the heat of an open oven. Faint powder clung to Ukyou's cheeks and forehead, and her blazing green eyes swelled shut.

"What! What the fuck was-!"

"Present from Mousse!" Shampoo explained, whipping her hair back behind her. "Full Body Box Blowout Technique!"

The Amazon's ki rippled through the environmental seals in her armor, and with a reciprocal pulse, the Box Blowout technique – a distant variant of the breaking point – unlocked the plugs across her armor's arms and torso. Twisting her limbs, contorting them to the human limit, the enraged Amazon surged out from her now opened power armor like a cold liquid fury. Even as Ukyou reeled back, her hands over her blistered eyes, Shampoo reached for her throat.

Only to be stopped. Again. Just short.

This time, not as gently as before.

A blade, wet with blood, was scythed through the center of her right hand. Edging the blinded Green Lantern out of the way, Konatsu's grip on the knife tightened, and he twisted. Pain lanced up Shampoo's arm, but teeth bared in savage dismissal of agony, the Amazon forced her palm down deeper against the knife, until her fingers wrapped around the hilt, and the male Kunoichi's hand.

"I won't let you lay a finger on Miss Ukyou," Konatsu snarled.

Half in and half out of her armor, Shampoo glanced at the long trail of blood running down her arm, and then to the knife impaling her hand. Her crimson grin widened.

"You and spatula girl forget who you are! Shampoo remind you!" She pushed forward, a fountain of brick red shooting from the back of her hand. "Shampoo remind you how martial artist lives. And dies."

"Don't kill her!" Ukyou yelled, already peeking one eye out from beneath swollen, painful eyelids. "You!" she pointed at Starfire, who had been watching the attack with a mixture of callous amusement and curiosity. "Keep your eyes on-"

_"Too late."_

A hand seized the distracted Tamaranian, fingers wrapping around the side of her head and into her long red hair. Wide green orbs shot to the right in shock, looking past the hand cupped over her ear, to the once-captive Female Fury. Caught off guard, Starfire was swept off her feet and the left side of her face mercilessly introduced to the grilled alien alloy floor.

It was followed an instant later by flashes of blackest shadow. Clawlike blades of ebon energy slashed apart Ukyou's emerald prisons with annoying ease, as distracted with pain and shock as she was, it was impossible to maintain the concentration to resist the attacks. Within moments both Ryouga and Jinx were freed from their bonds, and an instant later Raven held out a hand - her other clutched tightly to her skull, fingers lacing through her hair - and a pulse of raw psionic power that even Ukyou felt from clear across the hold flowed out from the dark psion.

In less time than it took to draw breath, both Ryouga and Jinx snapped to attention, leaping to their feet. Unbelievably, the pair didn't even look the slightest bit confused by the turn of events, as if they had somehow been brought up to speed in the passing of a single second. Without a second of hesitation, Ryouga pointed to Starfire, and then Konatsu in turn.

"Jinx, keep Starfire busy! Shampoo, you take Konatsu! Keep him in this room, Damnit!"

Ukyou didn't have time to worry about that, though, even as she saw the situation spiral out of control. There was something far more worrying loose in the room. A short distance away, as Starfire pushed herself back up to her feet, not looking even slightly injured by Reava's surprise attack, Raven swung out her arm, her cloak flaring out behind her. Rather than press her attack on the fallen Tamaranian, likely knowing just how one sided such a battle would be, the newly freed Female Fury fell back, as if to retreat into Raven's outstretched cloak…

Understanding struck Ukyou like a hammer. It was all too obvious what they were planning to do now, considering what they had, as a group been doing, day in and day out for the past several days. It would not be allowed! It could not be! Trespasser's work, their only hope of survival, could not be interrupted! Reaching out her hand, green ring flaring to life, she prepared to launch some form of construct to stop them.

"Konatsu! Starfire! Stop them!"

Green light began to buck and surge around the signet of her Lantern Ring, reflections of light congealing into solid bubbles and rays of emerald energy. She knew she couldn't contain them, not with Raven's powers, not like she had just moments ago - so that left only one alternative, as grim as that was. If Raven disrupted the transit event, they would all die… either stranded in this hellish dimension or dumped into a realm between universes. A steel resolve settled in the pit of her stomach. So the alternative was obvious. Maybe, if they were lucky, they wouldn't even die but they had to be stopped. The twin lances of light would drill right through the pair of inhuman females in an instan-

A sharp '_crack'_ sent her arm flying straight up. The beams of energy missed the pair of women by over two feet, cutting partially through the nigh indestructible wall panels and then the ceiling, a loud, sizzling hiss filling the air as her arm swung up and behind her before she could finally think to cut off the attack. She could only thank god that she hadn't been planning to use an attack powerful enough to puncture the ship.

And then the pair were gone.

Gone!

Raven swung her cloak closed over Reava, and in a flash, the pair disappeared into the floor in a pool of inky darkness. All Ukyou could do was clutch her abused wrist to her chest and stare impotently at the spot they had so easily vacated. Their destination, however, was obvious. Spinning around, she prepared to launch herself to the front of the ship, regardless of whatever other fighting might be occurring around her.

"Not so fast, Lantern."

It was hard to see through her badly swollen and watering eyes, but the voice gave away the speaker easily enough. Standing less than two yards away from her, crouched low in an aggressive stance, was the alternate Ryouga Hibiki. It seemed obvious, in retrospect, just who it was that had knocked aside her attack and was likely responsible for getting them all killed if she couldn't get to the control room quickly enough.

Even at the best of times, she did not particularly like this Hibiki… and this was not nearly _the best of times._ Now... he had the audacity to think that he could actually take her on himself. Her, a Green Lantern? Her, with the power of Trespasser blasting through her veins? Her, with the command of not only font of primal energy, but with her own - still impressive - martial arts abilities?

"Get out of the way, Sergeant," she stressed the rank as she spoke, saying it in an almost mocking tone. "I don't have time to waste on you."

Rather than heed her warning, the martial artist sneered derisively. "Seriously? You nearly get killed by Shampoo five seconds ago, and you think that you're just gonna walk all over me?" Cracking his knuckles menacingly, Ryouga rose up to a more confident stance, easily several inches taller than herself. "I think she's right. You _have_ forgotten what you are, pizza chef. I think it's time I remind you."

"It isn't pizza," she corrected him, squinting her eyes open, licks of viridian fire curling out to frame her face. "_It's okonomiyaki_."

She exhaled, and a faint mist of green trailed from her nostrils and eyes. Flecks of emerald coalesced within her right hand before expanding with a snap into an energy construct copy of her battle spatula. Reams of green extended from her ring, like hungry tentacles, before snapping and coiling around her arm and across her body. She spun the energy blade around in her hand, and as it scraped across the floor and ceiling, it ripped sparks free from cuts in the alien alloy.

"I haven't forgotten anything," Ukyou growled, fully shrouded by the energy of her Lantern ring. "I'm the good one here. I'm _protecting _us. _I'll save us!_" With a sweeping arc, the energy blade came around and down. "Even if I have to crush you to do it!"

* * *

As a Fury, born on Apokolips as a bastard, whelped because of rape and abandonment, orphaned and left to fight in the gutter, risen through the ranks of the illustrious warrior caste... Reava had seen and been subjected to many and varied sights and sensations. Spending countless millennia on the brink of madness and death, prisoner to a mad, dead god had only expounded upon her experience with both the bizarre and disturbing.

But not even she had been prepared for the absolute _nothingness_ which had existed within the cloak of the Archfiend-spawn. In a way, it was almost soothing. She could actually feel the absence of the thrice damned dimension which had trapped them all, while she was traveling through this small pocket dimension. There were no voices whispering at the edges of her mind any longer, just a serene silence, an aching void that welcomed her to stay as long as she desired.

Then, in a flash of light, the entire trip taking mere fractions of a second, they were back in that hated plane of entropy and death. Their new surroundings were much the same as the old, the only differences were the players present, and a few primitive looking control systems.

Dark Horse - Saotome - and the ranking leader of this human expedition were in their telepathic control chairs. The devices looked properly uncomfortable, with the pair of young men staring vacantly forward into the flickering screens and monitors ahead of them. Only the occasional twitch betrayed their continued existence among the living. Not that Reava cared altogether much for them, save that they were a means of escape from this place to - to anywhere else, frankly. Even their own pale, lonely world was a paradise compared to this nightmare she had been entombed within for so many eons.

And - there - floating serenely between the two humans was the source of her hate. The blue, overproud being, in the flesh, who embodied the forces that had so corrupted and fouled her mission for Lord Darkseid - the Guardians and their mewling lackeys who had left her trapped in this abyssal hell. The Guardian, if he detected their sudden appearance in the ship's bridge, paid no heed. Perhaps he considered it wholly beneath notice?

One being, at least, reacted to their presence.

The brown haired girl, appearing as weak and harmless as any of the others, shot out of her seat as she turned on the two new arrivals.

"I knew you'd appear out of-!" Nabiki announced, taking aim with a one handed weapon. She hesitated, however, on seeing two intruders instead of one. "Oh crap!'

Her aim wavered, unsure, from Reava's handy little source of transportation to the Fury herself. If that was one of the weapons she had seen in action before, being hit by it would not be pleasant. Or conducive to either her mission or her desire to escape. It would also likely result in something unfortunate and inconvenient if it claimed the life of her companion... her transportation, that was.

Before she had even rationalized it, Reava's hand shot out to seize the weapon where it was safe - at the base, to tilt it up and away. It was only a little different than many Apokaliptian arms, after all. It wouldn't - probably - fire off axis in some odd way. Probably.

Rather than fire, however, the female human released the weapon and nimbly jumped backwards. Her hands flickered with surprising speed, and Reava was blinded by something - some strange material that covered her eyes -

Paper?

"Really, Nabiki? You're actually using _that _technique?" Reava heard Raven ask. The infernal girl sounded both amused and a little insulted.

"That and running away!" The shameless Tendo announced with a laugh. "I'm not totally out of options, and I half expected you'd find your way in here!"

Reava flipped the weapon the human had relinquished around, finding it fit perfectly in her own palm. It was yet another potentially handy coincidence that these humans were so morphologically similar; most any New God would be able to use their primitive weapons. Raven's dark form surged around the Fury, her main body materializing and solidifying out of the inky shadow.

Nabiki, meanwhile, slipped like a fox behind the floating Guardian. Her hand ran under one of the control interfaces at waist level, drawing out a backup firearm. So: she hadn't been bluffing when she said she'd planned ahead. Using the occupied Oan as a body shield, she took aim. Not feeling quite as willing to overlook the threat, Reava did likewise, not particularly caring for the other woman's smarmy grin.

"Don't," Raven warned, a slim hand falling on the plasma pistol in Reava's hand. "Knowing her, it's rigged somehow." She was still facing the Tendo sister, a look of concentration on her face. "Besides, it wouldn't work anyway. All the weapons have bio-encoding."

Nabiki's finger tensed on the trigger of her laser pistol, unable to depress.

"Furthermore," Raven continued, her thoughts and eyes not moving from Nabiki's real weapon. "I know how she thinks. It was a dummy from the very start. Isn't that right?"

"You know me a _bit _too well," Nabiki admitted, glancing for just an instant down at her hands. "Interfering with my ability to pull the trigger? That's good. Can you keep it up?" She smirked from behind Trespasser. "Especially this close to you-know-who?"

Raven paused, the shadows around her retreating back into her cloak, like darkness from a flame.

"Heh! That's right!" Nabiki said, nodding eagerly. "I thought you'd have some trouble. I may not be his biggest fan, but this blueberry is pretty powerful!" She reached her free hand around to roughly pat the occupied Guardian on the cheek; he didn't seem to notice the physical contact or personal proximity at all. "He's got a little shield around him... and it's growing."

"Care to place a wager on what happens after that?" This time she patted the laser pistol. "I knew from the start that you'd find a way to escape!"

For some reason Raven actually seemed to find that funny; though her laugh was hardly more than a muted chuckle. She even nodded. "I admit, that was a somewhat clever plan on your part, Nabiki. Of course, since you've had nearly three days to plan this betrayal, I would have expected nothing less."

Lifting a hand, Raven slowly reached out before her, and the black fire limning her hand began to flicker and die out the further it traversed into the invisible 'field' that Nabiki spoke of. Absently, she pulled her hand back and hid it back within the confines of her cloak.

"Interesting. I can't use my telekinesis to disarm you, and using my telepathy through that field is... difficult." Her head tilted to the side. "On the other hand, your weapon is useless against me as long as I remain outside of the Oan's protective field. Barring me doing something rather reckless... it appears we're at something of an impasse."

The Tendo sister smiled cheekily at that. Even taking a half step out from behind the Guardian to level her weapon more fully on Raven, despite being unable to pull the trigger, Nabiki's demeanor grew more confident with each passing word.

"It's true that I don't have any of the crazy powers that you or your friends do, or anyone else on this ship, for that matter, but don't think you can count out Nabiki Tendo so easily! You may think I'm wrong, but this is the only way to-"

"As I said," Raven suddenly cut in, eliciting an annoyed frown from Nabiki. "It _appears_ that we're at an impasse. However…"

At that, a wide smile bloomed on the pale girl's thin lips. "However, you seem to have overlooked one glaring detail in this elaborate gambit of yours."

Nabiki's confident expression wavered for a moment at Raven's insinuation, but a moment later, she firmed her hold on the pistol and set her stance once more. "And what is that, _Rae_? You think a few hours of training with Cyborg is going to let you take on an armed opponent? Face it, I'm holding all the cards right now! This is the point in the game where you fold and try to step down with what you've got left."

Reava actually found herself shifting in confusion. Raven had all but stated that their situation was hopeless, that this Nabiki girl's treachery had forced a stalemate which would allow the thrice damned Oan to complete his task… so why was she smiling so?

A single gesture from Raven answered all questions. With a slight tilt of her head, she nodded towards Reava. "Reava, would you mind, terribly, subduing Nabiki? After all, Trespasser's field won't affect you at all, and she can't fire that weapon at the moment."

A _wicked_ grin bloomed on Reava's face, only to nearly double in size as an equal, yet opposite look of dread settled in on Nabiki's face. Realization, mirrored on both of their faces in a clear 'why didn't _I_ think of that' expression, was all they shared, though, as terror and glee could not have been more diametrical in their opposition.

In an instant, Nabiki spun to train her weapon on Reava, but no matter how she tried, even slapping her second hand onto the weapon, she could not bring herself to fire. With a bark of derisive laughter, Reava surged forward. Despite the girl's gloat of being a more skilled warrior than Raven, she was less than _nothing_ when compared to a Fury in the service of Darkseid. A life time, a thousand life times separated her from all on this vessel but one, and only the raw power of her captors allowed them to hold her.

Against a pathetic, sniveling human, there was no challenge at all. Reava slapped the weapon from her hand with disdain, and reached out. Quicker than expected, the human attempted to leap away, but a simple sweeping kick knocked her legs out from under her. Reaching down, she clutched her hand tightly into Nabiki's hair and wrenched back fiercely, eliciting a pained squeal from the human as she dragged her back to her feet.

"Don't hurt her, Reava," Raven order from across the room.

Reava almost considered ignoring her. After all, if Raven could not harm Nabiki in this zone, than she herself was quite safe… On the other hand, though, Raven was the only one on this entire vessel with the heritage to grant her even a chance of overpowering the Guardian and regaining control of the vessel. Grumbling darkly at the necessity of "_compromise_," she half pulled, half dragged her prisoner across the room and out of the supposed 'area of interference'.

"Honestly, Nabiki?" Raven muttered, sounding almost disappointed. "You've had nearly three days to prepare for this betrayal… and you didn't even take our friend here into account?"

Perhaps, perhaps Nabiki might have had some witty rejoinder to riposte with, however, a sharp twist of Reava's hand, and her only response was tears of pain and a shuddering gasp.

Sighing, Raven shook her head. "That's hardly necessary, Reava. We both knew that I would need to conserve every last shred of power that I could if I were to even attempt to battle Trespasser, so it was good of Nabiki to limit herself here. She _is_ our ally, after all."

"What?" "What?" sounded out in stereo from both captor and captive.

Rolling her eyes once more, Raven waved her hand dismissively through the air, focusing all of her attention on the Tendo girl.

"Would you just _remember_ already?" Something about the way the demonic girl spoke the word 'remember' seemed to hold a _weight_ to it, and in an instant, Nabiki's entire frame shot up straight then went stiff.

Not certain what Raven was speaking of, Reava felt compelled to hold back and watch, fascinated at what was unfolding. Nabiki's next action would likely speak volumes as to just how powerful her dark companion possessed.

"Oh. Oh. OH! Oh Hell No!" Nabiki pointed accusingly at the infernal Titan. "I didn't - oh! I thought I would, but-! OH!" Her arms fell to her side and she stared, long and hard, at Raven... and then at Reava. A trembling hand stilled, reached up, and smoothed down her short, abused hair. "I can't believe I had you do that!"

"Please," Raven remarked with a smirk. "Of course you can. Since you did."

"Okay. Alright. Yes." The human seemed be having a little trouble sorting her thoughts; she snapped her fingers as she composed herself. "We need to act fast. Cyborg's still in the reactor room. ...Where's everyone else?"

"They're all fighting in the back. Ryouga, Jinx and Shampoo are trying to hold off the others," Raven offered, her voice tense, "But I'm not certain how long they can hold out."

Nabiki nodded shakily at that news. "We need - need to get into the EDC activation sequence..."

"I assume we can not simply decapitate this _creature_?" Reava reached tellingly for the Oan's throat. "I have heard Guardians are physically frail. A mere twist and..."

"You might be able to," Nabiki replied, frowning. "But he's also in the Nav with Ranma and Ryouga-baby. Not only would killing Trespasser damage the control systems, it could cause feedback and harm them as well. And, lest you forget, we need them to initiate the transit event, and if they die, we die: being stranded here is a death sentence."

"I haven't forgotten," the Fury answered, trailing a finger down the Guardian's chin, a nail scratching the surface of the skin. "I know better than any of you."

"The problem is in the psionic circuitry, so you need to fix it there," Nabiki reasoned, and turned to Raven. "That's where you come in. But you'll need to work around Trespasser before you can overpower him and seize control. I don't know how... Hell, I'm not even sure how you escaped..."

The cloaked girl shrugged, calm enough to quip, "Suffice it to say that I spent my three days of planning a bit more expeditiously than you did. I assume you - the other you - knows how to alter the transit window?"

Nabiki tried to argue in her own defense "I was-" but stopped. This clearly wasn't the time. "Forget that. Yes. Trespasser wanted me to delete the logs and the records, but of course I kept copies. I keep copies of _everything_. You do what you have to do. I'll input a change in transit vector, reverse it, and try and keep Cyborg out of our hair. The quicker you get this done the better, alright?"

Raven simply stared at the slightly older girl. "And just how do you plan on... doing _anything_ to Cyborg?"

"This guy saw him as a threat. I think he saw all of us as a threat, but Cyborg as one of the more troublesome ones," Nabiki explained, making a quick gesture at Trespasser. "That changed when he got... all weird... but he's been all but ordered to keep himself in the reactor room. I'll keep him in there as long as I can." She then reached over to check something on the ship's controls. "Once you get in the little group-mind Trespasser set up here, you'll be as untouchable as he is. Let us hold down the fort out here."

"Not like I have a choice," Raven said, not sounding pleased with the fact. "Now stand aside."

Reava watched as the infernal female seized the Oan by the temples, her hands just above the Guardian's ears. Raven's breathing slowed, her eyes closed, and she became as dead to the world as the so called Guardian of the Universe had become. Even now, she was tempted to find some way to better turn the situation to her advantage - if only she could do away with both the damnable Guardian, the hellspawned female, and all the accursed humans infesting the ship. Plus one pitiable Tamaranian slug. Unfortunately, the mere thought of spending what was left of her artificially prolonged life in this beyond-damned dimension quashed her Apokaliptian preference for double dealing. Survival had to come first, then, Darkseid willing, she would... have to improvise...

At this point, she'd stoop to praying to _Highfather _if it would actually help.

How sad was that?

"Reava," the sound of her name snapped the Fury out of her thoughts. It was the human female, taking a seat before the ship's control interfaces. "Just like I was protecting Trespasser, you need to keep Raven safe. I'd appreciate it if you did the same for me, too, but once I've got the coordinates put in for her to use, I'm a bit more expendable."

"I'll remember that," the Fury promised with a cruel sneer.

"I said a _bit _more expendable!" Nabiki turned and pinched her fingers together. "Like one percent!"

The Apokaliptian just snorted in disgust. Not so much as the human, but at herself.

Protecting others? Even for common cause, the thought was... debasing. Even if it was Lord Darkseid himself. The weak were to be culled and left to die. Not coddled. Not protected. No matter how strong they had once been, all that mattered was the strength one had at any given moment of time, as a threat could come from any moment in time. This human thinking - even the infernal hellspawn's thinking - it was so... so _wrong_.

"I know what I have to do," she said, as much to herself as to Nabiki. _'I'll... survive. Even if I have to swallow my pride to do it. I want... to see Lord Darkseid again...'_

"Here we go!" Nabiki warned, her fingers moving at high speed as she worked. "Time to spin the wheel and see what we win!"

* * *

It was with some concern that Shampoo realized her arm was numb.

It was a less than auspicious start to things, never mind that she was already bleeding profusely and feeling light headed from the full body box-blower technique. The one ray of light, aside from Raven's escape moments ago, was that she has also acquired a weapon. Wrapping blood red lips around the hilt of the knife and biting down, the grim Amazon pulled it out from the palm of her right hand.

With her left hand, she hit pressure points in the rapidly failing limb to slow the flow of blood, not just from the gaping wound in her hand, but to retard the spread of poison she knew coursed through her veins. The entire arm from the shoulder down went limp as a wet noodle, but Shampoo ignored it and spat the newly appropriated blade out, catching it with her free hand.

Things were bad.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw green light blazing as Ukyou advanced on the younger, dimensionally displaced lost boy. Not far from that, another shade of green glowed as Starfire yelled an attack directed against her former teammate. Those four would be throwing around a lot of flashy moves, and Shampoo wasn't sure how either match would pan out. Not anymore.

Her opponent, meanwhile, neither yelled nor acted flashy.

Konatsu stepped back, as silent as a ghost, to try and disappear into an un-lit section of the small hold. Shampoo growled and lunged at him. Above all else, she couldn't let the legendary kunoichi get into the shadows; she couldn't lose sight of him. She knew Konatsu. She'd trained with him for months. He was a comrade, and she understood how he fought: how he held back.

The crazed look in his eyes didn't inspire confidence in him holding back or acting normally. So she lunged, and quick as lightning and smooth as silk, the ninja boy dodged. His 'art of escape' was the most highly developed of anyone in the two teams… of the three teams even. It would be tricky hitting him once he got serious, and the Amazon warrior only had one hand, no armor, drained chakras and a slowly spreading poison in her veins.

She smirked, blood on her teeth, at the challenge.

Konatsu didn't draw a replacement blade; and by the look of him, he hadn't managed to recover anything near his full arsenal. The officers had locked it up days ago when they declared him unfit for duty due to the dimensional hysteria. The blade she had now, any others, must have been from Mousse's extensive stock. Jink became juke and Konatsu's upper body blurred, releasing blinding paper –

One – two – three – ten – twelve –

Shampoo caught each one as Konatsu released it, spearing it with her combat knife. She'd seen that technique. She knew that technique. You defeated it by intercepting the flurry of paper before it could spread out. Konatsu's face betrayed surprise. No one had ever outright countered his Paper Whirlwind before and Shampoo couldn't risk him being crazy enough to use a Konatsu Andon (Paper Lantern) within the ship's hold. Being lit on fire and burned down to the bone didn't have much appeal.

Instead, shampoo smirked, drawing back the knife, smearing her blood across the bills to make them sticky, and arced her blade sharply off to the side. The bills splattered harmlessly across the floor, unable to respond to the ninja's faint battle aura.

"Very good," Konatsu whispered, fingers flexing. "But…!"

Even unarmed, he twisted and thrust with his hand. Shampoo couldn't see the fingers with the speed of his strike, but she knew he had been caught sharpening his nails. It was an old trick: after all, the human body was the most convenient weapon. Even among Amazons, removing the nails was considered justified treatment of skilled enemy captives. It was all too easy to open an artery with a properly prepared fingernail.

Konatsu's strike shifted targets at the last second, pivoting at the wrist – not targeting the face and the eyes, but the dorsal ulnar carpal of her left hand. Shampoo deflected it at the last half second, but a cut opened up through skin, droplets of blood suspended in the air. Konatsu's hands themselves were like blades: this was true of Ryu, as well, but he was not a master of finesse. The Yamasenken hand strike was like a massive glaive-spear; this was a surgically precise scalpel. He wouldn't just go for veins and arteries; he would try and cut the tendons between muscles.

Striking again with her combat knife, shampoo drove the ninja boy back. He slashed back, and Shampoo felt more cuts open across her chest and – painfully – into her right shoulder. It didn't matter. Her blade scored a nick, opening a line of crimson across Konatsu's forehead. It was a good strike, and with a poisoned blade, but… but it probably didn't matter.

"You're immune to your own poisons, aren't you?" she asked, already guessing correctly.

"Of course I am." To the Amazons surprise, the male kunoichi reached into his hair. His palms soon held a pair of emei piercers: decorative hairpins, large enough to open a throat… long enough to stab a heart through the ribcage.

Shampoo laughed. "You're not the worst opponent to kill me. Was hoping to get one more crack at the pancake chef, though."

"For old times' sake?" Konatsu wondered, and shook his head. "No. I won't let any of you hurt Miss Ukyou. I'll put you down, Miss Shampoo. And the others. You're all too dangerous."

No more words were exchanged; they spoke through a symphony of lightning quick strikes, metal against metal, with sparks as punctuation at the end of every remark. Feet inches side to side as they moved, jockeying for position and occasionally adding to the melee. A bright flash of green from nearby bothered neither as they moved, first in a circle, and then shooting off to another part of the hold.

Konatsu's _Akichi_ – unlike Shampoo's honestly less impressive variant – was not limited to merely skimming at high speed along a single plane or surface. He moved, in one step, from the floor to the wall, stretching out an arm. Silk-like thread caught green glow, reflecting the wire between his hands. Shampoo couldn't see it, but she could guess where he had left it as a trap.

'_There! There!'_ Her hand moved as her body jumped and pirouetted, the recessed wire-cutter section of her combat knife deftly catching the razor sharp line. _'And there!'_

She twisted, jerked, and snagged all three killer wires.

Konatsu huffed, releasing them before he lost his fingers –

'_No! Wait_!' Shampoo spun, abruptly, bringing up her foot. '_A trap within a trap_!'

Her catching the wires and disarming him had also drawn in a flurry of paper sheets. Normally, she knew Konatsu would have used a grenade, but thankfully everyone's options were supremely limited by fighting in such close quarters. Whether bladed or incendiary, the ninja boy could use them, even here. They weren't as indiscriminate as an actual explosive. And there were a dozen of them swirling towards her, having been attached to one of the wire traps.

There was no choice –

Catching the offending wire with her feet – with her toes, insulated only by a sheer white sock – Shampoo spun her entire body in midair. The wires spun with her, taking their deadly cargo with them. Disturbingly, Konatsu didn't hesitate to ignite the chemically laced paper sheets. Six thermate infused flames, hot and persistent enough to burn through a fire extinguisher, whirled madly around the still spinning Amazon.

Shampoo landed, caught the wire around a leg and spun it freely away and into the ground. Pat-pat-pat-pat-pat the traps impacted cold alien alloy. This, at least, it couldn't penetrate. She made a mental note not to step on any of the burning embers. Losing a foot at this point would cost her the fight.

And her life, too. But mostly the fight.

"Huh." Konatsu moved half in and half out of shadow, unable to break Shampoo's gaze. "You're quite good. Oh well."

"Yeah." Shampoo bit down on the wires coiled around her combat knife, freeing the blade. She spat out the thin lines and slowly walked towards him. "Oh well."

Another green flash almost distracted the Amazon; it highlighted Konatsu's grim expression.

His hand shimmered, and a thin blade slipped out from his wrist. Both wrists.

The pair lunged, and Shampoo tried not to think about how slow her body felt.


	45. Perish

**_A/N_**

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a ****Dark Road**

_Perish_

Chapter 44

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

The outer grip of the glowing emerald spatula deflected off of Ryouga Hibiki's armored wrist and he used the opening to rapidly step back and out of her immediate range, nimble by necessity on the balls of his feet. Ukyou's weapon, despite being made of mental Lantern energy and not actual alien alloy was still a solid, predictable shape. She swung it around at high speed, her arms and torso a blur to an observer: the edge cutting, the blunt pommel of the battle spatula bludgeoning, the shaft bone-crushing and limb trapping. The floor where his foot had been arced with sparks as the cutting edge nicked the alloy plate, cutting a shallow, bright orange furrow under the space his toes had occupied a half second before.

Creating familiar weapons with a Lantern Ring was, Ukyou had been told, among the most basic and common of techniques used by her comrades in Trespasser's universe. It was easy for the mind to visualize something familiar: drills and clamps and hammers, and those constructs were more formidable and reliable as a result, especially in tense situations. She imagined most would conjure up a shield or a sword or a mace or something similar. For her, her battle spatula was already part of her on an intrinsic level: it was part and parcel to her fighting style, the basis of her livelihood, it was second nature and more. Even without her other reserves of power, she could maintain the spatula like an extension of her mind – her body – her _will_.

And have _Green_to spare.

Flattening her palm, a wavering green disk framed the fingers of her left hand. Emerald energy warped into mini-spatulas that shot through the air at her command. Her opponent dodged, retaliating with a bandanna. No: two! One thrown an instant after the other. Ukyou saw it, deflected one with a spin of her battle spatula construct, and sliced the other into pieces with her unrelenting barrage of mini-blades.

Ryouga – this other Ryouga – was fast on his feet, as one would expect from Ranma's rival, but he didn't have his counterpart's improved linear step. As long as he didn't get close enough to grapple, Ukyou felt confident she could eventually overwhelm him and pin him down. Sweeping her battle spatula upwards, she projected a wave of green light that finally nicked him on the leg, a shower of sparks spraying out from his UNETCO armor, the force behind the momentary contact spinning him round and knocking him off balance.

"You should've stayed asleep, sugar!"

Taking aim, a half dozen of the green blades shot from her fingers. The nimble Hibiki, fighting far more defensively than she expected, especially given who he was a copy of, ducked into a low spin and avoided the swarm of projectiles. An instant later, his spin ended with him standing straight up; he pointed an accusing finger at her before replying in an uncharacteristically cold tone.

"You never should have let her go, Kounji."

"Ehh?" Ukyou asked, not understanding the accusation. Not having time to worry about it, or the inclination to really care, she surged forward, her weapon leading the way with an intricate series of rapid thrusts and deadly slashes. The combat chef made very certain to stay on the very edge of her effective weapon range, knowing that getting any closer would open her to unnecessary risk…

But Ryouga didn't even try to fight back. In fact, he hadn't thrown a single strike at her, aside from a few distracting bandannas. All the infuriating warrior did was move back, slipping between her attacks where he could, and knocking her weapon aside where he needed to. It was starting to become apparent that, while this Hibiki was behind his counterpart, skillwise, he was still well beyond her… possibly beyond anyone but the officers themselves.

So why wasn't he fighting _back_?

"What are you talking about?" she demanded, trying to sweep his feet out from under him. "And why won't you attack me? Do you think you can take me on without getting serious?"

A cold glare was his only response to her questions, but his evasions only continued, growing more relaxed as he took measure of her style. Did he think he could tire her out? Use his Hibiki stamina to wear her down? The very idea! Or was he hoping that, if she actually used more than the bare and safe minimum, the dimension would do his job for him and strike her down if she hit him without restraint? No. That sort of cleverness was likely thinking too much of him.

He probably just thought he could walk over her.

"I'll show you what happens if you don't take me seriously!"

The green bands wrapping around her arms and legs began to shimmer with green light, and in an instant her speed and strength increased. Her next swing whistled keenly through the air, parting the Hibiki from a few strands of hair as he just barely dodged the decapitating strike. Despite her increased power, and his close shave with death, the intensely cold look in the Sergeant's eyes never changed.

Then, in a blur he was inside her weapon's reach. Too fast! A loud squeal filled the air as her spatula cut a ragged, molten slash in the upper armguard of Ryouga's armor, but he didn't even flinch, pushing forward so hard that the entire section of metal was torn clear off and sent clattering to the floor. It was all Ukyou could do to bring her glowing spatula across her chest in a panicked attempt to block.

"Not taking you seriously?" Ryouga asked, heat finally seeping into his voice. In a near blur, his hand reached up behind his back, grabbing a familiar handle which jutted out from the side. Loud, twin hisses sounded out as the pneumatic clamps which held the insanely heavy T-Brella to his back released – unbelievably, the simple looking weapon weighed more than Cyborg, and there wasn't a maglock system strong enough to reliably hold it in place – dropping the pommel into his waiting hand.

"Let me show you how _serious_ this is."

Ukyou didn't waste the precious seconds it took him to retrieve his weapon. As quickly as she could, she gave ground, lifting her weapon diagonally in front of her. And just in time, as well.

A crack of thunder split the air, and Ukyou felt her arms nearly turn to jelly mere seconds before the sharp pain of the wall crashing into her back at high speeds shocked her back to her senses. Giving her head a shake, she quickly took in her surroundings.

Now, a dozen feet separated her from Ryouga, the warrior crouched forward, his arm outstretched. Her eyes widened slightly at the sight of the tip of his umbrella actually embedded into the floor panels, warping the metal several centimeters. Her eyes shot open even wider, though, when she looked down to see her energy-spatula… bent in half at the middle!

Rising to his full height, dragging his umbrella out of its indentation with the squeal of metal on metal, he lifted the weapon effortlessly to point it at her.

"You should never have let Jinx go, Kounji." At the same time, both of their glances shot across the room to where the lithe sorceress was desperately firing off pink hexes, even as she dodged out of the way of emerald bolts of plasma fired from the gliding Tamaranian. A second later, Ryouga's eyes shot back to her. "I didn't want to believe it at the time… but now I know just the kind of person you are."

His glare only intensified, a pale azure aura beginning to spring up around him. "You won't live to regret your mistake."

In an instant, Ukyou realized what the Sergeant meant… and what he meant to do. She looked at her twisted weapon, with a single thought, it was restored to its proper shape. But that strike. Ukyou studied her opponent. He had actually gone _full out_ against her. She hated to admit it, but a part of her hadn't expected that. She had been expecting him to hold back, just like guys like him always did. After all, he was deluded into thinking he was helping her, right? So why would he actually try to hurt her?

That blow… if she not for her Green Lantern protection, that strike would have _killed _her. He wanted to kill her. Floating back to her feet, Ukyou felt a strange tingle run down her spine. What was it? Fear? Excitement? That rush of adrenalin that clouded the mind with visceral anticipation? She didn't have time to ponder it, as Ryouga surged towards her, pure strength accelerating him with shocking speed right at her.

Alien power supplemented her own, pushing out and to the side with only a fraction of a second to spare. Ryouga's umbrella slammed into the wall so hard that the impact rang painfully in her ears, even the air pressure from the broad slash alone was enough to buffet her back another step. Almost instantly, in defiance of mass and inertia, the Hibiki tore his weapon across in a lighting quick backswing aimed directly at her temple.

She managed to interpose her spatula once again, and this time it survived the strike, but the raw power was still enough to send her feet skidding back, squealing against the metal floor. She actually had to duck as a pink burst of fire and a green bolt of plasma crossed paths where her head would have been. For the briefest of moments, she considered trying to help Starfire double team Jinx and take her down, but that notion was quickly disabused by the angry sound of stinging hornets filling the air.

Her eyes widened as a full dozen spinning discs of whirring orange and black zeroed in on her from multiple angles. She didn't have any choice but to fall back, frantically forming a wide shield to protect herself as the deadly bandannas chased after her. A hiss of shock escaped her throat as some of the bandannas which struck her shield actually penetrated to varying degrees – she needed to regain her concentration_ now_ or this fight would be over before it began! Ryouga was already charging in.

Her spatula reformed once more, and she willed it even stronger than before, emerald energy beginning to drift up from the corners of the weapon ominously. If the sight of her ever more dangerous implement at all affected her opponent, he didn't show it in the slightest. The dead-set expression on his face didn't change as he charged forward, not even when a starbolt glanced off his shoulder as he passed between the dueling Jinx and Starfire.

"You're too _weak_ to beat me like that, Ukyou," he stated coldly, snapping out with a kick which cracked the air, forcing her to block with a deafening 'clank' of alien alloy against alien construct. He then ducked back and parried her counter attack with enough force to send her off balance for a fraction of a second. "Better start using that ring properly if you plan to survive."

Parrying another jarring blow, the okonomiyaki chef turned Green Lantern fell back a step, a blast of green energy traveling down her leg to splash against the alien alloy floor. Keeping both hands on her weapon, she blocked two more heavy blows and countered, pushing her opponent back. In turn, he spun into a slow overhand strike; Ukyou received it, letting it connect. This time, her battle spatula didn't buckle. She had to concentrate on it, meaning she couldn't project from both hands, but it wouldn't give again. Not so long as she lived.

"Hibiki," she surged forward, briefly pushing him off his feet, a wash of green lightning escaping from where their weapons had met. "It looks like you're really fired up! Good! GOOD! Because, sugar…!" She slammed the hilt of her battle spatula into the floor with a resounding clang. "I haven't even started yet!"

"I'll admit you're a better martial artist than I am!" She cheerfully declared, and oozing green began to flow away from the hilt of her weapon like a torrent. "But right now, I'm more powerful than you can imagine!"

The younger man's sakkijutsu warned him of the attack before it fully materialized.

Swinging around his t-brella to block, his weapon clashed against a green knife-blade that shot up from the viridian coated floor. He was still fast. No Ranma. But fast. And that weapon of his was strong enough to give him additional leeway. He twisted, falling into a roll as another plane of green light shot up at an acute angle.

"Thought is my weapon now," Ukyou told him, and a green wall of light shot up to intercept another pair of bandannas. As quickly as they rose from the Emerald consecrated floorboards they vanished, leaving the straps of cloth to fall.

"Like… _so…_" she clenched a fist, and the green plane bucked and rose, like the palm of a giant's hand pushing through a thin film. For some reason, though, the tactic didn't seem to surprise the Hibiki at all. In fact, she could have sworn he let out a quiet chuckle before leaping straight up and rebounding off of the ceiling and clear of her neon green grip.

That was only the start, however.

The grasping hand dissolved, and in its place a scything wall of malachite sheared upwards: a wall of force that the martial artist barely avoided. He tucked and jumped away as soon as the lightwalls formed beneath or near him. It quickly became clear he was used to watching the ground for attacks... a skill most martial artists wouldn't have needed to develop. It wasn't even his reflexes alone. Her viridian lightwalls were faster than he could move. It was a combination of experience and borderline precognitive sakkijutsu.

A tilt of his head, and a line of red blossomed across his cheek.

Ukyou pressed harder. Another plane of light forced him to jump away, and almost into a circle of light she had prepared beforehand. Even before he entered it, the Lantern bubble began to grow and form around him. Caught in midair, there was no way to avert his momentum, and once inside the sphere, there would be no escape.

Except that he changed his momentum by hitting the ceiling with his t-brella, knocking himself off to the side. Another neon lightwall erupted from the floor, and Ukyou swept her arm to the side, forcing it to remain solid and travel across the floor, slamming Ryouga bodily into it. Hands pressed against the plane of force, he grunted as it crashed into the wall of the ship, driving his back into a pair of partly recessed storage lockers. Buckles and straps for securing equipment buckled and flattened as the green wall washed over them, and the Hibiki too became smeared against the indestructible alien alloy wall.

"Now!" Ukyou projected two more lightwalls up from the floor at an angle, to pin her enemy like an insect... only to have him tuck his legs in, knees up to his forehead, and slip between the jade attacks.

Huffing in disappointment – _that had been close_ – Ukyou withdrew the lightwalls back into the floor. It was only a matter of time before he ran out of tricks. Pulling her weapon out of the ground, she slowly advanced, her Lantern energy flowing steadily down her legs and into the green pool round her. The ship was not large enough for him to truly escape from her Emerald Prison. Eventually he would become cornered, and until then, she would beat and wear him down. Then she would wipe that self assured look on his face and smear it across the floor.

_'You are a Lantern. You are Our Light, a beacon in Darkness.' _Trespasser's voice echoed in her ears, almost deafening. _'But above all else, you are an extension of the Guardians of the Universe. Your Will is an extension of Our Will.'_

Her ring glowed and a single beam of light shot out.

_'And Our Will... Is Absolute.'_

Ryouga was fast enough to dodge it, but unprepared for when the single beam split in four. This, too, was a Green Lantern trick she had heard of, and adopted for her own use. Projecting a single, incredibly destructive line of killing light was a novice Lantern move Trespasser had described to her – it was also impractical within a ship. And unnecessary, frankly. It didn't take a showy Dragonball blast to incapacitate an arm or leg… or worse.

She split the beam four ways.

_'Do not Fear. Do not Hesitate. Do not Regret. You were chosen for a reason.'_

Sure enough, he first tried to block it with his still functional t-brella. Fire and molten metal erupted from the line cut into it, a few embers of which hit his arm and leg harmlessly. Yes: he could keep blocking the beams. For a time. She'd carve up his weapon instead!

"Let's not be so predictable!" she announced, and the four laser thin beams projecting from her ring began to spiral erratically. "How long can you keep this up, Sergeant? What will you do if I make these beams invisible instead of bright green? What will you do when I finally catch you?"

At which point, Ryouga suddenly looked behind her.

"Now Ranma, while she's distracted!"

Ukyou knew she was a fool for listening to him. She had firsthand experience with Ranma and the Saotome School of Underhanded Techniques. Even though, logically speaking, she knew it was a ruse, a part of her, a very powerful part, could not resist the lure of seeing Ranma, trap or no. It took all of her willpower to prevent herself from turning around-

Willpower which was no longer available to fuel her power.

_'Aw, damnit!'_

This point was driven home when a powerful boot crushed into her stomach, launching her backwards yet again. Her insides heaved at the blow, and she thought she heard something make an unpleasant sound from deep inside of her… She clutched a hand to her stomach, not expecting such an attack to get through while her defenses were so low.

"You pompous moron!" Ryouga bellowed, circling around her rapidly. "I _live_ with _two_ girls that use thought as a weapon. And I can guarantee that they are both a _hell of a lot_ better at it than you!"

Already, she was back on the defensive, forming walls to try to block his advance, the martial artist juking back and forth unpredictably. "You know the problem with using thought as a weapon? Suddenly the smallest distraction can cost you everything!"

His umbrella slammed into the wall of force, sending her shifting back several inches, then several more, and several more after that as he kept hammering away, keeping her off balance, not letting her collect herself.

"For that matter, how much longer do you think that ring will last?" he yelled, "You've been burning it for days straight, and with no way to power it back up! How much do you have? Minutes? Seconds?"

Despite herself, Ukyou felt a sliver of doubt creeping in. He was right, in a way. These rings - Trespasser's Gifts - didn't have unlimited power, and she had been using them continuously since she got them.

No! She wouldn't lose here! With a growl of frustration, she pulled in all the power she safely could, only to unleash it all in an omnidirectional blast. The entire ship shuddered for a moment, and the lights dimmed for just a second, but when she opened her eyes again, Ryouga was on the opposite end of the hold. The fighter's umbrella was unfurled before him, smoking lightly, only to snap closed a second later. The grin on the fighter's face was absolutely insufferable.

"Wow, how much time do you think that cost you?" The martial artist gave his umbrella a good shake, several burnt and slagged pieces dropping to the ground with faint clinking sounds. Lowering into a wary crouch, he nodded to her. "So, when do you plan to actually get serious, then?"

_'You were chosen to wield this ring because a Green Lantern alone is of no use to me.'_

"I see..." the chef nodded to herself, craning her neck back. "You're used to fighting people with powers like this. That experience, plus your sakkijutsu... I guess _trapping_ you is going to be difficult. Okay, sugar. Okay. You want me to put you down? Fine! I'll put you down."

'_Willpower alone is insufficient_.'

Raising her hands up, the visible Lantern ring on her right ring finger glowed, emerald cinders burning away to reveal dark amethyst energy beneath. Like a band stretched to breaking, a force snapped and purple highlights raced down between the green and black of her uniform. As it did, the faint glow surrounding her body intensified, mingling with her finally manifesting battle aura. Unlike a true battle aura, however, there was no blast of wind or force from the point of projection: it was too tightly wrapped - bound and slaved to the almost skin tight forcefield that now covered Ukyou from head to toe.

The blazing jade and indigo ring on her right middle finger scintillated, flashing flush with power.

'_Willpower must be tempered by Obedience._'

And a _second _green ring appeared on her index finger -

'_You are the hidden hand of Foundation.'_'

And _another _on her right ring finger.

'_You are a CORPSE LANTERN_.'

Ukyou's uniform darkened, from neon green to midnight green to near black, and her eyes vanished completely within a bonfire of purple and emerald. She took a step forward, leaving a burning footprint behind, seemingly uncaring of the trio of pink hexes seared in from her sides and back. She didn't even bother to blink as they hit and bounced clean off her energy field. Brown hair sashayed behind her as she drew back a hand, a series of jade lines forming in the palm.

"**Brilliant**," she whispered, and thrust her hand backward, the air vibrating and shimmering with power. She was announcing her signature ki attack, the Kenran Hinode, and the maelstrom of ki was already churning like a caldera with verdigris colored fury. Wings of green light blasted from her shoulders, charring the ceiling behind and above her.

As Ukyou's hand moved, molten metal sprayed from rents in the ceiling.

"**Sunrise**."

* * *

Jinx dove recklessly across the hold, her lithe body cutting through the air even as she held out both hands before her, launching fiery hex after fiery hex with each passing second. The tiny nimbuses of light scorched across the ship, but most of them flew wide of their target, Starfire's own lanky form flying too quickly to be tagged, even as she returned fire with a stream of blazing star bolts. Thankfully for Jinx, she was moving too quickly to be hit as well. Her shoulder hit the ground a second later and she quickly rolled with it, even as she awkwardly kept firing off a wild spray of sizzling pink entropy.

_'Damn, just need a flock of doves to take off in slow motion!'_

The stack of supplies exploded violently as a trio of emerald plasma blasted into it, utterly destroying her cover less than a second after Jinx had slid across the floor, a trail of bright sparks shooting up from her knees the entire way. Kicking forward into a one handed cartwheel, she swung her free hand sharply through the air, a plasma bolt shooting past, less than an inch from her unarmored face.

Even as the smell of singed hair filled her nostrils, her own attack, a pink crescent of razor sharp death cut across the hold in the blink of an eye. Maneuvering effortlessly through the air, Starfire rose up, over, and then dove back down behind the attack, looking oddly like a dolphin cutting through the waves. The telltale glow from the Tamaranian's eyes was all the warning that Jinx got before her senses screamed at her to '_get out of the way_!'

Counting on the fact that Star would likely aim for center mass, Jinx did the only thing that she could think of to evade the blazing fast attack in time. Armor groaned in protest as she dropped to her knees and folded her body backwards until her head thumped the hard metal floor. Her spine might have been trained to contort that much, but her armor was not, and she heard several, unidentifiable, interior …_things_… snap and break in the lower back at the unforeseen abuse.

Her entire world went green for a half a second, big blurry spots flashing across her vision at the brightness, but she didn't hesitate for a second, pushing off with her feet into a back roll, only to push herself violently up to her feet with a thrust of her hands. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed a pair of blackened circles on the far wall, less than a foot above Mousse's bespectacled face. Unfortunately, she didn't have time to worry about collateral damage, and quickly dove to the side again.

_'That's odd, that green light is still there…'_

It wasn't just her, either, as she noticed Starfire pause at the same time, both of their attention being drawn to the side, to where Ryouga and Ukyou were still fighting. Jinx had been doing her best to try to avoid the high octane grudge match that the two had going on, though the pair of morons was making it hard as hell with their constant meandering through her and Star's crossfire. But now, considering that Ukyou's aura was growing brighter by the second and… and – holy crap! Was she wearing three Green Lantern rings now?

She knew it was futile even before she did it, so the sorceress wasn't at all surprised when her trio of bright pink hexes splashed harmlessly across the lunatic chef's new personal force field. What came next, though, caused Jinx's eyes to go wide with panic.

"**Brilliant...**"

_'God damned, insane, mother fu-' _

For once in her life, Jinx gave silent thanks to martial artists and their utterly moronic compulsion to stop, pose, and proudly declare exactly what it was that they were just about to blast you to hell with. By the time the first syllable had past the chef's lips, Jinx was already sprinting in the opposite direction, scrambling madly towards the nearest door.

Green glow building over her shoulder, Jinx noticed, just out of the corner of her eyes, that Kuno was slumped against the wall, not too far from her destination. Against her better judgment she actually stretched out her hand, fingers curling up in anticipation of a sudden increase in load…

Her foot skidded slightly, hitting a small patch of shattered metal. It wasn't enough to send her toppling, but it did throw off her stride enough that her fingers fell short of the kendoist's shoulder by a few full inches. Cursing lightly under her breath, she briefly considered skidding to a stop-

"**Sun-**"

She reconsidered her consideration in less time than it took to breathe. Her shoulder slammed into the wall next to the storage room door a second later, hard enough that she nearly bounced right off. Slapping her hand to the control panel, she was expecting it to slide open instantly. When all she got was an angry beep, reminding her that the door was locked to protect the alien space booty within, she did the first thing that came to mind.

'_Open_, you piece of _shit! Open! Open_-'

She rammed her fist into the wall, and a burst of pink light washed outwards from the point of impact. A second later, the door obligingly slid open, eliciting a relieved sigh on her part. Sliding through before the door was even half open, she spun around and slammed her hand to the wall again, hoping that it had some kind of 'close door' button, just like an elevator.

Apparently reading her intent, the door began to slide closed before it had even fully opened. She could already see the glow, glaring through the shrinking aperture of the doorframe, and Ukyou's voice continued to ring through the hold...

A second before the door closed, ten orange digits plunged through the slit. A pained hiss was quickly followed by a grating, squealing sound as Starfire forcibly tore the door open and flung herself through. The moment the Amazonian alien was through, the door slammed shut, sparks shooting out furiously from around the frame.

An instant after that, the lights flickered violently and the entire ship rocked as the Green Lantern unleashed her attack, likely vaporizing Ryouga and killing half the people in the hold.

For a half a second, something twisted in Jinx's chest at that thought, but she quashed it brutally down. What the hell had that been? The only thing that could even begin to describe what it had felt like… would be the expression currently painted on Starfire's face as she half glanced back at the door behind her.

"Do… do you think?" she asked hesitantly.

"No," Starfire shook her head forcefully, though the tone of her voice almost sounded like she was trying to convince herself. "No… Ukyou, she – she would not go any further than required. The... the Guardian would not wish us to harm anyone unnecessarily."

Shaking her head, feeling oddly relieved at that assurance for no reason she could fathom, Jinx adopted a sassy grin. "So, that means you aren't gonna hurt me then, is that it?"

Resuming her footing, Starfire frowned darkly. "I do not wish to harm you, Jinx. However, that does not mean that I will allow you to endanger us all with this foolish resistance. If you force me to subdue you… then I will do so."

"Heh, well, we'll just see…!" Jinx trailed off, finally taking note of their surroundings. They were in the side storage room, which, at the best of times, was an eight foot by eight foot room that would barely serve as a walk in closet for either girl present. "About…"

Even worse, the room was half filled with alien artifacts, many boxed up and stacked against the walls, but even more loose items stacked on top of them and scattered around everywhere.

"That…" she finished, lamely. "Crap."

Even as Jinx began to realize just how cramped their current battlefield was, Starfire was obviously coming to the same conclusion, a vindictive smile spreading across her orange lips. It was obvious who this tight space favored, and it wasn't the sprightly young lass that had a penchant for gymnastic evasions.

"Hmph, well to hell with this then," she muttered under her breath. Lifting her hands, she returned the alien girl's vindictive grin with a vicious smile of her own. Arcs of pink lightning began to dance up and down the lengths of her arms, and Jinx lifted her fist before her, still awed at the sight of her own manifested power…

But in looking at her hand, she also saw past her hand, taking in not only the worryingly small space of the room they were in, but also the rooms other sole occupant. Victorious smile faltered, then dropped into a frown. She still didn't know enough about her own new trick. Would using it in such a tight space risk killing herself as well?

That was her only concern, she promised herself.

Starfire's apprehensive expression faded into puzzlement, even as she lifted her hands before her defensively, fists glowing with green light, as Jinx shook her arms out, dismissing the deadly power she had been gathering. Instead, she snapped her hands out to her sides, and deadly, gleaming claws, each over a foot long flashed into existence at her finger tips.

Again, she found herself staring at the fiery redhead… then to her shimmering claws, then back to Starfire once more. Finally giving a weary sigh, Jinx dissolved her claws away, leaving her fist encased in a simple pink glow, fairly similar to her alien opponent's.

"Feh," she muttered in response to Starfire's curious glance, the Tamaranian tilting her head to the side adorably. "You're not even worth my best tricks. I might as well use you as a test dummy for some of my new stuff, anyway."

"I appreciate your concern for my welfare," Starfire replied with a confident smile. It quickly vanished, though, as the Tamaranian held her fists out to her side in an openly aggressive stance. "However, I am not the one in danger of being injured here."

And with that, the fight was on. Two long steps were all it took for Starfire to close the space between them, her emerald empowered fist lashing out in a solid right cross. Jinx's first instinct was to dive out of the way… but she quickly forced herself to hold her position, as diving to the side would have resulted in an immediate face plant into a crate full of alien salvage.

Instead, she simply leaned to the side, letting the glowing fist pass less than an inch from her chest. Thankfully she was still wearing her armor, so she couldn't even feel the heat. Breathing a slight sigh of relief over her minimalist evasion, her eyes widened slightly as Starfire followed up her right with a devastating left.

Leaning back just out of the Tamaranian's reach, Jinx felt her nose get singed by mere proximity, and let out a small curse. That was all she had time for, though, as within moments, Starfire went on full assault. It took every ounce of her superior speed and flexibility to stay out of the path of the alien power house's deadly swings. Ducking and weaving around each strike by the barest of margins, while requiring far less movement than her usual routine, was far more taxing and frantic than she was used to, requiring split second timing and reactions.

With so little room to maneuver, when she wasn't nearly tripping over boxes to gain space, she was nearly face to face with Starfire as the alien girl continued unloading her ridiculously powerful strikes. As such, it took nearly a half minute before she saw her opening.

"Ha!" Her fist lashed out with every ounce of strength she could muster, alien alloy shell and glowing pink aura filling her with the reckless abandon to punch far harder than she ever would normally-

Her knuckles rang out with a dull 'clank' as her fist plowed into Starfire's armored midsection… and Starfire simply stared back at Jinx incredulously for a moment. Jinx could almost swear that the expression on the alien's face was saying, plain as day, '_did you actually think that would work?_'

"Oh… right, tougher than Ryouga and twice as pretty," Jinx lamented.

Then they were right back in it. To an outsider, it might almost have looked like they were dancing, toe to toe and face to face as often as not. With the miniscule amount of room they had to fight, every third step was bouncing off a wall, and every second punch hit a wall, either before, or after the actual swing itself. Jinx's blows rained down on the Tamaranian's lightly armored hide, but even with her power enhanced blows, they did little more than annoy her assailant.

On the other hand, even the one glancing blow that Starfire landed on Jinx's shoulder had sent her flying into a topspin that ended with her bouncing off the far wall of the room…

_'Damnit… if I keep holding back like this… can I even hurt her?_' the witch asked herself. She didn't really want to kill Starfire… but would anything less than her most dangerous stuff actually hurt the insanely durable alien? She needed time to think! Time to make a plan!

Pressing her advantage Starfire waded in again, not even slowing down, her alien endurance promising endless hours of this intensity, hours which Jinx's own constitution couldn't hope to match. Jinx could already feel herself breathing heavily, in fact, never having gotten the chance to fully recover from any of their other countless trials and tribulations over the past week or two…

Starfire lashed out again, this time with a sweeping backfist that could topple a tank, only for Jinx to leap straight up and over the strike. Starfire spun around, instinct screaming that her opponent had leaped over and behind her... only to stare, perplexed, at the empty room behind her. Spinning around again, Starfire scratched her head, wondering just where-

Looking up, she could only stare, agape, at the sight of Jinx… somehow… clinging to the ceiling. Of course, the room was not nearly tall enough for Jinx to have actually leaped up and over her head, but…

"How… how is it that you are doing that?" she asked in a curious voice.

Facing down, her toes and fingers somehow adhering to the surface behind her back, Jinx looked over her shoulder as well, as if just taking stock of just what it was she was doing. A moment of confusion passed over the sorceress' face as well, before she finally shrugged. "Um… ask Ranma."

Starfire had no idea how to respond to that, but she did know how to respond when Jinx released her feet from the roof and swung forward into a devastating double kick. This time, it was the Tamaranian that dodged the attack, floating nimbly to the side as Jinx swung past. With a gentle swing of her hand, she patted the sorceress' back as she hurtled through the air, and the deceptively light looking touch imparted enough power to launch Jinx forward to slam against the close wall.

As Jinx rebounded off the wall, her head ringing from the sudden impact, the next thing she felt was a pair of impossibly strong arms suddenly wrap around her, before tightening, pinning her arms helplessly to her sides. An instant after that, her feet left the ground, as Starfire lifted her up, using her superior height, not to mention crushing Jinx's chest with her superior… grebnaks.

Jinx's face was less than an inch from Starfire's when the alien girl started applying pressure with her bear hug, and the sorceress heard her armor give out an unsettling groan, even as she started finding each breath just that much harder to draw in than the last.

"I apologize, Jinx, as I am aware that oxygen deprivation can be quite traumatic to your species," Starfire apologized, though Jinx was hard pressed to tell if it was sincere or sarcastic. "However," she added with a pleased smile. "Do not fear, I am confident that you will be rendered unconscious before any possibly fatal injuries occur."

_'Ugh… she **was** being sincere...'_

It was a nauseating last thought to have, as the edges of her world started to fade to black…

* * *

Raven's mind shuddered in revulsion as she pierced the veil of darkness that enmeshed the melded minds of Ranma, Ryouga and Trespasser. Despite physical contact with the Oan, the passive resistance - the basic ego barrier between US and OTHER - had been both alien and oppressive. It felt difficult to breathe as she pushed through the outer shell of subconscious thought; her body expressing its discomfort and nausea by instinctively trying to reject any connection with what lay ahead. She had been inside the mind of aliens before; she had touched their ink black minds and even perceived a hint of the Group Mind that ruled them. Sectoids. Even an Ethereal.

This was like that - like _The Mind_ - and as she forced her way into it, Raven felt her body and mind become numb and unresponsive. It was like sinking deeper and deeper into an ocean of lightless water: the sensation of an unfathomable below and an unreachable above. Her lungs burned and cried for her to try and turn back, but she dove deeper. Her mind could express its subconscious dread in any number of unpleasant ways, but she knew her training. She knew what she had to do. It was **her** mind. It was **her** will. It would **obey**.

She fell, deeper, her breath stolen away –

And through the abyss, her mind still her own, she began to perceive what was beyond. Flashes of thought, emotion and impulse hit like waves on the shore, crashing against the rocks around her. The tumult tossed her, but it also cleared, giving way to a tranquil sea of organized thought within a tempest's storm. Urgency and disorientation seized her for a moment as she struggled to grasp what she perceived.

It was a vast sphere, divided into three horizons. One dominated the triad, however, pushing the other two into mere slivers of discordant image and sensation. Within those two slices of hemisphere, Raven could see lightning fast memories and dreams: too fast for her to really understand looking from outside-in. The greater part of the sphere, however, was a stark, featureless white.

Save for a single artificial dot in the center. Above it, a vast scrolling code sped by at imperceptibly high speed, bits and pieces shifting and sorting: the specific psi-signatures being cracked were as complex as a genetic code. Boldness getting the better of caution, Raven approached the eye of the storm - just a bit closer - just enough for her to see within. It was the CIC of Pathfinder. Torn from space and time and reason and placed onto this featureless, desert stage. Ranma and Ryouga were within it, in their usual control chairs, and she reached out to them, feeling their familiar psionic presences. Yet, between the officers stood a blurred human form. It looked almost like Captain Ben-Solomon, but...

The figure's head turned, just enough to see her over his shoulder.

_Trespasser_.

"**Come**."

Taking a moment to gather her will Raven narrowed her eyes and strode forward. Now that she was through the worst of the transference her concentration came more easily, though it was still all but impossible to hide her trepidation entirely. It felt very much like she was walking, naked and unprepared, right into the lion's den.

"**Pitiful spawn of a minor demon," **Trespasser dismissed whatever threat she posed with a disinterested snort. **"You intend to stop my great works?**"

Taking a deep breath, though here it was simply symbolic of bolstering her will, she nodded. A quick glance from one side to the other revealed so much white nothingness, save for those distant slivers of color and the mock control room nestled away at the heart of the mental construct. Trespasser held dominance here, his mind generating and enforcing the 'world' which encompassed them.

"I do," she replied seriously. "Your actions have already betrayed you." Her fists balled up as her thoughts focused to a razor edge. "You have to be stopped."

Turning his back on her, the disorienting, disturbing double image of Ben-Solomon and Trespasser showed no concern and little trace of emotion at all at her response.

A single, mirthless chuckle was his reply. "**You must know that your actions are meaningless. Your bravado hallow. Even in this weakened state, I possess more power than this entire crew combined. What could you possibly hope to accomplish alone?**"

And that was the truth of it, wasn't it? Coming here, like this? It was purest folly; she was facing down a being beyond ancient, beyond all comprehension. It was literal suicide, this attack… but certain doom had never prevented her from going on before. It would not start now.

"Alone?" Raven parroted. Finally, a wry grin wormed its way onto her lips. "I am never… alone."

With dramatic flair, Raven through her arms out to her side, her cloak flaring out broadly, forming a pair of grand, midnight wings. All around her, reality twisted and warped, growing darker and shifting away from the sterile white infinity presented by Trespasser. The ground beneath her feet took on a grayish appearance, and a stone-like texture and the air around her appeared as if a bubble of space had been scooped down and placed around her. Only the stark contrast of nothing around them showed the odd mental construct for what it was.

Even to Raven's eyes, her own effect on the world, trying to impose her own will upon the mental plane, was quite meager considering the Oan was controlling everything else as far as the 'eye' could perceive. But she wasn't done yet.

To her right, a silhouette faded into existence. Starting as little more than a wisp of shadow parting off from her unfurled wings, it quickly took on substance and hue, finally resolving into a familiar green cloaked figure, standing roughly the same height as Raven herself. The blank white emptiness around the emerald clad figure _shifted_ as well, thick roots dominated the ground, and tall trees grew into a dense jungle, nearly hiding them from sight.

Beast Boy, or rather, _Bravery_, tossed back her - his hood, revealing his familiar pointed ears and upturned fangs. Making a notably rude gesture, the cocky emotion barked, "Don`t count us out yet, you overgrown smurf wannabe!"

To Raven`s left, a similar scene was unfolding, though the red cloaked Robin was surrounded by a blasted, hellish landscape, one which threatened to overcome Raven with grief just from looking at it. The ground cracked with heat beneath the young man's booted feet, and his four eyes simmered with grim emotion, but the representation of her Rage said nothing.

Again and again this sight repeated itself. Terra, donning her yellow cloak, standing in a sun baked desert. Jinx, bright pink from head to toe all but prancing in a picturesque aspen grove. Orange clad Starfire, watching with marked apathy as she floated between dark grey clouds. Cyborg, his small grey cloak barely even stretching from shoulder to shoulder, seemingly unable to decide whether to be hiding or cheering from the confines of the vast hangar of Titan Tower.

And then, still leaving Raven uncertain, were the two newcomers that had joined her subconscious clique during their time in Azarath. Much like Cyborg, Mammoth's forgettable beige cloak gave the appearance of a child wearing a towel as a cape more than anything else. The unkempt appearance of the giant teen was even more unruly than usual, and Raven could almost swear that she could actually smell him from where she was. The bright yellow backdrop of hundreds of hexagons, an unwelcome reminder of a dark night, revealed him to be standing in the training room of the Hive Academy.

Finally, wearing a flowing violet cloak which accentuated her figure far more than it hid, Blackfire, Starfire's wicked sister, floated within the cold depths of space, looking quite comfortable with her surroundings. Even as the raven haired Tamaranian's glance shifted from Guardian, to Starfire, to those males present, her expression shifting from haughty disdain, to barely contained revulsion, to predatory hunger... Raven could not help but notice the way the older woman seemed to radiate sensuality in a stark contrast to every other girl present.

** "Interesting. An intentional schism within your mind... but to what end?"**

His interrogative, at least, gave her some infinitesimal measure of comfort. At least he was not privy to each and every one of her most intimate secrets. Perhaps, somehow, she could turn that against him? Perhaps she could formulate some form of pla-

"TITANS _GO!_"

With a savage battle cry, Robin threw his arm forward, calling for a charge, only to lead the way an instant later. The scene was surreal as the personification of her rage sprinted forward, unbelievably fast. The burnt and ashen landscape blurred beneath the red-masked Titan as he cut through the hellish wasteland of Azerath... and yet the 'bubble' of his influence traveled with him, a roughly twelve meter sphere which gave away starkly to white at its outer edges. It was as if she were watching the enraged fighter through a keyhole... or on a television.

In response to his call to arms, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Terra all burst into action simultaneously. The Tamaranian zipped through dark clouds rather lackadaisically, vanishing from sight every few seconds as she cut through the grey skies of her own reality. Cyborg, rather more hesitant in his approach than their leader was, still stomped heavily across the metal flooring of the hangar, leaping over piles of tools and dodging around the odd rocket component.

Beast Boy shifted swiftly into the form of a great jungle cat and arrowed through the thick underbrush of his jungle kingdom, nearly becoming indistinct, a lithe green shape leaping artfully through an entire world of green. It was no surprise that her brash emotion's approach was every bit as fast as her rage, but Beast Boy took a more circuitous approach, attempting to flank the half disguised Guardian.

Terra, for her part, lifter her hands, prompting the slab of rock beneath her to tear free from the dirt and then hurtle forward through the air, skimming mere inches above the ground. Standing serenely on her wildly soaring locomotion, arms crossed firmly over her chest and her hood pulled down low to reveal her glasses and allow her golden hair to whip through the desert winds, the geokinetic girl... sort of... circled around, opposite of Beast Boy, analytical expression on her face.

"Super Awesome Bad People! Attack Pattern Alpha!"

Hot on the heels of the simulacrum Titans, Jinx excitedly followed Robin's order with one of her own, though, granted it was quite a bit less impressive. With practiced ease, the joyful sorceress and the aromatic bruiser began their own charges, vectoring in on Trespasser in a prearranged tactic. Blackfire, for her part, simply shrugged her shoulders before swooping in after her villainous compatriots.

Seemingly unconcerned with the small army of psychic partitions bearing down on him, the thinly disguised Guardian began to slowly walk straight towards Raven. His eyes glanced quickly from one emotional avatar to the next, the most meager showing of interest on his features as he continued his leisurely stride.

** "A most fascinating mental illness you have nurtured."**

'Robin' and 'Beast Boy' closed in first. In flashes of red and green, the duo surged in to attack, Rage sliding in low, legs scissoring furiously to catch trip up the Guardian as painfully as possible. Bravery took the high road, shooting into the air with a powerful flying kick aimed straight at 'Ben-Solomon's' temple.

Somehow - _somehow _- with a movement which nearly belied description, Trespasser tucked his hands into his pockets, even as he lifted his leg over Robin's sweep and ducked beneath Beast Boy's kick at the same time. To add insult to injury, he actually used the motion to swing his lifted foot forward, and transform the artful dodge into another calm step forward. It took both of the hot blooded emotions several confused fractions of a second to realize that their opponent was already behind them and walking away.

** "To shatter your mind so completely, and yet fully retain your control of it."** The Guardian took a hurried step forward, leaving Cyborg's half hearted tackle to miss completely. The metallic Titan hit the hangar floor squealing and sending sparks of protest flying. **"How precariously close to madness your existence is."**

"Cease your incessant chatter!" Starfire's put-upon bark of annoyance was followed up by twin beams of emerald plasma. The deadly blasts of energy seemed to burrow through the very fabric of the non-reality, small tunnels of her dark and cloudy world hugging tightly to each eye-beam as they arrowed down on the disguised Oan.

A deft sidestep swung about into a graceful evasion as the Tamaranian tried vainly to follow the Guardian's gliding form, searing optical blasts cutting smoldering lines in the damp soil... only for it to vanish into stark whiteness as her influence moved on.

** "Odd, though..." **The curious expression on his face seemed quite inappropriate, as Jinx and Mammoth both barreled in towards him. The huge brawler simply ducked his shoulder, preparing for a devastating tackle, while Jinx's hands trailed behind her, claws long enough to rake the cheerful valley floor and set grass and leaf ablaze in her wake extending from her splayed fingers.

Leaning casually to the left, Trespasser allowed the four foot long energy blades pass within an inch of his human mask, only to burst into action a second later. Lashing out with both hands simultaneously, clamped a hand down on Jinx's extended wrist with dismissive ease, pulling her around behind him, even as, unbelievably, he stopped Mammoth's reckless charge with a straight arm to the chest, only to twist his hand into the youth's tunic and swing him through the air like a rag doll.

The counter was perfectly timed as a hail of virulent violet starbolts , courtesy of the raven haired Tamaranian that had been trailing the villainous pair, slammed heavily into Mammoth's back, rocking his body painfully as the Oan used him as a living shield. Letting out a silent curse, Blackfire cut off her attack and swung around through the void of her space for a better angle.

Tossing the stunned Mammoth aside contemptuously, Trespasser turned his attention back to the trapped Jinx, still struggling against his vice like grip.

** "I am sensing some form of external corruption tainting these simulacrums... Sentimentality, perhaps?"**

Wrenching back on her wrist, Jinx spit and hissed at the dispassionate Guardian. "Oh, it is going to make me _so_ happy to _kick your ass!_"

The pink clad partition's entire body lit up with bright pink energy. The aura of crackling lightning arced angrily across her skin, as if searching for egress, which was conveniently provided by the Oan's grip on her arm. Letting out a silent '_hmph'_ of dissatisfaction, Trespasser released Jinx, allowing her to quickly vault back and out of his immediate reach. The arch-alien stared at his smoking hand with clinical detachment.

** "Clev-"**

Whatever he might have had to say was quickly lost as a pair of birdarangs bathed in raw hellfire cut through the air mere inches from his face. The ranged attack was followed seconds later as Robin, Beast Boy and Jinx all descended on the disguised alien as one. Even the all powerful Oan was not able to simply ignore his attackers this time. Robin lashed out with a series of short, rapid jabs to put his victim off balance before falling back just long enough for an emerald raptor to dive in, fanged jaws snapping viciously for the alien's throat. On Trespasser's other side, Jinx waded in with wide, graceful swings of her arms, her long gleaming claws sizzling through the air as she tried to capitalize on the three-fold assault.

Arms moving rapidly, but with inhuman precision, Trespasser knocked aside Robin's initial string of attacks, and followed it with equally swift footwork. Stutter stepping left, then right, he deftly avoid the dinosaur's attempts at mauling, following in Robin's steps as the red clad emotion fell back, and then actually used the flats of his hands to slap aside Jinx's talons, his hands snapping out quickly enough to weave between her attacks even as she made them.

Another lightning fast feint, and the Oan leapt back out of the three fighter killing ground – only to slam into a large stone spire which tore itself free from desert terrain which had not existed mere seconds before. A second later, the monolith suddenly sprouted large, jagged spikes, forcing Trespasser to stumble back into the midst of the three warriors.

** "Better."** The Oan wore the smallest glimmer of amusement as he studied his attackers. Without another word, he shed the shackles of gravity (meaningless as they were here) and rose up above the dangerous trio... Only to drop back to the 'ground' a second later as a lance of white noise and a hail of green and purple starbolts saturated the airspace above the battle. The Oan took this new situation into consideration, studying all of the fighters now surrounding him.

** "Your ability to enact multiple, distinct, mental attacks simultaneously is quite rare. It is a pity that you have likely not grasped the true extent of this gift."** Then, against all reason, he stood up straight, assuming a completely at ease posture, his hands clasped firmly behind his back. Glancing over the arranged aspects of her personality one more time, he took a deep breath, then closed his eyes. **"Nor will you be given the chance. I have enjoyed this small bout of empirical experimentation, however..."**

Trespasser's eyes snapped open, searing green light burning from his gaze like twin lanterns.

** "I have grown bored of you."**

The shift in intent was so stark that it set Raven back a step: calm and calculated **wrath** unlike anything she had sensed before. Reacting with the speed of his namesake, Robin leaned forward, pulling another weapon from his belt.

"TAKE HIM DOW-_hurk!_"

An elbow slammed into Rage's throat with crushing force, the movement so fast that Raven wondered if she had missed it while blinking... except she didn't need to blink here. Which meant it had simply been faster than thought. Faster than her mind could process.

The red cloaked Titan staggered backwards several steps, wet, gurgling coughs spraying blood past his lips as he struggled to draw breath. Half of her emotions were caught like deer in headlights at the sudden brutality, only Bravery, Happiness and Wisdom retaining their wits.

The former pair charged forward, both sporting wicked sets of claws, Beast Boy's reptilian talons evolved to pierce and tear, while Jinx's long, scything energy blades sought to hack and slash. Even as they charged, Terra swung her arms into the air, forming a wall of stone before Robin, both to protect him from Trespasser, and to pull him back out of the immediate battle.

** "This battle is futile. Despite your nascent potential, you are millennia too young to defeat me."**

The Oan did not retreat from his attackers this time, or attempt to circumvent them. Instead, he surged straight in, moving like nothing Raven had ever seen before. Captain Ben-Solomon flowed around Bravery's lunge with contemptuous ease, then his arms flashed out, once-twice-thrice. The first strike shattered the emerald teen's claws like glass, blood and bone fragments showering the partition's face. The second attack, nothing more than a pair of extended fingers, impaled Beast Boy's left shoulder, piercing skin, muscle and bone all with equal ease.

Mercifully, the third blow was an open palm attack which crushed into Bravery's ribs, launching him through the air to vanish into the small sphere of forest that surrounded him.

Jinx, rather than follow in recklessly, leapt back instead, swinging her arms out in front of her with lightning speed. Her crackling claws melted into large crescents of power a single micron thick, slashing through the air like big, murderous smiles.

** "You lack experience."**

With a simple snap of his fingers, the pair of glowing arcs shattered away to so much pixie dust. A second later, he thrust out his other hand, and a... a wave, like a ripple in their air, expanded out from his palm, closing in on the stunned girl at tremendous speed-

Only to break spectacularly, very much like an actual wave, as Cyborg threw himself desperately in front of the avatar of her happiness and slammed his sonic cannon to the ground. In the blink of an eye before the psychic assault would have crushed him, a bubble of shimmering blue hexagons (looking suspiciously like something she'd seen from one of the video games she remembered the large boy playing) sprang to life around them.

Standing tall, holding his smoking sonic cannon before him, Cyborg pumped his other hand in the air. "BOO... um..." Only to look around, suddenly self conscious at his own outburst. "...yay?"

"Starfire, Blackfire, suppression fire!" Wisdom's call to action was urgent, but not panicked.

Whipping swiftly through the air, the pair of Tamaranian's replied with actions rather than words. Streams of burning plasma, violet and emerald, were punctuated by energetic bolts of righteous fury as the pair of warrior angels rained hell on their enemy.

Except... except that none of it was _hitting_. Trespasser wasn't even appearing to move to avoid the attacks. One livid lance of purple energy drilled right through the Oan's chest and into the ground behind him... but didn't so much as leave a mark. How was-

Raven's eyes widened in shock, it was almost imperceptible, but as she focused all of her concentration onto the Oan, she could _just_ see it. Mere fractions of a second before each attack should have landed, the arch-alien's body seemed to – to ripple ever so slightly. He... he was moving to avoid the attacks! Moving like he was the Flash himself!

** "You are actually capable of perceiving my reactions to your attacks? Impressive."** No longer even paying attention to the pair of girls in the air, Trespasser turned back towards her and took a step forward... though 'step' was somewhat misleading, as he seemed to flicker and vanish mid-step, leaving the space behind him to be pulverized by energetic explosions, only to appear several feet away from his previous position. **"It is a pity that you lack the cognitive processing speed to actually react to my own."**

Another blink-step forward and Trespasser lifted his hand once more.

Only to pull it back a fraction of a second later as a molten birdarang cut through the air it occupied. Both Raven and Trespasser turned to see Robin, one hand clutching his throat – a low growl rattling wetly from his lips – and with a fan explosive discs held tightly in his other. For a second, the enraged emotional partition attempted to say something, but all that came from his ruined throat was a furious hiss.

Fury growing every second, the Titan hurled the trio of destructive weapons with all his strength, each one bursting into searing hellfire the instant they left his grip. The blazing projectiles screamed through the air as they bore down on the Oan. Looking unconcerned, Trespasser prepared to take another step away – only to be blocked as a semi circular wall exploded from the ground behind him.

Glowing eyes widened for the merest fraction of a second as the simultaneous mental attack/mental trap combination caught him. Explosions rocked the entire arena, channeled forward and upwards by the curvature of the earthen wall, billowing a dozen yards into the air and sending a wash of super heated air across Raven's face.

Not even waiting for the explosion to culminate, Mammoth burst through the expanding incendiary cloud, a small mountain of earth and stone held above his head, and spiked the slab of infrastructure straight down onto the conflagration.

The entire mindscape quaked at the impact of hundreds of tons slamming into the ground at near sonic speeds, and it was followed quickly by a dozen missiles launched from Cyborg's grey cloaked shoulders. The enhanced warheads vaporized good chunks of landscape, and violently detonated what it didn't. This was followed by Terra swinging her arms over her head, her hair and cloak billowing violently in an unseen wind as her eyes glowed with raw yellow energy.

Five massive spires of stone shot up from the earth around the site of devastation, each one fifty feet high and a dozen feet in diameter, only to collapse inward, looking disturbingly like a hand clenching into a fist. This in turn was blasted to hell as, working in perfect unison, Starfire and Blackfire began to orbit the molten mound of scorched earth, only to gesture and cry in tandem.

"_Dragon ascending towards the heavens wave!_"

The Hiryu Shoten Ha tornado roared to life with the fury of Mother Nature herself, livid green and violet winds sucking up the flaming rubble and debris. Another combination mental trap and psychic attack, the cyclone hungrily scoured the now crater even as it rose up and up into the sky. Finally, after several seconds which seemed to last for eternities, even this began to die down, slowly retreating back to the ground.

But even that wasn't enough, as Beast Boy/Bravery, in the form of a pteradon, soared over the absolute carnage, Jinx straddling his leathery shoulders. Pink lightning, arcing sheets of it, as if Thor and Zeus had both taken a liking to pastels, rained down on the burning remains. Dozens of bolts slammed down and everything they touched exploded catastrophically, forcing everyone to retreat in a near panic as the unbound emotion of Happiness unleashed everything she possessed with joyous abandon.

Finally, silence settled on the mindscape, save for the errant sound of falling rubble and the ragged breathing of all present. Even Raven was drawing in labored breaths, having felt keenly the desperate efforts of all of the various parts of herself. She... she honestly had no idea what half of the things she had even done were, acting purely on instinct and lashing out with everything she had. Layers upon layers of imprisonment and assault, some seeming to blend together with how intimately her partitions coordinated their efforts.

And yet... it had all been for nothing.

Without even seeing him, Raven could already sense that Trespasser was still alive. Not just alive, but just as strong as ever. She was not even surprised when one of the massive slabs of stone, half glowing, half frozen, groaned loudly as it shifted upwards and was tossed aside. Trespasser, still looking very much like Ben-Solomon, was smoking slightly, a few painfully superficial bruises showing on his illusory skin, betrayed no signs of discomfort in his expression as he studied all of her exhausted partitions clinically.

** "Just when you seem to bore me, you do something like this. Fascinating," t**he Oan admitted casually, dusting off his shoulder, **"However, my work is yet unfinished. I do not possess the inclination to continue this farce."**

"F-Farce?" Raven wheezed, her metaphysical lungs burning. "I… I believe you might have underestimated my power… I-I can keep this up _all_ day!"

Despite the impossibility, she almost could have sworn she saw the all powerful Guardian of the Universe roll his eyes. **"Even if that _were_ true, your persistence is irrelevant. It is true that you have some small measure of power. However… in displaying that power, you have also displayed your weakness as well."**

"Hmm? What do you mean by that?" she inquired, really more hoping to just keep him talking and buy her some time to recover.

Shrugging casually, Trespasser gestured all around him, to all of her partitions. Almost immediately, his meaning became obvious. How had she not noticed it herself until now? All of her partitions, Rage, Bravery, Happiness, Wisdom, Apathy, Timid and … and whatever Mammoth and Blackfire represented, were all still standing, each obviously attempting to recover as well. Robin was still holding his throat, but seemed to be breathing more easily, just as Beast Boy was clutching bleeding hand to bleeding shoulder and looking a pale green.

It was not the avatars of her personality themselves that gave meaning to the Oan's words, but the small 'worlds' that surrounded them. The spheres of influence of each partition, each showing a different sliver of wildly different locations…

** "That is correct. All of your simulacrum were not created equal."** With one hand, Trespasser gestured to Robin, the small pocket around him showing a portal view of burning Azarath, was nearly a dozen meters in diameter, expanding and contracting slightly with each labored breath he took. With the other hand, the Oan singled out Cyborg… the sphere of influence surrounding him barely ten feet from one side to the other. Lifting his second hand higher, his palm splayed out wide, a slight smile alighted on the Guardian's borrowed lips.

** "Allow me to demonstrate."**

"_No! Wai-_"

And then Trespasser closed his hand, clenching it down into a tight fist.

Timid had less than a half of a second to turn his gaze Raven's way, a look of resigned terror on his face which cut right through her like a scalpel-

Cyborg's torso collapsed in on itself in a horrific squeal of steel on steel. Hydraulic fluid sprayed out, violent overpressure causing jets of the stuff to splatter the ground over thirty feet away. Other liquids joined it soon enough, some unidentifiable, save for one vividly crimson fluid which oozed from the crushed remains of his chest. The cybernetic partition wavered back and forth for several long seconds, a look of abrupt surprise on his face… only to finally collapse to the ground in a sparking, sputtering heap.

"_CY!_" Bravery/Beast Boy's cry was actually surprising in its verisimilitude, sounding pitch perfect of what Raven imagined the changeling would sound if he had just witnessed the murder of his best and closest friend.

"Beast Boy, wait!" Terra's plea, a hint of alien desperation in the perfectly rational partition's voice, was unheeded.

Shedding the laws of physics, Bravery's thin, wiry form began to swell up, larger and larger by the second. Then, against all reason, he shed the laws of reality as well, and his body continued to grow, only to unfurl a massive pair of leathery wings, horned skull rising ever higher into the air on a long, serpentine neck. Lifting into the air, the immense emerald _Dragon_ reared back its head, a deep orange glow emanating from within its throat.

This time there was no 'near panic' as everyone fled for their lives. Even Raven flew backwards as fast as she could, she could actually feel the self destructive offense taking form inside of her, but was completely helpless to stop it, her emotion somehow superseding her own control.

A raging river of flame vomited forth from Bravery's draconic maw. The unending torrent of flame engulfed entire swathes of the mindscape, the hellish flames consuming and unraveling all of the latent constructs that had been created over the course of their battle with Trespasser. Mounds of stone and stretches of forest were blasted to ash, and then swept away to reveal white nothingness once more, alive with wildly dancing flames which reached hungrily towards the heavens.

Raven had no idea how long it lasted, all that she knew that, once it was over, it was all she could do to collapse to her knees, a tightness clenching her chest as she now struggled to take even a single breath. All around her, her partitions collapsed to their knees as well. Even Beast Boy reverted to his elfin form, dropping to the ground, utterly unconscious. Still, the damage was done. Despite their autonomous actions, everyone present still drew upon the same well of power… Raven's power… and now that well was tapped dry.

Leaning forward, resting her hands on the white space before her, she could only watch as the towering cyclone of fire slowly dispersed. At the heart of the inferno, a smaller cyclone stood… only to shred apart revealing Trespasser once more, hand held out before him. The Oan's hand was actually blackened, and smoke rose up from it… but that was the absolute extent of the damage that Bravery – that _she_ had inflicted with her wildly reckless assault.

Examining his hand, the Guardian nodded slowly to himself. **"A desperate gambit, but not without merit. There is, after all, no point in holding back when one's death is imminent."**

Turning his attention back to her, he dipped his head slightly.

** "Out of respect for your strong will and perseverance, I will not waste either of our time engaging in this mockery of a battle with your simalcurum." **With that, as easily as one might brush lint off their shoulder, he reached his hand out towards her, palm held upwards in a frighteningly familiar gesture.

And then he closed his hand into a fist.

"**Perish.**"

Raven collapsed forward, her face slamming painfully into the ground. That pain was nothing, though, compared to the searing lance of torment which stabbed through her chest. Clutching her hands to her chest, finding no physical damage, she could not even draw a single breath to ask what had just happened.

Turning his back on her, Trespasser began to calmly walk back to the mockup of the control center he had generated before she had even arrived. Almost absently, he spoke over his shoulder.

** "I have destroyed your heart. Your physical heart. You will be dead shortly."**

Wracking coughs rattled her body, blood pouring from her mouth with each cough and giving credence to his claim. The pain was unimaginable, it felt as if he had reached right into her body and crushed her heart with his bare hands…

"_N…no…"_

_ 'I – I can't … fail **now**…'_ Cyborg, Starfire, Jinx… _Ryouga_. They were all counting on her. If she failed now, they would all die, that she knew with absolute certainty. There had to be something she could do, _anything_. Even if it cost her, her life, it would be worth it, if only she could _save her friends!_

_ 'But I … I can't… I'm not – not **strong** enough…'_

Her vision began to fade as she as she looked for something, anything that might be able to help her.

'_Can't – can't stop him…'_ Her eyes widened as she noticed something, a sliver of color and confusion on the far horizon.

That – that could be it!

'_C-can't stop him… but maybe-maybe **they** can…'_

With the last of her flagging strength, she reached out to her two most distant partitions.

'_Terra… Blackfire… please… help…'_

Her eyes were burning now, tears beginning to blur her vision as liquid fire burned inside her breast, but, amazingly, she watched as the spindly yellow clad Titan, and the seductive violet cloaked villain both rose shakily into the air before traveling swiftly in opposite directions.

Each flying unerringly towards the two mental constructs which resided on each horizon.

* * *

Raven's ruby red lips moved, weakly, and her body crumbled like a broken puppet.

Fingers slipped from their once sure purchase behind Trespasser's head, spasming fiercely before going limp. Strands of white, Mathusian hair slipped past the female titan's fingertips as she fell. Flecks of blood, Raven's blood, marked and scored the back of her hand and stuck to select strands of white. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed.

Until a hand caught hers before it could lose contact, forcefully pressing it back against the back of the Oan's skull. Nabiki ducked under Raven's arm, propping the other girl up and keeping her hand in place. No matter what, Raven could **not** lose physical contact with Trespasser. She knew that. She also knew that fighting the Oan, in this universe or the next, physically or mentally, was tantamount to a suicide mission.

Nabiki quickly checked Raven's pulse with a free hand. A moment later, and that same hand reached for the dark Titan's neck, confirming what she had felt and sensed the moment the psychics' body went boneless.

She was dead.

Her heart had stopped.

Nabiki's mouth went dry. _Her mind raced._

Raven was _dead_. Even after all this, Trespasser had killed her. For a split second, the mercenary Tendo sister closed her eyes, not wanting to admit what evidence and rational analysis indicated. But the young Titan, younger than Nabiki herself, younger than her little sister, had no pulse; a thin, dark trail of crimson ran down her chin as blood bubbled up from her lungs. Her eyes were still open, the once vivid violet orbs staring dully forward, unfocused.

"This is… my fault... I put all our fates on your shoulders…" Nabiki realized, gritting her teeth. "After Azarath, I thought… I miscalculated…"

Blinking, hard, she resolved not to cry. Not this close to the end.

She'd face it well, as it came.

"I'm sorry…"

The pair hunched, Raven's grip on Trespasser weakening–

_ 'N…no…'_

Only for Nabiki to push the other girl's hand down harder.

"No. Not yet," Nabiki hissed, craning her neck to whisper into Raven's ear. "Not yet! Raven…!"

_ 'I – I can't …'_

"Your body's dead, but you have five minutes before braindeath!" Nabiki could almost, almost feel it, with her hand over Raven's. "You aren't dead yet! You aren't done fighting yet!"

_ 'I can't fail **now**...'_

"To die on your feet is a rare honor," Reava's callous voice mirthfully commented as the female Fury walked over, arms crossed. "Maybe you should be happy for her, human?"

Nabiki glared at the ancient Apokaliptian. "Time?"

"Not much," Reava admitted, her eyes drifting over to the reactor room door.

"This is Cyborg we're dealing with," Nabiki observed, with a desperate, challenged grin. "A door won't hold him for long. Luckily, he knows better than to do anything hasty with all the delicate equipment in there."

"And you believe you can stop him?" Reava laughed freely at the mere thought. "You?" She pointed at the Tendo sister. "The weakest creature on this ship?"

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence!" Nabiki motioned the Fury over, to help take her place. "Care to place a wager on my pulling it off?"

"Can I bet your life?"

"Sorry. I'm already putting that on the line myself." The mercenary girl deftly slipped out from under Raven as Reava took her place. "You don't have any money on you, do you?"

Reava's hand finally replaced Nabiki's, holding Raven's in place.

"Glorious Apokalips has long since moved beyond the use of simple currency," the female Fury haughtily explained. "So, no, I do not."

"No money? Sounds like hard-core socialism to me!" Nabiki patted the Fury amicably on the shoulder. "Now we _know_ you're from an evil planet!"

Reava simply snorted, not getting the reference.

"If the half-man half-machine crushes you, don't assume I won't laugh," she warned.

Nabiki, her back to the Fury, loaded a special clip into her plasma pistol. The gray and green-tinted weapon then came up to rest partly against the human's right shoulder. Not far away, the door to the reactor room was still and silent, like the surface of volcano: an unbroken, unassuming surface hiding a growing pressure below. The Japanese girl's shoulders raised and fell as she took a calming, steadying breath.

"I've taken care of the EDC code and vector re-alignment," she said, ignoring the implication of what could happen in her upcoming confrontation. "Even Cyborg can't change that in the time we have left. What's most important is keeping Raven fighting."

The plasma weapon slowly slumped until it rested against her hip.

"Besides…" Nabiki glanced back at Reava, for just a moment, and there was a fire in her eyes. "I always kind of liked the idea of Russian Roulette." She faced the door again, defiant – even a little excited.

In a quiet voice, she muttered, just loud enough to hear, "This time, Ryou-chan, I'll be the big damn hero protecting you."

Reava did hear, not that she understood.

"That's desperation talking," she said with a sneer. "Not courage."

"You're probably right. It helps that there's nowhere to run away to." Nabiki chuckled darkly, not turning her head to face the Fury. "Anyway. You know what you have to do. I'd hoped to keep from using _that_… but we're all out of options. So hurry up and finish."

"Human," Reava said it like a curse. "You have no idea how much I hate having to do this. Nevermind the difficulty of it…"

The Fury's left hand finally detached from the small of her back, where a patch of false skin now hung loose. Reava winced, in genuine pain as years of abuse - held in check - seemed to come back with interest to wrack her body. Her right hand shook, for just a moment, on top of Raven's. Still, the female Fury pressed on, lifting her left hand and revealing a flat piece of alien technology that had, until recently, been as much a part of her as her very muscle and bone.

The flat, gold rectangle was inset with faint, colored boxes, blinking weakly.

"To part with a gift given me by Lord Darkseid himself," Reava's voice betrayed a frisson of loss and despair. "This Mother Box has sustained me for eons in this blighted place. To give it to another… I would almost sooner die."

Slapping the living computer onto Raven's arm, the Apokoliptian Fury sneered.

"…_Almost_."

As soon as it touched the Titan's skin, wires snapped out, stitching in and out of flesh to secure it in place. Lights brightened within the golden inlay and a faint green glow suffused the pale girl's body. Dull violet eyes shrunk, contracted, and then widened as a ragged gasp escaped dry lips. The far off look persisted, and then disappeared as Raven shut her eyes, concentrating. Living.

Reava, however, shuddered, wracked.

Her hand now clung to Raven's as much as it had once propped the other girl's in place. Without the Mother Box, she would have died en eternity ago in this nightmare realm. It had placed her in a protective coma after the Thanagarians had finished with her. It had kept her alive against all odds. Now, with it gone, even for a moment… the degeneration of a millennia trapped in the dimensional abyss… it was all coming back. It was all she could do to keep standing.

And then the door to the reactor room opened with an inauspicious hiss.

_'Human…'_ Reava's thoughts were almost as weak as her body, now deprived of life support. _'I hope you know what you're doing…'_

* * *

Stars danced across Jinx's vision, and not just of the Tamaranian variety. Her arms felt like they were going to bend backwards… roughly three inches above the elbow, and her ribs and spine were getting far more intimately acquainted with her internal organs than was healthy, or natural. The gasping sorceress was starting to wonder if Starfire had been wrong about the 'fatal injuries' thing…

She was also starting to wonder if this is what being a tube of toothpaste felt like.

Panic was already starting to bubble over furiously, no amount of twisting or turning could free her. For all of her flexibility and agility, she might as well have been caught in a hydraulic press… and that press was currently sliding closed. Not sure what else to do, she reared back, then slammed her forehead into Starfire's orange face as hard as she could.

All new, shiny, pretty stars filled her vision to join the spots of light signaling her oxygen deprivation and an entire aurora of pain given color flashed across her eyes. The sorceress might as well have rammed her head directly into a concrete wall; it actually took her several agonizingly long seconds just to uncross her eyes to see Starfire's blatantly unbruised face clearly again… or at least the three faces which were overlapping each other by a centimeter or two as they floated back and forth.

In a suspicious show of conformity, all three Starfire's frowned at her. "Do not-"

Roaring incoherently, Jinx swung her head forward again – only to feel a blinding pain and hear a wet _crunch_ as Starfire dipped her head forward this time, catching Jinx's nose right on the crown of her head. A spray of warm liquid splattered across Jinx's face, dripping down over the Tamaranian's forehead in a most uncomplimentary clash of colors.

Jinx's head lolled around limply as her vision danced with a dozen Tamaranian warriors, soaked with blood and glaring at her with a mixture of concern and condescension. She couldn't breathe anyway, so the sensation of blood pooling at the back of her throat from her broken nose didn't concern her as much as it should have. Instead, her mind started darting about randomly.

'_N-no…no… do – what can… do, I do?'_

Her head swam.

'_What can… I... what – what… what would **Happi** do?'_

Inspiration struck like a bolt, instantly reducing the number of Starfires from a dozen to a mere four with the purity of her clarity. Force was useless in this instance. She could wail on the Tamaranian with a bleeding sledgehammer all night and the damned alien probably wouldn't even feel it.

But perhaps a more… delicate approach would garner more substantial results?

Moral quandary was addressed and dismissed as quickly as it came up, and – struggling vainly to stretch her arm forward and around the Tamaranian's back, Jinx crooked a single finger out… even as she reached ever so slowly beneath the hem of Starfire's flaring skirt…

"_AH!"_

Instantly, Starfire's arms flew apart, swinging around to grasp her bottom. At the same time, her pelvis thrust forward, pushing Jinx away bodily, a great red flush of humiliation washing across the Tamaranian's face as she stared at Jinx, scandalized.

_"Fingers do **not** go there_!"

Too busy coughing up a throat full of blood, Jinx was quite pissed off that she was robbed of her chance to repartee with '_Yeah, well knees don't go **here**, either!'_

Instead, she satisfied herself with wrapping her hands around the distracted alien's neck, only to pull herself forward with all of her might and drive a glowing knee right into the Tamaranian's unarmored groin with bone shattering force. Super alien toughness or not, sensitive bits were _sensitive_, and Jinx was not surprised when Starfire's eyes nearly bugged out of her skull and she keeled forward letting out a most pained squeak.

Growling herself, Jinx didn't let up for a second, driving her knee forward again, this time into Starfire's stomach, and then twisting her hands viciously into the girl's long flaming hair, only to wrench her orange alien face down into her knee as hard as inhumanly possible.

Then, even as Starfire recoiled, hand swinging up to clutch her face while she staggered backwards from the unexpected assault, Jinx leapt straight up into the air, pulling her knees tightly to her chest, coiling up her body like an over tensed spring, only to snap out her entire body straight, unleashing a _devastating_ double dose of size six, indestructible steel boots directly to the alien girl's face like a shotgun blast.

Both girls fell through the air, Jinx straight down to flop onto her back, Starfire backwards to ricochet off the wall and collapse to the ground, her own nose dribbling green over orange lips. Rolling over quickly, Jinx spat up another wad of her own, iron based blood, the sticky red liquid clinging disgustingly to her chin, and pushed herself up to her feet. Starfire was still, flat on her back and staring blankly at the ceiling. Taking a tentative step forward, Jinx held her hands up defensively. Had – had she actually knocked the alien powerhouse out...?

Sitting up abruptly, Starfire let out an inarticulate, enraged howl, a pair of emerald lances of pure agony exploded from her eyes, blowing into Jinx's chest and slamming her across the room as if she were a fly. Tears sprang up in the sorceress' eyes as she slid down to drop onto her bottom, her arms wrapping around her chest as entirely new types of pain assaulted her narrow frame. Though her vision was blurry, it was impossible to miss the black charring that spread across most of her breast plate, nor the plasma retardant foam that was starting to seep out from around the armored plates. Even through her armor, she could feel the heat trying to seep through and burn her.

Jinx had no doubt that her entire face was likely bright red at the moment, feeling like she'd just spent a day under the desert sun.

Had… had Starfire just tried to _kill_ her with that blast?

"You! YOU! You - _you _degenerate, _deceitful_, despicable _Human!_" Starfire hissed the accusation, her words dripping with more hatred and vitriol than Jinx had even imagined was _possible_ for the sweet Tamaranian. The alien warrior's fists were trembling with livid fury as she dragged herself to her feet.

"I was so _very wrong_ about you!" she snarled, advancing on her former comrade. "You are no better than the _rest_ of your depraved race!"

Weakly grabbing the handle of one of the locked artifact drawers above her, Jinx dragged herself to her own feet as well. Glaring back, she took another shuddering breath, relishing the sweet air, even with the stink of blood filling her nose and lungs.

"Hey! I'm totally, um… generate? _And_ spicable!" Swiping her tongue over her teeth, Jinx spat out one last wad of blood before pushing herself off of the wall. Reaching behind her back, she unclipped both of her combat smoking-pipes and began to twirl them around before her.

Rubbing the back of her hand across her face, smearing both green and red blood messily across her cheek, Starfire glared back at her with burning disdain. Stalking slowly to the side, immediately prompting Jinx to start circling around as well, the Tamaranian clenched and unclenched her fists anxiously.

"There is no depths to which _your kind_ will not sink to gain advantage," the alien warrior hissed, "No _perversion_ in which you will not indulge, no _deceptions_ you will not enact! You and _all_ your kind are without honor _or_ decency!"

"Sheesh, talk about takin' a bit of harmless sexual harassment _way_ too seriously," Jinx muttered. Despite her flippancy, she felt her own hackles starting to rise at the endless stream of insults. Granted, she wasn't _actually_ above sinking to dirty tricks and the like – she had trained with Happosai, after all – but the basic desire to defend her species as a whole was hard to ignore, even though she wasn't exactly a fan herself, most of the time.

"H-_Harmless_!" Roiling spheres of plasma exploded into existence around Starfire's fists. "You believe that the _violation_ of another being for your _amusement_ is _harmless_!"

"Hey now! Who said anything about 'viola- _oh crap_!" Whatever else she had to say in her defense was lost to the ages as Starfire blasted across the room in a berserker charge, blazing fists leading the way. It was actually Starfire's enraged battle cry, boiling over with righteous fury, which startled the sorceress more than the actual attack itself.

Sidestepping fluidly, Jinx's smoking pipe flashed out in a blur of dull silver and shining pink. A flash of movement and a calamitous crash heralded the odd sight of Starfire almost appearing to materialize on the far side of the room, only now upside down. Dropping down onto a stack of crates, the Tamaranian bounced once before scrabbling to regain her footing, shaking her head furiously at the sudden bout of disorientation.

Frowning, Jinx studied her pipes carefully, noting the pink energy dancing up and down their lengths. So far, they seemed unaffected by her power, which was a good thing. Not so good, was the fact that she had seemed to have pushed a berserk button that she hadn't even known Starfire had possessed. Wasn't she the 'free love' hippy type girl?

Sure, _she_ wouldn't have appreciated, well, _anyone_ doing the same to her – violently so – but this was _Starfire_!

Slamming her fist into the wall hard enough to cause several crates to topple over, Starfire looked ready to launch herself across the hold at full speed again. Jinx tensed in preparation, bringing her tobacco pipes up before her… only to stare uncertainly when the Tamaranian hesitated, pausing to study her carefully.

Then against her expectations, rather than wade right back into it, Starfire began to calmly stride towards her, her firsts held tightly at her sides. Jinx held her ground, though she felt her nerves start to fray as the Tamaranian continued to close the distance between them with confident certainty.

Her confidence grew even more tenuous when Starfire stopped less than two feet before her, easily within striking range, but just stood there, staring down at Jinx with a leering smile on her face. The tableau held for several nerve wracking seconds: Starfire towering over her, but with her hands held loosely at her sides, while Jinx stared upwards, pipes crossed defensively before her. What – what the hell was Starfire waiting for? What was _she_ waiting for?

In the end, it was Jinx's nerve that broke first, and she lashed out with a blindingly fast strike, aiming the tip of her pipe right for the damned alien's stupid, wide green eye! Except that Starfire's head slid out of the way with startling grace, simultaneously, both of Starfire's hands shot up, one tapping the front of her wrist, and the other gently slapping the back of her hand.

Jinx hissed violently, even with the seemingly 'light' touches, she was pretty certain that her wrist would have been shattered completely if she hadn't been wearing her armored gauntlet. As it was, her pipe was sent flying to stab into one of the various crates from the force of the 'disarming', and she snapped the arm back to her chest with a pained wince.

She didn't have a chance to react further, though, before Starfire's hand shot out again, a straight jab, and obvious feint. Shaking out her hand quickly, Jinx slid her remaining pipe forward, angling it down the length of her forearm, and let Starfire's strike graze along its surface and slide up and past her harmlessly. She wasn't surprised this time, when Starfire's jab suddenly transformed into a pull, attempting to grasp her elbow as she retracted her hand. Twisting about, she dropped her arm out of harm's way, only to lash out with a snap kick to the alien's weakly armored ankle as she spun.

Eyes widened fractionally as Starfire anticipated her own counter and stepped back, only to lift her other knee into a strike at Jinx's abdomen. Nowhere near strong enough to stop it, Jinx slapped both her hands down and caught the attack, only to lock her arms straight and let the Tamaranian push her straight up. Even as she lifted up into the air, the agile sorceress pulled her knee up to her chest, only to launch her foot out sharply, actually catching Starfire in the chin this time.

The sharp _crack_ of metal foot hitting hardened bone rang out and the pair of them were pushed apart, Jinx landing a bit uncertainly from her awkward position and Starfire gingerly rubbing her chin as she stared back at Jinx, struggling mightily to rein in her temper.

"It appears that the Musk Prince's training has been as lacking as his honor," the Tamaranian muttered in a low voice as she wiped some of the mixed green and red blood from her cheek before resuming her combat stance.

"Heh, Herb is a _punk_," Jinx replied cheekily, still shaking out her wrist. At the very least it felt sprained… she _hoped_ it wasn't actually broken, anyway. "You need to get yourself a _real_ master! I think the difference in results is pretty obvious."

"_Happosai_," Starfire spat the name like a curse. "Truly the most vile and worthless of creatures."

Jinx's smile dropped right off of her face. "Hey. Shut up."

This time, it was Starfire's lips that twisted into a wicked grin.

"Why?" she asked, leaning forward, leering. "Does it _offend _you? To hear me speak ill of your _perverted_, talentless, **joke **of a master? Or perhaps I am reminding you of just how _pathetically_ he died at the hands of his enemies in _this_ world? I have heard he died, _poisoned_, begging for his life."

Jinx's fists tightened against her own will, her pale knuckles going pure white and her remaining pipe digging painfully into her palm. Her arms began to vibrate with suppressed fury and she allowed herself to glance longingly at her make-shift weapon, the lone reminder of her master she had left. Pink sparks began to dance along her right arm.

"Or perhaps," the Tamaranian continued, stepping forward tauntingly. Her head tilted to the side and the shameless expression on her face grew ever more mocking. "You have finally begun to realize that the only reason he chose to train you at all… was because you are so _repulsive_, that even that _degenerate freak_ could not stand to touch you!"

"_Fucking **DIE**!_"

Pink fire coalesced in her hand, fast as thought, bursting out into five long, jagged claws that promised a slow, agonizing death. Charging forward, eyes half blurred with tears, Jinx lashed out first with indestructible pipe, aiming to stab the thing right through the alien's black heart; she followed it a fraction of a second later with a vicious swipe of her trailing hand. Burning blades scrabbled madly across the metallic midriff of Starfire's outfit, small trails of molten slag marring the surface before finally finding somewhat softer ground.

Ignoring the shallow cuts leaking green blood onto her skirt, not even deigning to notice the damage done to her leg, Starfire met her wild fury with righteous fury of her own. Starfire didn't even attempt to strike back at the nimble sorceress, so close within her guard. Forgetting finesse and skill completely, the dominating alien stepped forward and drove her _head_ right into Jinx's face. The witch's head rocked back and if her nose wasn't broken before, the sound of shattering cartilage filled her skull for certain this time.

The entire room spun and she felt her back bounce off the wall behind her as she staggered backwards, but she forced herself to focus through the burning pain. She could already feel one of her eyes starting to swell up, but she still saw it when Starfire began to stride purposefully across the room towards her. Lifting her pipe holding hand, shaking heavily now, she fired off a salvo of pink hexes at point blank range, hoping to force Starfire to dodge and buy herself another second to recover.

Bursts of light blossomed all along the Tamaranian's body, knee, thigh, hip, stomach, chest and shoulder. Each small explosion of sizzling pink entropy left blacked rings on the alien warrior's armored clothing… but they didn't even slow her march. Even the last hex, striking Starfire directly in the cheek… even that one only snapped her head to the side for an instant. With a snarl, her head whipped back around, her hair flaring out in a wave of fiery red, revealing a small blistering burn beneath her eye, already oozing green.

Jinx's eyes widened as she watched Starfire walk through her fusillade like she might have been stepping through the rain. Starfire's hand lashed out then, cracking into Jinx's extended wrist hard enough to launch the _other_ pipe from her hand and slam her entire arm painfully to the wall behind her. Pain flashed up her side, and the sorceress wondered if her damned shoulder had just dislocated from the force of the strike, but she didn't have time to reflect on that as Starfire took another step forward.

Slamming her palm to the wall, mere inches to the side of Jinx's face, Starfire leaned forward, _looming_ over the now suddenly diminutive sorceress. She still had her hex claws formed, but her arm, the uninjured one, hung at her side limply, shaking slightly as she cringed down to try to get away from the alien's hateful eyes. Starfire didn't even glance at her claws, was obviously not even _concerned_ what Jinx might do with them… which somehow only made Jinx's seeming paralysis _worse_.

Even as she retreated, Starfire only leaned in further, almost looking straight down on Jinx now. The alien girl seemed to be warring with herself, her grin twisting into a dark frown as she scrutinized the witch beneath her.

"It still awes me… the level of your deception, Jinx," she muttered in a disturbingly neutral tone. Jinx was forced to blink as a drop of green blood splattered onto her face, dripping down from the alien's. "To believe that you had fooled me, _so completely_. I had _believed_, with all of my heart, that… that we were truly _friends.._"

Jinx held her breath, willing with all of her might just to have her hand _move_. Starfire hardly even seemed to be paying attention to her now at all. The alien warrior shook her head from side to side, squeezing her eyes shut.

"So many days, fighting as sisters against a monstrous foe? So many nights spent in training, nights filled with laughter and smiles as we strived to master new, impossible arts…"

The sorceress felt something twist up inside her, a lump forming in her throat making it uncomfortable to breathe. Why… why was this even affecting her at all? It wasn't even like she _liked_ the Tamaranian. S-sure… it had been nice having a gal pal to train with… And no one was better at teasing Raven than the alien princess, possibly just because no one ever saw it coming…

It had all just been business.

Hadn't it?

"S-Star…?"

"_Enough_!" Pushing herself up and back, Starfire turned around and took several steps back across the room. The alien's fist shook furiously at her side, her arm curling up as she stared at her closed hand.

"I have heard the last of your lies," Starfire's voice was deathly calm. "You are a _plague_ on those around you, Jinx. All you do is prey upon the love of others; mock us even as you twist our feelings around for your amusement."

Twisting her neck around, the flame haired alien glared at Jinx over her shoulder. "But I will end your sick game. I will _never _let you hurt _him_ or anyone else ever again." Slowly, methodically, Starfire turned back to face the sorceress fully. "It may take time, but I trust that Ryouga will come to thank me for what I do now."

_That_, finally, snapped Jinx out of whatever spell had been holding her. Surging back up to her full height, pushing off the wall at her back, she took a challenging step forward and pointed an accusing finger right back at the alien.

"_Ryouga_? Ryouga? **_Ryouga_**_!_ Why the **hell**is everything always about **_him_!**" She swung her hand through the air, indignation starting to crack her voice. "How the hell do you think I feel? Every damn person I know telling me, '_Oh, you should love Ryouga, it'll be better that way_!' Do I not even get a _fucking_ choice in the matter?"

Starfire faltered slightly at that, but gave her head a quick shake. "I-"

"_I don't care_!" Jinx screamed back. "You love the bastard enough that you'll _fucking kill me, _for _him?_ Then, for the love of all that is evil, _take him_! Rape him till he bleeds! Screw him till you crush his pelvis to powder, you damned alien _slut!_"

Her opponent's hesitation burned away like fall leaves in a firestorm at Jinx's heated words, and green plasma filled the Tamaranian's eyes. Faster than anything she had seen from the alien, Starfire pulled back her fist and surged forward.

"You," she screamed, baring teeth. "You will **not**vilify my **_love_!**"

Her fist tore through the air, the girl so utterly furious that she didn't even think to ignite it with plasma. Not that she would need it, with her full strength, Starfire would not just burst Jinx like a melon, she'd probably punch her right through the damn wall and into the black void of space to boot.

Jinx's eyes narrowed. She'd been in space enough for one life time, thank you very much. She didn't even try to dodge, all she did was lift her arm…

And extend a single finger.

Though it carried with it the power of a runaway freight train, Starfire's fist slammed into the tip of Jinx's finger like the angry hammer of God - And it _stopped_, stopped dead. The Tamaranian scarcely even had a chance to widen her eyes in shock at the impossible, utterly improbable sight-

And then the world exploded as a shockwave of pure, pink, entropic force washed out from Jinx in an omnidirectional blast. The wave of power blasted them both off their feet, indiscriminate in its wrath as it filled the chamber and echoed back on itself, again and again. Loose artifacts were shattered to dust in an instant, boxes were sent hurtling through the air, creating a deadly crossfire of flying blunt trauma and everything was thrown ass over tea kettle in the overly small room.

Finally, after a seeming eternity of being thrown about and battered nearly senseless –

_Her eyes were nearly blinded by an emerald glare which encompassed everything. The strength of the winds instantly sent her hurtling round and round, tumbling her in every direction possible, even as the powerful vacuum tried to steal what little air she had left in her lungs. Then there was the remains of the church itself, she writhed in pain, as tiny pieces of shrapnel tore at her skin, how long would it be before some larger piece smashed her brains out? Most disturbing of all, she could actually **feel** the winds around her **tearing** into her life force, feeding upon her energy!_

Jinx dropped to the ground, sucking in a great lungful of air. What… what the hell had _that_ been? It wasn't anything that she remembered remembering… Giving her head a quick shake, she started the arduous task of levering herself to her feet.

The room around her was a disaster. Boxes were strewn everywhere, a few of them knocked open and alien gizmos, some few still in one piece, others in hundreds of pieces, covered the floor like a carpet of alien shrapnel. Then, slowly, all around the room, almost every single locked safe along the room's walls began to swing open…

Jinx found herself grinning at the sight, such unintended side effects of her powers acting as a reminder of simpler, more (or less) innocent times. That same smile died away quickly though, when she caught sight of Starfire again, standing now as well. Gingerly, the alien reached up to her side, only to harshly yank out a six inch piece of metal that had once been… hell if Jinx knew, actually… out of her side, the alien metal now bathed in alien blood. Breathing in ragged gasps herself, Starfire glared at Jinx, half hate, half confusion covering her bruised and bloody face.

"You… you realize this fight is meaningless… right?" Jinx muttered painfully, speaking between pained breaths. "All – all we're doing here is canceling each other out… All the _real_ fights, the _important_ ones… they're going on in the front and the back of the ship. We don't even _matter_ here."

Clutching her hand to her lacerated side, Starfire's expression softened for a moment, almost as if she were actually listening to what Jinx said… But a moment later, her gaze hardened again.

"I… I will not let you interfere with the Guardian's plans… Even if it costs me my life,I _will _see my _true_ friends home."

'_Damned obstinate, idiotic, alien bimbo_!' Growling darkly, Jinx lifted both hands to her sides. Pink power rolled down her arms in waves, gathering over her hands and wrists before taking on the shape her mind's eye saw. Great, monstrous claws, not just the talons, but twisted fingers, oversized hands and misshapen wrists shimmered into existence over her own hands, encompassing her forearms completely and mimicking her motions perfectly.

"Fine then. That's a price that I'm _more_ than willing to pay now, _Star_."


	46. To Save You

_**A/N**_

* * *

"I - I don't... feel well..."

Trespasser ignored his Lantern's discomfort, preferring to continue his work pouring over the invaluable fragment obtained from the corpse of Heresiarch. Ukyou lay on the floor beneath his feet, clutching her stomach, a sickly green glow ebbing and flowing through her veins, bright enough to be seen through her skin. Bright enough to burn veins, pulsing with the beat of her heart.

It had been so heady at first: that night with Ryu, the passion she had felt in being together with someone, in not being alone, in proving to herself and to the world that she was alive and powerful. It had felt wonderful, empowering, and at the time, assimilating the remaining energy in the other Green Lantern rings had only added to the experience, but now - it felt strange. The growing writhing power inside her felt alien, and her body wanted to reject it. Dark purple warred within her to contain and control the stolen, cannibalized energy, and it had gotten so bad she couldn't even stand anymore.

"Trespasser-sama... are..." she reached for his floating form. "Are you sure... this is..."

"It is within the capabilities of a Lantern ring to utilize the power of other, ownerless rings. Corpse rings are no exception to this," the Oan explained, though his attention seemed focused on the strange sigils and lights that danced in the palm of his small blue hand. "As we have no working conduit to the battery on Oa, you will simply have to endure the discomfort of purifying the energies you have absorbed. I have already determined that your body and mind are capable of this task."

"H-Hai..." Ukyou weakly replied, her hand dropping to the floor. "It just feels... so..."

"Cold?" Trespasser guessed, and the supposed Guardian finally spared his chosen Lantern a callous, indifferent look. "I'm surprised you haven't realized it yet, Lantern. Didn't you feel the difference between the ring you took from me and the ones in storage? If nothing else, you must have noticed the difference in color. It is not purely cosmetic."

Ukyou's brown eyes flashed green, and watered before she squinted them shut.

"Difference?" she asked, her pupils momentarily back to normal. "I... noticed, but...?"

"I told you before that Corpse Lanterns are an elite within the elite. The chosen lanterns of the Foundation, drawn from only the most fiercely loyal." Trespasser went back to studying the Heresiarch fragment. "Only the most committed."

"Do you know why most Lanterns die?" he asked, providing the answer with a sniff of disdain. "It is because they make themselves targets. They rush headlong into battles against armies when a single pinpoint strike is all that is necessary. They engage in combat where it is wiser to withdraw. They never grasp that a Lantern is weakest when facing a single enemy, and not an army or an armada. Do you see, my corpse lantern? The finest Lanterns are the ones our enemy never sees. The ones the universe never learns of. They are.. the dark emerald shadow cast by green light."

"Less poetically," he explained. "We, Foundation, created Corpse Lanterns to perform missions too unsavory for the rank and file. You would be quite familiar with these, as they are a favorite of your UNETCO masters: covert and clandestine of operations. To allow for this secrecy, we altered the color of our rings and removed their ethical reinforcement limiters. Thus, our operatives are able to perform whatever tasks we required of them, without inviting reprisal or bringing suspicion upon the Green Lantern Corps as a whole. However..."

Chaotic light briefly highlighted the ancient Oan's face in dark shadows.

"This level of obfuscation, this level of... freedom... requires a steep price," he explained, casually, off hand. "Those who join the Corpse Lanterns can never leave. Their rings _can not be removed_."

Ukyou wanted to reply, but another sharp pain wracked her body; she curled into a tight ball.

Cupping his hands, Trespasser snuffed out the glow, plunging the pair in darkness. Yet, even in the wreathing shadow, Ukyou could see the Oan's eyes, burning with viridian fire. "This is why we call them the Corpse. Those who wear the ring... _die_... and live on only to serve Foundation. They are... the perfect Green Lanterns."

The eyes narrowed in mocking mirth.

"In fact, most Corpse Lanterns are already dead, or close to it, when they receive their new ring," he informed her, his voice invading her mind. "You will live as long as the ring has power to sustain you... and as long as you do your duty. Believe in me, Lantern. I will take you home. I will keep you alive. No one else."

Ukyou's breathing slowed and her face fell, long chestnut hair like a veil over her expression.

"Hai."

"The ring picked well," Trespasser complimented, hovering over her. "Your willpower is strong, and you are very creative. You are also more malleable than your friends and you understand the value of restraint. None on this ship can hope to stand against you. When the time comes, you will show them Our Power."

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_To Save You_

Chapter 45

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

The hold was on fire.

Shampoo was on fire.

Eyes blurred with green, the Amazon frantically slapped at her torso with her good left hand, trying to put out the ethereal green fires. They blanketed much of the hold, bathing the room the three squads had eaten in, slept in, and lived in like a portrait of the apocalypse. Rolling onto her back, Shampoo saw strange crackles of energy snaking up the walls and along the ceiling. Emergency lighting, dyed red, fought a chromatic war with the prevailing green haze.

Thick, rolling clouds of superheated steam poisoned the air and Shampoo's skin blistered at the feel of them, her nose stinging as she breathed the hot vapor in. Bits of metal and burned crisps of upended food packets hung in the apparent, intermittent microgravity. The ship had a minimal number of flammables as a matter of general safety, but the backwash of Ukyou's Emerald Sunrise has melted plastic into globules of wax and fried loose electronics. Arcs of lightning shot through the air like angry bolts from within a thunderstorm.

The green flames grew, lengthened, and then dimmed as they shrunk back.

Like a slow intake and exhale.

Shampoo rolled onto all fours, and tried to get back up. She had managed only that much, before a shadow loomed over her. Tilting her head, she saw Konatsu, standing, heedless of the green flames that licked at his shoulders and back. His foot came down, hard, on her ear, forcing her face into the floor. It was warm against her cheek - which was saying something when that floor was predominantly alien alloy, one of the most thermally resilient materials known to man.

Still, Konatsu's attention was elsewhere, and the pressure on Shampoo's skull eased as she saw it too: a shadow from within the steam. It was a shadow of dark, ominous green, backlit by the sparking balefire attached to its right hand. Long hair trailed behind the figure, and it turned to find the pair of former comrades, bright green orbs set into the silhouette. It moved smoothly, taking a burning footstep, a green trail of light framing the eyes as the Lantern's body moved.

"Ryouga...?" Shampoo hissed, trying to push herself back up.

Konatsu stumbled back and away, still enraptured by the sight of Ukyou having finally unleashed her true power. Green flames pulled away from the pair, and even from some of the walls, hungrily swirling back to their master: sucked back into the ring that had spawned them.

Another shadow could be seen opposite Ukyou, not identifiable as human.

There was no way. No way Ryouga could have survived. Shampoo could see parts of the far wall glowing a sickly yellow-white. She had seen that color in Cydonium before; seen it on the outer hulls of alien craft downed by nuclear weapons. There was a rough patch, circular, extending partly over the floor and ceiling. If Hibiki had been hit, then all that would be left of him would be a shadow of carbon-ash in the impression of a man.

"Hibiki..." Konatsu said, breathless. The ninja's eyes narrowed from his standing vantage point. "That man. He's hard to kill."

A green light shot from Ukyou's hand, ripping something away from the floor.

It landed nearby with a crash and screech of metal-on-metal. Shampoo realized at once what it was: part of the floor. Part of the alien alloy floor. The sheet of Cydonium was twisted, a yellowed and melted mass. For a moment, the Amazon struggled with comprehension. How had a section of the deck plating been pulled up? The metal was impervious to martial arts as she knew it… and realization struck her.

She had never seen it used herself, but she had heard. Great grandmother had spoken of it. This young Hibiki possessed a skill with the Breaking Point unlike any other. Who else could even imagine using the very ship itself, as a _shield_.

"Not that it matters," Konatsu observed, face set into a frown, at war with himself. His left eye twitched, and he exhaled as the ship began to restore gravity to the room. Debris fell like a split second of mountain hail, and the clouds of steam descended to ankle-level.

Finally, Shampoo was able to see her lone remaining comrade in arms. From across the hold, she could see the forearms of his personal armor were glowing a dull yellow. Even tearing up a section of the floor to defend himself hadn't been enough to protect him completely. The smoldering martial artist collapsed to a knee, unable to even lift his head as Ukyou calmly crossed the hold.

"He's finished," Konatsu said with certainly, facing Shampoo with grim determination. "You all are."

* * *

Jusendo bubbled and seethed.

A molten landslide tumbled down the edge of a narrow peak like a pyroclastic flow, a blackened steamroller igniting and crushing everything in its path. Trees that had found scant purchase on the cliffside for centuries lit up like matchsticks before shattering into burning splinters. A growing cloud of ash lifted up and away like a veil, peeling away from the collapsing remains of the mountaintop.

Ranma, too, tumbled away – grimacing slightly as the crescent blade-tips of the Gekkaja left frozen, punctured holes behind. Freezing himself with the ancient weapon had saved him from Saffron's attack; the effect had fortunately been cumulative with the passive flame-dampening power of simply wielding the hooked staff of Jyusenkyou. It had saved his life. Not just that: it had saved Akane. Akane was still alive!

Wasn't she?

His heart skipped a beat, but a quick look down at the half-frozen, half dried out doll in his arms filled him with relief. Her eyes were still slightly open. She was still alive in there. Somehow. It didn't make sense, but Saffron himself had taunted them about her being trapped in that tiny doll form. The waters of Jyusenkyou Restored could save her. Ranma didn't question why or how. The alternative – that she was dead, that his stupid, bull-headed, uncute tomboy of a fiancé… that she was actually dead…?

_'I refuse to believe it!'_

"The power of the Gekkaja can not protect you from me forever, landling!" Saffron roared, drawing back a hand wreathed in bright orange flame. "You will suffer for your interruption! You will suffer for what you have done to me, and to the Phoenix Tribe!"

Brining up the freezing staff with his one good arm – the other tangled, together with Akane's lifeless form, in transparent gossamer Phoenix thread – Ranma barely managed to intercept and deflect the first fireball. It shattered like an orb of glass, but the second behind it hit him, burying in the Saotome heir's gut and sending him crashing down to Earth. He bounced hard off the side of the still crumbling mountainside, tasting dirt and blood as his face cracked hard against a solid rock.

_'My body… feels… so weak. So slow. Why am I so slow?'_

His left hand clutched Akane, careful not to damage her.

_'That doesn't matter. I gotta fight! I gotta win! I gotta find a way ta get her back!'_

More fire came from above, flattening the area. Ranma tucked into a protective ball, shielding Akane with his body and the Gekkaja. Saffron was fighting much more aggressively than… than b-

Than he had before.

But he was an adult now. That made sense. He was an adult, in his fully transformed state. Of course he would be stronger. Even with the Gekkaja, this wasn't a fight that could be finished easily. Saffron wasn't physically powerful, or even very fast, but he possessed monstrous reserves, completely unfair regeneration, and a willingness to nuke the countryside to avenge an insult.

_'D-damnit… where's Ryouga and Mousse? Weren't they here before?_' Ranma rolled back, bounced onto his feet, and skidded back, nimbly deflecting four screaming blasts of fire. Each one hit the Gekkaja and turned into splashes of magma. _'Are those idiots lost again?'_

"You don't have much time left, Saotome!" Saffron gloated, regal white wings flapping behind him and trailing licks of flame in their wake. "How much longer does that girl have?"

The Phoenix King grinned maliciously.

"I want to see it," he continued with a throaty, deep laugh, eyes alight with cruelty. "The look on your face when you realize she's dead. I will savor it. Soon! Soon she will turn to ash in your arms! A fitting fate for such a foolish woman. Know that her death is because of you, Saotome!"

"Shut the hell up!" Ranma swept back his free arm, and the Gekkaja along with it. Ice and snow swirled around the weapon into a forming tornado–

"Eh?" Saffron leaned forward, still grinning. "Don't think that attack will work this time. Using a hot tornado to channel a narrow vortex of frost? ... That's right! I know."

Ranma's burgeoning Hiryu Toppa faltered, his arm shaking.

"How…?"

"How doesn't matter," Saffron insisted, wings tucking neatly behind him as he landed. "There's no way I'll let you hit me with that."

A clawed, bird-like hand pointed mockingly at the martial artist.

"Drop her."

Ranma's blue eyes narrowed and his lip curled.

"Heheh!" Saffron's grin widened, almost enough to split his cheeks. "Drop her! You might be able to break those bonds and use both arms if you drop her. Maybe you'll even be able to beat me. Drop her."

Then, driving the nail home–

"Don't you _want _to win this fight?" Saffron inquired, eyes wide and wild. "Then _choose_."

Ranma's shoulders slumped and he shook his head.

"No. No way." The Gekkaja swept forward to point at the Phoenix Lord. "Like I'd call going home without Akane anythin' like a win! I'll save her, even if it kills me!"

Saffron's countenance was silent for a moment, his mad grin fading away.

"And that… is why you will eventually fail. You've been lucky so far. You _got lucky_last time." Saffron's voice, for a moment, changed in pitch to match Ranma's. "But what about the time after that? And after that? How do you know Akane is even alive right now?"

A single, brilliant white and gold sphere of flame winked into existence in Saffron's palm.

"Accept your powerlessness," the being of flame lifted the Emperor Ball overhead. It immediately blossomed into a sun in miniature. "Drop her and fight me."

Lifting his hand, he stared at the small effigy of Akane... The tiny bangs of blue hair which crowned her head swayed violently in the boiling, freezing winds. He could make out every minute detail of her perfect face, that face which had so stolen his heart, that had swallowed up his entire life. Was – was it possible, _could _it be true, that she was... was holding him back? Was his need to protect her nothing more than a weakness to be exploited by his enemies?

How many times had she been taken? Kidnapped to use against him? How many times had she been hurt, or lost, with only him capable of coming to her aid? How many times had he nearly failed in rescuing her? How many times had it just been luck that he actually had? How much longer would his luck hold out?

His grip tightened, the fragile material of Akane's dried out body creaking ominously in his grasp. It was always on his mind: dark thoughts which wriggled about the deepest, blackest reaches of his psyche. Was Akane safe? Would he be there to protect her when she needed him the most? Would he be able to find her, when, inevitably, he wasn't? Would he be strong enough to defeat the person that had taken her?

Even worse, now, were the thoughts that he could not escape, since Akane had joined Golf Squad... Ever since she had begun diving headlong into danger, making it utterly impossible for him to protect her. Just a stray plasma burst... an errant blaster bomb... She could be a half a world away when that inevitable bullet might find her back... and he would never even know until he received word from some stranger in a uniform. Would he come back from a mission one day, only to find her waiting for him in a body bag in the base morgue?

Akane's lifeless eyes glittered in the hellish fires of Saffron's fury, and he found himself transfixed. _Was_ it possible that Akane was holding him back? Without Akane to worry about, he could fight, truly and completely unfettered for the first time in as long as his memory served. Would that give him the strength to defeat Saffron? Would that allow him to win here, and now... to always _win_?

Saotome Ranma _never_ loses...

Was that not the driving force of his life? What could possibly be more important than always winning? Wasn't that what his Art, The Art, his Life, his whole Self - wasn't that what it was all about? The Saotome heir watched... with morbid detachment... as his hand began to open, the delicate doll beginning to slip, incrementally, from his grasp...

Above him, his angelic, demonic wings tormenting the winds and forcing them to hold him aloft, Saffron stared down at him, exultation on his features. Without even saying a single word, the God-King of the Pheonix gloated over his victory, holding his arms out wide in triumph -

A hand slid over top of his own, orange skin as soft and gentle as a silken glove, and forced his hand to close down on the doll of Akane once more, preventing her from dropping to the ground. A moment later, he felt something press up against his back, something soft and warm, yet unyielding as stone. It felt, very much, like when Akane would hold him, though very different as well. Oddly enough, he could muster up no surprise as another arm wrapped around his waist, pulling the mysterious newcomer more firmly to his back.

A chin came to rest on his shoulder, and he could feel silk like hair brush up against his cheek, even as the torrid winds blew a dark violet cloak out to encircle and envelope the both of him, Saotome and stranger.

"Mmmm... I feel it so strongly within you... this Love."

Ranma looked down at that, only to start slightly at whom he saw.

"St-Starfire?" he asked, honestly confused. It _looked_ so very much like the normally joyous Tamaranian... but her long hair was jet black, and her eyes deep purple. The expression on her face was also quite alien compared to anything he could recall seeing on Starfire's face, either.

Looking up, she met his stare with a coquettish smile. "You're half right... and wholly wrong, my dear Ranma."

"I... I don't understand..."

A small laugh was her reply. "Of course not. No one _really_ understands Love... not even me."

Her hand squeezed down on his own, lifting it before him once more, to stare at the diminutive form of Akane. As he stared at her, he found it odd that her hair flowed back and forth so slowly, almost as if she were gently submerged beneath the surface of a calm lake. Looking up, he also noticed that Saffron's wings were beating unnaturally slowly. It scarcely seemed possible that he could even remain aloft as he was... and yet hang in the air he did.

"A mere distraction, Ranma, and not worth your consideration," the not-Starfire whispered into his ear in a low, wistful tone. "The true trap is within you, not before you, for your eyes to see."

"**You**. You don't belong here," Saffron rumbled, pointing an accusing talon at the intruder. "Will you rely on others all your life, Saotome? Is that the kind of martial artist you want to be?"

"No," Ranma reflexively answered, glaring up at the Phoenix King. "I don't... but-"

The sudden sensation of something warm and moist trailing up the back of his neck caused the Saotome heir to freeze in mid sentence. It shifted a moment later to a gentle nibbling upon his earlobe before a sultry voice breathed into his ear.

"_I_ can be distracting too, my _Wild_ Horse." The Tamaranian's free hand began to glide across his chest in a gentle caress, while her other hand pulled his other hand before his face. "But such a _talented_ fighter as yourself should know better than to let his concentration waver because of a ... little _heat._"

"G-G-Geez!" Ranma finally started to snap out of his initial shock. "What'doya think yer doin'! Akane's right here!"

"**Saotome!**" Saffron roared, landing and walking forward, wings flared out behind him and trailing white and orange flame. "Fight me! Our battle is all that matters!" He beckoned with one hand, even as his other held a seething orb of ki and elemental fire. "Come on! Carve me apart with the Gekkaja! Blast me with frozen winds! Crush me beneath tons of stone. Fight me, Saotome! Prove to us both who is the most powerful! The most resourceful! Cast aside that whore and defeat me! _KILL me!_"

"Is that all that matters to you, Ranma?" the soft voice whispered into his ear. "Is victory all you care for? Is death all you seek? Is there room for nothing else in your heart?"

The Saotome heir shook his head, eyes closed. "Hey, look, martial arts are my life, but didn't I say before that there's other important stuff to?" He clutched his precious cargo to his chest, not caring in that moment how much of a burden she could sometimes be. "Akane... Akane's one of em!"

He opened his eyes to glare at Saffron, now mere feet away, yet unwilling to actually attack his prone opponent. "I ain't gonna let go of her, even if it means savin' my life! Even if it means losin' a fight!"

Sliding her body against his, the young woman moved herself until she was standing at his side, her arm now wrapping around his shoulder, and holding Akane between them as she pressed herself up against him. Despite the winds blowing in conflicting directions, her billowing violet cloak still wrapped around him as well. It was only now that he had a chance to really see this mysterious interloper. The first thing he noticed, was how tall she was, easily four inches taller than himself, and clad in a bizarre combination of satin material and metallic armor... reminiscent of another alien girl he knew.

"And yet you doubt yourself... you doubt _her_... Are you so certain that you love her?" Her free hand trailed down his side, tickling ribs as it went, until the very tips of her long fingers began to dance beneath the belt of his pants, tantalizing bare skin. "Perhaps your interest in Akane is of a more... base nature?"

"Ha! That uncute tomboy?" Ranma forced himself to his feet, and tried to keep his eyes on the still looming Phoenix King. Akane tensed in his hand, as if wanting to mallet him, even from beyond the grave. The thought within his thoughts made him want to smile; to even wish, in some way, for that little bit of closeness that came from her short tempered affections.

"Nuff talkin' about her," he insisted, sweeping the blade of the Gekkaja to his side, mindful of the strange clingy girl who had interrupted his fight with Saffron's adult form. "Let's finish this, already!"

Saffron sneered, his lip curling to reveal teeth; the hand holding his Emperor Ball attack thrusting forward. "I'll finish the both of you. The three of you. All of you!"

The sphere of roiling, molten death surged towards them, melting a trench in the stolid stone and blasting the plasticized debris out in all directions with the fury off its passage. Ranma began to lift the hardfrosted bladestaff that was the Gekkaja before him, to summon its frigid powers to counter the fury of the Phoenix Lord...

Only for the robed woman to step before him. Wrapping her hands tightly into the lapels of his shirt, she pulled him close to her for a change, her hood half shading her lovely face, except for her exotic purple eyes. A fraction of a second later, the wave of liquid fire broke against her back. The conflagration flowed over her, trailing down the lengths of the robes which encircled them both. The realization of her height struck again as the flame surged harmlessly over his head, parting around her hood as she stared down at him, an entirely different kind of fire in her eyes.

Despite the deafening roar of the flames ringing in his ears, the impossible heat of the fires passing mere inches away from him, only the thinnest material of her cloak protecting them... he could still see her lips move, and more than that, he could _hear_ what she was saying.

"Stop being so _foolish_! Saffron is _not_ your enemy! He is just a distraction!" Leaning forward and dipping her head until their noses were nearly brushing, she sneered at him. "One very much like you holds a place in my heart, Ranma; I will _not_ let you lose your own heart by charging into needless battle."

"I – _wha_?" he tried to yell, but could not even hear his own voice over the roaring of the flames. Ho long could Saffron possibly keep up such an attack? For that matter, how long could this alien girl survive... how had she survived at all? And... and who was she - how - why was she here... who did she remind him of...?

"Love has always been your greatest weakness," the strange, almost alien woman told him, her inflection growing increasingly intense, "Always unable to choose; unable to speak the truth; unwilling to move on! And now – _now_, that you are finally moving forward with your life... your fears have you considering just letting _her go_?"

The martial artist's gaze snapped down to the fragile doll, now crushed between his own chest and the alien woman's own. Never! He would never give up on Akane! He would always be there to protect her, no matter what!

Except... the memory of his grip slowly slackening on her diminutive form was not so easily forgotten. It had only been for a single second... but – but...

Slowly, the torrent of flame began to die away. An eerie silence hanging in the air as the blasted wasteland became visible in the periphery of his vision once more. Behind this, this _not _-Starfire, he could see Saffron's golden wings, but little else.

"Saotome! Let us _end_ th-"

The Pheonix's words were thoughtlessly trodden upon by the Tamaranian woman, still demanding all of Ranma's attention. Not paying even the slightest bit of attention to the hateful being at her back, the entire focus of her being was up him, her alien eyes drilling into his own.

"Love can be many things," she muttered in a low voice. "It can be impossibly precious, a source of unending strength for all its graces. It can become an unbearable curse, growing so twisted as to be indistinguishable from hate."

Small spheres of moisture began to gather at the corners of her eyes. "It can bring joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, all in equal measure. Love can bring you to the highest of heights, or drive you down to the lowest of lows. There are some, even among our dearest friends, who will only be destroyed by love... But you still have a chance to live a life blessed by it."

Holding his hand more tightly, she lifted Akane's doll up between them. Behind her back, he could see Saffron's wings gesticulating wildly, could hear his voice bellowing in rage... but it was muted now, all but incomprehensible.

"You fear that Akane may be hurt, possibly even because of you. You worry, endlessly, that she might die, might be lost to you forever. That you will not be there to save her when she needs you the most." She met his gaze fiercely.

"Just as Akane fears for you."

Something about her words set him back a step. Had... it had never even occurred to him that Akane might share his fears. He was _him_ after all. He couldn't be beaten, not by anyone, so what reason could the uncute Tomboy possibly have to worry about him?

"Love is built upon uncertainty. The future is a mystery even to the wisest of us. No one truly knows what tomorrow will bring." The raven haired beauty leaned forward and planted a chaste kiss on his cheek. "But love, real love, is built on trust as well. If you can trust Akane to be as strong, and as wonderful as you believe her to be, then no enemy in the universe will ever be able to make you doubt in her, ever again."

Leaning back, the Tamaranian pulled back her hood, letting her long hair blow free in the wind. Giving his hand one less squeeze, she released her hold on Akane, and his grip never wavered for an instant with the loss of her assistance.

"Akane isn't the only one that needs you right now." Suddenly, the mysterious alien lurched forward, a weak cough staining her lips with bright green blood. "My time is coming to an end, I think... the rest is up to you, Saotome Ranma."

"Saotome," Saffron's voice struggled to find him. "Saotome! You can not ignore me. You can not ignore who you are. _What_you are!"

Ranma shook his head. That was true too. He couldn't ignore what he was. Pushing away from this strange not-Starfire, but oddly kind of sexy raven haired woman, he snorted, a blast of icy cold air escaping his nostrils. The only warmth to pierce his soul of ice was the small, shrunken form of his fiancé, clutched to his chest.

"Saotome!" Saffron's voice was almost pained; it was an agony simple beatings could never inflict on the immortal being. "Saotome. What will you do?"

"Ain't it obvious?" Ranma asked with a smirk, aimed not at the godling, but at the newcomer. "I'm a martial artist. Time to do what a martial artist has to do. …And I never could say no when a girl comes askin' fer help."

* * *

'_Hurts_.'

The alien follows the trail of blood. It knows someone is here. It can pick up the brainwaves: the thoughts, emotions and fears. It doesn't have enough time to capitalize on that advantage. In the blink of an eye, a hand wraps around the Sectoid's jaw, fingers clamping like a vice over the small mouth and nose. Gloves digits dig in and twist, breaking the neck in two places and spinning the body around.

It hurts to land on one leg, but Ryouga Hibiki has enough presence of mind to drag the corpse back and quickly search it. The plasma rifle is useless – there's no time to break the bio-lock on it – but the clips and grenades are useful. There's so little time. A coil of wire. Prop it up. Set the trap. Grenades behind the back. Bite the wire, tie it tight.

No blood.

Can't leave a blood trail. Not a genuine one.

The alien walls are endless. Stark. Gray. No windows. No light, except that lifeless pale green glow from distant corridors. Not much light on Mars anyway, even if you aren't a mile below ground. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter.

Keep moving.

Keep killing.

_In the absence of orders, find something and kill it._

Comms are dead. Static. They're dead because everyone is dead. Transports gone. Avengers probably all shot down. No reinforcements. No evac. _**Cydonia or Bust.**_They called it Cydonia or Bust. Not Bust just yet. Still alive. Cydonia. Still alive. War isn't over.

Blood pools and drips from broken leg. Doesn't matter.

_In the absence of orders, find something and kill it._

Map. Check map. Can't ask for directions. Can't get lost.

_Nabiki_–

Oh god. _Nabiki_.

Doesn't matter. Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Don't get lost.

Map. Check map. Check map. One eye on the map. Can't get lost.

Zulu Team was close. The closest. Can see them now.

The room ahead is a haze of charcoal and death. Three bodies in power armor are strewn across the bad half of the chamber, having made their stand between a junction of strange alien equipment. Heavy Plasma wasn't kind to their corpses: dogtags melted into ossified tissue and fused bone. The blasted and burned armor looks more human than what's left underneath. Stinks like burned meat, blood and shit.

Mutons. Three of them. One wounded.

They'd overwhelmed Zulu before the fusion ball bomb could be set off. Ryouga moved, like a silent, murderous, pitiless phantom. The wounded one was first. Like the martial artist, it had to stand on one good leg. The other was a charred mass that dripped black and green slime. How it could stand at all was a mystery. It didn't matter. It fell as a bandanna-turned-blade emerged from its lower body, creating an almost comical bulge before puncturing the bio-armor over the stomach.

The other Mutons still didn't hesitate to fire on their mortally wounded brother. Plasma, hotter and fiercer than the surface of the sun, splashed against Ryouga's inhuman shield. Moisture turned instantly to steam, molecules breaking apart and becoming plasma within plasma. Intricate chemical bonds became carbon and base elements. Heat and radiation washed away from the Muton shield – push it forward, don't hold onto it – while Ryouga's own plasma rifle barked.

No time for finesse. Full auto.

The two Mutons shred apart under the barrage, stray blasts freely scoring against the alien alloy walls, leaving blackened portals behind. The muscular, green skinned humanoids come apart: a torso explodes from steam pressure, and another only died when the head vanishes, painting the walls with a mosaic of pink and white and black.

Hurt. Burned now, too. Face.

Doesn't matter.

_In the absence of orders, find something and kill it._

Throwing aside what was left of the Muton shield, the crippled martial artist lurched towards the remains of Zulu Squad. The nuke; the Fourth Gen fusion Ball, to be exact. Five Megatons. Max yield. The alien brain, the Gestalt Alien Mind, was down here somewhere. Somewhere close. Intel believed they were within spitting distance when everything went to hell. Cydonia or Bust. Not Bust yet. Not yet.

Don't celebrate yet.

Checking the warhead, the officer – the leader of a now dead team – saw where Zulu's demolitions expert had been cut off. It was almost ready. Priming it, entering the arming and confirmation code, Ryouga set the fuse. 0 minutes. 0 seconds. No chances. No going back. No room for error. Deadman's switch. Appropriate.

Strapping it over his shoulder, he pushed on.

Walls too thick here.

Gotta get Deeper.

Closer.

Hurts. Doesn't matter. Keep moving. _Cydonia or Bust_.

Everyone at home... counting... on... this...

Flashes of light as plasma fills the room. Nostrils flare; ash and smoke in lungs that used to be flesh and blood. Ryu. Mousse. Kuno. Nabiki. All gone. Juliet. Gone. Ryouga tried to remember the surface of Mars, rust red like blood, before they had taken the lift down into the bowels of the alien base. It was all a blur: ships in the sky, sounds of encouragement and confidence. They'd taken the surface just like the plan called for. Yasuda was on the comm, wishing them luck, talking about how proud she was of them, of the honor she had in serving with them and leading them.

The empty rifle hits the floor.

Close. Close. Just a little more. Have to be sure.

This is the last thing you'll ever do. **The last thing.**

Do it WELL. Do it RIGHT.

"Tsk tsk tsk." A clucking tone – _all too human_– from behind. "Ryouga-kun. What a mess."

Spin, aim. Still have sidearm. Tango. Tango? Where's the tango? Identify first. Don't fire unless you can ID the target. Ryouga's finger, itchy and burned, tensed anxiously as the corridor behind him proved to be empty. Weary eyes narrowed, moving slowly to the left.

"You."

"I told you before that we'd meet on Mars… Ryouga-kun."

Her. Cologne.

_ She's behind me. How? So fast. Faster than me. Faster than Ranma._

Spin. Have to be fast. Have to be unpredictable. Zangansen with the good leg, pivot with the bad. Hurts. God, it hurts. _Doesn't matter_. A flash of titian as she moves – aim low, for the leg. Stop her movement. Plasma screams – misses – _misses_ – **misses** – so damn fast! Not just fast.

_ 'I can hit someone faster than me. I can't hit her because she knows every move I make… even before I make it!'_ An empty clip hits the ground with a damning ting of metal on metal. _'I can't beat her…! I can't...!'_

"Ryouga-kun." Cologne has time to brush back her long, dark hair even as her bare feet skid along the metal floor, kicking up stress-sparks from ki-induced friction. She's a tall, perfect specimen of human being… on the outside. Beneath that flawless skin, however, there is nothing visible human. Not anymore.

"Do you remember what happened the last time you tried something like this?" she asked, not even caring as he quickly reloaded his plasma pistol. "They're all gone now. All those people you were fighting for. All those pitiable friends and loved ones you clung to. I've already retrieved what's left of Ranma. He'll be joining us soon."

Amber-brown eyes bored into him, lazily but alert… and above all, confident.

"You can give up now." Perfect pink lips formed a companionable smile. "It's alright... to give up now. Setting off that bomb won't matter, either. You're nowhere near where we keep The Mind."

"You're lying!" Ryouga spat, his aim unwavering.

"No," Cologne replied, completely and utterly calm. "I'm not."

Despair nearly crushed him in that instant.

_ In the absence of orders, find something and kill it._

"I'll kill you," he swore, stepping back and away from the alien-human hybrid. "I'll kill you…"

"And they'll replace me," Cologne insisted. "There are a thousand like me. Not exactly me, but close enough. Every alien you kill by setting off that bomb will be replaced within a month."

"She's right, Ryouga-sama."

That voice.

Akari.

"Oh, Ryouga-sama…" She wears the same robes. The same robes as Cologne. The same robes… that Hollow Eyes wore with he killed her. The same ones she wore when Jinx saved her. The same ones he left her to die in. The ones his failure consigned her to.

For the first time, his arm wavers.

"Look what they've done to you." She walked up, careless, heedless of the danger. She doesn't care that he could kill her with the twitch of a finger. A delicate hand touches his cheek, the wide of a thumb wiping away a mixture of blood and tears.

"You're so badly hurt, Ryouga-sama," Akari whispered. "It's okay to stop fighting. From the very beginning… this was the way you knew it would end."

Breath ragged, his aim steadied, the end of the plasma pistol pressing to Akari's temple.

Her eyes hold only pity. "Ryouga-sama. That won't change anything. You... can't change anything."

"Ryouga-kun. This is how it was meant to end." Cologne slinked towards him, her voice mesmerizing; her bare feet making no sound as she moved. "You can't win. You can't beat me, and you can't fight fate."

"You'll be happy here," Akari leaned into him, her words touching his lips. "I've waiting for you. We've waited for you. You fought so hard; became so strong. Think of this as your reward… Ryouga-sama…"

He knew Cologne's honeyed words – what came next – before she even began to say it.

"This," she said, staring into his soul, and seeing the truth. "This… is the only peace you will ever find in life."

_'No.'_

He wanted to scream it – to snarl defiance in her face and just release the trigger in his hand, vanishing in a blast of blissful, painless nuclear light. He'd thought about it often, after having heard about the plans for the Cydonian Invasion codenamed Cleanslate. If he was lucky, if the two were bluffing, then his self-sacrifice could even salvage the doomed invasion of Mars.

He wouldn't need to struggle, impossibly, to find a way to defeat another martial artist ten times his age, with all the skill and power one would expect from a master of masters. He wouldn't have to live with the guilt of what happened to Akari, not just once, but twice. His life – his short, pointless story - would end in a bright, brief, triumphant flash. Wasn't that a victory, of sorts?

Ryouga's eyelids felt heavy, but not from blood loss or lightheadedness. As much as he had, in a perverse way, looked forward to this moment, he had feared it just as much. Because it wasn't a victory. He had failed his team. Failed his friends. Failed everyone waiting for him to come home.

Peace.

Even a corrupted, alien peace…

Deep down, a part of him…

"Stop," he said, with none of the defiance he wished he had. "I don't want to hear it."

Cologne and Akari let him go, and he stumbled back. He tried to take aim at them – he still had his sidearm, it was still loaded with hot ammo – but he couldn't draw a bead through all the shaking. Besides: it really was pointless. Killing Akari again… did nothing. Cologne? Cologne would never be hit anyway.

The weapon fell from trembling fingers.

"You know I'm right, Ryouga-kun," Cologne said, and Akari stood next to her, waiting for him. The tall, terrible woman held out her hand. "Come back to us. _This _is where you belong. We are your future."

The floor shook, the fallen plasma pistol shaking at his feet. For a moment, the tremor running through the floor distracted him. What was causing it? Explosions, tectonics… did some other survivor manage to set off one of the bombs? That last possibility offered a glimmer of hope, but it was too distant. Too small. It wasn't enough to pull his gaze away from the women before him, despair crushing back down on him.

The entire cavern suddenly lurching beneath his feet, however, did distract. Everyone present nearly stumbled and fell, when, with a horrendous squeal of shearing metal, the indestructible metal floor beneath their feet was torn asunder. Not even Cologne had time to react as four walls of dull grey rock burst up from the ground and slammed into the ceiling hard enough to send a spray of shattering stone throughout the room.

In an instant, Ryouga realized that he was trapped, not just trapped, but cut off even from his enemies, alone in this bizarre igneous prison. Had… had Pi Lu come back from the dead to aid in his demise?

The sounds of stone grinding on stone drew his attention forward sharply, as, against all reason, a small section of the wall seemed to break itself down to sand… only to find himself gaping in incomprehension as a small figure entered his makeshift cell, passing through the flowing sand without any hindrance at all. The person's features were impossible to make out at first: a cloak of saffron hue, perhaps a size or two large for the person wearing it, obscured its wearer's face with a low dipping hood.

A moment later, once she had passed into the room completely, the portal of sand reverted to stone once more. Shrouded beneath the cloak, making not a single movement, neither to attack, nor defend themselves, the strangely familiar stranger spoke after several long seconds of pause.

"…I see. This location is how you imagine the alien fortress on Mars would appear," the hooded girl, and he could tell it was a young woman by the tenor of her voice, stated matter-of-factly. "The older woman is the Trenchard Cologne, and, of course, Akari… I believe the concept of this snare is becoming clear."

"What – what the hell?" Finding his footing, the beaten and blood caked Hibiki's hand tightened on his deadman's switch. It took a moment, but... "I know that voice?"

"Possible, though only through knowledge taken from another," the hooded girl replied in a flat tone. Lifting a hand, her thin arms parting her cloak enough to reveal an equally skinny body, she finally pushed back her hood, allowing a curtain of bright, golden hair to flow down around her shoulders. Bright blue eyes gazed into his with clinical detachment, so at odds with the face he recalled from another's recollections.

"Your knowledge is irrelevant however. I require that you cease your entrapment and assist me."

"Bossy little thing, aren't you?" He did recall this... girl. From Raven. _From Raven's memories._

But - but that wasn't possible.

"You can't be here," he reasoned. Or at least it seemed reasonable. "You can't." He tried to wave off the peculiar illusion, searching for a way through the walls thrown up around him. "Have to.. have to finish the mission. In the absence of orders..."

"Find something and kill it." The slender young woman finished for him, and rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, we all know of your predilections towards exterminating life. However, it is being misplaced at this time."

Gesturing to one of the blank stone walls, she nodded her head in that direction. "I require you to turn your aggression towards the Guardian. You may proceed when ready."

"The Guardian?" He shook his head, and readied to force his way through one of the walls - when the thought of what lay beyond forced him to pause. The brief reprieve had reminded him of the mission. Of his orders. Of the world that was at stake. It was, as this little girl would say, irrelevant what his own feelings were on the matter. He had a mission.

And that mission led through... _those two_.

"Yes," the insufferable blonde insisted. "The Guardian. Trespasser."

"T-Trespasser..." The name was. _Was..._

"Ryouga-kun," Cologne's melodious, seductive tone pierced the walls. "Don't make us wait for your answer. Come out and accept the inevitable. Surely you aren't going to hide in there, are you? That isn't your style."

His hand brushed along the coarse, stone barrier.

"It isn't," he admitted, muttering it to himself.

"Forget about that thing inside there," Akari's voice spoke next, like a whisper in his ear. "It isn't even real."

Suddenly, the blonde waif lifted a hand, her eyes glowing faintly yellow. In response, a second layer of stone shot up from the ground, doubling the thickness of the stone walls, and decreasing the amount of room they had left. The voices of the Trenchards became distant and muffled.

"Cease this illogical discourse. We are engaging Trespasser in battle, even as we speak. You must awaken and assist us." Despite her words, her voice never wavered, never rose, never gave any trace of emotion. "Agree to help us, then we can leave this place."

"Leave this place?" Ryouga spun on the cloaked woman. "Leave it?" He even snagged her by the collar. "This is where I belong! This is where I'm meant to be! This is where-"

Whatever else he might have said was cut off as arms of solid stone burst forth from the floor and walls all around him. The disembodied limbs lashed out with shocking speed, latching onto his arms and legs, forcefully breaking his grip on the young girl before pulling him back and slamming him against the wall.

"Do not _touch_ me," intoned the yellow clad girl in an icy voice.

"What do you want? Help with some other battle?" The captive martial artist frowned, not even trying to break free except to keep his death-grip on fusion ball device. "I know who you are. I know you shouldn't be here. One of us... shouldn't be here."

She glared at him, though it vanished quickly. "I _desire_ for you to uphold your responsibilities."

Looking around from side to side, she stared at him more calmly. "A cursory scan of your memories seems to indicate that this diversion is tapping into your latent fears and insecurities." A rueful sniff. "However, I have neither the time, nor the inclination to assist you in overcoming your internal issues. Cease this irrational fear and assist us in defeating Trespasser."

"Fight him yourself... is the first thought that comes to mind." Shrugging against the constricting stone, it sheared away in chips and flakes. "I wonder if I should even care at this point, Terra."

"Forget about her, Ryouga-kun. Tell her to leave_. __**Make**__ her leave_," Akari's voice, once muffled by the walls of stone, once more found a way to pierce through and haunt him. Or maybe she was always with him, no matter what barriers he or this young woman wished to put up. That sort of thing seemed appropriate.

"Tell her to go back to Hell where she belongs," the once sweet tone was sour with malice. "You're already where you need to be."

For just a moment, the yellow robed girl wavered, clutching her hand to her chest, but soon enough she was standing calmly once more. Not paying any heed to the voices beyond the walls, she tilted her head as she studied him.

"I am not Terra, I am an anthropomorphic representation of Raven's wisdom and logic." Her curious gaze grew more intent as the urgency of the situation out-of-sight set in. "You are demonstrating neither of those traits at this moment, however. Previous experience with you has predicated your intense hatred for non-human life, thus it is confounding that you refuse to assist in the destruction of an alien."

"Trespasser you mean," Ryouga corrected her, body and spirit weary. "You don't get it at all. You don't get me. You don't even have the faintest idea... I **hate**." He snarled the word. "I hate the aliens. But... I don't want to. I've seen where that leads. I've seen what it makes me. I don't want to do what I do just out of hate. I'm so... sick and tired of it..."

At his frank admission, this odd shard of Raven hesitated, looking unsure of herself for the first time since he had laid eyes upon her.

"I… I do not understand," she admitted, momentarily confused. "Emotions are… difficult for me. You hate… but you dislike hatred… so why do you simply not just stop feeling that way?"

"Hate just doesn't just go away because you want it to. I've struggled with it all my life. Tried to come to grips with it. To come to terms with it. And... and not to become defined by it." Ryouga weakly shook his head and glanced back at her. "You want me to fight Trespasser. You want me to _hate _him. I... I can barely even remember him. Just... go. Maybe Cologne and Akari are right. I've been waiting for this moment, for this place, and now I'm finally here."

The young girl's head dipped down as she stared at him, the light glinting off of her glasses as she examined him like a particularly curious lab specimen. "This response to fear… Classic fight or flight instincts. You choose to hide from danger…"

Lifting her hand, she cupped her chin and began to pace back and forth. "But this response is counterproductive at this time. Escape is impossible, and death an imminent result of inaction. Raven is dying. _I … _am dying. Everyone else will die in short order as well, should Trespasser succeed."

Frustration becoming evident in her feature, Wisdom began to chew on the tip of her thumb, white teeth gnawing on the dark leather of her bulky glove. "I simply do not understand… _I_… do not understand…"

Suddenly, she looked up, catching his eyes with a look of epiphany in her own wide blue orbs.

"_I_ cannot," she repeated, lowering her gaze until she was looking at the ground. Gently, she reached up and grasped her glasses. "However… if I actually _were_ Terra… I would probably say something like…"

Then, in a sharp gesture, her head snapped back up, her glasses pulled harshly from her face. Dull blue eyes flashed with fire and passion. An expression which he did not associate with Raven at all landed on the petite blonde's face and in the next instant, she was pointing an accusing finger his way.

"I have _never_ liked you, Other Hibiki!"

"Eh?" The Ryouga-in-question reeled back a bit, thrown mostly by the abruptness of it all. "I don't even really know you!"

"Yeah? Well I know all that I need to know about you!" Stalking forward, she poked him liberally in the chest. "Always giving Ryouga - _my_ Ryouga - a hard time, making him feel like he's not as good as you, like he doesn't measure up."

Spinning, she stalked away from him.

"He's the most amazing guy I know! He's taught me so much; we've been through so much together, hell, he even saved my life!" Turning on her heel again, she pointed another accusing finger his way. "He doesn't _need_ to prove himself to anyone!"

Frowning now, she dropped her fists onto her hips, her gaze dropping to find his shoes suddenly fascinating. "More than that though… is that he _understands _me… _he_ actually knows what I've been through…"

Again she stalked forward, the small size of the room giving her little choice but to move directly in front of him again. Standing on her tip toes and still failing to reach his height, she grabbed onto his armor and pulled herself higher.

"_You_ don't, though, _you_ haven't! Seriously, what the heck, Hibiki?" Pulling herself up higher, almost nose to nose, he could feel her breath on his chin. "You think you're the only person in the whole wide world that's ever been afraid? That's ever wanted to run and hide? You think that just because _you_ want to give up, suddenly nobody else matters anymore?"

Letting go, she pushed herself back from him, her cloak wrapping tightly around her body. "Do you want me to _tell_ you what happens when you stop caring about your friends because you're too scared to acknowledge the fact that your only answer to problems is running away?"

"I've stopped running away," he cut in, voice hard.

"The _hell_ you have!" The entire cavern began to tremble as she vented her ire. "What the hell do you call this?"

She spun around, gesturing grandly to the tiny little hellhole they were trapped in.

"Some evil smurf spins some lovely little nihilistic… I think that's a word... fantasy for you, and you suddenly decide that you wanna move right in and start paying rent?" She stalked back to him and kicked him in the shin. "This is the _definition_ of running away! You're leaving everyone you like and don't openly despise to die, just because you're afraid of some withered up old monkey on a stick?"

"She - that isn't..."

He tried, thought for a moment how to explain it. Old Granny Ku Lon was terrible enough when she went all out, but the monster version of her the aliens had created was on a whole other level. He and Ranma had fought her, together. They had _prepared_ for the fight. XCOM was overrunning the base. They had _every_ advantage they would ever hope to have, and she - she had toyed with them. Like a dog with a pair of rats.

The blistering pain in his arm, the scar she had given him with her blood vine, burned like match sticks dug into flesh, fat and hungry as ticks. Like spiders under his skin, stinging and crawling. That was what waited for him on Mars. The scar, the phantom pains, the lingering curse of Cologne's blighted ki. How could he forget?

Cologne _terrified _him.

Cologne terrified him, and the fact of it was that even with every advantage, he had failed to win. He had broken-even as a martial artist, walking away alive if scarred, but he had failed as a leader. He had failed as an officer. Everyone had put their faith in him. He had tried so hard; he had given it his _all_. None of that could excuse the fact that he had failed and that lives had been lost, friends and comrades had nearly died, because of that failure.

How could he expect Cydonia, the most terrible battle of the entire war, to go any better?

The dead man's switch in his left arm teased him with its promise of a final release. This was the only way to win. This was the only way to salvage the un-salvageable. Even his Killing Point techniques, the gamble he had invested so much in, was no guarantee. If the other-him, inexperienced as he was, could see the principles and even partly counter them, then Cologne would see right through it. It was hopeless.

"Shut up," he finally said, not knowing where to begin to explain how he felt. Moreover, she was starting to piss him off. Fingertips traced the scar, temptation rising to scratch into it and try and dig his fingernails in and rip out the corruption beneath the skin. "You don't know a damn thing."

The entire chamber… the entire _planet, _it felt like, started to quake. Dust and small pebbles began to rain down around them as Terra stared at him. Even more worrying, a bright golden glow suffused her eyes and her long golden hair began to rise up in some unseen wind.

"_I_ don't know '_a damn thing'_?" She pointed sharply at herself with a thumb. "_Me_? _I'm_ the one that doesn't know a damn thing about fear?"

A sound like a shotgun exploding sounded from his side and he wince as a large crack split the wall in half spraying a hail of razor rock shrapnel.

"You're – you're such a god damned _victim_, Hibiki!" Terra yelled at the top of her lungs. Clenching her fists to her side, she took a step forward, the room jolting to the side in response to the gesture. "It's always about _you_, about what happened to _you_, or what someone did to _you, _or about what someone might do to _you_!"

Thumping a fist to her underdeveloped chest, she glared balefully at him… was it just his imagination, or could he see twin trails of moisture on her cheeks, reflecting brightly in the golden light from her eyes. "You don't even know what real fear is. You're a damned _kid_ afraid of the boogey man! You have _no idea_ what it means to be _truly _afraid!"

Pausing in mid tirade, the shaking of the room becoming too violent for even the geokinetic girl to hold her balance, Terra took a long breath. After the small moment of composure, she glared at him once more. "Like I said, _my_ Ryouga understands me. He understands what it means to be afraid _of_ yourself, not _for_ yourself. I lived half of my _life_ god damned _terrified _of myself."

Inhaling slowly as a small tremor shook the room, Terra closed her eyes, her chin dipping to her chest. "Do you know what it's like? To wonder, every single day: '_Will I lose control of my powers today and accidentally kill anyone_?' Do you know what its like to have ever had to think: `_Is Beast Boy dead? Did I actually kill him?'_"

This time it was impossible to miss the tear that trailed down her cheek. "You're afraid of Cologne? Afraid that she'll beat you up?" Her face rose once more, a heart rending expression on her face. "Well why aren't you more afraid of what happens to all of your friends if you don't _get over yourself_?"

The martial artist's brows creased in shame and agitation.

Akane's words from not more than a year ago were a fresh as if they had been spoken the same day. She was afraid of him. _'Any girlfriend of his will have to be made of sterner stuff than me.'_ Then there had been Akari. So delicate, like a cherry blossom in the cement mixer that was his impossible to control strength. It was a miracle she had survived holding hands with him when they first met. Then there was the fear he'd felt, seeing the carnage and death wrought by his alien Doppelganger... and the threat that abomination was to his team. To his friends.

His gaze fell. "That fear...?"

"_Blech_!" Terra recoiled, waving her hands wardingly through the air. "Seriously, _seriously_? I confide in you that I nearly killed all of my dearest friends, and the_ first place_ that your mind goes is to your _bedroom inadequacies_? I don't think I'm even _old enough_ to know about that kind of stuff!"

Shuddering violently, she took a moment to recover.

"I just can't believe you. Ryouga Hibiki. The man that swore to kill every damned alien in the entire universe to avenge his beloved Akari…" She let out a dismissive chuckle. "And now?" Terra glared darkly at the infuriatingly morose Hibiki. "You're quivering in fear of some filthy xeno. As a human being, as a martial artist, you really should have more pride."

"Using my own words against me," he conceded, a twitch of his upper lip belying the fact that his mind had effectively been made up. "Fine. **FINE**."

"Ryouga-sama," Akari's voice whispered in his ear. "I hate to see you in pain… but that is exactly where your life will lead. Please. Don't."

Ryouga closed his eyes, but couldn't ignore how he felt. Or what he heard.

"If you fight it, then you will suffer," Cologne's voice promised. "And when we meet on Mars…"

She didn't need to say more.

He knew.

"I guess… that sort of thing can't be helped…" A trigger in the base of the deadman's switch flipped, disabling it. "Strength is strength, isn't it? Cologne?"

The bomb fell with a thud to roll away from his feet.

_ 'Save it. Save it for those who deserve it. This is **my** hate. **My** despair. And I will **BURY** them with it! I swear I will!'_

These were his words. His thoughts. His vow.

Yes. He would.

Now free, his fists tightened, balled into corded knots of muscle and bone. A dark red and black moon came into existence, a bleeding crescent briefly eclipsed and then full and wild, splitting and destroying the obstacles behind him. A crack in the churning sphere spilled out the accumulated hate and rage, the fear and sadness, the grief and despair – a poisonous pool of ink stained ki dribbled from the metaphysical cage.

…and into Ryouga's growing battle aura.

"You said you'd wait for me on Mars," he reminded the voice. In his mind's eye, he saw her, and Hollow Eyes – the very same Ethereal responsible for Akari's first murder – walking away. They had walked away from him in Korea, leaving him to wallow in defeat. A reckoning would come for them. It would come wreathed in armor, bathed in anger, and it would return all the evil they had sown.

This was all for that.

"But first." He took a step towards Raven's yellow clad fragment. "Trespasser."

All around them, Terra's walls began to collapse, having served their purpose. Even as the shattered slabs of stone fell, dull grey walls of alien metal were revealed, as were the two women that had, and probably always would, haunt his dreams. Moving silently, ignoring both of the stone-faced Trenchards, Terra fell into step beside him and the pair of them began to walk... out. Nodding imperceptibly, Ryouga watched as the slight girl reverently slid her glasses back before her eyes, perching the slim gold frame upon her small nose. As she did, the emotion drained from her face, and she returned his small gesture.

Before they left, however, Cologne's voice offered one parting, Parthian shot.

"Consider this not a promise, Ryouga-kun... but a _prophecy_," The stately woman slipped into the ground like dark liquid mercury. "Win or lose, you **will **die on Mars. Prepare for that day."

Ryouga glanced over his shoulder, not certain what to make of her words. This... was only a mental construct, after all... wasn't it? Based on his own memories and his own deepest thoughts. Why would she have said such a thing? Was that what _he_ actually thought? Akari's face, even as her body melted away, betrayed regret and sorrow for him.

_Mars_... _Cydonia_...

A light pressure settled on his arm, and he looked down to his side. Looking straight ahead, Terra continued to walk with him, out of the darkness.

"Death comes for us all, Hibiki," she saw fit to remind him. "Is it not better to _live_one's life, rather than to cower in fear of its inevitable end?"

"Odd words, coming from you," he commented, feeling his slight trepidation fading away. But despite her own unenviable fate, he could not help but see the ...wisdom... in her words.

She nodded slowly. "You are not the only one to be trapped by fear. Even I, though, am beginning to have my eyes opened to the possibilities... Hopefully now you are as well."

With a deft gesture, she slid her glasses down the length of her nose, just enough to uncover her eyes. Then, surprisingly, the avatar of logic and wisdom winked at him, grinning impudently.

"Besides... you wanna live forever?"

* * *

Standing silently, Nabiki was hard pressed to conceal her anxiety. Even with everything that was going on around her: Ukyou, using that crazy magical ring to thrash the rest of the crew, Raven's already dying body doing mental battle with an immortal alien psychopath... it was still impossible for her to ignore just what it was that she was planning on doing. The uncomfortable heft of the plasma pistol in her hands was little comfort, even with the EX-4 Battlefield Organic Deterrent (BOD) ammunition that she'd loaded it with.

Even though she'd toyed with Cyborg a bit during training, never once had Nabiki imagined that she might actually have to fight _him_(or anyone, really). Sure, most of the time he was a pretty unassuming guy. He never flaunted his physical abilities outside of the battlefield, and even then, preferred to rely on his tech as much as possible. Compared to the rest of the show boating, martial artists, he actually seemed to hide in the background pretty well.

Now, as she stared at the blank alloy door, wondering if, _when_it would slide open, her potential opponent's abilities ran through her mind at a full gallop. The cybernetic Titan was as far beyond Ryouga in strength as the Lieutenant was beyond Nabiki herself. He was as heavily armored as a MARS suit and had more weapons jammed into his body than anyone barring Mousse. Worse than all of that, he was in heavy contention for 'smartest person on the damned planet.' Despite his juvenile antics, his IQ was probably double her own, or something ridiculous like that, and she wasn't exactly a slouch in the cognitive function department.

It was hard to believe she had so casually joked around with him a mere handful of weeks earlier. Now that she realized just what she was up against... her plasma pistol seemed completely inadequate. If it came to it, she was fairly confident in her speed. Cyborg was strong, but he couldn't be _that _fast. She'd heard rumors that, back in their home dimension, their Robin could handily dance around the cybernetic teen. Sure, the infamous Robin was probably a little faster than her, but she was fairly confident that she could draw a bead and pull a trigger. The EX-4 ammo would do the rest. If - that was - if she could even pull the trigger, which she wasn't sure she could.

Not after Meiji... not after how she'd already destroyed one person's life...

But it was either this, or death, and Nabiki Tendo very much liked living. The dead didn't collect paychecks, after all. Safety-off, she gently tapped the side of her thigh with the plasma pistol, taking deep breaths to steady herself. The situation was bad enough, but she'd have been lying if that was the only problem. Simply being in this dimension had made her increasingly jumpy, twitchy, and more than a bit paranoid. There was no denying that a part of her, on seeing that door open, could well panic... doing something she knew she'd regret.

Her thoughts briefly backtracked to the crews on all those other ships they'd encountered: to the ship with the aquatic aliens, wracked by signs of infighting, to the room full of huddled corpses, the bones piled high like a throne. She remembered the scenes captured from within the Green Lantern vessel: the damage that could only have come from those beloved and renowned galactic peacekeepers turning on one another, committing suicide together, murdering former friends. What had passed through their minds, as they abandoned everything they had dedicated their do-gooder lives to?

She remembered the images and videos from the Thanagarian ship, where the madness of it all had reached a fevered pitch. Still living, if one could even call it that, the winged men and women had survived in a tormented mockery of an existence for how many eons? Broken into factions, killing and raping and worshipping black gods... yet even those 'gods' were not immune. Heresiarch, from the descriptions of it, had been at the least god-like... and even it had been driven to madness and self-destruction.

How many ships had come here, full of well oiled crews?

How many vessels had ended up here, their captains and officers promising them they would survive?

How many millions of souls had become trapped in this immaterial nightmare?

How could she even imagine the conceit that they, of all those millions, could escape unscathed?

Her hand shook with a slight tremor, and she took a moment to steady it. The worst part of it all... was that there was nothing to rail against. There was no demon or dark god. There was only a spiteful, hateful existence that consumed all that dared enter it. It was just so easy to get lost in thoughts of despair in this place. The rational mind almost welcomed it. Despair was an escape: from responsibility, from failure, from obligation. If there was no hope, there was no reason not to just sit back and accept the inevitable. It was so... easy. So... tempting.

Pathfinder could become just one of so many others, lost to this place.

Maybe some day, aliens would find their ship, and examine their frozen, ruined bodies and burned out EDC. They would speculate on who killed who. Who was the last to die? Who would realize they were alone on a ship full of fallen former friends, and then finally put a weapon to their head and complete the set?

With a silent swish, the door of the engine room slide open. Nabiki's trigger finger twitched, and her thumb brushed up against the safety, clicking it to 'semi-auto.' Almost no light shone through the unlocked aperture as a massive silhouette blocked nearly the entire doorway. Behind the figure, she could just make out part of the altered EDC device. Who knew what Trespasser had done to it? Who knew if any of them would even survive the 'blue shift' that accompanied every transit, with how supercharged the thing looked now. But there was no point worrying about that. Either they left and maybe died, or they stayed and definitely died.

Cyborg.

Cyborg stared down at her dispassionately, towering over her by nearly a full foot and his shoulders more than twice as wide as her own. It was like facing down a living wall of solid steel. Not that size mattered that much. She noticed his organic eye move to her hip. She was out of practice, but she was still a martial artist. She understood reach. He wasn't a martial artist, but he was a fighter, and about a million times more experienced than herself... so he understood it, too. She'd picked where she stood carefully. He couldn't reach her, not without making an obvious move. The plates around his right arm began to tentatively shift and transform.

"Let's not make this weird, huh?" she asked, angling the pistol so he could confirm the safety was off. "Mexican standoffs are so Quentin Tarantino, and the ship runs best with both of us alive."

"Threat detected." Even as he said it, however, his arm didn't move.

He was calculating a response.

"You know, the Cyborg I know would've made a Pulp Fiction joke or something," she continued, steadily keeping her weapon aimed away from him. "See, and now I've got that song stuck in my head. How does it go, again?" She kept her eyes on him, watching as he shifted a step to the side

She allowed a small smile to cross her face as she quietly sun the lyrics, "Well I don't know why I came out here tonight, I got the feeling that something ain't right, I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair, and I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs. Clowns to the left of me..."

"Jokers to the right," Cyborg continued, in monotone.

"Here I am," she finished.

"'Stuck in the Middle with You' written by Rafferty, Gerry; Egan, Joe. Originally performed by Stealers Wheel. Released: 1972. Genre: Rock. Length: 3 minutes 23 seconds. Lemon Recordings." Cyborg recited the data like a search engine.

His cybernetic eye whirred as it glared at her.

"Disarm yourself," he demanded.

"Disarm yourself first," Nabiki countered, and offered an almost imperceptible shrug. "Oh wait, you can't, can you?"

Whistling the tune, she arched an eyebrow as something in the emotionless Titan clicked.

"Physiological analysis indicates increased levels of adrenalin, heightened heart rate, anxiety. Attempt to subdue emotional response. Measuring blush response and pupil dilation..." His eye whirred again, and the plates in his arm fully retracted, back to their hand-configuration.

"Threat analysis recalculated," he informed her. "Your threat status has been lowered from 'minimal' to 'negligible,' Tendo, Nabiki. Physiological response indicates a desire to avoid confrontation."

"Well," she partly agreed. "That's mostly true. I don't particularly _want _to be doing this."

Seemingly satisfied with his analysis of her 'physiological cues' Cyborg turned to the side, and he looked very much like he was about to just walk away without another thought. Not back to the reactor room, unfortunately. His intended destination was clearly the ship's hold, where the ongoing brawl was very much... ongoing.

He detected the spike in her heart rate instantly.

"A priority situation is occurring in the hold and must be addressed," he explained.

_As if she didn't know._

"And you want to poke your head in there and do, what, exactly?" Nabiki asked, placing a hand on her hip.

Lifting his hand, Cyborg shifted it, this time fully, to its sonic cannon formation. Obviously he had no intention of using it on her, and using whatever alien logic he was, probably didn't consider it even a threatening move to her at the moment. Several loud whirs followed as the cannon seemed to reconfigure itself further, the aperture broadening, auxiliary power cells sliding out from the housings of his arm and a number of other small alterations that left her baffled.

Emotionless as when he'd first stepped through that door, he simply replied. "I will initiate a cessation of hostilities."

"Even Ukyou?"

"All active combatants are a threat to the ship."

"Yeah. Okay. See, that's a good idea... in theory," she replied, pointing at the door. "And I think we'd all prefer they not break anything expensive or vital in there, but according to Trespasser, that's Ukyou's territory, isn't it? As I recall, you're supposed to keep focused on the ship's systems and leave the crew to us."

"I am currently tied into 67.43 percent of ship's systems via a wireless datalink," Cyborg informed her. "Monitoring of critical systems is possible from anywhere within the ship's gravitic field."

Lifting his other arm he displayed the embedded screen for her to see. A spread of data quickly started sprawling down its surface far quicker than she could hope to absorb.

"System observation requires only 27.25 percent of my processing power. I am also currently running the following operations: a full self diagnostic to determine a comprehensive list of repairs to conduct when time allows; monitoring the life signs of Hibiki Ryouga and Jinx via their armor – all other combatants are offline; tracking your movements and reactions for hostile intent: compiling a psychological profile of all members of the crew for submission to command upon conditional return; designing an alternative weapons system for use by UNETCO; continuing chemical analysis of element UUP-115 for possible synthesis; as well as seven other sub processes of low priority."

Nabiki blinked. Twice. "Well... good to know that I'm on that list somewhere... but no anti-virus scan...? Isn't it that time of the week?"

A moment later, the display on his wrist changed to show a detailed map of the ship, focusing mostly on the hold. Several bright red patches were showing on the otherwise green wireframe of the ship, doubtlessly showing damage to systems in that region.

"Scans indicate that Kounji Ukyou is the greatest threat to ship integrity at the moment," he reminded her. "Intervention is required before she damages the ship irreparably. All threats to the ship must be neutralized."

With that said, he took a step towards the door leading to the hold, apparently satisfied with his explanation.

"She's also the worst person here to pick a fight with, especially with the mess her head is at the moment," Nabiki countered, and her arm tensed enough to force Cyborg to stop and re-access. "If you step into that room, blasting away, then you'll be causing more harm than good. Not to mention that Ukyou'd probably turn you into scrap."

"I'm not happy about it, but we're all better off if that situation resolves itself," she insisted. "Ukyou won't destroy or damage the ship; she's acting irrational, but not idiotic. She isn't going to punch holes in the hull. Besides, you getting busted up, with how tied into Pathfinder as you are, will be... trouble. Trouble I can't fix. Trouble I'd rather that not happen."

Nabiki actually let out a small sigh of relief when he stopped in mid step. He seemed to run the idea through his head for a fraction of a second before turning back to look at her. Finally, he nodded in agreement with her.

"Your assessment is not completely inaccurate," he conceded. "I have been forced to route several mission-critical processes through my own systems to compensate for the alterations which Trespasser has made to the EDC. Priority currently places me higher than any systems threatened by Ukyou in the hold region of the ship."

The middle Tendo sister smiled broadly at that. "That's right, big guy. As long as Ukyou is back there, we can't risk sending you out. So let's just-"

He nodded in agreement once more. "By that same logic, however, the threat of you using your weapon on me has dropped to near zero. Stating that I cannot risk being damaged by Ukyou, then threatening to destroy me, yourself, is an inherently illogical paradox."

"Oh, this?" Nabiki asked, lifting the sidearm, but careful where she pointed it: neither at herself nor at the emotionless Titan. " _This_is merely to protect my cute and easily squished self. Spraying hot plasma all over the ship is something I'd prefer to leave to the experts."

"Besides," she quickly continued, "You want to see what the biggest mess we have is? Check it out: right here, tin man." Nabiki pointed her thumb back at Trespasser - and Raven and Reava, and the two ship pilots. "I know the one system you can't monitor is the psionic nav, but doesn't something seem odd in this little dogpile?"

_That _seemed to catch his interest, now that his compulsion to go back into the hold had diminished. Shifting his cannon back into its non combat state, Cyborg stepped past her, already initiating yet another scan, bionic eye buzzing.

"Interesting," he observed with scientific impartiality. "Readings indicate that Raven's life signs are fluctuating. Her condition is critical. Death is imminent."

"Trespasser did something to her," Nabiki said. "Stopped her heart, maybe?"

"Damage is... substantial. Massive compression has caused extensive physical trauma to the ascending aorta. The thoracic aorta has been ruptured in... three places, causing extensive internal hemorrhaging. The venea cavae has been sheared perpendicular to the muscle and the aortic annulus is also damaged. Other damage is also likely, but unable to be detected with this level of diagnostic equipment."

Cyborg actually leaned closer, his organic eye narrowing in confusion.

"Yet... blood pressure and flow are stable, despite physical rupture of the cardiac cavity and acute pericardial tamponade. There is no regular heartbeat... systole and diastole have been suspended. How is her blood flowing without a functioning heart?" He blinked, emotionless confusion close to betraying his features. "Scanning. Scanning..."

"I didn't follow most of that, but I'm guessing it means he turned her heart into hamburger," Nabiki guessed, frowning at the Oan. Reava was keeping Raven physically in place, but she was too weak to do more than scowl when Cyborg began to poke and prod at the two women, a little too intimately, trying to find a rational explanation for why Raven was still - for the moment - among the living.

Nabiki was briefly reminded of the first time she had seen an Ethereal. Even those creatures had a heart, though it was a shriveled and black as a lump of pitch and coal. No doubt Cyborg was thinking the same and attempting to confirm that Raven was somehow using psionics to keep herself alive.

It was a good guess, but it wasn't the right one.

* * *

A green trail arced through the air.

Ryouga's entire body spun from the vicious backhand, a bloody furrow ripped open along his cheek. He tumbled back and into an alien alloy wall, hands and face leaving bloody streaks behind as proof of purchase. Raising his hands to try and defend against the next blow, he managed to deflect one fist, only for an open palm strike to land in his lower ribcage, knocking the wind out of the battle hardened martial artist.

Ukyou reached in, grabbed him by the hair, and slammed him into the floor. Desperately rolling away, the acting Sergeant managed to avoid a spearing green blast to the shoulder. Unfortunately, it was followed a second later by a wave of emerald energy like an incoming tide. Buffeted, he ended up crashing side-first into another wall. Falling to his feet, managing to stay conscious, he could see Ukyou leisurely lowering her hand.

"The arrogance of you!" The okonomiyaki chef growled, low and vicious, stalking towards him with the slow, purposeful stride of a confident predator circling in for the kill. "To think you could beat me... after what I've become. I really hate to say it, but compared to what Trespasser has shown me, compared to the power to devastate cities and worlds...! Martial arts is so... trivial."

She craned her neck, working the kinks out of muscle.

"You're no threat to me, sugar," Ukyou assured him, trusting her hand forward. "You never were. You just don't realize that fact yet."

Her central, primary ring sparked, and Ryouga recognized the beam attack. Diving and rolling away, he slipped through the four spinning, pencil-thin, converging beams projected by her ring, instantly and instinctively launching into a counterattack. His boot hooked a loose metal crate along the way, kicking it forward to intercept two of the closest green beams in a spray of sparks. Using the momentary, makeshift protection, he closed the distance and launched a fist into the now fully empowered Corpse Lantern.

Only for light to warp around Ukyou's other hand, pulling in and forming into a claw-like glove. The energy construct grew larger, wider, and intercepted him, wrapping fully around his torso. With a step forward and a downward, slashing motion, the Lantern crushed him into the floor like a cat batting down a mouse. Another quick motion from his opponent, and he ended up tossed across the room. The Titan crashed into a secured MARS pod, bouncing off the unyielding surface.

"It doesn't matter what you do."

Ukyou walked towards him, sparing only a glance at the other fights going on close by in the small ship's hold. The Emerald Hinode that had nearly killed Hibiki had momentarily blinded Konatsu and Shampoo, who had been unable to protect themselves with improvised shields. It hadn't taken long for them to resume their battle, wounded and visually impaired or not.

"Do you get it, sugar?" she asked, stepping casually over a discarded set of meal-packs. "It doesn't matter how angry, or indignant, or determined you are. You can't beat me. None of you can. The fact that you're even trying proves that none of you are thinking clearly anymore."

She stopped, as a frantically battling Konatsu and Shampoo briefly crossed in front of her.

"Trespasser-sama is the only hope we have," she continued, not sparing the duo of former teammates more than a passing glance. "He's the only one thinking clearly. The only one we can trust."

Her arm flashed, blocking one of his retaliatory strikes. Despite the powers she had at her disposal, her martial arts were still top notch, and his skill, strength and speed advantages were nullified by the protective energy cocoon that surrounded the Corpse Lantern, protecting her even as it enhanced her strength and speed several fold. A spinning kick slammed into Ryouga's face, damn near blinding his right eye.

Ukyou followed up by grabbing his outstretched arm, twisting it enough to break - forcing him to spin his entire body to avoid a fracture - and then by driving a reverse heel into his throat. Something beneath the skin and muscle gave, taking his voice, and replacing it with a crimson gasp. As she tossed him aside, he tried to bring a desperate shishi hokodan to bear.

Only for it to encounter an entrapping lens effect, green with midnight violet edges, like a shield except formed around the attack instead of ahead of it. The Lantern Lens shimmered, capturing the ki attack, and then imploded, snuffing it out. Another unavoidable green wall slammed into him, crushing the martial artist against the wall.

"Ao: Enkyou," Ukyou whispered, announcing the attack post execution. _Green Light: Rounded Mirror._

"And this," she added, with a little mental push. "Is a full power Hiyaku Shouji (Leaping Sliding Door). How does it feel, sugar?"

A spray of blood painted the green wall red as the air was blasted from Ryouga's lungs, his entire body flattened between mental construct and unyielding alien alloy. He tried to cough, or curse, or even breathe, but a wet gurgle of blood in his throat was the only sound he could produce. His vision began to go dark along the edges, he could feel his limbs start to go numb...

A savage roar tore itself from Ryouga's shattered throat, coughing up a stream of his life's blood as he forced his aura to surge once more. A true fighter didn't need flesh or bone, didn't need air, or even the blood to carry on! No. All a martial artist needed was to get pissed off to keep on fighting, no matter what! All those other inconsequential details would fall into line on their own as long as you kept the will to fight!

Abused muscles and stressed bones moved, not yet ready to give in.

His arms swung out at his sides, fingers dancing madly across the surface of the alien alloy, pure determination giving him speed and skill beyond anything he had felt before. A second later, the supposedly indestructible wall – it caved in behind him. Falling back into the shallow hole, sparking wires and god knew what else spilling out around him, Ryouga tucked his legs up to his chest and planted his shoulders firmly against the warping metal of his back.

With all his strength, and more besides, he pushed out, straightening out his entire body like an uncurling spring. Ukyou, still staggering momentarily forward at the sudden loss of resistance against her lightwall, actually staggered back at the instant reversal in force. It wasn't much, since the construct dissolved nearly instantly to prevent it from affecting her, but it was enough to let him dive out of wound he had inflicted on Pathfinder, and start sprinting around the Green Lantern.

Ukyou followed him with inhuman, glowing green eyes.

Mind racing, the young Sergeant wracked his brain for anything – _anything _that he could possibly do to stop this power mad psychopath that had once been his comrade in arms. Nothing he had tried had worked so far. Those damned rings had given her so much power, even boosting her speed and strength leagues beyond what was possible for the chef. That protective field of hers, together with her lens shields and defensive mindset, made it impossible to harm her... even when he could outmaneuver her.

It was all he could do to spin to the side as another lance of green tore past him, shredding the alloy armor on his side, wearing the surface down to a pitted grater. He hissed loudly in pain as molten sparks touched his exposed side, searing through skin like pins through butter, but didn't slow in his mad dash. Even as he labored to draw in each breath, spots dancing in his vision, he angled in for a linear charge.

'..._what... what had Raven said again?'_

It was getting hard to think straight, so he didn't bother. Instead he did what came easiest to him, far easier than even breathing at the moment. Fists snapped out, kicks cut through the air, his body spun, flipped and twisted madly as he fought to stay one step ahead of his seemingly all powerful opponent. A swing of a green energy-spatula missed his throat by millimeters, the weapon appearing and disappearing in Ukyou's hands, winking deceptively in and out of existence to allow her to attack in ways he hadn't expected. A wall of force deflected a kick. An emerald empowered hand snagged his arm, tearing off the entire armored sleeve when he desperately leapt back once more.

'_My strength is her weakness? ... What does that even mean?'_

"I – I'm... not done yet... _Ucchan," _he spat out between breaths.

Despite his words, though, Ryouga could only stare at the irate chef, her indestructible energy constructs protecting her as perfectly as any force field. The woman's eyes were a literal burning torrent of emerald and violet, spilling out like smoke and fire from an overflowing fel-green pit. Viridian flames ran up her back like a billowing ephemeral cloak, framing her in a terrifying backlight. What the hell did he have that could even scratch a monster like that? Was she right? Was it just a matter of him realizing how futile fighting her even was?

He started, an errant memory flashing through his mind.

...

_Ryouga gave a low whistle at the sight before them._

_Even by his standards, the massive cerulean force dome which currently sequestered the entirety of the S.T.A.R. labs facility was pretty impressive. "Well, looks like that's the end of this mission. Too bad Beast Boy isn't here, I'm sure he'd do something wacky like suggest I try to Bakusai Tenketsu the thing."_

_"..."_

_The fanged fighter found himself shrinking under the scrutinizing looks of his companions._

_"...Well, can you?" Cyborg finally asked._

_"What are you, kidding? I'm still fine tuning it to work on metal. I think using it on exotic energy constructs is a little down the road," Ryouga replied, a little put out._

...

That was it! Ryouga nearly burst out into laughter. Why hadn't he thought of that earlier! His mastery of the Bakusai Tenketsu had grown by leaps and bounds since he had come here, constantly striving to push it to new boundaries. Invincible alien metal? Nothing to it. Restarting a failing heart? He had done it! And with the new level of focus granted to him by the array his double had taught him... the possibilities were endless!

He was treated to the sight of Ukyou raising an inquisitive eyebrow a fraction of an inch as he suddenly launched himself at her again, straight as an arrow and twice as fast. It was sheer lunacy, suicide really, to charge right in. Nonetheless he did just that. He had no time to dodge as Ukyou lashed out with her favored attack of four spiraling lances of light, an attack she had called "Ao: Shiku" (Green Light: Four Kinds Suffering). His shoulder was slashed open right to the bone by one of the spiraling, narrowing beams, his cheek by another, and the armor guarding his thigh sizzled and bubbled as a third beam slid across its surface.

But he was still alive, still moving forward!

An instant later, he was inside her defenses, the baffled Green Lantern falling back, possibly actually shocked by the extent of the injuries she had just inflicted. Perhaps a part of her had hoped he would dodge it, like he had every other time before? Perhaps a part of her was shocked he was still coming?

He didn't give her the chance to prove which one was which. A single point flared brightly in his mind, the rest of the world seeming to fade to nothingness. It was like a tunnel of light formed between the tip of his finger and that singular point, hovering a mere inch above Ukyou's heart.

"_Bakusai Tenketsu!_"

His finger struck the emerald force field, the stabilized energy matrix brought into being by pure force of will... a square energy shield, layered, expanded, pushed back.

Ryouga's finger folded completely backwards with a sickening '_snap'_.

For a moment, his vision flashed with a rainbow of color as not only the unfamiliar pain of breaking bones flooded through him, but the rest of his injuries, held at bay by adrenaline, rushed in to fill the gaps as well. All at once, he felt his strength falter, staggering backwards as he stared, incredulously at his oddly bent finger.

A plane of green light, thin as a molecule and only an inch wide, a deadly sword of will, was brought down with savage force. Alien metal, rubber body glove, skin muscle and bone all parted with equal ease as the energy blade pierced his leg, pinning him to the floor even as he half knelt, half fell backwards.

"I won't let you kill us!" Ukyou roared, consumed by a dark purple light. "I won't let you!"

Rearing back, she drove a fist ensconced in a shell of solid emerald into his face, rocking his head backwards. Before he could fall back, that same hand caught him by the throat and forced him forward into a head butt - his nose broke, bathing his lower jaw and upper lip in crimson. Ukyou's grip released, only to be replaced by an onrushing knee that slammed his teeth together. They felt almost like they were breaking in his gums.

She then reached back again, only this time when she struck, she was aiming for his exposed shoulder. Pain shocked him back to his senses for the briefest of moment, as the dull spike drilled into his shoulder and carried him clear across the room to slam him bodily against the airlock. Thankfully, the blade holding his leg vanished before she had, so he hadn't lost his leg, but now he was pinned to the wall, rather than the floor.

Reaching up with trembling hands, he wrapped nerveless fingers around the spear that pierced his shoulder, watching distantly as dark red continued to seep out slowly around the emerald haft...

"The breaking point. Really?" Ukyou asked, huffing dismissively as she stalked forward. "Like I said. You're conceited."

Death in her eyes, Ukyou's stride was purposeful. Menacing. Her feet left burning green imprints in their wake. The look on her face was one of pure, insane determination. She raised her hand to unleash another 'Four Kinds Suffering' ... one that Ryouga knew he'd never be able to escape from. The ring glowed, hot, bright, like a white ingot of silver.

And then Ukyou staggered, clutching her face, one hand over her left eye.

Green energy spilled out between her fingers.

Half closed, barely visible behind her eyelashes, the dilating orb was a solid, impenetrable green. Her vision seemed to waver and she stumbled, dizzily. Angered by the energy backlash, the former chef shook it off and closed in on her beaten and bloody opponent.

"I think my ring is telling me... to stop playing with my food..." One hand still covering her face and her left eye, Ukyou advanced, slower. "They're so loud now. Those dead bastards. They want me to finish this... to finish you..."

Honestly, Ryouga wanted to say something, one last word before the end... just like those cheesy shonen heroes always managed to get. Fate was not so kind though, and his vision began to darken even as he glared all of his hatred at the Green Lantern. She raised her right hand, palm inward, the back of it facing battered Titan; the green glow around it becoming diffuse and cloud-like. It wasn't like anything he had seen before.

"I'm done with you," she said, sneering at her prey. "Ryouga-honey."

Oddly, his final thought was of Raven's last words to him.

'_Your strength... is her weakness...Oh, and somethi-'_

* * *

Shampoo made a mistake.

She overextended. Blame it on the poison coursing through her veins, making her slow and sloppy. Blame it on the stress of mission after mission, and the mental and emotional fatigue of the last week or more. Blame it on anything. It didn't matter. She overextended. She made a mistake. Experience had taught her before that she couldn't fight Konatsu and make stupid mistakes.

The Amazon fell to her knees, her arm wrenched painfully to the side, Konatsu's sharpened nails digging into the wrist and the cubital fossa of her elbow. It only took a half second, and skin and veins were cut. Now, on top of being poisoned, one hand numb but nearly useless after having a blade jammed through it, she was also bleeding out. On a normal person, the two cuts would be life threatening: they would continue to hemorrhage until her blood pressure dropped and she went into peripheral hypoperfusion.

That wasn't an option.

Straining, forcing her elbow back, she caught the ninja in the chest, forcing him back a step. Unlike most martial artists with an advantageous position, he didn't fight to keep it. Instead, like a ghost, he drifted back. Fighting Konatsu - a deadly serious Konatsu - was like fighting a snake. He was lightning quick, biting and then falling back to let her tire herself out. He didn't have Ranma's power or speed. He didn't fight anything like his peers.

"If you keep this up, you'll die... Miss Shampoo..." He weaved away from a flurry of blows, slipping away from an impossible position in a casual display of his trademark _intonjutsu_. "You've become too slow to hit me. Please stop fighting and give up. You'll be better off if you do."

"You should know me better than that by now!" the Amazon launched into a snap kick that Konatsu weaved around. His cutting fingertips found the _popliteal fossa_of her right leg, and only a quick twist prevented damage to the ligaments there. He slipped inside her guard and slammed a hand to her chest, knocking her off her feet. It was easy to forget... that even though he usually didn't use it, he was well above human when it came to raw strength, too. Shampoo landed, stumbled, and barely managed to stay on both feet.

Blood streamed down her right calf and over her ankle.

"It is kind of amusing, isn't it?" the seemingly lucid ninja inquired, moving uneasily back and forth as he gauged her next move. "We both practice kosshijutsu... but in totally different ways. So far, it seems I'm having an easier time disabling your muscles and tendons than you are hitting my nerves." His eyes were lazy, but keen. "Or do you think you can hit me with a single overwhelming attack, if only I give you the chance?"

He smirked, threatening to slip out of her field of vision. Shampoo had to fight to keep her eyes on him. the other-Ryouga was right. They all knew it. She couldn't let Konatsu out of her sight. The moment he was, he would be free to attack anyone else present, perhaps even with the Severing Shadow. Even if he crippled her arms and legs, she couldn't lose sight of him!

"But..." Konatu continued, seeing right through her. "You're too weak now to use your full strength. And you've slowed so much that you know you'll never hit a critical nerve cluster, even if I leave an opening. Which I won't. Miss Shampoo... are you reduced to buying time? Isn't that kind of pathetic?"

Replying with an attack, not words, the desperate Amazon became a blur of strikes as the tried to pin her target against the wall. Konatsu, without weapons, dodged far more than he parried or blocked. If she could do something - anything - to limit his movement...!

"That won't work." A pair of hands cut through her guard, aiming for her eyes.

_'Shit!'_

Leaning back, her arms spinning, Shampoo fell away, rolled, and bounced back up. A few stray eyelashes wafted around Konatsu's outstretched hands, testament to how close he had come to getting her. Shampoo's entire body felt like it was lined with lead. She had pushed herself to her maximum, and Konatsu had countered within seconds. Her eyes lost focus for just a moment, and then he was next to her. Her body spun around, slamming hard into a wall. She had to scramble, undignified, as he lunged, finger scraping across her shoulder in a bloody - but mostly harmless - slash.

Shampoo's numb hand hit the floor, as she tried to brace herself, and the slit Konatsu's blade had left in it oozed. The entire limb was a near write-off at this point. Almost nothing in her body worked like it was supposed to. Her arms, her legs, her breathing... it was all either thrown off by the poison, or strained by the ninja genius's pinpoint tendon and artery strikes.

Shamefully, Shampoo found herself scrambling away, resorting to hurling discarded equipment and small storage cases at the advancing kunoichi. Konatsu balefully batted the improvised weapons away. Despite the polite tone from before, the look on his face was anything but: it had the focus and murderous intent of a snake cornering its prey.

"You hurt Miss Ukyou before with that trick of yours," he explained, stepping over a ruined scrap of personal armor left on the floor. "I really don't want to hurt you any more... but just thinking about what you did... about how you and Jinx and the acting Sergeant want to interfere..." A small fire lit the back of his eyes. "It makes me... feel very angry, Miss Shampoo."

He watched, outwardly calm and apparently unconcerned, as she neared the far side of the hold.

Catching sight of her last resort, Shampoo reached out to grab white cloth. Mousse had completely cut himself off from the rest of the ship: his hearing had been warped by the dimension's effects, making verbal communication impossible, and he had eventually taken to keep his glasses off and his eyes covered. Whatever was messing with his senses seemed to have spread from one to nearly all. For the safety of the crew, he and the others had been put - or had put themselves - into a deep meditative state. He had kept it even during the madness and tumult of Ukyou's Emerald Sunrise attack.

He didn't respond, even as she shook him by the collar.

"Mousse!" the Amazon yelled, leaning in close to him. "Mousse! Stupid, stupid Mousse! Wake up! Wake up now!"

Konatsu just chuckled in amusement.

"That won't work either," he lectured, shrugging in mock helplessness. "Not only can't he hear you in that trance he's in, he wouldn't understand your words even if he did."

"Mousse!" Shampoo hissed into his ear. "You wake up, or we all going to die! Stupid Mousse! Listen to Shampoo!"

"I said, it's pointless!" Konatsu lunged, tearing her away from her fellow Amazon and flinging her like a ragdoll into a wall. "Just pass out already, Miss Shampoo. Miss Ukyou and Trespasser will handle things from here. Your part in this is over."

* * *

Nabiki watched, furtively, as Cyborg continued his various scans of the Raven's comatose form. Reava watched as well, though her expression was now one of resigned frustration as the cybernetic powerhouse worked around her, waving his arm this way and that as he examined the would-be corpse of his Yankee team mate. It seemed, at the moment, that Cyborg was being handled.

But how long would Raven hold his interest? How long before he pieced things together and decided to move on to whatever he deemed 'highest priority' next? The middle Tendo sister wished that she actually had more than just the most basic psionic training, as seeing into Cyborg's head in that instant would be worth more to her than all the tea in China.

Not, she recalled ruefully, that it would have mattered. Considering the young man – hmm, _was _he actually younger than her? She couldn't actually recall, just knowing that he was older than all of his friends by a good year or two – he had been chosen to 'guard' Trespasser for the very reason that he was supposedly supposed to be 'unhackable' to covert mental powers in his current state.

Which… only raised more questions, actually.

She had _assumed_ that Cyborg was working for Trespasser, or somehow in his thrall, just like Ukyou currently was, and Nabiki, herself, had been. She was less sure of that now. He hadn't helped his team mates in attempting to overthrow the Oan and retake the ship, but, on the other hand, when he _had_ finally stepped out to join the fray, his stated target was to be _Ukyou_ of all people. Ukyou was something of a loose cannon, but Nabiki also knew she was kept on a short, bright green leash. If Trespasser hadn't totally turned him, like he had the others, then there was still a chance to talk him into jumping fences.

"…Biological systems are not just stable… they are showing rapid recovery, more than two hundred times that of normal." Cyborg brushed Raven's hair aside with a finger as he muttered to himself under his breath. "No known psionic technique has displayed effectiveness of this magnitude."

Shifting her grip on her plasma pistol, its solid heft in her hand granting her just a hint of security as she stood nearly within arm's reach of the very nearly literal Titan, Nabiki watched him carefully. First: she had to buy time. So far, that had gone along well. Cyborg was in his own little scientific world. It wouldn't last forever, though. If only he had some sort of switch she could hold down to put him in standby mode!

As if.

No: getting him to switch sides was a calculated risk, but one that looked likely to bear the highest return for her money. She couldn't turn him off, and she could only distract him for so long, but if he could be talked into playing along with her side...

"Cyborg," she began, sounding as casual and relaxed as she could manage, "I don't want to interrupt you while you're working, but… what did Trespasser tell you to get you to side with him?"

Not even looking up from his work, Cyborg replied in an emotionless, tinny echo of his usual boisterous voice. "You are not interrupting, Operator Tendo. Performing a full medical and technological scan such as this requires only 3.32% of my processing power. Entering into discourse with you requires less than one percent. Engaging in both activities does not impact my overall operational efficiency."

A small, lopsided grin managed to find its way to her lips at that. "Okay, you might be a robot at the moment, but now I _know_ that you're just trying to show off. Not to mention the fact that you didn't actually answer my question."

"I was merely attempting to decipher the logic behind your inquiry," Cyborg replied. "This is the second time that you have inferred obedience to the Oan."

Pausing for a moment, his scanner now hovering precisely over Raven's right arm, where Nabiki knew Reava's Mother Box was hidden from sight beneath the thin material of her shirt, Cyborg finally turned an eye to regard her.

"I am compelled to remind you. The Guardians of the Universe, as an intergalactic policing organization, have not been officially recognized by the planet Earth, in my dimension, or in yours. Trespasser possesses no authority, legally, or morally, to issue orders to any member of this crew."

"Yeah, try telling that to Ukyou," Nabiki muttered in annoyance. "So? What sweet nothings did he whisper in your ear?"

"Trespasser made no attempts to 'sway me to his side', as you seem to be implying," the cybernetic Titan replied emotionlessly. "In this case, monitoring Trespasser's activities, and attempting to prevent damage to the ship falls in line with the last viable order given by Acting Major Hibiki."

"The last 'viable' order," Nabiki whispered, suspicious, but more loudly told him, "You can't have it both ways. Trespasser here is going to use us and toss us aside, just like he did everyone else who put their trust in him. Don't assume you can be an impartial observer with your own life on the line!"

Rather than reply to her question, Cyborg instead leaned forward, very gently pulling up Raven's sleeve, finally revealing the golden, living computer which had assimilated into her pale skin. Nodding to himself, Cyborg brought his scanner over the Mother Box once more, and she could almost hear an audible whine as reams of data began rolling down the display mounted on his arm.

"…Fascinating. Cross referencing with data acquired from the Justice League identifies this device as a 'Mother Box'. The full capabilities of these devices are completely unknown. It could readily explain Raven's continued survival."

Frowning, Nabiki felt her hand tighten, unconsciously, on the grip of her weapon. Was he intentionally ignoring her? The situation was already tense enough already, she didn't need this as well. "Damnit, Cyborg, Why are you avoiding my questions? Who are you with?"

Looking tempted with the idea of physically tapping the alien gizmo, but likely uncertain whether it was a good idea or not, Cyborg spared a moment to glance her way. "I have been assigned to Combat Team Yankee, designation Yankee Three."

"That's not what I meant and you know it! I know you're in some kind of crazy computer mode, but you _can't_ be that dense."

"I understood the intent of your question. I am merely attempting to demonstrate the ridiculous nature of the question via the application of sarcasm. Granted, it requires increasing the utilities devoted to this conversation by three hundred percent in order to cross reference all recorded conversations to find suitable responses."

Nabiki huffed loudly. "How is my question at all ridiculous? I just want to know if you're with us or against us. And why."

Returning to his work Cyborg shook his head slowly. "The very notion that there are 'sides' to which people must align is a flawed assumption. As is the given that my own survival is somehow of paramount importance to me. Despite what the members of the crew believe in their various, deleterious conditions, everyone is working towards the same goal: that of escaping from this dimension and fulfilling the broader mission objectives assigned to us by Seiran Command. Engaging in combat is not only needless, it is actively endangering the greater goals. This includes combat with Trespasser."

"Trespasser betrayed us," Nabiki reminded him, "He initiated the attack when he used that… whatever it was, on Ryouga and Jinx."

Slowly, Cyborg considered her observation. "Indeed. In fact, Trespasser's betrayal was made obvious to me before the team acquired the archive."

Nabiki's finger tensed, and she reigned herself in. Cyborg had known, and done nothing.

But then, so had she.

"The fact that he resorted to such an overt action against the crew only demonstrates his own irrationality. It would have been–"

A sudden, loud alert sounded from Cyborg's arm, a section of the screen flashing bright red. Instantly, Nabiki felt her heart nearly stop in her chest. He was monitoring Raven, so did that alarm mean that Raven was dying?

"Cyborg," she asked, eyes narrowing. "What is it? Who is it?"

Standing up, the cybernetic teen looked to the back of the ship, then to his arm once more. "Sergeant Hibiki. His life signs have gone critical. Massive trauma…"

Nabiki was at his side in an instant, looking at the display in his arm. The display was familiar, showing the uplink with a team member's personal armor. The bio feedback monitors linked into Ryouga's armor in particular. She felt her eyes go wide at what she saw.

"If these readings are correct… it appears that Sergeant Hibiki has lost his arm," Cyborg stated. "Slowing of vital signs corroborates this hypothesis. Death is likely imminent."

The outline of the small humanoid form, representing Ryouga's armor was covered in patches of yellow and orange. However, the entire right arm, including the shoulder, was flashing bright red. It was just… just gone.

"What? That's _it_?" Nabiki could only stare at the cybernetic teen, not believing the emotionless tone he spoke with. "Your team mate, your _friend_, is dying, and nothing? Activate the medical systems! Adrenaline! _Anything_! You might be able to stabilize him!"

Cyborg studied her for a moment, then turned his attention back to the display in his arm. A moment later, he reached up with his free hand… and deactivated the display. Without another thought, he knelt back down and continued his scan of Reava's Mother Box.

"Negative," was his callous response. "The less combatants involved in the hold, the less danger to the ship and the more likely we are to survive."

The Tendo sister had no words to respond to that. Sides? She was worried about what side Cyborg was on? Frankly, she was starting to wonder if Trespasser or Ukyou were the biggest threats at the moment.

* * *

Her vision was...

So green...

It hadn't been like that before. Despite all the strange energy that flowed in and out of her, that permeated her, that shrouded her... her vision hadn't been tinted like this before. And it felt strange. Wrong. Even though she had assimilated it into her master ring, her Corpse Lantern Ring, it was almost as if there were shades of the other dead Lanterns still in it. In her ring. In her body. In her veins.

_- KiLL hIM_

_TeaR oFF hiS LeGs -_

_- WhY dOesN't He loVE mE?_

_LIes liEs LieS lIEs LiEs LIES LIES -_

_- SINful, so sinFUL_

_NEVER lead a NORMAL life -_

" I think my ring is telling me... to stop playing with my food..." She advanced on her enemy, squinting against the green light invading her vision. "They're so loud now. Those dead bastards. They want me to finish this... to finish you..."

She'd been toying with him for too long. The rings were right about that. His insufferable arrogance, his ludicrous belief that he could defeat her himself, had simply demanded she prove him wrong. She didn't hate him. But he was wrong, and that meant he had to be corrected. It was the duty of a Green Lantern to correct bad things: bad behavior for one, but bad thinking, too.

So: it was time to end things.

She raised her right hand, palm inward, the back of it facing battered Titan; the green glow around it becoming diffuse and cloud-like...

"I'm done with you," she said, sneering at her prey. "Ryouga-honey."

"Ukyou!" The voice came from behind.

"Ryu-honey?" Her expression softened and she smiled at the Yamasenken master, the young man somehow up and on his feet. She wasn't sure how. He had been sedated. For his own good. "What are...?" She felt a frown take the place of her smile.

He wasn't here for her.

He wasn't here to help. _He never had been._

"You're still weak from what happened on that horrible ship," she reminded him, placing a hand on his shoulder. It was true: he had seen better days. Both he and Ranma had begun to suffer some sort of malaise after what happened on the Thanagarian vessel. Ryu had the worst of it. His skin was so pale, it was hard to reconcile it with the healthy glow he had when they... shared that moment together.

"You need your rest," she insisted, her hand tightening a bit. "Let me handle this, okay? Where are Mousse and..."

Through the beryl haze, she saw them.

"I said, it's pointless!" Konatsu lunged, tearing Shampoo away from her fellow Amazon and flinging her like a ragdoll into a wall. "Just pass out already, Miss Shampoo. Miss Ukyou and Trespasser will handle things from here. Your part in this is over."

The legendary kunoichi stood over Shampoo, waiting for the poison to finish its work.

A small tick in his frown was all he betrayed as something slipped around his neck. It should have caught him by the throat, but that Konatsu vanished in a burst of smoke to be replaced by a crudely disguised metal container. It fell - hitting the ground at Mousse's feet. The still blind master of hidden weapons was standing, hands outstretched, a coil of wire retracting between his fingers. His hair was a fan of black, like a dark halo or a shifting crown.

"Mousse-san," Konatsu said, genuinely surprised - not by the attack, but by the fact that Mousse was up and about in the first place. The ninja emerged from the corner of Shampoo's eye. Like Mousse, he was seemingly unarmed, but no less deadly because of it.

"How are you up?" the ninja boy demanded to know. "You can't hear..."

"I don't need to. And I can _guess_ what you're saying," Mousse cut him off. "So no, I still can't make heads or tails of anything I hear... or even see. But I can _feel_. And it _felt_like Shampoo needed me. That's something I can never ignore."

"About time... stupid Mousse..." Shampoo managed to say, struggling to also get back up.

Konatsu's gentle features became a murderous scowl.

"I won't let you interfere," he vowed, deadly serious.

* * *

Skin tore, muscles split and a searing heat burned through her, stemming the splatter of bright green blood as soon as it began. Starfire felt the pain, relished it, reveled in it. Her cheek screamed in protest as she roared her battlecry, and dove right back in, heedless of the insane witch's deadly claws.

_This was battle_ as she had not seen in _years_. Tooth and nail, fang and claw, and the only prize for victory being your very life. This was violence as she had seen during her adolescence, when the Gordanians had come to Tamaran. They had not given quarter, nor asked for it in return. Not that the Tamaranians would have given such mercy, even if it had been begged for. It was the price of such unbound passion, especially when that passion was possessed by the whole of your race. When you loved, it was with all of your heart and soul. When you _hated_, it was as _hot_ as the fires of a _star_. And when you were wronged, justice, or vengeance, was absolutely final.

Her fist slammed into the wall, a shockwave of raw force and pure plasma exploding out from the point of impact. A circle of black char, punctuated by four knuckle shaped windows evidenced the results of her counter when she pulled her fist back. Of course, her nimble opponent was already far removed from the path of her attack. The grating squeal of entropic claws running along the underside of her armored arm, leaving bright molten scratches in the thin metallic bands drew Starfire's gaze down, to where Jinx had dropped below her strike.

Oh yes. The Gordanians had crashed upon the proverbial cliffs of Tamaran's defenses like so much water. Again and again they drew back, reforged their strength, and then surged forward in a mindless wave… Only to be shattered once more. Broken. Dashed. Their dead left to rot in the sun.

_There was a reason_that the Tarmaranians were known and feared as a warrior race. Few could match them physically, and their war machines were a match for any in the cosmos – barring, of course, the galactic super powers. Despite their own great size and fearsome appearance, even a young Tamaranian… even a young girl, for example, barely past her thirteenth year, was capable of overpowering a male Gordanian soldier more than twice her size and age.

A stomp of her foot actually reverberated within the ship, throwing off the stabilizers for a few fractions of a second. Again, Jinx was already gone, like fighting a phantom, but the claws that dug into her back with such fury just barely cut through the material of her shirt, above her armored midsection, doing little more than break the surface of her hardened skin. Starfire hissed loudly, the minor injuries stinging, but reminding her of far simpler times.

_It was hubris_, on the part of the Gordanians, thinking they could battle the Tamaranians as they did. Tamaranians were not feeble and weak like Thanagarians. Her race was perfectly capable of fighting at range, their weapons and military equipment designed for interstellar war, but if their enemies were foolish enough to wade into battle, grasping desperately to the hope of gaining honor and glory by defeating one's enemies face to face, sword to sword… then who were the Tamaranians to deny them? Death was and would be their reward!

Even though Starfire had been forbidden from participating in the war by her parents… they had not been able to watch over her, every second of every day. Tamaranian weapons were simple to use… for those with the strength to do so, and their ships were built by a race that flew as naturally as a fish could swim beneath the waves. Their controls were as responsive as intuitive as any races in the entire universe. It was not difficult for her to aid in the battles from time to time.

In fact, the rumors of their '_Warrior Princess_' assisting in the war effort had actually bolstered morale among her people, even as those same rumors had enraged her parents. Enraged or not, though, their love for her was unconditional. They must have _understood_, as Starfire herself now did. It was as if a veil had been lifted away. An iron veil of restraint and flaccid, immature indecision.

Finally lifted - finally leaving her _free_.

A kick to the back of Starfire's knee accomplished little more than pushing the slight sorceress away from her, not even bending her leg a fraction of an inch. It was followed by a trio of burning projectiles which splashed across Starfire's forearm as she spun around, sweeping her arm before her to defend her bleeding face. The second she finished her spin, she thrust out her other hand, and a shining bolt of righteous fury blasted out, catching Jinx's shoulder and exploding violently. The young witch was tossed bodily across the hold, but twisting acrobatically through the air, she managed to land on her hands and feet in a crouch. Her shoulder still smoking, Jinx glared up at her and gave a feral hiss.

The war had been hellish, to be sure. As powerful as Tamaran was, it was no Empire…

Unfortunately, the Gordanians _were_an Empire, and their fecund race multiplied without exhaustion or end. It seemed they had no limit to their resources, even as embroiled in war as they were with the Thanagarians. Despite it all, though, her people had remained confident that they would eventually make the price of ultimate victory so bloody costly that the Gordanians would never, ever dare darken Tamaran with their presence again.

And then had come the betrayal…

Starfire returned Jinx's hiss with a guttural growl. A kicked box became a deadly projectile, ricocheting off of wall, roof and floor in short order as Jinx dove frantically to the side. Alien artifacts, and fragments of artifacts, retrieved from the first alien ship salvaged in this damned dimension, were spilled and sent skittering across the floor as the crate careened around the room. Amidst the confusion, Jinx slipped and fell several times before finally regaining her bearings on the far side of the room. In the end, Starfire was forced to lash out with a devastating backhand and knock the careening container out of the air herself, crumpling the box like an empty soda can.

It had all happened so quickly. In a single night, Tamaran had fallen. It was unthinkable, **unspeakable**! All of their impenetrable defenses… circumvented as if they had not even existed. Every weakness revealed, every tactic, every strategy laid bare to their enemies. With their endless resources, the hated Gordanians had been able to roll over the planet in a single dark night, crippling every critical and strategic stronghold on Tamaran with ease.

She could not even imagine how many lives had been lost that night. Likely more than during the rest of the war combined. Even now it sickened her to think of it: fighting in the streets, watching Gordanians fight with jagged claw and gleaming Electro-lances. Their victory had been so complete that only one thing had stopped them from wiping out Tamaran altogether. Only a single price had to be paid to purchase peace, something so small and trivial that, in the grand scheme of things, it no doubt seemed like the cheapest of bargains.

All it had cost to buy their peace… had been Starfire's freedom.

Her entire body vibrated, but she forced the hatred down, squeezed it into a tight ball at the center of her soul. Time was on her side, not her opponent's. Wading in cautiously, Starfire led with a roundhouse kick which transformed fluidly into a spinning back kick and was followed with a swinging backfist. Jinx leapt over the first, spreading her legs out in a perfect splits, only to grab onto Starfire's extended knee as her second kick shot out too quickly, the sorceress still descending from her initial evasion.

Rather than attack from her tenuous position, Jinx held on for dear life, and Starfire barely even saw it as Jinx was pulled down and to the side by the Tamaranian's own leg as she recovered from her kick. By the time her backfist was cutting through the air, Jinx was already behind her on the ground, and rolling back up onto her feet. It was, she noted bitterly, a beautifully reckless evasion.

An armored calf smashed into her ankle in a textbook sweep, but again, Jinx might as well have been attacking a concrete pillar for all the effect she had. Rather than try again, Jinx pushed herself back bodily, her bottom cleaning a clear path through the scattered garbage as she skidded across the floor and away from Starfire.

Oddly enough, though devastated by the loss of her family, as well as her freedom, Starfire had not felt cheated by her fate. It was, after all, what was best for Tamaran. No, the thing which had hurt her the most, more than anything else, more than the defeat of her people, being stolen from her parents, being made a slave to the Gordanians… Far worse than all of that, had been knowing just who it had been that had betrayed them all.

Blackfire.

Sister.

Even now, Starfire could see her sibling's face, laughing as she ordered the Gordanian soldiers to drag her away. Her sister had wanted only one thing, more than _anything_ else in the universe. She had wanted to hurt her sister. And, by _X'hal_she had done it. More than she could possibly have hoped for, and in more ways than she could have even realized, Blackfire had hurt Starfire…

And all it had cost her had been their entire world..

Her fists blazing, Starfire swung her hands through the air, knocking aside pink projectiles like they were flies to be swatted. Stalking forward, she unleashed a hate filled blast of optic fire, sweeping along the wall as Jinx scrambled madly, half crawling, half jumping, just to keep an inch ahead of the onslaught.

_She had never imagined_ that such betrayal had even been possible; could not even comprehend another individual in all the universe capable of such vindictive spite. It was so impossible to believe that, again, and again, she had tried to rewrite her own history, to edit and erase that horrible truth. Blackfire was her _sister_, and she loved her sister _so much_…

It – it had to have been some form of mistake. It was just an aberration, a… a misunderstanding… And then she had come to _Earth_. There, she had found so _very many_ people that were quite capable of _betrayal_. Robin, he had betrayed them, if only for a time. Then again, with Terra, who had thirsted for their destruction with manic zeal. Betrayal heaped on betrayal.

Jinx leapt forward, her claws back again, and raked her hand against Starfire's side with all of her meager might. This time, they did not even mar the metallic surface of her armor, rather they shattered harmlessly against her hide, and the sorceress was forced to leap desperately away, her eyes wide with shock.

Starfire's lips grew into a deadly smile; and _now_...

There was Jinx.

It occurred to her, with dawning simplicity and certainty, that there could not be any worse crime than betrayal. After all, what other wicked deed required that you first become so intimately close to your victim? Indeed, betrayal was not even possible without trust, without friendship and love. To simply be attacked by a stranger meant nothing. But to have one whom you had loved with all of your heart… to have that person thrust a blade so deeply into your heart, even as they smiled brightly to your face?

Hate could not exist without love. It was one of the very foundations of Tamaranian society. The only way to truly hate a thing, was if you could truly understand what it meant to love a thing. The depths of one's hate could only ever match the depths that one could love, and nothing could grow more hated… than that which you had loved dearly. Starfire had never allowed herself to embrace this part of her culture before. Despite everything… she still loved her sister more than life itself…

Only now, did she truly feel what it meant to _hate._

**To Hate.**

She _needed_ Trespasser's plan to succeed. For if he did not get them home, then Starfire would never see her sister again. If she did not see her sister again, then she would never be able to demonstrate to her _dear_ sister, just how much she had learned about _hatred_.

She imagined that Blackfire would be so very, very proud…

And then she would die in fire.

Mockingly, Starfire laughed. "Are you growing _weary_, Jinx? Do you require a moment of respite from our battle?"

Glaring heatedly, the witch spat back a feeble, "Fuck you, Star! I still got enough juice to take you down!"

Such delicious deception.

Even as she watched the pastel hued fires around Jinx's hands sputter and fade, Starfire held up her own hands, the starbolts encompassing them growing brighter by the second. Everyone around her had been growing steadily weaker with each passing day, but this dimension did not _love_ them as it _loved_her. It did not embrace them as it embraced her. That beautiful, haunting, ever-changing orb which hung at the center of this hollow place only made her stronger with each moment she spent basking in its glorious, radiant presence.

Licking her lips, Starfire took a step forward. _Love_. Yes, Starfire had come to love Jinx over the past months. Not like she did Raven, or Cyborg, or… Ryouga… but in a unique, pleasant way. It made this new hatred burning in her belly all the more thrilling. Betrayal had been nearly unknown to her on Tamaran. Only one aberrant, malignant, cancerous _freak_on the whole planet had ever demonstrated it, though to such spectacular effect. But on Earth, it seemed almost as if the entire race, which she had also grown to love over the years, was genetically predisposed to hurting the ones they loved.

UNETCO, with their hypocritical and xenophobic ways had only shone a light upon that ultimate truth. The ultimate truth revealed by the illumining light of this dimension's crystal clarity. For so long, it felt like, she had quietly, even guiltily, hated the organization which had taken her in, and the people who had tortured her so callously. But UNETCO was not separate from humanity.

It was _representative_of it.

Such a wide cross section of humanity, all working towards a common goal. How could she not have seen it before? It was not the soldiers that were the problem; it was not the scientists and the officers. It was _humanity_itself that was the problem! An entire race of monsters, luring you in with false smiles and honeyed words, worming their way into your trust, and then into your heart… only rip that same heart from your chest and laugh as they watch you die.

Starfire's eyes narrowed as she glared at Jinx. The sorceress' body trembled with exertion, sweat beaded her brow, dripping from her chin and nose in fat drops. The fire surrounding her shaking fists little more than sparks now. She had given this girl her love, despite Jinx's spiteful words and selfish actions. Jinx had stolen a part of Starfire's heart, even as she had stolen all of Ryouga's, had wallowed in their love and affection with shameless amusement.

It was only fitting that Jinx be consumed, now, in her hatred.

Apparently, something in Starfire's own demeanor must have changed, because Jinx's response was quite stark. Eyes going wide as Starfire took her first step forward, rather than fight back, Jinx dove frantically for the door instead. Snorting loudly, Starfire altered her course, disgusted by her opponent's cowardice. Running, rather than facing her death with pride? _Pathetic_.

Slapping her hand against the control panel three times in rapid succession, Jinx gave a sharp gasp as, finally, the door shot open, a shower of sparks raining down over her from the damaged portal. Only opening halfway before seizing completely, it was still easy for the slight sorceress to squeeze through the doorway. Contemptuously, Starfire lifted her hand and fired off a Starbolt. Caught halfway through the door, there was no chance for the witch to dodge, and it exploded violently against her armored back. Thrown head first into the floor, the pale girl's face bounced off the metal decking and black smoke wafted from her scorched armor.

Stepping forward, the Tamaranian casually placed her hand on the edge of the door, only to push it open the rest of the way, mechanisms _howling_in protest and another shower of sparks exploding from the frame. She didn't even notice the small flecks of burning metal as she stepped through the door.

Unconsciously, her eyes shot across the room to where she had last seen Ryouga, appearing seconds away from death at the hands of her ally, Ukyou. The fact that there was a large, raggedly circular impression of warped metal in the center of one of the walls caused her to worry once more, but it was quickly assuaged when she heard Ryouga's familiar battle cries emanating from the far end of the hold.

At least he had survived… so far…

Deep inside, a darkly conflicted part of herself argued as to whether that was actually a good thing or not. As much as she loved him… he was human, just like the _rest_ of the degenerate filth that populated this ship. Not even a touched human - an altered human - as Ukyou now was. In fact, with just _how much_ she loved him, his inevitable betrayal would be far _worse_ than any other's on this ship. Far more painful. It would be a mercy to herself, and to everyone else, if she were to act proactively, and _end_all such inevitable betrayals before they could even begin. It was... it was the only outcome that made sense.

A comparatively gentle kick to the ribs lifted Jinx right off the ground. Body limply spinning through the air, there was no control this time when Jinx bounced off the wall next to the door. Flopping down to the floor in a heap, a wracking cough ravaged the slight girl's body and she wrapped her arms over her gut even as her eyes welled up with tears.

Taking a step forward, Starfire then dropped a foot on her 'friend's' chest and began to press down. An ominous groan filled the air as Jinx's armor – designed far more with spoiling energy attacks than dealing with massive physical stress in mind – slowly began to bend and collapse beneath the pressure. The witch's eyes snapped open at that, and she began to flail ineffectually at Starfire's leg.

It was almost pitiable to watch.

So desperate to live was she, this Jinx, that she even tried to summon up that killing lightning that she had dared to use against dear Raven. A quick shove of Starfire's foot sent Jinx skidding into the wall, pinning her place and rattling her pink haired head around.

It would be so easy to finish her now.

And... so many options existed for the execution: death by fire, death by blunt trauma, death by asphyxiation…

Nodding to herself, Starfire decided. Slowly, languidly, she reached down… and clamped her hand around Jinx's throat. Lifting her up into the air like a child's doll, Starfire conceded that, warrior to warrior, Jinx deserved to die on her feet, not crushed underfoot like an insect. Well, 'on her feet' was mostly a technicality, as the slight witch hung several inches above the floor, so that her weakly swinging feet could find no purchase.

Finally, _finally_, she could end this hateful melee. Never before had any human, let alone a supposed friend, driven her to such heights of fury; to such depths of rage! Even as pink lightning began to arc about Jinx's hands again, now clamped tightly around Starfire's forearm, the Tamaranian princess refused to succumb to the pain. No, this would end here, and now, and Jinx would never trouble _anyone_… ever again…

Deaf to the pitiable whimpers of her enemy, and blind to the tears trailing down her cheeks, Starfire began to close her hand with glacial slowness. True, she could close her hand in an instant, sever the infuriating witch's head in a single gruesome gesture... but the finality of that thought, it sent an unpleasant shudder through Starfire's body. A shudder she was not proud of. Why? Why was she hesitating now? She _hated_ this _human_, this _traitor_. She was an obstacle, an impediment… but...

But she looked so helpless…

The lances of pain shooting through her arm quickly reminded her of just why this frail looking human girl was simply too dangerous to allow to live. Her hand tightened, the tough material of her glove creaking in protest. Turning her head to the side slightly, afraid of getting any fragments of the former sorceress in her eyes, she prepared to mete out this ultimate justice.

She…

She could _do_ this… _had_to do it!

The Guardian demanded it? …Had he not? Or had it not commanded it? Perhaps he had implied it? Surely he had not forbidden it? Starfire was not... sure anymore. It was hard to remember. To think. Not that that even mattered! She _wanted _to do it! She hated Jinx. Hated Ryouga. She hated every human that had ever _existed__!_ As a race, they had done nothing but torture and confound her and mock her and use her in every way possible. Death was _too good_for them!

So… then why was she hesitating?

Why was everything suddenly so confusing? She had been so certain… but…

The look of fear on Jinx's face, even as she struggled with all that she had to survive… But – but it _had_to be done…

Steeling her heart, Starfire prepared to squeeze her hand into a tight fist. No more thought. No more indecision. No more weakness. Do. Or do not Do. It was time to simply be what she wanted to be. And this... was what she wanted. Once it was done, she knew she would know relief. Letting out a single, calming breath, Starfire made her choice. And that choice was to don the mantle of executioner, as was demanded of her.

The metallic _clang_ of metal on metal snapped Starfire's head to the side with surprising force. Surprising force, but little real damage; the alloy head guard which framed her face absorbed the brunt of the attack. Turning back _slowly_, the spun her head to gaze upon the person whom had _dared_to attack her.

Her eyes actually widened at the unexpected sight of _Tatewaki Kuno_ standing proudly beside her. It was no sword he held now, though, but rather a shorn off piece of metal rod that was grasped firmly in his hands. It was not even made of that damnable exotic alloy, as the tip had bent nearly forty five degrees from the contact with her face. What was _he_doing up? The last she had seen of him, he had been so lost in his own world of mad poetry, that the Guardian had not even needed to do a thing to subdue him like the others.

Snorting derisively, Starfire turned her attention back to Jinx's slowly expiring form. "Do not try my patience, _human_. Only Jinx need die at this time, you need not join her… yet."

The distraction, though annoying, was strangely welcome. The heat of battle had a delightful way of burning away confusion and galvanizing thought into deed. With the threat of harm now present, the thought of ending Jinx's life became far more certain in her mind-

"You must cease this madness, Flame Haired Goddess!" Kuno barked out, his voice oozing with nobility. Brandishing his 'blade' more threateningly, the kendoist shuffled half a step to the left. "Sharp spoken minx though she might be, Jinx is our friend and comrade. I'll not allow you to harm her!"

Something about his words twisted about her insides like a heated knife.

"You..." Starfire drawled out the word. "You will _not allow me_ to harm her?" she asked acidly. Shaking Jinx about, causing her hands to drop limply to her sides, she glared hatefully at the swordsman. "And just how can you _stop me_? I could end her before you even _move_to attack me!"

"And yet, you have not," he replied evenly. Slowly, the bent tip of his weapon lowered, one of his hands releasing to reach out to her. Oddly, his speech was strained, forced, as if everything he was doing was a great struggle. "I know your heart, gentle princess… and such merciless savagery does not befit you. Please, relinquish the spritely Jinx to me."

Starfire scowled, her emerald eyes flitting between her victim and her new opponent. Jinx's face was beginning to go blue, and her struggles had ceased completely. Her eyes had also begun to roll up into her skull in a macabre fashion. It was… hard to look at for some reason. And yet, she had to finish this… she _had_to.

Her hand began to tighten-

"_No!_" Kuno lunged forward, his sword coming down thunderously, only to bend in half as she lifted her free arm to block the blow before it could strike true. The sting of the slash ran up and down her arm, but such an impact, with such a fragile material, was as nothing to her inherent durability and the alien alloy bands which wrapped her arms.

Not surprised by the failure of his attack, Kuno juked back, only to begin diving forward at a different angle of attack, only to stop short, when Starfire brought her empty hand up next to Jinx's face, a blazing star bolt hovering mere inches from her skin. True, her grip on the sorceress' neck had slipped slightly from the surprising attack, and some of the blue was beginning to fade, but it was quickly replaced by red, the threat she promised overtly obvious.

"That is right," Starfire whispered menacingly. "Make one more movement, and she will die... not cleanly.. but in agony."

The swordsman froze at the proclamation, his twisted weapon vibrating in the air before him.

"Now _leave_," she commanded. "Hide in a corner. Live, at least for a few moments longer."

He hesitated again. "I…" His gaze lowered to the ground, then shifted about the room. "I…"

Only for his eyes to pin down on her once more. His grip on his 'sword' tightened with purpose, and he brandished it in her direction once more. "I will _not_abandon her. I would gladly give my own life to protect hers. Even if it is from you."

_That_– that was it!

Starfire's eyes literally shook with mounting rage, like a volcano of hate that could only bear to break the surface as pressure built within. How. HOW? How could he say such things?

Tatewaki. He had been _her_ friend! **Hers**! She had confided in him her darkest fears. She had shared her time with him, laughed with him, trained with him. Even, for a time, she had considered something _more_with him… He had been so sweet, so understanding…

And yet, even _he_ had chosen _Jinx_over herself!

Starfire felt her entire body begin to pulse and seethe with uncontrollable rage. She did not even know why she was surprised. He was _human_, after all, as was Jinx. It was _inevitable_ that Starfire would be forgotten about, given that impossible choice. Who could possibly want a _filthy alien_ like her, anyway? Robin would prefer Kasumi to her, she knew! Ryouga had eyes only for Raven and this _witch_! It was stupefyingly _obvious_ that Kuno would lust after a _human_girl as well.

"You all want _Jinx_," she muttered, barely above a whisper, her tone so deceptively calm that it could have been mistaken for quiet, contemplative introspection. Ryouga. And now Tatewaki.

They both wanted the spindly little bitch.

"You want her so badly?" she asked, lips curling as the calm broke.

"Then _JUST TAKE HER!_" Screaming with all of the hatred in her heart, Starfire spun about and _hurled_Jinx at the swordsman. It was all he could do to swing his arms out and let the insensate girl's body slam into his chest. The force of the impact sent him skidding back several feet-

The optic blast which slammed into Jinx's armored back carried them the rest of the way across the hold to crash into the wall bodily. Starfire watched, darkly amused, as Kuno frantically caught Jinx, even as he hastily used his sleeves to put out the flames that had ignited in the girl's lavish pink hair. Appearing casual, despite every chord in her body screaming for death, Starfire began to walk across the hold.

The sound of battle, of green flashes of light and shouted battle cries washed over her without even registering. There was only Jinx. And there was only Tatewaki. There was only **Hate**.

Staring at her with wide eyes, the swordsman – having finally extinguished Jinx's now blackened and charred hair – gently lowered the unconscious sorceress to the ground, wasting only a single moment to run his hand gently down her smooth cheek. Once that was done, he rose up to stand over Jinx's fallen form. No longer even holding the piece of garbage he had been using as a weapon, he lifted his hands before himself defensively.

Starfire snorted contemptuously at the display. Even at the best of times, Kuno was considered the least of the martial artists among India and Juliet, and that was while he was armed. In his current state, he was as much a threat to her as Jinx was. Sneering cruelly, she continued her slow advance towards them.

"I give you one _last_ chance to stand down, Tatewaki. Join us, beg me for mercy, for forgiveness, and you will live." She eyed him seriously. "Betray me… and you will _not_."

Despite the hesitance in his stance, the conflicting emotions that crossed his face, Kuno did not lower his hands. "I will not allow you… to do this thing."

Something inside Starfire snapped, loudly and with a startling sense of finality to it. She didn't even realize it, but she was across the hold before her eyes even registered the movement. Almost of its own accord, her fist flashed out with inhuman strength. Kuno lifted his arms in a guard, but her attack blasted through it without even slowing, smashing into his face and bouncing him off the wall behind him.

"You will _NOT-"_ A fist to the gut picked him off the ground and he ricocheted off the wall again, right back towards her infinite wrath. "_ALLOW ME_!"

_Betrayal_! **Another** betrayal, in a long string of them! He barely even acknowledged Jinx's existence before, but now he would choose to side with the witch, rather than her? It was the final insult! The last straw!

Slapping aside a hand feebly attempting to protect him, she dug her hand into the material of his shirt, her nails digging bloody furrows into his chest as she dragged him from his feet. An open hand slap rocked his head to the side.

"**Betray **_**me**_**?" **A backhand was accompanied by a spray of blood from his mouth as he bit his tongue. "**Attack**_** me**_?"

She tossed him back against the wall so hard that he bounced. Incredibly, he remained standing, though he wavered from side to side. Again, he lifted his hands before him… though his right arm reacted sluggishly.

Hate.

_Hate._She hated him so much!

She hated… hated… hated _everything_!

Wanted to end _everything_!

"_GET OUT OF MY WAY_!" she screamed into his face. She demanded it! It was her birthright! She was better than this filth, above him! He had to do as she commanded, he had no choice!

Holding his ground, however tenuously, he shook his head slowly. "C-cannot… will not yield. I will save..."

Whatever he had to say was lost to her animalistic roar. Starfire's fist smashed into his shoulder, spinning him like a top and, by the sound of it, dislocating his right arm completely. A kick to the knee crumpled him to the floor, only the fact that his back was to her from the spinning preventing a most gruesome result.

"You will save _**who**_?" she growled, demanding, mocking. Digging her hands into his hair, she dragged him to his feet and spun him around to face her. "You should worry about saving _yourself_!"

She buried her fist into his stomach again, and the remains of his last meal were expelled onto her shoulder. The stench of his vomit was still not as offensive as the man himself, and her thirst for blood was still far from sated. No. Despite all of her effort, he was surprisingly alive.

Grinning wickedly, her next approach appeared much more gentle. Pulling him close, she tenderly cupped his cheek, giving it a reassuring pat. Her hand then drifted down from his cheek, gliding down the side of his neck, only to begin tickling his ribs as her fingers drifted down his chest. She relished the look of confusion visible through his one unswollen eye.

Her fingers stopped midway down his chest, her delicate fingers circling around and around.

And then her thumb pressed in. It was such a seemingly delicate gesture, hardly even a touch by her own standards. The sharp _crack_of bone, though, as his fourth rib snapped clean in half, served as a too-late reminder of the horrible strength she possessed.

Kuno's entire body jolted forward, but her other arm was already wrapped around his back, pinning him in place with grim finality. A wet, choking gasp rattled his throat, strands of spit spilling past his lips as his eyes bulged out comically.

Leaning forward, she nipped at his ear teasingly with soft lips. "Tell me again, who was it you so wished to save, my dear Tatewaki?"

Her thumb began to dig in, forcibly pushing his own rib through muscle and tendon in what she could only imagine was a horribly excruciating manner. And… yet, his arms _still_rose up... though...

Though not in attack.

Gently, he wrapped his arms around her back, too weakly to even pull her close.

"_To – to-_" he choked out around wet, gurgling gasps "_...save you… from... yourself._"

In an instant, the intrusion of her thumb ceased.

What?

What had he meant by that? Save her from herself? But – but she was the victorious one! Why did she need saving, and why from herself? And why… why did he _care_? Did he care for her? She wanted, so very _badly_to believe that. She wanted, with all of her heart to forgive him at that moment. And yet, the dark pit within her cried for more - more blood - and her vision blurred with moisture.

"Tatewaki," she gasped, blinking hard and wiping her tears against his shirt. It smelled like blood. _Everything_ smelled like blood, but the **hate **she felt inside her burned as strong as ever. It still wanted to kill. It still longed to take this human's life.

For the second time, she remembered seeing the Thanagarian captain, twisted with hate and madness and unspeakable corruption. But this time Starfire blinked, and she saw herself, defiled not by corrupted Nth metal, but by the blood of those she planned to murder. Like the evil on that ship, it would be a stain on her body and soul that would never go away. It would claim her, forever. It would be the final, damning proof that she had become a monster, just like so many in this cursed, forsaken dimension.

"Tatewaki," she whispered. "I'm..."

His right hand cupped her cheek, gently, and a painful smile crossed his face. He nodded and finally, mercifully, collapsed. Stunned, Starfire tried to catch him, but he slipped through her arms and fell to the ground with a limp, boneless thump.

Eyes wide, breath coming in ragged gasps, tears streaming down her cheeks, Starfire could do little more than mutely stare upwards.

It was the only place where the sight of blood couldn't call to her, cursing her.

_'Merciful X'hal... forgive me...'_

But, in the sick, twisted cancer in her heart... she still wanted to kill.

_'X'hal... give me strength... I...'_

* * *

"Enough. That's enough." Ukyou demanded, her voice soft. "Starfire. Konatsu. Are you..."

Next to her, Ryu shifted, as if to move against her.

She ignored him. "Are you..." The Corpse Lantern's eyes flashed as she saw the state of her supposed allies. Konatsu was clearly struggling to hold off an enraged Mousse, and Starfire was vacantly staring up in space, tears in her eyes, Kuno and Jinx both beaten but breathing at her feet.

"What's wrong with you two?" Ukyou growled. "What are you doing?"

"Ukyou!" Ryu shouted, grabbing her by the upper arm and spinning her around to face him. "What the Hell's happened to you? Why is everyone at each other's throats? Where are Hibiki and Saotome? What is going on?"

_- maKE theM Pay_

"We... our orders... **Trespasser**..." She stammered and caught herself, angry with herself. "We're getting this ship to safety. Ryu-honey. Don't worry about-"

"Ukyou," he said again, sounding and looking strained. He glanced over to the beaten and nearly dead acting Sergeant. "I don't know what's going on, but you have to stop this. You **all **have to stop."

_hOW dAre TheY? -_

She shook her head slowly. "It can't be stopped."

"W-"

She held her hand up to his face, and the diffuse cloud of green smoke shot into his nose and mouth. It was an energy construct, but not solid. It didn't turn **solid**until it was in his lungs. Ryu gasped, eyes wide and shocked, clutching his throat. It took only a second to remove the air in him. The master of the Yamasenken, arguably the second strongest man in India Squad, collapsed like a wet rag.

"I have had enough of this," she announced, walking towards the ongoing melees. "Trespasser-sama demands order. He demands obedience!"

_- I'Ve LosT evEryThiNG_

Bits of metal tinged harmlessly off her emerald armor - her shield of purest, righteous light. Mousse had done far better with Konatsu than Kuno could ever have with Starfire. The ninja had been forced on the defensive, and it appeared that Shampoo was eager to help while she was still able to stand. The blind - but canny - Amazon was not unaware of her approach.

It didn't matter.

_KilL KiLl KIll kIlL kiLL -_

Ukyou projected the green cloud around her hand, her Ao: Bifuu (Gentle Breeze), interspersed with whip-like tendrils of force. Two of them knocked Konatsu out of the way, as Mousse tried to use him as a shield. The kunoichi smashed face first into a wall, but at least he was out of the way. Mousse scrambled, but couldn't escape, even when he tried a last second linear step. Caught around the left ankle and wrist, he choked and gasped as the emerald energy enveloped him.

_- ENForce obedIENCE_

Finally. There was only one.

_SHOULD just DIE here -_

Shampoo's fist glanced off a shield of green energy and Ukyou seized her old rival by the throat. Shampoo's feet left the floor as the chef held her up, straight armed, in the air. Konatsu's poison had already made her weak. Even she could only fight it off for so long, running on pure, bloody determination. The lavender haired Amazon gasped, twice, three times... struggling with her last breath... for her last breath. Contrails of green smoke still rising from her nose, she finally went limp.

"Like I said," she informed Shampoo's unconscious, slumped form. "That's enough."

Ukyou let go of her victim, green energy nose tricking from Shampoo's nose and mouth even as she bounced off the ground.

"No more games, sugar. This is over."

* * *

Alive.

Ryouga was still alive.

Nabiki had keyed into the video and physiological feeds on her workstation expecting to see the worst. Limb loss was something all XCOM operatives had been trained to expect given the nature of alien plasma weapons, but Nabiki had never completely gotten over the pictures she had been shown during post-psionic in-doc. Pictures of men and women missing arms or legs yet somehow still alive, still conscious, sometimes even still fighting. The organization's habit of pumping squaddies full of meds via their armor had probably saved a lot of lives, but it didn't make for a pretty sight.

Thank god - Ryouga was alive. He wasn't lying in a pool of blood, a stump where his arm should be. He wasn't going to live the rest of his life lopsided, like poor Elder Ku Lon. Like so many vets. He was pretty badly mauled, but not crippled. Not yet.

From the look of it, his armor had been torn off.

"Then why did Cyborg's reading...?" Nabiki stopped, mid-sentence. _She knew why._

Reava yelled, helpless to intervene, even if she wanted to, "Look-"

In her haste she'd left her sidearm on the chair next to her.

_'Cyborg... you found my weakness and exploited it...! Not bad. Not bad at all.'_

Nabiki reached for the plasma pistol... but never even got close. The sensation of a viselike grip slapping down on her shoulder spun her around before she even had the chance to react.

_'So fast... but he can't move that...'_

Her own question was answered as her chair spun around and she was pulled bodily from it. The cable running from Cyborg's wrist, to the hand clamped down on her shoulder began to reel in rapidly, dragging her across the room like a particularly small fish. She had been right before, when she had said that Cyborg had understood the concept of reach... he'd kept a proverbial ace up his sleeve. With a loud clank, his hand snapped back to his wrist, and he lifted her into the air like she was a sheaf of papers, staring at her dispassionately.

"Operator Tendo, your actions are endangering the mission."

Lifting up his free hand, he curled up a single finger, holding it right before her face.

"You are summarily relieved of duty."

And then, almost embarrassingly, a single flick of his finger sent Nabiki's world careening into darkness.


	47. My Lie

A/N:Alright, here we up on the end of this year, and the beginning of the next. Seems like a fitting a time as any to finally start our hiatus. As such, we apologize in advance for our coming absence. Maybe some of you will miss us, surely some of you will not, but it's still been a pretty wild ride to this point, one way or the other.

Thanks again, for sticking with us so long through this massive monster of a story which had originally been intended as a simple little short, doubtful to even break 100k words.

Hmm...aside from that...

Cap'n and Lathis are out! Peace!

* * *

x

* * *

"Man, I gotta say, that was quite the show you put on back there," Ranma exclaimed, exhaustion clear in his voice.

Ryouga shook his head, his own disbelief apparent. "Four hours of constant psionic attack and defense and you're barely even breaking a sweat."

Doing her best to suppress a self-satisfied grin as she walked between the pair of martial artists, Raven absently tugged on the ends of the towel draped around her neck. Despite the elder Hibiki's statement, her uniform shirt was sticking to her uncomfortably. Four hours of sitting in an uncomfortable chair in a stuffy room filled with older researchers was leaving her with a powerful urge to take a shower. A quick splash from a drinking fountain had helped, but a nice hot shower was what she really longed for.

"This coming from the pair of muscle heads that can fight for days at a time," Raven replied airily, "You really shouldn't be surprised to see someone else show similar fortitude in a field in which you aren't specialized."

Lieutenant Hibiki gave a thoughtful grunt, crossing his arms over his chest. Ranma, for his part, let out an embarrassed chuckle, running a hand through his dark hair. "Heh, well, I still can't believe that you were holding off the two of us _and_ Captain Ben Solomon. And all of that without even using a Psiamp."

"Why don't you use a psiamp, anyway?" he asked, tucking in a few strands of his pigtail that had come loose. "You should use any edge you can get against the enemy."

The three of them approached an intersection and Raven looked instinctively both ways, but didn't notice anyone coming their way. As such, she continued forward, intent on making her way back to her quarters. Coincidentally, that meant she could stick by the two officers, at least for a little while longer.

"Well, it isn't like I'm so proud as to think I can do without," she replied, "Rather, I'm simply incapable of using one anymore."

Ryouga looked up at that. "Incapable?"

"Well, incapable might not be the right word," Raven admitted, and tried to explain, "Rather, that I've simply grown incapable of gaining any benefits from them. It isn't just me, either. The doctors at the gym said the same thing."

"Incapable of gaining benefits?" Ranma asked, his curiosity obvious. "I mean, sure, I know you haven't used one since the mission in Russia, but I thought there was some other reason."

The dark Titan shrugged her shoulders. "During our mission in Russia, I found the Psiamp to be of help. However, the more I've trained here, and the more I've grown accustomed to my powers… the less effect it has been providing. I suppose it is the same reason that the aliens you face don't use similar devices."

"In fact," she observed, though this was most a guess. "I think one of the reasons psi-training wears you two out so much is because you use an amp. After all, it is an artificial means of mimicking natural telepathy and telekinesis."

Glancing back at Ranma out of the corner of her eye, she couldn't help but grin. "For people with no inherent gift for ordered psionics, such as yourselves, the benefit they provide is obvious, but for natural psions, they serve no real purpose. After all, if the best that a psi amp can hope to do is allow a normal human to match an Ethereal, then what could it do for someone that's already far beyond any Ethereal?"

"Heh, someone's getting kinda cocky, aren't ya," Ranma quipped. Giving a thumbs up, he nodded. "I kinda like that."

"Quit with the womanizing, Ranma," Ryouga muttered. He then favored her with a small smile, but tempered it with cautionary words. "And you shouldn't get too overconfident, Raven. Psi-strength is only potent on the defense, and even with all of your power, we nearly had you more than once."

Raven grimaced at that. The memory of a particularly clever mental trap initiated by the Captain still caused her to shudder. Having each of them attack her with multiple partitions? It had nearly overwhelmed her rather singular minded defense. She would have to remember that little trick.

"Yes, well, even I can acknowledge the benefits of training and experience." She hmm'd to herself, deep in thought. "Still, this session was quite good for me. I must admit, that… ever since Saffron, my training here has felt… somewhat shallow. Learning new tricks and techniques is always of benefit, but after facing, and very nearly matching, that level of raw power..." she trailed off. "I'm not sure you'd be able to understand."

Evan as Ryouga frowned to himself, gaze dropping to his feet as they walked, Ranma began to snigger to himself helplessly. Both Raven and Ryouga turned their eyes to the pigtailed Lieutenant. A moment later, Ranma let out a loud bark of laughter.

"I think I might have just an inkling of what it might be like to fight against Saffron, one on one like that. Well, maybe I had a _little_ help. It was... it was a helluva fight." Ranma nodded at the distant memory, one which Raven herself had no real knowledge of, asides from rumor and anecdote. "But, more than most anyone else, I think I know that smarts will beat out power nearly every time."

Raven grinned at the Saotome heir, teasingly noting, "Every time except today." The agonized groan that emitted from the overly proud martial artist was completely worth the low blow.

"Hey, I-"

"Oh, hey! There you are, Raven!" It was the sound of Ryouga's voice, yet not the one at her side. There was an almost imperceptible difference, really, or maybe there was no difference at all, and it was just all in her head? Sometimes it being 'all in your head' was all it took.

Raven's eyes lifted, excitement nearly bubbling up past her ability to contain it. Luckily for her, she was talented in keeping track of herself and managed to keep her neutral expression. As such, when she finally saw her NCO approaching her, a hand lifted in greeting, she kept her reaction suppressed to a faint nod of recognition. Her excitement faded quickly though, as the broad smile on her Ryouga's face descended into a flat line as he noticed the company that she was keeping.

"Ah, nevermind," he quickly retracted. "Looks like you three are busy. Don't let me disturb you."

Despite herself, Raven lifted a hand to stop him, but the younger Hibiki already found a convenient exit, ducking down a side corridor, haste evident in his steps. Good mood quickly souring, Raven pulled her hand back to her chest.

"Hmph, seems that some things will never change," the elder Ryouga stated from behind her, arms crossed over his chest.

"Bah, give it time," Ranma replied, dropping a hand on Hibiki's shoulder, "He's coming around. But he's as pig headed as any Hibiki out there."

Raven started, feeling a hand drop on her shoulder as well. "And don't you worry, either, Rae. No matter what it might seem like, you ain't never gonna be alone. Remember that."

"That's right," the other Hibiki affirmed.

The dark Titan nodded, though she wasn't certain whether she actually believed it.

Still… it was a nice sentiment.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_My Lie_

Chapter 46

* * *

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - _"Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."_

* * *

'_N-not dead… yet…_'

It felt odd to the dark Titan, lying to herself at a time like this.

It was truly some kind of pathetic irony… that she should die as she did…

Death by a broken heart.

A wet, hacking cough wracked Raven's broken body, splattering the stained, stinking ground with more of her blood. So much of the stuff pooled around her now, did the human body even hold so much blood? It was a fair question, as Trespasser's final, brutal attack had left her collapsed and crippled in a heap, sprawled helpless and lying face first in a pool of her own blood and bile.

Her hand clenched instinctively, nearly tearing the soaked, matted blue material covering her chest. It seemed impossible… it seemed unfair... that death should _hurt_ so much. Tears blurred her vision as lances of raw agony knitted themselves throughout the flesh beneath her breast. It felt like a dozen steel needles were twisting and burrowing through her heart, a pain which she could not even reach, and yet her hands clawed away at her chest, trying to tear through her own ribcage if only to grab those _damned_ slivers and _stop them_!

How could a heart that had long since ceased beating experience such exquisite torment?

'_Five… five minutes till __brain death__…'_

That voice.

Those words. She had heard them somewhere before… hadn't she? Had it been Robin, or Cyborg, or perhaps some random documentary? It sounded like something like that, but... the voice was different. Not them. Her body was dead, the agony of her death living on past the expiry of her shell…a shadow outliving the one who cast it... but she _Still_. _Had. Time._

But how much? How long had she wallowed here, blinded by pain?

'_No_!'

Now wasn't the time to retreat, to surrender. She was already lost, her mind simply too stubborn to accept that fact yet, but her friends… _they_ still had hope. And that hope rested on her telling the Grim Reaper to _wait his damn turn_! Even if – no, even _when_ it killed her, she had to _keep fighting_!

Squeezing her eyes shut tightly, Raven forced the salty liquid from her eyes. She had to _see_. Forcing her hands to unclench, she slid her arm forward, displacing crimson liquid with her feeble movement. She needed to _move_.

Hot blood clung to her cheek, drops fluttered from her eyelashes and each exhale from her nostrils caused ripples in the pool of her life, slowly draining from her body. She swiveled her eyes about until she saw something other than bright red. Finally, laboriously, she could see crushing, endless white, the infinite expanse of Trespasser's - of their - gestalt inner minds.

She could also see, strewn across the field of battle, where her partitions were, the pieces of herself, wearing the bodies of her friends. Cyborg… Timid... was nothing but a pile of scrap and torn flesh, beyond all help. Beast Boy, or Bravery, was weakly dragging himself across the white nothing, trying to reach his fallen friend's side. To die there, rather than fall, alone. His green cloak smeared the trail of blood left behind him, oozing from shattered fingers and punctured shoulder.

Mammoth and Starfire were on the ground, half laying, half propping themselves up with their arms. Both were breathing raggedly, and neither looked like they possessed the strength to do more than prevent their own collapses. Their shell-shocked movements, eyes wide but unable to really see or focus, heads listing side to side, reminded Raven of a war documentary she had once seen. They were pieces of her, parts of her, but they were drifting away...

Jinx, or Happiness, was on her knees, her head dipped to her chest and her knuckles splayed on the ground to her sides. The personification of her joy seemed as dead to the world as Raven herself no doubt appeared. It made a strange sort of sense, after all, how could one experience joy when one lacked a heart?

Only Rage, wearing the skin of Robin, was still on his feet. Anger was something that she felt no shortage of. Anger at her own weakness, at her utter failure. Anger at the alien monster that had done this to her, at the alien **monster **that would cause the death of everyone here that she loved and cared for. Anger at her own impotence.

But there was no power behind Rage's fury.

That anger was just a hollow, formless echo, fading away.

Beyond all of that, past her partitions, the false Command center still sat, nested at the heart of this stark, oppressive existence. Trespasser paid what was left of her no particular mind as he continued his work. A fractional twist of her head, not even enough to pull her cheek up and out of the blood beneath her, revealed his 'great works.'

The sky of this place was a shifting expanse of numbers and letters, more than half of them solid and firmly affixed to the curve of the firmament like the mosaic on an immense cathedral ceiling. A steadily decreasing number of encryption lines were still moving: the dwindling unbroken psionic code that was needed to gain full control of the ship's navigation systems and EDC. The discordant mixture of Trespasser and Ben-Solomon had his arms crossed, glowering upwards as he worked.

Ranma and Ryouga remained helpless, their forms trapped in metaphysical representations of their pilot chairs. The two officers were only half conscious, as their experiences as pilots - and their knowledge - continued to separate from their minds, drawn out by rote repetition. Like a leech, Trespasser was siphoning what he needed from them, leaving only husks behind. The pilot's chairs shimmered, shifted, latched firmly onto their two victims. The two couldn't even be aware of what was happening to them anymore.

Raven reached out, to try and drag herself towards Trespasser, but her arms were weak and her legs completely unresponsive. Fingernails slipped and scabbed uselessly through an ocean of red. There was no purchase to be found, and no strength within her to use it, even if there were. Why – why couldn't she _move_? She had to _move_! Had to _fight_!

But… with what?

She had nothing left to give. She had thrown all that she was against Trespasser; she had shattered her entire being against the foundations of his power…

She had failed.

Tears began to fill her eyes once more, her hand slowly curling closed as slivers of steel worked their way through her bleeding heart…

"...holy hell, look at this."

An electric jolt shot through her, forcing her eyes wide open.

At first, all she could see was an expanse of pale peach. Then it was gone, and she saw a familiar face for just a moment, drawn down in a scowl. Kneeling next to her. It was **him**, but - not him. _The other him._He reached down and took her hand, holding it up in his own: Raven could see, like looking through window, that the small pale hand he had lifted up was painted almost entirely red, saturated with it, more than could possibly even exist…

'_So… they came after all…?'_ Raven wondered to herself, drifting for a moment in and out. She honestly hadn't been certain her Wisdom and L… _and Blackfire._.. would succeed, but _they_were here now. There was still a chance… for everyone else.

Feeling her eyelids grow heavy, Raven let her eyes slide closed.

She had done all that she could, had come as far as she could go.

'_It would be nice… to sleep. I'll leave the rest to you…'_

"Raven!" Ranma barked down at her, an unfamiliar tenor in his voice. "Raven!" he called, and pushed the other-Ryouga back. Drawing a hand back, he plunged his fist into her chest -

Into it and through it.

"Don't just sit there!" Ranma yelled at his fellow officer. "We need to give her another jolt!"

"We don't have time...!" Despite the complaint, the other martial artist in-mind did the same, his hand briefly blocking her vision at it entered her forehead. "Now!"

Her metaphysical body arched, and agonizing crackling sounds. Wide eyed and detached, Raven wondered what they thought they were doing. Were they trying to put her Ego back together? Forcibly jump starting her sense of self? She had never heard of such a thing. They would have been better off doing what they were trained to do: to finish her off and dissolve what was left of her broken, bleeding, fractured and ruined mind.

She was already dead.

Already -

"You are **not**dead!" Ryouga snarled, leaning close enough to fill her entire world. "Oh?" He cocked his head slightly. "You don't believe me? ... I'll show you how alive you are!"

He leaned closer, and for just a second, Raven tried to push herself away.

He wasn't going to...!

Inside her mental projection of a body, Ryouga's fist clenched and released. Instantly and without warning, a virulent wave of emotion surged into her. The hand he had been holding crushed tight around his fingers with seizure-level force, her nails digging into his skin. Raven gasped; rage flooded into her and her mouth opened to try and roar or bite. It was an animalistic, white hot fury, different than what she had lived with as the curse of her birthright. This hate was petty and human, flavored with hints of struggle and grief and pain and fear. It wasn't simply a black malice. It was the rage of a cornered beast, of a rat backed into a corner, desperate to strike back or escape. Desperate.

**To survive.**

…

_In a surprising burst of speed, the red Raven suddenly shot forward, and grasped the lapels of his uniform in an iron clad grip. As she did, her hood blew back to reveal her face ... A gaunt, hollow face surrounding a pair of sunken, weary looking eyes._

_"Give it to me! Give me your rage!"_

_Then, to the officer's horror, the girl's fists actually began to sink into his chest!_

…

The grip on his hand weakened, the punctures of her nails still left in his skin.

"It didn't work?" Ranma asked, and Raven felt herself lowered to the floor.

"It doesn't matter if it did or not," Ryouga replied, growling in frustration as he withdrew his hand from Raven's forehead. "We're out of time. _He sees us._"

As he stood, lowering her gently back to the ground, Raven was able to see other forms gathering around the two officers... She saw a Green cloak. A Red. Yellow. Violet. Pieces of her. How… how were they _moving_? Where was this strength coming from?

"Death comes to us all," Wisdom observed, from near Ryouga's side. She glanced down at herself for just a moment. "But it has not taken us yet. While relying upon the power of yourself and Lieutenant Saotome is not ideal… I believe we four can still lend our assistance."

Weakly turning her head to the side, Raven could see the backs of the others as they advanced.

Where - finally giving notice to the disturbance - Trespasser slowly and menacingly began to turn around. He stretched out an arm, almost leisurely, and knocked first Ranma and then Ryouga out of the pilot chairs close by. The two bodies hit the floor and shattered like wine glasses. Empty. The pilot chairs, too, shattered explosively, losing both cohesion and their enthralled victims. The two officers were free.

Trespasser advanced on them, feet crunching on broken glass.

"Ranma," Ryouga growled, cracking his knuckles. "You ready to do this?"

"Am I ready, he asks?" Ranma stepped forward, sparing one last worried glance back at Raven's collapsed form. Then it was back to the enemy at hand. "Just try and keep up."

Trespasser frowned with Ben-Solomon's face. A lip curled in distaste and visible aggravation. Striding towards the approaching officers, the Guardian rolled his mental shoulders. Overhead, the psionic nav code had paused in it's deciphering, as if the entire world were holding it's collective breath.

"Just because the two of you are valuable in piloting this ship," Trespasser saw fit to remind them, "Does not mean I will show you even the slightest bit of mercy."

"You've got bigger problems that that!" Ranma promised.

And pointed upwards.

Trespasser's attention followed suit, and there, above their heads, the vast cryptographic array began to shudder. Previously locked keys in the sky-sized construct unlocked. Finally, **finally**, Trespasser gave a huff of displeasure and concern. Numbers that had been decoded trembled, caught between unlocking and remaining coded in place.

"This is our only chance, Saotome," Ryouga warned, glaring upwards and cupping a fist in his hand as he assumed a meditative pose.

"That's true," Ranma agreed, smirking as he assumed a similar pose. "You're the only guy I consider a rival, P-chan. You know that. And you know what that means."

Ryouga spared the martial artist a grin. "Are you saying what I think you're saying, Saotome?"

"Yep!" Ranma agreed, his smirk bearing teeth.

"First one to die," the two men said at the same time. "Loses!"

"My work. My work. My work? This is...? What are you...?" Trespasser lowered his eyes, as he realized what was happening, far, far faster than any mind should have. "You're attacking each other. Scrambling each other's psionic codes. How... annoying."

The ancient Guardian sneered. If they were attacking each other, and not him, then he couldn't defend against it. Not directly. Given the automatic high security lockdown on the EDC, it took both officers to initiate a transit event: both psionic keys, tailored to each of their minds. By disrupting the other, they were making it vastly harder to try and copy those keys and assume singular control over the ship's nav. If they had simply attacked him, instead, then it would have been so much easier to rebuff.

"You... small minded apes." Trespasser seemed to visibly strain to keep more of the code from unraveling. Focusing now, actually trying, he began to mentally turn the tide: continuing to crack the sky-wide code despite the interference.

Just - much more slowly.

"If you two are that determined to resist... to stand in the way of Truth...!" Trespasser's face was distorted with slowly building rage as he raised his hands, body enveloped in a halo of fel green. "Then I will grant your wish. I will strip away your defiance... as I strip away your lives! This far into things... I can still pry the information I need from your _dying synapses_."

"Partition!" Ranma announced, and an exact duplicate blurred into existence to his left and right. The one on the left shook his long, unbound hair, body wavering as his clothes took on a green hue. His grin soon turned downright manic, and he literally began to swell with confidence, a bright blue aura swirling madly around him. The partition to the right held out his hand and a swirl of chilly frost enveloped him, turning his skin an icy blue. He stepped forward, leaving frozen footsteps behind.

Ryouga did the same, though his expression was far removed from a smile. "Partition."

To his left emerged a human figure in burned, blasted, ragged armor, stained by blood and sweat. It shared his physical form in a general sense, but the eyes were a pure, hellish red, with no pupil to be found. The partition's mouth opened to release a ragged breath and black smoke billowed out from between sharpened shark's teeth. A dark counterpoint to Ranma's confidence, a black and red orb appeared behind the figure, feeding it with rage and causing it to grow. In contrast, the partition to Ryouga's right was starkly emotionless. As it walked, however, it left simmering, blackened imprints behind.

They were the Source of Power and the Killing Intent, given form.

"You would challenge me?" Trespasser scoffed, glaring at the six figures. "Preposterous."

"Neither of us are anywhere close to Raven when it comes to pure power," Ranma admitted, the smirk on the original fading away. "But we've got tricks of the trade she doesn't!"

Not nearly as independent minded as Raven's partitions, Ranma's chilly killing intent, personified, surged forward. As it did, the area around it became caked with frost. Juking to the side, at a sharp angle, and shooting around, it crossed past an identical but opposite form: little more than a blur of motion. Ryouga's killing intent was neither hot nor cold. It was simply destructive, reflecting not the Soul of Ice, but the Absolute Breaking Point that would destroy both Heaven and Earth.

Trespasser held out his hand -

Catching a murderous ball of red and black energy from where it had appeared, just overhead and _behind_, aimed at what would have been a blind spot. Ryouga's rage and depression, the partition snorting vile green ki, pushed down on the blighted _shishi hokoudan_, trying to force it into its target. A target, a victim, that should not have been able to see it coming. The featureless white expanse beneath Trespasser's borrowed form shuddered and split, cracks forming a spiderweb.

His other hand was just as fast, intercepting a blow from what should have been Ranma's Font of Power: his boundless and unflagging confidence. Like Hibiki, he was aiming not for a direct attack, but another blind spot: between the small of the back and the shoulderblades. Trespasser's arm actually dislocated and re-located as it managed to block this attack as well.

"Do not believe my responses to be limited to what mere humans are capable of," he lectured, and with a flash of his eyes the two ki attacks switched colors, their emotional spectrum inverting. A duo of explosions surrounded the Oan's human form, blasting outward and away into the pair of attackers. The pearl-white floor shattered from the pressure, warping like water even as the cracks became rents and tears in the framework of the shared mind-link.

Into that blinding conflagration, the pair of Killing Intents struck.

Four points of light cracked the cloud of chalky ash, only to expand into cone-shaped tornados in the blink of an eye. At the intersection of the four freezing lances of wind and ice, Trespasser still stood with arms outstretched and smoking. Though intending to spear him completely, the attack was not up to the task. It did, however, serve to pin him in place. And crouched, just shy of where the freezing tornados would have struck, was Ryouga's killing intent, reaching up with a shadowy, death-bringing hand.

That _missed_.

Trespasser buried one foot into the partition's shoulder, heel digging in and keeping it from touching him. With a downward motion, he buried the dark partition into the floor, crushing it like one would an ant or rat. The murdering palm hit the floor as well, searing it and turning what it touched a poisonous ink-black. The Oan then flexed and the four impaling cones of ice and wind unravelled and shattered. A kick sent Ryouga's killing intent flying, skidding, into the air and then across the floor, while a backhand of flowing green force blew away the hovering form that was Ranma's soul of ice.

"I will not waste any further time on you two." The Guardian sneered, and picked a target. "Join your friend in death."

Raven's eyes widened as she watched Trespasser lift his hand. The gesture was immediately familiar; it was the very same that she had witnessed moments before her heart had been shattered. Ranma and Ryouga's partitions, they hadn't seen what had happened, and even now they were too busy frantically dodging out of the way of the obvious line of attack to notice the Oan's true target:

Ranma Saotome himself.

Not either of his partitions, not the confident avatar, nor the freezing embodiment of death.

Raven's pupils contracted to desperate, terrified pinpricks as she watched stubby blue fingers, a phantasmal overlay of human fingers cloaking them, begin to curl upwards, fraction of an inch at a time to close into a crushing, killing fist. Her entire body tensed, her outstretched fingers straining to reach out… to _do something_…

Even at the already accelerated pace of time, speeding forward at the speed of thought in this damned place, reality seemed to slow to a crawl. In this heightened state of being, hovering between life and death, she could actually see the threads of power, pure psionic force aligning between the alien and the pigtailed officer, stretching outwards impossibly fast, yet tortuously slowly, unerringly reaching towards Ranma's heart.

Trespasser's hand snapped shut, and a hoarse shout of pain echoed through the astral plane.

* * *

Ranma paused in his attempts to scramble Ryouga's psionic keys, in their desperate bid to stop the damned alien from cracking the code and killing them all. A wall of force washed over him, disrupting his concentration, but it was faint, muted… because he had been shielded from it.

Before him, a small figure, wearing a dark green cloak stood firmly, he could see the unfamiliar person's arms crossed over their chest. The Saotome heir felt a small bout of confusion as the small person, little more than a boy really, a green skinned boy no less, turned to smile at him.

A second before coughing up a copious amount of blood and dropping to his knees.

_'What was that...?'_

What the Hell kind of attack was that?

He felt his intentions tense, to want to catch the falling figure, but he couldn't move his _prime self_. It wasn't a matter of want or not want. He couldn't move. The entire weight of his core concentration was focused on scrambling the psionic enchiridion that Trespasser threatened to unravel and decode. There was nothing he could do to help or interfere himself.

Gritting his teeth in frustration - the inability to do anything in the face of Raven's partition being destroyed only served as a stark reminder that Raven herself was in the same shape. She had come to help them here, to free them, to stop the hijacking of their ship, and she had paid for it. All while he had been unable to act. Unable to help.

"No!" Trespasser's cry refocused Ranma's attention, as he felt Ryouga collapse an entire line of code overhead. The Oan glared upwards, his mental faculties shifting to catch the degeneration before it could spread. "I will not allow you to stop what must come to pass. I will not."

His body twisted and bent, and the human overlay separated from the Oan within.

Floating, the blue alien's core mind shot upwards and vanished, leaving only a fragment behind. The stark white horizon of the gestalt mind darkened and cracked from strain, and more of the sky-wide cipher began to shift and sort. With pure brute force, Trespasser was cracking what was left of the Nav, already into the innermost layer of supposedly unbreakable psionic encoding. A nexus of green energy began to form, encapsulating the parts that had already been unlocked.

Ranma couldn't break through it.

_'We... we can't undo the tampering anymore...?'_

He glanced back at the collapsed green-cloaked form just feet away.

'_What the hell are we going to do?_'

* * *

Raven felt it, like a hole ripped open in her soul, as Bravery fell. She felt a piece of her die inside. It was not a metaphor in this instance, and a gasp of agony twisted her body into a fetal position. A sob choked her throat and her eyes squeezed shut, but she forced them open again, incapable of looking away.

The battle raged in the distance. An explosion of raw force shattered a stone barricade and sent Wisdom flying through the air; Raven felt the impact herself, a full body blow that rattled her ribcage. Only Blackfire and Robin were still standing, still desperately fighting side by side with Ranma and Ryouga's partitions.

All it took, though, was a single glance to show her the irrevocable truth.

They could not win this fight. Ranma and Ryouga, for all of their training, all of their tricks… were simply no match for this opponent. Even with his attention divided, and the remnants of her own power lending their aid, Trespasser was simply beyond them… beyond _all_of them. Ryouga's killing intent was brushed aside by an inhumanly fast backhand, even as a half a dozen numbers locked in the sky before shining green with insurmountable permanence.

Why… why were they even trying? They were all going to die.

She was _already_dead. The only mystery was why she hadn't succumbed yet. It would be so easy to just close her eyes, to leave all of this pain and suffering behind. It was all she deserved, after all she had done, to simply cease existing. She had done all she could; she had even pulled Ranma and Ryouga from their prisons, and now, finally, she had nothing left to give. She had bled her last drop to save the two young men... and now it was time to sleep.

Slowly, her eyelids slid closed, for the last time. This time, she was thankful for the darkness which consumed her. It took away the painful sight of her commanding officers slowly losing to the impossibly powerful alien. The sounds of combat grew more distant, muted as she felt herself drift away. A comforting numbness overtook her, the sweet dark kiss of oblivion which promised an eternal end to suffering.

'_…raven…'_

The comatose Titan's body started. Had – had she actually heard something? It had been so quiet, a world away, but she knew that voice. Raven strained her senses, what little still remained, to find the source. It was easier than expected, thin strands, a faint bond led off into the blackness, providing a trail for her to follow. Sending her mind along the telepathic path, she found...

Pain. Pain which echoed her own, creating a harmonious symphony of suffering between herself and the other. She could feel him now. It was Ryouga. _Her Ryouga_. He was in pain… more than that, he – he was _dying_. She could feel his pulse slowing, but more than that, she could feel his will flagging. Just like her, his fight was impossible, battling something so far beyond himself.

There was no _hope_left in him, no strength left to draw on…

Raven felt her hand tighten into a fist, nails digging into her palms hard enough to coax yet more blood from her. He _needed_ her. _He_ needed _her_! If she failed now, here, then she would never see him again. Would never hear his sweet voice, she would never again taste his lips. She'd never feel loved like she had before.

True, it was not noble, rather pure selfish desire… but she wanted that.

She wanted to _live_!

'_RYOUGA_!'

With her desperate cry, Raven's eyes snapped open. Despair greeted her, embraced her, as she found herself back in the endless white battlefield, a sky of green numbers and a scant few warriors battling for supremacy. A deep growl rumbled in her throat, and Raven levered an arm beneath herself and, drawing upon strength that she did not even possess, forced herself off of the ground.

Her gaze as hard as iron, she slid her leg forward and struggled to stand.

Strength failed her, dropping her face first back into the pool of blood that threatened to swallow her whole. Rather than surrender, she snarled furiously and did it again. This time, she found her feet beneath her and stood tall once more. Glaring across the warzone, she clenched both fists, blood pouring from her hands.

As one, Jinx, Starfire and Mammoth started, their eyes slowly opening. Even as they clawed their way to their own feet, as did Terra, shrugging off her own injuries, Blackfire and Robin found renewed strength to support Ranma and Ryouga's desperate struggles. Despite the dark fury that filled her, Raven couldn't help but grin. The Lieutenant and the acting Major... they had given her a small measure of their power, they had kept her from falling apart... but they hadn't given her what she had really needed.

They hadn't given her a _reason_.

"I don't care if you're a million times stronger than me," she muttered under her breath, for only herself to hear. "I won't let it end this way…"

Feet finally planted, she stood, an empty wound where her heart had been.

"I won't."

* * *

It was the silence that struck him hardest.

That profound absence of sound froze his soul even more surely than the inky darkness that engulfed him. He was used to the dark: a life on the road, a life of violent conflict, a life of living in second place, his last flash of sight usually consisting a faster-than-thought fist filling his vision. He was more than comfortable drifting about in the absence of light.

But there had always been sound before. A gentle breeze rustling the leaves above him as he slept. The silent beeping of some random monitor telling him that, despite what he felt like, he wasn't actually dead yet. The incessant, braying laughter of a cocky pigtailed ass reminding him of yet another failure in a long, long, _long_string of failures…

There was no sound now. Not long ago, there had been a flurry of activity, the hold had been full of sound and fury, though it had signified nothing to the comatose martial artist. That had meant little to him, though, as his life was sound and fury. It was the sudden termination at the end which had struck his addled mind as terrifying.

No noise meant that no one was fighting… as unheard of as that was.

No chattering voices meant that there was no victory… which meant that whoever had won either didn't feel like celebrating. Or that there was no one left for them to talk to.

Either way, he supposed it didn't really matter to him anymore. Despite giving his all, his all and more, he had been utterly crushed by the green eyed monster Ukyou had become. His entire body was numb except for the cool sensation of the alien bulkhead against his back, propping him up. For just a moment, a foolish instant, he had tricked himself into thinking he'd actually had a chance.

Actually… the silence was quite soothing, now that he had the chance to really appreciate it properly. He could lose himself like this forever, if given the chance. Finally free from guilt and pain and regret and - and finally, _irrevocably _free from Saotome Ranma. What better way to get out of the overly proud bastard's shadow than by slipping into never ending darkness?

Distantly, he felt his brow crease as a thought occurred to him.

Actually, even here, he found regrets flocking to him. There was one thing that he wished he could have done first. It would have been good closure for him, to have been given the chance to say goodbye. There were so many people that he had been cheated of last words with: Kasumi, Beast Boy and Robin, all back at the tower and doing who knew what after all of this time? Cyborg, having somehow grown into one of Ryouga's best friends so easily that it almost surprised him to realize it, even as he thought it to himself.

Then, of course, there were the women of his life, whom all had made his world that much less of a dark and lonely place over the past… gods, he didn't even know anymore. Terra, his precious student, who had taught him far more than he had ever taught her in return. Starfire – _Koriand'r_, his dear sister, as well as his anchor in a chaotic world. Jinx, the pink haired sorceress whom had stolen his heart… more literally than many would believe. The woman he loved more than life itself, his inspiration, his reason… his trap and his prison. Their fates had been crudely lashed together by a madman yet even _now_he wished for the time to know how things could have eventually unfolded…

And then there was Raven. His alpha and his omega. It had all started with her, dropping literally from the sky and into his life, only to sweep him up into a life of adventure and discovery that even a member of the infamous Nerima Wrecking Crew could scarcely have imagined. It seemed somehow fitting that it should all end with her as well.

'…_raven…_'

What he would have given just to hear her voice... just one last time.

'_RYOUGA!_'

Eyes snapped open in a flash and his head lifted so sharply that his skull cracked off the bulkhead like a gunshot. Pain didn't even register as a flood of information crashed over his brain, washing away the apathy which had settled in a crushing wave. He could _feel_ the pain that she was in, somehow _knew_that Raven's heart wasn't even beating any longer.

But _she was still fighting_!

Ryouga's fist tightened until even the fatigued armor plates of his gauntlets crumpled and the ripped inner glove tore and gave way. For a moment, he could scarcely believe Raven's determination, her pure will… but then he remembered just who he was thinking of, and kicked himself for ever being such a fool as to doubt her in the first place. Trying to draw on that same source of power, he tried to push himself to his feet-

And failed, yet again.

A pained, sobbing curse spilt past his lips, and he weakly dropped his fist to the floor. He wasn't Raven, or Ranma, or even Ukyou. For him, there was no strength left to be drawn from willpower alone.

'_Her weakness is your strength… oh-'_

Again, he kicked himself for being an idiot. No, he wasn't like Ukyou, whose alien powers were fuelled purely by her will. He was an entirely different breed of animal, he was. He drew _his_ greatest strength from a… _a somewhat different source_.

"_Raven is dead_…" he whispered to himself under his breath. She had to be, after all. Her heart wasn't even beating anymore. No matter what last minute heroics she managed, even if she destroyed the Oan to his last atom and saved the rest of the ship… she would still be dead when it was all said and done. Even if he lived, he would never see her again, except as a cold, lifeless corpse.

Something surged up inside him, a feeling as comforting as the home he had grown up in, but had not visited in some time. Lifting his gaze once more, he took in his surroundings. There were a number of people present. Konatsu, Shampoo, Mousse, Kuno, Ryu and Jinx were all in sight, and all were strewn across the floor like a violent game of human Jenga. From his position, he couldn't even tell who was alive and who was dead.

"_Jinx hates me now… not to mention that she looks pretty dead too at the moment__._"

Even worse, she had never actually loved him in the first place. It had all just been an elaborate, sick joke. And the punchline? After all was said and done, no one had _bothered to tell them_! Why would they, after all? Everyone sure seemed happy with the arrangement. What did it matter that some psychopath had done it to them in the first place? It didn't matter to him; hadn't mattered to her.

He didn't know what was worse: the thought that Jinx hated him now… or the thought that, just beneath the surface, he might _hate her_in return.

It was surprising how easily he found the strength to slide his legs beneath him now.

There were only two others present in the hold now. The thrice damned Chef-turned-Green Lantern that had swatted him like the fly he was. And Starfire… standing triumphantly at Ukyou's side as they gloated over their defeat of all of Ryouga's friends and teammates. Starfire.

Kori.

Oh, but something about that sight set his blood to boiling. His _sister_ had _betrayed_ him? After all of her words of being at his side forever? After all of their long talks, intimate conversations in the dark, Starfire had chosen _Ukyou_ over _him_? **Trespasser** over him? _Over all of them?_

That. That was something he could not abide. Jealousy joined hate, growing exponentially, only to collapse into the stellar mass of desperation and depression which swirled at the center of his being. Power the likes of which he had felt only twice in his life surged through him and he found himself on his feet with only a few shaky movements. Taking a long breath, he pushed himself off of the wall and staggered a few steps forward before dropping into a combat stance.

It was about then, at last, that the Green Lantern and the Tamaranian noticed his return to consciousness, and his jerky movement. The eyes of both girls widened briefly in surprise. However, where Starfire actually let out a quiet gasp of shock, Ukyou's gaze quickly narrowed once more. A haughty, dismissive grin etched itself on her face as she regarded him, battered, bruised and still leaking blood from shoulder and leg at an alarming rate.

It looked very much like Ranma's grin to him at that moment.

"Sit down, Hibiki," Ukyou ordered, callous and dismissive, "You're finished."

Taking a hesitant step forward, Starfire held out her hand.

"Please, Ryouga," she pleaded, wiping tears from her eyes. "Do as she says. You do not know what it is that you do."

Baring his fangs with a low growl, Ryouga made a point of looking around the hold, staring intently at each and every one of their comrades whom had been lain low in the fighting between friends.

"_I_don't know what I'm doing?" he howled. "Really?"

Spitting a wad of blood to the floor, he glared heatedly at the two emerald empowered women. "I think, for the first time in my life, that I know _exactly_what I'm doing! In fact, I think I finally understand just what it was that Raven was trying to tell me before we got into this mess."

Rolling her eyes, Ukyou planted her ringed hands on her hips. "Oh please, Hibiki. I don't have time for the mindless rambling of a directionally challenged moron. You couldn't scratch me when you were at your full strength, and you can barely even stand now. What are you going to do, bleed on me?"

"No." He shook his head from side to side slowly, a self-deprecating grin splitting his lips. "I'm going to remind you… just what a Hibiki _is_... what a martial artist is...!"

With a roar, Ryouga stood ramrod straight, his aura exploding out from his body like a bomb. Vitriolic green light coruscated across the walls and Ryu's insensate form was tossed to the far side of the hold. The rough treatment was a gentle mercy, though, as several tied down cases were buffeted or crushed flat by the immense weight of his heavy ki. The entire ship _shifted_a moment later, as the automatic systems tried to reorient to the sudden increase in mass throwing off the internal gravity.

Even as Starfire instinctively floated off of the floor, Ukyou stumbled uncertainly as the ship wobbled about.

"A _Perfect Shishi Hokodan_?" she gasped, recognizing what she saw and felt.

Though he could scarcely hear her over the roar of his own aura, Ryouga nodded vindictively. Clenching his fists, his fang pierced his lip as he focused even more anguish into the black pit of his soul. With each second, his aura grew; grew more volatile and more powerful. The virulent sphere of heavy ki slowly began to expand outwards oppressively.

Starfire simply watched the display, rapt awe settling on her face as she stared. "I had not thought to see this sight again…"

Ukyou, had a somewhat different reaction. "_Are you insane_?" Lifting her hand, she aimed her grim, purple ring straight at his heart. "If you unleash _that_ inside the ship, you'll kill everyone _but_ me!"

He nodded again, and his aura surged wildly for a moment, nearly out of control.

"A more merciful fate than being trapped in this hellhole, I should think," he agreed morbidly.

The Green Lantern's eyes widened. "You _are_ insane!"

Dark light began to build up around her central dark-jade ring… but she hesitated in taking the shot. Ryouga had no doubt that, if she fired whatever attack it was she was building up, that it would kill him in an instant. His body was like lead and his chances of dodging even a snail at this point were next to nil.

But Ukyou also had to know that if she did kill him, then it would likely unleash the Shishi Hokodan within his battle aura to ravage the ship all around her. Indestructible alien alloy or not, he was pretty damn sure that unleashing a blast of this level inside the ship would burst the Pathfinder like a balloon.

Still standing straight, his arms down at his sides and his chin resting on his chest, Ryouga took in a deep breath. He then raised his gaze to stare Ukyou straight in the eye.

"Insane? Maybe I am, but it doesn't matter now." Slowly lifting his arms to his side, he took another calming breath. "I had something a little different in mind from just blowing up the ship, though."

He looked all around him, at his blooming aura, he then lanced her with a cold glare. "I only want you, Ukyou."

Despite his concentration on the here-and-now, he found his mind wandering back several days, a seeming eternity now. It had been dark then, as well, but it was a darkness that he had welcomed with open arms. A darkness lit only by two small slivers of green power, as a pair of Titans huddled in a cluttered storeroom and struggled to find some small amount of solace in a place which seemed designed to deny such a thing.

'_You must embrace the anguish_,' the Tamaranian's sweet voice had strove to explain.

_He stared at the crystal tears that still trailed down her pale cheeks. She had betrayed him so terribly . . . but – but she had treated him so kindly. She had shown him compassion and friendship like he had never experienced before. She loved him, with all of her heart, just as he had loved her in his illusionary world. He could feel it in her gaze, her regret at what she had done. C-could he really let one instant of betrayal count for more than __**all **__of the times, __**all**__ of the months that she had been there for him?_

_A strange sense of irony rolled over him, but he could not understand what it meant._

_The decision was taken out of his hands though, as Jinx turned away from him . . . and ran. The elevator that led to the Hive complex rose silently from the ground before her._

_' No! Don't leave me!'_

_ He tried to cry out, tried to reach out to her . . . but nothing would come. No words would come to him, he was failing when it mattered the most and his accursed body wouldn't do anything to stop it! His ki flared back to life, harsher than before, trying to bury him under a mountain of poisonous self-loathing._

_ 'Turn around, Jinx, just turn around!'_

_ The pink haired sorceress entered the vile yellow elevator, before turning back to face him. He cried out impotently, her eyes were closed! Her head was bent under the weight of her guilt and she couldn't even bring herself to look at him._

_ 'Open your eyes! I forgive you!'_

_ Why wouldn't the words come? His spirit cried out in anguish, manifesting itself into a vitriolic green aura that made the one he had been producing moments ago pale in significance. All she had to do was open her eyes . . . and she would see the love in his eyes. Why wouldn't she open her eyes? _

_ The floor surrendered to the unimaginable force of his depression given form, a crater forming around him as he sunk into the earth. He stared at Jinx, willing her to open her eyes, even as his ki continued to swell beyond his control. His aura writhed and burned as the elevator doors inexorably slid towards each other. He stared at her pale grey face for one last second, burning every feature into his memory, before the doors finally closed, stealing her form his life._

_ And with the soft click of the doors closing . . ._

_ His heart died._

…

Oh yes, Ryouga had no shortage of anguish to embrace. If any of them survived the next minute, he would have to thank Jinx for gifting him with such a fathomless ocean of heartache and despair.

With deft movements, he swept his arms forward… and answering his call, his entire aura began to collapse inwards. Dark jade energy coalesced into a sphere before his chest, swirling down into a blackhole which grew to the size of a golf ball, then a soft ball, then a basket ball…

_'Accept it as a part of yourself now…' _Starfire's never forgotten lecture continued.

_…_

_Ryouga shifted uncomfortably as Raven stared at him intently. Really, he hadn't expected any of the Titans to even notice his departure from the Amazon village._

_ "I . . . was going to get a drink?" his statement sounded more like a question, even to his own ears. Man, he **was** a terrible liar._

_ One of her fine eyebrows arched up cutely. "With your backpack? Were you planning on getting a drink from Jyusenkyou?" she asked, still with that terrifyingly calm manner of speaking._

_ He searched for something else to say, but his accursed brain was failing him utterly. He didn't even get the chance anyways._

_ "Do you really think that I spent the last week watching you get emotionally destroyed for the fun of it? And now that I finally have the chance to actually spend time with you, without watching you getting tortured by the old Ghoul, I find you sneaking out of the village like a thief. Exactly what kind of message do you think that sends to me lost boy?" she asked harshly. It seemed her calm was starting to crumble, but it wasn't anger that replaced it, rather a more delicate tenor._

_ 'Argh!' Did she have to keep calling him that? Still, his shoulders sagged; he could hear the hurt in her voice despite her attempts to hide it. He was doing it again, just like Starfire had said. Did he think he was the only one that felt bad about being parted from his new friends? Apparently Raven thought differently, she seemed to be taking his attempted escape harder than he thought she would._

_ A loud sigh escaped his lips. "I'm sorry Raven; I shouldn't have tried to sneak out like this. It's just all the talk about you leaving soon, I guess I'm just not ready to say goodbye to any of you."_

_ Raven's eyes rolled at his comment. "So you planned on sneaking away while we were distracted and not say anything at all? Yeah, that's really mature," she muttered._

_ He winced a bit at that. "You're right, I guess I didn't think any of you would really care if I was gone, you all seemed so excited about getting home and all . . ." he trailed off, not really sure what else to say._

_ The gothic girl approached him, coming to stop only inches away from him. She looked up into his eyes intently; she was so close he could feel her breath on his neck. The closeness was so much that he felt himself starting to blush uncontrollably._

_ Then she whacked him across the back of the head. He gave a weary sigh; Cologne had obviously gotten to the girl. Not that he actually felt the strike, but it was the act itself that struck him._

_ "Maybe instead of running away from your problems, you should stay and deal with it like a man. I know that I would like to talk about this and at the very least enjoy our time together for the next few days," she more or less ordered of him._

_ He nodded. Was he really so resigned to diving back into his old life that he was ready to start making all of the same mistakes all over again? No, some things were worth working for, no matter the cost._

_ "I think I would like that Raven. Let's go see how everyone else is doing, after all, we've still got a few days to plan out," he offered, smiling hesitantly._

_ She graced him with one of her wonderful smiles. She then turned, her cloak brushing against him, and started walking back to the village, leaving him to follow. With a rueful shake of his head, he did just that._

_ As they began walking Raven tossed a comment over her shoulder._

_ "Of course you know that I'm going to make you pay for nearly walking out on me."_

_…_

A bitter-sweet grin found its way to his lips at the memory. It had been a small moment, almost inconsequential compared to everything that had come after, and even than much of what came before. And yet, thinking back, he felt as if that had been his first real step forward, his first real step out of the cage of his wandering existence.

With a pained hiss, Ryouga pulled his arms to his chest… and the swirling orb of raw jade power… it sank directly into his chest. In a matter of seconds, the room dimmed back to its usual drab coloration as his aura vanished, fully internalized once more. He could almost feel his skin beginning to burn and peel as all of his destructive emotions ran rampant through his body, but he didn't relent. He forced himself to face his pain, endured it and burned it into his memories, so that he would never forget.

Across the hold, Ukyou could only watch in puzzlement, having no idea what he was doing. How could she, when she was still just a novice to ki manipulation… and he honestly had no idea just what the hell he was doing anyway. Her hand was still leveled in his direction, and the light around her ring flared like a captured, incandescent star.

"_You want me, huh?_" Ukyou asked with a darkening glower. "Alright, sugar. If you're so keen to kill yourself, then I won't stop you... but don't think I'll let you endanger this mission!"

Multiple beams of light shot out from her ring then, bending and twisting to surround him. Within moments, the errant streams of light found their positions before spreading out into a series of interlocking hexagons which surrounded him completely, even above his head and below his feet, nearly causing him to lose his balance.

Taking a step forward, Ukyou grabbed her extended wrist with her other hand, and all of her stolen rings flashed with light, a surge of blinding green light flowed out from her hand, flooding into the emerald prison which now surrounded him. The energy polygons doubled in thickness, then doubled in number as a second shell formed around the first, sealing him in with a grim finality.

"This cage could contain a nuclear explosion, Hibiki!" Ukyou lowered her arms, her job finished to her satisfaction. "When you release your suicidal attack, you'll be blasted to ash!"

The young sergeant nodded wearily to himself, not even listening to her. If he died, he died, and that was all there was to it. However, there was still that familiar voice in his ear at that moment.

_'And in that way, release it, now stronger for the experience.'_

…

_ He turned back to face her, a strained look in his eyes._

_ "It just seemed so unfair to me. I mean, what kind of justice is that? You do the right thing, save everyone, and end up a statue; while I get to survive after coming within a hair's width of wiping out everyone I know?" He shook his head solemnly. "No – no, when all was said and done, you needed to be saved . . . because – because if someone so much better than me didn't have someone looking out for them, then what the hell kind of chance do I have?"_

_ A hush filled the air for a long moment, interrupted only by the gentle pitter-patter of raindrops on the umbrella over their heads. Just as fascinated by her own footwear as he was, it was finally Terra that broke the heavy silence._

_ "I'm not better than you . . ."_

_ Ryouga snorted not-quite-derisively. "You don't need to patronize me."_

_ She glared heatedly at him. "It's not like that!"_

_ This time his response was a cynical grunt. It annoyed the thin geokinetic enough that she slugged him in the shoulder . . . though she regretted that decision instantly._

_ "Look, I don't know what it is you did," she exclaimed, "Beast Boy and Kasumi tried their best to tell me what kind of guy you were, but they never really told me about any of the stuff you've done. But none of that matters to **me**! I don't know what you did, who you might have hurt, and I don't have a clue how you could have possibly even come close to destroying the whole city, but I do know one thing for sure."_

_ She took a step forward and turned to make sure that he had no choice but to meet her gaze._

_ "You **saved** me. **You** saved **me**. The traitor, the villain, the monster. There are probably a thousand people in this city that would have taken a sledgehammer to my statue if they'd known about it, after all the things I did. Ten times that number probably thought that being turned to stone was a fitting punishment for what I'd done, and would have been happy to see things stay that way."_

_ She offered him a weak, but sincere smile. "But you, someone that never even knew me, you took the time to see beyond all that. Whatever reasons you may have had, you decided that I deserved a second chance and you . . . you gave me back my life."_

_ Playfully bouncing her knuckles off his chin, her smile grew wider. "If that doesn't make you a good guy, than I don't know what does. And I'm not going to take no for an answer, got it?"_

_ She finished with a pointed stare that would make females the world round swell with pride._

_ Ryouga was well versed in being on the receiving end of female ire, so he nodded quickly in capitulation. He even went so far as to offer her a weak grin, one of his oversized canines peeking out teasingly. "Heh, I guess we can call it a draw, then."_

_ She nodded positively, heartened at the small grin twisting his lips. "Now, enough of that grim stuff. You and me are gonna be friends, whether you like it or not, so cheer up already."_

Ryouga closed his eyes, not possessing the words to describe what he felt at that moment. All of the dark emotions that ran through him were building up speed, coursing through his body like a raging river. Not just that, though, he could almost feel the black tide _scouring_away at his insides, as if latching onto every last bit of despair in his soul and pulling It out by the roots.

'_Her weakness is your strength… oh , and something a-'_

His eyes snapped open, seeing little more than shimmering, interlocking plates of green. But that hardly mattered. He knew where his enemies were. There was only one thing left for him to try, based solely on the most tenuous of hunches, and if it didn't work, Ukyou's prediction of his blasting himself to ash would be realized.

But what was life without a little risk now and then?

'_I'm sorry, Terra. I know I promised I would never do this again, but…'_

With that, Ryouga crouched down into a familiar pose, the very first one he had learned when using the shishi hokodan. Crossing his arms over his chest as tightly as his burning muscles would allow, he forced the raw power bottled inside his body to flow down his arms and into a small sphere floating serenely before his chest.

The ki which bled from him was changed from what he had pulled back into himself, altered both consciously, as he had trained to do for so very long, and in ways that he didn't even understand as it flowed out of him, leaving a refreshingly serene feeling in his chest with its departure.

With a savage roar, Ryouga thrust out his hands and unleashed his power.

"_HISHOU KOURYUU HA__!_"

A lance of raw, golden light four feet in diameter blasted out from his cupped hands, forcing the martial artist to squeeze his eyes shut and look to the side with its brightness. Even without his sight, though, he still felt it when his power came into contact with the pure force of the green lantern light. Reinforced mental constructs that made even alien alloy look like tissue in comparison met his power head on, amplified by the focus and willpower that came from a lifetime of martial arts. It was a barrier that would not be breached, could not be breached, such was Ukyou's confidence and determination.

He knew it was a one in a million shot; he didn't even have Terra or Jinx lending him their power this time, so the ki attack wasn't even a fraction of its full power, but it was all he could dredge up without bursting into flames.

"Is that it? That's nothing!" Ukyou declared, her eyes flashing neon green. "Nothing! All that build up for what?"

And yet, beyond all reason… the invincible force field _shattered _-

There was scarcely time for the Green Lantern to gasp out an objection. The golden _Hishou Kouryuu Ha_didn't even slow down as it cut through the viridian lightwalls, meeting no resistance at all. Implosion Lenses formed on instinct all around Ukyou with a melodic chime, trying to capture the attack and snuff it out as they had before. All for naught. Though he couldn't see through the blinding light, both yellow and green, Ryouga still heard Ukyou's shocked scream as her layered screen of ultimate defenses were broken, the beam hitting home. He felt it, as if it was with his own hands, as the wave of power crossed the room in the blink of an eye and swept the Green Lantern off of her feet.

Emerald armor vanished in an instant beneath the amber onslaught as Ukyou's body carried the rest of the way across the hold to slam bodily into the wide stretch of wall between the two distant side doors. Raw ki buffeted Pathfinder's hold, splashing like waves away from the far end, rippling and coming apart in spiraling reams. Everyone else - everything else - vanished amid the tidal wave of aurulent flame.

As the last of it petered off he nearly collapsed to his knees.

Nearly… but he had to be sure…

…

_Where?_

Ukyou's eyes fluttered open, though she instantly regretted it. Pain, like she couldn't even remember, was wracking every inch of her body. Every defense she'd formed, every ounce of power she had called up… it had all been defeated. And then that _light_! She had seen ki attacks before, even the perfect shishi hokodan, even the lieutenant's murderous, concentrated version… but she had never been on the receiving end of such an attack before... and without her Hera-sama. Not without her trusted battle spatula.

'Where...? Where is it...?'

_ Ukyou propped herself up with her megaspatula, and stood by herself, fighting off fatigue and exhaustion._

_ "This isn't dodging practice," Ryouga critiqued, looking at her seemingly without remorse. "If you get into that kind of habit, Konatsu will beat you, and the enemy will kill you. You aren't Ranma. You don't have the endurance to dodge all day."_

_ He tapped her weapon with the knuckle of his right index finger._

_ "This is your shield. This will block anything."_

'Where is it...?'

Where?

'Where's my shield...?'

_ "Tell that to my left arm," Ukyou growled, lifting up the pained appendage._

_ "When you use your weapon," Ryouga replied. "You have to believe in it. When I used my ki attack before, you thought to yourself 'I think I'm safe,' and 'I think I'll be able to block this.' So part of you got hit. Next time, 'believe that you will be safe.' 'Believe that you will block.' Thinking, but not believing, halves your effectiveness."_

'Why is it so quiet?'

'Where's my ring? Where's my power?'

'Trespasser-sama! Where's my power?'

_ "It… it isn't easy to believe that, when there's this… this wave of energy bearing down on you!" Ukyou winced at the memory._

_ "No," he said in response. "No. It isn't."_

'Where is it? Where is it! **WHERE IS IT!**'

As the golden sea of ki parted, Ryouga stumbled forward. He couldn't see Starfire, though the Tamaranian had to be around somewhere. Despite what should have been a moment of tense panic, he felt... strangely calm. Very nearly detached from himself completely. There no anger left in him, no resentment or desperation. He was just - just _there_, exhausted to the bone, but still there. The only thing that kept him standing was the knowledge that he still had a job to do. He had to see. He had to be sure.

A faint white light emerged from within the amber conflagration.

"_Mada Mada__._"

A hand tightened around a hilt, and as the yellow ki faded, that hilt lifted higher, broadening at its base. The shape, familiar, quickly became clear: a spatula.

**A battle spatula.**

"Not... yet... Hibiki..."

Cracks formed along its surface, and it came apart with sound like the bark of a tesla coil. From behind the dissolving barrier, Ukyou pushed herself off the wall. Her left hand still glowed a faint diamond-white, but her right was a mess. The three rings she had worn, including her precious dark violet Corpse Ring, were shattered, partly intact and violently leaking green energy. Her face was streaked in blood from where it had been pressed - and shaved - into the unyielding metal wall. One eye was caked and swollen, but the other still flickered with emerald fire.

"NOT. **YET**."

...

The rings.

The rings were quiet.

The shaped Kenran Hinode that had saved her life was gone. Trespasser's gift was gone.

"NOT. **YET**."

It didn't matter.

She wasn't finished. She wasn't _done_.

Wiping warm blood from her face with her burning right hand, she snorted through a clotted nose as she ambled forward. Hibiki. Hibiki was still standing. He was still insane. Still a threat! Trespasser's gift was gone, wounded, broken - still intact inside her, but so damned weak, so damned diminished - but that didn't matter. She was a Green Lantern. She was a Corpse. She was unstoppable. As long as she had the willpower to fight, she could fight.

The world was still a blurry blob, determined to impede her.

'_A concussion?'_

Blinking rapidly several more times, Ukyou managed to at least start seeing straight once more. Hibiki. All that mattered was Hibiki. She could crush what was left of him with her bare hands. Even if her power was gone. Even if her hand was broken. Even if it felt like half of her ribs had collapsed in her chest. Even if her arms could barely move. Even if her legs felt like putty. Even if something inside was bleeding and split. **Hibiki**.

She wasn't done yet.

Her green lantern uniform was in tatters, her left breast exposed completely and only ragged remains of her black body suit offering any shreds of dignity to her. It didn't matter. She was a…

She was a martial artist. Holding out her left hand, she exhaled, blood and spittle dribbling down her chin. A martial artist, it was said, grew stronger from fighting back from the edge of death. She had nearly died, years ago, practicing the Art against the Remorseless Sea. She had reaffirmed her commitment to the Art, to the Family Style, to its Philosophy, when Konatsu had poisoned her and beaten her in their duel. And now?

Clear white energy swirled within her, around her Manipura.

Now?

Her left hand glowed like the eye of the sun. It felt warm. Wonderfully warm.

What was left of the uniform around her left arm vaporized, turning into a thick cloud of smoke. It flared like an oxyacetylene torch, arclight curls winding between her clenched fingers. This was her Brilliant Sunrise. Her Kenran Hinode. She had never been able to simply hold onto it before. All the energy that normally exploded away from her, almost out of her control, was now pulsing obediently in the palm of her hand.

It was time to put that hand through Hibiki's fucking chest.

She could still save the ship… just as Trespasser wanted. The rings were silent now, but she knew what they wanted. They wanted to serve. They wanted her to obey. They wanted Hibiki's blood. Only then could the mission be safe from interference. Only then could the madness of this dimension be put to an end!

"Ukyou," Hibiki had the gall to call to her, warily glaring at the blazing inferno of light in her left hand. "This is it. Your rings are all crushed..."

"Hibiki," she cut him off. "Ryouga-honey. I told you. I'm not done yet."

He frowned, eyeing her with measured calm..

"...And." Ukyou held up her ruined right hand. "Who said I was wearing all my rings?"

Shedding what was left of the three smashed and spent rings, the debris falling down the back of her hand, she snarled and _two others_appeared on her index and ring fingers. Coruscating emerald energy erupted from the pair, swirling outward for a second before directing in, ribbon-like constructs wrapping around her hand, down her arm, and then all along her body. Even as it did so, illuminating the shocked expression frozen on Ryouga's face, she lashed out with her other hand.

Her Kenran Hinode exploded in midair, even if he had been alert enough to dodge.

The force of the blast launched him clear across the hold. Slamming into the far wall with a satisfying crunch, she could see that while his armor was as intact as always, his exposed skin - including his face - was reddened from the heat, as if he'd spent too long out in the sun. As expected... this new version of the Hinode preserved the normally wasted concussive force that was lost when it simply shot out like a wave from her battle spatula... while retaining all the heat of the original. The limitation of the Hinode was that it required a flat surface - any flat surface. Now she could flash fry on the go, surface or no surface.

The coils of emerald energy reformed Ukyou's Lantern uniform and a skeletal version of her armor to give her the strength to stand and move, despite her injuries. Her satisfaction was short lived, however, as Ryouga started to drag himself to his feet as well. ...Or, at least he tried to; after three such attempts of his own, the poor fool ended up in a half crouch, resting most of his weight on a single knee as he stared at her warily.

"H-heh... still all flash and no bang... eh, Ukyou?"

She wanted to just fly across the hold and cut him down. She wanted to crush the life from him for the indignities he had foisted upon her! For the madness of endangering Trespasser-sama, and the Mission. How had this _insignificant_ _ant_ humiliated a _Green Lantern_! How had he overcome her? It seemed impossible. Her will had been unflagging, unbending, indomitable. With her mushin, her martial arts focus, controlling her lantern ring had been, if anything, far easier than learning to master her own ki attack! How? HOW? How had he broken her energy constructs?

He looked nearly dead, but in her state, she knew she couldn't survive another attack like the last.

_Not just that._Even she could survive it, what would be the cost?

As if to drive that fact home, something wrenched painfully inside her and her vision blurred. It wasn't the concussion... it wasn't even internal bleeding. It wasn't even something Hibiki had done. It was... _something else._How far had she pushed herself? Was it this dimension pushing back against her? Her lungs seized up, and she tasted the blood that came up. She'd been so careful before. Why now? Why was everything turning against her?

_'My body... is...__'_

She didn't finish that thought. Blinking, she saw faint green faces in her stuttering aura, appearing and disappearing. She swatted at them. Meddling traces of dead aliens. Fallen Lanterns. Their madness still imprinted in the emerald energies they had once used. The emerald energies that were now a part of her. Who were they to make demands? Chattering, dead aliens.

Ryouga was what mattered right now. Ryouga and that strange ki of his. She couldn't risk it interacting with what was left of her power; what was left of Trespasser's gift. Not until she knew how to counter it.

Instead, she looked around the hold, trying to find anything to give her an advantage.

She found it.

Starfire, still on her feet, though now huddled in the far corner of the hold by the door to the artifact storage room, stared at both of them, wide eyed with fear and awe. There was someone crumpled up on the floor behind the Tamaranian, probably hoping to use her as a shield from the backlash of Ryouga's ki blast, but to little avail. Ukyou ignored the distraction. Her rings were all but screaming for her to fight. To kill. To obey. To stop the madness at the source. To crush her enemies and keep crushing until everything was gone. The brush with death had only made the voices clearer.

_There were enemies on the ship._

_No one could be trusted._

_Damned Traitors!_

_Selfish bastard!_

_Make them pay._

Smiling widely, Ukyou managed a weak laugh, momentarily silencing the voices of the Lanterns she had consumed. Staring wide eyed at her comrade, her fellow servant of the benevolent Trespasser-sama, she pointed towards the hobbled Hibiki.

"Starfire…" she said, tilting her head to the side. "Kill him."

At that, the flame haired alien started as if she had been shot. Emerald eyes flitted back and forth between Ryouga and Ukyou as Starfire's mouth dropped agape.

"W-what?" she stammered. "What?"

Eyes narrowing, Ukyou drew her good hand through the air in a slash. "I said _kill him_! He's too dangerous to let live! If you don't kill him, then he'll harm Trespasser-sama, or damage this ship, and then we'll _all_be dead! ALL OF US! Do you want to get out of here or not?"

Swallowing loudly, Starfire nodded. "I… do wish to return home, so very much…"

Her head then dipped forward, the alien girl unable to meet Ukyou's gaze, deep shame marring her dark skinned face. Floating forward slowly, the Tamaranian moved across her hold, booted toes dragging noisily across the floor. "I – I understand… Ukyou."

The chef let out a relieved sigh as the Tamaranian finally closed in on her prey. There was no way Hibiki would use that strange ki attack against Starfire. There was no way he'd try another suicide attack. He may have been too insane - too far gone - to understand that his actions would have killed the alien girl anyway, but she had to believe that he was still just barely sane enough to have emotional attachments. That he wouldn't hurt her.

Ryouga just stared upwards, as Starfire loomed above him. The martial artist began to lift an arm, only to drop it a moment later. Instead, he donned a resigned smile on his face.

"I apologize, Hibiki Ryouga… but I must do this for the greater good. It is inevitable that you would betray us..." Starfire explained tentatively, even as she lifted a hand above her head. "Inevitable… that you would betray me…"

Ryouga started at the accusation, and met the girl's livid green eyes with a gaze filled with profound hurt. "Do you _really _believe that?" With a weary sigh, the Hibiki lowered his head, dropping his stare to the floor. "Alright, it's alright, Kori… If you really believe that, then I won't fight you… I wouldn't fight you, even if I _had_ the strength."

Looking up one last time, the acting Sergeant offered up a quick, imploring grin. " Just… make it quick."

The orange hued fist, clad in alien fabric and alien alloy hung in the air, trembling as Starfire steeled her resolve… Then, finally, after a seeming eternity, the Tamaranian warrior's hand began to lower, but not in a brutal descent to execute the Hibiki. Rather, she clutched the hand to her chest and spun around to stare imploringly at Ukyou.

"Must – must I do this thing?" she inquired plaintively, "He is defenseless! He is no threat to us."

Growling, half in anger, half in agony, Ukyou spat back, "That's what we thought last time! And look what happened! What he did - I don't know how, but it's dangerous!" She glared at the pair.

_The image of two charred skeletons, cradling one another in death, burned to cinders -_

Ukyou shook her head, forcing away the memory. Emerald light spilled out of her left eye and she winced, covering her face with her hand like a sailor desperately trying to plug a leak in a ship. A trail of blood slowly inched down her cheek.

"We can't take any more chances!" _He's lost his mind!_ "He'll just kill himself anyway, you saw that!" _Kill him!_ "Do it!"

Again, Starfire turned back to gaze down at Ryouga. The martial artist didn't say a word; didn't move to defend himself, didn't even look up to give her one last desperate look. The warrior princess lifted her hand… but it didn't even make it past her shoulder before she dropped it again.

"I… I..." She hung her head in shame. "I can not."

"Why the hell _not_?" Ukyou hissed, frustrated beyond all belief. She gestured to the near comatose looking warrior. "I gave you an order, and I am the right hand of Trespasser! HE has _ordered _it! He's a Guardian of the Universe, isn't he? He's a member of the most powerful and benign race in your entire _universe_! _He_ knows what's _right_, he knows what we _need to do_to get home! He's the only one we can trust!"

Starfire waffled, her gaze getting stuck halfway between Ukyou and Ryouga. It was obvious that she still held great respect for the Oan. After all, he was an _alien_, and…

A self-satisfied grin found its way to Ukyou's lips.

Pointing to Ryouga, she continued in leading tone. "What do you care, anyway? He's just a _filthy_ human, isn't he? He's exactly the same as Herb and the people that tortured you back in China. Inferior, bloodthirsty, primitive…! I know you hate them!"

Starfire shrunk back at the accusation, her expression darkening, her long red hair falling around her shoulders.

"I know you hate **us**!" Ukyou yelled, cutting her hand through the air, leaving a crackling green wave of light in its wake. "You've wanted to strike back this whole time! Ever since we got here! You think no one else **noticed**? You think no one **listened** when you snarled and spat and cursed at us? Did you think we were too **stupid** to remember all those condescending remarks? All those hateful looks?"

The chef was all but livid now. "Did you think a ship full of martial artists couldn't tell what you were thinking just by your fucking posture? Just by the way you moved? I **know**you want to kill someone. I can **see** the _**murder**_in your eyes!"

The chef's tirade hit home, and Starfire's fists clenched.

"I do..." she hissed. "By X'hal, I do…"

"Well," Ukyou replied, gesturing at the only target left: at Ryouga. "I don't think there's a better example of a despicable _human_ out there, than that swine. So go ahead. Starfire. Do what you've _wanted _to do."

Small jolts ran through both Yankee members, though Ryouga's came from the use of the term 'swine', while Starfire's was in time with her mention of Ryouga's humanity. In an instant, Starfire finally came to a decision, nodding firmly to herself. Reaching down, she clamped a hand around the lip of his breast plate and hauled him into the air as easily as a dog would a rat.

Lifting her other hand, pulling her fingers into a fist so tight that the material of her gloves creaked ominously in protest, Starfire leveled a punishing glare at Ryouga. The tableau held for an impossibly long second, as martial artist and warrior locked gazes, staring deeply into one another's eyes. Ukyou could only begin to guess what the pair was communicating to one another in that moment. All of Yankee squad seemed to possess an unnatural, but powerful understanding of one another, an uncanny ability to speak volumes with a single glance…

The tense peace was shattered with the passing of that second, when, bafflingly, the Tamaranian looked back over her shoulder and fired a weak smile Ukyou's way.

"Your logic is flawed, Kounji Ukyou." Turning back to Ryouga, who was also sporting a grin of his own now, uncurling her bloodied fist, she reached forward and patted his cheek affectionately. "Ryouga cannot possibly be human."

"W-_what_?" Ukyou barked in disbelief. Had the Tamaranian gone insane as well? More insane, anyway?

_'I had to kill them...'_a voice whispered.

**Betrayed us!**

"How _can_ he be human?" Starfire asked, as if it were the most obvious question in all the universe, "When he is my dearest _brother_?"

Ryouga could only let out a strained laugh as Starfire pulled him into a short hug. A moment later, he could breathe more easily when she shifted him about so that she was supporting him with her shoulder instead. It was somewhat comical to see, actually, considering how far the tall alien girl had to lean forward to actually get her shoulder under his.

"Really, Kori? Who did you think you were fooling?" Ryouga muttered, though it was hard to tell how much of his query was in jest.

Ukyou couldn't believe what she was hearing, couldn't believe what she was seeing! Useless. Useless! Useless! Useless! Everyone here was _useless_! It would serve them all right to be erased from existence!

_'Sinful! How can anyone understand justice when they live in sin?'_

**Respected them!**

"Trespasser has _ordered_ us to protect him!" She howled at the Tamaranian, batting away another of the whispering shades. "To protect the mission! You would betray a Guardian of the Universe to save a _human_?"

Shaking her head, Starfire gingerly reached up and pulled off the metallic headguard she had been wearing and let it drop to the floor. As the piece of reworked alien alloy clattered loudly along the floor, she pulled Ryouga closer to her side, as if drawing strength from him, as opposed to the truth that she was the only thing keeping him on his feet.

"It is true that my own words have been filled with venom towards humanity of late..." she admitted, her voice thick with guilt. "And that my thoughts and my heart have grown most dark... but only here, only now, on the cusp of committing the greatest tragedy I can imagine… can I see the hypocrisy of it all."

Turning to face Ryouga, she dipped her head, and he did the same, resting his forehead against hers for a long, telling moment. Looking back up, Starfire stared defiantly back at the Green Lantern. "Any being, human or Oan, or of any species in all of the universes, who would order me to execute my dearest friend, is not a being who deserves my loyalty!"

A shameful expression settled on the Tamaranian's orange hued face as she regarded Ryouga once more.

"In my own xenophobia, I have blinded myself. Blinded myself to the evil which can be present in the hearts of any race. Even worse, I blinded myself to beauty and goodness possessed by humanity, that same beauty which convinced me to stay on our Earth from the very beginning." The Tamaranian shared a wan smile with her former co-conspirator. "For that, I must thank you, my friend Ukyou. Despite your intentions, you have inadvertently saved me from becoming that which I so despised."

"Now _that's_my girl," Ryouga quipped with a pained chuckle.

_'They were all mad. Mad. Mad. Mad. Mad. Mad!'_

**They'd do the same to me!**

_'Haven't you just had enough of them all?'_

**Relied on them!**

_'They won't be there when you need them.'_

**Loved them!**

"Shut the hell up!" Ukyou yelled, her battle aura blasting outward to whip her hair back behind her. "Shut up all of you! Trespasser-sama entrusted this task to me! ME! I will not fail! I am not a failure like you five! I am **not** a **FAILURE**! Just shut the hell up and watch!"

Breathing heavily, her lip curled in distaste at the two Titans.

"You!" she pointed at them, body trembling with the effort to maintain control. "I still have enough power to kill _both _of you." Her two remaining rings glowing brightly, she aimed it directly at the pair of lunatics. They were both insane. They were both traitors! Monsters! Demons!

"I don't care _what_ revelations you're having, or what _motivations_ you might have! I will _not_ let you kill us all with your _idiocy_!" A dark green mist began to rise up from the floor to envelop the room. "Trespasser-sama chose _me_, he chose _me _because only _I_ have the will to do what needs to be done!"

Even as she gathered the power for one last attack, one that would leave no chance of survival, one that wouldn't just rip the air from her victim's lungs... but shred them to mulch... the last thing that Ukyou wanted to hear was Ryouga's weak, hoarse laughter. She had heard enough of that to last a lifetime.

"Willpower…" he asked incredulously. "_You_? That's some kind of joke, right?"

Ukyou balked at that. How could some – some _jackass _that couldn't even stand under his own power accuse _her_ of lacking will? How could _Hibiki_, this Hibiki, of all people make such a claim?

"You _ass_!" she snarled back. "Just shut up and die with dignity! I have this power for a reason! Trespasser-sama chose me! The rings chose ME!"

"_Bullshit_!" Ryouga yelled back, dragging Starfire a step forward with him. The sudden change in tone set Ukyou back on her heels as he tore into her. "When have you _ever_ done _anything_for yourself, Ukyou?"

Swinging his free arm through the air, Ryouga took another step forward. "You spent your whole childhood _lying_ about what you are because some punk kid _dishonored__ you_. Then the second that same moron, the one you had _sworn revenge on_, says you're _cute_, you suddenly fall head over heels for him?" He sneered at her derisively. "Oh yeah, way to stick to your guns there, Kounji."

Her eyes narrowed in hemorrhaging rage.

She didn't even get the chance to defend herself, as Ryouga just kept on going. He gestured to her, from head to toe. "And look at you now! Some big shot soldier in a war against the evil aliens… and you only even did _that_ to chase after _Ranma_ like a damn psychotic _stalker_! Did he even _ask_ you to come along, or did you just jump right in, without thinking – like _always_– and force him to take you with him?"

Angry green haze whipped up around Ryouga and Starfire, pinning their feet in place.

"You."

Voice cold with contracting, building fury, Ukyou took a step forward of her own.

"You don't know anything about my motives, Hibiki. You think you know me?" She scoffed, licking blood from her lower lip. "You think you can bring up my past like you were there? You think you know why I'm fighting or what I'm fighting for? Don't make me laugh."

"You're a _hundred_ times worse than I could ever be," the ice in her voice began to crack, revealing bubbling wrath beneath. "A sick, indecisive piece of shit who strings his friends along. A pervert who abused the trust of someone he claimed to love. A moron who doesn't even know when he isn't wanted. An arrogant prick who butts in where he doesn't belong. Don't you try and lecture me, Hibiki. Don't you dare."

Untangling himself from Starfire, though he still kept his hand on her shoulder to steady himself, Ryouga nodded. "I know all of that, and I know that it's all true. I _am_ the most pathetic sack of crap on this entire damned ship, by a damn wide margin…"

Immediately, an angered expression bloomed on his Tamaranian companion's face, and her mouth opened in preparation of some retort… only to stop as Ryouga held up to forestall her. Staring flatly at the would-be-Green Lantern, the acting Sergeant lanced her with a serious glare. "But that just means that I know what I'm talking about. Even if you _are_ a hundred times better than me, that still makes you a hundred times unworthy of that damned ring."

"It's just like Raven said," he continued, his cold stare twisting into a mocking smirk. He then rolled his wrist absently. "_My_ _strength_ _is_ _your_ _weakness_…"

He paused for a moment, his head tilting to the side. "Oh… and something about… _yellow_. Yeah… took me some time to figure that out, obvious as it was in retrospect." He turned to the Tamaranian at his side, his wet chuckle spraying a few drops of red on his increasingly pale lips. "Seriously. How _ridiculous_ is it that someone with the power to _vaporize battleships_ has a critical weakness to the _color yellow_?"

Shaking her head, obviously just as mystified as he was, Starfire could only let out an exhausted sigh.

_"_The color yellow. **That**was how you beat me?" Ukyou asked, her voice a seething, superficial calm. Until it exploded. "Because of color? What kind of a fucking joke is that?"

Yet, with that moronic revelation came... realization. His ploy was so transparent it was laughable. Ryouga was trying to make her doubt herself, trying to make her like _him_! He hadn't been lying when he had understood what Raven had meant. If willpower was her confidence in herself, then what was the antithesis of that, if not depression and self-doubt? In retrospect, it should have been immediately evident to the person that regularly had thrown his own shishi hokodan into battle against the moko takabisha.

But she wouldn't fail now, not here and not so close to ultimate victory.

Ryouga opened his mouth to say more-

She didn't let him.

"No more talking."

The green mist shot up his torso from around his waist, flooding into his mouth and nose. Starfire cried in protest, but with a flex of her will, the green gas construct did the same to her. Ukyou felt the power of her rings push through and into their lungs. It only took a heartbeat. A single contraction. Her left hand swept out, ready to deal with any troublesome yellow energy with a Hinode.

At last. This was the end.

**No.**

It was only the _beginning_.

_No one could be trusted _(**They'll betray us!**)

Starfire was lifted bodily from the floor, gasping and clutching her throat and mouth and nose.

Hibiki, that _damned_ Hibiki, however, failed to lift from the ground at all. Despite his own injuries, his own fatigue, his battle aura sputtered back to life, livid yellow energy burning off her green mist and pushing back her attack. Yellow. Damnit.

Clever as his response was, it was ultimately a wasted, futile effort. A fly fighting against the spider's web. Though she could not destroy his lungs while he had that aura about him, her green haze was still everywhere, still trapping him in an airless void. Protected or not, it was only a matter of time before he suffocated, just long enough to watch everyone else around him choke and die.

Ukyou watched, transfixed, as he seemed to grit his teeth, and reached - not for the murderous green smoke that had them, or to attack herself - but for something else. Starfire's hand flailed, but found his, and he pulled her to his chest, bringing her within his aura. Instantly, the green mist fled from the Tamaranian's body as well, though she still gasped and choked on a lungful of emerald death. Ukyou wondered at first if it was some last ditch move they hoped to make. But... rather than turn to face her, to mount some form of counter, Hibiki leaned forward and... and pressed his lips to Starfire's.

They were doing _that_ at a time like _this_?

How could he think that...? And in an instant, Ukyou realized what it was that he was _actually_ doing, as she felt her hold on the power in the alien girl's chest wither and die as he breathed his own last breath into her. A kiss of life, on the brink of death? There was something strangely sentimental at the gesture, as hopeless as it was. He had only hastened his own death, and the second he passed, Starfire would join him. Despite that, though...

In their last moments. They weren't even staring at her, just each other.

They were going to die together.

_Have to kill them_ (**They'd do the same to me!**)

Kill them all.

She felt a pain in her stomach, and spun around. Her Emerald Embrace was seeping into the bodies of the unconscious, reflecting her thoughts; mirroring her impulses. No. More than that. It was like the power had a willpower all its own. She saw Mousse, crumpled next to Konatsu. They had been fighting, and now they were fallen, side by side.

_They were too weak_ (**Respected them!**)

Konatsu. 'He was... he wanted to protect me...'

_He was a failure; they are all failures_ (**Relied on them!**)

She searched, desperately for a moment, and saw Ryu. He was face down, a poisonous green wafting around his ears. He, too, was in her grip. He too, had to die. It was the only way. The only way to be sure. The only way to get home. The only way. The only way!

_I didn't want to _(**I loved them!**)

She spun around, staring wide eyed at Starfire and Ryouga. The yellow aura around them was flickering, weakening, just like the people within it. Dying.

'Kill them!' her own voice implored: her maddened spirit torn from her body, facing her like the others had, but with enough power and substance to transfix. To mesmerize. To command. **'(Kill them!)'**

The eyes in her twisted reflection -

_"…you are forgetting something very important__..."_ It was her father's voice. "_Something without which the Art of making okonomiyaki has no meaning."_

She knew... she'd learned... she'd understood what that was...

_**Other People.**_

The eyes in her reflection were a hellish, _inhuman_green.

Something within her burned, hotter and angrier than her Hinode. It raced through her veins. It seethed and festered and crawled in her mind. Leaning back, her eyes crushed closed and blood stained teeth clenched. She remembered another Ukyou - an Ukyou whose body she briefly shared - an Ukyou who had known what it felt like to grow life where she now begot death. Obedience. Trespasser. It was a Trespasser within her own body. An alien.

An alien glow... that had to be excised...

KILL

The image of one of the bodies on that derelict Oan ship... _the __**stomach **__torn __**open**__.._. came back.

And Ukyou understood.

**KILL **_KILL _**KILL **_KILL _**KILL**

"I will," she promised, a blazing Hinode in her left hand.

Starfire and Ryouga both collapsed to their knees, the green mist crackling and losing cohesion.

_But not one of my own _(**It was me! It was me! Oh God, what have I done?**)

"Get out of me," she whispered, an incandescent hand driving towards her own abdomen. "Get out of me! GET OUT OF ME!" She screamed, willpower fighting willpower -

And a hand grabbed hers by the wrist.

She blinked and stared up at the face: the familiar face.

"Get it out," she pleaded. "Get it out of me."

Ukyou's world went black.

…

The hand-held Brilliant Sunrise harmlessly dissipated as Ukyou Kuonji crumpled to the floor. She was followed, a second later, by a small gas-injection syringe, half melted from its proximity to her ki attack. Falling onto her side, the Green Lantern continued to emit a dark purple and green aura, like a corpse on fire; the emerald flames refused to extinguish themselves, even with their master comatose. A boot descended on the fallen woman's wrist, and a hand reached down to try and wrench free the two rings still on Ukyou's hand.

They didn't budge... until Shampoo tore them free, leaving a pair of bloody concentric rings in their wake.

Holding up the pair - the most powerful weapons in the universe, if the stories were true - the Amazon groaned in disgust and threw them away to the far side of the hold. A quick crouch to check Ukyou's pulse confirmed that she was still alive, despite being pumped full of enough anesthetic to knock out an enraged Muton.

Standing again, she tried to find Starfire and Hibiki, only to nearly fall flat on her face. Scraps of white cloth, ripped from Mousse's robe, the only thing allowing her to use her right hand, slowly unwound. Pale fingers twitched, their color dyed rose red in smeared streams. The last of the cloth fell around her ankles as she stumbled, searching.

"…no one ...but _Shampoo_get to defeat Spatula Girl..." the amazon muttered, finally finding the pair through muddled vision. "Though… in this case... maybe needed a little help..."

Strength abandoning her, she collapsed back to her knees.

"_ugh_."

The sound preceded a bit of acidic vomit as the drugs she had pumped through her own system interacted... somewhat poorly with Konatsu's poison. Shampoo didn't begrudge it that fact. It kept her on her feet. It had done it's job. What came after? Only the Goddess knew.

Seeing she had gotten a streak of black, sticky slime on her formerly impaled right hand, the Amazon briefly blacked out. It was the feel of her face hitting the floor that snapped her back. She couldn't see the rest of the room. She couldn't even see the lost idiot and her alien sister and fellow Amazon. They had been on their knees; she needed to make sure they were still alive.

She needed -

More bile filled her mouth.

"Star." a weak voice called out, from somewhere above. "Can you check on Jinx for me? Shampoo... she looks like she's in rough shape..."

Jinx.

_ 'Stupid pink hair bitch.'_

Shampoo wondered who would deal with the little flat-chested witch if she died. There was a score to settle there, and Joketsuzoku always settled their accounts. Maybe, if she lived, if she was still sane, then Ukyou could carry the grudge. Settling it herself was best, but... Shampoo just felt... so completely drained. Her body was used up. Poisoned. Starved of oxygen. Suffering from shock and blood loss. Paralyzed. The Stims were running out. Her heart slowed, and her next breath only half filled.

_'Feels... so bad...' _It was a stupid thought to have. Undignified.

So stupid.

'..._I want... to go home...'_

Hot tears stung worse than the cuts. Stung her pride.

_ 'I just want to go home... Someone... just take us home, please...'_

So stupid.

So pathetic.

She felt something touching her hand, wrapping around it. She was on her back, facing up, but she couldn't see anything. It was... enough. Finally... finally... she surrendered to the inevitable, and didn't have to feel or hear or see any more. _Home_. No matter what. It was time to go home.

* * *

Drifting across the hold, moving in a straight line towards the unconscious form of Jinx, Starfire could not stop herself from glancing over her shoulder. Even as she floated to a stop next to her downed comrade, it was Ryouga that truly held her attention, kneeling next to the collapsed Shampoo and gently, almost _tenderly_, wrapping one of his bandannas around her torn hand.

Tearing her gaze away from the unsettling scene, Starfire turned her attention back to her assigned task. Kneeling down herself, Starfire carefully brushed Jinx's pink hair out of her pale face. Despite the revelation which had led her to spare Ryouga's life, her feelings towards the witch were still in a state of tremendous flux. Their battle had been so fierce, so heated. Things had been said, on both sides, which could never, _ever_ be taken back. And it was, with no small amount of shame, that Starfire realized that the most scathing words had come from _herself_.

A sob nearly choked her throat as her fingers ran through Jinx's bright, pink hair… only to come up short, blackened by ash and soot where Starfire had set the lithe sorceress' hair ablaze with her unbridled hatred. Jinx's silken hair, looking like so much spun cotton candy, had been nearly as long as Starfire's own hair. But now, her ravaged mane of molten pink hair was scarcely longer than Raven's… and even that was only in thanks to Kuno's lightning fast reflexes in dousing the flames.

The sight of the uneven, blackened sections of the witch's hair only intensified the conflicting emotions in the Tamaranian's heart. Had she actually meant what she said? Did she truly see Jinx as nothing but a parasite, feeding upon the love of those around her, only to twist it to her own purpose? Even if it was true… did that crime justify the savagery which Starfire had unleashed upon her?

Jinx's wide, pink eyes were currently closed, but the sorceress was surely not enjoying a restful slumber this time. It was uncomfortable to see, but she understood well why Jinx appeared so wracked. Starfire would not blame the former villainess if she wished to kill her. True, anger and shame still warred within her, but it was the latter that was quickly winning over. Truly the worst aspect of their battle had been lain bare right from the very beginning.

While Starfire had fought with all that she had, had fought to win and to kill… Jinx had not. Jinx had held back, had refused to risk harming Starfire, even as Starfire strived to end her life in return. Only at the end of it all, when it had been far, far too late to make a difference, had Jinx finally been forced to reciprocate.

That thought alone turned her gaze back over her shoulder, to the occupied Sergeant of Yankee squadron. She could not bear to dwell on the thoughts of her battle with Jinx, so instead her mind sought out less guilt-ridden thoughts to occupy her.

Gingerly, she touched the tips of her fingers to her own soft lips. They were still tingling from the unexpected contact Ryouga had initiated. She had actually not taken a single breath since he had done that, and an odd sensation warmed the interior of her chest cavity as she could still feel the breath he had so freely offered her within her lungs. Finally exhaling, she stared in wonder as faint traces of golden mist blew from her lips, hanging in the air for only a few scant seconds before dispersing into nothingness once more.

Running her fingers down from Jinx's cheek to her darkly bruised throat - the sight of bruise marks imprinted into the soft skin of the sorceress' neck filling her with a soul rending shame - Starfire delicately examined the girl for a pulse. She was quickly relieved to find one, strong and steady, despite the unending tribulations which seemed to befall the slight woman so much of late. That assurance of continued existence was enough to set her mind at ease, and her disgust with her own actions quickly set it to drifting once more.

Anything, rather than think upon just what she had done to Jinx... and to Tatewaki as well...

Latching back onto her last clear thought, Starfire could not discern whether Ryouga was simply fatalistically and romantically heroic, sacrificing his last breath to free her from the horror of Ukyou's emerald violation… Or whether he was a mad genius, and had realized exactly what it was that he was doing. She was not certain just how much that the fanged martial artist knew of Tamaranian physiology, but his response had been pure brilliance.

Her ability to breathe in a vacuum was, of course, well known to all aboard this ship, however of all of them, only Cyborg was actually privy to the mechanics of the process. In an ideal situation, with a breathable atmosphere, a Tamaranian's lungs would function much the same as any other mammalian creature. However, within a vacuum, or other airless environment, her lungs would initiate a process similar to electrolysis, as specialized tissues began to energetically break down water from her body into usable, breathable oxygen.

As long as she remained hydrated, and possessed stores of body fat from which to draw stored energy, she could remain in the vacuum of space for days if need be. It was also, she reflected, a most underhanded method of 'shedding a few of the pounds' from time to time. The only problem that arose was if her lungs were to become flooded with either liquids or gases heavy enough to prevent those same reactions from taking place. It was a strange paradox of biology, that a race that could survive the harshness of space itself, could drown as easily as any other, though realistically, as long as she did not panic and swallow large amounts of water, she could survive beneath the water for extended amounts of time as well.

All of which only made Ryouga's last action either ridiculously brave, or brilliantly savvy. As, by eliminating Ukyou's choking mist from inside her body, he had, perhaps inadvertently, expunged the one thing that was preventing her lungs from engaging in their anaerobic activities. Had Ukyou not so suddenly, and inexplicably, begun to wage war upon herself, then within less than a minute, Starfire would have been able to generate enough breathable air to allow herself and Ryouga to both begin fighting once more…

Still, it was for the best that things had gone as they had, since she was highly dubious as to the fact that they could have still survived the ensuring confrontation. Her fingers traced her orange hued lips again. Whatever the reasoning, she could not deny that there had been benefits to his hasty response beyond merely safeguarding her life-

It was only thanks to her unorthodox training with a certain Musk Prince that granted Starfire the insight and reflexes to react in time; Jinx's eyes snapped open and locked onto the Tamaranian looming over her in an instant, a fraction of a second later, a hand limned in pink, killing light, lashed out for Starfire's throat.

Her own hand flashed out, catching Jinx's slender wrist, then applied a slight amount of pressure, just enough to cause her disoriented comrade to hiss in pain, and the pink energy construct to wink out of existence. Honestly, Starfire had had _enough_ of energy constructs to last her a life time at this point.

Rather than risk further conflict and possible harm, though, she moved quickly and pulled Jinx's hand forward and rested it on her breast, directly above her heart. It was beyond dangerous, it was giving the sorceress the perfect chance to kill her in a single instant, and after the things she had done, the Tamaranian would not even blame Jinx if she _did _kill her. It was also, she hoped, the most obvious sign that she no longer wished to do battle, and that she was submitting fully to the dangerous ex-villainess.

Jinx's hand half clenched, livid fury dancing in her cat-like eyes. Pink energy flashed to life in the form of deadly claws extending from the tips of the witch's armored fingers. Hissing hatefully, Jinx pressed her hand forward, crushing Starfire's breast uncomfortably, and driving those hateful claws home with agonizing slowness. Despite the unspeakable pain, as razor sharp blades tore through fabric and pierced skin, and grated against rib, Starfire continued to clutch Jinx's hand to her bosom. It was all she could do to clench her eyes shut, bright tears spilling down her cheeks, as she tried to suppress her agonized shouts to a mere pained whimper…

It seemed that it was finally her time to become one with X'hal, as had her parents, and their parents before them. Wanting very much to die a noble death, Starfire tried her very best to bear her killer no ill will. After what had transpired between them, Jinx had earned the right of reprisal.

But… almost impossibly… the pain began to recede once more. Cracking open her eyes, and blinking several times to clear her vision of tears, Starfire stared down at the young woman laying on the floor before her. An expression so torn between fury and confusion marred Jinx's otherwise lovely face, but the deadly energy talons were gone, leaving the ex villainess clutching the Tamaranian's left breast with near painful force.

All too soon, the rage in Jinx's eyes was subsumed by the confusion, and finally by realization. An instant later, her grip relaxed and she slid her hand to the side a bit, to rest between Starfire's breasts, rather than directly on. Smiling a bit sheepishly, unable to properly put the scope of her relief into the words of any language, Starfire greeted her dear human friend.

"Bonjour, mon joli ami."

Despite the gravity of the situation, Jinx stared at her blankly. "Huh?"

Blushing badly now, Starfire held up her hand to cover her mouth. Unable to hide her grin fully, she shrugged innocently. "I appear to have inadvertently learned French… Regardless, I wished to inquire as to your fitness. Are you well, Jinx?"

Her companion's distrust was still quite pronounced, but a single glance to the five small slashed circling Starfire's heart, all slowly oozing nearly luminescent green blood, was enough to stay the witch's wrath for the moment.

"I – uh – well, I guess I'm as well as I can be after going a few rounds with you-" Jinx's voice was rough and raw, it was obvious that it pained her to speak. However, something as minor as pain had never been able to silence Jinx yet, and the sorceress gave her head a quick shake. "Okay, hold up. What the heck do you mean you 'inadvertently learned French'. What on Earth does that even mean?"

Giggling silently, Starfire carefully slid her hand beneath Jinx's back and helped her up into a sitting position. "I will take that as a 'yes', then. Your other inquiry can be answered at a later date, when we are not mere moments from imminent destruction."

Instantly, Jinx's eyes shot wide open. Struggling for a moment, she fought to rise to her feet, only to collapse into Starfire's arms, exhaustion and pain no doubt wracking the willowy woman's body.

"I – I only remember flying at Kuno, and then… then it all went black," Jinx hissed out, "What happened, did we win? Why are you not being 'Murderous Super Bitch' anymore?'"

Cringing in shame at the last inquiry, yet sympathizing with her friend's confusion, Starfire began to reply, "I-"

"Starfire, Jinx!"

As one, both turned to regard their Sergeant. The bandanna wearing Hibiki was standing now; Shampoo was at his feet, but it appeared he had rearranged her into a more comfortable position and had set some folded material beneath her head as a pillow. There was a hard look on his face now, and he stared at them intently.

"Are you both alright?" he asked concern laced with impatience.

"Yankee-Two is fit for duty," Starfire replied unable to meet his gaze yet.

Following her lead, Jinx nodded as well, giving a wracking cough before finally replying, "Yankee-Five is fit for a body bag, Sergeant, but don't count me out yet."

For a moment, a wistful smile settled on their CO's lips, but it was quickly replaced by a grim smirk and a sharp nod. "Good to hear. Yankee-Two, check for anyone else conscious enough to assist us. Yankee-Five, find a med-kit and monitor Shampoo's condition. She's injured badly, and I'm pretty certain she's been poisoned, but there's nothing I can do for her at the moment."

Starfire was almost surprised when Jinx nodded immediately, not even showing a hint of hesitation. "I'll keep the alley cat alive, Sergeant. I owe ol' Steel Mallard that much, anyway."

"Steel-"

"I'll tell you later," Jinx cut him off with a hoarse giggle. "But what are you going to do?"

With a sharp gesture, Ryouga pointed to the door to far right of the hold, which led to the Command Center. "Until I hear otherwise, the fate of the ship is still up for grabs up front. I'm going to go and do everything I can to help Raven and the others take down that bald, blue bastard!" Their Sergeant then turned back to Starfire. "Star, bring anyone that's fit to crawl and back us up as soon as possible."

Nodding, she burst into action in step with everyone else. Even as Ryouga turned to the entrance, and Jinx began to hobble over to Shampoo, Starfire quickly floated over to the nearest fallen form. She quickly knelt down next to Kuno and carefully laid her fingers on his neck, checking for a pulse. Again, she was rewarded with a measurable flow of blood through his body, and then doubly so, as he let out a weak groan, indicating a return to consciousness. Despite the mauling she had given him, his one good eye stared up at her without anger.

Starfire caught the opening of the command center door from the corner of her eye, and Ryouga quickly dove through, intent on lending whatever strength remained within him to help turn the tide of battle. After their astronomically unlikely victory against the Green Lantern empowered Ukyou, she was certain that there was nothing left to stand in their way.

A second after Ryouga's form shot forward through the door, it was launched back out at several times the velocity. The already grievously injured martial artist's body slammed into the angled wall across from the door, and ricocheted violently to the center of the hold. Jinx was actually forced to grab Shampoo's insensate form and pull her onto herself a fraction of a second before Ryouga bounced harshly off of the floor they had been occupying.

Starfire gasped in shock, as, with a series of loud metallic clanks, the cause of Ryouga's impromptu flight entered the hold. Bulky frame nearly filling the doorway completely, Cyborg, his gaze as flat and as lifeless as a pane of glass, took two loud steps into the chamber.

"W-what _the hell_ are you _doing_?" Jinx shouted hoarsely.

Cyborg replied with chilling, emotionless finality.

"I am initiating a cessation of hostilities."

With that the inhuman cyborg lifted his brightly glowing Sonic Cannon, pointing it directly at the pinned sorceress. Starfire started forward, disbelieving what it was her eyes relayed to her, and even Kumon, despite his crippling weakness, began to slowly regain his senses in a desperate attempt to lunge forward…

Only for a massive blue sphere of shimmering light to expand out from Cyborg's acoustic weapon system. In the enclosed space of the hold, the effect was devastating, the dull 'thud' of the ultra low frequency sound wave pounding into Starfire's chest like a hammer. Worse than that, though, was the ringing it elicited from her delicate eardrums.

Moving at the speed of sound, the all encompassing attack filled the entire hold in less than a second, reverberating off the walls and seeming to come at her from every direction at once and more. Even clutching her hands to her ears did nothing, and there was nowhere to escape to, nowhere to hide, and within seconds, her feet collapsing from beneath her, she quickly lost the coordination to even make an attempt at escape.

All around the room, warriors only just rising to their feet, began to crumple and fall once more. The edges of Starfire's vision began to darken as the ship swirled and spun around her at vertigo inducing speeds.

In the end, darkness was a welcome relief…

* * *

ACCESS GRANTED  
EDC PERMISSIONS CONFIRMED  
Saotome, Ranma. (Lt)  
PATTERN: GREEN  
SECPsiREAD.1 - CLEAR  
SECPsiREAD.2 - CLEAR  
SECPsiREAD.3 - CLEAR  
SECPsiREAD.4 - CLEAR

Extended Dimensional Contact Device - ACCESSED  
AWAITING Commanding Officer Clearance

"No."

"Finally."

Trespasser's stolen human form stepped forward, over the shattered, fallen corpse of Ranma's Soul of Ice, the body frosting over as it cooled like chunks of dry ice. A hand batted away a black and green ki attack - a projection of a mental attack - dismissing it with casual ease. Overhead, lines of status text scrolled across the sky, confirming Trespasser's full psionic access to all the ship's piloting and navigation systems. A vast horizon of decoded data, now locked into a solid sea of green, detached and slid to the right before minimizing. What remained was only a fraction of the original security code.

Ranma, Ryouga and Raven's remaining emotional fragments had been trying to interfere, to fight a battle against all odds, but it was all they could do just to survive against Trespasser's mobile form. Combination attacks, misdirections, traps, reverses... every psionic trick seemed to be coming up short. A stream of hate and rage from Ryouga's fragmented battle aura tried to envelop the apparition in Captain Ben-Solomon's stolen form, only for it to be redirected around an invisible shield and into the stark white, broken floor. The ground seethed and ripped open, but Trespasser remained unharmed.

A backhand sent a titanic ripple through the sky, swatting away the raging insect.

"Finally," he repeated, glancing up at his handiwork. "I have what I need from one of you. Though..." Blazing emerald eyes crinkled. "It seems my Lantern has failed. I can no longer feel her. How... typical."

"Your Lantern?" The Raven-fragment in Blackfire's form crawled to her feet. Her left arm hung limp and broken by her side, but her right still clenched a violet flame that pulsed like a star.

"Ucchan?" Ranma-actual was still in the back, near Raven's fallen form, directing attacks. "Is she...?"

"Dead? She should be, yes," Trespasser replied, unconcerned. His psionic projection frowned. "How pathetic. Just like all the other Lanterns. In the end, every one of them was a failure, incapable of even the most simple of tasks."

"You're lying," Ryouga hissed, hands pressed together in concentration as struggled to prevent more of his own personal code from being unraveled. "There's no way Ukyou would die."

"Really?" Trespasser asked. "Faith in one's subordinates is a good thing, though it can be misplaced. Now that I have full access to the ship's internal devices, let me share something with you both."

Part of the horizon burned away, shrouded by green fire. Within that flame, an oval expanded and widened, revealing the ship's hold. It was a video feed taken from Pathfinder's internal sensors, and in it, Cyborg stood silently over a room full of fallen teammates. His sonic cannon was still smoking from its last discharge. Warning outlines surrounded several fallen forms, indicating erratic or impaired physiological responses.

"Ah. I had forgotten... this may _also_ interest you."

On the other side of the mental battlefield, another camera view emerged. This one of the Pathfinder CIC. Prominently, it showed a cluster of bodies pressed together: Ranma and Ryouga in the two Nav interface chairs, Trespasser between and behind them. Raven was also there, a small body in dark clothes, propped up by the alien Fury, Reava, with her hand to the back of the Oan's head. Reava's eyes, however, were focused on something else.

Where, on the floor, Nabiki lay in a pool of blood.

"You see?" the Guardian inquired, glancing casually from one tableau to the other. "We both suffer from having unreliable subordinates. The difference is that my pawns are _better_ than yours."

"Cyborg..." Ranma said between breaths. "_He_did this?"

"_Nabiki_," Ryouga gasped, staring at the display, painfully gritting his teeth together at the sight.

"Of course, now that I have control over the ship, I don't need him either," Trespasser explained, and held up a hand. "You have delayed me enough, children. Now... watch..."

Points of green light appeared throughout the mental realm, like stars in the night sky.

"...and Suffer."

Without warning, the sky rained green. The pinpricks of light extended into pencil-thin beams, straight down.

"MOVE!" Ryouga snarled, already abandoning his stance. His still surviving battle aura and killing intent also surged, trying to dodge the unseen.

"I CAN'T!" Ranma screamed back, still frozen as he fought to keep Trespasser from unscrambling Ryouga's mental codes. They were attacking each other, not Trespasser. Ranma's codes had already been compromised, but Ryouga's were still intact. They were the last obstacle to the Oan's activation of the EDC.

The descending beams became a rain of emerald blades.

Trespasser lowered his hand to his side, a serenely calm look on his borrowed face. Craning his neck, he shed his human form's skin, returning to his construct. Like a mirage, the image of Ben-Solomon faded away, leaving only Trespasser. The Guardian landed, bare feet touching the floor. Walking forward, he weaved slowly between the thin forest of lances that stretched from the plain white ground to the infinite sky and twinkling green stars above. What was left of the psionic code continued to slowly unravel.

Ranma Saotome's hands were still pressed together, fist-in-palm.

Blood dribbled down his chin and he sucked in a ragged breath. One of the emerald lances pressed up against his cheek from where it emerged out of his left clavicle. The other end of it exited below the ribs, having pierced clean through his body. Impaled, he couldn't have moved even if he had wanted to. On the still functional screen of Pathfinder's CIC, the ship's computer identified a medical emergency in one of the warm bodies.

"Still, you try and interfere?" Trespasser favored the dying martial artist with a scowl. "Tenacity is not always a virtue. I no longer need you. That means... you no longer have a reason to exist."

Condescendingly patting the Saotome heir on the shoulder with a hand, Trespasser walked past him. "Stand there and die, then. It won't be long now."

His interest... was elsewhere.

Saotome's partitions had also been similarly caught. There was really no way they could avoid it. Emerald spears had fallen everywhere within sight, and from the ground they blocked all view of the world beyond behind a green, killing veil. Trespasser had left only enough room for him to move between them after the fact. Not far away, he saw Saotome's killing intent, impaled through the shoulders and stomach as he had tried to dodge. Like the Soul of Ice, "he" was dissolving as his source lost focus and started to die.

Trespasser approached another form. The only one of the Hibikis left: the original.

"Oh? Interesting," Trespasser observed with a small grin. "You knew I wouldn't kill you yet?"

The fool had thrown himself over the fallen girl from before: the demon-spawned vermin who had caused this trouble in the first place. A trio of lances had stopped before connecting with his upper body, the glowing tips still shimmering like candles. Trespasser motioned with two fingers, and the green lances turned to sparkling dust.

"You have good instincts," the Oan complimented, crossing his arms. "Ultimately pointless, however."

Ryouga shifted over Raven's comatose form, gritting his teeth as the movement twisted his leg: here, the spear had not stopped. Instead it had impaled him through the calf. The acting Major turned to glare back at the Guardian, hate darkening his eyes.

"Surrender your knowledge to me," Trespasser demanded. "Or I will incentivize you."

Slowly, the pinned man shook his head.

"No," he hissed.

"You can not see your comrades. Your... rival... Saotome." Trespasser's eyes narrowed slightly. "They are suffering for their intransigence. I can not kill you yet, but rest assured, I can make you suffer as well."

"They're martial artists," he replied, his gaze unwavering. "**I'm**a martial artist. Suffering is fine."

"Oh?" Trespasser asked, leaning in closer, eyes becoming wide. "Do you remember how I healed you? Of that entropic energy?"

Ryouga's body shuddered and his eyes screwed shut. Fingers clenched and clawed at the ground... as hot pink cracks broke his skin, like fractures in a statue. From his hand to his shoulder, they spread, a poisonous, destructive spiderweb that ripped through flesh and substance. The CIC camera flashed red, screeching as another crewmember's vitals began to spike.

"Either of you can stop this," the Guardian explained, cocking his head to the side. "Fight back against Saotome."

Breathing heavily, Ryouga shook his head, even as the cracks reached his face and his eyes.

"Do as I say."

"NO." Drool running down his chin, even as the breath tore from his throat, the officer slammed his palm into the floor. "**NO.**"

"You take great pride in being a martial artist," the heartless alien observed. "Both of you do. My former Lantern did as well. Over and over, she repeated it to me: martial artist, martial artist, martial artist. Like a mantra. How pathetic it is. How pathetic you **all** are. Not a one of you can see the lies of your existence."

Seeing the pinned man shaking his head in denial, Trespasser let slip a small laugh.

"You believe your martial arts are Truth, you believe it with a religious furor, but it is a joke. A joke you can not even begin to understand, your minds are so small."

"shut... up..." Ryouga fell forward, over Raven's still form, his hair brushing her cheek.

"No," Trespasser sneered. "You will Listen, and you will Despair. I will strip away that martial arts pride you cling to. You will realize, as I have... that there is No Truth."

The entropic energy leeched through muscle and synapses and bone marrow and, finally, the so called martial artist screamed, howled, in pain. Muscles bunched in his legs as he thrashed, trying to kick as a seizure wracked both his psionic and physical forms. Blood shot from the green spear impaling his leg as the movement tore apart muscle and fractured bone. On the CIC screen, Ryouga's actual body also seized up, crackles of repressed pink energy worming through his body.

Still he screamed, entropic pink cracks splitting the skin of his face.

"Conditionality makes your decisions... your determination... your willingness to sacrifice yourself... meaningless. Meaningless! Admit your powerlessness, boy. That will be your true suffering, not this physical anguish."

Inarticulate words escaped Ryouga's cracked lips, and Trespasser leaned in closer.

"That will be your lesson: that everything you believe in - your own strength - is a Lie."

Fingers clawed at the floor, leaving long, ragged lines in the ground.

"Even... if it is..."

A hand lashed out, grabbing Trespasser's left arm.

"**It's my LIE!**"

Disgusted, the Oan reeled back, slashing with a hand. Ryouga's arm spun from where it had been snipped clean off, pink crackles shooting wildly from the palm and twitching fingers. Trespasser stepped back, away from the dying man, staring not at him... but at his left hand. The pink energy, the cracks in Hibiki's skin, were now spreading. Blue flesh split open, contrasting pink and red filling the fissures, glowing with malevolent, entropic fury.

Lip curling in spite, The alien didn't hesitate to cut off his own hand below the wrist.

The infection, however, was already spreading. Too fast to be stopped. Sneering now, Trespasser slashed again, cutting his arm off at the shoulder. For a moment, it seemed to have excised the cancer, but then the Oan's eyes blazing green eyes widened as more cracks began to spread across his chest and face.

With a crack like thunder, nearly the entire forest of green spears shattered.

"Where? Where is...?"

Trespasser spun around, searching. Not all of the spears had shattered, most notably the ones which had pierced the obstinate Lieutenant. Saotome was still held upright by the deadly lance of psionic energy pinning him in place… still alive and focusing on disrupting the psionic decoding. The traces of his battle aura and his intent were still lingering, still slowly dissolving and losing cohesion. Hibiki's two partitions, however, were nowhere to be seen.

"You reabsorbed them?" Trespasser realized, glaring down at his body. "You wanted me to release the entropic energy? This was what you wanted from the start?"

Stumbling back, he stomped a foot down, hard, and the mindscape shuddered.

"But..." The Guardian's form grew, directing more and more of his concentration away from decoding the Nav and into his psionic projection. "BUT..."

And, even as he grew, the web of pink energy slowed its spread...

And began to dissipate away.

"You can not kill me!" Trespasser roared, now towering over the crushed and beaten bodies at his feet. "Even this... can not kill me!"

Hissing in pain, the Oan surveyed the field of battle. Beneath the sky of twinkling green, corpses littered the ground, an array of colors all soaked red with blood now. Hibiki and Saotome were dying; the female's mental fragments, too, were all slaughtered excepting the Tamaranian. That one, tougher than the rest, still clung on to its existence, refusing to return to the nothingness from which it came. Yet even her time seemed short, a steady stream of bright green ichor spilling out from a gaping hole in her abdomen. The meaningless struggles were finally at an end.

Overhead, the last few keys were nearly in place.

"Soon...!"

"We – we don't _need_ to kill you…"

The voice caught the Oan's attention, drawing his gaze down to the ground beneath him. Mere feet away from him, implausibly, the infernal spawned female was conscious once more, and was glaring at him heatedly from beneath Ryouga's convulsing form. For an instant, her entire body transformed into a flash of black light, flowing out from beneath the martial artist, and reforming several meters away.

Only to collapse on her knees once more, gasping for air. Determination still shone in her violet eyes as she met his own glacial gaze. "We just need to _defeat _you!"

She was... still alive? Still thinking?

It - it was -

Trespasser slowly advanced on her. "_Impossible_. You can not possibly continue to stand against me. Your body is _dead_, your brain starved for oxygen! _How_ are you still alive? How are you still _fighting__?_"

The female offered him a rueful grin, even as she struggled to resume standing. "Ryouga once told me that a martial artist didn't need blood, or bone, or muscle to fight. All you needed was the _will_to fight. That's something you should know all about, isn't it?"

The Oan sneered callously. Gesturing to the viewscreen hovering in the air with his remaining arm, he pointed out his Green Lantern's fallen form. "I do. I also know that, inevitably, willpower will always, _has always_, failed when put to the ultimate test."

Taking a moment to compose himself, the Guardian smoothed out his flowing robes, and ran his fingers over the smooth skin of his scalp, flinching as he found one of the pink cracks that had not yet been subsumed. Taking a calming, symbolic breath, he allowed a smile to cover his lips. Despite these innumerable distractions and frustrating, illogical occurrences, he was still in control. Saotome's struggles were weakening, he could feel it, and Hibiki's resistance was being further eroded away with each passing second.

It was only a matter of time, and an Oan possessed all of the time he needed, now.

"I do not understand your continued survival, nor is it relevant," he continued in a dismissive tone, "Your will may be strong, but, in the end, you too will fall. The most pathetic thing of all, is that you still do not understand that you never possessed even a chance of defeating me."

Floating several inches above the ground, elevating himself above the debased creature, he gestured to the dying Tamaranian. "I have just divined the reasoning behind your decision to segregate your emotions as you have, and I must wonder if you have blinded yourself to your original intentions."

Breathing heavily, no doubt quite happy to allow him to speak as he wished, a futile attempt to buy herself more time to recover, Raven tilted her head to the side, a confused expression blooming on her face. "What are you talking about? You don't know anything about me!"

A condescending shake of his head. "I know of your true nature, and of your vaunted 'prophecy.' Hibiki's mind was filled with a surprising amount of your memories, after all. And I also know why you shattered your own psyche." He leaned forward leering. "You did so to _weaken_ yourself. To fragment your powers in hopes of making yourself untenable as a herald of your father's power."

Floating towards her, his smile only grew as he stared imperiously down at her.

"You succeeded quite admirably, I must say."

The sudden shock which ran through the female's entire body confirmed his hypothesis as well as any confession ever could. Looking around frantically, she stared desperately at all of her partitions, all fallen or falling around her. He enjoyed her moment of realization as well, even as he subtly continued to break down Hibiki's will. This tense moment did not benefit only Raven, after all, the longer that he distracted her with such inane, obvious statements, the longer he could work free of interruptions and distractions.

"Y-you're right…" she confirmed in a quivering voice. "It's been so long that I'd nearly forgotten why I did it in the first place…"

She dug her hands into the ground, digging small furrows as she clenched her fingers closed. Her gaze dropped to the ground, unable to meet his gaze any longer, her hood falling forward to hide her face from view. "However…"

It began so subtly, and concluded so swiftly, that the Oan barely even noticed the event at all. Starting in the distance, with his first fatality, the grey cloaked figure which bore the body of his cybernetic minion in the hold… vanished, faded away into nothing. It was followed quickly by others. The green one, heart crushed to pulp, gone. The brown hulk, folded in half, vanished. The orange beauty's ashen remains faded away on a non-existent breeze. The feral pink creature, impaled upon her own deadly claws, was consumed by a pyre of flame. The bespectacled waif crumbled to dust, then nothing. The ruined remains of the raging emotion simply sank into a burning hole in the earth. Finally, the purple clad Tamaranian, still conscious, simply grew increasingly translucent until she was no longer visible at all.

What was the meaning of this? Perhaps, like Saotome's vanished partitions, it was the long overdue prelude to this annoying insect's death as well? How glad he would be, to be finally rid of–

He felt it an instant before seeing the visual representation. A buffeting wind actually pushed him back several yards, an unprecedented, unexpected power suddenly arising from seemingly nowhere.

"However," a new voice rang out, a particularly melodious and serene voice. "What has been broken can always be mended."

Holding out his remaining hand, Trespasser stared ahead, caught between outrage and curiosity as a new figure had suddenly appeared before him. Standing next to Raven's kneeling form, the tall, white robed female pulled back her own hood, revealing long chestnut hair tied in a ponytail, and four burning red eyes which danced with merry flames above a bright, inviting smile.

Leaning forward, this new comer rested a gentle hand on Raven's shoulder and carefully coaxed the young female up to her feet. Still offering that blindly optimistic smile, so at odds with the hateful eyes that filled her face, the human woman held Raven firmly at her side.

"What is this?" Trespasser asked, fascinated, despite himself. "A cumulative partition? A synthesis of your various, shattered mental fragments?"

Smiling up at the brunette, seeming to take great comfort in her presence, Raven simply shook her head. "No. She's me. _All_of me."

Nodding easily, the white robed woman placed a hand on Raven's giving it a gentle squeeze. "The rest is up to you. Now be a dear, would you, and please _kick this bastard's ass_."

A flash of light, blinding white forced Trespasser to look away, to cover his eyes with his hand as he recoiled. The searing light lasted only a second, though, before he was finally able to see once more. There were no longer two people before him, no prime consciousness and partition.

There was only the infernal creature, Raven, now dressed in purest white. An invisible force surged around her, blowing back dust and debris in concentric circles out from her and Trespasser could _feel_her power, so much greater than before, no longer divided, no longer diluted. Hellspawned power. Infernal power. To the ancient Oan, a veteran of Foundation's many shadow wars across the cosmos, it was almost... nostalgic.

"All of you?" Trespasser asked, as if proposing an amusing quandary. Lifting his remaining hand, the mad Oan clenched it into a fist, invisible lines of power beginning to gather with in his palm in response to his immense will. "You say that as if it matters. You say that as if _you_ matter. I will take this... 'All of you' ...and crush it into nothing."

Raven held her hands out to her side, clenching her own fists. She then lifted her foot, only to drop it down again as she adopted a clearly combative posture. As her foot slammed to the ground, a blast of raw psionic force burst out from her, pushing away everything around her for dozens of yards.

Everything but him. Her waves of power crashed against him and split apart, leaving him unmoved. His display of dominance did nothing to dissuade his opponent, though, as she threw back her hood, her eyes glowing with pure white light.

_LET US JUST SEE ABOUT THAT_

"Unbridled _arrogance_!" Offended by the hellspawned girl's continued existence, her pointless, ignorant struggles an affront to logic itself on numerous levels, Trespasser raised his enormous hand, only to thrust it down once more. Towering over the white robed insect now, though it looked as though he was attempting to swat her, his hand did not reach even halfway to the target.

The 'air' itself rippled violently as a burst of raw telekinesis erupted from his palm and hurtled down upon the humanoid. The demon-spawn crossed her arms above her, and a white dome appeared, blotting her out from view. His Psychic Crush careened into the barrier with force enough to send a tremor through the entire gestalt mind, but though her defense buckled, it did not break. Psionic force rolled off of the dome, shearing away at the ground and carving a great trench around his would be victim.

Finally, after his furious assault finally abated, and the dome vanished back to nothingness. Raven, forced down to one knee by his might, staggered back to her feet and stared back up at him impassively.

_TO QUOTE SOMEONE DEAR TO ME, `THAT FELT LIKE A BABY`S PSIONIC ASSAULT`_

For an instant, eyes nearly as ancient as time itself narrowed in rage, but softened a moment later. Staring down at the insignificant female, he allowed himself a small smile. Stepping forward, a mammoth foot swung ponderously through the air, his intent to simply splatter her body and then scrape it off into the same trench his power had just carved. Except that Raven flew backwards, out of the way of his limb, and came to rest on the ground several dozen meters away. Resuming her confrontational stance once more, the mortal nodded to herself.

_NO MORE TRICKS_

_NO MORE TRAPS_

Crossing her arms tightly over her chest, Raven hunched forward. Trespasser could instantly feel the surge of power, made visible as her pristine cloak billowed outwards violently revealing an equally white leotard beneath. The power flared brightly… only to then collapse in on itself once more.

And then she began to _grow_. It was no metaphor this time, like himself, her height increased at a linear rate, her body filling in to match, until she was standing eye to eye with him. Luckily for the both of them, this was merely a mental construct, and such the charmingly coined 'Square-Cube Law' was not a factor, lest they would have both destroyed themselves with this ridiculous display. Obviously not sharing his enjoyment of the physics inspired humor, Raven lowered her arms to her side, her cloak dropping down to conceal her figure once more, and fired a heated glare at him.

_ONLY YOU, ME, AND THE FATE OF EVERYONE I CARE ABOUT IN THE BALANCE_

Studying the Titan with an appraising eye, Trespasser raised a hand to point at her.

"You presume much... For example..."

With a grimace, he raised his severed arm-

"That this battle is in anyway balanced."

The outline of the lost limb glittered into existence, and filled in with metaphysical flesh as easily as one would fill a picture with color. Entropic crackles continued to plague the ancient alien, a cause of ongoing disdain and discomfort evident by the sneer on the Oan's face. Still, restored fingers flexed and curled. Damage done on the psionic realm was literally damage done to the mind - a lost arm may as well have severed the physical nerve connections to that same limb. The ability to reconstruct the damage done to one's own mind, in real time, seemed to shock the white witch. As well it should.

Rolling his shoulders, Trespasser directed his growing ire at this last, pathetic obstacle to … Truth.

Not waiting for her reply, he thrust out both hands as quick as thought, all of his focused power unleashing in a single, controlled burst. The whelp thought to test him, to challenge him in a battle of wills? If such was her poison, Trespasser was more than content to oblige her. An invisible wall of force powerful enough to level a fortified orbital platform surged forward, warping the very fabric of their shared mental reality with its fury.

The infernal half breeds' glaring white eyes widened in a moment of panic, but she responded every bit as quickly as he had anticipated. Crossing her arms before her, his brutal assault was met head on with an equal, but opposite force. A shock wave of unrestrained psionic energy blasted out from the clash of raw will, shattering the plain white ground like glass and causing the green sky of numbers to jumble just slightly.

Trespasser's own eyes widened as he watched his careful work start to unravel. He had to _focus_! Unlike his opponent, he could not dedicate all of his strength to this one battle. Hibiki's mind was still resisting him; Saotome was still stubbornly refusing to die; ongoing, systemic damage was being directed into the very synapses of his brain, the cells in his body... all of it adding just that much more interference. If he were to lose his focus, even for a micro second, all of his work here could be ruined. After an eternity of silent death, the merest notion that defeat might be possible was ... was...

It was **unacceptable**.

Eyes narrowed and he brought the full brunt of his concentration to bear. Above him, the glowing green numbers settled instantly, the framework containing and protecting them growing stronger and brighter. At the same instant, he could feel a spike of anguish from Hibiki as his mental torment rose to a fever pitch. At the distant end of the horizon, another number locked into place, not to be undone again!

However... despite his own words... he was only a shadow of himself, and this Raven was somehow more powerful than ever before. So long, trapped right upon the cusp of death... the power expended controlling the feeble minds of this vessel, the draining effort of crushing Hibiki and Saotome and commandeering their command codes...

And the endless fighting, even against such feeble opponents... it was so _wearying_.

For the first time in millennia, he was _feeling his age_.

The sensation of his psionic assault being, _impossibly_, pushed back, snapped the Guardian back to his senses as forcefully as an order from Foundation itself. The echo of his own words came back to haunt him. He had accused this stripling of suffering from a lack of focus, her shattered mind unable to concentrate on a single goal and attain it, regardless of the cost. And now it was he that was forced to divide his attention, while she was afforded the insane, single minded devotion of one with nothing left to lose: the desperate, animal _will to live_. Trespasser, though as far removed from instinct as the changes forced upon his Malthusian body, understood well the power of that primal drive.

He understood the rage of the cornered rat.

A growl peeled back ancient blue lips, revealing clenched white teeth. In an instant, the progress of Raven's counterattack stopped, then reversed, inching backwards incrementally. The area between them became a wild, writhing vortex, the normally invisible psionic powers reacting so violently that arcs of pale blue lightning cracked loudly between jagged rifts being torn in the air.

"Your continued survival continues to defy all logic and probability... though, I suppose that should be expected, considering that you are the bastard spawn of an infernal Abomination."

He felt the ripple tear through her aura a thousandth of a second before her own sustained attack faltered. In an instant, Raven gave ground, her feet skidding backwards, tearing great furrows in the earth as her focus failed her. The look of despair that graced her face was every bit as satisfying as the inevitability of his own victory.

_NO_

He paused, not quite understanding as his momentum slowed once more. The mental maelstrom between them grew only more violent with each second, the power building to impending disaster. Pushing out her arms until her open palms were aligned nearly perfectly with his own, a surge of pale white force pushed out from outstretched hands, stopping his advance altogether.

_THERE HAS NOT BEEN A DAY IN MY LIFE WHICH I HAVE NOT BEEN ASHAMED_

She admitted it freely, her usually soft face twisting into a rictus of fury.

_ NOT BEEN TERRIFIED BY WHAT I AM, BY WHAT I AM DESTINED TO DO_

Again, defying all logic, Raven took a step forward, her footfall shaking the astral plane. He did not give any ground, though, his pride denying her, which meant that another outlet was needed as the psionic storm between them was concentrated further. In an instant, the furious expression fled her face, replaced by a morbid grin.

_ BUT NOW I FEEL COMPELLED TO THANK YOU GUARDIAN FOR WHAT YOU HAVE TAUGHT ME_

The Oan's brow furrowed in confusion. It was only due to the direct mental link they shared in this place that he could 'hear' her at all, as the crash of thunder, a constant tempestuous roar of whipping winds had deafened him to all else.

"Thank me?"

Lifting her own greatly enlarged foot, she took another step forward, her great stride carrying her over a dozen yards closer to him. The flashing of bottled lighting blinded him to all else but a pair of divinely lit eyes as lances of psionic plasma arced wildly between them, their hands mere feet from touching now.

_ YOU HAVE TAUGHT ME THAT HERITAGE IS MEANINGLESS_

_ IF EVEN ONE OF THE VAUNTED GUARDIANS OF THE UNIVERSE CAN BETRAY ALL OF THEIR CULTURE ALL OF THEIR TRADITION AND ALL OF THEIR LOFTY PRINCIPALS TO BECOME A MURDEROUS PSYCHOPATH LIKE YOU..._

_ THEN WHO IS TO SAY THAT **I** CAN NOT RISE BEYOND MY OWN BIRTHRIGHT AS WELL?_

A frown. He had not expected such a response.

Trespasser _frowned_.

"My child … you have not the faintest inkling of what a 'Guardian of the Universe' even is. Culture? Tradition? Principles? I would like nothing more than to restore them; my race, my great race... has become no better than the Manhunters - the mindless robots - we once unleashed. My loyalty is to the birthright of the Malthusian people, returned to them! But you: you are nothing more than a sick little lie made flesh!"

Stepping towards her, Trespasser lowered one hand to his side, rising the restored one higher. The power he had been projecting now redoubled, directed entirely through one point of attack. An iridescent color-less sun blazed between his fingers, all pretense of subtlety gone. Holding it aloft, the Oan merely bathed his opponent in it, to sear away her impudence.

"I was there, you mayfly of an imp. You whelp. You runt of a hellspawn! I was there!" He pressed down, and Raven's form wavered. "I was there, _watching_, when the Godwave created the beings your kind worships. I was there when it created the demons you fear. The demons who begat the demons you call master! The demon you call Father!"

The instant he thought the words, his opponent's hesitation burned away like morning dew, her form resolved itself once more and she actually began to push back. Cupping her hands together, she mimicked his own approach, concentrating all of her own power to a single point. The air between them cracked in agony as a tiny singularity of raw psionic energy began to coalesce between their outstretched palms.

_ MY FATHER! MY FATHER!_

_ FOR SOMEONE WHO HATES HELLSPAWN SO FERVENTLY_

_ YOU SOUND EXACTLY **LIKE** TRIGON!_

Despite her renewed fury, Raven's feet slid backwards, inch by inch, the gathered power between them quickly growing beyond her power to control, let alone contain.

_ IF **YOU** REPRESENT THE 'TRUE' PATH OF THE GUARDIANS…_

_ THEN THE UNIVERSE IS BETTER OFF WITHOUT YOUR KIND AT ALL!_

"Whelp... do you even know why your runt of a Father wishes to invade the Earth realm? It was our benevolence, our benefaction, that allowed your kind to exist! We created Order in the Cosmos. Not the Guardians. Malthusians! My kind...! Those like me...! We are the Iron Core of Oa! We are the stable FOUNDATION of the Universe itself!"

Despite the singularity of power between them, Trespasser's expression became serene and gloating.

"A creature like you would have been removed, had I not been indisposed in this Abyss. I see the Spectre and Lord Fate have been slacking off in their removal of parasites... how many years have they let you fester, a cancerous boil waiting to burst?" The Oan smirked, still pressing her back. "Wouldn't your world be better off without you, girl? By choosing to return home, by choosing to _live_, how many lives are you dooming? Fear... not reason... is your refuge."

His fingers tightened, just a fraction, and a wave of force nearly rocked Raven backward off her feet. A strange outline formed behind her hands as more of the attack began to break through, despite her attempts to contain it.

"If fear is the prism through which you understand the universe," Trespasser continued, taking another step forward. "Then cower before me now, as you tremble before everything else you can not control."

And yet… despite his words… despite the great truth he had just lain bare… he detected no fear in the pitiful female before him. Even as unfathomable forces began to tear her apart, even as his unrelenting dominance grew ever more clear with each passing second, she did not _yield_.

_ YOU'RE WRONG, **GUARDIAN**_

_ FEAR IS NOT MY REFUGE, AND ONLY NOW, THANKS TO YOU, DO I REALIZE IT_

Skin peeled from flesh, muscle parted to reveal bone as her hands began to unweave in her futile struggle to force more power back towards him.

_**HOPE**__ IS MY REASON, HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY REASON!_

A smile graced her pale lips, followed by a small laugh, filled with cheer.

_ LOOK! JUST **LOOK** AT ME! BATTLING, FACE TO FACE, WITH A BEING AS ANCIENT AS THE UNIVERSE ITSELF_

_ IF I AM CAPABLE OF DENYING YOUR WILL, THEN WHO IS TO SAY THAT I CANNOT DENY THE WILL OF MY FATHER AS WELL?_

Her fingers curled into bony claws and her heels dug in with tenacity beyond the mere animal desire to survive. Something which the Oan could never understand granted her the strength to continue fighting, even though she was already long dead. What kind of horrible will could create such a creature?

_ YOU ARE THE ONE COWERING IN FEAR, GUARDIAN!_

_ COWERING IN FEAR OF YOUR OWN IGNORANCE, CRINGING FROM THE STARK KNOWLEDGE THAT, DESPITE ALL OF YOUR GREAT POWER, ALL OF YOUR VAUNTED KNOWLEDGE, THAT YOU **CANNOT**, WILL **NEVER** BE ABLE TO CONTROL EVERYTHING!_

"It isn't about Control... merely Order. Actions and Reactions. Do not confuse fear with... concern." The Oan's assault paused, not in its intensity, but in his application of it. "If our multiverse is being influenced from outside, if it is being manipulated... then nothing we know is sacred. All truths are invalidated, because existence at any given point in time is subjective. Fear? No."

Trespasser briefly closed his eyes, and when they opened, the power he wielded began a torrential downpour of raw fury. Yet, as soon as it began, it reversed - the power pushing not down and into Raven, but away and out of her. Her feet briefly left the ground, only for a force to root her in place. Her form writhed in the tempest, and a faint outline began to shear away from her body.

"Something unusual is keeping you alive. Your physical body, that is." Trespasser explained, turning the palm of his hand so it gestured upwards and away. "Luckily, I have other options. You see it, don't you? I doubt you can feel it, but look: that film that is being ripped away... like oil from your skin..."

The ancient alien graced her with a hateful, condescending glare.

"That... is what you would call your soul..." He gestured with two fingers, and more of it began to shear away, barely clinging to her already abused body. "Vanish into the background radiation of this place. You will feel no pain, but believe me, in time... you will wish you had died a corporeal death."

To take such pleasure in the crushing of such a nuisance was perhaps unbecoming of a Guardian of Trespasser's age and seniority, but it would not be denied that it was gratifying to finally witness the end of this infuriating little hellspawned human. He watched as Raven's eyes slid closed – for the final time - the growing lethargy of her mind losing focus already causing her psionic form to shift and fade. It was just a matter of time, now. He had finally broken her; finally shattered her will to resist and her capacity to fight back. He had no doubt that he could simply drop her where she lay, and let her meet her death with the rest of her companions when the Transition event finally occurred.

But he was no longer feeling so merciful. She had caused him too much vexation for the kindness of a clean death. No, when he was finished with her, eternal damnation would seem a sweet relief in comparison. It would be a suitable fate to cast her soul out into the void of this forsaken dimension, to rot for all eternity, like the Heresiarch itself.

He allowed himself the tiniest grins as he had finally overcome that ever undying obstacle, clawed its precious secrets from its rotting corpse after countless eons of patience. Soon, an even greater secret, the ultimate secret of existence-beyond-existence would be his as well. And with it...

"The…Truth…"

Yet… something was out of place.

As divided as his attention was, no longer fearing reprisal from his victim, he was still more than aware enough to notice an odd occurrence. More and more of the insensate Raven's soul was stripped away, his will tearing away at the luminescent brilliance of her essence… this was expected, but excavating deeper within the very stuff that composed the being that was Raven… it revealed something _else_.

Rather than giving way to nothingness, a strip of bright white light was shorn away, only to reveal a patch of inky darkness which clung to her physical shell with furious intensity. Another gash was cut into her soul, revealing more internal blackness. As if responding to a bleeding wound, Raven's pristine white robes began to stain a color darker than oblivion. Already pale skin grew bone white as she glared back at him, small fangs beginning to show behind dark lips.

_B__**E CAR**__EFUL __**WI**__TH W__**HA**__T YOU __**TA**__MPE__**R**__, __**SMA**__LL ON__**E**_

A frown creased the Oan's brow. That voice, it had not been the voice of this Raven. There was an unsettling sense of power and inflection behind those words. He knew what it was, of course. It had to be her Other Soul. Her Maleficence. _It didn't matter_. He twisted his hand more forcefully, and more pure white light was extinguished, revealing yet more darkness.

Raven collapsed to her knees, for all the world appearing as if dead. Her eyes were still closed and her form slumped forward, no connection to the world at all. She did not even twitch as her soul continued to be split apart.

_**STR**__IP AW__**AY T**__OO M__**ANY OF Y**__OUR __**COMFOR**__TING L__**IES**__…_

The words emanated from the unconscious female, rolling across the gestalt mind in oscillating waves of oppressive force.

_A__**ND THE TRU**__TH YOU REV__**EAL **__MAY __**CONSUME YOU!**_

Raven's head shot up, four dead black eyes opening wide, staring at him from her oddly tilted head. For an instant, a flirtatious smirk flashed into the vision of a jagged, snapping maw, too large for her face and filled with serrated fangs too long and too numerous to serve any natural purpose. The impression was gone every bit as quickly as it appeared, leaving only dead eyes and twisting grin.

Trespasser sneered in disgust.

Hellspawn. Creatures of the Lower Planes. They did not deserve to exist. Neither did the ones in the Higher Planes for that matter.

Yet... what it _said_...

His fingers froze perfectly still, tearing no further into the girl's corrupted soul. What had she meant by that? 'The truth you reveal may consume you?' He had always believed, always known, that no harm could ever come from the truth, from the _great and final Truth_least of all. It was his life's work to prove that very point! To unwrite the damage done to his people by their own cowardice! To correct the defects and wrongs forced upon Malthus, upon all creation, by outside designs.

Haltingly, jerkily, Raven rose to her feet, though that description hardly did her motion justice. It appeared more as if someone else, far away, were _lifting_her into the air, to float several inches above the ground. Her black eyes still locked on to him, despite her head lolling around bonelessly, her 'voice' continued to sound.

_**YOU ARE **__ANC__**IENT, B**__UT __**YOU ARE NOT**__ SO GRE__**AT AS YOU **__IM__**AGIN**__E_

An arm, hanging loosely, lifted up to point unerringly at him.

_**CREAT**__URES __**SUCH AS US**__ SHOULD __**HI**__DE __**FRO**__M THE __**LIGH**__T OF BLA__**SPHEMOUS T**__RU-_

He silenced her.

_Truth_. This creature did not deserve to even **think **the word. With a furious slash of his arm, Raven collapsed to the ground in a heap, his assault upon her soul ending abruptly, bits of her still clinging to his fingers. Breathing heavily, he stared at the unconscious form, eyes quivering with barely restrained rage. Slowly, the blackness seemed to leak out of her clothing, her skin taking on a slightly less unhealthy pallor as she recovered. Without a power forcing her soul from her body, it would begin to reconstitute itself quickly enough.

No, not quickly enough.

Thrusting out his hand, a telekinetic 'hand' slapped the impudent filth across the face. A splash of blood marred her otherwise pristine robe, now more white than black once again. A moment later, a weary groan rattled Raven's throat, and a pair of unfocused violet eyes opened once more.

Impatient, infuriated, the Malthusian crouched down and twisted his hand into the material of her hood, lifting her head from the ground to stare him in the eyes. Within seconds, those wide, naive eyes finally found their focus when they caught his own intense gaze.

"…wha-"

"What do _you_ know of _the Truth_!" he bellowed hoarsely. "You insignificant, immature insect! Your mind is barely developed enough to raise you above fornicating in the dirt like an animal! You dare to lecture _me_ on Truth!"

"I – what… I don't-" she muttered, helplessly confused as he shook her physically.

"I will **know** the Truth! _I will claw through the very chest of the universe and tear the Truth from its still beating heart if I must!_ I am Trespasser. Truth Finder! **Truth Breaker!**_I will not be denied__!_"

Releasing his grip on her, he pushed her back to sprawl awkwardly on the ground. He had wasted too much time here already. His victory was mere moments away, and he would not be distracted from ultimate victory _now_. Lifting his hand, he gathered his power one last time. There would be no defense this time, his opponent had nothing left. Death would be infinitely more swift and final than she deserved.

"These are your last moments, Demon-spawn. I suggest you use your last words to pray to any god debased enough to hear them."

Raven stared up at the power gathering in his hand, but made no – was not even capable of making – any movement to protect herself. Rather, her eyes slid down from his attack to match his own gaze. Even in this last moment, her eyes were still defiant, but there was also resignation there… no, wait, not _resignation_. Something else, more like… _epiphany…_

"Another sought the Truth before you, didn't they, Trespasser? But tell me, Malthusian…"

Her eyes hardened, narrowing into slits as the glared up at him. Her lips parted, all but spitting out her words.

"Tell me," she stabbed him with her words. "What was it that _Krona_ saw, when he was confronted with The _Truth_?

Trespasser froze like a teardrop of ice.

"Krona," he whispered, eyes wide.

"How... do you know that name?" A dark stormcloud swirled around the nearly complete EDC transit codes. Only two alphanumeric formulas remained to be decoded, and the second to last locked into place with a thunderous roar, like the tolling of a titanic bell; like the funeral dirge fit for a world.

"Krona... was...!" The Oan looked upward, his face darkening. "_My Mentor_ was... a great man. Speak his name again, filth, and it will be the end of you."

Exerting his all-powerful will, Trespasser lifted Raven's ravaged mental corpse off the floor.

"Though a billion years have passed and more... none could match his genius or his drive!" Trespasser splayed out his fingers, and Raven froze in midair, her body spread eagle. "He was imperfect... he himself would be the first to admit it. His final methodology was flawed, but he understood that the pursuit of Truth came first. Before family. Before kin. Before peers. Before Order. Before Life. Before all else in the universe."

Dark memories of his own surfaced, and the formerly stark white and empty landscape that dominated the gestalt mind tore open, revealing a laboratory staffed by blue-skinned humanoids. These Oans were not yet Guardians: their forms were tall and muscular, as perfect as cut statues, bedecked in imperial purple and gold. Beyond the lab, reaching all the way to the horizon, rank after rank of specks assembled for review with robotic precision.

Trespasser glowered at the memory. "We thought that discrediting the Manhunter program would change Oa... turn us back into Malthusians... some losses were calculated. A sector or two. It was deemed necessary. The fault was in the Council, clinging to their lies! To their pretensions! They refused to listen to reason. To evidence. To science! They had to be forced! We never meant for Oans to die! We...we..."

Slowly shaking his head, he tried to quash the memory - to return his mind to black, featureless focus. Instead, another materialized to his side, leaking through cracks in the alien's mind and expanding as relentlessly as a gas. Vast spheres filled the sky, each one filled with a strange, amorphous creature. Each one glowing a different, vibrant color.

"The Ophidian...?" Trespasser stared, wide eyed as an orange serpentine form strained against its bonds. "The Butcher?" A misshapen red blur pounded madly against its restraints. "Adara and Proselyte..." The two strange creatures, one a blue bird-like entity, the other a tentacled mass, swam within their great cages.

"The Predator, too?" He frowned at the sight of the chaotic violet entity. "This... yes, this is when we decided... We gave you to the females. To the Zamarons. We gave them the Violet Light to bargain for their cooperation. We had to. What they did with you... wasn't our fault."

"And... those two..." Trespasser stepped back, taking in the sight of the fish-like green entity. "Ion." And it's counterpart, the savage, animalistic yellow beast: fear. "Parallax."

Both imprisoned, side by side.

A single humanoid figure exalted in the capture of all the universe's emotional spectrum. A single figure, the among the greatest of the Malthusian race, chosen by his peers to oversee the Manhunter replacement program. A single figure who had scoured the vast expanse of creation to assemble the greatest collection of power since the birth of the White. Krona.

Krona. Custodian of the Spectrum. Jailer of the Entities.

Builder of the Battery.

Dark Father of Oa.

"We harnessed Ion. We bound it in chains of Willpower. It was... the only one we could bend. The only one safe to use with more primitive races. It was stable. The others..."

A huge conflux of energy formed, cracking into existence as another memory tore free.

"The great battery on Oa. No one outside Foundation was supposed to know! That we couldn't contain Parallax. The yellow impurity. We had to... the Lanterns were expendable after all... the impurity didn't matter! It didn't affect us! No Malthusian had to die! Foundation did what was necessary, as we always have. No Oan was supposed to die! It was for the greater good!"

Trespasser, finally, gave a pained wail as he staggered away, holding his head, fingers digging into his stark white hair. More memories flashed by: Green Lanterns leveling black spires against an ash-choked sky, a vast city stretching to the horizon, framed by two massive fire pits blasting flame into orbit. Apokalips. Watching, as another group of Lanterns and Guardians encountered an orange monstrosity amid terror filled jungles. A body, still cold and stiff, beginning to move - a pale, dead hand reaching for the tiny incision made into its lower torso.

"I am not Krona!" Trespasser roared, trying to destroy the offensive, uncontrolled storm of memories that flooded, like water from a broken dam, all across the mindscape. "I AM NOT KRONA!"

"_My friend_," a voice thundered. "_Do you even remember your name? Your wife's name? Your children's names?_"

"_No_," Trespasser's own voice gasped. "_No. I... I remember... they... they... they were...?_"

"I will redeem him!" The mad Oan howled, releasing Raven to fall to the floor as he made war on his own madness. "I will uncover the Truth! He was not **wrong** to want Truth! He was not! I will do better!"

"LISTEN TO ME! I WILL DO BETTER!"

"_Sir. They're all dead._" A red-skinned Lantern cried, his hands on Trespasser's shoulders, the memory dripping with poisonous lunacy. "_But... for what? What was this all for? Sir? Guardian!_"

"_Heresiarch knows the Truth_," the Oan in the memory hissed. "_Reanimate the most intact. Convert their rings. Go yourself if you have to! I will have the Truth from him_!"

"_Sir!_" The Corpse Lantern protested. "_We can't-_"

"_Then you are useless_."

The Lantern gasped, mandible-plated jaws clicking as he lurched forward. Hot, copper blood splashed from his mouth onto the Guardian's chest and face as he fell back onto his knees. Looking down, only then did the Lantern realize there was a jagged hole in him... that his Corpse Ring had been forcefully and finally removed. Alien hands tried to hold in entrails that spilled out over his waist.

"_Sir...?_"

And then the Corpse Lantern, Yorrlon Varto, mercifully collapsed onto his side, legs pitifully kicking, smearing the pool of blood across the ship's floor.

"_Useless_," Trespasser repeated, clutching a small green ring in his blood-stained hand. "_But another will come. Eventually. One that is... compatible with Heresiarch. I need only wait_."

Trespasser, the actual Trespasser, stared at the memory as if it wasn't even his own.

"I was right to do it!" he argued. "I was **right!** Another came. Humans! Humans compatible with Heresiarch. The Truth... is within reach... at last...!"

That thought, alone, was enough to bring him back to the here, and to the now. Such a lack of focus was unforgivable, to be distracted by something so insignificant as memories of times long since past. The past was dead and gone, and could never be restored. All that could be done, all that could ever be done, was to make the future better than the present.

An odd calm overtook Trespasser, feeling almost detached as he stared down at the crippled Raven. She was barely even able to prop herself up on abused arms, her legs laying useless beneath her. Had she actually possessed the strength, she might have been able to strike out at him during his lapse in attention, but her weakness was all too keenly obvious. Beaten, tormented, yet oddly not broken yet. She was fascinating, in her own way. It was almost a shame that she would cease to exist soon.

To the distant side, a pained howl signaled the end of a bitter struggle, of a mind finally caving in to unceasing mental torture. Above them, the final sequence of glowing green numbers locked in place, as inevitable as death and every bit as final. Tilting back his head, Trespasser allowed himself a tired, _haggard_, smile.

"It is finally time. Your struggles, as valiant as you imagined them to be... have been ultimately futile."

Pain evident in her every movement, Raven lifted a ruined hand, reaching out to him.

"W-wait..." she called out, struggling just to move, much less oppose him. "There - there is something you need to know-"

"NO," he corrected her, an explosion of fury overtaking him for a moment. "No more lies. No moredistractions."

The final piece in the EDC Command key locked overhead with a warbling chime.

ACCESS GRANTED

"The time has come."

EDC PERMISSIONS CONFIRMED  
Hibiki, Ryouga. (Maj)  
PATTERN: GREEN  
SECPsiREAD.1 - CLEAR  
SECPsiREAD.2 - CLEAR  
SECPsiREAD.3 - CLEAR  
SECPsiREAD.4 - CLEAR

Extended Dimensional Contact Device - ACCESSED  
AWAITING Commanding Officer Clearance  
PASSED  
AWAITING Navigation Officer Clearance  
PASSED

MD: XEDC : to545208349 (227) [active]

ALL Connections **ACTIVE**

The Sky began a sea of black and green and teal: a mimic of the navigation interface. A view of the outside, warped and too-wide, stretched as it displayed the twisted dimension outside. Other video feeds from inside the ship superimposed over that, presenting a constant stream of incoming data. Most prominent of all was a display indicating the warm-up and initiation sequence for Pathfinder's modified EDC.

From the base of the device's charge sequence, capacitors - once separated - locked together with a musical chime. A dozen of them then led, through a weave of connections, up to the next level, radiating away and around a central Core. Convergers and Exchange Units with numerical designations colored orange as the cascade continued. Paired accelerators awakened, spinning up. Windows popped up with warnings, but the system continued on.

A maddeningly short countdown appeared.

"At last. The time has come," Trespasser repeated, raising his hands to the digital sky. "I will drive this ship down God's Throat! I will cut the strings of conditionality that bind the multiverse! I will restore Natural Order! I will Find Truth by MAKING TRUTH!"

With a cheery ping, the computer complied.

00:00:000  
EDC TRANSIT WINDOW - **ENGAGED**

And with a scream and a sound like broken glass, Pathfinder shattered the walls between dimensions, cracking open the veil of the universe itself.

"


	48. Interlude  Deleted Scenes

Hello folks. It's been awhile, and we apologize. I'm in the midst of exams myself, and Cap'n has been quite busy with projects himself, so productivity has been slow lately. (I'll try to get the next chapter of DT done up soon, but I'm heading off to Cuba for a week pretty soon, so I probably won't get much done there If anyone from Cuba reads this, let me know how the weather is, and if a hearty Canadian Summer Parka is appropriate)

Anyway, on to business. Somewhere along the line, Cap'n got the idea that we should do a few little short pieces, omake if you will, to amuse people while we are otherwise occupied. As such, over the past few weeks, I've eeked out a few pages of stuff that has at least a 14% probability of being entertaining (using the Bogart/Karloff Coolness Scale)

These two little scenes aren't omake, though, more like... deleted scenes. The context should be pretty easy to pick out, but just in case, these take place directly before, and the night after the infamous karaoke party interlude.

So, here we go.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**  
_An Intimate Get Together_  
Interlude

Deleted Scenes

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

(SCENE 1)

Humming a familiar tune under his breath, Cyborg continued to scroll through the song list on his arm mounted display. It was a compilation of older, main stream songs; exactly the kind of songs that one would tend to be subjected to at a much anticipated karaoke party. Queen, the Beatles, Madonna… it was a pretty comprehensive list, but nothing he'd seen yet really popped for him. In this rather unique case, it was critically important that he found something that would let him really cut loose. After all, he had a date to impress.

He let out a weak cough. Not that it was actually a date. Jalila was just coming with him in a purely perfunctory, co-worker/co-worker kind of way. Nothing at all to get excited over, that much was for sure.

"Ugh, this top is hideous. Why did I get Nabiki to order it for me again?"

Jinx's disgusted exclamation distracted the cybernetic teen from his ruminations. Looking up, he could not help but see Jinx, Starfire and Raven standing at the far side of the room, studying and analyzing a number of outfits laid out on the spare bed with the same scrutiny that Cyborg would spend on a new particle theory. The pink haired sorceress in question was holding up a bright purple blouse against her chest, showing off the puffy looking shirt of a style unrecognizable to the technically focused teenager.

Cyborg was still not certain how he had landed in his current predicament. He was currently sitting on Starfire's bed, trying his best to focus his attention to future song selections. A quick glance to the bunk next to him revealed his good friend Ryouga. The martial artist was leaning back against the wall, looking quite comfortable on Jinx's messy bed, the standard issue blanket pulled up over his knees. Cyborg couldn't read the guy's expression, though, as he was conspicuously holding a book in front of his face.

'Sergeant-ing for Dummies'? Well, whatever worked, he supposed.

His boss's squeamishness was understandable, considering the states their remaining companions were in. Jinx was normal, for the most part, wearing her favorite black dress and striped stockings as she strove to find the perfect thing to wear. Raven was doing the same, wearing her familiar blue leotard, though she was sans cloak at the moment, showing off a bit more of herself than Cyborg was used to seeing. And, finally, Starfire was wearing nothing more than a sports bra and a pair of bicycle shorts.

"The top is fine, Jinx," Raven commented with a blasé tone and a dismissive wave of her hand. Cyborg looked away quickly as she leaned forward to run her hand along a stark white dress blouse laid out on the bed.

Starfire, resting her chin on her hand in a pose of utmost contemplation, was obviously putting more thought into her own response. "I do recall that it did look quite fetching on the model displaying it," Starfire commented neutrally, "However, you are correct, it does not suit you in the slightest now that I see it in person."

"Yeah, I might as well wear a Joker brand garbage bag." Jinx's mouth grew into a wide, mischievous grin. "So, you know what that means, right? Starfire…pull!"

With a sudden swing of her arm, Jinx tossed the gaudy purple top into the air. Giggling excitedly, Starfire lifted a glowing fist and unleashed a precise burst of energetic plasma. Super heated gases met delicate stitching in one of the most one sided battles Cyborg had seen since the last time Ryouga had attempted a kiddy placemat maze. In a flash it was over, the remains of the former garment raining down in a gentle fall of ash and soot.

"Jinx! Starfire!" Raven's scandalized bark nearly drowned out the incessant giggling of the pair of trouble making girls… as well as Cyborg's own throaty chuckle. Ryouga, on the other hand, hadn't even lowered his book to take notice.

"What are you two doing?" Raven asked, flabbergasted. Gesturing sharply to Jinx, the violet haired Titan continued. "That was a gift from Nabiki. She bought that for you with her own money."

Jinx gave a dismissive roll of her wrist and a quiet sniff. "That wasn't a gift, Raven. It was charity."

"Umm, what's the difference?" Cyborg asked, a bit perplexed himself.  
Not that he was against random acts of crime against fashion.

"D'oy! Think about it, Cy," Jinx replied tartly. Spinning around once, her arms outstretched, she made a grand gesture to their surroundings. "We've got nothing. No money, no home and no prospects. We're practically living in the psychotically militarized version of the YMCA."

Cyborg snickered, even as Raven frowned and Starfire adopted a confused expression, and prepared to lift a finger in inquiry.

"We're not super heroes here," Jinx proclaimed defiantly, "More like super homeless… or maybe meta-hobos. Anyway, the point is that giving us some new clothes to incinerate every now and then is the least these guys can do for us!"

Again, Cyborg found himself fighting to contain his laughter as Raven's grim expression grew ever grimmer. It looked very much like she was about to say something, but-

"I am forced to agree with my nefarious compatriot," Starfire stated, grin firmly on her lips. "We have done much for our comrades – our presence was instrumental in the defeat of that dreadful Saffron creature – yet receive nothing in return asides from forced confinement."

"Azar, please don't remind me," Raven snapped, pressing the back of her hand to her forehead. "It's been days, but it still feels like my brain is on fire."

Cyborg couldn't help but shudder slightly. And he could even sympathize a bit with Jinx and Star, there. True, it had been a team effort to take down Saffron, he'd be the first to admit it. And yet… it had been Yankee whom had locked horns with the living terror weapon first. They had been the ones that had met all of that rage, all of that hateful fury head on… and stopped Saffron dead in his tracks. They had suffered the brunt of his wrath, had held the line until Ranma and the others could arrive and provide the additional firepower necessary to take the monster down.

And no one had fought harder in that battle than Raven herself, meeting Saffron face to face, mind to mind and will to will, on a plane that no one else could even understand, let alone help her. Which made it all the more noble that Raven didn't care about garnering any further accolades for her involvement in the battle. Heck, even Cyborg himself wouldn't have minded just a little acknowledgment that Yankee had gone above and beyond.

"See?" Jinx insisted, patting Raven on the head just a touch condescendingly. "I bet you'd feel better if you could go all fire starter on something, am I right?"

Brushing the slightly taller girl's arm away peevishly, Raven shook her head. "As crazy as it sounds, I'm not as big a fan of arson as you are," she replied in a deadpan. "Besides, that isn't even the point I'm trying to make. What I am saying is- well…"

Raven's fluster grew more obvious by the second, before she finally gestured wildly across the room to the one person whom had yet to contribute to the conversation.

"Ryouga! You're the sergeant, can you please intervene?"

Still hiding behind his book, using it as a mighty shield against attack, Ryouga replied with a monotone. "Jinx, Starfire. Don't set things on fire in the base. You might set off an alarm and then we'd all be in trouble."

Instantly, Raven crossed her arms under her chest and shot a superior smirk Jinx's way. Cyborg couldn't help but grin himself as Jinx stamped her foot irately and spun on the hidden Hibiki.

"No fair, Ryouga! You're always intervening for Raven, you never intervene for me!"

Finally lowering his book, Ryouga rolled his eyes heartily at Jinx before turning his attention to Raven. "Raven, no one likes a tattletale," he stated in the same flat monotone before lifting his book and hiding himself like an ostrich in the sand once more.

"What? Tattletale?" Raven barked indignantly. Both Jinx and Starfire had the manners to hide their mouths as they started giggling shamelessly, but Cyborg couldn't be bothered as he let out a good old belly laugh at the turnabout.

Then, unexpectedly, Ryouga lowered his book of protection +2 once more to fire a pointed glance at the pink haired sorceress. "And what do you mean 'I never intervene for you'? What about what I did to get rid of those MP's over you breaking into my room earlier?"

Cyborg might as well have taken a polaroid picture with his cybernetic eye, as the room froze into eerie stillness; an echoing silence descended on the room like a blanket of snow. With glacial slowness, Raven turned to Jinx.

"You broke into Ryouga's room?"

Floating jaggedly through the air, Starfire appeared at Raven's shoulder, looming over the flatfooted Jinx ominously. The sorceress' eyes were wide, like a deer caught in headlights, and Cyborg could almost hear her sweating as she tapped the tips of her fingers together.

"… Noooooooo," Jinx replied slowly. "It… appeared that I… may have happened to break into Ryouga's room… but it was actually just a – um – technical mishap."

Sitting up straight, Cyborg then proceeded to lean forward, sharkish grin growing by the moment. Things were getting interesting fast. Back in the corner, Ryouga was slowly lifting his book once more, likely hoping in vain that it was a Procedural Manual of Elven Kind.

"And for what reason was it that you were visiting Ryouga again, Jinx?" Starfire asked in a saccharine voice. "And how was it that this 'technical mishap' occurred?"

Inching backwards, holding her hands out before her as Raven and Starfire both inched forward, Jinx laughed nervously. "It was nothing – nothing! I had just had a little talk with Ryouga's mom, was all, and I needed to talk to him about… something." Another nervous bark of laughter as Jinx ran a hand through her long pink hair. "I mean, come on! What reason could I possibly have to break into Ryouga's room, right? What am I gonna do? Ambush the guy...?"

At that, Raven and Starfire both finally backed off, thoughtful looks blooming on their respective faces. Running a knuckle beneath her chin, Raven nodded. "I suppose that is true. Ryouga has already stated an open door policy for all of us, so there'd be no point in breaking in."

"Indeed," Starfire agreed, crossing her arms over her chest. "After all, considering the extensive security measures in place, it would be utterly foolish for anyone to attempt such an intentional breach in the first place. A technical error is the most logical conclusion."

This time, it was Cyborg that hid his smile. True, Raven and Starfire were reaching a logical conclusion, but it seemed they were forgetting who they were talking about. Of course, Cyborg's only question was: if Jinx had decided to ambush Ryouga… had she done so via the traditional 'nude under the trenchcoat', lounging in lingerie, or something even more titillating!

Suddenly things were coming together, as Cyborg had been wondering why Ryouga had physically dragged him out of his own room when the martial artist and Jinx had walked past his room on the way here. The desperate 'don't make me go in there alone' had left Cyborg a bit confused for a while there.

"Exactly!" Ryouga agreed forcefully from behind his book. A second later, he lowered the book once more. "Also, that woman is not my mother. She just happens to look like her is all." A glower. "It would have been so much easier to get rid of those MP's if she hadn't been standing there chatting them up when Jinx and I came out of my room. Lord knows I'll probably have to spend all tomorrow just straightening things out with Internal Security."

The unusually heated tone Ryouga used when talking about his… 'not'-mother set everyone in the room a bit on edge. The martial artist must have picked up on the odd vibe, though, as he quickly waved his hand through the air in a 'don't worry 'bout it' kind of way.

"Anyway, would you three finish choosing your outfits already? The party is gonna start soon and I don't want Yankee squadron to be the last ones there."

Jinx, Raven and Starfire all stared at Ryouga oddly for a moment before finally giving various iterations of the shrug and turning back towards their laid out clothing options. Cyborg stared at his martial artist comrade for a few moments longer, but nothing more seemed forthcoming, and the girl's all seemed suitably distracted from the 'breaking and entering' shenanigans to get back to business.

Walking over to the closet, Raven pulled out a dark skirt and flipped it back and forth with a critical eye. "So, you spoke with Ryouga's mother?" she asked absently over her shoulder.

"Not my mother."

Holding up a sheer piece of mesh that could be mistaken for a shirt if one lacked a sense of modesty (and, honestly, Cyborg wouldn't have minded it if Jinx chose that one), Jinx nodded agreeably. "Yeah, she snagged me on the way to the shower. Didn't really give me much of a choice about it, either."

"Indeed?" Starfire inquired, holding up an abbreviated tube top in front of Raven. The wide grin on her face made it quite clear that she wanted to get Raven into said top. "On which topic was she so adamant in her desire to discuss?"

"Oh, nothing big," she muttered in a tight voice. "Ryouga just got into another tiff with big brother, and mummie was all concerned."

"Oh, come on!"

"Again?" Raven asked, exasperated. Carefully circumventing Starfire and her dubious (though Cyborg Approved) wardrobe choice, she shot a lidded stare the martial artist's way. "Is it really that difficult for you to get along with the Lieutenant?"

Lowering his book, Ryouga returned the dark Titan's stare with a weak glare. "Nooo, it's not difficult. …Just impossible is all."

"Ryouga…" This time there was a hint of warning in Raven's voice.

"Kidding, kidding! We… managed to talk through some stuff during out 'tiff'. I might even talk to the guy tonight in a civilized manner." His piece said, he lifted his book once more and was hidden from view.

Raven stared at the fanged fighter for a moment longer, before sharing a quick glance with her fellow females. A moment later the three of them shared a small shrug and got back to work. "I wish I could find something to wear-"

Starfire held up the tube top excitedly.

"-that doesn't show off enough cleavage to make me die of embarrassment," she amended without missing a beat.

Starfire lowered the tube top, pouting sadly. Cyborg shared her pain… though probably for different reasons.

Holding yet another top to her chest, Jinx swayed back and forth, perhaps checking how the fabric fell across her narrow frame? It was hard to figure why girls did things. "I wouldn't worry too much, Raven. I mean, plumber boob or not, it doesn't really matter what you guys wear anyway. It's obvious that I'm gonna be the sexiest thing at this party."

"No one cares who's 'sexier'," Raven fired back, her lack of concern evident. "We're going to have fun, not 'pick up'."

"Wait just one moment," Starfire cut in, consternation clear on her face. Crossing her arms over her chest, she spun pointedly on the much shorter sorceress. "And just what makes you so certain that you would be the most desirable female present? I will have you know that I am acquiring a most extravagant dress from Shampoo. I assure you that it will display both my secondary and tertiary sexual characteristics to great effect."

Again, the room froze as Starfire stood proudly, hands on hips and a haughty expression on her face as she stared down Jinx. Cyborg, for his part, was too busy puzzling over the obvious to comment.

"Wait… tertiary?" he finally built up the courage to ask. "Isn't that like – like long eye lashes, and hair bows and stuff?"

Starfire glanced at him as one might a small child. "Perhaps on Earth. On Tamaran, we have seven distinct categories of sexual characteristics." Floating slightly into the air, innocently helpful expression blooming on her face, the Tamaranian tucked her thumbs into the waist band of her bicycle shorts. "If you desire, I would be happy to provide a complete explanation of each category, beginning with the primar-"

"NO!"

Before Cyborg could see more than an inch of additional bare skin – his human eye opened so wide he feared he might need to replace it as well – Starfire was physically tackled to the bed by both Raven and Jinx. Even as the girls wrestled in their variously clothed states, Cyborg literally had to look away to retain even a shred of dignity as his face felt like it would burst into flames. And to be fair, he was not a shy guy… but man…

"Um… you okay over there, Ryo?" Cyborg asked tentatively.

Still holding the manual before his face, Ryouga shook his head weakly. "I… think my book is bleeding…"

Cyborg cringed at that, and again when he noted a single drop of crimson plop down from the corner of the book. What was the return policy on company property again? Reaching over to Starfire's night stand, he found a convenient box of napkins and tossed them over. Catching the proffered projectile gratefully, a handful of Kleenex quickly vanished behind the book with Ryouga's face.

It took nearly three full minutes before the fountain that was Ryouga's nose was finally cleaned up, and just about as long for Starfire to be corralled once more. Now that Jinx and Raven (both red faced) were done with her, the alien princess was dressed in three layers of blouse, t-shirt, sweater, as well as a skirt over a pair of jeans and at least two pairs of socks. They had even found a hat to put on her head from somewhere.

Huffing heavily, Raven swung her arms out in a gesture of 'safe'.  
"Alright, now that that nonsense is out of the way, where were we again?"

Cocking out a hip, Jinx smirked wickedly. "Oh, we were just discussing how I was gonna be the sexiest girl at the party."

Instantly, Raven slapped a palm to her head. "Not this again. Nobody cares!"

"I care," Starfire stated, obviously irked. For more reasons than one, as she tugged helplessly at the numerous collars around her neck. "I believe her claim to be baseless and hurtful!"

"It's not baseless if it's based on fact," Jinx shot back snarkily, and giving her bottom a shake for good measure.

"Can we please just drop this?"

"I do not believe we can. Jinx's unfounded arrogance upsets me."

"Oh, cry me a river."

"I-"

"Okay, okay, ladies!" Unable to take anymore, Cyborg sat up straight and gestured for everyone to chill out. As the three females turned their attention his way, he couldn't hide his wolfish grin.

"Obviously," he began amiably, "There is only one answer to this situation. You need some Outside Arbitration here. You just need to find yourselves an impartial authority on the subject, maybe a-" Leaning back smugly, he buffed his chest with a knuckle. "- devastatingly handsome expert  
to mediate your dispute?"

As one, the three lovely ladies turned inwards, forming a small huddle. A moment later, a quick nod was shared between them, and they quickly stood up and turned to face their perspective judge.

"Ry-o-ga! We need you to settle this for us!" Jinx pleaded plaintively.

"Uh-uh," was the martial artist's eloquent reply from behind his book. "I am not touching that topic."

Hey now! Cyborg cleared his throat as loudly as possible, making sure to catch everyone's attention later. Gesturing emphatically, he pointed to himself. "Hold on there, ladies! I said 'devastatingly handsome', not mildly attractive."

"Not touching that comment either," Ryouga muttered under his breath.

"Anyway, I'm just saying that if Ryo is too stubborn, then my sexiness acuity is totally at your service." Swinging his legs off the bed, he grinned eagerly, lifting his arm scanner tellingly.

Raven looked to Jinx, who looked to Starfire, who looked to Raven. Then, as one, they turned back to the cybernetic wiz.

"We'll pass," Raven offered politely.

"What? Come on, I'm the man for the job," he countered.

At that, Jinx took a step forward and popped him in the forehead with the palm of her head. "No one cares about your opinion, Cy-Bore. And don't be dissin' my hunky Hibiki."

"Not that we mean to be rude," Starfire intruded tactfully. "But you must understand…"

"Dude, as awesome and mature as we seem," Jinx continued, "We're still three teenage girls."

"Indeed," Starfire confirmed. Crossing her arms across her torso, the Tamaranian looked to the side with a tiny grin. "We seek complimentary euphemisms to bolster our self-esteems."

"We do not need a laser targeted analysis of our flaws," Raven finished matter-of-factly.

"Not to say that we possess such flaws," Starfire corrected.

"Cuz we totally don't," Jinx confirmed.

Shaking her head in amusement, Raven planted her fists on her hips. "Anyway, back to business. Since this isn't going to resolve itself, and frankly I'm getting tired of Jinx and Starfire bickering over something so stupid."

"And I'm getting tired of Raven's big butt, too," Jinx added with a snicker, "So would you do your Sergeant-ly duty already, Ryouga, and tell us who the sexiest babe is already?"

The three Titan girls each (perhaps subconsciously) switched up their posture. Jinx, being the most obvious, thrust out her hip and stood up on her toes as if she were wearing high heels. The move had the effect of drawing Cyborg's eyes in a rather downward direction. Raven, on the other hand, straightened her back and squared her shoulders, also producing… interesting… results. Cyborg was pretty sure it wasn't intentional, but not 100%. Starfire, for her part, simply stretched her arms up over her head and let out a long, mock yawn.

Oh, it was times like this that Cyborg really envied his directionally challenged, cursed and socially awkward team mate. Of course, it was times like this that he was also frustrated, since Ryouga was not at all taking advantage of the situation, hiding behind his damned book.

Apparently oblivious to the attention focused his way, not to mention the great scenery; Ryouga's reply was muffled by paper pages.

"You're all equally beautiful in your own special ways."

Immediately, Starfire clapped her hands and floated into the air. "Hurray! A reply which is positive for all involved!"

Raven rolled her eyes, crossing her arms under her chest. "Spoken like a true politician. Are you sure you aren't going for officer training there?"

Jinx, being Jinx, had a somewhat different response. Swinging her hand through the air, she marched forward and snatched the book from Ryouga's hands.

"What a load of crap! You tell us who you think is the prettiest girl, right now!"

The martial artist spared each Titan a quick glance, before leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms behind his head. "Not gonna do it. I prefer my evenings pain free. Besides, there's no way I can answer something like that without hurting people's feelings."

Relaxing her posture, Raven let out a sigh and rubbed her arm looking a bit embarrassed. With a gentle nudge of her elbow, she poked Starfire in the ribs and gave her a look that Cyborg couldn't quite make out. Whatever it was, though, the Tamaranian nodded in silent agreement before turning back to Ryouga.

"You are, of course, correct," Starfire apologized. "It was inconsiderate of us to try and place you in such a posit-"

"Pfft! Inconsiderate nothing!" Jinx interrupted, testily. Tucking the manual under her arm, she shot a pointed stare the martial artist's way. "Maybe someone should be a little less concerned about people's feelings-" The slender sorceress leaned forward until her nose was nearly touching. A broad, lascivious grin spread across her lips as she dipped her shoulder seductively. "-and a little more concerned with blindly agreeing with the girl who is most likely to let you sleep with her in the near future."

Cyborg could almost hear the 'snap-crack' of a whip cracking the air as Raven and Starfire, in perfect unison, turned their heads to fire gaping, blank stares at the pink haired witch.

"Did – did she just-" Raven stuttered impotently.

"That… can not be an equitable tactic!"

Cyborg could do little more than stare with wide eyes himself. That had to be some kind of underhanded trick right there. Sure, he totally supported Ryouga hooking up with Jinx (Star and Rae were a little too much like family for him to like the idea of them hooking up with anyone, really), but damn, girl, talk about bein' less than subtle there. Judging by the fascinating shades of red that were currently blitzing across the fanged fighter's face, he was caught just as flat footed.

Standing back up, Jinx rolled her shoulder before carelessly tossing her hair over her shoulder as she awaited a favorable answer. The air cracked a second time as the darkest Titan and the alien princess swung their stares back to Ryouga. It appeared that for the first time in a long time, Raven was shocked witless.

For his part, Ryouga's stare flitted from one girl to the next, only to settle on Cyborg. Cyborg didn't even know what to say to help, so just shrugged his shoulders mightily and held up his hands helplessly. Despite the uselessness of his gesture, something must have translated from the cybernetic teen's intent, since a flash of insight alit on Ryouga's face, quickly replacing burning blush with a serious, upturned frown.

Turning his attention back to the females, Ryouga continued his frown, as well as crossing his arms across his chest in the most serious 'wise mentor' gesture Cyborg had seen the guy use on Terra during their training. The martial artist then nodded sagely to himself.

"Well then, I have no choice but say…" Suddenly, a wide grin split Ryouga's face, letting a bit of fang poke through.

"That you are all equally beautiful in your own unique ways."

Stunned silence hung over the room for several painfully long seconds, as understanding settled in. An instant later, even as Cyborg burst into laughter, all three girl's went red in the face, though likely for very different reasons. Jinx's angry bark was joined by Starfire's scandalized squeal.

A second after that, Jinx's entire bed was ensconced in familiar black energy… only to lift several feet in the air, flip over sharply (unceremoniously dropping a certain sergeant to the floor), before dropping down on top of the downed martial artist with a loud 'thud'.

It was followed by two more slams, just for good measure.

Still red faced, Raven let out a loud 'hmph' before turning to Jinx. "Can you believe the cheek of that man?"

Jinx simply rolled her eyes in utter agreement. "For someone that supposedly doesn't like pain, he is just asking for it. …He's damn lucky he's cute, that's all I'll say there."

Crouching down next to the bed, Starfire poked one of the errant limbs peeking out from beneath the toppled mattress frame. "Friend Ryouga, it is most inappropriate for you to have such thoughts for your sister. I hope Raven's negative reinforcement has taught you a suitable lesson."

There was a muffled sound from within the tangle of blankets that could have been a 'yes'; of course, it could have just as likely been a cry of 'help', but no one seemed likely to offer that at the moment. His own laughter was cut short by a set of deathly glares from the Yankee girls, but it seemed that fate was on his side for a change.

Before he could join Ryouga in traction, a knock at the door distracted everyone. A moment later, the door slid open and much to Cyborg's delight, Shampoo stuck her pretty head into the room and glance around quickly.

"Shampoo thought she hear violence against males. Is it too late to join in?"

"I am afraid that it is," Starfire replied with mock sympathy.

Taking a moment to study the upturned bed, easily able to determine who was beneath it at the moment, Shampoo simply shook her head. "I still don't know how he got a command. Anyway, let's go Giraffe girl. Great Grand mother has your dress ready."

Clapping her hands rapidly, the Tamaranian gave an excited squeal of joy. "That is most Joyous news, friend Shampoo. I cannot wait to try it on!"

"Well, let's go then. We need to do this quickly so I can slip away before Mousse finds me." Shampoo then gestured quickly to Raven. "Sorry, Bird Girl, Great Grandmother says your dress won't be ready tonight, so you'll have to wear something else."

"What?" Raven replied eloquently. "I didn't ask for a dress."

Shampoo just rolled her eyes before grabbing Starfire's arm and pulling her through the door. "Whatever, Bird Girl. I shouldn't need to remind you what Great Grandmother thinks of people that waste her time… should I?"

Before the door could slide closed behind them, Starfire quickly stopped it with her hand. Leaning back into the room, the over-dressed alien warrior fired a fierce stare Raven's way. "And do not think that I am not coming back for you, friend Raven. You will be attending the party with me."

Cyborg couldn't quite hold in his snicker as Raven let out a put upon sigh, blowing her bangs up out of her face. A moment later, the Amazonian pair of warriors were gone, leaving only four remaining. Still fuming a bit, Jinx stalked over to the free bed and grabbed a few random articles of clothing – disdainfully dropped Ryouga's book on the floor – and then stalked over to start digging Ryouga out from under her bed.

"Alright, I don't even care what I wear now. Let's just go, I'll get changed in the washroom on the way." Jinx then fired a sharp glare Raven's way. "And I swear, by the ancient spirits of evil, that you better have my bed fixed by the time I get back, Rae."

Raven's only response was a disinterested wave of her hand.

More importantly, Jinx wanted to head off already? It was still a bit early by Cyborg's internal chronometer… but, then again, it was probably safer out in the rest of the military industrial complex than it was in this room at the moment. Hopping up off the bed as Jinx finished pulling Ryo up to his feet, Cyborg carelessly brushed himself off.

"Alright, I'll head out with you two. We can go pick up Jalila on the way."

As the three of them started out the door, Jinx shot him a teasing grin. "Oh, Jalila now, is it? So you and Doctor Al-Rifai are on a first name basis?"

It was all he could do to start back-pedaling as the door slid closed behind them.

…

Finally alone, to her great relief, Raven let out a profound sigh and fell back onto her own bed. She could not even begin to express how much she missed having her own room. It was incredibly awkward and embarrassing situations like this that reminded her why she was an introvert in the first place.

And really? 'By the ancient spirits of evil'? Jinx was way more of a nerd girl – as Cyborg would put it – than she let on.

Still… to be fair, she had messed the girl's bed up. It was the least that she could do to set it right before she inevitably got dragged off to that dreadful party that everyone was so excited about.

Giving a put upon huff, Raven rolled off her bed and up to her feet. Strolling lazily over to the other sorceress' overturned bed, she started trying to figure out how best to start rearranging it, when something caught her attention.

"Hmm… what's this now?"

Whatever it was, had been stuffed between the mattress and the bedframe. A closer look revealed that it was a booklet of some sort, or maybe a magazine? Was it somehow possible that Jinx had a – a dirty magazine under her bed? Looking back and forth, her cheeks starting to tinge pink, Raven reached out and – after several moments of indecision – grabbed the corner of the booklet and pulled it out.

A slight feeling of disappointment swept over her as she realized that it wasn't actually a dirty magazine, but she pushed that down rather quickly. Instead, she found herself holding something potentially even more interesting. It looked to be a sketchbook, like the one that Jinx loved to draw in so much.

Except that it was a different book than the one they usually saw her with. And why was this one hidden, rather than on her night stand with the other two ring bound sketch books?

Unable to contain her curiosity, Raven flipped open the cover… and immediately, her eyes went wide at what she found.

"Well… isn't _this _interesting?"

* * *

(SCENE 2)

Oddly enough, while the string of curses the young woman muttered under her breath was colorful enough to strip the paint from a wall, it had absolutely no effect at all on the baked on grease which coated the stack of dishes now occupying the oversized stainless steel sink. The throbbing of her temples did nothing to improve the situation, and the vile odors of assorted food scraps was filling her queasy stomach with treasonous notions.

"Stupid, damned Saotome… stickin' me with dish duty," Jinx bitched quietly, picking up another dish in her rubber-gloved hands to make a quick study of the filth covering the otherwise white surface. The special had been tacos today, so grease, bits of ground beef and cheese were all somehow molecularly bonded to the plate.

A quick smirk twisted her lip at an errant thought. 'At least I'm not on toilet duty today.'

The lunch rush had just finished up minutes ago, so there was now a massive stack of dirty plates, soiled lunch trays, and half-filled glasses that needed to be cleansed, purified, and probably blessed by a priest before they were usable again for the dinner rush. Considering her current demeanor, she'd probably be here for a few hours for the first two parts… and probably an eternity if they were leaving the blessing part up to her.

At first she'd been relieved that she wasn't alone in this torturous punishment. That had only lasted about a minute, though, before she'd gotten a fair measure of her newest 'companion'. Jeremy, was from the financial department, and probably only a few years older than herself… probably only a few pounds heavier as well, which would have made her worry for the guy if she wasn't intelligent enough to realize that caring about other people was a fool's game.

He'd also demonstrated a penchant for staring at her ass whenever he thought she wasn't looking. Not that she could blame the guy, but she was so not in the mood for it at the moment. Also, while Ranma had busted her, for allegedly breaking into Ryouga's room… and Kasumi's… Ahem! Anyway, her partner in crime had apparently been caught trying to sneak an X-Box in, which was a big no-no for some reason that Jinx had never cared enough to inquire into.

Absolutely zero of her Warcraft gang were in this dimension, after all, so her interest in video games had pretty much dropped to nil. That, and the constant threats against her life… but mostly the lack of group. Lucky for Jeremy, he was smart enough to look, but not hit on, since Jinx was just praying for something, anything, anyone to vent on.

Or, maybe he wasn't! Jinx's eyes widened in incredulous fury as a pair of arm slid around her sides, yellow-gloved hands reaching past her to grab onto the plates in her hands. The sensation of a warm body coming into contact with her back was the final straw. A dark growl rattled in her narrow throat and a flash of pink in her eyes was mirrored by a second flash as the dishes in her hands disintegrated into puffs of dust which sank into the soapy water of the sink.

"Jeremy," she snarled, baring her teeth as she began to spin around. "I am going to defenestrate… you…?"

A familiar, crooked grin met her ire, a tiny fang peeking over the lower lip in an adorable manner. Instantly, the sorceress' righteous fury (Tamaranian approved) sputtered out and died as a wave of pleasant confusion washed over her.

"Defenestrate? That isn't one of those kinky things you're always telling me about, is it?" Ryouga turned to look over his shoulder and shoot the actual Jeremy – standing back by the fryer and cleaning out the grease traps – a predatory glance. "You know that I'm the jealous type, Jinx."

Apparently the accountant possessed some knowledge of Yankee squadron, or, more likely, knew quite well the reputation of any Hibiki, as he immediately let out a strangled 'squeak' before finding something to do in the walk-in freezer. Finishing her own turn, Jinx nearly fell forward and dropped her cheek onto his shoulder, taking in a deep breath as she nuzzled his neck.

She always loved it when he intimidated people… even incidentally.

"I'll show you later," she purred. She then proceeded to take a gratuitously long moment to rest her weight against him – she was so tired and achy – before pushing herself back so that there was at least enough room for the Holy Ghost between them. Tilting her head to the side, she lanced him with an inquisitive stare.

"More importantly, though. What are you doing here? Other-you  
didn't stick you on dish duty, too, did he?"

The younger (cuter, funnier, better smelling, more considerate… wait, where was she going with this again?) Hibiki shook his head in amusement.

"No, no. We actually played nice all night long."

Ryouga leaned forward just enough to rest his hands on the edge of the counter, his arms brushing against her narrow waist. Tilting his head to the side, he took a better look at her. "How are you feeling? You're looking a little green around the gills… as Beast Boy would gladly demonstrate."

Groaning loudly, at the lame metaphor and the mention of her second least favorite Titan, Jinx looked to the side and dipped her chin. Flipping off one glove, she absently ran a hand through her limp, listless hair. "I… might have overdone it a bit last night," she admitted sourly. "I must look like a wreck."

Ryouga leaned over to the side and twisted himself around so that his face was right before her own, and rested his forehead against her own. Compared to her own feverish temperature, it felt like an icepack, and she let out a contented sigh at the contact.

"You are still the most gorgeous super-villainess in this entire dimension," he stated, catching her gaze with his own. As such, she could see the sparkle of mirth in his dark chestnut eyes as his smile twisted into an impish grin.  
"Though it probably wouldn't have killed you to brush your teeth before coming out first."

For a brief moment, Jinx considered head butting the martial artist, but common sense informed her of a host of reasons why that wouldn't work, so instead she settled for a weak slap to his cheek. Resting her palm on the (deceptively) soft skin of his face, she pinched his cheek fiercely. "Keep it up, and it might kill you, moron." A moment's pause. "And I'm the only super villainess in this dimension, jack ass."

Pulling back, and rubbing his cheek gingerly, Ryouga's smirk only widened. "Well, then you can't accuse me of lying, now can you?"

"I'll do more than accuse you," she promised teasingly. "And you still didn't answer my question. Why are you here… asides from the company?"

"Asides from the company," Ryouga echoed in a cheery tone, only to follow it up with a terse, flat statement, "Is because Ranma is an ass."

"Huh?" Jinx 'huh'd'. "Not that I disagree, y'know, on general principle, but what's up?"

Finally removing his arms from her sides, Ryouga let out a quiet snort and moved to stand at her side. Very gingerly, and making sure not to splash any of the water over his elbow length gloves, the martial arts master fished a cleaned dish out of the sink and proceeded to rinse it for a few seconds before drying it.

"I'm just pissed at the guy for going over my head like this," he stated evenly. Staring at her pointedly, he continued, "You're my team mate, Jinx. Which means that you're my responsibility. If you mess up, then it's my job to deal with it. Ranma deciding to punish you like this just tells me that he doesn't think I'm able to do my job."

Deciding to follow his example, Jinx picked up another filthy dish and slipped it into the soapy water. Starting to scrub with all of her might, she glanced at her NCO out of the corner of her eye. "So… that means that you're here to help me out as an act of petty spite to take the bite out of Ranma's punishment?"

Ryouga's smooth, dish drying motions stopped in an instant and he turned to look at her. "Well… it sounds kinda bad when you put it like that…"

Grinning wildly, unable to contain herself, Jinx leaned over and wrapped her arms around the martial artist, heedless of his startled squeaks as her dripping gloves slopped water everywhere – it was hot water anyway, the big baby! "Are you kidding? That's the sweetest thing anyone has done for me in this dimension!"

Letting out a sigh of relief as Jinx released him and returned her hands to the sink, Ryouga let out a weak chuckle. "Liking a villain sure can be confusing… but I'm definitely enjoying it so far."

Jinx allowed herself a small giggle as she continued her work. She couldn't have agreed more with his sentiment if she had tried. For such a straight forward guy, Ryouga was just a walking bundle of confusion and issues… but – a blush tinged her cheeks – but she was quite liking the feelings he evoked in her so far.

Speaking of which… Leaning to the side, Jinx rested her shoulder against his – incidentally hampering both of their efficiencies, not that she cared – and turned her patented Cheshire grin his way.

"So… how would you have punished me for my grave transgressions?" Her grin widened indulgently and she rested her chin on his shoulder. "Maybe… with a spanking?"

It was a testament to his self-control (or maybe last night had just gone a long way to desensitizing the guy), but he hardly blushed at all at the insinuations. He only managed to work up the nerve to glance at her out of the corner of his eye, though, as he muttered with a weak grin, "…Maybe…"

Leaning more heavily against him, she gave a sultry chuckle. "Or, better yet… we could play that game."

Eyes locking straight forward, Ryouga's hand tensed just enough to shatter the dish in his hand. Not missing a beat, he grabbed the next one. "G-game? I don't think I know what you're talking about?"

Jinx's eyes narrowed and she rested yet more of her weight on her obstinate partner. "I think you do. Unless you've forgotten my birthday already. You haven't forgotten what we did for my birthday… have you?" she asked dangerously. The plate in her hand disintegrated, just for effect.

She relished the sensation of his frame tensing in apprehension (dooming mug this time). "O-oh! That birthday… right." Turning his head, he caught her gaze with a helpless expression. "But Jinx. You know that I don't like that game."

"That's part of what makes it so fun," she admitted wickedly. Taking a moment to nibble his earlobe, causing his entire frame to stiffen once more, she breathed in a husky voice, "Besides… I know that you love that game… you just say that you don't."

"That's – that's not true!" he stuttered guiltily. "It's a wicked, wicked game."

At that, Jinx leaned back, donning her most destructive pout. Touching a finger to her lower lip, she muttered, "But if not that, then what could you possibly do to punish me?"

It was fascinating to watch, as Jinx could almost physically see Ryouga's composed veneer start to crack. Cheeks rosy red now, the bandanna clad warrior started to grin a naughty little grin. "Well…"

Only to stop, give his head a very hard shake.

"Whoa… okay, I take it back." Taking a step back, Ryouga held both hands up at his sides, making sure they were where people could see them. "Ranma totally did the right thing. I am the last person that should be responsible for disciplining you."

Giggling teasingly, Jinx thrust out her hip and rested a fist on the gentle curve. "Oh, I don't know. I wouldn't mind it if you disciplined me a little bit."

A strangled gurgle was the martial artist's response. "I… think I hear my dimensional double's mother calling…"

"Ryouga! If you ditch me with all these dishes, I will murder you in your sleep!"

"Isn't that what got you here in the first place?"

A deathly glare.

"Fine, fine. I'll stay and help. Just no more flirting! I don't think I'll survive much more…"

"Hmm… guess that means that I'll have to flirt with that Jeremy guy then…"

"Oh, I know that he won't survive it!"

The sound of cracking knuckles filled the air, and, silently, Jeremy fully closed the freezer door. It was quickly becoming obvious that several hours of sub-zero temperatures would be more conducive to his continued survival than spending another ten minutes out there with that pair.

Amazingly, the base only lost four hundred dollars in destroyed dishes that night, with both Jinx and Ryouga doing the washing.


	49. Return 1

Merry Christmas all, and a Happy new year as well. New chap up, and hopefully with some closure for everyone.

* * *

It began, again, with light, sensitive to the touch.

Lights and lightning alike danced around her, a kaleidoscopic waltz of endlessly inverting and ceaselessly twisting hues caught in a tumultuous storm-tossed sea of color. With flickering green eyes, she beheld saturated greens, flaring spots of red, crystal blues and glittering yellows. Before her, malleable to thought and desire, laid bare before her pentachromatic eyes, she could see every hue and tint of the rainbow… as well as a few beside. There were colors there, colors she could see, that she did not know names for. Billions of colors defined her world, where before a meager million had sufficed.

It was only the beginning.

She perceived tinted ultraviolets at the edge of the normal visible spectrum: strange tints and an alien world of sick purples and obscure, distant, dizzying purples. It was not the only impossible color that was not a color - a wavelength given depth - to dance before her inhuman eyes. The violent, angry pastiche of infrared seethed at the edge of the light show, staining and _staining_ and seeping into the rainbow; heat given form, substance, and color.

The source of the wild illumination was the near cylinder of holographic and psionic displays which surrounded the brilliant woman, each illusory screen sorting and displaying information at fantastic rates of speed, presenting it visually even as it injected it mentally. Systems, hidden from sight, collected prodigious amounts of raw data, compiling more and more with each passing second. Normally it was far too much, far too fast, for a human mind to take in… even one as elevated as her own. How convenient it was, then, that the psionic computer systems did most of the work, sifting through all of the material, analyzing it, and finally highlighting what was relevant, what was important to her work, what she desired most...

The woman lifted a hand from beneath the titian hued robe she wore to run it through her long red hair, letting out a petulant huff of frustration. Even with the computer doing most of the work, it was still difficult for her to control the purely mental interface. She had been brought into the fold, as it was, so recently. It was all still so overwhelming.

Closing her vivid green eyes, the cloaked woman attempted to tap deeply and greedily into the data streams, directly, rather than waste precious seconds and minutes actually reading of it from the displays. She let out a gasp as a lance of pain thrust through her skull. Not for the first time, she let out a silent curse, hoping that no one was near enough, or rather that no one cared enough, to hear her thoughts or partake in her mind.

Six weeks...

It had only been six weeks, after all; less than two months back home, on that little blue world with the archaic calendar and its anachronistic twelve month cycle-year. Six weeks was simply not enough time to grow accustomed to her new existence as a Trenchard. Born human, she had been human, lived human, and finally _died human_.

Now, that same 'her' was elevated, reborn - uplifted.

No more was she that human, that Pamela. Opening her eyes, Pamela-no-more began to read over the harvested data anew. According to the knowledge which the Mind imparted to her with its constant, reassuring whispers – it still doled out only a small trickle of its infinite wisdom to ensure it did not burn out her still sensitive mind – other Trenchards tended to master their new abilities, to acclimate and adapt, far quicker than herself.

She was… slower… to adapt than most.

Then again, what did those glorified weapons or menial slaves have to do besides train their abilities and SUBMIT? A mild reproach affected immediate changes in her neurology: a gentle rebuke from on high, as jealousy had no place among peers. All thoughts and all minds were in concert within The Mind, and like a grand symphony, all instruments had their notes and chords to play. The subordinate served and all were valuable in their utility... just as all were ultimately expendable in their replaceability.

Annoyance remained, however, in that some were more readily able to serve than others. It was... unfair. Soothing pleasure trickled in at that thought. Let the others serve as they had to, in their more simplistic ways: soldiers and fodder and agents of terror.

Pamela-no-more, once a respected biologist, environmental engineer and leading geneticist, had a higher calling than dabbling with mental tricks. It was her pleasure to serve The Mind in unique and wonderful ways. Ways her peers respected her for. The Mind and the Highest Ethereals had chosen her, uplifted her, specifically so that she might serve a most enlightened role in the grand scheme.

One of the archaic visual displays – only provided due to her somewhat meager psionic talents – highlighted the absence of cellular breakdown in her test subject, and she nodded absently in academic interest. It appeared that the modified genetic graft was taking hold even more securely in this round, with no signs of terminal tissue rejection. Everything was progressing perfectly.

Her masters would be pleased, which meant she would be pleased.

"Speak of the devil," she murmured to herself, as the sound of the door flowing open across the laboratory alerted her to a visitor. She did not need to turn to know who it was. The mere presence of the being, the sheer pressure of its will was nearly enough to weaken her legs by proximity alone.

He - or even it, for they had no real gender - was the Ethereal Commander, and overall leader of the Dimensional Exodus Research Mission. The Commander was also the Point Mind for all Visitors in this dimension, handling a vast psionic load she could only faintly comprehend. The thoughts of every being in this dimension, those of all the members of the expedition, all flowed through the Commander. He was the axis, the focal point, on which they turned. Though genderless, Pamela's human side, consumed as it had been, nonetheless interpreted "it" as a patriarchal masculine: a "he."

Focus was the name she attached to the Commander.

The hooded ethereal silently floated into the stark, sterile laboratory, his titian robes hovering inches above the cold metal of the floor. Behind him, a pair of Sectoids ambled in on their thin legs, their childlike, distorted forms, their long fingers and deep black eyes... a comfort to her. Sectoids had been the ones to do the actual work of uplifting her, after all. They had been the ones kind enough to rescue her from the XCOM attack on her Sirius funded laboratory in the rainforests of Guyana. It was hard to imagine how terrified her formerly human-self had been when they had first taken her and began cutting.

How foolish that Pamela had been, not to welcome the knife and the probe for what they were: greatness.

SUBMIT

She did, without question.

REPORT

He had access to her mind, of course, and could glean all he desired to know from that alone.

This was more for the benefit of the overseers he had by his side. Though identical in appearance, her desire to know their stations prompted an immediate mental response: they were leaders from ships that had recently returned from detached dimensional expeditions. Quickly brushing back her hair, the Trenchard scientist waved her hand through the air, hastily dispelling the holographic displays. Turning to face her new master, more out of ingrained human tradition than any actual necessity, Pamela-no-more gestured to that which her master had requested.

The row of gestation tanks lined the wall, each one three meters tall and precisely one point one-three-nine meters in diameter. They were filled with a translucent, amber liquid. Fat bubbles of engineered atmosphere rose up from the bottom of the tank, creeping along the transparent walls of the tubes… and rolling along the bulbous sacks of embryonic material which housed the test subjects.

It was impossible to see anything inside, beyond the blurred silhouette of a human form curled up in the center of the artificial placenta afforded by the interior lights of the tank. Hanging from the tops of the tanks by a series of tubes and tendons, some organic, many not, the large, cancerous looking growths caused the Trenchard to sneer in disgust: to think that she had been pulled away from her real research just to help make these things?

MIND YOUR THOUGHTS YOU HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO RETAIN A DEGREE OF INDEPENDENCE TO ALLOW YOU CREATIVE FREEDOM WITH YOUR RESEARCH

EXERCISE CONTROL OR CONTROL SHALL BE IMPOSED ON YOU

REPORT

The mental command slammed into the red headed Trenchard's mind with the force of a Submit order, and Pamela-no-more stumbled back a step. A wave of overwhelming pain – her sensitive mind overloading from the command – and pleasure in the act of submitting swept over her, leaving her dazed for several long seconds before she could finally regain her senses.

"O-Of course," she muttered quickly, suddenly embarrassed by her own vocal communication. Gesturing to the central tank once more, she nodded eagerly, as if to prove that her thoughts had not been tainted by exaggeration. The proof was there, for all to see.

"The latest experimental iteration is exceeding all expectations," she assured them. "In these surviving subjects, virtually all physical characteristics are above initially projected levels; with my genetic modifications, I am confident that we will see a marked improvement over the previous generation."

She allowed herself a twisted sneer of superiority.

"Even though I disdain working on these base creatures, you can see the vast gulf which separates my works from those of that clinically deficient pig farmer." Pamela-no-more suffered a dismissive shake of her head. "Breeding things in pens… why you even keep her around I don't know…"

IMPROVEMENTS OVER THE PREVIOUS GENERATION WERE TO BE EXPECTED THE EXPERIENCE YOU EACH POSSESS IS VALUABLE BOTH OF YOU MUST SERVE FOR RESULTS TO BE OPTIMAL

Pamela-no-more nearly burst into tears; she could feel the reproach in her master's thought like a slap to the face. She could sense, keenly, that it did not approve of her pride and she was struck as well by the sudden wish, with all of her heart, that her Master would see fit to remove it from her. Perhaps without her pride, she would be made more acceptable. More compatible. All she wanted was to serve.

YOU SERVE AS YOU WERE CREATED TO AS DOES THAT ONE YOUR PRIDE SERVES AS WELL

**OBEY**

She lowered her eyes in deference, seeing the great wisdom in the Commander's thoughts in an overwhelming instant. She was, after all, as the Mind saw fit to create her. In time, she and her peers would engineer her own replacement. Her too-human pride, properly reigned in, demanded perfection... in further service. Though it clashed with her need to work with certain other, less professional, Trenchards… like that vile little pig farmer.

"Of course, Master," she agreed, deferent. "This generation's development is ahead of schedule, as well. I project less than two days before they are prepared for the First Phase Maturation."

UNACCEPTABLE

"Unacceptable?" she asked, and knew there was no wrong in it. All were free to query for more information. "Why?"

OUR SCOUTING PARTIES HAVE REPORTED SIGNS OF UNETCO INTERFERENCE ON SEVERAL OF THE PLANETS WE HAVE VISITED PREVIOUSLY RESEARCHED EXPERIMENTS FOOD STOCKS SUBJECTS ALL HAVE BEEN TAMPERED WITH HASTE MUST TAKE PRIORITY

The alien-human hybrid gasped aloud. Was this why the two Sectoid ship leaders were here? Had Earth forces somehow gained access to dimensional travel as well? That meant that it was just a matter of time before those XCOM bastards found their way here, to their current base of operations!

Regardless of the approval of her master, or not, Pamela-no-more could not help but seethe at the mere thought of those Unetco butchers. It felt like a lifetime ago that she had joined the organization, so far removed was she now, but before being uplifted she had lost many, many friends over the past few months to those murderous reactionary psychopaths. Why couldn't they just see the truth? Why couldn't they see that The Mind had come to free them, not destroy them?

It was just so typically male, so typically human, to kill anything and everything that you couldn't control, or that you refused to understand. XCOM had to know the Mind intended to bring a chosen few into a New Era, free of hunger or poverty or strife, free of loneliness or despair or doubt or want. There was no blissful ignorance in them. Their evil was that they rejected the great future the Earth was to be given.

Pamela-no-more grew a wicked grin. "Let them catch up! Let them come! My creations will slaughter them like pigs."

THAT IS NOT THE INFILTRATOR'S FUNCTION

A scathing reminder.

OBTAINING A FOOTHOLD IN THE TARGET DIMENSION IS OF THE UTMOST PRIORITY FURTHER ASSAULTS IN OUR HOME DIMENSION WILL FOLLOW IN TIME

She nodded, not entirely satisfied with the order. A stronger Trenchard would have the right to voice that opinion, to not just query but argue, but she was... not on that level as yet. Perhaps her next iteration would have that rank and that power, if she did well here. Of course the point of her work had not been to create a mere weapon, though it was to be quite capable in that regard. The ultimate goal was something far more intricate, far more advanced. The progress she had made since taking the lead in this project from the Pig Farmer four generations ago… it stymied all expectations, all belief.

And it would be _so sweet_ to see their enemies ripped limb from limb.

THIS EXPEDITION CANNOT AFFORD TO MISS THE PROJECTED WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY WE ARE ADVANCING THE SCHEDULE OF THE OPERATION THIS GENERATION WILL BE THE FINAL ITERATION PRIOR TO DEPLOYMENT

That caught the Trenchard researcher off guard. True, her work had come so far… but there was still 'that' complication. As magnificent as this latest generation was, she was not sure they were completely prepared. Beyond even that issue, she had been hoping for at least another eight or nine generations, just to weed out all of the issues and potential complications working with such an unusual specimen entailed.

"Are you certain? We can still perfect the process further," she admitted, "And it only takes a little over a week to birth a new generation."

GESTATION TIME IS IRRELEVANT

PROPER TRAINING AND MATURATION BEYOND BASIC LEVELS MUST BE COMPLETED BEFORE THE INSERTION WINDOW

The insertion window, as she recalled, was only a month away.

While it only took a week to prepare an iteration, proper training and full maturation took longer, several times longer. If they wanted to be prepared for the window, they wouldn't have time to start another batch, they would have to train this group as far as possible.

But... was it really so important they insert then, and not at the next dimensional alignment? Pamela-no-more was not privy to the debates that had led to consensus within the Point Mind. She had simply been told what consensus had been reached and submitted to it.

WE CAN NOT AFFORD TO HESITATE OR DELAY BEGIN THE BIRTHING PROCESS

"W-what?" she asked, her green eyes wide. "Now? But they are still-"

IS IT SAFE TO DO SO?

"Yes, perfectly safe, but…"

SUBMIT

As if possessed, Pamela-no-more's body moved of its own accord. No, not its own, as a will so much greater than her own commanded it now, finding that part of her that was compliant and willing. It was that part of her that moved arms and legs. Reaching out, shaking violently, her hand jerked over the control console which stood next to her. Finding the patch of colored light required, she depressed it, sending a weak psionic signal into it to activate it.

The second she did, the lights within the cylindrical tanks died out and the amber liquid began to drain out, to be recycled again for use in the next set of experiments, whatever they might be. Summoned by the signal, a number of subservient Hierarchy members waddled into the room, having waited in silence for this moment, like organic computers idling or hibernating prior to reactivation.

Soon enough, the tanks slid open, small amounts of the amniotic fluid held within splashing onto the floor. A series of sickening, wet thumps followed, as the fleshy sacks dropped to the ground, most of them rolling right out onto the cold floor at their feet. Immediately, the Sectoids fell to their task, tearing open the artificial wombs and dutifully cleaning off the subjects.

Checking quickly, the Trenchard brought up one of the holographic displays at her beck and call. As sure of her work as she was, activating the subjects so early was… unexpected. There was always, always the chance that something could go wrong. Bringing up the relevant information… she finally let out a sigh of relief.

"It seems like… all of their vitals are stable. I think that they will all serve."

If her master cared at all, he showed no sign, exterior or psionic. As such, in an attempt to emulate the powerful Ethereal, the uplifted scientist watched silently, distantly, as an odd mix of pride and disdain warred for dominance as her greatest creations rose up on shaky legs before her.

One of them stood up before the rest, taking a confident step forward. The subject was still physically young, only seven to eight years. They had been meant to be 'born' at ten years old, but this premature delivery made it impossible to know for certain… still, nothing that couldn't be corrected in later Phases. The subject was standing on still trembling legs, one of the black eyed aliens assisting her in holding her balance.

She was a young female, human in base, a bright shock of pink hair crowning her pale head. She stared at Pamela-no-more expectantly, blinking pink cat-like eyes.

As did the one next to her, and the next, and the next, and the next…

And the next.

* * *

**Reflections Lost on a Dark Road**

_Return_

Chapter 47

Cap'n Chryssalid  
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."

* * *

It had come to this, at last.

Torrential rain battered the deck of the ship, blotting out the sun and sky. How much time had passed since one could tell night from day? How much blood had been shed? Tatewaki Kuno could not say for sure. How long had their small ship been adrift on these lifeless, hostile seas? How long had they been deceived and manipulated?

It had begun, not when fourteen comrades left port in search of adventure: to track down and defeat a vile enemy that had fled to spread its poisonous seed in other lands. It had not begun when they had been forced upon a strange island, the supposed home of one of their crew, now overrun by veiled evil, lurking just below the surface veneer of fine temples. That battle had been most terrible, and the corruption that had briefly taken their dark mistress of the mind had scarred at least two of their number. It had been a dark day, fraught with bodily peril, but it had not been what set them into this tempest storm. Not directly.

No. Had it begun when they arrived in a cruel and pitiless Sargasso, left to drift in a damaged and storm-tossed ship? Perhaps, but perhaps not. This day's darkness, the monstrous setting of comrade against comrade, truly began with the discovery of so many other lifeless, forbidden vessels, trapped in the same stretch of dead sea. In a desperate effort to escape, they had boarded those lost, damned and cursed craft, and one in particular.

There, they had found the Head and thought it dead.

But the Head was not dead, and it spoke sweet, honeyed lies.

"I can take you home," it told them. "I know how to escape," it assured them.

The madness of the Sargasso had already worn away at the fourteen comrades in arms; they did not - could not - see the lies for what they were. _Believing_ the Head, _trusting_ in the dead thing's words, they ventured deeper into the abyss. Boldly, fearlessly, they strode into a most forsaken vessel: a dilapidated, haunted, blighted ruin. Battle was joined against the monsters that had once been that ship's crew. Battle was taken, in the end, to the unspeakable horror that resided within its heart. A battle that ended in bitter victory. The feisty witch, Jinx, and the vivacious crimson-haired foreigner from a far off land, Starfire, returned with a lone survivor of that mad vessel: the evil enchantress, Reava.

"There is a map that will show us the way," the Head promised them. "It lies within the body of a giant. You must fetch it for me."

Within that black Sargasso Sea, there was a great corpse emerging from the water, frozen eternally in a glacier-coffin. This was the giant, the giant-god. This was their way home.

Other brave crew members ventured to it, diving into the dead god's mouth, to divine its secrets. One of them, empowered by the Head, was the noble and beauteous Ukyou Kuonji. By her side, the fair-skinned and implacable psychic maiden, Raven, also sought to redeem herself through acts of devotion and bravery. The ferocious Amazon, Shampoo, was also present to lend martial aid. Also one other person was there, not so fair or so female, and thus not so important to the tale. What madness they endured within the dead god, Kuno could not say, but they returned triumphant... yet baptized in solemn silence.

"All that remains now, children," the Head let lies slip from its withered, ancient blue lips, "Is to decode the map. We must have a cursed compass to cross a cursed sea, and then we will be shown the way home."

Yet, the foulness of the Killing Sea was strong.

They were lost for so long in the nightmare mists, once formidable willpower began to fail, weakening the bonds of camaraderie... and slipping the bonds of sanity. The starless night clouded, and the sky became an oppressive pail. Spirits became lost. Their ship's once-amiable American engineer, Sir Cyborg, became isolated and withdrawn; their once implacable captain became stern and untrusting of his subordinates; their navigator remained an arrogant sorcerer with designs on the pigtailed girl and Akane Tendo_. Curse him! _Curse him and his wicked and uncanny skills with the opposite sex! How did he do it?!

Tatewaki Kuno, noble samurai and adventurer, saw it all, but was powerless to prevent the degradation of those around him. Attempts to reason with or uplift the spirits of his comrades resulted in rude rebuff. His own mind, of course, was like a castle besieged, the insanity breaking against great stone walls. Sadly, the others were convinced - in their irrationality - that he, too, had succumbed. They went so far as to demand the separation of the samurai from his legendary blade. The Phoenix Tail taken from him, he could do little but watch.

Despite growing debilitation, the crew obeyed the loathsome Head and fell under its sway. They forced their way across the Sargasso to a vast and decaying hulk left adrift for untold eons. Once more, they were called to explore the lost ruin. This time, the test was not one of great strength against a monstrous foe; it was not a contest of wits and riddles against a dead god. It was a trial of endurance, for the crew had to endure countless days of exposure to the dark mists that corrupted their minds and bodies. It was doubly a labor for their weary psychic, Raven, whose beauty could not hide her fatigue as she lead every expedition to the island-sized wreck.

At last, on the final day, the Head declared success.

It was then - with that lie - that the betrayals began.

The lovely Ukyou Kuonji, flushed with unholy power, struck down her returned friends and allies. Those who raised arms against her, lead at first by the fierce warrior-woman, Shampoo, and the hidden powers of Raven and Reava, were met by the treacherous alliance of the exotic Starfire and the once-humble manservant, Konatsu. Blood was spilled, as comrade battled comrade. Only the intervention of a great man prevented loss of life.

"Stay your hand, woman!" Kuno had seized Starfire's hand before she could deliver the death blow to the vivacious blush-haired Jinx. Crushing the comely alien woman to his chest, the brave samurai had endured her fiery anger long enough to cup her chin and look into her eyes.

"Remember who you are," he had pleaded. "Remember the woman who stole my heart."

Naturally, that snapped broke the bonds of the enchantment placed upon her.

"Fear not, fair one!" He then reached down to cradle the wounded witch, Jinx. "No longer shall I allow such evil to endanger my friends! Ha ha!"

Though no doubt tempted to make a snarky response, the poor girl could naught but stare into the samurai's eyes and trust in him. Completely. It was around that time that the peerless samurai noticed his good friend and comic relief sidekick, Mousse, had also successfully intervened in the battle between his love, Shampoo, and the butler-turned-assassin Konatsu.

"Need you help, my friend?" Kuno had generously asked.

"Only your inspiration!" Mousse had replied with a thumbs-up.

"Very well!" Kuno announced, still carrying Jinx... and Starfire... somehow... onto the deck of the ship. One of them was on top of the other. That was probably it. Regardless, he emerged against the biting wind and ferocious rain, where the ensorcelled Ukyou Kunoji was busily kicking a beaten body with an unremarkable face. It was the half-brother of Captain Hibiki, creatively also known as Hibiki, who had clearly done much to frustrate and vex the green-clad woman.

"Hark!" The swordsman commanded, raising his sword! Despite carrying two swooning women. "Fair Kuonji, I shall cut away the spell that so maligns you with the light from my noble blade!"

"Impossible!" The chef, now an evil Green Bucket... Lantern... whatever, yelled. "We cast that blade into the sea!"

Kuno just laughed boldly, not needing to explain how he had acquired it. Mundane details like that didn't matter.

"No matter," the spellbound woman, writhing with the Head's vile green energies, attempted to destroy the samurai with a wave of evil energy. "I have defeated the others! You, too, will succumb, Tatewaki Kuno!"

"No!" The swordsman blocked the atrocious energy with his righteous blade. "I yet live! Fight this spell, Kuonji!"

"Oh! OH! What have I done?" The all-powerful woman cried. "My energies are spent! I - I am finished! Save them, Kuno! I - I can't...!"

Seeing her collapse, Kuno gently scooped up her body and put her on top of Jinx and Starfire, both still in his arms. Standing against the wind, he made a true and noble vow.

"I shall save our friends!" he declared, with a crack of thunder. "No matter the obstacles before me! The Head's machinations end now!"

Unfortunately, it was near the end of that sentence when he got blasted from behind.

* * *

"I yet live...!" Kuno struggled to his knees. A... strange and twisted version of events had crossed his mind while briefly unconscious. It was wholly inaccurate, for as much as he would have wished it, he did not in fact have his sword on hand.

Also... some other very minor details may have been slight embellishments.

Holding his pounding head, the sword-less swordsman tried to remember. They had come to this cursed dimension... how long ago? Frankly, he had no idea. The last few of what must have been days, maybe a week or more, were all a blur. The ship had emerged within a vast complex, a strange hollow sphere of nightmares and warped debris. It had taken days to cut out, hadn't it? While freeing the ship, they had answered a distress signal, and Ukyou and Kumon had returned with the... the alien...

Trespasser.

Trespasser. The so called 'Guardian of the Universe' so esteemed by Yankee Squad. Ukyou had become empowered by a strange alien ring, granting her the ability to materialize things with thought. With the ship freed, they had been sent to an alien ship, and some other time-lost ruin. Kuno remembered it, as if through a winding, cloudy haze. He had not been taken on those missions. He had... been relieved of duty... considered unfit for duty. Why? What had happened again? Mousse had been there, too, also relieved.

Days had passed. Watching the teams go on another mission, too. He had spoken to them. He remembered bits and pieces of conversations. Together, they had all been pushed to the brink, hours from being at each other's throats. Yet Trespasser pre-empted the madness of the dimension that surrounded them. Kuno remembered: he and Mousse had been confined. Konatsu was there, too, but not being subdued.

It was all so... confusing.

Then there had been the call. The call for help. That had roused him from some strange stupor. He had found a battle ongoing: Konatsu and Shampoo, Ukyou and Yankee's Hibiki, Starfire and Jinx. He had intervened in the latter. At that realization, he took a moment to wonder how it was that he was still intact. Getting between those two hellions, fair though that they could be?

And then... a suffocating green blanket... followed by sound and fury.

What had happened?

"Tatewaki Kuno... age twenty… rises once more!" he proudly declared, coughing and hacking as he forced himself onto his feet. The words felt good. There was no motivation like self-motivation! After all, what would Akane Tendo or the Pigtailed Girl do if he died here? Unfortunately, though the spirit was willing, the flesh was...

The flesh was pretty badly battered and bruised.

He felt a sharp, lancing pain in his chest. He could _feel_ the broken rib, keenly, where his lovely comrade Starfire had attempted to use it to pierce his noble heart. The pain was exquisite, it actually took his mind back, so long ago. Back when he had first been shot... had it been his very first mission? An age ago, it felt like. And yet, that memory reminded him instantly of being on the brink of death. Truly being within a hair's width of dying. Compared to that, what was this? What was agony alone, to a samurai?!

"Hyo!" He surged up, sucking in a breath of air. His lungs felt like fire, his ears rang, and his legs felt like silly putty.

Heedless of that, he whirled on the only other man standing.

"Victor Stone," Kuno announced, glaring at the Cyborg. The Cyborg whose arm-cannon was still smoking from its discharge. Around the disarmed kendoist, unearthly blue smoke curled around the fallen forms of a half dozen men and women. Kuno realized that haze drifted from him, as well.

He frowned.

"I would not think you, of all men, capable of a stab in the back."

The mammoth cyborg turned to regard him dispassionately. After several fractions of a second spent in silent study, the traitorous genius glanced away, inspecting the rest of the hold with clinical detachment. "Kuno, Tatewaki. Rank: Squaddie. Current threat assessment: Negligible… Cross reference: Tendo, Nabiki."

A moment later, he looked back. "Your statement is illogical, Squaddie Kuno. I am not currently in possession of any bladed weapons. Nor is my sonic cannon, in correlation, or function, in any way represented by a piercing action of any sort."

"You did fire on your friends and allies!" the swordsman sans-sword objected, pointing accusingly at the Titan. "Hear me now, and step aside! I must..." Toppling forward, Kuno barely caught himself from falling on his face.

Perhaps... perhaps it would be best to tone down the dramatic declarations. For a time.

Just until his lungs ceased their cowardly burning.

"On whose side...?" he asked, glaring at Cyborg. "On whose side do you stand?"

"Yet again, it is being inferred that there are 'sides' in this conflict from which I must choose to align myself," Cyborg explained cooly, "This is not the case. I am merely initiating responses that will result in the highest probability of mission success. With Raven's death imminent within the Command Center, there are no actions I can make which will affect the outcome there."

Eyes slipping down to inspect the small display in his arm, examining some fathomless oracle in search of the answer to some mysterious riddle, he added as an afterthought, "With Squaddie Kounji disabled, the risk of my entering the Hold dropped significantly, allowing for my intervention."

"Raven's...?" Kuno struggled back to his feet. "Yet you come here to strike at us, rather than remain by her side?"

Staring forward, Cyborg explained in an unemotional tone so at odds with what Kuno knew of the normally boisterous fighter. "Raven is currently engaged in psychic combat with the Guardian. The outcome of such a contest is statistically improbable in regards to turning out in her favor."

"While her death is a near certitude," he posited, "The events occurring in this section of the ship are not. My presence here is more beneficial to the mission than my presence at Raven's side."

Cyborg's head quirked to the side. "That is UNETCO protocol, as I have downloaded the manual and assimilated all regulations. You should be aware, Squaddie Kuno… that the mission always comes first."

Kuno raised a finger to protest.

"And that it is standard procedure to utilize stun-weaponry against mentally dominated squadmates."

"Curse you and your encyclopedic knowledge," the swordsman flatly replied, but shook his head to add, "Yet, are you not also mentally compromised? And what of the ship? What of...? Are we still able to escape this place?"

Cyborg shook his head. "Negative, my organic mental faculties have been overridden by emergency contamination protocols. As such, my judgment is not compromised as per UNETCO psychological guidelines, and by UNETCO regulations, that means that my actions now supersede those of all compromised personnel… which at this point, includes all members of India CT, Juliet CT and Yankee CT, excepting myself."

Looking down at his arm once more Cyborg nodded to himself. "Operations concerning the escape of this pocket dimension are still in progress. It..." Suddenly, the cybernetic teen paused, something flashing red across his screen. "Start-up of EDC detected. Countdown to dimensional jump initiated. Dimensional jump will commence in: Seven, Six..."

It wasn't really noticeable until after it began. The "blue shift" of a transit event. Kuno and Cyborg froze in space and time. Unlike previous jumps, this one seemed to stretch on, conscious thought continuing in the gap between seconds when all else became mirrors and dust. The blue deepened almost to purple as infinity stretched, thinner and thinner; the transit window struggling to pull itself out of the slippery slope that was the dimensional abyss.

Finally, that tenuous moment snapped taunt.

A point expanded forcefully from the core of Pathfinder itself, expanding outwards to encompass and embrace the whole of the ship in the span of a nanosecond. A ripple in the air followed, and the air and alloy and iron and blood of everyone and everything within shook with an ear-raking screech, like nails on blackboard, like a wound torn in the stomach of a great, alien beast.

Beryl tinted vision faded in and out, and Kuno found himself on hands and knees, breath escaping in ragged gasps. The air was freezing cold, like they had been dropped into the middle of a frigid winter, and the swordsman could see his breath in the air. Clouds of it drifted from his nose and mouth, and flakes of frost fell from his skin.

Looking up, in speechless awe, he saw snowflakes.

It was snowing... they were flurries... _inside the ship._

Lights dimmed. Silence. Broken, finally, only, by the stuttering roar of the automated environmental systems. Heated air shot into the room from pitted vents in the ceiling, causing much of the falling hoarfrost to begin to turn into fine, chilly droplets. Hard blue began to fade against blinking eyes. Nearly slipping as he tried to stand, Kuno saw Cyborg, somehow having maintained his footing, staring fixedly at the display embedded within his arm, blind to the rest of the odd effects surrounding them,

"What's... happened?" The scion of House Kuno coughed, his breath mist in the air as he struggled to stay conscious. "W-where are we?"

* * *

"At last," Trespasser declared, raising his hands to the digital sky. "The time has come."

The countdown, finally, had expired.

Time had, at long last, run out.

"I will drive this ship down God's Throat!" The insane Guardian exulted, his power and presence suffusing - suffocating - the mental realm he dominated. No longer was there a physical or mental distinction between Trespasser and Pathfinder. He was the ship, and the ship was he, and the restored and reworked Extended Dimensional Contact Device was both his beating heart and his weapon of retribution.

"Together, we will cut the strings of conditionality that bind the multiverse!" And, then, the 'we' disappeared entirely, the pretense of cooperation hardly necessary. "I will restore Natural Order!"

The viridian bonfire that consumed the Oan's eyes narrowed in secret glee and triumph.

"I will Find Truth..." His grin nearly split his ancient cheeks; upraised fingers clawed at the sky. "By MAKING TRUTH!"

00:00:000

EDC TRANSIT WINDOW - **ENGAGED**

Beaten and barely alive from where she lay at the mad Guardian's feet, Raven stared blankly at something beyond Trespasser himself, as the numbers flashed in their final, expiring state. She had been the last pitiful, mewling obstacle since Saotome and Hibiki had been dealt crippling blows. Left to suffer and die, to witness the consequences of her weakness and failure, Trespasser seemed to gladly cast aside any notions of finishing the hellspawned Titan off - not with victory in his grasp. Not with the product of a lifetime's research at hand. Not when death itself had kept him from his one, burning devotion.

A streak, a stream, of incomprehensible data flashed by on two parallel displays overhead. There was only the briefest, most fleeting delay between the initiation and the actual dimensional jump. There was less than a second to determine whether one had punched a hole in reality, to exit into another reality, or whether there would be no return voyage: no exit to the hole one had been cast into. Within that unfathomable rift in between spaces and times lay a sea of nearly infinite energy, the product of friction between dimensions; a seething and hungry Charybdis that would rend the tiny mote that was Trespasser-Pathfinder and those within it into scattered hyper-energetic subatomic particles.

There was no more time to think on it: they were in.

_They were through._

Trespasser-Pathfinder closed his eyes to embrace what he knew would be the end of his life - the end of his long, long existence. It was Suicide. Personal suicide. The Guardian of the Universe would not die alone: he would take creation as-is with him, to be replaced by creation **as-it-could-be**. Creation: as-it-should-have-been! Creation: as-it-would-be! _Without_ the contaminating influence, the 'conditionality' he despised. The new multiverse - their new multiverse - could just as well be recreated with no Oans, no Green Lanterns, as it could give birth to the perfect Malthusian race he wished for in his heart of hearts.

Suicide. Rebirth.

_Genesis_ out of _Genocide_.

With a scream and a sound like cracked ceramic, Trespasser-Pathfinder shattered the walls between dimensions, cracking open the veil of the universe itself. A ripple-like halo grew from the exultant Oan, filling the shared gestalt mind with blinding, painful light. What was a split second in time, a clean cut between nanoseconds, blossomed into a momentary eternity within the mindscape. Here, in a mind that was Trespasser-Pathfinder... but that was also Ryouga, Ranma, and Raven... all of existence shimmered like a distant mirage.

And the mirage **cracked**.

Like a shattered mirror, like a house of mirrors coming apart, the gestalt mind fragmented in four dimensions, spreading from the roof of the world as a creeping spiderweb. Bits of crystalline memory and mind rained down like broken, reflective glass; like a thousand moving pictures playing at once to the sound of silence. In the wake of the smashed, falling memories, a monsoon of crimson fell like torrential rain. Memories crashed around Raven, forcing her to flinch and curl up to avoid the cave-in; the ground split and uprooted, searing blasts of broken neurons firing upward like miniature volcanoes.

The shared mind - their minds - were coming apart at the seams.

Yet, as Raven stare up at her conqueror, beaten in every sense of the word, there was no fear in her eyes. Even as droplets of red dribbled down her face and soaked through her hair; even as shards of memory shattered close by, breaking into a trillion uncountable fragments; even as the sky and the world split and sundered and cried blood. Heedless of the sight of the mental apocalypse, she stared up at the statue-still Trespasser. Even as splinters chipped and fell from the Oan's arms and face, she, Raven, remained intact. Whole. All that was her was _within her._ All that was Ranma, _within him_; all that was Ryouga, _within him_.

And… all that was Trespasser -

The Oan, like the world, _shattered_. The very pieces of him hung close together, the broken and splintered form of a red robed, marble sculpture, deceptively kept together just moments before it all came apart. His arms were still upraised as he awaited the final, apocryphal Truth he had so longed to force into being. His eyes still stared blankly upward, waiting for the moment - the instant - when he could crash head long into the apex of the pyramid, the source of Dimensional Conditionality. Even with his form coming apart like cracking crystal, he still looked for his goal, unwavering. Undeterred. Uncompromising. Unrelenting. Unforgiving.

He searched for Truth.

Instead, he beheld... **Nothing**.

Green eyes, devoid of fire, stared with shock and longing. One split straight down the middle, cracking like marble. Both eyes slowly, agonizingly, moved inside their splintered sockets to fall on her, to spear her. Raven saw no fear or hate in them. Only... confusion. Terrible, alien, incomprehensible, _confusion_. She could feel it in him.

And she knew, that for this Guardian of the Universe, it was worse than death.

"This..." Trespasser's mouth opened, and flakes of his lips and jaw fell away. "Isn't... I don't..."

His left arm crumbled to the floor, breaking apart in midair.

"I don't… _understand_..."

Raven finally blinked, and their shared world ended.

* * *

Eyes snapped open, and painful, stinging light blinded Raven all over again. Closing her eyes again, she blinked rapidly several times, tears leaking from the corners of her vision as she tried to acclimate herself to the intrusive, long-absent light. It was not a desirable sensation, after battling on a mental plane filled with so much scintillating fury, but it reminded her that that was all it had been: an illusory conflict, an astral war. Here, on the physical plane, her flesh and blood eyes had been closed the entire time, and her physical body…

Oh, _Azar_, how she regretted possessing a physical body at that moment. Perhaps, just perhaps, those Ethereals were on to something, with their withered, atrophied shells. Her eyes stung from the light, her extremities burned with some unnatural cold, her chest – her chest burned like _fire_. It was as if someone had forced hot coals into her chest. It was all she could do, her body still weak and unresponsive, to slowly curl herself up into a tight ball. The sensation was actually familiar, she had felt something similar during her battle with Trespasser, but here, in the real world, it was magnified a dozen fold.

It felt like a hundred heated needles were worming their way through her chest, roasting and eating her alive. Which made no sense. Her hands clutched tightly to her breast, she felt no gentle '_thump-thump_' with which to confirm that she was, actually, alive.

That was right: Trespasser had crushed her heart.

'_Why… am I still alive?_'

It didn't make any sense. She knew that she _was_ alive; not even life itself and the cold, hard universe they existed in would be cruel enough to inflict this kind of suffering on a corpse, after all. She was also breathing, though she honestly wished that she could forgo that autonomic function as well at the moment. And yet… her heart was still in her chest, unbeating, unfeeling.

Perhaps, in her titanic battle with a being of nearly pure will… she had actually, instinctively, stumbled upon that same trick used by their alien enemies to sustain her body with pure psionic energy? To sustain the body and survive by Will Alone. She had to admit… that would be pretty cool.

If it didn't _hurt_ so much!

If this was what it was like to be a Trenchard, she could almost understand why Cologne and the others had gone evil so easily… Thankfully, the burning in her chest was slowly beginning to fade, from agonizing to merely unbearable. As she grew more at ease with her pain, other sensations began to wash over her, her universe gradually expanding beyond just herself.

It took several moments, trying to sort through numerous incongruities at once, but she was also getting the odd impression that she was _lighter_ than she had been before. It seemed that the most likely explanation for that was that the gravity on the ship was either failing completely, or eking out what it could before the end. She wasn't weightless, yet, but things were moving in that direction. Then there was that _damned_ cold. Though confusing, it was already known to her. Flitting her eyes open more fully, she began to take in her surroundings more fully.

Was… was that _snow_?

Ignoring that inconsistency for the moment – possibly a trauma induced hallucination - she recognized the ceiling of Pathfinder's CIC. She recognized the mimetic alloy chairs that sat before the Nav Interface. She recognized the figures in those chairs. She recognized a body across from her, on the opposite end of the room. She even recognized another body, one close by: the only one moving, if slightly, curled as it was into a fetal ball, just as Raven was.

The grey walls of the ship, however, were painted with sooty, black ash.

It was splattered haphazardly over the ceiling and floor, across walls in brazen streaks; even the Nav and the computers were blackened by the boiling, smoking ink-like stain. Ranma and Ryouga were smeared by it on half their bodies, and as Raven reached up to her face, she realized she was, too. Her tongue darted out to taste her upper lip, wiping away a bit of the black color. It had no taste. Like water. She tasted its absence.

_Trespasser_ - her mind slowly realized - _gone_.

He was gone.

She also, agonizingly, realized what she had licked off her lip.

Shuddering, tasting vomit in the back of her mouth, Raven passed out.

* * *

Raven awoke again, forced out of dreamless unconsciousness by an alien sensation, not from within, but from outside: outside her body. Violet eyes wearily forced themselves open, and she reached out to grab a hand that had been touching - cleaning - her face. It was a human hand: a scarred, worn hand, larger than her own. She felt wetness on her face and on the scrap of cloth between her hand and this other one. She found a face; a man's face, and let out a sigh of relief.

Ryouga, the Major, gave her hand a very gentle squeeze before passing her the once-white piece of cloth, returning to his feet and moving on. Rolling onto her side, Raven instinctively wiped away at her brow. Most of it felt semi-clean, but the act helped to ground her back in the here and now: in reality. She was alive (or, at least close enough, it seemed). _They were alive_. The plan - the insane, utterly insane plan - had worked.

Somehow.

Unfortunately, the damp cloth was cold; cold like everything in the room it seemed. Even the floor nearly burned with its chill… but rising to her feet simply wasn't in the cards at the moment. The rag itself felt like it weighed nearly a ton in her numb, tingling arms, and her legs didn't even possess _that_ much strength. In the end, she simply rolled onto her back, staring blankly upwards as her body seemed to wage war upon itself. Chest burning, limbs freezing…

It annoyed her that she was suddenly struck by the memory of those Fish Sticks she had tried to cook back at the Tower.

Closing her eyes, not appreciating the sight of her breath condensing in the frigid air above her, Raven gingerly tried to rub her hands along her arms to garner even a modicum of warmth. She didn't have great circulation at the best of times – not like that living furnace, Starfire – but she was usually able to focus past the cold with meditation and concentration. Now… now she was just frikkin' _cold-_

'_Wait a moment… what __**is**__ that-_'

As her fingers strayed along her arm, she stumbled across something unknown. Something… hard and sharp. _Not skin._ Eyes slowly sliding open again, she turned her gaze to the... addition to her body. Pupils widened at the sight of wires digging into her right arm. Vivid memories of Terra's 'operation' and Slade's vile technology sprang to mind, agonizing hours spent worming and wiggling yards and yards of hair-thin wires from her stone body. For just an instant, panic began to rise up within her… only to fade as realization set in.

This was the machine, the "mother box."

She knew what it was, where it had come from, and, now she knew why she was 'alive', despite the lack of a heartbeat. Frowning, she poked it carefully with an inquisitive digit. It felt... wrong. Not cold, really, or even that hard, but it didn't feel like flesh. She could feel its tendrils inside her muscle, like a phantom pain in a lost limb. The gold on the Apokaliptian device had become a dirty brass color, and the lights flickered with the last, pitiful sparking visages of artificial life. Eons of overuse on the Thanagarian ship keeping Reava alive, and now this... she doubted it would last much longer.

The real question was… what would happen to her when the ancient device finally died? She remembered, quite clearly, that Trespasser had destroyed her heart. If his word hadn't been enough, then the pain in her chest certainly lent him credence. Was that what it had been doing with the last of its power? Repairing the damage to her shattered heart? Or was just keeping her alive the limit of its nearly depleted charge?

Either way… she found she could barely be bothered to care. If the former, then she would be overjoyed later, and possibly even go so far as offer up a genuine smile while they celebrated their victory. If the latter… then this small device, created by one of the greatest evils she knew… would have at least granted her the time to say goodbye…

What more could she truly ask for?

Using the rapidly drying cloth to dab some moisture from the corner of her eyes (purely caused by the cold, or the Oan Ash in her eye, or… anything else external to her person) she swung her gaze around the hold, looking for those people she would most want to say farewell to. Though ultimately disappointed, she was still somewhat relieved to realize that Reava was close by. Ryouga had clearly tried to check her for injury, and Raven could see that the Female Fury was - unlike Trespasser - intact and alive. The pale, tattooed woman was breathing, slowly and steadily, but remained on the floor, staring mutely up at the ceiling. Raven saw the Fury blink, and the woman's eyes met hers with a frown.

"This place..." she said, softly. _Despairingly_. "Oh, Great Darkseid… this place...!"

It was like something in her had broken and died. The Female Fury groaned, painfully, and crushed her eyes shut. Her mouth still moved, muttering too quietly to overhear. _Prayers_, Raven realized. The Female Fury was _praying_.

Raven tore her eyes from the displaced servant of Darkseid, catching Ryouga as he knelt next to another body. This one, Raven recognized as Nabiki. Even from her own position on the floor, Raven could see that the Tendo sister was unconscious. Her lower lip was split open and swollen, and her cheek was bruised purple and red. There was also a smear of blood matting some of her hair to her face, and a splotch where her head had hit the floor. Again, Raven flashed back to her own battle, nearly drowning in an ocean of blood, more symbolic than physical.

Still, Raven could hardly believe it. The wounds themselves were really trivial compared to what so many others had to be suffering, but seeing them on Nabiki - the one person on board that could come close to being a non-combatant - was more jarring than Raven would have expected.

Ryouga was lost in his own world at the moment, paying attention to nothing, and no one else. Rough fingers gently brushed Nabiki's cheek and drew back, as if afraid to cause pain even with a feather-soft gesture. Lowering his head closer, he nearly touched his forehead to hers, but also withdrew from that fleeting contact, afraid that an errant loss of control could cause injury. Instead, he set her back down on the floor as carefully as he could. It was... equally strange to see this other Ryouga, who so freely embraced his fury and darker emotions, show the gentle side Raven knew her own Ryouga possessed.

His left arm, she also noticed, was no longer glowing so lividly to her mind's eye.

He stood up, and his tone was professional... if forced.

"Ranma," he said, turning to the ship's pilot, once again plugged into the Nav. Raven hadn't even noticed him there, amidst the rest of the confusion. "Raven's here. Let's give her a try."

To Raven's surprise, Ranma leaned back in the pilot's chair.

"I noticed," the Saotome heir replied. "But something weird is going on. I… I can't access any of the systems."

"What's happened?" Ryouga asked tension creeping into his voice.

"I don't know for sure, but based on what's left of the Nav, we're dead in the water," Ranma said, getting out of the chair. "Feel free to try and plug in, but it's almost like the system has been locked out or something. Who knows, it might have happened when Trespasser blew? He probably took half the ship's systems with him." He then hazarded another guess. "Or maybe Nabiki did it? She's the only one with Admin privileges for basic systems."

Raven didn't like the sound of that.

A system lockout? It didn't seem like something that Trespasser would have intentionally instated, or Nabiki for that matter, but, then again, there had been so much security hacking going on during their mental battle, that it was probably a miracle that the ship hadn't de-pressurized and ejected them all out into space.

"I really don't like the sound of that," Ryouga stated, crossing his arms over his chest as he tried to think up what to do next. This not being a combat situation, he was already at something of a disadvantage. "We need to identify where we jumped to. There has to be something..."

The pigtailed pilot raised his hands, making quite clear his intention to shrug his shoulders helplessly, when-

"Further inquiries are unnecessary."

As one, everyone able (meaning Ryouga and Ranma) spun about to stare at the source of the voice. Walking through the door leading to the Hold, as calmly as if he were walking for groceries, Cyborg entered the CIC and began to make his way to the main control panel. Not bothering to spare a glance in anyone's direction - not even her own, Raven noted with no small amount of hurt - he continued in a flat monotone.

"I have initiated a full, system wide lockout," Cyborg explained. "Pending the full diagnostic which I am about to run."

"You _what_?" Ranma barked, disbelief obvious in his voice.

"You were warned about this, Cyborg," Ryouga growled, stepping up to the Titan and blocking his path. "I know it had to have been you who did that to Nabiki!" He pointed back at the unconscious ship's operator, dark anger fulminating up and into his features, and not because of the defiance of orders. "What the HELL do you think you're doing, stealing command codes AGAIN?!"

Cyborg stared at him impassively, only to step around him, continuing his way to the pilot's seat. "I did not 'steal' any codes. I merely seized control of all systems after Trespasser broke through the security encryption." Were it anyone else at that moment, Raven would have sworn he gave the acting Major a pointed look. "It was you that compromised ship's security, and permitted a hostile alien force to gain control of Pathfinder."

"W-what?" Ranma asked, his level of belief not rising. "But you were just _working_ for the Guardian!"

Growling darkly, Ryouga stepped back in front of Cyborg and placed a threatening hand on his shoulder. Glancing down at the hand, Cyborg gave no sign of fear… or any other emotion. "I don't care _what_ you think you're doing! You betrayed us, you attacked Nabiki! You're not doing _anything _except lifting the locks on the ship's systems! That's an _order_!"

Cyborg stared back flatly, Raven could not even sense his mind to determine just what was running through it at that instant. Would he attack? Comply? It was impossible to tell.

"You no longer possess the authority to give orders." Rather than do any of the above, the cybernetic Titan chose a third, highly unexpected response. Lifting his electronic gaze to meet Hibiki's, Cyborg followed matter-of-factly. "Acting-Major Hibiki, according to UNETCO regulations, you are relieved of duty. You are psychologically and physically unfit for duty."

"_What_?" Ryouga fired back, echoing Ranma's own incredulous bark. "You can't-"

"It is both within my purview, and my duty to do such," Cyborg countered. "I have already logged the incident, including a detailed psychological and medical breakdown to support my actions, and have initiated hierarchical reorganization protocols as are deemed necessary by the situation."

"Ummm… I'm not sure you can actually do that, Cyborg," Ranma countered. "As the next most senior officer, it falls to me to relieve any one of duty, if need be. That… and you're acting _totally insane_!"

Shaking his head, Cyborg made no other move. "Negative. You are also relieved of duty."

Lifting his free arm, heedless of Ryouga's deadly threat, the display lit up on his arm. This time, when he began to speak, his voice sounded throughout the ship. "Attention all conscious personnel: the following announcement is of the highest priority. Please cease all activity and pay attention, as this announcement is pertinent to all crew."

"What are HELL you _doing_?!" Ryouga asked, his temper obviously growing shorter by the second, the combination of dismissal, both personally and professionally obviously not sitting well with him.

Paying no attention, Cyborg continued uninterrupted.

"The following crew members are now relieved of duty:"

"Acting Major Hibiki Ryouga. Psychologically unfit for duty. Medically unfit for duty."

"Lieutenant Saotome Ranma. Psychologically unfit for duty."

"Sergeant Konatsu. Psychologically unfit for duty."

"Sergeant Kumon Ryu. Psychologically unfit for duty. Medically unfit for duty."

"Acting Sergeant Hibiki Ryouga. Psychologically unfit for duty. Medically unfit for duty."

"Squaddie Mousse. Psychologically unfit for duty."

"Squaddie Kuno Tatewaki. Psychologically unfit for duty. Medically unfit for duty."

"Squaddie Shampoo. Psychologically unfit for duty. Medically unfit for duty."

"Squaddie Kounji Ukyou. Psychologically unfit for duty. Medically unfit for duty."

"Squaddie Koriand'r. Psychologically unfit for duty."

"Squaddie Jinx. Psychologically unfit for duty. Medically unfit for duty."

"Squaddie Raven. Medically unfit for duty."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Ranma actually burst out into laughter. "Did – did you just relieve the _entire_ ship of duty!?"

"Everyone except himself, conveniently. Are you even listening to yourself, Cyborg?" Ryouga spoke quietly, softly; reining in his voice to an icy calm. Raven knew that was **not** a good sign. "This is insane. You're obviously as mentally unfit as everyone else. You aren't in a position to relieve anyone of duty. My fucking dick ranks higher than you!"

Cyborg tilted his head to the side, studying the … no longer acting major (was that it?)... as if he were a particularly uninteresting shade of wall paint.

"You are incorrect," he replied. "The sections of my brain afflicted by psionic contamination have been identified and quarantined, as per my emergency safety protocols. As there are no sections of the UNETCO military code which rule on the possible contamination of minds augmented by cybernetics, such as my own, or for the dismissal of inorganic assets due to psionic tampering, by all regulations and stipulations, I am still fit for duty. The _only one_ fit for duty."

"And as such," Cyborg continued, sounding for all the world as if he were delivering a lecture on physics, "I am forced to assume command of this mission. According to UNETCO regulations, only an accredited psychologist, with the proper security clearance, is authorized to reinstate you to mission readiness."

From across the room, the Fury, Reava, actually let out a derisive hiss of laughter of her own despite the pained expression on her face.

"Isn't this... splendid?" she asked, laughing happily. "How entertaining!" She grimaced but still drew a fierce smile across her lips. "We survive certain death in one universe, only to witness _this_ farce in another? Tell me, 'Soundwave', does your proclamation mean what I think it does?"

Humorlessly, Cyborg replied in the affirmative. "You are correct. I do not possess the authority to reinstate members of the crew to duty, even if a marked improvement in mental condition should occur." With that, he turned back to Ryouga. "I must now ask that you remove your hand from my person. Continuing to act in a hostile manner and threatening the life of a UNETCO ranking operative is a punishable offense."

Hibiki's eyes narrowed, and his hand squeezed down just a little on Cyborg's shoulder, though to no visible affect. "Is that a _threat_?"

"Major! Don't!" It was bizarre, surreal, hearing what sounded like Major Hibiki shouting at himself, but the confusion lasted only a second. The actual source of the voice, coming from the same door which Cyborg had entered only moments ago, belonged to the young Sergeant Hibiki. Unable to even walk on his own, Ryouga was being half carried by Starfire. Right behind them was Kuno, as well and Mousse and Ryu. At the very edge of the pack, Jinx could just barely be made out, bracing herself against the frame of the door

Both Ranma and Ryouga (the elder) spun around to stare, or rather glare at the newcomer.

Frowning grimly, the younger Ryouga's eyes began to slide down towards her… and not even sure why, Raven snapped her eyes closed. She had no idea what he could be thinking, either, at the moment, but she was secretly worried that she might need to dredge up some hidden strength, of a second wind, sooner than she could have possibly imagined, the way things were going. Her tentative squad leader's voice still sounded out clearly.

"I know what you're thinking," he admitted, bitterly. "But don't. We've all been relieved of duty."

"You're not being _funny_, Sergeant," the elder Hibiki was beginning to radiate a murderous aura, hazy with the threat of imminent violence. "Jokes should be funny, and I'm not laughing."

"No," Ryouga replied, his voice weary and strained. She could almost see him shaking his head in her mind's eyes, in that way he so often did. "But with all due respect, sir, you are aware that half of the ship's systems are being routed through Cy at the moment, right? If you destroy him, we'll all be dead within an hour."

Raven's eyes nearly snapped open at that, but she kept them carefully closed. Yes, she remembered Cyborg mentioning, several times over the past few days, just how many systems he was being forced to take control of as Trespasser continued making wild modifications to the EDC.

"Besides," the younger Ryouga added, "He's only doing what you would do in his place. He's following his orders _perfectly_… because he doesn't have any choice. And you need to think that over really carefully, because we all know what he'll be forced to do if a compromised or hostile force tries to take possession of the ship, right?"

Instantly, a hush fell across the room.

"Icarus," the Elder Ryouga breathed.

"That is correct," Cyborg supplied. The sound of heavy metal footprints sounded out across the deck plates, and it was not accompanied by any kind of detonation, so it quickly became obvious that Cyborg was on the move once more, uniquely safe from any and all attack. "UNETCO regulations concerning initiation of the Icarus protocol are not open to interpretation. If a hostile force attempts to seize control of the ship, I will have no choice but to initiate a judicious self-destruct."

Breaths were sucked in across the room, and more than a few shocked gasps were uttered. In her mind's eye, auras began to manifest as people drew closer. Even as weak as she was, she was entranced by the varying, sweeping colors which represented her friends and comrades. It also disheartened her, that so many of them looked so very weak, Ryouga, her Ryouga, one of the weakest of all.

"You shouldn't even have access to those systems! You only have them _at all _by contravening orders and usurping security permissions!"

"I have also submitted verification of my own conduct in my pending security reports, and am prepared to defend my actions in that regard. Furthermore," Cyborg added, with no trace of irony, "I was only able to gain access to these systems due to clear negligence among the command staff."

"Oh, that's a great way to shift blame!" Ryouga sneered. "I only did it because I could get away with it?! That's how you defend yourself?"

"Look! Guys!" the young Hibiki spoke up, pleading. "I know that everyone is furious! Hell, _I_ am too! The _last_ thing on my mind now is some god damned pissing contest to see who gets to steer the broken ship… not when… when-"

Raven could feel his eyes on her, could hear the pain creeping into his voice.

"But this is _Cyborg_ we're talking about here! He might be in some kind of crazy robot mode, but it's still _him_! If he wanted…"

"Yeah, we should just trust him," the same voice, angrier, snapped back. "Because while we're out of that dimension, we should put our stock in the one person who consciously _chose_ to lose his mind. After he damn near killed Ryu on that Thanagarian ship! After he willingly sided with Trespasser!" And here, the voice grew darker. "After what he did to _Nabiki_? Hell, what he's doing _right now_?"

"Actually, we were kinda the ones that ordered him to lose his mind... remember?" Ranma chimed in. "Since we both suspected Trespasser was messing with our heads?" It was obvious that his input was not appreciated, judging by the angry grunt from the no longer acting Major.

"In that case, Cyborg. Why don't you switch back to normal?"

"Negative."

"And we're supposed to just trust him like this?"

"Yeah, we are," Ryouga stated, matter-of-factly. "We're going to trust him the same way that you're going to trust _Ukyou_, despite her trying to kill everyone a minute ago. No matter how crazy they might act, we _know_ our friends, and we know that, no matter what, they'll always come back to us in the end."

The dark Titan felt heat building up behind her cheeks, and could sense tears threatening to spill from her eyes. It had been a gentle mercy of him to mention Ukyou's name, but she knew whose name had truly been in his mind when he had made his comparison. The name of the _friend_ and _comrade_ who had betrayed them on Azarath. All of them.

"Consider the alternative." This time, it was Ryu that spoke. Despite the gravity of the situation, his voice held a note of levity in it. "It's not like we can blow the guy up, anyway, so we might as well go with it, right? Hell, if I'm relieved of duty, can I fall flat on my face and go to sleep? I _really_ kind of want to."

Ranma chuckled at that, but didn't say whether he agreed or not.

"This is...! This is...!" Ryouga's voice grew calm. Not defeated, but resigned. The building anger Raven had felt ebbed away - it didn't disappear, but it receded. "This is _ridiculous_... but you know what? You want command, Cyborg? You go ahead. Knock yourself out playing Captain."

"Your continued insistence of accusing a non-emotional being of possessing 'desires' is only reinforcing perceptions of your unstable mental state," Cyborg replied, not even glancing back over his shoulder. "As has been previously stated, given the current situation, I have no choice but to assume command. Protocol must be followed."

Raven saw the officer, relieved of command, flex and curl the fingers of his right hand. Then, mercifully, they relaxed. The burning blanket of anger that had cocooned around the Hibiki's shoulders dissipated, leaving only a few lingering traces of depression, like green flurries melting away into water on contact.

"So, we're all relieved of duty. Then, the rest of you," the acting major quickly added, with no small degree of sarcasm. "If you please and only if you want, I... _we _should make a count of heads and finish triage on the wounded. It'll tide us over until Cyborg here decides to unilaterally blow us to atoms."

"Current mission priority is to return to Earth," Cyborg's voice corrected him. "Detonation of the ship is contrary to stated mission parameters."

"Heh, so that's what it sounds like when a computer tells a joke?" Ranma muttered in a low voice, possibly not wanting to upset the acting major further.

"As stated," the monotone Titan explained. "I will perform a full system diagnostic. Pending those results, I will then attempt to send a distress signal, if communication is possible. Once those steps are completed, I will then attempt repairs as necessary."

Raven heard another low growl, though less intense this time, followed by the sound of someone picking something up. "You do that. Ranma. I've got Nabiki. You may as well start rounding up the wounded. We need to determine what, if any, provisions survived the fighting."

A pause. "Yeah. Heaven help us if the recyclers are down. Or the heat sink."

"Navigation systems are the most critically impaired," Cyborg's voice interrupted. "As I have stated, I will see to ship's repairs."

"Not like we were gettin' anything done on our own there anyway," the pigtailed one reasoned, and a door swished open. "Yer welcome to hotwire things if ya can, Squaddie-commander-and-crew. Rae, we'll see ya again in a bit. Oh hey, former-sergeant Kumon, you coming?"

"If one of you drags me along," Ryu replied, not sounding like he should be on his feet. Not that any of them were in fit and fighting form anymore. Raven nearly smiled at that; it wasn't too often that these Nerima types actually admitted weakness. Still, she couldn't help but turn her thoughts back to her teammate, Cyborg. She had heard of an 'army of one' before, but she wasn't sure she had heard of a 'spaceship crew of one' before. It was, honestly, just a bit ridiculous.

On the other hand, though, the situation, such as it was, had been diffused. It was just such a tremendous relief that everything had been settled without devolving into violence. The whole affair had been emotionally exhausting…

Not to mention physically…

And her eyes were already closed, anyway…

Within a matter of moments, consciousness fled from her once again.

* * *

Ryouga watched with eyes both weary and wary, as the Major finally left the command center, Ranma and Ryu trailing after him. His gaze lingered on the door for several long seconds, the younger martial artist not quite trusting the acting Major to _not_come bursting back in a second later, plasma rifle blazing away. Something about how the situation had unfolded had chilled him to his soul.

"Does something trouble you, Ryouga?" Starfire whispered into his ear. Still holding the bulk of his weight, and even pressing a heavy compress into the bleeding hole in his shoulder, the Tamaranian gazed down into his eyes, a world of compassion visible in her own green hued eyes.

Not sure whether to nod, or shake his head, he did neither, and simply sighed. "It was just… hard… seeing the Lieutenant act like that. I swear that, if I hadn't said anything, he was actually going to kill Cyborg." His neutral glance fell into a frown. It was a shallow frown, to be sure, though. He had no doubt that at any other time he would be filled to bursting with emotion, but he was still feeling so damn empty. Despite that, though, it said something, that he would still feel this much then.

"And over _what_?" he spat, "Over who gets to _give orders_?"

Starfire's gaze slipped down, but she said nothing.

His own gazed fell to the floor, his body growing more weary by the moment. "It's like he's addicted to his authority."

"It is hard to say what the dimensional corruption may have done to him," Starfire replied in a neutral tone. "I do not think you need to worry about the acting Major. As always, he will handle things his own way."

He shook his head. "The only problem is, we aren't in that dimension anymore." A shuddering intake of breath. "Besides… it's not him that I'm worried about. It's me."

"What do you mean?" Starfire asked, unsure. "I do not believe I understand."

"Star… me and him… we're pretty much the same guy. If that's how he starts acting after being in command for a few months… then who's to say that I won't end up exactly the same?" He sneered at the thought, the thought of him barking and snapping at his dearest friends to cow them into submission. After all, just how else _could _he command a team? He wasn't inspiring or talented, like Robin. He wasn't even a shameless ladies man like Ranma, able to twist the girls under his command around his finger. What else did he have besides fear and intimidation to lead with? The other-him should have been happy to be relieved of the burden of command.

"If that's what it takes to be a leader… then I want nothing to do with it."

A hoarse chortle from not terribly far away drew his attention. Shifting his gaze back towards the engine room, he spotted Jinx, still present and slumped against the wall, resting silently on the floor. It hurt him, nearly physically, to look at the slight sorceress. Her face was swollen and puffy, her broken nose hidden beneath a bunched handful of gauze. Even more jarring, was the blackened remnants of ash and soot in her savagely curtailed hair. At the moment, Jinx's head was pressed back against indestructible metal, crushing her ravaged hair half flat.

Once she had his attention, she gestured to him, lifting her hand and pointing with a single finger.

"I may just hold you to that… Sarge…"

Rolling her eyes, Starfire gave him a gentle jostle. "You need not fear on that score. You are not at all like your double in that regard."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well," Starfire began to explain, grin creeping onto her lips. "You are far too much the shiftless layabout to ever become so zealous in your duties. Why, I have never met a leader who strived so hard to pass on that mantle to another."

"Oh, ha ha. Remind me to order Jinx to laugh at that joke when I'm in charge again."

"Done and done, sir!" Jinx barked, firing off a mock salute. "An order from Sergeant Shiftless-Layabout is like an order from the President himself!"

Shaking his head, the ghost of amusement passing over his heart, he began to shuffle about. Even as he did, his leg – the one that Ukyou had lanced with her emerald energy, pinning him to the floor - failed him, forcing Starfire to increase her grip to hold him upright. Oddly, it wasn't even the physical weakness that assailed him now (though, by _God _was he hurting), but rather, the full gravity of reality settling in with grim finality.

There was something he had been putting off, had been _forced_to ignore in favor of restoring sanity to the crew before ultimately fatal mistakes could be made in blind anger. Even what little he had managed had required all of his will, a strong veneer thinner and more delicate than the shell of an egg. But without imminent doom looming over them, that thin shell crumbled away, laying bare what few fragments of his emptied heart remained.

His eyes sought her out instinctively, and he started to lean Starfire in the proper direction.

Raven… lying as still as death in the middle of the floor. The young woman had been artfully arranged, and her face even cleaned, but he knew the truth. He wondered if he was the only one that knew? Considering how everyone was acting, so concerned over petty issues of ego and pride, it seemed unlikely.

Did anyone else know that Raven's heart had stopped beating, a seeming eternity ago? How _could_ they know? Would they have said anything if they did? Ranma seemed to be focusing all of his attention on the ship, and Hibiki seemed to only have eyes for Nabiki, despite the fact she was basically unharmed from the fighting. How much attention does it take to dab someone's face a few times before moving on? Or worse, _did _they know? Did they know that Raven had died, but hadn't even cared enough to tell anyone else? Didn't her friends deserve to know?

"Oh, you wish to see Raven?" Starfire inquired, guessing his intent fairly easily.

Nodding shallowly, he allowed the Tamaranian to all but carry him across the room and set him down before the dark Titan. Reaching out, he touched a pair of fingers gently to Raven's wrist, hoping that, just maybe, he had imagined it all. Perhaps it had just been a trick of his memory that had snapped him awake, that had set him to fighting again?

His shoulders hitched and he nearly crumpled as he confirmed his darkest fear. Starfire stared at him oddly, not yet understanding the truth.

"S-Starfire," he struggled to say her name. He then glanced over his shoulder. "Jinx… There's – there's something you both need to know."

"Ugh, if it's about how damn _perky _Raven's boobs are, don't bother, I already know."

"_Jinx_!"

"_What_!? She's lying on her back and they're just – they're just _there_! I can't _not_ notice them_!_"

"Damnit, Jinx! Raven is _dead_!"

The room was instantly cast into silence. Well, near silence, as the sound of Cyborg steadily working away, and the sound of their Apokaliptian prisoner shifting up to watch them more fully were nearly deafening at the moment.

"I… believe you are mistaken, friend Ryouga," Starfire began tentatively. "I do believe that I saw Raven looking at us when we came in."

Rolling her eyes, Jinx leaned back against the wall. "Umm, yeah. I'm pretty sure I saw her breathing just a minute ago."

Picking up Raven's hand… it was still so warm… he pressed it to his cheek, crushing his eyes closed out of fear of the tears that threatened to spill out. It was just as he'd predicted it. Raven had destroyed Trespasser - apparently down to his last atom - but what did that matter when the alien bastard had destroyed her heart?

The sound of Reava's hacking slowly morphed into snickering laughter, eliciting startled gasps from both Starfire and Jinx. It seemed that the reality of the situation was finally settling in for them as well. Opening his eyes again, he absently reached down and brushed an errant strand of hair from Raven's perfect face. Looking to his side, he nodded to Starfire.

The Tamaranian had such a queer expression on her face; he couldn't decipher it at all, despite his familiarity with her. It might have been an alien thing; as well as he knew her, there were still customs of her world he knew nothing about. He decided not to press her.

"Do… you think we should move her?" he asked. "Or-or cover her or something?"

Starfire started at his question, her gaze shifting back and forth from Raven to himself several times, before she finally shook her head frantically. Instead, she rose to her feet and took a step back. "I – no, no. I believe that it is only right that you should be granted the time to say… um… to speak last words to Raven?"

She turned to Jinx, behind them. "Do you not agree, Jinx?"

Unfortunately, the slender sorceress was unable to answer. Her face buried completely in her hands, Jinx's shoulders were hitching uncontrollably, the sound of aborted sobs spilling from between her fingers. Ryouga stared uncertainly. That was… good… he supposed. Honestly, as much as he loved the girl, he hadn't really expected her to get quite _that_emotional over Raven's passing, or at least to not put on such a public display about it.

Still, he did appreciate the sentiment, though it felt a bit selfish to steal a moment like this, when Starfire and Cyborg were the ones that had known Raven for the longest. Leaning forward, he gently ran his hand down the fallen angel's cheek… still so warm. Was it possible that she had been clinging to life… only to pass while they argued over trivial concerns?

"I'm so sorry, Raven," he whispered, just for her. "I let you down, in… in so many ways. There was so much that I wanted to say, but never had the courage to…"

So much wasted time… so many lost opportunities. Why hadn't he tried to take control of his life, rather than just let is spiral out of control as it had? Content to blame others for his problems and to hide behind comforting lies, rather than do what he should have from the start? Why was it that only now, when he could barely even feel any emotions at all, that he was finally able to see just how foolishly he had been acting?

"Then indecision brings its own delays,  
And days are lost… lamenting o'er lost days…"

"Are you in earnest?" A whispered voice, not his own, replied, "Seize this very minute."

Ryouga's eyes snapped open, a shock running through his entire body. The sensation of a hand squeezing his own nearly broke his spirit, but it was the _voice _that truly finished him. Looking up with trembling eyes, not even trusting himself to hold her hand more tightly, he found Raven's eyes… open and staring back at him, soft and inviting with warmth and mirth.

"What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;  
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."

Ryouga's mouth fell open in shock, even as Raven's sweet lips twisted into an impish smile. "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ryouga? Really?" she inquired cheekily. "I mean, yes, those first lines are a bit negative, but on the whole, that passage is actually quite inspiring."

"I- I- I-" With his usual alacrity for the spoken word, it was no surprise when words failed him. It did not help when, behind his back, the sound of scarcely contained giggling started to emanate. Spinning around to glare, he could hardly even think what to do. The sight of both Jinx and Starfire, both covering their mouths, even as their shoulders shook- Wait just a second! Jinx hadn't been crying before, she'd been laughing!

"J-just why the heck are you two laughing?"

Managing to gain control of herself first – not a fair race, as Jinx only collapsed further into her fit of laughter with Ryouga's fiery annoyance – Starfire quickly waved her hand through the air to dull his ire.

"I apologize, friend Ryouga. It is just… that while you were lamenting her death… Raven happened to open her eyes." The Tamaranian twiddled her fingers. "I believe she had been merely sleeping, and that you startled her awake when you shouted at Jinx."

"Heh, serves ya right for bein' a jerk," the aforementioned Jinx cackled.

"And why didn't you say anything?" he asked, rightfully confused, conflicting emotions of joy and anger managing to overcome his emotional malaise.

Starfire shrugged sheepishly. "Raven quickly signaled for us to… um… '_zip it_', I believe the term is. She then feigned to sleep while you were not paying attention."

Spinning around, he pinned Raven with an accusing gaze. "Wh – but why would you do that?"

Shrugging helplessly, Raven offered up a tiny smirk. "I _did _warn you… that I would get back at you for the Amazon village. If you recall?"

Ryouga paused, stunned into silence.

"Heh…" Only for silence to quickly give way to full blown laughter in a matter of moments. Only for that laughter to quickly dissolve into a wicked cough and nearly cause the martial artist to black out. Shaking his head weakly, he stared at Raven's smiling face in wonder.

"You know, I think you really _are _a demon. Talk about disproportionate revenge."

Smiling lips quickly pursed into a full lipped pout, and she gently patted the side of his face with an anemic slap. "Now _that_is not funny."

The sound of laughter from all around him only increased, with Jinx collapsing to her side. "P-please stop! _Ow_, my throat – _Oh_, my ribs – _Ah_, my kidney! I think I'm dying…"

"How fucking sickening," one voice dissented. "All of you. What a pathetic display."

Rolling his eyes, Ryouga turned his eyes to one of the other laughing females present. Not up to glaring, he simply raised an eyebrow towards Reava. "And I suppose the reason that you were laughing it up was because you knew the entire time?"

The Female Fury, pale as ever, sneered mockingly at them. "The sight of your suffering at the thought of _that one's _death was the first bit of real amusement I've had in Darkseid-knows how many centuries. Weeping and moaning and gnashing your teeth like that..." She huffed and her upper lip curled, as if smelling something foul.

"Yeah, yeah, story of my life. Are you sure you aren't related to Ranma? My suffering seems to be a hobby of his, too." Sighing weakly, unable to get worked up at the evil alien's evil amusements, he turned back to Raven, something still confusing him. "But… but what about your heart? I mean, _right now_, you don't have a pulse. And I… I _felt _it earlier… I felt that your heart was stopped."

He trailed off uncertainly, gently wrapping his other hand around Raven's delicate fingers. True, he was curious, but there was something else he wanted to say, needed to say, before his courage fled again. Leaning forward, he interrupted her before she could answer his question. Lowering his voice, hoping for a more private discussion, he whispered into her ear.

"I… I heard you call out to me," he said, voice low. "You saved my life, Raven, pulled me back from the brink when I was fighting Ukyou."

Lifting her free hand, she gently wrapped it around the back of his neck and pulled him closer. Shaking her head slightly, she smiled, just for him.

"No, you're wrong," she whispered in return, baffling him. "It was _you_ that saved me. I heard _your _voice. It reached me, even in the depths of my astral battle with Trespasser. You – you gave me my reason to keep fighting, even when I knew that we were beaten."

A twinge of embarrassment filled him, as he felt a tear roll down his cheek. "I don't know what to say... I - I guess that makes us even." He offered up a shy grin. "Again."

She nodded weakly. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

Raven then drew her hand forward from his neck, only to brush it along his cheek. A pained look blossomed on her face, mirroring the sharp sting her touch elicited when it touched the deep gash that Ukyou's deadly light had cut into his cheek. Her hand lowered to his shoulder and then to his collarbone, where a matching slash could be seen, a flash of white within crusted red revealing just how deeply he had been cut and how his body had already closed off the wound and began to scab it over. Hissing at the sight, Raven dipped her head forward, pressing her forehead to his.

"Oh, Ryouga… why do you always have to go so far?" It didn't take her long to notice his right index finger, either, sitting on an odd angle from the rest of his healthy digits. The price of his hubris, pure and simple, that wound. "I hate to see you hurt like this. I wish you could be more careful."

Grinning through the pain, he shrugged. "Actually, this _was_ me being careful… Besides, you should see the other guy." More seriously, he touched his fingers to her pale wrist again. "Still warm. I should have _known_ something was strange. But – but you still don't have a pulse! I **know** you don't have a pulse. Not that I'm complaining, but, well, why are you still alive?"

"Here," she said. "Look."

Regretfully pulling her hand from his, the dark Titan rolled up her sleeve, revealing a… Ryouga didn't even know what it was, except that it looked kind of like a mix between a circuit board and a golden chocolate bar. That, and the tendrils worming into her flesh instantly reminded him of something _else_entirely. Recoiling, he instantly reached forward to start removing it, when-

When Raven's soft hand intercepted his own calloused one, stopping him cold. "You can't remove it, Ryouga. I – I think that it is all that is keeping me alive…"

This time, it was not laughter that filled the room, but gasps of shock. Instantly, Starfire was at their side once more, and Jinx was actually beginning to crawl over as well.

"Wait! What?" the sorceress asked, sounding honestly concerned. "You mean Ryouga wasn't just _wrong _about the whole 'no heartbeat' thing?"

"What do you mean 'it is keeping you alive'?" Starfire asked, now studying the alien device with rapt attention. It did not take a genius to note that the lights on the device were extremely dull and blinking about very slowly. It was not a heartening sign.

Sighing, Raven looked down at the device herself, touching it errantly with the tips of her fingers. "It's a Mother Box. Reava's Mother Box, actually."

Instantly, recognition shone in the Tamaranian's eyes. "A mother box? Ah, yes! I have heard of this device! It is an incredibly advanced technology originating on… on Apokolips. It makes sense that Reava would possess one." Her mouth suddenly shaped into a tiny 'o' of understanding. "Then _that _must be how she survived all of these years, and resisted the corruption which consumed the rest of the Thanagarian ship!"

Everyone turned to stare at Reava, but the Fury simply glared at them before turning away with an indignant huff. Despite being vocally disgusted by the sentimentality of those around her, she had yet to either leave or do more than keep standing. One of her arms leaned heavily against the wall for support. It seemed the Fury was intent to spend as much energy on being repulsed by her captors as she was at keeping her dignity by not falling back to the floor.

"That's it exactly," Raven confirmed for the others, since the Fury refused to reply. "And now it's doing the same for me. I just don't know what will happen when its power finally runs out. Trespasser damaged my heart, somehow, and-"

"Raven's current medical status: Ascending aorta – 87% restoration, Thoracic aorta – 91% restoration, Venea cavae – 95% restoration, Aortic annulus, 89% restoration." Spinning around in his chair, Cyborg spent a moment to look their way. Gesturing to Raven, he continued his explanation. "While the Mother Box has not fully regenerated the damage, Raven is capable of surviving unassisted... pending the resuscitation of her heart."

Ryouga took in all of that information, and drew the most logical conclusion he was capable of at the moment. "Wait a second. That means that you _knew_ that Raven was alive _too_, and you _didn't tell me_?"

Cyborg spun back around, going back to work on the computer system. "You did not inquire as to her medical status. I recommend initiation of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, followed by defibrillation. There is a defibrillator located in the medical kit stored next to the control panel."

"Man, forget Hibiki, as of now I'm **first **in line to scrap you when we get back home, Cyborg," Ryouga grumbled, only half meaning the threat. Why was it that no one felt like telling him anything these days? Sighing wearily, he nodded to Starfire. "Can you get the heart thingy, Star?"

The Tamaranian nodded, still smiling pleasantly. "Of course, Ryouga. It is most heartening to hear that our friend is not in danger."

A loud groan settled across the room.

Grumbling, Raven turned to Reava. "So is that why my chest feels like there is a blender running inside it? I would have thought that a people as advanced as yours could make the healing process painless."

Reava snorted in disdain.

"Painless?!" she scoffed, and Raven wasn't sure if she was shocked by the suggestion or just struck dumb by it. "Painless, she says? All that infernal power, all that hellfire in your veins… and you **still** think and act and feel like any other pathetic mortal!"

She took a moment to stand tall, chin up, as she explained, "Of _course_ we could make the regeneration process painless! If this were a Mother Box of New Genesis design, it would coddle you like a mewling infant. However, this mother box is from _Apokalips_, and in his wisdom, Lord Darkseid has decreed that such weaknesses will not be tolerated, much less encouraged! Suffering is a form of medicine, too."

"Of _course_," Raven groused. She then turned her attention back to Ryouga. Arching an eyebrow, she stared at him pointedly. "And, actually, I'm not quite up for the idea of being electrocuted. I don't suppose there is another option for restarting my heart?"

It took him a second to catch on to her meaning. Almost by instinct, he lifted his hand over her chest, only to freeze in place.

"Heh heh heh, just what are ya planning there, Hibiki? Gonna try a little _heart massage_to get her going?" Jinx's voice was impossibly amused, but Ryouga refused to turn around to glare at her.

Instead, he shook his head. "I... don't think that would work, Raven. I'm not sure I could match your ki closely enough to restart your heart without hurting you in the process." His hand awkwardly over her chest, fingers half curled, as he noted another... _sizeable_... obstruction to the proposed operation. Glancing over his shoulder, he gave a wicked smirk. "Besides, it would be more difficult for me to actually reach the chakra points on you, than it would be on someone like, oh, say... Jinx?"

Ryouga didn't even register the thrown, armored boot that bounced off the back of his head.

On the other hand, Raven took a few seconds to catch on, her eyes shifting down to where his hand was hovering mere inches over her ...chest... Instantly, a light blush settled on her cheeks, but her gaze matched his and didn't waver.

"I'm not stopping you," she whispered, her voice low enough so that only he could hear her, something for which he was quite grateful. Of course, he knew it had to be because the alternative was being electrocuted... but the way she said the words set his own face to burning in turn.

For a moment, he couldn't do anything but stutter, trying to find any response at all. _She_ was teasing him, as impossible as it seemed... it almost sounded like she was _flirting_with him. Surely it had to say something about just what kind of insane people they were, to be flirting while right on the doorstep of death, but that was just their lives, he supposed. And maybe, just maybe, it was time for him to finally be the one to make a move?

Smiling timidly, he slid his arm beneath her shoulders and lifted her up from the floor, bringing her that much closer. The dark Titan was obviously caught off guard by the sudden move, her eyes going slightly wide. Shaking his head, he chuckled lightly.

"Actually, I think there might be another way to get your heart going." Another chuckle. "Besides, now that I think of it, we aren't _completely_ even yet. After all, there is _one thing_that you gave to me in Azarath that I haven't paid you back for."

Instantly, confusion, guilt and fear bloomed on the pale Titan's face. He could feel the muscles in her body tense, could sense her intent to begin pushing him away. "Wha-"

"This," he replied, his smile only widening. And then he leaned in, pressing his lips to hers as tenderly as he could. Eyes widened again, the shock of the far more pleasant variety this time, but all too soon, they slid closed completely as Raven lost herself in the intimacy. Lips parted and she joined him in deepening the kiss, her arms tightening around his neck.

His attention consumed completely, he did not even notice the reactions of the two women behind him. Jinx's eyes shot wide open and she clasped her hands to her chest. An excited squeal actually broke the silence, though the sorceress tried to muffle it. Starfire, for her part, smiled widely... only for the smile to fade a moment later, an odd light reflecting in her eyes. Without a word, the Tamaranian glided from the room so silently that not a soul noticed.

Finally, though, after a blissful eternity which passed in the briefest of moments, he pulled back, breathless. Raven pressed a hand to her chest, drawing in breath greedily as well. Her eyes grew wide once more, and she actually let out a small laugh.

"I... _wow... _I-I think that actually _worked_! I can feel my heart beating."

Behind them, Jinx let out a low whistle. "That must have been some kind of kiss...? Wow, I think I nearly cheered right there."

His cheeks burning hotly now, Ryouga bore with the flush of embarrassment over having an audience for such an intimate moment, but managed to soldier on. Chuckling weakly, he pulled Raven closer to his chest. "I'll be honest, I didn't think that would actually work..."

"Lord Darkseid _deliver me_ from this torment!"

Instantly, everyone turned to stare at the irate Fury. Throwing her hands into the air, the Apokaliptian warrior made a retching sound. "I have witnessed horrors that would blacken the souls of gods, I have committed atrocities that would make demons weep... but _this_ is the first time that I have truly felt ill to my stomach. And I have _eaten the dead_, so know that I have a strong stomach."

Gesturing sharply to Raven, she sneered. "Don't be so stupidly sentimental. Of course it was the _Mother Box_that restored her heart to beating. It was just waiting until it was safe to do so."

"Pfft, whatever!" Jinx barked back, grinning wryly. "That there was some storybook awesomeness right there. I am _so _sketching that when we get home!"

"Jinx, _please_do not draw that," Ryouga pleaded, trying not to smile, despite the ridiculousness of the situation. "Also, can you take Reava back to the hold? I'm in no condition to do anything if she were to go hostile at the moment."

Both the sorceress and the alien rolled their eyes, seeing through his ruse in an instant. Shrugging, Jinx pushed herself to her feet with no small amount of effort, then nodded. "Fine, fine. We get ya; we'll give you two a little privacy. I've seen all the juicy stuff anyway." Looking over her shoulder, she muttered, "C'mon Star, let's- Huh? Starfire?"

Looking around, Jinx shrugged helplessly. "Huh, that's weird. Guess she already left. Anyway, come on, alien lady. Let's clear out."

Rising to her feet, the Fury turned up her nose. "Gladly! Anything to be away from this sickening scene. Besides, there is no point in killing any of you yet. At least not until _the robot _here repairs the ship."

Without another word, both ladies left the room, Jinx clasping her hand tightly around Reava's elbow as they met, to at least give the impression of keeping her 'under control'. The sorceress could not, however, stop herself from firing one last teasing glance over her shoulder before they finally exited the room and the door closed behind them.

Raven, her eyes still lowered and cheeks still burning, let out a quiet sigh of relief. Smiling, he pressed his forehead to hers, enjoying the sensation of warmth and of her silken skin. Not pulling away, Raven pulled her arms more tightly around his neck.

"I... this is... nice," Raven admitted. Her smile faltered for a moment. "But was it you, or was it what I did to you?"

Ryouga started... only to shrug. "Just... just for now, let's not worry about that, okay?"

Bringing her hand forward to cup his cheek, she nodded, her brow rubbing against his. "Alright. Just this once."

Silence reigned for a comfortable moment, only to be broken by a weak cough from Ryouga. Concern filling her eyes, Raven pressed her hand more forcefully to his cheek. "We know that I'm alright, Ryouga... but how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine – fine," he replied quickly. A moment later, his vision going blurry, he let out a weak chuckle. "No, I'm just kidding you. It feels like I'm dying."

Nodding, Raven rose up to a sitting position, only to shift their positions, forcing him to lay back into her lap. Not strong enough to resist, not that he would if he was, he smiled as she gently brushed the overly long hair from his face. When was the last time he'd gotten a haircut? He'd purposefully let it continue to grow since he'd gotten here, trying to maintain as different an appearance from his close cut doppelganger as possible, for many reasons... but it was starting to get a bit silly, now that he thought about it.

Resting her hand on his chest, a blue glow encompassing it, he felt the pain begin to flow out of him. Instantly, his hand rose up and he tried to push it away. "Raven, you can't, not when you're hurt-"

She shook her head, holding her hand in place. "The Mother Box isn't dead yet. It isn't just a machine. It's alive in its own way. As long as it has power left, it will sustain me... and as long as I have strength, I will sustain you. Now... please rest. It's my turn to be strong for you."

"Why does," he replied, his voice growing slurred with exhaustion, "...it always seem to be your turn?"

"I'm just lucky like that, I suppose."

It had, Ryouga reflected in an oddly amused manner, been a good day to die. But it was quickly turning into a better day to live.

And, for the first time in what felt like weeks, it seemed like he might survive to see it.

It was a good thought to have as he let himself drift into sweet, dreamless sleep.

* * *

The sharp, unpleasant tang of ammonia snapped Konatsu out of his nightmare.

The ninja turned soldier's head throbbed unmercifully and his hand shot up and around behind his ear, even before he could see. There was something thick there - gauze, he realized - tangled up within his hair. He felt the symptoms and realized he must have suffered some sort of wound. His throat burned and he had difficulty breathing. The world was watery and indistinct, but he saw a humanoid shape nearby. Muted words struggled to be processed by his ears, reverberating like sounds from a distant, distorted radio.

It was during this slow process of acclimation that memory filled in the void, attempting to reason where he was and how he had come to be there. The kunoichi couldn't remember much of the last few days, but the previous handful of hours was a stark contrast, tinted and tainted as it was by the high of battle and the surge of adrenalin. He remembered being tormented by... Aiuchi... by the man he had killed. The first life he had ever taken. His sisters had hired him out to investigate Aiuchi. To gather evidence to blackmail him. Then... then he had killed Nii, and…

_'He's dead...'_Konatsu told himself.

Those memories... of the bad times before meeting Ukyou-sama...

He had wanted to put them behind him. He wanted to forget the things he had done as a kunoichi. He hated what he had been forced to do. He hated what he had _chosen_ to do. It was his fault. He had killed Nii surely as Aiuchi had. It was his hesitation, his dutiful diligence in gathering blackmail material instead of saving an innocent life... he hesitated, and she died, and then in a rage, he took a man's life. His sisters and his step-mother had been furious at the waste. Konatsu hated it. He hated what he had done. It wasn't him. Everything about who he had been before meeting Ukyou-sama filled him with regret.

But he wasn't that person anymore.

No phantoms of the past returned to haunt him; to admonish him; to mock him. Instead, his mind dredged up memories of fighting Shampoo, of turning on his friends, of giving into his selfishness and fear and frustration and anger. He didn't need ghosts of the past to lash out at him. His own actions were as damning now as they had been when he was young and still a virtual slave to his step-sisters.

Hands cupped his eyes, veiling him in darkness. Not even caring who else could see, Konatsu cried. It was not the movie perfect tears or dignified waterfall down the cheeks that gave grief and shame a veneer of nobility. He sobbed into his hands, his breathing still rough and difficult. His head felt clear, freed, released from a prison of fear and anger... but that clarity made it crushingly clear that he had acted terribly and done terrible things to those he had learned to love and respect. People who he hoped had learned to respect him.

"Shampoo," he said, and pulled his hands away to help prop himself up off the floor. "Shampoo?"

As bad as he felt, he had to see her. Not just to apologize, but because he knew he had poisoned her. Stabbed her. Hurt her badly. He had to know she wasn't dead. The hint of that thought made him want to vomit; only the lack of anything solid in him kept his dignity there in the pit of his stomach.

His eyes adjusted and he saw the rest of the hold.

All around him, he saw the injured. Ukyou was unconscious on the floor, breathing but pale and shivering in addition to some seemingly minor wounds. Konatsu felt an involuntary clench in his chest at the sight of her: despite Ukyou's relationship with Ryu, and despite her desire that they just be friends, Konatsu could not help the feelings he had for the okonomiyaki chef. Others had helped, but she was the one who had truly saved him from a life of misery and abuse at the hands of his step-family. It was that same love for her that he had clung to in his own madness, turning it into blind obsession and devotion... at the expense of everything and everyone else.

Shampoo lay next to her arch rival, enemy, and friend. She was far worse off than Ukyou appeared to be. Her right hand was wrapped tightly, from the cocooned fingers past the wrist, to prevent further bleeding now that she had slipped into unconsciousness. Konatsu remembered vividly the feel of his sword cutting through skin and flesh and bone, and back out the other side. Even with a martial artist's most advanced healing, Shampoo would bear a crude slash in the center of her hand for the rest of her life.

Because of him.

She had already been tended to. One of the squadmembers with the most medical training, Konatsu quickly noticed the most troubling sign of Shampoo's condition. Someone had set up an IV feed out of an ATRISK medkit, and the labeling gave a hint as to the situation, but then, he could already guess at the problem. Weakened by the fighting, the poison he had used - a crude version of his preferred paralysis toxin - could be potentially lethal. If Shampoo had compounded that by taking others drugs, like Stims, to keep fighting...

Ranma and Ryouga, the acting Major, were standing between the ninja and the two girls, talking quietly. The former tapped the arm of the latter and pointed.

"Konatsu?" Juliet's squad leader asked, as the two faced him. Ryouga extended a hand to help him onto his feet. "You alright?"

Konatsu stood, lowered his eyes, and tried to compose himself.

"No sir... I am **not **alright, but... but I am willing and able to contribute, Saotome-taichou." He raised his chin and stood at attention. "My deepest apologies for my behavior. I..."

"We were all pretty fucked up back there," Ranma cut him off, and patted him comfortingly on the shoulder. "Don't go tripping yourself up over it."

"But, sir, I..." He glanced over at Shampoo and Ukyou. "I can't... It's my fault that..."

"Konatsu," Ryouga said, mirroring Ranma's response. "It's over."

"H-hai!" He nodded, trying to convince himself it was that easy. Maybe... for a little while... it could be.

"How is everyone? Is..." He didn't mention the Oan, instead skipping to: "Sirs. If you are both in here, who is piloting the ship? Is it Miss Raven?"

"No one is piloting the ship, because the Nav as burned as one of Akane's fried eggs."

"Really, Saotome, you're joking about that, even now?"

"What can I say? I like to joke around." He shrugged with a small smile. "Though, man, I'd even eat Akane's cooking if we got home."

"If there's no functional Navigation Interface, then...?" Konatsu trailed off at the question.

"We're drifting," Ryouga answered, crossing his arms over his chest. "Cyborg should be trying to fix the basic external sensors. Or to tie them back into the non-nav interfaces. Honestly, he's the only one on the ship that actually knows the full extent of the damage."

"I see," Konatsu said, and stood at attention again. "Sir. Should I... what are your orders for me, sir?"

Ranma sniffed in amusement at something. Konatsu stole a glance at his lieutenant, not understanding.

"You should know," Ryouga explained with a snort of his own. "That we've been supposedly relieved of duty."

"You?" Konatsu turned to Ranma again. "Sir, then, you are…?"

"I've **also **been conveniently relieved," Ranma interrupted, scratching the nape of his neck. "Everyone but Cyborg, apparently. So the calculator is running the ship now." He shrugged in seeming indifference. "What's left of it anyway."

"Can... can he do that?" Konatsu asked, his expression growing worried. "Isn't he still... still in _that_state of mind?"

"It isn't worth fighting over right now." Ryouga sighed, looking over at the pair of wounded girls from Juliet. "Keeping everyone stable is the most important thing right now."

He frowned, deeply, burning the sight of Ukyou and Shampoo into his eyes and mind.

"I screwed the pooch on this mission," he admitted, a glowing ember of anger momentarily darkening his features. "This one... and Azarath both." He crushed his eyes shut and shook his head sadly. "I screwed up. Made bad decisions. Got careless. People almost died. The only thing I have left is to put all I have into getting everyone home alive. That's the only thing that will salvage this disaster."

"This was all my responsibility," he said, looking around the hold at the wounded and exhausted members of India, Yankee and Juliet. "Mine. And I screwed it up."

"Sir," Konatsu said, getting his attention. "Hibiki-taichou. Please. Let me do something to help."

"You sure you're okay?" Ranma asked, giving Konatsu a hard, evaluating look. "Honestly, man? You okay?"

"I would dearly like to get my mind off of what I did, and how I acted," the legendary male kunoichi admitted. "Would I rather have something to do than to sit and think? Yes. Yes, sir. I would."

Ranma nodded. "Alright."

He pointed over to where Starfire was sitting, next to a badly wounded Kuno. The swordsman was on his back, supported by a partly rolled up futon, eyes closed and resting. Starfire had a once-white cloth in her hands, now stained with bits of dried green and red. She didn't look too hot herself; most of her wounds looked superficial, but the sight of a thick compress tied to her side, stained a deep green color, as well as several other green tinted bandages taped to cheek, leg and hands gave reason to believe that she was more injured than she was letting on. Next to her, Konatsu knew that India's "famous" kendoist could take a beating and keep on ticking, but already his face was almost comically swollen up. It looked like a squad of enraged Tendo sisters had worked him over... and not in the way Kuno would have preferred.

"We need to touch base with Star in a minute anyway," Ranma explained. "Check Kuno's condition, then help Ryu with Ukyou and Shampoo. While you're at it, you probably noticed you're having trouble breathing?"

Konatsu nodded. "Yes, sir. I remember... a green mist...?"

"Some sorta technique Ukyou used," Ranma replied. "The medkit says it messed up your throat and lungs. Some of you guys were vomiting up earlier; me and P-chan here took care of that, cleaned things up and put everyone on anti-inflammatories to deal with the irritation. The other thing is an anti-asphyxiant. The kit put 'em into gas form..."

Ranma held out a small inhaler.

"One full breath every half hour," the Saotome heir continued, as Konatsu examined the little white plastic capsule. "If ya forget when was the last time ya did it, give it a whiff just to be sure. Last thing we need is more folks coughing up blood." He leaned in, smiling. "I'm your commanding officer, not your housemaid."

"Yes, sir," Konatsu agreed, palming the inhaler. "Um.. who else...?"

"You and Ryu should be physically fine, aside from the damage to your lungs, throat, nose..." Ryouga cut himself off. "Well. Ryu's still sick, but you're both better off than most. We haven't been able to get Ukyou up, and she's showing signs of nausea and involuntary muscle contraction. The ATRISK couldn't make heads or tails of it. And then there was..." He bit his lower lip, looking distressed. "One other problem. Maybe it isn't a problem. We'll find out when she wakes up."

"Shampoo," Ranma picked up where the lost boy left off. "She isn't in a good spot either. We'd have her in the medical tube... except the damn thing's damaged. Probably because of all the fighting."

He ran a hand through his hair with a groan.

"She's been beat up pretty bad. Blood loss and the tendon strikes to her left arm were the worst of the obvious stuff. The medkit picked up the poison and a bucket-load 'a stims. She's crashing hard, but there's nothin' we can do for her as long as we're stuck here. We've got her on an absorbent and stim-suppressor, but hell, I dunno if it's even working at this point." Ranma's lip curled in an uncharacteristic display of frustration. "And _naturally_- of course - the only assisted-breathing device we have is the damn tube, and we can't even get it open much less program it properly."

He scowled and changed the subject, forcing away his bad mood for the sake of those around him.

"Jinx is ambulatory," he continued, and glanced over at where the pink haired girl stood watch over a sick-looking Reava. "Which is a minor miracle, since she was going hand-to-hand with Starfire for who knows how long. Nothing broken, well, 'cept for her nose, but we set that already. She's watching our little alien guest from hell."

"Miss Reava?" Konatsu sounded surprised, but not so surprised he failed to add a polite surname to their captive.

"We're not sure what's wrong with her," Ryouga explained, arms still tightly crossed. The cracks on his wounded arm were still visible, and as a muscle twitched, one of them leaked a teardrop of crimson. The Major wiped it away with his thumb.

"It's probably something to do with the change in dimensions," Ranma speculated. "Or maybe being off her life support... or 'mother box' or whatever. Mostly dizziness, nausea, faintness, disorientation. A nasty headache, too, but she checks out fine." Ranma couldn't resist adding a slant to it: "Actually, it sounds kind of like the mother of all hangovers."

"We've got Raven under observation." Ryouga filled in the rest. "Her case is a bit unique, so we checked her first. She should be fine as long as that box does what it's supposed to do. Nabiki is..." His lips came together tightly, and Konatsu saw teeth as his commanding officer grimaced. "Nabiki is fine. Just bruised. We're letting her rest for a while."

The next topic caused him to sigh. "Other-me is... well, he's tough, I'll give him that. We got the lacerations and puncture wounds patched up as much as possible, though he used up the last of our liquid stitches. We've elevated the leg he was stabbed through, but we can't do the same for the injury in his shoulder. Other than that, he's on a basic IV, no detox, but we put in a sedative. No serious internal damage that I... that we can't heal through. Fact is, he's better built to bounce back than most. We moved him and Raven to the far side of the hold for now." The Major then let out a silent snort, though it wasn't a negative sound. "Actually, despite it all, he'll probably be up before a few of the others, considering Raven has refused to stop treating him herself. Which is why we're giving him the sleepers."

There was only one left, minus Cyborg.

"And Mousse is already up; I've got him checking the ship's internal damage."

"What about you two?" Konatsu asked; he could see that the pair of officers were at the very least worn thin by their experiences in the Nav. There was no mention of Trespasser. It seemed likely the alien was either dead or gone. Regardless of which, he was no longer a concern. Ryouga, meanwhile, clearly had the injuries from before to deal with, and Ranma had been plugged into the Nav far longer over the last week or more than was recommended, even for dedicated XCOM pilots.

"Don't worry about us," Ranma replied, smirking confidently. "Come on. Let's check on Kuno."

Konatsu smiled a little, bolstered by his superior officer's assurance. "Yes, sir!"

As the three got closer, Konatsu began to piece together what had happened to India squad's resident swordsman (and self-proclaimed ladies' man). The injuries on a body were like a roadmap for a martial artist, especially one who had made a study of the human body. One could tell the angle of the strikes, the penetration of the blow through muscle and into bone, the force and the technique... a true master could even feel the lingering intent of the attacker in the imprint of their blow. Kuno was no stranger to being beaten to the edge of consciousness, but even by Nerima's standards, Starfire had done a number on him, and she had been enraged when she did so.

Konatsu found himself being glad he couldn't fully remember it, if he had seen it at all.

"How is he?" Ranma asked as they approached, cocky grin in place, assuring all who knew him that the Saotome heir had some dumb joke that he couldn't resist sharing. "Since you haven't been glomped yet, I guess he's still asleep?"

"Tasteless as always," Ryouga grumbled, asking more seriously. "How are the meds working out? Has his cough died down?" He frowned, not at Starfire, but at her injuries and Kuno's. "I wish we had something tailored for you, too, Star. You sure you aren't having any aftereffects?"

She shook her head. "None that I can feel, no, and his injuries are far more grievous than my own..."

Dropping her gaze, she touched her fingertips to the swordsman's chest, and even in his comatose state, the gentle touch elicited a wince. The Tamaranian quickly retracted her hand, clutching it to her chest.

"The rest of his injuries are superficial in comparison... but his broken rib and the damage to his chest. I - I fear that if he is not handled with the utmost care, that it could pierce his lung... or his heart..."

"I hate to admit it, but no one bounces back like Kuno here," Ranma assured her.

Konatsu was not entirely convinced. "Saotome-taichou, this sounds much worse than a fracture. If Kuno-senpai's rib is actually separated..."

"We already x-rayed it," Ryouga confirmed, kneeling down next to his team mate. "It was pushed in as it broke and fragmented. He'll need surgery to wire it back in place so it heals properly."

"And if we cannot get back to a base in time?" Konatsu asked, worried. "Sir?"

"Then we make do with what we have. As long as it isn't immediately life threatening, we'll be waiting." He reached out to clasp the ninja on the shoulder. "Konatsu. You have more medical training and background than anyone else here. If we need to do that, if it comes to that, we'll have you."

"Star," Ranma said, more seriously. "I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but Ryouga and I would like to check in with you, too."

"We all said and did things that we regret," Ryouga agreed, seeing her wince. Konatsu shrunk into his shoulders at his own guilt. "But that doesn't make what happened suddenly go away. Do you want to talk about it?"

The Tamaranian considered the acting Major's words. Lifting a hand tentatively, she responded, "I... I would rather not, at this time. The people that I hurt the most-" Starfire's gaze slid down to the swordsman, then across the room to glance at Jinx. The perceptive kunoichi noticed that the sorceress actually caught the alien girl's anxious look... only to look away pointedly, absently rubbing her bruised throat.

Letting out a forlorn sigh, the Tamaranian dropped her gaze to the floor, shaking her head sadly. "The people who I hurt the most will not hear my words yet, and I wish to apologize for my actions to them first."

Konatsu could tell both officers wanted to press for more. Even as hazy as the last couple days had become for the male kunoichi, he knew how vocal and unabashed Starfire had become about certain things. It was the tip of the iceberg, the first few hints of the anger and frustration that Kuno had faced, and suffered for, just hours ago.

In Ranma or Ryouga's shoes, Konatsu, too, would want to see if the roots of those feelings had died when they left the last dimension, or if they remained, ready to grow and bear poisonous fruit sometime in the future. Looking at Starfire and literally feeling her tumult of emotions, none of them could find it in them to push her to talk before she was comfortable.

"I understand," Ryouga told her, standing back up. "There is one other thing that I... that we wanted to ask you. We already asked Jinx and she didn't know." He reached up to rub his arm anxiously. "It has to do with Ukyou. Have you ever seen any of your Green Lanterns back home without their ring on? Do you know if there are any side effects to taking it off?"

Konatsu looked up at the two officers. "Is something wrong with Miss Ukyou?"

Starfire shook her head sadly. "I have never actually met a Green Lantern who was not wearing their ring..." She paused, obviously conflicted on how she should answer the question. Finally, though, the alien woman nodded to herself, finding some new resolve. "I... did speak with Trespasser once, away from the ears of others. We spoke of many things, however, he did... eventually... make the promise of a ring of my own, to protect my homeworld once we returned to our own dimension..."

"He said he'd make you a Green Lantern like Ukyou?" Ranma asked, frowning. "What did he say exactly?"

"The details are... unimportant," she muttered in a low voice. "Suffice it to say, though, that he mentioned no ill effects in relation to the ring. And Cyborg has stated, on numerous occasions, that there are no known ramifications of a Lantern losing their ring-" A pause, as the Tamaranian shuddered, "Unless... they were to lose it while travelling the depths of space."

Ranma and Ryouga exhaled at that, worry hidden behind their composed expressions.

"Take care of Kuno, okay?" Ranma asked, giving Starfire and Konatsu a small smile. He then nudged Ryouga. "Let's go."

As the two turned to leave, whispering amongst themselves, Konatsu sighed. If the Nav couldn't be fixed... if they were left adrift in space... He stole a quick look at Starfire. At least, maybe, she could survive. Before then, all they could do was wait and dress their wounds. It darkly reminded Konatsu of riding to and from a mission on a Skyranger or Avenger. All that could be done had been done. It was in the hands of another man, or, for the religious, another power.

"Let me have a look at the rib," he said, opening a nearby medkit and pulling up the scans it had taken.

He tried not to think about how unlikely a rescue was in the depths of space.

* * *

'_Breathe in…'_

The slow, laborious inhalation of breath filled her chest, spreading apart her ribs. In time with the autonomic function, pain bloomed, both real and echoed, reaching a crescendo as her lungs reached their capacity.

'_Breathe out…'_

Pain flowed out of her, as if being carried away by her exhalation. It was almost like a small moment of paradise, the pain subsiding to a comforting numbness… only for the cycle to begin anew. The pain surging and retreating in unending waves, as cyclical and inevitable as the tides.

The secret - Raven had learned both from her mentors in Azarath, and through hard earned personal experience - was that one should not _fight_ pain. One had to _embrace_ the pain, work through it. With her mind already locked onto water based analogies, it was more akin to riding a wave, as opposed to swimming against it. The pain reached the same heights, but simply accepting it was far less taxing.

Despite the simplicity of the concept, it was not something so easily accomplished.

In fact, the only other person she knew that had any form of similar training was… Robin and she honestly had no idea where he could have learned such a meditative technique. At the moment, she was simply thankful for the talent. Her physical pain was only the tip of the iceberg, after all. Being able to focus through such discomfort was incredibly important, as only now, with a moment to herself finally, did she recall that the closest thing she had had to rest over the past several days, was when she had fallen unconscious after pulling her friends free of the alien space hulk.

Exhaustion didn't even begin to describe her condition, and the migraine slamming against the insides of her sinuses was likely enough to bring Darkseid himself to his stony knees.

A silent, pained moan drew her from her rueful reverie. Her aimless gaze lowered, focusing once more on the shaggy mop of raven hair pressed up against her stomach. Ryouga's head was resting on her lap; it was all she could do to elevate his shoulder, several stacked boxes doing the same for his skewered leg. Now that the martial artist was free from his armor, she could easily see all of the damage that Ukyou had inflicted on their dear commanding officer.

A weary sigh originated from the darkest Titan. Even though it tore at her to see him in such condition, at least she knew that he was safe here, in her arms. Unfortunately, that now left her with more time to consider just how bleak their overall situation was.

There were an infinite number of things which were lurking beneath the surface at the moment. Ryouga wasn't the only injured member of the crew, and as resilient as he was, he wasn't even the most critical case they had. Of course, that was not at all a comforting thought, as she could intimately feel all of his injuries as she painstakingly drew them into herself. Shampoo was the worst of all, but there was nothing Raven could do for the twice poisoned Amazon. As such, she pushed the thought from her mind, unable to act on it.

Cyborg's strange behavior was another point of extreme tension. She had no choice but to trust in him - her heart would allow for nothing else - which only made it that much harder to watch as the members of India and Juliet whispered of his treachery behind their backs in taking control of the ship. Even after all they had endured together, and not just through the hell of that dimensional abyss, or the torment of her native Azerath, but the months of teamwork and camaraderie they had gone through since the Titans had first entered their dimension…

Which brought her to the worst of her fears. Just where _were_ they now? Did anyone know? Was there any way to find out? She knew that they were adrift, and that navigation and communication were down, but that was it. The only thing that they knew for certain was that they hadn't died in the dimensional shift. While that was no minor miracle, in and of itself, where had they ended up? Had they actually made it back?

Had their plan, their mad, desperate plan, _worked?_

Though it was an odious habit, she found herself biting down on the tip of her thumb; almost nibbling at the skin and nail. It wasn't something she normally did, something she picked up from Terra, of all people, but it helped with the frustration and confusion which afflicted her – no, not just her, it afflicted _all of them._

Even now, the two senior officers milled around the Hold, moving from one group of injured people to another, no doubt trying to assess the situation. Was everyone alive? Would everyone remain so for the foreseeable future? Did it even matter? If they were stranded a billion miles in the middle of nowhere, and without anyway to move or communicate, just how long would they last? A week? A day? Would the air scrubbers fail them in the next ten minutes? Even with water and air, how long could they drift, aimless and hopeless in the dark?

She was almost thankful when she noticed Saotome and Hibiki finally turn their attention her way. Any distraction from the spiraling bleakness of her current thoughts was a blessing. Sparing a furtive glance to the Hibiki in her arms, she took a moment to compose herself and prepare for the inevitable questions, whatever it was that the CO's were asking everyone else.

Within a moment, the Major and Lieutenant were standing above her, studying her with concerned stares. Taking a brief moment to brush one of the long bangs from her Ryouga's eyes – even with over a week of poor grooming, the Major's hair was so much shorter than the Sergeant's – she looked up to meet their gazes.

"So, how is P-Chan's little brother holding up, Raven?" asked Ranma, teasing grin on his lips.

The elder Hibiki shot his rival an annoyed grunt, never having liked that eternally stale joke.

"_S-shut up… Saotome…_" An opinion which, apparently, the junior Hibiki shared. Raven's brow rose in interest at Ryouga's pained muttering. She hadn't expected him to be awake so soon, not with all of the drugs they had-

'_Wait_ _a_ _moment_.' Raven shook her head, amusement and disbelief stopping her mid thought.

Ryouga was still completely unconscious.

"Well, it appears that even asleep, he is still well enough to tell you off," Raven explained with a tiny grin.

The Major gave a tiny, approving nod. "If he was too weak to yell at Ranma, _then_ I would be worried about him."

"You and me both," Ranma added cheekily. A moment later, his expression grew more serious. "But seriously, Rae, how are you two doing? Your boy there took a pretty epic beating, but you were definitely the winner of 'the most instantly fatal injury' award for the mission."

Ryouga nodded once more, his expression more grim now as well. "I know that machine on your arm is helping you, but Trespasser nearly destroyed your heart. Are you certain that it's safe for you to use your powers so soon? He isn't in critical condition, after all-" The Major gestured to his young doppleganger, "-so maybe you should focus on making certain that you're fully healed before you have to remove that… thing."

Raven looked down to the Mother Box which stood out so keenly from the pale flesh of her upper arm. With each passing moment, the flickering lights slowed and dimmed, struggling to stay functional, and even the metal itself seemed to be gradually losing luster. She was starting to suspect that it was more than just a dying battery at work. It seemed possible that the alien device was destined to suffer the same fate as the Oan it had helped to bring down, just more slowly. Cyborg had already proven that certain, more unique elements could not survive shifting from one dimension to another, so perhaps, cut off from its home dimension, the Apokaliptian Mother Box was dying as well?

"I appreciate your concern," she sighed, actually meaning her words, "but I'm confident that we'll both be fine. I doubt the Mother Box will last much longer, so I'd like to get as much benefit from it as possible."

"Good to the last drop," Ranma quipped. "But yeah, makes sense to me. Just let us know if that thing goes evil at the last minute and starts trying to eat your arm."

For an instant, the Dark Titan blanched at the thought, before firing a dark scowl the Navigator's way. "Do _not_ joke about that."

"Enough with the attempts at comedy, Saotome. We have more important things to worry about than you amusing yourself." Shooting Raven a supportive nod, Ryouga turned her way once more. "For instance, Raven, now that we're out of danger, I was hoping that you could fill me in on what happened?"

Raven replied with a crooked smirk. "I'm afraid that you're going to have to be more specific. So very much has happened lately."

A roll of the eyes. "You know what I mean." He looked around surreptitiously for a moment, before dropping to a knee before her and lowering his voice. "Why aren't we all dead right now? The last thing I remember was Trespasser beating all of us… even you. For all of our fighting, we weren't able to stop that bastard… so why aren't we scattered across a hundred dimensions? Hell, he was ranting about flying the entire damn ship right down _God's throat_. It did _not_ sound like he was planning on taking us home."

"Ah, yes, _that,"_ Raven finally complied. Now that she thought about it, the Major _had_ been in the dark on pretty much everything, considering the amount of influence that Trespasser had held over him nearly from the beginning.

"Well, Nabiki and myself, over the past few missions, found ourselves growing more and more certain that Trespasser was not working towards our best interests," she explained a touch patronizingly. "And as such, we formed a clandestine plan to protect ourselves from any potential treachery."

A slight frown graced her C.O's face, but what was more telling was a guilty twitch she recognized from his counterpart. He knew where he had failed in that part of the story. "You were certain we were going to be betrayed, but you didn't approach me with this information?"

She rolled her eyes. "And risk being discovered? With as much contact as you had with the Oan?" Raven shook her head ruefully. "It was a tremendous risk just keeping things between Nabiki and myself, and even then we had to take extreme measures."

Ranma scratched his head at that. "Wait a minute…wasn't Nabiki the one that knocked me and Ryo out in the end? How the heck was she part of your plot when she was in with Big Blue even deeper than Cyborg was?"

They both ignored the dark glower that passed over the Major's face at the insinuation, though it was far more factual than anyone cared to recall.

"That was a major concern of ours, that Nabiki might be eventually co-opted by Trespasser," she admitted coolly, "Considering the amount of time that she spent with the Oan, that she _had_ to spend with him, it seemed inevitable… which is why I suppressed her memories of all of our interactions, thus making her forget that we had conspired at all."

For just a moment, both officers stared at her uncertainly. If anything, Hibiki's glower only grew darker.

"Raven, you _intentionally_ meddled with Nabiki's mind? I would think that after Azerath-"

She cut him off with a sharp glare. "I did it at _her_ insistence," she countered. "She knew she was going to be compromised, and she knew she couldn't trust herself not to undermine her own plans. The only sensible thing to do was to forget she had made plans in the first place. I know you're worried about her, but it was very minor work, and in the end, I suspected that Trespasser would see though my conditioning in an instant. I have no doubt that Trespasser discovered everything that I plotted with Nabiki the moment he turned her to his side: that he saw everything she remembered seeing and hearing."

"Wha? Then how-?" Ranma started, obviously confused.

"Everything I plotted _with_ Nabiki," she reiterated, "And everything she saw and heard, but not everything she inferred. I was not so proud as to imagine that an Oan would not be able to see through my juvenile attempts at memory alteration. Which is why, to be sure, she shared all of her plan with me, and I only shared half of _my _plan with her." The Dark Titan could not help but allow a self-satisfied grin to form on her lips.

"Trespasser's power was immense," she explained further, "And it was only matched by his arrogance and his disdain for us. The level of subterfuge that Nabiki and myself demonstrated working together was likely the extent he thought us capable of, and when he uncovered it, he was no doubt quite satisfied that he had uncovered our entire plot."

The pigtailed Lieutenant adopted her smirk, nodding lightly to himself. "Plots in plots? It's not too often that Nabiki gets taken for a ride. I sure hope that I'm there when you explain how you played her like that."

"Ranma…" Ryouga growled in a low tone, but didn't follow further.

"Played her? My deceiving her was the whole point of what we did," Raven said, a hand carefully brushing the tips of her fingers over the unconscious Hibiki's hair. "Think of it as there being three Nibikis. The first one was the one that I planned with, the second was the one that knew the previous her had planned something with me and planned to counter that, and a third one who remembered she was working with me and countered what the second one did."

"We both knew that as soon as Nabiki stopped working with me, she would begin to work against me. Even with her memories hidden, I couldn't risk letting her know too much, in case Trespasser found something useful to use against us and acted on his own, but at the same time, we both knew Nabiki could only learn what we needed to know by working with him."

"Argh!" Ranma scratched his head. "Remind me never to play Go with either of you!"

"Why? You'd just cheat faster than they can see."

"Oh yeah."

Unconsciously, Raven ran her hand through the shaggy hair of the man in her lap. The hair was oily and stringy from days and weeks of neglect, but she still relished the sensation of human contact. It was a reminder that she was still alive and that they were still together, even if only for the momentary present.

"The sad truth was there wasn't _anyone_ in the crew that I could trust at the end," Raven said, shaking her head. "I had no way of predicting who would be turned, and who wouldn't."

She shot a furtive glance across the hold to where her Tamaranian teammate was tending to India Squad's bloody and battered Blue Thunder. Starfire had her legs tucked under her and Raven could see where the proud warrior girl she had come to call her close friend had streaks of tears on her cheeks. Blood had been washed off of her hands and partly scrubbed off of her armor, but not her memory, or her conscience.

Lowering her voice, Raven leaned forward slightly. "I - I still can't believe that he convinced _Starfire_ to side against us… And I am _still_ too shocked to fully come to terms with the fact that Trespasser not only _acquired_, but actually _used_ the – the _Anti-Life Equation_ against Ryouga and Jinx. It… it _had_ to have come from the Heresiarch."

Raven shook her head in disbelief on that fact, her own listless hair falling to block her sight.

_ 'The first lie, the lie that kills.'_

That was what she had been told by the Dead God, Heresiarch. At the time, she had had no idea what it meant, but after seeing what it had done to the minds of her two teammates…? She could only thank Azar that only those two had been subjected to it, and that Ryouga hadn't instantly vaporized the entire ship when it had been used on him. That level of raw despair…

"The _what_?" Ranma asked incredulously. "Are you telling me that Baby Bro and the Hellion in High Heels got taken out by a _math problem_?"

"I can't explain it in terms that you'd understand," Raven replied a bit frostily. Which was true enough as she didn't understand it at all herself - Raven wasn't even sure she wanted to be able to understand it. All she knew for certain was that a certain omnipotent galactic evil had nearly conquered Earth several times in search of the very thing that they had stumbled across nearly by accident. It made her think of Reava, and why she had been sent with the Thanagarian expedition in the first place. _We found it. The lie that kills._

"Suffice it to say that it is not something that belongs in the hands of anyone, mortal or otherwise," Raven said with conviction. _Let it be forgotten. Please. Let this one, horrible thing be forgotten, forever._ "The knowledge of it died with Trespasser, for which we should all be thankful."

She glanced downwards for just a fraction of a second.

After all, it was _mostly_ true.

"Raven." The sudden statement drew her back to the moment. Ryouga, the man who had spoken her name, looked at her with concern. "Are you certain that they'll both be alright? Whatever this… equation did, it didn't do any permanent damage, did it?"

"No." She shook her head, glad that it was only a minor deception. "They'll both be fine with time."

"Well, I suppose that's a relief," Ranma commented skeptically. "I mean… a math equation…? Yeah, I can only imagine the trauma they suffered. I _still_ have quadratic equations burned into my mind from studying for placement exams with Akane." Giving a quick roll of his eyes, the pigtailed fighter bulled on. "Anyway, what happened with the rest of your plan? You know: the part you kept from Nabiki?"

"Ah, yes." _Where had she been again?_ "Since I couldn't trust anyone on the crew, I was forced to turn to the one person on the ship that absolutely no one trusted. The one person no one would ever expect to go to for help."

Hibiki's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. "Reava. _That_'_s_ why she was in the Control Room."

She nodded. "No one considered Reava a threat, and no one even imagined her as a possible ally. As such, not even Nabiki was prepared when both Reava and myself appeared in the Control Room after Shampoo's fortuitous distraction. If I had arrived alone, Nabiki might have proven a serious obstacle."

"So," Ranma began to summarize, "You and Reava were plotting behind Nabiki's back, and Nabiki and you were plotting behind Trespasser's back? And part of your plot was for Trespasser to discover you were plotting with Nabiki? Then for Nabiki to double-cross herself? And you did all of this while keeping the rest of the crew in the dark so we didn't screw up your plans?"

"That does sound about right," she agreed lightly. "And, actually, I believe that you know the rest of the plan, don't you Ranma?"

"Huh? Why would Ranma know any of your plan?" Hibiki asked, his curiosity plain to see.

At that, Ranma grew hesitant, laughing nervously. "Heh, well, it's a bit of a story there…"

Another pause, this time the elder Hibiki's confusion growing. "How do you know any of their plan at all? Raven hasn't actually explained any of it yet, just who she's been working with and why."

Raven gave a weak laugh. Nodding in the pigtailed fighter's direction, she decided to go for broke. "Ranma knows the plan, because he was the one that actually allowed it to succeed in the end." An impish smirk, "And, in fact, I think he actually has a clearer understanding of what happened in those last moments than even I do. If anyone can explain how we survived… it's him."

Ryouga turned, leveling an expectant stare his rival's direction. "Care to explain, Saotome? You seem strangely tight lipped for some reason."

"What? I was putting it in my report, I swear," the Lieutenant replied hastily. "Besides, does it really matter? We lived, right, what else do we need to know?"

"Alright, now I know that something is up." Lifting a fist threatening, he waved the curled fingers under Ranma's nose. "What happened?"

"Hey, it's not like I even really understand what-"

"_Ranma_!"

"Alright, alright, fine," the Saotome heir finally relented, waving his hands through the air placatingly. "It went down pretty much like this-"

* * *

'_Breathe in…'_

'_No, seriously, body, __**breathe in**_!'

Ranma began to feel the telltale signs of inevitable death closing in around him, not unlike a pack of cats, silently stalking their prey. Childhood memories of flashing, slit eyes, of tiny, jagged claws sent a shudder running through his entire body. The smell of blood in the present echoed with those dark recollections, only enhancing the morbid horror of his situation.

And yet, somewhere at the back of his mind, he knew that it wasn't, strictly speaking, real. His vision wasn't _really_ beginning to blur. Blood wasn't _really_ pooling on the ground around his feet. He wasn't _really_ experiencing levels of pain that he would only wish upon a certain withered up pervert – rest Happosai's demented soul. His real body was perfectly fine… somewhere out there, not bleeding and dying, even as he struggled vainly to maintain his concentration until the very last second possible.

Unfortunately, that knowledge did him no good at the moment. Even if the pencil thin lances of green force currently _impaled through his body_ and holding him upright weren't real, they sure as hell _felt_ real, damn it! He gnashed his teeth till he felt the might crack, clasping his hands in front of him, his arms shaking with effort. The Saotome heir had only one thing on his mind, here, in these last seconds of his life.

"Ranma Saotome doesn't lose."

No.

Even if he was dying, he wasn't going to lose, too. That would just be too pathetic! Besides, ol' P-chan was still alive. There was no way in all the universes' myriad hells that a Saotome would die before a Hibiki. Ranma fully intended to be a withered, shrunken, ancient old man… if only to stay alive one more minute than his so called rival. Ranma let his arms fall to his sides, the tension easing out of his body.

_'Ryouga's still alive. And Raven, too.'_

Blue eyes opened, and Ranma began to reach up to his shoulder with his right hand. He could barely see where the pencil-thin energy lance there disappeared into the flesh of the junction between collar and shoulder bone. Shaking, his fingers closed around the spear that was impaling him, from neck to hip. It was warm, like blood, and he could feel his heartbeat vibrate through it.

Ranma let his confidence permeate his body, and his world became a repetition: _'I ain't gonna lose. I ain't gonna lose. I ain't gonna die.'_

Meanwhile, he could see, Raven fought on.

Or, rather, it seemed her fight was coming to an end as well. The woman, cloaked in purest white robes, was floating in the air, her arms stretched out painfully to her sides. Held aloft by Trespasser's terrible mental power, the young Psion was horribly injured, her hands burned down to little more than bone.

But something was odd. Though he was too far to hear… or perhaps just wasn't being included in that mental exchange, Trespasser was floating close, intimately close to Raven, whispering something harshly at her face. It was what was beyond those two, that was the strangest yet. It was almost as if the world itself was shifting, reforming into something new, a scene wholly alien to the pigtailed martial artist.

He saw, though a slowly clearing haze, as the landscape that Raven and Trespasser had battled over changed, reflecting with what Ranma could only believe to be memories like dark deflections in a mirror. He saw what had to be a laboratory, and a dozen muscular, tall, blue skinned humanoids. Violet robes hung from their sculpted shoulders to flow and pool around their feet, and as a hand raised up to partly obstruct the view, Ranma realized that these memories belonged to Trespasser. He realized that this was what his people had looked like, once.

Trespasser's memory of the event continued, the view bobbing like a camera in a chase film, to gaze out at endless rows of tiny specks assembled in some vast plain below. They were so thick, the color and look of the ground beneath them couldn't even be seen. A rainstorm could have broken out overhead, and not a drop would have touched the soil.

Trespasser, their Trespasser, spun towards the recollection, upset to have it dredged up. Manhunters. Ranma had no idea what a Manhunter was, had never heard it used in such a way, or what the possible connotation in this case could be… and yet he instinctively felt fear and revulsion at the sight of those behemoth metal men, millions upon billions strong.

Ranma felt something else in the lance that pinned him in place, like an insect on display. It wasn't his heartbeat. The energy was Trespasser's. And Trespasser's focus and attention were slipping.

The imagery of Oa, carpeted by an army of metallic enforcers faded away, like so much mist, only for another memory to fill the sky. Bubbling away from the Oan and escaping any of his attempts to contain it Ranma beheld a sky full of orbs, large enough to be planets had this mindscape been a world. Strange shapes moved within the orbs - within the prisons - and each one glowed with a distinct, otherworldly light. Orange, red, blue and purple…

Ranma saw him whirling at each of the giant orbs, shaking his head. The shapes defied nearly all attempts at explanation. An immense creature that appeared to be formed of living, orange light and shaped into the shape of a monstrous serpent which stretched on seemingly forever. Without even understanding why, Ranma could feel a deep… yearning in his soul to possess the being, as impossible as that seemed.

Another sphere contained blue light so bright it was nearly blinding. Magnificent wings, reaching from one end of infinity to the other beat with deceptive gentleness for a creature of such magnitude, and just looking upon it nearly cause the martial artist's heart fill to bursting.

And on and on: Red, Violet, Indigo, each entity as impossible and evocative as the next, each as large as creation itself, yet somehow contained… Ranma felt himself becoming lost in the sight. He was far away, with Raven, but Ranma could just barely see the subtle motion of the Guardian as he studied the vast beasts with fearful intensity.

Trespasser stepped back, his head tilting towards a great green sphere and its counterpart in a thousand hues of yellow. Ranma could not know why, but those two resonated more strongly with the Oan than any other. Just looking at the latter, he could feel terror well up inside him that made a pit full of cats seem childish in comparison, while conversely the large, fishlike being of green gave off a sensation of strength beyond anything he had ever felt before.

The lance began to shift, twisting where once it had been ramrod straight. The sensation of having it move within Ranma's body, pushing into his left lung, was not a pleasant one. But the pain was irrelevant. Trespasser was losing control, plagued by his own memories, escaping in a torrent he couldn't prevent. The Oan was clearly trying - trying not to think of these things, trying not to reveal them, trying not to have his secrets spill out like blood from a wound - and he was clearly failing.

_ 'Raven…'_ Ranma could see she was in a bad way. And Ryouga was, too. _'I have… to __**do**__ something…!'_

"You're right. I do have to do something."

Ranma's eyes snapped wide, flitting back to his own immediate vicinity and away from the Oan's recollective spectacle. The voice he had heard… had been too damn familiar. And the reason for that became apparent as he spotted the speaker of the words an instant later.

It was himself! Sort of. It was definitely him, but in addition to wearing his old red shirt, he was wearing an oddly familiar black robe, hood pulled back to reveal his cockily grinning face.

"Of course, when I say '_I_' have to do something, I mean that 'you' have to do something."

"I… was just thinking that," Ranma agreed, a little jealous of his non-impaled counterpart. It looked awfully nice not having a green energy beam jammed lengthways through your torso. Lucky jerk.

Reaching out, the other Ranma casually brushed the lance of energy with the flat of his palm, causing it to burst apart into flecks of emerald dust. An instant later, his unseasonably appareled doppleganger wrapped an arm under his shoulder to prevent him from collapsing.

"Well, time to quit thinkin' and start doin', Handsome." Black Robe Ranma gestured over his shoulder with a thumb. "Raven has the Oan good and distracted now, but who can guess how long that will last."

"I really, really hate to admit it, but I'm pretty tapped out," Ranma admitted, having trouble even breathing. His pants were soaked, not with piss, but with blood. He reminded himself, for the nth time, that it wasn't real. If only that could make it go away, too.

"You're from Raven's head, ain't ya?" he guessed, glancing at the other Ranma. Ranma-R.

A quick nod, as his other self started dragging him across the mindscape, and away from the cosmic spanning memories that hung across the rest of their shared world.

"I'll just go with yes, since we _both_know that you don't know enough about this mental mumbo jumbo stuff yet for me to explain it properly," Ranma-R replied, a bit condescendingly. "And also, lucky for you, you ain't got anything too taxing to do. Nabiki and Rae just need you to do one thing before we all go to that dimensional rift in the sky."

"Nabiki...? What does...?" Ranma shook his head, dispelling those doubts. "What do I need to do?"

His double gave a small chuckle. "Oh, don't worry 'bout Biki. The girls've got everything all sorted out."

As the distracting mists of Oan memory began to thin around them, the pair of Saotomes finally moving far enough from the ongoing battle, the genuine article finally saw where he was being led. Ahead lay the phantom Navigation Terminal which Trespasser had set up to trick Ryouga and himself into giving up their security codes. The entire station looked... frayed around the edges, wavering, but still solid enough to interact with.

"Nabiki, she managed to put one over on Big Blue back there." Ranma-R nodded over his shoulder again. "After Raven snapped her out of it, Nabiki managed to input a new vector into the Nav, the 'correct' vector...we hope. Only there's one problem..."

Ranma understood. "Altering a set course, you can't do it from outside." He spared the other him a long look. "For just a second… I wondered if this was a trick, but… that bastard wouldn't bother. He's already basically won. So, if we ain't got nothin' to lose…!"

He pushed off Ranma-R and strode towards the Nav, bloody hand outstretched.

As he did, for just a moment, he saw a face. _'Akane… are you waitin' for me? You stupid tomboy. I guess I better hurry up, or you'll flatten me with a table or somethin'.'_

"Look, Ranma, I know the prospect of goin' back to Akane's cooking might be pretty darn terrifying, but I think you really need to approve that Vector change already so that we can all go home now."

"Yeah." Ranma focused, bringing up the base psionic key that was effectively the map of his own brainwaves: his thoughts and hopes and dreams. "But, we'll still need the ship to jump..."

"That we do," Ranma-R agreed, "And there's only one thing stopping the ship from jumping right now."

A serious expression settled on the doppleganger's face, seeming out of place for some reason. His twin's gaze then slid across the wide open plain of white and dreams.

To settle on the struggling form of Ryouga.

Other-Ranma's eyes narrowed as he regarded the downed fighter. "You have to let him go, Ranma. You have to stop helping him fight."

Without even thinking of it, Ranma looked up. Still sprawled across the sky above the Nav, endless strings of green letters stretched across the horizon, only partially obscured by the memories in the distance. Even so, he could still see that only a single digit remained unlocked, Ryouga's last iota of willpower preventing Tresspasser from stealing the security code completely and initiating the jump. With every last fiber of the lost boy's stupid stubborn self, even in the face of death, he was fighting to hold onto that secret.

Ranma's gaze then dropped back to Ryouga, speared and pinned to the ground. He feel it as much as he could see it: there was so much blood, so much suffering. The Lost Boy's entire existence must have been suffering at that moment, as Trespasser had all but forgotten about Ranma to focus his entire interrogation on the stupid stubborn bastard. And the only thing likely preventing Ryouga from breaking, from failing that one last step, was Ranma's own mental attack, still actively running at the back of his mind, viciously assaulting his comrade with everything he had left…

It was, perhaps, one of the easiest things the martial artist had ever done.

For perhaps the first time in his life, Ranma Saotome _stopped_ fighting.

An instant later, to the distant side, a pained howl - half roar and half sob - signaled the end of a bitter struggle, of a mind finally caving in to unceasing mental torture. Above them, the final sequence of glowing green numbers locked in place, as inevitable as death and every bit as final.

The final piece in the EDC Command key locked overhead with a warbling chime.

ACCESS GRANTED

EDC PERMISSIONS CONFIRMED  
Hibiki, Ryouga. (Maj)  
PATTERN: GREEN  
SECPsiREAD.1 - CLEAR  
SECPsiREAD.2 - CLEAR  
SECPsiREAD.3 - CLEAR  
SECPsiREAD.4 - CLEAR

Extended Dimensional Contact Device - ACCESSED  
AWAITING Commanding Officer Clearance  
PASSED  
AWAITING Navigation Officer Clearance  
PASSED

MD: XEDC : to545208349 (227) [active]

ALL Connections **ACTIVE**

The Sky became a sea of black and green and teal: a mimic of the navigation interface. A view of the outside, warped and too-wide, stretched as it displayed the twisted dimension outside. Other video feeds from inside the ship superimposed over that, presenting a constant stream of incoming data. Most prominent of all was a display indicating the warm-up and initiation sequence for Pathfinder's modified EDC.

Ranma and his black clad double stared in awe as they could feel the ship itself begin to shudder to life. To his side, Ranma-R shuffled a step closer to him, dropping a hand on his shoulder.

From the base of the device's charge sequence, capacitors - once separated - locked together with a musical chime. A dozen of them then led, through a weave of connections, up to the next level, radiating away and around a central Core. Convergers and Exchange Units with numerical designations colored orange as the cascade continued. Paired accelerators awakened, spinning up. Windows popped up with warnings, but the system continued on.

"Y'know, there's just one thing I need to do before this potentially screws up and kills us all," Ranma-R muttered silently.

"What's that," Ranma replied absently, not really paying attention.

A maddeningly short countdown appeared.

"At last. The time has come," Trespasser's voice rang out across the entire mental plain, his hands raised up to the digital sky. "I will drive this ship down God's Throat! I will cut the strings of conditionality that bind the multiverse! I will restore Natural Order! I will Find Truth by MAKING TRUTH!"

With a cheery ping, the computer complied.

00:00:000  
EDC TRANSIT WINDOW - **ENGAGED**

Without warning, Ranma-R spun the original Saotome around and crushed their lips together with frantic intensity. Too shocked to react, Ranma could only do one thing in that split second.

"_MMPH!"_

And with a scream and a sound like broken glass, Pathfinder shattered the walls between dimensions, cracking open the veil of the universe itself.

* * *

It was actually impressive, Raven mused, just how well the Major was able to hold a straight face. Ranma wore an emotionless mask, staring straight ahead as he finished his detailed explanation of exactly what it was that had transpired to lead them to where they now were.

"You know, Ranma," Ryouga began slowly. Raven didn't need her powers of empathy to see the telltale signs of a grin tugging at the corners of their CO's lips. "I can only say one thing."

She could see the pigtailed lieutenant tense up visibly.

"I have absolutely _no doubt_ that you have been waiting to do that _your entire life_!"

It was all Raven could do to hold in a bark of laughter that would probably drop her patient to the floor.

"Argh, dammit! It wasn't my fault!" Ranma barked back. "And there's no damn way that I'm puttin' that in my report! It doesn't have any bearing on how we won!"

Ryouga actually chuckled at that. It was a small chuckle, but it was good to see him show a trace of humor considering what they've all been through. "Well… I don't know, Ranma. You know protocol…"

"Oh, come _on_, Ryouga, do _not_ make me write that out." Ranma quickly fired a desperate glare both of their ways. "And both of you two gotta promise me you won't put it in your reports either!"

Both smiling wanly, Raven and Ryouga shared a quick glance. Holding their stare just long enough to set Ranma to shuffling nervously, the pair of them finally relented.

"Fair enough, Saotome. In deference to you, and I hate to admit this, saving all of our lives, and that it isn't strictly speaking, important, I think we can forgo it."

Raven nodded her agreement. "I promise I won't mention it. Not that I think anyone would be overly surprised by you doing something like that with yours-"

"Enough of that!" Ranma barked irately. Dropping an arm on his comrade's arm, Ranma started pulling the Elder Hibiki away. "Come on, Bacon Butt, let's check on everyone else. We got all we need here."

Suppressing a small chuckle, the Major nodded, allowing himself to be dragged away.

"Now if it had been girl-me…"

"Ranma. Please don't go there."

Shaking her head, Raven absently brushed her knuckles down her Ryouga's cheek, enjoying the sensation. Despite the humor of the situation, though, her brow crinkled in frustration.

Yet another appearance by the black clad emotional Fragment, and this one she wasn't even aware of. She had not had time to actually contemplate this new figure in her mind, especially since his first appearance was just random, in a fevered dream months ago, but now she was starting to wonder.

"Still… it is a shame that I promised not to put that in the report. I could only imagine the Commander's face when she read it."

The feeling of a hand reaching up to grab her own brought a smile to her lips.

"It certainly is a shame," Ryouga the younger echoed in a pained voice, "… a shame that I didn't make that promise."

Raven's wan smile grew into a full blown grin.

* * *

"Ukyou. What the hell did you do to yourself?"

Ryu coughed, covering his mouth with the back of his hand. He grimaced at the sight of his hand shivering, but he tried not to think about it. He knew his own condition. Whatever infection he had picked up on the Kuk hadn't magically dissipated during their change in dimension. It made a measure of sense: none of the Nth metal artifacts they had in storage had disappeared. If the infection was because of particulate, degenerate Nth metal in his body; it wouldn't just go away.

He shrugged against the blanket over his shoulders, letting out a slow, ragged breath. His body felt cold, despite running a high fever. Most martial artists didn't get sick easily, especially once they learned to affect and partly regulate their own physiology using ki. Resilience was part of the package deal. As such, it had been a long time since Ryu last recalled having to endure such a pathetic and humiliating failure on the part of his immune system. The saving grace of it all was that, at least, he wasn't showing signs of ending up like all those Thanagarian monstrosities back on the ship.

He was careful to remain close to Ukyou, but not too close.

The okonomiyaki chef was still unconscious, though she moved and sometimes thrashed in seeming pain. The uniform that the ring had given her had come apart after the transit, splitting and tearing in some places, melting in others. Removing it had been like removing a fibrous mixture of cloth and body paint. She was covered up now, and also resting under a white blanket.

Ryu felt a hand on his shoulder and flinched before looking back, abashed.

"Hey," he groaned.

"Hey." Mousse crouched close by, carefully reaching out to brush two fingers against Ukyou's neck. He then felt her forehead.

The two squad mates were silent for a short while.

"We did this to her, you know," Ryu finally said, hanging his head in shame. "We all but forced her to use that ring. We released that blue psychopath."

Mousse didn't respond right away.

Slowly, he reached up to adjust his glasses.

"Ryu. She wanted the ring." The male Amazon sighed at the glare the Kumon heir shot his way. "Maybe she wasn't thinking straight. But she came back from that ship... different. I don't know how differently things could have turned out."

"She didn't-"

"I've never seen Shampoo this close to dying," Mousse cut him off, but not angrily. "Never. You think it isn't driving me a little crazy, too, inside? But there's enough blame that we should all just give up keeping count."

Ryu nodded haltingly, forced to agree, even though it was hard to reconcile how he felt with what he knew.

"You were up front?" he asked instead. "Any new information from the CIC?"

Mousse shook his head, his eyes hidden behind his glasses. "Nothing. Well, nothing that Cyborg deigned to tell me about, anyway. As far as I can tell, we're still just... drifting."

Ryu gave a frustrated huff. True, he had joked about it earlier, but the way that the cybernetic Yankee was acting now… had been acting for nearly a week now? Could they really trust him? Was he really on their side? The way he had dismissed everyone of active duty, leaving only himself as "fit" to run things was a disgustingly obvious and hypocritical play for control of the ship. Ryu was surprised the two officers had ostensibly gone along with it.

"That guy…"

"I know, I don't like it any more than you do," the half blind weapon master responded uneasily.

"Heh, speak for yourselves!" The sudden, amused comment drew the gaze of both males to the newcomer. Sashaying out of the artifact room (not nearly the most secure room on the ship anymore), Jinx rolled her wrist lazily. Even as sick as he was feeling, Ryu had a hard time not staring, as the female Yankee had finally doffed her armor (why she had been in the artifact room), and was now wearing a pair of fatigue trousers and the black t-shirt she'd been wearing beneath her armor.

'Wearing' being subjective, as the t-shirt was tied into a knot beneath her breasts, exposing her vividly bruised midriff, and she couldn't even be bothered to do up the zipper, or button on her pants showing off a hint of black undergarments.

"I, for one," Jinx continued with a wry grin, "Welcome our new cybernetic overlords."

The Yamasenken master managed a weak chuckle at that. It sobered quickly, though. "How can you trust him like that? A power play at a time like this? What's his angle?"

"Angle? _What _angle?" Jinx asked. "Would you listen to yourself? You think this is Cyborg's way of 'stealing' command? Like it would last five seconds past us getting back home? You think he's not smart enough, even in this condition, to realize that?"

At his side, a frown creased Mousse's face. "He's as... and he _was_... as unfit as he says we are. Funny he didn't take himself off the roster, isn't it?"

"Look, you two," Jinx replied with an exasperated sigh. "I know logic is a pretty foreign concept to you guys, but I've seen guys like this before. Calc-heads. Robot types. They _don't _lie; couldn't even if they wanted to. Frankly, I feel more confident knowing Brobot is in charge than anyone else. At least I know he isn't gonna have a hissy fit over 'Biki getting' a split lip over there."

The sorceress nodded across the hold to where the Tendo in question was laid down next to the wall.

"That's not fair, Jinx," Ryu countered. "The problem is that the act of dismissing a senior officer falls on a junior officer and only a junior officer. This is why half the combat teams have both a LT and a Sergeant, and even a team led by a Sergeant has a senior squaddie. It doesn't matter how logical he thinks he's being. You ask me, I'd bet his programming or whatever is still screwy from our stop at the dimensional bus stop back there."

"He can declare us off-duty as much as he wants," Mousse chimed in, his body relaxed but his tone of voice dark with hidden inflection. "I know who I take my orders from."

Jinx shook her head. "Man, but you guys are dense. I mean, sure, it's great to know that you're still ready to condemn us Yankees the second we step outta line." She waved her hand dismissively. "But whatever, you guys keep being paranoid over the one guy that's actually _doing _something to get us home, rather than just sitting on his ass and whining about not being in charge."

Ryu snorted, but let the verbal challenge go. Not that anyone knew what the hell Cyborg was actually doing, since he didn't consider himself answerable to anyone anymore and no one else had access to the ship's electronic diagnostics. Things hadn't turned into "2001" HAL levels of robotic mischief, not yet, so maybe a lack of communication was the most they could hope for. Then again, Jinx also hadn't almost been killed the last time Cyborg used his 'calculator mode' to actually try and off someone.

"Yeah. You know, it starts with the lengthy silences, and then you start hearing 'I can't do that Dave' and everything goes downhill."

Jinx spared him a long, long look. "Just don't start pulling any circuit boards out, 'Dave.' I really don't want to hear Cyborg start singing… what was that again?"

"Daisy Bell," Cyborg's voice answered over the ship's intercom. "Alternative: Bicycle Built for Two. Composed by Harry Dacre in 1892."

Ryu coughed again, covering his mouth with his hand. "Uh huh. The all seeing eye is on us. Well, there's nothing to do about it now, anyway. We can only wait."

"Pretty much," Jinx agreed and placed a hand casually on her hip. Her pink eyes did take a second to scan the ceiling, unable to find anything but smooth alien alloy. "Admittedly, it does feel a bit odd when it isn't Nabiki spying on us 24/7, but Hell, as long as we ain't dead, I'm counting all this as a win…" She looked around uncertainly. "Um, speaking of which… does anyone know whether or not we're going to, y'know, survive past the next ten minutes?"

Ryu looked over to Mousse, finally agreeing with the slight sorceress.

"Yeah," he said. "Weren't you running a manual check on the environmentals?"

"We have power, even though that last jump took most of what we had left," the Amazon reminded him, pointing up at an illumination stamp in the alien alloy ceiling. "Which means we have air and water. Backups are all still good to go. The essential systems are all hardened. But...with how we've been rationing our MREs and IMPs, I'd guess we've got a week before... well." He turned away. "I'd guess suicide pills. Starvation isn't pleasant."

"Speak for yourself!" Jinx snarked, rightly amused and clapping the Amazon on the shoulder. "I just happen to have a _delicious _recipe for Peking Duck."

Ryu couldn't help but chuckle as Mousse let out a pained groan at the witch's pointed expression. Only to glance over in confusion as it was followed by a moment later by an agonized groan.

"Must you damned humans speak of food?"

The three of them glance over as one, to where Reava, the Fury he had 'rescued' from the Thanagarian ship, was hunched over, dry heaving. The alien had recently returned from the ship's lone bathroom where the Apokaliptian warrior had obviously just finished emptying her stomach. Ryu wasn't sure what sort of bug the Fury had in her. She hadn't gotten it from **him**, at least.

"Yes, yes we must," Jinx confirmed, sticking out her tongue. She pointed a thumb at Mousse. "Look at this guy, would ya?" she directed the question at Reava. "He looks tender, doesn't he? Juicy, even? Lip-smacking good? Couldn't you just gobble him up?"

Her only response was a pained moan into a vomit bag.

"Hey, what about me?" Ryu muttered, feeling a bit left out. "Mousse may be some good duck, but I think I'm some grade-A beef cake over here." He let out a mirthless chuckle. "Though, I suppose, the idea of eating the guy with tainted Nth metal floating around in his body probably isn't all that appealing, now is it?"

Rolling her eyes, Jinx leaned forward and pressed her palm to his forehead. He felt an odd 'pulse' of… something… flow over, and through his body. A second later, the hand pulled back from his head, only for Jinx to drop herself back, right into Mousse's lap. Waving her hand dismissively, the sorceress gave a dainty snort.

"Geez, ya big baby. The Nth metal is already starting to go inert. Without any ties back to its 'source', it's gonna revert back to… well… whatever kind of metal it is when it's not super charged with evil Chaos God juice." Jinx tilted her head to the side. "Hmm… granted, that might be why you look like you're actually getting worse."

"Say what now?" Ryu asked, actually interested in just how Jinx knew what she was talking about. Ignoring the look of acute discomfort on the Weapon Master's face, Jinx leaned back, wrapping an arm around his neck absently.

"Pfft. I might not rub it in everyone's face _all the time_, like certain _other girl's _do-"

Jinx shot a pointed glare to the other _other_ side of the hold, where Raven was currently resting beside the young acting Sergeant. Still resting her hand on the young man's chest, the dark Titan did happen to notice Jinx's glare, or perhaps had heard her not so subtle accusation, and looked away, giving a loud sniff of annoyance.

Grinning wickedly, Jinx turned her attention back to Ryu. "But I've studied more than my fair share of magic as well back home. It doesn't take too much to feel that the metal is losing its power pretty quick."

"As for the other thing," she continued, worming her way further back into Mousse's chest, obviously getting comfortable, "One of the lesser known abilities of Nth metal, is that it actually has a lot of beneficial physical effects. It's part of the reason that Thannys are so much stronger than humans. Makes them tougher, too, even low level regeneration I've heard. Hell, it probably explains why all the killer corpses over there weren't just piles of dust after all these thousands of years… well, you know, except for the whole 'tainted by a mad god' part, anyway. Up sides and down sides and all that."

Reava, after wiping her chin with the back of her hand, nodded in agreement. Her voice slurred, she confirmed Jinx's words.

"Nth metal," she spat. "Is the _only_ thing of actual interest in regards to the Thanagarians. The metal given to them by... by their former god... possesses nearly limitless potential, but is a resource _wasted_ upon their pitiful, barbaric, simple-minded race! It is why we..." She bit her lower lip, minding her words. "Regardless. Without the biogenic field it produces, it is reverting to simple elemental iron. Still a poison I expect, but not one that will consume your body and soul."

Coughing weakly, Ryu nodded, the explanation making sense. "I guess that makes se-"

"It is a _fitting _punishment for a wretch such as yourself," the Fury cut him off with a sneer. "Watching you suffer is only a small recompense for all I have been subjected to of late. You were right to deceive me, I do not begrudge you that, but you should suffer because you are as sentimental and weak as all the rest here!"

"Heh, gotta love the snark," Jinx quipped and snorted under the bandage that covered half her face. She sucked in some blood, making a rather unlady-like noise.

"And you're chipper as usual," Mousse commented dryly, cracking a smile. "But, really… do you _have_ to sit _here_?" Mousse pointed to his lap… pointedly.

Jinx shrugged, making no move to move. "What? All the _handsome_ seats were either too injured, or already taken, so I'm just making the best of a bad situation." She then jerked a thumb in Ryu's direction. "Besides, _this _guy has barely even said two words to me since I showed up in your dimension. I don't think I got enough in the boob department to rate his attention over there."

"Hey!" Ryu objected strenuously. "I thought I already made clear my tolerance, hell, my appreciation! For breasts both large and small?"

"Well, her breasts _are _embarrassingly nonexistent," Reava chimed in, enjoying any chance to lash out in any small way she could. It didn't help that Reava was, like most of her kind, vexingly well-endowed in that department. "It's a wonder that she can pass for a female at all."

The young sorceress held up a threatening fist. "Oh, you are just _lustin_ for a _bustin_ over there, Fury! How'd you like it if I anoint you into the busted nose club?"

"I think our little prisoner looks pretty miserable as-is, Jinx," Ryu quickly stated, pre-empting any possible violence.

"Yeah, yeah. _Anyway_," Jinx started again and quite clearly in the direction of her human seat, "What do you think the odds are of any of us still having a job after all of this is said and done?"

"Don't know," Mousse replied, shifting under the former villainess to more comfortably cross his legs. "If you consider what happened to us as mind control, or the result of a panic attack, troops aren't held responsible for what they do when under external influence."

"Yeah," Ryu chimed in, with a darker side of the story. "But at the same time, a psychologically damaged trooper won't be sent back into the field. We've all heard what happens to squaddies who get controlled and shoot up their squad, or mow down civvies. Early retirement. Not psionically sound. Transfer to 'low intensity ops.'"

Jinx looked from one to the other and frowned, thinking it over for herself.

"Hopefully things will work out," Mousse concluded.

"Yeah right." Ryu held out his hand. "Haven't you heard the saying? You can hold hope in one hand, and wipe your ass with the o-"

Ryu's colorful prose was cut short, not by an interruption, but by himself. He had been speaking to Jinx and Mousse, but the wary Yamasenken master had been keeping an eye on Reava as well. There was always the possibility that the Fury was faking her current bout of nausea and misery. Seeing her bolt up and look out one of the transparent viewports outside caught his immediate attention. Slowly, Mousse and Jinx caught on as well, glancing over at the seemingly alert Apokaliptian.

"What is it?" Jinx asked, flipping out of Mousse's lap. "Do you see something?"

The Female Fury frowned and backed away from the port. "Perhaps..."

"Keep an eye on her," Jinx said, having been much more mindful of her task regarding Reava than she appeared. With Mousse and Ryu getting onto their feet, she turned her attention fully to the transparent alien alloy and the view outside. Pink eyes darted, searching for a literal needle in a haystack: a light amongst the stars that didn't belong.

Space, one could say with certainty, was both vast and empty.

Even with windows open at every viewport, and a half dozen eyes occasionally peering into the void with cautious, tired optimism, there was little to actually make out in detail. Pathfinder was also tilting end over end, slowing spinning with bleeding momentum from its ordeal of a transit event, meaning even the most basic orientation was difficult to discern. The only object with any sort of permanence was the glare of a hot, bright sun in the Precambrian distance.

Then, suddenly, another light appeared.

Pulling up alongside the stranded, broken ship, it very nearly winked out of nowhere, going from a speed faster than eye could follow to a matching, languid drift. A ripple over the surface dimmed, allowing enough unfiltered light through to reveal details. The new arrival was saucer shaped, thickening in the middle both above and below. The skin of it glittered silver over gray, like a metallic mirage contrasted against a desert of sparkling midnight.

Silence gripped the remaining crew of Pathfinder as the ship moved closer. It had no windows, yet as it moved, slowly circling the damaged vessel, it tilted and rotated enough to reveal... finally... that painted in bold letters on the side were the numbers zero-zero-eleven. Etched just above the number eleven was a stylized X over a representation of the moon, together with a dark spear-like triangle flanked by a pair of wings. Pausing, the Firestorm tilted to the left and then to the right in a friendly wing-wiggle before buzzing away in a flash of light.

Immediately, everyone capable of moving (save a preoccupied Raven) was on their feet and crowding the transparent viewport. Excited gasps and eager chatter filled the air with a joyous buzz as everyone jockeyed for a better view.

"She's friendly. She's friendly! That's Zulu 11 from Horizon Base!" Ranma was the first to speak, leaning bodily forward against another wall in the hold, his forehead just next to the transparent view port. "That's one of Luna Base's Firestorms! We're back. We're actually back."

"We need to signal back." Ryouga said, crossing the hold. "Konatsu. IR Beacon."

"Sir!" The ninja was quick to find one of the kit boxes Mousse had organized after the fight, snapping it open with a quick kick. A second later, and one of the pathfinding/marking signal lights flew across the hold to land in Ryouga's hand. The hardy little device was typically used to signal air support or to mark a location for pickup, exfil, or as friendly in-close. Finding one of the windows with the Firestorm, Ryouga pressed it up to the transparent pane the moment he finished programming the light sequence.

IR LEDs pulsed, confirming Pathfinder's security code, followed by an SOS.

The Firestorm, Zulu-011, rotated slightly, but didn't otherwise respond. The beacon repeated the set of codes three times... the given 'all clear' response that a pilot would normally send over the comm... and the XCOM craft finally gave another wing-waggle by means of confirmation. Pathfinder. Friendlies on board. Wounded on board. SOS. This wasn't just a similar dimension. Even the security code had been confirmed. This was their dimension: this was home.

They were back.

"That's it," he said, breathless, the relief flooding into him.

Close by, Ranma turned to lean against the viewport, running a hand through his hair. "Codes confirmed! We're back!"

"Security confirmation was not necessary to determine our status," Cyborg's emotionless voice interrupted as he entered the hold. Standing in the doorway, studying them all impassively, he held his right arm before him, his gaze flitting back and forth between his companions and its small screen. "Dimensional resonance scans have already determined that we have returned to our point of origin."

"Furthermore," he added, putting away his arm's display. "I have confirmed Zulu Eleven's command protocols via the public display registry. The fifty two character vehicle manufacture billet is a far more accurate means of identification than visual analysis and exchange of statistically probable code-words."

There was a brief pause as the rest of the crew tried to follow what all that meant.

"So we're back," Ranma quipped. "You could've just said so, man."

Impassively, Cyborg replied in what could easily be considered a dead-pan, "That is what I just did."

At that, the moment of confusion dispersed and a wave of elation swept over the crew. Ryu nearly collapsed, utterly grateful for that spectacular news. Konatsu clasped his hands together and pressed them to his forehead in silent thanks. Jinx laughed in relief and Reava glared at the floor, pondering her next move even as she tried to keep from being violently sick. Even so, though, for most of the crew, that heady feeling of joy quickly faded into dawning comprehension and, for some, apprehension.

"So we didn't even have to do anything?" Exchanging a look with Ryouga, Ranma pushed of the wall, a question on his mind. "I guess we lucked out. ...For once."

"The perceived phenomenon of luck had nothing to do with the current state of events," Cyborg corrected the Saotome heir with all the passion of a desktop printer spitting out spreadsheets. "While hyperwave and encrypted communications were rendered inoperative, I was able to salvage this ship's emergency distress beacon and basic communications relay, patching it into the secondary mirror synchronized black box."

"So... you knew where we are?" Jinx asked, posing it as a question, but one whose answer she knew. "You had the comms up this whole time?!"

"I was able to calculate our position based on observational data," Cyborg replied. "Our current location is approximately four point four million kilometers from Earth. I have only had the basic comm functional for thirty seven minutes."

Starting to rub her temples, obviously feeling a pulsing beginning to pound in her head, the increasingly irate Sorceress grumbled. "Thirty seven minutes… and you're only telling us _now_ that we were home all along!? What the hell CyButt?"

"You did not ask."

A strangled scream was Jinx's reply. "That's it! I'm with Ryu and Duck Boy, time to melt you down into-!"

Pathfinder lurched abruptly, cutting the slight sorceress off mid death threat. The Firestorm descended on their position, initiating a ship mating maneuver. There was a small tug as the other ship's gravity bubble merged and expanded, linking the two craft. It was actually something people could feel, as the gravity onboard reasserted itself, abruptly returning lost pounds and forcing feet firmly down onto the floor. A crackle sounded across the ship's comm.

"Zulu Eleven to Pathfinder All," a male voice spoke up, as the Firestorm finished assuming command control over the scout's damaged systems. "Welcome home, Pathfinder. I've got you locked and good to go, so just sit back and enjoy the ride. ETA for Luna-AE14 is about four hours. Jordan out."

* * *

_Voices._

The first thing Jinx heard as she emerged, slick and wet and naked from her maturation tube, was the comforting embrace of voices and thoughts not her own, teeming within the confines of her virgin mind. Her memory up to that point was terrifying, crystal clear and yet... alien. _Alone_.

She had been alone, in her own mind. Recalling it filled her with disgust. Not even having taken her first breath, Jinx understood that what had come before was the life - the stolen memories - of the previous Jinx. The original one, spawned like raw meat from a bloody human womb. What a hollow and purposeless life. Wasted.

Wasted, but reclaimed.

Jinx reached up to her face, tearing away the gestation membrane that clung to her skin and that oozed through her hair. Fleshy sacks obscured her vision. Nails bit into them just above the eyebrows, and the placental mass tore away from punctures around her cheeks. Her throat retched, expelling a viscous tasteless slime and, along with it, a threaded tube that had ran down into her stomach. Seizing it with one hand, she pulled the last of it out after what had to be half her body length of sinewy coil. Through rapidly resolving vision, she could see dozens of long, flexible cilia twisting and squirming at the end of the tube, as if trying to crawl back inside her.

She threw it to the floor, took a wobbly step, and felt the only partly-organic umbilical disengage from her midsection. Other fibers unwound from around her legs to retract back into the gestation tube behind her. The light was still blinding - far too bright - for her sensitive eyes. Rather than stumble blindly, she stood and waited. Hands came.

They were not human hands.

The alien touch soothed her just as the voices in her head did. Before all else, before words could be spoken, before thoughts exchanged, there was one demand. One order. One imperative she was happy, ecstatic even, to comply with.

SUBMIT

She did. Without reservation, hesitation or fear. It felt... wonderful to submit.

She was accepted, embraced, empowered by her submission. Her body felt more responsive, her mind more powerful. Thoughts crystallized. The voices made sense. She could not yet speak-think, she could not yet contribute, but she could hear whispers of the consensus and the debate. It framed and defined her world far more than the paltry perceptions of her eyes. It was within the Mind that existence was truly found, not within a lockbox of flesh and bone.

Jinx opened her eyes as alien hands wiped away the last of the clinging membrane. A chemical bath followed quickly, the harsh sting testing the sensitivity of her new and improved skin. Pores opened and closed, hairs twitched and stood on end, and nerve endings fired. Jinx knew her body worked. It was not that she felt fine. She could perceive the chemical processes themselves. A mind-within-her-mind told her that everything was functioning as it was engineered to.

Eyes open, Jinx looked down at herself... and then to her left.

Another her was also standing in front of a tube, being cleaned off and inspected by a Hierarchy drone: a Sectoid Medic. That Jinx was, like her, naked and immature. This was their first phasing; having emerged in the life-state humans identified as late childhood. She was no taller than the Sectoid examining her. Not yet.

Beyond the Jinx to Jinx's left, another stood, also being tended to. To her left was a forth, and then a fifth, and then a sixth. Six pairs of pink eyes examined their sisters and themselves. Jinx wanted to hear their thoughts, but none of them had earned the right to project yet. To 'speak.' Jinx opened her mouth to experiment with vocalization but her voice was hoarse and weak and strained.

The Sectoids finished with them and walked away, their thin arms and legs carrying them with minimalist movement and efficient strides. Jinx took in the room around her. All was uniform and gray, except for low purple lighting that extended into ultraviolet. The floor beneath her bare feet was metal, a gray alloy that puckered to become permeable before closing up into a seamless, faintly checkered expanse.

There were two more present, two more minds to add to the endless chorus within her. One of them looked human, with long red hair and green eyes, the rest of her body covered with bulky robes. The color and design of the robes not only provoked a reaction of curiosity but an instant rush of respect and deference within Jinx's engineered brain. It was an Ethereal's Habit. At that, Jinx knew, instinctively, the woman was a Trenchard, not unlike herself. The person's 'voice' was quiet, though, her thoughts barely audible.

There was something else about the Trenchard, too… something… familiar, even beyond the sharing of memories and mutual identity.

But whatever it was, it was drowned out by the mere presence of the other. Standing nearly a foot higher than the Trenchard researcher, the Ethereal, the Commander, her FOCUS, granted her honor beyond all belief, just by being present for her 'birth'. She could feel the inconceivable weight of its mind pressing down on her, even though she knew that she barely even rated a fraction of its current attention.

YOUR WORK IS DONE HERE, THE OTHER WILL TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

Jinx heard the thoughts like an echo, directed not at her, but still filling the room. The Ethereal she knew to be the Commander was speaking to the Trenchard.

RETURN TO YOUR PRIMARY RESEARCH

Without an instant of hesitation, the near physical representation of the Mind spun about and glided from the room without even a wasted thought. It did not even pause to see the look of pure gratification which spread upon the red headed Trenchard's face at the command she had just been given.

It still puzzled Jinx, this other Trenchard. She knew her as her CREATOR, but there was something else that could not be explained at this juncture. Something... from before... She had no time to consider it as her CREATOR turned to sneer at the gathered lot of them.

"You heard him, didn't you? You're no longer my problem," Creator said, sneering. "The pig farmer will deal with you now."

And with that, she left as well, though actually using her feet for locomotion, as opposed to floating through the door. For several long minutes, all was silent in the room. The only motion was that of the Medics continuing to clean the mess of their joint 'births', the only sounds were their shallow breaths.

Then, once again, the door slid open, melting into the walls.

From it, emerged another being, this one also cloaked in metallic orange. A pair of deep red eyes beneath the titian hood burned like faint stars. Jinx knew, as her enhanced vision pierced the darkness of the hood, that those eyes were similar to but not like her own. The sleeves of the robe rose up and a pair of five fingered hands swept back the hood, revealing a human face. One of the red eyes became brown, with a black pupil. The other remained a solid, burning, bloody crimson.

One of the hands then wiped away a strand of pink hair, tucking it behind her ear in a practiced fashion to nestle among the more numerous strands of brown. The Jinxes straightened immediately. They had never seen this creature before. A version of her was in the original's memories, but this one provoked another response: obedience. MOTHER.

**SUBMIT**

The thought hit the six engineered hybrid humans like a train; like a physical blow. Unlike the Ethereal's thoughts, which had been directed almost solely to the Trenchard researcher, this was a direct command, and it was meant for them alone. One of them coughed, a mixture of blood and incubation fluid staining her chin and bare chest. Jinx felt mildly concussed. She knew her brain was tuned to be receptive to the thoughts of the gestalt. Acquiescence to the submit command preceded a jolt of pleasure.

YOU ARE THE SEVENTH GENERATION OF THE BEING KNOWN AS JINX. THIS ONE HAS OVERSEEN YOUR CREATION. YOU WILL SERVE.

The thoughts were overpowering, but measured. Comforting. MOTHER.

YOU HAVE BEEN CREATED TO INFILTRATE AND TO DESTROY. THIS WILL REQUIRE USE OF VOCAL EXPRESSIONS. REPEAT THE NAME I ASSIGN YOU.

"Tamiko," the one on the far left spoke first.

"Hideko," the one in the middle said, struggling a bit with her voice, barely managing more than a murmur.

"Akemi!" A third yelled.

"Kayo," a fourth said, wiping the blood from her chin.

"Sakiko."

"Naoko," Jinx repeated the thought-name as best she could, reproducing it using her memories of the base language. Japanese. There was no doubt about it.

This Trenchard was...

"Akari," the robed woman stated, blinking, but only with her one brown eye. The other remained red and menacing. "You are my children. You may address me as Mother. As I raise you over the coming cycles, it is likely that all but one of you will die. The others, unworthy of further iteration, shall be recycled."

Naoko nodded, accepting this as the truth. There was no sense of fear, only acceptance that it was as she had been told. If she proved to be the most viable, than it was her fate and her privilege to serve. If not, then it would be for the greater good of the gestalt that she did not remain to weaken the collective or impair the utility of her genetic line.

One way, or the other, she would serve as the Mind commanded.

"Come. We have much work to do." And with that, Akari turned away from them, floating through the door once more. It was both invitation and command.

As one, Naoko and her sisters followed Mother.


End file.
